The poem that sums up what I've learned the last couple of years

Kindness by Naomi Shihab Nye

Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window forever.

Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness,
you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho
lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you,
how he too was someone
who journeyed through the night with plans
and the simple breath that kept him alive.

Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.

Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to mail letters and purchase bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
it is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you every where
like a shadow or a friend.

Teaching tomorrow

Although I'm in the middle of moving, I will be teaching tomorrow at Hot Yoga of Mendocino. Hopefully it will be a good class. I'm completely addle-brained with all the driving, packing and unpacking.

Looks like I need to fix the pictures in the previous post too...:)

shadowy valleys

I have been thinking a lot this morning about humbleness, and the power it has to transform our lives as we turn our affairs over to a force greater than ourselves. Partly this arises out of my own realizations of how much easier life is when I keep myself humble, and glad, and move from that space. Partly this comes from a conversation I just had with a friend, who is moving from a place of despair, confusion, and anger, to the realization that they can, in fact, reap the benefits of change and a deeper connection. I flipped open one of my favorite books this morning, Marianne Williamson's Illuminata: A Return to Prayer:

Dear God,

The pain of this life is more than I can bear.

I feel as though death would be better.

My thoughts are dark, my sorrows huge.

I feel as though I shall not endure, and there is

    no one and nothing to turn to now.

My hurt is so big,

I cannot handle this.

If You can, dear God, please do.

If You can, please do.

Amen.

Personally, I like to substitute the word goddess for god, because I find that the words have a deeper resonance in my body when I do so. The feminine face of the absolute resonates more resoundingly than does the male, in my current, feminine, form. Although my Sunday morning is full of light and joy this week, personal experience will never let me forget that we all go through dark times, and need to know not only how to handle them, but how to find our way out again, and how to maintain an inner equilibrium while going through our personal valleys of shadows.

Pictures from the Mendocino yoga day...

Well, I taught at the 6th annual Mendocino Yoga Day, as promised, along with Rosy Nolan, Helen Jacobs, Lisa Orselli, Maggie Norton and Diane Watjen. That was back in April, the last Saturday...I believe around $1200 was raised, in raffle ticket purchases and class attendance-related donations, for the Mendocino Coast Community Care Program. So thank you to everyone who attended!

Diane Watjen teaching...

Hannah taking class...

Beautiful room

More of Diane teaching...

Ladies in purple taking...

Maggie & Diane

Hannah teaching

Looks like fun, doesn't it? I know we all felt amazing at the end of the day. If you missed it this year, just hang on until next year, for the yoga smorgasbord!!!

Creating time

This article I found over on zenhabits.net 

(which is one of the websites I want to add to that as-yet-unwritten article on "favorite yoga blogs") (even though it's not specifically about yoga).... this article seems an appropriate follow-up to my last post. Enjoy!

And tell me, I'm curious: what do you want to make more time for in your life?

Besides yoga. ;)

Cutting back on classes

Hola, North Coast Yogis!

Wanted to let you all know that I am phasing out two of my three classes a week...you can still find me at the C.V. Starr Community Center at 7:00 am on Thursday mornings, where I will be pouring all of my sweetness, light and grit into a single class, for the time being.

I am getting ready to transition myself onto other things, potentially off the coast and inland to sunnier climes, but before then, I have a couple special yoga-related projects I'll be sharing with you. More on them later.

This week is your last chance for Monday night Hot Vinyasa class with me at the community favorite: Hot Yoga of Mendocino. The following week there will be a new teacher for us all to try! I'm going to miss you, my regular Monday night folks.

This week is also your last chance to restore with me on Tuesday night, 5:30 at the Redwood Health Club. It's now only $8 to drop in for yoga there. Nice deal.

a poem for you, until I can write more...

The bud
stands for all things,
even those things that don't flower,
for everything flowers, from within, of self-blessing;
though sometimes it is necessary
to reteach a thing its loveliness,
to put a hand on its brow
of the flower
and retell it in words and in touch
it is lovely
until it flowers again from within, of self-blessing;
as St. Francis
put his hand on the creased forehead
of the sow, and told her in words and in touch
blessings of earth on the sow, and the sow
began remembering all down her thick length,
from the earthen snout all the way
through the fodder and slops to the spiritual curl of
the tail,
from the hard spininess spiked out from the spine
down through the great broken heart
to the blue milken dreaminess spurting and shuddering
from the fourteen teats into the fourteen mouths sucking
and blowing beneath them:
the long, perfect loveliness of sow. 
~Galway Kinnell

April rains are welcomed
by the thawing winter soil,
almost overnight
the grasses grow green.

They have waited for this moment.

Now everything in them pushes up and outward
toward the light,
seeking the freedom of growth
like a caged one caught,
finally sprung loose from captivity.

The caged ones within me
are also breaking free.
They are singing songs
and dancing in the rain.

How to finally start that thing you've been meaning to start...

There is an article by Sharon Salzberg in the spring 2011 issue of "tricycle"(a magazine aimed at buddhist practitioners), on sustaining a meditation practice. The whole article is worth reading, in my opinion, but below is the part that I found most useful.

"Just put your body there...that's what you have to do. Just put your body there. Your mind will do different things all of the time, but you just put your body there. Because that's the expression of commitment, and the rest will follow from that." 

I just love that, because it resonates on so many levels. It applies to exercise, or developing new habits, or studying, or anything that requires us to show up, really show up, in some way. We come up with all these stories of why we cannot, should not, don't want to do something. Then we come up with more stories about why we can, should, do want to do it. 

Let's say you are thinking about going for a walk. Those story lines can be rolling along: "It looks like rain. I'm tired. The dogs already got exercised today. I'm hungry. I need to work/wash the dishes/fold the laundry/whatever" "I should go. Walking is healthy. I can bring a rain jacket. I want to be the kind of person who walks. The fresh air is good for me." Each of these is a story we tell ourselves. In the meantime, the body finds the rain jacket, ties the shoes, steps out the door. 

The body goes into the other room, folds legs, sits down, breathes deeply. Nothing else is needed. 

The 8 Limbs of Yoga

Alison Hinks, the author of the overly brief and incomplete history of yoga that I got so excited about a couple of weeks ago, has revealed a visual guide to Patanjali's Eight Limbs of Yoga.

I bow to her.

That said, this post is over, 'cuz now you are so busy running around and clicking on all the links I put up, that I don't need to write any more, do I? ;)

It's been a year...

...since I first started tinkering around on this blog. I was searching out monthly quotes then, such as this excerpt from a William Wordsworth poem:
It is the first mild day of March.

Each minute sweeter than before...
There is a blessing in the air
Which seems a sense of joy to yield...

Browsing in a used book shop this weekend, I commented to my beloved that I would like to find a book of poetry in which every poem was perfect for reading to a yoga class.

 Indeed. Before I left the store, just such a slim volume had placed itself into my hand. I am so looking forward to sharing new poems with you in class over the next couple of weeks. Here is a sneak preview:

The loveliness
of a single flower
in radiant bloom
can sing
my drooping spirit
into joy.

The loveliness
of a single person
with a listening gaze
can sing
my heavy heart
back into life.

I've come across
both kinds
in my time of need

and both have brought me hope.

Golden Milk recipe

This beverage can look a little odd, because the turmeric turns it, well, golden, and the almond oil floats in globules on the top, but your brain, your spine and your joints will appreciate this luxurious drink. I found it in a kundalini yoga book a number of years ago, and I always rediscover it again in the winter, when the body becomes particularly fond of warm, nourishing things. Here on the north coast of California, you can find opportunities to drink golden milk year-round, as even the summer can be chilly and damp.

According to the book I found this recipe in, turmeric is "...a lubricant for the joints...also excellent for the skin and for the mucous membranes, especially the female reproductive organs...this very tasty drink is wonderful for the spine, lubricates the joints, and helps to break up calcium deposits."

• 1/4-1/3 teaspoon turmeric
• 1/2 cup water (I use more)
• 8 oz milk, dairy or non-dairy
• 1 tablespoon raw almond oil
• honey to taste (agave nectar also works well, but please do not eviscerate the nutritive qualities of this drink  by using other sweeteners or even stevia, at least not until you've tried it this way first.)

Boil turmeric in water for about 8 minutes. If too much water boils away, add a little more. Add milk and almond oil. When mixture boils, remove from heat and add honey. Usually makes 1 to 1 1/2 cups of Golden Milk.

One of my favorite foodie books, the "Whole Foods Companion: a guide for adventurous cooks, curious shoppers, and lovers of natural foods", by Dianne Onstad, had some additional information on the health benefits of turmeric.

Antifungal, cholagogue, choleretic, stimulant. Turmeric is noted as a blood purifier, has a soothing action on respiratory ailments, improves liver function, benefits the circulation, helps regulate the menstrual cycle, and works as a restorative after loss of blood at childbirth. It also helps the body digest proteins, and when combined with coriander and cumin it aids in the digestion of complex carbohydrates. Turmeric may be used to regulate blood sugar for diabetics. It has antifungal and antibacterial properties and helps heal wounds both internally and externally. For an abrasion, bruise, or traumatic swelling, apply a paste of half a teaspoon of turmeric, a pinch of salt, and water or ghee to the affected area. Turmeric is considered to have  beneficial effects on the skin, and it is said that Indian women owe their velvety complexions to the daily intake of turmeric in their foods. Turmeric contains highly variable amounts (0.3 to 5.4 percent) of a yellow pigment called curcumin, the most active component in turmeric; curcumin has been found effective as an anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial agent and as a cardiovascular and gastrointestinal aid; it also appears to inhibit the development of colon cancer (p. 493)

 

Upcoming posts

At the risk of putting myself on the hook for something I won't complete, I wanted to foreshadow a couple of posts I've been working on:

Yoga for sleep (probably in two parts, there's a lot of information out there!)
Golden milk recipe (involves turmeric and honey, yummy for the joints)
Hannah's favorite yoga blogs

Last Thursday's intention.

May I stay seated in divine love.
May I be receptive and open.
May my mind and heart be pure and true,
and may I feel the goodness in everything.
May I bring goodness to everyone I meet today.
May I fully become the person I was destined to be.

Most boring blog ever? Nooo!!! Presenting: a flow-chart history of yoga. I know, right?

This is great for us visual people, maybe a bit esoteric for those new to yoga, and just tickles me pink. :) 

Yoga Flow Chart by Alison Hinks (who totally inspires me with her website and her writing!).  So now the secret's out. Hannah likes the esoteric, the poetic, the visual, and hey, yoga.

So far as the names on this chart go, as a teacher, I consider myself most directly influenced by Donna Farhi and Judith Hanson Lasater, Rod Stryker and Gary Kraftsow. With the exception of Judith Lasater, this influence has been through books and recordings exclusively. As far as direct lineage goes, my teacher's teachers: I know that  Erin Geesaman has studied with Donna Farhi, Judith Lasater and Gary Kraftsow, as well as being a Vajrayana Buddhist and Feldenkrais practitioner. Peter Francyk has studied directly with many people in the Krishnamacharya lineage: Desikachar himself, Richard Freeman, David Swenson, Patabhi Jois, Chuck Miller & Maty Ezraty, also Rod Stryker and some names that I know but don't see on this chart and am not sure where to plug in. Might need a bigger chart. :) Shiva Rea is also in the Krishnamacharya lineage.

Yoga Tonight

Well, it's 11:19 pm and I just finished a nice little asana practice, courtesy of Sarah Kline at YogaToday. Sometimes, as a teacher, you just want to have someone else lead a class. And sometimes, whether you teach or no, the time one has available for practice just doesn't jive with being able to get to a class. I've been practicing on and off with the lovely ladies at Yoga Today since a friend told me about the website back in...2005? They offer a free, hour long class weekly, plus short "lunch break" type sessions, on their website. In addition, one can purchase classes by the each and download them to watch over and over again, or sign up for a year pass. The latter costs less than a month's pass at any studio I know of.

I just think this is one of the great yoga resources out there, and spread the word whenever I think of it. They don't know me and I'm not getting compensated, but you know me, and you might enjoy this as much as I do! :)

Here comes midnight. Time for me to go to bed. Buenas noches!

Mendocino Coast Yoga Calendar

I'm working on a new site for the yoga calendar project, and hope to share it soon!