Category Archives: yoga

March 26, 2014 · 10:05 AM

Finding Balance

10011365_10151991802258309_1871263654_n

 

For the past month, I’ve been participating in a yoga challenge on Instagram.  There’s a new pose every day, and the idea is to simply share of photo of you doing said pose.  It’s been a fun little challenge, if for no other reason than because I really didn’t have any pictures of myself doing yoga, and now I do.  I obviously love all kinds of yoga, or I wouldn’t have become a teacher.  I love how strong it makes me feel, how connected and in touch with my own body. My favorite poses to learn and work on though are the balance poses, the ones my teachers affectionately referred to as the “party tricks” of yoga.

For one thing, they’re just super fun.  More than that though, is that natural high you get after trying and trying, that moment when everything’s aligned, your body is just humming, and if even for just a second…… you balance.

That feeling is amazing.

And because life is one big interconnected circle, the same holds true for parenting.  My biggest personal challenge for the entire 17+ years I’ve been a parent has been finding and maintaining balance.  It’s the great question that no one else could answer for me….. how do I do it?  How do I fix my alignment when its off?  How do I balance being a present and involved mom to my kids, and a present and involved wife to my husband?  How do I balance taking care of the kids, and the house, and life… and still have time for my own hobbies, my own professional or personal pursuits, my own self-care?

What I eventually realized (after a lot, a lot a lot, of stumbling followed by unproductive self-flagellation) is that you can’t have perfect balance all the time.  Life doesn’t work like that.  Life ebbs and flows in seasons. Sometimes one thing or person needs more or less of our attention than at other times.  Equilibrium is found in the overall journey, but only through a million little ever-changing, in-the-moment decisions.   Even now, just choosing to take the time to write this blog post means I’m not emptying the dishwasher, or answering any emails, or doing any conference planning.

And that’s okay!   It absolutely has to be okay, because the alternative is to believe that I can do ALL the things, ALL the time, and to beat myself up if I don’t.  And that’s really not acceptable to me.  So for now, I write.  I write with 100% of my being.  And in 15 minutes or an hour when a sleepy little voice calls out, “Mama!  Come!”, I’ll go to her with 100% of my being too.  And the dance will continue.  Some days humming along, as well orchestrated as a symphony…. and others an awkward limp, full of stops and starts and missteps, the saving grace being that there’s a new moment, a better moment, coming down the pike.

Much like finding balance in yoga, finding balance in life is an ongoing process.  Sure, you learn some “tricks” along the way, things that make it easier, but there’s always more to learn. Always a need to up your game. Always a new trickier pose as it were.  It’s a fluid, living organism, one you can only understand if you’re right there in the moment.  Not worrying about tomorrow, not stressing about yesterday, but being right here. Right now.  Breathing… Trusting…

Knowing that if you just stay with it, you’ll eventually have it.  Those toes will eventually come off the ground,

and you’ll balance.

1 Comment

Filed under life, perspective, yoga

August 23, 2012 · 12:15 PM

Should Christians Do Yoga?

(photo by MeditationMusic.net)

The first time I took a yoga class was over a decade ago.  I was a new mom looking for ways to re-center, and it was something that I’d always wanted to try.  When my parents gave me some money for my birthday, I decided to treat myself and sign up for a class.    It was nothing fancy… just a basic beginner class at the same Y where I took Mommy and Me classes with my son, but I will always remember it fondly as the class that introduced me to what would become a lifelong passion.

The day after my first class, when I was still feeling that loosy-goosy, super relaxed, post-yoga “high”, I mentioned to a friend that I’d started doing yoga and how much I loved it.  She just looked at me for a long time, before she finally asked,

“Isn’t it a bad idea for Christians to do yoga?”

I couldn’t answer her.  I mean I literally couldn’t answer her.  I had never heard that before, and I couldn’t imagine what might have been wrong with what I’d done the night before.  Plus, to be honest, I was a little bit irritated that I’d shared something I was excited about and she’d promptly rained on my parade.

I did the only thing I could think to do on the spot:  I changed the subject.

I finished out that 8 week class, and spent the next several years just practicing on and off (mostly off) at home.  Then about three years ago, I was called to become a yoga teacher.  I have no other words to describe it.  I was called.  I fought it too, with lots of excuses.  Too much money… too much time… my kids were too young… I’m too much of an introvert… I don’t like getting in front of people.  But the more I resisted, the more strongly it was laid on my heart.   I felt like I had no choice but to eventually answer, “All right, all right, I’ll do it!”

As I went through the 250 hours of training this year, I finally learned – with great clarity I might add – both the answer to my friend’s question so many years before, and the concerns that may have prompted her to ask it.

Yoga originated in the Hindu religion – I begin with this one simply because it’s the easiest to answer.  This is false.  Archaelogical findings show that yoga actually predates all of the world’s major religions.  While Eastern religions did eventually adapt and codify yoga for their own purposes, it did not begin there.  This is an important distinction to make, because many Christians fear yoga as something that was born out of another religion… which just isn’t the case.

Yoga is a spiritual practice that is meant to align yourself with Eastern religions, the occult, etc.   Yoga itself is a methodology, not a theology.  How it’s employed is up to each individual participating.  For example, as a Christian, I believe in prayer.  But I know that Christians are not the only people who pray!  Other religions pray, as well as some people who align themselves with NO particular religion.  While the method of the prayers may be similar, our theologies that we bring to the prayers make them different.   So it is with yoga.   Just like prayer, yoga’s benefits can be used by any (or no) religion at all.

The word “yoga” means to yolk, and join yourself with other Gods.  The word “yoga” comes from the Sanscrit word, “yug” which is translated as “to harmonize,” to “bring together,” or yes, to “harness or yoke.”  Again, I think it’s important to remember that who or what we’re joining with is up to us.  I find the meaning of the word ‘yoga’ beautiful, and think it perfectly illustrates both the coming together of mind, body, and soul; and, as a Christian, the coming together of myself and God.

The postures are meant to praise and worship other Gods.   This is where a lot of people get lost, but I promise it’s not that confusing.  Many Christians who fear yoga use this as their basis.  “The postures were created to worship other Gods.  The postures are inviting evil forces into your heart.  Etc.”   First, as I stated in point one, the postures were not created for that purpose.  Secondly, there is nothing inherently spiritual about a downward dog (or a warrior or a sun salutation) either for good or evil, unless you so decide.   The meanings of the poses come from the intent and the heart of the participant.  Just because one person – or one religion – assigns a certain spiritual meaning to a posture, it does not mean that that meaning then applies to me whether I like it or not.  I’ll be completely honest…. when people tell me that Christians should avoid yoga because we might “accidentally” be worshipping a sun god or a hindu deity, or inadvertently  joining ourselves with some kind of cult, my first thought is this:  Is your faith really so weak that you fear you have no control over what enters your heart, that you have no control over who or what you do or do not worship?  Yes, eastern religions have used yoga postures as part of their worship.  And I don’t mean to make light of it, because I respect that it’s a genuine concern for some Christians,  but… so what?  If some crazy, weird cult sprang up, and decided that as part of one of their spiritual rituals, they would sit naked in a circle in a sweat lodge and eat pizza… would that mean that Christians would then need to forever avoid pizza?  That pizza would suddenly cease to be crust, sauce, and cheese and instead become a harbinger of evil forces?  Of course not.  That’s ridiculous.

Yes, it’s ridiculous.  Pizza is just pizza.

And yoga is yoga.  It is one of the best ways to connect with, stretch, and strengthen your body… while at the same time quieting your mind, calming your spirit, and finding peace in your heart.  As a Christian, I’ve never found yoga to be at odds with my faith.   Just as importantly, I’ve never worried that it would turn me away from God.  In fact, when I’m there on my mat; when I’m finally STILL; when I’ve been able to quiet my mind and actually meditate on something of my choosing (and meditation by the way, is mentioned numerous times in the Bible) what I experience is very much the exact opposite.

It’s like coming home.

31 Comments

Filed under spirituality, yoga

August 1, 2012 · 2:24 PM

When an Android Goes to Yoga School

I was crying.

Not the dainty, sweet kind of crying people do in movies, with one perfect and lovely little tear rolling down my cheek… but ugly, chin quivering, nose snotting all over the place with no where to wipe it crying.  It was the last day of my 15-day, 12-hour-a-day yoga retreat that wrapped up my RYT training.  I was mentally, physically, and spiritually exhausted;  my injured shoulder – which had hung in there quite admirably for two weeks – had just given out again;  and I was sitting in a ball, wrapped up in my vinyasa scarf, missing my last two classmates’ final teaches (one of which included an all-out dance party).  They were tears of fatigue and pain to be sure, but tears of relief and emotion and overwhelm as well.

But I guess I should go back to the beginning.

Two weeks earlier, I was sitting in that same studio for the first time … nervous, excited, and not knowing what to expect.  I mean, I knew I would learn a lot about yoga (although, how much I learned still caught me by surprise.   A few highlights that still stand out:  1) The day we learned how to properly set our feet down “with intention” 2) The several hours we spent breaking down each posture … Mountain Pose, a pose that looks like a simple standing pose?  So. Much. More. than simply standing when done correctly.  3) A five-hour hands-on anatomy workshop with a yoga therapist that absolutely blew my mind.  BLEW MY MIND.)

But we weren’t really talking about the physical practice of yoga that first morning.  We were talking about a spiritual journey, specifically the journey that we were about to embark on, together.

“If you don’t cry at least once in this room, you must be an Android.”  My teacher’s words were bold, but as it turns out, true.   Starting from that very first day, there were tears everywhere, from everyone.  Everyone except me.  I was the Android.  While it’s a small feat for me to have tears spring forth over something silly like a commercial, or a song, or a Disney movie… tears that are born from growing and sharing and honest-to-God emotions make me seven kinds of uneasy.  I never know how to handle a crying peer, I’m not the first one to offer a hug (hugs tend to make me uneasy too), and even attempts to speak are awkward, at best.

An Android.

But then – whether I’d actually intended to or not – I did take that journey.   I did grow.  I did open up.  I did learn.  And so help me, when I was getting prayed over before my final teach (and touched by 12 people I might add) and one of my teachers was rubbing my back, it was actually kind of nice.  That was day 14, and while I’d still yet to shed a tear on my mat, my cold, dead robot heart had surely softened a little bit around the edges.

And Day 15…. what can I say?  It had all caught up with me.  I was blubbering with the best of them.  It had been 15 days of learning, of growth, and of self-discovery.  15 days of trying not to stuff pain and emotion and utter exhaustion.  15 days of new friendships, raucous laughter, and real discussion.  15 days of connection with God, connection with peace, and connection with stillness.  It had all culminated right there in that moment on my mat, with an intensity that quite literally took my breath away.  Life-changing.  There’s no other way to describe it.

As for what I took away from those two weeks?  I have books and binders and notebooks filled with yoga information, so much so that I decided mid-way through that I needed to stop trying to digest all at once but instead take it piece by piece, giving myself permission to take time to absorb and practice and study at my own pace once I got back to the “real world.”   One of my very favorite things about yoga is that it is a lifelong practice… you’re never done improving, and you’re never done learning.  There’s no rush either.  I can rest, right here and right now, and just be, exactly where I am in my journey, both in yoga and in life.

What I’ll most remember though is not the physical aspect of yoga, but the spiritual, and the fact that that two weeks helped me “get it” for the first time in my life.

I might always be uncomfortable with crying.  I might never be the most “huggy” person in the room.  But maybe, just maybe, I’m not an Android after all.

 

3 Comments

Filed under about me, learning, life, yoga