What's my Secret? Yoga

A week ago Friday, was International Yoga Day. I was too busy living my yoga to write about it then. Last Sunday I was a sub teacher for a yin yoga class at 5pm at Beloved Yoga Studio in Reston, Va and thought I would share a few thoughts.

Yoga is a philosophy. It's a roadmap for healthy living that includes rules for living, exercises to enable a closer relationship with self, and prepare you for meditation. I often share with my clients how the body follows the mind and the mind follows the breath. Due to early conditioning, most of us don't know how to fully breathe to stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system, (PNS). Through deep belly breathing, we can teach our bodies that it is safe to rest and repair, rest and digest, and mate and ovulate. This is the yin within the yin and the yang.

There is a yoga for everyone. You are never too sick or never too old to learn, or to begin. Even if you've been practicing on and off for decades as I have, it's important to always have a beginners mind. I believe this is true in business and in life too. In keeping a beginners mind, you cultivate discernment. You can practice moving from fear to curiosity. Notice when you feel challenged, breathe into the pose and relax. Notice any automatic negative thoughts or self limiting beliefs arising. Practice compassion and self love for your current limitations. Notice where you are holding tension. Visualize and breathe healing oxygen into the space.  With practice your body will begin to change. Your mind, your body and your spirit will open up.  One of my students in my Wednesday morning Carpe Diem Dance class (movement to music with yoga and breathwork) told me this week that before coming to the class she hadn't raised her hands over her head for decades! She risked stretching her comfort zone and is pleased with her results.

Speaking of stretching...It's easy to overstretch muscles and to pull a tendon or a ligament when moving mindlessly or too fast. The more you try to force a stretch, the tighter your ligaments and tendons work to protect you. This is an innate, self loving response. Remember the body is self loving, self healing, and self repairing. The way to stretch and nourish tendons and ligaments is through deep relaxation. Yin is a way to move into a pose just to the point of resistance and then to practice relaxing and letting go. This may seem counter intuitive. For those of us who are action oriented, this can be a challenge. Practice quieting your mind when it starts to breed old negative thoughts that no longer serve you.

This practice is not about what you look like or how far you can go into the pose. It's about connecting to how you feel. In this respect, it is a more advanced practice. It's a practice in discernment over effort and ease. It's a practice in self care. How challenging you make it is up to you. You choose whether you want to practice yin or relaxation, within every pose. Discover how each moment allows you the opportunity for choice and discernment.

This is how we cultivate the ability to find calm in the midst of chaos. 

You can easily see the value of taking these lessons off the mat and into your consciousness.
Modern living stress our nervous system. It's easy to stay stuck in the sympathetic nervous system. Yoga can teach you to use your breath, your body, and your mind to stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system necessary for optimal health.

Currently, I am teaching a beginners yoga 7:30am Wednesday mornings at Rise Wellbeing Center in Reston. If that is too early for you, then join us at 10am for a yoga dance class @ Rise.

There are many styles of yoga now being offered. Explore this rich diversity and find a class that speaks to you. Better yet, see if you can add some diversity in your exercise routine for balance.  Better balance equates to overall peace.

Carpe Diem,

Lisa

About Lisa Jackson, RN, CHC, RYT-500, FDN-P, AFMC

Lisa is an author, functional nutrition and functional medicine trained health coach, yoga teacher, and retired Registered Nurse with the mission to "Inspire, Educate and Empower" individuals and corporations to achieve optimal health.

Lisa's book, Savvy Secrets: Eat, Think & Thrive is a self-health book offering her Seven Steps to Optimal Health.

When she is not coaching, or speaking, you can find Lisa joyfully sharing Carpe Diem Dance or playing with her two grandchildren. She is the mother of four adult children and believes, "Optimal health should not be a secret."

Will you honor today as Earth Day?

Today is Earth Day. My business Carpe Diem Wellness is a dba of another business that my husband and I started several years ago called Innovative Green Solutions. A few years ago we participated in Earth Day in Washington DC as we were instrumental in building the world’s first railroad bridge out of recycled plastic. Both of these businesses reflect our values around sustainability. My husband is now dedicating his time, energy, resources and focus on a new sustainable business. He is focused on preserving our precious resources through recycling and recreating clean glass. 

Today, we are reminded how important sustainability is in everything we are and do. It’s a good day to develop a practice of discrimination and discernment. As I said in my book, Savvy Secrets, Eat, Think And Thrive, food is either life affirming or can lead us into deprivation and early death. The same is try for our thoughts and our actions.

I am also in yin yoga teacher training today and this weekend. Yoga philosophy includes the idea of Karma, that every action creates an effect. Yin Yoga is a new ancient practice born out of our search for balance and freedom from suffering. It is a powerful and trans-formative tool and a natural progression in your yoga practice.

We all have the need for both silence and reflection as well as action. We need both if we are to discover and then manifest our dharma or our purpose in life. We need to honor and accept both; the yin and yang, the light and the darkness, what we label as the good and the bad. 

There are many examples of this found in nature. The seed must grow deep roots in the dark nourishing mud before the plant moves toward the sunlight. The beautiful fruit and flower is the result of both the darkness and the light. Neither is right or wrong or better than the other, it just is. 

How do we transform ourselves as well as our environment? We take an honest personal assessment; without judgement or shame. We accept what is so we can discern how to best respond. Will we react out of fear and anger or respond out of love and compassion? 

No matter what your political viewpoints are, today will you reflect on sustainability? A wise man said, "You don't have to be wrong in order for me to be right." How do we make sustainability a priority for the sake of our children and grandchildren in all of our decisions?

Here's a couple of ways to take action. If you are in Northern Virginia, Salud Healthy Pantry is offering to sustain-ably recycle your old electronics today through Sunday. Stop by and support a local vendor offering local sustainable and organic offerings. Breathe deeply and give thanks for all that are working towards a more sustainable world. Spend some time in silence to reflect on how you can nourish life and our planet. 

With Love & Gratitude,

Lisa

ABOUT LISA JACKSON, RN, CHC, RYT

Lisa is an author, inspirational speaker, retired RN, certified health coach, and yoga teacher.

Her book, Savvy Secrets: Eat, Think & Thrive: Seven Steps to Optimal Health is a self health book to enable healing from within. Her goal is to inspire wellness and to help others look and feel their best at any age.

Lisa is part of the New Self Health Movement, the International Health Coach Association and the Wellness Inspired Network. She is the mother of four adult children, a Grandmother, and believes that optimal health should not be a secret! When she is not coaching, speaking and writing, you can find her practicing yoga and joyfully sharing Carpe Diem Dance at every opportunity.