Grateful! Grateful! Grateful!

Image courtesy of Recreating Eden
I am so unbelievably grateful today - I truly feel as though I have dipped my toes in the river of abundance and it's sweeping me faster and faster toward my goals. And, I have felt recently that the universe is benevolent.

Recently I completed a yoga photoshoot, in order to use pictures that I own for my sequence handout sheets at workplaces. Little did I know what I would hold in my hand when I completed the document, design and all. All the work I do on newsletters, forms, and other marketing materials I generate in InDesign by Adobe has paid off - I have a document that looks great. Truly original! If you would like to see it I would be happy to send you a pdf but it belongs to jointly to me and my employer (they agreed to shared intellectual property). You can see some pics here.

On another note, we have been in an ongoing struggle to replace our failed leach field at my house. The project has dragged on and on... so I finally changed designers. Today our new designer showed up and our excavator uncovered beautiful soil for an in ground system on part of our land. This means - a much cheaper job for sure. In uncovering this soil, we cleared part of our land that we thought we would be waiting years to get to. Now it's all open and I have news that I'm going to be able to easily afford the system, and will have a huge new 1acre lawn bulldozed and seeded with grass by the fourth of July. I cannot believe how wonderfully this has turned out!

When the universe closes one door, another opens. In this case, a beautiful set of french doors with stained glass.

Yoga Photoshoot!

Well here they are! Some pics from my photoshoot. Hope you enjoy them. More soon - busy day! Click the photo here to see the Picassa Web Album.
"Anna Van Fleet"

Yoga is not just for the skinny minnies out there - yoga has taught me self-acceptance and given me self-esteem as I practice. I continue to gain appreciation for all my body can do in the yoga room, and I carry that out into my life.

I hope these pictures inspire a new generation of yogis and yoginis who understand that we do not all have to look like those in the pages of Yoga Journal to find the path.

Cleanse Day 2 - energy, love and light!

Image compliments of Appetite of Life
Good day my fine feathered friends. I am just bursting with energy. I cannot believe how amazing I feel - I'm buzzing inside. Yesterday I had herbal tea and water to begin my cleanse and around 2PM I went and shopped for veggies and made juice.

Juice recipe:
2 apple
4 celery
handfull watercress
chunk of ginger (to taste)

This juice is amazing - I loved it yesterday and am having it again today for lunch. For dinner yesterday I did a combo of carrot, celery, tomato, watercress and ginger but that was really nothing to write home about. The juicing thing is quite an art and I do not have the science of the green drinks down yet.

I did one other juice fast in my life and it was all about weight loss and getting ready to get ready for my pending wedding. I reread some things that I wrote about it at that time and realize how backwards my thinking was then. I really wanted to do anything to lose weight then. Now it's all about my health. I didn't even think about weight loss as a motivation to do this cleanse (but I'll take it if it comes.)

I was acting out of fear then, fear of my weight, of looking bad in pictures, etc. I have grown so much since then. I have gone through therapy for my Compulsive Overeating Disorder (COE) and have become a yoga teacher. I have followed my passions and my life has opened up so much.

So this time around, I'm juice feasting for health and wellness. I can feel such a difference.

Because I have a strong Bikram practice, I was also able to practice and teach a class running on nothing but fresh juice. I would not encourage a first time student to do anything like that. However I know myself and my body and I was able to do it. I had a coconut water between and made it through no problem. I feel happy and adjusted and have none of the fears I did in my last juice fast - I have no fear of sitting and drinking juice with people when they are eating, for instance. I'm also not stuffing myself with juice - I'm making good amounts, diluting with water, and trusting my body to tell me when it's ready for more. Result: I feel positively buzzing with light and energy! Amazing.

Cleansing Day 1

Image compliments of Joanne Tucker at http://joanne-tucker.artistwebsites.com/ beautiful flower paintings, check them out!
Today is day 1 of my cleanse. There are numerous reasons why it's the right time to cleanse. I'm adding in a lot of yoga, fresh juices (time to dust off the breville!), teas and broths for a while and will end as it's time to end.

My body is crying out for a break - some introspection - and some time to reflect as it warms up here in Vermont. My recent trip to New Orleans and the passing of my aunt have put me into a cycle of comfort food that's not doing me any good. It's one of those things that really perpetuates itself - the reaching for comfort.

I'm working with Pema Chodron's Getting Unstuck lectures as well.

The teachings tell us that there is suffering.

There is dissatisfaction and frustration. Often nothing seems to go right. There really is a wound. But it is not necessary to scratch it. Working with addictions is about not just impulsively grabbing for something to stop the itching, not just grabbing for something to fill up the space, not giving in to this impulse to feel okay and just to get comfortable as soon as possible.

When we scratch the wound and give into our addictions we do not allow the wound to heal. But when we instead experience the raw quality of the itch or pain of the wound and do not scratch it, we actually allow the wound to heal. So not giving in to our addictions is about healing at a very basic level.

It is about truly nourishing ourselves.

So... these are the teachings I am working with through the end of this month as I add lots of healing and introspection to my daily life... and leave behind some of the things that are clouding up my vision.

Last night preparing for bed, I did a very nice sequence.  The yoga poses (without meditation and pranayama) are going to be used in a wellness program I work with for the purpose of preparing the body for rest.  I must say they left me feeling clear and relaxed.

1) Restorative Seated Forward Bend
Sit, propped up by a blanket or two under the hips if needed, with legs wide open, and bring a chair or prop onto the mat. Lean forward to place the forehead gently on the chair (use something soft if you need to.) There should be no effort in keeping the legs open and straight so do as much as is right for your body type. (Extremely tight hips? Open the legs as much as is comfortable and put rolled blankets under the knees.) Relax in this position, eyes closed, for a full 3 minutes. Allow the body to twitch and move and settle.

2) Sphinx pose
On belly, place forearms on the floor, shoulder width apart, palms down, fingers facing forward. Lift head and upper body up to assume the pose of the sphinx. Upper arms should be perpendicular to the floor, chest up, neck relaxed. Add depth to this position by pulling the palms gently toward you on the floor. No need to move the hands or arms, just feel what that slight pull on the floor does to open the chest. Remain until physical fatigue sets in then change... should be a minute or so.

3) Child's pose with a block to support the forehead if necessary - hold 1-3 minutes.

4) Dvipida Pitham (Pelvic raises, dynamic with the breath)
On the back, feet planted on the floor, heels close to the hips, palms down. On inhale, raise hips up to maximum, drop chin to chest to stretch the back of the neck. On exhale, lower the hips down as you gently unwind the spine vertebrae by vertebrae. Celebrate the looseness and relaxation in the lower back. Repeat 3-5 times or more if you're loving it.

5) Supine twist
On back, bring knees up into the chest. Arms out to the sides, palms down, keeping knees together, lower knees toward right elbow. Rest keeping or trying keep both shoulders on the floor, space and extension in the lower back (think left hip away from left shoulder.) Look left if your neck is not tweaky. Relax. Perform twist to the left, then repeat both sides. Take your time.

6) Savasana

7) Meditation on the breath 3-5 minutes

8) Alternate Nostril Breathing Alternate Nostril Breathing for 3 minutes or until the feeling of clarity in the sinuses and lungs is achieved (I don't advise going on and on forever here! This is powerful stuff.)

Sleep...

Enjoy

Rebuilding, getting the feet back on the ground, grief

I lost a member of my non-immediate family this week after returning from vacation. Needless to say I'm struggling to get my feet back on the ground - it was very sudden. I'm hoping to be back in blogging and practicing form soon. I teach for the first time in a while tonight, I'm hoping that pulls me back up a bit as it usually does.

Kapotanasana and backbending

I have wanted to write about the practice I had on Friday before I taught. I did 30 minutes of lower back work viniyoga style - lots of hip raises, hip stretches, cakravikasana, vimanasana, supta badokonasana and supta padangustasana.

Then moved into some sun salutations, just trying to get the repetitions in. Sun salutations are a new part of my practice and I'm really working on the jump backs and jump forwards and keeping off my hips when I come up to upward dog.

I then did the practice that I've been waiting to retry - backbending up and down the wall. I was alone in my studio so I went very slowly. I set up my mat perpendicular to the wall. Rested in Wheel prep pose, then pushed up. I walked my feet in a bit, looked at the wall, and placed the first hand there. Then you walk up and kind of drift over the top in this daring moment, then you're on your feet!

I placed a block beside my mat to mark where my feet were. It always feels like a long way to drop back. It's really the scary part. However when I was little I dropped back into backbends no problem so I know that even if I went down, I'd be ok. So... I stood in prayer and rested while the blood shifted all around. YOu can hear this "whooshing" sound and sensation while going up and down that's for sure. Hands in prayer, extended up tall through the upper back.

I moved the eyes back and stood backward leaning, getting tall, breathing, and connecting with calm energy. Then looked back at the wall and brought my hands out to the side and reached back - WALL! Then I walked back down. I went up and down four times! At the end I did get a little tired and ended up not pressing up into wheel and kind of coming down on my head but it wasn't that bad. I should have stopped before that happened though.

Lastly, I tried a backbend I really want to be able to do - Kapotanasana.

Image Courtesy of beatayoga.com

I went back and got my hands on the ground. I tried this twice, just getting the sensation of the backbend. I also tried Laghuvadrasana, which is the ashtanga pose that comes with Kapotanasana. THat's a really hard one! There's about a six inch gap between where I want to be (head on floor) and where my strength holds out. If you go further than where your strength is, you collapse down onto the floor. Learned my lesson on that one.

Anyway the deep backbend practice was wonderful - but I'm struggling these days to get my Bikram in. I need that as a base and to add all this stuff on!

However, I'm off to New Orleans for a week and will not be terribly yoga focused. I am going to try to do some bathroom Bikram and even visit a studio down there. Have a great week everyone!

Balinese art, yoga, and most beautiful peaceful scenes

This video contains some of the most amazing images I've seen. Just watching it was like an eight minute vacation while sitting at my desk at work! Bali is an Indonesian nation which has a very interesting population - Bali contains the majority of Indonesia's Hindu population. However it is a Buddhist-inspired and Javanese-influenced version of Hinduism, one of the major tenets being that all gods and goddesses (many in Hinduism) are expressions of a single supreme deity or being. What a perfect place to practice yoga indeed.

Bali is known as an enchanted place, where the native population is peaceful and restful, and the surroundings awe inspiring. I particularly love the rich reds, golds and blues in the ornate finery you see in this video during a mass cremation ceremony, where a dragon effigy is burned as well and the smoke rises through the trees. The flowers - the lotus flowers - some of the most sculpted and delicate flower images I've ever seen are in this video. Makes my daffodils quake in their boots I'll tell you what!

Take a trip with a cup of tea and this video... You'll love it.