Since moving to Portland, OR my main practice space has been my livingroom. It is less than ideal with carpet, curious dog, and sometimes present boyfriend. Too many distractions presented themselves, which then turned into excuses. I would plan to practice, then Dan would come home early, so then I wouldn't. Mayson would keep crawling on my mat preventing vinyasa progression, so I would do a twist and savasana so he could safely snuggle against me. I finally realized that two years of distraction, diversion, and excuses was making me into someone who only occasionally will practiced instead of the girl who would trek to the studio or practice in my petless, single-girl livingroom six or seven times a week.
I was left but no choice but to clear out the piles of laundry, tuck away Dan's various outdoor equipment, and eliminate piles of crap from the office. After all of this, I now have a luxurious space on the office floor, and a closing door for practice. No more excuses of dogs and boyfriends. Now I just have to shut the door and switch my focus to practice.
It is by far the best thing I have done for practice purposes in a long time. Now in an hour and a half I can chant, practice, and read a sutra or two. On days that I genuinely don't have time, I can cut everything and sit for 10 minutes of meditation. That is a real motivator to make practice time in itself, because quite frankly meditation is frustrating and hard. I'd much rather find an hour for asana than have 10 minutes of meditation.
Sunday, January 8, 2012
Sunday, December 4, 2011
How clean is your window?
A yoga sutra study group started up tonight at Near East Yoga, the focus tonight was the vrittis. I would like to share a drop of wisdom that I learned. Vrittis can be useful if you stay mindful of their purpose. Asana, pranyama, all of this is a type of vritti. These particular vrittis (and others) can be used as a window cleaner to scrub your window clean, clear the seer's vision of reality. However, if you get addicted to the window cleaner and stop seeing it as a tool, your window just gets foggy with spray. You might as well be spraying dirt on the window. Maybe this is the purpose of breaks in practice, such as moon days off. After polishing the window for two weeks, you can sit back and look through with clarity at what is real.
Saturday, November 26, 2011
Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. It is such a pure holiday, despite the attempted corruption by an ever-earlier Black Friday. I spent it with Dan, Matt, and the three dogs. We had a very delicious, local meal that stuffed us all. I hope that everyone else out there enjoyed their thanksgivings as well. I give thanks for the abundance of delicious food and drink found locally here. I also give thanks for the Portland yoga community that I sometimes have the rare treat of indulging in when school eases up a bit.
Don't count on many posts until the new year here. As a busy chiropractic student, things are heating up. The biggest test of the program is approaching in January, and as such, things are very intense until it wraps up. After that, many more practices with Near East Yoga, kirtans at the BhaktiShop, and perhaps even some fun at the Yoga Space too. More local food too.
One promised post...a reflection on an observation of a great yoga as therapy doctor.
Don't count on many posts until the new year here. As a busy chiropractic student, things are heating up. The biggest test of the program is approaching in January, and as such, things are very intense until it wraps up. After that, many more practices with Near East Yoga, kirtans at the BhaktiShop, and perhaps even some fun at the Yoga Space too. More local food too.
One promised post...a reflection on an observation of a great yoga as therapy doctor.
Saturday, October 15, 2011
Yogi Wrists
Nothing in the nine years I've been practicing yoga has been as hard on my practice as chiropractic school. Seventh quarter was especially was hard on me, and hard on my practice. At the end of the quarter I went several weeks without so much as a surya namaskara. Now I'm trying to get back to practice. Besides the tigher hips and hamstrings, and maybe a slightly less tolerance for 10 surya namasakara that crept up while I was being lazy, the thing that prevents me from my pre-break practice habits is the wrists. It's not a pain that lasts after savasana, or even really a pain at all. But rather an ache that develops in my wrist a few asana into the primary series. When I experience this, I simply go on to finishing. In fact, instead of doing a proper bridge or upward-facing bow I will simply place a block under my pelvis and breathe for 25 breaths instead to avoid weight bearing on my wrists. What is going on?
Of all the things that yogis and non-yogis ask me about yoga, the wrists are number one on that list. Questions like: what do you do to ease the pressure on your wrists, my wrists are too bad to practice yoga, and do your wrists get messed up from yoga. All of these things and more come up. I even get questions about people wanting to do push-ups and think that the yogis have the answers.
The thing that many people don't think about is that your bones are living things. And as living things they change in response to stimuli. How often in your everyday life are you weight bearing on your wrists/hands...as much as your body weight? Not so much. In many yogasana you are supporting half to all of your weight with your arms. That's a lot for them. Bone remodels according to the stress it regularly experiences. This is why astronauts will come back to earth after living without gravity and have bone loss. It's why your bones are not perfect lines and cylinders, the muscles create stresses on the bones at different points when you're growing and the bone grows to accommodate that. This is also why weight-bearing exercise is recommended for those with, and at risk for osteoporosis, it can give the bones strength where it's needed.
Your body can change a lot in a few weeks. It takes 120 days for cortical bone to fully remodel against a new stress and about a year for the medulary bone to accomodate that same stress. A study monitoring bone strength in patients on bed-rest found that their skeleton changed it's strong parts from places like the heel to the new weight bearing places like the back of the head in a course of 17 weeks. All of this makes me think that it is likely that my body started to change during that break in my practice schedule. During that period of practically no weight bearing on my arms, I likely lost some of the strength there. I can no longer tolerate nearly 50 vinyasas in a practice. The way to get back that strength. Practice. Repeat. The science says at least 3 times a week will do you.
As a yoga teacher I think this is a valuable lesson learned. There is a reason to focus on the standing and seated asana with beginners and especially so with elderly students new to yoga. Let their bones get stronger. Encourage regular practice, at least 3x a week. Build them up from just one or two vinyasas and one short inversion. Take the pressure off the arms and let them grow gradually. Let these students know that if it hurts in their wrists, it's okay to ease up. Teach the very valuable half-sun salute as an alternative in beginners classes. Let them insert this variation as needed. Gradually increase the amount of weight bearing in the arms. In time, a hand stand and vinyasas will be much more tolerable.
Of all the things that yogis and non-yogis ask me about yoga, the wrists are number one on that list. Questions like: what do you do to ease the pressure on your wrists, my wrists are too bad to practice yoga, and do your wrists get messed up from yoga. All of these things and more come up. I even get questions about people wanting to do push-ups and think that the yogis have the answers.
The thing that many people don't think about is that your bones are living things. And as living things they change in response to stimuli. How often in your everyday life are you weight bearing on your wrists/hands...as much as your body weight? Not so much. In many yogasana you are supporting half to all of your weight with your arms. That's a lot for them. Bone remodels according to the stress it regularly experiences. This is why astronauts will come back to earth after living without gravity and have bone loss. It's why your bones are not perfect lines and cylinders, the muscles create stresses on the bones at different points when you're growing and the bone grows to accommodate that. This is also why weight-bearing exercise is recommended for those with, and at risk for osteoporosis, it can give the bones strength where it's needed.
Your body can change a lot in a few weeks. It takes 120 days for cortical bone to fully remodel against a new stress and about a year for the medulary bone to accomodate that same stress. A study monitoring bone strength in patients on bed-rest found that their skeleton changed it's strong parts from places like the heel to the new weight bearing places like the back of the head in a course of 17 weeks. All of this makes me think that it is likely that my body started to change during that break in my practice schedule. During that period of practically no weight bearing on my arms, I likely lost some of the strength there. I can no longer tolerate nearly 50 vinyasas in a practice. The way to get back that strength. Practice. Repeat. The science says at least 3 times a week will do you.
As a yoga teacher I think this is a valuable lesson learned. There is a reason to focus on the standing and seated asana with beginners and especially so with elderly students new to yoga. Let their bones get stronger. Encourage regular practice, at least 3x a week. Build them up from just one or two vinyasas and one short inversion. Take the pressure off the arms and let them grow gradually. Let these students know that if it hurts in their wrists, it's okay to ease up. Teach the very valuable half-sun salute as an alternative in beginners classes. Let them insert this variation as needed. Gradually increase the amount of weight bearing in the arms. In time, a hand stand and vinyasas will be much more tolerable.
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Canning Wrap-up
This weekend I really devoted myself to wrapping up the year's canning. I canned plum jam and pickles of all types. Below are the grand totals for canning season 2011:
12 pints clam chowder base
6 1/2 half pints strawberry rhubarb jam
1 gallon frozen strawberries
2+ gallons of frozen cherries
10 1/2 half pints blue-raz jam
3 gallons frozen blueberries
21 1/2 half-pints blackberry jam
12 quarts peaches
2 gallons frozen peaches
1 1/2 gallons frozen blackberries
47 quarts tomatoes
12 half pints plum jam
10 quarts pickled beets
18 quarts dill pickles
3 pints refrigerator breat & butter pickles
Many thanks to my sources of fruit and veggies for canning: ABC seafood, New Seasons Market, Sauvie Island Farms, Pat & Marina, ODFW and USF&W for providing the space for blackberries to grow free, Josey Farms, Karam Farm, Giusto Farms, and Growers' Outlet.
Nuts will be ready for sale at Josey Farms this November, they have hazelnuts and walnuts in big sacks. They're the best nuts I've ever tasted. They come pre-cracked, but you need to separate shell from nut, but it's rainy and cold out anyway so it gives you something to do. The shells make excellent fire fuel if you have a fireplace or woodstove. We don't but we do give them to a friend who says they burn super warm!
12 pints clam chowder base
6 1/2 half pints strawberry rhubarb jam
1 gallon frozen strawberries
2+ gallons of frozen cherries
10 1/2 half pints blue-raz jam
3 gallons frozen blueberries
21 1/2 half-pints blackberry jam
12 quarts peaches
2 gallons frozen peaches
1 1/2 gallons frozen blackberries
47 quarts tomatoes
12 half pints plum jam
10 quarts pickled beets
18 quarts dill pickles
3 pints refrigerator breat & butter pickles
Many thanks to my sources of fruit and veggies for canning: ABC seafood, New Seasons Market, Sauvie Island Farms, Pat & Marina, ODFW and USF&W for providing the space for blackberries to grow free, Josey Farms, Karam Farm, Giusto Farms, and Growers' Outlet.
Nuts will be ready for sale at Josey Farms this November, they have hazelnuts and walnuts in big sacks. They're the best nuts I've ever tasted. They come pre-cracked, but you need to separate shell from nut, but it's rainy and cold out anyway so it gives you something to do. The shells make excellent fire fuel if you have a fireplace or woodstove. We don't but we do give them to a friend who says they burn super warm!
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Summers Off?
Most kids in America get the summer off from school. A lot of us see summer as a time to kick back, go on vacation. Summers off is actually a relic from times where nearly everyone had a family farm. Summer is such a busy time of harvest and food preservation that families couldn't afford to have their kids at school. They needed all hands on deck at this time of year.
This summer I've been going to school, manning my little dirt spot of a garden, visiting the local u-picks, and preserving food for the winter. This leads to a lot of late nights and stuffed weekends. It should all pay off in the end though.
So far this year I have stored up:
* 12 pints of clam chowder base (add the dairy when you eat it)
* 6 half-pints Strawberry-Rhubarb Jam
* 1 gallon frozen strawberries
* 2 1/4 gallons frozen cherries
* 10 1/2 half-pints blueberry-raspberry jam
* 3 gallons frozen blueberries
* 21 1/2 half-pints Blackberry jam
* Several baggies of dried herbs
* A basket of garlic
* 12 quarts canned peaches
* 2 gallons frozen peaches
My freezer is now packed to it's limits. No more freezing this year. A deep freeze is my dream for when I move into a house.
I still hope to can a bunch of tomatoes, some pickles, some beets, and try my hand at some plum jam.
The last chore of the harvest will be to get the walnuts and hazelnuts from Josey Farms. They come pre-cracked, but you need to separate the nuts from the shells. The nuts are ready in late october/early november.
With all of this I don't have a lot of free time during the summer, but I'm fitting in a few roadtrips anyway! We're off to the Redwoods during my 'fall break' from school.
This summer I've been going to school, manning my little dirt spot of a garden, visiting the local u-picks, and preserving food for the winter. This leads to a lot of late nights and stuffed weekends. It should all pay off in the end though.
So far this year I have stored up:
* 12 pints of clam chowder base (add the dairy when you eat it)
* 6 half-pints Strawberry-Rhubarb Jam
* 1 gallon frozen strawberries
* 2 1/4 gallons frozen cherries
* 10 1/2 half-pints blueberry-raspberry jam
* 3 gallons frozen blueberries
* 21 1/2 half-pints Blackberry jam
* Several baggies of dried herbs
* A basket of garlic
* 12 quarts canned peaches
* 2 gallons frozen peaches
My freezer is now packed to it's limits. No more freezing this year. A deep freeze is my dream for when I move into a house.
I still hope to can a bunch of tomatoes, some pickles, some beets, and try my hand at some plum jam.
The last chore of the harvest will be to get the walnuts and hazelnuts from Josey Farms. They come pre-cracked, but you need to separate the nuts from the shells. The nuts are ready in late october/early november.
With all of this I don't have a lot of free time during the summer, but I'm fitting in a few roadtrips anyway! We're off to the Redwoods during my 'fall break' from school.
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Wake-up Call
Lately I have been reading Awake At Work by Michael Carroll. The short chapters are thought provoking and take a couple days or weeks to sink in and take hold. It is so appropriate that I should read chapter 14 'Be kind to yourself'. "We want to be seen as competent and capable--and then we have to live up to our own aspirations. Tight timetables, complex challenges, risky decisions, and much more can keep us going at a pace that is just asking too much." It really brought to light something that Kathy Cooper had said to me when she was here in the spring, to be kind to yourself and not confuse willpower as prioritizing practice; realize that you need your sleep.
Seventh quarter in chiropractic school is very demanding. I think the whole point of this quarter is to see how many balls you can juggle at once without collapsing. I asked my boyfriend how I could practice daily, fufill the demands at school, eat, and sleep. He replied that he didn't know, that I'm pretty much maxxed out. I shouldn't be so hard on myself.
After just about 3 weeks of this schedule I came home today and collapsed on the couch without taking my dog out to pee...for two hours. Talk about crashing. I have been barely practicing at all, getting very little sleep, and beating myself up for not practicing 6 days a week like I did in Philly and not sleeping enough. This is not productive. It leaves me too drained to even practice on the weekend, when I actually could enjoy yoga, sans timer, pehaps even make it to the studio!
Clearly this is not the way. The first limb of yoga is the yamas, the first of which is ahimsa. I have not been kind to myself. I DO need to get through these 10 weeks, successfully. I will do what I can to make that happen. But perhaps I should stop beating myself up about literally making the choice to sleep. Cut the "mandatory" practice to the weekends/holidays. At the end of these ten weeks, I can go back to a daily practice over vacation.
Yoga has many parts, not just asana. I think my weekday practices will change to something new for now. I am contemplating meditation on a daily basis. Perhaps after the dog's after-school stroll.
Has anyone else ever felt like this? What did you do to get through it?
Seventh quarter in chiropractic school is very demanding. I think the whole point of this quarter is to see how many balls you can juggle at once without collapsing. I asked my boyfriend how I could practice daily, fufill the demands at school, eat, and sleep. He replied that he didn't know, that I'm pretty much maxxed out. I shouldn't be so hard on myself.
After just about 3 weeks of this schedule I came home today and collapsed on the couch without taking my dog out to pee...for two hours. Talk about crashing. I have been barely practicing at all, getting very little sleep, and beating myself up for not practicing 6 days a week like I did in Philly and not sleeping enough. This is not productive. It leaves me too drained to even practice on the weekend, when I actually could enjoy yoga, sans timer, pehaps even make it to the studio!
Clearly this is not the way. The first limb of yoga is the yamas, the first of which is ahimsa. I have not been kind to myself. I DO need to get through these 10 weeks, successfully. I will do what I can to make that happen. But perhaps I should stop beating myself up about literally making the choice to sleep. Cut the "mandatory" practice to the weekends/holidays. At the end of these ten weeks, I can go back to a daily practice over vacation.
Yoga has many parts, not just asana. I think my weekday practices will change to something new for now. I am contemplating meditation on a daily basis. Perhaps after the dog's after-school stroll.
Has anyone else ever felt like this? What did you do to get through it?
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