Working Smart Not Hard

Those that know me know that I avoid hard work at all costs.  It’s not that I wont work hard – I just prefer to work smart whenever possible and keep my load light.

In honor of that – step on over to Shine, my yoga studio’s blog, and read what I posted there this morning (in lieu of writing 2 separate posts today on two separate blogs).  It’s about my becoming so yogafied that when my experiences aren’t “yogic” enough, I get a little restless and how important it is to give ourselves permission to simply finish, i.e., relax, rest and rejuvenate when we exercise.

Yogis Interruptis

For thirteen years I’ve been a fan of yoga.  Not an addict.  Not a stalker.  A fan.  I’ve enjoy the practice and fit it into my life as was appropriate, meaning, sometimes it’s taken a back seat to other areas that needed my attention.  In theory, I wanted to be more committed to my practice, but activities like motherhood, moving, and volunteerism got in the way.  Looking back, I believe that was part of the problem.  My theoretical yoga practice had a bigger hold on me than my actual one.

Yoga is derived from the Sanskrit root word yuj which means “to yoke”, or “unite” and many claim it’s specifically about the union between mind, body and spirit.  Because the word may also derive from the root “yujir samadhau,” which means “contemplation”, you can see how for some, yoga is more about the mind and/or spirit and less about the body.  Which is fine if you need a distraction from always focusing on the physical and hating yourself, like I’ve done most of my life.  But if your default setting is always set to “cerebral” as mine tends to be (because it’s a lot easier to ignore the body that you hate if you spend the majority of your time in your head) it was easier to focus on living my yoga than performing poses on a mat.

I had hoped that yoga would eventually bring balance to the body part of the equation.  I think sensing this innate need is what inspired me to sign up for yoga teacher training (YTT), but in the end it was my mind that made the decision because teacher training was also a way to make a living.  Since I was already volunteering at the studio and really liked the yogis I met there, it seemed like a smart idea to make money doing something I enjoyed.  Regardless I was going to FINALLY give my yoga practice the attention it deserved (while secretly hoping that yoga would give me the physical body I’ve always wanted).

That was the plan, until my head took center stage because besides going to numerous yoga classes, YTT meant reading books about yoga, taking notes from lectures about yoga, conversing about yoga and and thinking various thoughts about yoga.  This of course was my favorite part of the training because it kept yoga between my ears where it truly liked to be.

After paying my first deposit and receiving my book list, I got cracking.  Instead of going to class I read Power Yoga and Moving Into Stillness.  Rather than doing asanas, I memorized their sanskrit names.   The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali?  Something I discussed with my classmates in lieu of actually experiencing them.

Training to be a yoga teacher quenched my thirst for yogic knowledge.  It meant understanding anatomy, physiology and contra-indications for poses.  I learned facts about properly sequencing a class and was taught the best way to verbalize alignment cues.  Because I intellectualized yoga so much, I spent most of my physical practices analyzing the teaching styles of the instructor and stealing ideas to use for future classes.  Thus yoga, even when training to be a teacher, continued to be a cerebral endeavor.

But then an interesting thing happened.  By the third weekend of training I was hitting the studio every couple of days attending vinyasa flow and even some hot yoga classes.  Besides simply doing more yoga, I was also walking daily and eating healthy.  Finally and perhaps for the first time in my life I was allowing my consciousness the luxury of settling within my body and staying present in it for more than a few seconds, here and there.  Yoga was slowly (and without a lot of fanfare I might add), doing it’s job.

Then, halfway through teacher training as I was FINALLY on my way to unifying my mind, body and spirit, a freak accident occurred.  I hit my head.  Hard.  The dizziness that made practicing more difficult was no where near as problematic as the results from my MRI.  It seems that yet again, my head was getting in the way of my performing the asanas.  Not my mind per say, but my brain itself.  The physical body that I’d become expert at ignoring must have finally had it, so to get my attention, it moved north to officially compete with my mind.

Turns out,  I wasn’t just a yogi with a concussion or an inability to yoke her mind to her body.

I was a yogi with 9 brain lesions.

I was a yogi with Multiple Sclerosis.

Yes, that’s correct.  A yogi lousy at living in her body got the disease that affects the body with an alarming level of inconsistency.  The disease that constantly brings your attention back to your body due to the ever changing plethora of physical symptoms it creates.

Did you hear that?

That was the sound of my personal yoga practice crashing into a brick wall.

I know what you’re thinking.  A progressive neurological diagnosis?  Or course she turned to her yoga practice to create health and wellness.

Naw.  I didn’t have time for that.  I had to go get a job.

Some Yoga Posts

I was the administrator for my yoga studio’s blog during our 21 Day Yoga Challenge, which piss poor excuse or not, is why I’ve been neglecting my own.

Here are 2 posts that I placed on their blog, Shine, this past month:

Falling Down and Beyond The 21 Day Challenge.  Enjoy!

 

21 Day Yoga Challenge

I mentioned participating in Sol Yoga’s 21 Day Yoga Challenge in previous posts.  Hence my lack of blogging here, as I’m supposed to blogging on Shine, Sol Yoga’s blog.  I posted there today if you’re interested.  I’m warning you – it’s not pretty, but it’s honest.  More importantly, others have blogged and over the past week and Shine is becoming an eclectic mix of inspiration, artwork, poetry, and insights.

Check it out, when you have a chance.

AHA Moment

I truly believe that cracking the weight loss code is like trying to crack the DaVinci Code.  Seriously.  I know tons of people, myself included, that at some point have been doing everything right only to get zip in terms of results.

Here we are, day 12 of the new year and I’m guessing some of you may already be feeling frustrated by your fitness regimen and are perhaps grabbing for a doughnut as you read this in disgust.

STOP!

Read this great article instead!  It has photos and more importantly, answers as to why long term aerobic exercise doesn’t work for fat loss.  Sure it’ll help your heart and that’s wonderful, but if you’re hoping to drop the pounds by spending hours upon hours at the gym on treadmills, ellipticals, or training for marathons or triathalons…trainer Rachel Cosgrove says, “Don’t get your hopes up, crazy lady.”  Instead, she suggests interval training and uses her own experience training for an Iron Man to back up her claims.

Thank you Michelle for posting this (and for somehow making a Prune Truffle look and sound good – didn’t know that was possible).

I’m very interested to know if others have had this same experience as well. I know I have and I can think of people that literally run their asses off but never seem to run their asses off.

Happy Health Everyone.

Day Three

I’m counting today as a yoga day even though I taught because I demonstrated about 45 minutes of yoga poses as there were many new-to-yoga folks in my class at noon.  If I can unroll my mat again tonight, that would be great.  If not, I’m not too concerned.  Besides…

I’m sore as shit.  It’s not pretty.  You can read about it over at the Sol Yoga Blog, Shine.

http://solyoga.blogspot.com/2011/01/2-days-in-row.html

When all eyes are on you, you tend to hold the pose longer or go for the more advanced version, only to pay for it later.  What can I say.  I’ve got an ego too, you know.

What could I have possibly learned in only three days you ask?  Actually a lot.  I have completely dreaded 2 out of the 3 classes this week, only to feel 100% better afterward.  Clearly exercise is one of those things you have to force yourself to do.  If you’re waiting to be the person that LOVES to exercise, plan on waiting a long time.

There’s also something about feeling sore that although is painful, is better than the pain and discomfort you feel from feeling creaky, old and out of shape.  There’s a power to this kind of pain, that is transformative.  So even though I haven’t lost a pound, my clothes don’t fit differently and my yoga practice hasn’t advanced in the least, there’s potential there that I can literally feel inside my body and that’s pretty intoxicating.

Makes you wonder why the hell I had pushed my practice to the back burner for so long?  I’m sure I’ve felt this way before – many times in fact.  What kind of dumb ass am I?

Guess that’s another topic, for another day.  Regardless, someone please remind me of this post the next time I chuck my exercise program, okay?  Promise?  Thanks! 

21 Day Challenge

I work at a terrific yoga studio in town, called Sol Yoga. One of the things I like about Sol is that the owner simply wants people to do yoga.  She’s not interested in becoming a yoga superstar or being at the helm of a vast yoga empire, she just wanted to get more people in Frederick, MD into a yoga studio, so she opened one six years ago.  This little, 4th floor walk up studio with a few teachers and volunteer staff has grown to 2 locations, 3 yoga spaces, 20+ certified teachers,  20+ volunteers, 100+ classes a month and even has a spin off called, Little Sols which is a yoga studio for kids.

Literally at Sol you can do yoga from the womb onward.  Although we don’t specifically have a senior yoga class, yet, I’ve taught and/or taken many a class with students in their 70′s and 80′s.

As a teacher, I enjoy seeing my advanced students rock advanced poses, but my favorite yoga teacher moment to date was when I yelled out “Ardha Chandrasana” (Half-Moon Pose) and had a woman in her 80′s nod yes, when I offered her an assist and whispered, “Do you want to try it?”

Image from Yogapostures.com

She not only tried it – she did it!  It was amazing.

But here’s the down side to being a yoga teacher.  You spend so much time teaching and thinking about teaching and thinking about the music you want to use while you’re teaching, that you end up spending less time doing yoga for yourself.  Because of this, Sol is challenging all staff to participate in a 21 Day Yoga Challenge.  The theory being that you can’t truly inspire students if you’re not doing yoga yourself.  She’s hoping it’ll kick start in all of us a drive to, “Do More Yoga and See What Happens“

We start next week.  So as not to shock my system, I’m starting today.  Meaning, I’m going to put yoga first and not the pile of laundry, or the fact that I need to run to the grocery store or the realization that I took down all of my Christmas decorations but forgot to take down the garland outside my front door.  It’ll all get done whether I go to yoga or not, so why not go?

This challenge is open for staff but anyone can do it along with us.  Interestingly,  Yoga Journal is also challenging their readers to a 21 Day Challenge next Monday as well.  This is a great way to get some free yoga videos sent to your in-box each morning that allows anyone to join in no matter where you’re located.

If however, you do reside in Frederick and have always wanted to get into yoga, I strongly recommend Sol Yoga.  If you’re completely new to the studio, you can sign up for 2 weeks of unlimited yoga for a mere $25.  It’s the most cost effective way to experiment with different teachers, classes, times and styles without breaking the bank.  Friday nights at Sol mean, $5 happy hour yoga.  There are 2 donation only classes where you pay what you want, if anything.  There’s a ton of hour long, $10 classes if you can’t afford or don’t have the time for a 75 minute, $15 class.  And of course, there are many specialty packages you can purchase to keep your costs down and your yoga participation up.

2010 was supposed to be the year I was going to fully commit to my yoga practice.  Instead I went back to work and spent every ounce of my free time recommitting to speech therapy.  After 9 months of working, I think I’ve got a routine down, so I’m happy to switch gears and make 2011 my year of living yogaliciously.  Should be interesting.  I’ll keep you posted.

Yoga Teacher Training

Dorcas doing Dancer Pose

I’ve spent the last 8 months learning about a five thousand year old practice called yoga.  As you can imagine, a two-hundred hour program merely scratched the surface yet I learned a lot and that’s a testament to the program I was enrolled in.

Sol Yoga’s teacher training program was an eclectic mix of styles and traditions led by an non-dogmatic instructor who was more interested in unleashing our inner teacher than creating teachers that copied her style and demeanor.  And that’s why Sol Yoga, owned by Dorcas Qyunn McWilliams, is a great place to not only learn about yoga, but practice in general.

Yoga teacher training started out simple, only to become more complex the more I studied.  Ask me what yoga is and I’m not sure that I’d even have an answer for you at this point.  I simply know too much to do justice to the term and even the official dictionary definitions of yoga are long winded and obscure.

This Sanskrit word has various meanings, one of which means union, thus most people think of yoga as something that unifies or connects the mind, body and spirit.  That tells us what yoga does, but the jury is still out on what exactly yoga is.  Is it a system?  A discipline?  A philosophical way of life?  Or is it merely a form of exercise that can give you a nice ass?

Cindi Lee,  yoga instructor and contributor to Yoga Journal gives a nice definition:

The word yoga, from the Sanskrit word yuj means to yoke or bind and is often interpreted as “union” or a method of discipline. A male who practices yoga is called a yogi, a female practitioner, a yogini.

The Indian sage Patanjali is believed to have collated the practice of yoga into the Yoga Sutra an estimated 2,000 years ago. The Sutra is a collection of 195 statements that serves as a philosophical guidebook for most of the yoga that is practiced today. It also outlines eight limbs of yoga: the yamas (restraints), niyamas (observances), asana (postures), pranayama (breathing), pratyahara (withdrawal of senses), dharana (concentration), dhyani (meditation), and samadhi (absorption). As we explore these eight limbs, we begin by refining our behavior in the outer world, and then we focus inwardly until we reach samadhi (liberation, enlightenment).

Today most people practicing yoga are engaged in the third limb, asana, which is a program of physical postures designed to purify the body and provide the physical strength and stamina required for long periods of meditation.

Some say yoga was invented out of necessity because sages that were rigidly sitting for hours in meditation decided to move to avoid pain and stiffness. This resulted in poses being created that were linked via the breath.  Thus yoga is literally a moving meditation and every time you unroll your mat this is what you’re attempting to do as well.

Notice I said meditation and not prayer because the one thing I know for sure is that yoga is not a religion.  I wasn’t ordained as a yoga priestess, just certified as a yoga teacher.  I’ve never been baptized in yoga or asked to confirm any specific yogic belief system.  All I’ve ever been asked to do in a yoga class, is breathe.

There are many types of yoga to choose from and based on the type of class you attend, yoga can be a sweat inducing, strength training, cardiovascular workout or a calm, relaxing, and restorative way to increase range of motion, flexibility and reduce stress.  Therefore if you’re intrigued about yoga, do NOT only go to one class and make your decision.  Try out various classes, teachers and styles before you decide if yoga is something that you want to add to your life.

If you can’t find a class in your area, there are DVD’s that you can buy, thousands of free videos on Youtube as well as membership based sites that allow you to experience yoga.  And when I start teaching, I’ll let you know so you can come try out my style as well.

I’m So Confused!

My head is literally spinning.  I just can’t take it anymore.  There’s so much information out there.  Frankly, too much information.  I’m sitting here with a pounding headache which I completely contribute to all of the cable news chatter out there (as well as too much wine while watching Rachel Madow mixed with too much coffee while watching Morning Joe).

We’ve got an administration trying to do everything in it’s first 100 days, a president more exposed than a naked Paris Hilton exiting her limo in a drunken stupor, folks that probably don’t balance their check book giving economic opinions 24 hours a day along with countless politicians and pundits attempting to control my mind through the power of their constant suggestions.

I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling like Vinnie Barbarino.

 

So I’m thinking it’s time to get out of my head and back into my body.  Now that the weather is warming up, I feel the spring time energy starting to bubble up inside of me.  I’m feeling the need to think less and move more, talk less and do more.

Time to clean a house that has seen a winter’s worth of dust and grime take over what should be my sacred space.  Time to re-energize a body that has gone dormant.  Time to turn off the tube and turn up the volume on the iPod.  Time to get off the couch and get on the treadmill.

I haven’t been blogging much lately because I’ve been overwhelmed by conflicting information and the opinions of others.  But now my lack of blogging will be due to being too damn busy getting busy to sit and write.

So in honor of the Sweathogs, please except this excuse for my lack of posting:

Mr. Kotter,

Linda can not blog right now because she’s overwhelmed with information and frankly needs to move her ass more.  Don’t worry, there’s plenty of blogs out there if you need a fix.  If you don’t like it, all I can say is, Up Your Nose With A Rubber Hose.

Signed,
Linda’s Mother

Mission Accomplished

No I’m not standing on the USS Abraham Lincoln wearing a flight suit and lying to the American people. I really did run my 5 miles yesterday.

The weird thing. I ran the last five miles of the marathon, which means that I was as fresh as a daisy passing up folks that had been running for 4 hours. God I would have hated me had I been one of those runners. Of course there were also lots of folks that had been running for 4 hours that weren’t sweating all that much and didn’t seem too stressed – that was impressive.

Thanks to Lindsey, Linda and Jill for being great teammates, great runners and more importantly, letting me have the shortest leg of the race. Jill took the longest section with all of the hills (bless her heart) and Lindsey/Linda after each running 6 miles, ran the last five miles behind me to motivate me. I didn’t want to be lapped by folks that had already run, so it really did keep me moving.

Thanks to Tip for lending me his very expensive sun glasses and trusting that I’d return them. I almost didn’t. They were really nice.

Thanks to DeeAnn and Heather for coming up with this crazy idea in the first place and coaching me all winter. I never would have done something like this on my own. And a special thanks to Heather for making sure that I drank water, stretched, wore the right shoes, pinned my bib number below my boobs and took a shit before leaving the house.

Thanks to Donna for encouraging me not to quit every time I whined about the race.

Here’s what I’ve learned:

1. Training inside is fine, but it doesn’t prepare you for inhaling the exhaust fumes of passing vehicles, running into the wind or jogging past corn fields recently spread with cow manure. Unless your treadmill is in your bathroom right after my Dad has been inside with a newspaper, you really can’t train for that indoors.
2. Running messes with your mind more than your body. I wanted to quit about 10 times yesterday because I thought I was going to be out there forever. It is a lot easier to talk yourself out of doing something than to just persevere. Had I not had friends waiting for me at the finish line, I might have simply run to the closest coffee shop and called it a day, so spending a few bucks and committing to a race is important if you want to meet a personal fitness goal.
3. If you look way ahead while you’re running, it sucks. It’s best to look for the obvious obstacles only a few feet in front of you like cracks, pot holes, banana peels, etc. If you can navigate around those you’ll eventually get to where you’re going.
4. Anything goes when folks are pushing themselves to their limits. I saw folks bent over side rails spitting and puking. Had it been colder, I’m sure I would have seen the infamous, no hankie nose blow that men seem to master at some point in their lives. While I was waiting for the next water station I was thissssssssssss close to becoming a hocker ho and blowing a big chunk of mucous out of my mouth. Unfortunately, I don’t have that particular projectile talent and knew that any attempt would result in a big wad of snot running down my arm, so I waited for the water and well, took one for the team.
5. If you don’t believe in Jesus, sign up for a race. When I had been running the last mile for what seemed like about three miles, I met Jesus up close and personal along with his parents. I think that’s why these type of races are on Sundays, so you can miss church but not really miss anything.
6. Everyone has a different type of hell. I saw a woman running the marathon early in the morning. She was chatting with her friends and wearing a crazy hat. Clearly she was having a blast. Then after she finished, I saw her at each and every relay transition point cheering on others. Later she was out on the course and encouraged me when as I was running up my first big hill. So kudos to her and others like her that actually find running to be fun. Who knows, perhaps her hell is something that I don’t mind at all like public speaking or donating blood to the Red Cross.
7. My motto has always been Work Smart, Not Hard but honestly, sometimes you just have to work hard and shut up about it. I get that now and frankly, it’s about time.