Support Your Immune System This Season!

 It happens to the best of us. We wake up one morning sometime after Summer has officially ended and sense a scratchiness at the back of our throats. The first cold of the season! The good news is Yoga can help support you through just about anything and it doesn't stop short with these nasty bugs that hit us from time to time.

How Does Yoga Help?
Yoga helps lower stress hormones that compromise your immune system, while also conditioning the lungs and respiratory tract, stimulating the lymphatic system to oust toxins from the body, and bring oxygenated blood to the various organs to ensure their optimal function.

Below is a sequence to help keep your immune system in optimal working condition and a few tips  "off the mat" to support yourself this winter!

Yoga Practice for Colds and Flu
Start your practice with a few rounds of Dirgha Pranayama (Three Part Breath) while sitting in Sukhasana (Easy Pose). 

Begin with 3 rounds of Khapalabhati Breath (Rapid Breath through the nose) 
Moving Bridge Pose
(If you have enough energy do to 3 to 5 rounds of Sun Salutation A
Bhujangasana (Cobra)
Navasana (boat) lying on stomach
Gomukhasana (Cow Face Pose)
Downward Facing Dog
Dhanurasana (Bow Pose)
Down Dog
Ustrasana (Camel Pose)
Head Stand (or Yoga Mudra on Head)
Down Dog
Pigeon Pose
Baddha Konasana (Bound Angle)
Wide Angle Seated
Matsyasana (Fish)
Legs up the Wall
Knee down Twist
Savasana

Off the Mat
Zinc Lozenges:  first on your list!  Start taking zinc lozenges within 48 hours of onset of your cold/flu and you just might prevent it from getting worse! Zinc Lozenges can be expensive so purchase the generic brand. You'll be saving money in the long run by getting better quicker.
Drop the Dairy! Unfortunately dairy products block the passage ways and when you have congestion in your nose and chest you want to encourage it to move out!  Choose clear liquids like broths, water, and apple juice.  Drop Yogurt, Ice Cream, Milk, and Cream Sauces.
Get your H2O on:  Drink at least 8 glasses of water per day! Add lemon or cucumber slices if you want to jazz up your water.
Sleep:  This one is obvious but it is so important to actually rest and let the body heal naturally. Don't do yoga if you are struck with the flu, in this case your yoga practice would consist of resting in your bed with tissues and tea nearby.
Drink Tea (Drop the coffee!)  
My go-to awkward but helpful meal:
Chicken Noodle Soup and a Peanut Butter Sandwich: Chicken Noodle Soup is an old favorite. No one knows why it works, but it does. Perhaps the salt is very good for your throat, the steamy broth helps clear nasal passages, and I believe my added Peanut Butter sandwich gives you energy with it's protein component. 
FAVORITE TEAS: 
Green Tea Kombucha by Yogi Tea is great for the immune system and tastes great!
Echinacea Elder by Traditional Medicinals, This one has a nice taste because of the elder berry and Echinacea reportedly helps kill a cold off quick.  This would be a great day time tea.
Cold Care PM by Traditional Medicinals, This one actually tastes decent and helps encourage you to relax and completely clears out your nasal passages.  This is my go-to tea when i'm sick and on my way to bed.  I always have a box of this tea in the cupboard just in case.
Emergen-C Packets: Try the Immune System Booster. 

I hope these tips and yoga sequence help you beat off your colds/flu this season but more importantly, lets take a preventative approach and practice yoga daily and treat ourselves well!

Peace,
Natalie

Post Yoga Retreat Thoughts

I have just returned from leading my third yoga retreat at Sky Meadow in Stannard, VT.  I had a wonderful experience again and as I began wondering what made this retreat so special I came to the same conclusion I always do; it's the people.

I feel so blessed to have been given the opportunity to spread the joy of yoga in such a serene setting that connects me back to source each time.  I know that no matter where I am in my life, I will certainly get guidance and re-assurance that I am exactly where I need to be.


If you've never been on retreat before it is a truly pure experience.  A chance to explore yourself, learn from others, nurture your body with clean food and yoga, relax your mind with meditation.  Being mindful was my favorite part.  Hearing just the breeze through the trees.  Savoring birds singing.  Savoring nature itself.

I've learned this year that my intention is to savor and be patient.  Quality and simplicity are much more important than doling out a product.  I would love, for example, to focus more on this blog in a way that is more organized and regular but also want to challenge myself to really write about things as a way of finding more peace.

One thing I always revisit with each retreat is the sense that we as humans judge ourselves way too much and for what?  Is it going to make us enjoy life more? Will we be happier comparing ourselves to impossible standards?  Never.

What I am Taking Back from This Year's Yoga Retreat

• Pure Food
• Smiles
• Love
• Openness 
• Drinking tea more than coffee
• The Attention Given to Preparing Food
• Vegetarian Cuisine
• Rice Dream Vanilla Ice Cream and Raspberry Cobbler
• Baking
• Desserts That Have Less Chocolate and Sugar
• Moments of Peace
• Nature
• The sound of the breeze through the trees and nothing else
• Swimming and playing in fresh water ponds
• Enjoying Friends
• Being More Playful
• Being less hard on myself
• Allowing myself rest and social recuperation when needed (I'm a closet introvert!).
• Appreciating Myself
• Dreaming Big
• Meditation
• Learning Conscious Communication
• Attention
• Going Slowly
• Eating Fruits for Snacks
• Conserving 
• Making the goal be to understand others rather than to relate to them or project my own experience.
• Being OFF the internet
• learning to dive

Week 6 and 7: Attachment and Aversion, Impermanence

Well what a week or two it has been!  I've been getting busier as I add on new clasess, mainly the Friday night class in Union Square and the classes I'm teaching for Joint Ventures aka Red Sox class and the class for Third Street Apartments location.
I am going to be taking a break from the blog as a teaching tool but continue to use it as a daily log for musings about yoga, health, inspiration, and poetry.
Last week we touched about Attachment and Aversion, asking ourselves what we hold onto and what we tend to push away.  Of course it is natural for the mind to seek more pleasure and to plan out how to avoid pain.  The teachings in yoga tell us that there is rest.  We do not have to constantly live in these two extreme modes of the mind, and with that comes true freedom.
Impermanence, the idea that nothing lasts forever is also very important in yoga.  When we let go of thinking that everything SHOULD be a certain way: permanent, we are heading towards trouble. The liberating thing about accepting impermanence is that we are no longer controlled by our circumstances.  For instance if we are going through a terrible time we dwell on it because it seems to be neverending but we can remind ourselves that just like happy times not lasting forever, hard times don't last forever either. It can be very comforting to  let go of assumptions that everything will always stay the same.
Where do you struggle with impermanence in your life?  Do you want circumstances to stay the same, different?  How much does this control you and your mind.  How does this thinking keep you stuck?
I'll see you all on the mat!!!
Natalie

Week 4 and 5: Compassion and Control

I'm going to start by saying, I am practicing Compassion for myself because I've been so busy with new yoga ventures that I've been unable to write as much as I'd like to.  I'm allowing life to flow and trying to not "control" so much the way that things happen.
Last week we touched upon Compassion being a nice "opposite" practice of self-judgment.  How do you use Compassion in your life?  Compassion come from the latin "Suffering With."  I think it's easy for me to have compassion for others but when it comes to myself I struggle.  Through my yoga practice I have learned that true compassion starts within.  If we can forgive ourselves, it's easier to offer forgiveness to others. If we judge ourselves, it's so much easier to judge others. Right?
A few words about Control.  This can come up frequently in our practice.  We want to control our bodies to do things it can't do perhaps, or we want others to act the way we want them to.  When things to don't out the way we set out for, we get disappointed or angry.  How are some ways you can let go of control and let the universe provide?

Take a moment to reflect upon Judgment, Control, Compassion.  What roles do these play in your life. Journal about this. Sip tea. Reflect.
Peace,
Natalie

Week 3: Judgment

I have a favorite poem of mine that I love to read in class. I first heard it when I was at my monthlong teacher training at Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Lenox, MA.  At the time I had been actively judging myself for 30 years and at that moment was having lots of difficulty doing the vinyasa portion of a class that we were required to take. No matter what happened all the yoga teacher trainees were moving through these beautiful wave like motions of high to low push-up, chataranga, upward facing dog and into downward dog.  For me, I still needed to come into a modified low push up and was starting to hate that fact.  The more the teacher pushed us to do double chatarangas and the other teacher trainees were reveling in the challenge, the more I judged myself for not enjoying it and mostly because I couldn't do it! 
After the "toughest" class at teacher training was over, I silently walked very briskly back to my room to get my stuff and go out for a walk amongst the pines and in the mountains.  When I got to my room, I found a beautiful but simple bracelet left on my bed by a fellow student.  I had told her at the beginning of the month that I loved her bracelet.  Here it was now placed on my bed as a token of compassion.  My heart softened a little bit but still not towards myself and I stormed off with the bracelet into the quiet early evening mountain air.  The next thing I saw was one of the students smoking a cigarette by the shrine near a brook.  I was thinking to myself, "She can do that?!"  So I was judging her as well.  
When I returned to the school I decided to shrug the whole thing off for awhile and not think about it.  The next day was Saturday and that was the one day that we could do what we wanted during the day. The only unscheduled day. Most people did laundry and other rote activities since there was no time during the Sunday -Friday schedule.  I walked into the laundry room where the teacher trainees were marveling over the amazingness of the day before and the challenging yoga class. I chimed in right away and said, "is it okay that I hated the class? I mean why was the teacher being so tough about it and making jokes about how we're all going to hate her? Does she teach like this because she teaches in a prison?  Well, this is not a prison" and I went on and on.  Someone answered me with, "While vinyasa is not for everyone." It takes a lot of upper body strength to do the chatarangas etc,"   
I walked out of the laundry room that day with a new realization. 1.) I didn't have to LIKE chatarangas and 2.) If I really wanted to do it, I could just drop the judgment and work on my upper body strength.  This was huge for me.  Not once in my life was I able to separate the situation from being attached to my self-esteem.  My wise self or witness was there with me when I had this realization and from that day forward I worked more on staying in planks, ab work, and applied my strength to my chataranga.  My secret to this day went like this: as soon as I dropped the judgment, hate, and self-blame, I was doing chatarangas as beautifully as only I could do them.  They still didn't look like others, but they were a unique expression of me.  Just the switch in mindset is what I believe to have given me the strength to do the vinyasa sequence that I had always avoided.  I was doing them wonderfully a few days later! 
That's my story of catching myself in judgment, breaking down, and finally skillfully finding the means to support myself and let go of the story. 
Think about your story.  What do you tell yourself about yourself that keeps you stuck or makes you suffer.  How can you drop the judgment and find compassion?

By Swami Kripalu:

My beloved child, break your heart no longer.
Each time you judge yourself, you break your own heart.
You stop feeding on the love, which is the wellspring of your vitality.
The time has come. Your time. To live. To celebrate,
and to see the goodness that you are…
Do not fight the dark. Just turn on the light.
Let go, and breathe into the goodness that you are.

Week 2: Letting Go

 

What Can You Let Go of Right Now?

If anyone told you that "letting go" or "surrender" was an easy part of practicing yoga, chances are they had been practicing for hundreds of years!  Letting Go or letting things "be" is a life long practice and one that we use in our asana practice each day.  The list of what we can let go of can be quite lengthy when you really examine what you hold onto to "hold yourself together."  Yoga beckons us to "let it all fall apart" but how many of us are truly comfortable with letting our egos crumble, letting our judgments and beliefs drop, and truly being open to the way things actually are? What about hope and happiness? How hard is it to let those things go?

As I was thinking about this weeks lesson, I realized that I myself have been in a 3 years period of uncertainty when it comes to career, finance, and home stability.  It has been very scary to follow this path of teaching which I believe to be my Dharma (or life's work) but which is also not a stable enterprise.  My income depends mostly on who is coming to class minus the rent I'm paying.  I constantly seek positions that will provide a set amount of classes and a flat rate pay so at least I know what kind of paycheck I will be receiving in order to pay bills, rent, food, etc,.  What I have learned from this period of simply following my path step by step is that happiness has NOTHING to do with how many people are in class, how much money i'm making (or not making), whether I'll get a new class or not.   Circumstances are as they are and the only thing we can do instead of fighting them, is to simply "let them be."

So, my question to you this week is "what are you holding onto" what keeps you awake at night worrying?  These are the situations we need to pay attention to.  Here are some ways to think about where you can let go.

Physically:
1) Can you let go of the ideal body you think you "should" have and appreciate the one you're in today?

2.) Do you compare yourself to others?  Can you let go of thinking you should be different than you are?

3) Chronic Pain, Injuries etc,?  Can you practice letting go of wishing for a better circumstance? Not having the accident? Not living with this disease? etc,.

Mentally:

1.) Do you accept your intellect/intelligence level as it is?

2.) Do you put yourself down for "thinking too much" in meditation or not being able to "clear your mind."

3.)Can you accept your mind and all of it's distortions that are not based on reality sometimes?

Emotionally:

1.) Our emotions change like New England weather. Do you accept each state as passing or do you hold onto emotions such as "my sadness" or "my anger"?  Can it just be sadness?  Can you practice "sitting WITH anger?"

2.) Do you accept all of your emotions without labeling them as right or wrong?

3.) Can you let go of wanting things to be different, better, bigger, smaller, less painful, more happy etc,? 

As you go through your week I encourage you to be mindful of all the little moments when you can let go.  Furthermore, see if you can practice "Ishvara Pranidhana" :surrendering your problems etc, to a higher power or the universe.

Namaste,

Natalie

Yoga: The Journey to Your Authentic Self

This is the first post for our Eight Week Series at the Lily Pad entitled "Living Your Yoga."  We will be using the the practice of yoga in our daily lives for the next eight weeks but my hope is, that this will be a life long journey for all of you. 

You may ask, what exactly is the Yogic Journey?  The goal of yoga is happiness and transformation but what are we trying to change exactly?  What are we hoping to transform into?  Well, my friends, all that we are doing through our practice is stripping away what is NOT our authentic selves.  Yoga calls this atman.  So the question is, what happened to our authentic selves? This is what our yoga practice helps us to do.  It is essentially the quest for the True Self.  The action is in the practice itself as outlined below

Practicing to Live Better 
I first came to the mat with no expectations as a young teen seeking to try a new exercise. I had some idea of it being a "mystical" thing but no intention on changing anything about myself.  Once I grew older and found myself in college...having gone through several relationships good and bad and many challenges with school and life in general,  i found yoga to be a supportive tool to help me get through tough times.  This was the start of my yoga journey.  Now I know that I need to practice yoga on a daily basis in order to live a conscious life and see myself grow and fully live as ME.  

Life is Practice 
One of the key elements in "Living Your Yoga" is viewing life as practice.  Just like practicing triangle pose, you may need to practice patience....so do you with your "annoying" mother-in-law.  Every single situation that presents itself in daily life is an opportunity to practice.

Finding Authenticity
Your atman or authentic self is waiting to be found.  Through your yoga off and on the mat practices you will be able to uncover who is really there.  This is an important, sometimes scary journey for those of us who have never looked within but awareness is the first step.  Practice watching yourself, your thoughts, as an observer for the next week without trying to judge or change yourself....just notice where your mind goes.

Inquiries

1.) Please take a moment to reflect and share with the group why you started practicing yoga or why you want to practice yoga?

2.) What are some situations you find yourself in where you have been "practicing" your yoga already?
Are there situations that you need to find a new practice in? 

3.)Where do you need help?  What areas are not "balanced" in your life.  What is "draining" you?  Start to keep a journal or simply answer these questions in the blog.  What do you want to work on in your life "off the mat"?

4.) What part of your life is governed by your authentic self?  What part of life is structured around roles, ego, and the false self?
Next weeks Topic: Letting Go
Inquiries: "What Does Letting Go mean to you?

Living Your Yoga with Me

Hi All,
Starting next Thursday we begin our journey of "living our yoga."  I hope you are all as excited as I am.  Of course I am in practice already but it's really fun to delve deeper into it and challenge ourselves to see where we could improve, what we can learn to accept, and how we can be fully present for ourselves and others in an honest, authentic way.  This translates to how we are holding space in our relationships, jobs, parental roles, friendships, and most importantly: our relationship with ourselves.

Yesterday was my birthday. I'm in my early thirties.  There are things that I am grateful for to have at this stage in my life and things that I sometimes feel I'm lacking.  I am human just like everyone else. As yogis, we seek to find our divinity within each real life experience no matter what.  When I say "Divinity" I tend to mean our highest selves.  The parts of us that are seeing clearly in each experience setting aside ego and responding, rather than reacting to our circumstances.  This journey will allow us to open to our whole experience, letting go of labels, extremes, black and white thinking and bring real acceptance to our lives.

As we go through our eight week journey formally meeting Thursdays at 4pm, I invite you to share your thoughts on the blog post for each topic.  For instance one of our practices is "Santosha" or contentment.  Practicing contentment no matter what the circumstances is not an easy task.  Your boss criticizes your work, a relationship doesn't turn out the way you'd hoped, your paycheck isn't quite covering all the bills.  These are all opportunities to again respond with an inquiry of "what gift is possible in each seemingly "bad" experience."  Feel free to share your thoughts on the blog and I look forward to this journey with you.
Peace,
Natalie