About
you. Devoted to yoga or just getting started with a practice, you already know how good you feel
after a class: calmer, more at ease in your body, more focused. You may have found that your digestion is better and
that you sleep well after a class, and over time, you notice small, incremental, positive changes in your state of well-being.
What is happening within your body/mind during and after a yoga class is quite complex and
wonderful. In essence, you are deliberately cultivating 'prana' or the life force within you through a series of postures
and/or posture flows choreographed by your yoga instructor. Some instructors do the same series every time. Others
mixed it up, focusing on core strength for one class, balance in another. At a biochemical level, you are affecting
your own chemistry in a positive way through your yoga practice. So although hatha yoga (the postures) is often touted
as a way to become more flexible, strong and toned -- and a regular practice can do that -- it is working on a much more subtle
and powerful level.
As yogi master B.K.S. Iyengar puts it, "Yoga must be experienced." If
you're new to yoga, ask around your neighborhood for leads to a Yoga-Alliance certified yoga teacher (like me). Get
yourself a mat at least 1/4" thick, a comfortable pair of shorts or tights and t-shirt. More important than
these is the desire to explore something new and the willingness to be a beginner, as we all are at something every single
day of our lives.
About me. Like a lot of people, I sampled yoga
in the 1970s when it first became better known in the West. For a variety of reasons, it didn't take hold then, but
I got another chance in my early 50s when a Kripalu teacher began to offer classes near my home. I discovered how good
I felt after a class, physically, mentally and spiritually. I began to notice that I was becoming more flexible, and
had fewer colds. Peri-menopause symptoms were more manageable. I was handling the challenges of my small business
as a public relations consultant and writer more calmly and creatively. In 1998, after I had been practicing Kripalu
yoga for three years, I decided I wanted to share this remarkable tool with others, so I took yoga teacher training at the
Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Stockbridge, Mass. I opened a small studio in Hoboken called 11th and Yoga and began teaching weekly group classes,
as well as prenatal yoga workshops. I launched a weekly class at Jersey City Medical Center and it was soon packed with
staffers in scrubs. From those beginnings, I branched out into other hospitals, churches and synagogues and a senior
center. In 2003, I moved to South Florida and have been teaching in a variety of private and public fitness facilities
since. Current venues/clients include Loggerhead Fitness (Juno Beach) St. Joseph's Assisted Living (Jupiter), Ocean
Trails (Jupiter, in season), Morse Life (Women's Group), the First Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Palm Beaches.
I am certified also in Chair Yoga, Thai Yoga Bodywork and Laughter Yoga. I have an MA in English, and am a published
author and blogger. I am also grandmother of five potential yogis.
About Kripalu Yoga. Called 'meditation in motion,' Kripalu Yoga helps you find your own yoga. You are always encouraged to practice a series of postures at your
own pace, respecting your strengths and limitations, making this a very easy way to take yoga into your life. Practiced regularly, it is nothing less than a revolutionary tool
for more conscious, healthy living. I teach students short routines they can practice on their own, upon waking, before
bedtime, or whenever they have 10 or 15 minutes during the day. My goal is to encourage students to establish a regular
practice beyond the classroom.
Created
by a mentor and colleague of mine, Lakshmi Voelker, Chair Yoga
translates many familiar yoga postures to the seated position. This makes Chair Yoga ideal for anyone with compromised
mobility, including people who cannot easily use a mat on the floor, including those recovering from injury or illness.
A complete practice in and of itself.
You can sample my group Kripalu classes at Loggerhead Fitness in Juno Beach, or make an appointment for a private class in your home. Phone: 561-625-8753
Students are often surprised by the instruction to notice, notice breath, notice
sensation, notice thoughts. But the act of noticing is more powerful than most of us imagine, even for people with a
mature spiritual practice of one sort or another. For me, noticing is a way of pausing, stepping back or out of the
stream of one thing following another that makes up life, and appreciating each moment as it happens.
When you notice your breath, you can get a good reading of your emotional state and,
by changing your breath, deepening and slowing it down, for example, you change your emotions. Try this the next time
you get angry or upset.
Noticing sensations in
the body is rewarding in and of itself because it helps you appreciate what an amazingly complex organism you are, how respiration,
digestion, the behavior of hormones, are happening simultaneously with no help from you. And with some practice in noticing,
you may also develop a refined sense of when something is not quite right, and address and possibly prevent it from developing
into a more obvious symptom.
Noticing thoughts is the
first step in learning how to disidentify with them, possibly the most important spiritual practice we humans can adopt.
In noticing how our minds work, what kinds of things come up all the time, we begin to free ourselves from conditioned and
habitual patterns of consciousness. We become calmer, certainly, but also more aware, clearer, creative, kinder, more
loving, and more in touch with our true self.
Yoga, says Patanjali, author of the yoga sutra, is to "still
the patterns of consciousness." All schools of meditation aim at the same goal. Noticing is a practice in
and of itself, and you don't need a meditation cushion or special place and time to do it. It's available right
now.
In August, my spouse and I were at Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health
for a weekend. We've come to think of Kripalu as a spiritual home, a place where we can let it all hang out, do
lots of yoga with great teachers, learn some new practices, meditate, dance, and just be quiet together. But on that
weekend, we were in for a surprise, when in the middle of our own workshop on deep relaxation, we heard repeated peals of
infectious laughter from the next room.
Turns out
we were next door to a workshop on Laughter Yoga, a technique developed in 1995 by Dr. Madan Kataria and his wife, Madhuri
Kataria. The idea arose from an article written by Dr. Kataria on the health benefits of llaughgter. He started
the first Laughter Yoga Club in Mumbai, India. Although the first club disbanded, Dr. Kataria continued his research
and that simulated laughter provides the same benefits -- releasing chemicals that reduce stress and lower blood pressure
-- as spontaneous laughter. There are now 6,000
Laughter Yoga Clubs worldwide in 60 countries. Check out this You Tube video with John Cleese and see if you can keep a straight
face.
Shopping for some mala beads -- all the better to do Mantra Meditation -- I stumbled on YogaBasics and immediately signed up for the free membership and newsletter. High production values and
lots of free stuff, even at the Basic membership level. Particularly like the sequencing of postures accompanied by
photographs. Check it out and let me know what you think.
(BTW, I bought rosewood
malas, an 108 strand. Last night, I led a mantra meditation for the first time, and my Spiritual Circle loved it.
Some of us went somewhere we were not eager to return from. Hmmm.)
Occasionally, I'll focus on a particular posture here or steer you
to some information that will nourish your practice of yoga. Whenever possible, I'll include links so you can explore
resources more deeply. I think of my yoga teaching as a two-way conversation between me and my students, so feel free
to email me (marika@2young2retire.com) with questions or comments. As Rodgers and Hammerstein put is so well, "As
a teacher I've been learning..."
