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breathing

Yoga Challenge Day 7 ~ The Chatter Box

July 4, 2010

I have the cutest little daughter in the world named Kennedy.  Even though she’s only five years old, it’s quite possible that she’s said more words in her short life than I’ve said in my 30 or so years of human existence.  Her mouth spits out sentences from the second she wakes up (way too early…) to the split second before her eyes shut and her brain turns off for the night. It’s a fairly constant and rapid barrage. I bring this up only because Kennedy also likes to join me for yoga on occasion, which always turns into a major jabberfest about how flexible she is some directions, how she can’t find her yoga for kid’s book , how she thinks President Obama talks too much, how she wishes we still had a swimming pool because it’s so hot outside, how she can’t do push ups, how she learned how to sing “Party in the U.S.A.” from her friend at preschool, how the government isn’t doing enough to stop the oil spill, etc., etc., etc…. This morning after I finished running (she sprinted along for the last 1/2 mile), Kennedy and I walked out to the dock behind the house and she joined me for part of my yoga routine.  Of course we chatted up a storm, and I think my favorite comment of the day from her was when we were both doing down dog and she told me how crazy it is that SHE invented downward facing dog .  I could only laugh and agree with her. Oddly enough, today was also the first day that she started mimicking the ujjayi breath sound her daddy makes.  As I helped her get the right stance for Warrior I pose, I had to do a double-take when she began breathing in a slow, noisy, rhythmic pattern.  I’m not gonna lie though, the ujjayi breathing only lasted a few seconds before Kennedy started into the stream of consciousness conversation I’m very familiar with.  We had fun and it was a great way to start the day. It also didn’t hurt to wake up to a very kind and generous blog review of Daily Cup of Yoga on The Magazine of Yoga website , which I happily recently discovered.  Many thanks Susan for the kind words and encouragement! Filed under: yoga , yoga challenge

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Filament: A yoga poem from a new friend

July 2, 2010

Filament arms arch upward fingers interlace of course I’m stretching of course it’s early morning summer here upon us arriving curved upward haze behind a building announces the day coming. of course I haven’t got my mind yet haven’t quite found where it’s hiding. this is supposed to be a day, a beautiful life, a wild and precious life, a centered, kept, contained moment held. I’m floating elsewhere away for now, back in five minutes that little hand-drawn sign swinging from a string pastel and ink, dream-like messaging inescapable if not caught and held, perhaps gone to the wind’s carefree moving mind-path: the breeze. surely a life is not a day, a day is not a moment of course it can all boil down to just the one split second, one big break, one forgetting, slip, breath, one long fall toward failure. Enter the room. Set down your old mat, bones, songs, fidgets, fears, expectations, set your old life down and unravel your very life-threads, your five minute signs, strings, etched maps for knowing where you are. Unroll your mind you can’t even find and be somewhere: only here is where you are a corpse, body breathing in place a two-minute savasana floating filament thoughts out the twisting of an untied cord, rivets disentangling, notion-rope come undone working loose our own bodies, lives, days, pulling out the stitches so that we are in fact of course nowhere at all. [ Author:  Belovely, the Bikram-loving yogini shares more of her original poetry on her fabulous blog, Alive in the Fire. ] Filed under: art , guest post , yoga

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“He who binds the breath…

April 12, 2010

He who binds the breath, binds the mind. – Svatmarama, Hatha Yoga Pradipika

Yoga works primarily with the energy in the body, through the science of pranayama, or energy-control. Prana means also ‘breath.’ Yoga teaches how, through breath-control, to still the mind and attain higher states of awareness. The higher teachings of yoga take one beyond techniques, and show the yogi, or yoga practitioner, how to direct his concentration in such a way as not only to harmonize human with divine consciousness, but to merge his consciousness in the Infinite. – Paramahansa Yogananda

Rediscover the natural breath…

Unlock the secrets to deeper practice through ujjayi breathing…

Learn about pranayama

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How to Use a Neti Pot

January 26, 2010

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