Many reasons underlie the desire to take up some variety of yoga practice. One reason may be to feel calm, another could be to spend time with others in an appealing environment, or to learn about something that has an aura of mystery or intrigue about it.
I’ve observed over thirty or more years that there usually is some combination of reasons, most of which is not readily apparent to the individual.
And the reasons are not static – they shift with life.
Being the immense field of mind-body art and science that it is, yoga tends to adapt itself to the needs of the individual, especially when the person is already within its folds.
This is the ideal scenario, in my mind. Embark on a voyage when the weather is agreeable and familiarize with the vehicle, the surroundings, the climate, the culture, the language. Then, when inevitable destabilization arrives, internal and external elements naturally come together to support our ability to not only weather the storm but also to emerge on the other side with increased wisdom and resilience. And maybe an intriguing story to tell 😉.
Then, when inevitable destabilization arrives, internal and external elements naturally come together to support our ability to not only weather the storm but also to emerge on the other side with increased wisdom and resilience.
Less than ideally, perhaps, people who seek out yoga therapy, spiritual accompaniment, and energy healing often come to the practice in a state of destabilization; they are feeling notably disturbed and uneasy. Such people may be worried about mitigating future pain and debility or hope to be rid of current pain as soon as possible. While understandable, we can expect that a desire to be free of such suffering will increase as we age.
So perhaps we start or continue now, wherever, and however we are. Dip a toe in or dive in head-first. Bloom where we are planted.
Bloom where we are planted.
I am a firm believer that anyone can practice yoga, anywhere and at any time.
Assuming we have some concept of what yoga is for us, the main question is, how? I am fully aware of how we get mired in finding the time, figuring out what and how to meet some perfect ideal. Maybe we can be perfectly imperfect? Perhaps like Nike says, “Just do it”?
Discerning appropriate practice comes at least in part from a strong internal sense of rightness that we nourish by feeling safe in our own skins and in the environment in which we are practicing. This interoception, a knowing what is going on inside, is a substantial benefit that can’t help but accrue from ongoing practice in a trauma-sensitive atmosphere.
Discerning appropriate practice comes at least in part from a strong internal sense of rightness that we nourish by feeling safe in our own skins and in the environment in which we are practicing.
One of my primary aims in continuing to share yoga, energy healing, and spiritual accompaniment is to foster conditions that allow people to identify and increasingly trust their own deepest sense of rightness.
This winter I continue to offerdrop-in classes on-lineon a donation basis, toward fulfilling this heartfelt desire. I hope you will consider joining me. Click herefor details.
Permanent link to this article: https://yoginsight.com/bloom-where-youre-planted/
Hello, friends. Feliz Año Nuevo! My sincere hope is that you had a wonderful holiday season and are settling in to these truncated days and protracted nights of winter. On the bright side, we are seeing the duration of light each day increase a little and have more to anticipate. What images or parallels come to mind when you consider this?
John and Lonnie at Jardin Botanico Vallarta, aged 61 and 60
I had the good fortune of spending my 60th birthday in lovely and bustling Puerto Vallarta. Not only did I enjoy seven days not worrying about dressing for the weather or plowing through the snow with a shovel or a vehicle, but I also reveled in my husband’s attentive company, met new people, tasted delicious food, and blissed out on all the sensory delights a mountainous seaside area has to offer. And, to boot, I experienced none of the challenges so many people have faced in their recent travels.
for many years, I seriously doubted I would attain this milestone
For many of you, making it to 60 may not sound like a noteworthy achievement. It is true that life expectancy has increased dramatically over the last several decades. Nevertheless, I should tell you that, for many years, I seriously doubted I would attain this milestone. The health history of my family of origin is a scary one. Both my mother and grandmother died in their fifties. An aunt and an uncle died in their twenties. A few more passed in their thirties. Very few have lived beyond sixty-five.
Looking back, I was interested in both in wellness and the meaning of life as early as my teens and that continued to show itself through my twenties. With the death of my mother in 1996, I knew I didn’t want to take this precious life for granted or fritter it away with obsessive workaholism and perfectionism. I vowed that I was going to beat the statistical odds. Ever since, I’ve had a deep and driving desire to learn what I might be able to affect, to make suitable changes, to evaluate the effectiveness of what I had tried, and so on.
Several factors are known to contribute to length and quality of life. Among them are genetics, epigenetics, nutrition, clean water and sanitation, secure shelter, a relative absence of adverse childhood experiences, exercise, level of exposure to disease and pathogens, lifestyle habits, social support, stress management, and other social determinants of health such as high educational level and socio-economic status. Much of what happens with our health later in life depends upon what was going on with earlier on in life, according to the life course health approach. Although the actual interplay among variables is complicated and continues to elude full understanding, at this time it seems that parental length of life has not been a significant predictor of offspring longevity except in the outliers: the very-short- and very-long lived. Sadly, I my ancestors fall into the former group.
There is a connection, a simultaneous coming home to myself as well as a wider and fresher perspective.
As you’ve probably guessed, the study, practice and sharing of yoga has been a major player in this heart song of mine. Yoga seems to positively influence so many of the factors that contribute to health status, like epigenetics, exercise, lifestyle, social support, stress management. But, when I take time to examine its effect on me, yoga very much continues to reel me in because of how I feel when I am living in accordance with it. There is a connection, a simultaneous coming home to myself as well as a wider and fresher perspective. Often these are followed with responsive and supple tissues and physiological ease – freer breathing and a feeling of flow. The health effects of these states, while significant, are side benefits to me.
And yes, I’ve made it to 60. None of us can predict what the future will bring. However, I feel reasonably confident that I have many healthy years ahead. Perhaps more importantly, I know that there’s not much I would do differently . . .
So I ask, what about yoga calls out to you?
Permanent link to this article: https://yoginsight.com/living-longer-and-better-yoga-may-help/
My most influential teacher(slightly edited fromoriginal posted on Sept 30, 2021)
2006 – me demonstrating a safe form of halasana with David McAmmond’s guidance
David was my teacher from 1998, quietly there whenever I decided to practice with him.
His dear friend and collaborator, Anita Sielecki, kept some of us informed as he recovered from June’s open-heart surgery for problematic valves and other issues surgeons discovered during the procedure. He hadn’t been sleeping well when I saw him at the beginning of an on-line gentle yoga and meditation retreat he co-led with Kavindu Alejandro Velasco in July. Lo and behold, two days into the retreat, he was sleeping normally again! it seems that sharing yoga sustained him. Or rather, sharing yoga, his lovely wife, Tu, and riding his bicycle, which he had resumed ardently.
As a matter of fact, David led an in-person retreat in Edmonton just this past weekend. For a variety of reasons I didn’t attend. However, I imagined the practice room and my long-time yoga friends many times over the course of those days. Even now I hear the words, see the movements, feel the energy of being there. I probably had been on seventy to eighty different retreats and workshops with David over the time I knew him. Osmosis happens. I can’t help but be informed and influenced by his simple presence.
There’s much to be said about this man who , while not a saint, was remarkable in so many ways. A couple of years ago the YAA asked me to write an article about David. Here’s a link to The Bridge; the article starts on pg 29.
Image of the beginning of my 2019 article about David, published in the Yoga Bridge
Although I know in my bones that David’s passing marks a time of huge transition, I am not sad. I feel satisfied with the time I spent with him and believe that he shared what he was meant to share in all the right ways and places.
Jai! Om shanti, teacher.
Permanent link to this article: https://yoginsight.com/david-mcammond-passes/
