Verge Yoga Blog

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2011-03-09T12:47:00.000-08:00

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The Climate of the Mat

2011-01-02T13:01:00.000-08:00

by Tony Chase

I like the sweat
I like the old frayed towel I use to wipe it off
I like the salt stains on my gym bag, as if I've been to the sea
I like the candles guttering against a window light of rain, blue sky, dusk or snow
I like the whole studio which is at times like being in an off white bulb, aglow
I like the sound of bare feet on the wooden floor
I like the matter-of-fact slap of the mats unfurling
I like the very odd slurping noise of water being sucked from plastic bottles, as if we all regress to the weird womb of yoga
I like the way the whole room settles, as everyone's brain waves slow
I like the cold December body growing warm
I like letting go of fears, of thoughts, of anticipations or regrets
I like the far-off music of ancient India in my nearby ears
I like the precise instructions: "Lunge the left foot back..."
I like the rare new openings: the way hips stack
I like it when the antique body bends into some new anti-gravitational form
I like the way blood rushes into the brain
I like the thirty other bodies, during winter storms
I like the panting and the gasping, followed by the peaces
I like it during meditation, and when the meditation ends
I like the way grownups gab like children in the hall
I even like their families, who I've never met at all
I like walking to the bike when yoga's over
I like the slow ride home to the fields and geese
I like my battered desk
I like the sensation of liking

It is hard to find a margin or a limit or a seam
Between the yoga practice and the thoughts about it
I like the way the winter hills look like a dream
I like it all, and then some...

Verge Yoga student Tony Chase is s a nature and adventure writer for Conde Nast Traveler he's visited five continents and the Arctic Ocean and his work has been translated into several foreign languages.

Happy Holidays... Okay, so Be Here Now!

2010-12-22T05:06:00.000-08:00

During my first few years as a yoga teacher, I focused much of my time and energy on preparing themes and finding quotes to deliver in class. I have stacks of books and journals in my office filled with highlighted text, comments written in red, and ideas for future themes. I understand that all that work was necessary to bring me to the point where I am now. As I continue my personal journey inward, my studies and my teachings have been narrowed down to this simple message … Be Here Now.

Be Here Now is the title of a 1971 book on spirituality by Ram Dass. It was a revolutionary book bringing eastern studies and practices to American soil. Its title, now a coined phrase, has been repeated by spiritual teachers throughout the world.

Be here now. Show up fully. Pay attention to what you are doing. While growing up, we heard it from our parents and teachers. As adults, we are reminded of the importance of paying attention on our busy roads, at our fast-paced computers and on our yoga mats.

Woody Allen said, “80% of success is showing up”. Just show up! It is so simple yet so challenging with a list of things to-do a mile long and a calendar that is busting at the seams. Why can’t I drive to work, text my friend, look at my GPS and listen to the news at the same time. Why not?

The answer is painfully simple. Overdoing and over thinking creates stress in the mind and body. Paying attention and focusing on the moment as it arises, cultivates peace.

So over these next few days and into New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, start with the small (yet huge) reminder to “Be Here Now”. You can write the phrase on several sticky notes and put them on your steering wheel and on your computer screen. Over the next few months, in this blog, on our yoga mats and meditation cushions, in our cars and at our jobs, we will explore tools and techniques that will help us cultivate this simple message.

Free Play by Stephen Nachmanovitch

2010-11-28T13:14:00.000-08:00

Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art by Stephen Nachmanovitch

This is one of my all time favorite books. I was just reminded about this delightful paragraph while taking a beautiful moonlit walk around Goose Pond in Keene, NH.

There is an old Sanskrit word, lila, which means play. Richer than our word, it means divine play, the play of creation, destruction, and re-creation, the folding and unfolding of the cosmos. Lila, free and deep, is both the delight and enjoyment of this moment, and the play of God. It also means love.

Lila may be the simplest thing there is - spontaneous, childish, disarming. But as we grow and experience the complexities of life, it may also be the most difficult and hard-won achievement imaginable, and its coming to fruition is a kind of homecoming to our true selves.

Cognitive Yoga by Tony Chase

2010-10-28T06:32:00.000-07:00

"I believe that an experience is not even possible without reflection..."

- C. G. Jung, MD, Terry Lecture, New Haven, 1937

Is it easy? Yes.

Is it difficult? Yes.

Is it social? Yes.

Is it solitary? Yes

Is it sweaty and gross? Yes.

Is it cleansing and purifying? Yes.

Do the muscles contract? Yes.

Do the muscles stretch? Yes.

Is it spiritual? Yes.

Is it sensual? Yes.

Is it austere? Yes.

Is it aesthetically rich? Yes.

It is hard to think of another human activity which is such a whorl of contradiction...well, there is marriage, of course. And raising the tormented teen. And gardening. Politics. Reading ancient philosophical texts in a frozen hut.

Perhaps yoga's effectiveness has to do with the fact that it is grounded in reality. We are at once the scientist and the lab rat, the experiment and the researcher. We take nothing for granted because it happens to us.

Yoga is absolutely grounded in reality. It is one with the rest of the real world: the one with hot summers and frozen winters, drought and flood, aging parents and premature babies, war and peace, boom and bust.

The practitioner is toned, but also tuned, The deeper the practice, the more satisfying this world seems to be.

Verge Yoga students and writer, Tony Chase, has studied at Brown and Yale and the University of Paris and has taught at the Univesity of Delaware and Haverford College. As a nature and adventure writer for Conde Nast Traveler he's visited five continents and the Arctic Ocean and his work has been translated into several foreign languages.

Creating Space – Part 2

2010-10-01T09:29:00.000-07:00

In order to create space in our lives, we need to learn to manage our clutter. Most of us have cluttered minds, bodies, homes and offices. Living with clutter, I believe, blocks our potential. According to Wikipedia, clutter is: a confusing or disorderly state of collection. We collect and store physical and emotional “stuff” and it weighs us down and holds us back.

I continue my thoughts on creating space from my last blog by looking at clutter.

Our physical space can be cluttered, i.e. office, home, car. Our physical being can be cluttered, i.e. toxic, imbalanced, stressed and/or tense. Our mental state can be cluttered, i.e. busy, frantic, distracted and our emotional state can be cluttered, i.e. nervous, worried, doubtful, fearful. There are, undoubtedly, many more parameters where can clutter set in. For this blog, we’ll stick with just four of the many: physical space, physical body, mental body, emotional body.

We have all experienced how clearing space in one area of our lives immediately affects us in another. I feel calmer and more relaxed when my home and office are clean. I feel mentally clearer after a vigorous yoga practice that has cleansed my body. I feel more emotionally accepting of myself after a meditation practice that stabilized my mind.

Clearing clutter and creating space is about throwing stuff away (mentally, physically and emotionally). Try taking baby steps for they will lead us to the big leaps.

Feeling crowded mentally? How about drinking a big glass of water to cleanse the body. Feeling disorganized at work? How about a ten-minute breathing meditation to clear and organize the mind. Feeling physically cluttered? How about cleaning up your car or desk?

I would like to call this Creating Space Therapy. It is simple, easy to do and best of all it’s free!

For more info on “de-stuffing” your life, check out the 100-Thing Challenge http://www.guynameddave.com/100-thing-challenge.html

Creating Space

2010-09-02T10:14:00.000-07:00

Setting a seasonal intention can change one’s life. I have setting them for a few years now. Some of you may recall that my intention for this past summer was to try to Live More Simply. It was an eye opening process and I give myself a B+ for effort. As I now stand on the doorstep of the fall season, I offer myself a new challenge. My Fall intention is to create space.

I feel better when there is more space in me and around me. Having a clear and steady mindset, a strong and supple body and a clean house sounds like bliss to me. When I am in space, I feel lighter and happier and I want to cultivate living in this state more often in my daily life.

The yogis have been talking about this concept for thousands of year. They call my intention of creating space, aparigraha, or non-hoarding. This is the practice of letting go of old stuff, old habits and old thoughts.

There are many simple ways to practice aparigraha over the next few months. The easiest place to start is in one’s physical surroundings. De-cluttering is one of my most favorite pastimes and I have already set out two bins in my garage for Goodwill donations and library donations. Clutter be gone!

The physical body needs to be kept spacious as well. Yoga is the perfect tool and I feel extremely blessed to be able to practice yoga several times per week. By moving my body in many different ways, I am able to clean out pockets of tension and tightness, detoxify and basically de-clutter my vehicle. Ahhh!

Next and much more challenging, is the emotional house cleaning (I am due for some hardcore work here). Thankfully, I look to my daily meditation practice to help me with the huge process of letting go of thoughts and attachments that clutter my mind and drain me of energy.

Rolf Gates writes in Meditations from the Mat, Aparigraha applies to our own thinking as well. Aparigraha is about letting go of our most cherished pain-producing beliefs. It is about the end of all attachment: letting go of our fears, letting go of our desires, becoming free.

I recognize the scale of my Fall intention but I feel that I am ready for the challenge. I will keep you all posted on my progress and invite you all to comment and share your Fall intention or how you find ways to practice Creating Space. Namaste

The Art of Adapting

2010-07-30T12:19:00.000-07:00

Adaptation: An alteration or adjustment in structure or habits by which a species or individual improves its condition in relationship to its environment.

I write this blog while sitting in a hot dorm room at Penn State. I am here for a few days as I chaperone a camp for my daughter’s soccer team. The scene is a step back in time for me. The rooms are small and stuffy and the dining hall smells the same way mine did over 25 years ago.

This experience has been a great practice for me as I observe how quickly my mind wants to whine and complain about my environment. As with most of you, I am used to living with the comforts of air conditioning, privacy and my own kitchen.

Stepping out of my comfort zone for a few days has tested my ability to adapt to the moment and the environment at hand. I have challenged myself to consciously rise above the discomfort of the situation and take a deep breath just as I have learned to do in my yoga practice.

This too shall pass of course and I know that I will soon be going home. Luckily, I don’t need to spend the semester here and I don’t need to take finals. I will soon be back in air conditioning and the comforts of my home.

This is, of course, “small potatoes” on the scale of discomfort. I recognize the size of the issue but I also acknowledge that it is an opportunity to practice mindfulness. As I have learned from my teachers, as we become more mindful we are able to adjust more gracefully to our environment. In other words, we become much more adaptable and much nicer to be around.

Play Simple

2010-07-01T17:11:00.000-07:00

You may have heard me talk about my "summer intention" in one of my classes recently. If you haven't, I have firmly set an intention to "play simple" this summer. This means that I need to stay super mindful about slowing down and not doing. My plan is to discard what is non-essential, excessive and just plain ole busy.

"Play simple" is a command that I hear often and loud coming from soccer coaches standing on the side of the fields. "Don't complicate your play trying to be fancy." "One pass at a time". "Slow down and keep your head up". Does this sound familiar?

This process has been really fun I must say. There is definitely something to simplifying and I highly recommend it. As of late, this intention has been really coming out in my classes. I’ve been teaching simple breath with simple words with simple transitions. The atmosphere has been profoundly steady and calm. Wow.

I believe that simplicity creates the space from which we can create an extraordinary life. One step at a time. One chore. One class. One breath.

Be Here Now... and now... and now.

2010-06-15T11:50:00.000-07:00

Be Here Now is the title of a 1971 book on spirituality by Ram Dass. It was a revolutionary book bringing eastern studies and practices to American soil. Its title, now a coined phrase, has been repeated by spiritual teachers throughout the world.

Be here now. Show up fully. Pay attention to what you are doing. While growing up, we heard it from our parents and teachers. As adults, we are reminded of the importance of paying attention on our busy roads, at our fast-paced computers and on our yoga mats.

Woody Allen said, “80% of success is showing up”. Just show up! It is so simple yet so challenging with a list of things to-do a mile long and a calendar that is busting at the seams. Why can’t I drive to work, text my friend, look at my GPS and listen to the news at the same time. Why not?

The answer is painfully simple. Overdoing and over thinking creates stress in the mind and body. Paying attention and focusing on the moment as it arises, cultivates peace.

Excitement or Happiness?

2010-06-03T05:53:00.000-07:00

Many people think of excitement as happiness. But when you are excited you are not peaceful. True happiness is based on peace. ~ The Art of Power by Thich Nhat Hanh

Reading this passage a few days ago literally took my breath away. How many times per week do I mistake excitement for happiness? I would answer hundreds of times.

Our society craves excitement because we mistake it for happiness. We are excitement seekers searching for a thrill to quench our thirst. We thrive on experiencing the fast roller coaster, the thrill of purchasing a new car, the last minute of a championship game. Those moments are fleeting. The excitement wears off, the hangover begins and we find ourselves searching for the next big thrill. In the process, we exhaust ourselves both emotionally and physically.

“When you are excited you are not peaceful. True happiness is based on peace.” “True happiness”, says TNH, “cannot be purchased, it must be cultivated.”
This master teaches us how to cultivate happiness. It begins with conscious breathing and focus on the moment at hand. In other words, “be here now!” It continues with conscious movement such as yoga or walking meditation. Our peacefulness is then strengthened through seated meditation practice.

No rollercoaster, no last second touchdown, no Porsche will ever “make” us happy. Think about this. Notice if you too confuse excitement with happiness. I believe that observation will help us break free from the delusional search for excitement. I would love to hear your comments.

In peace.

Practicing the Power of Now

2010-05-14T12:31:00.000-07:00

Realize deeply that the present moment is all you ever have. Make the Now the primary focus of your life. Whereas before you dwelt in time and paid brief visits to the Now, have your dwelling place in the Now and pay brief visits to past and future when required to deal with the practical aspects of your life. Always say "yes" to the present moment. -Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now

The words of Tolle are simple. It’s really about being fully engaged in life. Living every moment completely and being a part of 100% of the Now. The bottom line is that you are most powerful, most intuitive when you are present. When you learn to disengage from your mind, your thoughts, your worries and focus fully on the Now you find stillness. You find peace. You know what you need. You know what to do.

Focusing on the Now disconnects you from the mental chatter that controls your emotions and drains your energy. Mental chatter and worry is the cause of stress. Disconnect from incessant thinking and you will no longer create stress in your mind and body.

Children and animals are the best teachers of how to live in the present. They are not controlled by thought. Observe them as go in and out of moments in their lives. They show up fully for whatever situations arise. Watch them play and notice their authentic power shine through. They are luminous. Children and animals spend their days disengaged from their minds and fully engaged in the Now. They know of no other way to be. They don’t live in the “yesterdays” and they don't care about the “tomorrows”.

How does one stay present in the moment? Tolle suggests that you, “"Be the ever alert guardian of your thoughts". Guarding your thoughts is the first step. Make a commitment to “check-in” mentally every 10 minutes. Notice when you leave the Now. Notice when your mind flutters away to past or future stories. Catch yourself and reel yourself back in to what you are doing. Ask yourself throughout the day, "Where am I right now?” “Where did I go?” And then with a smile and without judging guide your mind back to the moment.

Practicing yoga and meditation is an ideal way to experience the power of Now. These disciplines allow you the time to observe mental chatter. On your mat or cushion you have the space to observe your mental trips to the past and the future.

Learning to live in the present moment is a life long journey. It starts right now.

Welcome to Your Life!

2010-04-27T05:51:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday my mom had her second knee replacement in three months. At 72, her joints had failed her to the point that she was just about considered disabled. Her first knee replacement in January had gone so well that she pushed up the date for her second one by six months.

So on Thursday, only a few hours after my mom’s surgery, my 15-year old daughter called her to see how she was feeling. In her usual infectiously enthusiastic manner, my daughter blurted out, “Grandma, welcome to your life!”

Her words took my breath away. They were perfectly timed, perfectly delivered and incredibly empowering. Here was a 15 year-old, reminding a senior that at any moment we have the opportunity to start anew. “Grandma”, she said, “now you have two new knees and now you will be able to do all those things that you couldn’t do before”.

What an invitation. Welcome to your life.

The Buddhists teach us about the “fresh start”, and that at any moment we can choose to begin again. They teach us that with each breath we have an opportunity to start over. Our yoga practice teaches us that each pose can be compared to a little life and when the pose is over we begin again we new focus and new breath. The final and arguably most important pose of our yoga practice, savasana or final rest, reminds us to “die” to who we were when we started our practice and to begin anew. We rise from our mats, fully renewed and refreshed and as some will say with new eyes and a fresh start.

So I invite you all to do as I have done in the past few days. That is to adopt my daughter’s words as my new daily mantra. Chant them when you arise in the morning. Remind yourself of them when you transition from home to work. Go to sleep with them as a reminder of how blessed you were to have experienced another day.

Whether you have new knees or just a new outlook, welcome to your life.

On Finding My Feet

2010-04-14T14:31:00.000-07:00

We talk about feet all the time at Verge Yoga. If you’ve ever taken class with us you have probably heard your teachers say, “press into your big toe’ or “anchor into your inner heel”.

For years I have been listening to my teachers and observing my body. And for years I have been trying to communicate with my feet. I have backed off of poses and modified with the intention of understanding how my foot works in the pose. I have studied my feet without much reward. I’ve walked barefoot and brushed my teeth on one leg for years. The process has been long and sometimes painful……

Well, I am happy to announce that the connection is finally being made. My feet are coming alive in my poses and I feel more grounded and much more stable in my practice than ever before. I certainly am not the master of my feet yet but these days I can feel little light bulbs turning on in my feet. It is very exciting. (scary, but true)

As I write this, I recognize how silly this all may sound (to a non-yogi that is). However, most of us that have been practicing Hatha Yoga for more than a year get how important the feet are to the health of not only our bodies but also our minds.

Our feet are our foundation. They are our connection to the earth. If you have weak feet, you have a weak foundation. If you have strong, functional feet, you will have a strong, stable foundation. Let me tell you, having just found a small portion of my feet in my practice, it is worth the work.

The easiest and the best way for us to continue to work the muscles in our feet is by walking barefoot as much as possible. Stand in Tip Toe pose when you are at your kitchen counter. Press into your big toes while standing in line and yes, brush your teeth on one leg.

You may not feel anything right away. Perhaps you’ll turn on a small light bulb here and there. Perhaps you will feel more stable mentally or emotionally in a tense situation. Perhaps you will have spring to your step. Perhaps you will feel as sturdy as a mountain.

It’s all possible. Don’t stop trying. It is worth the ride.

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2010-03-21T20:47:00.001-07:00

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The Drain of Dwelling

2010-03-18T07:21:00.000-07:00

Caution: Graphic content included!

After spending an hour in my yard doing spring cleanup yesterday, I headed inside for a drink of water. I grabbed my sturdy uncapped SIGG water bottle and took a swig. Gulp, gulp, gulp….

I felt something tickle my inner lip and in an instant I sprayed water out of my mouth and across the kitchen. There, in a puddle of water, sat the culprit. A disgusting, crunchy Stink Bug!

I groaned and gasped for a moment and then I ran to tell my daughters. Can you believe it? How gross! When my husband called I had to tell him right away. Can you believe it? I am traumatized!

I re-lived my epic Stink Bug story at least 20 times during the course of the evening. Each time groaning and gasping. I dwelled and dwelled over and over again.

By the time I went to bed, I was drained of reliving the Stink Bug story. “Enough already!”, I said to myself. “Just let it go and stop wasting your precious energy.” As I reflected on my silliness, I recognized just how often I dwell on my stories and dramas. There are stories from 25 years ago that I will often relive just for the pure sport of it.

Buddha said, “Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.”

He was right of course. It’s much healthier to just drop the drama and get on with your life. But did he ever have a Stink Bug crawl in his mouth?

So the moral of the day… check your water bottles before you drink! (oh yeh, and “be here now” and all that stuff too)

The Thrill of Victory and the Agony of Defeat

2010-02-27T04:00:00.000-08:00

There is no doubt in my mind that the Olympics are a two week bag of emotions. The buildup to this event is huge for every athlete that participates and it is four years in the making. When their moment to compete finally comes, these athletes are literally “on the verge” of huge emotion. They have prepared themselves for the thrill of victory or the agony of defeat.

Olympic athletes or elite athletes of any sort voluntarily put themselves “at risk” to experience big emotion, scary emotion if you will. They certainly did not reach a high level of success because they played it safe.

Most of us play it safe in life. We will do just about anything to avoid the risk of feeling pain or the agony of defeat that we also shut ourselves off from the potential to experience the thrill of victory. Then we wonder why. Why doesn’t opportunity come my way? Why can’t I make more money? Why can’t I find my soul mate?

As with everything in life, there are two sides of the coin. When an athlete steps onto the field it is with the understanding that he or she may win or lose. They know that there are no guarantees. They are willing to risk it all to win with the understanding that they may not. It seems, however, that our society has tried to change the rules. We have been conditioned to want a guarantee of winning without experiencing any discomfort. On a whole, we are not willing to risk much but expect a lot in return. Life just doesn’t work that way and these past two weeks our Olympians have reminded us of that.

So once again, it comes back to our yoga mats. Patanjali, who wrote the yoga sutras thousands of years ago, said that every time we practice yoga you experience what he calls a “short life”. You will encounter the ecstasy and the disappointment that you may feel in your daily lives if you dare to. You face fear, doubt and joy. You feel the thrill of holding a challenging warrior pose and the agony of trembling in a balance pose.

As your practice becomes consistent, you will find the courage to risk experiencing deeper emotion both on and off the mat. You will learn to step toward discomfort more often than backing away from it. In a sense, when you practice hatha yoga, you are training for your own Olympic event, that being your daily life.

Intend to Rest

2010-02-10T03:40:00.000-08:00

One day about two years ago I surrendered. I was practicing Flow and I just let go! (Sorry, couldn’t resist the rhyme).

There I was on my mat, moving through my practice when all of a sudden the silliness of my controlling mind became crystal clear to me. I recognized in that moment that my habit of pushing my body in my asana practice had actually been draining my energy. In that moment, I chose to enjoy the practice and to allow myself to be refueled instead of drained.

Interestingly enough, pushing my body for many years had actually been counterproductive. When I finally let go and allowed my breath to guide me in and out of poses I found that was I able to get a good rest while on my mat. I found that by backing off a pose when I lost my rhythmic breathing, I was able to relax and find new places to play in the pose. The wonderful result of surrendering on my mat was that my practice deepened tenfold.

Almost all new yoga students will over-try and over-struggle in their practice. We start out wanting to “be good” at yoga. As I often say in class at Verge Yoga, there is nothing to achieve and there is no perfect pose. Of course, I know that when I say those words, most students are thinking, “yeh right, okay, whatever Cara”. Please trust me that it took me 10 years of committed practice to finally “get it”.

I recognize that it is paradoxical to intend to rest when you come to your “power yoga” practice and I also recognize that most yoga students come to the practice for the physical work out. The good news is that you can rest, sweat, strengthen and re-energize all at the same time!
So next time you step upon your yoga mat whether at Verge Yoga or somewhere else, set your intention to “rest” during your practice. Keenly observe yourself when you begin to force your way into a pose. If your breathing becomes labored or imbalanced then back off the pose physically until you find the precise place where the breathing is rhythmic and unforced.

Enjoy the ride and enjoy the most peaceful savasana you have ever had. Please let me know how you do.

Smile

2010-02-04T11:39:00.000-08:00

If we are not able to smile then the world will not have peace. ~ Thich Nat Hanh

I came upon this quote just a few days after the earthquake in Haiti. Just reading this master’s quote made me smile and reflect on how blessed my life is. Sure it was easy for me to smile as I sat in my cozy house in suburban Philadelphia. What about those around the world who were not reading in their cozy house? What about those in Haiti without homes? How do they manage to muster up a smile in the midst of their own poverty and tragedy?

While I don’t have the answer to that question, I believe that we find our ability to smile in hard times when we are filled with faith. Perhaps it is faith in God or in a higher power that assists us. Our faith is our foundation, it is the “rock upon which we build our house” as I referred to in my last blog entry.

My faith is strengthened from my daily practice which includes yoga, meditation and prayer. I believe that this foundation is built one day at a time and I mindfully prepare myself for those days to come when it may not be easy to smile.

For now I feel that I must continue to smile and to pray for those who are having trouble smiling themselves. In the words of the Great Buddhist Peace Prayer:

May all beings be free from suffering and the causes of suffering.
May all beings find happiness and the root of happiness.

Our smiles can help so keep smiling. :)

How Do I Help?

2010-01-24T07:35:00.000-08:00

The recent earthquake in Haiti has literally shaken me off my footing. The images and stories are almost too raw and too graphic for me to swallow. Personally, I am overwhelmed. Sure, the $100 sent to the Red Cross will help a bit. Of course, the daily prayers sent to those suffering around the globe and especially to those touched by this tragedy will help a bit. But honesty I am still left feeling “helpless”.

There are yoga studios all around Philadelphia that have already had benefit classes to raise money for the relief effort in Haiti. I commend them for their effort. We are considering holding a benefit class at Verge Yoga. I know that it is a great way to raise money. A few years back, Verge Yoga raised a few thousand dollars in this manner for the relief effort for tsunami victims. Honestly, there is something tugging at my consciousness urging me do more. For some reason I am still resisting the obvious avenues to helping the millions of victims affected by this tragedy. As I said before, I am overwhelmed by totality of this tragedy.

The question I ask is how does one help a country that is lacking infrastructure and has been suffocated by corruption for years? There is nothing left in Haiti but a pile of rubble and many souls that suffer yet hope for literally a more stable future.

The only answer that comes to mind is that we need to start by helping to rebuild the foundation of Haiti. My Hatha yoga practice has taught me this truth. By building a strong stable base physically, emotionally and mentally through the practice of yoga, we the ground upon which we can expand upon.

In Matthew 7:24-27 Jesus says the following:
"Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it."

I believe that this is true on a yoga mat, in a family and in a nation. The Haitians have been living on a sandy foundation for too long and I pray that we can help them. The earth shaking beneath that small Caribbean island has exposed just how weak their foundation has been.

So my question to you all is how do we help Haiti build a stable foundation? Money, yes, is necessary. Prayers are necessary. An interim government led by perhaps the United Nations. I also believe, however, that setting a strong example is also necessary. We must solidify our own ground first before we can help others do so. Once again, it begins with us. It begins with taking personal responsibility for our state of being.

So I guess that I have sort of answered my own question. I am still, however, left overwhelmed. I would love any support that you could share with me. If you know of an organization that you believe can make a difference in building Haiti’s foundation, please let me know. Perhaps then the benefit class will make more sense to me. Perhaps it will help me feel less overwhelmed and more confident that we truly can make a difference.

Thank you.

National Champions!

2010-01-05T14:27:00.000-08:00

On December 18, 2009, the Villanova University Football team won the FSC National Football Championship. Since August these Wildcats have been fierce, focused and committed to each other. I am honored to have been able to train them this year. They are true yogis.

Villanova Football Heads to National Championship

2009-12-15T10:02:00.000-08:00

I have had the honor of training the Villanova University Football team for the past six seasons and this Friday, “my boys” as I like to call them, will be competing against Montana for the Division 1 FSC National Championship. I am an extremely proud strength coach/yoga teacher.

During the season, my boys play their games on Saturdays and train with me on Sundays. Every Sunday evening for the past four months, I have met the players (all 90 of them) in the Butler Annex which resides just 30 yards from one of the end zones in the Villanova Stadium. They shuffle into the annex and respectfully take their places at the top of their yoga mats. I guide them through a series of poses that challenge their strength and stability, I hold them accountable for their focus and I help them to reset their minds and bodies for the next game.

My messages to them have been simple ones:

Leave the past behind.
Breathe deeply.
Stay engaged in what you are asked to do.
You are stronger than you think you are so just stop thinking.
Be present.
Distraction will drain you.
Focus will fuel you.
One collective Villanova mind is undefeatable.

My boys are warriors.

Go Nova!

(Friday, December 18th ESPN2 8:00 pm)

This Day Will Never Come Again

2009-11-11T04:50:00.000-08:00

“This day will never come again” wrote Thomas Merton, Trappist Monk and writer. I heard my teacher Caroline Myss quote this the other day and it made the hair on my arms stand tall. It literally took my breath away. Merton’s words have been floating in my mind ever since.

I will never have the opportunity to experience this day again. When this day is over, it is over forever. If I truly understood the power behind these words, how would I change the way that I live?

The answer… I would see beyond the nonsense. I would live beyond the pettiness. I would savor the sunsets and the sunrise. I would drink the nectar of every moment. I would live fully on this day and in this moment.
My yoga practice helps me to make these “woulds” a reality. In each and every breath, I have the opportunity to live fully. In every pose, I can step beyond the judgments, doubts and petty thoughts. On my mat, I am learning to live fully and to savor the preciousness of the moment.

Recently, my husband and I lost a friend of many years to a terrible car accident. Suddenly, his life was extinguished. In a split second his children no longer had a father and his wife no longer had a husband. Had Steve lived his last day fully? I hope so.

Can you live this day fully? I hope so.

Can I live this day fully? Weel, I am going to give it my best shot.

Peace.

Why Practice?

2009-10-31T03:48:00.000-07:00

by Christy Mahoney,

When asked, most people say they practice to build a strong body. This amazing series of poses has comprehensively developed my body better than any sport or exercise I have ever known. Yet, if you ask me why I practice - I may pause before answering. In the pause I will make a decision about how much to say.

Do I tell you that this practice is all that I do and at 40 years old, I am in the best shape of my life? Do I mention that by doing this practice I have dropped from a size 12 to a size 4? (Believe it or not, that answer really seems to impress people.) I could get more personal and tell you I am going through a significant life transition and yoga grounds me. I could tell you a lot of things that are true, but they don’t explain why this full-time-working-single-mother-of-two spends so much of her precious time in a yoga studio!

The real reason I practice is because it strips away everything that doesn’t matter and shows me the truth about who I am. Not a sexy answer – I know. In fact, in most settings it is a pretty effective conversation stopper. That being said, it is why I find time to practice. Further – it is why I make time to teach.

As a teacher at Verge I have 75 minutes to guide you through your practice. My purpose is to cue alignment from the ground up, coach breath, reveal benefits, share personal experience and provide space for you to just be in the pose. This is my purpose and it is very challenging, but it is not my intention. My intention is to share the life changing power of this practice.

Did I really just say life changing? Sounds so dramatic, but that’s because it is! I believe we all have deep down fear that is incredibly powerful. Some of us have lived with the fear for such a long time, we actually think it’s a part of us. We do all these crazy things to avoid it. Almost instantly, and more profoundly over time, this avoidance changes who we are. It compromises our true self and we become only images of who we are meant to be. The avoidance begins a vicious cycle. We fear – we avoid – we are drained – we have no energy to face the fear – we avoid more intensely – we get more drained… Surviving this cycle is probably harder than facing the fear itself, but we don’t realize it. The cycle is so familiar we can’t see it. Even when we do notice it, we do not know another way. That is, until we practice.

In practice, we learn to let go. We turn our attention to breath. The breath points us towards Right Action. In my experience, the Right Action is usually pretty difficult (hence, the aforementioned fear.) Sometimes it is so powerful, all we can do is just face it, find our breath and stand in place. This is enough - we can take steps in time. I teach because I have experienced that when I quiet my mind and let go of control, there is a universal energy that becomes available to me. It is beyond my physical self yet it strengths me profoundly. To receive this energy we must surrender, only then can it strengthen & guide us to face the truth. I call this energy the power of the universe.

What you call it isn’t important to me. What is crucial to me is that when we let go, this energy is available and we find true courage. We can pause in the fear and wait for clarity. Once clear, we use our courage to take Right Action. This is what leads to happiness from the inside out, not because something good happened or something bad didn’t. We are happy because we are aligned with all that is real. We know who we are and who we are not. That knowledge is absolutely life changing, some might call it enlightenment.

So, how do these simple poses bring us back to the essence of ourselves? Ironically, I don’t know. Concepts swirl in my mind, but I do not definitively know the answer. Curiously, we are now where we began, “Why practice?” I’ll answer that question another… What would happen if you stripped away everything that doesn’t matter and faced the truth about yourself?

Come to practice – let’s find out together!

Seeking Balance When Recovering from an Overuse Injury

2009-10-23T10:42:00.000-07:00

By: Sarah Penning, DPT

Overuse injuries are the most common yet at times the most difficult injuries to rehab. It takes time, patience, hard work and the most challenging of all, rest from the activity that people often love. Runners, tennis players, swimmers, avid gym members and even those who practice yoga can be at risk for developing on overuse injury.

Recently I had the humbling experience of injuring my own shoulder while practicing yoga. As a physical therapist and strong proponent of yoga I was somewhat baffled by my injury. I thought to myself I have been taking yoga for almost 4 years and have never been injured. I consider myself strong, healthy and well-educated about injury prevention as a health care provider. Then I realized I was just like so many of my patients strong yet prone to injury secondary to imbalance.
Yoga has an over abundance of health benefits and has been around for over 5,000 years. Many have caught the “yoga bug” and swear by the physical and mental benefits of this practice. The Sanskrit word yoga does indeed translate to “union” or “to yoke or harness.”1 For many of us we find ourselves on our mat seeking union, seeking balance in our lives and in our bodies. Yet unbeknownst to us we may be putting our bodies in a vulnerable position if unaware of the muscle imbalances that often develop in yoga.

Muscle imbalances within the shoulder girdle often develop in yoga due to the extensive amount of push type exercises such as chaturanangas that most practices entail, without sufficient counter poses.2 When repeatedly transitioning from a high push-up to a low push-up position into upward facing dog, injuries such as tendonitis (inflammation of the tendon) and bursitis (inflammation of the bursa) can often develop as well as instability of the shoulder.

When in a plank position it requires much strength from the anterior muscles of the shoulder, such as the pectoralis major and minor, anterior deltoid and long head of the bicep tendon. These muscles must work in a static or isometric way to stabilize the anterior aspect of the shoulder girdle. When lowering from a high plank to a low plank position these muscles must then work eccentrically to control the decent of the body as these muscles lengthen. Finally when pushing the chest through to upward facing dog the triceps and muscles that lie between the shoulder blades must concentrically contract or shorten to attain this posture.

In many instances beginners taking a yoga class do not have the strength in the aforementioned muscle groups when quickly transitioning from the above positions. Commonly practitioners find the transition from low plank to upward facing dog the most challenging secondary to weakness in the triceps and inter-scapula muscles. This translates into poor body mechanics of the upper body and trunk. For example, when the shoulders drop lower than the hips in chaturananga this can impinge or inflame the muscles that lie in front of the shoulder through repetition of poor alignment when one struggles through a vinyasa.

After sustaining such a shoulder injury due to yoga people often report pain when lifting the arm overhead, out to the side or across the body. The pain is usually localized to the front or outside of the shoulder and these areas are also tender to touch. Lastly, reports of stiffness and or discomfort may be experienced in the front of the shoulder when efforts to stretch the front of the shoulder girdle are made.

The first thing one should do if they are having shoulder pain is to seek medical attention from a physical therapist and or an orthopedic doctor. Physical therapists specialize in musculoskeletal injuries and can aid in determining a diagnosis so that appropriate treatment can be rendered.
As a physical therapist who is currently recovering from a shoulder injury and providing treatment to many with shoulder pain I believe strongly in the benefits of physical therapy and it’s ability to return athletes to their previous level of activity. When dealing with any person who presents with an overuse injury it is imperative that one determine what weaknesses reside. In many instances there is a commonality in the imbalances found within the shoulder girdle. Frequently patients will present with tightness and muscle bulk in the front of the shoulder which is countered by weakness and atrophy in the muscles in the back of the shoulder and in between the shoulder blades.

In the acute or early stages of a shoulder injury a physical therapist may use an array of various modalities, such as ultrasound, soft tissue massage and ice to decrease the inflammation. Ultrasound functions as a deep heater of the tissue and aids in fueling the healing process while massage helps to break down scar adhesions. Once the signs and symptoms of acuity have decreased a series of stretches and strengthening exercises for the shoulder are prescribed.

When a patient begins to engage in the process of rehabbing the shoulder education is key. As a physical therapist it is imperative to teach patients about their injury and why certain exercises are beneficial or counterproductive. Through sports specific training and education about modifications and safe form, physical therapists can equip people with the appropriate tools to return to the very activity that may have brought them through their doors. In simple terms physical therapy can act as a catalyst for people to achieve equinity and independence in maintaining balance.

The physical therapists at Bounce Back Physical Therapy have been rehabilitating clients with overuse injuries for many years earning a reputation for their individualized sports-specific training and commitment to quality of care. The therapists on staff are happy to conduct a free screening upon appointment for those who may be experiencing pain or are interested in learning about how physical therapy could benefit their body.

By: Sarah Penning, DPT
Bounce Back Physical Therapy
215 Sugartown Rd.
Wayne, PA 19087
http://www.bouncebackpt.com/

References:
Turlington, C. Living Yoga: Creating a Life Practice. NY, NY: Hyperion; 2002.
Yoga and Shoulder Injuries. 2009: 1-4. Available at http://www.acrocore.com/yoga-and-shoulder-injuries/ . Accessed March 3, 2009

No Rush. No Distractions.

2009-10-07T13:20:00.000-07:00

My oldest daughter turned 16 years old a few weeks ago and last Saturday morning she eagerly awaited her first driving lesson. Now I’ve been teaching for a long time but I never realized what a huge responsibility it would be to teach someone how to drive.

My husband took the first crack at it and brought her to a parking lot to go over the basics. After an hour or so, she wanted to take me around the block to show off her new skills. So I relinquished all control and allowed my baby girl to drive me around for a few minutes. After arriving safely back in the driveway she and I talked about the importance of being a safe driver and how she needed to take responsibility for her actions behind the wheel. I simply told her that as long as she was not in a rush to get anywhere and as long as she was not distracted, that she would be just fine.

Later that night I thought about what I had said. No rush, no distractions, everything will be just fine. No rush, no distractions. I realized that those simple words sum up what I say just about every day when I teach yoga. My teaching mantra is based on reminding Verge Yoga students to slow down and to pay attention.

In simple terms, mindfulness means paying attention on purpose. It means thinking, moving, speaking and acting in an unrushed and deliberate manner. We can practice mindfulness on our yoga mats, our meditation cushions, in our kitchens and in our cars. I was essentially teaching my daughter about being a mindful driver by using a few simple yet powerful principles. And as we all know, these principles can and should be applied to just about everything we do or don't do in life.

No rush. No distractions. Keep your eyes on the road, stay focused and everything will be just fine.

A Day in Space

2009-09-03T16:03:00.000-07:00

Today I experienced incredible spaciousness. My two daughters went off to high school this morning. They took the bus at 6:30 am and I picked them up after soccer practice at 4:30 pm. I was on my own for ten hours. During that time, I must have checked my on-line calendar at least four times just to be sure that I wasn’t missing an appointment or a phone call. There was a strange slowness about the day and I found myself floating in it.

Don’t be mistaken, I did have to teach and then work today but there was a sense of vastness surrounding the day that I have not experienced in a long time. Gone from my home office were the faint calls of, “Mom….Mom….where are you?” Absent from my agenda was the insane schedule of drop-offs and pick- ups that I scurried through all summer. There simply was just space. I have to tell you that I love space.

Our yoga practice creates space in our bodies. Our meditation practice creates space in our minds. We create such room in our lives anytime we are just present and in the moment. We can discover pockets of space in our lives if we just look for it. Perhaps it is those twenty minutes home from work or the quiet hour before dawn. Time spent in spaciousness can crack us open. It can help us feel more alive.

My day in space was spectacular. I am looking forward to more of it. The great news is that today is the first day of school and next summer is a long way away.

SnapGlowTV Shoot - Having a little fun!

2009-08-19T08:59:00.001-07:00

Seek Silence

2009-08-19T05:59:00.000-07:00

When enough of us learn how to become deeply and profoundly quiet, then the hysteria of the world will begin to subside. - Marianne Williamson

Every single day, we are bombarded with noise pollution. We have become so accustomed to noise, we’ve grown desensitized. If it’s not the T.V. or music, people chattering on their cell phones, horns honking and trucks backing up, it’s our alarm clocks; it’s our hairdryer; it’s the microwave alerting you that your dinner is ready. Excessive noise, like excesses of any kind, wreaks havoc on our nervous systems and on our psyches. By 5 or 6 o'clock, our ears are ringing, our heads throbbing, and we feel so weary, we collapse from mental exhaustion and auditory overload.

This week, find ways to experience silence. If you’re alone in the car, turn off the radio. If you are cooking, turn the T.V. off. Stop yourself first thing in the morning, when normally you might absent-mindedly switch on the news. Let the bird singing outside be the only sound to accompany your breakfast. And don't be afraid to be absolutely alone. Learning to live with periods - even pockets - of silence, will help to soothe frayed nerves and lighten your heart. You may find you experience moments of bliss, even as you cut the carrots or fold the laundry. It is during these small moments of breathtaking silence that we “hear” our soul force.

Erich Schiffman, author of Moving into Stillness, writes, "When you experience yourself in stillness, that is, when your mind is at its most focused, energetic, present, alive, relaxed and whole hearted state, you will "hear" the voice of God whispering in the depths of your being. You will recognize his voice as the voice of your soul. That voice speaks your deepest and most genuine desires."

Don’t believe it? Just try it. Find silence this week. Find it today. Find it in this very moment. Listen in stillness, and you may sense a profound serenity you’ve never imagined.

Speed Limit 35

2009-07-02T04:26:00.000-07:00

I am not sure exactly when this happened or why it did now upon my turning 45 years old but I recently realized that most drivers are not paying attention on the road. I included myself in that group until this past June. We drive too fast. We are unpredictable in our movements. We multitask. We are not present.

If you are already a safe driver then please ignore my group statement. I thank you for your safety on the road while I have been half asleep at the wheel.

What I have finally come to realize is that accidents happen when someone is not paying attention. In the blink of an eye a life or lives can be ruined. All it takes is one unpredictable move or accelerating through a yellow light. One time. That’s it.

There will always be drivers that are not paying attention and I don’t want to be that person. I’ve worked too hard in my practice of becoming more mindful to throw it away on a stupid cell phone call or song change.

This realization has overwhelmed me this past month. I have awoken, so to speak. I have slowed down. I am driving the speed limit and stopping at the Stop Sign not 5 feet in front of it. I am not taking cell phone calls in my car. I am trying to pay attention.

I often say in class at Verge that our yoga practice creates steadiness in the mind so that we can make conscious decisions. There is more mental space after a yoga practice. It is in that space that we find the time to move and speak more mindfully.

Perhaps I have slowed down enough in my yoga practice to recognize how I am moving out there on the roads. Perhaps turning 45 years old has helped me recognize the fragility of my life. Who knows? All I know is that I feel better more peaceful in the car. It is a new practice for me. I call it Mindfulness Driving.

Hopefully this blog will encourage you to observe your driving style. Perhaps you have always been safe. Maybe you need a little nudge. Like I said, I am not sure why this awakening happened now, I am just grateful that it did.

Peace.

Cara

The Power of Now

2009-06-23T11:47:00.000-07:00

Our minds are like muscles. At any given moment, we are either mentally weak and limp or mentally strong and focused. Like physical muscles, our minds can be trained to become stronger and more useful to us.

There is huge power in Mental Strength Training. When our minds are strong, stable and clear, we are “present” in what we are doing. When present, we are more peaceful and easier to be around. We learn to speak with clarity and conviction. When present, we connect deeply with others. We are able to influence and lead others from a deep and authentic state. From this powerful state of being, we have access to the tools needed to rally our team of co-workers around our message and vision.

When you feel stressed, recognize that you in a weakened state of mind. Stress is the result of too many thoughts barraging our minds at one time. Too much planning, worrying, and replaying stimulates the stress mechanism sending our nerves and emotions into a frenzy. Bottom line, when we are stressed, we have no power or influence.

The good news is that we can train our minds, our mental muscles, to become “stress-free”. With some practice, we learn to slow down our minds and clear away useless and repetitive thoughts. The result is that we rise above the level of stress and instead of just trying to manage it.

There are a few simple exercises in our Mental Strength Training Model:

1. Focus on the Breath
2. Observe Thought
3. Sit in Silence
4. Accept this Moment

When our minds are strong and focused we have access to great power and intuition. We just seem to know what to say and what to do. Mental Strength Training helps us become more fully engaged in the now. I am confident in saying that understanding the potential and power of being here now can change your lives just as it has mine.

Peace.

Cara

A Rose by any other Name

2009-05-27T08:32:00.000-07:00

You may have noticed over the past few weeks that we have changed the name of our yoga center to simply Verge Yoga.

While we opened our doors five years ago as Verge Power Yoga, the focus of our classes has since shifted from a faster-paced, more complicated practice to a yoga practice based on simplicity and mindfulness.

The shift of focus at Verge over the past few years has evolved naturally alongside the collective shift in global thinking from big, fast growth to simple, steady growth.

As I often say in class, our practice reflects the way in which we live. If we continue to move quickly on our mats, we will continue to move quickly in our lives. As we learn to practice yoga with precision and mindfulness, we will learn to move through our days more consciously.

So, as Shakespeare famously wrote, "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet." Our change of name to Verge Yoga is a subtle shift of perception. Our classes remain just as "sweet"... simple, mindful and powerful. As always, it is our intention to offer you a community in which you can unblock, unfold and unleash your power and innate wisdom.

To tweet or not to tweet...

2009-04-17T13:17:00.000-07:00

that is the question.

So I’ve been hearing about Twitter for the past few months and I just couldn’t wrap my arms around it. First of all, why would anyone want to broadcast their daily routine and thoughts out to the world? My first opinion of Twitter without having ever gone on to the site was that it was another ego-based, self indulgent application.

Last week, with some prodding from my techie husband, I joined the world of Twitters. I sheepishly posted a short profile (see below) and my first “tweet”. (basically just a text message to my followers of which I had none)

Then, through some simple searches, I found a couple of interesting folks out there to follow, Lance Armstrong, Tony Robbins, Steven Covey and Time Magazine. And I waited.

The tweets started coming in. I received a quote from Steven Covey, some current events from Time, a reflection from Lance Armstrong about his ride that day in Aspen. Pretty cool, I thought. Connection and union, isn’t that what yoga is about? And so I posted another innocent tweet and hit send.

Within 48 hours I had 15 followers. Included were people from the around the globe that I never met and couple that I know. Again, pretty cool.

Still not completely sold on it, I spent some time on a recent hike pondering how to use this application not as a way to tell people about my fairly uneventful life but rather to connect with yoga students from Verge Power Yoga and beyond. What would I want to share with others?

Well, in class, I often talk about “bridging” your yoga practice to your daily life. I call it, Yoga off the Mat 101. There are so many rich opportunities in our daily lives to practice yoga so why not name them? Why not talk about them? Why not “tweet” them?

I know that my challenges are probably your challenges. Your moments of glory are probably my moments of glory. Let’s connect and tweet about it!

You follow me and I’ll follow you. Yoga off the Mat 101! I realize that there can only be good that comes from connecting with yogis around the world.

So check out www.twitter.com and follow me @caraverge (that’s my id)

Peace.

Cara Bradley, soccer mom, yoga teacher, trying to keep the ball in the air every day.

Simple and Steady

2009-03-26T14:13:00.000-07:00

I always seem to get “gung-ho” at this time of the year. I get so excited for the transition into spring that I often exhaust myself. I am quick to put the winter clothes away, get the rake to the yard and throw open every window in the house even when it is still 40 degrees outside.

This year I am trying a new approach. I intend to apply my yoga practice to my life and try to gracefully transition into the spring season. Honestly, I don’t have the energy to exhaust myself anymore. (I think that is a good sign.)

For the past month or so my intention on my mat has been to be “simple and steady”. During practice, this intention reminds me to slow down and to move deliberately. It reminds me to be content with whatever pose is offered and to then transition gracefully into the next pose. By focusing on the simplicity of the movements, I’ve experienced more space in my body and my mind.

Now, applying this to my real yoga practice, my non-Verge life, will be more challenging. Simple and Steady. One project at a time. One step at a time. One moment at a time.

Wish me luck.

Glimpsing the Grandeur

2009-03-05T04:33:00.000-08:00

Most of our energy goes into upholding our importance. If we were capable of losing some of that importance, two extraordinary things would happen to us. One, we would free our energy from trying to maintain the illusory idea of our grandeur; and two, we would provide ourselves with enough energy to catch a glimpse of the actual grandeur of the universe. ~ Carlos Casteneda

There have been moments while teaching this past month when I have been reminded of Casteneda's powerful quote. In those moments, I dropped into a place where I felt that I was able to "glimpse the grandeur of the universe". The grandeur seemed to reside in the collective energy of the students in the class. It was their focus, their commitment to their practices and their sweet breath that joined together to help hold a moment in time for me. I froze for that moment it took my breath away.

It was in those precious unforeseen moments that I felt a surge of courage to step out of my own importance. I dropped my role as "yoga teacher" and in so doing, I simply became a guide of breath and movement. And it was then that the universe took over and time stood still. I stood still in awe of the pureness of the moment.

We talk about being present in every class at Verge Power Yoga. We remind each other of the task at hand, the mental strength building and the cultivating of mindfulness. We mention the perils of being ego-centric, too chatty or too mentally busy. Yet we continue to create more stories to carry around with us 24/7.

But, as I have experience this month, it may not be until we stand still in a moment bathed in grace that we recognize how small we really are when stuck in our own importance. It may not be until we drop who we think we are that we can actually be still and glimpse that true self. And, it is during that very same moment that we can glimpse the grandeur of how large we can be when we drop our stories.

I continue to wrap my arms around this quote. While I still have much work to do, I am learning that the more I can drop my story, the more I can lose my own sense of importance and the more I will have the “energy to catch a glimpse of the actual grandeur of the universe". Let me tell you, it is so worth the ride.

And the journey continues…

Peace.

Cara

Just Press the Pause Button

2009-02-13T14:56:00.000-08:00

I just finished a fantastic book called, Radical Acceptance, by Tara Brach. This book and teacher was highly recommended by my meditation teacher Scott McBride of ClearLight Meditation. I take his suggestions very seriously.

One of the quotes that impacted me so greatly from the book was the following: "The sacred pause is the gateway to the path of awakening."

I was thrilled to read that since I have been working "the pause" in my classes for the past few months. I’ve found that it is a pause not a movement that allows me to directly experience myself and my connection to others. I’ve found that it is the pause at the end of the exhale or the peak of the inhale when I feel most alive. In meditation, I find that it is the pause and space between thoughts that allows me to feel the penetration of the divine.

Since my surgery in November, my life has become more “pause” and less speed. I really like the way that it feels. My intention to keep strengthening my ability to pause in my life as my foot heals and I begin to move around in the world more easily. It is so easy to go back to sleep.

As a teacher, I've been offering many more pauses in my classes. We can pause in high plank or in child’s pose. We can pause at the end of an inhale or exhale. As we strengthen our ability to pause on our yoga mats, we will begin to practice pausing in our lives.

We can learn to pause before we speak or react. That is where the good stuff starts to happen. Pausing and becoming more mindful of our words and actions is a life changing practice for sure.

I invite you to start small. Trying pausing your mind by taking a few deep breaths at red lights or while waiting for your emails to download.

The pause is, as Tara Brach wrote, the gateway to the path of awakening. That is enough to get me to press that pause button in every area of my life.

Peace.

Cara

Peend trying it.

Lean into the Sharp Points

2009-01-17T11:34:00.000-08:00

Zen masters advise us to “lean into the sharp points” and to practice walking the “razor’s edge”. Ride the rollercoaster of life with your eyes wide open and your arms thrown up in the air, they say. Let go. Jump out of the nest. Surrender to the moment. Just be with “what is”, right?
Here’s the problem. It is our natural instinct is to run from pain. It's in our genetic code to avoid uncomfortable situations. We don’t want to feel uneasy. We spend our lives trying to escape from painful moments. We don’t want to walk the razor’s edge and we certainly don’t want to lean into any sharp points!

Over the past several years, I have experienced a universal truth that the divine works in paradox. What seems big is really small and what seems small is really big. What we want to do we shouldn’t do, and the places that scare us are exactly the places we need to go. “Even if every inch of our being wants to run in the opposite direction, we stay here,” writes Pema Chödrön “There is no other way to enter the sacred world… It’s all raw material for waking up. We can use everything that occurs to show us where we are asleep and how we can wake up completely, utterly, without reservations.”

The practice of Zen and the practice of yoga train us to stand in the center of our lives with our eyes wide opened. No matter what comes up, we learn to stay with “what is”. In order to live large we need to fully see, touch, smell and taste every morsel of fear, anger and disappointment. “When we protect ourselves so we won’t feel pain, that protection becomes like armor, like armor that imprisons the softness of the heart”, writes Chödrön. Overtime, the armor gets thick and heavy. We become separated from others and we close down. Leaning into the sharp points is simply about penetrating the armor that surrounds our heart. And in so doing, writes Chödrön, “the armor begins to fall apart and we find that we can breathe deeply and relax.

Once again, our yoga mats provide us with the perfect setting to practice this. Every down dog and every up dog is raw material for waking up. Every deep breath can help to dissolve the armor that surrounds our heart. Every time we lean into the sharp points we break down the barriers that separate us from the world. In this openness, we discover the awakened heart, or what the Buddhists call the bodhichitta,.

Over these next few weeks during your yoga practice, try to lean into the sharp points and you may just discover a pure, uncensored state of joy and connection. So throw your hands up in the air, keep your eyes wide open and get ready for the ride of your life.

Abandon All Hope

2009-01-09T14:52:00.000-08:00

Over the past several years, I have immersed myself in Buddhist teachings. What an incredible journey inward it has been. There has been one teaching in particular, however, that I don’t think I fully understood… until now. That is to abandon hope.

In her book, When Things Fall Apart, Pema Chodron wrote:

If we’re willing to give up hope that insecurity and pain can be exterminated, then we can have the courage to relax with the groundlessness of our situation. This is the first step
on the path.

My western mind and my sort of type “A” personality has always twisted and turned around the notion of not hoping, not improving or not striving… until now.

I have had my leg cast on for over seven weeks. As I continue to practice the Stationary Sequence, my poses continue to be extremely modified and simple. There is not much that I can do to change that. I cannot heal my foot any faster and I cannot take off the cast. For the past few weeks, I have abandoned the hope that I would soon be able to balance on my left foot or take a deep Warrior 2. It’s not happening anytime soon. I have had to “relax with the groundlessness of my situation”. I have had to learn to let go. This has been a tremendous gift.

Chodron continues:

Hope and fear come from feeling that we lack something; they come from a sense of poverty. We can’t simply relax with ourselves. We hold on to hope, and hope robs us of the present moment.

In abandoning hope in my yoga practice, I have relaxed with my body, my left foot and my black cast. Since I wasn’t so busy fixing myself, I have allowed myself to hang out in the present moment and observe. Wow. I have really felt my poses perhaps for the first time in my life.

Maybe this is what my Buddhist teachers have been saying. At some point, we need to just let go of the need to push, tweak and fix ourselves. We need to let go of the hope that a teacher, an assist or a fancy pose will “improve” us. We should relax with ourselves now, with all of our issues and experience the poses of our lives. I am learning that at some point we need to abandon hope, let go of the control handles and cruise for a bit.

Perhaps I can learn to do this in my life “off the mat”. Perhaps I don’t always have to fix things, improve things or have things be perfect. Perhaps I can abandon the hope that something or someone out there will “fix” me. Perhaps then, I can start experiencing my life more fully.

Peace.

One Step at a Time

2008-12-18T13:42:00.000-08:00

It has been over four weeks since my surgery. I cannot believe that I have been hobbling around on one leg for over a month. With still a long haul in front of me, I am learning to not look ahead too often but to take one day at a time.

By far, the most profound lesson I have learned so far during this time is that there is a wonderful sense of peace in my life when I slow down and take one step at a time. At this point in my recovery, my work and family life almost resembles that of pre-surgery days. However, there are many obstacles in the way of my living at my pre-surgery pace. In other words, I have to slow down and show up for every step that I take or I might just find myself on the floor in a tangle of crutches.

In the past month, my life has been broken down into micro-movements. For example, when getting a glass of water, I must break my movements down as follows: Lean right, balance, reach for the glass, re-balance, reach for the faucet, fill the glass, steady yourself, now drink.

The crazy thing is that I find myself naming these small steps in my mind. Step down the stair, balance, crutches down, foot down, balance. This practice has helped me stay to present and focused during the most basic movements of life.

This mental exercise (which some may think borders on compulsive behavior!) has profoundly shifted my yoga practice and my teaching. One step at a time. One breath at a time. There is no rush. Move slowly and precisely.

One step at a time. One breath at a time. Slow and steady. That is mindfulness. And in mindfulness there is space. And in that space, we find peace.

Cara

My Left Foot - Part 3: The Wonderful Stationary Sequence

2008-11-30T12:43:00.000-08:00

This morning I practiced yoga for the first time since my surgery. I used the template of our Stationary Sequence and modified poses according to what I could and could not do. It was down right fun. I used a stool for most of the standing poses and was able to move through most of the floor poses without too much fuss. Words cannot explain how tremendously wonderful it felt for me to move my body after two weeks of being literally “stationary”.

We often tell out students at Verge Power Yoga that there is a pose for everyone in our Stationary Sequence. Our teachers are more than happy to modify poses for our students prior to class or even during our classes.

We have students practicing at Verge with hip, knee and shoulder replacements. We have students with spinal fusions and chronic low back issues. We have students with rods, plates, screws and more! If you have been off your mat due to an injury or illness, please email me at cara@vergepoweryoga.com and I will personally help you modify the Stationary Sequence so that you can return to practice.

The beauty of the Stationary Sequence practice (or any practice for that matter) is that we can all be doing the same pose but at the same time, all look a bit different. Bottom line is that our yoga practice should serve us individually and based on what we bring into the center with us on any given day, i.e. headache, busy mind, tight hamstrings, etc.

My modified practice this morning served me in a big way. I felt cleansed physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. It was a perfect practice because I did the best that I could do with what was available to me today which is very different than where I was two weeks ago. I rested in savasana feeling grateful to be amongst the physically mobile population again.

I return to teaching tomorrow and cannot wait to see everyone. I’ll continue to practice at home for a few more days and then move my stool to Verge for classes there. . You’ll be seeing me “blissed out” in a modified pose in our Stationary classes by the end of the week.

Until then… Peace.

Cara

My Left Foot - Part 2: Learning to Listen

2008-11-28T14:26:00.000-08:00

Our bodies are truly amazing instruments. And the healing process is flat out a phenomenal experience. I am 10 days out of surgery and, if I listen carefully, my body will tell me what and how much I can do on a day to day basis. And, what I am able to do right now is not a lot.

I can honestly say that I have just about surrendered to my body’s advice to rest a lot and drink a lot. I fully believe that our bodies need an abundance of rest in order to heal. I am learning that there is no substitution for quality rest and there are no short cuts.

The few times I have pushed myself by doing too much in the past ten days, I have paid the price with throbbing and pain in my left foot. I have learned the hard way that I cannot fool my body by squeezing in one more activity or one more phone call. In the past, I could ignore the physical signals that whispered to me when it was time to stop pushing. Right now, my body is in full charge and will scream at me when it is time to stop and rest. I think that I am actually learning to really listen to my body.

Listening is an incredibly important skill to develop. We are asked to listen in school, at work, to our kids, to our spouses. But do we really listen? I know that I don’t always listen when I should be. I think that I am listening but I’m really not. There are times during my yoga practice when I don’t listen to my body. There are times when I don’t listen to the teacher (yes, it is true). There are times when I don’t listen to my kids or my husband!

But now, due to this surgery, I’ve been forced to listen carefully. I will need to continue to listen carefully in order to facilitate healing. If I don’t listen, I feel physical pain. If I do listen, I let go and allow myself to rest and heal.

In many ways, this surgery has been a gift. I have a feeling that my improved listening skills will be one of the most special gifts of all.

Thank you for reading and listening to my story.

Peace. Cara

My Left Foot - Part 1: The Basics

2008-11-22T11:52:00.000-08:00

Stability has been the mantra in my classes, on my yoga mat and in my life for over 5 years. You may have heard me say in class, “find physical stability before physical movement, seek mental stability before acting or reacting or sit in emotional stability before speaking.”

While I intend to practice stability in my life, I have been living with an unstable left foot for most of my adult years. Last Wednesday I had some repair work done on my shaky left foot. The procedure in layman’s terms is called a Corner Fusion. Simply put, my doctors screwed together a joint in the top of my foot that I had dislocated 25 years ago.

The injury occurred during a touch football game in high school. Juniors against the seniors I recall. As the running back, I cut right, grabbed the ball from the QB, cut left and ran for a touchdown! It was in the pivot that I dislocated the joint and experienced a common football injury called a Lisfranc Injury. Back then however, it was called a “bone bruise”. After a quick x-ray in the ER and I was sent on my merry way with a pair of crutches.

Over the past 24 years, however, I have injured and re-injured that left foot in different ways. There have been ligament tears, nerve issues and sprains. Balancing on that foot on my yoga mat has always presented a huge challenge and has helped me learn to be patient and compassionate.

In search for some answers to my stability issues, I found Dr. Nick Romansky of Healthmark Foot and Ankle Associates, a well known podiatrist to professional athletes including the US Soccer teams at the World Cup, Olympics and more. He and I went on a quest to find the reason behind the chronic pain in my foot.

Dr. Romansky told me that my yoga practice had kept me physically balanced to date but that as I age, I run the risk of knee and hip issues due to the misalignment and instability in the foundation of my body, my feet. Those words caught my attention.

After CT Scans, MRI’s, multiple x-rays and physical therapy, his team of doctors reached the diagnosis that I had dislocated a joint at the top of my left foot that day on the football field. Simply put, what should be the most stable joint in the foot, he said, was completely unstable. My “keystone” was unstable and was becoming increasingly unable to support my body in a balanced way.

That was all I needed to hear. I know from my own yoga experience and training that our stability begins in our feet, our foundation. If the foundation is weak there will be excess stress on the body and eventually, stuff will break down.

So on Wednesday, my foot became more stable with a lot of expertise and some screws. I will not be able to bear weight on my left foot for about two months. It will be one of the most challenging practices of my life. I look forward to this time being one of growth and evolution. I will share my challenges with you in this blog that I plan to update a few times per week.

So, be grateful for your healthy feet and for your stable foundation.

I hope to stay connected to you all thru this blog and with your comments. Please share. I’ll be back to teaching shortly after Thanksgiving.

Peace.

Cara

Fighting the Good Fight

2008-11-18T05:49:00.000-08:00

I received my Quote of the Week yesterday from Andrew Cohen. He is a magnificent teacher and forward thinker. This quote gave me goose bumps and chills. Hope it does the same for you.

I highly recommend subscribing to his weekly email. www.andrewcohen.org

Cara

The Evolutionary Enlightenment Teachings of Andrew Cohen

I believe that any individual who has spiritually awakened in our time, to the degree that he or she finds a higher and deeper motive for living, is going to be driven to fight the good fight in one way or another. Whether it is through engaging with the struggle to evolve consciousness or fighting to save our world from climate change or nuclear war, the spiritual impulse cannot be separated from the moral compulsion to make the world a better place. And in order to fight the good fight, we have to engage, we have to get into the ring, not just stand outside it and be philosophers.

It takes guts and integrity of motive to fight the good fight. It takes a passionate interest in life itself. It's easy to stand on the sidelines, shaking your head and commenting on how tragic things are. But if you really care, you are going to be in the ring, trying to make the world a better place. And only from that position will your words and your thoughts and your insights have weight. When you live an engaged life, your sense of self gains depth and power and authority, and your philosophy is no longer abstract. You become a person who can really make a difference, because you are actively participating, you are digging deep, and you are pushing up against the edge of your own potential. ~Andrew Cohen

We Gathered Together

2008-11-01T09:48:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was an extraordinary day for Philadelphians. Two million plus fans gathered together for a parade to honor the Phillie’s and their world championship. Another few million watched at home as a city gathered with a single intention and that was to CELEBRATE! And celebrate we did. We celebrated the long awaited championship of one of our professional sports teams. We celebrated the city of brotherly love. We celebrated being alive together on the most perfect October day.

I wasn’t at the parade but it didn’t matter. The celebration was everywhere and I felt the joy out in the suburbs. So did the many others that I encountered throughout the day. In the grocery store everyone was smiling. At the bank, we all seemed to be ready to strike up a conversation. Life was just easy and fun yesterday. In Philadelphia, for one day, we were more connected than we were separate. And that was a very good thing.

There were no incidents yesterday. There was no fighting. There was a beautiful sea of red and white joined together to gather and be grateful. I hope that the world was watching because yesterday we showed the world what is possible when we are more connected than we are separate. Yesterday there was pure joy in this city. And it was a very good thing.

Yesterday gave me a glimpse of our potential as a species when we unite for a common purpose. It is powerful and it is possible.

So I thank the Phillie’s for giving us a reason to unite and gather in a common intention. I thank the city for allowing us the space to gather. I thank all the fans for joining together regardless of race, religion or political affiliation. We were one Philadelphia yesterday and it was magic.

Peace.

Rest Your Mind

2008-10-17T03:30:00.000-07:00

The concept of rest has been leading my practice and my teaching this past week. My intention has been to simply rest and to help my students find the space so that they can rest as well. There is something so comforting to me about the word rest. It seems to give me permission to slow down and shut down from the world even if just for an hour.

The need to rest our minds from overstimulation is now more important than ever. The media is in a frenzy barraging us with news of the financial markets and the election. On my mat last week I realized that I was feeling mentally and physically fatigued because I had been over dosing on news.

It was during that practice that I decided to just rest my mind. I felt an overwhelming desire to not do or think about anything. And so I did. During that practice, I let go of my need to perfectly execute each pose. I let go of having to go “deeper” in a pose. I let go of the alignment principles. I let go of everything and I rested. It was an incredible experience and is one that I have been able to duplicate over and over during the week.

After sensing my own overloaded mind, I then sensed this same syndrome in my classes. As a society, we have all been on an intense media high since early September and I think that we are all starting to feel the effects of the prolonged stimulation.

If you’ve been in one of my classes over the past week, you have probably heard me repeat the phrase, “Rest your mind on your breath”. It is such a relief to me to give myself permission to not think, not solve, not ponder anything at all!

There are so many decisions to make these days, that we truly exhaust ourselves by over-watching, over-listening and over-thinking. If you feel overloaded as I did a week ago, then I offer you this simple advice:

Try not to read or listen to the news more than once or twice per day.
Rest your minds in your cars by driving in silence.
Rest your minds at home by making a conscious decision as to when to watch the news
instead of having the buzz of the talking heads in your ears in a continuous steam.
Take 5 conscious breaths once every hour.
Get on your yoga mat and rest your minds while moving your bodies.

These practices have helped me get off the spinning wheel that I was on just a week ago. I hope that they will help you too.

I wish you a well deserved rest.

Peace.

Move Slowly, Move Peacefully. Go Far.

2008-09-18T18:33:00.000-07:00

There is an Italian saying that goes, “Chi va piano, va sano, va lontano. Chi va forte, va alla morte”. Loosely translated, this means he who moves slowly, moves peacefully and moves far. He who moves too quickly and forcefully goes right to his death!

I was reminded of this wise saying this week as the news of our troubled financial institutions took over the headlines. The predictions have been out there for us to read. Everyone knew that we were headed for more troubled times. However, we, meaning individuals, corporations and banks, continued to overspend and over borrow. The rush for financial gain has blinded our vision and we now pay the price as some of our oldest financial institutions head towards their death.

My nonna (grandmother) would often quote that Italian saying emphasizing the morte or death part with her hands. “What is the big rush?”, she would ask me? “Piano, piano, piano”, (slow, slow, slow) she would mumble to herself as I raced in and out of the house.

Finally, 30 years later, I am beginning to understand my nonna and it all started on my yoga mat. By slowing down my practice I have begun to move through my poses in peace. I have also been able to move in deeper and further than ever before. By slowing down physically, I have started to slow down my mind. The mental chatter will now sometimes (not always) settle into a rhythm sometimes in the first 20 minutes of practice.

I truly believe that our yoga and meditation practices parallel the way that we are living our lives. My practice is always so harshly honest that I cannot stand it sometimes! My practice reveals if I am forcing or moving too quickly. My practice reveals if I am lazy or doubtful. And as I like to say, if it is happening on your mat, it is happening in your life too!

I wholeheartedly believe that what I do at the individual level will happen at the collective level too. So if I over consume or over borrow, I will add to our aggregate issues. But if I learn to move slowly in this world, perhaps I will move more peacefully. And if I move more peacefully I know that I evolve as an individual. Now that affects the aggregate in a whole new way!

If we all start moving and acting more slowly, I know that we will move and act more peacefully. And if we all move and act more peacefully, I know that collectively we will evolve as a species. That is something to cheer about.

Grazie Nonna for your wise Italian words and for being my first yoga teacher.

A Golden Summer

2008-09-02T07:55:00.000-07:00

This summer my parents and my in-laws each celebrated their golden 50th wedding anniversaries. The happy couples got married two days apart in 1958. We celebrated this summer by honoring our parents and their amazing achievements. These two wonderful couples stayed together for fifty years while so much chaos and confusion occurred in the world. They were blessed to stay healthy and happy in spite of the risk of disease, accidents and premature death.

Both couples said that their recipe for success was their strong commitment to one another. They vowed to love and honor one another fifty years ago and were able to ride the storms of life on the foundation of those vows. Now, we all know that the story doesn’t always have such a happy ending but I do think that we can learn so much from people who have endured, persevered and achieved success from many, many years of hard work and commitment.

In our world of fad diets and fad fitness trends it seems that many of us jump into the newest and greatest fad feet first only to drop it like a hot potato in a month or less. Hollywood goes so far as to celebrate fad weddings only to see those fad marriages dissolve in a year or less.

What I have learned and continue to learn from my yoga and meditation practice is the necessity of a committing to a consistent practice. Practice can include prayer, meditation, yoga, walking, cooking, painting, etc. A practice can be five quiet minutes with your morning cup of coffee.
We will all be called to different practices.

I took some time the other day to write down my current practices. There are many in my life. A chose a few of the more important ones and committed myself to practicing them consistently for the next fifty years of my life. (That is if I am so blessed as to have fifty more years to live.) It was a powerful experience and has since charged me up in many ways.

So I thank my parents and my in-laws for demonstrating the powerful force of a committed practice. I am grateful to be a product of such commitment.

I share with you all below a terrific passage from the brilliant Buddhist teacher, Jack Kornfield. He further and more eloquently addresses what I’ve humbly tried to explain.

Peace.

If we do a little of one kind of practice and a little of another, the work we have done in one often doesn't continue to build as we change to the next. It is as if we were to dig many shallow wells instead of one deep one. In continually moving from one approach to another, we are never forced to face our own boredom, impatience, and fears. We are never brought face to face with ourselves. So we need to choose a way of practice that is deep and ancient and connected with our hearts, and then make a commitment to follow it as long as it takes to transform ourselves.

--Jack Kornfield in A Path with Heartfrom Everyday Mind, edited by Jean Smith, a Tricycle book

A Sharper Image

2008-08-08T02:26:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I had my eyes checked. It had been a year and a half since my last exam. The doctor strengthened my prescription… by a lot! In the words of Emeril, she said, “we’re going to take it up a notch”. I stepped outside with my new vision and my world was magnified! The leaves on the trees were defined and clear, the signs on the road popped out right in front of me. The clouds seemed so close that I felt I could touch them.

I enjoyed my drive home and drank in these new sharper images. I felt awake and alive.

This feeling of clarity reminded me of how I often feel after a yoga or meditation practice. Often times when I step out of the doors of Verge Power Yoga my world seems clear and sharp. Everything around me seems closer and more accessible to my touch. After practice, I feel a sense of connectedness with everything. I feel awake and alive.

What I recognized yesterday was that our practice sharpens our vision on a daily basis. It is as if we receive a new set of eyes every time we step on our yoga mat or our meditation cushion. Every time we are able to stabilize thought and settle the nervous system, we wake up just a little bit more. We connect with our world just a bit more. Essentially, after every practice, we “take it up a notch”. We sharpen our vision. We become clearer. We become more awake and more alive.

My revelation from yesterday is that to practice yoga and meditation is to receive a new prescription for life… every day. What a blessing.

Peace.

An Extraordinary Practice

2008-07-25T04:20:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I had an extraordinary practice. I took the one hour noon Stationary Series class. Same series of poses practiced one or two times. Very ordinary you might say.

It was anything but. This practice was something else. From the outside, I moved from ordinary pose to ordinary pose. But from the inside, my world was magnificently brilliant and completely alive. The reason for this, I think, is that I was able to stay present for a sustained period of time.

The Buddhists say that when fully present, the ordinary becomes extraordinary. Washing the dishes can become a deeply fulfilling practice. The Buddhist practice of sand art supports this philosophy. Each grain of ordinary sand, placed properly by a monk will collectively become a beautiful picture.

I stepped onto my mat yesterday with a simple intention to pay attention to my breath. That’s it. And I began… interlace fingers under chin, set gaze… take a deep breath in.
As I moved from pose to pose, tension melted from my body and the sound of my breath became magnified in my mind. A deep sense of peace came over me and the amazing thing is that I didn’t recognize this until after the practice. I was so focused on my breath that my mind did not recognize thought. I was practicing above the level of thought. So cool!

This state of being was not new to me. I’ve had glimpses. What was different for me yesterday was that I was able to sustain this state for the entire practice. The predictability of the Stationary Series supported and contained my experience.

Many of our regular Flow students are challenged in the Stationary Series. Mentally challenged, that is. I’ve heard it said that the Stationary Series is “so boooorrrring” or “it is the same poses over and over”. That’s right, it is! I felt the same way once.

However, the simplicity and the predictability of the SS class is the container in which the mind can practice being present. Since there is nothing to anticipate, the mind can relax in the moment. That is the beauty of the ordinary.

If I could bottle my experience yesterday, I’d sell a million by next week. But I cannot. As Krishnamurti said, “true power must be experienced”. I encourage you to practice only the Stationary Series for your next ten classes. At first it may seem ordinary but fasten your seat belts, the extraordinary may be only a breath away!

Peace.

A Little Mental Atrophy

2008-07-07T18:30:00.000-07:00

I’ve been out of town with my family for the past 10 days. We spent 4 days at a soccer tournament in Maine and the next 6 days on the Maine coast. The weather was great, the beach was beautiful and I relaxed just as one should while on vacation.

During the week, I ran a few times on the beach and stepped onto my yoga mat twice. I thought it was a pretty good attempt at keeping up with my physical routine. I came home feeling slightly toxic (but well tanned).

Having returned on Saturday, I stepped onto my mat at Verge Sunday morning at 7:15 am. The body felt fine, a bit slower and softer, but not too bad. It was my mind that was a whole different story. In short, I could not pay attention. I was distracted and dulled. The “fierce focus” that I had trained and developed over the past few months was definitely out to lunch.
I was truly surprised at how weak I felt mentally. My mental muscle had atrophied as a limb does when casted for a few weeks. During the practice, my mind continuously drifted to the past, the future and to places I had never even been before!

For the most part, I am very focused during practice. I do as the teacher says. I listen to my breath, focus my gaze and listen to my body. While my mind does drift away, I am usually able to catch my thoughts before they become a story and pull me away completely.

Over the past few months I have been very focused on being focused and in so doing I think that I have actually become mentally stronger and more stable. So what astounded me during my practice on Sunday was how quickly that mental muscle had softened due to lack of practice. It further convinced me of my view that we can train our mind to be focused just as we train our muscles to lift more weight.

I don’t regret taking the time to relax. In fact, I believe that it is just as important to rest and rejuvenate as it is to train and gain strength. So now my weak mental muscle and I will get back to work on the yoga mat and the meditation cushion so that we can build up the strength to focus, pay attention to stay present for a sixty minute Stationary class.

Peace.

The Heat is On

2008-06-11T18:15:00.000-07:00

The last few days in Philadelphia have been hot and humid. For those of you not living in the area, we’ve had record temperatures for four days. Those in the media here have had a field day with their excessive heat warnings and stories on how to “beat the heat”.

As the wave began and I started to melt, I remembered a quote written by Eckhart Tolle in his book, The Power of Now. He wrote, “Learn to surrender to what is”. In his book, Tolle advises his readers to try to surrendering to the moment instead of resisting what is happening.

So in this heat and humidity, I tried to do just that… surrender. I surrendered to the heat on the side lines of the soccer fields by staying cool under an umbrella. I surrendered by drinking tons of water and eating light. I surrendered in my yoga practice by slowing down. I surrendered as a teacher by keeping my classes simple for my students. Much to my surprise, it worked! I survived the heat without a lot of mental drama and the high heat is now over.

I think that the reason I was able to keep my cool is because I didn’t think or talk about it much. I consciously ignored the media hype. I think that if I had resisted the heat or struggled with the fact that the heat index was 107 degrees my experience would have been quite different. I know that I would have been thinking and talking about the heat incessantly. I would have also been watching the tube for ways to “beat the heat”.

What I’ve learned from Tolle is that resistance requires energy. Resistance causes thinking and too much thinking requires a lot of energy and creates stress. Too much stress agitates the nervous system and, and, and… generates HEAT! When we think and resist and whine and complain, we literally fry our systems. Wow. This was a big “ah-ha” moment for me. So by simply not thinking about the excessive heat, by surrendering to the moment, I was able to stay cooler both physically and emotionally.

This is a start. I recognize that it is a whole lot easier to surrender to a heat wave than to something much larger like a strained relationship, a work situation or an illness. This was a baby step for me, but it was a necessary step. I know that I will be faced with greater challenges in my life that will require me to let go and surrender. For now, I’ll take the heat wave and work from there.

Peace.

Recommended Reading: The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Be Here Now

2008-05-17T02:46:00.000-07:00

During my first few years as a yoga teacher, I focused much of my time and energy on preparing themes and finding quotes to deliver in class. I have stacks of books and journals in my office filled with highlighted text, opinions written in red, and ideas for future themes. I understand that all that work was necessary to bring me to the point where I am now. As I continue my personal journey inward, my studies and my teachings have been narrowed down to this simple message … Be Here Now.

Be Here Now is the title of a 1971 book on spirituality by Ram Dass. It was a revolutionary book bringing eastern studies and practices to American soil. Its title, now a coined phrase, has been repeated by spiritual teachers throughout the world.

Be here now. Show up fully. Pay attention to what you are doing. While growing up, we heard it from our parents and teachers. As adults, we are reminded of the importance of paying attention on our busy roads, at our fast-paced computers and on our yoga mats.

Woody Allen said, “80% of success is showing up”. Just show up! It is so simple yet so challenging with a list of things to-do a mile long and a calendar that is busting at the seams. Why can’t I drive to work, text my friend, look at my GPS and listen to the news at the same time. Why not?

The answer is painfully simple. Overdoing and over thinking creates stress in the mind and body. Paying attention and focusing on the moment as it arises, cultivates peace.

I write this week’s blog to help us prepare for what will be discussed over the next few months. Let’s start small, with a seed, and plant the reminder, “Be Here Now”, in the soils of our busy minds. You can write the phrase on several sticky notes and put them on your steering wheel and on your computer screen. Over the next few months, in this blog, on our yoga mats and meditation cushions, in our cars and at our jobs, we will explore tools and techniques that will help us cultivate this simple message.

Until the next time…

Recommended Reading: A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle

We are Made of the Same Stuff

2008-05-08T07:15:00.000-07:00

I have been keeping a journal since I was 10 years old. I have stacks and stacks of my most private thoughts stored in boxes covered with dust. It wasn’t until recently that I ever considered sharing my ideas through a blog community. I’ve been of the mindset that my private thoughts should stay private! I now see things differently.

Verge Power Yoga opened just three and a half years ago. During this time, I have taught hundreds of classes, been stretched and pushed, been high and low and have grown tremendously. It has not been easy. But through the challenges and the successes, the most important truth that I have come to learn is that we are all essentially made of the same stuff.

In essence, we are all one. We all have busy minds and experience similar emotions during certain seasons. We all feel physical discomfort in poses and love the high after a sweaty yoga practice. And, we all yearn for peace and clarity. It's that simple.

So often in class I will say something only to have a student rush up to me afterwards to ask, “How did you know that I needed to hear that?” I knew because I needed to hear it too. Since we all ponder similar questions, what I say in class and what I will write about in this blog may seem familiar or resonate with you. This blog is intended to connect us more intimately as a yoga community allowing us to share our life experiences and the yoga journey. As my journaling sparks your thoughts and growing clarity, I invite you to respond and share your experiences to enrich the yoga journey of others,(including mine).

Our topics will vary and I ask that all participants keep our running commentary respectful, thoughtful, positive, and focused on the yoga life journey. I will post an entry weekly. I welcome your participation and approach the Verge blog with great anticipation of our collective life and wisdom.

Namaste. Cara