Welcome to the Living Practice – February
2001
Letter from the editor
Passage from Jack Kornfield, A Path With Heart
Healing and Weight Training by Rick Gould
A Reader’s Note
The Multi Facets of Yoga by Julian Walker
FearIllusion by Colin Maduzia
Website Review by Dr. KEV
Kids Need Chiropractors Too! by Jeanne Lisella
A Prayer to God by Denise Levinson Ross
The Journey by David Whyte
The Birth of our Rose a yogic perspective by Megan Lurie
McCarver
Yoga eVents
Past Issues of the Living Practice
Greetings Lovely Readers on the Internet!
We are thriving! Keep the articles coming, love the poetry.
I truly enjoy reading and listening to the multi voices of the yoga community …
us! We all have so much to say, a great need to be heard and if we listen, we
just may learn from each other. Thank you again for giving me the opportunity
to do what I do best…. Connect!
I was very lucky to sit with two great teachers this last
month, James Baraz and Joseph Goldstein. James spoke on compassion and Joseph
spoke on wisdom. I was touched deeply in my heart while listening. I want to
share a story that James told us in reference to the importance of caring.
Practicing awareness enables us to see that life is full of
our suffering and those around us. He referred to suffering as the
"quivering heart". James stressed the importance of caring. He told a
wonderful story about a family that was suffering with poor health and severe
poverty that dwelled outside a large monastery. A young student asked the
Abbott "Why does this poor family have the karma to suffer so greatly? How
could that be?" The Abbott responded, "Perhaps it is not the karma of
the family to suffer but your karma to care."
Please keep caring! Don’t merge with society denying the
pain and closing the doors to your heart. A smile, direct eye contact, be
touched and allow those around you to care about you. Thanks for listening and
supporting Yogaeverywhere.com!
With love,
Megan
Passage from Jack Kornfield, A Path With Heart
"True compassion arises from a sense that the heart has
a fearless capacity to embrace all things, to touch all things, to relate to
all things. Chogyam Trungpa called this the spiritual warrior’s tender heart of
sadness.
He says: ‘when you awaken your heart, you find to your
surprise that your heart is empty. You find that you are looking into outer
space. What are you, who are you, where is your heart? If you really look, you
won’t find anything tangible or solid... If you search for the awakened heart,
if you put your hand through your rib cage and feel for it, there is nothing
but tenderness. You feel sore and soft, and if you open your eyes to the rest
of the world, you feel tremendous sadness. This sadness doesn’t come from being
mistreated. You don’t feel sad because someone has insulted you nor because you
feel impoverished. Rather, this experience of sadness is unconditioned. It
occurs because your heart is completely open, exposed. It is the pure raw
heart. Even if a mosquito lands on it, you feel so touched.... It is this
tender heart of a warrior that has the power to heal the world.’
The power of the compassionate heart, of genuine compassion,
to transform the pain we encounter is extraordinary."
Healing and Weight Training by Rick Gould
As a yoga teacher, I make a point of asking each new student
before class if he or she is working with an injury. I will question them to
the nature of their injury, and, invariably, a surprising amount will tell me
that their injury may have stemmed from yoga. As a result, they have curtailed
their practices, skipping poses that seem to aggravate the nagging sore point.
Recently, after experiencing my own injury, I found that weight training,
something I had before associated with nothing more than brute strength, could
guide me through a healing process.
I injured my shoulder, nor during practice but trying to
shift a stack of bolsters on a high shelf above my head. I waited what I
considered an appropriate amount of time to let the injury heal before I
practiced again, (a day), and then jumped right into my regular practice.
Unfortunately, on my first jump back to chaturanga, I felt the pain of the
injury spread deeper through my shoulder.
Asanas, which have a holistic healing component, sometimes
require strength not yet established or, in my case, compromised by injury. So
I decided to promote my healing by turning to other sources. I sought help from
a Chinese Chi Gung master. During our first session, I could feel the heat
through his hands and my shoulder begin to respond on an energetic level.
Feeling healed, my next time back to class, I kicked up into handstand and felt
everything we had done instantly undone. I became frustrated with the setback,
thinking that I would not be able to practice more than restoratives for the
rest of my life.
Around that time, a student of mine, a physical trainer,
offered to trade private sessions with me. I was skeptical but I decided I
could work around my injury and still help him with his yoga. Surprisingly,
when I told Ray about my injury, instead of ignoring my shoulder, he focused on
exercises that built the strength up in my deltoids (the muscles around the
shoulder joints) and triceps. Instead of pain, I felt stronger as he shored up
the muscles around my injury. Ultimately, this strength training allowed the
injury area to fully heal.
Now, I’m back to my daily practice of chaturangas, down
dogs, handstands and shoulder stands. I’m a little wiser, too, understanding
that yoga isn’t a pose so much as a process … a process that includes patience
and a little help from my friends.
Rick teaches yoga and meditation at Santa Monica Yoga. He is a practitioner of Vipassana meditation and an avid long-distance runner.
Ray Foreman, runs Foreman's Fitness, and has been a physical
trainer for 15 years.
Here’s A Note From Our Readers!
Check it out, it's important. "I have recently
subscribed to your newsletter, which is very inspiring and well written.
However, I was reading the section titled "Helping others by the click of
your mouse" and I immediately went to the hunger web site to donate my
free food, I wanted to let you know that on your newsletter it states that you
can only donate food once per person. This is only partially correct, you can
donate once per person/ per day! I think this is important for readers to know,
it will make them feel like they can really make a big difference. That's 30
meals in a month! Anyway, thank you so
much for your great newsletter!" Nicole, Florida
fearillusion
by Colin Maduzia
Love is eternal
fear is temporal
love is the ocean
fear the tide
love is
while fear is not
love breathes
oh fear, it quells
Love gives
what fear cannot take
whilst love remembers
fear seeks to forget
the perfection in us all
barely shadowed by fear
a fear but a blear
but a cloud to the soul
Love soars
in spite of fear’s falls
but falls are not falls
unless there are fears
for the end is naught
and love
is eternal
Colin is an inspirational speaker, writer and workshop leader who has enabled thousands of clients to live their lives with happiness. He is currently editing help yourself to happiness a guide to well being.
The Multi Facets of Yoga by Julian Walker
I want to lay out a map of the territory that we’re working
with in my classes. You may find that this map creates an interesting context
for the experiences you are already having or may have in the future. The
practice of yoga is a gradual process of awaking, healing and empowering every
level of who we are as human beings. Through this process, who we are at the
core starts to radiate through our entire being. However, the sequence will be
different from person to person and will follow a spiral pattern rather then a
linear pattern.
The Body
The physical body is the most basic level that we work with,
lengthening tendons, strengthening muscles, opening joints, cleansing the organ
system and sweating toxins out of our blood- streams. We are also oxygenating
all of the billions of cells in the body. As we open up, cleanse and energize
the body, we start to become aware of the ingrained patterns of tension that
the physical body holds. Sometimes this is the result of repetitive stress like
sitting, driving, lifting or typing, sometimes having an emotional component.
The Emotions
Often, we find that the physical tensions in the body have a
subtler, emotional basis. We all know the startled fearful look of the person
with their shoulders permanently up around their ears, or the tightly set jaw
of someone holding back their anger. It’s common knowledge that emotional
stress is the biggest factor in most back and neck spasms. Deeper then this we
start to learn how to track the over all emotional map of the body and how it
relates to our personality and behavior in the world. Sometimes, as the
physical body opens up, we will experience the release of pent up emotional
energy, this may take the form of sighing, moaning, "lion’s-breath",
or tears.
The Mind
As we practice, we are working also on focusing the mind.
Through attention to the breath we learn how to bring the mind into the present
moment. We enter into a meditative state of consciousness, in which we are open
to the experience of "being in the body" and honestly experiencing
our emotions in the present. As the mind becomes more focused, we also become aware
of the myriad of ways in which we self-talk, compare, judge and sabotage
ourselves. This provides an amazing opportunity for insight, healing and
change.
Soul and Spirit
As the body, mind and emotions cleanse, balance and heal we
find that deeper dimensions of who we are start to reveal themselves. The soul
level is often accessed through deep emotional opening and includes experience
of universal love, connection to all humanity, experiencing animal energies,
identification with mythic or religious figures, and a sense of soulful
pleasure in being alive. The spiritual layer is often being accessed through
the opening of deep mental clarity and includes experiences of
"self-beyond-ego", one-ness with God, seeing through personal
illusion into higher truth, and a sense of timelessness.
Please join me in the creation of an integrated yoga
practice in this new millennium!
Julian has been teaching yoga in Los Angeles for the last
seven years. He teaches in Santa Monica at Forest Yoga Circle, 1612 Montana
Ave., second floor and at Santa Monica Yoga, 1460 Ocean Park. In addition to
Julian’s busy teaching schedule, he does private bodywork, is the co-creator of
The Core Sequencing Ecstatic Bodywork System. This year he is also teaching The
Anatomy of Ecstasy Workshop Series. (310) 392-8542.
Website Review by Dr.KEV
My good friend Paul Bancroft
has created a programmable database of free online lessons.
Naturally, the lessons are powerful, yet easy to follow.
It is a fine example of how to effectively harness IT technology to make
more yoga available to more people, via the Internet.
Kids Need Chiropractors TOO! by Dr. Jeanne
Lisella, D.C
Parents who take their children to chiropractors are finding
the real benefit of having their children's spines checked. Chiropractors are
able to see early signs of development imbalances such as scoliosis and can
show parents how to examine their kids at home. Many times when kids come down
with stomachaches or colds, chiropractic adjustments, diet change and herbal
recommendations can alleviate their discomforts.
I have seen children who suffered from colic, headaches, ear infections and
sports injuries who have responded very well to adjustments when a vertebral
misalignment exists in their spines. Children, like adults, also do well
with maintenance care. Their visits tend to be less often; from every 2
months to 6 months. It is a good, safe, non-invasive and inexpensive way to
watch for a child's postural development.
The following is from recent research and clinical studies:
1. Asthma: Study of 79 patients for asthma with spinal adjustments concluded
that younger patients respond more favorably than adults after only 5
treatments. Nilssen and Christiansen. 1988. J. Aust.Chiro.Assn.
2. Colic: Chiropractors have found a high incidence of abnormality in
cervical and thoracic spinal joint dysfunction in colicky infants. One
Danish study showed that if a chiropractor determines that the infant has a
spinal functional disturbance chiropractic treatment has more than 90 per
cent chance of resolving the infant's colic. David Chapman-Smith,
"Chiropractic Report", November 1989, Vol. 4 No. 1, Danish Study of
Infantile
Colic.
Dr. Jeanne Lisella, D.C. is a local Santa Monica
chiropractor in family practice for
over 10 years. She specializes in women's health issues (PMS, menopause,
pre/post natal care, and osteoporosis) and children's health.
Office Phone: 310-396-5014
FAMILY CORNER - A PRAYER TO GOD by Denise Levinson Ross
As parents we need to teach our children how to pray to God. this can
take place during yoga, meditation, at a meal or before bed time. The
words are not as important as the ritual.
Children love to do a task several times. Have them say a prayer every night
before bed - thanking God for their family, good health, food, and shelter.
They can sing a song, draw a picture or write a letter.
Prayer is very unique to each individual. Be creative with your children
and enjoy a new family ritual - Thanking God on a daily basis.
Denise is the owner of Love 2 Read personalized children's
books. She enjoys reading with her daughters, Emily and Hilary each
day. Denise and her husband, Mark share the joy of reading with their
children each day. They have enjoyed the meaningful discussions about
God with their daughters and have found the reviewed books to be very
helpful.
THE JOURNEY by David Whyte
Submitted with love by Stewart, California
Above the mountains
the geese turn into
the light again
painting their
black silhouettes
on an open sky.
Sometimes everything
has to be inscribed across
the heavens
so you can find
the one line
already written
inside you.
Sometimes it takes
a great sky
to find that
small bright
and indescribable
wedge of freedom
in your own heart.
THE BIRTH OF OUR ROSE
"a yogic perspective of birth" by Megan Lurie
McCarver
Little Rose McCarver was born on February 17th,
1999 just after one in the morning. She came out smiling, weighing eight pounds
and five ounces and twenty-two inches long. Like the perfect little baby she
is, she rested on my chest for over an hour and then latched on quickly to my
breast. Her arrival was completely divine, although long, and I will always
treasure the memory of her journey.
To give birth demanded great focus and attention (sthira),
posture (asana), conscious regulation of the breath (pranayama), community
(satsung) and faith (sraddha). Birthing sweet Rose required all my attention
and focus. I listened to the messages of my body, the fears and doubts of my
mind, the inner wisdom of my ancient ancestors, and the prayers and blessings
of the community. Years of practicing yoga allowed me to generate energy where
it was needed in my body and to surrender tension that was in reaction to a
contraction.
The postures and transitional movements in yoga have taught
me to embrace my own limitations and to differentiate between pain and
sensation. Each contraction was like a challenging new posture in a yoga class.
Pelvic tilts accompanied each contraction, softening and assisting the time to
pass and sweet Rose’s decent to be complete.
Labor and delivery required conscious regulation of my
breath. It was like a two-day, two-night pranayama marathon. The sound of my
Ujjayi breathing soothed my soul as well as Rose’s. At times, Gary, my super
wonderful husband, and Kristi, my dear friend and duola, assisted me in my
movement and we practiced Ujjayi breathing as one. That’s the power of love.
When a new baby comes into this world hearts open and those
around us soften. The community I created for the birth of little Rose
resonates with pure love. Rose knows she is welcomed. It started at my heart
and spiraled out to my husband Gary, my family, my friends, my yoga students
and my clients. Throughout my pregnancy, their support, and prayers and
blessings were heard and received.
To have faith is to eliminate doubt. I knew darling Rose
wanted to come out and join our community. I knew gravity would assist her. I
knew my body was healthy, my mind was focused and I was supported. I knew that
God knew. The night I began my labor, the women at the sweat lodge prayed for
me and my dear friend Robert, with a heart as big as the whole world, went home
to meet God. When everything that needed to be done was done, my little love
was born.
I’ve been told that "some teachers try to teach life
while other teachers allow life to teach them". Thank you life, for your
teachings, and thank you for our little Rose.
Megan is the founder of www.yogaeverywhere.com. She teaches
several classes per week and is available to teach yoga for corporate seminars
and conventions. Her specialty is introducing people to the yoga community in a
gentle and kind fashion. Megan@yogaeverywhere.com