Reminders & Updates....

Dear friends,

Namaste.

Thank you for giving me an audience to share my observations and thoughts on yoga and life in the form of this blog.  

Just a few reminders:

My book is now available.  If you are so inclined, please purchase a copy at www.junglewagonpress.com, or contact me directly at my email tammieciciura@gmail.com.  (Arrangements can be made for signed copies.)  

If you have already purchased the book and enjoyed it, please review it at amazon.com or share the link with friends.  

Also, I am planning author visits/readings/yoga sessions for interested parties.  Please pass on the word to any teachers or yoga studios that may be interested.  

My fall session of "Energizing Hatha Yoga" will meet on Friday mornings beginning in September.  Check the RVC Continuning & Community Ed catalog when it is released for registration information.

Thanks so much.

Shanti,
Tammie

Houseplants & Your Practice

I've recently become interested in house plants.  I was reading up on Hindu goddesses and found out that Lakshmi, the goddess of abundance, only visits houses that are clean, well maintained, and lush with plant life.  This seemed like a good rule of thumb to me. Then I visited a dear friend's home for the first time and was immediately drawn to her breakfast nook which was effectively transformed into a jungle.  Finally, the real clincher was  receiving aloe plants from my children for Mother's Day and the most adorable little succulent as a Teacher Appreciation gift.  I was hooked.  I wanted plants.  And lots of them.

So I went out a bought the cutest succulents I could find.  I hunted for cheap or free plants on Craigslist.  I browsed all of the local greenhouses.  I asked for starters from friends.  

And for the next 3 months, my plant journey had incredible ups and downs.  Some plants seemed to adore our home and where I placed them and others did not.  

At all.  

Some plants started out loving what I was giving them and then slowly began to be less than tolerant of it.  
Why?  

I wondered and so I started writing down the Latin species names and doing careful research on each plant I had brought home.  And over time, it became clear that plants are unique individuals.  Sure, they are all plants and want light, water, and some nitrogen in their soil.  But how much and when was completely unique to each plant. 

So I started to attempt to give each plant what it needed to thrive.  It was a little different for each one.  Some required more food or more humidity and some rarely wanted to be fed or watered.  Some enjoy the bright rays of the sun and some prefer shade and some like a few hours of sun, but can become sunburned.  (I will admit that this shocked me.  I had rather ignorantly believed that most plants wanted lots of sunshine and water.  Period.)  

Finally, I had an epiphany of sorts.
(It was actually pretty obvious lesson for life, but I really like the way the metaphor hit me.)

If you study a houseplant, you'll figure out what it needs.  If you give it what it needs, it will thrive.

Just as....

If you study yourself within your yoga practice, you'll figure out what you need.  If you give yourself what you need, you'll thrive.  

Maybe you need 108 active sun salutations.  
Maybe you need a passive, restorative practice.  
Maybe you need to put down roots and strengthen your legs and core.  
Maybe you need to open your heart.  
Maybe you can't do downward dog on your mat, but you can at a wall.  
Maybe you need to do yoga once a week to complement your other activities.  
Maybe you need to do yoga every day.

There are so many maybes!  How will you ever know if you don't really research, experiment, attend, listen, and accept?  Yes, accept.  Perhaps the key to unlocking the potential of your practice is not in striving, but in acceptance.  You are a unique individual and, thus, your practice must be unique to you.  Sure, there are basic tenets all yogis ascribe to and follow -- just like all houseplants need some amount of light, soil, and water.  But the variations within that are numerous.  So don't hold yourself to anyone's else's strict standards.  Be open and be informed and then make wise choices according to your own personal needs.  

Things That Make Yogis Go Hhhmmmmm........ "Science Declares Exercise Important to the Brain!"

  
I am currently reading a book named Spark! The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain. All of the comments on the back go on and on about how "groundbreaking" this work is, and while I'm glad that science is finally "proving" that the mind and body are connected, as I'm reading I can't help but think.....I already knew this.

Anybody who moves regularly or pays attention to their body already knew this.  

(No offense to the researchers or author who makes all the neuroscience stuff  in this book digestible.  I really do like knowing all the nerdy facts, so I can bust them out at a moment's notice and use them to back up my anecdotal evidence.)



This is what I already knew (in a nutshell): 

Movement is important.  It makes you feel good.



This is what the book says so far:

Movement is important.  It makes you feel good...........improving your mood, focus, and ability to learn by stimulating all kinds of action in the neural pathways of the brain. 



Pretty close, right?




Here are a few "nerdy science facts" I found particularly interesting:

Researchers in labs dissect mice brains who've exercised regularly and their brains are larger and more intricate than the brains of their non exercising rodent cohorts.  

And you know what else? They've realized that changing environment and stimuli of the exercise is important. Doing more complex motor movements in addition to simple aerobic activity is more beneficial than simple, monotonous aerobic activity.  In other words, rats who run through mazes and obstacles that change constantly have bigger brains than those that just run on the wheel.  

So, I connect the dots this way:   

We move, we learn. 

We try new activities, we create new ways of thinking. 

In other words, science is finally reaffirming what yogis and people who pay attention have always known:

Your thinking/emotional patterns are directly correlated to your physical body and vice-versa.




So the next time you are feeling down, anxious, stressed, unfocused, or low energy, science will now support me when I say something groundbreaking and radical to you:


"Move it.  Shake it.  Move it in a way that pleases your soul and body.  Challenge yourself, but don't overwhelm yourself.  Swim, dance, run, kayak, kick-box, walk, skip, gallop!  Play!  Play Ultimate Frisbee, Soccer, Basketball, Tennis!  Play in a new environment.  Enjoy it.  "

New Class Starts June 12th!

Join me for an exhilarating 8 week session of  "Energizing Hatha Yoga".  Summer is the time when light and growth are most abundant.  Take advantage of the season and let your physical being flourish as well.  Class will meet Wednesday mornings starting June 12 from  9:00-10:30 @ RVC CLR (behind Woodman's).  Sign up at RVC online services!

Hope to see you there!

Namaste~
Tammie

Good Space (It Doesn't Always Have to be so Hard)

I have decided to revisit a yoga reference book of mine from several years ago, which is now in its second edition.  In Yoga Anatomy (2^nd edition), Leslie Kaminoff offers this quote:

“Another ancient principle tells us that the main task of yoga practice is the removal of obstacles that impede the natural functioning of our systems.  This sounds simple enough but runs counter to a common feeling that our problems are due to something that’s lacking, or missing.  What yoga can teach us is that everything essential we need for our health and happiness is already present in our systems.  We merely need to identify and resolve some of the obstacles that obstruct those natural forces from operating,….This is great news for anyone regardless of age, infirmity, or inflexibility; if there is breath and mind, then there can be yoga.” 

Sometimes I still start to get competitive in my own personal practice.  I am a silly human, after all, with more than my share of "obstacles". But when I feel ego come creeping in, secretly judging the poses I am or am not doing, I remind myself of this concept of de-cluttering.  Sometimes the struggle of a challenging pose may not be good work, helping me progress in the right direction; but may be actually creating more obstructions and roadblocks.  So I back off and instead go really deeply into a more accommodating pose with a sincere focus on breath, alignment, and surrender, in hopes of achieving another concept Leslie Kaminoff reminds me of, Sukha, or as it translates, “good space”.

Sukha is the “good space” created when you can remove the obstructions.  You recognize it immediately when you encounter it. I like to think of sukha like an endless horizon of sky meeting water.  It appears and feels infinite.  It is gorgeous.  And, best of all, its inside of me.

I usually experience sukha in a pose, but I’ve been known to encounter it on a hike, in the garden, or while painting.  I’ve glimpsed it in my meditiation practice; like I can see it or observe it, but not quite “reside” there yet….

The following passage reminds me Sukha.  I find it so inspiring that I want to leave you with it.  This is a passage written by Sue Bender from Everyday Sacred:

“On a trip to New York my husband and I went to see the renovated warehouse that had become the downtown Guggenheim Museum. 

The uncluttered long white exhibition space floated – a limitless expanse of calm and stillness.  I was not prepared for the beauty of the white walls.  And the walls were white paintings.  White walls, white paintings.  Placed at intervals were four or five Branxusi sculptures.  That was all.  My heart was pounding.  This was what a temple should feel like:  a “temple of the soul.”….

An “inner light” radiated from the paintings.

The space was silent --- with that respectful, muffled silence of a cloister.  The word Purity came to mind. 

And immense.

This was the “immensity within ourselves” I had read about and hadn’t understood.

“It doesn’t always have to be so hard, “ I heard myself say – the Judge nowhere present at the moment.”

Namaste~

Tammie

Familiar Concept, New Perception

First, let me say this.  Thank goodness it is summer...and I work at a school and get to actually live for 3 months instead of merely managing life.  Yikes! 

Truly, I don't know how people stay in the grind; day in, day out.  They are super troopers.  Me, I thrive on down time.  It gives me a chance to look at things more closely.  Inspect them.  Admire them.  Give them my undivided attention.  See them in another light.  Take for instance, these flowers that I might just rush past on my way to and from work, soccer, and errands if it weren't summer. 


Second, let me say that I went on yoga retreat in March and I've been wanting to blog about it since the moment I returned, except.........I didn't know what to write.


I had a wonderul time.  My personal practice blossomed in new ways.  My teaching became more refined.  My synthesis and application of the hatha yoga system became more whole.  And, yet, because I didn't have that huge AHA moment of inspiration, I was unsure of what to share.  That is, until today when I had some down time and was looking at that iris so close through the camera lens that it became something completely different to me.  Observing it closely transformed it from ordinary to extraordinary and inspiring. And I realized that was what had happened on my yoga retreat.  I hadn't been given any new, earth shattering information.  I hadn't suddenly experienced kundalini rising.  It was easy to overlook what had happened because it was simple.

I experienced old concepts, but in a new way.

I mean, no offense to my amazing guru and hatha instructor at the Temple of Kriya Yoga.  But ....we did mainly the same things with mostly the same directions.  Yet, somehow, those things made sense in a different way. And I believe that can be boiled down to one thing: 

I was perceiving the teachings from a new place, a new awareness, a freshly built consciousness.  One that I did not have in 2001, or 2002, or 2006 when I last attended retreat.  All of my daily practice; all of my perceived successes and failures, all of my doing yoga and not doing yoga, all of my child rearing and house cleaning had meant something; they had a multiplied effect on restructuring my consciousness. 

My point is:  Don't get down on your practice -- whatever it is or isn't, there is benefit in doing and not doing and discovery and experience and reflection.  Stay committed even after the beginner's high and intermediate's plateau, take my word for it.  There is more.  There is always more. 

Too often we stop doing what we love or what is good for us because we want to see immediate results and progress every single moment.  Don't fall in that trap.  Stay the course.    

I know it is easy to become disillusioned with anything once its novelty has worn off. 

I know it is difficult to stay completely enthusiastic and commited to what we consider the mundane, daily tasks of life. 

I know it is sometimes even difficult to stay commited and enthusiastic to what we love and find beautiful because there are just so many things in this world designed to distract our attention.  

But I also know that there really is no more valuable gift we have to give than our attention.  Pay attention to what you're paying attention to and feel the subtle shifts in your consciousness, perception, and life begin.

Start seeing the familiar, ordinary world around you with a new lens of perception and allow yourself to feel amazed.  You deserve it.

 

Energizing Hatha Yoga with Tammie Returns: Saturdays in Spring!

Each day I notice the length of daylight increasing and I can't help but feel optimistic.  It is reassuring to see signs that spring is approaching, and, with it, the promise of growth. 

In March I will return to the role of student at a 3 day alumni retreat with the Temple of Kriya Yoga in Chicago (from which I received my certification in June 2002).  Remaining a student is a key to being an effective teacher.  I cannot wait to commune with myself, my practice, and other yogis and then bring back all of the knowledge and inspiration that I receive to share with my students.

Starting on April 6, I will be teaching an 8 week session of Energizing Hatha Yoga on Saturday mornings!!  Classes will be located in the Physical Education Center in the Dance Studio on Rock Valley College Campus.  Slots are filling quickly with old friends and new.  Be sure to reserve your spot!  Hope to see you there.

Namaste~

Tammie

Process. Passion. Repeat.

Every single thing that we encounter in our daily lives was once nothing more than a thought.  

As the old saying goes, "you were once just a glimmer in your mother's eye."  The same holds true for the chair you're sitting in as you read this and the computer you are reading it on.  They started as a thought in a person's mind.  So, how did they turn from an electromagnetic wave of a single person's consciousness into a hard, physical object that another person can grasp?  I'd say equal parts process and passion.  

Have you ever made dinner?  You had an idea or desire, like... macaroni and cheese sounds delicious.  Then you made it happen.  Easy breezy.  Nearly everyone has experienced a similar idea to fruition success.  The dinner one is fairly simple in the United States because lots of people help you along the way -- they have a vested interest in making it easy for to have the macaroni and cheese you so desire. 

Sometimes you have an idea or desire that is not so common, that doesn't have a built in group of vested supporters.  Those ideas require more process and passion, but can still be brought to fruition.  

You are the architect of your life.  Your thoughts and ideas are powerful.  What do you want to create? 

Besides a beautiful family, home, and life, I have always wanted to create a book.  Here's the story of my story....

Namaste:  A Little Yoga Folk's Tale 

I had an idea years ago that very few people were concerned about.  I wanted to create a yoga  book that I could read to and share with my unborn children.  I wanted it to make yoga accessible and meaningful to them.  In 2003, I had started searching for that book, but it couldn't be found.  

Yes, I found books with pictures and explanations of yoga poses aimed a children (a few, not many), but I couldn't find a book that translated the richness and meaning of a yoga practice directly into a child's life.  And, as an educator and a yogi, I really wanted the whole package.  

The book already out there felt like text books with colorful pictures.  Informative enough, but not meaningful or literary.  I wanted a story with a character and journey that children could relate with and learn from.    

So, since I couldn't find the book, I set out to write it.  I have my Bachelor's degree in Teacher Education and was a certified yoga instructor, so I had lots of ideas on making the poses come to life in a folk tale or fable type fashion.  I worked hard on a manuscript.  I studied publishing houses, and how to submit manuscripts and how to use active language and imagery aimed at children.  

And then those publishers I researched and submitted to rejected me.  8 times.  ....Ouch!

I tucked the manuscript away for about 8 years (one for each rejection letter, I think) and while I seldom thought of it, I never threw the manuscript away.  

Sometimes it seems that there is no growth or progress when you have a goal or idea, but not all growth or progress is visible.  Nurturing an idea often requires a fallow period (the period of time when land is left unsown to restore fertility) as well as active periods.

Fast Forward to July 2011  

A local publisher is in the 4th of July parade near my dad's home.  She is calling for contest entries.  She walks along the crowd and puts a flyer in my hand.  My heart dances a little when I read it.  I know right then that I will go home, dust off that old manuscript and send it in.  

January 2012  

Rejection #9 arrives in letter form from the local publisher, but this rejection letter is different.  It is not the standardized letter from an assistant.  This is my original manuscript sent returned with handwritten notes scrawled in every margin.  And many of these notes are positive --she loves the title, idea, and some of the writing.  

I find seeds of encouragement planted within this rejection letter, so I only sulk for a day or two this time.  And then I decide to try again.  Actively.  I spend a week rewriting and tweaking.  I resubmit.  

Rejection #10 arrives quickly via email.  It is frank and honest.  More ideas and suggestions are included.  Part of me believes this is the end because I'd have to compromise too much of my vision to bring this idea to fruition.  And then I realize....

She is right.  Absolutely, perfectly correct.  In one hour I write exactly the story I always wanted to tell using her suggestions, but compromising none of my principles.  I resubmit it the very next day, sure she'll think I'm crazy and stalking her and couldn't have possibly reworked it in the ways necessary....... but this time I know that I've done it and I will get a yes.   

That "yes" came one year ago.  And it made my year (thank goodness, because its been a long year of waiting since then). 

Today the illustrations and final edits are done and the book is "in design".  I can't wait to see and share the fruits of my labor when it finally takes shape this spring.  

But, until then, I wanted to remind myself and you to honor the process.  

You really can shape your life with your thoughts.  They need careful tending and management to bear fruit; but the potential of a single thought truly is infinite. 

Namaste~
Tammie  

    

The Taoism of Strength & Flexibility in Your Asana Practice

We humans tend to understand earth in terms of duality -- like light/dark, male/female, winter/summer, but the symbol of yin/yang illustrates clearly how in the height of any duality , the seed of the balancing concept is being planted and germinating (hence, the dots).    This concept of working in opposite directions applies directly to your yoga practice to find and maintain a balance by playing with the dualities of strength and flexibility and opposing isometric actions.

Many people mistakenly think yoga is all about flexibility.  I don't know how many times I've heard people comment, "I'm not flexible enough to do yoga".  Or others feel that only certain poses build strength.   And while its true that some poses will clearly illustrate to us if we are lacking in flexibility or strength in certain areas, there is no pose that is all about one or the other........just like yin and yang shows us. 

In some poses, you will have to activate strength in one area of your body to find true flexibility, length, and openness in another.  Think uttanasana & forward bends in general.  The legs must be fully engaged to allow the spine its full release.  

The same is true for for awakening your core strength -- in order to do so, you must lengthen and extend yourself beyond your normal limits with your limbs.  Think plank.  You must reach out through the crown of your head and heels in opposing directions and trust that your core will wake up and sustain you.  

Similarly, to engage the full strength and grounding support of your legs, you must work the thigh and calf and sometimes even the bones and muscles in opposing directions.  Think Virabhadrasana (Warrior) I.  The head of femur is internally rotated in the hip and moving back toward the hamstrings while the lower leg muscles work in external rotation, helping to ground the outer heel down toward the floor. 

And in Parsvakonasana it is important that the upper arm is externally rotated and the forearm is internally rotated.  This opens the chest and stabilizes the shoulder.  Yin and yang at work to bring out your best yet again!

I have found in my personal practice that embracing the dual nature of my body in poses has made a significant difference in how I experience the poses.  It is the key to finding balance, comfort, and ease in any asana.  

Namaste~
Tammie

New Year's Resolution

my new year's resolution is that i don't need a new year to make a fresh start. 

every morning the sun is risen again and a day dawns new and every morning i, too, can be resurrected, or perhaps just re imagined....

yes, re imagined. 

because i don't need to start all over; i just want to tweak myself into a bolder, truer version of me -- the woman who reverberates with joy in each moment. she who is fierce with joy instead of cowering in fear -- that is the me that i long to be.

 the beautiful part is, i don't even need to wait for a sunrise -- every breath i take holds the same opportunity -- a reminder that there is infinite possibility and that i am the architect of my life.