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