Yoga. For REAL people.

If you live in present day US, and you are not a skinny white woman doing intricate arm balances while modeling fashionable yoga wear, then you may have doubts as to whether yoga is for you................ a REAL person with a REAL body who struggles with flexibility, or balance, or strength.  

You probably think this because yoga has been largely marketed to skinny white women of a certain age.   

Don't believe the marketing machine.  

Sure, sometimes yoga looks likes skinny white women in Lululemon.  
Sometimes it looks like Indian men in ashrams.
Sometimes it looks like a new age hippie wearing birkenstocks and carrying crystals.

But, let me tell you from experience, it also looks like:

the 60 something lady with a sprained wrist who comes to class despite her injury to do just do what she can do and focus on her breath, 

or the 50 something guy whose hamstrings are super tight from a lifetime of overexertion who just wants to feel and sleep better, 

or the plus size 30 something lady who articulates every single pose with stability and balance that make me a tiny bit jealous, but mostly happy.

If you believe yoga is not for you because you are:

"not flexible"

"too fat"

not white

not female

not able to "shut off your mind"

not able to relax 

don't look good in yoga pants

Then, you may want to re-think the whole yoga thing. 

Instead, ask yourself if you want to experience anything from this list:

To know the self better.

To merge body, mind, and breath, so as to become a vessel for Spirit.

To feel healthier, more energetic, and happier.

To age gracefully.

To find greater compassion for self, and, ultimately, for others.

To feel at home in one's own skin and in one's own life.

Yoga is for the Individual who wishes to commune with Life.  If you want to achieve any of the results listed above, then yoga just might be for you!  Give it a try.

Namaste~

Tammie

Yoga Practice: Patience

If you are practicing yoga, you better get used to Practicing Patience. 

Inhale.  Patience.  
Pause.  Patience.  
Exhale.  Patience.

Patience is slow......... 
and I know how you might feel about that because I have been guilty of the same. 

Let's face it, not every day on your mat is a fireworks display.  

There can be long periods without visible progress or growth.  Without patience, your practice could feel repetitive or empty.  Because Practicing Patience is slow, it can feel counter intuitive to goal achievement (especially in our culture) where some marketing person is constantly telling you that there's a better, faster, easier way.  Don't believe the hype! 

Practice & Patience are key.  Here's why:

1. Yoga is a practice.   (which means you practice it.....over.....and over.....and over again.  without fail....)    

Think about this:  The Beatles performed live together more than any other group in history.  They had a "practice" of over 10,000 hours of experience before they ever invaded the US.  (Read Outliers for more info on that 10,000 hour rule) 


2. Patience is the key to accepting the space of time it takes for the "practice" to become REAL CHANGE (not just physical results) in our bodies, minds, and spirits. (Patience is the building upon building of concepts that become ingrained into our cells, our psyches, and our souls....)

Think about this:   
Practicing Patience is the key to Presence. 
Presence is the key to the Divine. 
Patience transforms our experience of the ordinary into something sublime by increasing our Presence.......Instead of tiring of your thousandth down dog, you revel in its myriad of intricacies, how you can experience it differently every time you observe yourself in it, how it transforms your inner body landscape into spacious plains and endless horizons of possibility.                



May you find peace in your practice.
May you find presence in your patience.
May your experience of life be transformed.

Shanti~
Tammie

Summer & Kids & Self Discovery

Shanti, Friends,

I am honored and excited to be a part of several fun kids yoga events this summer.   I believe summer is a magical time for self exploration, especially during childhood.  Unstructured time, longer hours of light, warmer temps....they all combine and create an atmosphere ripe with potential for self discovery.


Yesterday, I started a dialogue with my kids to get them thinking with these questions:


What do you do when not every moment of your day is accounted for and structured by someone else?  

What catches your interest and inspires you? 

Does the amount of time you are spending on activities accurately reflect what you say interests you?


Summer is ripe with possibility and potential and amazing growth because it allows children to explore themselves without too many demands or external pressure.  But its important for them to realize that the time is precious, a privilege, a gift.....because it allows us to explore what is in our hearts and minds.   

In my mid twenties I became depressed.   was in a state of constant anxiety.  And I remember finally asking myself one day when the last time I felt happy was.... (after looking for all sorts of external validation to fill the holes).  It was as a child......playing.  

So, I asked myself:

"What did you do when you were a child?"

(Its the smartest question I ever asked myself.)  



The answer was:

play make believe
dance, do backbends
look at the world upside down 
read
draw, color, and paint



I started to incorporate those activities into my life and slowly happiness started to emerge and bubble up from within me as I began to feel, well,  more like............me!

And now I do back bends and headstands for a living!  

So, let your kids (or  yourself)  free play this summer and watch what bubbles up in them and you.  

Namaste~
Tammie

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