Left coast Ahava

Final entry

2007-06-06T13:48:00.000-07:00

This is the last entry for this blog, I've moved it to another site, will provide a link there soon as I've figured out this wordpress thing.

The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz

2007-05-27T10:22:00.000-07:00

I just finished reading The Four Agreements by Miguel Ruiz. Its a short, simple book, and I liked it, but as with most spiritual books its not reading that changes you, its practice. Of course, awareness of a problem and the possibility of working towards a solution are the first steps...

Ruiz starts by pointing out that we live in a waking dream, the structure of the universe lending an underlying framework of reality to our subjective view... our perceptions of the universe are created by agreements we've made within ourselves and between each other. Most agreements are subconscious, but when we break one we punish ourselves (The Judge), when we turn our backs on what is good and right in the world we tell ourselves that its not for us, its for the rich, talented, beautiful, everyone else but us (The Victim)... that each of us is host to a multitude of voices, and until these voices subside or agree progress is impossible...

The agreements are:
Be impeccable with your word - Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of the word in the direction of truth and love.
Don't take anything personally - Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own dream, of their own reality. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others you won't be the victim of needless suffering.
Don't make assumptions - Find the courage to ask questions and express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama.
Always do your best - Your best is going to change from moment to moment, it will be different when you are healthy from when you are sick. Under any circumstances, simply do your best and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse and regret.

I just bought Asana Pranayama Mudra Bandhafor my return this week to the island... its supposed to be a fairly comprehensive yoga manual.

Salt Spring Centre of Yoga, Karma yoga

2007-05-23T23:45:00.000-07:00

Just returning from camping out on salt Spring, I got to spend three wonderful hours on the dock in the sun before it began to rain - for four days - I did get a bit of work there, which is good, but my yoga practice not so much - being out in the rain and cold I very much slacked...

The Salt Spring Centre of Yoga offers karma yoga - you camp on the grounds (sometimes a room is available, but these are mostly for paying guests) but eat vegetarian meals and have access to the facilities, practice yoga, meditation, kirtan for 2 months, work about 32 hours a week cooking vegetarian meals, cleaning, gardening... I considered it, but I'm familiar with Salt Spring and was thinking this would be nice to do at some ashram somewhere else I've never been yet. I don't know where, just thinking. Yoga immersion.

My body missed daily yoga! I just started doing it earlier tonight without really planning or thinking to, the body wants to move! Sometimes, if I haven't gotten it out of my system that day and don't have space or time, I start envisioning and almost feeling what it would be like to be in an arm balance (I'm still new but I love them) - bakasana, side crow or other poses...

Brain food

2007-05-21T08:41:00.000-07:00

In this month's , psychology today magazine they published an article that says our brains use a lot more energy, fueled by glucose, when disciplining ourselves, starting or breaking habits, particularly dieting, its tough work on the brain and the brain needs to be fed! Glucose is best found in complex carbohydrates... I can't find the article online yet but here's some excerpts.

One of the article's main points was how frequently people sabotage themselves when beginning a diet by reducing the very foods the brain needs more of to exercise discipline... but it would apply to any change of habit or exercise of restraint. I suppose exercise is a key word here.

Anatomy of Hatha Yoga

2007-05-09T11:05:00.000-07:00

Directed at teachers and serious students, I had to pick this up after I found it at a friends' place, I've read it twice and use it for reference; Anatomy of Hatha Yoga by David Coulter is written from a scientific and practical rather than traditional or spiritual view point.

www.bodyandbreath.com:

"As the third millennium begins, Anatomy of Hatha Yoga is the only modern authoritative source that correlates the study of hatha yoga with anatomy and physiology. Yoga teachers, personal trainers, medical therapists of all kinds, or anyone who is at times curious or troubled about how the body responds to stretching and exercise will find in this book a cornucopia--partly new and partly old--of readable and reliable information. Chapter 1 summarizes general principles of anatomy and physiology as applied to hatha yoga. Breathing is next in chapter 2 because yogic breathing expedites movement and posture. Breathing is followed by pelvic and abdominal exercises in chapter 3 because the pelvis and abdomen form the foundation of the body. Standing postures will then be covered in chapter 4 because these poses are so important for beginning students, and because they provide a preview of backbending, forward bending, and twisting postures, which are covered in detail in chapters 5, 6, and 7. The headstand and shoulderstand, including an introduction to cardiovascular function, are presented in chapters 8 and 9. Postures for relaxation and meditation are treated last in chapter 10."

Procrastinating Blogging

2007-05-01T20:55:00.000-07:00

Well, good intentions are no match for procrastination here. Been longer than I'd like since I've posted... here's a list of reasons from webomatica of why they nearly quit blogging, so in the absence of my own news or muse. That's it.

The Perfect is the enemy of the Good

2007-04-25T11:32:00.000-07:00

The important thing, I've learned lately, is not to gather information and try to do something perfectly from the start, its to just get at it, hope for the best, correct your mistakes.

Breath Awareness

2007-04-20T11:07:00.000-07:00

A big day today, lots to do, but always the email calls and so I'll throw in a post here too! Yoga Journal's Daily Insight today - Breath Awareness, its something I've thought about recently.

I discovered how I breathe in a certain way when I become sentimentally saddened (I don't mean genuinely sad because someone I care about is hurt, but sad because I saw something on TV that triggered a memory... unreal emotion), and just becoming conscious of my breath seems to dissipate this feeling... observing the connection between breath, mind and body.
This observation is something I sometimes remember to do throughout the day, when I'm working, walking, conversing... feelings randomly popping up - why?

Here's another link to a breath awareness meditation.

Two books I picked up recently, both by Richard Rosen, on pranayama are The Yoga of Breath and its sequel, Pranayama beyond the fundamentals (which I unthinkingly bought first, and won't be able to practice at least until I've worked throgh Yoga of Breath, which may take some time!!). Can't review them just yet!

mindboggled from too much googling

2007-04-19T21:12:00.000-07:00

Researching subjects completely unrelated to yoga and wellbeing... my mind is scattered, the net disorients me after a while... I'm going to try to post to this blog every day or three as a way of refocusing my attention to what I enjoy... so posts may not fit into any neat pattern and thats all that is.

Semi related, if only vaguely...

One of these days I'll get around to adding amazon links for books too. There's a brick-and-mortar used-spiritual-bookstore I like nearby which I sometimes go to first, but otherwise I order online a lot...

yj article; fitness

2007-04-18T20:46:00.000-07:00

Wish I'd read this before I paid $100 for a gym membership which I'll barely have time to use anyway....

In one of the first studies done in the United States that examines the relationship between yoga and fitness, researchers at the University of California at Davis recently tested the muscular strength and endurance, flexibility, cardiorespiratory fitness, body composition, and lung function of 10 college students before and after eight weeks of yoga training. Each week, the students attended four sessions that included 10 minutes of pranayama, 15 minutes of warm-up exercises, 50 minutes of asanas, and 10 minutes of meditation.
After eight weeks, the students' muscular strength had increased by as much as 31 percent, muscular endurance by 57 percent, flexibility by as much as 188 percent, and VO2max by 7 percent...

wouldn't have changed my mind though its nice to know.

I guess it's pesto?

2007-04-17T17:20:00.000-07:00

basil, chopped fresh
garlic, minced
olive oil
hemp seed oil
hemp seeds
nutritional yeast

add to (well salted water) pasta w/ sundried tomatoes, chopped veggy sausage, cayenne flakes
or whatever.

P.S. I transplanted this post over to another blog I started for recipes.

אהבה

2007-04-16T22:09:00.001-07:00

To my muse, a wonderful spirit I met by the lake last summer; Love, peace, light.
It was pissing rain today, my super asked me why the hell I was smiling, I said, "I'm wet, cold and miserable, but I'm happy".
Between yoga, sobriety (6 months yesterday), growing up (better late than never) and thinking of you, I'm happier these days than I ever remember being.
Even when its pissing and cold.

Bikram's beginning yoga class

2007-04-14T10:52:00.000-07:00

First off, I don't actually recommend this book, but since I have it and I went to a Bikram's class, here's a review.

Bikram's beginning yoga class by Bikram Choudhury has been sitting on my shelf for sometime. I'll read it again before I go to another Bikram's class, or at least skim it and walk through the asanas. I don't like Bikram's writing style; he writes as if he is talking to you - cajoling, haranguing, a lot of filler, not to my taste. On the other hand, he obviously knows what he's doing on a physical level, which is the level most of us enter here.
This book can be taken as an exercise/stretching program, and a good place to start for those new to yoga. There is no reference to the mental, moral and spritual aspects of yoga, but with only the 26 asanas chosen by Bikram as the most valuable, the brevity is an advantage as an introduction. I remember feeling overwhelmed by many yoga books when I first started, with their hundereds of poses. Now I enjoy the challenge and variety of hatha (I have a poster demonstrating 908 poses on my wall. No, I can't come close to doing most of them yet. Bikram's style excludes them as unnecessary), but it takes time to develop confidence in the body.
This book is a good introduction to yoga and to Bikram's, but nothing prepared me for the heat of the Bikram's studio, a whole other dimension. Skip the chatter if you don't like it.

Bikram's hot yoga

2007-04-12T22:49:00.000-07:00

Finally went to a beginning Bikram's class tonight, had put it off for months despite how close it is to the hatha studio I regularly go to. Creature of habit.

I've practiced yoga at home, in hatha, ashtanga and power classes at various studios, almost daily for about 8 months now, and none of it remotely compares to hot yoga! I knew all the asanas, but not in detail for this style, and I have trouble with standing balances, particularly on my left leg. Keeping my knee locked was difficult there. The instructor was drilling us with instructions and corrections non-stop, which was different too.

The heat had me sweating moments into it, and I hadn't drank enough water, particularly after working outside all day... I thought I might faint, but just breathed through it and kept working at it. The heat allowed greater flexibility, and I'm sure I'll be able to push further next time!

I love yoga, but didn't really enjoy this. Still, I feel completely spent and relaxed now, and I think it will be a good way to push my practice forward. I'll go back sometime(s?), and drink lots of water first, but stick with my daily hatha practice as my main thing for now.

Treated myself afterwards to a bento box at a nearby sushi place and noticed how calm my nerves were, how completely relaxed I was, but mostly I was thinking, OMFG.

About this blog

2007-04-11T11:23:00.000-07:00

This is my personal blog, so if anyone else is reading, that's why I may not seem to be too focused here - I'm writing mainly but not entirely for myself and I am not a highly focused person. I do have a variety of interests, as anyone should, but yoga is my main thing here.

As for yoga, I'm not an expert, I don't teach, though I hope to take teacher training sooner rather than later, but I try to learn everything I can. I practice (almost) daily, strive for 90 minutes a day but life gets in the way still. Ideally I would be practicing 3 hours daily! I love it!

I wrote this entry on May 10, 2007, but am publishing it as if it were my first. I suppose that's a big no no in blogging. Oh well. Maybe I'll also revisit and fill out some of my entries sometime, I'm new to this and I'm just trying to get in a habit of writing often, so some entries aren't always satisfactory to me when I publish them, but I publish anyway just to build this habit.

Today I'm unemployed, as I was downsized last Friday, so I have a little time on my hands to write, but usually I'm working all day, have a little time to shower and relax with a tea, then go to the yoga studio, come home and eat, internet, read, sleep, wake at 5am, meditate, off to work... very little time to do much else. Also, though yoga is one of the most important things I do in my life - it gives me the energy and optimism that underlies everything else I do - it is not at all the only thing. I assume I'll probably have to look for work again soon as the cash runs low, credit runs up and bills come in, but meanwhile I'm educating myself as best I can to become self-employed. Though this is my personal blog, one has to have some focus, so those efforts will not be blogged here... I've also started a blog for recipes and food information, and will probably start other blogs that focus on short term, focused interests of mine rather than cluttering up my personal blog.

I've put in some links to Amazon in posts about books, and I may monetize this blog at some point - after all, if I can make some money doing what I enjoy, I can do it that much more often - but really, I'll be lucky if this blog ever gives me enough money to buy a book. But that's okay, its not the point. I just thought I should mention, to those who care, that I'll make a small % from the sale of any books purchased through links from this blog. That said, I don't recommend anything I don't believe is good. Currently I haven't put any other income streams in here, but then, I have no traffic anyways!