Last few days to VOTE for Del's sake!

Yogis,
Only today, Monday, and Tuesday left to vote for AHC by texting and online- if possible please do both! Please get a few new folks (grab your partner's or coworker's cell phone, etc.) to vote and remind those who are already familiar. Historically the last few days can really shake things up in the ranks so we need to stay on top- we
have worked way too hard! The current #3 organization actually won the $250,000 in August and are back for more. But just look at the little lady to the right (with stuffing and mashed potatoes in her hair) and hopefully all your time, energy, and recruiting efforts are worth it! So many thanks and blessings, Katrina

All three sites below will take you to vote online:
https://sites.google.com/site/helpdelaney/
www.brothersroot.com
www.refresheverything.com/cureahc
> Text 104112 to phone number 73774

surya namaskar a

inhale rise, exhale fold, inhale look up, exhale chaturanga, inhale up dog, exhale down dog ((5 breaths)), inhale step or float, exhale fold, inhale rise, exhale Samasthithi ~repeat

Shiva Rea and Prana Flow Yoga

Hi friends, here's a little article from the Prana blog interviewing Shiva Rea and talking about the evolution of vinyasa flow yoga.  Check it out!

http://www.prana.com/blog/index.php/2010/11/08/shiva-rea-the-evolution-of-vinyasa-flow-practice/

Be apart of something bigger than yourself!

Please take time this weekend to vote for Alternating Hemiplegia of Childhood (AHC) in the Pepsi Refresh challenge 2 ways, online and by text:

www.refresheverything.com/cureahc
Texting 104112 to phone #73774

Delaney thanks you!

DH Lawrence essay, Education of the People, published in 1918

"How to begin to educate a child. First rule: leave him alone. Second rule: leave him alone. Third rule: leave him alone. That is the whole beginning."

Danny Morris teaching Mindful Leadership Workshop

For those of you inclined to business, and bringing yogic ideals into the workplace, our Danny Morris is teaching a workshop this weekend at the Vermont Center for Yoga and Therapy.

Serve Others

Yogis,

I need your help and Kathy has graciously allowed me to request it on this blog (love you, Kath). More specifically my daughter needs your help. Delaney has a very rare neurological disorder called Alternating Hemiplegia of Childhood (AHC): only 650 cases WORLDWIDE. There is no government funding to research or treat AHC and that is why we desperately need your help. AHC is in the running to receive $250,000 from the Pepsi Refresh program. You can vote daily online AND by texting EVERYDAY in November:

www.refresheverything.com/cureahc
By texting 104112 to phone #73774

Also, anyone you can pass this info onto is awesomely appreciated. So much love and namaste, Katrina

Vata Season - Grounding Breath

Vata (along with Pitta and Kapha) is one of the three humors, or doshas, which make up our personal constitutions. These principles are also present in the world around us, and dictate natural rhythms of our days, seasons and even our lives.

Autumn is Vata season. Vata is characterized by cold, dry, light, rough, clear and hard. Seems to make sense for this cold weather, right?

Staying warm, hydrated and eating nourishing foods such as soups, stews and warm grains are great ways to stay healthy and grounded. Another thing to try is a warming grounding Pranayama and yoga practice. (Ashtanga every night at 5:40 anyone?! :) )

Dirga, or Three-Part-Breath and Ujjayi Pranayama:

Start seated or even lying down. You may use a blanket to cover your body or wrap around your shoulders.

Start by taking deep, slow nostril breaths down into your belly. This way, we expand the lower lobes of our lungs, in turn massaging our internal organs, and signaling to our body that we are safe and happy.

Bring one hand to your side rib cage to start, then you may lower it down as you get used to the breath. The next step is to begin filling the rest of your rib cage with air. Start by filling you belly, then middle rib cage, then right up under your collar bones. You may even feel the air come into your throat.

As you exhale, do so naturally until you come to the bottom – you may use your abdominal muscles to squeeze the last bit of exhale out.

Begin again, starting with your belly first.

Once you become comfortable with this breath – you may layer a nice, warming Ujjayi breath over this.

Feel your seat grounded into the earth, and at the same time, lift the crown of your head to lengthen the spine. Picture your breath beyond your body – inhales coming up through your tailbone and out the crown of your head. The exhales coming down from the top, along your spine, and back out through the floor below you.

Ujjayi is a loud, ocean sounding breath, made by slightly contracting your throat. It is used in Ashtanga practices, but along with your Bandhas.

Read more about Ujjayi pranayama here.

Namaste.

Ma Bhaskarananda

A 20 Minute Gentle Practice

Made this for my family :)

Part 1

Part 2


Love you.

More on Vata Dosha Balancing

It's that time of year again, when the weather changes so swiftly it leaves you standing on the street corner shivering in shorts and wondering what happened to those warm, balmy afternoons (it was 80 degrees here last week in DC!). The anxiety kicks in and your mind blows around faster than the leaves on the street.  How do you get grounded again?

Anxiety comes from an imbalance of the doshas, an aggravation of vata in the nervous system.  To balance vata dosha, try the following:

1. An oil massage to reduce stress.  Use sesame oil if you have a vata dosha, coconut oil if you have pitta dosha, or corn oil if you have kapha dosha.

2.  Drink calming herb teas made from 1 part valerian, 1 part musta.  Steep a teaspoon of these herbs in 1 cup of hot water.  Drink twice a day.

3.  Almond milk is very good for anxiety.  Soak 10 raw almonds in water over night, peel off the skins and put them in the bledern.  Warm the milk and add a pinch of ginger, nutmeg and saffron.

4.  Orange juice is good if your anxiety is accompanied by a fast heart rate, ayurvedic practitioners recommend drinking a cup of orange juice with a teaspoon of honey and a pinch of nutmeg.  

5.  A warm bath of ginger and baking soda pacifies anxiety.  Add 1/3 cup ginger and 1/3 cup baking soda to a tubful of water, soak for 10-15 minutes. 

6.  And of course...yoga! 

*Here's a great list of foods that balance vata dosha:

http://www.holisticonline.com/ayurveda/ayv-vata-food-plan.htm

Managing Vata Dosha in Winter

Stop, Drop, and Roll: A Three Point Plan for Managing Vata Dosha

Tis the season to be vata – la-la-la-la-la, la, la, la…wait? What were we singing? Yes indeed friends, tis the season to feel our Vata Dosha begin to take the reigns. But fear not, out good friend and Ayurvedic practitioner Daniel Shankin (Sitaram Das) is here with a three part plan for managing our Vata Dosha this season – Stop, Drop, and Roll!

When the weather starts to change, and the harsh winds begin to blow cold, deranged expressions of Vata Dosha are sure to be close behind.  This vata energy can go out of balance at any time, and troubles many of us year round, but it’s particularly prevalent in the winter.  Vata is considered to be an accumlation of the elemental energies of air and space, and is associated with several qualites that we see manifested throughout the natural world.  These qualities include: cold, dry, light, mobile, rough, and subtle.  A large part of ayurvedic medicine is based on the premise that ‘like increases like’ and ‘opposites decrease’.  For example, drinking iced tea (cold) while driving very fast (mobile) on a windy day (rough, mobile) in February (cold)  is a good way to increase vata dosha, and the nervousness, insomnia, joint pain, energy loss, and depression that come with it.  Here is a simple, easy to remember, three point plan to make sure that your winter is as warm, juicy, sensual, and luxurious as any in recorded history.

Stop: For the Love of God, turn off the computer and go to bed already.  Close the 10,000 browser windows, quick checking your texts and keep your eyes on the road.  Put nineteen of the twenty books you are reading back on the shelf, and finish one.  And no, you aren’t going out tonight, to all five parties which all happen to be on opposite ends of town.  Just stop.  Renounce activity.  Eschew multitasking.  Don’t do something, just sit there.  Practice living calmly and simply.  Do bathtub yoga.  Let yourself off the hook when you feel like you ‘should‘ do something.  If you catch yourself feeling an anxious and obssesive need to fix, fiddle, improve, or adjust, drop your ass into meditation immediately.  Take some time to breathe deep, dropping into the body, and let your awareness explore the roots of your neurosis.  Once you’ve found your grounded center, rise up, and move from that place.  Ahhh, Exhale.

Drop: If we’re going to get this under control, we need to go straight to the bowels of Ayurveda.  Vata Dosha accumulates in the large intestine and colon.  When Vata runs wild it creates constipation, indigestion, and flatulence.  To keep this dosha at bay, we want to make sure that we move our bowels regularly.  Chances are, if you are reading this, you probably have a pretty healthy diet to begin with, and probably only need to make some minor changes to make sure that what goes in, comes out in a timely fashion.  Rather than fixate on lists of foods that are ‘do’s and don’ts’, just start paying attention to the way your meals affect your elimination.  Make sure that you are eating foods that are easily digestable as well as nutritious.  WInter is also a perfect experiement with spices.  Warm sweet spices like the kind you find in chai tea (cinnamon, cardamom, clove, etc) are perfect for winter, perfect for vata, and might just be perfect for you.

Roll: We all love our hot fast sweaty vinyasa flow classes.  Our favorite classes involve loud, funky music.  Nothing wrong with these classes, nothing at all.  Only thing is, they can aggravate Vata.  One of the characteristics of vata is that it is mobile, and is increased by excessive mobility.  Physical Mobility like fast flow yoga, and sensual mobility like loud fast music.  These two things increase vata in the nervous system and mind, and cause disturbances such as anxiety, insomnia, and lack of focus.    Vata is also dry, which means that if you are leaving a huge pile of sweat on the floor, you are dessicating yourself, and potentially making your life harder with symptoms such as dry skin and the aforementioned constipation.  I’m not saying to never do flow class, but it certainly wouldn’t kill you to mix it up and spend a little time with some of the more mature members of our yoga family, rolling around on the floor, rolling our joints open, lightly stretching and breathing into our chakras.  Rolling around on the floor is very pacifying for Vata Dosha.

Read more.....

http://yoganonymous.org/stop-drop-and-roll-a-three-point-plan-for-managing-vata-dosha/