My Blog

Why do some people seem to manage stress well? What is the secret to finding hope even when things are messy? Research is pointing more and more to the concept of “resiliency”.

What does yoga have to help build resiliency? Tons! But let’s look at 3 key pillars of building resiliency.

1. Acceptance: Growing up, along with my formula, I swallowed the fairy tale that if I just worked hard enough, suffered enough, helped enough, was pretty enough… well, you get the picture… that I would be happy. You might label this the Cinderella syndrome. It’s time to grow up and accept that life will be challenging and often unfair. In his landmark book, The Road Less Travelled, Scott Peck’s first sentence was, “Life is hard.”. And it can be.

Yoga helps by giving us a lived experience of getting comfortable with the slightly uncomfortable. Holding a pose or learning to balance on one leg is challenging! Your instructor lovingly, skillfully and gently brings you along to accepting more and more of this challenge. Eventually, you gain confidence that you’re flexible not just in body but mind too!

2. Gratitude: This is mindful awareness of what is really going well.  Taking time to notice the gifts, no matter how small.  We have to consciously cultivate this skill.  We are hardwired to search for environmental risks as a survival skill.  This can lead us into constantly striving to “fix” our environment.  This leads to difficulty because not all environmental risks can be fixed, and our internal environment (ie emotions) are what they are.  The way we can master a new language or quit a job does not work to control emotions.

Yoga helps on several levels. A complete yoga class should weave in mindfulness and a meditative focus. Dwelling in this present moment awareness literally shifts the activity in the brain from “gotta fix that” to “acceptance”. It’s like the transmission on your car. You shift gears from stress response to seeing things more clearly.

Yoga helps as well by drawing your awareness to what is really working well. The range of movements and topics is so vast, you’re bound to see things in a new light after your practice.

3. Make Choices: We always have choices.  When faced with a choice, ask this key question: “will this decision serve me or help me?  Or will it likely bring me harm?” Almost 90% of our behaviours are routine or guided by instinct/habit. Exercising your discernment muscle builds ability to say no when needed or to recognize when something doesn’t serve you well.

Yoga helps when the instructor constantly offers choices and reinforces his/her confidence that you will take your unique path. There are no categories or graduations in a yoga practice. Every time you hit the mat is a fresh experience. This is drastically contrasted with most of our modern activities. As you get more familiar with truly listening to your body’s sensations and messengers, you’ll take that skill into asking that all important question from above.

Guest Blogger: Oda Lindner, E-RYT500, Yoga Therapist

Much of yoga is about embodying wisdom in our daily life. In practice our wisdom is often hindered by our reactions or by the patterns that are the result of our past conditioning and experience. Automatic reactions keep us often from embodying what we know to be true. Yoga has tools that help us see the dysfunctionality of these reactions and patterns, and it can help us become more who we truly are.

In traditional Yoga each human being is seen as a system that contains many lines [nadis] through which the life force flows. The flow of Prana in these nadis support our physical, psychological and mental functioning. The flow can often become interrupted, and the lines can become twisted and tangled. The reasons for the tangles can be found on the physiological, psychological level and mental levels. Many centuries ago yogic texts identified three major groups of tangles or ‘knots’ (granthi) that appear in our system. These knots are located along the central axis of our system. They are the ‘knot of desire’ in the lower belly, the ‘knot of action’ in the heart region and the ‘knot of ignorance’ in the center of the forehead. 

The lower belly knot (Brahma Granthi) is associated with ego-centered desires -think Amazon ‘must haves’. The knot in the heart (Vishnu Granthi) is our attachment to ceaseless action, doing and achievement. And the knot in the forehead (Rudra Granthi) is the ignorance about who we are and what we are here for. In order to embody true wisdom in daily life we have to open and untangle all three of these knots. 

Interestingly, yoga has different tools that can be applied to untie these knots. On the level of embodiment it can use physical poses like strengthening the lower belly, opening the chest and releasing tension in the neck and the head. On the level of energy we can use breathing, mudra and manta to untangle and guide our energies. And on the level of awareness Yoga can apply reflection, realization and meditation.

To further explore how yoga can help you “untie”, please consider the “Masterclass” starting February 4 and running for 6 weeks (Thursdays 7 – 8 pm EST). During this course we will spend 2 classes on each knot. We will explore each area on the level of embodiment, energy and awareness. We will then see if, with the help of these tools, we can surface some the reactive patterns that form the basis of each knot. And in the end we may be able to loosen each area a little so that the natural wisdom that is at the heart of our being can shine forth into the actions of our daily life.

A recent article in Alive magazine got me thinking. What is self care? The medical definition refers to a patient’s ability to follow through with doctors’ orders. How will they be able to take the steps necessary to build health.

In modern marketing, self care has been used to peddle spa treatments, luxury shoes and exotic travel. Are these items, for example, necessary to health? They may be very pleasant and desirable but they don’t have any direct benefit to your organism.

This is where it is important to understand that self indulgence (what’s a little dark chocolate between friends?) is lovely but it is not self care. By defining self care as those luxuries, we leave out huge swaths of individuals who can’t afford them or who don’t have access to them (maybe they’re tied down with family responsibilities or travel is unsafe).

And I’m in the business of supporting self care. Yoga therapy is not something that is done to you, like massage. Yoga therapy is the active process of evaluating where we’re at now and deciding what simple techniques can be employed (ie self care) to bring more balance. Almost anyone, anywhere can practice yoga therapy. As a yoga therapist, I spend considerable effort to communicate the tools clearly and freely. In this, I hope to include as many as are interested in the self care rituals.

When you are evaluating your lifestyle and thinking about improving your mood, physical health or mental abilities, please consider your responsibility in making that happen. Ultimately, no one practitioner can “fix” you. It’s up to you to take responsibility for your own self care. It’s not a “luxury” to hit your yoga mat or take time to therapeutically relax. It’s not something that goes on the “to do” list only to be outmuscled by shopping or travel (something more fun). Yoga is self care … health care.

Please try some of the free video resources on this site. It takes as little as 10 minutes a day, and can be absolutely free, to practice true self care.

As many of you know, I enjoy escaping and embodying a “hippie” sort of lifestyle for several months a year. My refuge is a 17′ travel trailer that we have outfitted with all the comforts necessary. When you spend that much time on the road, you need to make a commitment to healthy lifestyle which means you’re not really “on vacation”. That means eating healthy, bringing my yoga mat along and maintaining a meditation practice.

In this video, I try (with my little iPhone) to give you a sense of the space inside the trailer and I demonstrate preparation of a lovely Thai style shrimp stir fry. It’s always fun to peak into someone else’s kitchen, I think, and this one is unusual… about 50 square feet or less. Let me know if you try the recipe and send me your tiny kitchen tips.

Our modern lives are permeated with advanced chemicals.  Compounds that would be unrecognizable just 100 years ago abound in everything from foods to fabrics to manufacturing processes.   Although each of these compounds has been tested for safety, I sometimes wonder about the cumulative exposure.  

In laboratory settings, research scientists expend due diligence to create a test environment where most things stay the same so they can study variability of the factors under study.  The real world isn’t like that.  The mercury in my dental fillings is probably safe on its own but what if my toxic exposure is increased by my personal care products, living next to a factory and drinking from the heavily industrialized great lakes?  

It makes sense to reduce your chemical exposure wherever possible.  Cleaning vinegar is a relatively recent discovery in our household but has quickly become popular as it eliminates so many other cleaning and household products…. all of which have complicated chemical backgrounds.

By contrast, vinegar is really just watered acetic acid which is produced by the fermentation of ethanol or sugars by acetic acid bacteria.  It has been around for millennia.  Cleaning vinegar is a stronger solution than that we use for cooking, usually 10% or more.  It costs about $4 for 2.5 litres at your local grocery or hardware store making it a very economical choice.

And what can you do with cleaning vinegar?  There are probably so many more uses but here are a couple occurring in our house regularly:

1. Clean the bathroom.  Use full strength on a micro-fibre cloth to clear soap scum, disinfect and polish.  Rinse with clear water.  To sanitize, leave on the surface for 10 – 30 minutes before rinsing.
2. Clean your floors.  Use ¼ cup vinegar to 1 gallon hot water and dissolve grease, stains and sticky gunk.  I don’t rinse but if you have a shiny finish, your floor might need one.
3. Polish mirrors and glass.  Prepare a spray bottle with ½ cleaning vinegar and ½ water.  Use like Windex.
4. Dissolve hard water calcification in the washing machine or coffee maker.  The vinegar is acidic and can be corrosive if used too frequently.  I just add about ¼ – ½ cup full strength to the machine (in the fresh water container of the coffee maker or the drum of the washer) and run the machine through a normal cycle.  Run two or more clear water cycles afterward to rinse thoroughly.
5. Add as a laundry rinse to brighten.  Dullness in clothing can be due to soap residue.  Adding ¼ vinegar through the fabric softener dispenser can dissolve that scum and brighten fabrics.  Test any precious pieces first in a discreet area because vinegar can fade.
6. Kill weeds!  Use full strength in a spray bottle directly on weeds.  It will kill all plant life so take care when using in the lawn.  Use a very directed spray, right into the base of the plant.  It’s not as long lasting as herbicides and deep rooted plants like dandelions can recover, but it’s much safer for pets and kids.

Unfortunately, it is has not proven effective on Coronovirus so other disinfectants (like 70% rubbing alcohol) can be sparingly used on high touch surfaces.

               

Time to get ready!  Step into the shower and look at the variety of products awaiting your ritual.  Shampoo, conditioner, body wash, deodorant soap, shaving lotion and many other products have become a supposed necessity to modern hygiene.  But are they?  Was it all those ads during the soap operas that convinced us that our natural body processes were horribly smelly and disgusting requiring immediate intervention with chemicals?

                Let’s step back and re-evaluate.   Why does shampoo have to lather?  Why do we need to deodorize our belly skin?  Why do we need a separate cleansing agent for our scalp?  Isn’t it skin too?

                Just as in cleaning our homes, cleaning our bodies has become a toxic soup of artificial, and probably unnecessary, chemicals that could be seriously harming our bodies and our environment.  The David Suzuki Foundation identifies the worst offenders (https://davidsuzuki.org/queen-of-green/dirty-dozen-cosmetic-chemicals-avoid/).  It might be interesting to go on a treasure hunt in your bathroom to see what you discover.

                This issue came into my awareness during a conversation with a friend years ago regarding menopause.  The poor thing was in the thick of hot flashes and other indignities when her doctor offered relief in the form of a skin cream.  It worked!  And she was having a tough time.  So I got to thinking… if a skin cream could affect her hormones enough to fix those serious issues, what am I putting on my skin that is affecting my hormones indiscriminately?  Hormone disruption with environmental toxins is a serious concern for me as it has been linked such diverse problems as breast cancer and obesity (*1).

Shampoo Alternatives

1. Mix one part baking soda and one part apple cider vinegar.  Shake well and apply about 1 or 2 teaspoons to hair once wet.  Work into scalp.  Rinse well.

2. Use a shampoo bar 

 instead of a bottle.  It’s great for travelling as there are no liquids to pack in your carry on.  It can also be used on the body.  There are several options online.  Check the ingredients to be sure you understand each one and it is a natural substance.  The ingredient list should be under ten items. 

3. A special nod to dandruff shampoo users.  The harsher chemicals in traditional shampoos strips oils excessively from the skin (scalp) causing dry patches and opportunities for irritation.  Switching to softer cleansers creates healthier skin less likely to break out.  As a prescription for break out times, try rubbing in coconut oil to scalp and leaving it for about 10 or 15 minutes.  Wash as usual.  The coconut oil is nourishing, anti-fungal and cooling.

Conditioner Alternatives

Unless you have very long, fine hair that tangles a lot, chances are you can skip purchased conditioner.  Conditioner was never intended to work at the root but nearer to the ends of hair.  Try applying a little argan or coconut oil to the ends (be extremely sparing) and then rinsing out excess under warm water in shower.  The myriad of products we apply to smooth, straighten, plump or control hair is dizzying.  I bet your family and friends would still love you if you let your hair go a little more natural.

Deodorizing Soap Alternatives

1. You’re honestly not that smelly everywhere.  There are a couple key areas where things can get a little funky.  You know where they are.  All other exposed skin is fine for water only unless you have ground in dirt or axle grease to clean.  Consider using the hair cleanser on the smellier bits (they usually have some association with hair follicles as well so that makes sense, doesn’t it?).
2. For the dirtier places, like after changing your oil or planting the garden, try a castile based soap (like Bronner’s).  It is oil based and the oil helps dissolve the grease on your body that might be holding the dirt. 

Moisturizer Alternatives

1. Raid the kitchen for olive oil.  Slather on oil before shower then let the warm water rinse the excess.  Pat dry gently with a towel after and your skin should be silky smooth.
2. Make your own body butter.

In a glass 2 cup measure, add ¼ cup coconut oil, ¼ cup olive oil, ¼ cup cocoa or shea butter and a few drops of essential oil for fragrance.  Melt slowly in the microwave, stirring frequently until well blended.  Pour into a clean storage container.  The liquid will harden to the texture of butter fresh from the fridge.  To apply, warm a little in your hand until liquid again.   

                Your pocketbook will thank you and the fish will thank you.  And you will still be beautiful as a more natural you.

_________________________________________________________________________________

(*1) https://www.niehs.nih.gov/health/topics/agents/endocrine/index.cfm