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Archives for January 2019

Finding your voice

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I like to sit quiet in wait like the wise owl , quietly observing my habitat, watching conversations enfolding, Keeping my distance from those whose ego gives rise to nonsense of knowledge. Then again, too often, I can also become the shrinking violet. Fearful my words, and stories are not worthy of attention. Always hiding in the corner, finding myself jealous of others ability to just be, and shine. Then there are those times where I speak from expansion of my own ego, feeding myself or others my own nonsense, and seeking praise or recognition from someone other than myself. There are moments when so much is to be said, but I become frozen in thought, too much thought, a lump forms in my throat, I am mute, silent by my own unconscious choice.

Mountain Ridge Path across the Sierras
Path through the Sierras

I have grown tired of walking this time worn road, I want to speak from my core without trepidation, to not tremble in fear from the sound of my own voice. To speak truths without causing pain, and to be a messenger of inspiration and hope!

I tuned in. Tuned into healing and finding balance in my throat chakra (visshudha in sanskrit), our communication center, our source of expression, gifting us the ability to speaking our highest truths. Chakras are energy centers in our subtle body, radiating from the base of our spine, to the crown of our head. These are the wheels of life circulating energy of uniting matter and consciousness. This energy is our life force, our prana, vital to the wellbeing of our souls expansion, our health,  to remaining vibrant. The throat chakra is one of our emotional centers, some believe the throat area is home to some of our emotions.

There are different ways to bring balance and harmony back to our throat chakra. I have embraced the act of singing, out loud, all day, anywhere, anytime, much to the embarrassment of my husband. I am just humming along, embracing my voice, finding silly tunes or songs popping into my head, one constant being the Indiana Jones theme song. I don’t even know where the tune came from. My husband has said we need to watch the damn movie, so I stop, and find a new tune. I have also embraced returning to our family kirtans, held every month. Kirtan is devotional chanting, and it is absolutely a magical experience every time. I am finding my voice, gentle, soft ,clear, and full of possibilities. Speaking my truths from my heart  without fear or anxiety. I am healing. I am.

Here are some other ways to find balance and healing of our throat chakra.

  1. Singing , of course. A beautiful throat cleanser.
  2. Wearing the color blue.  I love to wear blue jewelry near my throat chakra as well.
  3. Protecting our throats from the cold by wearing a scarf.
  4. Drinking lots of water, staying hydrated, and our throat moist.
  5. In meditation or a moment of stillness, imagine a lovely blue light radiating in your throat area. Inhaling and exhaling through your body!
  6. Crystal healing is wonderful with stones of blue such as, Lapis( a favorite,this stone helps expand our awareness, and self expression.)Turquoise( helps us to express our emotional issues, creative endeavors, finding your true path in life, and harmonizing us with our highest self.) Aquamarine( this beautiful stone has a calming, stress reducing effect, and also stimulates this chakra.)
  7. Certain yoga postures can also be beneficial. I enjoy shoulder stand, baby cobra,supported(with blocks) fish pose, and I love Lions breath.
  8. Journaling, write your heart out!

Some great resources for Chakra healing or general knowledge I recommend reading are:

“Wheels of life”  and “Chakra Yoga” by Anodea Judith, she is my absolute favorite.

“The complete book of chakra healing” by Cyndi Dale.

“Llewellyn’s Complete book of Chakras”, by Cyndi Dale.

“To speak well, and to speak well are two things. A fool may talk, but a wise man speaks.”- Unknown

How to Use Yoga to Start Your Day

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Every day is a different day. After practicing yoga for over 6 years, one thing that I’ve learned is to have intention in your actions and thoughts. Each new day is an opportunity for us to start with an intention and purpose that will permeate throughout the day. Here are three ways you can use yoga to be more mindful and purposeful in your life.

#1 Visualize Your Day

Start your day with mindfulness and meditation. Before you get out of bed, take a few minutes to visualize how your morning will look. Prior to leaving the home to head to work or to run errands, try to see how you want that to look. Will you need to make coffee? Freshen up in the restroom? Get dressed? What will you wear? Do you have to walk the dog? Vividly think about how you’re going to start to your morning and then begin your day. If it does not line up, that is OK. Try it again the next day until your mind is aligned with your actions. This quick meditation and mindfulness exercise will allow you to move with intention as you go about your day. Feel free to use it throughout the day (i.e. visualizing how your workday will look, and what your preparing for bed process may look like).

#2 Start with Pranayama

Breath is our life source. It’s important to reconnect with breath on a regular basis, either through yoga or meditation. The practice of pranayama allows us to connect to that life source that flows through us whether we want it to or not. A pranayama technique that I love to use is breath counting.

How to Count Your Breath:

  1. Sit in a comfortable seat in a chair or on the ground on blocks or a meditation cushion.
  2. Place your hands on your knees or find dhyana (concentration) mudra.
  3. Close your eyes and take your drishti or focus point inwards.
  4. Take three deep breaths and sigh audibly to exhale them out.
  5. After the last breath, take a pause and then begin to slowly inhale as you count up to 4.
  6. Pause at the top of your inhale and then count down from 4.
  7. Repeat by counting up and then counting down one more time.
  8. On the next two rounds, count up to 6, then to 8, then to 10.
  9. Once you’ve completed your last two rounds of counting up to 10, stay in your seat and breathe normally.

#3 Move Your Body

This last tip is what most people think of yoga, as a way of moving your body. While it is important, the yoga poses, or asanas, or only a fraction of what yoga truly is. Yoga is the connection of mind, body, and the present moment. I recommend doing 8 cat and cows, 3-5 sun salutations, and then a child’s pose (balasana) to start your day. Do this every day and reflect on how it makes your body feel. Listen to it, and modify if you need to.

woman in child's pose doing yoga
Yoga practitioner in child’s pose

Guest Contributor Profile: Alex Tran AKA Schimiggy is a Digital Marketing Strategist, fitness fashion, travel, and food-obsessed raconteuse. She currently resides in Seattle and teaches yoga while writing about her favorite topics.  Schimiggy Reviews is a lifestyle blog where Schimiggy shares her passions and interests with the world!

How do you talk to kids of different ages about mindfulness?

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Source: Joyfully Jenna

I think it’s all about framing it correctly. When I talk to kids of all ages, I frame mindfulness as something you can’t do wrong. This way, kids don’t see mindfulness as an obligation, but as something they can do to improve their well-being.

While everyone practices mindfulness differently, a few things that generally work well across the board are:

  • Meeting people where they’re at—look at what state your kids are at; it makes sense to approach kids differently if they’re jumping out of their skins after PE vs. if they’re zoned out after a boring class. Evaluate what your students are doing before approaching them.
  • Games—everyone likes games. Doing things like playing a song and asking students to focus on individual instruments, having students focus on certain elements in a room, or making a mood jar can really help pull them back to a calmer mindset.
  • Group routines—having kids do exercises that make them aware of their bodies and how they feel in the moment can help calm down big groups. This could mean anything from breathing exercises to physically shaking out any anxious energy left over from the class before.
    Checking in individually—kids of all ages can benefit from someone checking in on their state of mind and giving guidance on how to be present.

Working with kids from rough neighborhoods provides another level of complexity. They carry a lot of trauma with them, and their minds are more often in a state of stress. In these cases, it’s important to tell them to acknowledge these burdens as they focus on being in the present moment.

Person holding a jar of water filled with glitter

Prenatal Yoga: Growing with the Flow

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three women practicing prenatal yoga

Yoga at anytime in life is a wonderful and essential practice for wellness. Whether it be for children, the adult beginner, intermediate, or advanced seasoned Yogi. The physical, mental and spiritual benefits that come with regular yoga/meditation are numerous. I myself am a newly certified Yoga Instructor. I can attest to the life changing power of mindfulness coupled along with the poses of the body. Personally, I have recently began focusing on a new approach towards practicing and teaching yoga…Prenatal Yoga. Finding out that I am pregnant has obligated me to evolve my training. I would love to share what I am experiencing and learning thus far.

The first trimester can be filled with many different feelings. Surprise, happiness, fear or reluctance. Every woman is an individual and whatever emotions you experience when you discover you are pregnant are okay and perfectly natural. Doing yoga during this time can be very helpful for mental and emotional sentiments. The conscious breathing along with the asanas (poses) makes the mind steady. If you are considering starting yoga for the first time, the first three months of pregnancy are a great time to begin. Preparing your body and mind for the changes during the months ahead will do wonders for you and even for your baby!

Poses during your first trimester are still very doable and modifications are not quite needed yet for your growing belly. I have been able to still teach my intermediate and advance styles of Vinyasa. Listening to your body is important even when you aren’t pregnant so go at your own comfortable pace and never force any movements that you’re not used to doing regularly. Sun Salutations are good to do if you’re not feeling up to a full 45,60,75 or 90 minute yoga session. At least 10 minutes a day of any exercise is better than waiting until you have enough free time to do full sessions. Hip opening movements like Warrior 1 and 2 , Triangle, Side Angle and Bound Angle will prove to come in handy in all phases of pregnancy. Never too early to start the hip opener moves!

In the second trimester which is where I am now at 14 weeks is where the body really begins to change. More than just the morning sickness of the early months the weight gain starts to be felt and noticed (if not already) here in the fourth month. Keeping your routine of yoga and meditation is helpful here because it becomes easy to overeat and sleep. The baby is growing and depleting all your energy as well. Being mindful of yourself also helps to further gear up for labor and delivery. I now know that a lot of the time when I am feeling hungry and nauseous (even an hour after I just ate!) I am thirsty more than anything. Drink lots of water!

I’m feeling the extra pounds and when I do my yoga whether at home or in class, I still keep up with my normal routine. Although Chaturanga into Cobra pose can be done with more mind toward my belly now. Downward Dog is okay throughout the entire pregnancy journey. However, my breathing is becoming a bit heavy even when I am doing normal choirs. Deep Breathing from now till birthday is what I will be focusing on. Mindful breath actually takes away the feeling of shallow breathing. I worry before I begin to instruct that I will be huffing and puffing a tad bit too much but once I start to flow, inhale equal to exhale, movement with each breath, I become in control of my breathing. I make it through the 60 minutes of practice.

Third Trimester is what I am trying to prepare for. However handling each moment, day and week as it comes is what is important. I’ve been looking ahead and reading about prenatal yoga from my training manuals. Researching online is helping as well. In any trimester and especially now, don’t forget to eat a light snack one hour before and bring one snack with you if needed during a class. Pregnant women do have a higher rate of hyperglycemia during exercise. Focus on creating space for the baby in your movements. A wide stance is best so, as an Instructor, I would encourage legs spread and feet hips distance apart or more for supported ground while standing.

For a nice seated meditation I always stress the use of blocks, bolsters or blankets to sit on and for supporting the knees if necessary. Cat pose is a wonderful prenatal asana for a number of reasons. Being on all fours helps the baby get into optimal position and it releases pressure on the lower back. Engage the pelvis when making the spinal movements for cat. Downward Dog, Warrior 1 and 2 and Goddess Pose are all safe to do even late in pregnancy. Balancing poses like Half Moon and Tree Pose are great too when pregnant. Be sure and use a wall for support. Janu Sirsasana (Head to Knee) is good with the extended leg slightly outward giving more space for the belly. Squatting with your back agaisnt the wall and block between the legs is helpful. Remember… don’t forget to breathe!

Prenatal Yoga is a wonderful addition to the experience of being pregnant. It not only helps your body to prepare for childbirth. It can also prepare your mind and spirit for all the stages of this perfectly natural time called pregnancy. I was a little anxious at finding out that I am pregnant again (Baby #2). I still am nervous because it has been 11 years since my first. Having yoga as a tool for me to use this time around is a godsend I would say now. Everything seems to come at the right times in life. I hope this article can help all who reads it. If you are a first-time mom or a mother of many. Even if you are a dad, friend, or relative that finds this information useful for a loved one. Yoga for all at any time in life is helpful. Yoga for pregnant women is amazing so give it a try!

Call Attention To Your Mental Health

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Originally posted on www.acupofteawithme.com

About two years ago now, I saw a cute post on Pinterest about a daily mood log. It was originally created on the post for bullet journalists as something to log on a daily basis. I decided to put this mood log/tracker in the front of my paper planners to see how I do throughout the year, find my triggers for my anxieties and depression and bring attention to ways I can better my mental health.

mental health word cloud

My main thought with tracking my moods was that your worst day only lasts 24 hours, so if I could get through my “worst day” I can definitely continue to live another day that could be even better. Pain never lasts forever.

As a whole year comes and goes, you can look back and see how well you are doing or if you need to find a way to change your moods. Keeping up with a simple daily task can also help you to feel accomplished. When you think that everything in your life is going “wrong,” at least you did one thing “right” by logging your mood for the day as it comes to a close.

Another advantage to tracking your moods is that it can be used as a cheap way for your own personal therapy, since you are actively acknowledging what you are feeling like on a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly basis. This helps you draw attention to your ups and downs and how you can pinpoint how to fix your extreme lows.

You also can use this tracker as an active way to recall everything that has happened over the year. It is a great way to keep a detailed personal history of your mental state. With this active history log, you can thus see your patterns and time when you might drop into your lower moods.

I have done this for two consistent years thus far and the results are amazing. Sure, I’ve had some bad streaks or bad months. But seeing all the days that I did have a positive mood feels good because I know that I did right by staying on task and it allows me to connect to my mental health.

Here is a tip though. Plan colors that you will have consistent access to. Seeing a change in shades of red or blue can throw off the whole tracker and become confusing. Also, keep a pencil with your tracker for the days you can’t color in your moods. Simply writing a “P” for pink or a “G” for green can suffice until you have the opportunity to go back and fill in your color.

All of this seems trivial and minor, but I guarantee, it will make you feel better when you see your progress and you are able to call attention to your mental state. You can use my example of a mood log/tracker with my personal two years of tracking in the featured blog post image. It’s still the beginning of the year so it’s not too late to start!

Track Your Mood

Pilates and Injury Prevention: A Unique Approach to Sports Performance Improvement

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Athletes are always looking for the next best exercise to build strength, increase energy, help them go faster, and further with more endurance often pushing themselves to and sometimes past their limits to outperform the competition.

The quest for performance dominance if left unchecked and without proper guidance and training can lead to injury leaving the goal for greatness unfulfilled.

Pilates Reformers being used
Pilates Reformers

Athletes, like their coaches and owners hate injuries and do all they can to prevent them at all costs. To help with this goal, many coaches and athletes themselves have added Pilates training to their fitness regimen.

Recently, Pilates has become a common component for amateur, elite and professional athletes alike. According to Stott Pilates writer Kerrie Lee Brown, this shift into mainstream athletic training is due to “Pilates evolving to focus on the modern day biomechanics of the athlete’s body with essential scientific research.”

Pilates’ mind/body training techniques has proven effective in helping participants focus as they gain body awareness and proper postural alignment helping them to perform exercises properly and efficiently without placing undue stress on muscles and joints. To help athletes acquire these skills, and train for peak performance, experienced instructors will perform an assessment of the athlete’s current posture to identify postural deviations. Following the assessment a program is designed to address muscular imbalance issues. For example, a baseball pitcher may show signs of muscular imbalances in the shoulder (due to overuse issues). Based on the specifics of the imbalances the instructor will work with the pitcher to stabilize the shoulder while working all four of the shoulder muscles to strengthen weak muscles and stretch tight muscles.  Two exercises that are sometimes used to strengthen the shoulder muscles are called internal and external rotation.  To assist the participant in properly executing the exercise the instructor provides verbal and imagery queues along with tactile instruction to guide the participant safely through the exercise.  When performing external rotation, the instructor may instruct the participant as follows

Inhale to prepare

Exhale: Stabilize the scapula (verbal instruction) “Slide the shoulder blade down –into an imaginary back pocket “(imagery instruction). — Externally Rotate arm (away from the body, like opening a door) (verbal and imagery)

Inhale: Return the arm to the starting position (like closing a door).   

The verbal and imagery queuing allows the participant to hear, visualize and perform the exercise with proper form. Proper work of the muscles helps to insure strength, proper range of motion and flexibility to alleviate any muscular aggravation and reduce the chances of injury.

Whether you’re on the professional sports field or the field of life, Pilates training will help you stay in the game. Adding Pilates to your training regimen will insure proper balance, postural alignment, strength and flexibility for an active, healthy, injury reduced lifestyle.

Your Namafit business page has some great features you might be missing out on

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When you create a business on Namafit.com your recruiting goals immediately improve. Once you create a business profile on the site you can post as many jobs as you need to fill for yoga, fitness and dance instructors, coaches and trainers. We’ve made it as simple as possible to create a clear, specific job post in the shortest amount of time.

And when you post your job, Namafit works some magic behind the scenes. The Namafit professional network spans the United States. Based on the type of job and location you post Namafit finds the best matches for the job and send notifications to each of them alerting the candidates that the job was just posted. Namafit also sends your job post to the Google job search engine as well as several other external job boards in the USA. Once on google and these other job boards candidates find the job, click apply, and are brought back to your Namafit post to apply directly to you.

Free Features for Businesses

Add Authorized Users to help manage your business page

In addition to the built in job and event promotion tools for your business, we have added some great features to help you be more efficient in your recruiting, too.  What I think it our coolest business feature is the ability to invite other employees to be administrators for your business page.  That means your manager, or lead desk staff or operator can help you post jobs and events.  They can send messages to candidates, reply to applications, update your business pages, and help take these duties off your hands.  But don’t worry, you will be kept in the loop, because you, as the page owner will be copied on messages that are sent to and from your business to candidates.

To take advantage of this amazing business feature, just go to https://namafit.com/business/admin and invite your first authorized user.

business settings for Namafit account
You can add other authorized users to help manage your Namafit business page and postings.

Add Multiple Locations for Your Business

Do you have more than one location? Or do you hold classes and events at more than one location?  You can add all of your locations to your main business page by going to https://namafit.com/business/edit

While there make sure to add and/or update your logo, “About Us”, website address, social media links and phone number for your business to get more SEO exposure for your business and postings.

Business location listings for a Namafit fitness business profile

Use Your Namafit Website Address As A Link From Your Website

Your business page has a permanent URL website address, so you can add that as a link from your business website to lead candidates to your job postings.  Your Namafit business page is a landing page to showcase your business postings for jobs and events.  To add a link to your website: Go to https://namafit.com/business and copy the URL from the address bar of your browser.  Now add that link to your business website with text that says something like “Now Hiring” or “View our current job openings”.

You may want to ask your web developer for help adding this link.  It’s a great way to get more candidate applications for your jobs!

permanent URL for a Namafit business account
Your business URL contains your business name for better SEO exposure

Re-post Jobs and Events in Minutes After They Expire

Jobs and events run for one month when posted.  When they expire you will receive an email notifying you. 

  1. Just click the link in the email to re-post them. 
  2. You can also go to https://namafit.com/postings for jobs and https://namafit.com/events for events. 
  3. Click the “Open Jobs”/”Open Events” drop down selector and switch to “Closed Jobs”/”Closed Events” to see your expired postings. 
  4. On the left, click on the expired posting and click “Re-post” button on the right. 
  5. Make any date and description updates you desire, and publish the posting again!

My events page on Namafit.com