I’ve been practicing yoga since September 2000 so some might say this announcement has been building for 11 years. Since I was a little girl I’ve always wanted to be a teacher. Today I will start on the yoga teacher training journey.

My yoga path has been slow but continual. In anticipation of my second son’s arrival, and desiring to be in even better shape using the Bradley Method of Natural Childbirth, I took a prenatal class [...]]]>

I’ve been practicing yoga since September 2000 so some might say this announcement has been building for 11 years. Since I was a little girl I’ve always wanted to be a teacher. Today I will start on the yoga teacher training journey.

My yoga path has been slow but continual. In anticipation of my second son’s arrival, and desiring to be in even better shape using the Bradley Method of Natural Childbirth, I took a prenatal class through the Montgomery County Recreation Program. I remember loving each minute of my time learning yoga. I felt so thoroughly well each day of my pregnancy. Yoga made all the difference. At home with my little ones, I continued my yoga sessions with video tapes for a few years before joining a yoga studio.

Why Yoga?

• When I practice in the morning it sets the tone for the entire day.
• I feel great and approach my work with an excellent attitude. My mind is more at peace and I believe all things are possible. I’m calmer and more thoughtful.
• Although my muscles often ache, I appreciate the strength and health I know I am developing each time I practice.
• A decade ago I had back pain but not anymore.
• I’m much more aware of my body.
• When things are stressful I find myself taking much deeper breaths than I was ever able to do. I take a few minutes to concentrate on my breathing and feel so much better. Without yoga I wouldn’t know or use this technique.
• I find yoga helps me to sort out what is important in my life. Practice helps me identify the situations I need to improve.
• Since I do other forms of fitness such as kickboxing or running, I need the yoga to stretch out my muscles and balance the other activities.

Yoga has become so much a part of my life that I can’t imagine life without practicing. But I have so much to learn! Last year I loved immersing myself in the 40 Day program at Thrive Yoga and I want to dedicate myself to an even deeper study of yoga. I’m not sure how much I want to teach or where, but throughout my life I have felt directed toward helping others and spent a great deal of time exploring the outdoors. Teacher training could bring these strong segments of my life together. I like to share what I know and being able to share yoga would be absolutely one of the best things I could ever do.

Yoga has helped me even when struggling with injuries to my arm, shoulder, and tailbone. Last year I joked that if I taught yoga, I would know all the modifications for injuries first hand! Now with a recent diagnosis of arthritis affecting my upper body, my yoga practice will be a pinnacle point of my therapy. Medical professionals recommend yoga as a treatment for arthritis. I’m depending on yoga to keep me functioning as long as I’m lucky enough to be alive.

Exciting Yoga Possibilities

With all these physical signs in my own body, I’m feeling a great desire to explore adapting yoga for people facing challenges. Often I find myself reading about yoga to heal people both mentally and spiritually. I’m a bit scared to think of myself embarking on any one of these journeys, but I see the possibilities with yoga and I’m excited to start down this path!

Yoga As Therapy:
Compass Yoga is on a mission to bring yoga as a therapy to any and all who wish to make it part of their wellness plan whether they are a cancer survivor, a war veteran, or someone grieving the loss of a loved one. Her story has inspired me and helped set my intention.

Yoga With Veterans:
The Exalted Warrior Foundation brings yoga to wounded veterans at Haley VA Hospital, which speaks of making a difference and sharing the gift of yoga while working with people’s trauma to “find a way out of these hells.”

Yoga With The Homeless:
Organizations across the country have volunteers to bring yoga to those experiencing homelessness. Since I’ve worked for a local organization providing services and shelter, this possibility is near to my heart.

Yoga Outdoors:
Our family loves to visit National Parks and this love can be combined with yoga.  Imagine organizing Eco Yoga Adventures.  But inviting friends for yoga at a local park sounds like a fun adventure too!

Yoga In Schools:
The Shanti Generation promotes yoga and meditation for kids and has been keeping tabs on the movement to bring yoga to schools.

Yoga With Prisoners:
The Prison Yoga Project helps prisoners to deal with their difficulties.  A friend recently started working with a prison ministry in Maryland so this type of program has been on my mind. Helping women gain peace with themselves and their situation at a tough point in their lives would be an amazing outcome.

Yoga and Faith:
Last year I joined First Trinity ELCA Lutheran Church for a “Yoga And Prayer” session.  Using yoga in the context of my Christian faith gave me a true sense of freedom. Being able to dig deep within myself to my strongest beliefs with total abandon was exhilarating. At the time I found myself thinking I could create an even better experience.

The possibilities are endless – an intimidating! I have no idea where this path will lead or what will happen, but I’m sticking my toe in the water.

Thrive Yoga’s Program

Susan Bowen has developed this teacher training herself so the program will be thorough and expose students to the best possible information and techniques from many respected sources. In addition to studying vinyasa more thoroughly, I’m looking forward to delving deeper into hatha yoga so my practice isn’t always about power and inversions. Each pose in the new manual will be described and studied in greater detail than other sources. We’ll also study anatomy so we can better understand how to move and hold positions without injury. We’ll learn the Sanskrit names for poses. My old gray brain could use the jumpstart by studying another language. With a required reading list of nine books and another 10 recommended, we’ll be completely immersed in the history of yoga. As a philosophy major I am attracted to the study of yoga philosophy as taught by the ancients and a modern interpretation for life today. Breathing deeply, meditating differently, relieving stress, and growing healthy will all be studied.

When you can explain something to someone else, you have to really know the subject. I want this ability for yoga. I know I’ll find it difficult to be away from my family for so many weekends, but I know the Teacher Training will be worth my time and dedication. I’m apprehensive about all I will experience and need to learn in these 200 hours over the next six months, but as with all things yoga, I’ll breathe deeply and flow through one minute at a time.

For the first time in my life, I realized that if I had the chance to do something all over again, I wouldn’t. As the question formed in my head, I slowly came to the painful realization that if I was confronted with the same situation, I would resoundingly decide not to participate.

I don’t remember feeling this way about an experience. Since I’ve been around for 47 years, I guess I’m lucky. I’ve never wrestled [...]]]>

For the first time in my life, I realized that if I had the chance to do something all over again, I wouldn’t. As the question formed in my head, I slowly came to the painful realization that if I was confronted with the same situation, I would resoundingly decide not to participate.

I don’t remember feeling this way about an experience. Since I’ve been around for 47 years, I guess I’m lucky. I’ve never wrestled with regret. Even if a situation or decision didn’t go very well, I never found myself wishing I hadn’t done it. I always chalked it up to life’s lessons and found something positive to remember.

This doesn’t mean I can’t create a long list of good outcomes from my recent experience, because I can. I can also detail the bad outcomes just as quickly. They even balance each other.

When I told my family about my thoughts, my youngest agreed without hesitation. Even a ten-year-old recognized my time could have been better spent.

When I think back to all of the hours I wasted, I’m overcome with a sense of loss. I desperately find myself wishing I could somehow add all those years back to my life, but it’s not going to happen.

What can I do?

Wait.
Time does heal wounds. Even within the brief timeframe of these last few weeks, I’ve been feeling better.

Recognize.
Don’t deny your feelings. Identify the feelings of anger, blame, and irritation. Accept each as your honest reaction without making excuses, then let the emotions go.

Accentuate.
Emphasize the positive. In this case I’m intensifying the excellent personal relationships formed during the experience. In this way, the positive outcomes are becoming even stronger and therefore the experience can improve slightly.

Redefine.
Frame the experience correctly. Due to my overwhelming desire to “make other people better”, I never touted my contributions, leadership, and erudition. Although shining a light on others is an excellent mantra for a better life, confidently communicating and owning your own success is also necessary for fulfillment in the long run.

Forgive.
In order to get past a bad experience, you need to absolve those involved. You may need to forgive yourself or someone else. Remove the blame.

Although my realization stunned me, I’ve been able to make progress with these goals. I’ll carry this lesson with me in all my new endeavors and will be able to recognize and control similar situations. The pattern will not repeat – yet another impetus toward a better outcome.

Information from the social networks washes over me daily. Sometimes these messages meld to inspire.

Yesterday a friend linked to The Architecture of a Lifelong Dream by Urban Samurai. He encourages people to find their passion by exploring their interests. You are never too young or too old. If your lifelong dream is to sit on the couch and watch tv, then he says go for it. But if not, what are you [...]]]>

Sky's the limit

Information from the social networks washes over me daily. Sometimes these messages meld to inspire.

Yesterday a friend linked to The Architecture of a Lifelong Dream by Urban Samurai. He encourages people to find their passion by exploring their interests. You are never too young or too old. If your lifelong dream is to sit on the couch and watch tv, then he says go for it. But if not, what are you doing to make your dream a reality? What’s stopping you? The post has stayed with me since I read it.

If you can’t say there are things you are truly passionate about, you really need to start expanding your reach. Put yourself out into spaces and places that you’ve never been. Expand your mind and your experiences. Passions will start to develop. Staying in the same stagnant pool of water won’t get you anything but malaria. Get out and walk around. Go see things you’ve never seen. Experience things you’ve never experienced.

Today another friend posted a video. The short clip is based on a true story. Depressed about the loss of their loved ones and struggling with disease, the men decide to “Let’s ride motorcycles!” Watch it if you have been thinking you are too old while reading my words. After training for six months, they rode those motorcycles on a long trip.

Make today more than another day.

For the first time ever, our church gathered writings from parishioners and created a Lenten devotional booklet.

Do we need these writings? Yes.

Today I found myself looking at an Easter display and thinking I needed to get the ingredients for our Easter dinner. “Wait a minute,” I thought, “Easter is 40 days away.”

I need Lent.

My writing is based on the passage for Ash Wednesday, Luke 18:9-14. For those of you who know about our decision to move [...]]]>

For the first time ever, our church gathered writings from parishioners and created a Lenten devotional booklet.

Do we need these writings? Yes.

Today I found myself looking at an Easter display and thinking I needed to get the ingredients for our Easter dinner. “Wait a minute,” I thought, “Easter is 40 days away.”

I need Lent.

My writing is based on the passage for Ash Wednesday, Luke 18:9-14. For those of you who know about our decision to move our local site, Rockville Central, exclusively to Facebook, I wrote this before we had the idea. We’ve had so much publicity because of the move that I believe my resolve was being tested.

During Lent I never give up or “fast” from something. When I was younger my minister encouraged us to add something, perhaps to make the world a better place, and this idea has stuck with me. To me Lent is a time to take a look at myself by adding a daily reading of the Bible, a contemplative book, or a Lenten study. This is why I love the idea of our church having a Lenten Devotional so much.

In today’s reading, Jesus tells the story of a Pharisee who is praying with a tax collector. The Pharisee thanks God that “I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers or even like this tax collector.” Meanwhile the tax collector beats his breast and begs “God, be merciful to me a sinner.”

Jesus’ response is to be humble because everyone who exalts himself will be humbled and everyone who humbles himself will be exalted.

How often do we think we are better than others and “toot our own horn”? In today’s world Facebook and other social networking sites are always open for bragging, pride, narcissism and egotistical behavior. We’re encouraged to market ourselves and list our accomplishments. Where do you draw the line when you can broadcast anything every hour of every day? Can you find the restraint to not judge others and be modest?

Lent is a time to turn to a daily reading and find the strength to look in your heart and be humble.

Spending time learning about the Milky Way fit with my intentions but then I found myself carefully studying every fact in [...]]]> Over the weekend my family visited the Air and Space Museum on the Mall. For some overpowering reason, I wanted to contemplate the universe as we embarked on another year. Acknowledging the vastness of space sometimes helps to put our lives in perspective. We are part of something so much larger than our everyday instances.

Spending time learning about the Milky Way fit with my intentions but then I found myself carefully studying every fact in a telescope exhibit. “Oh, Cindy” I thought, “back to something you can touch while thinking about mechanics.” Why did I bring myself down to Earth?

Unable to stop reading, I stumbled across a picture of a woman. She must have done something remarkable to be featured.

Hmmm, for years she dedicated herself to studying tiny little dots in the hope of finding miniscule changes. Henrietta Swan Leavitt starred at photographic plates taken of the same part of the sky on different nights. She painstakingly compared each star to find a “minute brightness change” that would reveal a variable star. She found 2,400 of them which was about half of those known at the time.

I couldn’t do that.

But, because she discovered the link between the brightness and length of brightness cycle, she found what astronomers had been desperately seeking. She gave them the information they needed to measure distances in space.

You never know when your work will make a difference.

Although my intent was to think about the universe beyond our human existence, my lesson involved the benefits of dedicating yourself to a pursuit over time. Instead of a vast focus, I was taught the benefits of a meticulous concentration.

Often in this quickly-changing fickle society, people seem to admire bigger, better, and newer. In order to advance, we need people plugging away at the same little tasks. There’s no shame in ongoing dedication as long as you continue to give it your absolute best effort.

When I picked up Wild Goose Chase by Mark Batterson, the idea of a spiritual adventure intrigued me. I was looking forward to something new. A year later I’ve realized what influenced me the most from the book involves looking back.

In the chapter entitled “A Rooster’s Crow”, Pavlov’s dog-salivation experiment which led to the concept of a “conditioned reflex”, is used to make the point that our lives are “an elaborate repertoire of [...]]]>

When I picked up Wild Goose Chase by Mark Batterson, the idea of a spiritual adventure intrigued me. I was looking forward to something new. A year later I’ve realized what influenced me the most from the book involves looking back.

In the chapter entitled “A Rooster’s Crow”, Pavlov’s dog-salivation experiment which led to the concept of a “conditioned reflex”, is used to make the point that our lives are “an elaborate repertoire of conditioned reflexes”.

But whether they are big or small, conscious or subconscious, harmless or harmful, one thing is certain: we are far more conditioned than we realize.

He goes on to imagine how Peter must have felt every time he heard a cock crow. Jesus had told him he would deny him three times before the rooster crowed and just as he finished his third denial, a rooster did crow. For the rest of his life, Peter would have to wake to his greatest failure.

At first I didn’t think much of this chapter, but I became aware of the concept. One day as I was driving, a metro bus pulled beside me and I realized I was gripping the steering wheel tensely. Because a bus had collided with my car a few months earlier when I pulled into an exit lane from a parking lot, I was unknowingly carrying around the turmoil of the accident. Since a bus stop was located in the exit lane, the bus had the right-of-way. I was at fault. I was guilty of causing the accident. Until I read the book, I hadn’t been conscious of the reflex I was having with every bus on the road. Daily driving was destroying my confidence and peace.

Do certain situations, sounds, or sights bring back your pain?

We all have failings and feel guilty. Becoming aware of the reflex is the first step in healing which allows us to go forward and find happiness.

I know of someone who had sexual encounters in the men’s locker room at the gym. He’s struggled with changing gyms and leaving them altogether. With a family at home, the guilt about his transgressions must have been so overwhelming each time he saw gym equipment, even at another location.

We can’t live with such enormous pain in our lives without destroying ourselves.

How can we heal from the small and enormous failings in our lives? Living with secrets or avoiding reminders is a temporary fix. The triggers are still there. We need to find a way to truly forgive ourselves before the pain will leave. We need to break the “cage of guilt”. Only by fighting back the bad thoughts then finding peace and forgiveness, can we be happy.

Months after our vacation to Acadia National Park, I’m still struck by the astounding beauty of the rocky shorelines and mountain peaks. But another thought has grown in my mind and brought me to action.

During one of our tours, the guide explained that over the years Acadia National Park was pieced together with donations of property. One individual gave away 4,000 acres of this prime real estate.

The wealthy bought this property for their own use. [...]]]>

Months after our vacation to Acadia National Park, I’m still struck by the astounding beauty of the rocky shorelines and mountain peaks. But another thought has grown in my mind and brought me to action.

During one of our tours, the guide explained that over the years Acadia National Park was pieced together with donations of property. One individual gave away 4,000 acres of this prime real estate.

The wealthy bought this property for their own use. Far from civilization and unique to the East Coast, the mountain views of the Atlantic Ocean were unsurpassed. During the 1800′s expansive hotels were built close to the shorelines. If people had not given the land away, one can only imagine the developed sprawl which would have been built. Those hotels from 200 years ago are large, even by today’s standards.

So why to you give away 4,000 acres? That’s a lot of property and a lot of money.

For some this public purpose to save this pristine place for future generations trumped any future financial deals. All the donors would have had to love this place more than their wealth. Perhaps for some, this was small potatoes compared to everything they owned, but it’s still a sacrifice.

Since we came home from vacation, my husband and I have made the largest one-time donation on record for our family. It felt good to give the money and I understood how it might feel to make a bigger donation. We could make a difference. This isn’t anywhere near what we dream of doing, but it’s a first step as I aspire to give away my 4,000 acres.

I can’t help by feel overwhelming appreciation for all the people who made Acadia a reality as its beauty still lightens my spirit and their generosity challenges my selfishness.

Sue was a bartender suffering from severe anorexia. She was paper thin, all skin and bones with big red hair teased out in every direction. When a friend told her she complained more than anyone he knew, she told him she knew someone worse.

She meant me.

I was dumbfounded. How could she say this about me? Up until the moment she relayed the story, I had never considered myself a complainer. Living outside New [...]]]>

Sue was a bartender suffering from severe anorexia. She was paper thin, all skin and bones with big red hair teased out in every direction. When a friend told her she complained more than anyone he knew, she told him she knew someone worse.

She meant me.

I was dumbfounded. How could she say this about me? Up until the moment she relayed the story, I had never considered myself a complainer. Living outside New York City with my life in flux while my father lay dying, I was barely surviving each day. Teaching school early, after moonlighting as a hotel lounge manager, left very little time for sleep. I was always tired and often sick. Even so, I didn’t think I was unhappy or complaining.

Seeing myself through Sue’s eyes forced me to evaluate. Was I really that bad? Did I concentrate on the bad things in my life and complain too much? After my father’s death I moved to the Washington area, immersing myself in a new life.

Sue passed away two years later. During our last conversation, I tried to convince her I wasn’t a complainer anymore. Life could be so different. She had to find hope and fight to be well. I could tell she didn’t believe me, or didn’t want to believe me.

I’ve spent the last twenty years trying not to be negative, even when situations are at their worst. Mind you, I’m not trying to be positive. That might actually be too much for me.

Most of the time circumstances don’t go your way. You can’t change other people. In the back of my mind, I consciously consider whether Sue would think I was complaining. When you buy expensive tires then the car dies two days later, it’s the perfect opportunity to find the dream car you’ve always wanted. When scaffolding blocks the altar during your son’s communion celebration, you realize the physical space is not important. At the time, the situation might be upsetting, but you find a reason to put aside your bad thoughts and feelings.

Last year my arm ligament ripped, forcing a year of rehabilitation. People noticed and talked to me about their own recurring injuries. Due to their positive attitudes, I never suspected they were fighting pain on a daily basis. Finding others who live each day trying not to be negative was uplifting and made my injury bearable. My pain brought a profound gift of understanding about the strength we all have to endure.

Trying Not To Bneg means acknowledging the bad parts of life. It’s not a denial of your natural reactions of jealousy, anger, anxiety, fear and regret. It’s acceptance and control of these emotions followed by a concentrated effort to find a good outcome. As a jaded cynic, an optimistic outcome always surprises me.

I only wish Sue could have experienced the same bouts of hope. She grasped onto my negativity and wouldn’t let go. Thanks to her, I did.

The build up to the holidays can be stressful without any extraneous situations. With all my might I tried not to be negative during the week before Christmas, but many forces conspired against me.