Principles of Healing Movement -brought to you by yoga
Six principles of healing movement for your whole live - brought to you by yoga.
Early Summer Flavors, Flavor Theory Summed Up
Last week in our guide to the Spring - Early Summer Rtusandhi I gave you the flavors that balance vata, full stop. The problem was that I said those are the flavors to focus on for Early Summer. To review, the flavors that balance vata are sweet, sour and salty. Sweet, sour and salty would help sustain kapha as well, which if we’re basically healthy and have been following the flavors and asana/paranayama/meditation for the seasons is waning. Sour (which includes ferments like yogurt) is also very grounding
Allow Your Body to Release Like the Trees Do in Autumn
What if we have it backwards?
What if the things that keep us alive - eating, sleeping, washing ourselves, breathing, preparing food, taking counter-habitual movements (yoga) and counter-habitual mental stretches (meditation) - are the very foundation on which our health is built? What if the quality of our food, our attention to and joy in its preparation, are all powerful levers that could add to our vibrancy, energy, joy and longevity?
What if we could massively lower medical costs and diversions for treatment with attention to our basic routines? What if how we treat our skin has everything to do with how healthy our gut is? What if mindful breathing could calm and soothe us when the do-more-be-more cycle of activity threatens to leave us in the undertow?
Sense Gate 1: Eye Gaze, Habit, and Relaxation
Do you ever wonder why we do some of the things we do in every class? Like chanting “Om” together, focusing on different body parts when we breathe, trying to feel all your skin at once, smiling with the back of our mouths…. Or circling our eyes one direction and then the other?
What make a Badlands Healing Yoga Practice different?
“Your guide comes with a plan and your guide will alter the plan depending on what you choose to share. Classes are very intentionally small, so we can offer at least one technique - posture, breath, flow, image, meditation - chosen for each person. It may be something the guide had already planned for that they surmise would be just the ticket or they might replace part of their plan to illuminate something helpful for you. Modifications will be offered and alternatives suggested along with the reminder that everything is optional and questions are encouraged. “
What is Healing Yoga
“The mechanisms that allow yoga to remove these obstacles to healing, transforming us and our very desires slowly, over time, are what make yoga different than a “work out.” Together they have enormous transformative capacity.”
Practicing with Pain: why avoidance may hurt more
“[D]efinitely listen to your body and its signals. If you have pain in a movement or in a posture, breathe, withdraw from the edge where the pain arose and rest for a moment.
And then, re-approach. Slowly, mindfully. Notice where you get the first hint of a suggestion of the painful feeling and stay there — don’t go further. Breathe and notice. 9 times out of 10, you’ll feel the suggestion of pain fade away. If this happens, go a little more towards where you felt it before in the same manner: slowly, mindfully noticing the first hint of a suggestion of pain, and stay. Breathe and notice. You may feel that fade away. Rinse and repeat, stopping to rest, of course, as needed.
Often a repetition of just three times inside your pain free range of motion will allow you to go back to the once painful movement with no pain.
There are many reasons for this phenomenon…”
