Yoga Nuggets

"Breathing is the key that unlocks the whole catalog of advanced biological function and development. Is it any wonder that it is so central to every aspect of health? Breathing is the first place, not the last, one should look when fatigue, disease, or other evidence of disordered energy presents itself. Breathing is truly the body’s most basic communication system." – Sheldon Saul Hendler, MD, PhD Yoga is more than balance, twisting and bending. In fact, it is breathing that gives life to yoga...most importantly...YOU. Don't practice yoga? You can still practice breathing. Many work to build strong exterior muscles; but, is the internal core of you as strong as you think it is? Go deeper beneath the surface and take a full inhale. Notice the lift of your ribs and expansion in multiple directions? Know the muscle making it possible? The one and only...diaphragm. The diaphragm is an internal skeletal muscle that divides your thoracic cavity (space for heart/...

"Be careful what you wish for" is not advice...it is a fact. Insightful pushes to live fearlessly versus methodically allowing "common sense" to lead the way is a precarious balance. Priorities get discombobulated by a fierce need for change, growth...a non-specified, pressing desire. Life is a rollercoaster ride. Just when we think we have a grip on timing from prior experience, we can get thrown out the chair as an unforeseen jolted pause is followed by a triple twist swept into the tunnel of unknown. Yoga opens doors you didn't see yourself walking toward until you suddenly see it staring you in the face. Waiting to be opened. Door of choices exposes an often overwhelming view. What is behind door #1...door #2? Can feel nirvana-ish...but, the more notches you've etched on Time's bedpost, the more complicated. A lot gets buried in the graveyard of the past. Can you have it all? Yes and no. You can't have it all at once. Time's nemesis...

Nothing like a well lubed joint. A good joint will hold you in delicious zones you forgot. Seriously. Love having a strong wrap on the outside, good juice on the inside and not taking it too far. You know what I mean. Excessive pulls can rapidly push you out of your happy place. Repercussions can be a long term pain in the joint...literally. Thinking Green Goddess...Ganja? No man, this is about the joints in your body. Not saying you can't do yoga and the other simultaneously...but, you might be a bit more relaxed than wise. Just saying...not nay-saying. Got to focus on the joints of a lifetime...your own. Yoga and joints. Tricky combination to balance. Do not confuse flexibility of muscles with over-extension of joints. Joints in the body connect the bones. Joints are held together by a joint capsule and ligaments. The connective tissue is stiff...yet, pliable. It is not designed to reach new edges...muscles are. Keeping muscles around the joints strong and long stabilizes ...

My friend said hello to me. She rattled conventional technology to make sure I heard her. Really. A synergy of parallel universes overlapping for the briefest, yet timelessness, of moments. You're thinking...seriously? And your point is...? Did I mention my friend left Earth over a decade ago? This hello was auspicious. Perhaps an angelic tap on my shoulder for an authentic love awakening yoga class. The story behind the story must be known. So, read as if you've just pulled the safety harness of a roller coaster over your shoulders. Feel the sudden jerk of departure, hear the clickety clack of the steel on steel and enjoy the read... Had my hair cut on a Friday afternoon. Love my hairdresser/friend. Each visit, we share stories. We feel safe...find we have more in common than imagined. Childhood experiences of alcoholism, anger exerted physically, resentment...forgiveness. Observations of our multiple roles we assume in our respective professions very similiar. Peo...

Organ donation . Extending another's life. Giving what you no longer need. Making a difference long after you drift in the next dimension of being. If you actively recycle paper, plastic, and metals to help save the Earth, it should be safe to assume you're registered as an organ donor, right? It's best not to assume; thus, I write for future lives...it might even be yours...perhaps, mine. Let's get straight to the point. Why keep what you don't need anymore? We have garage sales and sell stuff for pennies on the dollar of what we originally paid. We donate to Goodwill for tax write offs (or, not). We donate blood to the Red Cross. We might even surprise someone behind us in the fast food drive-thru and pay for their bill. It's consciously rewarding to give a part of ourselves...it is a gracious endorsement of life's purpose. There is immediate gratification in giving while alive. Why not keep on giving after you've left the physical plane? Think a...

Hope, the penultimate energy...perhaps the most propelling. Without hope, how can one outrageously dream? If one cannot courageously dream, how can one honestly progress moving forward...to the unfiltered, bare-naked present? If one cannot be present, totally present without masks, how can one actually love? If one cannot audaciously love, how can one hope to feel the ultimate energy of Love? Hope. Dreams. Love. A circle of unmeasurable circumferance. A yogi's mind dances around this metta-physical circle of life. Shawshank Redemption touches my heart now as strongly as it did twenty years ago. Is it the acting? The actors? The music/sound effects? The, 'I feel like I'm literally in this place I'm watching', mind zone? All of the above? Or, is it deeper? Vastly deeper. Certain words, events, people...make you take pause and think. Ever read a book years later and it's message becomes clear? I love that moment. It is a sweet reminder of how far ...

History...an ever unfolding chain of events triggered by individual actions. The best source of history is not in the books. It is in the memory bank of each person you meet. We each play a role in this act we call life. Learn how to deepen your role by asking others for pearls of experience. I've met and been blessed to know so many authentic, tender-hearted people. People of all backgrounds, age, race, income and beauty. "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" is true. The secret is to take off your media/ego/visual/assumptive lens and feel it in your bones. Nothing like it. I am blessed to share this story of the woman, so beautiful, she literally stopped traffic. Ericka (false name) is 92 years old. She glows when she smiles. She is healthy. She walks everyday. She drives. She has better vision than most at age 40. She laughs easily. Ask her something and she has an answer. She's so busy living, she doesn't have time to dwell on the past. I met her where ...