Asking for Help

Asking for Help

Taking a Hand

A friend asks if you can watch her kids for an hour while she attends an appointment.  Another asks if you can spare a few minutes to listen to his latest dilemma.  And when family calls, you immediately drop everything to assist.  We love to help.  We feel great when we become someone’s hero.  So, why do we resist letting them help us?

Perhaps it’s my Southern upbringing, but I have a hard time asking for help.  I would gladly give the shirt off my back to help someone else, but asking her to pick up dinner because I’m sick is out of the question.  I brought this topic up to another Southern friend of mine (who’s sweet as pie and guilty of not asking for help too.)  Ultimately, our hesitation to ask for help boiled down to thinking it’s an inconvenience to bother anyone else with our needs. 

Now that I have two young children, I’ve had to relearn how to ask for help.  Asking for assistance isn’t a burden to someone else.  She likely loves the fact that you even thought of her to help.  This is a new way of thinking for me, and I have to remember how happy I feel to help and now someone can do that for me.

This month I’ve asked Laura Martin to substitute my classes while I spend some time bonding with the newest llama.  She willingly jumped to the opportunity to lend a helping hand.  Along with Laura, I’ve armed myself with a team of friends and family that can assist me during this change in my life.

I urge you to do the same.  Pick up the phone.  Call and ask for help next time.

What's Your Sign?

What’s Your Sign?

Being Observant

All around us the universe is sending us messages.  Perhaps the slow car in the fast lane is a reminder to take a few deep breaths or the teens laughing on the sidewalk cue us to take life lightly.

But far too often, we are too busy to even notice these signs.  We get up.  We dress and feed our family.  And after we get ourselves together, we remember to feed the dog, and now we’re likely late getting out the door.  So, with all of this chaos going on in the first few hours of our day, how on earth are we supposed to “smell the roses?”

Practicing yoga and meditation teaches us to bring our mind, breath and body in unity.  When all three are working together, we can begin to sift through all the noise and see those signs Mother Nature is practically throwing at us.

Until my own yoga practice became more regular, I never spotted these signs either.  The universe could have been sending me the latest lottery numbers, and I wouldn’t have noticed.

How can you become more observant?  Download a copy of any yoga sequence found on Limber Llama Yoga.  Move through the sequence slowly allowing your breath to be even and slow.  Notice if any poses cause your breath to be shallow and tense. 

Once you have your breath and movement in synch, turn to your mind.  What are you thinking about?  The weather, dinner, tomorrow’s schedule?  Accept that these thoughts will come up, and turn your thoughts to your muscles, bones and breath.  How do your hips feel in Warrior 2?  Describe it to yourself. 

Soon, all three – the body, breath and mind – will synch.  And with practice, it becomes easier to unite these off the mat and in the real world.

Cool Breezes

Cool Breezes

Chilling with your Breath

Have you noticed that maybe you are a little more irritable during the summer? July’s heat can fuel frustration and aggravation.  When the body temperature rises, our tempers sometimes follow.

A committed yoga practice can help bring awareness when these internal temperatures start to rise, as well as providing much needed cool breezes to our souls.  Surprisingly for many novice yogis, this practice begins with controlling our breath or pranayama.  “If the breath is chaotic the mind, emotions and thoughts are chaotic.  When the breath is controlled, still and steady, so is the mind” (Rolf Gates)

Two cooling pranayama techniques to try are sitali and sitkari.  Sitali translate to soothing or cool in Sanskrit.  Think of these styles as your own air conditioning unit!  Practicing sitali (or sitkari) calms the fight or flight response.  It cools the mind, body and spirit as well as blood pressure.  It has a calming effect to the entire nervous system.

Check out Yoga International’s detailed instructions on how to practice both sitali and sitkari.  Simply practicing these breathing techniques for 2-5 minutes a day can make a difference.  Take a breath today for a calmer, gentler you.

Goodnight Moon

Celebrate the Strawberry Moon on June 13

Goodnight Moon

Living in Nature’s Rhythm

A neighbor and fellow gardener suggested I plant my summer vegetable garden in synch with the moon.  Huh?  I had never contemplated such an idea, but as I digested the information, it made sense.  Fishermen follow tides schedules to catch the largest bounty.  Farmers, too, use the moon to measure the amount of moisture in the ground.

The moon’s gravitational pull on the Earth controls not only high and low tides, but also how dry and moist the ground is.  As a full moon approaches, the ground is thought to be especially moist and is great for planting crops that grow belowthe Earth’s surface such as potatoes and pumpkins.  The new moon marks the perfect time to plant tomatoes, cucumbers and other plants that bloom above the ground.

In addition, many Indian tribes, especially the Algonquians, gave full moons names to keep track of the seasons.  Reoccurring full moons like June’s StrawberryMoon signifies the best time to harvest summer’s juiciest berries.  The Strawberry Moon is also known as the Rose Moon in Europe where strawberries are not native.  Other cultures refer to June’s moon as the Hot Moon in reference to the start of summer.

Whether or not you’re a gardener, plan a special evening outdoors on June 13 when the Strawberry Moon appears.  Pick up a pint of fresh strawberries, and add them to your beverages, salads and desserts.  Cheers to summer, and cheers to Mother Nature!

Ditch Your Chair

Ditch Your Chair

We sit while we drive to work.  We sit at our desks.  We sit during three boring meetings.  We sit at our desk or in our car to eat lunch.  We come home and guess what?  We sit some more.

We spent a lot of time sitting, and all of this sitting is taking a toll on our health.  Sitting, while it is relaxing, shortens the hip flexors (those muscles that run along the front of your legs and attach to the spine).  Tight hip flexors inhibit the torso from lifting up and causing us to overarch the lower back.  The result: weak, tight hips and back muscles that cause pain, discomfort, poor posture and other illnesses in the body.

Being in pain adds not only stress to our jobs, but also costs us more moolah.  Back pain costs Americans around $15 billion per year in medical care and disability payments.  Recent studies show that 75% of healthcare spending is for preventable illnesses (keyword PREVENTABLE).  Alarmingly, medical reimbursements for low-back pain in the U.S. alone, is $34 billion annually! (BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine, June 2012)

Taking the first step to reclaim your health is hard.  You have to want to do it for you.  It can’t be forced or it will never become part of your daily life.  So, are you with me?  Are you ready to change? 

We begin with getting out of your chair during the day.  Park at the back of the parking lot, ride a bike to work (not the Harley kind) or climb the stairs to a different bathroom.  Walk outside during lunch or when you get home in the evening.  Your new keyword is MOVE.  Do whatever you can to move throughout the day even if that means dancing in your cube.

In addition, yoga can help undo what corporate America has done to our bodies.  Simple stretches like lunges and twists can bring relief to back sufferers.  In fact, just 15 minutes of mindful breathing and stretching has been proven to dramatically reduce both respiratory rate and blood pressure - two more contributors to chronic health. (BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine, June 2012)

Here are a few resources I’ve collected to help start you on your new journey.  Download and print any of Limber Llama’s flowing yoga sequences including the “Ditch Your Chair” sequence to keep at your desk.  View videos and read tips from Yoga Journal’s “Office Yoga” workshop or iTunes app Office Yoga.  Awaken body awareness with Yoga International’s article on finding your psoas (a key muscle in opening the hip flexors.) 

Turn Up the Heat

Turn Up the Heat

Shed Winter’s Blues

After a long, bitter winter, the first few days of spring can feel like summertime.  Chilly mornings lead to warm and comfortable afternoons.  Daffodils begin to stretch their stems after their long winter’s nap.  Birds sing and whistle while rabbits start hopping across yards.  Spring has arrived.

As the season changes, so should our yoga practice.  Following an Ayurvedic approach, spring represents the heaviness of rain and the rebirth of the earth.  Our practice should help shed off the heaviness with more movement and lightness.

Now is the time of the year where it is appropriate to turn up the heat and intensity of your practice.  Feel free to incorporate more standing, twisting and balance postures.

Standing poses like Warrior I and Cresent ground and strengthen our stems. Standing and seated twists such as twisted lunge help squeeze out the excess weight, emotions and tension built up from the long winter.  Balance postures like crow and handstand challenge our mind and support our core.

Try this special Detox Flow Yoga Class with my teacher, Maria Garre.  While I’m not there to assist you, here are my words of advice.  Move at your own pace, and modify based on your personal needs.

Start moving this month, and feel the full release of winter.