Yoga

I’m a yoga teacher. But my life at home isn’t exactly Zen, because I’m also a mother. Literally, as I am writing this, my husband and daughter are playing catch with her Lovey Bunny. Every couple of seconds a floppy stuffed animal goes whizzing by, three feet from my face. Soon, my infant son will need to nurse…

Once you have children everything is a little, well, tighter. Time, space, money, and my jeans are all tighter these days. My hold on my patience can be too, especially after climbing three flights of stairs with a temperamental, chatty toddler and a baby strapped to me. Man, by 3:30 p.m. most days, everybody around here needs an attitude adjustment.

For new parents in particular, stress-reducing physical activity is both necessary and seemingly impossible. What can you do when you’re tethered to the apartment?

One playful solution is to create a family yoga practice (try calling it “yoga play time”). Take the chance to have some exercise time together. Family yoga models self-care, teamwork, practicing new skills, and getting downright silly.

Create a Yoga Playspace
You don’t need a dedicated studio space, though there are great classes in the neighborhood, like the one I teach at Bend and Bloom. You can create a bit of yogic ambiance in any room with a few steps. Set yourself up for success and remember that nobody can compete with a toy box. Put things away. Lay a blanket on the floor to create a dedicated yoga area. Unplug! Put. The. iPhone. Down. While music may be a tempting way to set the scene for a mini-yoga class at home, I recommend holding off when you’re first getting started. For most kids music is something to do, not something to be ignored in the background. Music is a key component to a family yoga class, but think of it as a prop or a tool and use it judiciously and with purpose.

One thing I always tell parents when they come to my classes is to keep their expectations loose. This is especially true at home. It’s a huge accomplishment if you get to hold a pose or two and your child tries at least one yoga play activity. Managing our expectations is a big part of family yoga. (It’s also a big part of parenting). You’re not going to get a big work out in, folks. But, you are going to move your body with your child, learn from each other, and hopefully have fun!

Yoga Play for Infants, Toddlers, and Older Kids
Here are a few poses and activities to share with the yoginis in your life of varying ages.

Infants:
Babies are often the greatest teachers of being in the moment. They aren’t anticipating their next feeding or diaper change, though you might be. Allow them to inspire what it means to truly be. This meditative state may be something many of the clock-keepers in the family struggle with (like me!). Take a moment to check in with your infant. Ask them if they are ready to play! If they seem fussy or not up for it, try again another time.

Flying Babies!
This partner pose serves as abdominal work for the adult as well as tummy time for the infant. Start sitting on the floor with your knees bent, feet on the floor in front of you. Bring the baby to your shins, facing you. Hold the baby close to your shins draw your belly muscles in and slowly roll down onto your back. Try to keep your shins level and parallel to the floor. Hold on to your baby! Draw your knees close to your face and make a silly sound for your baby. Then extend your legs away from you a few inches, draw your knees in again. Repeat! Try to keep your head and neck relaxed while you engage your lower abdominal muscles. You can cue yourself by drawing your belly button down towards the floor. Your baby will delight in seeing you from above.
Note: keep a burp cloth handy! My son has spit up directly into my mouth while “flying.” If your baby just ate, I recommend waiting a bit.

Toddlers:
Toddlers are a notoriously irrational community. Their quirks are part of what makes them amusing to be around and, yet, they can be extremely trying. Parents, it’s ok to be a little selfish here. Check in with yourself. What’s tight on your own body? What do YOU need? I recommend starting by taking a deep breath.

Tissue Breathing
This kid friendly pranayama activity requires a box of tissues.
Everyone should have one tissue to start. Pinch the tissue at its corners with both hands. Hold the tissue up in front of your face, a couple of inches from your mouth. Take a deep breath in, then blow out through your lips and watch the tissue move. Don’t let go of the tissue yet! Try again, this time extend your arms a bit so your tissue is a little further away from your face. The idea is to see how far you can reach your tissue with your breath. When you have extended your arms as far as you can, it’s time to let the tissues fly. Take the deepest breath you can and let go of the tissue when you exhale so the tissue goes flying. Blow the tissue at your child. Let them blow a tissue at you. Have fun with it! Breathing is a big part of yoga and an excellent post-tantrum activity!

Poses from the Page
A great way to frame family yoga time is to use a beloved picture book. Because many of the traditional yoga postures are inspired by and resemble animals, books with animals will be your best bet. (Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell and pretty much anything by Sandra Boynton or Eric Carle are great choices). This literacy building activity is helpful for someone who has a basic familiarity with poses. If you are new to yoga, don’t fret. Yoga Journal’s website has a terrific search tool for beginner poses. (Yogajournal.com). Read the book to your child, and every time you see an animal or meet a new animal character, take that shape with your body. Let your animals talk! Bark in downward facing dog! Hiss in your cobra poses! Let your leaves blow in the breeze in tree pose!

5-10 yr olds
Older kids want to be challenged in a playful way. Yoga is inherently non-competitive. There are no points to tally, no winners or losers. But what do you do when siblings start to show their natural competitive spirit? When you hear your child start to say, “I’m doing it better!” Try to find ways to reframe their urge to win by competing against themselves. Offer to set a timer to see how long your child can hold a pose. Write it down in a journal or on the calendar and try again next week or tomorrow to see if they can hold it longer or shorter.

Crow Pose
This traditional yoga posture is fabulous for building focus, balance, and strength. This arm balance takes practice (I will conquer you one day, Crow! I vow it!). Start out in a squat position with your feet wider than your hips. Place your hands down in front of you about eight inches or so—enough so that when you bend your arms you make a little shelf with your elbows. Squeeze your arms with your legs. Start to tip forward. Pick up one foot and then the other.

Note: This pose is often harder for adults than it is for kids! It’s okay if their feet stay on the floor. If you try to correct too much, your child will feel discouraged and lose interest. Let them find their poses in their own time.

Turtle on a Rock
In this partner pose, the parent comes into child’s pose. The child will stand close to your body with their back towards you. The child will sit on your tush and slowly lie back on you. This should feel very nice for both of you!

Yoga Family Moments
Playing yoga together regularly allows a new language to develop, where our bodies can say what our words can’t. When my daughter wants my attention (usually when I’m nursing the baby) she’ll come into camel pose, a posture on your knees where you reach your arms back to touch your feet, allowing your head to lean back. She knows that this is the ultimate way to expose her “tickle spot,” under her chin. When I take her up her sweet invitation and she falls apart in giggles, I laugh, too. That might be our family yoga practice for the day, as close to Zen as we’re going to get. And as parents, we’ve got to take our Zen where and when we can.

Jessica teaches Postnatal/Baby Yoga classes to babies and toddlers on Fridays and Family Yoga to 2.5-6 year olds with grown-ups on Saturdays at Bend and Bloom in Park Slope.

A student came to me for an Alexander Technique lesson, referred by a yoga colleague, hoping to relieve her agonizing neck and shoulder pain.  I began by explaining Alexander’s central concept: Release your neck to free the spine and relieve the shoulders.  Then I stepped back to consider her overall stance.  Though she had what might be considered “good” posture, I noticed a strange contraction in the front of her torso.

“What are you doing with your abdominals?” I asked.

“Holding them,” she replied.

“Well,” I suggested, “let them go.”

She did.  Her torso did not collapse without that alleged “support.”  After her first and, as it turned out, only lesson, her acute shoulder pain disappeared.  What does this show?  1) That a symptom may be far from its cause and, 2) A flawed concept of abdominal support can be damaging.

Such a quick resolution is rare.  Usually, in a private Alexander session or yoga class, we are on a quest to change neuromuscular habits bit by bit, week by week, in an ongoing process of refining awareness, unraveling tension and marshaling the body’s true postural support.  Many students pat themselves just above the navel and say, “I’ve got to strengthen my core.”  There are legions in the fields of physical conditioning and performance who will tell you that maintaining a conscious contraction in the superficial abdominals—those we can see and feel—will resolve back pain, foster better balance and improve posture.  But misusing abdominal muscles can actually compress the spine and increase back pain, send you off balance, restrict your breath, and compress your posture.

Let’s correct some prevalent misconceptions and expand our idea of what core support really is.

Don’t Hold Anything

You wouldn’t strengthen your biceps by holding them in contraction all the time, so why do that with your abs?  No muscle group should be held.

Muscles work reciprocally, and abdominal muscles work in relation to the head, neck, back and legs.  As you walk, your abdominals, which connect from the pelvis up to the skull, work automatically.  You don’t have to think about it.  It may take some enlightened instruction to get there, but when you let your abdominals release and allow ease and length in your spine, they operate as they should.

The body is a marvelously complex creation—easy to move, hard to understand.  Trust me: you can’t wrap your brain around it.  Our body’s real function is a dazzling interplay of forces.  As we try to sort out how it works, we over-simplify.  People try to stabilize one area rather than coordinate the entire body in motion.  But a little anatomical understanding and some guiding principles can help you access your torso’s genuine support and truly enliven your core.

Abdominal Muscles

There are four layers of abdominals:

Rectus abdominis are straight up and down, easily felt on the front surface of the torso.  The goal of crunches is to develop these into “washboard abs.”  Washboards—not much in use these days—are made of metal, a hard substance unlike human tissue.  I’m all for strong abdominals, but they can be strong without being hard.

Oblique abdominals are slanted and come in two layers—internal and external.  They work when you do a yoga twist, when you breathe and as you walk.  They wrap around your torso and go almost all the way back to the spine.

Transversus abdomin is is the deepest of the four layers.  Roughly horizontal, transversus helps contain the internal organs and participate in upright posture.

Core is So Much More

Let’s keep going, to the under layers you can’t consciously feel or directly engage, deeper within the body.

Diaphragm – This mushroom-shaped structure at the bottom of the rib cage is the primary muscle of respiration.  It coordinates with other torso muscles to expel CO2—the waste product of breath —and inhale O2, the oxygen we need for survival.  You can’t get more “core” than this.  The entire rib cage expands as we inhale and contracts as we exhale.  Allowing your breath to work fully and easily supports upright posture, calms the mind and conditions torso muscles—subtly and without effort.

Psoas – You’ll hear this word thrown around a lot in yoga classes and nailed as a problem area.  The full name is iliopsoas.  At the top, it connects to the diaphragm, relates to each breath we take and helps support upright posture.  The “ilio” part coats the inside of the pelvis.  The “psoas” part loops under the thigh bone and, when it contracts, bends the hip joint.  Sometimes called “the muscle of the soul,” it is so central, so deep, that it reflects our internal emotional state and level of stress.

Multifidus – Some back muscles—the ones you use when you arch your back in yoga—are more superficial and extend the whole length of the spine.  Beneath those big surface muscle are these little ones: multifidus, linking one vertebrae to another.  They support us to stand, sit well and initiate larger movements.  Studies have shown that, to protect the spine from injury, the multifidus muscles activate before any motion.

The Body Works as a Whole

When you bend your elbow, your biceps work, and your triceps release.  When you straighten it, your triceps engage.  If both are working, your shoulder and elbow joints will compress.  For muscular work to be efficient, one muscle group needs to be active, and the opposing group should release.  That release is a neuromuscular function called inhibition.  We can make that function conscious by pausing before we do a yoga posture, envision the posture as a whole, and move into it with ease.

When you learn how to throw a ball or swing a racket, you don’t analyze a sequence of muscles engaging.  You look where you wanted the ball to go and imitate your teacher, an athlete, or an adept older kid.  You get a whole picture.  Your eyes deliver that picture to your brain and nervous system in a flash, and you do your best to fulfill your image.  Over time, you practice and get better at it, not from analysis, but from keeping your eye on the ball and repeating a whole body experience.  When we see the objective of an action in the mind’s eye, we are better able to engage the body’s complex, integrated response.

Many people think that surface muscles—the back and superficial abdominals—support upright posture.  But here’s the big news:  If the outside shell of muscle is tense, the inner muscles fail to engage.  Rather than working, the core muscles actually inhibit, making the spine less spacious and more vulnerable.  Before we do something, the spine can enliven and lengthen to prepare for our next move.  When you understand this, it can bring more ease and balance to your daily tasks and to the practice of yoga.

We’re not like an ice cream sandwich, with a slab of muscle on the front facing another slab on the back.  We are round and multi-layered, with large muscles on the outside and the smallest deep within.  Isolating and overworking one surface muscle group is misguided.  It’s not how movement and function work.  In fact, one part of engaging the core is breathing fully and easily.  And you can think of your core as beginning from the long arch in your feet and ending at the top of your head.

Ways to Build the Core

Here are some ways in everyday movement to build a truly strong core:

Standing – Whether waiting for the subway or standing in tadasana, Mountain Pose, notice whether your weight is more toward the front of your feet or the heel.  If you’re not centered, envision the top of your head guiding you right over your feet.  If it feels totally weird, you’ll know that you habitually stand back on your heels.  Once you’re in balance, upright poise can become effortless.

Sitting – To sit well, envision space and ease where the spine joins the head—a point between the ears.   Balance your weight on your sitbones, breathe easily, and envision those little muscles along the spine supporting you from within.  If in yoga class you find it a strain to sit with legs crossed, sit on a folded blanket or bolster to make upright posture easier.  Let your rib cage be buoyant with breath.

Breathing – Believe it or not, a full easy breath is one of the most accessible ways to improve your posture.  Your lungs go from your shoulders to near the bottom of the rib cage.  Allow your breath to fill the whole torso, including the back where you have more lung tissue.

Many yoga poses demand and can inspire core support.  Here are just a few:

Seated Spinal Twist – Allow your breath to support the easy movement of your rib cage and shoulders as you wring out the waist.

Plank – When you do this pose in yoga class or at the gym, allow your head to rotate slightly at the top of your spine.  That will allow the spine to lengthen and give this strong pose a foundation of ease.

Side Plank – In vasistasana, allow that slight rotation as you send the crown of the head away from the heels of your flexed feet.  Practicing plank as you hold a block between your legs can spark deep, genuine core support. ◆

“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.”    – Melody Beattie

Before triangle pose and headstand, the term yoga was a philosophical study of how one could unite with the divine. Yoga means union: to yolk and come together. We can liberate all parts of our intellectual, emotional, spiritual, and physical bodies from the suffering of the human condition and unite with truth.

Gratitude is a key to liberation. From the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, we can remain grounded in gratefulness to sincerely unite ourselves with the true meaning of this time: connection and giving.

We can take time to be present enough to what is happening, acknowledge it, and make a connection. This act completes an energy exchange. I give something to you, you receive it and express gratitude. Transaction completed. Elements of yoga philosophy can assist in completing this cycle.

TIMELESS TEACHINGS

One of the seminal yoga texts, The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, are a collection of philosophical suggestions in how to reach enlightenment. Enlightenment encompasses concepts of liberation, divinity, bliss, peace, and truth. Sutra means thread, and these verses all weave together to create a beautiful resource of inspiration and encouragement. It is estimated that these offerings range from 5,000 B.C. to 300 A.D. Before yoga pants and downward facing dogs, sages were dedicating their lives to investigating and gathering information on how to live peaceful lives. Patanjali is said to be not only one single person, but an accumulation of sages, each having a jewel to offer.

One of the these jewels, santosha, is described in Patanjali’s sutras as contentment. One of the personal observances to remind us to accept what we have and do not have in our lives.

Sutra 1.42 By contentment, supreme joy is gained.

Gratitude is rooted in acceptance, from a place of non-judgement—by receiving what comes our way and acknowledging its purpose, whether in that moment or after time spent in reflection. And gratitude does not always have to be directed at a person; it can be directed towards a situation or turning point in your life.

At times, these turning points can seem like incredible obstacles or not ‘part of the plan’. Sure, it’s easy to thank the moments in your life that were shimmering with positivity and made you feel good. But can you honor those moments that were not so pretty? For me, that is where the real yoga comes in—to honor it all: the good, the bad, the ugly. Because it really does all happen for a reason. I know, you have heard it before and you almost threw up in your mouth a little bit, but it is true. We may not see the reason in that moment, but it is happening to learn more about yourself and how you relate to the world. As you take time to show and express gratitude, thank your struggles as much as your high points, the valleys, and the peaks.

HEART & GRATITUDE PRACTICE

Thankfulness stems from the place of the heart. The heart space is extended through the shoulders, arms, and hands. How we use our hands can express appreciation and acceptance. When we come to the physical practice of yoga, asana, we use our hands a lot: on the ground and on our own bodies. There are certain poses and sequences that will jumpstart your grateful heart.

Mudras are yoga poses with the hands. They can be practiced at any time of day and pretty much everywhere. A simple but powerful one is the anjali mudra, the gesture of prayer. Let both hands come together right in front of the chest and breathe. If you are feeling scattered or little whiny, sit down and bring your hands together.

The backbending portion of asana classes can be scary for some. Regardless of the physical fear, backbending goes directly into the emotional center of the body: the heart. In this place we hold feelings of love, compassion, and forgiveness. Some of my teachers call these poses ‘heart openers’ because you are literally opening your chest to get into poses like locust, bow, camel, bridge, and full wheel. When I teach these poses, some students shed a few tears. The physical release allows for the emotional body to let go.

It took me a while to trust myself to get into upward bow, urdvha dhanurasana. Allowing my hands and feet to support me so I could open my front body up to the sky as my head released with gravity. I am still a little hesitant to do upward bows in class, but once I do, I am glad I did it. My resistance at times comes from not wanting feel and these backbends blow all of that out of the water. The image of Superman comes to mind with these poses. Ripping off the the Clark exterior right at the chest to expose your true self, Superman/Superwoman!

Flipping your perspective can also generate gratefulness not only in your practice but in your life off the mat as well. Going upside down shakes out any heaviness or negativity that is weighing down your heart. It reminds us to put ourselves in other people’s shoes. Flip the situation. Inversions include headstand, forearmstand, and handstand with many variations. But downward facing dog is also an inversion as is a standing forward bend. Again, these poses may bring up fear, but embracing these poses can shine a light on how gratitude can change your perspective.

Forward bends allow a time for reflection. It is in the reflection that we can cultivate the thank you’s. When the front body is surrendering to the legs, the back body is being called to open. We carry our past in the back body. By going inwards and investigating what we still carry with us, gratitude can help us let it go. “Thank you for that lesson, now I can move on.” Some helpful forward-bending poses include child’s pose, forward-bending pigeon, seated butterfly, seated star, head-to-one knee, and seated forward-bend with two legs (paschimottanasana).

The word namaste is becoming more mainstream these days. Its translation, “the light in me bows down to the light in you,” is a refreshing reminder to appreciate the people in front of you and the moment: Gratitude for this yoga practice, for this vessel, and ability to practice. We do not need anything extra to achieve balance and peace. Experiment with focusing on gratefulness in your next seated meditation. We have all the tools within us and by taking time to honor the abundance in our lives, we are reminded that we have enough, santosha.

OFF THE MAT

One of the highest forms of gratitude is through giving back. Through the action of seva, selfless service, we help our fellow man and woman. Check out your local volunteer options and see where you can lend a helping hand. Volunteering connects us to everything, and the holiday season offers many opportunities to donate your time. Check out newyorkcares.com—they have many opportunities to give back in all five boroughs. Instead of giving physical gifts to your family and friends, consider donating in their name to a foundation/organization that could use your support.

Create a gratitude list and thank your blessings and obstacles by writing them down. Take a moment to thank your food away from the computer and TV. Have a gratitude list running that sits right next to your bed. Write three things that happened within the day that you are grateful for. A simple one here: kindness is also a form of appreciation. Give in kindness.

HOLIDAZE

The holiday season is a special time because it happens around the same time every year and can be a great way to check in with ourselves. One of these check-ins can be structured by gratitude. What has transpired in the past year that you are thankful for? Hard times can receive some gratitude too. It is through the lows and struggles that we value what is really important and the lesson we can receive from these turning points will be with you forever. The awareness of learning from a particular experience can impart wisdom. Wisdom is a defining element of enlightenment. If you are having a hard time being thankful, because it does happen, ask for help. Call a friend or family member and re-inspire yourself with the people in your lives.

THANK YOU!

I can still feel myself defrosting from one of the longest winters NYC has ever experienced. The days have started to grow longer, and there is a little more pep in my step. The layers are finally starting to shed, and going outside in the sunshine is replacing the winter norm of cocooning myself into what I like to call a “couch nest”.

We were so eager to feel warmer temperatures that at the first sign of above fifty degree weather, people were literally shedding and wearing shorts, dresses, and flip flops. We wanted to feel the sun on our skin and breathe in the new fragrances of spring. It was so sweet!

Higher temperatures and longer days are sure to affect our physical and subtle bodies. Our physical bodies may feel looser and our overall moods might be a little cheerier. I feel like this happens every year; we have our honeymoon stage with spring and as we enter June, we still relish in the warmer temperatures. But by mid-July and certainly by August, we are over the heat waves and intense humidity that characterize a typical New York summer. We crave the AC and the only way we can sleep is in a chilled room. If you have AC in your home, the thought of going outside reminds you of visions of The Walking Dead—over-heated zombies gasping for some cool air.

But how can we use this heat to our advantage? What can we learn about balancing ourselves in dealing with yet another extreme? The practice of yoga and its sister-science Ayurveda offers tools on how to keep cool, not only physically, but emotionally as well.

FIRE

Heat and light are characteristics of the fire element. We have internal fire which regulates our digestive system, self-confidence, sight, action, and emotions. One can have too much or not enough of the fire element in each of these areas.

Not enough digestive fire will bring feelings of bloating and constipation. Too much fire in the confidence arena can translate into someone being egotistical, single-minded, and easily frustrated when things do not go their way. On the contrary, if someone has a hard time feeling good about themselves, they are lacking fire. If you suffer from migraines your eyes can be too sensitive to light, meaning you have too much fire in your system.

One of the biggest imbalances with this element relates to our emotions. I find myself getting more frustrated and easily angered in the summer time. Too much fire either from my food, activities, or the colors I am wearing in an environment that is already too hot, will cause me lash out at innocent strangers. The city term “murder heat” starts to make a lot of sense when I am waiting on the subway platform in mid-August and there is not a train in sight.

Sun salutations, twists, arm balances, and most inversions will naturally warm you up, and you will need some variations in your yoga practice to sustain a nurturing summer practice. Explore moon salutations instead of sun salutations, where instead of lowering halfway to the ground, you take a child’s pose. Cleansing and detoxing are some of the benefits of twisting poses and I invite you to experiment with open, seated, and reclined twists. Shoulderstand, Salamba Sarvangasana (All Parts Supported pose), is a cooling inversion for those who still want to feel the benefits of going upside down. An advanced practice is one that changes and morphs to suit the individual in the present moment. What felt good two weeks ago may not feel the same now. Stay aware and present with how you respond to changes in your practice.

Having a balanced fire element will allow for proper digestion, a steady stream of motivation, and a general sense of well-being. Because our external summer environment is very hot, we will feel less over-heated if we keep our internal fires at bay. We can turn to other natural elements that exist within our internal and external worlds to balance us out. The other elements of water, earth, air, and ether will help us offset too much fire and prevent us from burning out.

WATER

We want to look to things that are going to cool us down. When I think of cooling down, I think of jumping into a pool or the ocean. Our bodies are innately asking us for water. I don’t have a pool in my backyard, so I have to get creative with how I integrate water into my everyday.

Drinking lots of water is a great way to start. Sweating is an involuntary way for your body to release excess heat, so you want to re-hydrate any lost fluids. Eat more foods like fruits and vegetables that have a high water content. Cucumbers, melons, summer squash, grapes, and berries are great examples of summer-friendly foods. Fried, very spicy, and sugary foods are big no-nos for summer eating. They tax your system and generate too much internal heat.

The element of water rules the area of the hips. Explore more hip-opening poses in your yoga practice. These poses act as an exhaust for the body, allowing for excess heat to dissipate. A fantastic hip-opening pose, Eka Pada Rajakapotasana (One-Legged King Pigeon) is commonly referred to as Pigeon in class. The genius of this pose is that one hip is externally rotated and the other hip is internally rotated. So one will feel a stretch on the outside of one hip and the front the other hip.

AIR & ETHER

It’s not only the heat that is overwhelming: the humidity makes NYC summers extra burdensome. We should turn to the element of air and ether (space). A fan is essential in keeping the heavy air moving. Set up good airflow in your home and work space. Going to the beach or the country will cool down the fires by offering you more space to move and breathe. Movement is the key word here in bringing a sense of lightness to your everyday. The practice of Pranayama, breath control, teaches us how to use our breath to find balance.

My saving grace lately has been this cooling Pranayama practice called Sitali Pranayama. In Sanskrit, sita means cool. Find a comfortable seat and take a couple of inhalations and exhalations through the nose, closing the mouth. Then stick out your tongue and let the outside edges of the tongue come together, creating a taco shape. Inhale through your taco tongue, take the tongue inside the mouth, seal the lips and gently exhale through the nose. Try nine rounds of this, seeing if you can slow down the inhalation and exhalation. You can feel the cool air enter through the tongue. I call this my natural air conditioning.

Some people can not make a taco tongue. So as an alternative, make a small circle with your lips like you are about to whistle and inhale through the small hole.

EARTH

Do you remember your middle school fire drills? If you were in a fire and smoke was filling the room, you were instructed to get low to the ground because heat and smoke rise. Spend more time on the ground or close to it where it is cooler. Going to the park and sitting in the shade or lying in the grass are great ways to do this. After a long day, coming home and lying on your back on the living room floor for ten to fifteen minutes will do wonders to restore balance on all levels.

This earth energy inspires us to ground a bit more and slow down. We can overheat ourselves by packing our schedules too tightly and running to and from many places. Take it down a notch, and as the body slows down, so will the mind.

Forward bends are grounding and cooling poses to focus on during the summer. We can take advantage of the external heat that loosens our muscles and spend more time diving deep into the land of forward bending. A wide straddle stretch, Upavistha Konasana (Wide-Angle Seated Forward Bend), simultaneously releases any stagnant energy in the pelvis, stretches the back of the legs and opens the back body. Find a comfortable seat, let your legs come out in front of you, and create a V-shape with the legs. Flex through your toes so they point upwards. For more support I have been enjoying putting pillows or folded up blankets under each knee, allowing them to bend slightly. Reach your hands up and tilt forward with the finger tips touching the ground and gently walk the hands out. Let the head release and breath into the spine and the back of the chest. Stay for twelve rounds of breath. If the head needs support, stack a couple of books and place them under your forehead.

CELEBRATE!

Summer is a time of celebration and abundance. Fruits and vegetables are starting to reach their peak and be harvested—see how this can mirror your own life’s fruitions. Savor the opportunity to be outdoors and around nature. Take refuge in the company of friends and family. Outside gatherings are a fun and inexpensive way to gather people together. Use these tools to cool down so you have the energy and space to celebrate your beautiful life!

“People ask me, ‘Can kids do yoga?’” says April Cantor, who teaches tots at Bend & Bloom.  “And I say, ‘They already do!’”

In fact, yoga is a natural for kids, from the obvious Child’s Pose (balasana), Happy Baby (ananda balasana, meaning blissful baby) on to Down and Up Dog, which, as anyone watching infants and toddlers knows, are movements kids do as they develop. “They’re teaching me,” says April.  “I see these one- to three.year-olds doing cobra or downward dog without even a thought. When I say there’s a name for what they do, I see them light up.” Appealing to children’s universal love of animals are Frog, Lion, Cat, Cow, and Dolphin.  These poses come from nature, and kids arrive in our lives trailing the vines and leaves of the wild behind them.  As they grow, yoga provides an outlet for their explosive energy and has much to offer the young mind and body.

Kid-friendly Brooklyn has a breadth of classes bringing this ancient practice into all phases of a child’s life.  New parents aching for a little exercise can find Mommy & Me classes at several studios in the Slope, and as children’s needs evolve, there are classes for every age, from tots to tweens to teens.  On Saturdays, there are several studios where a whole family can jump into practice together.

With yoga, kids learn to manage their bodies and develop strength, coordination, flexibility, and courage.  They refine their observation skills as they learn yoga’s range of twists, bends, and balances.  Taught by dynamic, inventive teachers with varied backgrounds in dance, fitness, and theater, yoga can appeal to their imaginations.  They can also learn the power of silence, with simple ways to calm the mind—coping skills from which we can all benefit.

From my years of teaching nursery school and dance to kids, I know that when you teach children, whatever the subject—clay, guitar, art, ceramics, math, writing, or dance—you’re teaching values.  Yoga, with its roots in contemplation and guidelines for attitudes and personal conduct, articulates those values.  The philosophy inherent in yoga practice really can work for all ages.

Jennifer Brilliant’s studio on the ground floor of her brownstone on Carroll Street has brightly colored walls painted on one side with the sun, on the other, the moon. The day I observed two classes, teacher Sarah Seely had just returned from a trip to Barbados where she had tried something completely new:  surfing!  Building her class around its elements, she asked the kids what might be required for this challenging sport, and they answered: balance, determination, stability, focus, confidence, and calm.  Balance on moving water, courage to do something new, determination to persist through an awkward beginning, and observation of the movements of the ocean.

Grouped in pairs, each child came up behind a partner and gave a gentle shove.  The foot that came forward as the partner lost and regained balance determined which one should lead on the surfboard.  Sarah then broke down the activity into its moving parts:  paddling out, with each child’s mat doubling as his or her own board; up dog (urdhva mukha svanasana) to watch and sense the coming wave, a twist as you follow that wave and align the board to the surf, and then a jump from up dog to standing on both legs at once—a tough move.  I watched their ragged first attempts smooth out until there they were, ready to ride the wave.  From this, they can see how yoga isn’t some group of arbitrary positions you do indoors, but a functional vocabulary alive in a real sport.

Yoga classes are a great opportunity to develop confidence. Sarah led a discussion among the teens. “What have you tried,” she asked, “that first was scary, then got easier, and then was fun?” One talked about diving, another about the terrors of sleepaway camp, another about swimming with sharks in France.  Heavens, these Brooklynites are world travelers.

There were plenty of physical challenges in Sarah’s warm-up— five squats on one leg, holding boat pose—navasana, an abdominal feat—for a long series of counts.  “This has nothing to do with surfing,” said one boy.  A girl collapsed on the floor.  Another protested, “My arms hurt.” Jennifer assisted, offering individual attention to focus a kid who’s distracted or needs extra help.  A cell phone rang; someone didn’t turn hers off.  Whatever the age, a teacher of children is defying entropy, the barely contained chaos that presses against the boundaries of every classroom.  Against those odds, these teenagers learn to practice bramacharya— impulse control—an element essential to the harmony of the group.

Toddlers have no clue about a group.  “They’re going to wander,” says April, “and anyone teaching tots has to be okay with a little bit of chaos.” She reels them in with music, giving them flight paths for their energy.  “We’ll make our arms like airplanes and fly to one part of the room.  Then we fly in triangle pose, because that’s how pilots fly their planes.  Sequences are really creative movement. We can do a whole vinyasa flow.”

What a child absorbs in a yoga class may not seem obvious. All these teachers mentioned the indirect way children integrate what they’ve learned.  “Even when you think they’re not really paying attention or haven’t quite grabbed it,” said Sarah, “something pops out of their mouths later, and I can see they’ve absorbed a lot. I’m so proud and inspired when I realize, ‘Oh you were listening.’” The same is true of the tiny yogis.  April builds her drop-in classes at Bend & Bloom to include the parents and caregivers who accompany the kids to class.  She tells them not to worry if their children don’t seem to be participating.  Most often, “they want to observe it first,” she says.  “Then they go home, remember it, and do the whole class.” When parents return, they tell her, “You know, you’re right.  Just before bed, they want to do yoga to help themselves calm down.”

Among yoga’s essential tools are conscious breath and meditation.  One teenager at Jennifer’s studio said she uses meditation to calm her nerves before a test; another waiting nervously with her cast members backstage before a dance performance shared a few minutes of quiet meditation and said, “It actually really helped.”

To teach kids about breath, April will produce a pinwheel for them to blow.  “I’ll use feathers so they can watch the feathers dance in the wind they make.  They start to understand the elements—earth, water, wind—and how they’re part of this earth, part of nature.”

Believe it or not, when their imagination is engaged, little children can learn to meditate.  Everyone in April’s class wanted to be a car when the theme was transportation.  So, at the end, she said,  “Okay, let’s be the best parked cars we can be.  We turn off our engines, we keep breathing.  We close our doors, we shut off our headlights—we close our eyes—and when I ring the bell, I’m going to count to ten or fifteen, and all you have to do as a well-parked car is to breathe softly and to listen to my counts.’”  They may sit with their eyes closed for ten seconds.  Sometimes she’ll make it up to thirty or sixty.  Over a few years, she can get these little ones to sit in meditation for up to a minute and a half, which is more than some of us grownups can do.

All these teachers aim to convey compassion to their students. “Kindness and respect is paramount,” said Sarah.  “When you’re a kid, it’s so easy to be in the sphere of your own experience.  But I want them to know how their actions affect those around them.  I tell them to pay attention. It’s not just about your phone and what your friends are up to.  There’s a lot more going on in the world.”

On the tot level, April has an age-appropriate way to teach about compassion.  “I did a class on dinosaurs,” she recalls, “and I brought out a stuffed T-Rex that looks kind of mean, very fierce. Some kids were afraid of the doll, so they’d hug it and pass it on. And I said, ‘Sometimes someone who’s acting mean and looks mean needs some kindness.  They really just need a hug and, and their real self will come out.’ And they get it, even at that age.”

“What’s most important to me,” said Jennifer Brilliant, who has offered kids classes at her studio the Park Slope for ten years, “is that they learn to like themselves, that they see how they can improve over time, in their own body, their own mind.  I want them to learn how to treat others, but also develop a deeper relationship with themselves.”

Kids’ classes look different from those for adults.  They may have songs, dancing, animals, sports, and games, but the underlying elements are all there.  Observing kids’ classes and talking with their teachers has shown me—as a lifelong practitioner and yoga teacher—how yoga can both ease and empower us in each phase of our walk through life.

YOGA & KIDS Park Slope Resources

Bend & Bloom
708 Sackett Street | bendandbloom.com/kids-program

Jaya Yoga Center
1626 8th Avenue | jayayogacenter.com/kids

Jennifer Brilliant Yoga & Personal Training
732-A Carroll Street | jenniferbrilliant.com/kids

GoGo Babies
61 Tompkins Place | gogobabies.net

SoulShine.Life
5 Stratford Road, St. 3 | soulshinelife.com

Yogasana Center
118 3rd Avenue | yogasanacenter.com/yogasana-kids

There was a day in late August when everything suddenly felt a little lighter, and a soft breeze made it easier to breathe. It happened overnight. The shift from hot, humid nights to being able to sleep with a blanket was here. The quality of the air was less heavy and there was a little pep in our step—almost like being lifted. We’ve spent most of September adjusting to the shifts, and now autumn has officially set in. How does that affect us and our yoga practice?

Change is constant and we all have different reactions to it.  We see nature morph and respond to the presence of less or more light, wind, and water, and so our physical and subtle bodies absorb and mirror these responses.  But change is hard—and sometimes our bodies don’t take well to it. We may begin to notice and feel reactions that hinder our ability to stay balanced and at peace.  With the help of yoga’s sister science, Ayurveda, we can identify the elements that are shifting inside and outside of our bodies. Through this understanding, we can navigate the change of this season with ease with some helpful tips ranging from suggested food choices to what yoga poses to focus on.

WHAT IS AYURVEDA?

Ayurveda is a Sanskrit word that means “the science of life and longevity”. It allows us to find harmony with the laws of nature. Dating back 5,000 years from India, Ayurveda reveals how to prevent illness, heal through natural means, and stay in balance.

I like to think of it as preventive care at its best, being able to approach our health from an anticipatory standpoint as opposed to treating illness with drugs and surgery.  Imbalances occur when there is “dis-ease” in the body. Literally, the body is not able to function with ease. The first step is identifying what we are working with and sharpening our awareness of it.

The principles of Ayurveda are based on five natural elements that exist in nature and in our bodies: space, air, fire, water, and earth. These elements are organized into primary energies called doshas. The three doshas are: vatta (space and air), pitta (fire and water) and kapha (water and earth). Fall is known as vatta season, winter as kapha season, and summer as pitta season.  Each body contains different amounts of each dosha making up our unique Ayurvedic composition.  I continue to be amazed by the power of Ayurveda’s intuitive nature.

The freshness of the air in this fall/vatta season wipes the slate clean, making space for new things. It is a perfect time to start something new and set some new goals. Creative energy is all around us in the autumn, so be sure to feel supported by this while also remaining aware that you may feel a bit ungrounded or tired as a result. But there are things we can do to better balance, understand, and integrate this excitement!

Having grown up in California, the word “season” didn’t really mean much to me. Living in New York for more than a decade, I have come to appreciate the transformations and see that each season has a personality. Understanding how to prevent myself from going out of balance during seasonal shifts has helped me to stay in balance through all kinds of life transitions and ultimately, appreciate change. After all, it’s New York. It’s a dramatic place where so much can happen in one moment—so my practice helps remind me that this inevitability is normal and that, as my teacher Ali Cramer reminds me, “You can’t control change, but you can control your reaction to it.”

Let’s look at our diet first to see how we can balance out the dominant vatta dosha that fall brings. One of the best ways to stay grounded is by paying attention to what you eat.  Kapha foods come from the earth, the soil. Root vegetables are key during this time of year. Beets, carrots, turnips, leeks, parsnips, and onions will help ward off feelings of spaciness and bring us “back to earth”. Even foods that grow close to the earth or out of it, such as squashes, zucchini, asparagus, and cabbage are helpful.

Stay away from raw foods—they are too cooling when we need to cultivate more heat. Salad lovers, experiment with warm salads. Cook your food and eat it warm. Add a little pitta heat with some added spiciness, like cayenne and black pepper. Keep it warm for fruits, too. Bake, poach, or stew fruits of the season. Baked apples are great for this time of year!

Because of the dryness that occurs with so much wind, keep your organs and skin lubricated. Try cooking with more oil: ghee (clarified butter), sesame oil, flax seed oil, pumpkin seed oil; add cheese and yogurts to your meals. Instead of drinking just plain water (which you should be drinking lots of) integrate diluted yogurt, almond milk, coconut milk, rice milk, and hemp milk.

And if you feel your head is in the clouds, experiment with the color red. Red is a grounding color and also the color of the first chakra, known as the Muladhara (root) chakra starting from the soles of the feet and extending to the bottom of the pelvic floor. Red pants can be awesome for the fall time, red nail polish, red socks, and even red underwear!

Consistency and routine are pathways to counteracting the flighty nature of vatta season. What better way to introduce routine than in your yoga and meditation practice. Setting aside just ten minutes a day, preferably the same time of day and in the same place, will anchor you.  Add consistency by journaling, completing a daily chore, taking a walk, or making your breakfast every day. Regular rest is crucial during this time of year. The body will naturally need more sleep. Give in to taking a nap or scheduling an extra hour of sleep.

Ayurveda teaches us that every choice we make about what we put into and onto our body affects our overall harmony.

AYURVEDA AND YOGA

Here are suggestions on how to calm the air element, steady the mind, strengthen the body, and enrich the soul.  These are options to take with you to your next yoga class or try on your own.  Just as our aim was to ground and heat ourselves with our food and lifestyle choices, the same idea goes for our yoga poses as well.  (If you are recovering from a specific injury or surgery, seek the guidance of a trained yoga teacher.)

During this time, excess air gets trapped in the pelvic region and we are working to release that air. Child’s pose, Balasana, is immediately grounding. If you are taking a fast-paced yoga class and feeling anxious, take your knees down the mat, move your seat back to your heels, reach your arms forward, and let your forehead rest on the ground or a block.

Slow it down and find more stillness in all poses to activate a sense of stability. Take slower sun salutations, Surya Namaskar.  Elongate your inhales and exhales. Experiment with retaining the breath between the inhales and exhales. Use more props (blocks, blankets, and straps) in poses so that the ground comes to you and you prevent yourself from straining. Are the poses and intention behind each pose bringing you into balance or taking you out of balance? Take a longer Savasana, corpse pose.

Squat poses are stabilizing as our pelvis draws closer to the ground and we tap into the strength of our feet and legs while releasing excess vatta. Take a wide squat pose, Malasana, (see above) using a block or a few pillows to support your seat.  Take your hands to your chest with your left palm facing out and take your right palm facing in. Clasp the fingers. Find Ganesh mudra This hand seal represents the Hindi deity, Ganesh, the elephant god that rules the first root chakra. Inhale, soften the grasp and as you exhale, let your elbows draw away from each other. Do six rounds of breath total and then switch the facing of the palms.  If your heels do not reach the ground quite yet, roll up a blanket or towel so your heels are making contact with something.

Standing, forward-bending poses create space and balance in the feet and legs. Take a variation of your standing forward bend by crossing your ankles, Uttanasana. Use blocks or big books to support your body so you are not straining the back of the legs. Slightly bend your knees to provide relief to your lower back. Rock a bit more weight into the balls of your feet. Square off your hips and let the weight of your head go. Stay here for twelve rounds of breath.  Enjoy the benefits of this inversion, where the heart is above the head.  Cross the other ankle in front.

Cultivating balance comes with the testing of our balance. What better way than to stand on one leg! Release the foot that is crossed behind you into a warrior 3, Virabhadrasana 3. Keep the raised foot flexed and let the toes point down as the heel reaches behind you. The standing foot stays internally rotated and the hips are in line with each other. Stay with your hand on the blocks. For more heat in the pose, let your hands form a prayer in front of the chest. Draw your leg to be in line with your torso, and allow your gaze to move out in front of you so your chest is not collapsing down. Stay for five rounds of breath. Do the other side.

The best way to connect to the ground, is to come closer to it. Sit on the floor. This suggested pose brings instant peace with an added sweetness.  Bend your left leg and slide your left foot to the outside of your left hip with your knee and shin on the ground. Take the right foot to the inside of the left thigh with the right knee open the side. Inhale your hands up, and on the exhale twist to the right, letting the left hand come on the outside of the right knee and the right hand tent behind you. Look at your left shoulder as if someone is going to give you a kiss on the right cheek. This is Bharadvajasana (see page 19). Close your eyes for added bliss. The body is experiencing a lot of twisting, creating a quiet fire while finding tranquility in the legs.  Stay for nine rounds of breath. Variation: you can take a half lotus with the right foot and the right hand can come to grab the right foot for a deeper twist. Be sure to take a little counter twist to the other side after you are done. Do the other side.

Ayurveda and yoga remind us that we all have the means to center and balance ourselves. By listening and sharpening our awareness of what is both within and around us, we can make informed, conscious decisions and take responsibility for our own well-being.

Happy fall!  ◆

Contact Veronica at veronicacarnero@gmail.com with inquiries on private and group class yoga sessions throughout Brooklyn.

Yoga is a complex practice.  That is its beauty and its benefit.  For a creature as elaborate as a human being, yoga offers a movement vocabulary to challenge and ease our bodies and a philosophy to corral our wild minds.  Yet for a discipline meant to knit mind and body—yoga means union—there is one zone where yoga instruction seems to be struggling:  How to guide students to use the head and neck.  That is, after all, where the brain meets the body.

Looking around in any yoga class, I see this question hanging in the air:  What do I do with my head?  Lift it?  Drop it?  Hold it in the right position, whatever that is?  Let it lead or let it trail?

At the 2012 Yoga Journal Conference in New York City, I witnessed this conundrum in class, as master teachers noticed their students’ necks straining and offered options.  An Ashtanga Vinyasa teacher suggested, as we rose from low lunge to high, that we let the head come up last, trailing the body.  An Iyengar yoga teacher suggested, in triangle pose, “Let your head move back and look up.”  Responding to the tendency to strain your neck as you return to stand from extended side angle, a powerful muscle maven told us to put a hand under the head to cradle it as the body rises.  Every other fiber and sinew may be working overtime, but the poor little neck (with eighteen muscles of its own) needs a hand to get the head where it’s going.
These teachers, and so many others, try valiantly to help their students move well.  And in the weekly yoga classes I take in Brooklyn, I hear more creative cues:  “Bring your throat back.” “Keep your eyes on the horizon as you twist.” “Imagine a luminous palate.”  Or, simply, “Lengthen the back of your neck.”  Each of these can be helpful, but there’s a missing ingredient that is central to the Alexander Technique:  the concept of the primary control.

The relationship between the head and the neck is primary in human movement.  Actually, it is primary in all animal movement.  Like a prairie dog poking out of its hole, each of us needs a free neck and lightly poised head to see, hear, respond, and survive.  Where’s the food?  What’s that sound?  Is the hawk up there after me?  When we’re scared, we clench and withdraw like a turtle into its shell.  Poke a paramecium and it will contract.  Our body’s instinctive response to real danger, honed over eons, is adaptive.  But we don’t need a charging lion or swooping predator to elicit our body’s stress response.  Non-lethal stimuli can get us just as nervous—a crowded subway, even an admonition, or performance anxiety as we strive to do a yoga pose.  These can develop into unconscious habits; without realizing it, our contracted response becomes a habit, a clench that won’t quit.

Frederick Mathias Alexander came to understand how the habit of tensing the neck interferes with the body’s ideal functioning.  As a young Shakespearean orator at the turn of the twentieth century, he lost his voice.  When a physician couldn’t help him restore it, Alexander studied his own movement in a full-length three-way mirror and saw that whenever he began to recite the Bard’s immortal words, he pulled his head what he called “back and down.”  It’s hard to imagine the stentorian style of the time, but in fact, many contemporary actors throw their heads back for dramatic effect in just this way.

As he paid close attention to his customary way of vocalizing, Alexander saw that this habit had a litany of undesirable results.  The downward pressure of his head compressed his spine, constricted his breathing, and constrained his voice.  Even his feet contracted.  Over years of self-observation and experiment, he taught himself to catch this habit, let that excess neck tension go, and allow his body to work as a whole.  When he did, he found that his spine naturally lengthened, his breathing deepened, and his voice opened to its full dynamic range.  It wasn’t exactly relaxation; he wasn’t dropping his head.  He trained himself to use his head dynamically—noticing his tendency, releasing that habitual overwork, and envisioning a rotational direction, a slight internal forward movement of the head.  This natural motion guides movement throughout the rest of the body.  It’s a kind of spooling action that enlivens and lengthens the spine.

As a cellist tunes her instrument from the top down, she turns the pegs to achieve the appropriate degree of tautness and listens for the correct pitch as it vibrates through the body of the instrument.  She aims to have each string harmonize with the others.  Our tuning process is similar, though far more complex and internal.  When we release the muscles at the base of the skull, the head tips slightly forward and elicits a lengthening in the spine, a postural reflex.  This slight movement has a profound influence on our movement, breath, degree of tension and overall resiliency.  Rather than compression, we get expansion and freedom, minimizing strain and encouraging the body’s channels to open—breath, voice, limbs, thought.

Here’s the beauty of marshalling the primary control:  the quality of the relationship between your head and your neck determines the quality and sensation of everything you do.  Your life of movement, even if it’s sitting at a desk, can be influenced for the better by engaging the natural traction that results from that freedom.  Alexander understood and clarified the distinction between freedom and laxity.  Laxity is letting your head trail—a fine thing to do, and a skill among others.  But when you need something stronger, a kind of power steering, the head can be both free and masterful, leading your spine into length as you move.

As we approach the rich variety of poses in yoga, rather than adjusting separate parts—Where should my pelvis be?  Are my shoulders in the right place?—freeing the neck allows us to organize the whole.  When we learn how to manage that slight rotation at the top of the spine as we move from one pose to another, the torso becomes springy and responsive.  It’s a bit different from the musician’s motion as she adjusts the pegs.  When we tune our own instrument, the body, we can employ the power of thought.  Alexander discovered that visualizing the body’s internal oppositional flows could be a more effective way to function than direct muscular action.  When we envision rather than exert, our legs flow down into the earth and the torso expands toward the sky with more subtlety and ease.  We can determine the appropriate tone by visualizing and letting the body take care of the details.  Simple thoughts can have complex results: shoulders, ribs and pelvis align naturally and freely shift in transitions. Then, like the cellist, we listen.

With all my affection for the many disciplines now sparkling in the bodywork firmament, when it comes to the crucial balance of the head on the spine, I believe that the Alexander Technique offers the most reliable guide.  We can learn to free, not drop, the neck in activity.  Using the primary control, we can direct energy through the natural upward thrust of the torso to support the neck, to let the head lead and fulfill each bodily gesture.

As I watch my students encounter yoga’s many challenges, I see how their primary control influences their practice.  It’s a bit like their own window to integrated movement.  For those at any level, whether in forward bend, one of the warriors, a twist or a cobra, the head’s dynamic balance—or lack of it—can compress or release the spine.  When I lightly guide a student to open that window right under the skull, there’s a fresh breath of air, limbs flow away from the body’s center and the pose finds its full flower.

 

Visit Joan online at www.joanarnold.com