Greetings LifeFit Yogis and Friends!
August is already slipping away and our fall class schedule will being us together before we know it! In this month, I am busy preparing for us with traveling to California for some continuing education. I will get to study with Bryan Legere for another Yoga Wall intensive, study with Elise Browning-Miller on Yoga for Scoliosis (she is the foremost authority in this country on that subject) and then to take a class at the Iyengar Institute in San Fransisco. I look forward to coming back with great new material to keep us all progressing and growing together!
This has been a very busy summer for us on the home front, to include some beautiful landscaping with a labyrinth/patio! Some of you have asked: Earth Graphics Designs did the landscaping and Fred Meder did the labyrinth. If you look them up, tell them I sent you! In the fall LifeFit will have an open house so that you can come and walk the labyrinth, have some social time with fellow yogis and make new friends!
Now then, Juice Plus is the topic of recent interest in nutrition for me and my family! I cannot tell you how much I have been impressed in this company and now, in how we are beginning to feel after spending the summer taking the vitamins (really I should not call them vitamins, they are whole food supplements that contain the vitamins/minerals/nutrients you need daily, to include the shake that we will try on occasion after classes. You can go to juiceplusfacts.com or juiceplus.com and see more. Let me know if you are interested or have any questions. There are only 3 products and they are rather inexpensive (though all orders come in a 4 month supply):
1. Vitamins – come as capsules and chewies and soon to come as gummies – very kid friendly. They even have a version for athletes who have to go through regular testing to make sure they are not supplementing against regulations - more expensive of course – I want to learn about this part more – I think it is that the ingredients go through extra testing so that is why they charge more and the label indicates it in case anyone wants proof. Though I am calling them vitamins, they are really whole food supplements, coming from 17 fruits and vegetables. The fruits are the red color, the vegs are the green – you get both automatically and must take from each daily.
2. Shakes – come in chocolate and vanilla – we have tried many things out there and these taste the best and are quite “complete.” – by-the-way that is the name of this shake “Complete” – ha! Our son loves them, and he has been the taste tester of a lot of such things in this past year as we home worked products for our athlete!
3. Antioxidant – come as capsules and will soon come as chewies – great for those of us in aging bodies – my husband and I have been trying these out and he piped up the other day and said that he thought he noticed feeling better since that is what he added.
An excerpt from the Yoga Journal:
Inversions like Shoulderstand (Salamba Sarvangasana) are powerful because, as earthbound creatures, we are so strongly affected by the long-term impact of gravity. Over the years our bodies begin to, well, sag. This decline is clearly visible in our skin, but there are much more important, unseen consequences to gravity's relentless drag. After years of combating gravity, all the organs, especially the heart and the rest of the circulatory system, grow sluggish, which results in less nourishment to our cells and leaves us vulnerable to heart disease, fatty deposits in the blood vessels, varicose veins, and other effects of aging.
Though the effects of gravity are inevitable, we can do a great deal to counteract their impact. Like the original yogis, we can cleverly beat gravity at its own game by turning the body upside down. This simple action benefits the whole body. No wonder the early yoga masters stressed the importance of inversions and said that Headstand (father of all poses) and Shoulderstand (mother of all poses) could conquer old age!
Those of you new to yoga – do not fear inversions! Beginners get to practice passive inversions like short bridge and legs up the wall (Vipariti Karini), and slowly build upper body, lower body, and core strength to help get to practicing an active inversion. The practice of yoga is not an “instant pill” – the advantages are a cumulative effect of much variety in practice, and…consistency counts! So then note the attachments to the classes at Christ United Methodist Church. There is a new Men’s Yoga that will run for a short 6 week series beginning Sept 22 – space is limited and there is an intro price for this first session only. At my home studio, there is space in both the Wed 8:45 am and Friday 8:30 am small group practice – students sign up in increments of 6 weeks for $90 and get to use all of the equipment: Yoga Walls, Pilates Reformer, and Arcs, foam rollers and the Migun Bed. Let me know if you want to be on the sub list even (when someone has to travel and we have an open spot). The traction and special equipment gives specific work and benefits. This year we will have a Saturday “open studio” once/month for folks to make up a lost day. I am also recruiting names for a Saturday morning small group practice (up to 5 people) and once we have enough, we can begin. I am officially taking names for all class lists – claim your spot!
Everyone experiences fear along the path of life. If there is no fear, there is no life. Never to experience fear is to lead a protected, heartless and challenge-free life.
The Guest House
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice.
meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.
Be grateful for whatever comes.
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.
Rumi – 13th century Persian poet and theologian
Blessings to you all on your path – I look forward to our paths crossing again! And, I look forward to seeing you in class – we have good work ahead of us!
Namaste, Mona
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