Lesley Hobbs Yoga

Yoga Days 304/5 - the more I nourish my soul, the happier I become

Nothing beats starting the day on a yoga mat.

When I woke up this morning I knew we had a full day ahead of us so my first stop was on my mat. I do not do this often enough and am often delighted how a short practice changed my outlook on the day. As I twisted and bent, lengthened and surrendered, I noticed the energy start to flow and felt myself open to the possibilities.

We experienced our first Bar Mitzvah today and I believe yoga helped me to enjoy it even more. When you begin your day with awareness, it carries on, opening eyes and hearts. I found myself breathing in the beautiful Jewish prayers; the poetry bringing joy to my heart and tears to my eyes. I became a part of the energy in the Temple and felt uplifted by the tradition and love that was shared so generously.

I find that the more I open my body on the mat, the more I open my heart; the deeper the space I explore on the mat, the bigger the space I can embrace; the more I practice surrender on the mat, the more I am able to accept what is and enjoy that reality.

I read a beautiful description of yoga the other day in "The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder":

Yoga...is just a way of exercising that acknowledges the soul

The lead character uses yoga to "sew her soul back together". I am learning that the more I nourish my soul, the happier I become and for me the best place I have discovered to do this nourishing is on my mat.

I hope you find your perfect spot for soul-nourishment; I hope you find your happiness.

Namaste.

Yoga Days 301-303 - breathing my way to bliss

Working with the breath is life affirming and life changing. I have been pretty busy the last few days and have found myself falling into specific breath practices to fend off frustration, stress, etc...

One of the simplest yoga breath techniques is the deep belly breath. This may feel a little odd if you have never done yogic breathing before and one of my favorite ways to teach it is to have the student lying on the floor, hands gently resting on the belly. As you start to inhale let the belly swell open and the hands lift, the navel reaching to the ceiling, the exhale allows the belly and hands to drop towards the spine.

Practice this on the floor until it feels normal to have the belly fill on the inhale, empty on the exhale. Then take it out into the world!! It is a wonderful tool if you find yourself short of breath, need to calm down but are with people or when you want to settle for sleep.

My favorite pranayama practice is balanced breath - using a metronome style count to bring the inhale and exhale into balance. Using the same belly motion as above, start with a 4-count (and move to 6,8 etc... as you need) Inhale till you are completely full, take a short pause. Then, exhale to the same count of 4 until your belly is flat against the spine. Pause and repeat. 

Imagine you are filling a glass to the count - the water pours all the way to the bottom and at the end of the count the glass is full. The glass has a straw and the exhale empties the glass through the straw (first upper chest, then ribs, finally belly) and it is drained at the end of the count.

I use this technique while driving, for a quick break while working or when I feel myself getting off kilter.

The final breath practice I want to share here today is alternate nostril breathing. Bring your right hand to the face, right thumb against right nostril, right little and ring fingers against left nostril. (Index and middle finger can tuck under or rest on the forehead). Exhale completely, block left nostril - inhale right. Block right nostril - exhale left, inhale left. Block left - exhale right. Repeat as many times as you like.

Keep the breath long and smooth (you can use a count if you desire), the spine long and the head tall. This pranayama practice helps to energize and refresh the body and can relieve headaches and stress.

Please feel free to ask questions and share your breathing experiences.

Namaste.

Yoga Day 300 - creating my own parameters

What a milestone to reach... 300 days... I am quite pleased to find myself here, still practicing, still blogging (albeit less often) and still committed to seeing this 500 day project through to completion.

They say it takes 21 days to instill a habit but I am not so sure. There are still days when I do not practice yoga; when it does not even cross my mind. Perhaps I am too busy, or too tired; perhaps I am not tuned in to my needs, or am distracted. I know it would be easier for me if I could create the space to practice first thing in the morning but my life does not allow this to happen on a regular basis. I suppose I could add that to my wish list!!

Life happens; it is not always possible for me to do those things I know to be good and important and yet, here I am, plugging on, in a generally forward motion. I have learned to limit the activities in my life and I have had to make the tough decision to say no to many many opportunities, including book groups, spiritual study groups, volunteering positions, even hobbies.

I recently wrote my list of values and my most important goals (with my why)  for the next 6-12 months. Having these 2 items handy and visible allows me to sway and imagine, to wander and fall but ultimately to make choices that will support my journey. As a mother I have been those parameters for many years and, just as I teach our 4 children, I am learning to create my own parameters and I have seen enormous benefit.

As we journey together through this most wonderful adventure called life, I encourage you to find your own parameters and tools, to really give thought to why and where you are heading and use them to guide you daily.

I'd love to hear how you make choices, what guides you through the tough times, what lifts your heart in bliss.

Namaste.

Yoga Day 295 - Balancing act

I love working with balance poses. They always give me the truest reflection of how I am in any given moment and that can be an interesting observation.

There are a number to choose from and they each offer a different flavor of balance to your practice.

Vrksasana (Tree pose) reminds me of nature, I picture my favorite tree (outside my school in Dublin) and I breathe. I feel strong, powerful, able to bend with the wind, beautiful and sometimes a little wild.

Garudasana (Eagle pose) is a more introspective pose for me; I connect to my third eye and grow to trust myself and my intuition.

Natarajasana (Dancer pose) is joyful and demands a huge smile. I feel graceful and free, able to feel my body and move as I am called.

I also want to mention some of the arm balance poses I crave.

Vasistasana (Side arm balance) sends me deep inside to unlock my own strength; I feel my arm quiver after a while yet my core remains strong.

Bakasana (Crow pose) is fun. I use this to remind students (and myself) not to take yoga or life too seriously.

Adho Mukha Vrksasana (Hand stand) is probably the most challenging of balance poses for me. My arms are growing in strength which helps but really the pose starts in the core, deeply nestled in the third chakra. There I have to let go of my fears, step into my power and own my body and the space around me.

I talk about the correlation between yoga on the mat and life off the mat all the time and never is it more obvious than with balance poses. As your practice grows to include balance notice how this manifests in your life. I have discovered I am better at keeping space for myself, even in the chaos of life. I have learned to focus on a single task and grow steady there. I am working to let go of those things that do not support balance in my life and I am seeing a difference in my response to transitions.

In an ideal world we would all practice yoga an hour a day :)   For those of you who live full, busy lives:

Do what you can, when you can and if at all possible add in a balance pose every once in a while - you just might feel the difference.

Namaste

Yoga Days 293, 294 - Do I have what it takes to get the job done?

There are oh so many interesting things with which we can distract and amuse ourselves, and I do it so well. Yesterday, I heard the story of a woman who was so focused on achieving her goal she had missed 6 months of celebrity gossip and TV shows.

This may not be surprising in my case because I do not listen to news or radio, cannot remember the last time I watched "live" television and go to a grocery store without magazines. The point still stands.

What spoke to me about the story was the woman's obvious ability to get the job done and I have been giving that notion much thought in the past 24 hours. I have a few things I would like to get done; in fact, there are some that have to get done. And today I am observing myself wondering if I have what it takes to get the job done.

Knowing how yoga works, I understand that my mat holds the key. 

This was my practice today... there's fluff on the carpet, the wind rustling through the leaves outside the window sounds beautiful, I wonder should I cook dinner tonight, hmmm ribs feel a little tight today, what time is it?, oh, I forgot that call, gosh my body is popping a lot, this room needs to be cleaned, that meeting went well this morning, what day is it? hope X is having fun at camp, must email Y, my leg is starting to feel better... and on and on and on it goes.

It would be funny if it were not a reflection of what happens in my life. For several years now I have been practicing single-tasking which has helped enormously but apparently, I still have work to do!!

I want to learn to focus, I want to choose wisely how I spend my time and my energies. The only thing I can think of that will help me is to practice these skills on the mat.

I'll let you know how it goes. I'm heading back to the mat. No time like the present to get started, right???

Namaste.

Yoga Days 290-292: I am, most assuredly, human

I love sitting down to write this blog...now that I have taken the pressure off myself to do it every day. I am committed to my mat daily and, now that I can practice without the added burden of coming up with something to write about, I am enjoying my time in asana more than ever.

Isn't it funny how we do this to ourselves? Or maybe it is only me. I decide to do something that I feel has value, not just for me but also for others, and then I distort it!!

One thing that equalizes every human is time; we are all given 24 hours each day. Yoga helps me to slow down, to understand that not all things must happen today. In fact, if they never happen, life will go on just fine!! On any given day, I may have 10 minutes or 60 to practice yoga and again, there are choices to be made. It is impossible to do all the poses I love or want to do and that is OK.

I am sharing this today because I have recently spent time in introspection, re-evaluating my work life, making decisions and choosing goals that support my vision and mission. That was tough because I have a long list of things I would like to do. This list includes riding from Canada to Mexico on my bike, living in India for 2-4 months, parenting our youngest 2 children effectively, building a strong business, writing a book (best seller, of course!!). It's quite silly really, especially if I ever took myself seriously.

Once again, life on the mat teaches me how to live off my mat. I have narrowed my goals significantly and set aside several for the time being. In my clear moments, when I practice and breathe, I am okay with this. Other times I struggle wishing I could do it all today.

Guess I will keep unrolling my mat, keep breathing and accept that I am most, assuredly, human!!

Namaste.

Yoga Day 289 - birthday practice

I give thanks every morning when I wake up because I am so grateful to be given another day.

And special days are even more significant reminders of how blessed I am to be here, walking this journey, with the love that surrounds me daily.

Today I am 44 and of course I remember certain birthdays that have deeply engraved memories. Some are wonderful - my 21st living in sunny, beautiful Spain, my 30th hearing the opening riff of "Hotel California" with a dear friend, pregnant with our fourth child. Some of the memories are not so good but the "bad" stuff serves as a reminder to take nothing for granted.

In yoga we work to accept what is, to surrender. We are also encouraged to be open to the possibilities and this is where I find myself on this, the 16070th day of my life!!

As I moved slowly on my mat today, my heart felt ready to burst with joy; I feel like I imagine a new college graduate should feel (though I never experienced this) - full of awe and wonder, excited by today and by all the tomorrows I hope to have. I feel ready to face the challenges, confident of my abilities to "win the day". I feel young and vibrant, alive and magnificent.

It has been a long journey from the horror of my 16th birthday to here and knowing the end result, I would do it all over, even if it took twice as long. I credit my yoga practice for supporting me, for teaching me how to support myself, for nurturing my fragile soul back to health.

My birthday wish for you, dear reader, is that you find something to soothe any ache you might feel, something to lift you up, something to remind you of how truly wonderful it is to wake up on a new day.

Namaste.

Yoga Day 286 - inspiring poses lead me to inspired changes

A few years ago I decided to select 2 poses per year and spend time exploring these poses on all levels. What this means is that I do those poses on a more regular basis than I might otherwise and I also pay closer attention to how my body and life respond.

As an example - in 2008 one of my poses was handstand, a pose I found very difficult. I lacked the necessary arm strength, my wrists felt vulnerable, plus it was scary to invert and run the risk of crashing onto my head!! By the end of the year, my wrists were stronger, I was able to hold the pose for 12-15 slow breath cycles, my core was stronger than ever and I no longer feared the fall (on or off the mat).

This year, I chose my 2 poses as usual and in recent months have added a different, and more profound, aspect to my practice. I am using the challenging poses from Yoga Journal to inspire some adventure on the mat. I have often looked at those front-cover shots and thought "Yikes!!"

Not anymore. Now I am playing and failing, playing and improving, playing and laughing, playing and falling, playing and inspiring myself to even greater goals, on and off the mat. I am awed by the changes in my yoga practice, in the response of my physical body (I mean I am not getting any younger you know!!) and I am awed by the changes I am witnessing in my life off the mat.

I have known for several years that yoga (for me) is all about the support it gives me off the mat, I just never expected it to be so dramatic.

I have to admit here to having been a rules follower and a 'fraidy cat much of my life. I have taken the expected routes and my life has been somewhat predictable. I am not sure if it was hitting 40 but sometime in the past few years, I decided that the life I had been living was not the life I aspired to live. I was uncertain how to uncover passion, inspiration, vision and have tried various tools, some of which were helpful and none of which gave me all that I wanted.

Who knew I would find what I needed in my favorite place in the whole wide world!!!

As I learn to be less fearful on my mat, I am playing bigger in my life. And I am moving forward, inspired, motivated, exhilarated and filled with passion and vision.

If not now, then when??? That has become our mantra. Am I a little nervous? Sure, sometimes. Is there risk involved? Hell, yes. Is it worth it? To be fully alive is why we are here and I am feeling fully alive, so YES!!

Please stay along for the ride; there will be many changes in the coming months and I may well need a helping/supportive hand as I/we play and fail, play and improve, play and laugh, play and fall.

Here's to being fully alive.

Namaste.

Yoga Day 285 - a beautiful quote and more BIG questions

from Dawna Markova's "I will not die and unlived life":

It (death) whispered, "Do you want to die numb?"

"No!" I hissed back. "I'd rather die with my heart free, wide open, wondering and loving fiercely!"

The response was immediate: "Then how do you have to live so you can be sure to die that way?"

Reminded me of my own life's philosophy...

To be fully alive till I am fully dead.

How do you want to die? and what does that mean for your life?

Namaste.

 

Yoga Days 281-284 - I want to ask you a BIG question...

I cannot imagine how I would be functioning today if it were not for yoga. When I first began yoga, I lived in near constant pain with my low back, had chronic migraines, depression and more. As I have mentioned here before, I noticed changes pretty quickly. I was able to start an exercise program within 6 months of beginning yoga, the combination of yoga and essential oils addressed the migraines and yoga gave me the courage I needed to work through some deep personal work to move out of depression and into abundance.

I thought when I went to yoga teacher training 5 years ago that I was in great shape (physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually) and I was not sure how much further down that road I could travel. Hah!!! A beginner's naivete. Witness the changes in 5 years...

In my physical body - I can now do the splits, lie almost flat on the floor while in straddle, I am playing with advanced poses that people half my age cannot dream of doing.

Mentally and emotionally, I feel strong and competent. This may not sound that powerful but from where I started it is night and day. I felt talentless, that I had nothing to offer, unnecessary. I was not even sure why I was taking the training. Today, I know I have a purpose, I know I am here "to make manifest the glory of god", I understand that there is no other person who can do what I can do, in the way I do it.

Spiritually, I am more grounded, more open-hearted and more accepting. I am learning there is no black and white and that is a beautiful lesson.

The reason I am sharing all this today is because I want to ask you a BIG question...

Where will you be in 10 years if you change nothing? What will your life life look like?

As I moved on my mat today, I felt this overwhelming sense of gratitude, and wondered, "how did I get to be so lucky?"

Well, luck has nothing to do with it. I made a choice today to live a better life, to be the best I can be today, to step into my light and to support others to do the same.

I made the same choice yesterday and chances are I will make the same choice tomorrow. Over the past 13 years, the days I make this choice have outweighed the days I chose differently and that is the where the power lies.

Remember “It's not how many times you fall that matters, it's how many time you get back up.” Here, take my hand; I'll help you.

Namaste.

Yoga Days 279, 280 - yoga changes lives

Yoga changes lives.

In the smallest ways ... yoga allows us to tie our shoes for many more years (ask a 65 year old if this is important). Yoga supports the other activities we enjoy so much (e.g. hiking, kayaking, traveling to far-flung cities etc...) Yoga promotes better sleep habits. Yoga encourages us to be healthier in other areas of our lives. Yoga allows us to have more active and enjoyable sex-lives.

In more significant ways ... yoga reminds us how wonderful our bodies are. Yoga allows us to explore aspects of ourselves in safe and encouraging ways. Yoga relieves stress and promotes peace. Yoga may allow a person to discover inner happiness, to overcome depression, to build self esteem. Yoga may support stronger, healthier relationships, including the one with ourselves.

Every person in the world could benefit from yoga in one way or another. I personally know a different person for each of the above named benefits. Good heavens!!! I myself can attest to at least 10 of the list above!!

And if I can do it, then you, dear reader, can most certainly do it also.

Namaste.

Yoga Days 272 - 278 rediscovering my basics

I appreciate how blessed I am to be able to take a week for myself. I have spent the last week doing lots of yoga, some deep introspection and taking stock of where I am, where I am going (and why) and how I want to get there.

I feel grateful beyond measure to have the support of amazing friends, a wonderful husband and children and a yoga practice that keeps me in the moment.

I managed to get to my mat most days and it was a double gift as I knew I did not have a blog to write. I was simply on my mat to explore my body, my mind and my spirit and explore I did!! I have enjoyed some challenging practices which include some new-to-me poses with lots of laughter as I fall over. I have breathed through the slow restorative practices that replenish and nurture. I have jumped on the mat to squeeze joy from 10 minutes and I have whiled away hours moving as my body requested.

I feel as if I have been on vacation; my body feels rested and at peace; my mind feels clear and calm; emotionally I feel balanced and filled with joy; spiritually I feel blessed. My deepest desire is that I have created the necessary tools to carry this strength with me into the coming months.

I love to challenge myself on the mat; I choose a pose that looks impossible and slowly work my way up to it. My current challenge is Visvamitrasana and I am sure I looked hilarious in my version today!! I don't care :) I love what having this challenge does for me - it reminds me to always reach for something more, it reminds me that everything comes from the basics, it reminds me that as long as I have breath I can have purpose and it reminds me not to take myself too seriously.

This past week I spent time evaluating my life. It was suggested I write out my values and that was a beautiful gift to myself (thank you Kim), it was suggested I look at my work and decide what I want, why I want it and how I will get it (thank you Tom). I used books and meditations, yoga and walking to hone in on my purpose and then I wrote it out.

Life, like any challenging yoga pose, must all begin with the basics. Now I can say I have mine, in print, and plan to refer to them daily to serve as my compass and a kind reminder of the legacy I wish to leave.

Namaste.