Mindful Monday: Spring Into Spring

Good morning, lovelies! Happy Monday!

Yoga is a discipline that makes our lives work.But for a practice to change our lives and make them better, we have to follow it EVEN WHEN WE DON’T WANT TO. that’s what makes it a discipline. It is easy to be kind when we are in a good mood and with people who are easy for us to get along with. If we can be lovingly kind to people that are difficult, or when we are caffeine deprived or in a state of stress, THEN it transforms our lives. If we choose to practice yoga, then we must practice consistently or else we will not see lasting change. We have to set up reasonable boundaries for ourselves, and let go of expectations for results, but stick to a practice we have chosen even when we’d rather not. We find then that our preferences change and actually align with what ultimately lessens the suffering in our lives .We can take ourselves to the next step and start the process all over again.

Are you ready to kick it up to the next level? Consider my detox starting in May. It takes 21 days to create a new habit. This is the perfect reset for your heart, body and soul. Give yourself the opportunity to truly shine!

Mindful Monday: Today is the BEST day

Good morning and happy Monday, dear wonderful, beautiful you! 
Today is the perfect day to be alive!  As the warm air moves, let it flow through your body. Expand each precious moment by tuning in to each of your senses. So that each breath engulfs you in the eternal. Let your day be sensual; immerse yourself in the depth and height and width of each teeny, subtle sensation. 

Allow yourself to FEEL. Everything. Pleasure and pain. Excitement and disappoint. Happiness and sadness. Love and fear. The entire gamut. 

Notice what makes you happy and uplifts your energy and feeds your soul, then continue to move in that direction! It’s that simple! 

Be aware of what zaps your energy, causes stress and unhappiness, then evaluate it and find clarity. 

You have a single decision to make today: do I want to be happy? If you choose YES, then the rest of your day is smooth sailing. You’ll find many, many reasons to stay happy!  If you choose NO, you’ll find many, many reasons to be unhappy. 

TODAY is the Best. Day. Ever. Because it’s yours! And it’s here. And it’s NOW. What did you decide? 

Mindful Monday: Spring Fever

Sunset – no filter! 

Happy Mindful Monday, yogis! I sincerely hope you were able to take advantage of our summery weather this past weekend.  Even if you were outside at a track meet or baseball games/practice,  the silver lining is that you got to bask in all that glorious sunshine while  supporting your loved ones.  How did you enjoy this amazing gift of sunshine and warmth?

This is the time of year where we get ‘spring fever.’ We are shaking off the heaviness of winter and starting to increase activites and rekindle friendships.  It’s so fun to get swept up in this season’s offerings: baseball games; al fresco dining; day drinking; increased interest in romance.  Our bodies may require less sleep and crave lighter fare.  Some experience an overwhelming urge to purge and clean.  You may notice an urge to start jogging and an increase in energy in your yoga practice. 

In this flurry of activities, make sure you balance out with some grounding time for yourself! Start and end each day with a short meditation to focus and settle. This mindfulness practice has the power to enrich and expand the quality of your entire day! 

Have a great week, yogis!

“You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait, be quiet, still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.” – frank kafka

 

 

 

April Pose of the Month

Up we go, down we fall. Up again, down again. Up again, down again. Up again, down again. Some people might find this frustrating, or pointless altogether. The journey to Handstand is long and tedious, and often an on-again-off-again one due to the up and down nature. I guess it’s just like glass half full versus glass half empty people. You can get on your hands every single day, fall down every single day, and become impatient at a lack of progress, OR you can get on your hands every single day, fall down every single day, and call yourself a handstanding hero. And here’s the thing…you are. This month, we’re bringing you pike handstand at the wall, and reiterating that when you’re on your hands every single day…it doesn’t even matter if you’re up again, down again. It’s the every single day part that matters, and your journey to Handstand *will* be fruitful.

The key to finding your Handstand lies in building a strong core, body awareness to stack your joints, and finding your line. I’ve been leading Handstand workshops (one more coming up on 4/30!) and we go through drills on drills on drills to get there. One of the first Handstands we practice is pike at the wall, and I’m going to go ahead and say that it’s a foundational Handstand for beginners and advanced inverters in that it: 1) fosters proper body alignment with hips over shoulders, 2) helps familiarize bodies with any disorientation that occurs from being inverted, and, 3) the use of the wall as a prop makes it so that we can focus more on engaged muscles, active bandhas, and teeny anatomical refinements instead of solely the balance challenge. Collectively, attention on these prep items as a prerequisite to just kicking up willy nilly is going to set a foundation that you’re less likely to abandon. There are three little piggies, but you’re the one that chooses brick, ya feel me?

 

Accessing Pike Handstand at the Wall:

• Sit with your back against the wall and legs straight out in front to measure out where you’ll place your hands
• Place your palms exactly where your heels rested on the floor (you can use a partner as a marker, so you don’t accidentally eye out the wrong distance)
• With hands shoulder-width distance apart, use your feet to walk up the wall until your legs are parallel to the floor
• Push the earth away from you with your palms
• Knit your ribs inward and fire up your abdominals
• Draw your armpits in and shoulder blades together
• Note your lines
• Don’t forget to breathe!

*Note: It’s great to practice with a partner to get to this shape, mostly because being upside down can be disorienting and walking “up” the wall can feel a whole lot like giving directions in a room of funhouse mirrors.

Pre- and Post-Handstand Reminders:

• Always Handstand with a warm body & worked abdominals
• Take time to warm up your wrists and forearms with proper stretching and massage, and give them the same amount of love when you’re done practicing
• Strengthen and open up your shoulders to protect your joints

Remember that it’s just a basic law of gravity that whatever goes up, must come down. So just keep going…up, and back down!

*Next Handstand Workshop*

4/30 from 1:30-3:30 at our Downers Grove Yoga By Degrees // $40 for nonmembers and $20 for members // Sign up in advance, online or at any of our locations

Mindful Monday: Do you believe in Abundance?

To receive abundance, I open my heart and let it pour in. I practice staying balanced and grounded, even on one leg with my body turned toward the horizon. I trust in abundance even with my hand bound to my foot. I relinquish the need to control. And I open to receive.

Happy Monday, dear yogis! I don’t know about you, but I had one of the best weekends of my entire life this past weekend! The weather on Saturday lit my soul on fire! And I filled my weekend hours very mindfully and purposefully.

One of my favorite topics these days is ABUNDANCE. I love preaching and teaching and manifesting ABUNDANCE.  I was literally having a deep discussion with my good friend Stanley about abundance early Saturday morning,  as I  was on my way to Chicago where I was meeting an old friend for a yoga class. We talked about how abundance is a mindset – either you are open to abundance or you live in fear of never having enough. It’s pretty simple. But deeply challenging. Most of my life I’ve believed in abundance. I genuinely believe good things will happen, and they generally do.  And I have found that when I try to tackle some of these higher level ideas, the universe always reinforces my philosophical attempts with empirical and experiential evidence.

As I pulled into the parking garage, it slowly dawned on me that I had left my wallet at home. By the way this isn’t the first time I’ve done this.  🙄 So here I am almost 30 miles from home with no cash no cards and no Apple Pay.  I didn’t panic. My wheels immediately started turning. I may have to borrow money from Ken. Would they let me take class without paying? I knew I was somehow going to take that yoga class. That somehow I would get my parking paid. The possibility of anything other than that happening never entered my mind. It was not a matter of ‘if’ it was a matter of ‘how.’

Now mind you I had about 10 minutes to make the long trek to the studio, fill out the new student paperwork and pay for class. (No free week at this spot!!!!)  Life as a yoga teacher means we’re on the road a lot and we probably have two or three bags going on at any given moment. I had a busy weekend planned and that was the case for me.

I began to frantically rifle through all of my bags, and I came upon a little gold envelope that a dear, generous student had given to me a couple of months previous that was accompanied by a beautifully written and heartfelt message and a ridiculously generous cash gift.  And there was a $50 bill remaining in that envelope.

How. Crazy. Is. That. How LUCKY was that? How could the timing in this situation have  been any more perfect? How powerful was the synchronicity of this moment?

And I have found that the key to sustaining an abundance mindset is GRATITUDE. Gratitude is such an interesting concept. It’s really kind of hard to feel grateful for the things you’ve always had. Often times, and definitely in my experience, my sense of gratitude has been cultivated and conditioned specifically during those down times when I’ve lost something and realized it’s value too late. Or when I’ve had to go without someone or something that I had previously taken for granted.

Are you aware of all of the abundance surrounding you? Or are you stuck on the lower vibrational level of a scarcity mindset?

To cultivate consciousness of abundance ….

“Watch your thoughts, they become words;

watch your words, they become actions;

watch your actions, they become habits;

watch your habits, they become character;

watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.”

Have the greatest Monday ever! Expect nothing but abundance and success!

Meet Linda, YBD Teacher of the Month

We’ve had quite the year over here at Yoga By Degrees! One of our most exciting additions to our offerings has been the addition of Traditional Hot classes at our South Naperville and Glen Ellyn locations. With our new locations and class format we’ve been blessed to also gain some amazing instructors to our team. Linda has been such a wonderful addition to our YBD team! She’s has a strong knowledge of the practice and leads her classes seemingly seamlessly. Her students love her kind presence in and out of the studio and we at YBD are so grateful for her. Here’s where you can find Linda:

Wednesdays

9:30am Traditional Hot Glen Ellyn

Sundays

9:30am Traditional Hot Glen Ellyn

When and how did you come to yoga?

I began a serious yoga practice in 2010 after my husband and I both decided to make career changes. We wandered into a Bikram Yoga studio without really understanding what it was. The first class was intense, but by the time I got home I was feeling great and decided to practice a couple a times of week. Very soon, a couple of times a week became almost everyday. It began as a way to relieve stress and evolved into a way of life.

Why did you start teaching yoga?

I started teaching because I wanted to share what yoga has brought to my life.

What is your favorite pose?

My favorite pose is continually evolving. I believe the most difficult pose in anyone’s practice is the pose they need the most. As you gain mastery of the pose you open both physically and psychically. Right now, for me, that pose is Salamba Sarvangasana.

Who inspires your teaching?

I am continually inspired by my teachers Tia Little, Surya Little and Gabriel Halpern.

Tips for beginners…

It took a lifetime for your body and mind to come to the place it is today. Be patient, it will take some time for changes to become evident.

What’s your favorite quote?

I am a lover of poetry. This is one of my current favorites:

“Are you looking for me?”

Are you looking for me?

I am in the next seat

My shoulder is against yours

You will not find me in the stopes,

Not in the Indian Shrine rooms,

Nor in synagogues,

Nor in cathedrals,

Not in masses,

Nor kirtans,

Not in legs wandering around your own next,

Nor in eating nothiing but vegetables.

When you really look for me,

You will see me instantly-

You will find me in the tiniest house of time…

The breath inside the breath.

-Kabir