Chakra Yoga WorkShop ...Week Five...VISHUDA CHAKRA

"Chakras are wheels of energy where we receive, assimilate and distribute life energies. Through external situations ( pressures of life ) or internal habits such as poor physical alignment or self destructiveness, a chakra can become imbalanced. The simplest way to balance each chakra is to create alignment in the physical body. Your body reflects your imbalances, acting as a mirror through which you can gauge how each chakra is functioning. Your asana practice is he first step toward aligning your body and balancing each chakra. Instead of trying to change the way the mind works and overcoming years of patterns and beliefs, asana works to realign the physical energy centers that govern specific behaviours"

This weeks focus is on Vishuda Chakra (extreme purification) SPACE CHAKRA

Location: Throat

Mantra: Ham

Verb: I speak

Color: Blue

Yantra: EggShaped Oval

Domain: WISDOM AND COMMUNICATION FROM A HIGHER MIND



Questions that you can ask yourself to find out if this Chakra is not Sattvic:

• Do others see me as aggressive or overbearing?
• Do I dominate conversations?
• Do I find it hard to speak up for myself?
• Do I live in a way that is true to my core beliefs and values
• Do I lack inspiration?
• Do I feel connected to my spirituality?

When Vissudha chakra is balanced, you discover your true voice and can be yourself in all situations. Your communication is clear and untainted and you come to others with kindness and compassion. You have the space to see yourself clearly and can let the divine wisdom of the universe guide each moment of your life.

Physical Postures that balance Vishuda Chakra:
DOWN DOG
FORE ARM STAND PREP
HEAD STAND PREP
FOUR LEGGED TABLE
BRIDGE

To practice more chakra yoga go to:

http://www.mypypeline.com/store/video/yoga_chakra_series/

Chakra Yoga WorkShop ...Week Four...Anahata CHAKRA

"Chakras are wheels of energy where we receive, assimilate and distribute life energies. Through external situations ( pressures of life ) or internal habits such as poor physical alignment or self destructiveness, a chakra can become imbalanced. The simplest way to balance each chakra is to create alignment in the physical body. Your body reflects your imbalances, acting as a mirror through which you can gauge how each chakra is functioning. Your asana practice is he first step toward aligning your body and balancing each chakra. Instead of trying to change the way the mind works and overcoming years of patterns and beliefs, asana works to realign the physical energy centers that govern specific behaviours"

This weeks focus is on Anahat Chakra ( Hear Centre )

Location: Heart

Mantra: Yam

Verb: I love

Color: Green

Yantra: Star of David

Domain: compassion, beginning of self realization,sharing, unconditional love, selfless service, emotional clarity

Questions that you can ask yourself to find out if this Chakra is not Sattvic:

• Do I have trouble finding meaning in my life?
• Is it hard for me to relate to others?
• Am I over emotional?
• Do I dislike being alone with my thoughts and feelings?
• Am I always looking for others to fill my emotional needs?
• Do people disappoint me easily?


Physical Postures that balance Muladahara Chakra:

BHUJANGASANA (SPHINX)
USTRASANA (CAMEL)
SHASHANKASANA (HARE)
SETU BANDA SARVANGASANA (LITTLEBRIDGE)



To practice more chakra yoga go to:

http://www.mypypeline.com/store/video/yoga_chakra_series/

Chakra Yoga WorkShop ...Week Three...MANIPURA CHAKRA

Chakras are wheels of energy where we receive, assimilate and distribute life energies. Through external situations ( pressures of life ) or internal habits such as poor physical alignment or self destructiveness, a chakra can become imbalanced. The simplest way to balance each chakra is to create alignment in the physical body. Your body reflects your imbalances, acting as a mirror through which you can gauge how each chakra is functioning. Your asana practice is he first step toward aligning your body and balancing each chakra. Instead of trying to change the way the mind works and overcoming years of patterns and beliefs, asana works to realign the physical energy centers that govern specific behaviours.

4 MANIPURA CHAKRA (City of Gems )

Location: Naval Solar Plexes

Mantra: Ram

Verb: I am

Color: Yellow

Yantra: Upside Down Red Triangle

Domain: Extroverted/Introverted,Power/Weakness, Our personality


Questions to aak if Svadishtana Chakra is Sattvic:


•Do I have trouble making decisions?
•Do I feel nervous in group situations and prefer to spend most of my time alone?
•Do I suffer from low self esteem? Constant self doubt?
•Do I engage in self destructive behaviour?
•Am I always right now matter what the argument?
•Have I been accused of insensitivity or intolerance?
•Do I have a hard time working with others?

Physical Postures to Balance Manipura Chakra: (Core Strength & Twisting)

CHATARANGA DANDASANA(Straight Arm Plank)
REVERSE VIRABHADRASANA II (reverse warrior II)
PRAVRITTA PARSVOKANASANA(twisted extended right angle)
MALTESE TWIST (supine right angle twist)

Chakra Yoga WorkShop ...Week Two...SVADISHTANA CHAKRA

Chakras are wheels of energy where we receive, assimilate and distribute life energies. Through external situations ( pressures of life ) or internal habits such as poor physical alignment or self destructivenss, a chakra can become imbalanced. The simpliest way to balance each chakra is to create alignment in the physical body. Your body reflects your imbalances, acting as a mirror through which you can gauge how each chakra is functioning. Your asana practice is he first step toward aligning your body and balancing each chakra. Instead of trying to change the way the mind works and overcoming years of patterns and beliefs, asana works to realign the physical energy centers that govern specific behaviours.

4 SVADISHTANA CHAKRA ( place of self )

Location: Pelvic Basin

Mantra: Vam

Verb: I feel

Color: Orange

Yantra: Cresent Moon

Domain: Sexuality / Likes & Dislikes, Desire, Lust, Greed, creativity


Questions to aak if Svadishtana Chakra is Sattvic:


• Do I difficulty maintaining relationships?
• Am I compulsive?
• Do I suffer from an overabundance or lack of desire?
• Do I make resolutions without the power to carry them out?
• Do I become addicted easy?


Physical Postures to Balance Svadisthana Chakra:

YATANGASANA (extended child's pose)
VIRABHADRASANA II (warrior II)
TRIKONASANA (triangle)
PRASRITTA PADDOTTANASANA (fan)
UPAVISTA KONASANA (seated wide-legged stretch)

Chakra Yoga WorkShop ...Week One...MULADHARA CHAKRA

"Chakras are wheels of energy where we receive, assimilate and distribute life energies. Through external situations ( pressures of life ) or internal habits such as poor physical alignment or self destructiveness, a chakra can become imbalanced. The simplest way to balance each chakra is to create alignment in the physical body. Your body reflects your imbalances, acting as a mirror through which you can gauge how each chakra is functioning. Your asana practice is he first step toward aligning your body and balancing each chakra. Instead of trying to change the way the mind works and overcoming years of patterns and beliefs, asana works to realign the physical energy centers that govern specific behaviours"

This weeks focus is on Muladhara Chakra ( Root Chakra )

Location: Base of the Spine ( Center of Perineum )

Mantra: Lam

Verb: I have

Color: Red

Yantra: Golden Triangle

Domain: Material Security & Procreation Instincts

Questions that you can ask yourself to find out if this Chakra is not Sattvic:

• Does my life feel out of control?
• Do I find it difficult to make decisions?
• Do I suffer from financial insecurity?
• Do I act irresponsible in regards to money, personal safety, or that of family members?
• Do I feel poor even though I have a solid bank account?
• Do I have excessive concern for material wealth to the point of being greedy?
• Do I find it difficult to nourish my body properly?
• Do I suffer from obesity, bulimia or anorexia?
• Do I have ongoing problems with my parents, children or other family members?

Physical Postures that balance Muladahara Chakra:

TADASANA(mountain pose)
VIRABHADRASANA III(warrior III)
ALANA(high lunge)
VRKSASANA(tree)
PRAVRITTA SUKASANA(seated twist)

To practice more chakra yoga go to:

http://www.mypypeline.com/store/video/yoga_chakra_series/

A Little Time For Yoga

Whew...what a crazy month I have had. I hate that I haven't been on here for over a month but for some reason life with a 16 month and working full time just got really busy!!! So, now more than ever I am realizing how important is to take some down time and do something just for myself. Today, I got a baby sitter and went to a yoga class. So exciting. Yes, I go to 3 or 4 classes every day, but as an instructor not a student. It was such a nice treat. As I was practicing I noticed myself doing everything that I wasn't suppose to be doing. I was looking around the room to see if I could find any familiar faces, then as the class began I noticed myself thinking about my morning with my son and anticipating the rest of the day...and then...the worst thing happened...I noticed I was holding my breath! So, there I was "yoga teacher" doing the 3 worst things you could do in yoga! At least I had the awareness to notice what I was doing, and very quickly made a conscious effort to stop looking around, stop thinking and start breathing...then a beautiful thing happened...I was present, I was breathing and found myself in a moving medatation. After the class ended, I felt like a brand new person. I had ove 60 minutes of nothingness. Yes, I physically worked hard, but while doing the physical part of the practice, I was able to still my mind and be still. At the end of the class the teacher gave us a reading and couldn't have been more appropriate. Here is what it said:

A son and his father were walking in the mountains.
Suddenly, his son falls, hurts himself and screams: "AAAhhhhhhhhhhh!!!"
To his surprise, he hears the voice repeating, somewhere in the mountain:
"AAAhhhhhhhhhhh!!!"
Curious, he yells: "Who are you?"
He receives the answer: "Who are you?"
Angered at the response, he screams: "Coward!"
He receives the answer: "Coward!"
He looks to his father and asks: "What's going on?"
The father smiles and says: "My son, pay attention."
And then he screams to the mountain: "I admire you!"
The voice answers: "I admire you!"
Again the man screams: "You are a champion!"
The voice answers: "You are a champion!"
The boy is surprised, but does not understand.
Then the father explains: "People call this ECHO, but really this is LIFE.
It gives you back everything you say or do.
Our life is simply a reflection of our actions.
If you want more love in the world, create more love in your heart.
If you want more competence in your team, improve your competence.
This relationship applies to everything, in all aspects of life;
Life will give you back everything you have given to it."
YOUR LIFE IS NOT A COINCIDENCE. IT'S A REFLECTION OF YOU!

So, take time today for you and start living your best life!

The AfterMath of Belly Dance & Yoga

Well, I just finished a weekend workshop of Belly Dance and Chakra Yoga ( which is the part of the workshop I faciliatated) and I have to say I was totally inspired by this beautiful dance and quite intrigued by the similarity of the two. I learned that Belly Dance is a dance designed for women by women and it consist of movements that enable the women to let go of different physical and mental blocks. Like yoga it works with the subtle energies of the chakra system and through the dance, the women enables herself to balance the chakras by moving different physical areas of the body. A lot of women's second chakra is unbalanced. The pysical location of the Svadisthana chakra is the pelvic basin. The ASIS (hip bones ) are either tipped forward too much ( anterior tilt ) or too far back (posterior tilt ). When there is an inbalance pyhsically, the chakra becomes unbalanced. The most effective way to balance the chakras are to realign the body physically. In the example of the Svadisthana chakra we can do a posture such as Utkatasana (chair posture) to realign the pelvis. If you sit down like there is a chair behind you with your feet together and your hands on your hips, you can feel what happens to your pelvis as you bend into the knees. To really find opposite ends of the spectrum you can really reach you tail up to the ceiling and find anterior tilt in the pelvis and then really tuck your tail to the floor and find anterior tilt. Play with these two extremes a few time and then see if you can find a place of equilabrium. Eventually, the muscles used to support this posture become stronger and the pelvis becomes align with the feet, which eventually realigns the entire spine.....and then we are into an entire different groups of chakras. Lets stick with the second one ( Svadisthana ). Once we have found this alignment, we can use different mantras and yantras or belly dance to move and focus energy to this chakra. Svadisthana chakra is related to the elements of water and is concerned with creativity, sexuality, likes and dislikes. It is very much an energy center of feeling and signs that this chakra is out of balance are things like complulsive behaviour. fear of commitment, lack of desire and addiction. The chakra system is a very intresting tool that you can use to explore yourself in a very non-evasive way. You can use yoga to help you balance your chakras and really find the energy of the chakras in my new found love of the belly dance

Yoga & Belly Dance

Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Yoga & Belly Dance

I never thought that I would be using yoga techniques to improve the movement and exploration of belly dance, and then I met Tsaid Springfield, a professional belly dancer. After a few conversations about the dance and chakra techniques that I use in my yoga classes, we decided that two fused together could make a very interesting weekend workshop of moving energy, discovering location of physical and psychological blocks and how we can use dance and chakra exploration to bring awareness inwards well expressing energy outwards.

I am by no means a belly dancer, but I do know that we all have physical and physchological blocks that prevent us from exploring our inner self more in depth. For a lot of people there is fear to explore the unknown and what we may find out about ourselves. Using different Chakra meditations and specific postures, we can begin to balance the seven energy centres and in turn find more balance..so we started a workshop!

Sacred Chakra
BelyDance
Workshop
Saturday April 25, 1 – 5 pm
&
Sunday April 26, 12 - 5pm
Awaken the divine feminine within;
BellyDance is a language of sacred geomety, a
pure refecton of nature, and a gatway into
our deepest selves. Using tantic theory, chakra
visualizaton, Yoga, and Belly Dance, this
workshop is an invitaton to explore your body,
both physically and energetically, and bring
awareness to the way that you move in this
world. Join Jana Webb and Tsaida Springfeld
for this amazing weekend of looking inward, and
expressing outward. Specifically designed for the
complete beginner to the intermediate level
dancer, this is a truly unique opportunity to be
inspired by this dance in ways you never
dreamed possible.
Space is limitd so please register by caling Jana @ 403 269 YOGA
or email: jwebb@mypypeline.com
you can also email Tsaida: Bellyhellion@hotmail.com
Locatd @ Sanguine Yoga: www.sanguineyoga.com

Takin Health For Granted

This past Sunday I got thrown for a bit of a loop. I got really sick! It came on very suddenly and ended up being quite fierce. I think it must have been the 24 hour flu...not fun. I don't get sick that often ( the odd sniffle ) so it really shocked my system. I forgot how lousy it feels to be down and out. Just today I am getting my energy back and am not feeling weak and fragile. I guess you have to get sick once in a while to appreciate being well which has been my message to all of my students this weak; really appreciate and be grateful that you have the health to practice and move. Now that I am back, I have been inspired to pay attention to how it is that I haven't gotten sick for over 3 years! I practice yoga, I walk or go to the gym a few times a week, I chase my 14 month old, I eat breakfast, I drink coffee twice a day, I drink wine once or twice a week...usually twice, I eat a lot of salad and I love sushi, I drink Youth Juice, I drink a lot of water, I try to get 6 hours of sleep a night, I put ground flax seed in everything, I love cheese, and I always get popcorn at the theatre. I guess I live a pretty balanced life...hmmm. Ok, now that I have written that all down its time to get back on the healthy train. It is a way better place to spend the day!

Aparigraha...What is This?

I had a situation this past week that I thought I should share, because there is a huge lesson involved. About a month ago we had a sewage backup in our basement which involved gutting the basement and thowing away everything that was down there(including all of my one year old son's first birthday and Christmas toys). It was very sad. Then to make it worse, the problem was in our pipes below our house. We had to rip the basement, all the concrete, replace the pipe and then fill the basement with concrete. It was a big, expensive mess. In the middle of the chaos I broke down. We could no longer live in our house and all of our 'stuff' was ruined. I was so upset with what we had lost, but then had a glimpse of reality. The reality was, it could have been worse. Then I started to think about all of the people in the world that have lost their homes to other disasters and that thought me made think about all of the people in ther world who have no place to call 'home'.
All of a sudden I was full of gratitude and reminded myself of everything in my life that I should be grateful. When I went through this list in my head it was all of things that have no monetary value attached: it was my healthy, happy son and husband, it was my mom and dad and all of their love and support, it was my beautiful friendships and family, it was my country and how safe I feel living here, it was my health...all of things I was thankful for were of of simple nature. In yoga we practice Aparigraha which in English means non-attachment. The idea is to not attach yourself to anything, because at any time it could be gone. Take a moment and think about all of the 'stuff' you are attached to; it could even be non-tangible thoughts. Now for a moment imagine if you lost all of this stuff and all of these thoughts. How would you feel? For a moment it may be kind of scary, but it would be ok. The lesson I learned from all of this, is that we are so blessed with ambundance and we should be grateful for this. And, we should take more time and remind ourselves of what really enriches our lives. Is it the house we live in or the home we create with love, happiness and health that makes us really happy?

Open Your Heart This Valentines!

With valentines day right around the corner, doesn't it make sense to open up your heart so you can offer compassion and love to those you hold close to your heart? Of course it does...so how do we do this?
The easiest way to open through your heart Centre(Anahata Chakra)and move into shoulder, throat and chest openers. BACKBENDS!!! Some examples would be Ustrasana(Camel posture), Matsyasana(Flying Fish), Dhanurasana(Bow), Natagarasana(Dancers),Purvottanasana(Reverse Plank). These postures allow for the upper thoracic spine to move into extensions witch enables the entire front to the body to open. It is a very vulnerable place in the body, so don't be surprised if you feel emotional, nauseous or dizzy after a back bend focused class. After all, this is where we hold on to a lot of our stress and emotional tension. Backbends also stimulate the sympathetic nervous system, so don't be surprised if you feel charged after a series of back bend. We can also improve our immunity and metabolism my opening the heart and the throat by stimulating our thymus gland(immunity gland) and our thyroid gland in the throat(metabolism). You have every reason to try some back bends and open your heart. A series of back bends will leave you feeling open, compassionate, charged with energy and happy!
Happy Valentines Day!

Judgement Day!

I faced quite a challenge this past week. I was asked to be a judge in the Miss Calgary pageant and said yes! After saying yes, I realized that while I teach and practice yoga this is the one thing I avoid and try to teach others to avoid. "Don't judge yourself, just do the best you can." This sentence is usually followed by, "Don't compare yourself to the person beside you, do what works for you and your body." And then there I was; sitting front row watching all of these beautiful, courageous girls strutting there stuff in hopes to be crowned the next "Miss Calgary." My job was to judge these girls? I wanted to give them all equal scores and give them all a crown and a banner for just having the courage and vulnerability to do it. They were all winners in my mind. But, I had a task at hand and very quickly had to decide how I was going to judge these brave souls. So I put on my game face, and tried to find imperfections,compare one girl to the next and found it quite stressful. Their future was in my hands....crazy. I was fortunate enough to have done a yoga workshop with most of the competitors in previous months, so I started to pull some memories from these workshops and tried to remember how the girls responded to me, the workshop and how they interacted with each other. This thought process made the evening so much easier. I was now judging on a real life experiece where in most cases, I got to witness the girls being themselves. Now I was making judging decisions based on how these girls treated each other, themselves and their competitors; intead of how they looked in a bikini or a fashion that perhaps was not suitable. This added more of a human element to my task at hand and got me through evening. The lesson? You never know in your day to day life why you meet the people you do, but you do for a reason and they are there to teach you something....so if you treat every human with the same respect and integrity that you like to be treated with, you won't care who is judging...you have already won.

Yoga and LasVegas?

I know Vegas and Yoga in the same sentence seems like a bit of an oxymoron . In a city that is charged with energy, is it possible to find some sort of zen...barely!
I am the type of person that can usually find time to do yoga anywhere. I bring my mat where ever go, plop it down somewhere and practice. It's like somebody who runs, you just throw on your runners, grab your Ipod and go...right? And yes, I did see this in LasVegas. I saw people running outside on the strip and I thought, how? Then I realized, why not? While running down the strip there is so much to look at to take your mind off the task at hand, you could run forever. But, every time I thought about doing yoga, I was defeated by the urge to go see another hotel, or watch a show, or play a little blackjack, or...or ..or. Then I realized this must be what its like to live in a person's mind that doesn't stop and is constantly seeking another surge of stimulus. Wow, I lived like this for three days and was completely exhausted when I arrived back home. With my mind racing and my body functioning on pure adrenaline, I was disappointed that I wasn't able to find enough zen to just stop the insanity and just be still for a few minutes. The good news is I have a reason to go back to Las Vegas. I have a challenge at hand. I need to prove to myself that amongst the chaos I can find some sort of serenity.

Yoga and Weight Loss

This is the time of the year when everybody has made their new years resolutions and are ready to make some changes in their lives. For most people, weight loss is always at the top of the list.
Like any other form of exercise, you can lose weight doing yoga, but you have to eat right and be dilegent.
What yoga does is balance your energy centers in your subtle body and realigns your skeletal body which in-turn allows your body to function at an optimal level. When the body is functioning properly you will have more energy and crave foods that promote healthier and better eating choices. Your organs will function properly and do what they are suppose to do, helping with things like metabolism and digestion. The deep breathing that is practiced while doing yoga reduces stress which reduces the amount of cortisol in your body(high cortisols levels have been linked to weight gain). The spiritual element of the yoga practice give you a better attitude and different ways of looking at life. Attitude is everything. You are what you think about. By changing the mind, we change the body. By changing the body, we change the mind.

Yoga Retreat In Goa India

Well time has finally arrived: India here we come. This retreat is for anyone who is interested in learning more about the Ashtanga Yoga pracice. We will have seven days at the retreat where we will eat, breathe and live yoga and then we will end the retreat at an all inclusive resort hotel on the beach of Goa. This retreat is for beginner to advanced practioners. It is going to be quite the journey. Travel dates are from Feb.26/2009 thru March 11/2009.

What is Yoga?

I thought since this was going to be my first official blog, that I should take care of the obvious; what is yoga?

Yes, yoga is a Sanskrit term that means 'union' or 'to yoke' and in the very early days (second millennium BCE) was applied as 'a spiritual endeavor' in means of controlling the mind (manas ) and senses (indriya). After that is was referred to as a Hindu spiritual tradition that encompassed different approaches to 'enlightenment' and 'self-realization.' And then after that...I'm kidding.

Lets take the mysticism out of the term for a moment.
With all respect to the traditional definition, yoga can be anything you want it to be. It is a way of living your best life. For some people this means going to a studio everyday and practicing the postures and sun salutations, for some it is meditation and stillness, it is the offering of service, for others its a place of community, self observance, a state of joy, a way of eating and for some, it is all of the above and more.

For me, yoga is a physical activity that I love to practice and teach because it encompasses a little bit of every sport/hobby that I love to do. It has the element of strength that is required for running, skating and swimming, it has balance and stretching components that I get from dance, it requires breath control vital for any physical activity that involves movement and endurance. It has a chanting element that compliments my efforts at singing. But, the thing I love most is the way it makes me feel. After I have completed a yoga session I feel grounded, balanced, calm, motivated, happy, open-minded, content, grateful, generous; all platforms of which describe how I like to live my life.

If you are reading this and you have never done yoga and have been thinking about it, check it out for your self. Go to www.mypypeline.com/yoga and try it out. You have nothing to lose just a whole new world to discover.