Showing posts with label 108 Sun Salutations. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 108 Sun Salutations. Show all posts

Sunday, December 15, 2013

Losing weight as a practice


"I don't stop eating when I'm full.   The meal isn't over when I'm full.   It's over when I hate myself."

Louis C.K.
  

The Yoga Sutras are full of direct and implied commands that the yoga process is that…it is a process.   The only thing we really do in yoga is practice again and again.   We don't really practice to get it right because we are different every time we get on the mat.  We just keep moving through it. 

Don’t you love it when your kids are gurus?  I have a son who is now a piano professor and a performer.   We never had to make him practice the piano.  He loves to practice.   He sometimes drove us crazy with his practicing.   

He has taught me that practice is its own thing.   It is its own reward.   Surrendering to the process is what works.   Of course he practices to make it perfect---he has a goal in mind but he knows he will never reach perfection and he is cool with that.   He loves the process of moving toward it.  

Think about letting go of the goal.   The practice is the goal.   Just process.  

Using yoga as our vehicle, our metaphor---off the mat, we also practice eating better and less than we can not concerned with the outcome.   We know our bodies will change.   We know that we can trust the process.   If we eat less, move more, breathe and release our stress---we will let go of our excess weight.

Let's surrender to it and love the process we are in.   How fulfilling would that be?

Maybe we can even try on a little gratitude for having weight as an issue in this lifetime.   It is so direct. It is right in front of us.   So in our face!

I trust the process of life and I am safe.

Namaste!

Dean

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

108 Sun Salutations/Yoga and weights



We're doing 108 Sun Salutations at the WRAC on December 22nd at 9 am till around noon.   So if you are in Wenatchee, WA on that Saturday you are welcome to join us.  The event is free and you will be with some incredible people.   We're discussing whether we should take turns leading it but I'm more into letting people just count their own and practice at their own rate.   If you are reading this, what do you think?   If you've done it before, what worked.   I'm hoping this turns into an annual event.  

Okay, I read a post from a yogi I follow and admire that was saying that you couldn't weight train and do yoga.   I haven't written to him yet but I get this all the time.  Yes, doing squats makes my hips tight but it also gives me strong legs and increases my lean body mass which burns more fat.   I then lengthen those muscles doing yoga and feel my strength and flexibility.   Yes, I know it isn't the same kind of strength you get from the muscles you develop doing yoga.  However, it is okay to have big biceps and be flexible.  Lifting weights and doing yoga is YOGA!   It is the union of the opposites from which something new can be born---deeper awareness and acceptance of my body and the ultimate truth that my body isn't real.   

To add to this paradox, I'm going to take my intention to lower my body weight some more into my 108 practice and I'm going to lead a weight lifting class the hour before we start!

Namaste,

Dean