keys

Just received my new yoga book from Amazon! 

Travis was enthralled with this book last night! We took turns reading out of the book, and exploring the activated muscles in our favorite poses. 

The anatomy workshops I have attended in the past few months have familiarized me with many of the muscle names, but the complexity of their interactions, and the deeper investigation of their structures is baffling!

As the cover demonstrates, the book encourages you to try each pose and feel these unique muscular adjustments for yourself to experience a new level of muscle control.

It also delves into the biomechanics of stretching, the bandhas, and some restorative poses. Delightful! I recommend it to anyone, beginner to experienced yogi: there is some amazing information about our bodies.

Command your ilio-psoas and you can conquer the world...

Its just a matter of taming the bull

shades of red

"of all the losses rupturing the human soul today, this alienation [disconnection from the body] may be the most alarming because it separates  us from the very roots of existence. with jobs that are degrading, routines that are automatic, and environments that annihilate our senses, we lose the joy that arises from dynamic connection with the only living presence we are guaranteed to have for the whole of our lives: our body"


Eastern Body Western Mind: Psychology and the Chakra System as a Path to the Self {link}

primary series

Coming home to my mat
lighting my tiny tea lights
rearranging crystals
taking that deep in breath

something about the ashtanga series
freeing the mind
focusing the breath

opens the back of my body

for days following, every breath
every erect spine
the roll of my shoulders

takes me back to that magical moment

the deep in breath
the flowing out breath
raising the arms
folding the body.

love the snow

A quick salute to the first snow of my second winter in Portland!


Sno-ga from alice noyes on Vimeo.

music from: little dragon : feather

The Return of the Sun

Winter Solstice has been celebrated in cultures the world over for thousands of years. This start of the solar year is a celebration of Light and the rebirth of the Sun. In old Europe, it was known as Yule, from the Norse, Jul, meaning wheel.

Today, many people in Western-based cultures refer to this holiday as "Christmas." Yet a look into its origins of Christmas reveals its Pagan roots. Emperor Aurelian established December 25 as the birthday of the "Invincible Sun" in the third century as part of the Roman Winter Solstice celebrations. Shortly thereafter, in 273, the Christian church selected this day to represent the birthday of Jesus, and by 336, this Roman solar feast day was Christianized. January 6, celebrated as Epiphany in Christendom and linked with the visit of the Magi, was originally an Egyptian date for the Winter Solstice.

Most of the customs, lore, symbols, and rituals associated with "Christmas" actually are linked to Winter Solstice celebrations of ancient Pagan cultures. While Christian mythology is interwoven with contemporary observances of this holiday time, its Pagan nature is still strong and apparent. Pagans today can readily re-Paganize Christmastime and the secular New Year by giving a Pagan spiritual focus to existing holiday customs and by creating new traditions that draw on ancient ways.

Honor the new solar year with light. Do a Solstice Eve ritual in which you meditate in darkness and then welcome the birth of the sun by lighting candles and singing chants and Pagan carols. If you have a indoor fireplace or an outdoor fire circle, burn an oak log as a Yule log and save a bit to start next year's fire. Decorate the inside and/or outside of your home with electric colored lights. Because of the popularity of five pointed stars as holiday symbols, this is a good time to display a pentagram of blue or white lights.

Restore

We brave bee stings and all
We don't dive, we cannonball...
(Thao with the Get Down Stay Down)

A couple weeks ago I attended a restorative yoga workshop with the amazing Amy Armstrong at Yoga Bhoga.

She began by explaining the basics of the autonomic nervous system, functioning largely below the level of consciousness, and controls visceral functions. affects heart rate, digestion, respiration rate, salivation, perspiration, diameter of the pupils, micturition (urination), and sexual arousal. Whereas most of its actions are involuntary, some, such as breathing, work in tandem with the conscious mind. It is divided into two categories, sympathetic and para-sympathetic.

The sympathetic nervous system always active at a basal level sympathetic tone and becomes more active during times of stress. Its actions during the stress response comprise the fight-or-flight response.

The actions of the parasympathetic nervous system can be summarized as "rest and digest". It slows the heart rate and circulation and sends blood into organs and our of muscles. This is the system we are looking to activate with restorative yoga.

Today's life style is contstant sympathetic - stress state. The relaxation response is a physical state of deep rest that changes the physical and emotional responses to stress... and the opposite of the fight or flight response.

The stress reaction happens immediately without any effort on your part. A loud noise at this moment would startle you, and the stress reaction would speed through your body. A stress reaction happens automatically while the relaxation response must be purposefully sought and brought under control.

While the relaxation response will occur naturally as when you sit on the beach watching the ocean; hectic modern society does not give us many chances for such natural elicitation. To control our stress we must engage in an intentional practice of creating the relaxation response.

Here are some resources to start your own restorative practice, the pictures say it all.

Do Restorative Yoga

The strap is optional, a belt can substitute. If you don't have a yoga block, grab some thick books.

Here is a variation I like for the gentle twist shown above

via: Gaiam Yoga Blog

So take some time this winter... light a candle or two. Play your favorite music, and turn off your phone, laptop, crack-berry or pager (haha).
Schedule an appointment with yourself, and allow yourself to truly relax.

season for rest

When the sun sinks behind the buildings of downtown, I begin to crave the fireplace crackling next to me. Swathed in blankets, a warm kitty cat next to me and a bundle full of knitting projects to do.

Yoga will have to wait for another day. Today, biking home in the dark is about all I can handle. Some fireside yoga will surely ensue, after some hot tea.