Thank you to everyone that joined us for yoga today. Below are the class readings shared related to pursuing wholeness and authenticity to improve quality of life. 

"There is a little voice in all of us that is just a whisper. A tiny whisper. When you go into nature, into the wilds, especially alone, the whisper can come out and talk more. When you are in the city, you always have a list of things to do and think about. You can’t listen to the whisper. But when you are outside, you have much less to distract you. Inside each of us is the spirit that whispers. This little voice is our true self. If we can listen, it will start to get louder. Eventually, that whisper will be our normal voice. That’s when I really live. That is when dreams become reality. When I live from that deep intuitive place."

From Walden by Henry David Thoreau


The Spirit of Wholism

"Just as we need to claim our wholeness and right relationship with ourselves a physical, mental, and spiritual beings, we also need to claim our rightful place in the world as a unique part of a greater whole. This awareness is all but lost in modern technological life. Once our ancestors lived in tune with Nature. They knew who they were because they recognized their intimate relationship to the big, consistent cycles that brought seed in Spring, growth in Summer, bounty in Fall. We Westerners, however, live as though we can conquer and dominate Nature with no detrimental effects. Our technological prowess has led us to believe that we are in no way dependent upon or connected with the great cycles of birth and growth by which our ancestors lived and died. But we are part of Nature, and Nature lives within us. We cannot prosper and remain separate from the natural world, for to do so is to remain severed from our own true natures. If we are to claim our power to heal, we must reclaim our awareness of ‘whole-ism.’ As these fundamental changes in awareness filter down through our lives, we begin to change the way we think. As we become whole, we will begin to question many of our previous assumptions. 

Just as we must acknowledge our need to be good stewards of our physical life-force, we cannot ignore the effect of our emotional life on our health. We can’t expect to be healthy in body, mind, and spirit if we don’t pay attention to each of them. We must give our bodies good fuel and regular exercise. We maintain our mental health by exercising (in other words, acknowledging and releasing) our emotions, and stimulating our minds. We nurture our spirits with music, meditation, or spiritual practice. However we choose to live our lives, we cannot remind ourselves often enough that these three elements - body, mind, and spirit - are inseparable elements of the whole human being."

From Maximum Healing: Your East-West Guide to Natural Health by Mark Dana Mincolla, Ph.D.

Most people overestimate what they can accomplish in a day, yet underestimate what they can accomplish in a month or year. If we apply this reality to change efforts one begins to understand the importance of patience, and building habits in support of incremental progress. 

Especially when you are working towards personal transformation - allowing yourself time, and forgiving the occasional backslide, can be the determining factors for success. Acknowledge that change requires tremedous effort and when frustrations arise all one must do is to keep going, no matter the pace. 

If you feel like you have hit a brick wall with your change project, Thrive Wellness Coaching can help! Request a FREE COACHING SESSION to learn more.

Thank you to everyone who joined our yoga practice this weekend where we reflected on the relative nature of good and bad.
 
The more we commit to our yoga practice, the more we come to understand the value of working to move beyond our mind’s automatic habit of quickly labeling things, people and experiences as "good" or "bad," (or other such judgmental adjectives). We all see the world through tinted glasses based on our values and past experiences. When we cultivate the ability to realize this limiting behavior through meditation, mindfulness or yoga, we get closer to seeing things the way they really are.
 
This 2,000-year old Taoist parable beautifully illustrates this concept, and invites us to reframe our thinking to consider the big picture when it comes to our lives.
 
"An old Chinese farmer lost his best stallion one day and his neighbor came around to express his regrets, but the farmer just said, ‘Who knows what is good and what is bad.’ The next day the stallion returned bringing with him 3 wild mares. The neighbor rushed back to celebrate with the farmer, but the old farmer simply said, ‘Who knows what is good and what is bad.’ The following day, the farmer’s son fell from one of the wild mares while trying to break her in and broke his arm and injured his leg. The neighbor came by to check on the son and give his condolences, but the old farmer just said, ‘Who knows what is good and what is bad.’ The next day the army came to the farm to conscript the farmer’s son for the war, but found him invalid and left him with his father. The neighbor thought to himself, ‘Who knows what is good and what is bad." (Parable language quoted from the Secular Buddhist Blog.)
 
As Kent Moreno explains, "The Taoist prefers to look at life events without judgment or interpretation. According to Taoism, the true significance of events can never be understood as they are occurring, for in every event there are elements of both good and bad. Furthermore, each event has no specific beginning or end and may influence future events for years or even centuries to come."
 
As Moreno touches upon, events in life will always involve good and bad. The great achievement is often accompanied by many sacrifices. The turn of bad luck usually comes with a silver lining. And from the wider-angle perspective, something "bad," but small in scope, may happen that prevents a major calamity down the road.
 
If these ideas resonate with you, a great way to practice application of the philosophy is to begin with asanas (the physical practice of yoga). Work for a while with the intention to accept yourself exactly as you are each time you come to the mat. Make your yoga practice a no judgment zone. Ignore what the teacher and other students look like in identical poses. If your energy level is low, modify and observe child’s pose when needed, instead of pushing yourself to replicate yesterday’s practice. Use your flow to practice radical acceptance of the self. And above all – drop any notions of what “should” be happening! Once you find your way on the mat, begin to think about how these concepts can be extended into other parts of your life.
 
As Jon Kabat-Zinn puts it, "give up coercing, resisting, or struggling, in exchange for something more powerful and wholesome, which comes out of allowing things to be as they are without getting caught up in your attraction to or rejection of them, in the intrinsic stickiness of wanting, of liking, and disliking."
 
The more involved with yoga and yoga philosophy you get, the more you will learn that these ideas are fundamental to the tradition. Buddha describes yoga as "the journey of the self, through the self, to the self." Yoga is not a competitive sport (as much as Instagram may sometimes suggest that). It is not a place where we should be thinking along the lines of good, bad or most especially, should. It is an avenue to living a self-accepting, and therefore authentic, life. 

Thank you to everyone that attended yoga today where we focused on cultivating non-judgement on and off the mat. Today's class reading are included below. 
 
Reading from Wherever You Go There You Are by Jon Kabat-Zinn
 
"It doesn’t take long in [yoga] to discover that part of our mind is constantly evaluating our experiences, comparing them with other experiences or holding them up against expectations and standards that we create, often out of fear. Fear that I’m not good enough, that bad things will happen, that good things won’t last, that other people might hurt me, that I won’t get my way, that only I know anything, that I’m the only one who doesn’t know anything. We tend to see things through tinted glasses: through the lens of whether something is good for me or bad for me or whether or not it conforms to my beliefs or philosophy. If it is good, I like it. If it is bad, I don’t like it. If it is neither, I have no feelings about it one way or the other, and may hardly notice it at all.
 
When you dwell in stillness, the judging mind can come through like a foghorn. I don’t like the sensation in my knee…. This is boring…. I like this feeling; I had a good [yoga practice] yesterday, but today I’m having a bad [yoga practice]. …It’s not working for me. I’m no good at this. I’m no good period. This type of thinking dominates the mind and weighs it down. It’s like carrying around a suitcase full of rocks on your head. It feels good to put it down. Imagine how it might feel to suspend all your judging and instead to let each moment be just as it is, without attempting to evaluate it as "good" or "bad." This would be true stillness, a true liberation.
 
[Yoga is a practice] of cultivating a non-judging attitude towards what comes up in the mind, come what may. That doesn’t mean judging won’t be going on. Of course it will, because it is in the very nature of the mind to compare and judge and evaluate. When it occurs, we don’t try to stop it or ignore it, any more than we would try to stop any other thoughts that might come through our mind.
 
The tack we take in [yoga] is simply to witness whatever comes up in the mind or the body to recognize it without condemning it or pursuing it, knowing that our judgments are unavoidable and necessarily limiting thoughts about experience. What we are interested in [with yoga] is direct contact with the experience itself – whether it is of an inbreath, an outbreath, a sensation or feeling, a sound, an impulse, a thought, a perception, or a judgment. [In this way] we can act with much greater clarity in our [practice, without immersion] in a stream of unconscious liking and disliking, which screens us from the world and from the basic purity of our own being."
 
Beginning from "Where We Are" from The Heart of Yoga
 
"When we go into a posture or carry out a movement that feels tense, it is difficult to notice anything else besides that tension. Perhaps when we sit in a cross-legged position our only thought is for the pain in our strained ankles. In doing this we are not really in the asana we are striving for – we are obviously not yet ready for this particular position. Rather, we should first practice something easier. This simple idea is the foundation for our whole yoga practice. Practicing the postures progressively, we gradually achieve more steadiness, alertness, and overall comfort.
 
If we want to make this principle of asana practice a reality, we have to accept ourselves just as we are.
 
If we have a stiff back we have to acknowledge this fact. It may be that we are very supple but our breath is very short, or perhaps our breathing is all right but our body gives us certain problems. It is also possible to feel comfortable in an asana while the mind is somewhere completely different. That is not asana either. It is only possible to find the qualities that are essential to asana if we recognize our own starting point and learn to accept it."
 
This quote from Being Peace by Thich Nhat Hanh, speaks more abstractly to our theme, allowing us to think about non-judgment as an enlightened frame of mind.
 
"Do not think that the knowledge you presently possess is changeless, absolute truth. Avoid being narrow-minded and bound to present views. Learn to practice non-attachment from views in order to be open to receive others’ viewpoints. Truth is found in life and not merely in conceptual knowledge. Be ready to learn throughout your entire life and to observe reality in yourself and in the world at all times."
 
CLOSING DHARMA QUOTE
 
Cultivating Non-judgment Quote by Rumi
 
"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. I’ll meet you there. When the soul lies down in that grass, the world is too full to talk about."

The late grand master of modern yoga, B.K.S. Iyengar was born in Belur, India, on December 14, 1918. When he was 14, his brother-in-law, T. Krishnamacharya, introduced him to a yoga practice, which improved his tuberculosis. Iyengar pioneered the use of props to make poses accessible to a wide array of students. He has written a number of books, including Light on Yoga, which many practitioners esteem as the bible of yoga. 

Iyengar himself described his variation of yoga as follows, "I just try to get the physical body in line with the mental body, the mental body with the intellectual body, and the intellectual body with the spiritual body, so they are balanced. Each asana has an optimum line or position. From the head to the foot, from the front to the back, from the right to the left—without deviation, without distortion."

To learn more about B.K.S. Iyengar and Iyengar Yoga, visit the official website at
http://bksiyengar.com.

"In the breath, the soul finds an opportunity to speak."

From “Breath” by Danna Faulds

You may have noticed that all yoga classes, no matter the style, begin and reinforce an emphasis on intentional breathing. Teachers that weave Sanskrit (the ancient language of India in which classical yoga texts are written) into their classes will refer to this focus as Pranayama breathing. 

Pranayama is defined as the regulation of the breath through certain techniques and exercises. In Sanskrit it is derived from prāṇa "breath" + āyāma "restraint."

Another similar translation of the concept describes prana as the life force or breath sustaining the body; with ayama translating to “extend or draw out." Together two mean breath extension or control.

"In many ways, the cosmic energy that is Prana corresponds to that of modern nuclear physics, which regards all matter as energy ‘organized’ in different ways. This is Prana with a capital P. It is Prana that knows no boundaries. Its source is the energy of the universe, that which is unchanging within you, your very soul, and it feeds your energy body, what the ancient texts call the pranamayakosha. Prana (small p) refers to the energy in the atmosphere – oxygen-rich air. This prana, also known as vaya, feeds the physical body, what the ancient Yogis called the annamayakosha.

What does knowing how to breathe look like? It is breathing that moves like a wave through your body, originating in the diaphragm rather than the thoracic region of the chest. It is full and deep and calm. To breathe this way, the body must be relaxed. When we consciously tense the muscles and hold the breath, there is a relaxed feeling that accompanies the release. So the simplest way to relax is by contracting the muscles while holding the breath, then letting the muscles and breath release completely."

Amy Weintraub

If you are a beginner to pranayama techniques, check out this in-depth Breathing Lessons article online that includes instructions for several variations on breathing exercises you can include with your home yoga practice. 

Thank you to everyone that joined us today for yoga where we closed our practice with this beautiful poem by Tomlinson to reflect on the power of pausing to observe stillness. 

Farewell to Van Gogh

The quiet deepens. You will not persuade 
One leaf of the accomplished, steady, darling 
Chestnut-tower to displace itself
With more of violence than the air supplies
When, gathering dusk, the pond brims evenly 
And we must be content with stillness.

Unhastening, daylight withdraws from us its shapes 
Into their central calm. Stone by stone
Your rhetoric is dispersed until the earth 
Becomes once more the earth, the leaves
A sharp partition against cooling blue.

Farewell, and for your instructive frenzy 
Gratitude. The world does not end tonight
And the fruit that we shall pick tomorrow 
Await us, weighing the unstripped bough.

Charles Tomlinson 1960

Thank you to everyone that joined us for yoga today. Check out this fabulous infographic describing the benefits of cultivating a regular practice both in the short and longterm. Namaste!

Thank you to everyone that joined us for yoga today where we reflected on cultivating an internal focus. 

Below are the strategies for self-focus during yoga that were shared throughout our practice. 

“The wise man lets go of all results, whether good or bad, and is focused on the action alone.”

Bhagavad Gita

Being You in Yoga Practice
"Whether on or off the mat, you have the opportunity to live more into who you are. Here are some tips for being you in yoga practice:

• Show up on your mat with the intention of giving yourself the gift of being present in this moment.
• Close your eyes as much as possible (and when it’s safe to do so) during your practice to help you stay inwardly focused.
• Use your breath to synchronize the movements of your physical body from one asana to the next.
• Approach new poses with curiosity, an open mind, and a playful heart. Remember that at one point in your life, you didn’t know how to ride a bike and now it’s effortless.
• When given instruction on a pose you find challenging or scary, have the courage to ask the instructor for guidance. That is what they are there for and they will be happy to help.
• Take new asanas one step—or phase—at a time. Don’t rush into the full expression of a pose just because someone else is doing it.
• Honor where you are today. Some days you will be stronger, some days you will have more or less flexibility, and other days you will have better balance.
• Look for correlations between your practice on the mat and how you’re navigating your daily life. Where are you feeling strong? Where can you practice being more flexible or cultivate more balance?
• Acknowledge and appreciate the beauty of those around you and then immediately come back to your mat.
• Have fun and BE YOU!

At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter if you can wrap your leg around the back of your neck or hold a handstand in the middle of a busy intersection. Yoga is about connecting to, integrating, and being you. It’s about showing up exactly as you are and allowing yourself to express in whatever way feels authentic in the moment.

There will always be distractions, and your aim is to find your center in the midst of all that’s going on around you—on and off the mat. There will always be beauty and inspiration in those around us and the key is to find that within yourself. Stay in your own lane and on your own mat. Just be you."

Tris Thorp
Vedic Educator and Lifestyle & Leadership Coach

Tris Thorp is one of today’s leading experts in the field of emotional healing. Having spent the last decade traveling the world, being trained by and sharing the stage with Dr. Deepak Chopra in the field of consciousness and mindfulness-based practices, Tris has a real gift for integrating the ancient spiritual teachings with modern-day mindfulness to help people all over the world let go of their past and create an empowered new future.

Thank you to everyone that joined us for yoga today where we closed with this poem by Robert Frost. 

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

Whose woods these are I think I know.   
His house is in the village though;   
He will not see me stopping here   
To watch his woods fill up with snow.   

My little horse must think it queer   
To stop without a farmhouse near   
Between the woods and frozen lake   
The darkest evening of the year.   

He gives his harness bells a shake   
To ask if there is some mistake.   
The only other sound’s the sweep   
Of easy wind and downy flake.   

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,   
But I have promises to keep,   
And miles to go before I sleep,   
And miles to go before I sleep.

Robert Frost

We are so excited to be starting a new yoga winter session January 14, featuring two class times every Sunday at Ways to Wellness. Full class details are below; I hope you can join us!

10-11a Sundays | All-Level Vinyasa Flow
Noon-1p Sundays | Beginner Yoga 
Location: Ways to Wellness (formally Raindrop Yoga) 9 White's Bridge Rd, Windham
Class cost: $12

ALL-LEVEL VINYASA FLOW
Every Sunday from 10-11a join me for All-Level Vinyasa Flow, providing a welcoming and inclusive environment for all mobility levels. This class offers a unified flow featuring many modifications throughout to offer beginner, intermediate and advanced tracks within the same yoga practice. This way the flow is appealing to both students new to yoga and seasoned yogis alike. I will also employ music and yoga philosophy class themes, such as being present, non-attachment, self-care, Ayurveda, etc., via quotes and readings weaved into classes to teach students about the other seven limbs of yoga, beyond just asanas. This approach tends to both the mind and body in a single class, offering students exposure to mindfulness and stress reduction techniques. To me personally, yoga is a way to focus on constant evolution and growth with regard to my self-care, and I hope to pass that philosophy onto students. Since class is offered at the Sunday morning timeframe, and appeals to all levels, this is a great one to attend with friends and family members.
 
BEGINNER YOGA
I believe that yoga is for everyone and every type of body so I am so excited to start teaching a weekly Beginner Yoga class every Sunday from noon to 1p. Beginner Yoga is taught assuming students could be walking into their very first class, or just getting back to regular movement. It therefore fuses gentle yoga poses, stretching, Restorative poses and many modification options. Classes also feature in-depth demonstrations to introduce poses, with both visual and audio cues, as well as content about what body parts and muscles poses hit. In this way I hope to covert a community of people new to yoga, impressing upon them the countless wellness benefits students reap with a regular practice. Class will also weave yoga philosophy throughout class that focuses on beginner dharma content to teach students about yoga beyond asanas. Such topics could include the meanings of common yoga terms such as Namaste and Om, the many health benefits of yoga, committing to a self-care practice, Chakras, and seasonal or emotional wellness themes. I often like to quote something I read, “you are new to yoga for the first ten years you practice,” because that really puts things into perspective with regard to the sheer scope of things we can learn and teach that are part of yoga. Beginner Yoga cultivates an environment free of intimidation, reinforcing that yoga can be highly variable to meet the needs of any student demographic.

ABOUT YOUR YOGA TEACHER
Katie Engels studied Vinyasa yoga with Chanel Luck at Radiant Yoga Boston to complete teacher training, and has been teaching yoga for two years. Katie’s yoga classes weave yoga philosophy and music along with asana (the physical practice of yoga), to cultivate a warm and welcoming atmosphere for new and seasoned yogis alike.

​Deep abdominal breathing encourages full oxygen exchange — that is, the beneficial trade of incoming oxygen for outgoing carbon dioxide. Not surprisingly, it can slow the heartbeat and lower or stabilize blood pressure.

Breath focus helps you concentrate on slow, deep breathing and aids you in disengaging from distracting thoughts and sensations. It's especially helpful if you tend to hold in your stomach.
 
First steps. Find a quiet, comfortable place to sit or lie down. First, take a normal breath. Then try a deep breath: Breathe in slowly through your nose, allowing your chest and lower belly to rise as you fill your lungs. Let your abdomen expand fully. Now breathe out slowly through your mouth (or your nose, if that feels more natural).
 
Breath focus in practice. Once you've taken the steps above, you can move on to regular practice of controlled breathing. As you sit comfortably with your eyes closed, blend deep breathing with helpful imagery and perhaps a focus word or phrase that helps you relax.

In a recent Forbes article, Noma Nazish breaks down why self-care is so important for wellness, and includes a list of simple ways to introduce more into your life. 

Work with a Thrive Wellness Coach to develop your own custom formula for health and wellness. 

“No matter how indulgent or fancy the term may sound, self-care is crucial for our physical, emotional and mental well-being. You shouldn’t neglect self-care and here's why:

• Know your worth: Self-care is important to maintain a healthy relationship with yourself as it produces positive feelings and boosts your confidence and self-esteem. Also, self-care is necessary to remind yourself and others that you and your needs are important too.

 

• A healthy work-life balance: Contrary to common belief, workaholism is not a virtue. Overwork, and the accompanying stress and exhaustion can make you less productive, disorganized and emotionally depleted. It can also lead to all sorts of health problems, from anxiety and depression to insomnia and heart diseases. Professional self-care habits like taking intermittent breaks (for lunch, calling your mom, or taking a stroll), setting professional boundaries, avoiding overextending, etc. ensures that you stay sharp, motivated and healthy.

 

• Stress management: While a little dose of stress is a healthy way to give us a nudge that we need to meet the deadlines or finish that overdue task, constant stress and anxiety can have an adverse effect on your mental and physical health. Smart self-care habits like eating healthy, connecting with a loved one or, practicing meditation cuts down the toxic effects of stress by improving your mood and boosting your energy and confidence levels.

 

• Start living, stop existing: Life is a precious gift. So why waste it when we have the choice to have a more meaningful existence? Yes, you have a lot of responsibilities— fixing the dryer, mowing the lawn, paying bills. But it’s important to remember that taking care of yourself is also your responsibility. Little things like sipping tea while looking at the raindrops racing down the window glass, enjoying a bubble bath, or reading a book are essential for your daily happiness. While things like taking up a new hobby or learning a new language can make your life more purposeful by giving you a new reason to get up in the morning.

 

• Better physical health: Self-care is not just about your mental health. It’s also about caring for your physical self, by eating healthy, taking adequate sleep, caring about your hygiene, exercising regularly, etc.”

 
Click here to read the full article.

Everyone needs time alone, without the expectations of others, to recharge.

When do you spend quality time with yourself? Hobbies or personal wellness goals are a great way to formally make this part of your life. 

Work with a wellness coach on your most important relationship: Me, Myself & I.

We can add another benefit to exercise to our already long list. 

According to this great infographic from Fix.com, Your Brain on Exercise, “[regular exercise] can improve learning and mental performance, encourage the pituitary gland to release endorphins, and reduce sensitivity to stress, depression, and anxiety.”

Exercise is particularly important for children with developing brains, and regular doses often improves academic performance as, “a link has also been established between attention span and concentration and exercise.”

Learn more by viewing the full infographic: Your Brain on Exercise.

"The best way to capture moments is to pay attention. This is how we cultivate mindfulness. Mindfulness means being awake. It means knowing what you are doing. But when we start to focus in on what our own mind is up to, for instance, it is not unusual to quickly go unconscious again, to fall back into an automatic-pilot mode of awareness. These lapses in awareness are frequently caused by an eddy of dissatisfaction with what we are seeing or feeling in that moment, out of which springs a desire for something to be different, for things to change. 

You can easily observe the mind's habit of escaping from the present moment for yourself. Just try to keep your attention focused on any object, for even a short period of time. You will find that to cultivate mindfulness, you may have to remember over and over again to be awake and aware. We do this by reminding ourselves to look, to feel, to be.

​It's that simple ... checking in from moment to moment, sustaining awareness across a stretch of timeless moments, being here, now." 

From Wherever You Go There You Are by Jon Kabat-Zinn

The long-term strength and resilience of our romantic relationships highly influences our individual sense of happiness and wellbeing. 

However, now that gender roles are less rigid, many people are unsure exactly how to build and sustain strong partnerships. 

As Hara Estroff Marano explains, “Most modern relationships no longer rely on roles cast by culture. Couples create their own roles, so that almost every act requires negotiation.”

Further complicating things, she asserts that, “because people's needs are fluid and change over time, and life's demands change too, good relationships are negotiated and renegotiated all the time.” 

Read Marano’s full piece, The New Rules of Relationships, for a list of helpful considerations to keep your connection and intimacy strong.

The key is to take advantage of the 3-step neurological process that creates a habit. First, choose a cue, like leaving your running shoes by the door, then pick a reward — say, a piece of chocolate when you get home from the gym. 

Eventually, when you see the shoes, your brain will start craving the reward, which will make it easier to work out day after day.

View an infographic based on The Power of Habit to learn more.

The relationship between physical environment and wellbeing is sometimes overlooked, yet having a calming safe haven from the demands of the world is often the key to recharging one’s batteries. 

When you return from a long day what awaits you? Do you face clutter, conflict and many more things to be done in the way of housework? If so it may be time to invest some time and thought into creating a place that will allow you to relax, be yourself and practice self-care. 

Check out this great Freshome.com article, How to Make Your Home Feel More Relaxing, for insight on where to start and specific room-by-room suggestions to optimize your home environment.