A regular consistent yoga practice will help you dodge bullets of life, and let me share a story that proves this point. This past weekend I went on a yoga retreat to Mexico, and met many wonderful yogi’s; some who have practiced over 17 years, others just starting, and most in the middle.

Often we don’t think how we are feeling, unless we are feeling ill. Yoga helps move the energy, and keep you feeling great most day’s. A guy mentioned on retreat, they went out to a bar, and had some tequila shots; sounds like maybe one too many. The next day of retreat was the last day, and practice was early at 7 am. This guy woke up feeling pretty hung over, and decided to give the practice a try, and sleep on the plane ride home. He was really surprised that in the middle of practice he realized, headache gone, nausea gone, and feeling really good!

As we go about life, how many days are we really thriving and feeling great? Our yoga practice can be started early in life, or for those more reluctant later in life, when forced to do “yoga type exercises” at physical therapy. Yes! many things done in physical therapy have some of the same goals of yoga, and are similar movements.

Yoga helps. It helps you stay positive and outgoing. It helps you balance the body. Yoga helps you if you are addictive to substances. Now after many years of consistent practice, if I drink one beer, my body feels like crap the next day. Since I don’t like to feel like crap, I find no need to touch it, nor either the over the counter drugs a lot take to get through the day, ie: pain killers, aspirins, or even allergies. I just don’t have any of that at the house, because we just don’t need it.

At the end of the day, Yoga practice gives us that little extra humm of satisfaction, and relaxation that no alcohol or drugs can do, without the bad side effects. Yoga does work, and often slowly, like water hitting a stone. But everyone knows that eventually, the stone will take the shape that the water dictates.

I dare you to prove me wrong!

See you on the mat yogi’s,

Paula

You might think that this has been the only life your body has lived….But just like that recycled soda can, we have had many lives; that is how our body remembers things. When my daughter was very little, I found it so cute that she packed a purse where ever we went. I mentioned this to someone else, and they thought it was because I carried a purse; aka, like mother like daughter, but at that time in my life, I did not carry a purse. I believed she remembered from another life, that is what you do.

It’s best described like this. Your body remembers everything, EVERYTHING that has happened to it. Hurtful discussions, old injuries, death of oneself, and unending sorrow of losing others. Let’s say each and every act is recorded on a piece of paper in a big room. Some things are not that hard to get “over”, like classmates calling you names. Other things, big items, like losing friends, your death, family members are recorded on big scrolls, because they are big “events” that are body will remember. Lately, I’ve noticed that my husband only likes to use one hand. He favors that when lifting, or really doing anything. Why is that? The other hand is perfect, in fact a very useful tool. It’s not hard to imagine, that in a past life, the unused hand/arm might have been injured, or hurt. His body is remembering that, and favoring his other hand.

So when we come to yoga, we are really working on that mind and body. Those recordings of events are logged into our fascia ( or connective tissue) and muscles, bones, ligaments, organs and glands. That is why sometimes with yoga practice, we cry, we laugh, we let go of those emotions that have built up. With the physical practice of yoga, it is very balanced; what we do on the right, we do on the left. We start a new recording, and in my husbands mind, after a yoga practice of working your right arm, we do the left arm, and the brain or tissues can release that previous arm injury and realize that I can use both arms, and can forget about that “old injury”.

This is how yoga heals us. Our families pass down different beliefs and emotions, and their bad shoulders, become our bad shoulders, but it is a proven scientific fact that is not always the case. We are choosing to believe what they did; remember those pieces of paper in that room? Well, each and every practice we are able to remove a piece or two of paper, and begin to rewrite our body’s past, and change the chemistry of the body down to a molecular level. Other modalities, such as meditation, right balanced movement, awareness therapy among other do some of the same things. As our body lets go of the past, we become lighter, happier. especially when we first start yoga practice. However, ask any long time yoga practitioner, and sometimes it takes awhile to rid the body of knee, hip, shoulder or any kind of pain, so persistence, joy, and being kind to oneself, along with a good teacher to guide you is essential to yoga.

So, smile when practicing yoga. Enjoy each and every time of letting go, releasing, and becoming a better, healthier you, down to a molecular level.

Cheers to rewriting the past, Cheers to a new body!!

See you on the mat,

Paula