The Yoga of Motherhood…

Parenting in today’s world is hard. I know people say this all the time, but it has recently hit me pretty hard. I have an almost-3-year-old and 3-month-old baby. The hard part: living up to social-media mom standards.

Screen time? Taboo. Formula feed? Breast is best. Breastfeed in public? Judgmental stares. Elective C-section? Not the way nature intended it. Natural birth? Show off.

Y’all… we can’t win.

Let’s take a moment to lift each other up. Be truthful when you speak to your friends about your family. Ask for advice. Be a good listener. Start to let go of that judgement on yourself and others.

Ahimsa… the yoga of motherhood

Ahimsa in yoga is non-violence or non-harming. Non-violence towards ourselves and others helps us to clear our minds of toxic thought patterns and allow positivity to flow in.

The first of the Yamas is Ahimsa, or non-violence. Non-violence towards others and ourselves, and a consideration for all living things.

Meditation…

Meditation is a great way to practice ahimsa. Meditation has been proven to assist us in ending the patterns in our lives that we keep repeating over and over. Negative self-talk, blaming others for things that go wrong in our lives, and of course judging ourselves and others are all things that can become amplified as we sit in meditation. Through meditation we learn to identify and observe these thoughts then gently let them go.

I am committing myself to meditating for at least 2 minutes a day even if it means meditating with a baby strapped to me because it’s the only way he will nap (practicing ahimsa towards myself here). I’m starting with 2 minutes and working my way up to 30 minutes to 1 hour and being okay with the 2 minute days mixed in between.

Loving kindness meditation…

A loving kindness or metta-meditation helps us to redirect those negative thoughts towards ourselves and others and replace them with positive thoughts.

To do this meditation first repeat these phrases towards yourself, then direct them towards someone you have a positive relationship with, then to a neutral party, next to someone with whom you have a challenging relationship, then finally to all beings everywhere.

Find a comfortable position to sit in and close your eyes. Start by noticing your breath. Don’t change it, just notice; is it deep or shallow? Slowly start to deepen your breath. Inhale: fill your belly, ribs, then chest. Exhale: chest goes down, then ribs, then belly. Take about 3 rounds of deep breaths then allow your breathing to become relaxed and easy. Move your Minds-Eye from the breath to your body and perform a scan of the body, from the head to your toes, letting go of holding, effort and judgement. Repeat the following phrases in your head several times in a gentle way. Allow your mind to rest on the statements.

Loving Kindness to Yourself: May I be happy. May I be healthy. May I be free from pain and suffering.

Loving Kindness Towards Someone who has had a Positive Influence in your Life, then a neutral party, then towards a challenging person: May you be happy. May you be healthy. May you be free from pain and suffering.

Loving Kindness Towards all Beings: May all beings be happy. May all beings be healthy. May all beings be free from pain and suffering.

Notice as you perform this metta-meditation over time if your natural thought patterns start to shift from negative to positive. Negativity and judgmental thoughts won’t just *poof* go away, but you may start to see loving thoughts edging in. Also, try practicing ahimsa as you scroll through your social media pages. Non-judgment on your peers, non-judgement on yourself. When you find yourself judging or comparing simply think, “May you/I be happy, healthy and free from pain and suffering.” Changing how your mind navigates the world (and the internet) is very important to living with ahimsa.

Peace & love,

Quote of the day…

“If you have good thoughts, they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.” ~Roald Dahl

Quote of the day…

“A ship is always safe at shore, but that is not what it’s built for.” ~ Albert Einstein

Global Mala 2015…

September is fast approaching! To me, this means another school year with a new class of precious kindergartners, national yoga month, and Global Mala!

Global Mala is held on the United Nations International Day of Peace & Fall Equinox every year and people all across the world gather to celebrate peace. As yogi’s, we will gather to practice 108 sun salutations and offer our practice for world peace. Don’t let the number 108 scare you! Come as you are and offer your practice as it is now. Every year we have yogis that come and rock all 108, some set a goal for doing 20, and others come and sit in meditation (or better yet, savasana!) and feel the energy of all the like-minded peaceful humans around them.

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CALLING ALL BIRMINGHAM YOGI’S AND YOGINI’S… 

Join us for a pre-party at Trim Tab Brewery on Thursday, September 17, 7:00-9:00pm. Come out an get to know your yoga community! Fellow yogis from all over Birmingham will be gathering together at Trim Tab to mingle and have some of the best brew in town! Get your photo taken at our photo booth, have your tarot cards read, meet your favorite teachers and fellow yogis, enjoy some eats from Cantina Food Truck and enjoy a beer on a fall evening. (See the Facebook event here: Global Mala pre-party at Trim Tab)

FOR THE MAIN EVENT, we will gather at Vulcan Park on Saturday, September 19 at 8:00am. Bring your mat, some water, and your beautiful self! We will join together to practice sun salutation looking over the city at Vulcan Park. The group will complete 108 rounds, but don’t be intimidated by the number! Simply drink in the energy of the practice or practice for as long as is right for YOU and then relax, enjoy the music, view, and community!! Escape day spa will make an appearance and offer free Thai massage, manicures, and free products! You can also treat yourself to a little henna tattoo! Children are always welcome, so bring the whole family! (See the Facebook event here: Global Mala 2015)

After party! Join us for a post Global Mala meal at Asian Rim in the Colonnade, 11:00am – 3:00pm. Who doesn’t love brunch?! They will be donating 20% of the proceeds from all sales between 11:00am and 3:00pm to Sweet Om Alabama. Come and enjoy some post sun-salutation fuel with your best new yogi friends! (See the Facebook event here: Brunch at Asian Rim Benefiting Sweet Om Alabama)

Annie, from Villager Yoga sporting her beautiful henna tattoo!

Every year our National Yoga Month events support Sweet Om Alabama. A charity organization that supports other charities in the Birmingham area! Sweet Om Alabama shirts are available for a $35 donation and have an awesome design with the Birmingham skyline! I also bought a super soft sweatshirt for a $45 donation! The sweatshirts are gray with a black Sweet Om logo.

Sweet Om shirt and a selfie!

I can’t wait to see your smiling face at Global Mala!

Peace,

Quote of the day…

“Words fail to convey the total value of yoga. It has to be experienced.” ~ BKS Iyengar

Quote of the day…

“The body is the bow, asana is the arrow, and the soul is the target.” ~BKS Iyengar (1918 – 2014) 

New York Times… BKS Iyengar, Who Helped Bring Yoga to the West, Dies at 95. 

The Stuff of life…

I ran into an old friend the other day while taking my dog for a walk. It turns out that she has lived on the same street as me for a year and we never crossed paths. As we were talking and catching up she talked about her life in New York City and how her career in theater made her feel the need to be perfect. She constantly watched what she ate and always felt pressure to have this ideal body image. Although she’s still passionate about theater she faded away from it and decided that she really needed to experience “the stuff of life.” I hugged her and went about my walk and those words stuck in my head… the stuff of life. Do I enjoy the stuff of life? Am I too hard on myself? Am I too strict on my diet? Is eating a cookie (or two) really that bad?

With my wedding 4 months away I’ve been thinking about this a lot. Do I want to look amazing and fit on my wedding day? Of course. Does it matter? Not really. We’re getting married because I love him and he loves me, not because I look hot in a white formal gown. True love goes beyond that. But here’s the hard part… Showing that amount of love to yourself. I have a major inner battle with this. I love myself. I am proud of what I have accomplished and what I stand for as a person. But do I love myself every time I look in a mirror? … That needs some work.

I think we all need to learn to enjoy the STUFF of LIFE. Eat healthy foods, fuel your body, love your body, love your Self. But at the same time, have fun, eat a cookie, laugh, play, and go out with friends. Have a few glasses of wine, treat yourself to dessert (you deserve it) and be happy.

I have decided that to prepare for my wedding I will not restrict my diet any further. I will eat the foods I like (thank goodness I love veggies!), stick to my organic/whole foods/no processed diet, and amp up my workout schedule to what it was before grad-school happened. So far I’m enjoying getting back to my workout routine and feeling better about being active every day.

The STUFF of LIFE…

{Have your cake and eat it too}

Have fun. Enjoy the STUFF of LIFE.

Yoga to the rescue {video}…

Warning… When you want to wear your yoga pants all day because “they’re comfortable” it’s not necessarily a good thing. You need to do more yoga in those yoga pants and less drinking coffee, snacking and studying. I speak from experience.

So here’s my confession… I’ve gained weight since I started grad school. The truth is that I wanted to wear my yoga pants 24/7 because my jeans were a little too snug for my liking. At first, I beat myself up and had tons of self-destructive thoughts. I called myself fat while inspecting my thighs in the mirror, I even beat myself down during yoga when my clothes fit a little more snugly. My thoughts were making me feel horrible. I knew I hadn’t been able to exercise or attend as many yoga classes as I would like, but my diet was still pretty good and so I didn’t understand why I had gained the weight. I then realized that I was turning to late night coffee to keep myself up to study. And of course, I was snacking. A lot.

The remedy… I switched from late night coffee to early morning yoga and it made all the difference in the world. Who needs coffee when yoga naturally caffeinates your body?!?! I also started up my no-processed foods diet again: Click to view: Fuel your life… which I wrote in my pre-vegetarian days so I just made some vegetarian modifications. I feel so much better! None of my outside stresses have changed, the choice to be more proactive about my health and well being came from within. Does that mean that I have to get up earlier to practice yoga in the mornings? Absolutely. I just look at it as a time-investment in my happiness.

So the thing about negative self-talk is that you can read all you want about how bad it is on your mental/emotional health but you just can’t change your thoughts because you’ve read one article about positive body image and/or daily affirmations. Even though that all sounds great, like most things in life… It takes work. For me, when I am conscious about my diet, get plenty of exercise and plenty of me-time I feel like I have done all that I can to make the best version of Lindsey. I’m still working on it, but my thoughts about my body are slowly turning back to happy ones!

Practice self-love… Whenever you catch yourself comparing yourself to others (“He’s so much smarter,” “She’s so much prettier.”) or when you catch yourself in negative self-talk (“I’m so stupid,” “Ugh, I’m so fat.”) STOP and name 3 things that make you special, make you unique, or that you’re really good at. Plant seeds of positivity and honor yourself as the miracle of light and creation that you really are!

Morning yoga routine… Today must be the most beautiful day I ever lived.

Shanti,

Aim true yoga challenge…

I kicked off National Yoga Month with a 10 day yoga photo challenge via Kathryn Budig & Instragram! Kathryn Budig is such an inspiration to me so I really wanted to try this challenge. It was so much fun to think of a pose that best fit the theme of the day then try to get a good picture of it! I loved this challenge because it reminded me why I love yoga so much. Each pose does something for my spirit.

Now… the rules. There is one cardinal rule to a yoga photo challenge… IT’S NOT ABOUT WHO CAN DO THE MOST ADVANCED POSE!!! A yoga challenge is about finding poses that go along with the theme and that fit your practice best right now, in this moment. It’s about the descriptions you give to the photo explaining why the pose is important to you. It’s about the real you.

Here are my 10 days of yoga pictures and description of why I chose each pose…

Day 1… EMPOWER

Day 1 is a pose that makes me feel EMPOWERED. One day in class I told my teacher, “I don’t have the upper body strength” and he had a surprised look on his face and said, “Lindsey, you are so strong.” His sincerity made me realize that most of my weaknesses were mental. I finally landed the pose and I feel so empowered and strong.

I had to squish this picture to make it fit into Instagram so here’s the original… That’s my Bailey girl in the picture with me! She’s my yoga buddy.

Day 2… CHALLENGE

Day 2 is any pose that CHALLENGES me. I chose handstand because it’s the hardest inversion for me. The fear of falling and fear of my arms and shoulders not being strong enough were debilitating. Every time I kicked up on the wall my elbows would buckle and I would fall down. My confidence started to build while doing this pose first in a doorway, then on the wall, and now I can’t hold it for very long… but I am taking steps in the right direction! I used a spotter behind me so I’m still working on trusting my own strength and balance…

Day 3… COMFORT

Day 3 is any pose that COMFORTS me. I chose Viparita Karani aka Legs Up the Wall Pose because it feels so good on my back! I spend my days working with children with special needs so I spend a lot of time hunched over, sitting on the floor, sitting in child-sized chairs, and picking up children. By the end of the day I can really feel it in my upper back and this pose gives the perfect mixture of backbend and relaxation!

Day 4… COMMUNITY

Today’s theme is COMMUNITY. I can’t think of any better community than my yoga community! But I have a confession to make… When my first wave of grad-school-ness hit me I thought about cancelling my yoga classes for “me” time. Extra time to study, extra time to sleep, extra time to just do nothing. But I realized that these spunky yogis are the reason I teach yoga. I love coming to class and seeing them touch their toes for the first time and fall in love with inversions! And most of all, who doesn’t need friends that will meet you at the yoga studio after hours just to take a silly picture???

Day 5… ENVIRONMENT

Today’s theme is ENVIRONMENT so I chose my everyday work environment… the playground! I chose a balance pose because being a teacher requires lots of balance in many different ways. I have a plan to create a special needs yoga program at work so hopefully there will be lots more yoga happening around this wonderful little school very soon!

Day 6… NO STRETCHY PANTS ALLOWED

Today’s theme is NO STRETCHY PANTS… That’s right no Lululemon allowed. And to be truthful, I usually travel in my stretchy pants… But today I’m traveling like a lady… in my new dress! This is me dropping off Bailey at my parents house for the weekend because we’re headed to North Carolina for Susan & Mike’s wedding!!!

Day 7… EMBARRASSING YOGA PHOTO

Today’s Aim True Challenge is to pose an EMBARRASSING yoga photo… I usually get on to Darren for taking the before-the-pose and after-the-pose photos of my butt… but all in the name of National Yoga Month & the Aim True Challenge here they are! It’s hard to pass up doing a yoga pose in an old-timey phone booth!

Day 8… OTHER LOVES

Today’s theme is OTHER LOVES. I had to think about this one because I have many other loves than yoga… But I really love spending time with the little ones! I just happen to be spending time with this precious baby on the beach today and I asked her mother/my good friend what to do for today’s theme. She said, “Lindsey, you love kids! I can’t ever get Sophie away from you!” Precious babies are not only my occupation, but a true love!

Day 9… YES I CAN!

Day 9 of the Aim True Challenge is a YES I CAN! pose. Bakasana aka Crow Pose was one of those poses that I idolized when I first started a yoga practice. The funny thing about yoga is the more I did the basic poses the more confidence I had to branch out and try the more difficult poses. I started to believe in my own strength and play around… And it might take a while for it to be pretty (still working on that), and not to fall on your face (I recommend a crash pad), but it feels so good when you balance for a half second! I can now hold this pose for a few deep breaths and I’m working on a jump-back into plank. It’s so fun to challenge myself and try new things!

Day 10… AIM TRUE

Today is the last day of the Aim True Challenge and for today (Day 10) I am to pick a pose that embodies what AIM TRUE means to me. Aim True to me is a heart opener. I chose a variation of Ustrasana aka Camel Pose with my hand over my heart because I can’t even begin to explain how much yoga has helped me open my heart and at the same time taught me to listen to my heart. I realized my purpose in life during my RYT200 training and made some pretty radical changes in my life to serve that purpose. So what Aim True means to me is to be true to myself. To be the real me and not who anyone else thinks I should be.

Not only were these pictures fun to take and I had a re-connection with my love for yoga… but I had a few people reach out to me and ask if yoga was a good fit for them. My response was that yoga truly is for EVERY BODY. I love setting off new yogi’s on their new yoga path. My only want for you is that your ride is as amazing as mine.

Aim true,

Beach ready yogi…

It’s officially summer time! Are you a beach ready yogi? I didn’t feel like it! Not with work, grad school, nightly homework, projects, and trying not to neglect my dog. So here’s what I did for the two weeks leading up to my beach trip:

Breakfast… 

• green smoothie
• herbal tea with honey (local honey is best)

Breakfast green smoothie

Snack… a fat and a fruit to give you energy and keep you full

• celery with peanut butter (add raisins if you like)
• apple with peanut butter
• ***sun butter (sunflower-seed butter) works great if you have a nut allergy***

Lunch… I used to be completely against frozen entrees until I found the Amy’s brand. No preservatives and so yummy. And I had to compromise somewhere with my lack of time.

• Amy’s frozen lunch 
• any other sensible lunch that includes a carb, protein, and vegetable

Snack… Watch your quantities. I prepare it ahead of time and bring it to class with me. Bringing the whole box of crackers is always a bad idea.

• fruit with peanut butter (I like to use a half apple or banana)
• cheese and crackers with fruit

Dinner… Here’s what I think is the most important part. Juice for dinner! Super kick of vegetables and gives your digestive tract a short fast every night. Also, if you don’t get home until 8pm like me, it’s too late to eat a full meal but you’re hungry!

• fresh juice! 

Green juice sponsored by my friend’s wedding…

My secret cheat… For when I just have to have some chocolate. It’s an addiction, we’re all human.

• Dark chocolate square with a scoop of peanut butter. 

I’m an ingredient snob. Look at the ingredients list, not the nutrition facts… you can find out a lot more. In the above foods this means check out your peanut butter, frozen lunches, crackers, and cheese.

At the beach… 

• Go to the grocery store… We stocked up on healthy snack items, sandwich stuff for lunch on the beach, and green smoothie ingredients. (We ended up with: Spinach, mango, banana, strawberries, apples, watermelon, pineapple, bread, cheese, avocado, deli meat, peanut butter, peanut/raisin/cranberry trail mix)
• Go on walks/runs… We brought our dogs so this one was easy to remember to do. We walked once in the morning and once at night. In the morning it’s not too hot and at night we waited until sunset so it was cool. It felt great to walk twice a day and vacay with our babies.

Duck watching on our morning walks…

• Find a local yoga studio… This is a must. I love visiting new studios and experiencing new teachers. I found a studio right in the area we were staying. Walking distance is definitely a plus!

I spy a yoga studio!

• Bring your blender… I left my juicer at home but I brought my blender. Nothing fancy, just a small single serving blender and I continued to have green smoothies for breakfast. It made me feel light and ready to put on my bikini! (Beach condos usually provide you with a blender but I brought mine just in case)
• Yoga on the beach… because it’s fun!

Beach yoga on a cloudy day…

Shanti,