Each summer my family and I go portaging. I know I enjoy it and am a very willing participant. Here is the interesting thing I notice, every single time. My mind likes to hang onto perceived comforts. If I allow my mind chatter to be who I perceive to be ‘Katherine’, I would likely let the things I tell myself talk me out of ever going.

Here’s an example. The preparation to go means my regular schedule that I really enjoy is disrupted.

My normal morning routine lately goes something like this:
Wake
Lemon Water
Meditate
Yoga
Smoothie (recipe at the end of my post 🙂
Walk
The rest of my day begins

Before leaving on a big trip, my day goes something like this:
Meditate
Smoothie
Last minute packing like a maniac
Fly out the door at the last moment or later than we planned
The rest of my day begins

Doesn’t the first one sound more peaceful?

My mind also wants stuff even once we are officially in nature. Usually it kicks in when I realize I have no connectivity. I am not a big tech person. I usually forget to even turn my ringer on on a regular basis but even so, when I know I can’t just check something with my phone I feel a bit uncomfortable. I usually at some point miss access to books and podcasts and I am not crazy about the inevitable shift from fresh veggies over to dehydrated food we prepped. On and on my mind will list the things it wants. It will give me examples of things I could be doing that would be far more effective in the reduction of my to-do list.

You can probably guess what happens next? My clingy mind starts to recognize it could continue to cling or could drop into the ‘now’ of the nature-loving experience. I, Katherine, have a choice. I don’t have to stay at home with my mind. I am not my mind. I can choose to be where I am.

Nature is a tough opponent anyway and I predictably move into a different mental space where the sound of my paddle in the water is the best sound in the world. Physical challenge makes me feel alive. Everything I eat tastes amazing even though I would never choose dehydrated foods on a regular basis. I don’t mind that I smell like a campfire before bed and I fully wake up in the morning after jumping into the lake.

The crazy part of all this is that I know what will happen once I am camping far away from everything. I know I will enjoy it. I have even enjoyed trips when the conditions were far from perfect. And still, my mind is a powerful negotiator despite knowing my own pattern. The whole point I guess that I am trying to make is that we all have a choice to listen to the clinging or move into the freedom of what is. Sometimes we will feel strong enough to recognize the chatter for what it is and other times we will stay at home with our fresh food and make delicious morning smoothies 🙂

Here’s my recipe for my favourite smoothie this summer with a tropical fruit variation if you want or need fruit with your greens. Enjoy!

1 cup coconut water or water
half a lemon, peeled
a chunk of ginger, peeled
two big handfuls of spinach
1/4-1/2 an avocado depending on size
1 cup of mango and/or pineapple (optional)

Blend until smooth.

The title of this post makes me imagine something requiring a loin cloth and fire dancing. For better or worse, that is not what is about to follow.

There is something about yoga asana that has the potential to move each of us deeply. There is the physical movement, of course, in transitions to poses and within a pose. There is movement through the breath. And movement of the busy mind that might settle down enough to move within the practice from awareness to hands here, strength there and length in another place in the body. There is movement into stillness and recognition of the choice to stay or move away from.

And then there is actual being-ness.

On those days that presence shimmers, a coming home to ourselves is no longer illusive. Isn’t that what we all seek? Alone or in a room full of people practising together in presence, some days you can almost hear the crackle of magic. It is so tangible, so beautifully real. It is within ‘being-ness’, fully occupied, that all else drops away…that ‘being at one with’ simply is.

Ritual and intention can help us embody being-ness. Here are ideas to consider:

1. Set an intention for your practice. This could be as simple as connecting in with your breath; with hand on belly and upper chest, notice how it feels to breath and decide to take this breath awareness into the rest of your practice.
2. Light a candle when practicing indoors especially when light is low in the early morning, evening, on a cloudy day or…
3. Take your practice outside. Expanding the time we spend in nature is incredibly healing. (I really enjoyed this book: Vitamin N: The Essential Guide to a Nature-Rich Life by Richard Louv.)
4. Place flowers nearby (bring the natural world indoors).
5. Place a picture of a person you want to offer up the energy you create to or have a picture of someone or picture/symbol of something that inspires qualities you wish to manifest in your own life.
6. Create a place that you feel good to be in; face a window, clear visual clutter, sweep the floor, create a pleasantly scented environment with natural essential oils if that is something you enjoy, open a window.

Happy Summer Solstice…it won’t be official where I live until it is 5:43 p.m. but I was greeted this morning by the most beautiful sunshine and warmth. It feels like summer has been with us off and on all month. My daughter and I went for a walk and although the temperature was in the low twenties when we started out, we could feel the heat of the day building as we walked. I love summer. Below is a poem I also love. It is one (amongst many) of my favourite poems by Mary Oliver. Enjoy it and enjoy this official shift into a new season.

P.S. Check back soon for a brand new post too on yoga and the power of ritual.

The Summer’s Day
~ by Mary Oliver

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean-
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down-
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

Happy sunshiny day 🙂

I have a new 6-minute video for you to try. It is embedded at the end of this post. If you don’t feel like reading to the end then just jump there (that’s right, permission granted to scroll away). For context, at least read the teensy paragraph about the heart chakra just before you get to the video.

Do you believe that wherever you are and whenever you are reading this, your day holds the potential for happiness? Do you think that regardless of the weather, your day can feel like it is full of sunshine?

There is certainly a case to be made about how to stack the odds in your favour of happiness regardless of what you believe. I recently completed a course about the brain and one of my favourite modules was about happiness and the brain. Yogi-friendly practices are central to increasing your experience of happiness. Practice gratitude, acts of kindness, meaningful social connections, stress management, meditation, regular exercise, and focusing on the present moment. There is considerable (and impressive) research worth investigating if this topic interests you. Check out the ted talks with Shawn Achor for a sample of what science has to say in the area of current happiness research or listen to the podcast the Science of Happiness produced by the Greater Good Center at UC Berkeley.

Working with the chakra system, or energy centres in your body, is an ancient system geared toward addressing circumstances that appear to be your roadblocks to happiness and fulfillment in day-to-day living. It may sound kind of ‘out there’ but think of the seven main centres (that run from the base of your spine to the crown) as your spiritual nervous system. Each chakra governs particular physical areas in your body, as well as, the excesses and deficiencies in your nature that determine how you respond to life’s challenges.

The best way to ‘get it’ is to explore. Use music to feel your way through them. First you need to understand the physical location of the chakra and the basic issue associated with each. Listen to a song that speaks to that issue and pay attention to how it feels in that area of your body. (I’ve provided a chakra chart below). Connect in a tangible way to what age-old yogic wisdom professes to be true to the human experience through this system. Or simply start by using the practice at the end of this post that is focused on the heart chakra.

A note about the heart chakra: Think about the anatomical space at the upper centre chest through your body to the back between your shoulder blades. This is the seat of emotional consciousness. Imagine you can illuminate and open to the free flowing energy of this space with every breath. What does it feel like in the area of this chakra when you give and receive love, feel peace, joy and laughter? How does it feel to be shutdown or closed in this space when you refuse love and experience jealousy, resentment, and hostility? Cultivate openness with the practice below. (Why not pair this new practice with the loving-kindness audio meditation posted with the other media files a couple of weeks ago?) Have fun and share your thoughts with me, I love hearing from you.

I have tried to love pilates. It is mindful movement so what’s not to love? I have always been convinced I should have a genetic disposition to love it.

Well, I have to be honest, I’ve never been into it. Believe me, I’ve tried. I have just always been a bit meh; I could take it or leave it. I think the counting, different breathing and lack of fluidity has always put me off.

During this bizarro version of the world right now, lots has changed. For one, my personal yoga practice has shifted. I have been allowing my right shoulder to heal. I hurt it this winter skiing and then stubbornly, I didn’t want to modify my yoga practice. Too many side planks and chaturangas later and I could hardly do everyday things with that arm. Gah. Silly. Anyhoo, my yoga practice is different and more purely self-directed now that I am not teaching classes. The backs and knees and shoulders of yoga students, for example, are not part of my mind chatter lately.

I am also running (not my usual thing), biking (again not my per usual), and now…I am doing a little pilates mid-day and looov-ing it. I know, shocking.

[Btw:That teensy paragraph above sounds like I’m killing it on the fitness front but in reality I am in maintenance mode. There have been considerably more calories going down the hatch every day.]

So all of this is to say…Most body work and movement has the potential to be ’embodied’ if the mind is willing. This is an obvious statement but I definitely needed some reminding. Pilates or whatever your ‘no thanks’ movement activity has been, might be just the shift you need to include more mindfulness into your day and to create additional body awareness during activities you already enjoy. Maybe the activity you are convinced you have a genetic aversion toward is something you will love.

It might be a little like cilantro. It is entirely possible that you have a legitimate claim to swearing off cilantro forever. Or perhaps, you just haven’t tried a salad dressing as incredible as the one I have included below. It might literally blow your mind.

Lots of love to you, your moving body and your taste buds. Enjoy it all.

Green Chile Cilantro Vinaigrette 

1/4 cup of cilantro, 1 garlic clove, 2 Tablespoons of green chilies, 1/2 teaspoon of cumin, 1 teaspoon of sugar (or whatever you use to sweeten), dash of sea salt, dash of cayenne, 2 Tablespoons of red wine vinegar, 1 Tablespoon of orange juice, 1/4 cup of safflower or olive oil.

Blend all ingredients, except the oil, until smooth using an immersion blender or traditional blender. Add oil as the last step pouring gradually while blending until emulsified.

Hello! Happy loooooong weekend. I have just uploaded two new meditation audio files. One is a standing meditation and the other is a simple seated breath awareness meditation. Try them both and let me know what you think.

Here’s Something Else for You to Try

Work with a positive thought pattern during your yoga practice. I have done this with students in some of my classes before.

Allow your attention to rest on your breath and experience how your breath fills out the shape of your body as you hold a yoga posture. Repeat the same positive thought between postures or between a short flow series. Make ‘space’ in your body with your breath to allow the thought in…let go of gripping and tension in your body so there is nothing to block the creation of space.

The thought could be anything that resonates and could be as simple as a single word like, “peace”, or “enough” or “calm” or “safe”.

I have used all of the above and many more at random by pulling word cards out of an envelope. Sometimes a word will find you at exactly the right time. You will know it is ‘your word’ because it feels charged in some way; you will want to hold it close or push it away.

The last two weeks I have been exploring a particular phrase during yoga:
‘I let go of all that is unlike love. There is time and space for everything I want to do.’

This phrase has been so perfect for me right now. I am incredibly appreciative of having this extra time for family, projects, practices and spring cleaning. I have also been aware of negative internal dialogue for not checking off everything on my pre-Covid19 ‘if-only-I-had-time’ wish list. Do you have something similar going on? If so, try to integrate this phrase into your yoga practice and your day.

Much love this weekend and coming week,
Katherine

If you lay down and listen to a guided meditation, do you quickly fall asleep? If you try to sit, does your body complain so loudly that paying attention to anything other than your back or knees seems highly unlikely? If you are answering (yelling) a resounding, “YES!”, then I have a few suggestions.

Here are some easy things to try if falling asleep is your issue:
1. Switch up the time of day to when you feel more alert.
2. Make sure you haven’t eaten a heavy meal in about two hours.
3. Practise in a cooler room, without a blanket or extra layer. 4. If you are laying down sit; if you are sitting stand and try a moving meditation.

Let me clearly state here that if you are enjoying meditation laying down and you have physical limitations to sitting meditation or simply aren’t interested, keep doing what you’re doing. Really.

Here are some things to try to create more comfort in seated meditation:
1. Cushions, cushions, cushions…soften the ground with a larger cushion on the floor and then raise your seat with a firm cushion under your bum.
2. If all the cushions in the world are not going to help, sit in a chair.

Check back in another day or two for new audio files: a guided seated meditation and a simple standing meditation.

Much love, Katherine

I have just posted a new audio file. This meditation has been one that I have been doing for many years. It is beautiful. If it resonates with you, practice with the recording until it is all through you so that modifying it comes naturally without the recording. The recorded version begins with cultivating loving-kindness for yourself, followed by a loved one, then a person you find difficult in your life and finally, the world. It runs for just under 20 minutes.

In my own morning meditation practice this is the last one I do – my grand finale – and it can last far longer than 20 minutes if you have the time.

When I am practising, I allow anyone who ‘wants in’ to be part of it. I begin with myself and move onto my loved ones who may appear for me individually or sometimes grouped. I accept however they come. Sometimes someone very random will appear and I accept them too.

I always move onto a person I experience as difficult or a group that brings up negativity in me so I can practice to cultivate loving-kindness even when I want to contract and reject the difficulty. (Your difficult person could also be a person you love, by the way.) I don’t know of a better more practical practice than this to live purposefully in love and peace. Even political situations or stories of violence can be part of the meditation if that feels accessible or necessary for personal growth. The important thing is not to be caught up in the story. Stay connected to the practice. You allow the person or group to appear and you do your best to cultivate the feelings generated by the repeated words used in the practice. The meditation provides the opportunity to be with the feeling of contraction or gripping and explore openness and compassion.

If this audio file feels too long, start with cultivating loving-kindness for just yourself and then pause the recording at that point. After practising this way for a while, listen to the recording up to and including a loved one and so on until you have worked your way up to the full 20 minutes.

Let me know what you think in the comments or email me (your comments come to my email anyway).

Much love to each of you. Enjoy the sunny and warm weather tomorrow!

ON THE FIFTH DAY
by Jane Hirshfield

On the fifth day
the scientists who studied the rivers
were forbidden to speak
or to study the rivers.

The scientists who studied the air
were told not to speak of the air,
and the ones who worked for the farmers
were silenced,
and the ones who worked for the bees.

Someone, from deep in the Badlands,
began posting facts.

The facts were told not to speak
and were taken away.
The facts, surprised to be taken, were silent.

Now it was only the rivers
that spoke of the rivers,
and only the wind that spoke of its bees,

while the unpausing factual buds of the fruit trees
continued to move toward their fruit.

The silence spoke loudly of silence,
and the rivers kept speaking,
of rivers, of boulders and air.

In gravity, earless and tongueless,
the untested rivers kept speaking.

Bus drivers, shelf stockers,
code writers, machinists, accountants,
lab techs, cellists kept speaking.

They spoke, the fifth day,
of silence.

I have been running the last few weeks after meditation and before my yoga practice.

I am the most fair weather runner who has ever lived, by the way. In the Spring it seems like the loveliest idea after a long winter but when it gets too hot, I reconsider. In the Fall, I think, “I should really start running.” Then, it gets cold and there is nothing in me that wants to stick with it.

Yoga is different. It is a love through thick and thin. Hot weather or cold. Cranky or happy. Chubby or lean. Too busy or at peace. I even take my yoga practice on vacation with me and I wouldn’t have it any other way. It doesn’t matter how I feel when I start my practice or begin to lead a yoga class, I always feel infinitely more connected to myself and others at the end of it. Mindful movement and meditation is the most underrated and accessible kind of magic.

Running is THE thing for some people and their yoga practice is the add-on that keeps them running. The last three weeks for me in particular, running has been a nice add-on to my yoga practice. During this strange time we are in the midst of, I truly welcome a more intense awareness of the relationship between my heart and lungs. I also just need to move more.

I am not professing a lifelong commitment to running but the combination of this with yoga has felt like a match made in heaven lately.

I have been returning from a run each morning sweaty and with movement buzzing through me. I stretch out my calves right away on the stairs into my house then I head to my yoga mat. I get grounded and use my breath along with the foundations of the poses to grow the shapes.

I have been doing a full practice but here are a select few yoga postures that have felt like pure heaven after a run…

• 

The other really feel great postures have been seated forward bend and standing forward bend against the wall, full warrior series, triangle and reverse triangle, bow and camel, downward dog, head stand and simply sitting back on my heels with my toes curled under. If you have a firm rubber ball or a good quality tennis ball, use it to roll out your feet and glutes.

What activity do you like to pair with yoga? Tell me all the juicy details about your love affair. If you have any questions about the postures above, let me know.

Stay healthy and happy, Katherine xo