Taking Care of Yourself

Taking Care of Mind and Body & Helpful Online Resources

It’s been a long time since last I wrote….

I have had many requests of late. Friends, family, students, all asking for what they can do to nourish themselves in this time of Covid 19. I am honored to be asked, and humbly offer you the following:

There is a glut of information online about how to stay healthy in mind, body and spirit. By this point, we all know to maintain physical distance from one another, keep our bodies and living spaces as clean as we can, eat well, exercise and get fresh air and plenty of rest. To this, I am going to add, that we really don’t need to check the news every hour. I worry that the tendency to do this will only feed our fears and further stress our bodies. Sure, check your news feed in the morning or once some time during the day, but you probably don’t need to do it all day long and especially not right before bed. If you frequent social media sites, check-in with yourself, notice if the time spent there is making you feel calmer and more present, or if it is making you more anxious and stressed. If it is the later, maybe it is time to pick up a book, work on a puzzle, make some art or music or practice yoga or meditation.

I know many of you have asked me to make you a video. I might just do that, but in the interim, there are so many very good offerings out there, I encourage you to explore them.

If you don’t have a home practice, and just want some coaching and guidance and want to feel like you are part of a class, there are numerous online yoga and meditation resources that have been around for years and provide a deep well of information and teachings. Many of these require a paid membership, but in these times, that may be a worthwhile expense. Some of these are free and offer super high quality accessible classes (Veterans Yoga Project and Insight Timer).

These are the ones I tend to return to again and again. Just click on the links to check them out:

Yoga:

YogaInternational.com, yogajournal.com, YogaGlo.com, gaia.com, Yoga with ADRIENNE,

Veterans Yoga Project

Meditation:

Meditation Insight Timer, Waking UP, calm.com, Sounds True, Shambala

Zoom Classes:

In addition, most studios in our area and across the country are now live streaming their classes, as are many master yoga teachers who would normally be hosting large group teacher trainings. Some of these classes are free for the next week or so, some are already fee-based. Most yoga studios and teachers operate on very narrow margins, and as a result of the mandatory closures, they are finding it hard to make ends meet. So taking their classes online enables them to pay their teachers and hopefully re-open their doors once this virus has run its course.

In order to take these live-streamed streamed classes, (practicing with the teacher in real time with the teacher), you will need to click on a link that will take you to a Zoom window in your browser. The process is pretty self-explanatory, but it does require a bit of computer savvy, so do give yourself some time to figure out the technology or you will miss the start of class.

Here are the links for a few of local studios that have been posting classes. I only post these, as I have taken the classes and know the teachers. However, there are many more out there to explore.

Home Practice Essentials:

Before you get started, make sure you have everything you might need near by. Choose how long you want to practice and make a commitment to that. Even 10 minutes a day will make a difference. Get a drink of water or tea. Turn off your phone, ask housemates to join you or at least not interrupt you. Sit down and center yourself before you begin. Remember svasana at the end.

Props:

Yes, one of the benefits of going to the studio or gym is that they will have all these wonderful props. Of course you can order your own online, but you can also make do with some common household items.

Yoga Mat – or anything that will keep your feet from sliding out from under you

Straight backed chair – for support and chair-based practice

Yoga Blocks – or books or anything that raises the floor a bit will support your hands

Yoga Straps – or belts, or scarves

Yoga Bolsters – rolled up blankets/towels or pillows or sofa cushions

Yoga Blankets – firm blanket that is not slippery to provide support and comfort

That’s it for now. More to follow soon. If you have online resources you’d like to recommend, please do share. Seems I have and abundance of time these days to practice yoga and meditation.

December 10, 2014 by Diana Gould Bonyhadi

Halfway through December, already?

It’s a blustery day in the Seattle Area. Its windy, its wet, and it’s surprisingly warm. And I am still coming to grips with the fact that we are almost half-way through December. Don’t get me wrong, the fact that Winter Solstice is only 10 days away makes me incredibly happy. It’s just that I catch myself wondering…where did the time go?

I know I am not unique in this wondering. All of us at some point or another are struck by the fact that while time may seem to move incredibly slowly at one moment, most of us often have the feeling that time just keeps slipping away. Dates that seemed so far in the offing are suddenly upon us. Babies become children, children become adults, adults become seniors and each of us find ourselves wondering how did we end up here.

The focus of my classes this week have been on Svadhyaya, or self-study. It is the 4th of the Niyamas, or individual practices identified by Pantanjali (400 CE). This is an integral aspect of our yoga practice. Beyond getting the right alignment for a pose, or moving just so with the breath in a pose, there are also so many questions about our everyday practice. Which poses do we like and not like. Which poses do we avoid? Which poses make us feel powerful? Which bring us healing in times of suffering? Which poses make us mad or make us feel like crying or make us feel triumphant?

Svadyaya is also about the deeper stuff. Why do we feel a certain way in a pose? Do we always feel that way in that pose? What else is going on for us in that pose? Are there poses in which we feel nothing? How is it that putting our bodies in an asana can even elicit that emotional/intellectual response? Why do the asanas do that? Are we even aware of our thoughts and emotions while in any given asana? So, not only are we trying to become more aware of our breath and our movements on the mat, but we are also trying to engage more fully in the study of who we are in each moment, and in every breath.

And if you thought this was just about yoga… it’s not… or it is. It is not just about yoga, if yoga is something that only happens for you on a mat, in a studio, for about an 90 minutes a day. On the other hand, it is all about yoga if you have begun to notice that your yoga is moving with you beyond the mat. It kinda has the habit of doing that. Check out this link from Richard Freeman called Yoga Ruins Your Life, in which he talks about the permeability of yoga, as well as showcasing some very nice asanas guaranteed to make you ooo and ah.

Then these questions, this work of self-study really gets deep. On a daily basis, moment by moment, we begin to explore who we are, what makes us think and feel the way we do, and why. This is, I believe what we call the examined life – a life of self-study. This is a life that allows us to answer that question, Wow, how’d we get here? with something along the lines of ” I don’t quite know, but at least I was awake for some of it. ” Through Svadhyaya, we participate in the most important dialogue of all time; the dialogue that begins with ourselves; the dialogue that enables us to be more fully present in each moment.

Happy Holidays everyone. I hope the Season brings you much light and love. May the questions you ask continue to deepen and expand. Don’t let yourself get too attached to the answers, they will probably change (follow this link). Enjoy the journey and stay full of wonder.

Shalom & Namaste

Diana Bonyhadi

November 13, 2014 by Diana Gould Bonyhadi

New data suggests yoga & meditation can help cure cancer

I am pleased to see more and more articles verifying the positive and healing impact of yoga and meditation on the human body.

This just in from Canada

Evidence to suggest that meditation alters cancer survivors’ cells

Sadashiva Pai, PhD, MBA Founder and CEO at Science Mission LLC

Researchers in Canada have found the first evidence to suggest that support groups that encourage meditation and yoga can actually alter the cellular activity of cancer survivors.

Their study, which was published in the journal Cancer, is one of the first to suggest that a mind-body connection really does exist.

The team found that the telomeres – the protein caps at the end of our chromosomes that determine how quickly a cell ages – stayed the same length in cancer survivors who meditated or took part in support groups over a three-month period.

On the other hand, the telomeres of cancer survivors who didn’t participate in these groups shortened during the three-month study.

Mindfulness-based cancer recovery and supportive-expressive therapy maintain telomere length… onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Mindfulness-based cancer recovery and supportive-expressive therapy maintain telomere length relative to controls in distressed breast cancer survivors – Carlson – 2014 – Cancer – Wiley Online Library