Notes from Nina
Each weekend I send out the schedule for the following week along with a quick update on all things Yoga with Nina G
We the People
Hey friends,
Those framers of the Constitution weren’t stupid. They came up with a pretty good idea and it has lasted a few hundred years. This experiment in democracy is constantly changing and evolving to reflect our times. It’s fair to say that some of the changes have been better than others. But the way that they wrote it allows us room for growth.
And so, we celebrate this weekend.
In my experience as a yoga teacher, I have had many, many students come to me after a class and say, “How did you know that I needed that class today?” or “How did you know that I was holding so much tension in my shoulders/hips/etc.?” or “Wow! That was exactly what my body needed, how did you know that?”
My response is usually a laugh and then I say, “It’s all about me!”
And while that may seem glib, it is true. I think about what’s happening in the world around me, I take the time to evaluate what I need and how I want to feel. Then I work to plan a class that will serve those needs.
Guess what? Those areas that I identify for myself are often the same thing that you need.
It’s no coincidence that it works. We are all having this shared experience of life here in the United States on planet Earth. We are all connected here. We’re connected to each other and we’re connected to the planet as well. It’s an intricate lattice-work of interdependence.
So, when I’m feeling overwhelmed by the news or the extreme weather or pandemic concerns, I’m looking for a yoga practice that can get me back on track. I want something to help me build my resilience and return to a sense of calm. My guess is that you want/need that same solution too. We are more alike than we are different.
We the People. No matter our education, our history, our dreams, our beliefs, we are not in this by ourselves. We are living together here in this place. We are experiencing the highs and lows of living in this nation, on this planet, at this time. As we acknowledge that shared experience and see our similarities as more important than our differences, we really can become We the People.
And so, we celebrate this weekend.
Enjoy!
Love and love and love,
Nina G
Concert Time Machine
Hey friends,
I went to see Billy Joel in concert this past weekend. It was the first rock concert that I have attended since college. I saw him perform when I was a student and I thought it would be fun to see him again, back on the campus where I first saw him.
I will say that I was pleasantly surprised by the experience. It was an outdoor concert, so I could handle the sound volume and any Covid concerns. The crowd was mostly my age and incredibly well-behaved. We had seats on the aisle and I had a direct view of the stage. The weather was amazing and the thunder and lightning that had been predicted didn’t arrive until hours after the performance ended. It was fun to listen to him and see him perform.
It was an all-around perfect evening.
The concert was a veritable time machine. I let the experience wash over me and I was definitely transported back to the late 70s, early 80s. I’m glad that I went back in time. It was a great reminder of people and places that I loved. I’m happy to be here in the present moment again.
Please join me in that present moment on your mat.
With love,
Nina G
Yoga of Now
Hello dear friends,
“Happiness is not something you find at the end of the road. You have to understand that it is here, now.”
I have a deck called “Everyday Peace Cards” by Thich Nhat Hanh. I often pull one out of the deck, read it, and then let it sit on my desk for a few days. The cards are simple mindfulness meditations and they always offer something to ponder.
The quote above was on the card that I pulled this week. I’ve been noodling on it for a few days now. To me, the most interesting part is the final word after the comma…now.
Happiness is here NOW.
And NOW.
And NOW.
When I first studied to become a yoga teacher, we had to read the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, an ancient text on the theory and practice of yoga. There are 196 Sutras divided among 4 chapters. It was originally written in Sanskrit and there are several different translations available to us today.
The very first Sutra is:
“Now begins the practice of yoga.”
It seems pretty straight ahead - like an introduction to the book. It almost feels like “Once Upon a Time.”
Or maybe it isn’t. Perhaps that “Now” at the front of the sentence is supposed to remind us that our yoga begins right in the NOW that we experience when we’re in the present moment.
NOW begins the practice of yoga.
Our yoga practice allows us to be fully present with the body, the breath, and the mind. It helps us to stay in the present moment and discover the sensations and feelings that are here NOW. We can't obsess about the past, we can't worry about the future, we just practice in the NOW.
Right NOW.
Thich Nhat Hahn was right, we're not on a road trip to happiness. We don't need to travel to find it. That happiness is already here. It's found in subtle moments of grace and love. When we find that intersection of mind, body, breath, feeling, and sensation, we can find NOW.
When we find NOW, those subtle moments of happiness surround us.
Please join me on your mat.
Love,
Nina G
Mirror, Mirror
Hello dear friends,
Think about the mirrors in your living space. Where are they? What do you do with them?
Of course, we have mirrors in our bathroom. We look in those in the mornings when we get up. Some days look better than others... We also have a mirror by the front door. I take a quick glance before I leave the house. No spinach in the teeth is what I'm looking for here! You might have a small mirror in your work bag or purse. Sometimes, I might even catch a glimpse of my reflection in a window as I'm out walking. There's always something interesting to learn in those reflections.
This week my yoga teacher suggested that we consider our practice as if we’re looking in a mirror. Face it, we’re never bored looking in a mirror. We look, we stare, we notice something, we might criticize or even find some positive aspect to admire. Perhaps we make changes based on what we see, but we never are bored looking into a mirror.
Consider that idea when we’re lying on our backs, making circles into our hips. Consider that idea when we’re sitting on a chair bringing our attention to our breath. You might be waiting for the next cue, wondering when we’re “gonna get to the ‘real’ yoga.” Or you might look into the mirror of your mat. What do you see in yourself when you’re practicing? What do we notice in those hips? In that breath? What should we change? What’s beautiful?
I am madly in love with my yoga practice. I wake up and can’t wait to get on my mat, to explore how I feel, to know what’s happening. Some mornings I’m distracted and can’t concentrate – on those days my practice is shorter. Some mornings are full of focus – that might be an hour-long practice day. It doesn’t matter how long I spend on my mat, by the time I’m finished, there’s been a shift. A shift in my mood, in my nervous system, in how I feel and act and respond to events around me. Whatever my mood or the amount of time I spend on my mat, I learn more about myself through the mirror of my yoga practice.
Yoga isn’t something I have to do every day. Instead it’s something I feel passionate about and I look forward to it. It's that quick glance in the mirror by the front door before I continue with my day.
Please join me and we can explore together.
Love,
Nina G
News & Notes - June, 2022
Hello dear friends,
I hope that all is well with you. Here's an update on what's happening this month in yoga.
New Chair Yoga Video! A new video was released this morning. It has repetitive, meditative sequencing to help the body and mind find peace. Click here to try it - Peace in our Thoughts.
Schedule change - The 4:15 Monday class will end on Monday, June 13th. Class will meet on the 13th and then will resume in the fall, when school starts again. The 8:30 am class will continue through the summer. Please join us on Monday mornings!
Be the Light - As I mentioned in my newsletter last week, we will work with this idea of being light throughout the month of June. The days are getting longer and we will reach the longest day of the year later this month (Tuesday, June 21st). Of course, once we reach that day, the days will then begin to get shorter. Let's relish our time building up to this date and then work to extend the power of that light as well. There are so many ways to bring this idea of light into our practice. Grab your mat and let's explore them all!
Please join me on your mat.
Love and peace,
Nina G
Find the Light
“When day comes, we ask ourselves:
Where can we find light
In this never-ending shade?”
Dear Friends,
Once again, I sit and write a newsletter after a week of horrific events.
And once again, I am gutted.
It is hard to find the light as we witness trauma upon trauma upon trauma. How can we process all of this and begin to heal? How can we find the light again?
I have no new insights to share. I go back to the idea of taking right action and then working to calm the anxiety that builds between news cycles.
Right action can mean many things. Decide what you want to do and work towards positive change. Even tiny steps make a big difference. And then let’s focus on healing the body. As anxiety climbs, the effect on the body is noticeable. Now, more than ever, we need to practice yoga.
And that, my friends, is why I will continue to teach. I know and believe that yoga offers tools that can help us. One class doesn't fix a lifetime of anxiety, but returning to the mat on a consistent basis will make a difference. Please commit to your practice, whether that is in class with me or with another yoga teacher. Practicing yoga gives you the opportunity to find the compassion in yourself, both for yourself and for others as well. In these times of unprecedented national and global trauma, we need compassion now more than ever.
Our practice this month will focus on the light - the light within us and the light that we can share with others.
As a harbinger of hope, Gorman’s poem ends with the following lines:
“When day comes, we step out of the shade,
Aflame and unafraid.
The new dawn blooms as we free it,
For there is always light,
If only we’re brave enough to see it,
If only we’re brave enough to be it.”
Let’s be brave enough to be that light. Please join me on your mat as we work our way out of the darkness together.
Love, always love,
Nina G
Siren Song
Dear Friends,
I love to read mythology. The Sirens of the Odyssey are interesting creatures. They are half woman/half bird and their beautiful song can drive a man to madness. They lure sailors to their certain death along a rocky channel. Odysseus decides that he needs to hear their music, so he commands his crew to plug their ears with wax and says “tie me to the mast”. His intention is to sail through the channel and hear the Siren song without sending his ship to its certain destruction.
It works.
Odysseus and his crew have quite the adventure. His crewmates make sure that he is securely fastened to the mast. They are deaf to the sounds around them and Odysseus can hear the sweet music without endangering the ship.
There are lots of modern sirens singing around us today - many distractions and stealers of our time. The world is still dealing with the issues of the pandemic and conflict in Ukraine. The US is still dealing with violence and injustice across our country. The list goes on and on. It requires a tremendous effort to process all of this news on a daily basis.
It tires me out.
It can be so easy to skip our time on the yoga mat and get lost in the siren song of news and happenings around us.
But we know that we will feel better if we practice yoga.
Time spent on our mats gives us the opportunity to check in with the body and the nervous system. We show up for ourselves to learn more about ourselves.
So my command is ‘tie me to my yoga mat’. Once I’m on my mat, I can still hear the music, but I know that I can sail safely through the dangerous waters.
And it is quite the adventure.
Please join me on your mat.
Love,
Nina G
I’m Keeping Track of Time…
Dear Friends,
One of the things that I say in almost every class as we head into savasana is: “Rest here. I’m keeping track of time, and I’ll let you know when it’s time to move again.” Why do I say that? Because my students and I have an unspoken agreement that I’ll end our class on time. I want you to be able to relax completely in savasana, knowing that you’ll be ready for the rest of your day when the class is over. No rushing, no hurrying, no feeling like you’re late.
That rest at the end of our practice is the most important part of what we do in class. We spend the entire class working towards that pose. We start with awareness, we turn our attention to the breath, we stretch, and we move. We breathe – we might take 3, 4, or 5 breaths in a pose. We might even add a count to the inhales and exhales, but we don’t rush between the poses.
This week in our classes, we will luxuriate in the time. No hurry. No need to feel rushed. We’ll do everything we need to and then we’ll rest and let all of the good stuff become a part of us. Once all of that is integrated, and when my timepiece says it’s time, we’ll make that transition from our yoga mats to the rest of our day.
There’s a ‘self-service’ sundial in the park behind my house (see photo above). If I stand on the appropriate tile on a sunny day, I can see what time it is (more or less). I took this photo with the camera on my phone on Friday morning. According to the sundial, it was approximately 9 am. Kinda cool.
When I downloaded the photo to add it to this newsletter, the information about the photo told me that it was taken at 9:05 am. The clock in my phone/camera was more precise. It offered more information, but told me the same thing. It was approximately 9 am.
There are times when we need to know the accuracy of the time to the nearest fraction of a second (think Olympic time trials). I’m thankful that we have the tools to do that. I use an accurate time device when I’m teaching class so that I can start and end class on time.
There are many other times when using a sundial serves us just fine.
Those are the times when I’m not rushing on my yoga mat.
Please join me.
Love,
Nina G
News & Notes - May, 2022
Hello my friends!
I hope that you had a lovely weekend. Just a few updates for this month.
1. There's a new chair yoga video available for you - Smoothing Out the Rough Edges. We use our breath to bring a greater sense of calm to the nervous system. Give it a try!
2. There will be no classes on Memorial Day, Monday, May 30. Enjoy the long weekend!
3. The forsythia have been slow to bloom this spring, but they are riotous now! Perhaps there are some where you are? If yes, go out and enjoy them. If no, here's a photo of some bushes near me.
I found a cool poem about forsythia as well...
“What must it feel like
after months of existing
as bare brown sticks,
all reasonable hope
of blossoming lost,
to suddenly, one warm
April morning, burst
into wild yellow song,
hundreds of tiny prayer
flags rippling in the still-
cold wind, the only flash
of color in the dull yard,
these small scraps of light,
something we might
hold on to.”
Let's not lose hope of blossoming despite delays.
Please join me on your mat.
Love,
Nina G
What’s In Your Pocket?
Hello friends,
I always like to wear clothes with pockets. I think we all do! Not a lot of yoga pants have pockets, but I keep looking for more. (NB - My daughter's wedding dress had pockets - that's what sold her!) My pockets might have a tissue, a piece of candy, a grocery list, or maybe a penny.
The cool thing about pockets is that when you buy a new pair of pants or a dress or a sweater or jacket, YOU are the one that puts the stuff in the pockets! My pockets - my treasure. How much fun it is to find a five dollar bill inside a pocket. More often than not though, it's the lucky penny that I found on the sidewalk.
Another important thing to note about pockets is that you should probably empty them before putting that garment in the washing machine. My husband is quite tired of finding the single tissue that was in my pocket now wrapped around a whole load of laundry. Five dollar bills and lucky pennies hold up just fine in the washer though!
I found another poem by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer this week (the same poet as last week's tulip poem). It is charming and it mentions pockets. Take a moment to enjoy it and I'll meet you when you've finished reading!
“Hope has holes
in its pockets.
It leaves little
crumb trails
so that we,
when anxious,
can follow it.
Hope’s secret:
it doesn’t know
the destination –
it knows only
that all roads
begin with one
foot in front
of the other.”
I'm glad that Hope's pockets have holes in them. Let's look for those little crumb trails of hope this week. And when we follow them and pick them up and put them in our pockets, let's hold on to them. The next time you reach your hand into your pocket, you'll find a treasure. Hold onto it. Keep it in your pocket forever.
Crumbs of hope hold up just fine in the washing machine.
Please join me on your mat.
With love and hope,
Nina G
The Kindness of Tulips
“Kindness
Consider the tulip,
how long ago
someone’s hands planted a bulb
and gave to this place
a living scrap of beauty,
how it rises every spring
out of the same soil,
which is, of course,
not at all the same soil,
but new.
Consider the six red petals,
the yellow at the center,
the soft green rubber of the stem,
how it bows to the world.
How, the longer you sit beside the tulip,
the more you want to bow, too.
It is this way with kindness:
someone plants in someone else
a bit of beauty –a kind word, perhaps, or a touch,
the gift of their time or their smile.
And years later, in that inner soil,
that beauty emerges again,
pushing aside the dead leaves,
insisting on loveliness,
a celebration of the one who planted it,
the one who perceives it, and
the fertile place where it has grown.”
Dear Friends,
It’s tulip season and this poem just spoke to me. I wanted to share it with you.
We are intricately connected to each other and to the earth. As the tulips begin to peek through the soil, we start our transition into spring and summer. Our practice this week will ground us and help us to welcome Spring.
Thank you for all of the kindness that you plant in this world.
Love & kindness,
Nina G
BINGO!
Hi friends,
To those of you that are celebrating Easter or Passover this weekend, I hope that you were able to relax, recharge, and focus on the ritual. There is a noticeable change in energy when schedules and routines are disrupted. When we return to our ‘regularly scheduled programming’ we have a fresh perspective.
My daughter and son-in-law were at my home for the weekend (they usually attend my Wednesday night Zoom yoga class.) We were sitting around the kitchen table after lunch on Saturday and I joked that they should write my weekly newsletter for me. They immediately responded with a list of common words/phrases/activities from my Wednesday night class. A BINGO card, if you will.
It made me laugh to hear their take on what I always say - interesting to hear their perspective. Some things I say in all my classes, some are unique to Wednesday night. All are accurate! Here are a few of their observations...
It’s Wednesday night – this one is a reminder that we don’t need to overdo ANYTHING. Our yoga class should be a time to shift away from the constant go, go, go, and find a time to restore the body’s energy. We have permission not to push so hard. It’s Wednesday night...just relax!
Don’t pry – I say this when we are in a seated twist. I want to keep our spine and our sacroiliac joint safe and healthy. I say it on Wednesday night but also on Monday, Tuesday, etc. It’s a valid instruction and it bears repeating! Don’t force anything in yoga.
Be fussy – I always encourage this as we set up for our final relaxation pose. In a virtual yoga class, I can’t see your set up. If we were in person, I would be able to see your bodies resting in savasana and offer suggestions for deeper relaxation. I’d be fussy about it. Since I’m not there, it’s your job to be fussy and allow yourself to relax.
Tadasana Blanket – We use folded blankets a lot on Wednesday night. They help to support us as we rest. I have spent HOURS learning how to fold blankets properly for yoga. One fold that we use quite often is the TADASANA fold – a simple fold that gives you a long, thin, support. If you take Wednesday night yoga with me, you know how to fold it.
Zoom/technology Problems – Yep, even after two years of teaching on Zoom, there are still issues. When I first started on Zoom and something weird happened, it really rattled me. I’m getting better at taking it in stride now. Still have some learning to do...
Let the Glitter Settle – This is a classic that I say after we are resting in stillness (cf. March 20 newsletter). We move again slowly and try not to disturb the sense of calm and then we sit and allow any disturbance to settle.
BINGO! Those are some of the squares on their yoga card. I’m sure there are lots more. I'm just glad that we all can practice yoga together.
Love,
Nina G
Food, Fine Art & Yoga
Hi friends,
I love to cook and bake. It makes me so happy to be in my kitchen (especially on a rainy and miserable day like Saturday) and to make food to share with others. I get so excited when I make something that tastes good and is made from ingredients that I can identify. That feeling definitely nourishes my soul. My hope is that whatever I share with my friends/family nourishes their bodies and their souls as well.
I found this great quote by food writer Michael Pollan.
“Food is not just fuel. Food is about family, food is about community, food is about identity. And we nourish all those things when we eat well. ”
I think it’s fair to say that great art does that too. While I’m not an artist or a musician, walking through a museum or listening to good music nourishes me. The same thing happens when I read a great book or poem. I can get the energy that I need or I might find a sense of calm. It fuels me and it also connects me. I find a connection to a larger community. I know that there’s something bigger than just me out there.
To reframe Pollan’s quote…Fine art is not just fuel. Fine art is about family, fine art is about community, fine art is about identity. And we nourish all those things when we share fine art.
It’s kind of neat how that works.
And what about our yoga? (You knew I was going to go there!)
The physical part is obvious. We can stretch and move muscles in a way that isn’t part of our everyday routine. We can bring consciousness to our motion and learn more about our selves. Yoga can energize us and it can calm us. It fuels the body.
Yoga is also about community and connection. In the ‘before times’, when we used to practice together, we’d meet and catch up and then come into the stillness of the practice. We were sharing the same space, the same energy, and the same sense of connection to something greater than ourselves.
As we come to the second anniversary of Zoom yoga, I’ve been thinking about how our yoga practice has changed since March of 2020. Yes, there was a steep learning curve and we figured it out. We stretched and moved and found the peace in the silence, but there was a piece missing, the sense of community.
But those of you that persevered and kept coming back to class helped to recreate that sense of community. Those of you that have taken the time to read this (sometimes lengthy!) newsletter and send a reply have helped to recreate that sense of community as well. Even though we are separate and only able to connect in these different ways, your attention and your energy have made a difference. You have nourished me. Thank you. I hope that you feel nourished as well.
One last time with Pollan’s quote… Practicing yoga is not just fuel. Yoga is about family, yoga is about community, yoga is about identity. And we nourish all those things when we practice yoga.
Nourishing love,
Nina G
Let the Glitter Settle
Hi friends,
Here we are at the Spring Solstice. Our yoga practices this month have been preparing us for the longer days and increased warmth as we move from winter into spring. We are also at the two-year mark of pandemic living. Who knew?
If you’ve ever taken a restorative yoga class with me, or even just a yoga class with a restorative yoga pose in it, you’ve heard me say, “Let the glitter settle.” I usually say it when we’re transitioning from a pose in stillness. When we move from a pose that we’ve held in silence for a while, we move mindfully and slowly and then we sit for a few moments. The calm that we created in our stillness gets disrupted a bit, much like a snow globe full of glitter. Sitting still, letting the glitter settle, is a good way to regain that sense of calm before moving into another pose.
After two plus years of pandemic living, it feels to me like we're in the middle of a snow globe blizzard. Even as we hope to move out of our pandemic life, we have a conflict brewing on the edge of Europe. We move from one global trauma to the next with no space – no transition – in between. Will the glitter get a chance to settle?
I hope so. We can’t live in a constant state of anxiety – it doesn’t serve anyone, especially our own bodies. But we can’t just sit in a room and practice yoga and hope that all of the world’s problems will go away. We need to take right action to do what we can to fix problems larger than ourselves, and then we must also take care of ourselves.
Take right action – that means different things to everyone. In the case of the conflict in Ukraine, you may want to make a donation to an aid group. You may want to reach out to your elected officials and offer your voice. Do what is right for you. You are the only person who knows what that means. But if you take the time to do something positive, you may feel better.
And then come back to your mat. This is where we can care for ourselves. On the mat is where we can find those glimpses of calm and hope that can anchor us as our anxiety builds with each news report. This is why we practice. We return to our mats and we know that we can stretch and move and use our breath to change the way we feel. Those simple tools – the breath and movement – are all we need.
Yes, we seem to be trapped in a snow globe that’s being shaken again and again and again. While we can’t stop the shaking in the world around us, we can find a way to let the glitter settle within us.
Join me on your mat.
Love,
Nina G
P.S. Regarding right action: I am always amazed and impressed by the work of World Central Kitchen, an organization run by Chef José Andrés. My right action this week has been to send a donation to them. If you aren’t familiar with their work, check them out here.
In Like a Lion?
Hello dear friends,
Spring is in the air! We are experiencing warmer weather this weekend - it’s great to get outside and move around. While we all know that March weather can be crazy here in Illinois, the warmer temps offer us some hope for the blossoms of springtime.
Seen in the spruce forest at the arboretum.
We visited the arboretum again this week. We came upon the display above while walking through the spruce forest. I thought it was a positive use for the pinecones. It was a great day to be outside. A little too early to see any green shoots or buds, but you know that it’s just beneath the surface. You can really feel it. Spring is waiting to arrive.
What’s happening outside correlates with what’s happening inside our bodies as well. We are waking up the body to the new energy that’s out there – more sunshine, more warmth, more opportunity for movement. Don’t you feel that lift in spirits when the sun is out?
Sometimes it feels like it’s two steps forward and one step back (snow is expected here on Monday…), but eventually we will make our way out of winter and experience new growth and longer days.
How can our yoga practice serve us in this transition between the seasons? Well, we will be paying attention to our connection to the earth, grounding the body and re-rooting ourselves. We build our resilience so that we’re ready when the warmer winds blow. We’re grounded and secure. We will also work with simple flow sequences, bringing fluid motion into our joints and reducing the stiffness that comes with the cold or stillness.
So that’s the plan. Connection and fluid movement to help us feel rejuvenated and ready for the challenges ahead.
Please join me on your mat.
Love,
Nina G
Tiny Acts
“Tesser well. ”
Hello dear friends,
One of my favorite books in grade school was A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle. It was my first exposure to time travel, a strong female protagonist, and fantasy worlds of the imagination. I still have a copy on my shelf and I still pick it up and browse through my favorite passages.
If you haven’t read it or don’t remember it, time travel in the book is done via tesseract – it’s described as a wrinkle in the fabric of time. Meg Murry (our protagonist) has to save the universe from incredible evil. She’s just an awkward high school student. She’s smart but she doesn’t have any superpowers. And yet she’s the only one that can save the world. Unfortunately, tesseract travel isn’t easy for her.
When I first read this book, Meg’s character really resonated with me. How could she possibly be the one to save the planet from unspeakable evil? She was just one person and the job was just too big. But a few other characters in the story rallied to her support and - spoiler alert – LOVE CONQUERED EVIL.
So, without a lot of fanfare or special powers, Meg saves the universe. The book gave me hope. I wanted to believe that I could do the same.
Time passed, things got busier, the world got harder. How can I possibly fix everything? But deep inside, I still have that nugget of hope. 10-year-old me still believes that I can change the world.
About 10 years after A Wrinkle in Time was published, L’Engle published her writing journals. This quote was inside:
“I do not think that it is naïve to think that it is the tiny, particular acts of love and joy which are going to swing the balance.”
It seems to me that L’Engle wrote Wrinkle knowing that the task at hand is hard, knowing that we are but mere humans, knowing that the evil is out there and that we are the only source of conquering it. But she still thought that we could. Tiny acts will move us forward.
So that’s the yoga that I’ll be teaching this week. Practicing yoga is a tiny act of love and kindness. We are kind to ourselves and then the positive effects of our practice ripple out into the community and the world around us.
We are a small, yet mighty group. We don’t have superpowers, but we can help each other. I do believe that we can swing the balance.
Join me on your mat.
Nina G
Back to Yoga
“Our lives, just as they are, plain and simple, are filled with miracles. Nothing special, nothing holy; or rather, everything special, everything holy.”
Hello dear friends,
I’m back in Illinois and ready to teach some more yoga!
We’ll follow our usual schedule this week and, since Valentine’s Day is tomorrow, we’ll bring our focus to our heart.
Nothing too special, just our regular yoga classes.
But because we are practicing together, I know it will be special and holy.
I look forward to seeing you again.
Love, love,
Nina G
Daily Mindfulness & Miracles
“Just be. Just being in the moment in this place is the deepest practice of meditation.”
Hello my friends,
This week we learned that the Vietnamese monk and peace activist Thich Nhat Hanh died. Thich Nhat Hanh’s key teaching is that, through mindfulness, we can learn to live happily in the present moment. Being in the present moment is the only way to cultivate peace both in one’s self and in the world.
Thich Nhat Hanh taught me about mindfulness and meditation through his many publications. His approach to meditation was eye-opening for me.
I have a few of Hanh’s books and I’ve borrowed many of them from the library. One of my favorites on my shelf is a little book called Mindful Movements: Ten Exercises for Well-Being. It has childlike illustrations and is a series of 10 easy movements that we tie to our breath. If you’ve been practicing yoga with me for a while, chances are good that we’ve done this sequence together. It's a simple but powerful practice. In the introduction to this book he says "If we bring mindfulness into every aspect of our life, we cannot help but experience life's miracles."
His teaching is accessible. We can all practice mindfulness just by doing what we do in our daily routine. We can be mindful as we walk outside, chop onions, or even drink our morning coffee. We don’t have to sit on a cushion and meditate or navel gaze for hours on end. No, mindfulness should be an integral part of our everyday lives. By actively working towards being more mindful, we can create a more peaceful environment around us. As more of us work together in this way, that's when we experience the miracles.
Such a powerful concept!
Join me on your mat as we practice being in the moment.
Love and love,
Nina G
Transformation
“Take time to celebrate the quiet miracles that seek no attention.
Be consoled in the secret symmetry of your soul.
May you experience each day as a sacred gift woven around the heart of wonder.”
Dear Friends,
When I step on my yoga mat in the morning, I’m just waking up. Yoga in the morning helps to bring movement back into my body, making me more fluid and flexible. My mind wakes up and I’m ready to begin my day. I start with small movements and expand into my practice with my breath and my motion. Yoga prepares me for my day ahead.
If I step on the mat in the afternoon, it’s usually because I’m out of sorts. Something is off mentally or emotionally (I did a lot more afternoon yoga when I worked outside the home!) In this case, I’m looking for yoga to help me smooth out the edges and bring me to a sense of equilibrium. I often start big here, trying to release the tension or the issue that has a hold on me and then I can slow things down. Yoga brings me back to ‘normal’.
When I step on my mat in the evening, I’m looking to release the busy-ness of the day and change gears to allow my body to rest and restore. I let go of the tension and welcome in the softness that yoga offers. Yoga allows me to release the stressors of the day and renew.
All of this is yoga.
Yoga is transformational. It changes us. Remember the first time you fell in love with yoga? It felt magical to me.
But those changes aren't magic. There’s lots of science behind what we do. We are training our nervous systems to relax by managing the breath and by combining that breath with our mindful movements.
As we continue to practice, we begin to know and understand the changes. We can expect that release of tension or that increase in energy because we've been here before. And then we return and do it all over again.
That's how the transformation begins...in our regular practice. Noticing the small changes that occur while we're on our mat.
Join me.
Nina G
So Many Lights!
Hello Dear Friends,
Happy New Year!
I had a splendid time these past two weeks - relaxing and visiting and cooking and shopping and seeing lots of lights. Just driving around the neighborhood is a spectacular event. So many lights!
We ended up going to many different lights shows and I probably took a hundred photos all told, but not a single one conveys the experience. It was dark outside. It was cold. On nights like that, I’m usually found huddled in my chair in the living room knitting something warm. Instead, I was outside, bundled up in many layers. I really wanted to see these lights. I paid money to see the lights!
And it was totally worth it.
Some of the light displays that we saw were just sublime. No soundtrack, just silence and beauty. Others were over the top commercial - reindeer and Santa and Christmas trees flashing in time to music. It didn’t matter to me. I liked them all.
Those lights poked holes through the darkness. They got me out of my chair and into the outdoors. They gave me glimpses of hope for tomorrow.
And maybe tomorrow will be sublimely beautiful and calm or maybe it will be raucous and noisy but whatever it is, I know it will have more light.
There’s light in the silence and calm. There’s light in the noise and activity. In our practice this month we will explore all of those opportunities to find the light.
With light and love,
Nina G
(photos by N Sigmund)