Anxious Yogi

15/04/2021

At the end of my recent yoga teacher’s training...
..we were asked to reflect on 5 things we had learned.

This was the first thought that came to mind during our reflection time. It felt powerful as I thought it. Even more true as I wrote it down. It deserves to be heard.

Did you know that Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) research revealed that 64% of adults experienced one ACE in their childhood and 40% faced two or more?

It’s true. AND it’s not far-fetched that many who come to a yoga practice, consciously or unconsciously, come to it for its ability to heal and create unity between mind and body, the past and the present.

What would be the result if every child in the world was taught mindfulness, developed resilience, and learned ways to deal with the sometimes harsh realities of life.

That is the mission of Challenge to Change, Inc.

This Dalai Lama saying is on the wall of the entryway to their studio and prominent in their books and materials.

“If every 8 year old in the world is taught meditation, we will eliminate violence from the world within one generation.” - Dalai Lama

Whatever your reasons for coming to yoga, be a radiant example to others and especially children. They need skills to cope, self-regulate, and the resiliency to grow up without being wounded adults!

As an adult there are ways to heal those wounds with yoga and meditation.

Follow me on I n Instagram or like this page for more on yoga, ACES, and healing childhood wounds.

12/04/2021

I added another certification to my...
..yoga certifications this weekend.

I completed a 95-hour Children Yoga Teacher’s Training with Challenge to Change in Dubuque.

Thanks to Amy Jenkins who taught the program.
Melissa Hyde and Joni Puffett who apprenticed taught the program.
Thanks to Brittany, Beth, Cristina, and Laia who participated in the program with me.

Special thanks to for starting Challenge to Change Inc. and this program. She and her organization continue to grow and grow!

16/10/2020

I had reached 37 straight days...
..of meditation and then I was back to 1.

Consistency and persistence can be useful and admirable attributes. When you aren’t consistent or fail to meet a goal, compassion and forgiveness are needed to not let that lack turn into a regret.

This is something I’ve always struggled with. This morning though, I simply did my meditation and I started a new streak.

Now I chose to do the same work with my writing. I’ve been reaching for a point where my writing is part of my practice and I can be as compassionate and forgiving when I miss days of writing.

My Sadhana, my practice, is the way I reach my peace.

13/10/2020

Discipline. Dedication.

Whatever the attribute that insists on my meditating as often as I can, I am grateful for it. I know I’m not so advanced to meditate daily without technology involved in some way.

Whether it is my Muse or...
..my Inner Balance bio-feedback device...
..I use technology to provide me with feedback on whether I truly am calm or whether I truly am feeling gratitude during my heart breathing.

Why, you might ask?

I’ve dealt with anxiety and depression my whole life. I know for sure that both anxiety and depression began effecting me starting in sixth grade at the age of 11.

Prior to that, I’d been a precocious and maybe even obnoxious child with little fear. I was always the teacher’s pet. I always wanted to answer questions first. I had no fear climbing trees even after falling out of them. I felt safe and liked at school.

I was first bullied in sixth grade. I remember walking home alone with books in hand, having rocks thrown at me. More often it was taunting and attempts to trip me. (There were no backpacks then, so you carried your books in your actual arms. So tripping would result in books scattered on the sidewalk or grass.)

The worst day was when Mary Childs, a girl, threatened in class in front of the teacher to beat me up. I countered, “you wouldn’t hit a guy with glasses would you.” Her reply, “Take them off!” (The teacher neither said nor did anything. There were no mandatory rules for how to deal with misconduct in schools.)

The anxiety and later depression just intensified through the years. I coped with it in the way most males do.

I ignored it. I worked extra hard, often working long hours. I made light of it. I pushed it out of my mind.

I suffered through it!

Basically, due to anxiety or depression, I never really trusted my brain to be truthful in telling me if I was happy, sad, anxious, or calm.

So, I will continue to use the technology to not only track my consistency, but to help me confirm my state of mind and heart.

Besides, how else would I know I’ve completed 900 sessions.

04/10/2020

Yoga is about the practice, the sadhana...
..and my most consistent practices are...
..dhyana, meditation, and pranayama, breath work.

During my 300 hour training, Vrati, introduced us to a concept of devoted practice. An example would be counting your breathes during meditation with the goal of consciously breathing a million breathes. Or two million. Or more.

Vrati created the counter shown here. Mine shows that after today’s practice, I’ve consciously breathed and counted 69,000 breathes. That’s a long way from a million.

In a way it’s humbling. In a way it builds the strength of your practice and lets you remain unattached to the outcome.

The old saying that it is...
..about the journey, not the destination..
..has never been more clear for me.

Comment below about some devoted practice you have?

Breathing. Asana. Writing. Drawing. Cooking. Playing a video game.

Whatever it is. Share it in the comments below.

10/08/2020

So, my yoga and meditation practice has been consistent during the pandemic. This was from a few weeks ago.

I crossed a thresholds of sorts by crossing 1,000,000 Muse points. That’s simply a measure of how much time my mind has been neutral or calm while meditating with my Muse headband.

In a way, it’s also a measure of consistency and dedication to my practice.

Either way, I consider it a milestone, an accomplishment, a win!

Do you have a win, accomplishment, or milestone you’ve reached in any part of your life? Comment below.

@ Dubuque, Iowa

02/07/2020

Sadhana - Daily Practice
For those who practice yoga, Sadhana is their daily ritual, the roots of their practice. To have a daily practice in your home, is a more sustainable way to practice and grow your yoga.
The word Sadhana literally translated is a “means of accomplishing something.” The key for each yogi is to determine what that “something” is for them.
B.K.S. Iyengar defines sadhana in this way. “Sādhanā is a discipline undertaken in the pursuit of a goal.”
So what is your goal? Do you hope to gain peace, calm, contentment, strong and pliable muscles, healthy joints, better sleep, more energy, or wisdom?
All of those are worthy goals and all achievable through a daily practice.
Meditation makes up half of my sadhana. As you can see from my pics, June was a good month for my meditation practice. I only missed one day and I finished June with a 16 day meditation streak.
As a result, I was more productive in my writing, more calm when faced with challenges, and generally had a very good month. I plan to keep it up in July.
Comment below if you have a regular practice of yoga, meditation, exercise, running, or something else. Tell me in the comments what works for you. DM with questions.
@ Dubuque, Iowa

03/01/2020

Do you meditate? Do you meditate daily? Did you set an intention to be more mindful during 2020? After finishing my 300 yoga teacher training I stopped my daily meditation practice. I didn’t stop being mindful and I would steal a quick moment here or there to breath and center. I set an intention of meditating daily and I’m using my Muse app to track and keep me accountable. Tell me below about your meditation practice.

01/01/2020

Would you like to help yourselves and the planet with your daily meditation practice?

The Himalayan Institute is hosting a worldwide meditation to promote world peace. The meditation practice started in July and goes through July of this year. Their goal is for the cumulative minutes spent meditating by those participating to add up to 1,000,008 minutes over the time period of the practice.

How can you help? If you are meditating regulary, semi-regularly, or even just once this year, you can sign up and log the time you meditate and add your minutes of meditation to the worldwide totals. Currently 7,100 participants have meditated 292,509 minutes. (Yes, we have a long way to go!) If you would like to help contribute to this effort, follow the link below.

Join the practice. Change the world. YLM is an unprecedented global group meditation, undertaken to heal collective consciousness.

12/12/2019

A representation of Shiva with 8 limbs. A nice way to illustrate the 8 limbs of yoga. There are plenty of pages and teachers who can teach, asana, the poses or postures of yoga. I have always been drawn to the other 7 limbs and spend more time in the study of those than the poses and flows. Although, they do make for great pictures. I thought the best way to start the new look of this page would be to provide something different. So starting with the 8 limbs, I will provide knowledge, definitions, and insights into the entirety of yoga with an occasional emphasis on how you can heal childhood wounds, trauma, and other illnesses with the practice of yoga. Stay tuned.
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The 8 Limbs of Yoga are:
1. Yamas, ethical standards
2. Niyamas, constraints or self-discipline
3. Asanas, the poses
4. Pranayama, breath practice
5. Pratyahara , sensory withdrawal
6. Dharana, concentration, single point of focus
7. Dhyana, meditation
8. Samadhi, pure consciousness, the ultimate goal (for some yogis)
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02/11/2019

Opportunities to practice with me this month at Body and Soul. Learn how to use yoga and breathing to alleviate anxiety and depression.

Sunday, November 3rd, 4:00-5:00 pm
Sunday, November 10th, 4:00-5:00 pm
Sunday, November 24th, 4:00-5:00 pm

Sunday, November 15-17, is the Midwest Yoga and Oneness Festival at the Grand River Conference Center. Don’t miss out this premiere event and the wonderful teachers coming to Dubuque.