The missing piece in the Fort Hood incident

Time is ticking, lists have been made and refrigerators are getting full to receive the guest for the Thanksgiving celebration.

Those who will be cooking and cleaning will be worry about who will be attending dinner and if the old feuds will resurface again. For the most part the food will be excellent and there will be some ready to enjoy the black Friday as a "consuming celebration."

Like any other year, some families will be missing a love one and others still in disbelieve after loosing someone close in a violent act, whether is on the street, fighting the war far away or by the hand of one of their own.

So much ink has been used in trying to understand what happened in Fort Hood. What is missing is the reflection that each one of us needs to make regarding our loyalties, sense of righteousness and beliefs.

We can use this time while being among our relatives to see a reflection of who we are and how we react to events. There is Louis who decide to become a Hare Krishna follower, and grandpa Samuel who still is a devoted Jewish and my aunt Lara who prays the rosary every week on her knees even though she is 70!
All these people think their belief is the right one. Fortunately for one dinner, they are able to eat with someone that might think differently and be at peace with that.

My favorite part of the Thanksgiving celebration is that it does not require a religious or political affiliation, it is time to come together and be thankful for all we have and sometimes for things we lost. It is time to remember that this land is not ours and was taken in a violent way and we should honor those cultures that though we don't comprehend, have still so much to teach us.

We should have more of these dinners to move beyond our beliefs, and see that though they seem different and everyone has the right to express their opinion, in the fundamentals they are not that much different. Only by tolerance and keeping an open mind we will be able to live in peace in our inner circle and have hope for the matters of the planet.
At the end of the day, whether they are right or wrong, it really doesn't matter because, the fundamental principle of creation in this plane is not subjected by our puerile beliefs.
The hope is that in every household in the US, this thanksgiving will be a time to get together and to practice tolerance and kindness.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Rocio Morales

Esher Vexler and Juan Anguiano at the Texas Yoga Retreat

As a yoga teacher I know there are some classes that you have to plan very carefully to give the student the opportunity to receive all the benefits. One of the biggest challenge is partner yoga; not because is hard, or students can injure themselves, no, that is not the issue. The issue is that is so easy to become a loud, unfocused class.

Yoga doesn't really allows for social interaction, you keep your personal space, listen carefully to the instructions and at the end you feel refresh and renew.
In partner yoga all those rules are gone and you enjoy interacting with others.

Last week at the Yoga for Texas Retreat I had the opportunity to enjoy a partner yoga class led by the oldest teacher in Texas: Esther Vexler.
She came from San Antonio. Esther is 92 years old, with a lovely presence and kind energy.
My partner was a 65 years old lovely former dancer and yoga teacher. Ria was very flexible and we were able to do all of the poses.

As expected the class was a bit distracting but full of joy. We did tree poses, triangle, back-bends, forward bends with a partner. Miss Vexler was very patient and we had to pay attention to understand the pose we were about to do.
There were lots of laughs and bodies projected to the floor without injuries. Esther did her best keeping us engaged and remind us to appreciate the trust of our partner .
Without a doubt, it was a fun experience!

On another class, Juan Anguiano gave directions so we could had a closer and experiential look at Mula bhanda. He looks like 20 though he told me he is in his mid thirties.
Juan gave us different exercises to start feeling the lifting of the pelvic floor and how that sensation can be handle in other poses like triangle, warrior pose or cross legged pose.
Unfortunately the time didn't allow to go deeper into the meaning of the bandhas in a yoga practice.
By the end everyone was able to feel the lifting and support of the root lock.

As for the organization of the Texas Yoga Retreat, I have to say that they were very attentive of our needs and participants' comments.
Barsana Dham is a beautiful and quiet place that allows people to focus and enjoy the retreat, the food was great!
Some of us even got some beautiful kurtas for an amazing price. One day the lady form the gift shop showed us how to wrap around a Sari.

At the end I came back home through a pouring rain but with a big smile and appreciation for having renew energies and have met very interesting people.

Thank you!

Class with Robert Boustany

The 3 hours class I attended at the Texas Yoga Retreat had a long title " Moving deeper into hips & legs, a technically deeper approach toward forward & back-bends." The teacher was Robert Boustany.

Boustany's 40 years of yoga practice has taken form in his own style called Pralaya Yoga. I will explore this concept further in the January issue of Yoga Sanga.

Robert has studied very closely not only the anatomy of the human body but how different muscles that apparently have nothing in common can be used to strengthen and release two different areas.

With a background in Physics, he gives special attention to alignment and lengthening of the spine, not for the sake of it but as a way to increase energy and strength. He told us "strength and flexibility come together, therefore working with the spine is a must"

Boustany asked us to explore having the arm lifted and inclining the head away from that arm to notice how the head and arm can work to release the neck.
He also showed us how to do an abdominal work and then feel how the quadriceps are connected with them . "Strengthening the abs lengthens the quadriceps" he added.

"What is a stretch? Proper relaxation and contraction of the muscles" Robert told us.

He recommends to be present not only when we practice yoga but at all times, living in the past or the future can make an impression in the way our bodies move.
"If we learn to align the spine, if the spine is long, a surge of vitality will be reflected in all our organs" Boustany commented

"Alignment is uniform pressure in the joints. Yoga gives temporary relief from the insanity of the mind." Robert recommends to be mindful of our bodies, "muscles doesn't know how old you are, but the mind can freak you out!" he mentioned.

Being mindful of your body will help to avoid injuries. "The pose is over when the muscle cannot support itself" he added at the end of the class.

When we finished that class we had a feeling of a deep stretch in the hips, abs and quadriceps plus very interesting reflections to think about.

Shanti,

Rocio

Richard Miller and iRest

What a weekend! It has been intense in terms of all the great experiences and the yogis and yoginis I had the opportunity to interact with.

Let me start with last Friday and work my way through Sunday.
On Friday there was a free event at one of YogaYoga studios. The room was almost full and everyone was ready to listen and meet Richard Miller Ph.D.

Dr. Miller is author of Yoga Nidra: The Meditative Heart of Yoga; he is a clinical psychologist and contemporary spiritual teacher of non-dualism. Richard Miller is the founding president of the Center of Timeless Being, co-founder and CO-president of the Institute for Spirituality and Psychology, and co-founder of the International Association of Yoga Therapy.

He told us about his first encounter with yoga back in 1970. To his surprise, (he was expecting an active class) his first class was a Yoga Nidra class. From that class he found a mentor that guided him into yoga and psychotherapy. During those years he even taught some classes for Bikram for a couple of years.
During his presentation, Dr. Miller said “Yoga is knowing feelingly and exponentially that what I see is part of me, it awakens the 7 senses and moves us from the illusion of separation”

He has come to understand that all the practices are skillful means to explore the mind. Miller had a realization after being able to have his foot behind his head that “I wasn’t any better than anyone just for doing that.” At that moment he decided to become a witness in presence.

The difference between Yoga Nidra and iRest is that we use a more western language and approach so the practice is available to everyone. Dr. Miller said that in India the practice of YogaNidra seems a little bit like an imposition in terms of the symbols this practice use. He let the student decide which symbols to use and explore his own space.

Dr. Miller started applying it to post traumatic stress disorder patients; “ the military wanted to have a clear and simple way to use it,” he ads. The result was the title of Integrative restoration (iRest)
As for what he expects to see in the future of Yoga, Dr. Miller wishes that Meditation will become more prevalent in the studios so we can have a better understanding of the mind. “Violence only arises as a sense of separation,” he concluded.

To learn more about the Center of Timeless Being and Integrative Restoration iRest Yoga Nidra programs please visit CTB's website: www.nondual.com.

The practice of gratitude

November is finally here!

Regardless of the economical challenges that every family have felt during the recession I think we still have a lot to be grateful for.
Some say that this crisis is a wake up call for the people in the US to the problems that most people in the world have suffered for generations.

There is no question that this land is rich, productive and abundant to the point that as a culture we have wasted many resources. Nevertheless, the positive side of any crisis is that there is always time to learn and adapt and humans are wonderful at that.

I invite you to explore a little deeper the concept of gratitude and hopefully by the end of this blog you will be compelled to practice it more frequently.

The dictionary mentions that gratitude is to be conscious of the benefit received. The awareness make us thankful, pleased, and glad. These positive feelings promote a sense of well-being and a desire to help others.

David DeSteno, an associate professor of psychology at Northeastern University. suggests that feeling thankful can lead to greater social good as people are more inclined to give back—and not only to the person who helped them.
DeSteno observed the behavior of two groups after one was helped by an outsider. The gratitude that this group felt might have been one of the reasons why when it came to offer assistance or raised resources for a cause they had a better response to the request than the group that didn't have any help.

At a deeper level gratitude helps us to realize all the events that need to happen in order to be the beneficiary of a "thankful moment."

Let's say tomorrow you go to the store to buy clementines (tangerines), meanwhile you wait to pay for them, you realize that having the clementines in your hands is the result of the farmer cultivating the soil in a proper way, plus the drivers that bring them to the distribution center, the store manager who assigns a fair price, the cashier who will put them carefully into your paper bag to avoid being smashed on the way home; all that so when you wash and eat them you will be happy and grateful for a great buy!

It reminds me of the Vedic God Indra, the king of the Gods whose net hangs over his palace on Mount Meru. Indra's net has a multifaceted jewel at each vertex, and each jewel is reflected in all of the other jewels as a symbol of interconnectedness in the Universe.

Our actions for small that they might seem at a certain moment, can have great repercussions in the well-being of others.

Let's practice during this month gratefulness for all the little joys in life, remember what is really important can not be bought with money...

Shanti,
Rocio