It is all a practice and a journey.

I have intentionally avoided writing about my experience with yoga teacher training. I have done this because it is such a tough, beautiful and personal journey. Not only am I learning how to teach yoga physically, spiritually and mentally, but I'm also learning how to accept the good pieces of me, be okay with the junk I carry with me, and how to walk in this world with confidence. Quite a lot to learn in an eight week program.

In eight weeks, I will learn the foundations of teaching real yoga. I will not learn all of the secrets of life in eight weeks. I will not be done learning how to be a good yoga teacher in just eight weeks. I will not know everything. That is the incredible piece of this life and journey. I will never be done learning...and that is brilliant. What I learn will help me learn more and allow me to practice and teach with greater intensity and intention.

Every breath provides us with another moment to start fresh, to begin our practice again. Yoga helps us realize this life is a practice and not a perfect. It is OK to screw up. It is OK to walk out into the world with the best intentions, mess it all up and start again in the next moment.

Ahimsa. The first Yama. Non-violence. I think of ahimsa as compassion. Compassion for myself has been one of my most frequent yoga class intentions. I am here. I am being and doing and when I forget or slip up, I can start again. I'm stronger than I think I am. I know more than I think I do. I need to trust and to remember ahimsa. We are all strong, we all know a lot and we are able to get a "do-over" in each breath.

We have all heard that you must love and care for yourself before you can honestly do so for others. This is true. Nourish self so that you can nourish the world. Community. Support. Strength and courage in each step and breath. Just be and do. One of my all time favorite quotes is "do or do not, there is no try" ~Yoda. Ahimsa. Shanti. Peace.

View in Old Town, Lansing

Putting Things in Perspective: Coal Miners, Bakers, HR & Yoga

Black History Month has me thinking about my family's history. History is important.

I have always identified most with the Polish-Catholic Dryzga side of my family. My dad's side of the family loves to have big celebrations with family and friends. Three generations bake Polish Coffee Cake and create big, beautiful gardens (Grandpa, Dad and me). We get emotional about everything, smile and are loud in most social situations. I love my family. My husband and I stopped by my Grandparents' house on the way back home to Lansing from our weekend trip to Tawas. My Grandma was a homemaker and my Grandpa worked for Dow Chemical and served in WWII. A recent TV show on geneology prompted me to ask about what my GREAT grandparents did for a living.

My Great Grandpa (Grandma's side) worked in management at a crane factory in Bay City. My Great Grandma was a homemaker and pressed clothes to make extra money for the family. My Great Grandpa (Grandpa's side) came over on a boat from Poland to Ellis Island. He was a farmer and listed his skill as a "butcher". He worked in Cleveland as a butcher for a few years before coming up to Bay City to work in the coal mines. Apparently, there were coal mines in Bay City and Auburn and Unionville! My Great Grandma was a homemaker. She also rolled cigars in small shops in Bay City. My Great Grandpa developed black lung disease and died because of it.

I'm the great grandaughter of a coal miner. Whoa. This may not sound like much, but, it means a lot to me to know exactly what my family has done and gone through so that I can live and breathe as I do today.

My mother's side is the Bissonnette family. They are French-Canadian. My Grandmother was a nurse and my Grandfather, in addition to serving in WWII and being a sharp shooter, did many odd jobs to keep the family going. He cut blocks of ice out of the bay for people's ice boxes (pre-refrigerators, we still have one at my parents' house), sold pots and pans door to door and did a lot of general handyman things. They had eight children.

My Great Grandpa (Grandpa's side) isn't someone we talk about much. What I do know is that he had alcohol problems during the Great Depression and he spent all of the family's money on his habit. He then left my Great Grandma by herself with her children. My Great Grandma worked as a nurse and ran a bakery out of her home. She baked molasses cookies, sugar cookies and bread and my Grandpa took his little red wagon and sold it door-to-door in the morning before he went off to school. The baking gene runs deep. To my knowledge, my Great Grandpa and Grandma (Grandma's side) were farmers up in Greenbush.

Because of all the things my family has done and sacrified, I'm alive. I get to have a job, live in a city and state I love, go for walks in the woods, practice yoga, grow a garden, cook and bake, spend quality time with my husband and pursue a yoga teacher certification, among many other things.

My mom's response to "what is your purpose in life" was to say that her children are her purpose in life. At the time, I didn't understand what she meant. I understand a bit more now. I'm lucky to do the things I'm doing because of the sacrifices that have been made and the gifts that have been given by my family members before me. I'm the product of farming, butchering, coal mining, ice cutting, baking, nursing and more. I'm lucky enough to have a home, to spend time with incredible family and friends, to work with people for a great local company AND get to practice and, soon, teach this awesome thing called yoga.

Yeah, I'm blessed and grateful and happy to have every breath. Life is beautiful.

Tasty Cape Cod Bran Muffins

Winter is a great time of year for healthy muffins. I love baking up a batch of pumpkin, banana, five spice squash and bran muffins. There are many unhealthy bran muffin recipes out there in the world. Butter, sugar, more butter and sugar...by the time you add the bran, they are nutritionally defunct. Enter the Recipes from a Cape Cod Kitchen.

This little cookbook was published in 1946. Recipes were written before the time of cream of something soups and short cut methods. They were even written before solid temperature gauges in ovens, as there are many vague oven temperatures such as high, moderate and low. For baking, moderate is always 350F.

 I found it at an antiques fair in Cape Cod. This bran muffin recipe is one of the few recipes in this book that I have used over and over again. I use it because it is simple, it is healthy and most of all it tastes good! Please see the picture below for the ingredient list. The average baker should have most of these ingredients in house. I really like that in a recipe. Bake at 350 for approximately 25 minutes. I hope you try it and enjoy! This muffin is a great way to welcome an easy and healthy 2012.

Yoga Ethics: Finding Safe Edges

I am an active student of life. I like to learn as much as I can. Sometimes I get lucky enough to teach what I learn. This is an opinion based on my own experience and study. I would love to hear yours.

I have been to different yoga studios. Every yoga teacher and studio does things differently. There are many beautiful styles of yoga and teaching. I would encourage most folks to try all styles and studios of yoga! Check out a slower moving Hatha class, a faster flowing Vinyasa class, a pose holding fast flowing Power class or a set series like Ashtanga or Bikram. I do believe there is one brief concept that every single yoga teacher and studio should follow.

Try to keep your students safe and teach to the least in the room.

Take this scenario. A teacher has a room where over half of the students are brand new to yoga. They want to please the teacher and try to get into the pose, or they are competing with a friend, a mat neighbor, or they simply want to see how far they can push their bodies. I know, I've been there. I have jacked up my right shoulder for a month because I wanted to do one more side plank and one more chaturanga to make my teacher happy that I was truly "reaching my edge". Part of a yoga guide's duties should be to teach modifications to the room to keep them safe. A brief mention of bringing a knee down would suffice. It is important to speak to the concept of not harming myself (ahimsa) while trying to give a posture my all. A teacher should be comfortable verbally or physically adjusting a student if they see something crazy out of whack that might hurt that student.

I am not saying yoga teachers should micro manage every posture their students are in. Not at all. What I am saying is that when a teacher has half the class dumping into their shoulders or low back while lowering through chaturanga, they should take a moment and explain the posture and explain modifications. I know great teachers that take the time to do this. It doesn't hurt the 10 year yogis to take a moment to listen to the explanation. It simply makes us all more aware of our breath, movements and intention...and isn't that the point anyhow?

When the class is in prasarita padottanasana (wide leg forward fold), and the teacher verbally suggest that folks can find their headstand if it is accessible, and a student falls out of headstand B variation of knees on triceps and knocks another student over...and then goes back into the posture with a humped back, elbows bent out to the sides, wrists twisted and dangerous head/neck placement...it is that teacher's duty to verbally or physically adjust to keep that person safe!

Likewise, students need to know that they have a right to refuse an adjustment. No, it is not okay for your teacher to physically pull you into a headstand or pincha mayurasana if you physically and mentally are not yet "there". This is especially dangerous if you have an injury they are not aware of.

Every student has a right to say no.

Some good teachers I know explain this every time they start a class. A simple "you may feel my hands on you and adjusting your postures to keep you safe or deepen you in, you can always tell me no or tell me that it is uncomfortable or painful and I will stop". While students have a responsibility to keep themselves safe, to stop when they feel pain and to not "cut themselves with a samurai sword," (as a great teacher always says)...teachers need to let students know that it is OK to say no! Teachers are in a position of power and authority and with that power and authority comes responsibility to keep students in a safe space.

It is the most ethically important thing to do...keep students as safe as possible. Teach to the least in the room to allow for modifications and adjustments. Have fun, learn, and experience but don't hack anyone apart and contribute to injury that could be prevented.

What do you think? Do yoga teachers have an ethical responsibility to keep their students safe, or, is it on the student? Are modifications and speaking to this point even necessary; can students simply "fake it 'till they make it"?

DIY Christmas: Marvelous Mocha Sugar Scrub

I'm crazy. I got it into my head this year that I was going to get crafty and make some holiday gifts that were "out of the box" for me. I typically bake cookies, bake biscotti and make jam to give away to friends and family. This year I decided to make sugar scrubs and mod podge projects. In my free time. Yes, free time between work and yoga and house upkeep. Welp, I did it! After six horrific hours finishing my Christmas shopping, I made my own sugar scrub. Sweet.

I had found jars at Hobby Lobby in West Lansing earlier in the week, but I passed them up. Bad move. I ended up checking JoAnn's, Michael's, Home Goods, World Market and Kroger's before I found the Hobby Lobby in Okemos/East Lansing. Score. Decently sized jars to put a body scrub into. Most of them look like Yankee Candle jars. I bought a few smaller ones to give to folks who might not be able to use the scrub. You never know with people's allergies and particularities! 

I washed the jars carefully. They were all "food safe", but washing is important. 

A beauty product is only as good as the ingredients you put into it. The same is true with baking, cooking and well...all of life. Put quality in, get quality out. I got most of my ingredients from Foods for Living and Meijer's.

Florida Crystals sugar and brown sugar

New England Spice Company nutmeg and cloves

Frontier organic cinnamon

Cocoa powder (standard)

Paramount espresso, finely ground

Grapeseed oil

I based my recipe off of this Mocha Spice Sugar Scrub.

I multiplied that recipe by eight because I wanted a lot of scrub to give as gifts!

Ingredients

4 cups of sugar

4 cups of brown sugar

1/2 cup ground espresso
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 1/2 tablespoons cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons nutmeg

1 teaspoon cloves
4 cups grapeseed oil (plus more as needed)

I whisked together the dry ingredients and then stirred the oil in 1 cup at a time.

Then, take the dry jars and pack the scrub into them! Leave some head room in the jars.

Make the jars fancy with handmade recycled card tags (list the ingredients, for those who want to know and those with allergies!). Marvelous Mocha Scrub. Ta da. Your very own sugar scrub to give and to receive.

December 8 of #Reverb11 - Dharma (The Path)

I'll grab these great topics when I can and write a blurb here and there. I may make more time for writing in the near future.

Wandering can be good for the over-focused creative. How did you wander well this year?

For physical wandering, I went to New Orleans on a great girlie trip with some solid friends. I experienced the wonders of BBQ shrimp and real red beans and rice (still wish I could make 'em half that good). Paul and I went on a trip to Washington D.C. - the first time I've ever been - and had a blast during the hurricane.

For spiritual wandering, I am learning to truly live my yoga on the mat and off of the mat. Be in the present moment. Breathe through it. Breathe in it. Worry less, do more. Less trying to be things and trying to do things and more active doing. As Yoda would say, "do or do not, there is no try." I have learned so much. I have so much left to learn. I hope that never stops.

#Reverb11 - Dream

Reverb 11 is 31 days of blog prompts. It provides a focus and an intention for a blog entry. "Reverb is a means of reflection on the year that has passed and looking forward to the coming year. It provides us with an opportunity to celebrate life and mourn losses together." via YogaFreedom2010

Cool concept. I'm late to the party.

December 5 – Sueño (Dream) - What was your dream come true in 2011? What is your wildest dream for 2012?

To keep it short and sweet...my dream come true in 2011 was finding Just B Yoga, deepening into myself physically and mentally and exploring my yoga practice, and connecting with a wonderful company and HR career.

My wildest dream for 2012 is to complete my yoga teacher training, to go even further and climb personal and physical mountains, and to effectively teach in a compassionate, challenging and thoughtful way.