Cracked and Flawed

An elderly Chinese woman had two large pots, each hung on the ends of a pole which she carried across her neck. One of the pots had a crack in it while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water. At the end of the long walks from the stream to the house, the cracked pot arrived only half full.

For a full two years this went on daily, with the woman bringing home only one and a half pots of water. Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments.

But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable that it could only do half of what it had been made to do.

After two years of what it perceived to be bitter failure, it spoke to the woman one day by the stream. “I am ashamed of myself, because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your house.”

The old woman smiled, “Did you notice that there are flowers on your side of the path, but not on the other pot's side? That's because I have always known about your flaw, so I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back, you water them. For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate the table. Without you being just the way you are, there would not be this beauty to grace the house.”

Each of us has our own unique flaw. But it's the cracks and flaws we each have that make our lives together so very interesting and rewarding. You've just got to take each person for what they are and look for the good in them.

SO, to all of my cracked pot friends, have a great day and remember to smell the flowers on your side of the path!

St. Theresa's Prayer


It is a gray, rainy Monday and I was feeling low.  There was an e-mail from my cousin this afternoon.  I've received it many times over the years and it is one of my favourites.  Hope it inspires.

May there be peace within you. 

May you trust that you are exactly where you are meant to be. 

May you not forget the infinite possibilities

that are born of faith. 

May you use those gifts that you have received, 

and pass on the love that has been given to you. 

May you be content you are a child of God. 

Let this knowledge settle into your bones, 

and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love.

It is there for each and every one of us.

Yoga and Injuries

I was reading Namaste from Duluth this morning.  There is a post on using yoga as therapy for physical injuries.  I understand that very well.  Many of us in my class have joint issues and injuries where certain yoga poses are most helpful.  She does have a funny comment at the end of the post; using yoga therapy for a yoga injury (Yay!)

I have experienced and injury from yoga too.  Many of us who practice yoga probably have. Some of my non-yoga friends get quite excited about an injury from yoga as though it were something unusual.  Guess no one has heard of running injuries, weights injuries, Pilates injuries, etc.  I've had one injury from yoga but two from Zumba.  Doesn't stop me from practicing either.

My yoga injury was simple; a pulled hamstring.  I let my ego get involved on a forward bend pose.  I was so close to my toes so I pushed it instead of accepting where I was that day.  The next day I was mighty sore and the pain did not go away completely for several months.  I continued with my practice and adjusted to my situation.  In time it healed.

So, I now take my time with my poses and accept my limitations.   I can now touch my toes and the floor.  That being accomplished, I now work gently on my other limitations.  One at a time they will improve.  I'm not in a race and my yoga teacher does not give out gold stars for completing a classic pose.

New Blogger Fears

Well, I’ve been blogging for a month now.  I go through stages of “What was I thinking?!?!” to “This is fun!”.  I’ve been spending time this past week reading some of the other yoga blogs out there to see what other people’s views on yoga are.  I am amazed!

Many blogs are done by teachers.  There is great advice, upcoming seminars, personal views on yoga controversies, humour.

Others are like mine; ramblings from a yoga enthusiast.  People share their daily routines, poetry, great photos, their sorrows and joys.  It both intimidates and encourages me.

I’ve been getting some good ideas.  Pictures are always nice.  Recipes are always a good read.  I just need to keep plugging away and building up what I have started.  Thanks to those of you who read my blog regularly and irregularly.  If you have any requests, let me know.

(Food for Thought)

Does Size Matter?

The vast majority of yoga imagery shows slender people doing seemingly impossible pretzel poses.  I know many people see these images and say to themselves “I could never do yoga.  I’m not flexible enough. I’m too heavy.”  This could not be further from the truth.  

I am a large, heavy woman.  Yes, poses became easier when I started to lose my excess weight but I was able to start a yoga practice pretty much at the same level as any other beginner.  Yoga poses are meant to condition the body; to make it stronger and more flexible.  The support from the props used in Iyengar Yoga made the process easier for me.  I have found, through the four years of studying yoga, there are people who do decide to try more challenging poses and classes and there are those content to stay at a level they are comfortable with and work at poses that are familiar.  Some people will never do inversions and some people will attack them with relish.  All of this is OK.  

You can be you.  Do not worry about what your size and ability is.  It is simply important to do the work.  Sometimes the biggest challenge you will face is to walk into the door of your first class.

The “Diet” in Diet and Exercise

We all know to lose excess weight and maintain a healthy lifestyle, we need to have the proper diet and exercise. The exercise part was easy for me starting with Iyengar Yoga.  I have since chosen some additional activities I wanted to do and committed to them.  The diet part was much harder.  I have battled with my weight all my life and have tried just about everything within reason.  Nothing ever had long term results.  I was one of those people that would buy any magazine that had a feature story on the latest diet where people claimed their  “weight just started falling off”.  Who were these people?  Well, one day I read an article on a low carb diet developed by a doctor in France.  It was all the rage in Europe.  I knew I was sensitive to carbs bigtime so I thought I would give this one a try. It worked so I got the book as soon as it was available on Amazon.   This was the Dukan Diet.  I found it super easy to stay on and the longer I was on it, the less I craved sugar and starch.  My excess weight has been steadily dropping off for nearly a year now.  Low carb diets are not for everyone.  Usually good for those of us prone to putting our fat on our bellies.   I truly believe there is no one meal plan that fits everybody.  I had to try several before I found the right fit.  Whatever options you look at, just make sure you get a healthy mix of foods that will give your body what it needs.

How I Started Iyengar Yoga

Did you ever feel like you were a contestant on the first week of a weight loss reality show? Yeah, that was me January of 2008.  I was 55 years old and had made the decision to retire from my travel agent job.  I had never taken a break from my career and it showed.  I was dealing with obesity and needed to find my path to healthy, reliable weight loss .  I started looking over my options on where to start.  I had studied yoga when I was in my 20s and had always wanted to go back to that.  My neighbour was a member of the Reh-Fit Centre in Winnipeg MB Canada so I asked if she could pick up a program guide for me.  There were several options on yoga but what caught my eye was the Iyengar Yoga.  I asked a friend who practiced yoga what she knew about Iyengar Yoga. She said it would be a great place for me to start as the focus is on alignment and students use props.  I went to a “try me” class and decided to follow through with it.  This was my start to becoming a student of   Iyengar Yoga.

I want to repeat, I am a student of Iyengar Yoga, not a teacher.  The focus of my blog is my journey using the Iyengar method and yoga in general to help me lose weight, improve my flexibility, gain strength, and improve my overall health.  Since I started my practice I have lost 90 pounds.  I can comfortably walk long distances and have taken up other fitness practices such as Zumba, Indo-Row, T’ai Chi, and Qigong.  My breathing has vastly improved and my heart no longer pounds when I exert myself in whatever activity I am doing.  Thanks to Iyengar Yoga my sad knees are much better and I think I have started to loosen up my very tight quads.  This  has been a process.  Sometimes my body reacts quickly and sometimes I know I’m on the 20 year plan.

Let me quickly tell you who developed Iyengar Yoga.  The method of teaching was developed by BKS Iyengar who resides in Pune India.  Mr. Iyengar was born in 1918 and was a sickly child fighting serious illnesses such as malaria, tuberculosis, typhoid and malnutrition.  At the age of 15 he was invited to live with his older sister and her husband who ran a yoga school.  This is where Mr.Iyengar learned some basics on yoga poses (asanas).  He moved to Pune in 1937 and started the hard, long road to teaching yoga. If you want to read more on BKS Iyengar, please click on biography bar on the right column.

So, the beginning of my journey with Iyengar Yoga started on a cold Sunday afternoon in January 2008. Walking into my first class I felt quite intimidated.  I started to relax fairly quickly when I realized there were no yoga “pretzels” in our class.  Everyone was sort of like me.  They too were looking for a way to improve their health.   Our first pose was sitting cross-legged on the floor.  We could sit at any height we required using foam blocks, blankets or even a chair.  It felt like an accomplishment to be able to sit on the floor at the height of two foam blocks. Iyengar Yoga teaches us our knees should not be higher than our hips.   I have since graduated to two folded blankets.  I can actually sit on the floor but the blankets are nice and comfy.  I will tell you my experiences with the use of props in poses in future posts.
 
Yoga is a 5000 year old practice created in India and is believed to be the path to enlightenment.  What many of us see as exercises (the poses) are what yogis use to prepare their bodies for the arduous task of deep meditation.  Studying the poses is to be done without ego.  In other words, do what your body says you can, not what your head says you used to be able to do.  I have learned from sad experience (strained hamstring) that forcing any physical activity will result in injury.  Respect your limitations.  This will change in time if you patiently and regularly work at your Iyengar Yoga practice.

In this blog, over time, I hope to give you my progress in Iyengar Yoga.  Also, I’ll let you know what other stuff I am trying and maybe reports on some of my travels.  Some of you may even take this journey with me with whatever combination of diet and exercise you choose.  We all need inspiration and support so lets make it a team effort.