Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Squeezing and soaking

Each time you practice yoga, you take your joints through their full range of motion. This can help prevent degenerative arthritis of mitigate disability by "squeezing and soaking" areas of cartilage that normally aren't used. Joint cartilage is like a sponge; it receives fresh nutrients only when its fluid is squeezed out and a new supply can be soaked up. without proper sustenance, neglected areas of cartilage can eventually wear out, exposing the underlying bone like worn-out  brake pads.
        Yoga increases the ability to feel what your body is doing and where it is in space and improves balance. People with bad posture of dysfunctional movement patterns usually have proprioception, which  has been linked to knee problems and back pain. Better balance could mean fewer falls. For the elderly, this translates into more independence and delayed admission to a nursing home or never entering one at all. For the rest of us, postures like Tree Pose can make us feel less wobbly on and off the mat.
http://www.gobodhi.com

Monday, September 12, 2011

The Retreat

Every year I take my students on a retreat. Its not big, last year and the year before we just pitched tents in the beautiful Payson Blackhawk Canyon. last year we got rained on. also this year was so busy with my Thai classes and then the trek I didn't feel like doing all the work of camping again, so we went looking for something different. We were going to Nephi one day and came across Big Mountain Campground. later I found them on line, they have 6 cabins that sleep 4 each it was perfect so I booked all the cabins for our retreat. The next weekend we went to see all they had. It was more perfect then ever the cabins are darling they have a pool, and a pavilion with a little kitchen and lots of tables. We could pull the tables out to make room for our lectures and yoga if it rained. yes this was perfect. It did rain all day the first day but it stopped before I gave the first lecture on the "Subtle Body", then we did yoga, after yoga we ate dinner, that my wonderful husband prepared for us he is the best dutch oven cook ever. After dinner I gave a lecture on "What's your Dosha" I gave a test to see what dosha they were. It was really good. later that night at the camp fire I gave a lecture on "Mantra on The Mind". We chanted alot during the day it was great.
     The next day we did yoga first thing in the morning, I did a lecture on "Being Vs. Doing" it was long but it was good. Gary fed us breakfast while we talked about "Eating Wisely" which was one of the lecture topics
last year that was really good. Mishelle concluded our lectures with "The Energy of Yin Yang" which was excelent. A great time with great students and great people.
http://www.gobodhi.com/