Beginner’s Breathing

Posted on January 4, 2011 by Kristin Shepherd

Resized Winter Tree.JPG

It could be that I’m getting old and
that my sense of fun has changed so much that I can no longer play
with others in the way I used to. It could also be that yoga is
having its way with me.

January first comes this year without
buffets and booze, without screaming, “10! 9! 8! …” (always a
horror story for me, that one, witnessing drunken, overenthusiastic
and sloppy tongues, party hats askew, friends confessing into
martinis that life’s gone downhill since grade seven).

This year, it’s all about breathing.
No joke. I’m breathing my way into the new year.

I’ll bet we’ve all done Ujjayi
breathing, the Darth Vader thing that slows the breath down during
practice. At some point, that breath leapt into my civilian life as
a de-stressing maneuver. I use it at the dentist, the car repair
place, and when I visit a new yoga studio.

These days, I am intoxicated (I mean
that) by alternate-nostril breathing, bellows breathing, and squared
breathing (all Google-able).

Yoga is about union, and breathing is
truly, madly, and deeply reputed to bring together body and mind,
sympathetic (fight or flight) and parasympathetic (relax and repair)
nervous systems, conscious and unconscious, even life and death.

Read about it, if that’s your thing.
But if experience is your thing, try it. There is something about
yoga breathing that takes you flying, I swear. Once you try it,
you’ll feel as though your lungs have been sitting around on your
bedside table, doing not very much for most of your life.

Have you done this already? Is it a
part of your regular practice? If not, are you drawn by it, or does
it sound lunatic to you?

Thanks, thanks to yoga for all its
diversity, and for being the best way ever to bring in a new year.
And thanks to you for the conversation,

kristin

Dr.
Kristin Shepherd is a chiropractor, actor, and speaker (About All
Things Wonderful) in North Bay, Ontario.  Join her on the web,
on Facebook,
and on Twitter,
and on iTunes.

Posted in alternatenostrilbreathing, bellowsbreath, pranayama, ujjayibreath, Yoga, yogicbreath | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Beginner’s Breathing

Acting Lessons

Posted on January 4, 2011 by kristinshepherd

My son, the actor, says this: when someone gives you something (a word, a sentence, a feeling, a breath), receive it fully. Don’t let it just ping off your surface  and give a pingy superficial response.

Instead, let the word, or breath, or feeling sink all the way back to your spine. Let it transform you. Then respond from the transformed place.

(If you like this, try it while meditating. It’s like feeling two waves, the first being the usual breath into your lungs, the second being a deeper echo of the first, allowing your breath to reach your spine, to reach deeply into your face, your chest, your pelvis. Then let your exhalation come from the same depth.)

Something funny happens with this deeper receiving and giving. It’s as though we access a truer, more direct version of ourselves rather than acting like pinball machines all day long. (I have had enough pinball conversations for one lifetime.)

You can spot someone who’s doing it, by the way. The eye contact is different.

If this draws you at all, give it a whirl. I’d love to hear how it goes.

Thanks for the conversation,

kristin

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No Resolutions Here

Posted on December 30, 2010 by Kristin Shepherd

12_30_beginnersmind.jpgA pox on New Year’s resolutions. Yay for you if they work, but they have not worked for me, ever. Instead, they raise an unrealistic bar set by any guilt and shame still hanging around from the old year. I am motivated by my failures until about January 7th, at which point I give up trying to be someone else and settled, slightly deflated, into myself. Thanks, and no thanks. 

What does work for me is the thought of exploring new ideas and practices for the year ahead, usually inspired by last year’s successes. This year, I want a lot. I’ll skip right to the yoga desires.

As in love as I am with my asana practice, I’m hungry for more yoga: deeper meditation, breath work, perhaps chanting, and some kind of conscious relationship with myself all day long. I want yoga to show up in everything I do. (Which is to say that I’d like me to show up in everything I do. I’m hoping that all of this is not about yoga with a capital Y, but about the development of us, of our bodies, minds, and hearts through yoga.) My library bag this week is filled with yoga books for holiday reading. Deepak Chopra on yoga, yoga for dummies, and a full book on yin yoga.

I swear that my physical practice has created this desire. It’s as though yoga has found an entry point and now wants its way with me completely. Why not take all of me, I say.

What do you want in yoga for 2011? I’d love to hear.

Thanks for the enduring interest of yoga. And thank you for the conversation. Happy New Year,

kristin

Dr.
Kristin Shepherd is a chiropractor, actor, and speaker (About All
Things Wonderful) in North Bay, Ontario.  Join her on the web,
on Facebook,
and on Twitter,
and on iTunes.

Posted in asanapractice, chanting, deepekchopra, inspiration, intentions, kirtan, resolutions, yinyoga, Yoga | Tagged | Comments Off on No Resolutions Here

Best Yoga of 2010?

Posted on December 28, 2010 by Kristin Shepherd

beginnersmind12_28.jpgBest yoga of 2010?

Okay, I’ll start. Hands down, no
question, it was 108 Sun Salutations, done by myself at 4am on the
solstice, December 21st. Why was it the best? (I will
resist giving you all 108 reasons.)

  1. I can do it. This amazes me, even
    now. I did it with a large group last year and almost died of a
    paralytic exhaustion that lasted two days. This year, my god, my
    god, I’ve gone back at it again, and lived. Happy Christmas and
    New Year to me.

  2. 108 Sun Salutations gives me time
    to move through phases: slightly stiff, warm and happy, tired and
    worried I won’t make it, fear I’ve lost count again (I really
    should call it “108 or so”), and many, many waves of
    joy/bliss/ecstasy, possibly related to paralytic exhaustion.

  3. I read that physical yoga is
    preparation for meditation. My seated meditation, following the
    108, was more like flying. Holy mackerel, is all I can say.

  4. Last thing, and I’m not sure how
    to say this part. I finish the 108 knowing I’m on the yoga path.
    Not wondering, not on and off. I’m on it. It’s mine. Best
    feeling I’ve had in a long time.

What’s been your best yoga of 2010?
Let’s celebrate.

Thanks to yoga for a fabulous 2010, and
thank you for the conversation,

kristin

Dr.
Kristin Shepherd is a chiropractor, actor, and speaker (About All
Things Wonderful) in North Bay, Ontario.  Join her on the web,
on Facebook,
and on Twitter,
and on iTunes.

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Happy, Merry … Love to the Yogis

Posted on December 23, 2010 by Kristin Shepherd

winter08 002.jpgOh, this is a tricky time of year! And I’m so incorrect! I grew up with Christmas, so it’s what I know. Many/most in the world don’t celebrate. (I’m envious more often than not.)

We put a real tree (cut from under hydro lines, I promise), which damns me to environmental hell, I’m sure. As though to compensate, we cover it with ribbons but no lights. No decorations outside. Sheer laziness.

I am not religious, which can offend mobs of people this time of year. I’m not much of a shopper, which offends the local merchants and may further damage the economy. This year we’re having turkey for the first time in eight years. Former vegans. Watch that offend. I can’t get it right. Who can?

I don’t know what you’re doing at this point in the year. Whatever it is: celebrating, enjoying time off, working, screaming across the country to visit relatives or friends, enjoy.

During my practice today, I wish you happiness, joy, peace, deliriously centered calm, and, above all, love.

Thank you for believing so ardently in everything you care for, and thanks to yoga for bringing us all together.  Thanks again for the conversation,

kristin

Dr.
Kristin Shepherd is a chiropractor, actor, and speaker (About All
Things Wonderful) in North Bay, Ontario.  Join her on the web,
on Facebook,
and on Twitter,
and on iTunes.

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Putting the Yoga Back in Christmas

Posted on December 23, 2010 by Kristin Shepherd

hol1_2006.jpgChristmas is a crazy-making time of year. For every lucky person who loves it (the turkey! the kids! the shopping! the religious whatever!) there is one who doesn’t (the elevated pressure to be jolly! the family! the cooking! the shopping! the religious whatever!).

My family is typical, if not traditional. My kids are meeting in Toronto this week. I’ll have a day or two with them (yeah! yeah!) before they may or may not head to a warmer Christmas in South Carolina with their dad’s family. And my lovely man has this thing in his eye, which means we could be anywhere for the holidays. Even our dog, who is now in Toronto with her aunt and uncle, is unsure about where she wants to be.

If we’re lucky, we’ll smell a turkey somewhere this year.
This sounds whiny. It isn’t. I’ve given up imagining myself as the mother whose flock gathers ’round a traditional table, dishing cranberry sauce from polished silver.

My kids and I will sing Christmas tunes together when we meet. I’ll cry, because it’ll sound beautiful, and because it breaks my heart wide open to be together.

They’ll go off, and then I’ll find a place for my new tradition: 108 Sun Salutations. I did this last year, in a class. 108. In a row. It was the closest thing to yoga heaven, ever. The exhausted relaxation was so profound that it was everything I could do to walk to my car when it was over. This year, I’ll do the 108 in my home studio if i’m back in time.  If not, i’ll do it in my sister-in-law’s basement, or in a hospital, or wherever the opportunity presents itself in Toronto.  It’ll be my Christmas present to myself.

All of which is to ask: does yoga play a part in your holiday this year?  Do you put it aside, or is it a gift of sanity and self-care to yourself?
Thanks to these holidays for teaching each of us what’s important in our lives.
And thanks to you, always, for the conversation,
kristin

Dr.
Kristin Shepherd is a chiropractor, actor, and speaker (About All
Things Wonderful) in North Bay, Ontario.  Join her on the web,
on Facebook,
and on Twitter,
and on iTunes.

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Trust Sandwich

Posted on December 21, 2010 by kristinshepherd

My son is in his first year at The National Theatre School, which he sometimes calls The National Becoming A Human School.  One of the roughly 14,500 things he loves about school (only a few of which we covered during a five hour breakfast last week) is lunch. In the cafeteria.

There’s this lunch guy, Isaac , pronounced E-tzack, because he’s French, who works in the NTS cafeteria.  (Adrian, my son,  says something amazing must go on at job interviews there, because every single employee is interesting and passionate about being there.)  When Adrian orders lunch, he can do it the regular way if he wants.  Or, get this, he can order a Trust Sandwich, in which case Isaac, pronounced, E-tzack, will make something fabulous and original with Adrian in mind.

I swoon, contemplating this.  This is how cafeteria food can make us well.

Take this, somebody, and apply it in your home, in your workplace, at your gym, at your grocery store.  And see how quickly this changes everything.

Get back to me on how it goes, will you?  I’d love to hear.

Thanks for the conversation,

kristin

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Sing It To Me

Posted on December 16, 2010 by Kristin Shepherd

Can we talk about chanting? At my regular yoga studio, we begin classes with an Om or three. We finish with an Om or three and then shanti, shanti, shanti. It was embarrassing the first time. By my second class I’d fallen in love.

kd.jpgSome months ago, I heard Krishna Das for the first time. He’s a fabulous singer who has chosen a career in chanting rather than rock or pop. His beautiful face (is that what chanting does to you?) was in Yoga Journal recently with a short interview. I swoon when he sings.

For the last two days I’ve been in transit to Bangkok. It’s been exciting and completely disorienting. On the plane, when I’d just about had it with movies (three of them), torturous immobility, and gastrointestinal tract that has temporarily lost its bearings, chanting is what saved the day. I remembered that I had Krishna Das downloaded, listened for an hour, breathed, swooned, and became sane.

I read that chanting does something to us physiologically, that the placement of breath and tongue and sound changes us for the better. I believe it.

Do you? Is it a part of your practice? If it is, is it important to you? Has it changed you?
Thanks to yoga’s complexity, thanks to yoga music, and thanks to you for the conversation. Om shanti, shanti, shanti,
kristin
Dr. Kristin Shepherd is a chiropractor, actor, and speaker (About All Things Wonderful) in North Bay, Ontario.  Join her on the web, on Facebook, and on Twitter, and on iTunes.

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Yoga, A Love Story

Posted on December 16, 2010 by Kristin Shepherd

greenlady.JPG

One of the things that yoga teaches me
is this lifelong trip with my body is a love story. Some days I
struggle, some days practice is effortless, some days I laugh through
it, some days discouragement is the loudest voice in the room. Over
the last year, though, yoga has been a kind of matchmaker. My body
and I are getting along a lot more beautifully than we used to. I can’t tell you how grateful for
that I am today.

If you’re someone who has been a part
of this conversation with me, you know I’ve been in Bangkok, at the
beginning of what I thought would be three months of backpacking
around South East Asia. Three days in, I received a note from
home saying my lovely man has a tumor in his right eye. (His green
eye. He has one blue and one green, both beautiful).

Three days, half a world, and another
universe later, I’m at home, backpack empty and in a closet, six
inches of snow outside, and my lovely man sleeping next to me. We’re
here for the insane ten days it takes for his treatment to begin in
Toronto.

During these ten days, we’re grateful
for each other, for the people around us, and for all the good things
in our lives. Including yoga, which has changed our
relationship with ourselves and our bodies. I won’t speak for Pat,
but it is invaluable, today, for me to have a familiar practice that
makes my body a love story, at a time when it might feel very
different.

A friend of mine describes his practice
as his body singing to him. During my own practice this morning,
I’m going to sing to myself and to Pat.

This trip ahead will not be a story of
illness. (Cancer will not be the loudest voice in the room.) It’s
going to be a love story.

I don’t have any questions to ask
this week. Just love, love, love from me to you.

Thanks for the conversation,

kristin

Dr. Kristin Shepherd is a chiropractor, actor, and speaker (About All Things Wonderful) in North Bay, Ontario.  Join her on the web, on Facebook, and on Twitter, and on iTunes.

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Beginning Again

Posted on December 9, 2010 by Kristin Shepherd

beginnersmindbackpack.jpgI’ve just celebrated my one year anniversary with yoga. My classes at the studio began last October, and last December I started practicing at home so that I might not continue to die after every class.

Neither the beginner’s crazy enthusiasm nor the beginner’s intimidation has left me.

My stomach whirlygigs a bit to say this, but I’m about to launch into another new phase of yoga. For the next three months I’ll be traveling with a tiny backpack, yoga clothes, and enough electronic equipment (the cords! the plug adapters! the surge protectors!) to send notes here, to you, and to the rest of the cosmos.

There are plenty of life goals forming around this trip. My yoga goal is to take my enthusiasm, curiosity, and abject fear, and see what yoga looks like through beginner’s eyes in Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia. There is no chance my experience will be comprehensive, but with luck I’ll gather a few wonderful stories. I hope you’ll join me. I also hope you’ll continue to share your own thoughts.  We’ve had quite a trip together already, haven’t we?
Thanks to the thrills that come with being new at this. Thanks to life for its open doors, and thanks, always, to you for the conversation,
kristin

Dr.
Kristin Shepherd is a chiropractor, actor, and speaker (About All
Things Wonderful) in North Bay, Ontario.  Join her on the web,
on Facebook,
and on Twitter,
and on iTunes.


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