I’d like to start today with a mini self-diagnostic.  On a regular workday, on scale of 1 to 5 where 1 = never and 5 = nonstop, how often do you feel…
- Irritable, impatient, angry
- Fearful, defensive
- Anxious, worried
- Frustrated
- Undervalued.

If your total is 15 or higher, then you are in survival zone.  People in survival zone are in fight or flight mode, a state where the stress response is activated.  More concretely, here’s what happens in the body:

- The blood is directed away from functions that aren’t related to immediate survival (like the digestive track and the pre-frontal cortex of the brain) and sent to your limbs so you can defend yourself or run away.

- With less blood available to the brain, you will find it hard to concentrate, analyze, problem-solve and make decisions.

- You become at risk of suffering from poor digestion and low immune function overtime. 

- As the stress hormones stagnate, they irritate your body and make you more irritable as well (makes sense, right?).

In short, fight or flight is a reactive state that is very useful if you need to run away from an angry bear, but that seriously jeopardizes your health, happiness and productivity if you live in constant fear of that bear!  Really, not a good place to be!

The best way to help someone bounce out of survival zone and into performance is (drum roll, please!)… appreciation.  When we receive gratitude, we get that warm and fuzzy feeling inside, which is our body’s way of saying that the stress response has stopped.  And as the blood flow is redirected to your brain, you can return to productive work. 

This year, make Thanksgiving about the mood rather than the food.  Whether you are an employer or employee, write a short note to someone you appreciate, but whom you have not thanked properly in the past.  Then see what happens. 

And if you like what you see, pass on this newsletter to your peers, and be the positive leader who will help others bounce out of survival and into performance zone! 

For more great tips please visit: www.smartsandstamina.com

As yogis we know that our own energy is constantly changing, sometimes we feel that everything is going right and we can feel the flow, and others we feel like we are at the point of boiling to a meltdown.  What these feelings really mean is that our own energies are not aligned.  These energies that circulate with us are called nadis.  There are over 72,000 that flow like water to every cell in our body.  The first nadi, the shushumna, is the largest of the three.  It wraps around the spine coiling up like a serpent from the base all the way to the crown passing through each chakra on its way, producing kundalini energy.  The other two nadis, ida and pingala, spiral around the shushumna nadi crossing each other at every chakra until all meet at the crown chakra.  Ida starts on the left side of the spine, bringing in a  sense of coolness and controling the more feminine aspects of your thought process.  Pingala, which starts on the right side of the shushumna, is said to have more warming and stimulationg quatlities bringing more masculine aspects to your personality.  When the flow of energy (prana) gets stuck and things seem out of control, somewher there is a clog in these tow nadis.  In order to bring the mind, body, and spirit back into alignmentwith one another the channels need to be cleared.  How do we do that?  With breath.  Alternate nostril breathing can help you to see which nadi is clogged and help restore the flow bringing emotional and physical equilibrium back into your life therefore clearing the way for more spiritual growth.  To begin, find a comfy seated postion.  Taking the right hand, bend the index and middle fingers in toward the palm.  Place the thumb outside the right nostril and place the ring and pinkie fingers on the left.  Take an inhaleand then close off the left nostril exhaling our the right and then inhaling.  Close off the right nostril and open the left with an exhale out the right. This is one round.  Countinue until you feel the breath flow freely through each side of the nostril bringing balance back to your life.

Steph Neff, MOYO Teacher

Why Feel?

I’ve been told more than once that I am a “Do-er.” I must agree I am pretty busy as a working single mom raising two girls. I also teach yoga, spend time with friends, hike, read, etc. And like you, I don’t have a staff to pay the bills, clean, buy food, cook and so forth. But when people call me a “do-er” I think they are referring to something else. Maybe it’s my tendency to fix things that are broke, make lists, and speak in terms of goals. Or it could be that I’d rather kayak, kick box or even journal then meditate. It might have something to do with the fact that I can inhale all-the-day-long, but when it comes to exhaling all I can muster is this short, pathetic gust. Yeah, I know I’m a “do-er.” It could be nature or nurture… but either way, I have begun to learn something else.

I have started to realize that all of this Do-ing gets in the way of my ability to feel. Do you think that’s a coincidence? (Yeah, me neither.) It seems that pretty early on in life I decided that I didn’t want to feel. I concluded that noticing how I feel may not be pleasant and just might result in realizing things that I’d rather not know. Luckily, this Do-ing thing solves that problem!

Only it doesn’t… Why not? Because feelings become increasingly more intense until you actually let yourself feel them. Plus, they give you messages you need about your life and the choices you need to make. Living my life as a Do-er didn’t really allow for any of those messages to factor into how I lived my life. Of course, I did not realize much of this until things got pretty messy. At some point the mess got bad enough that I was ready to change something. So I tried a lot of things and eventually tried letting the feelings happen. At first it was awful as there were a lot of feelings to catch up on! Ultimately I became more aware and focused, sorted through a lot of things and eventually began building a life I had consciously chosen. That’s about when I found yoga. Only guess what – yoga was still something to “Do.” I practiced and practiced… it really helped for a while and then it didn’t. Why? My yoga practice didn’t include noticing how I feel. Good Lord – I was still at the same pattern! (I should mention, I have also been told I can be stubborn…)

So lately I have been back at the feeling thing. Noticing how I feel, allowing the feeling to help direct me in the choices I make. I know it sounds corny – like an Oprah show or a Neil Sedaka song. In fact, talking about it makes me want to go learn how to rock climb. But I’m determined to do it anyway. The messages I get from my feelings actually help me decide the rules I want to live by. I base more of my choices on what works for me in the long run instead what gets me through the moment. Plus, the feelings do not last forever. The good ones & the bad ones do their job and if I respond, they move on leaving me happier from the inside out. Of course, just telling you this gives me a tremendous urge to go goal tend a sudden death hockey game!

But instead, guess what I have been doing each morning before I wake up my girls? Did you guess meditating? I sit on my cushion and I breathe in, I let go and breathe out. My inhale is still longer than my exhale… but somehow it still turns me inward. When I started it was pretty icky in here, but lately it’s been better. Or maybe I am just getting stronger. Or perhaps when you allow the feelings to happen you become more self assured and just down-right happier. And you know what time it is when we are happier? Time to go learn how to rock climb!

-Christy Holland, MOYO Teacher

http://www.healthkey.com/a-z/reproductive/sns-health-fitness-april2010-yoga-for-kids,0,3527702.story

Join us June 27th at 6pm for questions and information. 

  http://www.kalani.com/workshops/2010/find-your-%E2%80%98ono

LBBC’s Yoga Unites was a great success for MOYO’s Breast Team Ever!  Last year, we had only 10 members on our team.  This year our team grew to 43 and we raised over $5200!  I’m so proud of our studio and the wonderfully big hearts.   It was a touching and powerful experience to practice yoga with breast cancer survivors.  Thank you to everyone helping to make a difference one person at a time. 

Memory serves me all too well the devastation and destruction suffered in the Oakland and Los Angeles earthquakes. Within a week of arriving to complete my last year of college at the San Francisco Art Institute, we witnessed the bay turn into quicksand as the entire marina front disappeared into the ground, the Golden gate twist like a twizzler and the water in the Bay literally swoosh from the Oakland to San Francisco shores as the Oakland bridge collapsed. In the Northridge quake, I lost my home. Both were painful “Acts of God”. Our first response to each disaster once we knew we were ok, was to count how many bottles of water we had responsibly stored in our earthquake preparedness kits. Unlike in the U.S., the existing water crises in Haiti has only deepened as a result of the earthquake. It was hard enough to find daily clean water sources before the earthquake let alone have water storage.

Clean Water for Haiti is a volunteer run, faith based missions and humanitarian aid organization. “Through BioSand Filter projects CWH is able to provide a simple, effective, and affordable solution to the lack of clean water sources for Haitian Families”. Visit www.cleanwaterforhaiti.org to learn more.

The value is in sending support that will raise the people from earthquake survival into a future of clean “self-sustaining” drinking water thereby strengthening community by reducing illness and loss of life.

Black Sheep Pottery strongly supports Clean Water for Haiti BioSand Filter Projects and Potters for Peace Ceramic Water Filters organization www.pottersforpeace.org. Contact Black Sheep Pottery at (610) 584-5877 or www.blacksheeppottery.org for information or to lend support.

I couldn’t begin any letter to our students, without thanking you for your commitment to each other and our studio. It has resulted in an energetic, caring and enjoyable place to practice yoga together. It is your commitment to what we have built together that makes what I am about to share such an exciting gift and opportunity, and I look forward to where this will lead us as a community. Namaste.

Breathe Yoga Center is evolving as a studio, and we are about to embark upon a transition filled with opportunity.
After months of careful deliberation over a new name, we have chosen MOYO. MOYO (pronounced MO-YO) is the Swahilli word for soul. We have begun to refer to MOYO as ‘the soul of yoga.’ We feel the name expresses who we are and where we’re headed.

A number of factors went into this decision, and while it was certainly a challenging one to make, we wanted to use this opportunity as a chance to re-examine the future of our studio. We are excited about the change and know it is a launching ground for great things to come!

With this said, I know you may have attachments to the name Breathe Yoga Center. It has been emotional for me too. But, as students of yoga we have to support one another in our vision to embrace change.

The name change will take place January 1, 2009 and we are excited about the limitless possibilities ahead of us! Thank you for your support and we hope you will continue to enjoy the studio and our commitment to bring you outstanding yoga.

Namaste.
Maureen A. Priest, Director