January 2018

HAPPY NEW YEAR! 
from Heart Tree Yoga

I hope you each had a fulfilling and restorative time with family and friends for the holiday season as well as some time to reflect on 2017 and your dreams and goals for the coming year.  

A brand new year offers a fresh opportunity to grow into our best selves.  I really believe that growing into our best selves--strong, resilient, free, joyous, creative and courageous individuals--means fully embracing our possibilities through openness in our hearts--and body, mind and soul.  

A friend and colleague of mine once observed--"how people do one thing is how they do everything".  There can be a lot of truth to this when it comes to how we move in our bodies and how we are in the world.  Our movement tendencies often mirror our 'being' tendencies.  If you have attended my classes or worked with me you know that finding and feeling your own way of moving and going deeper into your own state of being opens the door far wider to gaining greater inner ease, self-compassion, strength and resilience.  I hope as you embrace this New Year you will take time to discover more about how you are moving in this world--and open to door to more growth and freedom by improving the interaction between your movement and your being. 

Below I'm sharing some personal tips that I've found incredibly helpful in getting through these cold months and which I hope you will also find useful, and a special New Year's wish about the importance of making mistakes (LOVE THIS).   If you would also like to receive this month's Movement and More Clip about giving your back a break while you strengthen your legs, and some musings and pictures of my recent trip to India, just let me know and I'll add you to the distribution list. 

Thanks for joining me on this journey!

TIPS for Managing the Winter Months

BRRRR.  Cold?  Dry?  
Getting through the winter months can be tough if you are someone who's fingers and toes feel like they are going to drop off and who's skin gets dry, flaky and rough during the season.  

If you share these winter afflictions with me, I've got some tips for you, drawn from Ayurvedic practices that I think are making a big difference for me this year.  Please understand--I'm not an Ayurvedic expert.  Ayurveda is an ancient sister science to yoga with a depth as great as yoga itself.  So I simply offer practices that have helped me feel better and stay more hydrated this season  Some are pretty obvious and some are not.  And they are:

• Hot, not cold liquids.  I start off the day with either a simple cup of hot water or a brew of tea made with some warming herbs.  I've been pretty surprised at how much I enjoy this.  (No, I haven't dropped coffee altogether, but I have reduced the amount I drink.  Do not worry, I'm not here to take your coffee away from you.)  I continue to sip tea throughout the day. 
• Cooked, rather than cold foods. They require less energy and are easier for our systems to digest. 
• Morning oil self-massage.  This is a practice called abhyanga in Ayurveda and is a associated with a host of physical benefits, including for joints, organs and nerves.  My practice is pretty simple and less involved than purer form you will find when you google "abhyanga" - but the bottom line is it is self-massaging warmed oil all over the body.  In its pure form, abhyanga would be done with warmed oil, working down the body from head to toe in a slow and nurturing manner. Different oils would be used depending up individual needs.  My personal practice is less ritualistic and time-consuming (and arguably wouldn't be called abhyanga for those reasons. For example, I simply I warm the oil between my hands and I do not devote the time I could to it to make the practice more restorative and nourishing.)  However, I highly recommend even the simple practice I use as it has made a big difference in the dryness of my tissues. 
• Less alcohol.  Yes.  While I really love red wine, alcohol is drying and I find that I experience less night-time waking and less joint pain if I refrain from indulging too much.  Just saying.  

 

THE IMPORTANCE OF MISTAKES

I came across a fantastic quote by Neil Gaiman for the New Year that I wanted to share with you.  I think it is such an important sentiment for personal growth. For REAL living.  It makes me think of remembering not to make "the perfect the enemy of the good."  We sometimes stifle ourselves out of fear of making mistakes, of not being enough, of not being perfect.  And that stifling limits our BEING the fullness of ourselves. Let's quit that.

I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes.
Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You're doing things you've never done before, and more importantly, you're Doing Something.
So that's my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody's ever made before. Don't freeze, don't stop, don't worry that it isn't good enough, or it isn't perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life.
Whatever it is you're scared of doing, Do it.
Make your mistakes, next year and forever.
― Neil Gaiman