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from www.paiste.com
i’ve now attended two kundalini gong & mantra events. essentially kundalini yoga classes.
kundalini yoga was brought to north america by yogi bhajan in the late 1960′s and is a practice which frees the energy locked in the lower body (base of the spine) in order to move that energy upward, eventually to reach enlightenment.
the description from about.com provides an accurate description of each of the two events i attended:
What to Expect in a Kundalini Class
A Kundalini class begins with a short chant followed by a warm-up to stretch the spine and improve flexibility. The main work of the class is called a kriya, which is a proscribed sequence of poses and pranayama that focuses on a specific area of the body. The teacher typically does not make manual adjustments. The class ends with a meditation, which may be accompanied by the teacher playing a large gong, and a closing song. Kundalini devotees often wear flowing white robes and head wraps.
i was attracted to the first event by the gong. as a shambhala buddhist, the gong is an integral part of my practice. i connect strongly with the deep resonance of the gong.
i was not disappointed. in both instances, the 31 minutes of gong meditation were a vehicle of transportation.
the entire evening provides high repetition of sounds and movements. the mantra meditation, with its finger movements and vocalizations interrupted my usual meditation practice. they offered busy-ness, noise and nonsense, while i prefer stillness and awareness.
all is good. the gong bath was an amazing experience and i can endure the, to me distracting, activity of the mantras.
photo courtesy of the most amazing jane magrath www.peiphoneography.com
I am not much into the lingo of ‘weight loss’. I don’t talk about ‘fat burning’ workouts or exercises. I rarely talk about exercise for ‘caloric expenditure’ though I might be heard to speak of metabolic issues.
I have plenty of good reasons to not talk about these things, use them in advertising, or rely on promises of weight loss in order to promote my services. Hmmm, those reasons just might make great content in a future blog post.
Today is the exception. Today I am going to share a compilation of research findings, conducted by the American Council on Exercise, on calories burned per minute. Credit for the compilation goes to Josh Hillis, a personal trainer and amazing RKC instructor who frequently talks about fat loss.
You might note that kettlebells are incinerators, weapons of ass destruction, metabolic masters. Those of us using them already know this.
Click on the table to enlarge it.
Plainly put, KETTLEBELLS ROCK!
yesterday i had a fantastic afternoon with 24 students, one teacher and one educational assistant at École Évangéline in wellington, pe.
this school has a great program. students have the option of three specialty streams, one of which is health & wellness. they have 3 one hour morning blocks and 2 hours every friday afternoon dedicated to their specialty area; in this case, all things health and fitness.
the school is about 2 hours from my home, in a part of the province i have traveled to only once before. quite a number of years ago.
my gps. no solar flare challenges. no upgrades needed. no cow paths...even in pei!
i thought it best i use my gps to get me there.
my system is relatively simple, highly reliable, and so easy to use. it is also cost efficient and, really, a no brainer. i arrived with no challenges to my directions!
so, i had the grand good fortune of spending friday afternoon with the group. i was asked to give a presentation and then to take them through a boot camp style workout.
the students were AMAiZING. polite and strong-spirited. they put about 143% of themselves into the afternoon though some of them looked a bit sleepy during the presentation 
i was pleased to get a chance to talk about working as a professional in the health and wellness field and to discuss barefoot running.
the presentation was followed by an inspiring hour, putting this group through a workout.
there was some gasping and some panting. there was a good deal of earthquaking. colour was high in most faces, though the pallor of one face told of a blood-glucose bonk in one of the adults
i’m going to share the workout i put them through:
WARM UP (using length of gym)
- SIDE SHUFFLES HIGH/SIDE SHUFFLES LOW
- HIGH KNEES/BUTT KICKS
- STANDING LEG SWINGS FRONT/BACK & SIDE TO SIDE
- ELBOW TO HEEL LUNGES W/ TWIST
- JUMPING JACKS
- FRANKENSTEINS
- MT CLIMBERS
- HIP FLEXOR STRETCH W/ SIDE BEND
- REPEAT
45 secs on/15 secs recovery (1.5 MINS BTWN CIRCUITS)
CIRCUIT 1 CIRCUIT 2 CIRCUIT 3
| JUMPING JACKS | BURPEES | MT CLIMBERS |
| WALKING LUNGE |
RUMBLE RUN | STAR JUMPS |
| BICYCLE CRUNCHES | HIP LIFTS | FRONT PLANK |
| DEAD DROPS FRONT | POP SQUATS | FALSE STARTS |
| DANCING CRAB | PUSH UPS | SIDE SHUFFLES X6 |
| BICYCLE CRUNCHES | HIP LIFTS | FRONT PLANK |
| SKATERS | HIGH KNEES | BUTT KICKS |
| TWO LEGGED BOUNDING | SINGLE LEG BOUNDING | QUAD SQUATS |
| BICYCLE CRUNCHES | HIP LIFTS | FRONT PLANK |
| R SINGLE LEG SIDE HOP | PLYO SIDE LUNGE | DEAD DROPS BACK |
| L SINGLE LEG SIDE HOP | JUMP ROPE DRILL | X COURNTRY SKI |
| BICYCLE CRUNCHES | HIP LIFTS | FRONT PLANK |
the circuit workout was followed by a body weight squat tabata – because they were unfamiliar with the tabata protocol – with the ‘recovery’ held in the hole.
they asked for tough.
they got tough.
(you could do this workout at home)
every person in the gym OWNED their workout. i am still pumped with their energy!
way to take it on École Évangéline!
Have you wondered if kettlebell training is right for you?
Because, honestly, it isn’t for everyone.
Not that the vast majority of people wouldn’t benefit from kettlebell training. Surely they could, and would.
But this style of working out — moving body, moving weight with intensity and mindfulness – is not where everyone wants to be with their functional fitness.
Whether you’re ready to jump into this amazing means of changing your life or whether you’re simply curious if it is for you, a Kettlebell Skills Clinic will teach you the basic movement skills and give you a no obligation way of making a decision.
So, watch this
and now, fit one of these Kettlebell Skills Clinics into your schedule:
Saturday November 19th, 11:00am
or
Wednesday December 7th, 5:30pm
contact Wendy at 894.8943 or by email at thewholeway@wendychappell.com or on twitter @thewholeway to pre-register or for information.
i seem to show up less and less on the blog these days. not even the recipes are making it here! i regret that and miss the sense of satisfaction and wellbeing that arises in me as part of my blogging process.
i am busy. in a good way. aside from the regular bits and pieces of life, i am putting together health and wellness programs and/or proposals for a number of schools and business settings and this keeps me at my keyboard, my brain juicy with ideas.
many blog entry ideas, part sentences and sketchy thoughts are being posted into my draft entries. they wait patiently. so must i.
under a photo of a sunset in the sahara desert, i contemplate patience. i think of pema chodron’s words in The Answer To Anger and Aggression Is Patience. patience is the answer to so much more.
[W]henever there is pain of any kind–the pain of aggression, grieving, loss, irritation, resentment, jealousy, indigestion, physical pain–if you really look into that, you can find out for yourself that behind the pain there is always something we are attached to. There is always something we’re holding on to…
…After a while it seems like almost every moment of your life you’re there, at a point where you realize you actually have a choice. You have a choice whether to open or close, whether to hold on or let go, whether to harden or soften…
It requires enormous patience even to be curious enough to look, to investigate. And then when you realize you have a choice, and that there’s actually something there that you’re attached to, it requires great patience to keep going into it. Because you will want to go into denial, to shut down. You’re going to say to yourself, “I don’t want to see this.” You’ll be afraid, because even if you’re starting to get close to it, the thought of letting go is usually very frightening. You may feel that you’re going to die, or that something is going to die. And you will be right. If you let go, something will die. But it’s something that needs to die and you will benefit greatly from its death.
On the other hand, sometimes it’s easy to let go. If you make this journey of looking to see if there’s something you’re holding on to, often it’s going to be just a little thing. Once when I was stuck with something huge, Trungpa Rinpoche gave me some advice. He said, “It’s too big; you can’t let go of it yet, so practice with the little ones. Just start noticing all the little ways you hold when it’s actually pretty easy and just get the hang of letting go.”
That was extremely good advice. You don’t have to do the big one, because usually you can’t. It’s too threatening. It may even be too harsh to let go right then and there, on the spot. But even with small things, you may—perhaps just intellectually—begin to see that letting go can bring a sense of enormous relief, relaxation and connection with the softness and tenderness of the genuine heart. True joy comes from that.
It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye. ~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
The Occupy[Wall Street] movement, it occurs to me, is a refreshing testament to basic wisdom and goodness.
It is a movement of people who, having experienced sufficient injustice and inequality in their lives, sufficient frustration of their basic needs, sufficient deprivation of honesty and integrity in government, stepped into courage.
They have found and are expressing a shared compassion; an understanding of each other’s pain.
When circumstances exist that seem to threaten us, we just might harden our hearts. We construct barriers to protect; armour placed around our hearts, blinding us and numbing us. But within all this fortification there remains a soft spot, a spot which can love and be compassionate.
It is this spot which we must occupy.
Occupy your heart.
When everyone finds the courage to occupy their heart, the world will be a safe, peaceful, just place.
The thousands upon thousands of people expressing themselves through the Occupy movement are true everyday warriors. I am grateful to them, for the rawness of their bravery, for the vulnerability they have willingly exposed, for their collective challenge to protected hearts.
There are many paths to opening a protected heart. Social justice work, pivotal life experiences, spiritual exploration, meditation and yoga are but a few.
Daily meditation to open your heart will not only go a long way toward creating a more just and peaceful world, it can decrease risk factors for coronary disease. Profound in its simplicity, meditation is a gift and a fully accessible means of personal and social change.
If you need help with a daily practice, try the following:
- Stand or sit in a place where you feel comfortable. Close your eyes.
- Place your finger tips onto your low back if standing or onto the floor behind you if sitting.
- Begin opening and lifting the chest, drawing the sternum upwards, pulling your shoulder blades together in back.
- Breathe into your chest, lengthening and deepening your breath as you settle in to the expansiveness across your heart centre.
- Keep your focus on your breath while you feel your heart beat steady, strong and calm.
- Maintain this sense of opening for up to five minutes.
- Gently open your eyes, smile, and return to a natural breath.
You can get a visual of this practice in the following video. The first three minutes is sufficient to derive great benefit from a daily practice. Should you wish to move further into the pose, enjoy the colours.
And, if you wish to go further in opening your heart and balancing heart energies, Anmol Mehta has shared this wonderful Kundalini Yoga Kriya.
A further sign of health is that we don’t become undone by fear and trembling, but we take it as a message that it’s time to stop struggling and look directly at what’s threatening us. ~ Pema Chodron
I’m generally great at the getting to sleep thing. I work long, active days and crawl happily into bed with a book about the same time that most folks are curling up to the glow of their nightly netflix. I rarely make it past a paragraph or two when I float off.
But, every now and then I have a bit of a challenge settling in. This is most likely to happen when I work late. Heading to bed a bit wound up, over-stimulated, is usually a formula for wendy-wide-eyed-ness well into the night. Or, when I am time-crunched and have difficulty finding the off button to my brain, you know, busy saving the planet, rehashing yesterday’s conversation, or planning tomorrow when today is right here and happy to be my lullaby.
I work early (early!) mornings . It is so important to my good health, my relationships, and my work that I be able to turn off my busy monkey mind when I go to bed. When my alarm rings, somewhere between 3:25am and 4:30am, depending on the day, I want to be springing happy, curious and excited into my day.
What to do then.
There are some yoga poses which help me settle at night. In particular, viparita karani, legs up wall pose, calms anxieties and rests sore and tired feet and legs. Done before bedtime, this pose can contribute to a great night’s rest. You can find a lovely viparita karani instruction here.
Beyond a single pose, a yoga series can also assist with achieving a good night’s sleep. One of my fave youtube yogis is Sadie Nardini. She has a lovely, well taught, explicit sleep flow which is easy to follow along with and to learn. Check out Sadie’s video on yoga for sleep, insomnia or deep relaxation:
I’d have to say that the simplest, most graceful and expedient way I have of drifting happily off when my neurological systems is high-firing is meditation. Particularly meditation where I focus on breath.
Try it, adapting these easy steps to your own needs:
- Lie in a comfy position in your bed; close your eyes. Bring your attention to your breath. Gradually allow your breathing to become deeper and slower, finding the perfect rhythm.
- Imagine filling your body with clean, healing air each time you breathe. Allow each inhale to carry calming oxygen to every part of your body. Get a visual, if you can, of this pure, healthful air moving through your body.
- With each exhale allow stress and tension to flow out of your body. Release the stale and the stagnant, using your breath to cleanse toxins from your body. Imagine your exhale happening through every single pore of your body and the toxins dissolving into space.
- Continue following your breath. Exhale and feel cleansed, inhale and experience calm. Allow this rhythm to be part of your phenomenal experience without putting words or labels on what you are doing and what you are feeling.
- When you notice thoughts, acknowledge that you’ve been thinking and return your attention to your breath.
- Stay with your breath, experiencing the increasing lightness and relaxation, until you fall asleep.
Lullaby and good night, may sweet softness surround you.
queen anne's lace happy to just be
I went out for a run this morning. By 7:ooam the sun was already high on the horizon and was given chase by a bank of clouds which, for most of my run, kept the sun hidden. The moon, still fullish, was translucent and high in the western sky. It beckoned me on my out run.
I had trouble staying in my body and out of my head this morning. The times when the thoughts float easily away, and I sift into the vastness, aware of being the wind, the birdsong, the rays of sunlight; those runs are sublime. And then there are runs like today’s, when I just can’t get out of my own way. I fall into thinking about something, generally planning my day or my week, and being so immersed in the future I fail to notice the now. The sensations of the moment are lost to me: the soles of my feet landing softly on worn asphalt, the gentle trills of chickadees, the trickle of sweat that collects slowly in the edge of my hairline and, having gathered sufficient importance, runs along the edge of my face. The breeze once causing my eyes to tear slightly as I ran into it now ruffling the fine hairs on my forearms, my breath matching my stride matching the pulse of the universe.
The peace and wisdom that come of emptiness were not to be today. Mindfulness remained elusive and I, stuck in my ego, struggled to complete the run.
Eventually I came to my senses, abandoned the effort, slowed to a walk and enjoyed the blossoms along the roadside.
Really, I just want to tell you about my thrombophlebitis and my CEP compression sleeves, but I think I’m going to wander. Not far though.
Work is a bit too busy. I have op to run only on Sunday mornings of late; one run a week in the past 6 weeks or so…not an auspicious running schedule. I wish for more now that the morning sun beckons and birds attempt to trill me out the door. August may be the magic.
Since last fall I’ve had some issues with thrombophlebitis. Yeah, along with chilblains and gout, I too thought phlebitis was an old man disease, belonging to my grandfather as he sashed up his hernias and wore odd leg suspenders. Oh, and he did.
Apparently, it is not. It is, along with bilaterial adhesive capsulitis and Baker’s cyst, an issue which can, and in fact will, roost in my body. I am the repository of all things odd, and thrombophlebitis is here to teach me something.
It is caused by a blood clot in the vein. In my case, at a surface level. Should I worry? I’m not sure, but I do not.
I am glad I can run again (cyst-er is fading, being the primary obstacle to running since December). I can embrace this phlebitis – even now the name is becoming lyrical on my lips – which is now me.
The phlebitis. It is a surface phlebitis. A vein which passes mid shin, across my sharp and jagged shin bone. Movement of most kinds seems to cause and/or aggravate inflammation in this vein. It is painful. Running, jumping, jumping rope, running stairs: all seem to be antagonistic to the delicacy of this quarter inch of vein. Imagine me with anything you might consider ‘delicate’.
I wondered if additional support might help. If that vein had no opportunity to rub or be jostled against my shin bone, would the pain abate?
I purchased a pair of CEP compression sleeves and….life is good.
I can run with my sleeves on and have NO pain; not a TOUCH of discomfort.
This amazes me. Totally.
This morning I ran a bit more than 5k. The compression sleeves, hard to get on and off, leave me with absolutely phlebitis pain free and my calves recover well from the run too as a result of the sleeves.
I have so much more to say but no time. I hope you run strong and healthy!
Here’s a short vid of my running in sleeves:
