InfinityCrossing.com 2.0

"Coccoon" by internets-dairy, on Flickr Creative Commons

If you've missed us this past week, it's because we've moved! All the updates you love from Infinity Crossing's blog, including the garden's happenings, are now on the new and improved infinitycrossing.com.

Please check us out on our new site, where you can sign up for our FREE newsletter, keeping you posted on the latest updates. Though we've copied all the content you find here to the new site, we'll keep this site up for those bouts of "blogspot nostalgia," or for anyone who happens to stumble upon us through the blogger network.


Let us know what you think of the new site. Mahalo for your readership and support!

NAMASTE!

We'll Call It The Relaxi-Taxi.

This week, June 7, marks the beginning of a new yoga class with yours truly: Restorative Yoga at The Studio Maui in Haiku! What is restorative yoga? Glad you asked. Restorative yoga teaches us the art of conscious deep relaxation. The practice involves resting in fully supported poses with the aid of props, allowing the practitioner to focus on deep breathing and maintaining an active meditative state. Gravity, time, and a focused attention on the breath do all the work. Among its many benefits, this practice stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system, helping us to "de-stress," lower the heart rate and blood pressure, as well as promote healthy function of the endocrine and immune systems. Restorative yoga offers something for everyone: a gentle introduction to yoga for beginners, an essential balance to stronger yoga practices, and an opportunity for healing and improved health of the mind, body, and spirit.

Please join me on Tuesday evenings from 5:30-7pm for a mid-week unwind in Restorative Yoga! The class is held at The Studio Maui in the Haiku Marketplace. I've provided a map below to help with directions for those of you unfamiliar with the location. For more information or further inquiries, please email me at jeanmarie@infinitycrossing.com.

View Larger Map

*A SPECIAL NOTE FOR OUR BLOGSPOT READERS*

We have quietly launched a new version of our website www.infinitycrossing.com! This new and improved website will now encompass all the material you love from this blog. Over the next few weeks, as we refine the new website, we'll begin to phase out our use of this blogspot domain. We'll keep all the existing content here as long as possible, and do our best to copy it to the new website as well. So don't worry, I'll keep posting on both domains until our official launch, and I'll be sure to announce it loud and clear with plenty of links! 

In the meantime, never miss an update by signing up for our email newsletter in the "Follow Us By Email" box on the upper right-hand side of this page. We thank you for your continued readership and support: mahalo!

NAMASTE!

There's No Laughing In Yoga!

I just fell in love with my local grocery store.

So, there's this pose I absolutely adore. It's very easy to do, and I believe that anyone could perform it. I love it because it can be done at any moment of the day, and it has an immediately powerful & positive effect on my body, mind, spirit. It must be a super-secret pose, though, because it's very rarely actively taught in yoga classes. I believe everyone should have knowledge of this pose, so I will tell you how to perform it now. Pause whatever you are doing this very moment, even your thoughts. Lift the corners of your mouth. That's it. It's called Smile-asana.

Yes, yoga is serious business. It is unimaginably powerful medicine. It teaches us how to break the conditions of our existence, freeing us from self-limiting thoughts and tendencies, and even freeing us from disease and our fear of death. But that's no reason to take all the fun out of it! On the contrary, it would seem a great tragedy to take something so transformative, so inherently creative and drain it of its pure joy.

Courtesy of: http://www.salagram.net

Some time back, I wrote about the benefits of laughter and yoga, especially as they're currently being applied to cancer therapy programs ("Laughing All the Way"). But it doesn't take a scientist to recognize instinctively how laughter, joy, even a simple smile can be the conduit for the healing and positive transformation that yoga can bring. We instantly feel lighter with a smile, and the tonic of laughter can speed our healing and maintain good health.

So, the next time yoga practice rolls around, and one of those particularly troublesome poses sees a scowl work its way onto the face, remember to take smile-asana. It just might make all the difference.

If you'd like to read more about current scientific research on the healing power of laughter, here are some links to get started:

http://www.laughteryogaamerica.com
http://www.laughingrx.com/15.html
http://www.laughteryoga.org/

And one of my favorite blogs, just for giggles:

http://www.recoveringyogi.com

Until next time, yogis & yoginis...

NAMASTE!

The Garden Is Open For Business!

Yes, that's right folks! We finally got the new garden up and running. Please check out The Garden page for the latest installment of our Garden Blog. Happy Aloha Friday!

NAMASTE!

Going Against The Grain

"Against the Grain" by psyberartist, courtesy
of Flickr Creative Commo

I'm all about going with the flow of things. Of late, that flow has been directing me to a greater exploration of pranayama, or the varied breathing exercises of yoga. More accurately translated, pranayama refers to the "extension of the life force." How appropriate, since the various forms of pranayama encourage the practitioner to draw out and extend the breath. 

So, I was mentioning my love of going with the flow. I'm sure I'm not the only yoga practitioner to have a fondness for this concept. Curious, then that a favorite pranayama of mine encourages us to go against the natural flow of things. This is viloma pranayama, which translates to "against the hair" or "against the grain." The practice of viloma can help us to expand our breathing capacity, encouraging the exploration of otherwise under-utilized space in the thoracic and abdominal cavities. Moreover, this exercise is simultaneously rejuvenating and grounding, providing relief for:

fatigue

strain

weakness

nausea

imbalanced blood pressure

heaviness in the abdomen

hyperactivity &

insomnia,

according to Geeta Iyengar.

*The usual disclaimer: Approach any new practice with caution. If at any time you feel panic, short of breath, heat in the head, tension arising in the body, or anxiety, please return to a normal, slow, smooth breath. Build up time spent in any new practice very gradually. Always consult an experienced teacher with questions. *

Illustration by Pat Conrad, courtesy of Bicycling Bliss

To practice viloma, beginners will want to find a comfortable supine position. I find that a supported savasana, with a bolster under the knees, a pillow under the head, and a covering over the eyes works best. Let the hands rest to the side of the body with palms facing up, or on the belly with palms facing down. Eventually, the practiced yogi/yogini will bring this exercise into a seated posture.

Please take note of the illustration to the left, examining the mechanics of breathing, and keeping this picture in mind moving forward. For viloma, we invite kumbhakas, or pauses, into the inhalation and exhalation. As we breathe deep ujjayi pranayama, by contracting the glottis in the throat, we visualize the torso and mentally divide it into 3 sections:

1. Pubic bone to the navel
2. Navel to the bottom tip of the sternum
3. Sternum to the collarbones 

"Deep Breath" courtesy of Yoga with Sereni

Viloma pranayama, variation 1:

1. From a comfortable supine or seated position, breathe several rounds of ujjayi pranayama.
2. Upon completing an exhalation, inhale through the 1st section (pubic bone to navel).
3. Pause for 2 seconds.
4. Inhale through the 2nd section (navel to the tip of the sternum).
5. Pause for 2 seconds.
6. Inhale through the 3rd section (tip of the sternum to the collarbones), to reach the full capacity for an inhalation.
7. Pause for 2 seconds.
8. Exhale uninterrupted, from the collarbones to the pubic bone, pausing for 2 seconds when the exhalation is complete.
9. Repeat several rounds of steps 2-8. To finish, simply return to uninterrupted ujjayi.

Viloma Pranayama, variation 2:

1. From a comfortable supine or seated position, breathe several rounds of ujjayi pranayama.
2. Upon completing an inhalation, exhale through the 3rd section (collarbones to the bottom tip of the sternum).
3. Pause for 2 seconds.
4. Exhale through the 2nd section (tip of the sternum to the navel).
5. Pause for 2 seconds.
6. Exhale through the 1st section (navel to the pubic bone), completely emptying the body of air.
7. Pause for 2 seconds.
8. Inhale uninterrupted, from the pubic bone to the collarbones, pausing for 2 seconds when the inhalation is complete.
9. Repeat several rounds of steps 2-8. To finish, simply return to uninterrupted ujjayi.

Viloma Pranayama, full:
1. From a comfortable supine or seated position, breathe several rounds of ujjayi pranayama.
2. Upon completing an exhalation, inhale through the 1st section (pubic bone to navel).
3. Pause for 2 seconds.
4. Inhale through the 2nd section (navel to the tip of the sternum).
5. Pause for 2 seconds.
6. Inhale through the 3rd section (tip of the sternum to the collarbones), to reach the full capacity for an inhalation.
7. Pause for 2 seconds.
8. Exhale through the 3rd section (collarbones to the bottom tip of the sternum).
9. Pause for 2 seconds.
10. Exhale through the 2nd section (tip of the sternum to the navel).
11. Pause for 2 seconds.
12. Exhale through the 1st section (navel to the pubic bone), completely emptying the body of air.
13. Pause for 2 seconds.
14. Continue through several rounds of steps 2-13. To finish, simply return to uninterrupted ujjayi.

Practice viloma pranayama when you have some time to rest and relax. This exercise has a strong tendency to put practitioners right to sleep! My teachers warned me of this when introducing the practice, but after the first time I didn't believe them at all. I found viloma quite challenging initially and had no idea how someone could possibly fall asleep practicing it. However, I very quickly gained more comfort with the exercise and soon found myself battling snoring in the middle of the class! As such, I highly recommend viloma for anyone struggling with bouts of insomnia. For the same reason, I also highly recommend practicing viloma under the guidance of a teacher or audio recording. Without a voice actively reminding me of what I'm supposed to be doing, I can find it difficult to get through more than a few rounds of viloma before drifting off into the nether regions. I'm still working on the whole video/audio recording thing, so if the flow of things allows, I will produce a guided recording for you soon (especially since I couldn't find one I liked upon doing a quick search)! Until then, have fun slowly orienting yourself to this practice, and comment below or email me if any questions arise.

NAMASTE

Family Fresh Air!

A Sweet Sounds Short

For your listening pleasure, here's a brief clip of our recent venture out to Donna De Lory's show at The Studio Maui. We had so much fun listening to Donna's sweet songs. Mahalo nui loa!

All Things Balanced

"Balancing Sunlight" by D. Sharon Pruitt, Pink Sherbet Photography

I think it's safe to say that when most of us get started with yoga, we focus almost exclusively, if not entirely, on asana practice: the physical postures of yoga. As our practice develops, however, many of us discover and incorporate more complex pranayama, or breathing exercises. It took a whopping 10 years before I was introduced to the art of practicing pranayama. Wow, that was some rock I was hiding under! Naturally, I was well familiar with the gold standard: ujjayi pranayama, or the victorious breath. This is the breath we take through our entire practice and is the most fundamental of pranayamas: a slow, smooth breath through a contracted glottis, making the passage of air audible. In fact, ujjayi pranayama is unique in that it may be practiced at any time of day, in any activity. I, like most yogis, was pretty much on a first-name basis with ujjayi. Ask me about any other pranayamas, though, & I would have cocked my head to the side and given you one of those quizzical blank stares.

Nowadays, I can't fathom coming to the mat without at least practicing one other pranayama. While there are many, there is one in particular that BKS Iyengar recommends practicing everyday: nadi shodhana: the purification, or balancing, of the nadis. Nadis are energetic pathways in the body. According to many yogic texts, there are something like 72,000 nadis in our bodies. Whoa. While this might seem like a very ethereal concept, I like to ground it in images of our circulatory and nervous systems. Imagining the body's pathways for blood, oxygen, nutrients, and electrical pulses (all constituents of and fuel for our energy) makes that idea of 72,000 nadis seem a little more down to earth.

The practice of nadi shodhana purifies the energetic pathways in the body, bringing balance and clarity to body and mind. I've actually been able to find numerous scientific studies conducted on subjects utilizing nadi shodhana. These studies have demonstrated beneficial effects on cardiopulmonary function, stress management, and higher functions of the brain, including problem solving ability. Here are links to some of these studies:

www.j-pbs.org/pdf/182/subbalakshmi.pdf
recent-science.com/article/viewFile/4627/2265
http://www.yogameditation.com/articles/issues_of_bindu/bindu_13/nadi_shodanas_influence_on_the_brain


Now that we know what nadi shodhana does, how do we practice it? I'm glad you asked:

*Disclaimer: If at any time, feelings of anxiety, shortness of breath, or panic arise, simply return to normal breathing. Practice pranayama on an empty stomach, and only for as long as feels relaxing and appropriate. Very gradually & gently build the time spent practicing pranayama. Always consult an experienced teacher with any questions or issues that arise from practice. *

1. Sit in a comfortable seated position, where it is easy to maintain good posture (an easy cross-legged pose usually works well).

jnana mudra

2. With the left hand, take jnana mudra, or the mudra of wisdom. The connected thumb and index finger represent the connection between ourselves and our higher selves or the creator. The 3 extended fingers represent those things that make us forget that eternal connection: attraction, aversion, and indifference. Let the left hand rest in this mudra on the left knee.






 

3. The right hand is the tricky one. Bring the index finger and middle finger to touch the palm just below the base of the thumb. This separates the ring and pinky fingers. Then, bring the tip of the thumb to touch the tips of the ring and pinky fingers, bringing the latter 2 to touch each other. This is the mudra with which we control the breath in nadi shodhana.

4. Next, bring the right hand to the face. Separate the thumb from the ring and pinky fingers, placing the thumb on the side of the right nostril and the ring and pinky fingers on the side of the left nostril. Hold the hand here very lightly and easily, without using much pressure. To practice the breath, one nostril at a time is closed. To close a nostril, gently press it closed with the finger(s) that is touching it, rather than using any force to close it. The practice should be very soft & relaxing.



5. To begin, breathe a few rounds of simple ujjayi pranayama through both open nostrils. With the glottis slightly contracted, breathe slow, smooth, even inhalations followed by slow, smooth, even exhalations. Continue this quality of breath throughout nadi shodhana, even as we alternate closing one nostril at a time. So rather than beginning to suck air in and force air out through the nostril that is open, we simply continue ujjayi pranayama, but one nostril at a time will happen to be closed.

6. Now we begin nadi shodhana:
    a. Press the left nostril closed, inhale through the right.
    b. Press the right nostril closed, exhale through the left.
    c. Inhale through the left.
    d. Press the left nostril closed, exhale through the right.
    e. Inhale through the right.
    f. Press the right nostril closed exhale through the left.

Continue in this pattern for as many rounds as feels comfortable. Complete the exercise on an exhalation through the right nostril. Then, let the right hand rest on the right knee in jnana mudra. Breathe freely through the nose. As we become more comfortable with the practice, we can gradually begin to incorporate kumbhakas, or a retention/pause of the breath, between each inhalation and exhalation.

Pranayama should make us feel this relaxed!

Nadi shodhana pranayama can be practiced at the beginning or at the end of asana practice, just before savasana. I've experienced great benefit adding it as a staple in my daily practice. I hope you will, too. Until next time, yogis & yoginis:

NAMASTE!

Mic Check One, Two

And now, for something slightly different...

NAMASTE!

Thank You, Captain Obvious.

Image by Hello Turkey Toe, courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons

It takes quite a bit of work inside our cerebral powerhouses to actually produce a single thought. Yes, even those occasional impulsive outbursts, even those moments of vacuous nothingness eat up a lot of energy. In fact, our brains use more energy than any organ in the body, utilizing about 20% of our total (thanks, Scientific American). Most of this energy is devoted to just keeping our brain's cells functioning.

Feeling a bit like a dirty dog lately?

That's a lot of energy to wrangle. Indeed, as B.K.S. Iyengar says, "The brain is the hardest part of the body to adjust." Well, I most certainly could use a brain adjustment. It's been exceedingly difficult to get it going at full steam these days. I guess this thought train departed from Disappointment Station, wherein we turned our heads for just a second, and somebody stole our "Perfect Schedule/Routine/Organization/Motivation" luggage. You see, for some time we had a great routine established where we managed to get in yoga, surfing, swimming, running, hiking, gardening, waking early, working, cleaning, and general life organization on a regular basis. Then we went on a longish vacation and obliterated any trace of that routine (see here). We recovered from that fairly well while we were moving to a new house. Then we had some visitors for a week, and adopted a puppy, and somehow we reverted back to our caveman brains. We let our diet go to crap, we don't get up early anymore, we haven't been to the beach very much, our work:play ratio is completely out of balance, organization has become a four-letter word, getting up early is horrifically hard, and I don't even want to say how long it's been since we surfed. Sheesh.

The picture of our yoga practice: sleepy and strewn about. ;)

I started to succumb to dismay at how easily we're sidetracked from our "yoga-fied life" ideals. Like Mr. Iyengar says, "Change leads to disappointment if it is not sustained. Transformation is sustained change, and it is achieved through practice." So I guess this means we're still in that process of transforming our lives into the elevated ideals which we seek, lagging behind due to sluggish practice. Thank you, Captain Obvious. I'm cognizant of the fact that we will always be working to improve our quality of life. I already know what we want to be doing, and where we're headed. The disappointment comes when I feel we've backtracked, or when I start to become fixated on reaching some mythical finish line. In this particular instance, I'd say we're definitely in backtrack territory.

First family hike... baby steps.

So, when this happens we regroup and take baby steps to start moving forward on the path again. Take, for example, this past weekend. Despite feeling pretty low on the energy scale, we managed to get in some beach time, some hiking, some cooking and eating at home, some garden time, some budget work, and of course some yoga. Now, that's a pretty darn good weekend! So I was flying high, patting myself on the back. But wait, then I got a massive headache. What the...? I was totally taken down by one of those headaches that lasted all through the night and into the next morning. Hmmm. That doesn't seem right, we had a great weekend. I should be feeling great, right? After a few moments wallowing in my confusion, Scott made a sideways mention of going into the yoga room. Of course! Why didn't I think of that? Why do I practice all this yoga if I'm not going to use it to help me when I feel like crap? Again, thank you, Captain Obvious. This is what I meant when I said my brain hasn't exactly been running on all cylinders lately.

I don't guess it'll spoil the ending for you if I tell you I felt quite a bit better after some yoga. It's a shame that it took a headache to get me moving forward again, but I guess it could've been a lot worse. It's so easy at times to become dismayed at not being perfect, not having the perfect pose, not eating the perfect foods, not having perfect finances, or not living our lives as perfectly as we'd like. I've been so anxious to be where I want to be now, rather than being where I am now. Mr. Iyengar again (it's an Iyengar-kind-of-day, I guess), puts it so well, "Let the goal be to reach Perfection, but be content with a little progress toward perfection every day." Actually, I'd like to amend that a bit. Perhaps I can delight that a little progress toward perfection every day is quite perfect in and of itself. Just keep practicing, yogis & yoginis!

NAMASTE!

People Should Get Paid To Do That.

Yoda & the ragtag crew on tour.

I'm referring to playing Tour Guide, of course. We just had a lovely, adventure-packed week with some family from the mainland. While we had a great time, we are also happy to settle down again, put our house back together, and get back to whatever "normal" life we have. So, while we take a moment to regain our composure, I'd like to share some fun yoga news with you. Perhaps we'll see you at one of these upcoming special events!

First, I'll be teaching a 5 week series of Gentle and Restorative yoga classes at Island Spirit Yoga in Lahaina, beginning April 27th and ending May 27th. We'll have Weally Welaxing Wednesdays ;) with Restorative Yoga 6-7:30pm. Thursday mornings we'll move through a Gentle Flow from 10:30-noon. Then we close out the work week with an Aloha Friday Gentle Yoga class 9-10:30am. The entire schedule is laid out in the sidebar under "Yoga with Jean Marie." Some of our teachers will be on retreat in Italy, and these classes have been trusted to my care. All of the classes are appropriate for all levels, and are likely to leave you feeling very warm and fuzzy. Come check it out!

Speaking of retreats in Italy, my dear teacher, Dominique Pandolfi, is leading 3 retreats this summer: one in Mallorca, Spain and two in Italy. She, along with Jen Weller & Chelsea Hill , will take you on a transformative journey, weaving yoga, meditation, language, & culture together in the retreat of your dreams! Visit their website for more information: www.livingdreamretreats.com, or call Chelsea at 808-357-9591. Tell them Jean Marie sent you! More information from the lovely ladies themselves:

That's about all for now, yogis & yoginis. Stay tuned for more updates, including happenings around the garden... I feel a breaking of the ground coming! I'll leave you this week with a gratuitous puppy shot, and a passage from Jack Kornfield that I've been sharing with my classes. I hope it has as much resonance with you as it does with me:

"In this way, meditation is very much like training a puppy. You put the puppy down and say, 'Stay.' Does the puppy listen? It gets up and it runs away. You sit the puppy back down again. 'Stay.' And the puppy runs away over and over again. Sometimes the puppy jumps up, runs over, and pees in the corner or makes some other mess. Our minds are much the same as the puppy, only they create even bigger messes. In training the mind, or the puppy, we have to start over and over again." (from A Path With Heart, p. 59)

NAMASTE!

Small, Furry Coup d'Etat

Introducing: Yoda Nalu!

I've been sitting here for some time now trying to come up with a blog post for this week, and coming up blank. Well, not necessarily blank so much as distracted. Surprisingly, I've found it challenging to focus on anything for the last 5 days besides PUPPY. This small, furry, funny-looking 8-week-old dog-creature has managed to invade our home, take whatever semblance of an organized life we had, and turn it completely upside down. It is quite possibly the swiftest coup d'etat ever carried out by a being bearing baby teeth. 

So, I thought, if I can't think of anything besides what this little guy is doing, I might as well give the newest member of the Infinity Crossing team a proper introduction. His name is Yoda Nalu, he's the product of a heeler/pointer mother & a maltese/shih-tzu father (the logistics of which must have been impressive), and he's pretty awesome. Though we've been around him and his litter mates since they were just 1 week old, we still have a lot of acquainting to do. We have no idea how he'll wind up looking, but we're guessing he might grow to 20 lbs. Aside from being the cutest fur-ball ever, his most dominating trait at the moment is unfathomable energy.

Representing Maui Runners Club, in all it's glory...

It's all smiles and wiggles: what a great teacher!

Yoda has much training to do to develop the Master that lies within, and he's eagerly started on the path. Today, for instance, we brought him along with us for our 5k fun run on the beach in Kihei, as part of the Valley to the Sea race. We thought we'd carry him for much of the race, letting him run as he wanted, and walk as he wanted. This was to be his first introduction to the beach and first time around a lot of people. So, we planned to play it safe. Well, we were floored when our mild-mannered little puppy took off at a nice trot on the beach, staying right beside us as we baby-trotted along for nearly the entire 5k! We stopped to rest and drink water at the half-way mark, and tried to carry him or walk him, but he just rocked his puppy trot all the way through the finish line. I think we even managed to finish before some of the 10k runners! I do realize this was an awful lot of activity for a little puppy, and we won't be running any distances like that again soon. This was an exception for an event planned long ago, and it was a marvel to see how he literally took it in stride. In case you're wondering how all this activity affected him: a brief morning nap was all it took to fully power back up, and this puppy was even more rambunctious the rest of the day than he's been yet! Makes me feel old.

Does any of this relate to yoga? Of course, it does! Firstly, I'd like to point out that the couple of times I've been able to get him in the yoga room with me for long enough to start "aums" he's settled down relatively quickly into a nice mellow nap while I whip out as many asanas as I can before he wakes up. Aums definitely get his attention! Perhaps Yoda will be a great yoga dog, after all... Secondly, I'm getting a crash course in highly improvisational yoga. With a puppy constantly swinging between 0-100mph, I'm forced to grab yoga wherever and whenever I can sneak it in. Temporarily gone are the sweet days of getting up early and diving straight into hours of yoga. Now, we get up and "go potty," followed by a puppy playtime of indefinite duration. Yoga must now form strands that interweave themselves into the day, forming a beautiful tapestry out of chaotic threads. This is a blatant reminder of our essential mission: to yoga-fy everything we do by sprinkling yoga (be it physical, mental, spiritual, or metaphorical) onto all the fibers of our existence. Thanks for the lesson, Yoda! This is shaping up to be a beautiful partnership...

NAMASTE!

New Brain Food!

I'm very excited because a new book arrived at my doorstep today: Iyengar Yoga for Motherhood. I've been heavily anticipating this book's arrival for a couple of weeks now. As a 200 hour certified yoga teacher, I've had some training in the basics of pre & postnatal yoga. Yet, this really only covered some general rules of thumb about what to teach (and avoid teaching) when a pregnant woman shows up in a regular asana class. For example, standing poses are good while backbends and twists are not necessarily best. Or, it's not a good idea to teach kapalabhati but an emphasis on ujjayi breathing is great. These are pretty basic concepts, and have certainly proven valuable to me in my relatively short time as a yoga teacher. However, I've had enough encounters with pregnant women either in my classes or asking me about yoga to become painfully aware of just how infantile my knowledge in this area remains. There is a distinct lack of prenatal yoga on the island for my study purposes, and my personal experience with pregnancy is only through second-hand stories of its trials and triumphs. So, when all else fails, I turn to the internet!

Researching great books for yoga and pregnancy turned up Geeta Iyengar's book. Seeing as how I cherish her father's books as indispensable to my daily practice, I figured her book would be a pretty good starting point in this quest. So far, it looks like I scored a winner with this selection. First, it's huge! It's a very large hardcover book, numbering 443 pages from cover to cover. Topics include: yoga & Ayurvedic philosophy, preparation for pregnancy, asana descriptions & sequences for all levels and stages of pregnancy, pranayama, post-delivery practices, anatomy, & Ayurvedic health tips, including menus & massage. The photographic illustrations are abundant & clear. The size of the book and illustrations make it easy to practice alongside. In short, the mountain of information in this manual constitutes a full-length course in and of itself. It's going to take me some time to absorb it all. As a teacher, I'm incredibly pleased with this book as a reference guide to assist me in learning more about yoga for those beautiful pregnant women in my life and who come to my classes. On first glance alone, I can highly recommend this book for anyone with a curiosity or need for more in-depth information about yoga & pregnancy. Until next time...

NAMASTE!

Energy Flows Where Attention Goes

Image from NOAA, courtesy of Hawaii News Daily

Things are settling down here on Maui after our long, and thankfully uneventful, tsunami watch Thursday night into Friday morning. Our prayers for protection and comfort go out to the people in Japan, struggling with the aftermath, and ongoing dangers, of the earthquakes and tsunami.

Lower Waiehu, on Maui. Image from Haley @ Green Plate Dinners

Among the Hawaiian islands, it seems that Maui and Big Island met the largest of the tsunami surge: 7 ft at Kahului Harbor and 11 ft at Kealakekua Bay on the Big Island. There was noticeable flooding along the coasts here on Maui, with ponding along coast highways, widespread debris, and some damage to coastal homes. We're told the water came in several city blocks in Kahului. Boat and harbor damage seems to be the most costly from what we've heard. All in all, we really dodged a bullet, considering what reasonably could have come our way.

MFD rescues a stranded honu. Image from Haley @ Green Plate Dinners

As we watched the outside world from the comfort of our new home, which happens to be well outside the evacuation zone, we reflected with great gratitude upon where our attention and energy had led us. This time last year, with a tsunami warning from the Chilean earthquake, we had to pack our worldly belongings and haul up the mountain, then anxiously wait to see if our home and the rest of the coastline would be spared mother nature's wrath. We love our new home, but we discovered even more love for it Thursday night!

Photo by Jen Fry

All of this further solidifies my resolve for the work we do. The essence of working to yoga-fy our lives lies in focusing our attention on manifesting a peaceful, loving energy within and around us. This means that everything we do strives to be aligned with positivity, peace, and love. Of course, things don't always line up the way we intend, for whatever reason, be it of internal origin or from larger forces. It seems that what ultimately matters through these fluctuations is the energy we continue to generate in our own beings. Whether we're responding to the forces of mother nature, or actively creating in the world around us, fueling our thoughts and actions with compassion and love automatically unites us with yoga. This world and everything in it is made of energy. Just look at the image of the tsunami spreading through the ocean to see energy at work before your very eyes. If we think about it, we can all find examples of how we've used our focused attention to guide the energy around us towards good things, even great things. As someone once said, "energy flows where our attention goes." So, what are we waiting for?

NAMASTE

"There" Is Now "Here"

Hello, new house.

I'm just going to come out and say it: I'm so very ashamed that it's been a whole month since I last posted on the blog. While I accept responsibility for diving into a time warp, I also blame it on that house! You see, we've been in the process of a long, slow, tortoise-like move from Paia to Haiku, HI. While it has, at times, been arduous, this move is ultimately an integral part of our yoga-fied lifestyle path. It also just so happens to be driving us nicely along towards our goal for this year of improving the quality of our surroundings.

Finally, a real kitchen for that fancy vegan cooking we want to do!

And things are indeed improving! This lovely house is very cute, full of good energy, and provides us with exactly the balance of privacy, nature, and convenience to society that we need for this year of business-building and lifestyle-upgrading. Along the same lines, we've invested quite a bit of time (and money) into upgrading our household stock. While this has made the move very drawn out (we're still not fully settled), it has taken us huge leaps forward in the quality of our surroundings, keeping those all-important goals in mind. For all that we've done well, I will say that the next time I move, I'd like to hire movers so we don't wind up digging out of a haphazardly moved mountain of personal belongings! That's just another improvement we can work on, though I'd rather not have reason to work on it for another few years...

Want Yoga? Super Yogis Jean Marie & Scott will fly in to save the day!

So what does all this mean for ICY? Well, we no longer have our ICY Paia Studio, and our new home, while fabulous, is ill-suited for the business of teaching yoga. This just means that if you'd like to schedule a private lesson with me or Scott, we'll be meeting in a mutually accessible yoga space on the island instead of our private studio space. This actually opens us up to come to you! So if you want to inquire about scheduling private yoga instruction with us, please call 808-463-9413 or email jeanmarie@infinitycrossing.com. We'll work with you to decide on a location, time, and rate that's most harmonious!

This also means that big changes will need to happen at infinitycrossing.com. Beyond the basic changes involving our move from the ICY Paia studio, we are almost ready to release some new product lines, which I can't tell you about just yet. They'll have to speak for themselves! We also have that brand new set of photos ready! I've posted some here on the blog, but you can preview the full collection on our Facebook page, and soon we'll release them on the website as well.

Pots, pots, and more pots!

And of course, there's the garden! I carted a full truckload of plants from the old house to the new. I was hopeful they wouldn't experience too much shock because of the change in climate. At the new house we have slightly cooler temperatures accompanied by much more moisture. My plants have absolutely loved it here from the moment they arrived! Of course, it probably helped that I fortified their move by feeding them all some worm castings and compost tea.
I'm going to keep several large planters by the lanai for my easy-access edible herbs. I'll also keep lots of ornamentals potted on the lanai. The new garden space is just around the trees, and needs loads of work! A new post on The Garden page is forthcoming, where I'll go into greater detail, for all you green (or brown) thumbs out there...

So, I think that's all for now. I have a rumbling volcano of work to soothe in the coming days, so keep your eyes on the blog. Even in all the chaos that was February, we kept our twitter account @InfinityXing up to date every single day. So if you want the latest "Yoga-fy Your Life Tip of the Day" or just want to know what we're up to, twitter is where we're at! Again, for those of you who can't stomach the "tweeting thing," our daily tweets go straight to our Facebook page, so "Like" us there and you won't miss a beat. Many mahalos for tuning in to Infinity Crossing, in whatever manifestation you choose. As always, yogis and yoginis, keep smiling, laughing, and spreading the NAMASTE!

I Love Bunnies...

Photo by Newtown Graffiti, courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons

Gung Hay Fat Choy! The lunar new year is upon us, so we welcome the Year of the Rabbit. Energetically speaking, this is supposed to be a year of introspection, making improvements in our lives, and a favorable time to cultivate greater peace and tranquility. Whew, just in time!

In honor of this changing of the guard, I thought we could take a quick look at sasangasana, or rabbit pose. This is a pose I love, but rarely remember to do. It is an excellent pose for accessing the back-body, stretching the muscles of the back and bringing greater mobility to the spine, while also stretching the arms and shoulders. This pose is contraindicated for those of us with knee, back, or neck issues. If it doesn't feel good, don't do it. For those who want to give it a go, here's a video demonstration from Moksha Yoga:

Shell Ginger

I've posted a new quarterly update on "The Garden" page. Check it out for the latest in our garden happenings. We'll be moving soon, so we've got some major changes coming... I'll keep posting updates there as we start "movin' on up!"

Finally, I stumbled upon an absolutely epic PBS documentary series on India. Premiered in 2009, "The Story of India," was a 6 part series examining India's past, present, and future, celebrating her unfathomably rich culture and spiritual traditions. Mesmerizing imagery is just the beginning in this film that seeks a greater understanding of the multi-faceted jewel that is India. Clearly, I highly recommend it. ;-) It's an instant watch on Netflix, and PBS's website has lots more information. The trailer is below. Until next time, yogis and yoginis:

NAMASTE!

That Darn Pendulum Just Keeps Swinging.

Photo by striatic, courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons

Te Pratiprasavah Heya Sukshmaha. (Patañjali's Yoga Sutras 2.10) My teachers, Eddie Modestini and Nicki Doane translate this sutra as follows: "When the obstacles do not appear to be present on the Path and in Life, do not be fooled. They are always there and serve as a reminder to be ever vigilant. We would do well to cultivate and maintain a Beginner's mind and to never assume that we know anything. That way we can be open to learn new things. Expectations are the root of all suffering."

Well, I'd say that just about sums things up at the moment. Just when we think we've found that center point of balance on the swinging pendulum of life, that darn pendulum just keeps right on swinging to an extreme we thought was far behind us. All we can do is hold on and try to enjoy the ride. Of course, we've learned much from our time on the pendulum leading up to this moment, so we handle unexpected, unfortunate, and/or unpleasant events with more maturity and equanimity. But, we're still newbies on this path of Yoga, so of course we're also still whining quite a bit about life's little dualities.

The road is rocky, but the view is spectacular.

There may just be something in the air, maybe the stars are aligned in a mischievous fashion, or maybe we're all waiting around for a superhero to show up. Whatever it is, things seem to be a little out of whack all around us. As for our end, it has certainly been a pileup of the vehicles of misfortune, partly due to our own poor planning and partly due to entirely unforeseen circumstances. The pendulum seems to have taken our poor financial planning for a ride straight into a steaming pile of potential illness, bureaucratic red tape, friends in heartache, and injury. In the not too distant past, I would have said it's just a gnarly case of bad timing/luck. Yet, I've come to believe even more so that times like this pack powerful lessons that we need to learn, or will otherwise confront again and again until the message sticks. 

So what are we learning? Well, first and foremost we've become painfully aware that proper financial planning is an enormous part of yoga-fying our lives. Sure, yogis don't need money when they live in caves. But modern yogis trying to live in Western society find money an annoying necessity at times.  I'm the first one to admit that I am something of an infant when it comes to intelligently and maturely managing family finances. The few things I do know how to do are basic (i.e. savings, emergency funds, priority allocation of funds) and I still have a lot of work to do before I master them. Moreover, I remain ignorant of the more sophisticated financial planning practices that someone my age really and truly needs to learn in order to have a secure nest egg for late life (because yogis notoriously live long lives!). Recently, we've become big fans of a few money blogs that have provided us with fantastic tips. To name some of our favorites:

Get Rich Slowly
7 Million in 7 Years
Erica.biz
Zen Habits
I Will Teach You to Be Rich
The Motley Fool

Disclaimer: Obviously, we aren't doing, nor do we endorse, everything on these blogs. We simply find some very helpful tips there for our personal and professional finances. Maybe you'll find something useful there, too.

That pot of gold must be around here somewhere...

As we scratch and save to try to recover from a holiday trip that was planned and paid for on a bigger income than our current situation, we are also faced with moving to a new house about 6 months before our finances would have been ready. We have been emotionally ready to move for some time now, but were hoping to put it off long enough to recover from our trip's expenses. Yet, our duplex neighbors and friends have decided to part ways, providing ample impetus for own move. Fingers, toes, and eyeballs remain crossed to find the right place for us!

But this also brings us to friends in heartache. How do we, as good yogis, provide comfort and solace to our dear friends when they are in pain? We do what we would want from our friends: having those tough emotional talks, providing whatever advice we can, and even doing some restorative, healing yoga together. It's yet another reminder that no matter how yoga-fied we think we are, we're still part of this earthly life and have to face all the suffering and dualities that come along with it. The pendulum keeps swinging.

Photo by Jen Fry

Adding injury to insult, I write this post delicately balancing ice on my mysteriously injured shoulder. My teachers would tell you that I'm often an "intensely intense" yogini. Give me a direction and I'll probably find a way to overdo it. Somehow, unbeknownst to me, I tweaked a very small and particular part of my shoulder. The result is a joint that operates perfectly 99.9% of the time. That remaining .1% sees a certain small movement sending a lightning bolt from my shoulder to my elbow. At the moment, I'm in the wait-and-see period, icing and trying to rest the shoulder to see if it will heal itself. Again, fingers, toes, and eyeballs are crossed! In the meantime, I'm taking stock of my "intensely intense" tendencies, trying to back off a bit in my practice even though practice doesn't hurt my shoulder, and learning a bit more about using my words to teach rather than relying on demonstration. I actually thought it would be a while before I had to start learning these lessons about my practice and teaching, but I guess I've landed myself in an accelerated class. I'm doing my best to keep up!

Being a good yogini, I know that all of this is temporary. That darn pendulum we're on will soon reach the extreme end of its period and begin it's movement back to equilibrium. And as long as the Earth keeps turning, it will surely then keep on swinging to the other extreme, certain to venture into new lessons to learn and sights to see. I am sure of this. That doesn't mean it isn't challenging, though. In the meantime, we're working to keep our Beginner's minds open, receptive, and alert. Equilibrium will come. We have only to enjoy the ride. 

NAMASTE!

What's Goin' On?

With so much change afoot recently, I feel it necessary to provide a "state of Infinity Crossing" address. So what is goin' on around here?

Photo by Brittany G, Flickr Creative Commons

ICYoga Paia

I'll start with the yoga. We've now converted our ICYoga studio in Paia to a space exclusively for private yoga instruction. This format is more harmonious with our existing space, and our ever-busying schedules outside the studio. Private yoga instruction is the traditional method of study, and provides in-depth, personalized training that beautifully enhances the student's practice, and is very hard to come by in a group setting. We are also available to travel for private lessons. For more information or to schedule your appointment, please go to infinitycrossing.com, or contact us directly at jeanmarie@infinitycrossing.com or 808-463-9413.

Jean Marie is still teaching public classes at Island Spirit Yoga in Lahaina on Tuesdays 10:30-Noon. The class is Vinyasa Flow: studying structural alignment while emphasizing the union of breath and movement. In the style of my teachers, we explore chanting, pranayama, meditation, yoga sutras, and asanas. This is an all-levels class.

We've just done a couple of exciting photo shoots with one of our favorite photographers and dear friend, Ms. Jen Fry. The photos exhibit asanas demonstrated by Jean Marie amidst the stunning beauty of Maui's north shore. This collection is currently in editing, and will be exhibited soon. Here's a sneak preview:

Photo by Jen Fry

We're also steadily building our social networking presence on twitter and Facebook. Follow us on twitter for our Yoga-fy Tip of the Day, and to keep up with the very latest in Infinity Crossing Yoga. What's a "Yoga-fy Tip of the Day?" It's simply a thought, action, quote, or helpful hint that resonates with us as we work to Yoga-fy our lives. We hope you will find them helpful, too. Don't do the twitter thing? Like us on Facebook to get your daily Yoga-fy tip, and join our growing community of friends.

Maui Runners Club = Happy Feet

Infinity Crossing has a new little sister, too! Or maybe it's more like a mischievous little brother... Thanks to the enthusiasm of our friends, we've started Maui Runners Club. It's a disorganization of people of who love Maui and love running. The idea was born out of our recreational beach and trail runs around the island, comparing notes with our runner-friends, and wondering how we could get together with other runners-for-fun here on Maui. Now, MRC loosely organizes fun-runs all over the island, roughly once a month. We are currently a hub of barefoot and minimalist footwear runners, but we of course welcome shoe-lovers as well. As the club grows, the events will likely get more and more "out there," so bring your sense of humor. All events are BYOStuff, and run-at-your-own-risk, so come ready to have some fun and meet some great people! Follow MRC on twitter and Facebook for details on the next event!

ICYoga Ladies' Longsleeve Shirt by InfinityCrossing

Last but certainly not least, we've installed the very first Infinity Crossing Shop here on the blog! Now you can find great ICYoga merchandise, including customizable apparel for women and men. The store also includes custom-made prints of our photography from the Valley Isle, with the option to select prints, posters, and even canvas prints in a wide array of sizes. The ICYoga line of products is only in it's infancy, and we're constantly working to expand it. So if something you want is not currently in the store, contact us and we'll do our best to accommodate! 

  

That's all for now. Even more changes are in store, so we'll keep you posted with all the new developments. Until next time, yogis & yoginis... 

NAMASTE!

Yoga Comes Home

Early morning on the Pali

Our planetary orbit around the Sun that is Yoga is finally bringing us back from the cold outer reaches of the solar system to the warm & sunny realm we like to call home. Yoga on the Go has certainly been an epic journey filled with adventure, rain, snow, family, friends, way too much food, puppy kisses, some dis-ease, and of course yoga. The Yoga on the Go experiment started as a documentation of how sprinkling yoga into airplane and car travel might help ease the accompanying physical and mental strain of traveling. This really is quite obvious: integrating yoga into the act of traveling does significantly cut down on mental exhaustion and physical fatigue. Holiday travel can be especially stressful, and while we did experience some minor twinges of manic energy, we mostly cruised through packed airports, planes, and highways, thanks to yoga. All of this I anticipated.

Took the "red eye" home

However, what I didn't see coming was the challenge we experienced with everyday living away from our established "lifestyle of wellness." Not to say that we live a perfect lifestyle, by any means, but it is a pretty darn good one by our standards. We run, swim, yoga, surf, garden, and eat a largely vegan diet. The only component of that list that came on vacation with us was yoga. Apparently, everything else stayed home. Granted, we didn't expect to do much swimming or surfing or gardening during a mainland winter. Yet, the biggest flaw in our Yoga on the Go series was in failing to plan for maintaining some semblance of our diet. We decided before embarking on the trip that we wouldn't "impose" our diet on the friends and family with whom we'd be staying. Rather, we'd happily eat what our loved ones were generous enough to provide. While we were deeply grateful for all the wonderful food our loved ones prepared for us, we certainly felt the difference between our largely vegan diet and the largely un-vegan diet we encountered on our journey. Perhaps the most interesting of things we noticed about the diet change was the sheer quantity of food we were capable of eating. The most glaring example was the now infamous pumpkin roll with cream cheese filling. This was a devilishly delicious cake, I must admit. When we ate a slice of this cake after a plentiful dinner, we both felt like we could easily go on to eat the entire cake ourselves. This, of course, terrified us. Many of the processed, ultra rich foods we ate triggered this ravenous craving for more of the same food. So, to satisfy curiosity, instead of having another slice of cake, we decided to try an orange. Not two bites into that orange we both started to feel just how overfull our bellies actually were.

So we became keenly aware of just how critical a healthy diet is to a yoga-fied lifestyle. It's incredibly difficult to maintain a consistent yoga practice when we eat nutrient deficient foods everyday. Those foods affect not only our physiques, but also our moods, attitudes, energy levels, and on and on. How can we expect to nurture a lifestyle of holistic wellness when we fuel our bodies with empty calories?
It's taken about a week for us to start recovering completely from the havoc wreaked by 3 weeks of meat, dairy, and various processed foods. And this is in no way a criticism of our loved ones, but rather a cold, hard look at our culture of food. Simple, raw, organic foods are just not available in many places. Or if they are available, they are outrageously expensive and out of reach for many cash-strapped budgets. There's also the emotional attachment to these fatty diets with which we all grew up. That's why they're called "comfort foods." Yet, they provide no real comfort for our bodies, and probably only serve to make us sick.

A rare treat: tofu curry bowl!

Many of our loved ones expressed a desire to explore a cleaner diet, but were frustrated with the difficulty of making that transition. We happen to live in a part of the world where we can grow food year round, and have plenty of health food stores and vegetarian or even vegan dining out options. I really don't have an easy solution for my friends and family who live in places with a fast food joint on every corner. The only thing I could encourage them to do was to take it one meal at a time. Let that one meal gradually grow into more. Pay close attention to how a vegan meal affects the feeling in the body, mind, and energy level. Compare that to a heavier meal. Experiment with different foods and find what feels the best. That should help spark the motivation to create that lifestyle change. For indeed, it does take a great deal of motivation and determination to eat healthy foods when unhealthy foods are quick and easy in most places. The tipping point came for us when we found very clear intolerances to dairy and wheat products upon trying a monodiet for a week, then introducing foods back in one at a time. That was a huge motivation for us to make a big change in our diet.

Also, check out this great film I just watched, called "Food Matters." It definitely fits right in to this train of thought on yoga-fying our eating habits. It's good to be home, and, as always, NAMASTE!