10 Things I’m Grateful For

It’s October, and where I live in central Canada, leaves are changing from green to eye-catching shades of yellow, orange, and red.

Image by Chis Lawton

This weekend is Thanksgiving, and maybe you’ll be seated around an elaborately decorated dinner table with family and friends, sharing food, drink and merriment.

Someone might say a prayer of thanks, and during or after the feast, you may be invited to share what you’re grateful for, as is often part of the Thanksgiving tradition.

Responses will likely include the ones we hear most often—loved ones, health, and food.

But what if you were asked to talk about some of the less obvious things that can make up a gratitude list? 

What are you grateful for every day when you wake up?

Without thinking, take a few minutes for yourself, sit down, and write 10 things.

That’s what I did the other day, and here’s what I came up with.

10 Things I’m Grateful For

1. The changing seasons

2. Green grass

3. The sun and moon

4. Eyes to see beauty everywhere

5. Comfort

6. Opportunity

7. Ears to hear laughter, music, and enjoyable conversation

8. Children

9. Feet to take me where I want to go

10. Memories

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We don’t have to wait until special holidays to give thanks.

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Image by Tatiana Rodriguez

With joy and gratitude,

Jeannine

Mudras and The Five Elements Theory

For the past few years each of my yoga sessions (fall, winter, spring) has included a specific theme as a way to introduce students to a wider base of knowledge beyond yoga poses practiced on the mat. I was taught in this way by my teachers, who were taught in this same way by their revered teachers, and so on.

At the outset, I introduced Patanjali’s eight-fold path called ashtanga, as a general overview of some upcoming themes:

 • Yama: principles that guide our interaction with others

• Niyama: guidelines for how to act toward ourselves

• Asana: physical postures/poses

• Pranayama: breathing techniques

• Pratyahara: withdrawal of the senses/ability to overcome distractions

• Dharana: ability to concentrate

• Dhyana: meditation

• Samadhi: state of bliss

This introduction paved the way for a more detailed step-by-step exploration of yama, niyama, pranayama, and dhyana, as well as the 7-chakra energy system.

With this same desire to further expand our learning, I’ve added mudras to our burgeoning awareness of the yoga tradition.

According to Georg Feuerstein, “In yoga, mudras are primarily special hand gestures that are used to conduct the body’s subtle energy or life force (prana) in specific ways.” Numerous yogic practices use mudras—a Sanskrit term meaning “seal”—to contain, direct, or enhance the body’s life force.

Many of the mudras originated from stories told by the Buddha on his path to enlightenment. They are commonly used during contemplative practices such as meditation and visualization, as well as during practices that control breathing, and rituals of worship.

There are hundreds of mudras, including the wide range of mudras of the hands, arms, legs, head, and trunk used in Indian dance and drama.

Mudras are powerful tools for healing and can be used to awaken the Five Elements. What are the Five Elements you ask?

According to the Five Elements Theory, our bodies and the entire world are composed of five elements—fire, air, earth, water, and space.

In the yoga tradition, each of these elements is represented by the fingers of the hand:

• Thumb: fire (agni) represents universal consciousness, digestion, and transformation

• Index: air (vayu) symbolizes individual consciousness/ movement of breath and other “winds”

• Middle: space/ether (akash) represents the connection between each of the five elements for harmony and health

• Fourth: earth (prithvi) is associated with qualities of grounding, stabilizing, and internal nourishing forces

• Little: water (jal) represents liquids in our body—blood, saliva, lymph

One of the most common and recognizable mudras is the anjali gesture—the bringing of the palms of the hands together in front of the heart with the fingers extended upward—which symbolizes the divine offering of physical and spiritual harmony.

“Anjali mudra is a gesture of honoring, reverence, and loving connection. We can direct it toward others, as in greeting someone with Namaste or Namaskar. But we can also direct the energy of Anjali mudra toward ourselves. In this way it becomes a simple practice of self-honoring.”

— Barrie Risman

That said, I place my hands in anjali mudra and bow my head toward the insightful heart, as a gesture of loving connection with myself and with you.

With joy and gratitude,

Jeannine

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How Well Do You Handle Overwhelm?

The business of summer is behind us and we’re now turning our attention to fall schedules and routines. Our regular, jam-packed agendas can easily lead to overwhelm as you may know all too well.

When overwhelm strikes, it’s easy to feel powerless and immobile.

Everything feels too fast, too big, too much.

When we’re overwhelmed, just making dinner can become a monumental effort.

I invite you to press “pause” and take a few minutes for yourself. Go through the Thriving list below to see how well you’ve learned to deal with overwhelm. 

• I try to remember that I don’t have to do everything myself. I ask others for help and gather a support team about me.

• As often as I can remember, I stop for a moment and take several deep, slow breaths, breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth, restoring my sense of calm.

• I graciously say “No” to new requests for my time, and I try to renegotiate previous commitments so I can regroup.

• I resist the frantic voice inside that says, “You don’t have time!” and take a short break to sit or lie down for a few minutes because I know it will make me feel as though I actually have more time.

• I light a candle and keep it near me. 

• I watch a funny video. Laughter has a very positive effect on brain chemistry.

• I go outdoors for a few minutes when I can. Taking time to notice the joyful details of nature—a leaf, a ladybug, a snowflake—is very regenerative.

• Even if for only 10 minutes, I do some form of movement—dancing, jogging, walking, yoga. I know that exercise increases adrenaline and endorphins, the body’s natural antidepressants. 

• When I need to drown out the negative chatter in my overwhelmed state, I hum, I observe my breath moving in and out, or I quietly sing to myself. It soothes me and helps me focus on “one step at a time.”

• I have a practice of meditating or praying for a few minutes each morning, which keeps me tethered to myself and grounded during the times when overwhelm wants to scatter my energy to the wind. 

• I write in my journal as fast as I can for 15 minutes without editing or judging. This “brain dump” helps clear my mind and move away from overwhelm.

• On my walks (with the dog or alone), I whisper to myself all the things for which I forgive myself.

• When the pressure of overwhelm feels unbearable, I listen to music that helps me to cry. The crying helps wash away the overwhelm and bring me back to my strength.

• I repeat the following several times: “I have abundant time and energy.”

• I keep a list of all the things that help me re-connect with myself, that help me re-collect and re-focus my energy inside, so that when overwhelm begins to visit, I can remind myself of things that have worked in the past.

Overcoming overwhelm isn’t about measuring accomplishment. It’s about connecting with what has meaning for us, with what feeds and enlivens us.

Feeling connected then connects us to the natural fuel for getting things done.

If you’d like some help working through overwhelm and aligning better with your values and needs, don’t hesitate to contact me.

With joy and gratitude,

 Jeannine

Author's content used with permission, © Claire Communications

Live Online Interactive Yoga Starts this Saturday!

Summer has gone by in the blink of an eye so here I am trying to catch up on all the things I still need to do before I settle into my fall routine.

In my last news post, you might recall reading that my online group classes continue to be offered ‘livestreamed’ on Zoom, which is not entirely correct.

I recently learned that online yoga actually falls into two categories:

1)    Live interactive classes (students can see and hear the teacher, and the teacher can see and hear the students)

2)    One-way streamed classes (students can see and hear the teacher, but the teacher cannot hear or see the students)

I apologise for any confusion and I want to make it abundantly clear that my online group yoga classes are live interactive offerings—the next best thing to in-person classes!

Of course, online yoga is a different experience because we’re not in the same physical space sharing the same physical energy. But the pre- and post-class chats are still there. Questions still get answered. We talk about stuff, ponder some big and small questions, even laugh from time to time, and as always, I provide personalised guidance. There’s definitely an energy exchange of sorts through Zoom’s cloud-based video conferencing platform.

If you spend long periods of time on video conferencing platforms you might be concerned about Zoom fatigue. Fortunately, researchers at Stanford University have identified easy ways to alleviate four causes of this fatigue, which you can read about here. In addition—in my humble opinion—screen-time fatigue is minimized during live online yoga classes because you’re not constantly staring up close at a video screen or typing on a keyboard.

It's entirely possible that you absolutely love the convenience of live online interactive yoga classes. Maybe you even think they’re brilliant­­ and less stressful because you don’t have to commute, especially during the cold winter months, and you can participate from almost anywhere on the planet. If you’ve supported my offerings of this mode of class delivery over the last couple of years, I am deeply grateful. It has allowed us to stay connected as a yoga community.

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Live online interactive yoga classes resume this Saturday September 10th.

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Registration is still open and I look forward to seeing you in class.

Send me any questions that come up, and I'll be more than happy to reply.

With joy and gratitude,

Jeannine

Lazy Days of Summer

How is your summer going? 

Are you enjoying the lazy days of summer?

Are these lazy days a thing of the past?

Our high-tech life with its accelerated pace has fostered a culture that seems to be always working, always rushed, always connected, always on. 

With cellphones interrupting dinner with friends, laptops and tablets at the beach or on the deck at the cottage, and home offices that beckon us all hours of the night and day, it’s hard to separate play from work.

Does this sound familiar? It sure resonates with me. This summer has been incredibly busy.

I’m two months into a kitchen renovation, which many say is the most stressful home renovation project that you can undertake. It’s costly, lengthy, with delays and complications popping up here and there. And of course, things aren’t perfect.

But thankfully, this is where the less obvious side of my practice of yoga comes in.

In spite of my eye for symmetry and balance, I’m learning more and more to accept and appreciate imperfection.

In spite of my need to be in control, I’m letting things unfold and be as they may.

In spite of my wish to get things done quickly, I’m once again appreciating how breathing in and breathing out slowly, with awareness, helps to downregulate my over-active nervous system.

This week our kitchen countertops are being installed, which means that we’ll have a kitchen sink with a faucet and running water.

How exciting!  As they say, it’s the small things that truly bring us pleasure.

It may be hard to fathom, but I’m absolutely looking forward to doing the dishes in the kitchen once again, because I’ve been washing and drying them in the second-floor bathroom sink—effective but tricky, especially with fine glassware and glass plates.

I’ve also been spending a lot of time on homework for yet another course that I decided would be helpful.

And while blessed with many wonderful opportunities to spend time with family and long-time friends, I’ve also made some new, very generous and hospitable, friends.

Socializing this summer has felt quite normal in spite of the fact that covid is still on my mind.

The fall yoga schedule is now posted on my website, and the latter has been ‘refreshed’ so it’s easier to navigate and more visually appealing. 

On this last note, you’ll see that my group classes remain livestreamed on Zoom (private classes are in person), but this could change depending on what the covid situation looks like in September.

I’m making time for a few lazy days at the end of August.

Maybe you will too.