While I was visiting Texas in July, I had the pleasure of watching my nephew learning to balance in order to stand and walk.  It’s so crazy that we learn to manage this bundle of bones, muscles and energetic impulses when we are like 1/6th of our full size, especially at a time when our heads are so big compared to our bodies (this is especially true for my sweet nephew).

When we are learning to balance, we definitely don’t enjoy the falling down part of the process, but we get used to it and learn from it each time.  You would think that as we grow up and master balance in our full size self that that would be it, we wouldn’t have to think or worry about it ever again.  Not so though.  Our bodies are in a constant state of change, whether from having a baby, gaining some weight, losing weight or just aging in general.

As we age, we have a harder time managing the weight of our bodies – our muscles become less reactive and our movement patterns that have helped us balance over the years begin to cause joint restriction and arthritis. Every year, 300 thousand Americans fall and brake a hip. Of those 300k, 25% die within a year of the fracture.   These numbers scream for more prevention – continually learning how to manage the weight of our bodies.  And yoga can help!

Here are a couple of simple ways to start working on your balance today:

Balance comes from the earth and your core muscles.  As I’ve mentioned before, physics laws still hold true:  every action has an equal and opposite reaction.  Thus, the more you press down into your feet, the more energy you get lifting you up from the ground.  Secondly, if you are using your core muscles, it is easier to stay steady.

Safe Practice:

If possible, get down on the floor and lay on your side.  Flex your feet with your bottom arm extended overhead.  Lay your top arm down on your hip.  As a test, let your belly relax and your rib cage pop out and just feel what happens inside – careful, you may roll forward or back.  Get yourself back to center and pull your belly in and drop your front ribs down inside and feel how much easier it is to balance.  Stay here for 10 breaths and switch sides.  You’ll find that one side is always harder than the other.

Standing Practice:

One of my favorite quickie balance practices is walking the tight rope backwards (if need be, do this near a wall that you can lean into for support):

• Start with feet at hip distance (2^nd toe directly under the ASIS – the bones that you can feel at the front of your hips)
• Press down more into your right foot and lift your left heel (try not to let your left hip lift) and put it on top of your right foot (toes to toes)
• Inhale & lift your left knee up; exhale place your left foot down directly behind your right heel – toes touching the heel
• Shift your weight back to your left foot and bring your right foot on top of your left.
• Inhale lift your right knee up; exhale place your right foot directly behind your left heel – toes touching the heel
• Continue for 10 – 20 steps.

Other ways to improve your balance:

• Take note of which foot you have a harder time balancing on and always stand on that foot (either in foot to foot pose or tree pose with foot on inner shin or thigh) while brushing your teeth.
• Every time you are in the checkout line at a store, work on balance – you probably have time to work both legs.
• When standing around talking to friends or waiting for someone to meet you, just working on pressing down into one foot and lifting the opposite heel, switching sides continuously

The good news is that you can improve your balance with consistent practice, so get started today!

I completed the Loyola Marymount University Yoga Therapy Level II year long program this last weekend.  We were honored with the teachings of Robert Birnberg, who challenges anyone he talks with to be more active in visualizing, thus creating all the things you want in life.

I think our society is provided with so many options (both good and bad), that we have become lackadaisical.  Too many times, we fall into the mindset that “whatever shall be, shall be” as Doris Day sang in The Man Who Knew Too Much, which causes us to float through life without  many goals or achievements.   While not getting stuck in minutia of “how” things will work out is very important, that doesn’t mean we can’t specify exactly what outcome we want.

For instance, I want to grow my yoga teaching and therapy practice, so after class I spent some time writing up exactly what I want:  how many private clients, how many classes per week, how many students in each of my classes, where I will teach, how much I will make, what my students will say to me/about me, etc.  It feels good to get clear about what I want, not just have the blanket statement “I want to grow my yoga business,” which is vague and cannot be measured easily.

So, I’m challenging you this week.  Whether it be your career, your lifestyle or your relationship with someone, what is it you want?

Spend some time sitting (or I’m a big fan of laying down with my feet up in a chair) and meditating on what you want.  Visualize every single aspect of it.   If it is a new job, visualize what your new workspace will look like, who your co-workers will be and how they will treat you, what you will do throughout the day, how you will feel both going to and home from work, and on and on.

Once you have a clear idea of all these things, grab a pen and a journal and write it all out.  Again add as many exact details as you can:  what kind of computer (or other work instruments) will you use, what does your desk look like, what other elements are in your workspace, etc.

After writing everything out, pause and take note of how you feel inside.  Excited? Joyful? Peaceful?

Now put the journal away, say a prayer and go on about your day.  Tomorrow, pick it back up, re-read it and confirm that all things you have written are positive, tangible (instead of vague) and specific.  As you read it, visualize it all again, note how you feel inside, then again send it up/out in a prayer.  Now comes the hardest part:  trusting.

Just as in each yoga pose there is a fine balance between strength and softness, achieving goals requires some action and some trusting.  The first action is visualizing, now you must trust that whatever the next step is becomes clear when the time is right.  The best way to let go, trust, and be paying attention when the next action is required is to spend more time focusing on your breath.  Maybe you start by turning off the radio in your car and taking slow deep breaths on the way to the coffee shop each morning or maybe after your lunch break before you start the rest of your day.

As the breath goes, so your awareness goes, so change flows.

One of the things I’ve always been bad at is sunscreen application.  When in the sun, I’m constantly applying it, but somehow I always miss several spots and end up with random burn markings.  When we set sail for Catalina last Friday, it was totally overcast.  While I had applied sunscreen in the morning, I forgot to re-apply due to the lack of sun most of the day (I usually feel my skin burning).  The only parts of me showing, my face and chest, were quite lobstery by the time we had dinner on Friday night.

I suffered through the weekend, still managing to get other crazy burn patterns on my legs, especially around the tape on my knee – yeah, it looks really cool.  When we got back to our boat slip in the marina, our neighbor Dave gave me a tip for sunburns that I’ve never heard before: vinegar.  At first I thought “ick, I so don’t want to smell that on me,” but then I thought about it some more.  Dave is an ex-navy seal, ex-stunt man, and has been living on his boat for many years.  He’s had more experience with the sun than I ever want to, so I decided to give it a try.

I always keep a gallon size jug of vinegar in my cabinet, since it’s so good for getting musty and mothball smells out of laundry as well as many other cleaning needs.  I poured a little on a cotton ball and swabbed it all over my face and neck.  Since it burned a little, I decided to just try it there and leave my crazy leg burns alone.  I then went out and cut a leaf off my aloe plant that I planted in the spring and rubbed it all over my chest and face once the vinegar dried.

I woke up a couple of times through the night and felt my legs burning, but nothing with my face and chest.  When I got up in the morning the difference was clearly noticeable. My leg burns were still cherry red, while my face/chest had faded quite a bit.   For some dumb reason, I never put vinegar on my legs even though I could feel the burn for at least two more days. My face didn’t feel tender the whole time.

So next time you blister in the sun, give vinegar and whatever type of soothing lotion you like to use a try. You may still look burnt, but you won’t feel a thing!

We just got back from another trip to Catalina Island on our 1973 Cat 27’ sailboat. We’ve been once before last October, and both times I’ve gone, I’ve thought only of all the fun we would have on the island.  The first trip, I was worried that the sail would be really long, boring, and possibly tough.  However, the sail turned out to be the most enjoyable part of the trip – possibly because we didn’t realized that it was Buccaneer Days, with everyone there outfitted in pirate gear and shooting off cannons all night.

Yet again this time, I somewhat dreaded the sail over and though we talked about how fast we could get there on a speedboat or even a larger sailboat, I truly enjoyed the whole 6.5 hour journey.  Going 6 knots (or 6 miles per hour) in a boat, surrounded by water is very eye opening, yet also soothing.  You start to realize how small you are, and how powerful nature is.  Yet also, you get to see how amazing nature is, seeing dolphin pods playing in the waters, seals hanging out both in the water and anything they can jump up on, and just the great blue sky.

We spent the time talking, napping, eating, and of course taking photos.  It didn’t seem long at all.  It was just a relaxing, enjoyable day.

We all fall into the trap of just focusing on the goal or the outcome.  But life is a journey.  It doesn’t matter how fast we get there or if we even get anywhere at all.  Who we are is defined by both our DNA and all our experiences.  So instead of stressing out all the time about what we think we want and what we think we need, if we learn to just enjoy the journey, we have the chance to become amazing people – thankful for every experience, for every person in our lives, for everything we have, every gift or talent we have.

I’m very thankful that it only takes a 6 hour boat ride to Catalina to remind me of this!