Yoga Philosophy of the Day, Part 2

by Nina

Almost immediately after I published my post on Monday Yoga Philosophy of the Day, which was about cultivating equanimity in the face of difficulty and “enemies,” I was sorry I hadn’t mentioned the United States election (post posting remorse?). Because for many of us Americans, this election has been extremely divisive, with the feeling on both sides that those in the opposing camp were our “enemies.” I even know people who stopped speaking to those who disagreed with them over candidates and issues. And I confess that I, too, got swept up in some very negative feelings.

Now, this morning, after very intense night, the results are in and the battles are over, for now at least. However, I find that there is still a great deal of intense feeling remaining, on both sides. Gloating, anger, bitterness. Even Big Bird wasn't being as nice as usual. So maybe it’s not too late to add to what I wrote on Monday after all!

If we practice yoga the way The Bhagavad Gita defines it, we’ll need to step back from these negative feelings. As I quoted on Monday:

He looks impartially on all:

those who love him or hate him,

his kinsmen, his enemies, his friends

the good, and also the wicked.

This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t work for the political causes we believe in. As The Bhagavad Gita says:

He who performs his duty

with no concern for results

is the true man of yoga—not

he who refrains from action.

And, after all, it was Mohandas K. Gandhi, one of the great political activists of all time, who called The Bhagavad Gita his “mother” and believed in its message of “skill in action.”

The wise man lets go of all

results, whether good or bad,

and is focused on the action alone.

Yoga is skill in actions.

Now the challenge for all of us is to put this into practice. (See my original post Yoga Philosophy of the Day for information about what The Bhagavad Gita recommends as the way to achieve this.)

I was also thinking about how cultivating equanimity in the way The Bhagavad Gita recommends pertains to healthy aging. Of course, maintaining equanimity in the face of difficulty of all kinds helps make our lives better (and our bodies healthier). But also, as older people, most of us want to make a better world for those who come after us, whether that means for our own family members or for the next generation as a whole. And this will only be possible if we can all work together, friends and enemies alike.

Healthy Spirits: New Arrivals

 

1. Scaldis Noel 12oz+25oz

2. DuPont Avec Les Bons Voeux

3. Midnight Sun TREAT

4.

 

Healthy Eating and Your Digestive System

by Baxter

I recently heard from a colleague of mine in Portland, Vilma Z, who has hosted me at her lovely studio The Yoga Project in the Sellwood neighborhood over the years.  She was very excited and proud to let me know about a new project she had just completed, a calendar featuring the students from her highly popular class “Yoga for Larger Women.” Vilma has been working with larger women in Portland now for several years, and her experiences and the experiences of her students can be found on the website yogaforthelargerwoman.com. Please go there and read for yourself the amazing transformations these students describe.

Janet from the Yoga for Larger Women Calender

And then this past weekend, I once again offered my workshop on Yoga and the Digestive System.  As part of that course, during Savasana, I guide the students through a journey of their digestive system for start to finish. The last time I taught this guided visualization, several students asked if I had it recorded so they could do the journey again on their own. So, this weekend, honoring that request, I recorded the Journey Through Your Digestive System, and it is now available on Bandcamp at yogaforhealthyaging.bandcamp.com, where you can play it at any time or download it in any number of formats.



I’ve decided to share this recording with you today as part of our series exploring Yoga for Healthy Eating. You might ask yourself the question, “What does having a better understanding of my digestive system have to do with helping me foster healthy eating habits?” Well, one of Vilma’s students, Janet Wieneke, has this to say, which I think has great bearing on this question:

“Around the same time, the thought hit me that I had been dragging this body around for all these past 50 years instead of really living in it.   It came to me that I had not claimed this body, not moved into this body. I was renting it, but I didn’t live there. I didn’t want to live there—in the “undesirable” section of town.

That began to change though when I realized no amount of wishing, bargaining or promising will change the fact that this is my body and that it benefits me greatly to “step up” and partner with my abilities, instead of wishing that things were different.”

So the aspect of healthy eating that has to do with understanding your digestive system is learning to really live in and feel your body, noticing how different foods and meal sizes make you feel, and so on, instead of just wishing things were different. The more in tune you become with how your ingestion and digestion of food makes you feel, the more likely you are to make better decisions in the future regarding healthy eating.

And if you want to support Vilma’s work with larger women in Portland, buy a 2013 Calendar here . The photos—and the women—are lovely! And if you want to support our ongoing work here at Yoga For Healthy Aging, consider purchasing your audio track of the digestive journey from Bandcamp. And let us know how you liked the tour!