What's in a Word?

Here's what yoga mayu teacher Sara Levine has to say about the importance of words:

"I have spent the first month of 2012 trying to be more clear and concise with my language. You could say that it is my New Years Resolution. I find that there are a lot of words being thrown around carelessly these days and it seems to me that the more we speak, the less weight our words hold. This concept also holds true in my teaching. When I am clear and direct in my speech, rather than meandering along with flowery imagery, it allows my students the room to create their own perspective of their practice. There is a great deal of depth in silence.

One word in particular, that I have been robotically repeating for many years, is beginning to sound less and less clear each time I say it. Have you ever repeated a word so many times that it begins to sound unlike a word at all? This word, INTENTION, was beginning to have that effect. And so, of course, I decided to google it.

This is what I found:

Intention:
The healing process of a wound. 
An aim or plan.
Plan that something function in a particular way.
Plan that speech should have a particular meaning.
ORIGIN Middle English entend (in the sense [direct the attention to]), from Old French entendre, from Latin intendere ‘intend, extend, direct,’ from in- ‘toward’ + tendere ‘stretch, tend.’

I have to say, I am very pleased with this new definition I have found. It feels as though there is fresh life in the intentions that I set on my mat every day. The healing of a wound, the clarity of speech, the reaching toward - it all seems so appropriate. My hope is that you will find some gem in this definition so that you might bring it with you onto your mat the next time you set up to practice."

Want to find out more about intentions? Sign-up for one of Sara's classes at yoga mayu, Mondays and Wednesdays at 5pm and Sundays at 11:15am

Jody's Quote of the Week

"Our anger and annoyance are more detrimental to us than the things themselves that anger and annoy us." Marcus Aurelius

I want to point out that he uses the word "our" which to me is a reminder that it's "our anger" and "our annoyance" not the world's. The world is not in charge of how we feel or how we react to things. We have to own our actions and reaction. There is no "He/she made me_______." That make us victims of the world because we believe everything happens and we have no power to do anything about it. But that's not so. We are interactive with the world and we choose our actions and reactions especially as we become more aware.

I also want to point out that he says that it's "detrimental." Chemically speaking the body takes on the emotion we are feeling. So angry emotions have a different chemical composition in the body than happiness emotions do. Anger and annoyance chemistry is the chemistry of stress and fight or flight. Happiness chemistry is stay and play.

Here is a blogpost about the effects of anger on the body: Enjoy.

Jody Quotes Are Back!

Every week Jody Hahn starts and ends her classes with a thought-provoking quote. Here is one of her recent quotes:

"We tend to think that being unhappy leads people to complain, but it's truer to say that complaining leads to people becoming unhappy." Dennis Prager

Jody says:

"We always get to choose our viewpoint. By complaining we are choosing to focus and bring into view those things that we don't like. When we are constantly thinking of things or people or situations that are unhappy then it stands to reason that we are feeling unhappy. Try to notice when you complain or when those around you complain. How do you feel? You can think unhappy thoughts and the emotion will follow so do the opposite, think happy thoughts so that emotion will follow."

Release Tension with Malasana

If you head to one of Caroline Kelley's vinyasa classes this month, you can expect to get a little extra emphasis on her asana of the month: Malasana.

Here's what Caroline has to say about this beneficial pose:

"This asana is a great way to release tension in the lumbar spine, you may also know from experience that tight achilles tendons limit ones ability to get the heals down to the floor.

This pose has many benefits. As usual there will be variations so that this pose can be used therapeutically and also as a stepping stone into more advanced postures such as Bakasana."

Come try it out with Caroline at Yoga Mayu, Tuesdays and Thursdays from 7:30am to 8:30am.