mindful movement

Think Small

by ultrapeg

Tenacious Little FlowersAfter living most of my life in the Northeast corner of the U.S. where high humidity is frequently a dominant feature of local weather patterns, I now live in the dry, high desert climate of the Black Hills of South Dakota.  In addition to adjusting to cultural differences, it has also been interesting to observe and learn about the differences in local flora and fauna.  Not surprisingly, stuff that grows where it’s wet is often totally different from stuff that grows where it’s dry.

Having grown up in congested suburbs and cities, I must admit that I did not pay much attention to nature during my childhood.  My parents were not outdoorsy people.  Once I spent two weeks in a Girl Scout camp in upstate New York, but that was the extent of my exposure to living in the woods.  My mother appreciated the roses, dogwood tree and azaleas in our front yard, but she was not a gardener.  We didn’t even have pets.  In grade school I recall learning about butterflies and their emergence from cocoons.  One day I found a cocoon on a branch, took it home and put it in a jar expecting to watch the birth of baby butterflies. What hatched instead was about 100 praying mantises.  My mother freaked out and immediately ended my observation of nature in action.

It wasn’t until much later in life that I got introduced to trail running and, by extension, hiking and even a little bit of camping, albeit mostly with an RV.  At first trail running was really hard for me.  The roots and rocks, steep climbs and descents were alien and daunting.  But eventually I came to really appreciate being in the woods.  That exposure was enough to inspire me to become a lover of the outdoors, regardless of the season.  The wide open spaces and abundant public land of my current home has increased that appreciation even more. Having said that, though, my knowledge of living things that reside in natural habitats remains incredibly paltry.  The good news is I now have many friends with backgrounds in things like wildlife biology, ornithology and horticulture who have kindly been willing to share their knowledge with me.  Now when I hike I find myself actually making an effort to observe the plant and animal life around me.  Although I still rarely remember the names of things, I do notice many more things than I ever did before.

Recently I journeyed back to western Massachusetts for a hiking trip with friends.  It had been many years since I had been there and I had forgotten how lush the forest can be.  The area we were in had recently experienced abundant rains which brought out a profusion of leaves and flowers.  When I left South Dakota the greening and blooming were still in very early stages so the proliferation encountered in New England was almost like sensory overload.  The trees seemed enormous and the flowers riotous in the variety of colors and shapes.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable trip and a good reminder of the vastness of our country and the many regional differences.  But I was grateful to return to the wide opens spaces of my current home.  Still I commented on these differences to a friend recently and she said, “Here you need to think small.”  It’s true.  Even the deer and the squirrels are smaller here, but that doesn’t make them any less significant.  Also we have a surprisingly wide variety of wildflowers in the Black Hills, but some of them are tiny.  Little gems that only reveal themselves to the most patient and careful observer.  Some flowers, like the hearty wood lilly, appear only as singles rather than in groups.  They display a rare red bloom that seems to shine out in the middle of pine cones and ground cover.  Living here has helped me to become more discerning and attentive to detail.  No longer do I take abundance for granted.  Yet life is tenacious even in the most seemingly inhospitable places.  Here we see tiny trees and flowers clinging to the sides of rocks, returning to bloom every year despite wind, hail and temperatures that can reach into the double digits below zero.

All of these traits provide lessons that relate directly to my usual themes of mindful movement and practice.  First, there is the call to be present in the moment.  Paying attention to my immediate surroundings, rather than lamenting the past or worrying about the future, allows me to experience the joy of noticing what’s right here right now.  Without that mindfulness I might miss out on some elusive and beautiful treat.

Secondly, there is value to “thinking small”.  Little things can make a big difference.  For example, sometimes the tiniest of modifications can turn a yoga or Pilates move from something dreaded into something do-able.  Also small changes can result in big gains. Followers of this blog know that I’m a strong advocate for taking baby steps toward whatever goal you have in mind.  Rather than overwhelming yourself and risking injury or turn-off by trying to do everything at once, take small steps and increase slowly.  Start with 2 or 3 repetitions of a movement instead of 10.  Hold the yoga pose for 1 breath instead of 5.  Walk to the corner of your street or to your neighbor’s driveway and back rather than hiking for 3 miles on your first day out.

Long-time teachers in many disciplines often tout the benefits of adopting a “beginner’s mind” regardless of your level of experience in a particular discipline.  This is because beginners usually have no idea what’s going to happen when they are just starting out.  They have fewer expectations and are more willing to simply allow the process to unfold.  Whatever it is that you want to do, if you start slow and practice regularly there will almost certainly come a day when you suddenly realize you are doing more than you thought you could.  That’s a great motivator for continuing your practice.  The key is that release of expectations.  Don’t get hung up on the outcome.  Just pay attention to the process and observe what is happening in each moment.

Your own ability to move and breathe is as miraculous as the amazing variety of living things that surround us.  Treat your body with the same reverence and you will find its unique beauty.

Simple Recipe for Stress Reduction

by ultrapeg

take a moment to breatheSummer is a busy time of year.  Of course, most of us are busy all year long.  Still summer seems to be a time when we feel this urge to cram as many activities as possible into this short period of time.  Some of you may be fortunate enough to live in a place where the seasons are not so pronounced.  Even where that is the case, summer still seems to present a different vibe than the rest of the year.  Perhaps it is the residue of “school is out” mentality.  Or simply that the days are longer no matter where you are and everyone wants to take advantage of all that daylight.

Those of us in the northern region who live in tourist areas feel the busy-ness of summer even more acutely.  Many businesses in our area only operate during the tourist season.  Suddenly everything is open and there is this frantic need to “make hay while the sun shines”.  People travel more and have more visitors.  Those of you with school-aged children feel a particular pressure to take advantage of the break in routine that school vacation provides.

All of this can lead to a surprising and sometimes unrecognized increase in stress.  It would seem that the promise of leisure time should enable us to relax.  But more often just the opposite is the result.  If you are working, you feel the obligation to get as much done as possible before a vacation and then you’re faced with everything that piles up while you’re gone.  The delightful anticipation of welcoming visitors can be marred by the overwhelming feeling of all you have to do to make them comfortable and enhance their visit.  Vacation time never seems long enough and travel can create additional stress.

Just reading this may be stressing you out.  But the good news is that there is hope.  And it is right within your grasp and everyone can do it. It’s called breathing.  Yup!  That mysterious process that keeps us alive which we often take for granted can also be our ally in reducing stress. Taking a few moments to focus on and slow our breathing can activate the parasympathetic nervous system which calms and soothes us. There are scientific and biological reasons for this which I won’t go into here.  Suffice it to say that this system is the opposite of our “fight or flight” reflex that puts us in high-alert mode.  If you’re interested you can read more about it and even check out some controlled breathing practices in a number of articles on the subject including this one from Yoga Journal.

No matter what time constraints you are laboring under, there is always time to breathe.  Since you’re going to breathe whether or not you are paying attention, why not just stop whatever it is you are doing and simply focus on your breathing.  All you have to do is notice air coming in and air going out.  Just follow the air for a couple of cycles.  You may notice that even this simple practice has a calming effect.  Most of the causes of stress and anxiety are worries about things that may (or may not) happen in the future but have not happened yet, or things that have already happened which we can’t change.  Breathing is always in the present.  When you focus on the present moment – not the past or the future – usually everything is really OK.  Not always.  But mostly.  And here’s the really good news – when the past or future starts to bring that stress back, all you have to do is return to your breathing.  It’s always there.  Even if you have trouble breathing, you can still benefit from focusing and slowing down the process.

In yoga and Pilates there is a huge emphasis on breathing as part of the practice.  Breathing with the movement is an integral part of both practices.  It is every bit as important as the movement itself.  It doesn’t take long for even new practitioners to recognize that if they focus on moving and breathing together, it is difficult to think about anything else while they’re practicing.  The other benefit that becomes clear is that the breath actually helps with the movement.  Bringing oxygen and other nutrients to your muscles when you move them enables them to work that much more efficiently.  Exhaling completes the process by eliminating everything you no longer need from your respiratory system.

Pilates and yoga further enhance the benefits of breathing by helping to improve posture.  This article from the American Council on Exercise describes how posture affects breathing.  Many of us have experienced the pain that can result from poor posture and the muscle imbalances it creates.  The most common of these are back, neck and shoulder problems, but when these persist they can lead to many other ailments. Once movement becomes difficult the tendency is to restrict moving which usually makes things worse.  How amazing to learn that breathing can actually begin the healing process!  An article from Yoga Basics shows that breathing can help with upper back pain as well as lower.

Breathing is a tool available to all of us all the time.  It’s the life force that is truly a miracle.  The yogis call it “prana”.  It is the first thing a baby does at birth and the last thing we do at the moment of death.  In between, we can show our reverence for this process by letting it help us. Let your breathing guide you toward enjoyment of each moment this summer.