yoga – Page 2 – Yoga with Katrina Ariel

Massage, Yoga, and Listening to Your Body

March 12, 2010Katrina Ariel4 Comments

oak-child I didn’t go to boot camp this morning. It’s a little silly, really, considering I wrote this great blog post yesterday about how to get out of bed early, but that wasn’t my problem. The alarm went off, I got up, and then I checked in with my body.

See, I had the most amazing massage yesterday evening. It was truly one of the best massages I’ve ever had, given by a very gifted woman named Serra Wobbema.

And I was more tight than I’ve been in a long time on a massage table, owing to the super fun, intense, body changing, super strengthening work I’ve been doing in my New Orleans boot camp.

The massage was thorough, deep, and very necessary. I should’ve scheduled it for a Friday.

I sat on the edge of my bed this morning at 4:30am, and my back and neck told me not to go work out. They said, “That massage was excellent. We’d like some recovery time, thank you very much.”

No Worries! The Yoga of Being Spacious

March 4, 2010Katrina Ariel

woman-lake-open-arms45384656 Isn’t it great how nice it feels when you’re not worrying about anything? There’s a lightness, a freedom, a sense of well being.

Just as yoga teaches us to be spacious and connected, you can use this practice to stop worrying about things and reduce stress and anxiety. To literally lighten up!

How does this work?

Well, when you get contracted, such as when you’re afraid or judgmental, there’s a sense of disconnect from the bigger energy of freedom. Spirit never stops supporting you, yet sometimes we just forget to take notice and feel that support.

Generally feelings of contraction come from fretting over things that are not your responsibility or under your control. Like how your loved one acts, or something you did in the past. Focusing on these things brings you out of the Here and Now, and out of your sense of self.

Shift Into Beauty: Wisdom From John Friend

February 17, 2010Katrina Ariel

“All actions are directed by one’s viewpoint.” – John Friend

This quote is in my notes from a training with my teacher, John Friend; the founder of Anusara® yoga. There is such wisdom to this. The way you perceive what you experience creates your understanding of it, as well as your feelings and actions.

One of the things that can become challenging about deepening your ability to be sensitive and open is that you can get rocked out of your center by the apparent horrors of the world. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

The Yoga Of Football? New Orleans Saints Win Another Fan.

December 1, 2009Katrina Ariel4 Comments

Monday night’s Saints vs. Patriots game changed me. It’s funny that even an NFL game can be a yogic transformation. Really – there’s yoga in football, believe it or not.

I have to admit, I’m the last person you’d expect to see enjoying a football game. I’ve had a pretty steady lack of interest in most competitive sports for, well, most of my life. Without a doubt, the New Orleans Saints have won over a very reluctant fan.

Here’s the story:

Anusara Yoga: Rocking Ripples Of Light Through 2012 And Beyond

November 24, 2009Katrina Ariel

Everyone I meet seems to feel it. There’s a sense of urgency at this time in the world. A collective feeling that whatever we do right now has so much impact that our fate is being decided.

At a recent Anusara® yoga training with John Friend, the topic of 2012 came up. There we were rocking with energy and light, working transitions and shifting energy, and since it’s all interconnected it was natural to speak of transformation and shifts on a global level.

2012 is the end of many ancient calendars. Do you feel the crescendo? It’s like we’re at a climax of energies that have been creating friction for ages. I must say I’m very much excited to be alive right now.

Magic In The Earth: Findhorn’s Nature Spirits

November 23, 2009Katrina Ariel

I was in my local art gallery organic café one day and picked up a curious book published in 1975. It’s called “The Magic Of Findhorn” by Paul Hawken.

Now I’d heard of Findhorn before. I had a preconceived notion of it being a idyllic intentional community and retreat center in Scotland, but I didn’t know much about it.

The book called to me. You know the intuitive pull your heart puts out when something really resonates? That call. So I picked it up, read the first page, and promptly asked my friend who owns the café if I could borrow the book.

Over the next week or so I somehow created time in my silly busy schedule to read the book. I was so totally touched by what I learned that I decided to share some of it here with you.

Ahimsa: Meditate For World Peace

November 3, 2009Katrina Ariel2 Comments

With all the struggle and war in the world, yoga gives us a method to live well and contribute to the upliftment of the world.

It helps us be courageous when faced with fear, find equanimity in times of struggle, and be empowered when things feel overwhelming.

I’ve posted an article which expands on Ahimsa, the first ethical guideline of yoga. This article on How To Create Peace With Yoga And Meditation and offers an educated view of war and what we can do about it.

You will also find a video of a guided meditation for peace toward the end of the article, which means you can close your eyes and listen rather than reading the words of your meditation today.

What Is Your Path To God?

October 30, 2009Katrina Ariel8 Comments

“God is in glue?”

Me: “What’s God?”
Mom: “God is everything.”
Me: “You mean God is the table? The bed? The cat?”
Mom: “Yes.”
Me: “God’s in glue?”

I remember this conversation with my mom. I was very young, maybe 4 or 5. We were sitting at a miniature table doing crafts or something, and the topic of God came up. Now this is my fuzzy and probably oversimplified recollection of it, but the basic idea still holds.

That was basically the foundation of my own personal belief system. God is in the glue. God IS the glue, that which holds it all together and lets it all fall apart to be renewed.

Infinite Paths

Is even possible to count the vast number of philosophies and methods of finding God (or Supreme Consciousness, or whatever word you prefer to use for that indescribable source energy)? Really, it must be expanding every day.

Each heart feels its own connection, each mind interprets differently; your own experience of what you believe is unique to you.

Read More “What Is Your Path To God?”

Consciousness Altering Substances And Yoga

October 28, 2009Katrina Ariel1 Comment

buddhaBoy From the beginning of time, humans have been experimenting with different ways to shift and expand the way we see and experience life.

A couple of weeks ago I was in Santa Fe at a training with John Friend, and I found a new method of altering consciousness that left me high and happy without side effects or legal considerations.

Here’s the blog post describing that experience. Forget the bong, try a Gong Bath.

Now, aboriginal people around the world have used sacred medicines, such as peyote and ayahuasca, to attune with a bigger energy, heal and change themselves. Cannabis, that controversial plant, has been widely proven again and again to have more uses from hemp to healing than any other plant we know of.

Yoga Magic

October 3, 2009Katrina ArielLeave a comment

We all seek magic. That something special that sparks and dances in our eyes, minds, and hearts.

Yoga can help us find it…

Meditation, asana practice on the mat, mantra (chanting) and other traditional forms of yoga are deeply potent with magic.

Yet there is more – much more – that we often miss in every day life. This is where the practice steps off the mat. This is where our yoga is played out on every level.

Magic awaits…

We look for it in the eyes of others, in the color of the sky, in the soft petals of flowers, in the play of light on water.

We seek it in the whispering of the wind, in the words of teachers and the laughter of children.

You know the thrill of a good story? This is another way we engage magic. The imagination (i-magi-ation – notice the ‘magi’ in there) is such a wonderful tool of creation.