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Time For Yourself - A Beginner's Guide to Yoga

LifeWayKefir LifeWayKefir — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 14:29:00 GMT

Today’s post comes to us from Flo C. Sheffield, a yoga teacher at Active Sol Yoga in Atlanta, GA. Flo believes in the benefit of a daily yoga and meditation practice in order to maintain a peaceful, happy life.

You’ve probably heard a lot about yoga – but what is it, really? Well, first let’s discuss what yoga isn’t. Yoga is not a religion. Yoga is a philosophy that can be plugged into any type of religion or no religion at all. With its roots in India, yoga is influenced in many ways by Hinduism, so it can be spiritual without being religious. Each Yoga pose is known as an “asana” which means “to take seat.” And each Asana has a sanskrit name typically translated into an English variation here in the west.

But Yoga is more than just asanas. “It is my main form of physical exercise, my spiritual practice, my job, and how I met my partner and mother of my child,” says Chris Cuevas, Yoga Experience Director for the Wanderlust Festival.

Beyond the asanas we also use the breath, which is known as Pranayama. Many of us hold our breath when we are stressed, or we breathe very shallow in our chests and do not use our full lung capacity. In the yoga practice you will begin to see how important watching your breath is. So, a good rounded yoga practice incorporates more than just the physical practice, but the breath and meditation practices as well.

When talking to people interested in trying yoga they typically come up with two reasons they don’t want to try a class: 1) They’ve never done it before and don’t know where to begin and 2) lack of time.

I do recommend finding a good teacher to help you with your breathing, alignment and to answer your questions – but many people have found DVDs and books helpful when they’re crunched for time. Ask any teacher and they will tell you, “Doing a little yoga daily is better than doing a lot of yoga once or twice a week.” Through practice, your body will get stronger and more flexible - but an added bonus is that your mind will become a little quieter.

Chris Cuevas says, “I love the connection you develop with your teacher and the other students, the stillness and quiet in the room where all you hear is the sound of breathing and the whisper of the teacher. Each practice is a moving prayer and meditation and it’s a total workout! You leave feeling rinsed out and energized.”

Tips for starting a home practice:

Step one: Creating a space. Obviously you will need a place to practice. Here are a few tips on choosing a good place:

Designate an area in your home solely for your practice. It can be in a bedroom, guest room, or living room. Many prefer to have a door so they can close the room off from their animals, children or partners. This ensures you will not be interrupted.
Make sure you have a wall nearby. If you have difficulty with balance or want to get creative with your practice; the best prop is a wall, and every home has them!
Yoga mat- you can pick up a mat practically anywhere these days. My first mat was from a large department store. I still have that little pink foam mat as a reminder of how good it was to me for many years! But, if you can’t get your hands on a mat you can use a large towel. However, it won’t work as well because they tend to bunch and move around a lot.
Props- you can get things like straps, blocks and blankets. Really this is a personal call so do a little research on this before you spend tons of money on items you don’t need. I made my own yoga straps and eye pillows.

Step two: Designate a time. I know many of us are over booked. But, I promise if you make a commitment to yourself for just 10-15 minutes each day, your body will begin crave this time. Personally, I am a morning yoga person. If I don’t get it in before work I will come up with 1,000 excuses to skip over it in the evening. I know this about myself. So ask yourself, “When can I pencil in just 10-15 minutes each day that I know I can truly stick to?” Once you have that set put a reminder on your phone, ipod, whatever you want. Just stick to it!

So now you have a place to practice and your schedule is set. What do you do next?

Really, yoga is about checking in and seeing what is tight or sore today. I like to get on my mat, sit for a moment with my eyes closed and take 3 deep breaths. Then I scan my body to see what’s going on today. Are my hips tight, does my back seem stiff, are my shoulders up around my ears and so on. Then I tend to work my practice around what needs attention.

I realize that when you start out this is not the easiest thing to do. So I’ve done some prep work for you! Here are some simple poses you can start with. Use this as a guide, and make modifications however you’d like. I’ve provided the Sanskrit name of each asana and English name as well. Take some time to look up the postures online. Yoga Journal online is a wonderful resource for looking up postures. Plus, there are many books out there. One book that covers practically all yoga postures is “Light on Yoga” by B.K.S. Iyengar.

Beginner Poses

Adho Mukha Svanasana: Downward-facing dog. From Tabletop position (see above,) begin to curl your toes under and push your hips to the ceiling. You may need to walk your feet in towards your hands a bit. This typically looks like an inverted V. In Downward facing dog take 5-10 breaths. You can bend one knee then the other as you warm up your hamstrings. This is a great stretch to do daily. If you have a dog, you’ve seen that they do this after a long nap.

Balasana: Childs pose. From downward facing dog slowly drop to your knees. So once again if you have knee issues grab that towel or blanket. Roll the towel up place behind the knees to create space in your knee joints. Once set up appropriately begin to drop your hips to your heels and move your chest to the floor, eventually resting your forehead. Sometimes keeping your knees wide helps for your chest to reach the floor. Take 10 breaths here.

Savasana: Corpse pose aka final resting pose. This is a relaxing way to end each practice, you should never skip this pose. While lying on your back, take your legs out the width of your mat. Place your palms by your sides face up so that your shoulders roll down your back. Relax your neck and gently close your eyes. From here just breathe. Feel your breath come into your body and leave your body. Try not to create a “to do” list while in this posture. Try to be on your mat with your breath for a minimum of 2-3 minutes. Music can help with this post, it’s nice to listen to an instrumental piece that is about 3 minutes long to time your savasana for you. Feel any tension in your body melt. And breathe, breathe, breathe. After your 2-3 minutes, roll to your right side hugging your knees then gently push yourself back to a seated position. It is ideal to end practice the way you began with 3 deep breaths.

Siddhasana: Sit comfortably on a blanket or block (make sure your hips are higher than your knees.) Take 3 deep breaths in and out through your nose.
Siddhasana with side bend: Inhale bringing both arms overhead. Exhale and drop your right fingertips to the floor next to your right hip as you reach your left arm towards the right. You will feel a deep stretch on the left side of the body. Stay here for 2-3 breaths then repeat by inhaling both arms overhead and dropping your left fingertips to the floor next your left hip while reaching the right arm over towards the left.
Marjaryasana and Bitilasana: Cat and Cow pose. Come to all fours on your mat. Make sure your shoulders are over your wrists and hips are over your knees. Inhaling, gaze up while rolling the shoulders down the back and your hips move up as well as you being to take a tiny backbend. On the exhale tuck your chin to your chest and hollow out your belly. Pushing the floor away and rounding your spine. Keep going for 4 more breaths. Inhaling your open your chest and exhaling you round your spine. End in a nice flat back position, this is known as “tabletop."
Adho Mukha Svanasana: Downward-facing dog. From Tabletop position (see above,) begin to curl your toes under and push your hips to the ceiling. You may need to walk your feet in towards your hands a bit. This typically looks like an inverted V. In Downward facing dog take 5-10 breaths. You can bend one knee then the other as you warm up your hamstrings. This is a great stretch to do daily. If you have a dog, you’ve seen that they do this after a long nap.
Balasana: Childs pose. From downward facing dog slowly drop to your knees. So once again if you have knee issues grab that towel or blanket. Roll the towel up place behind the knees to create space in your knee joints. Once set up appropriately begin to drop your hips to your heels and move your chest to the floor, eventually resting your forehead. Sometimes keeping your knees wide helps for your chest to reach the floor. Take 10 breaths here.
Savasana: Corpse pose aka final resting pose. This is a relaxing way to end each practice, you should never skip this pose. While lying on your back, take your legs out the width of your mat. Place your palms by your sides face up so that your shoulders roll down your back. Relax your neck and gently close your eyes. From here just breathe. Feel your breath come into your body and leave your body. Try not to create a “to do” list while in this posture. Try to be on your mat with your breath for a minimum of 2-3 minutes. Music can help with this post, it’s nice to listen to an instrumental piece that is about 3 minutes long to time your savasana for you. Feel any tension in your body melt. And breathe, breathe, breathe. After your 2-3 minutes, roll to your right side hugging your knees then gently push yourself back to a seated position. It is ideal to end practice the way you began with 3 deep breaths.

After you do these practices for a week or so begin to explore and incorporate other postures into the sequence. I hope this will help you to find time for yourself in 2012.

Photos courtesy of Flo Sheffield and The Wonderlust Festival.

Living green with Lifeway

LifeWayKefir LifeWayKefir — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 19:29:00 GMT

Boulder, CO is know for a lot of things – bicycles, dogs, recycling, dreadlocks, maybe a little medical marijuana here and there. But throughout October, residents of this crunchy town, consistently voted one of the nation’s fittest, have had a new cowboy in town: Lifeway kefir.

Bow Wow Wow Yippee Yo Yippee Yay

LifeWayKefir LifeWayKefir — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 23:21:00 GMT

Dogs just love us here at Lifeway:

-Max the Miniature Schnauzer chows down on Lifeway Organic Farmer Cheese every single morning.

-Lilly the Chihuahua is downright possessive over her plain lowfat kefir.

-This Golden Retriever drinks strawberry kefir from a glass.

New York, New York

Julie Smolyansky — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 19:40:00 GMT

On November 6^th, I‘ll be running the New York Marathon with Every Mother Counts, Christy Turlington Burns’ advocacy and mobilization campaign dedicated to increasing education and support for maternal and child health. While this will be my fifth marathon (Chicago 2001 and 2002, London 2002 and Madison 2003), it will be my first one since becoming a mother, and I can’t imagine a better charity to support or help raise funds and awareness for. As you may know from my past blogs, I spent part of my summer vacation with Every Mother Counts in Bangladesh, so when Christy emailed me with the question, “Want to run the New York Marathon with me?” I instantly and eagerly replied “YES!” I have always wanted to run the coveted New York Marathon and had actually been training for the Chicago Marathon when the invitation to travel to Bangladesh arrived. Going for a run in Dhaka proved to be pretty difficult for a variety of reasons (running the streets covered head to toe in 100 degree weather would have been too dangerous). But I never actually thought that after having two little girls, Leah and Misha, I’d ever be running another marathon. And yet, my youngest just turned one this summer…and here I am just finishing up the Chicago Half Marathon.

I never thought of myself as a runner. As a matter of fact, I vividly recall walking “The Mile” in high school during Presidential Physical Fitness Testing, and finding every excuse in the book not to break a sweat. Finally, after about four attempts to get me to run, my gym teacher threatened to flunk me if I kept walking. And so, kicking and screaming, I picked up the pace. It’s not that I wasn’t athletic – I figure skated for 15 years, played tennis, rode horses and was even an aerobics instructor in college. I simply hated running.

After college, I became a gym rat, addicted to cardio kickboxing and Jane Fonda aerobics. Meanwhile, Lifeway was sponsoring the Chicago Marathon and other races. I saw all sorts of folks, young and old, with all different body shapes, saying “I do” to 26.2 miles…and a seed was planted. If they could do it, so could I. I think the real kicker was when I got stuck in Chicago traffic during the marathon and watched as an older man - he had to be 70 plus - making his way through the streets of Lincoln Park. Now the seed was watered.

In 2001, I found myself in NY for work for what seemed like a month. All of the local aerobics classes seem to be at lunch time, which didn’t work with my schedule, and I began to fret about my workouts. Kicking and screaming again, putting one foot in front of the other I “ran” to Central Park. These first days of running were really more run/walk/run/hobble/walk/hobble stints. But I absolutely loved Central Park. It was that magical, sprawling park that got me through those first weeks of becoming a “runner.” By the end of the month, I could run for two hours without stopping and was so proud of myself. I had no idea the distance I was doing - it could have been three miles for all I knew – but it felt great. When I returned to Chicago, I went for another two-hour run and figured out I had gone about 12 miles. That’s practically a half-marathon! I was ecstatic – that was a large enough distance to push me to sign up for the 2001 Chicago Marathon. It was official…a runner was born.

During those months of training, I learned about energy gels, wicking clothes, Body Glide, and chafing on areas of my body I never dreamed could chafe. I experienced the ever-famous runners high, as well as hitting “the wall”, when the high wears off and the crash rains down. I could eat what seemed like unlimited amounts of chocolate chip cookies and still lose weight. My favorite place to shop was my local running store, where I stocked up on fun running gear and became a total running nerd. More importantly, I always finished my run with a glass of Lifeway Kefir and a banana. Kefir is actually great for distance runners because the protein helps with muscle repair and the immune boosting elements were helpful because distance runners really put their body through torture at times. (Hey, I have to sell a little ,too )

And then came that gut-wrenching day, September 11^th. I continued on with my training that night, but this time with no music. Five miles with nothing but my own thoughts, grief and sadness. I bowed my head to other runners on the trail. The sky was still, planes grounded, streets quiet. Shortly thereafter, my 20-miler came up and all I could think of was the thousands of people who woke up to go to work on 9/11 and some never came home. Some ran for their lives, 25+ miles in work clothes, heels, under intense fear and stress. Here I was, prepared for 20 miles, wearing comfortable running gear, under the sunny, still, quiet sky of Chicago. I don’t want to say my first 20 miles was easy, but I guess I don’t think it was that hard, either. The streets of Chicago were still under heavy patrol by Chicago Police and I felt tremendous gratitude for their presence along the path. And, as I learned in Bangladesh, the freedom to practice sport out in public wearing shorts and a tank top is not a freedom all women in the world have.

My running life started in Central Park and I couldn’t be more thrilled to pay tribute to the great city of New York on the 10^th year anniversary of 9/11 by giving it my first 26.2 miles as a mom. Here’s to you, New York. And here's the part where I ask you to open your heart and your wallet for maternal health. Please visit my Crowdrise page and help make every mother count. Thank you.

Beat the Heat

LifeWayKefir LifeWayKefir — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 20:08:00 GMT

The weather in Chicago is finally beautiful, and people are taking advantage of it by running, biking and rollerblading outside. But when the temperature soars, even the most experienced athletes are at risk of dehydration and heat exhaustion. Toss in humidity, and an overheated runner can wind up in the ER faster than you can say “Gatorade.” Keep the following tips in mind to keep your cool and make it past the finish line, wherever it may be:

1. Limit lattes and Long Islands. Avoid caffeine or alcohol, both of which are dehydrating.

2. Warm up. Try stretching in the shade for 10 minutes so your body can acclimate.

3. Make a change. Working out in a drenched shirt will hinder your ability to cool off - imagine using a wet sponge to clean up a spill. Wear breathable, wicking fabrics and keep a clean, dry change in your locker.

4. I’ll drink to that. The three key words of running? Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. Even if you’re not thirsty, force yourself to drink every 15 minutes while working out in the heat. Not racing? You’ll know you’re properly hydrated when your urine is pale and clear.

5. Recharge with kefir! Full of protein and carbs, Lifeway kefir is an excellent recovery drink. That's why you'll always find us at the finish line of various races, walks and fun runs. Chug, chug, chug!

Run, Lifeway, Run!

LifeWayKefir LifeWayKefir — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 15:53:00 GMT

If you’re a runner, you’ve definitely had Lifeway cheering you towards the finish line – we love to support local races and hand out kefir as a refreshing post-race snack. And if you live in Chicago, chances are you’ve seen our CEO, Julie Smolyansky, running around town (often pushing a stroller with her daughters Leah and Misha inside) She’s completed four marathons, countless charity 5 and 10Ks, and just last weekend, ran in the Fleet Feet Sports Soldier Field 10 Mile.

We're Gonna Party Like It’s 1986!

LifeWayKefir LifeWayKefir — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 14:45:00 GMT

Did you rock a single earring while grooving to The Bangles’ Walk Like an Egyptian? Watch Matthew Broderick, Jennifer Grey and Charlie Sheen on the big screen in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off? Swoon over a foxy Michael J. in Family Ties? Reach out in Hands Across America?

Kefir Satisfies America’s Top 12 New Year’s Resolutions

LifeWayKefir LifeWayKefir — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 16:17:00 GMT

Happy 2011! We’ve got great news to usher in your new year: According to USA.gov, the most popular New Year’s resolutions are:

Drnk Less Alcohol

Get a Better Education

Save Money

Get Fit

Lose Weight:

Manage Debt

Manage Stress

Quit Smoking

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Take a Trip

Get a Better Job

Volunteer to Help Others

Kefir Nabs Olympic Gold

LifeWayKefir LifeWayKefir — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 19:47:00 GMT

If you’re like us, you’ve been glued to the television during the current Winter Olympics, holding your breath during downhill skiing, oohing and aahing over figure skating and scratching your head at curling. We know these elite athletes train long and hard, and have teams of professionals behind them, guiding them through workouts, nutritional therapy and rehab. But did you ever stop and think if these top tier athletes turn to anything special to give them a leg up on the competition?