Everyday Yogini

Thanksgiving week. I happen to really love the holidays these days, but this is a time of year that you either love or hate, isn’t it?  Feeling negative and in the dumps about your crazy family?  I’ve been having some squirmy, uncomfortable moments of my own (not related to Thanksgiving, but still).  Here is some recent insight on making your way through what I call lovingly call mind-mud.

In other really exciting news, I have been asked to contribute to the fabulous and fresh FindBliss. If you are interested in how Yoga changes our relationship to, well, everything - check it out.  There is also a really great music selection available for sale in the Find Bliss store…

I am really excited about upcoming programs for 2010!  I am planning on offering a class in late December on setting your intention for the new year.  Coming in January, I have some exciting plans for some fun workshops… one on mindful eating and another on making a virtual vision board (which will complement your intentions for 2010!)  Stay tuned for more information and details.

Within the next month or so, I am going to integrate Everyday Yogini and Insight Health Coaching by moving all of the posts from here - to there. There will still be yoga, and mindfulness, and zen-master children and living in Italy.  The full compliment.  I hope that you will subscribe to the blog.

May you find yourself free of mind-mud over the holidays and I hope to see you over at Insight Health Coaching…

I’ve been trying to figure out how to make these cute little blog buttons, because I’m going to advertise (I can hardly believe it) over at the fabulous Goddess Guidebook. Needless to say, I had to figure this out. For whatever reason, I can’t get it onto the sidebar here, but I’ll figure it out eventually.

It was easier than I had thought it would be (whew) but it looks a bit blurry and I don’t know why… any thoughts? Any wizards of this stuff out there…

There is still a day or two to sign up for the telecourse. I am really excited - there is a great group shaping up to join in for less stress, more YES by starting with a practice of doing nothing…

I have some fun offerings planned for January as well. A tele-class on Mindful Eating and, I’m going to be offering some workshops in Rome on Making Peace with our Bodies for the New Year. If you are interested in either of these, you can email me nona (at) insighthealthcoaching (dot) com and I will let you know when more info is available.

Next week, I’m having surgery. Good thoughts welcome and appreciated, Yoginis.

Also, as my coaching practice evolves and I get clearer about what I’m doing, I have discovered I’m naturally blogging about essentially the same things on my other blog as I do here.  I am really wanting to integrate the two sites, because that feels like a natural progression.  As a reader here, what would you need to feel welcome and comfortable at insight health coaching? Or would you simply not?  In retrospect, I’m thinking I could have and would have liked to simply update this site!  Email me, leave a comment… what are your thoughts?  This inquiring Yogini wants to know.

I am so excited about this course, Yoginis!  It is going to be loads of fun and I’m looking forward to working with a great group of people!  For a weekly investment that is less than your typical Yoga class, you get so much…  hope to see you there.

Do you want help, guidance and support to fit a dynamic practice of doing nothing into your life, without moving to a monastary or giving up your high heels? Do you want to connect to inner peace, innate joy, and a focused mind?

Join the More Happy, Less Stress 6-week telecourse! Each week will provide you with detailed instructions on a different type of meditation as well as practice in the art of doing nothing, additional coaching and Yoga tools to assist you, followed by Q&A and coaching around any thoughts that bubble up during practice.

The syllabus:
Week One: Introduction
Talk about intention, using the workbook, and how to approach the practice. What are the benefits of working with the breath. Practice with the essential breath.

Week Two: Mindfulness
Checking in from following week. Working with mindfulness meditation and putting it to work in our lives. Incorporating Yoga into a practice with the 5 movements of the spine. Practice with mindfulness meditation.

Week Three: Mantras
Check in from previous week. Using mantras and their benefits. Cultivating qualities in our lives. Working with daily intentions. Practice with mantra meditation.

Week Four: Loving-kindness, Take 1
Check in from previous week’s practice. Introduction to Loving-kindness meditation. The stages of this technique and choosing your focal people. Writing your own aspiration for the practice. Practicing with loving-kindness meditation.

Week Five: Loving-kindness, Take 2
Check in from previous week. Introducing loving-kindness into your daily life. Living with gratitude and grace. Practice with loving kindness meditation.

Week Six: Life as Practice
An intuitive practice – following your own guidance. What to do with persistent thoughts (aka: coaching yourself). Meditation practice, your choice.

To sign up, go to:
http://insighthealthcoaching.com/services/telecourses/

Each call includes:

* 5 – 10 minute introduction & basic instructions
* Breath-work to relax the body and calm the mind
* 5 minutes of practice with the introduced meditation, followed by quick Q&A
* 20 minutes of dedicated meditation time, followed by
* An additional 20 minutes of Q&A plus coaching with Nona Jordan, mind-body coach
and certified yoga and meditation instructor

There are so many reasons to practice the art of doing nothing! Studies show some benefits of meditation to be:

* Increased ability to deal with stress
* Less physical pain
* More mental flexibility
* Greater sense of control and purpose
* Higher immune function
* More peaceful sleep
* Better looking

Okay, I made the last one up, but don’t you think people who are relaxed and happy are much more beautiful??

Classes will be held via teleconference every Monday at 9:00am EST (6:00am PST, and 3:00pm Central European Time) beginning November 9th and with the final class on December 14th.

Introductory price: $69.00 (less than the cost of a Yoga class each week!)

For more info and to sign up, go to:
http://insighthealthcoaching.com/services/telecourses/

Maybe you don’t know, but when I chose the school I was going to attend for yoga teacher training, I went with the school that I felt the strongest aversion to.  That’s right.  I did not, under any circumstances, want to go to Kripalu.  At the time, I was injured (well, I’d been injured almost non-stop from practicing vinyasa) and couldn’t argue away the fact that my body couldn’t handle a month of vinyasa without a revolt.  I was “forced” to look at different options, because my body was having NONE of the vinyasa practice.

Now, of course, I look back on that as one of the best decisions I have ever taken.  And it’s largely because when something seems oddly repellent to me, I am apt to lean in and explore it.

This isn’t the kind of deep down, gut level, “don’t do it or you are going to be so sorry” kind of aversion, but a kind of mental acrobatics aversion, that, for me, has a flavor of superiority, like, “that couldn’t possibly be of any help to me because I’m really so beyond it.”

Yeah, right.   Those are the kind of juicy things that I like to hold my nose, and lean in to.

For instance.  I love the blog of Havi Brooks.  She is a yoga teacher, and a coach, with a rubber duck as a side kick.  But she is into this kind of weird yoga called Shiva Nata.  Whata huh?  So here is my seriously amped up ego on this topic, as I’m reading her explanation of how this practice helps the two sides of the brain talk more, while it rewires your neural pathways,  “I have been practicing yoga for 16 years and I’ve never heard of this and it looks ridiculous and I am left handed so my brain hemispheres work together really well already.”

Seriously.  This is what I have to work with in this lifetime.  *sigh*  Can you believe it?

So, I’ve been resisting.  And resisting.  And coming back to it and reading about it over and over.  While holding my nose tonight, I ordered the DVD.  I read through some of the materials.  I’m still holding my nose, but I’m leaning in, and I’m curious.  Because people I love, like her and her, subscribe to this wacko practice that looks NOTHING like yoga to me.  And, because I’m fascinated with the idea of rewiring the brain and the different ways we can do that.  Plus, anything that comes with a guarantee of hot buttered epiphanies sounds like it might be something I’ll enjoy.   Eventually. After I’ve rewired some networks…

Are you a Shivanaut?  Tell me about your practice.  Are you interested?  Check it out and let’s explore together.  Think I’m nuts and I should have steered clear?  Well, you might be right and we’ll find out, won’t we?  In any case, thanks for joining me on the journey - you’ll hear more about this, I’m sure.