One of the gifts of doing the work that I do is that I get to witness the shared consciousness that we all experience, but that we often forget that we share. It happens like this: maybe I’ve been noticing a pattern dancing around my life, and suddenly some of my friends are experiencing the same thing, while simultaneously a client will arrive for their session with a similar issue to work through; and in the inter-connected support that we offer one-another, we all transcend these issues in our unique way and in our own timing.

It’s as if we’re all being given the same ‘test’ or ‘lesson’ at the same time, although its disguised in the colorful trappings of our life and represented by people that hold familiar names and faces that we recognize. So we think that the issue is solely our own, however, it’s the same energetic undercurrent showing up for each of us in a slightly different way.

As summer moves toward its close, a common theme has begun to surface in my life, the lives of those around me and in the experiences of many of my clients. The ‘winds of change’ are brewing. Change is always in the air, but never so much as when we enter the transitional season of autumn.

The hot summer sun, which in Ayurveda represents the fire of transformation, has activated our beings, brought energy to a new height and offered us many different pathways of experience. As the heat begins to settle into the autumn season, dry, cool winds will begin to pick up those pieces of remembrance and fan their potential, uncovering the essence of that which we are being asked to look at.

Over the next few months, as the leaves begin to change their color, we too, may begin to observe changes in our perspective, a desire to change some action, a readiness to let things that no longer serve us whither away and be re-birthed. Autumn ushers in the Ayurvedic season of Vata, represented by the wind, offering a time of creativity and movement.

This vata season of autumn requires a need for rhythm and grounding. Society helps us to do this, imposing a new schedule for ‘back to school”, or “back to work”, signifying a close to the free-form of summer vacations and summer dreaming. But this routine has its purpose, it helps us to ground the activations of the fiery season of summer and to transform those new awakenings into their creative purpose this fall.

As we move into Labor Day weekend, the ‘big hurrah’ of summer, see if you can carve out some space for yourself, some alone-time, to reflect on the gifts of the last season and to prepare for the shifts to come in the next. This transitional time in the month of September is ideal for creating new healthy habits, routines, and rhythms, as well as to bring to life the creative essence of your being.

In hopeful anticipation of what’s to come,

Gianna

A Yoga Manifesto

Some new studios are dispensing with the “rock star” instructors.

Check it out:

http://nyti.ms/akDEwQ

• Pranayama simply means “breath control”, and refers to breathing exercises that use breath, our prana, or life-force, to affect our mental, physical and emotional state.
• Sitali pranayama is a cooling breath.  Here’s how to do it:
  • Sit in a comfortable meditative posture with the spine straight.
    
  • Curl the tongue and protrude it slightly past the lips. If you can’t curl the tongue, try to bring the edges of your tongue up with your lips.
    
  • Inhale deeply and smoothly through the tongue and mouth. Exhale through the nose.
    
  • Continue for 5 minutes.
    
  • Then inhale — hold. Pull in the tongue. Exhale and relax.
    
  • Repeat as needed for up to two more 5-minute periods.

• Place a half cup of cooked rice in a glass.
• Fill cup to cover rice with twice as much water.
• Let sit, (covered) overnight at room temperature.
• First thing in the morning, strain liquid from rice and drink just the liquid.
  

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This is a very important question to go into because, as you grow older, you will find that your desires are never really fulfilled. In fulfillment there is always the shadow of frustration, and in your heart there is not a song but a cry. The desire to become -to become a great man, a great saint, a great this or that- has no end and therefore no fulfilment; its demand is ever for the “more”, and such desire always breeds agony, misery, wars. But when one is free of all desire to become, there is a state of being whose action is totally different. It is. That which is has no time. It does not think in terms of fulfilment. Its very being is its fulfilment. – Think on These Things

Yesterday marked the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year.

When the sun is at its height this time of year, energy is at its highest, offering the greatest potential for activity and vigor.

A violet can never become a rose, but the violet in itself can be a perfect flower. Being uncertain, one seeks certainty in the imitation of another. This produces fear, from which arise the delusion of shelter and comfort in another, and the many false ideas of discipline, meditation and the subjugation of oneself to an ideal. All this merely indicates the lack of comprehension of oneself, the perpetuating of ignorance. It is the root of sorrow, and instead of discerning the cause, you think that you can comprehend yourself through another. This looking to the example of another only leads to illusion and suffering.    -Krishnamurti

WHO ARE YOU STEALING FROM?

A couple of years ago, I mentored a young yoga teacher who wanted to take a therapeutic approach in her work; she was eager to learn and I offered heartfelt enthusiasm for her new direction.  When she completed her studies and launched her website, I was surprised to see that she had modeled significant parts of her website very closely after mine, imitating my style in her format and offerings.

My first response was disappointment and irritation, as I remembered all of the effort I had put into creating my original and copyrighted work.  As I sat with my feelings, they were gradually transformed into understanding and compassion, and I remembered the mentors that selflessly assisted me on my journey; I remembered how in the beginning, I relied on others’ expertise to guide me.  Eventually, I found my own way and didn’t have to try to emulate or imitate those that I admired, but it was a journey that took time.

Most importantly, I remembered what it felt like to be in that place of new beginnings, not knowing how to set myself apart, not having grown into or discovered my own gifts, my own style.  Amidst my beginners’ enthusiasm, I was actually feeling a little unclear.  I recognize the experience of beginning a new project; it is often a process of feeling clear, then unclear, and clear again, over and over as we find the way.

Like washing a window, you spray the window, it gets filmy, you wipe and it gets clearer, then there are streaks, and you clean more until finally it sparkles.  The ultimate reward is that clarity that results from the process of introspection; the understanding that only comes from experience; the cleaning and clearing that frees us from ideas and conditioning that were learned, instead of discovered.
In these times that we live in, there is an increasing need in the evolution of humanity to discover and source our own creative gifts of service.  Imagine if every single person in the world, embraced their unique gift and just did that?  How effortlessly and harmoniously our lives would operate.  Finding our own truth is our own greatest reward on our path. In the end, what is authentic for us provides incredible clarity.

You all most certainly set your clocks ahead for Daylight Savings time a couple months ago, but did you also change what you’re eating for dinner?

In Ayurveda, we emphasis eating seasonally and especially the importance of making transitions between seasons, to keep our bodies in balance with nature.

When we move into the heat of summer, we nearly all reach for more raw, cooling foods.  And when autumn appears later in the year, we quite naturally move toward soups and warmer cooked foods.  But many of us miss this springtime transition that’s been all around us for the past couple months, this transition from cold winter days to a slightly warmer but still cool and wet springtime.

Often we continue to eat heavy foods that felt so right in the winter months.  But this time of year, springtime or Kapha-season, as we call it in Ayurveda, is an important time to clear the accumulation of heaviness from the winter months and encourage our bodies to lighten up, get moving, and prepare for the action of the year.  If you haven’t made this transition fully, it’s not too late.

Here are some tips for clearing excess Kapha (a heavy, cold, wet, dense quality) during springtime and preparing ourselves to harness the energy of the sun and warmth that (we hope) is just around the corner:

FOODS:

• Cut out sweet, heavy, foods, especially excess starches like potatoes and breads.  This doesn’t mean you have to go carb-free.  Just don’t overdo it.  Add more grains like quinoa and corn; avoid cooked oats, wheat and cooked rice (basmati rice is ok).
• Heat up your favorite dishes by using pungent foods and spices in your cooking: add onions, garlic, ginger, mustard seeds, cumin, black pepper and cayenne pepper.
• Avoid mucus-forming dairy and choose lighter milk alternatives like rice or goat milk.
• Instead of heavy meats, choose protein sources like red lentils, chickpeas and beans; add pumpkin and sunflower seeds to your favorite vegetable dishes.
• As always, eat your greens!

EXCERCISE: Get Moving!  If you enjoyed staying indoors during the cold rainy months, take advantage of patches of springtime sun and get outside.  This doesn’t mean you have to take up Extreme Sports or make drastic changes, simply adding a morning and/or evening walk or incorporating more active poses into your yoga routine can do the trick.

SLEEP: Wake up with the sun.  Get to bed early and wake up early.  Many of us sleep in during cold, dark winter months, but this time of year, adjusting our sleep schedules to rise and get going will give us more energy and strengthen our metabolic processes.

Learn about eating for your unique Ayurvedic type or imbalance.

Contact Gianna today for a free 30mn consult!

Yoga exercises are excellent; the speaker does them every day, for an hour or more; but that is merely physical exercise, to keep the body healthy, and so on. But through them you can never come upon the other – never! Because if you give them all importance, you are not giving importance to the understanding of yourself which is to be watchful, to be aware, to give attention to what you are doing, every day of your life; which is to give attention to how you speak and what you say, to what you think, how you behave, whether you are attached, whether you are frightened, whether you are pursuing pleasure and so on. To be aware of the whole movement of thought; for if you are and you are really serious about it, then you will have established right relationship, obviously.

Relationship becomes extraordinarily important when all things about are chaotic – when the world is going to pieces, as it is. But when there is this establishment of total relationship, whole relationship, not between you and me, but human relationship with the whole of the world, then you have the basis. From there you can go on to behaviour – how you behave. If your behaviour is based on pleasure or on reward, it is not behaviour. It is merely the pursuit of pleasure from which fear arises.

Relationship, behaviour and order, these are absolutely essential if you want to go into the question of meditation. If you have not laid this foundation, then do what you like – stand on your head, breathe in for the next ten thousand years and repeat words, words – there will be no meditation.

- J Krishnamurti, Total Freedom

Ayurveda 5-part Weeknight series

(Jade River Healing Arts, Portland)

These classes build upon one-another, creating a foundation for living with Ayurveda in our daily lives.  The entire series will cover a basic overview of Ayurveda, understanding the 3 doshas and your constitution, how the seasons and timing of the day affect our bodies, eating and cooking to balance your Ayurvedic constitution, and understanding the nature of dis-ease.  Classes are $25 each or $100 for the 5-part series.

Part I, Basic Overview of Ayurveda: Wed, 4/21/10, 5:30-7pm

Part II, Understanding your Ayurvedic Constitution : Wed, 4/28/10, 5:30-7pm

Part III, Living in Rythym with Nature’s Clock : Wed, 5/5/10, 5:30-7pm

Part IV, Eating the Ayurvedic Way : Wed, 5/19/10, 5:30-7pm

Part V Disease: An Ayurvedic Perspective : Wed, 6/2/10, 5:30-7pm

Jade River Healing Arts Center, Portland, OR (directions)

To register:

Please contact Gianna

“Yoga OFF the Mat”

An Introduction to Ayurvedic Diet & Lifestyle

Take yoga into your everyday life by understanding the basic foundations of yoga’s sister science, Ayurveda.   Ay-Yur-Ved-WHAT?!, you might ask?  Ayurveda is a 5,000 year old system of health and healing from India that is tailored to the unique needs of the individual.  Its holistic approach brings balance to the body through basic diet and lifestyle practices including eating, sleeping, exercise and daily routine.  Using a practical approach, discover how this ancient and effective system of living in balance and rhythm with nature can help you find your path to healthy eating and balanced living. Facilitated by Gianna Piccardo .

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