This is one of my absolute favorite ways to wake up my diaphragm and get into a liberated, expansive, easeful breathing pattern. We breathe around 20,000 times each day, so we may as well maximize that automatic effort and make it as natural and full as possible, right? We get better at what we practice, and giving yourself this 5 minute reset could just work wonders for you. Too much time sitting at your desk? Driving in traffic? Emotional stress? Pregnant and baby's getting all up in your lung's business? Try the video below and practice with me! Post a comment or email me to share how it feels for you after making this part of your daily routine. You deserve it, and your lungs and posture will thank you. ;) Love, Cheri PS: My online program for pelvic health (and by now you've … [Read more...]
3D Breathing Inquiry with Self-Feedback
I shared this to my newsletter subscribers recently, and didn't want you to miss it! Take an elastic band or a yoga strap and bring it around the back of your ribs, and follow along with me to bring focus and breath movement into new parts of your torso. If you've been taught belly breathing is where it's at, you may be missing essential real estate in your lungs, diaphragm and breathing capacity. After you practice with me, make this part of your daily routine. You can even place your hands on your side or back ribs for feedback if you don't have a strap or band. I prefer the band because it's a variable resistance tool - it moves with me as I breathe - versus a yoga strap which feels more static, but can get the job done. Enjoy, and tell me what you think or how your breathing … [Read more...]
3 Quick Tips To Keep You Regular
Nature has cycles. Our body has cycles. Each day cycles through waking and sleeping, and even through our waking hours we have cycles of productivity and required rest, called ultradian rhythms, which last about every 80-120 minutes for productive focus before we need to 'check out' from work and switch gears - play, rest, get outside. This is about honoring biological rhythm and energy instead of managing our to do list in spite of our energy and body's needs. We work, then we rest. Or, we don't, and we bring on a host of habits that work against our health and happiness. Culturally, we could be better about allowing the fallow, dark season of fall and winter to help us rest and turn inward. The pace of our day, and our life directly impacts our health. We're heading into … [Read more...]
3 Qualities of a Stellar Teacher
With so many 200 hour registered yoga teachers (RYT) in the US (and dare I say, globally) it may seem like everyone and their sister, brother, mother, cousin and neighbor is also a qualified 'teacher'. But what makes a teacher 'good'? What makes a stellar teacher? To me, an excellent teacher completes plenty of training as well as demonstrating evidence of personal experience - meaning, they have a well established personal practice, and they've been around the block in regard to hands on, contact hours of true teaching experience. Yet training and personal practice can, at times, be rote memorization and become mechanical or uninspired - or even dangerously unchecked when driven by one's ego or insta-famous ambitions, or lacking depth of understanding and context gained from time … [Read more...]
Navigating the New and Different
Hello, sweet friends! I hope you're feeling grounded and getting your 2018 off to a strong, clear start. We just celebrated the New Moon, too, and I spent a few hours with a group of women, in circle, with candles around our altar as we shared what we need to shed and digest in order to move forward. It felt yummy and supportive, but also edgy as we each bravely spoke about our challenges and fears. I released (again and again a thousand times) the grief and anger I've felt through the initiation into motherhood. Hello, intensity. I shed any shame around the difficulty of the transition and early challenges in bonding with Fern. I let go of blaming my body for what didn't happen. I surrendered my expectations about control and being in command in exchange for getting … [Read more...]
Resilience: Wisdom from Aaliyah
If at first you don't succeed...you can dust it off and try again. This song has been running in my head, and ironically I'm sitting down to write about resilience. Enjoy a little throwback while we continue... For the sake of transparency and for well...fun, I wanted to challenge myself to list a few of my failures. (Note: I noticed how it seemed my brain wasn't wired to think of most of these as failures, but milestones. It was a healthy ego exercise to bring myself back to the intensity of defeat - but what we focus on wires our brains with that patterning...so, do the reflection, and then flip the failure and examine how it has taught you or benefited you.) 2000 - I auditioned for the dance program, didn't get in. I was SO convinced they needed me in their program. And … [Read more...]
Relational Wellbeing: The Yajna Model
Hey everyone! Today I'm going to quickly teach you about a model used in Yoga philosophy that helps an individual see where and how they are supported by aspects of life and a variety of relationships. What struck me is how different this view is from a western biopsychosocial model - often referred to as the Six Dimensions of Wellness. This model focuses on the individual's needs, with limited attention given to relationships (in the social and perhaps environmental pieces of the pie). The Yajna Model really looks at the individual functioning within an ongoing study and appreciation for relationships of different types, to meet different needs. If we think of either of these models like a table, each aspect is a leg on the table providing support to the individual. One leg … [Read more...]
The Freedom Mantra
Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu Written above, you see a Sanskrit mantra which means: “May all beings everywhere be happy and free, and may the thoughts, words, and actions of my own life contribute in some way to that happiness and to that freedom for all.” So, I call this one the Freedom Mantra. Happy Independence Day! And as I reflect on the role of relationships, and how they give us such opportunity and clear confirmation of our own state, our own growth, (or our own momentary, ahem, regressions and transgressions) I would like us to consider Independence Day as Interdependence Day. I won't get too political here, but let's face it. We are on this planet together, and the more we can support each other's freedoms the more we, too, can feel freedom, embodied. Feel … [Read more...]