It is Moonflower Yoga’s 10-year anniversary! By Nancy Weshkoff
This week marks a major milestone for Moonflower Yoga – it is our 10- year anniversary!
Ten years ago, I decided to leave corporate life behind and pursue something that I loved and that made me feel great, which was yoga. I knew that I did not want to work at a gym but instead wanted my own yoga studio. I had a dream that I wanted to reach students who might not feel comfortable in a gym setting or large studio and would often choose to “hide” in the back of the room.
Moonflower Yoga was born with a mantra of “small class, personal attention”. Having this type of studio enabled the teachers to interact with the students and guide them more closely in their practice. It also helped many yoga students learn, improve their practice, and discover how much they love yoga. By having the small class size, friendships were formed, and many of those students now spend time with people they met at Moonflower Yoga.
I also knew that community was important to me, and so I launched the Moonflower Yoga Book Club where we had fun reading a book and then discussing it. The Moonflower Yoga Book Club is still going strong today with monthly online meetings. Later, the Moonflower Yoga Needle Arts Group was formed and the Moonflower Yoga Mah Jongg club.
I also became a Reiki Master Teacher and began offering Reiki training at Moonflower Yoga. Reiki is a wonderful way to relax and take care of you.
We also learned something new in great workshops on a range of topics from creating art, cooking ideas, crafts, and so much more. Lots of laughs have been shared in these workshops. Some of these activities are now offered online such as “In the Kitchen with Bob” where we cook a meal together from our respective kitchens and then eat it together at the end of the workshop at our kitchen tables. There is also “An Evening of Guided Meditation and Relaxation” with Bhante Sujatha, the loving kindness monk, who offers his words of wisdom from all over the world. We have witnessed the sun rising over the mountains of Sri Lanka as Bhante taught his relaxing meditation. There is also “Yoga Nidra” with Jackie who helps you completely chill out and get ready for a good night’s sleep. There are special yoga-related workshops from Moonflower Yoga’s great roster of yoga teachers where you can more deeply understand each pose to help improve your practice.
I cannot say there have been no bumps in the road. The onset of COVID and the forced closure of the studio for in-person activities for over a year has been very difficult. With every cloud there is a silver lining, and online classes via Zoom were formed. The online classes enabled Moonflower Yoga to remain open, albeit virtually. But it also did something great too which is it allowed us to connect to students who lived geographically away from the studio. We now have students who live in Florida, Arizona, California, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, etc., who regularly attend activities. And some teachers who we missed because they moved out of state can once again teach for Moonflower even though they live hundreds of miles away from Long Island. Last year, I launched “hybrid” yoga classes which are the best of both worlds: up to 4 fully-vaccinated students are attending in person at the studio while there are simultaneously students attending online via Zoom.
So what does the next year bring? It brings a great variety of yoga and meditation classes that students can attend on a weekly basis. It also brings special workshops and other activities. Most importantly, it brings people together to feel physically better and stronger but also mentally by providing a de-stressing environment where you can relax and feel better.
For those of you who have never tried an activity at Moonflower Yoga, we welcome you to give it a try! Check us out in Bellmore (Nassau County, Long Island). If you do not live near the studio, online classes are available 7 days a week. There is NEVER a contract to sign. You can register for just one activity of your choosing from the Schedule tab on the moonfloweryoga.com website, following the simple registration steps, and see how you like it.
To those of you who have supported Moonflower Yoga through these 10 years, THANK YOU!! You have helped the studio grow and created a very special community. And to those great teachers who join me every week to teach amazing yoga classes and workshops, THANK YOU to you as well. Dozens of students have discovered the benefits of yoga through your great yoga and meditation classes.
With much gratitude!
Namaste,
Nancy
Reflections on 2021 by Nancy Weshkoff
Reflections On 2021
By Nancy Weshkoff
As we say goodbye to 2021, I am looking back to the year that was. 2021 was another strange year as we continued to battle coronavirus. Coronavirus very much was a part of the year, as the year began with the studio doors closed to in-person classes to keep people safe. The teaching schedule still offered great online yoga classes 7 days a week.
As vaccines become available and the virus numbers started to decline, it was time to return to some normalcy. Hybrid yoga classes were formed whereby we could continue to offer great online yoga classes via Zoom, while simultaneously having the return of in-person classes for a small group of students. It was so nice to finally reopen the studio doors to see people in person again, especially those who have been such an important part of the Moonflower Yoga community for many years.
And then came new and more contagious virus strains which are affecting not just Bellmore in Nassau County, Long Island, but many parts of the United States and the world. Once again, the painful decision was made to close the studio doors to all in-person activities to prevent the spread of the virus and to keep the Moonflower Yoga community safe. Great online yoga classes and workshops continue to be offered.
Through it all, I have felt a sense of gratitude. Gratitude for the students who continue to attend online yoga and meditation classes at Moonflower Yoga, and it is always nice to see their smiling faces in the “Zoom Room” as we chat before and after each class. I am grateful to the great yoga teachers and workshops presenters who teach their classes and workshops online as we offer a very interesting variety of activities. I am grateful for my husband, Bob, who supports me on a daily basis and who joins in the Moonflower Yoga community with his monthly “In the Kitchen with Bob” online cooking workshop where we prepare plant-based, vegan recipes in our kitchen with attendees cooking alongside us in their homes. I am grateful to the Moonflower Yoga community that attends the fun Moonflower Yoga Book Club and Needle Arts Groups where we have some laughs together. I am grateful to the medical community that has discovered treatments that help combat the virus and the healthcare workers who tirelessly aid those in need. I am grateful that we have made it through a challenging year.
As we look ahead into 2022, which begins in a few hours, we are beginning the new year similar to the one we are leaving behind. Yet, I am hopeful that things will be better in the spring and summer. We need to take care of ourselves and our loved ones. It is important to take care of our physical bodies as well as our mental health. Attending a great online yoga class can help with both goals. And attending a meditation class or one of our special monthly offerings such as An Evening with Bhante Sujatha or the relaxing Yoga Nidra deep relaxation can bring you some inner peace. There is no contract to sign and no recurring payments, and you can attend just one great online yoga or meditation class and start to feel better. Come give it a try!
Thank you to everyone who has been on this journey with me. May 2022 bring you good health, happiness and many blessings.
The Return of the School Year by Nancy Weshkoff
The Return of the School Year
By Nancy Weshkoff
September is always a stressful month with the return of the school year. For teachers, you are meeting your new students for the year and ascertaining how you can help them grow and learn. Similarly for students, it is beginning a new curriculum and becoming comfortable with your new teachers. Parents need to help their children become adjusted to the new grade level. In 2021, this stress seems to be amplified even more. The COVID pandemic has added more complexity: should there be mask mandates, vaccine mandates for those who are eligible, remote learning or in-person learning, etc.
At Moonflower Yoga, we have many schoolteachers and parents who attend classes and events. I see the stress and worry start to build in mid-late August and continue through September and October as they try to cope with the onset of the new school year.
For the teachers, the parents, and the students, they all agree that taking even just 30 minutes to RELAX can you help feel better. A great yoga or meditation class, available via Zoom, can help you do that. Yoga can release muscle tension from the day. By doing pranayama (breathing techniques), the mind and body begin to relax. When you are relaxed, you can think more clearly and feel better, and your blood pressure can be lowered creating less stress on your heart. Guided meditation takes your mind away from your worries and anxiety and helps you channel it in a more positive direction. Come give a yoga or meditation class a try with a great Moonflower Yoga teacher who can help you learn ways to relax and cope! With Zoom, you do not need to live in Bellmore, Long Island, New York to attend a class, and we have people attending online yoga or meditation classes from neighboring Nassau County towns such as Merrick, East Meadow, Wantagh, Levittown, and Seaford, as well as out of state from Pennsylvania, Florida, Vermont, Arizona, and California. Take 30 minutes for yourself and begin to feel better! And have a great start to the new school year.
It is Moonflower Yoga’s 9th anniversary by Nancy Weshkoff
It is Moonflower Yoga’s 9th anniversary!
By Nancy Weshkoff
This week marks a happy milestone for Moonflower Yoga – it is our 9th anniversary!
It is hard to believe how quickly the years have flown by. When I embarked on the journey of opening a yoga studio 9 years ago in Bellmore, Long Island, New York, I was not exactly sure how things would progress. I will be the first to admit that some things did not always go as planned. But I am happy to say that many things did.
The vision that I had of building a community where people could come together to practice yoga and meditation but to also make friends and expand horizons through the Moonflower Yoga Clubs such as the Moonflower Yoga Book Club and the Moonflower Yoga Needle Arts Group have all happened. And we have all had fun and learned something new in the great workshops including cooking workshops, jewelry workshops, yoga-related workshops, and much more. Meditation activities to promote relaxation and stress reduction were added to the schedule, and we now have ongoing classes, as well as a monthly evening of Guided Meditation and Relaxation with Bhante Sujatha, a Yoga Nidra evening with Jackie Lee, and a Gong Meditation and Relaxation event at the studio with Cathi. Reiki became an addition to the schedule, and many people have become trained in this calming healing system for stress reduction and relaxation. And, of course, the yoga classes which were just a handful of classes at first but have grown to a wonderful variety of daily classes. I have personally witnessed students of all ages who were not familiar with yoga fall in love with yoga as they become stronger, more flexible, improve balance, take care of themselves, and make friends with their fellow attendees.
There have been challenges too. The onset of the COVID pandemic with a forced closure of the studio doors for in-person classes was a very sad time for me. I missed the sound of that creaky front door opening with students walking into the hallway. Through online Zoom classes, we were able to stay in touch and practice yoga together, as well as still hold online workshops and other activities. This proved to be very important for so many in the Moonflower Yoga community who felt less isolated because of the online activities, while they continued to improve their physical health with a regular yoga practice. With the introduction of hybrid classes this summer, we are now welcoming a limited group of fully-vaccinated students into the studio for select classes, and it is nice to see people in person again.
I am so grateful to all the wonderful people who have supported Moonflower Yoga through the years – THANK YOU! You have made a dream come true. Your support of Moonflower Yoga and your friendship have created a very special place. I also could not have done all of this without the great yoga teachers who join me in offering an amazing variety of yoga and meditation classes. To those who provide these great yoga and meditation classes and help students improve their practice, as well as lead wonderful workshops, I thank you for your dedication!
These are challenging times for many including small businesses as we cope with the ongoing pandemic. With your continued support, we can weather the storm and look forward to clearing skies in the future. THANK YOU for 9 wonderful years!
Spring: New Beginnings by Nancy Weshkoff
Spring: New Beginnings
By Nancy Weshkoff
Spring is my favorite time of year. We shake off the remnants of winter. All around you, life is starting to come alive gain. The trees start to bloom, lawns and shrubs are turning green, spring bulbs are blooming, and the weather is warmer. We have more daylight and start to feel more alive than when it is dark before 5 PM.
With a year of living with the Covid pandemic that has gripped the world, spring takes on added meaning for me. I start to feel that we are leaving the darkness of the Covid winter behind us and are moving into the light and to better days ahead. With spring’s arrival it is time to dust off the cobwebs of winter and start to feel renewed and refreshed.
With the warmer weather ahead, you start to wear thinner clothes. Wouldn’t it be great to feel toned in those lighter clothes? A great yoga class can help you tone and stretch your muscles, as well as improve strength, flexibility, and balance. Yoga and meditation are also wonderful for stress reduction and helping us cope with these challenging times. If you are a beginner, there are beginner-level yoga classes on the Moonflower Yoga schedule 6 days a week. And while the studio doors remain closed for the time being, you can still enjoy a great yoga class with one of our great yoga teachers, as you join us online from the comfort of your home using Zoom.
In addition to the daily yoga classes, there are also some great meditation activities on the Moonflower Yoga schedule including a weekly Relax and De-Stress with Guided Meditation class on Mondays at 7 PM, as well as a deep, relaxing monthly Yoga Nidra (yogic sleep) with Jackie Lee, and a fascinating monthly evening of Guided Meditation with Bhante Sujatha, a 30+ year Buddhist Monk who is singularly focused on adding more love in the world. Bhante teaches loving-kindness meditation to people around the globe for all those seeking the art of happiness and contentment. Discover how meditation can help you relax, reduce your stress levels, and put you on a brighter path.
Perhaps you would also like to learn something new as part of a spring renewal. There is a monthly “In the Kitchen with Bob” cooking workshop where you cook in your kitchen, while we simultaneously cook from our kitchen. We supply the recipes in advance, and have a blast cooking delicious, plant-based, healthy recipes together in our respective kitchens. At the end, we enjoy sharing our meal together using Zoom.
For the month of April, we also added a “New Beginnings for Springtime” workshop with clinical herbalist, nutrition educator, and author Jovanka Ciares on Friday, April 23rd. In this workshop, Jovanka will discuss how to use foods and botanicals to support our natural detoxification system and help improve our well being.
Come join us this spring at Moonflower Yoga and take a step towards renewal for yourself! Using Zoom, you can join us from a wider geographic location and are no longer limited to only the Bellmore, Wantagh, Merrick, Seaford, or East Meadow vicinity of Nassau County, Long Island. We have people joining us from other parts of the United States, including mothers and daughters from different states enjoying a class together. I hope you can join us too and have a great start to your spring!
March: One Year Later – The “New Normal” by Nancy Weshkoff
March: One Year Later and the “New Normal”
By Nancy Weshkoff
This March marks the one-year anniversary of the studio closing its doors to in-person classes. It is hard to believe that one year has passed.
Thinking back to March, 2020, it started to become apparent by the middle of the month that New York was in a bad situation. People were getting sick all around us. Hospitals were filling up and beds became scarce. Health care workers bravely and tirelessly put their lives on the line to help as many people as possible. And we faced shortages of supplies such as toilet paper, as well as masks to protect us from the virus. On March 16th, I made the painful decision to close the studio doors due to the pandemic and cancelled the future in-person activities on the schedule.
When I went home that March night, I shed many tears. What I had worked so hard to build for 8 years just disappeared overnight. How did we get here? I went into a depressed state starting that evening and had difficulty getting out of bed. I could not face what was happening. The world that I loved had just turned upside down.
After several days of this, I received a phone call from another studio owner who I had met through training programs. She gave me a jolt to get out of bed and save Moonflower. She told me about the online Zoom classes that she was starting up at her studio. I then investigated Zoom and decided to give it a try. That competitive studio owner, who did not need to help me, gave me some tutorials on Zoom so that I could start offering online classes. I will always be grateful for her kindness and advice. I also decided to attend the tutorials that Zoom provided to help me further understand Zoom, and I am blessed to have an amazing partner in Bob who is IT savvy.
Next came the outreach to the great teachers who had supported Moonflower, and we agreed on new online class offerings to accommodate the Zoom technology. I did test classes with each of the teachers so we could practice working with Zoom. By the end of the month, I was ready to give online classes a try, and I made the announcement of the new online schedule to the Moonflower Yoga community.
There were some hiccups at first. One-on-one Zoom tutorials were offered to some Moonflower clients who needed help navigating Zoom. But overall the launch was a success. Once that was in place, I started to offer some online Zoom workshops and relaunch the Moonflower Yoga Book Club and Needle Arts Group.
And here we are one year later. I never thought I would be spending more than a year in Zoom world – the “new normal” .
Many wonderful things have happened as a result of Zoom. There is no longer a geographic or size limitation to the yoga or meditation classes. Students join me from other states, not just from the local Nassau County or Long Island, New York communities of Bellmore, East Meadow, Merrick, Wantagh, or Seaford. Classes are not limited to 6 people, and several popular classes have more than that number attending. Most importantly, I can still stay in touch with each of you, the Moonflower Yoga community that I love. Social distancing is important to prevent the further spread of the virus, but it can create loneliness. Through the Zoom rooms, we can safely and happily chat before/after class and not feel so lonely and isolated. And, of course, the Zoom classes provide an opportunity to take care of our physical bodies as well as provide relaxation and enable us to de-stress as we cope with our changed lives as a result of the pandemic.
With all the snow that we received in February, having the Zoom classes was a godsend, as we can still hold classes despite the bad weather and not worry about roads being plowed and parking being available. And some of the meditative activities such as Cathi’s lovely Relax and De-Stress with Guided Meditation class on Monday nights, or Jackie Lee’s monthly Yoga Nidra work very nicely when done at home as you can be reclining in your own bed as you de-stress and not lose that relaxation by having to drive home after class. The In the Kitchen with Bob cooking workshop series is a lot of fun, as we connect in our respective kitchens and then enjoy sharing via Zoom the meal we just prepared. Bhante Sujatha, who offers such wonderful wisdom through his monthly meditations for Moonflower Yoga, teaches these meditations from Sri Lanka or Chicago – something that would not have happened in the physical studio world. We have witnessed sunrise over the mountains of Sri Lanka during Bhante’s meditation. Jessica, who taught for the studio for years before becoming a mom and then relocating to South Carolina, can now reconnect with the studio with 2 great weekly yoga classes due to Zoom.
It is also fun to see have some of our furry friends joining the Zoom classes. Walter, the dog, and Daisy, the cat, and others enjoy the Zoom classes also.
There is sadness too. I loved the sound of that creaky studio door opening to signal someone was entering, and I loved popping up from my desk to greet people. I miss giving someone a hug who was having a bad day. I miss handing out essential oils and cards with messages from the universe when people settled into the Moonflower Yoga studio room. I miss doing Reiki training which is not safe to do while the virus is prevalent. And while we do have the Moonflower Yoga Book Club and Needle Arts Group online, I miss the Moonflower Yoga Mah Jongg Club and the new Moonflower Yoga Canasta Club where we had laughs and which must be on hiatus for now.
Like many small businesses, these are challenging times financially. We are doing everything we can to survive the pandemic and keep our heads above water until the pandemic is behind us. It is why I ask you to please support a small business if you can. The dollars that small businesses receive stay in the community to pay for schools, police, sanitation, etc. Small businesses are the lifeblood of our neighborhood.
So what does the next year hold for Moonflower Yoga? Well, it is a continuance of online classes, workshops, and the Clubs for a few more months. I have repeatedly stressed “ahimsa” – kindness. That means I need to keep the teachers and the students safe from the virus, which I cannot due at the moment if the studio doors reopen to in-person activities. We need to have more people vaccinated and for the numbers to drop significantly before I will consider reopening the doors. I do think that will happen but it will take time.
I am so very grateful to those of you who have continued to support Moonflower Yoga through this challenging time. THANK YOU! And for those of you who have not yet tried an online class, I encourage you to give it a try. It is just $11 for a great 30-40 minute online yoga or meditation class with NO contract to sign. Or join us for a great workshop where you learn something new and have fun. The Schedule tab on the moonfloweryoga.com website provides the calendar of upcoming activities. I look forward to seeing you soon!
Heart Disease and Women by Nancy Weshkoff
Heart Disease and Women
By Nancy Weshkoff
Heart health is something I take very seriously. And while it is important to focus on heart health year round, the month of February is Heart Health Month and part of the American Heart Association’s Go Red for Women Movement. I am therefore writing this blog to discuss this very important topic.
Let’s begin with these key factors about heart disease in women:
–Heart disease is the NUMBER ONE killer of women in the United States.
–If you stacked up ALL cancer-related deaths for women together (breast, lung, ovarian, liver, skin cancer, etc), all of these cancer-related deaths together would still be number two behind heart disease.
– One in three women in the United States will die every year from heart disease. If you were sitting in a group of women and looked to your right and to your left, sadly one of you will die from heart disease. And of this number, more than 1,800 of these women who die from heart disease will live here on Long Island in New York.
-If you have heart disease, you are at a higher risk of contracting COVID or having serious complications related to COVID. With the spread of coronavirus, it is even more important to pay attention to your heart health.
– Did you know that you can help PREVENT yourself from becoming one of these very sad statistics by proactively taking steps to lower your risk?
While there are some things that you cannot change, such as your family history of heart disease, there are several things that doctors all agree that you CAN do to lower your risk of having a heart attack or stroke. These include:
– Engage in moderate exercise on a regular basis. Sitting on a couch and not moving is bad for you in so many ways. Spending long hours in front of a computer screen without moving is not good for you. Your body needs to move. Yoga is extremely helpful in helping you with your fitness goals. The postures in a yoga class will build strength and flexibility, stretch your muscles, and at the same time, the deep breathing techniques (pranayama) used in a yoga class increase the flow of blood to your heart and your organs.
– Reduce your stress levels. This can be particularly challenging in this coronavirus period where we might find ourselves multi-tasking. It makes it even more important to notice how you cope with stress. Being in a “fight or flight” mode, which is how our body reacts when our stress levels are high, is putting a huge strain on your body functions – including your heart. Meditation is a wonderful tool to help you lower your blood pressure and stress levels. Yoga classes also help you reduce your stress. The online yoga and meditation classes at Moonflower Yoga can get you on the path to accomplishing your stress-reduction goals. Perhaps you do not have a lot of spare time right now with multi-tasking due to the pandemic. I would suggest that it is so important to take even 30 minutes FOR YOU which helps lower those stress levels and enables you to better cope with life’s challenges. Moonflower Yoga currently has great online yoga and meditation classes which you can do from the comfort of your home to help you lower stress and help your heart health. The Schedule tab on the moonfloweryoga.com website lists the daily options taught by our great yoga and meditation teachers.
– Learn to be “in the present moment”. We often worry unnecessarily about things from our past that we cannot change or things in the future that MIGHT happen but have not happened yet and may never happen. In our classes and workshops at Moonflower Yoga, we teach you ways to be more in the present moment and let go of unnecessary worries bringing you more peace and calm.
– Lower your blood pressure: Moving more, decreasing your stress levels, and using tools such as meditation and yoga mentioned above can all help you with this. How about learning something new? Spending some time reading a great book or engaging in a fun activity can help lower your stress levels. We have several great online activities that you can do from home including two fun “Clubs”. In the Moonflower Yoga Book Club, we have fun going on a journey with a new book which helps you discover something new. There is also the Moonflower Yoga Needle Arts Group where you crochet or knit (very meditative!) while enjoying each other’s company. With the Moonflower Yoga Needle Arts Group, we also donate some of our beautiful creations to various charities. And there are great yoga workshops, as well as crafting workshops where we make beautiful jewelry. We have online meditation classes, as well as regular guided meditation workshops. There is also a monthly online yoga nidra evening, which is deep relaxation “yogic sleep”, a wonderful way to de-stress. One hour of yoga nidra = four hours of sleep! These types of interesting and meditative activities can help you on the path of stress reduction, lowering your blood pressure, and having fun – all great things for your heart.
– Fighting loneliness: In this coronavirus period, it is very important to practice social distancing to prevent the spread of the virus. But social distancing often creates loneliness. We need social interaction. Online yoga, meditation, and other activities via Zoom are a great way to combat loneliness and help you feel better. Before and after each online class, there is a Zoom Room where you can safely see and chat with fellow attendees, have a laugh, or share a story. It makes a big difference to have this social interaction and help you feel better, thereby reducing your stress levels.
-Are you eating a healthy diet, or are you eating fast food or other unhealthy foods that are high in fat and cholesterol? Eating unhealthy foods can clog your arteries and increase your risk for heart disease. One fun, new online activity that we offer at Moonflower Yoga is a monthly “In the Kitchen with Bob” cooking workshop where we connect online via Zoom, and we cook healthy meals together during the workshop and then enjoy the finished product at the end of the workshop. These delicious recipes are plant-based, low in fat, and heart healthy. And we have a lot of laughs cooking together – a great stress reducer.
As someone who has a history of heart disease in my family, I take heart disease very seriously. My stress levels and blood pressure were very high – all red flags for being on the path to a heart attack or stroke. Through yoga, meditation, learning to be more in the present moment, and spending time in engaging activities such as reading and needle arts, I have been able to lower my blood pressure to normal. You, too, can lower your risk. We hope to see you soon at a great online yoga class, meditation, or workshop at Moonflower Yoga. With online yoga and meditation classes offered via Zoom, there is also no longer a geographic limit to Bellmore, Wantagh, Merrick, East Meadow, Freeport, Seaford, Massapequa, or other towns in Nassau County, Long Island. We now have students joining us from states other than New York including Florida, California, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Vermont. It is great to connect with new people! All are welcome!
Please take care of yourself and reduce your risk of heart disease, or the risk of heart disease for a special woman in your life. I hope we will see you soon for a great online yoga class, meditation, or other activity as you take positive steps to lowering the risk for heart disease!
What is Shavasana and why is it important? by Nancy Weshkoff
What is Shavasana and why is it so important?
By Nancy Weshkoff
Shavasana is the final relaxation pose that is part of a yoga practice. It is also referred to as “corpse pose”. Of all the poses that comprise your yoga practice it is the most important one. Why is that?
Let’s start by thinking about what a normal day is like for most people these days. We are often multi-tasking. In today’s environment, you may find yourself juggling your work responsibilities with home schooling responsibilities for your children. Have an elderly family member who is staying home bound these days? Perhaps you are also doing shopping for that family member. Or you are multi-tasking in a a work meeting reading and answering text messages instead of concentrating on the meeting. Our bodies are tense from all these responsibilities, and our minds are racing a mile a minute thinking about things that need to get done.
As a yoga student for years, and later as a yoga teacher at Moonflower Yoga, I have seen it happen where a student attends a yoga class and when it is time for that final relaxation on your mat in Shavasana, the student leaves because they have so many things to do. I am so sad when this happens. You are missing the most important part of your practice when you skip this!
Most yoga classes begin with some breathing exercises and then move immediately into “asana”, which is yoga movement. These movements can be seated or standing. This is also important because it enables you to release muscle tension in your body and stretch your muscles. By focusing on alignment and working on your breath, you should find some joy in the movement of your body.
But asana is that steppingstone that opens the door to the loveliness of Shavasana. The great yogi sages put the movement first so that you could release tightness and relax in Shavasana. Shavasana is where you let everything go. In a traditional Shavasana, you are reclining on the floor on your back resting on your yoga mat. It is important that you be physically comfortable, so you can add some comfort by placing a blanket or folded towel under your head or perhaps a rolled blanket or towel under the knees. In the cooler months, you may wish to cover part of your body with a blanket. For some people, having the weight of a blanket can also help you feel more grounded.
Once you are in your set up, you then begin to scan your body and let everything go. In the classes I teach, we start slowly scanning each part of the body to release muscle tension. If anything is still tight, you can send a signal to your brain to relax that area. Just sink into the ground and let the ground support you. The next part is a challenging one for some people: quieting the mind. Thoughts might pop up about things on your “to do” list. Here is where the practice of pranayama – breathing techniques – can help. Focus on your breath to shut off the chatter in your head. Something as simple as saying to yourself “I breathe in, I breathe out and relax” while performing these breathing techniques generates relaxation. For some people, they may find it helpful to replace a negative thought or worry that is popping up in your mind with a positive mantra such as “I love myself” or “everything will be okay”, etc. Once you are settled, then spend at least one minute of Shavasana for every 10 minutes of asana movement, i.e., 50 minutes of asana movement should be at least 5 minutes of Shavasana. If you can stay longer in Shavasana, that’s great.
When you are ready to move out of Shavasana, you should do so slowly. Bring some gentle movement back to the body, and then ever so gradually roll over to one side into a fetal position. Take several breaths in fetal position, and when you a ready, you will slowly come into a seated position for several breaths. Take this time to continue be in the present moment and enjoying this lovely feeling of relaxation before slowly starting to “return to the room” and end your yoga session.
By taking these several minutes of Shavasana for yourself, you are doing positive things for your mental and physical health. It brings you relaxation and can help to balance the right and left sides of the brain. The practice gives you a clearer perspective and helps you better cope with challenges that come your way. You can feel so much calmer from those few minutes of Shavasana.
In the yoga classes that I teach at Moonflower Yoga, I make sure that we focus on this important part of your yoga practice. For now, the Moonflower Yoga studio doors in Bellmore, Nassau County, Long Island, New York are closed due to the coronavirus. Moonflower Yoga is instead offering daily online yoga classes. Come give one of these great online yoga classes a try! Online, remote yoga classes via Zoom offer a nice advantage for Shavasana. Once you are ready to come out of Shavasana, you do not need to get in your car and drive in traffic back to your home, losing some of that quiet relaxation. Instead you can continue to enjoy that relaxation from a great online yoga class in your home to give you a more peaceful remainder of your day or evening.
I hope you will join me or one of the great yoga teachers at Moonflower Yoga for a wonderful online yoga class and always remember to take time for YOU to reduce your stress in your yoga postures including Shavasana. Namaste!
Today’s Super Women by Nancy Weshkoff
Today’s Super Women
By Nancy Weshkoff
On this Mother’s Day weekend, I would like to wish a very Happy Mother’s Day to the amazing women who are part of the Moonflower Yoga community. I am astonished by your strength and multi-tasking. With social distancing in place, many women face even more challenges: maintaining a busy career while tele-commuting, home schooling your children because the schools are closed, juggling household tasks, keeping a healthy relationship with a significant other, checking in on elderly, quarantined relatives using remote tools, etc.
And for those in the health care field who are sacrificing so much to help people in this crisis, they are superheroes! Thank you for everything you do to help those in need.
Life for many women today can be overwhelming. This is why it is so important to remember that you need to take care of YOURSELF first. If you don’t take care of yourself, there is no energy left to take care of the other responsibilities in your life. As flight attendants would say: In the event of an emergency, put the mask on yourself first and then put the mask on a child traveling with you.
During this coronavirus period of our lives, Moonflower Yoga is offering great 30-minute online yoga and meditation classes which you can do from the comfort of your living room. Giving yourself the gift of 30 minutes to relax, unwind, and stretch tired muscles with a great yoga teacher is a wonderful way to take care of yourself and reduce stress. You don’t need to be in Bellmore, Nassau County, or even Long Island to join us. You can be anywhere in the US and join us remotely. You’ll feel refreshed and ready to put on your super cape again.
Hope you have a great Mother’s Day!
Small Businesses in a Coronavirus World by Nancy Weshkoff
Small Businesses in a Coronavirus World
By Nancy Weshkoff
These are very difficult times for so many of us. This is particularly true of small business owners. Small business owners form the backbone of our local economy. They are your local restaurants, hair salons, service stations, and businesses such as Moonflower Yoga. They greet you when you walk in the door of their business because you are special to them. We are the people you meet on the street when walking through your neighborhood. We live in the community and we pay taxes in the local Nassau County, Long Island community to support the schools, parks, police, and other services. We are the stores you see on Main Street, and we are essential to keeping our communities flourishing.
I fully support the need for social distancing in our current Covid19 world, as it is vital that we stay safe. The health and safety of the Moonflower Yoga students and teachers is of the utmost importance to me. While we are following these social distancing protocols, it is causing a financial hardship for many of the local businesses in the community. We need local businesses! The owners of the small businesses are also paying salaries to their local workers to help those workers feed their families and have shelter. Local businesses give you the special attention that you do not get when ordering from giant online services. When this crisis has passed, we need local businesses to still be here. Sadly I think some of us will not survive this.
YOU can make a difference in helping to keep these local businesses still alive. Some local restaurants are staying open for take-out orders or curbside pick-up. Support them by ordering from them. I order my fresh produce from a local Wantagh business that offers curbside pick up. Service stations are still open to take care of your automotive needs. If there is a local business that can be open during this crisis, please help them.
As for Moonflower Yoga, while the doors of the studio are not open for physical classes in the Bellmore studio space, I am still running Moonflower Yoga, and the great yoga teachers you know and love are still teaching great yoga classes for Moonflower Yoga through online class offerings via Zoom. The people you have met at Moonflower Yoga are still around, and you can see them and speak with them in the chat area before the online classes begin. You may be feeling isolated and alone these days, but you are not alone. Join us remotely for a great yoga class, workshop, or Club event from the safety and comfort of your living room and connect with the people and teachers you have met through Moonflower Yoga. Some of the “snowbirds” who are in Florida and California are joining in. By attending a great online yoga or mediation class, you are doing 2 important things: Firstly, you are taking care of YOU by taking steps toward stress reduction in this challenging time, as well as moving your body which might be getting less physical activity than normal as we stay indoors. Secondly, you are helping a small business such as Moonflower Yoga, which supports the local community, survive. Small businesses such as Moonflower Yoga need you! Please help small businesses survive this challenging time and keep our local Long Island communities alive. Thank you!
