Improving Your Balance (Part 2) by Nancy Weshkoff
IMPROVING YOUR BALANCE (Part 2)
Written by Nancy Weshkoff
In my previous blog, “Improving Your Balance (Part 1)”,
https://www.moonfloweryoga.com/blog/improving-your-balance-part-1-by-nancy-weshkoff.html I wrote about the need to develop better balance and how practicing certain asana poses in your yoga practice can help prevent serious injuries in life.
Today I am writing about another type of balance: the juggling act of the many responsibilities in our lives. Many would state that life has become busier than for previous generations. We are rushing from one place to the next. Technology has enabled us to be better connected but that better connection also means that we are checking emails after we leave the office or dealing with work-related problems from our homes rather than spending quality time with our families and friends. Businesses are trimming their budgets by hiring less people and giving more tasks to the current workforce, and we often feel overwhelmed from all the tasks that have now been handed to us. You may find yourself juggling pre-arranged “play dates” or extracurricular activities for your child.
So how does yoga fit into all of this? Yoga teaches us the opposite of rushing around. It teaches us to be in the present moment and be mindful. Let your day go and enjoy this little bit of time you have given to yourself. Every person needs some time for themselves. You may find that as the stress accumulates in your day, you are breathing in a shallow way which can cause muscle tension and anxiety. In our yoga classes at Moonflower Yoga, we practice taking deep, cleansing breaths that ignite the “prana” or energy in our bodies and make us feel better. As you move into various yoga postures, you are stretching your muscles and relieving tension. At the same time, you are also building better strength, flexibility, and of course balance. It is amazing how much better you can feel from taking just ONE HOUR for yourself in a yoga class.
If you are in the Long Island, New York area (in Nassau County), try one of the great yoga classes at Moonflower Yoga in Bellmore that we have designed to make you feel much better and return some balance to your life. Classes such as “Candlelight Restorative” and “Unwind and Relax” melt away the stress and you leave you feeling refreshed at the end of your day. Energetic classes such as “Tension Busting Flow” and “Stretch and Flow” provide a fabulous outlet to release tension from your day. Or trying starting your day in a positive way with “Awaken with Power”, “Sunday Flow”, “Level One” or “Easy Flow”, and you will be better able to cope with your day.
Having better balance in our lives – physically as well as emotionally – can do wonders. Let yoga help you reach these goals. Hope to see you soon at Moonflower Yoga!
To Mothers Everywhere written by Nancy Weshkoff
To Mothers Everywhere
By Nancy Weshkoff
Mothers Day is this Sunday, May 12th. It gives us an opportunity to pause for a moment and give thanks to the mothers everywhere who often sacrifice so much to raise their children. I am blessed to have many wonderful moms walk through the doors of Moonflower Yoga in Bellmore. Some are new moms raising young children. Others have grown children who are in their final years of college or who have entered the workforce.
The love that a mother shows for her child does not have an age limit. It doesn’t matter whether your child is a toddler or a college-aged student living at home. When your child needs you or is sick, all of the moms who come to Moonflower Yoga put their child first and do what it takes to help their child.
Being a mom in the year 2013 is also wrought with many challenges. Moms are often working outside of the home to help financially support the household. When the mom arrives home, the second half of her day begins with raising the children, helping with schoolwork, preparing meals, doing chores, etc. Phew!!
I pause for a moment and think about the directions given to us by flight attendants as we are preparing for takeoff on a flight. In the event of an emergency, an oxygen mask will come down. Place that mask on yourself FIRST and then place the mask on the children travelling with you. Why? Because if you do not take care of yourself first, you are not strong enough to take care of the child in your life. This message from the airlines has so many applications in our everyday life too. Moms are often stretched to the limit. Yet if you do not take care of yourself, you cannot help your child or others who need you.
Giving yourself just one hour to rejuvenate can have many wonderful rewards. Suddenly you will feel stronger and have more energy. A great yoga class at Moonflower Yoga is one way in which to do this. Moms can completely relax and recharge their batteries in a Candlelight Restorative or an Unwind and Relax class. Alternatively, if you need a practice to release the day’s tension, there is Tension Busting Flow or Stretch and Flow. And if you want to start the day in a positive way and feel great all day, you could try Awaken with Power, Sunday Flow, or Level One Beginner.
To all the moms out there, I salute you! You are amazing!! I hope you enjoy your special day on Sunday. And if you are in the area of Bellmore, Long Island, New York, come treat yourself for an hour to a wonderful yoga class at Moonflower Yoga and meet some other fabulous moms!
Improving Your Balance (Part 1) by Nancy Weshkoff
Improving Your Balance (Part 1)
Written by Nancy Weshkoff
As we age, our ability to balance decreases. This can lead to devastating consequences. Sadly we hear the story of someone who lost their balance, fell, and had a serious injury. In my own family, my mother fell on her way to the restroom. The hard tile floors caused her to break a hip. Doctors tried surgery to fix her hip but were unsuccessful. She spent the rest of her life in a wheelchair. I wish this was an unusual story but unfortunately it is a common one.
Yoga can definitely help you improve your balance. I cannot think of another form of exercise where you consistently practice balance postures. In the classes taught at Moonflower Yoga, we make sure that balance poses are incorporated in the classes. Three of my favorite balance poses are:
– Tree pose (Vrksana)
– Warrior 3 (Virabhadrasana 3)
– Sunbird (Chakravakasana)
If you are unfamiliar with these balance poses, come try a class at Moonflower Yoga in Bellmore located in Long Island’s Nassau County. Our great team of teachers will guide you through these and other balance postures. If you are feeling unsteady, we use props to help support you while you work on improving your balance.
It is very gratifying to see the improvement that many of the Moonflower Yoga students have made in their balance since attending a yoga class at the Moonflower Yoga studio. When they first started, several were feeling a bit wobbly. With practice, props, and guidance from the teachers, their balance has improved.
If you are not practicing balance poses in your life, now is the time to start! Having better balance can reduce your risk of serious injury from falls. Adding yoga to your regular routine is a fabulous way to do this. The great classes at Moonflower Yoga can help you accomplish this. Hope to see you soon.
COURAGE written by Nancy Weshkoff
Courage
Written by Nancy Weshkoff
In the last week at Moonflower Yoga, the subject of courage has been one of our focuses, and I wanted to expand a bit on this topic.
Moonflower Yoga recently hosted a screening of the film LEAP OF FAITH, the story of BKS Iyengar’s amazing life. The film spans the 90+ years of his life plus his 7 decades of teaching. BKS Iyengar has led a remarkable life. He came from a humble background in India and was a very sickly child. His family was told that he would not survive into adulthood. Despite this dismal prognosis and through extraordinary circumstances, he found the will – and courage—to bring himself to health through yoga. Mr. Iyengar not only survived but flourished into becoming one of the fathers of modern yoga today. He is 93 years old and still practices yoga.
Another event at Moonflower Yoga was a story telling session for children of JEEVA FINDS COURAGE. In this story, a little boy named Jeeva goes on a fascinating journey discovering new things along the way and uses courage to help him.
The week has also been a busy one with some new students coming through the doors of Moonflower Yoga to try yoga for the first time. Many of these are baby boomers. It can take courage to try something new. I feel remarkably blessed to have these new students choose Moonflower Yoga as the place to start a new journey. Yoga has so many wonderful benefits, and I know they will join the other students at Moonflower Yoga who also walked into the studio doors for the first time a bit scared but now love practicing and return to the studio each week to feel better, learn something new, and have fun doing so. And, yes, it took courage to take that first step. How wonderful life can be when we find that courage and try something new.
Do you have the courage to embark on a new path of discovery? If so, come try a yoga class or workshop at Moonflower Yoga in Bellmore, New York, in Long Island’s Nassau County. You will find great teachers who are dedicated to help you grow and learn. And your first yoga class at Moonflower Yoga is free so you have nothing to lose and everything to gain by having the courage to try yoga.
Spring Arrives! written by Nancy Weshkoff
Spring Arrives!
Written by Nancy Weshkoff
Spring officially arrives this week on March 22. While spring is always one of my favorite times of the year, I am particularly looking forward to this one. Here in Bellmore, Long Island, it has felt like we have been in a bad period starting with the devastation of Hurricane Sandy, followed by a cold winter with snow and a record blizzard in some parts of Long Island.
And now here comes spring. Spring means new beginnings. Despite so much bad weather, miraculously spring bulbs have come alive with green leaves coming up from the ground. Some of the bulbs have also started to flower. You can’t help but smile when you see life coming back to the earth again.
Like those spring bulbs, we start to dust off the bad memories of the last several months too. Our bodies react positively to more daylight and patches of warmer weather. Yoga provides a great way for us to come alive too. You will gain better strength and flexibility. The deep, cleansing breaths that are part of a yoga practice provide more oxygen to the organs of the body enabling them to function better. And practicing yoga in a small class setting such as Moonflower Yoga enables you to get to know the people in the studio practicing with you and to forge new relationships or rekindle old ones. In this past week at Moonflower Yoga, there were two separate incidents of people who have not seen each other for years coincidentally taking the same yoga class together at Moonflower Yoga and having a great time doing so while catching up in a positive way on how they have been doing. It reminds me of those spring bulbs coming to life again.
Come visit the Moonflower Yoga studio if you are in the area of Bellmore in Long Island’s Nassau County. Try one of the great yoga classes that we have lovingly put together for you by our fabulous teachers. Dust off the winter cobwebs and spring to life!
Celebrating Women written by Nancy Weshkoff
Celebrating Women
By Nancy Weshkoff
This week marked the celebration of International Women’s Day. This tradition actually started in the early 1900’s as women marched for the right to vote and for better pay. A great deal of progress has certainly been made for women since then. In my lifetime, I can recall life before the women’s movement of the 1970’s. It wasn’t that long ago when jobs were classified as “help wanted male” and “help wanted female” with the female jobs often those with low pay and little chance of advancement.
While things have improved, so much still needs to be done. In many countries, women are treated very poorly with little equality with men. Even here in the United States, while jobs can no longer be classified as “male” or “female”, a glass ceiling exists in many companies making it very difficult for women to reach the highest positions. I have heard comments that women need to work three times as hard as a man in order to be considered for promotion, and this is sadly often true.
I am so amazed by the women that walk in the door at the Moonflower Yoga studio in Bellmore, Long Island. These women come from all walks of life. They are mothers, grandmothers, and daughters. Many are in demanding full-time positions working outside the home. But their responsibilities do not end when they come home, as they also take care of children, elderly parents, and handle other domestic responsibilities.
All this juggling and multi-tasking can take its toll. It creates a great deal of stress. Stress is not a good thing and is linked to so many diseases for women, including the number one killer of women: heart disease.
Take some time for yourself. I often think about the message from the flight attendant before a flight begins advising what to do in case of an emergency. An air mask will drop from the ceiling. The attendant advises to place the mask on yourself first and then place it on a child traveling with you. Why? Because if you don’t take care of yourself, you cannot take care of others. Giving yourself an hour to de-stress and unwind in a great yoga class can help you feel much better. If you are in the area of Bellmore in Nassau County, Long Island, New York, come and try a restorative yoga class or one of the other de-stressing yoga classes offered at Moonflower Yoga to make you feel better.
There has also been much attention in the news this past week on women becoming entrepreneurs. I am proud to now be one of these. After many years in corporate America, I decided to leave corporate life behind and forge ahead with something I truly love: yoga. In creating Moonflower Yoga, I wanted to have a place where people of all ages and experience levels can come and have a great yoga experience. I am also proud that a community is building at Moonflower Yoga of women who enjoy practicing together, having some fun, sharing their life experiences, and de-stressing. I am truly blessed to have these women at Moonflower Yoga. I salute these amazing women and women everywhere.
What is Yoga? written by Nancy Weshkoff
What is Yoga?
Written by Nancy Weshkoff
When people
think of yoga their first image is often of someone doing a yoga asana pose such as a downward facing dog or a headstand. Patanjali, considered the father of yoga and the author of the Yoga Sutras, described yoga as “yogas citta vrtti nirodhah” which translates to “yoga is the calming of the changing fluctuations of the mind”. So what does that mean?
Many of the things that we do in our yoga practice including the movement in a yoga class, as well as meditation, are all designed to get us to the point where we can be blissful in the present moment. Our mind is often like a TV set with 1,000 channels. The mind is sending us images about things from our past that are done and we can’t change. So why are we worrying about something we can’t change? Our mind is also sending us messages about things that are causing us to worry, such as a task at home or our office that we need to do, maybe it is an upcoming event in our lives, and so many other things. When we fill our minds with all these images from the past that we can’t change or from the future that isn’t here yet, we cannot find peace and calmness. We must always be in the present moment because it is the present moment that we can control. It is in the present moment where we can reach peace.
It is not easy to turn off that TV set in our heads with many messages. Meditation and asana practice does help. At Moonflower Yoga, our great instructors often remind our students to be in the present moment and enjoy their present practice. An example of a wonderful yoga class that helps you accomplish this is our candlelight restorative class. In these candlelight restorative classes, students spend several minutes deeply relaxing in various postures with the help of bolsters, blankets, and other props. These long, relaxing postures in a very supported restorative manner enable you to relax and let go of the TV set images in your mind. Students often walk into the Moonflower Yoga studio feeling stressed from the daily pressures of life. When they leave after a great yoga class, the transformation can be amazing. It is incredible what can happen when we let go of those TV set images from the past and future and just breathe deeply and live in the present moment.
If you are in the area of Bellmore in Long Island’s Nassau County, I encourage to stop by the Moonflower Yoga studio to try one of the great yoga classes where we practice being joyful and present. You will be amazed at the transformation that can happen when you calm the changing fluctuations in your mind!
