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.
Love written by Nancy Weshkoff
Love
Written by Nancy Weshkoff
This week brings us Valentine’s Day where we acknowledge the special people in our lives and share our love with them. However before we can truly share love with someone else we need to always love ourselves first.
Loving ourselves is not so easy. We may look in the mirror and see imperfections. And then there could be regrets from the past: the “should haves” or “what if” moments. What we need to realize is that NO ONE is perfect. The pictures of super models in glamorous magazines are touched up, and even super models have imperfections. And life is a journey. We may do something crazy along the way but we need to forgive ourselves and move on. You cannot change the past.
So what does this have to do with yoga? Yoga teaches us several things to help us love ourselves more:
– Ahimsa: Ahimsa or kindness is paramount under the Yoga Sutras. This means kindness to others and also kindness to yourself. Look at the positive things in life and stop judging yourself and others in a negative way. When you start to see things in a more positive way, self-love can grow.
– Being present: As we move in a yoga class at Moonflower Yoga, we stress to our students to concentrate on the present moment. Let go of the past. Enjoy the present moment and what it brings.
– Movement: As you practice and move in a yoga class, you become stronger and more flexible. This creates a positive self-image.
To everyone, I wish you a very happy Valentine’s Day! Share love with the special people in your life. Remember to take positive steps to love yourself first. It is when we love ourselves that we can truly share love with others. If you’re in the area of Bellmore, New York, in Long Island’s Nassau County, come try a yoga class at Moonflower Yoga where we always stress the importance of love.
Yoga and a Healthy Heart written by Nancy Weshkoff
Yoga and a Healthy Heart
Written by Nancy Weshkoff
February is American Heart Month. Did you know that heart disease is the number one killer of women? If you combined together ALL cancers contracted by women, the cumulative total of all cancer-related deaths would still be number two behind heart disease. This is a very scary statistic of which many people are not aware.
There are several factors that contribute to heart disease including your family history. All doctors agree that two of the key contributing factors to heart attacks in women are lack of exercise and stress. We cannot change our family history but we can reduce our risk of heart disease by exercising and lowering our stress levels. Yoga can help with both of these.
When you come to a yoga class, you are taking an hour just for yourself and leaving behind the pressures of job and family. We all need some time for ourselves. As you move in your yoga class, you are opening up your heart chakra and breathing deeply and fully. And, of course, you are also getting stronger and more flexible. At the end of each class, when you come into savasana (corpse pose) you are spending several minutes being very still and releasing all your tension and stress. If not for this yoga practice, when else during a busy day are you doing that for yourself?
At Moonflower Yoga, we recognize the need for reducing your stress. This is why certain classes have been added to our regular schedule such as candlelight restorative and stress-reducing vinyasa flow. In candlelight restorative, for example, you spend 5-10 minutes deeply relaxing into each posture with the help of a bolster and other props. I have seen students walk into the door of Moonflower Yoga before the class begins feeling completely stressed from the challenges of the day. When they leave, their stress has melted away. It is an hour well spent and you feel much better.
Make 2013 your year to do something positive to reduce your risk of heart disease. If you are in the area of Bellmore, Long Island (New York) in Nassau County, try a yoga class at Moonflower Yoga where you will feel great. Let’s help reduce the risk of this number one killer for women.
New Beginnings written by Nancy Weshkoff
NEW BEGINNINGS
Written by Nancy Weshkoff
The new year has arr
ived, and with it comes the hope of reaching new goals and new dreams. If you asked anyone if they would like 2013 to be a better year than in the past, I’m sure the answer would be “yes”. From a health and general “feel better about yourself” perspective, yoga can help you accomplish this and much more.
Here are just a few of the ways in which you can feel better through a regular yoga practice:
– You will have better flexibility: Many of us spend long hours sitting in chairs at an office or driving a car. Our muscles become tight and inflexible. When you practice asana poses in a yoga class, your muscles receive a good stretch. In the cold winter months, our hamstring muscles become tight and stretching this important muscle group can relieve stiffness in your legs. Back pain can also be caused by tight hamstring muscles.
– Your balance improves: At Moonflower Yoga, we always practice balance postures as part of our class. As we age, our ability to balance properly tends to deteriorate. If you practice balance postures, you develop better balance. This helps reduce the risk of falls which can cause serious problems.
– Deeper breaths = healthier you: When you take deep, relaxing breaths, your blood pressure and stress levels drop. Yoga practice also brings more oxygen to your organs and tissues helping them to function better.
This is only an example of the many ways in which yoga helps you feel better. If you are in the area of Bellmore, in Long Island, New York’s Nassau County, come try a yoga class at Moonflower Yoga with one of our great yoga teachers who can get you on the right path to a better you in 2013.
Here is to new beginnings…..
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!
In the Aftermath of Sandy written by Nancy Weshkoff
My last blog spoke about the need for kindness and for helping and supporting those in need. I wrote that blog before the word “Sandy” became a sad part of our vocabulary here on Long Island. In the aftermath of Sandy, that has become even more prevalent. But first some “Sandy” thoughts:
Storms have come and gone on Long Island. And New Yorkers tend to be a resilient bunch of people. It is probably for this reason that it did not seem possible to have the type of destruction that happened to our beautiful area of the world. And yet it did happen here. Long Island, and other parts of New York, will never quite be the same. Houses and cars were completely destroyed. Trees that withstood hundreds of other storms tumbled to the ground in Sandy. Long Island’s amazing beaches were ravaged. The beach boardwalks that many of us loved to walk in the summer are gone. Roads that were miles away from the water became flooded. And most sadly lives were lost.
When the last of the storm clouds passed, and we painfully saw the destruction Sandy had left behind, it was a sad awakening for many of us. We tended to take for granted the things in our everyday life. Now you may no longer have a roof over your head. There are floods and damage all around us. 90% of Long Island lost its electricity and suddenly many were in the dark with no heat or hot water on some very cold nights. If your car managed to survive (and many did not), there were few gas stations open with very long lines, and you may not be able to get there anyway because the road you took has been washed away or was now several feet deep in sand washed to land by the storm. One day you have everything and the next day it is painfully gone.
Sandy taught us some painful lessons, which we are still learning every day as we recover from her fury. Never take anything for granted. Enjoy each moment in your life. Be grateful, and spend more time with those you love. TV sets and furniture can be replaced. Lives cannot.
It has become even more important for those of us who survived this terrible storm to help those that are struggling to get their lives back. Before Sandy, over 300,000 people on Long Island did not have enough food to each day. Post Sandy, this number has sadly grown. Moonflower Yoga is trying to do its part to help those in our town of Bellmore and all of Long Island to get back on their feet. We have been collecting non-perishable food items for Long Island Cares (Harry Chapin Food Bank) and new, unwrapped toys for the US Marine Corp’s Toys for Tots program so a child can receive a toy this holiday season who would normally not receive one. Moonflower Yoga ran a “yoga-thon” on Sunday of free yoga classes in exchange for a donation to these charities. We ask that everyone help donate to one of these wonderful organizations or the American Red Cross so that we can start healing from Sandy.
Thoughts on Kindness by Nancy Weshkoff
“Thoughts on Kindness”
By Nancy Weshkoff
Patanjali, 
often considered the father of yoga, designed the 8-part system on which yoga is practiced. The first of these 8 parts are entitled “Yamas”, and the very first “Yama” is called “Ahimsa”. Ahimsa teaches us to practice non-violence and be kind to ourselves and others. It is noteworthy that Ahimsa is first, well before “Asana” which is the practice of movement that many of us associate with attending a yoga class. Why is ahimsa so important that it comes first?
As a teacher, as well as the owner of Moonflower Yoga in Bellmore, NY, I see students every day as they come to the studio to learn and practice. As students enter the studio, I sometimes hear negative comments such as “I’m not flexible”, “I’m not strong”, “I’m too overweight”, “I’m too old”, etc. I always address these when I hear them. Where is our kindness to ourselves? It is sad that we often compare ourselves to touched-up, airbrushed images of the perfect body and try to emulate this.
It is so important that we be “present” and be the very best that we can be in that particular moment. It doesn’t matter that you are size 14 instead of size 2 or that you haven’t developed enough flexibility to touch your toes. The fact that you are in a yoga class and working towards being stronger and more flexible, learning how to breathe more fully and deeply, and sharing in a practice with others is a wonderful thing. Be kind to yourself as you practice and focus on positive things.
And a funny thing happens when we start to be kind to ourselves. When we are kind to ourselves, we can then be kind to others. Just think of the possibilities if the world experienced a little more kindness each day…
Wisdom from a Fortune Cookie by Nancy Weshkoff
Wisdom from a Fortune Cookie
Written by Nancy Weshkoff
After a delicious meal at a
Chinese restaurant, one of my favorite things is reading those little jewels of advice tucked inside a fortune cookie. One in particular has struck a resounding chord with me: “A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” Wow!
So many times in life we are afraid to take that first step. There are always a million excuses that we can tell ourselves as to why we shouldn’t do something: it’s too hard, it will never work, you don’t have the time, you’re not strong enough, etc., etc. Yet if we don’t try how will we know it won’t work? It can take courage to do that very first step. Once you take it, step two is a bit easier, and then there is step three, and four, and more as you move down that journey of a thousand miles. How great the rewards can be!
Yoga fits into this category too. I have listened to people over the years that have been afraid to try just that first step. Yoga can do so many wonderful things for you. It can certainly build strength and flexibility. You can feel so much better just from taking deep cleansing breaths after a day filled with stressful situations. And you can meet some very interesting people from attending a regular class. Your first step in yoga doesn’t start with a headstand, which is many steps down the road. It starts with the courage of rolling out a yoga mat and giving it a try. If you’re in the Long Island area of New York, you could try a “Gentle First Steps” class at Moonflower Yoga in Bellmore which was inspired by the wisdom from a fortune cookie.
What is your favorite sentiment from a fortune cookie? Share a first step that you have taken that’s made a difference.
