BARBARA BORIS Yoga

We will do a modified Hurricane Irene Sequence (see below).
Class will end right on time so you can get home safely before the rain starts at around noon..

ALL PRIVATE CLASSES at my home today and at Clear Yoga tomorrow are CANCELED.

ALL CLASSES at Woodstock Yoga are CANCELED TOMORROW, Tues., Oct. 30.

For best storm updates for our area go to: HUDSON VALLEY WEATHER.
Alex is a local weather geek in Kingston. His page is THE source for up to the minute reports of what is going on where.

https://www.facebook.com/HVWX1   FACEBOOK
https://twitter.com/HudsonValleyWx   TWITTER

A special mini YOGA SEQUENCE to do:  to celebrate the wind and water.

HURRICANE IRENE YOGA SEQUENCE
Wind, Water and Twist!

CHILD’S POSE
Grounding – for a long, long time with a bolster or pillow underneath your chest/ abdomen, especially if the wind is getting to your nervous system.

ADHO MUKHA SVANASANA
Downward facing dog and SHAKE all the water off like a dog!

UTTANASANA
Standing forward extension with head supported on a chair, again to chill you from the irritating winds.

SIRSASANA & ADHO MUKHA VRKSASANA
Headstand and handstand (technically downward facing tree pose!)
Turn everything upside down and look at the rain falling UP! Can you stay steadier than the trees blowing outside?

VRKSASANA
Tree pose, stay steady, even as the wind blows. Get ready for the twisting by first rotating the top of your bent leg from the inside out, and turning your chest in the opposite direction – make your tree as steady as a mountain (TADASANA mountain pose in your torso).

PARSVAKONASANA
Extended side angle pose. Practice the same rotation as in VRKSASANA. Except here be even MORE grounded on that back foot.

PARIVRTTA TRIKONASANA
Rotated triangle pose. Go for it! BE the hurricane. Twist!

PASCHIMOTTANASANA
East meets the west seated forward extension. Again, ground yourself. Head down on a bolster, stretch out the twisting and get L-O-W  to the ground…

SETU BANDHASANA
Bridge pose. It’s your bridge, build it any way you want, with blocks, bolsters, blankets or dropping over from Sarvangasana: but make it steady, so the wind doesn’t blow it down. Lift your chest and stay grounded in your feet.

SAVASANA
Corpse pose, with any kind of weight you can find – place it on your thighs, so you don’t “blow” or “float” away! Use as much as you can gather. Try for at least 50 pounds.

ENJOY! And please report back how stable you were in the 40+ m.p.h. winds.

Very interesting article. Very technical/medical … read on…
The barometric pressure of Hurricane Sandy is the lowest of a storm in our area since 1938!

Does Low Atmospheric Pressure Alone Trigger Migraine?

By Hayrunnisa Bolay, M.D., PhD^*and Alan Rapoport, M.D.^+±
*Professor of Neurology, Gazi University, Department of Neurology & Neuropsychiatry Centre, Ankara, Turkey
⁺Clinical Professor of Neurology, The David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, California, USA
^±Founder and Director-Emeritus, The New England Center for Headache, Stamford, Connecticut, USA

Though Messlinger and colleagues concluded that “distinct neurons in the trigeminal nucleus caudalis, particularly with preferential afferent input from the eye, respond to lowering of atmospheric pressure” their finding of a lack of activation in the trigeminal neurons with receptive fields from dura mater, or from both dura mater and cornea, indicate that lowering of barometric pressure does not mediate headache. Their results may be influenced by the short exposure time of 8 minutes, since migraine headache generally begins many hours after exposure to any triggering agent. Some studies have reported that a lowering of the ambient atmospheric pressure for 80 minutes aggravated pain behavior within inner ear dependent mechanisms in rats with neuropathic pain

Martha Stewart doing Iyengar Yoga in Grand Central Station in NYC last week. Great article! Thank you Wall Street Journal. Even Martha has been told to make her feet parallel at some time. There are videos. Take a look. Here’s the link:

http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2012/10/19/for-one-day-new-york-was-martha-stewarts-yoga-mat/?mod=google_news_blog

I bet even Martha has been told to make her feet parallel at some point in her yoga practice. A big shout out to James Murphy of The Iyengar Institute of New York for leading the class.

Nice feet Martha!

Dharma is from the Sanskrit root dhr, meaning to uphold, support, sustain. As B.K.S. Iyengar writes in Light on Pranayama, it is “the code of conduct that sustains the soul and produces virtue.” At Estes Park [Yoga Conference] in 2005, Mr. Iyengar said, “That which has fallen, that which is falling, that which may fall, dharma holds it up.” In the body, the spine is like the dharma––it is that which keeps us from falling, that which holds us up.

From an article by Iyengar Institute of New York’s own Genny Kapuler, “The Spine: Form & Function” on the IYNAUS website:

http://iynaus.org/research/spine-form-function

ASANAS TO BE PRACTICED TO INCREASE YOUR IMMUNITY
RIMYI Pune October 2009
(H1N1 virus – Bird Flu Epidemic)

We will be practicing the MORNING SEQUENCE
tonight, 6 p.m. at Woodstock Yoga Center.
Don’t worry if you can’t hold the asanas this long.
We will work with what is possible for you and your ability.

Come on by and have your Weekly Yoga Flu Shot!

MORNING PRACTICE
Duration approx 1 hour

• Uttanasana             5 minutes
• Adho Mukha Svanasana    5 minutes
• Prasarita Padottonasana    3 minutes
• Sirsasana            10-15 minutes
• (5 minutes straight and 10 minutes sirsasana cycle)
• Viparita Danasana on your cot (!) [we'll use 2 chairs] with head down 5 minutes
• Sarvangasana        10 minutes
• Halasana            5 minutes
• Sarvangasana Cycle    5 minutes
• Setubandha Sarvangasana    5 minutes
• Viparita Karani        5 minutes
• Savasana with Viloma or Ujjayi pranayama 10 minutes

EVENING PRACTICE
Duration approx. 45 minutes

• Sirsasana             10 minutes
• Sarvangasana        10 minutes
• Halasana            5 minutes
• Setubandha Sarvangasana    10 minutes
• Savasana with Viloma or Ujjayi pranayama 10 minutes

OM
Hello Yogis.

I’m sorry to say that the Friday, Level II-III Iyengar Yoga Class on Fridays 10-12 noon is now permanently CANCELLED starting Sept. 14, 2012

This has been a long time coming, the “numbers” are down, people have moved away/ dropped out and honestly I’m burnt out.
By having my Friday mornings back I will gain a fantastic three hour self-practice session and a bit more needed sleep.

I thank all of you regular students for your enthusiasm and attendance over the years.
The Friday class was the first of the classes I ever taught in Woodstock.
It holds many fond memories for me here at my Home Studio and at Mtn. View Studio.

As the fall/ winter season progresses at Woodstock Yoga Center,
I might be able to offer a more advanced class there.
I hope also to offer monthly workshops, once my stamina improves.
Hold tight, and send me your preferred times, dates, suggestions for future classes/ workshops.
And no, I don’t know what I’m doing about India or Assessment at this time.
I will let you know as soon as I know.

At this point, I would suggest that you attend my Tuesday 6-7:30 p.m. class at Clear Yoga, Rhinebeck.
This is the next strongest level class that I teach. The size is small-ish (8 regular people usually attend), and we have ropes for all. The students there are strong and a great group. You will all fit in great.

Another option is the Level I-II Class at Woodstock Yoga on Wednesdays, 4:30-6:00 p.m.
This class is a bit lower level than Friday’s but I will be tough on you, if you attend, to keep you and your yoga sharp!

And, or, also, please use this new time to work on your self-practice!
At Level II-III we should be “working on” the Junior Intro I Syllabus.
Take a look at that list and work on stabilizing these asanas.
At this level in Iyengar Yoga, you should have a strong daily practice.
Contact me if you want assistance with what that should look, if you don’t know by now.

I can provide the Syllabus and a copy of The Preliminary Course Book ($20) for you if you don’t have it to work from.

Another option would be to take a monthly private session with me.
A number of my students do that right now, using a regular monthly private session to supplement their own home practice.
This gives you a chance to answer questions, and have me give direction on what to do next with your yoga.
Privates are $100/ hour or $450 for a series of 5 (when paid in advance and used within 6 months.)
I give privates on Monday afternoons, Tuesday & Wednesday mornings at my Home Studio.

For those of you who have a credit left on your Yoga Class Cards with me,
I offer you 2 options: either you can use them to classes with me at Woodstock Yoga only, (not Clear Yoga),
and get $5 back each time credit (because class time is less there and cheaper).
Or I can “cash you out” and give you a refund for any spots left on your card.
I will be contacting you directly with your balance.

I love you all and hope you understand.
Already I feel a big relief and space in my health and practice making this decision.
I will see you around soon…

OM OM OM
love,
Barbara

917 626-5331  my cell phone, works now everywhere!

“I sometimes tell my students that the practice they doing yoga class is not strictly speaking, yoga practice. The reason for this is that in class, although you are undoubtedly ‘doing’ and hopefully learning, you are listening to the teacher. The directing intelligence comes from the teacher and you follow the teacher to the best of your ability.

“At home, on the other hand, it is your own intelligence that is the master, and the progress that you make is yours and will be maintained. In addition, the will that you employ is yours. It is not derived from the power, the charisma, the strength or the fierceness of the teacher. It comes from you, and its effect profound.”

– B.K.S. Iyengar

Chronic Anxiety Sequence (Patricia Walden)
Print out and write your notes on how you practiced this tonight,
your results and insights.

Reflect on where you are in the moment, on all five koshas: physical, pranic, mental/emotional, root intelligence and bliss. Reflect on where you want to be after your yoga practice. Practice in such a way to achieve that goal. Not from an ego state or any mental ideations of what is “right.” Reflect at the end of practice if you achieved that goal, and what you would do differently next time. Keep notes. This is another aspect of Svadhyaya: self-study.

Beautiful Soul.
OM

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/20/arts/television/tom-davis-saturday-night-live-comedy-writer-dies-at-59.html?smid=pl-share

And a piece that Tom wrote about his “de-animation” for a Hudson, New York art gallery, Incident Report.

Tom Davis, Christ Weeping Into The Taconic

The Dark Side of Death
By Tom Davis

The good news: my chemotherapy is working and I’m still buying green bananas.

The bad news: two years ago, before we knew it as MDD (Michael Douglas Disease), I was diagnosed with tonsorial squamous cell carcinoma, a/k/a head and neck cancer.   After surgery, I elected to go with radiation therapy sans complementary chemo, which was probably a big mistake. The malignancy unexpectedly spread to the bones of my pelvis and lower spine, where it has been munching away without thought of its host’s well-being. It’s now described as “exotic and aggressive,” but it’s getting its cancerous ass kicked by taxotere, a drug that imitates the chemistry of the European Yew tree. Made in China, of course. I’ll be using it, or a related drug “for the rest of my life,” which could be as long as two more high-quality-of-life years. I’d be thrilled with that.

There are side effects, the two weirdest being a “recall effect,” in which radiation sores reappear, and neuropathy in my fingernails, which are in the unpleasant process of falling off. Ow. I’ve lost hair from all over my body. With only a little bit of white fluff on my head, I visited my mother, who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease in Minneapolis.

“Now I want you to take all your medicine and your hair will grow back,” she said cheerfully. “I think you look a little like that bird Woodstock in Peanuts.” I’ll take that; better than Uncle Fester.

My old comedy partner (Senator) Al Franken, volunteered to draw my hair back on with a magic (more…)

Loren Fishman’s work on Rotator Cuff Therapy using Yoga.
http://www.manhattanphysicalmedicine.com/rotatorcuffcure.html

NY Times article about it.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/02/health/02brody.html

…This year, Dr. Fishman received a prize at the International Conference on Yoga for Health and Social Transformation for a paper he presented on a surprising yoga remedy for rotator cuff syndrome, a common shoulder injury that causes extreme pain when trying to raise one’s arm to shoulder height and higher. He described a modified form of a yoga headstand that does not require standing on the head and takes only 30 seconds to perform, and presented evidence that it could relieve shoulder pain in most patients, and that adding brief physical therapy could keep the problem from recurring…. - Jane Brody, NY Times

Yogis, I did a workshop with Dr. Loren Fishman on shoulder issues and also on osteoporosis last year. If you want to work with me on it, I’d be happy to oblige. Please give me a call. OM.