Yoga Traveler

Written 12/13/2020 Deployment- A word we  dread.  We all hope that it will not happen, but inevitably, the world we live in will place us in a deployment.  All of a sudden you find yourself a single parent who shoulders all the tasks of the household (housekeeper, taxi driver, teacher, unpaid shopper) and all the emotions of loss, loneliness, anger, anxiety, and exhaustion.  Then you have to deal with your kids emotions and be strong for them. It all sounds like too much!  But then you start to talk to women who have been there before.  You learn some survival skills and you find a new normal.  Here is how I survived our first deployment: 1. Do Yoga - Yoga is huge part of my life.  If you would like yoga to help you like it has helped me, I have developed a program for you, Yoga for Deployment .  But if yoga is not for you- just pick something to move you physically.  This will boost your endorphins which make you happy!  Positive outlets for your stress are the way to go! 2. Plan Some

 Written 12/4/2020 Today I was listening to Josh Groban's "I'll Be Home for Christmas."  He has a beautiful version of the song with heartbreaking audio from deployed military members.  All of the sudden, water works.  I have listened to this song for years, but this year, it had a greater meaning for me and my family and I felt grief. How can we use yoga to release our grief and find some peace? In 2020, our lives have been disrupted. We have felt loss and heartache, injustice, and tremendous grief.  My family has been dealing with our first deployment on top of this and I have felt that what I do in this time matters.  I need to be alert to everything that arises and that includes my grief.   Yoga Nidra can help us take the heaviness we feel during grief and turn it into grounding, a connection to the earth that holds us and supports us.  Yoga Nidra allows us to stay awake and aware while we move through stages of consciousness and the transitions between them.  We

Written 11/22/2020 Do you ever feel your mind focusing on negative thoughts while your spouse is deployed?  It is easy to do because when your mind takes over, it has a tendency to move toward the negative and drown out the clear, positive voice.  My husband was deployed in the middle of the COVID -19 pandemic.  Not only did I not have control of his world as he was across the ocean, I did not have control of the world outside my home and I felt the constant threat of the virus looming.  I had guilt every time I allowed my children to play at a friend's house, took them to dance or gymnastics, or planned a weekend outing.  I felt an extreme amount of pressure as I tried to make decisions for the welfare of my family without the backing of Josh.  It was mentally exhausting.  At times, I definitely needed to shift my focus. Pratipaksha Bhavana is the ability to see things from a different point of view by understanding a higher absolute truth.  I believe in God, so most of the time,

 Written 11/14/2020 When Josh was preparing to go on his deployment, he told me that many spouses will choose a project to complete during deployment to help them stay busy and pass the time.  I thought, "that is crazy!"  I knew that I would be plenty busy juggling the household, my three kids, my yoga teaching and practice, and my religious service.  That sounded like plenty to do.   But then Josh left.  I quickly recognized that I would not be able to use the many mundane tasks of my life to pass the time and feel fulfilled.  I know that what I do day in and day out matters, but it did not feel that I would have anything concrete to show for my time while Josh was gone.  And Josh would come home with a wealth of new experiences.  A ll of a sudden, a deployment project did not seem like such a bad idea. Cecilia Holle, owner of GYM in Enid, OK, told me of Namastream, an online platform where I could launch an online yoga studio.  All of a sudden, things just clicked.  I have

 Written 8/9/2020 My husband has now been on deployment for one month which does not seem monumental at all because it is not the longest he has ever been gone throughout his time in the US Air Force.  One day I will be able to say, "I have now been without my spouse longer than I ever have."  Although, I am not sure this is something to celebrate.  Even with just a month gone, I can feel the frantic pace of my life without him.  I often find myself out of balance.  I sacrifice most of my time for my yoga and my children and end up working on other things into the late hours of the night.  But the yoga I am doing is not for myself, it is for my clients.  This does give me satisfaction as I enjoy the creativity and service I feel when I teach, but I find myself wanting solace for my own soul through my yoga practice.  I decided to go back to the book, to find some insight from the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.   When people hear the word yoga, they think of physical movements to s

Vendanta- End of Knowledge Written 7/26/20 Vendanta is scientific knowledge of how you can have an active and peaceful life.  If we learn Vendanta, we should be able to handle any challenge with grace and objectivity.  Studying and practicing Vendanta can bring about understanding, calmness, and stress reduction in all areas of our life. So why does Deployment feel so opposite of Vendanta?  Perhaps it is because we don't have control over when our loved one will leave, when they will return, what will happen to them or us while they are gone- the list goes on and on.    Vendanta was founded between 1800 and 1000 BCE.  Yoga masters noticed that people were suffering and experiencing stress, even while the external world was being perfected.  Yogis decided to focus on studying themselves as subjects instead of obsessing over objects of the world. So, Vendanta is a study of oneself and the knowledge gained is all one needs to create a harmonious and full life.   How am I trying to gai