Good News!

I went to the chiropractor today, who is also very knowledgeable with the art of yoga. She is really great and let me know that what I was dealing with is a very strained trapezoid muscle. She told me that my injury was probably due to headstand and attempting it before I was strong enough and not placing the lift in my neck while doing it. So I will be working with dolphin pose A LOT and pushing down into the ground with my elbows to create the space that my neck longs for. She adjusted my neck many many times, it was very stubborn.  I may have to go back once more as I don’t feel that the pinch is completely gone on my right side. But it could also still be tender from the fact that it was like this for three weeks! So be careful with inverted poses yogis! Make sure that you always have a curve in your neck, that it is always lifted and never compressed and that you keep your shoulder blades down and back away from your ears!! Have a great day, I know I will now!

Ego and Injury

Happy Sunday everyone! So as I mentioned, I was going to talk a bit about yoga and injuries. It’s true, a lot of people can recover from injuries by doing yoga and gently easing their bodies back to a balanced state. It is also true that many people can cause their bodies injury while doing yoga. This happens either because of an uneducated instructor, a students inability to follow instruction, or a disturbed ego that cannot it’s bodies limitations. When I began doing more yoga, I came to the practice with a pre-existing condition of a ganglion cyst in my wrist. Doing yoga has been the best thing for it, especially when I learned that almost every move in yoga requires that you are constantly mindful of your shoulder blades moving away from your ears, shrug them down your back. This creates space in your neck and shoulders and puts less strain on your wrists in such poses as downdog or updog, plank and even dolphin pose. I also notice that if I skip a day of yoga, I can definitely feel that my wrist isn’t too happy about that! But, just recently, I injured my neck during a class, or as a result of a couple of classes. I can’t pinpoint it to a specific move, but I believe that it happened during headstand, plow pose, or shoulder stand. I know now that during plow pose or shoulder stand, the neck has a tendency, if forced due to the ego self egging you on, to flatten out on the floor. Well, the neck has a natural curved shape and by not observing that shape while on the ground and allowing it to completely flatten out, you are on your way to injury. Before we can attempt certain advanced moves in yoga, we really have to take time to develop strength. Yes, we may have been able to do shoulder stands when we were kids, but if a lot of time has elapsed from those flexible years, we need to gently work on our stiff muscles and accept where we are right now. Since I am experiencing this neck injury now, I am still practicing yoga, but I am altering my moves if I feel the least bit of strain. I am hoping to get in to see a chiropractor as well to get adjusted and to get a professional opinion. My situation occured because I thought that I was more flexible than my neck did and I was not aware of the intricate details about keeping the curve in your neck while in shoulder stand and plow. Lesson learned for sure! Until next time, adjust each move in yoga to fit your body. Your body is very quick to tell you when it doesn’t agree with something that you are doing. That is when being in the present moment comes in handy! Use your breath to keep you in the here and now and be good to yourself.

Yoga Journal

Hello friends! My yoga journey continues as I attend  yoga classes five times a week. Some days are better than others with my wrist, but it is a test of my ego to just let it be and work around it. I don’t let it get in my way. I know that one little ganglion cyst cannot keep me away from enlightenment!! I am also preparing for my teacher training course that will be starting in October. I am reading some very interesting books in order to prepare that are included in the course work. Learning and educating myself is so much fun when I am actually interested in the materials! I remember watching Oprah where they were talking about really identifying your kids interests and nurturing them in what they really love to do! We should all be taught to love what we do and excel at it, rather than be chastised because we are not great at math or to be nudged into a career or job choice that goes completely against our true nature. Since my last yoga journal post, I have also become a vegetarian. I barely ate meat before, so now I have omitted it completely. It started when I began volunteering my time at a no kill humane society for dogs and cats. I know that we, as Americans don’t eat dogs or cats, but we are all One. Chickens deserve happiness too while on this Earth. It is not our job to determine how long any sort of animal has to live on this planet. One person can and does make a difference. I am not doing this for selfish reasons, only because I feel that it is right….for me. It does have great side effects, like helping to increase flexibility in your yoga practice because meat makes your joints stiff, aiding digestion and having a general light feeling. But saving animals and doing something good for  another being on this Earth far outweighs the physical benefits. Tonight I am going to my first Kirtan! I am looking forward to it! I will write next time about injuries and a couple of main things that I have experienced that I would like to share with you that can help you to be safe in your practice. Namaste!!

Yoga Journal ~ August 6, 2008

My yoga classes have been really rewarding. I have been going 5-6 times a week to class and I can really see an improvement with the ganglion cyst in my wrist. My shoulders were really weak when I started a couple of months ago. I bought an angled wedge to help keep my wrist at a 45 degree angle doing arm balance poses like hand stand and it has helped the pain go away as I get stronger. The most important thing that I have learned this far is to always be mindful of your shoulders. Bring them up and back so that they slide down your back, especially when you are in down dog. You want your shoulder blades to be away from your ears and sliding down your back in order to prevent wrist injury. Try one yoga class all the way through, just concentrating on your shoulders, no matter what pose you are in. It has made a tremendous difference in my practice and I believe that it has really helped to heal my wrist while strengthening it. I was also able to start doing crow pose by placing a block under my feet in the squatting position before placing more weight onto my hands (while the wedge is under them). I was able to get my feet off of the block for a few seconds!! Major improvement! I am being really careful and mindful of my wrist. I also moved my computer mouse to the left side so that I can give my right wrist some relief. It all adds up! No matter what pain or injury you might have, or not have, always set out to do your practice with a complete awareness of your body and what you can do to keep it safe while getting stronger. If you honor your body, it will honor you!

One Month~ Cornucopia of Change

Dear Readers,

It has been one month since my last entry. I thought it would be fitting to begin with a journal entry about the events of the last month. As you may or may not know, Nirvana Island was started after my re-introduction to yoga. It was a solace for me, a positive escape. I wanted to help myself and help others with positivity. In the last month, I have decided to enroll in a yoga teacher training program beginning in October that will take me through a journey for 8 months. I am thrilled about the upcoming experiences that I will have! I have already begun reading the books on my class list and it’s been transformational. To add to the fun, I was away for 12 days in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico where I tied the knot! We had 50 family and friends join my new husband and I for the once in a lifetime occasion! Having a destination wedding was the best decision that we could have made. Everything went so smoothly! Besides the 10 pieces of luggage that we brought down with us, it wasn’t very difficult to coordinate the planning from a distance. I have the most wonderful memories of all that took place. Being so close to the Ocean and being able to fall asleep to the sound of the Ocean waves was very relaxing. I miss that so much and use it as a basis for my meditations now. While being away from the day to day details, I decided to be more focused and really distribute my time in a balanced and even way during my waking hours. That is why the format of Nirvana Island will take a little shift. Rather than having Daily entries for all of the subjects on this site, I will have a daily entry for the day. It could be a meditation, a journal entry, a quote, or a picture. But with everything going on right now, I would rather have one entry that is well though out rather than five that I just throw up on the page. Doing this will allow me to keep this going while I also keep the other important aspects of my life going. I am looking forward to writing about my experiences in my teacher training program, about married life, about positive change, my progress with meditation and achieving equanimity. Namaste, Diana

Daily Inspirational Photo~May 29th

Yoga Journal~May 21st

I have been to 12 classes in a row at this point, I started on May 9th. So that would make it almost two weeks. I don’t really have any expectations other than enjoying the break in my day and going to a place that is bright where I can increase my strength, flexibility and open my mind. The room where the yoga classes are held are large, they have windows across the whole wall and  it is very calming. Before beginning on May 9th, I was eating a lot of lean meat. Now almost two weeks in, I go from wanting zero meat, to craving of all things: pepperoni. It is very strange.  I think my body is figuring out how to shift things and it’s trying to balance the food that I eat. I am trusting that it will figure out what is best. In yesterday’s class, I was challenged with the scissor pose where you rest on your forearms and lift both legs up in the air sideways in a type of side split. I was barely able to lift up my front leg but I know that with practice I will get both legs up. For today’s class I was challenged with the frog pose where you put all weight on your hands in front of you while squatting. Then you start bringing your weight forward until your feet lift off of the ground. I had one second of lift off and I consider that a success and knowing that I am getting stronger!

Yoga Journal~May 19th

Today I came to Yoga class refreshed and ready to work. I am relishing in the flexibility that I am reaching bit by bit. I am really enjoying the combination of meditation and asanas and savasana at the end to release all thoughts and the outside world. It is so nice to have an inner peaceful residence that I can visit during the day or when I have doubts or fears or mind starts to overthink. Just stop and visit my inner island. My breakthrough in class today was doing a headstand next to the wall. I have always had a fear of standing on my head as I was afraid that I would hurt my neck, but it was actually comfortable! Next step is taking it away from the wall!

Yoga Journal~May 18th

Today marked my 8th yoga class in a row.

In the course of 10 years, I have done yoga here and there, but not as a regular practice. In college, it all began with a required Hatha Yoga class for two semesters. That was one of the best things to happen to me during college. The whole moving away from home was more traumatic than I anticipated and brought with it many stresses on my body. So beginning my sophomore year in college with the yoga class was a great gift.

After that, yoga would weave its way in and out of my life sporadically. Due to my search of connection with mind, body and spirit over the last year, I decided that yoga would need to enter my life once again on a regular basis. I began at a Bikram school for a few classes. I really did love it, I was able to withstand the heat and it felt great to “sweat it out”. Although, I couldn’t help but wonder if this was really doing my body good or not. Being in intense heat was more of a shock and the same 26 poses began to bore me. So I decided to visit another yoga school in my neck of the woods. This one offered a variety of courses like Hatha, Vinyasa, Astanga and Forrest Yoga. Upon entering the school, I was anticipating being around calm and smiling faces but was greeted with a very superior attitude from the work study people at the front desk. I decided to keep my cool and let the classes allow me to form my opinion, not the unfortunate souls residing court out front. To my delight, the Vinyasa class that I took was taught by a very knowledgeable and nice teacher. I signed up for my monthly pass and followed that with my first Forrest class ever. It was amazing!!! The room became very hot over the course of the class and just like in Bikram, I was sweating and detoxing, but the difference was that I was creating that heat within my own body, the heat wasn’t creating me so to speak. It was challenging and am told always different! The sequences and poses are never the same which provides a better balance for the body. Today, I decided to take a Basics/Intro course to keep me humble and to help me see things from a beginners level and tweak some things that I may not have been doing right. All in all, this is the beginning of a very wonderful journey with my yoga practice. It leaves me feeling taller, brighter, calmer and happier. Namaste!