I’ve been practicing yoga for over a dozen years, ever since my daughter brought yoga home from college.  But, I’m still a dabbler: I go to different studios, learn from different teachers, and have taken many different classes.  Alas, all these studios and teachers and classes have led to a lot of different cues buzzing around my head. 

Recently, I took all those yoga “buzzes” to a 3-day retreat at the Sivananda Ashram in the Bahamas.  Wow! What a wonderful experience!  Best of all, it opened me up to a whole new understanding of yoga.

At my regular round of classes, the emphasis is often on listening to the teacher first.  The teachers talk to my brain and then I talk my body into the pose.  They said “stand with your legs spread wide so the wrists are over the ankles and then make sure your back foot is almost turned at a 90 degree angle and rotate your thigh internally and always breathe!”  Only after listening are you allowed to actually spread your legs and do whatever.  In fact, if I moved while they were still cueing, some of my teachers would jokingly call me a “future yogi” and then ask that I just listen to them talk. 

At Sivananda, the focus is just the opposite.  I was told to start by listening to my body, not to start by listening to the cues of my teacher or the buzzes from other teachers in my head.

What a difference!  The teacher said “Warrior 1,” so I got into Warrior 1.  I didn’t worry about alignment or turning just so or trying to line everything up; I didn’t think of all those different cues from all those different teachers.  I just got into Warrior 1.  And then, instead of waiting for the teacher or thinking back to their cues, I listened to my body.  I felt my legs, realized they weren’t solid, so I searched my brain and found the right cues for me.  After planting my front hip and rotating my thigh internally, I was solid and comfortable.

This new process, listening to my body first, was wonderful!  My postures were suddenly more solid, more relaxed, but somehow more alive.  Now, maybe all of this clicked because I’ve been doing yoga for a while and could get into many of the basic asanas.  And maybe, I was just ready for something new.  But clearly, listening to my body first is where I am now in my yoga practice.  And, it works!

But, even after my wonderful experience at Sivananda, I’m still committed to Susan Yoga: doing yoga my way.  I’m not booking a month at another tropical ashram to do intensive teacher training or going to India to study with yogis.  I’m just taking the time to listen.  Listening to my body first and then to my mind has led to stronger Warriors and deeper Down Dogs.  Teachers have always told me to “honor” my body, but only when I started “listening” to my body, rather than all the buzzing, did I finally feel how Down Dog could be a rest pose.  I am finally starting to feel my energies align!  It’s only taken 12 years.  

So, that’s the moral here.  I’m listening to my body first, then the cues from all my teachers in my head, and finally practicing Susan Yoga.  And you know, Down Dog really can be a resting pose!

Thank you to our guest blogger, Susan Greenwood, for this insightful and entertaining post, and thank YOU for taking this journey with me!

​If you'd like to contact Susan  sgreenw2828@hotmail.com.

Namaste
Loving Life and Living Love,
Mary

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Botanically, the coconut is a 'drupe' and also can be classified as a nut, a fruit and a seed.  I am a fan of the coconut.
I read with great interest the article that cautioned the public about coconut oil and gave warnings about its use. “Coconut Oil Isn’t Healthy. It’s Never Been Healthy.”  
It seemed counterintuitive to me, as coconut is naturally occuring and is used internally as well as externally in Ayurveda.  It is lauded for its cooling qualities.
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The following article by Dr. Mark Hyman gives another perspective on coconut, and Dr. Hyman does not hesitate to criticize the USA Today editors for their use of loose 'facts' in their article.  

Coconut Oil – Are You Coco-Nuts to Eat It?Did you know that 50 percent of media headlines about medical studies are dead wrong? And that many of these headlines don’t accurately match the conclusions of the studies they cover? That’s from a reviewpublished in the New England Journal of Medicine.
It makes me sad and furious at the same time that journalists don’t do their homework and create firestorms of confusion because of their negligent work.
That is exactly what happened when USA Today published their article, “Coconut Oil Isn’t Healthy. It’s Never Been Healthy.” 
Shame on you USA Today editors for doing such a sloppy job of journalism.
Why the American Heart Association Has Been and Still Is Wrong
First, there is not a single study showing that coconut oil causes heart disease. Not one. Second, the whole case against coconut oil is founded on a hypothesis that has been proven wrong. It’s the diet-heart hypothesis. Saturated fat raises LDL cholesterol. LDL cholesterol causes heart disease. Anything that raises LDL cholesterol is bad. Only problem is that the data does not support this hypothesis.
"...just like it took 150 years after Copernicus recognized that the earth revolves around the sun before it was finally accepted, it will take a while for the world to catch up with the false idea that low-fat and low-cholesterol diets won’t save us from heart disease. In fact, low-fat diets cause heart disease...
Is Coconut Oil Healthy?

We have had a coconut craze. What’s the deal? Broccoli is healthy but if that’s all you ate you would get sick. Coconut oil is healthy but only as part of an overall healthy diet not as the main course. Coconut oil has been consumed by populations in the South Pacific for thousands of years without ill effect. It has so many health benefits.  But here’s the short list of benefits.

It raises HDL, the good cholesterol. It improves the quality and size and type of cholesterol. It lowers the total cholesterol to HDL ratio – a far better predictor of heart disease than LDL. And cultures with 60 percent of their diet as coconut oil have no heart disease. It also contains a unique type of saturated fat called MCT oil that boosts metabolism, reverses insulin resistance, and improves cognitive function. Coconut oil is also anti-fungal and anti-microbial and it contains lauric acid that is great for immune function. The only other good source of lauric acid is breast milk, which contains 24 percent saturated fat – far higher than the 6 percent the AHA recommends.
To read the entire article  drhyman.com/blog/2017/06/26/coconut-oil/?

Coconuts are still a 'yes' for me!
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