Tender Mercies and miracles

Today was an amazing day to be a mom. Seriously, I felt like I had a glimpse of what I want my family to be.

It started with a brief explanation of tithing, followed by my son's desire to set aside the tithing money now.

While he could not find his wallet he searched... and I mean searched (not typical) I asked him what we could do to help in our search, and he answered "pray" we knelt down and he offered a simple, humble prayer of hope.

We then discussed for a minute how to feel inspirations of the Holy Ghost. I told him to follow those promptings.

After a while of continually searching the house I was ready to give it a break, but he told me, "I keep thinking about the kitchen" so we both went into the kitchen again. Maybe the 3rd or 4th time. I lifted some cupcakes that I placed earlier, and I had uncovered his wallet.

I asked him what we should do next, and told him we need to pray to Heavenly Father to thank him for this blessing. He stopped what he was doing and offered a simple prayer of thanksgiving. My heart was so full of joy. I can teach my son about the power of prayer.

He then set aside his money for tithing, and asked if we could go to Target. I did not think he had all the money he wanted so I invited him to do a few chores around the house to earn the rest. He agreed and very amiably went about doing the easiest chores he could think of.

We got to target, and he wanted more than he had money for, so I told him if he did more chores then he could have it. He promised and agreed to the chore list. Emma then piped in and asked if she did chores could she get a toy too. I told him yes and explained what chores I wanted them to do.

They each had 3 chores, 1 easy and 2 harder. Daniel went to work very well and had minimal complaining. Emma too, there were no fights as Michael happily played with his birthday gifts, and Daniel completed all of his chores before dinner time- yes I helped them. Emma has one more to do till she gets her toy, but she worked hard and will continue to work to receive her reward.

This is not how I had anticipated giving money for chores, but I see how I have the opportunity to teach good work skills and the benefits of labor that is not enjoyed by all.

Happy 3rd birthday to this guy! These are the next set of glasses he wants!

Injured during yoga?

Yoga has amazing health benefits that have been documented over the years. To see some of the researched benefits head to https://www.ashleysiyengaryoga.com/research,

But as with any activity there is a chance of injury. What I love about Iyengar yoga is that risk of injury is reduced due to the teaching of the body what movements need to be made, and the high level of training from certified teachers (IYCT). The higher up they are certified there is a lot more knowledge and practice to guide you through learning yoga.

But what happens if that injury happens? This last 2 months I have been healing from a back pain that I received from attempting my standing back bend. I did them, but there were a few times I fell (like 20) and other times I contorted my body to "get out of the pose easier". It was completely wrong and most likely where I injured my back.

So now I am injured what do I do? I do not do back bends, I give my body a chance to heal. I have been doing a restorative sequence that does not include strenuous poses, and allows for the healing time which could a bit longer. I told you I was working on patience.

If you were injured during a home practice, stop doing that class of poses (standing, forward bend, back bend, inversion, twist), give your body space, and look for an experienced yoga instructor that has knowledge in therapeutic yoga. Slowly build your practice back up with their assistance and be patient. This may mean not going to a favorite class, or going to the class and doing a modified pose. We must respect our body as part of our yoga.

How do I prevent future injuries? First and foremost take my ego out of my practice, I went into a pose that I did not have enough instruction on how to accomplish it. I was caught up in the "wow look I am going to do this". While this excitement is good and needed to help progress don't let it take over your natural warning symptoms. I kept practicing the pose even when there was pain.

There is a difference between discomfort and pain. Learn your body and feel the difference. If you experience pain come to a modified pose.

Just yesterday I had a student who has back pain. We were doing Setu Bandha Sarvangasana, with no brick under the feet.

 I asked her to add a brick under her feet to take the pain our of her low back.

This modification was not enough to ease the pain so in her knowledge of her body she bent her legs.

There is such healing available in yoga, but we must not let our ego take over, and we must listen to our teachers. As we do that we will be able to practice injury free. 

Can you yoga in a store?

So I saw this meme today...

It reminded me of a few months ago a trip to Target with my husband.

We were looking for a new board/ card game and ended up striking up a conversation with a female next to us. As we were talking yoga got brought up, and I mentioned I am a teacher. My husband, so ready to support me suggested I show her a few poses right then and there. I looked at him, and he was completely serious. So I did downward dog in the middle of Target.

We chatted some more, yes I got lots of stares, we exchanged numbers, and I have yet to hear from this person. HAHA.

So yes you can yoga in a store.

Patience is a virtue

Patience, a Christlike attribute that is a talent for some, and not present in others. I am in the  former category. One of my OCD's is "need to know" which means I get anxious when I do not know the answer to something.

• Think I broke my toe? At the Dr's in about 3- minutes. 
• Oh a kid's fever is really high? Urgent care stat. 
• New blog post went up, did anyone read it? Check it a few times a day. 
• Maybe a vacation? Look up destinations, dates, and prices that day. 
• Alarm system may reduce cost of insurance? Look up cost to set one up stat. 

It may not seem like that big of a problem, and really compared to my other OCD symptoms it is not too bad. More entertaining than anything. But I know my poor husband has had to learn to deal with it. 

These past few months I have been forced to work on my patience. 

• I am trying to prepare to go to PhD school. I had to wait till August to take some pre- requisite courses, and then learned I need to wait about a year so I can get some needed Research experience.... great. 

• I submitted my Siblings Yoga poem to be published, it takes about 4 months to get a response. I have been checking my email religiously multiple times a day, and just sent them an email checking what email address they will be sending the response from.

• My dog may have cancer or valley fever. I have called the vet everyday (3 days now) asking if they have received results. 

I do not think I have learned my lesson, yoga and meditation are helpful, but I have not fully utilized them. I should probably add a relaxation sequence to my daily sequences, to help calm my brain. 

Understanding

As many know I have had a rough time medically. Changing medicine has had different impacts on me. One annoying thing I have been dealing with is weight. In about 4 months I gained 35 pounds. This is a lot for me, and something I have really struggled with mentally, because there is nothing I can do to lose the weight. As my psychiatrist told me, this may be where my body is happy. That statement was hard to take.

As I have continued to deal with my weight gain, and desire to not buy new clothes- because that admits I really weigh this now, I have had some other awkward moments. Like yoga students and random people at the gym asking how far along I am.... I’ve had 3 or 4 people in 1 month asking if I was pregnant. Not the happiest days, but I took it and kindly told them I was not pregnant. 

Learning to love my body as it is, and not what it was has been a struggle. But today, while listening to General Conference and doing yoga (great combination by the way) I had a little personal revelation about my body. 

My body is different, it feels different and moves different from 10 months ago. How I remember poses feeling don’t feel the same. That is when I realized I need to embrace this, and learn in this situation. Learn about how I can become a better teacher now. How I can be a great teacher that hey, well sorry is not skinny or pregnant. I can embody the truth that yoga is for everyone and not just the fit- and I will teach through this knowledge. 

Patience

It has been 3 months since I submitted my Siblings Yoga poem to a publisher. It should only be one more month till I hear back from them. I won't lie, I was hoping it would be closer to two months, not four, but as I religiously check my email to see if I have a letter from them I just know to wait a little longer, and work on my current poems- and read new picture books to get ideas on how to write different books.

 I don't necessarily want to write a lot of children's books, but I would like to write at least two or three, then later on after I get my PhD write a book about the benefits of adding yoga to counseling. I think that would be a fun book to write as well. But I have a long way to go before I have enough knowledge to do that.

So for know I will stick to what I know, children and yoga. And learn more about what I don't know- Psychology.