YOGA TEACHER TRAINING

As many of you know, I practice yoga...a lot. I have been committed to cultivating my inner yogi for the past 4 years and spend 2-3 nights at Ethos Yoga Studio in Holly http://www.ethosyoga.net/.

It is one of my passions and helps to make me a better person in this world. My usual classes are Monday and Wednesday night over at Ethos and Friday afternoon either there or down at Center For Yoga in Birmingham http://www.centerforyoga.com/. It is therapeutic for me; mind, body and spirit. It is absolutely one of the greatest things I have added to my life and spend a lot of time talking about it during the day at the Cafe of LIFE. In order for the body to be and stay healthy, it needs to move. I haven't found a better way to move the body than to flow and twist and turn in a yoga class and would highly recommend it in some way to everyone.

Tomorrow starts a new phase of yoga for me. I am always on the hunt for rich, rewarding experiences and I will begin a Yoga Teacher Training course over at Ethos Yoga. The course is 3 months long and is designed to immerse trainees in the yoga philosophy. We will be practicing yoga on a daily basis on our own or in a class. We will develop a personal meditation practice on our own and in class. We will change our eating habits to vegetarian or vegan. So this is going to be in addition to what I already have going on which is running a really fun chiropractic practice, hosting an amazing Book Club, giving Half Hour to Health lectures, participating in an awesome Walking Club, being a dog mom, and a runner amongst many other activities I am involved in. It means getting up an hour earlier and time managing a little better. It means studying and spending a lot of down time reading and writing. I look forward to it. I will keep you posted during the process.

(pictures are right off Ethos website; Kel Leigh Coale photography)

POISONING

I will be posting some wonderful pictures from my past weekend in the next post but I wanted to discuss a little about a situation and a lesson I learned about the body. This past Monday, my flight went from Reno/Tahoe to Denver to Detroit. My connecting flight in Denver was delayed. Usually I am running around trying to find a protein bar or something on these types of travel days but since I had an almost 3 hour delay, I decided that I would take the time to sit down at a restaurant and have something healthy to eat. My choice was a salad with mango, strawberry and salmon atop a bed of beautiful greens. When it arrived at my table, it looked appetizing enough to dig in so that is exactly what I did. One fork-full at a time, I was noticing a little tinge of brown on the greens, maybe a little dried out, the strawberries hadn't been run under water in a long time and the mango, though tasted really good, was maybe a little extra slimy and weird. At that moment I thought to myself that since I was at a nice restaurant, it should be fine and I am not one to complain much about what I am served so I finished it all...and everything was good until that evening when I finally reached my destination, I was starting to get a nagging headache. Sometimes a headache will come on if my blood sugar is low so didn't think much about it and continued on to have dinner, Thai food. I went to bed and slept well but was woken up at 5:00AM with nausea, 7AM started the vomiting and my body was so drained and exhausted. I couldn't pull things together to make it to the Cafe that morning and slept for about 3 more hours. When I woke up I proceeded to get ready and made it in to work to serve people for the afternoon. I always feel better when I am helping other people feel better, but that is where it ended. Tuesday evening as I was laying down to bed, my entire body hurt. It was food poisoning for sure, my entire body was poisoned and working overtime to improve the environment. Many people in that situation would have tried to find something that would stop the vomiting and take away aches and pains. If the body is poisoned and trying to get something out, don't you think it is a good idea to let it do that? If it is food poisoning and the body recognizes that, or anything else for that matter, let it do what it is designed to do. Because I let it run its course, my body took care of it and in the long run is better off for it. When symptoms arise, instead of reacting to them, let's watch them and as long as they are not life-threatening, let's let the body do what it is going to do. We will all be better off.

WINTER'S END

I love the warm weather we are having and it makes me giggle when I see people out in flip flops. It is really amazing how having to wear socks and boots everyday can make one feel really confined and flip flops are so liberating after a couple months of winter. Having been born and raised here in Michigan, I know better than to think that these warm temps are spring. This is not spring just yet and is merely a teaser. I really do love winter. You all know my love for snowboarding and I have found it one of the greatest ways to enjoy the white fluffy stuff. This past weekend I spent snowboarding up at Crystal Mountain, snowshoeing at Sleeping Bear Dunes and playing in Traverse City (what a great area of this beautiful state). This coming weekend I am meeting some girlfriends out in Lake Tahoe...and then my winter comes screeching to an end the beginning of March. What does that mean? The first week of March marks a beginning of a wonderful journey into yoga teacher training at Ethos Yoga Studio in Holly http://www.ethosyoga.net/. It is a serious commitment that I will discuss in a later post, but the class meets every Friday night for 3 months. Being that I work Mon-Thur, during the winter months I spend those long weekends traveling north or out west chasing great snow. Once this class starts, the commitment to it will not allow me to sneak out of town under the radar. I do plan one quick trip to Boyne with my family in March, but other than that, I will be putting my snowboard up for the year and rolling out my yoga mat and living on it for 3 months. I am looking forward to it. Taking yoga teacher training will only add to what I do as a chiropractor. I do not even know if my plan is to really teach classes at all...this process will add to my knowledge of the body, movement, breath, postures, leadership, peace, compassion, nutrition, relaxation, meditation and so much more. I will be updating you through the process as I am going. Til then...RIDE ON!!!

ICE ICE BABY!!!

My brothers are pretty neat (neat is such an under-used word). I didn't always feel that way and as were were growing up, I actually "dis-owned" them. We never made it official however it was true in my mind. Its hard being a girl with 3 brothers and no sisters. Take a guess at how many times I found myself on the slim side of 3 against 1? Exactly, it was pretty much daily.

As the years have passed, I have grown to have a deep love and appreciation for them, their individual quirks, and all the wonderful ways they add to my life. Fortunately all 4 of us currently live in the Fenton area. It is wonderful to be able to spend so much time together and even better now that they come along with sister-in-laws for me:-) I am number 2 in the birth order and the brother next in line after me is named Garrett. If you have met Garrett, you know that he has a very low sense of self-preservation (that is a nice way of saying he is a bit of an adrenaline junkie). One of his passions is climbing, rock climbing and ice climbing. In the state of Michigan and particularly in this region, there is not a lot of either of those and traveling over long distances is necessary to feed that passion of his...until just a few years ago. We grew up on an apple orchard and some of the old equipment that was used around the farm is still there...including a drag line, which for the sake of simplicity, is kind of like a crane. In the summer, they can get their "climbing-fix" at one of the rock gyms that are close by. In the winter...that doesn't work so well. So he and a friend decided they would start farming ice to be able to have a winter version of a rock gym...and I am in awe everyday over what they came up with. My other two brothers are were able to come together and offer their gifts of construction knowledge and entrepreneur-lism and came up with this brilliant invention. There is nothing like it anywhere close to here. Friends of theirs drive in from all over to spend a weekend doing what they love to do and training on this ice. I just thought I would share a few pictures because I think the ice tower is pretty neat, and my brothers are pretty neat. I am glad to share this lifetime with them...and have learned so much from our relationships that I am grateful for. If I had this life to do all over again, I would pick these same 3 guys. They have help shape me into the person that I am today, and for that I have so much gratitude. Love your family...we only get this one chance.

MY FAVORITE EXCERPT

"A Return To Love" by Marianne Williamson...

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

Enjoy your day!!!

30 MINUTES TO HEALTH

Last night marks the beginning of our monthly workshops called "30 Minutes to Health". There has been a huge demand for our services here at the Cafe of LIFE lately, to the point that we have quite a waiting list in order to get in for an initial visit. To me, the message in the fact that we are so busy is people are looking to get more out of life, looking to thrive in their life rather than just survive. When we are in survive-mode, we are just making it THROUGH THE DAYS...when we are in thrive-mode, we are actually GIVING TO THE DAYS. There is a very big difference between the two and I am here to help move people towards the latter. Last night our workshop focused around the things that make up health...diet, exercise, rest, positive attitude and properly functioning nerve system. With the 30 minutes, we were able to dig into a few of these topics in more depth. The audience was challenged in getting to the Cafe due to snow and ice on the roads last night though we still had a good turn-out and a very attentive audience. My most favorite part of doing workshops like this is the light bulbs that go off for people as they have an "ah-ha" moment.

If you missed us last night, we will be holding monthly workshops on the second Tuesday of each month from 6:30-7:00pm, our next will be February 8th. Join us! Bring a friend or two! I am here to help you get the most out of this life...since we only get one chance. See you soon!

SOME THINGS TO NEVER POST ON FACEBOOK...

I was just browsing through this very interesting website and I found some rules about facebook. #4 in the list was "If it came out of your body in a projective fashion, never post it on facebook." I thought that was interesting and instead of posting it on facebook, I would actually blog about it on here. So last week on Tuesday (some of you may know this already), I came down with that flu that is going around. Maybe some of you reading this have experienced this one, if not, it is fast and furious....literally there are people puking in their cars because they do not have enough warning to do much of anything about it. For me, I was hit with it right around 6am and I had enough warning to run 15 feet from my bed to the toilet...thank goodness. It went on for about 3 hours and then it was over and I was happy and feeling good. Some people are calling it a 24 hour bug, however (this may be because of all the adjustments I had while I was in Colorado) my body was over and rid of it all in 3 hours. When you condense that bug down that much, naturally the intensity raises and that is exactly what happened.

So you are probably thinking to yourself, "is she really writing an entire blog about puking????"...one key to the whole story is the part where I said "and then it was over and I was happy and feeling good". You see, there was something going on with my energy level and aura for about 3 months, I would say since the beginning to middle of October. I felt good, but not really good like I am used to. I had enough energy, but I am used to an abundance of energy. When I looked in the mirror I looked presentable, but I am used to seeing a glow behind my skin. I would get a large quantity of rest and I would wake up in the morning feeling like I could sleep all day, and I am used to getting up and facing the day easily. After that morning of puking and the entire day of rest, I FELT AND STILL FEEL AMAZING!!! I feel like I got my mojo back or something. I feel like I was able to finally process something. I feel like I got a little oxygen to my flame that burns on the inside. I really truly feel like I have a new body and I am really diggin' it. Now mind you, I have not puked in a really long time...that is not something that my body does easily. The fast and furious-ness to the 3 hour flu thing is that I also got rid of everything inside of me and my body kept trying to do more...yes this is known as dry heaves. Horrible, long-lasting dry heaves where the entire body is convulsing. Excuse me for being really "out there" with my thinking processes, but to me, I am wondering how awesome that entire body contraction is for stimulating the nerve system and changing a pattern. It was pretty intense and often a major pattern interrupt is exactly what is needed. It did it for me. It changed things up for me on the inside and now I feel WAY BETTER than just "back to normal".

So to sum this up, no it is not fun to be sick, I do not enjoy vomiting, and I am glad it is over. Could that flu been prevented by taking a flu shot (which for the record I would NEVER do), I really do not think there is any reason to ever get a flu shot...and the benefit I got out of the ability to purge whatever that was, PRICELESS. Do you think it is possible that the flu was created by nature or universal forces for us to take a "time out" and get a chance to learn something about ourselves? stimulate something? clear something out? change a pattern? Just some food for thought...

COLORADO = A BREAK FROM MY "EVERYDAY"

I just spent an amazing week in Colorado. I love Colorado, in fact I tell people that my heart lives in the mountains of Colorado, Summit County to be exact, and I just go and visit it a few times per year. It really is the truth, Colorado is home to me...when I land I have this deep sense of "I'm home" I just haven't figured out a way to move my entire life in Michigan out there yet. Many of you know already, most of my close friends from chiropractic college live right in Denver. They are the kind of friends that even if we never got out and did anything, just sitting around and talking with them rejuvenates me. This past July, another one of my really close friends moved out to Boulder from Michigan, though actually I think he and Choco miss each other more than they even consider me. :) So my time was spent between the mountains, Denver and Boulder. I was able to get 4 full days of snowboarding in which was amazing. Saturday at Vail with friends, Sunday at Breckenridge with other friends, Wednesday at Breckenridge my myself and the last full day at Beaver Creek, my new favorite place. During my time away from my "everyday", I also like to spend some deliberate time journaling and creating an image for how I want my life to be. Have you ever sat and thought about what you really want in your life? Did you know you have a choice in the matter? It is a wonderful, powerful and super fun thing to do if you haven't ever tried it. The great thing about it is once you put it on paper, you get to look back from further down the road and see how much of what you wrote down, actually manifested. Give it a try!

So my time away from my "everyday" was a perfect blend of time in the mountains, time with friends, time alone, time on my snowboard, time in the city, time wandering, time being active, and time resting. The pictures tell the story...

LIFE IS INCREDIBLE!!!!

This is un-freaking-believable!!! I am sitting in seat 37A (the picture is my view from this seat, back end of this plane is empty) on a Delta flight to Atlanta and I AM ON THE INTERNET!!! Because I flew just last week, I knew free Wi-Fi was happening on these flights so I packed my laptop...I thought, what a perfect time to catch up on blogging!!! So I am heading down to spend New Years Eve with some really great friends. New Years Eve is always a little over-rated however I think the plans that we have are going to be just the ticket to ring in 2011.

I would like to say a fond farewell to 2010 as a lot of wonderful things happened this past year: traveled to Costa Rica, Ecuador, Georgia (twice), South Carolina, Colorado (twice); bought a commercial building to move my practice into and renovated the building; welcomed a beautiful niece into this world and have enjoyed watching her grow; one of my brothers got married so also welcomed another sister-in-law to the family; spent a lot of time with my wonderful family; welcomed a lot of new practice members into the Cafe of LIFE; welcomed a lot of new little ones into the practice since we see a lot of pregnant mothers; took doula training; ran the Detroit Half Marathon for the 2nd time; finished the CRIM 1o mile for the 5th time; dated a super neat guy; made some new friends and deepened some existing friendships; enjoyed a few sweat lodge ceremonies; intensified my commitment to my yoga practice; healed from a nasty shoulder injury; started coaching chiropractors again; started playing soccer again after my 15 year hiatus; and so many other wonderful things too numerous to list here. Looking back on your year, what fond memories have you created?

Some of my friends and I come up with a slogan for the year...like last year was "Life is Zen in 2010"...which for me, really didn't pan out so well (not in a bad way, just not quite what you would call "Zen0. So this year we are talking "Life is Heaven in 2011" but I am not sure sure I want to have quite that high of an aim (no pun intended)...so I am thinking "There will be Seven in 2011". Seven what you might ask? I will be asking the same question and I look forward to finding that out. I kind of dig the mystery of what it might mean... we only get one chance...make your 2011 the best year yet!!! HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

WISH TO YOU...

"Wishing you a slower pace, some private time, a dreaming place, and all the things that make a happy heart"...