Sleep.

The truth is, readers, I just ain't getting any!  And this isn't doing me any favors in the "beauty sleep" department.
So, are any of us out there getting enough sleep?  A casual ask-around of friends and family members (or a quick read of Facebook status updates) reveals some contradictory information to a 2007 study of Women's Sleep Habits, compiled by the "National Sleep Foundation".  (By the way, could you imagine working there?   Must be awkward at cocktail parties: "Hi, nice to meet you, Peter.  What do you do?" "I work for the National Sleep Foundation."  "Oh.  Sounds.  Interesting.  Oh, look, I think I have to refresh my wife's drink...")
So, this 2007 survey of women shows that most women claim to get 7 1/2 to 8 1/2 hours of sleep per night.  Depending on age, some women fall asleep earlier in the evening, some later, but the waking time is, on average, 8 hours later.  Are they lying?  Just so they look "good" to the Sleep Foundation?  I only say this because I know a LOT of people who report that they have insomnia (which technically is "having trouble falling asleep".  Perhaps once they get to sleep, they stay there for 8 hours) or say they are tired.
A closer look at the statistics shows that nearly 30 percent of the women say they are getting a good night of sleep "only a few nights per month".  Aha!  So, you may be asleep, but it's not a good, deep, restful sleep.  This is probably the case with me.  I think I pretty much consistently log in between 6 and 7 hours a night:  bed around 11, wake around 6.  (Thanks, kids)  I used to be a staunch "10 pm lights out" kinda girl, but now that we have Netflix through the Wii, I find myself trying to squeeze in just one more episode of Weeds (they are only 23 minutes, afterall...) so I'm a little later to bed.
Nevertheless, despite my 6 or 7 hours, I still feel exhausted by the time I wake in the morning.  I feel stiff and sore (even questioning whether I have the stamina for a yoga practice today!), figuring "Maybe I just overdid it on the mat yesterday, and I need a day to 'recover'".  Who am I kidding.  I did YOGA.  Not run a Marathon.  Yoga is supposed to help calm and relax the body/mind, readying it for an introspective meditation.  But I never take that introspection, now that I think about it.  I finish my Savasana, roll up my mat, and bolt from the studio to drive my kids to camp/playdate/where ever.  Hmmm... Maybe there's something to this...
So, the Sleep Foundation says that a good night of sleep is vital to our Health and Well-being.  All mammals need sleep.  It regulates mood, and is related to learning and memory.  Regular, quality sleep helps you to recharge your battery so you can learn new skills, stay on task, and be productive (huh!  Maybe I should print this out to share with my 8th graders right around their assessments!).  Sleep is a critical factor in health, weight, and energy, and it is recommended that you get 7-9 hours per night.  Wow.  Mention health and weight, and you have my attention (she who has gained 5 pounds since the start of summer, damn Mojitos and Caipirhinas!)  Speaking of which, Alcohol does not help the cause, in case you were wondering.  You might feel sleepy, but it won't help you sleep any better and your sleep won't be any more restful.
So what do I need to do?  Well, for starters, Husband and I are getting a new bed.  We're stepping it up a notch by going from a full to a queen.  We have nightly visits from a certain 4 year old who likes to sleep sideways on our lumpy full-sized mattress, despite the fact that his twin mattress is the newest and most comfortable in the house!  Will having more room and a newer, less lumpy mattress help the cause?  We'll see.  It takes a while for the bed to get the appropriate upholstery and be shipped to us, so you may have to be patient before I report back tangible results.  For now, I think I may just need to honor a meditation after my asana today (and the next day).
Patience gives the power to practice; practice gives the power that leads to perfection - from my teabag this morning.

Rantsy Pants

  I know this blog is supposed to be all about Yoga and living a balanced life and whatnot, but today I just got a little bee in my bonnet.  I have a little rant going on, and my 120 characters on Twitter and 2-liner status updates just don't provide enough room for me to explain myself properly.  I decided to take advantage of my blog to vent.  I suppose I could rationalize that since I usually try to be calm, quiet, and advocate some peace, if I rant on here now and again, it technically is "balancing" things out. Plus, the subject of my rant does Yoga, so technically, she's relevant.  By the way, if I'm not ranting enough for you (and you may want to reserve judgement on that until you finish reading this post), you can always head over to my husband's blog, where he certainly rants enough for 3 blogs:  This Annoys Me

So, this morning, Husband wakes up and cracks open the iPad (which I received as an awesomely unexpected, absolutely delightful Mother's Day gift way back in May...however, the boys in my life seem to take advantage of its magic far more often than I do...don't get me started, or this blog may need to be re-titled "This Annoys Me in the Suburbs" - although I'm fairly certain that blog already exists.)  I digress....

So, my husband starts browsing IMDB for upcoming theatrical releases and points out a bunch of flicks he thinks I'll be keen on seeing.  Number one on the list:  Sherlock Holmes, part2 (Uhm, helloooo?  Jude Law?  Robert Downey Jr.?  As you can see, Husband should have been a brain surgeon with his overwhelming amounts of genius).  Number two:  Hugo (again with Jude Law).  Then, he mentions "Contagion", which has Marion Cotillard.  I'll see anything with Marion Cotillard in it.  She's like my biggest girl-crush ever...not because I want to get with her.  It's because I want to BE her.  Jude Law is also in this one.  Gosh this guy has been busy since that whole Nanny scandal.  I guess he has loads of free time these days.  Then husband says "Oh, but it has Gwyneth Paltrow in it."  The Marion factor far outweighs any negative impact that the Gwyneth factor brings, but it set me off.  I'm sooooooo annoyed by Gwyneth Paltrow.  And it takes a lot to get me that annoyed.

So what, you ask, could this amazing, tow-headed, Jill-of-all-Trades have done to send me into a rant?  She acts (Oscar winner, there, folks!).  She does Yoga (just look at those long limbs!).  She has no crow's feet (a recent tabloid article claims she's had botox to eliminate them, however, I'm calling false on that one, because she's my age, and I don't have crow's feet either, and I certainly don't have $300 at my disposal to inject Botulism TOXIN into my face.  She must be lucky enough to have fabulous outer-ocular skin, just like me.)  She blogs (hey, maybe I should be looking up to her instead of dissing her!).  She sings (ahem).  She's written a fucking cookbook. 

I'm sure several hundred people have already seen the irony in this (and blogged about it).  Gwyneth Paltrow, she of the "raw foods", "macro-biotic", "I cleanse for 2 weeks before every movie shoot" diet has written a cookbook. 
W.
T.
F.

The first recipe is for some secret family recipe for these amazing buttermilk pancakes her dad made every Sunday morning.  I know this not because I bought the damn thing, but because there was a magazine article highlighting Gwyneth's latest triumph in publishing this damn cookbook.  Yes, I just used "damn" twice in one sentence.  The whole concept of her writing a cookbook is about as preposterous as that food tour she took around Spain with Mario Batali a year or two back.  Laughable.  He of the robust waistline and love of olive oil, travelling with she of the "how long do I have to run on the treadmill if I eat one of your marinated olives?"

Should I waste even one more sentence on this chick?  Probably not.

Summer Solstice

Waiting in line for the Times Square
Solstice Practice!

Tuesday, June 21st was the 2011 Summer Solstice, which means it was the "Longest Day" of the year.  The day was still 24 hours long, but there were more hours of daylight on June 21st than hours of darkness.  Astronomically, this means that at noon on June 21st, the sun is at it's highest point all year.  Each day, the sun will be at it's highest point at noon, but on the Summer Solstice, it's the highest "high noon" of the year.  Calendar-wise, it's the first day of Summer, and also a highly celebrated day around the globe.  Apparently, the great Pyramids of Egypt are constructed so that the sun sets directly between them on the Solstice when viewed from the Sphinx.  I've been to all three, but not on the Solstice, so I can't verify this.  Famously, of course, are the druids' celebrations at Stonehenge during the Solstice. Again, I've never been to Stonehenge at the Solstice, so I can't bear witness.   Less well-known is the relatively new tradition of practicing Yoga in Times Square on the Solstice.  Now THAT's something I can attest to!
Lucy apparel and the Times Square Alliance joined forces this year to shut down portions of Times Square for a day-long extravaganza yoga practice.  They had a variety of sessions throughout the day, and I signed up to participate! 
Tuesday, June 21st was a beautiful day!  I normally wake up around 6 am so I can leave the house by 7:30 and get to work by 8.  I woke up a bit earlier that day (5:30!) because it happened to be the day my students were scheduled to take their NY State Regents examination, and I wanted to be at school a little earlier to prepare (turns out, they ALL passed!).  At 5:30, the sun was already making a strong appearance - so much so that I thought I might have woken up late rather than early!  Anyway, the sun was wide awake, and that helped me to get wide awake, especially knowing that I had a yoga practice to go to that evening!
I registered back in the beginning of May for the 6:00 pm practice, but the subsequent emails suggested I get there by 5:30.  Considering my train ride into the city and the walk over to Times Square, it was a little unreasonable to expect Husband to come home from work extra early, so my plan was to bring the kids with me and do an exchange at the train station.  Except that didn't happen.
Husband got held up downtown, so I ended up walking the distance from Grand Central to Times Square with the boys in tow (roughly 4 blocks west and 5 blocks north).  Not too bad, except I hadn't planned that into my travel time, so I arrived at Times Square by 5:45.  There were still piles of the free yoga mats (thank goodness, because I LOVE my yellow yoga mat, and didn't want to treat it badly by laying it down on the dirty, filty concrete in Times Square, so I didn't even bring it!) and goody tote bags filled with coupons, offers, and giveaways.  It looked like there were plenty left for me.  Except there weren't.

See, no space for
me OR my kids!

The line moved swiftly along, but when I got about 20 people from the front of the line, things stopped moving.  We waited, and waited, and waited.  It was getting closer and closer to 6.  And the line wasn't moving.  Turns out, all of the spaces were filled (see photo) and the event organizers were busy setting up another "pen" a little farther down Times Square for us "latecomers".  They finally finished setting up, and were ready for us to file down the block to set up...but they were out of mats.  They were out of goody tote bags.  They gave me a bottle of water and a photocopied map showing me how to get to the pen.  They made a joke about letting the kids do yoga, too, and had we been equipped with mats, I'm convinced they would have given it a go.  Instead we needed to wander past the groups, stopping to snap a few pics here and there (blog-worthy!), and just admire the beauty of such a large, outdoor practice.  It's easy to find serenity on your mat, but in the middle of the chaos of Times Square?  Absolutely possible, and with better planning, absolutely doable.
So, my Summer Solstice practice was a bust.  I didn't get to practice in Times Square...I was relegated to doing a few sun salutations in my family room...but I did get to participate (in a small way) in a pretty cool tradition!  Now I know what to expect, and can prepare better for the next go 'round.  Perhaps at the Winter Solstice?  As if it's not crazy enough to practice yoga in Times Square, who's ready to practice when it's freezing outside?  Hmmm...Maybe I'll be better off waiting until next summer...

"Make the best use of what is in your power and take the rest as it happens" - Epictetus

Book Review: Poser

2 weeks ago, I took my kids to the library afterschool as an "outing".  Yes, I've been so busy lately that the bar is set really low for what passes as "an outing".  The joke is that my younger son thinks the library is where we go to rent DVDs, and my older son likes to get Star Wars graphic novels.  Neither of which quite fit the bill for what I have in mind when visiting the library.  Anyway, while the boys were hunting for their choices, I decided to peruse the "new releases" section.  This is a complete joke, because new releases are typically 2 week loans with no renewal, and anyone who knows me would realize that I have ZERO chance of finishing a book in 2 weeks.  BUT, I saw this book, and it just spoke to me.  Was I a "poser"?  I practice yoga (infrequently), I write a yoga blog (even less frequently!), I can get into 23 different postures (I think).  I borrowed...
So, Claire Dederer, the author, is from Washington (state, not DC), is a journalist and a person who found a mode of "escaping" through yoga.  I think this is why a lot of people turn to yoga.  They are looking for meaning in some area of their lives, and yoga, with it's mysticism and contradictions, makes one feel less confuddled and more capable of coping.  Claire had some issues left unresolved, and her journey on the mat helps her cope, discover new things about herself, and just plain old "deal".  She's up against a northwest neo-hippie culture where you're not a good enough mother unless you puree your own organic babyfood, co-sleep, and nurse your baby until he's nursery school age.  That kind of maternal pressure is crazy - it seems enough to make any mother feel insufficient!  I joyfully nursed my kids well into their first year, but God, when that was done, I was SO ready to have my own body back!  On top of this, she was dealing with insecurities from needing to work, needing to support her husband as he dealt with insecurities about supporting his family as a journalist, complications from when her daughter was first born, and dealing with a strange parental dynamic (her parents were married, but not living together, as her mother had a live-in boyfriend for the last 20 years or so).  Yoga was her escape. 
I returned the book to the library today, only about 30% of the way through.  I have to say that I didn't give the book a fair shake.  It was interesting to read about the progression of Claire's practice, but I couldn't relate.  I felt like an insufficient mother just reading about what Claire went through to prove herself a "good" mother/wife/daughter/sister.  Jeez.  Several times I had to put the book down, step back, and ask myself if this is what it was really about.  I work full-time and look with envy at my peers who are able to stay at home and be fantastic mothers to their children, "effortlessly" keep in shape, eat well, do proper outings, and keep an active social life.  If this is what it's really all about, I'm doing a piss-poor job of keeping up!  I don't need that kind of reminder that I'm not as awesome as the rest of 'em...so yeah, I didn't finish the book.
Claire had problems to cope with in her life...not on the mat, and this book was more about the coping and less about the posing.  Seeking time on the mat was her release, as it is for me, and I didn't feel motivated to read her book to find out more, especially when it made me feel like more of a loser than I needed to feel.
Suffice it to say, I know all about turning to the mat to work things out.  Even with this, however, maybe when the book goes off the "new release" shelf, I may return to it to finish reading this summer (typically when I have more time to read!).

Life is a bridge.  Cross over it, but build no bridge upon it. - Indian proverb

Commitment?

Oh boy! It's sure been a while since I've posted!  My readership has dwindled to nothing, and I have no one to blame but myself.  It's been a rather busy (and soggy!)  month, May has.  For one, I've been in the throes of helping to plan my HS reunion.  I don't live near my hometown anymore and we're having a "destination" (but still within driving distance for most of us) reunion, so that involves lots of emails, phonecalls, and behind-the-scenes planning.  That, coupled with an event I planned at work along with 2 projects I've been working on with my students, my son's Little League games, and Husband's travels for work, I'm left with very little time for practicing yoga, let along blogging about it.

But, my dear reader(s), Summer is on the horizon, and brings with it the prospect of lots and lots of time on the mat for me!  It's going to be great, it's going to be fulfilling, and I'm sure I'll find it very renewing.  In preparation for all of this, I figured it was time to "renew" myself with home practice.

Husband and I thought we were done with middle of the night interruptions, but for some reason (maybe molars are coming in), our 4 year old has decided that he needs to put in an appearance in the middle of the night again.  Most of the time, we can snuggle for a minute before walking him back to his own bed and then resume our own visits to Dreamland.  Sometimes, though, these visits happen around 5 am, at which point, it's hardly worth it to fall back asleep, knowing we just need to get up "for real" a mere hour later.  On such occasions, I tend to throw in the towel and just get on with the day, and sometimes I'm motivated enough to unroll the ole' yellow mat and do a short DVD practice. 

These occasions are not reliable enough to make a commitment to my mat, though, so I've devised another way to get myself on the mat more often.  At the start of May, I pledged to do 5 Sun Saluations every day.  Usually these Sun Salutations are the last thing I do before bed at night, but I'm getting them in.  I'm honoring my commitment, and while they'd more aptly be named "moon salutations", I'm still doing *something* to keep my body informed of proper form and flow.  I'm sure this commitment is going to pay off when I'm back in that first class of the summer.  I'll be better equipped to make it 1/2 of the way through class, rather than only 1/4.  Yes, I'm sure some "beginner" classes will be needed to really refresh my muscle memory, but because of my Salutation commitment, it won't be nearly as painful. 

So, here's my flow for my "Daily 5", in case you'd like to join me:

Series 1 thru 4:

Mountain pose.  Swan dive down with straight legs to touch the floor/ankles.  Look out into the world ("monkey pose").  Standing forward bend.  First leg back to lunge.  Second leg back to plank.  Lower down into Chaturanga.  Swoop up to Upward facing dog.  Roll back to Downward facing dog. First leg forward to lunge, followed by second foot forward to standing forward bend.  Swan Dive up.

Series 5:

Mountain pose, Swan dive down, look out into the world, standing forward bend, hop both legs back to plank.  Chaturanga, Updog, Downdog.  Hop forward to standing forward bend.  Swan dive up.

Basically, it's 2 Sun Salutations starting on the right side, 2 Sun Salutations starting on the left side, and just to stay balanced (ie, not one side is starting more than the other) and challenge myself, I hop back on the last Salutation.  Totally manageable, and takes less than 5 minutes.  That's a commitment I think anyone can get behind.  Even a yoga slacker (shameful, considering I write a blog about it!) like me.

Upcoming post:  Do you have a goal for your summer practice?  Is there a posture you'll be working on, a mantra you'll be developing, a philosophy you'll be meditating on, a 5-Sun Salutation daily commitment?  I'd love to hear about it for an upcoming post...feel free to comment below!

Persist - "It's never too late to become what you might have been" - George Eliot

Yoga on Netflix!

I like to think that I'm a better mother than most of the mothers I watch on TV...but Nancy Botwin sets the bar really low.  My husband was away for much of this week, so after the kids were snuggled nicely in their beds each night, I settled down for some Netflix...but there's only so much dysfunction one can take.  So, I decided to browse the offerings, and see if there were yoga selections I could check out...thankfully, there were!  On the streaming Netflix (playable through our Wii and PS3) there were workout selections that were actual yoga and some that were related to yoga, and there were lots of titles that needed to be ordered through the traditional Netflix.  I kept browsing, and somehow stumbled upon a movie about yoga.  THIS was intriguing.

The documentary was called Enlighten Up! and is definitely for someone who is pretty serious about yoga.  Suffice it to say, it's a good thing Husband was away, because he would never agree to watch this flick.  He's more into the Exit Through the Gift Shop brand of documentaries.  Anyway, even I, she who loves yoga, had to split this documentary up over two sessions.  It's not that it was tedious...it's more because of the fact that I wasn't starting to watch until 9pm, and I'm a 10:30 bedtime kinda girl.  I need at least a half-hour to brush teeth, wash face, and slather on the eye creme du jour (crow's feet be damned!)

Enlighen Up! was a project set up by documentarian Kate Churchill, who is big time into yoga.  She feels that yoga has the power to physically, emotionally, and spiritually transform anyone, and this movie was her project to prove that this is possible.  As her test subject, she chooses Nick, a single, 30-something (nowadays...I think he was 29 when the film was made) NYC journalist, who is skeptical.  Watching the film, you learn that his parents divorced when he was very young, and his father is a lawyer.  Nick mentions this without hesitation.  He also mentions without hesitation that his mother is a "shamanic healer"..but he doesn't elaborate at all.  He just answers the question point blank:  "What does your mother do?"  "She's a shamanic healer", and he stares at the camera for quite some time saying nothing further.  It's almost as if he's uncomfortable with his mother's path/lifestyle/outlook for some reason.  Nick seems to be a guy who hasn't quite found himself yet - he probably grew up a privileged kid, who was conflicted about a lot of things (marriage/relationships/religion/career). He iterated many times that, as a journalist, he felt the need to seek truth and be convinced of things.  I also detected that he'd been given a lot, and when he needed to find things for himself, he wasn't quite sure where to begin.  He didn't quite strike me as "driven" by any means, so it didn't seem to be a hardship to give up several weeks to participate in this project.  I agree wth Kate - this guy was an excellent candidate.  If she can convince him that yoga is transformative, she can convince anyone.

The duo travelled all over the globe:  New York to Hawaii to India and back again.  The "Celebrity Yogis" whom they interviewed were hilarious. They all said virtually the same thing and commented on the commercialism of Yoga ("well, my DVDs are doing well", "I've expanded product offerings to include bedsheets", etc!). DVDs and bedsheets? Wow...so not what yoga is about for me!

By the end of this journey, Nick got to meet some pretty amazing people who freely shared their "enlightened philosophies".  My favorite, the one who made the most sense to me, was Guru Saran Ananda in Gokul, India.  Listening to his advice, I thought for sure Nick would be transformed.  But Nick struggled time and time again with the issue of Spirituality.  Towards the end of the movie, we find out that Nick has moved to Colorado and has given up Yoga in favor of Rock Climbing.  So I suppose Spirituality was his hang up afterall.
 
Is spirituality a hangup for all of us, when it comes to yoga?  Maybe.  I'm not quite ready to give up my Christianity, but I am absolutely open to listening to all that yogic philosophy has to offer.  My search is a way to meld the two.  I know yoga is an 8-limbed path; asana (postures) and pranayama (breathing) are but two parts designed to ready your body for meditation.  Seeing as I rarely have time to get myself on the mat, I don't necessarily think I'll be getting myself to the point of real, honest to goodness mediation any time soon.  However, many of the principles of yoga: Ahimsa (non-harming) and Satya (living according to your own truth), coupled with the 8th limb of Samadhi (acknowledgement of the devine), really make sense to me.  They speak to me in such a basic way:  Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.  Treat yourself the way you deserve to be treated.  These "golden rules" make sense to me, and seeing as they don't really harm anyone or get in the way of anyone else's beliefs or ways of being, it helps me to feel "enlightened"!
 
It doesn't matter what you do.  It's why you do it that's important" - Guru Saran Ananda

YATS cooks!

Spicy shrimp curry with Naan

No, this is not a cooking blog.  But I do like to cook, and when I whip something up that's yummy, I don't mind sharing it with you...especially when it's extra easy.
Tonight, I made a 3-part meal that was super quick to prepare - particularly because many of the ingredients were "ready-made".  So is that "cheating"?  Maybe I should re-title the post "YATS re-heats".  Anyway....

First, prepare the rice side dish.  I used the microwave, so I couldn't go wrong.
1 cup Basmati Rice, 1 1/2 cups water, 1tsp Kosher salt.  Throw this in a round pyrex and microwave on high for 5 minutes.  While this is "nuke-ing", slice about 5 dried apricots into thin strips, then lightly toast 1/4 cup of sliced almonds in a pan and wash a lemon (you'll zest it in a minute).  By this time, the 5 minutes will be up.  Give the rice a quick stir and microwave for 12 more minutes on half power.  Once finished, stir in the apricots, almonds, and zest some lemon peel over top for color and flavor.  I got this recipe from the April issue of "Real Simple", and I call it jeweled rice.  The flavors sparkle on your tongue and the colors do look like little jewels...what a great side dish:

Jeweled Rice.  Mmmmm...
(potatoes to be used another day)

 

Second dish.  While the rice is taking it's 12 minutes to finish up, you can get on with the main dish.  You'll need:
1 pound peeled, deveined shrimp
1 tbs olive oil
1 can "fire-roasted" diced tomatoes
1 generous tablespoon of "Patak's original" mild curry paste (cilantro and cumin). 

Here's what you do:  warm the oil in a medium pan and cook the shrimp until just pink (maybe 3 minutes).  Add in the tablespoon of curry paste and stir (about 1 minute).  It will slightly coat the bottom of the pan and look like it's going to be a huge mess to clean up, but wait.  Next add the tomatoes and stir, stir, stir.  The slight acidity of the tomatoes is just enough to help you de-glaze the pan and get all the spicy curry paste flavor into the dish.  Once this is warmed through (2-3 minutes), toss a Naan on a griddle pan (the same pan you used to toast the almonds would work, too) to crisp up a bit (one minute each side).

Just in case this isn't enough (color OR flavor),  I always keep a "hidden secret", an extra side dish, something special to slop up with the naan.  A ready made sachet of Palak Paneer!  You heat this in the microwave for a minute or so, and add it alongside your other dishes.  Voila!  Your fellow diners will feel like they're in a real curryhouse for dinner.  I'm not saying this is anywhere near "restaurant quality" palak paneer...but coupled with your other homemade curry dish and the rice side, it adds quite a kick (waaaay spicier than the curry paste) and variety.  Even though it was a quick heat-and-serve dish, it's a nice complement to the overall meal.

The "Secret Weapon"

Soooooo, what are you waiting for?  Cook up some curry this week! 

"You make the best dinners" - Husband (now that's an endorsement!)