breathing

Ready…Set…Feel (60 Self Assessment)

Maceo Paisley Conversation Pieces body language, breathing, posture, self-assessment, self-image 0

When was the last time you took a moment to feel your own body? I don’t mean the surface of your skin, I mean acknowledging the experience of living your body. Wanna try it? OK! Let’s go.

Read through this quick survey and post a comment below or share it if you think it is worth spreading.

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First congratulations, you are alive, which means you are breathing.

Respiration
How deep are you breathing? At what pace?
Has the pace of your breathing changed since you noticed it?
Are you breathing through your nose? Is there any sound?
Does air flow freely?
When was the last time you swallowed?
Can you feel your pulse?
Can you feel your heart beat?
How do you feel about all of these answers? Are they good or bad?

Posture (Upper Body)
Is your head up and aligned with your spine?
Are you resting your head on your hand?
Can you feel air moving over the back of your neck? What about behind your ears?
Is your chest angled towards the floor or ceiling?
Did you just adjust? BUSTED!
Are your shoulders a little hiked or are they dropped?
Is this normal? Is this comfortable?
Are you in a chair? Does it support your lower back?
Is slouching more comfortable?

Don,t move just, acknowledge.

Posture (Lower Body)
Are you standing or siting?
Is your pelvis directly below your head?
Is your back flat or arched?
Are your feet touchingthe floor?
**WIGGLE YOUR TOES**
ok . Stop.
Do you have a big butt?
What does that even mean?
Are your either of your legs fully extended.
Is that good or bad? Where did that idea come from?

Environment
Are you a little cold or a little hot?
Which do you prefer?
How you normally feel?
Do you need glasses?
How do you know the answer?
Are you good looking?
Where did that idea come from?
Do you agree?
Are you tall?
Are you fat?
What does that mean?

Miscellaneous
What would you change about your body if you could?
Why don’t you change it?
What is your favorite part of your body?
Are you good at keeping time?
Have you realized that this has not taken 60 seconds?

Enjoi your day.

Psalm Isadora: Reinvention

C2O Editor Citizens, Creative Professional breathing, india, kundalini, primal core, psalm isadora, yoga 1

Over the past 30 years we’ve seen yoga go from the obscure to the overwhelming. There are so many yoga professionals and options it has become an industry of its own. Especially with all of the resources at our disposal here in Los Angeles one the of the biggest things that set them all apart is the people. Psalm Isadora is a yoga teacher at Marianne Wells Yoga School, author and woman’s empowerment leader . Before Psalm found yoga, she was thirty pounds overweight and suffering from depression and anxiety. After ending up in an emergency room, she realized that if she didn’t change her life, she would die. She’s since changed the way she lives and gives people the tools to change theirs. We got to visit Psalm at her home in Venice and capture her morning routine.

Psalm’s Morning (in her own words):

1. Wake up, open my eyes and look into my beautiful yard. My first thought is always a feeling of happiness to have a home after so many years being a wandering gypsy on the road.

2. My mind begins to turn with thoughts of all the work and projects that I need to do.

3. I lay on my back, put one hand on my belly and one hand on my heart and breath deeply.

4. I try not to do anything for 5 minutes, just breath and keep my mind free of thoughts.

5. I begin to visualize the outcomes I want for my projects

6. Stretch, get up and rule my queendom for another day!

Psalm practices her method, Primal Core Yoga that taps into the Kundalini she has learned from her many trips to India. It is a sequence that accesses breathing in the pelvic core, translated for daily use , it awakens creativity in the body and mind. Her credo is that “Empowerment is an inside job.” and offers programs that build the foundation for empowerment and sensuality. Along with her other programs she guides retreats to India to visit temples, explore tantric festivals and be immersed experiencing the birthplace of yoga. Her next project is a 21 Day Primal Core Boot Camp beginning January 13th. It is a three week course that ignites power, purification, and bliss.

For breakfast, she will often make a smoothie, with blueberries, almond milk, vegan protein powder, and stevia sweetener. 20-30 minutes after her eyes open, Psalm has her goals in the forefront of her mind and is ready to accomplish them. She addresses emails and prepares for the day’s business for a couple hours before showering and heading out the door to meet with clients and teach classes.

To contact Psalm or for more information about her 21 Day Primal Core Boot Camp head to her website psalmisadorayoga.com

Good Morning!

Book Club: Teach Us To Sit Still

C2O Editor Book Club breathing, fitness, health, meditation, teach us to sit still, tim parks 0

Welcome to the first installment of the C2O Book Club we are doing a book club. Reading a book each month, is a modest goal, but it is another opportunity to initiate dialogue and relevant discussion to the subject we are reviewing with our theme.

We’ll be reading a new work of non-fiction each month that pertains to the theme.

This month we are talking about the body and Tim Parks has written, what seems to be, a very interesting work.
He is not a doctor, or fitness guru, or celebrity author, he is a regular guy who makes his living as a creative, like many of us do. He is a writer to be more precise.

Teach Us To Sit Still isn’t about the fab diet or a learning plan, its not about the new work out and it is not a get in shape guide book. Tim is offering us a chance to experience our bodies with a sincere acknowledgement. It is a journey through his pain and path to relief.

An excerpt from the forward:

“… just when the medical profession had given up on me and I on it, just when I seemed to be walled up in a life sentence of chronic pain, someone proposed a bizarre way out: sit still, they said, and breathe. I sat still. I breathed. It seemed a tedious exercise at first, rather painful,not immediately effective. Eventually it proved so exciting, so transforming, physically and mentally, that I began to think my illness had been a stroke of luck. If I wasn’t the greatest of skeptics, I’d be saying it was sent from above to invite me to change my ways. In any event, by now the story had become too inviting a conundrum to be left unwritten.”

What more pertinent a story to share in the month we are discussing physicality and movement, than to read about being still. Before we can master movement we must master stillness and above all our breath. Breathing is literally the most important thing we do each day, everyday, all day. It is a voluntary choice and yet we give it little thought.

Teach Us To Sit Still is subtitled “A Skeptic’s Search for Health and Healing” and aren’t we all a little skeptical, and rightly so? We’ve been promised results over and over again. This book makes no promises, it offers a perspective. We entreat you to join us as we explore it.

Read the book, and drop comments in the box below as you go.
You can get it on Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble in-store and online.
We’ll try this out and see how it goes.

Since it is our first attempt, if you decide you want to join. We’ll buy you the first book!

Fill out the form below and we’ll try to get you the book within in a week. Its’ only 319 pages and January is a long month.

Enjoi.

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