Dancing To My Own Beat as a Kids Yoga Instructor

Buzzed after a good day of teaching FOUR kids yoga classes! Yes, four! Three for private preschools, and one public family yoga class at our local Tibetan center.

I feel so blessed that there is so much demand for my classes here in my Southern Indiana bubble. When I started Enchanted Yogis just a year ago, I never dreamed it'd be so well accepted and loved in the community. I feel so fortunate.

Plus I have met so many wonderful children and their parents because of it. Kids and their parents keep coming back again and again, and they've all truly touched my heart.

I'm so happy to be teaching something fun, creative, healthy and mindful. I love that some of the things we do  in class are helpful to kids in their daily life.

Here that sound? Yep. That's me moving to the drum of my own beat, enchanting others, and flowing along in my own way to the divine inner truth. Namaste.

First day of 3-week Summer Yoga Camp

Reading To Kids Is Crazy

Let me be clear. Reading to your kids each day is not crazy. The crazy comes while trying to read to your kids, if say, your kids are mine.

I love more than anything the sweet moments shared while reading to my kids over the years. However, now that my littlest one is a full-fledged-two-year-old, its been, ugh, interesting.

Unlike her 5-year-old brother, she does not like to listen us read the book. She would rather us listen to her read the book. And she has a lot, I mean a lot, of words to say about each page. and every. page.

Here is what happens when I try to rush her a little so her brother can read the actual text so he will not get bored.




Sometimes I have to READ REALLY LOUD over her, because more than likely she doesn't want to listen to me and wants to read her own book beside me. Or in this case, she is singing her book. (It's cute as pie though right?)




Sometimes she manages to listen to the story I am reading, while she is reading another book at the same time. She will retell the story to me later pretty dead on. Toddler's are pretty amazing after all. They are little sponges.

I notice this in my kids yoga classes. Some kids will be roaming the room, reading or playing with something else, then go home and show their parents some yoga. Um, wow.

And finally, after taking 20 minutes to complete one single simple book after much patience and many fits and arguments about whose turn it is ... we get to start a whole other book.

And that is why it's crazy reading books with my kids. But I love it. Mostly. Good night!

Practice What I Preach: Embracing My Worst Fear

PART 1: BEFORE THE CHANGE

Change is scary. Even for adults. The last month, I have been using a new mantra in my kids yoga class and at home with my kids, change, change and I'm okay. It's simple. It's got its own song. We get all into it.

But when things start to change, how do we find our center through it? How do we know it will be okay? Sometimes it really really doesn't feel okay. Sometimes we freak the freak out! *Deep breath*

Seriously how do we know it will be okay? Because it will. * Deep breath* You always can come back to your breath. (Lisa at www.beingbreath.com will be so proud me!) Trust that you are eternal and at the core unchangeable. Trust that even though everything radiating out of that unchangeable core is changing, that you still have a center, and a breath and there is peace within that core.

I find myself clinging onto things or people that I want so bad to have substance but then I look, and it vaporizes through my fingers. Silly me. The only thing I trust is change and growth, and breath.

In my motherhood life, I've been noticing that I don't like my kids behavior after they've had their daily shot of Netflix. Like...who is this off-the-wall preschooler who doesn't want to listen to me, or seems incapable of constructive independent play. Or who is this wacked out toddler reactive to even more things.

So, I decided I needed to face the biggest fear in my home, for the betterment of my family. 

I decided to brave my fear of getting rid of screen time, in fear of not having any quiet moments to think or get things done without constant interaction from my kids. For my kids, TV or videos have worked like magic! I give them only an hour or at most two a day, and they sit and are mesmerized. No questions are asked. No fighting ensues. Its magic.

Now I do believe a little screen time or computer time is healthy for kids. They can learn thing, and its part of our culture. I don't want my kids to feel like outcasts with not knowing what his friends are talking about or how to work a computer. But it was clear from my kids behavior that I needed to have less.

I decided to drastically cut down the amount of "technology time" my kids have each week. Ultimately, I want to limit it to just 2 or 3 days a week for a max of 1-2 hours a day.

It's a big leap of faith. Like most changes, I know in the end all would be well, but in the meantime it's going to get ugly. 

Stay tuned for how we implement the change in PART 2.

Namaste

The Domestic Yogi

Bit By a Tick? What Next?

Don't panic. It's hard. I know, they are ugly, and crawly, but take a deep breath.

Go get the tweezers.

Put the tip of the tweezers as close to the base of the skin as you can.

Hold firmly (but don't squeeze too tight) and pull straight up from the skin.

The tweezers will hopefully help minimize any tick breakage and subsequent oozing and mixing of tick fluids into your skin and bloodstream.

My mom has just informed me that smothering the tick with dish detergent on a cotton ball will work too. Less chance of it breaking off in the skin too. ** Edit. Apparently this may cause tick to regurgitate its stomach contents into the human body. So you don't want to do it since it may be carrying a disease **

Photo by Sarah Blankenbaker

Make sure to put an antibacterial ointment on the bite as soon as possible afterwards. Ticks carry all sorts of harmful diseases, so good to kill as much topically as you can right away.

Natural antibacterial ointments are preferred so those toxic chemicals don't get into your blood stream. Especially if its your child.

I use a wonderful 21 herb salve that my friend made from plants she grew locally. You can make your own healing salves to have ready for bites, injuries or skin alignments. Here is a link to a Make-Your-Own Salve article.

Lyme, You are Getting On My Nerves!

Seriously. Lyme on my nerves. Literally. And figuratively. Six months of the diet restrictions, mega-vitamins/supplements and here you are still. Rearing your ugly head. My hands are weird again.

Everyday is a constant battle of making sure I am taking care of myself enough or I get out of whack.  I'm a mom, an elderly care-giver, and a yoga-teacher who takes care of many, so sometimes its hard to be so focused on my needs. So its been challenging to say the least.

This disease changes and morphs so fast its hard for the body to keep up.

This nerve thing lately. I am blaming it on sugar. I have been cheating and having a few yogurt pretzels here one day, a couple small cookies there the next day. Other than my one daily cheat sometimes though, no sugar, or even honey. Ugh! Lymies love that sugar.

The weirdness in my hands and feet is a deal-breaker. I am a yogi. So this is particularly disturbing.

So I turned to my guru. I ask, "natural remedies for nerve-damage due to Lyme disease." 

Low and behold my google guru tells me: "Mycoplasma, a cell wall deficient bacteria and a common Lyme Disease co-infection, can actually carry part of the host's cell membrane on their surface when it leaves nerve cells.  This leads the immune system to believe that the host's antigen is a threat and it attacks its own host in what is known as an autoimmune response.  The immune system attacks the myelin sheath causing further nerve damage." Source

Nerves that are damaged can't effectively conduct electrical impulses. The result is numbness, tingling, pain, weakness and burning sensations.

The good news is that peripheral nerves, the ones running to my toes and fingers, possess the ability to regenerate and heal themselves. Phew.

My guru tells me that St. John's Wort could help. 

St. John's wort is known for its ability to repair nerve damage and reduce pain and inflammation. As an added bonus, it's supposed to be helpful for treating depression. Heck, a little more happy power won't hurt.

Less than a day after starting St. John's Wart, the feeling in my feet and hands started to come back. A week later and I'm feeling almost back at peak performance with my hands. Here I am, fingers just flowing freely without the dumbness I was starting to get with them.

I am so thankful for effective natural remedies, and the ones who came before me that figured them out. I really don't want to go back on antibiotics, that seem to reduce effectiveness over time.

Namaste

The Domestic Yogi

PS I order a lot of my herbs online at www.iherb.com. If you use my code GQJ111 you will get $10 off your first order over $40, or $5 off smaller orders.

One Simple Way to Teach Your Kids Intuition, Respect and Mindfulness

It's finally spring time! Flowers are abundant. If you are like me, I love to take walks in nature with the kids. Inevitably we pick a few wild flowers to savor and bring home.

My sweet girl communing with nature.
Photo by Venus Leah Photography

Here is a great way to teach your kids respect for nature (and all living things) and also introduce to them the concept of intuition. Before picking any flowers, plants, or taking anything from nature, demonstrate this to your child:

• Ask out loud to the flower, plant or special object in nature if it is okay to pick/take it.
• Let your child know you are closing your eyes and listening for the answer with your whole being.
• Then tell your child that you may not get a verbal answer from nature, but that you are feeling with your whole body for the answer. 
• If you get a bad feeling, your tummy feels strange, or something just doesn't feel right, then you will not pick the flower or take the object. Just simply move on and find another special piece of nature to ask. 
• If you get a good feeling, such as your heart seems to sing spontaneously, then indeed, go ahead and pick that beauty and take her home.

It is so important to model and demonstrate this process to your child. Monkey see, monkey do. 

If your kids are like mine, there is a natural tendency to go crazy wild fast at picking flowers. So encourage them to slow down, be mindful of each pick, and to take a moment to ask each flower (or each bunch of flowers) permission before taking.

Such a seemingly small "ritual" in nature, can have a deep lasting affect on children. It gives them the message that nature isn't just something to reap and conquer. It teaches them to respect nature, just like we teach them to respect other human beings by asking before taking. 

This small ritual is also a way to help children practice opening up their senses, and to trust their gut feelings and intuition in a safe place. There is no right and wrong answer, so there is no fear of failing, nor fear of any negative consequences.  

Intuition is one of those important, hard to teach things. So this is a simple, wonderful way help cultivate it, while also cultivating mindfulness and self-centering.

Let me know how this works for you!

Namaste!

Gut Power! Get Your Gut in Order to Heal Chronic Infections and Diseases

A series of strange events lead the way. The next thing I knew I was completely engrossed listening to an hour-long talk by someone claiming to know how to completely heal eczema naturally. No ointment. No pills.

Earlier that day, I was listening to Dr. Zorba Paster on NPR, tell a long-time sufferer of eczema that maybe she needed to try a new doctor. The caller's current doctor had been pushing the same ointment on her forever, even though she wasn't getting better. The same steroid ointment that she must not use much or her skin may become too thin. Dr. Zorba usually has numerous ideas for callers, and he seemed stumped. I felt the callers pain as complained of a lifetime of suffering with eczema and she didn't know what else to do.

As I listened to the interview of holistic practitioner Emily Bartlett, and author of ebook The Eczema Cure: Heal from the Inside Out with Real Food, I couldn't stop listening. My body was vibrating along with the wisdom she was revealing because it made total sense.

"Using cortisone cream to fix eczema is a bit like painting a rickety house that’s about to fall down. It makes it look better, and you may feel better for a short period of time – but ultimately the underlying issues must be healed." Eczema Cure, pg 6.

It turns out that eczema, like many other skin issues, is just a symptom of a deeper internal problem in the body that's gone out of whack. Typically, this imbalance is originating from poor digestion, and results in a  leaky gut (leaky gut syndrome).

Emily's daughter had a nasty case of eczema as soon as she started to eat solids. It took about six months to heal her daughter's internal system, but she is now healed and can drink milk (which before was a trigger). See her pictures below.

So many people I know suffer from gut issues and skin issues. I am on my own healing journey, so the knowledge she shared is helpful to me to make sure my internal system is operating at full speed so I can avoid nasty complications. My best success at staying healthy and healing is keeping my body in balance. I already told you how much better I feel after fixing my allergies naturally. Now it is time to get my gut in order.

Here is a summary of what I took away from her FOUR ACTION STEPS for getting getting your gut back into health, and curing eczema. (You are supposed to do all at the same time).

1. Eliminate Triggers
-This means environmental triggers or foods that triggers flare ups of skin or gut. Go to allergist if you can, or try the elimination diet. She prefers the elimination diet because she feels it is a truer test of how food effect you internally.
- Eliminate petroleum products (especially creams, because skin can't breathe and then becomes dependant on the petroleum product).

2. Clearing Inflammation
- I believe eliminating inflammation is key so it doesn't bog down your gut, and immune system.
-Fish oil (reduces inflammation). You need to take a lot of it. She recommends a good cod liver since it has extra vitamins and nutrients.
-Vitamin A rich food. (Liver is one).
-Anti-inflammatory foods like dandelion, cherries, berries, dark leafy greens.
-She didn't mention this in her talk, but modern wheat contains super-gluten which triggers an inflammatory response, so best to avoid wheat altogether.

3. Cultivate a Strong Immune System.
-Take a good oral probiotic pill. Good ones for eczema are l. raminosis (sp?) and l. luteri (sp?). There are a lot of probiotics that don't do anything. Type is REALLY important. Make sure you take it each and everyday. If it doesn't do any good in the first three days, then try another one.
-Eat fermented food, as much as possible. Kombacha, kimchi, sauerkraut (not the canned kind but the kid you get at a health store or make your own).  Make your own yogurt because it can have more probiotic in it.

4. Eating Right to Heal
- Bone soup heals the intestine walls! (For example, the broth from cooking a whole chicken). She recommends eating a cup (or if its a child 1/2 cup) bone soup every day. You can use the broth when you cook rice, make jello with it, or freeze in icecube trays to add to other foods.
- Eat cultured food, raw milk.
- Eliminate the junk! Sugar and refined foods reek havoc on your internal system!
- Live Food! Eas those veggies, especially raw. There are great micro-organisms and live enzymes that foods that come straight from the soil contain.
- Go back to old fashion fats: butter, animal fats, bacon, coconut oil, ect. These are better on your internal system.

Random Fact: Did you know the birth control pill disrupts your gut health! So you need to be really mindful in taking your probiotic pills, eating fermented foods and eating healthy.

Now, go and get that gut power in order!