Love Potion, I Mean Love Oil

I visited Pratima Spa in Soho last June.  Was quite a treat as I have been a fan of Dr. Pratima Raichur book Absolute Beauty since 2003.

In honor of the upcoming holiday, I want to tell you about their Love Oil, which I used and love.  Smells and feels just wonderful.   Scent of cinnamon, clove and cardamon as well as rose, lavender and vanilla.   You can use in the bath or as a massage oil.  Her products have no preservatives so use it!

You can buy here.

Ayurvedic Skin Care in the Cold Season

Or Vata season.  Dr. Pratima Raichur is the author of Absolute Beauty, to me the bible of Ayurvedic health.  I discovered her nearly 10 years ago and gave her book to all my friends who came and celebrated my birthday with me in 2003.   And I had the honor of meeting her finally this past June when I was in NYC.   Her clinic in Soho is amazing and I enjoyed some health promoting treatments there.

Here is a short piece on how to care for your skin during the Vata season, which is now, called "Why fall is skin-freak out season?"  And Dr. Raichur says in part because....

The Ayurvedic calendar says October through February is a time when our bodies—and skin—are plagued by imbalances and change, says Dr. Raichur, who has made skin health her specialty.

Here is her clinic Pratima Spa.  And here is her online store Pratima Skin Care (I love so many of the therapeutic oils but this one Healing Neem Oil with Rose, Lavender and Sandalwood is my favorite).

If you're lucky enough to live in NYC you can see her at Pratima Spa, 110 Green St, Suite 101, Soho

Cool Yoga Candlesticks

Uncommon Goods is a great place for gifts. While looking for a birthday present for my aunt, I came across unusual and cute yoga candlesticks at Uncommon Goods. See them here.

An E-Card to Encourage Yoga

A very funny e-card to send to some one you are trying to get to try out a yoga class (preferably at nilambu!).

Check it out here. 

(hmmm, and they've got a Mad Men e-card here.  And an Olympic gymnastics one here)

Okay, I'm done browsing.  Have fun!  

What's In and Safe in Your Skin Care Products?

www.ewg.org/skindeep

The Environmental Working Group's Skin Deep website, which hosts a comprehensive data base to find out what's inside your beauty products.

So What About this Eat, Pray, Love?

A year ago, within the span of about 2 weeks, five friends told me about this book. I was even going to go to a book talk, without having read the book, but a snow stormed ended that plan! Just as well. I wasn't quite ready last January. I read it in August in 24 hours. Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert is her true account of a spiritual pilgrimage over a year. She spent 4 months regaining her health and vitality by living in Italy - surrounded by beauty, learning a beautiful language and eating sensual food. Over the next four months, she explored her spirituality at an ashram in India. Finally, she headed to Bali because she deemed it a place of beauty and spirituality combined. And while in Bali she found love with a Brazilian.

And I had mixed feelings and views about the book. (Okay, besides jealousy). The story obviously engaged me. But I felt it did so because it was a fairy tale. My yoga teacher's response to that was: "You know, fairy tales do come true." And yes, I do believe that - but I felt that too much went too right for her. She wrote a note of intent - a message asking for her husband to sign the divorce papers. And lo and behold, minutes later her lawyer called with the news. She prayed for her nephew who was having trouble sleeping and she called home after and her sister was astounded to report the nephew was better. Liz meditated and felt the kundalini rising. (Kundalini means "coiled energy," and rarely during meditation that energy is released in a feeling that, apparently, moves up the spine. The result is a sense of deep connection with all living beings. For more information, click here.) And in Italy she ate pasta every day and gelato every day, sometimes twice a day, gained 20 pounds and wasn't overweight! See, a fairy tale!

Okay, so what's wrong with that? I agree that books should entertain. Ideally, they do so while they educate. And she did the best description I've ever read of the process of developing a meditation practice - the frustrations, the goal, the process and how to set your intention. And I felt her self-deprecation and voice offered an accessible tone. These types of stories can be so preachy and condescending. She avoids those pitfalls. Reading about her, you cared about her and wanted to find out what happened.

But, I worried that she set up expectations that could create yearning, a sense of deprivation by comparison and/or inspire people to follow her path exactly. Now, in interviews since the popularity of this book took off, Gilbert made clear that her path was her path and that one doesn't need to go to Italy, India and Bali to turn around their lives and find happiness. (She addresses this question specifically on her web site.) For one thing, most people can't. They don't have a book advance to make it possible. They have children who can't be abandoned for a year. I've heard her concede this in subsequent interviews. Also, I was relieved when a friend, Richard, whom she met in India, appeared with her on Oprah - he described his own experience with meditation which was very different. And to me more typical and more real. And he noted that not all people have or need to have, as Liz did, the kundalini rise.

Secondly and more importantly, I felt that the doubts of veracity would undermine the helpful messages embedded. Perhaps readers would say, no way because the story was too good to be true and likewise dismiss many of the very helpful lessons. And her lessons are worthwhile.

Well, in the week before Christmas, NPR finally got the memo that people were interested in this book. I love NPR but sometimes they just miss the ball and seem to be of the view that if something is popular (on Oprah!) that their listeners would not be interested. Talk of the Nation's Neal Conan interviewed Ms. Gilbert. The discussion was a good one - mostly because of the callers' questions. One caller, who said maybe she was a skeptic by nature, observed it was such neat package. Too tidy. "You go from divorce to marriage. You go from looking for God, to finding God. How much is genuine and how much is wanting to sell a good book?" (It's about 23 minutes into the interview).

I thought, yeah - I wanted to know that too and could add to the aspects that made me suspicious. Gilbert admited that she felt an obligation to her reader not to make them go through every moment of "my 4 years of despair with me". (Because readers need to be entertained, engaged?...) She took a 5 year period of her life that was a "disaster zone," and condensed it. The book was the way I wrote myself out of it. "I didn't know how it was going to turn out." She admitred a lot of what happened isn't even in the book.

The book is very good and worth the read. But I think it would have been even better if she had included a few more of the times that her prayers weren't answered quickly so tidily. I acknowledge that she was balancing interests - engaging her reader and being honest with them. I just wish she'd tipped the scale a little bit more toward reality once her journey started. That would have made her example all the more potent and stimulating.

To buy the book, click here. To check out Elizabeth Gilbert's web site, including her thoughts on writing and photos of some of the real people she met on her journey, click here. And the Oprah site has an Eat, Love, Pray section.

On Happiness

Five years ago,on September 11, this month also became forever tinged with sadness. In response to that, I've been reading a book by Matthieu Ricard called Happiness. I'm not far along, but already I'm learning new ideas.

Many yogis are familiar with sukhasana. A cross-legged seated pose, many translate the posture as "easy pose," or sometimes as "pose of happiness." (Some with tight hamstrings find it anything but easy or happy!)

But sukha in Sanskrit means something more beautiful and more encompassing. According to Ricard, sukha is "a way of being that underlies and suffuses all emotional states...A happiness so deep that, as Georges Bernanos wrote, 'nothing can change it, like the vast reserve of calm water beneath a storm.' " Find Out More about Ricard's Happiness

If you wish to read something shorter on happiness, try the provoking article on happiness by another favorite author of mine, Sally Kempton - click here. Perhaps building on that definition of sukha, Kempton tells us how "yoga teaches us that happiness is always available to us, no matter what our circumstances." Find Out More about Ricard's Happiness

Best Meditation Products: Dharma Crafts

Dharma Crafts offers meditation supplies and support. I love this catalog and the web site is terrific too - with all sorts of freebies - a page of "Buddhism Basics."

Right now, they are featuring gifts of "loving kindness" for Valentines Day.

I also recommend subscribing to their newsletter, In the Moment. You can do so by clicking here.

Finally, they have really terrific written pieces on Buddhist teaching, including how to meditate, all of which are helpful.

Guided Yoga Nidra by Local Yoga Teacher

Last month, I discussed yoga nidra. Robin Carnes, whose CD is reviewed below, reminded me of the purpose of doing yoga nidra:

While relaxation is a worthy outcome in and of itself, the true purpose of yoga nidra, as with all forms of yoga, is to help us access the actual experience, not just the concept, of our Oneness with all creation. It helps dissolve our separateness and experience our connectedness.

Well put and captured in both of the guided yoga nidras reviewed below. Robin also brought to my attention a short, helpful piece on yoga nidra from a recent issue of Yoga Journal. To read, click here.

Yoga Nidra by Robin Carnes A short introduction outlines the purpose and practice of yoga nidra. Ms. Carnes teaches at a local DC area studio, Willow Street Yoga Center, in Takoma Park.

In her introduction, she captures the state of being in yoga nidra as a "hovering between sense consciousness and sleep consciousness." Two guided yoga nidras follow.

Her confident voice calms and comforts. As you set your resolve (your sankalpa) for your yoga nidra, she encourages you to conjure an image that captures your intention - something or some way of being you wish to bring to fruition in your life.

Then, as traditional she guides your awareness around your body in several layers - sometimes specific small parts of the body (each finger), other times larger areas (whole leg). She directs you to be aware of the surface of your body (the skin in specific areas), channel your breath, wash colors through your body or conjure images of landscapes (tree, mountain, cloud) or objects (rose, ball, tunnel).

New to me, Ms. Carnes brought an "awareness of sensation" and suggested I feel my body first heavy then light, cold then hot.

The second nidra at 42 minutes is slightly longer the first (27 minutes), but both are excellent and authentic.

Judith Lasater once said to me,

that you don't do restorative yoga, it does you.

Robin Carnes said the same of yoga nidra "you don't do it, it does you." And when yoga nidra is done doing you, you free great! This rewarding CD is $15. To purchase, contact Robin Carnes at rdcarnes@starpower.net or 301-587-1835.

Shiva Rea's Drops of Nectar

This 2 CD set is subtitled, "Yoga Relaxation for Rejuvenation and Healing." Last month I describe yoga nidra and the steps to achieve that yogic state of rest. Only one track on these CDs is a formal yoga nidra, but it's a delicious 19 minutes.

Shiva Rea (her website here) is known for her integration of dance and yoga, but this CD demonstrates her talent for going deeper in another way. Music underscores her voice and the nidra track opens with "a sea of Oms" chanted one over the other while she encourages you to "become one vibration with the sound."

She directs you to imagine your body looking down at yourself, as if outside of yourself, set an intention, sankalpa, and then leads you through a brisk survey of the body. She also brings attention to each of the chakras "brightly flaring" and connects the image of your heart to other living beings to foster a sense of connectedness.

Throughout, simple tones of music, graced with bells that sound like wind chimes, support the experience just as much as the surface underneath your body. Her guidance may be confusing if you've not perused the liner notes; she presumes you know the location of the chakras and familiar with certain terms.

But as excellent as her guided CDs are, her liner notes are more outstanding. She presents additional information concisely and clearly to enhance your practice and even includes helpful photographs.

The rest of the tracks include information on how to do a Moon Salutation, Chandra Namaskar, a cleansing breath exercise, Nadi Shodhana Pranayama, and several guided Corpse Poses, Savasana - one inspired by the moon, another by a Rumi poem and another by a sunset over the sea.

To purchase, click here.

Wisdom of No Escape - Book Review

Wisdom of No Escape and the Path of Loving Kindness by Pema Chodron

Pema Chodron is one of my favorite authors, and this book introduced her to me. It’s about how to sit still – in that still point, as T.S. Elliot termed the place (“At the still point of the turning world,” in Burnt Norton. I strongly encourage you to read the poem, one of my favorites.)

In short chapters, Chodron outlines Buddhist ideas and attitudes, and, as presented here, they are simple, doable, and desirable.

The chapter titles reveal the subjects she discusses:

• No Such Thing as a True Story;
• Taking a Bigger Perspective;
• Not too Tight, Not too Loose;
• Taking Refuge;
• Sticking to One Boat;
• Not Preferring Samsara or Nirvana (Samsara is defined as the “vicious cycle of existence,” and nirvana is defined as the “cessation of ignorance and of conflicting emotions.”)

A reader can dip into any one of these essays and come away enriched.

Beginning Mindfulness - Book Review

Beginning Mindfulness: Learning the Way of Awareness by Andrew Weiss

This book is good introduction to the practice of mindfulness. The author sets forth a 10 week structured course to build a growing awareness and provides guidelines for beginning a mediation practice – both a sitting practice and walking practice.

The text offers suggestions for growing mindfulness in daily life with a series of formal and informal “home play.” A disciple of Thich Nhat Hanh, Weiss’ writing is accessible and down to earth.

Bringing Yoga To Life - Book Review

Bringing Yoga to Life: The Everyday Practice of Enlightened Living by Donna Farhi

I can’t recommend this book enough. Donna Farhi is well versed in yogic literature and deftly draws on her knowledge in chapters such as Sloth, The Seasons of Practice, The Freedom of Discipline, and A Larger Life.

She’s very readable and peppers her writing with both classic and contemporary parables.

She also animates her text with cultural references. For example, she posits that the proper attitude towards the challenges of life is somewhere between the deadly earnestness epitomized by Mission Impossible and the silly, madcap approach of Get Smart.

Only very rarely does she veer into strange suggestions – such as when she recommends spontaneous impulsive movement while others look on and extrapolate the emotion emoted and interpret the meaning in a neutral manner. (My aversion to such instructions is animated by bad modern dance classes I endured in the 70s).

But luckily, these moments are few and far between in her otherwise intimate, courageous and intelligent text. My favorite chapter is the Riptide of Strong Emotions which I reread when I feel a swell.

Find Out More to Purchase

A Women's Book of Yoga - Book Review

Women’s Book of Yoga by Linda Sparrowe and Patricia Walden

This resource is newly available and invaluable. Sparrowe is a former editor of Yoga Journal and Walden is a long time Iyengar teacher; their experience and knowledge, generously conveyed, is this book’s best feature. There are others.

The picture quality clearly shows the poses, with attendant props. Even new yoginis can recreate the set ups and glean benefits. I also like how the chapters are organized.

Various body challenges are loosely categorized into different periods in a woman’s life. Chapters address subjects such as eating disorders, back pain, immune support and headaches. Each opens with a general discussion of basic biological and anatomically background to inform your personal practice and then a series of poses are proposed. A good index can direct you to a specific pose.

Tips offered very adequately address common problems. And one of the best restorative yoga gurus in the US Judith Hanson Lasater penned the foreword. (Judith Lasater trained me to teach restorative yoga)

Find Out More to Purchase

Yoga Journal Review of May/June 2004 Issue

This issue is chock full of good infrmation and very worth 5 bucks.

Of note:

1. Bringing Balance Home by Cyndi Lee (page 85). Cyndi Lee is the founder of OM Yoga Center, where I did 200 hours of teacher training study. Her prescription is, as always, excellent.
2. Positive I.D. by Nora Isaacs (page 106) Improved body image is an important benefit of yoga not often recognized. Makes mention of Om Yoga Center too.
3. Living Yoga by Judith Hanson Lasater (page 143). Ms. Lasater is a wise woman and trained me to teach restorative yoga.
4. Heroes, Saints and Sages by Colleen Morton Busch (page 120). Read for fun and learn the myths and legends behind the names.
5. For Beginners: Bridge Pose by Claudia Cummins (page 56). A great all around pose with excellent pictures and instructions.

Roger Cole and Gary Kraftsow are both very knowledgeable and reputable. Their contributions to this issue are well worth your time as well.