Yoga Is NOT About The Poses

October 4, 2021 Paula Youmell, RN

Or Maybe Yoga Is ALL About The Poses? Let’s Explore This Thought…

“The success of Yoga does not lie in the ability to perform postures but in how it positively changes the way we live our life and our relationships.” ― T.K.V. Desikachar

Many people come to Yoga looking for a “practice” to work their body into fitness, maybe to get stronger or more flexible. Yoga is their physical fitness practice.

I will confess, I did the same, or so I thought. At 35, I gave up weight lifting* as I was bored and tired of it. I wanted something else to occupy my daily fitness time. A daily Yoga practice seemed like a fine space to explore. I had been practicing certain Yoga techniques for 9 years, see below, but had not yet embarked into the realm of asana, Yoga poses.

I have written about the endless benefits of Yoga. Scroll to the bottom of this page, type in Yoga on the search bar, and explore my many posts on this life changing gem we call Yoga.

A historical fun fact about Yoga is that most of the poses of Yoga are only maybe a couple hundred years old, some only a couple of decades or just years old. British colonization of India was the spark that added poses to the spiritual practice of Yoga. English culture, at the time, was obsessed with fitness and gymnastics as a manner of attaining fitness. As the British sought to make India’s spiritual practices their own, they added to the practice of Yoga. Prior to the addition of gymnastic like poses to Yoga, the only poses of Yoga were basically seated postures for meditation.

Homemade Goat Cheese With Apple Cider Vinegar

June 12, 2021 Paula Youmell, RN

Q: What’s a gal to do when her goat milk drinker is gone on vacation?
A: Make, eat, & enjoy cheese!

Ingredients

1-quart goat's 🐐 milk. I use local, raw, organic goat’s milk, not ultra-pasteurized)
1/4 cup local, organic, apple 🍎 cider vinegar
Unrefined sea 🌊 salt to taste

I usually make 2 quarts, 1/2 gallon, at a time. A 1/2 gallon of milk makes about 8 ounces of soft cheese.

Tree Hugging in Winter for Clearing Out Heavy Energy

January 10, 2021 Paula Youmell, RN

Barefoot on a 50 degree day in December 2020.

Barefoot on the Earth is such a great way to release heavy energy and recalibrate oneself. But what is one to do in the Winter when barefoot activity is just not the completely sane choice to make? Well, at least not any lengthy barefooting outside.

Here are two ideas to allow yourself to let go of, release, and/or wash away the heavy energy that we carry and can weigh us down energetically. Releasing this has healing impacts on the physical body, nervous system relaxing and immune system boosting, as well as the mind and spirit.

1) Energy Bathing

Wherever you are, whenever you need to release heavy energy (think sad, angry, depressed, often thought of as negative or dark energy):

Close your eyes
Think of yourself standing barefoot on the Earth, in your favorite outdoor space of course
Visualize water or colorful healing light raining down on you, any color that makes sense to you
As the color of choice comes over you, washing away heavy energy, visualize the energy flowing into the Earth
Stand and visualize this as long as you need to to feel lighter in Body-Mind-Spirit

Important Vagus Nerve Nonsense Compliments of Western Medicine

September 8, 2020 Paula Youmell, RN

Image from this article: https://www.thecut.com/2019/05/i-now-suspect-the-vagus-nerve-is-the-key-to-well-being.html

I have been teaching about the vagus nerve for years, sharing this post and the post I wrote on how I discovered this vagus nerve healing fun, before vagus nerve - yoga science research was becoming more mainstream.

Recently, I learned some interesting information in regards to the vagus nerve and western medicine. Someone I love had a spell that medical people refer to as a vagal response. Have you ever heard the term "vagaled out."
When the spell was first happening, I checked for the obvious
-stroke check first and when I was clear that was not the issue... I quickly checked heart rate and heart beat strength. Heart rate was way down & thready feeling, person feels like they are going to faint, and loss of color in the face. So I knew we were most likely dealing with a vagus response.

Slow Health Education, Slow Healing

August 30, 2020 Paula Youmell, RN

In 1986, The Slow Food Movement Began In Italy. This Was A Movement To Reclaim Cultural Food, The Art And Healing Benefits Of In-Home Cooking, And The Sustainable Farming Of Whole, Real Food Grown Locally. This Was A Grassroots Effort, That Is Now Globally Strong, To Reclaim Food From The Corporate Strangle Hold.

It is time to put this same grassroots action into our health care system.
Health care in this country, right now, is really just about disease management: how can the medical system suppress your ill health symptoms just enough to keep you functioning and somewhat happy.
Our current health care is not about actually restoring true vibrant health OR about true prevention of illness.
True prevention would teach you proper healthy care of the body, the real way to nourish the body with food, and actually prevent you from succumbing to degenerative lifestyle diseases.

Clearing the Energy Body

May 24, 2020 Paula Youmell, RN

The Energy Body is part of all Energy Medicine healing traditions. Our Life Force or Chi (Life Force has many names in different cultures and traditions) flows through the Energy Body on channels called meridians or nadis. Again, each tradition has their own name for these energy carrying channels of your body and for the Energy Body itself.

Energy needs to flow freely through these channels. If your energy is blocked from free flow, stagnation occurs. This is much like the flow of water, if water flow is blocked, stagnation occurs. *Stagnant energy contributes to ill health.

These channels of energy have energy centers, chakras, on them. Your life force energy circles around on these channels and is then redistributed. Think of this like your breaker box in your home. The electrical wires in your home, like your meridians, carry energy. The breaker box has center points, chakras, that distribute the energy into these home wires.

*If energy, the electricity, in your home was stagnant there would be problems using electrical outlets and appliances in the rooms whose electrical supplies were not coming through. This is what happens to your body; when the energy is stagnant and not flowing freely, the organs supplied with energy on that meridian will receive low levels of life force energy.

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