2nd Avenue – Page 21 – yoga, writing, cooking, and whatever else catches my fancy

Travel while you’re young

In the last month I’ve noticed a lot of net chatter in favour of travelling while you’re young (most notably this piece from Huffington Post). Or maybe I’ve been more predisposed to notice these kinds of articles as we’re preparing for our own travels – although we just barely count as young!

My husband and I have entertained the idea of living in Europe since about 2004, when we less-than-seriously looked into getting UK visas. After spending time in England, France, and Germany last fall and my husband’s Eastern European adventure with my brother in the spring, we decided we were serious about living in another country.

Outside of a short stint in California, I’ve lived in Canada my whole life. While I love my country and I know living in another country will be challenging, I want to become immersed in a new way of life. I yearn for the empathy that comes with understanding how others live, the depth of cultural appreciation that cannot be gained simply as a tourist, and the insight that will come from recognizing all the ways cultures are alike and distinct.

After spending about a year applying for positions in Europe and getting no nibbles, my husband and I began evaluating options for moving overseas without jobs in place. We discovered this summer that we both qualified for visas under the German/Canadian Youth Mobility Agreement and the French/Canadian Youth Exchange Agreement – although we had to apply by mid-August when my husband turned 36.

The short timeline mobilized us and we applied for German visas a few days before my husband’s 36th birthday. When our visas were granted in just two days we took this as a sign that we were in for smooth sailing. Within a week we had signed the paperwork to list our condo, told our families and close friends, and begun the process of whittling down our possessions. Unfortunately, our hopes for a smooth transition out of our condo were scuttled by building re-piping work (five weeks of construction in our unit!) that meant we took our place off the market.

The construction is coming to a close, our condo is listed again, and now we’re hoping for a quick sale. We have just a few weeks left in Vancouver as our flight from Calgary to Frankfurt is November 4, with our year-long German live/work visas starting the day we arrive.

We decided to fly out of Calgary to get an Air Canada-operated flight (our dog, Sofie, is just the right size to fly in the cabin with Air Canada, but too big for most other airlines) and to spend a few days with my husband’s family. Tickets are booked, Sofie’s started the process to get certified for travel, and we’re counting down the days until our German adventure gets underway!

We picked Germany over France pretty much by flipping a coin. I was in favour of France, my husband was leaning towards Germany, but neither of us were opposed to either. Perhaps it was the beer and pretzels that cemented Germany as the front-runner!

We’re planning to start our German year with a couple months in Berlin and hope to travel to parts of Northern Germany (Hamburg, Hannover & the North Coast), along with Belgium, the Netherlands, and the Czech Republic while we’re Berlin-based. Maybe we’ll even brave Scandinavia in the winter!

We’d like to be further south in the spring and summer to explore into France, Italy, Switzerland, and that area and to allow my husband the chance to do some cycling trips through the Alps. We’re being pretty loose with the planning and being open to wherever the experience takes us.

Ideally, we hope to stay in Europe for at least a couple years, but we know that life (and visas!) could take us in unpredictable directions.

One of the things I’m most looking forward to is moving outside my comfort zone by being exposed to a German way of thinking and shaking up the routines I’ve settled into in Canada. I want to re-learn how to do things I take for granted now (like grocery shopping or taking public transit) and expand my horizons.

We’re looking for adventure and the opportunity to re-invent our day-to-day lives; embracing the idea of traveling when you’re young… and when you’re not so young, too!

Unease in easy pose

Sukasana or easy pose is sometimes decidedly not easy. In fact, it’s name is often a misnomer and holding the pose can be very challenging for anyone who has troublesome ankles, knees, or hips.

Without a block or bolster under my seat, ‘easy pose’ becomes ‘incredibly-hard-and-uncomfortable pose’ for me within a couple minutes. Knee injuries, tight hips, and internal femoral rotation come together to make sitting cross-legged a hard pose to hold when I’m not propped. Which means I’m rarely in sukasana without something tucked under my butt – even if it’s only a folded mat or sweater.

Just about everyone who’s taken a yoga class has done easy pose. It’s often where a practice begins and ends and is the most common position for meditating. If you find sukasana decidedly uneasy, try adding height under your seat – props can make a huge difference!

Easy pose

Why it’s good

Stretches knee and ankle joints – and sometimes the hips as well
Help strengthen the muscles along your spine (erector spinae) and contributes to good posture
Helps calm your mind and manage stress when you hold the pose as part of meditation

How to do it

Sit on your mat or the floor, with your buttocks on the edge of a cushion, block, bolster, or folded blanket
- Sitting on something tilts your pelvis forward and helps your knees come to the floor
- The higher your seat, the easier it is to relax your hips and soften your knees
Bend your knees so they fall to the outside of your body and place one foot in front of the other
- Avoid crossing your ankles, which puts pressure on the joints
- Add padding under your ankles and/or feet if they are sensitive or if the floor is particularly hard
- If your knees aren’t resting comfortably, support them with folded blankets or blocks
Find the centre of your seat by moving back and forth and from side to side
- You should feel evenly balanced – right and left, front and back
Straighten your spine, roll your shoulders back and down, and lift through your collar bones
Rest your hands on your knees or thighs or in your lap; relax your hips and legs
Feel the crown of your head float up towards the ceiling, connecting you with the sky; feel your sitting bones grow heavy, rooting you into the earth
Bring balance to the pose by alternating sides
- If you’re holding easy pose for a few minutes, switch your front leg halfway through
- If you’re coming into easy pose multiple times in a practice, change which leg is in front each time

To come out of easy pose:

Uncross your legs (using your arms and hands to help if you’d like) and slowly unbend your knees
Gently bring movement back into your legs
- Straighten and bounce your legs
- Rest the soles of your feet on the mat/floor, bend your knees, and drop them side-to-side in windshield wipers
Carry on with the rest of your practice or the rest of your day

Easy pose externally rotates the hips, so you may wish to counter it with an internally rotated pose like deer (see how to do deer pose on YinYoga.com), although many people feel no need for any counter pose at all.

Breathe in beautiful yoga

Last night I had the pleasure of doing one of my favourite poses, savasana, under the guidance of one of my favourite teachers, Brenda at Beautiful Yoga. It was extra meaningful as our lives are heading in very different geographical directions and the class was likely our last together.

Brenda was my very first yin yoga teacher and one of my biggest supporters when I was considering yoga teacher training. She instilled in me a love of slow movement and further developed my appreciation for guided relaxation and a really good rest. She also has an amazing voice – perfect for yoga nidra and magical for singing. Brenda’s voice often resonates in my head for days after a class and I was delighted that we chanted as part of meditation last night.

My singing voice is nowhere near as magical as Brenda’s, but my speaking voice is also pretty perfect for yoga nidra! Happily, I’m doing a lovely long yoga nidra (guided relaxation) as part of the class I’m teaching tonight at Bound Lotus Meditation & Yoga Centre.

When Brenda re-awakens students from savasana (corpse pose), she often instructs us to breathe in coolness, calmness, tranquillity, and serenity. Those words frequently echo in my mind and I’ll draw on them tonight to help students leave the studio feeling blissfully relaxed.

Hope you’re able to join me at 6:30pm tonight for yin yoga with extra-long relaxation! Or at the very least, that you’re able to breathe in coolness, calmness, tranquillity, and serenity wherever you find yourself this evening.

Laugh at adversity

There will always be impediments and obstacles. Any complicated process (like real estate transactions or renos!) will inevitably involve challenges. I’m reassuring myself that these are simply stumbling blocks, not immovable forces.

I contend that not only can you laugh at adversity, but it is essential to do so if you are to deal with setbacks without defeat.

~Allen Klein, American businessman and music executive

The man behind this quote has an interesting story involving lots of legal battles in the music industry. I may not want to channel his ethics (or lack thereof), but certainly the idea of laughing at adversity is a good one – ha ha!

Nosing forward

A few days ago I trepidatiously did my first downward-facing dog in over a month. The last day I did downward-facing dog or any sustained forward-folding posture, I had an extreme nose bleed. The forward-folding may have contributed to a scab from the septoplasty surgery I had three weeks prior coming off, which triggered major bleeding.

On July 29, I had blood streaming from my nose and mouth for hours – more blood than I thought possible. Thankfully, Dr Nabi (the otolaryngologist who performed my septoplasty) met me at the hospital and we were able to stop the bleeding before I required a transfusion.

Find rest

Whatever your plans are for the last long weekend of summer, I hope they involve a bit of relaxation. There’s often a lot of pressure to pack the Labour Day weekend full of summertime activities before the whirlwind of fall, but what about enjoying doing nothing?

Find rest in the forest, in a park, at a beach, on your living room floor, maybe even on a boat. Take half an hour and just lie down.

It’s not lazy or self-indulgent, it’s a recharge.

If you’re looking for an easy way to find rest this weekend, join me at Bound Lotus Meditation & Yoga Centre for a delightful end-of-the-month yin yoga class tonight. Class starts at 6:30pm and we’ll slide into savasana (corpse pose) no later than 7:10pm.

During savasana, my voice leading you through relaxing every part of your body will help you find a deep, conscious state of relaxation. This ancient technique of yoga nidra (guided relaxation) encourages a sleep-like state that reduces tension, alleviates anxiety, and fosters an overall sense of well-being.

Find rest over this last long weekend of the summer. Fall tends to be active and rushed; take some replenishing downtime that allows you to start your September feeling balanced and calm.

Nature loves courage

Nature loves courage.

You make the commitment and nature will respond to that commitment by removing impossible obstacles. Dream the impossible dream and the world will not grind you under, it will lift you up.

This is the trick. This is what all these teachers and philosophers who really counted, who really touched the alchemical gold, this is what they understood. This is the shamanic dance in the waterfall. This is how magic is done. By hurling yourself into the abyss and discovering it is a feather bed.

~Terence McKenna
American author, lecturer, and psychonaut