Discover Ways to Health and Happiness!!!

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There might not be anything new in the information or news on basics of staying healthy, but maybe there will be new thinking about the “how” to implement health in your life this New Year.

Recess or Play – Getting the exercise you want

Find an activity that you are passionate about…walking, swimming, hiking, yoga, SUP, or whatever.  We have so many options here on St. John or wherever you may live.   If you don’t have a passion, experiment, try a little of it all and see what sticks.

Maybe set a goal…if you are thinking about running, maybe it is too late for 2014’s 8 Tuff Miles, but you can start by getting involved this year with the event and plan to run or walk in it next year for 2015.  For 2014, we have the Beach to Beach swim over Memorial Day Weekend and the new SUP Competition (Stand Up Paddleboard) event with the Friends of the VI National Park.  You can even join the Friends to help as a volunteer. Through hands-on work, you’ll learn new skills, share your knowledge with others, gain a better understanding and appreciation for the Park and our community, and have fun.  You may fall in love with hiking.

Buddy up! Find a friend to join you on your journey for better health.  Studies show if you have a buddy, you will be more likely to keep the commitment to play.

Weight – Getting to comfortable

Instead of looking for a number on the scale, think about getting to a place where you feel comfortable in your skin and clothes.  Maintaining a weight where you feel freedom of movement, think moving is easy and walking is easy.  In this era of replacement, whether it be knee, hip or ankle, the additional weight on these significant joints can make a serious impact on their function and on your movement.

From a Yoga Journal article, a 2013 review of 17 clinical trials concluded that a regular yoga practice which includes asanas (poses), pranayama (breathing) and Savasana (deep relaxation) practiced for 60 minutes, three times a week, is an effective tool for maintaining a healthy weight.  Also, yoga helps with all these joint concerns too.

Here we go, you have already heard it…eating…you know it.

  • More veggies, less meat
  • More fresh and organic produce, less frozen, canned and processed foods
  • Less salt
  • Less alcohol…only one or two drinks a day for good health

So on our island, how to find good healthy options.

  • Josephine’s Organic Produce in Coral Bay.
  • Starfish and St. John Market both have organic options
  • Pickles in Paradise – almost everything on the menu plus their special nights including Vegetarian Dinners on Thursdays and Locally Sourced food on Saturdays.
  • Most restaurants have healthy options… so think salads (with dressing on the side) and baked fish…narrow your selection down so you are not tempted with the high fat selections.

Also have one or two large glasses of water before you eat.  Keep hydrated all day long.

If you are looking for something called a diet…think The Mediterranean diet.  This diet is a modern nutritional recommendation inspired by the traditional dietary patterns of Greece, Spain and Southern Italy. The principal aspects of this diet include proportionally high consumption of olive oil, legumes, unrefined cereals, fruits, and vegetables, moderate to high consumption of fish, moderate consumption of dairy products (mostly as cheese and yogurt), moderate wine consumption, and low consumption of meat and meat products. You can find details on the internet to help with this option.

Sleep – Getting the rest you need

Making sure you get at least seven or more hours of sleep every night.  Turn off the TV or the computer, and pick up a book or magazine instead.  Move away from the light…of the super stimulations of TVs and computers.

Use pranayama (breath control) to relax before sleep.  Many pranayamas cool down the nervous system making the transition into sleep easier.  One easy pranayama to remember is to inhale to a count of 5, double the number to 10, and exhale to the new number of 10.  You can pick any number for your inhale, just double it for your exhale.

Nap in the afternoon…take a 20 to 30 minute siesta in the afternoon.  Any longer, and it can impact your night sleep.  But at 20 – 30 minutes, the nap can re-energize you for the rest of the day.

HAPPY NEW YEAR…HAPPY NEW YOU!!!

New Yoga Classes in St. John

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Our yoga experience on our small and beautiful island continues to grow with the addition of three new yoga classes.

  • At Concordia, we now have Yin Yang Yoga on Sunday mornings at 7:30 with Heather .
  • At the Recreation Center in Cruz Bay, we have Power Yoga on Saturday mornings at 9:00 with Lindsey.
  • At Mongoose Junction in Cruz Bay, we have Yoga Exploration on Monday evenings at 5:30 – 7:00PM with Patricia and Andrew.

So let’s explore these new classes.

Yin Yang Yoga

Yin Yang Yoga is designed to offer the balancing effects of yin (passive) and yang (active) styles of yoga and allow you to reach deeper into your practice.  This class draws upon the more internal, quiet and longer held postures, balanced with the more active, moving and dynamic or heat producing yoga postures to create a holistic body experience.

So what is the Yin?  Yin Yoga is a slow-paced style of yoga with asanas that are held for comparatively long periods of time. It was founded and first taught in the US in the late 1970s by martial arts expert and Taoist yoga teacher Paulie Zink. Yin-style yoga is now being taught across North America and in Europe, due in large part to the teaching of Yin Yoga teachers Paul Grilley and Sarah Powers.

Yin Yoga poses apply moderate stress to the connective tissues—the tendons, fascia, and ligaments—with the aim of increasing circulation in the joints and improving flexibility. The practice of holding yoga poses or asanas for long periods of time has been part of traditional yoga practice, both in the Hatha yoga tradition of India and in the Taoist yoga tradition of the greater China area. Contemporary schools of hatha yoga have also advocated holding some poses for relatively long periods of time including BKS Iyengar.

And now for the Yang? We are more familiar with the Yang.  The typical vinyasa flow bringing us a more active asanas practice.  The Yang increases our flexibility and strength as we move through various asanas at quicker rate. This activity directs energy and flow into the muscles and superficial connective tissues. 

And coming together of the two? From an article by Sarah Powers in 2001, she describes Yin Yang yoga as reaching deeper both mentally and physically into a very integrated and satisfying practice.  The Yin part of the class comes first.  This holding of the asanas before the muscles are warm allows energy and prana to reach the deeper connective tissues of the joints.  Fluids have time to get to the joints and deep tissues allowing them to get “juicer” and stretch appropriately.  Then it is time for the Yang.  Once the muscles as well as the joints have awakened, the Yang brings in the more vigorous movements to build strength and challenge the body.

Power Yoga – Pushing your edges

Power yoga is a general term used in the West to describe a vigorous, fitness-based approach to vinyasa-style yoga and incorporates Ashtanga yoga. The term came into common usage in the mid 1990s, in an attempt to make Ashtanga yoga more accessible to western students. Its emphasis is on strength and flexibility.

For a brief view of the history behind Power Yoga, let’s explore its core: Ashtanga Yinyasa Yoga. Ashtanga is a style of yoga codified and popularized by K. Pattabhi Jois.  Pattabhi Jois began his yoga studies in 1927 at the age of 12, and by 1948 had established an institute for teaching the specific yoga practice known as Ashtanga (“eight-limbed”) Vinyasa Yoga. The term vinyāsa refers to the alignment of movement and breath, a method which turns static asanas into a dynamic flow. The length of one inhale or one exhale dictates the length of time spent transitioning between asanas. Two American yoga teachers are most often credited with the invention of power yoga: Beryl Bender Birch, based in New York, and Bryan Kest, based in Los Angeles. Not coincidentally, both these teachers had studied with Pattabhi Jois. Using the term power yoga differentiated the intense, flowing style of yoga they were teaching from the gentle stretching and meditation that many Americans associated with yoga.

Power Yoga has been argued to be the fundamental style of Hatha yoga that allowed for cultural acceptance of yoga in North America. According to the North American Studio Alliance, 30 million people are practicing yoga in the US. This includes practitioners not just of Power Yoga, but the entire practice of Yoga. Power yoga has been thought of as a physically demanding practice, which can be successful at channeling the hyperactivity of active minds. This system can also be used as a vessel for helping calm ongoing chatter of the mind, reducing stress and teaching extroverted personalities to redirect their attention to their internal experience. Power Yoga will most likely appeal to people who are already quite fit, enjoy exercising, and want a minimal amount of chanting and meditation with their yoga. Prepare to work hard and work up a sweat.

Yoga Exploration

The Yoga Exploration classes offer an organic, internal and exploratory approach to access your core energy, release internal holding patterns, and help you feel balanced, energized and refreshed. Invited by the breath, imagery and guided movement, these gentle-yet powerful classes will focus on helping you create more space, fluidity, and ease of movement. Patricia and Andrew will explore Asana from the inside out, meditation and the breath,

occasionally partner poses, and restorative poses. There is usually a short

Free Form Chapter, where they put on a music playlist to help you pause, listen and practice together what you feel guided to do. Classes start on Monday, January 13th.