Katrina Ariel – Page 19 – Yoga with Katrina Ariel

Massage, Yoga, and Listening to Your Body

March 12, 2010Katrina Ariel4 Comments

oak-child I didn’t go to boot camp this morning. It’s a little silly, really, considering I wrote this great blog post yesterday about how to get out of bed early, but that wasn’t my problem. The alarm went off, I got up, and then I checked in with my body.

See, I had the most amazing massage yesterday evening. It was truly one of the best massages I’ve ever had, given by a very gifted woman named Serra Wobbema.

And I was more tight than I’ve been in a long time on a massage table, owing to the super fun, intense, body changing, super strengthening work I’ve been doing in my New Orleans boot camp.

The massage was thorough, deep, and very necessary. I should’ve scheduled it for a Friday.

I sat on the edge of my bed this morning at 4:30am, and my back and neck told me not to go work out. They said, “That massage was excellent. We’d like some recovery time, thank you very much.”

7 Tips To Help You Wake Up Early (Another Fitness Boot Camp Story)

March 11, 2010Katrina Ariel11 Comments

(Even if you aren’t getting up for a fitness boot camp, you might find some great ideas for your morning routine in this article.)

The last two mornings it’s been incredibly hard to wake up at 4:35am for boot camp. A rather commanding voice inside my body has tried to persuade me to just get back into bed, but I know I just have to get myself going and I’ll be okay.

Truly, I’m not always thrilled to wake up for my New Orleans boot camp, but I am DEFINITELY always glad I did!

Those first 15 minutes are the hardest, and I’m super grateful I have a morning routine that guides me out the door.

Here are some things I do that might help you get going on the mornings where you really just want to stay in bed:

1. I set out my clothes ahead of time AND I put my alarm clock (cell phone) right on top of the pile. That way when the alarm goes off, I actually am already at my clothes when I turn it off. All I have to do is get dressed, and falling back into bed is a lot less likely.

2. I remind myself why I’m doing this: Because I feel so much stronger and healthier, and I can see the results in the mirror. Because it makes me feel so ALIVE, like I’m really living each day to the fullest, when I begin my day with such an intense workout. Making it meaningful in this way really helps.

The Yoga of Relationships: Seeing Past Judgment into Beauty

March 7, 2010Katrina Ariel10 Comments

relationshipDiagram Let’s face it – sometimes it’s harder to be patient with the people we love. Can yoga help us learn how to stay balanced in relationships? Definitely.

Last week I was sitting at a coffee shop with my boyfriend and a friend of ours. Let’s call this friend Justin. Well, Justin was explaining a theory to me, complete with a doodle diagram of a triangle (which I’ve tried to recreate here).

Basically the theory went like this: In Eastern culture – specifically India – people get married and they grow closer over time. In Western culture – the US, for example – relationships start of with fireworks and then people tend to grow further apart.

Now this is a bit of a generalization, as there are a lot of really successful relationships anywhere in the world. However, Justin was finding himself headed toward the wide end of the triangle with his significant other.

On the other hand, after so many of the ‘growing apart’ type relationships, I’m extremely grateful to be in one that keeps getting better (though not without a lot of personal evolution).

Of course, some truth can be seen in this theory: India has the lowest divorce rate (1.1%), and North America is pretty up there (US is 45.8% and Canada is 37%). There are a lot of factors that influence this, but the numbers do say something, don’t they?

No Worries! The Yoga of Being Spacious

March 4, 2010Katrina Ariel

woman-lake-open-arms45384656 Isn’t it great how nice it feels when you’re not worrying about anything? There’s a lightness, a freedom, a sense of well being.

Just as yoga teaches us to be spacious and connected, you can use this practice to stop worrying about things and reduce stress and anxiety. To literally lighten up!

How does this work?

Well, when you get contracted, such as when you’re afraid or judgmental, there’s a sense of disconnect from the bigger energy of freedom. Spirit never stops supporting you, yet sometimes we just forget to take notice and feel that support.

Generally feelings of contraction come from fretting over things that are not your responsibility or under your control. Like how your loved one acts, or something you did in the past. Focusing on these things brings you out of the Here and Now, and out of your sense of self.

Fitness Boot Camp – Week 2

March 3, 2010Katrina Ariel

Up and down! My dad would never have predicted this. I used to sleep until noon as a teenager, and now I’m happily getting up at 4:30 every morning to go work my butt off at dawn.

It’s my second week of New Orleans Boot Camp, and I still love it. It’s so hard, yet I feel myself get noticeably stronger every day.

I end up a bit tired, sure, and sometimes my yoga practice requires more effort because I’ve already worked so hard first thing in the morning, but how amazing it is to feel this physically satisfied!

Yesterday we worked legs and core. A lot. Jonas had us doing squats and lunges and crunches and every variation of exercises you can think of. One of the things I like the most about this program is that I never know what’s coming – it changes every day.

Read More “Fitness Boot Camp – Week 2”

Anusara Yoga Newsletter

March 3, 2010Katrina Ariel

anusaraGroup Wow! Anusara® yoga is expanding and evolving in such exciting ways! I received this newsletter from John Friend this week, and thought I’d post it here to share. Enjoy!

From Anusara Yoga’s Founder, John Friend:

Dear Anusara Community,

Enthusiastic greetings from my 2010 Melt Your Heart, Blow Your Mind world tour. We now enter the most technologically advanced, crowded, critical and tumultuous decade in history. It is a time to create the right mindset of positive, Shri-radiant, and creative Shakti in order to dance with the global stresses and difficulties ahead in this New Decade. We need to shift our yoga practice into an innovative paradigm. At the beginning of this radically transformative time I want to announce several steps that I am implementing to take Anusara yoga to a higher level of artistic expression.

Shiva-Shakti Tantra

Since its inception in 1997, Anusara yoga has been based on a life-affirming Tantric philosophy. In order to distinguish our school of Tantra among classical Tantra and neo-Tantra schools, we are now designating our philosophy as Shiva-Shakti Tantra.

Anusara Yoga: Weaving The Shamrock Within (by Cat McCarthy)

February 27, 2010Katrina Ariel2 Comments

CatMcCarthy Note from Katrina: This post is from my dear friend and teacher here in New Orleans, Anusara® yoga instructor Cat McCarthy. I love the way she words things. Have fun reading!

The Saints won the Super Bowl…
Mardi Gras has come and gone…
We’ve entered the Chinese Year of the Tiger…

NOW it’s time to get off your asana!

March is the month of activity, refinement, and St. Patrick’s Day… a celebration of luck, shamrocks, and beer in various shades of green. With the slow shift towards sunny and warmer spring weather, I’ve noticed the recent reemergence of clovers along my dog walking routes. The shamrock symbolizes the luck of the Irish.

Ever since I was a kid, I have had the uncanny ability to find 4-leaf to 8-leaf clovers, which is considered serendipitous. One would think that as a member of the McCarthy clan, I have been given a double dose of good fortune in my clover hunting. But is it really luck? If you think about it, one finds a 4-leaf clover by purely seeing the shift in pattern amongst typical 3-lobed leaf plants.

Therefore, what is considered to be fortuitous is actually an ability to spot the breaks in the woven fabric of a quilted clover field. Perhaps there’s luck involved. But I see it as an empowering skill to see changes in patterns and shifts in perspective, so that the full spectrum of life can become favorable. This is the alchemizing foundation of the tantric philosophy of Anusara Yoga.

The Body Is Your Temple: Shine And Play!

February 26, 2010Katrina Ariel

vashistasana It’s interesting how we transform as human beings, and how much yoga has played a part in my own self alchemy. I didn’t have a whole lot of respect for myself or my body when I was a teenager. Yet now I realize my body is a temple for spirit.

I went from smoking cigarettes and eating at McDonalds (I know, I can hardly believe it myself – it seems like another lifetime), to doing yoga and eating vegan. Talk about an about face!

What made me change so much? I suppose part of it was the natural progression of maturity, but I attribute the most significant changes to the fact that I WANTED to become a better person. And yoga showed me the way to a more complete vision of who I wanted to be, and by living this vision, I have a lot more happiness and fun in my life.

The transformation of who I am is no more or less impressive than your own process of becoming who you are.

We are constantly developing ourselves, rediscovering ourselves, and recreating ourselves.

Getting Over The Intimidation Factor (Day 2 of my Fitness Boot Camp Stories)

February 23, 2010Katrina Ariel

pincha Somehow I woke up before my alarm. 4:27 am to be exact, though I could’ve stayed in bed another 13 minutes, I was awake and ready to go to my second day of New Orleans Boot Camp.

It was harder today. We did longer holds in squats, lots of running, crunches, knee lifts, jumping jacks, pushups and a nice extended hold in plank, among other things. There were several times where I had to draw from reserves rooted deep in my will power.

Plus it was wicked cold and windy. I did most of the workout with my toque on (that’s Canadian for winter hat, if y’all didn’t know.)

Yet, as the sky grew lighter the birds started serenading us. The oak trees looked down, maybe laughing a little in their leaves.

Jonas, our fearless leader a.k.a. commander in chief, would every so often remind us to center. Which goes pretty deep for me, like right into the core of my being and way down into the heart of the earth. I’m not sure that’s exactly what he’s getting at, but it sure works in my world. And each time I noticed the bigger picture in this way, it helped me connect with the strength I needed to keep going.

Really, it was great!

My First Day of Fitness Boot Camp: Get Ready, Kamloops

February 22, 2010Katrina Ariel4 Comments

60512144 It’s barely 5am, it’s dark out, foggy, and I’m wondering if I’m a little crazy as I drive through the dark streets of New Orleans to my first day of Fitness Boot Camp. I have another month or so here, and I’m determined to be in the best shape ever when I head back to Whistler in April, then on to Kamloops in May.

The program is called an “Adventure” New Orleans Boot Camp for Women, and I’m thinking that part of the adventure is the whole waking up at 4 something in the morning and actually getting your self there. I’m not alone, though. There’s at least another 50 women here with me.

But it’s fun! Sure, it’s really hard, but I like it!

My boyfriend’s friend, Jonas, runs the boot camp. It’s the most successful boot camp around, and it’s giving me ideas to run something similar in Kamloops – heavily influenced by yoga of course.

Jonas keeps telling us we’re just getting warmed up. Even when the class is more than half way over. It makes me smile.

He’s making us keep moving, giving orders, counting reps. His commanding voice projects through the small area of the park we’re in so that everyone can hear him. He’s making me work really hard. And then he stops by the woman next to me to check on her and his voice is so encouraging and caring. I grin wider.