Monday Mantra: Playful

The following piece was written by Brianna Goodman, copy and features editor for MindBodyBrew. Brianna teaches yoga with The Perri Institute for Mind and Body in New York City. She currently attends Fordham University, where she is pursuing a degree in English and Creative Writing, with a minor in Communications.

“It is requisite for the relaxation of the mind that we make use, from time to time, of playful deeds and jokes.” -Thomas Aquinas

School's out for the summer, and the city's playgrounds are bustling with children celebrating their freedom. One doesn't have to walk far to hear the sounds of children laughing, singing, and calling excitedly to one another. Mimicking a child's boundless energy might seem tiresome to an over-worked, over-scheduled adult--but are there moments throughout our day when we too can step back from our work, call a friend, grab a game, and relish some time of laughter and play?

Can we also find ways to be playful in our yoga practice? Moments when our practice can become a little less than serious? When we catch ourselves furrowing our eyebrows in a high lunge, or holding our breath in a tricky arm balance, can we take a deep breath, laugh quietly to ourselves, and find a greater sense of ease in this instance of play?

What playful summer activities do you incorporate into your week? How do you find moments of laughter in your yoga practice?

-Brianna Goodman

Photo by BMiz

The Joy of Destruction: Lessons Learned From My Three-Year-Old Nephew

The following piece was written by Maggie Gavin. Maggie has been teaching yoga for The Perri Institute for Mind and Body for five years. She is currently pursuing her MSW at Fordham University, to learn how to support mental health through yoga. Catch her class at Steps on Broadway: Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10 AM and Fridays at 12 PM.

A few weeks ago, I spent some time playing blocks with my nephew. While I tirelessly tried to build interesting and sturdy structures, he tirelessly knocked them over. Every time, I felt a little let down that the structure wasn’t “finished” before he knocked it over. But for him, the fun didn’t come from building, but from flinging the blocks up in the air and across the carpet (thankfully, they were soft, meant for toddler fun). Finally, I convinced him to let me stack 26 blocks (just like Daddy and he did before). Finished, they were taller than him. When I gave him the “go” to knock them down, he just stood still for a moment, a look of pure joy spreading over his entire being.

My sister-in-law commented that seeking the finished product is an adult mindset. Often in yoga and meditation, we talk about the idea of impermanence. We have to re-teach our adult students and ourselves something a child understands instinctively. How many times have we almost gotten to a place that feels complete, only to have the pieces get tossed up into the air? How do we react when that happens?

Intellectually, we know things change constantly. As children, we create situations that require rebuilding. We learn the meaning of tossing the pieces into the air and enjoy seeing where they fall. As the stakes of our lives increase, it becomes harder to see the pieces of our hard work fall apart. Can we find a way to approach the changes in our lives with the same childlike joy and curiosity? Can we pick the blocks up and start again, experimenting with a new structure? As challenging as the moment of destruction might be, each time we rebuild, we learn something new about how to fit the pieces together.

-Maggie Gavin

Glo Bars

The following post was written by Liz Montgomery, a dancer/choreographer, and a teacher for The Perri Institute for Mind and Body. She currently co-teaches the Grow Your Practice seasonal series with TaraMarie Perri, and is involved with various aspects of the institute's growth and development. As evidenced by her constant recipe sharing, Liz loves to feed people.

Before I discovered this fantastic recipe, I was always diving into coffee shops and street corner markets for a snack between teaching engagements. I was consistently disappointed, though, by the huge sugar and carbohydrate loads these on-the-go snacks delivered. Then I discovered that I could make granola bars at home, and everything changed. I make a batch of these every weekend, varying them slightly so I don’t get bored. It is worth investing in some of the ingredients that you may not have on hand—who knows, you might even be inspired to seek out other recipes that make use of them!

Glo Bars

Adapted from Angela Liddon’s Oh She Glows Cookbook

Base Recipe Ingredients:

1 ½ cups rolled oats

1 ¼ cups rice crisp cereal

¼ cup hemp seeds

¼ cup sunflower seeds

¼ cup unsweetened shredded coconut

2 Tbs sesame seeds

2 Tbs chia seeds

½ tsp ground cinnamon

½ cup + 1 Tbs brown rice syrup

¼ cup almond butter

¼ teaspoon salt (only if your almond butter is salt free)

1 tsp vanilla extract

parchment paper

tin foil or small waxed paper storage bags

Optional Add-Ins (use your judgment in determining what goes well together):

¼ cup dried cranberries OR chocolate chips

¼ cup pepitas OR chopped pecans

¼ cup candied ginger

2 Tbs flaxseed meal

½ tsp ground cardamom

Method:

1. Line a 9-inch square or rectangular pan with a piece of parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl, combine oats, rice crisp cereal, hemp seeds, sunflower seeds, coconut, sesame seeds, chia, cinnamon, and salt (if using). Mix.
3. In a small saucepan, stir together brown rice syrup and peanut butter until melted and combined. Cook over medium high heat until the liquids start to gently bubble. Remove from the heat and add the vanilla extract.
4. Pour the liquids over the oats. Use a spatula to scrape every bit out of the pan. Stir with a large spoon until the dry ingredients are completely coated with the wet. If using any add-ins, allow the mixture to cool slightly before folding them in.
5. Transfer the mixture to the prepared pan, once again scraping the bowl with the spatula. Spread out in an even layer. Lightly wet your hands and press out to the edges of the pan, evening out and compacting the surface.
6. Place the pan in the freezer for 10 minutes.
7. Using the edges of the parchment paper like handles, lift it out of the pan and onto a cutting board. With a pizza roller or serrated knife, slice in half once horizontally and then several times vertically (I’ll let you judge how big you want your granola bars to be).
8. Wrap the bars individually in foil squares or waxed paper sandwich bags and store in the fridge for up to two weeks. Grab a bar as you head out the door and enjoy an energizing snack!

-Liz Montgomery

Study Sessions: Marissa Wiley

Mindbodybrew is ultimately about providing a space for written reflection at every step along the yoga path. We hope that by sharing assignments from our Teacher Trainees, we can expand their deep investigation into community-wide dialogue. The following is a piece written by one of our newest, current trainees, Marissa Wiley, regarding one of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras.

Yoga Sutras 1.8: Misconception is mistaken knowledge, based upon a misperception of the form of the object.

In the Yoga sutras, Patanjali states that yoga is the stilling of the fluctuations of the consciousness, and that there are five fluctuations--knowledge, misconception, conceptualization, sleep and memory. These fluctuations of the mind bring you out of the present and therefore take you away from the moment. Thus, making your life less enjoyable.

“Get a little messy.” This was the main piece of feedback that I took away from yoga teacher training this weekend. It was a little hard to digest at first.

Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve always been eager to please. I am a people pleaser and I will admit it right now. I don’t like it when things are bumpy and awkward. I like to have things planned, organized, and figured out. I like to be in control. When I started this yoga teacher training, I was happy to find a lot of structure in the planning of a yoga class. However, I may love structure a little too much. I like to believe that I’m a fairly creative person, but I quickly became stuck in some habitual sequencing and cueing. I was mindlessly repeating cues and perfecting this sequence that I was growing to memorize.

Get a little messy. Why didn’t I want to be messy? Because it was awkward and embarrassing? Maybe. I think more so it was because I was afraid, afraid of showing how nervous I was, afraid of not being a good yoga teacher, afraid of falling on my face in front of my peers. I’ve come to terms with the fact that these fears have absolutely nothing to do with my peers and their judgment of me. It has everything to do with my misconception and me. My peers and teachers weren’t and aren’t going to point and laugh at me when I fall on my face, all they’ll do is pick me back up and dust me off. It’s come to a point in my training that I’ve realized that I can’t be so stuck in my ways. I need to get a little messy, to try new things and see what works and doesn’t work, to not be so serious.

This too can apply on the mat. How many times have you been stuck in your yoga “routine” that as time goes on you feel as if you aren’t growing in your practice anymore? How many times have you opted out of finding your edge in a posture because you think that someone in the room will judge you for trying? Let’s let it go and remind ourselves why we practice. We practice for ourselves and for our own personal growth. So why are we getting in our own way?

This can apply to all aspects of life really. How many times do you change your intent or actions based on what you think someone else will say, think, feel, or do? Probably a lot, maybe even a lot more than you think you do. Do you ever not say something or not do something because you’re afraid you’ll be judged? Or maybe you mask a part of yourself that you feel shouldn’t be shown. Have you ever realized that a good portion of the time it’s all in your head? And it’s taking you away from the present. It’s making your life less enjoyable. If you’re a little controlling like me, and maybe worry a little too much about what others think of you, just let it go and go for it.

So get a little playful. Be a kid again. Fall on your face and get up laughing. Be curious and passionate. Have fun. Enjoy the little things and just be present. Don’t worry so much about what others are thinking and just do you. Get a little messy.

-Marissa Wiley

Practice Doesn't Make Perfect

The following piece was written by Traci Klein, Assistant Professor of Dance at Texas A&M International University. Traci is a certified yoga instructor with The Perri Institute for Mind and Body, and will begin teaching adult community yoga classes later this month in Laredo, Texas.

When I was growing up, I was always very good at sports--physical activity came very easily to me. It irked my friends when we would go and try something new, because I would get it right on the first try. I never boasted about it; I just put my mind to whatever the task was, and I tried my darndest to do it correctly. It just so happens that I succeeded every time I tried! With that being said, I am writing this bit because it actually gives me great pleasure to say that in my adult life, I have finally found something that I am no good at no matter how hard I try…the wondrous game of golf!

Now, I say golf, but what I really mean is hitting balls at the driving range. I wouldn’t dare step onto an actual course unless I had taken some lessons and really understood the game. I actually really like to golf, even though more times than not my swings either miss the ball, or completely tear up the green. Still, I genuinely like it! I like it so much that when I find other people who do it regularly, I ask them to take me with them the next time they go. I have tried golfing in four different states now--New York, Florida, Texas, Arizona--and I am still not very good at it. But I don’t care! Do I like it because of the challenge? Maybe.

I think what I really like about golf, though, is the ability to integrate elements of my yoga practice into my practice at the range. At the driving range, every player has their own little slot where they stand and practice. Everyone is silent. Even if you go with your buddies, you don’t talk to each other unless you absolutely have to--and even then it is a whisper. You just zone in on the ball. One thing that I like to do is visualize the form of my swing before I do it--just like an Olympian diver who is trained to see the dive before they even step onto the board. I have also trained myself to use my breath: inhale on the upswing, exhale on the down. On the occasion that the ball actually goes somewhere, I like to think that it was the deep exhale that got it there--just like in Paschimottanasana (aka seated forward bend), when you breathe deeper into the posture and suddenly find your forehead resting on your legs. Just like in yoga, alignment in golf is extremely important. With one type of club you have to line your foot up with the ball, and with another type of club you have the ball right in between your feet. Left arm is straight, right arm is bent, knees are soft and pointing right over your big toes. Line up all of the different elements and you just might hit the darn thing!

I think it’s important to note that I haven’t accepted that I am not good at golf. Instead, I believe that I am just not good at golf right now. If every time I had swung and missed the ball I had felt defeated, or if I had allowed that internal voice to tell me, “you are no good at this…give it up…you are never going to get it,” then I would have stopped going to the driving range a long time ago. One thing that yoga has taught me, though, is to overcome internal obstacles--those devilish voices in our heads that hold us back from physically doing our best. I see it in my students all of the time, and for some of them it freezes them up completely. Their bodies get rigid and they can’t even speak. I want to believe that we can get past these obstacles if we stop apologizing when we make mistakes, and instead just continue to push forward. By doing so, we may find more pleasure in the things that present us with the biggest challenges.

Note: When sending this piece to the blog editor, I was in the process of attaching a letter explaining how I am no good at writing, and how I'd like guidance on how to make it better…and then I stopped when I realized how ironic that was given the concept I had just written about. Stop the silly voices in your head and just do it already!!

-Traci Klein

Photography by Traci Klein