Next Step Adventure :: mindful, creative, fun approaches to help people and organizations reach the next level
Martha and Ashley teach yoga at local studios, and for other organizations like Polk County Conservation, Drake University and LICA. Shelly is a regular teacher at summer programs in Urbandale. We’re pros at making the many benefits of yoga accessible to every body through:
The use of chairs and props
Controlled breath and pranayama
Adapting yoga practice and myth to the needs of diverse groups
Yoga for mental health
…a sense of belonging is one of the most essential needs of humans. We also need to feel power over our lives, belief in our own abilities and a sense of generosity. Seems to me Covid has challenged our ability to satisfy all of those needs.
I like helping with yoga. It helps me feel calm. I will use yoga to help me calm down my mind before basketball and dance recitals. When will you use yoga?
No matter where you are today, walk outside. Breathe the fresh air. Touch the earth. Pick up a handful of soil. See how you feel.
“I have 25 kiddos. I just feel like, as a teacher, I have to help all of them – including that one child whose struggles with focus or emotional regulation result in classroom behaviors. When they are stressed, their behaviors can escalate quickly.”
Time and again I’ve started a New Year’s Resolution and by the end of January my enthusiasm to keep the resolution has all but fizzled out. Maybe some of you have experienced this tiresome cycle.
This year I’m trying to combat the cycle by hitching my resolution to my yoga practice. Since I do yoga as often as I can, I figured this would help me in carry out my new priority.
First, you need to know a few things about me. I like to accomplish tasks quickly and efficiently at the expense of neatness and 
tidiness. Picture a closet gushing with scarves, slippers and hats, or finding a lotion bottle with the cleaning supplies. This of course is not the way to a clean and tidy house, and in the end will probably cost me more time in the hunt than it would to put the item away properly.
Like the items exploding from the closet, this is a part of my mind I don’t want to face. Taking time to intentionally put things where they need to go (clothes in the dresser not on the floor!) means a complete rewiring of my brain. This, my friends, is where yoga comes into the picture.
One essential part of yoga is connecting the mind with every movement. When I am practicing I make thoughtful and intentional choices in each position that suit my body. Taking the extra moment to connect mind to body is what makes my yoga practice so beneficial.
One day I realized this intentional mind set is what I was lacking at home. Since then I’ve started taking some extra time to connect my intentions of a clean house to my actions. This means I’ve started to place things in their designated spots instead of leaving them in random places. I still have moments of relapse but every time I go back to yoga I reconnect with my priority.
It has not been easy but I have seen growth in myself and have gained the extra time spent cleaning when I go to find something and it’s in the right spot!
So I’m driving home from yoga class listening to an interview of Sue Grafton, the great detective writer and thinking I need to just write a little bit every day this year. Well, is it too late since yesterday was the first?
And then I realize I’m hungry, and I see that the garbage can is tipped over blocking the driveway, and it’s the first day it’s gotten out of the negatives since last year. So maybe I should actually take a walk. And check to see if the little free library needs to be restocked.
And also the Energy Audit guy is coming in ten minutes. And I have at least two text messages that came when I was in Downward Facing Dog, and no telling how many phone calls. Oh, and I still have a yoga class to plan. But here I am, at my computer, putting my intention of writing each day out into the world.
And feeling excited about it!
Resolutions. Intentions. Whatever. If we take them too seriously, they can set us up for failure, discouragement and self flagellation. But no change comes without action. No goals are met unless we do the work. And chunking down the work is key to progress. At least for me.
So, here’s my first chunk of writing for 2018. Inspired by Sue Grafton who was working on W in her series of 26 detective novels, one for each letter of the alphabet. Talking about how she’d keep writing about Kinsey Milhone after Z is for Zero. But that didn’t happen. She left a missing piece, and an inspiration for me.
So many reasons to be excited about yoga. I teach it. I practice it. I study it. There truly is always more!
Excited–check out this article about some preliminary research on how yoga may help with recovery from stroke and lessening the impact of diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
I teach at Shakti Yoga Shop and we have some very cool opportunities coming up this fall. Desiree Rumbaugh is bringing her Wisdom Warriors training here in September. She developed it a few years ago when she turned 50 (you’d never guess it). Then, a couple weeks later, Becky and I will do our Intro to Yoga class.
I’m all set to head to the Finger Lakes region of New York for my second visit to Dr. Douglas Brooks’ summer camp. I’ve rented a “cottage in the woods” to retreat to all by myself after days of listening to stories of Rajanaka, the very tiny branch of Hinduism that we study with Douglas.
Looking forward to curry dinner at Douglas’ place and at least a short conversation with his talented and beautiful wife Susan. Four of us are going this year from Des Moines. We will be a force to be reckoned with.
This time studying with Douglas and friends will provide material for my paintings that are also reflections on my trips to India, the stories and philosophy we explore.
Puja at Rajanaka summer camp
Practice–I’ve been lazy about having a home practice. I go to class or teach nearly every day, so why do I need to get on my mat at home? Well, yesterday I made a commitment to do just that.
I took just a few minutes after a walk to stretch my hamstrings and quads and root the head of my femurs deep into the hip sockets. Then I stood on my head for a few minutes. Felt great. But I’ll need to do it again today to really start making it a habit.
The study of yoga–there’s always more. Come along on the adventure!
Whether online, at work or at home, I measure the quality of my life by the health of my relationships. How am I feeling about the people and organizations I connect with? What am I accomplishing through those relationships? Are they helping me grow? Or distracting me from my hopes and dreams?
Cyndy Erickson, Shelly Johnson and I presented a workshop recently at the Iowa Non-Profit Summit on strengthening relationships to achieve a more productive workplace. Key components of strong friendships and partnerships are communication, focus, continuing assessment and feedback. Not a simple task, but the rewards are great.
Jose, one of my Earth Heroes summed it up, “Miss Martha, when I’m special I work really hard.” In very few words Jose eloquently stated the key to education. It’s about the relationships. Between students and teachers and among students.
This fascinating article in The New Yorker says this about the creative process, “Like every element of ‘Hopscotch,’ we figured it out through conversation, testing, discovery, iterating.” Opera director Yuval Sharon has created an amazing experience in limousines and on rooftops in Los Angeles. The piece made me want to fly to LA to see it and I’m not even an opera fan!
I’m sure their conversations included honest feedback, one of the most difficult components of communication. How often do we avoid mirroring someone’s unproductive behavior to them? Or withhold the positive feedback that provides motivation and incentive for futher effort?
What are the costs of avoiding those conversations? Cyndy Erickson facilitates Fierce Conversations including delegation, confrontational and coaching conversations. It can be done as a one- or two-day workshop and could be combined with Real Colors or other professional development.
Real Colors is a personality assessment based on Myers-Briggs. We use it to help groups identify strengths and preferences. Then we build on it to develop better communication and stronger teams.
What is amazing to me, but perhaps shouldn’t be, is the way the group at the Summit received a brief centering/mindfulness exercise. More and more I’m using techniques I’ve learned from yoga to bring groups into the present as we begin programs. Giving permission and instruction for stillness and breathing seems to strike a chord among many.
For strong relationships, the ability to pause and breathe deeply is essential to overlooking minor annoyances, for gathering courage for the difficult conversation, for rewarding jobs well done.
While I was in Akumal I dreamed I gave birth. Don’t worry; someone whisked the baby off before I could do any damage. But dreams of giving birth are really about transformation and creation.
Vacations are for getting away from routines, exploring places that are a little uncomfortable. This trip especially gave me a chance to question my “way of life,” to reflect on my addiction to “busyness,” my hesitation to have down time.
So I came home and changed my calendar.
Changing your calendar doesn’t seem like a very big deal. But you haven’t seen my calendar! Seriously, every journey starts with a single step. I changed my calendar to give myself space for reflection, mindfulness and a new routine.
Over the last year, I’ve begun teaching art classes for the Des Moines Art Center Outreach Program, and I’ve become a certified yoga teacher. Teaching five or six classes a week wrought havoc with my old routine where I usually spent mornings working at my desk or in art class.
Now most of my mornings I’m out and about so when I got home I set aside three afternoons a week for “office time.” Sometimes that will include a power nap, reading, yoga or time in the garden and art work.
The real thing I’m transforming isn’t my calendar. I’m creating space in my life for reflection, planning, playing art, moving my body, making a home and other adventures.
Remember! Having an adventure means you don’t know how things will turn out.
Akumal is a sleepy little resort just about an hour south of Cancun, Mexico. It’s the perfect place to relax, do some yoga, go snorkeling and explore the underground–the cenotes.
I fell in love with Akumal last February. It’s kind of an old hippie village, friendly to those of us who have un piquito Espanol. Or none at all. The restaurants are international and the fish is fresh as can be. After a week, I could totally see returning for more. More sightseeing, more time sunning on the beach and of course more time doing yoga!
As fits the setting, Akumal has a more relaxed and musical approach to yoga than you may be used to. However, it’s founded on strong principles of alignment, and the teachers are very knowledgeable about anatomy, sequencing and philosophy. I got some excellent feedback on the mysteries of my bodily misalignment.
Michael J. Stewart is master teacher at Yoga en Akumal, and during the off season he teaches across Europe, Russia and Morocco. I just happened to get to Akumal when Michael was teaching a workshop. It was a lovely adventure, and we celebrated the closing with a group dinner where I found him to be an engaging spirit as we discussed everything from Hindu philosophy to John Friend.
Michael quotes Patanjali who said ‘to perform the yoga asana “boat posture” simply to get a flatter tummy is indeed, missing the boat.’
GO TO AKUMAL AND CATCH THE BOAT!
