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Breath Body Works
April 2015
Wellness Wisdom
April Calendar
1st
Tuesday
February 23
- April 12
2nd, 4th, 5th
Tuesday
3rd
Tuesday
Meditation
Yoga Nidra
Molly Dahl
Back Care Yoga
8-week class
Marta Olson
Meditation
Time Out Tuesdays
Molly Dahl
Meditation
Just Savasana
Molly Dahl
April 16
Business Showcase
DC Chamber of Commerce
Stop by our booth
April 16
Kundalini Yoga
Beginners Donation Class
Onkar
April 17-19
Kundalini Yoga
& Meditation
Onkar
Join
Us!
“Join us for what?” you may be asking.
How about “Time Out Tuesdays” which approaches
meditation in three different ways. All classes are guaranteed
to help you deal with your busy life in a calmer fashion. We
are pleased that Onkar is offering a three-day class as well as a
donation class for beginners.
Be sure to visit our booth at the Douglas County Chamber of
Commerce Business Showcase.
Thank you for joining us in your search for better health.
Your doing so affects those around you
and so it goes…
A Four-Day
Kundalini Yoga & Meditation
Event
April 16 & 17-19
Only available at BBW
Pg. 6
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Breath Body Works
April 2015
Postural Alignment Therapy, A Case Study, Part 2
Marta Olson, LMT, PAS2, RYT
I introduced Sallie in last month’s
newsletter. She is an excellent
example of what can be accomplished
with postural alignment therapy.
Since July of 2014, I have met with
Sallie for 15 sessions spaced
approximately 2 weeks apart. With
each new session, Sallie’s posture and
her functionality improved and I was
able to give her increasingly more
challenging e-cise menus.
There has been a serious dedication
on Sallie’s part to improve her posture
and her ability to walk, sit and stand.
All of these areas have greatly
improved because of Sallie’s
dedication to her own health and
wellbeing.
memory and it takes time to instill.
But as you can see, with hard work
and determination, change can and
does happen.
become more functional and find her
daily life more easeful and enjoyable.
I am very proud of the results Sallie
When I walked behind her to lead her to the evaluation room, I
was not able to see the back of her head.
Marta Olson, “Wellness Wisdom” March 2015
The photos demonstrate that Sallie
has a lot of work ahead of her before
she will be standing totally erect with
her load joints directly on top of each
other and at 90 degrees. I have no
doubt that Sallie will continue to
September 2014
has been able to accomplish and I
look forward to future results.
Marta Olson is a Licensed Massage
Therapist (NVMT #133) and a
Certified Egoscue Method® Specialist.
March 2015
Sallie’s daily e-cise routine takes one
hour to complete. She also uses a tool
called the tower three times a week,
which takes an additional sixty
minutes to complete. This dedication
has brought about the changes that
you can see in the photos.
Sallie has reported to me that she
notices a great improvement in her
ability to take her daily walks with her
husband, mostly due to her ability to
breathe better. Before postural
alignment therapy, the forwardness of
Sallie’s torso contracting limited her
diaphragm’s ability to move freely
and made taking in a deep breath
nearly impossible for her. According
to Sallie, her breathing is much better
and she has taken to walking uphill!
The postural changes you see with
Sallie’s did not come over night and
in turn they did not reverse
themselves over night, either. When
we change our posture through
exercises it creates new muscle
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Breath Body Works
April 2015
Thoughts on Ayurveda
By Mardi Lester, CAS, PKS, LMT
“Progress is impossible without change, and those who
cannot change their minds cannot change anything.”
- George Bernard Shaw
What are Crystal Light
Therapy Beds?
Straight from Casa de Dom Inacio,
Brazil where John of God does
miraculous healing.
The Crystal Bed combines the power
of Color Therapy and Crystal Healing
Therapy to harmonize the Chakras.
FAQ:
breathbodyworks.net/crystalbed.html
Call Mardi Lester
for an appointment
775.883.1800
Spring is a time of change. You feel
lighter; you feel like eating less
amounts of food, it’s time to shed
pounds from the winter. You
probably feel like doing less of
everything and increase outdoor
activity. Maybe you feel like singing!
You feel a need to air out and clean
the house from the heavy winter.
Well then, you ARE listening to the
natural cycle of life and its changes!
Make sure to add to your spring
calendar a 7-day detox for your body.
Ayurveda feels this should be safe and
not harsh. With a mono diet that we
talked about a few months ago, you
can achieve a healthy way to detox. A
simple Kitcheri recipe ( January 2015,
breathbodyworks.net/newsletter.htm)
that appeals to you can be done easily
for 7 days. The way time is speeding
by, it’ll be finished before you know it
and you will feel lighter and
refreshed.
It’s also a great time to clear out the
mind. Do you live with a lot of fear?
It’s hard to block out all the crud the
world is going through right now and
staying in a higher vibration is critical
for your health and the health of the
planet. If someone says something
negative, turn and walk away. If the
TV has something ugly on it, change
the channel or turn it off. Say a
mantra to yourself like, “I am Love,”
over and over while someone is
taking all of their frustrations out on
you. Don’t give in to their drama!
Know that Our Creator made you
perfect and you can stay in that state
of perfection if you allow it and want
it! Spring is a great time to let go of
body and mind issues.
Fear can paralyze any part of our life.
What are your fears? Spiders, being in an
airplane, confrontation and the fear a
partner may leave and you will end up
alone? These are some common fears.
Did you ever think it’s time to change
the feeling around them? In this beautiful
time in life why live with fear? Any
change starts with changing the mind.
Fear is a Vata imbalance in our body.
The electrical energy that runs down the
nerve path dries out the moist layer that
coats the nerve creating even more of a
Vata imbalance. So, besides changing the
mind we have to nourish the body and
spirit. This takes practice, patience and
forgiving oneself.
When you start your morning meditation
think of one thing that brings fear to your
mind. Feel it in your body, it’s running
down those nerve paths. Now take a
deep breath and replace it with calm and
kind thoughts. Eventually I would
suggest facing your fear straight on. Have
a friend help you if you need support.
Get creative on how to change it. An
easy example is public speaking. Who is
not afraid of that! So how to face it? Take
a public speaking class or Kat Simmons
comedy class, it helps a lot and it’s fun!
The key is to get creative in ways that it
will not bring you the feeling of fear and
by cultivating good eating, sleeping, and
spiritual habits our fears will naturally
fall away.
Mardi Lester is a Certified Ayurveda
Specialist, CAS, and a Pancha Karma
Specialist, PKS as well as a Massage
Practitioner (NVMT#3203) since 1988.
She works at Breath Body Works.
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Breath Body Works
April 2015
Breathing Your Way to Relaxation
We breathe all day long, every day.
In. Out. In. Out. Over and over. A
breath in was the very first thing we
did coming into this world. A
breath out will be the very last thing
we do leaving it. It’s what we do.
We breathe.
But how often do we really pay
attention to how we breathe? The
first time someone told me I was
breathing wrong I thought they
were whacked. “How can I be
breathing wrong?” I thought. If this
person were any other human being
on the planet beside my beloved
yoga teacher, I would have given
them the look and turned and
walked away. Yet, because of my
love for my teacher and having
come to realize how very much she
knew, I buttoned my lip, stood
where I was, and listened
attentively.
Boy was she right. I was breathing
“wrong.” Weirdly, we can breathe
wrong. But what does that really
mean, to “breathe wrong.” It might
not actually mean, “wrong”, but
maybe just not efficiently or
naturally. It would seem that as
long as air is going in and then air is
coming out, we’re doing something
right.
Deep-belly or diaphragmatic
breathing is our natural breathing
pattern. Have you ever watched a
baby or a little child breathe? Their
belly is nice and round, moving up
and down with inhale and exhale.
This is good breathing.
As we inhale, the diaphragm (the
muscle at the bottom of the rib
cage, shaped like a disc when
contracted and like a balloon when
relaxed, that separates the chest
cavity from the abdomen) contracts
and pulls down, creating a vacuum
in the lungs. Outside air rushes in to
fill the space. Our thoracic cavity,
the space inside the rib cage,
expands in all directions as the air
moves in. Then the very top or our
lungs, way up under the
collarbones, expands slightly as the
tippy-top of the lungs are filled.
When the diaphragm contracts, at
the start of the inhale, it pulls down
into the space of the abdomen. If
the abdomen is relaxed, it moves
passively outward, allowing the
abdominal organs the space they
naturally need as the diaphragm
expands down into that space. If on
the other hand, the abdomen is
tight or “sucked in” there is no
room for the organs to shift. As a
Molly Dahl
result, the breath won’t be full and
deep. You can practice this right
now to feel how awkward and
uncomfortable it is. Pull the belly in
toward the spine and tighten up the
abdomen. Now try to take a deep
breath by pulling the diaphragm
down. Doesn’t happen. The bottom
of the rib cage tries to expand, but
even that feels strange.
If the abs are pulled in and tight all
the time, how does the body
compensate in order to breathe
comfortably? It breathes into the
upper part of the chest. This limited
physical space created in the
thoracic cavity caused by tight abs,
means that we must breathe
shallow, short, and rapid breathes
to get the oxygen we need. We
become inefficient, ineffective
breathers.
Why does this matter?
When we breathe short, rapid,
shallow breaths, the sympathetic
nervous system (the fight or flight)
is triggered. That means that all
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Breath Body Works
April 2015
Continued, Breathing,
Pg. 4
kinds of stress hormones and
chemicals are released in to the
blood stream and we’re on high
alert. We can’t relax, we can’t think
as clearly and logically, we become
tight and tense. We feel stressed out
and anxious all because we’re
breathing wrong.
When we relax the belly, take a
deep inhale down into the space
below the belly button, we trigger
the parasympathetic nervous
system (the rest and relax). As we
continue to breathe into the low
belly, the heart rate drops, blood
pressure goes down, and we feel a
deeper sense of calm and
peacefulness. Our stress can melt
away if we take about five or so of
these deep belly breaths.
Try this now…Stand or sit up
straight. Relax the belly.
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As you inhale, pull the
breath all the way down to
the underbelly, way down
beneath the belly button,
then feel the navel move
forward as the round part
of your belly reaches out in
front of you.
As you exhale, pull the
bellybutton gently toward
the spine, compressing way
down to the underbelly, as
you press the air out from
the very bottom of your
lungs.
Again, inhale to the
underbelly and the navel,
now fill the bottom of the
rib cage. Feel the rib cage
take on its natural shape of
a cylinder, it moves out in
all directions: front, back,
side to side.
Exhale, lower ribs move
back toward each other,
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belly presses to spine,
underbelly compresses.
Another inhale, deep into
the underbelly, the navel,
the bottom of the rib cage
and now up to the level of
the heart. Full, expansive,
cylindrical rib cage.
Exhale. The mid-rib cage
compresses, bottom of the
rib cage moves back in
toward itself, belly drops in
toward the spine. And the
final stage, deep into the
underbelly, the navel, the
bottom of the rib cage, the
heart, and now clear up
under the collar bones.
Exhale from the top down.
Check in. How do you feel?
Physically? Mentally? Want to do
it again?
This is the power of breathing
correctly. When we breathe long,
slow, deep breaths, we enhance our
calm, we think and process
information more clearly, we create
mental space in which we have
room for others. We become more
compassionate and kind. We smile
more often when we breathe into
the belly.
So let your belly relax. Keep the
back of the heart forward and up so
the rib cage is expansive and ready
for full, deep breaths. (On another
note, when the heart is lifted
forward and up, we increase
feelings of hope, gratitude, and
connectedness. Yep, just by lifting
the heart.) And breathe deeply and
smoothly, all day long.
May you breathe deeply and fully
the goodness of life around you.
May you inhale the brightness of
the sunshine the surrounds you.
May you exhale the soft beauty of
your inner world and share it with
the rest of us. May your life follow
the smooth, peaceful, rhythmic
nature of your right breathing.
Molly Dahl has been teaching the principles of spiritual living for the past 28 years and holds a Master’s Degree in Educational Leadership. She teaches meditation on Tuesday from 6:00 to 7:15 PM at Breath Body Works. TIME OUT
TUESDAYS
Start April 7th
1st Tuesday of the month
Yoga Nidra
Lie comfortable at rest on a
yoga mat while being
guided to deep states of
meditative stillness.
2nd, 4th and 5th Tuesday
Meditation
Guided meditation. Topics
include why and how to
meditate, the object of
meditation, the results of
meditation and how to
create a committed home
practice.
3rd Tuesday of the month
Just Savasana
A very gentle yoga practice
followed by the deep, still
silence found in the corpse
pose of a yoga practice.
Rejuvenates body, mind
and spirit.
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Breath Body Works
April 2015
A Four-Day Kundalini Yoga and Meditation Event
Be Happier
with Onkar
Tune Into Your Inner Joy
Breath Body Works is offering a four-day Kundalini Yoga and Meditation
Event starting April 16th and ending on April 19th. This is a great
opportunity for you to dip your toe into the world of Kundalini Yoga at
no expense or dive right in by attending the 3-day workshop for $250.
Kundalini Yoga is the yoga of awareness. It is Raj yoga.
It is the fastest way to establish an aligned relationship between mind,
body and soul through posture, pranayama, mantra, music, meditation
and relaxation. It will teach you the art of relaxation, self-healing and
evaluation.
Balancing the body and mind allows you to experience the clarity and
beauty of your soul.
Beginner Donation Class – Kundalini Rising
This donation class is designed to introduce Kundalini Yoga and
Meditation to the beginner. It is also appropriate for someone with a busy
schedule that is unable to attend the full 3-day workshop.
3-Day Workshop
This is an excellent opportunity to immerse yourself in a weekend of
relaxation and self-healing. Take the time to tune into your inner joy and
the wonderful possibilities that lay in front of you. If your schedule is
hectic, allow yourself one day.
Meditation and Jewelry Trunk Show
After a guided meditation, you will have the opportunity to view jewelry
designed by Onkar. You can shine your beauty inside and out.
Onkar and Marta Olson
Personalize your experience by
attending any or all events.
Thursday, April 16th
Suggested Donation: $11
7:00 PM – 8:30 PM
Kundalini Rising
Friday, April 17th
Drop-in: $50
5:30 PM – 7:30 PM
Discover your Soul
Saturday, April 18th
Drop-in: $125
5:00 AM - 7:00 AM
Sadhana (Open to all - free)
9:30 AM – 11:30 AM
Devotion & Commitment
2:00 PM – 5:00 PM
Deep Listening & Gong
Sunday, April 19th
BelightJewelry by Onkar
Drop-in: $75
5:00 AM - 7:00 AM
Sadhana (Open to all - free)
9:30 AM – 12:00 PM
Becoming & Being You
~~~~~~~
1:30 – 4:00 PM
(Open to all - free)
Shine Your Beauty Inside and Out
Meditation and Jewelry Trunk Show
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