Tag Archives: Meditation

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Ballet for the Best Life

Photo by Sarah Cervantes on Unsplash

My mom sent me to ballet school when I was just four years old. My siblings and I took lessons twice a week from a retired ballerina of the San Francisco ballet who had set up a private studio behind her 1940’s bungalow. The studio was in her garage and had a bouncy wood studio floor and wall to wall mirrors with barres for the dancers to practise. She must have had at least a hundred or more students, because when I arrived for class, dancers were leaving and when my class left, more dancers were coming. We had a yearly recital at the civic center and the seats were always filled.

The discipline of ballet and the effect on the body is an experience that transports an average human being into a physical state beyond the norm. The repetition is like meditation and entering the zone happens almost immediately. Wether you like it or not, and if you have a good ballet instructor, they will keep you to task and do what ever it takes to keep you counting to eight and moving to the count of eight. Mind and body are willed into synchronicity. It’s a good lesson, and probably the best lesson, a child will ever learn. The lesson of repetition with good intent that results in beauty and sends positive energy into the world.

As I danced, my legs became flexible, strong and capable. As I walked to school each morning with my sisters and friends, we could leap more squares of the sidewalks then the others who didn’t dance and leap over puddles easily. At night after school we could climb up to the tops of the trees like monkeys easily and with speed. Our play evolved and we naturally assimilated graceful postures and movements.

Now as an adult, I don’t go to class anymore, but the barre stuck with me. It was the best way to limber up and release the joints that kept getting tighter with age and sometimes felt like a vice within my own body.

Looking through pins of ballet dancers, tendons, muscles, extreme flexibility and strength burst forth. Ballerinas on their toes in shredded satin and wooly soft leg warmers umbrella by small stiff tutus. The satin of the shoes stained with blood from the force of the dance. Pics of strong men and women and using their strength to create raw human beauty. Ballet was beauty, it was health and it made for a beautiful life.

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Yoga Sweet Yoga

Photo by Sanju M Gurung on Unsplash

I went to Yoga today and had my first hot yoga class. It wasn’t officially hot yoga, but there were 50 people packed into one small studio, our mats just inches apart and everyone breathing deeply. The air filled with CO2 and heat. The sweat began to pop through my skin and run in rivulets down my head chest and back. I was sweating! It had been awhile. Even though I was working out and sometimes quite hard, I just didn’t sweat anymore like I used to. It felt good and cleansing. I dearly wanted more room around my mat, but I acquiesced to the group activity and eased into the positions as the instructor called out poses and counted; urging us on with a mix of eastern philosophy and showtunes.

As I held poses, my legs and hips ached from a week working and sitting and driving. Five days of intense activity and this probably should have been a day of rest, but I was hungering for endorphins and to loosen my joints. After about 20 minutes, my muscles relaxed and gave in and my movements began to flow. My breathing kicked in and I was able to breath away the pain and focus on strengthening of key muscles. It was the magic of Yoga. Part Eastern philosophy, part new age exercise craze. A discipline that had been around centuries, but had just recently really become the hot new exercise of choice for newbie Americans. We Americans we love our hardcore sports. Football, marathons, baseball and a whole host of athletics disciplines that were our favorite sports and required intense concentration and effort. In contrast, Yoga was more about the flow of energy and through continuous practice, the body adapted and strengthened. It’s not something that can forced and if you try to force it you don’t really become a true Yogi.




Yoga originated in ancient India and there is quite an array of disciplines. Some of these disciplines are spiritual and some more based in developing muscles and postures for maximum performance. The wonderful thing about Yoga, is that it’s centering, relaxing and rejuvenating. If you want, you can chant or if you don’t want-then don’t. It doesn’t matter. It’s just about poses and really that’s enough. The simplicity and the complexity of Yoga are beautiful things. Like some many of the wonderful things in life. The best part is the effect on your spine. The spine being the core of human movement and stability. The positions of Yoga stretch the supporting muscles and ligaments and open up compressed spaces that need some fresh blood and oxygen. The fresh fluids and O2 cleanse and wash away exhausted cells and used up nutrients. They flow into this neglected and deep center of the human body refreshing these hard to reach spaces. Like the ocean sending in new waves one after the other, circulating over the earth’s surface and refreshing the land.

Of course there are people that have known about Yoga for a long time. I grew up in a community of hippies and communes. At the public school, my fifth grade teacher would darken the room, push the desks to the wall and lead us through simple yoga poses. This was over forty years ago. It’s wonderful to see the practice reaching all communities and people of the world now. Maybe that’s another wonderful thing about the internet. We can learn about things that might have frightened us in the safe environment of our home, where no ones looking and find out some of this stuff really is ok. It’s not magic, it’s just tried and true practice of exercises over the centuries that work for the human body and make us feel better.It’s a practice that helps humans overcome grief, anxiety and confusion in a very direct and simple way.

Here are some poses that do exactly that. Downward Dog. You look like a dog stretching with your head down. This is great for relieving back pain.  This is great for relieving back pain. The stretch of the position aligns your vertebrae, opens up disc spaces and stretches the supporting muscles and ligaments to give them somewhat of a break from the monotony of the hard work of holding up your spine all day long. Blood rushes to the brain and into your central nervous center invigorating your mentation and coordination.




Another pose, and a big favorite is Savasana. This is literally the pose for everyone and if you can’t do any other pose, you will probably be able to do this one. You lay on your back and completely give in and relax. That’s all. Just lay down and do nothing, except of course breathe. This connects you to your life giving breath, which will ultimately give you peace with your body and life. The goal is to think of nothing during Savasana, but your breathing. I’ve had several Yoga instructors teach that this is the most important pose of Yoga and it should always be for full five minutes at the end of class, no matter what. Here you touch base with what you’ve accomplished for the preceding hour and it’s time to relax and absorb the benefits.

These are just a few poses and benefits of Yoga and some of the reasons why I love it. It’s just like life. When you are in a Yoga class, you never really know what’s coming next, but you learn to relax and breathe through it. It’s a great lesson to learn for enjoying life too. Because you never know what excitement is around the bend; so remember, just breathe and you to will move right through it too.