20000Breaths

16/12/2023

We're making a switch!

I will be moving all of these posts (and the posts in the future) to our brand NEW Facebook CommUNITY!

Our new Facebook group Yoga for Empowered Aging is up and running!

Similar type of content and so much more. We have more opportunities in a FB group, more flexibility for sharing important info and practices so that's why the move.

So c'mon over and join our new community of Empowered Agers who are all so much Greater Than 50™.

Click the link in the first comment below to check it out and I hope to see you over "there".

05/12/2023

In Cat/Cow, there is a gentle flow between the cat pose and the cow pose which stretches and strengthens the spine, warms the body, and increases flexibility of the back.

It brings the spine into correct alignment and can help improve posture, balance, and prevent back pain.

Each movement is done in conjunction with the breath.

Start on your hands and knees in a "tabletop" neutral spine position, with your wrists underneath your shoulders and your knees underneath your hips.

As you inhale, lift your head up a little bit, open your chest forward, lift your tailbone upward, let a natural curve begin in your back while you gaze forward.

As you exhale, bring your chin towards your chest, drop your tailbone, and bring your navel toward your spine and round your back.

Release your head down toward the floor without any tension in the neck.

On the next inhale start over again, repeat the movement between the poeses and synchronizing it to your own breath.

When you are done, come back into neutral, close your eyes and enjoy the feeling.

*photos courtesy of Muscle and Motion

30/11/2023

What I learned from 7 straight days of practicing restorative yoga

On day 1, laying there on the ground, surrounded and supported by pillows and blankets, I noticed how fidgety I was. Sudden itches that insisted on being scratched, a hair somewhere on my face that I had to move away. The noises in the room. The noises outside the room…

It was really hard for me to lie still, eyes covered, with absolutely nothing to do but relax and notice my thoughts. At whatever point I noticed my thoughts (sometimes it was 10 minutes-in to a long thread of thinking, planning, remembering, worrying…) my job was then to bring myself back to a sensation in my body and focus on my breathing…until it happened again.

I was on a 7-day yoga retreat with 2 ½ consecutive hours of restorative yoga every day.

Can you even imagine?? What was I thinking? I’m a doer. A planner. An executor. Oh, and a Class-A Worrier.

Day after day I decided to set my ‘self’ aside and immerse myself in the experience. After all, I had paid good money for this retreat, and I was in gorgeous Montana.

I don’t know exactly when it happened, but I started to relax.

Not the sofa & wine kind of relaxing but the walking around I’m so chill kind of relaxing.

I liked it.

A small smile developed that stayed on my face. My shoulders relaxed. I noticed my beautiful surroundings more. I became much more patient, less hurried, more willing to stand in lines and…just wait my turn.

I have always declared I don’t “do” lines. But maybe I do.

Over the week I noticed I became kinder, more understanding in situations that would normally have driven me to harsh judgements.

I have since described my experience as like being on drugs, without the drugs.

When I began my travels home, which included a ½ hour drive to a regional airport, (think 3 check-in counters) where no one showed up for work until 11am, even though I got there at 9.

But you know what? I didn’t care. I just used that time to do some work preparing to run my own yoga retreats that were coming up in the next couple of weeks.

I was happy, patient, it felt strange.

I was aware of this transformation as I traveled home, and I vowed to find a way to keep it going. I liked this new self.

I vowed to continue practicing restorative yoga every day. This new me was too good to lose and I wanted to hold on to this wonderful feeling in the ‘real’ world. 

In my next post, I’ll discuss what the magic is, in restorative yoga and why it has the ability to create transformations.

Namaste
(the spirit in me, salutes the spirit in you)

28/11/2023

Elbow Plank Pose invites ALL your muscles to the party!

Begin on hands and knees

Move your right foot back to a straight leg, push down on your forearms and elbows so you don’t collapse into your shoulder sockets and hurt yourself.

Then, move your left foot back to a straight leg.

Imagine you are tightening a corset around your mid body, holding all your organs in so they don’t fall onto the mat (haha).

Drop your hips to parallel. Not lower than your shoulders and not higher.

BREATHE! Stay for as many breaths as you are able.

To come out, drop one knee down first, then the other.

It’s nice now to push back into child’s pose and congratulate yourself!

*photos courtesy of Muscle and Motion

21/11/2023

A snapshot from ‘somewhere’ in my life. My horse (the one in front), my daughter’s sweet film-star cow (message me for links to his on-screen performances), and their shared girlfriend (too young to know better), living their best lives in Northern CA.

21/11/2023

Lizard Pose is a powerful hip opener.

I would recommend you do some of the less intense hip openers I have posted BEFORE you do this one. Let’s not hurt ourselves shall we?

Grab 2 yoga blocks or two stacks of hard cover books about 6-8 inches high and place then at the top of your mat and lay a blanket down in the center of your mat to pad your knee.

Begin as the first photo shows in Down Dog.

Step (or help with one hand) one foot between your hands, bend that knee and come down to the mat in low lunge as in photo 2.

Lay the top of the foot of the straight leg down on the mat so your toenails are resting on the mat and as shown in photo 3.

**your blocks should be in front of you and instead of bringing your elbows and forearms down to the mat (as shown), bring them to the blocks while letting your bent knee fall out a little to the side, giving you space to come down.

Repeat from the beginning to do your other side!

If your blocks or stack of books still feel too low to rest on, gently move back into Down Dog and make your stack higher and try again!

Remember, it’s not about achieving the photo, it’s about opening YOUR hips, in the body that YOU have,

Your body – Your yoga.

*photos courtesy of Muscle and Motion

17/11/2023

Harvard Medical School shares 3 easy tips to improve your balance.

Balance is a use it or lose it proposition. At some point in everyone’s lives, you have to practice it to make it better.

Research also indicates that balance training helps reduce the risk of injury by lowering the risk of falls in older adults (and we know what falls can cause!) 😱😱😱 as well as the risk of ankle and knee injuries in people of all ages.

Watch this short 2 min video for Harvard's 3 tips to keeping or improving your balance.

14/11/2023

Standing Hand-to-Foot Pose is a standing balancing pose.

Before you get too freaked out when looking at this photo, let me make some suggestions.

1) Get a yoga strap robe belt or other non-stretchy strap and look it under the ball of your foot. Hold onto both ends of the strap with one hand. You don’t need to try to actually grab your foot with your hand. In fact, this will cause most people to bed forward which is not what you want.
2) Stand next to a chair, table, dresser, etc. that you can put your opposite hand on it for stability.
3) Get a wall and stand with your back to it for stability.

Now you’re ready!

Stand tall next to the chair (or whatever) with your back to a wall.

Loop your strap under the ball of the right foot, holding both ends in your right hand and stand tall.

Bend your right knee towards your chest, shortening the strap so it stays under the foot.

With your left hand on your support furniture, slowly straighten the right leg out in front of you, using the strap to help lift your leg.

You can lift your right leg to any degree, it doesn’t have to be parallel to the floor.

Root down through your left leg, standing tall.

Smile. You’re doing it! Repeat on the other leg.

BONUS! just look at the photo to see all the core muscles engaged!

09/11/2023

08/11/2023

What if you learned to map your nervous system...

To know where you were at, at any given time and had the tools to self-adjust, bringing yourself to a more manageable, healthy, balanced state?

This is just one of the things you will be learning in this 2-hr workshop:

Yoga and The Vagus Nerve

The information in this workshop is from what l learned from my own personal experience living in a state of high stress and anxiety for several decades.

I know all too well how living like this can affect both your health and feelings of well-being.

Through my 20+ yrs of experience with yoga, I learned how to identify where I was at (nervous-system-wise) and the tools I needed to bring myself to a more healthy, manageable level.

And I am passionate about sharing this with YOU!

It begins tonight at 6:30 - 8:30 pm CT and will be recorded for you to refer back to as well as pdf's of the practices we'll do, the mapping tool and more!

Click on the link in the comments to get more info or to register.

Karen

07/11/2023

Reclined Cobbler Pose.

This is one of my favorite restorative poses to add into my practice as it nears the end.

As you can see from the photo it lengthens the inner thigh muscles. So nice! Except...if you have very tight inner thigh muscles 🙂

Then, taking your pose to this extreme may not be the way to go!

If that is you, respect your body and provide it a little comfort by placing a pillow under each thigh for support, and to reduce how much you lengthen those muscles.

You can also move your feet further away from you before you allow your knees to drop open to each side.

Experiment a little to see what variation of this pose is right for you!

Your muscles cannot relax and lengthen if you are uncomfortable.

Stay for 10 breaths and relax! Then gently bring one knee to the center and then the other, before you roll onto your side and use your arms to get up.

27/10/2023

What Exactly Is Mindfulness?

A short 3 1/2 min video celebrating Fall and my thoughts on Mindfulness.

What exactly does mindfulness mean?

26/10/2023

Introducing our newest SuperAger Former President Jimmy Carter!

As Jimmy Carter turns 99, he’s still full of surprises

From The Washington Post
Oct 1, 2023

PLAINS, Ga. — The crowds gathered in Jimmy Carter’s tiny hometown last weekend knew the former president hadn’t been seen in public this year. After seven months in hospice, on the eve of his 99th birthday, they knew he could no longer climb the steps to a balcony overlooking the annual Plains Peanut Festival.

So when a black Chevy Suburban driven by a Secret Service agent slowly turned onto Main Street last Saturday morning, there were gasps, and then cheers.

There in the back seat was Carter, holding hands with Rosalynn, his wife of 77 years. The waves of applause only stopped when a “Happy Birthday” serenade began.

Aimee Burgamy, an Atlanta schoolteacher, sees Carter as a living link to a bygone era in America. “The politics around here are not Jimmy Carter’s politics anymore,” she said. “But everyone came out for him. We love him.”

Carter is a Democrat, while many in Plains are Republican, including the longtime mayor, L. E. “Boze” Godwin III.

Godwin, 80, calls Carter “an honest man, a very intelligent man.” He said their differing political views never meant they couldn’t work together to improve the town. He has known Carter nearly all his life; the former president was his Boy Scout troop leader.

After Carter served in the U.S. Navy, he came home in 1953 and Godwin remembers seeing him sell peanuts out of the back of his truck.

Carter had a meteoric rise from peanut farmer to Georgia governor to U.S. president. When he left the White House in 1981, many locals were grateful, if surprised, that he returned to his rural hometown of 700 people.

But even for a life marked by the unexpected, Carter’s appearance last weekend stunned many.

“He told me he has been successful at everything in life, but he can’t figure out how to die,” Chip Carter said.

In February, doctors told Carter’s family he would likely not live more than a week. Yet, he is still watching the news and “Law and Order” on TV and talks to family and close friends about current issues and past events.

In 2015, after doctors told him his melanoma had spread to his brain and liver, a usually fatal condition, Carter seemed unfazed. “I’m perfectly at ease with whatever comes,” he said at a news conference. Then he smiled and added, “I’m looking forward to a new adventure.”

Yet eight years later, and after several falls and new ailments — and even after declaring he would no longer go to the hospital and was in hospice care — he keeps going.

*To read the entire article from The Washington Post, click on the link in the first comment below.

24/10/2023

Hand to-big-toe Pose

Have a yoga strap, belt from a robe, even a long dog leash!

Lie on your back, draw your right knee into your chest.

Hook your index and middle finger around the big toe of your right foot or use your strap and place it in the middle of the foot arch.

Straighten the leg upward to the ceiling until the knee is fully straightened, keep both of your shoulder on the mat.

Tighten your thigh muscles which releases your hamstrings into a stretch.

While straightening the leg upward, stretch the left leg along the floor, with the heel leading the stretch.

Hold this pose for few long breaths, and then slowly release your right leg to the floor; repeat on the other side.

When you lower your left leg to the floor, lie there for a moment and enjoy the feeling of lengthening.

Smile! 😊

24/10/2023

Calming the Overactive Nervous System: 3 Techniques you can use to immediately....

-Pull your energy back into your body

-Calm your mind

-Balance your emotions

*click on the link in the first comment below for a free PDF.

This isn't helping!! 😡

I worked with a private client recently and as we met up on zoom for our live practice together, she was very upset.

She was completely stressed out about her job, told me her entire body hurt. She was struggling with keeping her emotions in check.

She said to me “This job is going to kill me. It’s ruining my health; I need to do something. I just can’t take this anymore”, and she choked back a sob.

I told her I was so sorry and said, “Let’s do some things that might help you feel just a little better, at least in this moment”.
And we began.

I created a practice to help guide her into tuning into her body with slow therapeutic movements and complimentary breathing, which I knew could have a positive effect.

Her nervous system was stuck in flight/fight.

After a few minutes she angrily commented “This isn’t helping!”.

She was looking for immediate relief.

Aren’t we all?

I asked her to trust me to be her guide for the next 30 minutes and she did.

When our practice was complete and we sat facing each other on our screens, I saw she had entirely changed.

Her face was no longer distraught and angry. Her features had softened.

As she opened her eyes she smiled with gentle relief.
“Oh, there you are” I said quietly.

She smiled again and said “Ok, I feel better. I’m so sorry for taking out my upset out on you”.

I told her it was perfectly fine; I could see how upset she was and my only goal was to be of some assistance and I was glad she was feeling a bit better.

After we “hung up”, I thought wow, if there ever was a moment that concretely demonstrated the benefits that a yoga practice can provide, this was it.

I didn’t invent yoga, I’m simply the guide, the conduit for this amazing practice.

Through my own personal experiences, and my own personal needs, I have created a “treasure chest” filled to the brim with physical movements, yoga poses, breath techniques, visualizations and more. These are all gathered from the 8 Limbs of Yoga. They have existed for centuries, and they work.

When needed, I reach into this treasure chest and select just a few of these jewels to work with, given the specific set of circumstances.

If you would like me to send you the 3 practices we did to calm my client's nervous system within 30 minutes, click on the link in the first comment below.

We need more calm, centered and emotionally balanced people walking this earth.

This is my gift to you.

Karen

20,000 Breaths Yoga & Wellness uses an anatomy-based method in teaching Yoga for Healthy, to those Greater than 50!

19/10/2023

This isn't helping!! 😡

I worked with a private client recently and as we met up on zoom for our live practice together, she was very upset.

She was completely stressed out about her job, told me her entire body hurt. She was struggling with keeping her emotions in check.

She said to me “This job is going to kill me. It’s ruining my health; I need to do something. I just can’t take this anymore”, and she choked back a sob.

I told her I was so sorry and said, “Let’s do some things that might help you feel just a little better, at least in this moment”.

And we began.

I created a practice to help guide her into tuning into her body with slow therapeutic movements and complimentary breathing, which I knew could have a positive effect.

Her nervous system was stuck in flight/fight.

After a few minutes she angrily commented “This isn’t helping!”.

She was looking for immediate relief.

Aren’t we all?

I asked her to trust me to be her guide for the next 30 minutes and she did.

When our practice was complete and we sat facing each other on our screens, I saw she had entirely changed.

Her face was no longer distraught and angry. Her features had softened.

As she opened her eyes she smiled with gentle relief.

“Oh, there you are” I said quietly.

She smiled again and said “Ok, I feel better. I’m so sorry for taking out my upset out on you”.

I told her it was perfectly fine; I could see how upset she was and my only goal was to be of some assistance and I was glad she was feeling a bit better.

After we “hung up”, I thought wow, if there ever was a moment that concretely demonstrated the benefits that a yoga practice can provide, this was it.

I didn’t invent yoga, I’m simply the guide, the conduit for this amazing practice.

Through my own personal experiences, and my own personal needs, I have created a “treasure chest” filled to the brim with physical movements, yoga poses, breath techniques, visualizations and more. These are all gathered from the 8 Limbs of Yoga. They have existed for centuries, and they work.

When needed, I reach into this treasure chest and select just a few of these jewels to work with, given the specific set of circumstances.

If you are interested in learning more about what a well-designed yoga practice can do for you, click on the link in the first comment below and I’ll send you a PDF of the myriad of benefits.

Maybe one or more might be just right for you.

Namaste
(The spirit in me salutes the spirit in you)

Karen