Yoga with Leona

28/10/2024

Happy Mindful Monday y’all!! 🩷🩷🩷
🙏🏼 Acceptance is one of the key attitudes of mindfulness. It isn’t always easy, but is so important if we are to find our way to a balanced and peaceful life.
Why do we torture ourselves trying to control things we cannot control, or resisting things we cannot avoid? Acceptance helps us let go of that unnecessary tension and suffering, so we can navigate our challenges with more clarity and ease.
✨ Which of these examples resonates most with you? ✨

30/09/2024

Happy Mindful Monday!! 🩷
Ginny and I are thrilled and honored to announce that TCC (Tucson Cancer Conquerors) was awarded a grant to support our Mindfulness in Cancer Recovery program!
✨🪷🌻✨🪷🌻✨🪷🌻✨
This grant allows us to continue to share the deep benefits of mindfulness to help TCC members navigate this cancer journey with more ease and clarity.
🙏🏼🩷🙏🏼 We are grateful and humbled that The Trust for the Meditation Process recognizes and supports this important work, and the incredible impact it can have on the lives of cancer survivors.

✨ If you are not a member of TCC, but are interested in Mindfulness in Cancer Recovery, Ginny Live Brilliant, LLC has some groups starting soon. Get ahold of her to get signed up.✨

And if you want to learn more about our generous supporter, the Trust for the Meditation Process, click here 👇🏽
https://trustformeditation.org

11/09/2024

Hey yogis! Happy hump day! 🐫
Do you have a regular gratitude practice?
🪷🙏🏼🪷
🩷 This week I had this interesting memory pop up from 10 years ago, when one of those gratitude challenges was going around (see 2nd pic). This was before I retired from oncology practice, and before my own cancer diagnosis, so the perspective is interesting. But I’m even more grateful for these things today!
🩷 I’ve been feeling extra grateful lately, as I pass 8 years from my own cancer diagnosis, and I feel strong and healthy (despite menopausal changes and other normal aging stuff). I’ve been reminding myself to embrace any changes that come, to accept and celebrate what my body CAN do, instead of resisting it or criticizing the transformation 🦋. It’s a work in progress, but I’m trying 😉
🩷 Sharing in the pix a little sampling of my gratitude practice over the last few days.
🩷🙏🏼🩷 Wanna share yours in the comments??

🤓 Wanna learn more? Here is a reeeally great article on the neuroscience of gratitude and how gratitude practice impacts our brain, our emotional well-being, resilience, and more.
https://positivepsychology.com/neuroscience-of-gratitude/

26/08/2024

🩷🧘🏽‍♀️🪷 Yoga and fitness friends!!! 🪷🧘🏽‍♀️🩷
Have u been thinking about taking a 200 hr yoga teacher training?? To deepen your own practice, or to prepare to share these transformative practices with others? And would you like to do so in glorious Puerto Vallarta? 🏖️☀️🌴🐠
🩷 Here is your opportunity! My beautiful friend and mentor, Willis, has just announced that Flying Heart Yoga will offer its first training this coming April!
🩷 If you know Willis, you know he is not only an immensely talented yogi, dancer, and teacher, but also has the purest heart and the warmest, most loving energy, AND he makes everything so much fun. This training will be truly top tier! And I’m super honored to be playing a small role as well ☺️🙏🏼
🩷 Get on the early access list so you’ll get the deets as soon as they are announced.
✨ Even if you have no intention of ever teaching yoga, a YTT is such an enriching experience, and can literally change your life. I know mine did, and I’m forever grateful. 🙏🏼
🩷 Hope to see you here.

We are hosting our first ever 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training at Flying Heart Yoga Puerto Vallarta this April 6-30, 2025! This will be immersion style, and is a comprehensive course that will deepen your yoga practice and equip you with the tools needed to teach confidently and with integrity.

More info coming VERY SOON!

In the meantime, please send me a message if you would like to be on the first access list.

20/08/2024

Hey yogis! Have u heard this quote before? I love it.
🪷🧘🏽‍♀️🪷🧘🏽‍♀️🪷🧘🏽‍♀️🪷🧘🏽‍♀️🪷
Sharing again this oldie but goodie, a blog post from Aug 2020. I’m still, at nearly 8 years from diagnosis, navigating this dance, and maybe always will be. But it’s a nourishing dance, and I’m learning new things about myself all the time. Care to share anything that your cancer experience (or your yoga journey) have taught you??
Namaste amigos 🙏🏼💕🧘🏽‍♀️

https://yogawithleona.com/2020/08/17/navigating-re-entry-as-a-graceful-dance/

24/06/2024

Happy Mindful Monday y’all! 🩷🧘🏽‍♀️💚
Do you practice loving kindness, or metta, meditation? I love this version from Spirit Rock. Give them a follow for beautiful metta every monday 🙏🏼

Sending some your way today and every day.

05/06/2024

Hey yogis!! How are you?? 🙏🏼🩷
I’ve been a little occupied with 2 new tiny rescue kittens 🩷🩷, and a few other life things.
🪷🧘🏽‍♀️🪷 But I led a community practice this morning with this theme, and thought I’d share again. Yoga is such an incredible practice in mindful movement, a moving meditation, because of the way it helps us do just this. To drop into the sensations of our body, to use the body as a doorway to that inner awareness, that peaceful presence that is below our fluctuating emotions and scattered thoughts. Ahhhhhh.
👇🏽 Click the original post for more info.

I LOVE this simple guidance for focusing awareness inward, to the inner body, as a means of dropping below the fluctuating emotions and thoughts, to settle into that place of peaceful presence, of ease, of BEing. To that place where we feel less scattered, less stressed, and more ALIVE.

Eckhart is basically guiding us in a beautiful body scan meditation, right? Did you try it?? 🧘🏽‍♀️
If you want to read my full blog on the topic, click here 👇🏽

https://yogawithleona.com/2023/09/01/going-within-a-simple-yet-powerful-practice-for-finding-presence-in-cancer-recovery/

🪷🩷🧘🏽‍♀️🩷🪷

22/05/2024

Happy hump day beautiful people!! 🐫
Do you ever notice yourself gripping? 😬 Holding unnecessary tension in your body? For me it is in my shoulders, but for others maybe the forehead, jaw, neck, or even belly.
🧘🏽‍♀️ This can be a real problem, both on the yoga mat AND off the mat in the world. It can really get in our way and cause all sorts of problems for our bodies and our minds.
🪷 But guess what?! Yoga and mindfulness can help! You CAN train yourself to relax, rather than to grip. And it can totally transform the way you feel.
🩷 Curious? Click here for the full blog 👇🏽

https://yogawithleona.com/2024/05/22/train-yourself-to-relax-instead-of-to-grip-and-release-stored-tension-to-uncover-your-inner-balance/

*pic from our recent Mindfulness in Cancer Recovery Retreat at Hyatt Ziva PV. 💙🩵💙

15/05/2024

🪷”We humans have lost the wisdom of genuinely resting and relaxing. We worry too much. We don’t allow our bodies to heal, and we don’t allow our minds and hearts to heal”
- Thich Nhat Hanh

How peaceful and relaxed does my boy Vato look? 😻 We have so much to learn from animals. 🩷 They rest when they need to, play when they feel like it, and generally just don’t let stuff get to them. They have an innate wisdom, an ability to really listen to their bodies, and do what they need to do to heal and feel their best.

🪷 Some say this was one of the gifts of their cancer experience. A sortof wake-up call, a smack in the face to make them realize they needed to slow down, to tune in, to prioritize their rest, their healing, and their overall wellness.
🪷 Some heed the call to nourish their bodies with healthier food, to prioritize exercise, to let go of unhealthy relationships, or set better boundaries to protect their energy. Some feel they just need to be more present, more compassionate, and more accepting of themselves JUST AS THEY ARE, without this incessant pressure to “improve”.

🩷🩷🩷 Is there anything you are working on to help optimize your wellness in body and mind? Care to share and inspire others??

07/05/2024

Ok, I couldn’t wait for Friday funnies to share this. 😂 My good friend Terri shared this with me a few days ago and I literally can’t stop watching it and crying laughing!
💃🏼🧘🏽‍♀️ Where my fabulous 50’s at? And my sexy 60’s and 70’s?! THIS is how we are aging with the help of yoga! Might add these moves to a sun salutation!
😂🙏🏼❤️ Thank you to the original SNL staff, and to whoever correlated it to us middle aged yogis, kickin, stretchin, and kickin our way through life!!
And thank you Terri DiepCfoundation.org for making my week! 😂🩷😂

03/05/2024

How do you handle change? Navigating this cancer experience sure serves up big doses of change, right? From change in our bodies to change in our day-to-day schedules, our priorities, our relationships, our goals, and sometimes even our lifespan… it can feel like literally everything changes, making it hard to find solid ground or any sense of stability.
And for most of us, this feels really uncomfortable and frightening, because we naturally crave stability, routine, familiarity, control. But the truth is, change is unavoidable. Everything changes… eventually.

🙏🏼 So how do we best navigate those changes? Can we learn to be more adaptable, more even-keeled, to go with the flow without suffering so much each time things shift and something new comes up? Can we find more happiness and freedom, even in the midst of this ever-present change?

🧘🏽‍♀️ In my experience (and I am historically quite the control freak who likes to plan things as far in advance as possible, overthink and control every minute detail and variable to be sure things go my way 😂), practicing yoga and mindfulness has been a complete game changer. These practices have taught me to be more adaptable, to be open and curious, to go with the flow, to relax and not bang my head against the wall trying to force my will, and to just take each moment as it comes and do my best with whatever arises. I’m not perfect (obviously 😉), but I definitely feel less stressed, less tense, lighter, more free, and more joyful than I used to. And I think this is a big part of the reason. For me, these gifts of yoga are so much deeper than the flexible hamstrings and strong triceps, though those are nice side effects.
🩷 Care to share your experience??

Click here to read the full blog on the topic 👇🏽

https://yogawithleona.com/2024/05/02/cultivate-adaptability-through-yoga-and-navigate-change-more-easily/

Keep practicing!