A MIGHTY WARRIOR!

Don’t let the drama and the chaos that life certainly throws at you trip you up, get you down or make you feel smaller. You, my dearly beloved, are a “Mighty Warrior!”

 

Judges 6:1-18  tells us the story of Gideon, a “Mighty Man of Valor.” But he didn’t start out that way. Gideon was a young man in the land of Israel. During this time God’s people were forced to hide in caves along the hill side because the Midianites were terribly oppressive to them. For seven years they cried out to God but God did not help them. Gideon thought that the Lord had forgotten all about him, his family and the Israelites.  But it was actually the the people who turned their backs on God when they chose to worship idols.

One day an Angel of the Lord spoke to Gideon and told him,” The Lord is with you, Mighty Man of Valor!” Gideon was so surprised he thought the Angel had the wrong man. Gideon reminded the Angel that his people were weak and that he was the weakest. Full of doubt and unworthiness to be called a man of valor, Gideon asked the Angel for signs that this was true. Imagine asking an Angel for a sign? But then again, I’m guessing you, like I, would want a sign to know when things are true. We are not unlike Gideon sometimes. Thankfully, God doesn’t depend on our level of faith or our circumstances to get things done on our behalf. God depends on Himself and His own character to accomplish His Will.

And in the Mighty Hands of God, Gideon would soon become a “Mighty Man of Valor.” Of course, not because of who he was but because of who God Is!

Which leads me to believe that God is not into calling the qualified. Instead, He qualifies who He calls. I know God is building my faith and qualifying me at this very moment. How about you?

Know that we can all be Mighty Warriors in every aspect of our lives. We simply must “let go” of what holds us back to become what God knows we can be in His Strength!

 

 

 

A CRESENT LUNGE WITH EAGLE ARMS MINI CHALLENGE

Hi Friends!

Do you find that after a few hours seated or at your desk, your back slumps forward and your chest caves in? How about your shoulders? Do they endlessly try to ride up to your ears, crunching your neck all up? Do the backs of your legs continually ache as you sit for long periods of time? Don’t worry, I’ve got your back! This month’s “Yoga with Penny” is a Crescent Lunge with an Eagle Arm position which is a total body stretch sure to wake up your body. As a side effect it lengthens and strengthens all of our muscles and helps us focus and concentrate as we hold this position with long, deep, energizing inhales and exhales.

It’s always a good idea to sit quietly for a few moments before we start to turn the focus off your cares and worries. Focusing upon each life giving inhale and exhale will help. That way we can have a moment to meditate upon this beautiful life giving truth…

“Those that trust in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. they will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint!” Isaiah 40:31

Now get ready to soar! I have separated the leg and arm portions of the poses so you can practice each one separately, then combine them when you feel ready.

For the leg position:

  • Stand with your feet hip width apart, bending both knees.
  • Place your hands on your hips and step your right foot directly forward.
  • Ensure that your right foot sits directly under your right knee. Lift your back heel.
  • Breathe deeply for a few moments.
  • Step out farther for a deeper stretch.
  • Hold the position for 30 seconds to 1 minute.

For the arm position:

  • Stretch both of your arms directly out in front of you.
  • Ensure both your palms are looking down and your arms are straight out in front of you.
  • Now, bend both your elbows up, making sure that both your palms are looking at you.
  • Begin by sliding your left palm under your right elbow.
  • Then, continue to wrap your left palm up your right arm as far as it will go.
  • Continue wrapping your left arm around your right arm until your palms meet.
  • Remain at the place that is comfortable for you and if you are able, clasp your palms together and breathe deeply.
  • For an added stretch, lift your Eagle Arms position up.
  • Hold for 30 seconds to 1 minute.
  • For a deeper stretch, gaze upward and breathe deeply!
  • And, don’t forget to include your left leg forward with your right palm wrapping around your left arm.

I hope you enjoyed this whole body stretch in a Lunge Pose with your Eagle Arms.

Thanks for joining me!

xxoo Penny

STAR POWER!

I know. I know. Of course you want to be a Star!

I can’t offer you that but I can offer you a luxurious stretch for your entire body in a Star Pose position. It will light up your spine and fire up your cells sending oxygen and energy throughout your entire body. The Star Pose is a beginners posture that strengthens and lengthens our entire body. It also helps in aligning our spine, thus improving our posture. As it utilizes every muscle, it also provides more space for our lungs and heart so of course it will improve circulation and respiration as well, resulting in more energy.

Start by bending your knees and extending both your legs to the sides. When you feel stretched yet sturdy, begin to straighten your legs. If your still feeling sturdy with a deep long invigorating inhale,  lift and extend your arms out from your sides. Let your palms meet over your head. Really try to stretch those arms up. You may even try to stretch deeper by pulling your arms back from your head.

You can always use a chair or wall for more support while holding your Star. And, you do not have to extend your legs so far out to the sides. Once you have found the perfect starting point for you, begin by closing your eyes. Imagine you are a star lit from within, radiating outwards, an abundance of life shining brightly because that is exactly what you are~

Let your light shine! Matthew 5:16

Breathe deeply for 10 counts and you will feel lighter and brighter!

 

 

 

keep calm and shine on!

The Peaceful Warrior Pose

Peaceful Warrior Pose. A paradox of peace and power. The perfect opportunity to experience and explore the magnificent strength and presence our bodies can evoke while offering us a chance to absorb the beauty and exhilaration of the present moment. The broad powerful stance of our legs offers a rooted, earthy feel, where the sweeping arm stretching upward provides an uplifting, luminous feeling. Surely a positive way to begin or end any day!

Once you have arrived in your perfect Peaceful Warrior Pose linger a while focusing on your deep breaths. Allow those breaths to calm your body and mind as your parasympathetic nervous system, your rest and relaxation response, kicks in. This lowers your blood pressure thus improving circulation and sending fresh oxygen and happy peaceful hormones through out your body which kick starts the healing process. Be good to yourself and let this luxurious stretch nourish and comfort your body like a warm, bubbly bubble bath or a comfy, soft easy chair.

When you feel all calm and peaceful switch sides. Practice a few more times on each side if you like. Remember, you can always step your back leg in as much as needed for more support.

You can also give your cares or anxieties to the Lord as you practice this pose for deeper, truer, inner peace and wellness. For Paul the Apostle, tells us in the Bible to “give all your cares and worries to God for He cares for you!” (1 Peter 5:7)

I hope you enjoy your “Peaceful Warrior Pose” remember you can do it anywhere and more importantly you can give your cares and worries away to God, any time, anywhere and any place. He’s waiting for you.

see ya next time,

penny

WARRIOR FOCUSED

Stepping up to my opponent and facing her straight on, my eyes reached deep into her eyes. I had already claimed victory in my mind and heart. I had now come to win the fight for the gold medal in Kumate’ or the art of Karate-do fighting.

Years of training and months before this fight I trained everyday. Over and over I threw the same kicks, blocks and punches and along the way fought many opponents both winning and losing. But I consider my losing as winning. Mostly because I learned many essential lessons. The most important thing I learned? The fight starts before the first strike. You see the first strike, backed up by no fear, no hesitation, no doubt, but only complete and utter resolution can win any fight.

Naturally, I had to learn many a lessons of fear, doubt, lack of confidence, unworthiness and more. Lessons in physical pain were teachers I knew extremely well. Thankful for the lessons, much time and dedication was given on my part to those teachers.Yet, learning to believe in myself because of God and trusting Him were proved essential as I did humbly take home a precious gold medal at the AAU National Karate Competition in the art of Japanese fighting!

This is the reason I consider the Warrior Poses valuable to anyone who maybe struggling with confidence, strength, focus and determination because everyone can stand in their version of one. More importantly, they offer everyone an opportunity to experience focus, determination, strength, being present and resoluteness- qualities that are useful in all walks of life, especially the christian walk of faith. God as our personal warrior trainer knows us completely. He gave us His Word the Bible as instructions and plans for victory in every faucet of life and calls us His “mighty warriors” already! We may not feel like we are worthy of the title but that doesn’t matter. Just ask Gideon.

The Lord is with you, mighty warrior. Judges 6:12

“The successful warrior is the average person with lazer-like focus.” Bruce Lee

Where my focus goes my faith follows…

“I keep my eyes always on the Lord. with him at my right hand, I will not be shaken. ” Psalm 16:8

Be strong and yoga on!

penny

THE MIGHTY EAGLE POSE

The eagle is seated in a meditative state, proud and high upon it’s rocky ledge, eyes penetrating the ground for prey far below. Puffy clouds like dirty popcorn are rolling in, blackening the skies. The wind howls, the trees are swaying while their leaves dance and swirl. The eagle begins to open his wings. Suddenly the storm worsens but suddenly the eagle leans forward into the air. With openness and grace the eagle soars peacefully into the stormy clouds. With unwavering faith in the wind he’s flying high above the storm.

Below stands the Eagle Pose, designed to twist you up and make you wobble. But you won’t give in, right? You will focus, hold on and have faith won’t you? Actually, the purpose here is to help you to learn the Eagle Pose. Below are the 10 steps to help guide you. Of course you will wobble as we all do. Balancing on one leg is pretty challenging but hang in there. Every yoga pose is always a “work in progress.” It’s far more important what we take away from each pose that helps us live a richer, calmer and more productive, stress-free life.

What might we learn from the Eagle Pose while we practice it? When we get all twisted up and anxious to sit still. Focus on inhaling and exhaling consistently. Consistent steady breaths in any situation will immediately calm our nervous system down. Balancing poses are meant to bring on the chaos in our minds and bodies simply by trying to hold them up. But isn’t that a little bit like life? Trying to hold ourselves up yet the heavy load of stress weighs us down and tires us out. Chaos will always be around it’s simply how we react to it that matters.

What we really want to do is not stress out and respond in a calm peaceful manner. But we all over react sometimes. That’s because we are hardly put in situations where we do have a choice to react in a different way. That is where yoga can help. It offers us a better way to handle stressful situations through the challenge of practicing each pose. We realize there is a better, more positive choice to handle our stress. Then all we have to do is release what weighs us down and have faith that God will not only give us His strength but we can soar as well, high above the drama and chaos of our very own storms in our personal world.

Besides the above benefits the physical benefits are:

Increases overall leg strength especially, feet, ankles, calves, knees and hips.

Improves flexibility in our shoulders, hips and thighs while stretching our upper back, hips and thighs.

Opens back lungs increases breathing capabilities and is helpful to asthma suffers.

Improves focus and brain power while offering a sense of balance, coordination, body awareness and enhances our  mind/body connection.

 

Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles. Isaiah 40:31

Cast your anxiety on Him because He cares for you! ! Peter 5:7

keep calm and yoga on!

LET GO IN TRIANGLE POSE

The beautiful and elegant Triangle Pose, captivating us with it’s clean lines and raw simplicity. Yet moving into this posture we find that simple can be hard and clean can be messy. Mainly because the stress and tension of living in this fast paced modern day world, expresses itself through our rigid and tensed up bodies. Is it any wonder that more than  75% of all doctor office visits are stress related ailments and complaints and that chronic stress is linked to the six leading causes of death? Fortunately, yoga provides a moment for our body to speak, revealing tensions we are holding through our muscles. If our minds are willing we can then release those tensions and let it go. On good days we bring that mindset to our mats. Other days we forget. Sometimes all we do is struggle. But we know when yoga is working when some days we let things go in our daily lives!

Of course letting go and letting God take the reins of our lives is the ultimate stress reliever. It’s hard to give up control though. And scarey. Too many “what ifs” pop up in our heads. But the Creator of everything who calls Himself our Father must know what is best for us.

He tells us in Isaiah 26:3 that…  He will keep us in perfect peace when we remain focused on Him.

Do something good for you. Sit quietly and close your eyes. Know that you are here in this present moment with no worries. Just breathe. When you are ready do a Triangle Pose, directions below!

 

Directions

Extend your arms out to your sides. Stretch your legs out to the sides with each foot directly under each hand. Turn your right foot slightly in and move your left foot toes to face the right side.

Inhale deeply from the bottom of your stomach pulling your torso upward. Exhale deeply extending your torso out and over your forward left leg.

Place your left hand on your mat next to your foot on either side. You may also place it on your thigh, knee or ankle for a less challenging approach or on a chair.

Stretch your right arm up. Try to look up at your hand. You may feel your chest, shoulders and collar bone open up. Breath deeply for 10 seconds to 1 minute. Try to maintain this position thinking only of your inhales and exhales. You may then feel your body stretching deeper as tension and stress release.

Repeat on your right side.

You may also bend your forward knee slightly if it feels too tight. Or step your back leg in a little. Use a chair, table or a counter for added balance and support.

peace and love

penny

 

 

HOW GOD SENT ME HIS YOGA ANGEL

Hello…my name is Penny. At my Moms funeral I met my mother’s eighty-six year old yoga teacher-that was the day I began my yoga journey. Although I’ve never seen her again I can still remember this little bitty lady standing tall yet with cold hands rubbing and clasping mine and saying how much she enjoyed my mother. Ten years later it remains a crystal clear moment captured in time. Little could I have imagined that moment would alter my life, change me, lift me up and place me on a new and unknown path in life. I believed the meeting to be Divine intervention. Ten years later I am almost sixty years old. I’m a yoga student and teacher and I am one hundred percent positive God sent me His Yoga Angel that dread-ful day at my Mother’s funeral.

Now my Mom barely worked out a day in her life. Yet, amazingly at seventy-seven years old she proudly stepped onto her yoga mat and began her yoga journey. The thought of it still amazes me. Imagine going on eighty years old and meeting a class of new people and then rolling around on the floor with them? And if you’ve ever been to a yoga class you know the sounds, smells and sights a yoga class can present. Heck we are all only human! However, I remember my Mom always loved to go to her yoga class. Unfortunately, a few months after she began she suddenly died.

It wasn’t long after that I bought a few yoga dvd’s and started fooling around with yoga. My little sister joined me. We were fascinated with how good yoga made us feel and we were bonding again after all those years of growing apart. Laughing and being kids again, we were little sister and big sister just like old times. When we were young my two sisters and I never stopped moving. We were especially talented in hand standing in the kitchen while waiting for supper. Many a days we spent walking on our hands, underwater, or back flipping off our picnic table and into our pool. Yoga now was becoming a portal back to the me I forgot. The place where my mother lives and I am walking upside down in her kitchen. It is wonderful gift from my Heavenly Father to remember the feeling of being with her like that most days as I step onto my mat.

Although today I do yoga and teach yoga for health reasons, my true passion is to help people awaken to their life. To allow them a place to help them remember who they once were by encouraging them it’s okay to be that person of long ago. I also love to help them believe that it’s okay to dream again and allow themselves to be filled with awe and wonder. Because there is a God who created our wonderful selves, uniquely and purposefully created for this very moment in this life for a reason and for a plan.

Essentially, these are the purposes of why I began my yoga journey ten years ago. Because a Yoga Angel was sent to me by God, setting me on a new path for new purposes and as a present of precious time back to my Mother’s kitchen. Most importantly I believe God’s plan was and still is to grow my wings as I trust Him each day so that I can remind you that God already has your wings. You just have to trust Him when, where, and how- He will make you fly!

BE PRESENT LIKE PETER

 

The past is history. The future is a mystery. But this very moment is a gift- that is why they call it the present.

Holding onto the past can be so comforting. Problem is the past gets played over and over again-there’s nothing new. Life is suppose to be an adventure of growth and learning. Of stepping out of our comfort zones and into new experiences that may change and challenge us and give us new ways of thinking and new perspectives on living.

Enter Peter. The apostle who walked on water. Peter being a fisherman I’m sure experienced a lot of terrible storms out in the sea in his boat. Yet in this Bible story another storm was raging all about him and the all Jesus disciples. Peter and the disciples were afraid and clinging to the safety and comfort of their boat. Suddenly, out there on the waves they encountered a figure. Peter got up and asked, is it you Lord and if it is let me come to you? Jesus then commanded Peter to come and Peter lunged forward- up and out of the boat. By the grace and power of God, Peter walked on water!

Would you agree, Peter was probably tired of the same old clinging to the boat in the storm scenario? However, the other eleven disciples seemed to do the thing they always did in a storm, cling to what they could see. Sadly the disciples all missed the opportunity to do something amazing in their lives – but not Peter. There, in the present moment he was not concerned with the safety and security of himself or he would of never left the boat. Instead, I think Peter was dwelling in the present moment. He simply did not have time thinking victimizing thoughts of the past nor did he allow anxious overwhelming thoughts of what might or could happen in the future. He was and in person ever in the present moment, faithfully lunging forward until- But that is another story!

 

“Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing at all.” Helen Keller

I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly! John 10:10

 

 

 

CHILD POSE

The sweet Child’s Pose, practiced during every yoga class and perfect for the Christmas season!
Christmas maybe the most wonderful time of year but it is perhaps the most stressful time too!
But don’t worry, I’ve got you covered.
Join me and I will show you how to slow down to Christmas tree speed and still shine bright.
That way, all will be calm with you and you can bask in the warm glow of being all there in the moments you get to share with family and friends.

And now I present to you the gift of the basic, most essential Child Pose.
It’s the reassuring hug you been waiting for and the gift that keeps on giving.

Although it’s a warm-up or resting pose in a yoga class, it’s the perfect remedy to unwrap tension and stress anytime and a great antidote for a restful night’s sleep.

To enhance the healthy yoga goodness from Child Pose focus on your inhales and exhales.
Then let the soothing sanctuary of your Child Pose envelope you in a cocoon of warmth, comfort, safety, and ease!

You may fold up a towel to place between your heels and your sitting bones for comfort and support. You may also rest your head on a pillow for ease.
To begin, come to all fours and gently fold forward over your legs. Spreading your legs apart will provide a deeper stretch. Gently resting your forehead on your mat or pillow begin inhaling and exhaling slowly and deeply. Remember, it’s your time to relax and unwind so try to linger here for a few moments. One minute would be great, but longer would be better. The best scenario would be to stay as long as you need, not worrying about minutes or time simply enjoying the present peaceful moment. Besides relieving stress, practicing Child Pose on a regular basis stretches our lower backs, opens our hips, stretches our shoulders, ankles and ligaments. Therapeutic for digestion, it enhances circulation, calms our minds and fights insomnia.

Thanks for joining me!

May God fill you with peace and love this Christmas as we celebrate the most special child of all time – the Lord Jesus Christ!

And a very “Merry Christmas” every day of the year!

love to you and yours

Penny