Meditation Group

Every first Friday of the month, The Karma Garage transforms into The Dharma Garage.
For details, check out this link.

http://www.meetup.com/The-Dharma-Garage-Talk-and-Meditation-Group/

Garudasana at the Garage!

New Saturday Class!

You are all welcome to join our new Saturday class from 12:00 to 1:30.

Come park your mind



drive your body



and tune your spirit



with special attention to your alignment



at the Karma Garage




where we bring life to our yoga



and yoga to our lives...



in more ways than one!

"Enlighten Up"

Which begs the question...

How has yoga changed your life?

Hunterdon Health and Wellness Center in Clinton

http://www.hunterdonhealthcare.org/services/primary_care_wellness/wellness-clinton.asp

Well the times they are a-changing, and it looks like these times are sounding a call for my return to Physical Therapy.

I have just accepted a job at the Wellness Center in Clinton.

I AM VERY VERY VERY EXCITED ABOUT THIS!

But never fear, yogis and yoginis.

The Karma Garage lives on!!!

Please stay tuned for schedule changes in February. I will do my best to open a night class, and I will continue to see students privately for yoga, Thai yoga massage, and meditation.

I welcome, as always, your emails, phone calls, as well as comments here at this blog.

Faithfully Yours,

Val

The Bees Knees

These days at The Karma Garage we are paying a lot of attention to our knees. And by paying attention, I mean that we are strengthening and stretching all of the muscles that cross these wondrous hinges. With balanced strength and flexibility across a joint, we gain stability – especially appreciated, if underneath all these muscles, our ligaments are in any way compromised.

Lets see how one pose can be used to strengthen all four muscular walls of the knee. I give you - Utkatasana.



In this powerful pose, we have the quadriceps in the front, working to hold the knees in place, and the hamstrings in the back, working to hold the hips in place. If we then add a yoga block between the thighs (and we do - just ask Jim), we can enhance the work of the inside thigh muscles. We can then remove the block and strap a yoga belt around the thighs (oh yes we can!) to get the outside muscles working. Yee Haaaaaa!

But here's the key. The feet must be balanced.
All the strengthening work in the world will offer our knees very little benefit if our knees are not aligned, and as usual, alignment begins where our feet hit the ground.

In yoga we place a lot of value in developing awareness of the four corners of each foot – one at the base of the big toe, one at the base of the pinky toe, and two at the back “corners” of the heel. If we balance our weight distribution evenly over these four corners, our arches will be honored, our ankles will be supported in neutral, and they will then be in an excellent position to better inform our knees.

Awareness of the four corners of each foot benefits us, when we do things like.... squeeze a block between our thighs in utkatasana. : ) The first thing you may notice in this endeavor is that you lose pressure through the outside corners of the feet, and then, because everything in our bodies is connected, the medial arches of the feet will begin to collapse, after which the insides of the knee joints will begin to gape, and the medial collateral ligament of each knee will be on its way to laxity; a state of instability, which is an unfortunate predisposition for degeneration of the knee joint surfaces - aka - arthritis. So we ground the outside corners of the feet a bit more, thus learning to take very good care of our knees.

You can imagine that when we do the opposite work, pressing outer thighs into a yoga belt, it is likely that we will lose grounding of the inside corners of the feet. The job becomes to exert more pressure through the inside corners.

We are doing the work of yoga. We are getting curious about making connections between opposites: the outward movement of the thighs with the increased need for grounding of the inner corners of the feet. We discover balance - alignment - stability - awareness - and so much more.

The beauty of this lesson is that it transfers to every standing pose in yoga - every single standing pose. And actually? The four corners of our feet give us very important information even when we turn our selves upside down. Most importantly, we can take this information off the mat, and try it out in "real life". I invite you to take this lesson on as your experiment. Even now! While you're sitting down at this computer! (Did your spine just lengthen?)

Onward.... What about balancing flexibility all around the knees?

1. Down dog to stretch your hamstrings and gastrocs (calf muscles).


2. Pigeon variation (eka pada kapotasana variation) to stretch your quads.
(Please feel free to drop that right arm and hold the left ankle in your hand or use a yoga belt to catch the ankle)


3. Revolved triangle (parivritta trikonasana) to stretch the outside muscles (iliotibial tract).


4. Straddle pose (upavista konasana) with legs up the wall to stretch the inside muscles (long adductors).


All of these poses can be varied to accomodate your needs. Please never take any written advice as a prescription. Instead, you can try these poses on to see if they fit you, adding props to preserve alignment and offer support. Have a conversation with these poses, listening very closely to your body, engaging your body with a spirit of curiosity and compassion. Please, take any questions you still have to class. Of course you are also very welcome to dialogue here.

Now.... It is time to connect the knees to the hips.
In many ways, the hips are like the parents of the knees, dictating what is safe for our knees to do - especially in yoga class. Unfortunately too many yoga students have taken their knees into poses like lotus and hero pose without the hips' permission. The knees were just minding their own bees wax, when they got forced somewhere they could not go, and they certainly suffered the consequences.

Take lotus (padmasana).



Here, if the hips do not have sufficient external rotation (rolling out of the thigh bones), the lateral collateral ligaments of the knees will find it for us - by overstretching or even tearing. Pinching the medial meniscus is another possible scenario. There's cartilage damage to be done. And muscles to be strained - like the possibly overzealous sartorius or adductor longus taking on more than it can handle.

You don't have to tease all these possibilities apart. What you do have to do is listen to and respect your body. The knees know. The knees know.

On to hero pose (virasana).



If you have enough knee flexion to actually sit down between your shins, the question becomes - do you really have enough internal rotation at the hips (rolling in of the thigh bones), because if you don't (and many of us don't - it's anatomical)...the medial collateral ligament may accommodate your wishes by overstretching and possibly even taking a bit of meniscus along for the ride. Again - ask your knees. If there is pain, especially along the inside of the knee joint, you must back off. It may help to sit up higher on a block or two, and also, it's very important to keep your shin bones tucked in close to your thigh bones with your ankles in neutral.

Well, we have begun a conversation about knees here. And I believe I will continue this line of thought into the next blog - perhaps something about the vastus medialis obliquus - because you know - I really care about your patella tracking, too.

And also because - I think you're the bees knees.

Bodhichitta

B o d h i c h i t t a.

This is my favorite word.

Today we began class with this word.

While the students were slumbering in a restorative twist, I told them how much I just love to say this word - B o d h i c h i t t a.

Bodhichitta is Indian Sanskrit, and it means awakened heart. Actually "chitta" means both heart and mind, since in Indian Sanskrit, there is no distinction between these two places.

We could say that an awakened heart is one definition of enlightenment. Somehow, that can feel like a pretty tall order.

I like the description of bodhichitta as ... s p a c e.

We have been working a lot lately with BREATH - and its relationship to space. The instruction has been to follow the journey of an inhale from its beginning to its end. I like this exercise, because for me it produces the same effect as listening to a very long gong at the beginning of a meditation practice. I can s t a y with that gong from its beginning to its end. There's a sense of travel - of taking me along - but afterwards, it won't be long before I l e a v e.

Unlike the gong, which returns only once again at the end of meditation class, an inhale is followed by an exhale, which is followed by an inhale, and this cycle is infinite (almost). The breath is so beautifully suited for working with being present, because breath itself is always present. Yet, it is never still. It is always moving. And in this way, it is also beautifully suited for teaching us something about life - there is nothing to hold on to.

After awhile of travelling the breaths from beginning to end, I asked the students to notice that place after the inhale and before the exhale - after the exhale and before the inhale - the place between breaths. In that place, there is a g a p. There is s p a c e. There is s t i l l n e s s. A place to rest. To rest the mind. This place is b i g.

Space is so very very big.

A couple of months ago we talked about the idea that time is big. Well, I had just read this idea in a yoga magazine; and it was funny to me, because I used to see a therapist in New York, who in all our time together, offered me only one certainty in life (thankfully leaving out death and taxes): "there is never enough time". At the time that worked for me, because it taught me the meaning of good enough. Now, however, reading this phrase "time is big" - hmmmmmmm - this feels so much more OPENING - not so constrictive as "there is never enough time".

Probably most of us are usually trying to accomplish more than is possible. We continually run out of time. We feel pressured for time. Doing less doesn't seem like an option. Or what about those times, when you find yourself stuck in traffic. WORSE - there's no traffic, just a very slow driver in front of you. Do you feel tense right now just thinking about that?!! Does it feel like I'M GONNA BE LATE?!! Or imagine you are actually not going to be late for anything, but still, you just want to go FASTER!!!! You could say..."time is big". And something might loosen. Open. You still won't get where you want when you want, but that's totally out of your control right now (pretend there's no way to pass). If time could feel bigger, you might stop cursing out that so-and-so in front of ya. : )

In class I often cue students to widen their collar bones or their hips. Today, I confessed that really you can do neither of these things. The point is that when you, at least with your mind, widen your collar bones or your hips, you may experience a sense of expansion, of opening, of space.

Aaaaaaaaaaaah s p a c e.

Space has an interesting power. It dissolves barriers. It dissolves separation. It connects us.

Some yogis are surprised when I say that the point of yoga and meditation is not to go inward. It is to open outward. Yoga means "to yoke" - to connect. We connect body, mind and spirit. We connect movement with breath. We connect the spaace inside us with the space outside us. We connect with gap.

Recently, I heard Pema Chodron give a meditation instruction that she heard from another teacher. "Have you ever noticed that between your thoughts, there is a gap? .... Make the gap bigger."

Gap is the experience of bodhichitta. The experience of opening out to the world. We can touch in on this place between breaths, between widening shoulders, between widening intervals of thought.

Or we may touch in on this place with a fully experienced emotion. To suppress an emotion - to not fully experience it - is to separate ourselves from our own selves and from everyone around us - to close down. To fully open up to an emotion is to open out. The fully experienced joy of a sunset is opening. The fully experienced sadness of a loss is the same. Loneliness is like that also. When we learn to make space to fully experience our emotions, we learn that we are not alone with any of this. We ALL feel these things. Just like me, that person feels angry. Just like me, that slow driver ahead also knows frustration. The walls crumble. The separation dissolves. The space opens up to the size of IT ALL.

So we can work with space.

Lightly.

We can touch in.

Tap in.

Tap into the nourishing infinite spring of bodhichitta.

Come on in, as they say....the water's fine.

And so is the space.

Kids Yoga Party!

Happy birthday, sweet five year old Dylan.


Thomas the Tank does yoga.

Being Present

Just over a year ago, I experienced an affliction of the most babbling mind on earth - a mind possessed by all things outside me. And though I knew how to meditate, had practiced yoga for many years, drenched myself in Buddhist readings, believed with the strongest conviction that I should "Be Here Now"...I couldn't. I couldn't be present. I didn't even know what it was.

I went for long bike rides. There were many days of long bike rides on the Delaware Canal path and all over the beautiful countryside of Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Bike rides do seem to have a way of clearing the cob webs of the mind, and I would experience an ease, a loosening....but not presence.

In fact, I can remember trying so earnestly to be present that I'd be talking to myself - "I am seeing the canal, I am seeing this meadow, I am feeling the rumble of the earth beneath my wheels, I am sweating". A narration of observations. Such an enormous effort! Kind of like contracting a muscle as tight as you can, so you know you have that muscle. You actually feel less when you're all locked up. All the subtlety is gone.

To be alive so long and to not truly be able to experience presence seems a very peculiar thing. How can it be such a difficult skill and not just a natural tendency? I am alive. I should know how to feel fully alive. How can I not know how to be present?

What IS presence?

Before I began writing this blog, I googled the topic. I found nothing I believed. It's weird that so many of us agree we need to be present, but seem to have little idea what that really means. Presence seems so illusive. Subjective. We're all making up our own definitions. Hallmark writes cards about it.

I think that it's probably not subjective at all. It's universal. It's the same for all of us. And it either takes tons and tons of practice to achieve or it arrives in an instant - unannounced - like in the face of a beautiful sunset or in the pain of a broken heart. Life has its ways of waking us up, and all of a sudden, we're Here - Now. Then the sunset is over, or the broken hearted brain moves into action, and we're...There - Then. Lol - someone should write that book - "Be There Then".

Well, I can happily happily report that I am now a great dabbler in the present moment. And so I think I may have discovered why being present is such a hard thing to write about, and why googling it turned out to be so dissatisfying.

I can't describe it.

Yet, I'd say, being present is not much of anything. It's just being in my body. Being really in my body. And to elaborate would probably bring me further away from what I mean. BUT I will say that it has been my meditation practice - my meditation and my yoga - that has helped me immensely to know the home that is me. To feel whole and connected inside my body, inside this moment - to have a sense of immediate contact with me, not removed by one step, not distanced by narration.

From this very grounded feeling of being inside my skin, I become more connected with all the space outside me. For one second here. For one second there. But most importantly - for when I need it. I have access. I can come back to me. And be part of it all. And I can stay.

When I need to - like a well trained dog - I stay.

I am here now...for at least some of the moments.

What some lovely yogis and yoginis are saying about The Karma Garage

Val's yoga class is a phenomenal experience to improve strength, flexibility, balance, stress relief, posture and movement quality. She tailors it to each individual's needs with cues for alignment and her gentle touch is just righ. As a fellow physical therapist, she plans the sessions with vast expertise and progression focusing on different areas of the body each session. The setting is beautiful - peaceful and relaxing and her choice of music is very fun! I highly recommend taking a class to see for yourself!
Laura Davison PT

The Karma Garage yoga experience with Val Turner is a beautiful one.
Val gently guides you through the yoga experience in her beautifully
designed studio filled with light and comforting colors. I have taken yoga for many years but Val adjusted my postures in ways that are new to me and that my body could immediately feel were taking me where it wanted to go. In her class, I feel cared for and very comfortable.
Janet Hudak Boddy

A session at the Karma Garage is wonderful for the body, the brain, and the soul.
Val attends to each individual in the class, challenging, coaxing, supporting, and
celebrating with us. The class is filled with good humor, good music, and fun!
Colleen Maloney

I love Valerie's attention to detail and ability to know just what I need. With a great sense of humor, she guides me to working with my body and a level of awareness that is hard to achieve on my own.
My only regret is that I can't get to the Karma Garage as often as I need or want to!
Best Regards,
Karen

Hi Val,
You introduced me to yoga this year and at first I must admit, I was unsure. Because of my own fears though. You totally make a person feel very comfortable and make it known that it’s possible for anybody to participate. You know just how to adjust to what that person is capable of doing. I leave tired but I also feel all the stress that I carry around with me is gone for a while. It amazes me how much stress I feel on a normal basis and how for that little time after Yoga It goes away. Thank you for your patience and kindness. It’s a pleasure to know you.
Terry

Hi Val,
I would like to thank you immensely for your yoga instruction. I had some experience with yoga years ago. I tried it on my own and didn't get very far and was probably doing everything wrong.
Since I started with the Karma Garage this past January, I have been feeling great and you have done things for my neck that are marvelous. Even though I am a beginner, you inspire me to try to improve to a more advance level. You make the class about body and mind. Your facility is class A, with an at home feel. You've definitely made yoga a big part of my life.
I would recommend your classes to everyone.
jim e roney (@)==#

hi val
just wanted to let you know how very much i enjoyed class yesterday. it's just what i've been needing for a long time. i was sore last night, and tired but i slept well and feel like my body got some use in parts that hadn't been moved in ages.
d


Val,
I miss The Karma Garage!!!! After my first class I felt such an overwhelming sense of relaxation but with an adreneline edge....like after really great sex. Tired, relaxed, and oh so happy in my body!
Laura L.



I am so grateful and honored to have worked with all of you.
Namaste.
Val

Thank you, Terry, for this beautiful, beautiful blessing.

Restlessness

Recently, while driving, I was listening to a DVD (already speaking volumes about my restlessness with driving), when I heard one of the characters quoting Pema Chodron. Well that was fun and unexpected for me. The quote was something about restlessness being a signal for us to listen more closely. There was no elaboration on the meaning really, which is probably why I'm still thinking about it today.

I sure know a lot of restless folks. People who seem to always have to be doing something - lots of "useful engines" out there, as Thomas the Tank would say. I wonder what they would feel if they stopped all that moving around. Boredom?

Someone once told me that someone once told her that boredom is the waiting room for feelings. Is that the thing we need to listen to more closely? When we're restless? If we just stay restless and bored, what will come up? Are we listening for our feelings?

I don't think of myself as one of those useful-engine-types, but goodness gracious I don't want to know how many times I check my email a day. When I think of all the mindless tasks I find myself needing to do... Eating. Cell phone calls. On-line Scrabble. : ) Always filling up space.

Some of us meditate, and boy is there is a lot of space there. Trungpa Rinpoche said that you have to sit to the point where you're just bored. Then sit through the restlessness of boredom. You may come to a place called cool boredom - that place where you're just okay being bored, and there's no compulsion to jump up or fill up the space. When my yoga teacher explained this to our class, I remember raising my hand to ask "then what happens?" She exclaimed, "Enlightenment!" Alright then.

Think I'll be restless for a long, long time.

In yoga we move a lot. But then again, there's a lot of staying. Especially in places where we'd rather not stay. Ever get left in suptavirasana for more than 5 minutes? Well THERE'S an exercise in restlessness for ya. How do you find cool boredom in suptavirasana? How do you get comfortable with being uncomfortable?




I think it takes a whole lot of compassion towards oneself. Loyalty to oneself. Steadfastness with oneself. I think it's like making friends with yourself. If you've ever had a friend you could sit silently with, neither of you feeling the need to fill in the space with conversation, both of you just so comfortable sitting together with all the quiet and no awkwardness - I think that's the kind of friend you need to be to yourself. Then maybe when something comes up - something that you should probably listen to closely - something uncomfortable perhaps - something that has enough restless energy to send you running to begin some important new project (where is that Swiffer mop?!!!), maybe you (I) could stop and stay, and with all the loyalty of a good friend, we could then tell ourselves that it's okay. Pull up a seat. Stay awhile.

Next time I go for a long drive, I can't wait to pop in the next episode of my show, and see what happens to that character's restlessness. Or maybe...I won't. Maybe I'll just drive...and see what happens to MY restlessness.

A Mat of Your Own

Pema Chodron says that the ego is like a room of your own...

"...a room with a view with the temperature and the smells and the music that you like. You want it your own way. You'd just like to have a little peace, you'd like to have a little happiness, you know, just 'gimme a break.' But the more you think that way, the more you try to get life to come out so that it will always suit you, the more your fear of other people and what's outside your room grows. Rather than becoming more relaxed, you start pulling down the shades and locking the door. When you do go out, you find the experience more and more unsettling and disagreeable. You become touchier, more fearful, more irritable than ever. The more you try to get it your way, the less you feel at home."

Actually, I'm pretty partial to having things go my way. And oh how I do like a room smelling of lavender, warm enough to sit around in yoga clothes, and the sounds sprinkled with acoustic indie beats. Also, I would not mind a gift certificate to Euphoria for my birthday. :)

Yeah, but life sometimes smells more like kitty litter, and feels like stiff joints, and is there any end to the problems that come knocking at our doors? How long will we let ego continue to delude us, when really most of the time it's quite impossible to have things go our way?

Not even in yoga. Not even on your mat (though if you happen to be at The Karma Garage, your mat actually IS in a beautiful room infused with lavender and melodic guitar notes - wink, wink). But your warrior pose might have just gone on 30 seconds longer than seems reasonable. Your fingers might never touch your toes. Muscles may spasm.

We could say ego is like a mat of your own. A mat where yoga flows effortlessly, muscles rise to every occasion, balance is never lost. But when that doesn't happen, what do you do? ...Try to notice that next time... Do you close the windows? Draw the shades? Lock the door. Close down? Beat yourself up? Fight with your body? Wish it were different? Wish you were different?

I used to encourage people to leave their egos on the coat rack before they entered the studio. But you know full well that ego is gonna hop off that hook and follow you right into class anyway. Probably gonna park its butt right behind you - like a shadow - maybe even keep up an ongoing dialogue.

We may continue to desire that perfect room and that perfect mat for a long, long time. But slowly...slowly...as we continue to practice...as we continue to cultivate curiosity about the situation, watching the habits of our mind with more awareness, introducing humor into the whole picture, having a little laugh at what a big deal we make of it all, always working with a spirit of loving kindness towards ourselves...slowly...that ego might begin to recede, becoming a smaller and smaller shadow...with less and less to say on the matter. Then our yoga practice comes to rest within the embrace of all that is difficult and all that is inescapable and all that is YOU...finding its own unique flow...bumps and all.

We could invite that flow right off our mats and into our lives - windows, doors and shades opening wide to a space where we can feel less separate - more connected - with it all.

We could practice that - feeling at home - on the mat as it is.

Kids Yoga at The Karma Garage

By appointment.

Call Val for details.