BAHAMAS DEAF YOGA RETREAT
March 2008

OM OM OM
OM beach waves and "white" roars
Sleeping in tents in the coconut grove
Eyes open early- awake for meditation
Body sitting in darkness only
As the mind travels within the heart
And between the eyes- the 6th chakra
Colour indigo purple

The walking meditations on the beach were full of bliss
For when our eyes open after the quiet sitting still,
We embrace the rising sun
We greet the birth of a new day
A yoga reading by Dorothy
Replaces the satsang chanting

Body (and soul) ready next for hatha yoga class
By the beach- AWE and AH and OM
First meal of the day at TEN am
Waiting for this hour
Makes the tasting ever more savoured and delicious
Food- wholesome, fresh, pure, sattva
Feeds more than the body
Feeds the heart, mind and soul

Workshops - a week of Healing Symposium
Learning an abunchance of health and healing

The Mozart Effect with Don Campbell
Vowel elevator
Making sounds
Freedom

Dr. Ciaro Rocha led us in a visualization
Powerful
Miniature flashlight
Inside the body
Searching for cobwebs to clear
"I deserve to be healthy"
"I deserve to have clear space"
"I deserve to have a beautiful body"

Cairo's Chinese medicine and acupuncture
5 elements- metal, water, wood, earth, and fire
He said the most important thing is to fully inspire
Breath in FULL-
Hold and joyfully let go
And as you exhale, count to five
And imagine the breathe flowing down to your navel
And feel alive
Your lungs will thank you deeply
It is so good to fill the lungs
Knowing your lungs in turn feed the rest of your body cells
With such subtle energy and love

Qi gong, bear hug, tiger

Happiness or SUKHA is
"Plasticity of the mind"
The Dalai Lama's right hand man
Lives this way
And stays in joy
Remember that you are the movie director of your life

Dr. Joyce Hawkes
Celluluar biologist turned to healer
Why?
From a near death-experience
She shares her knowledge:
The spiraling galaxy of stars in the sky
Lives in your cells
As your spiraling galaxy of ribosomes in the cells
Mirror the galaxy within
The universe around you is the universe within you
Magical cells in the body
Talk to your mitocohondria in the house of your cells
Talk to your body to stay and be well
Think green for healing

Then there's John English
The path of the shaman
Thought forms, imprints or beliefs
Imprints stick to us
"Take out the garbage"

Anchor on the hands- 6 points
Access, Bridge, serpent, jaguar, condor/eagle and Inca/Source
Feel each and choose when to live in each place
For different reasons

Medicine wheel- the four directions

Amy Weintraub
Yoga for Depression
Has to do (and be) with the breath
Pranayama
Do your crying on the mat

Dr. Gopala's double lock/ bandha
At the tongue and moola bandha
Thanks to Simone's question
We can shield from other's negativity

After all the workshops
More Hatha yoga class to follow
Kapalabhati, Crow, headstand, savasana
Body getting stronger, taller, deeper
Dinner at six
The senses of taste enjoy the salads, veggies and soup
Whole wheat bread, delicious rice pudding and herbal tea
As the sense of sight "tastes' the view of the ocean
Peaceful yet chatting signs with warm deaf and hearing friends

Sometimes evening lecture
On Chakras by Colleen
Spiritual Fitness by Nancy
OM by Leonarda
And TP "imprints"
Then another meditation at eight

Still, there was time to buy at the ashram boutique
And snorkel and play and go to the straw market
And build friendships under the sun
And have a Vedic Astrology reading from the Swami
And Ayurvedic massage treatments

No more "sorry"
Hello Indian Sign Language for "pranayama"
The mudra for alternate nostril breathing
In sanskrit: anuloma viloma pranayama"
Exhale negativity, low self-worth
Inhale a new mantra
"I deserve to have all my dreams fulfilled"
"I deserve to have a healthy and beautiful body"

Then OM hugging was invented as Vicki and Leonarda hugged
Voice OM while hugging- for a long time.
Feel the vibration ripple through out and within your body.
Each OM felt in the body is an I LOVE YOU to your soma cells

From this experience
We discover and re-discover again and again
Our strength and discipline
In body, mind and soul
We are filled with joy
Love
Peace
Wisdom
Truth
Spiritual fitness

Namaste
The light in me
Sees the light in you
And together
We are ONE
Namaste

OM OM OM

How to have Mindful Christmas

Mindful:
attentive, observant, watchful, conscious;
with awareness and appreciation;
with cautious attentiveness;
heedful, careful.
(Roger's Thesaurus)

The following tips are ideas for you to 'play with' during the upcoming holiday season. Whether you celebrate Christmas traditionally or not, these suggestions can still allow a savoured and 'slow-it-down' experience that will become fond memories simply because more of your 'senses' were 'at the party', too.

PRESENCE (not presents)

Be present to your experience. When you eat, taste the food. Yes, even chocolate and sweets. Chances are if you do this, you will have only one or two anyway. So you won't overindulge and 'regret' unconscious overeating - which happens a lot at this time of year.

Speaking of presents, when it's time to open them, why not spread the 'main event' (to some, this is the main event) over a few days. Last year, our 2 year old daughter took all week to open up her gifts- opening up 1 or 2 gifts each day. What a wonderful teacher she was! My husband and I decided to follow her actions and we did the same. How nice it was to open a gift, play with it for a while (even hours) before opening up the next gift.

MODERATION (not over-doing-it, ie: over-indulgeness)

There is no need to avoid anything, just do it all in small portions.

Why not buy gifts in moderation? (who needs to owe money for months afterwards?).

Eat with joy and taste each mouthful, whether it is sweet or meaty, etc. You will probably eat less of it this way. Ideally avoiding such foods is the healthiest. But for most people, this is not the season to start a new way of eating.

Even socially, you can listen more than you speak. Or keep more quiet hours to yourself in reflection as preparation for the coming of the new year.

THINK BIGGER THAN INSIDE YOUR HOME

Donations, Christmas hampers and buying meals for the homeless are just some ways to think outside the box from the conventional Christmas.

Giving donations in honour of a loved-one whom has passed one, is one way to 'give'. If some one you know has died because of a specific illness, often donations are given in memory of them to that charity or cause. Or if the person had a favourite organization, donations can be made there. It is a great way to keep the spirit alive of our loved ones who have died.

My colleague does a "backpack hamper" every year and makes it a family experience. She buys a backpack, fills it with white socks, mitts, foods, and other necessities and then ON Christmas Day, her family walks along one of the main streets in Vancouver where many homeless people live and gives the backpack to one of them. I was very moved to hear about their unique ''tradition'.

ACTION GIFTS:

The gift of time is wonderful. We started a family bowling time where we pay for everyone's game. Everyone looks forward to the event because it is so much fun and we all get to spend time together. This has replaced the material gifts. It's a win:win.

In conclusion, these are just a few ideas. Keep it simple. Savour and enjoy. Wishing you and yours a wonderful celebration of the Christmas spirit!

Signing off,
Namaste
Leonarda

Deaf YoGo 24. Why not?

Schools don't teach us how to be happy. Better put by Ashleigh Brilliant "I don't know how to be happy - They didn't teach it in my school". As a straight-A student, I felt that to be true and learned that yoga practice enhanced inner peace and contentment which were paramount in making wise decisions in life. All students, not just Deaf students, can benefit from this priceless practice of yoga; an inner compass of self-love and self-respect that taps into our inner wisdom.

All children can enjoy and reap endless benefits of a small taste of self-discipline with yoga practice. My three year-old daughter has been doing yoga all her life. She accompanies me on my yoga mat as well as sits with me for a delightful "quiet sitting" of meditation. We conclude with an exercise of gratitude. And we just recently started doing "uddiyana bandha" together.

Being a Teacher of the Deaf in Burnaby, I also have a second hat. I am a certified yoga instructor and the founder of Yoga PAH! offering yoga within the Deaf community. Though it is just beginning, it is indeed on new breaking ground. I attended a Deaf Yoga Retreat in upper state New York mid October; a pioneering event it was. Imagine almost 30 participants from all over North America. This impressive turnout illustrates that the Deaf community are ripe and ready for direct access to yoga classes with a fluent signing certified yoga instructor (vs interpreted yoga classes, closed captioned yoga DVD's or attending classes watching the yoga instructor's mouth moving).

Yoga PAH! is a name that may need some explaining to those not familiar with Deaf Culture. "PAH!" is an ASL idiom meaning "at last", "finally", "success" or "I did it". It is used with a full sense of pride, a sense of achievement and an embodied happiness. "At last" (PAH!), yoga is reaching the Deaf community. As yoga instructor colleague of mine put it, "the Deaf community is about 20 years behind when it comes to yoga". When you think about it, the Deaf have never had equal access; yet a hand-full of determined Deaf persons have learned it anyway.

At the recent Deaf Yoga Retreat I attended, I met an inspiring 68-year old Deaf woman originally from South Africa now residing in Maryland, who'd been practicing yoga for 30 years, eating raw foods for six years and is a certified massage therapist. I also met a Deaf yoga instructor who also is a certified Reiki practitioner, probably the first in North America. But remember, this represents a unique group of possibility-thinkers within the Deaf community well ahead of their time. It is time now for other members to be invited into signing yoga classes.

The YoGO24 is an exciting opportunity to bring yoga into the Schools for Deaf. Why not?

For more information, please visit: http://www.yogo24.com

Leonarda Minutillo-Ehl
Teacher of the Deaf
Certified yoga instructor
Founder of Yoga PAH!
Community Relations Sub-Committee Member
YogaKids Society