“USE it or LOSE it" people - reposting this article because it's important for y'all to know 🙂
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https://qz.com/quartzy/1121077/to-solve-problems-caused-by-sitting-learn-to-squat/?fbclid=IwAR08Af4cXn0ecgxG7AVoyea74au0nY94-GStdVUgRmMUPwlms1fF2sr67ag
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Why a ton of the yoga classes I teach focus on natural human purposeful movement , not mainly on the linear shapes of "traditional" yoga (for another post soon). I'm more interested in moving in all planes and in fact this past month we have been exploring and progressing thru different types of ACTIVE squatting in my open classes (schedule below)
“Every joint in our body has synovial fluid in it. This is the oil in our body that provides nutrition to the cartilage,” Jam says. “Two things are required to produce that fluid: movement and compression. So if a joint doesn’t go through its full range—if the hips and knees never go past 90 degrees—the body says ‘I’m not being used’ and starts to degenerate and stops the production of synovial fluid.”
"A healthy musculoskeletal system doesn’t just make us feel lithe and juicy, it also has implications for our wider health. A 2014 study in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology found that test subjects who showed difficulty getting up off the floor without support of hands, or an elbow, or leg (what’s called the “sitting-rising test”) resulted in a three-year-shorter life expectancy than subjects who got up with ease. "

​“A spoonful of sugar makes the trauma recovery go down” @janetheclapp (check out her awesome post)
Once a week I try to make it out to the trails, run or hike - enjoy the view, sounds, and feel all the feels.
I’ve been reflecting so much recently on how this has helped with my healing process and makes keeping my sh*t together so much sweeter.
After several years geeking out on trauma and well , trying sooo hard to heal , I often found myself in collapse or freeze in certain situations.
You see all this understanding of the impact of trauma on the body is that more is not always more - learning more theory, knowledge and bringing more awareness doesn’t automatically mean recovery and moving from survive to thrive.
What I have found for myself is this
Play. Connection. Pleasure. Nature. Nourishment. Curiosity. Embodied Movement.
These have been key essentials to my body coming back to a sense of aliveness.
Engaging in these things (including time spent with my daughter & teaching) has also been super effective for coming back to life - a thawing out in the places and spaces where I was numb and dancing between survive and thrive - rather than becoming the most cognitively informed.
Because all this acquiring of book knowledge is only as effective as our ability for it to be integrated into our everyday living ❤️
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@barbahar_cafe

“Eema (mom in Hebrew), I’m going to show you a move that will break teeth”
My favorite thing about girl power is that over time it turns into woman power.
Before school yesterday morning , Anava wanted to practice the new moves she learned in her self defense class.
Just the other day her teacher told me she is proud of Anava for telling her she didn’t want the classroom job that was assigned to her this week and would prefer a different job.
I can’t tell you how huge these seemingly small steps are - for Anava and me - struggling with “speaking up” about needs in a group environment and I have seen so much of myself in her as regards to people pleasing and the like - working with the body and watching the process of healing is so powerful ❤️
#proudmama #selfdefense #workingwothbthebody
#girlpower #womanpower #boudaries #embodiedyogaprinciples #somatics