Where The Lotus Grows

In addition to being a licensed and certified Vibrational Sound Therapy practitioner, Dawn Wallen describes herself as an artist, a sound junkie and a believer. She loves helping people and seeing them grow and thrive. She's been practicing Vibrational Sound Therapy for over a year and is excited about seeing it grow and become a mainstream modality. She sees herself as a facilitator of relaxation and says "When people are deeply relaxed,they heal. And as they heal they are better equipped to deal with whatever life throws at them. I'm excited to be a part of that process!" 

Join Tonya and Kim as they learn more from Dawn about  the exciting healing modality of Vibrational Sound Therapy. 

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Ahimsa is respect for all living things and avoidance of violence towards others and yourself. It is a Yama and part of restraints.

Join Kim and Tonya in a discussion about the practice of nonviolence toward the self and others and it’s impact on day to day life.  This is the second in their 10 part series of Yamas and Niyamas. 

We learn compassion as we dissolve our personal version of the world, and grow gentle eyes that are not afraid to see reality as it is. 

And when we think about the bigger acts of violence, the violence of crime and war - its constantly in our faces, on the news, in the paper;  it's really important that we still soften into peace and try to project that peace into the world. Choose love over worry. Courage over fear. 

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Money mapping offers a mindful way forward. A money map is like a litmus test of a budget and whether it’s leading you toward a happy life. And only you can determine what a happy life looks like for you and what steps you are willing to take toward it. Money mapping is about discerning what is important to you in life and understanding there are rhythms and cycles to this and then a reverse-engineering a lifestyle that supports your versions of happiness.

Today Tonya and Kim discuss mindful money management and share the trick and tips that have worked for them. 

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Last season we did a few series episodes that discussed a general topic related to yoga/yoga therapy and dropped them in about every six weeks.  This season, we wanted to do something similar but go into a little more of the philosophical foundation of the practice of yoga beginning with the yamas and niyamas.  These precepts or ethical guides are basic tenants (yamas 5 internal - self-regulating and niyamas 5 external - personal practices) on the 8 fold path of yoga. 

Saucha is about purity/cleanliness and invites us to purify our bodies, our thoughts, and our words. Join Tonya and Kim in a frank discussion about what the practice means to them and how they incorporate it into their everyday life. 

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Today Kim & Tonya Discuss breathing techniques that help to invigorate or improve focus for those times when a natural “pick me up” is needed.   

While many yoga styles use the “skull shining breath” kapalabhati, Kundalini’s aim when practicing this technique is to let the energy of your lower chakras, your energy centers, flow to your high chakras. The lower chakras represent the more earthly and selfish desires, while the higher ones stand for love and connection. In yoga, you hear about the kundalini energy rising. The kundalini energy is stored in your first chakra, close to your coccyx, and is often pictured as a curled-up sleeping stance. When the snake wakes up- it represents your awareness- it moves up along the chakras to bring you to a higher state of being. This breathing technique is one way to wake up the so-called snake: it fans the flames of your kundalini energy so it can flow through your whole body.

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What is Pain?

Pain occurs when something hurts, causing an uncomfortable unpleasant feeling. The presence of pain often means something is wrong. Each individual is the best judge of his or her pain.

What is the difference between acute and chronic pain?

Acute pain usually comes on suddenly and is caused by something specific. It is sharp in quality. Acute pain usually does not last longer than six months. It goes away when there is no longer an underlying cause of pain. Causes of acute pain include: Surgery, Broken Bones, Dental Work, Burns or Cuts, Labor and Childbirth

Chronic Pain is pain that is ongoing and usually lasts longer than six months. This type of pain can continue even after the injury or illness that caused it has healed or gone away. Pain signals remain active in the nervous system for weeks, months or years. Some people suffer chronic pain even when there is no past injury or apparent body damage. Chronic pain is linked to conditions including Headache, Arthritis, Cancer, Nerve Pain, Back Pain, and Fibromyalgia Pain. 

While yoga therapy isn’t a magic cure-all for pain, We find it interesting that regular practice only increases its efficacy - you are likely to get stronger, more flexible, healthier and happier the more you practice. Additionally, its been shown to make other treatments more effective ... for example, regular practice is likely to have a pretty profound effect on your nervous system, stress response, and overall well being which may reduce the need for pharmaceuticals. 

Join Tonya & Kimberly as they discuss yoga therapy’s role in the treatment of chronic pain conditions.  

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Today, Kim and Tonya share an insightful conversation with Marlysa Sullivan, MPT, C-IAYT, about her contribution to the latest research on the role of yoga in pain care, relevant yoga research, poly-vagal theory and so much more!

Marlysa, is a physiotherapist and yoga therapist with over 15 years of experience working with people suffering with chronic pain conditions. She is an Assistant Professor in Yoga Therapy and Integrative Health Sciences at Maryland University of Integrative Health and holds an adjunct position at Emory University, where she teaches the integration of yoga and mindfulness into physical therapy practice in the DPT program. She is the co-editor of Yoga and Science in Pain Care: Treating the Person in Pain as well as several peer-reviewed articles. She also has an upcoming book titled Understanding Yoga Therapy: Applied Philosophy and Science for Well-being. Marlysa has been involved in the professionalization of the field of yoga therapy through the educational standards committee of IAYT, which helped to define the competencies for the field, and in characterizing the yoga therapy workforce through research. Her research interests focus on defining the framework and explanatory model for yoga therapy based on philosophical and neurophysiological perspectives.

Form more information, check out the following links:

http://integrativeyogastudies.com/workshops/

https://smile.amazon.com/s?k=Yoga+therapy+in+pain+care&ref=nb_sb_noss

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Failure sucks.  Failure feels terrible.  Failure is a blow to the ego. And nobody wants to be a failure. As a matter of fact, the whole concept of failure is what keeps most people from trying in the first place.   But what is a failure?

Failure is the state or condition of not meeting a desirable or intended objective and may be viewed as the opposite of success. Ranges from failure to sell the product to fractured relationships to personal injury. In life, it’s necessary to fail. Failure is a stepping stone. Failure teaches us experience, knowledge, resilience, growth, value. So why is so f*cking hard? Why is it hard to tune out the naysayers, to understand that it is okay to fail, to use failure as leverage and to revisit our life goal and purpose? 

Today Kim & Tonya Discuss the concept of failure and share personal failure stories. 

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Modern life is stressful.  We often get so wrapped up in that stress that our poor coping mechanisms turn into bad habits.  Today, Kim and Tonya discuss simple tips to stay mindful, release poor patterns and start healthy ones. 

Habits help us survive, but they can also cause us to crave what’s unhealthy. Can mindful awareness help us break free?

A perfect episode to wrap up 2019. Happy Holidays, Couragitarians!

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Empathy is the ability to experience or embody the feelings of another person. Empathy goes beyond sympathy, which is defined as caring and understanding for the suffering of others. This is not to say that sympathy is not an important emotion. Often times these words are used similarly and even interchangeably (incorrectly so) but, as you can see, differ subtly in their emotional meaning. Do you have your own definition or way of delineating between empathy and sympathy?

Today the ladies look at Empathy and Sympathy, why its important for your own self care to understand the subtle differences between the two, and some of the many ways to utilize both appropriately. 

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