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Chair Yoga

5:30 pm Tuesdays
at the Bowie Lions Club
8-class sessions for $80
$15 drop-in fee

2023 Next Session: May 9- July 11

What is Chair Yoga? Maybe you’ve heard of all the benefits of a regular yoga practice, but are unsure if you are in a strong enough place to start or maintain a regular practice. Using a chair to support your yoga practice can enhance your practice in many ways: supporting balance and stamina, protecting tender knees and backs, allowing longer stretches. We open each practice with seated stretches, flowing with the pace of our breath, and add a fun bit of seated aerobics. We stand by our chairs as we move through all of the classic warrior poses and balance poses before returning to our seats for our final stretch, relaxation, and meditation.

Who should take Chair Yoga? Chair Yoga is a great way to enhance your flexibility with your current fitness activities. It is also a way to continue your practice as you move through health challenges such as pregnancy, post-op recovery, and the complexities of aging. Maybe you are like me, still rebuilding my fitness and stamina post-pandemic. Whatever your motives, Chair Yoga is gentle practice that will enhance your calm, strength, and balance.

How do I join the class? My chair yoga practices are available by zoom and in-person at the Lions Den in Old Bowie. If you would like to join via zoom, please email me at least 30 minutes before class: ann@annspeacefulpractices.com. We can work out payment through Venmo, CashApp, or good old-fashioned cash or check. Please watch the video for some pointers before starting your practice at home.

If you are practicing with us at the den, please arrive 5 minutes early so we can get all set up and start on time. If you are running late, no worries – just slip in and join us when you can. Life is unpredictable, and a little yoga is better than none! I have extra mats and chairs that will be set up and waiting for you.

Mindful Eating

I was just dining on my front porch earlier, too lovely of a warm spring day to go inside. The crickets are back, whirring their evening songs.

I find it easier to be mindful of my food when I eat outside. Way easier to be mindful when I’m not watching TV too 😉 When I eat mindfully, I consider where my food has come from, how many people helped it arrive here in my bowl tonight, and also, is it tasty? Do I like the texture?

I had combined some leftovers with some fresh ingredients, all mixed together: brown rice and peas, onion and garlic sautéed in butter, a little diced pork tenderloin Mark cooked on the grill a couple days ago. I enjoy combining textures and flavors. The peas were fresh and sweet. The rice, firm with just enough salt. What isn’t improved by an onion sautéed in butter?

I envisioned rice fields, Guatemalan gardens, a pig and a cow, that I hoped were able to enjoy the pleasures of their kind. And the people who brought me my dinner: the brewers in Pennsylvania. pickers, warehouse managers, truck drivers, stockboys, that young tattooed cashier, and the workers in the desalination plant that made the salt I sprinkled over it all.

All these plants and animals collected energy from the sun for my benefit here tonight. All the workers labored for my dinner tonight, here on the front porch at sunset with the crickets.

So to make all their journey and energy worth it, what can I do? A bit of yoga, a little tidying up my home, a little writing.

Gratitude Vespers

Gratitude Vespers

The crickets lead my evening hymnsRehoboth, DE 2010 125
The clock keeps rhythm
The  lovely air conditioner hums along
My keystrokes a soft staccato

A deep breath , belly rising
The soft chair beneath me.

I am Loved.
My family is well.
Amen.

The Peace of Wild Things

The Peace of Wild Things
by
Wendell Berry

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.

I come into the peace of the wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

IMG_7662This morning as I hear the gentle surf in Saint Maarten, I marvel at the events of my life that made this trip possible. I shared morning coffee with my mother-in-law before she headed out to mass. Church bells chime the call of the faithful, but for me, the surf is enough of a sermon today – the aqua-blue sea my holy water.

I will let the peaceful sounds and beautiful sights soothe away my worries about my children and the crossroads they are approaching. I will breathe deeply and push aside thoughts of the troubles of the world that have made me grateful I canceled my newspaper subscription. Any ruminations of past offenses I will bury with my feet in the sand.

Water is my religion’s symbol of divine renewal. Today, I am baptized in the peace of wild things.