Writing Yoga

Being Flexible is all in the Head!

noreply@blogger.com (Stefanie Lipsey) — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 20:28:36 PST

This week in the Sound Cliff Writing Spa, my other blog and online writing community, we are talking about flexibility as writers.

The question is "how flexible are you?" Does a flexible body make a more bendable mind? Maybe yes, maybe no.

What do you think? Come visit the spa and post your thoughts. Here or there. It doesn't matter. I'm flexible.

http://soundcliffwritingspa.com/2012/01/30/writing-prompt-17/

www.stefanielipsey.com

Picture credit: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=3229

Can Your Calendar Turn the Office Desk into a Yoga Studio?

noreply@blogger.com (Stefanie Lipsey) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 04:19:29 PST

I like my iCal, but I love my paper cals better. I never have to back them up.

There is something personal about a paper calendar that online calendars can't replace. After yesterday's internet censorship protests, you can't help but wonder what would happen if someone decided one day to delete you. It might be okay to delete me, but not my calendar.

I have a pocket sized filofax for my bag (my love), a beautiful paper calendar for the fridge with family events, my ical, and Louise Hay's affirmation calendar for the circulation desk of the library where I work.

When we got back to school after our December vacation, I unpacked my new Louise Hay calendar and placed the 2012 version in a vacant spot. I love that one of the first things I see each day when I walk into work is that calendar and so do the teachers. Joyful teachers make joyful students make a joyful workplace.

What is the first thing you see in your workplace? Your writer's desk? A pile of work? Clutter?

Could sitting at your desk feel like sitting on a meditation pillow in a yoga studio? Could it be cleaner, clearer, filled with purposefully placed objects in a lavender-scented room?

Yoga cultivates imagination and in my own imagination, I say yes. Why not?

Clear off the desk today. Spray some lavender. Hang a beautiful calendar instead of the yucky one. Hang one with inspirational images and quotes. Make it yourself on your computer. Or, keep it zen and place a plain calendar next to a rock.

Once you are finished, dump all those other piles of papers into the shredder and tell us how THAT felt!

It's a new year -- how will you keep track of time?

www.stefanielipsey.com

Counting Calories in the Borough of Queens, Ann Podracky, Her Mother, and Andy and Marie

noreply@blogger.com (Stefanie Lipsey) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 04:46:52 PST

Special Fiction Issue of Writing Yoga.

I heard this moving and humorous piece read by my friend, Ann, on Saturday night. It was at a new reading series in Sunnyside Queens so artfully curated that each reader entertained and enlightened the audience without a single gap in interest. All I can tell you is that the QC MFA based series, Oh, Bernice! blew me away. Don't miss it next time if you live in NYC. I wish I could deliver this story as well as Ann read it, but I guess I'm just lucky she let me steal it for the blog.

Andy and Marie

by Ann Podracky

My mother counted calories. Throughout my childhood I'd find her tabulations scrawled on the edges of newspapers, table napkins, lunch boxes, and McCall’s magazines. Once she used a birthday hat I had saved. 100, 200, 100, 500 were scribbled on the tail of a gray monkey holding a large pink birthday candle. These numbers were the one thing that let me know as a young girl where she had been in the world without me.

She got her caloric values from a small red booklet whose cover featured a muscle bound couple in matching leopard-patterned bathing suits. It was the one Jack LaLanne had recommended on his morning TV show that my mother turned on but never exercised to. The couple on the booklet held up the letters that spelled out Andy and Marie’s Calorie Counter. My mother tried to keep it with her wherever she went. When she couldn’t find the booklet she would ask in the same voice she used to ask where my brothers were, “Ann, where’s Andy and Marie?"

One night I found out how she arrived at her numbers, which always ended in zeros. I had asked her to tell me a story before I went to bed. Still standing in the kitchen washing dishes, she grabbed Andy and Marie who were lying on the toaster. “If I eat a piece of rye bread, I look it up in Andy and Marie under breads,” she said. She turned to the section on breads and pressed her wet finger on it, leaving a mark.

“If Andy and Marie say a slice of bread is 75 calories, I round it down to 70,” she told me.

“Why do you go lower?” I said.

“It’s easier,” she said. “Go to bed, Ann.”

    With all that counting, my mother never did lose weight until she was in her seventies, about ten years after my father died. She was very thin by then because she was having trouble swallowing. The day before she went into the hospital for the last time, I visited her in her apartment. I noticed there were numbers penciled on the wall: 200, 100. There were even erasure marks.
     "What's this? I asked, pointing to the wall.
     "I still like to count my calories," she said.
     “But you’re hardly eating,” I said.

“You were always such a worrywart, Ann,” she said. Then she took a small red booklet from her housecoat pocket. The pages were yellowed, held together with crisp scotch tape. The cover was torn. I recognized the leopard bathing suits. Andy and Marie were headless.

“Let’s see, a small can of tuna in water,” my mother said. She leaned over to the wall next to her recliner and penciled 150.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Ann Podracky has read her work at different venues in the city including Ear Inn, the Bowery Poetry Club, Earshot, and CUNY’s Turnstlye Reading Series. She was a Writer-in-Residence at the Louis Armstrong Museum and Archives in 2010 and a fiction editor for the online journal Ozone Park. Her writing can be found on the City University of New York 9/11 Memorial Site, the Revision’s Journal, Little Perversities, (Wasteland Press 2005), and Poetry in Performance 38 and 39.

For more stories from Ann and info about the Oh, Bernice! Reading Series, please visit, http://ohbernice.tumblr.com/
Visit Stefanie at www.stefanielipsey.com. Free writing prompts at the Sound Cliff Writing Spa Workshops.

1,2, wear no shoes...3,4,open the door... 5,6 - 7,8, Mat and Pen, Childhood - Begin Again

noreply@blogger.com (Stefanie Lipsey) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 19:06:16 PST

It's the middle of the night and I reach for my pen in the dark. Jack be nibble....jack be quick.....I write in my journal. I add three other nursery rhymes. In the morning, I can't make out my handwriting, the part where I stop quoting Mother Goose, but know what it says. It's part dream, part abstraction, part future poem.

Photo by Jessica Lipsey

Doesn't everyone dream in childhood? Working with children each day is like getting a childhood rewind button. (Do you remember having to rewind things?) It also teaches me how to live creatively within structure. Monday through Friday = pledge of allegiance, stories (I love stories), research, lessons, lesson planning, lunch, more stories, research....dismissal.

Those things are set. My school day is set. But what happens before and after is up to me. Each day is a choice. Do I hit the snooze or tip-toe into in the living room and meditate before the kids get up? Do I keep my journal with me so flashes of words from sleep to wakefulness don't get lost? Or do I go to work, come home, eat a bag of cheeze doodles, dinner, TV and sleep?

Nothing against cheeze doodles, but as crunchy and indulgent as they are, they won't make me feel delicious. I want my life to feel delicious. I want that for my own family, friends, and the kids I teach. I want that for you.

What is a delicious life? It's splashed with joy. It's a snowball fight (seasonal metaphor), feathery flakes, blue sky and tiny intervals of freedom. "Free time" is short and it's long. It's being a child an an adult at the same time. A delicious life is filled with love, creativity and ritual. A meditation ritual extends time, writing re-lives it, and yoga integrates you and time with all that is. In short, the future and past are up to you.

Namaste,
Stef

p.s - Need some help getting to the mat? The free Yoga Journal 21 day challenge starts Monday, January 9th. I have no connection with Yoga Journal. I'm just a fan. See you on the mat: http://www.yogajournal.com/21daychallenge/#.TuF7aWyUrFx.facebook. You can even practice with your kids if you've got them.

Writing, Yoga, and Staying Curious in the New Year

noreply@blogger.com (Stefanie Lipsey) — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 19:30:22 PST

Are you ready for 2012? Goal-setting books, classes,and websites are filled with experts ready to help.This year, my only goals are to stay flexible, curious and welcome in mystery.

from the AMNH website

Today, I walked through the American Museum of Natural History with my family. The guard said that over 30,000 people visited yesterday and at 12 noon today when we arrived, there were already 17,000 viewers ready to take on the blue whale and dinosaurs. When my kids were little, we spent days in the museum, digging for dinosaurs in the discovery room. But now, experience and curiosity let each one of us find our own artifacts to wonder about.

I'm expecting 2012 to be a year of discovery, in the same way I expect to discover new aspects of myself, my students, my family and friends each year. I've often limited myself at the start of any given January 1st by setting so many specific goals. This year, I'm staying open to discovery.

The art of discovery and staying "curious" is an integral part of every yoga and writing practice. We write to surprise ourselves and our readers. In yoga, a certain amount of curiosity is needed to gain flexibility and move through challenging poses.

Even when we think we are being flexible, inviting discovery, and staying mildly curious, are we allowing it to happen naturally? Is there more? Of course there is. But what?

Yoga teaches us to be present and stay curious in the body and mind. This year, where can you delight in your own discovery?

Tell me. I'm curious.

Meditation and Quiet Yoga is Always in Season

noreply@blogger.com (Stefanie Lipsey) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 20:28:21 PST

Tonight I went to an evening vinyasa flow class followed by a meditation class. I don't know where I floated to, but I was very "floaty." Ahhh. A long group meditation session is exactly what I needed to counter the stress of holiday planning, a busy work week, and a wonderful, but active family life.

It is true that you create more time if you allow yourself to sit quietly and meditate. The beauty of mediation is that just like yoga, you don't need to spend money on equipment or leave your house to have a healing session. Meditation indeed heals. It also has been known to reverse the aging process. How does that sound?

I'm going to entertain you with a quiet page this week. Your life is busy enough. Finish up that holiday shopping and get to the mat and/ or meditation pillow.I'm thrilled that you show up to Writing Yoga to read and share your wisdom. Speaking of wisdom, what helps you make room for mediation in your own busy life?

Happy Holidays and New Year!

Namaste,

Stefanie

PS - When you float back to your computer, can you please take a moment to visit my new Facebook page? http://www.facebook.com/pages/Stefanie-Lipsey/113744045398986. I'll be posting more writing & yoga goodies next week in 2012!

www.stefanielipsey.com

www.writingyoga.com
www.soundcliffwritingspa.com

"The Weather Outside is Frightful....." but the Weather Inside is Perfect: Building Heat with Yoga

noreply@blogger.com (Stefanie Lipsey) — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 08:30:34 PST

I really wanted to eat a huge bowl of piping hot pasta for lunch today. I imagined steam and carbs stirring up a warmth I haven't felt since August. I love August - even in New York.

"Snowy Hills in Alaska." from powermediaplus.com

Winter's like that for me. A cold time of year when the quest for heat is insatiable. I used
to believe that I would get used to it. I tried winter sports for a while, but all those layers of clothing, changing, expensive equipment and lift tickets just don't seem to be worth the effort when compared with a single mat and a writer's notebook. Of course, that's just me. My family loves sledding and other winter activities. They make fun of me for staying back.

It seems that once the temperature drops I can't eat and drink enough warm things. The only problem with "warm things" is that they usually come with high caloric counts. Unless you count steamed vegetables, but after all, how much steamed broccoli can one eat?

YOGA
In comes yoga - our perfect mind-body exercise that increases well-being, stamina, flexibility and warmth. It's totally FREE too (when done on your own). Instead of scarfing down bowls of rice pilaf, I unroll my mat during lunch hour, change into yoga pants, close my office door, and flow through three A and B sun salutations. A couple of standing and balancing poses later, I still have 15 minutes left to eat a delicious cold sandwich. Yoga is better than any seasoning you can buy.

Today, after my quiet practice, far away from the faculty room chatter, I was overjoyed to not be cold any longer. The sun salutations did exactly what they are supposed to do which is build heat and prepare you for more advanced postures. I would say tackling winter is as advanced for me as it gets.

How do you feel about winter? Writing or yoga - does your practice change when the days get cold and short? I bet there are enlightened souls reading right now who flow through seasonal changes with grace and little disruption. I am in awe of them. Yes, I've got some work to do and I'll be turning to yoga asanas and philosophy for help, but OMG, it's still technically only late autumn.

STAY WARM!

For more information about Writing and Yoga workshops, please visit www.stefanielipsey.com.
©Stefanie Lipsey 2011

Who Supports You on the More Difficult Path?

noreply@blogger.com (Stefanie Lipsey) — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 05:06:45 PST

You can't get from there to here on your own. It is much easier to wake up, go to the office, come home, watch TV. Rinse and repeat.

If you are reading this, then chances are the TV is off and your yoga mat or journal lay open beside you somewhere in the room.

What I mean to say is that choosing a creative life is always harder. That is why we find each other and I am ever so grateful that you showed up today.

Think of someone in your life who "gets" you and your choices. Can you think of more than one? Many people? If you can, you're lucky! Give those people today a little nod of thanks. It doesn't have to be Thanksgiving to do so and maybe even more meaningful if it is just a regular day.

This Saturday, I will be spending my day at a booth with two of my biggest supporters, Karen Chrappa and Tracy Warzer. Karen has written a most incredible book to help anyone find a solid base in a fast paced world, A Structure for Spirit.

Tracy Warzer is beacon of light for Long Island artists. As owner of the Creative Arts Studio on Sea Cliff Avenue, she has opened her doors to local, national and international talents for years. This weekend is an artisan showcase, art opening for Joan Harrison and CD release party for Kathy Virgilio.

I also would like to thank the Glen Cove Public Library for hosting my "Live Your Dreams" journal writing workshops for the past two years.

Glad to be closing out the year with my community.

HOPE TO SEE YOU AT ONE OF THESE LONG ISLAND EVENTS!!!

Sea Cliff Creative Arts Studio

Sea Cliff Holiday House Tour Dec. 3rd, 2011 from 12-5pm - 256 Sea Cliff Avenue, Sea Cliff, NY 11579

Stop by my booth for a FREE writing prompt card. Karen Chrappa will also be selling her wonderful new book, a Structure for Spirit. Event features local artisan vendors and art show opening in the Box Gallery for Joan Harrison all at the Creative Arts Studio. See you then!

FREE "Live Your Dreams" Writing Workshops!

JOIN US on Tuesday, December 6, 2011 from 7 - 8:15 pm at the Glen Cove Public Library for a FREE writing and creativity workshop. Call 676-2130 for more information. Glen Cove Public Library 4 Glen Cove Av. Glen Cove, NY

The Art of Alone Time: Scheduling in Solitude

noreply@blogger.com (Stefanie Lipsey) — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 14:32:58 PST

Photo by Jessica Lipsey, Hong Kong airport

The Billy Holiday song is playing in my head. "In my solitude..." That's as far as I get before I start to shake my head and think, What's that word? My appointment with solitude isn't until Saturday.

SOLITUDE BY THE DAY

If you work for a living and take care of a family like I do, solitude is a prized state of being. I'm often writing while dinner is on the stove, or during quick breaks between work and home. But real solitude is something to put on the calendar:

From 7-9 pm on Monday night, mom will be writing. Do not disturb.
On Thursday morning, she will get up at 5:30 am and you won't even know that a one hour candle-lit yoga practice occurred in the living room.
Saturday she'll be at Starbucks until noon working on Chapter 12.
Daily 20 minute morning meditations. All welcome. We can sit in solitude together.

It really does help to put a creative schedule up on the calendar. I write mine on Thursdays for the upcoming week. That way, I can plan writing and yoga around appointments, kids activities, and meetings. It also helps me know when to switch from mom brain, work brain, to writer brain.

Is this something you do too? It would be interesting to hear about your relationship with solitude.

SOLITUDE FOR A WEEK

The first time I went to Omega in Rhinebeck for a weekend R & R retreat five years ago, I filled several notebooks with writing. I was ecstatic! My thoughts rolled without distraction. They floated effortlessly with hummingbirds in the garden. I had never been away from home before and at first, it felt so strange even though my kids were away at camp.

I met a woman there who had a new baby at home. She said that she told her husband that a condition of bearing his child was that she needed to continue her week alone at Omega every summer. Wow! I wish I had made that deal years ago.

Since my husband is a musician, he understands and supports that need to be alone to create. I just didn't know to ask for it. Luckily for me, that's all I had to do. (besides save up some money)

Do you ask others to support your solitude? You might have to be creative to arrange time alone, but it's possible.

SOLITUDE AS A PRACTICE

It takes work for some people to sit with their own thoughts. Solitude is important, but I recognize it can be difficult. People generally either love to be alone or hate it.

I never thought of "alone time" as a practice, yet, I believe it is. It takes relaxation and confidence. You have to look at yourself in the mirror and listen to the truth. Maybe that's what really makes it so hard.

Share your thoughts on solitude. Do you have advise for the rest of us?

Yoga and the Singer's Voice

noreply@blogger.com (Stefanie Lipsey) — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 16:32:33 PST

My parents spent a ton of their hard-earned money on diction lessons for me in college as a supplement to my music degree. I'd ride the subway to the Upper West Side and be prepared to find my "singer's voice." We'd practice vocalizing on vowels, arching the roofs of our mouths, and speaking with obnoxiously perfect articulation.

I hated it, but at the time, I wanted to be an opera singer and needed to learn to speak like a newscaster instead of a nasally New Yorker. I begged my parents to help me and somehow they found a way.

As years went by, the results of my diction classes faded into my past. I talked just like everyone else around me. I felt guilty at times for what seemed like wasted lessons and subway tokens (no metrocards yet).

Until today.

As part of a yoga teacher training module at Bonda Yoga in Great Neck, we had a segment on voice. It was so powerful! Guess what? I had a voice.

All the breathing, palate raising, articulation, projection, tone, and diction rules I had ever learned flashed before my eyes. I imagined myself standing like Rapunzel in the tower of Riverside Church. My hair flowing to the floor, my voice calling Surya Namaskar cues to the Hudson River.

Inhale, exhale, I pronounced each word on the correct beat. Apparently, the voice has muscle memory too.

The funniest part of this realization, is that it IS a realization. People have told me that I speak well in public, but I never really connected it back to my voice training. I was in denial. My life had changed and that part of me was in the past.

But you know, probably better than I ever did, that all of our experiences always seem to come together to help us out in the future.

Life school is awesome, don't you think?

How do your past experiences help you in your writing and/ or yoga practices?

Is there some part of your life you have forgotten about, by choice or not, that you can take advantage of today?

"Follow” Writing Yoga for weekly gems about writing and yoga. Follow the Sound Cliff Writing Spa and get a free writing prompt by email. Emails arrive every Monday.

http://www.writingyoga.com - http://www.stefanielipsey.com – http://soundcliffwritingspa.com

©Stefanie Lipsey 2011

Stretch Up to the Sky

noreply@blogger.com (Stefanie Lipsey) — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 23:31:48 PST

A Poem for Halloween: Frankenfood!

noreply@blogger.com (Stefanie Lipsey) — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 06:38:45 PDT

Painting of Macbeth, Powermediaplus.com

I tried to buy a tomato today, but they all looked like little red plastic balls. Snow is here in October and fresh tomatoes only exist in poetry. Or do they?

You can still get a good organic tomato at some local markets like Rising Tide in Glen Cove. Thank goodness for them! Where do get your tomatoes during the frosty times of year?

When I couldn't find a tomato and Rising Tide had already closed, I decided to post a poem. What else could I do? I wrote it in 1999 so not much has changed. I post it at midnight in honor of Halloween and the tomato I never got to eat today. RIP summer vine scented beet red juicy tomatoes. See you next year.

Happy Halloween witches, ghosts, yogis, writers, and fresh veggie lovers!

SUPERMARKET TOMATO

“When the hurly-burly’s done, When the battle’s lost and won, that will be ere the set of sun." - Shakespeare

She stops in the vegetable aisle,

adjusts her kerchief

leans over to examine

overflowing bins,

bubbling spheres

competing to be picked.

She flattens her housecoat

(but doesn’t get very far)

and reaches up

as if to make some

kind of incantation,

but there is a foulness

surrounding these fair,

perfected mutations

and for a minute –

she can not make a move.

In her trance

she snaps

the change purse

in her pocket,

rubs her bony hands

and walks away

leaving these genetically

encoded relatives of flies,

distended from pesticides

to hover through the fog and filthy air.

"Follow” Writing Yoga for weekly gems about writing and yoga. Follow the Sound Cliff Writing Spa and get a free writing prompt by email. Emails arrive every Monday and this Monday, in honor of Halloween, the prompt is extra fun!

http://www.writingyoga.com - http://www.stefanielipsey.com – http://soundcliffwritingspa.com

©Stefanie Lipsey 2011

WHY YOGA IS SO GOOD FOR YOU, YOUR HEALTH, AND YOUR LIFE: An interview with Mary-Beth Charno, yoga teacher, Urban Zen trainer, holistic nurse.

noreply@blogger.com (Stefanie Lipsey) — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 11:37:23 PDT

Mary-Beth Charno is one of the most magnetic people I have ever met. I have attended her yoga classes on Long Island at Yoga Flow Studio and at my gym where she has a huge following. While a yoga studio is certainly the preferred environment, Mary-Beth does a miraculous job of transforming space. She clears the room with incense, lights some candles, and dims the lights. She sets the mood with her weekly themes and doesn’t shy away from reading inspirational and even spiritual texts as you might expect a teacher to do in the gym setting. Her students love her for it.

Mary-Beth Charno

This idea of creating a space for yoga nearly anywhere has served her, her students, and the patients she sees as a nurse well. We recently chatted about this over some lemon-water on a beautiful fall day. She spoke with me about yoga, health, creating a home practice and her work with Urban Zen.

SL: What does yoga mean to you?

MC: Yoga is loosely defined as “to yoke” or “unite.” My yoga practice unites my mind and body and invites the breath to be there too. Yoga makes me more joyful, more present and filled with less stress, less fear. The physical practice, or the asanas, are very important for our mind and body to be healthy. When we move, sweat, and expand the body into different shapes, the mind can watch and be less active. At the end of a practice, we then have a chance to sit and be more receptive to new ways of thinking and being. Conscious movement is key. In yoga, you bring awareness to all areas of the body, and allow for a layering in of the breath.

SL: You were a personal trainer for many years before you became a yoga teacher. Why yoga?

MC: Yes, I was a trainer for 13 years. I found yoga during that time and came to it for the physical benefits like many people do. I enjoyed greater strength, flexibility, and endurance, but when you stay with yoga, you realize that something more interesting is happening. I also enjoyed the community aspect of yoga. You often notice that you can form an immediate relationship with someone who practices. You know what a challenge it can be to get to the mat each day and there is an understanding between people who make that commitment. Often there is an interest in some greater good. Most people who are practicing for a long time might be recycling more, donating their time and money to humanitarian, animal, and environmental causes. They see how their everyday choices effect others.

SL: Yes, this is certainly evident in your own life! Tell us about your work with Urban Zen. It is an incredible organization and many people would be interested to learn about it.

MC: Donna Karen and Urban Zen are trying to change the way we care for the sick in our society. It is the first formal training program that brings different modalities together for healthcare workers to use as a “toolbox” throughout various healthcare facilities. Rodney Yee and Colleen Saidman Yee run the therapeutic branch. They teach yoga, breath awareness and body scans to help patients deal with PANIC: pain, anxiety, nausea, insomnia, and constipation. We also have aromatherapy, Reiki, and contemplative care components.

There are two aspects to the program: 1) reaching out to nurses to teach them self-care, and 2) Training yoga teachers and health care professionals to become integrated therapists and to use these modalities in various settings.

SL: This is such important work!

MC: I know that I’m a better person practicing yoga and therefore I know we can all become healthier, stronger, more present with a regular practice. I’m more grounded, less reactive and more available now. Anyone can benefit from this intelligence that comes alive in the body when they practice yoga.

SL: Any advice for our writingyoga readers, many of whom are new to practicing yoga?

MC: Ideally, it’s important to be consistent and to create a space for a yoga practice in your home. Students should have a home practice to compliment classes taken in studios. There is something special that takes place when you roll out your mat, by yourself, even if you don’t know what to do. It helps you figure out what to go and that is a skill that is useful for all areas of our lives.

SL: Can you suggest a way for people to create a yoga space, especially if they are living in a small apartment and/ or with a noisy family?

MC: It doesn’t have to be a big space, but it is a good idea to use the same space. Cover the TV and computer with a blanket or scarf. Reduce the buzz of technology. Desensitize the room and turn off the phone. Get up early before the rest of the house and savor this time for yourself. Just you and your mat.

Mary-Beth Charno

SL: Thank you for your time, Mary-Beth. We look forward to reading more about you and your work with Urban Zen! (http://www.urbanzen.org/tag/mary-beth-charno/.

Read more words of wisdom from Mary-Beth on her new blog, www.marybethcharno.com

http://www.writingyoga.com - http://www.stefanielipsey.com - http://soundcliffwritingspa.com

©Stefanie Lipsey 2011

YOGA AND WRITING ON THE SOUND

noreply@blogger.com (Stefanie Lipsey) — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 08:31:27 PDT

seagull with notebook

Not a mall in sight! I took this picture of an amusing seagull one morning last week before work. He was taking it all in while the other gulls circled overhead.

Zen gull chilling out by the waves.

I rolled out my mat. Put my notebook on my bag. The seagull looked out toward the waves the whole time. What was he thinking?

In yoga, air and breath are probably more important than anything else. In writing too. This humanized seagull reminded me to breathe. With all that wind in his lungs he was just waiting for the perfect moment to fly.

Visit my free writing classes to learn more about "air" as our writing prompt for this week. Online at: http://soundcliffwritingspa.com or at the Glen Cove Public Library. 7-8:15 pm this Tuesday, October 4th.

Thank you for reading and don't forget to BREATHE.

* Next YOGA post: an interview with Mary Beth Charno, Urban Zen trainer, yogi and holistic nurse. Subscribe now to not miss a word.

http://www.writingyoga.com - http://www.stefanielipsey.com - http://soundcliffwritingspa.com

©Stefanie Lipsey 2011

Writing to the Cheeseburger: Changing Your Creative Space

noreply@blogger.com (Stefanie Lipsey) — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 08:32:36 PDT

Of all places to write, the Suffolk County Burger King on Sunrise Highway near my car dealership is a new, rare find. I only buy coffee and a cheese sandwich with pickles (hold the meat) but can sit there for hours while my car gets its recommended services and take it all in.

What to take in?

Does that picture say it all?

The main character of my novel is from a part of New Jersey that loves its quick access to cheeseburgers. I imagine she's sitting at a Formica table as a teenager eating a pile of fries. U2 plays over the sound system. It is very easy to channel her here.

On the walls of this particular BK, there are images of 1950's to 1990's movie posters, record albums, and star shots. I'm transported to a time before blogs, laptops, iTunes and cellphones. No, I'm not romanticizing the past, but rather connecting to a part of myself that I forgot and a part of myself that I invent along the way.

Where do you go to invent?

http://www.writingyoga.com - http://www.stefanielipsey.com - http://soundcliffwritingspa.com - ©Stefanie Lipsey 2011

Writing as a Spa Experience

noreply@blogger.com (Stefanie Lipsey) — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 08:33:56 PDT

I'm thrilled to be offering a new online writing workshop. It's free and all you need to do is sign up at the site. Each week you will get a new writing prompt. It begins today, September 19th and runs for 12 weeks through December 11th, 2o11. Follow the link for more details and to learn more about writing as a spa experience: http://soundcliffwritingspa.com/

Pour a cup of tea, wear your bathrobe, light some candles, and get ready to write.

http://www.writingyoga.com - http://www.stefanielipsey.com - http://soundcliffwritingspa.com

©Stefanie Lipsey 2011

Writing September 11th with Louise Hay: September 12th is the Part II

noreply@blogger.com (Stefanie Lipsey) — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 08:36:03 PDT

My well-worn Louise Hay 2011 Affirmation Calendar

In the elementary school library where I work as a librarian, I keep Louise Hay’s affirmation calendar on the circulation desk as I have for years. Teachers ask me each day, “What’s the affirmation?” while they wait to check out a book. Very often the daily affirmation is just what’s needed. Sometimes they even make a special trip to the library just to read Louise Hay’s positive words of wisdom. It is a great way to help my teachers feel welcome in the library.

On the morning of September 11, 2011, I had listened to Louise Hay open the floor at the conference I attended. It was the “Write, Speak, Promote: Mover’s and Shaker’s Conference” with Cheryl Richardson and Reid Tracy where writers, speakers, and coaches gathered to learn how to get their messages into the world. The two days prior had been inspirational and educational, but overwhelming.

On the morning of September 11^th, the city was eerily empty. The trains were empty, but filled with an aura of fear and anticipation. It was the exact hour that the towers were struck exactly ten years prior to this moment. (see past post to read where I was on 9/11/01)

Louise Hay sat in a chair in front of the room. Calm. Strong. Beautiful. She spoke ( I'm paraphrasing) about the fact that the words we tell ourselves and each other really do shape our lives. We have a choice to live our lives with fear or love. We can be sad today, and rightfully so, but know that that we honor the dead when we go on living. We live extra just for them.

My Dad used to say the very same thing. For me, it was as if he was speaking along with Louise at that very moment too. It made think how happy he would be for me that I didn’t give into the fear, that I resisted the panic and stayed on the train even though I wanted to jump off at every stop along the way. He always encouraged me to write and loved words. Yes, I just knew he would be proud.

When I came back to work on September 12^th, Louise Hay’s calendar read, “I rejoice in each passing year of my life.” We are lucky with each passing year and with my birthday just days away, the note was perfect. Her notes are always perfect.

Just ask the kids and staff how I sang and danced in the library at 8:00 am Monday morning! Wow, was I on fire. I told everyone to “Go out there and do what you love!” any chance I got. I greeted each student and staff member with an enthusiastic "hello!" and taught with more passion than I had since the school year started the week before.

Words are that important. Live your life everyone.

Thank you, Louise, Cheryl, Reid.

Thank you, Dad.

http://www.writingyoga.com - http://www.stefanielipsey.com - http://soundcliffwritingspa.com - ©Stefanie Lipsey 2011

How to Integrate Your Writing and Yoga with the Day Job: Maybe it isn’t just a Day Job

noreply@blogger.com (Stefanie Lipsey) — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 08:38:32 PDT

Did you ever wonder how you would ever fit it all in? Are you frustrated by that manuscript folder each time you look at the “date last modified?” Does it only get “modified” during your busy weekends? And if so, just how frustrated are you?

Are you afraid to share your passion for yoga, mediation, and your connection with a Divine presence for fear that your co-workers will think your crazy?

Be ready to let that go. You just may have something to share that can help them and you live a more integrated, authentic life.

I’m not saying to start a sun series in the middle of your office, but what about stretching up out of your chair into mountain and back? How much better would you feel?

I know that when I feel good, people begin to ask me: What are you doing? How do you stay in shape? Where do you find the time?

Time opens up when you are inspired. It opens up when your body is healthy and strong. (Go, Yoga!) It opens up when you take small steps each day to create artistically.

This past Monday morning, I accomplished more than seems humanly possible. I was running on some energy other than sleep. I was inspired.

The day before (see last week’s post), I met people who inspired me beyond belief. We shared stories over lunch in the Crown Plaza Hotel as we looked out on the abandoned Times Square. There was, Judy Giovangelo, who had lost her teenage son to suicide two years ago. She took her sadness and turned it into a powerful speaking platform where she helps parents and children prevent another such tragedy. (www.benspeaks.org)

I met an engineer who is also a fantastic medium, a mother who channels messages to help people deal with loss, and lots of teachers.

It was the teacher part that really surprised me. Wow. You mean I don’t have to hide the fact that I’m a writer AND a teacher-librarian? At the workshop, a teacher named Vicki Savini gave a presentation about listening to children. I related all too well to her words. So on Monday, I couldn't wait to read her book, "The Light Inside of Me" to the first and second graders in my library. I told my students how I was given this book by an author and teacher. I told my students that, "Mrs. Lipsey is a student too."

The children loved the story and we wrote the reasons why so that Mrs. Savini could have feedback from many different classes and two grade levels. Please see the picture to read what the students thought.

Thank you, Mrs. Savini. We're sending you a paper thank you note too.

Remembering, Honoring, Writing September 11, 2001: Part I

noreply@blogger.com (Stefanie Lipsey) — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 09:18:18 PDT

The three women have been friends since their Brooklyn girlhoods fifty years ago, since they followed each other one by one to the neighboring suburb. They each have sons.

Three women: my mother and the two I call my aunts. Three boys: my brother and “cousins.”

On September 11, 2001, the boys go to work. My brother, a graphic artist and techie wakes up late for his job with Merrill Lynch. He watches the towers, his office, fall from his bicycle as he pedals his way downtown. I will not know this until cell phones start to work again in the afternoon.

I have just started a new job in the library so I’m early. I think the first plane is an accident.

On September 11, 2001, the boys go to work high into the clouds. One makes calls to home as the first plane hits. The phone cuts off.

All phones cut off. We turn on the TV. The news spits out words like escape, bodies, falling, jumping, windows, Pentagon and Pennsylvania.

The boys walk down decades of flights, missing collapses, covered in soot, running through ash clouds. One will be pictured over and over again on the cover of national magazines and newspapers.

Everyone in the library is crying and painfully trying to make contact. The software rep from out of town is confused. I take notes in my journal, afraid to stop moving my pen, but an apple in my bag has attracted ants. I can’t shake the tiny black ants off my pages fast enough.

In the early days, it’s called missing. The ones who didn’t get word need to call it something other than death.

The women: my mother, my “aunts” eventually hear. All three sons will all be at the dinner table.

I hoard my own family. Pull my children extra close. They draw pictures of planes crashing into buildings.

The stories of friends, colleagues, and relatives come out one by one. The wound, like the wound of the skyline is raw and deep. The hole smolders for a long, long time. So many of us all at once in mourning.

Ten years later, it’s those faces and names that rise again.

We think of you.

We honor you.

We remember you.

ON BORROWED MATS: HOW ATTACHED ARE YOU TO YOUR CREATIVE TOOLS?

noreply@blogger.com (Stefanie Lipsey) — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 15:58:15 PDT

Like many of you, I am deeply attached to my yoga mat. It’s pink on one side and brown on the other. It’s made of green materials, all natural and plush. I bought it from a favorite teacher at Yoga Flow Studio (www.yogaflowstudio.com). I transport my precious mat in a mat bag that my children bought for me on Monkey Forest Road in Ubud last year for my birthday. It too is cheerfully speckled.

Unfortunately, it was one detail that got left behind on a kitchen chair on my way to Omega. The perfect test of non-attachment. (I also left behind my business cards, but that’s another story!)

The possibility of attending yoga class each morning for two weeks on a used studio mat seemed impossible. My mat, my home. I was freaked.

I could have bought a new one. I almost bought a new one but knew that I would also want a new bag. And then I’d have to carry the new bag and mat on Amtrak with all my other stuff and store it among all the other never used yoga mats when I got back home.

The mats at Omega are clean and some look new so I gave it a try. On the first morning, I picked a blue one. I’ve never owned a blue yoga mat so it was very exciting. The next day, red. Each day a different color and a different blanket too. And so it came to pass that for two weeks, I walked to yoga class empty handed and left with nothing strapped to my back.

It taught me to let go of what we believe to be permanent. It taught me to let go of my ego. I was no longer part of the BYO yoga mat club, the serious students who arrived prepared. No, I was just like most people. Someone who shows up to class not knowing what to do, who tentatively places a borrowed mat on the ground.

-----------------------

Do you have a favorite mat, pen, journal, chair, drum? How often do you change these favorites, if ever? What would you do without that familiar comfort?

Blue Skies, Revision, and Lots of Chainsaws

noreply@blogger.com (Stefanie Lipsey) — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 13:34:18 PDT

Fallen Tree

At first glance, it looks like a ball of twigs. Even from my window, it's hard to believe the scale of tree to ground. At least it wasn't water, at least it didn't fall on the house or more importantly, on people or animals.

Post Hurricane Irene, half my town is without power, as are millions of other people along the East Coast. We're sharing freezer space, iPod chargers, and showers. Every outlet in the local Starbucks has a phone or computer plugged in to it. It's a set-back, this inconvenient Hurricane, closing my gym and the local supermarket. But, yes, it's a small set-back, when I think about how my family huddled together on the night of the big wind. Each siren was a cause for wonder and worry about what could be. And now, relief for what could have been.

I write with power, thinking about the strength of that word, "power." Chainsaws blaze outside my window in a chorus to clear streets, sidewalks and power lines from old fallen trees. All these isolated limbs, leaves, and branches make me feel sad.

Later, I go outside and start hauling branches to the curb. There was no arrow telling me where to start. I just had to begin lifting and walking. In the background, others worked on removing the fallen tree. I stuck to my own path.

It reminded me of writing. It reminded me of messy words and ideas scattered all over my mind. It took a hurricane to shake them on to the page and a sunny day to make sense of them.

Sunshine on the Grass

In the end, the lawn looked like either something wonderful or nothing at all ever happened. If only all revision were this easy.

Shoes Off and Feeling the Paper

noreply@blogger.com (Stefanie Lipsey) — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 11:24:22 PDT

Ram Dass Library, Omega Institute. August 2011.

I am writing to you from the Ram Dass Library at Omega. I arrived here with my own “suitcase library” to teach creativity, poetry with yoga, and writing classes to the staff. My teaching week began today, and follows an amazing five-day workshop that Marie Howe hosted. Morning guest teachers included Mark Doty, Patricia Smith, and Billy Collins. Is that a line-up or what? I will write more about my prolific week in another post. Still digesting the pulp!

Since I came as both student and teacher, I had brought a stack of books to use in my poetry classes. Twenty-five to be exact as heavy as gold. I wanted to use real poetry books, not photocopies. I wanted the participants to hold poetry books in their hand, not on a kindle or nook or photocopy. I wanted them to hold books with gorgeous compelling covers, glowing reviews on back, and magic in the middle. They also had to be published in recent years because I think poets especially should support the living art, right?

Like oracle cards, the poetry books were fanned in the center of the room, yoga mats around the edge. Choose one, I said. What calls to you?

I brought one book by every one of my past poetry teachers. I am lucky to have studied with the best. I didn't want everyone to think that poetry and yoga is only about Rumi (whom I love!), but also by modern poets who include a wide range of emotion, style, and material.

The spiritual, high vibrational level of consciousness at Omega is so delicious and pervasive, but I felt like we all needed some grounding to get to the page. Choose a book, I said. Any book.

And then we read to each other.

One of the poems we read aloud was "The Universe is a House Party" by Tracy K. Smith from her new book, Life on Mars. What I love so much about this poem is its expansiveness and possibility. It's a big universe, wonderful, with loud neighbors, yet filled with spirit. On this earth we're "Drifting to the edge of what doesn't end," but sometimes you might have to be from another planet to notice the details.

And now that I've landed back to Earth with feet bare, as soles must be by regulation in the Ram Dass Library, I write. I write into the stars.

I wonder if the stars will write me back?

Changes and Call for WritingYoga Articles

noreply@blogger.com (Stefanie Lipsey) — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 05:51:02 PDT

Did you ever have a conversation with a friend and a word comes up that you had already given voice to earlier in the day as well had caught your attention in a magazine? It is said that three times is enough to indicate that you need to hear this word. You need to pay attention.

Changes. A common word, yet it appeared three times in one day under unusual circumstances. A hit on the head that I knew just how to interpret.

Changes have been in store for a while for this blog. Recently, "writing" and "yoga" tabs have been added so however you find this blog, you will know where to read about your interests. If you are interested in both, just stick with the main page.

I'm putting out a call to yogis and writers to send work to this blog. I don't know who each and every one of my readers are, but there are lots of them.

This space was always meant to be a space for community. I call upon you, "community," to link an article, share a story about writing or yoga, or promote your book or event. All comments will have to be approved, but as long as you write thoughtfully in the spirit of helping other writers, poets and yogis, the opportunity is yours.

Please email: info@stefanielipsey.com to learn more or to submit an article.

Yoga in Times Square

noreply@blogger.com (Stefanie Lipsey) — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 11:56:40 PDT

June 21, 2011 at 5:45 p.m. My free goodies: yoga mat, bag, towel. A little bit fish bowl like, but who cares? The world is a fish bowl now.

If you can stay centered and balanced in the middle of Times Square, you can probably balance anywhere. That was my lesson. The sky roof was the same blue as on any beach. Wind's voice and clouds white too. When a hawk flew over us at one point, soared between buildings, I knew I would have never seen it if I'd been focused on the street.

I recall the feeling of concrete on my back, of hugging the floor of the city I love and leaving my gray bag on an orange mat, not worrying about anything being taken.

At one point, I was spotted by one of the teachers who roamed the ground as if it were any other yoga class. It was triangle pose, the one pose that feels different for me almost every day. Does this pose vary for you too? When she set me in place, I became instantly aware of the triangular Island where we practiced, and the triangular Island where a whole other group of people practiced and the triangle created by Broadway. The world reduced to angles and threes.

The solstice marks the official start to summer and sun. As I move into that energy this July, I am continually grateful for less structure, warm air, sea and sand.

And now, to drive that energy South with the family, from Times Square to Key West, where the tallest building is a whopping seven stories. Will write to you from the other side of that journey. In the meantime, get ready to share your Key West adventuresome tale. If you don't have one, go ahead and make one up. The setting is ripe.

To learn more about the Solstice in Times Square, please visit:
http://www.timessquarenyc.org/about_us/events_solstice.html

Summer Schedule: Beach, Write, Yoga, Beach

noreply@blogger.com (Stefanie Lipsey) — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 08:41:34 PDT

Ah, Summer....

Each summer starts out ambitiously. You can see from that photo of Indonesia why last summer was not my most productive as a writer. Can you blame me??? It was productive for my spirit, though. I came back to my library job sharing with my students all I had learned from the other side of the world, a fascinating window into a culture far different from suburban USA. I was certainly well rested too and filled with energy from all the yoga.

This summer, I spent my first day of vacation on a different beach. It happens to be a short walk from my house on Long Island. I closed my eyes and daydreamed. I dreamed bigger than the ocean. I dreamed for my family, my future, my friends, our planet. I wrote it down.

So much of our world is changing at this very moment politically. Sometimes we celebrate and sometimes we cringe. It’s hard to concentrate on our tiny selves and our tiny dreams.

That’s why we have to dream BIG. The world needs us to be positive and productive.

I’m dreaming big. How about you?

When I think about it, I am surrounded by friends who define dreaming big! (Yes, I'm lucky that way.) I also made some new friendships this weekend at a yoga teacher-training workshop in NYC. I hope to introduce you to some of my talented friends, old and new, on this blog. Or maybe they will introduce themselves through links!

What are you learning this summer? What are you producing this summer? Is there one new book to read, a new recipe to test, a new beach to visit? Or are you writing a book, opening a restaurant, or sailing around the world?

Got a big or small summer intention? Post it here as a comment! You will have hundreds of writingyoga.com readers to send their blessings, so why not? I believe the more we can all support each other, the better off we’ll be. Let’s test that theory out.

Whatever it is, big or small, get out there and go for it! And when you’re done, the sand will still be warm and waiting for you.