Tag Archives: Cat Kabira

February 10, 2024 · 10:22 am

Sugar Pops

imgur-Skirmante – boredpanda.com

When I do my yoga practice in the afternoons, I’m constantly reminded of one of the cereals I ate in childhood, Sugar Pops. The ad talked about the ‘snap, crackle, and pop’ the cereal made after you poured milk on it in the bowl – even adding the sound effect to the ad. I loved the cereal, put EXTRA sugar on it, devouring it with gusto. They had prizes in the bottom of the box ( as did several other cereals for kids back then) and my mom had a firm rule we had to eat our way down to the prize. Interesting memories with what we’ve learned about nutrition since then.

My body is the cereal. No milk needed for the snapping, crackling, and popping to begin. Even my husband remarks about it as HE sits in his chair watching me…

I CAN feel some improvement in my stretching, though. I remind myself that Cat Kabira – the wonderful lady who made the Old Lady Stretching Videos (actually called “Gentle Yoga for Seniors”) to which I refer – says that stretching TOWARD your goal – and breathing into it – is as good for your body as actually reaching the goal. The stretching and relaxation is what is important.

I may be noisy, but I’m doing something good for myself. :0)

Leave a comment

Filed under exercise, taking care of yourself

Tagged as , , , , , ,

March 5, 2021 · 10:03 am

Tense and Tubby

A. A. Milne, E. H Shepard – Winnie the Pooh – DreamsQuote

Things have been challenging here lately, and my reaction to it is to tense up, sleep sporadically and poorly, and ‘scrunch up’ so I hurt all over – being stiff and sore.

My old lady yoga stretches are saving my life. I try to routinely do about 35 minutes of so, just to stretch things out. Lately, I am taking more and more time in my efforts to relax and rejuvenate. It really helps.

I’m grateful to Cat Kabira who makes wonderful yoga DVDs for getting me started. She has such a kind manner, stressing that it doesn’t matter if you can touch your toes or not, or if you cannot fold yourself into a paper airplane in a particular pose. She says that the relaxation, breathing, and stretching as far as you can at the time is what is important. I would have given up almost before I started if I hadn’t been lucky enough to find her on the Sixtyandme.com website.

Now I do my own routine, spending as much time as I need to in order to make up for the day’s challenges. I feel much better after I do my practice.

Leave a comment

Filed under exercise, taking care of yourself

Tagged as , , , ,

July 20, 2020 · 10:08 am

Relaxxxxxxing Jaw – Relaxxxxxing Face…

Clipart Library

I failed to make time on Thursday, but I did 35 minutes or so of Gentle Yoga stretching every other day last week – earning 6 gold stars for my desk calendar.

I don’t know why the actual silly gold stars are motivating, but they are for me. I’m not sure what that says about me, but – hey – it’s working.

My biggest problem in getting back to my “old-lady, not-REAL-yoga-as-I-think-of-it” practice (standing on your head, folding yourself up like a pretzel) is that I am all hunched-up, stiff, and creaky again.

123RF.com

I don’t know what it is about getting older, but I have observed that people seem to ‘draw up’ as they age. Hunching over, taking smaller, hesitant steps while walking, moving more slowly, turning inward. The tendency is to end up in a ball.

Right now one of the things I’m working on is relaxing when I lie flat on my back on the mat. That doesn’t sound like much, I know, but it is for me. I have to start with a wedge pillow under my neck. I breathe into the position, trying to concentrate on relaxing my jaw, relaxing my face, actually letting the wedge pillow support my head. Yeah. I’ve gotten that bad.  I then trade the wedge for a sofa pillow and do the same relaxing. Finally, I can lie flat on the mat with no pillow. Each position is like this, with parts of my body either clenching up or yelling at me as I try to get into the stretches. I am concentrating on just doing what I can do, trying to push just a tad more with each day of practice.

I’m making progress after the six days of practice last week. I’m still stiff, but I can relax more quickly now into each pose. I keep reminding myself that Cat Kabira, the lady on the Gentle Yoga DVD, stresses that ATTEMPTING each pose, and holding while you relax and breathe into it, does your body good. As long as you are doing the best you can, your body will eventually ‘yield’ and release the muscles.

OshiPrint.in

I’m going for 7 stars this week.

Leave a comment

Filed under Challenges, Changes, exercise, taking care of yourself

Tagged as , , ,

September 3, 2019 · 1:33 pm

Folding Myself into a Paper Airplane

Pixabay

I can’t tell you how long it has been since I did a session of yoga. I will be generous to myself and say a couple of months, but it’s probably longer. I have given other things priority over yoga practice, even though I KNOW I need it. I have lots of excuses, but I finally decided that today was the day.

I have just finished a session, and I have to tell you that I feel better than I did.

I do “Gentle Yoga” – sometimes using a set of DVDs by this name put out by sixtyandme.com with instructor Cat Kabira.  This is a group of yoga stretches and poses for people who are NOT yoga people – people who are a bit age-challenged like I am (I’m 72) who have likely have health or injury issues, or, who, like me, are generally stiff, sore, and too sedentary for their own good. I call it “Yoga for Old Broads” and I love it. The instructor is very forgiving, non-judgmental, NOT super-perky so you have the urge to squeeze her neck. She stresses to just do what you can do. If you stretch in the way she is telling you, even though you can’t fold yourself into a pretzel, you are doing good for yourself. The stretching in that direction, holding the pose and BREATHING into it will finally result in your body GIVING a bit, stretching out, relaxing.

Today I just did some of the poses on my own. I wanted to take my time, do what occurred to me to do, holding the poses as long as I could. BOY! My body was telling me that I had been neglecting it!  Everything was difficult today. I really worked slowly, easing into things, breathing a lot, trying to relax. I could really tell that I need to do this every day as I was doing before other things took precedence around here. Everything I have is stiff and sore. Even lying on my back hurt for a minute or so!  I snapped, crackled, and popped as I stretched each part of me out, one area at a time.  I spent half an hour today and feel better now for it.

I will try to make time for this every day now. I have AGAIN learned that my health and ability to move and relax is super important – maybe now more than ever.

If you haven’t tried “Gentle Yoga” I highly recommend it.

4 Comments

Filed under aging, exercise, taking care of yourself

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

June 18, 2018 · 10:03 am

Folding Myself into A Paper Airplane – Take 16

Fabulous Traveling

 

I’ve been getting on my yoga mat every day – concentrating on slow stretches to loosen up my old, stiff, sore body. I spend a good half hour using the positions taught by Cat Kabira on my 2 “Gentle Yoga” DVDs I bought from SixtyandMe.com.  I’m doing my own thing, listening to my body creak and moan and then finally ‘give’ into each position as I breathe into it, feeling much looser after my practice.

My massage therapist, Lynn Moody, has been working with me to solve a mysterious problem of pain running from my neck to my shoulders, first on one side mainly, and then moving to the other, and sometimes all the way across.  She suggested

  • ice for 15 minutes followed by heat for 15 minutes when I’m having lots of discomfort
  • an exercise with a 3 lb weight that stretches out the muscles between my neck and shoulders
  • an over-the-door shoulder pulley exercise thingie

The latest suggestion came at my last massage when she quietly lifted my neck and snugged a pillow in. Instantly, I was in Heaven. My pain was gone! She said to just relax into it while she continued her magic on my other parts. When we finished, I asked her “What WAS that, and where can I get one?”

It’s called a Cervical Traction Chiropractic Wedge Pillow – Neck and Shoulder Pain Relief 

I’ve used it during my yoga stretching for 2 days now. This is bringing me real relief. It won’t help with being old. It won’t make me look like Julia Roberts. I’m already addicted to it, though, looking forward to being able to lie down on my mat and totally let go, relaxing into the pillow and letting it do its work. I don’t know yet if it will take away my pain completely or not, but right now I’m happy to settle for it easing my pain for much of the day.

Leave a comment

Filed under exercise, quality of life, taking care of yourself

Tagged as , , , , , ,

May 17, 2018 · 10:01 am

Folding Myself Into a Paper Airplane is Good

Animal-Space.net

My neck and shoulders have been hurting/burning off and on for about 3 weeks now. I had a wonderful massage where my therapist suggested that I

  • use ice and heat alternately  (I have to force myself to do this for 15 minutes, although I know ice is good for inflammation)
  • do an exercise with a weight to stretch out the muscles between my neck and my shoulders
  • do yoga stretching
  • get an over-the-door shoulder pulley and use it to stretch out the muscles
  • STOP doing whatever it was that was causing the problem!

I’m still having problem, but 1 through 4 above are definitely helping. Since I have no clue what I did/am doing that causes me to tighten up like this, it’s a bit hard to ‘stop it,’ but it’s great that I now have an arsenal of ways to make it stop for a bit.

I received a new neck pillow I ordered (Amber ATE the one I had while I was out working with the weed whacker),  so I’m again doing all of my stretching and relaxation poses on my yoga mat.

Thanks to Sixty and Me    and their “Gentle Yoga”   DVDs (for old broads like me) with instructor Cat Kabira for teaching me ways to stretch myself out, try to relax, and strengthen my body to feel better.

Leave a comment

Filed under Challenges, exercise

Tagged as , , , ,