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Forum focuses on combining mind, body, spirit - By Buzzy Hassrick
This document was published online on Monday, April 09, 2007
Pilates makes the body receptive to the breath that brings in the spirit.
Yoga is not a religion, but a 4,000-year old practice that offers a holistic approach to life.
Qigong, pronounced chi-GONG, joins two words that mean energy and practice.
All three disciplines were taught at the Episcopal Church parish hall during the 3-hour March 24 spring forum called “Mind, Body, Spirit.” The sessions culminated in a conversation about exercise and spirituality over lunch.
“Body, mind and spirit have to complement each other,” says the Rev. Warren Murphy, a runner and luncheon speaker.
About 30 people participated in the event.
“It was a wonderful community program,” Kurt Graham says. “It gives us all a stronger connection to ourselves and each other.”
Go with the flow
Pilates was new to him and “seemed rigorous,” Graham added.
The best thing people can do for their bodies is keep them moving, gently, instructor Sloan Allen says. Pilates involves a series of exercises, 5 or 10, each flowing into the next.
“It's wonderful to give your body as a gift,” she added.
The routine was developed in the late 1800s by Joseph Pilates, and its main focus is the core, the lower abdominal muscles that wrap around the back. The four layers of belly muscles, when they're strong, help people stand straight and tall.
“You build off your own strength, but you need to listen to your body and honor pain,” Allen says.
Seated with bent legs, her students put lightly inflated rubber balls between their knees and squeeze. Then with hands behind their thighs they rolled back onto the mat, focusing on their core.
Align the spine, head to heals, while controlling and flowing body movements, said Allen, in a calm, soft voice. Focus on the center.
“Lots of times the belly wants to push out,” Allen said. “We want to train it to pull in.”
Exhale with exertion; avoid the tendency to hold breath. Combined with the other movements, Pilates improves flexibility and balance.
True, said participant Carol Bell, who credited Pilates with improving her balance and strength so she stopped favoring her stronger side.
People always have a dominant side, which can be overcome with a strong core that stabilizes the pelvis and makes movements more efficient, Allen added. Pilates is not about repetitions, but about lengthening muscles with precision and control.
That drew her to the discipline, along with its simplicity.
“All I needed was a mat and my body,” she says. “You can take it anywhere you go, and you can do it all your life.
“It's really gentle, and it's tough. It keeps the body moving and flexible.”
Transcending stress
Moving into Yoga, instructor Laura Vanderberg had the group sit cross-legged and pretend a string was pulling up their heads so they'd sit up tall.
“Yoga is a mind-body-spiritual approach to life,” she says. “It gives you precepts you can live your life by.”
Yoga's 10 living principles “guide you back to who you truly are,” Vanderberg said. It returns practicioners to their interior peacefulness and leads them into a happier, stress-free existence.
Nonviolence is a cardinal rule, meaning people should back out if they're feeling pain.
“Moderation in all things,” she recommends.
Rather than a set routine, Yoga is a personal, life-long journey. Vanderberg turned to Yoga for injury prevention about four years ago.
A Ph.D. microbiologist who's worked in California and Los Alamos, N.M., she found Yoga provided quick stress relief. She took a year-long class, which led to a two-month sabbatical and a drive around the country with her two dogs to find a new home.
“I realized Cody was the place where I wanted to settle,” she says.
Settle into Yoga by breathing through the nose, closing the eyes, Vanderberg tells the group - “Leave behind the day ahead and the day behind.”
Deep breaths, counting 4-6 in and 4-6 out, with a pause in the middle. Turn the head to the right and if the neck is tight, pause and breath into the space.
Slow, even, long and full breaths. Assume the table pose on all fours, exhale into the cat position with an arched back and inhale into the cow position with a curved spine.
For the extended child, the forehead goes down, the arms forward with the butt over the knees. Uncomfortable? Use a prop.
For the corpse pose, lie down, feet apart, arms at the side 6 inches from hips, eyes closed.
“The light that exists within me acknowledges the light that exists within you,” Vanderberg says.
Returning to nature
“Namaste,” a traditional Hindu greeting that means reverent salutations, instructor Teri Patton says to welcome the students to Qigong. The energy practice has similarities to African dance, aboriginal dance and drumming.
“It's about doing what you can and using your body how you can use it,” she says.
Patton says the movements are comfortable and the positions aren't strict.
“They provide a bridge for us to return to the natural world,” she says.
People are lucky to be here, and the secret is to be aware. They're not machines.
“We're of the trees, rocks, soil and sky,” says Patton, encouraging the group to reconnect with the natural.
It's about balance - the feminine earth and the masculine sky, the calm and the high energy.
“In each is a piece of the other,” she explains.
People's minds are so preoccupied that the body suffers. Use the energetic and valuable hands as tools, splaying them to emit energy.
“Qigong is about opening,” Patton says.
The effect of a group practicing Qigong is so powerful that it was once banned in China. It's a constant gathering and dispersal of energy, including a shaking of the hands to get rid of “murky Qi,” she says.
A newcomer to the practice, Kathy Payne says, “I loved it. Qigong is more energizing than I expected.”
She, like Mary Jean Fike, enjoyed all three programs.
“All these wonderful opportunities are here in Cody,” Fike added.
Feeding the soul
Physical fitness leads to spiritual and physical sharpness, Murphy says during lunch. Whether it's Pilates, Yoga or Qigong, he recommends doing something on a regular basis.
The three disciplines all talk about maintaining physical space in the body to communicate with the spirit or soul, discussion leader Michelle Hemry says. They help quiet the mind and promote living the moment the best way one can.
“For me, the spiritual is seeking the sacred in life - reaching up and pushing the curtains back,” Hemry says.
“Do something that centers you so the rest of your life falls into some sort of balance,” Murphy adds.
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