#semperwise - Yoga Wisdom

“If you want others to be happy, practice compassion.

If you want to be happy, practice compassion”

The Dalai Lama

Wisdom is the sound application of knowledge.  It is a deep understanding and realization of people, things, events or situations, resulting in the ability to apply judgments and actions that serve optimal outcomes.

How can we cultivate or tap into wisdom through yoga?  Wisdom often requires control of one's emotional reactions and control of the senses, so that universal principles of reason and morality prevail to determine our actions.  Our practice, whether in a physical posture, breath control or meditation, facilitates presence and grounding in the moment.  This grounding enables a yogi to draw upon judgement from a more objective place, where the mind is calm and freed from emotional barriers of stress and anxiety.  A quiet mind can listen to the authentic inner voice that we all posses. Ultimately, this is the voice in line with your values and this is the voice that guides your actions.

The mindful movement, breathing and relaxation techniques used in SFHW’s yoga teachings, allow us to be lifted from the fog of our senses and from our selfish and often misguided desires.  As brothers and sisters bound by the honor and pride of military service, we can use our unique knowledge from training and combat, combined with a focused mind to make better, wiser choices for good in the world.  Mindful yoga fosters connection, sharpens intellect, and strengthens knowledge of self and others. This wisdom is a compass for our actions, leading us to happiness and compassion for ourselves and those we serve. 

CJ Keller - On Wisdom

Check out these books for even more information on wisdom and yogic principles:

Rolf Gates - Meditations from the Mat
Mark Nepo - The Book of Awakening
Tara Brach - Radical Acceptance

#semperwise - Train Movements, Not Muscles

The typical approach of targeting various muscles in your workout is inefficient and ineffective.  The reason: Your brain sends signals to your muscles when you want them to contract (wake up!), but your brain won’t allow muscles to work independently of each other.

Courtesy of CorePerformance

 As an 18 year old Lance Corporal serving at Camp Lejeune in the ‘90’s, I was entrenched in the one-dimensional training model of the “Pump and Grunt” Bodybuilding era and old school Marine Corps exercises.   I succumbed to an ego based training module attempting to “Get Big."   In a very short amount of time, I arrived at a physical rock bottom- suffering from sciatic nerve pain, neck pain, low back pain, and tendinitis in both arms.   As a result, I was forced to take a second look at my training methodologies.   After conducting intense due diligence of different training styles, I began to incorporate a Movement Prep, FunctionalTraining, Breathe Connected Stretching (Yoga), Martial Arts, and Speed, Agility & Quickness into my program and into the programs of the Marines I trained.  Within a very short time, my issues fell by the wayside and achieved pain free peak performance.   Here at Semper Fidelis Health & Wellness, we encourage you to examine our mentors and influences that have helped us craft their programming.   Your workouts should use functional movements that prepare your body for the activities you perform in your daily life, recreational activities, and sports.  Make sure you use multi-joint movements that improve coordination and recruit lots of muscles, a process that expends more energy...burns more calorie...and provides a greater return on time invested.

#semperwise - Unfair Comparison

Unfair Comparison

I was in a yoga class last week and my mind began to wander...

I'm pausing here, because I imagine I am getting a few strange looks from some of my readers. I can hear your comments from here:

"Yoga?"

"Are you kidding me?"

I promise there is a point to this story, so keep moving warriors.

Anyway, while holding Warrior II, I found myself comparing my form to those around me in the class. For those of you that practice yoga, you (especially the Yoga Warriors) know all too well that this is a sure way to reduce the effectiveness of your practice. I recognized my wandering mind, cleared my thoughts, and began to settle back into my stance. As my gaze began to soften onto my extended hand, I had a bit of an epiphany. It was this short moment in time that I became a bit enlightened about a challenge that many wounded warriors encounter during their healing process with PTSD. I call it the Unfair Comparison.

Many warriors I work with, express an array of emotions surrounding the perception that they are "losing things" as a result of war injuries; both physically and psychologically.

Don't get me wrong here, there is no doubt that they change; we all change over time! Setting the right expectations with these particular warriors is a very important step in their healing process. This is why I want to help them avoid the pitfalls of an Unfair Comparison.

Given that the average recruit or junior officer enters the service between the ages of 18-22 years of age, it is difficult to avoid "baselining" our perceptions of ourselves as always being that "lean, mean, fighting-machine" captured in our photos from Basic Training / Ranger School / Tiger-Fighting Course, or whatever it was that we graduated from back in the day. When this type of comparison begins to dominate our thoughts, it becomes unhealthy. Comparing our current age to the days of our youth is a trap we set for ourselves that we are guaranteed to step into every time. These harmful and Unfair Comparisons are backward focused, meaning we compare ourself to something we cannot become; namely younger. These comparisons are also outward focused, where we find ourselves comparing ourselves to other people. This creates a great deal of sorrow and unhappiness. It reduces our resolve and becomes that hot flare-up that evokes the anger in some of us.

American poet Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, "What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales in comparison to what lies inside of you." Emerson gave us these thoughts when he wrote about finding happiness in our lives. With this in mind, I will submit that happiness and the Unfair Comparison will never be occupants of the same foxhole. Here's my take.

Comparing yourself to anyone else, right now in this present moment, is like comparing apples and oranges. What you think is important, may not resonate with your target of comparison. Your appreciation for simplicity may run counter to your opponents need for material things. But most importantly, your comparison is usually based on those activities or possessions that are found "outside" of ourselves.

Bottom line; you can't get younger and you can't be somebody else! So why compare yourself to something that is unobtainable?

I will also contend that the best comparisons we can make are those that gauge how effectively we are moving toward the Objectives we set for ourselves. In this mindset, we set the Objective, we choose to move toward it, and we are the ones that hold ourselves accountable to the standards we set. If we don't like the results, we change our tactics. Sound familiar, warriors? Just like adjusting the sight on a weapon, in order to hit the target!

Over the next several weeks, I will be highlighting how my coaching processfocuses on the key pillars that most of us use to define our own happiness; namely Self-Image, Wealth, Health, and Love. I will also be diving deeper into some of the other methods, we as humans, use in attaining the elusive buzz of happiness.

Who knows, maybe you'll even look forward to my next post? To those I say...

That brings me great happiness.

Warrior Out...

Beau Chatham is SFHW's Warrior Life Coach.  Learn more at his page.

#Semperwise - Nutrition

Ahhh!!!  I seriously can not believe it is February! As you know from my previous post in January everything starts with my nutrition. As I have mentioned before you will read in this newsletter that we address ALL nutrition- which we call Primary Food. Since it is February, I thought it would be appropriate to focus on my two favorite primary foods: Chocolate & Love!

Since I can remember, I have always loved the idea, the concept, the dream of being in love. In love with a partner, in love with a song, in love with a dress, in love a piece of jewelry, in love with a book, in love with a performer, in love with my yoga teacher, in love with a meditation, in love with a job, in love with my family, in love with an exotic, warm place, in love with green juice, in love with my late Nanny Eve's noodle kuegel, in love with CHOCOLATE!

In February, the majority of western retailers, restaurants, florists,and bakeries, focus on Chocolate & Love notes. I, Clarissa focus on Chocolate & Love notes daily. So you can only imagine how much I LOVE the short 28 days that fall in February. So what do Chocolate & Love have in common that makes me desire them so much? Cacao (real chocolate, RAW & LIVE, before it has been processed) affects the brain by causing the release of certain neurotransmitters which are known to trigger or release emotions, and one of those emotions is euphoria, making it like LOVE, so desirable, so necessary, so warm, so romantic! 

Did you know?

Most negative bad things commonly attributed to non-raw chocolate, such as diabetes, weight gain, irritability, mood swings, and cavities, are actually caused by the, processed refined white sugar, dairy and numerous toxic other fillers that are added to dark chocolate! Terrible, I KNOW! Chocolate has so many  Health benefits when it is in the form of raw cacao beans, butter, nibs and/or powder.

Some Health benefits of chocolate include: 

• Weight  loss  WHY?  Its contains high chromium and coumarin levels
• Prevention of cavities  WHY? Theo-bromine actually kills  streptococci mutans, this actually kills  one of the strains of bacteria that cause tooth decay (please still brush those fangs well...)
• Regulation of blood sugar which is beneficial for diabetes WHY? Chromium can naturally regulate blood sugar
• Benefits the heart and the entire cardiovascular system as a whole

RAW CACAO LOVE ELIXIR

8ozs organic almond milk

½ cup crushed ice

1 ripe organic banana

3 pitted dates, or 1 tablespoon local honey

½ avocado (about ¼ cup)

2 tablespoons raw organic cacao, or carob

2 tablespoons organic almond butter

1½ teaspoon golden flax seed

alcohol free vanilla to taste

pinch pink Himalayan sea salt 

Instructions

Add all ingredients into the blender.

Blend for 30 seconds until smooth

DRINK SHARE ENJOY 

*** you can purchase RAW Cacao at Whole Foods, your local Health Food Store or at Vitacost.com in addition to many other on-line resources.

#Semperkickstart - Why Yoga For Veterans?

After experiencing the devastating toll the Vietnam conflict took on our nations Warriors, and recently fighting two full military wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, we are now tasked with ensuring our active duty, reserve and Veteran populations are not taken for granted, and not forgotten.   

Across every branch of service, we train for and execute missions in austere and high stress conditions, most people would agree that this is our “bread and butter”.  We take great pride in the sacrifices we make mentally and physically to be successful in training and defending our nation in battle.  We do this all in the name of honor, courage and commitment.  There is of course a dark side to this noble cause, and in order to allow an individual to cope with and manage resulting mental stress or physical impairments, we need something on the other end of the spectrum to balance us out.   

So, why would a Veteran try something like yoga?  Isn’t that just for soft, pacifist, hippie types that burn incense and chant crazy talk, you might ask?  There are many different forms of yoga, and it is important to understand that the style we utilize is non-denominational and emphasizes simple but physically challenging postures in addition to breathing and relaxation techniques.  These evidence-based, practices are geared toward balancing your mind and body in order to cultivate a feeling of strength, confidence and relaxation in both the mind and body.  

As Veterans and members of our modern military, we have grown to become very good at wearing and polishing our armor.  We don our finest dress blues, pin our medals on our chest and stand tall with pride and honor.  All too often, we find that underneath that shiny, battle hardened exterior is a sea of turmoil churning and folding.  We don’t really talk about what’s below and in many ways, we don’t really know how to.  All too often, this closed, inner world governs and can dominate our thoughts and actions.  Yoga invites us to keep our pride, our armor and our medals, but to open up and safely address some of the disconnect that keep us stuck in a moment or pattern of behavior.  It allows us to put words on feelings and to find happiness from within, creating balance and fulfillment again.  

Whether you take one yoga class a week or five, you have to start somewhere, and we offer that there is no better place than a simple yoga mat.  Let 2013 be the year you come to the mat and bring yourself home.  

Semper Fi and Namaste,

Captain CJ Keller, USMC, Retired

SFHW Yoga Development Director

SFHW is sponsored by Tomuno Mats.  Tell them we sent ya!

#semperkickstart - Yoga (Nidra)

#semperkickstart - Yoga (Nidra)

Yoga Nidra is a scientific method for achieving a deep state of relaxation. It differs from many other methods of what we might consider to be relaxation. It is not hypnosis, although it is commonly mistaken for this.  Click HERE for more on Yoga Nidra from our friends at MyYogaOnline.

Here are some more sample Yoga Nidras from our friend Suzanne Manafort (Veterans Yoga Project)


How about a new pillow for your nidra practice?  Order from our Recoup page and a portion of the profits return to support Semper Fidelis Health and Wellness.

#semperkickstart - Mindful Humor

Now that we have your attention!  Meditation is not Creepy!

#semperkickstart - YOGA NEW YEAR

#semperkickstart - YOGA NEW YEAR

Around New Years, we generally tend to do two things: we reflect on the past year of personal adversities, the good times and the not so good, and come up with countless top 10 Moments of 2012. We also look forward to the new year, with new hopes and goals in mind. Many of us suddenly determined to become the person we want to be or live the life we want to have. Don't get me wrong, it's very important to reflect, and of course we need to set goals and commit to achieving them, but WHAT'S MISSING? Let this be a friendly reminder to you to be present in today. Maybe try something different this year, start with grounding yourself and loving yourself in the moment instead of counting on magic when the ball drops, the rest will fall into place, I promise. One hell of a year for me personally, gratitude to everyone I've connected with. Have fun and celebrate...Cheers!  - CJ Keller 

(CJ Keller is our Yoga Development Director)

Discover Sun Salutations, the most familiar yoga series of poses free from My Yoga Online.

SAVE $49 on a year subscription to MyYogaOnline ($69.95) and support SFHW Yoga

Find a SFHW Yoga class near you!

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Semper Wellness Jan 13 - #semperkickstart

#SemperKickStart is the name of January's Semper Wellness newsletter.  If you missed it...Here it is!  We are still working out the bugs of our new software...(#semperpatience) 


Inside this month's issue:  Primary Food, Finding Balance in your PT, Meditation, & Benefits of Yoga. PLUS...Semper Challenge: Warrior 1 & Stability Ball Push-Up.


Big changes do not require big leaps. Permanent change is more likely to happen gradually than through one big restrictive plan. Allow yourself to climb the ladder one rung at a time.

Happy New Year!
Team SFHW

TAKING VETERANS ASSISTANCE AND VETERANS HEALTH TO ANOTHER LEVEL 
Semper Fidelis Health & Wellness (SFHW) is a community based 501(c)(3) tax exempt nonprofit founded by USMC veterans and a Holistic Nutrition & Health Counselor.  We provide veterans assistance and guidance on veterans health.  We are the first and only integrative health and wellness solution that provides education and programs to wounded, sick or injured veterans, who we refer to as warriors.