Yoga Without A Mat: A How To Guide

Yoga Without A Mat: A How To Guide
Featuring Two Guest Posts from Kathryn Hudson and Alaha Ahrar. 






The great thing about this week's post is it doesn't cost you a thing. You get to save your money and be at peace.  The good news is contentment and the sense of tranquility that comes with increased awareness and wisdom - is only a click away.

"After silence that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music." ~Aldous Huxley

The first action in practicing yoga without a mat is, (re)discover music. No mat or yoga toys required, all that is needed is a piece of music that inspires you. In the lyrical words of Jeff Tweedy in his latest tune with Mavis Staples, "open up this is a raid, I wanna get it through to you, you're not alone."

Last weekend I gave a short concert at the North Carolina Seafood Festival.  It featured some of the best musicians in the area, including a backup gospel choir.  We all shared some amazing songs with the enthusiastic audience during the 90 minute set.

One fan in the audience wrote me afterward, asking if she could use my name in her blog. Her being a novelist, I was enthusiastic to read her post, and I quickly obliged after reading her words.

What she wrote about was her epiphany that arose from attending my concert.  You do not need a mat to do yoga.  My concert had been the yoga (aka healing) she needed for the day.  According to Kathryn, my performance lifted her up to another place, to a higher level of awareness.

Her experience is exactly why I believe that music, perhaps, has a more profound capacity to heal than all the decades of my training & practice in physical therapy, medicine, yoga, Pilates, and Ayurveda combined.  The spoken, written, and sung word hold untapped potential for healing.

"Poetry is nearer to vital truth than history."  ~ Ion Plato

The second step to practicing yoga without a mat is, embrace the written word. The birthday of the great Afghan poet, Rumi, was celebrated last month.  Rumi's work transcends the ages, and as the Indigo Girls wrote in their song Virginia Woolf, here's (a young person) on a kind of telephone line through time, and the voice at the other end comes like a long, lost friend...and so I know I'm alright."

Rumi brings us a pertinent, timely message as applicable today as it was in the 8th century. His work has been studied and promoted by those of all spiritual backgrounds.  The post of a dear friend, Alaha Ahrar, a young Afghan poet and woman whose courage should inspire all women, is one I would like to share with you.  Alaha's Post, is uplifting, coming from a very brave woman who writes in spite of the danger and violence that women in her country suffer.

In Review: Practicing Yoga Without A Mat

1.  Listen.
Researching music which works for you - is free.  Pandora, an internet radio station that has been a big source of my musical research, is a great place to peruse endless songs and all genres of music. 

2.  Read. 
Alaha's Rumi Post
You may want to go out and buy a book of poetry for inspiration; however, the internet and the library are both great resources to help you determine WHAT and WHO inspires you.  A good place to start, for those of all belief systems, is Rumi. 


To learn more about my work, go here.
*The photo was taken while I was "yogaing" at Stonehenge, in June 2010, on a road trip across the UK with my husband.

The Bell Tolls In Haiti and America

My heart is broken.

Last week I received some photos taken by our very own team of aid workers who were in Haiti on the day of the earthquake. When I opened the photos, I was not prepared for what I would see.

My hands reflexively flew up in the air - I gasped – I bowed my head and I shook it back and forth and shouted “no” – before I even knew what I was doing.

Then came tears.

What could I do, as one person?

Like many, I was stunned on January 12, the day of the earthquake, especially since I knew we had aid workers/missionaries working in the field in the area of Port-Au-Prince. I had been leading an effort, Haiti Initiative, since May of 2009. A few months before the quake, I founded Musicians 4 Missions, a concert for the children of Haiti.

But I thought to myself...what can I really do, as one person? What can I or anyone else do to make up for the loss of so many children's lives? No amount of money can make right what has happened.

But seeing the photos made me resolve to take what I had planned to raise and multiply it 4 fold – for the children. Knowing that there may well be a "generation of amputees," when the children of Haiti were already so disadvantaged - seemed and does seem more than is fair for a country in such poor condition.

We need a “Feed the 5000” fish/loaf miracle of Biblical proportion to help the children in Haiti. But we can all help, domestically and abroad - we can and must help all children.

Many Americans claim we should not help Haiti, we should instead help our own people. However, the devastation in Haiti requires help of the immediate and long term kind - children are dying from infected limb loss, women are still giving birth - and in worse conditions than before - Haiti had the highest infant and mortality rate before the earthquake - and now? What about this generation of amputees? There were no sanitation or building codes prior to the quake...

Haiti is a country devastated - and as 16th century poet John Donne' wrote "any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind...do not send to know for whom the bell tolls, the bell tolls for thee." Do not think we are not affected by Haiti's loss. Indeed we are more affected than we know.

What is your service to the children of this world - today?

*Pictured is the response by missionaries and fellow neighbors, after a building collapsed on several children, none of which survived. Families were able to identify and claim all but one child's body. No one claimed the remaining child, so the missionaries named him Joseph and saw that he was laid to rest, at least, in a handmade box. A funeral is expensive by Haiti's standards, costing $300. When the average person barely clears $750 a year, families cannot afford to bury their own dead, much less an unclaimed child crushed by the rubble from a falling building.

Haiti Update: January 23, 2010

Haiti Update: Raleigh, NC January 23, 2010

Doctors and Nurses Desperately Needed

Doctors and nurse volunteers are needed to serve in Haiti.

CARE is making flights from Raleigh (RDU) to Cap Hatien, Haiti, for weekend volunteer work at the Cap Hatien hospital. The hospital was not damaged in the earthquake. There is no fee for the flight.

In order to volunteer, the doctor or nurse needs a valid passport.

To/From transport from the airfield to the hospital is provided.

Flights will occur on an as needed basis according to the number of people flying.

This is a wonderful way for local doctors and nurses to contribute time and possibly a way to send more goods to those in medical need, quickly.

If you would like to volunteer or want more details, please contact:

Patrick Tormey
cell: 919-394-6055

Email: pattormey@yahoo.com