dr. kristin shepherd

Where is the beautiful yoga clothing?
Oh, I know there’s some lovely stuff out there, but don’t you
dream of designing your own yoga T-shirts, yoga pants, and yoga mats?

We talked about this last year, but I
think it deserves another round.

Let’s say we could create the perfect
top for you–tank top, V-neck, string bikini top, down vest–you name it according to your own inclinations.

For me, it would be a T-shirt, V-neck, cap sleeves, indigo,
soft and breathable, extra long through the trunk, doesn’t shrink,
doesn’t stink, doesn’t stain. (What are the chances,
statistically, that I’ll find this during my lifetime? If I do,
I’ll buy 10 of them.)

OK. Now the logo. I want a soft,
friendly, slightly feminine font. Not a Barbie font, more like a
Sharon Stone font.

One saying on each of my shirts:

1. Love Breathing

2. Beyond Nuts for Kundalini

3. Shanti, Shanti, Shanti

4. Breath of Fire Smokes

5. Namaste Back at You

6. Smile by Yoga

7. One Conscious Breath 

8. The World Needs Your Heart More Than It
Needs Your Head

9. What Makes You Happy Makes You Well

10. Love Wins

Those are mine. Tell me about your
T-shirt. And for goodness sake, somebody take the idea and run (or Salute the Sun) with it.

Thanks to yoga for inspiring us to
plaster accolades across our chests. Thanks to you for the
conversation,

kristin

Dr.
Kristin Shepherd is a chiropractor, actor, and speaker (About All
Things Wonderful) in North Bay, Ontario.  Join her on the web,
on Facebook,
on Twitter,
and on iTunes.

Backbends. It’s the only groups of
asanas in yoga that scares the bejeepers out of me before I even roll
out my mat. The word scares me. 

They’re hard, aren’t they?

After a week of concentrated effort
(and almost two years of recurrent effort), I can power one hand
to one raised and shaking heel in Camel. I’d put this outstanding
accomplishment on YouTube if I thought it had anything to do with
real yoga. My pseudo-twisty-gritted-teeth Camel does not.

My Camel attempts have been push, push,
push, gotta get there even if it means squashing the heck out of my
lower back. Etc.

A survey of backbend literature
suggests they have everything to do with moving from fear to courage,
from fear to power. The word that shows up again and again, making me
nuts, is “release.” You don’t read much about bulldogging your
way to courage and power. You read, instead, about allowing, opening,
and releasing resistance.

Backbends are designed to open our
pelvises, our hearts, and our throats. They are designed to open us
to receiving the hearts of others, to receiving what the future
brings, and to trusting life.

Until backbends, I would have told you
that trust and openness are my middle names. Much of my time is spent
writing, speaking, and reading about love and courage.

Backbends are teaching me that my body
is not yet completely on board, that there is a bit more fear in my
body than my mind likes to admit.

So. No more pushing against my own
resistance.

Starting this morning, all shoulder and
hip openers (my prep work for backbends) are done softly, gently, and
with a focus on surrendering long-ingrained defenses I no longer
need. I will encourage myself at whatever volume is necessary.  “Good for you. Let go, little goddess. IT IS SAFE TO LET GO.” Just as well that I’ll be practicing these at home.

Are you one of those backbend wizards?
If you are, tell us how that freedom feels. Are you backbend phobic? If you
are, can you see that changing?

Thanks to yoga for offering us opening
after opening after opening, and thank you for the conversation,

kristin

Dr.
Kristin Shepherd is a chiropractor, actor, and speaker (About All
Things Wonderful) in North Bay, Ontario.  Join her on the web,
on Facebook,
on Twitter,
and on iTunes.

Backbends and I have not had an easy relationship.
In Bow pose, my knees are unhappy, my
back unbending. In Camel … well, there is no “in Camel” for me.
I can lean back while on my knees, but my heels might as well be on
the east coast of Africa, they’re so far from my hopeful, flailing
hands.

And Wheel? I can raise myself from the
floor for five seconds, tops, at which point everything, my hips, my
left shoulder and ramrod spine lock up like it’s closing time at the local prison.

It isn’t just physical, either. As
soon as I arch my low back beyond its completely controlled range of
about four degrees, a panic begins, a defense mechanism that KNOWS
I’m safer closed than open, safer with the few things I know well
than with the million new things I might be stupidly bad at, safer saying
no than yes.

You know what they say: The way you do
your practice is the way you do everything, and
closed/no-chance/safety-first has been a default stance all my life.

It’s time for a change.

What has happened sometime over the
last two years of practice is that my hard “no way, no how” has
become a softer “what if?”

At first encounter with a difficult
pose, I can’t even think through it. Can’t visualize myself in
the same room with it.

Over time, resistance softens and my imagination begins to wrap itself around the pose, until I hear myself thinking, “Some day, some day I’ll get there.” That’s where I am with Camel, now.
This alone is a huge victory.

For the rest of the summer, I’m going to include backbends every
day. “Independence from my old resistance” is my summer mantra.

Is there a pose or a part of practice
that challenges you in the same way? Have you made breakthroughs?
I’d love to hear.

Thanks to yoga for teaching me that
challenges don’t end until I do.

Thanks to you for the conversation,

kristin

Dr.
Kristin Shepherd is a chiropractor, actor, and speaker (About All
Things Wonderful) in North Bay, Ontario.  Join her on the web,
on Facebook,
on Twitter,
and on iTunes.

“Darling, the legs aren’t so
beautiful, I just know what to do with them.” –Marlene Dietrich

Who knows whether it’s Kundalini
yoga or the fact I’ve been back into yoga for almost two years.
(Maybe it’s affected by summer, menopause, too many
eclipses this year. Who knows with these things?)

Boat Pose does it. Chaturanga does it.
Kundalini Frog does it. Lion Pose. Breath of Fire with any pose does
it.

Whatever it is,  my practice is generating
a kind of Marlene Dietrich, don’t-mess-with-me-honey energy that
rocks my little mat.

This week my lovely man met me on the
stairs after my practice and suggested we do something lovely and
romantic together. He may have tilted his head toward our room and lifted his eyebrows encouragingly, but he was also distracted by what looked like a receipt or something in his hand. With a formerly uncharacteristic blast of power from my chest and abdomen, I said, “Oh,
honey, I like your offer, but I think you can do a lot better than that for this goddess.” 

Channeling Marlene. It manifests in more direct eye
contact, a greater certainty about what I want and don’t want, and a delicious sense of power in my relationship to life in this universe. It smokes. (So did Marlene, in almost every existing photograph. Poor lungs.)

We talk often about yoga’s value in
calming us, in exploring peace and even tempers, in helping us relax into deep sleep
at night.

I’m curious about what you’ve
experienced on the other side, on the side of increased power and gutsy
fire through yoga. I’ll bet you have stories to tell, and poses that do it for you.

“Courage and grace are a formidable
mixture.” That’s Marlene. She thought the combination only
occurred in bullrings.

You shoulda tried yoga, honey.

Thanks to yoga for turning on the
power.

Thanks to you for the conversation,

kristin

Dr.
Kristin Shepherd is a chiropractor, actor, and speaker (About All
Things Wonderful) in North Bay, Ontario.  Join her on the web,
on Facebook,
on Twitter,
and on iTunes.