Do we have too much on our plates? How to taste every bite…

Posted on December 3, 2014 by Travis Newbill

Good morning,

To those of you who celebrated Thanksgiving last week, I hope that it was warm and nourishing. And to everyone, regardless of what you did last week, I hope that your plates are full today — but not too full — and that you’re enjoying every bite.

Does that seem like a tall order?

In an age when we often have too much on our plates, and yet are hungry for real nourishment, the aspiration expressed above may be much easier to say than to accomplish. It is for me.

In the video I’d like to share today, I ask Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction teacher Janet Solyntjes about this conundrum, as well as about a particular, personal style of becoming stressed out. I find her responses to be very helpful, and I think that you may also.

Watch the three minute below: MBSR: Too Much on Your Plate?

If you’d like to watch the full interview, or stream/download the audio, click here:
Freak Out! Or Not: An Interview with MBSR Teacher Janet Solyntjes

And, if you feel inspired to deepen into the profound practices of MBSR, please join us for the upcoming retreat that Janet will be leading: Introduction to Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction, March 6-8, 2015.

I hope that these teachings add a flavor of awakenment to your day, and that you’ll forgive me if I’ve piled on the food metaphors too high in this email.

Best wishes from the mountain,
Travis Newbill

P.S. Here’s a nice photo of a family of deer spotted on the land recently, taken by community member Lauretta Prevost.

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Travis Newbill is a curious dude on the path of artistry, meditation, and social engagement who is very glad to be residing at Shambhala Mountain Center. His roles within the organization include Marketing Associate and Shambhala Guide — a preliminary teaching position. Follow Travis on twitter: @travisnewbill

Bringing Your Practice Home

Posted on November 9, 2014 by admin

By Katharine Kaufman

Shambhala Mountain Center hosts Bringing your Practice Home with Katharine Kaufman, November 21-23, 2014

Many poets, thinkers, and dreamers have talked about the inner voice, and a time of changing slightly what we are doing. The nudge leaves us trembling or is just a whisper, barely audible. At certain times in our lives there is a call to listen inwardly and be with ourselves. Maybe we are exhausted from busy days, or we feel stagnant in our yoga practice, or we can’t find time in our schedule to practice. Some of us travel and need a short daily boost. Maybe we want to devote an entire day each month to resting, sitting and yoga. Perhaps a close friend has died, or we find ourselves at a new intersection in our lives and our perspectives are changing. We might feel dull and would like to re-awaken our creative voice.

Regardless of our circumstances, the call is there—nagging perhaps, or a faint insistence that occurs in the guise of, “I need to do something differently.” It could be that our feedback comes from our circle of friends or co-workers! Small cracks in our thought habits occur, and the thought of other possibilities enter. If we are listening to this inner voice than our practice has already begun. How to continue? How can we possibly attend to practice as well as keep everything else in our lives afloat?

As we go into fall and winter we have the opportunity to be supported by the seasons toward this internal direction. This retreat is designed to inspire one’s own path.

We will learn various ways to create yoga and meditation practices. We’ll start with this sense of what ritual is for us as individuals and then practice resting postures, and improvise from that place. We can create a practice conceptually, that has the elements we want, and repeats. We will practice the art of deep listening and let the space guide us. We may think we want one thing when we begin, and because we are listening and feeling closely, it turns into something else. We will brainstorm about where we find comfort, and delight, and think about places we can practice—conventional and not! We will sit, stand, and lie down. There will be led sequencing as well as spontaneous variations based on ancient wisdom lineages. We will consider incorporating contemplative artistic practices into our days as well such as dance, drawing, and writing.

My sense about this retreat is that the exploration and practices discovered are really ways to learn how to continue on the way of befriending, oneself. Can we take refuge; can we actually rest happily, in this rich sense of aloneness? What do we already know?

I practice by myself as well as with others. Both ways seem to me important aspects of learning of who I am and what it is to be with myself. This kind of closeness that develops creates the desire, ability, and confidence to want to be with others and our circumstances in a similar intimate way.

Here’s to listening to the small voice—our Way-seeking mind.

All Best,
~ Katharine

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Katharine Kaufman, MFA, is ordained as a priest in the Soto Zen lineage. She studied Yoga in India and practiced and taught for many years at Richard Freeman’s Yoga Workshop and Wendy Bramlett’s Studio Be. Katharine is an adjunct professor at Naropa University where she teaches Contemplative Movement Arts and is a student of poetry.

Yoga for Every Body — Interview with De West (Audio)

Posted on October 12, 2014 by Travis Newbill

Shambhala Mountain Center hosts This Moment, Beautiful Moment: Yoga for Every Body with De West, November 7–9, 2014

In De Wests yoga, participants may cultivate deep awareness of body and learn to uncoil obstructions to find greater freedom. In her rejuvenating retreats, we discover where we have developed patterns over the years. Even in the womb we favored one side or the other of our mother’s belly. Through slow, directed movements, we learn where we can focus our mind to create more energy and openness and less physical discomfort and stress — targeting our entire bodies gently rather than stressing some parts while ignoring others.

Recently, De took some time to have some discussion around these points. Please click below to her our conversation. And, if you’d like to download the audio, click here and find the “Download” button.

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De West is a leader in the Boulder yoga community and is a co-director of Studio Be Yoga. Her teaching combines principles from Iyengar alignment and therapeutic yoga. As a teacher, De is insightful, intuitive, and attentive. Her years of work with osteopathic doctors allow her to apply yoga to many different people and conditions. Students leave De’s classes rejuvenated and grounded with a sense of personal and physical empowerment. Find more information about De at DeWestYoga.com.

Winter is the Ultimate Yin Season

Posted on September 30, 2014 by Travis Newbill

By Ron Davis

Shambhala Mountain Center hosts Qigong for the Seasons: Winter Qigong with Ron Davis November 14–16, 2014

Nature’s winter energy moves toward the center. Green leaves have withered away leaving the life force nestled in the roots; autumn’s warm hazy air has been cleansed and brightened by cooler winds; flowing water slows and begins to freeze; brown meadow grass has fallen back to earth. For people, winter causes our Qi vital energy to retract from the outer aspects of the body and settle in the bones, kidneys, and the lower dan tian (LDT) of the abdominal region. This seasonal migration of energy toward the body’s core is essential to our health.

Winter is a time for deep resting and nourishing the most vital structures of the body: bone marrow, kidneys, spinal cord and brain. We can do this with qigong exercises, specific meditations and certain foods and herbs. As part of the Winter Qigong practice, the following exercise is a wonderful way to help you stay healthy all the way through winter.

Filling the Lower Dan Tian to Nourish the Kidneys.

The lower dan tian (LDT) functions as an alchemical stove. It has a diffuse boundary going from the lower abdomen, down to the perineum, up the lower back, and forward beneath the diaphragm. The essence of food and air becomes transformed inside the LDT into the Qi that circulates through the meridian system. The kidneys are located close to the LDT and act as the energetic foundation of each organ’s yin and yang. That’s a big responsibility. Without the Water and Fire of the kidneys all other organs would dwindle away.

This exercise brings the healing Qi from earth and sky into the top of the “taiji axis” (the deepest energy channel that runs through the very center of the body), then down to the heart where it mixes with the Qi of the chest, and then down to the LDT for purification and storage. Filling The Lower Dan Tian To Nourish The Kidneys will stimulate the body with vital healing energies from terrestrial, celestial, and human sources.
BEGIN by standing with feet shoulder-width apart, hands down with palms near outside of thighs.

Inhale slowly as you lift arms laterally in a big arc, with palms up, to overhead position where the palms touch.

Think of gathering in fresh Qi from the earth and from the sky. Then compress this Qi between the hands. Think that you are consolidating and transforming raw elements into a priceless jewel.
Exhale very slowly through your nose as hands, in prayer position, come down the front of the body’s midline to the chest.

Think of bringing the Qi jewel down the taiji axis and into your heart. Although the hands move in front of the body, the energy is brought down the internal channel. Still exhaling, turn hands over into a diamond shape with fingers pointing down, thumbs up, and palms against the body.

Continue to exhale, move hands downward, as the Qi descends the taiji axis and flows into lower dan tian. Finish exhalation with thumbs at navel and palms lightly touching abdomen. Relax.
Inhale and turn hands so that palms are facing each other, fingers still pointing down, then move hands apart just out to hip-width. This is a short inhalation.
Exhale and bring palms toward each other until almost touching. Think of packing the valuable energy into the LDT for storage.

At the end of this short exhalation, drop your hands to sides and relax your shoulders.

Do 8 repetitions.

At the end, stand still with right hand resting lightly on the LDT, left hand over right. Take 3 slow natural breaths, feel the Qi circulating.

This is the premier exercise for Winter Qigong practice. Movement is kept to a minimum, while mental intention is foremost. Use your mind to lower the Qi. The movements bring the limitless energy of the outside world into the nucleus of personal existence. And then the treasured Qi is stored in the bedrock reservoir of vitality, there to be slowly refined and nourished for self-preservation and good health through the long season of Ultimate Yin.

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Ronald Davis, DC. LAc. Dipl Acu (NCCAOM) has been in clinical practice since 1984 and has taught qigong, taiji and spinal health care classes for more than twenty years. He is a certified qigong instructor as well as a medical qigong teacher for professional continuing education credit from the National Commission for the Certification of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine. Dr. Davis is committed to helping people learn how to improve their health by using qigong, meditation, and dietary guidelines. He is also the author of the forthcoming book, Qigong for the Seasons.

Principles of Traditional Tibetan Medicine to Harmonize Ourselves

Posted on September 29, 2014 by admin

By Nashalla Nyinda

Shambhala Mountain Center hosts Introduction to the Principles of Traditional Tibetan Medicine with Nashalla Nyinda December 12–14, 2014

Tibetan medicine is an ancient and time tested comprehensive approach to holistic healthcare for the body, mind and emotional well-being. Focused almost exclusively on creating and maintaining equilibrium within one’s body and mind; the system aims to help one to know oneself, and thus how that relates to the external environment.

There are 4 treatment methods according to Tibetan Medicine

I always encourage people that the first two treatment methods of diet and behavior are the first line of defense and the most important in recovering balance or management of a condition. This is because this is done by the patient on a daily basis and is not necessarily dependent on the physician. AND IT’S EASY to both learn and apply!

In the upcoming Introduction to the Principles of Traditional Tibetan Medicine weekend intensive at Shambhala Mountain Center, we will be focusing on these first two aspects of treatment and self-care.

What we will learn

During this weekend retreat, we will learn how to return harmony to our body and mind by refining our relationship to the elements and seasons. You will be given tools for identifying the three humors, for encouraging equilibrium, as well as learn how to apply general antidotes when the humors are imbalanced. The ultimate goal is to foster balance in the body and mind while encouraging a direct relationship to self.

Tibetan medicine understands that everyone is an individual, and therefore looked at as a unique makeup of the 5 elements and how that combines to form the “3 humors”. I believe as a physician of Tibetan Medicine that the modern world can benefit from the ancient healing arts of Tibet by making people aware of themselves. Who are they as an individual, how that relates to their symptoms and health issues and then make the connection to the natural cycles and seasons, qualities of food. This is an aspect I not only feel passionate about – but feel it will help give people very simple basic tools to enhance their well-being.

Nature is the blueprint

Because the external and internal elements are interrelated and in fact based on the same material Tibetan Medicine takes the viewpoint that the sciences of anatomy, physiology, pathology and pharmacology are all based on the 5 elements.

The combination of the elements make up our 3 humors, literally translating as “faults” in Tibetan because they are not stable, they change. This follows the law of impermanence. This development of the 3 humors is based on the principle of the 3 root poisons.
Passion – Aggression – Ignorance.

The Root Tantra tells us that the 3 humors reflect an individual balance for each person, wholly unique to them and their experience of health or imbalance in body, mind and spirit. There are 7 possible combinations or patterns of how these 3 humors can dominate within each person. Yet from the physician’s role, each person is treated as an individual with individual instructions. A doctor’s skill is in informing the patient what their dominant elemental pattern is, and how to balance this through diet and lifestyle.

The 3 Humors Root Poison

• rLung (pronounced Loong) WIND passion / attachment / desire
• mKhris-pa (pronounced Tri-pa) BILE / FIRE aggression / anger
• dBedkan (pronounced Pay-can) PHLEGM ignorance

7 possible constitutional possibilities for how the humors can display themselves
Single wind
Single bile
Single phlegm
Duel wind + bile
Duel wind + phlegm
Duel bile + phlegm
All 3 humors combined- wind + bile + phlegm

WHY and HOW will this Tibetan approach increase one’s health, mental and emotional well-being?

The seasons, cycles, stages of life one is in all play a role in how the 3 humors operate. By bringing awareness and a solid simple, yet profound understanding of these aspects, many symptoms can be decreased or eliminated. We will have easily referenced tools and handouts which are the guides. I am passionate about empowering people to be an active participant in their healing process. You will walk away with confidence that you can use the aspects of diet, behavior and harmonizing with the seasons to empower your healthcare. Even if you’re just looking to optimize your natural healthy state; this course is a powerful lens to enhance all aspects the body, mind and spiritual practices.

What are the applications towards my spiritual practice?

Specifically if one is a serious Buddhist practitioner; there are aspects of recognizing and working with the 3 humor’s energies directly in mediation practice can enhance and deepen practice. We will touch on those. If you’re new to meditation; the aspects we will cover are still applicable to basic relaxation or yogic practices that are non-denominational. There will be time for individualizing and catering to what you’re hoping to get out of this course.

People used to ask me when I lived in Asia studying, ‘Why if you come from a culture so rich with modern medical advances do you study such a old system?’ My response was always that if a medical system which is the same today as it’s been for hundreds of years, is still in practice, and continues to produce good results with little or no side effects, it seems to me it has more value in studying it than modern medicine.

What is the importance or relevance of Tibetan medicine in today’s modern heath care system? The answer is simple. Despite advances in modern medicine people are still unhealthy, unhappy or both. Chronic diseases such as diabetes, auto-immune disorders, simple and complex digestive disturbances and a now massive wave of ‘food sensitivities’ and allergies or inflammatory conditions are on the rise. Emotional and psychological disorders are widespread and the number of people on antidepressant medicines is staggering. Patients take one drug to balance out the side effects of another.

This is not to say that there cannot be a marriage of the two worlds. One of the things that I strive to do as a western person explaining a system which is sometimes very different from what we know in a cultural context, is how to apply the principles of Tibetan medicine to daily life. These then can be further applied into whatever medical treatments one is currently undergoing. Many people seek conjunctive and alternative treatments to enhance their allopathic treatments, and this is also very helpful.

Come Join me and learn tools to enhance your well-being! Whether Buddhist or non-Buddhist, healthcare practitioner or not, all will benefit and gain new tools for heath. Please join me as we explore the time-tested wisdom of Traditional Tibetan Medicine.

I look forwards to seeing you at Shambhala Mountain Center this December 2014!

~~~

Also on the SMC Blog

Discussing Traditional Tibetan Medicine with Nashalla Nyinda, TMD (Video/Audio)

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Nashalla Gwyn Nyinda TMD, LMT has over 14 years of experience in Tibetan Medicine. She earned her Menpa degree (Doctor of Tibetan Medicine) from Qinghai Tibetan Medical College, Tibet and The Shang Shung Institute of Tibetan Medicine. She also has an Interdisciplinary Studies BA from Naropa University with a focus on Asian Medicines and Buddhist Psychology. She has taught these techniques worldwide to Tibetan doctors as well as Western health practitioners. Nashalla and husband, Dr. Tsundu S. Nyinda, are co-directors of the Tibetan Medicine & Holistic Healing Clinic in Boulder, Colorado.

Qigong for the Seasons: Ron Davis Interview (Video/Audio)

Posted on September 27, 2014 by Travis Newbill

Shambhala Mountain Center hosts Qigong for the Seasons: Winter Qigong with Ron Davis, November 14–16, 2014

We are part of nature. When the energy changes in nature it changes within us as well. If we wish to be naturally healthy, we must stay in harmony with seasonal changes. In order to bring this about, Ron Davis teaches Qigong for the Seasons, which is based on the Five Phase paradigm, an enlightened program for comprehensive health care throughout the year. Each class consists of qigong exercises, meditation, and dietary guidelines. Winter Qigong focuses on kidney health, jing preservation, and cultivation of wisdom. This is the season to nourish the essence of body and mind: bones, spinal nerves, brain, and wisdom.

Watch our interview with Ron below, or scroll down to stream/download the audio.

If you’d like to download the audio file, CLICK HERE and find the “Download” button. Otherwise, you can stream the audio below.

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Discussing the Posture of Meditation with Will Johnson (Video/Audio)

Posted on September 27, 2014 by Travis Newbill

Shambhala Mountain Center hosts The Posture of Meditation: Breathing through the Whole Body with Will Johnson, November 14–16, 2014

In the practice of meditation, what you do with your body is every bit as important as what you do with your mind. Will Johnson help student to explore the conditions of body that naturally deepen meditation and to learn to establish the three primary somatic principles shown to support our posture: alignment (establishing the upright spine), relaxation (surrendering the weight of the body to the pull of gravity), and resilience (the understanding that everything in the body moves subtly in resilient response to the force of breath). Building on this foundation, we’re naturally led to “breathe through the whole body, ” as suggested in the Buddha’s teachings. By embodying these simple principles, we can bring far more ease, grace, and release into our sitting practice. Body awakens. Mind slows down. Heart comes open.

Watch our interview below, or scroll down to stream/download the audio.

If you’d like to download the audio file, CLICK HERE and find the “Download” button. Otherwise, you can stream the audio below.

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Will Johnson, an early student of Ida Rolf, has written extensively about the role of the body in spiritual practices. He is the author of The Posture of Meditation, The Spiritual Practices of Rumi, and, most recently, Breathing through the Whole Body. Merging his interests in spiritual practice and Western approaches to the body, in 1995 he founded The Institute for Embodiment Training, a school in British Columbia that views the body as the doorway to spiritual opening rather than the obstacle to it.

Radical Self Healing

Posted on September 18, 2014 by admin

By Charley Cropley

Shambhala Mountain Center hosts Radical Self-Healing with Charley Cropley, N.D., October 3–5, 2014.

You are innately Self-Healing. You passionately love yourself and you are endowed with the intelligence and power to Heal yourself. You simply have not ever been taught how to do this.

You do this by performing your most ordinary daily activities, eating, moving, thinking and relating with love and wisdom. i.e. with your spirit.

The challenge is that you are bound by a lifetime of habits. Stupid, selfish, harmful habits that are compulsive, even addictive. You have been unconsciously entrained in these sick behaviors by your family and culture. These habit “demons” govern every aspect of your behavior and are the cause of your illness and suffering.

To heal your body, you must Heal the ways you use your body. The ways you nourish, move and rest her.

To Heal your mind, you must Heal the ways you use your mind; the ways you judge and criticize yourself, the emotions you are addicted to and the ones you refuse to feel; and, above all, your deeply rooted beliefs about who you are; and your power to Heal your body and mind.

These habits do not die easily. There is only one way to Heal them. You must find your true identity that loves you more than your false self loves… well chocolate, coffee and wine; or slouching and self-criticism; or gossip and people pleasing.

You must be willing to approach your sick, addicted, stupid, selfish, altogether embarrassing self with great compassion and complete honesty. In short, you must cultivate a relationship, a living dialogue between your suffering self and your wise, compassionate self. You must come to intimately understand the sick parts of your psyche. Embrace them as a mother does her child and patiently re-educate them to behave as more responsible, adult members of your larger bodily, psychic community.

In the weekend program I’ll be leading at Shambhala Mountain Center, you will come to appreciate that you are constantly receiving specific instructions from your body, your mind and from other people telling you exactly what to do and not do. You are being spoken to, constantly by Life, by the Divine. Your body is telling you unerringly how to feed her, move her and rest her. Your mind and heart (emotional body) do the same. The art is re-learning how to understand this sensory, mental, emotional language; As a gardener listens to the language of plants, you must return to this caring, innocent curiosity towards yourself. This is innate, natural to you.

“Radical Self-Healing” will teach you how to directly connect with your own innate goodness in a no nonsense, absolutely real way. You will then practice, both alone and in groups, expressing this source of Self-Healing in the ways you eat, move, think and relate.

The art of Self-Healing is a brutal war, an elegant dance, a living marriage between our “seemingly” opposing demons of habit and the angels of Health.

You will at least come away with a sense that your most ordinary activities are living sacraments, in which your lovers and enemies, your human and divine wrestle.

Through instruction, meditation, visualization, writing, conversation and real practice, both alone and in groups, you will taste the flavor of “Radical-Self-Healing”.

We have two days, 8 meals, two showers… to practice wielding your Self-Healing power through the ways you eat, move, think and relate. You may return to your life with a clearer understanding and greater confidence that you yourself are what Heals you.

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Be sure to check out:

Our recent interview with Charley Cropley: Radical Self Healing: A Conversation with Charley Cropley, N.D.

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Charley Cropley, ND, is a Naturopathic physician who after 35 years of practice, uses no medicines. He teaches his clients that they are endowed with Self-Healing capacities exactly equal to their condition. They learn that illness itself is what heals them. It awakens their love of themselves and guides them in the heroic work of Healing their own self-harming ways.

Discussing Traditional Tibetan Medicine with Nashalla Nyinda, TMD (Video/Audio)

Posted on September 16, 2014 by Travis Newbill

Shambhala Mountain Center hosts Introduction to the Principles of Traditional Tibetan Medicine with Nashalla Nyinda, December 12–14, 2014

Nashalla Nyinda can help you discover the powerful healing arts of Tibet through Sowa Rigpa, an ancient holistic practice spanning thousands of years. Her students learn to return harmony to the body and mind by refining their relationship to the elements and seasons. They are given tools for identifying the three humors, for encouraging equilibrium, as well as learn how to apply general antidotes when the humors are imbalanced. The ultimate goal is to foster balance in the body and mind while encouraging a direct relationship to self. Whether Buddhist or non-Buddhist, healthcare practitioner or not, Nashalla can help you explore the time-tested wisdom of Traditional Tibetan Medicine.

Recently, Nashalla took some time to share her wisdom and inspiration. Watch our interview below, or scroll down to stream/download the audio.

If you’d like to download the audio file, CLICK HERE and find the “Download” button. Otherwise, you can stream the audio below.

~~~

Discussing Running and Meditation with Cynthia MacKay (Video/Audio)

Posted on August 25, 2014 by Travis Newbill

Shambhala Mountain Center hosts Running with the Mind of Meditation with Cynthia MacKay, Marty Kibiloski and Tarah Cech, August 29–September 1, 2014.

Cynthia MacKay leads popular retreats based on Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche’s best-selling book, Running with the Mind of Meditation: Lessons for Training the Body and the Mind. Geared for runners, walkers, and other athletes, the book offers fresh insights into the activities of meditation and movement, and the ways our running experience can be dramatically enhanced by working with the principles of meditation.

In this interview, Cynthia shares some wisdom she’s gained from being swift on her feet and stable in her mind. Watch below, or scroll down to stream/download the audio.

If you’d like to download the audio file, CLICK HERE and find the “Download” button. Otherwise, you can stream the audio below.

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Cynthia MacKay has been a student of Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche for over 20 years. Inspired by her teacher’s running, Cynthia has completed eight marathons of her own, from Casablanca to San Francisco. She lives in Los Angeles where she teaches meditation at the Shambhala Center, the Men’s Central Jail, and a drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility.