“What Do You Practice?”

Posted on January 29, 2018 by Cheri Harvey

“What Do You Practice?”

Cheri Harvey, January 29, 2018

Last week, I came across a video on Facebook and I want to share the video and the message with you today.

In this video, this young boy asks a profound question: “What do you practice?”

Note: OK, I found out today that this little boy is repeating the teachings of Prem Rawat, and from watching a video of Prem Rawat speaking about this, I learned that he based and created this teaching from a story he heard while in China. So, I’ll post links to all three videos below.

I’ll summarize what he says here, but check out the videos via the links below.

——

[What do you practice? Because whatever you practice, you’ll become very good at it!

Do you practice joy in your life?

Do you practice peace in your life?

Do you practice happiness in your life?

If you do, you’ll get very good at it!

Or do you practice complaining? If you practice complaining, you’ll get very good at it. So good at it, that you’ll find fault with everything, like you are the expert on things you know nothing about!

Or do you practice anger? Because if you practice anger, you’ll become very good at it. So good at it, that the most trivial things will make you angry.

Or do you practice worry? Because if you practice worry, you’ll become very good at it. So good at it, that everything will worry you.

So, if it is a matter of practice, let us practice peace, joy, happiness…. Imagine the rewards!]

——

So, may I (Cheri) suggest that we practice happiness, kindness, love, mercy, grace, peace, enthusiasm, etc. because if we practice any of those things, we will get really good at them!

This is also how our yoga practice works. It is a practice! And whatever we practice, we will become good at it.

We practice balance.

We practice flexibility.

We practice strength.

We practice alignment.

We practice breathing and meditation to calm us.

And by practicing these things, we will become good at them.

So good at them, that we will experience balance, flexibility, strength, alignment, stress-reduction, etc. in our daily lives.

Yoga is not only about what you do in class on your yoga mat. It is about what that practice produces in your daily life that you live out!

—

Here are the links to the videos:

Little boy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKKyxab6SLc

Prem Rawat (background to story): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmOFWiwfP1s

** Prem Rawat (same segment as what the little boy repeated): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udbvSl2r-3E

I hope this question “What do you practice?” will really cause each of us to notice and inspect what we practice every day and that we will make the necessary adjustments to practice the things that will have the greatest rewards for ourselves and those in our lives.

I Left My Corporate Job Eight Years Ago To Teach Yoga!

Posted on August 8, 2016 by Cheri Harvey

Today is my 8th anniversary of 08/08/08!!!!!!!! I like all those 8s

Eight years ago today, on August 8, 2008, I left my corporate job of over 20 years at UPS and began my new journey as owner/founder of Yoga For Real – it’s yoga for real people, for real life, for real results! Woohooo!!!

I had been teaching yoga off-and-on part time since 2000 and felt called to get completely out of the corporate world and into a less stressful and more purposeful life. So, 11 years before I was eligible to retire, I boogied on out of there.

I am so thankful! God is good! I’m looking forward to seeing where all God leads me this month, this year and onward.

Thanks to family, special friends and clients who believe in me, encourage me and for all who have attended and/or are attending my classes and workshops.

I truly want to use any and all gifts and talents God has given me to help myself and others live the best, most whole, purposeful and loving lives possible while we are on this earth – for our good and God’s glory.

This has been quite a journey and I’ll share more of it soon.

Please pray for my continued journey and I will pray for yours. Will you celebrate with me today?! Woohoo!!!

Pay Attention To Your Daily Transitions

Posted on June 8, 2015 by Cheri Harvey

Think about all the transitions you go through in a typical day…. Transitioning from sleep to getting ready for your day… transitioning from home to work, school or other activities… transitioning back to your home and family life… transitioning from all the various roles you take on in one day… transitioning between projects, phone calls, meetings, classes, clients, patients, etc….

Sometimes do you transition from one activity or role to another without even slowing down? Do you just rush from one activity to the next without ever stopping to take a break? Do you “take your work home with you”? Do you drag your home life frustrations into your work life or vice versa? Do you feel like all your daily activities just kinda slide into one another?

Instead, how about if you create some ritual or activity that helps you be more present in each current activity/role throughout your day? Here are a few suggestions – and feel free to make up your own and share them with me!

1) Between activities, take a Five Breath “Breathing Break” to get yourself centered, leaving the activity you just completed and moving fully into the next activity.

2) Stretch and move your body for a One-Minute “Stretch Break” (Hint: You can do this simultaneously with your “Breathing Break”!)

3) Give yourself a double thumbs-up and say (out loud if possible <grin>), “I’m done with that. I did my best. I’m moving on.”

4) Say a short prayer, offering up what you just completed and seeking guidance and direction for your next activity.

What other ones do you come up with?

Try these for today and notice the difference they make in your day, OK?

Let me know how this worked for you!

Autumn Says It’s Time To Let Go

Posted on September 24, 2014 by Cheri Harvey

Well, it’s Fall (or Autumn if you prefer) and what a beautiful season!! Fall is a time for vibrant colors and also a time to let go.

Below are excerpts from two previous newsletters regarding lessons we can learn from Fall.

I hope you enjoy the short articles!

Tip Of The Month: Learn From Autumn

(from October 2008 Newsletter)

This time of year is a time of change in nature. Learn from nature and let this be a time of change for you too. There is a cleanness and crispness to the air. The leaves change colors and show their vibrancy and beauty. The leaves eventually fall off and provide a beautiful carpet for the earth. The trees stand tall and prepare for a period of stillness even though there is a lot unseen going on to prepare for the new life in the Spring.

Let’s breathe into this season and use it to be bold and bright and vibrant in our daily lives. Let’s let go of some things (what do you need to let go of?) in order to create a stillness and a space within us for something new and beautiful to arrive in our lives soon!! Release. Rejuvenate. Renew!!

Cheri’s RealTip: Learn From Autumn – It’s Time To Let Go!

(from October 2011 Newsletter)

Who is with me and loves this season?! Ready to enjoy the cooler temperatures… the bright blue skies… the crisp air… then a bit later, the colorful leaves – beau-ti-ful!… then when it’s the right time, the trees release those leaves.

That’s the lesson I want us to think about… releasing things from our lives at the right time. What would happen if the trees that are supposed to release their leaves never let go? I’m thinking that would not be a healthy tree for long.

Take a look at your schedule. What are you continuing to hold on to in your daily/weekly/monthly/yearly schedule that you no longer enjoy or that is just too much? Is it the right time to let go? We don’t want to just start releasing stuff willy-nilly, but if it no longer serves your highest good and it’s the right time, release it!

In yoga class, we do breathing exercises. We focus on the inhale and we focus on the exhale. Both are needed… bringing the breath in during the inhale and also releasing the breath during the exhale. If we decided we liked drawing breath in so much that we just tried to hold onto the inhale way past the time that it had served it’s purpose or way longer than it was healthy for us, we’d be in trouble! We need the exhale… the release.

So what things in your schedule, or in your house, or in your project list, or in your relationships is it the right time to release?

Just like the trees, when we let go, it creates the opportunity for new life to come again. What is ready to bless your life, just waiting for you to let go and make space for it?

Yoga For Emotional and Mental Stability

Posted on August 21, 2012 by Cheri Harvey

In Class This Week, we’ll focus on three things:

Lunges – We’ll practice variations of the lunge pose, including Warrior 1 modifications, low lunge and high lunge. These poses stretch the groin and legs, strengthen your legs and arms and increase your balance.
Emotional and Mental Stability – We’ll do an 8-minute, 4-pose soothing Kundalini Yoga set (kriya) that does wonders for your nervous system in a very short amount of time and will leave you feeling mentally and emotionally calm, relaxed and stable. It’s my favorite – works every time! Oh yeah!!
Pranic Meditation – In this 5-minute meditation, you’ll focus on your breath and the prana (life force) that is carried by your breath. According to Yogi Bhajan, this meditation “fertilizes the brain” to help eliminate depression and fatigue, provides a constant flow of energy, and boosts your health and intuition.

I hope you will join me this week for this very beneficial practice for your physical, mental and emotional health!

3 Tips For Better Sleep

Posted on August 16, 2012 by Cheri Harvey

I think we are a sleep-deprived people. Uncomfortable sleep… not enough sleep… not realizing the importance of good sleep…. The results are not good, but the great news is that we can reset our sleep by doing a few things better.

Set your bed time. Good parents do this for their children because we want them to feel good and perform well during their day. Hmmm… why don’t we do this for ourselves? I know I need to set my bed time a little earlier because I have a tendency to sit down about 9:30 or 10:00 to read or watch a little TV before I go to bed and the next thing I know, I wake up on the couch at 3:00 a.m. – ugh! So, I need to start getting ready for bed at 10:00 instead of sitting down to watch TV ;-). I heard a good tip last week – set your alarm to remind you it’s bed time.
Get comfortable. Check what you wear, the temperature in your house, the clutter in your bedroom, the state of your mattress and pillow. These all contribute to a good night’s sleep. I need to buy an new mattress big-time (this means shopping – heeellllllp!!) and I’m trying out different pillows because some go flat or “dead” very quickly. What can you change in your environment to make your sleep more comfortable?
Do some gentle yoga poses, stretches, breathing and meditation before you sleep. It really makes a great difference! Even just a few stretches and three minutes of quiet meditation releases tension from your body and generates calm in your nervous system to help you get a good night’s sleep. Try it and let me know how it works for you!

Here’s to your better night’s sleep starting tonight!

By: Cheri Harvey, Owner/Founder Yoga For Real

Yoga Is A Balancing Act

Posted on July 30, 2012 by Cheri Harvey

In last week’s classes, we focused on balance. Yoga is a great tool to increase your balance and restore your balance it if it’s gotten away from you.

When I first started taking yoga classes, my balance was way off. I had always had really good balance. Anytime I’d go through a parking lot, I’d turn the sidewalk edges and cement parking stop thingies into my personal “balance beams” and boogie on across them with a big grin and no problem. However, it got to where I could not balance! Ugh! How frustrating! After taking yoga classes for a while, I noticed that my balance was back and I could have fun on my parking lot “balance beams” again! Whoohoo!

One of the cool things about yoga is that what you do in class translates to your life. So, as I was learning balancing poses in class, it was building balance back into my body, mind and life!! Yeeeehaaaaw y’all!!

I now use balancing poses as a barometer for my life. If I’m all wobbly, it tells me my life is a bit (or a lot) out of balance, so I need to practice my yoga more to bring all of me back into balance. And you know what? It works every time!

Yoga builds balance in so many ways – here are just a few:

The standing poses create balance between the grounding you get through your feet, legs and hips… and the lengthening upward of the spine, head and arms.
The one-legged balancing poses create stability and strength to keep you stable and aware as you walk, stand, run, etc.
Doing poses on both sides of your body brings balance to the right and left sides of your body, since one side tends to be more dominant and sometimes one side is tighter than the other.
Yoga also helps balance the two hemispheres of your brain – yeah, this is your brain on yoga!
Your nervous system is balanced between the sympathetic nervous system (fight-or-flight mode) and parasympathetic nervous system (relax response) which is great since in our stressed out lives, we can easily get stuck in the fight-or-flight mode.

I could go on and on about the balancing benefits of yoga, but for now, just begin or continue your practice of poses, breathing and meditation and increase or restore balance in your body, mind and spirit – your whole life!!

A Little Dab’ll Do Ya!

Posted on July 24, 2012 by Cheri Harvey

When you were growing up, do you remember that commercial for Brylcreem – the hair styling product for men – that said “a little dab’ll do ya!“? The point being that you didn’t need a whole big glob of the product to make a big difference – just a little bit would do the trick.

I feel the same way about yoga! Even just a little bit of yoga makes a huge positive difference! Let’s face it – some yoga demonstrations and classes can be quite intimidating. But, just starting with very easy do-able stuff like learning to breathe better, learning better posture, learning even a few poses, and giving yourself permission to relax will bring about changes you cannot even imagine right now!

It’s so cool when people come to my class saying, “I really don’t think I can do yoga.” and when class is over, they say, “That wasn’t hard and I feel SO much better!” Yep, a little dab’ll do ya!

Of course, once you taste the goodness of yoga and start feeling it’s benefits, you will want to do more and you will know that you can.

Here are a few tips as you begin exploring yoga:

Start simply and honor your limits. Don’t dive into the deep end and over-do by trying hard stuff you aren’t ready for! Listen to your body – and find the right class and teacher that will honor where you are.
Focus on what you can do. Don’t worry about what you can’t do. You’ll get so many benefits from practicing what you can do, that the rest won’t really matter.
Be patient and keep practicing. Don’t expect all your problems to go away after a couple of classes. You didn’t get this way overnight and yoga won’t correct everything overnight, but keep practicing and the benefits keep coming!
Build up gradually. To grow, we must challenge ourselves. In yoga, we want a gentle challenge and to stretch our limits – but never pain, strain or ignoring limits. Take your time – there’s no clock you are racing against.

There’s so much to be gained from a good yoga practice, but you’ve gotta start! So, give yoga a try! Even a little dab’ll do ya!

Safe Forward Bends To Stretch Your Hamstrings And Save Your Lower Back

Posted on July 7, 2012 by Cheri Harvey

Ever notice that if your hamstrings (thigh muscles at the back of your legs) are tight that your lower back also gives you fits? In today’s class, we focused on stretching the backs of the legs and strengthening the lower back – a great partnership!

One cause of tight hamstring muscles is that we spend SO much time sitting. When we sit, the hamstring muscles are not stretched. Over time, muscles that don’t get stretched much can get tight. If your hamstrings are tight, your lower back may attempt to compensate and you get back strain. Not good.

So, how do you stretch your hamstrings without causing more strain or pain in your lower back? Slowly. Gradually. Gently. Your hamstrings did not get tight over night, so they won’t get all stretched out and comfy overnight. But with time, patience and practice, good results come.

Poses that tend to give people with tight hamstrings the most trouble are forward bends. Forward bends are wonderful to stretch your hamstrings, but if your hamstrings are really tight, they may not be comfortable and you could end up straining your back if you try to go to far. We do not want that!

So, here are five tips for doing forward bends to keep you safe and aligned as you move forward (ha! – pun not intended, but I like it!).

Engage your bandhas (lift up the pelvic floor muscles and draw the navel back toward the spine) to engage a band of muscles that goes all around your waist (above and below) that support your core and lower back.
Bend from your “hip hinges” (right where your legs join onto the rest of your body) – not from your waist – and keep your spine lengthened. This protects your lower back, allows a deeper stretch and keeps your chest open so you can breathe freely.
Don’t go down so far. Focus on proper alignment instead of trying to touch your toes or get your nose to your knee. Focus just on getting the lowest part of your pelvis/belly connected with the top-most part of your thigh. That’s enough to start with.
Never force the stretch. Allow your muscles to stretch, but do not force. Only go as far as feels right today – there is tomorrow and the next days to continue on.
Breathe! To me, breathing is just as important as the pose. If you get the pose “right” but end up holding your breath, your muscles are not getting what they need and will not stretch their best. Take long, slow, deep breaths and allow your body to relax further and deeper (when it’s ready) on the exhales.

I hope these tips help you! Here’s to healthy hamstrings and a healthy back!

Fresh New Start With Yoga

Posted on June 30, 2012 by Cheri Harvey

I’m making a fresh new start on this web site. Just getting the main stuff up right now, but will be expanding soon. Come back and visit often!

We all make fresh new starts from time to time. It’s needed. Otherwise, we get stagnant – in our health, thoughts, and lives.

Yoga is an excellent way to make a fresh new start!

Yoga is a mind-body-spirit practice that:

Disciplines the body
Quiets the mind
Enhances spiritual awareness

Some Benefits Of Yoga you may enjoy include:

Physical Benefits

Deeper relaxation
Increases blood flow; slows heart rate, lowers blood pressure
Decreases respiratory rate; healthier breathing
Increases vitality and energy
Slows aging process
Boosts brain functioning and nervous system

Mental Benefits

Increases awareness, focus, clarity and concentration
Helps control mind-chatter, thoughts
Reduces anxiety; increases emotional stability
Boosts creativity, memory, learning
Helps problem solving and increases intuition
Improves and maintains brain health
Deeper sleep; reduces insomnia

Spiritual Benefits

Sense of peace and joy
Acceptance of self and others; cultivates feelings of one-ness
Helps still the mind to find the divine; closeness to God
Harmonizes mind, body and spirit
Deepens capacity for love, compassion and forgiveness
Provides sense of knowing

Yoga for real…

It's Yoga… for real People… for real Life… for real Results

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