Crafting Season Is Upon Us:

 Keep Your Joints and Mind Healthy For More Enjoyment of Your Craft with Bo Yoga

      Fall brings us shorter, rainier days and the reminder that some major holidays are drawing closer. For me, this means more hours to spin, knit and weave as I snuggle in to my cozy home and happily think of gifts I might still have time to create for my loved ones. Whether you are a fiber fanatic, a paper piecing powerhouse, a jewelry genie, a decoupage diva, a sewing superstar, or a woodworking wizard, you too may relish this time of year. As much joy as I get from my various pursuits however, they all have one thing in common. I find myself sitting for hours in less than perfect ergonomic form; my hands, wrists, shoulders and back get tired if I stay at it too long. Then there is the self-imposed stress of making sure I have just the right thing for each person!

Luckily for me I discovered Bo Yoga in April and have come to love its gentle joint rotations, supported stretching and balancing, and energy work. I have been doing yoga for 20 years and have been teaching it for over a year now, and as much as I still love traditional yoga for many reasons, I have found a special place in my heart for the Bo Staff (Balance Bar) and the Bo Yoga style of teaching. I can take mini breaks from weaving dishtowels, grab my balance bar and move through a few simple Bo Yoga warmups to help relax the stiffness out of my upper body and get the circulation flowing from my toes to the crown of my head. If I’m feeling a little creaky from too much sitting after a long stretch of spinning, I can do a few standing poses with the helpful support of the Balance Bar. Speaking of spinning, one of the most fun aspects of Bo Yoga is you get to spin the Bo Staff sometimes! There is little to no weight bearing on wrists or shoulders in Bo Yoga poses, so you can exercise and lubricate those important crafting joints gently without strain or pressure, leaving you fresh for your next project.

And let us not forget the pressure so many of us put on ourselves to make everything “just right” for the holidays; often crafting into the wee hours and stressing about getting things started or finished. Most Bo Yoga classes include sessions of energy work involving fun and easy vibration/dance and Qi Gong/Tai Chi style movements before final savasana to help balance minds and emotions. I find this aspect of Bo Yoga to be gloriously simple as there are no complex cues to follow, yet deeply moving. The energy work calms and grounds my mind and nervous system, leaving me refreshed and energized to take on the next craft project, or, perhaps, to decide that I have done enough for this year.

 


    Join my class on Monday mornings at Eugene Yoga downtown at 10:30-11:45 to experience Bo yoga for yourself. 

      Bo Yoga is appropriate for all ages and genders of crafty (and non-crafty!) folks. It is a supportive, non-competitive, all levels community. Beginners are welcome, and even the most experienced yogis will find something new to love in Bo Yoga.

You can visit my new website at shadygroveendeavors.com to learn more about my new ventures as a yoga teacher.

 



Don't live in Eugene? 
Check out boyoga.com for more information about this growing trend.

See you at the yarn shops and art supply stores between classes!  

Vitamin D Deficiency Prescription

Around the darkest days of the year we got a wild hair (hare?) to visit Hawaii. 

We started North of Kailua-Kona at Puako Bay.

There were strawberries at the Waimea (Big Island) Farmers' Market.

Not to mention bananas, papaya, rambutan, oranges and lillikoi (passionfruit).

It was Mid-January.

We saw honu (turtles) and whales.

I practiced Tunisian Crochet on the beach.

We smiled A LOT.

Then we got in our little rental car and drove around the north side of the island to Pahoa.  On the way we saw Akaka Falls where someone had left a little yarn bomb friendship ring on the rail.  

One of the highlights of the whole trip was seeing brand brand new bits of Earth's crust.  Excitingly, it is headed right for the little town of Pahoa where our friends live.  No big rush or danger, but it may well cut off the highway in a while, and after that, only Pele knows which way she will flow, or if she will stop and simply head elsewhere. 

While we were in the area we went to the Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden. 

There are a lot of invasive plants and species thriving in Hawaii, and most of the botanic garden was non-native, but it was a pleasant way to  spend a few hours.

Two cuties pies were spotted amongst the ferns and bromeliads.

  After Hilo/Pahoa we kept going south on the ring road to visit the center of Pele's domain at Volcanoes National Park. On the way we saw where she had obliterated a favorite black sand surfing beach and an entire semi-occupied subdivision in the 1980s and 1990s (maybe you watched this on a National Geographic special) and replaced it with fresh pahoehoe and a new mini-black-sand beach.

On to Volcano!

Steam vents!

Calderas!

Sulfur Dioxide!

Hydrogen Sulfide!

Magma glow!

Volcanoes National Park is not overly huge, but there is plenty for a few days.  

The next day we drove down the chain of Craters Road.

 We stopped at a Lava tube within a native Ohia Tree forest.

We leaned that the fluffy stuff from new fern fronds was used for nice soft bandages and such. 

We saw pictographs, which are largely associated with blessings of new babies. 

We saw every shape of lava imaginable.

 Best of all, we saw Nene which are an endangered native goose.

      We continued to continue southward. Stopping at yet another black sand beach (yes, the sand gets really really hot),  I watched a sea turtle haul itself out to bask (I think I stayed 30 feet away like the sign said, so the zoomed in photo may be a little pixelated).  Then we drove out a tiny one lane road to South Point.

  Southernmost point in the U.S.  

Next stop, Tahiti. 

Our last few days were spent south of Kailua-Kona at a nice B&B, Kawa'aloa Plantation. We chilled out, watched geckos check out my collection of  new Tunisian Crochet, gecko colored dishrags,  and watched sunsets before heading back home to good old dark Eugene. 

It was just what the doctor ordered.

To be taken annually for best results.