Exercise is meant to inspire us to live a more active life with a clear focus that prepares us for the difficulties we will face during each day.

I find my daily investment of exercise is a chance to clear my mental slate, to energize my body and to connect to nature and thereby myself. In short, when I exercise I live a more inspired life that day. When I don’t exercise, I have less ability to concentrate, to feel physically capable of following through with my responsibilities and more frustrated with other people (I am a reformed Type A, or so I like to think).

When we live an inspired life, we see learning and opportunity in every transaction of our day, from mundane and tedious tasks to opportunities that bring rewards we could never have imagined. We get better at using our mind’s energy to know what we want and are more directed to do what it takes to stay on track. When we feel more alive, it allows us to be less frivolous with our physical and mental energy and to be committed to what really matters to us and resembles goals that are the real “biggies” rather than those of our contemporaries, of family traditions, or our past conditioned thinking (which keeps us numbly prodding along). Then we are able to recognize and experience the support that we may have been sight-seeing past in our more familiar, effortful, striving existence where we felt we had to “make it on our own.”

Celeste’s Cross Training Approach to working with the body develops true stamina

Celeste started studying yoga when “straight-up” exercise stopped making sense to her body. A leader and presenter in the fitness field since1984, Celeste uses a conscious cross-training approach to working with the body including weight training, yoga, dance, pilates, meditation and laughter yoga. Her constitution is life affirming: The body knows what to do; there is no one path that guides the way. The only rule is exercise regularly by setting it like office hours.
As a Kinesiologist, Celeste uses exercise as a way to strengthen and condition the body to develop the stamina it takes to live a vital life. A vital life means having the energy and perseverance to start and stick with the activities you want to do in your personal and professional life. Most people are realizing that experiencing a truly successful professional life (or living your “life’s purpose”) means making yoga, exercise or meditation a part of their daily schedule. And, many feel daunted by such a time commitment. Celeste reveals how a commitment to exercise/meditate and practice yoga makes sense when a person realizes that taking as little as 30 minutes a day can add an hour or more of alertness to their day that allows them to be more focused and productive. This means exercise/yoga adds time to your day, it does not take it away.

Celeste’s style of teaching yoga:

Yoga is really something that occurs in the body rather than something you do. This occurrence is a merging of the body with a completely still mind. In this stillness we source our true sense of our self. In other words, we feel more free, less distracted and at peace regardless of what is going on in our life

When this happens during my practice, when my inner mind chatter completely stops, it feels like the yoga does me, rather than me doing yoga. This is because the goal in yoga is to release out of the mind (thinking) and let the stretching aspect of the pose lengthen and energize your muscles without you pushing them. The first time I experienced this degree of a still mind, I went far beyond what my usually tight knee joint had ever done (I have ligament issues—according to my mind and medical data) and felt no pain or sensation whatsoever. I was so relaxed that I went into a half lotus with my knee joint fully bent.
There I was in a position my knee had never been able to get into before. And then my mind kicked in! When I looked down to see that I was in lotus, I popped out of the pose in surprise and painful agony! Yet, when I did not have my mind engaged, or what is referred to as ego mind, I had no pain and was relaxed and taking in the morning sun. Voila! Yoga happened: my mind and body merged and I had no ideas about what I could do.

These limit-busting moments are what yoga is all about. Yoga is about becoming new. It’s just like pressing the “refresh” button on our internet server. All the new data comes in which is like fresh oxygen filling your muscles and mind.

When you are being done by the yoga it is important for you to be in touch with all the sensations going on inside your body. Obviously this is important so you don’t injure yourself, but as you continue practicing yoga, it is important because you want to feel your body lengthen and expand and trust its intrinsic intelligence to do so.

The body is naturally intelligent, it knows exactly how to move and stretch and breathe. Left to it’s own intelligence, which I think of as an inner prompter, we continue to progress. This is yoga. We are guided by this inner prompter when we listen. We listen by breathing continuously and stilling the mind. (It’s really simple, and really requires diligence!) Stilling the mind occurs when we no longer hear inner mind chatter telling us to “reach further” or “stand tall”. Although we do need to remind ourselves to do these things, the yoking (yoga) with the body occurs when the mind is no longer engaged. We disengage from this chatter and only let the breathe fuel and open our pose. When this happens we are own on teacher. When this happens, our breathe, which is the direct connection to life force, (which is just like water filling a hose) or what could be thought of as a steering intelligence, guides us and steers the limbs. We don’t have to reach further and keep our legs straight, they lengthen. This is yoga.

When I teach you yoga, I ask that you go within and listen to your body. Please don’t get on the mat and make the body work. As a teacher, I would like you to hear the instructions, look at me to see what to do, then go into your breathe, move and see what happens. It’s an experiment. Be interested, be intrigued, let go. As your teacher, I don’t want you to look at me and do what I do. Do what you, your body does. Even better, be in your body and let the breathe do you. The only requirement is to show up and do repeats!