Eas…E Yoga for Life: How to Dis Stress and Fight Dis Ease

By Loretto Gubernatis and Amanda Penrose

to follow

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Mar 14, 2012
• ISBN: 9781469110271

Book preview

EAS . . . E YOGA FOR LIFE

How to DIS STRESS AND FIGHT DIS EASE

Twelve days

Twelve weeks

or

Twelve months

to a

HAPPIER YOU

Loretto Gubernatis

This book is also a journal

Copyright © 2012 by Loretto Gubernatis.

ISBN:          Softcover                                 978-1-4691-7874-5

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris Corporation

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

[e-mail]

102203

Contents

PART ONE

EAS . . . E YOGA FOR LIFE

PART TWO

THE WORKSHOPS

PART THREE

PART FOUR

ZODIAC SIGNS

OF

THE MONTH

PART FIVE

THE LOSING WEIGHT GAME

PART SIX

THE WITCHERY

GRUB COOKBOOK

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

LORETTO GUBERNATIS

ABOUT THE ARTIST

AMANDA PENROSE

Dedication

To

Susan Powter

Who made me move

and

Lilias M. Folan

Who made me stretch

and

I would also like to dedicate this book

To

Whitney Houston

So sad to lose her so young at the prime of a great life.

She gave us in film ‘The Preacher’s Wife" and

The Body Guard

She will always motivate us with song and make us move

I Want to Dance With Somebody

And

I WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU

Please make the pledge to your body regularly so you don’t abuse it.

It’s a never ending story.

Introduction

This book is inspired by the Six Session workshops I conduct to help keep myself and friends on our toes against those dreaded pounds that keep crawling on every day, every week, and every month. And while the years go by and the flesh grows heavy the will to lose it wanes. We all keep hopping on and off diets to no avail. We’ve tried it all and nothing seems to work. And sadly the older we get the harder it is to lose the weight.

From Oprah to Dr. Oz we’ve been indoctrinated with diets and health regimes. Then why is it that Oprah who is a Billionaire still has weight issues? For 25 years she showed us that she couldn’t keep the weight off. Not with all the chefs, exercise coaches or money could she do it. Why?

Well we could suspect that she stayed slightly overweight to keep her audience. All the sad lonely women (and men) out there who need company in their misery. So the question is WHY CAN’T WE LOSE WEIGHT? Doreen Virtue wrote a book titled Losing Your Pounds of Pain. It basically suggests that our childhood traumas and early learning or lack thereof is contributing to why we are overweight. This seems to sound true, as many people do start feeling a new lease on life when they’ve let go of the past traumas. But life is about daily new pratfalls. Who can forget bugs bunny falling through space being caught by girders that keep appearing just as he’s about to fall to his death. Are we all God’s animated cartoons? Sometimes it feels like that’s the way life is. We call it the rat race because there seems no end to the maze in sight.

But in fact there is an end. And it’s the great taboo word everyone tries to avoid saying or thinking about; and so we block our minds and put another donut in our mouth. Only those who have come to grips and terms with that word are really free to live their lives. And what is that word? DEATH THE LAST GREAT TABOO. This is actually the title of my next book. I did a documentary on Widowhood once titled The Loneliest Journey written by Sylvia Schildt. In the research we found out that the highest rate of recovery from the grief of the death of a loved one was with Cemeterians; not priests, rabbis’ ministers, grief counselors funeral directors or therapists but Cemeterians. These are the people that run the cemeteries. When people throw themselves on the graves as in the old days; or bring flowers and wreaths and keep the plot nice, people heal. They heal because they are in touch with the reality of death.

I have an answer to the question why are we overweight? It’s this: we are trying to attach ourselves solidly to the planet. We feel the more layers of protection (in the form of fat) the safer we are from the inevitable, DEATH. Naked and free we come into the world and begin a life of covering up and loading down. Our bodies are made up of many things but the final product is a solid weighted material. Why we even begin the weighing in at birth and we are all competing for birth weight. We all want to be the perfect size and at birth it is supposedly 7lbs 2 Oz. We call babies larger big babies and those smaller preemies The competition for weight is on the day we are born.

But if you believe that we are more than just corporal material beings and you believe in the soul then how much does that weigh? The ancient Egyptians believed in this and even had a god Horus who did just that, weighed souls. So how much does a soul or spirit weigh? Very little. It’s lightweight and often referred to as floating. Many scholars believe in the proverbial silver cord that attaches the soul to the body. It is said that when we dream we find ourselves drifting out into the stratosphere but we never go further than our cords can stretch. If we did and the cord broke we supposedly would die in our sleep. If it’s true it could explain those cases of people who do die in their sleep with no probable cause.

We don’t really have to believe in the soul or spirit, to have experienced it. We constantly refer to having a weight lifted off our shoulders or that we’re floating on air. We experience these moments when we meditate. When we slow down and breathe deeply. We all know that we do; and yet we don’t make it a part of our daily routine. We don’t take this type of time out each day as ritualistically as we have a cup of coffee or go to the bathroom. We call the coffee time a coffee break.

The sessions described in this book are meant to be done in short periods of time. Some only take 30 seconds. The important thing is to fit them into coffee breaks, waiting in traffic and bathroom breaks. If you sit at a computer all day relieve each hour with a one minute stretch break. We are ritualistic animals. You need to make lists of goals and be able to strike items off the list for your brain and soul to feel the accomplishment. We need to feed our brain, souls, hearts, ears, psyches, lungs, organs and extremities not just our mouths.

But let’s get back to the death issue. I believe that we pile pounds, work, guilt and much more upon our poor bodies and spirits because we don’t want to face the ultimate reality we will all one day die. Later you will read about people who lived hundreds of years. The physical body without DIS . . . . EASE is capable of living 2-400 years. It is the disease that gets us whether it’s physical or mental. Today many doctors agree that certain diseases are psychosomatic. Some such as Asthma, arthritis and even diabetes are treatable with therapies. Diabetes is very much associated with what we eat. White sugar and white floor are nightmares for us. The most frightening of all is soda pop but corporate America would rather invest in keeping you in the dark and blindsided while they develop marketable products and pharmaceuticals substitutes. It’s pretty simple stop drinking soda, stop eating white bread, stop using white sugar NOW. Don’t wait for them. Ask yourself why don’t they just support us in this by making products healthier without it costing us a fortune?

This book is not about losing weight. It’s about gaining better habits and rituals to live by. It’s about living your life fully and on a daily basis but with freedom from monotony and routine. Incorporate bits and pieces from these 12 sessions and mix them and match them for fun. It’s not important that you do them daily. You might give up. Try to do them weekly or even monthly. When you first start try to do them for 12 days. Keep a journal at the beginning and then at the end. I’ve provided journal pages for your convenience. See how you feel at the end of the 12th day. Did you lose weight? That’s a bonus not a goal. Do you feel better, more limber, more alert, less stressed? That’s the gain.

One woman told me that the stress reliever she found in one of the sessions of tearing up paper has helped her deal with numerous stressful situations and because she’s laughing inside things don’t affect her any more the way they did. She jokingly said to me I’ve torn up 6 pieces of paper today when I called her.

The sessions are set up like twelve calendar months to encourage you to treat the book like a yearly journal; this way if you screw up January begin again in February. The Zodiac is only to keep you on focus for qualities associated with the month. I’m including fun holiday information again to keep the book in a yearly journal form. The monthly rituals are just for fun. They are more about the ritual than any magic. Again remember we are ritual beings, it’s why we still throw salt over our shoulders or knock on wood. I want to assure you that this is not about witchcraft but about prayer and meditation. Candles and incense don’t harm, only thoughts harm. We can attract good from the Universe into our life space if our intentions are good. It’s always the intention that counts. If you decide to do the rituals do them with good intentions. There is only one rule and you set it for yourself each day, each week each month. Whatever session you want to do, whatever activities you want to participate in. Just