Fasly-Kam

Ancestral Health Symposium 2012 is now history. The symposium took place at the Harvard Law School August 9 th -11 th . Not a bad gig for a forage agronomist! The title of my presentation was The Reality of Ruminants and Liebeg’s Barrel: Examining the New ‘Conventional Wisdom' . All of the presentations were video taped, and will be freely available. My title slide. Cattle mob grazing a pasture under center pivot irrigation. Photograph by Dawn Gerrish. One of the themes of this year’s symposium was sustainability. I don’t see that term in the simplistic way many do, in part because I remember being told by leaders of the sustainable agriculture movement that “animals have no place in sustainable ag!” The truth is that the production of animal products from perennial forages is the sustainable agricultural system. Many, however, are concerned about the carbon dioxide and methane “emissions” from livestock in general, and cattle in particular. Some folks don’t seem to understand th...

City of Hope has a phenomenal event called Yoga for Hope this Saturday August 11 at the Bayfront Hilton, 8 am to 12 pm. http://nationalevents.cityofhope.org/site/TR?fr_id=1580&pg=entry I wish I could attend -if you go comment here and let me know how it was!!! In celebration I'm pleased to promote that all community class donations at The Little Yoga Studio (http://thelittleyogastudiosd.com/) this week will be routed to this amazing organization. Wonderfulness!!

Today was my first official teaching class at the Northbrook Yoga Center (NbYC) and I was presented with two terrific students: a woman and her 12-year old son. I asked them about their yoga experience, and the sweet mom said, almost apologetically, that her practice had been erratic but she had been doing yoga for many years. When I presented the question to the boy, inquiring as to what he liked, or wanted to work on, and he shyly offered (and with zero flippancy) "whatever works today." The mom added that he had spent most of the previous summer practicing yoga to videos. This took me by joyful surprise. I wanted to create a class that challenged the preteen, but not overwhelm him, and yet still be a class at a level that would (could) engage his mom. I wanted to open up the ideas of really noticing the intrinsic parts of your body doing yoga rather than just getting to any specific posture like a test of physical strength or acrobatics. So on this rainy day,...

The Northbrook Yoga Center has invited me to teach this Thursday 8/9 in their 10:45 slot. I am SO EXCITED! I first visited this studio in April when I came in town for 7 days and went in 5 times in that short week! I loved the variety of class, the quantity (a VERY full schedule...wow) and the locale (a bit over a mile walk from my parents' house). I'm back in my hometown (Chicago) this summer for three weeks and signed up for a 14-class series to continue my yogic journey. They have Hatha, Vinyasa, Yin, Kundalini and even Family yoga - a great variety for a small studio. NBYC does a monthly donation based class and I asked them if they would be into the idea of having me come teach now that I'm nearing the end of my 200 hour taining, so that I could raise a little more money for MS. The stars aligned and they said YES. I'm on for this Thursday morning and gratefully Nana and Papa will watch the little bunny Eli whilst I partake! I have my basic eclectic Hatha style in...

Here are a couple of articles based on information from Judith Lasater (from whom I took a seminar at the most recent YJ Conference on just this issue). It's not always intuitive on how to prevent or care for SI injuries or pain in yoga, In fact often we'll hear gross adjustment cues like "Tuck the Tailbone" but this isn't always the best instruction. Examine your own practice and explore this information - see if it assists in relieving (or preventing further exacerbation of) pain in this sensitive locale. http://www.yogajournal.com/health/562 http://www.bayoga.org/2006/01/mysterious-sacroiliac-joint-judith.html http://thejoyofyoga.blogspot.com/2010/03/yoga-for-sacroiliac-si-joint-pain.html