When Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy was first born, creator Michael Lee drew from his experience with classical yoga and his knowledge of humanistic psychology. Congruent with the work of Carl Rogers (1902-1987), the humanistic approach states that in order for a person to “grow”, they need an environment that provides them with genuineness (openness and self-disclosure), acceptance (being seen with unconditional positive regard), and empathy (being listened to and understood). This is the role of a Phoenix Rising “therapist” or facilitator, to be this loving, unconditional presence–creating the environment within which to grow.

Stated another way, there is no intent to fix you in a Phoenix Rising Session. Instead you are met in the moment, with no judgment or criticism, no matter how (seemingly) wrong, weak, strange, stupid or bad “things” are. There is allowance and space for all parts of you to show up, and essentially to let you be yourself. Can you imagine what this would be like–to be met just as you are, with no need to change or fix anything, imperfections and all?

This reminds me of a Buddhist teaching from Japan I recently learned about called Wabi Sabi. It represents the acceptance of imperfection and the embracing of asymmetry, irregularity, and modesty as attributes of beauty. A dent in a copper bowl or a crack in a glass are viewed as objects of value, serving a purpose. I love this concept, the idea of embracing imperfection – not as an idea of accepting failure or being in a place of resignation, but rather to embrace the reality of what is and to see the inherent beauty in the process.

So often in western society the message is delivered that it’s only okay to show the “pretty” parts, and so we aim to project the image of this together, perfect, finished product, covering up the broken and unfinished bits. But in reality, we are never a finished product; we are all in the process of becoming… becoming ourselves. Where biology meets environment, growing in our own special way, at our own time, twisting, turning, bending, and transforming into our distinct selves. Our form, being like a mirror to our journey, may have parts that are seem gnarly and irregular, but their existence alone shapes our next segment of growth to reveal a unique and beautiful expression.

Acknowledging and embracing our unfinished, imperfect parts, allows us to begin the process of growth grounded by self-acceptance. It is from this place that we gain comfort in owning our uniqueness and meeting ourselves from a perspective of “What does this mean to me?” rather than a reflection of society. When what we put out there for all to see is in harmony with what we find on the inside, meaningful change occurs.

Deep down I believe this is what we all need, to be witnessed, in this moment, for all that we think and do. As humans we seem to have an inherent need for connection with others. We need to be seen as our authentic selves, and to be welcomed with an open heart. But for many of us, bearing our intimate selves, feels vulnerable, so it is only when we are met in that space, where safety and love reside, where unfinished and irregular are not only welcome, but regarded as objects of beauty, that we can we shed the protective skin to expose our ever-evolving, unique selves. This is the realization of Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy–to be an unconditional, supportive presence to your process.

The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change.

- Carl Rogers

Renee Reusz RYT, PRYT

In Balance Health

We live in the instant age of connection and communication. There are tweets, e-mail, blogs, posts, websites, search engines, links and more. We talk with texts, instant messaging, Facetime, Skype or even the old fashioned way via a land line. We search the web for facts, information and knowledge and with the click of a button we can retrieve, store or transmit that information. How wonderful to live now and benefit from our amazing technology. It’s remarkable, but it’s external.  We receive this information from outside of ourselves.  There are times when we want and need this way of communicating, connecting and gathering information. There are times when it’s necessary to track down facts, getting acknowledgment and validation from that which is outside of us.

Then there are the times when it serves us to look for information, guidance and wisdom from an internal and embodied perspective. What does that mean and what would that look like? Explore embodied connection and communication inside of yourself the Phoenix Rising way. Try the following exercise:

“Find an easeful way to sit and let your eyes close. Take a big breath of air in through your nose and let it drop out of your mouth. Take some time to let your breath be your anchor and allow your breath to take you inside. What’s happening now? Follow your breath in and out, notice what information your breath holds for you right now. No need to fix or change your breath in any way…….

Take another one of those breaths in through your nose and as the air falls out of your mouth shift your focus and place it onto your physical body. Start at your feet and allow your awareness to move up your body, scanning all parts of you…… feet, legs, midsection, torso, arms and your head. What did you notice? What parts of your body do you notice the most? What parts of your body do you notice the least? Tell yourself more about what you are noticing. When this feels finished…….

Take another breath in through your nose and out through your mouth. Shift your focus again and place your attention on what is going on in your life right now. What’s happening now as you consider your life circumstances? Perhaps you’ll notice thoughts and feelings as you take time to check in with work, play, family, relationships and all the parts of your life. Stay here as long as you need or want to……

Another breath in through your nose and out through your mouth. Take some time to gather up all the information you’ve just received from your body. Take some time to consider what you noticed and became aware of. Take another big breath in and let it go.

Now, gather up everything you’ve noticed during this exercise. Take the information you’ve received from your body, from inside of you and use this information in a way that serves you best for the rest of your day. ”

Congratulations!!! You’ve just connected and linked into yourself. You’ve experienced social media the Phoenix Rising Way.

Trust yourself. This seems to be a message that I have been receiving in various ways over the past month. Sometimes it is within the context of things working out as I have desired or hoped, such as finding a parking spot in a packed lot after trusting my hunch to go right. Other times the reminder has been associated with loss or pain in not receiving what I want. I recently put an offer in on a short-sale-I-can’t-believe-I-found-it-house and rather than following my gut, I defaulted to the realtor’s suggestion, telling myself that he was the professional. It was painful when my offer was not accepted, squelching the fantasies of home I was already living into, but especially so knowing that I had not trusted myself by not offering the amount that I had instinctively wanted to. While I experienced both of these events very differently, satisfaction in one and stinging disappointment with the other, both affirmed the same thing – trust yourself.

Self-trust is fundamental in a Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy (PRYT) session. It is difficult to give or receive a session without tapping into self-trust or, in my experience, increasing my capacity for self-trust , both on the mat and in the rest of my life.  At the heart of PRYT is the belief that we each already know what we need and that this knowing comes from our inner wisdom. A session is the opportunity to drop into the body and allow the body to guide us into accessing our inner wisdom. Accessing our inner knowing is like conditioning a muscle, the more you do it the stronger it becomes and easier it is to access.

As I have worked with trusting myself, I have realized that there is a prerequisite to self-trust and that is self-acceptance. Not the story of where I think I should be or need to be or want to be, but where I am and what I am feeling right now. It is this self-acceptance and, in turn, clearly seeing myself that enables me to enter into trusting myself. From this place of accepting myself in the moment exactly as I am and am not, my capacity to discern and drop into my own knowing increases.

Lately I’ve found myself working with what sometimes feels like the rough edges of self-acceptance, particularly with the distinction between acknowledgement and acceptance of a particular feeling or experience.  I notice that my ability to acknowledge often feels more obtainable than my acceptance, yet my acknowledgement usually has an accompanying byline or story, “I would not be feeling {insert whatever difficult emotion is present} if such and such was better/gone/or in some way different from what it is.”  In short, often I find that noticing and judgment collapse into an indistinguishable pair. Often, for me, to notice is to judge, which is typically followed with the desire of wanting things to be different. Ironically, when I realize that I’m caught in my story or the judgment of my story, I often find myself judging myself for my judgment and thus adding another layer to wade through towards the elusory acceptance of self and making it that much more difficult for me to trust myself.

During a recent yoga training one of the teachers shared a quote from Swami Durgananda: “Wherever you are is the entry point.” I felt instant resonance and appreciation for how this captures the essence of what is offered in PRYT. I love the freedom and unconditional terms of “wherever” and how it is not hinged on some flowery or blissful qualifier. “Wherever” acknowledges and dignifies the value of the full-spectrum of our lived experience—the cracks where no light shines through, the hollow abyss that echoes with loneliness, the holes left by loss. These places need acceptance just as they are, acceptance that is not conditional on the light finding its way in, the warmth of company, or vacated spaces being filled with new people and experiences. If we can summon the courage to accept ourselves wherever we are, as well as the self-trust to go to the darkest corners and deepest cracks within us, we realize that these places are entry points into ourselves that have much wisdom to teach us and like all things will change.

PRYT supports accepting ourselves in the “wherever” places and tuning into the self-trust and inner wisdom that is found there. The reflective questioning offered during a PRYT session, such as asking, “what’s happening now,” is offered as a touchstone to support present moment inquiry and acknowledges the impermanence of wherever one may find her/himself in that moment. The acknowledgement of this impermanence along with the unconditional acceptance and positive regard a practitioner offers to a client provides opportunities to accept and access the “wherever” entry points, strengthening one’s ability to trust themselves while supporting the discovery of personal truth and inner wisdom in the process. No prerequisites are required. “Wherever” is the perfect place to begin.

More information about or to contact Lori VanBuggenum can be found at embodiedyogatherapy.com

Do you believe that the mind and body are connected? Most people do these days. It makes sense that whatever happens to you physically affects you mentally/emotionally and vice versa.

As Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapists, we are mind-body practitioners. By blending supported yoga poses/stretches with non-directed dialogue, the connection between what’s happening in your body is explored in relationship to your thoughts and emotions.

To borrow a phrase from a Vancouver based yogi, Eoin Finn, “Our issues are in our tissues.” And let’s face it, we all have issues… it’s just a matter of how much and when. And when life deals you a case-lot size of them, it might be time to check in with what valuable information your body has to offer you.

Here’s a list of 10 really good reasons it’s time to see a Yoga Therapist:

1. When you’re faced with a big decision or difficult life choice and need clarification on what the next step can be.

2. When you’re feeling overwhelmed and the pace of 21st century life feels out of balance. Like many people seeking out their first yoga class, you feel a need to slow down, reflect, and regroup.

3. If you have run into a roadblock with your healing, either physical or emotional and you want to assess the source of your obstacle or want to investigate other options for healing.

4. Because you put everyone else first. Ever sit down at the end of a day and realize that between work and family you’ve done absolutely nothing for yourself?  You’ve been taking care others for so long you’re left wondering, “Who am I and what do I want?”

5. Your body needs it. You have tight muscles and stiff joints and you feel you could use some deep relaxation and, really, when couldn’t you use some gentle stretches and traction done to your body?

6. You’re confidence is low and you’re up against feelings of self-doubt and you are doubting your aspirations.

7. Life took a turn you didn’t expect and now you’re left sorting and processing – What now? What are my options? Where do I go from here?

8. You’re in a creative slump. You feel your source of inspiration–your creative well–is all dried up and are looking for ways to access it again.

9. Your past is catching up with you. Whatever you have pushed away and avoided dealing with, whether it be some aspect of your physical health that you’ve ignored or an emotional issue from your past, it’s resurfacing again and it’s time to check in about it.

10. For the joy of Discovery. You are interested in delving into your spiritual and mindful self and seeing what might be revealed.

Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy (PRYT) is based on the premise that we store experiences in our body – stress, memories, thoughts, and emotion. Using the body as a starting point, PRYT sessions explore the connection between your mind and body, which leads to an awareness that can give you insight into your life.

You have all the information you need for personal transformation and healing within yourself. PRYT gives you the opportunity to access this embodied wisdom and learn from it.

To further ponder the why’s and how’s of PRYT integrated body-mind approach, consider this quote by Carl Rogers, an American psychologist known for his client-centered approach to therapy, in his book, “On Becoming a Person.”

“Experience is, for me, the highest authority. The touchstone of validity is my own experience. No other person’s ideas, and none of my own ideas, are as authoritative as my experience. It is to experience that I must return again and again, to discover a closer approximation to truth as it is in the process of becoming in me.”

It turns out that there’s a nail polish color called “Check Up.”  A lovely shade of pink and it ended up on my fingernails during a recent manicure/self-care appointment.  More interesting than the name was my mental activity around it. Checkup led me toward checking in, which lead me in the direction of Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy. I noticed my thoughts considering all aspects of self-care and the forms it can take.

I try to take good care of all parts of myself. When I am practicing self–care on a regular basis I notice the benefits…. more energy, less stress and increased ability to move through my daily life without needing large amounts of chocolate. Receiving a one on one Phoenix Rising yoga therapy session, taking a Phoenix Rising yoga class, enrolling in a Phoenix Rising stress reduction group or signing up for a Phoenix Rising training are all ways to experience another way of taking care of and checking in with yourself. For me, it’s self-care from the inside out. It’s receiving information, useful information that helps inform the choices I make in my life, especially those around self-care and in considering how I need to be taking care of myself.

Consider this concept of taking care of you and learning about yourself from the inside out. Consider that we all carry within ourselves wisdom, knowledge and inherent ability for knowing how to navigate our lives. Consider that an embodied experience (like Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy) offers an invitation and a process to observe, access and experience our internal landscape……. the ability to check-in (literally).

What might you observe, notice and receive from yourself? How might your experience contribute towards a greater awareness and understanding of you?  Imagine; all of this, just from checking in.

Checking in, Phoenix Rising style, give it a try!

P.S. Pink nail polish optional

What is it that you really offer in a Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy Session or group experience?

I mean, really, what is it?  What sets you apart in what you do or who you are?

Think about the process of knowing yourself that you had to pass through in order to arrive with certificate in hand ready to step out into the world, offering what you learned.  It is a rigorous learning path, and it certainly isn’t all about acquiring skills to share with your prospective clients.  No, because in addition to developing competence in techniques, you also have to explore who you are.  And this means more than looking into your motivation to become a PRYT practitioner; it means going deeper into what drew you to this path and what gets in the way of learning how to be with this work.

I have often talked to students about how PRYT teaches you life skills, not simply techniques to use with clients.  The reason is that you cannot dig deeply into the core of you without it having an impact on how you live your life, the work you do, your relationships, even the way you breathe.  It’s not a matter only of seeing what’s there, but learning how to handle what you find.  No matter the amount of therapy or spiritual work you might have done before entering this path, you will experience some level of transformation.  When you finish, you will have a different relationship with yourself.  All the students I know who have completed this training will tell you that they experience themselves and their lives differently than when they began their journey towards certification.

Most students enter the training with the idea of wanting to help people, and often these are students who already have some connection to teaching or providing some form of therapy.  You might wonder why there is a need to explore such a motivation.  It’s not that it isn’t an honorable intention. The quality of helping is what needs to be clarified.  The key is that the help cannot be about meeting our own hidden needs; it must be offered in a way that the client is supported in helping himself and given choices about how and what to do. The helping must be done with mindfulness.  Only when a practitioner’s own intention is clear and he is able to be fully present without judgment or agenda can he really be in a position to offer an invitation to help.  Having that level of awareness means that you are more often on to yourself than not – simple as that!

So, what is it then that you offer in a Phoenix Rising yoga therapy session or group experience? You provide a model of presence and support that is pretty much unique in the world of helping professions, and, in so doing,  you offer an invitation to your clients to help themselves, to learn more about who they really are, to understand how to be with what they discover.  Who would want to refuse an offer like that?

~Written by Bev Johnson~

 The Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy approach to transforming life stress relies on a continuous cycle of awareness, acceptance, and choice.  When we become aware of being in life experiences – aware of all our sensations around the experience whether physical, emotional, or any other kind – then we gain insight into ourselves.  We begin to notice our patterns of interaction with life and the people in it.  When we accept the truth of what we notice, we create opportunities to choose consciously how we want to respond in similar situations going forward.

I recently had an opportunity to witness this simple but powerful process completely transform the nature of what would ordinarily have been a painfully negative period of stress in my life.  If you have ever moved across country you will be able to identify with the myriad ways stress is triggered along the way.  It starts at the very beginning with the decision to make the move – to move or not to move, weighing the pros and cons, considering impacts on friends, family and work/business, and the many what-if scenarios that could complicate each of these considerations – if a family member’s health deteriorates or a new baby is born, for example.

Once the decision is made, planning begins.  Maybe it is more accurate to say that an attempt at planning begins since it’s easy to get caught up in the chicken-and-egg dilemma – sell first? buy first? rent instead of buy? rent instead of sell?  It’s enough to make one dizzy.  Then there’s the house hunting – live in the city, in the country, or in the burbs between?  Will they allow our four dogs?  Will they let me continue to offer yoga out of my home?  And what if I make a wrong decision anywhere along the way of all this?

And if you haven’t bought a house since the market crashed four years ago you would not believe how the mortgage application and closing processes have changed!  Each document executed is accompanied by separate sworn attestations CYA-ing that you were informed of each clause contained in that document and that you furthermore understood the information provided.   The stack of paper to sign at closing is measured in inches.

As if all that isn’t enough to discourage the average person, the next step is packing.  Even though we had only been in our old home five years, somehow we had 30 years’ worth of stuff accumulated.  No matter how much we packed, there seemed to be even more left to pack.  Where is the science in that?  And have you priced movers lately?   I won’t even go there.

Ok, so I rest my case on the stress of moving.  My past patterns when up against this kind of performance stress were to raise my blinders, steel my focus, and push my way through the ugliness like a bull in a china shop, creating pain and havoc all around me as I tore down barriers to my success, most of them people.  Not this time.

This time I set an intention to flow through the change rather than fight with it over controlling any part or final outcome.  We were lucky in that our move was voluntary and we had no constraints around the time it took us to get there.  So whenever I noticed my body tense up with anxiety about things “going right” or a new hurdle falling into my path of perfect execution, instead of hardening my resolve (steeling myself in a true visceral sense) against changing the plan I let nature take its course.  I held my intentions – big ones (like where I wanted to move to) and little ones (like what day I wanted to arrive) and I let the universe decide how to get us there.  The difference in my ability relax into and enjoy the journey were nothing short of profound.

When it came time for me to announce to my yoga therapy clients and students that I would be leaving, rather than callously distance myself from their angst at losing their teacher to assuage my own sense of guilt at deserting them, I cultivated a caring, supportive, space of gratitude where we could express our mutual appreciation for having been on our journeys together.  I used the experience to teach gratitude for life’s lessons whatever form they come in.  And while still sad to part, the sadness was surrounded by the joy of having known space together and authentic well-wishing and promises to maintain contact.

When it came time to pack and busy schedules and overwhelm got the better of both my husband and I, rather than get cranky and short and sparring at each other with barbs of annoyance and blame, I granted my husband the space he needed to experience his stress in his own way.  I detached from owning – or judging, enabling or fixing – his experience and held him in genuinely loving kindness.  And while his experience still involved an occasional tantrum or flying household item (aimed at his own frustrations, not at me), each were followed by his expressed appreciation that I let him be him in all his truth and glory.

Even through our actual transit across country, packed to the brim (and beyond) with the remnants of our home that didn’t make it into the moving pods (scenes from Grapes of Wrath swimming in my head) and topped by four anxiously curious dogs (shedding profusely), I somehow managed to keep my intention to flow through it all intact.  Day-to-day interactions with strangers who held power over such crucial decisions as whether to accept our dogs into their hotel room or add water to my venti-6-pump-whole-milk-chai-latte that might have thrown me into a diatribe about quality business management on a prior day seemed inconsequential in the context of my intention.  In fact, when approached with my full attention and acceptance of their participation in my flow, each of these otherwise strangers turned into co-creators of my adventure.  Each interaction added another color of thread to the tapestry of my experience, whose theme matched my intention to flow with and thereby enjoy each moment.

All of that from a little intention.  So what I noticed from this experience is that when I take the time to notice what’s happening in my body and in my life, and when I add to that noticing acceptance of what is and intention to be different, then I grant myself the space to make conscious, deliberate, intention-driven choices.  I have heard it said that intentions have a funny way of coming true.  It has always seemed a little bit magical in that respect.  But in truth, as evidenced by my little experiment of moving with intention, there is a practical, even scientific, process behind that contention.  One that I find quite do-able and effective and that I learned through Phoenix Rising.  When I stay present, notice my experience, accept it and form an intention to guide future choices, my life flows quite easily where I want it to be.  Instead of putting blinders on and pushing my way through life leaving carnage all around me, I enlist my universe to help me co-create the me I want to be and I discover support all around me.

If you want to learn how the Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy process may help you transform your stressful life experiences click here to find a practitioner, class, group, workshop, or training program that fits your life flow and helps fulfill your life intentions.  You will be glad you did.

Sometimes I forget how nice it is to receive. Recently I was in a training session where I got to receive a Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy experience. The practitioner took me through a body scan where, from a relaxed standing position with eyes closed, you are guided from bottom to top (and various other ways) to notice what’s happening in your body. I have always found this to be a simple but profound Phoenix Rising technique as a way to check in with the body and become aware of mind-body-life relationships. Here’s what happened to me that day…

As I’m guided through the check-in with my body, the practitioner asks me, “What area of your body is calling your attention, what’s standing out?” Even before she asks this my awareness hones in on a strange sensation in my thumbs. I am acutely aware that my thumbs are buzzing with energy–they feel tense and oddly large, much like the homunculus man (look it up if you’re unfamiliar, it’s quite an image). I’m all thumbs and small body; in fact, the entire rest of my body might as well not be there.

My body begins a conversation with itself. “What’s up?” body asks thumbs. Thumbs respond, “We’re holding on tight. Can’t you feel the excitement?” Body asks, “Excitement for what?” Thumbs return, “We can’t wait to get started and there’s so much to do.” And then the realization comes. I’m grasping for the future. I’m excited about all my new plans to develop my career, my business. I have so many creative ideas waiting to unfold and my hands are clenched in anticipation with so much to do. My mind drifts off into the land of this and that’s…

Then the practitioner asks, “What’s happening now?” Three little words and I’m nudged back to the present moment. It’s me again; the one standing in the room, the one who barely had enough time to arrive at the training session. And present moment reminds me of my current reality–I have a family, a home, friends, pets–all good things, but things that demand time and resources. Did I mention kids? Anyone in the young child rearing phase of life can tell you, getting personal things done is slow mo; it’s like wading through a pool of thick molasses. Reality is, it can’t all happen now–not without a cost. A balance needs to be achieved because all the pieces of my life are important.

And with this realization, awareness settles in me that the art of manifesting my dreams is only truly set in motion when I visualize my goals and simultaneously settle into the moment of what’s happening now. Only by truly grounding into the reality of now can I tether the path to my future dreams. It would be like driving a car to a known destination, but not knowing where you presently are, and vice versa. Have you ever done that–been so focused on the destination and what you are going to do when you get there that you miss a turn and have to do a u-turn to get back on route?  It’s the interplay between the two: mindfulness and defined destination–one without the other leads to crappy driving.

By anchoring future goals to the now, a line of cosmic energy connects the two ends. I don’t need to know all the details, it’s more about allowing myself to be on the path with direction but also being in the present moment each step of the way. In fact, I’ve been there before, over-controlling every step of the way to find myself pushing too hard, and stumbling off the path (not recommended).

Back at my yoga therapy session… my session is coming to an end and the yoga therapist guides me through an integration of my experience. I process all that I have learned from my body and there’s a sense of resolve within. I look down and realize my hands are gently held in front of my body, fingers and thumbs relaxed, palms turned up, much like a flower opening to the sun. I’m open to the infinite possibilities of how, and confident that all will come in good time.

Renee Reusz RYT, PRYT

In Balance Health

My yoga client has finished his private Phoenix Rising yoga class. His eyes open wide and grinning from ear to ear he says, “That was perfect, just what I needed.”  After class and during the remainder of the day his words continue to resonate and land within me.  This concept of perfect is one that I have been looking at with increasing frequency and curiosity in all parts of my life. His words sound and feel important and I want to hang onto them. I am imagining that they have a piece of information that I can use.

My question emerges. What is perfect? My current understanding of perfect revolves around the notion that perfect lies in the imperfect. My experiences tell me that imperfect holds space for potential, exploration, growth and adventure. A shift in perspective and experience tells me that the opposite of imperfect can be pretty incredible as well. I can think of many days that I deemed perfect and they were just as rich and held as much potential and adventure as days that were not perfect. OK, maybe this is not about perfect versus imperfect. I am open to the possibility that there is more here than I am taking into consideration.

Perhaps perfect lies more in a shift of perspective than it does in trying to label or define what is perfect. What if perfect was an in the moment, present awareness kind of thing? What would it be like for me to   examine perfect from that view point? As I hold this thought I begin to smile and then giggle with myself. I like this shift in perspective. I appreciate that I can consider perfect/imperfect as 2 sides of the same coin. It doesn’t have to be an either or thing, an all or nothing. It can be both!

My (for now) answer emerges. What is perfect? Right now I am playing with the thought that perfect might be right in front of me. It might be whatever the present moment is delivering to me. It might be embracing what is happening now. In this present moment it might be that I am receiving exactly what I need. That sounds pretty perfect to me.