MIND/BODY: Passing with grace

I learned last night that a yoga teacher, and someone I admired from afar, had passed away after struggling with cancer for the past two years. Mary Dunn, the president of the New York Iyengar Association, died on Sept. 4. The news felt very emotional for me - I didn't know her well or take her classes, but I had the priviledge to interview her (along with James Murphey) in 2005 and am an active class-goer at the institute. Her blog, which she maintained nearly til the end, is an unbelievable portrait of the grace and beauty of life and death.

I have been part of the Iyengar network on-and-off again for the past 10 years. I am not sure how I was introduced to the style, but I spent a year taking classes at the Palo Alto Yoga Studio with a teacher named Catherine. (I think the studio is still there under a new name.) I moved to New York and stopped yoga for about seven years. And then I found my way back: namely, through the interview with Mary Dunn. She was able to convey in words both the spiritual expansiveness and physical concreteness that is available to Iyengar practitioners; she was accessible, smart and enthusiastic. The interview was tied to a celebration event for BKS Iyengar, which I also attended.

The event had an enormous impact on me - physical, emotional and intellectual. I was overwhelmed with the power of love that filled New York City Center that night. While I didn't connect the dots at the time, it put into motion a series of life changes and helped me articulate my own hero's journey so to speak. Two months later I had quit my job, and four months later I was in Thailand for the start of a four-month journey through Southeast Asia and India. A year later, I put down unhealthy vices like smoking and drinking, and in the process have kindled an active spiritual landscape. In the three years - to the week - since that moment I have deepened my own yoga practice and added a deeper study of Zen meditation. The goal of Iyengar, as Mary Dunn told me in that interview, is to educate yourself in what is possible.

BODY: InfoPharmacy Nutrition Makeover Day 1

I have decided to truly embrace the philosophy of the infopharmacy, and take on a great health project. Every week, I will update you on my nutrition makeover, which is a six-month health program I started today. I have enlisted the help of a Certified Health Counselor, Michelle Mahlman, who trained at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, and is using a standard program developed there.

Some background: Since turning 30, I have noticed the weight creep on (not helped by eating out often). In the past year I have also stopped drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes, two vices that carried me through my 20s, but no longer work for me. Lastly, I am getting married in March. Vanity prevails. I decided that I needed someone to guide me healthfully through dropping a few pounds and also help me maximize my own mind-body health.

Tonight was our first official meeting. I admit, I was nervous that Michelle would scold me for some of my bad habits (diet coke, the occasional moo shoo pork, candy) but instead she asked me a lot of questions: what are new and good things going on in my life, what a typical day is like for me, and what my health goals were. Then we worked on my first step: eating more green food. I thought I ate a lot of vegetables, but nope, not enough. She eats her greens at every meal. The secret I found out is powdered greens first thing in the morning. I will try it. I purchased a 30-day supply of Green Vibrance ($40).

She also asked me to pick a green - I picked kale - and then try to experiment with it for the week. When I got home after our meeting, I steamed two bunches, one red and one green, and divided into four lunch containers along with broccoli, cauliflower and yams. I have some amazing "Kamikaze" Japanese carrot dressing from the Sunshine Mart. I hope this way I can get more greens in this week.

The other glaring red flag that popped up in our conversation was how much caffeine I drink. I drink 16-24 ounces of coffee every morning and then a 12-16 ounce diet coke in the afternoon. It's true. I love coffee and I love being caffeinated. But instead of taking it away, we added some things: drink my Green Vibrance first before my morning cup; drink a glass of water for every 8 oz. of coffee and lastly, I think I will try and have a cut off: no more caffeine after 12 p.m.

On a side note: I read this amazing passage today about consciousness and self-realization that seemed an apropos kickoff for my mind-body program. It was written by Evelyn Underhill in 1911, and re-printed in the Mountain Record from the book Mysticism:

There are no words in which this realization can be described. It is of so actual a nature that in comparison the natural world of past perception seems twilit at the best. Consciousness has suddenly changed its rhythm and a new aspect of the universes rushes in. The teasing mists are swept away, and reveal, if only for an instant, the sharp outline of Everlasting Hills. "He who knows this will know what I say, and will be convinced the soul has another life." [Plotinus, Enneads]