Breath Work :: HeavyWeight Yoga®

Archive for Breath Work

When lacing up isn’t an answer

I got some blog advice today from a health newsletter that suggests when you get feeling anxious, instead of eating, you should “lace up your sneakers” and walk it off. While adding aerobic activity is often a good idea, what if taking a walk just isn’t possible at the moment anxiety strikes?

Lacing up your sneakers may not be an option because you’re bed-bound or can’t reach your feet. But supposing you’re stuck in traffic, knowing you’ll be late for an appointment; or in the office reading an email that says layoffs are coming; or at home cooking dinner to discover you don’t have a essential ingredient to complete the main dish.

The list can go on and on — including you can’t take a walk because of something as simple as it’s raining.

The one thing I know we all do, every day, all the time is breathe. Yep, in and out, inhale, exhale — I know it’s happening right now as you read these words. That makes it all the easier to reduce anxiety with one simple solution — Deep Belly Breathing.

When possible I enjoy doing a few sighing breaths first. Just like it sounds, sighing breaths are made by breathing in through the nose and out the mouth, making the sounds to release tension while vibrating across the face and jaw. I like to really get noisy, but when I can’t be making a racket, I start with my Deep Belly Breathing. Read More →

Livestream now gives us a way to meet!

Abby Unplugged!

Live Stream Event

June 3 at 6p (Central)

After selling DVDs over the past decade I’ve only been able to meet a small number of you in person — but now with technology advancing in leaps and bounds Wednesday night I’ll be able to chat with you live!

I started sharing my work with Women’s Retreats in 2007 at what was then The Crossings outside Austin. Abby Unplugged became a tradition as my Women’s Retreats wrapped up on the last day.

Wanting to be sure no one left with an unanswered — or unasked question — I devote the final retreat segment to “Abby Unplugged.”

While my original thoughts were that this would be about yoga poses and philosophy, these unplugged sessions quickly became involved with questions about my personal self — advice on meditation and poses would often be followed by what sex is like at 67. How much I weigh became as important as how long have I been doing yoga (219 lbs / 43 years).

Yoga is so intrinsic to our lives it can touch on all that we do and everyone we meet. Not because we throw Sanskrit phrases around or drop into a headstand, but because yoga helps us to be present and be our best self even when situations are difficult.

Starting Wednesday June 3 at 6P (Central) time I’ll now be able to answer your questions even though we are not sharing the same space.

If you can’t be there live, but have questions you’d like to ask, email me at

abby@heavyweightyoga.com by Tuesday night. I’ll work to fit them into this event. No rules, no restrictions — I’ll be there on the mat to answer them all.

Hope you can join me as we get this opportunity to meet at last!

Abby Unplugged!

Live Stream Event

June 3 at 6p (Central)

http://livestream.com/heavyweightyoga

“Mad Men” finale and the sound of Om.

Posted by Abby Lentz

· June 1, 2015

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Jon Hamm as Don Drapper finds peace with “Om”

[Mad Men Spoiler Alert] Sunday night with legs crossed and a serene expression over his face Jon Hamm on Mad Men wrapped up our final vision of Don Drapper. His final word “Om.” On this last episode about the advertising world that began in the 1960’s, creator Matthew Weiner sent us to a Coke commercial circa 1971, the famous “I’d like to teach the world to sing.”

However, from Om on a hillside to mass consumption of a soft drink, there is a lot between sip and lip. Since this is a yoga blog, let’s just focus on the meaning of “Om” and how to bring it into your life.

As on this episode of Mad Men, Om is often used as a chant repeated multiple times. This repetition will help bring your brain a meditation state — a state of the mindless mind — so it can relax. I use it to begin my daily meditation practice, chanting Om 3 times. (Oddly enough it’s also come to signal to my dog Tess that’s it’s time for us both to be still.)

For me Om represents the sound of all sounds. Wind in your hair, sizzling sun on the sidewalk, waves crashing to shore — your own breath — all are to be found in a single Om. While Don, new at all this, sounds Om as one flat note, in fact, Om consists of 4 separate sounds: Read More →

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Categories : Bed top yoga, Breath Work, Featured, Heart Health, Meditation, Off the Mat

Yoga for sleep

Today I got my daily email from Yoga Journal. It’s a great resource and reminder about what’s going on with yoga. The topic was yoga for sleep, something that I struggle with. I have tinnitus, constant ringing in the ears, which gets even louder when I’m tired, making going to sleep difficult. I use a masking technique which often has me falling asleep to audio books on a timer. So I was very interested in seeing what was recommended.

What I found was Yoganidrasana, where you start on your back, placing both legs behind your head, hands clasped to the small of the back. For me just trying to get into that pose would be exhausting enough to make sleep easier I’m sure!

Unable to do this pose, I went to the HeavyWeight Yoga technique of Pose-Pairing — taking the benefits of a pose I’m unable to do and matching them to poses that I can do, or at least have a hope of doing anyway.

Wanting to work from the bed top I decided on these poses for better sleep: Read More →

39 Years of Yoga

Posted by Abby Lentz

· March 7, 2011

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39 years ago today I became a mother for the first time. It also marks the beginning of my yoga practice. In 1972 I had never even heard of yoga, but there it was, offered as a part of the YMCA’s Mother’s Day Out program in Charleston, WVA.

Home from the hospital. Happy Birthday Nathan!

I instantly fell in love with yoga. Young, trim even after having a baby, there wasn’t anything I couldn’t do on the mat. Stand on my head — did it while listening to Johnny Carson’s monologue. Plow pose — could bring my shins to the floor and cover my ears with my knees.

Now older, heavier and much wiser, I know so much more about what being on the mat is all about. It’s never about the poses — it’s all about where they lead you. Success can be measured not by how triumphant you look on the mat, but just by showing up and doing your best for that day.

I wish I could tell you for these 39 years I’ve been on the mat everyday, but there’s always been gaps and misses. Perhaps more mat time is the gift I’ll give myself for the next 39 years. Hope you’ll give yourself more mat time too — if only sitting quietly and doing some deep breathing.

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Categories : Awareness, Breath Work, Off the Mat

Expect the Unexpected

Posted by Abby Lentz

· October 25, 2010

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Before we left Austin for our Second Honeymoon trip to California we made plans. Not only where we were staying, but also where we were eating.

Breakfast at MaMa’s — a café that was on everyone’s top 5 list.
Fancy dinner at the Grand View Hyatt — boasting to be the last sky-view restaurant in San Francisco.
The Sunday Grand Brunch at the Ahwahnee Hotel — our reservation timed to be at the cross over from breakfast to lunch so we could sample everything they had to offer.

So imagine our surprise after driving across Yosemite to Mono Lake to be treated to a 5-star meal at the Tioga Gas Mart. Fish tacos with fresh mango salsa and Buffalo meatloaf with seasoned steamed julienne vegetables all served on real plates with real silverware to be eaten outside on a weathered, well used picnic table. Gas pumps out front, the inside surrounded by refrigerator cases filled with the usual soft drinks and beer. The register decorated with last minute auto items hanging in their bubble packs. There was no hint of the delicious food we were about to savor.

In life there’s only so much we can plan. Out of that, there’s only so much that goes the way we hoped it would. After all Robert Burn’s poem written To a Mouse in 1785 is now a proverb:

The best laid schemes of mice and men / Go oft awry.

So it seems for generations we have been planning for things to not work out. So what would happen if we also planned for the unexpected to be good? Things we don’t see coming that add to our day in a positive way.

The trick to this, I think, is letting those pleasant things be small. Receiving a smile from a stranger. Noticing how good our body feels after a little stretch. Hearing the birds in our front yard serenade us while sipping our morning coffee. Once expecting the best becomes a habit it’ll be easy to have little good things pool into a pond of joy you can soak in.

Be open to receive all that comes your way, let yourself exhale all that negative junk you might be carrying as you prepare for the worst to happen. Instead open yourself to receive the inhale breath and all the joy that it can bring.

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Categories : Awareness, Breath Work, Off the Mat, Surprises!, Travel

Everyone Can Dance

Posted by Abby Lentz

· September 28, 2010

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I fell in love with this video immediately, although I must admit, I have no idea what’s being sung about!

The important thing for me is that the left foot never moves — why you may ask, is this important?

Thanks to Ginger's Brother!

Well, if you can’t stand and dance with this Cat, the anchored left foot is the key to knowing that dancing is still possible for you. Even if you’re in the office or bed bound.

Push yourself away from your desk — move out so you’re sitting on the front half of your chair, being sure your weight is still well supported. Plant that left foot and move everything else, the arms the head, lift that right foot. Switching your feet from right to left as needed — just be sure one foot is always on the floor for stability. Can’t lift a foot yet? Then lift your heels or just move the arms, body and head. Try to get the arms higher than the heart as much as possible.

Find the beat, find the fun in moving. Add some of your own moves too, but don’t forget to breathe. If you’re bed-bound, just pulse your legs and feet bringing the arms up as high as you can, moving the head with an attitude.

See how long you can dance. Each time, try to dance just a little longer until you can do the song all the way through. Don’t like this song? Do the movements to one of your own favorites.

This is especially fun if like me your chair is a ball and adds extra bounce to the tune.

After you’re finished your dancing, place both feet on the floor, rest your arms in your lap and close your eyes. Take a few integration breaths and notice your body. Your heart beat, the moisture on your skin, your muscles’ reaction to moving in so many different new ways — the smile that’s now found its way onto your face.

I hope you’ll be dancing with the Cat today and many other days!

As always, let me know how this works for you or if you have any questions / suggestions. It’s good to share, because none of us are in this alone.

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Categories : Awareness, Breath Work, Heart Health

Tags : breathing, Dance, reclaim health, well-being

Bodies Like Rings on a Tree

Posted by Abby Lentz

· September 8, 2010

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A woman in Dallas shared with me how her weight gain just seemed to “happen.” Towards the end of her email she wrote:

I think there is a very real possibility that I might break down crying if I become more in touch with it. So. I’ll be needing a yoga mat and some Kleenex…

Crying is often a part of the yoga experience. Sometimes it’s the very first part as people start to sob with their first deep belly breath. Sometimes people cry all through Savasana without ever knowing why. Sometimes, we know exactly why, but find being on the mat the only safe place for our tears. (I had a student tell me her husband had cancer and that yoga was the only place she could let go. Off the mat she was now the rock for her ailing husband and fearful children.)

I believe that our bodies store everything that happens to us — like rings on a tree. Some rings, we don’t even know why they are there. Yoga opens up our bodies and peels back even ancient layers, which once acknowledged can rest. They never go away, but they can find some peace in their place in our history. Yoga never changes circumstances, but it can change how we react to what’s going on around us.

You might first come to yoga wanting more flexibility, a stronger core — physical changes. But you’ll keep coming back to yoga because it gives you a feeling of well-being. A feeling of peace.

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Categories : Awareness, Breath Work, Yoga Off the Mat

Tags : crying, emotions, weight gain, well-being

Red Lights

Posted by Abby Lentz

· August 7, 2008

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Driving to class last night, I found myself at a long red light. A quick glance to my left, and I noticed that the other driver was taking this time to get her cigarette going. Watching her light up I was reminded as to my observations on smoking.

I was very fortunate — I grew up in a household with a smoker. My mother loved her Kool cigarettes. We kids, all 5, hated how dirty they were and how they smelled, not to mention they seemed to take her attention away from us. Even as we got older and smoking became “cool” for our age groups, none of us picked up the habit. (Of course, we all picked up the ice cream habit, but that would be for another entry.)

In her defense, my mother grew up in a time when everyone smoked. It was not only acceptable, but sexy. Who could forget Paul Henreid’s “Shall we have a cigarette on it?” proposal to Bette Davis at the end of Now Voyager? Smoking was reinforced everywhere back then, even by doctors.

Taking smoking apart, I believe that under the nicotine addiction, there’s deep belly breathing that’s so attractive. Read More →

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Categories : Awareness, Breath Work, Yoga Off the Mat