Zen Poetry #1: The Cat in Room 103

 The Cat in Room 103

A Ragdoll cat named Terri

Visits a pet hotel in room 103.

That pet hotel she visits

Happens to be calm, peaceful, and cozy.

She says to her two dog buds - who happens to be collies -

“The 1800s Brunch party is at 11am, and we gotta wake up early.

You know what that means. We gotta rest up now.”

Then she closes her eyes and sways to Beethoven’s music -

As a way of winding down,

But all of a sudden, in the middle of her meditative moment -

She hears a howl!

She puts her ear on the wall to hear where the howling is coming from -

It was her dog bud in room 104 named Tom.

She rolls her eyes, lets out a sigh, and said, “Go to sleep!” 

Then she walks back to bed and continues swaying her head,

Hoping she won’t here a peep.

All of a sudden, she hears a hoot -

At least it’s not a howl -

It was her 2nd dog bud named Blake 

In room 102 -

She raises her voice, “Go to sleep!”

And Blake said, “I can’t! This crazy owl is hooting loud!”

Terri prepares to raise her voice again -

But stops herself to avoid bickering

As she hears Blake snickering -

She takes a breath,

Walks back to her bed,

Plays Hiromi Uehara’s jazz version of Beethoven’s music,

And sways her head.

Suddenly she hears Tom letting out another howl -

Terri’s getting really annoyed now!

Tom yells, “Hey, keep it down, you coyotes!

We’re trying to catch some Z’s!”

Tom and Blake snickers and laughs,

Then Blake lets out a quack.

Blake yells, “Stop your quacking, you ducks!

We’re trying to sleep! Don’t wake us up!”

Tom and Blake laughs again,

And they continued making animal sound effects, such as clucking like a hen.

But Terri decides that she's not gonna let her dog buds keep her from resting her eyes

'Cause at the end of the day,

She wants to join the 1800s Brunch party,

And not be late.

So she transfers her music to Bluetooth,

Puts on her Bluetooth headphones,

Stretches and yawns,

And to dreamland, she's gone. 

 

Therapy Behind Zen Poetry

Therapeutic benefits of Poetry

There are many people who believe poetry is all about rhyming. But is it really?

Think about it…

Nope! Not at all! The only type of poetry that is all about rhyming would be rap music because rap is “rhyming and poetry” with beats.

So, what is poetry really about? And why would it be considered therapeutic or “Zen Poetry”?

Poetry is really all about expressing thoughts and emotions as healing with use of words and rhythm. Poetry doesn’t always have to rhyme. 

For example, the Book of Psalms in the Bible are written by King David. His psalms don’t completely rhyme at all. You may find some rhyming moments, but for the most part, King David was focused more on expressing thoughts and emotions. 

Free verse is a poetic style where there are no rules. A writer can choose to rhyme or not to rhyme. King David’s psalms are an example of free verse. This style in particular would be considered therapeutic, or “zen poetry.” 

There are other styles of poetry besides free verse that others would find therapeutic. Some people actually view rhyming as therapy. Let alone sonnets, ballads, limericks, epigrams, and more.

Now that you’ve gotten yourself familiar with the therapeutic benefits behind poetry, there will be some Zen Poetry blogs coming soon!!!!

You’ll be amazed!

Why You Should Do Yoga

  

                   Why You Should Do Yoga

Mental and Emotional Health Benefits

Any form of movement is a positive way of coping with issues relating to mental health. Yoga or kinetic stretching is a soothing exercise for stress relief.

Partner Yoga

  Yoga includes various routines for anything related to mental health, and its benefits are good for a variety of illnesses and diagnoses, such as depression, cancer, bipolar, schizophrenia, Tourette’s syndrome, etc. It also sharpens attention and concentration in a way where your brain can be able to focus with no problem. It’s considered therapeutic. According to the International Journal of Yoga, research studies say that yoga should be considered as an “alternative method to medical therapy in the treatment of stress, anxiety, depression, and other mood disorders” because its results have shown to make improvements of managing well-being, increases of relaxation, improvements of self-confidence, organization, relationships, lowers irritability, and causes people to have a positive outlook on life.

The styles of yoga are hatha (slow-paced) and vinyasa (fast-paced). Whenever you feel like moving slow, you can do hatha yoga, especially if you’re going through depression, grief, heartbreak, stress or low self-esteem. Vinyasa is recommendable for anger management because anger does cause people to feel like moving in a fast pace. Meditation, done after yoga, helps with being able to challenge your negative thoughts and think positive.

Physical benefits

Yoga increases flexibility, especially when we use stretch bands and resistance bands for support. Rather than just a simple exercise, yoga is like a dance, like ballet, because they both include flexibility, and every move is done with pointed feet or flexed feet. Their postures and stretches also look similar, such as a tree pose and a passé, dancer’s pose and scorpion stretch, star pose and bras à la ligne (second position arms), etc.

 It also helps minimize misalignments, injuries, and body cramps. Now you might ask, “What if you have a misalignment during yoga practice?” It depends on what pose you were doing when a misalignment occurred. One of the keys of avoiding misalignments are to check your posture and check the way you’re doing the stretch. Or if you feel like improving posture isn’t working, you can try some yoga alternatives, such as PraiseMoves (a Christian alternative to yoga), WholyFit (its Christian alternative to yoga is called Gentle Body Power), Tai Chi (even though it’s a martial arts style), or Barre (a ballet-inspired flexible fitness that includes simple stretching). If you’re a musician or a dancer, yoga, as well as the yoga alternatives, help you improve your performing posture. Misalignments, injuries, and body cramps can also be avoided by getting a professional to create a plan that’s best for your needs.

Yoga is also beneficial for weight loss. Yoga cardio and yogalates (a fusion of yoga and pilates) are the styles of yoga to use for weight loss. Meditation, done after yoga, helps you to be able to stop the junk food cravings and focus on the healthy foods.

Social Benefits

   Yoga is more than just an exercise. It’s body language, which plays an important role in communication and speech. It’s beneficial for improving speech sound skills, listening skills, and vocabulary skills. It’s also beneficial as a coping and calming strategy for children and adults with special needs, such as ADHD, developmental delays, and oppositional defiance.

 Doing yoga with a partner helps with communication. Relying on technology (like social media) is a result of lacking communication, so using yoga as a form of movement is helpful when the technology is put away. From there, people can critique and give compliments on each other’s performance. If people can give critiques and compliments on each other’s performance in yoga, then they can critique and give compliments each other’s actions when it comes to social problems.

      Overall

All in all, yoga is a recommendable holistic healing exercise for almost anything. If you’ve never tried any form of movement to cope with your mental health conditions, physical conditions, or social conditions, yoga is worth a try. It may feel scary at first due to doing stretches that are outside of your comfort zone, but afterwards, you will feel healed in your body and mind.