By Christine Mason

Even after 15 years of teaching yoga, I also continue to be in awe of the relationship between energy, and yoga, breath, centering on one’s heart, and CEI’s heart beaming activity. So as I went about my normal routine this morning, I was reflecting on the tremendous sense of well-being I experienced as I taught yoga last night, a Valentine’s Event my husband and I are hosting, and on my Valentine Day’s message to CEI blog readers.

Let me tell you what a Poem Is:
Before you go further, let me tell you what a poem brings, first, you must know the secret, there is no poem to speak of, it is a way to attain a life without boundaries, yes, it is that easy, a poem, imagine me telling you this, instead of going day by day against the razors, well, the judgments, all the tick-tock bronze, a leather jacket sizing you up, the fashion mall, for example, from the outside you think you are being entertained, when you enter, things change, you get caught by surprise, your mouth goes sour, you get thirsty, your legs grow cold standing still in the middle of a storm, a poem, of course, is always open for business too, except, as you can see, it isn’t exactly business that pulls your spirit into the alarming waters, there you can bathe, you can play, you can even join in on the gossip’”the mist, that is, the mist becomes central to your existence.
Okay, so I have shared a bit about how I celebrate Valentine’s Day. Let me also share a very brief Heart Factoid that might be fun to share with your teachers and students. It also just might influence your teaching, your students, your school:
Laughter. From Web MD: When you laugh, the lining of your blood vessel walls relaxes and expands. ‘A good belly laugh can send 20% more blood flowing through your entire body. One study found that when people watched a funny movie, their blood flow increased. That’s why laughter might just be the perfect antidote to stress.’
The Heart: A Pump. From Livescience.com: “In under a minute, your heart can pump blood to every cell in your body. And over the course of a day, about 100,000 heart beats shuttle 2,000 gallons of oxygen-rich blood many times through about 60,000 miles of branching blood vessels that link together the cells of our organs and body parts.
Mirrors and Horse’s Hearts. Also from Livescience.com: “A scientist found that horse’s heart rates mirror those of human subjects touching them. The horse emotion-detector could someday replace procedures used to measure a patient’s stress hormones. Next, the researcher will study service dogs to better match them with humans.
Comparing the size of the hearts of children and adults. From Dr. Joseph Mercola (a physician and fitness expert).

Have a blessed Valentine’s Day!