The Flow Yoga Center requires good conditioning to get started because it's on a third floor, up narrow steep stairs. It has two salons and limited change space. But I liked the smaller class size, about eight tonight. I'm used to being elbow-to-elbow at TranquilSpace. Nice welcoming atmosphere.
It's a good 25 minute walk from my work place, but the extra steps were worthwhile. I will go back -- I've got a free class coming.
During my senior year at college, my friends provoked each other, half in earnest, half mocking, with the question: "So, what are you going to do for the rest of your life?" The question's immensity made us laugh uncomfortably at our cloudy career paths. Now 33 years later, I realize that I missed the point completely -- it's a trick question. There is no such thing as "the rest of your life." There is only now, and if you are going to accomplish anything, it has to be done in small breaths, one after the other.
Well, it's been four weeks since I submitted it so it must have gotten lost among the hundreds of other entries. The Post just publishes two a week. So I am going to post it here. When I get a seed of wisdom, I have to share it -- because it so rare.
At the workshop, at first I had trouble fitting in because my blue-collar, non-theater persona did not seem to mesh with the artsy, semi-hippy environment. On the daily schedule, there was an informal yoga group practicing at dawn. It was not a class. Since I was already in an adventurous mode, I mustered the courage to show up, even though I had never done yoga before. The first morning, I found a dozen people in a studio going through Sun Salutations and other poses that I could not name. I joined in as best as I could, nervously glancing at other people as they went through the movements and poses, trying to match my movements to theirs. I did my best, but I was grunting, gasping and hissing, having no awareness -- much less control -- of my breath.
At the end of the session, the workshop instructor who was leading the yoga practice pulled me aside. He said that he could not allow me to disrupt the other people's practice with all the noise and commotion that I was introducing. He would appreciate me not coming back. I felt humiliated. I almost threw in the towel on the whole workshop and went home. I consoled myself by sleeping in and stayed on, learning a lot about mime and theater.
Months later, I learned that my troubled breathing patterns were also part of my mime routines as well. I was holding my breath, spewing it out in sputters and grunts. A friend mentioned this to me, and I worked at relaxing my breath and coordinating it with my movements. My mime improved.
When I recently started thinking of picking up yoga, the Wisconsin incident stuck in my mind like a thorn. I feared that I once again would make a fool of myself in front of the other students. I overcame that resistance and have never regretted the decision. At least, I had read enough about yoga and done routines at home so that I was not completely lost.
Today, I wonder:
- What if the young instructor had drawn attention my breathing trouble, suggested that I start out gradually and ease myself into the routines.
- How I would have found a place to learn yoga in the Midwest in the 1970s? Aside from joining a commune or hooking up with one of the early pioneers.
- How difficult practice would have been working shifts at the steel mills.
- What if I had run off to India instead of Latin America, as I did four months after my close encounter with yoga.
These are the kinds of questions that run through my mind when at 55 you discover the world of good that yoga is doing for me and kicking myself for not starting earlier. In my first trials on a mat in my basement, I remember saying to myself "Boy, this feels so right!" Of course, a whole life had had made me thirsty for this fresh rendezvous with yoga, one that I am trying not to let slip by me.
"No matter what caused the financial collapse of three quality yoga studios in the past year, the 5,000-year-old Eastern spiritual tradition is a tough fit for Western capitalism. In India, yoga classes are traditionally free, the gurus supported by communities, and such yogic principles as ahimsa (non-harming), satya (truth-telling) and aparigraha (greedlessness) are not so bruised by the constant fight for profit. Everyone agrees that yoga will evolve in the United States, but differences arise when they discuss how." LA Weekly
This is a fascinating account of what's happening on the Los Angeles (CA) yoga scene, kind of the epicenter of the yoga explosion in the USA.
Lasater's article is useful because it points to other yoga poses that will help prepare you for Padmasana. She specifically mentions Baddha Konasana (Bound Angle Pose) and Prasarita Padottanasana (Wide-Legged Standing Forward Bend), as well was others. In my case, I can't get either of these positions right so I am far from attempting Lotus itself. The beauty of yoga is that there are a variety of poses that address the same muscle groups, some more advanced than others. In addition, there are modifications that can be made to poses to make them more approachable for beginners.
Like Alan, it may take me seven years (or more) to feel comfortable in Lotus pose. You start by accepting your own limits and use awareness to explore those limits without harming yourself. It's not "no pain, no gain." You patiently put in the time on the mat, and you will be rewarded in due course.
Of course the correct answer, long term, is to develop the ability to sit comfortably for long periods in lotus. Which, however, starts with developing the ability to sit very uncomfortably for very short perods in lotus. And takes years.
My daily practice of pranayama and meditation are back on the floor, rather than in my comfortable Norweigan balans chair, except when I do them at work during lunch hour. Twenty minutes in easy pose is close to all my legs can take, but it's important to start down the road, even though I can't do lotus now. I sense that it will help increase my strength and flexibility. I still need to sit on blocks so that my knees are at least at the same height as my hips.
I got away from doing my practice on the floor when I injured my lower back and long stretches in a cross-legged seated pose tended to put more stress on my lumbar area. But now my back is no longer a primary concern.
There is also a tantra chair on a separate site, appropriate viewing for adults only. Tantra is a Sanskrit term that means "looms" as in warp and weave of male and female in the universe. It can also mean framework or structure. Tandra yoga emphasizes sensual powers and tries to tap into the magical cosmic forces.
Thrive Yoga is opening in two weeks. Vinyasa yoga will give you the more strenuous yoga that you are looking for. I am one of the owners. We are located at 1321B Rockville Pike. Check us out. I know the gym yoga gig and it is time to Thrive! We created Thrive because Rockville needs a yoga community and a great place to practice. So for the last year, me and my partner Kim put our blood sweat and tears into creating Thrive.
Susan makes reference to my frequenting Bally Fitness for yoga sessions. Unfortunately, Susan and her partners can't offer one part of the Bally experience -- it's free for members. But she is right that yoga studios are scarce out here in the suburbs and especially in Rockville, and the convenience of having Thrive Yoga just five minutes from my home may win me over.
I should mention that Kabat-Zinn has done some of the most respected scientifically based research on the effects of meditation, mindfulness and yoga in the past 20 years. The book brings together his investigation and thinking since his previous book, published in 1995.
I have already purchased a new set of Kabat-Zinn audio CDs/tapes, including a bodyscape, a soundscape, a mindscape, a nowscape, and a bunch more fun things to do while you're mindful. Almost four full hours of programming -- of course, most of it is silence. I've used his previous set for more than two years and enjoyed them. They are currently on loan to my son in graduate school.
This research is changing the way that the Western scientists see the brain. They now recognize that significant changes can take place well after the formative development years (childhood).
