This past weekend, I participated in the multiple-session workshop of Brian Kest at Thrive Yoga. I had made a commitment to Susan Bowen, the studio owner, that I would take photos of the sessions, and I was really looking forward to the event. As it turned out, my brother died on the eve of the workshop. Since the funeral was not until the following Friday, I decided to attend. As I told Susan when I showed up on Friday evening, I wanted to celebrate my brother's life on the mat, just as I have included him as my yoga intention for the year.
In a way, the physical demands of the Kest workshop were just what I needed. The need to reach beyond my normal edge in my yoga practice meant that my body's messages overwhelmed the emotional pain of my grief. I had no time to dwell on his death, and when I got home, I had no problem sleeping. Yesterday, I felt so drained and fatigued that I did not go into work, and today, I am dragging again, but I believe it's more because of my grief and pain from my brother's death. Last night I could not get to sleep until 4 am.
Because of these considerations, I have not had a chance to comment on the workshop itself. It was just too difficult to focus on putting ideas down on paper. I don't think I can do more now than jot down some initial ideas and then come back later with something more substantive. Kest leads a physically demanding yoga practice, based on Ashtanga yoga but evolved over 30 years of his own experience. Susan had to wait a full 18-months before she could book a date for him, and we had many people from outside the Thrive Yoga community coming in for the workshop, some as far away as Florida. Many of the participants were repeats, either having taken a class, workshop or retreat previously. His most memorable line was "Some people bring their shit to yoga, and turn yoga into shit."
I missed vinyasa class tonight because of a heavy workload and a boss who's traveling tomorrow. When I got home, I had a choice: either watch the Trudie Styler DVD to write the review or go running. I choose running. I put in nearly two miles at a slow trod.
I used to run a lot until my knee injury and surgery. A few weeks ago, at the gym working on the stationary bike and elliptical trainer, I felt an impulse and jumped on the treadmill just to see what it was like, maybe just a quick walking pace. I did not feel anything bad. I stepped up the speed. At the end of 15 minutes, I was trotting along without any pain or complications. The following day, I felt no adverse consequences. I started jogging again, gingerly, at the gym and at a high school track near my house, first with a mile, then, adding a quarter of a mile gradually, until I am up to two miles now.
When I was recovering from my surgery, I focused on getting back to yoga because the discipline had a ripple effect throughout my life. I ruled out running because I did not want to overstress my knees. But running had never been the cause of my injury: it was actually yoga, an over-agressive moment when I put too much weight over my bent knee.
What pushed me back to running was my yoga practice: I've been doing one or two sessions a week of hatha yoga with Marylou McNamara at Thrive. She's trained as a Anusara teacher so she works a lot on alignment — long, repeated holds of fairly simple poses (lunge, Warrior I, II, III). I feel that I am able to access key muscles in my shoulders, back, core, and hips for the first time, and her instruction helps me focus on those areas. But a hatha class does not get much into aerobic conditioning, and I've noticed in the vinyasa classes that I've been getting winded. If I was going to continue going hatha yoga classes, I needed to add some aerobic exercise, either at the gym, the yoga studio or elsewhere.
So that's why I started running again. My short-term goal is to get ready for the Brian Kest weekend workshop at Thrive coming up on October 23-25. He teaches an Ashtanga, power yoga style that's going to test my limits over four two-hour sessions. I knew I had to step up conditioning.
Labels: conditioning, knee, running, yoga
Washington Post Breathing Properly Puts the Body in the Right Frame of Mind:
Exercise can often seem like the opposite of relaxation. Our goal is to exhaust our muscles, shoot our heart rates up and overcome the competition (whether that be a person or a personal best). But performance actually improves when you figure out how to keep your calm while exerting yourself. "Breathing badly is something that's going to make you fatigued faster and hurts form, and that's what gets you injured," says Emory Land, a triathlon coach and assistant general manager of the Vida Fitness location at Logan Circle. "You'll never reach your potential."
Missed this article when it came out a couple of days ago. Also this points to a new yoga studio, Mindfulness Center, at 4963 Elm St. in Bethesda. It's stronger on the meditation side of practice (as obvious form its name) than yoga, but it does have classes.
Labels: breathing, dc_yoga, meditation, yoga
Washington Post Yoga Activists Say Classes Shouldn't Require a Financial Stretch is about increasing efforts to broaden yoga's appeal and utility in dealing with multiple issues:
The class, for students in Upward Bound, a program that prepares low-income youths for college, is part of a growing movement to take yoga beyond its reputation as boutique exercise for the well-to-do and use it as therapy for groups such as at-risk and homeless youths, HIV/AIDS patients and torture survivors.
Of course, this trends has been going on for far more than three years; it's just that this reporter noticed the outreach efforts now and needs to cloak the article in newsworthiness.
Over at Huffington Post, Sadie Nardini makes an excellent point in her Om Scampi: A Top Yogi Comes Out of the Meat-Eating Closet in which she discusses the cultural quicksand of vegetarianism and self-righteousness of many US gurus.
One result of this is that yoga is getting a bad rap, as a culture of Yogier-Than-Thou, which has people running back to the gym in droves. No one wants to be made to feel like a lesser being, especially while already lurching around in Tree Pose like a drunken sailor. And I'm sick and tired of seeing it happen again and again in studios across the country, proving to potential students that they are not welcome as they are...but will be only if they plan to change.
As my personal eating habits have evolved, I no longer eat much red meat, but am far from being a vegetarian. This article looks at a lot of angles of the issue in yoga studios. It may go on beyond what's needed to get its message across, but it does paint an insightful picture of the yoga scene.
Labels: yoga
I was approached to review the book, Yoga, Karma, and Rebirth: A Brief History and Philosophy (Columbia University Press, New York: 2009) by Stephen Phillips. Phillips is a man with serious credentials: professor of philosopy and Asian studies at the University of Texas, author of six books, and a long-time practitioner of yoga.
The book arrived a week or so before I would be taking time off to visit my brother. My sister had told me that she spent loads of time reading while she visited him because his chemotherapy required him to have lots of rest. I thought I would be able to apply some concentrated time on the reading so I loaded up on books and magazines for the trip.
Well, I was being ambitiously optimistic that I would be able to plow through most of the book while at my brother's in Dallas. it turned out that I barely had time to crack open the book, just enough to get passed the Introduction. The first 15 pages let me know that this is not a book that would fall into the category of "summer reading." It's going to challenge me to set aside blocks of time, both to read and digest the content. Phillips aims to lay out the philosophic framework that undergirds the yoga practice and informs the serious Western practitioner who may not be familiar with the core principles. Phillips specifically writes for yoga teachers.
As a down payment on the moral debt that I have acquired with the publisher, let me get some initial information out of the way. Five chapters are: Theory and Practice, Yoga and Metaphysics, Karma, Rebirth, and Powers. That's roughly half the book.
The other half is "Appendices," but they are pretty meaty themselves. He included core selections from the yoga classics: the Upnishads, the Bhagavad Gita, the Tantric Kashmiri Shaivite texts, and the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, as well as the complete Yoga Sutra of Patanjali, all framed within Phillips's commentary.
Finally, Phillips throws in a glossary of Sanskrit terms used in yoga philosophy, 65 pages of notes (Phillips is an academic, after all; even the Appendices have notes), a 15-page bibliography and an index.
Assorted Links- Yoga as philosophy and practice course at the University of Texas.
- e-publications
- An interview on the publisher's blog.
- Mahamondo
- Author Interviews
- YogaDawg
Labels: philosophy, reading, yoga
I am a bit hesitant to write extensively about Richard's experience. Having been told that my brother's cancer has become terminal, with an estimated 3-6 months left, his struggle becomes an intensely intimate journey in preparation for his final destination. I don't want to put words into his mouth. It's also the privacy of Susan, his wife, who is the biggest reason that Richard has lasted this long.
Richard has the strong support of a his church, the Church of the Incarnation, which has a cancer support group and an outreach program that helps him a lot. I went to a Sunday church service with him and saw why he appreciates the congregation's efforts.
From my time with my brother and my own dealings with disease, I understand why yoga and meditation can play a healing role in any extended, life-threatening illness. So many factors can sap the physical, mental and emotional reserves of a patient that there is a vital need for restoring those assets. Treatment can do some of that work, but yoga and meditation deal with factors that are not touched by traditional medicine.
Catching up on the news about Pattabhi Jois's death, I pulled together more obits from major media: The Economist (a good article), Guardian,Times (UK), Examiner (this chain of suburban tabloids has a lot of yoga articles because many local editions have independently contributed articles.).
Indian newspapers seemed to give less space to his obit than international media: rediff news Deccan Herald The Hindu with a nod to Churumuri for the Indian links.
A global yoga pioneer has died, as announced on SHRI K. PATTABHI JOIS ASHTANGA YOGA INSTITUTE:
May 18, 2009 Guruji passed away today at 2:30pm (Indian Standard Time). Thank you for all your condolences and prayers. Please kindly refrain from contacting the family directly at this time.
Sad news for anyone who has been touched by his work. Below, I am posting the best articles and tributes that I come across:
- New York Times: Krishna Pattabhi Jois, Leading Expert in Yoga, Dies at 93 (nice piece, not just a news wire story)
- Guardian: Yoga Guru Dies
- USA Today: Major yoga figure dies
- Hawaii Health Guide: Sri Krishna Pattabhi Jois- Ashtanga yoga legend passes
The great master guru Shri K. Pattabhi Jois has been hospitalized, according to the K. Pattabhi Jois Ashtanga Yoga Institute. His son, Sharath, who was a guest teacher in the United States, has been called home so it must be serious. Last year, Pattabhi Jois had to postpone a scheduled trip to inaugurate a yoga training center in Florida. He is going to be 94 in July.
New York Times Chanting Is an Exercise in Body and Spirit is about the rising tide that kirtan is riding on.
"It has left the churches and the yoga studios because it's such a simple practice," said Krishna Das, 61, who grew up on Long Island as Jeff Kagel and traveled to India in the early 1970s. "It's not about belief in any religions, so people are coming from all walks of life. You give it a try and if it works, you're in fat city. If not, you do something else."
Although kirtan is rooted in India's devotional religions and involves chanting the names of God, Krishna Das says the practice requires no allegiance to any deity or set of beliefs, and he is dismayed that many associate the chant "Hare Krishna" with people who begged on the streets and danced in airports in the 1970s.
As I've said before here, Krishna Das is the soundtrack of my yoga experience. What is really interesting is the fusion that's happening in the United States as musicians and yogis take the Hindi core and combine it with pop, gospel, reggae, hip-hop and rapping, plus all the other world music influences, to produce a unique, innovative sound, nurtured in the small venues of yoga studios and churches. It's part of the mainstreaming of yoga in America. Purists probably hate it and it will never achieve broad popularity, but that's not the point. It's what is happening to yoga itself, starting out with the "pure" Indian practice (which may be a relatively modern application of ancient rites) and then layering on multiple riffs and licks of Pilates, marital arts, gymnastics and dance. The market and society are bending it in new ways that make it more relevant and "marketable" in our society.
Labels: life style, music, news, yoga
Each year I decide on a new intention that will focus my yoga practice. This year, I've decided to use "Listen with my whole body," taking up on my previous blog entry. My body tells me lots of stuff about myself and the world around me, and I don't pay enough attention to it, instead getting carried away by the stream of consciousness that flows through my head like a storm pipe. To start, I need to pay more attention to what my knees are telling me so that I don't get into any more trouble. The intention is also a reminder to slow down both breath and movement.
I've been able to fit in classes at Thrive Yoga every day this week, except for New Year's Day, when the studio was closed. Teresa has been going to most classes with me. I think that I've gotten back into a regular practice and could handle any level of class. It's still going to be months before I recovery my full strength, flexibility and ease.
In the TED conference of 2007, Scottish percussionist and composer Evelyn Glennie spoke on how to listen to music with your whole body, a striking insight from someone who has been deaf since the age of 12. But I was even more moved by her presentation's repercussions for yoga. After all, we are all trying to listen with our bodies, both to the subtle energies that flow through our core and to the world around us that reverberates with pulsations.
More info at TED.com and her bio page, or check out her own website.
PS: Since putting up this blog entry, I've downloaded some of her contemporary classical music and find it really provocative and multi-layered. Lately, I've suffered from a rather conventional choices of classical music (Mozart, Bach, Teleman, etc.), but I've found a way of doorway into a more modern style. She's had music composed just for her, which is a high compliment.
My daughter, Stephanie, has been awarded her 200-hour yoga teacher credential by the Flow Yoga Center teacher training program. It's taken her a while, in part because she is so conscientious about fulfilling all the obligations and mastering the material. She took it very seriously. For about six months, she has been volunteering yoga classes at one of the House of Ruth's shelters for battered women. Now she's going to be looking for more teaching opportunities.
Great going, Estef!!!
Labels: life style, milestone, Stephanie, teachers, yoga
It is so hard to get back into the habit of blogging and practicing yoga. I come home in the evening, and really have trouble mustering the energy and focus to tackle either of these activities that were so closely bound together for nearly four years. If I let my guard down, it's 10:30 and I can just fit in a little meditation, some pranayama. Because of some family issues, I did not even make it to the gym this weekend for exercise. My knee injury broke more than my meniscus. I just feel pulled in so many directions, and then throw in the worries of the economic downturn and what it can mean in personal terms. It's like an unstable weather pattern, just on the edge of downpours, stiff winds and flooding.
Labels: yoga
If you are scheduling your calendar around the growing number of yoga-focused events, you can block off the whole month of September, which a coalition of yoga personalities, media outlets and service companies has declared "Yoga Month." It is "a year-round awareness campaign and will peak September 2008 with millions of health and socially conscious individuals practicing yoga at thousands of yoga studios, businesses, parks and homes around the globe." The campaign will highlight the health value of yoga in dealing with obesity, hypertension, heart disease, breast cancer, menopause, chronic back pain, asthma, arthritis and depression, among other illnesses and conditions. So far, there is no event or affiliate from the Washington, DC area.
Labels: dc_yoga, health, yoga, yoga_resource
I took my first yoga class tonight and faced the question of what intention will guide my personal practice this year. I decided that I would have two: The first one is discovery because I want to explore the boundaries of my body, mind and spirits. The second one is to use my practice as a cosmic empowerment for my brother, Richard, who is still fighting cancer. Although he made what seemed to be a promising recovery from his initial diagnosis of lung cancer, he recently had a small tumor removed from his brain and, then a few weeks ago, his doctors detected that the lung cancer has come back. Last year, I shaved my head in solidarity with my brother. Apparently that modest gesture was not enough so I am throwing in sweat and energy from my yoga practice this time around.
Last year, my intention was self-acceptance while two years ago it was awareness. I have an annual intention to avoid the uncertainty of picking one at the start of a yoga class.
Susan Bowen has announced the start-up of teacher training at Thrive Yoga. ISHTA Yoga founder and pioneer, Alan Finger, will be leading the four-month process. Alan knows a lot because he was born into a yoga-inspired family, knew original thinkers and grappled with translating these concepts into the U.S. culture as a business and as a philosophy. He co-founded yoga studios, like the Yoga Works studio in LA and the Yoga Zone studios in NYC, which later became the Be Studios.
The training will start in late March, mostly on weekends, and last until June. At 2:00 on January 20 at Thrive Yoga, Alan and Susan will present an overview of the program. Alan is actually based on New York City so he will be commuting a lot next year. I might add that you can take the course without wanting to become a teacher; it's an intensive gateway into a deeper understanding of yoga.
ISHTHA is an acronym for the Integrated Science of Hatha, Tantra and Ayurveda, and also a Sanskrit word meaning that which resonates with an individual's spirit, according to Alan's website. With Katrina Repka, he wrote Chakra Yoga: Balancing Energy for Physical, Spiritual, and Mental Well-being (Shambhala, 2005), which synthesizes his long evolution as a practitioner, teacher and thinker. There are also a bunch of Yoga Zone videos available that feature Alan.
Labels: life style, philosophy, reading, workshop, yoga
That past few weeks have confirmed that the quality of meditation/yoga that appeals me to me most is stillness or samahdi; it's the pay-off for the investment of time and energy in practice. There are many definitions for it. In the Buddhist lineage, it is "concentration of the mind." It's not the easiest quality to attain and it can be fleeting, but even a short exposure to it can pull you up from a stormy emotional current. It's that instant when the white noise of our minds goes silent and we can turn our gaze inward.
Labels: blessing, meditation, yoga
I've just spent three days focused on yoga with Beryl Bender Birch at a Thrive Yoga workshop. I am writing this posting on a staggered basis because I'm still putting my thoughts together about the workshop.
Beryl has been a pioneer of introducing yoga in the United States, starting nearly 35 years ago. She now operates out of the Hard and the Soft Yoga Institute on Long Island and has taught several generations of yoga instructors. She built up traction teaching yoga to athletes in New York City in the 1980s. She coined the phrase Power Yoga as a more appropriate tag for Ashtanga yoga that American could understand. She also wrote two books, Power Yoga and Beyond Power Yoga: 8 Levels of Practice for Body and Soul, that were among the first to reach a broader audience.
We had four 2.5 hour sessions, one Friday, two on Saturday and one on Sunday. In the second Saturday session, we did a restorative pose for 15 minutes and closed with a meditation. In between, Beryl distributed a half dozen different translations (or interpretations) of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras and had us read them out loud. Then, she led us in a discussion of what yoga is, why we practice it and what we want to obtain. That was one of the traits of her teaching. In our first class before doing a jump-back or starting ujayay breath, she held up her hand with about an inch between thumb and index finger and said, "Yoga is this much about asana." The conversation was lively and informative.
For the actual practice, Beryl led us through the Ashtanga Primary Series. It was my first time following a traditional sequencing of poses, though many were modified for practitioners who had not mastered a specific pose.
I think that the appeal of a workshop is the chance to discover the alchemy of shared practice, bringing together an experienced teacher and a roomful of bodies and minds focused on getting the most out of the opportunity. 50-60 sets of lungs churning up the prana in unison -- that's some pretty powerful magic. Beryl did an excellent job of creating the right atmosphere. She always spent the first 30 minutes of a session building up a rapport with the students, giving us an idea of where she wanted to take us, letting us tap into her wisdom and getting a feel for how we could handle the work.
There were actually students who had not taken more than 10 hours of yoga before the workshop. On the other hand, several yoga instructors who had trained under Beryl also showed up for the workshop. At several points, Beryl stopped a student from doing the vinyasa and had them looked at other students as they did the practice: "You can learn as much from watching as from doing."
Beryl had a nice gesture at the end of the final session: she brought out a box full of yoga books (a few courtesy copies but most purchased with her own funds) and she gave them away to the students. Spread the wisdom!
New York Times Yoga Is More Than Just Showing Up, but That Does Help. This article is about the approach of some yoga studios having challenges for their clients, like 21 or 30 consecutive days of classes. It's not clear whether the author's concern is the business practice (can the studio pick up new students or make a profit with this marketing technique?) or yoga practice (does a daily practice increase the benefits?). The reporter seems to be dumping multiple issues into a single article. Remember this article came in the Fashion & Style section of the Times.
As a way of creating loyal regulars out of monthly drop-ins, studio owners recently have pushed the self-serving idea that yoga is not to be done lightly, casually or sporadically. They have stopped short of telling erratic classgoers to give it up, but their message is loud and clear: committing to a regular practice is the only way to progress in life and on the mat.
At Thrive Yoga, another 40 Days to a Personal Revolution in the style of the Baron Baptiste school of power vinyasa yoga will be offered starting this month (September 24–November 2). This is a six week program in which you have three class sessions at the studio and the other three can be at home, plus daily meditation (two sessions each), journaling, nutrition and some group talk. This is the second time it's being offered in Rockville. For me, it just comes at the wrong time, since I will be out of town twice during the period.
Flow Yoga frequently has 30-days challenges. Both of these studios do not pitch these packages to newcomers. They are meant for studio regulars who want to push their practice up a level or two.
For the sake of a personal practice, it's far more important to have a home practice because it requires far more discipline and dedication. Of course, taking in a class or two a week is better than nothing, but it's going to be hard to make progress. There is also the issue whether just yoga is enough to keep you physically fit (cardio and strength).
A few days ago, I wrote about a couple of small milestones in the practice. I don't think they contained revelations about my yoga practice, but were simple, small changes that remind me that it has changed over time, even though I may not notice it at the time. However, an anonymous visitor posted a comment about that entry:
What about your breathe? Your tolerance for yourself? Your medi[t]ation? Equanimity? Now that would be most interesting to know!
I would like to know that too, but it's a tall order to uncover the most intimate aspects of my practice on the web. I've had some misgivings about "letting it all hang out" lately. I've already confessed that I suffer from depression and that I turned to yoga to heal my suffering. That's going to be hanging around in the archive.org for decades to come. I don't know if I want future employers to know what mood disorders I suffer from. But I crossed that bridge, and I have to live with the consequences.
It's a lot easier to write about bending over and touching my toes than it is to reveal the intimacies a yoga practice. For one thing, it requires me to be aware to all these facets of my body and mind. I know that there are whole regions of my body that I really don't feel, that seem to be numb. There are parts of my mind that baffle me. It takes time to write about them because language — at least, my command of language — may not always capture the nuances of spiritual practice. Sometimes, I just want to make a daily entry and get on with my life.
Of course, I never meant to confine this blog to my just physical practice on the mat. My tag line is: "breath, energy, life, spirit = self-discovery through yoga." That's why I write about my readings, my more intensive work with meditation, my pranayama, the intersection between yoga and the broader world as seen on the Web, and other twists in my life. But these internal process have their own pace of change, and I may have to wait until I can catch up with them or they reveal themselves to me. Certainly, the comments of the visitor remind me that I should aspire for something more insightful about this path.
I am working my way through Stephen Cope's Yoga and the Quest for the True Self (Bantam Books: 1999) and find it a fascinating read. It's up there with my three favorite yoga books. Cope makes a strong point for seeing yoga and transformation within the context of the community. Given the U.S. tendency to focus just on the physical side and strip away the rest, Cope writes, "Consciousness is transmitted in relationships... Company is more powerful than willpower... A caring community can help us create a safe domain in which personal experiences can be expressed, expanded and enriched." (pp. 166-7 — these are just a few of the sentences that I had highlighted.) Of course, Cope's own experience comes from within the Kripalu Center and naturally reflects that exposure to a sangha.
Most yoga studios are not going to have the capacity to create community, unless there is a very strong personality driving the initiative beyond being a mere business venture. This opens up a lot of other issues because of the bad vibes from gurus and cults. For that matter, not that many of practitioners are actively seeking community.
Cope's insistence on the context of consciousness and the power of human relationships strike a resonant cord with me — I'm a PK and I grew up in the shelter of a church, a natural extension of my family.
In response: Asia Nelson asked in a comment whether I had any tips for promoting sangha. As a writer, I am not qualified to give advice in creating community. I tend to be aloner who shows up for class. Because most studios tend to be swamped by newcomers, there is a certain transience to classes, rarely the same people showing up for a class. The needs of a novice are different from an experienced yogi who would be more inclined to seek community. So the challenge of the instructor and the studio is to find ways that build continuity and collective experience. I've noticed that programs like teacher training, work study exchanges and workshop/retreats tend to instill a deeper sense of community.
Labels: philosophy, reading, yoga
I purchased a new microfiber yoga mat from Drishti a few weeks ago. As I used it over the past few weeks, I became increasingly dissatisfied with it. It actually has a slick surface. From reading the product description, the stickiness is supposed to increase with sweat, but I didn't notice a difference. I guess I just don't sweat enough; it must work for Bikram or Ashtanga classes. I found my feet slipping further apart in Warrior I and II poses, and Wheel was impossible for me to even attempt, which was a major bummer because Wheel is one of my favorite poses.
On returning to the website to return the mat, I found that Drishti has a no-return policy for mats. I can fully understand why they have this policy. Who wants to buy a "refurbished" mat that has been sweated and stepped on. But I wrote a message making the case that the microfiber mat is a bit different from the standard sticky mat because you can't determine if it's suitable for the your practice until it's been used, until it's been sweated on. What's more, this is a premium ($65) mat; I could buy two or three mats for the price I paid for this one.
To Drishti's credit, they accepted my argument and allowed me to return the mat. Jennifer Rawlings, the owner, wrote back "You shouldn't be stuck with a $65 mat that doesn't work for you!" I can get a refund or request items in exchange. I dropped it into the mail last night. I will be placing another order with them tonight.
Kudos to Drishti for coming through. They are an outfit that definite tries to live their yoga. I would not hesitate in buying from them in the future, and I recommend the store to anyone else.
New York Times: The Yoga Therapist Will See You Now underscores the recent growth of yoga therapy, but also carries a warning:
But experts inside and outside the industry say yoga therapy should be approached with caution. In general, a person can practice as a yoga therapist after 200 hours of yoga teacher training, which might include basic training in anatomy, breathing, meditation and giving adjustments.
At the end of the article, there is a paragraph about NY-based designer Donna Karan "sponsoring a 10-day Well-Being Forum in Manhattan to bring together doctors, yoga therapists and yoga teachers..." That may explain why the article got commissioned in the first place. The event is organized by UrbanZen with Rodney Yee, Christy Turlington and a host of big names serving on the board. Karan is pushing integrative medicine that combines alternative health with conventional medicine following the death of her husband from lung cancer.
During my yoga class tonight, we were going through a series of twists. I was again contemplating the lack of range that my body has, especially when dealing with my core. After three years plus of yoga (of which a good 18 months could be considered consistent and persistent), I am still very far from half lotus, from eagle arms, etc. I've worked at tackling specific issues, like my hips or my shoulders, but that does not seem to make a difference, except when measured against months of time.
While I was trying to relaxing into the poses, I thought about doing something drastic, like taking a day or week off and work on nothing but my hips, or using sandbags (weights, my wife's body) to push me past my limits, or hiring a personal trainer to whip me into form or a private yoga instructor to show me whatever I am missing to get through these obstacles.
In yoga, kundalini is the female energy that lies coiled at the base of the yogic body, a sacred power that rises out of the loins, coils around the spin and rises upwards towards the crown; the goal is to enable the free flow of kundalini, Well, my kundalini seems to be firmly knotted around my hips and wound tightly around my spin.
Then, I thought that perhaps it's not the physical side that is holding me back. There must be something non-physical inside me that is tightly bound and thoroughly even entangled. I like to pretend that yoga and meditation has made me mellow and grounded, but I am just deluding myself: hidden underneath the surface is a small boy who's afraid of moving or even fidgeting and freezes his muscles to the bone. When the musculature has been locked in position for nearly 50 years, it's excruciatingly difficult to ply it loose.
I've been reading Stephen Cope's Yoga and the Quest for the True Self (Bantam Books: 1999) for the past few weeks, mainly while on the Metro to and from work. It makes for fitful reading, but Cope has produced a book that is worth thoroughly absorbing and pondering. It is definitely not a book for a yoga novice. It is not a book about asanas, vinyasas and how to fit them together. It is not another book about interpreting the enigmatic refrains of Patanjali (Cope's latest book is actually about that).
Cope's book deals with how yoga can change you in dramatic ways, with why yoga is uniquely equipped to help delve into the human mind and condition, and with the dilemma of self-identity and the real world. But despite its lofty topics, it is still very accessible because it comes at yoga and human change from a personal perspective of his own life, his process of change and the community within which he was working, the Kripalu Center in western Massachusetts. Cope is a trained psychotherapist so he brings a full tool kit to analyze his experience and also a remarkable capacity to communicate a potentially ethereal process in palpable terms.
In order for the book to make sense, you need to have sweated on the mat for at least a year or two. It's also worth trying to discuss it with other practitioners and teachers because it challenges the intellect and benefits from multiple perspectives. At this point in my evolving practice, it has responded to a lot of formless questions that were bouncing around in my head and I could not condense into concrete inquiries.
Labels: philosophy, reading, yoga
I've noticed that I can usually hold most asanas individually, but when they are combined into vinyasa sequences, I have problems with the transitions, especially around the hips. For instance, tonight at Thrive Yoga, we were moving up from Reverse Warrior to Warrior II into Half Moon (Ardha Chandrasana), in which I transition into balancing on one leg and a hand on a block. I never seem able to make the same movement twice; I'm wobbling in and out of the pose; I easily lose my balance and fall out of the pose. It's also a completely different feeling working with the left leg forward from the right leg.
(On the other hand, with Sun Salutations A and B, I've done the sequences thousands of times over the past three years so they've become second nature to me.)
I am sure that this problem is related to my "spinal knot" -- the tightness of my hips, spin and shoulders. If muscles are clinched permanently, they are not going to allow for smooth movement.
A tip of the hat to my teacher tonight, Andrea Creel, who says she reads this blog regularly, bless her heart.
I've had only modest progress towards switching to doing meditation and pranayama in the morning. I missed Thursday because we had to leave home early that morning so Teresa could make it to her Spanish class. Today, I missed because I got to bed so late last night that I could not get up to fit in my practice. I definitely have to get to get earlier than I have because even though it may not affect me the next morning, it will catch up with me later in the week. I am really tired tonight and simply cannot concentrate on writing, reading or anything else that requires an alert mind. So sweet dreams.
I got home late last night and could not get settled into bed until well past 1:00 am. I did some yoga in an effort to unwind, but I was still alert and vigilant afterwards. It was nearly impossible for me to wake up at 6:00 am to do my pranayama and meditation. That's par for the course -- on/off, and always a worthy excuse.
While doing my routine last night, I noticed that my thighs were stiff and a bit sore, probably from my hip-opener workshop.
I am currently reading Stephen Cope's Yoga and the Quest for the True Self
I had been planning on reading this book for years but never bothered to order it. Last week, I put in an order for other material at Amazon and I said to myself, why not. I should also pick up his other book, The Wisdom of Yoga: A Seeker's Guide to Extraordinary Living
Last month, Teresa and I took a long postponed vacation, five days in Orlando, Florida. For two days, Teresa kept me running to the Gulf and Atlantic coasts so that she could satiate her thirst for the ocean -- white sands, waves and sun. We stopped at the Kennedy Space Center for a couple of hours, not long enough to take the whole center in. We also spent one full day at Epcot Center, Disney World and also another day shopping for gifts and bargains at the outlets that tempt the tourists to delay their return to the Magic Kingdom. Teresa complained that we had waited 15 years too long: we should have brought the kids to Orlando when they could have enjoyed it. Of course, in those days, we couldn't have afforded it.
For me, the highlight of the trip was the Cirque du Soleil, the Canadian ultra-circus, had a resident show, La Nouba, at Disney World. I had seen Cirque du Soleil on television and was intrigued by the concept. But TV or phtographs could never capture the electricity and scope of the performance. First of all, the Disney World show is presented in a custom-built freestanding theater so it is a magical setting. The lighting, the set and wings were exploited to increase the impact. The audience was seated in the round and the actors frequently ventured into the audience. I thought the music was recorded but there was a full musical band seated in the elevated wings and the singers roamed the stage.
House Troupe, Cirque du Soleil's La Nouba at Disney World
© The Walt Disney Company
Costume credit: Dominique Lemieux
Once the lights came down and the show got underway in earnest, I gasped. It was overwhelming; I felt as if my senses were insufficient to take it all in. My eyes were darting back and forth trying to catch all the action. As the performers soared through the air, danced across the stage, balanced on the edge and tumbled, it suddenly occurred to me that I was seeing something that I aspired to in my own yoga practice. The grace and strength, the imagination and dexterity, the playfulness and wit that drove the performance were the essence of my intention when I stepped onto the mat. Not that I could ever aspire to the sheer athleticism and skill that the Cirque du Soleil cast displayed, but that joy and courage could propel my own body as it flew out of downward-facing dog to forward bend or balanced in crow.
Teresa in front of the Big-Tent-style theater where we saw La Nouba
A week later, I was in Barbados at an evaluation for a new online education program that CICAD, my employer is sponsoring. After our last session, I went back to my room and did a yoga practice on my balcony -- maybe it was something magical about Caribbean seas, winds, sand and sun. As I stretched out in side plank, my top arm reaching high and my shoulders arching back, my vision just took in the blue sky above the railing and it felt if I were balanced precariously on a high wire, and in a daring flourish, I lifted my top leg into tree position, resting my foot on my thigh. It was all an illusion, a trick of tunnel vision and concentration on my practice, but it was also a seed of intention.
For purposes of clarity, I am adding the explanation of the term "La Nouba" because there's no way of know what it means. I says through the entire show and I did not get. Of course, I did not buy a program.
La Nouba originates from the French phrase "faire la nouba," which means to party, to live it up. It transforms the ordinary into the extraordinary, engaging the imagination from beginning to end with opulent sets, brilliant choreography, theatrical lighting and provocative music.
Postscript:
Debra Perlson-Mishalove told me that she had read that many cast members of Cirque du Soleil practice yoga. It wouldn't surprise me. Yoga Journal has a mention of cast members in a yoga class.
In America, most yoga studios are intent on transforming the classroom into the peak yoga experience. Instructors choreograph their asanas and vinyasas, script their dedicatory monologues and invoke rituals to make each class unique and vibrant. Each session is blessed with a musical soundtrack worthy of a DJ, exotic scents, and candle light. Indeed, the best classes can lead us to achieve a unique state of being, purged of the mental and physical toxins that weigh us down, exploring the edge of our capabilities -- and maybe a little farther, and enpowered by the stillness that remains. A dozen or more bodies breathing and sweating in unison build up a lot of energy in a room.
In the United States, it's preordained that the consumer market dictates that each studio owner -- and teacher, for that matter -- competes against the other studios and fitness centers for customer allegiance, as well as against all the other temptations in the market. They must have a firm grasp of supply and demand, and find the hook, nuance or niche that will distinguish them from other options and keep customers coming back for more enlightenment. That's also one of the reasons yoga styles and approaches have proliferated beyond the lineages traced back to India.
There is a subtle corollary message in the U.S. studio system, that a student will never be able to duplicate the ambiance, pace and intensity of the studio in the privacy of his/her home, even with audiotapes and DVDs. No wonder students get discouraged at how pale their home practice seems in comparison.
But the real test for a good teacher is whether a student can take something learned in each class back into the home practice. Only rarely do I hear teachers give assistance focused on the home practice. I've come to the realization that the class setting can only be of true value when it helps students take yoga's essence back to their home and into the world. That's why I want to be more consistent with recording my "one thing from class" idea -- to find something in each class that can feed back into my home practice.
Labels: philosophy, yoga
My daughter is doing the "30-Class Challenge" at Flow Yoga in April and Thrive Yoga is going to have a "40-Days to Personal Revolution" following the Baron Baptiste regime, starting on April 30. I don't know if I can fit the time requirements for this type of physical challenge into my routine, but I am willing to turn it around, and put my own challenge on the Web: I will blog my yoga-meditation experience for 30 days in a row, starting as of April 6 since I already have four days when I've written something. As with the yoga challenges, you are allowed to double (or triple) up sessions to make up for a missed day or two so I could technically go back to April 3 if I write two entries in a day with just an extra blog entry.
Why am I resorting to this gimmick? I've slacked off my writing (both online and on the page) over the past year because I lost my drive to expose my practice. My practice had become more internal and needed some silence time so that it could mature and deepen. Now I feel that the time has come to re-encounter my yogic expression in words. Hopefully, I will not have many days like yesterday when I try to describe yoga poses and human anatomical mechanics as they apply to me. I just wanted to put up a picture and save a lot of words. More important is what goes on in my head and heart.
I've started going to yoga classes with my wife, Teresa, on weekends. For a long while, she was content with taking classes at Bally Fitness on Sundays, but that just did not get it done, and maybe pick up the odd class somewhere else. I bought her a 10-class pass at Thrive Yoga for Christmas, but she immediately came down with a bad cold and other health complications. She was just able to use up for pass, in March when she started going weekdays, when she does not have to worry about her Spanish teaching. On her own, last week, she bought an unlimited month pass.
Teresa has been dabbling in yoga almost as long as I have, since we both began taking classes at Bally Fitness, but she has never taken it as seriously or consistently as I have. Now she still needs to work a lot on her fundamentals and she refuses to take a basics course because she sees it as a watered-down version of a full vinyasa class. So every once in a while, I will shift an eye over to her mat to see how she's doing. She also needs to work on muscle strength and flexibility, the deficiencies of most beginners.
Between my daughter, Stephanie, and me, we've more or less convinced Teresa of the dividends of a steady yoga practice, and she does not want to be left behind.
The separation of ownership at Thrive Yoga has altered my yoga routine, as I mentioned two months ago, in unexpected way. I studied under both owners and maintain the studio website, which gives me no-costs yoga sessions at Thrive. I have just gotten through working with the site designer to purge the site of pictures of Kim Groark (at her request) and bring the graphic design into alignment with the current status at the studio. So much work that I missed two class this week, and I probably missed a few the previous week.
Over the past couple of months, Susan Bowen has brought in several new teachers, which required me to adjust to different voices, paces and sequencing. And there's been a swell of new people taking classes, many of them just getting their feet wet with yoga. Combined with my frequent travels, I seem to be practicing in a different environment even though the physical facilities remain the same.
Kim Groark, the renegade owner, as she likes to call herself, has started teaching elsewhere, and uses the facilities at the American Dance Institute for three classes a week. Her schedule has not fit mine so I have yet to take one of her classes, and not because I am taking sides in the split. She has a newsletter (PDF and a whopping 2.6 mb) that conveys her love for yoga and unique approach to the practice. She does not have website yet, but I would probably offer her the same deal as I have with Thrive -- hosting for classes.
My first reaction was that yoga and meditation should have prevented this breakup that was due to bad vibs between two friends. If yoga is going to bring harmony to the world, why can't it heal a business partnership? But then, I realized that yoga does not keep people from being human. I am sure that both Kim and Susan struggled with this contradiction and decided that the split was the best way to restore their own personal and separate balances. All these changes have meant I have become more detached from my instructors and listen more to my inner teacher about how and where my practice should be headed. They can lead me skillfully in a vinyasa, but they are not going to give me wisdom necessarily.
Labels: blessing, class, meditation, yoga
