What do tapas, cactus and yoga have to do with each other? Read the latest entry at Shanta Yoga Blog to find out!
Namasté
This is my sadhana journal/blog. Visit my blog at Shanta Yoga for my thoughts and views on Yoga both on and off the mat.
Effort. It takes effort to maintain alignment. It takes effort to hold a pose for an extended period. It takes so much effort to do Yoga. Doesn't it?
Try this: Move into tadasana. Drop the tailbone, firm down through the buttocks and inner thighs into the feet. Inhale and extend up the spine and out the crown of the head. Bring the hands to prayer position and, keeping the chin parallel to the floor, extend the arms overhead. Interlace the fingers and extend the index fingers to create temple position. Bring the arms close to the sides of the head and back toward the ears. Inhale and extend up through the spine and out the fingers. Hold this position for a minute or two—yes a full minute or two. Notice what happens to the hands, to the fingers. Do they start to clench and grip? Do you find the fingers gripping tighter and tighter to hold the hands and arms up?
Focus on the fingers. Without releasing the hands, allow the fingers to stop gripping. Keep them interlaced but stop gripping. If you were able to relax the fingers, what impact did that have on the rest of the posture?
Breathe. Relax. Let go. It is nearly a mantra. As you maintain a pose, find those places of holding, those places of gripping fingers and allow them to stop gripping. As I have been mindfully practicing this these past few days, I have found that the body moves more easily into poses and maintains them almost effortlessly.
For those of you focusing on Level 2: As you do this, what happens to Prana? Is it weaker or stronger? Is it more easily felt or more difficult?
Investigate.
Jai Bhagwan!
This is my sadhana journal/blog. Visit my blog at Shanta Yoga for my thoughts and views on Yoga both on and off the mat.
If you missed it, I'm in the process of writing up an article on improving one's balance over at Shanta Yoga. Have a look, try out the suggestions and let me know what you discover.
Note that the second half of the article is further down the page.
Jai Bhagwan!
This is my sadhana journal/blog. Visit my blog at Shanta Yoga for my thoughts and views on Yoga both on and off the mat.
If you have ever spent time in a Yoga class or watched a Yoga DVD, it is quite likely that you've heard this or similar sentiment. Moving into thread the needle the other night, I experienced something for the first time: Letting go. In most postures, there is a conscious intention to hold the posture. This time, however, there was no holding; the body moved into the pose and then simply stopped moving. There was no holding because there was nothing to hold, nothing to do, the posture simply was; complete, whole, steady and easy.
What's the big deal about, “Breathe. Relax. Let go.” anyway? Yesterday I skimmed through an article, Tame Your Stress, written by Kelly McGonigal. In this article, Ms. McGonigal references two research studies investigating the effect of Yoga on stress levels. The first study was in 1997 at Newcastle University in England and it compared a group of “healthy but sedentary adults” and split them into two groups. One group was placed on an aerobic exercise program and the other practiced yoga for 90 minutes twice a week. Both groups followed their programs for six weeks. At the end of the study, the participants' heart-rate variability was measured. Those in the aerobics group showed no significant change. Those in the yoga group “were reported to have higher heart-rate variability (and a lower resting heart rate, another indicator of well-being).” Heart-rate variability measures the heart-rate increase during inhalation and the decrease in rate during exhalation. Higher variability indicates that one is better able to respond to stressors and is less likely to become over stressed. Low variability indicates the opposite and can lead to cardiovascular disease.
The second study conducted at the University of Schleswig-Holstein in Germany in 2007 focused on the impact of attending just one 90 minute Yoga class. Heart-rate variability increased during the class and the impact of the class persisted after the class ended. “This study provides promising evidence that a yoga practice can prepare you to meet life's challenges, not just recover from them.”
Is your Yoga practice just exercise or is it something much more?
Jai Bhagwan!
This is my sadhana journal/blog. Visit my blog at Shanta Yoga for my thoughts and views on Yoga both on and off the mat.
Asana practice has taken a very intriguing turn for me. Last month I attended part 1 of Level II teacher training at the Amrit Yoga Institute. Saying Level II is about as non-descriptive as possible. I have a collegue at the community center who is working through her Level 5 training with YogaFit. I believe that YogaFit's Level 5 is the completion of their 200hr teacher certification. Amrit Yoga's Level II is their 500hr teacher certification. The point being, if your looking for a teacher and the teacher simply says, "I'm a certified Level Q teacher," you should probably ask or research exactly what that means.
As I was saying, asana practice has become very intriguing. I mentioned last Fall that I was having some trouble determining whether I should go with the flow of energy and allow myself to sway during the second half of a posture or whether I should “force” myself to be still. Level II or Stage II of Amrit Yoga is moving with the flow of prana and allowing the natural wisdom of the body to direct the movement of the body. Level I is energy following attention and Level II is attention following energy. Now when I prepare for my daily sadhana, I have to determine whether energy will follow attention or whether attention will follow energy. I find that the more I allow energy to lead, the more mental effort is required to have attention lead. If it's so much more effort to move into a Level I practice, why bother? Level II is more advanced; that is why it's called Level II, right? With Level II being more advanced, why go back to the more basic practice?
The reason is fairly simple if not immediately obvious. Level I lays a very strong foundation of willful action. Level II explores the balance between willful action and surrender. If surrender becomes so strong and so dominant that it is the only thing that exists, then there is no balance with willful action. Level I practices strengthen the willful action, the ability to act in a very deliberate and skillful manner.
If you keep building up and up into the sky without reinforcing the foundation, eventually you will build so high that the foundation will fail. Take care to not neglect your foundational practices so as you “progress” into more “advanced” practices, you do not lose your balance and crash to the earth a broken heap.
Jai Bhagwan!
This is my sadhana journal/blog. Visit my blog at Shanta Yoga for my thoughts and views on Yoga both on and off the mat.
The other day, I received an email from Ken Martin over at NursingSchools.net to say that Everday Yoga Blog is listed in their 100 Incredible Yoga Teachers Who Blog at #31. I didn't even know EDY was in the running! To be honest, I was preparing to retire EDY and move everything over to ShantaYoga.com but this email from Ken made me remember that EDY has been here, in one form or another, since 2002 and I probably should keep that alive by leaving EDY here and continuing to post here.
Until next time, Namasté!
This is my sadhana journal/blog. Visit my blog at Shanta Yoga for my thoughts and views on Yoga both on and off the mat.
I have mentioned the impact of clothing on one's sadhana before but never had such a dramatic example as I did this morming. Because I will assist another teacher by demonstrating postures in about an hour, I put on close fitting lycra gym shorts and shirt before beginning my sadhana. I thought nothing of this at the time but it was not long before I found issues created specifically by what I as wearing. My armpits felt as if the hair there were being torn out and the skin being pinched. Why? The fabric of my shirt had bunch and twisted there during surya namaskar. Thankfully, the shorts are not designed to fit the groin as tightly as the sleeves around my arms.
Another interesting aspect, sadhana became a workout. My focus was on loosening up so I would be able to demonstrate effectively. I was also focused on how my body looks in these clothes, the ripple of thighs—nice—the small bugle of the belly—not nice. I was labelling what I could see, with my customary attire none of these things matter simply because I cannot see them. The legs feel exactly the same when I hold them in padahastasana or paschimottanasana but the visual cues gave rise to strong ego: Look at those legs! YEAH! My belly shows a narrow spare tire, approximately 19 pounds of “good reserve fat” with 16% body fat is what my latest body fat analysis calls it, and my ego screamed: HORROR AND TERROR! I can't let anyone see that today! Nevermind that the science says this is a very good body composition (fit men should have 14-17% body fat with athletes ranging from 6-13%, fit women should have 21-24% with athletes in the 14-20% range) my ego would have none of it, “Suck that gut in!”
So, watch what you wear dear readers. For most of us, what you wear will influence your practice. I say most because there may well some of you that are beyond such trivialities or at least believe you are. My challenge is for you to change what you wear for your next sadhana and discover for yourself what impact your attire has.
Jai Bhagwan!
This is my sadhana journal/blog. Visit my blog at Shanta Yoga for my thoughts and views on Yoga both on and off the mat.
How long should sadhana last? Is an hour enough? What about 30 minutes? Is it possible to spend too much time? What about two hours or three? Bapuji spent 10 hours a day, what good is my 30 minutes when compared with that?
So, how long should sadhana be? It should be sufficient. If you have only 30 minutes you can devote to your sadhana, then 30 minutes must be sufficient. If you have five hours free, that does not mean you must devote five hours to sadhana; rather, devote sufficiient time to still the mind but do not forget that you must continue to live everyday life as well.
If you are devoted to sadhana then you will find the unimportant things make way that there is sufficient time for your sadhana.
Jai Bhagwan!
This is my sadhana journal/blog. Visit my blog at Shanta Yoga for my thoughts and views on Yoga both on and off the mat.
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