Nov 10, 2011 |
One of the goals of yoga is to let go of the chatter in your mind and focus on being fully present. When this happens, we achieve the true meaning of yoga, the union of the body and the mind. If you practice yoga, hell if you are human, you know that this “letting go” is an extremely difficult thing to do!
I had to laugh the other day when I first heard “Lost in My Mind” by The Head and the Heart on the radio. I know some people will think that getting lost in your mind is a bad thing on the yoga mat, that maybe being lost in your mind means that you are drowning in your thoughts and not focusing on clearing the mind. I choose to believe that getting lost in the mind means to truly let go, to move forward into a higher place, a place where you can truly get into the yoga zone.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjoA4nYBD5U[/youtube]
“Lost in My Mind” has a trippy mellow vibe that I thought would be perfect for class, so I quickly downloaded the song from Amazon, and it’s on my yoga class playlist this week. I’m hoping it serves as a gentle reminder to my students to just let go of the thoughts, the stress, and the to-do list, getting lost for a while in their bodies and in their minds.
I’m digging the hoo hooos in this song. Reminds me a little of my favorite life affirming cheer – woo hooo!
The Head and the Heart is a Seattle-based indie folk band, and this song is from their self-titled debut album, “The Head and the Heart.” I hear this band is phenomenal when they play live, so please leave a comment below to let me know if you’ve been lucky enough to see them up close and personal.
Brain Image: Graphics Fairy
Oct 31, 2011 |
Happy Halloween! I’m teaching a yoga class tonight and couldn’t resist the urge to mix in a little flavor of the holiday. No, I won’t be showing up to teach in a costume, but hopefully I’ll be dispensing a few treats for my students. The treats are going to come in the form of practicing loving kindness for ourselves.
How many times during the week do you trick yourself out of doing good things for yourself? We tell ourselves we don’t have time for yoga, that it will be much better to stay glued to the desk, plugged into email, and that we’ll feel much better that we accomplished one more task on our to-do list. Right…and that right is delivered with a very deep sarcastic tone. This is the biggest trick in the book and one that I used to be the queen of.
When I was a little girl, I would hide my Halloween candy (yeah, I had to hide my candy, I had four older siblings) and allow myself to have a few of those mini treats each day. Now as a grown up, I try to follow this same simple routine of giving myself bite-size daily goodies of yoga and meditation. If you don’t have time to carve out an hour for class, just spend a few minutes in silent meditation or step away from the desk and do a few simple poses to release the part of your body that may be feeling tension. Give your mind a break from the i-[fill in the blank] for a few minutes and just relax and sink into a few yummy breaths. It’s even more rewarding than candy.
Speaking of candy, do you remember that one cool house in the neighborhood that always gave out the full-size candy bars or something special like a caramel apple to trick-or-treaters? Well, the Daily Downward Dog wants to be that really cool house today and offer up a restorative pose as an extra special treat. No worries, you won’t need to do a trick first, and you don’t need any special props other than a blanket and a towel.
Halloween Relaxation Treat
All you need is five minutes. Lie down on your yoga mat or a blanket and then place a pillow, rolled up blanket, or a bolster under your knees. Roll up a towel and place it under your neck. If you want to really block out the outside world, place something over your eyes. Begin to breathe deeply into your belly and feel your body melt into the floor. Let go of any areas of tension around the eyes, neck, and shoulders by breathing into these areas and feeling the release on the exhale. With eyes closed, simply listen to your body, allowing yourself to reconnect as you experience the delicacy of simply slowing down. Restorative poses like this help soothe your nervous system. Focusing on the breath aids in quieting the mind and helps you release deep-rooted chronic stress. Think of it as a big hug that heals your body.
Give yourself a treat this week, spend some time practicing yoga, and enjoy a few blissful moments that come from a balanced mind, body, and spirit.
Halloween Image courtesy of Graphics Fairy
Oct 19, 2011 |
One of the very first yoga videos I ever purchased was Back Care Yoga by Rodney Yee, and ever since then, my back and I have been big fans of Rodney Yee’s teaching. You can imagine how excited I was when I got the opportunity to study with Rodney at a teacher training workshop hosted by Yoga on High.
For the first hour or so of the workshop, I was a bit yoga-star struck as I listened to Rodney. I have to admit that it was both a bit surreal and cool to watch Rodney and his ponytail walk right by my yoga mat giving out instructions. But I wasn’t there to stargaze, and I quickly got my head back to the mat to really soak up a lot of fresh learning. I have so much that I want to write about the experience*. But, one thing in particular that Rodney said really hit home with me, and I have to share it with you.
Rodney told a story about how he was talking to a yoga teacher that described their classes as gentle yoga. Rodney asked the teacher why they needed to use the adjective “gentle” to describe their yoga. Shouldn’t all yoga be gentle? Amen, Rodney!
That statement really struck a chord with me because I love to teach gentle (oops, now I’m using the adjective) yoga classes, but sometimes I wonder if I should be teaching more vigorous flows.
I’m sure that many people have gone to a class and been turned off by an aggressive pace or a class geared towards building up to poses like crow or headstands (the poses I affectionately call ego poses). One of the things I learned in my yoga teacher training is that only five percent of the U.S. population can do mainstream yoga. So, if I want to introduce yoga to students in a positive way, I need to break down the poses, demystify yoga, and teach it in a gentle way.
Yoga is so much more than being able to reach your toes in a forward fold or getting vertical in a headstand. In fact, anything you do can be yoga if it is done with mindfulness and breath. I always tell my students that it doesn’t matter where they are in a pose because as long as they are breathing, they are doing the yoga.
What I loved so much about Rodney’s statement is that he was conveying that teachers should never apologize for a class being gentle; yoga should be gentle, and this was just the affirmation I needed to hear.
*Stay tuned for more about my experience with Rodney and how I, of course, made a complete yoga dork out of myself.
Oct 11, 2011 |
In the past, I’ve written about the importance of hugasana, but today I’d like to share one of my favorite forms of asana – walkasana. What exactly is walkasana? Well, next to meditation, it may just be one of the best ways to clear your mind.
Yes, walkasana is a walk, but it is so much more than a leisurely walk if you add in some pranayama breathing and turn it into a walking meditation. Walkasana is a quiet time when you go outside, breathe fresh air, clear your mind, and refresh. It’s kind of like a reboot for your brain.
I’ve always been a fan of walking, but this exercise form became much more spiritual for me when I went through my yoga teacher training. Each afternoon, usually after lunch, my YTT instructor had the class go out for walking meditation. Sometimes we would talk; sometimes we would walk in silence. I did my yoga teacher training throughout the winter months and no matter how cold and snowy it got, we always went out into nature, even if it was only for a few minutes.
There is something about the freedom of being outdoors and walking that is therapeutic for me. My mind starts to wander away from the stress of the day, and inevitably it relaxes enough that I can come up with a solution to a problem or find a stroke of creative genius. I’ve started to carry a little notepad and pen on my walks to jot down all the ideas that sprout up along the way or bring along my iPhone to record my thoughts.
All this extra creative energy got me thinking that maybe there is something to this walkasana, and sure enough, I did find there is medical proof to back it up. If you are interested, please check out this article about recent medical studies that prove walking or any form of exercise is often accompanied by mental clarity!
Now that it is fall in Ohio, I have even more of an incentive to get out there for some walkasana because it gives me a chance to check out the fall foliage and feel the crisp, cool air along the way. Even if it is just for a few minutes, I’m going to make my best effort to get out every day after lunch to give my body and my mind the break it deserves with a little walkasana. If you live in an area without fall foliage, here are a few pictures from my fall walks last year.
Doesn’t going for a short walk sound better than sitting at your desk during lunch and catching up on email? Give it a try, and put a little walkasana practice into your life (just be sure to remember your notepad and pen).
Oct 5, 2011 |
You know those ads for missing people that you see on the side of milk cartons? Well, I was about to put out one of those, or better yet, an APB (no, that’s not some trendy new texting lingo, just a good old-fashioned police term for an “all points bulletin”) for my missing yoga mat.
The crisis occurred over the summer when I needed a yoga mat to take to the beach for my summer beach yoga classes. My newer, thicker professional grade yoga mat could not be exposed to the elements and the sand, so I pulled out my very first yoga mat and decided it was perfect. Even though I only paid $5 for this mat and it is ridiculously thin, there is just something about that first yoga mat that makes it special, and I decided that I would always hold onto mine. I like using it from time to time to remind me of just how far I have come in my yoga journey both physically and spiritually.
I always bring extra mats to class in case a student shows up without one, but one day when I did not have enough extra mats, I ended up offering my very first mat up to a student. It wasn’t until a few days later when I went to pull it out for a beach class when I realized that my beloved yoga mat had gone missing.
I immediately went to retrace my steps of the day to figure out where my missing mat could be. I didn’t think the student took it. Instead I thought that they had handed it back in, but I had never picked it up. I couldn’t believe that I was so negligent as to leave my prized yoga mat out on the beach. I could only imagine what would happen to it. Someone would use it for a beach toy or throw it away; the seagulls might perch on it or try to eat it; or it would get swept away with the waves. I went back to the scene of the crime, scouring the area to find the mat, but to no avail, my yoga mat was MIA.
I could have gotten hung up and upset about the loss, but my yoga training reminded me of two very cool Sanskrit words that encompass the concept of having non-attachment to material possessions.
1. Aparigraha – is one of the yamas (part of the eight limbs of yoga) and is all about not having greed over material goods, possessions, and relationships. Or, in other words, it means not hoarding and instead being happy with what you have.
2. Vairagya – is all about releasing attachment to other people, substances, and material possessions (like a cherished yoga mat). I really love how the meaning of this word can relate to personal desires. For instance, if you do things in life without the hope of personal gain, the work you produce will not only be better but more meaningful, and you will experience joy while doing it. I don’t know about you, but that is how I want to describe the work that I do.
How silly was it for me to get so worked up about losing this yoga mat? I gave myself a much-needed kick in the ass and released my attachment to my yoga mat. By doing so, my mind would be free of the distraction of my desire for the mat and would be open for more important matters.
Two months later, I was packing up my gear after class when one of the owners of the Firefly Beach Resort where I taught came running up to me and said, “Hey, we found this propped up against the front door last night. Is it yours?” She was clutching my long lost yoga mat, a little worn from wherever it had been, but nonetheless it was back!
I still don’t know where my mat had been hiding out for all those months, but I didn’t care; my yoga mat had safely returned to me. I had let go of my attachment to it, and it came back to me.
So, sure, my story has a happy ending, but the takeaway that I’d like you to have is not so much that you should let go of possessions or people in your life in order for them to come back to you; rather, you should let go of your attachment to personal possessions and relationships to focus on what you have versus what you lack. When we get all caught up in our possessions – you know all the time we spend worrying about whether we are going to lose them, or how we can get them back, or why we can’t have them – we lose sight of what is really important in life. To quote Sri Swami Satchidananda from his translation and commentary of The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali:
‘There is joy in losing everything, in giving everything. You cannot be eternally happy by possessing things. That’s why we say, ‘Have vairagya, have dispassion, have non-attachment.’ By renouncing worldly things, you possess the most important sacred property: your peace.”
He went on to say that the practice of vairagya alone is enough to change your entire life into a joyful one. When I see a statement like that, it definitely piques my interest, and I have seen firsthand what peace of mind and joy vairagya can bring.
Got a personal non-attachment story to tell? Please feel free to share by leaving a comment below.
