This series will cover the fundamentals of yoga including alignment, breathing, and relaxation techniques. Perfect for students new to yoga and anyone to establish a personal practice. Gain the confidence and ability to enjoy any yoga class!
Weeknight session: Thursdays 7-8:30pm, March 11 – April 15, 2010
Weekend session: Saturdays from 9:30-11am, March 13 – April 17, 2010
Cost: $75 for the whole 6-week series and 10% discount on mats and mat bags at the Village Green Boutique.
Techniques and Alignment
Yes, that famous, or infamous T&A Yoga class is for refining your yoga poses and linking them in specific sequences. We also dabble into “woo-woo” stuff here too
Date: Mondays, 7 p.m. – 8:30 p.m., ongoing
Cost: $18 drop-in, or use your class card.
Taj Yoga
Intro to Yoga
Learn the basics of yoga in a safe, methodical manner. Alignment, use of props and breath awareness will be covered to give the participants confidence to join ongoing beginning yoga classes.
Date: March 3 – April 14, 2010. Wednesday evenings, 6:00 p.m. – 7:15 p.m.
Cost: $85 for one, $150 for two. Discount for current students if you sign up by February 15: $75 for one person and $140 for two.
Yoga Happy Hour
Put the stress of the work week behind, reboot, and get ready for the weekend. This class will feature sequences to re-energize by aligning the body and resting deeply in restorative postures.
Date: Friday afternoons, 5:30 p.m. – 6:45 p.m., starts March 5, 2010
Cost: $15 drop-in or $65 for 5 classes.
Stone Gardens Climbing Gym
Yoga for Climbers
Date: March 3 – 24, 2010. Wednesday mornings, 7 a.m. – 8:30 a.m.
Cost: 4-week series for $40, Stone Gardens members only.
This past weekend during my 500-hour teacher training, Denise Carrico came to talk to us about teaching yoga for people with cancer. Denise is a yoga teacher in the Integral tradition who has been teaching yoga for 20+ years and for people with cancer for 12 years at Seattle Cancer Lifeline in Phinney Ridge and 8 Limbs Yoga in West Seattle. She also leads free retreats for cancer patients at Harmony Hill in Western Washington’s Hood Canal.
Denise stressed the importance of empowering people who have been diagnosed with cancer who may have felt betrayed by their bodies and perhaps even other things, tangible and non-tangible. She then read a poem to us to demonstrate how to use imagery and poetry to do so.
I will not live an unlived life.
I will not live in fear of falling or catching fire.
I choose to inhabit my days,
to allow my living to open me,
to make me less afraid, more accessible,
to loosen my heart
until it becomes a wing, a torch, a promise.
I choose to risk my significance;
to live, so that which came to me as seed
goes to the next as blossom,
and that which came to me as blossom,
goes on as fruit.
—Dawna Markova
The next morning, on Sunday, our class read the Bhagavad Gita, and in chapter 10 of the translation by Eknath Easwarn, verse 39 read:
“I am the seed that can be found in every creature, Arjuna; for without me nothing can exist, neither animate for inanimate.” BG 10:39
This then reminded me of what Shinzen Young said in the very last minutes of his lectures in The Science of Enlightenment:
“When you let go of the need to know, then you will be able to see how space is produced from the activity of nothingness, and you’ll be able to also see how the activity of the pine tree arises as none other than yourself” – Sasaki Roshi, as quoted by Shinzen Young, chapter 12, the Science of Enlightenment
The image of the seed seems to be coming up a lot everywhere I look recently. How about you? What image do you find consistent in literature, yoga and otherwise?
Patience, grasshoppers, a seed will soon grow into a tree.
Over the years, I’ve listened to and read a lot of books on meditation (because, um, you know, reading and thinking about something is almost like really doing it ).
These are my top three books/audiobooks for Meditation for Beginners (and I do think we’re beginners for a very long time).
I consider Shinzen Young my teacher for his clarity in vocabulary and ability to explain abstract concepts in concrete terms.
The beginner's guide to meditation by Shinzen Young
Introduces the listener to the tradition of meditation. Explains how meditation works, what different methods offer, and guides the listener through the practices. Includes a 3-part session for beginners.
Jack Kornfield is a teacher that makes me smile and soften when I hear the sound of his voice, really gentle and soothing, but packed full of wisdom and authority.
Meditation for Beginners by Jack Kornfield
Introduction to a form of meditation drawing on Buddhist practices. Covers: daily exercises; body postures and breathing; clearing distractions and cultivating awareness; the energy of love as a healing power; how to “make friends” with anger; the importance of forgiveness; how to focus healing attention on the body.
Many guides on meditation do not discuss How To Sit, but the proper posture is the base for any kind of meditative work, so this little book is highly recommended.
The posture of meditation by Will Johnson
“Ordinarily,” Johnson opens his superbly calm little manual, “we think of meditation as an activity involving our minds, but in truth meditation is initiated by assuming a specific gesture with our bodies.” That gesture or posture is the cross-legged sitting familiarly associated with Buddhist meditation and consists of three elements: alignment, relaxation, and resilience.
The objects of these physical practices are to offer gravity the least resistance while in an alert yet resting state and to experience the subtle movements of existence. Johnson explains the functions of each element, offers instruction and advice on achieving each of them, and discusses how they may be carried into everyday life in a prose so limpidly intelligent that this book may become a standard text for beginning meditators. – Ray Olson, Booklist
How about you? What are some meditation resources that you have enjoyed?
Yoga Conferences are big business. If you’ve had the fortune *and* misfortune of having been to one, you know that the experience can be both awesome and awful.
The Awesome part about Yoga Conferences is you get to check out a whole host of teachers in one location in a short amount of time. The Awful part of Yoga Conferences is you’ve got to book the flight, get the hotel room, pay for the conferences, the meals, the impulse buys, etc. It all adds up. (And we’re not talking about the other unpleasantries of yoga conferences here.)
Well, here comes the 1st annual virtual yoga conference. It’s a 3-day conference happening this month from Friday February 19 to Sunday the 21st.
How Does a Virtual Conference Work?
When your session begins, pick up your phone and dial the number you’ve been given. This will connect you with the teacher, the moderator, the technical team, and your fellow students in that class. It’s best to call and get settled at least five minutes before the session begins.
There will be an opportunity to ask questions in live events during the call, or you can connect on the online forum. If you prefer, you can also use your computer to enter the classroom. – More info on that here.
The Speakers
I’m looking forward to Neil Pearson’s two workshops: Understanding Pain and Chronic Pain, and Chronic Pain, Modern Science and Therapeutic Yoga, and Nischala Joy Devi on The Secret Power of the Yoga Sutras.
Our Seattle area tech+yoga royalty, Soleil Hepner, the creator of YogaBlaze, will also give a much needed workshop on overcoming technology overload.
You can go here to check out the full list of the speakers.
Well, um, see you on the Internets at the first virtual yoga conference?
Let's all cross our finger for this to *not* happen during the virtual conference.
This is a video I made after my friend Carlo, the photographer behind the awesome pictures used in this site, asked me to write about how yoga teachers are imperfect like the rest of humanity.
Have you heard of the Meditation Competition? Are you doing the Sit-off? If so, let these awesome business know and enjoy the generous discounts they’ve offered. Do you know a business who would like to and should participate? Are you one yourself? Please let me know and join in!
10% off at Village Green Yoga
I am proud to have the support of Jean Massimo, owner of Village Green Yoga in Issaquah, who has graciously offered 10% off of merchandise in the Village Green Yoga boutique for anyone doing the Sit-off.
Our eco-boutique offers functional earth-friendly clothing for yoga and life. We have everything from your favorite practice pant, to organic jeans.
We support smaller, ecologically conscious manufacturers including Blue Canoe, Shining Shakti, Bamboo Dreams (OR), Of the Earth (Bend, OR), and Inner Waves Organics (Maui, HI). We are proud sellers of beautiful, unique, and locally-crafted sriKaya jewelry.
Our selection of the finest yoga accessories includes Jade Harmony and Manduka mats and a wide array of books, DVDs, and CDs. We are an area retailer of Maui Jim sunglasses, which are both fashionable and designed to protect your eyes from sun, glare, and constantly shifting light from cloudy skies.
We also have gifts and goodies that include Shoyeido (some of the best incense in the world) and local favorites like Big Dipper Wax Works candles from Seattle, Hempmania bags from Bainbridge Island. Look and feel great while being kind to the planet!
10% off a New Client 2-Hour Thai Yoga Body Therapy with Liam Jones
Thai Yoga Therapy is the healing art of the legendary ancient Traditional Thai Massage. It is also known as Thai Yoga Massage , Thai Yoga and Thai Massage. It is however not at all like the massage we know in the west. Massage is the closest English translation.
In reality it is a legendary Yoga Therapy and Ayurvedic healing art. It is an ancient, unique, energy-body work that can be deep, dreamy, and relaxing while releasing blocked energy and leaving the recipient in a more aware and energetically coherent and fluid state.
A free tea with purchase of a pastry at Wheatless in Seattle
If you have not discovered Kaili Mcintire and Wheatless in Seattle yet, you must, whether or not you have any dietary restrictions. Her coffee shop on 100th and Greenwood is a cozy place to bring your laptop and work with free wifi as well, and have I mentioned that the food is delicious?
It all started out of a medical need for me to eat gluten free foods. As a baker, I started experimenting with different flours and techniques to make gluten free foods and had a light bulb moment that I couldn’t be the only one with a wheat allergy.
I have developed gluten free alternatives for almost everything from quiche to pasta to pastry and enjoy making new products or improving the ones I have.
We offer the best of fresh gluten free breads, cakes and pastries that are high quality and delicious and taste just like or better than the traditional wheat counterpart.
$30 off a 90-minute massage with Sarah Moon
If you’re gonna sit, why not get sittin’ pretty with an awesome massage from Sarah Moon of Moon Rock Massage? She’s offering a very generous discount of $30 off, which means you get a 90-minute massage for only $60 bucks! What are you waiting for? Go sit!
Whether pain is from recent injury or for chronic pain management, Sarah focuses on providing relief with a healing touch and targeted self-care suggestions. Her style includes a mix of injury treatment, deep tissue, stretching, cupping and sports massage.
Extensive continuing education has given Sarah an in depth knowledge of anatomy and physiology, including extensive work in the abdominal/core region – perfect for anyone suffering from chronic low back pain.
Last November, I announced a Meditation Competition–a Sit-off, if you will–as a response to the debate on Yoga Competition (or more accurately, Asana Competition).
It was a joke, that is, until now. I’m calling a Sit-off, and this time, it’s for real.
The competition is not who you think, though. We won’t have anyone judging your posture, how long you hold it, or the height of your cushion. We won’t care how coiffed your hair is, how cute your clothes are, or really, if you care to wear any at all. (And we certainly will not play Cotton Eyed Joe until your ears bleed while you attempt to reach samadhi.)
To blatantly rip off a famous saying, we have met the competition, and he is us. The only person stopping you from doing this is you and only you. I’m willing to bet that no matter how busy you are, you have 60 seconds to spare, to slow down, to watch your breath, close your eyes, and sit on a comfy cushion.
The rules
For all 28 days of February, 2010, sit. That’s it. No, really, that’s it. Just sit.
Sit every day. Sit for a minute a day, or 10, or 20. If you ask, what good will one minute of meditation do? You’re right, it won’t do *much*, but remember this one message from meditation teacher Shinzen Young: “one is infinitely more than zero.” The point is to start a habit, and like Mark Twain said, “Habit is to be coaxed downstairs a step at a time.”
If you need some structure, check out Tricycle Magazine’s Commit to Sit 28-day challenge.
28 Days and 28 Nights – Why 28
I’m doing this in February because it’s the month with the least amount of days. For the same reason that $9.95 seems cheaper than $9.99, and $9.99 seems cheaper than $10, committing to doing anything for 28 days seem so much less daunting than 30 or 31 days.
For those of you looking for more meanings behind 28, there are all sorts of interesting observations behind it.
You’ll Never Sit Alone
Some of us are more private about our work, others benefit well from support, encouragement, and a sense of camaraderie. So, if you’re on Twitter, simply tweet #sitoff. You can host your own tweetup, meetup, Sunday Sit, Sit and Knit, Sit and Sing, Meditate and Medicate (wait… maybe not that one).
And Now, A Note From Our Sponsors
What kind of competition has not “winners”, no scores to keep, and no awards? Ah, well, in the effort to rectify this shortcoming, I am looking for businesses who, in HR parlance, lend a hand in incentivizing, businesses who will offer some kind of discount for the participants of this challenge. For instance, a coffee shop could offer 10% off a latte (you know, so you can wake up a bit earlier or stay up a bit longer to sit).
If you are a business, whether local or online, please let me know if you’d like to be a part of this. The terms of the discount are entirely up to you. For example, if someone had to prove it with a note from their mom, or “Sit Ten Times, Get a Latte Free”, or, “Meditate for Your Martini” ™. Hey, you can even set up a Sit and Sip ™ corner in your store. See, the possibilities are almost endless.
If you know a business who would be up for this, please tell them and encourage them to join in. Please tell your friends, please tell your friends to tell their friends. Please mention this to your favorite coffee shop, barista, restaurant, bookstore, bakery, bartender. Really, the more the merrier.
Yes, this is 100% based on an honor system, but I have faith in it. Honestly, if you lie about whether you’ve meditated or not, you’re gonna have *that* much more to work through when you finally do take a seat. And, as the song lyrics goes, “Your cheatin’ heart, will tell on you.”
What do you get as a participating business? I will feature you on my blog. If you care about this sort of things, this site has a Google PR 3, which may help increase web traffic to your website. This is also a great way to attract more customers through word of mouth marketing.
And you’ll get that warm and fuzzy feeling knowing that you’ve helped someone who wants to meditate good and “wanna learn to do other stuff good too”.
In my last post I casually mentioned how interesting it would be to have a collection of spiritual paraphernalia. It was a passing thought, until I thought about it a little more, and said to myself, hey, why not?
keep Divine Light working for harmony in relationship with others. The Sacred Sand is to protect against envy and negative energies.
How does this work, you ask?
The Sacred Sand comes from a place on the Narmada River in central India where intense Tapas (penances and austerities) and meditation have been performed for thousands of years by many saints in order to uplift humanity. The Sacred Sand has been infused and charged with Mantra & Pranic energy (Universal Life Force) in order to activate the healing power.
You, too, can join in on the fun. Please send any tips to nikki @ nikkiyoga.com, and the pigeons will see to it that I will receive your message.
Have You No Respect?
Spirituality is a vast and largely unknown field, and whether or not one object is spiritual, or, more spiritual than another, is not the point here, and in fact I’d even assert that it’s not at all productive to debate this. There are things we’d be better off doing than contending that, “My sand is more spiritual than your sand”.
So, the point of this whole thing, if there is one, is to see the absurdity in life and laugh at it, maybe even out loud. And who knows, maybe even spend a few pretty pennies on it, because really, sometimes the best medicine is the placebo we’ve revered as medicinal.
I’d even imagine that if you are here and you’re reading this blog, you have thought about this whole spiritual thing once or twice, and who was it that said, “If we can’t laugh at ourselves, we leave the job to others”?
Not everything that's longer than it is wide is a phallic symbol, not everything that's longer than it is wide is a phallic symbol, not everything...
I know, the title of this post is a little on the sensationalized side. I’ll ‘fess up. At first, I merely wanted to make the title an eye-catcher. After doing some research and reading on this topic, however, I’m convinced it’s aptly named, and in time, I hope you’ll see why.
I’m also calling this post Part 1, because I sense many more episodes in the work, and that this show will probably be renewed for at least a couple seasons in the foreseeable future.
On Spirituality
I remember now a session during my 200-hr Yoga Teacher Training where we talked about “spirituality”. My teacher Theresa Elliott asked all of us to define it, an impossible task. Then, she asked what we would deem “spiritual”, and what was not. Another impossible task.
The point of the exercise, for me, was that since “spiritual” means everything, it can also mean nothing. Since then, I have stopped using that word, almost exclusively. A word with so many connotations inevitably leads to many misinterpretations and therefore misunderstanding.
The Big E – On Enlightenment
I don’t know what Enlightenment is beyond the intellectual concept and definition(s). It sounds really good and enticing, and maybe one of these days they will sell tickets to Enlightenment on Ticketmaster, if they don’t already. I’ve never felt the urge to get there, however.
For one reason or another, possibly from my upbringing, I’ve always held the idea that there’s only one person who’s Enlightened, and that’s the Buddha. Perhaps as a product of growing up without being inducted in any formal, organized religion, I’ve developed an agnostic, laissez-faire attitude of “maybe, maybe not, who knows” when it comes to concepts of God and Enlightenment.
On the one hand, this puts me in the defeatist position. Well, what am I doing then, if not trying to become enlightened? On the other hand, this belief has somewhat shielded me away from what Mariana Caplan calls “the Spiritual Supermarket”,
If you are not aware of how vast the scope of the spiritual marketplace really is, go to a large mind-body-spirit conference or a New Age expo and allow yourself to be shocked, titillated, appalled, and allured by the thousands of surprising and not-so-surprising products you will find there. – Page 7, Eyes Wide Open: Cultivating Discernment on the Spiritual Path, Mariana Caplan.
(As a side note, how fun would it be if we come up with a list of all this spiritual paraphernalia?)
Start Where We Are – Now If Only We Know Where That Is
You may have heard the joke, “What’s the difference between having eggs versus ham for breakfast?” The answer is, “The chicken is involved in the eggs, whereas the pig is committed in the ham.”
To ask this question of ourselves––”Am I committed, or am I just involved?”––and give an honest answer helps us to make intelligent choices about which paths and practices are best suited for the spiritual development we seek. The problem arises when we profess one thing and live out another, because we confuse ourselves and others, and we limit our growth.
If only we could say honestly and without shame, “I engage spirituality as a hobby,” or “I want a spiritual practice that will give me some peace of mind but without any commitment or discipline,” or “I’d like to keep spirituality as my mistress but maintain comfort and security as my spouse,” or “I want to be seen as a spiritual man or woman because that will make me more sexy.”
If only we could simply admit, “I’m a New Ager,” “I’m a fashionable Buddhist,” “I’m an imitation Hindu,” “I’m a wannabe guru,” or “I’m a bliss chick.” Or perhaps we could use more simple, straightforward language, such as “I’m a serious spiritual aspirant,” “I’m a seeker of moderate interest,” or “I’m a part-time, casual spiritual tourist.” It is not wrong to have such an approach to spiritual development.
We grow from where we are, and if we pretend to be somewhere we are not and try to move forward, we are likely to travel in a very crooked line and become more confused than necessary. – Page 21. Eyes Wide Open: Cultivating Discernment on the Spiritual Path, Mariana Caplan.
The title of one of Pema Chodron’s books, Start Where You Are, has become a sort of mantra for me. It’s so simple and concise, and yet so clear. Similarly, I find the above section titled What Do You Want? from Mariana useful.
For me, there is but one serious commitment I know have for sure: to still my mind, by hook or by crook. It is the single hardest thing for me to do. Everything else is just a strategy for learning and progress, even practicing intensely on a yoga pose, as I’ve mentioned before, is just so I can sit longer with less bodily agitation.
What about you? What is your definition of “spirituality”? Do you believe in Enlightenment? Are you committed or involved? On what level?
Back in early November, I submitted a design to a Yoga Journal contest for a freebie to a YJ conference, and I used then a concept that rings even more true and has even more meaning now. The concept is the word transform, written alongside of the pose utthita parsvakonasana.
Let me give you the back story.
Transform – Not Just For LifeZoid Robots
When Judith Lasater came to Seattle this time last year, it was the start of what would be a long term relationship of my studies with her. At the start of the first day, she rung her tingsha bells, slowly at first, and then with increased speed and volume, fast, faster, loud, louder. When she stopped, you could still hear the echo of the sound filling the room.
Judith explained that the ringing of the bell was a call to action, and the speed signified the urgency. We need to do our practice, now more than ever, she said. Our practice is not a location, it’s the intention. It’s something you can do 24 hours a day. “We change the world by this practice,” Judith stated with such strong conviction, and I was speechless and motionless (both extremely rare occurrences for me, and if you know me personally, you’re probably nodding and smiling right now).
“I have seen what a laugh can do. It can transform almost unbearable tears” – Bob Hope
My understanding of Judith’s statement is that we change the world by this practice because we change ourselves by this practice. We are, as MJ said, “starting with the man in the mirror.” One way of changing something is to transform it. And so, change = transform.
The root word trans means across, denoting the idea of movement, of bringing something from one place to another place. To me, that’s what our practice is meant to do, to help us transcend conditions, to transmit what TED would call “ideas worth spreading”, and to transport whatever Good Stuff we get from the mat into the rest of our life.
Form, literally, is what we work on when we do the yoga postures, it is what we work on when we assume the meditation posture. Form is our attitude and state of being, as in bad form, good form, off form, and on form. Form is the natural world, as in landform, and ourselves, as in life form, or true to form.
So, transform, to me, is bringing that which we practice and putting it in good use.
Connecting – Not Just For Getting Online
What about parsvakonasana, what’s so interesting about that?
Utthita Parsvakonasana, or Extended Side Angle Pose, is a pose I work on pretty much all the time. This is true for a lot of other poses as well, but I have a story of how I learned to love Parsvakonasana.
For the longest time, I thought I had to bend down as low as possible and reach something across the room. Needless to say, my form was pretty god-awful. Studying with Theresa Elliott fixed a lot of it, and then the light came on when I read about the meaning behind Utthita Parsvakonasana in Judith Lasater’s book 30 Essential Yoga Poses.
“The diagonal line created by the arm, torso, and leg symbolizes our connection from Earth to heaven and heaven to Earth.” – Page 49, 30 Essential Yoga Poses, Judith Lasater.
Ohhhh!
So, it’s not about reaching for some vague thing across the room, I’m reaching for something above. Whenever I practice this pose, I think of this first eureka moment, and I check for the outer edge of my back foot reaching for the earth and my arm reaching up, which (this is for all my Iyengar peeps out there), helps me open the chest-pit and the armpit.
You see, the symbols are everywhere here: extending, connecting, etc. If we really want to beat this horse some more, I can go as far as saying that by helping the Haitian people, we are providing support. Where their Earth rumbled, by giving tangible things, like money, we give something solid for them to get back on their feet.
Finally, the trans and form lettering are in the colors of the Haitian flag. To me it’s a subtle way of supporting the cause and remembering it when you wear it without shoving it in people’s face that you’ve done something good.
Okay, do you wanna see it?
I transformed (ha) a picture my friend Ben took of me at Village Green Yoga. My form is not perfect, so all you, ahem “Nerds“, please refrain from using “tape measures, slide rules, sextants, the Global Positioning System, and possibly even a measuring device that uses the decay level of cobalt-52 to measure the positions of the subnuclear particles lurking deep within my pose.” (Thanks, YogaDawg, I never get tired of that line).
Nikki Chau in Utthita Parsvakonasa, photo by Ben Schiendelman, shot at Village Green Yoga.
And here’s the design:
So, that’s my story. It is way too late to consider it being “late” right now. It’s getting towards “early” territory, and I can hear the early birds outside. I’ve stayed up almost the whole night, but that’s a first-world problem. There are many people in Haiti who have probably stayed up for much longer and will stay up for a while longer still.
I have stopped reading the news, which seems to talk more about the politics of aids than anything else. And while the world bickers on how fast, how much, where, when, who, how, why, human lives continue to suffer and perish. I am discouraged by it all, and though I’m no Arjuna, at times, yes, I do feel like putting down my bows and arrows (er… you know, my iPhone and MacBook Pro) and become overwhelmed with sorrow. So, thanks YogaDork, for this contest, to give me a kick in the pants, to say, “fight, Arjuna”. Tonight I felt the urgency, and this was my call to action.
The deadline is this coming Thursday by dawn (like, this time, probably), so I have some time, and if you have any suggestions on the design, please let me know.
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