This coming Saturday, February 11, from 1-3:30pm, I’ll be teaching a workshop at Richmond Beach Yoga with an emphasis on the Warrior poses.
I’ll introduce the story surrounding Virabhadra’s journey, and bring the key concepts home to see how they apply to us on a practical level, in our yoga practice and daily living.
For the asana portion, I plan on working on:
Physical alignment of Warrior 1, 2, and 3
Flexibility and strength required for each pose for stability and ease
Transition techniques from and to each pose in asana sequences
With Valentine’s Day around the bend, the theme for everything, from candy to cards, is Love. To be able to love requires that the heart is at ease, rested and cared for. After working hard, I’ll introduce a few awesome restorative poses.
“Don’t let yourself go.
Everybody cries and everybody hurts sometimes.” — R.E.M
Ok, please stand in Tadasana (play along with me for a second). Inhale and bring your arms up into Urdhva Hastasana.
Now, raise your hands if you haven’t heard of *that* NYT article about how, yoga is like your kitchen sponge, innocent looking, appears to be useful in so many ways, but really hiding in plain sight, waiting to bring you to your knees, in a really bad way.
Hey, look at that, you have all heard about it. You can exhale and lower your arms now.
I’m being a little facetious here, and thank you for indulging me for a moment. I realize this is a rather serious discussion, and I’m glad yoga and injuries are now in the same breath and on the lips of so many people, from lunch and dinner tables, coffee shops, to yoga conferences.
Yes, the article is flavored with a bit of what, in my day job, is referred to as FUD, fear uncertainty and doubt, as Sarah Miller acutely observed with her wit. Yes, the article is littered with inaccurate and sloppy anatomical references, as many teachers like Roger Cole, a scientist and Iyengar teacher of 30 years, has pointed out.
So now that everyone has weighed in on this issue, a Good Thing, because it brings this matter to the forefront of our awareness, one question remains.
Now what?
Now that this horse has been well beaten, now that I’m aware that asana done carelessly with overzealous instruction can mess up my body big time, now that I’m aware that the qualification—and quality— of the person telling me where to put my arms and legs really does matter, what do I do?
Below is an article written by my teacher Theresa Elliott, which I have permission to publish here on my blog. It’s a poignant piece addressing the very topic in Mr. William Broad’s NYT yoga article, written almost four years ago.
This article is, as they say in my office job, actionable. It’s not a philosophical discussion of how yoga helps you become one with the divine. It’s not a treatise on abstract themes like spirituality and love, and what our ego is good for.
It starts at the start: how to choose a yoga teacher who will protect my ligaments and guide my joints with care. It’s helped me begin on the path at the beginning. I think you’ll find Theresa’s thoughts useful for your own journey too.
Bolded sentences are mine for emphasis.
Choosing a Yoga Teacher
By Theresa Elliott
Director of Taj Yoga, Co-Director of Pacific Yoga Teacher Training
Yoga has exploded in Seattle as in much of the country. For every coffee stand,
there is at least one yoga studio lurking nearby. With so many places offering
yoga, how do you decide who would be the best teacher for you?
I have encountered many individuals whose primary consideration is location.
This makes sense as yoga is ubiquitous. Why not just walk down to the
neighborhood gym and pick up a class?
Yoga is different than a typical exercise class, and the potential for stress and strain is far beyond what you could do to yourself in aerobics at the gym. As yoga has proliferated, so have yoga injuries.
Part of the intrigue is also what makes it risky: Increased flexibility is helpful for everyday living, and the ability to stretch can produce breathtaking forms. However, uncontrolled flexibility can result in muscle strains—or worse.
For example, overstretched ligaments result in the destabilization of the structure, such as a knee joint. Common yoga injuries include hamstring pulls, sacroiliac dysfunction, rotator cuff injuries, strained lumbar vertebra, and medial collateral/lateral collateral
ligament damage in the knees.
Alignment is crucial in posture work, as is an understanding of how to stabilize joints through strength while muscles are being stretched. It is time well spent to do some research on a potential teacher and include factors besides location.
Cost is also a consideration. Why pay extra at the yoga studio when you can
get it free at the gym? The subject of how and what we value is a complex
question in itself.
So, I simply say, is anything free? Hidden costs are not always clear, and somehow, someway, someone is paying for that “free” class.
The following items are usually listed in a teacher’s bio and are a good place to start the winnowing process. Is he or she certified? By whom? How long has she been teaching? How old is he? This last question is an important factor that is often over looked.
When friends ask me about starting yoga classes, I recommend they look for a
teacher within 10 years of their age. This recommendation is especially
applicable if you are over 40. A teacher in your age bracket will understand what
happens to the body as it matures and how this relates to the art of practicing
yoga postures.
Of course, there are highly qualified young teachers, “old souls,” as it were, especially those who come to teaching from other health care professions, such as massage therapy. These individuals are able to bridge the age gap through empathy.
At some point you make your best judgment and take a class. I do not recommend observing a class. You need to be in it, feeling and experiencing it with your body, because your research isn’t done yet. Below are some thoughts to consider once your are in class.
* Good teachers will be able to adapt the work to you when necessary. If they
stick to a regime and cannot or will not modify postures, it’s a good sign you
should not go back.
* A sense of humor is a must. Really serious tends to goes with really rigid, and
that’s a really good reason to exit.
* In cross-cultural arts, your common sense is still valid. People are people, no
matter what continent you are on. If you think something is weird or fishy, it
probably is.
* Can you understand what your teacher is saying? With a component in spirituality, some teachers will use yoga jargon or “buzz” words that may leave you wondering what planet you are on. A competent teacher should be willing to define terms, and do so graciously.
* Look at the other students in the class. Who does this teacher attract? It will
help you understand who this teacher likes to work with and how qualified they are.
* The following saying illustrates the next point: Give a man a fish and he can
feed himself for a day. Teach a man to fish and he can feed himself for life. Teachers who practice the poses at the same time you do are, in essence, taking class themselves and not watching you.
Without an eye on students, they cannot make adjustments to your alignment or teach good form. Look for someone who offers more than a “follow-the-leader” aerobics format.
Think of your teacher as a coach. Yoga is traditionally a solo art and developing a home practice is one of the aims. Ask yourself: Am I being given the tools to begin a practice on my own? Am I engaged intellectually and theoretically so I could start to build a home practice? If you can answer yes to these questions, you are on the right track.
Finally, for those of you who like to fine tune here’s a parting thought. When you
study and learn from another person, you are subtly taking on their ideas and
values.
Sometimes what is taught “between the lines,” often through nonverbal
cues, goes in under our conscious radar. We begin to think like our teacher and
may not realize it.
So, the question is, is your teacher someone you admire? Someone you trust? Do you want that person in your psyche?
Am I engaged intellectually and theoretically so I could start to build a home
practice? If you can answer yes to these questions, you are on the right track.
Yoga can be a deeply rewarding endeavor. The yoga practitioner has the opportunity to work with both body and mind. It’s worth the time investment you make to locate a qualified teacher and ensure a safe journey.
It has been snowing like mad around my part of the world, and our world’s a little different, visually, and rhythmically. Schools are closed. Offices are vacant as most people stay off the roads and work from home. Or, if they come out, it’s to play with the fluffy powder before it turns to slush and wash away.
As is often my coping mechanism, I make various jokes about Weather Gods, that maybe they’re protesting that awful bill in Congress right now, SOPA/PIPA, or that some Weather God is dreaming the snow level of Inception.
In one moment of curiosity, I went to look up Greek and Roman and Hindu Winter and Weather Gods, and discovered a fascinating link in words.
It turns out there *is* a Hindu God of snow, Himavat. In Sansrkit, himavant conveys “having much snow”, coming from the root word himá, for “frost, snow”. The Himalaya Mountains got their name from him for snow and alaya for abode or home.
In Latin, the word for winter is hiems, which is where we got hibernate from, “to pass the winter in a dormant or torpid state”. In French, winter is hiver.
Going back we have these words coming from the Proto-Indo-European ghei, for winter. And speaking of winter, the Proto Indo European root word of winter is rumored to be *ueid, or *ued, and if you say that out loud, you can see how that becomes wet, went, and then wint.
Around here in the Pacific Northwest, winter is living up to its name. It’s wet, cold, snowy, windy, icy and stormy. I’ve been on house arrest, snowed-in, and powered out. I admit, I have not enjoyed every moment of it, I wanted to get out, go do things and see people.
Intellectually, I know in some weird way, Mother Nature is telling me to slow down and chill out, literally, and that’s a good thing. Emotionally, I’ve been less mature in accepting this message. “I’m moving south to some sunny place,” I think, and I create alternative scenes in my mind where I could escape the present.
In Midnight in Paris, Owen Wilson’s character—realizing that everyone has some kind of Golden Age Thinking, romanticizing the past and in denial of the moment—proclaimed, “That’s what the present is. It’s a little unsatisfying because life is unsatisfying.”
Satisfying or not, snow or not, now is all there is. So I make a pact with myself, when I see snow and wish that I didn’t, I’d take out the “s”, and now it’s just… now. Sometimes I succeed. Most of the time I fail. And I make another go at it again.
Another trick I use is to remember a Thich Nhat Hanh quote:
“The present moment is where life can be found, and if you don’t arrive there, you miss your appointment with life.”
When something is on my calendar, I make every effort to show up. Why couldn’t I do the same with the present moment? When a bus, train, or plane departs at a certain time, I make sure I catch it. Why couldn’t I arrive on time to catch the moving vehicle of Now? Why wouldn’t I?
Not to be cheesy, (or, ok, to be cheesy), realizing this stops me right on my track. The track of reminiscing and fantasizing, and wishing that something completely out of my control wasn’t so, like precipitation from the sky, like ice on the road, like the electricity that I cannot summon with my sheer will.
Mother Nature, here’s to you for showing who’s the boss. Here’s to you, every winter god and goddesses in every culture and geography. Thank you for yet another reminder that for every Allegro movement, there’s an Adagio. Merci a toi, Woody Allen, for showing the silliness of our nostalgic thinking in a moveable feast of a movie.
The ice outside is melting, and I’ll soon forget my lessons. But surely, after spring, summer, and autumn, winter will come around again.
Here are the sessions I’m assisting. If you’re at the conference and we pass by each other, please say hi. Or better yet, come take a class with Judith, you won’t regret it.
The Mysterious Sacroiliac Joint: Anatomy and Asana
Saturday, January 14 — 10:30am – 12:30pm
Therapeutic / Continue Your Education / Mixed Levels
Many yoga students suffer from sacroiliac pain, which interferes with forward bends and twists. We’ll study the anatomy and kinesiology of the joint, and then practice in a way that can prevent problems. **This class has been approved by American Council on Exercise (ACE) for 0.2 CECs.**
Explore the theory and the practice of restorative yoga.
Props are essential to this practice. Bring at least three blankets, an eye cover, a strap, and, if possible, a bolster. The more props, the more relaxation.
We’ll learn the basic principles of the rotator cuff through a presentation of the anatomy and kinesiology of the shoulder. We’ll then focus on poses that open and strengthen the shoulder joint. **This class has been approved by American Council on Exercise (ACE) for 0.2 CECs.**
I’m teaching an Introduction to Yoga series at Taj Yoga on Tuesday nights starting this coming week. Here are all the deets… eh… details.
Elevator pitch
This five-week introduction series will cover the fundamentals of yoga including alignment, breathing, and relaxation techniques.
When
Date: Tuesdays January 10-February 7, 2012
Time: 7:30 p.m. to 8:45 p.m.
Where
Location: 9250 14th Ave NW,
Seattle, WA 98117. [Google Maps link]
Studio: Taj Yoga Room 1
How much
Cost: $70 for all 5 classes. $130 for two if you sign up together.
Is this class for me?
I’ve designed the syllabus primarily for someone brand new to yoga, or has dabbled in a class or two at a local gym, where the pace is fast and there are a lot of students.
I will focus on techniques–the whys and hows–of the types of yoga poses such as Standing Poses, Back Bends, Forward Bends, Twist, Seated, and Supine (everyone’s favorites).
Because yoga is multi-faceted, I will be introducing some foundational aspects of the 8 limbs of yoga, and so this class would also be appropriate for anyone interested in deepening their knowledge of the techniques and tenets of yoga.
The classes build on each other from week to week, and the goal is prepare you to take ongoing hatha yoga classes with lots of confidence.
What if I can’t make it to all five classes?
If you know you won’t be able to make it to a class, I will prorate the cost of the series and work out a plan to catch you up. Class notes will be sent to everyone about what we covered in class.
Who are you? Why should I take yoga from you?
I’m Nikki. I started yoga via asana at 15, developed a Vipassana (Insight) meditation practice when I was 25, and received my 500-hour certificate to teach yoga in in May of 2010.
My training and practice is heavily influenced by the Iyengar lineage. Techniques, Safety, and Alignment (TSA without the lines) are my main emphasis.
With the proliferation of yoga, there has come the rise of yoga injuries. My classes are small to ensure the techniques and modification are personal and appropriate for you.
And while yoga is more popular than ever, its message still appears to be elusive and esoteric. I have been lucky to catch a glimpse of yoga beyond the bendiness. My goal is to make what seems to be mystical practical to you.
Is this hot yoga?
No.
What other students have said
I just finished a 6 week alignment series with Nikki, and I can’t wait for the next opportunity to take a class with her.
Nikki keeps the class fun, while making sure everyone is working within their capabilities. I especially appreciate that she makes sure to be aware of what injuries or impediments everyone brings to the class in order to best suit the class to the individuals.
And as a bit of a geek myself, I love that Nikki spends the time to explain the whys of each posture, and even each adjustment, rather than just running students through a prescribed series with little or no thought involved.
The class is a great balance of physical postures, breath work, and inner work, leading to a terrifically revitalizing experience. – David Tolmie
I’m in! What do I do?
Hooray! Please RSVP by writing or calling me:
Email: nikki @ nikkiyoga dot com
Voice/text: 206 . 992 . 0139
Twitter: @yogageekgirl
How do I pay you?
You can pay me at the door on the first day of class. I take cash, check, and credit card via a Square reader. I’m not receiving payment through PayPal at this time.
How do I get there?
Taj Yoga is housed inside the old Crown Hill Elementary building, which opened in 1919 with six rooms. Today, it’s home to Seattle Gilbert and Sullivan Society, Arc Ballet School of Dance, Small Faces Child Development Center, and many great movement art programs.
The building is on 14 Ave NW and NW 95th St. There is ample parking. It’s also accessible by bus #75 on Holman Road NW, bus #15 on 15th Ave NW, and bus #48 on NW 85th St.
The class is 7:30 -8:45 p.m. The general guideline for doing yoga is to not eat about two hours prior to class. However, I’d much rather you have a steady blood sugar level than be so hungry in class you can’t wait for it to end. So, if it’s close to class time and you haven’t eaten all day, please eat. Almonds, bananas, soups, a small peanut butter sandwich are typically good options.
We do also have the distinction of being within walking distance from Holman Road Dick’s, one of six Seattle famous Dick’s Drive-In, which makes for a fine choice after yoga, but probably not before.
If you have any additional questions, please let me know, and I hope to see you soon.
I once described Savasana to my boyfriend–who doesn’t do yoga–as, “taking a sanctioned nap in public”, to which he asked quizzically, “You pay people to do something you can do at home?” I laughed, “I guess you can look at it like that.”
In fact, if I didn’t know better, I would look at it exactly like that. And when I didn’t know better, I saw very little value in Savasana, if at all. It didn’t help that in certain yoga tradition, the teacher simply ended class with, “Thanks for coming, now lie in your sweat and your neighbor’s B.O. I’m leaving the room for some fresh air.”
Ok, I’m being a brat, I know, my point is, in my experience, there’s usually very little instruction in how to do Savasana in most public yoga classes. If I don’t know what to do, I’m either going to pass out and fall asleep, or I’m just going to get up and leave.
If the value of Savasana isn’t widely taught and understood, fewer and fewer people will learn it, do it, care about it, and ultimately benefit from it, and that is a crying shame.
This leads to scenarios where students can complain to studio directors if a teacher keeps the class in Savasana for “too long”, and in turn the well-intentioned director, who want happy customers, will ask teachers to not do Savasana, or minimize it.
This leads to scenarios where, when Savasana time comes, for those who’ve come to know, love, and appreciate the nap (like yours truly), but don’t know the benefits beyond getting some much needed sleep, and therefore don’t do the appropriate practice in Savasana.
This leads to scenarios where, teachers go on yoga forum asking things like: “Why is savasana a key aspect to yoga classes? How do you explain it to your students who may feel they don’t need to pay someone to “just lie on the floor” for 5, 10 or more minutes?”
In this post and a few that follow, I hope to make a case for the yoga pose Savasana: what it is, how to do it, and why we care about it at all.
There are multitudes of interesting things about Savasana, but perhaps the most relevant topic to write today is something closest to home for most of us who just celebrated the Holidays Season in North America, starting with Halloween, then Thanksgiving, all the way to New Years.
That topic is digestion and elimination, or, the more trendy and PC word is: detox.
How Savasana helps with detoxing
I don’t want to rehash the list of benefits of Savasana that you can read everywhere. I want to talk about what happens in Savasana and how it helps you digest, or detox.
You may remember the autonomic nervous system from school, divided into sympathetic and parasympathetic systems. You may also know the sympathetic system is associated with the “fight or flight” response, nice and catchy and easy to remember.
Think quick! What’s the equivalent catchy response for the parasympathetic system? Wikipedia will tell you that it’s “rest and digest”. But, I’m here to tell you another one that’s much easier to remember: “feed and breed”. It’s much more colloquial and down and dirty, not something they always tell you in school, but our memory works best with down and dirty things, like learning swear words in foreign languages.
What’s involved in feed and breed? Put it another way, what’s *not* involved in feed and breed? Sometimes it seems like almost a full time job for some people in our culture to keep us preoccupied with those exact two things. Feeding and breeding are big business.
Now think about what prevents you from good feeding and breeding? Bad food, for sure. Bad sex, certainly. What goes in must come out, and if you can’t digest, pee, or poop, it is not a good day in any measure.
Think about the last time you were in the mood for love, were you in a fight or flight response? Were you stressed? Depressed? Anxious? Or were you more relaxed? That’s the parasympathetic nervous system in action.
Let’s have Wikipedia come to the rescue and articulate things more eloquently:
To be specific, the parasympathetic system is responsible for stimulation of “rest-and-digest” activities that occur when the body is at rest, including sexual arousal, salivation, lacrimation (tears), urination, digestion, and defecation.
And the good people of Wikipedia (when they’re not showing creepy mug shots) have provided a useful acronym for the functions of the parasympathetic nervous system too, SLUDD: salivation, lacrimation, urination, digestion, and defecation.
Our days are filled with stimulating activities that call for a well functioning and active Sympathetic Nervous System: driving, work meetings, answering emails, giving speeches, working out, etc.
Yoga asanas demand quite a bit of us as well, thinking about what to do, where to move, protecting or preventing injuries, worrying about doing the right thing, looking good, etc.
The Parasympathetic Nervous System is the counterpart of the SNS. It’s the Yin to the SNS’s Yang. It’s the eggs to the SNS’s bacon (for you bacon fans out there). It’s the coke to the SNS’s rum. Ok, I may be taking this too far, but you see where I’m going. These two systems go together.
The problem is we as a culture has gone so far off the Sympathetic Nervous System’s deep end, that we don’t even know how to relax. We think relax is sitting on the couch watching Dancing with the Stars with our favorite drink. We think relax is watching Tom Cruise scale up sky scrapers with a bare hand.
Don’t get me wrong, these are awesome. I have nothing against holding down the couch or Occupying IMAX. Those activities, however, are fun, but not necessarily relaxing as far as our body’s physiology is concerned.
Now, think about what happens to your nervous system in Savasana. Let’s set the mood: the lights are down so it’s nice and dark, you’re well covered and warm, your eyes are closed, the floor is dry, clean, and flat. You’re not eating, drinking, driving, walking, running, dancing, moving, talking. You’re lying flat down on the floor with all the props you need to support your body position and weight.
It’s the perfect trigger to stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system, aka, say it with me, the “feed and breed” response. This is where the PNS “mediates digestion of food and indirectly, the absorption of nutrients.” (Wikipedia entry on Autonomic Nervous System.)
“Great, I’m sold on that,” you say, “but why do I have to pay someone to do this?”
You don’t. Plain and simple as that. Just like how you don’t have to pay someone to watch you do pushups, pullups, or situps; how you don’t have to pay to have someone to time you to run around the block or up the hill.
Or, maybe we do have to pay someone to count our pushups and time our Savasana. We need someone to give us instruction, techniques, refinement, encouragement, and the big A, accountability.
If we don’t learn how to, and do, Savasana in class, if we don’t make it a daily habit under someone else’s watch, what are the chances we will do it on our own? If we don’t learn how to relax in a controlled setting, much like having training wheels on, how will we relax when we’re in “real life” and shit is hitting the fan? (Or… not coming out well?)
And… on that note, I’ll finish writing for now. But I am not done with all the amazing things that happen in Savasana and the benefit you get from it. So, ask for more savasana, and I hope you’ll come back for more soon.
Why do yoga when you could do so many other things in the world? You could read, write, draw, sketch, hack, paint, sing, strum, play, create. You could Facebook, FaceTime, Tweet, IM, email.
You could cook, shop, eat, drink, hook up, catch up with friends, do all your duties as a mom, dad, girlfriend, boyfriend, daughter, son, wife, husband, employee, manager, entrepreneur, this-will-be-my-year-get-up-and-goer.
Why do yoga when you can go for elite fitness level with Crossfit, or do Zumba, Hula Hoops, Cha cha cha, and dance your heart out? Why do yoga when you can kickbox, lift weight, run, climb, surf, bike, walk, hike, fly, swim, dive, golf, dribble, pitch, drive?
That was a trick question. You can, in fact, doyogawhile you’re doing all those things I mentioned and more.
A more specific question is, why do yoga asana, pranayama, and meditation? Why lay out the mat and get on it? Every day?
One answer is a neurotransmitter called GABA.
GABA, or if you prefer more syllables, gamma-aminobutyric acid, is mostly classified as an inhibitory neurotransmitter. (I say mostly because according to my Googling and Wikipedia’ing, scientists are still working out if it’s an excitatory neurotransmitter in early brain development.)
Sidebar: Excitatory neurotransmitters stimulate the brain, like dopamine. Wee! Inhibitory neurotransmitters tell the brain to chill out and hold the horses back when the excitatory neurotransmitters have had too much coffee. Famous Inhibitory Neurotransmitters include serotonin.
Ok, back to GABA. Why do you care? Maybe you don’t, but give me a few more minutes and I will tell you how learning about the existence of GABA has given me all the motivation I need to do yoga everyday.
Since it’s that time of the year where we make promises to ourselves, this might help give an extra kick if one of your promises is to try yoga, or do it more often.
Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), Liquor cerebrospinalis, is a clear, colorless, bodily fluid, that occupies the subarachnoid space and the ventricular system around and inside the brain and spinal cord.
In essence, the brain “floats” in it.
It acts as a “cushion” or buffer for the cortex, providing a basic mechanical and immunological protection to the brain inside the skull.
If we were depressed or have anxiety, and if certain scientific findings are reliable, it’s likely they would find pretty low amount of GABA in our cerebrospinal fluid.
To jump to conclusion (with good reasons) for GABA: good to have in adequate amount to keep the funk away.
“How does one get into this GABA business?” you say. Two studies done in 2010 have shown that you get it through doing yoga. (Shocker, I know.)
After that pilot, they did another study. They asked 19 yoga practitioners and 15 walkers, all healthy people, to do yoga or walked for an hour three times a week for 12 weeks and measured their GABA levels.
Here’s what they concluded, in their wonderful academic research publication language:
The 12-week yoga intervention was associated with greater improvements in mood and anxiety than a metabolically matched walking exercise.
This is the first study to demonstrate that increased thalamic GABA levels are associated with improved mood and decreased anxiety.
It is also the first time that a behavioral intervention (i.e., yoga postures) has been associated with a positive correlation between acute increases in thalamic GABA levels and improvements in mood and anxiety scales.
What’s really important to note here is they measured three times: once before the study, once before the activity, and once after the activity. They found that the GABA level went up only *after* the yoga practitioners did yoga. In other words, yoga is like a pill or shot that you take. It’s not a one-time deal.
I came to learn about these studies through a talk that Dr. Kelly McGonigal gave at the International Association of Yoga Therapists’ (IAYT’s) Symposium on Yoga Therapy and Research (SYTAR). That’s a lot of words and acronyms. I assume you don’t care too much for more associations and conferences and acronyms.
You probably care more about knowing your options in case you get the blues. If so, it may be assuring to know that there’s a viable option to improve your mood, reduce stress, and relieve anxiety with no adverse side effect. There is a catch, though, the effect wears off, so you have to do it daily.
Kelly also mentioned that the implication of the studies mentioned above also applies to things like addiction and eating disorders. Learning all this has given me a stronger-than-ever conviction to continue my practice and to get on the mat every day.
Earlier, I asked, “Why do yoga?” Why do yoga when there are so many other fun, exciting, attractive, titillating things to spend time, money, and energy on? As I mentioned, there’s a bit more to yoga than doing Sun Salutations, but for our purposes here, I’m talking about do-no-harm asana, pranayama, and pratyahara (more on pratyahara in the upcoming post about savasana).
For me, it’s not so much that I do yoga *instead* of all these things, because like all things in life, having an addiction and dysfunctional relationship with yoga is totally possible and probable.
I’ve resolved to do yoga *so that* I can do all kinds of things and go through life with more zeal and with less manufactured fear, stress, and anxiety, which seems to be aplenty right now.
More awesome GABA + yoga reading:
I came across this excellent blog post by Emily Deans, M.D., a psychiatrist in Massachusetts. She talked about two things I found note worthy. (Thank you Emily, if you’re reading this.)
1) Drinking (a lot) can also help a person deal with stress, and so’s popping a pill. So no need for yoga, right? It turns out “when these substances are constantly in the brain and then rapidly withdrawn, you suddenly have overexcited GABA receptors and you can get unfortunate side effects such as insomnia, anxiety, and seizures.”
2) The study about walking vs. yoga got me curious. Both involve physical exercise and breathing, so why the difference in GABA levels? Emily wrote:
Yoga isn’t Paleolithic. I don’t see our distant ancestors practicing downward facing dog. But yoga combines physical activity with forced acute attention on the present. Lose your focus in tree stand, and you lose your balance.
In my mind, yoga and other mindful meditation practices emulate, to some respect, the focus and attention we had to have while hunting and gathering. We couldn’t be thinking about the mortgage or Uncle Phil getting drunk at last year’s Christmas party. We had to be focused on the trail and the prey.
Here’s to a year of great traveling, whatever trail you’re on. To bastardize The King’s lyrics: A little less drama a little more GABA baby.
Every year I hold a Sit Off. The first Sit-Off was a response to the ferocious debate on the merit of yoga competition. Should we, or should we not? Is it yogic? Is this all that yoga has been reduced to? Just aerobics, just asana? It went on and on.
After a while, I had enough of it. So I said, in my best Cartman impression, “Screw you guys, I’m going to have a meditation competition, no, even better, a Sit-Off, like a Zoolander Walk Off.”
I also made up some ridiculous rules, like you must be able to sit still while PETA releases hoards of bees into the room and Cotton Eyed Joe is playing on repeat on the background. It sounds horrific, but none of that action or irritation compares to the guilt, shame, anger, anxiety, fantasy, excitement, and memories that my mind can conjure up.
It started out as a joke, but I found a nice side effect. When I set a period of time to devote to something, it focuses my actions and it reinvigorates and strengthens my practice. Also, knowing that many others, oh, who am I kidding, a few others, are doing this with me, can give me a sense of accountability when me don’t feel particularly self-disciplined, which is most of the time.
So, I’m hereby announcing the 3rd round of the Sit-Off.
Why now? If you remember, I already ran the 2nd annual Sit-Off in February. (You totally remember, right?) Well, it occurred on me the other day that from Monday October 3, 2011 to November 11, 2011 are exactly 40 days. And I, predictably like most geeks, have a thing for binary dates.
(Proof: my friend Khoi, a computer engineer, told me he decided long ago he’d get married on 10/10/10, and it didn’t matter with whom.)
The number 40 has always been interesting to me because one year, I wanted to know why Lent is 40 days, so I spent several hours reading Wikipedia on it. Here are some things that Wikipedia sayeth on the subject, some more or less well-known, depending on who you are and what part of the world you live in:
Moses spent three consecutive periods of “forty days and forty nights” on Mount Sinai
Jesus fasted “Forty days and forty nights” in the Judean desert, which is like…
The 40 days of fast that Buddha made to the desert before to exert his apostolate.
Muhammad was praying and fasting in the cave for 40 days. which is like…
The 40 days that the Buddha supposedly sat under the bodhi tree before his enlightenment. (Some accounts say 49, not convenient for my purposes here at all.)
It is believed that one who assists a blind man for forty steps becomes worthy of entering heaven.
Prophet Yunus was in a whales mouth for 40 days (he was having a whale of a time!)
Human pregnancy lasts approximately 40 weeks from the time of the last menstrual cycle and childbirth (38 weeks from fertilization).
Symbolize the death with oneself and the spiritual rebirth.
Etc.
Etc.
Etc.
One More Thing
Along with the usual rule, which is that you can sit for any length of time, I’d like to give extra credit for those who’d like to Don’t Break the Chain à la Jerry Seinfeld with any activity that you’d like to start, or stop doing.
In addition to sitting every day, do this just one more thing that you’ve always wanted to do: read that book, write that novel (NanoWriMo is coming), run, work out, floss, etc. The only requirement is you must do it every day. Every. Single. Day. Even just for a minute.
Won’t Power
I read somewhere that if you don’t have will power, have won’t power. I don’t know exactly what that means, having not taken part in any Won’t Power Heart Opening Workshop or Won’t Power Blow Your Mind Tour.
The idea appeals to me in the way a koan does: it turns your head upside down a bit. Does it work? If “I will go to bed early” requires iron will power, and doesn’t always work (usually never), will “I won’t go to bed late” do anything for me?
I don’t know, what say you we find out? As always, let me know you’re in by using the hashtag #openpractice on Twitter, or tagging “openpractice” on your blogs and on Flickr.
Even more extra credit: Start on October 1st instead of October 3rd. 10/01/11 to 11/11/11 make 42 days. And 42, as you know, is The Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything, at least according to Douglas Adams.
Also, 42 in binary is 00101010, another reason why my friend Khoi wanted to get married on 10/10/10, come hell or high water. Told you us geeks are weird.
But never mind us. Just be where you are, and sit with me.
Yesterday evening, my mom and I went to Richmond Beach for a walk after dinner. As I closed my car door in the upper parking lot of the Saltwater Park, ready to take the wooden stairs down to the beach, I saw, sitting off to the side of the sidewalk, by a tall shrub, a guy sitting on a rock staring off into the Olympic Mountains.
Immediately, I was drawn to the composition of this image; all the elements are there: blood-orange sun setting, mystical-looking mountain peaks, glistening blue ocean, contemplating man. You get the idea. It was one of those pictures you might see on calendars at Barnes and Noble, or on inspirational posters corporate HR people hang up to compensate for the decidedly non-inspiring ubiquitous gray cubicles.
I approached the guy, blurting out, “Do you want a picture taken?” He turned around, studying my mom and me for a moment. “No thank you,” he said, and then followed up, “Do you live around here?” “Just up the hill,” said I.
As if it was the answer he wanted to hear, right on cue, he handed us a flyer, “I’m opening a yoga studio here. You should check it out.” I scanned the yellow flyer in my hand, and thought out loud, “This is really weird. I teach yoga.”
And that’s how I met Glenn Tousignant, who’s opening a new studio in Richmond Beach, a neighborhood in the city of Shoreline, aptly named Richmond Beach Yoga.
My mom taking a picture of the sunset at Richmond Beach Park
This morning I met up with Glenn at the Richmond Beach Park again. We threw a frisbee around and talked about things, mostly yoga and meditation things (shocking, I know). Then after Glenn had had enough of running after my left-handed, embarrassing excuses for frisbee throws, we headed about a mile up the hill, where he showed me the studio space.
I always get a kick out of seeing when things are being built. It’s some sort of egotistical satisfaction of having an insider look at something that’s still coming into existence–unknown to the world–like a reporter getting the first scoop.
I looked at the floor covered in butcher paper and blue painter’s tape, imagining the bamboo hardwood floor underneath. I looked at the ceiling with wires running across, thinking of the decorative light fixtures that will shine down.
Glenn’s business partner is Angeline Johnston, whom I’ve actually met at LakeView Yoga in Bothell, and am happy to find out that she’s currently going through the 500-hour teacher training at Pacific Yoga with Theresa Elliott and Kathryn Payne, where I graduated from.
I have a feeling that these two will put together a great schedule for the Shoreline, North Seattle, and Richmond Beach community. Glenn’s already talking about having daily sits, Restorative Yoga, and he did not kick me out when I mentioned Alignment, so hooray!
“You know what’s crazy, we haven’t even known each other for even 24 hours,” I said to Glenn after he told me about his journey to here, a quaint beach town suburb (he’s from the East Coast, a city boy, etc.). However, he said something that makes me feel confident that Richmond Beach is in good hands.
While we were running around on the buff of the Beach Park, throwing a circular piece of white plastic in the air, talking about yoga styles and all their idiosyncrasy (or syncrazy), Glenn said, “You do yoga to ultimately sit, right. So eventually you just do enough for maintenance [to sit]. Yoga as an addiction is valid.” To that I say, hallelujah, brother.
So, if you live, work, go to school in this part of town, or just passing by, do check out Richmond Beach Yoga when it opens at the end of this month. It’s on 8th NW & Richmond Beach Road, and buses 301, 304, and 348 stop right in front of the parking lot.
I live less than a mile away from the studio, and if Glenn is cool with me not talking about the “English Bulldog determination and Bengal Tiger strength”, but rather stuff like, “Drawing up the inner corner of the outer eyes of the armpit chest”, you might see me show up as a sub from time to time as well.
If you’re looking to stretch your entrepreneurial muscles, starting up a yoga or Pilates studio may still be a safe bet, despite a profusion of them around the country.
Revenue for this niche is expected to increase over the next five years in the U.S. by an average annual rate of 5.0% to $8.3 billion, according to a report released Tuesday from consumer-research firm IBISWorld.
With that, I wish Glenn, Angeline, and Richmond Beach Yoga lots of success.
So I picked up a paper, it was more bad news
More hearts being broken or people being used
- You Were Meant for Me, Jewel
I’m writing about something that’s probably out of most people’s mind already: the London riot that happened earlier this month. I’m also writing about related events happening in Seattle in September and October for Street Yoga.
In our attention-deficit 24-hour-news world, where the lifetime of a tweet is but a fleeting hour, yesterday’s horrible news needs to be topped with even more horrible, more outrageous, more destructive news today. This morning I saw a funny tweet, and I paraphrase: “The media could hardly contain their disappointment as hurricane Irene has not turned out to be the calamity they had hoped it would be.”
For the most part, this is life as I know it in this early-21st century media, continuous shock and awe of all kinds of titillating and sensational reporting.
The London riot was no exception. It was big news for a few hours. There was finger pointing, there were promises of punishment, there were comedy materials for late night show hosts and Tweeters. (“Did London lose a hockey game or something?”)
Amidst the sound bites, one man wrote a thoughtful piece reflecting on the root causes and proposed a solution, one that could be considered radical in certain circles. This surprised most of us who may be more familiar with him as Mr. Katy Perry, or that crude comedian dude: Russell Brand.
In his heartfelt essay, Big Brother Isn’t Watching You, the most common impression Mr. Brand left seemed to be: “Damn, who knew the Get Him to the Greek dude can write like that!” For me, his essay hit closer to home as someone who’s been involved with Street Yoga and went through their Teacher Training.
At the training, I was exposed to exercises and concepts that clearly demonstrated to me the complex and intertwined social support system (or lack thereof) for the youths in our society: the ones struggling with homelessness, poverty, abuse, addiction, trauma and neurological & psychiatric issues.
These are the people Street Yoga strives to serve. A homeless child grows up to be a homeles adult, and the vicious cycle continues, as homeless adults create homeless children. How do we nip this problem at the buds?
Here’s Russell Brand on the death of Mark Duggan, a young man gunned down by police, spawning a peaceful protest and the ensuing infamous riots.
However “unacceptable” and “unjustifiable” it might be, it has happened so we better accept it and, whilst we can’t justify it, we should kick around a few neurons and work out why so many people feel utterly disconnected from the cities they live in.
Unless on the news tomorrow it’s revealed that there’s been a freaky “criminal creating” chemical leak in London and Manchester and Liverpool and Birmingham that’s causing young people to spontaneously and simultaneously violate their environments – in which case we can park the ol’ brainboxes, stop worrying and get on with the football season, but I suspect there hasn’t – we have, as human beings, got a few things to consider together.
I found those protests exciting, yes, because I was young and a bit of a twerp but also, I suppose, because there was a void in me. A lack of direction, a sense that I was not invested in the dominant culture, that government existed not to look after the interests of the people it was elected to represent but the big businesses that they were in bed with.
Why am I surprised that these young people behave destructively, “mindlessly”, motivated only by self-interest? How should we describe the actions of the city bankers who brought our economy to its knees in 2010? Altruistic? Mindful? Kind? But then again, they do wear suits, so they deserve to be bailed out, perhaps that’s why not one of them has been imprisoned. And they got away with a lot more than a few fucking pairs of trainers.
These young people have no sense of community because they haven’t been given one. They have no stake in society because Cameron’s mentor Margaret Thatcher told us there’s no such thing.
If we don’t want our young people to tear apart our communities then don’t let people in power tear apart the values that hold our communities together.
As you have by now surely noticed, I don’t know enough about politics to ponder a solution and my hands are sticky with blood money from representing corporate interests through film, television and commercials, venerating, through my endorsements and celebrity, products and a lifestyle that contributes to the alienation of an increasingly dissatisfied underclass.
But I know, as we all intuitively know, the solution is all around us and it isn’t political, it is spiritual. Gandhi said: “Be the change you want to see in the world.”
Now, I, like Russell Brand, don’t know enough about politics. Nor do I feel like I know enough about “being spiritual”. To me the word spiritual is quite a slippery slope and it frequently gets thrown around without context or consideration.
When I read that sentence, I stopped momentarily to ponder what Russell was probably thinking in his head when he wrote it. What could he possibly mean?
I don’t know, but here is what I know for sure. My yoga practice, and especially my sitting practice, has offered me benefits which I don’t think I’d be able to get in any other way. What kind of benefits? Flexibility and strength, surely, but I’m not just talking about yogasana only.
If one were simply doing yoga for the physical benefit, they could easily gain it going for a run, bike ride, or lifting weight. No, I’m talking benefits that involve behavioral changes. I’m talking coping mechanisms. I’m talking about a way of being and a way of existing in the world.
Yoga, first of all, gets me into my own body, it gets me to be comfortable in my own skin. This may be automatic and easy for some people, but for me, it’s a learned and acquired taste. It gets me to not only work out and burn a few calories, but it gets me to get to know myself, from a bodily, tangible perspective: here’s my head, here are my toes, here’s the sensation resulting from this movement.
So that’s on a bodily, physical level.
The sitting practice, the meditation practice, is the next level up. Sitting, of course, is not appropriate for everyone at all times. It is not a cure for many psychosis, it’s not a cure-all for all that ails us. It is not a just-add-water solution. It is not a pill.
It is a red pill, in a way, however, in the sense that, as the red pill wakes Neo up to the truth of the Matrix, meditation wakes me up to the real me. That I, too, have those characteristics which I publicly condemn and punish. I’m selfish, I’m spiteful, I’m frightened. I’m generous, I’m loving, I’m fearless.
Seeing everything all mixed up inside makes me realize that I, like others, have the potential to act one way or another, at all times. Sitting reminds me to have compassion for people with their addictions, their trauma, their neurosis, since I, too, have those to varying extent. I, too, see how difficult it is to change, even the most benign of bad habits.
I am not so different, not so separate, not so above from them after all.
What makes me choose not to destroy other people’s properties and set them on fire in most instances? Like Russell Brand, I have a support system. I’ve got a mother and a father who’ve worked tirelessly and unselfishly for my well-being, from my most basic needs to the highest one: Love.
I’ve been privileged to live in a society where I can go to school, get a degree, and have first world problems, like the fact that the internet connection is so slow today in my office building, and the air-conditioning is on too high.
What about the kids without anyone telling them they are alright, they are loved, and they can be musicians, architects, developers, doctors, or whomever their fancy wants to take flight? That they’ve got other options besides agression or submission?
I think most acts of violence can be traced back to a feeling of worthlessness, or feeling rejected, abandoned, unloved, and ultimate, something extra, disposable, replaceable. Who will tell these kids, as my teacher Judith Hanson Lasater told us in a training: “You are not extra. Stand on your mat like you matter”.
Luckily, self-examination and introspection is not only available to the privileged ones. You can have a private jet and a mansion full of designer clothes and cars, and may not ever reflect inward. Or, you can be in a foster home and get to know yourself, one breath at a time.
This is what Street Yoga aims to do. With dedicated social workers, educators, and yoga teachers, Street Yoga seeks to reach out to create a quiet revolution: to encourage people to know themselves rather than be manipulated by others.
“Each one of us struggles daily to maintain our sense of integrity and personal wisdom. Yoga creates a quiet place for people to experience their own bodies, minds, and feelings. They can evaluate what is useful and true.
They are encouraged to deeply listen to themselves. Their independence, creativity, and sincere questioning are encouraged. Yoga, as we present it, is not an ideology, not a cure-all, not another message that we expect people to buy into.
Yoga is a safe space to look for oneself. Yoga is a place to investigate and to make one’s own assessment and choices. It is an offering and a hope for greater independence, empowerment, and self-awareness.”
So, why am I telling you this?
This September, Lululemon Pacific Place will host free in-store yoga classes every Sunday morning to raise awareness for Street Yoga. I’ll be teaching on Sunday September 4, 2011 at 9:30am.
On Saturday October 1st, we’ll have a Fall into Gratitude benefit event: a dinner and dance party at Waid’s Haitian Restaurant at 1212 E Jefferson St. There’ll be a dance performance, an art show, and of course, dinner, all for only $40. It all starts at 6pm.
I hope you’ll come to the free yoga classes and the dinner, and if the spirit moves you, dance. I hope you’ll consider making a contribution to Street Yoga, or similar organizations like Yoga Behind Bars, YogaG, or YogaHOPE. You can encourage educators and your city school boards to look into programs like Mindful Schools.
Most of all, even if you do none of these things, I hope that you, and I, and all of us have the strength and tenacity to continue to learn to work with our bourgeois and non-bourgeois sufferings, and first world or second or third, or universal problems.
And if you don’t do any yoga or meditation or believe in sending your hard-earned money to any organization, I hope you reserve some room for hope in humanity even after watching the 5, 7, 9, and 11 o’clock morning and evening news.
That indeed there are groups of people taking on the crazy and scary work of working on themselves, and in the process mending whatever destruction the Dark Lord or Red Skull instigates. Isn’t that why we cheer for Harry Potter and Captain America?
Don’t take my words for it. Hear the words from the Street on what yoga means.
