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.**
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.
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.
I live really close to Tree House Yoga, an Iyengar yoga studio in Shoreline, a suburb adjacent to Seattle on I-5 North. This past weekend, Senior teacher Janet MacLeod came up from San Francisco for a workshop, and though I had never worked with her before, I came to see what I could learn from her.
Janet immediately put me at ease with her smile and Scottish humor. She told us stories from classes she’s taught, like when Mr. Universe came to her class all oiled up, and classes she’s taken, like the time she was in a really small class with Geeta Iyengar, and Ms. Geeta “seemed to be everywhere I turned to”, which kept people on their toes (and heels) because, as Janet put it, “usually you’re in class with 800 other people, and you can get away with a thing or two.”
Her jokes made me temporarily forget that I was working really hard. We were in variations of Upavistha Konasana for what seemed like eternity, her instructions for Salamba Sarvangasana put me in the most hardest shoulderstand I’d done yet, and I could barely maintain a seat with Jalandhara Bandha for Pranayama for any respectable length of time.
One thing Janet said that’s stuck with me is about the asana and our resistance: “When you’re doing an asana, there’s always a part of you that resists, that doesn’t want to do it, so you have to work with that.” She said that this is a theme that Prashant, Mr. Iyengar’s son, works with a lot.
This reminds me of an article I recently read about some truths and myths of being fit, in which the author, Daniel Duane, learned from rehab specialist Kevin Brown that: “Somewhere inside every man’s body, there’s a weak link, a weak muscle waiting to fail.” Kevin Brown’s job, working with world-class athletes, was to find the weak muscle, and of course, make it strong.
How true is that for some other things in life too. Sometimes the resistance is more, sometimes less, but it’s always there. For me, waking up at 5 to go to the gym is a daily negotiation. Meditating at least 15 minutes every day? Another struggle. Creating? Designing? Writing in my blog, or writing anything? Pulling teeth. Wisdom teeth.
This is like, some sort of sign for me, who’s constantly working with things like writer’s block and designer’s block and yoga blocks (ha!). The work is clear, in Asana, Pranayama, and in matters off the mat: there’s always something resisting, how can we figure out what it is? How do we work with it?
When I signed up for Felicity’s workshop, I had heard a few things about her, and I was prepared for them. One of those things is that she is a sort of “my way or the highway” teachers.
She gave us a homework to reflect and write about our relationship to things that are of shreya and things that are of preya nature. In short, preya are things that are pleasant, but may or may not bring you the results you want. Shreya are things that you avoid, but they’re things that are good for you, like bitter Chinese medicine.
During a discussion, a student in class spoke out that she was in fact angry at Felicity for being adamant about putting her in a certain pose that she feared would cause her injuries. Felicity then replied with something that left me thinking a lot.
“You are like the small young birds, you all are,” said Felicity Green, “My job is to give you the worms that I’ve found. My job is to give you what I’ve learnd and found. Your job,” she said with emphasis, “Is to take it, digest it, take the nutrients that you need, and leave what you don’t need. Your job is to also tell me what doesn’t work for you. But recognize that sometimes you don’t do things out of fear, and it’s my job to help you work through your fear.”
Wow.
The Role of a Teacher, the Role of a Student
This really got me thinking, because as a student, for the longest time, I shunned and shied away from the “mean teachers.” I am in yoga to relax. I didn’t need to stress out because my feet weren’t in the place someone thought they ought to be. I much preferred the classes where I could groove to DJ McYogi dropping some beats while I became one with the Universe.
As my practice grew, I realized that some of tactics used by the “mean teachers” had a purpose. They were trying to keep me in my body. They were keeping me and my attention in the room, and not off to some fantasy land. (Of course, there are teachers who are, well, working on their own stuff too.) As a teacher, I’ve also learned that I can definitely be overprotective, or I can try to hard to win the approval of my students. I’ve learned that if you over-coddle someone, you can also stunt their growth.
What a delicate line it is to walk, to be both a supporting, encouraging teacher, and also to be firm and authoritative. Also, how do you know what’s good for someone? Experience, for sure, and experience is what Felicity has. At 77, she is strong and graceful. She said that Mr. Iyengar, who is still practicing at age 94, gives her the inspiration to continue to practice and teach.
The Role of a Sangha
On the third day of the workshop, I brought my mom, who had been practicing Iyengar yoga for 3 years. She’s turning 61 this year, and she was afraid that she’s getting too old to “be good” at yoga. I think it was good for my mom to see other older practitioners, and of course, Felicity. It’s no big secret that you can be any age and practice yoga, but seeing others like yourself doing it is both encouraging and reassuring that you aren’t alone.
And speaking of alone, at the end of the workshop, Felicity said that there aren’t very many people who are truly dedicated to yoga, studying it and also practicing it in their own lives. So, if you find them, make friends with them, create a community with them. She said it’s nice to have people who understand the work you’re doing.
And so, to you, whomever you are reading this blog, thanks for being a part of this. Thanks for somehow being on this path with me.
This weekend I’ll be doing a workshop with Felicity Green at Two Dog Yoga in the Lake City neighborhood in North Seattle.
I was all in when I heard that Felicity was coming, because I know that she’s one of the handful Iyengar teachers with Advanced Certificates, and I can learn a thing or two from her.
Then, seeing my long to-do list growing even longer in recent days, I told myself that “something’s gotta give”, and decided to forgo the workshop. A part of me kept second-guessing this decision, and, as if to help me out, I came across what neuropsychiatrist Peter Whybrow called ‘American mania’ from the Figuring Out Fulfillment blog:
“How many of us feel mandated to read every email as it arrives in our inbox, or check our work voicemail as soon as the light turns red? Stop, the light announces; you must check me before refilling your coffee cup, before proceeding with your life.
How many of us tell ourselves the anxiety we feel is normal and that an inability to cope with it is a personal failure? How many of us live to fulfill a list instead of ourselves, hoping that if we can just keep up, just maybe we will earn a few minutes to sit in tranquility and escape, if only in our minds.”
Well, that hits home.
So, I will make time to go see what the inward journey is all about through the 5 koshas. From the Two Dog Yoga website:
Yoga is a process of learning about ourselves: “Svadhyaya”
We start of by learning about our muscles and bones: “Anamayakosa”
We learn about the effects these bodily actions have on our physiology: “Pranamayakosa”
Now we go deeper to feelings, thoughts and emotions: “Manomayakosa”
To do this we take Patanjali’s Sutras, the wisdom of yoga, to explore these deeper aspects of Pranayama, the Yamas and Niyamas the ethical suggestions of how to live our lives more peacefully with awareness.
Join us on this journey of asana, pranayama, philosophy and self-reflection.
Felicity Green is a Senior Iyengar Yoga instructor and has over 30 years of experience teaching worldwide. Originally trained as an Occupational Therapist, her years of study with B.K.S. Ieyengar in India and Swami Radha in Canada have greatly influenced her style of teaching. She blends a clarity and precision of instruction with warmth and devotion, taking the physical and spiritual practice of yoga to a deep level of attention.
Iyengar teacher Felicity Green. Photo by Steven Horn, stevehorn.net
Here are the courses Judith’s teaching, taken from the Conference Website:
The Shoulder: How to Open, Strengthen, and Repair
Saturday, January 15 — 3:30pm – 5:30pm
Therapeutic, Mixed Levels. Lecture and asana.
To understand this part of the body, we must learn about the four small actions that shape all of its movements in asana. We’ll begin with theory and end with an asana practice focusing on the shoulder. **This class has been approved by American Council on Exercise (ACE) for 0.2 CECs.**
What to bring: A mat, three blankets, an eye cover, a strap, a block, and if possible, a bolster.
The Mysterious Sacroiliac Joint
Sunday, January 16 — 10:30am – 12:30pm
Therapeutic, Mixed Levels. Discussion and asana practice.
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. **This class has been approved by American Council on Exercise (ACE) for 0.2 CECs.** What to bring: At least three blankets, an eye cover, a strap, and if possible, a bolster. The more props, the more relaxation.
Here's me during the Restorative Yoga Teacher training with Judith
Looking back from where I was in December 2009 to now, December 2010, I’m pretty astonished at what a difference a year makes. I have friends who seem to have been in school forever, and there’s a common joke that they’re Professional Grad Students. If being in school forever earns you the title Professional Grad Student, then, I’ll study forever and be a Professional Yoga Student.
In that studying path, this year I finished my 500-hour teacher training in May, and towards the end of the program, my teacher Kathryn Payne had us read an article that shook up everything in my system concerning yoga. It was an interview of yoga teacher Dona Holleman by film director Diana Eichner, taken from the book Eyes of Innocence.
Yoga is a Man-Made Structure
The interview starts out with Diana asking Dona: “Why do you think that human beings need to create systems that explain the world?”
What a way to warm up, right? These women were not messing around, they jumped right into the deep end. As our (Teacher Training) class read the interview out loud, paragraph by paragraph, question by question, and answer by answer, I grew increasingly uncomfortable. Dona seemed to be saying that yoga is just another system, a man-made structure.
How could it be? Dona Holleman is a long time yoga teacher. She dedicated her whole life to it. She clearly believes in it, and I believe in her. I believe in Yoga. What does it mean if a senior teacher that I respect is saying this: “Any time you have a word you have a system, whether the system is an orthodox religion or philosophy or yoga. The moment you have the word ‘yoga’, you have again a box within the box.”?
My world literally fell sideway. But, yoga is a not a system. It can’t be! Yoga gets you out of the system. It gets you out of the Matrix, right?
Yoga is again an egg within the totality of the universe that says: if you do this then you have a certain result, like all the religions, all the philosophies. It is a system, which was meant to help people to get out of the system, let us say. Paradoxically enough all religions and philosophies are systems to help people to jump out of the systems into this mystical experience, but it is a paradox that simply does not work because the system, including yoga, has to do with language, with chronological time, with psychological time.
There is no way to go from a linear, psychological and chronological time pathway into a state of mind where there is no time, no future. It is an either/or situation. You can use a system like yoga to become healthy, to have a better quality of life. It can have a lot of nice side effects. But to use yoga as a system of reaching a state where time has no longer any meaning is not possible.”
No way. No. Way. No. Freaking. Way! I protested in my mind. This woman is wrong, wrong, and more wrong. I don’t care if she’s my teacher’s teacher. Yoga lets you reach samadhi. Bliss. And if not bliss, then maybe a sense of timelessness, spacelessness, or satori. I know it! I’ve experienced it!
Needless to say, the whole interview was very challenging to read and absorb. Dona confronts things that I thought were true or sacred. It didn’t sit well with me, but I hung on to the handouts Kathryn gave us. Time came and went, and before long, class was over, and then the training was over.
But Then Again, So is Everything Else
Spring became Summer, and Summer into Fall, and here we are in the Winter. You may have noticed that I haven’t been writing in this blog as frequently as before. My job has been consuming a lot of my time, and I continue to teach yoga and take workshops and study Sanskrit. Something’s gotta give, and writing time has been reduced. I’ve also stopped engaging so much in the cyberspace Yoga world. I stopped reading blogs and comments and tweets so much.
During that time, I became more engaged in my other world of Technology and Software Interaction Design. I read books and blogs, I go to conferences, I debate, I tweet. I go to dinner with people in the field. We laugh, we bitch, we support one another. It’s just like what I’d do in the Yoga world, really, the topic is just different, but the activities are the same.
One day, while reading comments online about the merits of Apple’s mobile operating system, iOS, and that of Google’s, Android, and thinking of the debate in Yoga about this style versus that style, I thought of Dona’s interview.
Oh my god, I thought. Everything *is* a system. My mind was once again, twisted and turned sideway.
Because I oscillate in different social and professional circles, this has turned out to be my testing ground. I dismissed Dona’s idea the first time around, but this time, I’m going to put it to the test. With the idea that it’s all some kind of structure human beings make up to explain and to function in this world, I went about my business.
It is a man-made structure and within that man-made structure we function. This is OK; we need to make a man-made world. We need to have a house, we need to have a car to drive to the office, we need to eat, we also need certain ideas, certain beliefs.
The problem starts when we create this man-made structure and then we are trapped in it. We forget that there is a whole universe beyond the structure, that the structure is only a very thin film superimposed on the vastness out there and that this film is only for practical purposes. We get trapped in it.
I began to take mental notes of where my trappings are; when I get sucked into a discussion about Design methods, for example. I’m very passionate about it, and when I’m not mindful, I end up so rigid, so stuck in my belief. Or, the other day, when I was reading a reading Carol Horton’s post about a new book, Yoga 2.0, I found myself getting worked up over the premise of the book, that we don’t derive any juice from books like the Yoga Sutras. “Ok, that might be so if we only read the English interpretation, but if we read the Sanskrit and really think about it.” I thought in my little mind. I was waging a war with people I had only heard fleeting mentions of in a blog. How absurd is that?
The Way Out
So if I’ve come to accept that everything is a system, everything is a box, is there any hope of going beyond it?
Dona gives me some hope that it’s possible:
The only way to stop this fragmentation is by attention, by awareness, to be aware of the whole process of compartmentalization, of fragmentation. This does not mean that we have to get ride of the fragmentation. We need the man-made world function as people, but the problem begins when we get caught in it to the point that we believe deeply in it.
It is OK to be an American but if you take the word ‘American’and the concept ‘American’ as a real thing, not as a phantom, arbitrary thing, then it becomes a problem. Therefore the crux of the matter is to learn to be in two places at the same time: on the one hand to function and live as an American in America in a man-made world, but on the other hand to also be perfectly aware that is is a phantom situation, not a real one, and so we do not get caught. We use it, we function it in, but we do not get caught.
When I read this, I immediately think of what Shinzen Young said in The Science of Enlightenment, that we need to be amphibians, we need to be able to function on dry land as well as on water. Similarly, Tias Little, during his last visit to Seattle mentioned that what we do is just techniques. At some point, the techniques no longer serve us and we have to be aware to not hang on to the techniques dogmatically.
Dona continued saying that this idea is not new, it’s not revolutionary, it’s that it has only been around on a small scale. “The interesting thing in our time is that we now have the possibility to make this awareness mainstream.”.
Well, now, there’s a message of hope for what at first seemed like a cynical and skeptical idea. I have to admit, that I did get a little stirred by that simple sentence. And, from the woman who said that it’s not possible to use yoga to reach a state where time has no meaning, came this:
Therefore if you can suspend everything for a moment you might get a glimpse of the fact that there is something out there that we will never understand. That in itself is the revolution, it is the mystical experience in itself.
A glimpse, that is all, she followed up. That’s enough to keep me studying and practicing for a while longer. And so, with 2010 coming to a close, I’ll say that reading these thoughts from Dona is the most valuable lesson I received this year.
"We create these fantasylands in order to make our world but we should never lose sight of the fact that it is like going to Disney Land. It is fun but you have to be aware that it is pretense and not take it too seriously."
George Purvis was in town at Taj Yoga last weekend, and I hung out with him for most of it, except for skipping out one afternoon session to go to my friends Kristel and Mikhail’s wedding.
George is a long time Iyengar teacher and is my teacher Theresa Elliott’s mentor. Though he’s been coming to the Pacific Northwest regularly every year. I only got to meet him last year, and ever since then, I had made sure that I come to at least one of his workshops once a year.
How do I describe George? I can’t. He’s completely offbeat and laugh-out-loud funny, which is a cover for his crazy and precise instruction on asana techniques. If you have ever had a “bad” experience with an Iyengar teacher, or if you have a preconceived notion that Iyengar yoga is some sort of deranged beat down of your yoga ego, you are in for the surprise of your life. George is more down to earth than Australia.
Humor obviously makes people relax and makes them more open to listening to what yoga has to offer them. It promotes a certain level of open-mindedness and relaxation. I think of humor as sort of like shaking out the muscles of the brain. – George Purvis, Yoga Journal interview
As one of the senior Iyengar teachers in the United States, George has played his part in the upbringing of many prominent yoga teachers. “But, I’ve never heard of him,” you say. Well, it’s possible that he, from my understanding at least, seems to lay low and away from the lime light. It’s also possible that it’s partly due to his health. He was diagnosed with cancer in 1999 and has had surgery and extensive treatments since then.
Anyway, during the workshop, we got to hear stories about his two mentors, Ramanand Patel and Mary Dunn, and of course Mr. Iyengar. We got to work on our peroneus. Oh boy, did we get to work on our peroneus.
The one thing that’s most striking to me about George is his dedication to teaching. I can’t quite explain it to you in a way that reflects how I experienced it, but I was so moved by how he just wanted to… well, teach. He gave all of himself to making sure he answered our question, and, as he was running late to catch his flight home, he was still explaining things and adjusting people with one foot out the door.
Hey George, thanks. See ya and your cowboy boots next year.
George Purvis, courtesy of http://www.clearspringstudio.com/
