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HANUMANASANA SEQUENCE
A few weeks ago, I invited a small group of teachers for an intimate exploration of Hanumasana, the front -back splits. The practice sequence ended up being so effective in that we all got deeper into the pose than before, that I want to share it.
May the sequence further your forays in the pose. Please let me know if you have any questions about the poses and enjoy!
A GUIDED SAVASANA
This Savasana is a compilation of guided Savasanas used by various teachers over the years. I draw inspirations from those memoires and from the Savasana in Erich Schiffmann’s book, Yoga: The Spirit and Practice of Moving into Stillness and BKS Iyengar’s Light on Yoga. Enjoy reading the following script to a loved one, being read to or make a voice recording to play while you lie in Savasana.
IN FRONT OF THE CLASS
The practice of yoga is a commitment on the part of the yogi to challenge established patterns of behaviour while delving into a process of self-inquiry. Learning to teach yoga asks for the same dedicated process. As we begin to teach yoga in teacher training programs, our engrained tendencies are being displayed, we are exposed and raw — just as we are when we move deeply into our asana practice.
BEYOND A WEEKEND WORKSHOP
As a yoga teacher, it is a deeply enriching experience to spend time as a student of a master teacher. A week ago, I did just that in a weekend workshop with senior Iyengar teacher, Father Joe Pereira. Father Joe is a skilled teacher with many years in devoted service and study both as a yogi and as a Jesuit priest. His devotion to his teachers, Mother Teresa and BKS Iyengar, inform the core of his teaching.
THE ROLE OF MYTH
For over 27 000 years, starting at the time of the first cave paintings, myths and the telling of myths have been one of most fundamental ways we communicate. The universal questions inherent in myth and the art of storytelling transcend time, culture and social status. They are a prominent link between individuals and a powerful way to deepen understanding.
ANATOMY OF A PROGRRAM:YTT 2016-17
I started teaching my first solo teacher training this past weekend and welcomed a group of dedicated yogis interested in deepening their knowledge and experience of yoga. The preparation for it got me to review my own experiences in teacher training programs.
108 CONTEMPLATIONS: DEVOTION & RITUAL
As you read this, I am leading a two-week yoga retreat at the fabulous Samata Holistic Retreat Centre in Goa, India (www.samatagoa.com). Throughout the two weeks of the retreat, we are reading the Bhagavad Gita, a classic India text, and exploring the rich themes found in the recounting of a conversation between a young warrior, Arjuna and his wise chariot driver, Krishna.
108 CONTEMPLATIONS: INTENTION SETTING
I was always reluctant to set goals. I was much more interested in going with the flow of life and seeing where I ended up. And then a few things happened to impact this idea. In my late 20s I considered taking a professional development course laid out in a number of modules over three years. I chose not to take it, thinking that I would not know what could happen over the time of the course.
108 CONTEMPLATIONS: AN INVITATION
I have been a bit absent in blog-land lately. In the last while, I have been contemplating how to use the blog as a forum for a deepening contemplative practice. I have a desire to be part of a community of individuals wishing to live authentically, to seek out truth and to delve into their shadows in service of the Light.
INSPIRATIONS FOR PRACTICE
Labour day weekend has passed and we are in the midst of the back to school vibe of early September. Conscious of the energy this time of the year can generate, I asked my class to contemplate why they practice yoga. What is the energy that moves them to come to the mat and to class. Half of the class volunteered to share their responses. As people spoke, the room grew quiet and attentive.
AN IDEAL ORDER TO THINGS
Once upon a time, a long time ago, I spent almost a month in Bali. Okay, so it was not a long time ago. It was two months ago but it feels like another lifetime. The time in Bali was deeply significant as I felt something, a weight I had been carrying, release. I experienced a deep sense of connection to the Divine as expansive, joyful and heart-wrenching energy washed through me.
SUMMER BACKBEND PRACTICE
It is hot here in Montreal, and I love the summer weather and the impact it has on my body and mind. It is always interesting to see how the warmth lives in my body. A friend described coming from back Chile in February and then was in a weekend workshop. People at the workshop commented on how she must have been practicing a lot in Chile, and she said no, she just had a “summer body.”
SEASONS OF CHANGE
Everything changes. We know this to be true and yet we deny it. We sit in the same place in our yoga class, we do the same asanas, we order the same meals at the same restaurants, we think the same thoughts. We try hard not to change. I am in Nova Scotia taking care of my elderly parents as a I write this.
BALI MEETS MONTREAL - THE RETURN
I have been a bit absent from the blog as the transition from Bali to the realities of daily life in Montreal took energy and focus, in the way that these transitions do. In observing this shift, I have been considering how the resonance of Bali has stayed present internally in a certain way. I realize as I move into the pace of life in Montreal that the time in Bali was deeply restorative.
MORE FROM BALI
Tomorrow Oscar and I head back to Ubud and the last leg of our time here begins. It is hard to believe the end is in sight!
This is really about catching you up on what we have been doing post-retreat. On the Saturday following the retreat, we left Ubud for a small series of islands off the coast of Lombok, a close neighbour of Bali. We left the hotel at 7am.
A MONKEY ON MY BACK
The retreat wrapped up a couple of hours ago with warm good-byes and the slight feeling of loss that the end of these experiences can bring for me. Carole, the other participants and I have shared many moments together and now it ends. There are the usual promises to maintain connections and even to return for another retreat, but as we all know, life may or may not adhere to any of those wishes. So, it ends.
ON RETREAT
It is already day 3 of the yoga retreat at Alam Indha. Hard to imagine! Time is such an unusual entity. I remember as a child, how endless summers were and how slowly time passed when doing chores on the family farm. That slowness doesn’t seem to exist so much any more
BALI BEGINNING
Bali is beautiful, abundant and resplendent with the creativity of nature. The air is sweet with the scent of flowers and offerings are everywhere. Bali is Shri.
The culture here is built around devotion to the three pillars: nature, family and God and grounded in the cultivation of gratitude.
TO TOUCH
When we teach, we touch. It is what teaching is designed to do. With our intention or objective, with our words and language constructs, with our eyes, voice and touch, we reach out across space and we reach through layers of form, experience and resistance. We reach through the layers that cloak as we seek to touch the essence beyond the barriers.
A MOMENT OF WHOLENESS
Today I fully executed a pose that I had up until now only glimpsed. It is not a pose I regularly practice, and it was not even a pose I was consciously working toward – today or in my repertoire of poses. Instead, on a whim, I tried it today when I was not particularly inspired or having a remarkable time on the mat. . I was ho-hum in my intention and attention to this practice.
INTEGRATION: A COMING BACK TO THE SOURCE
There are many voices inside me and yet only one of them is mine. Life seems to bring with it a collection of influences, perspectives and beliefs that end up clouding and distorting my voice. My thoughts, feelings and actions can be interpreted within me through the lens of another.
THE EFFORT TO BE EFFORTLESS
As I scroll through the Instagram feed or check out the latest Facebook posts, I am flooded with images of yoga asana. The pictures are beautiful. They are great angles of adept yogis with coordinated outfits, often in beautiful outdoor settings or with curtains blowing. And this is not a description, not a judgment. After all, some of those photos are mine. And these photos are inspiring.
TEACHING AND TRUST
On Saturday, I taught the last workshop in a four-part series on the intermediate backbends as defined in Light on Yoga. This one focused on dropping from Sirsasana I (headstand) into Viparita Dandasana as the beginning stages of Mandalasana. Dropping over backwards into unknown and unseen territory is scary and as a teacher preparing to help people approach this pose, I started thinking about fear.
GOING HOME
“Are you ready to go home,” my father asks the family dog, who is startled from his nap by the abrupt and emphatic question. My 86-year old father has dementia and his thoughts loop around the current thread. Right now, the loop is about going home. It is immeasurable sad for me to hear this question and also fascinating.
SEEING THROUGH THE BODY
I am just finishing a weekend workshop with senior Iyengar yoga teacher, Kevin Gardiner. It was a great learning experience as these times of study often are, and yet they are not easy. Teachers of the Iyengar method, in my experience, demand of the students an unwavering presence and a continuous commitment to being with the teacher and with the instruction.
SPACE TO FEEL
I read this beautiful article about holding space (share link) and it has prompted recent class themes. One class, I talked about how our yoga practice is the invitation to hold space for ourselves. At the end of class, one student left the room in tears. She then shared this: I spent the whole yoga class moving through my anger (about a particular event) and creating and holding space for my sadness.
4 SIMPLE PRACTICES FOR YOGA OFF YOUR MAT
This year’s Mexico yoga retreat week has wrapped up and I am left as always with a full heart, clear eyes and a deep sense of contentment. There is something so special about living, eating and practicing yoga together; it truly feeds the soul.
This year we spent the week exploring the stories of Ram, Sita and Hanuman’s adventures as told in The Ramayana
LIVING YOGA
An experienced yoga student recently asked me this: “why is it when life happens with its fears, worries, pains, chaos … that I get away from the asanas?” Sound familiar? It certainly did to me and I think it is a question many yoga practitioners encounter at some point on the path.
For many years, I believed my relationship to yoga was tied to my asana practice.
THE OCEAN IS HEALING
“The ocean is healing,” said my love as we sat on the beach gazing on the limitless vista before us. So true! And what is it that makes the ocean such a balm to suffering?
I have often spoken in class about something I read once, the origin now lost in time. One of the downsides, I read, of urbanization is the limited vista that results from the cityscape. As a consequence of our limited sightline, our sense of self becomes magnified in relationship to the space around us.
YOGA NIDRASANA - PRACTICE SEQUENCE
In yesterday’s practice, I got deeper in Yoganidrasana than ever before. I am sharing that practice sequence here.
I minute timings:
Adho Mukha Virasana
Adho Mukha Svanasana
HOME PRACTICE SEQUENCE
Here is the sequence from my home practice today. Enjoy!
Adho Mukha Virasana – 1 minute
Adho Mukha Svanasana – 1 minute
Uttanasana – 1 minute
LEAPING EMPTY-HANDED INTO THE VOID
Yoga is a process of self-understanding and of connection to our essence. This essence is extraordinary: peaceful, full of expansive joy, sparkling with light and present without needing anything from us. The process, however, of touching that part of ourselves can involve seeing other parts, covering our essence, that we would prefer to avoid.
SEA + SUN = FREEDOM
I don’t always or easily feel free. I take the responsibilities and roles of daily life seriously. Significant other, daughter, sister, friend, studio owner, business partner, yoga teacher, these roles and their responsibilities don’t always leave much room in my day. The structure of daily life becomes binding and I am not aware of it.
BEAUTY AND LOVE
“Our task is not to seek love, but rather to seek and find the barriers inside ourselves we have built up against it.” ~ Rumi
Moments that put us in our Heart can be difficult to describe, as they are so often personal and intimate. Perhaps they are not truly meant to be shared and yet there is something universal in them that draws us together in a community of understanding.
CHOICES AND TRUST
The dictionary.com definition of discrimination is, in part:
1. an act or instance of discriminating or of making a distinction
2. the power of making find distinctions; discriminating judgment
3. Archaic: something that serves to differentiate
DISCRIMINATION AND PROGRESSION ON THE PATH
Recently I had a mentoring session with a senior teacher. I asked for clarification and refinement on some advanced poses on which I had been working in my personal practice. In reading through her responses, I noticed a pattern. For each advanced asana I wanted to focus on, my mentor asked about my proficiency in a related and less advanced pose.
A BALANCING PRACTICE
When my world feels out of balance, I often turn to a sequence outlined at the end of B.K.S. Iyengar’s book Light on Life entitled “A Practice for Emotional Stability.” In the sequence, Iyengar offers a series of supported inversions, backbends and forward bends.
RESILIENCY BUILDING
As can happen, I have had an emotional and stressful week. As my internal world begins to right itself, I consider how that process happens.
Often, I think, there is a misrepresentation of yoga in popular culture. The underlying media message is that if we practice yoga we will be consistently and evenly calm.
A JOURNEY OF SELF-DISCOVERY
Many years ago, a girlfriend and I went on a yoga retreat in Costa Rica. One evening at dinner, someone asked why we did yoga. I answered spontaneously something like “to better be the person I truly am.” I didn’t realize it at the time but this off-the-cuff response held an essential truth of yoga.
TWISTS: DETOXIFICATION IN OUR ASANA PRACTICE
In our asana practice, twists are powerful detoxifying poses. The twisting action squeezes and wrings out our organs. Upon release of the twist, the organ is flushed with fresh blood and oxygen. This “rinsing and soaking” action is a natural and effective detoxification for the organs and glands of the body.
DISCIPLINE AND DEVOTION
One week into the studio fall cleanse and the word in my head is discipline. As a yogi, I am well rooted in the discipline of asana practice and now I am making more disciplined choices about food. Developing discipline is not an easy, straightforward path.
CLEANSING - A SPIRITUAL PRACTICE
At Shri Yoga, we started our first community cleanse yesterday. It has been several years in process with Barrie and I researching and trying various programs. This spring, we found one that was effective and also do-able with the context of our lifestyle. We are excited to share it with our community of yoga practitioners.
ON THE MAT
The previous two blog posts considered the gift of embodiment and how we can cultivate a sense of gratitude in every day life. Our asana practice can also be an opportunity to work with these ideas. During my practice, I remember my embodied experience through the physical and mental sensations of each asana.
BUILDING APPRECIATION
In last week’s blog, I wrote “Yoga teaches us that all moments, all experiences are opportunities to remember this gift [of embodiment]. We practice yoga to appreciate this body, breath and energy and even the contrast of discomfort is a reminder. “ Since then, I have been contemplating how this happens.
REMINDERS
This week I have had a head cold. Thankfully, I rarely contract a cold and so when it arrives, it reminds me of the many things I take for granted. Before the cold, I enjoy certain amount of energy and vitality without further consideration. I don’t recognize the ease with which I breathe in and out through my nose.
A GUIDED SAVASANA
This Savasana is a compilation of guided Savasanas used by various teachers over the years. I draw inspirations from those memoires and from the Savasana in Erich Schiffmann’s book, Yoga: The Spirit and Practice of Moving into Stillness and BKS Iyengar’s Light on Yoga.
BECOMING THE OPPOSITE
One of the first tenets of yoga is to develop an internal awareness, to know our self. On one level, this awareness is of our limited tendencies, our patterns of behaviour, our thought cycles. Ultimately, however, we come to know our spacious, infinite and serene essential nature, despite the tendencies that may obscure or hinder our connection to it.
BEING VS. DOING
Over the years, I have come to realize I am good at filling up my time. I remember as a child and teen how endlessly summer stretched out. The long days without the structure of school and isolated on the farm where I grew up were boring. Time inched along. Somewhere along the road to adulthood, things changed. I became excellent at packing days full to the brim.
PLAYING THE EDGE
In my first teacher training, with yogi Erich Schiffmann (www.movingintostillness.com) he talked about cultivating the ability to hear our inner voice of wisdom. To do so, he offered a technique he called playing the edge. He suggested that we move into a pose to the point of first and minimal sensation, then pause, breathe and wait.
THE CONVERSATION OF EMBODIMENT - CONTINUED
Scene: Yogi sitting in Gomukhasana starting to fold forward.
Ensuing internal conversation.
Mind: (recording information) Pain in my right hip! Pain! Pain! This is pain!
Ego: This is too much. Get out of this pose. Now! I am about to die here.
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THE CONVERSATION OF EMBODIMENT
As a yogi and yoga teacher, I spend a lot of my time thinking about embodiment – my body, its sensations, and my relationship to the sensations. It was not always this way. Before yoga I was profoundly inattentive to my body and its messages. The initial period of rediscovery when I started yoga was a fantastic and difficult experience.
STANDING POSE SEQUENCE
In the workshop I mentioned in last week’s post, Kevin Gardiner worked with the image of a mountain to bring steadiness into our standing poses. How could we embody the steadiness and support of the mountain in legs? He instructed we imagine the triangular shape of a mountain extending from the base of our back diaphragm down and out through the legs, into the feet and then into the earth under our feet.
STANDING STEADY
This last week has been “one of those weeks.” You know the ones: the schedule is full, the inner world is full, the outer world is full. These weeks, when they appear, can make it challenging for me to stand steadily and with ease in my connection to myself. I can feel myself shifting away into the demands of the world around me, and becoming more reactive to those demands.
KEEPING IT SIMPLE
Two months ago I taught my sixth annual winter yoga retreat in Mexico. Since then, I have been reflecting on this time and will share some of my contemplations here.
This year’s retreat was built around the 7 chakras. This is a subject I have delved deeply into over the years: as personal study and contemplation and within the context of my psychotherapy training and work.
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THE ART OF BEGINNING
Recently, my yoga studio, Shri Yoga (www.shriyoga.ca) started a blog. Barrie Risman, the other studio owner and I are the current writers. This project has spurred me to revive my personal blog here and to continue it. To start, here is the first post on the studio blog. Enjoy! And stayed tuned here for more …. The art of beginning … a blog.
SEPTEMBER YOGA RETREAT
It has been a busy fall with little time to think about or add to this blog. Regular posts, though, are on the horizon for January at the latest. In the meantime, here is one of the highlights of the fall.
Barrie Risman and I taught a fall retreat, Embracing the Divine, at Centre Tara in the Eastern Townships outside of Montreal.
GOOD-BYE INDIA
Unbelievably, our time in India is drawing to a close. The end is definitely in sight. I have two more classes at the Institute and then we leave on Saturday afternoon for the airport in Mumbai, on to Newark and finally landing in Montreal on Sunday morning. So, this will be the last blog entry from India.
ELLORA CAVES
Ironically, after my last couple of posts about classes at the Institute, I had two of the best classes so far. Friday night and Saturday morning were both backbend-focused and great! The teacher Friday night was a young man, with a solid understanding of the poses, a clear focus for the class and just generally a great teacher.
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INSTITUE DYNAMICS AND MORE
As you may have been able to tell from the last entry, the intensity has increased or I am no longer coping quite as well. Perhaps, as the newness wears off, I am more open to the negatives, or things have built up over the three weeks with the Institute teachers, or it is week 3 or some combination of these things and more.
OVER HALFWAY
It is Monday, August 16th as I am writing and I have finished a quiet mini-retreat weekend. Oscar has been in Goa enjoying the change of scenery and the luxury of a hotel on the beach while I have stayed here in Pune. It was good to have time on my own to be quiet, reflect and process the last couple of weeks.
CLASSES AT RIMYI
The idea of writing more about my class experience at the Iyengar Institute (RIMYI) has been rolling around in my mind and yet I am finding it difficult to settle and put the thoughts down- my reactions are complicated, vary depending on my mood and the specific class. It’s hard to describe the full effect of the classes but here’s an attempt.
SPA WEEKEND
Saturday August 7th, after my morning class at the Institute, Oscar and I headed out to an Ayurvedic Centre for the rest of the weekend. This place, the Kerala Ayurvedic Retreat and Rejuvenation Establishment or KARE, is connected to the Iyengar Institute and has an arrangement where it picks up students in Pune, takes them out to the Centre and returns them at the end of their stay.
OUT & ABOUT IN PUNE
It is Friday August 6th as I am writing and Oscar and I just returned from the first real foray into the depths and diversity of Pune. I have been happy to go to and from class, practice, eat and rest but eventually exploring and shopping calls.
ONE WEEK DOWN
Technically, today is our “one-week-away” marker. We left Montreal last Wednesday and, while it seems in some ways like I just left, I am also getting used to life here. The routine of classes, notes, relaxing and eating are falling into place. We have not explored much of Pune yet. Instead, we have been taking advantage of the comfort of our apartment and relative quiet of this area.
FIRST CLASS
I am back from my first Iyengar class of the trip. It was a 2hr 7am class with Prashant, Mr. Iyengar’s son. He is replacing the daughter, Geeta, who normally teaches that class. Geeta has a cold right now and it’s uncertain when she’ll resume her teaching schedule, hopefully it won’t be too long before she’s feeling better. The classroom was packed with mostly westerners but also a large number of Indian students.
PUNE, INDIA
Here we are. Oscar and I made it safely to Mother India and have settled into our Pune apartment. I’ve registered at the Institute, actually saw Mr Iyengar and am now ready for a class on Monday at 7am. More about that in a minute.
Chronologically, we arrived in Mumbai / Bombay on Thursday evening.