BLOG
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.
READ MORE
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.