Silence all the noise...but the music!

The last few weeks have been extremely noisy... I have had no break, not a moment, as my mind has been running faster than my body.. Two dear friends in act of kindness offered to take the munchkins swimming so I could focus on my pending taxes, but I realized as soon as I walked in the door was I need to just not focus on anything and lie in shavasana with my old favorite Thievery numbers on my ipod.

I know the Iyengar method of shavasana involves no music, but what the heck, I modify. The eclectic beat music fused with Indian tabla, sitar and all forms of other instruments actually helps me become silent. And silence for me is the music in the background with no other though, no other noise, quietness except the rhythmic chirping of the smoke detector in one of the rooms, which at 14 feet I can't reach, even with the tall ladder. But my brain is able to deflect that noise and if that is possible, I am sure the rest of the noise can be ignored so my brain can rest for a bit. I look into the nothingness behind the random lines drawn by my munchkins in this work of art, and I see silence in that darkness, peace, tranquility and that is all I want in this moment....

I hope you too can get that tranquility.....

Namaste

N

Are you awake?

On my way to an Iyengar yoga class on the L muni line.
Attending a class with David Sirgany, an Iyengar teacher I had the pleasure of meeting at Gurujis 90th birthday celebration in India. I am thinking how my life has evolved in the last 4 years. What has yoga done to my life?

Yoga simply has brought me some clarity of thought and mind. Perhaps I deal with my stress and pain better. Perhaps I'm more compassionate. Perhaps more tranquil. But I'm just me. I just want peace and neutrality but then at the same time I don't want "anything" - I just want nothing.

What is nothing? Empty space ? That space between inhalation and exhalation or space between the vertebrae in my spine. Or the space in the sky filled with zillions of stars. I don't know what nothing means but I want it but then I don't want anything either. So here I am hanging in "space" and I'm wide awake.

Namaste

P.S. The class with David was energizing. A lot of chest openings through back bends..Then a couple who recently starting doing Iyengar Yoga and drove all the way from Sacramento to take this class, pulled me into the dumpling place after the class. It was delicious and divine and the conversation was wonderful...I was fully awake and in complete bliss.

Happy Diwali

Yesterday was Diwali, the Indian celebration of lights. My children spent a whole day creating these beautiful crafts as decorations and parting gifts for close friends we had invited for an evening of dinner, pooja and lighting of diyas (clay lamps from India) and candles.

There was a gathering at my house. The pooja mandir was set, dinner was cooked (well made by a generous friend who has the gift of healthy cooking), the house was scrubbed clean, old keep sakes and lamps of diwali taken out, new keep sakes and diyas purchased - all the traditiona of Diwali I experienced from my childhood repeated. It started a week ago and the day before spent with children preparing for the auspicious evening the next day. So much of my childhood repeated but with some modifications of my own. Even though I am no longer in India, that spirit and joy of recreating my own life as a child repeated with and through my children.

It was a magical evening, something that has now become somewhat of a tradition in my household since the children were born. Its a tradition I inherited from my own parents.We had hoped to save one of these crafts, but the children just handed them out to everyone who came till nothing was left for them to keep as a memory. A school book report and a show and tell at her class was interrupted as a result younger one had nothing to take anymore.. Suddenly her desire and inspiration was gone. But this was such a pure and generous gift to our guests, that I now realize that there is no better book report or show and tell than the generosity and giving expressed by my children in that moment.

Perhaps it is this virtue of unadulterated giving that is the true spirit of Diwali, even though the history tells us it is the day of the win of the good over the evil and the return of a king to his homeland (amongst many other reasons and traditions).

Yesterday there was joy, laughter, music, lights in my household. Tonight, there is silence and quiet and yesterday feels like a distance memory. The only evidence left in the house of yesterday is the pooja mandir created by my kids and the sweet incense they loved to burn, and the colourful moong bean rangoli the children created with help from a friend "Kaye". I had no idea what she meant by making rangoli by gluing "beans" to paper - but it was simply divine. It created a new tradition in my family.

The makeshift pooja mandir will be left in its place and will stay for a while, till it is respectfully put away in its historical place on a kitchen nook. But this is a memory I will cherish always in my heart, because there was a lot of love and joy that was shared last night. I am wiser for it, because despite my loneliness and sadness of not having my munchkins tonight with me, I am comforted with the knowledge that they deeply share my joy and love of giving and the love of Diwali. These seeds are well planted, along with the seeds of yoga and when my young ones grow up from little seedlings to trees, this value shall blossom and I will have done my part of imparting my culture, language, tradition, and love of yoga to them, so they then can perhaps carry the same family tradition and history.

My hired help Erika left with her own special keepsakes of Bean Rangoli from the children had the most inspiring parting words.. "It was a magical evening!"... Yes Diwali is magical but not just for children, but for anyone of any age as it inspires you to spark that light in yourself and allowd you to experience the joy of giving so you too shine your own light in your unique way...

Happy Diwali to you all and I hope you too can shine your light with others...

Namaste

The Yogi

Bad Knees equate to bad posture....

The clicking and pain in my knees while performing standing poses returned after the new year. My right knee is especially bad. Any sort of step climbing or squats makes my brain automatically go into protection mode and my leg avoids extreme pressure. The knee clicking got bad enough, that it was time to get a yoga therapy session for knees this Friday with Nuvana.

We did several modified poses. The whole idea was to relax the knee and there are several poses such dandasana, supta padangustasana, badha konasana and a half form of dhanurasana that Nuvana combines with traction using belts and ropes to achieve relaxation of the knee. The stretching of the calf muscles and the muscle at the back of your leg right behind the knee lets the knee reposition. She also observed my bad posture. I was putting more weight on the right leg and it was possible that my really bad knee was the left one, forcing me to use more of the right and overwork it. She based it on another interesting phenomena. After the first round of knee traction, my painful right knee felt better, but the left knee became tight. I was reminded of an earlier post on bad knees I wrote in August 2008.

A balanced standing posture is important in maintaining balance of work our body has to do including the knees. I am very aware of it, and ever since I started practicing yoga, I make efforts to maintain a balanced standing posture described in the Tadasana pose in Light on Yoga. But its easy to fall back to the old habits, so its important to observe yourself standing. I guess there is a life lesson in what I just wrote - "be observant of your bad habits and make ongoing efforts to correct them or avoid them!"

Back to the Friday session, by the end of the 90 minutes, I was climbing stairs with no pain in either knee. This is the magic of Nuvana's Iyengar yoga therapy. Its been three days, no pain in the knee, and I am very observant of maintaining a balanced posture while standing.

I have re-learnt another life lesson. To get to a balance sometimes requires gentle tugging. You may think you have the bull by the horns, but sometimes gentle tugging is required on both sides to tame a rowdy bull.

Namaste

The Yogi

Its been quiet at the Yogi front

I am sure some of the readers are wondering what happened to my posts... I am here, I still exist, but I have been very preoccupied with travel and other commitments which have kept on the go for the last two weeks. Nevertheless I have tried to keep up with my yoga class at least once a week and some bare bones practice in hotel gyms. I also was exposed to two great sessions on wellness at executive retreat in San Antonio. The first one was by a Dr. Sushil Bhatia, a chemist by profession, but an entrepreneur and practitioner of yoga and meditation. He did a session on laughing yoga and also talked about stresses in the world of business right as the stock market was tanking.

He talked about meditating for 20 minutes at 2 pm in the afternoon. He will suspend his meetings and business to get this 20 minutes for himself. I have considered shutting my office door and trying some restorative Setu Bandh, but never a 20 minute meditation. He is a practitioner of Transcendental Meditation. It was an eye opener for many attendees and an affirmation for me - I am on the right track. My gym routines for strength building are working well. Today I had an hour session and then later I will be in a 90 minute level 3 yoga class. I can definitely feel more strength in my core and arms. I have also started focusing more on my diet. I have been adding more fruits and vegetables for lunch, as a matter of fact, today's lunch consisted of only a home made salad, fruits and a berry energy bar. I will pass on the berry bar next time. I feel peckish now, so had a banana. Feel more peckish, so there will be another fruit snack. Meals now consist of mostly Indian lentils, okra, rice and yes there is an occasional pizza with the kids. Thanks Skeptic Yogi for inspiring me to make an effort.

Namaste

The Yogi

Yoga is going from the outer to the inner deep within

Tonight was my first class for the fall term at Sunset Yoga Center. Advanced class with Nina. I went in apprehensive about how the one month in Pune would have changed Nina's teaching - I was expecting some strenous poses. I have been out of practice and tight.

We started the class with Nina describing some of her experiences in Pune and a few questions. What was one thing you brought back I asked - "Better Back Bends"... She was glad to be back home. Her experience in India was not to different from what many have in their very first trip.

She decided to give us a "Geeta lite" class. It was a light version of what she experienced with Geetaji in her first class with her at RIMYI. A combination of basic standing poses, starting with Adho Mukha Svanasana, Trikonasana, VB 1, 2 and 3 and Uttanasana. Then we transitioned to Supta Badha Konasana, a lying down Urdhva Hastasana and then a Sirsasana. I went right up and balanced - I was thrilled. I had had no practice since I got back from India, but my Sirsana balancing lesson with Nuvana paid off. It didnt last too long, but I was happy with my Sirsasana. I got a lot of confidence. We then transitioned to Setu Bandha on a black. All along there were instructions to subtly adjust the poses to get the maximum effect of the pose. We ended with a chair Sarvangasana.

Nina talked about how in Pune the ending "a" is rarely pronounced after any of the asan(a) name such as Tudasana, so she was going to try to use that pronunciation. A fellow student commented its asana in sanskrit and asan in Hindi. Right I said to myself, and Tudsana is really Taarrhdasan (a heavy r and d sound)... you say Tudasana, I say Taarrhdasana - at the end of the day we all are trying to achieve the same goal, and in Nina's final words "from the outer to the inner".