Monday evening was a challenging class for me, though I thoroughly enjoyed it. The poses were difficult, so the next day I was in pain and extremely sore. I was walking funny as my left glute was particularly affected. Therefore I decided to make an appointment for massage with Jeremy this evening. So here I am on the massage table, being pulled, kneaded, stretched, pressed and crushed. And each massage stroke would result in more pain.
I felt it was making it worse until I had another "eureka moment". I recalled something I had read in "Light on Life" by Mr. BKS Iyengar a while back. It was a chapter where he discussed "pain" and "surrendering to pain". It had particularly struck me, as life is full of painful moments. So I "acquiesced". I let my mind surrender to all the pain in my body, which included my particularly sore glutes and quads and back. Suddenly I felt a new appreciation of the pain. Then the calmness sunk in and I started breathing. I finally relaxed to really experience the massage while letting go of the pain it was causing me!
In that moment, I realized my body had simply re-awakened. It had "oxygenated" and the cells in my muscles were regenerating. The soreness and the pain was simply a catalyst. Jeremy commented that the muscles were not as tight as the last time a few weeks back. They were sore but they seemed to handle the pressure better.
So "acquiscence" is the new word I re-learnt today. Acquiscing to pain is not just a great way to learn difficult yoga poses but to deal with pain in life as well. By acquiescing, we let the pain and all it manifests in our life to take its course. We give ourselves room to appreciate those painful moments and in that process we build new strength to learn to bear such pain. An appropriate thought and frame of mind, as we learn and re-learn all those difficult back-bends and difficult asanas. I appreciated Guruji's words in his book more than ever. I deal with stress and pain all the time. Acquiscing to it is probably a better way to deal with pain, more so than fighting it.
Namaste
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Monday, January 28, 2008
Yoga this evening
T'was an evening to remember. Today it was an advanced class by Nina, full of poses that hadn't been done in a while. It started with a classic Gomukh Asana (in sitting form), which I had performed only sparingly in the past. As we performed, she remarked "let go of your ego" and don't try to get your back foot straight. Let go of my ego? -- that is what I need to do in life I said to myself! This is a yoga pose. Eureka!
It made so much sense. So in the next pose called revolved triangle pose http://yogajournal.com/poses/692 I just did the best I could and the best I could was worse than a beginner could do. Ah! home practice is what I lack I said to myself! Then that voice in the back of my mind reminded me again "Let go of your ego"! OK OK I am letting go!
And then we moved to back-bends and other poses that really worked your thighs and hamstrings, everything leading to the incredibly difficult Rajkapot poses http://yogajournal.com/poses/863 and boy did I yell in pain after every leg strech. No, no ego here, just honest expressions of the pain. Nina threw in a adho mukha vriksasana (hand stand) http://yogajournal.com/poses/788, my favorite pose.
I did it twice and the third variation was too much. I had no energy left and and my panting heart had to let go of my ego. I just went into a child pose. My heart was racing fast and it felt like I had just run a marathon. A Supta Virasana lead to another painful grunt. It prompted a fellow student to comment "make the effort effortless"! Yes Barbara, one day I will, but right now every effort is painful.
We moved on to chair supported back-bends and a chair supported halasana in lieu of shavasana and it was the end of a very challenging class. I was really humbled. As I left the class I promised myself I would continue to work on letting go of my ego. And folks, if you are serious about letting go of your ego and looking to make your efforts effortless do visit http://www.sunsetyoga.com/ to find out how. Thanks Nina for another great class, I will actually sleep well tonight!
Namaste
The Yogi
It made so much sense. So in the next pose called revolved triangle pose http://yogajournal.com/poses/692 I just did the best I could and the best I could was worse than a beginner could do. Ah! home practice is what I lack I said to myself! Then that voice in the back of my mind reminded me again "Let go of your ego"! OK OK I am letting go!
And then we moved to back-bends and other poses that really worked your thighs and hamstrings, everything leading to the incredibly difficult Rajkapot poses http://yogajournal.com/poses/863 and boy did I yell in pain after every leg strech. No, no ego here, just honest expressions of the pain. Nina threw in a adho mukha vriksasana (hand stand) http://yogajournal.com/poses/788, my favorite pose.
I did it twice and the third variation was too much. I had no energy left and and my panting heart had to let go of my ego. I just went into a child pose. My heart was racing fast and it felt like I had just run a marathon. A Supta Virasana lead to another painful grunt. It prompted a fellow student to comment "make the effort effortless"! Yes Barbara, one day I will, but right now every effort is painful.
We moved on to chair supported back-bends and a chair supported halasana in lieu of shavasana and it was the end of a very challenging class. I was really humbled. As I left the class I promised myself I would continue to work on letting go of my ego. And folks, if you are serious about letting go of your ego and looking to make your efforts effortless do visit http://www.sunsetyoga.com/ to find out how. Thanks Nina for another great class, I will actually sleep well tonight!
Namaste
The Yogi
Saturday, January 26, 2008
My yoga guru is back!
Since mid November last year, Nuvana Zarthoshtimanesh (http://sunsetyoga.com/teachers.php) my yoga guru has been in India and with the holidays in December my yoga routine was turned upside down. I first took her class in January 2006, upon my return from from a business trip to Pune, when I was inspired to take a yoga class. It was at Hawthorne Athletic Club (http://www.hfac.com/) and hers was the only class on a Sunday morning. I just about died in that class. It was hard. Imagine 250 pounds of inflexible and atrophied human waste, with an ever expanding 42 inch waist. I could barely touch my knees and I was at my worst lung capacity. I could barely breathe and my asthma had come back with a vengeance.
I had done yoga as a child, and all I recalled was padmasana (which I no longer can do), dhanurasana, and sarvangasana. I even wrote a play on yoga when I was 13 in 1977, a knock off the only yoga show on Indian TV then by Swami Dhiren Brahmachari, who never performed any asanas, and I doubt if he ever did, he was more known for his friendship with the Mrs Indira Gandhi and his private jets. He later died in a plane crash. So I digress....
Back to the point, so this first ever yoga class at my home base was one rough class. I just about collapsed trying to do the downward dog pose, but it felt good. I felt like I had run a marathon and done weights at the same time. I had no clue Nuvana was teaching "Iyengar yoga", it just felt good but very difficult at the same time. I then took an evening class with a lady named Muir, who had spent 2 months in India at Sivananda in Kerala. She was teaching it differently. There was music and she used no sanskrit names. I couldnt keep up with her, it was Vinyasa, flow yoga. Wow, pretty cool I figured. After the first session I was in a lot of pain and hurt my back. But I persisted and went to both Nuvana and Muir's classes. The Vinyasa class became wierder and wierder. She was doing partner yoga all of a sudden and that felt a bit strange. She coupled me with a guy and I had to grab on to these ugly feet to strech my arms out for the child pose. That pretty much did it for me. I decided to just stick with Nuvana, but an hour class in the gym was not enough. I asked Nuvana if she would give me private lessons and she accomodated. So once a week I would go to her house for a yoga lesson. It changed my life forever. It became a family affair and my kids started to join me. We all did yoga together.
Nuvana had taught Iyengar Yoga in Mumbai, India before she moved to Oregon.
She came from a family of serious yoga practitioners. Her grandmother, uncle and cousins were all serious Iyengar Yoga practitioners. Her cousin Zubin is an accomplished yoga teacher and runs one of the best yoga studios in Mumbai and is one of Guruji's most senior students. He travelled with Guruji around the world in the early to mid 1990s. Fate brought me to Nuvana and Iyengar yoga and that led to a series of coincidencesand connections, that included introduction of Iyengar Yoga to my employees in Pune India.
My connection with Pune started in 1997 when I hired my first employee from Pune and then again in 2001 when I started a company in Pune. Little did I know that right accross the street from the hotel I stayed at when I visited Pune, was the heart and soul of yoga and a yoga guru whose style would completely change my life. Looking back it all makes sense now. It makes sense that of all places in India I would choose Pune. Add all the connections -- from Nuvana, to others who inspired me to bring yoga back into my life and it all makes complete sense. It was bound to happen because it was meant to be and there was a cosmic connection to Guruji. Awareness of such connections are important and they are inspiring to one's soul.
I was very fortunate to find Nuvana and be trained by her. I feel that one on one teaching I received from her propelled me in a short period of 18 months from a novice to someone who could take an advanced yoga class and not be intimidated. It awakened my body and mind, and within a year I had lost nearly 6 inches off my waist and 60 pounds of weight. She inspired me to teach yoga to my kids and bring them into yoga at such a young age.
She also inspired me to join Sunset Yoga Center as a student and experience other great teachers like Nina Pillegi, Julie Burtis and Terry Peterson. By experiencing different teachers I built more confidence which in turn increased the awareness of myself and encouraged me to try harder. I may not be the most flexible, but I am not afraid to try a new pose, or a new way to do the same pose or attend an advanced class, even though I maybe the rookie in the class. Every pose I do, I do it with all my heart and soul and all the pain I can bear and my painful grunts and heavy breath when I am in agony during class are a testament to that. I am truly inspired by these awesome teachers who have such commitment, love and passion for yoga and they have really inspired to keep on the path. They have made a huge impact on my life and I salute and thank them.
So with Nuvana's return I am inspired to get back on my yoga path 4 consecutive days a week.
Namaste.
I had done yoga as a child, and all I recalled was padmasana (which I no longer can do), dhanurasana, and sarvangasana. I even wrote a play on yoga when I was 13 in 1977, a knock off the only yoga show on Indian TV then by Swami Dhiren Brahmachari, who never performed any asanas, and I doubt if he ever did, he was more known for his friendship with the Mrs Indira Gandhi and his private jets. He later died in a plane crash. So I digress....
Back to the point, so this first ever yoga class at my home base was one rough class. I just about collapsed trying to do the downward dog pose, but it felt good. I felt like I had run a marathon and done weights at the same time. I had no clue Nuvana was teaching "Iyengar yoga", it just felt good but very difficult at the same time. I then took an evening class with a lady named Muir, who had spent 2 months in India at Sivananda in Kerala. She was teaching it differently. There was music and she used no sanskrit names. I couldnt keep up with her, it was Vinyasa, flow yoga. Wow, pretty cool I figured. After the first session I was in a lot of pain and hurt my back. But I persisted and went to both Nuvana and Muir's classes. The Vinyasa class became wierder and wierder. She was doing partner yoga all of a sudden and that felt a bit strange. She coupled me with a guy and I had to grab on to these ugly feet to strech my arms out for the child pose. That pretty much did it for me. I decided to just stick with Nuvana, but an hour class in the gym was not enough. I asked Nuvana if she would give me private lessons and she accomodated. So once a week I would go to her house for a yoga lesson. It changed my life forever. It became a family affair and my kids started to join me. We all did yoga together.
Nuvana had taught Iyengar Yoga in Mumbai, India before she moved to Oregon.
She came from a family of serious yoga practitioners. Her grandmother, uncle and cousins were all serious Iyengar Yoga practitioners. Her cousin Zubin is an accomplished yoga teacher and runs one of the best yoga studios in Mumbai and is one of Guruji's most senior students. He travelled with Guruji around the world in the early to mid 1990s. Fate brought me to Nuvana and Iyengar yoga and that led to a series of coincidencesand connections, that included introduction of Iyengar Yoga to my employees in Pune India.
My connection with Pune started in 1997 when I hired my first employee from Pune and then again in 2001 when I started a company in Pune. Little did I know that right accross the street from the hotel I stayed at when I visited Pune, was the heart and soul of yoga and a yoga guru whose style would completely change my life. Looking back it all makes sense now. It makes sense that of all places in India I would choose Pune. Add all the connections -- from Nuvana, to others who inspired me to bring yoga back into my life and it all makes complete sense. It was bound to happen because it was meant to be and there was a cosmic connection to Guruji. Awareness of such connections are important and they are inspiring to one's soul.
I was very fortunate to find Nuvana and be trained by her. I feel that one on one teaching I received from her propelled me in a short period of 18 months from a novice to someone who could take an advanced yoga class and not be intimidated. It awakened my body and mind, and within a year I had lost nearly 6 inches off my waist and 60 pounds of weight. She inspired me to teach yoga to my kids and bring them into yoga at such a young age.
She also inspired me to join Sunset Yoga Center as a student and experience other great teachers like Nina Pillegi, Julie Burtis and Terry Peterson. By experiencing different teachers I built more confidence which in turn increased the awareness of myself and encouraged me to try harder. I may not be the most flexible, but I am not afraid to try a new pose, or a new way to do the same pose or attend an advanced class, even though I maybe the rookie in the class. Every pose I do, I do it with all my heart and soul and all the pain I can bear and my painful grunts and heavy breath when I am in agony during class are a testament to that. I am truly inspired by these awesome teachers who have such commitment, love and passion for yoga and they have really inspired to keep on the path. They have made a huge impact on my life and I salute and thank them.
So with Nuvana's return I am inspired to get back on my yoga path 4 consecutive days a week.
Namaste.
Friday, January 25, 2008
Low blood pressure and eat/drink before an early AM yoga class
We have a rule to not eat and drink 2-3 hours before starting yoga practice. In my own experience if I have an early morning class I eat a small snack to engergise the body, especially a piece of fruit and some indian chai. Any caffienated drink is bound to increase your blood pressure so I would certainly take advice of a medical doctor about consuming caffiene drinks if you have low BP before an exercise routine.
Here are some of the poses that Mr. Iyengar recommends for folks with low BP. I would suggest the following as a strarter:
1. Paschimottansan
2. Virasana
3. Padmasana (you could try sidhasana instead)
4. Baddhakonasana
If you are intermediate or advanced add the following:
1. Salamba Sirsasana I
2. Chair supported Hallasana
3. Salamba Sarvangasana
Then end it with:
Savasana or a Supta Badhakonasana
Exercise does tend raise the blood pressure, so I would imagine any exercise that doesnt force your blood to gush down is going to be good. Again I am no expert, I follow Mr. Iyengar's recommendations in his book "Light on Yoga". Please try it and comment here if it helps you. I have the opposite problem, I have high blood pressure, so I practice a different set of poses. If you are a novice, please consult your yoga teacher, or take a yoga class.
Also check out http://www.yogajournal.com/ for details on the suggested yoga poses.
Here are some of the poses that Mr. Iyengar recommends for folks with low BP. I would suggest the following as a strarter:
1. Paschimottansan
2. Virasana
3. Padmasana (you could try sidhasana instead)
4. Baddhakonasana
If you are intermediate or advanced add the following:
1. Salamba Sirsasana I
2. Chair supported Hallasana
3. Salamba Sarvangasana
Then end it with:
Savasana or a Supta Badhakonasana
Exercise does tend raise the blood pressure, so I would imagine any exercise that doesnt force your blood to gush down is going to be good. Again I am no expert, I follow Mr. Iyengar's recommendations in his book "Light on Yoga". Please try it and comment here if it helps you. I have the opposite problem, I have high blood pressure, so I practice a different set of poses. If you are a novice, please consult your yoga teacher, or take a yoga class.
Also check out http://www.yogajournal.com/ for details on the suggested yoga poses.
Yoga with kids today
Last Friday of every month I teach yoga to kids in my 7 year old's class. These are lower elementary kids (1st-3rd graders), ages between 6-9. There are about 30 kids in the class. I break them into groups of 10 and then we do 30 minutes of yoga per group. I started teaching last year in Feb to 4-6 year olds. I found the kids picked up yoga very quickly. So I continued it into elementary class. But of-course the support of the teachers and the school was important in introducing this into kids of this young age. My older daughters' class has a yoga card collection and her teacher herself is a yoga practitioner.
Several of the kids I teach were familiar with the poses as their parents practiced yoga. I have been teaching this group since September and most of these kids really enjoy it. I have taught them the basic poses, but I found adding jumping jacks and animal poses makes it more appealing and interesting for them. We would do the typical standing and sitting poses with 5 minutes of savasana, which they so lovingly call "the dead pose". They love the dead pose.
The challenge in teaching kids of this age is that they will certainly not do the pose correctly, some of them have a difficult time staying still. Its is the concept and awareness that makes it fun! And the ultimate reward is that you have planted the seed for the future.The kids are very open to new ideas and relish on it. I started from the very basic jumping, geometric and animal poses and slowly added more interesting ones. After 4 classes I was able to add the hand-stand pose (adho mukha vriksana) and suprisingly the kids responded to this pose extremely well. My 7 year old can perform this pose and the salamba sirsana quite well and she became my demonstration assistant. The kids thoroughly enjoyed it and we ended up spending a majority of the 30 minute class with wall supported downward dogs and hand-stands. I was simply amazed at how much the kids enjoyed it and they wanted to just perform handstands. That was the cue to me -- they wanted more, so here was my chance to add some more.
Therefore in today class I announced to the first group that we were NOT doing hand-stands, but instead I was going to introduce some new ideas such as sequencing and a new concept. The concept was "breath meditation". So at the start of the class when we sit in sukhasana and chant 3 OMs, I instructed them to focus on their breath, the inhalation and exhalation. I was pleasantly suprised by how well they responded. They are proficient at lifting up their sternum, sitting up straight, lengthening their spine and rolling their shoulders back, so adding the breath focus was easy. Then we performed the following sequences :
1. Tadasana to Warrior Pose II to Triangle Pose (Both sides)
2. Tadasana to Urdhva Hastasana to Uttanasana to Downward Dog, to Child Pose, Downward Dog, Uttanasana, Urdhva Hastasana, Tadasana
3. Sitting poses starting with Virasana, Janursirsasana, Paschim-uttanasana, Badakonasana
We ended with a 10 minute Shavasana with instructions from me to re-observe their breath. It was really incredible to see these kids respond so well to this new idea. Usually there are laughs and giggles when they are in "dead pose". Almost every kid went into a proper shavasana. Eyes were mostly shut. Some took their time to come out of Shavasana. These are 7 year olds!!!! I couldn't believe it. One kid commented that meditation helps you concentrate better. Yes it does! I told them if they could learn to focus on their breath, and keep their attention on it, imagine how well they could do their lessons and projects in class and when they needed quiet time and concentration. I encouraged them to practice it with their parents that evening. It really made my day today. I felt incredible joy that I had made an impact. All the rowdy and impatient ones were calm and composed. I couldn't ask for more! Thanks kids and thanks Amy -- you made my day!
Several of the kids I teach were familiar with the poses as their parents practiced yoga. I have been teaching this group since September and most of these kids really enjoy it. I have taught them the basic poses, but I found adding jumping jacks and animal poses makes it more appealing and interesting for them. We would do the typical standing and sitting poses with 5 minutes of savasana, which they so lovingly call "the dead pose". They love the dead pose.
The challenge in teaching kids of this age is that they will certainly not do the pose correctly, some of them have a difficult time staying still. Its is the concept and awareness that makes it fun! And the ultimate reward is that you have planted the seed for the future.The kids are very open to new ideas and relish on it. I started from the very basic jumping, geometric and animal poses and slowly added more interesting ones. After 4 classes I was able to add the hand-stand pose (adho mukha vriksana) and suprisingly the kids responded to this pose extremely well. My 7 year old can perform this pose and the salamba sirsana quite well and she became my demonstration assistant. The kids thoroughly enjoyed it and we ended up spending a majority of the 30 minute class with wall supported downward dogs and hand-stands. I was simply amazed at how much the kids enjoyed it and they wanted to just perform handstands. That was the cue to me -- they wanted more, so here was my chance to add some more.
Therefore in today class I announced to the first group that we were NOT doing hand-stands, but instead I was going to introduce some new ideas such as sequencing and a new concept. The concept was "breath meditation". So at the start of the class when we sit in sukhasana and chant 3 OMs, I instructed them to focus on their breath, the inhalation and exhalation. I was pleasantly suprised by how well they responded. They are proficient at lifting up their sternum, sitting up straight, lengthening their spine and rolling their shoulders back, so adding the breath focus was easy. Then we performed the following sequences :
1. Tadasana to Warrior Pose II to Triangle Pose (Both sides)
2. Tadasana to Urdhva Hastasana to Uttanasana to Downward Dog, to Child Pose, Downward Dog, Uttanasana, Urdhva Hastasana, Tadasana
3. Sitting poses starting with Virasana, Janursirsasana, Paschim-uttanasana, Badakonasana
We ended with a 10 minute Shavasana with instructions from me to re-observe their breath. It was really incredible to see these kids respond so well to this new idea. Usually there are laughs and giggles when they are in "dead pose". Almost every kid went into a proper shavasana. Eyes were mostly shut. Some took their time to come out of Shavasana. These are 7 year olds!!!! I couldn't believe it. One kid commented that meditation helps you concentrate better. Yes it does! I told them if they could learn to focus on their breath, and keep their attention on it, imagine how well they could do their lessons and projects in class and when they needed quiet time and concentration. I encouraged them to practice it with their parents that evening. It really made my day today. I felt incredible joy that I had made an impact. All the rowdy and impatient ones were calm and composed. I couldn't ask for more! Thanks kids and thanks Amy -- you made my day!
Yoga poses
I find the yoga journal (www.yogajournal.com) to be very useful in looking up details of various poses. Browse http://yogajournal.com/poses/finder/browse_index. I have been mentioning a variety of poses in my earlier posts. Simply go to the yoga joural site and look up the names. It even has poses grouped into anatomical and therapeutical groups. You can even create your own sequences. I am off to teaching 5-9 year olds yoga today. Will report back later. I teach a class once a month.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Goji berries are for real!
Avi, the inappropriate yoga guy, just clarified for me that "goji berries" are not imaginary high-in-antioxidants berries from the himalayas, but for real! They are used in chinese herbal medicines and available in health food stores in LA (and around the country I imagine in stores like Trader Joes). Anyway, check out the link at the end of the post, for more information on Goji Berries. I am sure Avi is going to make this an important word in the yoga vernacular as he produces more of his funny yoga videos.
For those readers and yes many of you have come to visit this morning, please subscrible to any of the "subscribe email" links I have. There is feedburner and an RSS link on the right side of this blog. This way you are kept upto-date on new posts on it. For those who love tea and especially "chai", you must know I am a "chai yogi" and no not just the starbucks kind. I have some interesting recipes that I plan to share and yes maybe there is a chai blog on the way in the near future. Anyway, thanks for all those who came to read the blog today. And please, I would appreciate comments, critiques, suggestions and if you want to contribute to the blog, please do let me know by sending me an email.
Namaste
The Yogi
Link for Jogi Berries: http://altmedicine.about.com/od/completeazindex/a/goji.htm.
For those readers and yes many of you have come to visit this morning, please subscrible to any of the "subscribe email" links I have. There is feedburner and an RSS link on the right side of this blog. This way you are kept upto-date on new posts on it. For those who love tea and especially "chai", you must know I am a "chai yogi" and no not just the starbucks kind. I have some interesting recipes that I plan to share and yes maybe there is a chai blog on the way in the near future. Anyway, thanks for all those who came to read the blog today. And please, I would appreciate comments, critiques, suggestions and if you want to contribute to the blog, please do let me know by sending me an email.
Namaste
The Yogi
Link for Jogi Berries: http://altmedicine.about.com/od/completeazindex/a/goji.htm.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
