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Alignment and Injuries, Ashtanga Adaptability, Ashtanga Quotes, Teaching Ashtanga, Yoga Philosophy, Yoga Sutras
Yoga Practice in Good and Bad Times
“Your toothache is impermanent, but your non-toothache is also impermanent. With that insight, you look at birth, death, old-age, ups and downs, suffering, and happiness with the eyes of a sage, and you don’t suffer anymore. You smile, no longer afraid.” – Thich Nhat Hanh The Sutras does not say that, “Yoga is the cessation of the fluctuations of life.” It says that “Yoga is the cessation of the fluctuations of the mind. ” The world turns, burns, rises and falls. Teachers come and go, hamstrings tear and heal. In yogic terms, the gunas will keep interacting with prakriti and, while I play in this world, I can’t stop it.…
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Practice, Practice, Practice
I saw a post today where someone was going through a very emotional experience and wondered “how the limbs of yoga could help them now?” I will use an analogy. Soldiers don’t wait for the battle to start preparing for it. They train beforehand so that, when they are in battle, their responses become automatic and they know what to do. We also train our bodies and minds to respond a certain way to certain situations. For most people, this training is done unconsciously. As they go through situations in life, they form habits and act on those habits. The practice of yoga is the CONSCIOUS act of reprogramming ourselves…
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Adventures in Mysore India, Alignment and Injuries, Ashtanga Adaptability, Ashtanga Quotes, History, Social Media, Teaching Ashtanga, Uncategorized
The Good Old Days of Ashtanga Yoga
In my beginning years of practicing Ashtanga, none of my teachers ever made me feel like there was a rush to get anywhere. This was pre social media. Honestly, the internet was still a baby when I started practicing. Sharath says that he liked the days of yoga before the internet. I have to agree. The students were different. The teachers were different. People came to Ashtanga out of an interest in learning yoga, whatever that was. They didn’t come to work out. They didn’t come because they saw someone doing cool tricks on social media. I came to yoga because I liked the idea that it was a…
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Talking to Your Yoga Teacher about Pain
Pain is inevitable. At some point in our lives, we are all going to feel icky, achy, coughy and hurty. It is important to keep your yoga teachers informed of injuries and pain. Without this knowledge, they will teach you like a healthy or non injured student and it may be the exact opposite of what you need. Yoga is therapeutic. If you listen to your body and communicate with your teacher, your practice can continue through sickness and health. FIRST AND FOREMOST, CHOOSE THE RIGHT TEACHER. If you do not feel comfortable talking to your teacher, they are not the right teacher for you. None of the tips…
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You are the light in between the cracks
“I know better. Why do I keep doing this?” “I know the right thing to do. Why can’t I do it?” “I get it, theoretically, but I can’t stop.” I have beat myself up so many times with the above statements. Have you? I am working to change this pattern. I realize now that this is a good place. Awareness, no matter how fleeting, is a gift. It is one more opportunity to start fresh. One more opportunity to renew. One more opportunity to be my best me. The yogis knew that there was light in between the darkness of suffering. If we could just cessate or suspend our thoughts…
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Spiritual Laziness: Active Body, Lazy Mind or Active Mind, Lazy Body
“Anyone can practice. Young man can practice. Old man can practice. Very old man can practice. Man who is sick, he can practice. Man who doesn’t have strength can practice. Except lazy people; lazy people can’t practice yoga.” Sri K. Pattabhi Jois Pattabhi Jois may have only been talking about physical laziness or maybe he wasn’t. Spiritual laziness is also an epidemic. Spiritual laziness is the unwillingness to take a good hard look at who you are. It is wanting to feel good more than wanting to know the truth. This sometimes looks like physical laziness. A yoga teacher in my area used to do a workshop to help people find a healthy…
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Alignment and Injuries, Ashtanga Adaptability, Ashtanga Quotes, Teaching Ashtanga, Uncategorized, Yoga Philosophy, Yoga Sutras
Slow and Steady Yoga Injury Recovery
Lets get this out of the way. I am not a doctor. This information comes from my 14 year experience with healing my own injuries through Yoga and working with Yoga students. Yoga injuries should not stick around for years. The average healing time for most common movement injuries is 3-6 weeks. If it is pretty bad, maybe 3 months. If it is really bad, 6 months. Years, not so much. Don’t believe me, ask Google or your doctor. If the yoga injury is still there, it is usually one of three things: Not giving it time to heal Not fixing the movements that caused the injury in the first…
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Adventures in Mysore India, Alignment and Injuries, Ashtanga Adaptability, Ashtanga Quotes, Uncategorized, Yoga Philosophy
The Body Doesn’t Lie
I was sitting with my husband yesterday, in a hospital room, watching a loved one recover from surgery. We had arrived around 10AM and waited hours as doctors took test after test trying to figure out a diagnosis. He said, “I am so tired.” I said, “All that stress from being here in the hospital.” He said, ” I felt calm during everything.” I said, ” The body doesn’t lie.” We had both been incredibly calm all day. Didn’t matter. It was still all there. Our mind can become the master of a great spiritual fairy tale. The hero/heroine has it all together. She is calm and unbothered in the…
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Adventures in Mysore India, Ashtanga Adaptability, Ashtanga Quotes, Conference Notes, Teaching Ashtanga, Uncategorized, Yoga Philosophy, Yoga Sutras
Yoga Sutras For Modern Day Life: Is It True that We are All One?
Yoga Sutras of Patanjali 2:17: The cause of that avoidable pain is the union of the seer (Purusha) and seen (Prakrati). Defining the Sutra When you start to go down the rabbit hole of yogic philosophy and spirituality, you start to discover paradoxes. Statements and ideas that are seemingly contradictory but really are not. This is one of the reasons why Gurus and teachers advise us to stick to one teacher or method. We can get to the same conclusion in more then one way but we usually get there quicker if we use one method. When most people fly, they usually look for a direct flight with no stops.…
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Yoga Sutras For Modern Day Life: The Wise Man’s Relationship with Pain
Yoga Sutras of Patanjli 2:15 To one of discrimination, everything is painful indeed, due to its consequences: the anxiety and fear over losing what is gained; the resulting impressions left in the mind to create renewed cravings; and the constant conflict among the three gunas, which control the mind. Defining the Sutra: The wise man understands pleasure and pain are interconnected. Patanjali gives 3 reasons why pleasure leads to pain: Fear of loss Chasing pleasures Fluctuations between the Gunas: sattva, rajas and tamas Modern Day Application: Simple examples of this Sutra can be found on our mat. Fear of Loss Are you afraid of losing the ability to do a pose? Do…
