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Taking Away Attention, Taking Away Power
“If you don’t like something, take away its only power, your attention.” -Anon Sounds nice huh? Yes, on one level this is true, but most people who say it, are not on that level. For most, it is simply spiritual bypassing and highly problematic. And often, a seemingly polite way of saying, “not my circus, not my monkeys”. Let me demonstrate. Picture yourself going to a loved one with an issue, if they looked at you and said, “I am not giving this my attention or power”, how would you feel? Would that be cool? You: “Are you cheating on me? Your partner: “I don’t like this conversation and I…
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ableism, Adventures in Mysore India, Alignment and Injuries, Ashtanga Adaptability, Guru, History, Privilege, Social Media, Teaching Ashtanga
“Calling In” the Ashtanga Community
“Calling in” is a term coined by Ngoc Loan Tran, a Viet/mixed race disabled queer writer who champions for justice in oppressed communities. “Calling in” is holding members of the community responsible for their actions, not as an act of punishment, but as an act of accountability. “I start ‘call in’ conversations by identifying the behavior and defining why I am choosing to engage with them. I prioritize my values and invite them to think about theirs and where we share them. And then we talk about it. We talk about it together, like people who genuinely care about each other. We offer patience and compassion to each other and…
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Adventures in Mysore India, Alignment and Injuries, Diversity, History, Ladies Holday, Social Media, Teaching Ashtanga, Yoga Philosophy, Yoga Sutras
What You Don’t Know, Makes You Dangerous
Before you make that statement on social media, before you write that blog post, stop. Ask yourself, do you have all the information? Do you understand the subject outside of your own cultural biases? Are you listening to only one side? Every day, I gain more of an understanding of why some teachers and Patanjali tell us to pick a method and stick with it. Reason 1-so we don’t dig shallow wells. Reason 2-so we don’t get confused. Yoga is not one long unfractured story where the facts perfectly follow one after the other. That is like saying that American history is White history and just following the line of…
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Happy Guru Purnima
Today is a day for giving thinks to the gurus of your life. What is a Guru? Interesting enough, there are a lot of different etymologies. As a noun the word means the imparter of knowledge (jñāna; also Pali: ñāna). As an adjective, it means ‘heavy,’ or ‘weighty,’ in the sense of “heavy with knowledge,”[Note 1] heavy with spiritual wisdom,[16] “heavy with spiritual weight,”[17] “heavy with the good qualities of scriptures and realization,”[18] or “heavy with a wealth of knowledge.”[19] The word has its roots in the Sanskrit gri (to invoke, or to praise), and may have a connection to the word gur, meaning ‘to raise, lift up, or to make an effort’.[20] Sanskrit guru is cognate with Latin gravis ‘heavy; grave, weighty, serious’[21] and Greek…
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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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Being a Good Person Does Not Negate Someone’s Actions
I have been active in the Yoga community for around 13 years. A common theme, when something goes awry is, “well I know they did __________ but they are a good person. They are going through __________.” That line basically means, “just get over it and act like it didn’t happen.” It means, “suck it up buttercup.” Forgiving someone for their actions, does not mean that you are cool with their actions or that their actions are cool. I am not Christian but the concept is pretty big in the Bible. The Bible also talks about hell…which is where you go if you don’t change your ways. So even in…
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Yoga Sutras For Modern Day Life: Yoga Is Not an Escape From Life
Yoga Sutras of Patanjali 2:10: When the five types of colorings (kleshas) are in their subtle, merely potential form, they are then destroyed by their disappearance or cessation into and of the field of mind itself. Defining the Sutra 5 Kleshas Ignorance (avidya) Ego (asmita) Attachment to Pleasure (raga) Aversion to Pain (dvesa) Fear of Death (abhinivesah) The Kleshas don’t completely go. We need our mind to interact with life. Without a sense of “I”, we couldn’t function. In order to use our mind and our bodies, we have to connect with them. We have to know they are ours to use. The Yogi eventually gets the Kleshas to a point where…
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Ashtanga Quotes, Ask The APP, History, Interviews, Teaching Ashtanga, Uncategorized, Yoga Philosophy, Yoga Sutras
Ask the APP: What is Svadyaya/Self Study?
I recently received a question asking for clarification on Svadyaya. Two Schools of Thought on Svadyaya Svadyaya means studying yourself and any work you do on yourself is self study. This definition is most popular among modern students of Yoga. There are three reasons that I believe this to be true. If a student reads the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, without any commentary, one relies on the etymology of svadyaya which is, “self study”. Patanjali does not define Svadyaya in the verses themselves. The second reason it is popular is because it is more PC. In an attempt to not offend students, some modern commentators or Yoga teachers will use this more palatable…
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Ashtanga Vinyasa VS Ashtanga Yoga
So I am beating a dead horse here but I want to keep you guys posted on what is going on. I recently wrote two posts, Whose Ashtanga Should I Practice and What Is The Ashtanga Practice For? in response to a post where a popular teacher talked about Ashtanga needing to evolve. I pointed out, in both articles, that this person was coming from a purely physical perspective and that Ashtanga Yoga was never meant to be purely physical. The teacher responded back to me, thus proving my point. Hi Shanna, I agree in principle to what you are saying, but not in practice. I do think you’re comparing apples…
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Adventures in Mysore India, Alignment and Injuries, Ashtanga Adaptability, Ashtanga Quotes, Ask The APP, History, Social Media, Teaching Ashtanga, Uncategorized, Yoga Philosophy, Yoga Sutras
Different Yoga Styles: You Got It All Wrong
As a blogger, I receive press releases all the time. I received one yesterday that was really disturbing. It came from a major “yoga lifestyle brand” aka retailer of cute and pricey non essential yoga ish. Don’t get me wrong. I have drawers full of cute non essential yoga ish. I love it. I am just calling a spade a spade. I am not going to name these people but you know them. They dominate Instagram. They sponsor challenges done by the most popular yoga teachers in the world. Some of which are Ashtangis. The press release was disturbing because these people, whether we like it or not, are the…
