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What do Kapotasana and Swimming Have in Common?
Bear with me. Like your yoga practice, this story is going some where. When I was in college, I took a beginner swim class. At the end, my teacher told me I could swim, passed me and gave me an “A”. Summer came around and I was at the pool with my husband, an ex marine and expert swimmer. I was ecstatic about showing him my new skills. I get in the water. Show him what I can do and he says, Husband: Sweetie, you can’t swim. Me: Yes, I can. My teacher said I could. I passed the class. He moved me on. Husband: Sweetie, if I pushed you…
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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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Adventures in Mysore India, Ashtanga Adaptability, Social Media, Teaching Ashtanga, Uncategorized, Yoga Philosophy
Ashtanga Community or Your Community?
Your circle of friends and acquaintances does not represent the whole human race. A few weeks ago, my daughter talked about how she doesn’t understand how McDonald’s is still in business because no one eats there. I explained to her that just because her vegan upper middle class friends don’t eat there, it does not mean that no one eats there. I see similar conversations about Ashtanga. Big blanket statements about what is going on in the Ashtanga community. Ummm…maybe that is happening with your circle. It is not necessarily happening in mine or India or Chicago or down the street at the next yoga studio. We draw to us…
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Bad Apple in Every Bunch
I know this sounds obvious but it isn’t. This week, I came across two articles where really intelligent people, I am talking about a PhD and a well known teacher in a non dual tradition, took a few bad examples from dualism traditions, and used them to sum up the whole tradition. We all know that a few bad apples don’t necessarily mean we need to throw away all our apples. Even though a few people had car accidents today, we all continue to drive. Even though a few planes have fallen out the sky lately, we still fly. Even though we have had a few horrible relationships, we still…
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Why Practice 6 Days A Week or Every Day?
To become grounded in practice. “Practice becomes firmly grounded when well attended to for a long time, without break and in all earnestness.”-Yoga Sutras of Patanjali 1:14 What is practice? “Effort towards steadiness of mind.”- Yoga Sutras of Patanjali 1:13 You practice 6 days a week, or whatever your tradition requires, to become firmly grounded in a steady mind. I recently read an article that stated, not practicing every day is an act of compassion. I think the opposite. Yoga was created to alleviate suffering in ourselves and in the world. Therefore, doing our chosen yoga practice is the ultimate act of compassion. Doing your practice not only serves…
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Alignment and Injuries, Ashtanga Adaptability, Interviews, Pose How To, Teaching Ashtanga, Uncategorized, Videos
Get the Help You Need For Your Ashtanga Practice w/ Jen Rene
Meet Jen Rene Jen ran a successful Mysore group in DC and is now practicing with and assisting her teacher, Tim Miller, at the Ashtanga Yoga Center in Encinitas, CA. Jen Rene has created Ashtanga and Pilates courses on her site, Jenrene.com, that provide helpful tips on backbending, hip opening, muscle recovery and much more. I recently had the opportunity to speak with Jen about her online Ashtanga courses as well as pick her brain about working with new students, backbends, hamstring injuries and more. AYP: What was your vision and purpose for releasing video courses? JR: I want to share what I know and love with more students…
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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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Dear Physically Gifted People
Dear Physically Gifted People, Please stop using words like “easy” or “simple” when doing a demo, teaching a student or posting a video or picture. Why? It is too subjective. Just because something is easy for you does not mean it is easy for someone else. Using the words “simple” or easy, with a student who finds the movement to be difficult, can make them feel like there is something wrong with them, that their efforts will never be good enough, and that they are inadequate. It can make them feel shame and question whether or not yoga is for them. I understand that this is not happening on purpose. …
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Give Me All the Ashtanga Holidays
It is so interesting to see the amount of animosity some people have towards moon day and ladies holiday. Dude, it is a day off!!! Granted, I have definitely been through periods in my Ashtanga journey where I did not take these off, however, I never got angry about them. I didn’t see them as an insult to my womanhood or, as someone put it on my face book page, the advice of a “stupid, lazy, indian guru.” A young lady asked a sincere question about moon days on an ashtanga face book group recently and like 10 people answered, “who cares!!!!”. Well, I mean, obviously she did or she…
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Adventures in Mysore India, Alignment and Injuries, Ashtanga Adaptability, Conference Notes, Teaching Ashtanga, Yoga Philosophy, Yoga Sutras
The Lesson, Not the Event
“By this time I had learned that it was more fruitful to pay attention to the lessons rather than to events themselves.”- Pandit Rajmani Tigunait, At The Eleventh Hour We all come into this practice carrying the results of our life and DNA in our bodies. In Mysore, Sharath would joke, “Don’t get mad at me because you are stiff. Get mad at your parents!” Last week, a student said, “I have been doing hip openers for a couple years now and my hips are still not open.” I said, “Sometimes, it is not possible to undo 40 years in a few years of practice, if at all”. Working…
