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Best Twist Ever

Brad WaitesYou gotta laugh at a workshop that promises The Best Twist Ever! (exclamation not included but certainly implied). It was the exact right tone for this upbeat and illuminating session with Purna Yoga teacher Brad Waites.

Waites, a former yoga instructor at Kripalu Center for Health and Healing, is a faculty member at Aadil Palkhivala’s Purna Yoga College. Purna Yoga is a specific technique that combines Iyengar-based alignment with heart-based meditation practices and more. I’ve taken classes with Aadil Palkhivala, and found that Waites presented this technique beautifully, and put his own fun-loving stamp on the class.

The best twist ever refers to Matsyangasana, a seated twist I had never seen before. Ardha Matsyandrasana (Half Lord of the Fishes Pose) is familiar to most yogis, and full Matsyandrasana is an advanced Ashtanga posture. But this was different. You start in Baddha Konasana, move one leg into half Virasana, and then, shifting to the outer hip of the non-Virasana leg and lengthening the spine in stages, you twist 180 degrees, placing your hands behind you, and lay down with your face turned to one side. Yep, like that.

The goal of the pose, Waites explained, is to stretch chronically tight intervertebral muscles. But instead of being a wrenching twist, achieved by leveraging a stable source (like your knee), this instruction teaches you to lengthen through the side body and spine, lift up through the lower abdominals, and position the hips so not to torque the pelvis, before you twist.

Through Waites’ careful instruction, we warmed up with a gentle Sun Salutation sequence, and practiced opening the side body with Triangle and Extended Side Angle poses, as well as various modified Gate Poses against the wall. Then we began to twist. The first stages (we were practicing three, but apparently there are five) felt good. But as we moved further into the pose, I began to get nervous.  The student in the class modeling the stages seemed to have far more mobility in her spine than I. I’ve experienced pelvic instability, and have some immobility in my lumber vertebrae, so I’m wary of anything that threatens to destabilize this area. Yet, I know that mobility is exactly what I need.  Remembering that I only had to go as far as I felt comfortable going, I decided to put my trust in Waites hands-on instruction and try.

To my surprise, I not only moved through stages one and two comfortably, but was able to reach the final expression of the third stage completely, laying my cheek on the floor while my body twisted into a position I would have never had attempted on my own. Wow, what a rush!

The feeling was shared. As we carefully unwound from the pose, whoops sprang from the class. One women commented that she felt taller. Everyone was smiling. And I was once again amazed at the quality of instruction at Yoga Journal Conferences, which has helped me again and again to move me beyond my comfort zone to experience yoga new and wonderful ways.

 

—Kelle Walsh

 

 

Are You Digitally Distracted?

We’ve all experienced it: the Pavlovian reflex at the ping of a new email, half-listening to the meeting going on around you while reading a text from a colleague in another meeting, getting lost down the rabbit hole of YouTube video links or celebrity gossip coming up in your newsfeed.

But as yogis, aren’t we’re supposed to striving to reduce distraction and cultivate mindfulness and equanimity? How do smartphones, email, Facebook, and Twitter fit into the picture?

“Digital Distractions and Your Practice,” the panel discussion at today’s San Francisco Yoga Journal conference, hit the mark. Made up of meditation teacher and YJ’s Wisdom columnist Sally Kempton; Grist.org Executive Editor and Salon.com co-counder Scott Rosenberg; Congressman Tim Ryan (D-OH), author of “Mindful Nation”;  Gopi Kallayil, group product marketing manager for Google+, and moderated by YJ’s Editor in Chief (and former technology journalist) Kaitlin Quistgaard—yoga practitioners all—it was the right group of people to address a topic for our times.

That digital technology is and will remain an everyday part of our lives was a given. There were no calls to do away with our laptops or smartphones. In fact, one of the more surprising agreements from the panel is that technology serves many great purposes—for community-building and making connections (one inspiring example: the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu video conferencing from different continents and having the exchange streamed to millions of people on YouTube), leveling the playing field for access to information, as a tool for personal growth, and, yes, even for enhancing your yoga practice.

As Sally Kempton commented, technology can be viewed as an evolutionary tool, expanding our consciousness in completely new ways. Kallayil, furthering this theme, emphasized the the unprecedented opportunities we now have to connect with one another and support positive change on the planet. Using the example of the 7 billion cell phones in existence for Earth’s 5 billion inhabitants, he commented that “now the individual consciousness can be connected to the larger consciousness. That level of consciousness and connectivity has never been. That’s real power.”

Yet all also agreed that the experience of 24/7 connection and over-reliance on on your phone or computer (or Twitter feed, so on), presents a constant threat for distraction and overload.

Viewed through a yogic lens, however, the very things that pose this distraction offer great lessons for learning about our own habits and tendencies, and a platform for changing the experience.

Instead of falling into what Rosenberg called “email apnea,” the experience of holding your breath when answering email, he advises being mindful of what you’re doing, breathing consciously as you perform technological tasks. He also said that during meetings, he asks his staff to turn off smartphones and close computers, in order to stay mindful of the interaction they’re engaged in.

Kempton suggested that instead of operating “in the cloud” (which she wittily re-defined as functioning from the upper three chakras), move and breathe from the belly center while you work, well, in the cloud.

Kallayil, who joked that it was his job to “promote more things for you to be distracted by,” has rituals to stem the threat of digital overload: He does one thing at a time (no multitasking here); he commits to one minute of yoga and one minute of meditation per day, which typically lead to longer sessions (but trying to commit to 30 minutes a day of each just set him up for failure and self-recrimination, he said); and he puts weekly yoga practice—a class he teaches at Google headquarters—on his calendar as a non-negotiable standing appointment. It’s been five years and he hasn’t missed one.

Ryan got laughs when he advised not using your smartphone as an alarm clock, so that you don’t wake up  (literally) to the information overload that awaits. But he also warned that we can’t “beat ourselves up” over our reliance on technology; rather, we should strive to stay aware of how ever-present it is, and how humorous our dependence on it, as we find our own level of self-moderation, something that Kallayil referred to as “conscious and mindful consumption.”

Ryan also asked the audience if they would join him in committing to try and get a handle on email distraction, by logging in just a few times a day and grouping emails for more efficiency.

Technology. It’s not going anywhere, and it’ll most certainly become even more present in our lives in the future. But as today’s panelists illuminated, there are many ways we can enjoy the benefits of technology, and indeed celebrate its contributions, while keeping ourselves from getting distracted by it.

Here are some of the takeaway tips from today:

- Limit your personal consumption of digital technology, being mindful about what amount is right (and what is too much) for you.

- Do one thing at a time, putting your full attention to it. As examples: Read and answer an email before moving onto to another one; listen mindfully in a meeting without checking your text messages or email, etc.

- Pay attention to your breath as you work with digital technology. Are you holding it or breathing shallowly only into your upper chest? If so, breathe, yogis, breathe.

- Consciously move from your belly as you engage in technology to ground your energy.

- Create rituals around fitting your yoga and meditation practice—non-negotiable moments that you protect—into your life to balance the prevalence of digital technology all around us.

 

—Kelle Walsh

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ashtanga’s Greatest Hits

David Swenson“You signed up for what?” one of my colleagues asked me at the presenter’s dinner last night.

How long have you been out of your cast?” asked another, her eyes widening.

“Do you know the Ashtanga primary series?” probed the third.

Uhhhhh … I thought, my trepidation about David Swenson’s “Ashtanga’s Greatest Hits” growing. I hope I’m not in over my head here. I’d heard of the Primary Series described as “trying to climb up a glass mountain,” but every Ashtanga class I’ve taken has left me feeling elated and empowered.

Luckily, I think falling out of poses is fun. Sunday morning’s Ashtanga’s Greatest Hits was like a guided playtime for adults. As muscular, athletic-looking Ashtangis flew into poses I’d never even seen before (Swenson reassured us that these were part of the Advanced B Series, which isn’t usually attempted until someone has been practicing Ashtanga for at least six or seven years), I actually managed to lift up into a funny little variation of Eka Pada Koundiyanasana II, and Parsva Bakasana (which I’d also never attempted) was a cinch! I was surprised at how easily my still-strengthening ankle adapted to the class, but when Swenson told us that a lot of the tricky arm balances we were attempting were more a matter of skeletal balance than of muscular strength, it made sense to me.

Swenson lightened the challenging class with plenty of jokes and laughter. A student asked, “What makes my bum raise in Eka Pada Bakasana?” Swenson deadpanned, “Magic!” Laughter erupted. “No, see, you eat a lot of gassy foods and  . . .” Swenson continued. More laughter. As Swenson went on to describe that the lift actually came from the lateral muscles in the side body and pretzeled himself up into the pose, I looked around at all of the smiling faces and mentally confirmed what I’ve thought all along: Ashtanga is super fun!

-Ella Lawrence




 

Rodney Yee Calls for Yoga in Healthcare

Rodney Yee is on a mission to integrate yoga into the healthcare system. In his keynote address at the San Francisco Yoga Journal Conference he described the groundbreaking work of Donna Karan’s Urban Zen Integrative Therapy Program, which brings yoga, along with other healing arts, into hospitals. Yee, a yoga teacher for 25 years, and his wife Colleen Saidman, also a teacher, co-direct the yoga therapy component of the program, training nurses and doctors to offer simple yoga sequences, breathing practices, and meditation to patients.

Yee says the moment is ripe for integrative therapies such as yoga to be taken seriously in medical settings. “The medical system finally has their doors open, partly because there’s a healthcare crisis in this country,” he said. Yoga teachers, he said, can play a crucial role in bringing self-care practices to patients. “The system is in dire need of what we have to offer.”

Yee and Saidman have adapted yoga poses to be done in a hospital bed along with breath and relaxation work. Yee said the practice can have impressive effects on people who are critically ill, offering relief from pain, anxiety, and sleeplessness. Hospital management agrees. UCLA’s Ronald Reagan Medical Center has signed up Urban Zen to train 300 of its doctors and nurses this year in the practice.

Yee said that the healthcare industry’s willingness to welcome in yoga as a healing art is an opportunity not to be wasted. He implored yogis who want to serve in a hospital setting to get the best possible training in practices that are appropriate for bedbound patients. “The real protocol of healthcare is Do No Harm,” Yee said, explaining that teaching bedbound patients takes a minimal, gentle approach and that teachers need to be grounded in their own practice of meditation and pranayama. “We have to create a force of yogis who are willing to be serious about learning to apply their knowledge in this environment.”

Yee’s point is well-taken. With the recent news attention on the potential for injuries in yoga class, and the healthcare industry’s historical resistance to alternative healing, it’s not a given that the practice will be easily accepted in medical settings. Yoga teachers who plan to work in hospitals should follow Yee’s lead and commit to setting a high standard for conscious and careful teaching.

–Carmel Wroth

Kirtan with Krishna Das

More than 700 people flocked to the San Francisco Yoga Journal conference tonight to sing with the Godfather of Chant, Krishna Das, and wow, did he deliver. Part kirtan (call-and-response chanting) and part satsang (a wise talk given by a spiritual teacher), the three-hour set featured seven of Krishna Das’s most beloved chants, prayers in at least two Indian languages, and his captivating stories about the time he spent in a Hanuman temple high in the Himalayas with his guru, Neem Karoli Baba (also known as Maharishi).

Sporting his trademark flannel shirt and silvery goatee, Krishna Das led us in three centering Oms, then sang a prayer “to the presence of grace that lives within our hearts.” He explained the meaning of kirtan early on, for any beginners in the audience. “What we are doing is called repetition of the divine names. Every time we repeat these names, we move more deeply inside our own heart.”

Even though he had a cold, KD threw himself into every prayer and every chant, and by the end of the night we were on our feet, singing, dancing, clapping, swaying. In fact, a group of dancers and bystanders circled the massive room like a ring of bhakti (devotional) fire, which seemed so appropriate to me. The circle was complete.

My favorite chants included a sweet but eventually rollicking version of “Jai Jagadambe,” which featured a slow, mournful solo from violinist Genevieve Walker; a buoyant take on “Jesus on the Mainline”; and a sweet, closing song, “Jai Bhagavan”—a lullaby that’s luring me to sleep.

 

—Shannon Sexton

-Shannon Sexton