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Yoga and Relationships

April 25, 2012

Graham Schweig“Sangha: The Secrets of Yoga in Relationships” was like sitting in on your favorite comparative religion class in college. Graham Schweig, an associate professor of Religion and Philosophy at Christopher Newport University in Virginia, began the class with a mesmerizing chant played on a modern tamboura, that, as he correctly noted, made us “forget we [were] in the middle of Manhattan.”

The teachings were deep, exploring yogic philosophy and interpretations of texts like the Bhagavad Gita and the Yoga Sutra. Yet our small group of 15 non-scholars took hold of the material and demanded to understand practical ways to apply the teachings into daily life, and in particular, in relationship to others. And Schweig was happy to engage.

He taught that translation and interpretation of yogic texts is no small thing. The subtleties of the Sanskrit language are great, and different interpretations can yield very different meanings. Take, for example, the common definition of pranayama as “breath control.” Actually, Schweig says, means “breath expanding,” which clearly has a different connotation.

The same goes for the well-known verse of the Yoga Sutra 1.2: Yoga citta-vritta-nirodhah. This is commonly interpreted as, “Yoga is the cessation of the turning of the mind.”

Schweig presented an expanded definition of this, of yoga being  “consciousness as it is uprooted [from its confined state] expanding deeply [into its pure state].” It takes a minute to absorb, but this meaning shines a whole new light on the lesson contained within.

When it comes to relationships, Schweig says we need look no further than these same teachings. When we uproot what is buried, we purify the mind. When the mind is pure, we are then truly be ready to be in relationship with someone else, be it a partner, a sibling, a friend, a co-worker. “First work within, and then [you'll] be able to do [your] best part out in the world,” Schweig says.

Turning to the yamas and niyamas, Schweig explained that they serve as guidelines for personal behavior and also in relationship to others.

There was also interesting discussion about the application of these teachings in real-world situations. On the question of dealing with so-called “toxic” people in  your life, Schweig says to look for the lesson that person is giving you about where you need to strengthen yourself. “Other people are not ‘toxic’; they may just bring up stuff for us that we have not rotatilled yet.” When dealing with difficult situations with others, he said, go back to yoga: turn first to the breath, your center, and from this place, you and the person you are dealing with can mutually enlighten one another.

You could take an entire weekend workshop on the topic of yoga and relationships and still not understand everything there this to know. But this intimate, informative class was a fine place to start.

Gems from this workshop:

Yogini is often mispronounced. It’s supposed to be said like yoga/ni.  ”If it rhymes with linguine, or any other kind of pasta, you’re not pronouncing it right!” —Graham Schweig, PhD

The ubiquitous Om is also frequently mispronounced and largely misunderstood. This bija, or seed, mantra is a three-letter word AUM, with three distinct sounds with distinct meanings.

The “A,” pronounced “ah,” refers to the outer physical world around us; “U,” pronounced  “oo” until it’s combined with “A” leading to an “oh” sound,  refers to the inner spiritual world, and the “M” (which is actually an M with a dot over it that I can’t replicate on this keyboard) is what’s called a “sonic mandala,” starting at the lips and then moving deeply into the back of the throat, and refers to the inner world of the heart.

—Kelle Walsh

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Yoga Can Cause Injury—Just Like Anything Else

April 15, 2012

William Broad makes a point at the YJ NY Conference panel on yoga and injuries. One of the anticipated events here at the New York Yoga Journal Conference was today’s panel discussion “Yoga Shouldn’t Hurt.” The idea for the panel came out of the uproar in the yoga community after the New York Times published an article with the sensational title “How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body,” which was actually an excerpt of a new book, The Science of Yoga, by Times’ science writer William Broad.

In the excerpt, Broad contends that the practice of yoga can be potentially gravely injurious, even life-threatening, when not practiced or taught correctly.

The panel, which was moderated by Yoga Journal Editor in Chief Kaitlin Quistgaard, featured Broad,  and yoga pioneers and longtime teachers Ana Forrest, Gary Kraftsow, and David Swenson.

If the packed room of yogis were expecting fireworks from the panel, they would have been disappointed. We were treated to a fair, sometimes heated, but ultimately illuminating discussion of something not often addressed in yoga circles.

Broad, a yoga practitioner himself more than 40 years, acknowledged what he admitted was an unfortunate title to the article, which he wasn’t involved with choosing. But he stood by his assertion that some yoga practices and poses, particularly those that put strain on the cerebral vertebrae, such as Headstand, Shoulderstand, and Plow Pose, have and can cause injury like stroke. He produced letters he had received from yoga practitioners who read the article and verified their own injuries caused, they believe, by practicing yoga.

Broad’s chosen injury example of stroke received the most criticism from the panelists. Gary Kraftsow, founder of the American Viniyoga Institute and a researcher of therapeutic yoga, questioned causality, arguing that there is no way of knowing whether a stroke was caused by because yoga practice or because of a propensity or weakness that would have resulted in the same result from another activity.

David Swenson objected to the “sensational” aspect of Broad’s report, saying it gave the wrong message about yoga on whole. And he drew laughs when he pointed to evidence that activities such as sneezing and bicycling cause far more injuries and even deaths, than yoga.

Forrest, setting the tone that turned out to be consensus, reminded the panel and audience that yes, yoga may cause injury when someone pushes themselves too far or too hard, or when they are not properly taught. Yogis, she said, must bring intelligence and awareness to their practices, and teachers must do the same in their teaching.  “I think this is a wake-up call,” she said.

Kraftsow echoed this sentiment. “Yoga is not exercise. It’s not about the postures. The poses are tools to serve the body of the practitioner, to create more structural integrity, to clear your mind and balance emotions. The fault isn’t the system, it’s the [individual's] relationship to the practice.”

—Kelle Walsh

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Change Your Brain With Yoga

April 15, 2012

Bo ForbesThis morning I learned how to change my brain, literally, through my yoga practice. Bo Forbes, a psychologist and yoga therapist in Boston, taught a fascinating class looking at the effect yoga has on neural pathways.

Neuroplacicity emerged as a hot concept a few years ago, for the promise of being able to change what were once thought of as permanent habits or traits. Studies had begun to shown that the brain did continue to grow and change, and it was possible to disrupt those old patterns and replace them with new ones.

Yoga is one modality that has shown promise toward this goal. And in today’s class, Forbes presented new information about the mechanisms behind rerouting the neural pathways, or what is often referred to in yoga as samskaras.

Interestingly, it’s not long, intense yoga sessions that do this. Research has shown that slow, shorter, focused, and more frequent practices have the greatest impact.  ”It’s not the length of the practice or the poses that matter,” Forbes says.

What does matter, she explained, is the ability to drop deeply into your body and into your awareness, simultaneously triggering the parasympathetic system and becoming more present. Forbes said them most effective way to do this is to slow down your practice, making it very intentional, engaging the bandhas as you move, and adding in restorative poses, or “bringing more Savasana energy” into your practice. And doing this again and again and again.

Neural changes don’t happen overnight. Through regular practice and going inward, we begin to feel differently and start to make different choices. We begin to respond differently to stress, and things like depression and anxiety are often alleviated.

“”You can’t go from point A to point B too quickly; you want new, subtle, progressive change, ” Forbes says. “But when you embody this insight, it creates true and lasting change. You can change your brain at any age.”

—Kelle Walsh

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Insight Yoga

April 15, 2012

Sarah PowersFor yoga teacher Sarah Powers, asana is a doorway into understanding our own true nature. In the morning session of her day-long Insight Yoga intensive at the New York Yoga Journal Conference, she spoke of using asana to understand our strengths and our limitations. The journey, though, doesn’t end with asana – it’s where it begins. What your asana looks like means little. How you meet the challenges that arise in your practice is where the true practice begins.

She led us through Bound Ankle, Standing Forward Bend, to Down Dog, Sun Salutes, Squats, Bug Pose and Twists, and had us hold poses for several minutes each in order to nourish our tissues more deeply, and meet ourselves more deeply too. Sarah is a longtime meditator and her meditation practice infuses her teaching. The more we turn towards who we authentically are, warts and all, the more we increase our capacity to be present with whatever arises in the moment. This, she says, is what allows us to be less distracted, pay more attention, and to be more fully alive.

 

—Dayna Macy

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Yoga and Shamanism

April 14, 2012

Ray CristIt’s exhilarating being here in New York for the Yoga Journal Conference. As I sit writing from my room on the 35th floor of the Hilton, through the open window I can hear bagpipes from a parade passing below, symphonic music from an outdoor concert, periodic banging from the construction site nearby, and the constant thrum of city traffic, honking taxis and all. It might sound distracting, but it’s not. Maybe two days of yoga have chilled me out to the point where this cacophony doesn’t feel like an intrusion, but rather distinct and rather wonderful elements of the delicious life-force pulsing all around me.

There’s really no richer place to experience life in all its many manifestations than here in Manhattan. It’s huge, crowded, chaotic, and seems to be the living embodiment of the Buddhist concept of “monkey mind.”  To find stillness and contentment here, you could say that’s true yoga.

The classes I’ve taken so far today, while vastly different, both touched on this theme. In Ray Crist’s “Yoga and the Luminous Body,” we were transported from a conference room at the Hilton on a shamanic exploration deep into ourselves. Blending teachings from yoga and shamanism, Crist, a yoga teacher and initiate in the shamanic practices of the Quero indians of the Peruvian Andes, talked about the journey from the physical body to the mental body and to the spiritual realm, and how we function from all three places at different times. The purpose of both yoga and shamanism, he says, is help us align these states into a fourth state, that of enlightenment.

Moving through a pretty vigorous vinyasa practice, Crist kept reminding us that by building heat, tapas, and focusing our intention on a quality we wish to bring into our lives, we were burning through the samskaras, patterns, that keep us looping through the same old same old—same kinds of relationships, same habits and same frustrations. Calling upon us to summon qualities of shamanic animals—the serpent, the jaguar, and the condor—he urged us to shed the old ways, embody the strength we need to be brave enough travel this path, and to soar toward spirit. Accompanied by a groovy playlist of world beats and Kristin music, and by two assistants who “cleared” our auras of the old energy as it flew off us with giant eagle feathers, this class felt like an expedition into the wilderness of the id. The magic continued with a guided meditation during Savasana to meet our spirit allies and power animals, and hear the lessons they have for us.

I won’t reveal my finds, but assuredly everyone in the class felt shifted, and perhaps a little more wild and free, heading back into the bustle of the conference.

 

—Kelle Walsh

 

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Best Twist Ever

January 15, 2012

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

 

 

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Are You Digitally Distracted?

January 15, 2012

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Yoga for a Broken Heart

January 15, 2012

Photo: Tristan Von Elrik

For years, the fierce, compassionate activist Seane Corn has been bearing witness to humanity’s suffering and strength through her yoga leadership programs, humanitarian service tours, and emotionally moving vinyasa classes. This morning, I had a chance to watch her bear witness to her own deep grief—and to ours—in one of her relatively new workshops, Yoga for a Broken Heart.

“When my father was dying of cancer,” she explained, “he insisted that I begin teaching this class. He even came up with the name.” A yoga teacher himself, he wanted his daughter to help others process the grief that can burden their bodies, their breath, and their hearts. And I would venture to guess that he knew Seane would find a way to process her own grief about his own death by leading this intimate workshop, which blends her own personal stories, group discussion, and a breath-centric vinyasa practice—all designed to bear witness to, and even honor, the transformational quality of grief.

“Your grief is yours, yet universal,” Corn told us. “But if you don’t find a way to release it, it manifests in the form of tension, anger, stress, anxiety. You develop armor that prevents you from living your life authentically and openly.” She presented her own reflections about grief, and yoga’s power to help us slowly and authentically find our way through it.

After sharing several stories about her father’s final year, she opened the floor to the rest of us. One by one, our stories came pouring out—men and women of all ages, revealing painful stories of loved ones lost in a plane crash or killed by a drunk driver, the cheating spouses, the miscarriages, the children lost too early. I was moved by my fellow students’ willingness to bear witness to their own raw heartbreak in front of such a large group of virtual strangers. Somehow, Corn managed to created an intimate environment and hold the space for us to share openly.

Throughout the class, she asked us: “How do you feel in your body?” The answers came: “scared,” “checked out,” “angry,” “sad.” Over and over, she asked us to take in a deep breath, and exhale fully, to release some of the emotion that was building up inside. And although it may sound elementary, it was exactly what we needed.

Next, she led us through a comforting vinyasa practice, which featured nurturing warm-up poses, Sun Salutations, and a few classic heart-openers such as Camel Pose and Pigeon. “Let’s dedicate every movement and every breath to the story of our grief—to our lovers, our parents, our children and our pets—all the beings that have brought us to our knees, who have opened our souls,” she said. “They are our teachers, our spirit guides, and we wish them nothing but peace and happiness, forgiveness and strength as they continue forward in their journey.”

I can’t imagine what it’s like to lead a class for people who are grieving that is based around the stories of your own father’s painful illness and death. But I admire Seane Corn’s courage and her willingness to share what she’s learned about yoga and grief with others in the yoga community. “Grief transforms us,” she said. “It will make you love better than anything you ever have imagined.”

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Ashtanga’s Greatest Hits

January 15, 2012

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




 

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Rodney Yee Calls for Yoga in Healthcare

January 14, 2012

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

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