Yoga Gypsy

When in Africa...

2011-08-08T11:46:00.000+09:00

I recently had the opportunity to travel to the Ivory Coast, to document some of the responses to the ongoing humanitarian crisis there - the result of post-election violence that ripped through the country late last year and early this year.

Despite the sombre reasons for my going, here are a few images that remind me what it's all about...

Don't forget that as you are reading this - sipping coffee or tea, sitting in a chair surrounded by your loved ones and many blessings - over 12 million people in the Horn of Africa are in desperate need of humanitarian aid. PLEASE head on over to your nearest charity website today and make a donation - no matter how small, every little tiny bit helps. It costs only 50 cents to feed a child for a day - $20 could provide water for 90 people for a day - and only $40 could feed a child for an entire month. You CAN make a difference - please do!

(yogic) reasons to buy fair trade

2011-07-19T05:22:00.000+09:00

With the natural introspection that comes from an economic recession, the "buy local" movement is gaining momentum. However, there are a lot of good things in life that simply don't come "local", at least not in these temperate climes! Tea, coffee, cotton, silk, spices, chocolate... to name just a few! Now, we could live without them... Nah, who am I kidding?! In any case, I don't believe that boycotting imported goods is really a good thing, since on the other side of those goods is another human being who depends on trade for their livelihood. I do, however, believe that those people, just like me, should be paid a fair and decent wage for their work - enough to support their families and invest in their futures.

According to the UK's FairTrade foundation: "Fairtrade is about better prices, decent working conditions, local sustainability, and fair terms of trade for farmers and workers in the developing world. By requiring companies to pay sustainable prices (which must never fall lower than the market price), Fairtrade addresses the injustices of conventional trade, which traditionally discriminates against the poorest, weakest producers."

From a yogic perspective, I look at buying fair trade as an expression of the yama of Asteya, or non-stealing. When we buy goods that are sourced through exploitation, we are complicit in a form of "theft" - taking people's time and the fruits of their work without compensation.

Fair trade goods are likely to be more expensive than their regular competitors, but I like to think that when I buy my tea or coffee at fair trade prices, I am likely to value it more and use it more wisely, recognizing that it was produced by another person, halfway around the world, and that in some small way, that connects us.

Does FairTrade really make a difference? I think so. A few months ago I was lucky enough to attend a small lecture at Oxfam. The guest speakers were two women from Ghana, who are members of the Kuapa Kokoo cocoa-producing cooperative. They earn their living and support their families (and extended families) purely on producing and selling cocoa, that is turned into chocolate. Kuapa Kokoo is even more special than most - the cocoa farmers in the cooperative also earn a 45% share in Divine Chocolate, the company that turns the cocoa into (delicious!) chocolate and nets the profits from consumers.

The women who spoke to us told us what a difference fair trade prices, and dividends from the chocolate sales, make to their lives. One woman was supporting her sister's 3 orphaned children, and the other was paying for her younger siblings to go to University. Both women owned their own land - a rarity in West Africa as well as many other parts of the world.

So yes, I think fair trade makes a difference. And if the world is our backyard, then behind each of those products there is also a "local" farmer or producer, who depends on that commodity for their livelihood - to build their house, feed and clothe their children, and build a better future.

In the UK, fair trade goods are marked with the distinctive symbol. And while fair trade coffee, tea and chocolate are fairly easy to come by, other commodities like cotton are not yet consistently marked. However you can find fair trade lines at many major shops these days - including of course, the fabulous online Oxfam shop! And although the prices are high, at least when you buy fair trade goods, you know that you money is actually going to go to the producer, and not to the middle-man. It is a good test of our commitment to the yogic principle of generosity!

Every little bit helps

2011-07-12T06:36:00.000+09:00

It may not be as dramatic as an earthquake or a tsunami, in terms of making the news. But the drought in East Africa could affect over 10 million people - that's more than 3 times the number affected by the earthquake in Haiti.

Every little bit helps - please donate.

(Warning - this video contains some pretty disturbing images - the kind that are real. And happening. To people. Just like you and me.)

Q&A

2011-07-02T06:05:00.000+09:00

Last week, I gave you a gorgeous print from Eliza at ArtAsana. Having got in touch, she asked me some questions, which I answered, and I thought I would share.

Want to spread the love? Answer them yourself, and link back to Eliza at ArtAsana! The questions are:

1) What's the biggest frustration in your yoga practice or life experience right now?

2) What do you most want to achieve from your your yoga practice or life? By when?

3) What do you think you need in order to reach your goal?

4) What strategies have you tried that have and have not worked?

5) What would it feel like to have your biggest frustration handled?

6) What will it cost you not to have this frustration handled? Any fears come up?

Here are my answers... what are yours?

1) What's the biggest frustration in your yoga practice or life experience right now?

Wow, this is a huge question. I think that yoga mirrors life (and not the other way around, 'cause that would be a bit obsessive!). I think my biggest frustration in my life at the moment is the gap between what I want my life to be like, and what it actually is at the moment. And I think the same applies to my yoga practice. Practically speaking, I find it hard to balance my desire to practice yoga and grow and evolve, and devote time to that practice, with my need to work and also live my life! The result is that I'm often too tired or busy to practice as much as I would like and to push my body as much as I push my mind. But at the same time, I love my job and so I just have to accept that it's a balancing act.

I think it's important to remember that the goals that we have are a moving target, and sometimes it takes time to adjust. The things that I want now, I didn't want a few years ago. And vice versa a few years from now. In yoga, the things that were important to me a few years ago are no longer relevant. We evolve, our practice evolves, our dreams evolve, and it's the most natural and inevitable thing in the world. I remember when I spent an entire year absolutely torturing myself trying to learn handstand. It was SO hard, and so full of fear and emotion for me. And when I finally got it, after SO much work... Well, handstand is not even important to me anymore. Because it was never really about the pose in the first place.

2) What do you most want to achieve from your your yoga practice or life? By when?

There was this book that I read when I was a kid, it was called "The Big Orange Splot". Bear with me here. ;) In the book, this guy lives on a street where all the houses look exactly the same. And then one day, by accident, a bird drops this bucket of paint on his house, and it makes a big orange splot. And he gets inspired and starts to transform his whole house into a tropical paradise, and he says about it: "my house is me, and I am it, and it looks like all my dreams." That's what I want from my yoga practice.

3) What do you think you need in order to reach your goal?

Well, orange paint alone probably isn't going to do the trick... I think the biggest thing that we need to realise our dreams is self-realisation, awareness of what we really want. We need to dig through all the stories we tell ourselves, all the mind-games and justifications, and get down to the heart of what we really want and need in life. We need to be honest, and to be honest we need to be brave, and to be brave we need support and love and probably a lot of tea and chocolate (i.e. self-nurture)! Yoga - whatever your yoga is - helps us do that. As do good friends (the kind who ask you hard questions and don't let you avoid the answers), family, good relationships, and a little dose of those higher powers who put just the right obstacles and opportunities in our way. So really I guess all we need is an open mind and an open heart.

4) What strategies have you tried that have and have not worked?

I can't categorically say that anything I've ever tried "has not worked". I have learned something from everything I have done. However, I can say that self-delusion, avoidance, making excuses, lying to myself and others, and running away from hard choices have pretty much only led to disappointment and wasted a whole lot of my time - duh.

5) What would it feel like to have your biggest frustration handled?

I'm not really sure what you mean by handled - I don't think anyone else could just make my frustrations go away - but maybe that's just me, "lone hero" syndrome and all. Seriously though, I just don't believe in easy solutions, especially not in life - or in yoga. Nobody can just magically transpose meditational zen onto you. You have to just do the work, and deal with that. Besides, we are human - there will always be another frustration around the corner!

6) What will it cost you not to have this frustration handled? Any fears come up?

The cost of not resolving issues - too high to think about. Stagnation. Unhappiness. Unbearable waste of short, precious time on this planet. There are some journeys that we have to go through, but there is also a time and a place for everything. Even hard things need to have boundaries. Some of those will be in days, some in months or years. Some things will never go away, just be transformed or absorbed. But we must change, we must evolve! Otherwise we are missing the opportunity that is our fortunate, fortunate life on this beautiful planet.

Rooting, rising

2011-06-22T05:05:00.000+09:00

It's hard to believe how fast June is flying! Hard to believe that I left East Timor nearly 6 full months ago. It's funny, because in my mind I have a vision of it, just as I left it. But of course, things change, and nothing ever stays the way you left it.

This week the teacher who took over my yoga classes back there has left, and there is nobody to take over. It's funny how bittersweet that feels - sweet for all the memories, and sad that (and yes, I am coming a bit late to the party here) a yoga era is over.

Maybe the first class you teach is like a first love - there is something innocent, naive, and absolutely enthralling about it. I can look back on it and chart my evolution as a teacher, remembering the things I tried, the mistakes I made, the lessons I learned, and the inspiring yogis and yoginis who I shared a small, sweaty room with 2-3 times a week for those years. No matter where I go in the world, every time I teach, I will carry those classes with me.

We are rooted in the past, and from it we grow, change, stretch, bloom. So I guess although things change, they are not lost - they carry on. Namaste to all my Dili students - I miss you!

[To illustrate this post, I found this amazing work by Eliza over at artasana.com - check her out! The title of this piece is "Rooting, Rising", from which I also borrowed the title of this post. It feels serendipitous!]

Perception vs reality

2011-06-17T03:57:00.000+09:00

Before watching the video, ask yourself:

What do you think about spending on overseas aid?
How much do you think your country spends on overseas aid as a percent of GDP?
What impact do you think this makes?

Now watch the video:

Perception vs. reality... Thoughts? I have a lot to say about this but I want to start by opening it up!

Because no 2 yogis are alike!

2011-06-16T02:48:00.000+09:00

After my class yesterday, I stayed late to ask a question on a difficult transition that we had practiced, that I have been trying - and failing! - for months (titibasana to bakasana, if anyone wants to offer some tips...). The teacher looked me over and said something to the effect of: "well, I'm not surprised it's difficult, since your legs are so long!" Which is true - my legs are quite long in proportion to the rest of my body.

This led us to the discussion of how, indeed, no 2 yogis are alike. We come in all different shapes and sizes, we are of different genders, ages and attitudes. And so when it comes to yoga, there is only so much you can learn from another person's practice, another person's experience. At the end of the day, you have to figure out what works for YOU.

Yet another reason why it's so important to try and develop our OWN practice - no matter what that practice is, and to understand that teachers are guides, not gods. Whether it's asana, pranayama, yama or niyama, the steps and the answers are different for each and every one of us. In the meantime, I'll keep on kicking back my long legs in hopes that one day they will land where they're meant to!

Slow & steady wins the race?

2011-06-09T04:46:00.001+09:00

After a 3-month dry spell since my last class experience, this week I managed to get to not one but two yoga classes!

Neither class was any one particular style, but both were quite different from my usual Ashtanga-based practice. The first class was a 2-hour intermediate class. It wasn't exactly Iyengar, but definitely Iyengar-inspired. The class began with a 15-minute free period to practice any poses we wanted and get personalised instruction, and also to practice headstand/handstand/arm balances, which weren't included in the rest of the class. Interesting! I have to say that I am more of an inversions-at-the-end-of-practice kind of girl, but that is usually for my morning practice. For an evening class, I can kind of see the logic of starting off with something strong and energising like a handstand - although headstand without warming up, I'm not so sure about. Thoughts, anyone?

The rest of the class was a slow-paced flow through some standard & challenging standing poses including a new variation of a balancing downward-facing dog, and a nice long seated session. The teacher was present and open and gave me some nice tips on alignment and keeping my bandhas.

Tonight's class was a hatha class with quite a bit of strengthening work (I'm feeling my triceps already...) and some slow ayurvedic flow sequences (if anyone is familiar with Mukunda Stiles, the teacher studied yoga therapy with him - lucky!).

Both of these are a radical departure from my usual practice. But they say that the universe provides you not with what you want, but with what you need (I think the Rolling Stones said it best actually!). So maybe this is a sign for me to slow down and work more seriously on my technique - at least a few times a week! Or... considering that those two classes set me back 18 pounds - a whopping 30 US dollars... maybe a few times a month!

First studio class in Oxford

2011-05-17T06:52:00.000+09:00

Well, actually this was a while ago, but life has been moving so fast lately, in lots of lovely ways, and I have been working and traveling for work which has kept me busy and away from blogging!

Anyway, studio class #1 was a led Ashtanga primary at a small studio in North Oxford. Which had the first disadvantage of being nowhere near where I live. Undeterred, I cycled the 25 minutes up there with my 8lb yoga mat on my back!

Entering the class, I found the studio space to be a simple room, small-ish, but charming. The teacher was a young woman who was sitting at the front of the room. When I came in, she was speaking to a middle-aged man. I stripped off my outdoor clothes and set up my mat, and waited for a chance to introduce myself. To no avail. So I spent the first 10 minutes of the class listening (hard not to, in such a small room) to this closed conversation being held in public. Class came, class went. After class - same thing!! I didn't know how much the class cost, and had to wait, along with a few other students, for 5-6 minutes before the teacher broke her (very earnest indeed) conversation with this same student for a brief instant to inform me of the price!

The class itself was nothing special. Primary is primary, and while the teacher was a very talented asana-ist - and it is always wonderful and motivating to see super-strong yoginis doing amazing things! - the teaching itself was a bit awkward and wooden, slow in some places, fast in others, unequal holds on different sides. I give her the benefit of the doubt in assuming that she was new to teaching, and nonetheless I enjoyed the practice. She also gave me some very nice adjustments. But will I be going back to pay my £10 (US $16) there? I think not.

After so many years of a home practice, it was an interesting reminder of the dynamics of a studio class, and of just how important a teacher's attitude is in setting the atmosphere for a practice. I know I have been guilty of having one-on-one conversations before a class - and my first forays at teaching don't even bear thinking about in terms of unequal holds, mixing up left and right, forgetting poses, and all those things.

Tomorrow night - work and general tiredness levels permitting - I'm going to try an intermediate class that has me hoping for better! First of all it is only a 5 minute cycle from my apartment. Second, when I emailed the teacher she answered the same day and told me that she had trouble describing what type of yoga she taught, but that it would be very active, with breathing and meditation to start, and 10 mins of relaxation at the end. Sounds like just what I need!

Readers, what are some studio dynamics you have experienced lately?

Flavours of spring in the North

2011-04-07T05:37:00.000+09:00

Photo by ItchyFeet Photography - I passed this tree on my way to work everyday!

Oh, seasons! I remember how much I love them. Having been in the tropics for the last 7 years, my notion of seasons had been completely forgotten and constrained to hot&wet, hot&dry.

So the glorious unfolding of Spring in the northern hemisphere is a revelation. Flowers. Temperate mornings and the sun on your face. The freshness of the air filling your lungs like air after a long dive underwater. Oh, my.

My first spring in 7 years - hard to believe how time accumulates like that. I suppose it's what they call growing up (in the sense that I won't really be grown up until I am about 89) - when a timeframe like that can sneak up on you.

So much change, so much uncertainty, and yet spring reminds us to stay rooted in the things - and people - we love, to appreciate a moment of sunshine on our faces, to stay grounded while still growing.

How is your Spring?

5 Simple Stretches to ease Shoulder Pain

2011-03-27T03:28:00.000+09:00

A while ago I did a post with some simple stretches to ease back pain. Recently I got a comment on that post asking for something similar for shoulders - et voila!

I think most of us who work at desks have a tendency to hunch up and hunker down over our keyboards, and obviously all the stretching in the world can't replace good posture and a healthy work space! If you are working long hours in the office, make sure to take regular breaks and walk around, swing your arms, roll your shoulders, and stretch a bit!

Here are a few really simple stretches that can help. They work really well as a little flow, but can be done individually as well - and best of all, they can be done in your chair while at work.

*If clasping your hands together isn't comfortable in some of these poses, try using a small length of fabric - a strap, belt or even a teatowel - and you will get a great stretch!

1. Start by sitting up straight with both feet evenly planted on the floor (or both sitting bones if you are sitting on the floor). Bring your hands beside you, or even better, underneath you and take 5 deep breaths while you focus on dropping the shoulders down as far away as you can from your ears. Then:

2. Inhale, and reach your arms up overhead. Clasp the fingers together and turn the palms upwards*. Now bring your focus back to the shoulders and again, try to drop them away from your ears while still lengthening upwards through the crown of your head. Hold for 5 breaths or about 30 seconds.

3. Release your hands and bring them down behind you. Once again interlace the fingers behind your back*, and gently lift your hands away from your lower back until you feel a nice stretch. Hold for 5 breaths or about 30 seconds.

4. Release your arms and stretch them out in front of you, palms up. Then, cross one arm over the other, above the elbow. Bend the bottom arm (bringing your hand towards the ceiling) and gently pull the outstretched arm to that side. Hold for 5 breaths and repeat on the other side. If you have more flexibility in your shoulders, you can also try Eagle arms, also pictured.

5. Bring one hand to your shoulder, palm up. Stretch the other arm all the way up to the ceiling and then bend it at the elbow, clasping your hands together*. Now from the hand on the shoulder, gently pull until you feel a good stretch, then hold. Try holding about 30 seconds on each side.

Hope these help! Readers, what little stretches feel great for your shoulders?

Yoga for the Road (or a long-haul flight!)

2011-03-05T21:17:00.000+09:00

Hello, remember me?

In case you have been wondering where I have been, the title of this post might give it away... With my new job comes travel, including some of that most-dreaded type: the long-haul flight.

As I have gotten older (can you hear my bones creaking?) I have begun to like flying less and less. Especially long haul. The sheer exhaustion of going through airports, hauling luggage, the over-stimulation of the commercialised limbo that lies between the security check and the gate, and of course all of that only to find yourself packed like a sardine into a flying bus.

And is it just me, but have economy seats gotten smaller and closer together over the years? Meaning less leg room, arm room, and room in general!

Now there is really no way that sitting in a cramped chair with limited room to move for say 10, 11 or 14 (!!!!!!) hours is going to make your body happy. Couple that with the time difference, dehydration and odd meal times/intervals, and no wonder you get to the other end feeling like you've survived a train wreck or just woken up from a coma. And the back pain from my scoliosis doesn't help in the least.

Not to mention, of course, the psychological drama of spending 14 hours knowing that you're 33-thousand-feet up in THIN AIR. I mean, why do they even TELL you that stuff?

As my physical and anxious discomfort over flying have grown over the years, so, it seems, has my need to travel. In fact, in the first 6 months of 2011 I will fly long-haul at least 4 times, med-haul about 6, and do a few short hops as well, just for fun. Bleurgh (which is not a word, but it should be).

So how does all this relate to yoga? Well it doesn't I suppose, but I do. As many other travellers have testified, I have found yoga to be super helpful in dealing with both the physical and mental discomforts of long journeys - whether by plane, train or automobile! Here are a few things that I have found helpful:

Practice before you go: Doing yoga the day before or the day of a long trip makes a huge difference to how my body feels. If I go into the trip well stretched, I seem to come out of it a lot better off.
Drink a lot: The air in airplanes is really dry and dehydrating. Bring an empty water bottle through security and fill it up, or buy one once inside, and make sure you keep drinking regularly through the flight. Avoid too much alcohol or coffee because these dehydrate you even more. And if you, like me, process your water quickly and often - do the decent thing and get an aisle seat!
Pranayama: In case of anxiety, close your eyes and spend 5 minutes or so with your favourite pranayama. Alternate nostril breathing is a good one. Alternately, chant a mantra (even if just in your head). I know, it sounds silly, but it's really very soothing. A few om's go a long way at 33 thousand feet.

Tune in next time for asanas for airplanes! Happy Saturday everyone!

Vinyasa for core strength - a vodcast!

2011-02-06T23:30:00.001+09:00

In my post last week on teaching, I mentioned that one way I have learned to integrate core work into a class is to include it in a flow sequence.

So today I thought I would show you my favourite, which is a little flow sequence that was taught to me by my Mom! It's a mobile phone video so sorry if it's a bit grainy and hard to hear, but there you have it!

Hope you enjoy!

TGI Friday blanks

2011-02-05T05:33:00.001+09:00

Thanks to everyone who has commented on my last post about learning from teaching, and keep it coming! I'm seeing you into the weekend with some more photographs from scenic Oxford...

and of course a few blanks courtesy of Lauren to ease the transition into the weekend!

1. If I could only read one magazine publication for the rest of eternity, I would choose National Geographic. Absolutely no contest! It's my favourite read ever.

2. If I were to run my own magazine it would be a lot of hard work! Seriously, hats off to those guys!

3. I buy my magazines (at the grocery check stand or via subscription) at airports. It's almost the only place I buy a magazine.

4. I prefer my magazines (in print or online) Oh, this is too hard, I am split down the middle. Yes, I love the tangibility of a glossy paper magazine. But I am crazy about the new features in electronic magazines like interactive pages, videos etc. I get so excited about it, ooohs and aaaahs all around!

5. The number of magazines I buy each month is not even 1, I buy one maybe every few months. I like subscriptions where it's just a lovely surprise when one arrives!

6. My favorite magazine genre is (lifestyle, gossip, home, etc...) National geographic, does that count as a genre all by itself? ;)

7. The magazines I read regularly are Nat geo and yoga journal... and that's pretty much it!

Have a great weekend everyone!

10 things I have learned about teaching yoga

2011-02-02T06:58:00.000+09:00

All around the yoga blogspshere, yoga teachers are lurking! Some of us blog openly, how many others are just reading a bit here, a bit there?

Since moving to Oxford I am on a teaching hiatus, and it has given me time to reflect on the joys and the challenges of being a yoga teacher. Here are a few things I can say I've learned, in no particular order. Enjoy! Share! Comment!

1. "Don't make it up": [This is an unforgettable quote from my own teacher. It's hard for me to convey just how many things are summed up by this, but I'll try to scrape the tip of the iceberg.] Yoga is a system. It is tried, tested and it has worked for thousands of people, possibly for thousands of years. There are fountains of knowledge available about it, and incredible teachers who transmit it. What this quote means to me is: Immerse yourself. Dig deep. Get to really know - and experience - what you are teaching and assimilate what you have learned in order to pass it on. Because when you teach yoga you are reaching into people's sacred spaces - their bodies, their health, their wellbeing, their souls. Respect that and teach what works, with that honour code etched always in the forefront of your mind. Don't make it up.

2. Don't be afraid if you don't know: There has been a lot of blogging about the role of the teacher and the pedestals that we risk putting ourselves on or being put on. When put in the position of the teacher, it's natural to want to be able to answer every question our students ask us. And they will ask questions - hard questions! Left-field questions! Sometimes you will be able to answer confidently. But when a question leaves you with your mouth opening and closing again - don't be afraid to say those 3 little words: "I don't know". Maybe even follow them by: "but I'll find out for you!".

There is also another type of question that yoga teachers get asked - deeply personal questions, the soul-searching ones that really, nobody can answer except the student themselves. When confronted with these I've found that the best answer is to reassure people that what they're feeling is normal, and remind your student that yoga is experiential, that their personal experience is just as valid as anything I could offer, and that it's up to them to make their own choices and decisions.

3. Speak up! I think this one is self-explanatory: when teaching, project, project and project some more! As with the theatre, when you teach yoga, especially if you teach to music, remember that when you speak you should be facing the class (not the floor or the wall!) and to look up and back while you speak to make sure everyone can hear you. If you do always teach to music, try teaching without it (even an imaginary class will do) - you will suddenly be aware of just how important your voice is, both in speech and in silence, in creating the mood and energy of the class.

4. Demonstration is a tool, not a teaching. Demonstrations are great and valuable tools. But demonstrating every single pose in front of the class is not the same as teaching! If students want a guided practice, they can get a DVD - your role as a teacher is to teach, not just to lead. (Hey, we all start out there... it takes time, too right?) A good example is downward facing dog. If you are leading your class through this pose and at the same time demonstrating it, who benefits from this? After all, from this pose, you can't see your students, and they can't see you (or hear you, likely)! So use demonstrations as a tool, but let it be just one of many tools in your teacher's bag of tricks.

5. Smile. Laugh! Play! Be silly! And encourage your students to do the same. Yoga is supposed to be relaxing, and people relax when they are having fun and feel comfortable. Let your sense of humour shine through and have a good time - the chances are that if you do, your students will too.

6. To adjust or not? - Have the discussion. This is such a huge question for teachers, students and the yoga community in general. What I have learned is this: whatever you choose, share it with your students. If you are going to adjust, explain it to them and give them a chance to opt out of it if they want one. If you are not going to, explain it to them also, and give them other ways to get your feedback on their asanas.

7. Don't ignore the core! Core strength is fundamental to every yoga pose. Whether expressed through a subtle understanding of mula bandha or a rocking navasana, the key is always in the core. And yet, so many teachers shy away from core strengtheners because we dread the pained looks on our students faces! Something that works for me is to work the core into verbal cues in standing poses like Tadasana, Warrior II, Utkatasana or Tree pose. Also, if you teach Vinyasa or any type of flow, you can integrate your core work into a vinyasa so it doesn't feel like such a slog.

8. Stay rooted in your own practice. As I said earlier, yoga is experiential. We can only teach what we know about yoga, and we can only know by doing. When we first start teaching we have to struggle to maintain our own practice, and many teachers fall into the trap of using their classes as personal practice times. But as a teacher we still need to be taught, to learn, to grow, and to explore. The more you practice, the richer your teachings will be, and the more you will evolve as a teacher, keeping your students interested and constantly learning as well. Maybe this is the most important thing of all!

9. Teach yoga, not just asana. We all know that yoga is so much more than asana. But do our students? I'm not saying that we should all get preachy every class. But I do find that when I am inspired to branch out onto a yoga philosophy tangent, people are interested and want to know more. So many teachers I know are afraid of bringing a spiritual element into their classrooms. And if yoga isn't spiritual in any way for you, then that's how it should be. But if yoga is transformational for you, share it. It doesn't have to be a philosophy lecture. Teach the little things - like stress-busting yoga poses you do at work or pranayama for road rage. Talk about how santosha can manifest through everyday acts of kindness, or how ahimsa might lead you to improve your diet. Just as yoga creeps into every aspect of your life, let these aspects feed back into your teaching

10. Be yourself! By far the most important of all - teach what you love, and teach from the heart. We all have teachers that we aspire to be like, but at the end of the day, yoga is really just all about being yourself. So dance if you love dancing, chant if you love chanting, play music if you love music, or don't if you love silence. The best teachers are the authentic ones.

Well, those are some of the things that have been on my mind about teaching... Readers, can you add any lessons you have learned from teaching or being taught, or relate from personal experience?

The miracle fibre (plus blanks)

2011-01-29T05:51:00.000+09:00

Well, in my recent weeks since moving to England I am discovering what the Brits, Scots and Welsh have known for centuries: Wool.

Now, we do get the occasional (quite straggly and rather hot-looking) sheep in the tropics but given the heat, of course nobody needs to wear wool. So upon coming to the UK I have been delighting in building up a wardrobe full of lovely knitted things. It's warm, it's fuzzy, it's knitted!

In this part of the world, wool has a long and lauded history. People get downright poetic when it comes to their wool, like the lovely folk at www.sheepcentre.co.uk, who say:

"It is a fibre fit for heroes-and for more ordinary folk. As modern as moonflight, and as ancient as the hills.
Man can never match it. No other material, natural or man-made, has all its qualities. "

Now isn't that lovely?

In the way that students sometimes surpass their masters, the folks over in New Zealand have taken the craft one step further with the wool from Merino sheep. The folks over at Icebreaker call it "the miracle fibre". Merino wool is breathable, machine-washable, dries quickly and doesn't retain odours - so they have made it into a year round fibre. Yes, that's right - not just winter wear, but merino traveling t-shirts, tank tops and sports wear, spun so fine it could almost be cotton - but drier! And here's the yoga link: I have a tank top of their thinnest wool and I have even done yoga in it... in 36 degrees!

The best part - it's 100% animal friendly (all the Merino sheep in New Zealand live to their natural lifespan, unlike a lot of wool producing sheep in other places), environmentally ethical (read about it onn their website) 100% biodegradable, and long-lasting.

Icebreaker adds one more little extra: what they call the "Baacode" - a unique code that links your product to your very own Merino sheep-donor!! You can track your individual garment to the sheep station(s) that it originally came from, Cool.

Guess now all I have to do is take up knitting!

Perhaps instead I'll fill in the blanks...

1.   If my house was on fire and I could only grab 3 things I would grab: My cat, my laptop and I guess my passport!

2. A smell I really like is: vanilla. Yum!

3. Something you might not know about me is: I have rosacea, a skin condition that in the extreme causes people to have constantly red, chapped skin, especially cheeks. It can be really aggravated by diet, so to manage it I avoid red wine, all hard alcohol and liqueurs, and don't eat too many red berries. (Not an issue in the tropics but a bit harder here!)

4.  Some of my favorite websites to putter about on are: yoga blogs of course!

5. This weekend I will: be chilling in Oxford and hopefully taking my new camera out for a shoot!

6. Nothing makes me happier than: love! Sunshine! Fluffy kittens! LOL. Actually I'm quite easily contented.

7.  A bad habit I have is: burying my head in the sand in the hopes that if I ignore things, they will go away. It doesn't work. ;)

Do you love wool?

In pictures: Oxford in Winter

2011-01-22T18:31:00.000+09:00

Wow, how did it get to be the weekend already again? This week has been exceptionally busy, and although I did manage to get in a few morning practices they were a bit rushed and not quite satisfying.

An update on yoga in the cold: I have been layering up and adding extra sun salutations to warm up my body in the chilly temperatures. It is still so strange to practice in full clothes (long pants, long sleeves!) and not be drenched in sweat! I am still struggling to get up early enough to get in a proper practice before work - but really that's not about cold, just about discipline!

This weekend I have some errands to run and I am actually going to try and rest and relax for the first real time since I landed here just over 2 weeks ago. Here are some pictures for you to enjoy, artistically rendered by my trusty phone. ;)

Fill in the Blank Fridays!

2011-01-15T04:50:00.000+09:00

This weeks blanks from Lauren is about happiness and a few other things. Which is a nice theme because we can always benefit from taking the time to step back and reflect on the things that make us happy and unhappy in our lives.

Reflection is the first step towards change I guess - living life consciously, pro-actively seeking out the things that make us happy instead of living in a state of reactivity. I am finding that with this move across the world, into the cold and dark, it is hard to focus on the good things and stay positive. But I have to remember how blessed I am to have people who love and support me, a job in these tough times, and the chance to take on new professional challenges and learn new things!

Hope everyone has an excellent weekend!

1. I feel happy when the sun shines. Seriously, a little sunshine can just make my heart soar these days!

2. I get silly when I'm with my sister! We both do - I don't know how anyone puts up with us!

3. Something that makes me sad is being far away from the people I love. This is so, so hard right now.

4. Something that makes me annoyed is when buses are supposed to come and then don't, and you are left standing in the cold for ages!

5. A time that I've been truly surprised was when my cat brought a fair sized rat into the house. Ick!!!

6. I am so thankful for far too many things to list here! Among them my community back in Timor, the beautiful flowers a special person sent me this week, and the fact that it's Friday!

7. I feel loved all the time. Because I am! How lucky am I?!

Yoga in the cold

2011-01-14T03:50:00.000+09:00

Hello yogis!

Well, one of the biggest changes in moving to England from the tropics is, of course, the weather! One of the biggest shocks is the late sunrise - I practice yoga in the mornings and it has been hard to motivate myself to get out of bed and practice in the dark! I am used to the sun actually rising during sun salutations...

So, you readers who have experience in seasonal yoga, I asked the question on Twitter and will ask here again:

How do you motivate yourself to practice in winter?

I can't wait to read your responses!

The Gypsy has Landed

2011-01-08T00:53:00.000+09:00

I know it's been a while since my last post, and to all those who commented and kept on visiting, I really appreciate it!

Not in Kansas anymore!

So, I have landed in Oxford England, far from my tropical home. Just about as far as you could get in terms of weather, culture and development! I am here to work for Oxfam, so through that I will at least still be in touch with my beloved tropics and life in what some people might call "the majority world" - that is, the parts of the Earth where the majority of the population of our planet live.

Perhaps you have seen this before:

If the world were a village of 100 people:

61 would be Asians, 12 Europeans, 8 North Americans, 5 South American and the Caribbean, 13 would be Africans and 1 would be from Oceania.

20 people own 75% of the entire world income.

80 would live in substandard housing

24 would not have any electricity (And of the 76% that do have electricity, most would only use it for light at night.)

67 would be unable to read.

Only 1 would have a university education.

50 would be malnourished and 1 dying of starvation.

33 would be without access to a safe water supply.

What always strikes me when I return to Europe or North America is just how much we take for granted the privileges of our every day lives. We view these things not as a luxury, but as a basic entitlement: housing, running water, education. In our commercialized world, we buy goods without thinking of whether or not we really NEED them. In some places people have to count every penny they earn and spend, feeding their families on less than the equivalent of $1 or $2 per day.

Today as I wandered the streets of my new home - exploring, shopping (sweaters! socks!), walking, I can't help but feeling like a stranger in a strange land, or like the children from the Chronicles of Narnia - knowing there is another world out there that most people are completely unaware of. The challenge for me will be to exist in this world mindfully - and that is where yoga will help me!

Stay tuned for more Yoga Gypsy as I discover the yoga scene in Oxford, become a yoga student again, and keep on reflecting on learning and teaching yoga, as well as development issues, mindful consumerism and a whole lot more.

It's going to be a great 2011 folks!!

~Namaste

PS: Cool bit of trivia - Amsterdam's Schipol airport has a meditation centre! How awesome is that?

Yoga Gypsy: A year in Review

2010-12-14T17:43:00.000+09:00

First of all, I apologize for being an infrequent poster of late! There are big things afoot here, namely that in 2 days I am leaving East Timor, my home for the past 6.5 years, to take up a job in Oxford, England! It is a temporary move - until August next year - but a big one nonetheless as I will be moving across continents, hemispheres and, of course, climates.

Once I'm there I'll be working for Oxfam on an inter-NGO humanitarian coordination programme, which is pretty exciting. And of course, I will continue to delve into my yoga both in real life and on this blog!

But as the move has been keeping me pretty busy, my posting will probably be sparse until then. So here is a little end-of-year reading to keep you all busy! I've tried to pick my favourite posts from the previous 11 months this year to give you a Year in the Yoga Gypsy.

Enjoy, happy holidays, and take care!

----------------

Yoga Gypsy - A year in review 2010

January - On Generosity, and how (not to) help in Haiti
February - Adjustments: the magic of touch
March - Yoga sequence for menstrual pain
April - Yoga for Soldiers
May - Yoga for Feet
June - Learning to Fly: Bakasana
July - 8 Goals for Africa
August - What would be your 10 minute yoga?
September - East Timor in pictures
October - Back 2 Basics: 4 simple stretches to ease back ten...
November - The cracks in everything

12 moments - and blanks!

2010-12-04T13:24:00.000+09:00

This week Lauren's blanks are about holidays - what better topic could there be?!

1. Holiday spirit… beaches, sun, and bbq (veggie of course!) - it's Christmas in Oz!

2. The holidays are incomplete without… Friends, food and Champagne! And of course, an exotic travel destination thrown in can never hurt, can it?

3. My favorite things to do around the holidays are: tease my baby about playing loud Christmas carols beginning in mid-November... And although not my favourite thing, my holidays usually involve the great suitcase packing challenge.

4. A holiday tradition my family and I have is Champagne and orange juice for breakfast on Christmas day! And boxing day... and New Year's day...

5. Holiday music is playing in our house, in our car, and everywhere we go. My girl does love her carols! ;)

6. This year, I’ll be spending the holidays with both of my families. I feel very lucky!

7. Holiday wish list if it would stop snowing in Europe and heat up to a nice sensible 24 degrees or so that would be nice... But in absence of a radical climate shift that would bring the tropics to the North, I guess good company, good food and a nice break will do.

12 moments (an exercise in random memory association)

This is a fun little exercise that you might like to try... It's very simple, just write down a number and then the first thing that pops into your head.

1 = number of siblings I have (one little sister!)
2 = eyes, ears, arms and legs. Lucky I am!
3 = beings in my house (2 people and a cat!)
4 = weeks until the new year... how does time fly so fast?
5 = years ago in 2011
6 = first grade, first crush, first time riding the schoolbus
7 = years in the life cycles I map for myself
8 = the number of infinity and Strength
9 = plus twenty, how old I am now!
10 = kleine jagermeister, oh what a headache...
11 = years ago, Timor-Leste voted to be free
12 = little days until I am on my way...

Apologies for the absolutely non-Yoga related post... Have a great weekend everyone!

Just Breathe + Blanks

2010-11-26T22:26:00.001+09:00

This song has been speaking to me lately... it seems to perfectly embody the concept of aparigraha, or non-grasping. Not to mention re-igniting my teenage crush on this amazing voice. There is a lot going on here at the moment and slowly but surely it will be coming out here... In the meantime, sit back and enjoy this beautiful song.

"You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do." ~Eleanor Roosevelt

And for a few blanks, from a few weeks ago!

1. The most spontaneous thing I've ever done was... well, there was that time when two friends and I rented a car on the spur of the moment and drove up to spend the weekend a music festival in the countryside in Quebec. It was pretty darn random, and very fun!

2. The best gift I've ever received was... today. And the day before that. And the one before that. And if I get tomorrow, well, I must be super lucky!

3. A time that I was truly and genuinely surprised was... Drawing a complete blank here! Either that makes me a cynic or just forgetful. Or maybe a bit of both!

4. I can't leave the house without... my car keys? And, at the moment, my favourite blue shoes!

5. My favorite day of the week is Sunday because it generally involves sleeping in, having a huge breakfast, and spending at least the first half of the day being completely lazy. I love it!

6. Something that can always make me laugh is my cat. She is awesome and falls asleep in the cutest positions!

7. My perfect day would include... see 5., above! ;) Add some time spent on or under the water and wrap it up with some cheese, wine, and good company and I think that would just about do it.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Guest Post: A Healing Story

2010-11-15T22:35:00.002+09:00

This week's guest post is by Nikki, who blogs over at Live, Love, Yoga. Check out her blog after reading here about the origins of a strong, creative and super-inspirational yogini and yoga teacher. Thanks for sharing Nikki.

And remember, if you have a story about yoga and healing, please email me to contribute it to this series! lagitane at mac dot com

---------------------------

"Hello World!" was the first thing I programmed when I enrolled in my first

computer science class in college that would later steer me to yoga. As with so
many people, I became a professional desk jock hovering over a computer 8-10
hours a day. The high paying title of Software Engineer also came with high
medical bills as I began to develop symptoms of carpel tunnel syndrome and
suffered with repetitive muscle/strain injury in my right wrist for what felt
like a very long time for 8 months of 2000. The shooting pain that radiated
from my neck straight down to my right arm and down my right leg would keep me
up all night and transformed me into someone with crankiness, unmotivated, and
self-doubt syndrome. You might as well throw in depressed too since everything
I did from simple tasks like pouring a pitcher of water aggravated the
situation.   The solution my company gave me was to give me an ergonomic mouse,
chair, wrist guards and told me to sit up straight. The situation got worse as
the tingling became non-stop. I decided to go see a doctor and get x-rays.
Good news was they didn't see anything wrong physically in my wrists so carpel
tunnel was not physically evident yet. You're fine they say and couldn't
explain why I was in pain.   After I refused to agree that I was imagining my
pain, they prescribed some physical therapy for me that involved massaging my
forearms, ultrasound therapy, parafin wax and some wrist twirling exercises.
These therapies relieved the pain for several hours but the pain would come
right back regardless of what I was doing. After 4 months of therapy, they
basically gave up on me and said I was doing better and that I didn't need
anymore therapy and told me to keep up my exercises.   So I did. And so the
pain continued. Found myself a new doctor and he told me the same thing. I was
so sick of hearing these doctors tell me I was fine, when I wasn't feeling
fine. I decided to seek out alternative healing methods and saw an
acupuncturist who treated my entire right side instead of just my wrist and
forearms. The acupuncture was a slower method of healing, but after many
sessions, I began to feel the effects.

One day, my coworker invited me to a yoga class they had just started at
noontime at work.   I went. It was the utmost unpleasant and pleasant
experience all together. My first down dog was hell! Who would want to stick
their behinds up in the air and put so much strain on the wrist? I stayed and
suffered for the hour. At the end, I left hating and loving yoga all at the
same time. At that time, I couldn't remember when the last time I truly relaxed
and slept like I did in savasana. I decided to come back and thought the
suffering in down dog was well worth the "high" I felt after class.

After doing yoga for several months, I was rewarded with days of no repetitive
muscle strain. I became aware of when the symptoms were going to flare and
would do yoga to counteract it and eventually I was able to heal myself
completely.

This is when my yoga practice would become a distant memory until I became
pregnant with my first child. The aches and pains of pregnancy sent me back to
yoga. The breathing techniques I learned in yoga helped me during child birth
when I decided that "hee haw hee haw hee haw" was a breath that should be used
when I play farm animals with my new baby. Yoga was there for me during
postpartum and I gained my strength and body back within a month. Yoga was
there for me during my 2nd pregnancy and I barely remembered the 2 hour labor
that flashed by.

I eventually left my career as a high techy and am now teaching yoga. I still
get the pains every now and then for no apparent reason that would drive me
insane.   It was not until I completed my level 2 teacher training that
challenged me to look at myself on a more deeper and wholesome level. I went
through my life with a fine tooth comb and questioned everything I did. I
thought I was prescribing to what I thought was "healthy." I exercised,
meditated, and ate what I thought was healthy.   It was not until I met a
nutritionist who intriqued me with his unconventional way of thinking. He
introduced me to metabolic typing nutrition where I should only eat what my body
needs chemically (i.e. how my body metabolizes). So after ten years of enduring
and trying to combat my muscle pains, I healed myself completely and found the
exact cause of my pains within two weeks of being on a metabolic nutrition
plan. I discovered that certain foods were causing muscle inflammation at the
site of an old injury.

Yoga has taken me on a journey of self discovery on all possible levels of
humaness in the physical, mental, and spiritual realms.   At each stage of my
experience, I learned how to tap into the power of my intuition and sharpen my
eye of awareness. Yoga has taught me how to look at my myself as a whole and
not just the nagging pain I often associated myself with. I've learned how to
converse with the sensations in my body and listen to what they are telling
me...granted all this is a work in progress and will continue to be as the
present moment is always recreated.   I love yoga and now when I wake up each
morning, the first thing I think is "Hello World!" with much gratitude and
enthusiasm. I could go on and on about what yoga has done to transform me but it
wouldn't mean a thing if you didn't experience it for yourself.

--------------------

Readers, have you experienced yoga or physiotherapy on an injury? What were the results? Have you ever been in a situation where you tried alternative and modern medicine? How did they compare?

As always I would love to hear your voices in the comments! :) Namaste.

The cracks in everything

2010-11-12T10:46:00.000+09:00

Source

"There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in." - Leonard Cohen

This quote has been making the rounds lately, and it hasn't gone unnoticed by me. The ever-inspiring Marianne Elliott blogged about it here, and it has been sticking in my brain since then.

Here's the thing. The only thing that never changes is that everything changes. (My 10th grade English teacher would be so proud!) But as with all transformation, life doesn't happen in clean, straight lines. Things change rapidly for a while, and then plateau. (Nothing on top but a bucket and a mop...)

On the plateau, the ground is firm beneath you. The world solidifies, and everything goes along as normal. Days, weeks, months, years. And then suddenly, something changes, and the cracks start to appear. Everything we thought we could hold on to subtly shifts, and we have to adapt, or fall through the cracks.

The practice of yoga can help us to learn, by observation, how we personally react to change or challenge. As you strain to keep your breath steady in a Warrior sequence, or as you struggle to stay sane in Reclining Pigeon pose, you are learning about how your body and your mind react to tough situations. Whether you lash out, or curl inwards. Whether you view transformation as doors closing or doors opening. Whether you steam forth without looking or creep cautiously into unknown waters.

Experience gives us hope, for in the end, when the Earth has settled down and you find yourself on a new plateau, the Universe re-balances itself. You find equilibrium in new circumstances. Where only cracks stood before, light shines through.

Readers, what have you learned about how you react to change or challenge?

Pranayama and Pain Relief: A guest post

2010-11-08T12:17:00.002+09:00

This is the first installment in a series of guest posts about Yoga and Healing. Stay tuned for more - and if you have a story to contribute, please get in touch with me: lagitane at mac dot com. ;)

Today's post is special because it looks at how modern science is validating knowledge that both ancient and modern yogis have discovered through their experiences. And even better, it's presented by a *real* scientist! :)

John Fossella PhD is a former neuroscience & genetics scientist who, in May of 2010, decided to stay at home and raise his 2 children. He also started a yoga practice @ Alluem Yoga in Cranford, NJ and so now is just slowly starting to realize the physical and mental benefits of yoga. In the midst of practice, practice and more practice, he wonders just how – in terms of physiological and brain systems – the gradual transformation of the body and mind occurs (or in his case, will hopefully occur) and how the modern scientific view relates to ancient yogic medicine and philosophy. He is blessed to be able to share his practice with his 2 boys who are enrolled in the kids yoga program @ Alluem.

He blogs about his experiences with the practice of yoga over at Sutra Science, and about genetics and self-discovery at Genes to Brains to Mind to Me.

Pranayama destroys all pain and sorrow

In Chapter 8 of B. K. S. Iyengar's Light on Pranayama, he quotes the Bhagavad Gita (VI 17) saying, "Yoga destroys all pain and sorrow". Nice! and this is just one of dozens of poetic and inspiring sentiments that are woven into the otherwise detailed and rigorous methods described by Iyengar for the training of the lungs, diaphragm and intercostal muscles. Although I know the training is extensive and will surely take many years to master, I can't help wonder how much pain and sorrow, realistically, might be alleviated by the mastery of something as basic as - you know - breathing?

How might this work? I mean, pain is something that happens in your body and in your mind. How might mastery of deep and controlled breathing alleviate pain?

It turns out that there is a scientific research journal - Pain - that is dedicated to these types of questions. A recent article, "The effects of slow breathing on affective responses to pain stimuli: An experimental study" [doi:10.1016/j.pain.2009.10.001] by Alex Zautra and colleagues investigates the role of breathing in relief from chronic pain. The authors base their research on a specific neuroanatomical model of emotion and pain regulation:

The homeostatic neuroanatomical model of emotion proposes that the left forebrain is associated predominantly with parasympathetic activity, and thus with nourishment, safety, positive affect, approach (appetitive) behavior, and group-oriented (affiliative) emotions, while the right forebrain is associated predominantly with sympathetic activity, and thus with arousal, danger, negative affect, withdrawal (aversive) behavior, and individual-oriented (survival) emotions. ... The homeostatic neuroanatomical model of emotion suggests that central sensitization of pain in FM patients results in part from a relative deficit of activity in the parasympathetic branch of the ANS required for down-regulation of negative emotion and pain experience.

In basic terms, the researchers suggest that if one can increase activity of the parasympathetic nervous system, then one will experience relief from pain. So they want to evaluate whether deep breathing increases activity of the parasympathetic nervous system? In Chapter 4 of Light on Pranayama (Pranayama and the Respiratory System), Iyengar provides many detailed anatomical drawings of the musculature, skeletal and neural machinery related to breathing, but unfortunately no details on the role of parasympathetic vs. sympathetic nervous systems per se. The authors however, point to a previous study that showed slow breathing increases activation of bronchiopulmonary vagal afferents and produces enhanced heart rate variability, which reflects increased parasympathetic tone - so the scientific evidence points in the right direction.

To test the notion themselves, the investigators asked a group of healthy adult females to wear a small thermal device on the thumb that could be heated and cooled to produce varying levels of moderate discomfort (pain). By asking the volunteers to experience the thermal discomfort when breathing normally vs. breathing in a slower, deeper manner, the investigators could begin to assess whether the experience of pain (a self-reported value between 1 and 11) was different between the two breathing conditions.

The results showed that the volunteers self-reported less pain (given the same amount of thermal stimulation) when performing deep, slow breathing.

Very neat. Perhaps not a surprise to yogis 3,000 years ago nor experienced yogis today, but very exciting to see how the practice of Pranayama can engage a neuroanatomical system for the relief of suffering. In a previous post on the neural stimulation of this system - and its relation to Kundalini - it has become even more clear how potent this system can be!

--------------------------------

Readers, have you ever experienced the effect John talks about, where slow, deep breathing can actually help relieve your pain? What is your experience with Yoga and pain relief?

Reversing the Triangle

2010-11-04T14:22:00.000+09:00

Parvritta Trikonasana - reverse triangle pose. Are you one of many who shudder at the thought of this asana? Reverse triangle is the second standing pose (after the sun salutations) in the Ashtanga primary series, so many ashtangis would consider it one of the basic postures. Yet students and teachers alike shy away from it - and no wonder. Parvritta trikonasana stretches the hamstrings, opens the hips and twists out the middle of your back. The result is an intense - but intensely satisfying - stretch.

PT really came together for me when I worked it with an Iyengar-style instructor. Getting the alignment spot on and breaking down the pose into parts made this previously precarious posture suddenly much more accessible to me - and maybe it could do the same for you! So if you're game, grab a yoga mat, a block (a thick book will do), warm up with a few rounds of sun salutations, and get your om on!

Parvritta Trikonasana

Start with the foundation: your feet! From standing, take a step back with one leg (start with the left leg, usually, but we'll have the right leg back in this case so it matches the photos!). Place your back heel on the mat and turn the toes in so they angle forwards as much as possible.

Now, check your alignment. While some people say that the heel of the front foot should line up with the arch of your back foot, I prefer to have the heels in line at a minimum. Now try to square your hips towards the front. If you can't comfortably do this, walk the forward foot outwards a bit to give yourself a bit more room.

Done? Bring your left hand to your waist and stretch the right arm up. Take 3 breaths here, extending the spine from the waistline up.

Now take a forward bend, grounding through the back heel and lengthening the spine to slowly bring the right hand to the floor inside or outside the right foot. If you can't reach, use a block as shown a few pictures below. Stay here for 3 breaths. Make sure to keep a slight bend in the left knee so as not to overextend the hamstring.

After 3 breaths, bring your left palm to your lower back. Begin to rotate the torso, lifting the left elbow up to the sky and eventually looking up over your left shoulder. Now breathe, and maintain the length in your spine by drawing your chin away from your chest while strongly extending through the back heel.

Et voila! For all purposes of alignment, you're already in the pose! Breathe here, lengthening and twisting. Push the floor or the block away with your right hand and if you want to add a bit of flourish, extend the left arm straight up towards the cieling, finding the full expression of parvritta trikonasana.

What are your experiences with this pose? Teachers, how do you include parvritta trikonasana in your sequencing?

In pictures: where has culture gone?

2010-11-01T12:14:00.000+09:00

Last week I went to a cultural festival at the base of East Timor's highest mountain, Ramelau. The purpose of this amazing gathering was to provide an opportunity for young people from Timor-Leste's 13 diverse districts to come together and showcase their culture. It was a great celebration of Timorese tradition and an opportunity for young people to meet and interact in a way that wouldn't ordinarily be possible.

While day-to-day these young people live in the modern world of jeans, t-shirts, cell phones and mp3 players, their cultural identity is obviously alive and well. It was great to see youth celebrating their tradition so proudly, through the creative means of music and dance.

It was a real festival atmosphere!

Young people from all over the country gathered to show off their talent & traditions

A professional dance troupe combines traditional and modern elements in a celebration of Timorese identity

A woman wears her traditional hand woven (!!) cloth and a bell bracelet.

It made me wistful in many ways for my own lost cultural heritage. What were the dances my ancestors performed to mark the passage of time or special occasions? What were the words they sang, what did they wear? My heritage is mostly British, Scottish and Welsh, yet none of those traditions were passed on down to me. I guess in the New World people made new traditions - but where have those gone? Apart from my tendency to don a cowboy hat when embarking on an adventure, I can't really say that I have carried any of those traditions, either.

I feel that in the Western world, many of us feel the emptiness of this cultural vaccum. We grasp at spiritual traditions from the past, including goddess-worship, paganism, and yes, yoga, we try to create new traditions that we feel reflect our values more than our modern commercialized holidays. These traditions are no longer celebrated on a communal level, but built in isolation around our nuclear-family model.

So much we have lost along the way... I wish this country luck and strength in preserving their amazing cultural identity. What are your cultural or family traditions?

Yoga and Healing: Guest bloggers wanted!

2010-10-26T17:54:00.000+09:00

We have all heard stories of the amazing healing that yoga can bring. In honour of a yoga friend who recently suffered a bad accident, I am going to do a series of posts on yoga and healing - and I need your help!

Whether physical, mental or emotional, whether your story or a loved one's, if you have a yoga and healing story, I want to hear it. I believe that by sharing stories we can inspire each other, and people at any stage of healing can take heart from that inspiration.

Get in touch with me! lagitane at mac dot com

In Pictures: Weekend fun

2010-10-25T17:17:00.000+09:00

Well, it was a mammoth weekend with dolphin-spotting, diving and some big events happening in town (the kind that I probably wouldn't have gone to except for the words "if you really love me then you'll come with me...", and ended up enjoying anyway. ;) ). Peeps, am I getting old? I used to be able to work hard, play hard and still be bright and chirpy Monday morning. Now I feel like I need a weekend from my weekends!

Anyway, onto the pictures:

Dolphins!

Fraser's dolphins, to be specific. Aren't they magical?

A pilot whale takes a dive - they are very shy!

Home made pizza with cherry tomatoes, green pepper and olives for lunch - yummy! To save time, we cheat and use pita-bread for the base. It makes a quick, fresh meal - ingeniously invented by my honey.

So it was a great weekend although exhausting. I missed my morning practice this morning due to not sleeping well last night, so I think I'm going to round off my Monday with a groovy flow practice.

How do you balance work and play?

It's Friday! So I filled in the blanks.

2010-10-22T23:18:00.000+09:00

It's been a busy week readers! Time flies when you're... (fill in the blank! ;) ) working 2 contracts and teaching yoga. :) Time for the weekend, oh yes!

To round off the week I teach a nice slow flow class on Friday evenings. It's the kind of yoga that I love as an evening practice: slow, breath-centered, deep stretching. I've been trying to make the best of my disappointing music purchases of late, and I was fairly happy with my playlist tonight. Still feeling a bit music-starved though!

Anyway, without any further ado... It's fill in the blanks Friday, courtesy of Lauren!

I am... A gypsy girl. Who loves yoga. Go figure!

I wish... that I could see my Grandma more often. Cause I love her but she lives 3 days away by airplane.

I like... the ocean! No, I love the ocean. And all the creatures, big and small, who live in it.

I can... pretty much do whatever I please... and I do NOT take that for granted. It is the most incredible blessing.

I hope... that I see dolphins tomorrow! We are going out on a boat looking for them, and whales too. :D :D

I think... A little bit less than I used to. And I like it this way!

I was... super impressed today with the new solar lamp I bought for my security guards! It comes with a wee solar panel and once fully charged gives off a nice bright beam. Way cool! And totally what we call "appropriate technology", meaning that it's relatively cheap and doesn't require any further investment (like batteries). In addition, low environmental impact (no batteries to throw away) AND... get this - it charges your mobile phone. Bonus!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Back 2 Basics: 4 simple stretches to ease back tension

2010-10-19T09:08:00.001+09:00

It seems that almost everyone I meet (well, everyone over the age of 25, anyway!) has suffered from some sort of backache. Our backs are literally the centre of our lives, through which the spinal column runs. Whether you are aware of it or not, your back muscles are almost always working in some way or another, whether you are sitting, standing, running, walking, and even sometimes when you are sleeping!

A regular yoga practice is a great way to strengthen the muscles in your back in a balanced way. But for immediate relief of some backaches, here are 4 simple stretches for when the tension builds up.

These are restorative stretches, and will have the best effect if you hold them each for about 3-5 minutes, so make sure you are comfortable in each stretch!

[NB, readers: Because of their hard working nature, backs are prone to pain and also to injury. And while I am a certified yoga teacher, I am by no means a back specialist. If you have persistent pain in your back (i.e. the same pain that has lasted for 2 weeks or more), please consult a specialist! Also, if any of these or any other yoga postures seem to make your pain worse, stop straight away and consult someone before you continue your yoga practice.]

You will need: a rolled up yoga mat or rolled up blanket, and some small pillows. I also recommend putting on some blissful music and using an eye pillow for a truly relaxing experience! Use a kitchen timer, mobile phone or a nice chiming app (I like Zen Timer, which has a variety of Tibetan bowl chimes to choose from!) to time your postures for a beautiful back restoring sequence.

If you're feeling stiff, you can warm up your back with Cat & Cow, a few gentle sun salutations, or any other stretches that feel appropriate. You can also use the following sequence to finish off your regular yoga practice.

1. Heart opening stretch

Open the heart and the sides of your back with this easy, relaxing stretch.

Begin sitting on the floor. Place a rolled up yoga mat or blanket lengthwise behind you, with one end at your tailbone.
Gently lie back on the yoga mat or blanket, adjusting the position of the mat or blanket so that your lower back and your head are both comfortably supported (use a pillow under the head if necessary).
Open your arms out to the sides, palms facing upwards, opening your heart up towards the sky.
Breathe deeply in and out. As you inhale, focus the breath into the back of your body, and as you exhale focus on releasing tension and letting the muscles in your back relax completely.
This stretch is great for releasing the muscles that run alongside of your spine.

2. Supine Twists

There are many variations of the supine twist, so try a few and find which one feels right for you and gives you the best release. Here is one simple option.

Supine twists. Keep the left shoulder on the floor and let your knees sink into the pillow.

From the previous pose, gently remove the mat or blanket from underneath you and lie with your back on the ground. Draw your knees in towards your chest and remain here for as many breaths as you like.
When you're ready, stretch your arms out to the sides, palms facing upwards. Inhale and broaden the shoulders. Exhale and gently release both your knees towards the right hand side. For the restorative version of this pose, aim to keep the left shoulder on the ground, using pillows underneath your knees in order to comfortably do so.
When your knees are comfortably supported, gently turn your head towards the left hand side.
Breathe deeply here for 3-5 minutes, and then switch sides.

3. Lengthwise Stretch

Personalise this stretch by moving the mat to find the best spot to release your back!

Sit on your mat and place the rolled up mat or blanket behind you again, but this time place it sideways. Aim to have the mat running sideways just underneath your ribs for starters.
Gently lie back down over the rolled up mat.
On an inhalation, stretch your arms up over your head.
If you find this too intense, you can try resting your hands on a block or pillow to elevate them off the floor. Alternately, do the pose with your hands on your belly or in another comfortable position.
Personalise the stretch by changing the positioning of the support to find the spot that best releases your back. Or, find multiple spots and spend a few minutes in each.

4. Child's pose

Following the lengthwise stretch, round your spine the other way with a nice long child's pose. For maximum comfort use pillows or your blanket/mat placed lengthwise underneath you. Mmmmmm.

Round off with a yummy savasana, meditation or a nice cup of tea.

Readers, what aches plague your backs and how to you release the tension?

Friday blanks

2010-10-15T21:41:00.000+09:00

Oooooh, don't you just love a blank slate? A blank mind? A blank... blank to fill in? Courtesy of Lauren, here are a few filled in blanks. :) And ooooh I do love Fridays!

1. Blogging is... a fun creative outlet and a way to connect with people.

2. A current fashion trend I wish I was brave enough to wear is... well, I am pretty far removed from the fashion world and I have no idea what's hot and what's not. But I can tell you, if I lived in a temperate climate there is only one word: boots. Boots, boots, boots, boots. Sigh...

3. My greatest accomplishment in life thus far is... being me. Seriously. I spent a long time wondering who to be - it took a lot to just be me.

4. If I had to choose between a mountain or a beach vacation I'd choose: mountains! Any day. I loooooove mountains. The cool climate, the amazing scenery, cozy dinners by the fire. (Plus - I live by the beach!)

5. A talent I wish I had is... saying what's on my mind and getting it over with. I'm more the type to mull it over, hold it in, and then mull it over some more. And folks, this usually ends in tears. I wish I could just get it out and then move on - I admire the people who can!

6. A talent I do have is... singing. And I do love it!

7. This week... has been kind of emotionally draining, to be honest. But the weekend is looking good with some sailing, some diving and some time with my sweetie. :)

Well that's all for now peeps... And remember to comment on my last post if you have any musical inspiration for me! Have a great weekend!

Moving to the Music

2010-10-14T21:59:00.000+09:00

We all know that there are 101 ways of practising (and teaching) yoga. Now more than ever yoga is kind of a free-for-all, with something for everyone, from naked yoga in Hawaii to yoga with your dog. And somewhere in between, there is yoga with music.

Different styles embrace different techniques, and music is no exeption. An absolute no-no in Iyengar classes, music is becoming a must for the Vinyasa Flow style. And then, of course, there's the ever-so-exiting new trend of practicing yoga to live music, which you can find more and more (at least, in America) from small classrooms to huge yoga festivals.

Last week the rocking Misanthropic Yogini posted about the challenges as a teacher of making yoga playlists for her classes, here. A great discussion followed, and the overall synopsis seemed to be fairly neutral: few people expressed strong opinions either way. The consensus seemed to be that good yoga is good yoga, no matter what the soundtrack.

I use music in my vinyasa classes and while my own practice is mostly without music I do use it to drown out the occasional distracting ambient noise and enjoy it. For teaching I have about 10 playlists organized by tempo and duration (e.g. "mellow 1.2 hours") that I use in my classes, and every now and then I resuffle them.

Recently though I have been craving new music and sadly have been fairly disappointed by the compilations I've bought. :( My last 5 albums have been pretty much busts - albums that I'm struggling to find even 1 or 2 songs that I can use in my classes! This has got me down to no end...

So, if you practice vinyasa and love moving to the music... Any recommendations?

Underwater Joy - In Pictures

2010-10-04T12:17:00.000+09:00

I'm back! I had a fabulous break in neighbouring Indonesia and spent a great deal of my time underwater in and around Komodo national park.

Scuba diving is one of my favourite ways to spend my time. It's a visit to another world teeming with amazing colours and creatures. It's blue and you get to blow bubbles. It's a breath-centered moving meditation. In short, it's like a form of yoga - but with fish!

This holiday I was blessed to spend some time with some of the rarest creatures beneath the waves: the majestic rays. In particular, a large and beautiful Eagle Ray, and a gathering of Reef Manta Rays. Be still my heart!! Witnessing the magnificence of these creatures underwater is an absolutely amazing experience and one I will never forget. It really hits home just how precious the oceans are and just how little we know about them and the amazing creatures who live there.

So here are some pictures for you all to enjoy!

Eagle Ray

Manta Rays!!

Did you know...

Rays are related to sharks, but they have no teeth! They use a type of filter to feed exclusively on plankton and other microscopic organisms.
Manta rays and stingrays are related, but Mantas no longer have a stinger.
Mantas are the largest rays. The Giant Manta can be up to 25 feet in length, and they "fly" through the water using their wing-like fins.

Also... Today is my birthday!!

Namaste~~~

PS - yes, I did see a Komodo dragon. Horrible lizard. I much prefer what's under the water.

East Timor in pictures

2010-09-17T15:28:00.000+09:00

Dearest readers, this past week I have been up in the rural country, and tomorrow I am heading to Komodo national marine park in Indonesia for some underwater fun! I will be back in about 2 weeks time so in the meantime, here are some images of this country that I love, for you all to enjoy.

And if you're in the neighbourhood... Well, come on over!

Sunrise

Mount Matebian (All Souls) at sunrise

Looking north towards the ocean

A girl waters the paddy fields before (hopefully!) school

Majestic Banyan

Local pots for sale

A woman sprays water over her produce to stave off the heat

Yum!

This man asked me to take his picture with his goat. :)

Teachers, Students and Ethics: Oh my!

2010-09-09T14:08:00.001+09:00

This post was inspired by the discussion on It's All Yoga Baby around the ad featuring Jivamukti teachers from a NY studio posing naked for PETA. Roseanne ends her post asking:

"Despite these positive aspects, there still is a slight breach of professionalism in this ad – these are working yoga teachers, who will encounter students and potential students in class and in their communities. I think it illustrates the precarious and awkward place that yoga teachers hold in our culture, somewhere between entertainer and health professional."

A commenter on her blog, Dharma teacher Frank Jude of Mindfulness Yoga (yay, new blog!), left this insight that touched me profoundly:

"Seeing my teacher in this and other social situations most definitely helped to de-construct any potentially de-railing projections, and did so without at all diminishing my respect and appreciation for him as a teacher. What it may have done — and I think this is a good and important teaching — is make it clear to me that ‘the teacher’ is a role; it’s not about the man/woman. When I take the teacher’s seat, this understanding leads me to have great reverence for the role without taking myself so seriously."

Which brings me to muse... When we are teaching yoga, it IS a role we are enacting for a specfic period of time. I personally can feel it pour down over me like a cloak when the clock strikes the start time. It's like a switch goes on, it's a muse, it's a groove! And when the final namaste is said and the lights go on, I feel it lift again and I become myself. And thinking about Frank's comment, I don't want my students to put me on a pedestel, to think that yoga teachers are somehow elevated people, that we don't have flaws and beliefs and good days and bad days.

In Donna Farhi's book Teaching Yoga: Exploring the Teacher-Student Relationship, the author talks about keeping "healthy boundaries" and maintaining a "necessary distance" between the teacher and the student. In her view, maintaining this distance is a way of honouring the deeply transformative process that the student may be undergoing, and keeping it sacred by maintaining the formality of the relationship. She also says that casual relationships with students are often more serving of the teacher's needs than the students.

Farhi goes on to say: "I have come to recognize that when a student becomes a personal friend, my ability to serve her as a teacher has effectively ended." The key concept here is service. Farhi isn't suggesting that you can never be friends with your students, just that the changed dynamic of the relationship and the recognition of the student as your "peer" will diminish your effectiveness as a teacher. Farhi suggests that the student may or may not decide to seek another teacher, or may be quite happy to maintain a "student-peer" position in class and a friend outside of class.

This example is specific to the student who becomes a friend. But what about the friend who becomes the student? When I was first teaching, I felt awkward about having my friends in my classes and found it hard to find my groove as a teacher, or would refrain from chanting at the end of class thinking "what will my friends think?". As I have grown as a teacher I have become more comfortable with my role as the teacher and more able to easily slip into it. And my friends who come to my classes also seem comfortable and respectful of my role: I have never had anyone try to use our friendship to modify what they get in their yoga class!

My musings also lead me to this question: as yoga teachers, how do we see ourselves? In my yoga class, I strive to create an atmosphere that allows people as much choice as they want, a place that embraces all body types, beliefs, ages, sexualities as equals. But outside the classroom I still have my own beliefs, body type, age, sexuality etc. that define me as a person, and that are important to my own identity. While I would never press these on anyone else in a yoga class, outside the classroom they give me guidance in my choices and make me who I am. Where the boundaries exist are different for every different person I guess.

I live in a very small community and I teach classes to my friends, and some of my students become my friends. Beyond these friends, I also see my yoga students at work, at the beach, in restaurants, and at parties. And (after the initial shock of seeing someone in another context!) I have never felt weird about that (I mean, this town is so small that it would be weird if I didn't see them!). I think that if we are uncomfortable with our students seeing us outside the classroom, it's partly because we might be uncomfortable with ourselves. Perhaps we feel like we aren't living a "yogic" enough life. So are we ourselves are holding ourselves up to some unrealistic ideal?

What do you think? How does Farhi's "necessary distance" contrast to the notion of not putting the teacher on a pedestal? Can you be friends with your students or teachers and still be effective as their yoga teacher or student? How do you feel about seeing your teachers or students in social spaces? Do teachers have a responsibility to their students to live a "yogic" life off the mat?

Or should we all just go for ice-cream? ;)

I dream in yoga

2010-09-06T10:31:00.000+09:00

Last night I dreamed that I was teaching a yoga class in a huge room packed with people. Every single person there was a beginner, and in addition, half were Japanese tourists. It was chaos... Everyone was facing every which direction and kept coming off the mats to crowd in front of the room to watch me demonstrating the sun salutations. And I was telling them, no, just go back to your mats and give each other room and give it a go... And I couldn't find a playlist that I liked, didn't recognize anything on my iPod which is when I realised in the dream that it wasn't in fact my iPod at all but Eco Yogini's iPod and the two must have gotten swapped in the last class. :)

Now this sounds like it could have been a stressful dream but it wasn't really. In fact I woke up highly amused. I don't really do dream symbology but there is something kind of satisfying about trying to put order into chaos, and making the best of what ensues.

Readers, how does Yoga figure into your dreams?

Review: The Yoga Learning Center

2010-09-03T11:58:00.000+09:00


Image from the Yoga Learning Center

Last week I was contacted through my blog by the Yoga Learning Center, a website that offers video and audio yoga classes. They offered me a free membership to check out the site and post a review on my blog.

Given that I live overseas and don't have regular access to a yoga teacher or studio, I have often wondered if such websites could be good learning options for people like me. So over the next few weeks I'll be trying out some of their classes and reviewing them, as well as the site in general. Exciting!

Site Overview

My first impression is that the website is nicely designed and it's easy to navigate, which is great. Upon browsing around I found I liked how easy it is to search for a class that suits your purposes. The site lets you easily browse classes by media type (video or audio), instructor, experience level or class length, or a combination of the above. You can also save a class to your 'favourites' so that you can easily go back to a practice you particularly enjoyed.

The site presents a variety of audio and video classes including asana - physical postures - pilates and meditation practices, varying in length from about 10 minutes to 90 minutes. At first glance there seem to be a wide variety of levels, from active to restorative, and styles including prenatal yoga, and "yoga for the young at heart" (awesome! Senior yogis rock!). The site also provides a guide to the main asanas or postures (with photos and descriptions), a blog-style section with articles on various aspects of yoga, and a forum where members can discuss yoga with each other or post questions for the site's instructors.

One thing that I like so far is that the overall language of the site, particularly the asana descriptions, emphasise listening to your "inner wisdom" and respecting your body. Another thing, pertinent to this week's raging debate in the yoga blogsphere, is that their asana photographs feature "normal people" (although all women) as their models. It's a small library so there are only 3 or 4 models, but it's refreshing to see a variety of ethnicities, ages and body types demonstrating the poses.

I'm going to start testing the classes with a beginner's mind, so stay tuned for a review of some of the level 1 and 2 practices next week.

Following the signs

2010-09-01T15:22:00.002+09:00

Royalty free image from: www.inmagine.com

Following the signs... That's what Suburban Yogini did this week, as you can read here.

We have all been through those times when it seems as though the whole Universe is pointing us in a certain direction. It starts as an idea, that like a seed once planted begins to take root and push its way inevitably upwards. We water this seed with our dreams, our ideas, our gut instincts, until finally it pushes its delicate head above the surface, blooming and blossoming from an idea into a definitive path, a signal marker pointing the way. All that remains is to start down the path.

Yoga helps us to recognise these signs. And by putting us in touch with our selves, Yoga also helps us to make the choice to follow them. For me, this is Satya - truthfulness - the desire to be true to yourself. Yoga helps us to realise that we are always choosing our reality - choosing how we act, whether or not to react, how we perceive a situation and what we do as a result. Yoga helps us to live more mindfully by going from a reactive frame of mind to a proactive frame of mind. So instead of letting our bodies, emotions and minds make choices for us, we are mindfully choosing how we experience life as it comes to us.

Where are the signs pointing for me? Well, you'll have to wait a little longer to find out! But there are things in the works, so stay tuned!!

Readers, what are the signs in your lives telling you?

Random Facts about a Yoga Gypsy

2010-08-25T10:25:00.000+09:00

Suburban Yogini today posted a lovely list of silly things about herself, and asked for some in response. Which inspired me to share this little list of silly facts of my own, at complete random and in no particular order.

The first time I was ever on a sailboat, I was 3 months old. My parents rolled me up in a huge blanket and stuffed me tightly into a shelf so I wouldn't fall out when the boat heeled over. I've been a sailor ever since!
Sometimes country music makes me cry. Sign of my heritage - I was born in Calgary, Canada, cowboy country!
I have lived only 11 years of my life in my native country (and most of that was between the ages of 0-8), and lived the rest in 7 others. So I have always been a bit of a Gypsy!
I originally came to East Timor for 3 months. That was in August 2004. ;)
When my partner goes on holidays I revert to being a terrible bachelorette and have a tendency to eat beans on toast for supper.
Although yoga encourages us to stay away from stimulants, my 3 favourites are: Timorese organic coffee - (the best coffee I've ever had!), New Zealand Sauvingon Blanc, and dark chocolate. Mmmmmm.
Since working for myself, I discover I have developed an absolutely allergic reaction to 9-5 employment.
I have crossed the Atlantic ocean twice in a sailboat. Magical.

What can you tell me about yourselves, readers?

The River of Yoga (I of IV)

2010-08-23T11:38:00.001+09:00

After class the other day a new student approached me, and said he wanted to ask me about some of the things I'd said in class that he didn't understand, and, you know, what is yoga really all about, and what is the purpose of it exactly?

Gulp.

In a nano-second my mind was blown away by the vastness of that question and by the delicate position that I was in of being asked to answer it. I mean, sheesh, why would I know anything about that? Oh, except that I am a "yoga teacher", and therefore I guess I am supposed to know how to explain these things. Anyway, in the end I told him, more or less, that yoga could be about many things for many different people, from purely physical to purely spiritual and everything in between, and that his best approach would be to keep practising, and keep an open mind, and see what he gravitated towards. I told him that for me, yoga was about being the best person you could be, whether that meant physically, mentally, spiritually or all of the above.

But it's got me thinking. As teachers we are given the opportunity to share our love for yoga and to share the joy that it has brought to our own lives. We also have the opportunity to share some of the insights that we have gleaned from our years of practice, like lanterns that may just help to light the way for others. So I'm going to try and answer his question from my own experience.

For me, Yoga is a journey. It's not a new journey, because we are always moving, flowing down that river of life! But it's a journey within a journey, a path you navigate within that great river. The difference I guess, for me, is that instead of being swept downstream, Yoga is like finding a small boat, and using it to navigate your own way down towards the sea. Along this great river, as you learn to navigate in your small craft, you encounter many small pools and eddies, and you spend time in each one, discovering what it holds for you...

The first pool I encountered was a vast lake, surrounded by a dense forest. When I first arrived, my senses were overwhelmed by the abundance of life there. The forest was alive with birds and animals, all living out their dramas on its shores, making commentary on their lives in loud, raucous tones. I tried to navigate my craft towards them, only to find that no matter how hard I tried, the forest remained always just beyond my reach.

I longed to reach that far shore, to join the life of the forest and to make it my own, but instead all I could do was watch from the outside, consoling myself with my stories of what was happening inside. Gradually I became absorbed by that forest, and I would sit all day on the rail of my small boat, eyes riveted on the distant shore. Oh, how I longed for it! How I wanted to discover each and every creature in it! I watched the forest day after day, and when the animals would peek out and briefly come into my field of view, I named them, gave them stories. In my mind, I recreated what the forest might look like inside, how all the creatures lives, what were their places, purposes and roles.

But not matter how long I watched, I never drew any closer to the shore. So, for a time, I mourned. Mourned that I was apart from this world I dearly loved, mourned that I could only watch it from afar. I felt lonely, and empty, longing to be in that place where I could not go, to be a creature of that forest, to be a part of that world.

One day, as I was in my usual spot, a small splash of water shook me out of my reverie. For what felt like the first time, I looked down to see the water, and my small boat, and myself. Suddenly I remembered the great river, and the journey I was on. And as my memory returned, I noticed that all around me the water was pulsing with life, fish darting beneath the surface, small insects leaving trails like skaters on the waves. Light poured in from above, danced on the ripples, creating a kaleidoscope of colours blue-green-yellow-purple-black.

On that sudden impulse, I drew in my sails and felt my boat, limp and listless for so long, come alive beneath me as we harnessed the elements. My hand touched the tiller and I felt myself quiver as a shiver of life ran through me, electrifying my body and lifting a weight off my soul. I felt like I could sing, I felt like I could soar! I breathed in the fresh air, and my whole body filled with joy. It was as if I had been asleep and suddenly woken to realise that I was alive, I was on a journey, I was myself! I felt as though I would burst from this happy knowledge, and so I set my sails, and felt my boat gain momentum, and I did not look back as I sailed away from that forest, leaving it to its own mysteries in order to finally sail on towards my own.

For a while I sailed this way, enthralled with my own being, with my newfound awareness. My senses felt heightened, as though I were seeing for the first time, smelling for the first time, breathing, touching, feeling alive in the world as never before! As I made my way down the river, I encountered a strong current, and I let this current take me, speeding towards the unknown.

Stay tuned for part II... In the meantime... What are your reactions to this story? Can you relate to it? What are your reactions to the question my student asked me? What might you have said if a friend asked you the same thing? :)

World Humanitarian Day - Today

2010-08-19T11:25:00.001+09:00

Who are we?

We are sisters. We are brothers.
We are mothers, fathers, sons and daughters.
We are leaders. We are servants.

We are witnesses, we are warriors,
relief-bearing, compassion clad.

We are die-hard optimists,
survival-mode cynics.
We are on a plane in moments,
flying in where people flee.

We attempt the impossible,
try to ease the pain.
We desire to restore dignity
we crave only the same
opportunities for everyone,
to live and love,
to peace and change.

We are at war with suffering,
armed with medicines and food,
we fight mankind and nature equally,
we fight apathy too,

From our homes, from our desks,
from our clinics, from our tents,
We do everything we can
when the world calls out in need.

We are human.
Humanitarian.

Are you?

Eat Pray Love - the Island behind the book

2010-08-18T12:32:00.000+09:00

Jamie at On the Mat recently posted a nice review of the book/movie event, Eat Pray Love.

I have to say that the book fell a bit flat for me, although I did read it until the end. I enjoyed the bits about Bali because I go there often and recognized many of the places, but I couldn't really relate to Gilbert's character, and I didn't find myself warming to her. Maybe that's because I've never been through a divorce. Maybe I'm just a different kind of person in the way I deal with hardship in my life. I did like the wise words of the Texan yoga dude though. I wish HE would write a book!

Anyway, as a spin off to Jamie's post, I have definitely been affected by the side affect of this book that she mentions - the people who are now going on copy-cat vacations and yes, you guessed it, ending up in Ubud, Bali, one of my favourite and often frequented (it's only 1.5 hours away by plane) vacation spots! Not that there's anything wrong with that - Ubud is a tourist mecca and not exactly private anyway! - but really, there are only so many western women looking to find themselves (and a hot Brazilian second husband wouldn't hurt...) who can hang around in any one small Balinese town! ;)

I guess the thing that bothers me is that some of these visitors are traveling to far-flung places but are not really as interested in discovering those places as in finding themselves. Now there's nothing wrong with soul-searching, but if you are going to come to someone else's home, why not learn a bit about it? Get to know some of the locals? Learn about the history and politics of the place, the struggles and joys of its people? I know Gilbert did this to some extent in her book, and that's great, but I have met people in Bali who don't even know that Bali is part of the Republic of Indonesia! Really.

Last time I was in Ubud I met a woman on one such soul quest. When I told her that I lived in East Timor (blank look), an island south-east of Bali, she looked at me and breathily oozed: "oooooooh, is it just PARADISE?". I hardly even knew how to respond. The words sort of stumbled out and I mumbled, "oh, it's not as nice as here", and moved off. It wasn't her fault that she wasn't aware of the poverty, hardship and suffering (or existence at all), of the people in East Timor. But what I wanted to say was "no... and neither is Bali".

Because Bali, while it may seem like paradise (and I'll be interested to see how it comes across in the film), is just a place like anywhere else. Behind the glossy tourist facades, there is a harder life, too. Corruption, harsh political realities and the constant struggle against poverty are just as much a reality here as many other places in the Indonesian archipelago.

Just sayin... Satya, they yogic principle of truthfulness, is also about seeing the world as it is, in all its multi-layered complexity. Not seeing only what you want to be true.

Asana and I: A love story

2010-08-12T15:20:00.000+09:00

Being sick recently with dengue fever has meant that for the last month my asana practice has been completely modified. Stepping to my mat on Day 10 after getting the fever (2 days after leaving bed for the first time!) I couldn't believe how weakened my body was from the illness. So it has been short, gentle practices for me, focusing on stretching out the muscles that were cramped up by the fever. In addition, mornings have been tough now that I'm back at work, so I have been putting in play my 10-minute sequences!

Being unable to do asana has made me reflect on the dominance that it plays in my yogic life, and how that has changed over the years. See, I have gone through times when asana has dominated my waking moments, and not necessarily in a healthy way. I have gone through times when I didn't practice at all, preferring other forms of physical exercise instead. And I have gone through times like now, when I can enjoy my asana practice in balance with the other elements of my life.

If I could map out some stereotypical stages of relationship to yoga-asana, it might look like this:

Flirtation: You first meet, and you feel a spark. For a while, you keep your distance – doing a bit of reconnaissance, and research. You attend a few classes, the spark nurtures a flame and your attraction grows...
Dating and Romance: Before you know it, you are dating. In fact, you are more than dating – you can't get enough! Your friends notice a change in you... You are giddy and all you can talk about is yoga this, and yoga that, and how great yoga is and how much you looooove yoga...
Obsession/compulsion: And sure enough, it's not long until you barely even see said friends anymore, because all you ever do is yoga! You eat, breathe and sleep yoga, you check all the yoga books out of the library, you spend hours locked in your room trying impossible yoga poses. Your wobbly knee in Warrior II can reduce you to tears, and the last time you had to take child's pose you held it against yourself for a week. At the same time, you can feel deep shifts happening within, in places you'd rather not go, in realms that are dark and scary...
The breakup: And so, you decide you need to take a break. After all, haven't you always wanted to take up long-distance running? Why not start now! At first you enjoy the free time. You reconnect with your friends and have a few drinks and laugh about how you are so over that yoga thing. But after a while, you start to miss it. You see someone on the street with a yoga mat, and your heart leaps while your tummy lurches.
The make-up: And so eventually you steel yourself, you swallow your pride, and you humbly go back and offer yourself up to the practice. It feels so right, it feels so good! And here, you may take one of two roads... Maybe you will head straight back to Step 3 and repeat Steps 3, 4 and 5 over and over again... But just maybe you will pass go and progress to...
Going steady: Yep, you and yoga are here to stay, and you have all the characteristics of a good relationship. Yoga complements you without dominating your life. You recognize that you will have good days and bad days, and you don't judge the relationship based on that. You acknowledge that you need to have other hobbies and social time for the other relationships in your life. Instead of brining out the worst in you, yoga brings out your best side, and opens up a place for you to grow and confront your fears. You don't feel judged, criticized or insecure – you feel just fine where you are, thanks, and you are enjoying the journey.

And so, folks, I'm happy to report that I am feeling very Stage 6ish at the moment! I am slowly building back my strength and do look forward to getting back to my former level. But I also feel more balanced about my asana practice than I have been in a while. I am happy with where I am and the progress I have made till now. I am content with my pre-illness 45-50 minute morning practices before work, and not beating myself up for not doing Primary (Ashtanga series) 6 days a week. If I need extra sleep and my morning practice is only 10 minutes, well, I am happy with that, too.

What about you folks? Does any of this sound familiar? What has your relationship to asana been like?

What would be your 10 minute yoga?

2010-08-05T17:53:00.001+09:00

It can happen anytime. Just as you step onto your mat, your leisurely morning turns into a rush. Whether your girlfriend calls to move up your brunch date, you suddenly realize you had the flight time wrong, or your boss calls an emergency meeting, you are suddenly left with only 10 minutes on your mat.

Gasp! Dedicated that you are, you NEED to practice. 10 minutes is better than nothing,right? So, yogis and yoginis - what is your 10 minute yoga?

Can't wait to read your sequences!

The future of books?

2010-08-02T17:28:00.002+09:00

In the spirit of my brief visit to the 'first' world (land of FREE high-speed internet, waitresses with iPhones, Starbucks, fast food, and so much more), I have been playing with new toys and I have discovered... The e-book.

I know, I know, they've been around for a while, but this is my first time experiencing them, and I have discovered that I am a fan! Despite my love for ink-on-page, I am finding that there are are a few things I really like about the electronic format:

- Portability: as a frequent traveler and someone who can devour a 500 page novel in one sitting, being able to carry multiple books in one slim device is an awesome advantage for me!! Gone are the days of lugging multiple paperbacks across several continents... Or the days of finishing my book and realizing I still have 8 hours left in an airplane...

- Text size: I know it sounds silly, but I love that I can re-size the text to suit my needs. As someone with poor eyesight I am forever wishing they would print things just a wee bit bigger, so I love being able to make the text bigger or smaller as suits me!

- Paperless: Ok, I am a little on both sides of the fence on this one. One of the great joys of a good book is passing it on when you are done, well-thumbed pages and all. But how many
books have I read and then thought 'well that certainly wasn't worth the paper it was printed on'? There are thousands of stores filled with millions of paper books, most of which will be read only once and then left to fill a shelf? No, I think I like the lower paper footprint of the e-book a lot!!

- Availability: A big plus for me, and anyone else who lives several islands away from the nearest English-language bookstore, is that as long as I am connected to the Internet, I can buy books!!! After 6 years on an island without a bookstore... THIS... IS.... AWESOME. :)

- Interactive and Educational content: The number of interactive books and gsmes for kids are growing by the minute, and they are great! From music, to learning the alphabet, to interactive stories, to spelling and math games, e-books are surely going to be huge resoures for the new generation... And they are great attention-grabbers, too! (Find me another toy that can contain enough gsmes to distract a toddler for hours on end!)

- Multimedia: Some of the new e-books come with embedded audio and video content, kind of like the special features on a DVD. Personally, I think the kids books are ahead so far, but there are a few cool things out already like those create-your-own-ending books, and I bet we will see more multimedia content in time.

Overall, readers, I am a fan, especially for trashy summer novels and mindless airplane reads. Iknow that nothing quite replies the joy of handling a well-loved book... But for the 9/10 books that I will probably never read again, I am an e-book convert!! Oh, and they are about half the price of a paperback, and I never need to worry about losing my place. Bonus!

What are your thoughts and experiences with the new medium?

Generations

2010-07-31T14:33:00.001+09:00

Yawn. Stretch. Mmmmmm. Yes, hello! I'm back!!

My unannounced blogging hiatus has been caused by a few things. First, I was struck down by a nasty tropical illness called dengue fever. Literally struck down - completely out of commission for an entire week, now recovering still, slowly but surely.

Second, I have been visiting the homeland. Canada. Victoria, where my paternal grandmother now lives, and island of my childhood summer escapades, and Calgary, my birthplace and where I lived until I went overseas at the age of 8.

Memory has a taste, bittersweet, strong and smoky, yet soft and infinitely complex like a fine full-bodied wine. We carry it in our own minds, but it flows deeper than that. It is in our blood, the collective memory of our ancestors, the culmination of the roads they travelled weaving the societies that shape us, coursing through our veins. A family photograph, my grandmother, my father, and myself, our heads all tilted at exactly the same angle, our faces reflections of one another. An evening spent with relatives unseen for years, uncovering the similarities that bind us through our blood: "oh, I do that too, oh, yes, that runs in the family". This land has always been my homeland but long not been my home. It is an alternate reality that nearly defined me - who would I have been, had I stayed? Yet some things do stay, like the knowledge of my ancestors - pioneers, prarie settlers, survivors of the long, dark winters. The sound of my own voice lapsing into an accent as familiar as a lullaby yet a surprise as it rolls off my tongue.

I am fortunate to have two living grandmothers, women who were born nearly a century ago. I cannot even fathom the change they have seen in their lifetimes - World wars, the depression, the cold war. The fall of imperialism and the rise of consumerism. The automobile, the airplane, the Internet. I am proud to be related to them, to share their blood, to be their legacy. Someday I hope to be in their place, watching from my favourite chair as the future
generations carry on, smiling gently as the world speeds away, knowing that a part of me lives on.

8 Goals for Africa

2010-07-10T22:51:00.001+09:00

8 Goals For Africa from 8 Goals For Africa on Vimeo.

www.8goalsforafrica.org Get inspired, people!!

Wherefore art thou Yoga?

2010-07-05T15:27:00.001+09:00

Ok, before we go any further let's clear up that old misunderstanding. Juliet is NOT asking for the current location of her Romeo (this was, after all, the days before GPS iPhones and such). She's asking "why are you Romeo". As in, why is he a Montague and she is a Capulet, and therefore their love, instead of being joyous and free, is forbidden and doomed. Deep stuff, that William Shakespeare. ;)

So what I'm asking here, is, what is in a name?

Lately I have been feeling that the yoga community has picked up a pattern of being quick to judge. Maybe it's a natural consequence of how many different styles and opinions and trends there are in yoga nowadays, but for me, this train of thought comes from a few unconnected places:

An encounter with an Ashtangi whose eyebrows lifted sky high as I said that most days I do an abbreviated selection of primary series poses so that I can fit in my pranayama beforehand and still start work by 9. Maybe I imagined it, but I felt that the look said "how can you call yourself a yogi if you would rather do pranayama than a full primary practice?".
Snippets around the blogosphere that label yogis according to things like what they wear or what gender/race they are... as if suddenly there is this entire demography of young white women wearing brand-name yoga clothes whose pursuit of yoga is somehow made invalid by their choice of wardrobe...
Supposed body-love sites on which people rant against thin women, as if they had done something wrong by being born small-boned, or by working hard to be slim and strong, and that this perhaps excluded them from spiritual transformation in some way. Of course I take this personally because I just happen to be one, both by the random accident of my DNA (thanks mom and dad!) and with a fair amount of hard work added in for good measure, too.

So my question is, why do we find it so important to define our Yoga? To put walls around it, to make it an include/exclude club? Why do we feel the urge go forth and proclaim that x form of yoga is not true yoga while y most certainly is because...?

Is it attachment? Do we need to validate our own practice, our own bodies over those of others, in order to make us feel safe and strong? Do we need to create superiority in order to justify our choices, e.g. not to wear or to wear brand-name yoga attire?

Is there any way that such things can contribute positively to the larger discussion on Yoga or are they like quicksand, a mass of confusion that sucks us in that we find it hard to get out of?

When I did my YTT my teachers emphasised a principle that I have always embraced here on this blog and everywhere in my yoga life, which is never to make negative generalisations about any other person's yoga, any other style of yoga, or any other teacher of yoga. Keeping in line with the niyama of Satya, truthfulness, this stems from the notion that we cannot project our opinions as truth.

To give an example: I may share with someone that I read a convincing article that doing 'hot' yoga does not really lead to greater detoxification than other types of yoga because the body does not detoxify through the sweat glands but rather through the inner organs. That much is fact. I did read that article and that is what it said. But I would not say that hot yoga is therefore "wrong" in some way. Actually, not only do I really not care if you do hot yoga or not, but if you like it and it brings you what you need, then I am absolutely happy for you!

Yoga really can be a community... But not while it is fractured, divided, polarised and happy that way. Then again, every community needs a moral compass... Think I need to bust out my sutras again, or my YTT late-night philosophy discussion notes. :)

This is a rather rambling post and unstructured. I'm not trying to judge the judgers or blame the blamers, just trying to muddle my way through some of these thoughts. Maybe it reflects more on me that I am so sensitive, than it does on the people I perceive to be judgemental!

Peeps, what do you think? Does Yoga by any name at all still feel just as sweet?

Learning to Fly: Bakasana

2010-06-30T14:48:00.001+09:00

Juliana from Shakti Mama left a comment on my previous post with the following question: "When I attempt to do crow, sometimes the backs of my arms and knees slide against each other and I lose my balance. Is there anything I can do to help keep my knees firm against the backs of my arms, or is this a matter of practice?"

I used to struggle with this (and most other, let's be honest!) aspect of bakasana, or crow pose (also known as crane pose, kakasana), too. That, and the fear of falling flat on my face... Then one day about a year ago, I took an Anusara workshop with the fabulous Desiree Rumbaugh and her partner Andrew Riven, and their way of teaching this pose made it all come together for me. So, I thought I'd share it here!

The key difference is the starting position. Most of us learning bakasana are told to put our knees up against the backs of our arms, like this:

Desiree and Andrew teach it a bit differently. First, they had us squat down with our feet touching and our hands shoulder width apart, like this:

We stayed here for a few breaths, focusing on hugging the knees against the back and outside of the upper arms and engaging the core to squeeze the knees in.

Then, we straightened the arms and walked the hands and feet closer together, still squeezing in, and finally coming up on tiptoes to come to a position like this:

From there, we kept pressing the knees firmly against the upper arms and practiced elevating one foot at a time, keeping the other safely on the ground:

And finally, we gently transferred more weight onto our hands and used our core muscles to lift the feet up!

For me, this method has two serious advantages.

1) There is much less knee slippage - hugging the knees in keeps the knees really nice and stable.
2) The preparatory position is almost exactly the same as the final position! Notice that the feet are together, and the back is rounded like child's pose, just like in the final expression of crow. So all you have to focus on is lifting your feet.

The one disadvantage is that if you are not very open in the hips, the prepatory position can be a bit tricky. To help with this, they suggested using a block or blanket under your feet, to elevate the feet a bit and reduce the load on your hips, like this: (a nice fat pillow in front of you also doesn't go amiss...).

Here's a shot where you can see how the two knee positions compare. It's a subtle change in position but for me, it made a WORLD of difference.

Finally, remember that to come into bakasana from this position, you are not moving forward and down, as it might feel. Your body is staying in almost the exact same place but your feet are lifting up. So the gaze, or drishti in this pose is NOT the floor where you are afraid you are going to face-plant, but forward and upward as you hug your feet - one at a time, or both - up towards the mid-line.

Was this helpful to you? It sure was to me. :) Have you ever had a "revelation" in a pose or a teacher that suddenly opened it up for you? I'd love to hear about it!

Hello, Psoas! And other impossible things you did today

2010-06-25T15:33:00.002+09:00

When I started to think about Eka Pada Rajakapotasana, One-legged King Pigeon, it was one of those 'impossible' poses.

My body has a lot of issues with this pose, the main ones being: the length of my quadriceps (not long enough lol!) and hip flexors, side and shoulder muscles (longer armpits would be nice...) and bendiness in my lower back. My scoliosis mostly affects the lumbar area, and on one side I have hugely built up muscles, while the other side is a bit convex. Yoga helps a lot to balance it, but the imbalance really comes out when I attempt deep backbends that require more flexibility in the lumbar spine, so my backbends in this area are much easier on one side than the other. The entire pigeon set of backbends, to me, seems like a pipe dream. And yet, with slow and hard work, I AM making progress although I am nowhere yet near the final pose!

Anyway, in the spirit of doing as many impossible things as you can before breakfast, I've been working with a sequence that includes another of those 'impossible' poses - hanumanasana, or splits pose. Another pose that I thought I would NEVER EVER IN A MILLION YEARS be able to achieve... And yet, a few months ago out of the blue I slipped into it almost without trying (now it's hit and miss depending on how warmed up I am... and it's actually easier when I'm not trying). Go figure.

Like some others involved in this discussion on Nadine Fawell's blog, I have been finding that my primary series Ashtanga-based practice just does not open up these areas enough for me. So here is a sequence that I have been enjoying lately. To practice it, you will need two blocks (or sturdy books) and a strap. You might also want to put some extra padding under your knees for the lunges! Although some of the poses in this sequence might look a bit advanced, with the use of props I think it's accessible to everyone. Just respect your limits and remember, as I read in the blogsphere recently: "Yoga is a practice, not a perfect!"

1. Warm ups - start with your favourite warm ups, making sure you really warm up your hamstrings and your lower back. 5 sun salutations should just about do it, but any warm up works.

2. Lunges

a) Find your way into a low lunge, placing padding under the back knee if you need it. Now, place the two blocks either side of the forward foot. Press your hands into the blocks and lift up through the spine, opening the chest and shoulders. Extend from the back knee, keeping it active and feeling a nice stretch the length of your back thigh.

b) Bring the blocks up so they are standing at their tallest, and walk them back a bit. Using your hands to ground into the blocks and keeping the legs strong, extend the spine upwards from the pelvis and curl backwards. This is called Monkey Lunge! If you are comfortable you can even release the hands and let your fingertips brush the floor.

c) Coming back to lunge, ground the forward (in this case the left) hand on the block and gently lift your right lower leg, catching the foot with the hand or using the yoga strap. Keep the right thigh engaged slightly to protect your knee, and gently pull the right foot closer to your body for a nice, deep stretch.

3. Hanumanasana

a) To prepare for splits pose, from lunge turn your left toes back towards you to straighten the left leg, and take a gentle forward bend to stretch out the hamstring.

b) Place your hands on the blocks and start to slide your left foot forward. Keep the heel on the ground and the toes flexed towards you. Support your weight on the blocks as much as possible and focus on your breath. When you have found a comfortable extension, focus back in on the right leg, lengthening it away from your body and feeling the hip flexor stretch! Don't worry about how far you can go - just breathe and be where you are with this one.

3. Kapotasana Poses

Warm up with your normal variation of supine pigeon, folding forward and staying there for as long as you like. When you are ready, come back up for some pigeon variations and backbending work.

a) (NB I switched legs on this picture so you can see the pose better). Support your weight by pressing your hand into a block placed outside your forward knee. Then bend the back knee and gently bring the back foot up towards your body, grabbing it with your hand, or elbow if you choose. Keep the thigh muscles engaged slightly and try to enjoy deep breaths here.

b) A nice way to get used to the idea of backbending is to use a yoga strap. Loop the strap around the back foot (right foot again in the photos!) and bring the forward end over your shoulder on the same side. Get comfortable in pigeon, and when your ready grab the strap with one or both hands. Lengthen the spine from the waist, open up the chest, and start to curl back by walking your hands down the strap. Again, don't worry how far you can or can't go! Just focus on breathing fully and exploring new sensations.

c) Now try coming back into the first variation with the strap looped around your ankle, and play with catching the strap and bending backwards! (NB: this is a hard one to get into on the 10-second self-photo timer, so I haven't quite come fully into the backbend, opening up the chest and bringing the head back. But you get the idea!)

4. Finish up after you've done both sides with a nice long forward bend to counter the back-bending, and then take savasana or any other resting pose.

I hope you enjoy some or all of these ideas! What are poses that you used to think impossible that you are now working towards? What is your experience in King Pigeon? Any tips for me?

In pictures: Ubud, Bali

2010-06-23T11:24:00.000+09:00

Well, I am back home from a lovely break in a small town in the mountains of Bali, Indonesia! Ubud is a town nestled in the hills, surrounded by rice-fields and in the last decade or so has become a veritable mecca for tourists seeking culture, yoga, healing and other delights. Despite the throngs of soul seekers and art purchasers, it is one of my favourite places and I always manage to have a lovely time there. Here are a few pictures for you all!

The entranceway to my homestay compound...

Once inside... my little room was upstairs on the right-hand side.

Some good advertising...

Kafe, one of my favourite hang-out spots

Check out the fabulous menu!

The Yoga Shop...

The specials menu at another favourite restaurant, Sari Organik

Which is located in the middle of rice fields and surrounded by their very own organic gardens!

Mmmmmmm. But of course, despite it all, there's no place like home! No place, that is, with a mountain of work waiting for you, an empty fridge and a lovely fluffy cat who is in need of a LOT of attention after you left her with a babysitter for 10 days. :)

The Virtual Community Won't Stock Your Fridge...

2010-06-11T17:22:00.001+09:00

First of all, thank you thank you blogger for finally updating your template designer with so many lovely, customize-able blog templates. Yippee! Nothing more pleases the esthetic geek in me. Love love love it.

Secondly, I'm about to head off to the infinitely beautiful island of Bali for a short break. My favourite luxury of living in this part of the world is my proximity to Bali, and the wonderful community in Ubud that is a haven for yoga, healing and relaxation. And, not to be outdone, imported CHEESE!!!

While I'm away, I may blog, or not. But I will be indulging in the delights of a few things I don't have access to at home, including:

Yoga classes in a yoga studio! With wooden floors! Where I'm not teaching! Whee!!
Vegetarian restaurants... oh my mouth waters
Shopping
A vibrant arts community
Did I mention, about the cheese???

I am also going to see an old friend and meet his 6-month old son, and to top it all off, I'm ending the trip at a wedding with a bunch of people dear to my heart. Which leads me to my post for today...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I am feeling like the luckiest person on Earth right now, in great part thanks to the amazing community that I have been a part of in the 6 years I've lived here. We are a tight-knit bunch: all thousands of miles from home, we become like family. This community and I have shared many good times, and when the bad times roll around they are right there propping you up, the way it should be. Supporting you, cooking for you, dropping things off at your house without even needing you to acknowledge the individual bearer of the gift.

As part of #315800, Bindu Wiles blogged yesterday about the online community that the event is generating. She publishes some lovely thoughts on community which are heartfelt and true. But it got me thinking of the changing nature of community in our modern world. More and more we are creating these virtual networks, like my own beloved blog community that if you are reading this, you are a part of!

In so many ways this is a lovely thing, and I cannot sing its praises enough. Closing the gaps of space and time, allowing us to connect with those who are like-minded no matter where in the world they may be, allowing us to pool our thoughts and create spaces where so many people of similar ideas can engage with each other.

But the virtual community is as two dimensional as this computer screen. Sometimes, that's a good thing - if someone rubs you the wrong way, you don't have to engage with them. There are blogs that I visit and don't go back to for whatever reason, or comments in forums like ElephantJournal that I would choose not to engage with. The converse of that is, of course, that it sometimes seems that the virtual interface brings out the worst in people. People might feel free to say things online that (I hope) they might not say in a face-to-face dialogue. Because the online world requires an interface, it leaves us free to create a persona that may not be a complete picture of who we are. We focus on some elements of our personality and not others. We interact with words instead of faces and bodies and voices. Or, people might deliberately mis-represent themselves. Masquerading as someone more successful, more together, younger, taller etc. etc. In it's worst incarnation, this two-dimensional nature of the online community ends in three-dimensional tragedy in the form of internet stalkers and child predators.

In a virtual community, we are removed from the physical interface that, for me, is the foundation of a connection between two human beings. That physical, instinctual, energetic connection makes up the building block of our real-world relationships. It's the good-day-bad-day flux of our beings. It's the good-year-bad-year tide of how we relate to one another. And that is what I love about a physical community, is that it is diverse, complex, and challenging - it is not always a comfort zone, not always a place where everything is easy and where you can just hang out with people from the same side of the fence as you are. Because, it's real. (Now obviously there are some rocking online debate forums and those are real too, but you know what I'm talking about. That body-to-body, face-to-face kind of real.)

Your physical community are your family, your friends, your work mates, your neighbours. They are the people you interact with at the shops, the drivers stuck next to you in the traffic, the people you cross paths with without even knowing it, like in those movies where everyone has a different story but they're all connected in some way. And as we all know, it is often easier to like or love people who agree with us than those who don't. The real challenge is extending that compassion to everyone around you.

There are many people in my community who I don't necessarily even like. And there are others who I love beyond words. But towards all of them, in this moment I feel compassion. We didn't choose each other - life put us here, in the same place at the same time. And that's the thing. I might not have picked them out of a hat - but they are here, and I am here, and somehow, that makes us something together.

And for that, I feel blessed. Because more and more I feel like people are living the reality that Gwen Bell expressed when Bindu Wiles (and I can't find the link...anyone?) interviewed her, saying "I don't know my neighbours' names, but I know the handles of thousands of people on Twitter". Woah. [Now, this is not personal - I'm sure that Gwen has a fabulous personal community. It's just the sentiment, expressed so easily like that, kind of triggers me.] For me, that is not something to be celebrated. I mean, we are so ready to connect with random strangers online, but we just seem to accept that the people living mere metres away with us are anonymous faces in our landscape?

Because when it comes down to it and life falls apart, it's your physical community who sit in your living room and cry with you. Who make tea, keep your fridge stocked and magically produce ready-made meals. Rescue you from the bathroom of a manky bar and drive you home even when you don't know where you live ( ;) sorry for telling that one honey!). Lend you money when you can't find your wallet, offer you a lift when you're walking home in the dark, watch your pets, compliment your cooking, fawn over your children/pets/new shoes.

Who, as Melinda so movingly recounts in this post, might one day just save your life.

So here's our homework, kids: find one person in your physical community today and introduce ourselves. Or, find one person you already know and let them know how special they really are. Cause that's where life is.

Who are your three-dimensional community and what do they do for you?

Yoga for Africa

2010-06-10T09:48:00.000+09:00

Stand aside, all ye who think that yoga is for rich white folks. Because thanks to the Africa Yoga Project, yoga is rocking the worlds of slum communities in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya.

The BBC's Focus on Africa posted this story yesterday which, as you can tell, has got me all fired up. So I went to the Africa Yoga Project website to check it out. The website says that the style of yoga is inspired by Baron Baptiste's Power Yoga, with a bit of Acro-Yoga mixed in. The project is working with a larger umbrella organization dedicated to combating poverty with culture and arts.

The best part? The classes are free, and the teachers are paid by the organization. And even cooler, the teachers are all Kenyan, although if you want to volunteer you can co-teach, donate mats, or help out by fundraising or assisting with the administration of the a project.

The innovative spirit of the project is totally inspiring to me - this yoga is all about community and personal transformation, and not about the profit.

Is the future of yoga here? I'm into it... And while we're at it, maybe we in the west have a lesson or two to learn from such a venture...

What do you all think?

In other news, a Swiss man has engineered a low-cost solar cell that mimics the way plants turn light into energy.

There is hope for humanity yet, don't you think?!

How do I write? 21 days of words.

2010-06-09T12:12:00.000+09:00

On the spur of the moment yesterday I decided to join many of the peeps in the blogosphere at the 21.5.800 challenge, 21 days (huh, I thought it was a month. Bonus!) combining yoga and writing. To be honest, the yoga is not really the issue for me since I practice at least 5 days a week anyway (and teach!), but I thought it would be a nice opportunity to re-connect with my writing. Also, I have 10 days of lovely holiday time coming up, so what better way to use them than spending some time every day curled up with that lovely journal I got a while ago...

I used to write a lot... ok, you might say obsessively. Journaling to be precise. Recording the intimate and inane details of my daily existence, page after page, book after book. Private thoughts, social thoughts, and totally random thoughts, beginning when I was about 12 ("Today in class the teacher said..."), taking me through my teenage years (which I recall were mostly devoted to trying to figure out how boys minds' worked... big waste of time that one... ;) ), and into University (filling secretive notebooks with dreadfully important existential ramblings and social rants). Blogging has been a nice way to take that compulsive self-expression to a higher level - writing for an audience, albeit a virtual one, is a very different animal, and one I'm enjoying thoroughly. Cause you all really don't care what I had for breakfast (banana-cinnamon smoothie) and tomorrow, neither will I. Blogging has been a way to focus my thoughts and my words on issues that I feel may actually be of interest to other people, and connect with you all through those ideas.

However my personal writing has really dropped off in the last 5 years or so (funny how that happens when you start working and you spend your free time enjoying yourself instead of procrastinating!) so I'm taking this challenge as an opportunity to re-connect a bit with that. Which means that I will not be posting my writings as a daily blog entry, although the occasional bit might slip into my blogging! I have to say from my experience yesterday the first thing I noticed was "darn, I am out of practice handwriting"! Maybe a month of journaling will fix those cramped hands and scratchy scrawls. I know that holding a pen used to be a source of joy to me!

I think most of us are here in the blogosphere because we love to write and read. So tell me, what is your relationship with the written word?

Sea of Change - An exercise in Link Love

2010-06-07T15:43:00.004+09:00

Obviously there was something in the air this weekend, and I found out what it was at The Devil Wears Prana: did you all know we are in the "Greatest (astrological) event of 2010"? Huh. Maybe that's why Suburban Yogini had such a speedy birthday recovery!

Maybe that will help Chief Arvol Looking Horse with his plea of Great Urgency that we all unite to put our energies towards healing the wounds being caused by the Gulf Oil Spill.

The echos of the macro are everywhere in the micro. This disaster, in its horror, is bringing people together. Is making us reflect on how to change our carbon-munching ways, creating a community of people who long for a return to Simpler Times. Around the world, we are burning with Transformative Fire, striving to make a more Sustainable Yoga of our everyday lives, to Tell a Story that we can be proud of.

The world is changing - this is nothing new. The world is always changing. But humanity? Can we change?

I hope so...

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Edited to add: check out my guest post @ Suburban Yogini on one of my favourite restorative poses / sequences: Supta Padangusthasana! :)

My day job

2010-06-02T15:22:00.000+09:00

Like most of us, I have a day job. In the context of my blog, it's like this other life I never talk about. Today, reading the fabulous blog of an acquaintance, yoga teacher and development worker Marianne Elliott, I was reminded that maybe, the two can mix...

In my day job, I do communications work for development organizations here in East Timor. That means anything from advising people how to develop and communicate key messages, to creating the products by which they mean to communicate (posters, brochures, radio programs, videos). And a lot of random stuff in between.

Doing development work is a study in living contradiction. In fully comprehending the privilege that is awarded by the randomness of birth. I was born in Canada, and not in East Timor. And thus, I had a childhood full of things like toys, amusement parks, camping trips, education, proper nourishment and medical care. Instead of a childhood of hunger, poverty, hard work, conflict and violence - which is the reality for not all, but many children in East Timor, and many other places in the world.

Living in the midst of that is like being an oasis of wellness in a sea of hardship. My house may be simple by western standards, but here I am like the fairy-tale princess. I work alongside national colleagues who earn 1/10th of my salary or less. I live in the capital city alongside families who tend to their livestock and hop the fence to pick fruit from a tree that grows in my yard, a part of their yearly income on which they deeply depend. I express sympathy for colleagues when their infant children die of completely preventable and treatable diseases. I shop amidst the harassment of child and adolescent fruit sellers carrying a stick across their shoulders hanging with mangoes, oranges, passionfruit, their young muscles hardened by carrying their heavy load day-in, day-out.

In East Timor:

Life expectancy is less than 60 years of age;
2 out of 5 children will die before they reach the age of 5;
The average woman has no access to birth control, and will give birth to between 7 and 9 children in her lifetime; many of them will have their first child before the age of 18;
Barely half the population have access to clean water or sanitation facilities;
Nearly half the population live a subsistence life, on less than $1 per day (and in a US dollar economy, yes that's right, this really does not go very far).

I could go on, but these are just numbers, right? Wrong. These are my neighbours. These are my colleagues. These are my partner's godchild, by all accounts a fairly privileged child living in the capital city, with access to clinics and a hospital, but who died of Tuberculosis just short of his 5th birthday. Tubercu-bloody-losis. A totally treatable illness. But he was never even diagnosed. A young victim of ignorance, poverty, and underdevelopment.

What can I do about it? Not very much, really. And I guess that's why I don't blog about it often. My blog is like an escape into this little yoga world, the world that I share with all of you, the way that I find peace.

If you'd like to know a bit more about East Timor, I've put a page on my sidebar that tells a little bit of its story...

Pleased to meet you...

2010-05-30T20:44:00.000+09:00

Some of you I connect with on a daily basis and yet, we know so little about each other. So I came up with this little quiz to get to know you all better! I'll start - by leaving my own answers in the comments section.

Please join in! Just copy, paste, and fill in the blanks.

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Hello, my name is ________________. People call me _________________.

I am a _______________ and a _________________ .

My favourite meal of the day is ________________, for which I like to eat _______________________ .

After that, I enjoy _________________ or __________________.

My favourite colour/s is/are: ________________, and you can tell because _____________________!

When I'm not doing yoga, I like to ________________________________.

One dream or goal I would like to accomplish is _________________________.

One dream or goal I have already accomplished is ________________________.

I looooooove _________________ , but I'm not really a fan of __________ .

Something that drives me crazy is ___________________.

My body is ________________, my mind is _______________ and my soul is _________________.

Oh, and one more thing: ____________________________.

Please to meet you!!

This is my yoga

2010-05-28T15:37:00.000+09:00

The smell of rain.
Brushing my cat.
Being a good friend.
Getting lost in a moment of underwater magic, watching the life of fish.

Flowing through a vinyasa.
Getting a better understanding of a pose.
Balancing.
Falling.
Adjusting a student and seeing the pieces fall into place.

Vocal harmony,
Massage.
Stroking the skin of person I love.
Spending time with friends & family.

Sailing - the rush of waves, the power of the wind, the ocean all around, pulsing.

Kirtan.
Mantras.
Sunrise.
Sunset.

This is my yoga. What is yours?

The Gift of Embodiment: Part II

2010-05-26T21:42:00.000+09:00

My body is a gift.

My body breathes (oxygen absorbed, transferred, delivered, bonded, unbonded, CO2 bonded, released, inhale, exhale, wow).

My body moves.

My body makes popping noises, poofing noises and other funny noises!

When my body laughs hard enough, my belly hurts, my eyes run and more noises ensue. Glee!

My body tells me what it needs, my body eats, drinks and digests. My body gets rid of what it doesn't need (why can't I do the same?!).

My body sleeps so I can dream.

My body stumbles and recovers. Sometimes my body falls, my body hurts, my body bleeds, my body heals.

My body heats me when I'm cold, cools me when I'm hot. My body runs when I'm afraid, jumps when I am startled, stands still when I don't know what to do.

My body makes funny faces, has funny habits, twists my hair, rubs my nose.

My body grows all the time, skin, hair, fingernails toenails!

My body gets butterflies in its tummy when my eyes meet the eyes of someone I love. My body gets tears in its eyes when I'm sad, and crazy big smiles when I'm happy, and faraway looks when I am far away. (But I always come back).

My body puts one foot in front of the other. Day in, day out. Never fails.

My body allows me to experience the physical world. My body loves to touch fluffy things, stroke silky things, press palms into smooth, warm wood still vibrating with the memory of trees.

I digress.

My body is healthy and whole, and for that I am grateful.
My body is a gift. My body is a home. My body is amazing!

Does anyone remember "The Big Orange Splot", by Daniel Pinkwater?

"My house is me, and I am it, and it looks like all my dreams."

Water, water

2010-05-23T16:53:00.001+09:00

Water, water, everywhere... (Image source here) We are told our body is between 60 and 70% water. Our blood is mostly water, our cells, muscles, lungs and brain need water to function. Water helps us to hydrate our body, carry nutrients and oxygen to our cells, removes toxins and waste, and protects our organs. But the body is also constantly losing water - through urination, breathing, and sweat. And when we lose more water than we can replenish, the body suffers from dehydration.

According to Dr. Google and About.com, symptoms of mild dehydration include headaches, daytime fatigue, constipation, lower back pain, and even chronic joint and muscle pain. The skin dries out (read: you look older!), and a yellow or amber colour to your urine confirms the diagnosis. I personally think that a lot of people suffer from mild dehydration without realizing it - and if you drink a lot of coffee and little water, you might be one of them!

I have become hyper-sensitive to dehydration. I can tell when my headaches or moods are water related. Drinking enough water not only clears my head but it helps me to be a nicer person to be around! People also report that drinking enough water helps to relieve insomnia, curb overeating (Ayurveda tells us that at mealtimes the stomach should be 1/4 full of water, 1/2 full of food, and 1/4 empty), and keep their skin looking young and healthy.

Thirst, of course, is the most obvious symptom of dehydration but in fact, your body may need water long before you are thirsty! So, how much water do we need to drink to stay hydrated? [NB, about 20% of your daily water intake comes from food, but the rest we have to drink.]

Well, the answer depends on many factors including the climate, your diet, how much exercise you are doing, and how much you sweat. Someone doing 90 minutes of sweaty exercise a day will need to replenish more fluids than someone mostly sedentary. Also, if you eat a lot of salty food, or drink a lot of caffeine or alcohol, you will need to drink more water because these foods exacerbate dehydration. Some sports drinks or 'enhanced water' drinks offer the additional advantage of including electrolytes that help to increase re-hydration. But be careful, many of them also contain way too much sugar and other additives.

About.com offers this handy equation: Take your body weight in pounds, and divide that number in half. That gives you the base number of ounces of water you should drink every day. Then, add even more water if you exercise, live in an arid climate, or sweat a lot! I did this calculation and it actually seems pretty accurate - according to the calc., I should drink about 65 oz, or 1.9 litres of water a day. I reckon on an average day I drink between 2 and 4 litres, depending on how hot it is an my level of activity.

Some good tips from About.com on staying hydrated:

Drink at least 8 glasses of water per day.
Drink fluids slowly by constantly sipping throughout the day.
Don't drink caffeinated drinks or alcoholic beverages, which can actually have a dehydrating effect.
When flying in an airplane, drink plenty of water and avoid alcohol.
Drink water before, during, and after exercise--slowly!
Carry a water bottle whenever possible, especially when participating in outdoor activities in warm weather.

Finally, let's not forget: there is such thing as too much of a good thing. Avoid trying to drink your entire daily intake of water all at once, and check with a doctor if you have any kidney problems or other issues that might affect your body's ability to absorb water.

So readers, what is your experience with hydration or dehydration? How much water do you drink a day?

Loving lists

2010-05-22T13:29:00.000+09:00

My busy project continues with deadline #1 met! This week I've also been playing with unseasonal tropical deluges and urban flooding, and now, insect infestations - termites to be precise. Just another week in the tropics.

I am a lover of lists. And this week there have been some wonderful lists in the blogosphere!

Shiny Yoga posted this moving and beautiful list this week called "How to Plant Your Garden". The garden of life, that is!
Tiffany at Moving Meditations had a lovely list of nine things she was thankful for - we could all use to cultivate this kind of gratitude.
Michelle from The Devil Wears Prana posted a fabulously succinct list of the "Chitta Vritti" or 'mental twists' that can stand in the way of our ego-busting yoga crusade.

And, not to be outdone, our regular list-posters:

Suburban Yogini brings joy to the web every Thursday with her "Things I love Thursdays",
And on Fridays, Roseanne from It's All Yoga, Baby, brings us the weekly scoop of what's hot and what's not with yoga in the media!

Do you love lists? What are some of your bloggy lists that you couldn't do without?

Sound Signage

2010-05-18T15:25:00.000+09:00

This snap was posted in the media recently and my partner giggled and suggested I should post it in the room where I teach my yoga classes. I figure this is the next best thing!

I've blogged about this before, but when I first began taking yoga classes, chanting used to make me extremely uncomfortable. It sounded so cult-y and just weirded me out! Now I have come to enjoy that camp-fire spirit, and how the act of singing or chanting in unison brings people together.

That is, of course, in the ideal setting. Then there are those other times... The times when you, leading the chant, fail to hit the right key, falter and croak... The times when that one person in the front row seems to think that the louder they scream "OM" the better... There are the times when everyone in the room picks a different key, and it sounds like you are all participating in a giant cacophony rather than a symphony of voices!

But then, there are the moments when it seems that everyone in the room is on the same wavelength... When the chant is neither too quiet nor too loud, when voices meld perfectly until you are not even sure which one is yours, and you lose yourself in the unity of sound.

Maybe some pointed signage would help to encourage those harmonious moments? What do you think? ;)

Brahma Mudra - a little stress relief

2010-05-11T20:21:00.000+09:00

It has been a big week for me. Since this time last weekend, I was bitten by a stray dog, I attended a traditional ceremony that included animal sacrifice and the President getting tipsy on moonshine, I worked all weekend (interspersed with some quick yoga practices and a great brunch with friends) and now I'm straight back into a working week.

I'm working on a big project right now, and still teaching my regular classes, and my yoga practice is suffering drastically - and that is making me cranky and even more stressed!! The cycle of stress is just astounding - high stress = no sleep = no yoga = high stress. Etc. Working at a computer a lot also really gets into my shoulders and my lower back where my scoliosis is - I hardly ever feel it when I am more active but chair marathons just make it ache.

Anyway, here is one of my favourite little yoga tricks that is quick and gives instant stress relief. It's also excellent for headaches and neck tension.

Brahma Mudra

Precede with 10-20 rounds of a calming pranayama, such as Nadi Shodana (alternate nostril breathing) or Chandra Bedhana (breathing in through the left nostril, out through the right). Sit in easy pose, with your eyes open and focusing into the distance. Ground through the sitting bones and from the foundation allow your spine to lengthen up, and then soften your shoulders back and down. Establish a smooth rythym with the breath.

Step 1
As you inhale, look all the way to the right hand side with your eyes, and then let your head follow, turning all the way to the right. As you exhale gaze to the tip of your nose, and bring your head back to centre. Repeat on the left hand side.

Step 2
As you inhale, look all the way down with your eyes and then gently lift your head up. Keep looking down as you lift the chin all the way up. Exhale, come back to centre. Inhale, look all the way up and then gently bring your chin to your chest. Exhale, come back to centre. [NB - I have also seen this with eyes up - look up, eyes down - look down. I was taught this way.]

Repeat 3 times. Follow by closing the eyes, or for maximum effect, with Savasana or tratak (candle-gazing cleansing).

I like to include brahma mudra at the end of my morning pranayama, but these days it's all I can do to sneak in a downward facing dog during the day, so it works well on its own!

What do you do to relieve stress?

Yoga for Feet

2010-05-06T13:34:00.000+09:00

Yoga is one of those activities that reminds us, hey, I have feet! Hard to ignore when suddenly you are staring at them in a forward bend, or they are hovering above you in shoulderstand. Jamie over at On the Mat blogged about her relationship with her feet in this post a while back, and the comments certainly showed that we yogis are feet-aware!

It's pretty incredible when you think that those two feet of yours walk about 7,500 steps A DAY! According to WikiAnswers: "The average moderately active person takes about 7500 steps a day. Assuming every day the person walks, an eighty year old person who began walking at one year of age, would have taken 216,262,500 steps in their lifetime. An average person, with an average stride, living to this age of 80 will walk about 108,131 miles." That's 174,020 kilometres for those of us in the rest of the world. Woah.

Yoga is great for feet - and your feet certainly deserve it! So here are few fun-foot things you can try to raise your awareness of your amazing feet:

Foot Awareness Exercises:

1. Stand normally and start shaking your body - shake out the arms and wrists, the shoulders, the legs and, yes, the feet! (Or just do the hokey pokey and get it over with already. ;) )

Post-shaking, jump up in the air 3 times and then stay still as soon as you land. No cheating! Then, look at your feet and observe how they are placed:

Are they parallel, or do your toes turn in or out? Does one foot turn out more than the other (if so, this is probably your tighter hip).
How is your weight distruibuted? Do you place more weight on the heel or on the balls of the feet? More emphasis on the inside or the outside of the feet?

2. Bring your feet parallel, and try to evenly distribute the weight on the feet. Close your eyes and feel your standing balance until you feel you are evenly grounded. Then, opening your eyes, lift up the toes on your right foot and try to spread the toes apart. See how wide they will go! Then do the left side.

Now, try a Jedi mind-trick. Keeping your toes spread wide, lift up just the big toe. Then, try to keep the big toe grounded and lift up just the other toes. If you are really brave, try to lift up the two middle toes and two smallest toes seperately. (NB: this would be a REALLY good time to have a friend take a photograph of your face!) What do you notice? How do the two sides compare?

Yoga Foot Exercises

Yoga has a few lovely stretches to offer for our poor, tired feet. Here is a small selection:

Kneeling Toe Stretch

Begin in a kneeling position (Virasana). Tuck your toes under, making sure to pull the pinky toe out so it touches down as well. Spread your toes wide, and gently release your weight down onto your heels, feeling the stretch through the toes. Breathe. If you want to intensify the stretch, bring your knees about an inch forwards. Feel that deep stretch and breathe into it.

Toe Stretching Forward Bend (from The Yoga Bible by Christina Brown)

Sit cross-legged with the left leg in front. Lean forward and use the right hand to help you interlace the fingers of the left hand in between the toes of your right foot. Then do the left foot the best you can. Gently squeeze all the toes with both hands. (A teacher I went to a class with once said that this squeezing was great relief for hot, achy feet, and also for insomnia somehow...).

Now flex the heels of both feet, and fold forwards, letting the elbows bend out to the sides. On an exhalation lengthen the body and bring the forehead towards the floor. Stay for ten breaths, inhale back up to sitting, and then repeat with the legs crossed the other way.

Half Frog Pose

(Caution: this pose can be intense on your knees, so please be very careful to respect your knees if you try it!)

Photo from YogaJournal - NB, she is doing this with the arm extended, the version I describe below is on the elbow.)

Start lying face down on the floor, and then come up onto your elbows with the lower arms stretched out in front of you. Bring the left hand towards the right elbow so the left lower arm is parallel to the front of your mat. Then bend the right knee and use the right arm to catch the top right foot. Point your toes straight forward, and on an exhalation press the foot forward and down, rotating the fingers forward so that the right elbow points up to the sky. Press the foot down with the palm of the hand so that the foot comes down towards the outside of the right buttock rather than right in the middle. Stay for 10 breaths, then repeat on the other side.

Viparita Karani: Legs up the Wall Pose

The classic legs-up-the-wall pose is a fabulous refresher for feet! Scoot your body close in to a wall with your legs up in the air resting against the wall. Use pillows liberally under your back, shoulders and head. Stay as long as you like, feeling the blood drain away from those feet. When you come down, relish the sensation as blood flows freely back down to rejuvenate your lower limbs.

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Hope you enjoy these! Readers, how happy are your feet? What brings your feet bliss?

Sequence for Scoliosis - Guest Post by Suburban Yogini

2010-05-04T11:59:00.001+09:00

This is a guest post by the lovely Rachel of Suburban Yogini. As a fellow scoliosis-sufferer, I asked Rachel, with her experience at therapeutic yoga, to put together a short-but-sweet sequence for the spine that could be practiced daily to help relieve some of the discomforts caused by scoliosis. You can read a bit more about her own experience with scoliosis here.

Yoga teacher Elise Browning Miller is one of the most recognized experts on the subject of yoga and scoliosis. You can visit her website here for lots of helpful information on the different types and origins of scoliosis. She has also written a number of articles for Yoga Journal on the subject: here is one about yoga and scoliosis, and here is one about teaching students with scoliosis.

So, on to our sequence, with a few wise words from Suburban Yogini's blog: "Yoga practice for back problems of any kind, or scoliosis specifically, should always be undertaken with a qualified teacher who understands the back problem and in conjunction with advice from a physical therapist. This said, yoga practice by its very nature will strengthen and stretch the back muscles and focus the mind on lengthening the spine."

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Yoga Sequence for Scoliosis

Begin sitting back on the heels, spine nice and straight, tail bone tucked under. Place one hand on the chest and one hand on the lower belly and observe the breath and the movement of the breath under the hands for a few moments until the breath has become steady soft and even. Begin to visualise the breath moving up and down the spine from the sacrum to the crown of the head on an inhale, from the crown of the head to the sacrum on an exhale. Visualise the spine as strong, straight and long. Keep this visualisation in mind throughout your practice.

1: Child's pose to Downward-facing dog

(Repeat 5 times)

Come into childs pose. As you inhale come to tabletop and exhale into Down Dog. Inhale tabletop and exhale child's pose. Repeat five times holding the final down dog for five breaths and the final child for as long as you need.

2: Warrior I and Parsvottanasana

(Repeat 3 times on each side)

When you are ready come to standing. Turn the left foot out slightly and take a big step forward with the right foot. Make sure that both hips are pointing to the front of your mat. Exhale the hands into prayer position.

Inhale bending the front knee and stretching the arms up into a modified Warrior 1. Make sure that you look straight ahead rather than up as we are trying to keep the spine straight. Exhale fold forward over the front leg, keeping that front knee bent and the back heel down. Inhale the arms out to the side and back into modified Warrior 1. Exhale straighten the front knee and bring the hands back into prayer position. Repeat 3 times to each side.

3: Supine spine stretcher

(Repeat 5 times)

(Aurora says hello!)

Come to lying on the back with the knees hugged into the chest, feel free to roll out the back and hips here for a few breaths.

As you inhale stretch the legs up to the ceiling with the feet flexed and the arms alongside the ears. Make sure you do not let the tailbone lift off the floor. As you exhale hug the knees back in towards the chest. Repeat 5 times.

Finish the sequence with a supine twist and savasana.

The point here is to keep the spine straight but not stiff. Concetrate on finding the balance between stength and softness within the vertebrae.

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Thanks Rachel for such a great sequence for the spine! Dear readers, what is your experience with your spine? How has yoga changed that?

Twitterpated!

2010-05-01T16:18:00.000+09:00

Living where I do, I'm pretty behind the times, but today I finally decided to see what the noise was all about.

Yep, I joined Twitter! You can visit me at Yoga_Gypsy.

Now to figure out the next step - what on Earth is it for??!! So I figured I would ask all of you. Do you use Twitter? If so, how? Do you like it? Why or why not?

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts. :)

PS - Bonus points to those who remember what movie I stole the title of the post from! ;)

A little link love

2010-04-30T15:12:00.000+09:00

I heart our yoga blog community. Really. Maybe because I am somewhat starved for company of people who are as obsessed with yoga as I am. Obsessed? Me? Ummm, yes. I mean, I keep a blog about yoga.

But then again, so do many of you! :) Hearts all around.

Anyway here are some posts and blogs that I have recently discovered or recently been enjoying:

Bab's Babble: There was a lovely post today called "I heart Yoga Because" - so inspirational, it inspired me to heart you all in this post. ;)
Moving Meditation: Tiffany started blogging this year and I've been enjoying her insights on being a new yoga teacher, and her life in Denver! For starters, check out this lovely post: "Things I would like to say to my beginner students". If only all teachers would say these things!!
Mama Inspired: Juliana is a 'real' writer - and it shows! She writes beautifully about things she is passionate, including her childhood in Brazil and coming to America, her lovely daughter Luna, as well as recently ranting about the future of higher education!
Foolish Enthusiasm: Alex recently commented on my blog so I checked his out! He's currently training as a yoga teacher and it's great to hear a voice from the other side of the gender line. ;) Being not-very-new-media-savvy I have yet to figure out how to comment on his blog... So if anyone has any hints, let me know!
Svasti: A Journey From Assault To Wholeness: Svasti's blog is huge, complex, honest, fascinating, moving and impossible to take in all at once. At the moment I'm enjoying her posts sharing her experience about Shadow Yoga - pretty intense, cool stuff.
Namaste_Heather - Heather is back! :) :) That makes me joyful in itself, and then she wrote this lovely post about Effort and Ease, such an important synergy in Yoga (and life!), and one I have been trying to work into my classes since reading it.

Happy Friday everyone!

Yoga for Soldiers

2010-04-27T16:11:00.000+09:00

My life here is a little bit out of the ordinary. You got that, right? Anyway, twice a week I teach yoga to small groups of (mostly) men from the defense forces who are here as peacekeepers. Yep, yoga for soldiers.

Teaching the troops has been a really educational experience for me as a teacher. After all, they are pretty much the polar opposite of my own body type: small, female, thin without much muscle. And what's more, they are not exactly your average beginner Yoga students. First of all, they have been training their bodies for years, so generally they are very physically aware. And secondly, they follow instructions! LOL. By which I mean that they respond well to verbal cues about the body, which is a skill that it took me years to develop.

I feel that I'm pretty lucky: in addition to teaching the gents of the Oz and NZ army, my twice weekly group classes have also gone from being nearly all female to having an almost equal male to female ratio, mostly thanks to a bunch of keen helicopter pilots and body builders.

So, what are these guys looking for in a Yoga class?

In my experience, these men, who are relatively fit already, come to yoga because they are looking for flexibility and injury prevention. The majority of my women students are after weight loss, muscle tone, strength and fitness - most of which these guys already have! What these men suffer from are tight hamstrings, stiff shoulders and lower back issues, to name the most common. Many of them have also been injured from intensive physical training, sports, or combat, so injury prevention and/or recovery is a big theme as well.

Most of them are runners and/or weight trainers, and some do short interval training. So building lung capacity and breath awareness, increasing oxygen intake, and developing a longer physical routine can also be motivating factors for them. As they progress through the practice, those that get into it will come to see yoga as a way of honing their strength in a more uniform way and developing balanced bodies with flexibility as well as muscle, as well as enhancing their focus and concentration during athletic activities. For more ideas of what might motivate these athletic guys, have a look at this website, which is the site of a personal yoga trainer for elite athletes! She provides a neat list of physical and mental benefits that athletic types can expect from yoga.

Teaching the Troops

I have found that my best approach is to focus first on the physical benefits and then to let the mental benefits slowly sneak up. People who are generally very physically focused will probably be put off (at least at first) by a spiritual approach to yoga. So I usually start a practice with breathing exercises instead of meditation, and finish with a guided mind-body-awareness practice instead of chanting. We work on challenging the breath and building awareness of 3-part breathing, the role of the diaphragm and shoulders, and how to expand lung capacity.

Other things I have found in working with this demographic is that I have to hit the level of challenge just right. On the one hand, they are much stronger and fitter than most beginning students. So I will introduce strength poses fairly early on, such as Chaturanga Dandasana, Plank and its variations (one-armed, or plank with leg lifts or knee bends), Navasana and Bakasana, to keep them challenged. Arm balances and standing balances are great because they require strength as well as balance and give that special sense of achievement or reward for your efforts - Bakasana is a good one because it doesn't require much flexibility in the hips, as many others do. For standing balances I like Tree with arm variations like Eagle to challenge the shoulders, and also poses like Warrior III which require a lot of core strength and focus. I have found that the guys are more than willing to try 'scary' things like Bakasana - and I have seen a few of them get it on the first or second go (and it took me only, oh, 4 years or so?!)!

On the other hand, my muscle-bound students need encouragement that yoga can be accessible for them despite their low flexibility. So I generally don't try to push them with too many seated forward bends or postures that require flexible hamstrings or bendy backs, which can be really frustrating and discourage them because they won't see much progress even over a 6-week period, and may not stick with the practice. Although I do insist on paschimottanasana and janu sirsasana, with the emphasis on lengthening the spine - knees bent if necessary - I also offer lying down hamstring stretches and hip openers so they can go deep into the hamstrings without compromising the lower back.

Because most of these guys have limited hip and shoulder flexibility, we work on those areas through the standing postures, with a heavy emphasis on alignment too. Poses like extended angle pose, warrior I and II, lunges with both hands inside the forward foot, and the occasional supine pigeon are good hip-openers, and poses like utanasana, Prasarita Padotonasana and parsvottanasana can be done with hands clasped behind the back to open the shoulders. For all forward bends I try to encourage them to keep their knees bent and emphasize lengthening the spine in order to protect the tight hamstrings and slowly open up the lower back.

Being, if you will, a bunch of boys, these guys are prone to challenge each other and themselves, so I try to discourage their competitive edge by emphasising breath and drishti, and by reminding them over and over to respect their limits and not push too far. I also find that warming up properly is extremely important to make sure that they are stretching with the minimum possible risk of injury, so we start the practice with lots of repetitions of sun salutations.

Mind Body Balance

Over time (sometimes not very much time!) the mental benefits of yoga will start to shine through. These can include improved relaxation and sleep habits, heightened focus and concentration, better overall energy levels and mental alertness, and emotional stability are all in the list. And yes, some of my longer-term muscle men now chant with gusto, hands in namaste and all. :)

These mental benefits of yoga have led to it also being used to treat soldiers who suffer from post traumatic stress disorder, something Svasti blogged about yesterday, and something I found a short article about on this blog as well.

Your turn!

All in all it's been a great teaching experience for me and I've learned so much and am still learning. Now, it's your turn.... Fellow teachers, what have been some body types you have learned a lot from working with? Fellow students, what have you learned from people with different body types from your own?

Random weekend hobbies

2010-04-26T12:42:00.002+09:00

I had a busy weekend living in the real world instead of the internet world... Ok, actually that's not entirely true because I did spend a bunch of it watching Season 3 of Angel, and playing a delightfully mindless game on my partner's iPod, entitled "Angry Birds" (that's the game, not the iPod), in which a variety of oddly-shaped birds enact their revenge on a hierarchy of round, green, egg-thieving pigs. Oh, mindless, repetitive joy!!

It might seem incongruous with my so-called-yogic life, but I love these kinds of games. Perhaps it was because I wasn't allowed to have them as a child. Until one year when a doctor/teacher/someone wise told my parents that I had terrible hand-brain-eye coordination, and that s/he thought video games would help.

So my parents went out and bought us the very first Nintendo. My parents, who disliked television (except educational shows, which included, of course, Star Trek) and restricted us to one hour per day of staring at a screen, my parents who believed in social interaction and educational games. My sister and I thought it was birthdays and Christmas all at once!! Of course they didn't TELL us that it was prescribed, that would have spoiled the fun. In, fact, my Mom let this juicy fact slip only recently when I visited her on holidays.

Anyway, my sister and I spent countless hours rejoicing in Mario Bros, Tetris, and of course, that old classic, Duck Hunt. It makes my sides ache to giggle when I think of me and my sis, aged about 9 and 6, wielding that funny plastic pistol and gleefully blasting helpless digital ducks out of the sky. Not very in line with Ahimsa, but I guess I turned out OK. And quite opposed to real sport hunting, as life would have it! Of course, this experience was tinged with a bit of irony from the start, when my mother became completely obsessed with Tetris, sometimes playing it well past bedtime and into the night! ;)

Ah well. Not sure why I shared that story, but there you have it. What strange habits or hobbies do you indulge in? :)

Evolution

2010-04-22T16:59:00.000+09:00

This morning I was feeling like a change, and somewhat short on time, so I put on a yoga podcast that I used to enjoy but haven't practiced to in nearly a year. It was a 40-minute sequence of mainly standing poses with some twists and hip openers, and then a few seated hip openers as well.

I did the practice... and I was totally dissatisfied. It wasn't that I wasn't challenged - there were some long holds and deep postures. Some of the sequencing was nice too, like a Warrior II - Crescent Warrior - Half Moon standing sequence, and a Tree Pose to Warrior III balancing sequence which is a favourite of mine. But there was just something that didn't do it for me - I think the real thing was that I just didn't feel I was generating heat. I missed my sun salutations! I didn't feel like my body ever really warmed up at all. Also I felt really incomplete at the end - there were no backbends, no shoulderstand to round off the practice. I did a few rounds of bridge and then a long headstand and then I felt better.

It was interesting to me as an experience of how much my personal practice has changed, how something that used to really do it for me just wasn't working for me today.

Have you ever had a similar experience? How has your practice evolved?

(It's alright ma) It's only yoga

2010-04-20T17:36:00.001+09:00

It seems that a lot of yoga practitioners feel a sense of pressure to live some kind of extraordinary life. And when we're not busy feeling pressured to do more, we feel guilty about the things we are doing. And as if that weren't complicated enough, we then feel longing for the things we aren't doing because we feel pressured or guilty enough not to do them! I mean, whew, how do any of us even have time for yoga amidst all that?

I mean, isn't yoga supposed to liberate us from all that jazz? All those chitta vritti (cheeky monkey?) thoughts that keep pestering at our brains like buzzing mosquitoes, homing in to attack us, all those doubts and ideals and, well, all of that? After all, we are in this to find calming thoughts, centeredness, groundedness, self-awareness, self-confidence, cures for our illnesses and hopefully a bit of muscle tone to boot. In short, we are in search of perfection. Through Yoga. Right?

Ah. Is that what it comes down to? Are we so convinced that somewhere out there, there is One Thing that will make us happy, that we are willing to give Yoga it's 5 minutes of fame to see if it does the trick? Nope? Oh well, back to money, fame, fortune, weight loss or whatever else is on the list.

Sarcasm aside, my teacher taught me about renunciation. When we look at yoga philosophy, we encounter notions like Ahimsa, non-harming, and Aparigraha, non-grasping / moderation. Our first reaction is to immediately pounce on the material implications of these yamas, or restraints. So, we practice Ahimsa by giving up eating meat because it harms animals. We practice Aparigraha by giving up potato chips, or that pair of jeans you've been wanting. Or we tell ourselves we didn't really want it anyway, because that wouldn't be yogic, right?

So our immediate reactions to the yamas are reactions of renunciation. Giving things up is long acclaimed in our culture. I mean, nobody loves a good martyr like we do (ok, well maybe some people do, but anyway, the point being, we love a good martyr like anybody!)

But, my teacher reminds us, the second Yama is Satya, or truthfulness. And these types of renunciation which are accompanied by a sense of sacrifice, which are done because of an expectation of the result of the action or done because of how the outside world will perceive them, are not in line with Satya.

The difference is choice, and how you embrace it. When we give something up, we go into it with the mentality that we are sacrificing something in order to attain something else. Meat or jeans for yogic goodness. Etc. But according to my teacher, if you spend every day wishing you could eat meat, or have chips, or wear those jeans, then you are not living your satya, not living truthfully to yourself.

He believes that somewhere along the line, as you gradually reconnect with your true self, non-harming and moderation become things that become natural to you. Instead of renouncing material goods in hopes of winning brownie points, you will reach a point where you truly no longer want to buy more things. Instead of giving up eating junk food because you think you're supposed to, you just stop buying it out of a real desire to feed your body non-processed food. Instead of wishing you could have those jeans, you become deeply disgusted with consumerism and the inequality of sweat shop labour. In short, you live your yamas because they feel right, not because you have a desire to Be Right. And when you do this, negative emotions like guilt, jealousy, and martyrdom will fall by the wayside, because you will be living in balance with yourself.

I feel the same way about the physical practice of Yoga. Today while I was on my mat, I was practicing away, wondering how long I should practice, and what, and thinking how I wish I practiced more, and all kinds of other things, and then it slowly crept into my head... you know what? It doesn't matter. It's only Yoga!

I know - Gasp. Right? But there it is. It's not life or death, it's not family, it's not love, it's not any of the things that really and truly I can't survive without. It's not how I want to measure myself or define myself. I am not the successes or the limitations of my body. I am not my practice. I am not my asana, pranayama, pratyahara or the rest of it. Yes, I love my practice, and yes, it makes me feel good. But it's not the be all and end all of my day. It's not how I feed myself or what keeps me warm at night. It's only a body on a smelly mat. It's only Yoga. And that is liberating.

You lose yourself, you reappear
You suddenly find you got nothing to fear
Alone you stand with nobody near
When a trembling distant voice, unclear
Startles your sleeping ears to hear
That somebody thinks they really found you

A question in your nerves is lit
Yet you know there is no answer fit
To satisfy, insure you not to quit
To keep it in your mind and not forget
That it is not he or she or them or it
That you belong to

Although the masters make the rules
For the wise men and the fools
I got nothing, Ma, to live up to

(From Bob Dylan's "It's alright Ma (I'm only bleeding) )

Save the Planet Sundays - Green Air Travel?

2010-04-18T21:58:00.001+09:00

Wow, is it Sunday again? How time flies. And speaking of flying... With the huge shutdown of air travel in Europe, I thought I'd muse a bit on the environmental impact of air travel. Living overseas and far from my family, I fly long-haul at least once a year, and more often 2-4 times, as well as taking shorter flights in the region for work or simply to get off the island.

According to several web sources, air travel is responsible for between 3 and 10% of global carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions per year, both of which have been linked to global climate change. Aircraft rely on fossil fuels, of which they burn huge amounts, and release these gases into the lower and upper atmosphere (troposphere). While there seems to be little data available on exactly how much is emitted and what the impact is, like any other fossil fuel-reliant industry, the folks who make planes are under pressure to make air travel greener by reducing emissions and increasing fuel efficiency. However, with the number of air passengers set to double by 2020, even the ambitious 50% emissions reduction for that year targeted by the EU (see here) would basically bring us back to square 1!

Air travel is linked to the food industry, allowing us to eat foods that come from far-flung corners of the globe, and increasing as we then demand more. On the other hand, it also allows us to receive mail, transport medicines and emergency supplies to those in need, and conduct search and rescue operations, to name a few worthy causes. How much slower would the relief efforts in Haiti or Aceh have been without air travel? How many lives would have been lost in remote communities without planes to fly the sick to hospitals? And while the hordes of sunburned tourists on far flung beaches might look like they'd be better off back home, millions of families around the world depend on revenues from global tourism, trade and other ventures made possible by the speed of air travel.

If you've a mind to avoid air travel, you can look for opportunities to travel by train or bus instead of flying. While it might take longer, you can sure see a lot more on the way! Would-be air travelers are also encouraged to take local holidays - see the sights that you never see right in your backyard. And when you do fly, some airlines offer passengers the option to add a few dollars to their ticket and support carbon-offsetting ventures. Air New Zealand, for example, runs an Environmental Trust that buys and plants trees on conservation reserves and supports sustainable farming initiatives, has a carbon offsetting program, and is conducting research into more environmentally friendly fuels.

While these airline-conducted ventures are far from perfect, the eco-conscious traveler can certainly do some research before hand to pick a more environmentally aware carrier for their long-haul flight. And, if you really have a mind to, some charities these days (at least in Canada!) allow you to calculate the environmental impact of your specific flight, and to make an 'equivalent' donation to preserve forests or plant trees to (in theory anyway) offset your individual emissions footprint. (Full disclosure - I have yet to make use of these but if I do I will be sure to report back!) There is a list with links to a few of them here!

And, of course, for the intrepid traveler looking for a fully sustainable form of travel, for those truly interested in the journey rather than the destination - there is sailing. :)

The lovely S/V Dany II

Well readers... what are your thoughts on the skies?

All propped up

2010-04-15T13:15:00.004+09:00

To prop or not to prop? It's a question that may often cross a yoga teacher or student's mind. On the one hand, props offer many benefits in terms of alignment, comfort and safety in a pose. On the other hand, they are bulky to carry with you to class, and some of them (like the rather abused yoga strap) might actually prompt behaviour that works against you instead of with you (like tugging hard on the strap to pull yourself further into a forward bend).

Traditionally in Ashtanga yoga, no props are used. Instead, poses are modified to suit the needs of the individual, and the student can gradually progress towards the full pose. A ready example is extended angle pose: instead of bringing the hand to the ground beside the forward foot, the student can place their elbow on their knee. This allows them to keep the chest revolved open and still stretch the other arm out over their ear. This modification is so useful for getting people to stay in alignment that I actually teach it in all my classes, with the full pose as an option only!

However, in other forms of yoga like Iyengar, props are used a lot, to help students find the correct alignment in a pose and also to protect them from injury. Examples are placing a block under your hand in triangle pose, or blankets under the shoulders in shoulderstand (although to be fair, most Ashtanga-trained teachers learn this one as well).

As a teacher, I generally don't use props in group classes. Partly this is an availability issue - not enough to go around!, but in big part it's because I teach vinyasa yoga, and props interrupt the flow and pace of the classes, plus take up space in a packed classroom. I choose instead to teach modified poses, and offer variations for students of different levels. I do however have a few students who bring their own props to class, which is great!

In private classes on the other hand, I'm a big fan of using props, depending on individual needs. I find the props give more confidence to some students to explore poses more deeply than they otherwise would. Mostly I use blocks: under the hands in low lunge (helps open up the chest), triangle, parsvottanasana, ardha chandrasana and the like. I also use blankets under the sitting bones for forward bends, and under the shoulders for shoulderstand. As you may have gathered from the first paragraph I'm not a fan of using straps in forward bends, but I do use them occasionally to help someone bind in a tricky twist, or as supports in restorative baddha konasana and supta baddha konasana. I have also occasionally used a strap to help me play with deep backbends like pigeon pose, which I have found rewarding but intense.

And then of course there is therapeutic, prenatal and restorative yoga, for which props are a must!

One of my absolute favourite therapeutic uses for a yoga block is also as a back-massage tool! Lying in various positions with a block placed under different areas of your back is like getting a deep-tissue massage. Try it! With your knees bent as if you were going into bridge pose, lift up your hips and place the block under your lower back, middle back, along your spine, or (my favourite!) the buttocks. Slowly release your weight onto the block and enjoy!

What about you, bloggers and blogettes? Have you used props? When or how have they been helpful to you?