6 tips for practising yoga in winter

A while back, I wrote a post on practising yoga in the cold, and got some great replies and tips in the comments. A friend of mine commented recently, giving some great ideas and asking if there is anything else that I learned.  Now that I am back in the tropics for a while, those cold dark mornings seem far away, and the distance makes it easier to reflect on practising through the winter.  So here are a few general reflections I have on how to maintain your practice during the winter months.

1) Get enough sleep: it's already hard to wake up early on a cold dark morning, or step on your mat after the sun has gone down. A well-rested body is absolutely key!

2) Brighten up your space: turn the lights on, drape furniture in bright cloth, wear bright colours, play music - add some cheer to your space. This really helped keep me going for my morning practice - I don't usually practice to music but in the winter I found it absolutely life-saving!

3) Add some heat-inducing pranayama to your practice, such as: Ujayi breath, Udiyana kriya / nauli, bhastrika & kaphalabati.  (If anyone wants more info on those, just ask!)

4) Warm up properly! In winter (especially with a morning practice) I found I really needed to warm up the body more. I added sun salutations to my warm-up, and kept up a brisk pace through my practice.  If you have a flow practice with a varied routine, winter is a great time to add dynamic standing poses, balances and twists that generate heat from the core, like Utkatasana (chair pose), parvritta trikonasana (reverse triangle), parvritta parsvakonasana (reverse extended angle pose), Warrior III, Garudasana (Eagle Pose), Plank Pose & Side Plank Pose. Be more cautious about going into deep forward bends, hip openers or backbends, since your muscles may not be as warmed up as they are in the summer months - take lots of time to warm up to these. Take vinyasas between sitting poses to keep the body heated, and keep some warm socks and a sweater / blanket ready for your meditation and savasana.

5) Modify your diet: Eat warm, cooked foods in winter to balance out the cold.  If you are a student of yoga, chances are you have come across Ayurveda, the yogic lifestyle science, (if you need a refresher, have a look at this post), which allows you to look at the elements of your individual constitution, and identify imbalances. Cold, dry winters are most likely to aggravate Vata, and cold, wet winters are most likely to aggravate Kapha, which may cause imbalances. If you feel that winter throws you particularly out of balance, it might be worth delving deeper into your ayurvedic type and adopting some of the lifestyle recommendations specific to you.  Ayurveda also offers some suggestions for what type of physical practice might suit you best or balance your imbalances.

6) Practice at different times: Some people (like me!) really benefit from having a regular practice time and sticking to it, but others may find that varying your practice time can help you maintain a practice during the winter months.  If you are able to, try practicing at different times of day and see what suits you best.

7) If you are teaching in winter, you can also include many of these tips in your teaching routine. Winter classes can be a great opportunity to bring your students into challenging standing sequences, and work on core strength. Make sure your students are properly warmed up by adding heating poses to your warm up sequence, like cat / cow balance (opposite arm and leg raised), one-legged cat/cow (on inhale, extend one leg out behind you, on exhale hug the knee to the chest and engage the core), plank pose variations (one legged plank or side plank), utkatasana with twists. Warn your students to be especially cautious with hamstrings, hips and lower back, and to make sure they feel properly warmed up before trying deep poses in these areas.

And, just for fun, check out this page for some yogis who thought they'd take their winter practice a bit farther and practice yoga in the snow!!  Also, check out more amazing snow crystal photos like the one above at Snow Crystals.com!

Forget your perfect offering

I was going to write a post today, but instead I offer you a link to a beautiful post by the lovely Michelle Myhre, about the hindu goddess Akhilandeshvara (Ah-KEEL-An-Desh-Vara), also known as "She Who Is Never Not Broken".

As I said in my comment on Michelle's post, this is a beautiful metaphor and a reminder that to be alive is to be able to feel, and to be able to feel is the greatest gift of the human heart.

Every time my heart breaks (which is pretty much every other day - especially living in a place like East Timor where I am constantly reminded of how hard life is for most of the people in this world) I also feel gratitude that I am able to feel love and compassion. In Western society so many of our emotions are sanitised - we don't have a cultural, familial or personal space to deal with pain, grief, compassion, or sorrow, and we are constantly told to shut  up, shut it out or "get over" it.

This speaks to me of embracing the heart's ability to suffer, because it is that ability which also allows us to love.  In my line of work (development & humanitarian aid), but also in every day life, that vulnerability is critical, because it is what keeps us human in the face of the injustice of the world.

I have also borrowed the photo from Michelle's post - isn't it incredible?  It reminds me of that famous Leonard Cohen line: "forget your perfect offering / there is a crack in everything / that's how the light gets in".

Coming full circle

When I end my yoga classes, I like to bring students out of savasana, and back into a sitting posture.  Ending the class in the same pose as they began their practice, I ask my students to take stock of their body, thoughts, and emotions, just as they did before the practice began.

An asana practice is like a journey, in so many respects. And perhaps the sweetest moment of the journey is that time, or place, when you come full circle, when you come home. When it dawns on you how much, or how little, has changed, when you can finally sit back and take stock of the roads you have travelled.  Sitting with friends and loved ones, you can laugh or cry about the times you lost your way, the mishaps you encountered, the new things you discovered that enriched your life.

So, friends, I am home.  My yoga practice has been constant, but my blogging over the past year has been patchy at best, as I have been focusing my energies on my other passion - that tricky, sticky world of development and humanitarian aid.  But I am bringing some balance back into my world and hope to be posting here more often again!

Namaste~

Bree

When in Africa...

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

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

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

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.