spring into yoga!

  "Practice and all will come!"

-- K Pattabhi Jois

I don't know about where you are but there is a distinct feeling of spring in the air here in Cambridge. The days are definitely longer and brighter, the bulbs in the garden are all poking their heads through the soil and the air feels lighter somehow, more oxygenated! This Yogini definitely has a spring in her step, awful pun very much intended.

I'm sure you've all heard of WoYoPraMo. World Yoga Practice Month is usually January and the yoga world all pledge to practice every day. I did not take part this year as I spent the first week of this January coughing up my lungs with bronchitis.

Besides I've never practiced every single day of the week. I believe in at least one rest day a week as a time to allow the body, mind and breath to assimilate the practice.  I also think that it is vitally important not to set goals that are unachievable.  It takes a very strong person not to feel a little let down by themselves if they have not achieved a goal that they have set.

A five day per week practice sits perfectly with my life right now, and so for the month of March I want to continue with my five days a week, but I want to focus specifically on poses that I have a tendency to avoid.   These include Baddha Konasana, Janu Sirsasana and Dhanurasana.  Those things we choose to avoid are often the things we need the most, so I will be working on these postures as mindfully as I can (rather than cursing myself in my head!) and keeping in mind my thoughts on 40 days of Ahimsa by being gentle with myself and not pushing or straining.  Just being in these postures that I so dislike. 

Spring always reminds makes me think of the word "bloom", as everything is just bursting, ready to bloom into life.  And that is exactly what I want to be happening on my yoga mat right now.

I would love it if you would join me dear reader.  No earth shattering goals, nothing you can't stick to but if, like me, you practice regularly, try to practice at least one posture you don't like (and we all have them) every day in March.  If you practice yoga but not as regularly as you'd like, try to put aside 20 minutes 2 times a week (my 20 minute practice might come in handy here!).  And for those of you who have never tried yoga before, why not go to a class, any class, just once sometime in March!


I'd love to know how you get on so do share!

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the image of yoga

One of the very few downsides of living in Cambridge is there is a severe lack of independent cafes that do a good Sunday Brunch, so this weekend we had to make do with Giraffe.

One of the many upsides is the beautifully laid back yoga atsmosphere.

Back in London, there was a tendency in some of the studios, to judge. To judge on the "perfection" of your asana, the austerity of your life, even the price of your yoga bag, the more expensive the better. It's enough to eat into anyone's self esteem and is one of the reasons why it took me so long to get around to training to teach yoga - I just didn't think I was "good enough".

Of course now, as I said in an email conversation with EcoYogini yesterday, it breaks my heart that beautiful, talented and amazing women are thinking twice about training to teach because they are not "good enough".

The yoga media don't help much either as Brenda P pointed out in this post. Much as I love Yoga Journal and it's UK equivalent Yoga & Health (hell I've even written for the latter one), I don't think I've ever seen a cover shot that isn't of very slim, Caucasian women bending their "perfect" bodies into gymnastic postures. Sometimes it's enough to make anyone give up. What about the tattoed, crooked backed women who will never get their head on their foot in Pigeon Pose (and yes YJ I'm willing to pose for a cover shot if you're reading)? What about all the beautifully curvacious yoginis out there? What about the graceful older yogini? What about the non-Caucasian? What, even, about the men?

We need images that inspire us to keep practicing despite, or even because of, our individual limitations - which, incidentally, we do all have. Images that remind us that this practice that we have right now is yoga, that we are not waiting to practice yoga until we can attain a posture akin to a Yoga Journal cover shot. As The Everything Yoga Blog wrote in this post, asana is only one of the eight limbs of yoga - a precursor if you will to the practices of pranayama and meditation.

With this in mind then, we can begin to realise that we do not have to be a certain build, or be of a certain flexibility to become teachers. It doesn't matter if we can't perform every asana "perfectly". As teachers we are enablers, helping our students work to their own abilities, helping them along their journeys, whatever their journeys may be. From personal experience I have found that my students secretly like my crooked back and dodgy hip, it gives them a sense of perspective!

Desikachar says that yoga is "to attain what was previously unattainable". That "unattainable" is different for everybody, and it's time that difference was represented more in the yoga world.

In Cambridge you can turn up to a yoga class in your pajamas (I have a friend who regularly does) and nobody bats an eyelid. Let Cambridge lead the way - I'm a lucky girl to live here. :)

yoga for walkers and runners

As promised, a short sequence for walkers and runners. It can be practiced anytime but is especially effective after your run or walk. Enjoy!

begin with the centring and kneeling saluation practices described in this post.

Holding the final downward dogs for 5-10 breaths.

Optional sun salutations of your choice.

High Lunge - begin in a kneeling position and step the right foot forward - inhale lifting out from the waist and exhale lift the left knee off the floor. Make sure that the right knee is bent at a 90 degree angle and the left heel is off the floor. Have the hands on the hips to ensure that the hips are square to the front of the mat then raise the arms up and lower the shoulderblades. Hold and breathe - 5 -10 breaths. Exhale into downward dog again, inhale to all fours and then come back to kneeling to repeat on the other side.

From downward dog step or jump the feet between the hands to uttanasna. Hold for 5 breaths and then roll up slowly on the inhale.

Step the legs wide for Triknonasana - 5 breaths to each side.

Paddotanasana - 5 breaths then walk the hands forward and the feet to hip width to come into downward dog once again. Bend the knees and push the chest towards the thighs to open the chest.

Plank - 5 breaths

Lower to the stomach.

Salambhasana - 3 sets of five breaths.

Child's pose

Pachiomottanasana - 5-10 breaths

Supine hamstring stretch - lying on the back with the knees bent, feet flat on the floor, stretch the right leg up to the ceiling, holding on behind the calf or thigh. Point and flex the foot a few times and rotate the ankle a few times in each direct. Lower and repeat to the other side.

Halasana (optional depending on whether you are doing inversions)

Savasana

yoga for cyclists

All this cycling I have been doing has made me ever more mindful of the way my body works, what muscles I'm using, how I'm holding myself.

I do love my bike ride to and from work each day (although it wasn't a whole heap of fun in the snow this morning), but I'm not sure it does an awful lot for my tight hamstrings and crooked back.

When I get home in the evening, if I don't go to a yoga class on the way, I do some yoga at home. I've devised a little yoga sequence that's particularly suitable for my bicycle weary bones that I thought I'd share. Sometimes I do more than this, but this is my minimum. I hope you like it! Once again I've done links to Yoga Journal pictures - don't worry too much about looking like that. I don't!

I begin with the centring and kneeling saluation practices described in this post.

Then a few rounds of a sun salutation of your choice if you like.

Hold the downward dogs for longer and longer to really stretch into the hamstrings and shoulders, both of which get tight on a bike. Try coming down onto forearms for downward dog, or bending the knees and drawing the chest nearer to the thighs.

Vrkasana followed by Garudasana (legs only, hands in prayer position) - at least 5 breaths in each pose on each side. This rotates the hips in both directions loosening them up from that bike ride!

Paddotanasana - 10 breaths, you can start with the knees slightly bent and then straighten them as you breath into posture.

Triknonasana - 5 breaths to each side

Uttanasana - bent or straight knees - 10 breaths

Return to kneeling

Utrasana - 3 x 5 breaths each. This really opens out the chest and shoulders - I often find my posture on the bike ride home isn't that much better than my posture at my desk!

NB - people with back problems (like me) might want to try "baby camel". Instead of trying to reach the heels just keep the hands on the small of the back, push the hips forward and open the chest by drawing the shoulderblades and elbows towards each other.

Child's pose for as long as you need.

Janu Sirsasana - 5 breaths to each side

Pachiomottanasana - 5-10 breaths

Lie down on the back and hug the knees into the chest

Relaxation

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Later in the week I hope to do a sequence for all you runners and walkers out there!

wicked warrior and sassy statistics

One of the (many) things I love about yoga is the many many different approaches to asana practice. Some of them work with my body, some of them don't, but there really is something for everyone.

Take Virabhadrasana 1 for example (this pose came up in my twenty minute sequence the other day). This is a relatively modern posture, it certainly doesn't pop up in any of the classical texts and as such there are many different approaches to it. This Yoga Journal article runs through five of the main ones. I tend to teach this posture in the Viniyoga tradition, like Gary Kraftsow in this article, but give them all a try and see which one works for you. I'd be interested to know!

There is also a potted history of the story behind the name of this posture.

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Eka Pada Rajakapotasana 2

Or a variation of one-legged pigeon pose. That's what I'm all about right now. This pose is my current favourite pose and I've worked quite hard to get there. I love the way it stretches my dodgy hip (which I've spoken about before), and opens my chest and stretches my spine. I love the way it tests my balance and makes me ground myself. I just love it! And two months ago I could barely do it at all. Hurrah.


(if you look on the Google Images, you will lovely pictures of bendy yoginis made of mercury who can get their heads on their back foot. Which is great. But I'm happy with where I'm at).

So dear readers, what's your favourite asana of the moment?

I got a job!

Yes that's right. Tuesday was a very good day because I got offered the job I was interviewed for on Monday! And miracle of miracles, it was, out of all the gazillion jobs I applied for, the one I wanted the most. Which goes to show if make enough affirmations, something will happen :)

It is working as office manager for a charity called Inspire who basically promote art and music and performance as holistic healing for people with chronic illness and disability. Yesterday they had a ton of kids with Downs Syndrome in making rock music. :) They also work with people with Alzheimers, Parkinsons, Chronic Fatigue, depression and even Fibro - so you see it's right up my street. Maybe I can get them all doing yoga too! The hours are pretty flexible (so hopefully I can fit yoga teaching in around it pretty well, when I start up again) and best of all it is just an eight minute drive away!

I haz teh happy :)

=

I am going to spend some time flitting around various yoga classes in Cambridge, working out what I like, what I don't, leaving my resume wherever it may need to be left and seeing what come of it all. I have a couple of masterclasses coming up with my teacher in the next few months also.

I went to a good class on Monday night - the first flow class I've been to in a while. Although someone came in ten minutes late and then left before savasana. Seriously?? I wouldn't never allow that! Maybe I am too strict? :/

Also I have been working on Eka Pada Rajakopotasana. It's something I have been practicing against the wall for some time. Well earlier this week I managed it without a wall!!! Only for a few breaths and my head is a looooooong way away from the sole of my foot but yay for balance!!!

So yeah, all good stuff!

Hip Openers

I've been working on a lot of hip opening practices recently, both in my own practice and in my teaching. Most yoga asanas work on the hips and pelvis in one way or another, but by focusing particularly on hip opening practices we are, on a physical level specifically working into the mobility and strength of the hip joint.

It seems incredibly important to me to work this part of the body. The hips are the point in the body where the upper and lower parts meet, securing our spine to our legs and providing the beginnings of both the grounded feeling through our feet and the lifted feeling through our torso neck and head.

We all move the hips forward and back. It is called walking, most of us do it for long periods of time every single day. But how often to we use the full rotation of the hip? How often in daily life do we sit cross-legged or squat? And the reason most of us don't - because it's too difficult.

The hip joint is extremely solid - it has to be to hold us up, to provide that connection I was talking about before. This means that working through the hip joint is a slow process. We cannot force the joint - that will just cause knock-on damage to the knee; so we have to cultivate patience and a sense of inner awareness to slowly, slowly work through the tension towards release with compassion, without judgement, without comparison to others. Hip openes need to be practiced regularly, daily if possible and maybe, maybe you will one day be sitting in full lotus position (see picture)!

As any student of mine will tell you, my hips are notoriously stiff. I'm afraid sitting in full lotus is not for me in this lifetime. You see, our hips joints are set a certain way in their sockets. For some people this means hip opening practices will develop into half lotus at least, for others this means they have been able to sit in lotus since they were kids. But when bone meets bone in the socket you cannot stretch any further. If you try it will only twist into the knee.

Just because I know I will not sit in lotus does not mean I shouldn't bother with hip openers however. We carry and awful lot of tension it the hips and pelvis, and therefore a lot of unrealeased emotion. Slow and patient release is key. And a healthy hip joint will carry a healthy body!

Day 6 - Loves and Hates

Like every Yogini I have yoga asana that I love and yoga asana that I hate.

My personal nemisis are backbends. Strong backbends such as chakrasana and full unmodified utrasana are big no-nos for me because of my scoliosis. These asana put too much pressure on my thoracic spine and end up doing more harm than good.

However, I do need backbends within my practice to open up my chest -- one of the problems with thoracic scoliosis is a tendency to slouch into the chest so chest openers rather than strong backbends are the way forward. Whilst I really do have to persuade myself into them I do find a gentle Setu Bhandasana or Salambhasana very helpful. Some days I'm even up for a modified utrasana (with my hands on my lower back rather than my heels).

Working through modifications for back problems such as scoliosis and fatigue problems such as CFS and Fibromyalgia has been one of the highlights of my career thus far as a yoga teacher - I cannot tell you how liberating it is to find a way of modifying a posture to gain the benefits without putting the body under strain.

But what are my loves when it comes to yoga asana? Well I love anything that works on elongating the spine and sides of the waist and works on lifting out of the hips whilst grounding through the feet:- balances such as vrkasana for example, or vertical standing poses such as virabhadrasana 1 (although personally I would say the stance in that picture is way too wide!)

But my all time favourite yoga pose has to be Downward Dog. I am happy to hang there for breath after breath, releasing and releasing and releasing into my crooked spine :)

Sometimes it's good to think about those poses we dread - very often the body needs what it least wants.

Namaste!