Archive for the ‘General Yoga Philosophizing’ Category
A week out from the move & I can finally feel change in my bones. And it has me asking some good questions, ones I stopped asking for a little while & am glad to return to.
What do I want for myself?
Who do I most want to be?
How do I feel & how do I want [...]
Why do we resist when we try to do something nice for ourselves? When we try to change, or heal, or take a class or a walk or do our practice or eat a salad, when we know it’s the best possible thing?
Heidi articulated a fascinating line of reasoning on that conundrum this weekend, and I’ve condensed [...]
Woah, I’m traveling ALOT these days. Just coming back from a long weekend celebrating Founder’s Day at my alma mater (Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, NY) & only a few days here before back to New Haven!
For the few days on the road, practice was of the much abbreviated variety done in cramped hotel rooms. But I [...]
The pose continuum is much like the spacetime continuum.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spacetime_continuum
I am such a geek.
Actually, it’s a concept born in my head in response to some yoga cliches I keep hearing & can no longer agree with or support. Yes, the ever popular “There is no such thing as a perfect pose” and “There is [...]
This one is for the amazing Kai, proprietress of the addictive blog http://reluctantashtangi.blogspot.com/ (Especially love the kangaroo & critter pix!!)
She wrote in the comments the other day:
“I’m very curious what the NY teacher did to cause you to walk out of her class – if you’re not comfortable answering, that’s okay.
I’m not critical of [...]
In Forrest yoga the theme of a class frequently is focusing on bringing healing/breath/freedom/energy to some chosen spot in the body. It may be an injury or just an area that needs attention. A pretty good-sized area, too. Like your lower back, or neck or shoulder or front of the chest or whatever.
But this also begs the question: [...]
This thought started in class this morning. Picked up again after teaching my volunteer class. Culminated during a short second practice this evening.
Things in my life which have changed in the past few years:
my profession
my address
my mood
my marital status
my name
my employer
my favorite books
my favorite websites
my favorite music
my hair
my dress size
my voice
my brain chemistry
But I am still [...]
Been reading off & on a lovely book on loaner from my friend at Schmetterling Yoga. http://schmetterlingyoga.blogspot.com
I’m not done with it yet & therefore not able to give a fully digested summation, but basically it’s about the mistakes we make when imagining the future. The way the human mind works means that we inevitably distort reality through selectivity & omission & really should just quit believing so firmly in what we think. 
Find it interesting in relation to yoga as a useful tool in deconstructing how we think & what we think about. I’m a huge fan of using one’s brain, but also of understanding that it’s a tricky little bugger & must not be taken tooo seriously. Stumbling is a cognitive science-y light & humorous ride.
Here’s a few pithy bits. They are all supported by a bunch of psychological studies, mostly done on erstwhile graduate students.
“Perceptions are portraits, not photographs, and their form reveals the artist’s hand every bit as much as it reflects the things portrayed.” (p. 94)
“It is only natural that we should imagine the future and then consider how doing so makes us feel, but because our brains are hell-bent on responding to current events, we mistakenly conclude that we will feel tomorrow as we feel today.” p. 138
“Distorted views of reality are made possible by the fact that experiences are ambiguous — that is, they can be credibly viewed in many ways, some of which are more positive than others. To ensure that our views are credible our brain accepts what our eye sees. To ensure that our views are positive, our eye looks for what our brain wants. The conspiracy between these two servants allows us to live at the fulcrum of stark reality and comforting illusion.” (p. 188)
So things are likely neither as bad nor as good as one thinks. What you think you will feel about something in the future is likely wrong. Guess it is best to try & quiet the fluctuations of the mind (citta vritta nirodhah, for the Sankrit lovahs 
& not get too jacked up about living on a fulcrum.
Got into the early class then some time at the gym with Beloved Husband & extra stretchies. The household now is companionably reading & purring toether.
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/23/phys-ed-can-touching-your-toes-test-your-arteries/
A few weeks ago, I posted on a NY Times article about a study showing that flexibility doesn’t improve athletic performance. (And ranted about the sit & reach test. It’s all right here: http://autumnlotusyoga.omblogger.com/2009/11/27/is-stretching-unnecessary/)
Well, skimming NYT on line today, found a fascinating article on how the sit & reach test can correlate with flexibility of the arteries. The stiffer the body is, the more inelastic the arteries, increasing the likelihood of fatal heart attacks. On the flip side, more flexible muscles correlated with more bendy arteries & better cardiac health. Pliable muscles = pliable arteries = overall better health.
Why, we ask?
To quote: “How it is that stiff muscles in the back and legs are linked to stiff tissues near the heart is an issue that hasn’t been fully elucidated, Mr. Yamamoto says, although arterial walls are composed of the same kinds of elastic tissues as muscles elsewhere in the body. So it’s likely, he says, that alterations in the composition of muscle tissues in the lower back (including aging-related alterations in the amount of collagen within the muscles) could be occurring in the arterial walls at the same time.”
Bitchin’.
Now that is right in line with the purposes of yoga & the idea of the unity of the body.
It’s been a busy week, physical & emotional practice-wise, & I am Wicked sore. (That’s an official Bostonianism for ya. Having lived here almost six months, we were granted dispensation to use Wicked without irony by the city government.
Did 30 minutes of back releases & now the blog post & then going off to cavort in Epsom Salts.
The link between blogging & yoga is something that doesn’t seem to cause a whole lot of examination these days. I missed the nascent & even pubescent days of blogging. Now, we all blog about everything. Got an interest? Pet peeve? Obsession? Blog about it. There’s an academic/spiritual/obscene/all-of-the-above (yahooooo!!!) blog for you & if there isn’t one out there, start one!
But I really do think of blogging as a part of my yoga practice, right up there with asana, pranayama, neti, seva, blah blah blah.
(That was just a warm-up. I am about to quote the Sutras, in Sanskrit, to illustrate my point. Really, mostly to demonstrate that I can, in fact, do something other than curse & neurose.
Patanjali, Section II on Practice, Verse 1: Tapah svadhyayesvara pranidhanani kriya yogah.
According to the translation I own, (not being a Sanskrit scholar, quoting really is just for show , ” Accepting pain as help for purification, study of spiritual books, and surrender to the Supreme Being constitute Yoga in practice.”
(Thank you Sri Swami Satchidananda. BTW, I like your beard.
Acccording to my interpretation of this (different thing than quoting or translation, please note), blogging fits kinda like this.
1) Tapas — a form of discipline or burning out to create purification. Writing is a part of daily discipline. Somedays good/bad/ indifferent but always a form of creating space, clearing out the pus & puke to which flesh is heir. And, also, sometimes a form of self-mortification along the lines of public flagellation (so many possible bad typos with those two words… pause to think about it…
2) Svadhaya — study. Can be looked at in different circumstances as study of Self or Self-Studying-Spiritual-Stuff. Swami definitely leans to the latter, but he is a Swami, not a mere navel-gazing mortal. In this case, blogging I feel works as both. The self-study (narcissism is the Freudian vs. Sanskrit term is obvious. The self-studying-spiritual-stuff is partly I think from trying to encapsulate & interpret/think out loud & put out there the spiritual bits absorbed along the way. Like reading back your study notes. And it’s also from reading other people’s blogs. Seriously. I don’t presume my ramblings are anywhere up there, but I do know that I’ve learned much from others in the cybershala. How can the study of another human’s heartfelt soulsearching self-practice be anything other than sacred?
4) And the Surrender to the Supreme Being… that must mean the Internet. Or WordPress. Obviously.
The other level of Sanskrit I can throw out there in relation to blogging is Sangha. The creation of community.
On the Forrest level — here’s my personal Sanskrit-to-Forrest translation. (Note that it is much shorter & uses plain Anglo-Saxon.
Blogging: A commitment to investigate, articulate & communicate your process opens you up to yourself, others & the mysteries of the earth. Asking your Spirit “What the Fuck?” is a tool to use on & off the mat.
But that’s just based on my perspective/motivations for participation in this phenomenom. I’d be very interested to hear from others in some form (email, post, comment, energetic transmission on how their blog fits with their yoga practice overall.