Archive for the ‘Yoga High’ Category
The phrase “Emotions in Motion” is a 1982 Billy Squier album, and also a Forrest bumpersticker-y thing. It’s something I’ve seen on t-shirts for years, but didn’t quite get till recently.
See, somehow, this past week I ended up with a surfeit of emotional energy. It has had me up, down, sideways, effervescent, angry, you name it.
The energy part though [...]
Sometimes when I’m a student in a class (NOT Forrest classes), I see people fighting their way into a pose that obviously totally, umm, hurts like bejesus. There is huffing & puffing & grimacing & squinching of the eyes & it is painful to look at, much less do.
Now I am a big fan of going deep [...]
Truth in sourcing — this comes from February 2010 Allure magazine, page 90. (Yeah, sue me. I don’t always read the Bhagavad Gita when on the T. Though it has happened on occasion. :)
But the magazine does cite a study that supports what I’ve often felt, and it is always nice to be scientifically proved right. 
“Exercising in class or with friends produces more pleasure than working out alone. In a study at the University of Oxford in England, 12 rowers had higher increases in endorphins (as indicated by their ability to tolerate pain) when they trained in groups of six than when they trained by themselves, despite equivalent workouts and effort. Endorphins are believed to play a role in social bonding, notes Robin Dunbar, professor of evolutionary anthropology at the university. These natural painkillers can help you exercise longer and harder and boost your immunity…”
Okay, not endorsing the whole “exercise” and “pain” association with yoga, BUT! Frequently class is a huge upper, and doing asanas with others produces more pleasure & we’re also able to access more/different experiences than when alone. It’s just plain interesting to apply the endorphin/social bonding aspect to group practice — pleasure in practice & community enhancing chemicals, all for free in the body!!
Practice yesterday was teaching a super fun inversion class (more on that later this week; I’ll post the sequence) and taking Vanessa’s Hip Hop, all at Back Bay. Today there’s volunteering, sweaty class & maybe more Back Bay! Go endorphins!!
Yeah, that headline could be interpreted in so many ways. Snicker away at your favorite. Let’s get it out of our systems. It was the most descriptive term I could come up with!!
But that was the real stunner of a very full day yesterday that culminated in assisting Peter’s class.
First off, my ujjayi breath when assisting still tends to be a lot better than when I’m teaching. I tend to get all excited & talk too fast & most of my lesson plans have the word “BREATHE!!” written at the top. But assisting, I’m able to focus better on slowing down & connecting with each student.
Also, key tip when assisting: Don’t sneak up on people. Best way to let someone who’s busy doin’ yoga know you’re about to lay hands on ‘em is to breathe LOUDLY as you enter their personal space.
There is a point here.
So I was breathing strongly enough to get in the spacey yoga zone while assisting & was starting to feel pretty connected with some of the regular students which improves the hands-on experience for everyone. Felt good.
Then as Peter put the class into savasana & I went to the front mat to sit with him, I felt something quite distinct & new. The palms of my hands were hot & tingling. Yes, I was wearing my Harbinger Forrest fancypants gloves. 
And I’d been sweating & had been handling folks who were sweating. Lots of conducting of literal physical heat.
But I’ve also done that plenty of times — sweaty hot hands is nothing remarkable. This was. I’m a see it/hear it/smell it/feel it gal who doesn’t do fantasy visualizations & wants direct experience. And it was very much like holding two suns in my palms.
I do not propose any explanation whatsoever only an observation: Hot hands was very very very cool.
In other news: the ten am class went great. 12 students, which truly pleasantly surprised me because it’s a brand new class on the schedule on a Monday morning with a new-to-the-studio teacher & there was a giant workshop led by the giant David Swenson going on at the same time.
It was a talented, friendly group, game for all sorts of entertainment. It was a “Core Vinyasa” class which that day was pretty much Forrest yoga with tunes. We warmed up with a pranayama that combined retention of the inhale into uddiyana then abs (natch , followed by suns into warriors & lunges. Moved to the wall for camel & standing backbend, both with rolls(gotta teach ‘em if I want to improve them myself . Kept the fun up with inversions heading to handstand, uddiyana/agni sara, and a few more small backbends like cobra over the roll. The apex pose was a bridge/wheel/bridge series (also with the roll) before warming down with back traction & lounge lizarding.
Other than minor mishaps of me spilling my water bottle & the fuse blowing on the stereo (not related!! really!!) it went pretty well. Really, I think it takes the pressure off students if the teacher is a bigger goof than they could possibly fear being.
Of course, between warming up for class 1, then walking Boston with my yogi friend during our break, and knowing I was going into the assisting, my teachers practice was 2 hrs 20 minutes without really a single serious standing pose. Which I consider something of an accomplishment. Lots of pranayama, abs, hips, hamstrings, twists, reclined poses, headstands etc etc. Lunges, yes. Standing forward bends, yum, sure. Warriors… uhhhh, nope.
Think I need to go do a big standing series during home practice today, just so the poses know I still love them.
The official post-intensive week report: The only part of me that is NOT sore is my left forearm. I’d hoped to be able to include my calves, but then did Dolphin this morning, and, umm, nope.
It’s always interesting to come back from a workshop and to see anew all the poses you’ve been doing since you last had a thorough check-up. Suddenly, things have a whole new purpose, attitude, sense to them. (Mostly, owchy. : ) But so worthwhile to find that next tiny increment of growth & freedom on the mat & off.
For example, the last day of practice I was playing with kapalabhati during our “yogi’s choice” pranayama and was just curious about how many pumpings I could do before getting tired. We usually do 125-150 in the intensives per round. Hit 300 pumpings when we were asked to finish up and change sides — could have kept going & still don’t know what my kapala “limit” actually is right now. It’s nice to not know what I’m capable of in a GOOD way nowadays!
When I came back from teacher training last May, I was on a whirlwind high that lasted for three weeks. It was a little frightening both inside and outside my head. Barely slept, cleaned out the entire apartment, finally donated tons of clothes & books & crap that I knew didn’t belong to me anymore, and completed 99% of the reading/writing homework for my full 500-hr Forrest accreditation. It was quite a ride — Beloved Husband told his office associates that he was just glad I decided to keep him as I cleaned out everything extraneous. (He never needs to worry!)
Small version of that now. Went to bed late, catching up on conversation, cuddles and, of course, Burn Notice, then didn’t sleep well again last night.
Every time sleep was anywhere near, got hit by a ginormous hypnogogic myoclonic jerk. You know, the ones where you dream you’re falling and thrash suddenly? Had, like, at least three of those, maybe more. (If that is a sign of awakening kundalini, count me out. Ah like mah sleep. : ) Then up at 5 am, wondering why I wasn’t hauling ass because I was late to meditation. (Always a good exercise in dichotomies — running to sit.)
Wired & cleaning & on errands all day except for the 45 minutes on my mat doing the first section of Ana’s Embodying Spirit MP3 workshop. It was good to hear a familiar voice directing me to connect to and embody my spirit, to not buy into my own racket and shine up my worth with every breath.
It was very necessary to do at least a modest session of pranayama, wrist stretches, side bends, twists, abs, bridge, aforementioned dolphin, and a nice child’s pose… especially when sore from an intensive week or month or whatever, gotta do more yoga and not just stop… a) to loosen up from previous yoga, and b) so that all the soreness isn’t wasted and what was learned is incorporated immediately into daily practice rather than forgotten from kinesthetic memory.
Plan a longer practice at home again tomorrow, then back to Back Bay on Wednesday!
You’re worth a deep breath too — take it, for pete’s sake. All together now… : )
Today I felt happy & decided to just revel in it. Sometimes the sensation of “happy” in my world is met with “uh oh, better worry about what will take this good feeling away” and so gets totally trounced & not really enjoyed. No way, not this time, baby!
After the home warm-up, went to Lynne’s (the Back Bay owner) Hip Hop Yoga class today and my god it was fun. Loud, rude, thumpin’ music & the ability to relax, shake it, whump, thump & let it all hang out, be funky & weird & vibrant was soooo totally necessary — catharsis through a strong beat is so satisfying.
Forrest is practiced without music to make it easier to focus on the breath, the internal experience & what the teacher is saying, but self-practice to music is the bomb. (Do people still say that anymore? I do. : ) For those who don’t know (and several students & travel companions are all too aware of this : ), my practice when I’m cuttin’ loose & not following a DVD/MP3 is done to Linkin Park, Mute Math, Foo Fighters, Iron Maiden, 3 Doors Down, Guns ‘n’ Roses, Metallica, 80’s pop and, of course, the Chipmunks. Really, if you haven’t done handstands to G’n’R or sun salutes to the Chipmunks doing “Witch Doctor,” or “Funkytown,” you’re missin’ out. : )
Fun result is of course that being so loose mentally & in such a laid back space really really really translates to loosening up fear/inhibitions/tightness & totally juices up the practice with happy hormones to the point where some poses I might get stuck on are much easier.
Plus, she gave two songs of “free for all” where you could just play with whatever you wanted to. I did some classes while in Goa, India that were like that — teacher warmed you up & then set you off — & it brought back some really good memories of an open-air shala with mosquito-netting for walls/ceiling & a cat mascot at the shoe storage bin.
Rest of the day is pretty prosaically productive (alliteration, also fun! : ) with trips to Goodwill, housecleaning, car inspection… blah blah blah, but all with undercurrent hum of happy hip hop!
Little secret: yoga can get you high. On a physiological level, it’s like an endorphin reaction – a runner’s high, but more Gumby & w/less pounding.
Today for me it was in a tingly, colors brighter, heightened sense way that I was riding for hours. Better than booze or drugs, and I know that for a fact. More like a falling in love kinda high. Like, totally freakin’ awesome, dude. : )