Focus on the Peaceful and the Light

I’ve blogged about this sutra before, but it’s such a gem that I want to come back to it – especially because Deepavali starts today (actually the most important night I am told is Saturday (see yesterday’s blog)).

Vishoka va jyotishmati (Yoga Sutra 1.36)

It means, “Stabilize the mind by focusing on that which is peaceful and light.” Some people translate it as: “Stabilize the mind, and then focus on that which is light” or “Get rid of unhappiness and, at the same time, see that your mind is light.”

For me the instruction from Patanjali to focus on the light is not much different from the simple instruction that my mother used to give me when I was a child. Be positive. One of my students, who teaches about brain health and aging, has a license plate that says: ATI2D – it’s all about attitude she told me. Everything.

But how do you get a good attitude? That’s an age-old question. Aren’t some people born pessimists and others born optimists? How do we change our attitude if we happen to fall in the former category?

For starters there’s meditation - just clearing time in your day – especially first thing in the morning, to assess and maybe reset your attitude, can work wonders. And don’t get me wrong – this isn’t about being “happy and nice” all the time – human beings have a wide spectrum of emotions that are there for a reason – to be experienced. They are essential for our growth.

But when the mind is destabilized by these emotions – then we are called to find balance. And that’s where the light comes in. And the great thing about yoga is that the ancient sages fully understood that each person finds peaceful light in their own way. Yoga is a spiritual tradition – not a religion. It is often associated with devotional Shaivism or Vaeshnavism, but that’s just because it was cultivated in India. Whatever spiritual or religious tradition speaks to you personally, can provide you with the light and the peace.

So try this when you are feeling the need to stabilize your mind. Stop, go some place where you can be alone, still and quiet. Watch your breath for a minute or two and then spend some time with that entity, deity or energy that fills you with peace and light. Relate to that being. Notice it and talk to it. Take 5 minutes to do this. Finish by placing your hands together at your heart in the offering of salutations to that being. And then notice how your mind is.

BTW, yoga is a practice. Which means the more you do it, the better it works.

Diipavalii, Deepavali, or Diwali – The Festival of Lights!

Diipavalii is almost here. It is an important holiday in India. It is a five day celebration which falls on the darkest nights of the year, coming up this weekend. Either Saturday or Sunday, depending on where you are on the planet and which calendar you’re following (Ay! trying to figure that out makes my head hurt, so I’ll go with the Sunday, Oct. 18 date) is the centerpiece of the holiday

When I first heard about this holiday I was like, wait a minute - the darkest night is December 21 - the winter solstice, duh… I mean I know India dances to its own tune and everything, but they’re off by more than 2 months!

No grasshopper, that is the longest night, not the darkest. The darkest night comes on the new moon of the month of Karttika (which I guess is the India equivalent of October).

The festival is accompanied by lots of gift-giving, fire cracker exploding, food eating, deity worshipping, loud music playing and general merrymaking. Nobody knows how to put on a celebration like the Indians. But the central point of the holiday is what is important – this is the darkest night, it won’t get any darker. But the light is coming. With the longest night you can think, oh well, it’s long, but I can handle it, it’s just a matter of time and it’ll be over.

When I was in the hospital in labor with my son I kept thinking, yeah, this hurts, but it can’t last very long. I can do anything for a few hours. Not that the pain was anything to celebrate, but I knew that it was something with a definite time limit.

But darkness is something different. It is psychological. It’s no accident that Carl Jung labeled the hidden, problematic part of ourselves the “shadow.” Or that we use the word “dark” to describe something inherently evil or insidious.

But Diipavalii is a hopeful, joyous occasion because the culture understands the central truth of their favorite yoga text, the Bhagavad Giita: dharma or light, always triumps over darkness. Vidya always triumphs over avidya.

This is perhaps the most important truth we could ever hold to in life – the good guys always win. Maybe not in the short term, but always in the long run. There is no reality in pessimism or cynicism – they are just reflections of avidya. Truth always prevails.

Happy Diipavalii – I hope you do something joyful!

Yoga Chin Hazards

Ever see that swan dive into forward fold with the chin leading the way? The head looks kind of like this all the way down:

Extension of the neck can be just fine if it’s done with extension of the thoracic spine (upper back). But when it’s done when the thoracic spine is in flexion (a rounded back, or a forward fold), you could be getting yourself into trouble. Especially if it’s a repeated practice. Like doing sun salutation forward folds continually with the head in extension or for that matter, spending a lot of time on cat-cow.

Cat-cow? That harmless little spinal warm up? How could that be a problem? Well, the thing is, if you do it every day and take your neck into extension while the upper back stays in flexion, you cultivate a maladaptive movement pattern that can lead you, perhaps years later, to serious neck trouble.

The easy way out of future neck issues is this – let your neck move with your upper back. Whenever you take your head back, make sure your shoulderblades are retracting (moving towards each other), your upper arms bones are externally rotating (turning outwards not inwards) and you feel a stretch in your chest. Feel your neck – does it feel crunchy or squished in the back – even in extension your neck should feel long and free.

Gary Kraftsow’s “uncat-cow” is a great alternative to cat-cow and promotes a better movement pattern.

The Transformational Call of Prana

In 1989 I had a teacher, Brian O’Dea, at the Acupressure Institute in Berkeley California where I began my studies of Chinese medicine, shiatsu and their connection with yoga. I remember one autumn day was particularly crisp – even for the San Francisco Bay. Scant, translucent clouds raced through an intensely blue sky and blustery gusts demanded my attention. The whole class felt a need to participate in the weather’s call that day and Brian took us outside to do our qigong practice in the parking lot.

I remember him telling us, as we moved through our practice, to catch the chi around our bodies, let it swirl and dance with us, let it play in and around us, incorporate it, move it through our lungs and our veins. On that windy afternoon on Shattuck Avenue I discovered what it meant to move with what John Friend calls, “the Currents of Grace.” I felt my body playing with the wind rather than resisting it.

And I began the lifelong journey of discovering how prana (chi) moves through, around and within me as I move through the world. Yoga became my vehicle. I also began the lifelong journey of releasing the notion that “I” in the small ego sense of the word, control anything particularly – even my own body. And opened to the possibilities that there were much larger forces at work – forces which move through me constantly and patiently await my acknowledgment. When I do acknowledge them and merge into them, I never cease to be overcome with an inexplicably expansive, breathtaking joy.

The past few weeks in the mountains of Western North Carolina have reminded me of Brian and his playful awareness. The winds of transformation call so eloquently as the fall gathers its intensity and briskness.

My son, husband and I went to the top of Devils’ Courthouse on the Blue Ridge Parkway last week. The leaves were just starting to change. My son ran ahead of us and found a walking stick. Turning his feet out, he placed both hands on top the stick, lowered his head, hunched his shoulders, half closed his eyes and continued walking, slowly. I asked him who he was and why he was walking so slowly. Deliberately, he raised his solemn face to me.

“I am Yoda and I am 900 years old,” he said.”I am not walking slowly for a 900 year old person.” When we got to the top of the cliff, he gleefully through his stick over the edge and with it, Yoda disappeared.

At five years old, his identity can change as easily as the wind as he experiments with different personalities and enjoys sampling the feelings those personalities create in his body. He easily internalizes the pranic call for shift. For him it is liila – divine play – and it’s fun.

And what about adults? Can we respond with child-like ease to the call of the prana, the seasons and the elements to change? The plasticity with which my son’s persona can shift is acceptable for 5 year olds. What can it teach me about flexibility, the incessant fluidity of life’s journey, and responding to the call for transformation?

At this time of year, at least in the mountains of Western North Carolina, that call is unmistakable – how will I allow the prana to change me? Will I react with old patterns, or will I respond by accepting the invitation to dance with the winds of change?

Yoga for Back Pain – New NIH study out!

The latest NIH funded study about yoga and back pain came out last month and the results are really exciting. Again yoga came out glowing with efficacy - there was significant improvement in pain for most of the participants – and even more exciting is that it also alleviated their depression. AND the results lasted for 6 months after the class ended! Read the whole article here.

I have a new client who was a professional dancer when she was younger. Now she’s in her late 60s and has severe back pain. Yoga has been helping her a lot. “The thing is,” she told me, “I’m incredibly flexible. I don’t feel like I’m stretching unless I really push myself. When I first started doing yoga a few years ago, it injured me, because the instructor pushed me to go deep, like I did in dancing.”

Now, even though she’s still really flexible, the yoga that I’m guiding her through to relieve her back pain is very simple, slow and gentle. I mostly have her move from a supine position (on her back) – and it’s working. She gets so much benefit from this slow, conscious practice – the thing is that it’s undoing years of hyper-stretching – all the trouble that she got herself into when she was younger because it was so effortless to put her foot behind her head.

This is the second NIH funded study of lower back pain, that I know of. And both have come out strongly in favor of yoga. Here’s the other one.

But here’s the problem: yoga is a small word for such a huge range of practices…and that can be a little dangerous. Someone with chronic back pain, hearing about this study, turns up for a Level 2 fitness yoga class at their gym and well, the results are not nearly as spectacular. In fact, a statistic cited at a recent International Association of Yoga Therapist’s conference in LA, maintains that a whopping 50 percent of the people who start doing yoga quit – because they get injured. Fifty percent! That’s huge. And in my opinion it’s unacceptable.

Can’t we as a yoga community do something about the way we advertise about and teach yoga that helps us to limit this? “First, do no harm.” In yoga with call this “Ahimsa.” Gandhi made it famous – non-harming. That’s our first obligation. May all beings be free from suffering.

Here’s my proposal for re-categorizing yoga. Essentially, we need two clearly defined categories.

1. Fitness yoga - subcategories include: gentle, beginner, level 1,2,3, power, etc.
2. Therapeutic yoga - subcategories include: yoga for back pain, osteoporosis and arthritis, emotional wellbeing, seniors, pregnancy, restorative etc.

The IAYT has been working on this re-defining for a few years. But we certainly have a big PR problem in this country with yoga and we need to work on getting the word out that it’s not all about fitness – yoga can help with a variety of challenges. We should be working to invite everyone in, not just the fitness enthusiasts.

Insomnia, Yoga and Averting the Nectar from Falling into the Sun

I had a student who was menopausal, stressed out, and in the middle of a messy divorce. Except for her weekly yoga class, she really wasn’t getting enough exercise or eating very well. Because of all this – her sleep was suffering and she was tired and cranky most of the time. So she asked me if I had any suggestions. I recommended doing Viparita Karani (legs up the wall) every night for 20 minutes before she went to bed. I told her to do it for a week and then let me know how she was doing.

It worked – she’s sleeping much better now and has more energy to do more yoga and exercise and is coping much better with the stresses of her life. I didn’t tell her to do this, but she told me that she likes viparita karani so much that she falls asleep every night with her legs up the wall. Then she wakes up a half an hour later and gets into bed and has a great night’s sleep. I heard her telling another student who was complaining about insomnia about it the other night. “I sleep like a baby now,” she said, “You have to try it – it really works.”

Fortunately, Viparaita Karani is a remedy that can not be bottled and pattended. If it could, everyone would be scrambling for some. But it is readily available at an empty wall in your house – if you can figure out how to get your legs up the wall (I’d be happy to show you how if you can’t). It can help with such a wide range of problems and conditions that it really should be basic training in all med schools.

This is one of the first poses that was ever written down and it has been commented on extensively. It is claimed to benefit just about everything from thyroid and reproductive system problems, to varicose veins and insomnia.

Here’s what the Hatha Yoga Pradipika says about Viparita Karani, “There is a wonderful means by which the nectar is averted from falling into the opening of the sun… (3.78) With the navel region above and the palate below, the sun is above and the moon below. It is called viparita karani, the reversing process…(3.79)

The moon represents subtle consciousness and the sun represents prana or life-force and also the physical body. So this rather poetic passage is saying that viparita karani will help you preserve the energy and consciousness that gets unnecessarily wasted through the body. In other words, it will help you stop wasting energy on unimportant things.

What you’ll discover if you practice this asana daily is that you feel more relaxed, less exhausted, more rested, less anxious – and that you sleep well.

Here’s what it looks like when you’re doing it with the support of the wall:

And here it is when you support it with your hands. You can’t stay here as long generally, but if you have the strength to do it this way, it is more beneficial to thyroid, lungs and brain.

You can also support it with a block under your sacrum. Mmmm, Lazy-person’s shoulderstand – delicious.

The Buddy System and Health

Here’s a link to an article in Wired Magazine by Jonah Lehrer on what the Framingham Heart Study reveals about health and happiness – it’s all about what us yogis would call satsaunga – keeping good company. I blogged about this last week so you can scroll down for more.

I was up at the top of Max Patch yesterday. I didn’t take this picture, but this is about what it looked like out there:

Gorgeous views! Lots of swallows playing in the sky with the kites. Lots of people up there too with us enjoying a glorious Sunday afternoon.  Finding satsaunga in nature is about as good as it gets.

Unconditional

Not much time to blog over the past couple of days.

I’m preparing for a seminar I’m going to teach at MAHEC next month – The Fundamentals of Yoga - a training program for mental health professionals to learn about some of the tools of yoga and how they can help their clients. I’m very excited about it – and will post more here as the time approaches.

Here’s a poem that has really inspired me lately in my own process towards Oneness.

Unconditional

By Jennifer Welwood

Willing to experience aloneness,
I discover connection everywhere;
Turning to face my fear,
I meet the warrior who lives within;
Opening to my loss,
I gain the embrace of the universe;
Surrendering into emptiness,
I find fullness without end.
Each condition I flee from pursues me,
Each condition I welcome transforms me
And becomes itself transformed
Into its radiant jewel-like essence.
I bow to the one who has made it so,
Who has crafted this Master Game.
To play it is purest delight;
To honor its form–true devotion.

Keeping the First Chakra Clean

In the seventh weekend of the Subtle Yoga Training and Personal Transformation Program, I teach a workshop called, “A Day in the Life of a Yogi.” We discuss what the traditional yogis were all about – their  meditation and asana practices, devotional rituals, diets and cleansing routines including…potty habits.

Usually when I start talking about the way to use a toilet according to the yoga tradition, people’s eyes bug out a bit in something like an I-can’t-believe-she’s-actually-talking-about-this-in-public sort of way. But the thing is, for the most part, Americans have pretty, shall we say, messy toilet habits.

In fact, our bathroom routine hasn’t changed much since the days of the unwashed masses. We figured out how to clean our bodies about 100 years ago or so, but somehow the potty got left out. Europeans got it, even if they still don’t bathe as much as we might prefer. And the Indians have known for millenia that you gotta keep things clean down there – for a variety of reasons including avoiding urinary tract infections and keeping your lower chakras cool (especially relevant if you happen to be a celebate renunciate – Catholic priests please take note).

The problem of toilet paper – Americans consume it at a rate of 36.5 billion rolls a year. I remember reading “The City of Joy” about the slums of Kolkata. The protagonist goes to the outhouse and is accosted by the reprimanding glances of the slumdwellers who are lined up with him waiting their turn. It takes him a while, and then he realizes it’s because he’s brought toilet paper rather than a simple tin can filled with water. He soon catches on and has learned a valuable lesson about life in the slums.

But even if you are lucky enough to live in a country with modern day plumbing, too much toilet paper is not good for anything. And it’s pretty easy to change your routine. If you’re not up for the tin can approach, just keep a squirt bottle next to the toilet. After you use the toilet, give yourself a squirt, use your left hand for guidance. Dry off with toilet paper if you must. Wash hands well.

Several years ago, my friend bought a house in Asheville. She wanted a bidet, but was looking for a cheaper option. So instead she attached a kitchen sprayer to the  water supply at the back of the toilet.  Some other guy did the same thing recently and then he wrote a book about it. And now we’re off – America has come face to face with it’s dirty little secret. We’re finally getting it that you should really clean yourself and not just smear the whole mess around with toilet paper.

You can read the whole story here.

We need to clean up our act in this country in many ways, but let’s start with ourselves and our first chakras.

Resigning from the Complaining Club

If satsang (or satsaunga, depending on how you spell it!) is the key to health and happiness, then how do you go about getting it? I guess the thing I wonder about personally is finding the balance between being there for people who may not be the most uplifting, but who truly need someone to listen, and spending time with those who really uplift me.

One thing I know is that I don’t have much time for the complainers.

It can be easy to sign up for the Complaining Club. All it takes is one negative comment and you can get yourself on quite a roll with it.

“I”m soooooo busy.”

“I can’t stand her either!”

“My mother in law stayed for 3 weeks, you can’t imagine how horrible that was!”

So, I’ve decided to resign. I’m resigning from the Complaining Club (not that I was a full blown gold-star member, but I’ve had my moments) – oh, and I am planning on resigning from the Debate Team too. I have seen that when I resign from the Complaining Club and the Debate Team, I can take some of that time back for myself – to figure out what my real contribution is here right now, to be with my family, to start fun projects.

Today we are painting the kitchen heart chakra green – and then we’ll take a long, rainy walk. The truth is that my husband has encouraged me to resign. I don’t mean to make him sound like a saint, but, I have nothing to complain about He resigned from the Debate Team and the Complaining Club many years ago and he’s been helping me get up the nerve to burn my membership cards for a while.

So, for me, he’s satsang. But you don’t have to be married to your satsang – although it makes it a lot more convenient. Many friends have asked me if they can mail order husbands from New Zealand and, as a rule, I would strongly encourage this practice. But if you’re not married to your satsang, you can still get it every day. Because the fact is that YOU are your best satsang.

Tvameva Mata cha Pita Tvameva, Tvameva Bandhu cha Sakha Tvameva, Tvameva Vidya Dravinam Tvameva, Tvameva Sarvam Mama Deva Deva.

You are my mother, you are my father, you are my dearest friend and my closest confidant, you are my knowledge, you are my wealth, you are my everything, the sweetest Divinity within.