practice

My spellcheck isn't working..... SORRY!

I don't often speak about my yoga practice and my love for it, for a few reasons. The misconception of yoga in general is at best a misconception and not a battle I wish to engage in. It's not what yoga is about. For me yoga is much more than stretching, it's a moving meditation, it's prayer, it's offering. It keeps me in the present moment and it helps me to be a better person.

It has nothing to do with what poses I can or can not do or how flexible my hamstrings are or are not.

The other reason I don't talk a lot about my practice.... is because it is very very personal. Yoga can be about flash... to me yoga is about the spirit. Am I right? No. Am I wrong? No. The meaning and purpose of yoga is up to the individual to decipher and define. That's the art of the practice.

I am very very very fortunate to teach at Breathe Yoga, a family owned yoga studio in Pittsford N.Y. We are a Baptiste studio meaning that we train, practice, and teach in the Baptiste methodology. Our studio is kept at 90 degrees. We teach the Baptiste sequence, we teach power Vinyaysa. Click here for a great 2 minute video of Baron Baptiste giving a great intro to what our practice is about.

Power Vinyaysa, broken down really menas powerful flow. Vinyasa yoga attracts a certain type of person: typically type A, athletic, competitive people. This is an athletic very dynamic practice. Dynamic is defined as gross motor movements.

The reason that this type of practice draws this type pf personality is because this type of personality is addicted to the energy of tension. We are not the personalities that would do well in a hatha class or a resorative class. Many of us come to this particular practice to become more flexible, stonger, an alternative to the other sports we participate in.

What keeps us in our practice is a different reason entirely.

But first let's take a look at some of the pieces of yoga in general. What is the most important piece of yoga? The breath. Why the breath? Respiration stimulates circulation. Circulation carries fluid through the lymphatic system. There are over 600 lymph nodes throughout your body. These nodes collect body toxins. Respiration stimulates circulation which then allows the lymph system to be drained, eliminating toxins from your body. These are eliminated via urine, sweat, C02, etc. Realize I am being highly highly simplistic here.

Within a practice as there is within life there is Yin and Yang. You can not have good without bad, happiness wihtout saddness, elation without pain. Our practice reflects that as well. The yin piece are the static poses. The poses that are held for a long time. These static poses work on connective tissue. Connective tissue is not elastic and plyable as skeletal muscle.

Sean Corn this weekend used a beautiful example to explain connective tissue: it's like taffy. You cant pull or bend taffy easily. But if you put your thumb and first finger on either side of the taffy, and just hold..... the heat of your fingers will allow that connective tissue to become more pliable. So CT needs applied heat to open, strengthen, essentially to respond. The subtle action required to work the connective tissue, which is done through the static asana (holding poses) helps to create stability. Which is vital as we age.

The yang of yoga is the dynamic movement, and the movement moved into first during many practices. This si the movement that involves the skeletal muscles, the gross motor movement, these muscles are pliable, stretchy, etc.

In the end the muscular requirement to maintain the body will open, will increase.

So you can see, there must be yin and there must be yang. There must be dynamic and static movement within our bodies. If we don't develop the static movement then when we move into poses like Warrior II.... we will sink into the weak parts of our bodies.

So that's the physical.

Sean Corn this weekend at a workshop I was honored to participate in, helped to uncover the spiritual side of yoga. Often as a teacher I stay away from that because it's such a hot topic and no one wants to feel as if religion is being shoved down our throats.

Yet even if you are an atheist..... you can have a spiritual practice. Even if you are an atheist you can have faith.

Sean Corn defined God as this: That which is within you that is truth and love.

I love that.

It can be God, Jesus, Buddah..... Mohhamed Ali for all I care. It is up to the person to define it.

But yoga is a spiritual practice, a moving prayer. That right there is what deters many people from committing to a practice. It really is not about sitting still (because you don't in Power Vinyasa)....... it is about answering the big questions that only yoga can really ask.

Our physical bodies hold onto every experience...... both good and bad..... that we have ever been through. All of our experiences are right here within our hearts. The hard lessons that we are forced to learn, the hardest moments in our lives...... those are the times that who we define our God to be..... that's when our God is really with us. Sometimes we don't get the lesson correct the first time around, so we keep getting hit in the head with the 2 X 4 foot piece of wood. It's like our God asking us...... "You ready yet?"

There is no doubt that delving into the spirit, the mythisicm, the aspect of our faith is challanging. It knocks on the big brick wall we have around ourselves. It's sometimes scary but it is necessary work. And you do the work on a continual basis. You can only begin when you are ready. Because we come to this style of yoga from a place of tension. We give that energy of tension equal tension with the flavor of the Vinyasa practice, which in turn releases that tension....... then we have this energy, emotion, spirituality that just floats to the surface, and that's where the real gold in yoga is.

Geez...... all of this from practicing on a mat?

Yeah, you get all that just from being on a mat. Yoga has made my life richer, it's taught me how to be here and to live each moment. It's taught me to work through pain rather than shut it down and avoid it. It's taught me that everything in my life right this very moment.... is exactly how it needs to be.

I teach 5 classes per week and assist one, 75 minutes each in a 90 degree room. I teach in a beautifully inspired environment, and each person I teach with and practice with is a very close yet open family. I am fiercely protective of the space in which I teach and the practice that I teach because it is a place that is of love and of truth.

That space has at times brought energey into it that does not belong. I love those people anyways becasue that's what my faith teaches me to do.

When I practive at home it is about 20 minutes in length, every single day. A practice is a practivce whether it is 5 minutes or 2 hours. I always follow the same skeleton:

Sun Salutauon A
Sun Salutation B
Warrior Series
Balance
Triangle Series
Back Bends
Foward Folds
Hips
Inversion
savassana..... relaxation.

This weekend Sean outlined her 20 min practice, I thought I'd do the same, to deomonstrate that you can practice at home!

My 20 minute practice looks like this......I link them all together with a vinyasa, a flow which is jump back to chattaranga, upward dog, downward dog then stepping forward to the next pose. I always begin in Downward Facing Dog. That's where each circle begins and ends. (I have noted that with vinyasa. Perhaps I will put a video up next week.)

1 Sun Salutation A
1 Sun Salutation B
Warrior I > Warrior II > Peaceful Warrior > Extended Side Angle (vinyasa)
Eagle Pose both sides then Vinyasa
Crow Pose X 3, from Crow jump back into chattarunga, Vinyasa. Flat up to the next.
Step forward to Warrior I > Open to Warrior II> Peaceful Warrior > Triangle > Vinyasa
From this Down Dog I come to a high plank then lower to the floor.
Locust
Push up into up dog, come to downward facing dog.
Jump my feet through my hands come to my back for bridge.
Rock forward plant my hands, jump back to chattarunga, end in Down Dog.
From here a hip opener: 1/2 Pigeon, frog or full pigeon (all which are murderous for me!)
Then an inversion, I like forearm balance.
Spinal twist
Savassana.

Some helpful links:

Baron Baptiste breaking down Downward Facing Dog;

A real life discussion about yoga with Baron and David Reuben (this is really great to bring into triathlon training).

How to flow from chattarangua to up dog and avoid shoulder injuries

Sean Corn on the spiritual side..... "working the shadow".

A beautiful Sun B demonstrated by Sean Corn

I invite you...... if you are looking to have a richer life with less emotional turmoil, less conflict within yourself and within your life..... to explore the benefits of yoga. Bring it into your competition, and watch your performances soar.

Thanks for sharing ..... Namaste!