Today...

I want to be present.  I want to focus on every movement and every breath when I go to my Ashtanga class this evening.

My Ashtanga classes have shifted from a "led" class to what the owners are now calling an introductory to Mysore.  I'm loving it.  I love that I get to find my own breath, my own movement.  My body gets to feel the poses on it's own accord.  It gets me excited for attending 6am Mysore classes when I can afford to pay for a Mysore pass.

Tonight, my focus will be on presence.

Moon Day

This is my first time observing the tradition of not practicing on a day where we have a new moon or a full moon.

The Ashtanga tradition follows this method of practice because as our bodies are approximately 70% water, we are affected by the cycle of the moon, just as the tides of the earth are and of course, werewolves.  

The sun and the moon exert a gravitational pull on the earth and their positions can create different energetic feelings that can be compared with our cycle of breath.  A full moon energy is similar to the end of an inhalation when prana is at it's greatest and can cause feelings that leave us energized and emotional but not grounded.  The new moon is similar to the end of an exhalation when apana is at it's strongest and can leave us feeling grounded but dense and heavy.

Relative position of the moon and the sun. Via

By observing these moon days it helps us become more in tune with the cycles of nature.

The Ashtanga Yoga Center  gives a detailed description as to why we should rest on these days.

I don't know what the protocol would be on doing any other forms of exercise on a moon day because I did get up this morning and do a quick 20 minute BodyRock workout.  I have a very hard time not getting a little bit of a sweat on during the day.  It wakes me up and starts me off right.

Happy rest day to all the Ashtangis out there.

Namaste.

Via

 

Anoesis - Word of the Day

Anoesis (as defined from Dictionary.com)

   [an-oh-ee-sis]

noun

a state of mind consisting of pure sensation or emotion without cognitive content.

 

or from the Merriam-Webster Medical Dictionary

 

Anoesis

consciousness that is pure passive receptiveness without understanding or intellectual organization of the materials presented.

 

Mum passed this word on to me the other day, with the comment that this is what we are trying to achieve in Savasana.  So true.

I've started noticing this feeling while I practice Ashtanga at home.  While I move and breathe through the asanas, I try to focus solely on what my body is doing.  The closest I come to thinking is counting my breaths and stretching or lengthening my body.  Anoesis doesn't necessarily last for my entire practice or Savasana but when my mind starts to wander, I come back to my breath and try to focus on my body moving.

 

Down The Rabbit Hole

I was playing with my iPhone the other evening and for some reason downloaded the Kindle app.  Don't ask me why.  I am firm believer in books.  Actual books that you can feel and that you can touch and that you can smell.  I love libraries.  I love book stores.  I love trading books.  I keep a stack of books beside my bed.  I am always reading at least one book.

So, I decided that whatever I read on my tiny iPhone screen would have to be a book that I could not purchase in paper form or borrow from the library.  I bought Claudia Altucher's book, 21 Things To Know Before Starting An Ashtanga Yoga Practice.

I'm reading her book slowly and making a lot of bookmarks along the way so that I can go back later and re read some passages.  I love her personal touch in the book.  She gives her readers personal examples of how her Ashtanga practice has benefited her.  She admits to changes in her outlook on her practice and personal road blocks that have shown themselves along her yoga journey.

One of Claudia's points that resonated with me was when she says that you will go down the rabbit hole.  I thought this was a perfect of description of where yoga has taken me.  I started with a simple practice with a video and then discovered one of B.K.S. Iyengar's books.  I, then, started a practice at an Iyengar yoga studio, moved on to exploring Bikram yoga and have now started opening the yoga doors to an Ashtanga practice.  I also read about yoga.  I think about yoga.  I write about yoga.  Yoga has endless possibilities to me and I never feel as though I have enough time to absorb it all.  I have found that sometimes I may not be ready to read a paragraph in a book - Iyengar's Light on Life, for example, but a month later it makes more sense to me.  I am ready to absorb the information.  One day, I would love to travel to India.


The rabbit hole is the most exciting part of a yoga practice, in my humble opinion.  It gets you thinking, reading, dreaming, it opens the doors to infinity.

Via

Home Practice

For the past few days, I've been drawn to simply rolling out my mat in the mornings and trying to do the Ashtanga Half Primary series.  I learned the sequence up to the Warrior sequence (Virabhadrasana) and have been able to practice to the point where I come into Dandasana.  Once I reach this point I've been using John Scott's Ashtanga Yoga book.  I checked it out from my local library and am finding it very useful.

I am loving practicing at home again.  I used to do an Iyengar practice in the mornings before I began my Bikram practice.  There's something very simple and relaxing about not having to go anywhere.  To simply wake up, drink some water, wash my face, brush my teeth and then roll out my mat and find Samasthitti.  

I was able to complete the bind in Marichyasana C this morning on my right side which I haven't been able to do in the led classes before.  The left side was just a little more difficult and I used a strap to pull the last half inch or so of space from between my hands.

I love the freedom to find my own breath and my own pace with this practice.  It feels like it really is my practice.

Marichyasana C. Via

Pranayama and Breath

I used to find Pranayama Deep Breathing, the start of a Bikram class, very difficult and challenging.  I now enjoy the breathing exercise, it fills me with energy.  

As I experiment with the breath in Ashtanga yoga, it reminds me that finding the breath can be difficult and challenging and that being aware of each breath brings focus to the practice.

I am re reading Iyengar's Light on Life and I like Mr Iyengar's insight on Pranayama:

"Yogic breathing techniques are meditative in their origin and in their effect.  They basically consist of four parts.  They are inhalation (puraka), retention of the breath after inhalation (antara kumbhaka), exhalation (recaka) and retention after exhalation (bahya kumbhaka).  The in-breath should be long, subtle, deep, rhythmic, and even.  The energizing ingredients of the atmosphere  percolate into the cells of the lungs and rejuvenate life.  By retaining one's in-drawn breath, the energy is fully absorbed and distributed to the entire system through the circulation of blood.  The slow discharge of air in exhalation carries out accumulated toxins.  By pausing after the out-breath according to one's capacity, all stresses are purged and drained away.  The mind remains silent and tranquil."

"It is impossible , when we turn our attention to the inner movement of breath, to use our senses externally at the same time.  You cannot also be thinking that you must stop at the supermarket on the way home after work.  Pranayama is the beginning of withdrawal from the external engagement of the mind and senses.  That is why it brings peacefulness.  It is the hinge between extroversion and introversion" 

The second paragraph I find to be very true in my Ashtanga practice.  I have had moments where my mind has wandered, in my home practice, and I have lost everything.  My balance, the asana, my breath.  When I stopped and found my breath and focus I was able to continue.

Lost in Translation?

Has anyone else ever wondered why Tree pose is called Tadasana in Bikram yoga?

I am constantly confused by this.  I asked a teacher once and she told me that the way it was explained to her was that it is because Bikram is from Kolkata, which is in the east of India and Iyengar and Patthabi Jois are from Pune and Mysore which are more to the west of the country and therefore the dialect is different.

The way I was originally taught, Tadasana is Mountain pose which could also be similar to Samasthitti.  While practicing Iyengar yoga, I learned that Vrkasana is the Sanskrit word for Tree pose.  I know that Tree pose in Bikram is more similar to Half Lotus Bound pose or Ardha Baddha Padmottanhasana in Ashtanga yoga than to the traditional Tree pose.   And that Ardha Baddha Padmottanhasana looks like the 1st and 2nd stage of Toe Stand or Padangustasana in Bikram.  And when you Google Padangusthasana (with the H inserted) your results are any asana that have the word "big toe" in it.

I think I may have opened a huge can of worms, which probably has no straight answer.  It may simply be a case of the definition of a word from Sanskrit to English being lost in translation and modified along the way.

If anyone has any ideas on this, I would love to hear from you. 

Vrkasana or Tree pose. Via

Bikram's Tadasana or Tree pose. Via

Ardha Baddha Padmottanhasana or Half-lotus Bound into Standing Forward Bend. Via

Silence

Sometimes it is better to be quiet than to say anything at all.

Today is one of those days.

Photo Via Bogdan Ciocsan

Utthita Hasta Padanguthasana

I've just started working on Utthita Hasta Pandaguthasana in my Ashtanga practice.  I love this asana because it reminds me of Standing Head to Knee in the Bikram practice.  But what I find most difficult is when you turn your leg in one direction and your gaze in the opposite.  Your dristi or where your gaze should fall is Parsva which simply means to the far right or far left.  I always lose my balance here.  First it seems counter intuitive to look in the opposite direction and then I find it difficult to find a focal point when turning my head.  I tried this asana twice before moving on.  Definitely something to work on!

It may be easier to focus if I was practicing yoga here. via What's That Pose

Post Yoga

I am home from my yoga class.  

I had an amazing class. 

Seriously.  This world would be a better place if everyone- now I want to say, practiced yoga, but I know that everyone needs to find their own peace - took a little time for themselves that didn't involve TV, the computer, money or shopping.

Namaste.

Image via Nancy Smets

When I Need It The Most

Today is my Ashtanga day.  I go to the 6pm led class.  All I really want to do right now is rent a bunch of movies I've already seen.  Have take out for dinner and lie on the couch.  

Why?  Because I feel wasted.  I feel beaten down.  I feel curling up into a ball and pretending the rest of the world doesn't exist.

But I know that I need this.  My mind needs my yoga practice today.  My mind needs to shut the hell up and think of nothing except my breath and my body.  I also need to do something I'm good at.  And I know that the ego needs to exit my practice but I feel that I'm good at yoga, whatever that really means.  It feels natural to me.  I feel as though I fit in the world when I practice yoga.

So in a couple of hours I will drag my tired lazy ass to my practice.  I will surround myself with people who have a wealth of knowledge that I want to learn.  And I will take my time to do what I love to do.  Because I right now, all I want to do is give the world the finger.

Image via Real Wall

My Plants

Growing up in a Dutch household, I am very used to having plants in my home.  I feel they belong in a house, in any building.  Green plants and fresh flowers give me a feeling of comfort and of peace.  Having something that is living in my home environment is a need, not an option.

According to NASA plants in the home help purify the air of harmful trace chemicals.  I know that I prefer spaces with plants in them.  They make me feel more relaxed.  I feel like they fill space nicely and give warmth to a room.  Apparently, hospital patients recover faster when they have a view of the park.

Here are some of my plants.  And, yes, you will notice that they have genders.  No names, though, I've never been good with naming things.

My gorgeous African violets.  They had divided and I had 4 plants in one pot, I just replanted them and was worried they wouldn't be happy.  She looks pretty happy to me!

My ficus, who I learned does not like bright light, so he sits in the living room, next to my Peace Lily.  My Peace Lily never blooms but I've had it for over 10 years.

My Christmas cactus!  I love her at this time of year when she gets her gorgeous blooms!

My Aloe Vera.  My roomate in college bought this for us back in 2004.  I left him with a friend for a couple of years in the Okanagan and he got HUGE!  He's very happy in the bathroom, I think he likes the moisture.

Autumn Day

LW and I went to the beach today.  It was gorgeous outside.  Warm, crisp, happy people everywhere.

View from Clover Point.

Then I went to my Mum's to pick up some homemade apple sauce that she made me. 

Shot from Mum's backyard of my favourite tree, the Garry Oak (Quercus Garryanna

Scents and Memory

At the Ashtanga studio, the bathroom is down a hallway past different offices through the maze that is market square.  That hallway smells like the apartment that my Oma lived in Eindhoven, Netherlands.

It makes me happy.  It helps me remember.  It reminds me of who I am, where I came from and that I am loved.

Samasthiti

I was instructed last night to find Samasthiti in all of my yoga asanas.  To find lift and balance through my feet, legs, torso, shoulders, arms and hands.


I haven't had such a focused yoga practice since my Iyengar classes.  It takes my practice to a different space when I focus on the little things - the lifts and muscle contractions and separations that you don't see, that you can only feel.


Finding Sama (which means same or balance) in Utthita Parsvakonasana is a completely different experience as to finding the same balance in Samasthiti or Tadasana.  This reminded me that there is no need to rush.  I must find that balance before I can more forward.

Sri K. Pattabhi Jois in Samastithi or Tadasana

Utthita Parsvakonasana or Extended Right Angle pose