At my PYS Advanced Studies Program this week, our instructor, Tony, asked us, "How many of you are giving 100% to your yoga practice?" and no one raised their hand.
Ya'll thought I was just kidding with that Yoga Mat Sectrez on Monday, but it is sort of true.
This question came after Tony spent 10 minutes lecturing us about our behavior so far in the program. Regular people may come to public yoga classes late or leave early, but you're "advanced studies people" you should be more serious than the public... come on time! pay attention! don't leave early! do your home practice!!
So last night, home alone, as my husband was on call at the hospital, I returned to "the bible of modern yoga," to help give me some comfort and encouragement.
It worked. This morning I read through the appendix of the book (thank God my Sanskrit has improved and I actually know the name of the poses!) where Iyengar gives you a work out schedule for the next 180 weeks. Using this as a rough draft, I am going to create a practice schedule for myself. I've picked some key poses that I want to work on and then I'll build in some creative time to do poses that I feel like doing but aren't on the list.
Ok! Here we go... ready... set... YOGA!
Showing posts with label advanced studies yoga. Show all posts
Showing posts with label advanced studies yoga. Show all posts
Saturday, December 08, 2007
Sunday, December 02, 2007
The Yoga Journey Continues
Saturday was our fourth 6-hour Saturday class for the advanced studies program at PYS. We were sooooo lucky to have an amazing teacher for the whole day. Someone who has had an amazing journey with yoga and meditation. You can see more about Mary here.
The first three hours were spent on meditation and asana. We started with a 15 minute guided seated meditation followed by a long supported supta baddha konasana. Then Mary had us stand in Tadasana while we continued to focus on our breath. We did a very slow sun salutation, mostly with our eyes closed. We were the most careful to watch our breath during the transitions from one pose to another. There were times when I felt disoriented with my eyes closed, especially when I transitioned from uttanasana to a lunge. Like always, I doubted myself in my movements. So there were times that I cheated and opened my eyes to check on my foot and hand placement. Then, we had lots of fun trying to find our lower abdominal muscles. I thought this exploration was wonderful and enjoyed every moment. There were many other poses that we explored, then we ended with another seated meditation.
After our dinner break, we came back to class and talked about Mary's favorite topic: joints, especially the hip joint and its happiness in our body while practicing poses such as trikonasana. She gave us permission to explore how we placed our feet and hips in our practice. She told us to break the rules... a refreshing instruction from a yoga teacher.
At the very end of the class, we talked about teaching and did a 5 minute practice with a partner where we talked someone through a pose. This wasn't so bad for me since I teach every Thursday. The pressure is different since the person I was talking to was an experienced practitioner and I wasn't sure what to say to help her in a pose that she had already worked hundreds of times. So this prompted me to ask Mary about her inspiration for teaching. I asked her, "When you teach your classes, do you focus more on what your students need or are your instructions coming from what you are learning in your practice?"
At first she told me that this was an excellent question and that I should ask every teacher the same question. Then she went further in her explanation saying that we teach for ourselves and we practice for our students. But she also went deeper to say, we teach for ourselves and we practice for the universe. If we bring our sincere intentions to our practice, then the fruits of our practice will transpire in our teaching and our students will feel the benefits. This explains how sometimes it feels like all of the yoga teachers I study from seem to have weekly meetings to game plan their teaching for the week. But it's really something greater than them... our connection to each other... is this purusa? I will have to think more on this, a great topic for another post.
More inspiration to get that consistent home practice going!
On a very positive note, I completed my first pranayama exercise this morning and wrote a journal entry, just as the pranayama book instructed. Yeah!
The first three hours were spent on meditation and asana. We started with a 15 minute guided seated meditation followed by a long supported supta baddha konasana. Then Mary had us stand in Tadasana while we continued to focus on our breath. We did a very slow sun salutation, mostly with our eyes closed. We were the most careful to watch our breath during the transitions from one pose to another. There were times when I felt disoriented with my eyes closed, especially when I transitioned from uttanasana to a lunge. Like always, I doubted myself in my movements. So there were times that I cheated and opened my eyes to check on my foot and hand placement. Then, we had lots of fun trying to find our lower abdominal muscles. I thought this exploration was wonderful and enjoyed every moment. There were many other poses that we explored, then we ended with another seated meditation.
After our dinner break, we came back to class and talked about Mary's favorite topic: joints, especially the hip joint and its happiness in our body while practicing poses such as trikonasana. She gave us permission to explore how we placed our feet and hips in our practice. She told us to break the rules... a refreshing instruction from a yoga teacher.
At the very end of the class, we talked about teaching and did a 5 minute practice with a partner where we talked someone through a pose. This wasn't so bad for me since I teach every Thursday. The pressure is different since the person I was talking to was an experienced practitioner and I wasn't sure what to say to help her in a pose that she had already worked hundreds of times. So this prompted me to ask Mary about her inspiration for teaching. I asked her, "When you teach your classes, do you focus more on what your students need or are your instructions coming from what you are learning in your practice?"
At first she told me that this was an excellent question and that I should ask every teacher the same question. Then she went further in her explanation saying that we teach for ourselves and we practice for our students. But she also went deeper to say, we teach for ourselves and we practice for the universe. If we bring our sincere intentions to our practice, then the fruits of our practice will transpire in our teaching and our students will feel the benefits. This explains how sometimes it feels like all of the yoga teachers I study from seem to have weekly meetings to game plan their teaching for the week. But it's really something greater than them... our connection to each other... is this purusa? I will have to think more on this, a great topic for another post.
More inspiration to get that consistent home practice going!
On a very positive note, I completed my first pranayama exercise this morning and wrote a journal entry, just as the pranayama book instructed. Yeah!
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Yoga Proof... it can be done anywhere
So yesterday I complained about my lack of yoga activity over the weekend while camping because of the cold... but then I remembered a 10 minute stretch of time on Friday that Grant captured on film... I mean CCD chip. We were walking along the beach at Sonoma Coast State Park and Grant got interested in some waves or rocks or something while we were waiting for the sunset. I got tired of walking around so I decided to "hang out" and just watch the waves. Grant noticed me and came by to see what I was up to, so I gave him a little show.
I have one yoga teacher who says that us westerners rush things too much. We jump into beginner yoga classes and try to do our best at some pretty intense and advanced poses. My teacher says that if we really want to get something out of poses like triangle (utthita trikonasana) we need to work on the basics for 3 to 5 years. One of those basic poses is squats, as shown below. But who wants to pay $15 a class to do 90 minutes of squats? It seems that yoga teachers have to encourage a variety of interesting poses because they need students. Thus we have one of the many yoga debates that needs to be worked out as we in the west figure out how the practice and business of yoga will look for us.
One of the poses that is not basic, and is not something that I'm even close to doing fully yet is an arm balance called crane pose (bakasana). I got caught doing it on Friday, on the beach. In the full version of the pose, my arms would be straight and my knees/legs held easily at my sides. In this picture, I'm just struggling to find the balance point for my weight front to back.
My feet really are off the ground... if only a 1/2 inch... I couldn't hold the balance for very long on Friday although today I held it for a whopping 4 seconds!
Anyways, that's my proof... no excuses! Yoga can (and will) be practiced anywhere. It's just a matter of time until yoga weaves its way into you and places thoughts in your head. You'll catch yourself om-ing in the shower or at the ocean and even worse... you'll catch yourself breathing! Watch out!
I have one yoga teacher who says that us westerners rush things too much. We jump into beginner yoga classes and try to do our best at some pretty intense and advanced poses. My teacher says that if we really want to get something out of poses like triangle (utthita trikonasana) we need to work on the basics for 3 to 5 years. One of those basic poses is squats, as shown below. But who wants to pay $15 a class to do 90 minutes of squats? It seems that yoga teachers have to encourage a variety of interesting poses because they need students. Thus we have one of the many yoga debates that needs to be worked out as we in the west figure out how the practice and business of yoga will look for us.
One of the poses that is not basic, and is not something that I'm even close to doing fully yet is an arm balance called crane pose (bakasana). I got caught doing it on Friday, on the beach. In the full version of the pose, my arms would be straight and my knees/legs held easily at my sides. In this picture, I'm just struggling to find the balance point for my weight front to back.
My feet really are off the ground... if only a 1/2 inch... I couldn't hold the balance for very long on Friday although today I held it for a whopping 4 seconds!Anyways, that's my proof... no excuses! Yoga can (and will) be practiced anywhere. It's just a matter of time until yoga weaves its way into you and places thoughts in your head. You'll catch yourself om-ing in the shower or at the ocean and even worse... you'll catch yourself breathing! Watch out!
Monday, November 26, 2007
First Day Back...
I am not your typical yoga student who has fancy yoga gear. I have not purchased the special props that you see in the yoga studios. My "block" that I use at home is some left over mini cell foam from when Grant and I carved out seats for our kayaks. I don't have special yoga blankets, instead I carefully fold some camping mats and some rugs we don't use anymore. I use a belt as a strap, and pillows serve as bolsters. Even my yoga mat is strange. I got it at a Long's Drug Store on a whim because I thought it was required to go to a public class. (did I really want to use a mat that had other people's feet on it?) and it is a pink-purple color and says "Bally's" in one corner. I have never seen another student's yoga mat the same color as mine.
I definitiely do not have any specifically designed for yoga yoga clothes or a cute strapy bag the perfect size for a rolled up yoga mat. I don't even roll up my mat anymore. A rolled up mat, when bungeed to my bike rack, sticks out too far and flops down over my red flashy light that hopefully keeps cars from running me over in the dark. So my mat gets folded into eighths and squished into a firm pile of stickiness and strapped down to my rack.
On Thursday when I got home from my yummy 2.25 hour Thanksgiving class, the mat stayed in its position, on my bike, ready for me today to go to my Monday night inversion class.
I felt slightly disappointed in myself for letting my mat just stay on my bike all weekend. (I mean for not practicing yoga all weekend... well, I was camping for most of the time) As expected, when I unfolded it at class, there were a ton of wrinkles in the mat from the folds and the bungee. I tried to smooth them out and all I could do was smile at my mat and acknowledge that this is just the way I am. Never quite fitting in with the other students and all of their cute yoga gear... and then not really wanting to anyways. Wanting to have a consistent yoga home practice, but then never quite able to keep it together for more than a couple of days at a time.
But yoga (and my mat) are forgiving. After a few downward facing dogs, my mat was stretched out and the wrinkles had all but disappeared. My body was happy again after feeling tight during the day. I smiled and welcomed myself back to yoga, just happy that I got myself to class tonight and it was a great class. After several warm-up type poses, we worked on headstand and shoulderstand variations as well as plow pose (which usually scares me). Yeah for using chairs as props to make things a little easier. (the explanation of this will have to come in another post)
This was also my first day back to school after a week long Thanksgiving break. By lunch my head was cloudy from too much energy usage. The kids were nice enough... if not relieved to be back to a structured routine. It will take me a couple of days to get back into the groove. 4 school weeks until Winter Break!
I definitiely do not have any specifically designed for yoga yoga clothes or a cute strapy bag the perfect size for a rolled up yoga mat. I don't even roll up my mat anymore. A rolled up mat, when bungeed to my bike rack, sticks out too far and flops down over my red flashy light that hopefully keeps cars from running me over in the dark. So my mat gets folded into eighths and squished into a firm pile of stickiness and strapped down to my rack.
On Thursday when I got home from my yummy 2.25 hour Thanksgiving class, the mat stayed in its position, on my bike, ready for me today to go to my Monday night inversion class.
I felt slightly disappointed in myself for letting my mat just stay on my bike all weekend. (I mean for not practicing yoga all weekend... well, I was camping for most of the time) As expected, when I unfolded it at class, there were a ton of wrinkles in the mat from the folds and the bungee. I tried to smooth them out and all I could do was smile at my mat and acknowledge that this is just the way I am. Never quite fitting in with the other students and all of their cute yoga gear... and then not really wanting to anyways. Wanting to have a consistent yoga home practice, but then never quite able to keep it together for more than a couple of days at a time.
But yoga (and my mat) are forgiving. After a few downward facing dogs, my mat was stretched out and the wrinkles had all but disappeared. My body was happy again after feeling tight during the day. I smiled and welcomed myself back to yoga, just happy that I got myself to class tonight and it was a great class. After several warm-up type poses, we worked on headstand and shoulderstand variations as well as plow pose (which usually scares me). Yeah for using chairs as props to make things a little easier. (the explanation of this will have to come in another post)
This was also my first day back to school after a week long Thanksgiving break. By lunch my head was cloudy from too much energy usage. The kids were nice enough... if not relieved to be back to a structured routine. It will take me a couple of days to get back into the groove. 4 school weeks until Winter Break!
Past Hobbies
There must be a message in here somewhere.
A week ago Sunday, we attended a pre-Thanksgiving dinner celebration hosted by a new friend from my PYS yoga program. Many of her friends that we met at the dinner are connected by a common activity: rock climbing. The only difference is that they still do it on a very regular (at least once a week) basis and they all have memberships to the local climbing gym. One person had pictures on his phone of their most recent trip to Waco, TX. Much of it was bouldering.
On Thanksgiving, we were talking to another new friend about his emerging rock climbing hobby. He told us of how he is just starting to purchase some gear and is thinking about joining the gym close to where he works. We also talked about how there is a new gym opening soon about 1 mile from our neighborhood. (The friend lives about 4 blocks away) . And then we were like, we should make a date to go climbing! Wouldn't that be fun?
With all of this fresh in my head, on Friday, I was walking on a beach north of here in Sonoma and I noticed these rocks...
and part of me just really wanted to climb around and see what it would feel like. Grant was off somewhere down the beach taking pictures and I just paused to look at the shape of the wall. Of course, I didn't do anything... for 3 not so good reasons... First, I was wearing chunky sandals. Second, the rock was rough, much much rougher than my yoga mat and I didn't feel like getting any scratches. Third, I let my mind and my self-conscious talk me out of it. But the thought was there and on Saturday, I knew that the thought was in Grant's mind also, because he challenged us to climb up this pile of rocks...
A week ago Sunday, we attended a pre-Thanksgiving dinner celebration hosted by a new friend from my PYS yoga program. Many of her friends that we met at the dinner are connected by a common activity: rock climbing. The only difference is that they still do it on a very regular (at least once a week) basis and they all have memberships to the local climbing gym. One person had pictures on his phone of their most recent trip to Waco, TX. Much of it was bouldering.
On Thanksgiving, we were talking to another new friend about his emerging rock climbing hobby. He told us of how he is just starting to purchase some gear and is thinking about joining the gym close to where he works. We also talked about how there is a new gym opening soon about 1 mile from our neighborhood. (The friend lives about 4 blocks away) . And then we were like, we should make a date to go climbing! Wouldn't that be fun?
With all of this fresh in my head, on Friday, I was walking on a beach north of here in Sonoma and I noticed these rocks...
and part of me just really wanted to climb around and see what it would feel like. Grant was off somewhere down the beach taking pictures and I just paused to look at the shape of the wall. Of course, I didn't do anything... for 3 not so good reasons... First, I was wearing chunky sandals. Second, the rock was rough, much much rougher than my yoga mat and I didn't feel like getting any scratches. Third, I let my mind and my self-conscious talk me out of it. But the thought was there and on Saturday, I knew that the thought was in Grant's mind also, because he challenged us to climb up this pile of rocks...
Monday, November 12, 2007
Amazing Yoga Hours
Since starting the advanced studies program at PYS, I have been keeping track of the number of hours I've been practicing yoga at home, at school, or at public classes. As I have added up the hours, I have also been keeping track of the amount of money spent or earned.
*** BTW We're starting the "thank-yous" early with a big Thank You to Veteran's Day for giving me the day off from school! Only 4 school days left until a week long Thanksgiving Break! ***
The first category is the advanced studies yoga program which costs about $13 an hour (plus the expenses of books). The program is 200 hours over the course of a year. We are currently 42 hours into the program.
The second category is free yoga classes that I get to take because I'm in the advanced studies program. I usually count these as money I've earned paying back for the program. My goal is to take as many free classes as I can to pay back half the expense of the program.
The third category is yoga that I teach to my teenagers at school. On Tuesdays I do the poses with them and on Thursdays I'm walking around giving directions. But I count the whole 3 hours a week as time I am participating in yoga activities and am getting paid an excellent amount... $50 an hour... yikes!!
The fourth category is public yoga classes that I pay for because my favorite teacher is not a part of the advanced studies yoga program.
The fifth category is yoga practiced at home. This is free yoga and I am not doing nearly enough of it. My computer calendar has a reoccurring event on it for 6am yoga. I usually miss it by not getting up until 6:30am.
I keep all of this organized on excel. I put in formulas to add up all of the hours, add up all of the money and then divide. I'm not trying to impress anyone here... I'm just feeling amazed. Since September 1, I have logged in 96.5 hours of yoga and I am currently getting paid $6.99 per hour. Later this afternoon, I'll take another free class and then it'll be 98 hours = $7.04 per hour. (note: this is slightly inaccurate b/c I need to save some of the money I've earned teaching yoga for paying taxes which weren't taken out of my check... I'm not sure how much that should be)
Yikes I've just thought about other things I could explore... like how I could find the daily $ over the last two months or I could figure out how many hours I would need to break even or to make money from the program.
This is what happens when a math teacher gets into yoga. You can all laugh now.
Thanks for reading.
*** BTW We're starting the "thank-yous" early with a big Thank You to Veteran's Day for giving me the day off from school! Only 4 school days left until a week long Thanksgiving Break! ***
The first category is the advanced studies yoga program which costs about $13 an hour (plus the expenses of books). The program is 200 hours over the course of a year. We are currently 42 hours into the program.
The second category is free yoga classes that I get to take because I'm in the advanced studies program. I usually count these as money I've earned paying back for the program. My goal is to take as many free classes as I can to pay back half the expense of the program.
The third category is yoga that I teach to my teenagers at school. On Tuesdays I do the poses with them and on Thursdays I'm walking around giving directions. But I count the whole 3 hours a week as time I am participating in yoga activities and am getting paid an excellent amount... $50 an hour... yikes!!
The fourth category is public yoga classes that I pay for because my favorite teacher is not a part of the advanced studies yoga program.
The fifth category is yoga practiced at home. This is free yoga and I am not doing nearly enough of it. My computer calendar has a reoccurring event on it for 6am yoga. I usually miss it by not getting up until 6:30am.
I keep all of this organized on excel. I put in formulas to add up all of the hours, add up all of the money and then divide. I'm not trying to impress anyone here... I'm just feeling amazed. Since September 1, I have logged in 96.5 hours of yoga and I am currently getting paid $6.99 per hour. Later this afternoon, I'll take another free class and then it'll be 98 hours = $7.04 per hour. (note: this is slightly inaccurate b/c I need to save some of the money I've earned teaching yoga for paying taxes which weren't taken out of my check... I'm not sure how much that should be)
Yikes I've just thought about other things I could explore... like how I could find the daily $ over the last two months or I could figure out how many hours I would need to break even or to make money from the program.
This is what happens when a math teacher gets into yoga. You can all laugh now.
Thanks for reading.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Life Upside Down
Finding room in our apartment for all of our favorite activities (and their associated storage needs) has been challenging. Many rooms have double purposes. The living room doubles as a photography developing and equipment storage area. The dinning room is like the basement work area. The table is the workbench, complete with stains from both cooking muffins and experimenting with alcohol backpacking stoves. The wall has piles of boxes, several old magazines that we're "saving," and a car jack set. The bedroom closet doubles for a garage, holding 2 kayaks (and all the gear), backpacking gear, suitcases, and a tiny space for clothes. Looking at our linen closet, only one shelf is devoted to sheets and laundry. The rest of the shelves hold a variety of tools. Some for the house, some for the bikes, and the rest for the car. Candles stored next to air filters next to bridesmaid dresses next to the vacuum next to the cooler next to a pile of board games.
So it is no surprise that finding an adequate space for my yoga practice can be a challenge. If I want floor space, I need to be in the living room, where I distract and get distracted by my lovely husband. If I need a wall to lean against, I need to be in the bedroom where I get even more distracted by my reflection in our mirrored closet doors.
Doing yoga in front of a mirror can be beneficial. In poses like warrior 1 or warrior 2, when I think that my knee and thigh are at 90 degree angles, it is nice to look over in the mirror and see what is actually going on and then make adjustments. I would move my body using the mirror and then try to remember how the pose felt so that I could recreate it on my own without the mirror.
Unfortunately, not all poses can be adequately critiqued using a mirror. Poses where weight is on your neck, such as bridge, headstand, or shoulderstand cannot be observed because it is dangerous to turn your neck. So in those situations, I use the "interval" mode on my camera. In this series of pictures below, I was trying to see how straight my body was in shoulderstand. When I look up at my feet, where should I be? A while back, when doing the pose I had Grant move my legs to where he thought was vertical. Last week I wanted to see if there was any change. The other two areas of focus were my shoulder position relative to my chest and neck and my pelvis/upper thigh area. To the average person, some of these shots may not seem to be so flattering. But to the yoga practitioner, I think there are lessons to be learned.
Setting up a support for my shoulders to rest on.
Laying down on the support, rolling legs up and over head, toes touch the floor before...
lifting legs up into...
Shoulderstand. Pelvis is tilted with legs to far forward/over head. I think I need more core strength to straighten that out. Shoulders look pretty good, but elbows are splayed. So I still need some opening in the shoulders so I can keep my elbows in a better and easier to support position.
Lowering down into a variation of plow pose where you try to lower your knees to your ears. Toes should be pointed but I can't reach the floor yet.
The internet seems a little slow today and I'm getting impatient with uploading pictures to blogger... so the rest are HERE. Enjoy.
So it is no surprise that finding an adequate space for my yoga practice can be a challenge. If I want floor space, I need to be in the living room, where I distract and get distracted by my lovely husband. If I need a wall to lean against, I need to be in the bedroom where I get even more distracted by my reflection in our mirrored closet doors.
Doing yoga in front of a mirror can be beneficial. In poses like warrior 1 or warrior 2, when I think that my knee and thigh are at 90 degree angles, it is nice to look over in the mirror and see what is actually going on and then make adjustments. I would move my body using the mirror and then try to remember how the pose felt so that I could recreate it on my own without the mirror.
Unfortunately, not all poses can be adequately critiqued using a mirror. Poses where weight is on your neck, such as bridge, headstand, or shoulderstand cannot be observed because it is dangerous to turn your neck. So in those situations, I use the "interval" mode on my camera. In this series of pictures below, I was trying to see how straight my body was in shoulderstand. When I look up at my feet, where should I be? A while back, when doing the pose I had Grant move my legs to where he thought was vertical. Last week I wanted to see if there was any change. The other two areas of focus were my shoulder position relative to my chest and neck and my pelvis/upper thigh area. To the average person, some of these shots may not seem to be so flattering. But to the yoga practitioner, I think there are lessons to be learned.
Setting up a support for my shoulders to rest on.
Laying down on the support, rolling legs up and over head, toes touch the floor before...
lifting legs up into...
Shoulderstand. Pelvis is tilted with legs to far forward/over head. I think I need more core strength to straighten that out. Shoulders look pretty good, but elbows are splayed. So I still need some opening in the shoulders so I can keep my elbows in a better and easier to support position.
Lowering down into a variation of plow pose where you try to lower your knees to your ears. Toes should be pointed but I can't reach the floor yet.
The internet seems a little slow today and I'm getting impatient with uploading pictures to blogger... so the rest are HERE. Enjoy.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
The Reading List
There is a cycle around hobbies that repeats itself every so often and it goes like this...
Husband discovers something that he is interested in. Husband searches all over the internet gathering information about his new interest. He reads articles, he reads blogs, he listens to podcasts, he finds out about local meet-ups, and then he orders books and then he orders equipment and more stuff. After a while, (length of time is really not consistent) husband discovers a new interest and the cycle repeats.
We have been through this cycle for kayaking, biking, baking, backpacking gear, and most recently (and still going) is photography. (I know I'm missing something here... perhaps husband will comment and let me know)
I fully admit that I do benefit from all of his time spent researching and reading and learning and practicing. Yes, I enjoy the fact that my husband can fix my bike when it acts moody, that he has all of the knowledge and all of the necessary tools to do any repair. And yes, I love that he knows how to grind his own wheat berries into flour and then bake bread and can make yogurt in the yogurt machine that sits in the back of our hardest to reach cabinet. I also love that he can teach me how to have more control over how my camera captures my photographs and I also love what he can do with photographs once they are in his computer. I love that my backpack only weighs 25 pounds because of the time he spent with careful gear selection.
For a long, long time, I had been complaining (in envy) that I didn't have time for hobbies. Why did husband have time to play while wife did not? Why did husband have the opportunity to learn all these new things when wife was stuck putting up with teenagers? Teaching high school math in East Oakland just took so much time and energy. Especially the emotional energy to deal with students who don't know how to handle all of the drama that is going on in their lives. I would come home from a day at work and not want to think or do anything for the rest of the evening.
But all that is changing. It was about 1.5 years ago that I made a commitment to myself to attend a yoga class once a week. And now I'm hooked. I spend time researching on the internet, I go to classes, I read blogs, I purchased a yoga mat, and now I have purchased books. Lots of books.
Here is my current reading list...
plus there are three more in the mail... and a few more that I'm thinking about getting...
Off Topic: Here is a sneak peak for Tim & Anna about a surprise that will come in the next few weeks...
Husband discovers something that he is interested in. Husband searches all over the internet gathering information about his new interest. He reads articles, he reads blogs, he listens to podcasts, he finds out about local meet-ups, and then he orders books and then he orders equipment and more stuff. After a while, (length of time is really not consistent) husband discovers a new interest and the cycle repeats.
We have been through this cycle for kayaking, biking, baking, backpacking gear, and most recently (and still going) is photography. (I know I'm missing something here... perhaps husband will comment and let me know)
I fully admit that I do benefit from all of his time spent researching and reading and learning and practicing. Yes, I enjoy the fact that my husband can fix my bike when it acts moody, that he has all of the knowledge and all of the necessary tools to do any repair. And yes, I love that he knows how to grind his own wheat berries into flour and then bake bread and can make yogurt in the yogurt machine that sits in the back of our hardest to reach cabinet. I also love that he can teach me how to have more control over how my camera captures my photographs and I also love what he can do with photographs once they are in his computer. I love that my backpack only weighs 25 pounds because of the time he spent with careful gear selection.
For a long, long time, I had been complaining (in envy) that I didn't have time for hobbies. Why did husband have time to play while wife did not? Why did husband have the opportunity to learn all these new things when wife was stuck putting up with teenagers? Teaching high school math in East Oakland just took so much time and energy. Especially the emotional energy to deal with students who don't know how to handle all of the drama that is going on in their lives. I would come home from a day at work and not want to think or do anything for the rest of the evening.
But all that is changing. It was about 1.5 years ago that I made a commitment to myself to attend a yoga class once a week. And now I'm hooked. I spend time researching on the internet, I go to classes, I read blogs, I purchased a yoga mat, and now I have purchased books. Lots of books.
Here is my current reading list...
plus there are three more in the mail... and a few more that I'm thinking about getting...Off Topic: Here is a sneak peak for Tim & Anna about a surprise that will come in the next few weeks...
Tuesday, October 09, 2007
The Scariest Question to Ask a Yogini
So what do I do when I get flustered over too many choices? I don't make a choice. I just went home.
Home practice. Yup, got one.
Sunday, October 07, 2007
Feeling It in my Bones
Saha nau bhunktu
Saha viryam karavava hai
Tejas vidnau vahai tamastu
Ma vidvisha va hai
may we be nourished together,
may we work together with great vigor,
may our study be enlightening,
may no obstacle arise between us.
Our next exercise was to learn how to feel sound in our bodies, especially in our bones. We learned different vowel sounds that resonate in our bodies and where each vowel can be felt the strongest. We would chant a vowel sound and then gently touch different places of our body… the sternum, collar bones, shoulder blades, chin, forehead, belly, hips, sacrum, pubic bone, and ribs looking for the vibration.
Through this exploration I learned something about my body that was really no surprise at all once discovered. As I was looking for sound vibration along my clavicles, I noticed that I could only feel vibration on the right side. My left side didn’t vibrate. Ann said that often we don’t feel vibrations in the areas of our body that are giving up trouble. This was so true. My left shoulder and left side of my upper chest has always been tighter than my right. During poses like downward facing dog, I often feel stress at the front corner of my armpit. I’m not sure exactly which muscles are unhappy there.
Ann’s suggestion was that we incorporate chanting into our daily yoga practice to help us reach our “troubled” areas. So yesterday morning, I spent about 10 minutes “a-ing” into my left shoulder and collar bone. And today I can feel a faint sensation.
Monday, September 17, 2007
After School Activity #2: Advanced Studies Program
Also known as the "200 Hour Teacher Training Class" at PYS.
Sometime late last winter, perhaps in February or March, I got an email newsletter from PYS about an Advanced Studies Yoga Program that they were planning for the fall. The newsletter said that more information, including an application, would be coming soon. April came and went and nothing changed on the website. So did May. Finally in June, the application appeared.
The first part of the application was easy. Name, address, health concerns, current teacher, length of time practicing. Then came the writing section. For the first few weeks of June, questions like "Describe your home practice," and "Why do you want to be in the class," started taking over my brain. Fortunately, I had answers to these questions.
By the time I got to the last question, I was really wondering if I still wanted to be in the program. "What is yoga?" What? Was this a trick question? What kind of answer were they looking for? What do I actually know about yoga, really? Isn't it just that stretching thing that middle aged rich white women do with bare feet on mats in their fancy designer yoga clothes, taking classes during the day time when most of us have to work?
I fumbled my way through an explanation of yoga being this journey of discovery... connecting mind, body, and spirit... stress reliever... appreciation of my god-like temple... confidence builder... and somehow they thought it was all good enough to accept me into the program.
It's a 200 hour program designed for people who have lives. So, meeting every Thursday night for 3 hours will take us until June 2008 to finish. We also have one Saturday a month where we have a 6 hour intensive class. Our first Saturday was just a few days ago.
There are 18 people in the class, of which 2 are men. (surprise, surprise!) This is similar to my after school yoga program which has 15 girls and 2 boys. I am close to the lower end of the age range, but that's ok. I have concerns about my abilities, but so far no one has said anything to me to make me feel like I don't belong amongst this group of students. I'm relieved that flexibility isn't everything! Just a willingness to show up and learn a ton, because we do learn a ton since we have great teachers.
Our first month's focus is on standing poses. So, as one who practices yoga might imagine, I feel alot of stretching in my hips and hamstrings.
(for those of you who don't practice yoga, what's up? what are you waiting for? get to it! your body is not getting any more flexible just sitting here reading my blog!)
12 hours down, 188 more to go!
Sometime late last winter, perhaps in February or March, I got an email newsletter from PYS about an Advanced Studies Yoga Program that they were planning for the fall. The newsletter said that more information, including an application, would be coming soon. April came and went and nothing changed on the website. So did May. Finally in June, the application appeared.
The first part of the application was easy. Name, address, health concerns, current teacher, length of time practicing. Then came the writing section. For the first few weeks of June, questions like "Describe your home practice," and "Why do you want to be in the class," started taking over my brain. Fortunately, I had answers to these questions.
By the time I got to the last question, I was really wondering if I still wanted to be in the program. "What is yoga?" What? Was this a trick question? What kind of answer were they looking for? What do I actually know about yoga, really? Isn't it just that stretching thing that middle aged rich white women do with bare feet on mats in their fancy designer yoga clothes, taking classes during the day time when most of us have to work?
I fumbled my way through an explanation of yoga being this journey of discovery... connecting mind, body, and spirit... stress reliever... appreciation of my god-like temple... confidence builder... and somehow they thought it was all good enough to accept me into the program.
It's a 200 hour program designed for people who have lives. So, meeting every Thursday night for 3 hours will take us until June 2008 to finish. We also have one Saturday a month where we have a 6 hour intensive class. Our first Saturday was just a few days ago.
There are 18 people in the class, of which 2 are men. (surprise, surprise!) This is similar to my after school yoga program which has 15 girls and 2 boys. I am close to the lower end of the age range, but that's ok. I have concerns about my abilities, but so far no one has said anything to me to make me feel like I don't belong amongst this group of students. I'm relieved that flexibility isn't everything! Just a willingness to show up and learn a ton, because we do learn a ton since we have great teachers.
Our first month's focus is on standing poses. So, as one who practices yoga might imagine, I feel alot of stretching in my hips and hamstrings.
(for those of you who don't practice yoga, what's up? what are you waiting for? get to it! your body is not getting any more flexible just sitting here reading my blog!)
12 hours down, 188 more to go!
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