yogagodess

I am obsessed with this.

This is the ending to the third series of Ashtanga yoga. The pranayama is being taught by Pattabi Jois to Richard Freeman. In the four minutes he is taking ten full breaths and then ending with ten shorter breaths in the lift. I have been trying to practice the breathing with them and after one of those long inhales and exhales, my heart starts beating fast and I feel like I just ran ten miles. Look at the focus Richard Freeman has. Watch his torso on the inhales and exhales he is just taking in a little at a time. Talk about focus AND intensity.

I try to teach pranayama in classes and a lot of people DON’T want to practice, even though it is one of the eight limbs. Sometimes students will just sit there and looook at me, like, well just get ON WITH IT ALREADY. And then some get right into their bliss place. I will bet Richard NEVER gave Jois THAT LOOK. He trusted his teacher and that is why he was able to practice the Advanced series and why he is one of the most knowledgeable, revered yoga masters around. AMAZING.

Speaking of yoga masters Happy Birthday Iyengar!

What are they smoking? Looks like an Indian version of Grumpy Old Men.

I love teachers who have worked with either Jois or Iyengar. I am honored to have them as my teachers.

Last night my husband and I had a ballroom dance lesson after being gone for two months on vacations etc. Our ballroom master teacher is SO patient. We basically had to just review steps we have done a million times. Bijan keeps saying it is all muscle memory but I have such a hard time remembering the steps. It was fun though. We just need to PRACTICE.

Now that it is getting close to Christmas I am thinking of breaking out my Christmas playlist soon. I have developed this over like five years. My playlist is odd. There isn’t a White Christmas or Jingle Bells on it. Think the Ramones and Run DMC and Snoop Dogg. In general, I don’t listen to Christmas carols unless forced to in the mall.

Still thinking of themes for tomorrow Intermediate and Saturday Advanced so leave any suggestions or wishes in the comments area.

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HA HA THE MASTER. I don’t know what it is about this guy but he sure knows how to RILE people.

That is a pose I want to work on. Working into the splits gracefully in forearm balance.

During my two week illness I did not practice yoga due to severe stomach cramping. I am just getting back into practice. I have two things to say about this.

One, taking two weeks off from everything was very healing. I think my body needed a break and a lot of the little annoying pains and issues are gone. I had a slight wrist tweak, neck, and hip. So take the advice but I know you won’t. Practice meditation and pranayama in lieu of asana for a couple of weeks.

Two, I thought getting back into practice would be hard but it isn’t. That rest seemed to have worked out some of the hard edges in my spine and hips that probably resulted from overworking those areas.

This morning I did a focused Forrest style backbend practice and my spine was very supple. My hips were also pretty flexible.

In the two weeks, I did lose a little strength and that is why I went for a Forrest style practice with strong ab and upper body work with a lot of dolphins. I have been practicing mostly Ashtanga since I have gotten better so this was a good complimentary practice.

There are things you need to do every day however if you have a practice that includes inversions and hand/arm balances. I know people who don’t do them at all or teach them, but if you practice them you almost have to get upside down or on your hands daily. Before my trip to Esalen I was on a 30 day pincha mayurasana challenge and we were not able to do a lot of inversions at Esalen due to a lack of solid walls in the yoga facility so I did lose the pose a little. I am back to that challenge for the rest of December.

The same thing with arm balances. Today I did astavakrasana and it definitely felt like starting over since I hadn’t done or taught that pose in a while.

Also if you are doing any therapeutic work you have to do that regularly. For me it is knees and I developed a knee series that helps increase my mobility but it needs to be done DAILY.

So all I need is three hours a day to do all this. Just kidding! But if I get back into my inversions, two or three time a week backbend focused practices, and strengthening work this pose should be doable without the flinging action of kicking. I want to and will step into the pose.

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I have been not posting for a couple of reasons.

Number one I have been drafting a post about my experience at Esalen, which is ALMOST done. It was so profound and yet all people ask me is how I could possibly be silent for over five days and I want to express the experience eloquently. And to make the point that that wasn’t REALLY the point. Still refining.

I was also sick for TWO weeks with what intially was thought to be a gastrointestinal flu and turned out to be cryptospiridium. I am better, but it started RIGHT after Thanksgiving and with the timing of that after the trip, with the holiday, along with some yoga stuff happening in my life back HOME ended up REALLY testing what my intention coming out of retreat was. SORELY TESTED IT.

But I do want to add my two cents in to the Bikram debate. Bikram is suing Yoga tothe People for infringing his copyright. To make a long story short. Huge debate on this. Most yogis, per the blog world and FB feel that Bikram is in the wrong, isn’t practicing yoga, and is a greedy bastard. Wow. Big news there. Did you not know this about him before? I saw one rather well known vinyasa teacher talking about BOYCOTTING BIKRAM!

I am ALL about the BOYCOTT when it comes to where I spend my money, because, politically speaking, it is where I can get the biggest bang for the buck. However, I am guessing the vinyasa world isn’t practicing all that much of Bikram yoga so it seems a moot point.

There also is a large group of yogis that feel the West is the West and we are all about the money anyways and with the proliferation of products we all like to buy and support, it shouldn’t surprise us that yoga teachers ae going to take this approach. You steal my shit, I sue you.

I have talked before about humility in yoga and the lack thereof and if you are supporting a system of dogma and worshipping a ‘master teacher’, you ultimately will be disappointed. If you believe your system is THE system and your teacher is THE teacher, you are probably being pulled in by a master marketer, not a master teacher. A REAL master teacher probably doesn’t refer to himself as such. Bikram, John Friend, and others have HUGE followings of believers. AND they are great teachers, but ultimately their following MOVES on. They grow, they find new teachers, they walk away from one system of dogma, and find another and dismantle it. It is called GROWTH in the practice. That is Bikrams REAL problem. His followers move away and try to give the gift and he tries to pull them back because he believes in the system of yoga where you have a teacher and you stay TRUE to your teacher as he did.

That being said, people have their preferences. You can love the message and hate the messenger. I think he is a repulsive person but love and honor the practice and know that it has done millions of people service and rescued them from pain in their lives. I don’t practice the style any more but realize that when I did it was a GIFT and a PRIVILEGE, so I owe gratitude to Bikram.

I believe the way we react to this situtation is a reflection of who we are and some attachment or aversion, both are roadblocks in the yoga path. So I am choosing to observe and remain removed from REACTING to this situation. That is part of the lesson I learned at Esalen as a YOGIC PRACTICE.

It is one of the hardest too. It is so much easier to jump into the opinion line but for today, this is the practice I am practicing.

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