Beyond Asana Blog
My weekly blog is a forum for contemplative inquiry into the intersection of yoga practice, traditional teachings, and real life.
“Maman, everything is covered in snow!” my daughter said as she woke me up Monday morning. Seeing the first snow is always an exciting time in our house. Looking at our backyard with her I recalled the coziness, comfort and peace I usually feel in that moment. Not so this year. As in so many other ways, life feels different, uncomfortable, and profoundly unsettled since the US election results. I was very much aware of an underlying sense of sadness, fear and concern that I, like many, have been carrying around for months, and which has only deepened over the past several weeks. It’s a new reality, this lurking feeling that the near future is NOT warm...
Thanks to everyone who responded to my yoga practice survey (and there’s still time to take it if you have not already). Here is one of the questions I received:
I continue to practice a variety of styles of yoga - mostly when I go to classes. I realize I can become more expert in one style if I practiced one style. However, what are your thoughts about sticking to one style of practice regarding personal and spiritual growth?
The phrase regarding personal and spiritual growth guides my answer to this question. The decision to stick with one style of yoga or not depends, I think, on your intention for your practice.
If you do yoga to feel good in...
Like cooking a hearty soup in autumn, working your feet is, of course, grounding. And, you'll likely feel a happy resonance of waking up your feet right up into your hips and pelvis. This week, I'm sharing a few favourite Vajrasana variations for enlivening up your feet and ankles. Try this 8-minute sequence at the beginning of a practice and see how it changes your standing poses, and your inversions too.
Be forewarned that these fall into the somewhat-intense-in-a-delicious-way category, if you get my drift. And, as usual, always modify and adjust as appropriate for you.
See this post from last year for a primer on working your feet in standing postures....
We have several new mothers in my current teacher mentoring program. For these women, like many of us, finding even 30 minutes for uninterrupted practice is a challenge.
How do we make yoga happen given the reality of our lives?
One way is to expand our ideas of what practice looks like. While we continue to commit to carving out time for regular, formal practice as best we can, we can also remember that yoga is adaptable, and it can and should be used to work for us. It's empowering and enriching to find ways to experience the essence of the practices throughout our day. Here are just a few ideas:
BODY: A few minutes of stretching can bring your focus back to your sitting or...
One of the biggest misconceptions about being a yoga teacher is that all we do is teach yoga. Any yoga teacher will tell you that there is a lot for us to do outside of class including e-mail correspondence, class and workshop planning, and schedule organizing. Like many, much of our day might be spent sitting at a desk in front of a computer.
This is particularly true once mid-September rolls around. Life and work tends to moves into a whole different gear. The relaxed, loose rhythm of the summer gives way to school schedules and more structure to our days. While I’m always a bit wistful about the end of summer, there is also something exciting about the opportunity that a...
One of the most remarkable aspects of our training was the group itself. Not only were we presenting the practices of yoga to people who were experiencing these practices for the first time, but from a cultural perspective what we introduced was so new and different. Our work called on our trainees to step out of their expected and familiar roles, to expand their ideas of what they could do and understand what helping people to get out of pain meant.
Responding to the challenges that arose to meet the needs of our unique group of teachers-to-be called on our years of teaching experience, group facilitation and communication skills.
Initially, Erin and I had expected...
Over the next few weeks, we’ll be sharing some of the highlights, successes, challenges and key learnings from the launch of the World Spine Care Yoga Project in Botswana this spring. The mission of the WSC Yoga Project is to support the global mission of World Spine Care by empowering individuals in underserved populations to share the practices of yoga.
About the World Spine Care Yoga Project
World Spine Care is a non-profit organization dedicated to improving lives in underserved communities through offering sustainable, integrated, and evidence-based spine care. They have established chiropractic clinics in Shoshong and Mahalapye, Botswana, the Dominican Republic and Ghana (and soon in India and China) that are staffed by volunteers as well as local clinicians. In these clinics, high-quality care is delivered free of charge to patients with spinal conditions and musculoskeletal pain.
Bags packed and coconut offered, tomorrow I will embark on what will certainly be one of the most meaningful adventures of my life. I am leaving for Africa to launch the World Spine Care Yoga Project. This is an initiative that will bring the healing gifts of yoga to people suffering from back pain in rural villages in Botswana.
I am privileged to be working alongside super-dedicated, hard-working and highly-skilled colleagues Erin Moon of Vancouver and Geoff Outerbridge, WSC’s Clinical Director. We will be presenting yoga as a tool for pain management at the Botswana Spine Care Conference next week in Mahalapye. Then we travel to Shoshong to give a 10-day teacher...
The attainment of the Samadhi state involves the elimination of all-pointedness [i.e. wandering] of the mind and the rise of one-pointedness [i.e. concentration].
Yoga Sutra 3.11, trans. Edwin Bryant
Under the appearance of thought, there is really an indefinite and disordered flickering, fed by sensations words, and memory. The first duty of the yogin is to think-that is, not to let himself think. This is why Yoga practice begins with ekagrata, which darns the mental stream and thus constitutes a 'psychic mass,' a solid and unified continuum.
Mircea Eliade
When meditation is mastered, the mind is unwavering like the flame of a lamp in a windless place.
Bhagavad Gita, 6.19-20
Ekagrata,...