Kino MacGregor Workshop

I'll probably be able to attend a workshop with Kino MacGregor next month... I have heard only good things about her and was really impressed after seeing videos of her on YouTube. So I thought, although I'm not practicing Ashtanga (have only tried the Primary Series a few times), it would be interesting to see her. She's offering one Mysore class and 3 Workshops - 1. a short demonstration with meditation, chanting and Q&A, 2. assists in the 1st Series and 3. Inversions, handstand and the art of balancing. I'll probably go to the 2nd workshop (assists), because I can't do handstand :-). I was searching for some reviews and impressions from her workshops but couldn't find much... We'll see.

Yoga, Mindfulness and Injuries

I just read (or reread, I guess I had seen it before) this article. And promised myself to practice being mindful and respect my body in my yoga practice. Although I'm generally careful, I tend sometimes to push myself a little too much. And we all know that it's the breath that comes first, so if I can't maintain my ujjayi breath and/or feel some irritation, then I should simply back off a little. This again brings me back to my previous post - yoga is a mindfulness practice.

It's late now and after a shower I'll go to bed and read in my Yoga as Medicine book.

Btw, there are some interesting articles on Doug Keller's website on the topic. Maybe I should buy also his Yoga as Therapy books. They sound interesting.

Yoga Students

I just read this today at Prana Journal and just wanted to share it, as I really liked it (Desiree is Desiree Rumbaugh, an Anusara Yoga teacher):

Desiree said that you can tell when a yogi is advanced because they take their time getting into poses. It almost looks as if they were practicing in slow motion. That's because they are observing and parsing all the information coming back from the far reaches of their limbs with scientific rigor: how do the muscles feel, have they reached their edge, is there a risk in pushing beyond the edge, do I feel at ease, can I dwell in stillness in the pose, how can I get out of this knot, what emotions and energies are released by this pose, what am I revealing about my mind or spirit in this vulnerable pose and so on. A beginner will zip through the vinyasa, and in and out of poses, as if he/she is sprinting to a finish line. The intermediate yogis are the ones who get themselves injured, Desiree pointed out, because they are pushing recklessly beyond what is physically safe and worth the risk for the practice.

I guess that's why I like Forrest Yoga, I mean, it works for me in a way that slows me down with its long holds (I'm one who's always in the hurry), and makes me listen to my body. I still have a lot to learn until I get to the stage she's talking about, though.

Day 4 Strength

It's Sunday, but I had to work (luckily from at home), and have been quite tired. The practice was also extreemly hard and I asked myself several times why am I actually doing it. I mean, I could have laid and watched TV or whatever... Not that i have a TV, but...

So, back to the practice. It starts with making your theme (for me it was my shoulders) and some pranayama (10-10-10-10 ratio) in sitting, and the holding after the exhale is with holding Uddiyana. Then we continue with forward bend in baddha konasana and some twists. Actually the twists were a big theme in this class, including some more advanced asanas. Then of course Dolphin (I still can't touch down with my heels here), followed by abdominals. Now it seems like this with variations is the typical beginning of a Forrest Yoga class. They are followed by Agni Sara, side stretch in forward bend and standing forward bend with neck traction (which I ADORE, it's great for releasing the neck, I could stay hours in this position). Then we heat up with Sun Salutations, B-Series and standing poses. OMG! I guess this was really the most challenging part - long holding of Warrior II, while working on the shoulders, Reverse Warrior, Interlock Warrior, Ostrich, Head to Ankle, Twisting Warrior, Twisting Warrior with interlock - all of these with one leg before coming into Pigeon and Standing Tortoise and then repeating with the other leg. And this is not all - we continue with balancing poses. After Standing Pigeon follow Forearm Balance (I did the beginner version of Dolphin on the wall), Forearm Balance in Straddle (I skiped it and just relaxed in Balasana), Scissors (I had difficulties here even lifting only the front leg, but hey, it's also a beginning). Next is again series of twists - Twisting Half Squat, Half twisting Vine, Pashasana, and then, to top it all off - twists and arm balances combined - Side Crow and Twisting Scissors. After this one would be very happy to lay down, but we are still not ready to relax - Leg behind head and Yoganidra are done before we finally release the back with Twisted Root spinal twist and relax in Savasana.

Yes, I do understand why this class is called "Strength". ;-) But the truth is that after all this hard work, laying down in Savasana feels pretty good and I'm sure that I will do this class again. I was only wondering if I would be able to sqeeze this whole class once monthly. The classes are 2 hours long, which is a lot of time, when you're making overtime at the office and commuting... And they are designed so, that each class builds upon the work done in the previous one, so they should be really done in a row. We'll see.

Notes on The Yoga Matrix - CD 1

I have decided to start listening to The Yoga Matrix CDs from Richard Freeman. I thought it would be good, if I also make notes, in the effort to understand better what he is saying. So obviously it will take some time until I'm finished, and in the begining I will just try to extract the main points. Hopefully I will add my own thoughts on the second or third time I listen to the CDs and will edit what I have written here.

01 Introduction

02 Where does yoga begin

Yoga begins with listening, so giving space to what is. Yoga begins in the now - atta (sp?). Yoga is freedom. All reasons we may possible have (to have healthy body, to calm the mind, etc.) are honorable points to begin the studing of yoga. It's very important to start exactly where you are - to see things as they are and to accept them as they are. There are many different styles, methodologies and philosophies of yoga but there is a pattern, that connects all of them together - the Yoga Matrix.

03 The systems of yoga

Hatha Yoga is the most common conception of yoga - we investigate the true core nature of the body (through the practice of asanas) and in doing so investigate the true nature of the mind.

The other type of yoga is Dhyana Yoga - the yoga of wisdom/insight - it concentrates on understanding the mind.

The next is Ashtanga Yoga (eight limbs) - it involves deep meditative awareness, and also uses the practice of yoga asanas, pranayama.

Bhakti Yoga - yoga of love and devotion. Looks deep into the heart, into the emotions.

Tantra Yoga - all practices are concentrated on opening up the central axes of the body, so that we can enter with all of our attention deep into the heart and all along the central axes of the body (the sushumna nadi). According to tantra yoga our everyday life and activities are sacred.

04 Roots of an ancient tradition

The teachings of yoga have been developed over thousands of years and each school has their scriptures, which were written in sanskrit - a sacred language. They were created in such a way, so that they are easy to memorise and memorising and chanting of the sacred texts in itself and of course reflecting on their meaning afterwards, was considered a practice.

In the heart of every school we have to face ourselves, we have to face reality. Yoga is freedom from tradition by fulfilling the very purpose of tradition.

05 Entering the matrix of yoga

06 Intuiting the sacred beneath the surface

07 Chant - Salutatuon to the king of the nagas

08 Awakening the yoga process

09 The body as a medium of our practice

10 Watching the intelligence of the body

Many of the beginning yoga practices reveal the profound process of yoga. When we observe the body or the breath during our practice, what we are really looking at is the process of inteligence. The mind loves to represent things (through symbols, categories) based on past experiences so that they form patterns. This is the process that the Ego loves. Ego is the confusion, which occurs between what is the process of pure consciousness and the contents of consciousness. The Ego likes certainty, it likes to know for sure.

11 The self-reference paradox

Our yoga practice is the microcosm of our whole life. The patterns, which occur in our practice reflect the patterns of avoidance and attachment in our relationships with other people, food, job, money, etc. So this is one of the values of the practice - that we are finding out these core patterns that define our whole existence. Whenever we think about the world, or about other people, we are doing it via the sensations of our own body.

12 Observing the patterns of attachment and repulsion

13 Tapas - the heat of change

Day 3 Go Deeper

For my theme for this class I chose my shoulders, but I actually tried to concentrate on the whole neck-shoulder area. I'm not sure if it's because the class is really intense, or because I was simply paying more attention, but I noticed how much tension I put on my neck and shoulders. It will take a lot of work till I really learn to relax them. The good thing is that Ana always reminds you even in the most intense asanas to relax the neck and pull the shoulders down the ribs.

So, the class begins with Kapalabhati done in Shoelace pose. It's a little difficult to do shoelace at the begining without first warming up, but it feels also good to release the hips. I have done Kapalabhati before watching the Maha Sadhana I video from Dharma Mittra, so it wasn't something new. Then there were of course some abdominals, and boy did they make me sweat! But again it feels good, because I feel how they became more accessible after each time I do them. There was of course Dolphin, Agni Sara and a lot of lunges to open the front side of the hips and to prepare for backbends (the focus of this class). I really have to work on opening the front of my hips, and I feel that it will also help my right knee, which sometimes feels uncomfortable in Bridge or in lunges and dancer as a back leg. From the arm balances we did Bakasana, which I can happily hold for several seconds. Then follows Elephant trunk, which I do only on the stage 1. Ana uses horse stance with back traction to lenghten the back after all the lunges, cobras and dancer, and it feels very good. I did the beginner versions of the most advanced back bends - Bridge instead of Scorpion and Wheel instead of Scorpion Forearm balance. On the cobra push-ups with a roll my hands were already tired, but it still releases nicely the lower back. Then you go again with abdominals :-), again with the purpose of releasing the lower back. After some twist comes the long awaited Savasana. As they say, Ana is really very good at sequencing, and I really like listening to her voice and paying attention as she says. But I splitted the 2 hours and took a pause in between the 2 CDs, not because it was too intense, but because I started getting distracted *blush*. I also sometimes lost my ujjayi and was struggling to keep breathing at all (which shouldn't happen), but this only means I still have a lot to work on. :-)

Nauli, Agni Sara & Uddiyana

Ana Forrest always includes at least one of these in all of her classes. The common between the three is that they are done after full exhalation and on holding the breath while moving the belly. I still find them difficult and get tired soon. From what I understood, the goal here is to stimulate the intestines and the digestive system and they should have detox and calming effect on the mind and body.

So, in my beginner mind rose of course the following question: in what are uddiyana bandha, Agni Sara and Nauli different? They looked pretty much the same to me...

According to this site:

"Nauli (which means "to churn") is a close cousin of uddiyana and navi kriya. The difference is that nauli is geared more toward purification and ecstatic activation of processes in the GI tract, an important element in the overall rise of the spiritual neuro-biology throughout the body. Nauli is part of the "shatkarmas," or cleansing techniques. We will be discussing those in a later lesson. Uddiyana and navi kriya are more vertical in the body, affecting the spinal nerve in particular, lifting from root to third eye. Uddiyana means, "to fly up." Navi kriya is about flying up much more, and integrating upper and lower body mudras and bandhas into a single whole body mudra. The results of this upward flying inner energy will be felt in every aspect of our practice and daily life."

Agni Sara also uses Uddiyana. I found a nice explanation in Anatomy of Hatha Yoga.

OK, I have to admit that I'm still having difficulties getting the difference, but I guess this will come with practice.

Forrest Yoga - Day 2 Integrity

I did day 2 from Ana Forrest's 5-Day Intensive Course. The class focuses mainly on the hips and works them in standing, sitting poses, and at the end even in shoulder stand. No Sun Salutations, and almost no backbends (only a few while working the hips and hamstrings in launges). It's 2 hours long, so I did it after I came back from work. I got hungry a little after the middle (after the standing poses), so I made a break to eat and continued after I felt ready. It was hard. Really hard. But I enjoyed it. The right side of my neck and my right shoulder hurt, so I was very careful and didn't hold the arm balances as long as she says. I still find Dolphin pretty hard, and am trying to shift the weight off from my shoulders and to the hands and chest mussles. Forearm balance and handstand I do only on the wall, and even there only halfway (legs paralel to the floor). I'm still a little afraid, although I have done handstand as a child. Hope to do the next 3 days from the course in the following days...