Days 7 to 9 - practice with a purpose

Each morning I go through a ritual of sorts to convince myself to get out of my comfortable bed and go practice on my mat....there are few things that make me feel more alive and aware than when I'm doing asana...but I won't lie to you, I'm no morning person.

I practice in the morning because it is the best time for me to do so (aside from the fact that you get the clean, cool morning air, your body is stronger and you benefit from having to stretch muscles that have stiffened up during the inertia of sleep) - I work a full-time day job and teach most evenings - but for me, the biggest challenge is getting out of that perfect spot in the bed, when the room is the perfect temperature, and all is good and wonderful in the universe. I have often wondered what that means "Am I really an undisciplined person underneath?" "Do I truly love what I do?" Believe me, I LOVE to practice, and 15 minutes into it, no matter how groggy I was when I awake or how many time I think "my bed is calling me back right now", I know for sure "This is where I'm meant to be, in this very moment"

I say all of this to say that we don't always have the reason that we practice in sharp and clear focus, sometimes just to practice IS the reason. This is particularly true when you hit a point when a posture isn't "working" for you; though the most immediate response may, borne of frustration, be "I don't want to do this", push through anyway, give it your best love and attention in that moment, but try not to tie your own worth as a human being to it. Making yoga a sustainable part of your life means two things and the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali (on of THE foremost treatises on the philosophy of yoga) says it best:

1. Practice (abhyasa) - means having the attitude of persistence to find peace in the practice, practice must be done consistently and over a long period of time in order for the practitioner to reap its ripest fruit. This means you have to get up and try, even when the bed seems a better option but it also means that you should have a sustainable relationship with your practice, guilt and resentment have no place here. At the same time, your practice shouldn't be, as Kino put it, "this all-or-nothing thing that you feel you have to do". Assess who you are and what you feel like each day, do your very honest best and then let go of your expectation of what you think that practice should be, which leads me to:
2. Non-attachment (vairagya) - the ability to let go of any attachments, fears, desires and delusions you might have about the practice and why you do it. This means that for however long you're on the mat, make the effort to suspend you ego, certainly the part of it that says "I did this yesterday, why can't I now?" or "I should be able to do this by now" and just enjoy what it is that you do. Come to your mat with no pre-conceived notions of yourself, begin with the breath and end with the breath.
   

I wanted to share these two principles because they underscore why I love yoga so much, and because I have dedicated my practice to a woman who gave her final breath on Wednesday night, having spent so much time in the service and love of others. She was sweet, giving and quite frankly, extraordinary. She will be missed. I will love and remember her always. RIP Aunty G.

We come into this life on an inhale and leave it on an exhale, but rarely do we pay attention to the breaths between. When we apply the discipline of practice with the ease of non-attachment, we find that our practice can soar to its highest height and plumb its greatest depth. On the days when you have doubt, fear and guilt, remember this, and let THAT be your purpose

with love

SWWW

Day 5 - Simon and Garfunkel were right

Today I did Sun Salutations, all the Standing Postures all the way to Marichyasana A before my left knee requested a reprieve. Ardha Baddha Padmottanasana - (that's 'Half Lotus Standing Forward Bend' for the uninitiated) on the left is still not ready to be safely manifested in this body of mine so I did Tree Pose and counted out the breath

And guess what, people? Something else changed in my practice. Sometimes that happens, you can go days, weeks, even months and you feel like "why am I even DOING this? I don't FEEL any different, nor more enlightened than last Tuesday" and then all of a sudden, you're seeing all these new things coming at you....I intentionally went slower in each asana, particularly the left side, to assess what was happening and how it impacted my hip and knee - I actually did Ardha Baddha Padma Paschimatanasana (the seated cousin of the posture I described above) TWICE, and by slowing down, was able to adjust the alignment just a little bit, and suddenly I felt the pose in my hip again (where it belongs, I might add) and significantly less in my knee...brilliant!

Another thing, I could jump through more smoothly and picking up to jump back, I could swing back and place my toe behind me the way my teacher taught me (if you're wondering what that looks like, look for 'Kino Macgregor jumping back from Padmasana' on Youtube, the woman is simply all kinds of wonderful and amazing), suddenly the 'impossible' things that I had placed aside to 'learn in my own time' were easier to imagine in my body than ever before, and all because I slowed down.

Anyone who knows me knows that I move fast, I walk fast (well, with 44" inches from hip to toe, I can't help it ;) , talk fast, type fast and I practise fast. I could finish Full Primary plus finishing AND Savasana in just under 90 minutes....I don't say this to boast or vaunt myself, but practising quickly was both the result of a shorter breath (asthma-related) and the need to be done early in the mornings before work...even adding postures from Second Series and doing more back-bends took me to 1hr50 TOPS....so this practice was different, I made each moment stretch out, I paused, contemplated and noticed my breath in a new way....Amazing, all the fundamental, subtle little things that pop into your consciousness when you take your time..."Slow down, you move too fast, you got to make the moment last..." that's what Simon and Garfunkel said, right?

There is a tendency in our world nowadays to move at lightning-speed, to get things done to get to the next 'thing to do'...but listen, the yoga practice offers us an alternative, it says "Hey, slow down, and study yourself for a moment, what are you looking for?"

When you have an injury or a perhaps a setback in life, maybe there's an opportunity to re-assess yourself, to see inside, to what's real...and here's the thing, the thesis of the evening, the point (maybe) to my meandering scribble of thoughts, the REAL is the breath, your soul, the animus inside you; the body is but a shell, a vehicle, a laboratory, it's the part that IS ephemeral...we are more than the sum of our knees, hips, shoulders and lower backs. But we need the vehicle to have this life...like one of my teachers, Sharon says, we are "spiritual beings having a human experience". So treat your body well, and listen to it.

When I got to Marichyasana A today and was able to ground myself through BOTH hips, I could FEEL the posture in a different way....it was deep, it was different and I know why...and I was "feeeelin' groooovy"

more tomorrow!

SWWW

On the eve of Yoga Month

Here's the truth, people...I haven't done a full practice in AGES (like 3 weeks), just trying to heal my left knee, which I managed to torque somehow, overdoing something when my nutty (read "schizophrenic") left hip wasn't ready. The result?? SEARING pain when I bent my knee, that means sitting, standing, walking all were hurting...let ALONE lotus (lotus??? whatever is that?). My body cried "Stop" while my mind argued "you can do this, forget the pain, you KNOW the right techniques now"....guess what won? Guess what ALWAYS does and will?

They say that the definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over again, whilst expecting a different result or rather...let's spin that on its ear....maybe TRUE intelligence means applying the techniques that you KNOW in the safest way possible to your body AS IT IS...not AS YOU IMAGINE IT or IN A PERFECT WORLD...just as it is. Prosaic? Maybe. True? Absolutely.

So I listened, I rested my body when it asked for it, I took the yoga inside and remembered what my teacher Greg Nardi said to me when I was at a particularly low point during an Ashtanga intensive I did (remind me to share more about that)..."Remember, Shakira", he said, patience in his voice like he'd NEVER said it before "it's a breathing practice". And somehow it stuck, I got it, I slowed down and honoured what was happening and why and what I needed to change.

All of this I recall now as we head in to September, which is Yoga Month!!! Yay! Even as I challenge myself physically for EVERY ONE of the next 30 days (yes, EVERY DAY!), I'll keep the thought "BREATHE" first and foremost in my mind, and for me it's much bigger than words like "pranayama", "Ujjayi" and "mula bandha" (don't get me wrong, they're important)...it means "Just breathe, no matter what, be still IN your breath, everything else will come"

"Do your practice", Pattabhi Jois said, "and all is coming..." and you know what? I think I'm beginning to really see what Guruji meant

See you on the mat tomorrow!

love
SWWW