Month: May 2016

Categories
Yoga

Yoga Therapy Training

IMG_1191It’s a bit like trekking up these steps … it gets steeper and steeper – my training program.

***
The 500/800 hrs. program and the coursework is getting more and more demanding as expected. SO what am I doing blogging? Get to work – finish your homework; work on the project; go assist; go out and spread this goodness ! Hearing my inner voice but I come here to gain perspective and pin down my wondering mind. The program started out with …

Yoga History & Philosophy – some review – yes, sure we covered this in 200 hrs. but that was a very broad brush strokes of an outline. This subject can go on and on – but the core “essence”, we can come to know better. Of course I am nowhere near full understanding even after reading books after books + … you can probably read and study for a lifetime but again, this is ENOUGH. More than enough at this point in my life. Let’s experience it by doing …practicing.

The program is very methodical, reflected in the gradual progression in our course materials.
Ayurveda and Yoga

Foundation laid, we proceed to:

Skeletal System

Muscular System

and … this weekend is the Respiratory System
then next month is Cardiovascular system … then Endocrine System … Nervous System … Immune System … Digestive system … it’s a vast universe within the Cosmos, us humans … and so the journey inward continues.

The program is so so so about service while we engage in learning. Ultimately, it seems to be about healing through promoting
inter-connectedness … what we do when we are off the mat.

It can simply mean, being kind and loving. To recognize our capacity to give love and receive love. We can’t ask this from others if we haven’t ourselves.
It’s always a work in progress, isn’t it? There are small sense of milestones and completions as we take baby steps and sometimes a leap – each time pausing and celebrating small nano-transformation with gratitude. Sometimes, it flows though … swells into a big wave, gathering and collecting strength … then crashing onto this beach with a cryptic message drawn on the sand. The big wave wipes away the past and its residues – samskara – that no longer serves us. We then see our true reflection unencumbered and fresh, glistening in the light, from our shadow. It’s liberating.
IMG_1004

Categories
Uncategorized

chitta vritti nirodha

Chitta is the consciousness. Consciousness is comprised of the mind,
the intellect and the ego.
Yoga is a method of silencing the vibrations (disturbances) of the chitta.
lionMy favorite pose these days … then you see photos of facial yoga very popular in Japan … Fumiko Takatsu is pretty amazing. I know serious students of yoga would be quite disdainful of this silliness? But if that’s what people want – give it to them. Spread techniques that bring cartoonish joy?
faceyogaI am embarrassed to admit that I actually want to learn this method – as I am interested in facial muscles and how they work … upon learning all there is to learn – how about if I report back : )
When I was in Tokyo last summer, I was surprised that there’s such a thing as facial yoga – this kind of “beauty methods” self-help? seemed quite popular there. Lion’s pose has taken off from the classic posture demonstrated above by the master teacher to … something rather “wild” and varied over there …so commercialized, seems lion’s roaring all the way to the Bank. BKS must be turning in his grave … or maybe he’s having a great belly laugh.

Categories
Beautiful Places

Time

Just had an epiphany – I traveled 235 million years (can do math) when we trekked from the Rim to the rock bottom, Phantom Ranch ! How is that for time-travel?

From Nova (love that program) yes, time is relative; time is BIG. We can consciously make time rather than letting it slip by.
Time is HUGE. It’s BIG; it’s endless. We have a blip of an existence.
As Judith would say, “let’s not squander it.” What does it take to feel alive beyond the confines of the physical body?
grandcanyonMagnificent Mother Earth. Feeling more and more grounded in my meditation practice. Gratitude for excellent teachers; gratitude for the practice and … Gratitude for this time. Colors splash more vividly with resurgence of energy…that energy does not just appear out of nowhere … you have to make a choice to harness it. We are the source of our own energy and … it needs to be charged with an intention. Lucidity returns amidst the brainwashed state of fear over the scarcity of … time. Dedicate the time for yourself. To just be.

* I realize sometimes your physical vessel may not be cooperating to take you to places – it’s just out of practice but perhaps dust off and engage the mind projector on that screen behind your eyes. Being human, we all have it; we can use our imagination …not the delusional self-defeating type, but the one that we can access to empower us – visualize with the minds eyes that’s all seeing, all knowing.