Month: August 2017

Categories
Beautiful Deeds Beautiful People Healthy Living Yoga

Assisting & Learning

I assisted the 40 hrs. plus 40 hrs. of teacher training Judith Lasater conducts every year in San Francisco for last 2-3 times. But this year, spending summer in Japan, I was sad to have missed assisting the July training … Then she says that I can assist any of the upcoming training … Yeay! No matter how many photos I review (as I was the photographer for the last few local TTs) or books you read, nothing compares to being in the presence of a teacher you respect and admire.

When I was struggling, I was so comforted by a company of ladies a bit older – if fact, they might have been my mother’s jolly friends – being with them made all the difference. There was laughter, there was kindness. It’s always healing, inspiring and rejuvenating to be with older women, someone who can be your auntie, an older sister, a mother, even grandmother … a guide, who have walked the walk, done the do’s, struggled and suffered and paid the dues and … stands before you to “humbly” teach you something about life, without bitterness or haughtiness or snobbery or … too much ego – in fact, no ego would be lovely. I am all about learning and if I can learn from you, I am there – it’s not just the asanas – admittedly that’s a gateway but no amount of anatomy talk or movement lessons can compare to something more energetic and cerebral. While I am not saying I cannot learn from the young – it’s just that I’ve been there and I am more the person to give that advice, give that example, give the energy, I am the one to pass on – I am the one expected to guide – I am the offering. But then, when I am seeking an older sage, I am receiving, I am carrying on, I am enlightened and inspired. I am grateful for the widom they impart from their vantage point. There’s just too much fear out there about aging and withering and declining …or getting fat:) some take up yoga out of that fear…because of chronic stress borne out of anxieties over all things fleeting. Why not live your life fully before worrying about such things.

So went this week in a flow, I “assisted” yoga for cancer class my cohort from my yoga therapy TT now holds through Stanford Medical Foundation. So sweet to see him develop into this unpretentious teacher and so inspiring to see someone like him, much older, doing something to make a difference. He could have just sat back in his white-privileged world of utter comfort joined other mostly white guys his age, relaxing at some version of Mar-a-Lago, but no, he’s teaching yoga for cancer.(okay, I know that’s just a stereotype and there are many who are engaged in social justice and service to make a change). He’s making this world a little kinder, a little more compassionate. Less violent.

I was happy to be with this Karma Yogi and so were the students who showed up seeking some relief from pain that day.
They were helped because of him. And because of yoga. Thank you for the beautiful practice Jido:)

Categories
Healthy Activities Healthy Living Yoga

Sweat Once a Day!

from Mayo Clinic Site

Words from one of the Yoga Therapy Module last year – in the Ayurveda section.
Sometimes living in a very mild climate (California has mild climate … lovely mild Mediterranean climate envied world over), our sweat glands are not stimulated enough. Spoiled in such ideal climate, when we travel to places like Singapore, Japan, other tropical hot places of the world with sweltering temperatures with high humidity, we wither away in exhaustion.(that was me, lol) There, we cannot live without an AC and …still, we simply … wilt because our sweat glands are out of shape. To prevent that and for general day-to-day health, based on Aryuvedic health prescription, we are well served when we engage in an activity that allows us to perspire at least once a day … (I can explain this in posts to follow – checking my notes:) There is a belief that heating the body flushes out the toxins and some even believe that the heat can prevent or reverse cancer and other serious illnesses from lodging in ourselves. Provided that one is prudent to avoid heat strokes with enough hydration and intake of electrolysis, heat that causes us to perspire can be beneficial and history is a testimony to this belief prevalent in many cultures such as in sweat lodges in Native Indian cultures; Russian Banya; Finnish Sauna, Japanese Sento(and the sweltering summers!), Turkish Hammam …

So off I go – a chilly day for the Bay Area to turn on my inner heat by doing some yoga. Get some heat or turn on the natural furnace we have within:) Feel the beads of perspiration on your skin … then just relax and chill:) As Judith Lasater’s book title would say “Living Your Yoga”!

Categories
Yoga

Yin Yoga

Did you know?

Yin Yoga tradition advocates for stretching while the muscles are cold – why? Bernie Clark explains it well. Who?

When you hear “Yin Yoga” in the yoga world, teachers’ teachers who are thought to be masters of that style of yoga are few and select … They are:

Paulie Zink
Paul Grilley
Sarah Powers

Sarah Powers was a student of Paul Grilley, Paul Grilley, once a student of Paulie Zink … and so the style traces back to Paulie Zink. At the same time, in Canada, there’s Bernie Clark… SO I only bring this up because there appears to be a misunderstanding where students mix up Restorative Yoga for Yin Yoga … While I think all yoga to some degree is “restorative” unless it’s one of those over-exertion type of yoga that causes an injury, the two styles are quite different in its intent and approach. If you study with or studied the work of above teachers, then, it’s interesting to discover how it’s all same yoga … but difference in the intention can open up a whole new world.

The following link contains a video of Paulie Zink and it’s pretty fascinating – he’s one of the master-founders of Yin Yoga … so … throw away the stereotype. My kind of Yin Yoga practice is basically benefits all age-groups, accessible to all generations – to promote flexibility, agility, resilience, addressing the needs of connective tissues, fascias, joints. The practice will complement and enhance Yang style of yoga styles which strengthens and tones the muscles. It’s Yin & Yang, complementing each other as we need both elements for the balanced whole.

Check out the Yin Yoga Monkey ! I realize the video is from a karate competition not a yoga class but even his yoga sequence is pretty … wild. He demonstrates how yin yoga helps him achieve his optimal yang activities – this is the intent verbatim:

The purpose of Yin yoga is to restore our innate ability to move with fluidity.

This is Yin Yoga founder/master Paulie Zink – link here.
I had to chuckle as I was blurting out something about quieting the Monkey Mind during one of the classes. I guess one way is to act like a monkey. Another way is practicing another kind of Yin Yoga … finding the oozy juicy elegance in the long deep holds in each of the poses. Giving it the sweet time for tensions to dissolve … and melt away.

Should we do a frog pose next or how about a frog doing a yoga pose – Salamba Sarvangasana:)