Categories
Yoga

Tapas – Not the Spanish Small Bites…

IMG_8023_small A lovely note from Judith Lasater upon completing my advance training and a final project report.

I will be assisting Judith at her Teacher Training week-long session in San Francisco (sold out). I am SO honored to be of service to this great teacher. The following teaching teaches us what draws me to this teacher – she brings yoga into the everyday life, accessible to all people.

Here’s an excerpt from Yoga Journal article written by Judith …

Tapas (Austerity)
Tapas is one of the most powerful concepts in the Yoga Sutra. The word “tapas” comes from the Sanskrit verb “tap” which means “to burn.” The traditional interpretation of tapas is “fiery discipline,” the fiercely focused, constant, intense commitment necessary to burn off the impediments that keep us from being in the true state of yoga (union with the universe).

Unfortunately, many people mistakenly equate discipline in yoga practice with difficulty. They see another student striving to perfect the most difficult poses and assume she must be more disciplined and therefore more spiritually advanced.

But difficulty does not in itself make a practice transformational. It’s true that good things are sometimes difficult, but not all difficult things are automatically good. In fact, difficulty can create its own impediments. The ego is drawn to battle with difficulty: Mastering a challenging yoga pose, for example, can bring pride and an egoistic attachment to being an “advanced” yoga student.

A better way to understand tapas is to think of it as consistency in striving toward your goals: getting on the yoga mat every day, sitting on the meditation cushion every day—or forgiving your mate or your child for the 10,000th time. If you think of tapas in this vein, it becomes a more subtle but more constant practice, a practice concerned with the quality of life and relationships rather than focused on whether you can grit your teeth through another few seconds in a difficult asana.

Yoga is “a practice concerned with the quality of life and relationships.” Thank you for sharing your wisdom, Judith:)

Categories
Healthy Living Yoga

Feeling Renewed:)

A very determined looking but motherly teacher at a Iyengar studio I’ve gone to in the past – unfortunately too far for me to commute to but … a treat to get to visit occasionally. She says she’s a grandmother but her body seems more lithe and supple than someone far younger… My inspiration. She displays both strength and flexibility throughout her demos. I am far younger but started to suffer a violent headache after a hand-stand; forearm stand and a headstand … boom; boom; boom … snap your fingers …3 inversions within first 15 minutes – did them. No warm-up other than the shoulder rotations using the ropes on the wall – Yes, sure, I do inversions especially shoulder stands – sure, after all, 200 hrs. RYT stands for something? but do I enjoy them? That is yet to be determined:)

Then afterwards use of chair for back-bends + inversion combo… a violent headache hits. It’s rather debilitating at this point flipped upside down on a chair – rather than feel the luscious opening within, ahhh … ouch, is someone hitting my head with a hammer? so I confessed to my headache coming out of the back of the chair. She peered into my eyes with sternness… I know – I must have been holding my breath (it’s fear. Going upside-down is to me … terrifying … Terror? hahaha, would never make it in a circus) somewhere cutting off oxygen to my head while blood rushed into my head in all these inversions which usually makes me feel … light headed. I have always been one to suffer from motion-sickness and sometimes that comes; sometimes a sense of exhilaration …it’s either Hell or Heaven, little in-between:

Breathe … yes, I know.
Overcome fears… Yes, I know.
That’s why we do them … Yes, I know.

Sometimes a sense of panic can hijack my nervous system at such times of vertigo combined with a headache – but not with this motherly instructor …faith and trust in self and the teacher is the key to override weird sensations. 5 minutes of grounding pranayama and back to re-join the progression in this steady practice. Headache-free, felt wonderful afterwards. Hard to believe only 60 minutes ago, I was suffering from a banging headache. Better than Tylenol.

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At present, (ideally:) I practice Vinyasa style 2 times a week; Iyengar-ish style 1-2 times a week; whatever nameless style ??? everyday and then … Restorative yoga 1-2 times a week (everyday would be dreamy … if only … whenever I need an escape from the grind? No, whenever I need to spend time with “myself”, purge toxins mental and physical, pre-meditate, clear my mind through pranayama…at times, it’s “spiritual” …it’s what you want it to be) …

What about you?

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Categories
Beautiful Rituals Beautiful Things

Did you know?

it’s COSMIC:)

Went out last night with Mitsu to admire the moon … hanging so low on the horizon.

and I am in much anticipation of tonight !!!
On Wednesday night – that’s tonight – we see the year’s lowest full moon ! What joy:)

According to NASA, low moons are supposed to have an orange tint, apparently due to the thicker air near the horizon. Such orange or amber color is the origin of the term, “Honey Moon” and our baby Mitsu is SO that … She’s HONEY colored and is so sweet. My little wolf-fox, Shiba, kind of like Shiva:)

Back to the luna-talk: It’s the first of TWO full Moons in the month of July, 2015, and whenever there’s more than one full moon in the month, that second full moon is called the… Blue Moon… which happens every 30 months on average that’s, two and a half years.

Tonight though … it’s going to be HONEY colored … and BIG:)

By the way, did you see this last night? Venus and Jupiter conjunction ! Here’s the old news that reminds us that the Universe is moving and changing moment to moment and we are each but a small spec, a spark…like Venus and Jupiter, yoking the body and mind … our spirit free and bright… our individual consciousness merging with the greater universal consciousness when we stop what we are doing and take in the natural wonders filled with beauty:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-8eSyxSAW4