Beyond Asana Blog
My weekly blog is a forum for contemplative inquiry into the intersection of yoga practice, traditional teachings, and real life.
We have several new mothers in my current teacher mentoring program. For these women, like many of us, finding even 30 minutes for uninterrupted practice is a challenge.
How do we make yoga happen given the reality of our lives?
One way is to expand our ideas of what practice looks like. While we continue to commit to carving out time for regular, formal practice as best we can, we can also remember that yoga is adaptable, and it can and should be used to work for us. It's empowering and enriching to find ways to experience the essence of the practices throughout our day. Here are just a few ideas:
BODY: A few minutes of stretching can bring your focus back to your sitting or...
One of the biggest misconceptions about being a yoga teacher is that all we do is teach yoga. Any yoga teacher will tell you that there is a lot for us to do outside of class including e-mail correspondence, class and workshop planning, and schedule organizing. Like many, much of our day might be spent sitting at a desk in front of a computer.
This is particularly true once mid-September rolls around. Life and work tends to moves into a whole different gear. The relaxed, loose rhythm of the summer gives way to school schedules and more structure to our days. While I’m always a bit wistful about the end of summer, there is also something exciting about the opportunity that a...
One of the most remarkable aspects of our training was the group itself. Not only were we presenting the practices of yoga to people who were experiencing these practices for the first time, but from a cultural perspective what we introduced was so new and different. Our work called on our trainees to step out of their expected and familiar roles, to expand their ideas of what they could do and understand what helping people to get out of pain meant.
Responding to the challenges that arose to meet the needs of our unique group of teachers-to-be called on our years of teaching experience, group facilitation and communication skills.
Initially, Erin and I had expected...
Over the next few weeks, we’ll be sharing some of the highlights, successes, challenges and key learnings from the launch of the World Spine Care Yoga Project in Botswana this spring. The mission of the WSC Yoga Project is to support the global mission of World Spine Care by empowering individuals in underserved populations to share the practices of yoga.
About the World Spine Care Yoga Project
World Spine Care is a non-profit organization dedicated to improving lives in underserved communities through offering sustainable, integrated, and evidence-based spine care. They have established chiropractic clinics in Shoshong and Mahalapye, Botswana, the Dominican Republic and Ghana (and soon in India and China) that are staffed by volunteers as well as local clinicians. In these clinics, high-quality care is delivered free of charge to patients with spinal conditions and musculoskeletal pain.
Bags packed and coconut offered, tomorrow I will embark on what will certainly be one of the most meaningful adventures of my life. I am leaving for Africa to launch the World Spine Care Yoga Project. This is an initiative that will bring the healing gifts of yoga to people suffering from back pain in rural villages in Botswana.
I am privileged to be working alongside super-dedicated, hard-working and highly-skilled colleagues Erin Moon of Vancouver and Geoff Outerbridge, WSC’s Clinical Director. We will be presenting yoga as a tool for pain management at the Botswana Spine Care Conference next week in Mahalapye. Then we travel to Shoshong to give a 10-day teacher...
The attainment of the Samadhi state involves the elimination of all-pointedness [i.e. wandering] of the mind and the rise of one-pointedness [i.e. concentration].
Yoga Sutra 3.11, trans. Edwin Bryant
Under the appearance of thought, there is really an indefinite and disordered flickering, fed by sensations words, and memory. The first duty of the yogin is to think-that is, not to let himself think. This is why Yoga practice begins with ekagrata, which darns the mental stream and thus constitutes a 'psychic mass,' a solid and unified continuum.
Mircea Eliade
When meditation is mastered, the mind is unwavering like the flame of a lamp in a windless place.
Bhagavad Gita, 6.19-20
Ekagrata,...
That devotee who looks upon friend and foe with equal regard,
Who is not buoyed up by praise nor cast down by blame,
Alike in heat and cold, pleasure and pain,
free from selfish attachments,
The same in honor and dishonor,
quiet, ever full, in harmony everywhere,
firm in faith – such a one is dear to me.
Bhagavad Gita 12.18-19
Do thy work in the peace of Yoga and, free from selfish desires, be not moved in success or in failure. Yoga is evenness of mind — a peace that is ever the same.
Bhagavad Gita 2.48
You climb the mountain to be able to look over the whole situation, not bound by one side or the other.
Thich Nhat Hanh, The Heart of the Buddha's...
We all know that the mind affects body, for example, “You look down in the dumps,” or “He was crestfallen.” Why not, suggests yoga, try the other way round…we are going to try to use asana to sculpt the mind.”
BKS Iyengar, Light on Life, page 11
Using asana to sculpt the mind, a brilliant observation and a powerful understanding that adds infinite depth to our practice.
It’s the idea that not only do asanas have certain inherent qualities that are revealed when we practice them, but that we can actually choose to cultivate what we want to experience more in our selves.
We can choose to sculpt courage in the face of...
In yoga, we often talk about the practice of living life “from the inside out”. This can mean different things. It might be that we practice living with intention, striving to hold a certain expanded or enlightened perspective as we move through our day. It might mean finding ways to be in touch with our selves and the moment, and bringing that sense of presence to our activities. It can also imply a life lived as a result of consciously made choices or nurturing our ability to bring a chosen inner state to situations in our lives.
In yogic understanding, over-simplified as this statement might be, we recognize that ultimately we may not have so much power over what...