Bits and Pieces

Reality Yogi: More Evening Yoga

In the spirit of my recent confession of having a reality TV habit, along with a reality yoga practice during said TV, I'm offering another sequence I love to do at night with or without bad TV in the background:

• SUKASANA for one to two minutes, gently deepening the breath
• FORWARD FOLD in SUKASANA for five deep breaths.
• fingers interlaced, gaze gently up, heart forward mini-backbend for five deep breaths.
• SIDE STRETCH in SUKASANA five breaths each side.
• TWIST in SUKASANA five breaths each side.
• DOUBLE PIGEON with forward fold five full breaths each side.
• SUPPORTED CHEST OPENER on blocks: bottom block at medium height at the base of the shoulders, top block at medium height under head, shoulders relaxed: 3-5 minutes.
• SUKASANA / meditation for as long as you like.

Sometimes I really like ending with a restorative backbend like that - I feel like I spend a LOT of time in forward folds, just in real life - in my day to day activities. The verrrrry gentle, supported backbend just releases SO much of that forward folding, shoulder-rounding TENSION of the day. Ahhhhhh.....

Breathe deep, sleep easy...

Love,
The Reality Yogi

photo credit: stress-relief

Aim True - Day 7

Today's class.

Tap Your Arm Balance Potential
Vinyasa Flow
Level 2
Kathryn Budig


Tap into your innate potential with arm balances! Learn the steps to making these beautiful and inspiring poses accessible. Warm up the body with vinyasa flow to prepare for crow, side crow, side plank variation and flying pigeon.

• First posted on April 13, 2010 and never taken before today.
• 7/84 classes complete.
• 3/7 I had taken at least once before.

This class is a perfect example of why I ADORE Kathryn. It's almost hard to figure out exactly how she does it, but she makes REALLY advanced postures feel completely accessible, teaches them with great attention to alignment detail, and doesn't make you feel shitty if you have to stay in the pre-pre-pre-prep the whole damn time, and in fact, celebrates that process. She specifically said that it took her a "long, long, long, long, LONG time" (there may have been one more or one less "long" in that quote) to do the arm balance, flying pigeon, and to really understand it. (Hey, by the way, that link is to a challenge pose blog written by Kathryn herself on how to do flying pigeon, or Eka Pada Galavasana, in the comfort of your own home!) She admitted that while the learning process is frustrating, now she wishes she could go back to those times when she fell on her face again and again (and again) and enjoy the juicy process - the joy of those tiny moments of success that take you closer and closer to the full posture. Imaging Kathryn, yoga-goddess extraordinaire, struggling with anything is sort of impossible, but I actually believe her. And it makes me feel better about staying in my "little tiny race car" (click the link to see all of the pre-pre-pre-prep I'm talking about) while the majority of the people on the computer screen rock their flying pigeons. It also harkens back to that Joni Mitchell lyric (everything does): "don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone..."

What I've found with these classes, and what I've realized about yoga practice generally, is that it's just that: a PRACTICE. It's not about being able to do the "final" version of any given posture, but it's practicing, slow and steady, to get there. Knowing the whole time that your body may NEVER get into flying pigeon in this lifetime. These classes that are just slightly above what I can practice comfortably really challenge me - I get nice and sweaty but I never feel as though I'm in danger of hurting myself. And I feel GREAT when it's done. Endorphins in a stretched out, open body are the BEST endorphins, ever. Or at least I think so, hence my yoga addiction/obsession/career. ;)

My mantra for this practice, which I set as my intention at the very beginning, was "I am strong." I wanted to put some trust in my strength because that NYT article really did put a scare in me about pressing to hard. But that's the balance, right? Ugh, balance. It's so hard to find. In yoga and in life.

Bonus Yoga: Kripalu Restorative Class

Maybe it's because I only did a 20 minute practice with Kathryn today, or because I didn't teach today, and normally Sunday is my only day off from teaching, but I needed a little bit more yoga tonight. I do have my Reality Yogi type evening practices almost every night, usually some time in pigeon or Legs Up The Wall while I catch up on my reality TV guilty pleasures. Tonight, though, I gave myself a really delicious treat, and actually did a free online Kripalu restorative class. SWOON.

Click this link and at least bookmark it - you'll thank me later. 

I don't want to over-hype it, but really, try to carve out an hour for yourself sometime this week to do this practice. I had the great honor of being trained in restorative yoga (as part of my 200 hour YTT at Kripalu in August, 2010) by Sudha Carolyn Lundeen and then take a 90-minute restorative class with her, complete with every possible, perfect yoga prop courtesy of Kripalu. They quite literally brought in huge, huge carts of blankets for the 57 of us to practice with her. Heaven. Sudha is one of the most brilliant, seamless, calming and patient restorative yoga teachers I've EVER practiced with.



Don't let the need for props scare you. You don't need to go out and buy things labeled "Official Yoga Prop" or have anything special. You can do this practice with two couch throw pillows in replace of a bolster, or even a couple of folded blankets, and other various pillows, blankets and cushions you have around your house. A scented eye bag is LOVELY, but I used a (clean) fuzzy sock tonight because it was nearby. It's worth the time to grab a few blankets and fold them up or figure out ways to re-purpose something you already have. Trust me.

THIS is a true Kripalu yoga class. Kripalu RESTORATIVE yoga, at that. The benefits of restorative yoga are outrageous and man, it feels GOOD.

It sort of reminds me of how I feel about berries - the fact that they are healthy is almost too good to be true, because they are so damn delicious, and anything that delicious can't possible be good for you, too. (I also feel this way about avocados, pomegranates and salmon.) Restorative yoga is as delicious as the richest chocolate cake, with NONE of the guilt. =)

As much as I tried to really experience this practice as a PRACTITIONER, and not a yoga TEACHER, the part of me that is always eager to soak up more techniques from all of the amazing yoga teachers in the universe was still present. And these are the things the yoga TEACHER in me noticed:

• There was a pretty vigorous joint warm-up. It was very thorough, including the ankles and the wrists, knees, hips, shoulders, neck and the six motions of the spine.
• Sudha took her time demonstrating the set-up, entry, hold, release, and breath cues for each posture, having clearly asked the class to WATCH the first time through and not try to start setting up (which is the natural impulse) and then went though it a second time with the students actually setting up and taking the posture. 
• She gave students ample opportunity to adjust to honor their bodies, even long into the holds.
• The transitions were as mindfully and clearly cued as the postures themselves. 

But the yoga PRACTITIONER in me was just melting. =)

I couldn't believe how much tension and stress I was holding on to that I didn't even know was there. It was intense. It reminded me somewhat of my very first experience with restorative yoga in southern California with a teacher named LB Iddings. Bliss.

So that's TWO bonus yoga practices in nine days, which means that this challenge is REALLY working to give my practice a boost. Wow. In nine days I've practiced eight times!

JAI!!

photo credit: aprilhelen

Aim True - Day 6

Today I practiced this class.

Quick Flow & Go
Vinyasa Flow
Level 2/3
Kathryn Budig


Don't have time? Yes you do! This 20 minute flow leads us through constant movement with balances poses such as eagle, standing splits and tree/half standing lotus. Make the most out of your time and dive in. 

Originally posted on October 15, 2011, never taken before today.

6/84 classes complete.
3/6 I had taken at least once before.

This is a no-joke 20 minutes, and this is truly a level 2/3 class. It goes VERY fast, and I didn't even try to keep up. Maybe I'm little spooked by the NYT article, but I feel like I really need to pay serious attention to my body as I practice right now, and that means slowing down a little bit. I don't have a problem taking a level 2/3 class and skipping a few vinyasas (just staying in downdog, or meeting in the final downdog of the vinyasa because I didn't want to get out of my forward fold that fast) or not taking the advanced cues (no, I will not be jumping back to chaturanga whilst in tree pose today, thank you.)

I'm harping on this right now, in my teaching and my practice, but it's worth harping on: we all have responsibility for our own body. The end. Just because the yoga/pilates/spinning/zumba teacher SAYS to do something doesn't mean you're a failure if you don't do it. That teacher isn't in your body. I learned this the hard way two years ago when I seriously injured myself in a spinning class. We were going up and down really fast while pedaling very quickly on a lower level of resistance. I knew it felt too fast for me, and I knew this was something my other spinning teacher had mentioned in passing NOT to do, but the teacher was right across from me, the room was full of people, and I didn't want to look weak. The next thing I knew I came down hard on the seat with my legs in a strange position because we were being told to pedal as FAST as we could (it felt frantic, and, in yoga terms, pretty mindless) and I felt my right hip and lower back compress. It was AWFUL.

Not wanting to admit defeat, I somehow made it though that class, but it was about two months before I could do any exercise again. I found out almost a year later, during a Positional Therapy appointment at Kripalu, that I had jammed my right hip up with so much force that it was actually almost an inch out of alignment and my left leg was measuring almost an inch LONGER than my right because of it. The positional therapist realigned my hips and all has been well since, but I'm MUCH more brazen about doing what I need to do in any type of fitness class and NOT trying to impress the teacher/other students/myself by pushing past something that I know in my gut is wrong for me to do.

This was a great class for me today, though, because I didn't have time for a full hour, but needed to get at least a little bit of sweat going for my sanity. =) I feel better after taking the class than I did before, and that's what matters most, at least today. Remember, you can do ANY yoga class you want and stay safe as long as you take the modifications that feel right in your body.

Day six is done!

Reality Yogi: I Don't Practice Shoulderstand.

I am a yoga teacher who very rarely practices and almost never teaches shoulderstand.

Oh! The horror! I know!

I've read numerous times that some schools of yoga consider this to be the ULTIMATE yoga pose, the pose of all poses, the pose that will bring physical bliss and spiritual enlightenment and all sorts of good fortune. I saw something about essence and sweet nectar and divine peace and other random, seemingly profound (but ultimately vague) words and phrases in regards to shoulderstand the other day.

As my friend Nick is fond of saying, "cool, dude."

Really. Cool, dude, who thinks shoulderstand holds the key to knowing the meaning of life. Cool, dude, who digs the practice and feels better after a shoulderstand and thinks if you don't you're not as "yogic" as he is, but om shanti, anyway. Cool, dude, who thinks if you aren't rocking shoulderstand and arm balances and scary backbends day in and day out, you aren't an "advanced" yoga practicioner.

Cool, dude, because I think shoulderstand is pretty scary for the general population, and if you weigh more than a feather, and even if you don't, it can potentially be disastrous on your cervical spine.

You think I'm being overly cautious in my teaching and my practice? Okay, take it from Yoga Journal: "What happens if your student forces her neck too far into flexion in Shoulderstand? If she is lucky, she will only strain a muscle. A more serious consequence, which is harder to detect until the damage is done, is that she might stretch her ligamentum nuchae beyond its elastic limits. She may do this gradually over many practice sessions until the ligament loses its ability to restore her normal cervical curve after flexion. Her neck would then lose its curve and become flat, not just after practicing Shoulderstand, but all day, every day. A flat neck transfers too much weight onto the fronts of the vertebrae. This can stimulate the weight-bearing surfaces to grow extra bone to compensate, potentially creating painful bone spurs. A still more serious potential consequence of applying excessive force to the neck in Shoulderstand is a cervical disk injury. As the pose squeezes the front of the disks down, one or more of them can bulge or rupture to the rear, pressing on nearby spinal nerves. This can cause numbness, tingling, pain and/or weakness in the arms and hands. Finally, a student with osteoporosis could even suffer a neck fracture from the overzealous practice of Shoulderstand." 

I think that being "advanced" in your yoga practice isn't about any levels or progressions of postures or working up from shoulderstand to being able to balance on only your head. In fact, I think balancing on only your head is kinda crazy, and for 99.9% of the population, potentially dangerous.

Let's face it. We are not all built like my favorite yoga teacher, Kathryn Budig. She's essentially a world-class athlete. If there was yoga in the Olympics (oh, lord, don't even get me started) she'd be on the American team. She very well may have the prowess and natural ability that, had she pursued it, could have landed her a spot on the Olympic gymnastic team, all yoga aside.

Yes, you can build strength, you can increase flexibility, you can develop balance, and you can find deep peace and relaxation by practicing yoga. If you want to work toward a certain pose that you don't currently have the strength or flexibility or balance to do, that's great. Goals are good. Getting stronger is good. Using yoga to transform your body, your mind, your spirit - it's all good. And for some people, shoulderstands are good. Headstands are great. Arm balances are extraordinary.

But you can't look at Kathryn Budig's ToeSox ads and decide that one day, come hell or high water (or a slipped disc or two) you're going to have a photograph of yourself looking exactly the same. It's not gonna happen. Why? Because Kathryn Budig is Kathryn Budig. She has HER body. You have YOUR body. And having taken a copious number of her yoga classes, I'm pretty sure that she'd be the first to say that there are probably things that come easy to you, maybe even physically, that she absolutely struggles with. She manages to balance teaching "advanced" classes while remaining compassionate and encouraging and playful, and that's why she's really incredible. And if yoga is about compassion (and, at least, KRIPALU yoga IS about compassion - the world kripalu MEANS compassion) then pushing past what is natural for you, to get your body to do what another person's body does, is NOT compassionate. Not when ego and obsession are involved. Not when force is involved, period. Not when your anatomical structure and physical reality mean that if YOU were to do shoulderstand on the regular you could do severe damage to your cervical spine.

I'm worked up about this because an article appeared in the New York Times this week about the dangers of yoga. "How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body" made me feel really anxious at first, even about my own practice, especially about my teaching of a general population in western Kentucky that, for the most part, has never heard of yoga outside of a scary, hippie-dippie, new-age, against their religion thing that people in big cities do. (To be fair, there are some really wonderful, very well-studied yogis here, too.)

And then I realized two things. First of all, that this article is written as though asana, or postures, are the only aspect of a yoga practice, and that mastering versions of said postures that involve "extreme bending and contortion" is the only goal of that asana practice. Secondly, I realized that the common thread between the numerous examples the author cited of yoga causing horrible injuries and conditions was that each one was an example of someone who was clearly pressing their body past obvious, reasonable limits. It specifically mentions "extreme bending and contortion" - and not all yoga is "extreme bending and contortion." It mentioned someone doing full shoulderstand for five minutes a day, I can only imagine despite some sort of discomfort. It mentioned someone pushing their heels down with so much force in downward facing dog that they tore their Achilles tendon.

Okay, come on. Why would you do that? I don't understand.

Do you want to know how Kathryn Budig cues pressing the heels down in downward facing dog? How I cue it? She (and I) usually says something along the lines of "take a deep inhale and come high onto the balls of your feet, feel your hips float toward the sky, internally rotating your triceps so that your arms extend and your armpits pull in toward the body. Lift your shoulders away from your ears, letting your neck relax. Exhale as you slowly ALLOW the heels to descend, to melt toward the earth." Do you hear anything about FORCING your heels to touch the ground? No. Kathryn will specifically, and repeatedly say that it doesn't matter how close your heels get, that it's just the energetic intention, and ALLOWING the natural ability of your muscles to open. So maybe one day your heels meet the ground, maybe your heels NEVER get anywhere close the ground, and IT DOESN'T MATTER. It's your body. Your yoga.

It really sounds to me as though these are all examples of people NOT approaching themselves - their body or their spirit - with non-judgmental, compassionate self-awareness. And that is what I believe to be the key to a healthy, safe, beneficial asana practice. In fact, I'd argue that learning non-judgmental, compassionate self awareness IS the reason to practice yoga at all.

Michael Taylor wrote a wonderful response to the NYT article, and says, "Injuries aren't part of yoga. Injuries are part of "not yoga." Yoga, just like life, is ours to create. It's ours to create yoga that's struggling, striving, pushing and forcing; a life that reinforces the strain and difficulty in our bodies and minds. It's also ours to create a yoga that is calm and peaceful. And a life that is capable and easy in any setting, under any challenge." 

My goal as a yoga teacher is to find a way to balance giving my students the opportunity to challenge themselves, to grow as practitioners, to work toward those more "advanced" postures that our competitive culture seems to covet, while holding onto a practice, as Michael says, that is calm and peaceful.

And it's a good reminder in my own practice, in this challenge I'm writing about, too. My reality as a yoga practitioner is that too many chaturangas start to bother this old shoulder injury I have. There is nothing for me to gain by forcing my way though a level 3 class without modifications just so I can blog about it. But don't worry about me. I'm a master of taking child's pose whenever I want. I'm pretty sure listening to other people chaturanga through a level 3 class while I take numerous child's pose breaks has just as much benefit as doing them all myself. ;)


ps - If you ADORE shouldstand, if it is your favorite of all favorite poses, please accept my humble apologies. We're all different. It just doesn't float MY boat, so much. I think Legs Up The Wall is a perfectly acceptable substitute. Yummy. =) 

pps - Here is a really compelling response to the NYT article entitled Yoga and Injuries. One of many good points is "Ultimately, the Times article provides no evidence that yoga classes on the whole are any more dangerous than other exercise classes. I haven’t been able to find any statistics on the prevalence of injuries from yoga classes versus from running, lifting weights, P90X, CrossFit, step aerobics, Zumba, deep knee bends, silly walks, etc. But if those statistics have indeed been collected somewhere, my bet would be that yoga comes out among the safest exercise options, because of the point made above: only in yoga are you actively encouraged to practice mindfully and sensitively."

(Friends and Wine Help You) Aim True - Day Five

On Saturday I had a full, wonderful day with my dear friend Christi, and we took this class together in her beautiful yoga/sewing/meditation/craft/etc. room, complete with candles and incense. I wish I had that room to practice in EVERY day. Sigh.

Basics for a Solid Yoga Practice
Vinyasa Flow
Level 1
Kathryn Budig

Learn the basics of a solid yoga practice. Open your hips and chest to build strength through Chaturanga (push-up) modifications leading to Sun Salutations. Perfect for the new yogi looking to build strength and awareness.

This class was posted on YogaGlo on August 12, 2010, and I originally took it on January 3, 2011.

• 5/84 Kathryn Budig YogaGlo classes complete.
• 3/5 I had taken at least once before. 

If you're really paying attention, you'll notice that I broke my own rule and skipped ahead a couple of classes today. That was for two reasons. First of all, after four intense Kathryn classes this week (and teaching ten classes myself) I was SORE on Saturday. Especially in my arms and shoulders. The thought of a kick-ass, fast-paced Vinyasa practice was making me feel both petrified and angry. The second reason was that my friend Christi doesn't practice yoga as regularly as I do, and has an old elbow injury that she really has to be careful about. I didn't want her to put herself at risk of injury to practice with me. It was worth it to break my own rule to be able to practice with a friend, though, and I'll get back on track chronologically tomorrow.

I'm actually a big fan of foundational classes, even having practiced yoga for years. For one thing, and especially in Vinyasa Flow, you can start going through poses so fast, that you start being a little (a lot?)  careless about form in order to keep up. There are a lot of ways you can really injure yourself doing chaturanga incorrectly (and rotator cuff injuries are no joke) and yet so many people practice this style of yoga day after day after day, never REALLY learning how to properly do chaturanga. I think the reason really boils down to the fact that performing chaturanga correctly is REALLY, REALLY DIFFICULT. It's hard freakin' work, it requires a great deal of shoulder and upper body strength, and so if you're trying to get through a bazillion sun salutations and you want to look like a badass, you start skimping on alignment in order to make it easier on your body. The problem is, what feels "easier" can actually end up hurting you in both the short and long run. All this to say that I think it's important and essential to go back and revisit the building blocks of what yoga teachers often call "taking a vinyasa" - which is commonly linking downdog to plank to chaturanga to updog to downdog with the rhythm of the breath. (To be nit picky, the word vinyasa actually means "to place in a special way" - vi means "special" and nyasa means "to place" - and the nuances are many. Yoga Chicago has an article here that says "There are four basic definitions of vinyasa: 1) the linking of body movement with breath; 2) a specific sequence of breath-synchronized movements used to transition between sustained postures; 3) setting an intention for one's personal yoga practice and taking the necessary steps toward reaching that goal; and 4) a type of yoga class." 

So yes, this practice was pretty basic for me, and relatively easy. But it was GREAT for me to take not only for checking in with my own practice and alignment in poses I do often, but also to brush up on different exercises and variations I can use to teach my beginner level students these important foundational tools.  

This was a 45 minute class, which was only made possible by the fact that there was no led savasana to end. Kathryn said to take a five or ten minute savasana if you wanted to, but you'd have to set your own alarm to do that. Christi and I dealt with this by following the class immediately with a 20 minutes guided savasna by meditation guru and master, Harshada Wagner. I'm telling you, this is probably the most relaxing 20 minutes you can claim. If you have a subscription to YogaGlo, TAKE THIS CLASS. It's kind of like drinking hot chai whilst wrapped in soft blankets, sitting in a warm candle-lit room, watching snow fall on the mountains outside your window. Truly delicious, cozy and restorative. (I have an epic crush on Harshada, by the way. He's so damn cute that it's really a shame to close your eyes while he is on your computer screen, leading you into deep meditation with his soothing, sexy voice. Heeheehee!)

After it was over, Christi and I split a bottle of wine, so I took a photo to sum up our practice. I am especially proud of my mala bead placement. =) I also had to get a photo of the adorable way my nieces, Madeline and Lily, helped me decorate my yoga blogs a few weeks ago. They are so adorable and amazing! I never have an excuse to feel unloved, that's for sure.

We got Chinese take-out and had some more wine, and later two of our close friends, Devin and Holly, came over for a full-blown girls night, complete with candy cane martinis. Holly brought the most mouth-watering food: prosciutto-wrapped, goat cheese stuffed dates, a date dip made with cumin and ginger, stuffed grape leaves with Greek yogurt dip and fresh pita bread. We listened to music, talked about everything you can imagine (I may or may not have told a few embarrassing stories I shouldn't have - but that's what girl friends are for, right?) and ended the night watching an episode of An Idiot Abroad. Then this morning Christi made us all waffles and sausages, and this afternoon Christi and I got back on our mats for a restorative class via YogaGlo - a sixth bonus day of yoga for me! This class, titled "Wipe the Slate Clean" was a lot of long holds (hold is not the right word...more like long MELTS) in simple but deeply restorative postures. It was the ideal way to end my week of mostly challenging classes. What an absolutely fantastic day/evening/morning/afternoon.

Week one is DONE, and I actually did it - I took five Kathryn Budig classes and wrote about them. I'm actually really excited now about week two. This is turning out to be a lot more fun than I thought it would be, and that is going to make it easier to keep going. Seeing that I still have 80 classes or so to go is daunting, but I'm up for the challenge! If this project makes the month of January more bearable for me (I usually LOATHE it with passion) I will feel incredible, and so far it's working. 2012 is off to such a fantastic start!

xo