How Yoga Lost Its Way

The old gurus in India looked at all the tense, uptight Westerners and thought that those folks sure could use some yoga.

So they sent their ace number one students to help out.

Pattabhi Jois focused on the young energetic crowd.

BKS Iyengar focused on the older, less physically mobile geriatrics.

Bikram focused on the wealthy.

At first, all went well. Students came. Students learned. Full force, all you can eat, no holds barred, cage style, old school yoga.

They practiced hardcore, in dimly lit backrooms. In tatty cotton hippie pants. Underground, guerrilla style.

They practiced with their foot behind their head, while balancing on one hand. With the other hand holding the other foot in padangusthasna...And still they were beginners.

Soon word spread. There was a new fitness kid on the block.

Yoga and the modern, hyper-connected, politically correct, ethically conscious, carbon neutral westerner fitted together hand in glove...it was a match made in heaven.

Demand exploded.

Supply expanded to meet the demand. And here's where yoga started to get off track.

There was a buck waiting to be made.

Triple could be charged by slapping a recycled label on some expensive haute couture, uber trendy, tight leggings and singlets.

Or by making matts, staps, blocks and bolsters from recovered rubber tyres and repurposed bamboo.

Just like owning your own money printing press.

Now yoga wasn't in charge of yoga anymore. Money came to be in charge of yoga. Sure.

A few concessions had to be made by yoga. But what's a short cut here and there between friends. Who's gonna notice or complain? It's win win.

Students get to feel that they are making a difference just by working out! Now that's multi-tasking. What's not to like.

The more you work out. The more you save the planet.

More soon, J.

Stuff Your Yoga Teacher Tells You To Do That You Shouldn't

Smiling

Smiling is awesome. It actually makes you happy. Try it the next time you are down. Force a smile.

Betcha it lifts your mood.

Now read that last sentence again "Betcha it lifts your mood".

What do you think your mood is when you are meditating? Answer: There is no mood. It's kind a neutral. Yet.

The yoga teacher is asking you to alter your mood. From mediative neutral to happy. So.

The teacher is actually working against you if you are in the zone. Chances are.

The teacher has seen a couple of practitioners straining, and wants them to back off. Trouble is.

Everybody, including people in the zone, hear them say this.

It'd be much better if they said something like, "Try not to force the pose". The strainers would back off, and you'd stay in the zone. Whatever.

Your challenge is to ignore the "Smile" or other cute "Turn your mouth up at the side", cues, and try not to let them take you out of your meditative state.

In Plank Lower Your Bum

All poses have progressions. 

Crow to crane. (Crane is just a really straight crow.)

Crane to handstand. (Handstand is just a really straight crane.)

Ustrasana to Kapotasana. (Kapo is just a really deep camel.)

Urdhva Hastasana to Urdhva Dhanurasana. (Urdhva dhanurasana is just a really deep urdhva hasta).

Same with plank. Literally, with plank you want to end up on the tips of the big toes. 

Then you roll over the toes (so the tops of the toes are on the mat). 

Then you drag the toes to meet the wrists. Then you drag the toes up  the wrists and press to handstand. I know.

You're thinking that's impossible, or that you'd never be able to do that. Sure you can. Now you know what you are looking for.

The trouble with plank is that very few practitioners (teachers included) ever get enough strength to understand the progression. So.

They end up telling you to "lower your bum" and "push the mat away from you with your feet and hands". This is so wrong.

In plank, you are pushing down through the hands and down through the toes. Notice I said down, not away. Big diff.

But the main thing with plank is to engage your core, so much, that you actually start to round upward (think about it) through the back.

Hang on...I'll try to get a pic....

Ok...got one. Sad that it's not a yoga pic. Which shows you how little this progression is understood in yoga. Anyway, you get it now.

So, in the pic, look at the guy's toes in both shots. He's higher on them in the bottom shot. Now.

Imagine in the bottom shot, that his core is turned, on so much, that it's actually causing his body to round upwards. So he's actually doing a crunch in plank.

His hands are rock solid, and if he turns his core on any more, he'll start dragging his toes towards his wrist. Welcome to plank :) 

Ok, that's it for now.

CU in class (not smiling), J.

How To Keep A Mediative State While Doing Yoga

Ok, so you've rocked into class. Teach' has you sit cross legged with your eyes closed.

You're breathing through your nose and you are concentrating on your breath as is enters and exits your body. Congrats!

You are in a mediative state. Now.

What do you think is gonna happen the first time you fall out of a balance pose? Will you stay in the moment? Of course not.

You'll be all upset 'cause you fell, and all sorts of western, alpha competitive feelings will mess with your mojo. All designed to pull you out of the moment.

Here's how you keep your cool during and between poses:

1) Don't be attached to pose outcomes. 

Nail it or fail it. Don't show any emotion on your face. This in turn will stop your consciousness from moving out of the meditative state.

Being euphoric 'cause you nailed it, or disappointed 'cause you failed it, messes with your meditative state. Go into the pose not caring about the outcome of the pose. Plus, you'll balance better.

2) Don't be attached to the practice. 

Same as not attaching to pose outcomes, only here you don't care what the practice throws at you.

If the teacher has you standing in Tadasana for 60 mins. Don't care. Breathe through your nose. Focus on your breath. Meditate.

3) Soften your gaze.

You can physically do this by ever-so-slightly squinting, which will lightly contract the muscles around your eyes. Then focus on the contracted eye muscles. Especially the muscles under the eyes.

Then purposely relax them. You'll know it's working 'cause your eyes will widen. Congrats.

Gaze softened. 

4) Narrow your focus. Shut down your periphery.

Definitely more important in a class setting. Try to ignore what's going on around the edges of your vision.

5) Acknowledge and move on.

If your nose gets itchy during a pose, or if a drop of sweat breaks out on your brow, acknowledge it. Say to yourself. "I acknowledge that my nose is itchy", then move onto focussing on your breath. 

See how the itchy nose has the potential to break you out of the meditative state? Or if someone is fidgeting in your periphery, or how falling out of a balance can take you out of the moment?

Your job, is to practice in a manner, that prepares you for these eventualities, in such a way, that when they occur, they don't mess up your trance. It's all in the execution.

Fall over, get back up. No emotion required.

6) Dance in time to your breath

Poses are always dynamic. They are never static. The trick is to get the small movements you make in a pose, to expand and contract with your breath. You know what I mean.

Summary

So meditation is focus. Emotions have the potential to break focus. So do distractions, like sweat and the person fidgeting on the mat next to you. 

We remain focussed by withdrawing our senses, so that distractions are minimized. 

We also remain focussed by not caring one way or another about outcomes.

So, when you look at what we've just discussed, no senses, no caring, no thing.

Yoga is nothingness.

Make sense? Nah, me neither.

CU in class, J.

The Theory Of Diminishing Meditational Effect

Someone who understands the concept of 'being present', was watching the Dali Lama as he (the Dali Lama) was speaking to various people.

The person watched the Dali Lama, over a decent period of time, engage with people fully. In the moment. All the time.

The Dali Lama has a set routine. According to his website, he sleeps for 8 hours. Then he (mindfully) meditates for 4 hours. So that he can be in the moment, for the remaining 12 hours of the day.

So it takes around one quarter of the time you are awake to practice to be in the present, so that you can be in the present, for the other three quarters of the time you are awake (when you are not meditating!).

Picture this western style ('cause there's no way we westerners could find 4 straight hours)...

Every 3 minutes, you need to stop, drop, and do a one minute meditation, so you can spend the following 3 minutes, being in the present moment. It's not going to work. That's ok because...

I have a feeling that the benefits of meditation are most likely not linear. ah HA!

If this thesis - that I just made up - is true. Well, it means that there's probably more benefit in doing say, the first 60 minutes of a meditation, than there is in the last 60 minutes.

So that first 60 minutes of meditation, might actually be worth most of the other 15 hours we are awake, being in the present. In the moment. Ok, now we are getting somewhere.

Let's say that you just happen to be a person who stretches. And you just happen to have 60 minutes a day. When you are just stretching. Well. That's just boring.

Why don't you just use that 60 mins, when you are bored stretching, to meditate - mindfulness style. And that way, you can experience most of the other 15 hours, in the present.

That sounds like an excellent use of your time! Well.

You won't just be stretching any more...You'll be meditating as well.

You better give those two things a name, when they are together................What was that you said? WOGA? Oh...YOGA....ok yoga.

WELCOME TO WESTERN YOGA 

(it's times like this, I wish I could get written text to flash)

P.S. In a later post we'll go through how to put yourself into a meditative state during yoga.

The 7 Poses of Yoga That Include ALL The Others

Everyone can touch their toes, right?

Bend forward, bend your knees, touch your toes. That's 1.

What about backwards?

No, with the hands going straight up and over the shoulders. Elbows can't go outwards. Ahh! Not so easy to touch your toes bending backwards. That's 2.

Stand tall. Hands by sides. Reach down your left leg with your left hand. Try to touch your toes. No bending forward or backwards. That's 3 & 4.

Lift your left leg and extend it forward. Take your right arm backwards and keep going. Keep going with it straight around, until it touches the extended left foot. Sigh. No the other way. That's 5 & 6.

Finally, reach up with your hands, and down with your feet. Keep reaching until they go around the whole universe and touch each other. That's 7.

Congratulations! 

You just did ALL of yoga.

ALL yoga is just 7 ways of touching your toes, J.

P.S. I kinda wanna call them something cool like "John's 7 Master Poses of Yoga". Then maybe give each one a cool name, a la yin yoga style. And then make them into a system with a cool name like Gurju Yoga.

...and there's only 7 poses... but they do everything.

They are the most economical of yoga poses. And that's all we do for the whole hour and a half. The 7 poses.

Hey, do you reckon that means they'll be held longer than yin? If so, does that mean this system has fewer poses, that are held for longer than yin? I think so.  <fist pump> "Yeah".

This new yoga system is soooo cooooler than yin.
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(sigh) There's an eighth.
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I put it down here for all you smarties out there.

Yep. It's when your hands touch your toes by compression. Weird.

But you knew that didn't you?





























Oooooo... You freakin' SMART ass!





You made it all the way down here.

Even though I didn't leave any breadcrumbs.

Smart, smart, smart.

Ok. They are kinda "true movements" that measure true flexibility. Corny, I know, but I don't have a better name ATM.

Here's a couple for the road:

Ok, this first one is a variation on 5 & 6, only we are using the floor as the measuring tool (can use a wall as well)...

Lie down on the floor. Take your left knee across your body, to the right, and touch it on the ground at hip height (so your left knee is on your right hand side).

Now take your left arm out to the left hand side, at shoulder height and touch it on the ground.

So are you touching the knee and elbow to the ground at the same time? Probably not. True movement. This is how you measure flexibility. That's 1.

Ok. Lie on your back. Interlace your fingers behind your head. Keep the elbows at shoulder height. Push the elbows into the ground.

Can you push the elbows into the ground so hard, that the spinal bone exactly at shoulder height leaves the ground? No.

Push harder through the elbows. True movement. That's how you measure flexibility. That's 2.

You prolly worked out from that last one, that they also measure strength. Anyway.

You're smart. You get the idea. You can do it with hips and legs and stuff. Have fun. True movements...I'm such a dickhead (true dat!).

You Know You're Fucked When Lady Grey Is The Only Tea You've Got In The House

I live with some tea snobs. They drink a ton of the stuff. Fancy names. Hang on...I'll go check...

It's all T2 and brand name tea shop stuff. Anyway, because they buy so much tea, I sorta sponge off them, as they usually have some black tea I like.  Manly tea...

...like English Breakfast, Prince of Wales, Australian Afternoon, Earl Gray, or the best one, Orange Pekoe (I shit you not. That's its name, and it's not a girly tea). Anyway.

Our house is on the market. And because we can't show it with 3 dogs. My partner and the pack are living in the new place (we've already bought the new place).

Somehow, the tea container where I put the black tea that I (errr....need a better word than steal...umm...tax! that's it!)...the black tea that I tax from them, got moved down to the new place.

I raided their considerable tea holdings, that they left at the old house and, after an exhaustive search, the best that I could come up with was Lady Grey.

So it's Saturday night. 21:30 hours and I can't be fagged, gettin' in the car and driving allllll the way to the shop for real tea.

Fucked, fucked, fucked, J.

======================Post Script==================

Now you might be thinking, what's a post about tea, doing in a yoga blog? 

Have you not been to a modern yoga studio lately? 

They're practically forcing the stuff down your throat...

...Except ...for ...where ...I ...go...shit! I always thought they weren't a proper yoga studio.

Arrgh...Caught In The Middle Of The Freakin' Road

Living your life middle of the road is freakin' dangerous. Cars can run you over. 

Jokin'.

I'm talkin' about comfort and complacency. 

If yoga comes easy to you...If life comes easy to you...Cruisin' may be your normal. 

Nothin' wrong with that. Except.

You'll never shoot for greatness. So you'll never know what great feels like if you make it.

If you are doing it hard. Then you have motivation to reach for something better. 

Middle of the road, there's no motivation. Bills get paid, children get fed. It's all good. It's all cruisin'.

There's no motivation to reach. What for? Things are gettin' taken care of. Nothing needed. No effort required.

So many people who are achieving greatness, got there through adversity. Rheumatoid arthritis. Poverty growing up. Broken families. Broken people. 

Broken people aren't middle of the road. So they reach. Some of them achieve. 

Where are you?

CU in class, J.

 

Yogis Are No Fun

Aliens land on Earth.

One of the aliens walks up to you and says, "I'm Brandon, from the planet Orc. I'm an interstellar, navigator, born in the four-quadrillionth solar year, of the star Zanex. What do you do?"

You say, "I do yoga".

"Oh, says the alien, I've never heard of that. What do you do in yoga?"

'Umm..." Says you. "Well..

..."we put our bodies into uncomfortable positions...then we hold them there"

..."we don't think about the future... or the past. We try to keep our emotions neutral."

..."our goals are infinite. None-the-less, we inch our way, trying to get there...Even though we know we never will."

..."we could take short cuts in life...But we don't compromise our morals."

..."Oh, and sometimes we chant 'om'. Just because we can :) ". You finish, with a big smile on your face.

Alien turns and walks away, throws his hands up in the air.

Says to the other aliens outside the spaceship, "Get back in. These guy are no fun."

Do This Shit!

Have you seen the crazy positions we put our bodies into?!? Normal people don't do this shit.

It takes a special kinda krazy.

Nothing brings this home more, than if someone new comes to your house, and the topic of yoga comes up (not by you!).

So your friend says you can do some yoga.

So then the new guy says, "Can you do the one with the leg kicked out beside you?".

You say, "Which one?"

The new guys grabs his leg to the side of him. Tries to straighten it.

You go..."Oh, Padangusthasna, like this". Then proceed to kick out to the side. Extend your hand and catch your toe...and then proceed to take the foot all the way up.

New guy looks at you, like you're an alien.

Yep! Been doing a bit toooo much yoga lately. Takin' the practice waaaay too much for granted. You gotta remember.

Normal people don't do this shit!

Do this shit, J.