...On Meditation

Do you ever say no to company because you'd prefer to be alone? Running, walking, gardening, knitting, sitting, snow shovelling...alone. If you've done this you've meditated. Being alone with one's thoughts, however mundane, is the simplest form of mediation.

There is something calming about solitude. Perhaps it's because it is becoming increasingly more elusive. We are surrounded, all day, every day. Whether physically by the tangible demands of our work and family, or by the cyber demands of our phone, our facebook and twitter. Alone is a state that is difficult to find and, at best, fleeting. Who has the time to withdraw to a mountaintop nowadays?

The next time you are performing a repetitive task where your body is busy, but your mind is calm and quiet, know that you are in a state of meditation. Be subtly conscious of the thoughts that stream through your head unincumbered by the white noise of life. But don't try too hard. When the runners are off or the tools are stowed away, try writing down tidbits of what you thought about. You might be surprised as to the genuine self that is revealed in this practice.

Searching for Savasana

Someone once asked me what they were supposed to be doing during savasana. Savasana, or corpse pose is the pose that is done at the end, and in many cases the beginning, of Yoga classes. It is supposed to be the most difficult of yoga poses, not because it is physically demanding in the traditional "A" type way, but because it demands of us a balance between consciousness and unconsciousness. Often likened to floating over your own body, aware of it's physical state, but also aware of it's ethereal nature.

Many times over the years I have toyed with how to lead my students into their savasana. I have experimented with different words and phrases. I always wondered what combination of talking and silence would allow my classes to reach that state of true savasana. Recently though, I have become privy to the inner workings of some of my students' savasana. One of my students (and she knows who she is....wink, wink) told me that savasana in my classes involves her standing in her sumptuous walk-in closet, surveying her clothes and accessories and choosing what she is going to wear that day or for a special function. When my voice softly coaxes her our of savasana, she envisions herself walking serenely out of her closet, content in the knowledge that she has ironed out all her wardrobe kinks.

Another student told me that he mentally goes through a laundry list of the tasks that he has to accomplish. He makes mental notes on tasks only half-way completed, makes adjustments to due dates and reassigns tasks to other members of his work team and family. He never comes out of savasana without clicking his mental "save" button.

So here is the question: Is Savasana any less effective if used as a time to take mental stock of one's life? Instead of staying present in one's body, is it OK for us to let it wander a bit as long as there is a purpose and on a very short leash?

I personally find it difficult to clear my mind and keep it present in my body and breath. Should I expect any more from my students? Once long ago, my Kundalini Yoga Guru likened the mind in savasana and meditation to a big room being used for an audition. Your consciousness is like the auditioner, sitting at the front of the room. Your thoughts are like the hopeful auditionees, filtering one-by-one into the room doing their shtick. Your consciousness has the ability to say to each thought, "Yes you are important, let's deal with you right now" or "No, you're not so important. We'll put you aside for now". I like this way of thinking! It means that when I am in savasana or meditating and an overwhelming thought shows up and I can't help but think about this thought or hash it through in my mind, I'm actually doing a good job at savasana or meditation. It also makes the corpse pose and the practice of meditation much more accessible to the average person. The average person, that is, that finds it very difficult to "empty" her mind and to "think of nothing".

Why do we eat?

Apart from the obvious, we eat not just to fill our bellies, but in many cases to fill a hole. A void if you will. Some of us eat out of boredom, so we fill time. Some eat to feel in control of something. And yet others eat to feel happy. Eating has become the most problematic activity in North America, bar none! More and more people are dying of obesity related and food related conditions than any other ailment alone!

That is STAGGERING!

By reading this blog I am not suggesting that your issues revolving around food will magically disappear, but for those of you who feel you are addicted to food or eat out of an emotional compulsion try this Kundalini Yoga Meditation (It is actually the meditation to correct habituation):

Sit comfortably in a quiet safe place
the mantra is SA TA NA MA (you say this softly in your head)
with each syllable you press your back molars together gently (like you are gently clenching your teeth). At the same time, you make a thumbs up sign with both of your hands and place the pads of your thumbs to the dip in your temples (this is just above each cheekbones at the hairline, just underneath the beginning of the forehead) You want to gently press into these spots with each syllable.
Continue like this for 2-10 minutes every day for 40 days.

The Pineal Gland is located at the top of the spinal column right in the center of the brain. It is believed that the secretions of the Pineal Gland govern the proper and healthy functioning of all the other glands in the body. When it's secretions are lacking or "off" so are the secretions of one, some or all of the glands in the body. The lack of one hormone or another, or one chemical or another in a person's body manifests many times in habitual activities ie. smoking, drinking, eating, etc. which are our bodies' ways of trying to correct the imbalance.

The internal pressure from the teeth combined with the external pressure from the thumbs in the meditation, helps to stimulate the Pineal Gland and allows it to function in a more balanced manner, thereby balancing all the other glands in the body.

For those of you who wonder "Why 40 days?" Yogis believe that it takes 40 days for an action or a thought to change a person's being; to become a part of them. Good luck!

Yoga in Togas

Ok, here is the dilemma: Yoga is supposed to be more about internal change, through physical challenges; about "working in" instead of "working out". Right?
Well if that were the case we would all be practicing in solitude or with one personal guru, in the hills somewhere wearing nothing but strategically placed pieces of cotton. But we don't, we don't and we definitely don't! Instead the number of Yoga and pilates participants has begun to surpass the national numbers for any other physical endeavor individually. We practice everywhere in public: yoga studios, gyms, dance studios, karate dojos and community centres. We clad our bodies in Luon, spandex and coolmax; in bright and garish colours; and in styles that resemble leotards more than the traditional loin cloth!

Does all THIS make our yoga better? Or does it dilute the practice? Does it make it superficial and conceited? Yoga used to be elitist. For the chosen few, handpicked and then nurtured from childhood. Now yoga is for the masses of adult-onset stretchers, broken jocks, mundainly average desk-jockies and frustrated dancers.

Every day when I teach I wonder if I am doing right by my students. Do I only teach them what I think they can digest and leave all the other more esoteric stuff for some braver teacher to discuss? Am I doing right by the art of yoga? Am I allowing a centuries old art to die in it's truest form because a bunch of spoon fed North Americans can't wrap their brains around chanting and meditation.

But then I realize that I am like Mother Nature with her swift hand of Natural Selection. North America has become the Galapagos Islands of the yoga world. Our style of Yoga has morphed into what we need it to be. It has become a coping mechanism for broken bodies, minds and spirits. Not just an Eastern Philosophical practice. Just as Darwin found new and wonderful species of familiar animals on his voyage; so too would Vedavyasa find a species of yoga that was strange and wonderful, all at once.

I try not to worry too much about what my yoga IS or if my love penchant for yoga fashions changes my practice. After all my booty and butt need the scaffholding that luon affords, just like anyone else. Sometimes I wonder if I don't go to an ashram for vacation because I can't afford it or if it is out of a fear of coming to a realization that what I know, love, practice and teach isn't really yoga at all. Sometimes I wonder if true yoga and togas go hand in hand.

Getting out of Pain

Gain without pain. This should be our mantra. And we heard this phrase many times this weekend as East Village hosted its first Workshop, Getting out of Pain with Susi Hately of Functional Synergy. Despite this repetition we all came to our own epiphanies at different stages of the workshop. But it begs the question, "Why do we still need to feel the burn in order to feel like we have accomplished something?" In fact, the opposite is true, as Susi teaches "There is something other than pain that is worth working towards". Perhaps because we are the generation that coined the term "No Pain, No Gain!" we have managed to morph an eastern philosophical program into a workout. We are definitely paying for it though, if our slipped discs, displaced hips or chronic pain are any indication. Although our intentions are good, healing our bodies through yoga, our practice is oftentimes poor. We practice poses (asanas) that are not safe or functional for our individual bodies in an attempt to look like some perceived notion of what a yogi should be. We've approached yoga in the same way that we've approached all physical activity and all sporting endeavors. We think we need to find the edge and jump right off it!
Susi says that "most peoples' concept of what 'edge' is, is way too far!" If we all come to the mat with the same goal, improving our body’s biomechanics and moving without pain, then we want to continuously improve our FUNCTIONAL movement. FUNCTIONAL is the key word. We have to get away from our perceived edge, even if it means that we feel we are not accomplishing anything. It's difficult because so many of the styles of yoga that are out there are so regimented in the flow, in the rhythm and the breath that we don't have the time to stop and think, "Am I moving without pain?" Ease despite discomfort then becomes the moving target. We put ourselves in Yoga asanas and hold them for long periods of time in hopes of finding ease despite muscle discomfort. Do we feel the discomfort and live in it; allow it to build tension, which causes us to 'try' harder, and then there is no longer any ease? Or do we feel the discomfort and, yet are still able to find ease? Some of us may not even understand the term 'ease' because we've lived with pain and tension for our whole existence, that it's all we know. But if you think that we want to walk away from our yoga practice lighter and taller, we should be able to find that feeling within each pose as well, despite effort. "Effortless Effort".

We learned this weekend that we must temper our need to 'feel' the stretch; to 'feel' the work, because it is possible to achieve the same results with less effort. We need to recognize our bodies’ cues. What comes before the back pain, before the numbness, before the pinch? It is important to know what happens just before, because those are our bodies’ danger signs beyond which we should not travel. When we operate in this way, we find the ease and quiet to recognize the places of pain, difficulty and congestion. Only then can we build stability and strength that leads us to functional movement.