"Enlighten Up"

Watch the trailer of the new documentary "Enlighten Up" . Be sure to visit the "clips" section of the website to see short excerpts including one featuring Pattabhi Jois and one featuring BKS Iyengar. I found these fun and inspiring. I can't wait to see the complete film made by Kate Churchill and featuring Nick Rosen as the skeptical yoga seeker.

"Curves Ahead" Rodney Yee Backbend Sequence

If you want a good back bend sequence try "Curves Ahead" from Rodney Yee. "Energetic clarity" is the reward according to Andrea Ferretti. I just appreciate the quad and groin stretch this sequence offers. Give it a go.

Your Own Meditation Group

Mandy Ingber has invited us all to try forming meditation support groups. I appreciate this idea and I enjoy the design of her website. Watch her video for ideas.

Sixty-three Position Vinyasana

I recently received a copy of this vinyasana from my teacher, Jyoti Hansa. I first saw it in the early 90's. It is challenging but fun to "play" with if you respect your body, begin slowly and don't over-work the poses. I love the hand done asana drawings.

Ahimsa and help Turning a Bad Day into a Peaceful Day

Martin Luther King Day calls to mind the yama: ahimsa. Non-violence. Tomorrow classes will all contain a reading from Sutra 2.35. "When one is established in non-violence others abandon violence in one's presence." For a lovely online yoga video with a teacher who has a peaceful aspect I suggest visiting yogatic.com and trying some of Esther Ekhart's video classes. I especially like "Yoga for a Bad Day".

Body Prayer with Seane Corn

"Breathe and everything changes" says Seane Corn. I have been learning the Body Prayer vinyasana from a video excerpted from her program "Yoga from the Heart". Seane suggests that it is valuable to set an intention for the practice before beginning. This is a challenging sequence. I have modified it by substituting plank pose for chaturanga dandasana and simplifying upward facing dog by lowering the knees to the floor. It is important not to push the sequence on your body but to modify the poses in tune with your body in the moment. To hear an interview with Seane visit The Speaking of Faith website. There are many wonderful comments from Seane Corn in this interview including her observation that we may be, "culturally addicted to tension." I am certainly thinking about this as I begin my fall teaching schedule. If we are addicted to tension as a community, breathing more consciously might be a good way to begin moving in a new direction.

Stages of Change and a Glimmer of Bliss

photo:Benjamin Jastrzembski
Pre-contemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, maintenance and relapse, the stages of change were developed to guide us through major life changes. Sitting in a doctor's office recently I saw a poster that applied the stages of change model, developed by Prochaska and DiClemente, to smoking. Could this method be applied to developing a yoga practice? Students often express the desire for a self-directed personal yoga practice.
My daughter, Amanda, when queried offered, "I think one connection between this and the practice of yoga in the United States is that people develop a very structured view of all their time and their habits, and use the kind of structures you see in this model, which are probably intended to make difficult and important changes in behaviors that threaten quality of life, and apply them to hobbies, sports, minor diet changes, interests and diversions."
I suppose that is exactly what I was doing as I sat on the exam table waiting. Am I forgetting the most important motivation of all?
Upon reading advice to the relapsed, "re-asses motivation and barriers", found at a UCLA Nutritional Counseling webpage, Amanda reminds me that - "Yoga is not a chore. Get in touch with your genuine interest and the good sensations it brings. Don't objectify it into a medicine, a badge of hipness or a solution, or you risk ending up feeling forced by yourself to do it. That's one take."
Point well made. Find the glimmer of bliss in whatever stage you currently reside. "The source of the universe is bliss; this is what it says in the Taittiriya Upanishad." according to Sharon Gannon. "When yoga practices become dry, they're never going to work; they are not going to make you ultimately happy." (as quoted in American Yoga by Carrie Schneider)
Still, I am tempted to make use of the stages of change model and recognize that all of the stages have value to us, the power to move from one to the other is in our hands.