New Day Time Classes!

Good news for those who cannot make it to my evening classes!  I am now teaching two morning classes.  Thanks to Tashiya at Body Bar for inviting me back to teach at her gym on Jawatta Avenue.

The new classes will be:

Monday @ 10.30-12pm

Wednesday @ 8.30-10am

These will be YogaFlow classes suitable for all but complete beginners.  I strongly recommend that beginners come to my YogaBasics classes on Friday nights for a few weeks before starting other classes.  

Just remember that these two new classes are at Body Bar so don't show up at my place unless you want to talk to Tilak!

See you soon!

Savasana: Just Relax

At the beginning of nearly all yoga classes I get people to lie down so they can relax.   We do the same at the end of class.  Most of us are very good at lying down but many of us are not good at relaxing--be this physically or mentally.  Sometimes people think they are relaxing when they are not.  I see this often at the end of the class when I go around to make adjustments as people lie in savasana (corpse pose deep relaxation pose) and ask them to relax as I move them into position.  Here is what often happens:

Me (bending over a person reaching for their shoulder from behind so I can draw the scapula down, however, as soon as I reach under the shoulder it magically lifts without me doing more than touch it): Just relax

Student (lying in Savasana): Mmmm

Me (barely touching the shoulder, which somehow still hovers above the floor): Just relax

Student (lying in Savasana): Mmmm

Me (jiggling the shoulder a little in an effort to get the student to feel the tension and sense that they are holding their own shoulder up rather than letting go of tension and allowing me to hold it): Relax, relax, relax [soothing voice of course].

Student (lying in Savasana): Mmmm 

Me (gently letting go of the shoulder, which stays in mid-air rather than fall to the ground because the student was the one holding it up anyway): Silence (speaks louder than words)

Student (opening eyes in surprise): I thought I was relaxing!

Aside from the fact that it must be slightly annoying to be told to relax when you think you are already relaxing it seems to me that this is one very powerful learning exercise in understanding how you can hold tension without even knowing it.

One of the joys of yoga is discovering yourself again.  This includes uncovering 'secrets' such as the secret tension you might be holding in parts of your body.  But tension does not have to be muscular.  We can also hold tension in our breathing patterns (e.g., when we hold our breath or it becomes laboured or forced), while the tension we hold in our minds is more often referred to as stress.

Savasana is a great opportunity to consciously relax body, breath, and mind, and, like all yoga postures, to go within and experience what it is like to be yourself from the inside.  There are many ways to practice savasana and many guided relaxations you can try.  I like Erich Schiffman's description of savasana (he writes shavasana) in his book, Moving into Stillness. I have extract parts of his guided savasana that might help you consciously relax for you to try below (see pp297-299 of his book).   You can read more from Erich's book at:  http://www.movingintostillness.com/index.html 

• Start in comfortable lying. 
• Relax.  It feels like melting.  Do this by scanning your awareness around and through your body--the space inside your body and the space around your body--alert to where there is unnecessary contraction, discomfort, tension, or excessive energy.  Let go of every hint of holding on.
• Start at your hands.  Rest your awareness in the area of your hands: the palms, thumbs, fingers, the space between your fingers, the fingertips, fingernails, the back of your hands, the wrists, the space inside your hands, and the space around your hands.  Forget about what they look like, what you remember they look like, and instead immerse your awareness in the way they actually feel to you now.  Go into your hands and feel them.  Gradually, you may begin to sense heat or warmth, then a pleasant, tingling, electricity-like sensation.  Feel the energy in your hands.
• As your hands relax, feel them expanding.  Feel them becoming less dense, less thick, less contracted--more spacious inside, more comfortable.  Feel this happening and let them expand without limit.  Notice how as they relax and expand, hands aren't there. as though there's just wide open tingling space where your hands once were.  Enjoy the way this feels.
• All this new sense of expanded and tingling openness to flow upward through your arms at its own leisurely pace, until your hands, arms, and shoulders feel tension-free, transparent, clear.  
• Direct your attention to your fee.  Go into your fee and feel them.  Relax the sole of each foot, relax the arches, relax the spaces between the toes, the top of each foot, the ankles, the heels, the space inside your feet, and the space around your feet.  Feel the energy in your feet.  Again, forget about what they look like, what you remember they look like, and instead immerse your conscious awareness in the way they actually feel.
• When the tingling sensation in your feet becomes established in your awareness as with your arms, now allow it to flow slowly upward through your legs, horse, and head--until your whole body is experiencing this pleasurable tingling vibration. 
• Savor the way your legs feel: the ankles, calves, shinbones, knees, thighs, inner thighs, back of thighs, all the way up into the hips, pelvis, genitals, and buttocks.  Feel the energy in your your legs and pelvis, feel the space around your legs, and allow your awareness to roam through this whole area at its own comfortable pace.  Again, enjoy the way this feels, and allow yourself to be intrigued with your actual now-experience.  Forget about what your legs look like, and instead experience yourself and body as you actually are.  Experience your legs becoming transparent and clear.
• Relax your abdomen and belly, and let your breathing be normal, free, unrestricted.  Feel your belly rise and fall with each breath, and experience how this gentle, continuous movement ripples through your whole body and can be felt everywhere.  Ride the breath.  Stay aware of your breathing.  Savour the air on both the inhale and exhale. 
• Keep bringing your awareness slowly upward through your torso, and let the movement of your breathing relax your lower back, diaphragm, ribs, chest, heart.  let this whole area relax, expand, and become tension-free.  Release every hint of holding on.  Let go completely. 
• Relax your neck, throat, face, and head.  Relax your moth, the corners of your moth, the lips, the jaw.  Relax your nose, your cheeks, your ears. the back of your head, the scalp, your forehead, your eyebrows, and especially your eyes.  Relax the muscles around the eyes, the muscles deep in the eye sockets, the inner corner of each eye, the outer corner, the space between the eyes, the eyelids, eyelashes, the eyeballs themselves, the pupils.  Be intimately aware of this whole area.  Soften every tension you come upon, even little ones, even just a little.  Relax areas that do not feel tense too. Relax everywhere, letting your eyes fall backward away from the eyelids. Let go of all the usual tensions that feel like you.  Feel the energy in your face.  Glow.  
• Feel the space inside your body and the space around your body.  Notice that as you relax and expand, every tension evaporates, disappears.  It may even begin to feel as though your body isn't there, as though there's just wide open tingling space.  Be aware of what's happening.  You're releasing tensions, melting, and therefore expanding--everywhere.  You're deliberately letting go of all the lumps in your energy field, all the areas of compacted, held, blocked energy.  You're clarifying, purifying, washing yourself clean with awareness. Your actual now-experience of yourself is becoming, more and more, that of being less dense, less blocked or held in, less physical, in a sense, and increasingly transparent or luminous, more consciously spirit like.  Notice how comfortable you are, how awake and at ease, unusual perhaps at first, but normal, familiar.  it feels good to let yourself be this open.  Enjoy the way you feel. 
• Continue releasing tensions until there are non left, until you feel wide open like the sky.  This spacious, conscious comfortableness is known as the "sky of mind", or pure conscious awareness, and relaxing into yourself like this is how you can consciously experience your unity with infinity.  Become thoroughly familiar with what it feels like to be this open, relaxed, fearless, and undefended.  Feel the peace of stillness.  
• As you relax you will expand. You will begin to feel big, huge, spacious.  Pretty soon it will feel as though you--as awareness--are infinite; infinite in the sense of not finite, not limited, not what you thought you were, not body, only that you can't actually sent a limit or stopping point to where your consciousness is, to where you are--and that you are therefore not body only, nor body with mind, but the space, mind, or awareness in which everything you are aware of is happening.  You real body, therefore, is mental.  The sound of that airplane or barking dog for example is happening within your awareness.  Even your experience of having a body is happening within awareness.  Everything you are aware of is happening within your awareness.  And therefore, and this is the point, you are the Awareness in which everything is happening.  You are Awareness being specifically aware.  You are that big. You are infinite and specific, both at the same time.  Relax inside, expand, forget about yourself as body, and stay with your actual now-experience.  Experience yourself as huge, spacious, without limit, infinite.  Experience the peace of infinite Being.
• Continue to relax, feel, and pay attention to see what happens.  
• Stay for five to twenty minutes.  When you have had enough you will know. At that point, ready yourself and open your eyes.  Just before opening your eyes, be aware of how relaxed you are, how peaceful, how at ease, and then open your eyes without disturbing your peace, without shrinking or tightening up.  Stay relaxed, spacious, undefended, and wide open, and be like a child who is seeing the world for the very first time.  Look at things without being quite so sure what everything means.  Enjoy this awareness.  Then roll to your side, linger there a few moments, and come to a seated pose. 

Happy relaxing!

15 Minute Sequence To Build Arm Strength

I always admired Linda Hamilton's chin ups in Terminator 2.  When I was ten I could do chin ups myself thanks to my father who took me running and then to some monkey bars and got me to practice.  When I was about thirty I tried again and couldn't manage one.  But then again I used to do handstands without fear when I was ten too.  (I am not trying to create a link between your chin up capability and handstands although there probably is one.)

In any case, a certain amount of arm strength is required in yoga practice.  And I am talking about the entire arm from the fingers up through the wrists, across the elbows, shoulders, and into the shoulder blades.  For those of you who come to my classes you will note I count our arms as attaching to our waists (see monkey arms blog post) and so developing strength around your back and side waist mucles is part of arm strengthening for me. 

You don't need gorilla arms or body builder arms to practice yoga.  Yogic strength tends to be lithe and graceful rather than bulky. The 15 minute sequence I created (see clip above) should help you get some of the strength you need.  If you are very new to yoga and not used to bearing weight through your hands it is probably going to be too tough for you--mainly because your hands are likely not working effectively yet and you will be bearing weight through the wrists rather than evenly through the entire hands.  In this case it is best to maybe gradually build up to being about to holding downward dog for a few minutes without the feeling of pressure through the wrists and come back to this sequence when you are ready. Don't forget to read my previous post on using your hands effectively to take weight off the wrists as well. 

Even if you are a bit more experienced, you still might find this sequence a little tiring.  If that is the case, split it up or take more rests.  You can always take knee options as well.

Your practice should always be mindful but things to watch out for in particular in this type of sequence are:

• cultivate lift through the hands so you are not sinking in the wrists
• cultivate freedom in the elbows so they are straight but not locked
• keep pressing the hands down into the floor so that you do not sag into your shoulder joints
• keep the shoulders away from the ears, especially when lowering to the floor and rising up from it

Have fun and hope you enjoy the sequence.

Namaste
 

Class Lowdown

I thought I'd give a quick rundown of classes at the moment.

We started our new Wednesday morning class.  It is beautiful to be up on the roof so early.  One week a monkey even dropped by to see what we were doing.  He took off light a rocket when we noticed him and disappeared into the jungles of Colombo 5 with a raucous group of crows in hot pursuit (I know it is a murder of crows but, really, they are very intelligent and, I think, much maligned and I am not quite happy calling them by such an unsavoury collective noun). 

The problem for many, of course is getting up early to realise how beautiful it is to be awake and present as the world around us wakes up.  Normally I might have a problem getting up so early since I work full-time, teach nearly every night, and find I need a good night's sleep, but I have been waking up in anticipation of this class each week and thoroughly enjoyed our sessions. 

These classes are tough.  You will sweat.  A lot.  Bring a towel and some water and hope for a breeze!  Even though the class is very challenging it should leave you feeling energised throughout the day. 

We have also started a new Thursday class, with the new sequence focusing on core awareness strengthening.  I am not a great fan of sit-ups and crunches and so I have tried to make this class interesting and fun so that we can find our core strength in a variety of different postures.  What I have noticed for myself after this class, and as Tilak (husband) pointed out after last week's class, is that the entire class is the perfect preparation for strong and stable handstands.  So, if you feel like springing into a handstand or two after class, feel free!!

Saturday classes have been growing, although last week we had a nice private session with just the three of us.  Normally Saturdays are pretty small though so they are the perfect opportunity for you to come to class with some suggestions about things you would like to do for yourself.  I am always happy to develop sequences based on your suggestions.  After all, it is your class!

We have had a whole lot of yoga first-timers coming on Fridays so if you are reading this and still sitting on the fence about joining a class because you are new then now is a great time to join up with others in a similar situation.  Having said this, anyone can join the Friday class at any time so please don't be shy.

I'd like to get back into some good strong flow sequences on Monday nights.  In this weather it means you are going to get hot.  So please remember to bring some water and a towel unless you want to be dripping all over your yoga mat. 

Anyway, hope you are all well and hope to see you in class soon.

Yoga Retreat in June at Talalla 1-4 June 2012

RETREAT NEWS

I am really happy to say that I am organising a yoga retreat weekend in Talalla over the first weekend in June, which happens to have a Monday as poya day.  This is going to be an extra special retreat over three days with 5 yoga classes.  Anyone who is interested in getting away for a weekend of yoga is free to come. I know there are some families out there who enjoy yoga and you are free to bring along the kids as there are lots of things to do (even a bit of yoga if they are interested). 

Talalla Retreat is a dedicated yoga retreat and a lovely place to do yoga, swim in the sea or the pool, and relax.  You can check it out at http://www.talallaretreat.com/  If you have never been on a retreat before this is the perfect place to start!

Yoga Classes
Each yoga class will be two hours.  Don't worry--you will be able to do it!  This will include some simple meditation, pranayama (breathing), the asanas--including a nice long savasana at the end.  There is a lot of grass around so I expect we can start to practice some inversions (if you want to) outside as well.

Prices
Prices include all taxes, 5 yoga classes, 3 nights accommodation, and brunch and dinner.

Triple = Rs22,000 per person
Double = Rs26,000 per person
Single = Rs35,000 per person

Timetable
The retreat will start with arrivals on Friday night and finish after class and brunch on Monday morning. 

Arrive Friday night 1st June for dinner.  Relax!

2nd June Sat 7-9am  - yoga followed by big brunch
FREE TIME
2nd June Sat 4-6pm - yoga followed by dinner

3rd June Sun 7-9am - yoga followed by big brunch
FREE TIME
3rd June Sun 4-6pm - yoga followed by dinner

4th June Mon 7-9am - yoga followed by brunch
CHECKOUT

Booking
We need to book and pay in advance to confirm.  Talalla is quite a busy international yoga retreat with lots of bookings so we need to confirm soon.  This retreat requires a minimum of ten people to go ahead but it is such a great place I don't think we will have a problem.  Please reserve your place by sending me a message and paying to confirm. We need to pay by the middle of next week to have our booking confirmed.  If you cannot make it you will need to find a person to replace you.  Please feel free to pass this on to friends!