Category Archives: Yoga

April 15, 2011 · 5:43 pm

Grieving on the Mat

One doesn’t come to the yoga mat in order to grieve, but grieving is a whole body experience.  So, if grief is what’s happening now, then it’s going to be there in every breath, thought, emotion and movement of your practice.  Grief has a way of moving in with you, taking over your inner household in a more permanent way than most other experiences do.  As it sidles up next to you, it can be almost comforting while it takes the place of the one that is lost or dead or gone.

So, do not expect that you can show up for your yoga or meditation practice alone when grief is in abundance.  But know that you can share the experience.   Grief can be the cushion on which you sit or the partner that helps support you in tree pose.  Imagine that grief is what fills in the empty space left by the one who is gone; it’s what allows you to take the next step in appreciating and understanding the loss.  It’s there when you’re crying or cursing or focusing on your practice.

How would it be then to bring awareness to the changes you notice in your body and breath as you move through your practice?  Notice what’s different – where there is heaviness or perhaps unexpected lightness.  See how muscles hold on – where there’s grasping so tight that it seems as if there will never be letting go.  In the passing thoughts and waves of emotion that move to the foreground and then recede, bring attention to how being in the moment supports the whole of you in your practice .  Notice feelings of fullness and shifts into emptiness, and then, bring awareness to the fact that nothing remains the same.   Ever.

Know that grief may move through you.   Doesn’t it make sense to acknowledge that you bring it with you onto your mat?   Your body and your breath are the vehicles for moving grief through your cells,  and your practice can be what helps shape your experience of loss.  There is something wonderful in accepting that you have choices with grieving as you do in other aspects of life.  You may choose to sink under its weight or you may choose to welcome it as the partner it can be in supporting you to move forward.  You might even be able to do both at the same time – as in  those postures that require the balance of opposing energies…

This post is dedicated to Karen Hasskarl who left her family and friends on April 9, 2011.

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March 29, 2011 · 12:37 pm

Movement on the Mat

Amazing to consider how movement begins – how it is to be at the point where your body extends the “you” that is inside and takes it out into the world by shifting some physical part of you.  I wonder how much our movement follows intention and how much it supports our intention of being in the world when we begin to move into and out of yoga postures on the mat.  How different are these movements than the ones we do when off the mat?  How much more attention is involved in beginning movement on your yoga mat?

Do you decide ahead of time how to move – what posture to do?  Is there a sequence to follow?  Is it familiar and routine?  Is there an ideal of what the movement looks like or feels like?  Does it feel like stepping onto your mat or sitting in lotus is where you begin moving, or is that something like a prelude to movement?  Does it matter?

Perhaps it matters only in the level of awareness brought to beginning movement and appreciating what moves you to move.  What might it be like to allow the emergence of movement in whatever way it shows up at that moment on the mat?  What does that look like?   Do you begin with small motions and low energy, in a way that you honor the process of beginning?  Perhaps you start with warm-ups, creating heat and then sparking fire.   Imagine jumping onto the mat and throwing yourself into big energetic movements right away.  How would that serve as a beginning?

Or is there a settling down of energy that happens when you step onto the mat?  Moving into stillness and allowing movement to emerge from there.  The energy that drives your movement can be subtle or consuming, and it can also be drawn from that expansive range in between.  Beginning motion on the yoga mat can serve this energy in different ways.  Sometimes moving might be about creating more energy, and, at other times, it may be in service of controlling or managing the energy that’s there.

For sure, there are shifts of energy in motion throughout your practice.  I’m suggesting that there’s a flow in your movement on the mat – moment to moment – from beginning to middle to end.  I don’t mean in terms of a vinyasa flow or choreographed movement, but motion that has the energy of a wave.  You may not always be aware of exactly where and how it begins, but somethings shifts when you begin moving on your mat.

So the next time you begin your yoga practice, consider these questions – What happens to the “me” when I bring my full awareness to moving my breath and body on the mat?   Am I the mover or am “I” what’s moved?

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March 10, 2011 · 11:39 am

Centering

I imagine that Centering is a process that means something different to everyone.    Do you begin your practice of yoga  with a Centering?  If you do, what is it like?  If you don’t, imagine what it might be like.

Consider these two options:  A Centering where you are checking in with the different aspects of yourself to see what’s happening in the moment and another Centering where you are trying to bring all of you together to experience yourself in a more grounded place.  One is about noticing, not trying to change, not bringing in judgment, just allowing.  The other requires more  intention, though it may also ask you to notice and allow it to happen, but essentially requires you to work with what you notice, to make some changes, maybe let some things go.  I am drawn to say the second demands more effort – though perhaps not necessarily so.

The first option is difficult enough if you really check in and allow without judgment whatever is happening for you in that moment.  How is it to notice how you are breathing, what parts of your body are speaking to you and what parts are quiet?  What is it like to acknowledge what emotions are up for you, both big and small, consuming or not?  What happens when you open up to thoughts and images that are taking up space in your mind, and how do you not get caught up in the story?  And, finally, what does it even mean to look at what might be present for you in that space beyond your body-mind, that connection to whatever might be bigger and more encompassing?  Okay, it is a lot to take in.  Thankfully we all have filters, so we’re not continually overwhelmed by what’s happening now.   I recall the story of the millipede who stopped to consider how he was able to walk with all his thousand legs and feet and then finds that he can’t take another step!

Perhaps this is where the other Centering process steps in – where the work of centering really happens.  This is where you bring it all together, just as it is.  (And try not to think about who it is that’s doing this, just appreciate that it happens.)  Accept that what you’ve noticed is all right here, right now – knowing that to be all that you are in that moment, the present moment, is the most centered you can ever be…

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March 4, 2011 · 11:15 pm

The Still Point

Consider that your yoga practice always begins from a still point.  It may be a nanosecond of stillness, but there is that pause where you are about to begin.  It may just be the equivalent of a long breath in and a longer exhale.

But where is that point – really?  Is it inside some part of you?  Is it in your body, mind or emotions?  Or perhaps in that connection to the spiritual or however you  choose to see what that may be for you.   It could just be that part of you that knows you really well.  The part that knows why you’re there on the mat and what you bring and what you want to take away.  In your core – you know, the part that is often the object of strengthening efforts.  Yes, the part that doesn’t look like it did some years ago or, anyway, not the same as the picture in your mind of what it should look like.  But, I digress…

Perhaps asking what the still point is might be the better question.    Is it a point that we create when stepping onto the mat or one that’s always there but hidden sometimes.  Is it something to look for or does it just show up?  What does it look like?  How does it show up?  Is it an absence of movement?  I think not – because your heart is still beating,  blood is still flowing and you are still breathing.  Movement is happening, not stillness.  So, is it the mind that stills itself as you begin?  Wonder how many of us would never begin if waiting for the mind to be still before we start!  I’m not certain at all that it’s an absence of movement, thought or even emotions.

Suppose the still point were an abundance – an overflow of connection with a stillness bigger than yourself.  And that is what you tap into as you begin your yoga practice.  Like the pause between in breath and out breath – it needn’t be very long or full, or have other identifying qualities, but it is there none the less.  Feels in some way like a coming together, a gathering up, so to speak, and then opening out to take the next step.

Or, perhaps the whole point is about you, the whole of you, becoming that still point by the end of the practice…

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February 11, 2011 · 10:21 pm

What You Bring With You and What You Take Away

Not the obvious, but  suppose you were to bring nothing to your yoga practice – or, actually, no “thing.”   Might you be able to show up having examined what’s necessary for you to begin?  I’m wondering if you really need more than a willingness to participate fully…

Certainly, you bring experience, but while that may add to your level of confidence, it may have little to do with where you are in the moment that you are beginning your practice.   You may also bring knowledge, stored inside, from earlier yoga classes or studies – knowing the postures, pranayama, mudras, alignment and more.  My image of what you may bring could fill backpacks and suitcases and feels like way too much to bring with you.  Requires heavy lifting!  How to leave them aside so that you can show up as if this is the beginning – as if this is the first, the last or the only practice you are doing.  Just this one practice – right here, right now.

But there’s more!  You also bring your stories, in your mind and in your body.  Beliefs about yourself and also what they mean for what you can do or who you can be on your yoga mat.  These backpacks and suitcase can be heavier than the experiential ones, and we often carry them around with us for a lot longer than we even realize.  Of course, they may be true, or have been true at one time, or perhaps not really true but of service to our ability to move forward and negotiate the world.

I wonder how en-lightening it can be to set these things aside – welcoming new experiences and the possibility of different stories.  How would it be to discover what’s new for you (or what has always been there underneath the surface of the familiar stories, knowledge and experience).  Consider what you might want to take away and whether that means you may have to give up some of what you brought with you.  Might even lead to change…

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February 7, 2011 · 1:15 am

Edge of Your Mat

An unusual perspective perhaps.   But consider that the boundaries of your yoga practice may be directly related to the edges of your yoga mat.  This is what I mean – there is the “you” that lives off the mat, and then there is the “you” that steps onto the mat.  Are they the same?   It may be that there are qualities that you carry with you that you leave behind when  you step onto your mat and begin your practice.  Or, perhaps, there are qualities that you are able to access on the mat that have a way of shifting out of sight when your practice is done and you step off the mat. Have you noticed how that might be?

Suppose you look at how yoga shows up in your day-to-day life.  Off the mat, I imagine the question of how you live your yoga might help identify how you are in life.  Consider how you maintain focus during the day, how you pay attention to your breath and what’s happening in your body as you move from one hour to the next.   Present moment awareness is often not so easy to access throughout the comings and goings of the day’s events.  So, how is it possible to do this during your yoga practice?

Ah, yes… the room is quiet, the demands of the day set aside, your phone and computer turned off.  You’ve made an appointment with yourself and a conscious decision to step onto your mat.   Sounds simple – but how to bring more of this kind of awareness with you when you step off?  It’s not the calm or the delicious feeling at the end of shavasana that I’m talking about; it’s more than that.  It may be the grounded sense that comes from being fully focused on the present moment as it is accessed through your body.  In other words, the authentic you that is paying attention to what’s happening now – not involved with what’s happened yesterday or what might happen tomorrow.

Are these then qualities that can move off the mat with you and be there again before you step onto your mat?    I wonder how it might be to make spontaneous appointments with yourself and create this awareness throughout the day…

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February 3, 2011 · 9:59 pm

Letting Go Expectations

Sounds a bit wishy-washy, doesn’t it?  What would that even look like – to show up on your yoga mat with no expectations?  I admit that I don’t know.   I imagine that, even when you think you have none, there are some lurking underneath the surface.  I suspect that the real question to ask is,  “What is your relationship with those expectations?”

Do they rule you?  Or is it the other way round?  And, if you say neither, it can’t be true.  Expectations, by definition, set the stage for judgments to set up camp along every step of the way.  They open the door for evaluating what you do, comparing what’s happening now with what you expected.  Of course, there may be times when this attitude may well serve you.  Perhaps it helps move you forward.  And then, depending on how loud the judging voice is, it might just keep you in a stuck place or even send you down the rabbit hole.

What might it be like to interrupt the setting up of expectations, inserting awareness to bracket them as they arise?  No matter if they seem attainable and positive or if they are negative and drain your energy.    They are simply ideas that you have, albeit ones with the potential for becoming beliefs.

Awareness allows you to recognize them for what they are and proceed in a neutral way – keeping open to the moment or to the task-at-hand.  Like having a foot in the door, awareness lets expectations move through to another room, out of the way of what you are doing right now.   And if you wish to let them back in later, that’s okay.  Awareness can just keep them from getting in the way of you being absolutely fully present to this moment; right here, right now.

Got it?  And, of course, you know this isn’t just about how you show up for yoga…

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February 2, 2011 · 7:47 pm

Inviting Intention

Consider how you, or anyone else, arrives on his/her yoga mat?  What are the forces that enable the next step of unrolling the mat and showing up?  I suspect, of course, the answers to be many and varied, though at the core is there not an intention? And that intention would probably have something to do with supporting yourself.

Unlikely that you would show up hoping for some negative effect, however, I’m not certain that there needs to be a hoped-for effect at all.  There are so many reasons to practice yoga, from increasing flexibility to calming emotions, and  invitations abound as yoga increases in popularity among the general culture.  Often these reasons feel as if rooted in advertising and marketing – not that they are not valid – but what else might there be?

Returning to the idea of supporting yourself – how might that translate into everyday language?  It might have to do with improving or changing some aspect of your body or ability.  It could also mean creating space to check in with yourself on another level, meaning besides what’s evident in your day-to-day consciousness.    Perhaps just wanting to understand a bit more about what’s happening now with you and your body, and maybe noticing other aspects of your life that just might surface during this yoga practice.  So it could potentially be many desires that determine how you choose to meet your practice this time; and maybe it’s not a desire at all, but an interest in just being and exploring.

Whatever it is, beginning your yoga practice with intention seems like a way set a direction or determine an attitude – at least for the start of the practice.  It may morph into something else entirely by the time you are finished.  Deliberately setting an intention, or recognizing the one you have, is about a readiness to begin.  Actually you’ve already begun; you have just taken the next step…

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February 1, 2011 · 7:36 pm

Greetings!

This blog is offered in service to those involved in the giving, receiving, training and future of Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy.  It is begun with the intention of keeping the door open to the essence of this work.

Take a moment to look again at the title:

YOGA – Many have some idea, but some may find themselves hanging on to only one limb, when there are, in fact, eight limbs of yoga available to support them.

THERAPY – An encounter with Wikipedia reveals the “attempted remediation of a health problem.”  Then “remediation” referred to “remedy” – defined as a “treatment that relieves or cures a disease.”  Consider what might be the dis-ease for which yoga may offer a relief or cure.  Leaving that for you to ponder…

EXPERIENCE – Well, it’s pretty much what’s happening now for you, isn’t it?  Or, in other words, it refers to all that you are taking in through your senses, your body, your emotions, your thoughts, and, perhaps, that sense of something beyond your immediate self – whatever that might be.  The point being that it’s bigger than what you hold in your mind or in some part of your body!

So…Has your curiosity been peaked?  If so, it’s worth remembering that one doesn’t need a diagnosis in order to benefit from Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy – unless “Curiosity” is a diagnosis.  Who knows, it may well be…

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