Yogic tip for today

In the backbends, there is a tendency for most people to open their mouths, unconsciously. This may be done to ease the intensity of the stretch along the neck and back. But however, it wastes your pose somewhat since that intensity is where the beauty and strenght of the pose is. Also, the entire jawline is lined with acupressure points that are anti-aging and health providing. So, that stretch creates the acupressure massage at all those points. 

Lady Gaga does yoga!

Something about the yoga mat seems to bring out the exhibitionist in some people, especially women( a yoga mat is the ideal place for boob-butt show. Beats the bikini or beach any day!! I have some rather lovable students who are inclined that way too!!) and for somebody like lady Gaga, then the exhibitionism must be outre, to outdo any other woman around about a million miles away!:)   This is the celeb at Taipei's Pure Yoga studio, wearing  a c tru netty thingie, with gold and bling and spikes and stuff.  I like the mat best:) 

I am sure she was very  focused on the mat .Most celebs are that way. I wonder about the guy behind her, I mean:  if he could do his sadhana well or at all that day!!

And apparently even after a 90-minute concert (with 30 costume changes) she landed up at a yoga studio at Capitol Hill for a noon class. It shows why REAL  celebs (not your reality show monsters) make the sort of money they do: DISCIPLINE!! I admire that about them...

Tweets, from a master

... BKS Iyengar on what a pose should be, and what yoga must be, here

Today's yogic tip

Dandasana, so simple yet powerful. Can boost digestion. Tone your kidneys (they are also involved with the release of an hormone to promote blood circulation). Prevent lower back pain (though you may start off by using a cushion at/below your hips).

Dandasana: the simple, tough pose of Guru principle

(This image is of B.K.S. Iyengar, from his book Light on Yoga)

The book Myth of the Asanas lists some stories with this pose. I did not see the connection with the stories or the pose, strangely. The authors also felt that this pose is where the student prostrates before the teacher. Again, I disagree simply because I cannot imagine out here, in India, we would place our feet out towards a teacher in that fashion. It would seem highly disrespectful. One link which the authors made, but bypassed gently because I realise the concept of a firm teacher who wields the stick may be a bit difficult in that part of the world, is the Guru principle. I myself see this pose as one which shows the Guru can be a tough one, like the teacher who wields the stick. In fact, in one of the chakras the various lingams in the center of the lotus petals has one of Shiva as the Guru who rocks you out of your lethargy towards the ultimate goal. That stick that needs to be used firmly:) So, it may be explained why this pose is a rather tough one, despite its seeeming simplicity. I see even my advanced students struggle with it. The duration, the structure and form of the pose, can all give immense trouble. The breath feels rough, the shoulders drop or roll up, the spine may curve, stomach may poop out... all throwing into stark reality the extent of postural corrections, respiratory adjustments one may still need to develop, on the mat.
For me, that is why this is a rather exciting pose. I recall when I wrote to Prahlada once about my student woes, he advised me that a teacher had to be both firm or gentle, not fearful about using the `stick' to get a good student out of his/her comfort zone!! These days I reserve that attitude to the best of the students. The rest, they come and go...

CHAKRAS AND THE DANDASANA

Each representation of Shiva lingam is said to be a mystical understanding of the state of your progress. In the first mooladhara chakra, according to Harish Johari, the lingam is svyambhu (self-created). In the fourth chakra it becomes the bana lingam where it turns into the Guru priniciple, the one who guides. This pose, I believe, is how you know. Because Johari says, the heart beat rate, the way you feel, is an indication of your progress in your sadhana!!

Tomorrow the story of bana lingam, and why it is the guru priniciple /manifestation of Shiva. 

Daily health Gyan

If u search for betel nut leaf, depending on the location of the source, it seems to be intriguingly  a bad or good thing. Most westerners see it as a bad habit (red stain on the teeth, cancer of the mouth/ cheeks where the chewing is addictive and long-term) though the Indian naturopaths  have a gentle, benevolent attitude towards it:) Any case, in its moderation, as is still used largely( except where these fellows chew and spit all over the platform, your compound wall, or on the road:(, it seems to be a good thing (the key word seems to be moderation). Mild aphrodisiac, stimulant, anti-inflammatory, cooling effect on the nervous system, with a lot of minerals, including feel good ones Vitamin Bs and C. An alkaloid in it has a somewhat similar properties to cocaine! No wonder it is addictive. I found that these dry fruit-mittai stores sell prepacked mitta ones... a nice chew after food... soothes your stomach, is a diuretic, plus removes constipation, helps with digestion...

What each type of pose does to you ...

.. am working on an instructor's manual now.. and am excited to return to the basics and rediscover more about each pose... And also to realise how little I actually know about such a vast science...

                                            (Dharma Mittra's famous yoga chart)


Am revisiting Dharma Mittra's rather daunting book " Asanas: 608 poses", and finding more stuff on what each pose means ..below his words..And his  book is a great buy, and must-have for instructors:)

• If you feel yourself closed to someone/or some experience a backbend will open ur chest as well as your heart. 
• If you are shy, backbends will help you greet the world with more confidence.
• Standing tall and firm in Tadasana gives you the steadiness and foundation of a mountain. 
• Inversions: sometimes it's good to turn your world upside down. 
• Forward bends are generally comfortable poses in which the mind becomes quiet and the nervous system cools. 
• Arm balance requires a great deal of strength and an extra dose of tapas. (which he defines as involving faith, fortitude, determination, angry determination -- the last one, in a positive sense). 

Daily Health Gyan

Keep the dinner light, says Dharma Mittra (In his book Asanas: 608 poses). If you have a heavy/late dinner, `with food in it the body is occupied with digestion so you wake up more tired than when you went to sleep.'

Today's yogic tip

From Dharma Mittra (of the famous 608 asana chart ).
He says that for any yoga practitioner there are eight basic asanas which can be used to maintain basic health: are headstand, shoulderstand, cobra, forward bend, spinal twist, maha mudra (though the Bihar school suggests this is not for everybody!), siddhasana... and lotus..

He calls Siddhasana (otherwise translated to be the pose of the Achieved one/one who attained siddhis) the easy lotus!! It is rather a tough one,I think. I only can negotiate it, but find the bone contact rather painful! So obviously we all have to keep on growwwing!!

Yoga teacher-student

.. what Dharma Mittra says.. as my tweets, after a looong time tweeting, six quotes on the student-teacher thing.
Earlier, I should have a self-righteous attitude about `casual' yoga teachers/teaching (usually teachers who do not practice and spout theory over experience or practice) . But these days, I don't sweat such small stuff:) I mean, everybody gets the yoga they deserve... I am grateful if I get a student with the spark of yoga in them... the space a teacher-student shares is a shared space of growing, so as I see students come and go, I have lost the sense of restlessness I used to feel when they go ...

One-legged squat: Utkasana, advanced variation

I must confess that I neglect squats a lot. That may be because even the Sivananda sequence does not have it as a main feature. Plus, it calls for more stamina than other poses. Often, u can only lead students up to a certain level, unless u are in an ashram set-up, where over a few weeks, you can crack through all the resistance, lack of practice, slackness etc. So, squats are difficult for a teacher  in a lazy city like Mumbai  to introduce unless students are regular, or do  daily practice with you. Even though I still do squats (Natraj standing version, and some basic ones and dynamic ones, including the advanced drutautkatasana)  still I am not able to hold my students longer in this.. That may be because even though squats per se do not come with contraindications  in the text book, theory part of it, in practice (and especially if done wrong), they can hurt the knees and lower back initially. 

In fact, holding squats for longer is far tougher than doing the headstand!! 

Above u see me do a malasana utkatasana variation  .. Dharma Mittra, from whose book I decided to try it, calls it a version of the Sage Marichay(Marichayasana) pose. 


This one was very exciting, at first attempt, simply because it combines the challenges of three poses: Forward bend  (if you hold your feet) in the dandasana variation; a full squat ( from the druta utkatasana) and of course, the exciting balancing bit (almost a boat!). 

The trick would be to hold it long. But yes, the leg will shake, u will feel this or that... but a squat is a power pose. No wonder a lot of martial arts (kalari, muay thai of which I know a bit) uses squats to power the hips from which the kicks emerge! 
Happy sadhana!!

 

Today's yogic tip

Pranayama is the `purifying' fire of yogic practices. It transforms. Just as fire has to be muted to do this, and cannot be dim or blaze forth, pranayama practice also, to help transform you, be moderate. My own experience has been that you must to be loyal to two/three practices for years before thinking of tinkering with either the ratio to elevated highs, or introduce new practices.

Daily Health Gyan

Arms hurt when you are in the midst of holding on to your loved one, or having to let go!! Louise L. Hayes says

Today's yogic tip

To grow in the headstand, u simply must invest in the leg raises. There is a connection. esp the head up variation, that helps the shoulder muscles become stronger and help support your headstand...

Daily Health Gyan

If I hear a rickshawallah sneezing with cold, usually, since I am from Mumbai and such familiarity or conversation would not unleash unwarranted attention from the rickshawallah, I would advice him to pop vitamin C pills! For me, this is a miracle vitamin, and I use it quite generously (at 500 mg twice daily) as a necessary pill that I don't mind popping ... especially since with my Muay Thai I invite and get injured profusely, all over. Always there is a bone that has been slammed too hard, or dark bruises on thighs or some joint that has, inadvertently hit my rock-hard trainer and shrivels with pain! Just now, from punching, my wrist joint has a nice swelling that is coming from within the bone. We call it conditioning!! It is a mad place, real kick-boxing,  so I need an extra prop from some healing stuff since my eating habits are too sparse to help me there:) So, I have popped vitamin C without the usual squirmishness that I feel for other pills. Also, vitamin C is a safe one, and excess of it is excreted by the body, so you do not overdose it to toxic levels, as you would do with other vitamins, including A...
There is a huge cult-following for this vitamin C. Norman Cousins, best-selling alternative therapist who healed himself of a deadly illness, used this vitamin and laughter to get out of that near-death sickness (Read Anatomy of an Illness, for further wisdom:)