Sorry for my horrible humor, but that was the first thing that came to my mind when my practice was over and it stuck for a few hours before writing this post.
Ashtanga yoga was really cool. I don't know how to say that professionally about a physical practice. Ashtanga yoga was an empowering act of physically demanding poses that required a lot of focus and understanding and overcoming your own body was a true experience? I guess that was more professional. But it's not a lie. I enjoyed this practice more than any of the others I have seen in my entire one and a half month yoga career. (If any true yogis see this one day please know that that comment is satire.)
Something about ashtanga stood out to me. The idea of series and advancement really caught my attention. That there are specific positions you do everyday at the request of your guru, and only when you are truly ready to move on you will. There is a structure and ritual to ashtanga, much like every other yoga type. There are repeating postures, each time flowing a little more perfectly than the next. You must continue to repeat these postures until your body, mind, breathing, and energy are in a perfect sync. Our instructor said that some people will be on sequence 1 their entire life. BUT IT'S A GOAL. It is a true goal with true rewards and true challenges.
The only thing I didn't like was the rolling of my back in order to touch my toes. In my recent posts, I have made comments that I truly believe my lumbar vertebrae are all fused together because my lower back is that inflexible. My usual instructor instructed me why this happens and how to fix it. Great! I was so excited to use this advice during my practice today. But rather than strengthening my core, bending from my hips, and slightly bending my legs so I could get the perfect forward fold where it mattered (in my 2 inch long spinal cord), I was told to straighten my feet and only go as far as I can. That's exactly what I was doing before! That was what I was doing wrong! This was a little discouraging as I tried to sit each pose to work with my body while still following Laurie's instruction.
I had fun, though, don't get me wrong. Ashtanga is a beautiful practice with beautiful minds and beautiful determination. I definitely would like to learn more about this practice moving forward.
P.S. I tried doing a REAL headstand when I came home... didn't happen.
Thursday, February 22, 2018
Wednesday, February 21, 2018
Is It Considered A Ritual If I Suck At It?
Based on the article by Nevrin, How might your practice be analyzed as a "ritual"? How does this ritual function to change the nature, impact or intensity of your practice experience?
This week we're talking about ritual, not the ritual space but the actual ritual. What happens when I step on the mat.
When I practice at Yoga Nine, we start and end with Savasana, which (to me) involves laying down and gaining control of my breath. This is something that beings and ends every practice I begin. Sometimes before I go to yoga, I am not mentally prepared. Sometimes, I'd rather curl underneath my blanket and sleep in... but I go. This few minutes of relaxation allows myself to get out of my head and focus into the rest of my body. This prepares me for my practice
It is also important to notice that the first 2 or 3 poses are done in repetition. This is done to open that specific body region that will be focused on during the practice.
We then do a series. We repeat some poses in a sequence around 3 times. The first time the pose is extremely hard and I am usually in pain. I adjust.. or am adjusted accordingly. The second time, I notice my mistakes and work on them in the posture. By the third rotation, I get a huge grin on my face when my instructor yells "Yes! That's it!". This pose repetition makes me work harder each time. I'm new at yoga, and sometimes I don't know the exact directions that are being yelled out in front of the class. I look to other people for guidance. By the end of the third rotation through posters I remember what I am supposed to do and how my body is.
I guess what you can conclude from my rambling is this: my ritual is repetition. Sometimes my ritual makes me feel weak because I know I cannot do a full downwards dog or I am the only person in the room who takes a sip of water. But my ritual is mine. My ritual makes me stronger. Everyone's practice is different because we all facing our practice in different bodies.
I sweat during my practice. A sign that my body is working too hard. Perhaps my body needs to work harder now in order to work more efficiently later.
This week we're talking about ritual, not the ritual space but the actual ritual. What happens when I step on the mat.
When I practice at Yoga Nine, we start and end with Savasana, which (to me) involves laying down and gaining control of my breath. This is something that beings and ends every practice I begin. Sometimes before I go to yoga, I am not mentally prepared. Sometimes, I'd rather curl underneath my blanket and sleep in... but I go. This few minutes of relaxation allows myself to get out of my head and focus into the rest of my body. This prepares me for my practice
It is also important to notice that the first 2 or 3 poses are done in repetition. This is done to open that specific body region that will be focused on during the practice.
We then do a series. We repeat some poses in a sequence around 3 times. The first time the pose is extremely hard and I am usually in pain. I adjust.. or am adjusted accordingly. The second time, I notice my mistakes and work on them in the posture. By the third rotation, I get a huge grin on my face when my instructor yells "Yes! That's it!". This pose repetition makes me work harder each time. I'm new at yoga, and sometimes I don't know the exact directions that are being yelled out in front of the class. I look to other people for guidance. By the end of the third rotation through posters I remember what I am supposed to do and how my body is.
I guess what you can conclude from my rambling is this: my ritual is repetition. Sometimes my ritual makes me feel weak because I know I cannot do a full downwards dog or I am the only person in the room who takes a sip of water. But my ritual is mine. My ritual makes me stronger. Everyone's practice is different because we all facing our practice in different bodies.
I sweat during my practice. A sign that my body is working too hard. Perhaps my body needs to work harder now in order to work more efficiently later.
Thursday, February 15, 2018
Iyengar Yoga
Iyengar Yoga focuses on the alignment of the body during postures and the control of the breath.
Where Bikram yoga felt more as pushing your body to breathe through awkward positions and twist to "circulate blood through special organs", Iyengar really focused on where my back and my upper body were throughout each posture.
I truly tried to focus on my breathing, but breathing, posture, sides, hips, breathing again.. My mind goes everywhere when its supposed to be focused.
Iyengar seemed "normal" to me. It was a lot of stretching, sitting, lunging...
I didn't feel much pain after this class, perhaps its because I'm getting better? Or maybe it was because my torso is the size of a 5'0 woman and my legs are the size of a 5'7 woman and I can't reach my toes.
I found my breath here much easier than I did with Bikram yoga, but with Bikram yoga I received a sense of accomplishment... and then a sore lower back the next day.
It was relieving though at the same time. These past two weeks have held a lot of challenges for me. Between school and my personal life, this was two hours of peace and focus to clear my head and focus on my body for a moment in time, even if it was brief.
Where Bikram yoga felt more as pushing your body to breathe through awkward positions and twist to "circulate blood through special organs", Iyengar really focused on where my back and my upper body were throughout each posture.
I truly tried to focus on my breathing, but breathing, posture, sides, hips, breathing again.. My mind goes everywhere when its supposed to be focused.
Iyengar seemed "normal" to me. It was a lot of stretching, sitting, lunging...
I didn't feel much pain after this class, perhaps its because I'm getting better? Or maybe it was because my torso is the size of a 5'0 woman and my legs are the size of a 5'7 woman and I can't reach my toes.
I found my breath here much easier than I did with Bikram yoga, but with Bikram yoga I received a sense of accomplishment... and then a sore lower back the next day.
It was relieving though at the same time. These past two weeks have held a lot of challenges for me. Between school and my personal life, this was two hours of peace and focus to clear my head and focus on my body for a moment in time, even if it was brief.
Thursday, February 8, 2018
Raise Your Hand if You Love Bikram?!
Today was my first experience doing Bikram yoga. I have a lot of mixed feelings about it, let me explain why:
While waiting for class to start, everyone is talking about how hard it was going to be... like they really expected the instructor to hold the highest level yoga class to students who don't habitually practice yoga. There's levels to yoga, even though we think we're ready for level 2 we are still somewhere between level zero and half way to one. Everyone else becoming nervous made me nervous.
Yoga is something that no one is "just good at". In high school I got a varsity letter for everything my first try: lacrosse, cheerleading, show choir, being active wasn't a chore for me. Yoga is the first thing in my life that is physically challenging for me. I think this is why I'm so drawn to it. I go to the gym every day, but like our instructor said today, "Doing something every day no longer confuses your body, and at some point you aren't really benefiting from the exercise anymore".
Bikram offers more than a physical practice, so the instructors say. We will call our instructor Jim. Jim sat in a chair in the front of the classroom and played a yogi version of Simon Says: I say a pose and you are going to do it. Then as you are holding this pose in whatever way you are, I am gonna list all the health benefits that I am claiming that pose has, I'm gonna tell you to switch sides, and then we're going to do it again. While the flexibility in a few poses did actually open up your chest for better breathing, I was more focused on keeping balance and not falling flat on my face then I was about my breathing; which, by the way, was supposed to be "normal". What does that mean?
Anyway, the class wasn't hard... he "modified" it for us and left a few poses out. It was challenging, yes, but I think if I went to another Bikram class I would get a completely different experience. Unlike the yoga classes I have been attending, the instructor doesn't seem to care about the placement of your body. The only way I could tell if I was doing something right is if a muscle started to cramp and I released the pose. Which meant I never really knew if I was doing something right. It's frustrating listening to someone yell instruction to you and you not physically knowing what to do to correct it.
I feel as though Bikram is very physical. The stretching and rotation of certain muscles and holding a pose in a certain form releases muscle tension while toning the body. This aspect, in addition to the extreme heat, has health benefits to them; perhaps even healing benefits like instructors claim.
Who am I to judge though? This is just day 3.
While waiting for class to start, everyone is talking about how hard it was going to be... like they really expected the instructor to hold the highest level yoga class to students who don't habitually practice yoga. There's levels to yoga, even though we think we're ready for level 2 we are still somewhere between level zero and half way to one. Everyone else becoming nervous made me nervous.
Yoga is something that no one is "just good at". In high school I got a varsity letter for everything my first try: lacrosse, cheerleading, show choir, being active wasn't a chore for me. Yoga is the first thing in my life that is physically challenging for me. I think this is why I'm so drawn to it. I go to the gym every day, but like our instructor said today, "Doing something every day no longer confuses your body, and at some point you aren't really benefiting from the exercise anymore".
Bikram offers more than a physical practice, so the instructors say. We will call our instructor Jim. Jim sat in a chair in the front of the classroom and played a yogi version of Simon Says: I say a pose and you are going to do it. Then as you are holding this pose in whatever way you are, I am gonna list all the health benefits that I am claiming that pose has, I'm gonna tell you to switch sides, and then we're going to do it again. While the flexibility in a few poses did actually open up your chest for better breathing, I was more focused on keeping balance and not falling flat on my face then I was about my breathing; which, by the way, was supposed to be "normal". What does that mean?
Anyway, the class wasn't hard... he "modified" it for us and left a few poses out. It was challenging, yes, but I think if I went to another Bikram class I would get a completely different experience. Unlike the yoga classes I have been attending, the instructor doesn't seem to care about the placement of your body. The only way I could tell if I was doing something right is if a muscle started to cramp and I released the pose. Which meant I never really knew if I was doing something right. It's frustrating listening to someone yell instruction to you and you not physically knowing what to do to correct it.
I feel as though Bikram is very physical. The stretching and rotation of certain muscles and holding a pose in a certain form releases muscle tension while toning the body. This aspect, in addition to the extreme heat, has health benefits to them; perhaps even healing benefits like instructors claim.
Who am I to judge though? This is just day 3.
Sunday, February 4, 2018
A Studio as my Ritual Space
We learn that yoga is more than a physical practice. We come to understand that there is a correlation between listening to your breath and the alignment of your hips to cause this ultimate circulation (of both spirituality.. and blood?). It is important to be in a surrounding, and be surrounded by the right people to make this possible.
Professor Laurie Greene, whom I will be taking instruction from this semester both in the studio and in the classroom owns Yoga Nine in Vetnor, New Jersey.
The first time I ever did yoga was in a gym classroom... one of those rooms with the big mirror in the front. I stared myself in the eyes I watched everyone else's motions from my peripherals. I judged. I judged myself, and I judged others. I compared my flexibility to the person I saw behind me. More importantly, I relied on watching someone else's pose in order to correct my own (which I know wasn't correct either).
Professor Greene has a long slender room, that holds maybe 10 people comfortably with their mats. There are no mirrors. You cannot look at the person behind you. The windows are drawn just enough to see the opening to the beach and the sun shining through the buildings. She has several candles and other figures in the front of the room which gives me something to look at other than the butts of people in front of me. I took a space in the front of the room today. I didn't have anyone to look at. I relied on Professor Greene's direction entirely.
Something about her class that I have never seen before is that she will adjust your body to the correct position... and it hurts. I work out everyday, but yoga makes me feel weak. I truly feel that I have no control over my body sometimes. Why is this hard? I can squat double my body weight, my legs are strong. Yeah right, trying warrior poses for an hour straight and your quads will be crying like mine are.
But I'm getting better.
I think its important that this space has minimum bodies and minimum "decoration". You are not on the mat to get distracted by a painting on the wall or cars that pass by. I close my eyes during practice sometimes, but most of the time I have them open. Regardless, there's nothing to draw my attention away from my breath. Sometimes I forget to breathe the right way, but I eventually remember.
Yoga experience day 2.
Professor Laurie Greene, whom I will be taking instruction from this semester both in the studio and in the classroom owns Yoga Nine in Vetnor, New Jersey.
The first time I ever did yoga was in a gym classroom... one of those rooms with the big mirror in the front. I stared myself in the eyes I watched everyone else's motions from my peripherals. I judged. I judged myself, and I judged others. I compared my flexibility to the person I saw behind me. More importantly, I relied on watching someone else's pose in order to correct my own (which I know wasn't correct either).
Professor Greene has a long slender room, that holds maybe 10 people comfortably with their mats. There are no mirrors. You cannot look at the person behind you. The windows are drawn just enough to see the opening to the beach and the sun shining through the buildings. She has several candles and other figures in the front of the room which gives me something to look at other than the butts of people in front of me. I took a space in the front of the room today. I didn't have anyone to look at. I relied on Professor Greene's direction entirely.
Something about her class that I have never seen before is that she will adjust your body to the correct position... and it hurts. I work out everyday, but yoga makes me feel weak. I truly feel that I have no control over my body sometimes. Why is this hard? I can squat double my body weight, my legs are strong. Yeah right, trying warrior poses for an hour straight and your quads will be crying like mine are.
But I'm getting better.
I think its important that this space has minimum bodies and minimum "decoration". You are not on the mat to get distracted by a painting on the wall or cars that pass by. I close my eyes during practice sometimes, but most of the time I have them open. Regardless, there's nothing to draw my attention away from my breath. Sometimes I forget to breathe the right way, but I eventually remember.
Yoga experience day 2.
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