Hanuman is the symbol of perfect balance and also represents the bridge to the Ultimate Reality, the experience of the true Nature of your Self, and through that experience, your connection to the Universe.
Pranayama today!
We started our practice with lots of pranayama today! And before that we even did some simple breath work. This was our last class together on the retreat. This class was in honor of my teacher, Dharma Mittra, and modeled after his Maha Sadhana practice. These classes offer what Dharma calls the "best of the best", with a sampling of different yoga practices. Breaking down how you are breathing can bring into focus areas where you are creating tension and magnify things you are doing that are making it harder for you to breath. These patterns of tension and things you are doing that are inhibiting the breath need to be undone and let go of before you can make progress in your yoga practice.
Journal After Class.
Journal writing after class!
1. What are your favorite parts of your yoga practice? What parts of the practice are the easiest for you? What poses do you like? What poses are you good at doing?
2. What are the most challenging parts of your yoga practice? What are the hardest poses? What parts of the practice do you dislike the most?
3. Your teachers are the challenging parts of the practice. Your teachers are the poses you don't like. Your teachers are the poses that are hard for you to do.
4. What are these challenging parts of the practice teaching you about your practice?
5. What are your favorite things to do? What parts of your life are going really well? Who are the people in your life who you really like? What parts of your life are easy?
6. What parts of your life do you not like? What parts of your life are not going well? Who are the confrontational people in your life?
7. What are these confrontational people in your life teaching you about yourself? What are the challenging things in your life teaching you about yourself?
The challenging parts of your yoga practice will teach you the most about how you are out of balance. The confrontational people in your life will teach you the most about yourself. Look closely at the things that are hard for you to do. Look closely at the people who challenge you. What are you learning about yourself?
Yoga is a contradiction!
Yoga is a contradiction. It is two opposites coming together. It is movement and stillness. It is concentration and surrender, at the same time. Yoga is a journey from darkness to light. The journey leads you back to right here and right now. Yoga is stillness and movement, coming together. Yoga is the journey to the center of your Self, over and over again. Yoga says make an effort, to surrender and let go. It is the space between the breath, between this and that, where there is no inhale or exhale, no up or down, no left or right. Yoga is the journey towards the light, and the realization that you are the light. It is the realization that you are the wave in the ocean, and you are the ocean. Yoga is a contradiction.
Being Grateful!
It's 5:00am. I'm practicing on the roof at Soulshine. The sun starts coming up and I have this spectacular view overlooking the rice fields. I stop my practice for a minute to catch a picture. It's beautiful. I want to soak it up and hold onto this moment. I'm so grateful to be here. I'm so grateful for this morning and this day ahead. Without my yoga practice I would miss these moments. I would literally miss some of them because I'd be in bed sleeping. I'd miss others because I'd be moving too fast. I'd miss others because I'd be caught up in the noise in my head. Yoga helps you slow down. If you slow down enough you will find stillness. In the stillness you experience your inner light. In the stillness you change your relationship to your Self. This changes your relationship to everyone and everything around you. I'm so grateful to be right here, right now.
Vulnerability, intimacy, and connection.
Deep hip opening practice! Digging into some of that tension, bringing it to the surface, and letting it go! How quickly can you get passed the fear and resistance and go to the pain. Sit in that intensity. Feel that sensation. Let your stuff bubble to the surface. Look at it. Stay present. Don't distract yourself! Surrender. Let it go. Take the journey inward to the center of your Self. Stop running away. Yoga is about getting into deeper relationship with your Self. This is deep and profound work. It's not easy and it's not always fun. You've got to really show up for yourself. A spiritual practice is about vulnerability and intimacy and connection. It's not fake and phony and flowery and you don't get there by avoiding things. This practice is real and often raw and confrontational. If anybody is selling you rainbows and unicorns run away as fast as you can!
Focus on gratitude.
We started the morning with just sun salutations, a long savasana, and then meditation. Sometimes that's enough. My teacher's would say if you don't have time for a full practice, do some sun salutations. The sun salutation practice is a gratitude practice. Thank you to the sun. Thank you for this day. Thank you for this moment. Thank you for this life. You can choose what to focus on today. You can choose what to give your energy to. You can choose who to be around. Focus on the positive. Focus on the things you are grateful for in your life. Build on them. Shift your perspective.
Powerful opening circle ceremony!
Powerful opening circle ceremony! I've been leading these ceremonies for a long time and I think they are always so profound. We are losing spaces in our modern world where we are really being seen and heard, and we aren't encouraged enough to hold the spaces for others and really see them and listen to them share their story. Make space for someone in your life. Sit down with them. Look at them. Listen to them. It's time for us all to get a little more vulnerable with each other and to get a little more intimate with each other.
Arm Balancing Exploration
Sequencing -- The arm balances are advanced warm up poses. They are closely related to the standing warm up poses. Take a look at arm balances you are working on in class. Each one contains the actions of the plank pose and the low plank. Look at what is going on at the hips, in the pelvic girdle. Does the arm balance look like a triangle married with the plank or low plank? Does it look like the single pigeon married with the plank or low plank? The standing warm up poses produce tapas, helping us to train the mind to concentrate, and also help us to warm the body up for the deeper practices. When you are an advanced student the arm balances do the same thing for you.
Are You Just Doing Exercise?
I was talking today before my event about the difference between practicing yoga and doing yoga exercise...
There's nothing wrong with a class that is simply a yoga exercise class but it's very different than a yoga class. The goal of yoga is to quiet the mind. In stillness, we have the opportunity to experience the deepest aspect of who we are. Yoga is really answering the question: Who am I?
Be a Positive Force
Shine the Light on Yourself
When we are identifying with the ego we often judge others very harshly. We place expectations on people. We hold the world up to a very high standard and we punish those who don't meet that standard. The irony is that, when we are doing this, we often don't hold ourselves up to the same standard. When we identify with the ego, we want everyone else to change, and the world to change around us. We don't want to change ourselves at all, yet, often, we are the ones who need to change the most. When we are filled with judgment of others, we aren't really very far along on our path. Shine the light on yourself. Change yourself and your relationship to the world. If you find yourself judging and criticizing other people, know that this is not helping you on your journey. You're not only NOT helping the people you are judging, who would benefit far more from your compassion and kindness, but you aren't helping YOURSELF either.
The Light In You
I'm staying in this Airbnb apartment, here, in Shanghai. There is this sweet, little, old lady, who lives in the building. Her daughter, or granddaughter, has been taking her out for a walk each day, and I've been running into them. They both give me such a nice smile when they see me. When I practice my limited Chinese, and say things like, "Nihao" (hello), the old lady lights up, and grins from ear to ear. These little moments of connection have really made each day so special. So simple to just have an open heart and smile at a stranger and say hello. Each day, when I leave from these exchanges I am grinning from ear to ear too. The three of us have had a beautiful moment of connection. It's the "namaste" connection. The light in me recognizes the light in you, and it's the same. Life is so beautiful. So many incredible and meaningful moments. Grateful for each one! Namaste.
The Things That Are Working!
So often we complain about things that aren't working in our lives. It is so important to be grateful for the things that are working in your life too.
I was picking up some things at the grocery store tonight. One of the things I grabbed was a piece of garlic bread. They had individual sized pieces of garlic bread! I was so excited. Individual pieces of garlic bread! Incredible. You don't understand. They didn't used to do this and I asked them to make these individual pieces of garlic bread for me a few weeks ago. I have to explain this to you. A few weeks ago, I had asked the people at the bakery to please make some smaller pieces of garlic bread. I was always disappointed when I was shopping, finding only giant, family sized, pieces of garlic bread, when I just wanted a small piece, to heat up for myself. So, they started to cut some of the garlic bread into smaller pieces and began to offer this as well. It was such a small thing but it made me so happy. So, I started to add a small piece of garlic bread to some of my meals over the last two weeks. Perfect. Just enough for me to add to my meal without having to throw any away. Perfect!
Born Owing Three Debts
Another beautiful day in our Shiva Yoga training! Today is our last day of the first week. It's been busy. Long days, with barely time to eat and rest. At the end of the day, I feel very satisfied and fulfilled, though. I love sharing these teachings. It is our responsibility to share what we are learning with others. That way everyone can benefit from the teachings. There's a story I shared with my students, that my teacher, Srivatsa Ramaswami, told during my training with him--
We are all born owing three debts... The first debt we owe is to our mother and father for giving us this vehicle for our soul to use for this lifetime. The way we repay this debt is to lead a good life, and, if it's part of our karma, provide a vehicle for another soul, by having children of our own. The second debt we owe is to the sun. Without the sun, none of us would be here. We repay this debt, by thanking the sun each morning for another beautiful day. The third debt we owe is to our teachers, and to their teachers. It is so incredible that we have (and can make use of) the teachings of our teachers. The way we repay this debt, is by sharing what we have learned with others. We pass on to others the teachings, the same way the teachings were passed on to us. Everyone can use this incredible yoga technology to find peace and achieve Self realization.
Go deeper!
It’s through deeper concentration on an object that MORE is revealed. This process of concentration, meditation, and Samadhi can be applied to anything. You have to sit with something. You have to dig deeper. There’s MORE there. You just can’t see it yet. You have to do your practice, over and over again, and you have to be curious, open, and receptive. The ego loves to have us believe that we’ve got it, we’ve figured it all out, there’s no more to learn. The mind says, "I’m bored. What’s next? Give me something else. Give me something harder. What’s next?" There is NO NEXT. This is it! Right here. Right now. And you haven’t come close to figuring this out yet. You’re ready to move on already? You’re barely scratching the surface of this place. There is no place to go. And if you are constantly thinking about the destination, and what is coming next, you aren’t really right here and right now. Pay attention!
The Lotus Flower
Focus on what matters
Yoga has taught me to hold my focus on what matters. There will always be distractions. There will always be people and things that cross your path that are challenging. Stay focused. Concentrate on what matters. There is so much noise. Don't get caught up in the noise. People who are connected to the most superficial aspects of themselves, and who are living a small life, will sometimes try to drag you down too. Don't let them! Rise up and fly high. Don't let anyone make you feel less than you are. This is your time to shine! Let yourself shine so brightly that you help others to see the light. This is your time!
The Vibration of the Universe
There is a place where the inhale and exhale meet, where time stops, where there is stillness. In this place, if you listen closely, sometimes you can hear the vibration of the whole Universe. And in this moment, you feel a feeling of connection to everyone and everything, and your heart bursts open. In the stillness, when the breath stops moving, listen.
Be Courageous! Stand Your Ground. Be a Warrior!
Yoga philosophy speaks a lot about courage...
This courage is not about doing an advanced asana. It's about standing your ground. Can you get out of your comfort zone and go into the fire? And can you stay there? Can you stand your ground? Can you breathe into the discomfort? Can you be vulnerable? Can you stay open in the middle of adversity?
