My First Blog

So this is my first attempt at blogging. We'll see how it goes. To start things off (and this may be cheating a bit), I thought I'd share with you an article that I posted on my monthly e-newsletter.

Last year I was teaching yoga to a group of teenagers. At first I was focusing on all the things that I would with a group of adults: breath awareness alignment, concentration, etc. We worked on some basic Sun Salutations, several standing poses, some easy heart-openers and forward folds. After a while, I sensed that the teens were losing interest in working on many of the same things, so one day I worked with them on Bakasana (Crow Pose). Some flew, some fell, but overall everyone really enjoyed the challenge; one thing about teenagers, they're FEARLESS! Next week, I decided to work on Adho Mukha Vrksasana (Handstand). Some of the kids practiced gymnastics, or were cheerleaders, so they were thrilled to be able to show off their abilities, and were also amazed that standing on their hands was doing yoga. The next week they rushed in, full of energy, doing cartwheels, handstands and a variety of other contortions, all the while asking "Is this yoga? Is THIS yoga? What about this?" After a few moments I got them to calm down enough to sit and focus. I explained that while many of the exercises that they were doing were indeed yoga poses,
the practice of yoga was more than just the crazy, twisty, bendy things that we do. I said it's sort of like when you're playing music, or dancing or even talking with your friends and everything becomes effortless and you lose track of time and you feel totally energized, like you're "in the zone." We practice working with our breath, our bodies and our concentration in a kind compassionate way so that we can maybe find "the zone" for ourselves.

The style of hatha yoga that I practice and teach, and that speaks to me the most, is vinyasa yoga. What appealed to me initially was the physical part of the practice. It was both challenging and fun, and, like the teenagers, I marvelled at some of the crazy things I could do. I was fortunate, though, to have teachers who framed their classes with personal anecdotes about how they were using their yoga practice (the other seven limbs)in their lives. At first I thought this was a massive waste of time. I mean, let's just get moving already! Slowly I started seeing some relevance between the stories and what we were doing in class. I started noticing when I was approaching the postures with aggression and when I was not being honest about my ability. I learned that sometimes I had to back away from certain poses in order to find more release. Then I started noticing how I had those same tendencies in my relationships with others and with myself. Like the proverbial onion, I started peeling away layers. I discovered how I was able to sometimes coordinate my breath, my body and my mind to achieve a state of meditation in the midst of the vinyasa flow.

Our yoga practice is like a chocolate chip cookie recipe (OK, if I think really hard, I can relate almost anything to chocolate chip cookies). If you eat just one part of it, say the chocolate chips, it may be tasty, but it's not a chocolate chip cookie. In order to make the cookies, you need the chocolate chips, the flour, the butter, the sugar, and even a pinch of salt. If you take the asana (postures) out of the yoga practice, you may get a good workout, but you're missing the elements that make it yoga. When we allow attention to our breath to guide our practice, when we concentrate and allow our mind to quiet, when we become intimately attuned to our senses and our bodies, and finally when we allow all of these ingredients to bake in the oven of devotion and compassion, then we have something delicious.