Being Open

   There are many tools, techniques, and texts in yoga to help us live a more peaceful life. We can read the Gita and the Sutras, study books written by various gurus, but when all the extra stuff is lifted away, the barest bone is left.

   Yoga is a science. With that, one can apply the scientific method, the “if . . . then” that we learned in school when looking at the weather or how a mouse makes his way through a maze for a piece of cheese. “If I eat an entire box of cookies for lunch every day, then I will gain weight and may not feel so well,” or “If I let go of having to be perfect all the time, then I will not be so stressed,” or “If I am open to life, then I can experience all that it has to offer.” And then we carry out the experiment and see what the truth is.

   The barest bone is to just be. Let go of attachments, of agendas, of expectations. But we’re human and so we cling to some of these. The suggestion is to release what we can. It is very difficult, in my experience, to hold on to so much, and then just be in the moment. My mind ends up spinning on what happened in the past and how I can control the future. And when I’m allowing the ego to lead the show, I miss out on so much of what I’m offered. ‘Being’ consumed with how to control events, my likes and dislikes, and the perceived duties that I think I have, keeps me from just ‘being’ open to whatever comes along.

   This doesn’t mean that I sit on my couch and not work or be involved with family and friends or partake in hobbies. What I’m suggesting is that we carry out our usual chores, but begin to notice if we’re expecting things to be a certain way. How does that make us feel? Experiment with letting go of the need to have your experiences show up in a particular way. If there is construction on your way to work and you need to take a detour, do you feel flustered, or do you enjoy the drive? Perhaps you’ll discover a new park or a yard sale where someone is getting rid of just the thing that you’ve been looking for. But you will not see it, not find it, if you are too busy fuming in your car that you’re regular route, the one you cling to, has been changed.

   It does no good to review life and make judgements and criticisms about how you should have done this or should have gone there. Begin now. That is one of the greatest gifts of yoga. Every moment, every day, we have the opportunity to practice. We can continue to hold on desperately to the ‘old ways’, to perhaps drive up onto the sidewalk and swerve around barricades because this is the way we have always gone. Or we could be open to surprises on the detour. Maybe we enjoy the detour and decide to take that route to work every day. Perhaps we meet other travels who decide to do the same thing, and then we car pool, something we never could have conceived, had we not taken the detour.

   Being in the west, I, like most of us, place some importance on the New Year. The Eve and the Day are opportunities not only for quiet reflection, but also for looking forward and anticipating all the detours, planned and not, that may present themselves in the coming year. So I ask you, are you willing to be open to what is offered, what might come around the next corner, or will you cling to the past? Which way will serve you? Try it out. “If I am open to life, then I will experience untold events. Or, if I continue to close off those possibilities, then I will live as I have.” Not that one way is better than the other, but it is a chance to see how your habits help or hinder your daily happiness.  I have composed 25 poems regarding this transformation, three of which can be viewed on my website www.myjoyenterprises.com Leave a comment as to whether or not you choose to be open. Namaste.

An Untrained Yogi

I have recently had the fortune to meet a man who, through our conversation, made me realize that he practices yoga, and yet has received no formal training. Years ago, I overheard a couple of yoga instructors talking about these ‘untrained yogis’, but my experience had been only with those that I had met at the studio, either in class or in teacher training.

“What’s the difference?” you ask. Remember that the practice of yoga isn’t about the asana or pranayama or meditation or chanting. Yoga is about artful living, being happy and at peace now. We use the asanas, pranayama, meditation, and chanting as tools to study the sutras and other lessons in yogic texts on the mat, so that we can take the practice off the mat and apply it to our lives outside the studio. This being present and living in the now, having more ease and harmony in one’s life, settles the vrittis, the distractions and chatter in the mind, so that we create opportunities to see who and what we really are.

A person who hasn’t heard of the sutras, hasn’t read the Gita from cover to cover, would not know about Krishna’s conversation with Arjuna, nor would they have heard of the Yamas and Niyamas. Yet this person that I have met astounded me with how he lives his life. What he has learned, through trial and error (And isn’t that what yoga asks of us? Just to notice how our habits color our experiences?), how he treats himself and others, and the enormous capacity he has developed for accepting what is, has encouraged me to engage in conversation with him in order to discover how he has done it.

Everyone is presented with pain in their lives (I posted a blog about pain and optional misery earlier), but what we do with the experience, the tools we use, determines our level of understanding of yogic practices. He has taken difficult situations, accepted what occurred, kept the lesson, and then let go of all that did not serve him. I was in awe. People travel their whole lives barely moving in this direction, let alone mastering it to the point of creating balance, being aware of habits, and consciously living in a space of peace and ease.

Without any prompting, he shared, “Why hang on to all the pain and misery? Get past that, get to the hindsight where you learn the lesson, then move on. No baggage. Life is about living.”

In overhearing cell phone conversations in public places, I observe many people who do hang on to the misery and live in the drama. Life’s lesson is often not learned because they are too busy prolonging the uncomfortable emotions. They listen to the chattering ego instructing them to buy into the story that this is how life is, misery after misery with flashes of ‘happiness’. And because of this, most of us require some training, or even just an introduction, at a studio that offers yogic philosophy along with the teaching of tools, such as asana, pranayama, etc. Even then, it is up to the individual to practice what the instructor suggests. I know there are some people who attend classes and only have an interest in getting more flexible or improving their balance or strength. That is a choice. The other option is to check out how yoga can give us the means to be happy now.

Perhaps you know of someone like this. A person who is aware of their habits, is curious about how to live more artfully, who accepts and surrenders to what is, letting go of all that does not serve him. If you do, invite them to have coffee and pick their brain. How do they do it? What is their thought process? I know that one path that works for me is writing about my observations and thoughts regarding this practice. Visit my website www.myjoyenterprises.com to view three poems I wrote regarding my journey through teacher training and the transformation that I recognized. Leave a comment if you’ve met an untrained yogi, and share their insights. Namaste.

Transformation Initially Unnoticed

I’ve recently come across several people who ‘used to practice yoga’. I’m wondering if they fall under the category of “I used to go to the gym”, “I used to own a truck”, or “I used to travel a lot in my job”. It was something that they did with their time, like a number on a to-do list that was checked off once they attended class and spent the requisite 60 or 90 minutes on their mat. And that’s fine. In an effort to step back from judgement about how they could have used all that time on their mat, I choose whether or not to comment, or just smile and offer an encouraging word to get them to move back to the practice, even if it was solely an asana practice. I’m not sure how many conversations I can have regarding getting a ‘yoga butt’.

Even though I had been practicing at the studio for a couple of years before I entered teacher training, I had heard much regarding the philosophy of yoga and didn’t think I would be challenged to the degree I was as I completed the program. There are times even now that I revert back to a little confusion over the seemingly constant paradoxes presented in the yogic texts. But like any other subject to be learned and internalized, it is best to make sense of something as you teach it to others. I did that as I led my students through the Eight Limbs and other invitations yoga offers us as a way to live a more artful life. Sometimes I used an example from my life, and other times I kept it relegated to the physical practice on the mat.

Without knowing it, perhaps I wasn’t really paying attention, some event occurs, and I find I remind myself of, “allow”, “surrender”, “accept”, all of which don’t mean to roll over and take abuse from another person or buy into the story of the ego. Occasionally, and I always laughed when it occurred, a student would remind me of something I had said during our time together on the mat, such as, “just breathe”, or “it’s only sensation”, or “what is your intention?” Perhaps they were listening after all! And what I have found, with the time that I have been studying and reading and teaching others, is that a transformation has occurred, and I don’t believe I was aware of the entire process, only the outcome.

In the past ten days or so, I have had quite a roller coaster ride. My teaching position was eliminated (mutually agreed upon) so that I could serve in a different capacity. Schedule changes and myriad other details followed, causing the anxiety level of my colleagues to ramp up significantly. As I was helping with that transition, my father had a heart attack and had to be flown, via helicopter, to Phoenix where he underwent a quadruple bypass. A couple of days later, I was required to spend the day at the courthouse with a jury summons. Finals were scheduled that week at school, a friend went out of town and I offered to dog sit for her. On top of all of these events, I had to continue with my teaching schedule, my yoga students, and I even attempted to make a class or two at the studio for myself.

I know some people who would have been caught up in the drama, the ‘woe is me’ story that the ego plays hoping for attention. Instead, I, playing the part of Arjuna, did my duty. I received fewer hours of sleep, but there was little worry, anxiety, depression, or any other emotion that would normally swing a person wildly from one side of the spectrum to the other. The days were filled with facts: father in the hospital, courthouse appearance, horses to feed, classes to teach, etc. I would have been much more exhausted had I opted for the misery the mind creates. This has been such an experiment for me to detach from all the possible craziness and rest in the peace that I know is always inside of me. The funny thing is, beside the couple of times that I actually, consciously, thought about a tool or technique of yoga, I moved through my days and the events wholly present and doing the next thing that was in front me.

It wasn’t until the past day or so that I began to realize what has allowed me to remain in the middle section of the spectrum, and not swing from side to side. There were still emotions, and I still experienced them (I’m still human!), but they had less of an effect on my actions and thoughts. The transformation, seemingly so hard-fought during the teacher training, has apparently taken a firm hold. I admit that I’m not an expert, and that I don’t have it ‘down pat’, but I am thankful to acknowledge that a change has occurred, and though I wasn’t cognizant of it every step of the way, I recognize I’ve made it to the other side of a bridge or road or door . . . and the possible daily drama colors my experience less than it did before I began the program.

When I was learning how to be an Academic Language Therapist, so much of the intricacies of the English language were new to me simply because they had never been taught in any of my classes in school. We were told that we’d ‘learn right along with the students’ which I can tell you is a little disconcerting. As a teacher, we’re taught to know where the curriculum is going and to be prepared to answer myriad questions that students might generate. Learn along with the students? In some lessons, they were right.

I know that the transformation that began the first time I stepped onto my yoga mat will continue for the rest of my life. I will have new experiences with which to apply the practice of yoga, and I’ll have students that will request I explain the apparent paradoxes in a way that demonstrates my comprehension. This understanding, I believe, can only come from having made my own sense of the teachings of yoga. On this side of the thresh hold, I can hold open the door for others to follow. Is the transformation possible for my students? Absolutely. Will I know every step they must take to follow the change that will occur within them if they are vested in living with more peace and ease? Probably not. But I know enough to guide them with thoughtful questioning and an understanding smile when they begin to make their own connections.

Many of these connections that I made are expressed in 25 poems that I wrote during my teacher training. You can read three of them on my website: www.myjoyenterprises.com as well as order the entire poem project, Yogis All: A Journey of Transformation Volume I. Have you recognized a transformation from your journey on the mat while utilizing the tools and techniques yoga offers? I’d love to hear it, so leave a comment below. Namaste.

New to Yoga

I’ve lost track of how long I’ve been regularly attending yoga classes at my favorite studio. I even have to think about how many months it has taken me to complete the 500 hours for my yoga teacher certification. I’ve recently picked up another yoga student, and I’m reminded how difficult the poses and breathing and not thinking all at the same time can be.

Down dog (one of my favorite poses, though yoga asks us to let go of preferences) is a pose that most often elicits a sigh of relaxation from me. I feel that I can hold the pose for ten minutes at a time. I’m cognizant of how much pressure it asks of wrists and shoulders, and so when I direct new students to move into the pose, I try to not keep them there a long time. However, sometimes I do ask them to move into 3-legged dog or fire hydrant, and if I don’t move them quickly enough, they give up and spend the next several minutes in child’s pose rotating their wrists, their ego chattering away about how hard it is and why are they bothering anyway. Of course, child’s pose is always available, and that’s not the point.

One of the conditions I’ve noticed from practicing and then moving into being a teacher of yoga, is that I can ‘feel’ the postures in my body even though I’m not doing them. When I instruct a student into down dog, I can feel my spine lengthening, feel my hamstrings get a little love, and automatically roll my shoulders away from my ears. Because I have a kinesthetic memory (and most instructors and athletes do) of the postures, I can recall the energetic cues to encourage the student to reach this direction or lengthen that direction. And it is this muscle memory that aids me when I work with new students by asking them to remain in the pose long enough to get a sense of it, to just begin to break up the blockages, but not so long as to frustrate the student into never returning to their mat.

It is also the length of time that I’ve been practicing that has me recognizing how still my mind becomes in the postures, and how the breath is just there. No struggle (or very little), focus on the present moment and the sensations in the body, and noticing right away when the ego pipes up to say, “Good job balancing,” or “You hate inversions”. I’m still a student, and still engage in the practice of letting go of judgements and criticisms. It is because, I think, that I’m able to ‘ride both sides of the fence’, feel the quiet space when the mind is at ease and still have postures that challenge that peace, that I can relate to my students more easily.

By asking them to move into postures that I know they can ‘handle’ as well as others that are challenging, and keeping them there for a length of time where they get a sense of it and a bit of benefit, and yet not so long that the mind gives out (which nearly always happens before the body does), I give them an opportunity to taste the benefits of a consistent practice. I really enjoy initiating students into the practice of asana, and of course the philosophy that makes the asana work as it was intended. I recently posted on my Facebook page that I smile when I see my students smile because they’ve caught a glimpse of what can happen if they practice the lesson for the session on the mat, when their mind settles and gives them just a nanosecond of silence.

As I was finishing my course requirements, I wrote 25 poems about the practice of yoga, including the Yamas and Niyamas. These I put together, along with a few other goodies, into my poem project titled, Yogis All: A Journal of Transformation Volume I, which can be viewed on my website www.myjoyenterprises.com My creative muse has churned up more poems that offer a glance into my journey as a yoga teacher. I’m thinking to set that project aside, and instead bring forth writings that might inspire new students to the practice. Perhaps they can nod their heads in understanding of sore wrists in down dog, and smile as they recognize that for the last three breaths, they were completely, whole-heartedly present. There are so many nuances to one’s practice, and they are different for everyone, but perhaps if the new practitioners were given a peek at what is possible, perhaps they won’t be so quick to feed the monkey mind, but instead take a breath, and hold down dog for just another moment, a second where the ego has not won. Namaste.