Surrender

I love my job! I love helping people by teaching yoga. I love sharing the stuff I am working on and the insights I have gained over the years of practice. I particularly love training people to become yoga teachers. It is such a transformative process to watch someone who loves to practice yoga turn around and share why they love it so much.

In the process of their learning, I ask my teacher trainees to prepare classes and quotes and themes. They all share such wonderful  and tender parts of themselves. The things that we share as yoga teachers are often the very things we are working on ourselves.

One theme that a lot of us need work on is the theme of surrendering. It is a great topic for a yoga class and for life as we often have to embrace change.  I also talked about surrender last week as it relates to letting go and relaxing in Savasana. This past week, one of my students read something about the topic of surrender that resonated with us all so much, we asked her to share it. Thanks, Brina. Here it is:

"When dogs play ball, they often want to repeat the joy of running after the ball again and again. Some dogs cling to the ball, not understanding that to keep playing, they must let go. When I desire to maintain an experience, I may get so attached to it I block the receipt of the very thing I want."

"Letting go of what I desire is the way to receive it. As I let go, I give over to spirit and trust that my desired outcome, or something better, will come back to me. Clinging stops the law of circulation.  the cycle of giving and receiving."

What are you clinging onto? Maybe it is the very thing that you need to release in order to invite more abundance into your life. What do you think? I'd love to hear your comments below!

Yoga for Plantar Fasciitis

I often get asked about yoga for various minor ailments.  One of them is plantar fasciitis.

From the Mayo clinic:
Plantar fasciitis (PLAN-tur fas-e-I-tis) is one of the most common causes of heel pain. It involves pain and inflammation of a thick band of tissue, called the plantar fascia, that runs across the bottom of your foot and connects your heel bone to your toes.

Plantar fasciitis commonly causes stabbing pain that usually occurs with your very first steps in the morning. Once your foot limbers up, the pain of plantar fasciitis normally decreases, but it may return after long periods of standing or after getting up from a seated position.

Plantar fasciitis is particularly common in runners. In addition, people who are overweight and those who wear shoes with inadequate support are at risk of plantar fasciitis.

Here are some simple exercises you can do that may help:

1. Massage the bottom of your foot with a tennis ball.  Do this while standing and set a timer for 5 minutes.  Less than that just isn't enough.  Some people say to use a golf ball you keep in the freezer.  Because the tennis ball is softer, it may be easier to roll.  If you can tolerate a hard golf ball, go for it.  Because you have 5 minutes, work your whole foot–the heel, ball of the foot and arch. Vary the pressure.  Do both feet, 5 minutes each foot. Your other foot will thank you.

2. Pick things up with your toes, such as the golf ball or marbles, or scrunch up a tea towel with your toes. This strengthens the arch. One of the causes of plantar fasciitis is weak arches. Often, this can be caused by wearing shoes with too much arch support and walking on engineered, smooth surfaces.  Wearing shoes with good arch support may relieve the symptoms, but it doesn't get at the root of the problem.

3. You might not be able to do this one at home unless you have a 45-lb weight plate hanging around the house. So, head on over to the gym. You may need to bring your yoga mat with you as you will need to kneel on the floor. Find a quiet corner. Sit on your heels with your legs parallel and your toes pointing straight back. This pose is called Vajrasana. Have someone place a 45-lb. weight plate on your heels and calves. The plate should be pressing on your heel exactly at the same point as the pain is. Sit back on the weight plate. Try to sit for a few minutes, up to 5, but not longer. Some people may not be able to do this because of the pressure on the heel can be intense. But the way it works is that it relieves pressure on the plantar fascia. Some people love this.

I have never had plantar fasciitis, but my husband has.  He swears by the Strassburg sock.

The yogic version of the Strassburg sock is to do Pyramid Pose with your front foot up the wall:

Let me know if this works for you.  Leave a comment below!

Santosha: Fortunate? Unfortunate?

Santosha is the Sanskrit word for contentment and the second of the five Niyamas, or self practices. It is hard to find contentment. Modern marketing and advertising techniques are designed to make us want more, to be discontented with what we have. Most of us practice contentment when things are going our way, when things are good. It is so easy to be content under those circumstances. The trick is being content when things are not going your way, when you are having a bad day. How can we find contentment? How do we practice Santosha?

We have all heard the following statements about practicing contentment:

When life serves you lemons, make lemonade.
Be happy with what you've got.
I complained about not having shoes until I saw a man with no feet.
It is better to want what you have than to have what you want.

In the Yoga Sutras, Patanjali writes that "Superlative happiness arises from practicing contentment." Samtoshaad anuttamah sukha-laabhah. Yoga Sutra 2.42

The process is to not to be content but rather to practice contentment. These are the steps:
1) Notice you're practicing being discontented.
2) Make a decision to practice contentment.
3) Here's the yogic key: don't think of something that makes you content. That something is somewhere else, or someone else, other than where you are and what you are doing; it is a way of becoming less present. Instead, simply be content with where you are and what you are doing, even if it isn't what you wanted to have happening in that moment. Practice contentment. This practice not only makes you content, it makes you more present. It is about you being present to your own life, by being present within your own self This is what makes it easy for Patanjali to fulfill his promise.

I'd to share my favorite story about contentment. It is called Fortunate? Unfortunate?:

Fortunate, Unfortunate?

There once lived a farmer. He lived on a farm with his wife, his son and one horse that the family had raised from a colt. The family planned to enter the horse in the annual county fair and hoped it would win prizes that could lead to breeding opportunities. This would ensure a nice future income for the farmer and his family.

The night before the fair, a violent storm swept over the countryside. When the farmer and his family awoke early the next morning, they found that the fences had been blown down. Their prize stallion was nowhere to be found. The farmer's wife was beside herself with despair. The neighbours came and joined in the wife's grief.

"What terrible misfortune has befallen us!" cried the wife. "Yes, yes, this is most unfortunate,"the neighbours agreed. But the farmer said, "Fortunate or unfortunate, I don't know, let's wait and see."

A week passed and the farmer and his family were sitting at the breakfast table. Looking out the kitchen window they saw a herd of horses galloping toward the farm. It was their faithful stallion, leading five horses and a little filly behind him. He had found a herd of wild mares, and now he was bringing them home. The farmer's family ran out to open the corral gate for the horses. The farmer's wife was overjoyed and exclaimed, "What a fortunate turn of events, this is unbelievable!" The neighbours rushed over exclaiming, "How fortunate you are!" The farmer just said, "Fortunate or unfortunate, I don't know, let's wait and see."

Over the next weeks the farmer and his son were busy training the new horses. One day the son was thrown by one of the wild horses. He suffered a bad fall and broke many bones. The farmer's wife was very upset. Between her sobs she said, "We never should have let those wild horses in; this is a most unfortunate accident! My poor son." The neighbours came to commiserate with the wife about her misfortune. And the farmer said, "Fortunate or unfortunate, I don't know, let's wait and see."

Two days later the king's soldiers came by the little farm. The king had declared war on an adjacent country and the soldiers had orders to draft all able-bodied young men into the army. On seeing the farmer's son with both legs and both arms broken, not to mention several ribs fractured and numerous lacerations on his face and head, they left him home and continued on to the next family. The farmer's wide wept with relief, crying, "How lucky we are! This is most unfortunate." The neighbours most of whom had had sons taken off to war, said, "You are indeed most fortunate." The farmer said, "Fortunate or unfortunate, I don't know, let's wait and see."

Some months passed. The farmer's son was recovering nicely; he was able to walk, albeit with a cane. A messenger from the kings palace dropped by the farm to inquire about the health of the son. Seeing the son's improved condition he stated that by order of the king, the son must come at once to the palace to work in the gardens and stables. There was a shortage of workers at the palace due to the war. What could the family do but let their son go? The wife was bitterly angry and cursed the king for his unfairness. "How unfortunate we surely are! We have lost our only son and there will be no one to help us with the farm now." The neighbours came by to console the wife, murmuring, "What an unfortunate turn of events." The farmer just said, "Fortunate or unfortunate, I don't know, let's wait and see."

The king had a beautiful daughter. One day she looked out of her window and saw the handsome new gardener. She fell in love with him and went to her father and said, "Father, I have found the man I wish to marry. Please make it happen!" The king, unable to resist a request from his lovely daughter replied, "Of course, it shall be done."

The next day a messenger was sent from the palace to the farm, bearing a wedding invitation for the farmer and his wife, as well as an invitation for them to come live permanently at the palace. Can you imagine the reaction of the farmer's wife? She was ecstatic and could hardly contain her joy. Jumping up and down she laughed, "This is incredible, how fortunate!" The neighbours exclaimed, "Indeed, this is a very fortunate turn of events!" And the farmer, as usual, said, ...!"

(a story from Jivamukti Yoga)

How about you? Are you fortunate? unfortunate? Shall we wait and see?

Namaste,

Karin

Giving and Receiving - Is it a fair exchange?

Last week I was talking about Aparigraha, or nonhoarding.  I pointed out how, in most yogic texts, there is always this promise of the great things that will happen to you if you wholeheartedly practice the Yamas.

For example, for Ahimsa, or nonviolence, the Yoga Sutras say, "All others will cease to feel hostility in the presence of one who is firmly established in ahimsa."  Y.S. 2.35.  Or, for Satya, truthfulness, "All words and actions bear full fruit when the yogi is firmly established in truthfulness." Y.S. 2.36.  For Asteya, non-stealing, "Great riches present themselves freely when you are firmly established in asteya."  Y.S. 2.37.  For Brahmacarya, or celibacy, "One firmly established in celibacy gains potency."  Y.S. 2.38.  And finally, for Aparigraha, "By the observation of aprigraha, the yogi makes his life as simple as possible and trains his mind not to feel the loss or lack of anything. Then everything he really needs will come to him at the proper time."  Y.S. 2.39

Whenever I read about the Yamas, I generally agree that it is a good idea to work on them.  (We already discussed the celibacy issue;).  But then you get to the great promises that these practices give and I always wonder if they are realistic. If I truly practice non-hoarding, will everything I really need come to me at the proper time?  How can this be true when they are so many needy and struggling people in the world?

Maybe an important part of the question is how much do I really need as opposed to how much do I want?  And, perhaps more importantly, what do I need to do in exchange?  I don't think the yogic texts mean that I can sit around waiting to win the lottery. We each have work to do.  We have to have some form of fair exchange.

I was reading Brain Pickings, a weekly blog I subscribe to, and I came upon this article on Amanda Palmer.  In her fascinating TED talk, Ms. Palmer talks about her stint as a street performer and the skills she developed there in asking for things to have her needs met.  She talks about asking, giving, receiving, trust and the fairness of the exchanges she is involved in.  You should listen to the talk.  It is very interesting. Amanda also wrote a book about her experiences called "The Art of Asking, How I learned to stop worrying and let other people help." It struck me that perhaps this is what the yogic texts meant when they talked about things showing up in our lives unbidden.  Although, Amanda does ask for what she needs, the things she needs do show up.

Something else I also enjoyed: You can also listen to Amanda reading a poem by the Polish Poet Nobel Laureate Wislawa Szymborska titled "Possibilities".  From the Brain Pickings site:  "Amanda’s music, like Brain Pickings, is free and supported by donations - a heartening celebration of the creative possibilities that open up when we actively stand behind the things we prefer; when we choose the absurdity of supporting artists over the absurdity of not supporting artists."

I hope you enjoy the TED Talk. Let me know what you think.  Comment below.

My Favorite Playlist

Students often tell me that they like my playlists.  I am flattered, thank you.  Last week, the son of one regular student took a couple of my classes before going off to college. When I saw the mom, I told her how much I enjoyed meeting her son. She told me that he enjoyed my class and that he really enjoyed my playlist.  I found this surprising. I am not surprised when students who are closer to me in age tell me that they enjoy my music, but when a young man in his 20s says he likes my playlist?!  This past Saturday several students remarked that the playlist was being particularly good, so I told them that I would share. Enjoy, and please share some of your favorite songs with me. You can leave your recommendations in the comments below this blog post.  Who knows, your suggestions may end up on a future playlist!

All My Days - Alexi Murdoch
I Try - Macy Gray
All the Wild Horses - Ray La Montagne
Wild Horses - The Rolling Stones
After the Gold Rush - Neil Young
Desperado - The Eagles
Ain't No Sunshine - Lenny MacDowell
Redemption Song - Bob Marley
Into the Deep (featuring Macy Gray) - Galactic
Crazy - Gnarls Barkley
Crazy Love - Van Morrison
All the Little Lights - Passenger
Walkin' Away from Caroline - Dave Carter and Tracey Grammer
Angel from Montgomery - Bonnie Raitt and John Prine
For What It's Worth - DJ Drez
Breathe Me - Sia
Veerabhadra (DJ Drez Remix) - Sound Ambassador
Gayatri - Jane Winther

P.S. It is nice to know that you all are focused inward on your breath and what is going on in your body and that you are not distracted by any external distractions! ;)

Sirsasana Q's & A's

What part of your head should be on the floor while doing Headstand?

There is a spot on the top of the head where three plates of the skull meet. This is the fontanel spot in infants. It might be kind of a flat spot. If you are not sure, there is a way to measure using your hand. Place the heel of your hand at the bridge of your nose. Without lifting the heel of your hand up, let your fingers rest on the top of your head. Right where the middle finger rests is the spot the head should be resting on when you are upside down. Once you find the spot, keep your middle finger where it is and lift the rest of your hand. From the roof of your mouth, push up into that spot as if you are balancing a book on your head. This is exactly the spot you should be on during Headstand.

Is there a modification for those who have neck issues and are afraid of putting all of their body weight on their head?

If you have issues with your neck and are leery of Headstand because of that, a nice modification is Six- Block Headstand. This is Headstand with your shoulders resting on the blocks. There is little if any weight on your head, and therefore, there is no pressure on your neck.

Six Block Headstand

My neck feels scrunched when I go upside down in Headstand. That can’t be good, can it?

Your neck should never feel scrunched when you are doing Headstand. If it does, come down immediately! If your neck feels scrunched, it could be because your shoulders are tight and your forearms are below the level of your head. If this is true, you may feel that you prefer to do Tripod Headstand rather than Headstand on your forearms. You can always do Six-Block Headstand. While Tripod Headstand, or Sirsasana II, is a wonderful version of Headstand, there is value in opening up the shoulders for Sirsasana I. A lot of other poses including Wheel and Handstand need this degree of shoulder opening. If you are tight in your shoulders there is a very specific block arrangement that can help you with this. It is rather hard to describe; if you are interested, please check out the photo. A picture is much easier than a thousand words.

It might be hard to see in the image on the left, but the person on the left in the striped sweater has tight shoulders.  Her elbows are winging a bit wider than everyone else's, and her forearms are lower than her head.  We used the 4-block configuration to keep her upper back from rounding as she went up into Sirsasana I.  And with the use of the props, her form is perfect, her neck feels good and she is getting a nice stretch in her arms and upper back.

How long can I stay up in Headstand?

For students just learning Headstand, I would recommend going up and staying for a few breaths and then coming down, maybe 30 seconds at first. And that is it for one day. I would recommend not practicing Headstand every day in the beginning. You can practice every other day until you are sure you are not having any negative side effects from Headstand. Also, remember that Shoulderstand is a counter pose to Headstand. So every time you practice Headstand, you should also practice Shoulderstand for the same amount of time. Once you are comfortable in Headstand, try staying up for 1 minute at a time. You can either time your breaths or use a timer. I like using a timer, but I also know that I can breathe 6 Ujjayi breaths in a minute. Build up gradually over time to 5 minutes (or 30 breaths for me). Once you have reached 5 minutes, keep practicing that same amount of time and stay at that length of time for a couple of weeks, if not months. Then you can start playing with increasing the time even longer. Again, do so gradually. Maybe 1 minute a month. It is not uncommon for people to practice and be able to hold 30-minute Headstands.

A word about Headstand variations: The general rule of thumb I follow is that you should be able to stay in Headstand for 5 minutes before you start doing Headstand variations. You want to make sure your neck is strong enough to support your body weight before you start twisting around on your neck! Also, while it is possible to stay up in Tripod Headstand for 5 minutes, it is usually Sirsasana I, or Forearm Headstand, that is the one most people are in for longer holds. Tripod is the Headstand that works most with transitions like Headstand to Crow, for instance. Happy playing!

I hope these questions and answers are helpful. Let me know if you have any other questions. I’ll see you in class! Karin

The Secret of Yoga

"In order to be truly free, you must desire to know the truth more than you want to feel good. Practicing in a way that supports our lifestyle and everything we already know is not a challenge to our basic patterns of conditioning in body, mind and heart, because if feeling good is our goal, then as soon as we feel better, we will lose interest in what is true.” - The Inner Tradition of Yoga by Michael Stone

As a yoga teacher, I find that the following story gets repeated over and over.

I was approached by a student the other day. She wanted to know what she could do to improve her ability to do yoga. She hadn’t been coming to class lately because she had a fall and injured her hand. She did physical therapy for her hand and had gotten better to a certain extent but still found it difficult to do positions where she was weight bearing on her hands. She has been doing pilates and other exercise classes to keep her strength and conditioning up but she has not been able to come back to yoga. I suggested modifying by doing postures on her forearms, which did not seem like a satisfactory answer. I asked her if she still did the exercises her physical therapist told her to do and she said no; she seemed rather bored with that. I suggested that perhaps there were some things we could do to improve the range of motion in her shoulders. Often the site of the pain is not the cause of the pain and students who have pain in their wrists while doing yoga may actually have restricted motion in their shoulders. But she shrugged that off saying that there was not an issue with her shoulders. I suggested other styles of yoga and other teachers. I teach a vinyasa style of yoga where we use our hands for Down Dog and Low Push Up as well as Side Planks and Handstands. Perhaps she needs a style of yoga that didn’t do those things? No, none of that seemed to be satisfactory. I felt somewhat flattered that she wanted to take classes with me. But then I wondered if it was that or was it simply not wanting to let go of what used to be. I get that. Letting go is hard. But, in not letting go we get stuck, bound up in an attachment to something that had previously brought us pleasure. We want that hit of pleasure and we don’t want to be told that we can’t do what we used to be able to do.

Or, maybe we don’t want to be told that we have to do some work to get there. The other side of her dilemma is the idea of doing the work that she needs to do. For her, it might be to continue the exercises for her hand. Maybe she got 80% better and needs to keep going to get 100%. Maybe she will never get 100% better. (I don’t know the extent of her injury. But, as someone who has broken her wrist I do know a thing or two about rehabilitating a hand injury.) There is something entirely monotonous in doing the ground work to rehab an injury or keep ourselves in shape and our bodies functioning optimally. For myself there are certain remedial exercises I need to do to maintain healthy alignment in my hips and back due to my scoliosis and to make sure that my wrist stays feeling good. Those exercises are boring, but they work. I am tempted to skip them because they take up a lot of time. But I know if I do that I will eventually fall into my patterns and habits and be back in pain, again. These exercises are part of my work. They may not be exercises that you should do. Your remedial exercises would be entirely different depending on your body, your issues and what you want to work on.

A common quality we all share is a sense of impatience. We all want to be able to do things now. We don’t want to do the remedial actions, the baby steps, we want the end product, the final result. I once had a yoga student who would get frustrated because she couldn’t do what I could do. She took privates with me, once a week for a couple of years. She never practiced on her own outside of class. I thought she was doing very well for the amount of effort and work she put into her yoga, but that wasn’t good enough for her. She wanted me to tell her what to do to get better. I told her that she needed to do more yoga. I suggested that she take privates with me more than once a week, come to public classes, or practice on her own. But that was not what she wanted to hear. She eventually got frustrated and quit. I felt like she wanted me to tell her the “secret” of yoga, that one thing that would change everything; the one thing that seemed to be hidden from her and did not require any great effort. She wanted to feel good. She wasn’t interested in the truth. Of course, there is no such secret. There is only the work that we each must do.

29 Gifts

I was especially looking forward to reading Cami Walker's book 29 Gifts, the book I chose for January.  One of my students gave it to me for Christmas. Although I wanted to start reading it right away, I made myself wait until January First to pick it up.  I knew that I would devour it and I wanted to have it fresh in my mind for January.  It's quite an easy read.  I read it in the car on our drive up from Florida.

I thought I would do the practice of giving 29 gifts every day during the month of January.  It seems so appropriate after the gift giving frenzy of Christmas, where gifts are expected.  Who is going to expect a gift now? Maybe you'd like to join me?  If one person does it and it has the power to change their life, imagine if several people do it. We could start a movement!  Would you like to join me?  If you do, share something about your experience on my blog

The rules are simple:

• Give 29 gifts in 29 days. Set a date to begin so that you can begin with full intention.

• Start Day 1 with a short meditation about your purpose in doing this exercise.  Be clear.  If your intentions are vague, or the energy is half-hearted, your experience will mirror that.

• Consider beginning everyday of your challenge with a meditation and write out an affirmation statement for your day. Examples include:

• Today I give with love.

• Today I give with  gratitude.

• Today I give with joy.

• Today I give with abundance.

• Your gifts can be anything offered to anyone -spare change, cans of soup, your time, kind words or thoughts.  Anything you mindfully give another person "counts". That being said, watch out for gifts that are coming from the following places within yourself because you will likely feel drained when giving from this space:

• The Bartering Give: If I give, I am good and I will be rewarded.

  1. The Obligated Give: I have to give because it's expected of me.

  2. The Guilty Give: If I don't give I will have bad karma.

  3. The Begrudging Give: He's got new shoes on, he can't need money that badly.

  4. The Resentful Give: I Suppose I better give because it's Day 15, even though I just spent $300 on new brakes for my car.

• Give at least once a day for 29 consecutive days so that the energy around the ritual gathers momentum.  if you do not give one day, I Suggest starting at Day 1 to release the energy and allow it to build again.  If this is too much for you, just pick up where you left off.  The important thing is to not quit.

Please let me know how this practice is working for you.  Leave your comments below.

Parivrtta Balasana

How long do you usually hold postures in a vinyasa class? Thirty seconds? Five breaths? We do not usually hold poses for very long. Some postures we hold for longer, such as Headstand and Shoulderstand. We might hold those for five minutes. We also hold restorative postures for five minutes or more. Parivrtta Balasana is one of those poses that are better when held for a slightly longer period of time. It is not quite a restorative posture, but it is not quite active either. In Parivrtta Balasana you have to get very still and quiet, let go of doing and come into being. You cannot think or exert your way into this deep twist you have to surrender to it. This is a great example of having to get out of your left brain, which is the analytical thinking brain and come into your right brain, which is the more holistic, pictorial side of your brain. In this state of mind you allow yourself to feel where your body is in space and allow it to relax and let go. You have to get very quiet and retreat inward. Then imagine yourself feeling like pulled taffy and slowly allow yourself to sink into this deep twist. This may take a minute or two. Allow your breath to get very fine and subtle.

One of the benefits of this posture is that it is good for helping to reduce fat around the waist. This posture is best performed on an empty stomach, and it may help you to not overeat during this holiday season.

…or lying down in Supta Virasana. These are two of the few poses that you can do after eating. They stimulate the Stomach meridian and the organ itself, promoting digestion.

Lastly, if you do eat too much, you might feel like the pose that we usually call Happy Baby, but at this time of the year, I like to call it Stuffed Turkey!

The Single Best Pose for Scoliosis - Vasisthasana

Because I have a little scoliosis, I have a twist in my body.  When I stand, one shoulder is higher than the other shoulder.  Sometimes it bothers me.  As a yoga teacher I feel like I am “supposed to be” more symmetrical.  But I notice the same thing, in varying degrees, in my students, friends and even in pictures of other people.  Most people are not quite symmetrical when they stand.

Vasisthasana

We don’t do things symmetrically. We have a dominant and non-dominant side.  We hold our children, push a vacuum cleaner, rake, sweep, shovel and do a number of other activities on one side. Try brushing your teeth with your non-dominant hand! This preference of one side over the other sets up a functional asymmetry in the body.  Knowing this can be a good thing.  It can help you be aware of your asymmetry and you can work to correct it.  You can even try, as I sometimes do, to do all of those activities on your non-dominant side.

Years ago, I asked one of my yoga teachers for help with my scoliosis.  She gave me several practices to do.  One of them was to practice Side Plank on my convex side twice as much as I practiced it on my concave side.  (If you don’t know which is your convex side, it is the one that is harder for you to bend towards.)   Just this week, a friend forwarded an article to me that cites the benefits for improving your scoliosis by practicing Side Plank for a minute and a half* daily on your convex side.  The article suggests you do this for two months to notice an improvement. (And then please don’t stop!  It’s just like cleaning your house.  You can’t expect to vacuum once and be done with it. You have to do it regularly.)  Check out the article by clicking here.  Let me know what you think.

*Please start slowly, maybe 10 seconds at first and build up by a few seconds each week to get to a minute and a half.  There are also modifications.  If you need help I would be happy to work with you privately to get you going.  Contact me by clicking here.