Pose of the Month – Natarajasana, or Dancer's Pose

Nata means dancer
Raja means lord or king.

Natarajasana, is the name of the pose dedicated to Lord Shiva, the Lord of the Dance. In his Himalayan abode on Mount Kailasa and in his southern home, the temple of Chidambaram, Shiva is said to dance. The god created over a hundred dances, some calm and gentle, others fierce and terrible. The tandava is the fierce, violent dance, signifying the destruction of self-limiting awareness; and lasya is the gentle, lyric dance in which Shiva reveals the beautiful, loving, and tender aspects of existence. Shiva, as Lord of the Dance has inspired some of the finest Indian bronzes and sculptures.

As we prepare for Natarajasana this month we will need both fierceness and playfulness.

Natarajasana is quite an advanced pose. Mr Iyengar rates it a 58/60; one of the most advanced poses in Light on Yoga. To prepare for it we need to open the front body: the shoulders, heart, belly and the fronts of the thighs – quads and psoas. We also need to strengthen the back body: the glutes, hamstrings, middle and upper back. We also need to find strength and stability without rigidity combined with a grounded sense of playfulness and open-heartedness.

There are 2 version of Dancer’s Pose that make this asana more accessible to every student. One is what I would call Baby Dancer where you reach back for the bent leg with your arm behind you as in Bow. The gateway pose for this version is Bow Pose. The full version of Dancer’s Pose is where your arms reach over your head for the bent leg foot. The gateway pose for this version is Dwi Pada Viparita Dandasana (Wheel on your forearms with your legs straight).

Notice how both of the poses I mention as gateway poses are symmetrical postures. That is because it is much easier to do symmetrical poses than it is to do asymmetrical poses. Once these poses are mastered you can begin to play with asymmetrical versions of these poses.
Another important pose for this sequence is Virabhadrasana III, or Warrior III. The ability to balance on one leg gives us the strength and steadiness for Natarajasana.

Let’s approach this posture fiercely and playfully. Come to practice ready to work and play. I’ll see you in class! Karin

Mantra for the Month of June

Om, Asatoma Sat Gamaya
Tamaso Ma Jyotir Gamaya
Mrityor Ma Amritam Gamaya

Lead me from the unreal to the real
from darkness (ignorance) to light (knowledge)
and from death to immortality

One of the first Kleshas, or obstacles on the path of yoga is avidya which means not seeing things clearly.  This is a great mantra to chant when you are stuck.  Often we are stuck when we can't see the thing right in front of us.  Chanting this mantra will help clear the mind.  Once the mind is clear, the path is often revealed.

Try chanting this mantra for 21 days to gain the wisdom of clear sight.

Happy Memorial Day!

It seems an oxymoron to wish someone a "Happy Memorial Day" if you know the true meaning of the holiday.  To most of us it is the unofficial start of summer.  It's when swimming pools open and we fire up the backyard barbecues.  While I hope you do enjoy this holiday weekend, I invite you to remember why we have this holiday: to remember those who have died in wars for our country.

Here's the background and history of Memorial Day:

Now observed on the last Monday of May, Memorial Day was originally known as Decoration Day and dates back to the years following the Civil War. At the time, groups would decorate the graves of Confederate and Union soldiers, a practice still acknowledged with people often visiting cemeteries to decorate veteran graves.

While the tradition existed throughout the U.S., in 1966 the federal government declared Waterloo, New York - which had commemorated the day since May 5, 1866 - the official birthplace of Memorial Day. In 1868, May 30 was set aside as a nationwide Decoration Day, with the date selected because it didn't correspond to the anniversary of any particular battle.

After World War I, the day became known to honor veterans of both the Civil War and the more recent conflict. It remained on May 30 until 1968, when Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which established Memorial Day as the last Monday in May to create a three-day holiday for federal employees. The change went into effect in 1971, the same day Memorial Day was designated a federal holiday.

Namaste,

Karin

How is Progress on the Path Measured?

In one of the yoga teacher training programs I took, I had a manual that had an interesting index heading:  "Measuring the Efficacy of Practice".   I turned eagerly to the page to read what it said.

“Progress on the path of yoga is defined by an increase in happiness and contentment; your relationships improve, your feathers get ruffled less easily and you can find contentment in any moment, even if it is painful.” ( I paraphrased, it was actually quite a bit longer, but that is the gist of it.)

The goal of any authentic spiritual practice is to stop suffering and attain perfect happiness.  We are hardwired to seek pleasure and avoid pain.  But, most people seem to be living in a state of vague discontent.  How do we become happy?  The first step is to look around us and see how unbelievably lucky we really are.  Count your blessings.  Focus on all that you do have.

In order for this to be effective it is necessary to establish the practice of gratitude.  Once a day stop and take stock of 5 things you have to be grateful for.  You can keep a journal if you like a writing practice, or you can simply pause during the day and think of these things.

There is a well known saying:  It is not happiness that makes us grateful, but gratitude that makes us happy.

The next step is to go on a complaining fast.  If you don’t like something and you can change it, then do so.  If you can’t, complaining won’t help.

You may be surprised at how much of what passes for conversation is actually complaining.  Once you become aware of this habit you may notice when others are complaining.  In that case, don’t judge, simply take note and turn the mirror on yourself.  Is that what you look and sound like when you are complaining?   Does complaining help you get happier?  According to the laws of karma, complaining only brings about more of the same.

One interesting note is that there has been less complaining in class.  There are no good poses or bad poses unless we assign them such qualities.  Challenging yoga poses are the perfect opportunity to practice breathing with equanimity under pressure.

Try these three practices: Count your blessings, keep a gratitude journal and go on a complaining fast and let me know how you are making out.  Share your thoughts by leaving a comment in the space below.

Namaste,

Karin

P.S.

I wanted to share a poem I heard on my favorite podcast "On Being"  with Krista Tippet. It seemed to fit with the theme of gratitude.

“I had no idea that the gate I would step through / to finally enter this world / would be the space my brother’s body made. He was / a little taller than me: a young man / but grown, himself by then, / done at twenty-eight, having folded every sheet, / rinsed every glass he would ever rinse under the cold / and running water. / This is what you have been waiting for, he used to say to me. / And I’d say, What? / And he’d say, This — holding up my cheese and mustard sandwich. / And I’d say, What? / And he’d say, This, sort of looking around.”  - Marie Howe

Six Keys to Safe Assisting

In this day and age of online subscriptions, one of the things that differentiates a live yoga class from a virtual one is the attention of a teacher.  Maintaining a regular and consistent yoga practice is important and you may have to do that by following classes online or by practicing by yourself.  But there is something to be said for practicing under the eyes and guidance of a skillful teacher.

We all have blind spots to our own bodies and practices and there probably are poses that we avoid when no one is watching. But, in order to keep your practice balanced, it is as important to know when you are out of alignment as it is to work on the poses you don’t like.

Much as I love to practice on my own, I also enjoy the energy of practicing in a group.  When I take a class, I like the attention of a teacher.  I am not as interested in a teacher who is practicing on her own mat.  I like the encouragement, correction and insight you can get from the perspective of someone else. I like the “Aha!” moment of a skillful assist that changes a pose for me like turning on a light in a dark room.

That being said, assisting in yoga classes is a controversial topic.  As much as I like being assisted, they can also be harmful.  I have been injured while being assisted.  There are some things you can do to protect yourself and your students from being injured by an assist.

Here are five keys points for assisting in yoga classes:

Getting and giving permission.

Not everyone wants to be adjusted all of the time.  Sometimes students have physical issues that they haven’t shared with you and it might just be that area of the body you are about to hone in on.   Nationally known yoga teacher Judith Hanson Lasater asks permission every single time she assists someone.  If someone is willing to be assisted, their bodies will be more open and receptive to an assist.  As a student, it is important to set your own boundaries. It is not fun to be volunteered for something you are not ready for.  As a teacher, be prepared for someone to just say no to one of your skillful assists.

Have clear lines of communication. 

This is separate from asking permission.  It is also important to know how the assist feels while it is happening.  Is the pressure to much, too little, in the wrong spot?  You need to be able to communicate how things feel as they are happening.  Teachers, be sensitive to  different bodies experience of pressure.  Students, don’t be afraid to speak up if something doesn’t feel good.

I was once in a large workshop setting.  We were assisting each other in a standing split. The room was full and very noisy.  My head was down near my knees and my partner was standing above me.  As she pushed on my leg which was up in the air, she couldn’t hear me say it was too much.  I literally had to punch her in the leg to get her attention to let go.  By that time my hamstring was strained.

Don’t make any assumptions.

As a teacher, don’t assume that your student’s body can go where you envision it going.  As a student, don’t assume that your teacher knows what your body can do.  While it is nice to think positive thoughts and to believe in the power of positive thinking, changes in the body usually happen over time, not in an instant.

I was once in a workshop where a teacher was encouraging people to kick up into handstand in the middle of the room.  The teacher asked this one student to volunteer to demonstrate how to do it.  The student was reluctant, but the teacher insisted that the student could do it.  The student did the handstand and it ended well.  I asked the student afterwards if she felt peer pressure to do the pose in front of everyone.  She admitted that she did, but she said, “The teacher knew my body and knew I could do it, so I trusted the teacher.”  Fortunately that trust was not misplaced.

While there is the power of encouragement and anything is possible, it doesn’t always work out that way.  As a teacher, make sure you are not putting anyone on the spot and forcing them to succumb to peer pressure.  As a student, don’t give your power away to anyone else. In my classes I see a lot of students each week.  Some of them I know well, but I never know exactly how someone is feeling inside that day.  And, quite honestly, I don’t always remember everyone’s trick knee, herniated disk or sprained wrist.

Keep your ego out of it

While I would like to be the teacher that “taught” a student how to do handstand, wheel, split or any other pose, it is really the student’s process and the accumulation of their practice and work of all of their teachers.  As a student, I might want the teacher to show me the “secret” to getting a pose.  Neither I nor the student can force our way into a pose, by self effort or an overly aggressive assist.  It would be like prying open a rose bud to force the flower to bloom.  Often the more badly we want something, the more it eludes us.  Practice takes time, patience and a curious sense of exploration.

Learning massage has been a great tool in helping me know how to adjust and assist my students.  One of the most important skills massage has taught me is to how important it is to always move with the breath, both theirs and mine.   Feeling the movement of the breath also helps you feel where there is resistance in the body.

Know your alignment

Adjusting and assisting is about helping the body move towards better alignment.  If you are not sure what the alignment is, you won’t know which direction to move towards.  This is true for both the teacher and student.

You also have to know what the foundation of the pose looks like and start from there.  There is no point assisting someone in a pose when the foundation is off.  Sometimes fixing the foundation corrects other misalignments. If a student doesn’t know the proper foundation, they may also not have the proprioceptive sense to feel the rest of their body, either.

Approach each student as unique

There is no one size fits all to adjusting and assisting.  I can’t teach my students “The Down Dog Assist”  because there are many variations of how to assist in any pose.  And the assist will be different for someone with tight hamstrings as opposed to restricted shoulder mobility.

Assisting is a skill that needs to be practiced, just like your yoga poses.  In the beginning, it is important to get feedback.  That is why I offer these workshops on assisting.  You need to know: was the pressure too much, too little or just right?  Was the direction of the pressure correct?  Did I knock my student off balance?  Does it feel better when I place my hands here or there?  What does resistance feel like?

These six keys to safe assisting are all things you will get to experience and learn in my workshop in June.  For the details click here.

I'm curious, as a student, do you like being assisted?  As a teacher, do you feel comfortable assisting?  (If not, consider signing up for my workshop.)  Feel free to leave a comment and join in the conversation.

Sequencing - Order Matters

yoga sequencing workshop

Doing yoga and teaching yoga are very different activities, yet they are inextricably intertwined.  The experiences we have on our yoga mats help us to refine our personal practice and provide insights into how we might share yoga with others.  As a teacher, developing and maintaining your own practice helps inform your teaching.  You experience first hand all the elements that contribute to how yoga enhances our lives.   It is through the interrelation of these elements that we come to specific practices - sequences of actions - that have different effects on our bodies, minds and spirits depending on how it all flows together.

What are the elements of a complete practice?  How are they best structured to make the practice the most accessible, sustainable and transforming? What are the best ways to begin a yoga practice session?  What should each session include? What are the best ways to sequence different asanas, breathing practices and meditations?  What are the relationships between asanas?  How does one pose affect another?  What is the effect of poses ordered in a particular way compared to the same poses ordered differently?  What are the relationships within and between families of asanas - standing poses, core work, balancing poses, hip openers, back bends, twists, forward bends, inversions and restorative postures?  What about pranayama (breath work) and meditation?  Where do they fit in?   What affects them and how do they affect what follows?  ON what basis, other than habit, intuition and whim, should one determine the overall structure and sequence of a complete class?  What about moving from one class the the next over the span of a week, month, year or lifetime?  What are the best ways to design classes for a lifetime of yoga?

If you are a yoga teacher and you have asked yourself some of these questions, sign up for my course Sequencing - Order Matters. These are the topics we will explore in this two day workshop.

The Heart Sutra Mantra

The mantra for the month of May is the Heart Sutra Mantra:

Gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha!

Gate means gone. Gone from suffering to the liberation of suffering. Gone from forgetfulness to mindfulness. Gone from duality into non-duality.
Gate gate means gone, gone.
Paragate means gone all the way to the other shore.
Parasamgate sam means everyone, the entire community of beings. Everyone gone over to the other shore.
Bodhi is the light inside, enlightenment, or awakening. You see it and the vision of reality liberates you.
Svaha is a cry of joy or excitement, like "Welcome!" or "Hallelujah!"

"Gone, gone, gone all the way over, everyone gone to the other shore, enlightenment, Hallelujah!"

What Sangharakshita says about the Diamond Sutra equally applies to all Prajnaparamita Sutras, including the Heart Sutra:

…if we insist that the requirements of the logical mind be satisfied, we are missing the point. What the Diamond Sutra is actually delivering is not a systematic treatise, but a series of sledgehammer blows, attacking from this side and that, to try and break through our fundamental delusion. It is not going to make things easy for the logical mind by putting things in a logical form. This sutra is going to be confusing, irritating, annoying, and unsatisfying—and perhaps we cannot ask for it to be otherwise. If it were all set forth neatly and clearly, leaving no loose ends, we might be in danger of thinking we had grasped the Perfection of Wisdom.—Sangharakshita, Wisdom Beyond Words

Growing a Lotus

“May I learn to live like the lotus flower, content in muddy water.”

Lotus Posture, or Padmasana, is one of the quintessential yoga poses.  You can just picture a yogi sitting with legs crossed, eyes closed and meditating blissfully.  Ironically, Lotus is not a pose that is taught very frequently in yoga classes; at least in Western yoga classes.  Most Westerners have tight hips and cannot do this pose.  Some yoga studios caution against teaching it because people hurt their knees by trying to force themselves into the pose.

With that caution, we will work on Lotus this month. I recommend that you proceed mindfully and pay attention to your knees.  There is a modification for every pose.  (The basic modifications for Lotus are: Easy Pose, Half Lotus and Double Pigeon.)  If you feel any strain in your knees, back off, take a modification and let it go until the next time when you can try again. This is the muddy water referred to in the quote; being okay when things don’t work out as you planned, or when things don’t happen when you want them to. Wait. Patiently. All is coming.

Below is a list of some of the poses we will be working on to help us get into Lotus Pose this month.

Easy Crossed Legs Pose
Warrior II
Side Angle
Triangle
Tree
Standing Half-Lotus Forward Bend
Frog
Gate Pose
Pigeon
Double Pigeon
Cobbler’s Pose
Seated Wide Leg Forward Bend
Revolved Seated Tree
Seated Half Lotus Forward Bend

Dealing with Change

My mom and I in 2013

“Problems often occur because we are grasping onto something we want to keep or to keep from changing.”

As many of you know, my mother had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and had been in declining health over the last several years.  She passed away this past Friday.

It was ironic in that as much as I have prayed for her release from the ravages of this disease, it was hard when the final moment came for me to let go.  I wonder how hard it was for her to let go?   As one of my students wrote to me:  “One dreads this moment of deep loss and then, suddenly, you have to step through it.”

During this week and in the coming weeks I will be stepping through it.

Many of you have told me that my sharing my journey has helped some of you who may be on similar paths and conversely, many of you who have already been through the loss of your parents have helped me through this stage.  And I thank all of you for that.  As Ram Dass said, “We are all just walking each other home”.

This week, I walked my mother home.

A Rama Healing Mantra

“Om apadamapa hataram dataram sarva sampadam lokah bhi ramam shri ramam bhuyo bhuyo namam yaham”

This is one of my favorite mantras.  It is a little bit of a mouthful, but once committed to memory, it is fun to chant.   Repeating this mantra always makes me smile, which is part of its healing properties; joy and happiness are healing emotions.

This is considered a Rama mantra: “bhi ramam shri ramam”.  Rama has a threefold meaning here.  First, Ram is the seed sound of the manipura, the third or solar plexus, chakra.  Here lies the power of your internal sun and life force.  The third chakra is associated with energy, will and mastery.  The body parts governed by the third chakra are the mid-torso, the side bodies, ribs, adrenal glands, belly and digestive organs.  When your third chakra is strong and balanced you radiate warmth, dexterity, skill and mastery.  When your third chakra is deficient you may feel controlling, dominating and be constantly active.  You may feel weak, passive and tired.  Chanting this mantra with the intention of healing can balance your third chakra.

Manipura, the third chakra

The second meaning comes from dividing Rama into its syllables: Ra and Ma.  Ra is associated with the solar current that runs down the right side of our body and Ma is associated with the lunar current that runs down the left side of our body.  These currents crisscross in our bodies.  Scholars say that it is this criss crossing action that spins our chakras.  Chanting this mantra can balance these energies and our chakras.

The third reference is to the god Rama himself.  Rama is a kind, benevolent healing energy.  You can read about Rama in a text called the Ramayana, which means Ram’s way.  It is a wonderful story filled with many lessons taught through intriguing twists and turns.

A typical mantra practice involves chanting a mantra 108 times, at least once a day for 30 or 40 days.    Once you learn this mantra, it will take you about 30 minutes (give or take) to chant it 108 times.  You can use a mala to help you chant it.  But you also do a practice of 108 times without a mala.  Time yourself chanting the mantra. Once you know how long it takes, you can simply use your timer.  There is also a way to make a mala using your hands.  You count the “segments” of each finger.  There are three segments on each finger, twelve on one hand.  Every time you go through all twelve segments on one hand, you count one segment on your other hand.  When you get to nine segments on the second hand you have reached 108 (9 x 12 = 108).  While there is something soothing about clicking through the beads of a mala, there are times when I want to chant and I don’t have my mala with me. It is very helpful to have different ways to maintain your practice.

Let me know if this mantra has helped you.