Vinyasa Pose of the Month – Virabhadrasana III (Warrior III)

Virabhadra = the name of a fierce warrior, an incarnation of Shiva, described as having a thousand heads, a thousand eyes, and a thousand feet; wielding a thousand clubs; and wearing a tiger's skin.

Virabhadrasana III is said to be a continuation of Virabhadrasana I and it is a much more challenging position.

To come into Warrior II, fist come to Warrior I with the right foot forward and the left foot back.  The feet should be 4 to 4-1/2 feet apart front to back and hip width apart from left to right with the back foot almost facing forward.  Raise the arms overhead and look up. Press the palms together.   Keep the back leg straight as you bend the right knee towards 90 degrees.  Hold this for a few breaths before continuing.

On and exhalation, lean the trunk forward and lay the chest out over the bent right knee.   Take two breaths in this position

Again, on an exhalation, simultaneously lift the back leg from the floor as you straighten the right leg.  Keep the back leg inwardly rotating so that the hips are parallel to the floor.  Make the back leg straight and stiff.  Your goal is to lift the chest and the back leg parallel to the floor.  If this is too much, you can take the arms back like airplane wings, or even rest your fingertips on a block until you develop the strength and flexibility to do the full pose.

Come out of the pose the way you came into it.  (Don’t simply collapse!)  Step back into Warrior I and then straighten the front leg.  Turn the feet so they are parallel and then step or jump the feet together.

This pose encourages you to contract and tone the abdominal organs, as well as the leg and buttock muscles.   This pose conveys harmony, strength, balance, poise and power.  It improves one’s bearing and carriage.

Chapter 2. Sutras 10 & 11 – Meditation transcends ignorance

So far, the first sutra in chapter 2 has told us that all we need to do to transform ourselves and find enlightenment (Samadhi) is to practice with a burning intensity (tapas), to study the texts that have described this path in detail and to look inward to see how we are progressing on the path (svadhyaya) and to surrender to a higher power (ishvara pranidhana).

In the second sutra it tells us that why we should do these things and that is because these practices remove obstacles and lead to Samadhi.

The third sutra enumerates what these obstacles are: avidya or seeing things incorrectly, asmita or the ego, raga which is attachment to pleasure, dvesha which is avoidance of painful experiences and abhinivesha which is fear of death or clinging to life.

Sutras 4 - 9 define each of these obstacles in more detail.

Yoga Sutra 2.10 – Te pratiprasavaheyah suksmah
te – these
prati – in opposition, against
prasava – procreation, generation (prati prasava = involution)
heyah – to abandon, desert, relinquish, emit, renounce, abstain
suksmah – subtle minute, delicate
These subtle afflictions (ego, attachment, fear) are to be minimized and eradicated by a process of involution.

Yoga Sutra 2.11 – Dhyannaheya tadvrttayah
dhyana – meditation, reflection, attention, observation
heyah – to abandon, desert, relinquish, emit, renounce, abstain
tad – their
vrttayah – fluctuations, movements, operations
The fluctuations of consciousness created by gross and subtle afflictions are to be silenced through meditation.
Tapas removes the gross afflictions, svadhyaya removes the subtle afflictions and ishvara pranidhana removes the most subtle obstacles.

How to Meditate.
The first chapter of the Yoga Sutras gives seven suggestions on how to meditate:
Y.S.1.33 -  Be happy for the happiness of others, be compassionate when they are not happy, When they are vitruous, be encouraging and be indifferent when they are not.
Y.S.1.34 - Use an object of meditation such as a candle flame, a flower, a deity or a crystal to focus the mind.
Y.S.1.35 -  Practice Ujjayi breathing techniques.
Y.S.1.36 -  Focus on the light within your own heart, the seat of the soul.
Y.S.1.37 - Contemplate sages whom you admire, who were calm and tranquil and free from desires and attachments.
Y.S.1.38 - Learn the technique of lucid dreaming
Y.S.1.39 - Or, if any of these techniques don’t work, meditate on anything you choose.

I once had a yoga student who told me that a teacher told him that he was meditating wrong. This was several years before I had read these Yoga Sutras, but I strongly believed that what he was told couldn’t possibly be true. There are lineages that have developed particular techniques that have proven track records, but there is a great variety from one lineage to another. I believe, and these sutras seem to corroborate that, if one system of meditation does not work for you, try another until you find a practice that you can maintain.

Chapter 2 – Sadhana Pada: The Chapter on Practice. Y.S. 2.1 Effort, surrender and letting go. All in one sutra.

In the first chapter Patanjali gives us the theoretical aim of yoga, to control the vrittis (thought forms) of the mind. This chapter can be divided into several headings: the different kinds of thought forms, the practices to control them and the different kinds of superconscious experiences, culminating in the highest experience of Samadhi, or enlightenment. But, it is not that easy to get to Samadhi. The second chapter tells the student how to prepare him/herself by laying the proper foundation, then gradually building until that level is reached.

Y.S. 2.1 Tapah svadhyaya ishvara pranidhanani kriya yogah
Tapas – heat, accepting pain as purification
svadhyaya - self study and the study of spiritual books
ishvara - supreme being
pranidhanani - surrendering
kriya - action
yogah - yoga

Kriya yoga, the yoga of action, which is burning zeal in practice, self study and surrender to a higher power.

Tapas is often translated as effort and is often thought of as austerity. But it stands for something different here. Tapas means “to burn or create heat”. Anything that is burned will be purified. For example, the more you fire gold, the more pure it becomes. Each time it goes into the fire, more impurities are removed.

Tapas also refers to self-discipline. Swami Satchidananda describes it this way: Normally the mind is like a wild horse tied to a chariot; the intelligence is the charioteer, the mind is the reins and the horses are the senses. The Self, or the true you, is the passenger. If the horses are allowed to gallop without reins and charioteer, the journey will not be safe for the passenger. Although control of the senses and organs often seems to bring pain in the beginning, it eventually ends in happiness. If tapas is understood in this light, we will look forward to pain; we will even thank people who cause it, since they are giving us the opportunity to steady our minds and burn out impurities.
This brings me to my favorite quote from the movie Evan Almighty. In the movie, “God” says to a woman who is leaving her husband because he is not quite the man she married: “Let me ask you something. If someone prays for patience, do you think God gives them patience? Or does he give them the opportunity to be patient? If he prayed for courage, does God give him courage, or does he give him opportunities to be courageous? If someone prayed for the family to be closer, do you think God zaps them with warm fuzzy feelings, or does he give them opportunities to love each other?

This is tapas in action.

On our yoga mat, tapas means showing up to practice, whether you feel like it or not. It also means doing the poses you don’t like. To help you learn to like those difficult poses, you are allowed to modify them and use props to make those postures more accessible. It means letting go of the drama that surrounds any discomfort and breathing into it. However, it doesn’t mean physical pain. That would go against the first yama of ahimsa or non-violence.

Self-study involves being able to see one’s true, capital “S” self. This doesn’t mean focusing on one’s own feelings and problems. Both the yoga texts and modern psychology tell us that extreme self-centeredness is one sure way to depression. Anything that will elevate your mind and remind you of your own true nature, of your inner divine self should be studied; texts such as the Yoga Sutras, the Bhagavad Gita, the Bible, the Koran. This type of self-study will take you on a journey to your inner self to help you see if you are living a life in alignment with the spiritual path you are on.

On your yoga mat, this translates into watching your physical alignment. We often think we are doing something, but only when we truly open our eyes to look and see if we really are doing what we think we are doing does the insight come. We may wonder why we are not progressing on the path. Often it is because we are out of alignment in some way. This is tough because our ego gets in the way. We are often willing to sacrifice alignment to reach a goal. Or, maybe we misunderstand what is important. In yoga you might think you are stretching yourself, but really you are stretching toward your Self.

Surrender is often the hardest spiritual practice. This is the practice of letting go of outcomes and of letting go of your own agenda. The way yoga works, the way it truly works is to dedicate your practice to a higher goal, or to dedicate your practice to others. The Bhagavad Gita tells us that we only entitled to our actions, not the fruits of our actions. An analogy is often given of a flower blooming; it doesn’t try to bloom, it just blooms.

Letting go also means letting go of your stuff. We often have much more stuff than we need and letting go of it is hard. The inability to let go is another way of being stuck. In order to let go of stuff means letting go of memories, of the past, of possibilities that once were. Not letting go is another way of staying stuck. There is this saying about not being able to reach into the future if you cannot let go of the past.
On your yoga mat, this means to do your poses in your best possible alignment, with your heart and soul and to not worry if you achieve the final form of the posture. Most of us get hung up on the final form of the posture and don’t value the intermediate steps. I can see this when I ask people to slow down and not go into the final pose right away. If they can do the pose, most people find it hard to restrain themselves. When we stretch ourselves, the goal is not to stretch towards the pose, the goal is to stretch toward the Self.

Surrender is also the ability to relax. We practice this at the end of every class in Savasana. Many times when I adjust people in Savasana I feel their tension. As I lift their arm, I feel them helping me and their arm feels stiff. If they were relaxed and I was to let go, the arm should fall to the floor, but it often remains held rigidly in the air. This is because there is so much tension in our lives. We often feel as if we are on guard protecting ourselves. Savasana is where we can practice letting go.

Pose of the Month for April - Bakasana to Sirsasana II

This month we will focus on two poses and the transition between them.  You need to develop proficiency in each one separately before trying to move from one to the other.  Especially since the transition requires that you are able to balance in headstand without the support of the wall.

Sirsasana II

This is also called Tripod Headstand.  Because you are on your hands instead of your forearms, this takes more muscular strength in your arms.  Some people may prefer this headstand over Sirsasana I, or Forearm Headstand, due to tightness in their shoulders that prevents them from raising their arms overhead.  It is nice to be able to do both, they each use different muscles and have different purposes.  This helps to make you a well rounded practitioner.

Sirsasana II prep on left, Sirsasana I on right

While I would ordinarily ask students to double their mats for extra padding for Sirsasana I, I would not recommend it for this version.  First, we will not be holding Headstand for that long and second, the extra padding makes the foundation less stable which will make the transition from one pose to the other harder.

In order to come into any Headstand, you need to know which part of your head should be on the floor.  The perfect spot is on the top of the head, at the very crown.  This spot is also known as the bregma, which is a Greek word meaning the top of the head. You could balance a book on your head on this spot and it wouldn’t fall off.  Anatomically this is the spot where the frontal bone and parietal bones meet.

How to find which part of your head rests on the floor in Headstand.

Here is a good rule of thumb for finding this spot.  Place the heel of your hand at the bridge of your nose and allow the fingers to curl over the top of your head.  The spot where your middle finger touches is mostly likely the bregma.  However you locate this spot, you need to make sure that your neck rises straight up from this spot when you are in headstand.  Remember that Headstand is just an upside down version of Tadasana.  You would not want your neck to be bent while it was carrying the weight of your body.

Coming into Tripod Headstand

To come into Sirsasana II, kneel on your mat.  Sit back on your heels with your knees together.  Place your hands on the floor next to your knees. Make sure the palms are flat and the fingers spread wide and your inner wrists are against your outer knees. Keeping your hands where they are, bend forward and place the top of your head onto the floor.  Pause here and make sure you can see your finger tips without having to swivel your head.  If you cannot see your finger tips, your hands are too close to your head and your foundation will not be stable.  The placement of your hands and head should form the three corners of an equilateral triangle.  Check to see that your elbows are as wide as your shoulders and not wider or narrower and that your forearm and upper arms form a right angle.  Please do not attempt to go up into Headstand if these alignment marks are not in place; adjust yourself until they are.  Once you are certain of the alignment of your foundation, proceed with the next step.

Lift your hips up as if you are coming into Down Dog but keep your head and hands where they are.  Keep walking your feet in and your hips up until you cannot walk in any closer.  Bend one knee and place that knee on your elbow and when you are ready, do the same with the other knee.  Rest here for a few breaths.  When you are ready, keep lifting your hips and engaging your core until your knees begin to lift up off of your elbows.  Keep lifting until the back is straight and your buttocks are up in the air, but your knees are still bent.  When you are ready, slowly take one leg up at a time until you are in Headstand.  Take a few breaths here.

Bakasana

To come down, you can either take one straight leg down at a time, or you can try to come down the way you went up; by bending your knees and trying to land your knees on your elbows.  Pause here for a moment and when you are ready try to lift your head off the floor.  You will most likely land on your feet.  This is the beginning of how you come out of Headstand and transition into Crow.

Come into a squat and place your hands on the floor inside of your knees.  Rise up high onto the balls of your feet.  Bend your elbows and work one elbow under each shin, keeping your heels and your buttocks close together.  Begin to tip your weight forward as you move your elbows over your wrists.  If you move your head and shoulders far enough forward, you feet should become light.  It is a good idea to put a blanket, bolster or a block on the floor in front of you in case you tip over.  This can happen, especially in the beginning.  Once you get the hang of it you won’t fall again, it is like riding a bicycle in that aspect.

Typically when you come into Crow, you squeeze your inner thighs and the tips of your toes together and look up.  This squeezing action helps your legs hug onto your arms by engaging the adductor muscles in your inner thighs and the looking up helps you balance.   Once you are balancing, you would begin to push the floor away and try straightening your arms as you draw your belly in and up rounding your back like you do in “cat back”.   Make sure you are comfortable in Crow and can balance for a while before you try the transition into Headstand.

Transitions

It is easier to go from Tripod Headstand into Bakasana at first.  One way to do this from Headstand is to bring your knees down to your elbows and then try to raise your head off of the floor.  You will almost always fall back onto your feet.  The trick is to pause halfway in between.  One of the ways I do this is to flatten my back a little and allow my feet and knees to come apart slightly.  This lowers my center of gravity and makes it easier to get my head off the floor.  Once my head is off the floor, I need to look forward, draw my low belly in and squeeze my feet and knees back together.  If I look forward and press down into my hands I can hover here for a while, if not I just tip back onto my feet, again.  You have to keep trying to slow the motion down until you can stall it.

To go from Crow to Headstand is a little scarier because you are purposefully lowering your head to the floor.  You want to do that softly and in control.  In the beginning, when it might not be so graceful you might can put some padding there like a blanket, block or bolster.  But once you can make the transition smoothly, remove the extra padding under your head as it could get in the way.

Begin by coming Crow and as you get ready to come into Headstand, allow your back to flatten and feet and legs to come apart a little.  This will bring your head closer to the floor so you won’t bump your head down hard.  Tuck your chin and lower the top of your head onto the floor.  Breathe.  Then begin to draw your low belly in and up as you begin to lift your knees off of your elbows and your buttocks up into the air.  Balance here for a moment before lifting your legs up slowly into Headstand.  You can do this one leg at a time, or both at the same time as you are able.  Just make sure that you don’t hold your breath as this builds too much internal pressure.

These advanced moves take some time to master, so be patient and try to have fun while playing safely.

What Does Practice Do? Yoga Sutras 1.40 to 1.51

Everything we think do or say creates karma; impressions that color the world and make us see it as we think it is, or how we want it to be, rather than as it truly exists. The point of practice is to become like a gardener and weed out these seeds, to be able to see the world as neutral. As Shakespeare said, “There is nothing that is good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” Whether we see something as good or bad is dependent on our karma, or which seeds are ripening at any particular time. One of the easiest books to read about seeds is How Yoga Works, by Geshe Michael Roche.

Y.S. 1.40 Paramanu paramamahattvantah asya vasikarah
Paramanu an infinitesimal, a particle, an atom
paramamahattvantah most distant, most excellent,highest, best, greatest
asya of this
vasikarah bringing into subjugation, havinf mastery over passions, or in one’s power

This sutra describes how the ordinary mind is transformed into a super-mind, where nothing is beyond comprehension. The mind can follow and understand then simple and the complex, the infinite and the infinitesimal, the perceptible and the imperceptible.

Y.S. 1.41 Ksinavrtteh abhijatatasya iva maneh grahitr grahanagrahyesutatstha tadanjanata samapattih
Ksina dissolving of the gunas: tamas, rajas and sattva
vrtteh modifications, fluctuations
abhijatatasya inborn, noble, courteous, polite
iva like
maneh a gem, flawless crystal
grahitr knower, taker, perceiver
grahana act of seizing, catching, accepting
grahyesu to be known
tatstha becoming stable
tadanjanata acquiring or taking the shape of the seen or the known
samapattih transformation, assuming the original form, consummation

When the mind is free from distraction, it is possible for all the mental processes to be involved in the object of inquiry. As one remains in this state, gradually one becomes immersed in the object. The mind then, like a flawless diamond, reflects only the features of the object and nothing else. The yogi realizes that the knower, the instrument of knowing and the known are one, himself, the seer.

Y.S. 1.42 Tatra sabdartha jnana vikalpaih samkirna savitarka samapattih
Tatra there
sabda word
artha purpose, aim, meaning
jnana knowing, knowledge, intelligence
vikalpaih an option, imagination, the act of allowing a rule to be observed or not as one pleases
samkirna poured together, mixed together
savitarka becoming totally engrossed, thoughtful
samapattih transformation

At this stage, called savitarka samapatti, the word, meaning and content are blended and become special knowledge

Y.S. 1.43 Smrti parisuddhau svarupasunya arthamatra nirbhasa nirvitarka
Smrti memory
parisuddhau completely cleansed, purest of minds
svarupasunya devoid of one’s nature
iva as it were
arthamatranirbhasa shining alone in purest form
nirvitarka unreflecting, unconsidered, without analysis or logic

In nirvitarka samapatti, the difference between memory and intellectual illumination is disclosed, memory is cleansed and consciousness shines without reflection. The mind becomes crystal clear and at one with the object. At this moment there is no feeling of oneself. This is pure perception.

Y.S. 1.44 Etayaiva savicara nirvicara ca suksma visaya vyakhyata
Etaya by this
eva also
savicara reflection, deliberation, consideration, investigation
nirvicara without reflection, not needing any consideration
ca and
suksmavisaya subtle object, subtle thing
vyakhyata related, explained, expounded, commented upon.

The contemplation of subtle aspects is similarly explained as deliberate, savicara samapatti or non-deliberate nirvicara samapatti

Y.S. 1.45 Suksma visayatvam ca alinga paryavasanam
Suksma subtle
visayatvam object
ca and
alinga having no characteristic mark, unmanifested form
paryavasanam ending

The subtlest level of nature is consciousness. When consciousness dissolves in nature, it loses all marks and becomes pure. By exploring the subtle particles of nature, consciousness reaches its goal. This is the state of the cessation of the fluctuations of the mind which is mentioned in the second Sutra. This state is considered to be the crossroads of Self-Realization.

Y.S. 1.46 Ta eva sabijas samadhih
Ta they
eva only
sabijas with seed
samadhih profound meditation or absorption

The states of Samadhi described in the previous sutras are dependent upon a support or seed and are termed sabija. These states are dependent on an object which includes the intelligence (buddhi) and the “I” principle (asmita). Their seed is the core of the being.
The six samapattis mentioned so far belong to functions of the brain. The source of analysis (savitarka) or absence of analysis (nirvitarka)is the frontal brain. For investigation and examination (savicara) or absence of them (nirvicara) the source is the back of the brain. The source of joy (ananda) is the base of the brain and of individuality (asmita) the top of the brain.

Through the disciplines of yoga, the practitioner (sadaka) transforms his attention from the gross to the subtle. When he reaches the apex of nature, the brain being a part of nature, he attains perfection in controlling the modes of consciousness. He is able to sop all functions of the brain, deliberate and non-deliberate at will. That is why it is termed Samadhi with seed.

Is it possible for an individual to reach this state of yoga? Yes, but it is important that they prepare themselves carefully, that they commit to steady practice and sustained interest to make progress. Without preparation there can be no foundation. And without gradual progression, the human system may react and rebel.

Y.S. 1.47 nirvicara vaisaradye dhyatma prasadah
nirvicara non-reflection, or reflection without seeds
vaisaradye I skillfulness, profound knowledge
dhyatma supreme soul (manifested as an individual soul) the relation between the supreme and individual soul
prasadah clearness, brightness

From proficiency in nirvicara samapatti comes purity. Sattva or luminosity flows undisturbed, kindling the spiritual light of the self. Or, then the individual begins to truly know himself.

Y.S. 1.48 rtambhara tatra prajna
rtambhara upholding truth, full of truth
tatra therein
prajna faculty of insight, wisdom

When consciousness dwells in wisdom, a truth-bearing state of direct spiritual perception dawns. What the practitioner sees and shares with others is free from error.

Y.S. 1.49 Sruta anumana prajna abhyam anya visaya visesa arthatvat
Sruta heard, listened or ascertained
anumana inference, conjecture
prajnabhyam from the wisdom of insight
anyavisaya other object
visesa peculiar, distinguishing between, special property
arthatvat object, purpose, aim, end

Knowledge is no longer based on memory or inference. It is spontaneous, direct and at a level and intensity that is beyond the ordinary.

Y.S. 1.50 Tajjas samskarro anyasamskara pratibandhi
Tajjas Born or sprung from
samskarro conception, instinct, formation in the mind, impressions acquired by effort are subliminal (samskara), and recollecting them is an impression or memory.
anyasamskara other impressions, other conceptions or formations
pratibandhi contradicting, objecting, impeding

A new life begins with this truth-bearing light. Previous impressions are left behind and new ones are prevented.

Y.S. 1.51 Tasyapi nirodhe sarva nirodhat nirbijah Samadhi
Tasyapi that too
nirodhe by shutting, closing, restraining, destroying, by cessation
sarva all
nirodhat checking, suppressing, destrouing
nirbijah seedless
Samadhi profound meditation

When that new light of wisdom is also relinquished, seedless Samadhi dawns.
The practitioner must learn to restrain even this new impression of truth-bearing light. When both old and new impressions are dissolved, a state of seedless enlightenment arises, in which all allusions and delusions terminate. This is nirbijah Samadhi, the state of absolute identity with the seer. This is the ultimate state of Samadhi.

Such comprehension is not sought. It comes inevitably and nothing can stop it. This state cannot be described in words. Only those who have reached this state can comprehend it.

The Plateau

Yoga is experienced mostly on a plateau.

When you first start your yoga practice students often experience immediate results. What you are doing now is so different than before that you can’t help but notice the shift. You may initially be sore in places you never felt before. But then you fall into a routine. You may have a habit of going to class 3 days a week and once your body adjusts to that you have a new normal. You tend to be there for a while. It feels good. You are stronger and more flexible than you were before.

But then you want more, you crave the feeling of that initial shift. You want the next level of insight, that deeper feeling. Now is the time to practice patience. It takes a while for your body to completely remodel itself from the inside. We have to marinate in this new state for a while.

This is the first of many plateaus. You need to be content on the plateau as your body remodels itself. But then something needs to shift. Exercise physiology tells us that we need to change up our routine every 8 weeks or so, otherwise we fall into a rut, we become acclimated to doing the work. So what needs to shift? Either frequency, intensity, or alignment/insight.

Can you change the frequency? If you only practice yoga by taking classes, then you may not be able to change the frequency. You may be limited when classes are offered and by your time and ability to get there. At some point, if you want change, you need to start practicing yoga at home. This may allow you to practice more frequently as well as allow you to practice the things that you want to work on. Plus, by practicing at home, you save the commute time.

Can you change the intensity? One of the obstacles to moving off of the plateau and into the next level is that we start to go on auto-pilot. In class, I have been asking people not to rest their elbow on their knee in Side Angle Pose. If you always rest your elbow on your knee in this pose, you will never go any deeper. Your hamstrings won’t get the extra stretch and your quads will get used to the level of demand you are putting on them. If you have to reach to a block, you might be reaching a little bit further and this little bit can be the thing that moves you off of the plateau. I know that putting your hand onto the floor or on a block is harder than resting your elbow on your knee, but that is part of the effort or tapas that can move you to the next level.|

How about insight and alignment? If you can’t seem to be able to get your hand to a block or onto the floor in Side Angle Pose, it is time to look at what you are doing in the pose. Is your front knee bent 90 degrees, or does it just feel like it is? Look in a mirror, or have a friend take a picture and look at yourself objectively. You may be surprised at what you are doing as opposed to what you think you are doing. If you take a picture of yourself in a pose, compare your pose to a pose in a book like Light on Yoga. How does your pose differ from the picture? What would you have to work on to make it more similar?  Are you in alignment?

As you dive deeper into yoga, you may start to pay attention to the other seven limbs: yama (how you treat others), niyama (observances for yourself), pranayama (breathing practices), pratyhara (withdrawal of the sense), dharana (concentration), dhyana (meditation) and Samadhi (absorption). Physical progress can be halted by not attending to the other aspects of our life and health. These other limbs of moral and ethical behavior, as well as paying attention to the breath, concentration, self-study and meditation have a subtle, but profound effect on the physical body.

It is also important to allow yourself to be on a plateau. Maybe you cannot commit any more time or effort into your yoga practice. You may find yourself in a good spot and you just want to maintain that. That is fine. Stay there and marinate in your practices. YOu may find that, even there, things eventually begin to shift ever so slightly.

And finally, “Yoga will never work if we just do it for ourselves, it has to be for something bigger.” - From How Yoga Works by Geshe Michael Roche.

Pose of the Month for March – Focus on the Core

Yoga is a balance of strength and flexibility.  We need to be strong but not rigid.  Being strong gives us a firm foundation and clear boundaries.  Being rigid keeps us stuck, frozen in one place, unable to change and grow.  In being flexible, we need to be resilient, able to go with the flow, but not so flexible that we can be pushed over.  This is as true in our yoga postures as it is in life.

We will begin this month developing our strength by working our core.  Our core connects our upper body and lower body together.  This is so important in keeping our spine healthy and strong especially as we reach and stretch our extremities in different directions. A strong core is helpful when you are reaching in the back seat of your car to pick something up, or if you are practicing arm balances in your yoga class.

Psychologically our core represents our sense of self esteem and integrity.  This is the home of the third chakra.  Tapping into our core means tapping into our internal guidance system.  Can you remain true to yourself as you weigh outside influences?

There are specific exercises that work on the core such as Boat Pose, Plank or Intense Stomach Churning Posture.  But, every pose that we do has some aspect of core engagement.  Your abdominal muscles should be engaged to integrate the actions of the upper body and lower body in poses like Warrior II, Tree or Half Moon.

In any yoga pose there are any number of points you could focus on: the feet, your gaze or drishti, the breath or even the sensations in your skin.  But this month we will focus on the core.  Be prepared to get stronger, but also be prepared to be challenged!

This month’s question: What causes “clicking” in my back during certain twisting movements in yoga?

This clicking noise often happens when you twist.  Twisting involves rotation of the spinal vertebrae.  Each vertebrae has a couple of degrees of possible rotation.  The vertebra in the neck have the most movement at an average of 7.9 degrees for each vertebra.  The thoracic vertebrae average only 2.9 degrees each.  The lumbar vertebrae have the least amount of rotation at approximately 1 degree each.*

Each vertebra touches the vertebrae directly above and below it with a part called the articular facet.  There are four of these parts, two on the upper part of the vertebra and two on the lower part. These facets help keep the vertebrae aligned.  (There are also many muscles and ligaments that keep the vertebrae aligned, so there is no danger of them slipping entirely out of place!) But in certain twisting actions these facets can slip against each other making this clicking noise.  I know I felt these same slight movements and heard these sounds and in my own body.  While these sounds are relatively harmless when they happen occasionally, they are not something that should happen every time you twist.

It is important to not use a lot of leverage when you twist.  The arms are used in most seated or standing twists and gravity is used in most supine twists.   You need to be judicious in the use of the arms to let them add ease to the movement of the twist and in the engagement of the muscles rather than being aggressive in forcing the body to twist further.  This over-rotating happens at certain vulnerable points in the spine, such as at the juncture of T-11 and T-12.

This is especially important in supine twists where gravity is pulling on the weight of the body.  If the oblique muscles are not strong enough and you allow your body to drop over into the twist as opposed to lowering it into the twist, you can create a lot of shear force between the vertebrae and those facet joints will click against each other trying to hold the spine in good alignment.  When twisting with gravilty, lower the body part slowly and with control.  Make sure you are keeping your abdominal muscles engaged as you twist.  For example, when you are lying on your back and twisting your legs to the right in Jathara Parivartanasana, as you lower your legs to the right, turn your navel to the left.  If you only go as far as you can slowly and with abdominal control, and your opposite shoulder staying on the ground, you will find that your back no longer clicks.  You also may be surprised that you don’t go very far!  This is ok.  Build your strength and range of motion over time.  Flexibility without strength creates instability.

If you sit in an easy cross legged pose and rotate to the right, slowly without using your hands or arms, you may find that you do not go very far.  This is the limit of your range of twisting using your muscles.  Try twisting to the left to see if there is any difference between one side and the other.  You probably don’t get that clicking noise when you do this upright twist. Take this knowledge and awareness into twists where you use your arms and/or gravity and twist mindfully.

There are two other things that are important in twisting, one is to keep your spine long and straight.  You don’t want to increase the leverage on any given vertebra by bending it as you twist it.  The other thing is to draw your belly button towards your spine and engage your muscles in the opposite direction of your twist.

You want to develop your core muscles in twisting and to only twist as far as you can go without that clicking noise.  Your strength and range of motion can increase over time.  Try these exercises and see if that stops or reduces the clicking in your spine.  Let me know how it is working for you, or if you have any further questions by leaving your comments in the space below this post.

*Mel Robin, A Handbook for Yogasana Teachers:  The Incorporation of Neuroscience, Physiology and Anatomy into the Practice.

The Yoga Sutras – 1.33– 1.39 Examples of Practice to Still Your Mind

We think we know the nature of our minds, but by reading through this first chapter of the Yoga Sutras, it is clear to me that unless we understand how the mind works, we are at its mercy.

My foray into the Yoga Sutras has been very enlightening.  I see this text as the origin of a lot of the tidbits of information I know about yoga; things that I say and often believe in, but never knew exactly where this knowledge came from.   It is interesting to see where I am on the path of yoga and validating to see how far I have come.  It is also humbling to see the stumbling blocks that these threads so clearly expose!

This part of the Sutras is a continuation of the practices to help you develop a tranquil mind.    In summary these practices include:

1.33  Being pleased with others who are happier than ourselves, compassionate toward those who are unhappy, joyful with those who are doing praiseworthy things and undisturbed by the errors of others.  This is one of those simple but not easy practices!  Some of the rest of these practices are things that you actually have to do, like meditate or practice pranayama.  But all you have to do to practice this sutra is to live your life and be out in the world among others.  Can you be happy for those who got their power back before you did after the snowstorm last week?  Or maybe even be really happy for those who never lost power in the first place?  Maybe you notice how irate you get at another driver who is doing something “wrong”.    Or, there is the German word schadenfreude which means to derive pleasure from someone else’s pain.  All of these things cause our minds to lose their tranquility.

1.34  Pranayama or regulation of the breath.  The breath is the greatest indicator of the state of the mind.  It is connected to both the sympathetic and the parasympathetic nervous system.  This means that your breath is both part of your conscious and unconscious mind.  By focusing on the breath you can relax your mind and by noticing the breath, you have a reliable witness to your state of mind.

1.35  By truly being present with whatever experience you are having, focusing on your senses and your direct experience.  In other words, don’t multi-task. Try being present the whole time while peeling an eating an orange.  In his book, Into the Magic Shop, author and neurosurgeon James Doty writes that we are not present and lose our attention on average 6 times a minute!

1.36  By meditating on the creative expression of peace/God/love/light/oneness within you.  This is the practice of connecting to something higher than yourself and seeing our inter-connectedness as a whole.

1.37  By contemplating enlightened sages who have walked this path before us, or by simply emulating a person you respect and admire.

1.38   By paying attention to your dreams. Dreaming is another state of consciousness and it is possible to harness the power of your dreams. Practitioners of lucid dreaming say that you can use this technique as a tool for problem solving, self-healing, and personal growth.

1.39  By meditating deeply on one thing, it is possible to extrapolate about other things.  Here Patanjali gives us permission to study and meditate on any object of our choosing,  One of my yoga students once told me that a teacher told him that he was meditating wrong.  While he may have been meditating in a different way from that teacher's lineage, I don't believe that, if you are meditating, you can be doing it incorrectly.  Patanjali also counsels us to stick with whatever method of meditation we have chosen and not waste time by trying many different things.  This is the concept of digging one 100 foot deep hole rather than digging one hundred 1 foot deep holes.  This sutra relates to the concept of mastery being the equivalent of putting in 10,000 hours of work and study.  It also counsels us to practice restraint by being aware of  the arrogance that can come along with the great gift of knowledge and practice.  This means that just because we can perform advanced asana or we don't eat certain things, that we should not hold that out as our being superior over others.

The Single Best Therapeutic Yoga Pose for General Knee Problems

Last week I talked about some general reasons for why knees can hurt and I gave you some simple exercises that you can do on your own. You can also do these at the beginning of class if you get there a few minutes early. There are certain simple therapeutic exercises that I do every day for my own issues.

Also, I’d like to invite any of you with knee problems who do come to class a few minutes early to let me set you up in a basic supportive posture for your knees. All you have to do is ask!