Ego and the Current State of Humanity

Words, Tolle points out, no matter whether they are vocalized and made into sounds or remain unspoken as thoughts, can cast an almost hypnotic spell on you.  You can easily lose yourself in them, become hypnotized into implicitly believing that when you have attached a word to something, you know what it is.  The fact is: You don’t know what it is.  You have only covered up the mystery with a label.  Everything, a bird, a tree, even a simple stone and certainly a human being, is ultimately unknowable.  This is because it has unfathomable depth. All we can perceive, experience, think about, is the surface layer of reality, less than the tip of an iceberg.

Words help create form.  Ego is always identification with form, seeking yourself and thereby losing yourself in some form.  Forms could be material objects, but they could also be the forms of thought that continuously arise in the field of consciousness.  The following list are some examples some of the forms that we identify with.

Words and labeling – allow us to pretend we know something because we have identified it and attached a label to it.  It fits into our preconceived idea of what it is.  It allows us to not dig any deeper.

Possessive pronouns.  Once we attach the words: I, me and mine to anything, it becomes a part of who we think we are and shores up our ego.  If something happens to our stuff, we suffer because our stuff is an extension of ourselves.

The voices in our head.  Often we confuse the thoughts swirling around in our heads with who we are.  This coincides with the Cartesian idea of “I think, therefore I am.”  But, Jean Paul Sartre had the insight, long after the yogis did, that the consciousness that says “I am” is not the consciousness that thinks.  The only truth is that “I Am.”  If you identify with the thoughts in your head, you are lost in ego.  If you realize that you are not your thoughts, you are beginning enter into a new state of consciousness.

Identification with things and wanting more– Our ego often gets caught up in the identification with things.  The ego sees the car we drive or the clothes we wear, or the house we live in as a definition of who we are.  This identification with things can lead to wanting more as the newness of things wears off, or others acquire things that we think we should have.

Identification with the body.  The body is another symbol of impermanence.  What happens when youth, good looks and athletic prowess fade?  Who are we then?

The illusion of ownership – having vs. being.  The ego identifies having with Being.  I have, therefore I am.  But our satisfaction with having is relatively shallow and short-lived.  Concealed within it remains a deep-seated sense of dissatisfaction, of incompleteness, of “not enough”.  “I don’t have enough, yet.” By which the ego really means, “I am not enough, yet.”  We all know that expression, “You can’t take it with you.”  So what does it mean to really own something?  And if we lose what we own, are we diminished in any way?

Awakening can arise out of a sense of Being

Being.  Feeling the inner body or life energy = being.  Body awareness , not body identification, not only anchors you in the present moment, it is a doorway out of the prison that is the ego.  It also strengthens the immune system and the body’s ability to heal itself.  Body awareness is feeling the life force in your body.  Feeling that life force and that part of you that is aware that you are aware, is one of the first steps towards Being and Awakening.

Awakening can often happen after a sense of loss.

When forms that you had identified with, that gave you a sense of self, collapse or are taken away, it can lead to a collapse of the ego, since ego is identification with form.  When there is nothing left to identify with anymore, who are you?  When forms around you die or death approaches, you sense of Beingness, of I Am, is freed from its entanglement with form.  Spirit is released from its imprisonment with matter.  You realize your essential identity as formless, as an all-pervasive Presence, of Being prior to all forms, all identifications.  You realize your true identity as consciousness itself, rather than what consciousness had identified with.  That’s the peace of God.  The ultimate truth of who you are is not I am this or I am that, but I am.

Loss can cause an awakening, a dis-identification with form. However, it is also possible to create a strong attachment to being a victim of loss which can create a new contracted and more rigid form of ego.  Whenever loss occurs, you either resist it or you yield.  Some people become bitter or deeply resentful; others become compassionate, wise and loving.  Yielding means inner acceptance of what is. You are open to life.  Resistance is an inner contraction, a hardening of the shell of the ego.  You are closed.  Whatever action you take in a state of inner resistance (negativity) will create more outer resistance and the universe will not be on your side; life will not be helpful.  When you yield internally, when you surrender, a new dimension of consciousness opens up. If action is possible or necessary, your action will be in alignment with the whole and supported by creative intelligence, the unconditioned consciousness which in a state of inner openness you become one with.  Circumstances and people become helpful, cooperative.  Coincidences happen.  If no action is possible, you rest in the peace and inner stillness that come with surrender.  You rest in God.

Yoga and Jet Lag

Sure, yoga can make us stronger and more flexible, but the postures can do so much more for us if we know how to use them.  Each group of poses has a different energy and each pose within that group evokes that energy in very specific ways.  Knowing how to work with the energy of the poses can help you with such things as overcoming jet lag.

Conventional wisdom suggests that for each time zone you cross, it takes one day to adjust.  So, traveling can leave you unable to fall asleep at the right time and/or groggy and lethargic when it is time to get going.

To work with jet lag, it is helpful to know which poses are energizing and which ones are quieting.  This knowledge can help you fall asleep or help clear out your brain fog.  Otherwise, your yoga practice can work against what you are trying to do.  You can also use specific yoga poses to open the hips and relieve the low back which are two other problems associated with travel.

General categories of poses

Sun Salutes are energizing.  Use any variation of Sun Salute, even if you make up your own, to help get you going in the morning or during a mid afternoon slump.  Don’t use them at night, however, as they may stimulate you so much that you have trouble falling asleep.

Standing Poses are grounding and energizing.  They help connect our legs and feet to the ground and to the time and place we are in.  They help us establish pose and presence.

Standing Balancing Poses are focusing and energizing.  If you are truly jet lagged and exhausted, you may find it difficult to balance.  In that case, work on Standing Poses and your core and then see if your balance improves.  Or, just give yourself a day or two and try again.

Hand and Arm Balances are energizing and empowering.  They can help you feel strong and confident.  Use these poses to help get your ready to take on your new surroundings. Make sure you warm up before tackling this category of poses.  Do a few sun salutes with some time in Down Dog, at least.  Doing handstands without warming up properly is very hard on your shoulders, wrists and elbows which are not accustomed to holding all of your body weight.

Inversions refer to Head Stand and Shoulder Stand.  These poses are often done together and counter balance each other.  Leave them out if they are not part of your regular practice.  Head Stand is fiery and focusing.  Shoulder Stand is nurturing and relaxing.  Headstand clears your head and dispels extraneous energy which allows you to calm and quiet down in Shoulder Stand.  These two poses together are often prescribed or sleeplessness.  However, it is important to prepare yourself properly before doing Head Stand: do Child’s Pose, Down Dog and Standing Forward Bend to help regulate your blood pressure before going upside down in Head Stand.

Hip Openers are used to relieve the legs and low back from a lot of sitting.  These are poses like Cobbler’s Pose, Seated Wide Legs, Cow Face Pose and the Pigeon variations.

Back Bends are energizing and opening.  Do these in the morning and not at night as even restorative Back Bends can energize you.

Twists are great poses.  They often relieve minor low back discomfort.  But their best attribute is that they change energy.  Twists can release excess energy and calm you down, or they can get the blood flowing and stimulate you.  So, if you are ever unsure of where to start, try a couple of twists and see where that takes you.

Seated Poses are calming and quieting.  They can also help ground you as you are physically closer to the ground than even in standing poses.  They also help get you ready to be more passive and still.  Vertical poses are more stimulating and the closer you get to horizontal, the less stimulating poses can be.  (except in  low back bends like Cobra.  Contracting the spinal muscles against gravity takes an enormous amount of effort and will.)

Forward Bends are introspective and quieting postures.  These are best done at night to get ready for bed.

Restorative Poses can help calm you down.  Travelling can be invigorating and exciting, but often it stimulates our adrenaline.  We need to lower our adrenaline levels to help get to sleep.  This category of poses can help you do that.  And you don’t need to carry a whole host of yoga props with you.  Our hotel room will often have extra blankets, pillows or chair cushions that you can use to prop yourself up pretty comfortable.

Pranayama also can help you get energized or relaxed.  In general, focusing on the inhalation is stimulating and energizing; focusing on the exhalation is more calming and quieting.  Most people are familiar with alternate nostril breath as in Nadi Shodhana Pranayama.  Breathing in this way is very balancing to the nervous system.  However, there are two similar forms of digital pranayama (This is where you use your fingers, or digits, to open and close the nostrils.  In Surya Bhedna Pranayama, you place your hand in front of your nose, as you do in Nadi Shodhana, but you only inhale through the right nostril, while closing off the left and exhale through the left nostril, while closing off the right.  YOu can repeat this for a half a dozen rounds or whatever seems appropriate and comfortable to you.  Surya is the sun channel and like the sun it signifies daytime and activity.  In Chandra Bhedna Pranayama, you use your hand again, as you do in Nadi Shodhana, but this time you close off the right as you inhale through the left.  Then you close off the left and exhale through the right.  Repeat for a few rounds.  Chandra is the moon channel and like the moon it signifies darkness, quiet, night time and sleep.

Now that you know the energy of the postures, you can make up your own routines that help you adjust to the time zone you are in.  Or, just help you feel more present and calm even if you are not changing time zones while traveling.

Poses that are energizing

Use these poses to get you going in the morning even when your native time zone is telling you it’s time to sleep.  You can also use these poses to recharge when you are experiencing that mid-afternoon slump.

Sun Salutes
Standing Poses
Standing Balancing Poses
Handstand
Arm Balances
Back Bends – particularly Bow and Wheel
Twists – particularly standing twists
Pranayama – focus on the inhale 

Poses that are quieting

Travel takes you out of your normal routine.  This makes your more alert and outwardly focused. These poses will help you turn more inward and quiet your nervous system.

Seated Poses
Forward Bends
Inversions – such as Head Stand, Shoulder Stand and Legs-up-the-Wall
Twists – particularly seated or supine twists
Restorative Poses – although sometimes restorative poses allow you to catch your second wind
Pranayama – focus on the exhale

Hip opening and low back postures

Lying Hand to Big Toe Pose – straight up, out to the side and twist
Quad stretches
Back Bends – especially Cobra, Bridge and Camel
Twists – Any: standing, seated or supine
Pigeon – and any of its variations
Seated Poses – Cobbler, Seated Wide Legs, Revolved Seated Tree
Pranayama – equal inhalation and exhalation

A note about props

I always take my yoga stuff with me when I travel. I have a thin travel mat that does not take up too much room in my suitcase.  It is not very cush, but sometimes I can place it over a rug, or use a towel to pad my knees, or whatever.  I also travel with two thin (3″) blocks and a 6′ yoga strap.  Anything else I need, I usually try to be creative with what I have in my hotel or Air BnB.   I did take my Awesome Toes with me on this trip.  They feel really good after walking around all day!

Our Inherited Dysfunction

From the Yoga Sutras:

Atha yoganusanam Y.S. I.1
With prayers for divine blessings, now begins an exposition of the sacred art of yoga.

Yogah cittavrtti nirodhah Y.S. I.2
Yoga is the cessation of the fluctuations of the mind.

Tada drastuh svarupe avasthanam Y.S. I.3
Then, the seer dwells in his own true splendor.

Vrtti sarupyam itaratra Y.S. I.4
At other times the seer identifies with the fluctuating consciousness.

In A New Earth, Tolle explains a core insight that is common to most ancient religions and spiritual traditions. That is the idea of a basic problem or dysfunction of the human mind. (see Y.S. I.4 above)

In the yogic texts of Hinduism this problem is referred to as maya, or the veil of delusion. I often talk about this in class. It comes from the Yoga Sutras and describes the kleshas, or the five afflictions of the mind. These are the citta vrttis of the mind from Y.S. I.2 above. The first, and most important of these is avidya, or not seeing things clearly.

Avidya asmita raga dvesha abhinivesha klesha. Y.S. II.3
Avidya – ignorance
asmita – self-centeredness
raga – attachment
dvesha – aversion
abhinivesha –fear of death
klesha – afflictions, impediments, obstacles

The five afflictions which disturb the equilibrium of consciousness are: ignorance or lack of wisdom, ego, pride of the ego or the sense of “I”, attachment to pleasure, aversion to pain, fear of death and clinging to life.

In Buddhism this fundamental problem is referred to as suffering, or dukkha. The important thing to remember about dukkha is that it will manifest in every situation, good or bad, sooner or later.

According to Christian teachings, there is the idea that we are all born with an “original sin” (fundamental problem). Over time the word has come to mean that we did something that was bad, and maybe on purpose. But Tolle points out that the original meaning of the word, from the ancient Greek, in which the New Testament was written, means to miss the mark, or to miss the point. It means to live unskillfully and thus to cause suffering.

Tolle points out a lot of suffering in the world is caused by this first delusion. He calls this the bad news. This first problem is the cause of destructive, cruel wars motivated by fear, greed and the desire for power which have been common occurrences throughout human history, as have slavery, torture and widespread violence inflicted for religious and ideological reasons. As you can see from the sutra above that the rest of the kleshas follow from the first. You cannot eradicate the other four without acknowledging the first.

Often we are unaware of these states in ourselves or others. We cannot see when we are motivated by fear, greed or the desire for power. We are simply aware that we are suffering.  These are symptoms of the inner dysfunction that every human carries within: the ego, which is the second klesha.

The second core insight in A New Earth is the good news. And that is that our normal state of mind can be transcended. In Hinduism this is called enlightenment, in Christianity it is called salvation and it is the end of suffering in Buddhism. Liberation and awakening are two other terms used to describe this process. This is the promise of Y.S. I.3 above.

In the past, there were a few enlightened beings that emerged: Buddha, Jesus, Lao Tzu. They have sown the seeds for future people to awaken from the dysfunction of their minds. The world was not yet ready for these teachings, although they were a vital and necessary part of human awakening. Their teachings, over time, became distorted and misinterpreted. Many things were added that had nothing to do with the original teachings, but were reflections of a fundamental misunderstanding. Teachings that pointed the way beyond the dysfunction of the human mind, the way out of the collective insanity , were distorted and became part of the insanity itself.

Tolle’s book teaches us the way out of that insanity. He describes how the title of his book came from a reference from the Bible that appears in both the Old Testament (Isaiah 65:17) and the New Testament (Revelation 21:1) which describes the collapse of the existing world order and the arising of “a new heaven and a new earth”. He points out that heaven is not meant as a location but refers to the realm of the inner consciousness. Earth is an outer manifestation of form, which is always a reflection of the inner.

The way out of that insanity is to understand the second Yoga Sutra; to be able to see clearly the fluctuations of the mind and to recognize the dysfunction that every human being carries within: the ego.

The Flowering of Human Consciousness

In A New Earth, Ekhart Tolle describes how a flower could be said to be the enlightened stage of growth for a plant.  That the stage of flowering in  a plant’s life cycle implies a discontinuity of development, a leap to an entirely new state of being and, most important, a lessening of materiality.  He suggests that flowers play an essential part in the evolution of human consciousness.  Seeing beauty in a flower could awaken humans, however briefly to the beauty that is an essential part of their own innermost being, their true nature.

The Buddha is said to have given a silent sermon once where he held up a flower and gazed at it.  After a while, one of those present, a monk called Mahakasyapa, began to smile.  He is said to be the only one who understood the sermon.  According to legend, that smile (realization) was handed down to 28 successive masters and much later became the origin of Zen.

Tolle also describes how  the transformation of a rock to a crystal and the evolutionary process that enabled some reptiles to grow feathers and take flight as stages of enlightenment. Flowers, crystals and birds have held special significance for humans.  This can be attributed to their beautiful and ethereal quality.  We can discern some sort of divine Presence in these special forms.

People have often meditated on flowers, crystals and birds, using them as a window into the formless realm of spirit.  These enlightened forms have played an important part in the evolution of human consciousness.  Think about it: the jewel in the lotus flower is a symbol of Buddhism, and a white dove signifies the Holy Spirit in Christianity.

In this book, Eckhart Tolle asks the following questions:  Are we ready for a transformation of consciousness, an inner flowering so radical and profound that compared to the flowering of plants, no matter how beautiful, is only a pale reflection?  Can human beings lose the density of their conditioned mind structures and become like crystals or precious stones, transparent to the light of consciousness?  Can they defy the gravitational pull of materialism and rise above identification with form that keeps the ego in place and condemns them to imprisonment within their own personality?  But then he describes the necessary stages and steps we can take towards awakening.  Although the journey is simple, it isn’t easy.  But don’t let that discourage you.  The process is much like the opening of a flower; it is slow, but progressive.  No progress on the path is ever lost.  The possibility of awakening is available to all of us.  As he says in his book:  “If you are reading this, you are already on the journey.”

The importance of bending your knee 90 degrees in the bent leg standing poses.

In the standing poses there are straight leg poses and bent leg poses. In order to work the legs, and all of the muscles and joints in their full ranges of motion, it is important to commit to the bend when doing bent leg poses and to keep the leg straight when doing straight leg poses.  Bent leg poses strengthen the hamstrings and stretch the quadriceps; straight leg poses do the opposite.  There are no “hybrid” poses in yoga.  If the leg isn’t fully committed to being bent in the bent leg poses, all of the muscles surrounding the knee are tensed and the knee takes the strain.  The same thing happens in the straight leg postures when the front leg is not fully straight.  Muscles work in reciprocal pairs; when one muscle contracts the opposite one stretches.

The bent leg poses are introduced in Warrior II, Warrior I and Side Angle pose.  These three poses all have the front knee bent 90 degrees.  In the beginning, it is difficult to bend the leg that deeply.  This can be due to tight hamstrings and adductors, tight quads and even a tight psoas in the back leg.  But the depth of the bend can be increased over time. And it does have to be consciously worked on.  As a teacher, I can often assess if a student is ready for some of the more advanced postures by looking at their ability to bend their knees and open their hips in the introductory standing poses.

It is important to know what you are actually doing in these poses.  That is why I often recommend that students practice in front of a mirror. We often deceive ourselves with what we think we are doing. In Sanskrit this is called Avidya, or not seeing things clearly.  It can be eye-opening to  see what you are actually  doing.

These introductory bent leg poses lead us into the more complex postures.  The external rotation and bent leg in Warrior II is related to the external rotation and bent leg in poses such as Cobbler’s Pose, One-legged Pigeon and any of the Lotus variations.

Warrior II

Watch this Yoga Journal video to see a 360 degree view of this pose.

In Side Angle Pose, it is hard to get the hand to the floor unless the front leg is bent 90 degrees.  The stretch on the side of the body in this pose helps us to elongate and mobilize the torso for twisting.  It lays the ground work for Revolved Side Angle Pose and forward bending postures such as Seated Tree and Revolved Seated Tree.

Side Angle

Watch this Yoga Journal video to see a 360 degree view of this pose.

Warrior I prepares us for back bends and for postures where one side of the body is forward bending and the other side of the body is back bending such as it is when doing a split.  One-legged King Pigeon Pose has some aspects of this in it, too, as well as the external rotation of the front leg.

Warrior I

Watch this Yoga Journal video to see a 360 degree view of this pose.

Being able to bend your knee 90 degrees in these standing poses does not mean that you have to be able to do it today, but know where you are and where you are going.  I have seen students who have been practicing yoga for years never learn to bend their front knee 90 degrees.  And they have wondered why they have not made progress in their strength and flexibility.

Parivrtta Parsva Konasana

Parivrtta means revolved, turned round or back.
Parsva means side or flank.
Kona is an angle.

This is revolved side angle pose. It is a deep twisting posture that forms the foundation of many other twisting poses such as Parsva Bakasana, Side Crow and Eka Pada Koundinyasana I, a twisting arm balance.  As we play with this pose this month, we will see where it leads us.

Parivrtta Parsva Konasana, is related to Side Angle Pose with a twist.  It is a harder pose than Revolved Triangle Pose because of the position of the bent knee.  The bent knee locks the hips in and makes the twist start down low in the back. In Revolved Triangle Pose, the twist is more evenly spread over the length of the spine. It is for this reason that Revolved Side Angle Pose can be therapeutic for the low back.  But, it is also a caution to allow the spine to twist organically and not to try to force the twist.  We will use Revolved Triangle as a prep to come into Revolved Side Angle Pose.

The nature of twisting poses is that they change energy.  If you are feeling stuck and lethargic, twists can help you get unstuck and energize you.  On the other hand if you’re feeling wound up, twists can release energy and calm you down.

The thing about twists, however, is that when we run into difficulty in this pose we literally run into our self. Our own body gets in our way. How do we sit with the energy of that? What does it bring up for us? Does the judge or critic show up? Do we get mad or frustrated with ourselves? Do we try to use our arms for leverage and try to force ourselves into some external, or preconceived idea about ourselves? This is the interesting, inner work of the pose.

Pay attention to your breath while practicing Parivrtta Parsva Konasana.  We generally use and exhalation to come into a twist and an inhalation to come out of one.  But, notice your breath while you are in the pose.  It will be a little more restricted , but can you still breathe easily?

How to make progress in your yoga practice.

The Two Wings of Practice

Students often ask me how long it is going to take them to be able to achieve a certain pose or goal they have set for themselves.  The short answer comes from Patthabi Jois and goes like this: “Practice, practice and all is coming.”

There is the literal interpretation of this aphorism that most yoga students want to believe and that is to keep practicing and you will achieve your goal.

However, Patthabi Jois does not say to keep practicing and your results are guaranteed.  By telling us to keep practicing he lets us know that wisdom can be accrued and through wisdom, discrimination.  The teachings of the Bhagavad Gita tell us to practice for the sake of practice but not be attached to the fruits of our practice.  It also warns us to not be attached to inaction.  This means that you are not guaranteed that if you practice a pose repeatedly that you will be able to achieve it.  It also means that if you don’t practice regularly, progress will be elusive.

How do you practice?  One way is to come to public yoga classes.  These are great, but you are at the whim of practicing whatever the teacher wants you to practice, not what you as an individual might need.  Also, sometimes teachers avoid certain poses for a variety of reasons.  Those poses might be beneficial for you.

It is important to practice with a teacher who doesn’t practice with you, but one who watches over you and corrects your postures, someone who has walked the path before you and knows the pitfalls and the problems.  We are blind to our own mistakes and sometimes we think we are doing something, but we are often, but not always, mistaken.  I know this has been true for me and the corrections I have received from a knowledgeable teacher have transformed my practice in a minute.  Practicing the same mistake over and over can take years to figure out and may even cause injury.

To make progress in your yoga postures, it is also important to develop your own practice.  Originally, yoga was taught individually because everybody has different needs due to their physical structure, habits and restrictions.  I find that I need to do certain poses, stretches, strengthening exercises, or particular  actions every day as part of my own "physical therapy" program.  This would be beneficial for all serious yoga students.  It takes a lot of discipline to do this, but it doesn’t have to take that much time; 10 to 20 minutes may be enough.  You may be surprised that getting to your mat can be hard, but once you are on your mat 20 minutes can easily stretch into an hour!

By practicing on your own, you start to find out what you don’t know.  You may start to realize that if no one is telling you what to do with your leg, foot or arm, you suddenly realize that it could be in a myriad of positions.  This is good!  The next time you take a class, you will pay more attention to those details that you thought you knew.

Just as a bird needs two wings to fly straight, you need two wings to your practice.  Working on your own is one wing of practice, the other is to practice with a knowledgeable teacher.    These are the two wings complement each other and help you make progress on the path of yoga.

Privates

Private yoga sessions are a good way to get some very individualized attention and take your understanding and practice to the next level. You can often learn something in one private session that might take you years to muddle through on your own. (That has happened to me!) It’s an opportunity to ask questions about your particular body and your poses without worrying that you are the only one who doesn’t understand or get something.Privates are often prohibitively expensive and not sustainable for the average yoga student. However, have you ever thought about sharing the cost of a yoga private with a friend or a small group of friends?Semi-privates are often a great way to dive into your most burning questions in a safe and non-threatening venue. If you split the cost of a private among 4 people, the cost ends up being only a few dollars more than a regular yoga class.I have some space in my schedule to book a few extra privates during the summer:

• Monday and Friday mornings at 7:30 or Thursdays at 11:30 at the Solebury Club.

• Tuesdays at 11:30 or 2:30 at Cornerstone in Doylestown.

• Fridays at 11:00 (at Cornerstone, New Hope)

• If an evening time works better for you, please e-mail for times. I currently have Tuesday and Wednesday evenings available. At my house.

For rates and to book a private email me here: mkeisen@verizon.net

First Annual Food/Restaurant Review

Hey, a yogi has to eat doesn’t she?

We were talking about food the other day in class and someone asked if what we talked about would be in my newsletter, so here goes:

Vegetarian restaurants:

Sprig & Vine in New Hope:Nice atmosphere, vegan, BYOB.

Blue Sage Vegetarian Grille in Southampton:Small, popular place.  Reservations are a must.  BYOB.

NellieRae’s Kitchen in Ottsville:A vegetarian café.  Only open for breakfast and lunch.I haven’t tried this place yet, but everyone says it’s good 

Italian Pizza Places:

Spuntino Wood Fired Pizzeria: Doylestown,  in the mall across from the Gap.Pizza in 90 seconds.  Individual sized pizzas only, gourmet toppings, sourdough crust.  Amazing!

Bacco Bistro in Doylestown:Extensive Italian menu.  One favorite pizza is the Drunken Brooklyn – vodka sauce and mozzarella.A friend of mine always uses these folks to cater his events.

Goombas in Colmar:
A Philly style joint.  You can’t eat there, it’s just take out.  14”, 18” and 30” pies.  Good homemade sauce.  The best sandwiches – but they are large.  My family likes the Porcetta alla Rabe – roast pork, aged provolone and broccoli rabe.  I like the Grilled Veggie - Grilled broccoli rabe, eggplant, onions, roasted peppers, mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes, artichoke hearts, with aged provolone.And, of course, (although it’s not Italian) 

Jule’s Thin Crust in Doylestown:A great selection of different types of toppings.  Great for a slice or to take a whole pie home.

Japanese:

Ooka in Doylestown, of course!All-time favorite Japanese restaurant.  I'm not into the Hibachi tables.

Hachi in Chalfont:It's in the Giant Shopping center on 202.  It's a little further for us and its small, so I always make a reservation.  Because it's BYOB it's less expensive.

My Current Favorite Restaurant:

Maize in Perkasie:Small cozy place in Perkasie.  Great food, cooked to order.  It's slow; be prepared to be there for a while. Bring a good friend, your favorite beverage and enjoy! Want to add?

What does your split look like?

I had never liked working on splits. I knew that somehow, there was something wrong with my posture that I needed to fix before it really made any sense to work on it. For several years I had developed a flat lumbar spine. It felt like my spine was curved the wrong way and that made it impossible to extend one leg backward and one leg forward into a split. I could do symmetrical poses more easily, but asymmetrical poses just felt like something was wrong.

Here is me last year at the end of the MS City to Shore Bike Ride. It felt so good to hop into the Ocean after riding 75 miles, but I really didn’t want a picture of me looking like this. I hated my posture.

There is this concept of internal rotation of the legs when you are doing almost any yoga posture. It’s not that the legs are actually internally rotated; it’s just that our tendency is to externally rotate them so we internally rotate them to bring them into neutral alignment. It is much harder to maintain this alignment in back bending postures like Cobra, Up Dog, Bridge, Wheel, etc. especially because the back leg is out of sight and out of mind.

Cobra with the legs externally rotated. Notice the “Butt Fist” Too much engagement of the Gluteus Maximus turns the legs out. This creates compression in the sacrum and low back.

Cobra with refined engagement of the Glutes. Notice there is no clenching of the buttocks and the legs are in neutral and they are parallel to each other. This creates a broadening of the sacrum and low back.

I always have appreciated a teacher who would adjust, assist and correct me in my postures. I could tell that I was doing something wrong, but I couldn’t figure out what it was. Through the persistent feedback of my teachers and my dedication to working on it, I was able to change my posture and then the poses began to click.

Once I made it a priority to work on the neutral alignment of my legs, my posture actually changed. I developed a concave low back. This is one of the promises of a dedicated yoga practice. It took a long time and it was sometimes painful. When you change your posture, it is a little like orthodontics; the change happens gradually over a period of years. Not only do you change the way the bones line up but you change the muscles and nerves as well. The nerve stretching was the most challenging as it produced sensations of numbness and tingling. Fortunately, I worked with a very calm and reassuring physical therapist who promised me that this was all good.

I first started noticing my posture would change after swimming. Here is me before I swam. Notice my flat lumbar area.

This is me right after swimming. Notice my lumbar curve. I was astonished by this and wanted to learn how to maintain this posture. I felt so much better standing this way. But initially, it was painful.

Once my back shifted, my body began to “understand” postures like a split. But, more importantly, it changed my Tadasana, or neutral standing posture. It used to be painful to stand and I was very self conscious of my posture. It also changed poses like Crescent Warrior, Warrior I and Anjaneyasana. These poses are all precursors, or benchmarks to being able to do a split.  It’s funny, I was looking for “before” pictures of me in Warrior I and I couldn’t find any. I really didn’t want any pictures taken of me then. But, now I wish I had them for comparison.  I never could bend my front leg 90 degrees or straighten my back leg before.