Establishing a home practice

There is so much information about yoga poses on the internet or in many available books that I didn't think it was necessary for me to put together anything on yoga poses.  But I guess I was wrong.  After several requests for my handouts, which contain short descriptions on my favourite yoga poses with little line drawings illustrating the poses, I have finally put together a document containing all of them.  I guess I'm finally getting into the digital age.  You can link to the document (Hilary's pose collection), and then print them out to your hearts content.  There are two pages on a balanced practice (i.e. a pick of my favourite poses), a gentle practice, and a compilation of standing poses, backbends and forward bends.

The Sun Salutations are a traditional sequence to practice at home regularly.   This sequence forms the foundation for many yoga practices. Click here for more information on this wonderful vinyasa.

If you would like me to email you these documents, let me know.

Alternate Nostril Breathing

Breathing techniques are both practical and mysterious.  Our breath is our link between body and mind and also our link to our involuntary systems - digestion, circulation, respiration - through the massage of vagus nerve by the diaphragm while breathing.

Alternate nostril breathing is good example of this.  In this article on Nadi Shodhana or alternate-nostril breathing,  the two channels originating from the right and left nostrils are explained, as well as the benefits of bringing them into balance.   Alternate nostril breathing reduces anxiety, promotes calm, and clears the mind for meditation. 

Some tips on how to get the most out of class

The hour and a half spent in class is your time.  Listen to your body and don’t do anything that doesn’t feel right.  Don’t pay too much attention to what your neighbour is doing or feel the need to do exactly what the teacher is doing.  Personal attention and hands-on assistance on my part will facilitate your feeling the stretch and releasing the muscles. 

The following reminders will help you enjoy your class all the more:

-          come to the class on an empty stomach

-          wear comfortable, non-restricting clothing and bare feet

-          you may want to bring a pair of warm socks and sweater/sweatshirt for the final relaxation.

-          I provide mats, props and blankets, however you may want to bring your own for assisting in poses and for use in the final relaxation.

If you have any injuries, illnesses, or pregnancy please tell me before the class so I can modify the class for you.  If you are fatigued or “under the weather”, still come, yoga can be very beneficial.  Please feel free to discuss with me, before or after class, any personal concerns or suggestions you may have for changes or additions. If you would like some advice on practice at home, I have resources that I can suggest to you.

If you feel sore after a class, drink plenty of water to flush out stored up toxins and/or try soaking in a bath with epsom salts.

 

You are welcome to come to class as much as 15 minutes early to have some quiet time to yourself.  I will suggest relaxing poses for you to take during this time.

Keep in mind that yoga is a time for quiet attention and looking inward.  Many people come to yoga for stress reduction and relaxation.  Please keep socializing to before or after the class.

I will do everything based on my training and knowledge to provide you with a safe and enjoyable yoga practice.  Although yoga is an inherently low risk activity, it is still possible for even experienced practitioners to injure themselves.  You alone are ultimately responsible for your physical safety, as it is impossible for me to feel your physical limitations.  To create safety, I provide information on the benefits, precautions, adaptations and contraindications for each pose.  If you are in any doubt about a physical condition that may affect your participation, please inform me.  You may also wish to consult with your physician.

The adventure of exploration

As the new season starts up and I am getting together information about my classes, I am forced to ask myself - what is the essence of my yoga, what is it that I connect to most?

At the beginning it was a completely physical pursuit and has evolved over the last 20 years - I'm a bonified middle aged lady now at 45.  But it is also constantly changing.

Right now, (if I was forced to choose one word) I would have to say that it is exploration.

I have chosen a few pictures of animals stretching as they are so inspiring - their bodies are free, they don't look like they're thinking too hard.

So as I embark on a new year of yoga, that is where I'm headed - a free body through exploration, and naturally the not thinking too hard part would be great too!

Exploration is related to many other words - noticing, awareness, playfulness.  So while we hold the yoga poses and follow our breathing, we're asking ourselves - what's going on?  Am I bored, energized?  Where do I feel tension?  Where do I resist?  Where do I let go?  Where am I holding? Where am I loose?

The other side of this, is that we're not looking at our neighbour or putting too much stock in what the teacher is saying (!?).  We're treating ourselves as the expert about ourselves.  And depending on the day, we might bring seriousness, spontaneity, playfulness or any other emotion to this exploration.  It's a journey, an adventure that never ends.  Just like a pose, you can release into it infinite amounts.

Through the querying, we hopefully gain knowledge about ourselves, and isn't knowing ourselves the biggy that everyone keeps talking about?

Look at that dude - he's happy, extremely flexible and definitely not thinking too hard!

Yoga for Sciatica

Sometimes students email me if I have any information about particular problems they have.  I welcome these inquiries, as it sends me back to the books and to the internet, where I glean all the information and whatever makes sense to me based on my experience, I can hand over back to the questioner.  Here is what I've come up with for sciatica, which is a problem that has come up a few times.  

Sciatica can be quite annoying, and different for everyone, so what works for someone else, might not work for you.  The sciatic nerve is quite a big one, the thickness of your finger, starting at the low back and ending at the back of each leg.  Sciatica is usually caused by a bulging disc in low back or a tight piriformis.   Avoid all forward bending, try all stretching very slowly and carefully, you might have to experiment a bit with the following to find out what will work for you:

A sequence to follow can be found at:

http://www.yogajournal.com/practice/2308

Also try (keeping back straight for each one)

- Dog pose to a wall - toes pointed in, heels out
- Raise the painful leg on stool, chair, step - whatever you can handle.
- Sit cross legged, cross foot over knee of painful side, if you can take it, hug knee toward chest, but don't go into twist.
-Lie with legs up wall, bum at wall or slightly away, bend leg of good side and place ankle of bad side over thigh (as high up as you can go) over knee of good leg.  Slide foot of good leg down the wall as far as you can go. 

Also keep those hips open with hip openers!




 

Knees vs. hips in yoga

This post is intended for those of you (me included) who are perplexed with the alignment of the knees w.r.t. your feet. 

This usually indicates a weakness in the internal hip rotators (those hip muscles that internally rotate your legs) and a tightness in the external hip rotators (hip muscles that externally rotate the legs).  The following article is written by a license physical therapist, and is quite detailed, but if you can stay with her, you may get an insight in correcting this imbalance, creating safety around the knee and potentially staving off problems with your lower back and sacroiliac joints.  Just something else to think about!

Article that explains this better than me!

Yinyasa

Balancing ying and yang in your yoga practice

This week we will be doing a "Yinyasa" class.  This is a fusion of Yin yoga (long held poses) with Vinyasa flow (a rhythmic flow of postures).

The first 30 minutes of Yin work help release the connective tissues, create space and integrity in the joints and remove blockages to internal energy flow.  This is followed by about 45 minutes of a flowing repetition of movements requiring strength and balance. 

We are always dealing with opposite energies within ourselves - to be active, to be receptive, to move, or be still, to be energetic or calm, to look inward, or look outward.  This class lets us explore all these parts or ourselves.  Notice which parts of the class resonate with you and which parts you resist.  Also know that could change!

For more info on Ying yoga, check out:

article explaining yin yoga

Here are some good books by some pretty neat yogis:

Couldn't say it any better than Paul Grilley:

Inhaling is Yang, exhaling is Yin, but they both form the breath. There are critical difference between Yin and Yang tissues of the body. Muscles and blood are Yang, connective tissues and joints are Yin. Yin and Yang tissues do not respond to training in the same way and a student’s practice becomes more effective when the difference is understood.Most forms of Yoga practiced today are Yang, they emphasize muscular movement and contraction. By contrast Yin Yoga targets the connective tissue of the hips, pelvis and lower spine. Yin postures are held three to five to ten minutes at a time. This type of practice complements the more muscular styles of Yoga and is a great aid for learning to sit in meditation.

Yoga for the knees

Several students have had knee surgery or have had knee replacements and are understandibly nervous or anxious about doing some yoga poses. 
 

Yoga works on opening the hips and keeping both the the inner and outer quadriceps equally strong, to keep  the kneecap in alignment.

The following gives some good pointers to those of you with concerns about your knees.  If you want to get right to the solutions, skip to page 3.

http://www.yogajournal.com/health/1161

There is also a little book called "Yoga for healthy knees" by Sandy Blaine which explains in further detail how to heal your knees.  This is a  great book that I lent out regularly, but finally ended up with someone that I can't remember who it is.

Quotes to live by

Here are a few of my favourite quotes.  Sometimes reading them through every so often just puts things in perspective again!  I've tried to edit a few out, as the list is long, but I just couldn't bear to part with any.  Some will speak to you, some won't, and then some will REALLY speak to you.

You never know what is enough unless you know what is more than enough. - William Blake

Freedom from the desire for an answer is essential to the understanding of a problem.  -  Jiddu Krishnamurti

I maintain that truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect.  Truth, being limitless, unconditioned, unapproachable by any path whatsoever, cannot be organized; nor should any organization be formed to lead or coerce people along a particular path. - Jiddu Krishnamurti

In oneself lies the whole world and if you know how to look and learn, the door is there and the key is in your hand. Nobody on earth can give you either the key or the door to open, except yourself. - Jiddu Krishnamurti

   
The only way to a successful practice is to practice - Unknown

Once you label me, you negate me – Soren Kierkegaard

Our life always expresses the result of our dominant thoughts. – Soren Kierkegaard

We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are. – Anais Nin

No problem can be solved from the same consciousness that created it. - Albert Einstein

The last of the human freedoms is to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances. - Victor Frankl

Out beyond ideas of wrong doing and right doing, there is a field.  I’ll meet you there. - Rumi

Normal is someone you don’t know very well. - Anonymous

The secret in life is enjoying the passage of time. - Richie Havens

Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves. - Carl Jung

To be normal is the ideal aim of the unsuccessful. - Carl Jung

Asanas must have the dual qualities of alertness and relaxation. - Patanjali                                 

Example is not the main thing in influencing others, it’s the only thing. – Albert Schweitzer

It is not easy to find happiness in ourselves, but it is not possible to find it elsewhere. – Agnes Repplier

The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place. – George Bernard Shaw

Whenever you are confronted with an opponent. Conquer him with love. - Gandhi

Nobody can hurt me without my permission. - Gandhi

There is no enlightenment outside of daily life.  – Thich Nhat Hanh

Being at peace and being who you are, that is, being yourself, are one. – Eckhart Tolle

The worst loneliness is not to be comfortable with yourself. – Mark Twain

Whatever you fight, you strengthen, and whatever you resist, persists. – Eckhart Tolle

The primary cause of unhappiness is never the situation but your thoughts about it. – Eckhart Tolle

To love is to recognize yourself in another. – Eckhart Tolle

Resentment is like eating rat poison and waiting for the rat to die.  – Anne Lamott

Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without. - Buddha

You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection. - Buddha

What we think, we become. - Buddha

To conquer oneself is a greater task than conquering others. - Buddha

The highest revelation is that God is in every man. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Nothing external to you has any power over you. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

The only time we suffer is when we believe a thought that argues with what is. – Byron Katie

It is not our thoughts, but the attachment to our thoughts, that causes suffering. – Byron Katie

When you argue with reality, you lose—but only 100% of the time.  – Byron Katie

The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others. - Gandhi

All great spirituality is about what we do with our pain. If we do not

transform our pain, we will transmit it to those around us.” – Richard Rohr

Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart.

Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens. - Carl Jung

If there is anything we wish to change in the child, we should first examine it and see

whether it is not something that could better be changed in ourselves. - Carl Jung

It is a mistake to identify yourself with this life span, to imagine that

you are separated from anything else in space or time. – Thich Nhat Hanh

If we can really understand the problem, the answer will come out of it,

because the answer is not separate from the problem. - Krishnamurti

Breath is the bridge which connects life to consciousness, which

unites your body to your thoughts. – Thich Nhat Hanh

There are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle;

you can live as if everything is a miracle. – Albert Einstein

You do not become good by trying to be good, but by finding the goodness that

is already within you, and allowing that goodness to emerge. – Eckhart Tolle

The particular egoic patterns that you react to most strongly in others and misperceive

as their identity tend to be the same patterns that are also in you, but that you are unable

or unwilling to detect within yourself. – Eckhart Tolle

In a genuine relationship, there is an outward flow of open, alert attention

toward the other person in which there is no wanting whatsoever. – Eckhart Tolle

You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way,

and the only way, it does not exist. - Friedrich Nietzsche

Consider how hard it is to change yourself and you'll understand

what little chance you have in trying to change others. - Anonymous

To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else

is the greatest accomplishment. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

All that we are is the result of what we have thought.

The mind is everything. What we think we become.  - Buddha

It takes time to take care of yourself, but it takes more time if you don’t take care of yourself. 

Take the time to be healthy or take the time to be sick. – Suza Francina

Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it,

unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense. - Buddha

What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales in

comparison to what lies inside of you. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Most requested yoga articles

Here area a couple of very useful yoga articles:

Sore neck?  Tense shoulders?  I've directed many people to the following article by Barbara Benagh of Yoga Journal, and this article has been very helpful to me:

The article:  http://www.yogajournal.com/practice/1969

The recommended poses:  http://www.yogajournal.com/practice/2166

 Torn rotator cuff:  Who hasn't had this problem - and frustrating too, here's help in this article: http://www.yogajournal.com/lifestyle/1102

Handstand - why is it so challenging, even when we know we're strong enough?  The following article throws some light on the psychological aspects of this pose: http://www.yogajournal.com/practice/916

Here is an odyssey of someone trying to master it http://www.yogajournal.com/practice/2609?print=1

Breathing

Why do breathing practices in yoga?  http://www.yogajournal.com/practice/219

What is the physiological basis of alternate nostril breathing:   http://www.yogajournal.com/wisdom/927

And how exactly do you do Kapalabhati breathing?  http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/2452

Bandhas (inner contraction of a group of muscles)

An important part of yoga, but often misunderstood and incorrectly practiced:

Mula Bandha   http://www.yogajournal.com/practice/2416

Uddiyana Bandha  http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/1707