The Revealing Nature of Distractions

A few weeks ago I taught a class and found myself completely inspired by the group of students in front of me, and spoke to that... to that energy that I sensed in the room, and I could tell what I said resonated with more than one person in that class.

When I suggested that the class set an intention at the beginning of practice, I attempted to better explain what I meant by this, what I thought a strong and meaningful intention might be and how to figure out what you might want to set as an intention. I remember the effort to set an intention in my first classes, and wasn't sure what was meant by that. What is my intention? Where do I begin? It's a funny question to explore when you are not used to thinking in that way.

I told my students to look to their distractions to set an intention. Notice: what is it that is pulling you away from this moment, right now, right here? Where does the mind want to go? There is always going to be something to pull you away from the moment, there is always going to be a distraction, there is always going to be a reason why you are not 100%. When you can begin to notice patterns and habits, you can begin to work with them.

I watched my students. I presented examples: are you constantly on the move, are you always making to-do lists and busying yourself, living in the next moment, anticipating the future, worrying about something that hasn't even happened yet and very well may never happen? Your work is going to be about presence, about patience, and faith and trust in the present moment, because that is going to fuel your present action which is going to affect your future. Or, does your mind go to a critical place? Do you wander to a place of self-criticism and self-judgment? Beating yourself up, asking yourself why you're not better, telling yourself you are not good enough. Your intention needs to be about self-love, acceptance, and compassion. Judging yourself is one of the most detrimental things you can do. It disempowers you.

I watched as one student nodded her head. Another began to cry a little. It was so profoundly touching, to witness my words affect another person in that way, to know I had influenced someone, I had spoke to someone's experience, and very simply because I listened to an inner voice and I spoke from my heart. Though my students may not have considered it, I understood full well in that moment, the reason I can speak to these things, the reason I can understand and share my knowledge on this subject, is because I, too, have felt it. And during those darker moments, never did I think that they would somehow make me a better person by facilitating me to help another person see light.

The Balance Between The 3 Gunas: Rajas, Tamas, Sattva

I like the way my teacher, Mokshapriya, explains the 3 Gunas, or modes of life: look at nature, she says. Look at the birds. When the birds wake up, what do they do? They sing. This is their sattvic time. They rejoice; they don't think about work yet, they don't worry about when and how and where they are going to get their food, they just sing. When it comes time for forage for food, they go about their business, moving into rajas. At the end of the day, no matter what they did or did not get done, they put the beaks in the wings, and they sleep, because it is time for tamas. Very simple. Learn from the birds.

Sankalpa (Intention) and Your Intuition (Higher Knowing)

Tuesday night I taught a class and had one of those divine moments that I was completely in tune with the people in front of me and what they needed. It was one of those brilliant moments where you catch that spark of intuition and you run with it... my philosophy or dharma talk before class made a student cry. I felt for her, because the only way I can talk about things that are difficult and painful is having experienced them myself.

The discussion stemmed from the nature of our distractions -- and how they are there to guide us, in a sense. Your distractions on the yoga mat as well as off of the yoga mat are there to reveal something to you about yourself, so that you can then work on it and begin your intention -- your sankalpa -- there. For example, I shared with my students, if you are consistently bombarded by obsessive thoughts, but perfecting and controlling things, then your work is going to be first, to let go. However, obsession is really fear and doubt in disguise. We obsess and we control out of the fear and doubt that we are not going to be taken care of or that things are not going to work out the way they should. Therefore, after you have done your best work and given what you can to a situation, it then  becomes about the opposites of fear and doubt: courage and faith. Another example I shared with my students, is, if distracting thoughts are commonly about self-criticism and self-analyzing, you must learn to love yourself. Criticizing yourself disempowers you, and paralyzes you. You cannot move forward if you are constantly judging yourself. I've learned this the hard way; and if you have that tendency, no, it's not easy to abolish. It takes hard, tireless, conscientious work to turn it around. But it is absolutely work it. So love, acceptance, faith, courage, and confidence... endlessly. These are the topics for meditation and for your intention.

I was so moved that I reached someone in that class. I truly believe that certain students attend certain classes to hear, to see, and to experience whatever it is I have to offer at that time... they come when they are ready to learn what I am teaching. No accident, no coincidence. I hope that this knowledge can enrich the lives of my students as much as it has enriched mine. The wonderful is that we all have that Higher Knowing, that intuition, that guided me to say the things I said in that class on Tuesday night. We just must trust that we do.

Revisiting Yoga Journal Conference NYC 2011: Sadie Nardini

I haven't discussed some of the other workshops I took at the Yoga Journal Conference NYC 2011.  Another workshop I enjoyed thoroughly was with Sadie Nardini. Sadie is very personable, very authentic, very comfortable. One thing I love about her is that she explains why she is instructing you to do what you are doing; she gives you reason and I think reason makes people feel safe and feel confident in the teacher. Her sequencing is very intelligent.

Sadie also gave us really strong, sensible instruction in Side Crow (Parsva Bakasana) and Eka Pada Koundinyasana I. To get into Side Crow, she had us begin from Paravritta Utkatasana (Revolved Chair) position, as most instructors would. However, after bending the elbows and before placing the knee on the upper arm, Sadie had us walk over slightly towards the arm we would be balancing on. This, she explained, gave us the twist you need in Side Crow. When I first began practicing Side Crow, I had used both elbows to support me. Sadie believes this is not so great for the shoulders, because they cannot stay aligned when you push both elbows under your body. Therefore, when she had us walk over to the one side, we would only support our Side Crow with the one arm on the side we were twisting to. The other elbow is free and this way you can maintain the Chaturanga shape of the arms (with a ninety degree angle). The same principles apply to Eka Pada Koundinyasana I, of course, as it is very similar to Side Crow. I had never been taught Side Crow in that manner before.

I always imagined that eventually one would work towards practicing Side Crow with just the one arm supporting you. I have moved to that place in my own practice, but haven't encouraged it in my instruction enough. I thought of the second arm as like a training wheel, something that was there for support, but eventually you could take off when you learned the technique. I hadn't imagined it really hurting you much though, because the elbows could still stack over the wrists practicing that way. However, using both elbows to support you seems to distort the flatness of the upper back, the chest, and the shoulder.

(Side Crow with both elbows for support)
Incorrect, according to Sadie's instruction:

(Side Crow with only one elbow for support)

 Correct, according to Sadie's instruction:

After giving this subject more thought, however, I can think of an arm balance in which one deliberately wedges the elbows underneath the body. Peacock (Mayurasana). If nestling the elbows under the body were that detrimental, why is the alignment of Peacock instructed the way it is, even as per Yoga Journal? I imagine the placement of the hands (orienting the fingers backwards in Peacock as opposed to straight forward in Side Crow) affects the structure of the shoulders. Thoughts...?

Before Yoga, After Yoga

I generally think of my life and my Self in two eras or phases: Before Yoga and After Yoga. They starkly contrast one another. For this, I am grateful.

Yoga Journal Conference 2011: Seane Corn - Each Moment Conspires to Reveal The Higher Self

On Sunday, I took a workshop with Seane Corn "Everyday Miracles" at the Yoga Journal Conference NYC. I thoroughly enjoyed her discussion on how symbolic each moment, each encounter, each event, and each relationship is to our spiritual growth. Everything in your life, Seane said, you've chosen. I have heard this before from my teacher Mokshapriya, and have come to believe in it. We choose -- most of the time unconsciously -- the conditions and circumstances of our lives in order to gain insight, to learn about ourselves, and ultimately, to improve ourselves. The instances that are you most challenged by, in fact, are the greatest occasions for learning. This is especially applicable to the people in your family... because they are best at pushing your buttons and you cannot easily get away from them. They are there to do just that, to irritate you, to challenge you, to make you change. They will not stop testing you and behaving in the way that they do until you come to realize this and learn from it. Once you do learn from it, you can feel liberated knowing that they probably will stop pressing you or the conflict you were once stressed by will magically disappear.

To put it simply, each and every moment conspires to reveal the higher self to you. This is why when you are in a rush, you are frantic, impatient, unmindful, and in a panic because you are running late and just need to get to where you are going, you will almost always end up stuck behind the slowest-moving vehicle on the road, you are unfailingly detoured and delayed further, because that is the way the universe works. The universe will smack you down when you are living from a place of ego and attachment and will test you to try and set you straight, teach you patience, love, compassion, acceptance, and nonattachment. 

So the next time you find yourself in a dilemma, profoundly irritated by someone right in front of you, ask yourself what it is they are mirroring to you about yourself. What is it that they are trying to reveal to you for you to work upon? Open yourself up to this, be willing to explore these questions, and in fact, embrace these questions because we are so lucky to be in the position to ask them.

Yoga Journal Conference New York 2011

I have so much to say about this. First of all, I am still in the thick of it. I have another day to witness.

Perhaps the most beautiful is the way it has unfolded in front of me thus far. Centuries and centuries of knowledge and wisdom and love and light sparkles all around the hotel like neon glitter. You can hear, feel, and see this energy all around, through walls, through ceilings, and through floors. It feels like there are little outbursts and uproars of Oms all along 6th Avenue, but realistically it is only confined to the walls of the Hilton: the walls we have chosen, the walls we push up against, the walls we kick up against, the walls we rest against, the walls that separate us, or the walls that unite us...