Chop Wood, Carry Water

by Jamie Shane

  As they say, The devil is in the details.

  101

  So many people ask which type of yoga they should practice. They read about this kind of yoga or that; they’ve heard about Hatha, Astanga, Ama, Sampoorna, Anusara, yada, yada, yada. The list is endless.

  Correction: the list isn’t endless, its endlessly growing. Somehow, yoga has become infected with the marketing bug. Anyone with a personal spin on this old practice can slap their name on it, wrap it up in a trademarked bow and feed it to the public as "new." Lets hope they never call it "improved."

  I think my very heart would melt.

  The primary offender, and in my opinion, the worst, is Bikram Choudhury. He is the founder, and leader, of Bikram Yoga®, otherwise known as "hot" yoga.

  His practice involves 26 strictly sequenced postures performed in a 105-degree heated room. This to me has always seemed ludicrous. But, there are valid reasonings behind his theory. Bikram proposes that the extreme heat actually prevents the body from overheating while protecting the muscles from damage. This makes a certain amount of sense if one considers that heat relaxes muscles, therefore allowing one to work through the postures to the fullest extent. He also claims that the heat will detoxify the body while allowing the pores to open and release these toxins. Again, anyone who has ever had a facial can attest to the validity of this. The heat will thin the blood, cleansing the circulatory system. We all know, as residents of hot Florida, that this is also true. His strict sequencing of postures has roots in solid logic, as well. Any good instructor follows a sequence of postures, whether they are the same postures every class or not. That is just the way of yoga. Certain poses should be practiced before others. In this way the body, and the mind, is properly prepared for a full practice. Bikram has chosen 26 postures that he feels comprises a complete practice. Now, that, I believe, is a matter of opinion.

  Many people swear by this practice. They claim it is the best way to a full and satisfying yoga "workout." There are legions of Bikram practitioners all over the world that are happy, happy, happy with their practice. Good for them.

  So, having said all of that, let me add: Are you kidding me? You cannot trademark yoga! How dare you! Yoga is a deeply personal experience that is, by its nature, chameleon like. It changes everyday. Just as you change everyday. How can you think that 26 postures will suit you all the time? How can that be enough when there are more than 600 postures to choose from? The notion that a practice should be the same day after day makes me cringe. It’s naive. Worse than that, it is to invite static into your practice, to remove the processes of change from your practice when change is what we are all seeking to achieve. Change is evolution. It is nature.

  Furthermore, that particular level of heat strikes me as over the top. I’m all for warming the body before practice, but that can be achieved through breath and asana. One hundred and five degrees is way beyond the point where newscasters start announcing "heat-index" warnings. As in, don’t go outside or exert yourself warnings, you just might die. So, great, lets lock ourselves in a tiny room with 20 other people and exercise. That’s a brilliant idea. My response to the Bikram question is this: You live in Florida. If you like it hot, go outside and do 26 postures on the beach at noon in August. Just don’t call it Bikram.

  You might get sued.

  102

  Like little lambs in the wood, we wander unprepared into cold and flu season. Many will be lulled by a false sense of security, believing that the simple fact that we live in a warm climate will protect us from the harsh brunt of winter weather illnesses. Not so, not so.

  If anything, our climate makes us even more susceptible to varied types of disease. Family, friends and visitors soar in from far and wide on those giant flying Petri dishes known as airplanes, bringing different, varied strains of any number of viruses. Then they hug us, shake our hands, share their tainted cash and touch everything in sight, spreading, spreading, spreading colds and flu. It is a bit scary when you think about the vastness of it.

  There are, of course, any number of ways to protect yourself. From hand washing, to anti-bacterial gels to flu shots, you do not have to succumb to disease. It is not inevitable. But there are a few more things you can do to improve the health of your immune system of which you may not be aware. Ridiculously obvious things that you should do anyway, cold and flu season or not.

  For instance, did you know that the health of your immune system is directly affected by the amount of happiness or stress in your life? The body’s adrenaline response to stress actually lowers the number of Immune cells present at work. This weakens the immune system and prevents us from effectively fighting off disease. Furthermore, this weakened state makes us feel less productive and creative, sucking the energy right out of our bodies. Like a vicious circle, this can create more stress because we feel that we cannot accomplish all that we need to. So, in a nutshell, relax. It will keep you from getting sick.

  If you do your best to handle things as they come, instead of putting them off or burying them beneath denial, you will empower yourself—as well as your immune system. A simple change of perspective can prevent those nasty viruses from getting a hold of you and working their evil magick. If you allow yourself to wallow in frustration, anger, helplessness or sorrow, you let go of your own spiritual power and open up the door to stress. Again. These negative feelings drain your energy and place you in the role of the victim. And are you ever more of a victim than when you fall prey to sickness?

  Feeling in control of your life will keep you out of this cycle. If you take responsibility for your actions, accept your mistakes and change your focus to the positive, you will be filling your system with energy. This selfsame energy strengthens the whole body, emotional, physical, and spiritual. There is nothing then that you cannot handle or conquer. Including disease. So if you actively cultivate joy, gratitude and unity, you are helping to keep these viruses at bay.

  And, finally, for the love of Pete, have some fun. Laugh and make merry. Be creative for no other reason than you feel like it. Hang out with your friends and do nothing of consequence at all. Tell stupid jokes. Doodle silly pictures with crayon. Don’t feel like you have to explain the validity of this to anybody. You don’t have to. Lightness is it’s own reward. Joy and health walk hand in hand.

  ‘Tis the season, kiddies. Be vigilant. And remember, of course, take all of the obvious precautions—eat well, get plenty of vitamins and minerals, keep your hands clean, etc.—but also try to be well in the mind and heart. It might just tip the scales in your favor for a illness free season.

  103

  I would lay odds that at some point during the course of your childhood, your mother, father, grandmother, so on, said to you, “If you keep making that face, it’ll get stuck that way.”

  And you laughed it off. We all do. Ha! Its quite an awakening the day you realize that every expression ever made has slowly carved its way into the skin of your face, leaving a road map of your past joys and sorrows. But such is the nature of life.

  An entire market has been birthed to combat this. Botox, Alpha-hydroxy, plastic surgery, all developed to combat the signs of aging. But is aging the sole problem? Or is it also that we wear the same expression on our face all day every day, and, lo and behold, it got stuck?

  Few of us give a passing thought to the neutral expressions our faces assume when we aren’t laughing or crying. Our features just settle home and rest. But this neutral expression tells more than a few of our secrets. There are those who always seem to have a ‘sour puss’ as my grandmother would put it, wearing their disappointments for the whole world to see. Whether they realize it or not, this puss is imprinting itself onto the features. It is manifesting a face presented to the world.

  My laugh lines are cherished. The furrow over my brow not so much. Those are honestly owned and willingly shared. It’s the unconscious frown I find sometimes when I’m working that demonstrates my point. That’s not something I want to prese
nt to others right out of the gate.

  People react to first impressions. They make judgments based on very little actual information, deciding quickly what kind of person you are. For good or bad, this is just true. The tone of voice, the set of your shoulders, the posture of the body, the expression of the face all contribute lightning quick to a person’s perception of you.

  What is your face sharing without your consent?

  As it happens, I know a yoga breathing technique to combat this. (Really? No! You don’t say!) Leave it to those yogis to think of everything…. Make a “C” shape out of your left hand. Then lay the pad of the thumb between the top and middle knuckle of the forefinger. Now, wrap the fingers of right hand around the top of the left fingers, laying the right thumb next to the left one. You have a very loose fist, like a tunnel made out of the hands.

  With the thumbs next to one another, you should see a natural ‘hole’ between the bottom and middle knuckles. Bring this hole about twelve inches away from the mouth and slightly lower. Inhale through the nose, long and slow. Then exhale through the mouth, blowing like you would blow a kiss. Blow right through that hole, long and slow. Close they eyes and breathe deeply, slowly and consciously. In through the nose, out through the lips. You should hear the breath traveling through the hands like a low, soft whistle. Exactly like wind blowing gently through a tunnel.

  This exercise will make you feel calm and happy and bring an easy expression to the face. It is not recommended mid day, or when you have work to do, as it will also make you feel very relaxed and maybe even a little sleepy. But if you practice this regularly, Yogi Bhajan says that your face will become charming and innocent.

  Whether or not you think that is a good thing is up to you. But I’ll take that over frown lines any day of the week.

  104

  The benefits of a yoga practice are far-reaching and wide. Some are obvious. They are the primary motivations for beginning—or maintaining—your practice. Flexibility, strength, focus and stress relief are all examples of this primary motivation. But the practice of yoga offers a number of periphery benefits that you may not be aware of. Think of them like interest on your checking account. Good to have, but hardly the reason you signed on.

  My favourite of these benefits is the ability to easily fall asleep and to sleep well. I believe this to be the result of the mind training that we do in yoga. As you practice you are forever being reminded to clear the mind and let idle chatter fall away. This results in the ability to be aware when your mind is running away and to pull it back. I can’t think of any time that skill would be more valuable than when you are lying wide awake, held hostage by a monkey mind that won’t let you drift off.

  According to the innumerable pharmaceutical advertisements, this is the primary factor in sleeplessness. Sleeping pills and I do not mix well, so I will claim a bias here. For those of you who really believe that you need them, please don’t come chasing after me with a stick when I say that I don’t think you ever really need them. If restless mind is the primary reason that people can’t fall asleep, then I feel pretty confident telling you that I know another way that won’t have you flirting with addiction.

  Undertaking a complete yoga program is one way. I believe it is the best, and most comprehensive method to bring your life to a point where sleep is not something you worry about. But then, I would. For some of you, that is not a realistic option. So, I say to thee, here is one yoga technique that will help you still the mind enough to find the elusive slumber.

  Alternate nostril breath is remarkably calming. It can be done sitting up, or, if you are in bed, lying down. Bring your right palm in front of your face. Make the peace sign, or the Victory “V”. Now bring the forefinger and middle finger tightly together. Press these two fingers between the eyebrows just above the eyebrow ridge. Now release the thumb and ring finger to rest on alternate sides of the nose—thumb to right nostril, ring finger to left nostril. Inhale. Pinch the right nostril shut with the thumb.

  Not hard enough to push the nose over! Just enough to block the nostril. Exhale out of the left nostril. Inhale through the same nostril then pinch the left shut with the ring finger, release the thumb and exhale right. Inhale right, pinch, exhale left. Inhale left, pinch, exhale right. Keep the breath long and slow, flowing in and out of each nostril in turn. You will notice a calm bliss settle over you as the mind becomes engrossed with the task and releases whatever it was that kept it churning so intently.

  If you want to take it even deeper, add a silent mantra of “Sat Nam”. Inhale Sat, exhale Nam. If that doesn’t work for you and your faith, “Amen” works just as well. Inhale Ah, exhale Men. This brings the vibration of the divinity into your mind. And I don’t think worries about taxes, work, relationships, money, etc. stand a chance when pitted against that. Do you?

  Start here. And if this works, expand. Allowing some yoga into your life, even if it is the tiniest amount, can refresh and rejuvenate. If good sleep is considered a side benefit, can you only imagine what the primary perks are like?

  105

  I rarely, if ever, gush. It’s true, ask anyone who truly knows me. When it comes to expressing my personal partialities, I am practically British in my reservedness. I can’t explain why, but when I really, really, really like something, I tend to keep it to myself.

  So mark it when I say to you: If you only ever listen to one thing that I say, let it be this. If you are curious but doubtful of yoga, try this. If you don’t think you can manage the physical practice of yoga but want to experience its peace, try this. If you are trapped in a quagmire of personal life difficulties and are seeking a path to resolution, try this. You must, must, must try Yoga Nidra.

  It is one of the most remarkable things I have ever done. Or, not done as the case may be.

  They call yoga nidra “yogic sleep” and every yoga class has a shadow of yoga nidra in it. That final relaxation, where you lie comfortably on your back and drift away is a pale remembrance of this powerful, peace- inspiring practice. Yoga nidra is like that final Savasana only a thousand times richer. It is true, unimpeded relaxation. Wow.

  Imagine, if you will, the last time you fell asleep absolutely certain that all was well with the world. That everything was within your understanding and that all was exactly as it should be. Can you even remember a time when your busy mind did not try to sort things out, to shuffle them into some sort of order before your body found respite? Were you but a child the last time you experienced that deep level of trust that allowed you to truly rest? When was the last time you drifted off with peace and not from simple exhaustion?

  This malaise is a symptom of our imbalances within duality. We accept that everything has a natural opposite—and that is very true. It is the nature of nature. But we deny that all opposites are but one. That everything is One. Happiness and Sadness are but two sides of the same coin. One is not better than the other and you cannot have one without the other. It is impossible to know Happy without Sad, or Trust without Fear. And, therefore, you cannot assign ‘good’ to one and ‘bad’ to the other. They all have their place.

  If we constantly seek to be only happy then we throw ourselves out of balance with nature. If we only recognize pleasure and ignore pain then we can never learn. We will forever be seeking and never finding the peace and understanding of One Unifying Force. It is this one that holds all twos together. It is not up to us to pick and choose between them.

  This is a foundation principle of Yoga Nidra. It is this thinking that allows you to abandon the neverending quest for all that is happy and perfect and to simply be. Let everything be what it is. Be, even for just a moment, with the One. Goodness, how liberating. Gracious, how relaxing. Its really Okay, I promise.

  So please, hear me. Even if it is only for this brief instant. YOGA NIDRA. Its fantastic. Its beyond fantastic. Give it a try. You can thank me later.

  106

  You cannot imagine how many times a week I hear, “My (body part) d
oes this funny thing when I do (insert movement here). Are there specific exercises I should be doing at home?” This type of inquiry is remarkably common, seeing as how most people come to yoga for relief from one ailment or another. As a matter of fact, yoga in the west is usually seen as being only a prescriptive practice, or, in simple terms, just plain good for what ails ya.

  Generally, I don’t mind answering these kinds of questions, or reinforcing the belief that yoga is simply this. It is the first step, and any first step—no matter how simplistic—is always good. I know that eventually, should this student continue to practice, the next set of questions will be the ones that I really want to hear. It is an inevitability that once someone really starts living with yoga that they will discover that it is so very much more than a simple ‘cure’ for physical ailments.

  And nothing makes me happier than a student asking, “How can I create a home practice?” Oh, purrrrrrr……

  This is when I usually set them in front of the studio library and tell them to pick something, anything, to read. There is a ton of great yoga literature out there—some better than others—that will help a seeker move beyond forward folds and backbends and into the philosophy of why we do forward folds and backbends. There are really interesting, and remarkably simple texts on the nature of the mind and the use of asana to find peace and happiness within. One good book, one right book, can catapult a student out of the simple realms of yoga and into the realms of true self-exploration.

  If I’m really lucky, said student returns and then asks about deepening this personal practice. This indicates that he/she has begun to develop a relationship with yoga and that it is slowing working its way into their hearts, minds and, ultimately, into the processes of their thoughts. And once yoga has made an inroad into the way one thinks, true alchemy begins to happen. Lives begin to change.