This is a chant I copied off the Anusara.com site.
Today, I was home due to a parent orientation seminar at the boys’ school. It gave me time to do some shopping in the afternoon and a light yoga practice in the evening.
As I said in my previous post, I had become enthralled with anusara yoga since I got to know Hillary and Elsie, 2 wonderful anusara yoga teachers/podcasters in the US. More so, after taking a class with Francesca at Pulse Yoga.
I “grew up” in yoga doing the vinyasa style of yoga. And until now, this has been my favorite yoga style. However, lately, I have began exploring anusara after hearing the podcasts of Hillary & Elsie. This style of yoga is speaking very strongly to me — speaks to my heart. And I want to know more about it and how to use it in my self practice.
Of course, not knowing exactly how the sequences go in anusara yoga, I attempted to remember what I could from Francesca’s class. I did the OHM chants, then as I went through the asanas, I modified them to open up the chest and the heart as wide as I could. In the Trikonasana , I did it the way Francesca told us — fingers apart as it reached out to the sky, arms thrown back as far as we could instead of straight up, chest open.
For me, that time alone with myself was like a beginning journey into self-discovery. In anusara, one has an individual light — a light that can shine on the world radiating goodness, beauty and love. It recognizes that Divine Grace flows through us and in us. As one does the pose, it is felt from the inside of one’s self — that deeply creative and spiritual part of your self — and it springs out from you and is manifested in your alignment with our Divine God.
My practice today was short — just over an hour. But I chose specific poses that emphasized openness. I even did more forward bends and backbends than usual. And in Savasana, I lay on my mat with arms open and accepting of where my body was at this time and where my life and heart were. And it made me smile.
Yes, I will continue my vinyasa practice. But I hope anusara yoga is eventually introduced in the Philippines (and I will definitely keep a close watch on when Francesca will be returning!). Added to this of course is the wealth of podcasts already released by both Hillary & Elsie which can help me during my self practice days.
Hillary is a certified anusara yoga instructor but more than that, she is a beautiful and warm person — someone I now call a friend. What is even more amazing is the fact that she was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) in 1996 while working with Prada. Her dedication to yoga and her devotion to a healthy life has kept her symptom-free to this day. A part of her DVD sales will go toward supporting children with MS and other auto-immune disorders.
While I still do not know how we can pre-order or have delivery sent to the Philippines, I will try to inquire from Hillary. Suffice it to say, I am trying to get my own DVD copy.
Visit her site HERE for more on this DVD. Once I have more purchase/delivery details, I will post updates.
Today, I spent quite a few hours at Pulse Yoga’s studio. Firstly, it was their official opening. Secondly, they were offering FREE classes in varied yoga styles: anusara, iyengar, hatha, sivananda, 8 limbs and kids yoga.
11:00 A.M.
I chose to attend the anusara class with Francesca whose teacher is the Anusara Yoga founder, John Friend.
Anusara (which means ‘going with the flow and following your heart’) is a beautiful combination of body, mind and spirit. Most of my life, I have been a head person. Everything is analyzed, options weighed, risks evaluated before I take off. But lately, I have been exploring the spontaneous side of me, which I know is there but buried deeper than I thought. The times that I experienced spontaneity were moments of bliss and happiness as outcomes were delightfully unexpected. Anusara yoga seemed one way by which I could explore that openness, vulnerability, child-like happiness that comes from lessening the ‘planning’ and just opening up to whatever comes my way.
The desire to try this yoga style started when I got to know Elsie and Hillary, two wonderful, warm anusara yoga teachers (and bloggers!) in the United States whom I befriended over the web. Both of them are not only friends but they do yoga podcasts together at Mudra Moments. The times I got to chat with them online were great “connect” moments which I thoroughly enjoyed because they were always gracious, accommodating, and exuding warmth that reaches out to you from across the miles.
Anusarayoga.com‘s website declares their philosophy as follows:
“The highest intention of practicing Anusara Yoga is to align with the Divine. As we deepen our alignment with the Supreme, we step deeper into the flow of Grace. It is through the revelatory power of Grace that we awaken to the truth that this Divine flow is our essential nature. This higher knowledge naturally fuels our deepest desire to lovingly serve the creative flow of life through each breath and posture in our yoga practice. On our yoga mat we artistically offer our individual light and our unique music with the heartfelt prayer of adding more beauty, love, and goodness to the world.
The art of Anusara Yoga is a co-participation with the Supreme-not a practice of domination, subjugation, or control of Nature. The poses in Anusara Yoga are considered to be “heart-oriented,” meaning that they are expressed from the “inside out.” Instead of trying to control the body and mind from the outside, the poses originate from a deep creative and devotional feeling inside. On our mat, we endeavor to always remember the spiritual purpose or highest intention of practicing hatha yoga, including reconnecting with our innate goodness and expressing ourselves from that Divine place.”
Francesca said that the theme for our class today was “Usefulness” (or Ease and Disease).
We did 3 OHM chants first to open the class. Then she made us turn to our neighbor yogi/yogini (we had one guy in class!!!), introduce ourselves, and share what was our Ease (areas of life that we found easy) and Disease (those areas that we were having difficulty with). Oh!!! This is a different style indeed! I have never “shared” thoughts in a yoga class before!
The asanas she introduced us to were not intensive but leaned toward heart opening. We did Parvritta Balasana (Twisted Child) first. Cat/Cow poses were done together with the Lion Pose. Sun salutations were always done with arms open, fingers spread apart — a trademark of anusara which always focuses on the heart. In Warrior I and Warrior 2, she showed us how to find that distance between both feet that allows us to open up into the asana. And in Triangle pose, what I found different was her encouragement to bring the outstretched arm further to the back (opening up the chest in the process) instead of just keeping the arm in T-form alignment with the other arm .
On our backs, we also did the Bridge and Side Leg Swings while holding on to the big toe of upright leg.
And just before Savasana, we did a preparatory asana to inversions, which was to do a half handstand with legs against the wall.
LUNCHTIME
After class, Tesa gave a brief speech on the studio’s opening, followed by the launch of SIGG, a Swiss brand of aluminum water bottles.
SIGG bottles have these features: aluminum, reusable, eco-friendly, lightweight, durable, 100% recyclable, safe from leaching. They are the perfect companion for sports people and fitness buffs. What I found interesting was the fact it could hold both hot and cold drinks, including juices, coffee, isotonic sports drinks and milk. And they come in all sorts of designs – plain metallic colors, for kids, Asian, nature, etc. For hot drinks, it is advisable to buy the insulation bag to keep your drink hot. Shoulder straps and extra spouts are sold separately also, which is practical when your spout needs changing.
SIGG designs available locally
I met a young group of 3 friends: Marjorie David, Tiffany Tan, and Cham Tan — the ladies of DKI Group, sole distributor of SIGG in the Philippines.
Marjorie, Cham and Tiffany
the team from Pulse Yoga, SIGG & I
Me with Cham and Marjorie
I had a great time chatting with these young entrepreneurs. Firstly, they all graduated from the same high school as my girls. Then 2 of them got their education from the BLUE school, again where my girls are. And they used to be members of the Celadon Club which C1 is very active in. Such commonality!
Lunch was catered by New Bombay Cuisine (see video clip #4 below for details)
1:00 P.M.
Iyengar yoga followed lunch. I wanted to join this class as well as it was conducted by Cle Souren, Founder/Director of the B.K.S. Iyengar Yoga Institute Amsterdam — one of the largest Iyengar institutes in the world.
By the time I entered the room, there were already many students and I was late, having eaten a slow lunch. So I contented myself with taking pictures and videos of the class. Yes, in true Iyengar tradition, they did use a lot of props including wooden blocks (which I wish they sold in sports shops instead of the foam kind), bolsters for back support, and straps. Cle, from my short observation, is indeed the fatherly instructor one would want to have — gruff when he needs to be but always filled with humor and concern for the students that actually allows you to be receptive to his corrections.
Simultaneously conducting hatha classes at another shala was Madeline from Sweden. Chona and I met her at the last Rockwell Weekend of Fitness so it was nice to bump into her again today.
After taking my shots, I lingered at the lounge area of Pulse and started up conversations with some other people there. One lady looked particularly familiar and it took a few seconds before I realized I was talking to the mom of Robin Padilla! I struck up a conversation with her and discovered she was a wonderful person to talk to. We chatted about her first attempt to do yoga as well as other things showbiz (ano pa!) 🙂
Ms. Eva Carino, mom of Robin Padilla
Another amazing lady I befriended was Emma Dee. Amazing because she told me she was 60 years old, did daily 2-hour exercises including lifting 12 lb. weights on EACH hand!!!! She personally cooks healthy food for her husband and boys. She drinks 20 8-oz glasses of water daily. And my, my, my she still had ABS! What a lady!!! Proves that there is no such thing as being too late to strike up an exercise or fitness program!
Ms. Emma Dee with me
My only regret is not having had the chance to speak personally with Cle Souren. I had to leave before his second PM class ended; I had a medical appointment to keep. But I did come away with 3 SIGG water bottles (for my girls and me), all in the same design.
My own SIGG water bottle
Lastly, here are some videos I took during the launch:
1. My interview with Tesa Celdran, Managing Instructor of Pulse Yoga
2. Cle Souren conducting Iyengar classes
3. My interview with Marjorie David of SIGG
4. Tesa, explaining the different vegetarian dishes from New Bombay (including a short clip with Francesca, Anusara Yoga instructor)
(Some thumbnail pics are from Hillary’s Yoga Practice)
I was having lunch with Juned and Jayvee last week at La Maison in Greenbelt 5 when Jayvee, a super techie guy who blogs about anything techie (ANDdid the Crane Pose in his first yoga class ever!!!) mentioned to me that the Wii Fit, the newest techie “toy” in town, includes yoga.
My thought bubble: You must be kidding! How can you ever do yoga on a skateboard-sized mat?
Well, this is what I found out about this thingamajig:
– the Balance Board, as it is called, is actually more than just a scale. It can read your movements and bring this to life on the screen. Of course, as with the other exercises that go with the Wii Fit, it allows you to set your physical properties, training goals, and history of your activity results.
– an animated yogi (or yogini, if you choose) demonstrates the poses and you are supposed to follow along while listening to a voice-over of the trainer.
– Yellow circles set the boundaries for the center of gravity. As you do a pose, the Board detects where you are putting pressure and moves the ball accordingly. You need to try to keep that ball within the yellow circle.
– At the end of each pose, how you do on the left and right side is evaluated through a numerical rating (the closer the ratings to each other, the more balanced you are). An overall grade is also given so this seems pretty useful during yoga competitions among friends.
As a practicing yogini who is also a bit techie, this gadget holds some fascination. But would I go out tomorrow and buy it? No, I don’t think so.
This is a FUN thing to do among friends and may be the only hope to get couch potatoes out of the uhhhh…couch.
But if you are a serious yoga practitioner, this won’t give you the workout that you get from the real thing. Moving around, jumping and hopping like I do during my yoga practice can never be done on this teeny-weeny electronic board. I cannot even imagine how I would do the Shoulderstand or Headstand on this contraption.
I think I will wait this one out and see what happens. Maybe I will just go a-looking for a blogger friend who has one and do some tests on it (Jayvee, call me when you get one!).
But for those of you who are dying to get your hands on this thing and are wondering how yoga is done on the Wii Fit, watch this YouTube video:
Chona called me a few weeks ago to ask if I would like to join them in a 5-some private class with Tesa of Pulse Yoga. She and Joy were the planners since they had already tried a week of unlimited classes there. Sure, I said. It would be interesting and most likely fun, since we were all yogamates at Vinyasa Yoga Center, to start with.
While Joy made the reservation at Pulse, Chona and I took turns confirming with Tesa, and we arranged for a session on power yoga.
Last Friday, 4 of us met up for class (Joy, Crissy, Lomen and I). Chona unfortunately went on an out-of-town working trip and had to cancel out.
We used a shala which was just small enough to accommodate 5 practitioners comfortably. Four black yoga mats were already laid out for us with rolled-up white towels beside each one. As was my usual routine, I had my own yoga mat with me. But I immediately noticed that the black mats were clean. No signs of anyone else before me having used them. Thought bubble: Thank goodness! Because if there were footprints-in-the sand marks on them I would have insisted on using Sandy!
I won’t go into the details of our class with Tesa. Every class is different, every instructor has his/her own style and sequence.
But this is one thing I can say. THERE ARE JUST SOME THINGS YOU GET OUT OF PRIVATE CLASSES THAT YOU MAY NOT GET IN A REGULAR CLASS.
What are some differences, you may ask?
1. If you have any special needs (injuries, health conditions, personal yoga development goals) doing privates may be your answer. – In a regular class, you most often need to follow the set sequence of the teacher. Unless you are the type of person who does prior research into the asanas which are good/bad for your condition, you may end up doing asanas which you shouldn’t, or worse, injuring yourself.
2. Privates work best with a maximum group of 5 people. In classes which have 10 or more students, the teacher cannot watch all of you all the time. Nor will there be time to adjust each and every one. Regular classes need some set pacing in order to get the routine done in an hour and a half. Privates have more flexibility in terms of start-stops.
3. Practitioners can ask questions. This is the beauty of privates. You are free to interrupt the teacher and ask specific questions about a pose or your condition. In a regular class, you would hesitate to do so as you could be disruptive of the flow of the class.
4. Adjustments ofalignments will always have a personal touch – One advantage Tesa has is that she is TALL and has the STRENGTH. And for the 4 of us last Friday, it paid off that she was a WOMAN! After all, no male yogi teacher would EVER attempt to do what she did to moi below!
During downward dogs, she stepped on my hands as she pushed my tailbone back, then from behind, held me around the thighs and pulled this way and that.
Three of us were doing down dogs a little differently, with our spines curved into a “U” so Tesa showed us how she wanted us to do it. As she said, it didn’t mean one way was right, the other wrong. That’s just how she taught down dogs. And you know what? Doing it HER way eased up somewhat on the wrist pressure and that was a relief since I had been having wrist pains for some time now (another blog post on that coming up).
5. Assistance with challenging asanas – As it was a power yoga class, many poses were more difficult than the usual. That night, Tesa made us do headstands WITHOUT THE WALL. I used to do this but always against the wall. I would kick up, rest my legs against the wall, then when I was confident of my balance, take both legs slowly off and balance unaided. Tesa said that method did not allow me to use my core. So we were to try it wall-less this time — no security!
I had to go down on my forearms, hands clasped, in V-formation. Then she made me walk my feet closer and closer to my hands until I was an inverted V. Then, using my core, she helped ease me up into the pose. As she was keeping me balanced, she kept reminding about using my core, not collapsing, finding that equilibrium. And at one point, she even lifted me completely off the ground! Gosh, what strength this lady has!!!
As I was unable to have my pic taken doing the headstand, Crissy has graciously agreed to be the model for what we did that night. Thanks, Crissy!!!
If you have never done privates before, consider it in between your regular practice but do them with a good teacher. You just may find out that your progress in your yoga practice accelerates with good techniques being pointed out. You can also unlearn bad alignment and correct them BEFORE they become more difficult to change.
I was flipping over my February issue of Yoga Journal a few days ago and was reading about the booming yoga studios in Asia, particularly HK. What particularly caught my attention was the write-up on mYOGA and Pure Yoga, accompanied by pictures — modern ambience, fantastic HK skyline view, huge shala expanse, zen interiors, black mats laid out in formation with white rolled up towels beside them, hotel amenities in the bathrooms. And I was thinking, Gosh yoga has come a long way from just a yogi practicing on the ground with a heavily-used woven mat underneath him!
My experience of yoga studios till today has been pretty limited. Well, here I am blogging and listing down yoga studios but I have always been one to stick to what I like and hesitate to venture out into unchartered waters. Till recently….
Working in Makati forced me to get out of my comfort zone and attend yoga wherever was convenient lest I opt out of yoga practice altogether.
Then came a call from Chona who was organizing a private class at Pulse Yoga with Tesa. Did I want to join their 5-some for some power yoga? Sure, why not, I said. The die was cast. I was going to venture out into yet another experience.
Due to work and travel circumstances, Chona could not make it to class but last night, 4 of us did. That will be another post altogether as I want to blog about that experience without mixing it up here but let me say that when I arrived at the place, I was pretty much delighted to find a microcosm of HK’s mYOGA or Pure Yoga.
Florida Street in Greenhills used to be what I refer to as the back side of Dad’s and Kamayan where our family would dine during special occasions. Nothing back there really. Just entrances to the buildings fronting EDSA. Till now.
This is the entrance that greeted me. Not shown (I missed out taking shots of those!) are large white tarpaulins on the left wall showing the instructors against a white backdrop doing asanas. My initial thought bubble: WOW!
Stepping inside was a visual delight. Eye candy all over. Pastel green shades for the throw pillows, bright inviting lighting, minimalist decor, a comfy waiting area, fairly large and clean reception area, a cabinet with items for sale, bulletin board, water dispenser, clothes rack with yoga outfits for sale and more.
Lobby area
Boutique area
Receptionist area
Corridor leads to the rooms where classes are held
Right outside the shala is a shoe shelf for storing your footwear. As they knew there were 4 of us, they had already pre-arranged 4 black mats on the floor with white towels each. I thought the mats were from Manduka but Tesa said these were Mandara mats from Malaysia. The 4 of us practiced using these mats and I must say that these were sticky enough. I liked the horizontal groove lines of the mat that gave traction for the ashtanga moves we did.
After practice, we were served Tulsi tea from India (on real teacups, mind you, not disposable styro cups).
Some people say that the bathroom says a lot about the people who live in a house.
Well, Pulse Yoga may have taken this to heart because the changing area-cum-shower/toilet area for ladies was a sight to see. As you walk in, you find almost ceiling-high lockers. Practitioners are each handed their own rent-free padlock and key (really huge padlocks with keys strung on nylon — well thought out way to keep keys around your neck or hanging somewhere safe). You place your stuff inside a locker. The toilet/shower area can hold its own against other modern wash rooms in premier gyms or offices — marbletop counter, baskets with free-to-use bath and hand towels (were those free tampons in the basket as well??), and free liquid soap.
The shower areas are private enough with individualized curtains. Wooden, raised stepping areas are provided in each shower cubicle allowing one to keep clothes dry. From the stepping area, one goes down into the tiled area where you can see a very modern shower area with removable shower head and yes — HOT AND COLD WATER!!!).
Crissy and I took our showers in opposite cubicles, all the time talking about how wonderful it was to take a hot shower right after practice in such posh surroundings.
And this morning, I woke up to a text from them which said:
Good morning, Ms. Jane. It was such a pleasure having you share a class with us yesterday. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or concerns about class or how your body feels. Peace + love + light. Pulse Yoga
I did get such texts after classes from another yoga studio, and I admit that this small gesture of appreciation and concern goes a LONG way to making practitioners feel that the shala looks out for them.
Overall, my first experience at Pulse was truly a positive one and I know that I will be revisiting them.
Of course, a modern, clean and welcoming yoga studio is not the end-all of what a good yoga studio should be. The line-up of teachers must also be considered (they must be qualified and must have the right personality and caring attitude towards their students).
But as I say, the culture of a yoga studio reflects on the owners/management. If you come out of a practice feeling warm, wonderful, wanted and rested, it is probably because your instructor and its staff make you feel so.
I foresee yoga studios eventually enlarging their spaces and probably renovating to provide more amenities. Like HK and other parts of Asia, yoga is slowly expanding its practicing reach here. But for now, it seems like Pulse Yoga has indeed set the local benchmark for what a yoga studio needs to have. I am glad they set up shop — and so close to my home too. Congratulations to everyone at Pulse. And thank you for a wonderful first experience with you.
Tesa sent me a heads-up on the official opening of Pulse Yoga on the weekend from May 29-June 1, 2008. They have been on soft opening for a couple of months now.
The formal opening will have the following highlights:
SPECIAL IYENGAR WORKSHOP WITH CLE SOUREN
FREE YOGA CLASSES
The other event is a series of free classes. FREE Anusara, Sivananda, 8 Limbs Hatha, Vinyasa Flow, and Yoga Nidra classes with a lunch buffet in between (watch out for further details on my “Upcoming Events” page).
Special gifts also await those who sign up for membership.
SIGG, a leading Swiss brand of aluminum water bottles, known particularly for being eco-friendly and reusable, also launches as Pulse’s official partner.
If you have ever bought or sold any item on eBay, this news will be of interest to you.
20 celebrities participated in a benefit for The Libby Ross Foundation Om Yoga Program (aimed at supporting breast cancer survivors and patients) by hand-decorating one-of-a-kind yoga bags with Swarovski jewels. Working with Om Yoga in New York, the Foundation’s program empowers women to get in touch once again with their bodies through breathing techniques and gentle movements.
Other celebrities included Eva Amurri, Patricia Arquette, Brooke Burke, Miley Cyrus, Tish Cyrus, Melora Hardin, Cheryl Hines, Hoda Kotb, Ali Landry, Debi Mazar, Martina McBride, Nancy O’Dell, Hayden Panetierre, Kim Raver, Leah Remini, Lisa Rinna, and Lori E. Ross.
Unfortunately, I just learned about this today and bidding closes tomorrow, May 15. But if you wish to learn more about the global auction (bidding starts at US$100), click HERE.
Who knows, you may still have a few more hours considering we in the Philippines are ahead of New York by 12 hours!
If you are like me, Ms. Tight Shoulders, doing the reverse namaste pose in any asana (with full lotus or doing a standing forward bend as shown above) does not come easy. Office work and hours on the computer do take its toll on those shoulders.
So it was with some amazement that when I told my daughter C2 this, she said “Is it like this, Mama?” and immediately made the reverse namaste position with both hands way, way up her back. WHOA!!!
Now why can’t I do that????
Some sleuthing around the web got me some tips on how to do preliminary exercises to bring the body eventually to this pose:
1. Move arms up and down laterally (about 20 times)
2. Rotate arms at the shoulders, clockwise and counterclockwise about 20 times. First do one arm at a time, then both arms together.
As you continue the warm-up exercises above and as you try to do the Reverse Namaste position, you may start out with just the tips of your fingers touching your lower back.
From there you may find your flexibility increasing and slowly, the whole side of your hands can assume the reverse namaste position on the lower back.
With further flexibility, you can slowly inch those hands up your back until they are already past your mid-back.
Continue working on those tight shoulders. I know I will!
When I bought my Manduka mat Sandy (shown above and named by me due to its color), I carefully preserved all the labels and instructions on how to care for it. Firstly, it was a premium mat. Secondly, it did NOT come cheap. And third, I guess I am just OC (obsessive-compulsive). 🙂
But shortly after we got our mats (that includes yoga mates Chona and Crissy), I got a text from Crissy who was agitated by the fact that her Mom had dunk her mat (named Aqua) into soapy water and now, she could not get the soapy bubbles out of the sponge-like layers of the mat.
I quickly texted Crissy back because I knew how she felt. When I got my first imported Gaiam mat, I did the same thing and boy, no matter how much water I kept pouring on the mat, soap bubbles kept coming out its side when I’d step on it. And how do you expect to do yoga on a mat that spewed soap sediments when you step on it?
Here is a Yoga Journal article that precisely addresses this predicament and I must say that it is very close to the advice I had given Crissy who was very concerned about her Aqua:
“If your mat is lightly soiled, use a spray bottle, damp sponge, or terry cloth rag to apply a solution of two cups of water and four drops of dish soap. Rub the soiled areas. Wipe the mat with clean water; then rub with a dry terry cloth towel. Hang to air dry.
If your mat is heavily soiled, submerge it in a solution of warm water and mild detergent; use very little soap as any residue may cause the mat to become slippery during future use. Thoroughly hand wash the mat and rinse in clean water. After squeezing out the excess water, lay the mat on a dry towel and roll the mat and towel together. Stepping on the rolled up mat will squeeze more moisture out of the mat and into the towel. Then unroll and hang to air dry.”
In our tropical climate, here are other tips I would add:
– Air dry your mat but do not expose it to direct sunlight, unless you want your mat to become crispy or brittle
– Minimize sweat accumulating on it by using a yoga rug or blanket over it as often as you can in your yoga practice. There are yoga blankets that have skid-proof dots on one side for traction.
– After every practice, leave your mat open to dry out any sweat or moisture before rolling it up
Do you have your own tips on yoga mat care? Feel free to share.
Last Wednesday, I went with an officemate Ces to Yoga Manila for an Intro to Ashtanga class. The last time I attended this class, it was Hoze teaching. But with Hoze out of Manila, the task fell to Kitty Arambulo.
In this class, expect a good part of the class to start with a lengthy discussion on breathing (pranayama), locks (bandhas) and focus (drishti). As I listened to Kitty, I realized that this is truly what a beginner of yoga should be able to learn: how to breathe properly (when to inhale/exhale in an asana), how to engage the bandha properly in order to develop that core strength, and how to use drishti to get that right balance in every asana.
While I already knew pretty much the discussions on pranayama, it was the discussions on bandhas and learning to use drishti that got me really interested. Kitty gave pointers on where to focus one’s gaze as one went through the asanas in order to get maximum benefit on the stretches as well as to achieve proper balance. There are 8 drishti focus areas in ashtanga: the tip of the nose, thumbs, navel, toes, hands, side, upwards, and the third eye (or forehead). Every yoga movement would use one of these focus areas.
A beginner would do well to know these “gold nuggets” of info. As Kitty said, it is harder to undo or unlearn wrong habits if we do not start our yoga practice being fully aware of the basics.
Kitty took us first through the primary series A & B. Unlike my last class with Hoze where I chose the easy route for restorative practice, I tried deepening this time by jumping back and forward each time. We did 5 sequences each of A & B and with that it got the sweat streaming out of my body already.
As time was consumed by the lecture, there was only enough time to do 2-3 more asanas before Savasana. One was the hand-to-toe forward bend (pretty straightforward in a basic class). Second, Kitty made us try a full lotus, then with hands behind our back in crossed position, we were to try to grab our toes (of course, the more basic position was just to cross the arms behind the back) while bending forward to try to touch forehead to floor.
But — the last asana she made us do was probably what distinguishes ashtanga practice from others. She made us do lotus (full, if possible) and lift ourselves with our hands OFF THE FLOOR! I did manage to get off the floor for a few seconds, pshew!
In VYC where I practice, arm balances are usually introduced in intermediate classes. I remember doing this with blocks initially or doing it in half lotus — until I realized that it is easier to lift one’s self off the floor in full lotus than it is in half lotus. Since ashtanga is all about power, it does make some sense to try some balancing challenges even at the onset just to gauge what one can (or cannot) do yet and work on it in succeeding classes. I recall blogger friend Jayvee who, in his first yoga class, actually managed to do the Crane (whoo!). That’s arm power for you!
Back to basics for a regular yoga practitioner should probably not be viewed as a setback, a regression, a demotion (if you can call it that). In our prayer community, we often talk about “back to basics” as a way of reconnecting with our roots, with our God, in a way that we may have already forgotten and overlooked as we moved along in our faith. I think the same is true with yoga. We progress in our practice and always long for improvements, more difficult poses, more deepening postures. But it is good sometimes to step back and reconnect with the precepts that underlie our practice, review what is important (the breath, the core, and the gaze). That way, we do not forget our foundations and actually work towards further improving our yoga practice.
As a “connect”, here’s a quick heads up on a future Yoga Manila event: a series of workshops on alignment which Hoze will be handling. That’s another “back to basics” that I would have wanted to attend, except that all workshop hours conflict with my office hours. Liana tells me to attend the Saturday workshop (the only time available to me) but….it is on headstand.
, I did it the way Francesca told us — fingers apart as it reached out to the sky, arms thrown back as far as we could instead of straight up, chest open.
