Orange Juice, from Breathe

An excerpt from Breathe magazine (March/April, 2005, p. 34):

oranje juice
Introducing the color orange into your personal space could be about as easy as finding a rhyme for it. But you could benefit by making the hue a more permanent part of your environment, say color therpists. Orange combats feelings of passivity, inferiority, poor self-confidence, and rejection. It also stimulates the sacral chakra and rebalances corresponding organ systems--the kidnesy, ureter, intestines, and lower back. Mode of exposure is limited only by your imagination--a pumpkin-colored wall, a glass of carrot juice, a throw pillow--all will help infuse your life with the healing power of orange. --EDR

Might I suggest a bright orange surgical silicone rubber wristband that says I DO YOGA?

Unlike painting your wall, the wristband is easy to get, and $1 from the sale of each wristband goes directly to the American Red Cross for Tsunami relief. You can get yours at www.WearOrange.org.


Add ORANGE to your life, and add to the lives of those who are still affected by the Asian Tsuami.

We've raised nearly $6,500 through this project.

I continue to be amazed by the scope of the relief efforts, the incredible generosity of people like you and me, and the work that remains to be done. Read the Red Cross Tsunami Relief and Recovery Effort Update today.

Please help if you can.

Don't just read about it. Get up. Experience it. Experience yoga!

Kevin Perry
www.ExperienceYoga.org

p.s., Read our letter that describes the project here.

p.p.s., If you'd like to subscribe to Breathe magazine, click here. The current issue features an article called going deep about kundalini yoga. The March/April 2005 issue contains an article by Nora Isaacs on Anusara yoga.

Copyright 2005. All rights reserved, Mo Yoga LLC.

"My Yoga Mentor" Interview

Last week I was interviewed by Rachel Brahinsky, a writer for Yoga Journal's My Yoga Mentor. My Yoga Mentor is a monthly email newsletter for yoga teachers and those who want to be yoga teachers. It features articles about anatomy and physiology, teaching methods, the business of yoga, and philosophy/spirituality.

Rachel asked me about teaching private yoga classes. Why do people take private yoga instruction? How is private yoga teaching different from teaching public classes? Great questions.

I have no idea what she'll publish from our interview.

But, you can subscribe, so you can read whatever she writes.

I believe the newsletter my comments might be in comes out on the first Wednesday in June.

Subscribe at http://www.yogajournal.com/newsletter_teacher.cfm.

Don't just read about it. Get up. Experience it. Experience yoga!

Kevin Perry
www.ExperienceYoga.org

p.s., I teach my public and private yoga classes at Show Me Yoga Center in Jefferson City, MO and alleyCat yoga Center in Columbia, MO. Find out more about my classes by clicking on the following links:

http://showmeyoga.com/

http://alleycatyoga.com/

Copyright 2005. All rights reserved, Mo Yoga LLC.

More Knee Pain?

My friend Michael sent me a text message yesterday (while I was watching StarWars: Episode 3--Revenge of the Sith in the theater). He told me that the SITA advice I gave about knee pain a few days ago didn't work for him. SITA stands for "shins in, thighs apart." (You can read that message at http://experienceyoga.blogspot.com/2005/05/get-on-track-to-eliminate-knee-pain.html .)

Of course it didn't work! The fact that it didn't work is not simply bad luck for me and Michael.

It simply means that if you apply a solution in a situation where the cause of the problem is not known, it may not work! That's the bad news. The good news is, there aren't an overwhelming number of causes. The solutions are few in number, too. So, sometimes trial and error is a pretty good way to go. Believe me, if this yoga stuff was hard to figure out, I wouldn't be doing it.

As I mentioned in the first message, I find that if you have pain in the symmetric standing poses, working with SITA often helps right away. But sometimes the pain is more of a problem in the assymetic poses, like triangle pose, warrior 2 pose, and side angle pose.


triangle pose, utthita trikonasana, with ball of foot elevated on quarter-round prop

If you experience knee pain in those poses, you might want to begin your trial (and error) experiment by elevating the ball of the foot on the side that has knee pain. For example, you can put the ball of your foot on the front leg side, in triangle pose, just a few inches up on a wall.

Or you can elevate your foot on a block, a quarter round piece of wood, or a rolled up sticky mat.

You should try this even if you don't have knee pain because, in the parlance of Anusara yoga, it helps you enhance your "shin loop" and "ankle loop."

That, dear readers, opens a can of worms that isn't easily dealt with in brief written message.

Maybe I'll start a Podcast. Order your iPod now. But until then...

Suffice it to say that motion is different from action. Motion is easily seen. Action, a bit more difficult.

I can create the continuous action in my arm that straightens my arm; but if my arm is already straight, there's no motion to see! I am nonetheless doing something. I am isometrically acting on the bones and connective tissue of my arm to straighten it.

You can create subtle action that descends weight down the front of your shin so that you roll slightly forward on your heel. If you follow this energetic path around the heel, you then draw the calf flesh up the back of the leg and slightly press the top of the shin forward. That's the shin loop.

I'll save the ankle loop for later. But know that ankle loop also draws weight down the front of the shin and makes the front of the heel bone heavier.

Elevating the ball of the foot makes these two loops easier to feel and do.

When I elevate the ball of the foot in a straight-leg pose, like triangle pose, my leg feels longer, and it's easier to retract the head of my thigh bone into my hip socket without hyper-extending my knee; hence, knee pain goes away.

When I elevate the ball of my foot in a bent-leg pose, like warrior 2 pose, I immediately feel a shift in "pressure" from the knee joint to the belly of the thigh muscle. I feel stronger. I feel more space in my bent knee. And I feel confident in my muscle's ability to hold me in the pose.

You won't know if this works for you if you don't try.

So...

Don't just read about it. Get up. Experience it. Experience yoga!

Kevin Perry
www.ExperienceYoga.org

p.s., What about bridge pose? Do your knees hurt, right behind the knee cap, whenever you lift your hips off the ground in setu bandha sarvangasana? Help is on the way. Read on. Keep reading on. I'll write about this in a Daily Yoga Tip soon.

p.p.s., I give you Daily Yoga Tips, but understand that none of them constitute medical advice - nor do they replace the advice of your physician. Just my two cents, that's all.

Copyright 2005. All rights reserved, Mo Yoga LLC.

Remembering Heroes with Bhava and Asana

Today is Memorial Day. Today we remember.

I am grateful that every day I benefit from the freedoms for which others fought and died. They made the ultimate sacrifice. They paid the greatest price. They went before me and made my way possible.

It's so confusing at times to consider that the great teaching of yoga is ahimsa, non-harming. From ahimsa, all the other yamas flow.

So if yoga is so big on non-harming why are yoga poses dedicated to warriors (virabhadrasana 1, 2, & 3 and hanumanasana) and heroes (virasana)? The teachings of The Bhagavad Gita all take place on a field of battle! What gives?


warrior pose 2, virabhadrasana 2


a swordsman's lunge looks familiar


hero pose, virasana

One of the greatest ways to avoid harm to others, especially those who are weaker in some way, is to sacrifice yourself for their benfit. The Christian scriptures say,

"No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends." (John 15:13)

The Bhagavad Gita was all about duty, carrying out your duty with trust in God.

One who does all work as an offering to God — abandoning selfish attachment to the results — remains untouched.... (5.10)

The warriors honored by these yoga poses are not unlike those who've been injured and killed in our times. They took great risks and suffered injuries and wounds so that we would be protected. They deserve our honor. They deserve to be remembered.

My tip today is bhava. Bhava literally means 'becoming' or 'that which becomes.' It's your state of being, your emotional state. It's a state of mind that can then be experienced internally and then externally. You can cultivate a state of mind.

When you practice poses (asana) with bhava, an emotional state, you deepen your practice and catapult it beyond gymnastics or circus stunts.

Today, won't you join me in practicing virabhadrasana 2, warrior 2 pose? Right before you come into the pose, pause and look inward. Cultivate the emotional feeling tone of great honor and gratitude for those who have sacrificed for you.

And then keep going. Practice all of your asana, every day, by first cultivating a strong emotion. Gratitude. Celebration. Even sadness will make your practice richer.

Don't just read about it. Get up. Experience it. Experience yoga!

Kevin Perry
www.ExperienceYoga.org

p.s., It wasn't just those who went to war who sacrificed on your behalf. Many people in your life, teachers, parents, grandparents, ministers, volunteers, and neighbors gave selflessly for your benefit. Remember them today, too. I especially want to remember my cousin, Terry Graham, who died in December.

p.p.s., Happy Birthday, John Friend, founder of Anusara yoga.

Copyright 2005. All rights reserved, Mo Yoga LLC.

A Child Shall Lead Them

My mom came home from the hospital yesterday after gall bladder surgery and a long stay. Happily, she's feeling better and was ready to come home.

But before she left, all the hospital staff who had worked with her over the weeks came in to say goodbye.

That's an understatement. They hugged her and wished her well. They kissed her and fussed over her. They let her know they'd miss her. Truly, they honored her.

I don't think anyone who visited my mom while she was there has a doubt she had an impact on the people who took care of her in the hospital. My mom was so grateful and appreciative of the aides, nurses, doctors, food servers, orderlies, students, and pharmacists. The more she expressed her gratitude and reached out to them in friendship, the more they served her selflessly. Truly amazing.

It's odd, I think, that the people who bathed and fed and cleaned up after my mom, instead of resenting her, fawned over her, like a puppy thumping his tail, wanting so much to please her.

It's prompted me to think about child's pose, balasana.

John Friend writes of balasana:

Balasana expresses what in India is called a pranam, the gesture of bowing. Literally, "pranam" means "to offer up all of one's parts." For thousands of years, yoga students have knelt before their guru or teacher, humbly bowed their heads, and touched their guru’s feet. This practice is foreign to us in the West, where such bowing or pranaming is thought of as demeaning. But in the original context of yoga, a pranam is an act of dignity and honor, expressing a recognition of the divinity that is present in the human heart. It is to that divinity that we bow. (Yoga Journal, Jan/Feb 1997)

That's it. They saw the Divine in my mom. And they were moved to action.

It's telling that yoga poses are named after or dedicated to sages, great warriors, heroes, beautiful and majestic animals and, of all things...a child.

Maybe it's because children marvel. They don't know they shouldn't be captivated by awe and wonder. They just let if flow.

You probably don't know my mom. But you can express your awe and wonder at the beauty and Divinity that are all around you.

Here's how:

Come onto your hands and knees.
Point your toes backward.
Bring your feet together so the inner edges of your big toes touch.
Adjust your knees so they are about hip width apart.
Then sit your hips down on your heels.
Lengthening your spine, lay your front ribs down on your thighs.
Extend your arms out in front of you, palms facing down, and rest.
Go ahead, bend your arms. Let your elbows rest on the floor.

balasana, child's pose

As we get older, most of us get stiff. So your hips, feet, ankles, or neck might bother you in this position. And you may find it difficult to breathe. But the tiniest bit of regular practice in this position reveals that it is unbelievably refreshing and comforting to your nervous system.

While you're in child's pose, imagine that you are reaching out to touch the feet of someone for whom you have high regard, someone who served you selflessly, someone in whom you recognize the spark of Divinity.

Like those who helped my mom, you magnify your own beauty and dignity, when you recognize it and point to it in others.

By the way, this pose is great for your hips, gently stretches the spine, and rests your heart. It's delightful.

Don't just read about it. Get up. Experience it. Experience yoga!

Kevin Perry
www.ExperienceYoga.org

p.s., You can find out more about John Friend and Anusara Yoga at www.Anusara.com.

p.p.s., I enjoyed reading a beautiful personal account of the practice of balasana at http://caferati.blogspot.com/2005/03/childs-pose.html.

p.p.p.s., By the way, balasana is also known as garbhasana. It's not the same pose as pindasana (embryo pose) and garbha pindasana (embryo in the womb posture). These are the types of puzzles we help you sort out at the Experience Sanskrit workshop. Our next workshop is coming up on June 25th at the YogaSource in St. Louis. Click on www.ExperienceYoga.org for more info and to register. For $50 you get the four-hour workshop, which is jam-packed with fun and unforgettable experiences, and a 100-page course manual to take home.


garbha pindasana from http://www.absolutelyashtanga.com/contactus.html

Copyright 2005. All rights reserved, Mo Yoga LLC.

Balance Now

This morning I laid in bed after I awoke, groggy. Thoughtlessly, I clicked the remote control and saw, blurry, Good Morning America's Robin Roberts interviewing Mother Antonia, the "Prison Angel."

Twenty-eight years ago she left her lavish life in Beverly Hills and moved into a 10'-by-10' prison cell in Tijuana. She's been there ever since, ministering to society's outcasts and, ironically, their guards, in one of the most horrific prisons imagineable.

She got my attention. I put on my glasses. She asked me and everyone else to do something, and do it today. Don't wait. Help someone, today. She said,

"Yesterday's bread is too hard to eat.
Tomorrow's hasn't been baked."

I've never heard that before.

Patanjali, in Book II, Sutra 16, says, "The suffering which is to come, can and should be avoided."

So we're not confused on the issue, Patanjali tells us we all suffer because we mistake the transient for that which is eternal and the impure for the pure. We mistakenly believe that we are something other than who we really are. This lack of knowledge, avidya or ignorance, is the cause of all suffering.

We're in a prison of our own making. Bo Lozoff says it in the title of his book about taking yoga and compassion to the incarcerated, "We're all doing time."


behind bars

Mother Antonia's sutra is so simple, so direct. It's about being present right now. When you regret the past or anticipate the future, you spoil the now.

At the beginning of my yoga classes I often invite students to make a transition from being a doer to being an observer. Lying still, you can start to watch and experience what's happening right now. When you are present for the now, stress and anxiety dissolve away.

That transition is often difficult to make. I think this is easier: Pick your foot up off the floor and balance in tree pose (vrksasana). Place your foot along the inside of your knee or upper thigh, toes pointing down. Balance for the time it takes for you to take a few breaths. Then come out of the pose with control and repeat on the other side.

Balancing gets your attention and brings you into the present moment. It's difficult to be occupied by the past or worry about the future when you're balancing. Negativity fades away.

A student of mine from many years ago told me she took this advice on her wedding day. No one else knew it, but while standing on the beach saying her vows, underneath her gown she had picked her foot up and was standing in tree pose. It calmed her nerves. She was able to be present at her own marriage ceremony.

The pain and anxiety of today can and should be avoided. Follow the Prison Angel. Do something good right now.

Don't just read about it. Get up. Experience it. Experience yoga!

Kevin Perry
www.ExperienceYoga.org

p.s., You can find out more about Bo and Sita Lozoff's Prison-Ashram Project at http://www.humankindness.org/.

p.p.s., If you'd like to help Mother Antonia reach the incarcerated, their families and guards in Tijuana, you can call her at the Servants of the Eleventh Hour of San Juan Eudes (Eudistas) in Tijuana, (664) 645 1941.

Copyright 2005. All rights reserved, Mo Yoga LLC.

Yoga

Get on Track to Eliminate Knee Pain

Do your knees hurt? Do they aggaravate you when you're just standing around or doing bilaterally symmetric poses like mountain pose (tadasana) or wide-stance forward bend (prasarita padottanasana)?

Sometimes it's because the knees just don't track right.

Knee pain often goes away with a simple seated maneuver you can try right now.

Sit on the edge of a chair or on the floor. If your right knee hurts, pick your right leg up off the floor, knee comfortably bent. Place your right hand on the outside (lateral) of your right calf muscle. Put your left hand on your inner thigh. Push your shin towards the mid-line with your right hand. Push your thigh in the opposite direction, away from the mid-line of your body. While pressing with both hands, open and close your knee joint a dozen times.


Here's an assistant pressing the shin toward the mid-line and thigh away. Opening and closing the knee will often put the knee back on track.

If it's your left leg, you've got to switch the instructions all around. (Good luck!)

The mnemonic is SITA. SITA stands for shins in, thighs apart. To make this work on either knee, you've got to press your shin in, toward the mid-line and press your thighs apart, away from the mid-line.

Look at your shoes. Are your heels worn on the outside? If they are your shins are probably moving away from the mid-line whenever you walk. That may be all you need to get the knees slightly off track and well into the pain zone.

This little SITA adjustment can get you up and going again.

By the way, SITA, shins in, thighs apart, is a principle you can apply with great success in every pose. How to do it is not easily summed up in message like this. But it's quite simple to experience and master in tadasana, mountain pose. Then you can apply this action in the other poses.

Do me a favor. If this makes your knee pain go away today, send me an email! Thanks.

Don't just read about it. Get up. Experience it. Experience yoga!

Kevin Perry
www.ExperienceYoga.org

p.s., A fun yoga fact to know is that Sita is the devoted spouse of Ram, an incarnation of Vishnu. Their story is told in the great epic tale, the Ramayana. If you don't know the story of the Ramayana you should particpate in the Experience Sanskrit workshop coming up on June 25 at St. Louis YogaSource. The Ramayana is one of the "stories behind the pose" that we discuss. You'll learn about the great monkey warrior Hanuman who led a vast army of monkeys and bears across the Straits on a bridge they made by casting stones into the water. They found Sita and brought her back, after a long battle, to Ram. Because of his amazing leaps across the Straits, the pose hanumanasana, was named in dedication to Hanuman, whose devotion to his master is a model for us all.

Copyright 2005. All rights reserved, Mo Yoga LLC.

Left or Right? Default to Sight

My student Julie asked me last night in class what she should do about her "yoga dyslexia." It turns out that sometimes during yoga class she can't figure out her right from her left. Or at least she can't figure it out fast enough to stay with the flow of the class.


Escher adds to our confusion about left and right hands.

So here's a short and sweet tip for those of you who get confused in class about some of the instructions.

If you can't tell right from left, do what my friend Linda does. I've been watching her for years. Before class she gets out a ball point pen and on her right hand she writes a big "R." On her left hand, a big "L." She writes them on her feet, too.

It's not perfect. But it's just enough to eliminate that slight delay you sometimes experience when you're trying to follow carefully, but a fog of confusion slows you down.

It's a fascinating thing to observe as a teacher. Verbal and spatial processing must be done in two separate parts of the brain. Some of us seem to have strong connections between the two. Others, not so strong.

When the connection between hearing the words and moving the body is slightly delayed, I can see frustration in the facial expressions and body language of my students.

I also see it in those instances when English is not the first language of my student. Since I teach in English, it appears that there's a three-step process going on: 1) translate English to primary language, 2) translate words into actions, and finally, 3) do the action.

It takes time and it can be frustrating.

Most people end up stopping what they're doing to look around. They want to see what others are doing so they can join in. They default to sight.

Unless I'm actually demonstrating something I want students to see, I prefer that students don't look around and watch others. It's inefficient. That's why I don't like mirrors in the rooms where I teach yoga. Students tend to gaze at themselves like deer in the headlights. Then they snap out of it later only to discover they've missed part of class.

Maybe the best tips to come out of this message have more to do with picking a teacher. Many of you don't have much choice, but if you do, consider these questions:
1) Is your teacher aware that you or those around you are having difficulty following instructions?
2) Does your teacher demonstrate actions or positions that aren't easily described?
3) Does your teacher regularly appeal to all learning preferences--visual, auditory, and kinesthetic?
4) Does your teacher use orienting language besides left, right, up, and down, e.g., "move your arm toward the window" or "twist, turning your back to the wall"?
5) Does your teacher lead you into positions mirror imaging what he or she wants you to accomplish?

If not, you may want to consider finding a teacher who's more tuned in to what his or her students need to deepen their individual yoga practices.

And don't forget to ask for what you want. Tell your teacher if you need more demonstrations or slower instructions. Most good teachers love and appreciate feedback from their students.

Don't just read about it. Get up. Experience it. Experience yoga!

Kevin Perry
www.ExperienceYoga.org

p.s., Drop me an email today if you're interested in my year-long Teacher Training Program coming up in St. Louis. You'll be thoroughly trained, one weekend each month, to really see your students and adapt to what they need to succeed. You can email me at info@experienceyoga.org.

Copyright 2005. All rights reserved, Mo Yoga LLC.

Think You've Got Shaky Legs? Go Ask Alex

I thought the Kentucky Derby was great! But the Preakness this weekend...absolutely amazing.

After what some news sources called a "miraculous recovery," Afleet Alex went on to win the Preakness Stakes, the second leg of the Triple Crown.

If you watched you saw Scrappy T drift into the path Afleet Alex. When their legs tangled Afleet Alex's legs buckled, his head bowed, and he almost fell.


fore-arm balance? Inversions are good. But, I don't recommend this.

Instead, he stayed on his feet, regained momentum and defeated Scrappy T and Giacomo, the Kentucky Derby winner.

Of course, I was thinking all about yoga when I saw this.

"Why do my legs shake?" That's probably one of the most frequently asked questions I hear from yoga students.

If your legs are as wobbly as Afleet Alex's when you do yoga, it could be the result of any of several factors.

Are you tired? Maybe you've done a good round of standing poses. You may need to take a short, or not-so-short, break before your legs are steadier.

Are you weak? Sometimes events in our daily lives or poor choices sap our strength. Have you had enough sleep? Are you eating properly? Any of these could be at the root of your trembling legs.

But Patanjali, I believe, suggests the best insight into shaky legs. He says in Book 1 of the YogaSutra:

30. Three distractions are accompanied by suffering, frustration, trembling of the body, and irregular breathing.
31. The practice of focusing on the single truth is the means to prevent these distractions. (trans., Barbara Stoler Miller)

Want your legs to stop trembling? Focus on the single truth. The "single truth" he's talking about is tattva, the nature of one reality. I don't know about you, but that's often a big challenge for me.

Good news: Patanjali gives you a bunch of choices after that. He even says you can concentrate on any "suitable object." I suggest you concentrate on your legs.

It was probably 12 years ago when I participated in a week-long yoga vacation with the great Iyengar teacher Patricia Walden. She said that when her legs tremble she sometimes bends forward, looks at her legs, and with a voice full of conviction, she calls out to her legs "stop trembling."

I've tried this. It works. And I think it works because it focuses my mind on one thing.

So if your legs shake it may have nothing to do with your legs and everything to do with a scattered mind. Focus your attention and watch your legs and your whole body settle down. You can have a "miraculous recovery" just like Afleet Alex.

Don't just read about it. Get up. Experience it. Experience yoga!

Kevin Perry
www.ExperienceYoga.org

p.s., My mom is still in the hospital. And I've been making some of those poor choices I talked about above like not enough sleep and too much fast food. So I am taking my own advice. I am practicing concentrating on one thing, her miraculous recovery. Please join me! Thanks.

p.p.s., You can refresh your legs and your whole spirit when you get away. I love breaking my routine by vacationing. When I'm on vacation I am out of the habits of every day life. I can see my whole life through a fresh perspective. As I write this now I can recall coming back from two recent vacations and, as a result of a new view I gained, I made major changes in my life. As you plan your vacation this summer, consider looking even farther forward to 2006. Sallie Keeney and I will be hosting a group of yogis at Hotel Lagunita in Yelapa Mexico, February 18-25. Yoga, vacationing, foreign travel and unmatched natural beauty are a combination that are unmatched. Find out more at http://experienceyoga.org/vacations.asp. I will admit this: your legs will be shaky after you get off of the 40-minute water taxi ride from Puerto Villarta to Yelapa. It's the only way to get there.

Copyright 2005. All rights reserved, Mo Yoga LLC.

Give Me the Frog Every Time

This letter to the editor appeared this afternoon in my hometown newspaper.

Doug Reece form Centertown, Miisouri wrote,

'So Sen. Chuck Graham...opposed a bill proposed by a Kansas City fourth grade class to make the bullfrog the Missouri state amphibian, because the "bullfrog is a pest."

With all due respect, if I have a choice between listening to a bullfrog or listening to Sen Graham, give me the bullfrog every time!'

I got a much-needed laugh out of that.

There's at least some wisdom to Mr. Reece's advice since, as far as I know, there's a yoga pose named after a frog, but none after a politician.

If you want to take Mr. Reece's advice to give me the frog every time, try this:

1) lie facing down on your mat, legs together;
2) prop yourself up on your right elbow;
3) bend your left knee and with your left hand reach back and grab your left foot;
4) press your right forearm into the floor, so you can raise your chest a bit higher;
5) now, push your left foot down toward your left buttock.

That's ardha bhekasana, half frog pose. If you bend the other leg and press both feet down toward your buttocks, that's bhekasana, frog pose. It's more challenging.


a room full of frogs

Frog pose is a back-bend and back strengthener. If you haven't tried it yet, you'll discover it's great for making the quadriceps and hip flexors more supple.

By the way, like all back bends, if you feel low back pain, tuck your tailbone.

Don't just read about it. Get up. Experience it. Experience yoga!

Kevin Perry
www.ExperienceYoga.org

p.s., Ardha means 'half.' There are a bunch of 'half' poses to be done, like ardha navasana, ardha virasana and ardha chandrasana. When 'half' is in the name of a yoga pose, it usually (but not always) means you are performing the pose with only one of two limbs. Click here to find out more about our Experience Sanskrit workshop coming up June 25, 2005 at the Saint Louis YogaSource. At the Experience Sanskrit workshop, we'll review all of the ardha poses and the single paripoorna pose, too. Paripoorna is the opposite of 'half,' as in paripoorna navasana, full boat pose.

Copyright 2005. All rights reserved, Mo Yoga LLC.

Alone? Together

Yoga seems like such a solitary--almost lonely--practice. No one else can do it for you.

Patanjali described ashtanga yoga, the eight limbs of yoga. They are yama, niyama, asana, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyana and samadhi. Each is yours to do. Yours alone. Non-harming: done by you. Study of sacred scriptures: done by you. Dog poses: you. Breath of fire: you. Withdrawal of the sense organs: still you. Just you. You alone. If you don't do it, it won't get done.

It doesn't sound very attractive. Not very inviting.

When you join a yoga class there's sometimes a group activity at the start, like chanting an invocation. And at the end we recognize one another and say "namaste." But the rest...well, it's a solo act.

I was at the hospital today with my mom. There are two kinds of patients there: those who are alone, and those who are surrounded by family and friends.

Seeing them all today made me think of this saying you might see hung up on a placard in someone's kitchen:

Shared joy
is twice the joy.
Shared sorrow
is half the sorrow.

It's ironic, isn't it, that yoga is such a solitary practice, but the word itself means union?

When you touch your toes today, think abou this. When you bend backwards today, let this thought trickle through your mind.. When you twist today, know this: you are not alone.

Thousands of people, probably millions are on the same path. In Sanakrit, it's called a kula, a clan. Chirstian teachings refer to the mystical union between the parts of the Church.

I like to think of this whenever I do surya namaskar, sun salutation. I am absolutely conviced that whenever I do it, somewhere someone is doing it with me.

Being alone is a mistaken thought. It's a deception of the senses. Like an optical illusion.

You can double your joy and halve your sorrows today simply by acknowledging what's so. You're not alone.

By the way, there's avery physical representation of this. The front of your body represents your ego, your self. Your back body represents your place in community.

When you do your postures today, express your postures from your back body. Instead of drawing your belly button back toward your spine, expand your kidneys out behind you. Instead of lifting your chest, dig your shoulder blades into your back body. When you work from your back body, you'll feel the support of the whole yoga community behind you.

Don’t just sit there. Get up. Experience it. Experience yoga!

Kevin Perry
www.ExperienceYoga.org

Copyright 2005. All rights reserved, Mo Yoga LLC.

Foot Pain, Sprained Ankles & One-Legged Balancing

One of my Daily Yoga Tip readers wrote this in response to the Tips I wrote about plantar fasciitis:

Regarding foot pain... I don't have plantar fascitis, thank goodness. But I do have neuromas in both feet (though it's particularly bad on the right side).

One thing I have found that helps, in addition to the toe stretches, dorsiflexion, and thunderbolt poses you mentioned, is standing balancing poses such as tree, eagle, warrior III, half moon, etc.

Balancing poses require all the tiny muscles in your lower legs and feet to really kick in and constantly readjust to keep you upright. This strengthens the muscles in the feet and improves the integrity of the foot structure.

Well, that's my belief, anyway. I don't have any medical evidence for it. But it does seem to help and it makes a bit of sense, too. Just thought I'd toss in my two cents... (or possibly maybe just one cent, since I have no evidence!).

Good night and keep the great stuff coming.

Namaste,
-LL

I can't agree with her more! These one-leg balancing posture are great for foot and ankle problems.

I will disagree on one point. I do have plenty of medical evidence that balancing on one foot produces tremendous measureable benefits for your feet and ankles. Probably the most well-documented is prevention of sprained ankles among people who have sprained their ankles in the past.

Don’t just sit there. Get up. Experience it. Experience yoga!

Kevin Perry
www.ExperienceYoga.org

p.s. You can read my previous messages about plantar fasciitis here:

http://experienceyoga.blogspot.com/2005/04/plantar-fasciitis-make-pain-go-away.html

http://experienceyoga.blogspot.com/2005/04/toes-up-against-your-arch-enemy.html

Copyright 2005. All rights reserved, Mo Yoga LLC.

Angela Martignago, iPod Winner!

Congratulations to Angela Martignago of Gainesville, Florida.

She bought an I DO YOGA wristband at our booth during the Yoga Journal Conference in Wisconsin.

And she was lucky enough to have her name drawn as the winner of the brand new iPod!

Thanks for helping out with our Tsunami fund-raising project, Angela.


Angela, from Florida, receiving her iPod from Sallie Keeney of www.WearOrange.org in the lobby of the Grand Geneva Resort, Yoga Journal Conference.

Don’t just sit there. Get up. Experience it. Experience yoga!

Kevin Perry
www.ExperienceYoga.org

Copyright 2005. All rights reserved, Mo Yoga LLC.

Get Back to Where You Once Belonged

I noticed a man a few days ago wearing a t-shirt with a picture of an archer on it.

I was astonished by the posture of the archer. His pelvis was pushed way forward as he stood aiming, bow and arrow in hand. His ribcage was drawn backward.

The posture struck me because it’s an exaggeration of probably the most common posture I see among my students, and people in general.

I wrote a bit about some of this at http://experienceyoga.blogspot.com/2005/04/kyphosis-and-bending-backwards.html

I was so interested in this extreme variation of a common postural misalignment, that I did a Google image search on “archery” and found a bunch of pictures showing the same thing: hips thrust forward, torso drawn back, and chest collapsed.


archery 

When I look from the side at students in mountain pose (tadasana), it’s unusual to see someone whose legs are vertical. Most shift their pelvises (pelvii?) forward so that if you hung a plumb line from one of their hip bones, the weight at the bottom would hang over toes instead of the instep.


mountain pose, pelvis forward, low back compressed

If you get up and try this right now you’ll notice that if you move your pelvis back over your heels, assuming you typically shift your hips forward, the compressed vertebrae feeling in your low back almost immediately goes away.

Here’s the simplest set of instructions to address this: Stand with legs straight. Look down. Move your hips back until you can see the skin on the fronts of your ankles. Then lift your head and look forward again, without reverting to the archer’s posture.

That’s all there is to it.

Most people feel their low backs ‘decompress’ when they get their hips back, legs vertical. But, just as frequently, they don’t like the feeling they have that they’re ‘doubled over’ with rear end sticking out.

A tail bone tuck and strong lift of the torso get rid of the look. But only a long period of getting accustomed to it makes this feel ‘normal.’ ‘Cause let’s face it, it’s not normal for you. Since it’s different, most people dismiss this posture suggestion. After all, don’t I already know how to stand? I’ve been doing it most of my life.

So don’t rush to reject this tip. Practice it a while before deciding it’s not for you.

Don’t just sit there. Get up. Experience it. Experience yoga!

Kevin Perry
www.ExperienceYoga.org

p.s., I think the folks at Earth Shoe have the best diagram ever showing how your whole posture improves when you move your hips back over your heels. Here it is:


alignment, hips back over heels

Hi to all my new friends at Earth Shoes and Shoe Peddlers (Appleton, WI) whom I met this weekend at the Yoga Journal Conference. I've been studying their diagram in the shoe ads for years, but had never put a pair on. They feel great.

Copyright 2005. All rights reserved, Mo Yoga LLC.

archery 

archer

Heard at the Yoga Journal Conference Grand Geneva

Rodney Yee in his keynote remarks quoted Mother Teresa:

"The fruit of silence is prayer,
the fruit of prayer is faith,
the fruit of faith is love,
the fruit of love is service,
the fruit of service is peace."

Was it David Swenson who asked,

"Are you doing yoga,
or making an asana out of yourself?"

Copyright 2005. All rights reserved by Mo Yoga LLC.

Refreshment, ala Yoga

Last night I was dead tired. I spent too much time in the car traveling to Wisconsin. Then we did setup. Then we manned the exhibit booth at the Yoga Journal Conference.


Here I am blogging in the exhibit booth for www.WearOrange.org

The wristbands are moving well. We're adding to the yoga community's gift of aid to the victims of the Asian Tsunami.

It's SO great to meet and get to know yogis from all over the mid-west U.S., and beyond.

After we shut the booth down for the evening, we waited in the hall outside of the ballroom for the start of the keynote presentation by Rodney Yee. I was exhausted. And my eyes were drooping. I thought I wouldn't be able to stay awake.

But I was among yogis, so I didn't feel bad at all about getting down on the floor and swinging my legs up to rest on the wall in viparita karani, what most people call "legs-up-the-wall pose.


legs-up-the-wall pose

It's probably the most refreshing and restful pose I know. And it really came in handy. Boring waiting was transformed into restoration.

I was able to quickly re-energize and enjoy Rodney's remarks about selfless service. What a fantastic message.

Great advice, indeed. If your energy is flagging, get upside-down in legs-up-the-wall pose, and give of yourself to serve others!

Don't just read about it. Get up. Experience it. Experience yoga!

Kevin Perry
www.ExperienceYoga.org

p.s., Viparita is translated as "inverted" or "upside-down." And here's a confession: I've never encountered a consistent interpretation of the Sanskrit word karani. Some people say it means "a particular type of practice." Some people call viparita karani the "inverted lake posture." We talk about quirks like this in my Experience Sanskrit workshop all the time. And we do it with one goal in mind--to make it memorable. With a little bit of fun and a handful of memorable stories you can learn and remember the Sanskrit names of yoga poses with ease. Click here to find out more about our Experience Sanskrit workshop coming up June 25, 2005 at the Saint Louis YogaSource. When you participate in the Experience Sanskrit workshop you get to take home a 100-page course guide free. It's included in your $50 registration fee.

p.p.s., If you're new to yoga and you want to make the transition between only studying yoga at class to doing yoga on your own at home, I strongly recommend viparita karani. This was THE pose that got me doing yoga at home. I would come home from work every night and put my feet up for sometimes as long as 20 minutes. It's absolutely transformative. From there, my practice grew and grew. Yours will too, if you do it.

p.p.s., The ancients make some of the boldest claims ever about viparita karani. Consider this excerpt from the 3rd chapter of the Hatha Yoga Pradipika.

79. This exercise increases the appetite; and, therefore, one who practices it, should obtain a good supply of food. If the food be scanty, it will burn him at once.

80. Place the head on the ground and the feet up into the sky, for a second only the first day, and increase this time daily.

81. After six months, the wrinkles and grey hair are not seen. He who practices it daily, even for two hours, conquers death.

Do it now! It feels great and it's great for you.

Copyright 2005. All rights reserved by Mo Yoga LLC.

Good Prop, Bad Prop

I promised I’d tell you about the worst accident I’ve ever seen in a yoga class.

The pose was revolved triangle, parivrtta trikonasana. Students were lined up along a wall because I wanted them to be able to touch their back heels to the wall.


revolved triangle pose

As she was coming into the pose, one of my students lost her balance. It’s a precarious pose, after all.

Because her heel was against the wall, she couldn’t move that foot when she started to fall. When she tried to move her other foot, the sticky mat bunched up on the carpet. Her foot got tangled. She tipped over.

Her shoulder broke the fall as she crashed to the ground. It was dislocated. She couldn’t move her arm at all. The pain was excruciating. She was very embarrassed.

How you handle this circumstance as a teacher is a story in itself. I’ll tell it later. Until then, don’t doubt that an ambulance ride isn’t what comes to mind when I think of yoga.

What was to blame?

Was it the sticky mat? If it hadn’t slipped and bunched up, she could have repositioned her foot.

Was it the carpet? Had we been practicing on a bare floor, the mat wouldn’t have slipped.

Was it the wall? If we’d been out in the middle of the room, she could have moved her back foot..

Was it the pose? It’s challenging one. Had we been doing something else, like a sitting or reclining pose, she wouldn’t have fallen.

After this careful and insightful analysis of what went wrong, you might be wise to never use a sticky mat, never practice on carpet, never practice near a wall, and never do parivrtta trikonasana. Never.

That’d be like throwing the baby out with the bath water.

Why? Because all of these things are merely props. They’re just tools. They are simple and understandable objects that we use for a particular instructional or practical purpose. They are not bad props.

When unfortunate events occur, the mind tends to do what the mind does. It churns. It whirs. That’s what Patanjali taught in the first chapter of the YogaSutras. He said, “yogas chitta vrtti nirodha.”

Vrtti is the key word here. Your mind (chitta) spins in a vortex, just like your torso turns in revolved triangle. Yoga, says Patanjali, is the state you attain when the churning and turning (vrtti) of your mind cease (nirodha).

One pattern the mind likes to repeat is distinguishing between two types. Classifying. Judging. Black or white. Left or right. Female or male. And, the big one: good or bad.

When something’s bad, you push it away. You avoid it. You resist it. When something’s good, you crave it. You seek it. Patanjali warns us that this particular habit of mind leads to suffering.

It’s called dualism, this drive to divide everything into opposing pairs, to dissect. You don’t have to do it. You have a choice. But we’re so blinded to it we can’t see unity. We can’t see unifying principles. We don’t know union. We’re strangers to holism. We’re addicted to judging.

But Patanjali says we can see things as they really are, if we practice yoga. He promises that if we practice, we can drop dualism.

One author has translated Patanjali's second chapter
like this:

46. Postures (asanas) should be steady and pleasant.
47. Asanas are mastered by relaxed effort and
remaining unaware of the body.
48. From that, one is no longer disturbed by the
dualities (ie. pairs of opposites such as hot/cold, pleasure/pain,
etc.)

Then a mat can simply be a mat, and a wall can be a wall. They don’t have to be bad because a yogi dislocated her shoulder. For that matter they don’t have to be good, either. They can just be neutral. They can simply be useful for the particular purpose at hand.

See if you can see things as they really are today, not good, not bad.

Things and events are what they are, what matters is how we choose to respond to them.

Don't just read about it. Get up. Experience it. Experience yoga!

Kevin Perry
www.ExperienceYoga.org

p.s., Even the Asian Tsunami can be viewed as a neutral event. But we can still respond with compassionate hearts. We're raising funds this weekend at the Yoga Journal conference in Lake Geneva, WI by selling I DO YOGA wristbands. Every wristband sale generates a $1 donation to the American Red Cross for Tsunami relief aid. You can get yours at www.WearOrange.org. And it's really fun to go www.WearOrange.org, click on "community" and read what yogis from all over the world have said about why they do yoga.

Copyright 2005. All rights reserved by Mo Yoga LLC.

Great Indoors--Blog My Lyrics!

Blog My Lyrics!

"Great Indoors" by John Mayer

Check your pulse it's proof
That you're not listening to
The call your life's been issuing you
Scared of a world outside

You should explore

Pull all the shades and

Wander the great indoors

--

Mobile Email from a Cingular Wireless Customer http://www.cingular.com

Let it Flow Let it Flow Let it Flow

There you are with garden hose in hand. The faucet is on. Your beautiful spring flowers are waiting for a shower. You pull back on the trigger of the spray nozzle and ... nothing. No water.


Hmmmm. Could get messy.

What's the deal? It's a kink, of course. You uncoil the kink and life-giving water reaches just the right spot.

This is what I was thinking about last night when my mom came out of the endoscopy room completely relieved of the agony that had landed her in the ER the day before. When you see this sort of thing with your own eyes it literally looks like an unmitigated medical miracle.

The doctor had passed a tube down through her stomach and right up to the opening of the bile duct. There he found two stones clogging the free flow of bile, which in the right spot does a great job of digesting fat. In the wrong spot, impeded by a "kink" in her hose, it caused irritation, inflammation, incredible pain, and who knows what sort of damage to her liver.

He placed a stent to hold the duct open and instantly flow was restored. Her pain went away immediately. Soon after, the effects of the various medicines wore off and she began thinking about and talking about going home. It was that quick.

Restore flow, restore health.

That's how yoga works, by the way. It was understood that way and created that way. The goal was to open up any congestion or restrictions in the nadis (rivers) so that prana (life-force) could flow freely and unrestricted. When it flows, you have extraordinary health, vibrant energy and a high state of functioning. When a once diminished flow is restored to it's optimal state, healing and well-being return quickly.

What causes the kinks in your energy system? Emotions, injuries, illness, thoughts, attitudes, beliefs, repeated motions, holding patterns, long periods of immobility, trauma. It can be almost anything.

But the cause really doesn't matter, because you can remain healthy in every way by practicing in a way that keeps your body as close to its "optimal blueprint" as possible. In that state, energy flows. Health flourishes.

If you divide your body in half at the level of your belly-button, for example, nearly every chronic health concern you have above that line can be eliminated by achieving optimal alignment of the shoulder girdle. Chronic problems below can be addressed through optimal alignment in the pelvis. Once the structures are aligned, prana flows and healing comes quickly.

These are big claims. I know. Doesn't it make you want to find out for yourself? If it does, please practice yoga today. You'll open up to a new level of health and well-being.

Don't just read about it. Get up. Experience it. Experience yoga!

Kevin Perry
www.ExperienceYoga.org

p.s., Thank you, each of you, who prayed for my mom. Your intentions really do change the universe. They change you, too. Maybe tomorrow I'll write about sankalpa.

p.p.s., I didn't make up the term "optimal blueprint." I learned it from my teacher, John Friend, the founder of Anusara yoga. Anusara yoga is known for its focus on effective technique and joyful embrace and celebration of Grace. "Anusara" literally means "to step into the flow of Grace." The techniques are directly apprehended through a set of principles that can be applied in any pose AND without contradicting your teacher, whom you should honor. It is a system that is unifying, not divisive. I hope this creates in you an interest and curiosity sufficient to cause you to find out more and do something about it. Experience it. Check out www.Anusara.com today.


John Friend

p.p.p.s., Are you going to the Yoga Journal Conference this weekend in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin? Please come and see me at our WearOrange.org booth. I hope you'll introduce yourself to me. We're selling orange I DO YOGA wristbands and raising funds for Tsunami relief. And we're giving away two iPods, too. If you're not going to the Conference, but know others who are, will you pass this message on to them so they can say hello and help with the cause!

Copyright 2005. All rights reserved by Mo Yoga LLC.

It's New

This is a test blog from text messaging from my cell phone. Experience Yoga by Kevin Perry

--

Mobile Email from a Cingular Wireless Customer http://www.cingular.com

Turn Your Poses Around...Your Spine

When I wrote yesterday about wringing out and stimulating your internal organs, I suggested you go back and read my April message about janu sirsasana.

So, I took my own advice and did the same.

I noticed a little mistake in that message. I said I know of only one pose with the word root janu in its name.

Hasty assertion. Now, I can think of two: janusirsasana and parivrtta janusirsasana.

As I said yesterday, janusirsasana is both a forward bend and a twist. The problem is, it doesn't look like a twist. But you'll feel it as a twist when you do it. Go ahead. [Waiting patiently.] This is all about experiencing yoga, you know.

But parivrtta janusirsasana looks to everyone like a twist. And like the poses I suggested yesterday, it's great for your mid-section.


parivrtta janusirsasana. See this pic and others like it at www.MarylandYoga.com.

I like this pose a lot. You should give it a try. But if you've never done it before, I recommend you begin by practicing parivrtta upavistha konasana first. You can see a picture of me doing the pose at http://photos1.blogger.com/img/241/4565/640/klp%20parivrtta%20upavistha%20konasana.jpg.

Parivrtta means 'revolving.' It almost always implies that you've taken the standard form of a pose and revolved the torso around the axis of the spine. The great yogacharya BKS Iyengar is known for this. He takes classical yoga poses and revolves them.

You can do it, too.

You can revolve triangle pose, side angle pose, and half moon pose, too. They all provide that great wringing action to the intra-abdominal organs, relieve low back aches, and strenghten the paraspinal and oblique abdominal muscles.

And I especially like the EXPERIENCE of revolving my whole torso around the axis of my spine. This helps reveal my spine to me more clearly. I feel it more vivdly. How about you? What do you feel?

Don't just read about it. Get up. Experience it. Experience yoga!

Kevin Perry
www.ExperienceYoga.org

p.s., I looked in my 100-page course guide for the Experience Sanskrit workshop today. Page 93 lists the names of six yoga poses with the word root parivrtta in them. At least one of those six is not discussed in this message. Send me an email today at info@experienceyoga.org and I'll send you the list, with links to pics so you'll know them all. Also, click here to find out more about our Experience Sanskrit workshop coming up June 25, 2005 at the Saint Louis YogaSource. When you participate in the Experience Sanskrit workshop you get to take home the course guide free. It's included in your $50 registration fee.

p.p.s., Janu means 'knee.' Sirsa, is 'head.' Janusirsasana, then, means 'knee head pose,' literally.

p.p.p.s., As I write this I am remembering CLEARLY the worst accident that ever occurred to one of my yoga students in a class I taught. She was doing revolved trianlge pose, parivrtta trikonasana. But it wasn't the pose that got her into trouble; it was the tools we were using to 'aid' her. Just how harmful can something as innocent as a sticky mat be? We use them every time we practice, right? Check back tomorrow. I've got more to say about this. Yoga, like many other things is a tool. It can be used for good or for, well, not-so-good.


revolved triangle pose, parivrtta trikonasana

Copyright 2005. All rights reserved by Mo Yoga LLC.