Drop back progress: November 2010, with video

After backbends and inspired by Nobel I practiced the half drop back in the middle of the room without the wall (first video), just to see where things are at.  I have to say that I am becoming an advocate for dropping the WALL altogether, I really do not see much point to it any more.   I found it a lot more real to look for the floor with my eyes rather than a wall.

I also felt a lot better on it and although it isn't quite happening yet I am feeling the progress which is good enough for me.

As per the second video, Urva Dhanurasana from the floor I am now concentrating on what on earth is going on with my pushing away from being on top of the arms.  It seems to me I am scared and I am trying to get back to gathering the torso on top of the palms, (illustrated at 1:15 to 1:17).

The pain I feel is way too intense, I even had a hint of a headache on this one.  Then again, I almost fainted the first time I was adjusted properly into Kurmasana, or, as the Guru would say "no pain no asana no come"

Here is the whole dropback video story that started back a year ago.





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Mother River - Muh-he-kun-ne-tuk, or the river that flows both ways

The picture can be seen in the city of Beacon by the Hudson Valley, it is about two stories high on the Main street and facing the mother river herself.

Muh-he-kun-ne-tuk is the native name of the Hudson River, or the river that flows both ways...

After I took the picture and brought it home I could not but notice all the incredibly beautiful stories the painting tells, all the symbolism in it, for example, did you notice?

1. Her eyes although looking at the horizon (or the future) are also internally based, connected to spirit
2. The rays of the sun spread from her mind or her fertile ideas and give light to all who live around her
3. Fields of abundance in foods and colors and art are protected within and throughout the extent of her body, and her body does not end at the usual boundaries as below the arms we cannot really tell where it is woman and where is river or field or artist
4. Her breasts nurture the painters and musicians and poets
5. Sailors come downstream from her heart
6. Her right hand protects the children in a puddle of love away from the powerful currents of the river
7. Her left hand protects a kayak rider and all those who enjoy the river for recreation
8. Sailors can easily drown in the powerful currents that lies between her legs

I love the painting, such an ode to life, fertility, womanhood, manhood, creativity, abundance.

What else do you see?

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Camel Pose, Ustrassana, first sketches

For a few months I have been struggling with the length of primary plus some of intermediate. Sometimes the thought of having to go "through it all" almost pushed me off the mat and it has been taking some courage and maybe even a strange sense of my getting something out of it to actually salute the sun and keep flowing.

Lately the feeling has been alchemy-zed and seems to only appear before Ubhaya Padangusthasa, when the gunas shout out "lets get on with the back bending of second series".

Stopping the attempted drop backs at the wall has been a blessing, so much so that after all is said and done I have began to "crave" Ustrasana, to actually want it.  Not only that but to my surprise some days my body seems to bend deeper and try to get into Laghu Vajrasana (not shown in the video).  The pose has not been given to me yet, but at home I sketch it up and much to my surprise enjoy it.

This is one of my first attempts, Las Vegas always produces this "dark interior" effect on my videos, cannot find the link to the previous one last November, but it was just the same.  Funny enough I find that the lighting results in a better understanding of the pose, at least from my perspective.


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32 Unusual things I am grateful for this Thanksgiving

OK, maybe not exactly 32, perhaps I went a bit overboard, I am just grateful indeed...

1. You, who are reading this
2. Being alive and healthy
3. The beautiful Argentinean coat that husband gave me as a present  (see it in the video here)
4. My sister and brother being alive and well
5. Having a big family
6. The shades of orange green and yellow in the Hudson Valley
7. John Campbell, a.k.a. my teacher
8. John's assistants
9. Mysore and all that goes with it
10. Bloggers who talk yoga and other topics too
11. Yoga
12. The Vipassana people
13. Airplanes, lately mostly the Airbus 380, can't wait to fly it.
14. Travel
15. Hotel little shampooes and lotions
16. Marriage
17. Love
18. Coffee with half and half with brown suggar
19. Chocolate lava cakes
20. Tiramisu too
21. New York City
22. The whole planet
23. Healthy food
24. Friends
25. All yoga teachers everywhere
26. Moon days
27. Oceans
28. The I-pad
29. The Internet
30. Music
31. My pillows
32. Kids around me, god children and stepchildren, and how they keep it real
33. Comfy low heel shoes
34. My bag
35. Having a bath tub
36. Olive oil
37. Vitamines and supplements
38. Doctors that listen
39. Castor oil baths
40. Daily practice
41. TV shows like mad men, 30 rock, and Sherlock
42. Movie theaters with good movies
43. Sunsets and sunrises
44. Laughter
45. Peace

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How to silence a woman, and a man, or not

As I was driving along a scenic route towards Shop Rite yesterday afternoon I heard about how sometimes we get captured by Hades, the saboteur, the one that tells us that we cannot, should not, will not. Victims of the spell just like Persephone we are dragged into a corner, following that part that disables our creative ignition and stops us cold in our momentum track. That voice that is so convincing we render ourselves powerless, you know the one?

I fell in love with Clarissa Pinkola ever since I read Women who run with the wolves, I enjoy how she breaks into Spanish at any turn in the story telling, and how she weaves stories into the depth of the female (and male) psychic bringing healing with each word.

She said (in The Creative Fire) that a long time ago when women were not even 20% of the publishing industry she wrote a poem and called it "How to silence a woman". Seriously? -I thought-.  It was something like 7 pages long, or so my impressionable subconscious remembers.  It had lots of one sentences that were very effective at it.  In the audiobook she says that thinking back she knows now that at the time it might have been what it was, but that these days she is very aware this applies not only to women but to men as well.

I was happy to find today another version of it, a portion of it, one she must have written recently (2008), in which she not only offers the how to, but also the how to reply when one of these appears out of the blue. When I read them my heart opens a little and I breath kind of deep, a certain new currency of energy flows through me, I almost cry a tear of power, I feel capable again.

Here is sharing with you, and by the way, I don't know what  "vato" means:

When someone says, "We're saying the same thing."
Say, "We are not saying the same thing." 

When someone says, "Don't question, just have faith."
Say, "I am questioning, vato, and
I have supreme faith in what I think." 

When someone says, "Don't defy my authority."
Say, "There is a higher authority that I follow."  

When someone says, "Your ideas are seductive."
Say, "No, my ideas are not seductive,
they are substantial."  

When someone says, "Your ideas are dangerous."
Say, "Yes, my ideas are dangerous, and why are you
so afraid hombre o mujer? " 

When it is said, "It's just not done."
Say, "It will be done."  

When it is said, "It is immature."
Say, "All life begins small and
must be allowed to grow."  

When it is said, "It's not thought out."
Say, "It is well thought out."  

When they say, "You're over-reacting."
Say, "You're under-reacting, vato." 

When they say, "You're being emotional."
Say, "Of course I have well placed emotions,
and by the way, what happened to yours?"  

When they say, "You're not making any sense."
Say, "I don't make sense, I am the sense."  

When they say, "I can't understand you when you're crying."
Say, "Make no mistake, I can weep and be fierce
at the same time."  

When they say, "I cant understand you when you're being so angry."
Say. "You couldn't hear me when I was being nice,
or sweet or silent, either."  

When someone says, "You're missing the point."
Say, "I'm not missing the point, but you seem
to be missing my point --
What are you so afraid of?"  

When someone says, "You are breaking the rules."
Say, "Yes, I am breaking the rules."  

When someone says, "That's not practical."
Say, "It's practically a done deal, thank you very much."  

When it is said, "No one will do it,
believe you, or follow it."
Say, "I will do it, I will believe in it, and in time,
the world may well follow it."  

When it is said, "No one wants to listen to that."
Say, "I know you have a hard time listening to that."  

When it is said, "It's a closed system,
you cant change it."  

Say, "I'm going to knock twice
and if there is no answer,
then I am going to blow the doors off that system
and it will change." 

When it is said, "They'll ignore you."
Say, "They won't ignore me and the hundreds of thousands who stand with me."  

When they say, "It's already been done."
Say, "It's not been done well enough."  

When they say, "It's not yet time."
Say, "It's way past time."  

When they say, "It's not the right day,
right month, right year."
Tell them, "The right year was last year,
and the right month was last month,
and the right day was yesterday,
and you're running behind schedule, vato,
and what in the name of God and all that is holy
are you going to do about it?"  

When they say, "Who do you think you are?" --
tell them ...
tell them who you are,
and don't hold back.  

When they say, "I put up with it,
you'll have to put up with it too."
Say, "No, no, no, no."  

When they say, "I've suffered a long time
and you'll have to suffer too."
Say, "No, no, no, no."  

When they say, "You're an incorrigible, defiant,
hard to get along with,
unreasonable woman ... "
Say, "Yes, yes, yes, yes ...
and I have worse news for you yet --
we are teaching our daughters,
and our mothers,
and our sisters ...
we are teaching our sons,
and our fathers,
and our brothers,
to be
just
like
us."

It all comes from here

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32 unusual ways to practice yoga off the mat

Ursula brought up the idea for this post.  Based in Germany she has a cool blog filled with pictures and practice advise. Her latest adventure is a post to see how long have we as a community been practicing Ashtanga.

Most of our yoga happens when we step off the mat, that is when the real challenges of life occur here are 32 unusual places where to practice:

1. Striking a pose, anywhere. I have practiced yoga in airplanes and it changes the mood for once, then there are all those other places where I have "done it"
2. Cooking/eating right, meaning lots of greens, lean proteins, you know the drill
3. Not stealing, following the Yoga Sutras when they say that by abstaining from taking what does not belong to us (and that also means time, energy, etc), we become instantly wealthy.
4. Exercising contentment, living like a yogi in the midst of worldly matters.
5. Loving ourselves, in every possible way.
6. Conserving our sexual energy.  This one could be worth volumes of writing, getting clear about what we want in a relationship is perhaps one of the most paramount exercises in discernment we will have to make in this life time, possibly even next one too.  Sexual energy is very powerful, it is what produces and takes away life, it is the start of infinite potential in human form, it needs respect.
7. Being truthfull, always
8. Not killing.  
9. Praying
10. Practicing concentration 
11. Meditating
12. Thinking "how can I help"
13. Thinking "how can I add value"
14. Feeling our emotions, neurosis and fears, and not reacting because of them in any way that hurts others
15. Taking responsibilities for our lives and never playing victim again
16. Going on pilgrim, does not have to be far, there are sacred spaces everywhere. 
17. Keeping our word.  When we say we will do something, that needs to be a law, it must happen, otherwise we are dishonoring our inborn power of manifestation.  It might be small, but just like Warren Buffet does not bet a dollar in a silly bet, neither should be use our words on promises we do not intend to keep
18. Speaking with a clean vocabulary, never using bad words
19. Being kind, always
20. Creating sacred space for our practice
21. Respecting teachers and gurus
22. Respecting other yogis
23. Commenting on other blogs with love
24. Giving credit where it is due
25. Being grateful, often, and for everything, including the ability to discern, to read, to see, to walk, to smell, to move
26. Giving, even if in prayer form, making it a habit to give something to everyone we encounter, it can be as big as a twit of their article or as small as a prayer "may you be happy"
27. De cluttering, making space, sacred space
28. Using only what we need, being careful to buy what is necessary
29. Chanting the sutras or listening to books about yoga, uplifting the conscious level
30. Participating, joining in, making community
31. Respecting our own psychological constitution and working with, always starting where we are, with the intention to move towards center
32. Surrendering, understanding yoga is now, it is a process, a way of being, and saying yes to the ride.

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10 Reasons why practicing good Asnana is just like writing a good blog post

When in a pose or asana, it is important at every moment  to keep track of a variety of things in order for it to maximize its value on our body mind and spirit. Similarly, a blog post has to create value in every paragraph, every sentence, least its readers might move on. Here are 10 ways in which they are specifically similar:  (picture)

1. Feet and Hands: Are the extremities or the details of the post supportive of it, meaning, do they go together with the center theme of the post or are they instead overcrowding the main theme with fluff?   For example, when in extended triangle pose, Utthita Parshvakonassana, is your airborn extended  hand doing "its thing" or is it pointing forward, palm facing down, fingers together and continuing the straight energetic line of the pose?.   There is a fine balance between elegance and overdoing elegance. between having the pose look good yet not compromising the energy of it.

2. Legs and quads: The bread and butter of the post needs to be good grammar, punctuation, and spelling. And of course, common sense: Will a reader go for 25 long paragraphs?.   The lack of proper foundation might make a reader skip, just like we would if the standing leg was not properly engaged in Utitta Hasta.

3. Core: The post has to rely on one main point which we want to convey. If we are just talking for its own sake and jumping from one subject to another then we loose the spine of it, the central nervous system.  Is there meat to what we are saying?  Similarly the navel of the body is what holds it all together as we lift into Navassana (or boat pose), and from there the energy is distributed throughout. The legs also use energy in this asana, as do the arms, but it all comes from the center, same with writing.

4. Heart: Do you bleed a little when you write? do you open your heart and humbly pour from it? The post needs that heart and also passion, as much as it takes to undertake Kapotasana or even Camel Pose, it needs trust and compassion.   But to be useful it also needs to be checked to see if it offers value or if it is one of those "all about me" kind of pieces.  Lastly, does it have that "j'ai ne sais quois" as the French  and Quebecois say, or pizzaz, bite, swing, electricity?. All back bends certainly do!

5. Shoulders: Samastitihi or Mountain pose (standing pose) is a boyant pose, it reflects good alignment and an open posture with humility, the shoulders are relaxed.  So, are we reflecting these elegant qualities? does the writting stand in all its magnificency yet properly balanced, or does it need to release some tension before the publish button is hit?

6. Face, jaw, lips:  The tone of the post I am writing will have an effect on the reader, so there is a big responsibility here, do I intend for the reader to get something out of it, am I making an offer, am I being of service?.  Then again, am I keeping it real or am I hiding behind popular consensus, what I think I know, or my own self importance?  I compare the tone to a whole vinyasa session, a whole yoga practice and how the routine results in inspiration as a whole, how our practice in its entirety represents the tone of our lives.

7. Bandhas (or internal locks)- Is there a play of tension and release? am I keeping it interesting?.  For example, the first of the prasaritas (A) engages me and helps me turn on the light of the pose, but even though the abdominal locks or bandhas are in place I seldom feel much tension, but this changes quickly as the B, and C come into being to finally release back into (D)  (video of all four prasaritas here).  Finding the right level of engagement of the bandhas even in the difficult ones is a challenge that helps me come closer to the edge.  Similarily with posts, experimenting on keeping grounded, connected to the earth, keeping the balance between being rooted in reality and having enough lee way to play is vital.

8. Breath  - Does the post flow, does it have air in it, substance, prana, life?.  Every pose as the practice unfolds has the ujjaji breath (or Dark Vader breath) as "queen", without the breath there is no practice, this is after all, a "breathing practice".  So it is with a post, it needs air, it needs to flow, it needs prana to come alive.

9. Dristi or focus  - Is there a point to doing what we do as writers.  Losing the focus when in practice means that the fire element has taken over, we are looking around which will inmediatelly result in the mind wondering, making comparisons, skipping to the next practitioner, trying to copy, going over the to do list for later on.  The same happens when we loose focus on the writing, no difference.

10. Alignment.  The overall alignment in asana goes beyond ourselves, not only do we align internally but through the practice we align for what happens after practice, when we are in the world.

Practice gets our head together and our body ironed, breathed, stretched.  We can all aspire to have posts have such an effect, a cleansing, informative, filled with prana piece that might inspire.

(Photo from Kino's new beautiful website)

In the end we write because we must, just like we get on the mat.  Writing just like yoga is not something someone chooses, it is something that choses us, so lets be cheerful we are the chosen ones!

By the way, most of the yoga check points came from my learnings (and the manual) of Centered Yoga in Thailand, which I usually revisit and keep learning from, I just added two.
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Video: Ubhaya Pandangusthasana and Urdhva Mukha Pashchimottanasana

Bit of a technical post here cause I am in the process of  cleaning up the vinyasa out of Ubhaya Pandangusthasana and Urdhva Mukka (the last two poses before the very last pose of the primary series of Ashtanga -Setu Bandhasana-).

Noticed something new by reading Gregor Mahele's book, and glad I did cause it is very clear there, yet it conflicts a bit with other accounts I have heard, especially on Urdhva Mukka (shown second in the video).

For Ubhaya Pandangusthasana  (or the first one shown in the video) He says that after the fifth count:  exhale and put your hands on the floor leaving the feet up, and then for the (vinyasa ten) inhale lifting up curling into a ball before (vinyasa eleven)- exhale gliding back into chaturanga dandasana.


Then, for Urdhva Mukha Pashchimottanasana, (which in the video you will notice I had to roll into twice... need more balance there!), after the five counts he does not say (as I have heard many times) to straighten the arms and breath in, instead he says "Exhaling release the feet, leave your legs in position and place your hands on the floor". Instead he says (vinyasa ten) lift and swing through clearing the floor. No mention of an extra inhale.

I will would like to hear your thoughts on this and perhaps try it,  I suspect there may be an "after" version coming up.

Yogis out there, how do you vinyasa out of these two?



Quite enjoy Gregor's book by the way, love the vocabulary he uses along, very effective, things like "glide through", "curl into a ball", "lift off and swing"...  And the price has come down enormously since the first time I bought it when at a visit in Kirpalu... (I remember paying something like 35 dollars back then, guess it was very new in those days)
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Contrast

Been riding through Arizona and New Mexico yesterday and today.

Last night I had a disturbing yet beautiful dream, my sister who was little (about 3 in the dream) had been kidnapped and released and was now safe and I was bringing her to my mother (who has not been alive for over 25 years) so she would see her so happy.  All of this brought me a lot of happiness as in the dream I was back to a sweet (albeit not so real) time, when my family was (or seemed to me to be) together.  Upon waking up of course it only highligted spaces of pain within me, so I took the drive as an opportunity for meditation, for scanning those feelings without reactivity.

Then I began to wonder if the areas we are in have an effect on us.  We were driving through Navajo, where the Indian reservations are and where the poverty is very visible.  At least 3 seemingly drunk truck drivers crossed my path, and I began to wonder if all of this area of the United States (AZ, NM) which I hold in high regard as beautiful, artistic, and picturesque, also has another side, one that perhaps I did not want to see before, but that it is felt in a very palpable way.

I started taking my sun glasses off and putting them back on to go through that "it is all about the shade of glasses you are wearing" mythology. 

It is very real indeed.

Oh clear seeing, fierce discrimination, being real present, seeing things as they are.  Quite a journey from word to beingness...
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How do you balance yoga and living wordly?

Recently a twitter peep (as I guess they are called?) asked me how do I balance the yogic life with daily life, or as she put it: "living worldly". Her tweet question came right after I tweeted that I had just had dinner with two high profile entrepreneurs in the financial media space so I thought that maybe it had to do with that, as perhaps that resonated as "worldly",  but upon further investigation I realized that she had actually asked this same question to other yogis, so maybe it did not have anything to do with my initial thought, or yes, who knows?

Anyway. I have been thinking about it and the truth is that my answer may be a little disappointing because I do not distinguish anymore between living the yogic life and the worldly life, for me both are one and actually most of the yoga I strive to do actually happens outside of the mat. But before you crucify me as being full of myself, let me give you 3 examples that might help clarify:

One: Take for example the dinner I twitted about, I enjoyed talking to these two entrepreneurs who come from a completely different space, these people are filled with energy, they are always thinking of ways in which they can "add value", "be efficient", and "cut costs".  The younger one at the table said to me: "I have 300 posts in my head ready to be written", how is that for inspiration?  So this encounter, being very worldly as it was reminded me in many ways of yoga, they inspired me to also strive to add value, be efficient and use resources intelligently.  About the 300 posts, Gosh, now I am really thinking!

Two: The world of blogging is very much a wordly affair, I love writting and I love having readers, that means that there has to be a very down to earth approach to the writting, it has to mean something, it has to be yoga in action.  So I see what others are writting about, make sure to be respectful of other people's opinions even if I disagree, and help others as I am being helped by others.  This is very much an exercise in discrimination, in cutting through the fluff and using yoga where it really matters, as I relate to others, as I make my contribution through writting on a subject I am completely passionate about, something I totally believe in.

Three: contentment where it counts.  When I attended the 10 day Vipassana about a year ago, by the end of it I was very home sick, so you can imagine that getting to Chicago O'Hare and finding out that the plane had been cancelled and maybe there would not be another one until the next morning,  (the next morning!), was not what I wanted to hear.  However, and this does not happen all the time as I am very human, but it happened then, I exercised contentment with the fact that someone had noticed that there was something wrong with the plane.  I saw countless people getting really upset and grasping at the "next morning" concept, while I decided, and was able to remain calm, content.  Upon further inquiry I was able to get on another plane that left two hours later.  Other passengers remained in Chicago for 6 more hours, maybe others even stayed the night? 

The point to me is that when things get taugh, THAT is the moment to remember yoga, when we feel that pinch of discontent, when we want to critizice that other writter cause they came up with that brilliant idea or when we do not want to share and much rather get under the blanket and hide from the world FOR-E-VER!... yes, that is the moment where yoga needs to come up, very much in the world.
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6 cases in which Vipassana meditation improved mental health

Visiting with yogis last Sunday I found out that my friend T. takes the "other" Vipassana, the one that I believe Helen and Grimmly talk about, the style propagated by the Insight Meditation Society (www.dharma.org).  It turns out that these retreats are a lot less hard core than the ones I have been taking (www.dhamma.org), (i.e.: they were allowed yoga, you can start with less than 10 days, etc.) a point to keep in mind. (picture from here)


However the focus of this post is that I found out they both have the same basic teacher back at the start, and when googling this teacher I came accross some research that is being carried by the Vipassana Research Institute, in particular a paper about 6 people and how their lives were positively affected by the retreats.  They are using measurable sicentific methods to check, which is what we modern minds need, although I have to say that I found it intriguing that they only had young people populating their samples. This is a taste of what I found:


First Case: Alcoholic who took 3 courses within 1.5 years. 


Before
"I was fed up because the Devil got me each time I started thinking that now it is in my control. I started believing what others said, 'Once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic.' I even thought of suicide but did not attempt it, thinking of what would happen to my aged mother after me."
After
"I was ignorant as long as I blamed circumstances or alcohol for my problem. Though AA taught me to accept total responsibility for my alcoholism, I felt even more miserable on the non-meeting days, because I was drinking. Even now I do feel an occasional craving to drink, especially when I see my colleagues drinking, but I can control it. The reason is that Vipassana has made me realize that my craving is not to alcohol, but to my own pleasant sensations which alcohol induces in me, and an aversion to the unpleasant ones arising during its withdrawal."


Fourth Case: Obsessive Compulsive Disorder who took one course after being taught basic meditation
Before
He had multiple obsessive thoughts, doubts, imageries and ruminations about almost all daily activities... Dirt, se and mortality/morbidity occupied most of his obsessions with washing and touching being his predominant compulsions.


After
"Suppressing my impulses only lead to more restlessness. I kept on tying new knots every moment in the process. The fundamental change with Vipassana is that now I have learnt how to leave these thoughts alone, whatever their content be. And working with my sensations, I realize that all those disturbing thoughts come from the depths to the surface of my mind to go out, provided I watch them without reacting. Now I realize how I had become a slave of my own mind."


Sixth Case: Borderline personality disorder who took two 10-day courses in the span of five months
Before
Had a problem of showing extremes of emotion, especially angry outbursts which consequently strained all his relationships, "I tried to keep myself busy, but whenever I was alone I felt lonely and had to take a drink. This has been my nature since many years. I have tried specially to reduce my anger but in vain. I sometimes felt like ending my life but could not gather courage enough."


After
"My blaming others stopped. I realized that the cause of my own misery was the constant craving and aversion which made me continuously judge others or myself as all good or all bad. My expectations of others when not fulfilled would cause me to fight with them, break up and then suffer even more. Now my anger and sadness are reduced considerably. Most importantly, I am off medicines."


You can read all six accounts in full here

It was curious to me that the effect the course has on me has it subtle and its dramatic turns.  One thing both me and my yoga friend had in common was improved eye-sight right after leaving their course.  Granted it could be because of the no exposure to any screens, or could it?

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What if we could ask a yoga designer for our favorite clothes?

At a Sunday yoga gathering I met my friend J who used to be the designer for the Loft back when they had really good clothes.  I remember going into their fitting rooms and thanking God for their designer, which later on, in the bathroom of Yoga Sutra I found out it was no other than my friend J...

Anyway, J is now on to her next project and she is designing yoga clothes, how lucky am I?  furthermore she has asked me, and us yogis to let her know what style of clothes we like, to actually show her what we use and what works for us, so if you want to contribute go ahead and make a post or send me an email and I will forward them all (links or emails) to J...  waddayaknow? we do have our very own yoga designer!

So, the thing with me is that I have never been one for the Lululemon style, I like lots of ventilation, full protection and the least amount of fabric around me. So I have settled for

For the TOP:

I like to use dancewearsolutions.com for them, specifically the one by Balera has the best cut, it does not have any bulky stuff on the back (which could interfeer with the rolling back in garba pindasana), and it has the right amount of back and front coverage (including front padding).

I like that I can also get several colors and match them with shorts making it all a lot of fun.

I also like the fabric of these, it is a mix of synthetic with cotton, so it is not so rough on the skin and it absorbes perspiration.


As per the SHORTS

Well, I wish there was something that provided the top part of a leotard combined with shorts all in one, as in a unitard. Something like what Colleen from yogashanti is wearing on the left picture only with longer shorts.  Believe me I have looked everywhere and cannot find anything like it.  There are some unitards out there but they are way to short, or they do not have enough protection in the area between the legs and so I feel uncomfortable.

There was one girl in Mysore once that had exactly what I wanted.  It was a leotard with short incorporated in a flexible material kind of cotton but mixed and the shorts were medium, with great coverage... but she said she bought them in Brazil and I was never able to find their website.

Therefore I have settled for soccer.com. I use those Nike shorts from footballers or people who play soccer for those of you born in the US.

The best I have found, is the Nike women Mystifi Game shorts.

The only problem is that these shorts are still pretty long, so I find that I have to roll the upper part twice... the good thing is that they have full protection between the legs and by that I mean zero exposure of areas I would not like to expose say, during the lift from supta konasana.

In conclusion, a leotard/short all together where the short would be more loose than the upper part would be my ideal...

I also like colors, LOTS OF COLORS, here is a sample of my yoga combinations.

So!, we have a designer, a very good one, listening, what do you like?  And for the men out there, if I have not lost you already,  don't be shy!
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Where is the love in Supta Konasana?

Ever since the very beginning I wondered where is the love in this pose, as in, where is the hard part?  I always wanted to ask but for one reason or another never did.  After all, it is kind of a hard position from which to ask questions...

Last Wednesday while at the shala I heard the question pop in my head again, and as if he knew, JC manifested right next to me, (as in one of those sidhis or powers that Nobel talked about when referring to Kino) and gave me some adjustments... that is when for the first time I found it!

He told me two simple things:

1. Separate the feet much wider apart
2. Straighten the back

That is where the magic is, I found that when the feet are much further apart they tend to lift from the floor hence providing less leverage for balance, which in turn forces the abs and mula bandha to engage and the back to begin to look for a much more straight lift.

I put the "After" video first, you can see the dancing to engage bandhas and to lift the back while maintaining it all together, lots of action... not so much in the second video (Before)

By the way, on landing, the best tip I ever heard was: "land with the calfs", if you never tried it you are in for a treat.






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Quiero dar las gracias

I grew up listening to ABBA, in Spanish mind you. I am a red-head so I fancied myself their Latin American version, all I needed was the other three. In long Summer afternoons I sang all their songs from a cassette with my neighbor who had black hair... just not quite. I know all the lyrics to their songs,  if they are in Spanish I can sing them.

Recently I saw a documentary on them and realized that these people lived because of the music, they did not really care about anything else.  For instance, how many times do you think they toured in he USA?  if you had to take a wild guess... well, just once, that was it, they did not care about reaching a bigger audience, they knew that the music would get there because it was and is that good.

What I like about them is that they put the music first, and that they were grateful as in the song below.  With Thanksgiving coming along I have been going over enormous lists of things I am grateful for, there are so many that my 32 unusual might not even cut it for them, health, love, my husband, my families...

But there is one thing I wanted to share with you in particular: I am grateful that yoga found me, and that it kept me close, I am grateful that I found the ashtanga system of asanas and that I get on the mat every morning, I am grateful for the enormous yoga community, the teachers and the blogosphere, I am indeed, humbly grateful and honored by yoga in my life

So, that is why right now: quiero dar las gracias!


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10 yoga things I learned in 2010

This year has been one of extremes for me, I got happily married yet my father died, I earned a new family yet my sister stopped talking to me.  All of these provided big challenges and yet also opportunities to practice off the mat, they took me to where I am today and along the road I learned:

1.-When a family member dies there IS something we can do to help him or her:  Having someone close to you die is disorienting and painful, yet, in the midst of my pain last April, I asked Eddie Stern if there was a way we can help those that have departed.  He told me "Yes, absolutely I will write it down for you".  When I inquired after class he had written in a piece of paper "Tibetan Book of the Death", "Om Namah Shivaya".


His instructions were to read the book within the first 46 days and to recite the mantra.

I read the whole book of the Tibetan Book of the Death to my father, out loud, and I know it worked because a bee hit me on the head.  Mostly telling the departed to search for the light will help them.  It is up to you weather you believe or not, all I can say is that knowing I could somewhat help made the whole process more intimate, real, and perhaps helped take the edge off things.

2.- Preparing for my own death is important, it can happen at any moment.  Having a sudden death in the family makes everything more real, more present, it lets the chill of departing come around and sit down for tea.

It is said that the last thought in our minds when we pass will determine our next life, so, that last moment is important.  The Gita has a section on "how to die" which left me thinking, and I turned into a post which was called "How to die, four simple tips".

3.-I like to collect sutras or short sentences from teachers I come across on the journey, lines that I can remember and that help me along the road, things like "yoga is a breathing practice" which Kimberly Flynn taught me, or  "We meditate to clear up our old samskaras and be happy" which the Vipassana teachers taught me.  Here are five more that come from Ashtanga teachers.

4.- I can learn intellectually all I want about dropping back, but in the end it comes down to just doing it.  And doing it is something I have not quite managed to do yet.  However, I probably know so much about dropping back right now that I could lecture for hours on it, starting with foundations, bandhas, opening, and so on and on and on.  In the end, "do your practice" is what it all comes down to.  And by the way here are the 9 things I gathered throughout 2010 on backbends.

5.- Sitting down in silence with myself can be a challenge of Arjuna's battlefield proportions.  I was blessed with the opportunity to attend a Vipassana meditation retreat again this year. It was just a three day course this time, but it worked out to be exactly what I needed to reconnect with the cushion and recommit to daily meditation practice.  The thing that dawned on me this time around was the part where we just sit with the sensations on the body, without intellectualizing.  I had heard it before, but this time I got it, I actually was able to sit with the body and scanning for sensations throughout it.  I am completely sold on the efficiency of this technique.

6.- My book was published.  OK only one copy of it, I don't know if you knew but "book2print" allows you to print your own blog as a book.  Seeing the printed copy helped me organize new ideas, come up with posts, and overall see the progress in my writing and understanding of yoga.

7.- Being "satvic" means sometimes being rajasic or tamasic. Being a yogi is all about being satvic, or balanced, in the middle, right? nope! it turns out if we are "trying" to be in a state of balance all the time then by the very nature of the trying we are already in an extreme or in "rajasic" mode where we are forcing things through.  Allowing our natural state to manifest is sometimes the most balanced thing we can do, like that old day when I ate marshmallows and they were not the good kind. Here is a great cartoon illustrating this.

8.- Most ashtanga yogis out there seem to have started second series only AFTER they dropped back from standing. This was a surprise to me as I thought that everyone would need the extra help I get from those early poses of the intermediate series for opening the back.  But the poll I run in October proved me wrong.

9.- When a yogi can suspend the breath for about 1.5 hours there is very little in this world that is not possible for her.   I read lots of books about yoga throughout 2010, one of the most remarkable ones is Path of Fire and Light by Swami Rama.  It was cool to see how he just goes all out and tells everything about pranayama like no other book out there.  Here are 5 very curious things I learned while reading.

10.- Our beloved Ashtanga series-es of poses, all six of them, may or may not have come to us the way in which we thought.  Reading Yoga Body was an eye opener.  Mark Singleton is a scholar that studied and worked on it for a very long time, he went over government and military records, he looked at all yoga literature of the early 1900, and his conclusions lead us to believe there may not have been a Yoga Korunta book, (the book where we all tend to think is what Krishnamacharya used to teach yoga to Pattabhi Jois and then in turn he taught all the people who are teaching us these days).  Singleton's book produced controversy in the world of yoga, and I found the topic fascinating, here is my review.





Here are  the 12 yoga things I learned in 2009.


So, what are some of the yoga things you learned throughout this year?
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32 Unusual things I learned at Yoga Teacher Training

I took my yoga teacher training in Ko Samui, a paradise island in Thailand.  In it there is an incredible yoga school and retreat space called Yoga Thailand. Very much worth visiting.

During the training we learned many important things, and then there were the "unusual" things, the off-beat ones, here are 32:

1. Job might not be there upon return. Taking 5 weeks off from work might result on coming back to no job.  Granted, I went in early 09 or at the beginning of what many coined the biggest recession since the great depression.  I kind of got my first whiff when a co-worker posted on facebook a line that read: "We had our first talk about layoffs today, it feels like a first round of Survivor".  I kind of knew right then. It all materialized later as I was interrupted when going through 1025 e-mails on my first day back and taken to a "meeting" with the boss and the HR person. 
2. Job not being there might be a good thing.  Matter of fact for me it was a great thing, the best that could have happened.  I know, it sounds like a cliche but it isn't.
3. How to avoid jet lag.  Paul taught us right before we were leaving his technique for avoiding jet lag, he basically does not eat on the plane at all, and does pranayama on the morning of the overnight flight. It did not work for me, still took me about a day for each 2 hour difference to return to Eastern time, but here is passing the info along anyway.
4. Infrared sauna is really not that big a deal.  I tried it, I sweat-ed, but could not tell the difference from a regular sauna.
5. Living by the ocean is magical, it does restore the rythms of the body. True.
6. You can get bored even of living in paradise.  By the fifth week I was ready for NJ, ready for the snow, and ready for my shala.  Even in paradise sometimes we can get home sick
7. Singing mantras like the Gayatri is a very powerful practice. Can't elaborate on this one, must be eperienced.
8. Thinking that one will go deeper in asana practice while at teacher training might be just an illusion.  The practice is what it is, and it takes the time that it will  takes, retreat or not.  It is fabulous though for deconstructing and really learning proper alingment.
9. I loved the program and cannot wait to go back for their pranayama intensives.  They have Tiwariji for guru, a man that has devoted his life to teaching pranayama and who is about to retire into the woods.
10. Doing enemas is not so hard and has a purifying effect.  It was part of the program.  Every morning, when we asked other program atendees: "how was your coffee this morning?" the meaning was very different from what you would imagine, we all had to go through vaman (vomiting salty warm water) and coffee enemas in the morning.  And let me tell you, they do purify you to a level I never suspected.
11. Pranayama in the morning is powerful, especially after using the neti pot and the string to clear the sinuses.
12. The mysore rug (or fabric mat on top of the sticky mat) is indeed necessary in warm weather
13. It is hot in Thailand
14. There is nothing wrong with living like a yogi in a five star hotel type of accomodation like they have at Yoga Thailand. In fact I loved it.
15. Practicing very early in the morning in order to adjust other students later is very hard.  On the days I was supposed to adjust I would practice at 3:30 or 4:00. This is a real effort, it gave me a whole new appreciation for Mysore teachers.  To you guys out there, thank you!
16. Adjusting students is all about getting in there, keeping it real, asking for permission, and creating trust.  And of course having a deep understanding of what we are doing to ensure we add value.
17. Adjusting/teaching other students is a privilege
18. I can work on backbends for much longer and much harder than I think.
19. Swimming in the middle of the ocean can indeed be a scary proposition.  One day they took us to another island and we stopped in the open ocean to go for a swim.  I had never felt so vulnerable in such a large and vast body of water. Scary.
20. The full moon over the ocean is the most beautiful sight I have ever seen
21. Most yogis are looking for love, the real thing
22. Three of the women in the teacher training got married after it and within 2 years.
23. Having a massage and a steam bath is conducive to good vibrations and heals joints.
24. Paul Dallaghan is a fantastic teacher and yogi, real, down to earth, knowledgable
25. Sthira Suhakam Asanam is Patanjali's advise on asana, it should be steady and comfortable.  And he does not elaborate, that is pretty much all he says about asanas.
26. Asteyaway from what does not  belong to you. The third yama is "non-stealing" or "asteya".  We had to memorize them all for a test so I came up with this nemotechnich rule, thought of it as "astey-away" in order to remember it...
27. Thailand's selection of fake Louis Viton bags is incredible, they sell the exact thing for less than 5 dollars in every street.  However, being a true yogi limits the business options, one cannot steal as per 27 above, so buying them with the idea of re-selling (as I am not interested in these bags at all, never was never will), was not an option.  A yogi is a yogi. May the force be with us
28. Ko Samui's supermarket is crazy. One day we all pooled our resources, hired a car and went to Tesco's, the only big supermarket in the island. We were craving strong tea, coffee and chocolate, and so off we went!. It was shocking to see how loud and disorienting a supermarket of this proportion (with a mall attached to it) can be after weeks living quietly by the ocean.
29. In Thailand there is a fruit that is illegal because it stinks so much, so it is not cool to eat it on, say, a bus.  It is known as the "stinky" fruit.  I did not like the taste one bit, although I must admit it was not as bad as I imagine it would be.
30. The dragon fruit tastes just like a kiwi, and I liked it
31. Drinking a fruit juice a day makes my heart smile and the body shine
32. Nutrition is perhaps one of the most important things for a yogi. Eating right helps in all other aspects of life.  I was lucky enough to have a birthday while at the training and a yogini living next to my room bought the book (below) as a present.  Tried many of their recipes and they are delicious.  My favorite ones are those that use coconut milk.  And their chocolate balls are amazing.

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Setu Bandhasana, that pose I used to like to dislike

I  never liked Setu Bandhasana in the beginning, it felt like one of those "what is the point?" poses, not quite a full back bend and yet a whole pain in the top of the head with all the floor rolling.

Learned it well in Mysore, learned that it is actually part of it to start from laying down completely, palms by the side.  One of those poses that goes from "0 to 60" pretty quickly.

Now a days I quite enjoy it, began to feel the bending on the back, the opening on the chest, and the stimulation of the top of the head which comes handy during meditation, when I need to "feel" what is going on throughout the head.

What are your feelings about setu?



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7 things I will NOT do in India

The next time I am blessed to visit India there are many things I would love to do, and there are things I know I would like to SKIP, here are seven:

1.- Drink the water, here is why

2.- Talk negatively about any school of yoga.  I rather speak positively, I am a believer in the power of words, they are spells, the cleaner the vocabulary the better.  Furthermore, hey I think I will only speak positively about it all.

3.- Beg for a pose.  This might be hard, but I pledge to surrender

4.- Stay up late.  Which will not be a stretch, I kind of go to bed pretty early every day.  Do you? What time?

5.- Pay enormous amounts of money for a Vedic astrology reading. I found that the guy next to Santosha (they have no website but it is a brunch place near the shala with great food) was exactly right on what he predicted when I went to him 2 years ago, and it was only 500 Rps, or about 12 dollars, compared to the going rate of 100 for the featured astrologer in fashion on those days.

6.- Go on safari or anything exotic with that kind of "ring" to it

7.- Wonder too far from Gokulam.  Not that I would not want to, I would actually love to see everything, travel around, visit Chennai (Sivanadan's Asrham) Goa, the Dali Lama's residence,  Varanasi, or the city of death, and more, but it is unlikely I will have that much time.  I suppose all these cities go on the post of things I would like to do when in Shiva's country!

If you happen to be thinking of going, here are 9 tips to travel safe.
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Don't get killed by the second arrow

If an arrow was to hit you would that hurt? I imagine it would, especially me, I am very sensitive to pain.  Now, if a second one was to hit, would that be even more painful?  It would to me.  Well, it turns out, the second arrow is my reaction to the first.

I cannot always control the first arrow, my dad will die, my sister will stop talking to me, that will come, it's life.  I can however, work on my reaction to this arrow, I can control my own reaction, observe what happens in me but not react, clean up my own neurosis.

That little story, which the Buddha taught, has been haunting me ever since I read it at the Insight Meditation Society after a recommendation from Grimmly.

Big Aha! moment for me.  How about that?

Oh, and of course that does not mean never act, fierce discrimination is always the yard stick.
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5 Questions I wish I dared ask Sharath

The setting is the cone of silence (from Get Smart, a very funny old American show), nobody can listen but you and me, and he has to answer. What I mean is a setting where candid conversation could flow,  I would like to ask these five questions, what would you ask? (picture: joisyoga.com)

1.- Why was it that Guruji had people move to intermediate even if they did not drop back and now there is no second without dropping?

2.- I understand that back in the day people were encouraged to take 8 breaths instead of 5, I suppose it is understandable that this was reduced as the numbers of students grew, but for home practice would it be better to practice with 8 instead of 5? would that get us deeper?

3.- What is the most important thing we as students need to understand about the practice?

4.- You said that savasana as we practice it is just relaxation pose, but the real savsana is a very advanced pose, could you tell us about it? what is it? how is it done? what is the purpose/benefit?

5.- Why is it that Saraswatti cannot authorize/certify students?
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Two questions

A few days ago in the post on Why I am so sold on Vipassana for mediation retreats and technique, Helen asked me two things, the first one was why retreat? as in: what are the benefits: 

The short answer to this is that Vipassana works on what no school of yoga works on (at least that I know of in the Western world), it works clearly and definitely on the last four limbs of yoga (sense withdrawal, concentration, meditation and samadhi or total happiness).  And I mean it is worked in a real, down to earth, practical, no baloney way.  It is not just the talk, but rather a walking of the talking, it is for real. (picture)


So, why retreat?  Because this particular retreat offers the exact setting for the 5th limb: complete isolation, silence, male and female separated and a brutal schedule of just meditation  (as a Spanish friend of mine put it: you eat, you poo (he actually used a stronger word), you meditate you sleep).  You have no choice, but to go in.


And once you are in the setting, the next instruction is concentration (6th limb), as in half the course is set so you just focus on the area below the  nostrils, and this of course, after a while makes the mind give up, and all of a sudden I find myself in silence, I mean, really! my mind! a serious chatter, goes into silence, miracle!


Then meditation (7th limb) is brought up by scanning the body, which is, if you think about it, the ONLY real tangible thing we have to work on in spiritual matters.  So we scan the body and work with what is real, what we are feeling in each portion of the body, without imagination, without visualization, but with what is.


Then samadhi, (8 limb) well, that takes practice, and it depends on the amount of "cleaning up" I have to do individually summed up by the things I did in the past (karma), So be it.


It is practical, it is something I can do, it works, and it sends me back into the world re-energized to continue the only work that is worth doing.That is why.  


The second was how long do I meditate for and how I fit it with the ashtanga practice?

I compare total enlightenment to flying an Airbus 380.  First I need to learn how to walk, then how to coordinate movements, then read, then study, then practice, then maybe one day I get to be assistant then co- pilot then captain, it takes a whole lot of practice and discipline to fly one of those things, I mean look at the size of the people in the picture!


Enlightenment to me is just the same, cannot be done in one go, and it starts with, well, first we stumble upon a technique that works and then we do it, but just as with Ashtanga I was not able to do the primary series in full the first day, in the same way I find that I am not able to meditate for very long stretches of time in one go. Matter of fact I am telling you a secret here, not even in retreat. 


I find that to get to total peace I have a lot of cleaning up to do, a lot of "staying with the feelings and remaining perfectly equanimous".  For what is enlightenment if not total peace that allows one to ask with fierce discrimination while remaining fully equanimous.?  How is that for a definition? just came up with that yesterday and then realized the Vipassana people describe it exactly like that in their brochures only they also add the sila or the "do's" and "don'ts" which we yogis call yama and niyama.


So I build it up, and I also work with what is happening, yes I would like to meditate one hour in the morning and one in the evening but I am a householder, and I need to remain satvic like that day I ate the marshmallows that were not exactly the good (yogic type). what I mean is that I am building it up, that I cannot "force" things into happening  cause they never work when I do.


I meditate every day for at least 30 minutes if I can, and around the time I do the asana practice (before or after), but if life gets too overwhelming I put on the Arjuna helmet and do what needs to be done, trusting that the force is with me.  Some days I sit for an hour (although I confess that at 45 minutes I have to change positions and my concentration level falls). Sometimes I do not get to it at all.


I do hope to eventually get to the point where I can scan the body without moving and remaining in perfect equanimity (Buddha style) while observing what is happening within for hours at the time, every day, I do.  I do hope that getting to enlightenment is something me and all of you reading out there can happen in this lifetime. 


May we all be happy.


Now I want to thank Helen for her questions because I so wanted to share this and actually going through both of them had me arranging the ideas in a better way than I imagined I would.


And the two questions for you I would have are: WHY do you go on retreat if you do?, and how often do YOU meditate?
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