Sunday, August 30, 2009

I am the mover of the tree of the universe.

"I am the mover of the tree of the universe. My fame rises high like a mountain peak. My root is the Supremely Pure Brahman. I am the unstained essence of the Self, like the nectar of immortality that resides in the sun. I am the brightest treasure. I am the shining wisdom. I am immortal and undecaying."
-- From the Upanishads

Friday, August 28, 2009

Mirrors

I practice now not so much with ambition as with gratitude. And I ask myself frequently, ‘How can I express kindness right now?’ whether I am in a headstand or washing dishes.
-- Judith Lasater


Many people think of yoga as a workout, but in the yoga sutras, Patanjali described eight limbs of yoga, of which only one was physical poses. The eight limbs are:
  1. Yama - yoga ethics, ways of treating the world
  2. Niyama - principles of self-discipline and spiritual practice, ways of treating yourself
  3. Asana - physical poses
  4. Pranayama - breath control
  5. Pratyahara - withdrawal from the sensory world, inward focus
  6. Dharana- concentration
  7. Dyana- meditation, focus
  8. Samadhi - transcendence, enlightenment
Of course, like any other ancient sacred text, this is open to many variations in translation and interpretation. But my point is that the full system of yoga is much more than just a workout.

I am devoted to yoga. There's no question that I have been practicing constantly. My practice has been helping me to grow, to be happier, to manage stress better, to maybe be more compassionate in my interactions with the world. To let go of what I do not need to carry. Over the past few months, I have been working mostly with the first, second and fourth limbs.

In the past two weeks, I've returned to a more regular asana practice and feel like I'm ready to experience it in a new way. I've been making some discoveries, however, about the gap between how I see myself experiencing asana and my actual experience. For instance, I've begun attending a new studio, which I love except for one thing - the mirrors along the wall of the main room. For the past few years, I've been practicing yoga in rooms without mirrors, learning to experience the poses from the inside. Confronted with the mirrors, I can't help looking at myself. And suddenly, that judgmental voice that I thought I had exorcised comes back and says she doesn't like the way I look. And then I'm consumed by this voice. I'm suddenly just battling my self-hatred.

Next week, I'll set up away from the mirror. But that's not the point. My point is that there's still practice to be done. And the tricky thing is not judging myself for judging myself, not hating myself for hating myself. To observe the thoughts passing through without identifying with them, attaching to them. Without letting them take me over.

Here's another one. Last week I did my first headstands (by the wall). I've never been competitive with asana, and I've always had a fear of inversions, so getting upside down is a new experience for me. I learned something unexpected from all this: that the phrase I've never been competitive with asana is not truthful. It's how I would like to see myself, it's the yogini I want to be. The truth is, I was proud of getting up into headstand and I boasted about it all over the internet - and the deep motivation for that was to be praised. I was hungry for others to validate my achievement.

This became really obvious when a friend commented that she was surprised that I hadn't done a headstand before, since I always talk about how important yoga is to me and she's been doing headstands herself, without the wall. Now, I realize there's a chance my friend will read this post, and if she does, I hope she will understand that I do not write about this with any malice, but simply to examine my own reaction to her comment. Because my initial reaction was angry, defensive, indignant. At first, I wanted to reply, all holier-than-thou about how yoga was more than a physical practice to me and it wasn't a contest. Ironic, right?

If I look at my reaction more deeply, I realize that she challenged the core of my identity. I also realize that I am still clinging to all the self-judgments that are floating around in my brain. I see that I am holding so tightly to these notions of myself that I am almost willing to violate all the principles I profess to be defending.

So I did not reply to this comment, until this blog post that is. Is that progress? Maybe. It's not as easy as it sounds, to be a good person for the right reasons. Not because you want praise and validation for doing what's right. Not because it fits with your self-image. But because it really flows from the heart.

One of my teachers starts every class by suggesting that we release our expectations. I think that's a good goal to strive for. I am grateful to my friend for her comments. Like a mirror, she held my image up to me, and it was not what I expected to see.

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Requesting a favor

I'm currently working on my MA in International Education (IE). One of my personal goals for this program has been to find a way to integrate my yoga with my IE background. I'm excited that I am finally conceptualizing a way to do this through my final project. My initial idea is to create a program that will integrate yoga techniques with a view to helping students cope with stress from culture shock and exams in an international education project. As this develops, I may decide to do a research study instead of designing a program; I'm not yet sure what final form this project will take.

For the time being, I'm doing a small study with American college students for one of my classes in order to begin to explore some of these ideas. The aim of the study is to investigate how college students use techniques and practices learned in yoga classes outside of class in order to cope with stressful situations. There's lots of research that suggests that yoga does have both short-term and long-term effects on stress (something which yogis know intuitively) but little to no work has been done on how students use specific practices such as pranayama. This is something I've become very interested in in my own practice and would love to explore formally.

For my current study, all I require is college students who also study yoga - preferably at their college but I would also accept participants who study yoga off-campus. Participants will simply have to respond to a two-page questionnaire, which should take no more than ten minutes. I'm looking for students who study in the US, although they do not have to be Americans. I would consider participants who study in Canada. I'm having great difficulty finding participants because it's summer, and my study is in danger of being a total failure. Please help!

I'm hoping someone will see this post who teaches at a college, studies at a college, or otherwise has contacts with people who would fit my participant requirements. Please e-mail me at dragonflyspirit35@gmail.com if you think you can help.