The Everything Yoga Blog

Lock Out

2012-02-06T22:41:37-05:00

I've been treating myself to a fair amount of bodywork lately (all I can say is ahhhhhhhhh!). Just last week I was getting a myofascial massage during which the massage therapist pushed my knee to my chest and straightened my leg back out on the table. I tend to not fight -- or tense up -- when someone (yes, I'm talking about professionals here, people!) is handling my body. And back when I trained in Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy and Thai Yoga Massage, I learned a fair amount about handling someone's body. Perhaps that why I noticed myself feeling uncomfortable with how the therapist handled my leg when bending it at the knee and straightening it.

Rather than keeping a slight bend in the knee while straightening my leg or gently straightening my leg and lowering it back to the table with firm traction, the therapist quickly and carelessly pulled my leg back, locking my knee and then dropped it on the table. Okay, perhaps dropped it a bit too strong a description. The point is that I didn't feel confident in her touch and her snapping of my leg didn't feel good.

The bad news is that I didn't like that part of the massage. The good news is that it gave me an inspiration for this post. Knee locking is not good. I know there are rumors out there about knee locking and passing out. I'm not quite sure about that one, but I'll say this -- locking the knee puts undue stress on the body, therefore knocking things out of whack. Yep, I'm nothing if not technical [Disclaimer: No, I'm not a doctor nor do I play one on TV. Heck, I don't even own a TV.]

Just over the holidays I was at a lovely party in which this very topic came up (yep, I go to cool parties in which the subject of knee locking comes up and is debated about freely). We discussed knee locking and knee, hip and back pain. I have experience with this because I used to be a chronic knee-locker. And I'm not the only one -- I see clients do this all of the time during their yoga practice.

My advice: Keep the knees soft, people!

So the awareness tip of the day -- and I have my massage therapist to thank for this -- is this: Notice what's happening to your knees during your yoga practice. Are you locking your knees in Standing Forward Bend or Downward Dog or Warrior Pose? When you lie in Savasana, try placing a bolster under your knees and notice how it feels to have soft knees. How can you bring a little of that feeling into your yoga practice?

Namaste!

Fear and Safety

2012-01-31T17:26:32-05:00

I've heard yoga teachers say that fear is excitement without the breath (heck, I've said it myself). I guess you could say that I've taken lots of deep breaths over the past few months. Most of what I've experienced is what I'd call "good fear," or the kind that you face when you try something new or push your boundaries. It's an exhilarating feeling, one that charges you up and makes you feel as if anything could happen. I'll admit that I'm a bit of a good fear junkie, as I often like putting myself into new, scary places/circumstances.

Then of course, there's the more negative type of fear -- the kind that is rooted in a feeling of being unsafe. Unfortunately, I've experienced that just recently. Deep breaths helped, yes, but it wasn't quite the same as breathing through good fear. But like much else in my life -- the experience held some valuable lessons for me and it got me thinking about safety.

What makes you feel safe? Interestingly enough, I'd never asked this question of myself until I started to feel unsafe. I was so focused on what was outside of me -- the perceived threat -- that I completely missed the fact that safety comes from inside. It's about honoring boundaries. For me, that means I've had to set aside being a nice girl in order to cultivate an inner sense of safety. And in the more extreme circumstance that I recently experienced, I've had to sink into trust, knowing that even if the worst happens, I'll be okay.

I still remember the first time I did this on my mat. I was in a perfectly lovely yoga workshop. The teachers were well-known, with years of experience under their belts. Towards the end of the practice, they directed everyone to come into a rather advanced pose. About 95% of the class struggled (some did it effortlessly) to get into and maintain the pose. I remained in Child's Pose on my mat. My inner yoga showoff exclaimed -- "You can do this pose, so why the heck aren't you? Don't just sit there in wimpy ole Child's Pose -- do what everyone else is doing!" I'm happy to say that I didn't listen.

A few others didn't either. They knew their boundaries and they honored them by avoiding a yoga posture that would have possibly brought harm. The woman a few mats over actually packed up her stuff in a huff and walked out. It makes me think of my recent experience. When I got scared, the emotion that followed quickly on the heels of the fear was anger. I was mad over the fact that my boundary had been crossed, the result of which being that everything around me seemed to be tainted by fear and suspicion. Perhaps that woman who left the workshop felt the same way -- that she'd been asked to cross a boundary and she wouldn't do it for the sake of being a "good" little yoga student. As I rested on my mat, I knew that I wasn't angry or full of good fear (Can I really do that pose? Perhaps I should try?) -- I felt a clear sense of what I was willing and unwilling to do, regardless of what a respected yoga teacher was directing me to do.

So here's a little something to ponder as you sit in stillness today (or chill out in Child's Pose on your yoga mat):

Where in your life are you feeling good fear and bad fear?
Do you avoid fear of any type?
What makes you feel safe?
What are the signs of feeling unsafe?
Do you believe that safety comes from outside of yourself or inside?
How can you strengthen your inner sense of safety?
Do you honor your boundaries on your yoga mat (and off)? If not, what changes can you make to do so?

Namaste!

Box Cutters, Back Aches, and Baring it All (with a laugh)

2012-01-26T16:55:31-05:00

I certainly enjoy blogging, but sometimes I get sick of hearing myself talk (or maybe it's more accurate to say that I get sick of reading what I write). Today I'm going to let the links below talk for themselves...

Box Cutters
What if I told you to take a box cutter to your mat? Here's an excellent blog post about the idea that more is less and an idea for taking a bite out of the yoga mat SUV equivalent: What Is Your Yoga Footprint?

Back Aches
I sure am happy that there's not a lot of snow to shovel this year (so far, anyways) and so is my back. If you're not so lucky, or if you suffer from back pain, check out this wonderful practice that promotes both strength and flexibility.

Baring it All
Lately all I've been hearing about is how yoga can wreck your body, how the NY Times can wreck yoga, and how everyone is up in arms about perceived yoga porn. This funny video laughs in the face of it all, and I absolutely love it -- Yoga by Equinox Parody.

Ah...something to think about, something to do, and something to laugh about. My job is done here.

Namaste!

Being a Reactionary

2012-01-22T23:13:12-05:00

Reactionary: one who responds to a situation, person, or circumstance, oftentimes quickly without forethought. [Please note that this is the blogger's definition and Webster is not resposible for this hack job]

One of the reasons I love yoga and meditation is because both provide the practitioner with something very important -- space. There's nothing quite like getting quiet, calming the mind, and taking a pause. That ever-important pause is that prevents us from being a reactionary and saying the hurtful comment or acting rashly or making the mistake in haste.

Of course assumptions and judgment happen, regardless of how much time one spends on a yoga mat and/or meditation cushion. I certainly am far from perfect. Yet, every now and again, I am heartened when I notice myself noticing when I'm assuming and/or judging.

Just last week I wrote a post and made a statement that could easily be construed as meaning a certain thing. In fact, some people that know me (or perhaps they don't really) jumped to the obvious conclusion, when, in my opinion, should have known better. This happens quite a bit. Often people think they know me because they read my blog or read my updates on Facebook. Yes, my blog posts do reflect who I am, but they also don't divulge every detail about my personal life. Regardless of my being a blogger and a user of social media, I still think that some things are private and sacred and I don't share them with the world at large.

That being said, it's not uncommon for me to write something that sounds like one thing when it really means another. That's my sly way of telling the truth without divulging everything about my personal life. Interestingly enough, a close friend of mine knew exactly what I was referencing in the blog post. She knew that it wasn't about a love relationship -- or at least not the type one would expect. Yet so many people jumped to the conclusion that it was. One person, in fact, had a very strong reaction to the statement I made, which I found disappointing.

Regardless of my years of a regular yoga practice, I am not above being a reactionary myself. Just over a week ago, I saw the Yoga by Equinox video that yogi Kathryn Budig defends here. Why would a brief yoga video need defending, you ask? Perhaps because it shows a scantily clad yoga teacher -- Equinox's Briohny Kate-Smyth practicing in her bedroom?

My first reaction to the video was quite interesting. I thought that the video was beautiful -- Briohny Kate-Smyth is a delight to watch. The scantily clad part didn't bother me at all -- I think that bodies are beautiful, and I thought it was lovely to see Briohny proudly sharing hers with us. Briohny's yoga prowess is impressive. And that's where I noticed myself cringing just a bit inside.

It's not about showing one's body. Heck, I can't tell you how many pictures I've seen of ancient Indian men practicing in little more than a loincloth. What made me a bit uneasy about the video was the perfection and acrobatic nature of it. Is this what people think yoga should be? Do they watch this beautiful, strong, supple body practicing challenging poses and think, "I could never do that."

Of course this has nothing to do with Briohny or her lovely video. This is what I think is a common problem with yoga in the world today -- the perception that you have to look a certain way or have a certain body or be physically fit to practice yoga. I want to see some yoga misfit videos with fat rolls and inflexible bodies and basic asana rather than complex feats of strength and flexibility.

Just because one is a yoga teacher does not mean that he/she has to be physical perfection personified or be able to perform each posture flawlessly. No, this isn't Bikram's Yoga Olympics. This is life. This is imperfection. This is yoga, which is accessible and can be practiced by anyone (even someone who is bedridden). Perhaps it's time for us to take off our masks, as this wonderful blog post calls us to do.

So yes, I, too, am a reactionary at times. I sure am better than I used to be in this regard. I'm no longer the knee-jerk queen. But creating more space certainly isn't a bad thing.

Namaste!

Injury: Your Wake Up Call

2012-01-16T18:23:11-05:00

We all know that the words "wreck" and "yoga" have been used together quite a bit lately. It's like watching a tennis match -- someone lobs a ball over the net and the player on the other side returns it. Back and forth the ball goes, volley for volley (yes, I'm following the Australian Open, so it's no surprise that I'm using this analogy). Is it a bad thing that people are talking about yoga and what happens when bodies are forced into postures that they aren't ready for? Certainly not.

Perhaps this makes me a bad yoga teacher, but I don't want to talk about vertebrae or cervical spine injuries or pulled this or torn that. Instead, I'm going to do one of my favorite things -- I'm going to tell a story.

Years ago, I was in a relationship that wasn't working for either parties involved. We did a lot of talking but there wasn't a whole lot of action to back it up. As a result, things went along the same unsatisfactory way for some time. All of the hurts accumulated over time into what one could call a fatal injury. I still remember the day I knew it was over for me -- I actually got a visceral feeling in my body (it was as if something snapped inside of me...perhaps it was the camel's back breaking after the last straw). My friend asked me when I knew it was over, and I cited that experience. That final injury was my wake-up call.

This off the mat story can be applied on the mat as well. If you find yourself injured as a result of your yoga practice, that's not front page news -- that's a wake-up call. It's a call to awareness, consciousness, discernment even. For me, that visceral experience I had brought everything I had been feeling for years -- and pushed into the background -- into the foreground. I could no longer ignore it.

Of course ignoring something is second nature for many of us. "Just suck it up" becomes our motto. Many years ago, I was taking a class with a yoga teacher who had a national reputation in the style of yoga in which he specialized. He told a story of him hobbling to and from yoga class but still teaching and practicing himself. He had such pride as he related the story of his sucking it up, because after all, the yoga show must go on, right?

Wrong! While I realize that the performance-based athletes seem to be of the belief no pain, no gain, I don't believe that's the smart way to go. One could argue it's the unconscious way to go. Pain is a signal -- whether it's emotional or physical. If something doesn't feel right, that's not a green light to continue but a yellow light encouraging you to slow down and proceed with caution. It's funny I should use that example, as when I drive, I tend to view yellow traffic lights as a reason to speed up in order to make it through the intersection before the light turns red. Luckily, my stupidity in the car doesn't bleed into my life.

A few years into my yoga practice, I experienced a bad hamstring injury. It was painful and it persisted for quite a few weeks. My ego was wanting to go the way of the teacher who was proud of his yoga-earned hobble. I tried a few times to push through the injury and continue to practice yoga as I had practiced before. Well, you know what they say about insanity -- that the definition is doing something the same way expecting different results. Yeah, I was basically insane. Luckily my body overruled my ego and I took a two-week break from yoga. Or more accurately, I took a two-week break from the way I had been practicing yoga. Instead, I focused on some gentle floor poses and plenty of Savasana.

I didn't practice the same way after that. My yoga practice continued to change over the years and it now resembles nothing like what it did when I began my yoga journey. Ah, if only my ego could see me now...it would NOT be happy. But my body sure is happy. And so is my soul. Achieving the perfect pose didn't nourish me or bring me peace. Hobbling around citing proudly "yoga injury" didn't do those things either. In fact, those things took me further away from what I deemed to be the magic of yoga after my first class -- peace and serenity (with a little bliss mixed in).

Maya Angelou says, "When you know better, you do better." My current relationship doesn't even remotely resemble the relationship I mentioned earlier. The wake-up call injury my heart sustained was one heck of a teaching tool. Same goes for that hamstring injury so many years ago. Both taught me where my boundaries were and how to discern between my ego and my soul. And at the end of the day, that's how I think of yoga -- it's not about muscles or tendons or ligaments but awareness. Or at least, that's where my heart lies.

My suggestion? Don't wait for a wake-up call before you get conscious on and/or off the mat.

Namaste!