Practice Yoga

Having been plagued with illness through the winter, yoga has taken a back seat. Of course I have kept up with breathing & meditation, and some lovely guided relaxations, which sure help when you’re not well and the stress that comes with that, but doing any kind of anything that involved moving, forget it.

I’m still in no shape whatsoever, other than probably a lump, therefore I decided that the best way to get back what I lost was to get back on the mat, but slowly. So many people, and teachers, can be full-on-obsessed/gung-ho. To me, yoga is to take the stress away.

Sometimes it can be daunting to be thinking in large steps and an entire yoga class/session can seem impossible if either you’re going back to it or if you’ve not got a lot of energy to spare, so I took that pressure off myself and put a 10 minute time limit on my session. I knew I could do 10 minutes. There, suddenly this sounded manageable and stress free.

Yesterday, I got out a nice slow gentle beginners DVD to start with, one I know well and love, and when it started so did my 10 minutes. (I’m not well enough to go out yet, so the dvd had to do!) I was quite amazed at how much was done in 10 minutes, but I felt so much better for it. Today I’m feeling the “work” but I was, and still am, SO glad that I got back on the mat.

I plan on doing 10 minutes 3 times a week until my body tells me to up the time to 15 minutes, then 20 etc. Slow is better for healing in my opinion. We all have plenty of time in the world, let’s enjoy it. No pressure!

At the end of March I wrote a post that was the introduction the 8 limbs of yoga, including the first limb: Ahisma. It’s time to continue on through the journey of the Yama’s, the second being Satya

Satya on it’s own means “Truth” and “Truthfulness.” However within a yoga discipline one cannot take on the power of satya without remembering to apply ahisma (harmlessness).

The best article I can find is on Yoga Journal. It is a well written in-depth look regarding satya by well known author and yogi Judith Hanson Lasater. Here is an excerpt from said article that I think highlights satya blending with ahisma to work in harmony.

“Because satya is presented as a yama, Patanjali’s teaching on the subject has mainly been associated with restraint rather than with action—with what we should refrain from doing rather than with what specifically we should do. The teaching of satya is not presented in this manner as an accident or oversight. In most ways, the practice of satya is about restraint: about slowing down, filtering, carefully considering our words so that when we choose them, they are in harmony with the first yama, ahimsa. Patanjali and his major commentators state that no words can reflect truth unless they flow from the spirit of nonviolence. And here Patanjali is exactly in harmony with the Buddhist teaching of Right Speech. It is clear that Patanjali did not want his readers to confuse satya with speech that might be factually accurate but harmful. Your dress may be the ugliest one I have ever seen, but it is not necessarily practicing satya to tell you so.” I highly recommend you read the rest of the article!

Kriya Yoga have an absolutely brilliant article by Prajnanavi which discusses satya and highlights perceptions of truth. I loved his visual writings making it easy to comprehend how we all have our truths. Here are some excerpts:

“Let us understand what truth is. If I asked you what the color of this wall is, you would say white. If I put that same question to a person suffering from jaundice the reply would be yellow. Who is speaking the truth? Apparently both speak truth according to their own perception, but in reality one is right.”

“There is a story. Once five blind men wanted to know what an elephant looked like. Since they were blind they had to depend on their sense of touch. The sense of touch and sound are highly developed in the blind. The first man touched the elephant’s body and said, “The elephant is like a wall.” The second touched the elephant’s leg and said, “No, the elephant is like a pillar.” The third who happened to touch the ear of the elephant said,” The elephant is like a thick paper.” The fourth that touched the tail exclaimed, “You are all wrong. The elephant is like a rope.” What is the truth? Are they all correct? Can you say they are wrong?” Again I recommend you read the entire article

There were also some good points raised by Advaita Yoga Ashrams in regard to Satya, or as they call it “One of the Ethical Precepts of Yoga”. A few key points I also found important (and remember these are just my key points, everyone’s will be different) from their writings were:
- “It is more than just telling the truth. One’s actions should be in accordance with one’s words and thoughts.”
- “Depending on one’s inclination, there can be different conceptions of the truth.”
- “One must be always watching the mind to be sure where one’s true motive’s lie.”
- “In this modern age, it is commonly accepted for people to commit to various things and to have no intention of keeping their word, the feeling being it is more important to tell someone what they think they want to hear rather than simply telling the truth.”

Finally, as they say on many other sites we must remember that satya is not black and white, but requires contemplation, understanding and thought. We must be truthful, but continue to practice non violence. If another person may be harmed by truthfulness, it may be better to remain quiet.

Time to apply it to my life!

There are eight limbs (or steps) of yoga.
1.Yama : Universal morality
2.Niyama : Personal observances
3.Asanas : Body postures
4.Pranayama : Breathing exercises, and control of prana
5.Pratyahara : Control of the senses
6.Dharana : Concentration and cultivating inner perceptual awareness
7.Dhyana : Devotion, Meditation on the Divine
8.Samadhi : Union with the Divine

Each of these “limbs” have their own branches starting with Yama. From my reading Yama seems to be connected with personal conduct. Here are sources of information explaining Yama.

from 8 Limbs of Yoga: Yama Yama is universal morality and describes moral virtues that should be followed. Yama addresses an individual’s interaction with others and describes appropriate behaviour in dealing with other people.

from Yama – Restraints – Limbs of Yoga Yama can be taken to have different meanings, in different contexts. It may mean “to rein, curb, or bridle, discipline or restrain” In the present context, it is used to mean “self-control, forbearance, or any great rule or duty”. Yama can also be interpreted as “attitude” or “behavior”.

Yama, the first limb of yoga has five branches. These branches are our moral virtues.
1. Ahimsa (Harmlessness)
2. Satya (Truthfulness)
3. Asteya (Non-stealing)
4. Brahmacharya (Sense-control)
5. Aparigraha (Neutralizing the desire to acquire and hoard wealth)

For the next five months I’m going to delve into Yama. This month, I’m going to do my best to practice Ahimsa.

“Ahimsa” according to wikipedia is a term meaning to do no harm (literally: the avoidance of violence). Gandhi promoted the principle of ahimsa very successfully by applying it to all spheres of life, particularly to politics.

from The Eight Limbs of Yoga, A Basic Overview and many other sites all of which had the exact same paragraph, the word Ahimsa literally mean not to injure or show cruelty to any creature or any person in any way whatsoever. Ahimsa is, however, more than just lack of violence as adapted in yoga. It means kindness, friendliness, and thoughtful consideration of other people and things. Ahimsa implies that in every situation we should adopt a considerate attitude and do no harm.

And this is something I am aiming to do everyday for the month of April so it’s a habit by May. No matter how much I want to bitch, rant, scream, tear my hair out at the stupid person, I shall try to practice a “considerate attitude.” Not at the harm of myself, nor anyone else, but I shall practice the key to Ahisma: “Harmlessness”

February wasn’t a good month for me so in turn wasn’t a good month for any of my undertakings. It took over two weeks for me to even find the right pose to add to the Savasanda

I needed to spend a lot of time with gentle neck stretches (after a bad flu hit the glands in my neck) so it wasn’t until I was mostly over the virus that my body decided on the Mountain Pose as the next to focus on. (I tried out a few but this is the one it liked best.) Part of this asana focuses on breathing which is also what I need to do too.

As soon as anyone tells me to “relax and breath” or to “focus on my breath” I hyperventilate or feel myself panicking. It’s truly ridiculous but that’s what I do, so I have added learning to breath as something to tackle and that is what Pranayama is all about.

So I now have two things to incorporate into my daily practice which will probably see me through March.

This year I decided to choose a pose I felt was needed for me at this time in my life. I have major healing going on with my knee and in other areas so I decided that each month I would choose a position and lay in it, feel it, settle in it, and learn about it from experience.

Hopefully each months position can then flow to the next. Perhaps I’ll do this for several years? Who knows? Anyhow…

January 2010 was Savasana

It has been amazing. There have been times when I have fallen asleep, which is what you are not to do, but I am extremely tired so I allow my body to do what it needs. Other times I have found my body adjusting one muscle to relax, going deeper into relaxation, letting myself “let go” of stress, to allow “now” to be here.

This pose is always a definitive pose for any yoga practice, but I don’t feel as though you just have to end with it. I think savasanda could be used to start a session just as easily as to end a session. It could also be in the middle of the session depending upon the sessions focus or it could be the entire session if desired.

Savasanda (Shav-a-san-a) also known as “the death pose” “the corpse pose” “the relaxation pose” is worth exploring. I love it. I feel tired and stressed if I have not had at least 30 minutes resting with savasanda. I recommend exploring this pose.

My quest now is to find a pose for February that is in harmony with savasanda as the base. Yoga must flow together freely so it will be interesting to see where savasanda leads.