A cat in repose

Dignified, loyal, brave, graceful, peaceful, affectionate, intelligent, funny, entertaining – these are just some of the adjectives that cats possess.When you see a cat in repose, in what appears for all the world to be a state of meditation, there is a sense of wisdom there, a sense that he or she knows some kind of secret to life that only they are able to perceive and fully understand. There is a feeling of mystery in the feline existence, in the feline nature, which seems to be different from what you find in any other species or group of species. Possession of this knowledge seems to be the explanation for their unflappable, meditative nature, the one he/she shows when he/she is in the company of humans they know they can trust.

Your worst enemy

We are trained to fear, resist, and fixate upon external enemies and to see ourselves as our most faithful and loyal friend. This is an inversion—most people never experience an external enemy that even begins to match the power of the opponent within. Although you may not know it, one of the greatest blessings that you can experience is a single moment of your life in which you are not your own worst enemy. 

- Paul Richards

Eye of the Hurricane

We join spokes together in a wheel
but it is the center hole
that makes the wagon move

We shape clay into pot,
but it is the emptiness inside
that holds whatever we want

We hammer wood for a house,
but it is inner space
that makes it livable

We work with being
but non-being is what we use

- Laozi in Tao Te Ching

Fall Fitness and Friends

As Summer transitions into Fall gracefully, it was time to make the most of warm afternoons filled with sunny warmth and gentle cooling breeze. I took my mat and headed outdoors for an afternoon of yoga. Recently, I had the good fortune of assisting my mentor and her class on the lawns of a beautiful winery near my house. The icing on the top being live music by a really talented musician, who does not believe in recording his music.
Being in nature really makes your yoga practice special. Like, in twisted chair, as I gazed skyward, I saw an eagle gliding and just like that, I wanted to do a bird pose and fly with that majestic creature.

Quick tips to remember while heading outdoors,
- Bring a thick mat especially while doing your practice on uneven surfaces
- Stay hydrated, apply sunscreen
- Dress in layers, have a jacket handy for savasana
- Be prepared to be stared at by curious onlookers
- Watch for bugs
- Bring along a friend and make it a really special practice

Forget Six-Pack Abs

Healthy abdominal muscles are strong - not hard.
Abdominal skin differs from much of the skin covering the rest of the body. It has a subcutaneous tissue that loves to hoard fat. It can store up to several inches. Those fat-free torsos you see in advertisements are possible for less than 10 percent of the population. You have to have really thin skin to show muscle and this takes more than diligent exercise; it takes the right genetics. 
Instead of obsessing about fat, we'd do better to focus deeper. Right under the skin, a sturdy wall of four paired muscles stretches over our internal organs. On the surface, the straplike rectus abdominus extends along the front, from pubic bone to sternum. On either side, a thin but powerful muscle, called the external oblique, courses diagonally from the ribs to the rectus, forming a "V" when viewed from the front. Running perpendicular to the external obliques, the internal obliques lie just below. These two pairs of muscles work in concert, rotating the trunk and flexing it diagonally. The innermost layer of abdominal muscle, the transversus, runs horizontally, wrapping the torso like a corset. You flex this muscle to pull in your belly. The sinewy, three-ply sheath formed by the transversus and the obliques provides a strong, expandable support; it protects the viscera and provides compression that aids elimination and a housing flexible enough for diaphragmatic breathing.

Cobra Pushup With Roll
Squeeze a foam roll between your thighs and lay flat on your belly, tucking your tailbone toward the mat. Place your hands under your shoulders, with elbows up, and push the tops of your feet into the floor. Next, inhale and push up into Cobra, opening your chest and pulling your rib cage forward. Be sure to keep your shoulders down. Exhale and release, lowering yourself slowly and carefully, one set of ribs at a time. Repeat three times.
Fire Breathing - AgniSara Breath 
(Agni is fire in Sanskrit, this pranayama technique stirs up internal heat in the body)

1. Stand erect with your legs fairly apart and hands hanging by the sides.
2. Bend your trunk forward and bend your knees slightly.
3. Place your palms on the corresponding knees.
4. Exhale completely.
5. As in Uddiyana Bandha, retain your breath.
6. Blow out your stomach without inhaling.
7. Keep this for about 2 seconds.
8. Pull in your stomach.
9. Pull in and blow out your stomach 4-6 times.
10. Inhale.
11. Repeat steps 4-10 four to five times.

Koshas

1. Physical Body
In Sanskrit, the physical body is known as the Annamaya Kosha, or food sheath. This visible dense body is born, grows, decays and then dies, the components returning to earth and the food cycle. The aim of yoga is to bring the physical body under the conscious control of the mind. Both can then be used for higher spiritual pursuits. Proper care of the physical body is necessary if any work is to be done.

2. Astral Body
Every living being has an Astral Body This is connected to the physical body by a subtle thread along which vital currents pass. When this cord is cut, the Astral Body departs and the body dies. It is composed of three layers:
A. Pranic Sheath: More subtle than the food sheath, but similar in form, it is often spoken of as etheric double. It is made up of 72,000 nadis or astral tubes, through which prana or vital energy flows.
B. Mental Sheath: Comprising of automatic mind, as well as instinctive and subconscious portions, this is where we carry on the automatic functions of our daily lives. It is very jumpy by nature, as it is constantly bombarded by input from the five senses.
C. Intellectual Sheath: The intellect controls and guides the automatic mind. Discrimination and decision making take place here and pass down to the more gross sheaths.

3. Causal Body
Called the Karana Sharira in Sanskrit, the Causal Body is also known as the Seed Body. Just as a seed or a bulb contains within itself an exact blueprint of the plant it will produce, so does the Causal Body stores subtle impressions in the form of Karma. These subtle impressions control the formation and growth of the other two bodies, and determine every aspect of the next birth. At the time of death, both the the Causal and Astral Bodies (which remain together) separate from the physical body.

Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Center

As we walk in through this door, the first thing we realize that we are not humans having a spiritual experience, but we are souls having a human experience.

Having said this, what am I going to talk about today? Well, I am going to talk about yoga.  But specifically, about exploring the mind-body connection.  We all hear this over and over again, about yoga being the connection of mind and body. When you are heading into new territory, it is helpful to have a map. Hiking in Yosemite, you need a topography map showing the mountainous terrain. In New York City, you need to know the city blocks and major sites to orient yourself; otherwise you have to depend on the compassion and mercy of New Yorkers, which I assume is in short supply these days. What if such a roadmap exists within yoga? As it turns out, our ancestors, the yogic sages, have indeed charted out such a landscape of the self in the Upanishads, about 3000 years ago.

The koshas, "layers" or "sheaths," make up one such map, charted by yogic sages some 3000 years ago. Written about in these ancient texts, the Upanishads, the kosha model navigates an inner journey—starting from the periphery of the body and moving towards the core of the self: the embodied soul. While this may sound esoteric, the koshas are both a practical and profound contemplative tool that can help you deepen your yoga practice and the quality of your participation in life.

According to the map of the koshas, we are composed of five layers, sheaths, or bodies. Like Russian dolls, each metaphorical "body" is contained within the next: annamaya kosha—the physical body; pranamaya kosha—the breath or life-force body; manomaya kosha—the mental body; vijanamaya kosha—the wisdom body; and anandamaya kosha—the bliss body. This is not a literal anatomical model of the layers of the body, although you can find physiological parallels to the koshas, like the nervous system and the "mental" body. As a metaphor, the koshas help describe what it feels like to do yoga from the inside—the process of aligning what in contemporary language we often call "mind, body, and spirit" or "mind-body connection."

Like a tapestry, the koshas are interwoven layers. You have no doubt experienced this in your own body: When you are tense or strained, your breath becomes shallow, your mind becomes easily agitated, and wisdom and joy seem far away. When you are filled with joy, these feelings permeate your entire being. Separating the strands of the tapestry is a way to look at how your whole being can become integrated or in discord. The kosha map is not a rigid truth but a template for exploring the mystery of being alive. Let's bring the koshas to life now by seeing how this map applies to hatha yoga practice grounded in asana by navigating the Koshas

The first layer of the koshas is always where you begin your journey. It situates you in the present moment of your body like the arrow on a map that says "you are here." Take one of your hands and connect with a chunk of your thigh, arm, or belly. You are touching the annamaya kosha—your physical self—the first layer of skin, muscle tissue, bones, and organs. The annamaya kosha is often referred to as the "gross" body (sthula-sharira)—the tangible part of yourself that you can mostly see, touch, and feel. Annamaya means "food body," and there are long passages in the Upanishads drilling in this realization that we are composed of food from the earth, a beneficial contemplation that helps you pay attention to what you feed your first kosha. Like having good fertilizer for your top soil, all of the layers of yourself will benefit from a healthy, balanced diet. Just eat a pint of icecream, too much alcohol or a bag of potato chips and watch the changes in your breath and mental body.

In the beginning of your yoga practice, a lot of time is spent exploring your physical body. The first step is becoming aware of the entire field of your body from head to toe and all the little crevices that are highlighted through yoga postures, such as the arches of your feet and the side ribs. Learning how to align your joints, bones, and spine, engage your muscles, sense your skin, and even become aware of what is happening to your organs. If you want to deepen your breath or affect your state of mind, you have to honor and pass through the gateway of the physical body.

The next three layers of the self are considered to be part of the subtle body or suksma-sharira, as they are unseen and cannot be tangibly grasped. They can, however, be felt and they have a profound effect on the physical body: You would perish if your pranamaya kosha, or breath body, ceased to function. To experience the pranamaya kosha, we practice various techniques here in our studio: ujjayi breath, kapalbhati, nadi shodhana.  Pranayama is designed to increase and cultivate the quality of the pranic body. When you start to know where you are in your physical body through the alignment of the poses, you will have more freedom to explore the flow of your breath. By shifting to deep, slow, and rhythmic breathing in your yoga practice, you are becoming conscious of and affecting this second kosha. The coordination of your inhalation and exhalation with the movements of your physical body, is best experienced in Sun Salutations. We marry breath sheath with the food sheath.

This third layer, the manomaya kosha, corresponds to your nervous system and expresses itself as waves of thought or awareness. How active this third layer is becomes apparent within the stillness of a yoga pose: Try resting your eyes on a point and concentrating on the sensation of your breath rising and falling in your chest. See how long it takes before a thought-wave, or vritti, passes by.  Often our minds are as overloaded as 680 or 580 freeway, constricting the flow of your yoga practice. If your mind is obsessed or is going in different directions, your breath becomes erratic and your sense of physical ease and balance wavers. Your breath can serve as a bridge between your body and mind. Expanded breath = Expanded mind = A sense of openness in the body. For most of us, our yoga practice is devoted to learning how to get the flow of these first three layers happening.

It’s the last 2 koshas that I would like to draw your citta or awareness towards. The vijanamaya kosha is the intelligence or wisdom body and refers to the reflective aspects of our consciousness when we experience a deeper insight into ourselves and the world. As the first three layers begin to syncopate in your yoga practice, a different feeling arises as your wisdom body comes alive. All of a sudden you are not just trying to survive or breathe in a pose, but a shift inside you occurs, as if the spirit of the pose starts to emerge. In Tree Pose, you may begin to feel a steady strength and inner power. In a backbend, it may feel like the sky opens up inside your heart. You are still in the fourth layer of your body when a subjective witness observes these shifts—that inner voice that says, "That feels good!"

When the witness of experience dissolves into the experience of the moment, the final layer, anandamaya kosha, the core of bliss begins to shine through. There is a feeling of wholeness and integration, a sense of arriving at your destination, even if you are only there for a moment. It is also the space where creativity explodes. This is the radiant core where unconditional love and communion with life arises. This is not a VIP-only area. Throughout your life, you have accessed this part of yourself. Children go there regularly, as do musicians and dancers. And so do beginning yoga students. It’s the reason someone jumps off a bridge to save a drowning man, without regard to the self, or goes through a burning building to save a kitten. You are in love with life itself and in touch with your most compassionate self. Because in giving freely, without ANY expectation, one finds freedom from the self. It’s the ultimate freedom.

These are some of the realizations that I have arrived at in my yoga journey. Whether we touch this bliss body every day or in every practice is not the point of the journey. Sometimes we make it through the gates or to the top of the trail, sometimes not. Sometimes we find ourselves more complex and difficult to unravel and other days we shift easily through the layers of ourselves. Just keep the center in your inner horizon.

Secrets of the ocean

Ever wonder how our tears and sweat and sea water are all salty. The scientific explanation points to the presence of sodium and chloride ions. An observation that has been completely validated and proven in several experiments.
But is it possible that presence of salt in our bodily fluids is our vital link to the ocean? Proof that we indeed evolved out of the oceans?

Your ego is not your amigo !! But wait, is that true?

Ego is like money. Keep it in your pocket.. Take it out when necessary. Ego defines you. Life is a process of expansion of your ego. The same definition, when expanded includes your family, community, country, planet, even the universe. When you believe that the planet, the divine belongs to me, that's when ego becomes dangerous. To work, to face challenges, to succeed, to fight, pump up your ego. But to identify with success would an unwanted product of ego manifestation.

When in meditation or prayer, surrender yourself, your identity, your ego to the divine. At times of celebration, learning or accepting mistakes, let go of ego.

When to use ego and when to subdue it, that is very subtle. What do you think?

Birth of a Guru

July 14th marks Guru Purnima (Full Moon of the Guru) is the time to honor the Guru in you. Traditionally celebrated to honor Sage Vyasa, he is believed to have completed writing and classifying accumulated spiritual knowledge at the time. The knowledge, known in the form of sound, was classified into 4 Vedas (Rig, Sama, Yajur and Atharva).

This is the time to acknowledge the river of life that flows through you. This river is the teacher who removes fundamental ignorance and sets the seeker on a spiritual path. The full moon is significant; knowledge puts an end to the scorching agony of ignorance and sheds cool comfort on the mind. GU-ignorance Ru-destroyer, he who removes darkness and delusion from the heart and illuminates it with higher wisdom.

Bird Poses

Once you have flown
you will walk the earth
with your eyes turned skyward,
for there you have been,
and there you long to return.

- Leonardo da Vinci

The bird poses in yoga such as eagle, crane, crow, pigeon, bird of paradise teach us to soar above our limitations.These poses are perfect for tight hips because it stretches the hip rotators (the buttocks area) and the hip flexors (the long muscles that run along the front of your thighs and pelvis). Be aware that you might taste some bitterness before getting to the pose's sweet spot.
One way to achieve effortless flight is enagaging mulabandha in these challenging poses. In Sanskrit, "mula" means root; "bandha" means a lock or binding. Not only physically but also in more subtle ways, mulabandha is a technique for containing and channeling the energy associated with the mula-dhara ("root place") chakra. Located at the tip of the spine, muladhara chakra represents the stage of consciousness where basic survival needs dominate.
"Mula" also refers to the root of all action, and the root of any action is a thought. As we begin to refine our thoughts - restricting and binding the intentions behind our action - the actions themselves become refined. In yoga practice we bind our body and mind, restricting our impulses into the orderly channels of ethics, individual responsibility, and right action. While performing bird poses, as we escape the pull of gravity, we learn to use more refined means to soar effortlessly.

Disciplined Bodies - Quieter Minds

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=180795825308884

The guys in the video are amazing. No doubt, they have spend countless hours training and cultivating their bodies to develop maximum strength and flexibility. But how do you cultivate a quiet mind? When people think of meditation, usually images of far-away yogis sitting cross-legged chanting mantras are conjured up. Meditation for most people’s minds involves sitting still, closing one’s eyes, relaxing the body, breathing deeply and trying to find that place in which many Zen practitioners call “no mind”. How is that possible, to have “no mind”? The no-mind principle is the idea that one can reach a meditative state in which there are no thoughts running in the head. Getting rid of the busy head is one of the main reasons monks, yogis meditate.

Four rules to inner cleanse:

1. Say what you mean. Mean what you say.
2. Don’t say to anyone unless you can say to everyone.
3. Don’t say inside, what you cannot say outside.
4. Don’t say it unless it is true, useful or kind.

Life in the Woods

No man ever followed his genius till it misled him. Though the result were bodily weakness, yet perhaps no one can say that the consequences were to be regretted, for these were a life in conformity to higher principles. If the day and the night are such that you greet them with joy, and life emits a fragrance like flowers and sweet scented herbs, is more elastic, more starry, more immortal, - that is your success. All nature is your congratulation, and you have cause momentarily to bless yourself. The greatest gains and values are farthest from being appreciated. We easily come to doubt if they exist. We soon forget them. They are the highest reality...The true harvest of my daily life is somewhat as intangible and indescribable as the tints of morning or evening. It is a little star-dust caught, a segment of the rainbow which I have clutched.

- Henry David Thoreau

Being strong versus feeling strong

 "And I also know how important it is in life not necessarily to be strong but to feel strong. To measure yourself at least once." -Into the Wild 

Being strong is physical. Tight abs, biceps, triceps, shoulders, legs. That's a strong body. A body that is good to look at.
Feeling strong is to live life with strength and with flexibility. 
Like the mighty oak : flexible, rooted, connected !

Gaia

Our living Earth possesses an innate intelligence. It is the same intelligence that digests food, converts food and oxygen into energy, circulates blood, and translates sensory input into nerve impulses. These impulses are decoded by the brain and form an image of the outer reality. The same intelligence gives rise to instinctive responses of any organism to a threat or challenge. These primordial responses are similar to human emotions of anger, fear and pleasure.

And yet, the difference between instinct and emotion is this: An instinctive response is the body’s response to external stimuli. An emotion is the body’s response to a thought. The body’s intelligence cannot tell the difference between an actual situation and a thought. You may be lying comfortably in bed, yet a fearful thought such as “I am in danger” would set your heart racing faster, muscles contract, breathing becomes rapid. This buildup of energy has nowhere to go, since the danger is just a thought. Part of this energy is circled back into the mind, creating more anxious thought and the rest turns toxic and interferes with the harmonious function of the body.

I Know The Way You Can Get

I know the way you can get

When you have not had a drink of Love:

Your face hardens,

Your sweet muscles cramp.

Children become concerned

About a strange look that appears in your eyes

Which even begins to worry your own mirror

And nose.

Squirrels and birds sense your sadness

And call an important conference in a tall tree.

They decide which secret code to chant

To help your mind and soul.

Even angels fear that brand of madness

That arrays itself against the world

And throws sharp stones and spears into

The innocent

And into one's self.

O I know the way you can get

If you have not been drinking Love:

You might rip apart

Every sentence your friends and teachers say,

Looking for hidden clauses.

You might weigh every word on a scale

Like a dead fish.

You might pull out a ruler to measure

From every angle in your darkness

The beautiful dimensions of a heart you once Trusted.

I know the way you can get

If you have not had a drink from Love's Hands.

That is why all the Great Ones speak of

The vital need

To keep remembering God,

So you will come to know and see Him

As being so Playful

And Wanting,

Just Wanting to help.

That is why Hafiz says:

Bring your cup near me.

For all I care about

Is quenching your thirst for freedom!

All a Sane man can ever care about

Is giving Love!

From: 'I Heard God Laughing - Renderings of Hafiz'  

Translated by Daniel Ladinsky

Reach for your dreams (Anjaneyasana)

The story goes that baby Hanuman, while playing once reached for the sun thinking it was an orange ball, a mere plaything. In crescent pose, it is this same over-reaching that helps achieve your dreams. As you gracefully swoop your arms upwards, seek inspiration, aspire for your dreams, and reach for your higher self. The self that is compassionate, ever loving !

Fight your lower self (Virabhadrasana II)

In warrior 2, as you gaze across your outstretched arms, your drishti holding steady at your target, what is it that you are fighting? You are fighting your lower self. The part of you that leads you into anger, jealousy, coveting, judgment.  Every day, in your practice, as you move in the warrior series, let the fire of transformation shoot across your outstretched arms and burn your lower self. Slowly and surely, you sink deeper into the pose.

Fire in your belly (Parivrtta Trikonasana)

The other day, as I was in revolved triangle pose, my thoughts turned to my belly and how it hurt. The room was heated and as I was dripping sweat, my thoughts turned to fire. And what does this fire signify? It is tapas, the heat of transformation.

Earth rejuvenates with this fire. Volcanoes spew fire and smoke from the underbelly of earth and lava erupts. The molten lava spews down the mountain and as it cools, new earth is formed. The beautiful islands of Hawaii are a testament to this very same transformative energy.  To take your pain and turn it around to offer the world beauty is the greatest transformation.  Like a rose blossoming out of thorns.

Welcome to my blog

I am a mom with a voracious appetite for yoga. I am certified in Vinyasa Flow (RYT 200) through Cosmic Dog Yoga, recognized by the Yoga Alliance. Under the mentorship of Suzanna Spring, my style is ever evolving into a transformative, inspiring, integrative practice,  in rhythm with realities of our lives as householders. It is a dynamic approach to the art of living and embodying yoga.

In my classes, I slowly open up the body into deeper poses, using the asana practice as a metaphor for subtle spiritual awakening and awareness of the present moment. I invite you to breathe and share my journey of slow ripening and rapid blossoming into aspects of physical, emotional and spiritual well-being. Namaste !!