In yoga teacher training today, we were workshopping some of our personal challenges in the practice, and considering how we could address them, and how we could help students approach them as well. One of mine is the jump forward from adho mukha svanasana to ardha uttanasana, and a few people noted difficulty with the opposite jump from adho uttanasana to caturanga. As we talked about the jump and what needs to be done to make it happen, Lisa, our instructor, taught us a very cool assist that can be offered to students to help them understand what needs to occur. As the student folds into a position basically like uttanasana, with the hands planted by the feet (or slightly in front), the instructor stands facing the student, with his/her lower legs just in front of the student’s back. The instructor verbally encourages the student to begin to bring his/her weight forward into the arms, pulling the hips up (which brings his/her back basically against the instructor’s legs). As this occurs, the instructor reaches back and gently lifts up on the sitz bones, assisting in the lift of the hips, which allows the student to just swing the legs back and land into plank. I wasn’t sure it would work, but it did, and was a really cool moment of feeling that float. Ultimately, the goal is to get something that looks like the video below. Amazing and beautiful!
Tag Archives: Yoga
Easing Into Pain With Yoga
In past posts, I’ve considered how having rheumatoid arthritis mixes with doing yoga. Since that time, as my practice has shifted and I have been focused more on the philosophical and spiritual elements of yoga, I haven’t so much changed my mind about what I said, but I have added some additional understandings to my perspective.
Chronic pain is what it is. We all end up with some sort of chronic pain at one time of life or another. Even people who believe themselves to be very healthy and well may have “tennis elbow” or a “bad knee” that presents issues regularly or periodically. This is an important concept for us to understand as yoga practitioners or as teachers. Knowledge about the relationships between chronic pain and yoga is not just applicable to a few students.
While acute/sharp pain should be avoided in yoga (for anyone, including those experiencing chronic pain during the practice), some degree of pain or discomfort is common. Individuals with current chronic pain may find that it is always present during practice, and may be felt as more intense during some poses. Though that is the case, the practice of yoga can make the experience of that pain shift in a helpful way.
When I am having a flare of pain, as I am currently, it becomes harder for me to go to yoga, because my body hurts and I feel so stiff and frozen up from clenching all of my muscles against the pain. But, when I get there, something interesting happens. Some poses are not accessible during a flare, because they do produce a searing and acute pain; since that makes it difficult to ascertain when I’ve moved past the edge, I avoid those poses or try to make adjustments to them. In other poses, the pose may intensify the feeling, but as I get into the practice, breathing steadily and focusing attention on all of the body sensations (are those toes spread? am I pressing into the space between my fingers and thumb? is my back le
g active?), the feeling of pain becomes just another sensory experience, rather than something to draw away from or struggle with. In effect, I ease into the pain instead of withdrawing from it (a natural but not always useful protective response of the body). As a consequence, the muscles around the affected joint, even while warming and contracting/extending in poses, unclench themselves. This resonates through my body to the extent that I can feel the muscles of my face and skull begin to ease – even while I’m ostensibly experiencing “more” pain. When a practice is over, though I have worked the joints and muscles that are bothering me quite hard, I feel much better, more myself, and more ready to face the day without feeling traumatized or paralyzed by chronic pain.
I still believe that yoga has made real physical changes to my body that make my condition more manageable. My muscles are stronger, providing extra support to damaged joints. I oxygenate more efficiently, reducing the fatigue caused by the condition. It has made me more calm in general, which assists me in coping with the ramifications of RA. But, it’s also this easing into pain that brings me to a better place with my practice.
While these positive outcomes of yoga on my chronic pain are “mine,” they make me a different person. I bring a different self to my interactions and I put a different energy out into the world. Thus, the ripple effect goes much beyond my own experience. Given that close to 80,000,000 adults in the U.S. experience what can be labeled as chronic pain in each year, imagine how much change can be brought to the overall through yoga.
Namaste,
L
Oh My Little Elephant-Headed Baby God! The Power of Myth in Yoga
Myth is an attempt to narrate a whole human experience, of which the purpose is too deep, going too deep in the blood and soul, for mental explanation or description.
~D.H. Lawrence
Last night in yoga teacher training, we spent some time on Bhakti, or the practice of yoga as divine worship. In this process, we discussed a number of Hindu gods and the myths surrounding them. Today’s post represents my reflection on my favorite of the stories we considered, the story of the origins of Ganesha.
Before I continue, a bit about the use here of the word “myth.” Sometimes people understand myth to mean a false story. However, a myth is simply an old story that is accepted as true in some fashion, and that helps us to explain the world through a particular perspective. Every culture, including every religious culture, has myths. The factual accuracy of the stories is less important than the shared belief in what the story represents. And so, back to Ganesha…
As with most gods, there are multiple stories of how Ganesha came to be. But, the one I was particularly compelled by is as follows:
Parvati was the consort of Shiva, the destroyer. Shiva, while very much in love with Parvati, was not always the most attentive of husbands or most responsive to Parvati’s needs. Parvati, being wildly passionately in love with Shiva wanted to be with him and to bear his child. Shiva wasn’t so interested, and was more focused on his meditation practice, which required him to go off alone for long periods. As he prepared to leave again, Parvati wept and begged him to stay with her. Refusing, Shiva gave Parvati a piece of cloth from his clothing and told her to hold it as a reminder of him and their love. Crying over the cloth and holding it to her heart, Parvati’s tear fell upon the fabric. From that union of Shiva and Parvati, Ganesha was born. Of course, Parvati was thrilled. One day, Parvati goes to take her bath and posts Ganesha at the door to preserve her privacy. Shiva coincidentally returned at that moment and, seeing Ganesha guarding the door (but not knowing who he is) demanded to be permitted in. Ganesha, a good son, refuses him entry, as his mother had instructed. In a fury, Shiva strikes off Ganesha’s head. When Parvati learns what Shiva has done, she is (reasonably) furious. She commands Shiva to go away until he can fix the situation. Apparently unable to locate Ganesha’s head, Shiva acquires the head of an elephant and uses it to bring Ganesha back to life. Parvati is appeased and they continue on, a happy family of three with their little elephant-headed boy.
So, you may be asking yourself, why did this story particularly strike me. First, it’s just amusing and the notion of an elephant-headed baby is pretty cute. Second, I love the idea of overcoming obstacles that is present throughout the story of Ganesha (and he is seen as the remover of obstacles). Shiva encounters a pretty big obstacle to motherhood when Shiva again leaves, but her desire to be a mother and love for Shiva is enough to overcome that barrier. Ganesha encounters a rather large obstacle in losing his head, which is then repaired. Shiva encounters the obstacle of Ganesha barring him from Parvati and then the challenge of figuring out how to “fix” the situation, and he meets that challenge. This message is a great one for a yoga class.
We all have obstacles to our practice, whether a meditative practice or an asana practice or a devotional practice. In asana, some barriers are physical and some are mental/emotional. But, all barriers can be overcome. The challenge is to figure out how.
Physical barriers might be overcome with the use of props. This morning in class, I watched this in action as my instructor, Erik, assisted a student in creating a prop to support her wrists during L shaped handstand. The prop made the pose accessible for her. Another route to overcoming physical barriers might be to alter the pose, fitting it to the body and the body’s needs. This requires us to consider what it is we are trying to accomplish with the pose (physically and energetically) and altering it such that it reaches those goals but without creating bodily problems. In the same class, during the inversion, some students took the option of Viparita Karani (legs up the wall), which is a wonderful inversion and, if done with arms overhead, can also open the shoulders in a similar way to L shaped handstand.
Emotional/mental barriers can be harder to identify, but can be even more powerful than the physical. I’ve posted before about fear and its impact on the practice of yoga. Fear can certainly be a major obstacle. Fear during inversions is very common. The reasons for the fear sometimes have to be teased out and addressed, perhaps through logic and perhaps through experience by utilizing props or other supports. Other emotional obstacles, such as ego, attachment and aversion, etc. are also a part of the practice, and overcoming them is a part of our growth and self-realization.
For these reasons, the story of Ganesha’s origin appeals to me. After all, if Parvati can go from a childless lonely spouse to a happy mother of a little elephant-headed god then I can surely work through my balance issues and help my students through whatever is standing in the way of their practices. Perhaps this story can help me do that.