Thank you gurus everywhere for your devotion and guidance.

Dissolved.

2012-02-16T07:46:00.000-08:00

If you hear the flutter of wings behind you … it is me.
If you see a bear’s shadow cross your path in the distance … those are my eyes watching you.
When the ground rumbles you into your deepest dreams,
you’ll see
a person smashing through generations … backwards and forwards
in time
just to be with you. It was my greatest act … to simply
not be … to dissolve … so that I could remain
with you
always.

Chanting ...

2012-02-16T07:29:00.000-08:00

1. makes me more conscious of my breathing ... trying to have nice long exhales where I can repeat the mantra many times
2. creates these great vibrations in my teeth, mouth, shoulders ... sometimes down the base of my spine and chest ... and it feels really great
3. makes it feel like stuff is moving up and out of my chest and throat ... which feels great in this winter cold season
4. helps me overcome and pass through phases of cramps in my legs and back while sitting
5. is fun to imagine that I am invoking/evoking various spiritual forces using these ancient Sankrit mantras
6. generally makes me realize the importance of the "oral culture" in yoga ... that you get more out of the practices when you really live them
7. Deva Premal's album of mantras is so awesome ... I can just sit outside with my ipod and chant along anytime
8.
9.

from Wikipedia: Wayne Howard noted in the preface of his book, Veda Recitation in Varanasi, "The four Vedas (Rig, Yajur, Sama and Atharva) are not 'books' in the usual sense, though within the past hundred years each veda has appeared in several printed editions. They are comprised rather of tonally accented verses and hypnotic, abstruse melodies whose proper realizations demand oral instead of visual transmission. They are robbed of their essence when transferred to paper, for without the human element the innumerable nuances and fine intonations – inseparable and necessary components of all four compilations – are lost completely. The ultimate authority in Vedic matters is never the printed page but rather the few members … who are today keeping the centuries-old traditions alive.

Krishnamacharya's asana practices - 1938 - Mysore

2012-02-16T04:42:00.000-08:00

Anatomy pants

2012-02-11T17:26:00.000-08:00

buy them here

Me and my son - downward dogs

2012-02-10T13:06:00.001-08:00

One infinite form

2012-02-09T20:30:00.001-08:00

Be nice to your bones

2012-02-09T20:27:00.001-08:00

Entering your extraordinary world

2012-02-09T20:14:00.000-08:00

Hard Rockin' Babas

2012-02-09T20:11:00.001-08:00

The science of modern asana and pranayama

2012-02-08T01:39:00.000-08:00

Just my 2 rupees after reading William Broad's book. There are many other reviews.

1. Firstly, the book focuses mainly on pranayama and asana ... obviously a narrow slice of "yoga" as practiced everyday by millions of Devotees, Babas, Sannyasis and Yogis who are a vital part of cultural and spiritual life in India. It's a tad Western-centric to use "Yoga" in the title when the focus of the book is a narrow slice of an otherwise rich and multifaceted spiritual practice.

2. Broad describes how the modern form of Western yoga is a "cleaned up" version of a centuries-old Tantric practice. The modern postures were developed in Mysore in the early 1900's as part of India's press for independence from the British. This clean, gymnastic & more regimented form of asana and pranayama practice developed by Krishnamacharya is what eventually caught on in America. In India, yoga remains a source of great National pride in both its modern scientific foundations as well as its relationship to ancient Indian culture and religion.

3. Broad provides a, ahem, broad, overview of the way in which scientists have tried to understand how and why pranayama and asana practice lead to wellness and longevity. He digs up research findings in India from as far back as the late 1800's and follows them up to the present day. This was my favorite part of the book ... his trips to the original schools in India to dig up and introduce us to the earliest research on yogis ... usually on yogis who could stay buried inside of airtight chambers. Back then, yogis were believed to have supernatural powers! Even today however, modern scientists study the physiology of hibernation among mammals and wonder if humans might be able to enter similar dormant states. Who knows how long humans can really extend the natural age limit? Maybe astronauts will practice yogic breathing someday as part of long-range space travel? Broad wonders.

He covers a great range of physiological systems such as oxygen/carbon-dioxide exchange (more oxygen stays in your brain when you breathe slowly), metabolism (yoga slows it), musculo-skeletal therapies (training new muscle groups to compensate for injured ones), symapthetic-parasympathetic nervous system (a good practice is when you cycle through poses that differentially activate these 2 branches of the autonomic nervous system), mood & cognition (yoga makes you feel great but you're kind of a space cadet afterwards), hormonal (poses to stimulate various glands), cellular (longer telomeres and healthier DNA), immunity (the vagus nerve stimulates the immune system) and many more.

As covered in the book, there are MANY ways in which pranayama and asana can be harnessed to heal the body and Broad reviews A LOT of relevant scientific evidence ... which, it turns out, often conflicts with popular hype in yoga media. There is a lot of healing power in these practices, but only if you do them in an informed and intelligent manner ... is a recurring theme throughout the book ... which is full of pointers to his favorite teachers (while reading this book, I bought, like, 4 new books on Amazon). Throughout the book, Broad seems to revere Iyengar teachers the most (Iyengar was a student of Krishnamacharya).

4. There is, a now (in)famous, chapter on injuries ... which he concedes are rare in yoga ... perhaps even less common than participation in other physical activities? ... especially among office-bound weekend warriors who push themselves too hard, too fast. He interviews several teachers who share first hand experience with injuries, and who feel that many yoga practitioners have a false sense of security when it comes to poses like, for example, shoulder stand ... where they should take more care to protect their neck and the delicate arteries that pass though the bones in the spinal column there. This being the case, Broad suggests that American yoga teachers need more rigorous training in protecting students against possible harm.

5. All of this medico-scientific study of yoga forms a very strong foundation for what Broad sees is a modern American medical system that is increasingly embracing asana & pranayama therapies. According to Kaitlin Quistgaard, editor in chief of Yoga Journal, “Yoga as medicine represents the next great yoga wave. In the next few years, we will be seeing a lot more yoga in health care settings and more yoga recommended by the medical community as new research shows that yoga is a valuable therapeutic tool for many health conditions.”

So, I guess, someday, we'll pay for our yoga classes using health insurance? That would be nice. Broad suggests that the forms and certifications for such "medical" uses will need to be standardized and that yoga therapists will require far more training. OK ... it seems that the driver here will be the public/private insurance companies. Perhaps they might someday pay M.D.'s with yoga certifications? or for specific forms of yoga and breathing? I dunno ... it's their $$ and they will embrace yoga in ways they see fit. (from "The New Medicine" - Deborah Schwab, RN, NP, MSN of Blue Shield of California noted how a study of guided imagery was associated with shorter hospital stays, and lower medication costs to the tune of $2,000 per patient.)

6. There are final chapters on better sex and creativity through yoga. Skip them. Reading the physiology, brain and hormonal science - or worse - doing the specific poses, will NOT help you get laid or be a better lover. And as far as creativity and left/right brain activation goes, it's kind of a myth. "Evidence provides little support for correlating the structural differences between the sides with functional differences."

7. Which kind of brings me to the way the book really made me feel at the very end ... like I just emerged from a window-less, sterile doctor's examination room ... healthier, I suppose, but feeling sort of uninspired. I mean, is this what I'm really looking for ... to feel more relaxed and limber?

READ THIS BOOK if you want to be a yoga therapist in the United States! READ THIS BOOK if you work for a health insurance company and set up reimbursements for members to begin asana and pranayama classes ... the book is invaluable in separating the hype from the real data. READ THIS BOOK and be a more educated yoga consumer ... there is so much bewildering kooky hype out there in the U.S. yoga "free marketplace". I will definitely use a supporting blanket in shoulder stand!

----

But, on a purely personal, non-judgemental, for me only, personal level ... I'm practicing and studying yoga so that I can have a truly transformative, emotional, spiritual experience ... where I feel more connected to nature ... more connected to the people around me ... where my ego can be lost in a sea of love that wells up inside of me.

Yes, of course, I'll practice pranayama and asana ... to help strengthen my body. The strength and breathing will help me with meditation ... so that I can sit quietly for hours ... and still my mind. The stillness will help me listen and feel ... the earth and other people around me. The physical and breathing practices form a foundation for meditation ... which helps me become more empathetic, attentive, attuned, aware and open-minded. I care more about others ... and THAT is what feels so transformative.

I guess "Yoga" for me ... is when I seek to experience my "true self" as simply being dissolved and inter-woven in everything and everyone around me. An ego-less union with everything ... that's sort of where the magic happens for me.

I dunno if Broad would agree that THIS type of social-emotional experience is where a somewhat deeper joy and fulfillment of Yoga can be found ... not in pranayama and asana per se, as ends in themselves, but in all the wonderful things that can happen after you've been practicing ... like when you go out into the world and LISTEN and CONNECT? I dunno.

Perhaps though, he would agree that there is a ton of social, evolutionary and cognitive science to this experience too. The science of Yoga (part II) ... perhaps?

Why did the earliest human civilizations practice yoga?

2012-01-27T10:51:00.000-08:00

Some suggest it’s because we are, at our cores, social creatures … we have a deep-rooted biological need to understand our connections and relationships … our place in the living world around us … perhaps even to the earth and to the stars.

So, perhaps this 5,000 year old carving of a yogi depicts someone who was just trying to understand how he/she fit into the world around him/herself? Why not? … seems like we’re all trying to do this on some level … just trying to “fit in” somewhere?

I mean, doesn’t it feel great to be among loved family and/or friends? … like, in those moments when you find yourself truly at ease among a social group of people that you care about … isn’t that one of life’s most safe and peaceful feelings? Seriously … if you are looking to see your “ego”, “self” or “I” dissolve away … just think of how you feel when you are surrounded by, and emotionally connecting to, those that you love … it’s a time when “you” are no longer as a single isolated person … but as dissolved in all your relationships … it’s a time of deep peace.

So, does yoga … which promises to settle the mind and dissolve away the “self”, “I”, “ego” etc. etc. … have anything to do with making us feel more connected? I mean, it's usually a rather solitary practice right? And it doesn't really say anywhere in the yoga sutras, “go forth and be a really trustworthy, compassionate and reliable person - make lots of friends - and you will feel deep peace” ? Um, no.

Richard Freeman, however, says yoga is all about “listening”. Listening to our bodies, mental chatter, feelings, etc. ? Yes, but why stop there? We can listen to the words, feelings and signals of our friends, family and strangers around us … and the animals, the wind and the the vibrations of the earth. When we listen, we might just discover that we are truly dissolved in an infinite web of relationships.

You have relationships … to your parents, siblings, children, friends, relatives, ancestors, co-workers … to like-minded yogis, to strangers … to the earth, the animals … the stars and the universe itself. You are not really a “you” but part of all of this. Your “I”, “self”, “ego” will dissolve away in an instant when you realize all of this — without ever having done a single yoga asana.

Like the ancient and present-day sannyasis who gather by the millions in the Kumbh Mela … and ardently lose “themselves” by dancing, chanting and melding themselves together in the massive fires and churning seas of ash … you can similarly experience the deep peace and joy of being connected.

At the very end of his book, “Autobiography of a Sadhu”, Ram Puri describes one of his ultimate realizations after decades of devoted prayer and austerities … an insight gained high in the Himalayas, at the mouth of the sacred Ganges river:

Searching the wide world,
I have come to the core of my own being;
All alone, I am with everyone.

Who taught you to ride the bike inside yourself?

2012-01-20T13:07:00.000-08:00

Who taught you to ride a bike? Did they run along beside you … steady you … wrap their hands around yours as you gripped the handlebars for the first time? Slowly you learned to balance and pedal … and gradually, you propelled yourself upward and forward … feeling the breeze in your smiling face … finding your freedom.

Who taught you to ride your emotions? Who helped you feel them as they rose and fell … to endure the jagged spikes, the crashes … to fill up again with joy and to pass long hours in tranquility? Did someone ride along beside you … steady you … wrap their heart around yours as you grappled with them for the first time? Was anyone there to notice … to assist? Or were you simply given a time out … sent to sit in isolation when you crashed upon the cruel pavement of frustration and anger? Did you ever learn to ride your emotions? Do you feel the breeze in your face … have you found the same freedom?

Laura Dern and the 2 feet of the guru

2012-01-20T12:43:00.001-08:00

Laura Dern is an amazing actress. I can’t get enough of watching her flip back and forth between her two disparate life perspectives on ENLIGHTENED. She really captures the tension that we’re all torn by … on one hand, wanting to be “successful” with a nice “life” (dignity, respectability, status etc.) while on the other hand, realizing that these things provide only transient joy (not to mention a lot of stress) and that only by connecting to broader and more spiritual themes, can we truly feel at peace.

In his book, The Mirror of Yoga, Richard Freeman talks about the “2 feet” of the guru … where one foot represents the truth of everyday life and the need to be alert and clear-headed when it comes to day-to-day practical matters … while the other foot represents the idealized and cosmic world where we often drift away to in deep states of relaxation and meditation.

Laura Dern wonderfully captures someone who is just learning to stand evenly on both feet … flip flopping from her practical “I need a good job” foot to her “spirituality” foot. According to Freeman, yoga helps emphasize the balanced and equal roles of both feet, so that students can attain clear thinking in everyday practical matters, in addition to, a deep feeling of serenity and peace.

At first, I guess we all flop, jerk and sway back and forth between one foot and the other … but eventually learn to stand evenly on both feet.

God talk

2012-01-08T16:37:00.001-08:00

12 Sun mantras -pray with your whole body

2012-01-07T16:35:00.000-08:00

Move and Pray - Surya Namaskar mantras:

1. Om Mitraya Namaha (Salutations to the friend of all) - prayer
2. Om Ravaye Namaha (Salutations to the shining one) - hands up and back
3. Om Suryqya Namaha (Salutations to he who induces activity) - forward bend
4. Om Bhanave Namaha (Salutations to he who illumines) - left foot back warrior 1
5. Om Khagaya Namaha (Salutations to the one who moves through the sky) - down dog
6. Om Pushne Namaha (Salutations to the giver of strength and nourishment) - knees chest chin
7. Om Hiranya Garbhaya Namaha (Salutations to the golden cosmic self) - low cobra
8. Om Marichaye Namaha (Salutations to the rays of the sun) - down dog
9. Om Adityaya Namaha (Salutations to the son of Aditi) - left foot forward warrior 1
10. Om Savitre Namaha (Salutations to the stimulating power of the sun) - forward bend
11. Om Arkaya Namaha (Salutations to he who is fit to be praised) - hands up and back
12. Om Bhaskaraya Namaha (Salutations to the one who leads to enlightenment) - prayer

Pentagon turns to yoga to alleviate health crisis

2011-12-29T17:13:00.000-08:00

"The Pentagon is turning to alternative medicine to help alleviate the devastating symptoms of Post-traumatic stress disorder that afflict more than 250,000 military personnel; soothe the brain trauma that’s left thousands more with tremors, speech impediments and memory lapses; and assuage the chronic pain that lingers after grueling, repeat deployments. [Read more here]"

"For CJ Keller, a former Marine who spent eight months deployed to Iraq, yoga became “the perfect medicine” to alleviate pain and quell insomnia and anxiety. “A lot of us [in the military] might think yoga’s too flaky,” he tells me. “But you need a lot of discipline, focus and concentration. There are parallels.” Keller’s so convinced that yoga can help military personnel and veterans, he this summer completed teacher training and now offers a free class for veterans at Baltimore’s Charm City Yoga. [See: Downward Dogs of War]"

Yoga, thanks largely to the Institute, is today widespread in military hospitals. Fritts is now working on a new yoga-meditation hybrid, called “iRest,” that’s showing promising results in alleviating PTSD symptoms.

Your mind ... the self-deceiving story teller

2011-12-22T04:37:00.000-08:00

Your brain is a filter ... here's why ... and so we create a lot of over-simplified stories (a way of filtering and ordering life's experience). We end up telling ourselves the same narratives over and over again. This natural tendency, along with other cognitive biases, can lead to all manner of self-deception and deny us the wonderful detail, complexity and clarity that comes with clear perception. Our bodies, our relationships and the environment can be messy ... and so why not embrace it? There is so much more that we can be aware of when we practice living in the moment.

Why is the world we perceive an illusion?

2011-11-22T10:30:00.001-08:00

Well ... just consider how much information is transmitted through one of your eyeballs. It takes in about 100 kilobytes of data each second. That's about as much information as found on 1 page of an encyclopedia ... each second. OK, and you have 2 eyeballs ... 2 ears ... 1 nose ... 1 tongue ... all your skin and hair ... sooooo ... your brain takes in a shitload of unbiased, unprocessed perceptual information. And what does it do with all this information? It creates all kinds of models, illusory stories, expectations etc. etc. which are its own way of handling all of this massive amount of information. Why does it have to filter and distort all this unbiased, "real" information ... because we just can't possibly comprehend it all? Perhaps we can ... at least moreso ... with practice. Perhaps we can learn to pay attention to all this wonderful perceptual "awareness" (colors, shapes, feelings, smells, sounds etc.) ... and thus, begin to slip out of the world of illusions ... and into the clear, beautiful reality around us.

Yogic insights from Albert Einstein

2011-11-17T18:21:00.001-08:00

"The intuitive mind is a sacred gift ... the rational mind a faithful servant"

(Re) learning to eat

2011-11-14T13:13:00.001-08:00

David Garrigues: Ashtanga and Diet (pt 2) from David Garrigues on Vimeo.

Practicing Ashtanga on your own turtle shell

2011-10-11T10:43:00.000-07:00

Richard Freeman chants and then unpacks the historical context and meanings of the Astanga invocation. Here, just a collection of related media to help illustrate his teaching.

Kurma is the turtle who supports the elephants who support the world and keep it from sinking in the churning sea.

If you stand by the churning sea, you can see that the arches in your feet create the shape of a turtle shell to support your own personal world.

Your turtle shell supports your elephants, often symbolized as such in the root chakra

In the same way that practicing yoga stirs up an awareness of the good and bad in us, the good and bad demi-gods used Vasuki, the serpent, as a rope, to stir and churn the sea in order to produce a nectar of immortality. You can watch a cartoon version of this story here or see more pictures of this sculpture here.

Instead of an immortal nectar, however, a vile sludge containing hala hala poison was stirred up by the churning. To save the demi-gods, Shiva came to the rescue to drink the poison. However, she did not swallow it, nor did she spit it out. Richard Freeman suggests the lesson here is that yoga is a grand churning process, wherein a lot of bad stuff is often churned to the surface. This stuff should not be dismissed, nor reduced ... but simply made aware of ... in the same way that Shiva held the poison in her throat.

Lastly, Freeman suggests that we learn to stand evenly on our turtle shell by using 2 feet (an awareness of the "2 Truths" in life). One foot represents the truth of everyday life and the need to be alert and clear-headed when it comes to day-to-day practical matters. The other foot represents the idealized and cosmic world where we often drift away to in deep states of relaxation and meditation. A guru emphasizes the balanced and equal roles of the 2 feet so that students can attain clear thinking processes in addition to serenity. More Richard Freeman videos here, here and here.

Up tight yogis ... yep

2011-09-07T11:21:00.001-07:00

Eric Schaeffer as a yoga policeman!

Stress and your damaged, cancer-prone genome.

2011-08-27T04:05:00.000-07:00

Why do we get cancer?

From the National Cancer Institute:

The genetic material (DNA) of a cell can become damaged or changed, producing mutations that affect normal cell growth and division. When this happens, cells do not die when they should and new cells form when the body does not need them. The extra cells may form a mass of tissue called a tumor.

DNA damage. Sometimes toxic chemicals in the environment can seep into our bodies and cells and bind to, oxidize and/or otherwise damage our DNA. And so we care about the air we breathe, the water we drink and the food we eat – because we don’t want these toxic chemicals to damage our DNA.

But stress? I mean the feeling of stress … that I feel when I’m overwhelmed, threatened or lonely? I mean … it’s just a feeling … not a toxic chemical that can seep into my DNA. So what’s the connection to cancer?

Well, we do know that stress hormones, such as adrenaline and glucocorticoids, can modulate our immune, metabolic and cardiovascular systems (reviewed here). Earlier this week, a new research study by a team at Duke University Medical Center discovered a new molecular link to help explain how the experience of stress is directly related to DNA damage and the risk of cancer.
In summary, the research team discovered that stress can diminish a set of processes known as

DNA repair. We rely on these repair processes – a lot. Have you ever wondered why some old folks are still smoking a pack a day … only to grow older and cancer free? They are blessed with very good DNA repair systems that constantly scavenge their genomes and repair the DNA damage inflicted by the carcinogens in cigarette smoke. Even for the health conscious person, just being outside each day leads to millions of DNA mutations … rendered moot by our trusty DNA repair enzymes.

The team at Duke discovered that the stress hormone adrenaline, while not damaging your genome, can reduce levels of protein complexes containing a tumor-supressing, DNA-repair activating protein known as p53. Thus, stress reduces DNA repair, which, in turn, leads to the accumulation of damaged DNA.

Hmm, so I will try and lead a clean healthy life (here in, ahem, New Jersey … sigh). However, I will not stress out about it. Thanks yoga for giving me a way to cope with stress and keep my genome under constant repair!

Sutra 4:12 and neural traces that predict your future.

2011-08-27T04:02:00.000-07:00

Some of the most epic and beautiful of the yoga sutras are found in the final book IV. For example:

IV.12 atita anagatam svarupatah asti adhvabhedat dharmanam. “The existence of the past and future is as real as that of the present. As moments roll into movements which have yet to appear as the future, the quality of knowledge in one’s intellect and consciousness is affected.”

This sutra popped into mind when I came across a recent neuroscience report entitled, “Predicting Persuasion-Induced Behavior Change from the Brain” by Emily Falk and colleagues at the Department of Psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles; who asked if there are places in the brain that encode future–yes, future–actions.

Specifically, they asked 20 volunteers to lay in an MRI scanner and listen/view a series of messages on the benefits and importance of sunscreen. Then, 1-week later, they measured sunscreen usage. It turns out that sunscreen use did increase for some people, and that, more interestingly, there were correlations in brain activity and increased sunscreen use. That is, some individuals recorded a bit of brain activity that predicted their future use of sunscreen.

In the design and analysis, the authors preselected their brain regions of interest – the medial frontal cortex and the precuneus because previous findings had shown, that activity in these regions, was able to predict future actions (on the order of a few seconds) and because these brain regions:

“are reliably co-activated across a host of “self” processes and the extent to which people perceive persuasive messages to be self-relevant has long been thought to play a part in attitude and behavioral change”.

So, in this case, the research team was not looking for just any correlation, but for a specific type of relation between future action and activity in specific brain regions known to be involved in self-reflection and consciousness.

Might there be neural traces floating around in our minds that predict our future actions? The authors suggest that memory traces that reinforce one’s self-image may linger relatively longer and influence subsequent future actions. Are these traces accessible to ordinary folks or advanced meditators?

Who knows. But, somehow, even for myself, a mere rookie in the ways of yoga and meditation, I’ve become more aware of how my illusory sense of self and time seem to interact … slowly, gradually ebbing away and becoming more irrelevant. Perhaps brain research will explain the neural dynamics behind this ancient yogic insight? Time may tell.

Yoga Sutra word trees, word clouds and phrase nets

2011-08-16T18:41:00.000-07:00

Have you read the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali? No doubt there is much to contemplate. I mean, even just a single, random sutra can ignite boundless explorations of one's perceptions, mental processes and spiritual awareness. If you enjoy exploring (an, ahem, English translation of) these ancient words, then you might enjoy some of the free exploration tools offered by the "Many Eyes" project, "An experiment brought to you by IBM Research and the IBM Cognos software group". Here are links to your own handy-dandy Yoga Sutra word cloud maker, word tree maker and phrase net. Enter your own favorite inspirational words and explore their relationships to other ideas and phrases.

Beware of "body oneness"

2011-07-25T16:34:00.000-07:00

Spoofing the kookiness ... makes me glad I stick with Ashtanga.

Yoga Sutra word clouds

2011-07-21T04:35:00.000-07:00

"Mind" is one of the most prominent words within original yogic teachings ... as viewed via Wordle clouds for an English translation of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras and The Hatha Yoga Pradipika.

Move, breathe deeply and consume LESS oxygen

2011-06-19T18:10:00.000-07:00

Have you ever noticed how everything healthy these days is “anti-oxidant” this and “anti-oxidant” that? Green tea, dark chocolate, vitamin E and vitamin C – just to name a few. Surely, its all the rage to be “anti” oxygen these days (indeed, there are currently 458 clinical trials open now for the study of anti-oxidants!).

But wait. Isn’t oxygen the stuff we BREATHE? Don’t we need it to live? How can we be so “anti” oxidant?

Herein lies a very sobering chemical fact of life. We need oxygen to breathe – while at the same time – the very same oxygen produces so-called reactive oxygen species (hydrogen peroxide, hypochlorous acid, and free radicals such as the hydroxyl radical and the superoxide anion) which cause damage to our lipids, proteins and even our genome. What gives us life – also takes away life – a little bit each time we breathe.

Such is the basis for the healthy foods and myriad dietary supplements that (promise to) counteract and biochemically scavenge the toxic reactive oxygen molecules in our bodies. But for the fact it would make me even fatter, I’d promptly say, “Bring on more dark chocolate!“.

But what if we could just forgo all those dietary supplements, and just USE LESS oxygen? Might that be another way to enhance longevity and health?

With this thought in mind, I enjoyed a research article entitled, “Oxygen Consumption and Respiration Following Two Yoga Relaxation Techniques” by Drs. Shirley Telles, Satish Kumar Reddy and H. R. Nagendra from the Vivekananda Kendra Yoga Research Foundation in Bangalore, India. The article was published in Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback, Vol. 25, No. 4, 2000.

In their research article, the authors noted that – with practice – yoga can help an individual voluntarily lower their cardiac and metabolic levels. A number of previous studies show that advanced meditators and yoga practitioners can lower their heart rate and respirations to astonishingly low levels (more posts on this to come). The scientists in this study asked simply whether a relatively brief 22min routine of “cyclic meditation” (CM) consisting of yoga postures interspersed with periods of supine rest led to a greater reduction in oxygen consumption when compared to 22mins of supine rest (shavasana or SH). Their question is relevant to the life-giving/damaging effects of oxygen, because a lower metabolic rate means one is using less oxygen. According to the authors:

“We hypothesized that because cyclic meditation (CM) has repetitive cycles of ‘activating’ and ‘calming’ practices, based on the idea from the ancient texts, as discussed earlier, practicing CM would cause greater relaxation compared with supine rest in shavasan (SH).”

In the results and discussion of the data, they found (using a sample of 40 male adults) that the when they measured oxygen consumption at the beginning and at the end of the session, that the yoga postures/rest routine (CM) resulted in a 32% reduction in oxygen consumption (this is the amount of oxygen used when sitting still at the end of the session) while just laying in shavasana led to only a 10% reduction in the amount of oxygen used at the end of the session.

Wow! So even after moving through postures – which admittedly gets one’s heart pumping and elevates one’s breathing – I would be using less oxygen (when sitting at the end of the session), than if I had just decided to lay in a supine position. In this instance, I guess I may be using more oxygen overall during the session, but perhaps would be glad to improve the efficiency of my breathing – and intake of oxygen – in the long run (after many years of practice I’m sure). Maybe this is a physiological/biochemical basis for the longevity-promoting benefits of yoga?

How does the effect work? Does the act of moving in and out of postures engage the sympathetic nervous system (something not observed for shavasana)? Much to explore here. The authors point out that these effects on improving the efficiency of breathing and oxygen consumption may not be specific to yoga, but to any MODERATE exercise regimen, where exercise and some sort of mental focus is practiced (Tai Chi for example).

Move and pay attention to your breath. I will keep this in mind tonight in my beginners class. By the way, there are currently 93 clinical trials involving yoga!

Zen gene teaches us the art of letting go of pain

2011-06-19T06:13:00.001-07:00

Zen meditators are famous for their equanimity in the face of physical discomfort. How do they do it? Well, according to a recent neuroimaging investigation, its because they do not "think" about pain. Rather, they just "experience" pain:

An ancient Eastern text describes two temporally distinct aspects of pain perception; the direct experience of the sensation and habitual, negative, mentation which follows. It was suggested that the so-called 'second dart' of pain could be removed via meditative training, obliterating the suffering associated with noxious stimulation.

It's a subtle distinction ... to just experience something in the moment vs. to ruminate on it and its causes, consequences, duration, etc. How many times have you heard the sage advice, just let it go? This is what the brain imaging shows ... that the meditators are not ruminating (they have decreased activity in parts of the brain involved in ruminating) ... they have experienced the pain and then let it go.

Experience and forget.

Much like an interesting little protein named DREAM. Interesting because it modulates pain ... specifically, when DREAM is inactive (when the gene is inactivated in experimental mice) the animals feel no pain. Interesting also because the gene plays a role in the formation of memories ... specifically, mice show poor contextual fear memory when the gene is inactivated.

Experience and forget. A Zen teaching encoded in our DNA.

Deepak and the human genome

2011-06-07T05:54:00.000-07:00

Two opposing strands and 3 billion points of divine light within you.
Within every cell in your body is a tiny strand of light … of energy … of perfectly balanced and complementary opposites pulling and twisting against each other. Very yogic!
Strands of DNA contain the story of life on our planet. They reveal how we are related – a part of the vast flow of energy here on Earth. And yet, in YOUR genome (which you will be able to read in the very near future) lies a unique story about you.
In the video below, Deepak Chopra explores these issues with eminent geneticist Rudolf Tanzi.

2011-06-07T05:50:00.000-07:00

When the road is the destination, you feel full when fasting.
Yogi J: How’s your fasting going?
Yogi K: Great. How about you? What’s your trick when the cravings kick in?
Yogi J: Well, I sort of just tough it out. I ignore my feelings and force my way through the craving. What about you?
Yogi K: I kind of try and stay inspired. I work on my photography, my creative writing and have been doing some painting. Its weird, but when I’m in this inspired state, I don’t really feel the cravings.
Yogi J: That sounds cool. As long as we’re both getting healthier, I guess it doesn’t matter how we get there.
Yogi K: I guess so. I’m glad you’re feeling healthier too. Say, did you happen to notice the way the setting sun reflected off that flock of seagulls that floated by before? They looked like they were painted in gold … almost like divine messengers or something … come to shower us with grace!
Yogi J: No, I didn’t. I was forcing myself through a hunger pang.
thanks fyy for the pic!

Our modern toxic consumerist "self" ... desperately in need of more yoga!

2011-06-07T05:45:00.001-07:00

Yoga Bros Talk About Their Feelings

2011-03-26T06:20:00.000-07:00

Yoga men trying and trying not to be aware of their feelings.

Yogi 1: Hey, dude, nice handstand. I was wondering, why do you practice yoga?

Yogi 2: Thanks bro. I'm finding inner calm and mental clarity. What about you? Why do you practice? ...Nice bind, by the way.

----

Yogi 1: Thanks. I practice 'cause the movement and breathing make me feel really good and give me a break from my outside world routine. My job stresses me out and I need this practice to feel relaxed again.

Yogi 2: Very cool. My job can get pretty hectic too. Sometimes, I find that I'm able to see things more clearly during yoga ... from a more detached perspective. Its like I can see all the problems I have to deal with at work, but then am able to mentally separate the problems themselves, from the stressful feelings they evoke in me. Sometimes I even come up with solutions to problems when my emotions aren't clouding my mind.

----

Yogi 1: That's really funny. I have also realized solutions to problems during practice ... but mine have sprung from a totally different place. Sometimes when I'm in a deep emotional bliss ... sort of just not thinking about the world ... just focused on feeling good...really creative solutions just pop into my head. It's like by not thinking about problems and, rather, focusing on feeling good, the problems have a way of solving themselves. I dunno, but it's been working for me.

Yogi 2: That's awesome dude. I solve problems when I detach them from my negative feelings. You focus on your positive feelings and the answers come from an intuitive source within you.

----

Yogi 1: Yoga rocks.

Yogi 2: Fuck yeah!

----

photoart via g2b2m2m

A Biological Adaptation for Stillness Without Fear

2011-03-26T06:16:00.000-07:00

Last fall, I was jogging and a garter snake slithered across the path. In mid-stride, my feet suddenly locked up and froze ( I also shrieked like a ten year old girl).

This is normal (OK, maybe not the shrieking part).

All animals are hard-wired to freeze - remain perfectly still - when under threat. It keeps us safe from predators, who rely on motion detection to hunt. Its a very, very old (think hundreds of millions of years) life-saving adaptation for when we are in acute danger. It can be life-destroying, however, when we live in fear, loneliness or hopelessness for extended periods of time, and would rather withdraw from society and lay in bed all day.

Stillness is not all its cracked up to be.

But I crave stillness ... the good stillness ... the stillness that is infused with peace, equanimity, harmony, love and compassion. How does this work?

Mammals have a recently evolved adaptation (think a few dozen million years). We carry an extra branch of the vagus nerve that other animals do not have. This new vagal nerve branch splits, or decouples, the feelings of fear from musculo-skeletal stillness function. From Dr. Patricia Churchland's new book, Braintrust (p. 42):

Neuroscientist Stephen Porges suggests that the mammalian modification of the freezing circuitry permits a new behavior that keeps the stillness but drops the fear, thus allowing for immobility without fear. Why is this important? because mother mammals need to be immobile without fear, while remaining vigilant. ... the lactating mother must be still, while calm and relaxed, and ready if danger arises.

The vagus nerve - in yogi-speak - is better known as a kind of Kundalini serpent that winds its way from the root of the colon all through the body and up into the brain. FDA-approved devices that stimulate this nerve are used to relive mental suffering in patients experiencing depressive illness. Lengthy exhalation also stimulates the vagus nerve - which, in turn - helps to slow the beating heart and promote relaxation.

In the video lecture below, Dr. Porges elaborates on this new vagal pathway, and its development in the context of mother-infant interactions. I'm untrained in Kundalini Yoga, but this seems like a fertile area for rediscovering ancient yogic philosophy in modern science research. As Porges describes, the circuitry not only evolved to facilitate an "immobile, relaxed, vigilant" state in mothers, but that the development of the circuitry itself, is dependent on mother-child interactions.

I will practice with gratitude for my mother and for mothers everywhere ... for without them, I would not have this biological potential ... stillness without fear.

picture cred to i munna

How My Friend Sara Escaped Into Clarity

2011-03-10T13:58:00.000-08:00

My friend Sara lost her job.

For months after that, I saw her everyday in yoga class. I waved to say hello and always tried to say something cheerful. Her life became very difficult and I could see her arms slowly wilting and her upper back slumping ... as if the collection agencies, late fees and overdue penalties were pressing and pulling on her very bones. Her face became wrought with grief, and her dark, sullen eyes gave away her sleepless existence.

She never missed a yoga class.

Lying curled up on her side before class - as if the studio was the only place she could find peace of mind - enough to sleep - she would sedately unfold and plod through her asanas. One day after class, I asked if I might be able to help, but she said "No thanks", and that, "The universe will take care of me." I offered to search job listings for her, and she looked away and started mumbling passages from the Yoga Sutras. "Oh boy," I thought, "This is not going well. All the self-affirmational escapist crap in yoga has brainwashed her into a state of denial."

As the weeks dragged on, her once strong, flowing body became hesitant and weak. But this did not seem to deter her. She sat through meditations - tears streaming down her cheeks - often sitting with eyes closed as the rest of the class rolled up their mats and went home. On and on, day after day - she seemed to slip further into a strange zone of detachment, self-absorption, fantasy and sadness. Until one day, it didn't.

Sara stopped coming to class. We ALL noticed. We all wondered. We all worried about her.

-----

I saw Sara last week. She wore a bright smile, a blue business suit and was heading to catch the train to New York. She looked fresh and alive and was standing tall and straight. "What happened?" I said. "We were all so worried about you. You looked like you were really NOT dealing with your situation."

"I was and I wasn't" she said. "I had to let go of everything. I had to escape. I needed to start from scratch and yoga allowed me to let go of everything. If I had dealt with my situation in the usual - logical, analytical, practical - crisis management way, I wouldn't have been able to let go of the past and clear my internal slate. I feel brand new inside now, and my thinking and perception feels clearer ... just like the Yoga Sutras say. I am interviewing today and have moved into a smaller apartment."

"Wow!" I said, "So all the muttering and Sutra non-sequiturs ... all the escapist, self-affirmational crap ... really helped you?" "Yes," she said, "I needed the escape. I needed the emotional support. I needed to live inside that fantastical world for a while - so that I could let go of the "real" world that fell apart when I lost my job."

Sara, you are an amazing person. You taught me more about yoga than any famous guru. I love you.

Know Your Cognitive Distortions.

2011-02-26T14:09:00.000-08:00

The ancient yogis were well aware that our everyday mental state is highly biased, distorted, skewed, turbid, etc. ... and that this can lead to conflict and emotional anguish. Current psychological scientists suggest [here] that there are some 19 social cognition biases, 8 memory biases, 42 decision-making biases, 35 probability-belief biases. Wow! That's a lot of mental murkiness, not to mention the concomitant stress it can generate. As a starting point to probing your own "muddy mind", John Grohol, PsyD. of Pysch Central has a nice article on the 15 most Common Cognitive Distortions:

1. Filtering.
Taking negative details and magnifying them ...
2. Polarized Thinking.
Things are either “black-or-white" ...
3. Overgeneralization.
Coming to a general conclusion based on a single incident ...
4. Jumping to Conclusions.
Anticipate that things will turn out badly ...
5. Catastrophizing.
We expect disaster to strike ...
6. Personalization.
Thinking that everything is some kind of reaction to us ...
7. Control Fallacies.
We see ourselves as helpless victims of fate ...
8. Fallacy of Fairness.
We feel resentful because life is not fair ...
9. Blaming.
We hold other people responsible for our pain ...
10. Shoulds.
Rules about how others and we should behave ...
11. Emotional Reasoning.
We believe that what we feel must be true automatically ...
12. Fallacy of Change.
Needing to change people because our hopes depend on them ...
13. Global Labeling.
Generalizing one or two qualities into a negative global judgment ...
14. Always Being Right.
Having to prove that our opinions and actions are correct ...
15. Heaven’s Reward Fallacy.
Expect our sacrifice and self-denial to pay off ...

Thank goodness for yoga and the Yoga Sutras - replete with guidance on finding mental stillness and clarity in one's perceptions and thinking. In my future practice ... as my mind is more able to settle ... I will "think about my thinking" ... in at least 104 different ways.

My son the yogi

2011-02-22T13:12:00.000-08:00

The yogic wisdom of Woody Allen

2011-02-22T04:51:00.000-08:00

"Oneness with the universe", "the divine", "immortality" and "inner peace" are just a few popular themes of yoga. Practitioners delight in pondering these themes whilst in their deep meditative states. It's bliss - it really is.

Here are a few quotes by Woody Allen on the very same themes:

I'm astounded by people who want to 'know' the universe when it's hard enough to find your way around Chinatown.

Not only is there no God, but try finding a plumber on Sunday.

Students achieving Oneness will move on to Twoness.

What if everything is an illusion and nothing exists? In that case, I definitely overpaid for my carpet.

You can live to be a hundred if you give up all the things that make you want to live to be a hundred.

There's certainly a gap between the perfect world of the ancient yogis and our modern lives - and Woody Allen, with his famous neurotic streak and wit - makes great light of it.

Speaking of neurotic streaks, I recently, I took an online assessment for the so-called Big Five personality dimensions and found that (like 30% of the population) I also have a neurotic streak. The assessment declared "you tend to be nervous, high-strung, insecure, worrying". True enough (I even carry a few genetic risk factors), and may be a biological reason for why sometimes I can be tormented by a skeptical inner-voice that bursts my bliss as I dwell in meditation. Ugh! this is sooo annoying ... damn neurotic streak!

What's a yogi to do?

We all love Woody Allen's movies and quips. Perhaps we even see ourselves in his endearing neurotic characters? and can collectively laugh at the movie screen (even if we are wracked with neurotic grief on the inside)? I don't know. In any case, its not actually fun to be, or funny to be with a really neurotic person ... someone who is always ruminating on their insecurities and fears. They can drive themselves, and you, nuts!

Can yoga and meditation help a neurotic person shift from being a veritable prisoner of their fears and insecurities, wracked with neurotic grief on the inside - to being a more objective observer - more like a detached watcher of their own stream of consciousness - eventually coming to laugh at their inner drama as they might while watching a Woody Allen movie?

Here's a research article that may shed light on the topic. Traits, States, and Encoding Speed: Support for a Top-Down View of Neuroticism/State Relations by Drs. Michael D. Robinson and Gerald L. Clore. You can read the open-access article, so I'll just jump to the part I thought was so interesting.

The authors explored the extent to which people suffer from neurotic tendencies as a function of how well they are able to perceive and encode information as it streams into the brain. Some folks encode neural information more efficiently and, these folks, tend to suffer less from their neurotic tendencies. The exciting aspect of these encoding processes, is that they can be improved with appropriate training and practice.

Common to these theories is the idea that anxious individuals are often trapped by habitual ways of thinking and that a focus on the present, for example, as facilitated by mindfulness training, is successful in breaking such habitual, self-defeating modes of thought linked to high neuroticism.

Therefore, the link between the present data and therapeutic techniques such as mindfulness practice must be somewhat speculative. Nevertheless, it is also worth pointing out that the largest predictor of categorization performance is practice. Furthermore, practice is viewed as the most important contributor to mindfulness-related skills. Therefore, it may be that discrimination skills, even of a reaction-time variety, can be trained that that such training would be useful in alleviating neuroticism-linked distress.

So perhaps the yogic wisdom of Woody Allen rests, not in the jokes themselves, but in a kind of mindfulness that allows him to step back and monitor his own stream-of-consciousness.

Much indeed to make light of. Worth practicing and practicing in 2011 ... to laugh at myself in 2012.

Practicing to accept the fucked-up body that I'm in - not to change it

2011-02-19T06:00:00.000-08:00

I'm nowhere close to that super lithe, supple, limber, graceful, sinewy, powerful, strapping, hunky male yogic body that I see in magazines and my favorite dudes yoga website. Its a loooong way off ... perhaps with practice, practice, practice for another 20 years. It occurred to me however, after watching the lecture below, that I might wish to accept this, let go, and give myself a break. Perhaps I'll go to yoga from now on - not to work towards the super bod - but to learn how to accept and care for the body that I have. Brene Brown knows a lot about how people - in the pursuit of perfection - can go astray and crash under the weight of their feelings of shame and inadequacy.

A loney future with no yoga classes

2011-02-19T05:58:00.001-08:00

How to prepare students for the future ... a future without yoga classes.

These are dangerous times. People are losing their jobs, their homes, their savings and their dignity. Like folks everywhere, we are exposed to unrelenting shock waves of layoffs, cutbacks, debts, defaults, foreclosures - our "great stagnation". These shockwaves assail us - and the resultant feelings of fear, loss, shame and regret - drive us to burrow away and stay out of sight.

These are dangerous times because loneliness is one of life's most dangerous experiences. Admittedly, the danger is not an acute danger as it is in other countries - Egypt or Tunisia, for instance. In the U.S., the danger is experienced in slow motion ... one-by-one, family-by-family, street-by-street. Have you noticed regular students suddenly disappear? Have you overheard folks chatting before class about so-and-so and the difficulties they are facing? Its horribly tragic, but for some reason, we humans tend to withdraw just when we need social support the most.

Let's be clear. When a layoff hits, folks rightly conserve every nickel for the bare necessities. This does NOT include yoga class. After a person is "let go" & forced to endure the tearful slog to the human resources office, they are likely to cut all superfluous spending. They have a way of disappearing - gone from their normal routine, normal diet, normal social groups and sadly, gone from class. Its too late to offer yogic wisdom. This hurts, even just pondering the thought, while writing it down.

What's a yoga teacher to do? How can yoga prepare them for the future ... a future without yoga classes?

Our economic malaise is dangerous because of the feelings it evokes in us. Negative feelings that are like a slippery patch of ice that slopes downhill into a deep pit. Folks get used to walking around the outer edges - used to feeling afraid, risk-averse, alienated, hopeless and lonely for a while - but as they tread too long, they find themselves sliding inexorably into a cold, dark place. John Cacioppo and colleagues at the University of Chicago have dedicated their careers to understanding the dangers of loneliness and how to help people cope. In a recent research article, they compared a variety of coping strategies:

Although the health consequences of persistent loneliness are on par with those of many psychiatric illnesses, our understanding of the origins and treatment of loneliness is still limited.

Moderator analysis demonstrated that, among the randomized studies, interventions that addressed maladaptive social cognition had a larger mean effect size compared to interventions that addressed social support, social skills, and opportunities for social intervention. This result is consistent with our model of loneliness as regulatory loop, in which lonely individuals have increased sensitivity to and surveillance for social threats, preferentially attend to negative social information, remember more of the negative aspects of social events, hold more negative social expectations, and are more likely to behave in ways that confirm their negative expectations.

This loop has short-term self-protective features but over the long term heightens cognitive load, diminishes executive functioning, and adversely influences physical and mental health and well-being. Among the four intervention types, addressing maladaptive social cognition most directly addresses this regulatory loop.

When I read their conclusions, I was startled by how "yogic" they were. Their findings suggest that it's not how many people you know, or make contact with each day. No. What matters most is how able you are to open up and build trusting relationships. Who's less lonely ... the social butterfly or the person with one true friend? Their term "maladaptive social cognition" is techno-speak for the cognitive in-ability to open up and be present and accepting with other people.

Opening up & slowing down - so as to allow a heart-felt connection to grow. Learning to be aware of your feelings and the feelings of others. Learning to accept and forgive yourself and thus, to accept and forgive others. THIS is what John Cacioppo's research suggests needs to be taught. THIS is what I'm learning in yoga class. THIS is what helps me to form new social bonds as my career path and address changes (again and again). THIS is what protects me from the creeping scourge of loneliness and alienation that permeates my own dwindling economic prospects.

Thank you yoga teachers. These core skills can protect us in the troubling economic years to come ... even if we're not able to come to yoga class.

Getting a million clicks a day

2011-02-19T05:56:00.001-08:00

Tear-soaked raptures are hard to write about.

I'm certainly not an expert on the topic, but I think folks would agree that the joy of sex is experienced by (ahem) "doing it". The touching, being touched, rhythmic movements, heavy breathing, surrender, ecstasy, etc. etc. are wonderful to experience. Further, when feelings of trust, compassion and empathy forge a bond between hearts, the physical bliss is even moreso. I'm new to the practice of yoga, but I think much the same can be said about yoga. The joy of connection to oneself - emotional awareness, self-honor and trust in one's strength and balance - enhance the joy that comes from yoga's rhythmic breathing and movements. The common yogic wisdom of "99% practice and 1% theory" is completely obvious to anyone who has practiced yoga (or had sex).

I spend much of my life writing, a little practicing yoga and, um, pathetically less having sex; but as a writer, there seems to be an inherent dilemma when it comes to writing about yoga. I mean, what can one really "say" about Tchaikovsky's farewell Symphony No. 6 "Pathetique"? Erudite music scholars suggest it is the saddest piece of music ever written, but its deep sorrowful funeral dirges and final death gong more typically leave audiences speechless and paralyzed in tear-soaked rapture. Much like great music, great food and great love, it is inherently difficult to "say" anything about yoga that isn't somehow superfluous, redundant or trite - in comparison to - the actual experience.

I read EJ almost everyday. My favorite articles are by its myriad yoga instructors who share tips and first-hand accounts of the (ahem) "ins-and-outs" of the different poses and meditative states ... move this limb here, pull the belly in there, breathe in, breathe out. However, even these first-hand accounts pale in comparison to the pleasure of having an instructor gently guide you through a difficult posture. Last week, while my elbows quivered fatefully in handstand, my instructor came to the rescue and softly whispered in my ear, "John, rotate your upper arms and shoulder blades back". I rotated and, miraculously, up I went, feet away from the wall (for the first time), and for a brief moment, felt as light as a feather! Such a great feeling!

Sure, I've read "how to" and "joy of yoga"-ish guides to handstand and other poses, but nothing beats "doing it" (a fantastic instructor makes it that much better). Thank you to yoga instructors everywhere!

We are emotional creatures. We want to feel, rather than think. This cognitive bias can create a dilemma - specifically - in our media-centric, mobile-device-ridden lives. We confront this dilemma everyday - in mass marketeers and political demagogues who are skilled in the art of using emotional images and narratives to misdirect the audience - even in the face of common sense and sound analytical reason. This is an unfortunate dilemma in the "www.webified" global-political-ecological-economic-social world that we live in. For example, economists suggest that saving money is the soundest sort of economic activity for American families now, but good luck finding a successful politician or advertisement that promotes this dreary point of view. In his book, The Political Mind, George Lakoff points to the tragic consequences of this cognitive bias in mass media. Just as many would concede that sex feels best when there is an emotional connection between partners - we are forced to admit that exploitative pornography sites account for the lion's share of internet activity.

What "feels good" is not always "what is truthful and sound", but, nevertheless, is what often drives media patronage.

Interestingly, this is NOT the case in yoga. What "feels best" IS "truthful and sound". Heck, it should be easy to get a million clicks a day on EJ - right? It's just so darn hard to find words and pictures to convey "the great feeling" of the practice to a large audience of non-practitioners.

Will work through this dilemma ... rotate my shoulder blades back, breathe in and slowly breathe out ... write, write, write ... practice, practice, practice.

The heart sees the loss of that sexy yoga body

2011-02-19T05:55:00.001-08:00

Inner beauty radiates outwardly.

There is a part in the story of The Buddha where,

“Siddhartha saw a man lying on the ground and moaning. Out of compassion, he rushed over to the man. Channa warned him that the man was sick and that everyone, even noble people like Siddhartha or the king could get sick.”

Later,

“Siddhartha lost all interest in watching the dancing girls and other such pleasures. He kept on thinking instead about how to free himself and others from sickness, ageing and death.”

When Siddhartha looked at the beautiful young dancers with their sexy yoga bodies, he saw them as old, dying women and felt empathy for the suffering they would endure in their lives. This part of the story got me thinking about the irony in the way mass marketeers often use sexuality to market yoga, and the backlash it creates.

Siddhartha’s mindset brings us comfort as we contemplate the inexorable loss of health, outer-beauty, memory and breath. My wife and I talk about this topic all the time. Mainly we hope to just be together - alive - indifferent to the appearance of our sagging and wrinkled bodies - we will be grateful for each day.

What would yoga advertisements look like if we saw the world through Siddhartha's eyes?

Diving into the slit

2011-02-19T05:54:00.001-08:00

The physics of being not-free, but happily inter-connected.

A few months ago my guru passed along a video entitled, “What the BLEEP Do We Know” / “Down the Rabbit Hole” which explores the so-called Double-Slit Experiments. In these experiments, it was found that single photons were able to travel through 2 separate slits simultaneously – thus violating all manner of physical laws (how the heck can an object be in two places at the same time?). Furthermore, it was found that whenever the experimenters (reviewed here) were able to observe, detect, or deduce, which slit a photon traveled through, the typical “dual slit” interference pattern instantly disappeared - as if it knew it was being observed!?

Strangely, it seems that dual-slit interference patterns seem to appear only when a photon’s path is unknown. Even weirder is that when 2 photons are sent to separate detectors, they seem to “know” whether one-another will generate a specific interference pattern. This so-called phenomena of “quantum entanglement” and other such examples of spooky action-at-a-distance where 2 separate “widely separated objects share the same existence” have spawned all manner of new-agey and spiritual endeavors to link these quantum-level phenomena with human spirituality. Here’s just one example.

A recently published research article entitled, “How much free will is needed to demonstrate nonlocality?” explores the relationship between quantum entanglement and human thought. According to Technology Review:

“if an experimenter lacks even a single bit of free will then quantum mechanics can be explained in terms of hidden variables. Conversely, if we accept the veracity of quantum mechanics, then we are able to place a bound on the nature of free will.”

Bounds on free will? My thoughts and actions are somehow bounded by the consequences of choices and experiences as well as the choices and experiences of others in the present and past? Karma?

If you follow science, it does not lead to more certainty, it leads you to the edge of the same unfathomable mysterious void and inner mythology shared by spiritual and religious traditions across the globe.

My yoga practice helps me accept all of this - but unlike science - helps me take the next steps into that void - that inter-connected, happily entagled 'one-ness'.

Know yourself vs. be aware of yourself?

2011-02-19T05:53:00.001-08:00

Like a lot of folks, I have a slight a tendency to worry, fret, scrutinize and otherwise live with a small grey cloud of doubt that lingers over my sense of well-being and my relationships with others. If you have a similar psychological quirk, you may have wondered if ...

Is it better to seek self-knowledge - to understand the roots of one's anxious feelings (upbringing in a dysfunctional family, genetic factors, the many legitimate threats and uncertainties to worry about, etc.).

Or, to seek self-awareness - to get more familiar with the way one's anxious feelings come and go during the day and the way they color one's experiences. Which is the more fruitful path?

My yoga shala occupies one half of an old mill while psychology offices occupy the other half. Enter the psychology offices to the left and you will begin a journey toward self-knowledge where your troubled feelings will be rooted out and demystified within the context of your day-to-day life, your family, friends and your biology - attaining a coherent story of yourself, your history and your relationships with the world.

Enter the yoga shala to the right and you will begin a journey toward self-awareness where your troubled feelings will arise upon the crests of your breathing, where personal realizations are acknowledged, perhaps painfully felt, and then let go in a conscious act of self-forgiveness and self-acceptance - eventually settling into a deep, relaxed and sometimes ecstatic state of surrender to something more universal, vast and mysterious.

Is one path more therapeutic than the other?

Admittedly, I may have contrasted these 2 paths unfairly. Admittedly, there is no simple answer. There are benefits to both paths and - depending on just how difficult or unsettled one's inner life has become - can be equally suitable. Both have limitations.

Consider the recent article "When Self-Knowledge Is Only the Beginning" by Dr. Richard A. Friedman, a distinguished professor of psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College in Manhattan (many years ago, my office used to be down the hallway from his).

If you don’t want to be a captive of your psychological conflicts, insight can be a powerful tool to loosen their grip. You’ll probably feel less emotional pain, but that’s different from happiness.

Perhaps happiness is a bit like self-esteem: You have to work for both. So far as I know, you can’t get an infusion of either one from a therapist.

I like his words about "having to work for happiness". Self knowledge is a nice thing to be given, but if you've practiced yoga and meditation, you know the effort it requires ... its not a therapy that is administered to you. You get what you give.

What women want - a yogi's guide

2011-02-19T05:52:00.001-08:00

A beautifully written EJ post entitled "A Yogi’s Guide to Finding the Man or Woman of your Dreams" got me wondering if there is an underlying biology and brain-science to romance.

One clue comes from a recent science lecture entitled, “What Do Women Really Want? Oxytocin” at the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting - suggesting that female satisfaction in life and love has a lot to do with oxytocin.

"Women who release more oxytocin are happier," Dr. Paul Zak told the audience at the neuroscience meeting. "They like being around other people more, they have more sex per month, and they have more resilience to adverse events."

Did he say more sex? Can one short-cut the whole "romance thing" to "mo', mo', more oxytocin" ? How does an amorous yogi or yogini raise the oxytocin levels of their intended main squeeze?

Oxytocin is a small hormone that can modulate brain activity. Many have referred it as the “Love Hormone” because it is released into the female brain during breastfeeding (where moms report feeling inextricably drawn to their infants), orgasm and during trust-building and social bonding experiences.

Trust and bonding keeps the oxytocin flowing. But we know that these don't happen effortlessly. You have to be honest with yourself ... open to new things ... patient ... forgiving with yourself ... willing to work through rough patches ... be able to focus and bring attention and awareness to the shared moment.

To me, this sounds a lot like yoga. We learn these skills - albeit in a solitary fashion - but who says we can't apply them to our interactions with others?

Soooo – if you want the oxytocin to flow – understand that the trust and the bond - and the release of oxytocin - will happen slowly. Look your partner in the eye. Listen to their thoughts. Slow down inside and listen to your own reactions. Listen to - and feel - their breath as it intermingles with your own. Feel their feelings as you've been trained to feel and be aware your own. Enjoy the minutest details of the whole experience and be “right there, right now” with them.

Even if you’ve been with the same person for 18 years (my own situation), each moment will be new and interesting!

You have no idea how you feel

2011-02-19T05:51:00.001-08:00

Quick! Take a moment to utter as many "feeling" words as you can.

"Happy, sad, angry, lonely, etc., etc." How many did you get (10, 20 or more)? Did you know that there are some 3,000 words in English to describe the myriad ways that we may feel?

Wouldn't it be wonderful to experience all 3,000!? I will have truly LIVED if I can draw my awareness to each of these emotional nuances over the course of my life. Even better, to share these emotions with my loved ones - to join our hearts and interweave our awareness together - to each and every subtle feeling. THAT would be a life well lived.

Alas, my vocabulary is limited. Much of the time, in life, and in meditation, my feelings are hard to pin down and recognize ... more vaguely "uneasy" than fearful, frustrated, alarmed or disappointed ... more vaguely "light" than relieved, elated or restful. Methinks my life would be much improved - I'd be more mindful of my inner life - with a broader emotional vocabulary.

Brain researchers have discovered how and why emotional "feeling words" are keys to mindfulness - in helping us to draw attention and awareness to our emotional states. Dr. David Cresswell, remarks:

This is an exciting study because it brings together the Buddha‘s teachings – more than 2,500 years ago, he talked about the benefits of labeling your experience – with modern neuroscience.

Meditation cushion - check. Thesaurus - check. Now, off to the shala.

The 2 luckiest little yogis in the world

2011-02-19T05:50:00.001-08:00

My 2 boys are the luckiest little yogis in the world. They get to spend time with Karen Gilmour, an amazing kids yoga teacher. Just a clip from a few weeks ago ... yoga stories, asanas and meditation. Thanks to Dhamaru for the music!

Scientists listen to the human brain...and hear aum

2011-02-19T05:49:00.000-08:00

What is the proper musical frequency when singing Aum at the beginning of class? Listen to the brain.

A few months ago, I was blessed to chant along with Girish who led a kirtan at my yoga shala. According to him, “AUM” is traditionally played using a low E-chord.

He played his low E chord on his harmonium - and we chanted aaauuuummmum – again and again and again! I wished it could have gone on all night!

He also said (just paraphrasing his informal comments), that this E-chord is not a random choice, but that it's also the sound that comes from within our minds when we meditate. Hmm, I wondered – cool thought indeed – but is he just making this up? I mean, what could he (or ancient yogis for that matter) know about what is really, actually happening in the brain?

It turns out that modern science can actually “listen” to the brain when it is meditating – by placing small electrodes on the scalp and measuring oscillations of neuro-electrical activity (electroencephalography or EEG). When EEG is used to "listen" to the brains of experienced meditators, they show an increase in the strength of a particular “note” or frequency – a so-called gamma wave, or gamma frequency of about 40Hz when they reach deep meditative states. According to wikipedia:

A gamma wave is a pattern of brain waves in humans with a frequency between 25 to 100 Hz, though 40 Hz is prototypical. … Experiments on Tibetan Buddhist monks have shown a correlation between transcendental mental states and gamma waves. A suggested explanation is based on the fact that the gamma is intrinsically localized. Neuroscientist Sean O’Nuallain suggests that this very existence of synchronized gamma indicates that something akin to a singularity – or, to be more prosaic, a conscious experience – is occurring.

OK, so modern science measures brain activity in deep meditators and finds that 40Hz is the vibration associated with deep meditative states. Girish says AUM is also the vibration of deep meditative states and is traditionally a low E-chord. Is he right? What’s the frequency of low E? Is it close to 40Hz?

41.2Hz! Pretty darn amazing!

Confessions of an asshole yogi

2011-02-19T05:47:00.001-08:00

If you're a yogi, you've probably read ancient texts suggesting that the self is but an illusion and that freedom comes from letting go and focusing on the moment. Sometimes these ancient yogic texts can sound strange and hokey, but in plain-speak, if you practice controlled breathing, slow rhythmic movement and awareness of the moment, you'll eventually begin to see yourself more honestly and objectively. The picture in your head of who you "want to be" or are "supposed to be" will, over time, dissolve and you'll come to an awareness of your raw emotions, your connections to others and the larger context in which you exist. In this sense, you come to realize that the "self" really is an illusory thing and perhaps worth letting go of.

OK, great ... I'm practicing and practicing. I do, indeed, come into an awareness of my emotions and a more honest, objective view of myself - but WHOA! - often come to realize that I can be (and have been) an asshole.

I've awoken to ways in which I've been careless, rude and lazy. I've been reminded of times where I lost my temper and lashed out at my family. Resentments and insecurities under the surface have bubbled up to my awareness. Not super-major eff-ed-up stuff, but enough to qualify as an asshole here and there. As yoga helps me to settle down and gaze inwardly - I often see a person saddled with many flaws, imperfections and things to be ashamed of.

Are these illusions too? Should I deny them? ignore them? or own up to them and face the shame and embarrassment that they bring?

On one hand, it's very tempting to ignore and deny these aspects of myself and just dismiss them as negative by-products of an ego that will - after a few more years of practice - be fully dissolved. No worries, just keeeep practicing! On the other hand, being rude, ill-tempered or resentful is NOT an illusion to people on the receiving end. These folks will shun me if I tragically continue to act like a jerk.

This dilemma makes me wonder about, HOW - exactly, do we let go of our "self" and reach a place of blissful stillness where we become aware of our connections to others, the world around us, and the moment-to-moment shifts in our emotions and thoughts? It sounds so simple (duh - just let go) but I'm stuck.

Which is the better path?

Denial - to keep practicing diligently all the while looking past my "issues". Nurturing a mental focus on freedom, a vast cosmic expanse and various other seductively inspirational imagery and trite self-affirmations that are ubiquitous in yoga media? This seems easy enough to do. Methinks plenty of people consume a daily diet of uplifting feel-good-isms that sustain avoidance and escape from their uncomfortable realities. Should I travel this path?

Or

Forgiveness - to use my practice to help me recognize that I am full of flaws and uncomfortable "issues". Nurturing a mental focus on my own words, thoughts and feelings and those of the people I interact with. To keep unfurling my mat - knowing that I'm going to face regret or shame - but that self-acceptance, self-kindness and self-forgiveness will follow?

I don't know. I just don't want to be an asshole.

Getting out of my body

2011-02-19T05:46:00.001-08:00

Once in yoga class, while trying to get my arms up (just a few inches for me) during Prasarita Padottanasana C my instructor said that the first time she was able to touch her clasped hands to the floor, she felt like she “went out of her body”. Lucky her! Wouldn’t that be cool! Maybe someday.

Can yogis come out of their bodies?

The yoga sutras III.39 “bandhakarana saithilyat pracara samvedanat ca cittasya parasariravesah” (Through relaxation of the causes of bondage, and the free flow of consciousness, the yogi enters another’s body at will.) and III.40 “udanajayat jala panka kantakadisu asangah utkrantih ca” (By mastery of udana vayu, the yogi can walk over water, swamps and thorns without touching them. He can also levitate.) – seem to tenuously address something like “being out of one’s body”.

In the present age, we understand that various brain systems can give rise to "out of the body" experiences (aka heautoscopy, autoscopy and/or doppelganger experiences). As reported in, “Brain electrodes conjure up ghostly visions“ and in “Electrodes trigger out-of-body experience”:

Simple stimulation of the brain can cause the mind to play complex and creepy tricks on itself, neurologists have discovered. They found that, by inserting electrodes into a specific part of the brain [left temporoparietal junction], they could induce a patient to sense that an illusory ‘shadow person’ was lurking behind her and mimicking her movements.

People describe out-of-body experiences as feeling that their consciousness becomes detached from their body, often floating above it. … Blanke found that electrically stimulating one brain region — the right angular gyrus — repeatedly triggers out-of-body experiences. … The right angular gyrus integrates visual information — the sight of your body — and information that creates the mind’s representation of your body. This is based on balance and feedback from your limbs about their position in space.

So, the whole proposition of “out of body” seems less far-fetched to me. The brain computes an illusory sense of "self" and when these computational circuits are skewed - so is one's sense of "self". Perhaps it's possible to experience such mental states during yoga practice? I don't know, but will work towards it.

Love is space and time measured by the heart

2011-02-19T05:44:00.002-08:00

As post-holiday life slows into the sedate rhythms of winter, I find myself counting how many weeks until spring. Do you ever find yourself trying to keep track of time?

Sometimes in yoga class I’ll get so into the practice that my awareness of “how much time still to go?” comes at the very end. Other days, I feel time dragging, like my sagging hips, as if I'll collapse before I reach savasana.

We – as human beings – have a very poor sense of time.

Intensely new and wonderful experiences may pass too quickly, but remembered years later, seem greatly expanded. In flashes of intense fear, time has a way of moving very slowly, yet such events can be un-recallable when in repressed memories. Sitting and waiting for a bus makes time pass so very slowly, until an attractive or interesting person sits next to you.

Somehow it's not time, per se, that we measure, but rather the intensity of our emotional experience. This is what makes time expand and contract. Yoga texts are chock full of references to “consciousness” and the “illusions” of everyday thinking - and while these notions sound hokey when spoken in the NJ suburbs where I practice - that doesn’t mean they are not true. Just consider how illusory your perceptions of time are. Your sense of time is just a by-product of your experience – its not an absolute “thing” you can measure. Your sense of YOU and the events in your life – as they stretch out over time – the jumbled memories – is very far from the objective time-line you might suppose.

We all live in the illusions created by our own minds.

Marcel Proust wrote, “Love is space and time measured by the heart" and Craig Wright, who wrote the play Melissa Arctic, has made me acutely aware of the illusion of time in our all-too brief lives. Check out Melissa Arctic if you ever get the chance. The play – wherein a young child plays the role of “Time” – pulls you through the course of one man’s tragic life and into your own sense of loss, regret and the miracle of forgiveness to realize that time is, indeed, measured by the heart – captured and measured by the intensity of emotional experience.

One of the most poignant moments comes at the beginning of the play when "Time", played by a young child stands alone at the head of the stage, and innocently cries into the darkened theatre, “Everything be still. Can everything be perfectly still?”

Needless to say, this all sounds like the common yogic counsel to "be still", to “stop thinking and start feeling” and “live in the present moment“. Gurus seem to recognize how fallible, illusionary and fanciful our sense of time really is.

As the arctic weather engulfs me, I will be still. I will engage my heart in life and in yoga class. I'll experience now - and time will cease to exist.

FDA-approved Kundalini awakening

2011-02-19T05:44:00.000-08:00

In 2005 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a procedure known as vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) to help relieve mental anguish endured by people who show no response to traditional treatments for depression. In the U.S., depressive disorders affect upwards of 18 million people and some 20% of this population are those who do not respond well to traditional anti-depressant therapies. Stimulation of the vagus nerve - via the implantation of a pacemaker that pulses the left vagus nerve at the neck and sends neural signals to brain regions involved in the regulation of emotion - seems to offer modest emotional relief that improves slowly over months of using the device. This is a great scientific and humanitarian achievement!

Yoga practitioners are well traveled in the road to emotional healing and tranquility. Many use their training to help others find peace of mind and know the satisfaction of playing a part in another person's recovery process - perhaps having discovered that helping others is a powerful way to lift one's own mental distress.

Might it be useful to have your own yogic vagus nerve stimulator? But a VNS is not for regular folks - right?

Wrong. You actually have your very own vagus nerve (check it out on Google Body) and already know many ways to stimulate it!

For example, a number of so-called “vagal maneuvers” activate the vagus nerve and parasympathetic (relaxation) responses. These include forceful exhalation (pranayama), immersing your face in ice-cold water, putting pressure on your eyelids (savasana eye pillows), and massage of the carotid sinus area (in the neck where the vagus passes through).

Other everyday yoga practices directly engage the vagus nerve. Practitioners of pranayama might recognize that heart rate increases sightly during inhalation and decreases during exhalation - a healthy phenomenon known as Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia. This connection between exhalation and heart rate slowing is regulated by the vagus nerve's connections to both the lungs and heart. Ujjayi breath control exercises that help extend the length of exhalation may thus increase vagal-controlled heart slowing.

Vagus-induced relaxation and emotional benefits involve complex neural circuits. The vagus nerve is part of the parasympathetic nervous system which drives our feelings of rest, calm and relief. A research article, “The effects of slow breathing on affective responses to pain stimuli: An experimental study“ implicates vagal and parasympathetic pathways in the relief from chronic pain following breathing exercises:

"The homeostatic neuroanatomical model of emotion proposes that the left forebrain is associated predominantly with parasympathetic activity, and thus with nourishment, safety, positive affect, approach (appetitive) behavior, and group-oriented (affiliative) emotions, while the right forebrain is associated predominantly with sympathetic activity, and thus with arousal, danger, negative affect, withdrawal (aversive) behavior, and individual-oriented (survival) emotions. … The homeostatic neuroanatomical model of emotion suggests that central sensitization of pain in FM patients results in part from a relative deficit of activity in the parasympathetic branch of the ANS required for down-regulation of negative emotion and pain experience."

The vagus nerve offers even more than relief from cardiovascular, physical and psychological suffering. Stimulation of the vagus nerve can also heal via its regulation of the human immune system, as covered in this research article, “Neural concomitants of immunity — Focus on the vagus nerve”.

"By the nature of its “wandering” route through the body the vagus nerve may be uniquely structured to provide an effective early warning system for the detection of pathogens as well as a source of negative feedback to the immune system after the pathogens have been cleared. … Taken together these parasympathetic pathways form what has been termed “the cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway”.

Lastly, and perhaps most cherished, yoga practitioners may see, in the long, upward wandering course of the vagus nerve, the fabled Kundalini serpent that sits coiled in the root of the body and - once awakened - rises up through the chakra centers fostering inner-awareness and enlightenment. Among our 12 cranial nerves, the vagus is the only one with such an extended reach from the brain down to - although not quite reaching - the muladhara root.

A single snake-like neural projection connecting the chakra centers - whose stimulation - brings emotional relief, inner calm and immunological health. I wonder if the ancient gurus would be surprised by this scientific research. They were among humanity's very first anatomists, chemists, physiologists and psychologists - so perhaps not. I bet they'd have a laugh though, at the Google-ability of this neural serpent!

I'm leaving my spouse

2011-02-19T05:42:00.001-08:00

Jesse: Did I tell you I'm leaving my spouse?

Carmen: No way! For real? What's going on?

J: I'm so unhappy. I can't stand it anymore.

C: It's that bad? How so?

J: Its not that I'm treated badly, its just that I give and give and give - at home, when we go out, in every decision, in the bedroom - and I don't ever get anything back. You know? I listen and listen and listen and always its like a one-way street where nothing comes back my way. When do I get what I need?

C: Doesn't it feel good to give though?

J: I thought a marriage was supposed to be a 2-way street where you give some and you get some - so that you can, you know - stay close and, like, together.

C: What do you want anyway? Can you say 10 things you want right now?

J: I don't know. Just, something, would be nice. Anything.

C: Seriously though, how can they give back to you, if they don't know what you want - your opinions, your interests, your desires?

J: Hmmm.

C: Check out this article - The Happy Marriage Is the ‘Me’ Marriage. Some research shows that happy couples help each other grow. They give support to each other, but they also pursue independent interests. Each person supports the evolution and growth of the other person. This way, you can give, and also provide all sorts of opportunities for your spouse to give to and support you.

J: Really? But how do the couples stay, you know, close and together?

C: I guess they find satisfaction in caring for each other, even as they grow apart? I don't really know.

J: How can you love each other if you're not, you know, close and together?

C: Remember that Ram Dass quote our teacher read during savasana last class ... “The most important aspect of love is not in giving or the receiving: it’s in the being. When I need love from others, or need to give love to others, I’m caught in an unstable situation. Being in love, rather than giving or taking love, is the only thing that provides stability.”

J: Damn. So, like, if I get in touch with the compassion and joy in myself, I'll be able to give without worrying to get anything back, and I'll also grow freely on my own path?

C: Yoga wisdom baby.

J: Perhaps my spouse might enjoy giving me support? I don't know. Come to think of it, I guess I've never opened that door. Suppose its worth a try?

C: Just let it happen. Find the love in yourself - here in class. Stop working so hard at trying to be, you know, "close and together". Just breathe. Just BE.

Where is the pain in yoga?

2011-02-19T05:41:00.000-08:00

"Make this pose feel good" my instructor often says. Bend here, press there, twist, up on one hand and ... feel good? Yes, you probably know what I'm talking about. And, if you're like me, you're hooked on this unique aspect of yoga. With an emphasis on breath control and meditation, yoga allows its practitioners to "feel the love" instead of "feel the pain". Admittedly, I've had many sore morning-afters, but I'm starting to find that when I'm intensely focused on my breath, the experience of moving in and out of postures is a pleasurable one - not like other activities motivated by a "come on! push it!" & "no pain, no gain" mentality.

This yogic mentality has led to a profound change in my life. Perhaps it's because I was raised in a strict household governed by a former US Naval officer, and also served as an infantry corpsman in the US Marine Corps. I know the "get tough soldier", "man up" and "no pain, no gain" philosophies well enough. Well enough to know the way they lead a person to shut off their feelings and dehumanize themselves for the sake of "the mission" or "the corporation". Well enough to know that such a mentality is more trouble than good when it comes to bonding with my wife and kids.

I'm so lucky to have a family. I'm so lucky to have a chance to create a warm, safe, nurturing place where we can share our thoughts and feelings openly with each other. We're trying to live in the opposite of a cold, formal, "follow-the-rules" and "do-what-you're-told" kind of place. Nevertheless, life is full of lousy choices, unpleasant situations and dirty jobs that have to get done. Whether we like it or not, we have to motivate our children and ourselves to do their chores, finish their homework, get off to school on cold gray mornings, eat healthy foods, forego the new kitchen countertops to save for college, spend holidays with the button-pushing in-laws, etc. - certainly not dire stuff by any means - yet often the roots of many a broken home.

Were you raised to push yourself through life's minor (or major) drudgeries by ignoring your unpleasant feelings and "just suck it up"? What about a radically alternative source of motivation? A kind of yogic, "make it feel good" point of view - just as instructed during urdhva dhanurasana? What if, instead of ignoring our feelings and pushing dutifully through drudgery, we allow our breathing and meditation training help us to channel feelings of care, compassion and self-love - just like the ones we feel during class. After all, most of the time there IS an upside to doing what we "should do" ... our effort perhaps benefiting someone else, or our own welfare in the distant future.

Yoga has given me much more awareness of my thought processes, and now I am increasingly catching myself, often at the very moment when I am facing an unpleasant task. The moment where I have to decide whether to do what I "should do" or to take the easy way out. Where, and what, is my motivation? On one shoulder sits a tiny drill sergeant saying, "suck it up and do what you're supposed to do", and - for the first time ever in my life - there is someone on the other shoulder - a tiny celestial yogic angel saying, "be kind to your body, be kind to others, do what you ought to do because it adds to the harmony and peacefulness of your loved-one's lives and yourself"

With this mentality, the "no pain, no gain" mentality is being extinguished. Life's drudgery brings no pain and no unpleasantness to speak of - only an opportunity to use mindfulness to re-frame my perspective and channel feelings of service, compassion, care and humility. An opportunity to feel - and to feel good.

In this way, "make this pose feel good", is changing my life.

Its lonely in LaLa land

2011-02-19T05:39:00.001-08:00

Sometimes, after an intense yoga session, with all the devotional and inspirational passages, the long, deep exhaling and the physical exhaustion, I really feel like I'm in another place - an extatic, unearthly place - where everything is calm, where everything around me is infused with gentleness and peace. If ever there was a place called LaLa Land, this is it - and methinks - yoga practitioners spend a lot of time there. "God", I think, "I would like to spend as much of my remaining life here in LaLa Land. It really is heaven on earth."

But I'm torn. And, the more I go to my shala and off to LaLa Land, the more I'm torn.

My family does not live in LaLa Land. My wife and 2 rambunctious boys don't live there, nor, as best as I can tell, have any idea of what it feels like to be there. So, while its a nice place for me to visit, its pointless to think I can spend more and more time practicing yoga - escaping to LaLa Land - if it takes away, distances or alienates me from my family.

Let's face it. Children need a childhood - a regular childhood that consists of a lot of non-yogic stuff (McDonalds, Sponge Bob, and a good deal of rough-and-tumble with other kids etc.) and I'm the parent who has to protect this childhood - under the rules of their peers and the social norms of suburban NJ - NOT the norms of Patanjali.

Let's face it. I am in a marriage. Even though most couples begin their marriage "of one mind and body" - the passing years of personal and professional development under constraints and sacrifices involved in buying a home and raising a family - often yields two people who are no longer of "one mind" heading in the same direction, but rather, of two separate minds, evolving in separate directions. Does this natural divergence mean a marriage can't work? Hell no. A marriage works because partners support each other regardless of the direction of each others' personal and professional development. A marriage works because you care for each other, because you are caring to each other, because you let it freely evolve according to its own norms - NOT the norms of Patanjali.

Is there really a conflict here? Maybe not. All three activities (children, marriage, yoga) bring immense joy to me (as does writing, playing soccer, photography and other hobbies). So what's all the fuss about? Why should the practice of yoga lead to feeling torn or conflicted? Perhaps for most folks, there is no fuss at all ... it's all good!

But, let's face it. LaLa Land is a REALLY great place. No other hobby or activity I've ever done, brings me to the deep state of tranquility and peace as does yoga.

Scoring the winning goal in a high school soccer game was great. Having sex for the first dozen or so times back then was even better. The adulation of my mentors and peers for various scientific accomplishments was also a highlight in my own life, not to mention my honeymoon and the birth of my two sons. All of these things were wonderful high, high, highs in my life and I'll never forget them - nor ever experience them again. LaLa Land, on the other hand, is a place I can visit often for the rest of my life. Its not as high, high, high as the other highpoints in life, but it feels very nice indeed, and perhaps offers a more intense level of satisfaction with further practice.

Do folks who experience LaLa Land get hooked on it? Do they desire to get back there, again and again and again? Is this why yoga teachers say that - if you let go - yoga will transform your life? I want to let go. I want to advance in my practice and let the transformation happen - to spend as much time in LaLa Land as possible. I do! I do!

But I'm torn.

How can I reconcile my doughnut eating, reality TV watching, cacouphanous family-life with the austerities, long periods of practice, meditation, stillness and gita-isms of the yoga practices? How can I accept and embrace the social and personal norms of children and marriage here in suburban NJ and still evolve along the rigorous path of yoga to LaLa Land?

Do I have to drag the wife and kids to yoga? Do they have to become vegetarians? Do we have to chant together as a family?

Surely this is NOT the way - to force them down my own personal path. Nope.

But how? How to be an enthusiastic father, a caring and accepting husband and a conscienscious yogi all at the same time? What's the trick here?

Sadly, there is no advice from Patanjali. Sadly, I don't know the answer either, but will keep working on it. Perhaps the yogic training will teach me to find LaLa Land - not just after an exhausting devotional flow - but in every waking moment of my life. Perhaps that is the way ahead. See and feel the bliss here and now - whether during a little league game, a trip to McDonald's afterwards, and even later on the couch with my wife watching late night trash TV. Perhaps there is a bit of LaLa Land in these moments as well?

Onward with my yogic and family journey - to LaLa Land I think.

to gurus everywhere ...

2011-02-10T12:29:00.001-08:00

Thank you for guiding us in our yoga practice!
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