Yoga trends in the fitness industry and why it doesn't belong there

It bothers me when I am filling out forms, like the census form, when I needed to describe the industry I work in, or the industry that the business is in, as happened when opening a new bank account the other day. It seems to be a choice between fitness industry or health professionals. Sometimes allied health is available, so I choose that one because inner well-being and equanimity certainly leads to better health.

Yoga is a big word for only four letters. It was used for at least two millennia without a trikonasana in sight to mean both a goal, an end-state, and a range of practices to reach the goal. It means union and refers to a recognition of our True Nature as whole and undivided. Since the middle ages, body positive Tantric practices created Hatha Yoga, which added body postures to the range of practices that would assist us in finding that wholeness, that union inherent in the word yoga.

Roll the clock forward and yoga has taken on a meaning that places it in the fitness industry, and it seems in danger of losing its real meaning and original purpose. The American College of Sports Medicine, when it published its "Fitness Trends for 2016, ranked "wearable technology" number 1 and "yoga" number 10! (News article) Yoga is a fitness trend!

I have wondered if this is cultural appropriation? Is this an upsetting trend to Indians to whom the word yoga rightfully belongs?

I enjoyed this article which compares yoga in India and Seattle. The author, Arundhati Baltmangalkar, reports on how she adjusted to the yoga world in Seattle when she migrated from India. Her generous attitude helped me attain a more generous outlook as well. She says:

"I knew of different styles and lineages, but the idea of chocolate yoga, yoga to live music, rock and roll yoga, naked yoga, love yoga, etc. would shock the daylights out of me. Coming from a traditional yoga background, I often found myself annoyed and upset, but soon learned to ignore the eccentric ideas that have borrowed the name of yoga."

Those last words seem to be the nub of it. Much of what is understood as yoga these days is just a borrowed name.  If it is fitness stripped of those aspects which teach us a more wholesome way to live, that lead us to know our inner wholeness, then it cannot really be yoga and it has only borrowed the name.

But what if the name has become so disconnected from its real meaning and the practices that it represents that those who offer a traditional yoga are feeling unable to use the word?

It has been suggested to me that people who come to a class called "yoga" are expecting a fitness class, and are disappointed if they do not get it. So if we are offering real yoga, we should call it something else that will attract the true seekers, not those looking for fitness.

I tend to balk at that. If anyone should drop the word yoga it should be those who have "borrowed it" and stripped it of relationship to its real meaning. But that is unlikely to happen. A multi-billion dollar industry is now built around the word, yoga fashion and yoga accessories fuel desire for more possessions.

Patanjali gave us ethical precepts or behaviours as the place to start our practise of yoga. One of these is non-possessiveness. The person taking yoga seriously in the west has some big challenges as they resist the influence of those who have borrowed the term.

I would love to hear what you think. Please leave a comment.

Snakes and Ladders

This being a yoga aspirant is a game of snakes and ladders. Just when we think we are making great progress, there is a snake and we seem to slide down and away from the goal.

This image was found in an interesting article about the game. See a link at the end of this article.

However I begin to think that there is an illusion in this. Those setbacks are perhaps another form of progress.

I don't think it matters how we define the goal.

We ask you why you have come to yoga when you first visit our studio.

"Flexibility, strength and wellbeing"

"Feeling better"

"De-stress, health and wellbeing"

The answer comes in different forms but they are mostly along the same lines.

As we come into the practice we might discover how to breathe more fully, and with this comes a greater feeling of wellbeing.  It might even be a ladder, propelling us faster than we imagined towards that goal.

As we undertake physical practices that stretch us out, we slowly become more flexible, but the process might also release all kinds of tight areas in the body and this might also lead to a greater sense of wellbeing.  We might not still be able to touch our toes in a seated forward bend but we feel lighter, freer, more full of wellbeing.

Then comes the day when we are doing a practice and we suddenly feel really, really sad.  We have no idea why.  Sometimes the feeling persists and we carry it with us out into the world.  Is this a snake?  Have we just lost ground and been slid away from the goal?

I believe it can depend on how we greet this experience. If we can take this as a signpost we might welcome it, asking "why are you here, what do I need to take notice of here." The answer might be a revelation you can put into words, like "Oh, I remember that time in my childhood when...." or it might not, it might just stay around awhile as a feeling. Just welcoming it and exploring it may bring interesting resolutions.

So could it be said to be a setback or a part of the journey to feeling better overall, to a deeper sense of wellbeing.

It might not be sadness, it might be anger, frustration, irritation, or some other emotion we could be used to regarding as negative.

Next time this happens, see if you can welcome it instead, explore it, and seek of it what it has to reveal. Be patient.  Our habits of repression may have secured things behind a thousand locks and it will take time to gently persuade them to open and reveal.

So the game of snakes and ladders might seem like two steps forward ten back at times, but treating everything as an opportunity and a messenger, nothing will take us further from the goal, only closer.

You might want to check out this article: "The Game of Knowledge taught about the slow upward path of the spiritual seeker"

On returning from retreat, Frankston June 2016

So, how was retreat?

I have become breakfast, tissues scintillating like Coco Pops;  

I am spread thinner than vegemite with the butter showing through.  

I have become the sound of softly falling rain. 

I am champagne feeling the bubbles rise and burst. 

As ripples circling around the duck on the pond 

I ripple in all directions. 

Driving, I am flying, senses spread from horizon to horizon 

the air blowing through me. 

Rolling to the red light, I cease to exist in stillness. 

I am spread taut across the universe 

so the Beloved can play infinite rhythms upon my membranes. 

Delight is shimmering here, and there, can’t you feel it?

It was lovely, thank you.

©Tina Shettigara 2016

[Note for non-Australians: the Australian national breakfast spread, Vegemite, is hated by just about everyone else in the world, probably because when they first try it they spread it thick like jam. The only way to eat Vegemite is to spread it very thin.]

Image credit http://blogs.acu.edu.au/international/15898/the-truth-about-vegemite/

The dance of ever renewing delight

I recently spent a week on retreat, in silence, while also being in community. Try imagining sitting in a dining room full of other people and talking to no-one. Many find it impossible to imagine.

What a treat it was! And a week did not seem long enough in the end.

Silence doesn't only mean "not talking". It means "not doing anything that will take you away from the ongoing meditation and stilling of the fluctuations of the mind". Pretty much no texting, emailing, reading the frivolous, like Facebook,. I didn't take a computer, and the only book I had was my handbag sized copy of the Yoga Sutras interpretively translated by Swami Venkatesananda, as it goes wherever my handbag goes. I did indeed open and read it on a few occasions at night and during the long afternoon breaks, finding that it could take me deeper, rather than taking me away.

Another text that might have also taken me deeper would have been the Radiance Sutras had I thought to take it. Many of the meditation practices we did on retreat were from the Radiance Sutras.

The retreat was titled "Embodied Awakening" and was led by a very talented teacher, Anne Douglas. The title indicates that the body itself is a gateway to awakening. As we come into a heightened sensitivity to information of the body we start to open all of our perception, including to the experiences that are beyond the body.

Through repeated body-sensing practices, meditation and Yoga Nidra, and by not interspersing this with the things that would take us away, we began to enter a more awake state.  An awakeness that is awake no matter what the state of the body, awake even if the body sleeps, dreaming or dreamless, and awake in a vaster sense than ordinary wakeful states.

The Radiance Sutras are Lorin Roche's beautiful, modern, interpretive translation of the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra (c.800CE), a lovely text from the tradition of Kashmir Shaivism. The title of this post is taken from Sutra 156.

Let me share Sutras 155 -156 with you.

155
Breath flows
Into this body
As a nectar of the gods. 

Every breath is a whisper
Of the Goddess:
"Here is the ritual I ask of you -
Be the cup
Into which I pour this bliss,
The elixir of immortal peace." 

156
The breath flows out with the sound sa,
The breath flows in with the sound ha.
Thus thousands of times a day,
Everyone who breathes is adoring the Goddess. 

Know this, and be in great joy.
Listen to the ongoing prayer that is breath.
Life shall dance in you
A dance of ever-renewing delight.

Perhaps you are put off by this talk of "the Goddess" so lets talk about that. Who is this Goddess?

The text comes from the tradition of Kashmir Shaivism. The "Goddess" is, at a story-telling level, the consort of Shiva, who is sometimes called Parvati, but also is known as Shakti. But such terms are actually metaphorical. This God and Goddess are not personalities, they are the Universe, and they are in fact one. The Goddess is the energetic aspect of Consciousness that causes manifestation. In other words, Shakti causes Divine Consciousness to pulse, and matter to come into being. These concepts have a very nice correlation with astrophysics!

So everything is really Shiva-Shakti, and you can experience this, in your body. Your body becomes a pathway to knowing the Divine and a pathway to returning to the knowledge of your True Nature. So the 112 meditations of the Vijnana Bhairava are 112 gateways of the body to returning to your True Nature.

Here in these two sutras our gateway is the breath. "Be the cup into which I pour this bliss", be receptive to the breath, "be in great joy", "listen to the ongoing prayer", "life shall dance in you".

So next time you are lying quietly - in savasana at the end of your next yoga practice perhaps, or even in bed tonight, waiting for sleep, be receptive, open, listen, feel and quietly let this wondrous experience of the breath be meditation and prayer.

There is a poem about how I was feeling when I returned from retreat here.

You might also be interested in a previous post, Siva - Sakti.

Sallie's recent adventures

By guest blogger Sallie Davison (formerly Richards)

As many of you know I have just come back from a very inspiring training retreat in the beautiful, (warm!) Byron Bay. This training was a continuation of my pre/postnatal training journey that began 6 years ago with Bliss Baby Yoga. This training was a six-day intensive delving deeper into learning how to help support women on their journey from conception all the way through to mums and bubs yoga and beyond. It was a beautifully informative and integrative training looking at many aspects of women’s health and stressing the importance of nurturing women through all stages of life.

It was wonderful to go back to where it all started for me, two births and almost five years of prenatal teaching later, and immerse myself back into learning and thinking more about creating a space for women to feel safe, nurtured and help them tune into their body at such a transformative
time in their lives.

Whilst I was pregnant I found my experience of attending Prenatal classes was so beneficial on many levels but mostly it was lovely to be in an environment so supportive and focused on reconnecting me with my feminine nature. As well as the benefits of working with asana to help with a more active birth, breath awareness, calming meditations and being encouraged to believe in the abilities of my body. My experience was such a positive one that once my initial baby haze had settled slightly, I really wanted to share my experience with other women.

Prenatal yoga is a wonderful tool available to women. It brings together all the benefits of yoga we all know about through our general yoga (breath, asana and meditation) with a direct focus on childbirth, helping to nurture and empower women throughout their pregnancy, labour and into motherhood. The practice of yoga prepares women both physically and emotionally.

On a physical level prenatal yoga can help to improve women’s stamina and health by increasing strength and flexibility, preparing women for an active birth and best possible recovery. Emotionally women can use the practice to create a sense of emotional wellbeing through relaxation and stress management. Pregnancy is such a special time to honour oneself and baby and a yoga practice will
empower the mother, which can enhance her enjoyment through the pregnancy and can keep her calm and grounded which has a positive effect on her and your baby not only while pregnant, but through the birth and beyond.

Some of the benefits of a gentle practice whilst pregnant are:

• reducing stress
• improving sleep
• assisting with pregnancy related symptoms e.g. nausea, back/hip ache and sciatica
• providing a way of connecting with unborn baby
• building confidence and trust in women’s own body
• helping to open the pelvis and strengthen the legs, increase awareness of the pelvic floor
• learning to breathe more mindfully and deeply.

I have enjoyed starting to explore and incorporate some of my new insights into class since returning from the training and will be thinking more about the benefits of a more feminine approach to yoga generally and I look forward to sharing more with you.

Yoga Spirit Studios offers prenatal classes with Sallie on Saturday mornings 9.15am and with Vanessa on Wednesday evenings 6pm.

Bliss Baby Yoga will be offering an Adelaide Prenatal Teacher Training Intensive 18 – 20 November 2016. Please contact the studio or Bliss Baby Yoga if you have any questions.

By Sallie Davison – Member of Yoga Australia and is recognised by Yoga Australia as a Level 2 Teacher and Post Graduate qualified pre/postnatal Yoga Teacher.

Nada Yoga - Self - realisation through sound

It is as ancient as the days, the meditation upon sound that leads to inner peace, resilience and a closer understanding of our inherent wholeness. It is no accident that spiritual systems around the world have always used sound and music as a way of accessing the divine. Sound waves resonate with frequencies we can feel in our bodies, and in many cultures it has been recognized as both healing and meditative.

You will have felt sound, the rumbling of thunder, or a plane overhead, the sounding of a conch being blown or a big gong or bell, the climax of the 1812 overture or a great rock and roll drum solo. Remember that feeling in your body, thrilling and primal. You are tuning into the power of Nada Yoga.

We have probably all instinctively used the healing power of sound in our lives.  Who hasn't soothed their troubled heart with favourite music, listening to birdsong or the ebb and flow of the ocean lapping the sea shore. Alternative therapists have also been employing sound for its healing properties for many years, often being criticized by traditional medicine for promulgating mumbo-jumbo.

Ultrasound however has become a standard tool in medical technology, especially in imaging. But other uses for sound in healing are now being embraced by mainstream medicine. In November 2014 Scientific American reported that sound waves can heal brain disorders. The story here is that soundwaves can help to target therapies directly to brain tumours or areas of the brain for the treatment of conditions such as Parkinson's Disease. Good news that science is catching up with yoga in another area just as it is in the efficacy of meditation.

One of the ways that sound heals is by creating those felt vibrations in the body.  It helps to wake up our attention to the essential vibratory nature of our bodies.  As we become more attuned to this our brain's Default Network, which is essential but does have a negative bias, calms down and another network, the Present Centred Network is able to come to the fore. Essentially we become more "mindful" and in this state anxiety is reduced. Anxiety is a big causative factor in disease, so when anxiety decreases the body's natural healing mechanisms are more able to step up and do their work.

Yoga has always understood this, thus there has been in yoga this pathway of Nada Yoga, or Sound Yoga. Chanting, music, sounding bells or gongs are techniques of nada yoga.

A beautiful way to enjoy the healing power of sound waves is "Soundbath".  In a Soundbath the practitioner skillfully plays a range of mainly percussive instruments, as well as using voice, to create an atmosphere of sound.  The participants usually lay down as in a classic Yoga Nidra and staying awake and alert, experience the sound in their bodies.

We are fortunate in Adelaide to now have Soundbath practitioners available to give us this treat.  If you haven't yet given yourself the gift of a Soundbath, do so soon.

Finding a unitive state in back bends

Back bends can sometimes be scary and might be your least favourite part of the yoga class. In back bends the front body is opened and exposed, most so in upward facing back bends such as camel pose, and upward bow. Yet back bends have many benefits and are worthy of practice.

Back bends open the chest and heart and counteract the tendency to round in the upper back and thrust the head forward, which our life in front of computers is encouraging. Breathing is improved and enhancement of wellbeing follows.

Contracting into the  muscles of the back strengthens the muscles, but also helps those muscles to know how to relax. When the brain experiences the sensation of the contraction and the subsequent release it learns how to distinguish between tension and relaxation, and so the muscle can relax better after the back bend, which often gives relief to back pain.

Back bends involve bending the spine, and some parts of the spine love to bend backwards while others do not. It is important to balance the bending across the whole spine, encouraging mobility in the less mobile parts and stabilising the more mobile parts, so force is evened out over the whole curve. The result is a sense of wholeness in which energy flows effortlessly along the length of the spine.

Spines have a lot of bones, and they also have natural curves. When we are born the curves are all in the one direction, and that is called the "primary curve". As we learn to lift our head and look around, get up on all fours and crawl and then stand up, the spine develops curves in the opposite direction, called the "secondary curves". The neck and the lower back are the areas of the spine that have a secondary curve.

The bones of the spine are divided into sections and are numbered from the top down. The neck (cervical spine) has seven bones, numbered 1 to 7 from the top down, C1 to C7. Below that is the thoracic spine, which is where the ribs attach. The thoracic has 12 bones, topmost is T1, counting down to T12. The lower back is called the lumbar spine and has five bones, L1 to L5 counting down. The sacrum is the triangular bone that is a bridge between the two halves of the pelvis. It is really five bones, but they fuse together, still we number them S1 to S5. Below that we have the four bones of the tailbone (coccygeal vertebrae), also fused. Between each vertebra is a gel cushion, the intevertebral disc. We can name them by their two adjacent vertebrae, such as C2/C3 which is the disc between C2 and C3.

When you look at the spine at the back you might think that you are looking at a stegosaurus due to all of the bony protuberances! Each vertebra has a protuberance straight out the back, the spinous process, and handle bar protuberances out each side called the transverse processes. These processes are angled in different ways throughout the spine such that they allow or inhibit extension, which is the technical name for back bending.

So the combination between the natural curve and the angle of the spinous processes creates areas of the spine that are more mobile and areas that are less mobile. The two areas of the spine that have secondary curves, the neck and the lower spine, are quite mobile in extension and flexion. The thoracic spine, which has a primary curve is great at flexion, bending forwards, but not so good at all at extension.

The danger therefore is that we make all the movement in the two mobile areas and this can place stress on these areas. There is particular weakness at the places of transition between a mobile part with a less mobile part, so C5/T1, T12/L1 and L5/S1 are places where injury more often occurs. If we keep bending sharply into the same area it is a bit like taking a metal coat hanger and bending it back and forwards on the same place repeatedly. Eventually it breaks.

Consider these two pictures of camel pose (utsrasana).

To my eye the picture on the left is taking more of the bend in the lumbar, and the neck is also taken back to its limit, whereas the woman in the picture on the right is making the curve more even, stabilising the lower back and neck and encouraging more mobility in the thoracic.

In the following silhouettes of cobra pose (bhujangasana) you may have a sense of an energetic blockage created by the sharp extension in the neck and lower back in the one on the left compared to a freer flow of energy in the one on the right which contains the extension in the neck and lower back and opens the chest to mobilise the thoracic.

Warm up for your back bends with work to lengthen the quadriceps and psoas, and to open the chest and shoulders. This will give you more room to complete the back bend without bending sharply into the lower back.

As you come into your back bend start by lengthening the spine which helps to mobilise the thoracic, lifting the sternum. Drawing the throat back will engage support for the spine from the entire digestive tract, helping to stabilise it.

And do choose versions of the back bend that are appropriate for your body. For example use props for the hands to reach to in camel pose or keep them in the lower back for additional support and stabilisation.

After your back bending practice, counter pose in child's pose, balasana.