The third limb

Head into most modern yoga classes and what you will meet is a lot of āsana and the merest smattering of other yoga practices such as prāṇāyāma, meditation and so on.

In his Yoga Sutras, Patañjali delineates eight limbs of yoga. (Naughty aside: Thus yoga is either an octopus or an arachnid.) Modern scholars have pointed out that the Yoga Sutras did not have much of a following in earlier times, but were revived in the modern era. They are now required reading in nearly all reputable modern postural yoga teacher trainings. The irony is that while such trainings emphasise the postures of yoga, the Yoga Sutras say very little. Indeed, I have often heard it pointed out that Patañjali is only referring to establishing a comfortable posture for sitting.

The more I learn though, the more I question anything I have ever been told, read or believed.

Most translations of the Yoga Sutras are just that, a translation of the pithy verses of condensed Sanskrit, usually accompanied by a commentary by the translator. These are the translations that we usually look at in our yoga teacher trainings.

I was intrigued, therefore, to read "A Concise Histiography of Classical Yoga Philosophy" (2013) by Phillip Maas, in which a case is made that the original commentary, attributed to Vyāsa, is actually also by the same author as the Yoga Sutras, and that we should be treating the sutras and the commentary as one work, we could call the Pātañjala Yogaśāstra. In fact very early authors do just that, as early as 650CE. Maas's argument has convinced other scholars as well.

Unfortunately, English translations of the sutras plus commentary are hard to find. The Edwin Bryant translation of the sutras (2009) does cite the Vyāsa commentary a lot but the only version I have found that gives an actual translation is Yoga Philosophy of Patañjali by Swāmi Hariharānanda Āraṇya tr P.N. Mukerji (1983). So I turned to it to see what Vyāsa/Patañjali says of the most famous of the four sutras on āsana, II:46, sthira-sukham āsanam - The posture should be steady and comfortable.

Actually, that is Bryant's translation, much better than Hariharānanda/Mukerji's rather awkward "Motionless and Agreeable form (of staying) is Āsana (Yogic Posture)".

Here, in full, is the translation of the Vyāsa commentary:

They are as follows: - Padmāsana, Virāsana, Bhadrāsana, Svastikāsana, Dandāsana, Soprāśraya, Paraṅka, Krauñcha (heron)-niṣadana, Hasti (elephant) niṣadana, Uṣṭra (camel)- niṣadana, Sama-saṁsthāna. When these postures can be held comfortably, they are called (Yogic) Āsanas.

Bryant also notes that Vyāsa knew of more postures since he put etc. at the end of his list, an etc not included by Hariharānanda.

Padmāsana is the lotus pose that we know today, feet on the opposite thighs. Virāsana however is what we might call half lotus.

Bhadrāsana seems to be what we now call Baddhakonāsana.

Svastikāsana is called the same today, auspicious pose, toes tucked in.

Dandāsana also has not changed over the millenia but did have the stipulation that the feet be firmly together.

Soprāśraya may hearten you. It means support pose. a yoga-paṭṭika is to be used, only we are not too sure what that is, but for sure it is some kind of prop, perhaps a board or stool, or maybe a band, as in the statue below, which is from the 18th century, but it is not unsual to see such figures using a yoga strap as support, in temple carvings from even earlier periods.

Paraṅka is the same as śavāsana, lying down with arms by the side. 

Bryant says that the ancient commentators recommended studying the relevent creature's seated position to learn Krauñcha-niṣadana, Hasti-niṣadana, and Uṣṭra-niṣadana, and I could not say if that is the same as current day poses. 

Sama-saṁsthāna or level pose is standing, or what we might call Tadāsana or Samasthitiḥ.

The ancient commentators (after Vyāsa) are clear that the postures are to be held without motion with the posture straight, torso neck and head in alignment. So no vinyasa here, or just a one minute hold!

So, interest definitely engaged I proceed to the second of the four sutras on āsana. II:47 prayatna-śaithilyānanta-samāpattibhyām and Bryant's translation - [Such posture should be attained] by the relaxation of effort and by absorption in the infinite. And Vyāsa's commentary:

By relaxation of the body Āsana is perfected; this stops shaking of the limbs (which is an obstacle to Samādhi). Or, a mind fixed on the infinite brings about perfection (Siddhi) of the Āsana.

Bryant summarises the commentaries saying: "The essential idea is that by the practice of āsana, the body should be so relaxed that the yogī ceases to be conscious of it at all, and the mind can be thus directed toward meditation without any bodily distraction."

So, despite the inclusion of a few more than expected postures, the idea is still to hold them long, hold them still and relax into them until you can do it with no effort. Then meditate.

The third sutra on āsana, II:48 tato dvandvānabhighātaḥ - From this one is not afflicted by the dualities of the opposites. (Bryant).

When perfection in Āsana is attained, the devotee is not affected by the opposite conditions like heat and cold etc.

The point here is that the body disappears in the practitioner's perception, becomes the void, says Hariharānanda.

So if you thought finding more postures than expected made the Yoga Sutras more relevant to modern postural yoga, be disabused. We are all full of body positivity in our modern yoga rooms, but Patanjali was having none of that. Remember what he said about the first of the niyamas, Śauca, purity? II:40 śaucāt svānga-jugupsā parair asaṁsargaḥ - By cleanliness, one [develops] distaste for one's body and the cessation of contact with others. (Bryant). No, he hasn't had a change of heart between sutras 40 and 48!

There is one more sutra in the section on āsana, posture. II:49 tasmin sati śvāsa-praśvāsayor gati-vicchedaḥ prāṇāyāmaḥ - When that [āsana] is accomplished, prāṇāyāmaḥ, breath control, [follows]. This consists of the regulation of the incoming and outgoing breath. (Bryant)

So, there we have it, a link verse, leaving āsana and moving onto the next limb. Though Bryant does note the grammatical construction that tells us that there is a sequential progress through the limbs, and the accomplishing of the mastery of posture should be underway before progressing to breath-control.

In summary, we can still say that what Patañjali/Vyāsa has to say about āsana is still worlds away from modern postural practice. But what an interesting journey of discovery it has been.

The sacro-iliac joint and why it is vulnerable in yoga

Recently I taught a workshop on the sacro-iliac joint but a number of folk have told me that they were disappointed to miss it, so this month I am putting down a few thoughts about it. I must begin with a disclaimer, I am not a physiologist nor an anatomist, just a humble yoga teacher. I am presenting my understanding as simply as I can. So where is this sacro-iliac joint?

Photo credit: Wikipedia

Location: the Sacro-iliac joint is the junction between the spine and the pelvis.

Photo credit: One Health Osteopathy 

It is not meant to move much - the above picture shows the ligaments that bind the joint front and back. They form a dense webbing, intended to keep this joint very stable.

So why is it a joint? Why are the bones simply not fused together like the vertebral bodies of the scrum itself?
Please take a moment to look at this video. It is very short but it illustrates why.



Some movement is required in the joint for the normal functioning of walking and other movements of the body. This little animation is an exaggeration however. The degree of movement is actually very small, around 2 degrees. If you have as little as 4 to 6 degrees you will be experiencing pain.

So the next logical question is, how on earth do you get into the situation where you have instability in one of the sacroiliac joints.

How does a sacroiliac joint become unstable?

As with any joint it can be injured due to the immense pressure brought on it by an accident such as a severe fall or car accident. Falling onto the buttocks, perhaps when falling off a horse or motorcycle, is a common cause.

Repetitive strain is another way. When an action that is asymmetric is repetitively applied it can gradually loosen the bonds of the ligaments. The repetitive rotation of a golfer, batsman or bowler would be the kind of action that could gradually lessen the integrity of the ligaments.

Force through one leg can place a tremendous asymetric strain on the joint. This could be one major trauma as in a motor accident. But when an athlete repetitively lands on the same leg, perhaps a figure skater, ballet dancer, or hurdler, this again will lessen the integrity of the ligaments.

Women are more prone to sacro-iliac joint injury than men

Notably during pregnancy, but also during the menstrual cycle, and during lactation, a women's body has elevated levels of hormones that cause the ligaments to become prone to overstretching.

Can yoga practice contribute to sacro-iliac joint instability?

I believe so, especially if we attempt to force the body into positions its structure will not allow. Here are some examples.

Seated twists while trying to keep the pelvis anchored

House photo - Yoga Spirit Studios

Many people are taught to anchor the pelvis in a seated twist. Unfortunately this sets up precisely the conditions which can lead to over-stretching of the ligaments which bind the joint, and down the track might lead to the debilitating pain of sacro-iliac instability.

When twisting in a seated position, allow the pelvis to turn slightly in the direction of the twist and then direct the movement into the thoracic spine, not the lumbar, in order to keep both the lumbar spine and the sacro-iliac joint safe.

Forcing external rotation of the hip

This can happen in attempts to do open kneed seated postures, from simple cross legged, to lotus pose. But even being over zealous in padagusthasana could create a problem.

It has to do with the shape of your hip socket in relation to the shape of the top of your thigh bone. There is a tremendous variation in the way we are built and no two hip joints are really the same. This picture illustrates that.

If your head of your femur (thigh bone) runs into the rim of your acetabulum (hips socket) in external rotation (turning the leg so the toes point outwards) and abduction (leg going out to side) and you try and force this, it is like using your thigh bone as a tyre lever to prise open the sacroiliac joint.

So how do you know if you run into such a bony constraint? You will feel a jamming sensation on the leading edge, that is, in the hip in the direction of the movement.

It is not a case of needing to become more flexible. No amount of flexibility is going to change the shape of your hip socket. In such a situation the yoga lesson is contentment, Santosha, with what you have, Satya, honouring the truth of your body, and Ahimsa, doing no harm to your body. Take the sitting posture that is right and comfortable for you.

What to do if you have sacroiliac pain?

Cease all the postures that aggravate it. This will include:

• Forward bends
• Asymetric poses, such as warrior poses
• Anything that twists, including triangle pose, reverse triangle and so on, which are also asymetric, so double reason there.

The job now is to begin to train the surrounding muscles to take up the work of the overstretched ligaments in order to provide stability in the pelvic region. Now that is your core muscles, and I include in the core group the following, some of which are often not counted as core:

• transverse abdominus
• miltifidus
• spinae erectus
• iliopsoas
• pelvic floor
• quadratus lumborum
• internal and external obliques

Here are some pictures to help you identify those.

There are many ways for you to proceed with this core training, and many lovely yoga practices to help as well. Just do 70% of what you think you can do in any one session, and only begin to reintroduce the full range of postures when you are pain free. And when you do, practice with a new awareness of pelvic stability.

Your well trained yoga teacher can help you to identify practices that will help you and which ones to avoid.

Finally, listen to your body. It is immensely wise.

What is spiritual?

For me, yoga has always been a spiritual practice. But what exactly do I mean by that? I have heard quite a few people say that they don't mind doing yoga but they cannot stand all that spiritual stuff. What do they mean by that? Can it be yoga without being spiritual?

I have also talked to a number of people who are reluctant to do yoga because they fear it will conflict with their religion. Is yoga religion? Is spiritual experience religious?

Like many, I actually began taking yoga classes, back at the tender age of eighteen, looking for physical exercise. I was seeking a movement discipline I could enjoy. I had never been great at sports, my racket skills truly suck and I find it hard to catch a ball. Yoga appealed, no rackets or balls involved, or so I thought back then. I am now actually quite fond of balls as part of my yoga explorations.

I did enjoy it. Turned out that my 18 year old body was quite flexible and strong, and yoga, the physical side of it, came naturally.  It wasn't long however before yoga revealed something more to me. It was something my feeble attempts on the netball court had never come close to. I began to recognize the spiritual in it, in me. All in all, doing yoga felt harmonious, I felt harmonious and whole, doing yoga.

This was natural and unremarkable. There was no sense of the hand of a god. Just a sense of deep connection I could not explain, but which was both extraordinary and ordinary, a paradox, undeniable and exquisite.

Spirituality is natural and unremarkable. It is as normal and as natural as remembering, a remembering of ourselves as we really are, which is immense, connected and easeful, forgotten in our taking on form and becoming caught up in sensation and thought.

Religion is troublesome because there are so many of them each claiming to be true. Since antiquity people have attempted to explain the unexplained by ascribing it, the ineffable, to God, a God, or different gods for different purposes. Religion has a hallmark of being organised and rule based, lest you offend the God. Religions are almost always organised around assigning power to human beings, usually men, over other human beings. Religion develops theology, a set of quasi-logical arguments based upon initial assumptions that spring from that particular religions revelations from the god to some founding father figure of that religion. Religion spawns its own mythology and demands obedience. Religion backs us into a corner that must be defended.

There has been a tendency to confuse spirituality with religion, as a process by which humans come to know God. But what if we remove the whole idea of God.

https://compassionaterebel.wordpress.com/2013/01/28/
if-gaining-enlightenment-is-an-accident-how-to-be-accident-prone/

Remarkably, spirituality still exists. Stripped of lofty and divine otherness, it becomes the very ordinary recognition of a part of ourselves which is not the body, not the senses, not the emotions, nor the 'thoughts that come and go, but greater and more sustaining than all of these. It is not discovered by listening at pulpits but in the simplest and most ordinary of actions, mindfully practised. Like eating a peach, mowing the lawn, or going through a series of postures and movements mindfully.

Any mindful activity, it doesn't have to be yoga. Perhaps it is surfing, or painting, or playing music, or washing dishes or racing a motor cycle.

But yoga was developed for this purpose. The whole system of yoga consists of practices that are designed to still the mind and allow the truth of who we really are to move to the foreground. I am not sure, but perhaps it is not even possible to do anything taken from the yoga practices and not discover a spiritual pathway in it. Even when doing a practice that has for all intents and purposes been stripped of its origins, and presented as a physical workout, these movements may simply awaken pathways of energy in the body that create the very conditions for remembering who we really are. This would explain a number of revelations that have been made to me by people who started in such a practice and came to the more traditional, in some ways, school of Yoga Spirit Studios, wondering what the heck just happened over there. For, as Suzuki Roshi said:

"Gaining enlightenment is an accident; Spiritual practices make us accident prone."

Even when you didn't know you were doing a spiritual practice.

Trikonasana

1. Spot the triangles
Photo credit http://up4yoga.com/trikonasana/

Tri = three
kona = angle (think cone or corner)
asana = posture

TRIANGLE POSE

Often called Utthita Trikonasana

Utthita = striving, exerting, extended

EXTENDED TRIANGLE POSE

While we teach it to beginners, Trikonasana is a difficult pose, especially to practice in its extended form. In fact you would be forgiven for thinking it is trickinasana, the Tricky pose!

In the picture to the right is a man practising a well aligned Utthita Trikonasana and the picture is overlaid with triangles to demonstrate how it gets its name.You could also find another triangle from his hand to hand to crown of head.

Utthita trikonasana requires flexibility in the hips, external rotation in the thighs and exceptional alignment through the spine.

One of the biggest traps for many is to try and immediately emulate the way the chap in the picture is doing it, hand all the way down to the foot. Without the prerequisite opening of the body and alignment some very unfortunate things result. In the pictures below the one on the left shows what immediately happens when it is attempted to take the hand lower before the body is ready (and it may never be, by the way, more on that later.) See how the body has dragged forwards? Our colourful triangle man above would look more like the picture below right if we viewed him from the correct angle.

2. Photo credit http://www.fitnessnetwork.com.au/resources-library/the-art-of-alignment

Going back to our colourful man of the triangles above, do you notice how the sides of his torso are the same length. All too often the attempt to "make the shape" results in a student actually doing a side bend, contracting the waist on the lower side of the body, like this:

3. Photo credit: www.spfitnation.com 

Notice that this model has her back foot turned out at 90 degrees to the front foot and that her stance is not very wide.  Both of these factors might be contributing to her difficulties.

There are many ways to improve your alignment and expression in the pose, and the effort to gain better alignment will give you a more authentic Trikonasana perfect for you. No doubt you have heard these solutions form your teacher.

4. You can still make triangles when you modify the pose 
Photo credit http://up4yoga.com/trikonasana/

Start at the foundations. An ideal distance lengthwise down the mat for your feet to be is about a leg length. however you must be stable and comfortable in the distance you choose.  What that is will however impact upon your finished pose.

Then have your front foot pointing straight forwards and allow the back foot to angle in, maybe 45 degrees, with the toes pointing more towards the front than out to the side.  This will allow you to compensate for an inability to find external rotation in the hips and prevent you from putting undue pressure on your sacroiliac joint in a quest for ... what?

The one thing that the model above who is doing a side bend is doing correct is to not try to come down too far. Let go of the ambition to get the hand on the floor.  one day, after many moons of practice, that might happen. But who cares?  A comfortable and beautifully aligned Trikonasana is surely more important.

Your teacher will offer many suggestions and practices that will work towards your inner discovery of alignment.

What is it that makes it so very tricky?

Trikonasana challenges us even to the structure of our body! In this article I will just address hips on this subject.  It is very likely that not all of your constraints are muscular.  If you encounter a bony constraint, there may not be any further you will ever go, short of surgery to knock off a bit of bone and I really hope that no-one would ever seriously contemplate that!

5. Bone on bone - the greater trocanter meets the rim of the acetebulum
Photo credit: iynaus.org/book/export/html/248

Consider the illustration to the right. As the leg is taken out the knobbly bit at the top of the femur, the greater trocanter, is bumping up against the rim of the hip socket, or acetebulum. There is nowhere else to go.

In the next picture, bleow, you can see that when the thigh is rotated outwardly it may free the constraint and more outward movement is possible in the thigh. - Maybe. The ability to draw the thigh into such external rotation is also dependent on your unique structure and some very strong muscles to make it possible. Another scenario is that instead of rotating the thigh externally, the temptation is to tilt the pelvis forward which will tend to bring the whole torso forward and you finish up with the alignment flaw we saw in figure 2 above. At some point or other we may have to accept that this is as far as we go, in this body we are blessed to have.

6. Photo credit: iynaus.org/book/export/html/248

Why do we do Trikonasana, what are its benefits?

The pose strengthens parts of the knees, spine, core muscles and shoulders and stimulates abdominal organs. It stretches the thighs, knees and ankles, hips, groins, calves, shoulders, chest and spine. It builds better posture through an inner discovery of the connection between the head and the tail.

But these are but physical benefits. Perhaps its most profound lessons for us lay elsewhere. Tricky trikonasana gives us opportunities to explore some of the trickiest yamas and niyamas of the Yoga Sutras.

Santosha - contentment - can you be content with where you are and give up wanting to be like the chap in the colourful triangle picture at the top?

Satya - truthfulness - can you really honour and discover your own truth in this pose?

Ahimsa - non-violence - can you kindly meet yourself where you are and not violently try to push into something that you are not?

Brahmacharya - conservation of the life-force - can you find a place of ease and not over strive and exhaust yourself in the practice of Trikonasana?

Svadhyaya - self study - what can you learn about yourself as you meet and greet all of the nuances of your, perfect-for-you Trikonasana.

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"

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.

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.

Proprioception and interoception in yoga

Credit: coredynamicspilates.com

Interoception, defined here as the sense of the physiological condition of the body, is a ubiquitous informatin channel used to represent one's body from within.

Lab of Action and Body, Department of Psychology, University of Holloway UK

Proprioception is a process by which the body can vary muscle contraction in immediate response to incoming information regarding external forces, by utilizing stretch receptors in the muscles to keep track of the joint position in the body.

The Proprioceptive System, SPD Australia

Yoga: A system of disciplines and exercises aimed at liberation of the self. A discipline involving controlled breathing, prescribed body positions and meditation with the aim of attaining a state of deep spiritual insight and tranquility.

The Free dictionary.com

I start this post with some definitions. I didn't make them up, I googled the terms and took what came up. To me, both proprioception and interoception are important in yoga.

The word interoception is a new one to me but the practice of it is not. In somatics we call it the soma, the felt sense of the body, from the inside. It is tuning into sensation and becoming sensitised to the messages of sensation. In iRest we practice Body Sensing, both during Yoga Nidra and in movement.

The word proprioception is more familiar to me. I have always understood it as the way we sense our body's place in space. Thus when we are standing we know where our head is in relation to our torso, our pelvis and our feet.

Children must develp proprioception in order to learn to walk, pick things up and place them where they want to place them. It is fascinating watching this unfold when you watch a baby grow.

Both are important to yoga.

Proprioception is important to the physical discipline of yoga, to alignment, and to the ability to maintain good posture in sitting.

It is not a given.

Most people starting out in yoga, unless they are coming into yoga from another finely tuned physical discipline such as dance or gymnastics, find it difficult to find good alignment and this is due to a deficiency in proprioception. Even though we have learnt to stand up, walk around, pick up a cup of coffee and get it to our mouth, at a finer level we still do not have a clear sense of the position of our body in space. Hatha Yoga is fantastic to help to develop it and this will have great benefits in our coordination, our posture and as a falls preventative as we age.

Have you ever received an adjustment in which the teacher has suggested a new way to do a pose, but the next time you come into it you still cannot find that position and the teacher adjusts you again? Somehow we must develop an internal way of feeling our way into that spatial relationship that is good alignment, we need to fine tune our proprioception.

Interoception is a pathway to proprioception. By sensitizing to the body as sensation we become more aware of the signals that can feed our proprioception.

Even more that that, interoception is like another sense that is a portal right into the present, directly to the goal of yoga, into awareness of who we really are.

But lets drop the complicated word. A simpler term is body-sensing.

We train our ability to body sense as the teacher invites us, in relaxation, to note what is present, to open the senses, to note the feel of the breath in the body, to bring different parts of the body into focus. As we do this thoughts become defocused. they may quieten completely or they may just cease to be as interesting as we sense the body, thoughts simply come and go without distracting us. We enter the present moment and we may well find that in that state we open to spacious awareness and begin to recognise our true nature.

As we open into body-sensing we also begin to experience the body as vibratory energy, a kind of radiance. The sense of being a physical entity begins to dissolve, the sense of the body's edges may become fuzzy. We know from physics that everything is really energy but in the normal everyday state we do not usually sense that. In body-sensing this becomes a reality to us.

The practices of body-sensing arise from the yoga practices of Kashmir Shaivism. A hallmark of Kashmir Shaivism is its focus on practices that the ordinary person can do to achieve awareness of their true nature in this lifetime. No need to be an aesetic and meditate in a cave. This is a path to enlightenment anyone can do. It's perfect for us in our modern world.

The Vijnana Bhairava Tantra is a text of 112 meditations designed for the householder, framed as a conversation between Shiva and his goddess consort Parvati, or Shakti. the lovely modern translation by Lorin Roche, The Radiance Sutras, makes these meditations very accessible and from time to time we try them out in the Sunday morning class. Here is a taste.

"The senses declare an outrageous world -
Sounds and scents, ravishing colors and surfaces
Decorating vibrant emptiness."

Body-sensing is also practised as we move. Again in the words of the Radiance Sutras, 'the soul reveals itself to itself through movement, energy infused undulations and gestures of hand, foot, spine, face and form". In hatha yoga form and movement become the meditation, ever inviting a heightened awareness of the body as sensation.

Follow sensation. It might be the path to wholeness.

I am grateful to the many teachers who have taught me to practice yoga as body-sensing, especially Dr Richard Miller, Jennifer Carbanero, Fuyuko Toyota, Anne Douglas and Kirsten Guest.

Anne Douglas is visiting Australia in June to teach a retreat "Embodied Awakening". Find out more here.

The pose called "Forward Virasana"

I have been moving in yoga circles for some time now with people who call the pose you see above "forward virasana". In fact I just now did a little search in Google images for forward virasana and found lots that looked a lot like this. Sometimes the knees are a little part, like this, sometimes together. Call that variations for individuals.

I have a problem with the name.

The picture below is virasana.

I think this fellow is sitting on a block, a sensible variation for many of us, but in virasana, hero's pose, the bottom is between the feet, not on them.

Below is vajrasana, thunderbolt pose:

 Notice that in Vajrasana the bottom is on the feet.

So why, when from a kneeling position the body is draped forwards with the bottom ON the feet and arms reach forward, do we call it forward virasana?

I will even go further and ask, why forward?  It appears to me to be more folded, or downward facing.

So might the pose be more properly called "adho mukha vajrasana"?

I have another suggestion: "Dwiputasana: or "double fold pose". 

Also what is the difference between this "dwiputasana" and "utthitha balasana", extended child's pose?

To me it is the engagement or lack of it.

Below is balasana and its utthita (extended) version, The extended version has relaxed arms, forearms resting on the floor. Following that is our "dwiputasana" again, and notice that the arms are active. The head may not even be on the floor but may be actively reaching towards the hands.

. 

So, do you think we should change what we say when we take this pose? If so, what will you call it?

Dealing with negative thoughts and emotions

When we are in emotional turmoil thoughts can go around and around in our head. They become so persistent that we cannot sleep or concentrate on any other job. The emotions that accompany them threaten to overwhelm us. In the worst times we become quite dysfunctional and mentally unwell.

For example, perhaps we lost a job or broke up with our partner. Beliefs about ourselves that have their origins in childhood may arise, such as "I am not good enough", "there is something wrong with me", "I am stupid", or "I am unlovable". And with each of these beliefs comes wave after wave of emotion, such as sadness, anger, shame and guilt. The emotion reinforces the belief and the belief reinforces the emotion.

Not surprisingly we find these emotions and beliefs uncomfortable and we regard them as negative, and something to get rid of. So we resist them, try to push them away, suppress them. This might work for awhile, until something else happens, and those old beliefs are arising again and along with them come all of those "negative" emotions.

We want to know how can we deal with these negative thoughts and emotions and be rid of them forever?

Properly understood, all experiences are signposts to guide us back to our inherent wholeness. We take such emotions and beliefs to be "negative" only when we misunderstand their role and lack the skills to welcome them and receive their messages. 

When we truly welcome and observe all emotional experiences, all thoughts and beliefs, we cease to mistakenly identify with them and learn to recognise that they truly are just passing through. 

In so much as I am sad in this moment I can also be happy. I have emotions, but I am not my emotions. I can observe my emotions pass through, and I can enquire into them, discover a belief that is accompanying them, explore the belief, discover all the messages they are bringing me. I can also invoke and welcome the opposite belief and emotion, so I know that none of it is permanent.

Be drawn to the practices and wisdom teachings that help you to learn to meet and greet whatever arises. Learn to be curious about the felt sense in the body of any emotion and to watch it pass through. Learn to recognise the temporary nature of all movements of the mind, and how to remain at ease in every situation. Recognise that no thought or emotion is truly a negative experience, they just are, and they all have a valuable message that will show you the way home to your inherent wholeness.

The practices we are given in iRest®, whether as Yoga Nidra or meditation, establish a safe place to practice and develop our skills in meeting all that arises. It nurtures us to be open and welcoming and always at ease in every situation. These are ancient teachings that cross many cultures as the poem by Rumi below attests. But in iRest they are packaged to be accessible to us in our modern world.

Translation by Coleman Barks. Image from www.yearofjoys.com

Why older women need yoga

The Yoga market place is flooded with images of the young and beautiful smiling their way through impossible yoga poses. So much so that men, older people, and the not so flexible are likely to judge themselves ineligible.

Here are five reasons why women really need yoga from midlife and beyond.

1. Older women are at risk of losing bone mass - osteoporosis. Yoga provides gentle resistance training that helps the bones osteoblasts build stronger bones.
2. As we age our muscles atrophy at a faster rate. Exercise is needed to build them. Yoga is great for building muscles in a relatively risk free manner.
3. Yoga builds body awareness, breath awareness and includes practices that release endorphins. Its better than chocolate because it burns calories rather than adds them. Older women, especially in the peri-menopausal years face mood swings that these endorphins can certainly help.
4. As women age they often report that they do not sleep very well. The relaxation practices of yoga help to compensate for lost sleep and establish the conditions for improved sleep.
5.  Yoga works on core strength, including pelvic floor strength. This is great as it helps to prevent back injuries, relieve existing back soreness and, bonus, helps prevent bladder leakage, a common curse of the older woman.

But you do need to choose your class. Mixing it with those hot bods of the 20 somethings might not be the best option. Practice yoga amongst your peers and with a teacher who is trained to understand your needs, better still if the teacher is also your peer in age.

Relieving deep exhaustion with yoga

As I lay in the Big Relax last Saturday, I began to let go. I had begun the session by leaping up to assist Cherise, helping students to set up their blankets in that wonderful art of blanket origami that is a part of the art of restorative yoga.  Then I began to recognize what I had not been taking time to acknowledge.  I felt deeply exhausted.  I began to settle into the practice. soaking up the deep relaxation of just being. It may sound odd but after two hours of restorative I still felt really tired.  I listened to this, I went home, had dinner, did no more work that day, and had an early night. And woke enormously refreshed.

This all happened after a week during which I had been pushing myself to take advantage of every waking hour to do more.

I have a friend who had an extremely high pressure, powerful but stressful position; and then she stepped back from it.  Discussing that later I asked her how she was finding it.  She told me that as she took on more and more she hardly noticed the increasing pressure.  Like the proverbial live frog in the pot in which the temperature is rising who doesn't jump out, she had simply absorbed.  "Now I have stopped" she said,  "I am exhausted.  I didn't know how exhausted, until I stopped."

The lesson is that we do not always recognize the symptoms of our deep exhaustion until it erupts as illness. But we can be wise and take steps to give our body and mind the true rest it needs.

This is what restorative yoga does. We support the body really well, and feeling that support, the body can finally relax. When the body relaxes, so can the mind and all of our organs and all of our cells can be flushed and refreshed with blood.

Donna Farhi, writing in Yoga, Body, Mind and Spirit said it more eloquently.

"In a restorative posture that has been well propped, one feels absolutely comfortable with no intense stretching sensations. Don’t mistake this, however, with a mild result. It is the graduated nature of the position that will allow you to stay for much longer periods of time than you might normally if you were practicing a posture more actively. This longer stay allows the key organs and glands to become drenched with revitalizing blood. Because the action reaches deep into the nervous system, the practice of these postures can dismantle chronic tension patterns, improve immune function, and bring the body and mind back to their original state of equilibrium."

We can learn from the suggestion of Judith Hanson Lassiter, author of Relax and Renew, "practice at least one restorative pose every day, at least one full session of restorative yoga every week, and one full week a year doing nothing but restorative yoga".

If you attend classes and learn restorative yoga from a good teac her you will learn to finesse your setting up to attain "impeccable standards of comfort" (Neal Ghoshal). But here is one pose you can always rely on.  It doesn't need a lot of props and you can do it almost anywhere.

Easy Rest, or Constructive Rest position is a pose you can do for ten minutes every day. Lie on your back on the floor and feel the spine laid along the floor.  Bend the knees and rest your feet on the floor. The fussiness in this restorative pose comes in the exact positioning of the feet. They should be hip width apart, with the weight evenly distributed underneath them. so sense the weight under the feet. try lifting them up and putting them back down again and sensing that weight beneath them.  If they are too close the weight will be more in the toes. If they are too far away the weight will come into the heels. If the feet are too wide, the knees will want to collapse inward, if they are too narrow the knees will want to collapse outwards. So shift the feet around a little and find that just right position.

You might find that your body greets this position with a deep "Yes". Close the eyes over and just rest here, watching your breath, for ten minutes.

To come up, roll over to your side and stay there awhile and then come up giving weight into your hips, supporting yourself with your hands and let your head arrive last.

(Picture credits: Babbling brook - http://www.yogaforgriefsupport.com/blog/restorative-yoga
Constructive Rest position - http://www.coreawareness.com/articles/the-one-muscle-that-does-not-need-strengthening/)

A decade of teaching

With Guest blogger Cherise Vallet

Celebrating Cherise's ten years of teaching at Yoga Spirit Studios


My birthday more or less coincides with when I began teaching at Yoga Spirit 10 years ago. Birthdays mark the passing of such a solid unit of time – a whole year. There, bam. Like a kilo of apples. An acre of land. A hundred dollar note. Another year. Then those years click together, side by side, and another chunk of time with a bigger thunk – a decade. And I’m still here.

First thing worth noting – I’ve never worked at any other job for 10 years, though I suppose this isn’t technically a ‘job’. More a delight. An opportunity.

The experience has been an ever-changing one and maybe why I’ve stuck with it so long is because of the variety that teaching offers – stimulation and challenge on all levels. Emotionally – facing fears, facing my ego. I’m sure students had no idea that there have been times I’d go home after teaching a class and wake up in the night full of self-criticism for some way I’d taught, how I’d missed explaining this or showing that, or that I allowed too short a time for savasana. I used to worry why my class numbers could be so low for awhile, and then high for a time – was I not teaching well? Over time I have learned to let go of that thinking for the most part – I know the way I teach doesn’t appeal to everyone, but I’ve found that the students that come back again and again are coming because they receive something from me, and I from them.

Cherise enjoying beach yoga in WA

I discovered Yoga Spirit Studios (then known as Torrensville Yoga Studio) in 2003. I had been doing a short yoga practice a friend had shown me several years previously, quite faithfully on most mornings up to that point. It only took about ½ hour and once memorised required little thought, just breathing and moving. This had become my routine while living in the beautiful southern countryside outside McLaren Vale. It was a few minutes that gave my body some nice stretches and maintained some strength, the breathing offered a particular sense of calming and balance that was fortifying during a period of immense change in my life. Then I moved back into the city in early 2003.

I missed the countryside so much once I came to the city – I could feel my whole being crying out at the loss of all that space and beauty. I saw an ad in the local Messenger paper for a 6-week Introduction to Yoga course and decided that could help fill the gap. The course was magic. Suddenly my body was invited to consider more deliberately the conscious thoughts of the mind, and even include awareness of the heart and what my body was feeling. In the first class I remember having tears stream down the sides of my face while reclining back into Savasana, soft little drips landing on the mat under my head. My heart felt so happy. My body felt so alive – I was aware of it all – the humming thrum of blood moving through my veins, the swelling of my abdomen and chest as I breathed, the weight and length and breadth of my body and a profound sense of nourishment, happiness – coming home. And so my association with the Studio was born – first as a student, then as a teacher trainee, and then as an ongoing student and teacher for the past 10 years.

I’ve taught the Tuesday evening Experienced class for around the past seven years – a long time to teach one class, and there is a reliable core of people who have come to that class all that time. I feel connected to this little community of steady practitioners.

My classes in the McLaren Vale region where I have since moved back to have also attracted a small but loyal following. I’d love to be roaringly popular I suppose, but that’s not happened as indicated by large numbers of students. The wonderful people who come regularly, however, do bring such presence. And this helps me see that it’s not all in the hands of the teacher – the students who come along in such a steady way have a deep impact on the tone of the class, providing a sense of continuity and make it easier for me to build on themes/approaches etc.

Cherise does headstand in Spain

Every time I enter the doors of the Studio I get this sensation – I’m home. My body has a memory of that first night, I’m sure. When I do yoga these days, it’s less regimented, not aligned with a set of postures I repeat daily, though sometimes I’ll have weeks of spending time in particular postures, then gradually emerging into another range of postures. My faithful body is a good guide, and some of my most wonderful experiences of practice are when I simply follow the prompts of my arm moving, my leg wanting to stretch, the energy to move vigorously or desire to rest. It is food for my being, this yoga I know. A practice in consciousness, noticing the rise of impulse from my body, the long sigh of an outbreath, the way my arms support the weight of my torso in a particular pose, and my legs in another. In a yoga practice, my body is less of a robot and more of an alert animal, seeking the clearest line, the most delicate balance, the release of breath and stretch and softening. I come home to my body daily, and in this moment, in this practice.

I count myself very fortunate to have seen that Messenger ad for the Introduction to Yoga course so long ago. The path that first tearful savasana put me on has opened continually over the past decade through this experience of teaching yoga. It is a great privilege to be able to share these gifts of yoga to enhance life for myself and others. When I seek to enhance the lives of others, I am automatically nourished, I automatically receive the gift of my kind intentions. It’s quite a foolproof way to create happiness. And happy is how I feel to still be teaching yoga after all these years.