The YogaScope Kaleidoscope - Yoga Blog

The Art of Living: Finding Your Passion

2008-03-16T22:56:00.002-05:00

Below is a description of a two part seminar being taught by Jeffrey Rubin. He is really worth checking out. He is doing something that I think is what Yoga is really about. He is using tools from psychotherapy, meditation and yoga practice to help people make their whole life better. To me that sounds like what yoga is fundamentally supposed to be about.

Peace, UpSideDown

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The Art of Living: Finding Your Passion

Creating a rich and fulfilling life starts with passion—the compelling excitement you feel when doing something you love, which is a doorway into what you value. When you pursue your passions, you discover meaning and purpose and feel alive and vibrant. Explore how to pinpoint your passion with Dr. Jeffrey B. Rubin through lecture, dialogue and experiential exercises drawn from the Eastern yogic and meditative and western psychotherapeutic traditions. Attendance at both sessions is strongly recommended, as second session builds upon the first.

2 times on Tuesdays
7:00 PM - 10:00 PM
Mar 18 - Mar 25
$30.00 - Member
$40.00 - Non-Member
ACFPAS00W8
Location: The JCC in Manhattan, 334 Amsterdam Ave. at 76th St. (Program room assignments will be available at the JCC Customer Service Desk, in the lobby of the Samuel Priest Rose Building.)

Releasing Tension from the Hips, Pelvic Structure and Back While Strengthening the Core and the Back Muscles to Help Reduce Back Pain

2008-02-13T19:12:00.004-05:00

These Posts taken together could be turned into an endless number of practices to help the health of your spine. Learning to reduce tension from your hips to your spine, from your pelvic structure to your spine and from the back of the legs to your spine is very beneficial. Learning to strengthen your core is also extremely important to the health of your back. And learning to strengthen your back muscles safely and effectively can also be extremely useful. Taken together to make your spine and the back of your body stronger, more capable of holding itself in good alignment and free of unwanted tension would be a good part of helping to eliminate back pain for a large percentage of people.

The First Principle of Therapeutic Yoga

SthiraSukham Asanam: The Postures Should Be Strong and Soft

Reclining Hip Opening Postures to Reduce Stress in the Outer Hips and Lower Back

Cow Faced Pose: Gomukhasana: A Seated Hip Opening Pose to Reduce Tension in the Outer Hip and Lower Back

Ankle to Knee Pose: A Seated Hip Opening Pose to Stretch from the Outer Hip into the Lower Back

Postures To Reduce Stress in the Pelvic Structure and Spine to Help Relieve Back Pain

More Angles on Opening from the Pelvic Structure to the Spine to help Reduce Back Pain

Bharadvajasana, A Twist that Opens Your Hips and Releases Tension in Your Neck and Shoulders As Well

Janusirsasana: Asymmetrical Opening from the Hips and Pelvic Structure into the Spine Reducing Tension and Improving Health of Lower Back

Parivrtti Janusirsasna: Opening From the Outer Hip into the Side of the Body Reducing Tension in Lower Back

Marichyansana A; Another Angle on Opening from the Hips to the Lower Back to Reduce Tension

Forward Bends: Uttanasana and Pascimottanasana: Stretching the Lower Back to Release Tension

Four Back Bends: Strengthening the Lower Back: The Difference Between Cobra Pose and Upward Facing Dog

Reclining Core Strengthening Twist

More Core Strengthening Postures for Improved Postural Alignment and the Health of Your Spine

Core Strengthening with Pelvic Opening

More Angles on Opening from the Pelvic Structure to the Spine to help Reduce Back Pain

2008-02-12T01:29:00.000-05:00

Here are some more angles on opening from the pelvic structure into the spine. The more angles you can give your body the better in the end. When done in a manner that is appropriate for the individual, reducing tension from the pelvic structure into the spine can help reduce stress and pain in either or both areas.

I am amazed that I could not find an image of myself in Baddha Konasana of all the poses. But this is a nice photo of Erin Wilson in a gentle version of the posture.

Ashtavakrasana: A Hand Balancing Pose That Works and Opens the Pelvic Structure and Mildly Rotates the Spine

2008-02-09T01:16:00.000-05:00

Here is a photo of a pose where you are working the muscles of the pelvic structure while opening them at the same time. You are also rotating your spine while balancing on your hands. As with all the poses the key is that there should be an element of effortlessness while performing the pose. You are working fairly strongly but you are not overworking and it should look like you are not working hard at all.

Postures To Reduce Stress in the Pelvic Structure and Spine to Help Relieve Back Pain

2008-02-08T00:52:00.000-05:00

These photos show a few angles on opening from the pelvic structure into the spine. This kind of work would reduce tension in those areas and could help relieve certain kinds of back pain if done in a away that is right for the person practicing. How far you go is not the important part of the posture. What is important is that the poses are releasing stress, rather than being done in an aggressive manner that could create more stress. What you would be looking for in the poses is to feel opening and a release of tension in the inner thighs, the back of the legs, the pelvic structure and the entire back of the torso (lower back, mid back, upper back and even the back of the neck). It is also interesting how effective the bent kneed variations are at helping reduce stress in the pelvic structure and spine.

MEDITATION AND PSYCHOTHERAPY: PARTNERS IN HEALING with Jeffrey Rubin, Ph.D.

2008-02-01T11:17:00.000-05:00

This is some information about a seminar that is going to be held this Sunday. Jeffrey Rubin is someone worth checking out. He has a wealth of knowledge and experience in the fields of Psychotherapy, Insight Meditation and Yoga. And the way he combines techniques is really groundbreaking. There is a lot that you will take away from what he has to offer. This work will deepen your practice and give you tools to help make other aspects of your life more fulfilling and more of what you want them to be.

Here is a link to some of the kinds of workshops he offers: http://www.drjeffreyrubin.com/workshops.htm

Here is a link to his published works: http://www.drjeffreyrubin.com/publications.htm

UpSideDownCarl

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MEDITATION AND PSYCHOTHERAPY:
PARTNERS IN HEALING
Jeffrey Rubin, Ph.D.
Sunday, February 3, 1-4:30pm
Fee: $25
Meditation and Psychotherapy each offer unique and wonderful tools for self-transformation. Meditation provides indispensable strategies for quieting and focusing the mind and cultivating deep concentration, equanimity and compassion. Psychotherapy offers incomparable techniques for detecting self-deception and discovering those hidden forces that sabotage our efforts to change.
Through a combination of lecture, dialogue and experiential practices drawn from the yogic, psychotherapeutic and meditative traditions, we will explore the way meditative and psychotherapeutic traditions can enrich each other. Topics to be addressed will include: cultivating and deepening whole-hearteded therapeutic presence, integrating meditative attentiveness and psychoanalytic understanding of unconscious communication, and integrating meditation and psychotherapy in clinical practice.

New York Insight Meditation Center - to register, see link below.
http://www.nyimc.org/index6.htm

Breath Anatomy for Asana, Pranayama and Meditation

2008-01-28T10:24:00.000-05:00

Coming up on Saturday, February 23rd is the first part of a three part workshop that I am doing for Yoga Sutra's School of Yogic Studies. Here is the title of the workshop with dates and times for all three parts:

Breath Anatomy for Asana, Pranayama and Meditation
with Carl Horowitz

Three Saturday Intensives:
Part 1 The Diaphragm: Feb 23, 5:30-8:30pm
Part 2: Accessory Muscles and Efficiency: March 15, 5:30-8:30pm
Part 3: Breath and the Bandhas: May 31, 5:30-8:30pm

Here is a link to more information about the workshops: http://www.yogasutranyc.com/yogicstudies.php

My workshop is the first one listed on that page as of now (1/28/08--this page gets updated to reflect upcoming workshops so some time after the date of the last one it will be changed). The work we will be doing in these seminars will be fairly powerful. We will be looking at the main anatomical features of breathing, exploring how the postures and movement both affect the breathing process and how you can use the breathing process to deepen your experience in the postures. We will also look at ways of making your breathing more efficient.

In the first session we will look at the diaphragm's major role in breathing.

In the second session we will look at the accessory muscles and how to use this deeper understanding of the breathing mechanism to help create more efficiency in the breathing process.

In the third session we will explore how the breath and the bandhas are interrelated, how understanding the breathing process can deepen your ability to use the bandhas effectively, which will deepen the power and effectiveness of your practice.

I am excited about teaching these sessions. This is really powerful material and the way it is organized should make it a really fun and deep learning experience for any level practitioner.

Gentle Yoga at Yoga Sutra Coming in February 2008

2008-01-18T21:21:00.000-05:00

So I am going to be teaching a Gentle Yoga class at Yoga Sutra NYC starting in February. The first class will be Monday February 4th and it will be every Monday from 10:30AM-12:00PM.

There is something very beneficial about dropping back a few notches in intensity and seeing what is going on inside. In this kind of gentle approach where the emphasis is on an internal process of listening, the kind of shifts you can make in your system are pretty profound and it is also interesting how much of those shifts and that deeper awareness you are able to bring back into your practice if and when you step things up a notch or two. Some of the deepest work I do is also some of the subtlest, but that subtle work is definitely a huge part of why I am able to do some of the more complex or physically challenging asana practice I am able to do. The more detailed work carries over into the bigger movements because you body absorbs it and your form improves, your mechanics improve, your body knows what is doing better, and that all translates into an internal process that is empowering and healing.

Another Year Appears to Be Winding Down Rather Quickly: Happy Holidays

2007-12-19T15:46:00.000-05:00

Okay, it has been months since I posted anything. I have found a whole new category of busy. Things are good though. I guess all I really have to say is that I hope everyone has a happy holiday season and that your practice continues to help you connect internally with what is most important in your life.

The Connection Between the External Form of Pose and the Benefits the Posture Creates

2007-09-10T01:20:00.000-05:00

Lauren Cahn asked another great question and it took me a while to get to it but now, here it is.

UpSideDown

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YC Said: Thank you so much!! Now I have something interesting to explore in my next practice!

Oh! And now I have a follow-up sort-of question. Maybe you could write a post about this: the external expression of a pose, like what you see in a photo or in the mirror, versus the actual action of a pose that you feel in your boy. Discuss.

Thanks!

My reply: Excellent. It is always nice to have new things to explore which is ultimately where practice leads us. And as usual your questions and inquiries are deep and there is more than meets the eye to them.

The complicated thing about form is that there are several issues at stake here. In any pose there are a variety of ways of doing a posture that will be useful to a practitioner. Different angles cause you to work or open different areas of the body. So any one person can do several different variations of any posture. An easy example is that a standing forward bend can be done with the hands holding the elbows and the arms hanging, the legs could be straight or bent; you could have your palms flat on the floor, again the legs could be straight or bent; you could have your hands holding your big toes, they could be under your feet from the front, from the side, from the back of the heel; whether the legs are straight or bent the feet can be together or apart. I could keep going. There are variations with one hand behind your back or both. The more you look at things the more different angles you can give.

This is mainly concerning arrangement of limbs and spine. Within any of those variations there are positions where you could be in a good alignment where your body is getting good healthy work that will strengthen and open or you could be creating unwanted stress in certain areas unnecessary to the movement and work of the posture. That unwanted stress could be minor and therefore not such a big deal. This would merely represent a lack of awareness of the most efficient way of bringing your body into the posture. However, repetitive stress like this can, over time, cause cumulative damage, so, hopefully the practitioner learns to improve his or her form over time so that the body is not wasting effort in ways that are counter productive. Then there is the kind of unwanted stress that is bigger and more damaging. That is the stuff that you need to look out for first.

Now this second aspect of form could be categorized as ways of finding good alignment and avoiding damaging alignment within any of the variations of a posture.

And then there is the individual practitioner to be considered. Different people have different bodies, different shaped bones, different joint structures. I think I will talk about genetics and flexibility for a moment, which has to do with joint structure to some extent. Some people walk into their first yoga practice never having done anything like yoga and are quite flexible in many directions. They never worked on it. It just has to do with that person’s body type. There are others who practice for years and feel they can never get past a certain degree of flexibility no matter how much they work on it. Some people are stronger and can do postures that take a high degree of strength without much effort. Some cannot hold certain postures for very long because of their lack of strength for that kind of work. A certain amount of this can be changed and a certain amount of your inherent body type is just what you were given.

Now most of us would be more flexible than we are if, during the years from when we were around 10 till we were around 20, we were doing a considerable amount of movement that required a high degree of flexibility. The reason this is the case is that somewhere between those ages most of us experienced what we could call growth spurts. When your bones are still growing, if your bones grow really fast and you are not doing movements that require certain ranges of movement, you start to loose those ranges of movement in the joints. The bones grew but the joint capsules that surround the joints and prevent movements beyond a certain range don’t necessarily change much if you are not moving the joints in those directions. If your bones grow really fast and you do not continue doing movements that require a certain range of flexibility, it is almost like your joint capsules, your ligaments, which hold your bones together, shrink wrap around the joint. If you don’t do a certain range of movement your body does not know you need that range of movement and by the time our bones have stopped growing, the body pretty much thinks that the movements you have been doing are the ones you need. So a person who spends the years during which the bones in their body were growing the fastest, doing something like sitting in a chair, at a desk, reading, writing and doing schoolwork, might end up with something like chair length hamstrings.

Some of this can be changed but the kind of opening that happens in yoga postures or the kinds of assisted stretching that happen in a lot of yoga adjustments is not the most intelligent method of stretching the connective tissue that keeps your joints stable. There are joint mobilization techniques that can precisely stretch joint capsules in particular directions but I would not recommend a yoga practitioner or teacher to mess with this stuff unless they are well trained in the techniques and know what they are doing. This is also not something you can do to yourself. But joint mobility is not really something you want to mess with too much anyway.

Now you also have the length and shape of the bones. One person might have long legs and a short spine; another might have long arms and a short spine; long legs and short arms, or short legs and long arms. A person might have a long upper leg and short lower leg; a long lower leg and a short upper leg; a long forearm and a short upper arm; or a short forearm and a long upper arm. Things like this will affect the way the external form of a posture appears to someone who is looking from outside.

The length and shape of the posterior spinous processes can play some role in determining how much mobility the thoracic spine has when moving into hyperextension (back bending). Of course there are a lot of other things that could come into play as well.

The shape of the upper part of the thigh bone can play a great role in movements of the leg in abduction, adduction, external rotation, flexion and extension. The angle of the femoral neck in relation to the ground, it is usually somewhere close to a 45-degree angle to the femoral shaft, but can be closer to parallel to the ground or closer to vertical. As the shaft goes from the greater trochanter towards the pelvic structure there is also an angle. Sometimes the greater trochanter is lateral and posterior to the hip joint, sometimes it is directly lateral to the hip joint and sometimes the greater trochanter is lateral and anterior to the hip joint. This angle will determine a certain amount of range of movement in certain planes as well. And how long or short the shaft is will also determine a certain amount of range of movement because a longer shaft, while not being as strong and stable is more mobile since the trochanters can move farther in more directions before coming up against the bones of the pelvic structure.

(I am re-reading this and you need to look at photos of several different femurs from several different angles to get what I am trying to say above. I wish I had the graphics to lay out.)

The shoulder girdle is more complicated and sometimes there are similar things at play that cause one person to have greater or lesser ranges of motion in all planes. An example is that one person might be able to reach the arms up higher than another before the shoulder blades start elevating, creating tension and doing funny things.

So now that we got that information out, the external form of a posture, even if two people are doing the same basic variation, is often going to look a little different from person to person. A person with long arms, short legs and a long spine doing the variation of Urdhva Dhanurasana where you are trying to get your feet and hands closer to each other so that the apex of the arch in the posture is the abdomen and lower back, would look different in the pose than a person with long legs, short arms and a long spine in the same variation.

So the external form is a very superficial and imprecise guideline to use in looking to quantify what a person will feel in a posture.

The simple information about the benefits of the postures that I generally give, and this is very simplistic, is this:

1) Back bending postures generally work the back of the body and gently open the front of the body. As a general statement, the work in the back of the body is more prevalent than the opening in the front of the body, but the postures can be done in a way that emphasizes the opening in the front of the body or deemphasizes the work in the back of the body.

2) Forward bending postures open the back of the body and gently work the front of the body. Here too, as a general statement, the opening in the back of the body is more prevalent than the work in the front of the body, but the postures can be done in ways that emphasize the work in the front of the body or they can be done in a way that deemphasizes the opening in the back of the body.

3) Movements in the lateral plane, whether lateral flexion or lateral extension, generally lengthen one side of the spine more than the other and as a result open aspects in the shoulders, the hips and pelvic structure as well.

4) Rotations are a little more complicated than the previous three movements of the spine. There are sets of muscles that are lined up at 90-degree angles to each other and at 45-degree angles to the ground throughout the torso. Examples are the internal and external obliques and the internal and external intercostals. There are also sets of muscles in the spine that line up like this. When you twist, one set of these muscles will shorten helping you twist while the other set will be stretched by the action. The rotational force also stretches the external fibers of the intervertebral disks (anulus fibrosus), which also line up at 45-degree angles to the ground and 90-angles to each other. So just like the intercostals and obliques one set gets stretched, but cartilage is non contractile so the set of fibers that is not stretched is merely put on slack rather than shortened.

5) In yoga there are also postures where you lengthen the spine. The ones that are interesting for our purposes are the ones where you lengthen the spine while flattening the natural curves of the spine. Postures like Ardha Uttanasana where you lift the chest and flatten the spine while keeping your palms or, more frequently, your finger tips on the ground, getting ready to jump back to chaturanga. Downward facing dog is another posture where you are straightening your back and flattening the curves of the spine. The work of flexing at the hip joints, and flexing the lumbar spine to flat, while extending the thoracic spine, to flat, takes work in the thighs, the hip flexors, the abdominal muscles, and the spinal extensors of the upper back all at the same time. And if the legs are straight it could lengthen the hamstrings, depending on the angle of flexion at the hip joints.

All yoga postures, and really any movement we as humans can do has to have at least one of those movements of the spine mentioned above. But those ideas of what benefits come from each of the movements of the spine, are really generalizations and when you add things like a bind of the arms or a rotation in the hip joint you add more things to consider.

Here too, the simple way of expressing things is that if you change the way you do a posture you will change the benefits you receive from that posture. So there would be ways of doing a pose like Urdhva Dhanurasana that would emphasize extension of the lower back, the mid back or the upper back; you could do it to emphasize a kind of work in the inner thighs; you could emphasize the extension in the hip joint; you could emphasize the movement of the shoulders and arms.

If the alignment of a posture is useful to the person the pose will probably look powerful and effortless at the same time. If the person is struggling, gripping, creating stress on particular joints that should not be in play to such an extent, the posture will probably not look as graceful; it will not look as elegant or as powerful. The person will not look quite as happy. The analogy that I would use is that a great gymnast makes what he or she is doing look easy, effortless, almost like they could do what they are doing in their sleep. A pretty good gymnast does all the same movements but you can see more of their effort and so it does not look as powerful, as deep or as graceful. The extra effort, the effort that was not necessary, is a reflection of alignment that could be improved.

So now once you are in a posture in a way that is useful to your body the information given above might give a very simplistic guideline to help you understand some of the physical benefits you might feel but every person is different. One person might feel one set of muscles working and another might feel completely different muscles working to create the same basic movement or posture; what joint capsules are being stressed and pulled taught would be different from person to person; what joints come into play might be different as well.

Then, there are the deeper benefits underneath the physical effects, the work and actions of the postures; what I am talking about is how the physical postures affect the underlying energetic and emotional levels of the system. Since we are all a little different this too is complicated. General tendencies here are that back bends are energizing and expanding and forward bends are calming while eliminating waste. But back bends can be done in ways that are relaxing and vice versa. Side leans are sort of calming even though they are expanding and rotations are sort of energizing even though they move waste out of the system. Again, how you do the postures can cause you to get different underlying effects than what I just described as general tendencies.

It is interesting to me that, as I practice and think of my practice as an exploration rather than trying to fit my body into specific shapes, and as I am using my body and exploring the way my body works in my physical practice, over time, I have felt my body change so much. Poses that used to feel one way to me might feel very different now. So rather than say anything too specific about the underlying benefits of practice I will say that as I go deeper into my own personal practice, this is where the juice of my physical practice seems to be: the awareness of what is happening in my body while I am doing. I feel like the shapes are tools you use to help put yourself into positions where you can experience something about your body on that day that you are doing your practice. If you are present to the Now of the particular practice you are in, and content with yourself as you are, something magical might come up as a result of your experience in the postures and with the breath. But, as I see and feel them, the postures are not really specific shapes to put your body into. Instead they seem to be templates or archetypes for exploring certain types of work. This work is sort of liquid and changeable. As your body changes your experiences in the postures change and the postures can be adapted to your current needs.

So go and explore what your experiences in the postures are and I would love to hear the results of some of those explorations: the euphoria or the stillness that you feel in a pose; the power of the release or the energy of the work.

Peace.

Yoga Without Walls with Swami X otherwise known as Asananda or the Wise Guy

2007-09-07T09:47:00.000-05:00

This is from a friend of mine who calls himself Asananda X. He is an interesting guy who is quite creative and has a lot to offer. He started something that he calls Yoga Without Walls: sort of thinking outside the box. If this info is useful to you guys check him out:

Peace.

UpSideDown

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I started a Yahoo Group called "Yoga Without Walls" as it reflected my feeling that leaving the lessons of the yoga class locked in the classroom seems a waste of consciousness. I teach in Central Park on Saturdays by donation, all proceeds going towards my Karma Konsciousness Kollection in which I duplicate non-copywritten dvd's, cd's and acquire other educational information to give out to people to help raise their awareness about certain issues. I would love to have more yogis join the "kollective" and help spread awareness!

I have some outside the classroom events coming up as well, such as a yoga hike in Minnewaska State Park on Saturday, September 8th
http://mountainyoga9-08-07.eventbrite.com, another yoga hike in Harriman State Park September 30th and will be teaching in Baja, Mexico October 6-13th as part of a yoga/multi-sport experience where we'll be snorkling with sea lions one minute and doing sunset yoga on the beach the next! http://baja2007.eventbrite.com

Swami X

A Question from Lauren Cahn: More Technical Information On Urdhva Dhanurasana

2007-08-25T19:40:00.000-05:00

This was a comment that I thought brought up some great information to explore about Urdhva Dhanurasana. There other variations of the posture shown here as well. Thank you Lauren for your dedication as a practitioner and your inquisitive mind.

yc said...
Hi Carl, I have a question about the form demonstrated in your UD shown in the pic. First of all, I think you look very nice and comfortable and at ease. Ok, that out of the way...  I notice that a lot of your weight appears to be on your hands and that your legs are stretched out. I personally LOVE this way of practicing UD for myself, as opposed to when I walk my feet in closer to my hands.   Is there an advantage to practicing the way you show it, as opposed to bringing the feet closer to the hands?  Lauren

Hey Lauren,

As always, you ask such great questions.

In the picture you are asking about I am using my legs to lengthen my lower back so my chest expands more and there is less of the back bend in my lower back. I can understand how it might seem that my arms are bearing more of the weight. There would also be nothing wrong with the hands bearing more of the weight, especially if you were getting ready to start lifting up into a handstand from the posture (just as you can drop back and then come up to standing from Urdhva Dhanurasana, you can come up to handstand or drop back from handstand into the pose). But what I am doing is extending my knees a little, and pressing my feet into the ground, and I am using that to try and help me lengthen my lower back and move more of the back bend into my upper back so that I can expand my chest as much as possible.

The benefits of this variation is that it might enable you to keep the lower back safer while you are deeper in the thoracic spine and are opening the ribcage more. If you notice in the posture in question how much of the emphasis is on my chest and ribcage expanding. You can even go all out with this variation and have the feet a little farther away from the hands and the legs fully straightened so the legs look like they are in a version of an upside down plank while the upper body is in Full Wheel. I looked to see if I had a photo of what I am talking about but don’t. I guess I will have to see about taking one because it does end up looking really nice when you do it that way.

That being said, the more traditional, or perhaps more commonly used variation, where the feet are a little closer to the hands and the idea is to try and get your abdomen to basically be the apex of the arc, is quite beneficial as well. In the end, being able to do as many variations of a posture as possible is an indication that your body is open and flexible enough to get a variety of different kinds of work. The one that is more commonly used allows you to get more arch in your lower back and for some people it lets you off the hook in your upper back and ribcage. It might make it so that a person does not have to have as much expansion there because the lower back being farther away from the ground has to be where more of the curve in the spine is. That being said, it really depends on the person’s body. I have photos of practitioners where their feet and hands are almost touching and they have an amazing amount of expansion in the chest and ribcage and I also have photos where someone is doing the variation I was describing above where the legs are moving towards straight and working to lengthen the lower back and there is very little expansion in the chest and ribcage most of the arch is still coming from the lower back. Our bodies are all so unique it is great to explore the effects of different variations. And most people’s bodies are really able to do a variety of kinds of work in any single variation of a posture.

Probably the best piece of information I could give is to try and explore both variations and feel them; compare them. See what is working in each and what is getting opened. Compare the things that are different and you will end up knowing how each of them is useful to your body and ways in which each might be less useful than the other. Since they do slightly different things they will each be better for certain things and they will not work or open other areas as effectively. When you have taken a while to explore each I would love to hear what you have to say.

It is really good hearing from you.

Peace.

Breathing Anatomy for Asana, Pranayama and Meditation Course in the Fall 2007

2007-08-24T19:33:00.000-05:00

This link: http://www.yogasutranyc.com/yogicstudies.php has information on a course called Breathing Anatomy for Asana, Pranayama and Meditation that is going to be starting up in September.

The session that happened over the summer went quite well and the response from the students who were there was quite positive. The work is powerful. The way we will be using the breath creates some of the most powerful transformational experiences Yoga has to offer. I am excited about continuing the program.

I am also teaching parts of two teacher training programs in the fall.

This link has information about New York Yoga's teacher training program: http://www.newyorkyoga.com/teacher_training/

And this link has information about Yoga Sutra's teacher training program: http://www.yogasutranyc.com/training.php

That Still Point at the Center of Your Being

2007-08-15T12:36:00.000-05:00

After a good practice--after the postures, after the rest, after some breathing techniques, when I am ready to sit and be still and go inside, where going inside simply happens naturally, not because I have tried--that internal stillness, that rare and beautiful calm where you can feel how much depth there is to your being, is such a treasure. It is my experience that you cannot try and create this state; you cannot force yourself into this state: all you can do is try and create the right circumstances for this to occur and then it may or it may not. Sort of like a beautiful day. You need to have the right circumstances, but it sure is nice when you fall into that feeling of harmony with yourself and everything around you.

Peace.

Breathing in Urdhva Dhanurasana

2007-07-31T08:13:00.001-05:00

I realize it is worth making a small note on breathing in Urdhva Danurasana.

Because of the position of the arms and what that does to the chest, ribcage and upper back, and the arch in the spine and what that does to the whole breathing mechanism, if you want to be deep in this pose, it is worthwhile to breath softly in a relaxed manner. The spine and ribcage are in such a deep position that there is no room for them to give the breathing mechanism extra volume in breathing, and the abdomen is being stretched as well so there is not much space to give there. The result is that if you tried to breath too deeply in the pose it would result in tension and strained breathing which is not what you want. Slow relaxed breaths that are a length and depth that feels natural and comfortable to the body would help you open deeper into this pose than trying to breath deeply would. The strain from deeper breathing could actually prevent you from opening as much and could make the whole posture feel strained and less beneficial.

Urdhva Dhanurasana Variations

2007-07-28T00:30:00.001-05:00

Urdhva Dhanurasana translates as Upside Down Bow, some traditions call this Cakrasana, Full Wheel, and sometimes I have heard it called Bridge Pose. This posture works the muscles of the back of the body that are necessary for upright postural alignment. It also works the muscles of the shoulders and arms and the back of the legs. The entire front of the body, including the ribcage and front of the pelvic structure is opened by the pose. Areas to be careful of in the posture are the lower back and the shoulders. As with all of the postures you want to avoid unnecessary strain, while moving into the posture. If you open your body to where it can go in the pose you will get more from the pose than if you try and push to get farther into the pose that your body wants you to go.

Busy But Enough Time for a Brief Note on Breathing

2007-07-28T00:13:00.000-05:00

Wow, I have been busy; too busy to do a lot of things. This breathing anatomy and practice course has gone really well so far though. Well enough so that it looks like, in the fall they will add more segments of it as an ongoing continuing education course in breathing anatomy and breath-work. I will add links when I have them.

It is amazing to see how people's breathing patterns improve from simply understanding what they are working on more completely rather than dogmatically presenting one method of breathing as THE method. And when people's breathing patterns improve and they are able to breath with less unnecessary tension in their breathing, and with an intelligent framework for understanding what they are trying to do with their breathing, it is pretty remarkable how much better it makes you feel; what a deep experience you are offered just by improving your breathing patterns, just by understanding more completely.

Peace.

Notes from My Breathing Seminar at Yoga Sutra

2007-07-12T16:51:00.000-05:00

So on the Monday that just past, July 9th, I taught the first part of a 4 part series called “Breathing Anatomy and Techniques for Asana, Pranayama, and Meditation”. It was interesting to see the responses from the students after class. Everyone seemed like they were completely blissed out. It is amazing how deep you can go with just some simple breathing. And then if you add some techniques and some information that help people remove unwanted tension from the body caused by inefficient breathing patterns, it is amazing how much opens up, both physically and in some way that transcends the physical level. It was a great group to work with and I am excited about this upcoming Monday. Last week we worked on how the spine, the ribcage, the abdomen and the diaphragm work together in breathing. This coming Monday we are going to focus on what accessory muscles to breathing do to determine the way the body changes shape around the breath and how different patterns of holding or releasing tension in the muscles of the torso can create different breathing patterns. The interesting thing about this subject is that if you become more aware of ways of changing patterns of holding and releasing tension while breathing you start becoming aware of what your habitual patterns of holding tension are in breathing and in every day life. Being aware of these kinds of things so that you can use those patterns of work when they are useful and release them when they are getting in the way of what you are doing can be an interestingly powerful tool in all aspects of the practice of yoga and even in every day life.

Peace

UpSideDownCarl

Experiencing the Breath

2007-07-08T01:15:00.000-05:00

It really is amazing how powerful and healing the breath can be. Just a short practice where you are doing simple postures where the central focus is the breath instead of the actual posture for itself can effect such a great amount of change in the internal system. Tension melting away, your mood changing, that ability to go far more deeply inside yourself; I guess it is hard to explain and put into words but the best things in life seem to be that way. I highly recommend to everyone out there, every once in a while to try a very simple gentle asana practice with the main focus being on the breathing in the postures. You can move into and out of the postures repetitively several times before holding them and then when holding them focusing on the breath ratio you established while moving, keeping the breath long and smooth, relaxed and even, almost like what you are doing is a breathing exercise while doing simple postures. Even just fifteen to twenty minutes of doing this kind of practice can put you in a new place and set the stage for you to hit new levels in other aspects of your practice. If you add a seated breathing exercise at the end where you focus fully on the breath you will notice how much the practice--doing postures while focusing primarily on the breath--can free your system for breathing. And then when you sit still afterwards that ability to go inside and how the breathing techniques can significantly enhance that ability to go deeper within. Freedom.

To explore more have a look here: A Breathing Seminar with Carl

Marichyansana A; Another Angle on Opening from the Hips to the Lower Back to Reduce Tension

2007-06-27T14:51:00.000-05:00

This pose, like all poses, has to be adapted to your current needs. If this is done, you get a nice angle from your pelvic structure into your lower back in this pose and the asymmetrical quality of the pose, like with Janusirsasna, causes you to get a nice release in the tension from the pelvic structure to the lower back.

The First Principle of Therapeutic Yoga

2007-06-25T22:10:00.000-05:00

The first and most important principle of working therapeutically with a yoga practitioner is not to cause harm, not to make things worse. Part of what you need to do to do this is to find out what will potentially cause damage and what is causing the damage in the first place. What makes this complicated is that it could be any number of things. It could be something the person is doing while practicing. It could be something the person does while they are sleeping or during any other daily activity. If all you do, in working with someone who has an injury, is help that person remove the source of the problem you have done something really monumental in leading that person towards the direction of health. With most injuries, if the source of the problem is removed then the person’s body will heal itself over time. If you figure out what is creating a problem, understand what that is, and change the patterns that are causing the damage, replacing them with something that will not cause harm, something positive, things will usually just get better.

Therapeutic work in yoga is usually more complicated than just the simple physical level of things, but this is really a good place to start. And it is interesting that sometimes this works with deeper emotional stuff as well. Finding your way to the root of a problem, understanding it, and replacing damaging patterns of behavior with useful ones can do amazing things.

Knowing what exercises will make a physical problem better without addressing the root cause of the problem can really end up being like putting a band-aid on a cut that needs stitches.

Of course this is my opinion but.... :)

Peace.

UpSideDownCarl

Yoga of Heart: A 5-Day Workshop to Advance Your Practice with Mark Whitwell

2007-06-24T22:32:00.000-05:00

This is a workshop from July 1st through July 6th at the Omega Institute. Here is where to go to find out full details on the workshop: http://www.eomega.org/omega/workshops/60d21e455fa4babfbfa9be115c974525/

Mark is a wonderful teachers and I have learned more from him than any other yoga teacher I can think of. And I cannot really think of anything that would be better than to be someplace beautiful like the Omega Institute for five days with a gifted and inspiring teacher like Mark.

Mark has decades of experience teaching and practicing and has a unique skill of getting practitioners to put the practice in a real and authentic perspective. Mark helps you go deep into your own understanding of practice in a way that few teachers will ever understand how to duplicate. I cannot recommend this workshop highly enough.

Peace.

Bright Spirit Yoga 300-Hour Advanced Teacher Training

2007-06-21T19:40:00.000-05:00

I wanted to post this. Bright Spirit Yoga 300-Hour Advanced Teacher Training. That is a link to a 300 hour teacher training that I will be teaching a few small segments of. They are having me teach a few segments. These are the subjects they are having me present: Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras In Our Asana and Daily Life, and The Bhagavad Gita in Modern Yoga. It should be a lot of fun teaching these subjects. The directors of the training program are Carrie Parker Gastelu and Jillian Pransky. They are both wonderful teachers who I have known since 1999. I guess it is even longer than I realized. How time does fly when you are having fun.

Peace.

Breathing Anatomy and Techniques for Asana, Pranayama, and Meditation

2007-06-20T13:03:00.001-05:00

In July I will be teaching this program on Breathing Anatomy with a focus on how to apply techniques in practice at Yoga Sutra. This link will bring you to the full description of the workshop:

http://www.yogasutranyc.com/yogicstudies.php#5

The workshop will be part of a series of workshops that the center is offering. If you want to see the full list here is the link:

Yoga Sutra Advanced Studies Programing

They have some good programs including one with Srivatsa Ramaswami.

Parivrtti Janusirsasna: Opening From the Outer Hip into the Side of the Body Reducing Tension in Lower Back

2007-06-18T14:21:00.000-05:00

This variation of Janusirsasna where you are lengthening from the outer hip into the side of the body directly stretches the muscles that attach from the iliac crest to the lower ribs including the quadratus lumborum.

As a result it can help reduce tension in the lower back if it is applied appropriately to the needs of the individual. Because it is a pose where you are extending the spine laterally, it also stretches the muscles in between the ribs (the intercostals muscles) and the muscles on one side of the spine. For some there is also an element of opening in the inner thigh of the leg with the bent knee.