Practice woes

Is it just me, or is each of my yoga sessions more flawed than the last?

I've been encorporating daily morning practices into my daily routine for a week now and feel as though I'm turning into a big puddle of gloopy gloopiness.

My muscles are strong and jump to my bidding, but as soon as my concentration is directed elsewhere e.g. figuring out what pose the instructer is telling me to do; my muscles all turn into sneaky cheats. It's like one of my classes back in secondary school; my concentration is as one of those weak, distracted teachers, and my body is the rebellious class that pounces on each second of inattention as an opportunity to start jumping on tables and throwing balls of paper around the room. The ringleaders are definitely that trickiest set muscles; the core & uddiyanda bhanda.

Little pests.

This can't continue. So, to use my analogy, how would I deal with little problem if I was a teacher? Well... I think routine, ruthless attention and possibly detention and punishment for the bad boys.

Routine
Rather than skipping around hither and thither I'll try to adopt a strict routine in the morning. Variety can perhaps be saved for when my muscles get some muscle memory and stop misbehaving.

Ruthless Attention
With the routine I no longer need to concentrate on external sources so can turn my focus inward to my pesky muscles until they behave.

Detention
After school (work), hold additional classes for those naughty muscles. Core sessions twice weekly in the evening. Work on poses that have recently become problematic (mostly downward dog of all things).

Sounds suspiciously like a plan!

Guru Karma: the good, the bad and the ugly

It seems no practice or religion that gathers a devoted, trusting following is ever truly free of those who would take advantage of this power, and yoga is no exception.

Yesterday I stumbled across an article in the NY times discussed the revelations around the Anusura founder, John Friend. The list of Friend's sins is included in gory, wiki-leaks style on the yogadorks website. The more I read about it, the more creeped out I felt. One of my primary concerns (there are many) is the abuse of the relationship and trust placed in him by yoga devotees.

Friend is not the only yoga leader to misuse his power. This article in the New York Times lists several leaders in the past that have strayed from the path (or just took a long drive in the opposite direction in their shiny rolls royce).

I confess I've had a pair of yoga teacher hairy grey eyebrows waggled at me in the past. What makes this a more of a shame is that said eyebrows belonged to one of the best teachers I've ever had the pleasure to attend a class with, who was certainly very dedicated to yoga in his personal life. No, dear readers, I did not succumb (I might even have laughed and edged away quickly), but this illustrates that this is not overblown journalist sensationalism; it's something that really happens. It was happening before the Beatles left the Transcendental Meditation ashram in India reportedly tired of it's founder, the yogi Maharishi Mahesh, and his wandering hands, and it will probably happen again.

Now I'm not sure about the whole sexual fire and fanning thereof (although I confess there are times where a yoga class has lead in that direction, but only with my dear boyfriend, and strictly off the mat), this seems a bit of a odd conclusion. My personal view is that those who are attracted to yoga are perhaps not always done so for pure reasons, to be a teacher of (overwhelmingly) lithe young females with fat wallets could perhaps lure in the bad as well as the good. Indeed being a great yoga teacher, and originally having started on the path for the right reasons, does not necessarily guarantee a teacher remains pure and will not grow to expect, or indeed encourage, behaviours that are pretty contemptible.

So what is the solution?

The ancient tradition of Guru; one who leads you from the dark to the light, is a strong one. Bhakti yoga, the practice of devotion, is traditionally one of the four main paths to enlightenment, requiring an open, loving heart. Those with talents in teaching can therefore not be suprised if they attract a loving audience, and feelings of devotion and love for our teachers can be beneficial to individual's development. How can we say to students 'see this, you should not trust your teachers' as this, aside from being over the top and unnecessary in 99.9% cases, can be detrimental to the yoga journey.

Perhaps the problem is that we put our teachers on plinths. They are inspirational and often lovable, but they are human beings, and humans are flawed. We should not look to a teacher to be the source of all truth and a beam of pure, cosmic light. They are just people on the same path as us, some may be further along, some are as lost as the people they instruct.

Time and time again I have seen that yoga attracts the vulnerable as well as the strong. Perhaps it is the job of the stronger to watch out for the weak, and us to run away if our yoga teachers start waggling their eyebrows at us.

A few days later: The Times publishes a far more sensible article: http://healthland.time.com/2012/02/29/does-yoga-really-drive-people-wild-with-desire/

On establishing (and maintaining) a regular home practice

The challenge embed a regular yoga in my daily life is better described as a battle. Tiredness, work trips, other commitments and other people sometimes seem to work in collusion to derail my practice. Again and again, the subject of how to ensure that I work a yoga practice into my day causes me to scratch my head and eventually come up with the same solution; an early morning practice.

The upside to an early morning practice is it's hard to be derailed by external forces. You claw back a bit of time from sleep in the morning when the boyfriend, the tiring day at work, or the social meet up can't stop you from your practice. That leaves only one thing to stop you from your practice; the lure of a big warm bed and blissful sleep.

I aim big and always have done. For me, morning practice meant waking with the rising sun to spent 90 mins blissfully floating through a complete morning routine. In reality this translates as 2 hours less sleep. Unfortunately I'm one of those people who needs 7 hours a sleep a night (and rarely manages to get to sleep before 11) so, looking at this logically, it is no wonder that on the rare occassion that I did manage to get up so early, I staggered through my practice like a zombie, and felt a bit crap all day.

Yesterday I came across the artice '5 Things I Love about My Morning Practice'  on Yoga Journal's website and it was a bit of a revelation. Of course; why did the perfectionist all-or-nothing part of me insist on 2 hours when 30 minutes is plenty? 30 minutes doesn't loom in my head menacingly, instead in entices playfully. As a matter of fact I lose that 30 minutes anyway as my dear partner insists on setting his alarm 30 mins early so he can get the requisite 6 snoozes in the morning (I can't begin to tell you how strange I find this) so the benefit is two-fold.

This morning I put aside that half hour and got up a little early. It was not painful, and was plenty of time to do a little meditation and run through one of my 20-min yogadownload sessions and guess what; I feel fantastic.

Teaching: The next step on the yoga journey?

I've always been enthusiastic about collecting yoga experiences and sharing them with others. I have been known to coach my friends and would love the anatomical knowledge to put together the right sequence for a particular sport, mood or muscle soreness. What is the next step in my yoga journey? Is it perhaps teaching?

Many yoginis of some experience follow naturally though to become teachers. Teaching yoga is a way of passing on the knowledge distilled through the years. It also is an opportunity to serve others, genuinely improving peoples lives.

I've always held it in my mind as something I'd like to do one day, but does knowledge and passion for yoga translate into being a good teacher? Do I have the confidence to stand in front of a class and teach? The answer is that I'm really not sure, but am finally taking steps to find out the answer.

In recent research I've been a bit gob-smacked by the price of yoga classes.

British Wheel of Yoga has 200H and 500H courses run through a number of accredited institutions. It is arguably one of the most sought-after accreditations. Typical prerequisite is 2 yrs of dedicated practice and places are competative.

You also have Yoga Alliance, which also is well respected and offers similar levels of accreditation.

Then you have several independent bodies; Independant Yoga Network, and the Yoga Register. These accreditations are easier to come by, and not as highly respected as the BWY and YA accreditations.

After some research (and personal recommendations) I came across Triyoga in London. Triyoga offers a 390hr BWY/YA accredicted course for £4370 (£4050 paid up front). This seems to be one of the best out there and, strangely, offers good value for money in comparison to it's alternatives: Sam Rao, my saturday yoga teacher, offers a 200hr course for £4000. Although the location is convenient and the price, on the face of it, lower, on a price per hr basis the Triyoga course seems better, and carries with it the BWY accreditaion as well as the YA (yoga alliance) one.

Any course you do that carries a £4k pricetag, and runs over a 1yr+ period is a bit committment. In the past this is where my doubts crept in; it is a lot of money, what if I don't like the course? Or realise I'm a rubbish teacher? I'd like to learn more about yoga but £4k is a lot to pay. Am I really sure?  I've also been somewhat intimidated by the selection criteria and interviews that seem to come with these courses. Am I really good enough? Will they sneer at my patchy home practice and my exacting taste in yoga teachers (therefore not 2 yr track record with a single teacher) mean I am automatically disqualified?

All these questions made me choose the cautious route, despite keenness to progress my learning, but then a chance discussion with one of the ladies on my course last weekend has provided an alternative.

The British School of Yoga offers a 150hr correspondance course for a mere £350. Although sneered on slightly by several institutions, this is just what I am after. An affordable (at £30 per month) solution to help me develop my knowledge of yoga, and better understand whether teaching is for me.

On Handstands and Ego

Forget Mt Everest... handstand has now overtaken Pincha Mayurasana (Forearm Balance) as my personal challenge.

I always thought I had handstand nailed. Find a wall, kick up, simples! Turns out not. My whole body slumps into my shoulders... back bending like a question mark, belly soft, legs all over the place. No core strength etc. Bit of a shock (I was oblivious to my sloppiness up until this point). As far as I can tell I looked like a mushroom that's been attacked by 4 cocktail sticks. Certainly nothing like the image on the right. Oh dear.

My saturday morning yoga classes are really chipping away at my ego. When surrounded by dedicated yoga devotees that have been regularly attending classes for years I suddenly feel rather like a bumbling fool. Up until this point my yoga history, general fitness and (sporadic) home practice have ensured that I was relatively comfortable with the various local classes I've attempted in the past. Almost to the point where I became a little bit... how do you say... showoffy.

All that's out of the window now, and bruised ego aside that's a good thing. Without expecting to be the best I stop trying to be the best. This new state of affairs can be dangerous I suppose; if you tie yourself in knots trying to keep up the disaster awaits. But if I focus on myself, and be inspired and learn from my fellow students, that can't be bad.

Back to handstand. Some excellent articles on yoga journal detail an intro to handstand and the process of building up to handstand.

Other poses that I hope to nail one day:

• Pincha Mayurasana (Forearm Balance)
• Salabhasana (Locust Pose - of the arms-under Sivasana and Bikram variety rather than the arms-out Ashtanga version)
• Hanumanasana (Splits)

On Ashtanga Yoga...

This weekend gone I attended a yoga weekend course with the lovely Jill Jones. The workshop was on Ashtanga yoga. I've dabbled in Ashtanga in the past; I discovered Ashtanga in a free class during my first year of uni and it was a bit of a revelation. Following that initial class I watched some David Swenson videos and was, frankly, gobsmacked (pic of david on the right). I didn't have the time or the dedication to start a 6-day 90 min Ashtanga practice at home, but I dabbled in the primary series in my personal practive, and trotted over to the Burren in Ireland for a week long yoga course (which further confirmed that I lacked the willpower to be a Ashtangi).

Browsing youtube last week I found Kino Macgregor and Pilar Carillo and the numbers further dismayed me. 4 years to master the jump through, 5 years to achieve push up to handstand. This is, of course, with devotion to aformentioned 6-day practice. I started to do the numbers in my head 'so if I start now I'm going to achieve jump through and handstand aged 33, if I'm lucky'. Hold on. What am I doing? Mentions of timescales, instead of comforting me, have suddenly made me fraustrated; surely yoga is about the personal journey not the destination (certainly not showing off). What am I doing comparing myself to others?

I stumbled across this article on Ashtanga written by Norman Blair, an Astangi with some considerable experience. Interesting reading.

My reflection would be this; is is that Ashtanga leads to the competative, body obsession exibited by it's many practitioners? Or is it that the vigerous nature of the yoga attracts the kind of person that has a tendancy toward these diversions in any case? Whichever, I'm worried that my ego will not be improved by excessive Ashtanga... for me I think the slow path.

Yoga on a Shoestring

Lets face it, yoga classes today are not cheap.

I spend £13 a week on yoga classes. This pays for 2 classes; 1 class (subsidised by my gym) with the lovely Babs, and 1 class (block booking discount) horribly early on a Saturday with the don of yoga, Sam Rao. Block booking/gym classes are my attempt at saving money on yoga, but that £13 per week still equates to £56 per month which is the equivalent of membership of a very nice gym. Not that I am complaining. I enjoy yoga immensely and feel that it really adds to the quality of my life; it's well worth the cost.

The problem is the pricing is making yoga exclusive. At a typical drop-in price of £10, those weekly classes are become a luxury  for middle-uppers or professionals (yuppies) like me who work in well paid jobs with manageable financial commitments, not an affordable option for lower paid individuals or those who struggle to pay the bills. In financially trying times as these, can you really afford the luxury of a weekly/twice weekly yoga class?

I object! Yoga is a right, not a luxury. Something that everyone, no matter what their financial situation, can benefit from. But what option is there? We can ask that yoga teachers return to the days of yore when classes where a few quid for 1.5hrs of stretching in creaky church halls. But I like the cozy studios, and yoga teachers need to pay their bills too. With the ever increasing cost of yoga teacher training, and top up courses, it's not cheap to be a yoga teacher either, especially a good one with the necessary accreditations.

The alternative to is cut back on in-person classes, and dial up on home practice. My problem is that I know a few postures, and have a few flows I like to fall back on, but I rarely learn anything new on my mat at home. Home sessions at best a reiteration of known poses in peace and quiet (often 'forgetting' the challenging ones), and at worst confused bumbling that ends prematurely when I get a text message/am interrupted by the shout for dinner. Oops.

There must be another option... and after some online research, and a bit of testing, I have seen the light. Online yoga classes! These are 15-75 min guided, carefully thought out sessions, often created and let by the best in their field. They are accessed via the internet and can be audio descriptive, or led with the help of video footage, and are widely available.

I've been trialling these for the last few days and I'm utterly converted. From the comfort of my home mat, personalised yoga teachings have been beamed, via the net, to my ears. With the help of some pretty awesome teachers I've dabbled in Om Yoga, tried some far out Vinyasa flows and ahhhed my way through some far out relaxing sessions. Home practice is increasing... I find myself looking forward to rolling my mat out at home and trying the latest download. Next up Anasura Yoga... can you tell I'm excited about this?!

More....

The ups: There are thousands of classes out there that can suit any mood, of any imaginable type of yoga, led by the best and brightest of the yoga world. Forget repetitive yoga dvds/cds... there are literally thousands of hours of classes out there at the click of a button

The downs: You typically need an internet connection, and a laptop/smartphone/touchpad to view/listen to the class from your mat. A decent grounding of yoga and yoga poses is arguably necessary also; if you make mistakes or get into problems you will not have the benefit of personal guidance and adjustment that you typically get from an in-person yoga class. If you are a beginner I'd suggest attending a good class weekly, at least in the beginning, is important.

Useful sites and resources:

• Yoga Journal - Offers short online yoga videos. String several together or embed in your usual home practice.
• YogaDownload - Offers 20 min video/audio classes for free, also pay a monthly subscription fee ($10/£8) for unlimited streaming of videos up to 75 mins in length, and download of up to 6 classes per month. (There is also myyogaonline, which offers a similar service, but I found YogaDownload more intuitive, and it offers the free classes)
• Youtube - Good classes are there to be found. Be careful to chose classes led by reputable teachers rather than keeno amateurs, especially if you are fairly new to yoga.
• Podcasts - Using iTunes or similar podcast software you can stream/download any number of  classes and videos. Check out the YogaDownload 20 min classes, YogaJournal, Yoga Today... there are so many!
• Smartphone Yoga Apps - Don't bother... after trying several I came to the conclusion that they are clunky, don't offer good value for money and are generally utterly outshone by the above. You've been warned!