Ying, Yang and Kids Yoga, Myofascial Release Therapy
This unique, one month, 200 Hour Yoga Alliance Certified Training will deepen your personal practice and develop your potential as a teacher. Experience the unification of mind, body and spirit through a month-long immersion In the yogic way of life – both on and off the mat Offered by a team of experienced, supportive yogi’s who teach from the practice they embody.
One of the most stubborn obstacles along the spiritual path is doubt. It comes in the most encrypted forms that are not immediately recognisable and even when you do realise that you are caught in a web of doubt, the way out is often shrouded in secrecy. At these times it can be an immense help to have a spiritual mentor, someone a little further along the path who can hold your hand, be your friend and dish out the honest, soul-serving advice that will keep your actions aligned with the highest good. In essence, you need a yoga sponsor. Someone you can call, talk to and spill your guts to right when you are about to lose your spiritual resolve. This person is not always your teacher or your therapist. They are more like a mentor and a friend, someone just a little further down the path with whom you can easily relate.
One of the first things that students who enter yoga from a fitness background question is whether yoga really gives the body enough activity to warrant quitting the gym or other forms of cardiovascular activity Many students who are new to the Ashtanga yoga method and join a workshop or class that I teach ask me this question. And I had my doubts about this too because the only other activity I have ever done with any regularity other than yoga is visit the gym for aerobics and the exercise bicycle Although it’s been years since I stepped foot inside one of these classes I remember what it was like to feel like I needed my hour at the gym. When I first started practising yoga I talked to everyone and I was in desperate need of a yoga sponsor. I opened myself to anyone who would listen and it wasn’t until I found a trusted friend who is now a Buddhist monk on retreat in Nepal that I found the sympathetic ear that I needed. Tenzin Senge, born in the American Midwest under a different name, was always willing to listen to the twists and turns of my mind and offer his patient friendship. I hope to repay him one day with the same kindness of heart.
Ying, Yang and Kids Yoga, Myofascial Release Therapy Photo Gallery
To be certain yoga is a spiritual discipline, not an exercise routine. By the time Senge and I met I already had my intentions set straight about that. I started yoga because my overzealous routine at the gym left both Achilles tendons severely injured. While my efforts in Ashtanga yoga were intense at the beginning I wanted to be careful not to injure myself with the same naive way of working my body I had in the past. In yoga no physical goal supersedes the inner work of each posture. The asana is said to balance Sthira, which means steadiness and strength and Sukha, which means happiness and pleasure. Finding this middle ground is often the magic key that unlocks yoga’s mysteries. In this way the notion that you must force, hurt or damage the body with unnecessary pain fades away. Yoga is actually a middle path that leads to health, healing and higher awareness. Physical postures create the fertile ground for a balanced mind and a peaceful heart.
“There comes a point when yoga demands you to make the full commitment to the lifestyle that best supports spiritual practice.33
Physical, Hatha yoga purifies the body and trains the mind so that the waves of consciousness slow down until the point when the highest form of pure awareness in itself is revealed. The postures are not an end in and of themselves. With that knowledge it becomes clear that whether you want to physically train the body with other modalities is secondary to your usage of the practice of yoga as a spiritual path of inner realisation. Ashtanga yoga in the tradition of Sri K Pattabhi Jois utilises a very intense physical discipline that challenges the limits of the physical body. To have this as your daily practice, when combined with the deep breathing called Ujjayi, is both strength training and cardiovascular exercise combined. To engage in Ashtanga yoga with the stated purpose of getting a good workout would leave the true goal of the practice out. unless what you intend to ‘work out is the power of your mind. The concept of ‘tapas’ or pains that lead to purification can be confusing because many people merely assume this means you must feel the burn in postures. Surely the muscles do need to strengthen and you can expect some burning sensations, but the true burn is the inner spiritual fire that is burning through old habit patterns called ‘samskaras’. But that is only on the physical level When tapas enters the higher consciousness it burns as the light of spiritual awakening, known as ‘viveka’ or wisdom. This wisdom is the lamp of knowledge that illuminates the journey within. This is the true purpose of yoga practice.
There comes a point when yoga demands you to make the full commitment to the lifestyle that best supports spiritual practice. These changes may be hard to make and you may need to say goodbye to your past. This is where you need a yoga sponsor to hold your hand as you walk forward into the uncertain path ahead through the darkness, into the light of dawn. Sometimes we are attached to the identity we have forged for ourselves, along with the body that is associated with it A friend of mine was a spinning instructor before she was a yoga teacher. One of the hardest transitions for her was to let go of spinning six days a week, not because she had to, but because she wanted to go more deeply into her yoga practice. It took going all the way to Mysore, India where there are no spinning classes for her to fully let go. There the whole community will support your journey deeper into yoga. But not everyone needs to or should give up their other activities. For example, sometimes you might experience an injury that forces you to step down the pace of your practice so that it is more physical therapy. In that case the body itself may benefit from the addition of another form of movement. The key concept to be on the look out for is attachment What are you attached to so that the notion of letting it go scares you?
Some avid practitioners are scared of letting go of their physical asana practice. If they only see their practice as physical this attachment may lead them down a dead-end. Even if the attachment is to the spiritual practice there will be a day when total unity with the divine is possible only with the ultimate release of all manifested patterns, even the pattern to practise. If you maintain the spiritual heart of the practice it really does not matter whether you want to go for a run, walk or ride. But if you feel yourself adamantly attached to anything you might want to look a little deeper at what the real fear is about. In these cases talking to your yoga sponsor might help unlock the true nature of the knot that has you tied up.
