Thursday, April 26, 2018

Spirituality

Spirituality is not really mentioned in most yoga classes I have gone to. In some contexts, the instructor will reference Buddhism or Hinduism or say a Sanskrit phrase, but that is the extent of it. To a lesser degree, some instructors will mention the significance of yoga in general in helping one get in touch with their spiritual self. For the most part, however, I have found that I learn more about the spiritual realm from class, from meditation books or yoga books I read on my own time, or from discussions with friends. Spirituality is probably not the most important thing to a lot of Westerners doing yoga as they are interested in one thing: materialism. Westerners get into yoga to get themselves in shape, aid in an injury, or to develop a sense of community. Community could be in some form a spiritual marker, as it can give some a sense of purpose, and can help some understand compassion, bonding, and build relationships.

Friday, April 20, 2018

Pranayama

At this week's practice with Jason I tried to place control on my breathing. In the beginning of class, we are told to breath and just listen to our breath, to let it get under control if it is rushed or excited breath, and just let it flow. What ever comes naturally is supposed to be the way you are breathing. As we move away from breath as the center focus and transition into Asana's, I lose focus on my breathing as I try to focus more on my posture. They say that transitions are where people get injured so I do my best to keep up the flow during these transitions. Breathing is emphasized in most yoga classes I have gone to; during a warm up and even after the instructor will say to place emphasis and keep up the yoga breath throughout the practice. If I'm holding a posture out longer than usual, or if I am in a comfortable forward fold, then I will remember my breath and be able to turn my attention to it for a short while.

Tuesday, April 17, 2018

Heated Yoga

This past Sunday, 4/15, I did a heated yoga session at Grow Yoga here in Galloway. The studio had rules about having shoes and having too many items in the practice space, so all shoes and bags had to be left in a little cubby-hole in a changing room they had upfront. Upon walking in I felt the temperature spike and started to break into a sweat in my first few minutes in the room. At that point I heavily contemplated what the next hour and half was going to be like. To my amazement, I actually reached a sort of terminal velocity if you will, a point where I felt myself stop sweating as I was already completely drenched and it seemed as though my shirt couldn't gain any more weight. The class went at a fairly fast pace from different positions, most of which I already knew and some I needed a little refresher on, such as Eagle pose, and Crow pose. There were some who were new to yoga, although most in the class seemed to have a good idea of what was going on. Toward's the end of the practice the room was cooled down, and we were lead out of the practice by cooling down and doing a little meditation. I was unprepared with spare clothes, so I ended up with a little shock going out in the cold after, but aside from that, I felt that my first heated yoga was an overall great experience. I would gladly try heated yoga again going forward.

Thursday, April 12, 2018

This week in yoga it was a fairly standard practice with Jason, where we did a variety of stretches for neck pain incorporated into our routine. The role of the body is important in yoga as it helps yogis connect to the divine, and reach higher states. The body is a portal, or tool if you will, that can help us reach the divine. We are all souls within a body that is a capsule holding our consciousness. There is one belief that when we leave  our bodies we can get reincarnated, or that our spirit moves onto the next plane of existence, what ever that may be. Doing yoga and spiritual practices might give us a taste of what is coming when we pass from this body to what ever happens next. Yoga opens the gateway to reaching the divine through the individual self (atman), and to reach a form of oneness with the universal consciousness, known as the brahman (Singleton 101).



Thursday, April 5, 2018

Yoga

This week in addition to the Vipassana, I also did a session with Jason here at Stockton. We were asked if there were any injuries in the room or if there was anything anyone wanted to work on, and we did some poses such as cobra, upward dog, and downward dog, as well as some variations of these poses to get some back stretches, and after that we did an assortment of poses sitting and standing, forward folds, planking and what not. This prompt has ask about the use of yoga in order to connect with the divine. Divine is the state of being God like, or relating to a God. Divine could also be discovering something through intuition, and there are also mentions of divine pertaining to magic (Webster's Dictionary). Yoga can connect us to the divine by delivering a higher state of consciousness, or mindset. Like you can perceive your own hell according to the Bardo, it is also possible to reach your own heaven, through the universe that you create and perceive (Bardo Thodol). However, you have to be in the right mindset in order to create this vision of life, and it does not always come. Usually, yoga is just a series of movements. I admit I am guilty of losing track of my breathing. Forgetting the standard and routine objects of focus make it hard to reach a divine state. I personally struggle, but I applaud those who can reach that place.

Meditation

This week we practiced Vipassana meditation in class following a lecture and videos about divine sex and yoga, as well as harmful yoga practices such as Bhuti yoga that can potentially injure the person doing the yoga. I have to admit it was very hard to get into a meditative mindset after that lecture, and the ensuing lecture from the visiting teacher did not make it easier. During the meditation the professor sought out to serve as a guide through a guided practice. The guided mediation is good for most people as it helps them concentrate, gives them something to focus on and easily bring them back should their minds wander. For me though, it distracted my concentration and I had to tune it out in order to focus, and I ended up counting my breaths and focusing on my breathing. My mind wandered a lot during that as well, so it could have just been an off day, who knows. Vipassana is a sacred practice to me when I adopted it into my life for a solid year or so when I had an interest in meditating and Buddhism. I started out with meditation before I got into yoga then got lazy with it, and I usually cheat with it now and just sit for a little bit at the beginning of a yoga routine, to get the luxury of doing both at once. Great for concentration, and a great practice to look inward and see what is really there, view without judgement or conceivable bias. I was surprised to learn in class that a real Vipassana "retreat", or program is actually ten days. I did not know that prior to class, but it inspires me to try Vipassana for ten days straight, something I have not done.

Thursday, March 29, 2018

This past week, I did a yoga practice with Jason. I tried to get back into running this week as well, I ran on Tuesday and did about three miles. At the end of the run I felt sore, but it felt good to get back into it. The yoga routine served as a good stretch and helped my soreness. Going forward, I would like to continue a regiment of yoga going hand in hand to help my running, focusing more on yoga, and doing running two or three times a week now that the weather is getting warmer. Yoga will help me in the long run maintaining flexibility, and can serve to aid in the event of injury. As a practice space, yoga is a space where one can feel wholesome just about anywhere. From what I have seen, yoga studios and spaces reserved to exclusively yoga itself appear to be empty. I gather that an open yoga space is to create good feng shui, harmonizing individuals with their natural environment. They say that cluttered rooms create bad feng shui as it means there is not good flow or movement of energy in the room. Personally, I don't mind doing yoga a cluttered room. I think yoga is something that can be done anywhere, maybe that means I'm bad at feeling the feng shui, maybe it's something that doesn't bother me that much, who knows.

Sunday, March 18, 2018

This week due to spring break, I did not go to seek lessons at an outside studio, I instead did a couple solo practices. I watched some Yoga with Adrienne videos, as I have done her yoga routines before and found them helpful. These practices are not given Eastern names or traditional routines, but I suspect them to be a diverse soup of different yoga routines blended into one. They have attractive sounding names such as "detox yoga", "yoga for runners", and "full body yoga" to give it appeal to viewers. Nevertheless, these yoga routines consist of some pretty basic yoga poses such as mountain, forward fold (which I am better at now!), child's pose, and I learned what an eagle pose was today. I feel great after having completed this, and I look forward to returning to the studio this week.

Sunday, March 11, 2018

This past week of my yoga practice has consisted of several individual practices, and two practices with an instructor. I attended a beginners/all levels class at yoga nine with Laurie last Sunday. At this class, emphasis was placed on forward folds, seated postures, and stretches for the back, legs and core. From this class I learned the value of a proper forward fold, and how to keep a straight level back without looking like an unattractive hunch back. I learned some great pointers on keeping a straight back, such as arching the lower back forward and then going into a forward fold, then imagining a rope on the upper back pulling the chest up. The following day I did an individual practice to stretch out the soreness I experienced the next day. On Thursday in class, we did a Sivananda practice in class with Jenn. At the beginning of that practice we did breathing exercises where you would breathe out of one nostril, then out the other. I was relieved when we moved on to the physical practice as I was uncomfortable doing the breathing and was worried the entire session was going to be devoted to that. We did some exercises, and I managed to do an assisted headstand. Some of the questions posed to us this week address yoga as a transition from a counterculture to a popular culture practice. Yoga transitioned to a pop culture practice when it was marketed in the United States alongside exercise routines for women's health. Yogi's in the East became popular when they published books and were visited by Westerners who sought their teaching. Popular celebrities doing yoga such as Marilyn Monroe made yoga popular in the West. As a means to treat addiction, yoga is a powerful tool to help addicts towards recovery. With regular practitioners, addicts choose the spiritual path, or the more exercise oriented yoga routine. Those who are spiritual use yoga along the same lines as those who seek God and put their energy in faith to help them when they feel down, and aid in their recovery. Addicts experience a "lack" in their life as noted by a Huffington Post article. They feel that they need something to fill a void that is missing, and many turn to drugs and alcohol. Once an addict is detoxed, they can concentrate on breathing, meditation, and yoga. This is a cure proven to aid in addiction recovery.

Tuesday, March 6, 2018

This past week at yoga, I attended a class at the TRLC with Jason. We placed emphasis on back exercises, and also paid special attention to our neck and core when someone in the class volunteered that they had a back injury. We spent a great deal of time in the plank position, and switched around between that and lunges, holding a long, warrior pose for at least a minute if not more. The exercise was good in that it calmed me down from a day of stressful activities and confrontations. By the end of it, I felt that I got a good stretch in, and I felt the tension in my neck disappear. This is the sense of healing I felt that day from doing yoga. Despite the tension felt both in the physical and emotional sense, I felt all of those problems not disappear per say, but certainly carry less weight in my day. Psychological healing comes from stepping out of the mindset you use to examine your problems, and looking at them from a different perspective afterwards, making it easier to deal with. Physical healing comes when you are no longer sore in an area you were once sore in, or you are healed if you are less sore. Two great ways to get healed by doing yoga, and there are no pills required! Beats the doctors office.

Saturday, February 24, 2018

Ashtanga

This week's Ashtanga practice in class lead by Loren was by far the most rigorous yoga practice I have done thus far. I am still sore today two days after, and just completed a short 20 minute solo yoga routine to help stretch my body out. I actually felt sore during the practice about half way through when we were taught how to jump from the plank into sitting while balancing our weight on our hands, which I'll admit I messed up. The highlight of the session for me was when Loren pointed out how I was doing the headstand incorrectly, and when she corrected my form, I was able to do a tripod headstand. Although only held for a short time, it felt rehabituating to do something I went in thinking I would never be able to do. This practice felt like a communal practice, building a sense of community both before during and after the practice. The communal aspect of the practice comes into play when the gossip starts in the beginning about how the session will go, and laughing at yourself when you can't do a pose properly. I really felt the communal aspect at the end when we sat in the dark and discussed the practice. There was a sort of collective consciousness of the group having all enjoyed the same experience, but perceiving it 20+ different ways.

Friday, February 16, 2018

During this weeks Iyengar practice, we did a wholesome yet rigorous session lead by Annie. It was rigorous in the sense that it stretched me in new ways, and I was sore for two days following (even while sitting in class on Thursday!). I enjoyed moving into different postures during this practice, as the blocks and props helped holding positions. The space was a little tight, as many of us were packing into eighty percent of a classroom, with the other twenty percent covering the area of the desks. The Virabhadrasana II pose caught me as being one of the difficult poses, not necessarily for the pose itself, but because of the way you were supposed to flex your hips, and the length of time you are expected to hold the pose out. I later found out from class that our class only held the poses out for about a third of the time you are supposed to hold them. To remark on Yoga as a ritual, I view it as a ritual practice when it is something you perform as a discipline to achieve a specific purpose, one that is internally motivated and can differ based on the person. This differs from something that you do on the side, or for mere recreation. A ritual is to attain an intrinsic spiritual goal, by frequently performing a task.

Saturday, February 10, 2018

Week 3

This week I attended an evening class at Yoga Nine on Tuesday. We did a yoga routine with blocks, blankets, and sand bags which is something new to me. There was something special about this past weeks practice as it seemed much more laid back, and there was soft music playing in the background, and far fewer people. We did some of the same poses I am starting to become familiar with from past week's practices, as well as new twisting postures both standing, and seated. While in a cat's pose, the instructor placed a sand bag on everyone's back including mine for an extra stretch, and that really helped. In regard to this week's blog questions, I have to admit that I have not yet seen what empowers you doing yoga more than other physical sports/exercises. I ran track and cross country for four years before college and I felt just as empowered at the end of a run as I do now at the end of the yoga session. It's not that yoga isn't empowering; it certainly is, but I cannot yet compare it as being above any other sport. If I were to guess, I'd say that yoga's ties to India in the spiritual realm make it seem to be a heightened practice.

Friday, February 2, 2018

Sacred Space

Some consider their yoga space to be a "sacred" space. I personally think yoga can be done just about anywhere, although I would prefer doing it on a mat or carpet opposed to doing yoga on a hardwood or concrete floor. In terms of its sacredness, many have their yoga space set up as a very spacious room. Typically I have seen is a large spacious room with a wooden floor, and some Buddha statues at the front where there could be soft music playing, or some incense burning in the front. My buddy has a living room that is exactly this: his own personal yoga studio. Considering all of this, there is no precise definition of what makes a yoga space a sacred space. Some people have their one spot that they can only do yoga in , while others, (myself included) can do yoga just about anywhere and make that my sacred space.






Thursday, February 1, 2018

Week 2

This week for yoga I attended a class on campus at the TRLC lead by my good friend Jason. The class began in the same way as last week's with some breathing exercises. Once we were finished with that, we switched into a table top position and began our movements, alternating between a child's pose, downward dog, cow pose and cat's pose, among others. The event room in the TRLC was dimly lit and there was soft music on in the background. There were maybe fifteen people in the class and there were only two men aside from Jason, myself included. The space and energy in the room was nice and it was oriented towards beginners because it was the first week that this class had started. Although the group was moving somewhat slow I still had to move even slower as I still can not touch my toes. Yoga is painful; while planking, and doing other movements involving core strength, I could not keep it together very long. I found I was shaking doing core exercises and that I was tensing up even in areas that were not being exercised, such as my shoulders and neck. If I remembered to focus on my breath, which I did not always do, then that made it better by forcing me to concentrate. This definitely felt like a more spiritual session, and after it was done, although I felt worn and tired, I also felt well and accomplished.

Friday, January 26, 2018

This was my first week practicing yoga in a number of months. I've done yoga before, but I'm still relatively new to the practice. Needless to say, I am very sore from today's session, but it went very well because I felt my back become less sore, and your spirit feels great from doing yoga in general. The session this week was a type of "insight" or awareness yoga, and it started out with some simple breathing meditations, concentrating on the breath and then going into some poses. We alternated between some poses such as table top, and downward facing dog, as well as some standing poses. The yoga practice ended with a meditation, something I'm more familiar with. I felt great at the end of it, and I felt maybe two percent more flexible. I could not keep up with the others in my group and I learned that I am really slow at yoga so far, and that I am very stiff from not doing yoga or any other type of exercise. I know I'll learn faster and be able to keep up with more time, and I'm excited to see where this takes me.