savasana | Paper Clay Nature

Week 2: Day 1: The End

April 22, 2012

Posted by Sharon

During my “day of rest” in the 8-week series designed by Rodney Yee yesterday I not only took the opportunity to do a home practice that I really wanted to do, I also looked over my blog entries from the first week of the series. What was painfully obvious is that I don’t want to be doing this practice.

A home practice is not about self-punishment, it should feel really good. It should be about commitment, dedication and making choices that reflect a very personal and intimate evaluation about state of mind, breath and body. I really enjoy my home practice, but doing the series as designed by Rodney Yee felt a little bit like punishment—–I was really forcing myself, albeit unsucessfully, to do his program even when I didn’t feel like it.

This is precisely what makes a home practice different from a group practice. If I go to a group class and the instructor has us do six tree poses, then I am going to do those six tree poses to the best of my ability and depending on how I feel, the energy of the instructor and the energy of the group on the class, I’m either going to feel like I enjoyed the class or not or that I learned something new or not, but you can’t choose your own adventure when you go to a group class. When I practice at home, I always start out with some warm-up poses and seated grounding poses and then I organically move in a way that supports exactly where I am. Tight in the hips, I throw in pigeon pose. Tense through my spine? I’ll start with some twists. Basically, I start with a few poses that allow me to self-diagnose and then I do what feels best after that. It just doesn’t feel right to be by myself, all alone, doing what doesn’t feel right.

This is not, in any way, a judgement on the book or the series or sequences as designed by Rodney Yee. As a matter of fact, I think that, for someone who is relatively new to yoga and who wants to explore what it means to have a home practice, this is still a truly valuable reference. But, for someone who has been doing yoga for almost 20-years and already has an established home practice, this series feels like I am being asked to deny the wisdom of my practice, a practice that has served me well for quite some time now.

So, my 8-weeks of yoga with Rodney Yee ended after a week. In the end, I have learned many valuable things from this experience of just one week:

Moving Toward Balance: 8 Weeks of Yoga with Rodney Yee is an excellent reference book for yogis of all levels (including teachers) who want to learn how to sequence a yoga practice, to explore alignment and desire very clear written instructions that are complemented by instructive photographs. Regardless of whether you do the sequences as described, there is a lot of valuable information in this reference.
A home practice should never feel forced or like a punishment. While you shouldn’t shy away from poses or only do the same exact poses, yoga isn’t poses and pose practice isn’t yoga. If you take group classes regularly and want to try to do yoga at home, make sure that your home practice is something you look forward to. Even if you just roll out the mat and enjoy an extended savasana, that is just as valid of a home practice as anything else. Love it, enjoy it, benefit from it—–may your home practice be peace.
My current advice to students who want to start a home practice is actually the most helpful thing I can offer (I’m patting myself on the back here……). I suggest that you roll out your mat. Sit on your mat and breathe and see what happens. If you feel inspired to practice a particular asana or move in a particular way, then do that. If not, then do 5-10 cat/cow movements and see if you feel inspired. If no inspiration comes to you, move into child’s pose and do a few sun salutations. As you move through sun salutations, see what you feel inspired to—-perhaps a warrior pose or two, or maybe an eagle pose or maybe a tree pose or half-moon pose or…..you get the idea. Not inspired, come on down and do a bridge pose and then wind relieving posture and hug your knees into your chest. End with a 10-minute savasana. Whatever you do, end in a 10-minute savasana. I repeated that twice on purpose. Even if you just sit, breathe and then end with savasana, that’s a lovely practice. It might just be all you needed to start your day in peace or energize yourself in the middle of the day or close the day for a great night’s sleep. Whatever it is, it’s yours and yours alone.

I’ll keep writing my blog and practicing and hope you’ll keep reading. And, we’ll all sleep better tonight knowing that I’m no longer forcing myself to practice in a way that doesn’t bring peace to my life. Oh home practice, I missed you last week! Welcome back! Welcome home!

Day 5, Week 1: 8-Weeks with Rodney Yee

April 19, 2012

Posted by Sharon

Yoga and Hope

May 23, 2010

Posted by Sharon

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In the March 2010 issue of ODE Magazine, there is a thought provoking article, Great Expectations: How hope therapy can help banish mild mood disorders and boost happiness, by Catherine Ryan. Among the many things that I started to think about was the way that yoga promotes hope.

What precisely is hope? Hope is a subtle sensation and state of being, sometimes an emotion, that provides a vague sense that something other than what “is” can be possible. It provides the foundation for every change, every decision and every transition that we find ourselves on the other side of. Without hope, the capacity to love, to move, to grow or to change is stifled and the great shadow of fear and doubt can overwhelm us. Hope is sometimes confused as faith, but although these both require one another, they are quite different. In order to act on hope, one must have faith in the potentially positive outcome of one’s actions. In order to have faith, there must be a song of hope in one’s heart or the faith grows hard like the stone of dogma.

The kind of hope that provides a boost to happiness is based on the idea that change happens. Those of us who practice yoga regularly are able to experience this on our mats in every practice. As we move through asana (poses) or pranayama (breathing), it is impossible not to notice that each breath is different, each moment of holding an asana or transition between the asana creates different sensation. Some of these sensations and changes in the breath are not welcome! But, we become uniquely aware through a practice that nothing is the same. If you have not practiced yoga before, this may sound terrifying. But, if you practice regularly, you are nodding your head and perhaps even smiling as you acknowledge the profound sense of liberation that this type of awareness creates. None of us are stuck. Not only do we have the capacity to change, but change is our natural state of being.

According to the psychologists who provided the data for the ODE article, “Hope, as defined by psychologists, is the belief that you have the skills and energy to make your dreams a reality (Ryan 2010: 53).” They suggest that our current emotional state is often determined by our expectations for the future (Ryan 2010: 53). In general, the idea is that hopeful people are happier (53). If this is the case, then one of the best ways that we can cultivate happiness is to cultivate hope. Research also seems to indicate that building high expectations doesn’t set you up for a harder fall (Ryan 2010:54). In fact, high-hopers seem uniquely prepared to bounce back after a fall due to their ability to quickly evaluate a situation and make changes (54). Yoga can play a role here too. What we learn in our practice on the mat is that when we feel something “not quite right” we take a moment to breathe into it. If things don’t change, then sometimes all we need is a soft blanket under our hip, or a block under our hand and, voila!, it feels just right. What we realize is that it isn’t that we aren’t doing a pose “right” or “wrong,” but rather that a simple modification can create an “ah ha!” moment out of an “uh-oh.”

Yoga also helps us learn how to set specific and achievable goals. Apparently, for adults who do not have high-hopes, one of the first steps of hope therapy is to learn how to set a specific and achievable goal (Ryan 2010: 54). In open level yoga classes, some students can do some amazing things with balance, with their strength, with their energy and some students struggle to just sit on their mat or lie still in savasana—yet they are all doing yoga. When we first start out, we realize immediately that, while yoga shouldn’t be goal oriented, we can determine the types of goals that are and are not achievable. It would not be realistic to think that we could come into an advanced balancing pose if we struggle to maintain balance in Warrior I, but it is not unrealistic to think that we can become more aware of our balance and the position of our feet in relationship to the earth. We also find that great happiness and the complete benefit of the practice is available to us no matter what the poses look like. After class, the person who could do a handstand in the middle of the room—feels great. The person who did child’s pose for most of the class—feels great. A regular yoga practice shows us that there is great benefit in simply being present. If that isn’t hope, then I don’t know what is.

REFERENCES

Ryan, Catherine
Great Expectations: How hope therapy can help banish mild mood disorders and boost happiness. IN Ode Magazine, March 2010, pages 53-54.

Written and posted by Sharon Rudyk, Owner and Director of Yoga Matrika located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.