WHY PRACTICE YOGA?

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

We are a week into 2020 and by now your list of resolutions has likely already been pared down some.  If you are like me, a new year (or week, or month, or season) means a new dive into how I can improve my life.  I make lists.  Some of the things I want to do keep falling to the bottom (clean the attic) and some stay near the top (watch more TV....but only PBS, of course!  LOL)  There is a natural culling process because it's really hard to make everything an equal priority.  Time, energy, ditching the "shoulds" all play into what we do in real life as opposed to what we might write on that sheet of notebook paper.

By the looks of the class sizes at Yoga Circle this past week, I'd say many put "take a yoga class" on their lists.  Will it stay near the top?  Will you commit to your yoga practice?

Let me warn you, it's not always easy.  Starting any new thing (or returning to it after a long hiatus) can be challenging.  For me, I often feel clumsy, confused, overwhelmed, embarrassed.  I look around and tell myself stories about everyone else being "better" than I am at whatever we are doing.  That may or may not be true.

But here's the thing....being "better" is in the eye of the practitioner.  Sure, another yogi/yogini may execute a perfect Downward Facing Dog, but his/her brain may be simultaneously thinking about their grocery list.  This is NOT yoga!  You may be feeling off balance, unsure of the pose, yet totally focused with mind and body on being in the moment.  Guess what?  That IS yoga!  So, who's practice is "better"?

Yoga is letting go of judgement and just showing up. Yoga is finding compassion for yourself and others.  Yoga is focused attention on the present moment.  The postures are there for us to focus on while we rest our busy minds.  The postures are there to help lubricate and heal our physically stuck places so we can rid ourselves of physical discomfort distractions as we sit in meditation.

The Yoga Sutra tells us:  Yoga is the process of stilling the fluctuations of the mind.  That's it.  But wow, right?

Our asana (posture) classes focus on the body for sure, and it's important to execute a pose correctly to avoid injury.  But every pose can be modified to "fit" each individual body.  What's important is to find the shape of the pose that is right for you, not the person next to you.

But if you listen closely you will realize that an asana class isn't just about poses. Your teacher will also guide you in breathing techniques to calm the nervous system, will impart wisdom about compassion and self-acceptance, will share Yoga philosophy about living in harmony with the earth and other people.  All of this is yoga.  If you only come to class and sit in silence or lie in savasana for the whole 90 minutes, turning your attention to breathing deeply and to calming the mind, you are practicing yoga.

Why practice yoga?  It is an ancient practice with proven results.  It calms the busy mind, strengthens, flexes, and balances our bodies, gives us a guide to living an ethical life of love, service, and compassion, and ultimately allows us to rest in the true seat of our soul where worldly concerns drift away, even if only for a little while at first and then more and more often allowing us to see that those worldly concerns are temporary.  We gain perspective on life's dramas and find a more peaceful way of being.

That's why I keep yoga at the top of any list of intentions and resolutions, every day.©

Namaste, donnajurene

Photo Credit:  www.pixabay.com

THE 8 LIMBS OF YOGA: 6. DHARANA 7. DHYANA 8. SAMADHI

The entire purpose of yoga is to calm the fluctuations of the mind.  These last three Limbs are often lumped together as a way to do just that.

We've mastered the Yamas and Niyamas as well as Asana and Pranayama, right?  And we are totally in the know about Pratyahara.

So let's get to the 6th Limb of Yoga now...Dharana: Deep Concentration.

To still the mind we must focus our attention.  To some this is being "in the flow" where thought seems to stop -- maybe a musician totally lost in his/her music, fully present and absorbed in the activity. Also, you've seen those cool mala beads, right?  Often they are worn as "yoga jewelry" in the form of a bracelet or necklace.  Well, they serve a purpose far beyond making a style statement.  They are a tool for concentration.  A yogi/yogini will often focus on the breath as they touch each bead, or engage in "japa" or the repetition of a mantra, repeating the word or phrase while touching each bead in turn.  Often the brain will abandon the effort on each bead, and one will need to come back to concentrating on the breath or mantra over and over.  But this effort at Dharana, concentration, is readying the practitioner for the next limb of yoga.

Dhyana (Meditation), the 7th Limb of Yoga, occurs when concentration becomes steady enough that no thoughts will intrude on the internal experience.  The mala japa may be practiced touching each bead in turn with no thoughts, only the open space of silence.  The classic way of explaining this transition is to imagine that it's raining and Dharana is the focus we give to each individual raindrop, until eventually the raindrops and our concentration on the individual merges into a river of no individual thought resulting in uninterrupted meditation, or Dyhana.  This lovely state of "no mind" leads us to the state "no Ego". But I caution you:  Many feel they "fail" at meditation because they cannot stop their thoughts.  Thinking is what our brain is designed to do!  The "success" of Dhyana is to be vaguely aware of thoughts, but not to focus on them...let them float away with little to no attachment to their presence or meaning.  It's hard.  That's why we practice.

Samadhi (Oneness) is the 8th Limb of Yoga.  It is classically hard to describe.  It is the realm of very advanced practitioners, some say, only the true Gurus we think of as wise and infallible reach Samadhi.  But really?  Can no mere mortal reach this state?  It depends.  If one thinks of Samadhi as a trance-like state involving colorful robes and a cave, well, that may be hard to do.  But if one thinks of being totally and completely IN this world, but without judgement, without attachment, without thought, without the filters of human experience, but in total immersion with the experience of oneness with the Universe, with all that is, then sure; anyone can get there.  Some experience this in worship or in nature.  It is a state of egoless bounty.  All senses are active but without filters, without a point of view.  It is a state of hopefulness, joy.  At any moment we can all experience Samadhi...more likely if we have prepared a place for it to occur by practicing all 8 Limbs of yoga, relentlessly, with effort, and with intention.  There is effort to come to a state of effortlessness, but wow, right?  Totally worth it!

I hope you've enjoyed our journey through the 8 Limbs and most importantly have learned that "yoga" is far more than a perfected Downward Facing Dog.  Yoga is life.  It may seem one must master these limbs in sequential order and certainly it helps, especially in the latter limbs, to build upon all the practices, but the limbs are meant to be practiced simultaneously.  Breathe, meditate, do asana, live ethically, focus concentration, turn inward, be in integrity with others, find the Seat of Your Egoless Soul.  It's there for all of us, all of the time.  Wouldn't the world be a better place if we all dedicated ourselves to this ancient practice?  I think so.

Namaste, donnajurene

Photo Credit: pixabay.com
Resources: Yoga Basics; Yoga Journal

THE 8 LIMBS OF YOGA: 5. PRATYAHARA

I imagine you've heard of the first 4 Limbs of yoga here and there.  They are more commonly referenced, in part if not in whole.  Certainly the term "asana" might be in your vocabulary, but even if not, you'd certainly know the words "posture" or "pose" that seem to be the Western definition of yoga.

We are moving on now to the lesser known and perhaps more esoteric practices of yoga -- the "juicy" parts, I like to call them.

Pratyahara is the withdrawing of the senses; turning inward.  I could go into a discussion of the various levels of consciousness here -- the 'sheaths' described in yoga philosophy -- but instead I'll urge you to recall what it feels like just as you are falling asleep.  You are deeply relaxed, yet still awake on some level.  You hear sounds, but don't attach to them.  Things might be happening around you, but you are drifting off without attending to or responding to those external events.  This is the state of Pratyahara.

That said, you don't have to be almost asleep to practice Pratyahara.  This is a state available to us as we go about our every day lives.  In fact, it is a very useful practice that allows us to be of the world, while also be apart from it.  (I know this is very confusing and it can get even more so as you delve deeper into the study of this limb.  I'm a beginner so I'll keep it simple here.)

For example, you can get to Pratyahara in yoga by breathing to calm yourself, by focusing on a candle as you sit to meditate, by relaxing fully into Savasana, by closing your eyes and focusing on the movement of the asana.  Our senses are bombarded by information.  One practical practice of Pratyahara is to do media detox.  Turn off the TV, stash your cell phone, close the computer.  Sensory input can also overwhelm -- we hear, we see, we feel, we touch, we smell.  Try focusing on only one sense -- for a short time, attend to all that you hear, but ignore the rest.  Close your eyes.  This allows you to turn inward immediately.  Our busy minds also create chaos and an intentional practice of Pratyahara can allow places of calm -- a "pause" between thought and action creates an oasis of calm as we rush about our day and likely saves us from saying and doing things we might later regret.  Notice a thought, pause, then carry on.  That empty "pause", without thought,  is the inner you.

Ultimately the practice of Pratyahara is a path to deepening our meditation to connect to the inner realms of the mind.  We must turn from the physical, external world to the internal one to truly settle into a place of quiet where the senses are stilled in service to the higher consciousness place within us that exists, ever present, but mostly ignored -- the Seat of our Soul -- that which is unchanging in the ever-fluctuating storms of our physical/emotional life in the physical realm.

It's really pretty cool to experiment with this limb of yoga.  It is the transition from the external, or physical, "worldly" limbs of yoga, to the internal.  There is peace there -- a "tease" of the greater peace to come.©

Namaste, donnajurene

Photo Credit:  Pixabay.com
Resources:  Yoga Journal; Yoga International

THE 8 LIMBS OF YOGA: 4. PRANAYAMA

Breathe in; breathe out.  Easy, right?

Turns out there is A LOT more to breathing than meets the eye.  The 4th Limb of yoga teaches us to control the breath to various effects.  I couldn't begin to list all the various pranayama breath work here, but I'll cover some basic info and you can Google for more info and instruction (YouTube has some great videos) -- which I find essential. It's hard to figure out on your own.

But let's start with what we know:  Breathing happens automatically.  We don't even think about it.  The lower brainstem initiates and controls our unconscious breath --  in/out, in/out.

But we can override this automatic breath by consciously choosing to breathe in a different pattern, by engaging the diaphragm and using "belly breathing" where the inhale causes the belly to expand (not the chest) and exhale with belly pulled in.

If we are fearful, angry, or agitated our breath will naturally be shallow and fast.  This helps us to run from danger!  But do we need to run?  Are we maybe just stressed over being late or losing our car keys, by a difficult conversation or an emotional shock?  It might be time to see if there is real danger involved that necessitates our physical response (the autonomic nervous system kicking in).  If not, we can calm these emotions by slowing and deepening the breath and soon, voila!, our very emotions are changed or at least calmed from frantic to easeful. We've engaged the "rest and restore" parasympathetic nervous system and can think clearly again to solve the problem and make a plan.

Using our breath to change and  control emotions is like having a Secret Super Power!

This is pranayama at its basic level.  From there you can experiment with various breath patterns to differing effects.  It gets rather technical to learn the 4 parts of the breath (inhale, hold after inhale, exhale, hold after exhale), to learn your unique threshold (how many breaths per minute and how long on each side of the breath and then working to increase the threshold), then to begin to manipulate these basics to breathe with intention -- perhaps to energize, to calm, or to find balance.

Calming breath work would involve various breath patterns that feature a longer exhale than inhale.  The opposite is true of an energizing breath which would have a longer inhale than exhale.  Balanced breathing, obviously, would seek to have inhale and exhale of equal length.

Some techniques use sound as a component; some utilize closing opposite nostrils on inhale and exhale, some sound a lot like panting.  All of them have profound physiological effects and benefits.

Does it take particular expertise to do this pranayama practice?  No.  Just experimentation and practice.  Everyone will find the breath that works for them to support their intention.  Sometimes we need to calm ourselves for meditation.  Sometimes we need to energize ourselves for a vigorous asana practice, or a big meeting at work!  Sometimes we just want to find some balance in life through the breath.

If you attend a yoga class you might find the instructor focuses on a pranayama practice for a portion of the class.  But even if it isn't a separate segment of the class, pranayama is always there as the breath is linked to the movement of the pose.  In the Viniyoga yoga tradition this is a very important component of asana practice.  Each movement is paired with an inhale (usually on an expansive part of a pose, like stretching upward), and with an exhale (usually on a closing-in part of the pose, as in a Forward Fold.)  See if your teacher cues the breath as you move through the poses.  This is excellent preparation for a pranayama practice to follow the asana practice.

I hope this 4th Limb of Yoga is part of your practice.  It's important to Keep Breathing!

Namaste, donnajurene
Photo credit:  classroomclipart.com