Practicing Non Violence

My theme this week has been peaceful non violence in an effort to honor Martin Luther King, Jr. His message was an important one, though certainly not easy to implement. Committing to peaceful non violence in an effort to seek civil rights equality for all seems exceedingly difficult. Passion for a cause often creates excess energy, making it difficult to ground oneself in mindful awareness while protesting. I admire what I imagine King’s level of self caring must have been. In an age when norms and even laws defined him as a second-class citizen, he refused to believe the overt messages. He honored what he knew himself – that he was as loved and special as anyone of the majority race and he deserved the same rights and respect. His own self respect fueled his protest. I imagine it would have been difficult to adhere to non-violent approaches to change living in the social environment he did.

Yoga provides opportunity to practice peaceful non violence to ourselves, thus helping to make the world around us a better place. The scale is not nearly as comprehensive as the Civil Rights Movement, but I acknowledge that adhering to peaceful non violence to oneself creates a better world for everyone around us. Practicing non violence is a way to make yoga practice serve ourselves and the world around us. Self speak, telling ourselves we aren’t good enough on or off the yoga mat, leads to violence and harmful actions. Many people in dysfunctional relationships might hear these messages from others in their lives as well. These messages can be played out on the mat in many different manifestations. It might be the superficial self put downs (I’m not good enough to get into pincha mayurasana – forearm stand pose) that are extensions of telling ourselves that overall we aren’t good enough even off the mat. It might manifest as impatience getting into a deep forward fold, leading to a lumbar spine injury as a yogi pulls into paschimottanasana (seated forward fold pose). In reality, our poses certainly do not reflect how “good” we are at anything. My hope for these practitioners is that their practice creates a sense of peace and ease, not struggle and failure.

Practicing non violence on the mat protects us from getting into expressions of poses that are not yet physically available to us. It keeps us from experiencing neck injuries sustained in sirsasana (head stand pose) when the shoulders are not strong enough to hold weight, causing the yogi to collapse and harm himself. Collapsing at the neck this way is a violent act. Yoga should never be violent. Yet it happens often. I hope for these practitioners to one day experience the same level of self respect King had, keeping them from pushing beyond their limitations. Dolphin pose is a perfect alternative inversion to help honor one’s body while developing strength to potentially go into advanced inversions another time.

Practicing non violence on the mat means practicing yoga in a comfortable environment. Yoga is most often a physical practice. This means that the body will generate heat during a yoga class. The body is designed to maintain a healthy core temperature by dissipating heat through sweating. The sweat cools the body when it evaporates from the skin. Practicing in a room set higher than body temperature is violent. The body is doing its job trying to dissipate heat but it cannot because the room is too hot for the sweat to evaporate from the skin. This is violent, harming the body rather than respecting it. I hope the hot yoga fad will go away tomorrow. In the meantime I hope that the practitioners seeking these classes come to love their bodies enough to appreciate the amazing thermoregulation process and to treat their bodies with loving kindness.

Practicing asanas (poses) too quickly to maintain correct alignment is another violent way to practice. Asana practice is intended to move with the breath, not so quickly that the motions get sloppy. Practicing without attention to alignment principles is violent to joints and soft tissues that are more likely to be injured with repetitive practice this way. But choosing this pose means dampening one’s passion to practice hard, suppressing that excess energy, and grounding in mindful, peaceful awareness.

Mistreating our bodies equates to practicing self violence. When we push too hard, eat too much, drink too much, and perform other self-destructive behaviors we end up cranky. And being cranky only makes life more difficult for people around us. Practicing peaceful non violence on and off the mat better serves us and the world around us. Martin Luther King was able to do this even in the most difficult of social situations. My hope is that all people everywhere can be safe, happy, healthy, and at peace and that in yogis this peace is manifested in mindful, non-violent practice on and off the mat.

Moving Beyond Duality

Goldilocks knew that things could be too hot or too cold but that something in the middle is just right! What was just right gave her a sense of contentment and comfort. Smart woman, that Goldilocks! Life is stressful in the extremes. People are quick to classify an experience, person, or thing as either good or bad. Either we like it or we dislike it. But really there is so much possibility in between the extremes. Yoga has taught me to find the gray zone of experiences and to acknowledge that things change. This awareness has given me more equanimity as I proceed through the day.

For instance, I reflect on things that I didn’t used to like. I didn’t like adho mukha svanasana (down dog pose) for the first several years that I practiced yoga and now I appreciate the feeling of expansion it gives me through my legs, trunk, and arms. Bakasana (crow pose) had been really difficult 20 years ago but now I find it and its variations easy. It is incredulous to me that I used to think I hated asparagus (thanks to the 1960’s canned variety served at our home) but now it is among my very favorite vegetables. None of these things changed, per se. Each of these things was always something in the middle – not hard, easy, likable or dislikable. What has changed is my perspective and my realization that everything is really on a continuum and always just right at some point in time.

I contemplate about what is a hard pose or an easy pose exactly? Isn’t it all relative to another pose? After working with ardha chandrasana (half moon pose) most students are relieved to return to parsvakonasana (side angle pose) although they had just struggled with that one before the balance pose! We often work with bakasana then parivrtta bakasana (revolved crow pose) and when we return to bakasana without the twist it seems just right - easier than it had before to everyone in the room.

I keep the studio temperature at 73-75 degrees for class. Is that hot or is that cold? Some students are a little chilled (as am I) when we begin class in a centering pose. But although the external temperature doesn’t change, most people are sweating after 30 minutes of standing poses. So was 74 degrees hot or cold? Can it be a temperature along a continuum that is just right to accommodate the practice?

I’ve invited students to find that just right state – not really tense and struggling but not really limp and disengaged – during our asana practice and to find that just right state of mind off the mat. Something along a continuum – not too extreme – seems just right and much easier to endure. Hopefully they will experience the same contentment and comfort that Goldilocks found when she found something not too hot, not too cold, but just right.

Try it for Yourself

Apparently, Buddha had said “Believe nothing, no matter where you read it or who has said it, not even if I said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense." I find equanimity when I remember to apply that philosophy to much of what I do. I try to avoid rumor mills by returning to this quote and know that there are multiple sides to every story and I need to rely on my own experiences with the people involved to come to my own conclusions. I try to empower myself by trying to do something difficult, regardless of who told me that I won’t be able to. I won’t know unless I try.
 

Buddha was right; everything is one’s own individual experience. Then it occurred to me that as a yoga teacher I say something and the roomful of people do as I say (if only my three cats would do the same, but that’s another story…). So this week we have worked more on students not just taking my word for it. We have worked on them trying different expressions of poses for them to make their own reality of the alignment principles I keep repeating in each class, every week. For instance, I always tell students to use blocks to find parsvakonasana (side angle pose) and ardha chandrasana (half moon pose). Most of the students believe me that using the block will help them maintain the length in the spine that makes the poses open their hips and hearts. Most of them believe me that by using a block rather than resting their elbows on their knees in parsvakonasana will help them retain knee alignment and reduce risk for injuring ligaments on the inside of the knee. But this week they tried it for themselves. After experiencing these poses with the blocks they tried to touch the ground without the blocks. Some of the students can maintain the pose without props but the students that can’t noticed the difference in their breath and body when they collapsed without a block.

Urdhva mukha svanasana (upward facing dog) is another pose we broke down more. I always tell the class to keep their gaze straight forward and most of them do. But some students come from other classes and lift their gazes up to the ceiling. So this week we tried both. The students learned for themselves that when they look up they don’t lengthen their spines as they thought they would. In fact, they collapse in their shoulders and upper chests and fall out of the pose. We also compared two versions of urdhva hastasana (hands up in the air pose) this week. I tell students to keep their palms separated, shoulders turned out so that their pinkies are nearer to each other. But some students come from other classes and put their palms together overhead. So we worked with both expressions and again students recognized that their shoulder blades come off their backs and they scrunch up their necks when they bring their hands together. So they didn’t have to just take my word for it. The students tried it for themselves and noticed the length in the spine and depth of the breath they get when they retain good alignment principles.

The yoga mat gives us so many opportunities to make life our own individual experience. The breath will tell us if we are doing the right thing. Sometimes holding the backs of the legs and bending the knees in navasana (boat pose) is the only way to keep a steady breath and truly spread the collar bones as the pose is meant to be practiced. But we won’t know for ourselves until we turn inward, check in with the breath, and find our own truth. Sometimes we do need to drop into balasana (child’s pose) to settle in before continuing through a vinyasa. We can’t wait for someone else to suggest we use a strap or a block, we need to always be present to our needs at the time and do what’s right. That is the only way we are sure to be true to ourselves, give up struggle, and reduce risk of injury.

The equanimity we feel when our breath smoothly moves from inhale to exhale in a rhythmic cycle tells us that we are doing the right thing. We will find the breath become shallow and staccato-like when we try taking a challenging pose without a prop as much as when we consider engaging in gossip or lies. Again, yoga practice on the mat can guide our lives off the mat.

Freedom

Freedom has been the lesson I keep returning to this week, (not coincidentally) timed with the country’s celebration of its freedom from a relationship that did not work to the advantage of the colonies nor the English. I have explored many ways to deepen the feeling of freedom, or moksha (liberation), on the mat that have followed me off the mat.
  

Some students requested that we work on hip openers for our Independence Day practice. We worked to soften through the hips and pelvis to find a sense of ease in several asanas (poses), including gomukhasana (cow face pose) and in many lunges and standing poses including parivrtta trikonasana (revolved triangle pose). We worked toward eka hasta bhujasana (elephant trunk pose) and astavakrasana (eight-angle pose). But these two are not easy poses. Many students did not get into them and some of the students that did were unable to hold the poses for five breaths. This is where we are presented with the opportunity to free ourselves from our egos. Difficult poses like these offer important lessons to let go of the ego that tells us we need to “nail” each pose and let us explore the pose and experience it as our bodies offers it at this point in time. We are free to develop our practice and our attention as we challenge ourselves – where is the opportunity to develop if we never practice a pose we find difficult? 

Many yoga students are challenged by hip openers like these. Others find these poses easier and need to explore freeing their egos in other poses such as shoulder openers like garudasana (eagle pose) and arm balances such as bakasana (crow pose). Whatever our challenge pose is at the moment, it will challenge us emotionally and mentally as much as it will challenge us physically. The challenging pose will become easier if we surrender into it and soften our resistance, using our breath to move into it, rather than pushing, expecting, trying and doing.

So where have I applied these lessons to my life off the mat? As a chronic perfectionist, I’ve been working on freedom from finding perfection in myself, others, and events. It is not easy for me to let go of my ego that I wrap in perfectionism. But I am more aware of softening expectations, looking for the best possible outcome perhaps, but finding something natural and generally ok about imperfection. I’ve been lengthening my breath and releasing resistance to what is and accepting it with a free and open mind. Just as every asana isn’t going to be perfect, nor will every action off the mat. If I accept freedom to experience fluctuation on my mat then I need to soften and release perfectionism off my mat.  

We find more opportunities to liberate ourselves by releasing habitual thoughts and actions. Habits by definition are the easy way to function and lead to our reaching for a less healthy food option or automatically finding the negative in someone or something. It requires more mindfulness to interrupt a habitual pattern by reaching for a peach rather than a chocolate bar when we feel stress. It is hard work, but that is where the opportunity to develop ourselves comes from. True freedom comes from controlling and interrupting patterns and habits that don’t serve us. The founders of our country declared independence from patterns that didn’t serve the colonies. The freedoms they sought did not come easy but were rewarding, liberating, and enduring much as the benefits of our yoga practice can be for us. If we could only surrender and let go of our ego then we can be free.

The Many Meanings of Flexibility

People frequently comment on my flexibility. Often they refer to the way that my body can move and bend. Other times they refer to my attitude in accommodating unexpected obstacles and requests. I’ve found that life teaches each of us to be flexible. Often there is nothing else we can do but accommodate. Sometimes it is the weather, other times it is a business (especially an airline), and other times it is a significant other or colleague but each day we are required to veer off our planned course of action and be flexible and open to something else.

How willing I am to be flexible depends a lot on how committed I am to my original plan. But willing or not, I’ve got to budge. I believe that my yoga practice has helped me to be flexible – in both senses of the term. As I get on my mat and bend my body, opening hips, shoulders and hamstrings, I explore my flexibility both physically and mentally. I try to be open minded to what the asana (pose) will feel like during that particular practice. The same asana looks different from one day to the next. Even within the same day, my morning hanumanasana (monkey pose, or splits) and titibhasana (firefly) poses are never as deep as they are in the evening. But yoga practice teaches me to stay with the practice and accept the pose as it is at the time, regardless of the outcome.

Deciding to use yoga props is an example of using a flexible attitude to improve a flexible body. I might use a block one day although I didn’t use one the day before. Although the block itself accommodates physical flexibility, it takes flexibility of attitude to use a prop to experience the asana without ego interfering. For instance, it is easy to lapse into full-blown ego protection during a practice by telling myself “I can get into a full split without using a block so I won’t use one today”. But yoga has taught me that the practice of staying in the moment, using my breath to transition between and to stay in poses is what is important. Coming into an expression of any pose beyond what my body is willing to provide at that time has potential of straining a muscle or ligament, causing an injury. Repeatedly coming into an asana incorrectly or holding it with poor alignment because I haven’t prepared my body for the pose might make me prone to a painful and limiting tendonitis. None of these injuries is worth forcing a deeper expression of a pose than is available at the time. So it serves me well to be flexible in accepting the pose as it is available during that practice without expecting a certain expression of that pose.

Yoga practice requires that I stay with the process, without attachment to the outcome. This practice is important for proper alignment, awareness, and injury prevention on the mat and it also serves me well when life requires me to be flexible in attitude when I’m off the mat.

Benefits of Awareness and 100% Effort

My philosophy is that if I’m going to make time, whether it is 20 minutes or 90 minutes, to be on my mat then I’m going to make the most of it. I like intensity and focus that I put into my practice and my gym workout. Maintaining my attention on my body keeps my mind from drifting into crazy chatter that it does the rest of the day and that break is nice. But full effort also affords me all the benefits from the practice (or workout).

I can sort-of-kind-of be in virabhadrasana 2 (warrior 2 pose). You know what this looks like, a little wishy-washy. My front knee can be bent a little and my arms could be out to the sides but be soft and hanging limply because I’m not really aware of what I’m doing. Or I can choose to be in the pose completely with intention. This way my front thigh is parallel with the floor, my legs are working hard as I press them away from each other, and my arms are alive with activity. I’m not rigid, but all of my body is working completely, in the present moment, with all the effort that I can give. I’m going to be there for five breaths anyway, why not be aware, give it all I’ve got, and get the most out of it.

When I do manage 100% effort I’m more likely to have my muscles and joints aligned the way they should be. That alignment makes my muscles more efficient. If I want to develop muscle strength, mental focus, flexibility, balance, or any other benefit from practice then I’m most likely to get to those benefits if I’m completely aware and putting full effort into the pose.

Full effort also keeps me from injuring myself in the pose. It is when we are really thinking about something else that we get hurt. That is because we let the front knee cave in toward the inside of the foot and stretch the ligaments beyond what they should be. Or we can create cervical discomfort if the shoulder blades are riding high instead of anchored down on the back as they should be.

This intense mindful movement is important in the gym as well as on the mat. It is the moment I begin to think about the grocery list that I bang my leg with a dumbbell and bruise my shin (true story – happened last week). If I’m not thinking of alignment while I’m doing a set of flies then I’m likely to stress my shoulder ligaments and feel pain in the front of my shoulder. The ache might last a little while or it could end up being a serious injury, particularly if my inattention is habitual and I continually stretch the same ligaments. Injuries aren’t a badge of honor in the gym or on the mat. They mean that we didn’t do something right; we didn’t maintain awareness or we didn’t honor our body’s limitation that day.

Maintaining awareness for 100% effort on my mat and in the gym also helps me remain focused when I step into the real world. I get more from my relationships when I listen completely to what my friend is telling me. The intensity on my mat also helps me to stay focused when I’m doing anything else so that I am more likely to do it right the first time without errors. That happened last week, too. I breezed through the supermarket thinking about the yoga sequence I was planning to teach that evening and I left the store without a critical item.

No, I’m not able to put in 100% effort every single moment. But I do try. I’ve asked my yoga students this week to set the intention to put in 100% effort throughout the class. One woman learned that she compensates for weak abdominal muscles by using her shoulders in several poses. She realized that is why her shoulders are tight. Her devoted awareness during yesterday’s practice taught her a lot about how she uses her body and will help her get much more out of the time she already is committing to her practice. As long as she is on the mat, she might as well be there completely, 100%.