Magic Mysore

I wish I was going to be in Mysore one more month. I spoke to someone who said a 3 month trip to Mysore normally goes, 'first month broken, second month pain, third month flying'....and I whilst I haven't and won't get to experience the 3rd month of an extended trip to Mysore, I can believe this. The first month I was all over the place, my body just did not feel like my own. Having spoken to my massage therapist (yes I have my own massage guy now;) my circulation isn't great and long periods of sitting, on planes, trains etc wreaks havoc on my body, causing inflammation of the knees, feet and ankles. 

Really??!

Just as the inflammation had gone down I took a trip to Gokarna, supposedly to surf, however unfortunately due to the heavy rain, the decision to move up the coast to south Goa was taken and we ended up spending the rest of the time there. Thankfully the rain stopped earlier than forecast and we were able to enjoy a few days of scorching sun on the beautiful beach of Palolem. But I was miserable, I'd only come to the coast for the surf and this threw me and I had no way of getting back to Mysore earlier than scheduled. Then out of the blue I met another friend from Mysore who had left a week previously and had just arrived to Goa. It was so good to see her....

Monsoon on Om Beach

But more inflammation! Luckily this time I went straight for a massage and the swelling has gone down again. So, my practice is back to normal! I feel inside myself again and I'm enjoying it, able to try out new postures and deepen others. I'm even back to grabbing my ankles in chakra bandhasana which I'd thought I'd lost for ever! Vijay is convinced that in just 3 weeks of practicing every day that I will be able to grab them on my own...however my mind has other ideas! Vijay's teaching style is hardcore. He will crouch at the side of you and watch you whilst you are doing the postures you hate and will make you do them again, maybe 2 or 3 times, just to make sure you're really putting the effort in and not cutting corners. However, as a result of this 'tough love' I can now jump into bujapidasana and touch my chin down with feet off the floor and transition out which I have never been able to do before and jump into tittibhasana and lower down to kurmasana. They're both messy and work in progress, but who cares!?

Palolem Beach

I'm not sure what it is about being in Mysore that makes your practice grow, maybe it's the language barrier- complaining/moaning doesn't work here, they just don't get it, you just have to do what they say, or maybe it's the fact you are really giving time to your practice, you don't have to rush to a job/home etc, (I was practicing from 7:15 to 10am this morning!), or maybe it's just the great teaching - my teacher is in his twenties and has been studying yoga for the majority of his life, his knowledge of the practice is immense and his teaching is completely sincere and from the heart.  (I heard a lovely story about the brothers, my teacher Vijay and his elder brother Vinay at a bhajan the other night...apparently all throughout they're childhood they were made to chant even when playing with their toys...I loved this..) Nonetheless, there is something magic about Mysore which can transform your practice (if you let it - I've heard stories of people coming and leaving after 2 days) and this goes for all students across all the shalas, not just for students at KPJAYI. 

As an aside, whilst still young, the Kumar brothers are excellent teachers and whilst I have not practiced with Vinay, the students who have rave about him...everyone loves Vinay! These brothers are really the yoga teachers to study with, no-one knows who their teachers were, I think it's a bit of a secret, but they are both shining stars!! 

This week has been the festival of Dasara in Mysore. Its culmination being the procession which some friends and I attended yesterday. The brochure said expected to be seated for 4 hours, I think we were there for a bit longer! However, it was great to see that an organisation in Mysore who care for their visitors put on a special 'foreigners section', complete with shade, seats and free water and biscuits, especially to protect us (women especially) from intimidation, groping and general molestation! I have to give it to them, the Mysoreans do know how to how to put on a parade! 

Everyone loves the elephants!

More elephants

Just one more elephant photo!

Chakra bandhasana and why getting your heels in kapotasana is completely worth it!

I am a massive advocate of back bending and spinal health and truly believe that keeping the spine healthy is key to a healthy body and mind. Vanda Scaravelli says that the function of the spine is to elongate and in this elongation elasticity and youth are regained. I completely agree. Not only is your spine strengthened on a physical level but mentally, FEAR is removed, which can be the biggest obstacle to living a happy and fulfilling life.

When I first tried kapotasana I went into complete panic mode and it was the most horrible, scary experience ever. I never thought I'd enjoy the posture. But I've persevered with it, trying to break the posture down, work out its mechanics to make it easier and more comfortable.

My posts on this blog are always only taken from my own experiences and I try to convey the posture through how it feels in my body. In a previous post on back bending I mentioned drawing the shoulder blades together and down the back. This seems to be the key to a comfortable kapo too. At the pelvic floor there's lots going on too! The tops of the femurs inwardly rotate, the sit bones draw together, the pubic bone draws down and the tailbone tucks under. This drawing in of the 4 corners of the pelvic floor seems to help to stabilise the pelvis but also seems to channel the energy from the pelvic floor upward. It could be mula bandha, but I'm not sure, not yet anyway!

So from drawing the spine out from the pelvic bowl, the sternum is lifted and the shoulder blades draw down the back. (nb. pulling shoulder blades down does not mean crunching the lower back - you're still lifting up). The drawing down of the shoulder blades seems to give that space to the thoracic spine to extend. When dropping back keep pushing forward into your thighs, inwardly rotating the tops of femurs to give space in the SI joint and for the tailbone to tuck under. Do not let your head touch the floor! Just keep pushing into the thighs, slowly creeping the fingertips alongside the feet, pushing and creeping in. Keeping the shoulder blades close to the spine and the elbows in tight. This is how I managed to get the heels on my own from the air in yesterday's practice. Once you have the heels you can actually relax into the posture. With the spine in extension like this it feels as if a channel opens from the pelvic floor up to the cervical spine which channels the breath. Sound strange I know. Maybe its sushumna nadi? Clear of granthis, giving ease to the posture, I don't know... but what I do know is that once you get the heels the posture IS easier, because the breath stabilises!!

And the other benefit of getting your heels is that the arms/shoulder blades are in the same posture to get your ankles in chakra bandhasana, which I got last night for the first time too! A tip for this one - activate where necessary, relax where possible (in the words of David Swenson!) But again, once you have bound, the whole thing is a lot easier!

What is an advanced student?

The term ‘advanced students’ is kind of a misnomer, if one defines ‘advanced students’ as those who can grab their heels in chakra bandhasana or hold a handstand without support. As teachers of yoga the definition or interpretation of what is an ‘advanced student’ has a great bearing on the experience of yoga for our students.

On a purely physical level, after two years of regular practice, I would expect to see from students the kind of results one would expect to see from people who take up some form of exercise e.g. increased strength and stamina, but also flexibility, which most forms of conventional exercise overlook. An increase in body awareness and maybe a bit more confidence, both on and off the mat. But to try to measure the advancement of a student by asana alone would be missing the point completely. 

There are 6 series of Ashtanga Yoga, each series including more advanced asana, but most students will never complete the Primary Series. But this does not means that students practicing Primary are any less advanced that those practicing sixth. It just means that the ‘edge’ of the person practicing sixth has moved quicker/further than the student practicing Primary. It means they have to practice more advanced asana in order to reach their edge. It doesn’t mean they’re any more of an ‘advanced student’.

The classic texts state that asana practice is purely a means to enable the student to be able to sit comfortably for a long time in order to meditate. If one’s hips and hamstrings are tight and one’s concentration is lacking, sitting still for long periods of time is unlikely to happen. So one could say that if one were proficient at asana, then sitting would be easy, which would easily enable meditation. But it is not just about stilling the physical body. You could be the most flexible person in the world, but if your mind is not still and focused when sitting, what is the point? Gymnasts can perform amazing physical feats, but one would not say that makes them ‘advanced yoga students’. A friend of mine worked as a porter in a hospital and says that some of the best yogis he’d ever met were completely paralyzed, unable to move any part of their body.

The more I think about yoga and meditation and the more people I talk to about it, meditation in this day and age is absolute absorption in anything, where time and space cease to exist; painting a canvas, playing a violin, carving a piece of wood, even doing crochet! Hartranft calls meditation “interiorisation”, the shifting of perspective away from externality toward an interiorised point of view. From the outer world of people, things, relationships; to the inner world of the attentional processes with which the external is seen. Or more specifically, interiorisation is the growing sense that awareness is not seeing an object per se, but instead observing a consciousness representing an object. (Hartranft, 2012: 13) Once one gets to this point, we’re getting nearer to being ‘advanced students’.

This interiorisation is a realisation and complete acceptance and meshing with the matrix of the external world, which is a more inclusive and comprehensible concept of the state of Samadhi, for the western mind. Once one feels intimate with their external environment and realises their connection to every other sentient being on the planet, compassion arises and with compassion comes unconditional love, this is true yoga (union) and this is what ‘advanced students’ experience. 

The skill of the teacher is to accommodate and nurture each individual student and their unique development whilst remaining true to the wisdom shared by Patanjali. In my opinion, one can only measure a student’s knowledge and understanding of yoga by the actions of that student once they step off the mat.