The past 9 months or so have not been a smooth ride. Who am I kidding, there were some serious bumps in the road and some heavy clouds in the sky.
This would be a great moment to bring up Karma and how I always was convinced that things would work out -- well, I would be lying. I tried, as I always do, to look at all the hurdles I was faced with and rationalise that it would be OK.... but my body started to send out different signals. I can confirm that being faced with a situation that has a huge negative impact on me but where I am not in the drivers seat really stresses me out - the yogi way of acceptance... not my cup of tea.
Now that the sky is clearing and the first rays of the sun come down, I'm ready to pick up yoga again.
Over the past months, I didn't practice a lot and defenitely not regularly.
I started doing cardio training on the crosstrainer while listening to pumping rave music - it felt great. 30 minutes me-time, sweating, enjoying the beats.... was that OK for a yogi? Or, was I still a yogi?
I did miss doing yoga. So I started wondering, how do I get back on my yoga mat.
I remembered a tip that my prana yoga flow teacher once gave me. He said that he would never ask his students to do x asanas or spend y time doing yoga -- he just invited them to do one thing every day: roll out your yoga mat, stand on it and take 3 deep breaths. Than, you are free to stop.
In reality, I never stop after the 3 breaths - I find myself doing a sun salutation quickly after that and than start doing some asana's - not a real flow yet, but asana's I feel like doing.
I'm focussing a lot on hip openers now - pigeon pose, lizard, happy baby, squat..... I figured that I need to loosen my hips again to be able to do my bends properly, with a straight back. In the asana's that I do, I really focus on keeping my back straight....
My plan now is to do cardio training 3 days per week - I turned 40 last year and suddenly my weight started a life of its own.... I need to burn calories..... seriously. Then, 3 days that I want to focus on yoga asana's again..... and 1 day of rest (and I don't mean spending hours in savasana ;-) ).
Sounds OK?
Showing posts with label yoga. Show all posts
Showing posts with label yoga. Show all posts
Thursday, February 20, 2014
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Yoga sins - me bad yogi :-(
I was reading in yoga magazine and bumped into this poll: what are your yoga-sins?
These were the results of the online voting:
Smoking as a sin (Niyama - sauca), I get that. It is unhealthy and devastating to your body -- I don't smoke so good for me!
Drinking alcohol -- Alcohol can be viewed as toxic to your body, yet there are plenty of studies on the benefits of red wine (1 glass a day). Too much of anything is bad for your health -- why do they consider drinking alcohol as a yoga sin? I still enjoy my red wine from time to time, and am not planning on giving that up.
Eating meat -- the meat on your plate is the result of harm done to animals (yama - ahimsa). Defenitely a yoga sin and guilty as charged.... but considering a vegetarian week in the short future.
Drinking coffee -- same as with wine, why is that considered a yoga sin? Studies have shown benefits in drinking coffee. I have noticed that I have had periods that I don't want to drink any coffee and switch to tea or water. Still I do enjoy the occassional latte.
Abreact on others (yama - ahimsa) -- I can see where that comes from and it would make this world a better place if everybody would work on this -- no easy, but a good yoga practice in self control.
Judging quickly/gossipping -- same territory as the previous sin, but less "in your face". I guess it is kinda natural for people to judge and judging is based on your personal reference plate. Can't say I am free of charge (is there anybody who is?), but working on it for sure.
Killing insects (yama - ahimsa) -- I don't kill insects for fun, but a mosquito falls in a different category -- if I want to sleep and you keep bugging me by buzzing in my ear, you've had it coming.
Being discontent quickly (Niyama - santosa) - it is one of the basics of the second limb of yoga. With regards to happiness, it is better not to compare to others as comparison might compromise happiness. But comparisson might open your eyes when looking at your own situation and looking at all the struggle that is going on in the world. It might help you being more content.
So that is my view on these yoga sins -- I don't agree with all of them, that's for sure. I'm guilty of most of them - does that make me a bad yogi?
What is your view?
These were the results of the online voting:
- Smoking 6%
- Drinking alcohol 16%
- Eating meat 18%
- Drinking coffee 19%
- Abreact on others 10%
- Judging quickly/gossipping 10%
- Killing insects 10%
- Being discontent quickly 9%
- All of the above 2%
Smoking as a sin (Niyama - sauca), I get that. It is unhealthy and devastating to your body -- I don't smoke so good for me!
Drinking alcohol -- Alcohol can be viewed as toxic to your body, yet there are plenty of studies on the benefits of red wine (1 glass a day). Too much of anything is bad for your health -- why do they consider drinking alcohol as a yoga sin? I still enjoy my red wine from time to time, and am not planning on giving that up.
Eating meat -- the meat on your plate is the result of harm done to animals (yama - ahimsa). Defenitely a yoga sin and guilty as charged.... but considering a vegetarian week in the short future.
Drinking coffee -- same as with wine, why is that considered a yoga sin? Studies have shown benefits in drinking coffee. I have noticed that I have had periods that I don't want to drink any coffee and switch to tea or water. Still I do enjoy the occassional latte.
Abreact on others (yama - ahimsa) -- I can see where that comes from and it would make this world a better place if everybody would work on this -- no easy, but a good yoga practice in self control.
Judging quickly/gossipping -- same territory as the previous sin, but less "in your face". I guess it is kinda natural for people to judge and judging is based on your personal reference plate. Can't say I am free of charge (is there anybody who is?), but working on it for sure.
Killing insects (yama - ahimsa) -- I don't kill insects for fun, but a mosquito falls in a different category -- if I want to sleep and you keep bugging me by buzzing in my ear, you've had it coming.
Being discontent quickly (Niyama - santosa) - it is one of the basics of the second limb of yoga. With regards to happiness, it is better not to compare to others as comparison might compromise happiness. But comparisson might open your eyes when looking at your own situation and looking at all the struggle that is going on in the world. It might help you being more content.
So that is my view on these yoga sins -- I don't agree with all of them, that's for sure. I'm guilty of most of them - does that make me a bad yogi?
What is your view?
Sunday, February 3, 2013
Yipee ki-yay namaste -- 40-day challenge completed!
Yipee ki-yay namaste -- 40-day challenge completed!
When I started my routine of daily asana's on December 25th 2012, I was really curious if I would make it and what it would do to me.
So here's the recap:
When I started my routine of daily asana's on December 25th 2012, I was really curious if I would make it and what it would do to me.
So here's the recap:
- I enjoyed the daily "moment for myself" on the mat -- the me-time, even if it was just 20 minutes was great. It freed my mind and generally left me with a good feeling after practice.
- Daily practice improved my alignment and my postures in general. I've spent more time deep diving in the sensations of the postures - where do I feel what, and is that good or is that my body saying "You're doing it wrong buddy!". Still, I have a long way to go when it comes to flexibility -- need to improve on loosening my hips and keeping my back straight. The road ahead might be long, but the first steps have been set.
- Integrating daily asana's into your life is achievable - you need to agree with yourself that it doesn't have to be a full hours of practice but a balanced routine of 20 minutes is OK as well. There are 24 hours in a day and you need to choose wisely where you want to spend them on. 20 minutes a day never was a problem for me, in a lot of cases I easily practiced 30 - 40 minutes.
- Being well equiped certainly helps -- comfy clothing that makes you feel yogi-like is step one. Having a good mat is a defenite benefit. Keeping the mat open on the floor all day is an invitation to step on it and start practising - simple as that.
- The first 2 days of a Saturday of practising 5 hours are really really hard -- All my muscles were sore so I kept it very light and relaxing. I don't know what I will do next time when I have the "5-hours-Saturday", I'll just listen to my body and let it decide over the mind.
- Mentally, you go through an amazing change..... who am I kidding..... never expect that 40 days of doing some daily asana's will change your life instantly -- What it did is have me think more about life, about yoga values, about yoga in general as a way of living. At this stage, I'm glad to have integrated daily asana's in my life. As for the first 2 limbs of yoga, I don't see any changes in myself versus the start of my 40-D-C, not even since the start of my teacher training. And to be honest, that was not the purpose for me either - I'm quite happy with myself, not saying that there is no room for change (I don't want to call it improvement, as that would mean it's not good now, so that would leave me dissatisfied with myself....) but if change will happen it will happen gradually and slowly. Evolution over revolution....
Sunday, January 27, 2013
Slippery when hydrated
My back muscles are a bit sore now - yesterday was another teacher training day - 5 hours of yoga!
We started yesterday's class with some energetic exercises - to show the strength of the human mind and what you can accomplish by visualizing energy flow through the body. I had done similar exercises 25 years ago when I was still practising jiu-jitsu - but it still is amazing what the human mind is capable of.
We continued with a bit of Q&A on poses we had questions about - always very helpfull to get a more in depth knowledge on poses.
Then, out of the blue, we had to teach - we had to put our mats in a big circle, all facing inwards and than the first in line started teaching a sun salutation, with all the variants that are possible. After 2 minutes, the next one took over and continued the flow where the first one had stopped..... with 12 people in the group (and the teacher), that resulted in 26 minutes of non-stop sun salutation. It was a great experience, having to teach although not being prepared for it - but OMG, 26 minutes non-stop sun salutations really gets you sweating like a horse.
After that we took a deeper dive in the alignment of a number of poses - extended hand-to-big-toe pose, tree pose, warrior pose, staff pose and seated forward bend. It is good to be corrected in a position and feel the diffference, before you actually have to start correcting others.
To finish the day we did the entire prana yoga flow 1.....
There is one more thing I want to share with aspiring yogi's -- never hydrate your hands just before starting your asana's -- a downward facing dog easily becomes a dog with his face on the floor pose then. I've experienced it once, having to re-position my hands all the time because they were sliding. Now, I always wash my hands before starting asana's -- that's my free tip for you ;-)
We started yesterday's class with some energetic exercises - to show the strength of the human mind and what you can accomplish by visualizing energy flow through the body. I had done similar exercises 25 years ago when I was still practising jiu-jitsu - but it still is amazing what the human mind is capable of.
We continued with a bit of Q&A on poses we had questions about - always very helpfull to get a more in depth knowledge on poses.
Then, out of the blue, we had to teach - we had to put our mats in a big circle, all facing inwards and than the first in line started teaching a sun salutation, with all the variants that are possible. After 2 minutes, the next one took over and continued the flow where the first one had stopped..... with 12 people in the group (and the teacher), that resulted in 26 minutes of non-stop sun salutation. It was a great experience, having to teach although not being prepared for it - but OMG, 26 minutes non-stop sun salutations really gets you sweating like a horse.
After that we took a deeper dive in the alignment of a number of poses - extended hand-to-big-toe pose, tree pose, warrior pose, staff pose and seated forward bend. It is good to be corrected in a position and feel the diffference, before you actually have to start correcting others.
To finish the day we did the entire prana yoga flow 1.....
There is one more thing I want to share with aspiring yogi's -- never hydrate your hands just before starting your asana's -- a downward facing dog easily becomes a dog with his face on the floor pose then. I've experienced it once, having to re-position my hands all the time because they were sliding. Now, I always wash my hands before starting asana's -- that's my free tip for you ;-)
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Which type of yogi are you?
Today I completed one month of daily yoga (asana's) - I'm actually quite proud of myself.
The past month, I've not only practised asana's every day, I also read a lot of blogposts from different yogi bloggers.
What I'm about to share is just my observation - no criticism whatsoever.
Yogi bloggers are just people.... people like you and me. And I think I would divide them into 2 groups -- the serious ones and the less serious ones - oh what the heck, the fun ones.
The serious ones - they really take yoga and its life style very seriously - they want to write serious posts that trigger people to think and reflect. They want to inspire.... talk about all the limbs of yoga. If you ask me, they are so deep into the Ahimsa part of Yama, that they feel uncomfortable being funny or provacative as it might hurt people's feelings. Yeah, I did my thinking as well ;-) I don't know what their motivation is - maybe they just aren't that funny.I like to read about yoga, but it doesn't have to be all that serious all the time. You shouldn't take life too seriously anyway, in the end everybody dies..... and maybe that is where my view differs from them as they might believe in the after life. Which kinda reminds me of the lyrics of "Let's go crazy" from Prince aka TAFKAP aka symbol aka Prince - again. He talks about - the after world - a world of never ending happiness, you can always see the sun, day or night.... . He must have been on the North Pole in June or something....
Anyway, moving back to my original thinking. I'm just happy that there are yogi bloggers that like a more humorous approach, a bit more lighthearted, a bit less serious. I believe that these people make yoga much more approachable for newbies.
So that is my observation - there's serious yogi and there's fun yogi....but, where do the "laughter yoga" people fit in? They laugh for no apparent reason, but the one I did a session with in 2007 was very serious about it.... talking about all the benefits of laughter, even if it is fake, and adding on some breathing exercises.
Final conclusion: there are serious yogi people, fun yogi people and laughter yogi people..... and of course a whole lot of people that are not into yoga ;-)
The past month, I've not only practised asana's every day, I also read a lot of blogposts from different yogi bloggers.
What I'm about to share is just my observation - no criticism whatsoever.
Yogi bloggers are just people.... people like you and me. And I think I would divide them into 2 groups -- the serious ones and the less serious ones - oh what the heck, the fun ones.
The serious ones - they really take yoga and its life style very seriously - they want to write serious posts that trigger people to think and reflect. They want to inspire.... talk about all the limbs of yoga. If you ask me, they are so deep into the Ahimsa part of Yama, that they feel uncomfortable being funny or provacative as it might hurt people's feelings. Yeah, I did my thinking as well ;-) I don't know what their motivation is - maybe they just aren't that funny.I like to read about yoga, but it doesn't have to be all that serious all the time. You shouldn't take life too seriously anyway, in the end everybody dies..... and maybe that is where my view differs from them as they might believe in the after life. Which kinda reminds me of the lyrics of "Let's go crazy" from Prince aka TAFKAP aka symbol aka Prince - again. He talks about - the after world - a world of never ending happiness, you can always see the sun, day or night.... . He must have been on the North Pole in June or something....
Anyway, moving back to my original thinking. I'm just happy that there are yogi bloggers that like a more humorous approach, a bit more lighthearted, a bit less serious. I believe that these people make yoga much more approachable for newbies.
So that is my observation - there's serious yogi and there's fun yogi....but, where do the "laughter yoga" people fit in? They laugh for no apparent reason, but the one I did a session with in 2007 was very serious about it.... talking about all the benefits of laughter, even if it is fake, and adding on some breathing exercises.
Final conclusion: there are serious yogi people, fun yogi people and laughter yogi people..... and of course a whole lot of people that are not into yoga ;-)
Sunday, January 20, 2013
Happiness reflection....
Time for a bit of reflection.
I've been doing daily yoga since December 25th now, so that's 25 days in a row of 10 - 40 minutes of yoga.
One of the reasons I started doing yoga was to see if it would bring me happiness (see my second post on this blog).
There are lots of (obvious) things that can bring happiness - marriage, birth of a child, victory in a sports game,.... the list is long.
Personnaly, there are two less obvious things that spontaneously generated happiness for me: the first one - eating a fresh, still warm rice tartlet. The taste is so comforting to me, it instantly makes me happy - don't know why, don't wanna know why.... it just does.
The second one I discovered last year during a trip to the coast - kiting. I had bought this small kite and tried to get it up into the air. And when it was there, hanging on the strings that I was holding in my hands, I felt instant joy.....again, don't know why, don't wanna know why.... it just happened.
For some reason, all these happiness contributors seem to be bring almost instant happiness, that is not lasting that long. It is difficult to maintain the momentum. I don't think that eating my 5th rice tartlet in a row would still bring me the happiness of the first one, a stomach ache perhaps, but that would not make me happy.
During all my yoga practice of the last 25days, I have not felt this kind of happiness to be honest. I felt a bit happy when I could maintain the shoulder pressure pose for 5 full breaths. But not like my kite or tartlet happiness.
So here's my theory:
yoga happiness is not the overwhelming kind that just strickes you by surprise, it is more of a gradually built happiness that will last longer over time - not with extreme highs and lows, but more evened out. At least, that is what I am hoping for....
So what do you think? Does my theory make any sense? What brings you happiness?
I've been doing daily yoga since December 25th now, so that's 25 days in a row of 10 - 40 minutes of yoga.
One of the reasons I started doing yoga was to see if it would bring me happiness (see my second post on this blog).
There are lots of (obvious) things that can bring happiness - marriage, birth of a child, victory in a sports game,.... the list is long.
Personnaly, there are two less obvious things that spontaneously generated happiness for me: the first one - eating a fresh, still warm rice tartlet. The taste is so comforting to me, it instantly makes me happy - don't know why, don't wanna know why.... it just does.
The second one I discovered last year during a trip to the coast - kiting. I had bought this small kite and tried to get it up into the air. And when it was there, hanging on the strings that I was holding in my hands, I felt instant joy.....again, don't know why, don't wanna know why.... it just happened.
For some reason, all these happiness contributors seem to be bring almost instant happiness, that is not lasting that long. It is difficult to maintain the momentum. I don't think that eating my 5th rice tartlet in a row would still bring me the happiness of the first one, a stomach ache perhaps, but that would not make me happy.
During all my yoga practice of the last 25days, I have not felt this kind of happiness to be honest. I felt a bit happy when I could maintain the shoulder pressure pose for 5 full breaths. But not like my kite or tartlet happiness.
So here's my theory:
yoga happiness is not the overwhelming kind that just strickes you by surprise, it is more of a gradually built happiness that will last longer over time - not with extreme highs and lows, but more evened out. At least, that is what I am hoping for....
So what do you think? Does my theory make any sense? What brings you happiness?
Thursday, January 17, 2013
A small victory
Day 17 of the online challenge - day 23 of my own 40-day challenge.
Fact: I'm feeling great about daily yoga, and although only half way my challenge, I feel the urge to get on the mat and start doing asana's.
Fact: I've seen my routine growing over time. The first few days, I always did 3 variants of sun salutation (A, A1- with mini vanyasa and B) and the first 4 - 5 asana's of the complete Prana Yoga Flow. Took me about 10 - 15 minutes - but I know from the past that starting something new to vigorously always backfired at some point. I've seen it happen when I picked up running - skipped the first weeks of the start to run program and got injured quite quickly as my muscles just weren't used to the exercise. I also noticed it this summer when on holiday -- there was daily beach volley and although I have only played volleybal at school, I thought it would be a good idea to join all the youngsters for an hour every day. My wife always warns me that I only seem to have two settings when it comes to sports, full on or off - and I agree, if I participate in sports, I always give it 110% - no guts, no glory - no fear - but alas, my body is not always aligned with my mindset. I had to stop playing beach volley after 5 days as I was no longer able to completely stretch my right arm and my elbow was getting quite swollen. Still, it wasn't as bad as 5 years ago when I joined football instead of volleyball during the holiday week, and ended up in the emergency room with 2 swollen elbows and a bruised shin. Guess I'll never learn.
Back to the subject - and the fact that I have learned from the past - good for me. So I gradually moved from the 10 - 15 minute daily routine to a 20 minute routine, as described in the prana yoga flow book that I have. 3 sun salutations and 12 asana's -- good thing is that this mini flow is more complete as it has everything: twists, back bends, forward bends,.... it is all in there.
And now the last few days I do a 40 minute flow - not every day, but when I can make the time - 4 sun salutations and 21 asana's. It gets me a bit more sweaty, but I never want to skip any asana's 'just to get it over with'.
I practice in my living room - in front of a big window that actually works a bit like a mirror when it is getting dark and the shutters are closed. The "mirror" really helps me to correct my poses which is a good thing for a rookie like me.
And finally, I succeeded yesterday for the first time to maintain the shoulder pressure pose for a full 5 breaths -- a small victory (I here Faith No More in my head now.....)!!!
Fact: I'm feeling great about daily yoga, and although only half way my challenge, I feel the urge to get on the mat and start doing asana's.
Fact: I've seen my routine growing over time. The first few days, I always did 3 variants of sun salutation (A, A1- with mini vanyasa and B) and the first 4 - 5 asana's of the complete Prana Yoga Flow. Took me about 10 - 15 minutes - but I know from the past that starting something new to vigorously always backfired at some point. I've seen it happen when I picked up running - skipped the first weeks of the start to run program and got injured quite quickly as my muscles just weren't used to the exercise. I also noticed it this summer when on holiday -- there was daily beach volley and although I have only played volleybal at school, I thought it would be a good idea to join all the youngsters for an hour every day. My wife always warns me that I only seem to have two settings when it comes to sports, full on or off - and I agree, if I participate in sports, I always give it 110% - no guts, no glory - no fear - but alas, my body is not always aligned with my mindset. I had to stop playing beach volley after 5 days as I was no longer able to completely stretch my right arm and my elbow was getting quite swollen. Still, it wasn't as bad as 5 years ago when I joined football instead of volleyball during the holiday week, and ended up in the emergency room with 2 swollen elbows and a bruised shin. Guess I'll never learn.
Back to the subject - and the fact that I have learned from the past - good for me. So I gradually moved from the 10 - 15 minute daily routine to a 20 minute routine, as described in the prana yoga flow book that I have. 3 sun salutations and 12 asana's -- good thing is that this mini flow is more complete as it has everything: twists, back bends, forward bends,.... it is all in there.
And now the last few days I do a 40 minute flow - not every day, but when I can make the time - 4 sun salutations and 21 asana's. It gets me a bit more sweaty, but I never want to skip any asana's 'just to get it over with'.
I practice in my living room - in front of a big window that actually works a bit like a mirror when it is getting dark and the shutters are closed. The "mirror" really helps me to correct my poses which is a good thing for a rookie like me.
And finally, I succeeded yesterday for the first time to maintain the shoulder pressure pose for a full 5 breaths -- a small victory (I here Faith No More in my head now.....)!!!
Friday, January 11, 2013
Aarti bye-bye-ji
The Ayervedic lunch was really nice - it tasted good and it made me feel really healthy.
After the lunch, we had to go to our rooms and sleep for 2 hours. Swami Mario said that this was to break up the normal day routine that people always follow - breaking the day in 2 with some sleep could result in new insights bla bla bla -- I had made up a number of excuses in my life to pursuade my kids to take a rest in the early afternoon, especially when I wanted a break for myself.... but I would have never thought of this reason. Oh well...
Sleeping for 2 hours in the middle of the day, in an uncomfortable and too short bed, with a few kids yelling and screaming outside.... no need to say it did not work out like it should.
Two hours later, the group rejoined in the central room. We sat in a big circle, and I was hoping that swami Mario would have asked the others what they thought of the weekend so far, similar to the discussions he had had with both my wife and I. Unfortunately he didn't... I felt it was a missed opportunity. And I know it is wrong to judge, but he disappointed me in not listening to people's frustrations. Maybe he could only handle one on one confrontations, and not with an entire group.
Luckely, we started the first actual yoga session - Sivananda yoga for 1.5 hrs. This was what I had come for.... and it was really good. We ended the yoga session with a mindfulness exercise - a complete bodyscan.
I was so happy about those 2 hours - until one of the monks came into the room to tell us we were going to be late for the 'aarti babaji'....
This was my cue - I called swami Mario into our room, and thanked him for the past 2 hours of yoga and mindfulness, but told him that the time had come for my wife and I to end the weekend. He was surprised .... I explained that by leaving now, I could leave with a 'good' feeling - that feeling would quickly go away if I had to attend another 'aarti babaji' or attend one of his karma yoga sessions.
And while the rest of the group were in the 'aarti babaji', it was aarti bye-bye-ji for us as we took our bags and left for home.
One thing was clear, if we would ever consider a yoga weekend again, we would check and double check the program to be completely sure what we would end up in.....;
After the lunch, we had to go to our rooms and sleep for 2 hours. Swami Mario said that this was to break up the normal day routine that people always follow - breaking the day in 2 with some sleep could result in new insights bla bla bla -- I had made up a number of excuses in my life to pursuade my kids to take a rest in the early afternoon, especially when I wanted a break for myself.... but I would have never thought of this reason. Oh well...
Sleeping for 2 hours in the middle of the day, in an uncomfortable and too short bed, with a few kids yelling and screaming outside.... no need to say it did not work out like it should.
Two hours later, the group rejoined in the central room. We sat in a big circle, and I was hoping that swami Mario would have asked the others what they thought of the weekend so far, similar to the discussions he had had with both my wife and I. Unfortunately he didn't... I felt it was a missed opportunity. And I know it is wrong to judge, but he disappointed me in not listening to people's frustrations. Maybe he could only handle one on one confrontations, and not with an entire group.
Luckely, we started the first actual yoga session - Sivananda yoga for 1.5 hrs. This was what I had come for.... and it was really good. We ended the yoga session with a mindfulness exercise - a complete bodyscan.
I was so happy about those 2 hours - until one of the monks came into the room to tell us we were going to be late for the 'aarti babaji'....
This was my cue - I called swami Mario into our room, and thanked him for the past 2 hours of yoga and mindfulness, but told him that the time had come for my wife and I to end the weekend. He was surprised .... I explained that by leaving now, I could leave with a 'good' feeling - that feeling would quickly go away if I had to attend another 'aarti babaji' or attend one of his karma yoga sessions.
And while the rest of the group were in the 'aarti babaji', it was aarti bye-bye-ji for us as we took our bags and left for home.
One thing was clear, if we would ever consider a yoga weekend again, we would check and double check the program to be completely sure what we would end up in.....;
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
I am not alone....
just a quick in-between post before I continue to share my first yoga weekend experience.
I found a website - www.challengeloop.com - where people can create challenges and invite others to participate / join them.
Guess what, there was a yoga challenge to practise yoga every day for the first month of 2013!
http://www.challengeloop.com/challenge/new-years-yoga#
Suddenly I am one of over 2250 people who decided to do daily yoga in January 2013 - fits nicely with my 40-day challenge (so I am actually 7 days ahead of the rest, but will need to continue for 3 more days in February to reach my own challenge).
Sharing it is an extra motivation - knowing others are walking the same path makes it easier to persevere.... Game on!
PS. Today, 25 minutes of Prana Yoga Flow!
I found a website - www.challengeloop.com - where people can create challenges and invite others to participate / join them.
Guess what, there was a yoga challenge to practise yoga every day for the first month of 2013!
http://www.challengeloop.com/challenge/new-years-yoga#
Suddenly I am one of over 2250 people who decided to do daily yoga in January 2013 - fits nicely with my 40-day challenge (so I am actually 7 days ahead of the rest, but will need to continue for 3 more days in February to reach my own challenge).
Sharing it is an extra motivation - knowing others are walking the same path makes it easier to persevere.... Game on!
PS. Today, 25 minutes of Prana Yoga Flow!
Monday, January 7, 2013
We will, we will .... worship you?
After the offering ceremony, we were allowed a quick drink before we would start the "aarti babaji".
When booking the weekend, I had googled "aarti babaji" just to know what it was and what to expect. Apparently, google doesn't know everything, so I left it to be a surprise for the weekend - but since it was scheduled 3 times, I hoped it was some sort of asana's or mindfulness exercises.
On Friday, we were already told that the ashram was build to honour a guru called Babaji. If I would have known that babaji was a person's name, I would have probably googled the "aarti" part alone, only to find out it was a religious ritual of worship (wikipedia's words). Before I knew it, we were sitting in a church-like setting, women on the left, men on the right, and were handed a little booklet in Sanskrit (with Dutch subtitles). There was a monk playing the harmonium and then the chanting began - and we were off....
I started reading the Dutch translation of the Sanskrit texts and got a flashback to my youth. I went to a Catholic school and we had to go to church quite often. The mass was what we called a singing mass - the priest would sing most of the hymns which resulted in them getting stuck in my mind forever. This was exactly the same thing to me, but replacing Jesus with Babaji....
For myself, I had struggled long enough wheather or not to believe in a supreme being, and I was at a point where I had had it with all sorts of worship..... "aarti babaji" was too much for me to comprehend. The worship of another human being was not my cup of tea.... sure, I was a big fan of Freddie Mercury and loved the way he could play a crowd, but I consider that admiration. Maybe Babaji was a Freddie Mercury for these monks... who knows.
I was glad the whole thing was over (another hour well spent - not) - finally we could have some breakfast.
The good thing about breakfast was that I could get a sense of what the others were thinking of the whole experience so far. Maybe I needed to open up even more to the experience. Surprisingly enough, the majority was not getting what they expected ... and most of them were not really happy about it either.
Anyway - the next item on the agenda was the Karma yoga - finally something that already was called yoga .... I was really looking forward to it.
When booking the weekend, I had googled "aarti babaji" just to know what it was and what to expect. Apparently, google doesn't know everything, so I left it to be a surprise for the weekend - but since it was scheduled 3 times, I hoped it was some sort of asana's or mindfulness exercises.
On Friday, we were already told that the ashram was build to honour a guru called Babaji. If I would have known that babaji was a person's name, I would have probably googled the "aarti" part alone, only to find out it was a religious ritual of worship (wikipedia's words). Before I knew it, we were sitting in a church-like setting, women on the left, men on the right, and were handed a little booklet in Sanskrit (with Dutch subtitles). There was a monk playing the harmonium and then the chanting began - and we were off....
I started reading the Dutch translation of the Sanskrit texts and got a flashback to my youth. I went to a Catholic school and we had to go to church quite often. The mass was what we called a singing mass - the priest would sing most of the hymns which resulted in them getting stuck in my mind forever. This was exactly the same thing to me, but replacing Jesus with Babaji....
For myself, I had struggled long enough wheather or not to believe in a supreme being, and I was at a point where I had had it with all sorts of worship..... "aarti babaji" was too much for me to comprehend. The worship of another human being was not my cup of tea.... sure, I was a big fan of Freddie Mercury and loved the way he could play a crowd, but I consider that admiration. Maybe Babaji was a Freddie Mercury for these monks... who knows.
I was glad the whole thing was over (another hour well spent - not) - finally we could have some breakfast.
The good thing about breakfast was that I could get a sense of what the others were thinking of the whole experience so far. Maybe I needed to open up even more to the experience. Surprisingly enough, the majority was not getting what they expected ... and most of them were not really happy about it either.
Anyway - the next item on the agenda was the Karma yoga - finally something that already was called yoga .... I was really looking forward to it.
Sunday, January 6, 2013
The rice, the rice, the rice is on fire....
Let me tell you about my first ever "yoga" weekend.
It was a few years ago - the yoga magazine I always bought displayed these mouth watering yoga retreats - one week, warm climate, wonderful scenery, yoga classes.....yep, my wife and I defenitely wanted to try that.
As yoga rookies, we wanted to be sure it would be our cup of tea, so we decided to look for a yoga weekend closer to home (risk reduction, just in case - I'm still a rational person).
One day, my wife found something on the internet - a "yoga and mindfulness" weekend in the north of Holland. Not exactly the warm climate we had hoped for, but driving distance and at a local ashram in a wooded area. The program was not 100% clear to us - welcome and introduction on Friday, on Saturday it said something about offering in the morning followed by 'aarti babaji' (thanks Google for not clarifying), ayurvedic breakfast, karma yoga (which was described as helping in the kitchen - so maybe we could learn how to cook ayurvedic food), ayurvedic lunch, relax time, yoga followed again by 'aarti babaji' and ayurvedic dinner......and the same thing on Sunday (except for the dinner). With an open mind, it sounded OK and since we had no other programs to compare to, we decided to give it a try.
We arrived on Friday evening, just to get to know the group of people we would spend the weekend with. I was one of 2 men in a group of 12. No worries. The group was diverse but everybody seemed to be looking for something..... I introduced myself as a rational person, looking for a yoga experience and starting the weekend with an open mind to see where it would bring me.
Saturday had an early start - 5.30 AM wake up to take a shower - you needed to enter the little temple for the offering ceremony clean - no shower, no ceremony. At 6.00 AM we were on our yoga mats doing breathing exercises - it was the first time I did breathing exercises ; alternating nostril breathing, ujjayi breathing ... it made me feel good and made up for the early wake up call.
With clean lungs we had to put on a wrap and head for the temple. The door opened and there was a open fire in the middle of the room - the upper half of the room was filled with smoke - goodbye clean lungs, why did I do those breathing exercises? Why did we need to shower to come here when we were going to leave smoked anyway? I started repeating to myself - keep an open mind, keep an open mind.... it is all about the experience.....
We had to sit one after the other (like children pretend to be on a train) - the smoke was now above our heads like grey clouds packed with snow. We all got a bowl with approx. 1 kg of rice brokens and then we were ready to go.
Three 'monks' would lead the ceremony - we just had to sit and listen to mantras in Sanskrit and when we heard 'svaha', we had to repeat 'svaha' and throw some of the rice out of our bowl into the fire, always with our right hand and little bits each time. 'Svaha' is similar to 'Hail', in case you were wondering. This lasted for almost an hour, and while we were all throwing our rice, the monks themselves threw in flowers, apples, bananas, a coconut.....
As a food engineer I couldn't stop thinking - what a waste of food..... 1 kg of rice equals 16 portions - times 12 people equals 192 portions and then all the fruit.....it seemed to me that this rice could have been used better at a local shelter.
One thing was clear - this whole offering was not my cup of tea..... so after an hour, it was on to the next chapter of the weekend, on with an open mind to 'aarti babaji'.....
It was a few years ago - the yoga magazine I always bought displayed these mouth watering yoga retreats - one week, warm climate, wonderful scenery, yoga classes.....yep, my wife and I defenitely wanted to try that.
As yoga rookies, we wanted to be sure it would be our cup of tea, so we decided to look for a yoga weekend closer to home (risk reduction, just in case - I'm still a rational person).
One day, my wife found something on the internet - a "yoga and mindfulness" weekend in the north of Holland. Not exactly the warm climate we had hoped for, but driving distance and at a local ashram in a wooded area. The program was not 100% clear to us - welcome and introduction on Friday, on Saturday it said something about offering in the morning followed by 'aarti babaji' (thanks Google for not clarifying), ayurvedic breakfast, karma yoga (which was described as helping in the kitchen - so maybe we could learn how to cook ayurvedic food), ayurvedic lunch, relax time, yoga followed again by 'aarti babaji' and ayurvedic dinner......and the same thing on Sunday (except for the dinner). With an open mind, it sounded OK and since we had no other programs to compare to, we decided to give it a try.
We arrived on Friday evening, just to get to know the group of people we would spend the weekend with. I was one of 2 men in a group of 12. No worries. The group was diverse but everybody seemed to be looking for something..... I introduced myself as a rational person, looking for a yoga experience and starting the weekend with an open mind to see where it would bring me.
Saturday had an early start - 5.30 AM wake up to take a shower - you needed to enter the little temple for the offering ceremony clean - no shower, no ceremony. At 6.00 AM we were on our yoga mats doing breathing exercises - it was the first time I did breathing exercises ; alternating nostril breathing, ujjayi breathing ... it made me feel good and made up for the early wake up call.
With clean lungs we had to put on a wrap and head for the temple. The door opened and there was a open fire in the middle of the room - the upper half of the room was filled with smoke - goodbye clean lungs, why did I do those breathing exercises? Why did we need to shower to come here when we were going to leave smoked anyway? I started repeating to myself - keep an open mind, keep an open mind.... it is all about the experience.....
We had to sit one after the other (like children pretend to be on a train) - the smoke was now above our heads like grey clouds packed with snow. We all got a bowl with approx. 1 kg of rice brokens and then we were ready to go.
Three 'monks' would lead the ceremony - we just had to sit and listen to mantras in Sanskrit and when we heard 'svaha', we had to repeat 'svaha' and throw some of the rice out of our bowl into the fire, always with our right hand and little bits each time. 'Svaha' is similar to 'Hail', in case you were wondering. This lasted for almost an hour, and while we were all throwing our rice, the monks themselves threw in flowers, apples, bananas, a coconut.....
As a food engineer I couldn't stop thinking - what a waste of food..... 1 kg of rice equals 16 portions - times 12 people equals 192 portions and then all the fruit.....it seemed to me that this rice could have been used better at a local shelter.
One thing was clear - this whole offering was not my cup of tea..... so after an hour, it was on to the next chapter of the weekend, on with an open mind to 'aarti babaji'.....
Thursday, January 3, 2013
Order long yoga mat: check!
Hooray, hooray - I just ordered my longer yoga mat - I found it on a website that was advertised on Facebook (of all places) -- http://www.manduka.com/eu/ . Good thing is, they have a European website (and judging on the telephone number, their EU offices are in Antwerp).
Just have a look at their description of the mat:
The Manduka eKO mat is the only choice for those who want a high-performance, durable yoga mat and are passionate about protecting our planet. The top surface is an innovative, proprietary closed-cell natural rubber. The sea-grass texture finish and superior cushioning are kind to your body and the environment. This natural rubber mat uses a toxic-free softening process and is completely free of foaming agents and plasticizers found in other mats. The eKO represents a bright future for eco-friendly yoga mats - it leaves behind no footprint in landfills, but will definitely make a lasting impression in the studio.
Just reading it makes me feel professional and sustainable at the same time - like a real yogi....
Most important thing for me however is that I will finally be able to fit both my heels and my head on the mat when in corpse pose (with 10cm spare!!)
Today is also my 10th consecutive day of asana practice - that's day 10 of the 40-day challenge. I must say that daily asana's are already getting under my skin - if I can not practise in the morning, I'm already thinking when I will be able to fit in at least 20 minutes of practise later that day. And you know what - it feels good, I'm always happy that I made time to do my asana's. In the end, that was one of the things I was aiming for in the first place - happiness.
Got to go - my yoga mat is calling!
Just have a look at their description of the mat:
The Manduka eKO mat is the only choice for those who want a high-performance, durable yoga mat and are passionate about protecting our planet. The top surface is an innovative, proprietary closed-cell natural rubber. The sea-grass texture finish and superior cushioning are kind to your body and the environment. This natural rubber mat uses a toxic-free softening process and is completely free of foaming agents and plasticizers found in other mats. The eKO represents a bright future for eco-friendly yoga mats - it leaves behind no footprint in landfills, but will definitely make a lasting impression in the studio.
Just reading it makes me feel professional and sustainable at the same time - like a real yogi....
Most important thing for me however is that I will finally be able to fit both my heels and my head on the mat when in corpse pose (with 10cm spare!!)
Today is also my 10th consecutive day of asana practice - that's day 10 of the 40-day challenge. I must say that daily asana's are already getting under my skin - if I can not practise in the morning, I'm already thinking when I will be able to fit in at least 20 minutes of practise later that day. And you know what - it feels good, I'm always happy that I made time to do my asana's. In the end, that was one of the things I was aiming for in the first place - happiness.
Got to go - my yoga mat is calling!
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