Noticing and the squeaky wheel

Tags

breathing, Christchurch, earthquake, heels, noticing, rajas, sattva, squeaky wheel, Yoga, yoga nidra, yoga teaching

I’m kind of big on asking my yoga students to get into the “noticing” aspect of yoga: move-breathe-move-breathe-move-breathe – sit still – notice the sensations in your body, notice the activity of your mind, breathe into any tightness etc etc; it’s not what you notice so much as it is the act of noticing something, anything; you’re training your mind and body to be sensitive to what you are feeling and experiencing.

And so on.

But I noticed something myself tonight – how easy it is for me to notice the squeaky wheel instead of noticing everything/everyone equally. Huh.

By this I mean that if someone is having a hard time with the practice or their alignment or something else is glaringly in need of support, that’s what I see. It’s not that I don’t see all of my students, but I do notice that I’m paying way more attention to those who need more attention.

Which kind of makes sense in some ways, right? But not really for those students who are going along pretty well and not getting as much attention as others. Natch.

So, experienced yoga teachers out there… have you noticed this in your own teaching? And if so, how do you manage to spread your attention more evenly amongst your students?

Also, tonight I taught with a tweaky back. Went to a wedding on Sunday night and had one of my very-super-extremely-rare-evenings of wearing heels. Heels are pretty to look at – especially this dark plum coloured pair with a peep toe and a bow – but an absolute killer to wear (just ask any woman who’s willing to be honest). So most of the time I don’t wear heels at all, especially after that whole broken toe/bone graft thing (massive OUCHIES).

But for a wedding sure, I’ll get all dressed up and throw on some heels. Dang, I’ll even dance in them! Being a Greek wedding, there was even some belly-dance music playing for a while and I COULD NOT walk away while that was playing!

My back was fine yesterday but when I woke up this morning – WOW – super-tweaky! Spent as much of today as I could doing forward bends and did a mini practice before I taught my class but it’s still a little bent out of shape. A hot shower, some tiger balm (and no, it doesn’t have tiger parts in it!) and a little more stretching… I’m working on it.

The other thing I noticed in tonight’s class was my first super-duper-really-and-truly-UBER rajasic student. Someone who had trouble with the static poses, and couldn’t even lie down quietly on his back for five minutes. He also told me after the class that the music was “too quiet”  for him, and that he used to practice Yoga Nidra six years ago “to Baroque music”. Riiiight… never mind that Yoga Nidra is considered to be “psychic sleep” and is meant to be done in silence. You can NOT meditate properly to Baroque or any other kind of music, not really…

So I’m hoping that the brief chat we had registered, where I suggested that a quieter practice might be a good balance for his endurance walking and high energy music. Don’t know if it got through or not, but here’s hoping.

Because too much rajas leads to instability. Just ask Christchurch in New Zealand! Rajas is the energy of movement, and hey, look… sadly they were hit with another earthquake.

Please hold the New Zealand people in your hearts and prayers. If you can donate, please give to the NZ Red Cross appeal.

And let’s all try to breathe a little more calming sattva into the world, shall we? We all really, really need it right now.

~ Svasti

P.S. Only three more days to go! 😉

Find the joy

Tags

Asana, Chinese New Year, Compassion, earthquake, find the joy, Haiti, hope, Meditation, perfect yoga bodies, Queensland floods, raining cats and donkeys, restorative, selfless, sharks, Sun City Picture House, Year of the Rabbit, Yogis

From a bush outside my apartment...

Some yogis never practice asana, did you know that?

It’s not the usual path for sure, but there ARE people who were born with already wide-open hearts, those so selfless they wouldn’t think twice about giving the shirt off their back to someone who needed it more than they do.

Most of us however… we need all that asana and meditation  in order to see clearly and enable us to start acting from the heart as a default first course of action.

According to the Chinese New Year, we’re moving into the Year of the Rabbit and apparently 2011 is meant to be a little slower. More restorative. And who couldn’t do with twelve months of that? I know I sure can… time to recoup and rebuild, yeah?

Friends, one and all – I ask you to take the time to watch this half hour documentary about life in Haiti one year after the earthquake.

It’s a beautiful tale about the fostering of love and fun amongst the Haitian people, despite the wretchedness of their situation. This is also a story of compassion: people helping each other with the most unimaginable tasks regardless of their own circumstances;  and how to not be destroyed by complete and utter darkness when life as you know it is over and you’ve lost so very much.

Have your hankie ready, but also be prepared to feel jubilant and blissful no matter what. The website for the doco is here: Sun City Picture House

Share it around.

Also, take a look at Diane’s post over at The Everything Yoga blog about Big Yoga. She kindly referenced my Body Talk interview with The BlissChick in a discussion about how we’ve just GOT to get over this idea about “perfect yoga bodies”. And that’s another helping of compassion right there.

There are sharks swimming down the streets of Ipswich in Queensland, folks. And it’s still raining cats and donkeys here, all day and night. But we do find ways to go on, even as our hearts are breaking for the state of this planet and it’s people and animals.

Nothing is permanent, nothing is forever. Like the dude in the doco says, find the joy in order not to be completely crushed.

Having been completely crushed before, I highly recommend the alternative: find the joy, everybody!

~Svasti

P.S. More coming soon on my review of Carried by a Promise!

Healing and Dealing with Depression

Tags

Depression, donations to Haiti, earthquake, Haiti, Healing, healing depression, mental health

Not quite sure how this happened, but a lady named Amy has put together her Top 30 Sites for People Dealing with Depression and included this blog on her list!

Which is cool… but like Trini Girl Blue (also on the list), I think there’s other blogs that could’ve been mentioned. Trini has made a good list, so I won’t mention those sites here again, although there’s many on her list that I’d also mention if she hadn’t.

Here’s a few more (some are specific posts, others are just the blog in general) in alphabetical order:

• Anthroyogini
• A Post-Cynical Seer
• BlissChick
• Can You See The Real Me?
• Giggle On!
• Insanity Personified
• Patient Anonymous
• Shattered Into One Piece
• The Girl Who Wears My Shoes
• This Mama’s Dharma
• Yogic Muse

And to quote Trini coz she already said it so well…

…there are many people that were missed and for that I am sorry, if anyone wants to be added to this list please feel free to drop me a line. This is just a drop in the bucket, it is not exhaustive.

We all struggle with ourselves and while some don’t update as much as they have in the past there are good resources on each of these blogs…

From my perspective I like hearing about how others deal with depression, even if they are still in the woods (so to speak).

It’s a topic that doesn’t get nearly enough airtime and isn’t well understood. Consequently a lot of people with depression put up with it and end up loathing themselves when really what they need is a hug and appropriate mental health care.

Depression warps your view of yourself and also makes it very difficult to dig your way out. It can make you feel like you’ll never be happy ever again. And it’s hard to find a reason to get out of bed when you feel like that!

But it is possible. Like many of the blogs mentioned in the top 30 list and on Trini’s blog and those I’ve mentioned, many people have found healing and have managed to bring some happiness and sunshine back into their life.

And that’s part of why I write these days – to show that it is possible to recover.

As human beings, we have the capacity to destroy ourselves/other people or thrive and find incredible happiness. All people have that same capacity – all of us.

Speaking of depression, human beings and happiness…

Haiti Earthquake Donations

Have you donated to one of the Haiti appeals yet? Even if you can only afford $5, it’s still better than not giving at all.

I donated to Wyclef Jean’s foundation Yele Haiti – mostly because he is Haitian himself and I trust that my donation is going directly to the appeal as he says.

50,000-100,000 people are dead. Many more are injured and traumatised, and/or have lost people they love.

The photos of the aftermath are devastating. Please help any way you can.

~Svasti