Tag: asana

Make space

Kathrin2 Comments

I have to admit, even if I’m preaching it, sometimes I have to shout out loud, that being on my mat isn’t all that counts. From time to time – particularly when struggling or even being thrown back in certain postures – I need to tell myself “don’t define your practice through asanas!”. Yoga has become my way of life and it should be honored as such.

The older I get, the more difficult it is to keep balance. The balance in my asana practice reflects my balance in life. Too many duties and instead of stepping back, I have more ideas and put myself in situations where even little things all of a sudden get massive. More, faster, running, rushing through life. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining. I love what I do, I love my life, however body and mind also need to rest and recharge.

And that’s my challenge: make space for myself. To not rush from one task to another, but implement mindfulness instead. Do what I teach! Particularly to not reduce my own practice to quickly do the primary series, to press it somehow into my busy schedule. It’s not about the practice itself, but making space for myself. When on my mat, practice passionately, aware, dedicated. Not just tick the box. Make space and allow myself to be there, in the moment, nothing else.

How about you? Are you properly caring for yourself? What helps me a lot in general, but particularly when going through tough days, is implementing regular short breaks to focus on my breath. Just that. As soon as I breathe deep into my belly, I’m back. I’m reconnected after just some minutes. Easy and very efficient. Give it a try!

I have to learn to be more patient with myself, fully accepting that progress sometimes means to step back. The transformation my life has undergone is sometimes not even recognizable, sometimes it’s rather a big break through. So I keep on moving, trust in me, trust in my magic.

No rush

KathrinLeave a comment

Yogi, take the necessary time to observe and understand what is going on in your body when practicing. It’s not just your body doing asanas, your mind has a job too. Yep, understanding what’s going on in your mind is crucial too. You just can’t separate it, body and mind go together. We should always practice mindful, feeling, observing, understanding.

I sometimes recognize, that my practice is just one asana after the other, while my mind is somewhere else. Time to connect. Time to go internal. I usually close my eyes for a moment, just listening to my breath, before restarting my practice. Activate my bandhas, deepen my breath, establish a strong drishti.

Take your time, rushing around and not paying attention will just get you tired, and make you more exposed to injure yourself, and also create mental madness. Your practice is a journey and so is each pose. You have to learn from it. Mastering a posture doesn’t mean anything if you haven’t learned from it. The physical level is quite obvious, but you might also be confronted with your weaknesses on a mental and emotional level.

Practicing yoga means digging into yourself, facing your true self and work on that changing process. Develop your body and mind, work on your flexibility on all levels. Create prana, learn about yourself. Don’t be afraid to change. It’s crucial to develop on each level. Enjoy the beautiful journey and take your time yogi!

 

Photos by Dee Gandhi, www.AlokaCreative.com

Don’t break your body – do yoga 

KathrinLeave a comment

There seem to be about 900 asanas… can you imagine?! Darling, honestly, you can only master a certain set of them. So why don’t you take it easy, forget about the rest, forget about just jumping from one level to the next. It bears repeating, IT’S NOT IMPORTANT. You are not in a competition! I already wrote about this and I won’t stop repeating, as the principals of yoga go beyond asanas.

“Yoga is the journey of the self through the self to the self.” (Bhagavad Gita)

Yoga is transformation. You define the purpose. It might be bliss, higher consciousness, find your true self, you name it. For sure the final state isn’t a certain degree of flexibility or mastering super duper advanced postures. But the asana practice is the entry point, this is where we start our transformation.

I like the idea of my asana practice being a moving meditation. I experienced it a couple of times and it felt out of this world. An awesome connection, with me, with everything. It’s an approach about stopping the mind going crazy, it’s about detaching. Yoga isn’t just a fitness tool, yoga is about working on yourself. Yoga is a transformation. Transform your body, transform your mind.

The asana practice is just one of the 8 limbs – read more about it here.

Take care yogi, don’t break your awesome body, do yoga and enjoy life!

 

It’s about people, not poses.

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Some teachers teach poses; some teachers teach people. Some students want to work on their fitness, some students want to improve, grow, work on their body and mind. For some it’s work out, for some it’s magic.

What’s wrong, what’s right? Nothing. Just different approaches. We can practice yoga as a cardio workout. We can practice yoga to increase our flexibility. We can practice yoga as a moving meditation. We can practice yoga as a reflection on our body’s reaction to the work. We can practice yoga as a spiritual experience. And everything in between. There are teachers out there for each approach, nothing wrong, nothing right. No matter what you do, as long as you feel good, you’re doing it all right.

But what does it mean to teach people, rather than poses? Well, we are still talking about asana practice, meaning we go through postures in class. First priority – yes this is about poses and part of the game – is to do them correct or find a suitable modification. Not to master them, but to protect ourselves from injury. Now it’s up to you, leave it here or go to the next level, which means for me, teaching how to connect with ourselves. Go internal to feel what you are doing. Listen to your body. Respect your limitations of the day. Learn to breathe and let the breath initiates the movement to finally fly through the asanas. When holding the postures, find stability as well as ease. Enjoy what you are doing. Learn from what you can and can’t do so far. What is your body telling you? Why is there a stiffness, why does it hurt here, why isn’t there any progress? Is there really no progress? Why in a hurry?

Yoga can be so much more than bending your body into a pretzel or standing on your hands. If you just want this, absolutely fine. Go for it, it’s a great fitness tool. If you are open to receive more, get the journey started and allow yoga to change your life. To change yourself. Learn to differentiate between yourself and your ego.

“I don’t want to see your body doing asanas. I want to see your mind doing yoga.”

Kathrin3 Comments

What drives you? Wanna reach a certain posture? Get ‘better’? Babe, honestly, that’s not what yoga is about. Who cares if you can do Garbha Pindasana? Does it change who you are, if you can bind in Marichyasana D? Is it important? Nope. It’s just your ego complaining and trying to convince you that you’re not good enough. Your ego telling you, when you can do this posture, you’ll be happy.

Yoga is not just physically. Be prepared to struggle and questioning yourself. From time to time you might think, that you’re slipping back into your old story. But this is not even possible, as you have changed, there is no back! There might be battles with your thoughts and old demons – yep, this is exactly the way to grow.

Some time ago I wrote a post about my learning that stiffness is rather in my mind than in my body – when I reached Kurmasana and Supta Kurmasana. I was not aiming to go into this posture, surprisingly I just did it, with some adjustments from my teacher. Of course it felt amazing and I was so happy I can do it (hello ego!), because it was such a surprise. But you know what? It’s not important, a natural development, just this.

Allow your mind doing yoga. Quieten your ego for a while and be happy without a reason. Allow your body to move and improve in its own pace, without forcing anything. Let it happen. Breathe through your practice without expectations. Stop the ego talk and start riding the flow. Enjoy your practice. Without any additional effort, your body will change, your flow will get more fluent and easy, your breath deeper. Allow yourself to be yourself, exactly where you are in that precious moment.

Coming home

KathrinLeave a comment

What’s your approach?

Are there any asanas driving you nuts as they appear unattainable? You’re trying again and again, but still can’t imagine to ever be able doing them? What about this thought:

It’s not the asana being exhausting, but your attitude.

Ups!

What are your expectations? Your objectives? Why is it so important? What’s going on in your head while practicing? Wanna be „perfect“? „Better“? What thoughts are holding you back?

Yep, we all got this from time to time, this feeling to not progress at all, or even worse, to not be good enough. Particularly when we can’t accomplish a posture and so want to.

Darling, be kind to yourself! Challenge yourself, but don’t push hard. Respect your limitations and stop worrying. It might be not the right time. It might require a bit more strength. Maybe it’s not even physically, but your mind, that should simply stop that noise. Be patient. Play. Laugh. Practice with a calm mind, an open heart and let go. Overthinking kills any progress. Yoga isn’t a competition. Yoga is the process of coming home. Home to yourself. 

Sri K. Patthabi Jois said: „Do your practice and all is coming“. This is the secret. Work WITH your body, not against. Allow your body to develop and progress in your own time. Feel what you’re doing. Listen to your body, connect.

Remind yourself to enjoy the ride, love! It’s your ride home.

Stop showing up. Do YOGA.

Kathrin2 Comments

Stop showing up. I appreciate simple poses that make us feel great, not just the glorified yoga porn that’s all over social media. It’s not about jumping into the next posture. Huh, what’s my next challenge?

Don’t get me wrong, I like watching yogis that are practicing pretty advanced asanas and flows. I’m also working on certain postures. But I’m fed up with all this showing up. Couldn’t be more opposite to what yoga is.

Listen to yourself, stay with your practice, progress will come. Sometimes just in baby steps. You also might never be able to do certain poses. So what? It’s not about that. Go back to your pure self and listen. Start your practice and focus on basic postures. Have you ever really appreciated the benefits of ‚legs on the wall’? It’s nourishing, calming for the nervous system and grounding. Hanging out with your legs up the wall is one of the best ways to help drain tension from the legs and feet.

Work on things that are internal, things you feel. Such as Samasthiti. Breath. Bandhas. If you worked a lot on a certain posture and one day, you made it, yes, share it! Share your happiness, share your progress. I just ask you to stop showing up and making yoga just a competition of flexibility and/or strength.

Do YOGA. Not just asanas.

What is Yoga?

Kathrin5 Comments

A question I had to answer in my yoga philosophy exam. A question that came back into my mind yesterday. My classes this week were different. For one time no smooth asana flow, but hard work on our foundation and stability. Seems not everybody expected this in a yoga class. No? Well, I’m curious to see my student’s reactions when I introduce them to mantra chanting… 😉

Anyhow, this brings me back to the question „what is yoga“? There must be millions of different views on that, when looking at all the different yoga and teaching styles! And new styles popping up each month…

Finally, it’s about our believes, our view of how something should be. There is no right or wrong. Lot’s of people — including me — started their yoga practice as exercise. A different form of gymnastics, work out. Which is absolute fine, even if this means not using the full potential. Yoga asanas are a very efficient way to train our bodies. But yoga is so much more. If you stop here, you’ll miss a lot. My view is, the beauty of yoga is not IN the asanas, but comes to us THROUGH them.

„Yoga is an inner practice. The rest is just a circus.“ – Sri Pattabhi Jois, the founder of Ashtanga yoga.

Boom. What? The guru himself kind of disclaims? Why not using the one to achieve the other? Give it a try. Practice the circus, use the asanas to go internal, to connect with your SELF.

YOGA is usually translated as UNITY. Or as the Bhagavat Gita says, „The journey of the self through the self to the self.“ 

Asana, the yoga posture, is just one of the 8 limbs of yoga. What we practice as yoga in the western world is just a very small part of yoga. The 8 limbs of yoga are:

  1. Yama – ethical discipline
  2. Niyama – self observation
  3. Asana – posture
  4. Pranayama – breath control
  5. Pratyanara – sense withdraw
  6. Dharana – concentration
  7. Dyana – Meditation
  8. Samadhi – state of joy and peace

Yoga is also about not judging. Just practice and see what happens. In your mind, in our body. Watching, recognizing, without changing anything.

Give it a try. Start your next class open. Give your believes a time out. For an hour, no judgement, just do it. Breathe through your practice, connect with yourself, go internal and enjoy your progress.

Namasté