Yogis, we’re going multilingual!
I recorded for you
Enjoy lovelies and relax! Here you go, sit down, lay down and listen.
Let me know if you have any wishes for the next recordings!
There is no bad practice. All practice is perfect. Each asana is perfect.
Do you feel overwhelmed sometimes from all those Facebook and Instagram yoga pics and videos? Honestly, I do sometimes. Don’t get me wrong, I love to watch yogis in their beautiful practice, but same time I feel kind of sad. We should avoid thinking that this is how a yoga practice should look like.
What we see is a beautiful performance. Is it yoga, because the it’s made of yoga postures? Can be. Perhaps it’s just a show of flexibility and strength. We can’t see what’s happening inside, but for sure it’s not me. It’s not you. It’s not our truth. So it doesn’t tell us how our practice should look like. Just watch and enjoy. End of story.
On your mat, close your eyes. Withdraw your senses and start your practice. Let your aim be finding yourself, your true self. Not your body, not your thoughts, not your limitations. Through asana practice, through meditation, or best case a combination, a moving meditation. Having said that, it is important to do the postures as correct as we can to avoid injuries and to benefit most. However don’t care much about how your practice looks. It’s your practice, just yours. Your practice is not mine. Mine is not yours. Both are perfect. No judgment, no competition.
Allow your mind practicing yoga, not just your body doing asanas. This is what it’s all about, connecting, stillness, peace. Within.
Om shanti shanti shanti.
Image: a card from the beautiful Moon Deck (www.themoondeck.com)
Yogis, I’ve got a new recording for you!
Enjoy YOUR moment of excellence…. hope you like it!
We are always busy – ticking the items on our to do list on the go. Running. In a rush. When making some time, we usually continue running; into a fitness club, into a yoga studio. What are we doing there? Running. Whatever you want your body to perform, it seems only if we sweat a lot, it’s worth it.
Is it really about that? Stop running through your life and slow down your speed here and there. Whatever you do, be aware of what you’re doing and also what happens within. Start listening to your body and understand what’s good for you in that moment. On the mat, recognize your limitations that day, that moment. What’s your body asking for? A deep stretch to release your fascia? Some twists to wring your inner organs? Vinyasas to warm up? Planks to strengthen your muscles? Inversions to turn the world upside down? Listen to your body! Create your practice flexible and don’t underestimate the power of releasing, opening and surrendering.
What about silence? There are lots of different kinds. Eliminate any noise, no music while practicing. Just you and your breath. You might want to go for restorative or yin yoga. Slow down. Into yourself. Maybe your practice is for once not about asanas, but meditation. I already wrote about meditation and the difficulties I had to meditate. I found my way and strongly believe with just changing the name, or what a name might implicate, could already open a door. Call it whatever is right for you. Meditation, relaxation, stillness, quiet, silence, connection, just to name a few. It doesn’t matter. Meanwhile I found my way into Japa meditation, which is about reciting a mantra to quieten the mind. I do it with a mala to count, so I repeat my mantra 108 times each round and there’s no need to keep track of the time.
Whatever works for you, just go for it! Give yourself silence to nourish your soul, quieten your mind and get a rest of this busy running through life. It’s a pause, which doesn’t mean nothing happens – there’s still a lot going on, but fully aware and most important: deeply rooted and connected with yourself.
I’m currently producing some guided meditations for you and just published a body relaxation as the first one of this series. Use it for your shavasanna or meditation, I hope you like it and it will support you in your practice – stay tuned!
Yogis! I’m so bloody excited!!!
Got something new for you! I just published a recording of a body relaxation, and some guided meditations to follow soon 🙂
I know, couple of mistakes in – I did it free flow, no script – but I want to get it out to you! So please don’t hold it against me, I’m just a little too excited! Got plenty of room for improvement and if you want to help me, please leave a comment. All those technology stuff is new to me, I hope you can access it, if not, please let me know.
Here you go, enjoy: BODY SCAN
Step back
From time to time I believe it’s a good approach to step back. Step back in my own practice, as well as in class with my students. Back to basics. All class focusing on correct alignment. Taking time to look at the details. Slow down. Practice to feel the postures. Also experience the difference when the alignment is not fully correct. Sometimes back to modifications and simple, basic postures. It works like readjusting the body and setting new anchors.
No rush
Stepping back is quite challenging for our minds. Particularly for those who claim themselves to be ‘advanced’. Let me give you an example of just one pose: after a very stressful day, go into Vrikshasana, tree pose. The graceful, steady stance of a tree. While maintaining your body balance, feel your roots, feel how they reach out through your mat, the floor, into the ground, guided by your breath. This is a huge opportunity to understand what’s going on with you. Are you able to properly connect? How about your balance that day? Are your thoughts wandering?
It might sound boring, but yogis, practice is not about more more more. It’s not about the ability to do the most complex or advanced poses. Practice is about your connection to yourself. It’s about withdrawing your senses, going internal. A meeting with yourself, a meditative state. Bring your attention to whatever pops up in your mind. What are your thoughts telling you? What do you feel?
The Ashtanga approach
Practicing Ashtanga means a commitment to practice 6 days a week, except moon days. A strong commitment. A useful one, no doubt, as it also strengthens our willpower and discipline. But. Yes, there’s a but. Yoga also teaches me to listen to my body. So what if my body says clearly, no? What if my body threaten to injure itself if I keep on pushing? I keep my commitment to practice 6 days a week, but adjusted the content into ‘yoga’. I’m on my mat each day, Ashtanga on the schedule, but if anything shouts out a clear ‘no’ (laziness doesn’t count!), I allow my body to get into the driver seat: a nice yin practice, a music driven flow, just a bunch of sun salutations, maybe a pranayama session or a meditation. Sometimes my body surprises me and I find myself doing the primary series, although my body told me a different story before 🙂 However, on my mat every day, that’s it.
Stop the competition approach. You are on a journey to yourself! Make your practice mindful and take care. Allow any progress to happen naturally, no matter if on a physical or mental level. Step back from time to time, take your time yogi and enjoy the ride!
Sometimes, it doesn’t need much, a moment for yourself, just some minutes me-time. Calm down, release, recharge and most important: establish a deep connection and feel yourself.
Take a moment, sit down. If possible on the floor, cross legged. Lengthen your spine, close your eyes. Bring your awareness to your breath. Allow your breath to be audible. Listen. Feel. Slow and deep belly breaths. Now make your exhales longer than your inhales.
Continue. While listening to your breath, recognize the messages your body is sending. Start with your brain. Bring your awareness into the center of your brain. And soften. Recognize how same time your face softens. Your forehead, your jaw.
There might be other parts of your body claiming ‚here please‘! Bring your awareness to each section. Maybe your hips, your knees, your feet. Sit still, don’t move, keep your position. Only your awareness wanders. Allow this particular region to release. To soften. Any stiffness or tension will immediately disappear. Your body will thank you.
When you’re ready, close with sitting one more minute in stillness. Take a deep inhale and exhale, before you open your eyes.
Some minutes to get in contact with yourself. Some minutes of self-care. Some minutes of precious nourishment. Because you deserve it.
I’m a Taurus and they (who the f*** are ‚they‘?) say, I’m resistent to any change. Not true. Not. At. All. I love changes, I love progress, I love growth, physically and mentally. As a Taurus I just need to ensure that I’m properly grounded. What I need is stability. My feet (or hands) touching the earth.
When I started yoga, I was looking for a class without any of this spiritual chichi. It should be fitness, just that. I found that class – at least I thought so. Hahaha, I was so damn wrong! It got me in my first class, this ‚yoga thing‘.
It took me years to admit that there’s more and that it’s not feeling any bad. Gosh, was it a waste of time? All these years? Nope, it was my journey. A slow one, yep. I don’t like slow. Hmmmm, probably that might be the reason why!
However, the past couple of days I recognized some huge changes. Finally I opened myself fully to all this ‚spiritual shit‘. Not on purpose and this is the best of it, I just observed the change. All of a sudden the words of Deepak Chopra reached me. All of a sudden meditation brings me into deeper levels of myself. All of a sudden I kinna inhale the Upanishads. All of a sudden I have a glimpse of the meaning of existence. All of a sudden, I opened myself.
This is what yoga is about. Changes. Finding your true self. Nobody said it’s easy. But so worth it! Go for it yogi. Stay true to yourself, it’s YOUR journey. And remember: ENJOY!
Hari Om Tat Sat!
I read a lot about meditation. I took lessons. I did the 30 day challenge with Deepak and Oprah. I tried. Again and again. I failed. Again and again. Struggling with my feet falling asleep, my back complaining. Struggling with the feeling, that I simply can’t do it. Due to all the benefits of meditation, I couldn’t accept to not doing it. It was a catch 22.
My philosophy teacher in India was referring to the rising sun in his meditation lessons. He always said ‚I am the rising sun. I am shiva‘. I had to smile, it was kind of matching the situation, but I didn’t understand.
One day when doing my Ashtanga practice, I managed to focus that much on my breath, that my practice was nothing but intense deep breathing, while my body moved through the asanas. This felt so amazing and my only thought after practice was, THIS is meditation! A moving meditation.
This experience made me look closer to my definition of meditation: sitting in stillness, getting rid of all thoughts, calming down, release, finding peace within.
It was this definition, that was holding me back from meditating. Yoga is union and this is where meditation starts for me. Unite with myself. Going internal, connect with my breath. BE my breath. Feeling my love in my chest. Feeling the sun rising in me. Let it spread, let it shine. Being the rising sun. This deep connection is my meditation. And the journey to it is breath.
It doesn’t matter where I am or what I’m doing. It might happen while practicing, or walking my dog. I might be sitting, lying down, or cooking. It might take a couple of seconds, minutes or hours. It doesn’t matter.
There is no right or wrong. This is how I meditate. Your experience might be totally different. But if you are struggling, maybe this is some inspiration for you.
These are MY moments. My silent moments, my deep connection to myself. My meditation. My moments when I am SHIVA.
Last weekend I attended a workshop and the key message was: yoga is about alignment with your vital state, the living spirit. The book I’m currently reading says, yoga is about the search for space. I’ve got a lot of yoga books, lots of different words, that explain what yoga is about. On this webpage, you’ll find my thoughts on what yoga is. Who’s right? Everybody. Are we lost in translation? Honestly, don’t let anybody tell you what yoga is. You define it. Put it in words, what yoga means to you. In your own words. We might all think more or less the same, but articulate it differently, using different words. For your understanding your words are key, as the devil is in the detail. Whatever your definition is, just don’t put it in stone, but rethink from time to time.
In todays practice my mind wandered a lot. Millions of thoughts, far away from my mat. I didn’t had any focus and was internally complaining, that all of a sudden I wasn’t able to go deep into certain postures any longer. I heard myself and started laughing. It’s not just about my limitations today, I wasn’t practicing yoga at all. Just doing postures, I wouldn’t even call them asanas.
And this is what makes the difference in my practice: as soon as I’m connected, listening to my Ujjay breath, keeping my bandhas activated, I’ll be in my flow. When my focus goes internal, I follow my rhythm, I’m practicing yoga, I’m practicing a moving meditation. Today was exercise. Which is ok. I’ll be back tomorrow!
TUNEin:YOGA 