Well, the wonderful world of the WWW isn’t so wonderful after all. But you probably know this already. This yoga web site has been hacked. It’s mostly still working. You may or may not see an ad for an illicit drug company that is somehow preying on my site. I need to find someone who can reinstall my web site for me- so in the meantime please ignore these ads. Apologies to new users if that page pops up while you’re reading about Yoga Therapy. At least it started me blogging again.

Thank you to everyone for bringing this to my attention and see you on the mat!

Apparently, the blogosphere is abuzz with all the New York Times coverage of yoga this past week. This is good news on many fronts. First, it’s interesting in this e-age, that the Times- a good old fashioned printed newspaper -still gets people’s attention the way it always has. Second, how cool that everyone is talking about yoga…again.  This time the articles deal with the review of two new yoga books ( in the Book Review)  and one yoga teacher ( in the Magazine)  John Friend.
I’m posting the links to it all here, including Friend’s response to his Times profile. I’m not going to go on too long about the Anusara (Friend ) profile just yet. What I’m really interested in exploring is how both the Book Review, and the Teacher Review, focused on the split in the yoga world between the physical and the spiritual dimensions of the practice.  Both articles addressed the lament of many yoga teachers that Americanized yoga is too focused on the yoga poses, and not on the spiritual side of things. This is a topic that has been raging for years. Usually, the story goes like this: “yoga students and teachers are too focused on the physical asanas and are not getting the deeper teachings of yoga. They are ignoring the spiritual side of yoga in pursuit of the perfect pose, the toned and buff body.”  For me, this argument just misses the point of yoga entirely. The deeper so called “spiritual” teachings are contained in that continuum called the Body/Mind. Yoga aims to integrate us.  Hatha Yoga is a practice of body and breath and mind (spirit). Note that I say a practice. What can you practice?  Asana and Pranayama. Everything else flows from these basic, rudimentary practices, including the spiritual stuff, including meditation, including even the yamas and niyamas.

The yoga of the American yoga studio is Hatha Yoga- the point of this practice is that the body becomes the vehicle for liberation itself.  It’s not the end in itself, but the body stands as the field of practice.  Alongside these physical practices you could be studying the texts from the different traditions of yoga such as Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra, The Tantras, The Gita, etc. but the experience of yoga transformation is a direct one. You either have it or you don’t, on a moment -to -moment, or practice- to -practice basis. The beauty of this practice called Hatha Yoga is that it actually includes the Body.  How many other spiritual practices do this?  Usually the body is either neglected, or vilified. So, this question of “over- practicing” yoga poses seems caught in it’s own criticism. We do need to practice. And when we practice “off the mat”- guess what? We’re still in our bodies. Every moment becomes an opportunity for the balanced pose.

Don’t get me wrong. I do understand the very real aversion to the material aspect of the practice. The other day, I was taking a fun and advanced Vinyasa class with a good teacher. After about the 6th creative arm balance, I had the impression that we were acquiring yoga poses, the way we acquire material things. “Enough,” I thought. I felt full enough of yoga poses and was ready to be still and quiet. But I wouldn’t have felt that way without the body practice. There was too much on my mind. I needed the practice to discharge my “mental fluctuations.”  Because although I have practiced for years, I’m still a beginner at this thing called life-throwing- me-obstacles.

Another important issue for the detractors of physical yoga to remember is this: people in the US are sedentary. We have lost our connection to hard physical labor, our bodies are yearning to be used to their potential.  Not only is there an epidemic of obesity, but also of depression and anxiety. Hatha Yoga has been proven in several studies to help control the symptoms of depression and anxiety. People are flocking to yoga studios to ease their minds through the body, the breath and spirit, and in community. People want to reduce their personal suffering,  and they do get immediate results through yoga practice.

What yoga teaches us is that our personal liberation, and transformation is tied to that of every other living creature. The way forward for yoga in America is to connect to each other through embodiment of our spiritual ideals.

My friend, and inspirational yoga teacher, Mark Whitwell always tells his students not to get too hung up about personal home practice. He says it’s just like brushing your teeth. Something you do everyday. Something that’s as simple and necessary as brushing your teeth or taking a shower. He uses this point to encourage students to commit to a daily practice but without elevating that practice to a level that cannot be achieved like a perfect practice. Simple is perfect. The idea that yoga practice is a practical self- care routine like brushing your teeth takes the pressure off of the yoga itself.

This simple but daily methodology can be applied to other practices as well, like writing. Recently, a writing friend recommended the article, “The Habit of Writing” in the SF Chronicle. The article also invokes the daily brushing of teeth with the daily writing of words.
I would add that a ten minute daily yoga or writing practice is indeed like brushing teeth, but that it could evolve to something more involved like flossing, shampooing, conditioning, ironing clothes, etc. Keep it simple and see where it goes. In the end you may have a whole chapter in your hand, or a great foundation built up to take your yoga deeper.

I hear this as:  you don’t have to make things perfect before settling down to tackle your dreams. How freeing! You don’t have to try so hard to be good, or on top of things, or even to change. Just get down to your passion and life purpose. Find out what is most important to you and get on with it. Don’t wait for the perfect moment, or until the laundry is all done to allow yourself the freedom to be messy and creative, and fulfilled. Maybe it’s about priorities too, and acceptance of things as they are. That’s the yoga. Letting go of some of our ideas that we have to change, or have better work, or practice habits, or be better somehow in order to to participate in what we love. As Byron Katie encourages in Loving What Is, this IS what IT’s all about. Then if we take this loving what is, or what we are in the moment, and apply it to creative processes like yoga practice, book writing, painting, journaling, whatever–then things do happen, work gets done, creative ideas flow and get followed through on. So, yoga practice isn’t about becoming better, it’s about accepting what is.

The downside of home practice:  If small children are about interruptions are frequent, or small bodies use your body as a jungle gym. No one to keep you going if inspiration/motivation fail.

The primary reason that students do not practice at home is that they do not know how to practice, how to sequence, how to pace themselves. They were never taught this  because they always relied on their teacher.  But there is a way to learn the art of home practice.  It’s important to find a teacher who can help you set up a home practice, and lead you through an updated practice every now and again. Another reason students shirk home practice is lack of quiet and space to practice in. If you do not have a dedicated place in your home to practice it’s very easy to get distracted by the phone, web, family voices. Try to carve out a small corner in your home that is ONLY for yoga or meditation practice. This will cue your body to practice every time you look at that space. One more cited reason (I’ve asked my students) why they don’t practice on their own is that some of them  are self-employed, or live alone. They look forward to the rich community found in their local yoga studio. It pulls them out of isolation, and into connection and relationship. Relationship, after all is the essence of Yoga- the yoke of it all, making two into one.

I’d love to hear your comments on home practice. What are your struggles?  Your inspirations?