Enlighten Up! - a yoga film

http://enlightenupthefilm.com/

ABOUT-

Filmmaker Kate Churchill is determined to prove that yoga can transform anyone. Nick Rosen is skeptical but agrees to be her guinea pig. Kate immerses Nick in yoga, and follows him around the world as he examines the good, the bad and the ugly of yoga. The two encounter celebrity yogis, true believers, kooks and world-renowned gurus. Tensions run high as Nick’s transformational progress lags and Kate’s plan crumbles. What unfolds and what they discover is not what they expected.

Featuring: B.K.S. Iyengar, Pattabhi Jois, Norman Allen, Sharon Gannon, David Life, Gurmukh, Dharma Mitra, Cyndi Lee, Alan Finger, Rodney Yee, Beryl Bender Birch, Shyamdas, Diamond Dallas Page and many more!

I haven't seen it, but it looks interesting!

Yoga à Paris

Practicing in my new apartment in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, pictures in more exciting places to come!  Here's a French explication of the drishtis...

La direction des regards : les drishti

La direction du regard, le drishti, en sanscrit, est nécessaire dans la pratique authentique du Ashtanga. Le flux de l’attention et le flux de la respiration sont intimement liés à la direction et aux mouvements des yeux.

Dans chaque posture et durant les mouvements qui relient les postures, le regard se pose sur un endroit spécifique. On dénombre neuf drishti.

Par ordre d’apparition il s’agit de :

• Nasagrai :racine du nez
• Angusta ma dyai : pouces - appelé également drishti divin
• Broomadhya : troisième oeil
• Nabi chakra : le nombril
• Urdhva : en haut, le ciel
• Hastagrai : la main
• Padhayograi : les orteils
• Parsva : au loin à gauche
• Parsva : au loin à droite

Tous ont pour but de tourner le regard vers l’intérieur. Grâce à la discipline imposée par les drishti, l’esprit se recentre, ramenant le pratiquant à lui -même. L’attention, ainsi dirigée vers l’intérieur développe la concentration .L’application des bandha et des drishti révèle l’instant et permet d’atténuer la pensée et les dispersions qu’elle implique.

A travers ce voyage intérieur, le pratiquant développe l’écoute. Grâce à l’observation, il reflète ses mécanismes physiologiques et psychiques, il prend de la distance et se rassérène.

Do you know this flower?

Wouldn't you like to?

No cookies today...

I ordered two new sandbags.
Chad (my husband) found out they come empty.
He bought a 50-lb. bag of sand.
Frozen solid bag of sand.
Became wet sand.
Gave it a week to thaw/dry in the bag.
Didn't work.
Wanted to use sandbags.
Tried the wet sand.
Didn't work really well.

Chad's idea: bake the sand.

Turns out that in about 30 minutes...
6 lbs. of sand per cookie sheet...
Two cookie sheets at a time...
300 degrees in the convection oven...
Cool for a few hours...
and now we have enough dry sand for one sandbag.

The sand for the second one is currently baking.

The Healing Power of Yoga

When I began yoga in 1997, it was at the onset of a serious illness. Although I'm now in recovery, I continue to find the healing power of yoga during almost every practice. Over the years, I have read piles of books on both my disease and yoga, underlining excerpts I found meaningful and relevant. Today, I share the readings while I teach and found that although I originally saved them for my personal journey, they relate to others' journeys as well.

I've included a handful of them below.
Enjoy them. Heal from them. Share them.

"That's why the process can take years and years and years because it's just giving yourself the opportunity to try different things and allowing yourself to fail and allowing yourself to just keep on plugging. That's all you can do." - From Sensing the Self

"I believe that only one person in a thousand knows the trick of really living in the present. Most of us spend 59 minutes an hour living in the past, with regret for lost joys, or shame for things badly done (both utterly useless and weakening) - or in a future which we either long for or dread. Yet the past is gone beyond prayer and every minute you spend in vain effort to anticipate the future is a moment lost. There is only one world, the world pressing against you at this minute - here and now. The only way to live is by accepting each minute as an unrepeatable miracle. Which is exactly what it is - a miracle and unrepeatable." - Storm Jamseon

"I am no spiritualist and I grew up without religion, but that ropy fiber that runs through the center of me that holds fast even when the self has been stripped away from it: anyone who lives through this knows that it is never as simple as complicated chemistry." From The Noonday Demon

"Time passes. There is nothing we humans can do to hinder or promote that process. It will pass. No joy or pain will last either. It too will pass. So relax, just be here. Experience this time fully. If it is painful, know that it won't always be so. If it is joyful, savor it. File it in a handy spot in your heart so that you will be able to find it again." - Gruffle Clough

Yoga Nidra

Recently I have started practicing Yoga Nidra (Nidra=Sleep). In Yoga Nidra, you bring your consciousness between wakefulness and sleep through a systematic guided relaxation. It is an aspect of pratyahara, and eventually leads to Samadhi. Every source I have looked at says something a little different, but 30 minutes of Yoga Nidra is equivalent to approximately 2 hours of ordinary sleep! There are three kinds of tension that we accumulate; Muscular, Emotional, and Mental. Yoga nidra helps to release these tensions and cultivates peace within ourselves which we can then radiate out.

In the book I have on Yoga Nidra there is a table with the “States of Consciousness” on it…

1. Awake > Conscious mind > Sensory awareness, external knowledge
2. Yoga nidra > Superconscious mind > deep relaxation, visionary states
3. Dreaming sleep > Subconscioius mind > release of emotions
4. Deep sleep > Unconscious mind > Awakening of instincts

Om,
c

Returning

The holidays have pulled me from regular things. Practice included. So (and I don't know why) I'm afraid something won't be right when I return. Tonight, after work, I will recall this story as I settle onto my mat.

A father was rightfully proud of his daughters progress on the paino. He asked a well known composer, with whom he was acquainted, to listen to the girl play. The composer listened and when the girl finished the father asked, "Isn't she wonderful?" After a pause the composer observed, "She has amazing technique; I have never heard anyone play such a simple piece with such great difficulty."

Mike

Drishtis

Drishti - point of gaze or focus

Nasagrai - tip of the nose
Ajna Chakra - between the eyebrows
Nabi Chakra - the navel
Hastagrai - the hand
Padhayoragrai - the toes
Parsva Drishti - far to the right
Parsva Drishti - far to the left
Angusta Ma Dyai - the thumbs
Urdhva or Antara Drishti - up to the sky

Atma Drishti - keep your gaze on God / all you see is divine

Yoga in another form: Shaolin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6akulareVQ

Eka Hasta Urdhva Dhanurasana