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Author Archive

books

some of you have asked for me to recommend some good yoga books. here is a selection…

Yoga For You – Tara Fraser
A comprehensive introduction to yoga, its origins and practices, ideal for beginners or students looking for a good, authentic basic resource.

The Heart of Yoga – T K V Desikachar
Essential reading for the serious yoga student. Desikachar’s tradition defining book about personal practice includes a complete translation of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra.

Awakening the Spine – Vanda Scaravelli
A beautiful book, recently revised. Expect to be surprised and challenged – an insight into Vanda Scaravelli’s unique perspective on yoga.

Bringing Yoga to Life – Donna Farhi
Brings authentic yoga practice into everyday life. My copy is very well thumbed!

And a wildcard…

Offering pause for thought and inspiration for meditation, the “Moments of Mindfulness” series by Danielle and Olivier Föllmi have beautiful photographs and quotations from influential teachers and texts from different Eastern traditions. Most relevant to yoga is “Indian Wisdom”.

happy reading…

trust

our Scaravelli inspired spring practices have suggested a looser exuberance for the body, a delicacy of presence, and a welcome opportunity to break the rules. like cow parsley – effervescent, free and gloriously out of our control.

as the cow parsley blooms with thrilling abundance, try practising yoga with even more looseness and confidence. in the yoga sūtra, Patañjali suggests that we cultivate ‘īśvara praṇidhāna’ – a trust in Life itself.

to do this, we must let go of something of ourselves.

and if we can, perhaps we will touch something of Rosetti’s ‘visible silence’.

“…The pasture gleams and glooms
‘Neath billowing skies that scatter and amass.

All round our nest, far as the eye can pass,
Are golden kingcup-fields with silver edge
Where the cow-parsley skirts the hawthorn-hedge.

‘Tis visible silence, still as the hour-glass.

Deep in the sun-searched growths the dragon-fly
Hangs like a blue thread loosened from the sky: –
So this wing’d hour is dropt to us from above…”

from Silent Noon by Christina Rosetti

delicate

breathing softly frees us for infinitely delicate practices, gentles the breath to patience, and the mind to awareness.

we learn that breaths and their pauses arise like seasons and watching these seasons pass –

we know how empty and full we are

how vast and small we are

how magical life is

no time

yoga cannot hurry – it is not in time

yoga is now to watch the breath arise and soften
to feel the body rippling minutely

yoga is now to hover carefree on the pauses of the breath
to feel the earth at your feet

patanjali YS 1v1 atha yogānuśāsanam – “Now, the teachings of yoga.” Chip Hartranft

early morning sounds

i find early mornings inspirational, tuning into the day’s natural sounds before traffic, media, voices and thought streams take over. last weekend i was by the sea – woken by waves breaking close by – sea, sky, space.

wherever we are though, practising yoga by an open window, or outside with feet in the grass and lungs stinging with cold air; listening to birdsong, wavesong or rainsong – there’s a fresh presence in the early morning – and it’s a good time to practise yoga. the slate wiped clean, reconnecting with what matters. restoring our settings. it’s another chance for another good day.

“…and every day on the balcony of the sea, wings open, fire is born, and everything is blue again like morning.”
Pablo Neruda

more… wonderful!

we have been practising warrior posture this week, experimenting with taking the head back as Mr Iyengar taught and as shown in this photograph. having the shoulders raised and arms extended allows the head to rest comfortably on the ‘shelf’ provided by the shoulders in any standing head back position. this small amendment offers a comfortable solution to the problem of a heavy head and straining neck, if you choose to take the head back.

it serves the breath in an interesting way too, allowing the chest a big vertical opening; the stability of the legs is improved as the back foot roots more deeply; the backward bend is improved as the spine can extend further from head to tail; it leads comfortably to a more physically demanding practice with a loosely attentive freedom and feels deliciously expansive, and more… wonderful!

it’s not that this is right and working with the head level and shoulders loose and down is wrong. this version of the posture is more opening but won’t always fit the bill. like all variations, it teaches us something different about the body which we can use in other postures, and it gives us a new experience in a familiar posture.

you can choose, whichever way of holding the head and arms, you prefer, or suits you today.

soft belly

conscious abdominal contraction on the exhalation is a touchstone yoga practice for some traditions whilst other approaches invite us to unlock this familiar control, allowing the abdomen to move, twist and behave naturally within the scope of every movement.

this benefits the natural musculature and sense of life in the lower body; and the natural capacity of the chest to accommodate an expansive inhalation and exhalation is maximised. the body’s natural softness is celebrated.

“The contraction of the abdomen is regarded in Rolfing, as a potentially problematic pre-movement which, when over-used, is not helpful and can ‘derange’ the normal functioning of the abdominal structures, lower back and breathing.” Tara Fraser

to experiment, you could try something like this –

take time to settle into a downward dog posture giving your weight to the floor slowly. allow a soft inhalation to expand your rib cage slowly over a number of breaths. imagine you have the large upper body of a greyhound – as you feel the vast expanse of the chest, notice the abdomen naturally reclining up towards the spine – a gentle arising. this is the natural movement of a pliable belly.

or in the seated cobbler posture – focus on the inhalation again – the expanse of the chest opening softly over a number of breaths – and notice the soft belly slotting back towards the spine – a natural, unforced, unhurried movement.

“as the body yields all efforts and holdings the infinite within is revealed.” YS II 47 Translated by Nischala Joy Devi

soon

The Finches

The ears stung with cold
sun and frost of dawn
in early April, comes

the song of winter finches,
their crimson bright, then
dark as they move into

and then against the light.
May the year warm them
soon. May they soon go

north with their singing
and the season follow.
May the bare sticks soon

live, and our minds go free
of the ground
into the shining of trees.

Wendell Berry

soft breath

“freedom from the desire for an answer is essential to the understanding of a problem.” J Krishnamurti

changing something as integral as the breath is interesting, offers new challenges and inevitably prompts a few questions.

i thought it might help to explore these in this, and next week’s journal. today we will focus on soft breathing. next week we will think about the abdomen.

Vanda Scaravelli and Krishnamacharya shared the view that breath is the most important aspect of the practice.

however, Scaravelli’s teaching is that breath in āsana should be natural. “nothing should interfere with the simple, tide-like movement of our lungs as we breathe in and out.” (VS, Awakening the Spine). things that might interfere include ujjayi and a deliberate contraction of the abdomen on the exhalation.

breathing is not a ‘doing’ activity. sandra sabatini, states that awareness of our breathing needs “a new kind of intelligence” which means developing a highly attentive presence.

here are some suggestions for enquiring into the loosening of ujjayi from your own practice. whatever postures you are doing you can use these ideas too.

allow plenty of time to tune in to your inner silence – listen to yourself

let your body commit to the ground slowly – let go through your feet deeply

watch the breath move slowly between your body and the world – sending it out softly, watching it come back to you softly

give attention to the tidal swell and retreat of the breath

“it may feel as if nothing very much has happened…but be sure that a series of minute rearrangements have taken place at a very deep level and that their echoes, like a ripple, will go on resounding inside you for hours, for days.” sandra sabatini

otter

in one class this week the discussion turned to otters – yes, really it did!

an otter seems to embody both the strength, and the natural looseness called for in the yoga sutra’s advice on āsana.

otter’s muscular, rippling movement from head to tail tip, mirrors the fluidity of water…

imagine your body to be lithe, empowered and fluid…

with otter as example, can we surrender to our own natural movement? and through loosening the tight controls we place on ourselves feel more comfortable in our own strength?

referring to other creatures can help us to embody our own practice with human authenticity.

swimming with otter

I am watching otter, how he
plays in the water, how he
displays brave underside to the
wave-washings, how he

breathes in descent trailing sudden
sudden strings of pearls that tell
almost, but never quite, where he is
apt to rise – how he is

gone, gone, so long I despair of him, then he
trims, wetly, up the far shore and if he
looks back he is surely
laughing. I too have taken

my self into this
summer lake, where the leaves of the trees
almost touch, where peace comes
in the generosity of water, and I have

reached out into the loveliness and I have
floated on my flat back to think out
a poem or two, not by any means fluid but,
dear god, as you have made me, my only quickness.

mary oliver

For more otter inspiration try – An Otter by Ted Hughes and The Otter by Seamus Heaney