Day 98: Well if I can’t do physical yoga at least I can sing right?

Tags

knee injury, mantra, Shintaido, yoga

My body seems to be falling apart.. Okay, so maybe I am being a little over-dramatic but I am REALLY having some challenges physically right now. First my right knee got hurt, then I hurt my right hand using a hatchet, then some mystery red swelling showed up in my left foot making it sore, now my LEFT knee is hurting. What the hell is going on?????

I don’t think this has as much to do with all the yoga I have been doing as it would seem. The yoga we have been doing is pretty gentle compared to what I am used to. I have done LOTS more yoga in the past with no issues. Lots of really active intense deep insane stretching yoga. The only really difference is that we are “refining our postures” a lot more. I have had to come out of some comfortable old habits with my body but I haven’t been going anywhere new that is particularly deep.

Pain is an interesting thing. It really gets in the way. I can feel myself getting a bit snappy. My temper is a little shorter than usual. I can see this happening. I can control it to some extent but it is a little wearing. I really don’t do “delicate” well. I sure hope I can sort out how to deal with this sort of thing before I am elderly.

Thankfully last night’s teacher training was about MANTRA. Yay!. We got to sing, chant and do all kinds of lovely gentle moving postures.The teacher also took us through a toning & movement meditation from the Shintaido martial arts tradition (Shintaido Tenshingoso Sei). It was lovely and very gentle.  I will certainly do it again in my own time and would like to commit it to memory. I have posted a video of the sequence below but unfortunately can’t find one with sound (which really makes the experience fuller).

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Day 51: It’s Rubber Man!!

Tags

paulie zink, taoist yoga, Yin Yoga

I am finally getting around to watching a video series lent to me by a friend. She did a teacher training a few years ago with Yin Yoga’s founder Paulie Zink. The videos are kind of odd and fairly low budget but it gets the point across. Paulie’s style is VERY different from your typical yoga class. All his terminology and the way he goes through the movements are quite unlike what one would normally see in a yoga class. He calls what he does “yoga” but  it feels far more like a martial arts class warm up to me. Which I guess makes sense. He has an extensive background in martial arts. His videos aren’t glossy. His mustache makes me laugh. His voice reminds me of Mr Roger’s (whom I loved as a child). Somehow his teaching feels very Chinese and foreign to me (despite him being a white American). I LOVE what he does but his presentation has this cultural thing about it. The pace isn’t western. The descriptions aren’t western. I feel slightly uncomfortable with it. I have had this before. I was doing a class that was teaching Mantak Chia’s  “Healing Tao“. We were asked to SMILE at our LIVER and our other organs. I squirmed. It felt tacky. It felt weird. But it was a wonderful lesson that stuck with me. This is how I feel about Paulie’s teachings. I think they are kind of weird. I think he is kind of weird. But I remember what he says and my body does respond to the lessons.

I did just over half an hour of his beginner class last night. Tonight I am going to finish it.

Day 28: Vulnerability and Bravery

Tags

Chien Lung, Constantine Darling, qi gong, Yin Yoga, yoga teacher, yoga teaching

I spent yesterday at a memorial on beautiful Saltspring Island. It was a little odd because it was a memorial for my martial arts teacher who I have only seen a few times in the last 15 years. We weren’t close but my life was forever changed by him. He showed me energy. He taught me about movement & consciousness. He introduced me to yoga. I wasn’t really ready for his teachings when I was taking classes from him. I was young and didn’t understand a lot of what he was teaching. Somehow though his teachings have stayed with me. They come up again and again as I pursue yoga and a spiritual life. How wonderful to have had the opportunity to study with a teacher whos lessons continue to grow and resonate years after the fact.

The group of people there were intense. Chien Lung seems to attract that sort of people. I was a little uncertain how my husband would feel being plopped into that environment. There was lots of deep eye staring, tears, touching, chanting. I thought my husband faired remarkably well considering it was people he didn’t know celebrating the life of someone he never met.

I have so much to say about yesterday but I don’t know that it is relevant here. Besides overly wordy blogs are tiresome. The only thing I really want to say is that I hope when I do start to teach I can help people discover the wordless truths that this teacher showed me. There is something beyond words, beyond postures… I truly believe that is what yoga is really about (and many other spiritual traditions). I ask myself again and again what made Constantine such a dynamic and powerful teacher for me. I think it had something to do with vulnerability and bravery. Being open takes a lot of courage.

I was very tired last night after such an intense day. I did a short session and slept deep. So did baby. Can you believe it???

30 minutes of Yin Yoga (5 minute holds)

• Meditation
• Reclining Bound Angle Pose (Supta Baddha Konasana)
• Pigeon (5 minutes each side)
• Reclining twists (5 minutes each side)
• Savasanah

Day 24: Avoiding is an art form

Tags

avoidance, paulie zink, sarah powers, taoist yoga, Yin Yoga

Tonight I had lots to do. Why there were all those emails I had to catch up on! And that old spaghetti sauce really had to be thrown out. Oh! and the toilet needed cleaning, and I needed to eat popcorn and rice cakes with nutella on them. Really. It is amazing the things we can find to do when we are avoiding doing something else. I work from home so I already know all about this. Work project I am not enjoying? Time to do DISHES!!!! Fun fun fun. Sigh.

I did do yoga. It was nice. It was relaxing. I don’t know why I have such a desire to avoid it sometimes.

The photo is Paulie Zink, the amazing bendy martial guy who is credited with starting (inventing?, bringing to the west??)  Yin Yoga.  Apparently he didn’t coin the term “Yin Yoga” though, Sarah Powers did.

30 minutes of Yin Yoga (5 minute holds)

• Meditation
• Melting heart (Anahatasana)
• Kneeling twists (5 minutes each side)
• Wide legged forward fold
• Savasana

Day 11: Where do you feel life?

Tags

Chien Lung, Concentration, Constantine Darling, Yin Yoga

Once again my mind was wandering all over the place during my yoga session. I felt like my mind kept jumping to end of my practice. I held each posture for five minutes which is what I usually do with Yin and is comfortable for me. Tonight five minutes felt really LONG. I kept wondering when my damn meditation chime would go off letting me know I could move into the next asana.

There have been a lot of death’s in the past few weeks. Famous people, the horrible attacks in Norway and some more personally connected deaths have occurred. I have been thinking a lot about life and what exactly that is lately. My most influential martial arts teacher died of cancer a few weeks ago. He taught me so much about the body and energy. Now he is gone. Where did he go? What happens to all this energy? Death is truly baffling. Tonight when my mind was wandering I brought my concentration back to my body and the present moment by focusing on the feeling of life within me. I know that sounds very new agey.. but really it was a beautiful exercise. Our bodies are zipping and zinging with life and energy even when they are relatively still. It was nice to reflect and notice that feeling. I have included a video of my recently deceased martial arts teacher talking about energy. Really he was the one who initially introduced me to yoga. I just thought it was Kung Fu at the time ; )

45 Minutes of Yin Yoga (five minutes in each asana)

• Meditation
• Wide-legged child’s pose
• Sphinx
• Pigeon (Eka Pada Rajakapotasana-five minutes each side)
• Legs up the wall
• Reclining twists (five minutes each side)
• Savasana