Traveling yoga

It’s especially important for me to keep up my yoga practice while traveling... the busier and more exhausted I am, the more I need it.

Two solutions I’ve found for doing yoga while traveling far from my yoga home: 1) checking out local yoga studios when possible (not always possible), and 2) carrying with me a yoga DVD (always possible). 

I've recently been carrying David Garrigues’ Ashtanga Yoga DVD. David moved to Philly over a year ago and has had a huge influence over my practice -- breath, bandhas, food, jumpbacks, handstands, backbends, taking rest when I need it. Check it out: 

David Garrigues Ashtanga Yoga: A Primary Series Guide from David Garrigues on Vimeo.

The DVD has a led primary (perfect to do at home or in a hotel room with the heat cranked up), a second led primary with more detailed instructions on postures and modifications (great for new students), and an added bonus are short video-interviews with some answers to questions I've always wondered about, for example: 

• Is Ashtanga yoga aimed towards young and healthy people? “Anyone any age can do this practice, but depending on your strength, your age, your commitment, your kinesthetic awareness of your body, your time, how much you work, what kind of things you have going on in your life… you’ll have to modify and adapt and make the practice your own.” 

• Does the strict traditional Ashtanga yoga practice blunt our creativity and individuality? “We do set sequences and so it’s all laid out and all mapped out. And yet, within that, every person creates their own practice… You learn your own style… you access your potential and creativity.” 

• How does the Ashtanga yoga practice change over time? "The practice is going to change. There are so many different ways it can change: It can be a wave, it can be a struggle, it can be ascending and soaring, it can be a circle, a spiral, it can plateau, it can feel like its going down and staying down, but then it’ll go back up.” 

Check back in tomorrow for a special interview with David!

Better than coffee

Just got back from teaching a yoga class to kids at a local high school… SUCH a rush! I seriously think that might be better than coffee!

Some thoughts from the class:

Pick a student demonstrator. There are always rowdy kids and asking them to be quiet doesn’t usually work. Picking one of them and assigning them to be at the front of the room as a “demonstrator” can be a good strategy.

… but don’t play favorites. Make sure to ask each student’s name and give each person equal attention.

Make it challenging. Teenagers get bored easily and challenge keeps them interested. Play with handstands, jumpbacks, and backbends (they come naturally to many of them). When they groan and complain gently remind them it’s good practice for everything else that we struggling with in our lives.

… but don’t make it too challenging. Making it too hard will be discouraging. Pick appropriate poses that are challenging but also fun and realistic.

Be serious. Try not to let people watch from the side of the room (it’s distracting), don’t play music (also distracting), don’t allow chit-chatting. I was too lenient at first and had to learn my lesson.

… but don’t be too serious. Joke around, laugh, have fun. This should be something they want to come back and to do again!

High school yoga lesson: Set goals

I officially love doing yoga with high school students. Teenagers can be so smart and I’ve been learning a lot from them.

The other day before class, one of the kids was talking about his life goals. He talked about how his main goal is to live a good and fulfilling life. In order to achieve this, he has many goals underneath that: graduate from high school, get a better GPA, go to trade school.

Then he said:

“It’s good to set goals. Better to write them down. Even better to write them down with detail.”

Yes! If we want to accomplish something, writing it down makes it much more likely that we will actually do it.

I’m wondering if there are yoga teachers out there who incorporate goal setting into their classes? I’ve always liked it when teachers start a class with the opportunity to silently set an “intention” for the practice, but what about writing down these goals/intentions (and maybe sticking them under the mat during the practice)?

Similarly, what about doctors having their patients write out their health goals (in detail)? It would be like writing a personal mission statement, only this would be more like a "personal health statement."

High school yoga lesson: Get out of your comfort zone

A local high school started yoga as a daily part of their summer school program so I’ve been teaching there a couple mornings a week. I never expect too many kids to actually show up but they’ve been slowly trickling in.

Before class yesterday, one of the students was talking about how he’s been trying to get out of his comfort zone more often. He said:

“When you only do what is comfortable, your comfort zone stays small. But when you widen it by doing things you’re not comfortable with, more opportunities become available to you.”

He had perfectly put into words one of the main reasons why I love the ashtanga mysore practice. It makes us push our physical and mental boundaries every morning. When things start getting too comfortable, we get something new to work on (jumpbacks, handstands, more backbends, a new pose). This practice of getting comfortable with the uncomfortable then bleeds into other areas of our life creating more opportunities for ourselves.

"No coffee, no ashtanga yoga"

Food/diet has not been discussed much at all, so I asked Richard about it. Yes, diet is important... diet is extremely important because it affects how you feel. 

But the reason he doesn't bring it up much? People become fanatic about it and quickly go to extremes (as a teacher, you have to be careful not to encourage this). 

Being vegetarian and eating “sattvic” foods feels good, but you also can’t tell people this - it’s something they have to come to on their own.

I then asked him if he drinks coffee. He smiled and said, “Of course. It’s part of the lineage.” And he quoted Sharath saying, “No coffee, no ashtanga yoga.”

Music to my ears!!! :)

The sign of a great teacher

Richard today during his lecture on "spiritual materialism" and the "zero-experience" among other things:

“Please don’t agree with what I say. I could be saying anything. You are all so gullible.”

To me, this is a sign of a great teacher... and I wish we heard doctors saying it more often!

Teachers (doctors) should encourage their students (patients) to ask questions, to use their intelligence, to be curious, and to challenge what others state as truth.

Everyone is a student

“Yoga is contagious. It creates a flame - a fire. If you hang out with people who are on fire, you will catch on fire.” ~Richard Freeman

Yesterday, we started talking about teaching principles. The first principle: Do not think of yourself as a teacher. Everyone is a student.

“In fact, if you think you are a teacher – very dangerous,” Richard said.

This seems to apply to teachers of anything, and I think especially important for physicians to remember (where there can be a lot of ego). As Richard was explaining, a teacher should be saying: “Look with me at this cool thing” rather than “Look how cool I look doing this.”

He went on to say that teachers are not transmitting knowledge so much as teaching a tool: the tool of an inquiring, open mind. They should be “lighting a flame” in students.

Yoga in school

A few weeks ago, Caitlin and I started teaching Ashtanga twice a week at a local high school (thanks to Ty!). The students seem to like it and we've been brainstorming about how to bring more yoga into the school system. Part of gym class? Instead of detention? Early morning before school starts? During lunch? After-school program?

Here are some reasons why yoga, and Ashtanga in particular, seems to work well for high school kids (I'm sure there are many more so please add to this):

• Builds physical strength.
• Skill-building: Students learn and memorize the poses (and thus become potential future yoga teachers).
• Development of a self-practice: Students can practice at home on their own time (and teach their families/friends).
• Improves focus and concentration (as this school showed with their morning exercise program).
• Consistent: Students practice the same poses each class and know what to expect.
• Reproducible: Since all Ashtanga teachers teach the same practice, schools and students will not be dependent on one particular teacher.
• Cheap: No equipment or gym membership needed.
• Community-building: New people meet each other and practice next to one another, sharing vulnerability.
• Increases awareness of food and the body (brings more mindful eating)
• Pushes students to their edges: Helps overcome fear and mental limits. Love this quote: 

“It is a tremendous thing for a person to get, to realize, that the things that we set as extreme limits for ourselves are just in our mind, and we have to be careful of the limits that we impose on ourselves. As human beings it’s amazing how prevalent this is in our society."

~Chuck Miller

The yoga home

There’s a lot of talk among doctors and policy-makers about creating the “medical home” – where each person would have a primary care doctor to provide comprehensive medical care.

This has got me thinking about the idea of the “yoga home” – where each individual would have access to a yoga teacher and a community for health and wellness.

One way of working towards this is by offering yoga in schools. It seems that teachers/schools can be more effective than doctors/health clinics at making lifestyle change and preventing illness. A few reasons why: 

• Kids go to school every day, for most of the day. 
• Kids eat a lot of food and snacks at school. 
• Schools are places of learning (both in and out of the classroom). 
• Childhood/adolescence is when we develop many of our life habits and goals.
• Teachers know their students: they know what drives them, what bores them, what they think about, who they spend their time with, and what they go home to.

This "yoga home" wouldn't have to be limited to students in the schools, but would be for anyone and everyone in the community: teachers, administrators, parents, community members, etc. 

Vulnerability in practice

I spent a good chunk of the weekend reading Rachel Naomi Remen’s book Kitchen Table Wisdom, and this was one of my favorite parts:

"At the heart of any real intimacy is a certain vulnerability. It is hard to trust someone with your vulnerability unless you can see in them a matching vulnerability and know that you will not be judged. In some basic way it is our imperfections and even our pain that draws others close to us."

I think this is one reason why yoga is such a powerful way to build community. The old practice next to the young, the experienced next to the new, men next to women, teachers next to students. Everyone is vulnerable, everyone is exposed, there is no judgement.

Countdown to yoga teacher training!

Less than one month away until I head to Boulder for Richard Freeman’s 200 hour month-long yoga teacher training! I could not be more excited for this month of protected time and space for yoga... and it could not be happening at a better time. 

I really like the way Richard talks about the asana practice here (Thanks Laruga for sharing this!): 

“One meditative yoga posture flows through endless forms, just as one being manifests an infinity of forms. Currents of energy rise and spread, pulling the body through a whole spectrum of attitudes and viewpoints, postures strung like flowers on the thread of the breath. This movement produces spontaneous meditation by awakening the core energy of the nervous system, connecting it from its root to the crown of the head.” 

I'm looking forward to thinking more about how to bring yoga into the medical world, including 1) mysore-style medicine and 2) making yoga more accessible to people. 

I'll repost this great video of Richard Freeman talking about how physicians should give patients a self-knowledge, and thus help turn them into their own doctor.

Mysore-style medicine

Mysore-style yoga is self-practice of Ashtanga yoga. Each student individually learns the poses and practices them every day. In Philadelphia and in cities all across the globe, Ashtangis meet every morning for this practice (and many more practice in the privacy of their own homes).
 
Mysore-style yoga means that:

• Each student practices at the pace that works for him or her.
• The practice room is silent except for the words exchanged between teacher and student.
• The teacher is educated in the theory behind the practice.
• The teacher watches each student closely, provides guidance, and gives adjustments to each student.
• A community is created based on the shared values of health and commitment, and the shared experiences of struggle and progress.

What if our medical system were to provide preventive medical care using the mysore-style paradigm?

• Where patients commit to a “self-practice” of health and prevention.
• Where doctors help teach, guide, and “adjust” each patient.
• Where the community supports, encourages, and strengthens each individual’s self-practice.
• Where physicians work together with patients to create health, rather than react to disease. 

Mysore-style medicine is good in theory (the 1%). How might it work in practice?

I think Dean Ornish's lifestyle program (where patients commit to a low-fat vegetarian diet, exercise, and stress reduction) is one successful example.

Passionately curious

I love this idea:

“I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.”
~Albert Einstein

But how do we cultivate passionate curiosity (in ourselves, our patients, our students)?

I’ve been in a bit of curiosity lull, which I am attributing to the busyness of being back in school (lectures and small group discussions all day, assignments, research work and meetings, emails to catch up on, etc)...

It’s hard to feel curious when my time is cluttered, my mind scattered, and I am exhausted.

Learning from the Ashtanga classroom

“It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.”
~Albert Einstein

I’m back in the classroom for the next month for my last structured “class” of medical school. I’m surprised at how hard it is for me to sit for 8 hours, absorbing lecture after lecture after lecture.

There are certainly some wonderful medical school professors -- people who inspire energy, innovation, passion, and ideas. But sometimes I find the classroom environment to be stifling with minimal back and forth communication and questioning... leaving my classmates and me sitting there with dimmed eyes, bored minds, and listless bodies.

I find myself comparing this classroom to my other place of learning -- the Ashtanga “classroom.” There, the learning is active. The teacher is hands-on. We learn by trial and error. Mistakes are expected and welcomed. We are strengthened, challenged, and pushed to our limits. We have autonomy while also having structure and discipline. From this foundation, we are inspired to read and study on our own, to deepen our own learning.

One of the most important roles of the physicians is that of a teacher… and I think we can learn a lot from other places of learning, like the Ashtanga practice room.