A Joyful Practice

THE TRUTH IS IN THE PRACTICE: 2019 Kiss My Asana Offering #1 April 1, 2019

The “practice preview” below is part of my offering for the 2019 Kiss My Asana yogathon. I encourage you to set aside at least 5 minutes a day during April, to practice with today’s theme or concept as inspiration. You can practice in a class or on your own, but since the Kiss My Asana yogathon raises resources as well as awareness, I invite you to join me at a donation-based class on April 27th or May 4^th(details to follow).

I also challenge you to set aside a certain amount every day that you practice with a poem in mind. It doesn’t matter if you set aside one dollar per practice or $25 – set aside that amount each time you practice and donate it by April 30th.

Founded by Matthew Sanford, Mind Body Solutions helps those who have experienced trauma, loss, and disability find new ways to live by integrating both mind and body. They provide classes, workshops, and outreach programs. They also train yoga teachers and offer highly specialized training for health care professionals. By participating in the Kiss My Asana yogathon you join a global movement, but in a personal way. In other words, you practice yoga. Or, as this year’s tag line states….

do yoga. share yoga. help others.

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The 8-limbed philosophy of yoga begins not with the physical practice, but with an ethical component consisting of 10 elements. Many people practicing the physical practice today have never heard of the yamas and niyamas – and yet they come to the mat with a set of core values (even commandments and precepts which are very similar – sometimes even identical – in content).

The yamas (external restraints or universal commandments) are ahimsa (non-violence), satya (truth), asteya (non-stealing), bramcharya (walking in the awareness of the highest reality or the divine), and aparagraha (non-hording or non-grasping). The niyamas (internal observations) are saucha (cleanliness), santosha (contentment), tapas (heat, discipline, and austerity), svadyaya (self study), and ishvarapranidhana (letting go of one’s efforts back to the source). Since these ethical precepts precede the elements of the physical practice (asana + pranayama = seat or pose + awareness of breath or extension of breath), it makes sense to practice these ethics on the mat. It even makes sense that the more you practice these elements on the mat, the more they start to creep into your life off the mat.

Consider the yamas and their connection to the physical practice from the view of not practicing ethically. When we engage a pose that might cause us harm, specifically because we engage it without considering the truth of our physical, mental, and emotional state, we are not actually practicing yoga. When we are watching what someone else is doing, instead of focusing all of our energy on what we are meant to do, we are coveting their practice and possibly their mind-body. When we step onto the mat without self awareness and/or with the attention of attracting attention, we’re not actually practicing yoga. In fact, when our egos and aspirations are working harder than our awareness, we’re not actually practicing yoga – unless, we bringing our awareness to that imbalance in order to create balance.

Now, just for a moment, consider the last time you practiced “yoga” off the mat – and the last time you didn’t. How did you feel in each situation? Which sensations/feelings were the most lasting? Which remembered experiences bring you a sense of peace, balance, maybe even joy? Almost anytime we accomplish something, there is a sense of power. However, sometimes the power is tainted and sometimes it’s more fleeting than other times. In the Yoga Sutras, Patanjali directs us towards an experience that is pure, powerful, and lasting.

In its April 1, 1985 issue, Sports Illustrated published a profile of Hayden Siddhartha “Sidd” Finch, a rookie baseball player in training with the New York Mets. According to the article, Sidd could accurately pitch a fastball at 168 miles per hour (270 km/h) – compared to the record at that time of 103 mph (166 km/h) and today’s record of 105.1 mph (169.1 km/h) held by New York Yankees pitcher Aroldis “the Cuban Missle” Chapman. Above and beyond his extraordinary pitching ability (not to mention his French horn playing abilities), one of the things that made Sidd noteworthy and newsworthy, according to the article, was that he had learned “yogic mastery of mind-body” – and this, Sidd claimed, was the source of his pitching prowess.

Just for a moment, step onto your mat as No. 21 Sidd Finch would step onto the mound, one shoe on and one shoe off. How do you find balance within the imbalance? How do you stay true to your core values, even as you strive to go deeper? At what point in the practice do you realize: It’s not about what you could be doing; the practice is all about what you are doing.

KEY POSE for April 1^st: One-Legged Mountain Pose (Eka Pada Tadasana).

Come to Samisthiti/Tadasana (Equal Standing/Mountain Pose), either standing on your feet or sitting in a chair. Bring awareness to how you balance your weight, left to right, on whatever is supporting you – feet, legs, knees, etc. Play around with shifting your weight forward and back, left and right. Rock, sway, shift, explore, play. Then find stillness within all the motion: press down into all four corners of your seat. (If you are standing or sitting with feet flat, big toes and little toes spread as wide as they are able and press down; then press into all four corners of both feet). Find engagement in the thighs so that they are firm. Sits bones drop down (and back if you are seated) so that pelvic bones tilt up. Engage the pelvic floor (perineum muscles squeeze together like you’re trying not to go to the bathroom); belly button lifts up and back (or, you can think of it as zipping a zipper up from your bottom up to your belly button). Spine is long, breath is deep. Changing as little as possible, step or shift your weight to the left as you inhale. Exhale as you left the right knee and toes up toward the chest (ankle is flexed as much as you’re able). Hold the knee and toes up, as high as possible, for at least three (3) breaths. Set the right foot down and repeat the balance on the opposite side. Play around with lifting the knee on the inhale; keeping the arms by your sides or lifting them up in the air or spreading them out like wings; and moving one-breath-one motion.

Explore what happens if you squeeze the knee with both hands or hold the big toe of the lifted leg and extend the lifted leg forward or out to the side. Explore what happens if you tip your body towards the standing leg. If you have warmed-up with sun salutations or some other activity, consider what happens if you extend your lifted leg straight back and orient yourself so that lifted-leg side is in Mountain Pose on the wall behind you. Consider what happens if you throw an imaginary pitch, or add a twist.

Add a little music as you like.

Come back to Samisthiti/Tadasana (Equal Standing/Mountain Pose) and consider what your mind-body need in order to ease into a final pose, where you can breathe and be still for 2 – 5 minutes. Do whatever poses allow you to get comfortable, and then get comfortable.

* As far as I know, everything I’ve stated above is true. *

### do yoga. share yoga. help others. ###