Monthly Archives: April 2012
Listening to the Whisper instead of the Scream: Minimum vs. Maximum Edges
We’ve all had the experience of hurting our body in some way. Zing! There goes a pulled muscle. YOWCH! Now your back hurts. There’s also been a lot of talk about how yoga can hurt you in the recent media. We all don’t enjoy being injured, but have you ever learned a specific technique for avoiding injury in your yoga practice? The following technique will help you stay healthy, consistent and strong in your practice for years to come.
Minimum vs. Maximum Edges: Learning to Open the Gate
What this technique entails at its core is learning to listen to your body. Sounds simple, right? Well, there are a lot of things that can happen between your calf 
muscle and your brain – so specific techniques are essential. If you’re like me, up until I tried this technique I totally thought I was listening to my body. It’s a way more intricate process than I thought, but with amazing rewards.
The first idea to consider is the concept of your minimum and maximum edges. When you attempt a yoga pose, we often go right away to the position of most sensation, to the position right before it’s “too much.” This is our “maximum edge”. If you went any farther, you will feel a lot of sensation, and possibly pain if you tried to hold it too long. But have you ever tried to feel your “minimum edge”? This is the very first, whisperlike sensation in the body of some kind of stretch. It’s the first awareness that you can feel that something is stretching. Instead of pushing past this first gate of awareness, take a moment to pause here. What’s it like? How do you feel? What’s the emotional and mental sensation like?
The Key to Depth in Postures
Once you take this moment, wait for the next gate to open. When sensation lessons, you know you are ready to move on. “Rather than push your way in, you will feel drawn into the pose.” (Erich Schiffman, Moving Into Stillness). When we pause in this way, it’s an invitation, which is so important for natural depth in a posture as well as natural spiritual growth. If we feel that we are being pushed or punished, instant resistance forms in both body and mind and it’s hard to get deeper on both levels. The movement is like a waterfall. The water just naturally falls farther down when resistance lessens in the rock. Try that visualization when applying this process to your practice.
Do and Don’t Do
So as you slide into the postures, there is another layer to consider. When we use this minimum-edge technique, we can be relaxed in the midst of even sometimes great effort. Do the pose, but don’t do the effort. Be easy in your mind, and glide into the pose. Manage the current of the pose, the energy it creates, but keeping your mind clear of negative thoughts about yourself and your abilities, as well as the abilities of others. Focus on observing the constant push/pull of the breath, at the tip of the nose.
Keep Tabs on Your Emotional State
The next step in this process may surprise you. Ask yourself if you are having a good time! If you aren’t enjoying yourself, then that level of pose may not be for you at this particular time. One way you can assess this is to check in with your body and see if your level of sensation (the amount of stretch and intensity you feel) is going up or down. If it’s going up, then you may be in too deep. With this technique, less is more for longer. If you can exist in a state of enjoyment within the intensity that you are feeling, no matter what the pose looks like, you are progressing emotionally and physically. Perhaps spiritually as well.
Tap Into Your Instinct
One way to keep tabs on yourself is to trust your instinct. Can you relax within the intensity and keep your focus on the breath in each moment? Then stay in
the pose. If not, back up to the gate of sensation before and stay there for a while. The gate may re-open or it may not. Your responsibility is to keep your finger on the pulse of your body and know when you can relax and when you are struggling. “Yoga is an awareness process wherein you attend to those subtle shifts in sensation and feeling.” – Eric Schiffman
What do you do when intensity doesn’t decrease?
So let’s say you are hanging out in a pose and the intensity is not going away. It’s not past what you can handle, but you seem to be at a wall of sorts. This is not the time to push yourself! It’s the perfect time to respect that message. Work sensitively with that part of your being, and see if you can lure it to greater openness, tapping into the desire to go deeper.
Learn Sensation Vs. Pain
Another useful skill is to determine what is sensation and what is pain. It’s simpler than you might think. It’s all in how experience the sensation. If it’s pain, you don’t like it and you don’t want to be there. It might be a sharp, pinching or pulling sensation and that’s definitely something we want to avoid. If it’s sensation, it is intensity that is pleasurable to you. It is most often reached slowly. As you develop a finer and finer tuned sense of the difference between pain and sensation, the gradual payoff is you will be able to enjoy and assimilate larger and larger levels of intensity.
Find Your Range
One of the last tools for this technique is using a range of sensation to determine how deep you are/want to be in a pose. If we start with a scale where 1 equals no sensation and 10 equals pain, to work with your minimum edge you want to stay in the 3-5 range. This is the “sweet spot” where your body, mind and spirit are relaxed enough to be open to change. Never push yourself into pain – the resultant tightening can cause you to clamp down harder, both physically and emotionally.
We are not pain-seekers.
We are not trying to punish ourselves with yoga. A well done strong stretch is invigorating, exhilarating and pleasurable. You are freeing yourself of tightness, constriction and pain physically, mentally and emotionally. Maybe even spiritually. Find a degree of stretch you can completely immerse yourself in.
A Common Road Block
Avoiding intensity is a common road block. We have a natural reluctance to experience pain – this is the human condition. We can have any number of reasons. Past trauma, fear, pain, ignorace – all of these can keep us in a very tight space, trying to avoid intensity. Eventually, however, that space becomes smaller and tighter, smaller and tighter, until the pain of staying there is too great and we must break open and free to become something new.
The Rewards of Learning and Practicing Your Minimum Edge
When we work with minimum edges diligently, we gently but firmly increase our resiliency on the mat was well as in the world. Our ability to deal with life’s challenges increases and our durability increases, but physically and emotionally. To be durable, strong and confident in our practice is to take those same ideals into our lives off of the mat. And isn’t that what we came to yoga for in the first place?
Bhoga Yoga: Union of “Cool Stuff” and “Peace Out, Dude”
If you’re like a lot of yogis, you’ve never heard of bhoga before: The word in Sanskrit means “worldly pleasures.” In Light on Yoga by B.K.S. Iyengar, he says, “With mastery of the three bhandas, the yogi is at the cross-roads of his destiny. One road leads to bhoga, or the enjoyment of worldly pleasures; the other leads to Yoga or union with the Supreme Soul.”
I’ve encountered this theme many times in my yogi journeys. This is an idea that one cannot arrive at union (yoga) with enjoyment of what the world has to offer us. Maybe you’ve heard the story of the yogi in the cave for 7 years, practicing strict discipline (tapas) with a guru (teacher) and coming out the other end with amazing insight, knowledge and general yogi awesomeness. Krishnamacharya was one of these guys, and he is considered one of the patriarchs of modern yoga. So there is no doubt that this process works, but as the world becomes more and more populated and we deal with overpopulation, pollution, starvation and disease, I have one question to ask: Does following that model fulfill your responsibility as a human being?
I personally believe that the time for the yogi in the cave has come and gone. Our “cave time” comes in our own homes, as we meditate and practice every day. It’s also hard to find a guru these days – someone who will take us on as a student and show us the way, that we can live with and get to know on a daily basis. Our lives just aren’t set up that way – we all go out to make the energy exchange known as money and work, have families, children, careers etc. I believe the guru now resides within the microcosm of your own immediate internal and external universe. Ever heard this yogic joke? “Where is the guru? G, U-R-U.”
Who is the GURU?
What do I mean by that? I mean that your body is your teacher. Your relationships are your teachers. Your work is your teacher. Your community is your 
teacher. Your children (or absence of children) are your teachers. Your friends, family, animals, environment, home, economic status are all your teachers. Who needs a guru when gurus are all around you? Now, I am not saying that a knowledgeable teacher is not valuable – quite the opposite. However, we keep in touch with our teachers quite differently these days – classes, workshops, trainings, facebook, email, phone calls and twitter, just to name a few. It’s essential for us to stay in touch with the learning mind, the awareness that everything that happens in our lives can be a tool for spiritual growth.
How to be a Bhogi Yogi
Is it really the right decision to drop it all and go live in a cave? My answer is no – but I firmly believe that you can be a yogi and a bhogi. (I have no idea if bhogi is a term, by the way, so purists, I am taking a bit of artistic license here. I do know that Bhogi is a festival in India to the Lord Indra). So how do we put this practice of being a bhogi yogi in action? Here are my ideas below:
5. Practice Daily. I know that seems daunting, but in order to keep perspective in this amazingly complex world of ours, and maintain balance, the practice of yoga is essential. If you don’t have a daily practice and it seems daunting to think about, start simple. Do one of my 5 minute videos or meditations.
4. Never stop learning. The moment you think you know it all – is the exact moment where you will be reminded that you are human and make mistakes. If you keep a beginner mind, and stay open to the magic of your journey, you can learn the lessons you need for the next phase of your life.
3. Practice gratitude. I say “practice gratitude” because it does take practice! We can get caught up in the “I wants” and “I don’t haves” and the “I needs” so quickly. Every time you feel resentment, desire or jealousy (just to name a few) start to overwhelm your thoughts, name 3 things you are grateful for. Pause and reflect on those blessings. Lots of people keep gratitude journals. Try one!
2. Keep pressing forward, but know when you need to rest. There are times of forward and upward moving energy in our lives, and times of downward and backward moving energy. This is also called yin and yang. Through your practice, you will begin to develop a highly-tuned awareness to when you need to step forward and when to let go.
1. Live with kindness and compassion. Understand that all beings are struggling with their own existence, trying to find their own route to happiness. Practice compassion for all beings in your lifestyle, food and financial decisions. Try making your decisions at the grocery store based on what serves you and the planet well. For example, maybe you can switch to cloth napkins instead of paper towels. One easy switch to make!
How do you make being a bhogi yogi work in your life? Comment and let me know here!
Yoga Quickie: Heart Pumping Cardio Yoga Series – 5 minutes!
Hey All! Here is my first Yoga Quickie – It’s a quick 5 minute cardio series to energized your body, mind and heart! Spend 5 minutes and change your world!
Like what you see? I make personalized Yoga DVDs that will fit any home practice! Check it out here.
Bowing to the Bigger Picture: The Practice of Seva
Serving others. What does that mean to you? For yogis, it is a daily commitment that their actions serve their community – and not just close friends and loved ones. The practice of Seva, or selfless service, is one that deeply permeates the yogic tradition. Some examples of the highest Seva practices have been shown in American society by every day people, going to work, doing their jobs, living their lives as best they can.
It can be difficult to be in the mindset of seva. Our culture is so much about me, me, me and I, I, I that we can get lost in what we want for ourselves and completely forget about the person standing right in front of us. The question I pose to you is – how does that benefit you? When you push aside the person in front of you – maybe forgetting about their feelings or so focused on your own needs that you forget the world around you – do you ever ponder the consequences of that mindset? Too often, we can get completely insular about our own needs and forget that one of the most rewarding paths to happiness is through service to others.
This is a funny practice to talk about on tax day – our taxes are a contentious point of service for many people. We can’t change tax day, but we can change how we feel about service in general. So what does seva look like in your actual habitual mind processes? For example, it means stopping and considering how you can best serve others even when your intention is to serve yourself. So how does service fit into your life? Here are some ideas and thoughts about how the concept of service can be incorporated into your life from my own experience:
1. Slow down and take your time. Moving quickly has its place, but to be in service to yourself, when you find yourself rushing, take 5 deep breaths. Really pause and try to open your lungs deeply. If you take a really deep breath, you can feel your belly expand all the way down into your low pelvis. Repeat the mantra, “I am reconnecting to what is really important in my life.”
2. Take the time to express your gratitude. Even writing down 10 things to yourself that you are grateful for can be a helpful exercise. Many people do this once a day, to keep them focused on what they have in their life, versus what they don’t have. Take the time to talk to the people you are closest to in your life, and give 10 extra seconds to the people you don’t – like the cashier at the drug store or grocery store, or gas station. They are in a position of serving hundreds of people a day, often required to have a smile on their face. Make any service industry professional remember why they do their job by being the example of politeness and patience.
3. When emotions overtake the situation, step back and assess what is really important. Do you need to get a problem solved? How can you serve the solution to your problem rather than your emotions about the situation? Taking the emotions out of the driver seat is a great way to see clearly through to solving the problem. Even if you fail a hundred times to make this happen, keep trying. Being clear about problems is the best way to overcome them. Be in service to the answer, not the problem.
4. Let someone else go first. This sounds obvious, but what about when you’re in traffic? Let that person turn in or merge in ahead of you. In the grocery line, allow the person with fewer items go first. Serve others at the dinner table before yourself. Fold your spouse’s laundry with extra care – and cook their favorite dinner when they least expect it.
5. Consistency. Lastly, one of the best ways to promote selfless service in your life is to be consistently supportive of those in your immediate circles. Being stable and consistent in your efforts of service daily, rather than once in a long while, builds positive energy within your community. Small acts of 10 minutes a day, every day, build momentum of positivity in your life and can affect really powerful change over the long term.
What is one way you practice seva in your daily life? Comment here and let us know how you are serving your community today.
Pressing In, Letting Go: The Paradox of Practice
One of the fundamental questions of mindfulness practices is: When do you press in and when do you let go? When do you push your limits and when do you gracefully take a back seat? The answer is at the same time more simple and more complex than you might think. I am finding the answer is that I do both, at the same time. Sounds kind of confusing? Yep, it is the concept of paradox in your mindfulness or yoga practice. I’ll illustrate with a few examples to help you understand what I mean:
Asana or Posture Practice
When I am doing a strong yang energy practice (moving, sweating, breathing deeply and generally vigorous poses), I find that softening my intentions and 
using certain mindfulness cues can help me achieve this paradox. For example, if I am doing a really challenging pose, say Ardha Chandrasana or Half Moon Pose, and I am efforting very strongly with my body, if I relax my eyes and think about softening my heart, the whole pose becomes soft yet VERY strong in a way that is subtle yet very real. It’s the same thing in a less strong pose, say Bhujangasana or Cobra Pose. As I inhale and raise my chest, pull my elbows back, engage my belly, etc., I soften in my intentions in the pose. I might repeat a mantra, “I am whole, I am peaceful.” I am still strongly lifting my body into the pose, but the difference is I have softened my mind and allowed more space in my heart to be easy within the effort.
Put the Practice Into Action
Try it right now with a pose of your choice. Arrive at the proper alignment and form for the pose that fits your body best. Once you have arrived in the pose, take a body scan and see if you are pushing yourself to your edge in this moment. Your edge may be different today from all other days – it is today, right now, that is important. Once you are at your edge and pushing yourself strongly for this moment, take your attention to your eyes and literally allow them to soften. Soften your face, ears, nose, throat and back of your head. Allow that softness to ripple down into your heart. Feel space and ease created there. Stay in the pose for 5-10 more breaths, but come out when you can no longer maintain that sense of ease within the effort. Come to a comfortable seated pose and take 10-15 breaths to reflect on the experience. You may wish to write it down.
Meditation or Mindfulness Practices
Meditation practices are by nature, more about letting go and being receptive to what is, in this very moment, your reality. However, they require a strong push of determination, repetition and dedication to form the habit of using mindfulness techniques on a daily basis. You can meditate here and there haphazardly and find some benefits, but the real juice of the meditation realm of practices comes with the push towards doing it every day. This phenomenon of pushing towards change is called tapas in yoga, and it can be translated as heat, discipline or determination. When I focus on doing my meditation in small chunks (10-20 minutes at a time) daily, I find the same paradox exists. I feel the slow transformation of my perceptional abilities start to change over time (months and months), while I get a daily benefit of a more spacious frame of mind and more awareness towards my treatment of others. I find I can let go of things that upset me more quickly on a daily basis, and over the long term, I change my attitude towards those things that upset me completely. I may do a complete 180 degree turn in how I understand something about myself or another, and that can change my whole world view overnight.
Putting the Practice Into Action
Start by finding a comfortable seat. You can sit in a chair or on the floor with a cushion under your sitz bones, but don’t lie down or lean back on a couch. Make sure your spine is straight and your head is positioned over your spine. You can find this out by leaning forward and leaning back, and when your sitz bones sink down into the chair or cushion (like they are getting heavier in that one moment in time), you have found the point where all the weight is over your spine. Now set a timer for 5 -20 minutes. If you are new to meditation, try 5-10 minutes. First, write down a word that describes how you are feeling before you meditate. Now, the pressing in comes from learning to focus your mind during this time period. For today, use this mantra: Inhale: “I am whole.” Exhale: “I am peaceful.” Pause with the breath out: “I hold my own space.” When you are finished with your time period, pause and reflect on how you feel now. Write down a word that describes your state of being, post-meditation. You can take a few minutes to reflect on this, or journal about the experience. The letting go part happens naturally when you bring your attention to the meditation and let go of all other things that are occupying your brain and body. It’s funny – you are doing nothing, yet everything is happening, dropping away and leaving you clearer and more peaceful.
Paradox, Paradox – Are you everywhere?
Start looking for the existence of this phenomenon in your daily life. What do you have to let go of to make other things happen? What do you have to push into to let go of other things? This can be a very rewarding and interesting mindfulness practice in and of itself. Try it for a few days and come back and comment – tell me about your experience!
