Notes from “Candlelight Yin with Restoratives (CYwR)” 12/1/10

The hope for CYwR, this month, is to provide a receptive, supportive and calming space in order to feel settled, quiet the mind, and restore or replenish. In personalizing the poses, the override was a pose that supported greater ease or access and facilitated a more spacious mental landscape.

Selective excerpts came mostly from an article penned by Edward Espe Brown in the March 2010 issue of Shambhala Sun. You can read the full article online.

The other reading was a carry over from the Thanksgiving morning class. An invitation to allow a clear voice to speak, one from a place of deeper listening and gratitude.

Praying by Mary Oliver

It doesn’t have to be
the blue iris, it could be
weeds in a vacant lot, or a few
small stones: just
pay attention, then patch

a few words together and don’t try
to make them elaborate, this isn’t
a contest but the doorway

into thanks, and a silence in which
another voice may speak

Notes from Wednesday, November 17, 2010 “Candlelight Yin with Restoratives Practice”.

Overall threads for the practice included:

-exploration of Letting Go by Letting Be
-focusing of the exhalation as a way to work with the Ayurvedic perspective of Vata (read Gianna Piccardo’s guidance about the Vata season)

Readings:

Perseverence
Is there a school where Perseverance teaches classes?
I want to meet him face to face and see what he looks like.
I have heard so much about him. It is not that I want his feedback. I am sure he would tell me to “keep working,” and I already know that. It is not just me either. Offhand, I can name at least three friends who are curious as I am. One is a scholar, one is a writer, and the third is a young parent. I would write Perseverance a letter inviting him to come here and teach at the neighborhood school but no one around here knows where he lives or how to find him.

I read somewhere that they were trying to hire him to co-host a PBS serious on the creative process but he would have none of it. Says he is shy in front of cameras. Truth is, he turns down all offers which distract him from his work.

Inspiration
Inspiration is disturbing. She does not believe in guarantees or insurance or strict schedules. She is not interested in how well you write your grant proposal or what you do for a living or why you are too busy to see her. She will be there when you need her but you have to take it on trust. Surrender. She knows when you need her better than you do .

From the Book Of Qualities by J. Ruth Gendler

_________________________________________________________________________

The ancient Masters were profound and subtle.
Their wisdom was unfathomable.
There is no way to describe it;
All we can describe is their appearance.

They were careful
as someone crossing an iced-over stream.
Alert as a warrior in enemy territory.
Courteous as a guest.
Fluid as melting ice.
Shapeable as a block of wood.
Receptive as a valley.
Clear as a glass of water.

Do you have the patience to wait
Till you mud settles and the water is clear?
Can you remain unmoving
Till the right action arises by itself?
The Master doesn’t seek fulfillment.
Not seeking, not expecting,
She is present, and can welcome all things.
-Lao-Tzu
From The Enlightened Heart: An Anthology of Sacred Poetry
________________________________________________________
The Wisdom Blessing
May you chose outrageous actions that challenge who you are and encourage who you are becoming

May you take one step however small, towards that which you have always longed for. Now is the right time.
May you recognized the unique and powerful contribution that you bring to the people whose lives you touch.

May you be as grand and wonderful as you really are ad do things because you want o, not just because you should.

May you celebrate you creativity and find peace and purpose and passion amidst the chaos and suffering.

May you reach towards the spirit with a longing that keeps you present to the miracles available all around you, all the time.

May your faith move any mountains that stand in your way and may your heart be awake and open.

May wisdom be your guide and may love be at the center of all your choices.
-Shiloh Sophia McCloud
____________________________________________________________________________

Practice Sequence: You can link to many of the individual yin poses at Yinyoga.com

1. Yogis choice for a starting position either seated or reclined. Eyes closed, restfully aware.
2. Any forward fold (yin options: butterfly or full fwd. fold). Can also be done more supported with bolster/blanket, etc.
3. Cross legged seated with neck stretches.
4. Child’s pose or Down Dog
5. Sphinx or Seal or resting in a prone position.
6. Passive prone neck stretch (90 seconds each side).
7. Child’s pose either Yin orientation or fully supported as a restorative pose.
8. Half Dragonfly or Half Saddle Pose (with fwd. fold)
9. Full Saddle Pose or Restorative Cobbler’s Pose
10. Choice to stay in #9 or switch to Legs up the Wall
11. Choice to stay in #9 or #10 or end in Savasana.
12. Finish seated.

One of the first students that ever came to Bernal Yoga was a woman named Judy Garlow, who at the age of 58 was also probably the oldest student at the time. Judy had red hair and a black Jade yoga mat with her name written in silver across the top. She was as regular in the Saturday morning Yoga Basics for years. Always one of the first people there and usually quietly out the door at the end. I never knew really knew who she was or too much about her until years later. We just thought Judy was the nicest lady and how great that she practiced yoga every week like that.

Our bonding moment came unexpectedly next to each other in line at the Good Life Grocery. “The Steelers are on Monday Night Football.” I explained nodding to the Sierra Nevada on the scanner breaking the silence. “That’s ok”,she whispered leaning in to fill me in on a secret. “I like to treat myself to a Burger King Whopper after Savonn’s Saturday class sometimes.” Now that’s something you typically don’t hear from yoga students. But Judy grew up in a different era and if anything, her honesty was refreshing.

The Saturday morning Yoga Basics class that Judy came to eventually changed when Savonn moved to Portland. As what happens with all classes when the teacher leaves, the class eventually evolves.

I took over and Judy stuck with it, which was great. The class got a little bit harder and the people started changing around her, but she had her routine and knew her limitations so she was doing fine until one day we noticed Judy wasn’t there, then a few weeks went by and still no Judy. Several weeks later Judy came back a much different person. Judy was diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer.

We watched her health decline rapidly from week to week. I started to get concerned as she often became disoriented in class. She would mistakenly sit on the yoga mat next to hers or have a hard time finding her footing leaving the studio.

When the decision was made that she should only take Restorative or Gentle Yoga classes with the support of a friend she told us “the Saturday class is the only thing that makes me feel good, like I’m normal and this is not happening to me right now.”
How do you deny someone the right to practice yoga when all they want to do is come to feel “normal”? You don’t.

As much as our decision to try and limit her practice was for her personal safety, we couldn’t refuse her desire to be there for the sake of being there. And so began my journey of watching a student rapidly lose her battle with cancer week by week.

It was a courageous effort on Judy’s part to just come. There was nothing much besides a few seated poses that she could really do and everywhere all around her, healthy people happily stretched and practiced. Yet there she was.

Judy made it to about six more classes after that. Her last class, she fell face-first down onto the ground from a standing forward fold. I had watched this fall happen many times in my dreams only in reality thankfully, she didn’t die like in my visions. Fortunately, she was not seriously injured in the fall and happened to have a licensed RN practicing next her who stabilized her enough to get her to lean against the wall for the remainder of the class. Afterwards it took nearly 30 minutes to get her from the studio out to her ride. There was no denying that this would be the last class.

I saw her one more time when I went to visit her at home the last week in Hospice care. She died a few days later on June, 3rd 2007. There is a bench at the top of Holly Park near her home in San Francisco honoring her life.

This post is dedicated to Judy, my mom who has fought brain cancer and is currently cancer free and to the many yoga students who drag or have drug themselves to class in the middle of chemotherapy hell and have the strongest and most focused practice imaginable. Thanks for the lessons in courage.

About Judy:
Judy Garlow was a longtime director of the State Bar program to fund legal services for the poor in California. After the federal government cut legal aid funding in the 1980s, she got involved in a new program to help subsidize the programs, which offer free lawyers or legal advice to low-income people in areas such as housing, welfare and domestic violence.

Bench at Holly Park

The hot topic in the Yoga for Athletes class the last few months has been the Iliotibial band (ITB). We have been using a few different sequences to address both tightness along the ITB and stability, mobility and strength around the hips and pelvis.

In the April issue of Runner’s World, Sage Rountree, penned a column with a yoga routine for ITB Relief.

You can watch the video sequence here and refer to the article in Runner’s World.

Come join us on Mondays from 7:00-8:30pm for more ITB relief and other focused routines for common trouble spots, injury prevention, strengthening, flexibility and fun. You do not have to be an athlete to attend the class. We have a great group of regulars and new students are always joining in.

Part 3/3

Downward Facing Dog is a challenging pose to learn for new students because you basically can’t see what’s going on in the room. Most other poses at least you can see what is happening around you. In Downward Dog you’re looking backwards and partially upside down so it’s disorienting. When you’re a little more challenged flexibility- wise, the pose can take on odd shapes.

I remembering looking out over the room and just being at a loss for what was happening. Whatever I said in teaching or demonstrating the pose a minute ago was clearly not communicated well or understood. “What pose did I just say we should try?” I wondered. Then I realized I just had to start running around the room to the ones in the most critical shape first.

“Hold on, come down for a second, try lifting your.., left, yep left, other left, this hand here. No the other way, is it a sharp pain? let’s get some ice…”

There was just so much grunting, groaning and straining. Guys were collapsing around me. I wanted to run out of
the room and go hide behind the plant. And just when I almost lost complete control, I saw a vision of one of my teacher’s, Max Strom in the form of a giant Yoga Guy angel, saying; “backbends can be calming.”

That’s it. Bridge pose. I was going to wait until almost the end of class when we’d normally do it, but this was THE END, about 20 minutes in, one pose disastrously down. “Ok, every body let’s come back down on our back on our mats” They looked like they might attack me if I made them do the relaxing on our back breathing thing again.

“Ok, this time bend your knees, place your feet on the mat hip distance apart and lift your hips and lower back off the floor and your chest up to your chin.” When they came down, the tension of the room lifted like nothing else I had experienced before. After just one backbend, the room shifted from the competitive cauldron of masculine territorial fear and uncertainty to a room full of peaceful lions basking next to each other in the summer sun.

Over the years and each time I teach the series I really do enjoy the male camaraderie. It’s something very unique in my experience in the world of yoga. Most of the time I see myself many years ago when I first started taking yoga. It has helped me become a more patient teacher. It has allowed for special circumstances like a few weeks ago when I announced the Xavier vs. West Virginia and Kentucky vs. Cornell 2nd half March Madness scores between poses. You just wouldn’t think –ok, I would think to check, pretending to change a playlist– but not announce a score normally, in a yoga class. It would be completely out of place and awkward. But in Yoga For Guys, intentions of shining our hearts open to align our chakras with the seasonal changes of sports makes perfect sense.

End-

New Beginning: Yoga For Guys meets every Thursday – 7:30-8:45pm. Intro to Level 2

Nineteen guys were there. Only one was missing—he who suffered a very guy-like injury of burns to his hands after catching himself from falling into the campfire if you can believe that. I can. I’ve seen it happen. More than a few times even, but it didn’t matter, 19 or 20. It should have been 10 at the most. This was clearly a case of too many “dudes” for a first class of this type.

I was a pretty new teacher at the time and the pressure was just too much. Just by observing the room I knew I was in trouble.

Right away, I started making bad decisions by having everyone try to sit with their legs crossed. Question calls out from somewhere in the corner “what if you can’t bend your knees? Then a chorus of “me too” went up. “Well, sit with your legs straight, I guess, if you can.” I offered.

Naturally then we moved to the part where you go around the room, say your name and what injuries you have. Instead of the usual handful of people it was everyone. Basically, they were your normal representation of men ages 25-68. Young, old, stiff, injured, stressed, fit, out of shape, strong, weak, recovering from a stroke and everything imaginable in between. The room picked up a heavy, gloomy groundswell of energy as we went around saying what ailed us, serious or not.

Mistake no. 2 /3 was not getting the group up and at least moving to change the momentum. Instead, I slowed everything way down.

“So great, now let’s lie on our backs and close our eyes”… (and let this heavy blanket of negativity smother us) I think I thought we could “breathe through it”, is my only guess.

Yes, don’t start men on their backs like this and tell them to relax and breathe deeply. Similar to the maxim of nature where animals won’t expose their stomach (vital organs) because of vulnerability to predators, men don’t like to close their eyes and take deep breaths next to a bunch of men in a yoga room where they have no idea what they’re doing there or what’s going to come next.

The deep breathing was making everyone feel more anxious. With all the coughing, sighing and shifting around uncomfortably on their backs. I’m surprised someone didn’t yell out. “What the hell is this sh**?!”

“Ok, last one and now let’s come to the top of the mat”

This only helped lift the uncertainty of possibly being attacked. Now something potentially much worse could happen. Standing at the top of their mats meant facing directly across from another man. And not just to drop the puck in a faceoff. In yoga, this could mean direct eye contact and a sharing circle. Scary stuff.

A bit of a reprieve as we started to inhale our arms up and back down. Simple, effective, distracting. Then more trouble when it became “exhale touch your toes”… They all sort of bent over but not really. “What?! your toes…how the heck?!” someone asked. Everyone laughed. “Sorry I meant ‘knees’, touch your knees. Inhale the arms up and exhale touch your knees.” Good, better, but we can’t do this forever.

The room was getting warm from lifting our arms up and down, but it was about to become downright hot, confused and scary as I decided, yes, downward facing dog would be the first real pose we would try.

End of Part 2.

We just finished the first series of Yoga For Guys. It’s been almost three years since the class was offered and it was nice to be back in the atypical situation of being in a yoga studio where there are only men.

There is a unique camaraderie that forms when men get together to practice yoga. Some of it I will tell you about, some you can use your imagination, and some will remain sealed in accordance with the constitution of the Yoga For Guys secret society.

You see, I’m just a regular guy in Yoga and this is just one of my stories. To understand where we are as Men in yoga today, it’s important to understand how we got here. Today is Part I of 3.

Yoga for Guys was first offered in San Francisco at Bernal Yoga when we first opened the studio in 2002. Savonn and I were trying to find a way to get more guys interested in taking a yoga class so we decided to offer a series for “Guys” only.

Back then we observed that the guys who came to Bernal Yoga to pick up their wives behaved similar to how a cat does when you bring it home for the first time. They would first timidly peer in through the window a couple times. Then they would pace back and forth until a safe time opened when they would dart to the corner of the room and hide behind a plant. Fortunately, none of them ever crawled underneath the sink and stayed there for two days as I remember one cat doing growing up. But it was curious behavior to say the least. What was so scary about the yoga studio?

Well we (and I) were about to find out. The first series was full of men who definitely did not sign themselves up. First of all, they HAD yoga mats with them. The mats were tucked under their arms with names like Lisa L. written across the top. A sharpie drawn butterfly replacing the dot above the i in Lisa.

They were polite, quiet and efficient as they waited to sign-in for class wearing the same expression one has going into a prostrate exam. “Nope, no questions for me, let’s just go ahead and get this over with shall we.” Follow me please.

end of part 1.

Please join us for our grand opening weekend and the start of our Fall class schedule.  In a few weeks, we will be hosting an afternoon open house and an evening party.