our-yoga

A couple of days ago, a student in one of my classes asked me if I knew any philosopher who held the view that we can never really know who we really are (I'm guessing she was probably fishing for information that might make her look smart at parties.).

My first thought on hearing this question was, "Gosh, you have pretty much named every single philosopher worth his or her salt, starting from Socrates all the way to Sartre!" But I didn't say this; I kind of waffled a little, and gave her some neither-here-nor-there response (the only other alternative I could see would be to subject her to an impromptu lecture on the history of western philosophy right there and then, and I wasn't quite ready to do that...). She replied by smiling politely ("What a intellectual wimp this guy is; can't even give a straight answer to such a simple question!" she might well be thinking), and we went on with the rest of the class.

The more I think about this, the more I am convinced that this student had not realized the magnitude of the question she had unwittingly stumbled upon in her quest to be the life of the party. Let me give you a very recent example from my own life which will illustrate this philosophical conundrum. Earlier today, I was notified via email that my paper on procrastination (for more details, see this post) had been accepted, with minor revisions, for publication in a peer-reviewed philosophy journal. This is, to date, my first "real" publication. Which makes me now an officially published scholar! [Cue Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance.]

Needless to say, I am feeling very pompous and self-important right now. But here's what's really interesting: Looking back, I realize that the bulk of this paper was written in the first half of last year (2012), when shit was really hitting the fan in my professional life. It's really interesting, because as far as I was concerned, all I could see at that time was the shit that was hitting the fan. But unbeknownst to me, underneath the shitty surface, creative forces were brewing and percolating. So you could say that I did not know the full extent of what was going on in my life at the time, and therefore, you could also say that I did not know myself.

And indeed, if we think about this a little more, when do we ever really know ourselves in the entirety of our inglorious being? All we ever see most of the time are the surface ripples of our everyday being. Perhaps, in moments of unusual lucidity (maybe when you are in your deepest Kapotasana), we might get a glimpse of the subterranean depths underlying everyday being. But for the most part, we just kind of get swept around by things on the surface, and go with the flow as best we can, while the subterranean depths continue to do their work on us...

I'm not entirely sure what else I can say about all this right now, other than to congratulate that student for hitting on the right question, even if she did this with the not-so-noblest of intentions... Well, maybe I'll go eat a big Mexican dinner, and indulge in my self-congratulatory pompous state of mind while it lasts (as you might already know if you read this blog regularly, I don't get to experience these states of mind all that often). More later.

In other news: Speaking of pomp and circumstance, I just stumbled upon this Youtube video featuring the Pink Umbrella Man of Santa Cruz, California. I've never heard of him before, but apparently, he's like the local meditative sage of Santa Cruz. Check this out:

Intriguing, don't you think? One of the commenters on this video said that he used to be a college professor... wonder what happened? Did he finally see the light, saw the futility of the whole academic rat race, and decided that experiencing enlightenment is much more valuable than talking and theorizing about it? But why the pink umbrella outfit?

Anybody reading this from Santa Cruz? Care to fill us in about this person?


In yet other news: I will be attending an Ashtanga workshop with Randa Chehab, the owner of Down to Earth Yoga in Bozeman, Montana, on the weekend of February 15th to 17th. Randa has just returned from her annual studies with Lino Miele in Kovalam, India, and will be sharing her knowledge with all who come to the workshop. I just got off the phone with her, and she is really excited about having me there. I am also very excited, not least because this will be my first Ashtanga workshop in almost two years. I will try to share my experiences there on this blog after the workshop. Stay tuned!   

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The third week of January is always the coldest time in New England.    Mt Washington was -70F and Unity Farm was 1.4F 

When we began this season I had no idea how to keep the animals happy and healthy in near zero temperatures.    We've learned a great deal and thus far, everything has worked.

Chickens and Guinea Fowl - I've written about keeping warm in New England,  highlighting that convective, conductive, and radiated heat loss need to be controlled.    For poultry, a dry, wind free coop with off ground roosting helps a great deal.   Our chicken breeds are very cold hardy due to their small combs and waddles.   However, to completely guard against frostbite, we added 150 watt sealed heating panels to the roof and baseboard of the coop (photo below).   These are thermostatically controlled and go on at 35F, off at 45F    They've worked perfectly, ensuing the coop is 10-15 degrees warmer than the outside temperature.     Keeping water supplies liquid at zero F requires planning.   For the chickens, their hanging bucket waterer now has a submersible thermostat controlled heater (photo to the right).    For the guinea fowl, their standalone waterer sits on a thermostat controlled heat plate.     In very cold weather, the guineas rarely leave the coop, enjoying the food, water, and warmth of their gently heated home.     I did have to wire the coop with tamper-proof (beak proof), weather resistant (from chicken droppings) outlets and rugged 14 gauge romex wire.   Everything has worked without a hitch.

Dogs - The Great Pyrenees have double coats and really enjoy snow and ice.   They eat the "popsicles" from the ice that falls from the barn roof.   Just as with the chickens, keeping dogs out of the wind and wet weather is important.   We've created spaces for them in the hayloft - they curl up among the bales, staying warm on blustery winter nights.  Also, we use a thermostatically controlled heated bucket to keep their water liquid.

Alpaca/Llama - The camelids seem impervious to cold but do not like the wind.   We created rubber floored stalls with sliding doors that provide a wind and rain barrier.    Their water buckets are heated.   We feed them hay with a high percentage of alfalfa (extra calories) on cold days.    We feed each of them a cup of high energy grain in the morning and evening of each winter day.  We supplement their diet with beet pulp. Shoveling manure during weeks that never rise about freezing has proven to be a challenge.   I can use a wrecking bar, pick, or hammer to break up manure, but I've found it more practical to wait until a thaw day to shovel.

The combination of appropriate housing, low wattage heaters, and water management, has proven to me that winter on Unity Farm will pass without any animal health and well-being issues.

I just read this very illuminating and entertaining post that Shanna wrote about whether there is anything wrong with doing asana for asana's sake. Here's Shanna's take on this sticky issue:

"...what the hell is wrong with sometimes doing the the asana for asana's sake? The human body is a beautiful and amazing vehicle that we are only leasing for a short time. Not  having fun with it and testing its limits is like owning a Bugatti (one of the world's fastest cars), and never driving it past 50 mph because going from A to B does not require it." [for a visual of what a Bugatti actually looks like, check out Shanna's post]

To this, I would add: Unlike a Bugatti, which can presumably run for a very long time if you take good care of it, there are probably only a certain number of years the human body can do fancy asanas (whatever your personal definition of "fancy" might be). So all the more reason to do fancy asanas (and enjoy doing them) while your body still can. The key, of course, is to do asanas and enjoy doing them without becoming attached to their perfection, or becoming attached to the idea of holding on to them and being able to do them forever. This, I think, is the ultimate life lesson to be gained from doing fancy asanas: In life, one will have and experience nice/fancy things. There is no need to deny them their place in the sun. Enjoy them when you have them. But be prepared also to gracefully relinquish them when it's time to let them go. At the end of the day, it is better to have and then to lose/not have, than to not have had at all. Because if one has never had anything, how can one learn to lose gracefully and with equanimity?

But perhaps some people might still insist that asana is nevertheless unnecessary for our practice. Surely, it may be said, if the goal of yoga is self-realization, and the goal of asana is to make the body a fit vehicle to pursue this goal, surely we wouldn't need to be able to, say, put our leg/s behind our heads in order to render our bodies fit enough to pursue such a goal? So isn't asana then redundant/unnecessary, even from the point of view of yoga? I love Shanna's response to all this. She writes:

"If you really want to get in the weeds, there are a lot of things we do in our lives that are totally unnecessary.  If we are going to cut out "unnecessary poses", lets cut out all the other unnecessary stuff too. Get rid of your computer,tablets,TVs, I-phones, & other technology gadgets. Narrow your clothing down to two or 3 outfits and a pair of shoes. Get rid of your yoga mats, blocks, & straps because really you can practice yoga without them. Cut your diet down to Kale(it has protein, calcium, omega 3 &6) and water because that is about all you need to live. When you have sex, only do it doggy style or missionary because that is all is really necessary to procreate. Only have one child because that is really all you need to continue your line. This ridiculous list can go on and on. The point is, there are alot of unnecessary things we do in life just because it is harmless, fun, exhilarating and we love it." 

I couldn't help laughing out loud when I read this, especially (I have to admit) the part where she writes, "When you have sex, only do it doggy style or missionary..." Hmm... why doggy style as opposed to any other position? Are there any scientific studies out there that show that doggy leads to a higher procreation rate? Anybody know anything out there? But well, since this is a yoga blog and not a sex blog, I'll leave it at this. But I can't help being curious, nonetheless (things like this sometimes make me wonder if I should start a sex blog to explore trivial sexual questions like this one... is writing a sex blog somehow incompatible with writing a yoga blog?).

But I digress. I guess I'll end here by saying that I am in agreement with Shanna that there is nothing wrong with doing asana simply because "it is harmless, fun, exhilarating and we love it." So long as we also work at not being attached to them.

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On Monday, I had the privilege of attending the retirement luncheon for G. Octo Barnett, the founder of the MGH Laboratory of Computer Science (LCS) and the inventor of the MUMPS (Massachusetts General Hospital Utility Multi-programming system).

Henry Chueh, Division Chief of LCS, served as master of ceremonies.

The attendees were the luminaries in the field of medical informatics - Donald Lindberg, Randy Miller, Clem MacDonald, Charlie Safran, Paul Egerman, Rita Zielstorff, Albert Mulley, Howard Bleich, Warner Slack, Chris Cimino, Peter Beaman and many more.

Everyone told stories about Octo's achievements inside and outside the lab.

In many ways, he is the catalyst that spawned companies such as Meditech, IDX, Epic, Intersystems, and many others.

Octo himself is a humble man and offered his sincere thanks to everyone who has worked with him over his 50+ year career.

He's a great man whose contribution to the healthcare IT industry is overwhelming.   I've said that in life the most important thing is to make a difference.   Octo made a difference.

Today in Washington, the Standards and Policy Committees met in joint session to take testimony from expert stakeholders about health information exchange.

Farzad Mostashari, National Coordinator, introduced the day, noting that we've made great strides since the founding of HL7 in 1987 and the creation of ONC in 2004, but there is more work to do.  The includes early successes, a discussion of barriers/challenges, the elements needed to ensure trust, and the role of consumers.   The hope is that the foundation laid by Meaningful Use stage 2 will enable reduced costs (and reduced vendor pricing for interfaces), increased benefit, and privacy protections that have not been historically possible.

Micky Tripathi, CEO of the Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative provided an overview of the  current landscape in his presentation, The State of Health Information Exchange.  He described HIE 1.0 as the noun and HIE 2.0 as the verb with many models  (in order of increasing level of external coordination needed):

Point to patient
Point to point
Vendor specific
Transaction specific national level
Enterprise level HIE organizations
State and regional collaboratives
National level collaborative

Next, I moderated a panel, Health Information Exchange Enabling Healthcare Transformation, describing the technology and policies which have enabled successful health information exchanges.   The major lesson learned was workflow and business value are even more important enablers than technology.

We heard from
Michael Lee, Atrius Health
Sandy Seltzer, Camden Coalition
Keith Hepp, HealthBridge
John Blair, Hudson Valley Initiative
Karen VanWagner, Plus ACO/North Texas Specialty Physicians

Next Paul Tang moderated a panel, Technical and Business Barriers and Opportunities, which concluded that meaningful use stage 2 significant reduced technology and policy barriers by constraining optionality in standards and aligning incentives to exchange data.  We heard from

John Halamka, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
David Horrocks, CRISP
Bill Spooner, Sharp
Tone Southerland, Greenway

After lunch, I moderated a panel, Governance Barriers and Opportunities, which focused on governance and trust fabric efforts necessary to ensure authentication and authorization of participants in health information exchange.   We heard from

David Kibbe, Direct Trust
Christopher Alban, Epic
Sid Thornton, Care Connectivity Consortium
Michael Matthews, Healtheway

Finally, Paul Tang moderated a panel, Consumer-Mediated Exchange, which emphasized the importance of provider-patient as well as provider-provider health information exchange using the Direct standards.   We heard from

Jeff Donnell, NoMoreClipboard
Mary Anne Sterling, Sterling Health
Neal Patterson, Cerner
Alan Blaustein, Care Planners

Paul Tang summarized the day and we agreed that the robust discussion will inform the work plans of the policy and standards committees as we all work hard to increase the volume and usefulness of health information exchange throughout the country.

Last Saturday afternoon, on the spur of the moment, I decided to do some lunges to open up my psoas and quads, which were feeling a bit tight from sitting too long in front of my computer (yes, this is a common occupational hazard of blogging ;-)). I looked around a little on Youtube, and found the above video by Kino, whom Grimmly refers to affectionately in a recent post as "the treasured patron saint of the Home Ashtangi." Speaking of patron saints, I have recently also begun to wonder if Kino might not have become the unofficial patron saint of Yoga in the Dragon's Den as well; if you look at the blog labels at the bottom of this blog, you will find that "kino" comes up the second most number of times, after "practice." But maybe I shouldn't say this, lest somebody out there sees me as being a Kino-worshipper (which, in the minds of some of her detractors, may well be akin to being a devil-worshipper...). Hmm... does making a famous Ashtanga teacher the patron saint of one's blog constitute an "Ashtanga crime"? ;-)

But enough of these random ramblings. As I was saying, I did some lunges last Saturday afternoon. After watching Kino's video above, I did a few Surya As to warm up, and then proceeded to do a few of the lunges in the sequence featured in the video. But by about halfway through the sequence, I felt that my psoas and quads were already so open. And then a possibly criminal thought occurred to me: "You know, since you are already so open, why not do something more... advanced? Like, you know, Hanumanasana?"

As many of you who are familiar with the sequence of Ashtanga postures will know, Hanumanasana (a.k.a. the western split) occurs in Ashtanga at the end of the third series. And I haven't even completed second series! But, overcome by the devilish influence of my criminal mind, I decided to give Hanumanasana a shot anyway (the posture, by the way, is not new to me: In my pre-Ashtanga days, Hanumanasana was one of my favorite postures. But I have not performed the pose since becoming a "law-abiding" Ashtangi.). I proceeded to do it on the first side, with the right leg extended out in front of me. It was... alright. Didn't get very deep into it; there were probably two or three inches remaining between my groin and the mat. Given that I had only done Surya As and a few lunges for warmups, I also decided not to push my luck; whenever I do Hanumanasana, which is not very often, there is always, in the back of my mind, that story of a young Mr. Iyengar ripping his hamstrings in this posture because Krishnamacharya ordered him to do it, and Iyengar had not mastered the posture at the time. So I always approach Hanumanasana with a certain degree of fear and trembling :-)

But then I tried the second side. I extended my left leg in front of me, slid it forward, and voila! the entire length of both my legs and my groin were touching the mat! Which came as a surprise to me, because historically, my right leg had always been the more flexible leg. But even though I was doing the full expression of the pose on this second side, I wasn't feeling as comfortable in it as I would have if I were warmer. So I stayed in the posture for five rather short breaths, and then exited the posture. And then I went into a brief savasana to complete this mini-practice.

So on that afternoon, I did two things that are not "kosher" in Ashtanga: (1) I did a posture I have not been "given", (2) I did it out of sequence. Hmm... does this mean I was seeing other yoga? Or perhaps just flirting with/kissing other yoga? I don't really know the answers to these questions (or maybe I do, but I refuse to admit that I do...). But maybe you do? Feel free to share your thoughts on this and other matters, if you have any.          

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I love it when people a) comment on my blog, b) find my blog posts useful, and c) ask for particular things on the blog! Please don't hesitate to let me know if these posts are useful (or not!) to you and just leave a comment if there is something you'd like me to post about!!

This post is in response to a reader comment - yay! Anonymous said: "I'd love a tip on how to transition your feet from plank to upward dog then downward dog. I always have difficulty rolling my feet from plank to upward, and when I "fudge" it I worry I'm doing it wrong."

This is a great question! And don't worry, Anonymous, you aren't alone: this is a really difficult move and it took me (and many other yogis I know!) years of practice to make this a smooth transition.  Also, don't stress if you don't get it right away. As long as you aren't injuring yourself the way you are doing it, just view it as a step in the process, and keep working at it. As with everything, eventually, with practice, it will come!

First: Warm up your feet! Feet are delicate and deserve our respect, so it's a good idea to first establish that your feet have the flexibility to make this transition without injury. For some foot-stretching ideas, check out this old post on Yoga for Feet.

Next, do a practice-run.  Once your feet are warmed up, you can work on transitioning your toes from a flexed to an extended (pointed) position to make sure your feet are strong and flexible enough to do this comfortably. To isolate the feet from the rest of the transition, do this from plank pose.

1. Start in plank pose, with your toes tucked under and your heels strongly pressing back.

2. In plank pose, shift your weight a tiny bit forward, lift from the core, and come up onto your tip-toes. Don't try to roll your feet over yet - just see how high you can come onto tip-toes, hold for a breath, and then come down. Do this a few times.

3. Finally, come up onto the very tips of your toes and then gently shift your pelvis forward until you roll over onto the tops of your feet. You may want to practice this with your hands forward of your usual alignment to maintain your stability. Practice this until it feels smooth and comfortable.

If your toes don't feel comfortable rolling over, don't force it. Feet are delicate, so be careful!




Next it gets a little more challenging, because in between plank and upward-facing dog, we have four-legged staff pose, chaturanga dandasana, a pose that requires a great deal of strength.  For this exercise, we're going to use a yoga block (or something equivalent - a small ball or box) that you can squeeze between your thighs.  This isn't strictly necessary but it helps by keeping the legs engaged and therefore encouraging you to move from the core and the pelvis.

Before you start, read this post on the pelvic alignment in the transition from plank to upward-facing dog. Got that? We don't want to be injuring our SI joint while we're doing this, and finding that 'lift' from the core and the pelvis is a key part to making this transition.  The key thing to remember here is that the origin of the movement is from the pelvis.  Think of your pelvis as the engine that is driving the movement - try to move just the pelvis, and the rest of your body will follow.  

1. Place your yoga block between your thighs and come into plank pose. Set your mental mantra to moving from the pelvis, and as you inhale, lift (from the core!) up onto your tiptoes.




2. Begin to exhale and lower yourself as far down into chaturanga as you can hold for a few seconds - it doesn't have to be all the way! Keep lifting as high as you can onto the tips of your toes and look forward. Keep squeezing your block! This puts you in the perfect preparatory position to move yourself forward into upward-facing dog.




3. As your exhalation reaches empty, look forward, lift strongly from the core and move your pelvis forward while pressing into your hands to straighten your arms. Open up your chest and keep your spine long. With luck - and practice! - your toes will slide over at the last second as you go forward.




And back to downward-facing dog...   The final step is to take this from upward-facing dog back to downward facing dog.  Again, focus on the pelvis as the origin of the movement.

1. From upward-facing dog, begin to exhale. Press into your arms and as you near the end of your exhalation, strongly suck your belly button up and lift your pelvis UP and back.  As you come up to a plank-like position, you will come towards a full extension of your feet, which is pretty uncomfortable, so try to make this a smooth, continuous movement.

2. Before you think about going all the way back, try to get as high as you can onto the tops of your feet as you lift your hips up.  When you can go no higher, send your hips back and your toes will have nowhere to go but up and over!  If they won't quite go together, roll them over one at a time but practice alternating which foot goes first.




Here is a short video showing how it all comes together. I've tried to really emphasise the role the pelvis plays in driving the movement - I hope it helps!



A few extra tips:

- Keep your core strongly engaged by lifting the belly button towards the spine.

- Synchronise your hardest movements with the end of your exhalation, and move when your breath is empty. This automatically engages your abdominal and pelvic lift, which will compliment these movements.

- Try tiny variations in the position of your hands. While the general guideline is to line your hands up directly under your shoulders, a centimetre forward or back can really make the difference in finding the 'sweet spot' that will serve you in both Chaturanga and Upward-facing dog.

- Also, check out this video where Kino talks about using the bandhas (that pelvic and abdominal lift) to move through this transition: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0Hji2I4ZQM

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I just read Guy Donahaye's latest blog post, in which he discusses what he knows of Guruji as a person, and also says a few things about the infamous "No coffee, no prana" mantra that is so often attributed to Guruji. Guy begins by making some general observations about Guruji:

"...we have to recognize that Guruji was not a renunciate yogi sitting in a cave but a family man with his likes and dislikes and even pleasures. Guruji loved coffee as well as chocolate, gold, gems and many other material things. That is not to say he was overly attached, but though an extraordinary human being he was also an ordinary one.


I think this is one of the reasons we were attracted to him. He lived life and experienced pleasures and pain, ups and downs, but in all this he generally displayed equanimity...." 

Guy then says the following about the relationship between Guruji, coffee, and prana/apana:

"So Guruji did have some attachments and one of these was coffee, Sharath also loves coffee (and so do I). But if we look at what is designated as yogic food, coffee is definitely not considered to be sattvic - rather, we have to say coffee is rajasic in nature. It is completely antagonistic to meditation and the limbs of yoga and stimulates extroverted rather than introspective activity.

The word rajasic is often used pejoratively to describe someone who is unstable, passionate and unsavory in some way, but the word rajas simply means movement or action. To understand the meaning of yoga, some familiarity with the Gunas is required. The three Gunas are principally the qualities of mind, whereas the three doshas are the qualities of the body. Rajas, tamas and sattva - these are the qualities of mind - rajas means activity or disturbance, tamas means inertia or ignorance and sattva means tranquility and intelligence...

No coffee no Prana?

This was one of Gurui's humorous quips. It is a joke and not meaningful, but unfortunately has been taken up as one of his catch phrases.

There is a common misconception about Prana. Prana is not energy as we usually think about it. We do not absorb Prana from food or respiration as is commonly stated. In fact Prana is not even equated with inhalation, but rather governs exhalation. Physical energy absorbed from food is not Prana. Prana subsists on a different plane. Prana is the vehicle through which Purusa (spirit) animates the mental and bodily functions - it is the life force.

Prana enters the physical body at conception and leaves at death. It does not increase or decrease with respiration, eating or physical activity. It's actions in the body are facilitated by the qualities of the foods we eat or the actions we take but its quantity is not changed by or equivalent to the amount of food we eat or the air we breathe. Prana is subdivided according to its functions in the body and mind. The undifferentiated Prana can be equated to sattva - it's inclination is to move up or remain in the head region, whereas, when we are inclined towards extroverted activity it moves down, as does tamas - as it moves down it is called apana. Apana governs inhalation (which is a downward movement in the body) as well as elimination of waste products through urination, excretion and menstruation. For most yoga practitioners, coffee is used for the impact it has on going to the bathroom before practice. Hence rather that stimulating Prana, coffee changes Prana into apana."

I have to admit that I am one of those people who have the kind of misconception about prana that Guy mentions above. I've always thought of prana rather simplistically as life energy, and coffee as a substance that somehow creates more prana in the system.

But if Guy is correct (and if I understand him correctly), then each of us is born with a fixed amount of prana in this life. The difference lies in what we do with ourselves to facilitate its actions in the body and mind in a productive manner. When we move around and do things--as we surely must do in order to function in this world-- prana becomes apana, and apana is manifested, in turn, either as activity (rajas) or as inactivity (tamas). The key, as I understand it, is to find ways and means to move apana in such a way as to facilitate lightness and intelligence (sattva) in our being rather than ignorance and inertia (tamas).

I'm honestly not entirely sure that I really get all this: I'm still kind of thinking things through and trying to process stuff as I am writing all this (you could also say that I am trying to move whatever apana that is in my head in the direction of light and intelligence rather than in the direction of ignorance and inertia!). But I think at least one thing remains clear: Even if Guruji did not literally mean that coffee is prana, it may still be a good idea to drink it before practice, if doing so will help you to achieve lightness of bowel and body before you start practice :-) Perhaps in this way, coffee can literally help move apana in the direction of lightness, by helping you to overcome whatever inertia might be in the bowels and achieving that much-desired pre-practice bowel movement. Now, doesn't this give new meaning to Light On Yoga? :-)

P.S. Note to Iyengar practitioners: Please do not be offended by my rather , uh, light treatment of this classic by Mr. Iyengar. I'd be happy to issue an apology and perhaps even remove that last line, if you so desire. But why take things more heavily than we need to? 

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Sometimes I hear people say: "I've accepted that I will never be able to do that pose", or "that pose is just impossible for me."

In fact, I've probably said exactly those things. I've "embraced my body's shortcomings" or "accepted my limitations" more times than I can count in yoga. I've said things like "well, my arms are just too weak / legs too long / back too crooked to be able to do that pose".

And I thought it was pretty yogic, you know? "Letting go" of my attachment do being able to do a particular pose. "Accepting my body the way it is", with its "too long / too short / too weak / too crooked" limbs or joints or regions.

But it wasn't. Yogic, as in "rooted in and therefore justified by yoga philosophy." I was not being philosophical, I was being escapist. I was not being "enlightened", I was being defeatist.

Because what yoga philosophy really says is: try anyway. Don't worry about what you achieve, or don't achieve. Don't worry about too short / too long / too weak / too crooked. Just try, and then try again tomorrow.

Of course, that is easier said than done, because we are human beings and we want results. Not results next year, but results next week. We want movie-musical-montage kind of progress, where within the space of 2 emotionally stimulating minutes set to a swelling score, we overcome obstacles and achieve the hitherto unachievable. But there's a reason that those scenes are done in a montage, and that is this: the reality is very, very dull. Monotonous even.  There are days, and weeks and months, and probably years in which you don't "achieve" that impossible pose.

But from the philosophical sense, that doesn't matter.  It doesn't matter where you get, or how quickly you get there. What matters is that you DID - because doing is infinitely preferable than restraining from doing.

Now, that doesn't mean getting straight on your mat and attempting headstand in your first week of practice. Or your second. Or your first year. Or your first decade. What it does mean, is keeping an open mind that ONE DAY, you may be able to do headstand. That's all - you don't have to do it, or even consciously work towards it - just don't rule it out. Whether it happens or not is another story, the outcome of which you needn't concern yourself with. Just as long as you never give up on yourself and the potential that lies within you.

You may be quick to point out that this approach has obvious limitations: a person with compressed vertebrae should not be believing that they could do headstand. Or should they? Because you have probably already realised that this philosophy is not really about the physical practice of yoga, but our approach to our everyday lives, our infinite potential in terms of relationships, career, love, life and happiness. The physical practice merely offers us the opportunity to put it into practice every time we get on our mat. Not giving up. Believing in our potential.

So next time you are struggling with an "impossible" pose, say to yourself instead: "this pose would be possible, when..." and identify one, or two, or three things - no matter how small! - that you can work on, that will set you on the path towards that pose, and do those instead. So you are not setting yourself up to fail, but rather, you are setting yourself up to succeed at steps along the way.

For instance, if your impossible pose is handstand (mine was), you might break the pose down into: arm and wrist strength, open hamstrings, and confidence being upside down - and work on those instead.  You might VISUALISE yourself doing the full pose, while integrating into your practice the little steps that might eventually get you there. You might set yourself on the path, and make it about the journey, and not the destination (it will be about the journey, in the end, regardless).

Don't surrender to self-prescribed boundaries of what's impossible. Don't chain yourself to results. Surrender to possibility, and let the outcome surprise you.

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Some of you may be aware that Kino has recently been on the receiving end of some negative reactions, both in social media and in the "real" world, over a video about practicing Ashtanga yoga in Mysore that she made about six months ago. Apparently, some Ashtangis who were in the video were offended because Kino did not ask for their permission before filming them doing their practices (for more details about the whole thing, see the January 22nd posts on Kino's Facebook page). Anyway, here is the video in question:

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Following my previous post about reading Hemingway in Hooters, I got very curious, and decided to go online to find out if there are any Hooters restaurants outside of North America. To my astonishment, I discovered that there are actually a whole bunch of Hooters outside the U.S., and furthermore, that the first Hooters restaurant outside the United States was actually opened in Singapore (where I was born and grew up) in 1996! Did you know that? But why would you? But still, things like this make me realize that I live in a sort of cocoon/bubble. But then again, I've never really been a big fan of wings, so why would I know this? Well, I guess it's just a bit disconcerting to suddenly discover that something that I thought was unique to North America had actually existed back where I came from the whole time...

Ha! Now I'm starting to wonder if there's a Hooters in Mysore too... or is this too sacrilegious a thought to even entertain? If so, please accept my apologies. Actually, this is probably impossible, given the rather strict dress codes of Indian women. What was I thinking? In any case, even if, per impossibile, there were really a Hooters in Mysore, what would they serve there? Vegan wings?

At any rate, it must be the late hour that has prompted this post that has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with yoga. Yoga in the Dragon's Den will soon return to its yoga content/programming. Please try to ignore this disruption, and continue to stay tuned.       

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Practice this morning was great. Since the beginning of this week, I have been gradually re-incorporating second series back into my practice after doing primary only for the last month in order to adjust myself energetically to my new habitat. This morning, I did full primary and second up to Bhekasana. In Bhekasana, I went really deep, and got a really nice therapeutic stretch in my left quads. Which was especially nice, because honestly, I was a little nervous about reincorporating Bhekasana, because I had injured my left knee before in this pose. Goes to show that the same asana can be either healing or damaging, depending on whether you approach it with sufficient respect.

Practice this morning was also great in part because I did not end up going anywhere last night. I had wanted to go somewhere where I could sit down, have a glass of wine or a beer, and read without being seen as weird. But it's actually not so easy to find such a place. I mean, who goes to a bar or restaurant to read? Things may be different on the other side of the Altantic, but I can't remember the last time I saw somebody in this country go to a bar or restaurant just to have a drink and read (well, actually, I can remember such a time. See below for more details.) And, as far as I know, none of the coffeeshops in this college town where I'm now at serve alcohol...

Oh no, one more Ashtanga criminal confession here: I drink alcohol! Help... Actually, here's something else that might provide more ammunition to aspiring Ashtanga-bashers out there: Apparently, after you have practiced Ashtanga for a while, you lose the ability to celebrate your birthday like "normal" people do. You just kind of sit at home, drink wine or beer, read, and/or write inane blog posts like this one which people may or may not bother to read. In other words, Ashtanga turns you into a boring homebody with no life!

But, truth be told, I'm more inclined to think that this may be more a problem with our culture than with Ashtanga. I mean, what does it say about a culture that sees going somewhere to have a beer and read as "weird"? Or is this just me and my projections? I don't know...

But I like to think that I'm actually speaking from personal experience here. Here's a story that may be worth telling. Back in the fall of '99, when I was still a, ahem, strapping young man, I attended the University of Texas at Austin for one semester as an exchange student. That was the first time I lived in this country by myself; before that, I had only been to these United States once, with my parents on a vacation when I was thirteen...

Anyway, here's the story:  On a certain fateful fall day in Austin, I wandered into this nice little restaurant with the word "Hooters" emblazoned in bright orange over the door. I had absolutely no idea what Hooters was about at that time, so imagine my, well, pleasant surprise when I saw the uniform of the servers; you must also remember that I was at that time a hot-blooded young man who had no idea what Brahmacharya was... (btw, if you do not live in North America, and have no idea what Hooters is about, this might give you some idea.) Perhaps it was the picture of the owl in the Hooters emblem, but I was under this naive impression that this was an establishment that would be friendly to people who like to read while eating or drinking. So I ordered a bunch of wings, sat back, whipped out a book (I even remember that it was Hemingway's "A Farewell to Arms"), and started reading away. A few minutes later, a shrill voice above my head chirped, "No sleeping in here!" In case you're wondering, no, it's not the owl: It was one of the pleasantly-uniformed servers, ostensibly reminding me in her dixie accent (is this politically correct?) what the purpose of the establishment was (or, in this case, was not). I was such a dork, I actually said, "No, I'm not sleeping; I'm reading (what, you can't see?)!" I can't remember what happened after that; I have this picture in my head of her slinking away with a little pout on her face, but this may be a totally reconstructed memory/fantasy with no connection whatsoever with any true remembrance of things past...

I don't know what the point of this story is (Don't go to Hooters if you want to read Hemingway?). Anyway, this is becoming an all-over-the-place, neither-here-nor-there post. So I probably should quit now, while the going is still (relatively) good. More later.     

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