our-yoga

we recommend you to buy some goods below for comfort, safety and ease of your yoga activities

Q: I'm wondering if you would please weigh in on something in one of your posts. It has to do with the position of the ankle - dorsiflexion or plantar flexion - in pigeon pose. I've always heard to dorsiflex the ankle (toes toward knee) in thread the needle and pigeon. But recently I heard that in pigeon the ankle should be in dorsiflexion only if the shin is parallel to the front edge of the mat, i.e., at a 90 angle to the knee, as it is in thread the needle, and plantar flexed (pointed, Barbie style) if the knee is bent more than 90, with the foot closer to the hip rather than the top edge of the mat. 

Pigeon Pose Preparation with Flexed Foot (I'd have her turn her foot onto its pinky edge so it's in a more neutral position.)

by Ram

The Moon Over a Waterfall by Hiroshige

Recently, I was introduced to the topic of positive psychology, a newer branch of psychology that has earned wide popularity thanks to the seminal work done by psychologists Martin Seligman and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (this name is tougher to say than a yoga pose in Sanskrit: the closest I can come to his name is “Me-high Sheek-sent-me-high”). 
According to Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi, the focus of general psychology is on treating abnormal behavior and mental illness. In contrast, positive psychology was established on the conviction that normal people prosper by leading a meaningful and fulfilling life. Positive psychology does not describe dysfunction and abnormal behavior; rather it is centered on determining positive human development and helping people to prosper and lead healthy, happy lives. Positive psychology describes the “good life,” and uses scientific tools, strengths and virtues to enable individuals and communities to prosper and lead a well-lived, fulfilling life.  
“Good life” according to these psychologists is about using our strengths and positive traits to produce genuine happiness and unlimited fulfillment on multiple levels that include, among others, the biological, personal, relational and institutional dimensions of life. Some of the major topics of interest in positive psychology include: happiness, optimism and helplessness, mindfulness, flow, character strengths and virtues, hope, positive thinking and resilience. Notice how these positive psychology traits resemble most of the ethical principles highlighted in the Ashtanga Yoga Philosophy by Patanjali. Similar to therapeutic yoga, positive psychology is being implemented in real-world applications in areas including therapy, self-help, stress management, and workplace issues. 
Let me now focus on one of the positive psychology traits, flow. I had an opportunity to read excerpts from the book “FLOW” by Csikszentmihalyi and what amazed me was that the flow principles described by the author in the book resonated soundly with the principles of yoga philosophy as well.  According to Csikszentmihalyi, “flow”occurs when:

1. An individual is faced with a task that has clear goals and which requires specific responses
2. When one is engaged in an activity where the challenge matches the individual’s skill, that is, when a person's skills are fully involved in overcoming a challenging task 

When the above two happen, the individual has an undivided focus and gets totally involved and forgets everything else but the activity. “Flow” may seem an effortless state but it requires a whole lot of effort initially to make that state accessible. The flow can be explained through the phenomenal compositions of musical maestros such as Bach and Beethoven, exquisite art work by Da Vinci and Picasso, or the mesmerizing sounds of the opera singers. In all of the above-mentioned examples, these respective individuals experienced “the flow,” a state of complete immersion in that specific activity. In “the flow” state, the ego falls away, time just vanishes, every new action, movement, and thought succeeds the previous one, the individual’s body, mind and intellect get completely united as a “whole,” the individual’s skills gets used to the utmost, and, at the end of all of it, the activity turns intrinsically rewarding for the individual.
Csíkszentmihályi puts forward several factors that are required to experience flow:

• Clear and challenging goals that are attainable
• Concentration and focused attention
• Activity that is intrinsically rewarding
• A loss of feeling of self-consciousness 
• A loss of time—feeling so focused on the present that you lose track of time passing
• Feeling of personal control over the situation and the outcome feeling of personal control over the situation and the outcome (without being attached to the results of your actions)
• Lack of awareness of physical needs
• Complete focus on the activity itself 

Flow experience is not restricted to any one activity and occurs in different ways for different people. Some might experience flow while engaging in a sport; others might have a similar experience while engaged in an activity such as music, reading, painting, drawing, or writing. If it’s challenging and you have the necessary skill sets to immerse in the activity completely, it can result in flow. Flow keeps an individual in a truly happy state. Csikszentmihalyi proved that the more an individual is in flow the happier he/she becomes. 
Now coming to yoga, notice how it is a perfect activity to achieve flow. Be it yama, niyama, asana, pranayama, or pratyahara, all of these require dhayana (focus) and dharana (concentration and motivation). This very nature of yoga allows an individual to match challenges to skill level. The breath work, concentration, precise alignment, the controlling power of how hard you’re pushing yourself—all of this puts an individual in a flow state. It was as though Patanjali designed the entire yoga philosophy to provide a flow experience. Every time you achieve flow in your yoga practice, you gain experience and inherently improve your skill level. Very soon, the practice takes your skill sets to a higher level and you are able to do more by challenging yourself further. You experience contentment and enjoy a sense of accomplishment. It’s a great positive spiral and it results in improved health and happiness. That is “Living Samadhi” (bliss/enlightenment) in an everyday life.

So the next time you encounter a positive psychologist, declare that you too are in “Flow” with your yoga practice. Better, read the book and “flow inwards” in your yogic life!

we recommend you to buy some goods below for comfort, safety and ease of your yoga activities

we recommend you to buy some goods below for comfort, safety and ease of your yoga activities

The Memorial Day weekend included shearing day on the farm.   Every year in May, we trim 15 pounds of fiber from each alpaca, removing a body size “down jacket” just in time for Summer.  The animals are transformed from teddy bears to Dr. Seuss animals.  We gently halter the animals and reassure them with ear and chin massages.   Then we lead them to a foam pad and use a soft rope to restrain their legs so that they cannot move while the sharp clippers are shaving their fiber.   We also use the opportunity to trim their teeth and nails.   In two hours, the work was done and the newly sheared animals were back in their pastures.   Here are before and after pictures which suggest that alpacas are more fiber than body.

This weekend we worked on more mushroom totems, adding 36 stacks of logs to a new mushroom area underneath the shade of a 100 foot pine tree.   We added 6 different subtypes of oyster and bagged the logs, keeping them warm and moist for a 3 month spawn run.  This Fall, we will see some fruiting.  Now that we have 144 Oyster logs in production, we should achieve commercial quantities over the next 12 months.


Now that Spring mud season has dried up a bit, we’ve begun to maintain all our trails, using the Terex front loader to haul chips.  I placed and raked a bed of poplar chips 4 inches deep and 4 feet wide over the entire 1000 foot length of the Orchard trail.  Next weekend I’ll do the 1000 foot Old Cart Path and the 1000 foot Gate Path.    The real challenge will be the 1500 foot Marsh Trail, which is bounded by a stream at both ends and the only passage is via two 12 foot bridges.   Last year I did it wheelbarrow by wheelbarrow from our composted chip pile.



The warmth of the Spring days is perfect for extracting the thick honey from the hives that did not successfully overwinter.  We used a capping fork to gently open the wax covered frames and then placed them in our hand cranked centrifuge.   Our Summer honey is mostly clover and wildflowers.   Later in the season, the nectar flows are mostly goldenrod and Japanese knotweed.   We bottled 3 gallons of dark, late season honey.   Think of the difference between early season honey and late season honey as similar to the contrast between white sugar and molasses.  The goldenrod brings a complex herbal aroma and taste to the honey, which some people find overpowering.   I enjoy it as flavoring for soy yogurt.


The hoop house is exploding with Spring vegetables.    Our meals now include large bowls of fresh salad, using a dozen types of lettuce accompanied by a mixture of fragrant, spicy greens.   The peas, beans, chart, squash, and peppers are growing fast in the heat and moisture of the raised beds in the hoop house.   We recently added misters to the beds, since keeping the soil moist in the steamy environment of the enclosed space took an hour of hand watering a day.




I was in Beijing on Saturday and hauling logs/chips on Sunday.     You can appreciate the contrast I experienced from standing in the Beijing financial district to standing in the Unity Farm orchard, 24 hours later.

we recommend you to buy some goods below for comfort, safety and ease of your yoga activities

I'm in Singapore right now. I came here last week to attend my younger brother's wedding, and will be here for another couple of weeks before I head back to the U.S.

If you have been reading this blog for a while, you may remember that for the longest time, I have been experiencing a lot of fear about coming back to Singapore, or even thinking about the place itself (for more details, see this post). So why have I decided to come back this time? Ostensibly, it was because of my brother's wedding. He sent me an invite a few months ago, and even somebody as hard-headed and hard-hearted as yours truly cannot resist the pull of some basic familial obligations (along with some guilt-tripping on the part of my parents).

But on another, deeper level, there is a more powerful reason for my being back this time. On some level, I have decided that it is time for me to really come to terms with certain things from the past, that if I am to move forward confidently with my life in a way that is free and unencumbered, I need to come back here and squarely face up to the baggage that I have been carrying with me from the past. I'm not going to bore you with the details of what exactly this baggage consists in: That would take another long post or two, and I'm not in the mood to write that much at the moment, anyway. Suffice to say that there were some promises that I made to certain people many many years ago, and I have been burdened with guilt over the fact that I have not fulfilled those promises and have therefore betrayed these people. Anyway, I met up with these people over the last week. All of them understand that my life is now in a very different place from where it was years ago, and that it would be unreasonable to hold me up to those promises. Actually, a few of these people were surprised that I even felt guilty about the whole thing, as they themselves could barely even remember me making that promise to them!

I understand that all of this is probably very vague and probably very unsatisfying, from a story-telling point of view. But as I said, I don't feel like writing a whole other post explaining the content and background story of these promises. And in any case, I feel that the explicit content of the promises do not matter so much as the emotional and spiritual anguish involved in holding on to something that has outlived its relevance, and the liberation that comes from finally letting go of these things.

Right now, I feel a lot more free and confident about moving on with my life. One thing that has really bothered me a lot in the past few years is the question of where home is. On the one hand, nothing can change the fact that I was born in Singapore and have gone through many irreplaceable formative experiences and encountered so many wonderful people here. But ever since coming to the U.S., I have also had many other experiences and met so many people that are just as irreplaceable. I have always been uncomfortable with the notion, held by many people, that home is only the place where you were born and where most of your family is. I think that there is something to this notion, but this cannot be the whole truth, because I also believe that as a person evolves and grows, what kind of place he comes to call home must also evolve and change. This is especially true if he has moved to a place that is different from his birthplace, and has allowed that place to irrevocably shape who he is as a person.

Because of these considerations, I have, after much reflection and soul-searching, come to the conclusion that I am a person with two homes: Singapore will always be my home, but the United States is also equally my home. For me, there is no other way, because I simply cannot bring myself to put down one place in order to elevate the other. I have tried to do this in the past, and the result has always been a lot of unnecessary emotional anguish and suffering. What all this means is that I have to grow to become somebody whose life and heart is big enough to encompass both these places, whose life is big enough to enable him to truly become a man of the world. 

I could probably say more about this whole emotional and spiritual journey here, but I guess I'll stop here for now. Maybe I'll share my thoughts about being back in the place where I was born after 13 years (yes, I've been away for 13 years...).

One of the first things that hit me during my first few days in Singapore was: The whole island is one big freaking shopping mall! Everywhere you turn, there is some kind of shopping mall or other. So much so, that one can't help but wonder if the people in charge built the subway system (the MRT) simply in order to make it easier for people to go all over the island to shop at the different shopping malls! As you can well imagine, this, combined with the very high population density--there are more than 5 million people packed into 276 square miles--makes the entire place a very crowded and tightly packed concrete jungle. One of the first things I noticed upon arriving here was that many of the open spaces that I used to know as a young person growing up here have since been filled up: It seems that every square inch of open land here has been developed or is been developed into some kind of shopping mall, office building or condo. I'm not even going to tell you what I feel about all this, because, well, who wants to go there?

But thankfully, some places and people have stayed the same. Yesterday, I had lunch and tea at Holland Village with a good friend I haven't seen for a very long time. It was I who suggested meeting there, and the moment I got there, I remembered why I missed that place so much. The whole place has this laid-back, bohemian feel to it, and it has preserved this feel after all these years. To be sure, there are a whole bunch of new shops and restaurants that I don't recognize, but there is something about the way the streets are generously laid-out and the relaxed attitude of the locals that cue you in to the fact that the character of the place is very much alive and well after all these years. We went to this restaurant, ate lots of Indian food and shared a bottle of white wine, and talked the entire afternoon about our remembrances of things past and plans and hopes for the future. My friend, who was a young lady the last time I saw her, is still a young lady, plus a husband whom she is happily married to and a very adorable young daughter, both of whom I have yet to meet. It is great to finally see somebody who has constantly been in my thoughts all these years, and to see her so happy and fulfilled in life.

I've also had the opportunity to share my Ashtanga practice with a few friends. One of my friends saw that Youtube video of me doing primary series (if you haven't seen it, check out this post), and remarked that what I am doing is a good set of physiological movements that activates all aspects of the system. However, he continued, it is too tough for common folk in the street, and it probably doesn't help that many Singaporeans (yes, that's what you call people from Singapore) are overweight because Singapore is blessed with too much food (most of which is very delicious, but also very bad for you). I can't help feeling that what he says here is also a good description of Americans. Hmm... and I call both places home? Wonder what that says about me? :-)

we recommend you to buy some goods below for comfort, safety and ease of your yoga activities

by Baxter

As we have talked about many times here at YFHA, balance is one of the key physical skills to cultivate as we age. As Shari said in Nina's interview with her about aging and balance:

“ …if we can’t balance, we fall and break bones or hurt ourselves in different ways. Twenty percent of all Americans have balance issues, and falls are a public health catastrophe. They send people to hospitals and may require costly surgeries and months of pain, suffering, and hard work to try to regain prior levels of functional independence. 
In addition, if we are afraid to move because we fear falling, this fear affects every aspect of our lives and starts the spiral of further decline and illness. People who fall are afraid of exercise and movement because of the anticipation of future falls. But if you don’t use your physical body the decline is unrelenting.”
The good news it that balance is a skill you can practice and improve if you do a home practice regularly. The following sequence is the first of two that I will share with you to help you on your way to better balance. If you have poor balance already or have recently taken a fall secondary to losing your balance, I recommend working close to a wall that is behind your back. That way you can easily lean back against the wall if you feel like you are losing your balance.
Easy Balance Sequence
1. Mountain Pose (Tadasana): You might say, “Hey, this is not very balancey.” But Mountain pose is the foundation of all standing pose work, so it is good place to begin. Start with Mountain pose with a block on its narrowest side between your thighs and your feet set so you feel a nice squeeze of your inner leg muscles against the block. Stand for 60-90 seconds with your legs actively squeezing the block. This will strengthen your inner thigh muscles in addition to working all of the standing muscles in your legs. Then repeat the pose without the block. When working without the block, try to feel evenly balanced on the ball and heel of the foot, the inner and outer edges of the foot.
2. Mountain Pose with Arms Overhead and Heels Lifted (Urdhva Hastasana): Starting in Mountain pose, bring your arms slowly out to the sides and up until your arms are overhead alongside your ears.
To make it more of a balance pose, try coming up onto to the balls of your feet, lifting your heels just a few inches off the floor. Try to stay as even side-to-side on the balls of your feet as you can for a few seconds, and then lower your arms and heels back to the earth. Repeat one or two more times, focusing on getting steadier each time. If you are feeling particularly off balance, try facing the wall with your feet just a few inches from the wall and rest your fingertips on the wall overhead as you lift you heels.

3. Hunting Dog Pose: Come down to hands and knees, trying to keep your body very steady going into the pose. Follow the instructions at Featured Pose: Hunting Dog Pose. If you feel too wobbly in the pose, keep the toes of your straight leg lightly on the floor. Stay for at least 30 seconds, but work up to 90 seconds gradually over time. As you come out of the pose, try to keep your body very steady. 
4. Warrior 1 Pose (Virbradhrasana 1): This post Featured Pose: Warrior 1 will give you the basic idea of how to do Warrior 1, but for this practice, pay close attention to the transitions into and out of the pose, making them as smooth and stable as possible. 
5. Triangle Pose (Utthita Trikonasana): As I had you do in our Lower Body Strength Sequence, you may want to start by coming in and out Triangle pose dynamically a few times. This can really challenge your balance, so feel free to set up with your mat parallel to and up against a wall, and look toward your front hand has you go in and out of the pose, not up at the ceiling. Start with your legs apart and feet aligned as usual for Triangle pose. Inhale your arms parallel with the floor, and then exhale into Triangle pose. Inhale back up with your arms out to sides, and then exhale your arms down to your sides. Repeat six times. Then hold full Triangle for six breaths, and work on increasing your time in the pose. Repeat on second side, with the dynamic sequence as a warm up for the full static hold.
6. Tree Pose (Vkrsasana), Easy Version: If your balance is wobbly, stand with the wall just behind your back. Start in Mountain Pose with your feet a bit closer together than usual. Shift your weight onto your left leg and bend your right knee a bit, coming onto the big toe of your right foot. Swing your right knee out to the right about 45 degrees. Then slide your right foot up against the inside of your left ankle, placing your right heel just above your left ankle bone but keeping your right big toe on the ground. Press your right heel firmly into your left ankle. See if you can then take your arms out to your sides parallel with the floor. Keep your gaze relaxed and on the horizon in front of you. If you are still feeling steady, try taking your arms overhead as in Arms Overhead pose. Whichever version you do, keep your legs steady and still, and try to stay for six breaths or so, gradually working your way up to 60-90 second holds. Repeat on second side. 
For those already experienced with practicing the full version of Tree pose, feel free to do any version of the pose that you’re comfortable with. 
7. Warrior 3 Pose (Virabadhrasana 3), Easy Version: Start at the wall, coming into Half Downward-Facing Dog Pose at the Wall, as described here. As your press your hands into the wall, lift your left leg up behind you as close to parallel to the floor as you can manage while still keeping your hips relatively square. While you’re in the pose, try to lighten the touch of your finger on the wall, as you continue to keep your hips square with the floor beneath you, your bottom foot squarely on the floor, and your lifted leg strongly reaching back behind you. Try to stay for six breaths or so, gradually working up to 60-90 second holds. Repeat on second side. See Featured Pose: Warrior 3 (Wall Version) for detailed instructions on this pose.
For those already experienced with practicing the full version of Warrior 3, feel free to do any version of the pose that you’re comfortable with. 
8. Standing Forward Bend (Uttanasana): Come back into Mountain pose and savor having both feet back on the ground! Place your hands on your hips and, on an exhalation, begin to bend forward from your hip joints. When your pelvis won’t rotate over your upper leg bones any more, allow your spine to round gently into a full forward bend, as you release your arms toward the floor. If your hands easily make it to the floor, great. But if they fall shy of the floor, don’t force them down; instead place your hands on opposite elbows. Feel free to bend your knees a little bit if your lower back or hips feel strain or pain. Stay for 30-60 seconds. 
9. Boat Pose (Paripurna Navasana): Sit on the floor with your knees bent and your feet on the floor in front of you. Hold onto the backs of your knees and rock back to balance on your buttocks with your feet just off the floor. See how long you can stay before your front thighs begin to tire. If Version 1 is easy, try Version 2, bringing your shins parallel to the floor and holding there. If Version 2 is easy, try Version 3, letting go of your knees and stretching your arms forward. Finally, if Version 3 isn’t challenging enough, try Version 4, straightening your knees so your upper and lower body forms a “V” shape. Start with six breaths and work up from there.
10. Reclining Twist (Jathara Parivartanasana): Lie on your back, with your knees bent and your feet on the floor. Keeping your knees bent, bring your legs and feet close together, and stretch your arms on the floor out to your sides in a T position. Now let both knees drop easily to your right, as close to the ground as they will go. Allow your head to turn gently to the left. Rest in this position for a minute or so, noticing any tension or fear that might have crept into your body from the challenge of your balancing poses. As you exhale, imagine releasing as much of that emotion and feeling as you can. Come back to center and repeat on the second side.

11. Relaxation Pose (Savasana): Focus today on feeling the security, stability, and safety of your entire body resting on the floor. Use any props that would make your body more comfortable (see Corpse Pose Variations). Ideally, set a timer for 10 minutes, and let your mind stay focused on the gentle flow of your relaxed inhalation and exhalation, and enjoy your relaxation pose! 

we recommend you to buy some goods below for comfort, safety and ease of your yoga activities

Last week, I posted the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking from CMS that offers flexibility to Meaningful Use attestation in 2014 .

Since then, I’ve received hundreds of emails about it from my fellow CIOs across the country.   Here’s a summary:

1.  To clarify, the NPRM offers flexibility for hospitals to attest to Stage 1 criteria for 2014 from July 1 to September 30.   However, it offers no flexibility for 2015 which begins October 1, 2014.    This means that hospitals which are struggling with Transition of Care summary exchange, Electronic Medication Admission Records (EMAR), and Patient Portals such that their implementations cannot be ready by July 1, must be fully ready by October 1, since 2015 requires a full year reporting period for attestation.     Thus, the NPRM as written really only provides a 90 day delay from July 1 to October 1.   It’s too little, too late for hospitals to achieve the business transformation, cultural changes, and workflow redesign needed.  

The solution - either relax the Transition of Care summary exchange requirements, EMAR requirements, and Patient Portal usage requirements or make the 2015 reporting period any 90 days in 2015 to enable more time for implementation.

2.   Even if a hospital has installed 2014 Edition software and can send Transition of Care summaries, most community-based physicians cannot receive them.   Also, few communities have provider directories which enable discovery of Direct addresses to send to those physicians with receiving capabilities.   Although the Transition of Care summary exchange requirement of Meaningful Use Stage 2 is a very noble policy goal, it requires an ecosystem of components that is not yet present in the US.   The same is true with the transmit component of the patient view/download/transmit capability - there are few places that can receive patient transmissions.

The solution - offer a hardship exemption if the hospital or physician office can send Transition of Care summaries, but there is no one to receive them or community provider directory infrastructure is lacking.

3.  Using Stage 1 criteria is helpful in that the Transition of Care summary exchange, EMAR, and Patient Portal criteria are relaxed, but does it require the use of Stage 1 Clinical Quality Measures?   2014 Edition software (or third party services providing quality measure computation) no longer support Stage 1 quality measures, so it is unlikely that Stage 1 quality measures can be submitted.

The solution - Stage 1 attestation with 2014 Edition software should allow 2014 quality measures.

Note:  My colleagues at CMS have clarified this issue.  "In the EHR Incentive Program, pre and post this NPRM, the clinical quality measures are not linked to the Stage of MU but to the year (CY or FY).  All participants using 2014 CEHRT, are reporting 2014 quality measures. It is ONLY if they use the 2011 CEHRT that they need to report the old CQMs. In other words, CQMs are already tied to the year of CEHRT in use, not to the stage of MU and that would not change under the proposal in the NPRM. "

The NPRM is a good first step.   It needs to be further revised to shorten the reporting period for 2015, enable the evolution of community infrastructure for Transition of Care summary exchange, and recognize that historical quality measures can no longer be computed.

One editorial comment - at some point we need to recognize that layering fixes on top of existing Meaningful Use regulation, some of which was written by CMS and some of which was written by ONC creates too much complexity.   I have direct access to the authors of the regulations and email them on a daily basis.   It’s getting to the point that even the authors cannot answer questions about the regulations because there are too many layers.  I realize that we are reaching the end of the stimulus dollars, but as we head into Stage 3, I wonder if we can radically simplify the program, focusing on a few key policy goals such as interoperability, eliminating most of the existing certification requirements, and giving very clear direction to hospitals and professionals as to what must be done when.

If I were king for a day, I would consolidate the Meaningful Use program into the “Merit-based Incentive Payment System” as I wrote about in this post, offering incentives for those who achieve stretch goals, without penalties for those who do not.    In my mind, Meaningful Use has achieved its goals of accelerating EHR adoption and  fundamentally changing attitudes about the need for healthcare automation.   At this point, we should learn from the challenges to achieve Meaningful Use Stage 2, provide a short term fix (revised as above), and then use Meaningful Use Stage 3 as an opportunity to simplify the program.