How a 9-year Old Describes Yoga

Amy Poehler interviews an awesome 9-year old yogi who answers a lot of great beginner questions. When asked "what is yoga?" she said this: "Stretching, breathing and other stuff that helps you relax."

Check out the clip here, it's pretty fantastic :)

In joy!

Niki

aMUSEing: Poetry for ya Head

This is a new piece, all copyrights reserved.

***

The map and the terrain are never the same

and dead birds are just a myth

because the sights in our eyes are lies in the mind,

the only sense external comes within.

In the space where we be the path unfolds three

whether we believe it or not.

So while the road be fraught

with unusual thoughts,

the oil lamp lights the stream.

In that delicate dance

of tension and chance

we find that the work never wares;

so when that last breath is taken

we won’t be mistaken

that the timing is any less than fare. 

The map and the terrain are never the same

and all ways are relative to self,

because the steps that we make take us farther away

while we move steadily home anyway.

The 84th Problem

Below is a short parable for your rumination:

"One afternoon a farmer who had heard that the Buddha was a wonderful teacher came to the Buddha seeking relief from his suffering. “I’m a farmer,” he said to the Buddha, “And I love farming. But last summer we had a drought and nearly starved, while this summer, we had too much rain and some of my crops did not do as well as I would have liked.”

The Buddha sat and listened to the farmer. “I have a wife, too. She’s a great woman, a wonderful wife. But sometimes she can really nag me. And to tell you the truth, sometimes I get a little tired of her.” The Buddha continued to listen and smile, as the farmer continued. “I’ve got three kids. They’re all really great. I’m really proud of them. But sometimes they don’t listen to me and don’t pay me the respect I deserve.”

It went on like this for awhile, and then when finished with his litany, the farmer waited for the Buddha to solve his problems.
“I can’t help you,” said the Buddha.

“What!” responded the farmer, “I’ve heard that you are a great master. How can you not help me?”

“Well,” the Buddha replied, “First of all, everyone has problems. In fact, everyone’s got about 83 problems. Of course, you may fix one now and then, but another one will pop up in it’s place. If you think about it, everyone you know and all that you care for is subject to change — it’s all impermanent. And you yourself are going to die someday. Now there’s a problem.”

The farmer was red in the face. “What kind of teacher are you!? How is this supposed to help me?!” he retorted.

“Well….perhaps I can help you with the 84th problem,” answered the Buddha.

“What 84th problem?” asked the farmer.

“You don’t want to have any problems.”

Get out of the way: Be Vulnerable

This woman is incredible, because of this main point: she doesn't just look at the map, she hikes the trail.

Brene Brown is a Doctor of Psychology, and has spent 12 years studying shame and vulnerability while going through it all herself. She honors her breakdowns as "spiritual awakenings," and understands that failure is an essential and beautiful part of the process.

Her talk is interesting, and her perspective on being uncomfortable works well with yoga's ideas about being both strong and sweet.

Do yourself some good and take the 20 minutes to hear her:

Video here

Interview with Black Dog Yoga

For the month of August, I have been Black Dog Yoga's "teacher of the month." If you aren't local, or haven't had a chance to come in and take a free class with me during this time, here is a short interview they did on me and some of my influences on teaching.


BDY: What first inspired you to start practicing yoga?
NS: For years after my first class, I used a visualization I'd learned to help keep my mind in check. This is really what drew me to classes in college. I began a dedicated practice and started to experience how that kind of focus works during movement - I fell in love with it.

BDY: What are the three most important things yoga contributes to your life?
NS: A community of curious and kind-hearted people; sustainable wellness management and resiliency.

BDY: What's the most valuable thing you hope to impart to your students?
NS: We are each incredibly powerful, and as such, can manifest big ideas. If we pair this with social responsibility and a flexible spirit, big dreams can be achieved - even within our lifetime.

BDY: What's your favorite pose?
NS: Recently I've been really enjoying trikonasa because it gets into the TFL and gives me a lot of information about how my body is recovering from two car accidents I was in earlier this year.

BDY:  Favorite musician/band?
NS: I have many...for now let's go with Tool, James Blake and Aesop Rock.

BDY: Tell us about your last vacation.
NS: I traveled around Israel for most of June and saw a lot of the country, including the major tourist sites. There were many highlights... I spent an afternoon dancing with a group of Holocaust survivors through a group called Cafe Europa - the people I met were the picture of resiliency, it was incredible. Also, hiking Mt. Masada at sunrise to a 2,000 year-old fortress that looked out over 360 degrees of sandy desert and then hiking 1,300 feet below sea level by mid-morning to float in the Dead Sea.

BDY: What would you like to say to Black Dog students to invite them to take your class?
NS: I'm amazed, pretty regularly, about being human and how we work. I do my best to instill this same kind of interest in my students as they experience new things and thoughts on the mat.

Process over Product

"Non-Goal Orientation" is a phrase a dear friend of mine began using around this time 3 years ago, and it speaks to the reality of "process."

In writing this, I begin to think of all the times I have heard others and myself say something out of comparison, or rejection of the current state of things. We reject our current mentality because we desire a different one. We reject our physical health because we desire something we have seen elsewhere. We reject our circumstances because we want what someone else has. We are constantly looking outside. It is a difficult balance, to remain intact with the environment, with others who inhabit it and also move from a place of solidity at the center of ourselves.

To be goal-oriented is effective and helpful under many circumstances, like meeting deadlines and creating new habits of behavior. However, in regard to something like spirituality [the experience of self-realization], the process is the goal.

Alert: yogic paradox!

To "be good" at yoga is not to eat "healthier," , it is not to be able to touch your toes. Yes, these are reliable effects of the practice, but they are not the goal. You can even have goals (or intentions) within your yoga practice, like, "Today I will notice my wrist alignment in every vinyasa I take." But, if your entire orientation is toward wrist alignment, many other effects of the practice will go unnoticed.

The word 'yoga' has been translated to mean"to yoke," as in, "to join together." It is a verb and thus an active process and it suggests that there are separations that come together as an effect of it.

Last week, I had the luxury of taking a class from a colleague and student of Bryan Kest, who is one of the most well-known yoga teachers in the USA. Kest was one of the first [known] American students of Pattabhi Jois, the father of Ashtanga Yoga, and studied with him in Mysore, India when he was just 21 years old. I am grateful to live in Los Angeles, this hub of the yogic mainstream. Kest says this about practicing yoga,

"...Not craving and clinging, but accepting who we are and where we are at, instead of rejecting where we are at in a constant pursuit to get somewhere. Most people bring their craving and clinging mentality into the yoga class, and then the practice is polluted. In yoga class and maybe in life, let the practice be, "I am not trying to get anywhere, I am trying to make it OK to be where I am at" because I love myself and value my process!!"

What will shift in your practice if you enter into it with a non-goal orientation? Can you replace this compulsion to "cling" with a curious mind, with an alert attention to process?

Cheers and happy practicing!

aMUSEing: Poetry for Israel

This poem was a reaction I had to the Children's Memorial at Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem. If you ever get the opportunity to visit this incredible museum, please do.

There are stories from this conflict that need to be heard. Survivors of the Holocaust who were 9 and 10 years old are reaching their 80's, and soon enough our children will not have them to hear these stories firsthand. Whether you were directly affected by the profound affects that WWII had on humanity, or have only ever heard stories, whether you are Jewish or not, there are stories within the walls of these memorials that will offer you something to reflect on.

Below is a poem entitled, "1.5 Million" and is a tribute to the 1.5 million children who were murdered during the mass enslavement under the Nazi Regime during WWII.

***

1.5 million children
reflected
entire bodies
the universe
tiny lights that
cripple the largest ideas
visceral yet untouched
remembered yet unseen.
one moment to conceive,
a lifetime to reflect
on a tiny body of light,
resting among millions
freckling the universal landscape
unheard,
unfelt,
reflecting a moment of life
bursting with energy among a blanket
of darkness