Krishnamacharya in 1938 with Yoga Sutras

Understanding Your Practice

I just went to my first Yin Yoga class today. I was recommended by a yoga therapist/ chiropractor to substitute one Ashtanga class(being very yang) a week with one yin class. I´ve been seeking information about what Yin Yoga is, and what I ´ve found sounds really interesting. Mainly I´ve read the information on yinyoga.com, and I´ve also watched som vidoes with Paul Grilley on you tube. In this moment, I am listening to an interview with Sarah Powers, also a yin yoga teacher, and she quoted the Upanishads, and I felt that I wanted to share these words with anyone who is possibly reading my blog. These are really interesting words:

-Understanding without practice, is better than practice without understanding.
-Understanding with practice, is better than understanding without practice.
-Resting in your authentic nature, is better than any understanding or practice.

Another Injury...What´s Happening!?

First, six weeks rehabilitation from broken ribs, then one week of a bad cold missing the workshop with Dena, and now...a sprained knee! Yipee! Yoga bliss was short. Sunday´s and today´s practices were great. I felt strong and flexible and energetic and soo happy to be able to practice fully again. And then, at the end of the practice, while getting into supta virasana, my right knee pops.

I don´t know what happened. I do that pose every day. I was really warmed up. Maybe I got into the pose too quickly. Maybe my knee was a bit misaligned. Maybe there is no use in asking why.

On the way back from work today I was litening to a pod cast with one of my favorite Buddhist teachers, Gil Fonsdale. The talk is called "Working With Difficulties". It was just the right talk for me right now! He suggested that how you look at difficulties can change the way you perceive them. Difficulties, or obstacles, is the path, the dharma. Being open and aware, accepting them and seeing what you can learn from them instead of seeing them as problems, can profoundly change the way you experience them. Then they become openings to growth instead of walls you walk into.

I so do want to have an injury free, pain free, full practice. But, I probably have something more to learn!

Things Are Never Perfect

After 6 weeks with broken ribs, and one week of a bad cold during Dena Kingsburgs workshop, I am, hopefully, back on track. This mornings practice went really well. Well, if I disregard the fact that my right wrist has started hurting when I do up- and down dog and jump throughs. When I told my teacher and said that there always seems to be something in the way of a full, energetic pain free practice, she said: "welcome to the club". I guess that´s the thing. Things will never be perfect. That´s why you have to enjoy and appreciate every moment as it is, because it will never be perfect. And when it does feel perfect, enjoy, because tommorrow it might not be.

Top Performance With Vegan Diet

Well, I guess I was not ment to fullfill Denas workshop. I am home with a bad cold, trying not to be bitter, grr. I was really looking forward to the workshop, and I paid a lot of money for it too! Ok, there it is said, so now I can move on...

Taking the time to surf a bit about one of my favorite topics besides yoga: health and nutrition. One of my concerns this year has been with topping my energy levels. I came across athlete and vegan Brendan Brazier, who has written a few books on the subject, and has some really informative videos on his website.

http://www.brendanbrazier.com/vega/index.html

It didn´t work to embed, so you have to visit the website.

Workshop With Dena Kingsberg

Today was the first day of a week long workshop with Dena Kingsberg at my shala in Stockholm. She has two classes of 2,5 hours every morning, and I am going to the earlier one. I was a bit worried about getting up at 5 am, but this morning it went fine. We´ll see during the week how it feels. I start working tommorrow, so it might get a bit tougher then. Also, today my throat is feeling really soar, so we will see what happens. Bloody unlucky to get sich when somehting like this is happening. But, this whole year seems to be about realizing that nothing ever turns out the way you predict and hope for.

Anyways, it was a great class. She held a led class, focusing on elongating the spine. Before getting into any pose, it is important to first elongate the spine (using the badhas to help), then twist or bend or fold. If not, the vertebraes can be compressed, and that might cause probelms in the long run. The arms and legs are used as a tool to help the body understand to suck in the belly and elongate the spine. Even withou arms and legs she said, we can still do yoga. Everything important is in the torso.

She said one nice thing(well several, but here is one): there is no use in trying to impress people with trying to reach further that you can. The people that are worth impressing are not impressed, and the people not worth impressing don´t understand, and therefore there is no use in impressing them either!

The idea of the practice is to remove obstacles; physical obstacles in the body, obstacles in the nadis that inhibit the flow of prana and mental obstacles that inhibit you to see things as they really are.