How to Roll A Yoga Mat…and Survive!
I stared at this picture for a while before I realized I’ve been rolling up my yoga mat wrong all these years…glad I survived! I mean this is just one more shred of evidence proving how harmful yoga really can be.
Fabulous artwork courtesy of Alison Hinks, creative yogi extraordinaire!
Leslie Kaminoff Shares His Two Cents on Whether Yoga Will Wreck Your Body
Here’s the cover of the soon to be released book whose author recently set the yoga community’s tail on fire with his New York Time’s article, ”How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body.”
While I’ll reserve my response until I read the book, I thought I’d share Leslie Kaminoff’s video response to the article:
Leslie Kaminoff is the author of Yoga Anatomy, 2nd Edition.
To Be More Mindful, Try Emptying the Mind
Shunryu Suzuki in Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind:
When you study Buddhism you should have a general house cleaning of your mind.
Despite a few classes in college on Buddhism, I am by no means an expert on Zen philosophy. Inspired by the minimalist tradition, however, I occasionally have Zen-like moments and find myself thinking about meditation or cleaning off one of my many desks in hopes of discovering some sort of nirvanic bliss by the very act of hiding junk in drawers. In a world crammed full of stuff and distracting gadgets, I imagine you, like me, understand the challenge of finding a little ‘space’ or emptiness in our minds or in our surroundings.
Perhaps you may find some inspiration from the following excerpt found in an article on Steve Jobs in which the author fuses the Japanese Zen concept of Ma with Steve Jobs’s minimalist design philosophy:
Apple products are as defined by what they’re missing as much as by what they contain.
Jobs’s immersion in Zen and passion for design almost certainly exposed him to the concept of ma, a central pillar of traditional Japanese aesthetics.
Like many idioms relating to the intimate aspects of how a culture sees the world, it’s nearly impossible to accurately explain — it’s variously translated as “void,” “space” or “interval” — but it essentially describes how emptiness interacts with form, and how absence shapes substance. If someone were to ask you what makes a ring a meaningful object — the circle of metal it consists of, or the emptiness that that metal encompasses? — and you were to respond “both,” you’ve gotten as close to ma as the clumsy instrument of English allows.
Much like the art of Zen Buddhist circles (ensō), sometimes it’s the missing elements that matter most. Too many branches and we can’t see the forest. Whether it’s your mind or your physical surroundings, each of us would do well to follow Shunryu Suzuki’s advice to undertake a general house cleaning and determine what should stay and what can go.
You must take everything out of your room and clean it thoroughly. If it is necessary, you may bring everything back in again. You may want many things, so one by one you can bring them back. But if they are not necessary, there is no need to keep them.
Manduka Introduces the John Friend Collection
My favorite yoga gear company, Manduka, recently partnered with yoga teacher and founder of Anusara Yoga, John Friend, to create its first ever-cobranded line of yoga gear. Since I think this is a great step forward in providing high-quality, innovative yoga gear, I wanted to share a few highlights from the recent press release to give you a flavor of this new collection:
Going outside the 24″ industry standard width for yoga mats, the John Friend Collection by Manduka will launch initially with two extra wide mats including the 29-inch wide eKO Superlite and 30-inch wide PROlite. This is the first time the yoga community will have access to such a high quality blend of innovative technology and the veteran experience of John Friend in a mat, providing superior comfort and sufficient space to align the body and explore yoga postures. The added space allows for a deeper expression of movement and a better connection between body, mat and heart.
“Our partnership with renowned yoga teacher John Friend allows us to provide the most innovative and ecologically responsible yoga gear in a new way ,” said Sky Meltzer, CEO of Manduka. “Together we’ve aligned to create a collection that pushes industry standards, pouring over four decades of expertise into designs that will inspire yoga practitioners worldwide.”
“For years I’ve been committed to the teaching that yoga comes from the heart—that it is a practice accessible to all and brings out your inner joy and divine energy,” said John Friend, Founder of Anusara yoga. “Manduka is a company that embodies the same principles while providing high quality products to enhance your practice. I am honored to collaborate with such an authentic company to bring an amazing new line of gear to the yoga community, deepening the connection between heart and mat, and inspiring students of any level to enjoy more energetic freedom during their practice.”
Learning to Sit Alone
‘All men’s miseries derive from not being able to sit in a quiet room alone.’
~Blaise Pascal
Think about some of the problems of our daily lives, and how many of them would be eased if we could learn to sit alone, in a quiet empty room, with contentment.
If you’re content to sit alone quietly, you don’t need to eat junk food, to shop on impulse, to buy the latest gadget, to be on social media to see what everyone else is talking about or doing, to compare yourself to others, to make more money to keep up with the Joneses, to achieve glory or power, to conquer other lands or wage war, to be rude or violent to others, to be selfish or greedy, to be constantly busy or productive.
You are content, and need nothing else. It solves a lot of problems.
Can you sit alone in an empty room? Can you enjoy the joy of quiet?
Most of us have trouble sitting alone, quietly, doing nothing. We have the need to do something, to check our inboxes and social media, to be productive. Sitting still can be difficult if you haven’t cultivated the habit.
Learning to sit, even for a few minutes, is instructive. We learn to listen to our thoughts, to be aware of our urges to do something else, to plan and set goals. We learn to watch ourselves, but to just sit still and not act on those urges. We learn to be content with stillness.
We learn to savor the quiet. It’s something most of us don’t have, quiet, and it takes some getting used to. When we’re driving our cars or out exercising or eating or working or even practicing yoga, we have music playing or we talk with people or we have the television on. Quiet can be amazing, though, because it helps us calm down, contemplate, slow down to savor the emptiness.
Being alone is another pleasure we too often neglect. When we are alone, we go on the Internet or TV to see what else is going on, what others are doing or saying, instead of just being alone. This isolation is a necessary thing, that allows us to find ourselves, to learn to be content with little instead of always wanting more.
Can you practice being alone, being still, being quiet? Just a little at first, then perhaps a bit more. Listen, watch, learn about yourself. Find contentment. Need nothing more.
‘It has often occurred to me that a seeker after truth has to be silent.’
~Mahatma Gandhi
*******
Editor’s note: This post is adapted from the inspiring content on Zen Habits.
Airplane Yoga for Holiday Travelers
Traveling during the upcoming holidays has its plusses and minuses. You know it will be great to see family and friends, but the enhanced airport security measures stress you out. Then there’s sitting in a safety-oriented airplane seat that was not built for comfort. With a few planning tips and yoga poses to do at the boarding gate and on the plane you can arrive feeling rejuvenated and refreshed.
Whether you’re going home for the holidays or are jetting off to a yoga retreat destination, here are some tips to reduce the stress of flying.
Travel guru, Michael Huffman, was a road warrior for 20+ years in corporate America as a compliance manager. According to this veteran traveler, flying doesn’t have to be stressful. Some of the stress-reducing tactics he’s developed include planning tips, ways to relax en-route to the airport, essential things for your carry-on bag and yoga poses to do at the boarding gate.
These ‘Strategies for Zen-like Air Travel’ include some suggestions to make the visit home or to your destination yoga retreat more relaxing and pleasant:
- Planning 24 Hours Ahead of the flight
- Clean a stainless steel water bottle & let it air-dry overnight
- Put a drop of lavender essential oil on a blindfold - Packing List Essentials for the Carry-On Bag:
- Ear plugs to reduce body fatigue from engine noise on board
- A sweater or fleece you can roll up and use as lumbar support or stay warm if the air-conditioning on board is too much for you - On the Way out the Door & En-Route to the Airport:
- Wear slip-on shoes and empty all pockets of cell phones, keys and coins prior to arriving to speed through security
- Take a few inhales and exhales en-route to the airport; Inhale 1-2-3-4, Exhale 4-3-2-1 - Boarding Gate Yoga (find a place away from any TV screens):
- Sitting in a Chair: Easy forward bend and elbow circles
- Sitting on the Floor: Badha Konasa and Virasana Twists
In addition to these ‘Strategies for Zen-like Air Travel,’ Michael developed 24 sitting and standing poses that can be done on the plane in his Traveller Yoga Series: AIRPLANE YOGA. Each yoga pose includes an illustration and a text description of how to enter the pose.
Here are illustrations for some of the AIRPLANE YOGA poses: Wrist Opener, Palm Pushes and Standing Twist:
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The iPhone App and iBook ‘enhanced’ versions include an audio recording of Michael guiding you through each pose as well as a video clip for 13 of the poses. He offers a free PDF with these three poses and a the full Table of Contents any yogi or yogini can appreciate…http://thezenguy.com/store/airplane-yoga/
[About Michael: Michael is both a Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT200) and a Certified Public Accountant (CPA). He spent 20+ years in ‘Corporate America’ as a road warrior and now designs practical yoga instructions like AIRPLANE YOGA and YOGA FOR OFFICE PROFESSIONALS available as iPhone apps and downloadable books on Apple, Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Additionally, he maintains a travel blog about his current travels as well as vignettes from his upcoming book Memoirs of a Road Warrior; his stories will make you laugh, cry and everything in between. Sign up here…http://thezenguy.com/stories/.]
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