April 2011 Ashtanga Yoga Club Durham

our thursday early birds getting a mysore started: eliane, don, and ray (of today) reaching for the sun

 

David Garrigues is coming to yogaclub may 26 -30! 
5 mysore classes and a 3 hour workshop! Mysores will be limited to 10 people!
specifics coming soon!

CLASS SCHEDULE

Sunday Mysore 8:30-11AMcome any time, adjustments begin 9:15AM

Monday&Thursday Mysore 5-8 PMcome any time, adjustments begin 6

Wednesday Level 1 5:45-7:15 PMarrive on time, led class

Saturday Guided Primary 9-10:30 AMarrive on time, led class

afternoon sun at ashtanga yoga club durham
Classes Are By Donation

email questions to:
ashtangayogaclubdurham@gmail.com

Please do not let $ keep you from practicing at yoga club IOUs/chocolate/baked goods/ideas/crystals etc... gladly accepted

if possible...park in back on left side or along yogaclub side of porch in driveway
trying to keep off street parking for my neighbors

CLASS DESCRIPTION

Mysore: All levels welcome including complete beginners **

Level 1: Fundamentals of Ashtanga Yoga: suryanams & standing poses

Guided Primary Series:Instruction on postures will be limited. If you are not familiar with the entire series, you are welcome to attend and practice as is appropriate for you, and sit out to observe postures you are not comfortable with yet

New to Ashtanga? New to Durham? Visiting?

yoga related emergency?

call/text suzy’s cell 919-475-9579

thanks for checking out our cute little blog!

http://ashtangayogaclubdurham.blogspot.com/

ps **sunday afternoon late may!!  2 hour class will include:

Suzy & Nikos will  be co-teaching an introduction to ashtanga on a 

some talking &some yoga &maybe some snacks-

this class will be great for getting friends to try ashtanga and realize it is not too hard, too hot, too athletic or too anything! 

Our aim for this class is to get people feeling comfortable about coming  to a mysore class and knowing what to do. 

xo

Readmore »»

March Meditation Madness Fail

Maybe March wasn't the best month to set for my Meditation Challenge. Maybe it was the whole idea of challenge. Maybe it was being a little bit cocky from February success. Whatever the poor excuse, I did not meditate every day in March. I had set my goal at the measly amount of 5 minutes (at the least) every day. Five minutes, some days, was not possible.

Some days it genuinely wasn't possible. Either having a houseguest or being one (someone sleeping in my living room or sleeping in someone's living room), there were about four days when there literally wasn't a place I could be by myself (save the bathroom). What does a girl do then? Where does she go? What does she do? Here, I think the idea of yogic non-attachment comes in. I cannot have attachments, even to my meditation practice. Of course, these are often the days when you need meditation the most. Hence, the importance of sitting every other day it is physically possible.

Here the other tricky part comes in. The "physically possible" part. I got really sick this past week. Every part of my body wanted to be in bed, not sitting on a cushion on my floor, desperately trying to breathe in and out through my nose (double fail on that one). Do you meditate in bed? Do you sit when sick? What are the meditation breathing techniques for a nose more stuffed than an olive?

I'm just a newbie here in deep waters that I want to swim in. Looking for advice. Coping with "Fail." But... knowing there's always April?

How did you do on your March meditation?

Arm burning, core heating sequence

This isn't a whole practice. It's maybe 20-30 minutes that can be done after a warm up, and can be followed by more of a practice or just a cool down.

1. Tadasana (Mountain Pose)
2. Uttanasana (Forward Fold)
3. Jump or step back to Plank
4. In Plank, shift the weight one inch forward and one inch back. Do this without lifting and lowering the hips and by keeping the body in a straight line from the crown of the head to the heels of the feet. Continue for 5 long cycles of breath.
5. Chaturanga
6. Bhujangasana (Cobra Pose) or Urdhva Mukha Svanasana (Upward Facing Dog)
7. Lower back to floor
8. Push back up to Plank
9. Repeat step 4
10. Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward Facing Dog)
11. Uttanasana (Forward Fold)
12 Tadasana (Mountain Pose)

Repeat this entire sequence, but in step 4 and 9, only hold, shifting weight one inch forward and back, for 4 cycles of breathe. Keep repeating, lowering the amount of time in steps 4 and 9 until you flow through entire sequence. Your choice: stop once you count down, or pyramid and count right back up to 5 cycles of breath! Readmore »»

Guest Post: Travel Yoga Tips by Alexis Bonari

Travel Yoga Tips: How to Revamp Your Routine for the Road

Whether you’re traveling for business or pleasure, it’s easy to succumb to the stress of an unpredictable schedule and allow your yoga practice to be tossed out the airplane window. But these times of travel-induced disruption of balance and calm mean that you should be making your best effort to keep yoga in your routine. It’s difficult to keep your normal yoga practice in your schedule when you’re traveling, but there are plenty of ways to incorporate enough yoga to keep you going and ease you back into practice when you return from your trip. If you have travel plans for the near future, check out these tips to help you benefit from yoga on the go.

How to Pack Your Yoga

You probably don’t want to take your regular yoga mat along with you, but you can easily purchase a travel version that can be folded to fit into your luggage. These mats don’t take up much space and provide you with the tacky surface you need to prevent slipping. As for clothing, if you plan to do most of your yoga in your hotel room, you can just do it in your underwear. If not, pack quick-drying clothes that won’t stink up your whole suitcase if they get sweaty.

How to Stay Connected & Informed

Make use of apps, podcasts, and online videos for take-along yoga instruction. There are several free applications for Apple products, and free podcasts and videos can easily be found online. For example, try the Yoga Stretch app and Yoga Journal’s iPractice. These tools can help you stay on track and interested in yoga while you travel.

How to Stay Flexible on the Road

Try these poses and simple techniques while on an airplane or riding in a vehicle. By keeping yoga integrated in this relaxing and effective way, you’ll be better prepared to do a few more advanced poses when you’ve arrived at your destination.

• Standing forward bend – try this in the bathroom if you’re flying, or anywhere that allows you enough space to reach down and touch your toes. Just make sure that the seatbelt sign is off and that there’s no turbulence, or you could end up bumping your head. Focus on letting the weight of your head lengthen your spine.
• Twist stretches – sitting in your seat, put one hand on the outside of the opposite knee and twist toward that knee, looking over your shoulder and taking 5-10 deep breaths. Repeat on the other side, remembering to keep your chin parallel to the floor.
• Alternate nostril breathing – this technique can be used anywhere to relax your entire body. Fold the index and middle fingers of one hand in toward the palm, then use the thumb of the same hand to press against one nostril. Inhale through the other nostril and then block it with your ring finger, holding your breath. Release your thumb, exhaling through the first nostril. Repeat until you feel calm.

How to Relax & Detoxify for Yoga Practice

Before diving into poses from your regular routine, try a few of these to help expel the toxins that build up during travel.

• Cat stretch – on all fours, alternately arch your back with your head down as you exhale, then invert the pose by lifting your head and relaxing your spine into a concave posture as you inhale. Repeat until you feel the tension releasing from your muscles.
• Cleansing breath – sit with your legs crossed and the backs of your hands resting on your knees, thumbs touching index fingers. Quickly contract your abdomen to expel all of the air in your lungs out through your nose. Now, relax the abdominal muscles and allow your lungs to fill with air of their own accord. Repeat this technique ten times.
• Spine stretch – lie on your back with your legs resting against a wall at an angle between 45 and 90 degrees. Stay in this position and observe your breath.
• Now you’re ready to do a few poses from your routine and finish as usual with the exceptionally relaxing Savasana pose.   

Bio: Alexis Bonari is currently a resident blogger at College Scholarships, where recently she's been researching athletic scholarship programs as well as scholarships for mechanics. Whenever this WAHM gets some free time she enjoys doing yoga, cooking with the freshest organic in-season fare, and practicing the art of coupon clipping.

Photo: Travel Yoga Mat, Amazon
URL: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41YGBD37THL._SL500_AA300_.jpg Readmore »»

Blah-blah-blah

The amount of silence on this blog has been inversely proportional to the amount of talking going on in my classes these days. It seems like everybody knows everyone else in the room and they got something to say. Something that they are really excited about. Every class either starts with me shouting to room to order like a school teacher ("We are starting now!") or looking at the clock and realizing that I, too, have been blabbing way past the class start time ("I am apologizing now!").

Spring has sprung in the vocal cords. Everyone is just really excited... about everything.

It's been interesting to try and work with all of the energy in the room. To direct it and find centering on the mat. Keep the energy going, but in a focused, sustainable way. I find that pranayama (breath work) helps. Twists are nice because the detox/melt going on outside can mimic the inner detox/melt. I did a class today preparing the body for Revolved Triangle and then holding that pose. Strong, stable, and good for the kidneys. Here is what I can remember of it:

1. Beginning with 5 of core work to raise heat in body
2. Gentle twists
3. Roll up to table
4. Knee down lunge, straightening and bending front leg. Repeat other side.
5. Table top position
6. Downward Dog
7. 6-12 Sun Salutations
8. High Lunge, straighten and bending front leg
9. Vinyasa, to repeat on other side
10. High lunge, right foot forward, taking left hand to block on inside of right foot for gentle twist
11. High lunge
12. Vinyasa, to repeat on other side
13. Warrior 2
14. Triangle
15. Vinyasa, to repeat on other side
16. Low lunge, hand in prayer position for deeper twist. Lift back knee if it feels ready.
17. Vinyasa, to repeat on other side
18. Warrior 1
19. Straighten front leg
20. Revolved triangle.... Peak pose!
21. Warrior 1
22. Vinyasa, to repeat on other side
23. Reclined Pigeon, repeat on other side
24. Restorative bridge (using block)
25. Gentle twists
26. Savasana

Readmore »»

Meditation break through

First and foremost, my most sincere gratitude to all who commented and signed on to meditate with me. It's been a few busy, late nights recently and I have been really, really tempted not to sit. But you all are out there too, being challenged with me. That helps. Also...seriously, I didn't even make the challenge last the full month, so I have no excuses to not meditate for 5 minutes.

Last night I had a lovely meditation break-through that I feel like I've been building up to all week. In my classes this week, I have led savasana differently than usual. I encourage students to pause before moving again. To spend a long time just thinking about moving their fingers or toes. To just think and not to move. And then to play around with that strange, invisible line between thought and movement. "I will move my finger" does not a finger move. What flips that switch? What allows that change between "I will move my finger" and the actual movement of the finger? During the classes this week, I've had the students spend a long time between each transition from savasana to seated position (sukhasana). Just thinking about what it means to think about movement versus actually moving.

In  my meditation this week, I found myself "thinking" about breath a lot. Thinking: "Breathing out, I am breathing out; Breathing in, I am breathing in." This is a meditation technique talked about in Thich Nhat Hanh's "Breathe! You are Alive." Yesterday, however, I began to think about how my thoughts about breathing, and directing my breath much like I would lead a yoga class, could directly tie into the idea of thinking about moving something having very little relation to the actual movement of the body. I can think "I am breathing deeply" but still breathe a shallow breath; the thought is not a command followed by the body. The thinking mind that thinks about directing the body or breath is separate from the unthinking mind which directs the central nervous system to movement. For example, right now there is no part of my "thinking" mind that is directing my fingers where to go as I type. But they go there anyway.

Yesterday, in meditation, I tried to tap into the part of the mind that does  tell the central nervous system to move the body. No words going through my head, no directives. Tell my body "Breathing out, I am breathing out; Breathing in, I am breathing in" but without words. Getting all of the words out of my head during my practice, even the ones that are related to breath. Even touching the edge of that vast part of my consciousness felt like my experience of the world could expand right there with it.

Oh, boy, I ain't there today. But there's tomorrow. And the next day. And... you're there with me, right? Readmore »»

March Meditation Madness

In February, I wrote about my goals to meditate every night for the remainder of that month.Overall, I exclaim-- success! I so feared the placement of the unhappy face on the calendar, that only one night did I sort of fudge it. I didn't put an unhappy face after meditating for maybe a total of 3-5 minutes... I put a straight line for the mouth. Sort of like Kermit the Frog.

I made a routine out of it: before I went to bed every night, I lit a candle, plopped on my meditation cushion, and sat. I tried different techniques I had heard about over the years and will continue to experiment. There are some lessons already. For one, sitting too close to bedtime doesn't really work. I find my thoughts, when they creep in, tending towards the wacky dream-state variety. Incoherent. Sleepy. Another is that my bedroom sits underneath my neighbors living room, and her television comes through the floor. Hard to meditate when she tends towards an enjoyment of comedy shows, and enjoys them vocally (no hard knocks on her, I love me some 30 Rock). This had led to me to think that while routine is very, very important for someone like me and a discipline like this, maybe I should program it in at the beginning of the day (not sleepy, no tv). It wouldn't work for every single day of the week, but would for most.

But... I know what would help the most. Having a support network to do it with me! Yogis and yoginis who go to yoga studios are probably familiar with yoga "challenges" in which many sign up for a practice challenge together, in hopes that community support will help them stick to it. As with February, I didn't get my act together in time to send this out earlier, but I would love a lil' meditation love for the remainder of March. So, here, on the Joy of Yoga, I'm laying down a March Meditation Madness Challenge!

Always been meaning to deepen or start your meditation practice? Need a swift kick in the ass from the internet community that loves you? Leave me a note here! I'll keep updating about how my practice is going, and you, comment-section style, do the same. I'm going to stand by my meditation calendar (if it works, don't fix it) and step it up a notch. Who stands with me? Who will meditation at least 5 minutes, every day, for the rest of March?

It will change your life!

Good luck sitters! Readmore »»