This is the only case where 20 must be greater than 120. I mean 20 minutes of yoga everyday is way better than 2 hours of yoga once a week. Keeping 20 minutes aside to move the joints of the hips, knees, shoulders, ankles, spine makes a big difference for me. Until a year back, I would always go for intensity and the sweat. Now I realize I cannot keep 2 hours aside if I work full time and have  a meaningful yoga practice. Sometimes, I cannot even take one hour for yoga, either it is a goof up with the alarm clock or the day is really tight. I have noticed that I can always find 20 minutes.

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So many poses in the Aṣtanga primary series, so little time to do. So, I practice my own Aṣtanga inspired home practice. I move the headstand before shoulder stand sequence and change a few others. At KYM, I was taught that shoulder stand is the counter pose for headstand and I understand how it works on the neck. I do mellow vinyasas with knees on floor as the practice goes beyond an hour. I cannot do too many chaturangas. Of course, PJ (Pattabhi Jois) wouldn’t approve if he saw me doing this sequence. But, I don’t approve of him either, having changed all the important Sanskrit yoga terminology. So, it is ok.

Now that my knee is slightly better, I try to practice Aṣtanga in the weekends. It takes more than 2 hours to get this done. How can anyone manage doing all this, every single day?

Ever since I got on the minimalist bandwagon, I have stopped buying things. It does not interest me anymore to be heavy, which I learnt as part of my vagabonding. To be lugging too much around saps energy off of me. I do not even own a full time mattress. My room is quite empty, with a few books, some clothes and a few yoga mats. I do a Walden every morning.  Walden must be any minimalist’s best friend. I remove the futon mattress out of my room every morning and move it to the futon in the living room. Then the bed room transforms into an empty space where I can “do” yoga.  It is finally spring  in RainCouver (that does not mean that the rain has gone away!) and every one talks about spring cleaning. While everyone does some cleaning in the  spring, I pretty much do it every day. I hardly own anything and it is such a relief to be so light throughout the year. I am lovin’ it!

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I am not sure what it is. Is it my vagabonding through India to study Yoga or is it Vancouver or is it my injured knee? Western “vinyasa” does not make sense at all to my body. This is the style I have practiced for so many years until I went to India. My teachers at my teacher training in San Francisco were primarily trained in this style, for they were direct disciples of the California Yoga queen Shiva Rea. I used to enjoy this style a lot. Not anymore. I am trying to figure out what happened.

I was at a “vinyasa” class last week. Music was Jazz. Sade and others were taking turns to provide the vocals.  The instructor told us to press on the golden egg between the root chakra and the genitals. Some more chakra talk continued. My golden rule of thumb had always been to avoid a class where the teacher talks about chakras. I normally draw the line at bandhas. Most instructors understand bandhas. Chakra talk is so DC (Deepak Chopra) and is what I classify as saccharine sweet. It is mostly mumbo jumbo to me. I understand chakras in the real yogic sense, but not in a yoga class where the instructor is trying to sound cool.

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I am not fond of using music for my yoga practice. I enjoy yoga without music, for I can hear myself better, feel the joints open up and feel the flexibility increase as the class progresses. I think yoga is all about going independent of all dependencies. It is about getting rid of all the layers, not about adding things. I think it is okay to use music in a public class, as everyone is at a different stage of evolution. And for many, it is just a workout.

Using music is alright, if the music used is good. I am aware of the reggae, rock, trance and all the variations.  In San Francisco, the music choice was quite decent. Even though the Sanskrit was butchered in all the new age lounge music, it still had a rhythm. Om Man-ee pad-meh hooooom. During my teacher training in San Francisco, I was even taught how important music is and how it must be used to build a tempo. Personally, I do not want to use music as it is a distraction to go to Apple music and buy the songs. It costs extra and it is unnecessary nuisance. If I do use music in my class, I make sure it is interesting.

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I found this book in a google search and got it from my local library. The book by Jim Johnson is really small and has some good advice. The exercises prescribed to cure less-than-perfect knee joint are simple and precise. There are many reasons why a knee starts to hurt. Short muscles in the leg, lower hip flexibility, weak quads, arthritis and many more besides the hockey injuries, falls, road accidents or tears in the various ligaments of the knee.

One of the interesting points is that either weak quads lead to poor knees or that the poor knees lead to weak quads. The author says, no matter what is causing the other one to perform badly, the solution is simple. Start strengthening the quads which eventually improves the knees. Most of the time, an injury or an issue with the knee starts to waste or weaken the quads.

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This must be the first time in many years that I have not seen my yoga mat for almost 3 weeks. My new cotton yoga mats are all packed way inside my suitcases. The suitcases  are in storage! And, I feel like a giant piece of frozen wood. Cannot feel my spine or my neck.  Even though I know being dependent on anything is bad, I miss my asana practice.

I am in a new country, new space. I usually like to get atleast a few surya namaskars. But, no. There is absolutely no space at the hostel that I am staying at. This being Canada, there are no rooftops. I guess snow makes it harder to have flat rooftoops. And, I do not want to go to a public class. Besides being a cheapskate, I am in no mood to shell out $$ to listen to someone saying all the unwanted sugar coated chakra bliss talk nor am I ready for a power sweaty class. I want to get back to my own practice. But, that will have to wait for now. Without my yoga practice, I almost forget to breathe. Time to get started on my pranayama practice. No reason that cannot be done for lack of space.

I was quite surprised to find that my Bhujangasana has improved so much, all of a sudden. I was not even working on it. Then I figured out it is a side effect. I have been practicing a lot of upward facing dog in the Surya namaskar. So it made me wonder if I need to practice both. Can I avoid the somewhat boring Cobra?

One of my teachers had mentioned that upward facing dog was like Golden Gate bridge.  You balance only with your hands and the tops of the feet. The rest of your body is suspended between this strong support of the hands and the feet. What a great visual! This image stuck with me forever, for there are not too many things more beautiful than GG bridge.

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In the west, Surya namaskars are generally associated with building heat and sweat. If you want a sweaty class, just add in some Surya namaskars at the beginning, is what I was told. This probably was one of the reasons that I did not like Surya namaskars apart from the fact I could not do a Chaturanga before. I used to think, if I need to sweat, I could easily run up and down the hills of SF. This was quite unsettling as I always felt there was more to this.

Then I ended up at KYM, where one can find the real explanation to all things Yoga. One of my teachers at KYM mentioned that Surya namaskar is a complete exercise. (more…)

When I decided to take a break from work, I thought that I could do Yoga 24×7, buzzing with om all the time. I have definitely studied a lot of yogic texts and have improved my home practice significantly. When I was working full time and living in SF, I would attend a yoga class almost everyday. I was quite regular even when I was working. I would so look forward to finish my work and get to the mat.

Now that I am not working, I have all the time at my disposal. I am not sure if that  is  such a good thing. Having so much free unstructured time does not mean that I am ‘doing’ more yoga. I think I am doing just as much when I was working full time.

Sometimes, when I get on the mat in the mornings, I get this feeling that I should read Sri Krishnamcharya’s books for the thousandth time to see how his practice was in Tibet. I need to figure out the specifics of a Kalari pose, was it 75 degrees or 90 degrees between the spine and the legs? Or how can I get the special powers as described by Patañjali. I think I should learn to levitate. (more…)