Charleston Yogi

Recently, I received a complaint from a student about the music choice I had chosen for savasana. I had never received a complaint before about my playlists, but this one had said it was not yogic. The song, granted, could be seen as offensive (which I warned the class prior to playing it) but the message was positive and needed, in my opinion, to be shared with the class. The songs I play in my classes are not the soft music with Tibetan bowls or anything played by Krishna Das. My music is typically music I like and associate with. Currently this is a lot of indie rock and a lot of these songs are loud and fast. Occasionally I will throw in some hip hop or a playlist dedicated to 90’s alternative music. But the idea that a song is not yogic to me is ludicrous. Its not the music, the beat or the meaning that is important. Its the focus one has toward the music.

This brought up an interesting topic that is usually overlooked in our practice. That is music’s place in yoga classes. Traditionalists could say that there shouldn’t be any music. Contemporaries could say use it as it adds to the flow of the class. When I started out teaching, I believed in the former and that music deserved no place. Yoga needed a place to be sacred and nature is the most sacred sound. Today though, I see it completely different. Music should be used as it enhances our practice and actually challenges us further.

Yoga has the ability to allow our minds to focus. This actually is a much harder task than even the hardest of poses or sequences. Think of your mind as a muscle and focusing on one object for a certain time requires constant practice. This exercise is often in combat with our monkey mind and any thoughts that pop up to interrupt our practice. An hour yoga class becomes rather difficult to focus the entire time but constant effort and practice allow this focus to sharpen itself.

There are two ways to focus during a class. The first is to focus on one thing. This could be an intention, your breath or your movement in your poses. The idea is to never leave your mat and allow all other distractions to not even be a concern. The second way to focus is to accept and welcome the entire environment around you and allow yourself to move freely through it. It may seem like a farce to say to focus on your environment, but allowing yourself to use all five senses to equally take in everything and be amazed by your surroundings is a way to shift your attention to the present. All distractions than are natural and cease to become distractions. Focus itself than is either attention on one thing or all things.

Music itself than becomes a way to hone your focus. Whichever focus is chosen, music can play a part. If the chosen focus is to concentrate on one point, music is a challenge to not focus on it. Think of meditating. Meditating is great when it is completely silent but a struggle when there are tons of outside noises that can distract. Is life silent? Does the world stop making noises when you want to sit? The answers are no. Meditation and focus require a challenge of sorts to keep us strong in what we want to focus on. Music than becomes a challenge to maintain we keep our focus, so that it may make us stronger in our practice. On the other hand if the focus is drawn to the equality of five senses and the present, music becomes part of our environment. When this occurs, the beat gets into our head and the music takes us. We become a part of the song and it lifts us to whatever feeling it is giving us, whether it is slow or fast.

Usually, I offer a choice of songs for savasana. I ask the class “Happy or beautiful?” These refer to two songs I absolutely love and fit perfectly for final relaxation. They are Sigur Ros’ Festival and Ara Batur. These songs emit the wonderful feelings for finishing a great class. It was these two songs that made me want to use music the way I do and without apology. Songs can lift us, move us and put us in places we are uncomfortable with. It seems like yoga and music are similar in that fashion. Why wouldn’t they be shared together?

Harry Dinwiddie will be exploring mixing music, yoga and art as he will be teaching a new class at Eye Level Art at 103 Spring St. Tuesday nights at 6:30 starting Feb 16.

By Jack Bleeker

The 21^st Century has brought with it tremendous strides in cancer survival and the efficacy of therapies. Among the more important aspects of this progress is the implementation of integrative oncology as an effective model for cancer treatment. Integrative oncology emphasizes not only the use of traditional cancer treatments, such as surgery, chemotherapy, and surgery, but also complementary, non-curative therapies designed to ease the process of cancer treatment for the patient. These therapies can range from acupuncture to meditation, but have proven more often than not to be effective in assisting patients through the discomforts commonly associated with traditional cancer treatment. One therapy being incorporated into cancer care in recent years is Yoga.

The primary goals of integrative oncology are to achieve effective cancer treatment while maintaining patient comfort and relief of stress. Just as Yoga has been used for hundreds of years as an effective stress release mechanism for many people, so too is it now being utilized by cancer patients.

While further research is ongoing, preliminary studies examining the effects of Yoga among cancer patients and survivors support the efficacy of Yoga within cancer treatment regimens, including the combating of symptoms caused by chemotherapy drugs. Yoga has shown to dramatically reduce sleeplessness, cancer-related distress, nausea, and excessive fatigue.

Some aggressive cancers are difficult to treat with curative therapies. Many patients of malignancies such as peritoneal mesothelioma, choose to incorporate alternative therapies such as Yoga, not to supplant traditional therapies, but to improve quality of life and reduce anxiety associated with terminal disease. Therapies which can reduce stress levels and alleviate symptoms associated with aggressive chemotherapy cocktails and radiation treatments can be extremely beneficial not only to patients but also to family members and loved ones of patients.

This is not to say however, that Yoga and other alternative therapies are appropriate for all patients. Patients suffering with mesothelioma, should speak with their oncologist and other doctors to ensure that they are in good enough health to pursue any therapy which could induce mild stress on the body. However, support for Yoga and other well-being-based therapies is growing among the oncology establishment and many cancer centers are introducing sessions designed for patients and family members.  If the ultimate goals of complementary cancer care are to introduce therapies which improve comfort levels and reduce stress experienced by patients and loved ones, Yoga will be at the forefront of integrative oncology now and in the future.

Reference

Bower, Julienne E., Woolery, Alison, Sternlieb, Beth, and Garet, Deborah. “Yoga for Cancer Patients and Survivors.” Cancer Control 12 (2005): 165-71

I was walking out of a Boot Camp class that I teach when I overheard one of our members speaking to another saying they could never do “that kind of workout”.  It made me pause and ask why.  One woman was in her mid to late 30’s.  The other member was in her early to mid 50’s. They both seem to describe themselves the same.   “I eat pretty well and I exercise on a regular basis but I just don’t see the results.” Now, keep in mind that I manage a relatively small club and know most of my members/clients.  I can’t speak to these two ladies’ diets but I do see them workout.  Yes, they may be at the facility two to five times a week, but their intensity is a 4 or 5 out of 10.

 
In order to elicit a change in your body you must push your limits. Intensity can be defined as great energy, strength, concentration, violence, forcefulness, or passion, as an activity, thought, or feeling.  I often hear, “I walk my dog every day…” but how many people walk with any kind of purpose, passion, or intensity? Have you ever  performed an exercise half way through range of motion? Or “sorta”  completed a yoga pose?  And do you break a sweat?  Or get out of breath?   These are signs in which you are working hard. There are plenty of ways to increase your intensity–which will help you want to workout or improve your current regimen.  Here are just a few:

·         Try listening to music that gets you going

·         Take a group fitness class or workout with friends or a significant other

·         Set a specific goal that you want to work towards.  (i.e. Run your first 5K.  Fit into a certain size dress. Compete in a sporting event.)

·         Workout with Bo Knows Fitness owner, Bo Taylor! 

In order to get a “10” body, you need to put in a “10” effort to your workout and nutrition.  Take time to analyze your workout(s) or lack thereof, and ask yourself if you are working out intently.

 
Bo Taylor, M.Ed, is the Fitness & Aquatics Manager at the Daniel Island Club & owner of Bo Knows Fitness.

Bo can be reached at 843.478.8888, or check out www.boknowsfitness.com.

I’ve subbed quite a few classes over the years and have been quite surprised when the students were asked what yoga was.  They answered “Postures; a way to relax; a snack made from fermented milk and bacteria cultures?”  It’s difficult sometimes to determine the true purpose of doing something.  “I’m working at _____________to get money for rent, kids, to make the world a better place, to get out of the house, etc”.

There are many reasons for doing something.  The practices of yoga, however, spells it out for us: yoga=union.  śrī Brahmananda Saraswati defines yoga as “The state of missing nothing.”  Once we unite things we are no longer able to tell them apart.  Through the consistent application of the principles of yoga, we will find that happiness and peace extend beyond our daily yoga class, perhaps beyond the gross physical into the subtle energetic, emotional, and mental.  So if that is your purpose for practicing yoga, read on.

We may practice asana.  Asana purifies karma: past actions.  The process then requires us not to create the same karma we purged ourselves of.  Otherwise, it is like going to the gym and burning 500 calories, then immediately eating a snack which contains 500 calories.  We don’t get anywhere.  We want to purify more karma than we create, or at least create less harmful karma. ie: by eating vegetables instead of other sentient beings.  How can we expect to reach a state of union, eternal bliss, when we deprive others of happiness by seeing them as ours to eat?  It’s no coincidence that yoga practitioners who adopt a vegetarian diet are more flexible than meat eaters.

śrī K. Pattabhi Jois, the aṣṭāṇga yoga guru, when questioned on the subject of meat eating and yoga:
Questioner: “Some yoga teachers say that a vegetarian diet is not necessary.”
Guruji: (laughing) “Oh… a new method!”
Q: “Many Indians and Westerners eat meat.”
Guruji: ”They are not practicing yoga.  Meat eating makes you stiff.”
Q: “What is the most important Yogic practice in this time?”
Guruji:  “Vegetarian diet is the most important practice for Yoga.”

महर्षि पतञ्जलि योग सूत्र ।१।
अहिंसा प्रतिष्ठायां तत् संनिधौ वैर त्यागः॥३५॥
Maharṣi Patañjali Yoga Sūtra |1|
ahiṁsā pratiṣṭhāyāṁ tat saṁnidhau vaira tyāgaḥ ||35||
When in the presence of one firmly established in non violence, all hostilities cease.

If we have not yet reached the goal of yoga and still perceive others, the Yama are guidelines as to how we must treat them to maintain the serenity of our minds.  Master Patañjali gives the first limb of the eight limbed path of Yoga as Yama: that which we do to others.  Ahimsa, or non-harming, is the first practice of the first limb.

All our yoga practices must, if we still believe in the goal of yoga, be based upon a solid scriptural source.  We cannot simply create or disregard that which is inconvenient.  If I wish to bake a chocolate cake (vegan, of course) I cannot leave out the sugar simply because I don’t have it.  The result will not be the same as if I used it.  These sutra are also commonly translated and manipulated to suit us: “I practice ahimsa toward myself, I don’t want to hurt myself, so I eat meat.”  What!?  Meat itself is harmful, both spiritually, as our bodies become the graves of murdered beings, and physically, as our bodies are not suited for meat consumption.  Further, there is no nutrient necessary to our survival that can only be gained from the consumption of meat.

Master Patañjali gives the first two limbs as: Yama-Restraints, that which we do to others and Niyama-Observances, that which we do to ourselves ie: cleanliness, contentment…  After introducing each Yama specifically ie. ahiṁsā, he then gives the benefit to the sadhak (spiritual practitioner) pratiṣṭhāyāṁ tat saṁnidhau vaira tyāgaḥ.  This would be redundant if the Yama were indeed practices we do to ourselves.  With this in mind we could turn it into the negative:  One who is firmly established in violence or who causes violence to be performed will continuously encounter violence.
 
The Ethic of Reciprocity states “Do not do to others what you would not like to be done to you.”  This is actually an evolution of the commonly known Golden Rule.  Every wisdom tradition has a similar version.

We get closer to Yoga when we realize that if we do something to another it will eventually come back to us. Keeping this in mind we strive to practice compassion in our food choices by choosing not to contribute to the suffering of others.  We attain Yoga when we realize there are no others.

We may not practice Asana every day but we eat every day, sometimes more than once.  Our fork can be a weapon of mass destruction.

ॐ शान्ति शान्ति शान्तिः
om śānti śānti śāntiḥ

Mark Knowles
Certified Jivamukti Yoga Teacher
www.bahamayogi.com
843.991.2272

Who doesn’t love music!? It can bring us deeper into our practice, keep the yoga flow moving, remind us to smile during that difficult hold, and even help us release and forget about all the junk we keep in our heads.  Here’s one of our favorite yoga playlists. Feel free to post comments below with your favorite songs for YogiTunes #2!