Charleston Yogi

One of the classic texts of the Yoga tradition, along with the Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads, is the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. Within these teachings, Patanjali lays down a quintessential definition of “yoga” that has become a bedrock of modern Yoga practice. In Verse 2, the Sutras read:

YOGAS CITTA VRTTI NIRODHAH

Which can translated in various ways:
“Yoga is the cessation of the fluctuation of consciousness”
“Yoga is the restraint of the modifications of the mind-stuff.”
“Yoga is the stopping of the turnings of the mind.”

Well, what on earth are the “fluctuations of consciousness,” “modifications of the mind-stuff,” or “turnings of the mind”? And why should we be concerned with them coming to an end?

The turnings of the mind are our habitual mental chatter, the interior monologue running through our brains almost every moment of every day. It is the voice that constantly proclaims its like, its dislikes, its judgments, and its comparisons. It is what carries on our inner autobiography; our feelings of being a good or a bad person, beautiful or ugly, a success or failure, worthy of love or deserving of contempt. It is what worries and obsesses about the future, as well as lives in pride or shame over the past.

Now, there is nothing inherently wrong with this mental chatter. But it tends to create a problem when we habitually identity ourselves with this stream of thought.

Ask yourself this question: where do you most strongly experience your sense of “I”? If you were to say “I exist”, where do you most feel that coming from? Your big toe? Your arteries? Or perhaps your spleen? No, most people (at least in our culture) would answer that “I” is most strongly located somewhere behind the eyes and between the ears. Located ourselves primarily in the head, we connect our identity with the stream of thoughts passing through the mind. This forms our most basic sense of who we are.

From the time of some of our earliest records of human history, human beings have sought through various contemplative practices to bring this mental stream to a stop. Meditation, yoga, tai chi, breathing exercises, ascetic practices, drumming, dancing, and singing can all become paths towards turning down the volume of our inner chatter so that something else, something deeper, might be heard. Why? Is it a form of intellectual suicide? Does it mean becoming a mindless bump on a log? No, not at all. By such an attempt, human beings have sought a way to peace, profound happiness, and liberation from suffering.

They realized that the reflective nature of our thoughts – our ability to think about our thinking, and even think about our thinking about our thinking – leaves us in perpetual anxiety about our lives and actually creates an illusory barrier between ourselves and the world around us.

When we give all our attention to this constantly critiquing voice in the head, we subtly disconnect ourselves from what is happening right in front of us. If you are in the midst of an experience and are busy the entire time judging and commenting to yourself on everything – the warmth or coldness of the room, the quality of the company around you, other things you could be doing at this moment – then you aren’t really living in that present moment. You are “stuck up in the head,” too self-conscious to fully be engaged with the experience you are having. It is a little like constantly checking your phone for missed calls or texts while on a first date – it shows you aren’t really interested.

There are days when, feeling a little blue or tired, I can walk through the entire day in a sort of “blah” feeling, wrapped up in whatever crummy feelings I’m going through. If someone were to ask me later how my day went or what I did or saw, I might draw a blank on the contents of the day. I was so wrapped up in my mental “stuff” that I didn’t really notice the beautiful park I drove by on my way to work, or the smell of the rain during the afternoon, or the way my cat stretched himself as I opened the door coming home. This mental chatter keeps us from, in the words of Ram Dass, “being here now.”

Awakening to life therefore involves turning down the volume on this inner noise and instead listening more deeply to what is really going on.

For instance, if you are in a conversation with someone and you’re the one doing all the talking, you aren’t really connecting at all with the other person. You aren’t really having a conversation; you are having a monologue in someone else’s presence. It also means that you probably won’t learn or grow much from that conversation, because you’re just repeating what you already know. But when you become silent and listen, allowing the other person to speak, you expose yourself to new perspective and points of view. You grow, you evolve, you expand.

Well, life is the same way. We could think of our every day lives as a conversation with the world. If we are the ones doing all the talking, by means of our constant internal judgments, comparison, and commentary, then we aren’t really listening to what life may be trying to tell us. Even in prayer, when we are supposed to be seeking answers from God, most people in our culture pray by talking the whole time. Thus it has been said that whereas prayer is talking to God, meditation is listening to God.

So, let us try a meditation of deep listening. You may want to read this first and then go and experiment.

Find a comfortable seat, whether in a chair or sitting in meditation on the floor. Close your eyes and place your hands comfortably in the lap or on the knees.

Bring all of your attention to your sense of hearing. Imagine that you are one giant ear and your only purpose is to hear. Listen to the sounds around you. Maybe you hear a bird chirping outside, or cars driving some distance away, or the sound of faint music in the background.

Whatever it is, just listen, with no judgment, commentary, or interpretation. As Alan Watts once said, “The sound of the rain needs no translation.”

When thoughts begin to arise in the mind, treat them as just another thing to listen to. There is just a deep listening.

What you may begin to notice is that within the quietness of mind, the most ordinary sounds of every day life take on a staggering quality of beauty. The sound of the wind becomes a music just as beautiful as those played by orchestras. The flowing sounds of ocean waves become poems for the ear.

If you listen deeply enough, you may notice that in the midst of such beautiful sound, there is no sound of one listening. That is because there is no real separation between the knower and the known, the experience and the one having the experience. This lack of separation, which was only an illusion in the first place, is the experience of “yoga,” which literally means “yoke” or “union.”

Yoga is a practice of deep listening, turning down the volume of our mental noise, so that we may hear the wisdom of the Universe more clearly.

~ Matthew Foley

Most people start a yoga class to reduce stress. They do not go to their first class with the intention of walking out with more stress, but that is exactly what can happen.  Yoga does reduce stress, but sometimes a few simple tips might help you maximize your effectiveness in class.

One simple idea is that you won’t be perfect. No matter how long you practice your yoga poses, you will never get it right. So let it go. Don’t try to do it just like your instructor. Try to do it as he or she teaches you, but thats it.  Let go of the stiff ideas of having to do it perfect and just do your best. Understanding this releases a lot of unnecessary stress and makes doing yoga fun and relaxing.

A second way to reduce stress is to let go of the idea of maintaining a calm mind. Most people think that when you do some sort of meditation that your mind should be calm and blank. That is called being dead. We have thoughts, we want to have thoughts, it’s getting attached and following the thoughts that causes us the problems. When you are in a yoga class and you notice your mind wandering off, just gently bring it back to focus on the here and now. Don’t beat yourself up, just bring your mind back. If it wanders again, bring it back again. The more you practice being present, the easier it gets.

A third way to lessen your stress during your yoga class is to not get attached to thoughts. It’s like my teacher Lama Ole says, let your mind be like an empty house. If a thief comes in, there is nothing to take, so he or she leaves. So if your mind starts thinking about what your going to eat after class, let it, but don’t give the thought any attention. If you don’t give it energy or follow the thought, it will just fade off on its own.

Those are few ways you can reduce your stress and enjoy your yoga classes better. If you have any questions leave a comment or check out my stress management site at www.istress.org.

Dr. John Zipp DC
Foundation for Stress Relief & Education
Chiropractor, Zipp Chiropractic
(843) 303-4227
www.drzipp.com
www.istress.org
Facebook: Zipp Chiropractic
Twitter: @DoctorZipp
Skype: drzipp

*Looking for an affordable way to practice yoga, plus an opportunity to support and give to others in need?  Then check out Charleston Twestival on Thursday, March 25th!*

Tweet, meet, and give. That’s what Twestival is all about – using social media for social good.

Twestival Global is an event where local businesses and social networking individuals come together in over 300 international cities to support a good cause.  Twestival events worldwide are planned and completely carried out by volunteers.

This year, on Thursday, March 25th, hundreds of people in cities around the world will come together offline to rally around the important cause of education by hosting local events to have fun and create awareness.  The organization they will support is Concern Worldwide.

Concern Worldwide was founded over 50 years ago to meet the needs of people living in extreme poverty, for whom every day is a fight for survival.  Concern’s education programs currently reach over 700,000 people in 25 countries across the regions of Africa, Asia and the Caribbean.  They build schools, train teachers and outfit students with uniforms and school supplies in the world’s poorest nations.

To kick off Charleston’s local celebration of Twestival,  Caryn Antos of Yoga Benefits will be heading up a yoga event in Marion Square Park.  Come on Thursday and do your own practice, or follow Caryn’s guided lesson that begins at 1:30.  The event is donation-based, so bring cash to support a good cause.  All yoga practice levels are welcome.

Yoga Benefits is a local organization that teaches yoga to at risk children.  That is how Antos, the founder of the organization, is related to and was approached about volunteering her time for the Twestival mission.

Antos started Yoga Benefits because she believes that everyone can benefit from yoga.  “Yoga is powerful and empowering,” she said.  “It can help people work through fear, anxiety, sorrow, and aggression and turn those emotions into confidence, peace, compassion and love.  When I started teaching yoga, I did it because I wanted to share what I have learned.”

We at Charleston Yogi and Antos believe that a personal dedication to wellness is a pathway to large successes, and that yoga can build not only a stronger and more confident individual, but a healthier, more powerful community.

For Antos, donation-based classes are a way to share yoga with others without having to put a price on the value.  “I already know there is value on the lesson,” she stated, “but assigning a number to it might mean that some people will not participate.”  Antos has been an instructor at The Sutra Shack, a donation-based James Island community studio, and often supports causes similar to Twestival, where people can donate their practice to a good cause.

Charleston’s Twestival doesn’t stop with yoga in Marion Square Park.  The schedule of events on Thursday, March 25th is as follows:

1:00pm – 3:00pm: Yoga fundraising event in Marion Square Park.  It is asked that you bring a donation for Concern – whatever you can spare.  Maybe it’s what you would have spent on coffee that day, or lunch out with co-workers.

5:30pm – 7:00pm: Meet at Rebekah Jacob Gallery (169 King Street) for networking and pre-event cocktails.

6:30pm – 9:30pm: The event will move along to The Real Estate Studio (214 King Street).  DJ Natty Heavy will be donating his time and entertainment for the event.  Shine your shoes and check out some of the things that are up for grabs in the silent auction.

Tickets for the evening events are $15, which includes music, food, adult beverages and a silent auction.  100% of ticket donations and funds raised will go to Concern Worldwide.

Thanks to the generosity of EF/AVHHF, all donations and ticket sales are being matched through March 25 up to $100,000.  To make a donation via Charleston Twestival to Concern Worldwide, visit http://charleston.twestival.com.

(Charleston’s local Twestival celebration is sponsored by Charleston Yogi, Yoga Benefits, Blackbaud, Rebekah Jacob Gallery, Stasmayer Incorporated, The Buccaneer, Queen Anne’s Revenge, Coastal Community Foundation of South Carolina, Red Dog Designs, Holaola Screen Printing, The Real Estate Studio, DJ Natty Heavy, Ben Arnold Beverage Co, Baked, The Modern Connection and Palmettobug Digital.)

**Charleston Yogi and Yoga Benefits hope to see our fellow yogis out in Marion Square on Thursday!  Come and donate your practice to Concern Worldwide. Even if you cannot contribute with a monetary donation, take time to be a part of your community and offer your energy and support to someone who truly needs it.**

Want to keep up with all these fab organizations?  Follow them on Twitter!

Twestival Global: @twestival

Concern Worldwide: @concern

Charleston Twestival: @CHSTwestival

DJ Natty Heavy: @nattyheavy

Charleston Yogi: @CharlestonYogi

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.

The alarm rings and I barely stir.  My muscles are sore, still tired and though the sun is starting to come out all I want to do is bury my head in the covers.  I am instantly faced with a choice and this decision will determine the course of everything. 
I have come to realize that choosing ‘comfort’ rarely leads to it, but only makes me more uncomfortable.  As I unroll my mat I start to wonder what the next hour and ½ will bring.  Will I be able to do it?  Will they ask me to do something difficult, or worse yet something that I don’t want to do?  And then I smile, knowing that choosing authentic development is a harsh mistress, indeed.  The things I fear will always be hurled right in my path and I know the answer is ‘yes’ to all of the above.  I will again be faced with a choice and this decision will determine the course of everything.  
We have been in warrior II for at least a minute.  My legs are starting to shake, I want to give up, and then he says ‘are you breathing?’….oh, right I forgot about that part.  The minute I inhale that sweet dose of oxygen, I feel everything release and I move into a place of ease.  He walks up behind me and puts his hands on my shoulders, moving them down a few inches.  My neck and shoulder blades begin to release and I wonder how I didn’t even realize how hard they were working?  Why is it that trying so hard is, well…so hard?  It was only four years ago in this very class that I began to discover that resistance is so much more difficult than surrender.  That trying to be perfect at every asana was so much more difficult than allowing myself to melt into it with ease.  Many of us consistently move through our day with absolute confidence that we are actually in charge.  We fool ourselves into thinking that we consciously know what ‘perfection’ is and that we can attain it whenever we want. 
This practice is based on the premise of cultivating awareness of where we are in relation to time, space, and the continuum of development.  I am always grateful to reach that perfect balance in class when I am pushed far enough to be uncomfortable, while simultaneously given enough time to be present inside of my head, alone with my thoughts even for just a few seconds.  In the middle of this struggle I am challenged to be still in the face of the internal chaos.  As I am confronted with the limits of my abilities, I am also given the opportunity to witness how interested I truly am in development.  When I focus on where I am and where I want to be, I know I have to ‘mind the gap’ between what I know and how I am living.  The practice isn’t over when I roll up my mat and walk out of the studio.  It is only just beginning.  I know that I will be given hundreds of opportunities to close the gap between what I know and how I am walking my talk, and the choice that I make in that moment will determine everything.

 
Amy Jo Gengler, LAc
Re-Soul Acupuncture & Chinese Herbal Medicine

843.566.2855

www.re-soul.com