Robin's blog

To Heaven With It!

By Shakta Khalsa -

Two days at home in-between lots of travel, got to truck on up to my retreat in the Shenandoahs. The path on the 20 acres is fairly low on overgrowth now that we are coming into eye-popping fall colors, and that earthy dead leaf smell…..mmmm.  I wonder about that as I walk–good case for vegetarianism, I think.  Do we ever say “love that dead animal smell”?

So the hound is doing his hound thing—nose to the ground, off on his own private adventure that not even the shepherd can follow.  Anyway, she does the shepherd thing–remains loyally close to me, ever watchful, and then reprimands the hound when he returns, by grabbing his ankles in her mouth with a little growl.   He looks at me like, “make her stop.” But I don’t.  That is just the way of the shepherd, the same as his way is to take off for 10 minutes at a time.

He’s onto the trail of something, howling.  Hope he doesn’t go into the road or on the crabby neighbor’s property.  Hope he doesn’t go off for a long time, don’t want to worry about him.  Oh, to hell with it, I think.

Then the thought occurs, ”Well, that isn’t going to help– just dismissing the situation without working through my negativity and worry.  So how about ‘To HEAVEN with it’?”  Yeah, I can get behind that idea.  Give it to Heaven, give it to the Universe.  Let the Universe work it out.  Instant relief.  I’m back on the trail, literally and figuratively speaking. Noticing the lovely smell of the leaves, the colors filling my eyes. And here he comes, happy for the chase, and happy to be back.  And maybe even happy that the shepherd cares enough to bite his ankles.

I am reminded of a quote by Yogi Bhajan: ”Don’t you know that the Divine Intelligence that created this Universe and keeps all planets rotating in their orbits can take care of your routine?
 



Shakta has been practicing and teaching yoga for over three decades, having had the great fortune to study directly with Yogi Bhajan, Master of Kundalini Yoga. Yogi Bhajan recognized her as a teacher of children, and for many years had her answer inquiries he received about children’s yoga. Shakta is an IKYTA certified Kundalini Yoga instructor and teacher trainer, an AMS certified Montessori educator, and an E-RYT 500 with Yoga Alliance. For more info about Shakta, click here.



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Touching the Mind – Connecting Sensations, Feelings, Thoughts and Movement Part 1


By Deane Juhan - 

We have been educated to think of language as spoken and written words, even educated to believe that no creatures but humans can properly be said to acquire and to use “language.” But organisms have been communicating among themselves and with their environment from the very beginnings of life, or life could never have succeeded and evolved.

With these thoughts in mind, then, I want to suggest some of the dimensions of the languages that our bodies speak.

In a recent class I had quoted one of my teachers, Milton Trager: “My work is directed towards reaching the mind of the client. Every contact, every move, every thought communicates how the tissue should feel when everything is right. The mind is the whole thing. That is all I am interested in.” The next day a participant raised her hand and asked, “What do you mean my reaching the mind?” The following is a summary of my attempt to answer her question.

The Language of the Connective Tissue Matrix

Just underneath the skin--in fact an integral part of it--begins the intimately interwoven web of our connective tissue. Once regarded as an inert, sort of nylon-like wrapping that divided our bones, muscles, organs, circulatory systems and neural pathways into separate functional entities, this web is now appreciated as an extraordinarily sensitive and energetic matrix that in fact connects all of our internal structures and processes, down to our innermost microscopic cellular interiors.

Far from being inert, our connective tissue matrix is a sensitive conductor of electromagnetic currents. And it is a conductor of a special class, called piezo-electric. “Piezo” is a Greek derivative, meaning in this usage “self-generating.” Every movement, every pressure, every distortion through movement, every vibration creates polarizations within this matrix, and between the polarities flow currents of electricity that surround and penetrate all six trillion living cells in our bodies, carrying not only energy but also information to their membranes and to their interiors that help to both fuel and to orchestrate many of their inner activities, and harmonize them with one another.

In these energetic and informational roles, our connective tissue matrix was the precursor to our nervous systems in both evolutionary and embryological development, animating and coordinating organisms before the first neurons arrived on the scene. And it continues to supply an exquisitely sensitive (responding to vibrations below neural thresholds of stimulation) and rapid (traveling at the speed of electron streams, not action potentials) source of vitality and organization both within us and between us.

The Language of Nerves and Muscles

Nerves and muscles share a common language in their communications and responses: the rhythms of action potentials that ripple along their membranes and orchestrate their collective activities. All these cells are tightly linked at many levels of our neuromuscular systems, and are constantly interacting with one another. It is impossible to experience a sensation, a feeling or a thought without stimulating a muscular reaction--large or small, conscious or unconscious. And it is equally impossible to experience a movement without changing the landscapes of our perceptions, our sensations, feelings and thoughts. No muscle can create any movement without neural stimulations, and no movement can occur without consequent changes in the stream of these stimulations. And further, all of these stimulations and movements are ultimately nothing less than the summary of the totality of all of our sixty trillion cells activities and their myriad and complex interactions--the activities of our entire landscape of perceptions and responses that are translated into our behaviors of all kinds and on all levels. “Mind” is vastly more extensive than “brain.” Mind involves the whole of our landscape, and all of the internal and external ecological processes that are fused into those mysteries and miracles that we call life and consciousness. We are moved by all levels of our feelings, ideas and beliefs, our current assessments, needs and intentions, and by all of the countless processes that underlie them.

These are the dimensions of the language of sensations, feelings, thoughts and movements in our lives. The vocabulary, grammar and syntax of this language are the stuff of all of our motor experience and development--all functional skills and all dysfunctional blocks, all successful adaptations and all persistent limitations, all habituated repetitions and all new possibilities. This is another domain into which we can enter and positively affect through our touch, if we can learn to speak its language.

To read part two, The Persistance of Memory and the Precipitation of Novelty, click here.

Excerpted from Deane Juhan: Reaching the Mind with Touch with permission of the author.


 


 



 

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YogaMedics: Harnessing the Power of Yoga As Rehabilitation Therapy

When 8-year-old Casey Williams, a state champion gymnast, suffered severe life-threatening injuries after a serious traffic accident on the way to a gymnastics competition, doctors thought that it would take a miracle for her to recover. But through clinically-based yoga classes called YogaMedics, Casey is regaining her strength, flexibility, mobility, and self-confidence just three years since the accident. Casey’s inspiring story of physical and psychological rehabilitation is a great reminder of the amazing adaptability of the human body and the power of yoga to harness it.

Watch this inspiring video:

 

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Helping Others Heal Themselves - Yoga Finds Its Way Into Pakistani Prison

By Emma Needleman - 

A recent article in Reuters tells the story of Aisha Chapra, a yoga instructor and former social worker who volunteers her time teaching yoga to the inmates at a women’s prison in Karachi, Pakistan.  Inspired by the transformative role of yoga in her own life, she undertook the program when she moved from Canada back to her native country of Pakistan in 2009.  Now her innovative yoga program is a major part of the prisoners’ lives.

"Yoga helped me survive and provided me a lot of relief," Chapra said in an interview with Reuters. "And because yoga was my way of healing, I figured I should help others learn to heal themselves, especially those who cannot afford to do so."

Chapra was partially inspired by the Bhopal Central Jail in India, which offers prisoners incentives to do yoga.  Their policy is that, for every three months that the prisoners are enrolled in the program, their sentence is reduced by 15 days.  In Bhopal Central, as in the Pakistani prison where Chapra works, the yoga programs have had a measurable effect: reduced rates of conflict and violence.  Additionally, it reduces stress for the inmates and helping them prepare for their eventual release.

"Yoga has given me peace of mind, it takes away all my tension," said Yasmeen Arif, one of the inmates with whom Chapra works. "Since we started yoga, with time, I have learned to channel my frustration and anger toward being more calm."

Yoga programs in prisons aren’t widespread yet, but they are a few well-established ones.  The Prison Yoga Project, founded by yoga instructor James Fox, started at the notorious San Quentin Prison and has spread to prisons and at-risk youth centers around the country.  Yoga Impact, based out of Colorado, trains instructors to work with underserved populations, including inmates.  In New Hampshire, John Schlosser has taught yoga in prisons on and off since 1975.

Additionally, new evidence shows prisoners who have the opportunity to practice yoga are less likely to be re-incarcerated.  A 2008 article in the International Journal of Yoga Therapy found that inmates who took more than four yoga classes had a re-incarceration rate of 8.5 percent, as compared to the rate of 25.2 percent for prisoners who hadn’t done the yoga program. 

Prison yoga programs tend to be funded by tax dollars, which means they frequently find themselves on the chopping block.   But as more evidence suggests that they help criminals overcome issues around anger and substance abuse, they may become an invaluable part of the criminal rehabilitation system.

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Weight Watchers Ditches Old Points System and Turns to Natural Foods

By Emma Needleman - 

Weight Watchers’ big selling point used to be that you could eat whatever you want and still lose weight—provided, of course, that you kept your daily calorie count under the recommended average.  While using their trademark “points” system, disciples of Weight Watchers didn’t have to stick to kale and tofu.  It was as acceptable to have three points worth of candy instead of three points of fruit salad. 

But now the weight loss company has introduced their revamped PointsPlus program: a new system that discourages processed foods and empty calories and tries to steer its members towards more fruits and vegetables.

To some, it seems a bit hypocritical.  In the past, Weight Watchers has brought in huge profits from their brand of frozen and processed foods: everything from frozen cheeseburgers to chocolate muffins, all with the Points stamp of approval on them.  Now, high-fat and processed foods are eschewed for a more natural diet. 

Under the new plan, virtually all fruits and vegetables have zero points, meaning you can eat as many of them as you want, while previously WW-approved snacks like unbuttered popcorn and granola bars have shot up in point content.  The logic is that natural foods are higher in protein and fiber, which keep the body fuller for longer and also require more energy to break down. 

Critics say that the new plan will inhibit the dramatic weight loss Weight Watchers’ customers are looking for.  Fruit, after all, has a high sugar content, and, to many nutritionists, a calorie is a calorie: it doesn’t matter that you eat “healthfully” if you eat too much.  But proponents of the new plan say that putting the emphasize on natural foods will help dieters eat less: it’s processed foods and empty calories that lead to cravings and the cycle of bingeing.

Proponents of natural foods also hope that Weight Watchers’ new direction is the first step to a more holistic view of food and nutrition.  Instead of simply focusing on calories and weight loss, dieters may shift their focus to helping food fuel their bodies by looking at protein or nutrient content, for example.

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Shakta Kaur Khalsa: Happily Ever Now – Working with the Law of Attraction

Shakta Khalsa is the creator of the Radiant Child Yoga Program and the author of Yoga for Women and several other yoga books and DVDs. In this interview with Eva Norlyk Smith, Shakta discusses her work with the Law of Attraction and the inspiration behind her upcoming webinar on Yoga U Online Trainings, Happily Ever Now.

ENS: Shakta, we’ve heard so much about The Secret and the Law of Attraction—the notion that you can create your own reality through your mental projections. As I understand it, you’ve been engaged in this kind of work for a long time. What originally sparked your interest?

Shakta: Well, ever since I started doing yoga and Eastern teachings in the early 70’s, I began to realize that we have a lot more power over what unfolds in our lives than we usually think we do. I was very curious about this. So I spent the past 35 years really being a student of life in the sense of “How does life work? How does creation work? How do things come to me? What is the idea of Law of Attraction?”

I’ve found that when I put out energy in a certain direction and I’m very confident that this is going to happen, when there’s a certain focus that I feel, then the universe brings it to me in some form or other. That’s not to say that it always comes in the form that I think it’s going to come in. But whatever came, it was actually a gift to me.

ENS: Your work with this is partly inspired by what you refer to as the teachings of Abraham. Would you mind telling us a bit about that?

Shakta: Yes, about 8 years ago, someone gave me a book by Esther and Jerry Hicks called The Astonishing Power of Emotions. That was a book about the teachings of Abraham.

Abraham is the idea of higher consciousness coming through Esther Hicks when she sits quietly in meditation. It’s like her higher self comes through and they called that Abraham. So it’s not like a person; it’s really just a pure, positive sort of expanded viewpoint on life.

The work in that book really spoke to me. I felt like I already knew a lot of what they were saying, but that they had such a clear way of explaining it that it sort of accelerated my awareness and my consciousness.

ENS: How would you sum up the core of the Abraham teaching?

Shakta: It’s really just a different viewpoint on the same philosophy as you find in yoga. The core teaching of the Abraham work is that even though we seem like physical beings, we actually emit or project a vibration at every moment just like anything does. If you hit a tuning fork, it has a vibration to it. If you hit a gong and you put your hand in front of it, you will feel a tickling feeling in your hand, because it has a vibration.

So, according to science as well as this work, everything has vibration to it. When you do yoga and meditation, you become more aware of your vibration. What the Abraham work is asking you to do is to pay attention to your vibration, whether you are in a happy, connected-to-you-inner-self vibration, or if you are in a down-in-the-dumps negative vibration. Just notice that difference. And if your vibration is not where you’d like it to be, they have a lot of wonderful techniques to help you get into a better emotional place.

The concept of being vibrational beings is also a teaching of yoga. You know, the causal plane in yoga is the vibrational plane and that’s where everything starts. So it’s the same in yoga.

Another one of the Abraham concepts is that there’s only one relationship to attend to and that’s between you (who you think you are) and You (the inner Self with a capital S, the connection with your bigger Self). And that’s what all your relationships is about. It’s not about your wife, your husband, your child, or your coworkers. You can’t control what anybody else is doing but you have absolute control over the way you view things, the feelings you have, what you’re putting your attention on, how you get yourself in a better mental place… You have absolute control there. So I find this work very, very freeing.

ENS: That understanding of the deeper mechanics of the Law of Attraction could almost be called the secret behind The Secret: It’s not just about positive thinking, there are deeper mechanics involved to actually make the shift to make that higher vibration a reality.

Shakta: Exactly. And it’s funny, because the woman who wrote The Secret was inspired by the Abraham teachings and wanted to bring it out into the general public. But by the time bigger publishers got a hold of it, ironically, they left the inspiration out. They left Abraham’s work out and it made it much more superficial, in my opinion.

And really, it’s about how you can feel good and be connected to your whole self as often as possible. To me, the purpose of life is about being as connected as I can be to my infinite joyous Self. That’s why people are attracted to yoga and attracted to meditation—even if they think they’re attracted just because they want a good stretch. On a deeper level, everybody wants to feel good. Everybody wants to enjoy their life. Everybody wants to feel connected in a big way to who they really are. So that’s why I want to offer this course on Yoga U Online Trainings, Happily Ever Now.

ENS: Tell us a little bit about your course. What inspired Happily Ever Now?

Shakta: Happily Ever Now was inspired by the idea that the teachings that are part of yoga, especially the 8 limbs of yoga where you start to understand that the purpose of yoga, is to come into the meditative mind and use your awareness. That was the inspiration for me to develop the Happily Ever Now course. The basis of this course is how to be happy now, by noticing your thoughts and noticing how you have the ability to move your thoughts and feelings into a happier place.

ENS: So even if people are feeling stressed and anxious, you are teaching people to move beyond those feelings?

Shakta: Well, let’s say somebody is feeling stressed. The first thing that we would do, if we are working toward being conscious beings, is to notice that we are stressed. That’s the first thing. And to notice it without self-reproach. In other words, the things that we tell ourselves are really important. Those are what help us or inhibits us from being able to move into a better feeling space.

So, if I notice I’m stressed, I say to myself, in a friendly way, “I’m feeling really stressed now.” Then the second step is: “It’s okay. I can understand that I’m feeling stressed. I’ve got a lot on my plate. It’s alright. I’ve got to give myself a little bit of space here to be stressed.” If I do that and I tell myself that, I immediately start to feel more relaxed, because I’m noticing that I’m stressed and then I’m befriending myself.

So, the first thing is being compassionate towards ourselves. The next thing is, once you relax a little bit, then you can say, “Alright, what can I feel, think, or do that could be just one step better than this? I could get myself a glass of water and take a couple deep breaths while I’m drinking it.” Or just: “I know that this won’t last forever. It’s just a moment in time. In a few minutes or tomorrow, I’ll feel differently.” That already is making me feel better.

ENS: That’s a beautiful point. I think most people have experienced that they have certain patterns or mental habits that don’t serve them. However, it’s not easy to shift out of these just because you’re aware of them, if they’re deeply ingrained tendencies. What would you say in cases like that?

Shakta: Well, we all have habitual patterns. Dr. Wayne Dyer makes a great distinction between the habitual mind and the creative conscious mind. When we’re in our creative conscious mind, he says, we feel alive and that we can handle things. When we’re in our habitual mind, we feel like our patterning is so ingrained in us that we can’t move forward.

So the first thing is to just recognize that we’re in a pattern and we’re in the habitual mind. Then, it’s just like taking baby steps. So one baby step would be if I say to myself, “Look how far I’ve already come with these patterns. I trust, that I’m moving in the right direction. I’m just going to, little by little, move myself in the direction of using my creative conscious mind and be more in that space, rather than this space. It’s just going to take some time, because that’s the way life is.” So I’m already feeling better and I’ve done a little bit of movement.

Some of the best tools to break habitual patterns are yoga and meditation. I’ve been doing yoga and meditation for more than 35 years, and I’m here to say it really works. It moves you out of the habitual mind and out of those patterns into a more conscious, aware, state. Especially meditation—if you do ten minutes to an hour of meditation every day, or whatever you can afford to do, it will start to break down those habit patterns. And we’re doing that in this course. We’re going to help people establish something that they can do each day if they don’t have something already.

So by the end of the training course, the Happily Ever Now course, everybody will commit to something that they can do in their lives that will help them feel better. It might only be 10 minutes a day. And then I ask people to just send me an email afterwards within the next month and say how’s it going, how am I doing with this.

ENS: Right. So basically in the course, you draw on techniques from yoga and meditation techniques as well?

Shakta: The course is also based in my style of yoga which is Kundalini yoga. It contains Hatha yoga, too. So if anyone is familiar with Hatha yoga and not so familiar with Kundalini yoga, they’re still going to see what’s familiar to them and they’ll hopefully find some very exciting new things that they can also use (some meditation, some yoga) that creates change within the body and mind very quickly.


 

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Essential Oils For Your Yoga Practice

By Emma Needleman -

Yoga: the perfect union of body, mind and - nose?  It’s not as far-fetched as it sounds: Incorporating aromatherapy into your yoga practice is a great way to maximize the physical and mental benefits of yoga.

Aromatherapy is the application and diffusion of essential oils (natural oils derived from plants) for therapeutic purposes.  Different oils provide different benefits.  The right oil can do everything from improving concentration and reducing stress to boosting your immune system, improving the quality of your sleep and decreasing cold and allergy congestion.  

What oils should you use?  That depends on what you need.  To clarify and improve breathing pick bold scents like eucalyptus, ginger, lemon or cypress.  For relaxation, try lavender, chamomile, bergamot and geranium.  Jasmine, ylang and rose are associated with spiritual properties, while sandalwood and cedarwood will help you center and focus. Lavender oil promotes relaxation and decreases anxiety and tea tree oil is a natural disinfectant that might help reduce inflammationin the nasal passages. Finally, lively scents like peppermint and tangerine will give you energy and add pep to your routine. 

How do you incorporate essential oils into your yoga practice? Well, there are many different ways to combine the benefits of aromatherapy with your yoga home practice.  Here are a few suggestions:

1. Use a diffuser: Diffuse a calming (or enlivening, depending on your type of practce) essential oil in the space where you’re doing your yoga.  You can do this with an essential oil diffuser (like a candle lamp), a scented candle or simply by dripping the oils on a crumpled Kleenex.  

2. Apply aroma oil directly to your body. You can also try applying the oils directly to your body.  Apply one or more as a perfume or make your own massage oil: combine a light “carrier” oil like grapeseed or jojoba with 12 drops of the essential oils of your choosing.  At the end of your session you (or your yoga partner) can rub it on your feet, limbs, chest or back, helping you to relax and get the full range of aromatherapy benefits.

3. Use an aromatherapy spray. You can also make or buy an aromatherapy spray using water and essential oils.  Use it to disinfect your yoga mat or simply spray it around the room.  Sprays are particularly effective if you have to do your yoga in a room (maybe a basement rec room) that’s already a little dingy.

The take away message here is that there are countless essential oils and plenty of different ways to use them.  With so many options, there’s bound to be a combination that’s perfect for you and your yoga practice, so start experimenting!

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Bharadvajasana

Bharadvajasana is a spinal twist that offers a gentle massage to the internal organs with special emphasis on the digestive system.  The awakening of energy along the spine brings a stress relieving boost to the parasympathetic nervous system elevating mood and increasing energy flow throughout the whole body.

Bharadvajasana was named after Bharadvaja one of the seven great Seers and father of Drona who was the Pandavas family’s (Arjuna’s family’s) Guru.

Health Benefits: Increased blood circulation, toned spinal nerves, increased energy flow, stress relief, detoxification, increased flexibility in the hips and shoulders.

Beginner/Intermediate Bharadvajasana  – a step by step guide

1)  Sit on your mat with your legs outstretched in front of you.

2)  Shift weight to your right buttock and fold your knees, bringing your feet to rest on your left hand side.

3)  Rest the top of your left foot inside the arch of your right foot.

4)  Sink your tail bone to the earth and inhale up your spine making sure your shoulders are relaxed and the top of your head parallel with the ceiling - exhale

5)  Inhale your right arm up and place your hand down on the mat behind you. – Exhale

6)  Inhale the back and front of your spine/neck long, place your left hand on your left knee and slowly rotate your heart, head and gaze, to the right, making sure to keep your shoulders relaxed and tailbone down.

7)  Lightly engage your stomach muscles

To release from the pose, slowly unwind the twist on the exhalation bringing your head and torso back to centre, and release your hand and legs.

Adaptations to the pose

Problem:
Difficulty sitting with your legs to the side:

Solution:
Place a blanket under your right buttock or start the asana from Vradjasana/Kneeling pose.

Problem:
Difficulty reaching the hand behind your back to the floor

Solution:
Either place your hand on a block behind you, or to a place where you are able to rest it comfortably on the floor, or bring it around your back and hold your left arm

Advanced Bharadvajasana – a step by step guide

1)  Sit on your mat with your legs outstretched in front of you.

2)  Shift weight to your right buttock and fold your knees, bring your feet to rest on your left hand side.

3)  Bring the top of your right foot to rest on the inside of your left thigh as if in half lotus

4)  Sink the tail bone to the earth and inhale up the spine making sure your shoulders are relaxed and the top of your head parallel with the ceiling

5)  On the exhalation, begin twisting the heart, head and gaze to your right bringing your right hand behind your back to either rest on the floor behind you or to hold onto your right foot.

6)  Bring the top of your left hand to rest either under your right knee or on top of your right thigh.  Make sure your heart is open and your shoulders, relaxed.

7)  Either send your gaze to look over your right shoulder to continue the twist, or turn the head to the look over your left shoulder for a counter twist to the neck.

To release from the pose, slowly unwind the twist on the exhalation bringing your head and torso back to centre, and release your hand and legs.

For adaptations to the pose, please see Beginner/Intermediate Bharadvajasana  – a step by step guide, and Adaptations to the Pose. 

* Note: Twists are usually done at the end of an asana sequence in order to re-align the spine, prior to relaxation

 

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Judith Hanson Lasater: Practicing Radical Presence - The Art of Teaching Yoga

Judith Hanson Lasater has taught yoga since 1971, and is widely regarded as a teacher of teachers. In this interview, she sat down with Eva Norlyk Smith from Yogatherapyweb.com to share some of her reflections on yoga and the art of teaching. For more on Judith and her webinars on Yogatherapyweb.com, see her upcoming webinar: The Art of Being—Yoga As a PsychoSpiritual Practice. To download the MP3 file with this interview, see below.

Eva Norlyk Smith: You started practicing yoga in 1970, and became a teacher shortly after. How has the world of yoga changed since you first got involved?

Judith Hanson Lasater: In about every possible way. When I first started studying yoga in 1970, it was exotic. It was heavily connected to India. There were very few people doing it.  It was associated with alternative lifestyles.

Virtually all that has changed. Yoga has become American. It pervades gyms, hospitals and schools; you might say that there’s been an Americanization of yoga. The direct and profound and deep connection that yoga had with Indian teachers and the philosophy of India as a way of living, a way of eating, a way of thinking, a way of choosing your values has completely changed. Now someone will go to a yoga class and then have a hamburger and then go to a bar. It’s not that those things are bad, but that’s not the way it was when we started.

Eva Norlyk Smith: Yes, I’ve seen articles on everything from Wall Street tycoons using yoga to deal with the stress of turbulent markets to drug addicts hitting the yoga mat to burn out the stress of dealing with addiction. So yes, you can say the span of yoga is very wide in terms of its applications.

Judith Hanson Lasater: And it’s really gotten diluted, in a lot of ways, from its traditional teachings. Traditionally, when you studied yoga in India, you understood the context of yoga as part of a broader spiritual practice. You understood the Yamas and the Niyamas and asana in the context of Patanjali’s 8-limbs of yoga, and as part of a greater journey.

Now, only one part of yoga has been pulled out; the focus is almost exclusively on asanas. We somehow approach the practice of asanas, as if it were separate from the whole. It’s like saying, “I just need to eat one food and I’ll be healthy.” The hallmark of good nutrition is variety. The hallmark of the practice of yoga is, firstly to appreciate asana in the context of specific technique and, secondly, understanding the techniques of yoga in the context of the wider historical and philosophical context of yoga. That has totally been lost by the vast majority of people.

There’s an expression that I heard in Texas when I was growing up, which is, “A mile wide and an inch deep.” Yoga, today mainly means asanas—and often not just asanas, but a certain kind of fast and hard practice of asanas. So the practice of yoga, unfortunately, has become “a mile wide and an inch deep.”

Eva Norlyk Smith: Interesting. You could say, however, that there are pluses and minuses to the way yoga has developed. Too narrow focus on a spiritual practice can also lead to rigidity; or at least something that is not as flexible as the approach to yoga we see at most studios today.

Judith Hanson Lasater: Well, you still find a lot of difference in opinion, and people believing very, very strongly that their way is right. To me, it boils down to the difference between belief and faith. Belief is about hooking onto a group of ideas or thoughts and using that to protect you against experience. Faith, on the other hand, is jumping off the edge of the cliff.

So yoga is a practice of observation and faith. It involves continual observation of the thoughts, of the breath, of the body, and reflecting on the results of the choices we make. And it involves faith; we have to trust the unknown and go there anyway. So it’s a very radical practice.

There’s rigidity when human beings cling to belief in the false hope that they give security and meaning to life. But yoga is quite the opposite. The more beliefs we cling to, the less connected we are to life itself. This practice is about being naked and porous and letting life soak into us, inundate us, overwhelm us almost.

To me, the yogi is not withdrawn from life even if he’s in a cave or she’s in a cave. The true yogi feels life intensely and immediately and fully and is unafraid to root in the present moment. Belief keeps you from doing that, because you’re busy defending and protecting your beliefs. You cannot both be protected and open.

Eva Norlyk Smith: That’s a beautiful point. The interesting thing about yoga is that it tends to have very spiritual effects, even if you don’t approach it from the angle of wanting a spiritual practice—at least if you define ‘spiritual’ as getting a deeper experience of yourself and the world. Has that been your experience?

Judith Hanson Lasater: Well, I certainly didn’t want any of that “spiritual stuff” when I started practicing yoga in my early 20’s. But once you begin to observe and pay attention and be brought into the present, it is profoundly powerful. It almost doesn’t matter what does that for you, yoga or something else. The techniques, the asanas, are not the yoga. The residue that the techniques leave is the yoga. When we begin to look deeply at our speech, our posture, our breath, our thoughts, our choices, or our values, and observe those with compassion and a certain distance, we are changed forever.

Eva Norlyk Smith: The witness.

Judith Hanson Lasater: Or the Self, Capital S, Self. That’s all there is, anyway. It just takes many forms.

Eva Norlyk Smith:  How does this inform your own teaching?

Judith Hanson Lasater: The most important part of being a yoga teacher, in my opinion, is to be a mirror. Do what you need to do in order to become the mirror to reflect back the inner radiance and inherent goodness of the student, so that they see their own inner radiance and inherent goodness.

When we are in touch with our inner radiance and inherent goodness, we cannot harm self or others, because we see divinity everywhere, first in ourselves. And that’s the job of the teacher, to find that in him or her self and reflect it back—through words, through actions, through poses, through meditation.

We become an alchemist. In alchemy, the belief was you could turn lead into gold. If we are in touch with our own gold, then we just radiate it out. That’s the easiest thing in the world.

Eva Norlyk Smith: Becoming a yoga teacher is a wonderful profession, as we know. But it’s not easy! What is the most significant piece of advice that you would give to new yoga teachers today?

Judith Hanson Lasater: Well, there are three things.  Number one is to practice yoga every day.

Number two is to always stay curious, open. Continue to learn. Never think you know what yoga is. Keep learning. Keep opening. Keep reading.

The third thing is be clear on your values and your intentions. In my own teaching, I always abide by three values and intentions. When I walk into the classroom, the very first thing that I want to do is connect with myself. What’s going on? What’s arising? Am I happy? Am I tired? Am I anxious? It doesn’t matter what arises, but I want to be attentive to what is coming from my deep self at that moment, as a human being. Because if I’m not connected to me, there is absolutely no way I can connect to the students.

The second value is to see with my heart the person who is in front of me. Not the person who they are pretending to be, but who they really are, and what they are really asking me with their question. What are they really expressing with their body in the pose? Who are they, really?

So, I’m giving them my full attention with my eyes, with my mind, and with my heart. My highest value as a teacher is to be radically present with the person, who is in front of me at the very moment, not the person from last week. Not that person with my expectations and beliefs projected on them, but the human being with the inner radiance and inherent goodness, who is standing in front of me. Can I be deeply present with them and see them?

The third thing on the list, and this is in the order of importance, is the task at hand, teaching them the pose. When I first started teaching, I used to think the most important thing was teaching them the pose, then paying attention to them, then thinking about myself.  I had it completely reversed.

I don’t believe that anymore, and the results have been profoundly satisfying. What I hear now, if I may be so bold, is that people don’t say to me “that was the best shoulder stand I ever did,” or, “I really liked that forward bend, it felt so much better.” Rather, mostly what people say to me—and I’m very humbly receiving this—is, “You changed my life. You helped me understand myself. I feel so much more hopeful now.” And I think that comes from being really clear on my intentions and my values in teaching.

My best advice for young teachers is to think deeply about what your values are in teaching and practicing of yoga. Study and teach from your deepest self. Stand on the mat in your own light and teach from your inner radiance and your inherent goodness.

That’s a big order. That’s what it’s about. We have a deep, deep profound joy and luck to be having this as our work in life, to be the mirror. And it is a profound honor to teach yoga.  I want us all to do it with unbounded respect for self and others at every moment, and with kindness. This doesn’t mean you don’t ask someone to do something that might be difficult, but only within the context of kindness, deep and profound kindness.

Eva Norlyk Smith: That’s a beautiful point.

Judith Hanson Lasater: Thank you.

Eva Norlyk Smith: Well, thank you so much, Judith. We all really appreciate your taking the time to do this interview. We’re so looking forward to the webinar with you on October 25th on The Art of Being—Yoga as a PsychoSpiritual Practice on Yogatherapyweb.com. We will connect then again.

Judith Hanson Lasater: Yes, thank you so much.

Go here to download and listen to the recording of the full interview with Judith Hanson Lasater on Yogatherapyweb.com.

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Yoga for Vets Organization Aims to Relieve Trauma, PTSD

By Emma Needleman - 

When Yoga For Vets founder and ex-Marine Corps captain Anu Bhagwati left the military in 2004, she didn’t know where to turn.  Suffering from multiple injuries, as well as depression and PTSD, she began a yoga teacher training course to try to regain the mental and emotional balance and physical well-being she had lost.

But Bhagwati discovered that yoga presented a challenge she didn’t know if she could meet: unlearning the rigid military way of life, which was preventing her from “healing.”

“Being forced to let go of the Marine way of doing things was a humbling experience,” she wrote in an article for the Huffington Post, “and one that I fought every step of the way. Before yoga, sitting still or enjoying a quiet moment was my idea of torture. Physical movement was my way of processing stress. As a Marine, if I saw a mountain, I had to run to the top. Objects were meant to be lifted, and open space was meant to be conquered, and fast.”

Slowly, Bhagwati overcame her physical and emotional limitations.  She credits her regular yoga practice with helping to treat her depression and PTSD without drugs.

After becoming certified as a yoga instructor, she decided she wanted to reconnect with the military community and give something back to them.  So, in 2008, Bhagwati started Yoga For Vets NYC, a free yoga program for veterans in the New York area.  Each class is small and tailored for participants recovering from injuries or trauma.  Even seriously disabled veterans can participate.

Bhagwati says she downplays competition and physically demanding yoga poses, focusing more on yoga for emotional well-being: helping vets to relax, breathe deeply and break out of the military mindset.

“I think that anyone who has been through the military is an expert at sucking up pain and functioning well under extreme stress,” Bagwhati said. “We try to make the class a place where you don’t have to fight anymore. I think it’s more challenging for most of us to calm down and let things go.”

Most of Yoga for Vets’ students are veterans of the Iraq and Afganistan wars, but there are Vietnam vets who participate and even a regular who served in WWII.  Spouses and family members are also eligible to participate in the free classes.

Morgan Cooley, a veteran of the war in Afghanistan and a regular participant in Yoga for Vets classes, says, "Yoga for Vets changed my life. I found the class just after returning home from Afghanistan. It showed me that medication wasn't the only form of therapy out there. Since I started yoga, my anxiety and stress levels went down and I felt a sense of peace I had never known."

Yoga for Vets NYC is online at yogaforvetsnyc 

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