The Yoga Blog

Six Degrees of John Cusack

Yesterday I was playing Procrastination Girl at work, and saw that Washington Post advice columnist Carolyn Hax had done a wedding-related column earlier in the day.  I don’t usually read that sort of thing, but since I was a) procrastinating; and b) wedding-planning while procrastinating, I thought I’d take a peek.  And there was one gem in and amongst the blah-deh-dee-blah, which actually cannot be attributed to Carolyn herself, but to an oft-quoted and well-loved figure, and which I thought had some beauty vis-a-vis yoga practice, and it being Friday.  So, courtesy of Carolyn Hax of the WaPo, but out of the mouth of Lloyd Dobler, aka John Cusack, aka, Nice Guy Who Finishes Somewhere Near the Front of the Line:

“You must chill.  You must chill.”

Full Circle

Allow me to present an interesting–to me, at least–follow-up to some of my previous posts on exercise and on anger.  When posted, they didn’t necessarily have anything to do with each other.  But I’ve been observing some interesting stuff…  As mentioned in the exercise post, now that I’m deeper into yoga study, I rarely go to the gym or do aerobic exercise.  Which is nice in a lot of ways, as it had become a real chore to think about scheduling in gym time.  And while many times I felt better afterwards, there were increasingly times that I didn’t feel very good during or after my workout.  (I think I was experiencing mild panic attacks on the elliptical trainer, actually!)  Anyhoo, later came my post on anger and irritation, and how I’ve been experiencing this a lot recently.  Granted, I am a Pitta, so I guess anger/irritation can somewhat come along with the territory (when provoked).  Add to this the fact that we’ve been in the high heat of summer, when Pitta is at its meatiest point.  One plus one equals two, duh.  In and amongst all of this observation of my emotional state is that I have also been frequently feeling a prickly, icky heat and sweat in my face, which I’ve chalked up to an anger/Pitta  imbalance.  Ok.  Facts laid out.  So, last Friday, I went to the gym and hung out on the elliptical trainer listening to fun music and reading silly magazines for nearly an hour.  Just a few minutes into it I was like, aw, yeah, this feels GOOD.  And I tell you, up until yesterday, when some things occurred that tickled my irritant hot spots, I hadn’t experienced the face sweat thing.  So, sometimes aerobic exercise may be just the energy-moving block that does the trick.  Sweet!  Free therapy!

Asana, the gateway drug

At the end of our teacher training program this summer, we have to write a paper on: What Is Yoga? Just a bite-size topic, really.

Over the course of the past several months, I’ve thought a lot about why I started doing yoga. I saw it on TV while I was a stressed-out high school student, feeling ill most of the time for no medical reason, and something about it drew me in. I was never an athlete by any stretch of the imagination, but the poses looked inviting. So I bought a paperback at the B. Dalton’s bookstore at my local mall, “Richard Hittleman’s Yoga: 28-Day Exercise Plan.” Subtitled: “A dramatically different four-week exercise plan that unlocks the secrets of a lifetime of health, beauty and profound peace of mind.” It looks like it was first published in 1969. I did some of the poses (illustrated by a slim blond white chick) but was intimidated by many of them. I took a class in college, and it went from there over the years.

The spiritual side was always in the background, depending on the teacher, but usually diffuse. Even today, while learning more about the sutras and other elements that have contributed to what we think of as yoga, it seems that the practice is a real smorgasbord, for better and worse. If and when I get around to a new book I recently bought called “Yoga Body: The Origins of Modern Posture Practice” by Mark Singleton, I’ll read about, the cover says, how there is no evidence in the Indian tradition for the fitness-oriented asana practice we know today. The thesis is that modern yoga is rooted in Indian nationalism, bodybuilding and Western gymnastics. *Discuss.*

I’ve known some folks who came to asana practice only after exploring the spiritual side, such as through meditation, and I wonder whether this is an increasing trend. Or do most Westerners start exploring yoga first through the body, then the mind and heart? Or is it an even split?

Which brings me to body issues. I’m just winding down (or winding back up?) after a week of vacation. One of the books I read is a funny memoir about hypochondria, “Well Enough Alone” by Jennifer Traig. While describing her OCD-like fixations with diseases real and imagined, she gives an interesting history of not just hypochondria but also dentistry and, to a degree, the medical field. As someone who does yoga, experiencing my body on a visceral level and learning about how it works, trying to come to terms with everything I hate about it (I was put on a diet by my pediatrician in about the 6th grade — is it any wonder why I have self-esteem issues?), I can relate to how a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing. The book posits that people have been trying to come to terms with the mind-body connection for centuries, with the word “hypochondria” dating to Hippocrates in the 4th century BCE. (It’s also interesting to me that ahimsa is a lot like part of the Hippocratic oath, first do no harm.) Anyway, hypochondria was at first associated with mood-related stomach trouble, then later with sleeplessness, irritability and malaise. I could reach for a metaphor about the gut, but you get the idea. If only these people had yoga! Or did they? One could also argue that such issues are problems of more privileged classes, rather than, say, hunter-gatherers, but that’s another story.

So as my husband and I drove back home from the beach, I tried to loosen the vise that was tightening around my chest and the knot that was forming in my stomach in anticipation of returning to real life and its more stressful obligations. A teacher with whom I’ve done a few workshops calls asana the “bait” that lures many of us to yoga, the practice of which is ultimately (he says) about the revelation of the self and fulfillment of dharma. Mostly, I just want to feel better — in my body and about my body, but also on a deeper level that allows me to live more fully and truthfully. Nearly 30 years ago, when I bought that cheesy paperback, I must’ve known that yoga held this promise.

What my shoulders tell me

I was on a long vacation recently — 10 days — abroad with my family. We planned a little excursion across Europe but ended up “stranded” in Paris thanks to that lovely little gift from Iceland, the ash cloud. Stressful at the time, no doubt, but a pretty funny story to tell for years to come.

Yesterday, I finally got around to uploading the video from our trip. As I watched the clips upload, I noticed something so interesting, something the pre-yoga me would not have seen. My shoulders started to inch up. And up. With each passing day. By day 10 of the trip, my shoulders are practically touching my ears!  A confession: I did NO yoga in Europe. And wow, my shoulders were telling.

In class and in my home practice, I am constantly thinking about my shoulders. I am not a fan of shoulder stand, especially not since my return stateside (no wonder!). But finding that space between your earlobes and your shoulders, it releases so much tension. We all hold stress in different places at different times, though I imagine the shoulders creeping up is quite common for most of  us. Seeing it in pictures was a rude awakening. Next family trip, I am packing my mat before I pack anything else!

liana may 30 sequence

Meditation