You have to agree! I try and turn upside down as much as possible!

From the "When I grow up" series of cards by Camden Graphics on UKgreetings.co.uk

Yin Yoga

In “Yinsights” Bernie Clark says “While initially this style of yoga can seem quite boring, passive, or soft, yin practice can be quite challenging due to the long duration of the poses. We can remain in the postures anywhere from one to twenty minutes! Yin and yang tissues respond quite differently to being exercised. You need to experience this to really know what Yin Yoga is all about. After you have experienced it, even just once, you will realize that you have been doing only half of the asana practice.”

In 2005, I studied Yin Yoga with Paul Grilley and immediately started to incorporate Yin style Yoga into my own practice and teaching. On the physical level, a Yin Yoga practice is designed to focus on the connective tissue of the hips, pelvis and lower spine (These tissues are considered to be Yin tissues as opposed the Yang muscles) The postures are generally held three to five (and very occasionally up to twenty) minutes at a time, with most of the postures being practised on the floor. More significantly however, Yin Yoga invites us to become still. Stillness in the body, stillness in the breath and stillness in the mind are at the heart of this practice.

Yin Yoga as a style has evolved from Taoist Yoga (hence the term Yin) Paul Grilley studied with Yin Yoga originator Master Paulie Zink, who is quite emphatic that Yin Yoga as it is taught by teachers like Paul, is only one small element of a full Taoist Yoga practice which encompasses both Yin and Yang style practices.

Indeed, a balanced Yoga practice will embody elements of both. The reason I teach Yin Yoga as a discipline and perhaps the reason it has become so popular is that many popular styles of Hatha Yoga are practiced in a dynamic (Yang) fashion by western practitioners. Yin Yoga is the perfect complement to a Yang practice or lifestyle. You wouldn’t want to only ever do a Yin Yoga practice but it is the perfect balancing practice for those who do a lot of running around in their lives.

“One last bit of advice…”(again from Bernie Clark in Yinsights)

“…people love to do things that they love to do. Sounds obvious. Said another way, when you are in balance you will tend to keep doing things that keep you in balance. However, when you are out of balance, you will tend to continue to do things that keep you out of balance! Active people love to do active yoga. Calmer people (a nice way of saying less active people) love to do calming yoga. Don’t always practice what you love; practice what you need! Active people probably need Yin Yoga more than anyone else. Calm people probably need to do more yang practices more than anyone else.”

If you want to know more about this practice then there are still a couple of places left on the Yin Yoga Workshop on 8th August in Glasgow.

We have just returned from a week in and around Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire. And it turns out we picked a very good week to have a holiday in the UK- with temperatures up to 29 degrees! One of the things we did when we were away was to celebrate the Summer Solstice on 21st June. We got up at 4 am to watch the dawn and attended a midday Solstice meditation at the beautiful Chalice Well in Glastonbury. The Solstice celebrates the very height of Summer, when we are immersed in the active rays of the Sun at their highest point. Summer is the time of year when we honour the powerful and transformational gifts of fire, in all its guises.

in “The Gift of Fire” Glennie Kindred writes…

“We are Fire, The spark of the life-force. The initiator. Our conscious choice to set change into motion. We are the spark of inspiration and our imagination. Once we imagine something, it exists if we choose to give it life. We are free to change, to coose life-enhancing actions, to activate our inner sacred fire, to act on our YES! To find our joy and laughter! To be happy! To be spontaneous! To adapt and heal with conscious intent. We are the essence of free-will and action, the boldness to begin and the courage to live by our passions, our visions and our integrity.”

And on the theme of fire…

As you may know, I teach Yoga and relaxation for people living with cancer and work two days a week at Friends of the Beatson, based within the Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre up at Gartnavel. Along with the other staff and volunteers, I am taking part in a Firewalk on 3rd September to raise funds for the centre. I would be delighted if you would sponsor us to take part in this challenging event to raise money for such a wonderful (and essential) service. You can read all about Friends of the Beaton and the event on the website at www.friendsofthebeatson.org and sponsor us on our Just Giving page at http://www.justgiving.com/Tracey-Hardie

 It is wonderful when we find an opportunity to practise Yoga outdoors. We took advantage of a sunny morning in Colintraive last Wednesday to hold our 90 minute Yoga class surrounded by the trees and birds. We had a wonderful class. Whilst our Scottish climate does not always lend itself to a full-on al fresco asana experience, we can always take ourselves out into nature to just breathe or just be. To immerse ourselves in nature’s sounds and smells and to to be a part of that energy allows us to feel truly connected. And this is just as much a part of Yoga as practising Trikonasana in a draughty hall – maybe even more so!

I was reading an old notebook recently and found some notes I had made in 2008 which gave me a wonderful reminder of a BBC Natural World programme I had seen called “Earth Pilgrim”  with Satish Kumar. You may have seen it. If you are not familiar with Satish’s life and work  you can find our more about him from resurgence magazine, for which he is Editor and regular contributor. http://www.resurgence.org/satish-kumar

If you didn’t manage to see if, I would highly recommend it as an uplifting thing to do with a spare 50 minutes. You buy a copy of the DVD from Resurgence. The whole programme was a powerfully moving and inspirational reflection on our connection to our natural environment. Something he said in the programme struck a particular chord. He was discussing the idea of enlightenment and that to find it was to truly connect to the whole of nature. I am paraphrasing when I quote something that he said his mother used to say to him.

“TREES are the great teachers. The Lord Buddha himself found enlightenment sitting under a tree. This is why people today do not find enlightenment, they do not sit under a tree!”

IYN Midsummer Yoga Festival- Celebrating Diversity in Yoga

18th – 20th June 2010 at Osho Leela Centre, Dorset

Following on from the success of the 2009 Midsummer Yoga Festival the Independent Yoga Network are hosting another festival in June at the Osho Leela Centre in Dorset. This residential event is open to everyone and should prove to be a wonderful and uplifting gathering of Yoga teachers and practitioners from all over the UK and beyond.

Jude is hosting a Celtic Yoga workshop for the Summer Solstice during the weekend which will include some fantastic workshops from a host of other teachers and Yogis. You can find out full details, including the workshop programme, booking details and prices at www.namaskaram.co.uk

We would love it if you could include a trip to Dorset this summer to support the event and share in the wonderful sense of community with fellow Yogis.

For bookings and enquiries contact Ellen Lee, Festival Coordinator on 0208 9508622 or e-mail  festival@namaskaram.co.uk

“Yogash Chitta Vritti Nirodhah”  (Patanjali Yoga Sutra 1:2)

Whilst I have read and studied the Sutras and often refer to some of the key verses in my classes, I have never found the depth of guidance that others claim to have found directly from the teachings themselves. This is possibly because many translations of the classic text are terse (The Sutras themselves are brief)  and I have had to rely on long commentaries, or the guidance of a teacher (who is also a Sanskrit Scholar) to illuminate and those teachers are rare (around here anyway). However, I discovered recently with my teacher Mukunda Stiles, the power and emotional resonance of understanding and absorbing the meaning of a teaching from source. So I have made it my own Sadhana (practice) of late, to read and absorb the Yoga Sutras.  

The first four Sutras deal with the nature of Yoga. Essentially, what Yoga is and Sutra 1:2. “Yogash Chitta Vritti Nirodah” is the often quoted.  The basic translation, and the one that I first encountered is “Yoga is the control of the modifications (or fluctuations) of the mind.”  A simple statement of Yoga’s purpose and seemingly easy to understand. Yoga is about controlling the mind. I get it. Then, in this morning in class, I read  aloud a simple translation of the same Sutra which expands on the four Sanskrit words to suddenly offer a deeper and more profound illumination.

“Yoga means to still the whirling currents of the thoughts in the mind…The ability to discipline the chattering mind is what takes us to the state of Yoga.”

The State of Yoga. 

I understand the state of Yoga perfectly well because this is my experience of Yoga in my life and something I try and share in my classes. Yoga is not something we do. Yoga is. As Patanjali goes onto say, by controlling the mind, we touch our true essence, the Self.  The various practices bring us to the state of Yoga.

T.K.V. Desikachar comments on this Saying: “Contrary to popular perception that Yoga is something to do with executing postures, meaning that it deals with the physical body, Patanjali defines it as a state of mind that is attentive. This is the real definition of yoga, and tools like yogasanas and pranayama are suggested by Patanjali merely as a means to achieve this state.”

“If we are not fully ourselves, truly in the present, we miss everything.” Thich Nhat Hanh

I have made the decision to remove myself from Facebook and other social networking sites. Whilst there are a number of reasons I can give for the decision, it mostly comes from a deep, hearfelt urge that it is the right thing for me to do.  Perhaps it seems ironic when I wholeheartedly embrace other technologies –  I have a website, I use e-mail, I own a Blackberry and here I am posting my words on this blog out into the ether for anyone  to read- but Facebook leaves me feeling uncomortable and a little sad.

Human beings need connection. We are social animals who are nourished and upheld by our relationships with other people. It seems that social networking provides one  means of  providing connection for people in a world where technology is dominant and this is what encouraged me to embrace it when I joined.  Whilst  the awareness that the medium is open to abuse is one concern, I also realised  that it was starting to prevent me from connecting with people in a any real or genuine way. None of us, with the odd exception, were truly being ourselves.  As I log onto Facebook now  the screen is mostly  filled with the results of silly  quizzes and by people populating imaginary farms with virtual animals and it  fills me with a sense of something lost.

So, a very tiny gesture in a vast online world and one which few will notice but perhaps it will encourage me and my Facebook friends to continue to pursue our genuine connections offscreen in a way that nurtures the soul (and where we can share some real hugs!)

“For those who have an intense urge for Spirit: it sits with them, waiting.” (Patanjali Yoga Sutra 1:21)