Lizzie for Free : a yogi's blog
The Free State of LizSlowing Down
When I made the decision to change careers 6 years ago, I had a very different perspective on the world. At that moment in my life any job seemed that it would be less stressful than the one I was in, and I looked around me and was envious of those appearing not to be stressed. I was especially intrigued with those teaching yoga, imagining it impossible to be stressed in that type of job situation. I remember lying in bed in Amsterdam one Sunday afternoon looking out my enormous windows at the cyan sky watching the little white puffy clouds go by, thinking, if only this moment could last forever. A moment where I didn’t need to do anything; a moment where I wasn’t all consumed by my Very Busy Brain thinking fearfully about my Very Important Job.
Years later, as a yoga teacher, I know too many yoga teachers and therapists who are stressed, becoming increasingly busy with the small stuff: scheduling appointments, classes, workshops, retreats….consumed by the running of the business rather than creating space to slow down and lead by example. I should know, I have been one of them.
Only by injury and illness have I learned that space is necessary in the continuing path to wellness and evolution of the mindfulness practice of yoga. It seems to be a fine balancing act for all between work, play, a disciplined practice of asana and meditation, and time for family, which often doesn’t fit into any of these categories but is no less important.
The rhythm of life is one like the ebb and flow of the tide: constantly changing, consistent in its inconsistency, sometimes rough but flowing, other times calm to a point of intertia. We are all born to surf, going for it when a big wave comes yet doing our best to remain calm and fluid, not to get blown off the board when the wave is too great or to get sucked down when there is no dynamism at all.
Ida Rolf, the founder of the Rolfing technique, referred to this as adaptability and dynamic balance, two of the five principles of Rolfing. Adaptability meaning how flexible, how malleable we are in our bodies and in the circumstances of environment to change and morph to new conditions. Dynamic balance is in keeping with the yin/yang symbol–unifying opposites to create a balance physically, emotionally and mentally.
While Ive never actually managed to surf successfully,since I have been working on slowing down, making time each week to assess if I have enough time for work, play, practice and family, I have found a lot more time for everything. I feel more energised, and less defeated and frustrated at my lack of sense of accomplishment at the end of each day. Thank you, space! Here’s to slowing down for long enough to identify what your needs are and how to feel nurtured and whole.
Upcoming…In April and May
In less than a week I will be on a plane headed for Vancouver, BC, where I’m very honoured to have been asked to participate in the lululemon ambassador summit, a week where they bring together yogis from around the world to celebrate movement. I have no idea what to expect except fun, inspiration, yoga and a little homesickness (it’s the first time I will be away from my son for 6 days, and so far away!)
I will be blogging from the road and hope you follow the journey!
Before that, tomorrow, April 15th, from 11am-12pm I will be teaching a free class at the gorgeous, welcoming lululemon Chelsea showroom at 6 Burnsall St, Chelsea, just off Kings road. Show up EARLY to claim your spot as space is limited.
Then, on April 28th I will be leading a FREE class at Indaba Yoga Studio from 1-2pm, followed by a lululemon trunk sale, with lots of great yoga gear to choose from. Sign up as its expected to fill up!
Lastly, please join me for a very special class at Indaba from 6-7:15pm on May 17th, with LIVE MUSIC with Luc Acke from Belgium.
Stay tuned for more exciting news coming this summer.
When Joining Separates
At one point or another, we have all joined a bank, a company, a political party or a book club. Lets face it, subscribing to an organisation is almost a necessity in today’s world in order to function. While I’ve never been an much of a ‘joiner’, I have affiliated myself with groups and schools in the past and still do to some extent today. I love connecting to people who share passions, and savour opportunities to bring people together to make new connections, but in truth, there is something about an organization that leaves me feeling a little funny inside. Perhaps it’s the wearing of a label (though we all do wear various ‘tags’), the superficial fencing in of certain people versus other, the exclusivity, or the various forms of side agenda that may be more or less present depending on the organization. And then there are the politics. One of my dear friends and graduate professors once told me, “only hang out with, only work with people that celebrate you, that bring out your best and make you want to be even better.” If there was an organization that bottled that without all the additives, I’m pretty sure we’d all want to sign up.
Yoga, the state of ‘yoking’ or ‘union’, is the confluence of two things; when two things merge into one. This can happen when the small, individual self merges with the understanding of the universal, collective consciousness; when day becomes night, when the in breath becomes the outbreath, when the state of living transitions into the state of dying. Sometimes, when people seek a connection to others, they ‘join’. There are many things to join: gyms, book clubs, a yoga method or studio, a religion, you name it. But in the most traditional, purest sense of yoga, it’s not something you can ‘join’, rather, it’s something magical you can experience. Present day yoga, however, involving methods, expensive teacher trainings, dogma and heavily marketed yoga studios (not to mention yoga teachers ‘branding’ themselves) creates the potential for division when the original intention implicit in the word was union.
At a pinnacle time in my life, I remember being a philosophy student searching for meaning in the world. I enthusiastically studied the eastern religions, eager to discuss the similarities and differences, the things that resonated for me and the things that didn’t. Without knowing any better, I was “shopping” around for purpose. One day, my professor looked at me and said, “Lizzie, a religion doesn’t have to be something you adhere to or join. You can apply the principles of any religion to your own life and create something meaningful in your life that is all your own- your set of beliefs.” An idea so simple, yet so profound, as been what has shaped my ideas of the world, organised religions, and my yoga practice.
Yoga methods, school, teachers and studios are important and useful in providing insights about one’s individual path to experience yoga. However, if the student doesn’t know to ask questions, or isn’t aware not to take everything at face value, we may be in jeopardy in becoming isolated and separate in a world of others seeking comfort in their insecurity and ignorance by sticking together under a label. This unstable state of being forms cliques and supports ideas that one style, teacher, place, clothing is better than another. It is avidya at is finest hour. The aspirant in this state is a wonderful disciple, but separated from a much richer, more authentic path of union. Inquisition, the right to hold beliefs that are different from the group even while being a member, having a mind and a voice to speak out and up about ones own beliefs are such an important part of self expansion, creativity, and ultimate joy and freedom. Find the place where all these aspects of yourself can be celebrated and augmented, and never be afraid to go against the grain to question what is being taught and to try something new.
Caveat: I am a certified Jivamukti yoga teacher, a method that melds several types of yoga together on a backdrop of asana practice. I am proud of this lineage, I believe my teachers from this method to be two of the world’s talented, creative and generous teachers who have devised one the most thorough, well-balanced yoga teacher training programs available in the world today. However, I don’t subscribe to the idea of a ‘tribe’ within any one yoga school of yoga, nor do I consider myself a member of a specific yoga group. In fact, much of the desire to write a post such as this has been propelled by what I’ve witnessed within the constructs of organised yoga. As in any school of yoga, not all Jivamukti teachers are good, honest or compassionate teachers, and I don’t stand behind everything my teachers have ever said or done in the interest of yoga. They are human beings, and don’t profess themselves to be ‘gurus’. While I have been so blessed to find a handful of gracious, honest and down to earth teachers, the most valuable aspect of my yoga path has been enriched outside the doors of any one studio by the teachings of many, yoga teachers and non-teachers alike.
Say Om While Dying (or Die to OM)
om ity ekaksharam Brahma / vyaharan mam anusmaran
yah prayati tyajan deham / sa yati paramam gatim (BG VIII.13)
If one can remember while dying to utter OM, he/she will go to the supreme goal.
I was always a bit baffled by this verse in the Bhagavad Gita. I thought that Krishna would have said, “utter my name,” but instead he suggests to “utter OM” while dying. I have often heard many of my friends who are Krishna devotees say, “OM is for yogis or Vedantists,” not for Krishna bhaktas, and I have noticed that many of the Krishna mantras do not start with OM as do many of the other deity mantras. But interestingly enough, in the very next chapter, in verse 17, Krishna says, “I am the sound OM.” The sound of the Divine in its essential manifestation, is found in OM, in other words by saying OM you are saying God’s name. I think this verse is giving instruction for how to consciously pull one’s soul out of their physical body at the time of death with the potency of OM.
Krishna is known as the supreme yogi, and the best way to understand his teachings is to immerse yourself in the practices He suggests, as insight is more likely to dawn through experience. My guru Shri Brahmananda taught me to chant the bija mantras in relationship to the chakras. Because of his guidance I practice shavasana as a practice to prepare me for my own death. While lying on my back, I recite the bija mantras out loud, moving through the first six chakras, from the root (muladhara) to the third eye (ajna): LAM, VAM, RAM, YAM, HAM, OM. When I come to the sahasrara chakra I silently chant OM, and this silent chanting of OM acts as a profound launching of my awareness into an expanded reality. After that final OM there is a profound letting go of the physical body-all of the joints between the bones seem to unhinge, tension releases, and there is a feeling of great spaciousness -perhaps it is close to what I can only imagine and assume to be something like dying-my breath stops and along with it thought and sensation-I feel like I am floating bodiless-a freed spirit. This usually only lasts for a moment or so, but nonetheless it is quite extraordinary that the chanting of the bija mantras culminating in that final silent OM can facilitate an experience of kevalam kumbhaka-a spontaneous suspension of the breath and thought, classified in the Hatha Yoga Pradipika as a preliminary level of samadhi. For a short, almost timeless moment we can experience yoga-freed of all desire-feeling whole and complete, needing nothing. You don’t stop breathing in the normal sense, instead you become integrated with the breath to such an extent that there is no need to breathe, no need to grasp the breath and bring it “into you.” To be able to die with ease and a sense of direction is the definition of a good death.
Previous to that final silent OM, with each successive chanting of the bija mantras and focusing on the associated chakra and area of the body, I always feel like I am putting my life, via my body, in order. It is a “cleaning house” kind of feeling, where things that are no longer necessary are let go of and things that were out of place get put back and the “house” is more organized and spacious for it. It also prepares me for the silence of that final OM. I don’t think you can take the short cut ignoring the other chakras and mantras and just lie down and silently chant one OM and facilitate the same kind of experience. If you don’t believe me, just try it yourself. Lie down and inhale, then exhale with the sound of OM and see if the abbreviated experience is equal to the methodical process of moving up through the chakras, dropping each body part in successive order by means of the breath and mantra.
During the death process, each element leaves the body in an organized progression starting with the element of earth in the root chakra and moving upward into water, fire, air and then followed by more subtle forms of ether. The shavasana practice I describe above-the methodical process of successively moving upward consciously through means of the bija mantras-is a meditation on the dissolution of the elements that occurs naturally at the time of death to everyone, although it may occur more consciously to a yogi. This process is referred to in the previous verse in the Gita, where Krishna gives instruction by saying, “closing all the gates of the body and drawing the mind into the heart, then raise the prana into the head” (BG VIII.12). When the prana is in the higher chakras of the head, if we utter the sound of OM at that precise moment, we might be able to aim our soul’s flight out through the top of the head, the sahasrara or crown chakra, and reach our supreme goal-liberation. Shavasana, or corpse pose, can be a practice for that important moment, as the Mundaka Upanishad describes: “OM is the bow, the arrow is our own soul, Brahman is the target, the aim of the soul.”
For many practitioners of yoga, the time spent in shavasana is taken as a time to rest from the exertion of the asanas. But when the practitioner begins to investigate the significance of shavasana, he/she will realize that it provides a tangible opportunity to consciously practice dying and even to experience samadhi. When we practice dying, we can become liberated from the fear of dying, or abhinivesha, which is an obstacle to yoga, and move towards a good death and the ultimate attainment of the supreme goal, which is cosmic consciousness-maha samadhi, liberation from samsara-no need to take another birth.
-Sharon Gannon
Life Update, Where I’ve Been (!)
Oh how I miss the days of blogging. It feels like a long time since I’ve had the opportunity to sit down and put words to my experiences on and off the mat, on and beside the (massage) couch. But rest assured, transitions are happening.
FIrst, a new computer. After seven years, my wonderful computer has been passed on as the ‘family machine’. Translation: I can no longer update the software to a working order for my purposes and my somewhat less demanding two year old has found his way onto the keyboard. Yikes. Sadly, all of my files, music and applications are in a state of unravelling. A work in progress to transfer it all onto the latest gadget in my life.
Second, on the off chance that I am accepted AND find the time AND find the money to move forward with the Rolfing training, I’ve been busy working on a never ending application that has taken on a life of its own. I’m looking forward to either meeting, or missing the deadline in a few weeks. Time will tell…
Lastly, my son is at the wonderful, rich age of two and I’m more than officially in love. The weeks since we’ve returned from a rather disastrous holiday resulting in gastric flu and massive separation anxiety on his part, have been magical. He has not only regained any lost weight from a bad gastritis, but overcome the fear of separation, happily waving goodbye when we go our separate ways. Seeing your child flourish is the most happy gift one could receive, and for this I feel truly blessed.
So, until I get the application in, I hope to see you on or off the mat, on or off the couch, online or in real life, perhaps at Trafalgar Square with Thay on March 31?
The smells of spring, the sights of the budding trees are a beautiful reminder of temporal nature of all things, the potential for new life and inevitable decay. A reminder that the present moment is the only moment for living….
Customise your ride: practice safe, practice smart
how to strengthen your practice in any yoga class
In the midst of the yoga backlash of articles that mention the many ways yoga can harm your body, one of the key elements of the practice seems to be overlooked. Yoga is ultimately about empowerment and self-responsibility. Being with yourself on your mat, not concerned with the person next to you or what the teacher may be pushing you to ‘do’ with your body, is a big challenge for the ego, but an endeavor with large rewards. The truth is, only you know what is safe and available for your body on any given day, so developing skillful listening, listening to your breath, to your inner teacher, is essential to a safe practice.
This workshop will be challenging for any practitioner, perhaps physically, perhaps mentally, as we look at the role of habit patterns and the ego . We will deconstruct postures into their building block components to ensure that any class you go to is a chance to feel energized, positive and well balanced.
Investigation of standing postures, twists, balances, backbends and inversions will ensure that whatever practice space or class level you may find yourself in, you not only survive, but thrive.
3 hrs, 30£, early bird special price until 1 week before workshop.
April 1, 1-4pm
www.indabayoga.com
AVERSION TO INVERSIONS: a workshop
Sunday, 4th March 1-4pm
with Lizzie Reumont
As the late, great James Brown said, you gotta get down to get up!
This yoga workshop focusing on inversions will put the funk in your trunk as we work together to root into the earth first through our feet, then through our hands, to expand ourselves in all directions.
Inverted postures of yoga can be some of the most challenging, but also the most rewarding. This open level workshop invites the practitioner to take on the challenge of seeing things from a different vantage point and diminish the fear associated with turning our bodies (and minds) upside down. Becoming aware of the challenges, concepts and emotions that arise during the practice, we will work independently, with partners and in small groups to instil confidence and technical knowledge needed to practice inversions safely.
Reversing the aging process! Stimulate intuition and clarity! Become enlightened (or boogie down trying). But seriously, get over yourself (your ego, that is) and explore what happens when roots expand into wings…and you take flight.
This workshop is appropriate for those who have a fear of inversions as well as those who practice inversions regularly but could benefit in building a more stable foundation and proper alignment. We will focus on headstand (sirsasana), handstand (adho mukha vrksasana), forearm stand (pinchamayurasana), crow(bakasana), side crow(parsvabakasana) and flying pigeon (galavasana)
£30 for 3 hours
£25 earlybird before February 28th
20 Instructions for Life by The Dalai Lama
1.Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.
2. When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.
3. Follow the three R’s:
- Respect for self,
- Respect for others and
- Responsibility for all your actions.
4. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.
5. Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
6. Don’t let a little dispute injure a great relationship.
7. When you realize you’ve made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.
8. Spend some time alone every day.
9. Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.
10. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
11. Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and
think back, you’ll be able to enjoy it a second time.
12. A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.
13. In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don’t bring up the past.
14. Share your knowledge. It is a way to achieve immortality.
15. Be gentle with the earth.
16. Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before.
17. Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.
18. Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.
19. If you want others to be happy, practice compassion.
20. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.
Published January 3, 2012 at 2:20 PM
‘Gut Feeling’ is Second Brain at Work
By Sandra Blakeslee
The New York Times
Ever wonder why people get “butterflies” in the stomach before going on stage? Or why an impending job interview can cause an attack of intestinal cramps? And why do antidepressants targeted for the brain cause nausea or abdominal upset in millions of people who take such drugs?
The reason for these common experiences, scientists says, is because each of us literally has two brains, – the familiar one encased in our skulls and a lesser-known but vitally important one found in the human gut. Like Siamese twins, the two brains are interconnected, when one gets upset, the other one does, too.
The gut’s brain, known as the enteric nervous system, is located in sheaths of tissue lining the esophagus, stomach, small intestine and colon. Considered a single entity, it is packed with neurons, neurotransmitters and proteins that zap messages between neurons, support cells like those found in the brain proper; and a complex circuitry that enables it to act independently, learn, remember and, as the saying goes, produce gut feelings.
The brain in the gut plays a major role in human happiness and misery. But few people know it exists, said Dr. Michael Gershon, a professor of anatomy an cell biology at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York. For years, people who had ulcers, problems swallowing or chronic abdominal pain were told that their problems were imaginary, emotional, simply all in their heads. Gershon said. They were shuttled to psychiatrists for treatment.
Doctors were right in ascribing these problems to the brain, Gershon said, but they blamed the wrong one. Many gastrointestinal disorders such as colitis, and irritable bowel syndrome originate from problems within the gut’s brain, he said. And the current wisdom is that most ulcers are caused by a bacterium, not by hidden anger at one’s mother.
Symptoms stemming from the two brains get confused, Gershon said. “Just as the brain can upset the gut, the gut can upset the brain. If you were chained to the toilet with cramps, you’d be upset, too,” he said. Details of how the enteric nervous system mirrors the central nervous system have been emerging in recent years, said Gershon, who is considered one of the founders of a new field of medicine called neurogastroenterology.
Nearly every substance that helps run and control the brain has turned up in the gut, Gershon said. Major neurotransmitters such as serotonin, dopamine, glutamate, norepinephrine and nitric oxide are there. Two dozen small brain proteins, called neuropeptides, are in the gut, as are major cells of the immune system. Enkephalins, one class of body’s natural opiates, are in the gut.
And in a finding that stumps researchers, the gut is a rich source of benzodiazepines – the family of psychoactive chemicals that includes such popular drugs as Valium and Xanax.
In evolutionary terms, it makes sense that the body has two brains, said Dr. David Wingate, a professor of gastrointestinal science at the University of London and a consultant at Royal London Hospital. The first nervous systems were in tubular animals that stuck to rocks an waited for food to pass by, Wingate said. The limbic system is often referred to as the “reptile brain”.
As life evolved, animals needed a more complex brain for finding food and sex and so developed a central nervous system. But the gut’s nervous system was too important to put inside the newborn head with long connections going down to the body, Wingate said. Offspring need to eat and digest food at birth.
Therefore, nature seems to have preserved the enteric nervous system as an independent circuit inside higher animals. It is only loosely connected to the central nervous system and can mostly function alone, without instructions from topside.
This is indeed the picture seen by developmental biologists. A clump of tissue called the neural crest forms early in embryogenesis, Gershon said. One section turns into the central nervous system. Another piece migrates to become the enteric nervous system. Only later are the two nervous systems connected via a cable called the vagus nerve.
Until relatively recently, people thought that the gut’s muscles and sensory nerves were wired directly to the brain and that the brain controlled the gut through two pathways that increased or decreased rates of activity, Wingate said. The gut was simply a disgusting tube with simple reflexes.
Trouble is, no one bothered to count the nerve fibers in the gut. When they did, he said, they were surprised to find, that the gut contains 100 million neurons – more than the spinal cord has. Yet the vagus nerve only sends a couple of thousand nerve fibers to the gut.
The brain sends signals to the gut by talking to a small number of “command neurons”, which in turn send signals to gut interneurons that carry messages up and down the pike, Gershon said. Both command neurons and interneurons are spread throughout two layers of gut tissue called the myenteric plexus and the submuscosal plexus. (“Solar plexus” is actually a boxing term that refers simply to nerves in the abdomen.)
Command neurons control the pattern of activity in the gut, Gershon said. The vagus nerve only turns the volume by changing its rates of firing.
Reprinted at:
The Denver Post, January 23, 1996
Present and Embodied
Daily life in a big city can sometimes feel somewhere between a race, a juggling act and balancing on a high wire. The cacophony of sounds, smells, and visual stimulation can mean that the moment the mind kicks into gear, the body does its best to keep up, and this doesn’t allow for time to connect with the sensations in the body as we move through our daily life. As a result it can feel like the ground has been pulled out from under us – unstable, disconnected or just plain unaware of the relationship we have with our bodes throughout the day. As a result, the breath can become shallow, our posture held by tension, our physical actions on auto-pilot. Its no wonder that we live without a presence in the body, the mind holds so much tension there that it makes it an unpleasant place to be. But what does it mean, to not be present in the body?
When we find ourselves disassociated from the sensations in the body, unaware of the earth beneath us and the sounds, smells (and moving vehicles headers straight for us), we are not embodying the human experience.
What does it mean to be present and living in the body; to embody the human experience?
To Embody:(v)
To be an expression of or give a tangible or visible form to (an idea, quality, or feeling).
Provide (a spirit) with a physical form.
Synonyms: incarnate – personify – incorporate
We are organic, sentient beings with a great capacity to express joy and a matrix of other emotions. These emotions are then organised and critiqued by our minds that, when not controlled, can trump the senses, spiralling us out of our bodies and into another dimension; one where we miss all the clues that the universe offers us in connecting into ourselves. Whether we feel our heart racing due to fear, or peaceful and grounded in body and mind, if we don’t know how we feel in our body, we are more likely to injure ourselves in mindless ways. What is more detrimental is the potential for build up of emotional blockages in the body that manifest as physical stress patterns, in some cases even leading to disease.
Asana is a wonderful time to check in with oneself, in mind and in body. Rather than letting the mind wander during surya namaskar or picking at old nail polish in paschimottanasana, instead focusing on the sensations in the body, it becomes possible to explore how the body and mind interact. How does standing on one leg feel, and what happens to your thoughts when you fall, or master the posture? Sitting with bent knees, with feet open and hugging the hips do you feel open and joyous, or frustrated and stiff? Does standing on your hands make your heart race, or do your legs feel like lead? Asana practice holds so many important clues about what is happening emotionally if we are open to listening in.
Asana practice is not intended to injure the body, yet so many people end up pushing themselves beyond their boundaries because they aren’t living in the body. Instead, their minds govern how far they will push themselves for achievement, and often this ends in physical injury. These injuries can take months, sometimes years to heal.
Shtira Sukham Asanam, from book ii number 46 of the yoga sutras suggests that we should be stable and grounded, at ease in our seat. Our seat is ultimately our body, our mind, our relationships with ourselves and all of animate life. In a city, we can learn to stay present by checking in with our selves in the midst of the sensory experiences all around. How we feel in our bodies and our minds enables us to live more consciously with all other animate life forms, to connect with our emotions while settling the mind. We can embody a seat of stability and ease- all we have to do is slow the mind and be present, to take the time to bring ourselves back into our body.
