Om is where the heart is...

In Teacher Training class last night, one of our cohort asked about "Om" as an opening to a yoga practice.  "Do we *have* to Om?", she asked.  Thankfully, the answer was, "No....", but you could tell the next suggestion was going to be "but it would be nice if you did....."
As someone who has taken the bulk of my yoga classes over the last 8 years in a gym setting, with mixed-levels, and 55 minute classes, "Om" hasn't really been part of my practice.  Very rarely is Om chanted in this type of setting.  Don't get me wrong, I don't mind Om-ing - When a teacher at the studio starts or ends her practice with an Om, I happily join right in.  I just don't think I'm at the place yet, as a teacher, where I am comfortable leading the start of my class with an Om.  Oh, and then there's the fact that the class that I teach is a free 30 minute class afterschool in middle school where I work.  I've barely gotten up the courage to touch my colleagues during posture assists, let alone ask them to chant with me.  Plus, the class is just 30 minutes...Ain't nobody got time for that!
Even still, just because I'm not there "now", doesn't mean that I'll never do it.  I'll admit to practicing the Om in the shower (at our Teacher Trainer's suggestion!), and it doesn't sound so bad.  I know that a yoga practice is about establishing a mind-body- spirit connection, and Om definitely helps to foster that.  I just think I need a little more time.

"...beginning our practice with an Om:  Inhale deeply.....and.....Ooooooohhhhhhmmmmmmmmmmm" - me, in the shower.

I got a ticket and it's BU115H!T!

I'm sure Victoria Beckham could talk her way out of
a speeding ticket! (I hope I looked this good getting mine!)

Say WHAT?  A "Yoga Blog" and you're calling B-S on something?  Where's that in your Yamas and Niyamas?  Well, truthfully, if I had been concentrating better on following the speed limit (it was set a ridiculously low 25MPH) instead of happily zipping around town, feeling good about all the errands I was getting done, I may have avoided all of this consternation.  I fully admit that it is my fault, and now I'm suffering the slings and arrows of outrageous MIS-fortune!

Rewind several weeks.  My 5-series is having electrical problems - several times per week the on-dash computer asks to reset the clock, I get warnings that the car's 4x4 drive is malfunctioning and my braking distances are somehow compromised.  It's frustrating, so I decide to take the car in and have it looked at.  I have a great service center, I must admit.  The center will provide you with a loaner car while your car is being fixed, and once your car IS fixed, they make sure to wash and vacuum it.  Suffice it to say, my car always comes out better looking than when it went in.  This particular time, they provided me with a 3-series as my loaner.  It's a bit smaller than my car, but it has pretty much the same engine, so it goes f-a-s-t.  So fast, that I don't even realize that I'm speeding. Or at least, that was the case that fine winter day...

For a variety of reasons, I ended up taking a personal day on the day that I scheduled my service appointment.  I had lots of errands to run, and I am in the middle of yoga teacher training, so I figured I might be able to knock out a few of the classes that are held during the day.  I was planning on doing a "double" - 2 classes in one day.  I dropped my kids at school, made it to the morning yoga class, and tried to squeeze in some errands back near home before the early afternoon class.  In my yoga-induced state of bliss, I apparently zoomed off down the road. According to the officer, I was doing 50mph in a 25zone.  Silly me, my defense was "I drive this way all the time!"...meaning that I take this route regularly, never noticing that the limit was 25 (especially when I am just keeping up with all the other cars on this road!).  When it's written up on a ticket, though, it sounds like I'm admitting to being some speed maniac who daily drives twice the speed limit.  I had a defense:  this isn't my car, and I'm unfamiliar with its "pickup".  It was the truth.  The officer wasn't buying it.  I needed to admit my guilt, sign the affidavit, and await the judgement.

The judgement came:  $250, payable by money order or credit card only.  Ugh.  Can't I just write a check?!?  It is a pain to get a money order, so I paid by credit card.  Yippee...paying online garners you a $5 convenience fee.  I have to find time to go and pay in person, because in the interest of identity fraud, I'm not mailing my credit card info.  FINALLY, I pay the fine, await my hefty credit card bill, and figure that my ordeal is over.  Ha ha... fat chance.  I get a $25 meter ticket the very next week.  Same deal.  Pay in person.  I'm SO over this law-breakin' streak.

I now am SURE to drive 24mph on that road, much to the road-raging frustration of every single car lining up behind me.  I enviously watch the cars in front of me, speed away, secretly hoping the copper pulls out of some side road, like he did for me, letting them know that the speed limit is 25 and the Town of Eastchester will NOT stand for that.  But they never get stopped, and the line behind me gets longer and longer.  Still, I don't care.  I am not going to break the frickin' $250 speed limit law.

But the good old department of Motor Vehicles is not done with me yet.  No, sir!  Today, I receive a notice in the mail that I have accumulated 6 points on my license as a result of this incident.  Super!  Now my insurance will be going up.  The New York State DMV also assesses a fee of drivers who accumulate 6 or more points on their driving record within 18 months.  Yes they do.  This fee is $300 for 3 years, payable in 3 yearly installments of $100 each.  So now my $250 ticket has turned into a $550 ticket, in addition to any increase in Insurance premiums.  I might be mis-reading this, but according to the fine print, it appears that if this were a drug or alcohol related incident, I would be assessed $250.  Where is the justice in THAT?!?

So, yes, readers, this SUCKS. I'm trying to put this unfortunate event behind me, and New York won't let me.   Fair warning, my friends:  don't speed in Eastchester, NY.  And if you're behind me, and I'm going too slow for you, Mr. Speedy McLeadfoot, don't you dare honk at me.

My experience as a "Yoga Maid"

Over the course of this week's Teacher Training sessions, we have been learning about the art of "Assisting" yoga postures.  We had a 6-hour session about it on Sunday and a 3-hour session about it last night (Wednesday).  It certainly was interesting, and borderline one of the most useful things we have learned thus far in our training.

Assists are those juicy little pushes and adjustments the yoga teachers offer during practice.  When done properly, they feel wonderful and help the yoga student to really experience what a posture's full expression feels like.  Basically, the teacher guides you into the pose so you get an idea of what you're supposed to be doing.  In class, the assisting teacher was nicknamed "Yoga Maid" because we truly were waiting on our students, offering props, support in the posture, and adjustments to enhance each posture.  As a bonus, during my time as a "yoga maid", I found myself taking a lot of asana stances just to protect my own body while assisting.  When it was my turn to be a student, I saw that it was a full practice for me, but with not as much work, because my "yoga maid" did a lot of the effort in the poses.   When a teacher assists a posture, he/she is also getting in a tiny workout.

The only problem is that in reality, the adjustments are few and far between.  Why is that?  The most likely reason is that perhaps the yoga class is large and the teacher doesn't have time to get to each student during a posture where they might need adjustment.  Then there is the factor of actually touching people you don't know.  It IS an art because a yoga teacher has to be sensitive his/her students' personal space, knowing how hard or soft to adjust a pose.  I got a fierce case of the giggles during class last night because some of the adjustments place student and teacher in compromising postions (see picture above - and that's a "tame" one!).  Usually, the student is face down or facing away from the teacher, so he/she doesn't realize how close the teacher's face (or other body parts!) are.  In Savasana, lying on your back with your eyes closed, it might be startling to open your eyes and find your teacher straddling you for the sake of adjusting your shoulders.  It feels wonderful, though, so keeps those eyes closed, and allow your teachers to adjust away!

And what did I learn from this experience?  There's no room for "shyness" when it comes to being a yoga teacher.  I'm going to have to touch people.  People whom I don't know.  It might be a little weird, but now that I've experienced it, I know it will really enhance their yoga practice, and maybe even get them coming back for more!  Students might busy themselves with their own practice, not worrying about how the teacher is making the poses more supported, deeper, and more relaxing.  Just enjoy the ride!

"To be great, feel great, act great." - teabag wisdom

Was Albert Einstein a Yogi?

image by FineArtAmerica.com

What do you think?  Does he look like a yogi?  Well, I've already blogged about it before, and we all know that looks can be deceiving.  But Einstein...?

In History and Philosophy, we have been reading and studying the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, which outline the Ashtanga, or "8-limbed" path of finding enlightenment.  The first 5 limbs are guidelines that help you to deal with the physical aspects of "being".  For example, they instruct on the importance of breathing, of relating to the world, of being yourself, of posture.  Isn't it interesting that Asana, or yoga postures, the thing we most associate with "Yoga", is only one limb on this path?  I've spent 10 weeks observing the Yamas and Niyamas, I've been doing Asana (oh BOY have I been doing asana!), I've been breathing, and I've been studying.  Now it's time to focus on the last 3 limbs.

The last 3 limbs are sequential, hierarchical.  They must be practiced in order:  you begin with concentration (Dharana).  Once you concentrate, you can start to meditate (Dhyana).  Only after you've established uninterrupted concentration, can you achieve the deep state of peace, knowledge, and inter-connectedness that is known as Samadhi.  What does this have to do with Einstein?

In class this week, our teacher used him as an example of Samadhi, because he became "one" with his complete and total knowledge of the atom.  As a science teacher (but not a physicist), this was a "WOW" moment for me.  I agreed - he was someone, if there ever was anyone, who was completely absorbed in the knowledge of particle physics.  I understood exactly what she meant - that he had such a deep state of knowledge about something that he was Samadhi...but his area of knowledge is about the universe, so this suggests that he was one with the universe.  That's pretty darn mind-blowing.

This, of course, begged my question about whether or not he himself identified with and attributed his knowledge and experience to a yoga practice. I emailed my teacher, and she succinctly said "No.", but the thought of it tickled me.  Some beings who achieve Samadhi are so enlightened that they leave their human forms permanently.  Others dip in and out, and continue to interact among those of us who are "lesser" forms of ourselves.  We might call them "Gurus".  Seeking them out and trying to learn from them is where the devotion to a guru comes from, but ultimately, it's something you need to work on by yourself.  Concentrate, meditate, and experience Samadhi.

Was Einstein "Om-ing" away on his tuffet, concentrating on atoms, coming up with E=mc2?  Was he the guru to budding astro-physicists? Who knows.  Let's just say that not much surprises me these days.  Too bad he's not around anymore to ask.  Maybe he's left his human form, and is out there enjoying Samadhi.

"Everything which is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labour in freedom" - Albert Einstein