Tag Archive for: Training

The Unfolding of Yoga

Sometimes it just takes one small change to trigger a series of healthy transitions.

This is something Axis Yoga Teacher Training students have the chance to experience first-hand. The following student committed to adding a short Yoga practice to the morning routine and soon experienced the desire to make other healthy changes. This all resulted in better awareness of what the body needs and a commitment to continue making positive changes. Axis YTT students prove over and over again, every journey really does start with one small step!

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The Unfolding of Yoga: Starting Small

I have a tendency to aim higher than I can jump, so for my Ayurvedic experiment I decided to keep it simple. My goal: To do just ten sun salutations, the eight Kriyas, and some meditation every morning. This turned into other things as well – drinking water with lemon every morning, as well as meditating before bedtime and avoiding screen time in the hours of the evening. The hope: that my energy throughout the day would be more focused and that I would be able to use some of that energy to keep my life more organized.
I have always loved mornings, so setting aside time for me first thing in the morning has been lovely. I rearranged my room so that I have a place – a very small place, but still – to do my yoga and meditation, and, as a result my room stays more organized. My energy throughout the day is much more stable – part of that may also be due to the fact that I don’t usually feel like I need to drink coffee after my morning practice, so my caffeine intake has dropped severely. This doesn’t mean that at first I didn’t want to just keep drinking coffee anyways – but that I noticed I didn’t want it as much, and then made an active decision to stop consuming it. The same goes for alcohol – not that I was much of a drinker anyways, but it has come to my attention that even drinking on the weekends once in a while (which so much of our culture finds totally acceptable) is detrimental to the rest of your week.

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The Unfolding of Yoga: And Growing

Something else I noticed about having my own personal practice was that I felt more of the ‘side-effects’ of yoga than I do when simply attending classes. Although I attend some of the same classes week after week, they are never at the same time every day, and they usually don’t start until around nine in the morning. Not to mention the task of getting ready to leave the house- getting up and having my asana space there and ready made ‘getting to yoga class’ incredibly easy! Once I got into the rhythm of practicing every morning that is.
I will admit that at first I had trouble with that rhythm! And tried to rationalize myself OUT of doing my practice – well, I’ll go to class at nine anyways, or, I’ll just do it tonight after the gym, that counts, right? But after I started noticing how much more aware I was during the day, and how stable my energy was afterwards I wanted to practice more. And more and more things begin to grow out of this one little change – I wanted to stay away from TV before bedtime, I wanted to be outside more during the day, I started walking to the grocery store (which is so close to me I can’t believe I wasn’t walking there before) just to be out in the sunshine in the morning. I have always tried to be aware of my hydration, but through this practice I begin to drink a big glass of room temperature water with lemon in the morning, and to stay away from icy cold water during the rest of the day.

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The Unfolding of Yoga: Awareness and Intention

The fact that this one little change could make me feel all that – and become so much more aware – makes me want to keep doing experiments and definitely makes me want to share the practice of Ayurved with others. It was such a small, simple change, and it only took about twenty to thirty minutes from my day. Due to the asana and meditation practice, I believe I have become more aware of what my body is telling me, and more accepting of what it has to say. An open ear and an open mind when listening to our bodies is key, and this practice has helped me attain more of that. I have every intention of continuing with this practice and I have a feeling that I will want to add to it as time goes on.

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Latest and Greatest: OBSERVATION

Over the years since I have moved to Colorado’s dry climate, I have observed a seasonal rash develop in the spring and early fall seasonal transitions. This rash has typically been isolated to both of my upper and lower limbs and appears to be similar to hives and very itchy .Itching does worsen the rash. Only in rare instances when the rash is severe has it moved to my abdomen, hands, and buttocks. I have always attributed this rash to the arid climate in which we live, and dryness (dehydration) within the body. I have taken an evening primrose and fish oil supplement for years to help balance hormones and help with PMS. It has now occurred to me (with my recent acquisition of Ayurvedic knowledge) that this rash could be attributed to more than just external environment. I now attribute this rash to seasonal changes and also a doshic imbalance. It seems when pitta is high, the rash is worse. I have done extensive research in the past about eczema, and have attempted to utilize some natural cures including; essential oils, different moisturizing lotions, coconut oil, sugar scrubs, coffee scrubs, proper diet, and exercise to help manage stress levels (the rash seems to be worse when intense stress is present).

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Experimenting in Gratitude

Achieving more happiness through gratitude is a well-documented concept these days. But that doesn’t make it any less worthy of an experiment. In fact, what an improvement to the world it would be if we all experimented with more gratitude in our daily routine. That is what this Axis Yoga Teacher Training student did for the Ayurveda portion of the course. Each student experiments with a chosen Ayurvedic concept to see how it effects their daily lives. While the results may not be surprising, they are certainly exemplary.

 

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Experimenting in Gratitude: Observation and Hypothesis

Observation: I have a tendency to rush, taking moments, meals and other aspects of my days for granted, which leaves me feeling stressed, impatient and out of balance.

Hypothesis: Beginning my day with a gratitude practice and weaving gratitude into my daily routine (with mindful eating and a bedtime gratitude practice), would help me slow down, appreciate what I have, and process experiences (including meals) in a more balanced way.

 

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Experimenting in Gratitude: Structure

I. Begin each day with the following prayer (from my spiritual tradition) by the Dalai Lama:

Every day,

think as you wake up:

Today I am fortunate to have woken up.

I am alive.

I have a precious human life.

I am not going to waste it.

I am going to use all my energy to develop myself,

to expand my heart out to others,

to achieve enlightenment for

the benefit of all beings.

I am going to have

kind thoughts towards others.

I am not going to get angry,

Or think badly about others.

I am going to benefit others

as much as I can.

II. Consider, before eating, what exactly I am eating (i.e ingredients, potential doshic impact, source, the food’s process of arriving on my table) and express gratitude for it. Chew thoroughly with awareness.

III. Before bed, consider my day and things for which I am grateful.

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Experimenting in Gratitude: Results

Daily routine, gratitude, and deliberate (i.e. mindful) eating are all prescribed in Ayurveda for helping create or restore balance. It felt important to me, in designing my experiment, to start at the very beginning of my daily routine and thread the experiment throughout my day, while keeping it simple and avoiding adding too much to my to-do list. I found the design effective towards these ends.

The Dalai Lama’s prayer, mentioned above, is one I find beautiful and manageable. In past years I would start my day reciting it, which helped give meaning and direction to my morning, but recently, until this experiment, I had fallen out of the practice. At first, resuming the recitation felt like reuniting with an old friend, bringing me joy and ease as I reconnected with the lines, but I noticed that it soon became easy for me to skim over the words. For this reason, I chose to deepen the practice by saying the prayer twice each morning, focusing very deeply (often pausing) on one line the second time through, and considering that section of the prayer to be my intention for the day. This was helpful in the moment as it helped me contemplate the words and their particular relevance to me, and to develop insight. For example, I felt an energetic longing to expand my heart to others. The effect of the intention throughout my day was much more subtle; sometimes I forgot it altogether. Most notably, the day I worked with letting go of anger towards others, I became aware of a choice, the moment after my anger sparked, regarding whether or not I would feed it; this was both empowering, and a relief.

The mindful/appreciative eating was the most challenging part of the experiment for me. I was aware that eating is an emotional process for me, but I did not anticipate the level of resistance I felt to mindful eating. I generally enjoyed feeling more connected to the ingredients and sources of my food, but I truly struggled to slow down my eating. In fact, I felt inclined to eat more and faster during the experiment, and often had the experience of “eating my stress”, so to speak. An exception to this was the day we did a vata-pacifying asana practice in class. I had a snack afterwards, and had no trouble slowing down—in fact, I preferred it. This led me to suspect that the more out of balance I am in the direction of vata dosha, the more inclined I am to eat emotionally. Interestingly, knowing this did not reduce my resistance to mindful eating during my experiment. I think that I tend to abuse vata imbalance to get things done when I get overwhelmed or behind on my obligations, and I am neurotically reluctant to let this go. In psychological terms, I use mindless eating to cope, and I need some replacement approaches as well as stress-reduction to help me relinquish such coping.

The evening gratitude practice was a simple and effective way for me to look back on my day, or even into the present moment, through the lens of appreciation, which felt good—grounding, relaxing and accurate. It also cut through some of the inane ruminating I was doing as I went to sleep at night.

 

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Experimenting in Gratitude: Conclusion

I feel that my experiment was successful in slowing me down in general and in increasing my awareness—one, of things I appreciate and two, of how I cultivate doshic imbalance. I plan to continue with the morning and evening gratitude practices and with cultivating awareness of the ingredients and sources of my food, while allowing for a gentle, gradual process of eating more mindfully.

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