Oh dear. I somehow managed to ignore most of the uproar over William Broad’s “How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body” in the NYT. I didn’t really get his point, as it seems like a no-brainer. You can hurt yourself doing any physical activity, and that’s why you’re selective about what yoga you do and classes you take (right?!). And even then, you still might get hurt. Some might even argue that’s part of the practice. Are NYT readers really so stupid that they believed, before Broad, that yoga is a flawless transmitter of purity and health? I hope not. And as a journalist, a Pulitzer-winning science journalist, can’t he make that point without exaggerating figures and asserting that correlation is causation? Or is everyone so desperate to sell these days that responsible journalism goes out the window?

(Leslie Kaminoff has a good video review of Broad’s new yoga book. I don’t entirely agree with the review, but I do recommend.)

But now I am flummoxed. Broad has turned to history to perpetuate his inaccuracies, and that bothers me (science has enough defenders). The yoga world has enough problems with historical accuracy, particularly with teachers and practitioners who’ve accepted myth as fact—without the likes of William Broad joining their ranks. And because for a dreadful number of bourgeois Americans, “If it’s in the NYT, it must be true,” this article is bound to have truly annoying ramifications for thoughtful yogis the world over.

To be fair, the history of yoga is complicated and full of long, question-filled gaps. There is no evidence of a continuous history. And so, there’s plenty to argue about regarding what actually happened. But it’s fairly safe to say that sexual practices in Tantra are rare, and are/were practiced by the fringe. More importantly, they were not practiced, as Broad asserts, to have a rocking good time, but to cultivate awareness. Pleasure was not the goal, but an avenue to more intense levels of awareness. A bit like the way Gandhi slept with naked young women to test his chastity. (Well, actually not like that, but it did come to mind.)

The central medieval text, and the oldest known text on hatha yoga, the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, states that if “the body is healthy, bindu [semen] under control, and appetite increases, then one should know that the nadis are purified and success in hatha yoga is approaching.” (Ch.2: Pranayama, section 78).

Further, I’d venture to guess that Tantric practices are historically and perhaps currently much more common than hatha yoga. Take, for example, the Dalai Lama. He’s a practitioner of tantra. Is he screwing about ritually or otherwise? (Though his school, the Geluks, are known to visualize.) In fact, the misconception of Tantra as a chiefly sexual practice is sometimes referred to as “California Tantra.”

If you are interested in more about just how wrong Broad is about Tantra, Sanskrit scholar, Christopher Wallis, has called him out in a post on Flow Magazine. And Maia Szalavitz at Time magazine takes down the scientific studies he uses to back his argument.

When I first read the article, I wondered why the science wasn’t reported as a good thing, framed as “Dump your viagra and take some yoga! Become emotionally closer to your partner without even trying!” Instead, it’s some pseudoscientific reasoning for gurus’ poor behavior? In any “spiritual” group where numbers of young people give up their agency to a man who is revered and somewhat famous is going to have problems regardless of the premise of the group. I think that’s psych 101. Who’s really surprised? Why the need to fake history, quote some questionable studies, and patronize yogis’ lack of knowledge about the roots of their craft (when he can’t be bothered to research it himself)? Very bizarre.

My favorite bit, and the most amazing part of the article, is the last line:

“But perhaps — if students and teachers knew more about what Hatha can do, and what it was designed to do — they would find themselves less prone to surprise and unyogalike distress.”

Why? Broad’s agenda. His new book, The Science of Yoga, is basically an argument for regulating the yoga industry by making it part of the medical industry. (Shudder.) Like Kaminoff says, Broad has a lot of trust in the government’s ability to regulate, not to mention trust in the medical industrial complex. What is so gorgeous about this science journalist’s last line is that by saying, “and what it was designed to do” he implicitly argues that the mystical yogis circa the 14th century knew how to increase their sex drives by designing yoga poses that did so. Now how, Mr. Broad, did they have the scientific knowledge to do that?

And were they properly regulated?

Science? Crackpotism.  (Not the yogis. Mr. Broad.)

A big thank you to my former student Joel Bordeux for his opinion on the matter. He added that it’s impossible to know how common sexual practices in Tantra were because it was a secret practice:

I share your suspicions here. If pressed I’d say the vast majority of what we think of as ‘tantra’ does not involve sexual practices. Not all tantric traditions directly advocate them and within those that do, they’re supposed to be the preserve of a select few adepts.

However. It’s quite impossible to say with certainty how much ritual hanky panky ever actually happens, since it’s supposed to be top secret. So we have a situation where people who keep those traditions generally rationalize it away or claim to practice a modified version of the ritual where they either visualize (e.g. monks of the Dalai Lama’s geluk sect) or substitute out (e.g. Sri Vidya practitioners in South India) the offending elements.

 

You practice yoga.
We practice Ashtanga.
Like Madonna.
Used to.
We still do.
Ouch.
We do our practice and all is coming.
Om. Tat. Sat.

- by Kiki Flynn

Over a year ago I designed a class for insomnia, because a number of students asked what could help them sleep. I did a bit of research, but for the most part I offered what had helped me the most. Sometimes a pose just shifts me out of monkey mind toward slumber. I just did a bit more research online and there are all sorts of recommendations, including some sequences with poses (especially backbends) I would never do at night, much less before sleep. But we’re all different. Below is a series of what has worked for me.

These poses are all take or leave. You don’t have to do them all, in fact, you could just choose one or two and hold them for a few minutes. If you know you hold in a certain area, choose a pose that will help you release there. If you aren’t sure, ask. Choose poses you enjoy so that you aren’t fighting with yourself before bed.

If insomnia is a problem for you, your habits around bedtime are important. First, you should have a bedtime. Seriously. If you drop in bed when you can’t hold your head up in front of the computer anymore, but your mind is still reeling, you won’t sleep. You need to set a reasonable time to retire and commit to it. I try to be ready for bed an hour before that time, and get in bed with a book. You don’t have that time? Log out of facebook. You have time. Electronic devices, news, stimulating TV and movies, even stimulating music can keep us from settling down. So, an hour or two before bed, unplug. Then try this series.

• Start with a few optional sun salutation As. Don’t jump though. Step forward and back. Do no more than three.
• Lie on your belly for salabhasana (locust pose), but in this variation, don’t lift your chest. Only your legs. Lower and repeat once, holding until you feel a bit tired.
• Relax for 10 to 30 breaths, feeling your front body move against the floor as you breathe.
• Press back to balasana (child’s pose). Stay here as long as you like.
• Roll up and take a few long forward bends. Forward bends calm the mind and start moving your awareness inward. If you feel fidgety or anxious, just keep drawing your awareness back to your breath, and deepen it. Don’t engage the muscles as much as you would in an active class. Try to relax and let go. The longer you stay in the pose, the quieter you will become.

1. Paschimottanasana (seated forward bend) with a few pillows or blankets on your lap or under your knees to make it restorative
2. Janu sirsasana (head-to-knee(ish) forward bend), also with lots of pillows, and/or
3. Tarasana (diamond pose)

• If, and only if, you have a strong sirsasana (headstand) practice, do it. If you aren’t totally there, skip it for now.
• Sarvangasana (shoulderstand): As Geeta Iyengar notes in Yoga: A Gem for Women, “Sarvangasana and its variations are useful for developing a healthy mind. The nervous system is calmed and one is freed from hypertension, irritability, nervous breakdown, and insomnia. They are a boon for combating the stresses and strains of our daily life. They give vitality and self-confidence.” So this is your moment. Hold for 25 breaths to 5 minutes. Then lower the legs for plow.
• Halasana (plow). This pose is a miracle for insomnia. It’s one of the two poses that just shift something for me and in comes the Sandman. If your feet do not reach the floor, rest them on a bed or chair. Do not let your legs dangle. That is not restful and you deserve better.
• Roll out of plow as gracefully as possible and if you are not ready for sleep, try a restorative pose or two. Supta Baddha Konasana (supine bound angle pose) is nice and can be done in bed. Use blankets or pillows under your knees.
• Supta Virasana (supine hero pose) is the other miracle pose for me (keep in mind, I might hold differently than you, but for me, it works). I think it’s the quad stretch, but this pose helps me sleep. Be VERY VERY careful with your knees. Use a bolster or pillows under your back and a block under your butt. DO NOT do the pose if you feel any knee strain. Just don’t. Hold 25 breaths to 5 minutes. Then take a slow, quiet down dog to iron you out.
• Supta Matsyendrasana (Supine spinal twist) — our classic closing twist, any leg variation you like.
• Savasana (corpse pose) is our final pose. Take your index and middle fingers together, and hold your ring and pinky fingers down with your thumb for some chandra bhedana pranayam (moon piercing breath).  In class we do a similar breath through each nostril with a different hand position. Here, use each hand (index and middle fingers) to close off the respective nostril. To help sleep, you will inhale left, exhale right, over and over. Don’t switch the inhalations. Instead, keep repeating inhalation through the left nostril and exhalation through the right for 3 to 5 minutes. Then relax your arms, palms up. If you aren’t in bed, get there and relax flat in corpse.

This should help you sleep. If you have questions, want a video, or more pics, drop me a line or comment. If you have sleep problems and want me to design a sequence just for you, drop me a line. I use a sliding scale for private instruction fees, and you can always bring an insomniac friend and split the cost.

Sweet dreams,
Anastasia

I often listen to Ted while I’m cleaning. Last weekend I heard this talk about self and otherness by Thandie Newton, and I want you to watch. It’s at heart very yogic. It also expresses the power of sharing one’s vulnerability, and the strength required to do so.

Next time, the yoga-for-sweet-dreams post. I promise.

Wednesday I shared a basic ten (ok, fifteen) minute class to practice at home. Today we have a slightly more vigorous ashtanga-based option. We call it “the daily minimum.”

If you are just beginning to practice at home, make sure to the same things you’d do in a class. Turn off your phone. Take a minute to ground into your body, using some pranayama or mantra. Commit to spending the next 10 minutes (or hour, or two) on your yoga. If you don’t think you have the discipline to do this, you can pay me a handsome fee to come teach you some. (Now that thought will get you right on the mat.)

This sequence takes about 25 minutes, unless you want to dally. If you have less time, simply do the sun salutations, shoulder- and/or headstand, and savanasana.

• Start in Tadasana or Samasthiti. Take a few breaths here, grounding down into the feet.
• Surya Namaskara A (Sun Salutation): 3-5 times
• Surya Namaskara B: 3-5 times
• Standing pose of choice for 8 breaths.
  If you are new to home practice, choose something you enjoy. Otherwise, choose one that challenges you. If you think your balance is bad, definitely choose a balancing pose and hold it up to two minutes.
• Forward bend of choice. Hold 8 breathes to 5 minutes.
  As above. Or, if you are tired, do something you love. If you have energy, something that challenges you. Be honest.
• Salamba Sarvangasana (shoulderstand) or the shoulderstand sequence, 25 breaths each.
• Sirsasana (Headstand) or Dolphin. 25 breaths.
• Balasana. 2 minutes (or as long as you please).
• For ashtangis, the closing sequence. Or supine spinal twist, then happy baby (for 5 breaths to as long as you’d like).
• Savasana!

It took a little trickery (and still does) to get me started. If I thought of the whole 1.5 hour series, I wouldn’t do it. I was too hungry or tired or pressed for time. So I told myself I’d do one pose (which was usually the lazyman’s legs up the wall. It’s the best pose ever. We need, most of us, to be lazier), then I could relax. After the one pose, I was relaxed, and liking it, so I did one more. This went on through the whole series, often ending in seated mediation two hours later. No way? Believe me, it will happen.

Whether you are looking to keep the hamstrings happy until you get back to class next week, or you’re trying to establish or motivate a personal practice, a few minutes of yoga a day are enough to shift things into habit. As Ethan likes to say about meditation, “You wouldn’t skip brushing your teeth for a few days, then brush for an hour on the weekend, would you?” And so it is with yoga.

Today I’m going to share a 10-minute home practice that my Iyengar teacher Genny Kapuler gave me as a daily minimum of sorts years ago. Tomorrow or Friday I’ll post another that is more Ashtanga influenced.

So go get your mat (though you don’t really need one) and do some yoga. Then teach your family a few poses.

• 2-minute Viparita Karani (legs up the wall). If you don’t have space, be creative. Use a bed’s headboard or bend your knees and place your calves on a chair.
• 2-minute Uttanasana (standing forward bend).
• 2-minute Adho Mukha Svanasana (downward dog). If you are sliding too much without a mat, try the version with your hands on the wall.
• 2-minute Sirsasana (headstand, or substitute dolphin, handstand or your favorite).
• 2-minute Sarvangasana (shoulderstand)
• 2-minute Savasana (relaxation pose).

Don’t even think of skipping savasana.

Very good. Now go teach your family, and everyone will be well behaved for the holiday dinner.

Happy Thanksgiving!

This is a quick post to answer MM’s question about her hands—the base of her hands hurt in down dog. This is a great question, because it’s a common problem. Often the wrists hurt for people who are new or who don’t do yoga regularly (more than once or twice a week), and I think the base of the hands is a similar issue. Press into your fingers! This takes strength and getting used to. You need to press into the index and thumb fingers especially. People usually press into outside base of the hands, which keeps the weight in the outside of the forearms on up to the trapezius muscle just below the neck, where we tend to hold a lot of stress. This habit doesn’t help.

Pressing into the thumb and index fingers as well as the other three takes weight off of the wrists and outer hands and arms and spreads the weight into the upper back. As you become stronger, flexible, and more comfortable in this pose, your legs will begin to take more of the weight. In fact, Iyengar says about this asana in Light on Yoga, “It strengthens the ankles and makes the legs shapely.” Fantastic.

image from wellsphere.com

A modification done daily to strengthen for down dog: practice it with your hands on the wall. This can be done almost anywhere. Here are links to an article and a video that show exactly how it’s done. This is great for beginners and those with hand or wrist pain. Every day! Ask your teacher after class if you aren’t sure you are doing it right.

Originally posted Aug 1, 2009 

I’m just back from a yoga holiday. On a whim I went on an ashtanga retreat in Edinburgh, Scotland with Angela Jamison. I’d never met her, but we’d corresponded and followed each other’s blogs for a few years, so it was excellent fun to finally meet. It was during the fringe fest, the world’s largest arts festival (art & yoga once again). It was at the gorgeous Bristo Yoga Shala, right in the heart of Edinburgh. Karen Breneman, the lovely owner, took me in and made me feel more than at home during my stay (she even asked me to teach some vinyasa, bless her heart. I’ve now taught yoga in four countries). I also visited friends and family in England, so it was an amazing trip.

@left: Bristo Yoga School.

I like to travel with some sort of focus like this, as it adds depth and meaning to my trip. I’ve never been good at backpacking or hotels or hostels or wandering at random. Another museum is only interesting to me if there’s a larger context, and some interaction with the locals to add perspective.

There are all sorts of ways to go about this, and it depends on your style of travel. As a once-tour guide, I’m fairly adept at organizing things myself, and both my ashtanga holidays were scheduled at whim (the first was in Sri Lanka a few years ago). Ashtanga is particularly good for this, as it’s practiced around the world. This retreat wasn’t an all day affair but morning mysore practice with maybe a short afternoon workshop, so the rest of the day was open to do as I pleased, like check out shows at the fringe, and the endlessly amazing city itself.

It helps to know the teacher when you go on retreat, as  not to be stuck with a bum deal on your holiday. But you can try your chances, too. Either go with your own, as many teachers lead retreats in lovely locales, or try out a teacher or style of yoga you’ve been curious about, on a retreat or simply visiting an interesting city with a good studio. You don’t have to do a full-fledged retreat to have an excellent yoga-inspired holiday.

There are also plenty of yoga centers and ashrams that offer a full yoga experience, or yoga package tours, often run by studios. Again, it helps to know the teacher or studio to know the vibe and style the trip will have. A quick google search will give you ideas about ashrams that offer workshops and retreats in pretty places. Many of these can be pricey, but I’m sure there are some affordable options out there. I prefer to organize things myself, which is less expensive, but can be quite a lot of work. If you want a planned, package group type thing, check out Kripalu or Esalen, or browse the ads of a yoga magazine.

And of course, there’s always Mysore.

…

This has been quite a week, quite a few weeks, really, for many people I know. Myself included. Weather hasn’t been good for rooftop yoga, so I hope you’re getting your yoga in somehow.

Among other things, I ran out of cards and so redesigned these this week. Ordered them from Moo.com. This is not an excuse for dropping any writing balls, as it’s been months, and I don’t make such excuses. We all know how it is. Just get to the mat.

That said, I miss you. Yoga soon. ~A

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