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| Sunset at Agona Beach |
This includes some of my notes from the lessons in India and its jumps around from topic to topic as mainly for a reference for Kimberly and I.
I will consolidate into easier to read blogs on each topic over the next year as i continue my studies.
I will also put up some yoga workouts and stretch routines for sports or office people.
We arrived at the wonderful Sampoorna yoga village in India for our one month live in yoga teacher training course. Our apartment is a small wooden villa with a large room and bathroom, the villa is one of around 20 villas in the village. There is also a large guesthouse where a lot of the people are staying in. The guesthouse is where the retreat centre started and it has now expanded to this village.
The main teachers are Deepak Sharma who is the overall coordinator, Rishi Sadhir who teaches philosophy, breathing/energy exercises (pranayama) and meditation. There is also anatomy and alignment teacher Heather Gregg, Eli Aguilar who does a killer core Vinyasa workout and Genevieve Munro who will be teaching us Vinyas flo, Yin and restorative yoga. There were also a few karma Yogis who were helping run the Yoga School and Yoga Village in exchange for practice teaching and food etc. All of the teachers studied at Sampoorna yoga at some point in the past. There are around 35 students enrolled on the course. Some are already yoga teachers, there are a few personal trainers, some seasoned yogis and some who are reasonably new to yoga. There are a wide range of nationalities here but surprisingly lots are Brits, infact i dont think i have been around so many English people for so long, have I been away from home that long!?. We generally have an hour of meditation and around three hours yoga through the day, plus 2 hours of anatomy or philosophy and an hour of alignment. There are also posture clinics that are optional and Satsung meetings with our philosophy teacher where we can discuss pretty much anything we want. to do with Yoga or Spirituality.
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| Photo taken from Balcony in our hut at Sampoorna Yoga Village |
Day 2
The week started with a 1 hour fire ceremony to purify the air, one of the main elements.
We then practiced the Primary Ashtanga series for the first time. I can't a lot of the poses as they are a bit advanced but I got to learn the modifications for them.
The day starts at 6.30am in the Yoga Shala with meditation and breathing/energy (pranayama) exercises. I really struggle to sit on the hard floor for meditation and the various other lessons that we have, even though we have props. Even some of the most flexible people with good posture found it a struggle. At least lunch is on normal chairs. :-)
Day 3 |
| Fire ceremony took place on first and last day |
The breathing exercises we do in the morning are called Pranayama. This is continued breathing exercise to expand the energy and make it flow through energy channels (Nadis) and chakras easier. Pranayama also brings awareness to the breath and the flow of energy so that we can breathe better in everyday life and when under stress etc. Similar to what acupuncture does. When we are stressed our breath becomes short, when we are happy our breath becomes long. So when we are stressed we should try and lengthen our breath and that should help bring calmness. Pranayama clears energy passages, if energy passages are blocked then the energy won't flow to parts of the body and those parts can get ill. Other ways to clear energy passages are through acupuncture, healers, kinesiology, reiki and massage.
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| Laurence teaching Vinyasa Yoga |
Types of Pranayama:
- Yogic breathing is full breath with thorasic (chest), abdominal (belly) and clavicle breathing (shoulder), basically breathing in fully and exhaling fully and bringing awareness of your breath as we usually don't breath fully, especially when concentrating or under stress. The energy (Prana) that flowss through us through passageways (Nadis) in our connective tissues are usually blocked and the breathing exersizes (pranayama) help to clear the life force passages in preparation for meditation.
- Kapalbhati - This is where you breath in actively and breath out passively. It purifies the energy channels, removes distractions, wakes you up, energies the mind, strengthens the nervous system and tones the digestive system. It should not be performed when you have heart problems, hypertension, high blood pressure, hernia, stroke, epilepsy.
- Bhastrika - This is active in and active out. Purifies the blood, removes toxins, rejuvinates the digestive system, balances and strengthens the nervous system, increases sense of peace, reduces the level of carbon dioxide in the blood. Increases the exchange of oxygen and co2 in the bloodstream.
- Ujjayi Pranayama - good for thyroid, ulcers, relaxing, helps reduce fluid retention, slows down heart rate and reduces high blood pressure.
- Bhramari pranayama - humming bee meditation. Awareness on Anahata heart chakra, relieves stress, anger, and chronic ear infections, strengthens and improves the voice and eliminates depression. Do not practice if you are chronically depressed. During class we all have our eyes closed and fingers in your ears and hum when we breath out. Kimberly really likes this one :-)
- Nadi shodhana - energy channel purification. With right thumb, block right nostril and breath in left, then hold breath, hold left nostril with right ring finger keeping index finger and middle finger in the nasagra mudra (third eye area) breath out right nostril, breath in right and then in left, finish on breathing out left. Clears prana passage blockages, balances the Nadis, induces clarity of mind. Supplies the body with extra oxygen. Balances the sympathetic nervous system.
active class.
The Jump Back: When having a workshop on the jump back from Dandanasana (seated pose), I discovered that the reason that I can not do it is because my lower legs are disproportionally long in comparison to my body. If I want to do the jump through I need to make my ankle and hip internal rotator muscles more flexible. So I will start to work on that daily and add that stretch to my practice. Until then I can complete the jump back from sitting with blocks.
Anatomy:The three types of joints in the body are synovial, cartilaginous and ligamentious. Synovial joints are the most moveable joints.
The skeleton is split into the axil skeleton and appendicular skeleton.
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| Week 1 Schedule |
- Chanting is often done by yogis and they are repeated many times for the vibrations to take effect by the unconscious. Yogis will chant from loud and then gradually get quieter and eventually become silent and then chant internally. Total time should be for 30 minutes. Its harder than you think.
- Yoga is the philosophy and lifestyle that yogis live in order to achieve enlightenment. The literal translation is often thought of as joining ourselves to the universal intelligence or as I prefer to put it, to become at one with nature and the energy that surrounds us. As we know energy is not created it is transferred. The energy that is within us now that helps us perform daily tasks, and the energy needed for our internal organs to operate is transferred out of our bodies and into the universe. The energy we get from breathing or eating comes into us and becomes us, therefore we are one energy with the universe. All the atoms that make up our body have come from food that we have eaten and whatever that food was made from and so on. We are made up from nature and when our cells breakdown they go back to being part of nature, so nature is made of us. We are nature physically and spiritually.
- A translation for 'guru' is someone who dispels darkness with light. Something can only be dispelled by introducing something else. A guru dispels ignorance with knowledge and the root cause of all problems is ignorance.
- When performing asana poses, instead of trying to do the full pose with poor or average posture, try doing all the poses modified with either blocks, straps and other tools so you can give instructions on how to do it and do it with perfect posture.
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| Kyle, Kate and I at a fun Acro Yoga class on the beach |
- The sound OM that is often chanted in yoga studios, it is split into three sounds : A, U & M. A is manifested from silence and represents the waking. The U represents the conceptual mind and the dreaming and M is the unmanifested or deep sleep. So emphasise the A in the morning for wakening and the M in the evening to sleep. The sound OM represents universal intelligence as it is the sound of all sounds. All of our names are just sounds, like Laurence is just a bunch of sounds that we recognize as a name of a lovely person. Try to make the natural sound /hum by breathing out with your mouth open and the sound A will come out. Then with the mouth round and the sound will be an O. Then make a sound with the mouth closed and the sound will be M. Join them all together and the sound will me OM, so the sound of all is OM, so its an appropriate name for the universe.
- Your mind during meditation is like walking a dog. Are you leading the dog or is it leading you? Do you keep telling the dog to stay still and stop running off? The goal is to walk the dog and not let the dog walk you. Just like with meditation, the goal is to not let your mind run off and to keep good concentration.
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| Heather showing a great adjustment to get a deep hip flexor stretch on laurence |
Day 6
- Great chakra meditation: Kneeling down and taking one long breath in while bringing your focus tohe Moollahdara (root) chakra at the front of your body, then as you continue to breath in bring you awareness up the front of the body focusing on each chakra along the front on at a time (skipping out the third eye chakra on the way up), so one breath in will take you from the root chakra to the crown chakra. Then when you breath out bring your focus to each chakra (including third eye but along the back of your body. Repeat this over and over again, it's very energizing.
- Isotonic contraction is where a muscle changes length, isometric is where length changes.
- We studied a yoga pose and described it blindfolded to someone to practice giving good instructions. We have to make sure everyone is in the position we were expecting and had feedback on what might have made it better.
- Had dinner on the beach in a hotel with Kimberly, cost us 3 pounds 50 each. Then we walked down the alley to the yoga village past a bunch of cows and bulls. This time we didn't poo ourselves as we had the past few days, until we suddenly saw a bull's head sticking out of a bush right by us. Kimbo jumped two feet in the air, screamed and ran.
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| Helena teaching me yoga with us both blindfolded |
Day 7
- A great partner yoga sequence (not acro yoga) that we did: We did tree pose side by side with inside raised arms interlocked and then moved to around waists. We tried sun salutation A together then sun salutation B but raised ourt real leg an had our heels raised touching underneath, then we did Warrier 1 & 2 with arms crossed back to back for more balance. We did the same for side angle stretch. Then we were back to back for wide stance forward bends and pulled each other through our legs.
- We went to Palolem beach where it was a lot busier than Agonda, there were so many power cuts everywhere that we were sat in the dark for most of our dinner.
Day 8
- Day off yoga, revision in the morning, long walk to an organic cafe in land. We enjoyed a sun set on the beach and then bumped into Adam from London and joined him and his yoga class for dinner.
- Interesting fact on vegans in India: Cows are sacred in India because cows are used for milk and farming, when cows produce bulls and the bulls are not needed for farming they leave them to roam the streets and eat cardboard. The cows that do product milk are kept in open spaces and not factory made, this is why Yogis in india are usually not vegas and will have dairy, i.e. the animals are not miss treated and bulls killed etc like they are in western countries.
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| Kimberly wondering how she is going to get out of this shop with this cow in her way |
Day 9
- Learnt that before instructing pranayama a teacher should give the contraindications, these are usually heart problems, hypertension or any recent operations.
- Karma yoga is essentially what us western yogis practice in day to day life. Karma yogis aim to experience the true nature of themselves by practicing yoga through day to day tasks or actions. Basically when you brush your teeth, change the bed, walk down the street, focus on that, do it mindfully, think about the benefits of doing it put good intentions into it and dont let your mind wander.
- Freedom in action - there is nothing wrong with performing tasks and all tasks have results. The freedom is here and now, free to feel good or bad right now. Actions require time and effort to complete but the mind can be controlled here and now.
- We cannot decide the results of our actions - although we try and meet or beat our expectations on tasks we perform, we should try to not be phased either way. Happiness comes from within and not from our successes.
- Freedom in mind is complete - we know that we can control our minds, we just may not be able to (yet) but it is attainable.
- Don't give in to inaction - don't just don't do something because you don't think it will be a success.
- As you sow, you will reap. What comes around goes around.
- A swarmi, rishi, seer all refer to enlightened people, I.e, master of mind, have seen.
- What is Hatha Yoga. Hatha translates to sun (ha) and moon (tha), the aim of hatha yoga is to balance out your sun and moon energy channels to activate the central energy line so we can meditate properly and then energy can rise up the central energy channel to the crown chakra so that Hatha yogis's can become enlightened. We each have a central energy channel (nadi) running up the spine where energy (Prana) travels through. There is also two energy channels that start from the base chakra at the coccyx and twists up the body to the crown chakra. These two energy channels are called sun and moon and they both cross the central channel at the same places, these are the chakras. The energy that runs through sun and moon are of different amounts and fluctuate. Every one hour or so. the energy is equal on both left and right energy channels and at this point the central energy channel is activated and energy can flow up through the chakras. It is said that meditation only occurs when the central chakra is activated. The sun and moon energy flow correlates to the amount of air we breath in and out through our left and right nostrils, so we should be able to breath in more through one than the other and it should also change every hour or so. In hatha yoga, a yogi will practice trying to control the body with stretches (asanas) and then balance the sun and moon energy channels through breathing exersizes (pranayama) so that the central energy system is open longer and one can meditate for longer and achieve enlightenment. So hatha yoga wants to control the mind by controlling the breath and energy channels. Ashtanga yoga is directly controlling the mind through practicing the 8 limbs of yoga. I will do a separate, longer, clearer blog on this at some point
Day 10
Morning started with meditation. I find and have always found these hour long meditations before sun rise a challenge, my body gets uncomfortable and restless so I can't relax and also I'm not fully awake. I am used to exersizing when i first wake up. However it is getting easier. Sudhir says its normal for the mind to get busier before it gets still. Actually meditation should be done after exercise and not before.
We has a secret santa and a christmas eve party which was fun :-)
Day 11 - Xmas day
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| Christmas Day at Sampoorna Yoga |
26th Dec
The 2nd limb of yoga is Niyama, five self observances.
1) Cleanliness, the aim is to try and be mindful while performing tasks and a messy room, dirty or ill body or mind could cause distractions and make it harder to still your mind and be mindful. Cleanliness is best performed before any tasks that require mindfulness, i.e, meditation.
2) Cheerfulness/contentment - Stress and state of mind or cheerfulness reflects our reactions to certain situations, staying cheerful helps one react positively to unexpected situations.
3) Austerity - To help control the mind to be able to be more mindful one should try doing something they don't normally do to understand our mind better. E.g. No sugar for 1 month, 24 hours silence, no animal products for a month. The rules can be set by us and if we fail we break our own rules but do not gain anything.
4) Self Study - to be healthier and better people we need to study and practice and experiment what we study. My favourite books are 'Complete sports nutrition' and 'complete yoga'. This is an endless, life long commitment to learn more about how to be healthy and live in harmony with nature.
5) Accepting and surrendering to nature. Humans are part of nature, we are made up of water, food, air and everything else that at one time was part of a tree, animal, ocean, plant or anything that has burnt and become part of the tree, accepting that we are made up of nature and that energy is not created it is transferred from one place to another, so we are nature, either physical elements of nature or energy that is transferred from another being.
Why do Yogi's do Asanas? postures are performed to limber the body so that it can sit in a comfortable stable posture for at least three hours so that meditation can be performed. Posture names are often named after animals. Yogis lived in the woods and observed them and copied their poses in order to gain their strength but ultimately the postures are just performed to get a fit body that can sit comfortably. Indians generally don't do asanas as they can already sit for long hours due to a different lifestyle that involves sitting on the floor to eat and work as nature intended.
27th Dec
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| Laurence teaching Bootcamp Yoga to keen Yogis on their 1 day off |
- A Human’s natural footprint is small and is made up of the three main arches on the foot that should prevent the foot from flattening fully on the ground.
- The feet are designed by nature to walk bare foot on uneven surface, we however wear shoes with support which affect the supporting muscles and arches around the feet. I am going to investigate into running barefoot, as having unstable feet can cause a knock on effect and unbalance at the knees, the hips and back due to compensation.
- In yoga we work on fixing our arches to reverse the shortening of our feet by practicing without shoes.
- When standing bare foot we should root our feet by first lifting our toes as that will engage the arches, then push the big toe into the ground, the ball of the foot, the back inside of the foot, the back outside of the foot, then the front outside then one toe at a time, essentially screwing the feet into the ground like a jam jar, it really works.
Quote - 'Practice practice practice and All is coming' - Pattabhi Jois.
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| Henry the skeleton, our teacher Rishi Sudhir and I |
28th december
- The short term goal of yoga is to become more mindful and aware. The long term goal is absolute consciousness and being fully aware all the time. Initially we should practice what is easiest, for me that is being mindful whilst doing normal day to day tasks like walking, eating, brushing teeth without letting my mind move from what i am doing. Also spending time sitting still and focusing my mind on my breath and keep bringing my mind back to the breath when it wanders. More advanced techniques can be to meditate/focus on sounds, colors, objects, people and finally emotions. Enlightenment comes when one is in control of their mind and emotions.
- When we are mentally tense, our body will become tense. This usually shows up around the shoulders and neck but everyone holds tension in different places. When we exercise or do yoga we release the physical tension and in turn it will release the mental tension and any emotions are held in our connective tissues. This is why we are less stressed after workouts. Also different emotions are in different parts of the body so different asanas release different emotions.
- Happiness comes from within, we should not get stressed about work, issues at home or anything. We should try and withdraw our senses from the outside world and expect that success in things will make us happy, happiness comes from within. From positive thoughts, actions and cheerfulness. We make ourselves happy we make ourselves stressed. This practice Is called pratyahara and is the 5th of the 8 limbs of yoga, withdrawal of the senses.
- Our lower legs can rotate inwards and outwards when the knee is bent more than 10%.
- In all postures we should aim to have equal weight on our legs to avoid misalignment.
31st dec
- New Year's Eve day and we are continuing with our schedule of getting up early and meditating, doing yoga and studying all day :-).
- Indian philosophy(ayurvedic) splits the individual into three bodies.
- 1. Gross body, this is our physical body which dies when we die.
- 2. Subtle body which is our energy layer, this includes energy channels (nadis), their junctions (chakras), dreaming, emotions.
- 3. Causel body, this is the deepest layer and is the product of both our gross and subtle body and gives us fear, love, desires, concepts etc. Our subtle and Causel bodies are part of the universal intelligence and do not die.
- Every food type affects our mood and emotions.
- There are 3 gunas. These are in all things and we all have these traits but one is more prominent. Understanding your gunas helps to know what food to feed yourself to heal yourself and be healthy. These are:
- sattva which is a balanced with knowledge and peace and is light. Savory/juicy food that is lubricating, nourishing and agreeable is for a satva mind
- Rajas like activity, disturbances and grief, this mood comes from bitter/sour/salty or hot, pungent, dry or burning.
- Tamas is dullness, delusion and heavy and is food that is very cold, worthless, putrid, partly eaten left overs.
- We should all eat food from own guna type but should eat satva when ill.
- Doshas are related to the individual:
- Vata which is space/air/wind and related to satva. Vata people mostly have high metabolism, dry skin and can have insomnia, they don't like cold, insomnia, and talk a lot. They can be dry like wind, restless, active energy, have dry hair. Those out of balance should do intestine cleanse.
- Pitta is fire (stomach) which is hot and bright. Pitta people attract a crowd, are visible, have thin hair, sweat, are attention seekers, are judgmental under stress and angry. Those out of balance should do stomach cleanse.
- Kapha are water and earth (lungs)heavy solid. Endurance, patience, family, like to be in a group, forgiveness. When our of balance should do netti potting.
- We all have roles in our lives and in each one we are acting, i.e. being a different person, a son, employee, friend, business runner. We carry emotions from one roll to another. Stay true to yourself and don't let emotions rule you.
- New Year's Eve was reasonably quiet, we went for dinner with our friend Emma who was on holiday in Goa for NYE and watched some Indian dancing and music and singing and had a curry. People let fireworks off just on the beach right in front of you, a bit dangerous really but this is india :-)
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| Photo with our teacher Deepak Sharma |
2nd jan
- Energy is around us in an unmanifested form and can be manifested into actions through our knowledge. Kundalini energy is unmanifested in a coil at the base of our spine. When the left Ida nadi (energy channel) and right pigala nadi are balanced the central energy (sushumna) channel is activated and kundalini energy can rise up through each chakra. Each chakra represents a color, a gland, certain emotions, a God, physical characteristic, mental trait, spiritual or a quote and animal, a place in the body, an organ, a lotus with a different number of petals (repressing a number of energy channels) and much more. So cleaning blockages around chakras can help related problems. I will post a table or blog listing all the chakras and what they represent and how to activate them.
3rd jan
- The size and shape of vertebrae on the spine allow for different movement. The 7 cervical vertebrae have a fair amount of movement for the neck, the 12 thoracic vertebrae are medium sized and don't allow much flexing/extending of the spine but do have a lot of rotation movement however the ribs can restrict movement. The 5 vertebrae of the lumbar spine are large with big disks that allow for flexion and extension but not so much twisting. So when bending forward one should lengthen the spine and then forward fold so there is more space but the forward fold should come mainly from the hips, however a small amount can also come from the lumbar spine. And again for a twist, lengthen the spine and the twist should come from the thoracic spine.
- Further study back conditions: http://www.spine-health.com/conditions
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| Photo with our friends Oscar and Jess and our teacher Heather in the middle |
Shatkriyas - cleansing techniques
1 Neti Potting, 2 Dhauti, 3 Bhasti, 4 Kapalabhati, 5 Nauli, 6 Trataka
Dhauti - Cleansing the digestive system from mouth to anus, this is a 25-40 foot tube that has an area of 3-5 acres which allow for the absorption of food. Once food is in the intestines it cannot go back into the stomach. The small and large intestines are blocked by a valve as is the stomach and intestines. Being sick only clears the stomach and colonic only clears in large intestines.
Dhauti is not suitable for people with high blood pressure or heart problems or ulcerations.
Benefits: improvements in the digestive system, hyperacidity, optimizes the digestive system and can get rid of allergies.
Dhauti is split up into two: 1) Kunjal which cleans the stomach for hyperacidity, 2) Shankra which cleans the intestines for the others.
What you need: What you need, one day to rest, a free bathroom, white rice, dhall, neti pott, ghee, salt
- Previous night eat something light and healthy with no carbs poor processed goods
- Wake up naturally and in a good mood after a good nights sleep
- Do not eat or drink anything before the cleanse
kunjal
- Drink 1 liter of warm water with 1.5 tablespoon of salt
- Then make yourself sick
- Go to after cleanse or perform Shankra. If doing Shankra only be sick once.
Shankra
- Drink at least 2 to liters of warm water with 1 heaped teaspoon of salt t per liter. If you can't drink it all in one go then do exercises then continue to drink.
- Asana:
- 25 x wide stance and twist left and right
- 25 x wide stand and arms Up and laterals flexion on each each side
- 25 x cobra with twists on each side
- 25 X crow walking, walking in Hindi squat
- Even if started shitting, keep drinking till 2 liters have been drunk as a minimum.
After cleanse
- Do neti pott straight away
- Start to drink water, try to drink as much salt water as was drank throughout the day
- Rest for 1-2 hours after
- Eat kichadi mindfully. ie. Heavily boiled white rice, yellow dhal and ghee
- Add no salt
- May get mild headaches bare with it
This is similar principle to colonic irrigation or enemia but instead no pipes up anus which only clears large intestines anyway, this clears all the intestines
If high blood pressure salt is bad so instead do it it with pepper
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| Photo with our teacher Eli |
7th jan
Bandhas are good for retaining energy where you want it and to activate the chakras in those areas. Chin lock activates thyroid, uddiyana bandha activates the digestive system spleen and adrenal gald, mula bandha activates the root chakra and gonads.
Bandhas are good for retaining energy where you want it and to activate the chakras in those areas. Chin lock activates thyroid, uddiyana bandha activates the digestive system spleen and adrenal gald, mula bandha activates the root chakra and gonads.
- Types of Yoga:
- Bhakti yoga is the yoga of devotion, experience the universal consciousness through devotion, God is everywhere and everything is God, but we should not hate people or animals but sometimes we should stay away from people or animals to stay out the way of cruel people or animals.
- Jnana yoga. - the teacher says 'you are that (tat tvam asi), then the student days, yes ' I am that (aha, brahmasmi ) students must give the benefit of the doubt to the teacher. Blockages need to be removed before student can be that. And realise the true nature of yourself.
