This film Enlighten Up!, was released in April 2009, follows a skeptical Nick on his yoga journey. In this fascinating clip, BKS Iyengar passes on some of his wisdom to Nick.
Iyengar Insight: Change has to take place. Transformation has to take place.
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Father’s day is a month away and sometimes it is difficult to know what to buy your dad, or any man for that matter. I came across an article that recommended that the best gift for fathers are ones that promote health. Potential gifts to help papa live a healthier life include a low-fat dinner, a pedometer and yoga lessons.
“The thing about men is that they tend to stiffen up as they age, and that can lead to injuries if they do stay active, says Eve Johnson, co-owner of Yoga on 7th in Vancouver. If they are tied to their desks, yoga stops them from gradually losing mobility. Yoga is a wonderful way to keep the body limber, she says, suggesting that Iyengar yoga is best suited to beginners because it’s slow and uses props to accommodate the inflexible body.”
I admit I have given yoga lessons as a gift to a man. He did attend class and liked the teachers, however he was not really comfortable in the classroom situation so now he practices 3-4 asanas every few days at home (one of which is savasana). I am quite determined about things that matter to me, so I may give him another gift of yoga lessons later this year for his birthday!
According to the article, books are another good gift idea for Father’s Day and I truly believe books teach the mind and feed the soul. I liked the book recommendation, “Remember, Be Here Now, by Ram Das. It’s a narrative of the transformation of a Harvard psychiatrist upon his acceptance of the principles of yoga. It gives a modern restatement of the importance of the spiritual side of man’s nature.”
Why wait for an official celebration to get your loved ones some yoga lesson coupons and a copy of “Remember, Be Here Now“?
Iyengar Insight: Health is the mirror of man.
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Last week, at my Tuesday Iyengar yoga class, my teacher reminded me that if you are not sure of what to practice at home, a good piece of advice is to “do a dog a day”. Adho mukha svanasana rests the heart and is a great way to the stretch the body. Downward facing dog is also a versatile asana because it can be done anytime during a yoga sequence and can be a stimulating or a resting asana.
An easy way to start your home yoga practice is to commit to practice “a dog a day”. Performing a daily asana does not require much time so you won’t have to reorganize your life to fit it in and the practice will make you feel better. Doing the same pose every day gives you the opportunity to really observe and learn about the asana because you will only be focussing on one asana. One pose will eventually lead to another and before you know it you will have a regular yoga practice at home.
Iyengar Insight: Regular practice of yoga can help you face the turmoil of life with steadiness and stability.
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In this video, Iyengar teacher, John Schumacher answers the question,
“Is Iyengar yoga rigid or harsh?”
Iyengar Insight: Pain comes to guide you. Pain is your Guru.
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Every weekday for the last year and a half I have walked through Centennial Square in Victoria on my way to work. Many Victorians avoid walking through the square that houses both city hall and the regional government’s head office because it can be a bleak reality check on the social problems in our beautiful city. Many of the city’s homeless people live, wash, deal and use drugs in this square and this makes many people feel uncomfortable or unsafe.
In the centre of the square, there is a rather retro looking fountain and in the middle of the fountain are three concrete totems with mosaics by local artist JC Wilkinson. On the top of one of the totems is an image that looks to me like supta badhakonasana.
I thought perhaps that I was having yoga hallucinations, until I noticed that further down the totem was another picture that looks very like a twist - perhaps bharadvajasana 1 or pasasana?
I tried to find out if this was the artist’s intention, but google came up with nothing. If you have any leads, please let me know.
Now, when I am en route to work with my coffee in hand, these hopeful images remind me that my work is not who I am but rather a part of my life and I smile to myself thinking that these images are subliminally influencing others to practice yoga. I also hope they offer some comfort to the homeless people.
Iyengar Insight: Yoga cultivates the ways of maintaining a balanced attitude in day-to-day life and endows skill in the performance of one’s actions
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Namaste Iyengar Students!
Mark you calendars, for May 11, 2010 because Geetaji is coming to Portland, Oregon. The Iyengar Yoga National Association of the United States is lucky to have Geeta Iyengar present at the 2010 Iyengar Certified Teachers Convention. I hope that there will be some convention spots for Iyengar students as well as teachers.
Registration doesn’t begin until the fall, although hotel reservations will open at the beginning of June. If you haven’t experienced Geetaji’s teaching, I encourage you to attend. She is full of joy, peace and knowledge. She also has a wonderful sense of humour. A year ago I was lucky enough to study yoga with Geeta at the Iyengar Association of Canada conference in Penticton, BC and I am still learning from her teaching.
Iyengar Insight: A good teacher helps you to explore to the maximum.
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After Birjoo Mehta’s workshop in March, my friend, Soo and I thought it would be great to have a regular opportunity to talk yoga; yes, we know, we are yoga nerds. Soo emailed a few people she thought might be interested and Emma (the IYAC Admin Assistant) was in! We had our first official meeting yesterday during our Iyengar school’s member practice time. At an unofficial meeting we had decided to talk about how the eight limbs of yoga fits into our lives (not sure you can really discuss that in a couple of hours). Anyway, it was really great.
How do you start a yoga circle?
1. Find like minded yoga nerds
2. Pick a regular time, place & venue that you can all commit to
3. Pick a topic to guide your discussion
4. Start your yoga circle with a yoga practice
And, of course, have fun!
Iyengar Insight: Transformation is sustained change, and it is achieved through practice.
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Today I attended a workshop called “Open your hips”. Our teacher, Leslie Hogya, started by asking us about why we were at the workshop. Mainly I was there because it was a Saturday workshop run by Leslie. I was also hoping to find out how to best use weights to help rotate my hips so that I could sit in badhakonasana with less blanket height and to work towards to padmasana. We started by taking a baseline check and sat in virasana and badhakonasana to determine where our hip problems lay. Leslie pointed out that in this workshop we would practice different asanas and she would give us tips and tricks that have worked for her, but that these tips may or not work for us. She encouraged us to be intelligent in our practice and observe like a scientist what parts of our bodies were affected by each pose. My main challenge in this workshop was with my hamstrings which started talking to me as soon as we began a series of supta padagusthasanas. We used the wall to help keep the unlifted leg straight and aligned. I find using the wall gives me more stability and allows my lifted leg to go further. I really need to practice this series on a daily basis. The wall was also our friend as we practiced half-padmasana and then full padmasana. Simply lie on the floor and go into a bolster-less viparita kurani at the wall. Then place your legs as for half-padmasana, and then try the full asana. It is surprising how much easier it is at the wall than sitting. After, you can try it away from the wall but lie back to go into the pose. For some reason it works. Thanks, Leslie!
Iyengar Insight: The long and uninterrupted practice of asanas, done with awareness, will bring success.
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Check out yoga.ru for a photo story on Guruji’s visit to an Iyengar school in Moscow. In this photo Guruji and Faeq Biria seem to be enjoying their visit. 
Other senior teachers joined Guruji and Faeq including Nivedita Joshi, and Abhijata Sridhar (Guruji’s granddaughter).
Unfortunately, I cannot read Russian, but here is a rough translation of the text that accompanies the photo story:
“Last time Guruji was in our country was in 1989. Likely, then very few people could even dream that in 20 years legendary BKS Iyengar would have driven the popularity of yoga in Russia. BKS Iyengar has accepted an invitation by Yoga Journal and has arrived in Moscow.
The program of this visit is eventful: BKS Iyengar arrived in Moscow on Monday, and already had a major press conference on Tuesday. On Wednesday BKS Iyengar visited our centre “Натараджа” and has communicated to teachers, having given some good advice and has signed books.”
As well as impressing the teachers at ”Натараджа”, Guruji also receieved accolades from former first lady, Naina Yeltsin, who said, “It would be good if it was practiced in every Russian home”.
What did Guruji think about Russia 20 years after his first visit?
“I was amazed at their highly intellectual observations on the practice of yoga and the clarity of their thoughts.”
There are 35-40 Iyengar yoga centres in Russia with as many as 500-600 trained teachers.
Iyengar Insight: The seasoned , mature mind transcends frontiers to reach beyond mundane observation.
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Today is my birthday and this morning, I moved my belongings, which included more than thirty boxes of books, to my new home. After a month’s moratorium on book buying, and as birthday treat, I visited my favourite local bookstore. My book hoarding (I call it collecting) behaviour makes it hard for me to practice Asteya and the last month has been particularly difficult because I found a beautiful, but heavy, volume of Indian Painting. I did not allow myself to buy the book before my move, but have been coveting it ever since I saw it. I was delighted to find that it was still on Munro’s bargain shelf and, not really wanting to start practicing book-Asteya on my birthday, I continued to browse the store for new books to add to my shelves. In the yoga section, I was thrilled to find a new book by BKS Iyengar called Yoga Wisdom & Practice, which is made up of a selection of work taken from eight volumes of Astadala Yogamala. As well as the lovely layout and colourful photographs, this book is full of lessons from Guruji’s life and includes lots of tips on how to improve one’s practice using props.
I found it really interesting that Guruji used to use rocks instead of sandbags or weights to help his legs release down in poses like badhakonasana and branches instead of poles to help stretch in upavistha. His innovation using nature’s props helped me realize I could find props at home. I have been wanting to buy weights to help my hamstrings in forward bends. On my return home from the bookstore, I opened a box of coffee-table books and used a stack of four of them on my thighs to help stretch my hamstrings. Now I should finish unpacking to see what other props I can find.
Iyengar Insight: Learning can be acquired but wisdom has to be earned.
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