Today's was a practice to remember. So I am going to try.
I got really deep into hips and shoulders, including a few moments where things snapped into place with reverberation and I saw stars and diamonds, recruiting inner thighs as much as possible to get energy going right from the lowest chakra and up, cracking and popping all over the place. I apparently had a lot to release. Moving slowly, but with intensity. Feeling super amazing from the standing twists and backbends chakra sequence from Guruji. I want to be called Chakra Kahn. My muscle fibers a violin symphony, my bones the percussion. A crackling wake up, a call to arms. A resurgence of focus.
It is Day 3 of the 100 days of yoga that will culminate on the last day of this year. The next time I do my headstand durational practice, it will be breath 95 out of the desired 108. During my practice today I started thinking of how important numbers are to the yoga practice. Observe the first two statements of this paragraph: how many yoga challenges revolve around numbers? Sometimes it seems as if progress is all about quantity. We use numbers to establish goals. We attach numbers to give us a measurable units in an otherwise difficult to quantify lifelong experience of practicing yoga. Numbers give us something to work towards, that we can measure our progress against. Against what? Ourselves? The odds? Why is it so important that we know exactly where we are in the process? Many of us are very concerned during our practice of where we are RIGHT NOW!!! Whether you are counting breaths, counting repetitions, counting down to know how much longer to hold the posture, or counting up to know how long you held it,- the mind is keeping track!
How does this serve you? One way is that the mind is actively engaged with the counting. Numbers are the tools that you have to keep the mind busy, and keep it from wandering away to other things. You have given your brain a task, something that it loves to do: Quantify and Measure. The brain can be diligently occupied with the job of counting which keeps it beneficially involved with the practice, from breath to breath, from moment to moment. Each count can isolate a repetition to make it feel unique; you may notice that the third sun salutation has a different energy from the second or the fourth. You can use numbers as well as a motivating force for improvement, noting changes over time, and for establishing milestones. The trick is to not lose sight of the quality of the practice in the obsessive fixation on numbers. What happens when you fall short? Do you celebrate what you did do, or do you worry about those that you didn't?
The danger is that numbers are also the tools that the mind uses to do the other things that it loves to do: Compare and Analyze. This leads to Punish and Reward. I have lost count many times during repetitions of Surya Namaskar, where I have completely forgotten where I am, which foot is the dominant one, etc. Then I berate myself for losing focus on the counting, and simultaneasously punish and reward myself by saying well, I’ll do an extra one on this side, just to be sure. What is that all about? Did I ever actually stop doing yoga, when I stopped counting? Did the mind drift from counting to other distractions, or was I just finally tasting that glorious flow state, of mindlessness, and jolt back, like waking from a dream? Why be upset to have lost count? Much better to just listen to my body, to feel if there is any imbalance or if I feel warm and ready, or not. Let the body speak, its doing the work, anyway. It’s fun to try using mantra instead. It helps keep the rhythm going, without fixating on numbers as much, and allows the body to tune into itself more deeply. Sometimes counting can function like a mantra, and tether the mind enough to allow different areas of awareness to come forward, and the observer takes over.
Why am I working on holding a headstand for 108 slow concious breaths? One reason is that will take my headstand up to around ten minutes, which, accoriding to Iyengar, is the minimum time required for the true benefits of a headstand to kick in. Well, not everyone can do that regularly, but I’m the kind of curious person who has to cross that threshhold and find out what’s on the other side. So, I’m working toward it. It’s taken months, because I don’t do it everyday. I started out half way at 54 breaths, and add one more each time I practice this durational hold. This is helping to build strength, especially in the back of my neck, where I recognize that I collapse, and sometimes (ugggh!!!) audibly cracks when I realize that one vertebrae has tucked into the other, and I have to pull myself up and out. It helps immensely to firmly engage the lowest part of the abs, using the core to straighten out, and take the tension out of the overworked muscles between the shoulder blades. I love to imagine the chakras like helium balloons, springing to life as I squeeze everything in towards the midline, lifting me up and up, energy compressed and focused on sahasrara, the crown chakra.
Why am I working on holding a headstand for 108 slow concious breaths? Because when I go back to regular practice of headstand, for “only” 25 breaths, it seems to go by too quickly! I slow it down, and have the stamina to really elongate and savor each of those 25 breaths.
Why am I working on holding a headstand for 108 slow concious breaths? Because anytime I have done anything 108 times, I know that the first 100 just prepares you for the sweet nectar of the final 8.
I got really deep into hips and shoulders, including a few moments where things snapped into place with reverberation and I saw stars and diamonds, recruiting inner thighs as much as possible to get energy going right from the lowest chakra and up, cracking and popping all over the place. I apparently had a lot to release. Moving slowly, but with intensity. Feeling super amazing from the standing twists and backbends chakra sequence from Guruji. I want to be called Chakra Kahn. My muscle fibers a violin symphony, my bones the percussion. A crackling wake up, a call to arms. A resurgence of focus.
It is Day 3 of the 100 days of yoga that will culminate on the last day of this year. The next time I do my headstand durational practice, it will be breath 95 out of the desired 108. During my practice today I started thinking of how important numbers are to the yoga practice. Observe the first two statements of this paragraph: how many yoga challenges revolve around numbers? Sometimes it seems as if progress is all about quantity. We use numbers to establish goals. We attach numbers to give us a measurable units in an otherwise difficult to quantify lifelong experience of practicing yoga. Numbers give us something to work towards, that we can measure our progress against. Against what? Ourselves? The odds? Why is it so important that we know exactly where we are in the process? Many of us are very concerned during our practice of where we are RIGHT NOW!!! Whether you are counting breaths, counting repetitions, counting down to know how much longer to hold the posture, or counting up to know how long you held it,- the mind is keeping track!
How does this serve you? One way is that the mind is actively engaged with the counting. Numbers are the tools that you have to keep the mind busy, and keep it from wandering away to other things. You have given your brain a task, something that it loves to do: Quantify and Measure. The brain can be diligently occupied with the job of counting which keeps it beneficially involved with the practice, from breath to breath, from moment to moment. Each count can isolate a repetition to make it feel unique; you may notice that the third sun salutation has a different energy from the second or the fourth. You can use numbers as well as a motivating force for improvement, noting changes over time, and for establishing milestones. The trick is to not lose sight of the quality of the practice in the obsessive fixation on numbers. What happens when you fall short? Do you celebrate what you did do, or do you worry about those that you didn't?
The danger is that numbers are also the tools that the mind uses to do the other things that it loves to do: Compare and Analyze. This leads to Punish and Reward. I have lost count many times during repetitions of Surya Namaskar, where I have completely forgotten where I am, which foot is the dominant one, etc. Then I berate myself for losing focus on the counting, and simultaneasously punish and reward myself by saying well, I’ll do an extra one on this side, just to be sure. What is that all about? Did I ever actually stop doing yoga, when I stopped counting? Did the mind drift from counting to other distractions, or was I just finally tasting that glorious flow state, of mindlessness, and jolt back, like waking from a dream? Why be upset to have lost count? Much better to just listen to my body, to feel if there is any imbalance or if I feel warm and ready, or not. Let the body speak, its doing the work, anyway. It’s fun to try using mantra instead. It helps keep the rhythm going, without fixating on numbers as much, and allows the body to tune into itself more deeply. Sometimes counting can function like a mantra, and tether the mind enough to allow different areas of awareness to come forward, and the observer takes over.
Why am I working on holding a headstand for 108 slow concious breaths? One reason is that will take my headstand up to around ten minutes, which, accoriding to Iyengar, is the minimum time required for the true benefits of a headstand to kick in. Well, not everyone can do that regularly, but I’m the kind of curious person who has to cross that threshhold and find out what’s on the other side. So, I’m working toward it. It’s taken months, because I don’t do it everyday. I started out half way at 54 breaths, and add one more each time I practice this durational hold. This is helping to build strength, especially in the back of my neck, where I recognize that I collapse, and sometimes (ugggh!!!) audibly cracks when I realize that one vertebrae has tucked into the other, and I have to pull myself up and out. It helps immensely to firmly engage the lowest part of the abs, using the core to straighten out, and take the tension out of the overworked muscles between the shoulder blades. I love to imagine the chakras like helium balloons, springing to life as I squeeze everything in towards the midline, lifting me up and up, energy compressed and focused on sahasrara, the crown chakra.
Why am I working on holding a headstand for 108 slow concious breaths? Because when I go back to regular practice of headstand, for “only” 25 breaths, it seems to go by too quickly! I slow it down, and have the stamina to really elongate and savor each of those 25 breaths.
Why am I working on holding a headstand for 108 slow concious breaths? Because anytime I have done anything 108 times, I know that the first 100 just prepares you for the sweet nectar of the final 8.