This past weekend, IYCD played host to Swati Chanchani. Swati is from Northern India and has been studying directly with the Iyengar Family for more than 30 years. She began the weekend workshop on Friday night with calling all of us around in a semi-circle to do the invocation. What a beautiful way to start. We typically sit in very straight rows, all on our own little islands of sticky mats. To begin this way brings an immediate feeling of community to the group. The way the Indians chant is so natural. Just in the tone you can feel and hear their devotion to god, to the guru, and to the group they are about to teach.
Friday night was standing poses using chairs for the hands, not going too deep. We used rolled sticky mats and blankets under our front foot to demonstrate the sensation of moving the top of the thigh back and noticing how that creates a freedom in the buttocks. She mentioned more than once that yoga is about devotion not acrobatics, it is about discipline and learning to change the way you have always done things, it is NOT about struggle. She asked a few times to the group, "Why must you struggle?" I have been asking myself this same question all week.
Saturday was incredible. Swati has a special gift to know when we have had enough or are not getting it. When we were all in Dwi Pada Viparita Dandasana, she saw that our chairs were not big enough and said come out let's do this another way. She led us into a supported backbend with bolsters and blankets instead. While in this backbend, that felt very luxurious to me, I noticed so many sensations not only in my back, my chest, but more especially my mind. I felt clearer, energized but not in an urgent sort of way. I think spending so much time in the pose gives you an opportunity to do that "micro surgery" that the Iyengar family is always talking about.
Swati went on adjusting people, teaching us more subtle things about our spines, our legs, our minds. At one point she says to someone, "Was that an accident or did you mean to make that adjustment?" The student replied, "It was an accident, I just did it because it felt good." Swati says to the class, "IF it comes accidentally, it is not yoga. Yoga has to be cultivated over time, then is comes mindfully." I immediately had to run out of the room to write this down. Sometimes the most simple suggestions are the most profound to me. I will agree with Swati that Yoga has to be cultivated. I have been doing some form of yoga since I was 18 years old when I got my first yoga video that had Ganga White on it. Whenever I did this video I always felt different. Then I moved on to yoga with a friend at a community college. We did the stare into a candle thing, do a few asanas and then sit very still. At the time I do not think I knew what I was doing! It does not really matter where you start, it is still a door opening. Over time, the yoga will penetrate deeper into your body, then to your mind, and deeper still to the seat of your soul.
Friday night was standing poses using chairs for the hands, not going too deep. We used rolled sticky mats and blankets under our front foot to demonstrate the sensation of moving the top of the thigh back and noticing how that creates a freedom in the buttocks. She mentioned more than once that yoga is about devotion not acrobatics, it is about discipline and learning to change the way you have always done things, it is NOT about struggle. She asked a few times to the group, "Why must you struggle?" I have been asking myself this same question all week.
Saturday was incredible. Swati has a special gift to know when we have had enough or are not getting it. When we were all in Dwi Pada Viparita Dandasana, she saw that our chairs were not big enough and said come out let's do this another way. She led us into a supported backbend with bolsters and blankets instead. While in this backbend, that felt very luxurious to me, I noticed so many sensations not only in my back, my chest, but more especially my mind. I felt clearer, energized but not in an urgent sort of way. I think spending so much time in the pose gives you an opportunity to do that "micro surgery" that the Iyengar family is always talking about.
Swati went on adjusting people, teaching us more subtle things about our spines, our legs, our minds. At one point she says to someone, "Was that an accident or did you mean to make that adjustment?" The student replied, "It was an accident, I just did it because it felt good." Swati says to the class, "IF it comes accidentally, it is not yoga. Yoga has to be cultivated over time, then is comes mindfully." I immediately had to run out of the room to write this down. Sometimes the most simple suggestions are the most profound to me. I will agree with Swati that Yoga has to be cultivated. I have been doing some form of yoga since I was 18 years old when I got my first yoga video that had Ganga White on it. Whenever I did this video I always felt different. Then I moved on to yoga with a friend at a community college. We did the stare into a candle thing, do a few asanas and then sit very still. At the time I do not think I knew what I was doing! It does not really matter where you start, it is still a door opening. Over time, the yoga will penetrate deeper into your body, then to your mind, and deeper still to the seat of your soul.
No comments:
Post a Comment