I hope everyone is having a great summer, productive practice and a good mood

I’m back from 2 weeks Universal Yoga Certification Program run by Andrey Lappa in Ukraine. Intensive practice, wonderful people and tender Black Sea washed all the stress away and filled my soul with peace and enthusiasm. 3-4 hours of yoga, pranayama and energy work; 5 hours of theory and dynamic Shiva Dance practice made my days.

Now it’s time to think everything over and start implementing new principles and methods. We have only 2 months left till our long India/Nepal trip in October-December (more news on it soon).

I’m replacing several teachers in KievYogaStudio now and the schedule is a little bit tough, but it brings unbelievable easiness to my mind. What can be more delightful then seeing students’ bright eyes after the class?

As for blogging, my further topics will be:

* Food and healthy eating rules

* Ayurveda principles of healthy life and nutrition

* Yoga for teachers: what to pay attention to; how not to lose own practice and continue personal growth

* Reaching balance during the class

* Pranayama: types, methods, what to start with

* Kundalini Yoga: what’s the idea?

If my dear readers have some topics in mind, - please let me know, I want to be useful

May you all find real freedom..

Photo by mike9alive

You are what you eat. I’ve started this 12 rules article in one of previous posts to help readers correct their diet and start eating in a more healthy way. Any practice, including yoga, will be times more effective if supported by wholesome nutrition; and some Indian schools of yoga even start education with kriyas - special body cleaning practices - before studying postures or breath techniques.

I will briefly describe the first two rules I wrote about:

1. Eat to live; don’t live to eat

Do you often eat favorite cookies/sweets/chocolate blaming yourself and promising to stop “after this last one”? Do you eat much when you are stressed? Do you automatically eat in front of computer or TV? Do you eat before going to sleep? If you do, this article will help you slightly change the way you eat to become healthier and happier. Food is an instrument, a fuel for your body. Using this or that fuel, your body will feel better or worse. Everyone wants to live a longer, healthier, happier life, - and that is why we should choose good fuel that will not harm our body. It’s very simple in theory Try to treat the food in this way.

2. Hunger is truth, appetite is a lie

Whenever you want to eat and hold out your hand for something tasty, try to think and analyze - “Am I feeling hungry? Is it a real hunger? Or am I bored, stressed, used to eat more then I need?”. Be honest with yourself and try to become aware of every little thing you eat.

Next step is to experience a real hunger. Dedicate your day (why not Friday or weekend?) to explore a real feeling of hunger. Eat less for breakfast and take a long walk during lunch. Don’t eat anything before next meal. Watch how your hunger appears and grows, let it fill your thoughts and body. Remember this feeling. During next few days try to work out a new habit - to eat when you feel hungry, not when you see something tasty.

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My morning started with Google Reader (sometimes I don’t have enough time to go through interesting posts, “star” them and leave for tomorrow) and found an interesting post by InsideOwl about people dedicated to Ashtanga Yoga.

Let’s see in Wikipedia what Ashtanga Yoga actually is (so everyone understands it in the same way).

Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga in its current form was developed Mysore, India by Sri K. Pattabhi Jois by way of his teacher, Krishnamacharya. Ashtanga Vinyasa follows 8 limbs outlined by Patanjali. This style of yoga bases on Vinyasa, - dynamic chain that connects separate classic postures. Much attention is paid to breath as a force keeping your senses “inside”. The breath is linked to the movements in Vinyasas and makes the practice self-contained. Vinyasas are same important as postures, and your attention and awareness starts with your first posture and continues every moment next to it.

To my vision and experience, Ashtanga Vinyasa is one of most powerful spiritual practices people can follow today. It really makes your awareness stronger, bringing clarity and light.

InsideOwl says:

I do not know which way the causal arrow runs:

(1) ashtanga strips down the dissimulative parts of you and reveals your more inveterate quirks or

(2) ashtanga attracts intense people with uncompromising ways-of-being.

I have seen people come to Ashtanga classes, and I have seen people go. Many get washed away by a need to turn off your egocentric mind, to open yourself to deepest aspect of physical and mental practice (otherwise, you may harm your body). Physical hardness is the first factor most people cannot overcome although this judgment about hardness comes from mind, - everyone can do own rhyme, own level and own dynamics.

With practice, class by class, if you are attentive you start understanding that transformation Ashtanga brings to mind and body is very deep. There’s no need to disperse your attention to new postures when you have learned the sequence. All your senses are inside, mind is off and inner fire keeps coming from somewhere generating force you can hardly experience with calm scratching alone. Repeating Vinyasas can bring you to the new level of “being inside”, “being here and how” and experiencing inner silence.

And I think person needs to have descent level of self-discipline and a strong wish to bring transformation to start Ashtanga Vinyasa, otherwise one would chose simpler and calmer style of practice.

Anyone practicing Ashtanga with same thoughts?

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Picture by twenty_questions in Flickr

I got several feedbacks from the community on personal importance of healthy eating. We discussed Overeating as one of obstacles on the way to Yoga and Health. “We are what we eat” and we realize this truth very soon if start following basic rules. I will split 12 basic rules of healthy nutrition to several posts and I hope to cover each fully, bring you essential value of each.

As a result of a habit, advertising, stress and rush in our lives, current society has altered those eating concepts our forefathers followed. In order to revive our natural feeling of food that is required by our body, we can use several simple rules. Following these rules will save and strengthen your health. I have accumulated these advises from several Yoga teachers and use them in my everyday life for more then a year, advising them to students and friends. You will notice first results in a week if your nutrition is not very healthy and in a month if it is more or less healthy (this estimation is very rough, as it generally depends on your sensitivity).

I’m not giving “how to lose weight diet”, but instead I’m talking about healthy nutrition Yoga may advise.

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“6 reasons destroying your practice: overeating, physical and mental overstraining, garrulity, too strict rules compliance (limiting food to fruits only or bathe in cold water only, any rule coming from mind, not confirmed by the body and awareness), instability of mind and spending long time among people who don’t share your aspiration.”

Swatmarama, Hatha Yoga Pradipika

Talking about things that hinder our practice, one should carefully evaluate own obstacles. Sit for a moment and tell yourself, why you are doing yoga. Having a goal is important; we get too defocused without motivation. In Buddhism practitioners use “preliminary practices”, grounded on development of deep motivation to go ahead and practice.

Be fully aware of your goals and take a glance over your daily life, what stops you from practicing regularly. Swatmarama emphasizes common obstacles that make our practice less effective. Let’s go deeper and see what every reason means to us personally. In this post I will cover the first one, Overeating.

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