The Ideal Yogic Practice

Natarajasana from today, 5 December 2023

There may be a time in your daily practice where you start listening a bit more, watching closely to the relationship of your hip, your spine, your breath, and you may even downgrade a little or go up a few more levels; in other words and more plainly written: you will adapt your practice to accommodate what is going on in your life.

Rock climbers understand this as “getting stronger” or even as “taking a break” as they scale/down-scale the grade-system of climbing. A 7a is one thing, a 7b+ (much harder grade of climbing), is another. This is likened to the ashtanga yoga practitioner practicing intermediate series for four to seven years, and the next year or two, finishing third series. There is a growth - an exponential one as it may seem, however it may be very inevitable.

I have been practicing since 2000: I spent the first four years learning the primary series, the following seven years learning the intermediate series and in the last twelve years, I’ve completed the third and fourth series. In the last twelve years, I have still practiced more primary and intermediate than advanced. In the last nine years I have had two children. And after 23 years of practice I would say that I mostly practice primary and intermediate, and I sprinkle in the advanced practice where I see fit.

Yoga practice comes in and away from you like the waves from the sea; I believe we have cycles that ebb and flow. The longer you practice the easier it is to notice. And now that some of you (like myself) have been videoing and photographing ourselves practicing (thank you, covid!), it is easy to see the changes in our bodies, in our minds and in the time and places where we have been.

I look at all the asana pictures of myself and I am reminded that this time too shall pass; and another year I’ll be less flexible or more so. If we think this is it, this is our best that we have to offer and there is nothing left, you’re wrong! Or if you are feeling washed up and wilted, remember there is always another year to practice and reinvent yourself and your relationship with your yoga practice. It too will come back to life like the Phoenix rises up from the ashes, reborn for the next great flight of her life.

Practicing smarter will be the key to building this type of compassion that will be required to have a successful, long term yoga practice. When you realise that you can no longer bust out Kapotasana after doing full primary and some of intermediate, the mirror of yoga will tell you simply: practice smarter! You can still do Kapotasana regularly, however maybe without a full series before it - or maybe without devastating your back doing a repetitive lousy upward dog. You’ll refine. You’ll re-draw the lines, and you will also, re-examine what and how you actually practice before you do Kapotasana.

It is pretty clear: some years you got it, some years…you just don’t. Injury happens, babies come, relationships break and shalas close. Teachers move away, and the worst of all, you change physically and mentally. Are you still a yogi when “the citt hits the fan?” (Thank you, Tim Miller, I first heard you share this during a retreat with you in Maya Tulum, Mexico in 2002 when I was just a newbie on my very long ashtanga yoga journey.)

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It is only a matter of time when you come to grips with how you need a compassionate mind set to continually adapt or redefine your practice. It will come when you notice how difficult it is to bust out a full series. Questions I have for you are: do you have the two hour time-frame a full series with Pranayama requires? Do you have the stamina and did you eat properly the night before? Are you holding yourself to a high standard of community around you to encourage you to practice day in and day out?

I started designing my practice primarily for peak postures. This meant that I was still doing some of third, some of fourth, some of intermediate and primary, I just wasn’t doing the full series leading up to the posture I was currently working on.

I started sometime in 2022: starting with classic standing postures, a few parts of intermediate or third or primary and second, and then approaching the ultimate posture - some days, Kurmasana, or Dvi Pada Sirsasana, and others, doing loads of backbends so that I could approach the ominous and informidable pose, Ganda Berundhasana.

I broke the rules. I broke them because after 23-years of practice I listened to my body crave compassion.

”Please don’t do the full third!” begged my practice mind.

”Hush you, you’re fine, you’re so strong you can do the full thing.” said my brain and my ego.

Natarajasana, after the Birth of Dashiel, 2017

The practice-mind ruled me over: to practice with a smarter mind and to not do the full series if needed: the result has been a dedication on the mat no matter what (that’s no change, lol!), to do what my body requires for that day. I do all of standing always including two additional one-legged standing postures, Ardha Chandrasana and Dikasana. Adding more standing postures helps my balance and my stamina, my knees and my feet. If anything that the ashtanga method lacks, is a lack of standing poses. I need more of them, so I add them in.

I always do a full primary and a full intermediate once a week: yes the full series. The stamina and balance of the series soothes my nervous system and calms my mind. I also do the full backbending sequence as much as possible. This traditional practice connects me to the community around me - if I all of a sudden went rogue and didn’t practice the traditional practice at all I would no longer feel connected as I do to the world community around me - which I strive to be apart of.

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Refine your practice and keep practicing what you love - never stop because you no longer do what you ‘used to do’. Practice what you do do well, and work on your hard-earned poses - even if you use straps, extra preparations, or even modify your practice for ‘peak poses’ no one will discredit you for your efforts: if anything, yogis around the world, who also struggle practicing this difficult method day in and day out, will congratulate you on your courage to adapt and change, modify and clearly wax and wane in your own glory…some years you’ll shine and others, you’ll still be working on getting it right.

Natarajasana, 2012 in Philadelphia when I had just learned it.

Going on a Treasure Hunt

Persistent practice means there is a soulful interest to get into the creative and quiet self. It isn’t easy for most of us and for many people like myself, I take a little more time to find that sweet place.

I write this on a fine Saturday morning, where there are no sounds outside, the sky is grey and wet raindrops soak the ground; there is a quiet cold to the season that is changing into autumn. This cold feeling sneaks it’s way into the air: it isn’t like one day it is cold, and dark - it is a slow persistent cooling that smothers the summer away.

The mat is rolled out and I have finished my morning coffee. The ritual of writing before practice started this past summer, when I participated in a three-month self-guided writing course by Julia Cameron, “The Artist’s Way”. Only now if I don’t feel like writing my three morning pages, I read for thirty minutes instead and then begin to practice. This sitting and being still with my thoughts clears out the cob-webs out so that when I do get on my mat, I find myself even more willing to practice.

This day in particular is unique because it is the day after I have gone climbing with friends, so my morning practice begins a little bit creaky. My body requires my attention. I need to roll around a bit, I need to knead out the knots in my upper back and I need to caress my feet, which have been clinging like claws and are worn and tired. My hands - my digits feel like they’ve been driven over by a machine and my legs are tired from holding myself upwards. Did you know that using your legs is a huge part of climbing? I tend to the soothing and rejuvenating, and then I do some intermediate or primary series. Yes, this all happens on a Saturday because I almost always climb on a Friday evening. 

Traction exercises; using belts or even a stick of a broom; pulling on some squishy bands, and hip and shoulder work begins my day. Then I move onto rolling around on spiky balls. This whole practice usually takes twenty minutes and then I am ready for some ashtanga yoga. 

Have you found that as you age, yogi, you need a little more tender loving care before you begin your practice? If you don’t and you are still a raging bull ready to get into that ring of fire, consider yourself unusual. Most of us as we age need a little more time to arch ourselves into that creative and selfless upward dog. My downward dog is an invocation into my spine, my legs and my shoulders feel tenderly embraced, so I stay for ages there, forget five breaths, often I stay for ten breaths, and the same for the upward dog. The first five Sun Salutations take longer than they used to, I stretch my breath and make it long and each vinyasa is valued; time is on your side during these beginning movements.

This exploration and warming up goes hand in hand with the maturity that the meditation of the practice starts to become more important than the postures. This means that you are simply happy with each asana and the breath that accompanied it - and you are committed completely to the act of simply being there - alone - in solitude - with your quiet and beautiful self. 

This to me has become more of my focus on the mat. How are my thoughts when I practice? Am I doubting myself and seeking more and wanting to be this or that and wanting to be great or prove something to someone, etc…or am I just content being with my breath and myself? The latter for sure. I want that sweet discovery of listening to my breath and watching it unfold. How glorious when time goes by swiftly and you find yourself in your upward padmasana in the closing sequence thinking of nothing but the tip of your nose and peering at your navel in total focus and care?

The practice begs our attention because it is so difficult; like rock climbing, it isn’t very forgiving. You must work at it. You must give it the attention it deserves, or you will be robbing yourself of the joys of samadhi. This bliss or place of all knowing - also called “samadhi” or absorption of the self - this is what we are seeking each and every time we step on that mat.

How you get there yogi, that is your own travel itinerary! Remember that your travels plans may or may not be the same pathway as someone else; in fact your path of yoga is always different from someone else’s! Each and every one of your practices is a personalised treasure hunt where you go searching for the gold. We all have our maps! Yet is it really the gold that us yogis want? No. It is the actual path that you are travelling upon - that you persistently have to figure out your way upon - that is the yoga! Your practice is your treasure, and it is the work that you do while on the pathway that brings you to yoga.

Practice with me this year in my upcoming day workshop here in Dublin, 11 November, 2023 from 9-5 pm where we will explore some pathways that may bring us towards yoga. Book your workshop place HERE.

Pregnancy and Ashtanga Yoga

My Pregnancy as an Ashtangi: a Story

All photos by Sarah Philp taken at 37 weeks pregnant.
Love Yoga, Aberdeen

Introduction

For a detailed guide on pregnancy and ashtanga yoga, study Betty Lai's article via ashtanga.com by clicking  "Ashtanga Yoga Practice During Pregnancy". 

The book, "Sadhana for Mothers" by Sharmila Desai and Anna Wise is an absolute gem of information. Consult your teacher FIRST if you are pregnant and wondering what to do with your practice. Especially if you are new to ashtanga yoga (only practicing for less than a year). There is a list of resources, books, and information at the bottom that I found most useful for birth and for ashtangis in particular.

I had been practicing ashtanga yoga daily for over ten years when I fell pregnant. My "regular practice" was not quite moderate: I was practicing advanced A and part of B four days a week and an intermediate in there one day and a primary in there once or twice. I had a heat-building, powerful yet sensitive practice and there was steam coming off my body when I did so. I observed moon days and ladies holiday, though for many years I took just the first two days off of my ladies holiday and practiced through the rest.

It took us six months to conceive; the month we conceived I had stopped teaching, was at my fullest in my practice and was eating very well. We had a conception plan from Christine Hoar, and I was chanting Sanskrit songs of abundance.

When I fell pregnant, immediately I let it all go. I practiced Matthew Sweeney's Chandra Sequence "the Moon Sequence" for the first twenty weeks - the first five months of the pregnancy because I didn't know if I could practice a traditional practice without pushing and becoming driven.

I took folic acid, a prenatal vitamin, and fish oil. I ate mostly vegetarian though I had some fish and a little beef because I felt faint. I craved seaweed, sushi, dried cherries and salty rice. I practiced the moon sequence every day as when I tried to take days off I felt nauseous. The baby loved the practice so I kept going. I taught my morning Mysore program up until 38 weeks. I taught a jump back from padmasana workshop at 20 weeks.

My Aberdeen prenatal yoga teacher, Judy Cameron, "Yoga of Birth", guided me throughout the pregnancy to "simply trust the body and follow the breath". I did just this throughout the entire pregnancy. Once the twenty weeks came, I started back at my ashtanga practice.

This blog post is my story. It isn't what everyone should do. This is what worked for me and why. 

What I did:

At five months pregnant, I started back to my ashtanga practice and created a sequence of ashtanga postures from the series that worked for me. Some from primary, a few from intermediate and a few from advanced. I practiced the same routine every day taking away asanas as they became more difficult; my asana practice was no more than forty five minutes.

In general I did not:

• jump back, but stepped

• did not practice any bandhas - no uddiyana

• did not bring the heel to navel - only a loose lotus, loose ardha baddha

• never let my belly touch the floor in forward bends

• no jumping from standing into the standing asanas

In the standing asanas I would hold my leg instead of grabbing my big toe, I would begin all movements with squatting, deeply squatting with legs wide (it is a natural progression that the perineum stretches while squatting and opens the pelvis 30% more - this is an obvious good thing to do in preparation for birth — "Gentle Birth Method" by Gowri Motha).

I practiced only a few seated asanas from primary: the first three; then janu sirsasana A and C; Janu A with the bent leg far away from the body - the heel far away, so that it didn't touch the pelvic floor or the belly.

Asanas from intermediate and advanced: 

• Fire log posture (as a prep for below) with gomakasana arms and then again with vatayanasana arms to open the chest and the ribs. 

• Eka pada raja kapotasana - only up to 37 weeks. 

• Eka pada sirasana - up to 30 weeks. 

• Baddha konasana (the last and final asana from primary).

• Mulabandhasana through 38 weeks; this helped reduce any edema (swelling) that potentially happens in pregnancy, as I never had swollen feet or back pain.

• Virasana

• Ustrasana 

• Lagu Vajrasana

• Kapotasana - up until 37 weeks. 

• Pincha, pincha again with lotus, pincha with scorpion - up to 38 weeks. Being upside down was a wonderful time to feel the baby move freely. I could feel my pelvis open up while upside down and automatically sense the freedom the baby had to venture into new spaces and find more real estate. This was a wonderful posture for my pregnancy.

• Backbends and drop backs and tic tacs. But once the baby 'engaged' into my pelvis (head down cephalic), there were no more deep backbends as the pelvis becomes quite mobile. I did these deep backbends up until 38 weeks. Many friends I spoke to did backbends right up until their delivery so it depends on the person.

Finishing asanas:

• Shoulderstand with the wall up until 39 weeks - No halasana or karnipidasana.

• Matsyasana - No Uttana Padasana.

• Headstand without my head on the floor as it didn't feel right; practiced right up until the day before my delivery.

• Sitting and breathing - in a relaxed lotus (with support under the hips and with a pillow under the floater left knee if needed) an hour every day as I felt the baby drop instantly in this position! 

• Deep breathing without kumbhakas (rententions) was wonderful and finishing any deep breathing sequences with shitali breaths - a colourful and cooling way to close out to my sensitive and creative practice. 

• I also sang and chanted the yoga sutras of Patanjali, sang songs on my harmonium and oiled my body (abhyanga) twice a day.

Supplemental practices:

I had been advised that dancers, gymnasts and runners (this includes yogis) who were first time mothers may have significantly tighter pelvic floors due to the intensity of their activities. My prenatal teacher, Judy Cameron - advised me to invest in an EpiNo, a "pelvic floor exercise device to prepare for birth". This investment not only helped me prepare physically but mentally for the birth of our son! Then, once the birth was over, one can use the same device to strengthen the pelvic floor (at this stage NOT stretch it) so that one can become healthy again postpartum.

This device changed the way I thought of uddiyana bandha, ashwini mudra, and any pelvic floor exercise out there. I learned immensely from this medical device more about the elusive pelvic floor muscles and how to train them properly. The EpiNo also helps with incontinence and with training the pelvic floor post trauma. 

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The best way to maintain a daily yoga practice is to follow your breath and be sensitive to what your body tells you to do. I found that there weren't doubts about what to do because I listened deeply from within to what I needed. Often we aren't sure of ourselves during our yogic practices.

Once you become pregnant, there are many doubts.

So it is vital that what you are doing is not harmful to you or the baby. You must feel it and firmly believe that all you are doing is preparing yourself and your loved one for the best experience: the joy of child birth. 

Consult a teacher and ask for help if you aren't sure. Above all don't practice if anything doesn't feel right. It is with this attention and care that I found ease and freedom in my practice throughout my pregnancy.

What Really Happened - the Birth:

Our son Dashiel Peter Hatcher was born naturally weighing 8 lbs at the Aberdeen Midwives Unit pool after twelve hours of labour. He was fifteen days late so the planned home birth we courageously prepared wasn't possible. I started early labour, or what is called 'latent' labour a week before he came.

I tried everything to get things further moving:

• I ran up a hill

• I took castor oil (did nothing but give me a terrible day on the toilet)

• I chanted to the Moon

• I chanted to Kali and Durga

• I took evening primrose oil

• I had two acupuncture treatments

• I received shiatsu

• I took homeopathic remedies

The only thing that worked was pressure: the night before I was to be induced my waters broke, twelve hours later Dashiel was born in the pool at the hospital. With two midwives and my husband Tim the baby came out bright eyed and gorgeous.

I had to leave the pool to deliver the placenta, and this was where things became difficult. I was shocked at how much blood was lost! I had to deliver the placenta on the bed which was fine at the time since I was exhausted but in reflection I should have been squatting or standing or on all fours. I tore the front passage badly and needed nine stitches; this put quite a damper on my natural birth high.

Post Birth

Everyone, I learn, seems to have something about pregnancy or childbirth or post childbirth that is/was challenging. My pregnancy and birth were beautiful; afterwards though, learning how to breast feed and care for my son was a whole package deal that was absolutely trying in every way. I didn't have milk in the beginning so I had to express by pumping, seek help from the hospital and Dashiel and I both had to learn to stop, sit on the sofa or on the bed and do nothing but feed. And feed more.

We cracked our breast feeding troubles about six weeks. It took us a long time to get it right. During this time I cried every day. I had my placenta encapsulated so I was taking these pills to prevent postpartum depression. I believe they worked but since I cried so much during the fourth trimester, I wonder, what would I have been like if I hadn't taken them?

I tried practicing at four weeks, just to get moving. Nothing felt right so I stopped. I waited till eight weeks to do some standing asanas, still it was terribly uncomfortable on my stomach for upward dog. Slowly slowly around three months is when I could do parts of primary and some days I would do ten Namaskaras and then feed the baby; and a half an hour later do ten more. 

From this place of building the namaskars back through repetition and elementary alignment, I am slowly building my strength back. There is no rush. Some days I get on my mat and do some standing and then breathe in padmasana and chant.

Having this blessed ashtanga yoga practice gave me the tools to be confident in myself and in the birth; the wisdom to unravel when I needed to instead of holding my pains inside. I am forever grateful that I practiced through the pregnancy as I was pain free the entire time. And above all, sitting in padmasana kept my spine erect and strong, and my mind clear. If there is anything all the years of practice taught me that prepared me for the challenge of becoming a mother, it was the lesson of letting go. Allowing myself to be ok with whatever comes and having the ability to invite it in, whatever emotion it was, without fear.

Thank you Guruji, for teaching me and all my teachers before me. We all love and miss you.

Motherhood

Dashiel Peter, 14 weeks

Being a mother to my son Dashiel Peter has been the highlight of my life. Sharing the beauty of yourself and the world with a small child is the pinnacle of being a woman. My husband is a giant part of this as well, and I am blessed and grateful for his endless love, patience and understanding.

How blessed we are in this world! 

Hari Om, Sarah

On holiday in Applecross, 12 weeks old

Resources:

Sharmila Desai and Anna Wise "Yoga Sadhana for Mothers" A Must!

Gowri Motha, "The Gentle Birth Method".  Website

Marie Mongan Method, "The Hypnobirthing Institute" Website

Epi No — Pelvic Floor Training Device

*****

Birth Mentors in the Aberdeen area and beyond I highly recommend:

Christine Hoar, Authorized Ashtanga Teacher and Ayurvedic Consultant. Conception Birth Plan; Diet and Breast feeding Guidance. "Ashtanga Montauk", New York.

Amber Sebold, "Gentler Beginnings" our Doula

Kylie Elliot, "Positive Birth Choices" Placenta Encapsulation

Sue Townsend, Registered Homeopath website

Judy Cameron, "Yoga of Birth" midwife and prenatal yoga teacher

Dr Fan Zhou, Aberdeen Acupuncture website

Martin Julich, Rosemount Centre for Holistic therapies Shiatsu

Chanting: Why do it?

Thank goodness for this practice of ashtanga yoga, not just the physical practice - but all eight limbs of it. My new favourite limb is the singing limb - where is that located you may ask, in the niyamas?
Yes, svadhyaya!
Is it located in the inner limbs - does it happen during meditative awareness, dhyana? 
Yes! 
What about asana, can you sing in this limb too? 
Heck, why not!

Dash is almost two years old. Since he was born and since the time I became pregnant in the fall of 2013, I have matured as a yogi in many ways. I have gone backwards in my practice and became a beginner all over; then forwards again as I built what was lost back up. 

I bring my teachers into the room to practice with me. They have inspired me to be great and go beyond what I know. My dearest friends and teachers - Randa Chehab, Christine Hoar, Guruji, Sharath, David Garrigues and Dena Kingsberg...they have all taught me nuggets of the yoga practice and I remember their touch and their insight each and every day I practice. 

I absolutely love this practice, I long for it and smell it - Surya Namaskar B is like a little slice of heaven in my mind.

My newest teacher is my Sanskrit teacher, David Miliotis. His website is Here. David teaches me about the yoga sutras and guides me in my daily chanting practice. I look towards seeing one of my teachers of asana once or twice a year if I am lucky - but David I am happy to see more often - once or twice a month if I can so I can learn how to sing and chant the story of yoga. 

The best part is that he lives in Los Angeles, and I live in Edinburgh! We use Skype to connect. It isn't difficult to connect with people whom you wish to learn from. Email, Skype, viber, messaging, hand written letters...reach out!

When you chant you are able to understand YOUR yogic practice better. Chanting I have found helps me understand the asana practice. This is difficult to understand but think of it this way: you see an apple and you smell it and feel it - it looks good. But until you actually bite into it and chew it do you really know what it is like. It is like this - chanting helps you savour and taste and absorb what you are practicing better. Like asana practice, in the beginning you are methodical, robotic almost, memorizing and just getting everything in the series done safely and in the right order. This is like chanting as a beginner, we repeat and learn how to articulate our tongues in the right way and it is often a bit difficult and tiresome. 

Soon though, with practice and time - you can sing the sutras! This would be just like linking the vinyasa with the asana and the breath and dristi - you find a rhythmic smoothness and ease, you almost laugh through the practice with joy since it is easy, free flowing and meditative.  It only becomes this way when you do it often and for a long time.

Chanting also relieves the stresses and pressures of the asana practice and gets me courageously taking a deeper look at myself. Chanting reveals what is happening on that rectangle purple platform, the yoga mat. What is really happening when I do Buddhasana? Sitting and chanting, sitting and absorbing the meditative qualities of the Sanskrit sounds  - this brings out the story of this posture.

Singing and chanting also means that there is joy. Bringing joy and ease into your practice is a healthy way to begin going deeper. We can't take ourselves too seriously, so by enjoying what we are actually doing more we will feel it and experience it on a deeper level. It can be a bit uncomfortable in the beginning, but it will be pain-free and harmonious with time.

As a total beginner to chanting and kirtan or other types of singing - where to begin? Get a recording or record someone great. Have a Skype private lesson with a teacher. Get yourself contemplating what yoga means by weaving your way through the sutras - I promise it will spit you out a few lessons on your Marichyasana D.

I am courageously weaving my way through the third chapter and almost ready to begin studying the fourth chapter of the Yoga Sutras and I am definitely still a beginner. I lead free chanting sessions at Meadowlark on Wednesdays and Fridays. Until I've chanted it for ten years I will remain the beginner. 

If you practice deeply and devotedly any type of the yogic practice - whether it is asana, pranyama or meditation or chanting, you will reach stillness and acquire a meditative mind. And I believe the nirodhaha will come. Actually you don't even need the yoga sutras to explain it to you - though for some of us, the extra information does help guide us along in a very profound way.

Daily Practical Practice

Dashiel Peter says, "Hello out there from bonny Scotland. I'm almost a year old!"

Often I meet people who think the practice of ashtanga vinyasa yoga is a very rigid practice that has many rules. Often they think they have to kill themselves to do it. This isn't the case at all. Daily ashtanga practice can be done with as much energy as you have to put into it, it doesn't have to be hard all of the time. 

Being a new mother, I find myself happy to get on my mat to practice. I am not concerned which series I do or how "hard" I practice. Just arriving on my mat and moving and breathing every day is more than enough. 

There have been times in my life where practice has been the most important daily routine and I didn't focus on anything else. And there have been other years where I practiced every day with the least amount of effort applied. Now I find myself in the middle road after swaying to both extremes. I have done bare bones practices for a length of time and I have done full throttle practices every day as well.  

As a new mother, I am tired most days. To manage this and sustain a six day a week committed practice, I make a practical plan. I recommend this method for people who are working intensely, and people who are traveling. This would be great for anyone who is having a harder time than usual, dealing with challenges, or even just needing more sleep than anything else.

While we are on retreat, studying directly in India with time off from our jobs and householder commitments, and when we have carved out devoted time in our daily lives to focus just on the practice, we can study as deeply as possible with full intention on practice for hours on end. This is wonderful when this can happen and I fully urge people to dive into their inward journey as much as possible.

Having a practical practice plan balances this intensity, there must be a balance: we can't sustain deep practices over a long period of time. The body needs a break, so does the mind. Note how when practitioners study "in-depth" it isn't every day for an extended amount of time, usually it is no longer than six months.

If one WERE to practice full throttle every day, there is a higher chance of injury, quitting the practice altogether and burnout. This is what we DON'T want to do, we WANT to practice throughout our entire lives, so let's stretch it out over time and with ease.

Chakra Bandhasana with David Garrigues in 2011. One of the very few photos I have of DG assisting me.

Patanjali describes that higher awareness of the self - one of the foundational aims of daily yogic practice - is very near for those who apply themselves intensely (yoga sutra 1.21: "tivrasamveganamasannah"). But it can also come to those who apply themselves with mrdu - mild effort (1.22). 

In sutra 1.22, Patanjali defines three types of yogic efforts that lead one towards understanding samadhi. Practice can be mild, medium or intense; this amount of effort in turn relates to how fast or slow you understand yoga. 

Another way of understanding this is that there may be a few years where you are learning intensely on a regular basis. You are living in the same town with your teacher, you are seeing them daily, or you are on retreat. Then there will be a phase where you won't be progressing so quickly. Maybe at this time you won't be learning any new "postures" but you will be finding your own understanding of the practice; here you are learning how to apply what you have been already taught. You begin to use your own language to describe it. It becomes yours. This is where you build your "bhakti muscle" as my friend Tiffany Lee says.

Then the cycle continues: you'll be there for a while until something changes again, you see your teacher and something shifts. You learn the lesson needed to be learned, and you move on. This shifting and realigning is natural. Having a few years of enjoying what you have been taught is important to practice. Don't push all of the time. Or are you that type of yogi? If we follow Patanjali's suggestion in sutra 1.22, we could have three potential practices IF we were to take the middle road.

1. Do an easy practice (a mild practice in time you spend on your mat and in effort): This practice could be twenty minutes to an hour. It is showing up and putting your time in with whatever you have in the tank to do. This could happen once or twice a week depending on how busy you are. For me this happens at least once a week: the standing and finishing asanas only - including savasana. Times that are very challenging this may be your practice - without shame or guilt. Sure it is a short one, but it is still a beautiful one.

2. Do a medium one (medium in length and in effort): This is the practice that Goldilocks would say is, "Juuuuust right". This practice is the one you try to do three to four days per week. This could be the practice you could do without working so hard but one where you have to still have to apply more effort than the first practice. One hour to an hour and a half. This is the meat of your practice - you spend most of your days doing this one - during this practice perhaps you also approach the asana you are currently working on or "stopping" at. Do this 3-4 days.

3. Enjoy a long one (intense and endurance based): This practice is the one you do one or two times per week. It is your big practice, the one that you pull everything from your tank to do. It could be an hour and a half to three hours. How much time do you have to spend on your practice? Could you turn off your phone a little earlier in the morning to make this practice happen more often? Or go to sleep much earlier? 

This is the practice I try to do twice a week with the goal of doing it three times a week. For some householders with big jobs and morning commitments in the week, this could be on a Saturday or a Sunday. The reason we vary practice is so that we can:

1), focus on the breath and the vinyasa

2), maintain steadiness and consistency in our foundations

3), establish an unwavering commitment to getting on the mat six days a week 

4), enjoy practicing!

To Practice

I will practice today because the day is grey
I take practice today because the day is sunny
I completed my practice today because I needed to breathe
I needed to understand myself better
My body says I need to stretch
I need to chill out
I must learn to relax

I practice because no one tells me to
I practice because I feel God watching me 
Often the practice smells like the food I ate yesterday
I'm covered in sweat and I am drooling
I try to hold it together
I feel like an elephant
I am heavy
I unravel

Often during the practice
I am floating in the clouds, again with the Lord
My body is light and my mind doesn't fight
The earth enjoys my company
I join the world around me
I am taken care of
I do not have to be afraid
I love myself, my community and the blessed world
I practice because I believe in it
and it believes in me

Utthi Plutthi - one of the gestures you ALWAYS do, the last gesture before taking rest, the gesture that builds bandhas, builds bhakti, builds peace within.

Three Easy Practice Rules Post Baby or Post Break

Greetings, yogis and friends. I have surfaced from the depths of Motherhood to join you all in cyber-blog world. Becoming a new mummy has been an incredible experience but it has taken me far from writing and sharing about yoga. 

The vessel I am now occupying is a much different one. My body is clean and my eyes are sharp. I am stretchy, just like Elasta-Girl from "The Incredibles" which makes perfect sense, since my son is named Dash.

My body is now likened to a wing of a house that was once closed off which is now opened.

The positives to this of course is that I am able and bendy, the not-so-good parts is that I need STRENGTH to support this flexibility.

I thought about doing supplemental exercises to gain strength: pilates, running, climbing, or any type of fitness routine. But then with time being an issue, as I only have SO much time in the day to myself, I realised that my yoga practice is going to have to do much more for me than just bring me to a meditative state of calmness, it is going to have to heal my body, build strength AND make me calm.

Can your practice do all of this?

Yes, but you have to have a plan. I decided on three practice rules: 1), get through a practice every day - for as long as it takes. Once the mat rolls out and baby Dash has had his breakfast, we begin. 2), do Full Vinyasa and 3), practice non-attachment or what Patanjali calls, "vairagya".

The first one is easy, do the practice every day and during a time I set up specifically for it's success. It won't work if I say to myself, "I'll practice at 11 tomorrow, today at 9." It has to be at the same time so that you actually get it done AND so that it becomes a routine. In a two hour chunk of time, often I'll practice for thirty minutes, then I'll need to take a break to feed Dashiel; then I'll have another thirty minutes more of practice, and need to take another break to play. And so on...since I practice with Dash, this means that his needs are met throughout the practice. This is why they are so many stops. 

Oftentimes I do five or ten Namaskars to warm up to get back to where I was in the sequence before. This builds strength because some days I end up doing twenty to thirty Namaskars!

The second one requires coming to standing after each asana at the top of your mat. The positives are that you are able to settle yourself before undergoing the next asana, and you can give your wee baby (if you are practicing with your child) a kiss or a cuddle. You can also catch your breath and build your momentum again. If you are coming back to practice from a pregnancy or a break, this is a very good way to develop stability and stamina. 

The third is much more elusive. Patanjali calls non attachment "vairagya" which is first introduced in the first of his four songs on yoga, in the Samadhi Pada at sutra 1.12: Abyasa vairagyabyam tannirrodaha.

The concept of being "without attachment" to our highly cared for and oftentimes precious practices is something that many of us work on. Daily practice - done with steadiness, for a long time and without breaks goes hand-in-hand with also not striving for perfection while learning to let go.

Years and time on the mat inside yourself and with your practice will give you the information to make vairagya work. We need patience, perseverance and a lot of inward looking (within this same concept, I say "just say no to the daily yoga selfie!"). What we don't need is taking daily practice in a way that removes us from keeping a poetic reality on our life or becoming attached to the final end perfected product. 

Non attachment also means practicing every day within the limits of our abilities, without harming another vital aspect of our lives. We must try to let go of our attachments to the pleasurable parts in our practices; on that same note try not to be adverse to something in our practice that we are dodging; we should do it with equal effort placed on the pleasurable bits and the uncomfortable bits.  

A practical example is that I can enter a posture right now and say to myself the entire time, "It used to feel like this...I am not as flexible or strong...it should be like this" and my mind can take over comparing myself to this yogini whom I used to be.

INSTEAD I must think, the vessel I am occupying is different, that time before is over and now, with this new awareness and strength that I am building, I will do the posture with more ease, more stamina and it will feel differently, look differently and be a whole new experience. So because of this, the posture won't be like it used to be, so I can't attach to that experience at all. It won't serve me or my practice if I do.

It is this clear mind of not thinking of the past or what we were once before which can bring us to a place of deeper meditative awareness.

**

And how is it working so far? Dashiel is now four and a half months old, and I can share that we are rockin' practice. There are new yogic nuggets that are born every day. I find new gems of information from each jump back. 

What am I doing differently? I am not changing the practice in any way, just altering how I enter and exit asanas. Here are a few examples listed below. And maybe they can help you, yoga reader, become more committed to daily practice, and even let go a little bit more so that vairagya becomes achievable.

Cheers  to you, and happy practices from Love Yoga, Aberdeen.

• Float to standing from downward dog - take time to hang in the air

• Stay in chataranga for more than one breath - sometimes five or ten breaths

• Jump through alternating the top crossed leg; jumping back alternating the top leg

• Instead of jumping through with straight legs, go for the tight cross, hovering and straighten the legs out in in front, and then sitting down like a helicopter - stay here for a few breaths before lowering!

• Do fifteen to twenty back bends; limit the drop backs and doing more floor work; using a block to get the legs to do the work, and of course the chest follows suit

• Sing the sutras while practicing to calm your baby (or calm yourself).

Us doing our practice, and singing prayers, at Eco Yoga, Argylle