The ‘mysterious’ Surya Namaskra – Sun Salutation
Whenever a friend who has never practised yoga before asks me for recommendation, I would always strongly recommend them to pick up these set of basics poses (or asanas in sanskrit) before moving onto other asanas: child’s pose (balasana), downward facing dog (ardho muka svanasana) and sun-salutation (surya namaskar). Child’s pose as a comfortable and almost accessible resting pose for all; downward facing dog for being a classic transition pose in between asanas and sequences and a great pose to reset the body from head to toe; and the topic of this post – the surya namaskar. Surya namaskar when translated from Sanskrit means Sun Salutation. You may also have come across yoga studios offering beginners classes with surya namaskar as the syllabus. I think this is an excellent choice for a beginners class, as surya namaskar introduces the most common asanas used in many other yoga sequences. Mastering (by mastering I mean doing the poses safely in the correct form, not necessarily the best or better than others) the surya namaskar also gives you sort of an entry ticket into vinyasa-based/flow classes where surya namaskar forms the transitions between sequences. Before I delve deeper into the physical benefits of surya namaskar, I want to touch briefly on the history and significance of surya namaskar and debunk a few myths along the way. The origins of Sun Salutations are vague. There are many versions of Sun salutations that have appeared over the course of history. Ancient records of Sun Salutations did not have any associated poses (that we know of) and the sequence (and it’s variations) that we know and practise today is actually a relatively modern conception. While some branches of yoga practise sun-salutation with mantras associated with the Hindu sun god, the set of physical poses is not a prayer or worship to the Hindu sun god. I highly recommend those who are interested but held back by religious concerns in the practise of yoga to consider the physical sequence nonetheless. This set of poses may have different significance to different groups of practitioners, but I personally view it as an excellent non-religious ritual to give thanks to the Sun, which is scientifically the source of energy and ultimately life for everything that exists on earth. Each time I perform surya namaskar I give thanks for my body for being healthy and well, which leads me to the physical benefits that Sun Salutation provides. The poses within the surya namaskar requires you to activate almost all the major muscle groups in your body. You will open your chest, lengthen your spine, stretch your hamstrings. It works your arms, your shoulders, your core, your glutes, your calves, your quads, your wrists, toes, ankles and many more…to be able to do a round of surya namaskar means that you are strong and healthy, and let it remind you to be thankful and be confident. Because surya namaskar works almost the entire body in a gentle manner, it is a great warm-up before leading into your preferred yoga sequence. Alternatively, perform surya namaskar early in the day, when the sun is rising, as it is an invigorating sequence that promotes blood flow throughout your body so that you are ready to face the day’s (physical and mental) challenges. Justina 200 Hour YTT Oct’20
Mindfulness Sati
Mention Yoga and the impression that most have is gravity-defying (and sometimes almost contortionist-like) poses, meditation, and being zen. Many practitioners (even experienced ones!) tend to focus heavily on the physical practice – or asanas – of yoga. In fact, asanas only form out of the eight limbs of yoga (I will not cover 8 limbs of yoga in this post – but it is good reading if you would like to have a more holistic understanding of the yoga practice beyond the physical practice). No doubt asanas are fun; you feel a very tangible sense of achievement when you accomplish a pose, but my biggest takeaway from practising yoga for more than 5 years is mindfulness. Mindfulness is a Buddhist philosophy that was eventually also adopted by clinical psychologists as therapy for depression sufferers. In Pali this is known as Sati, or Samma-Sati (right-mindfulness). In mandarin the word 念/正念 is used to refer to Sati or Samma-Sati. I am especially intrigued by the mandarin character for mindfulness. The character 念 comprises of the characters 今 and 心 which means today and heart respectively. Today – what are you feeling – how are you feeling, and the characters couldn’t be more apt for describing mindfulness. Mindfulness is the practice of focusing on the here and the now. The term mindfulness is often associated with yoga and it’s not surprising to see why. Physical poses require mental tenacity as much as they require strength. To maintain a pose or asana, especially challenging ones, require you to focus your mind on the here and the now. Same goes for meditation and pranayamas. To maintain steady, controlled breathing, in a stationary pose, you will need to focus on the here and the now, and throw all distractions out of your mind. Mindfulness also helps prevent injuries to some extent – by focusing and recognising on how your body is feeling here and now, you can choose to adjust your practise accordingly to protect yourself. Now outside of yoga, I practise mindfulness too – I focus a lot on how my emotions here and now, and how they may affect my decision-making and how I react. By practising mindfulness, it has helped me to become more aware of everything that’s around me here and now – and awareness nurtures appreciation and gratitude. I am thankful for a healthy and injury-free body to practise yoga. I am thankful for the opportunities to be exposed to yoga, and to have access to yoga and even train to become a teacher. I am thankful. Justina 200 Hour YTT Oct’20
Breathing
Breathing , one of the first few things we learn to do when we enter this world as a baby, something we do subsciously on a daily basis. Who would have thought that there were so many breathing techniques that could create different reactions from our body. Starting every morning with 30 minutes of breathing really clears my mind. It forces me to push away all the worries I have in life and just give my body time to replenish. Although we take a breath every three to four seconds, it is not at all simple when we try to focus on the details. The first day when we were taught to feel our chest rising, ribs opening, and stomach rising, I was surprised to find it quite a challenge. I really had to concentrate and isolate each motion which also helped me to focus on just one thing: breathing. It feels like I am learning how to breathe again, except this time I am more aware of what is happening to my body. I like how breathing acts like a warm up before our physical practice. I can literally feel the body temperature rising, and it feels like i can control where I want the oxygenated blood to flow, to relax the tension I feel in every muscles. Having such control makes me feel really powerful, and makes me feel like I am in control of my life as well. I feel stronger, grounded and calmer. Daisy Tjong 200 Hour YTT Jan’21
Self-Guided Meditation vs Guided Meditation
I tried my first long meditation during the YTT. So far I’ve had good and bad meditation days. Sometimes my legs hurt too much, sometimes it’s difficult to focus on the breathing. I guess we all had a similar experience in this area at the beginning. I’ve tried guided meditation and a self-guided meditation with some help from Jessica. I found that guided meditation is much easier for me cause I have someone giving me instructions as I meditate, so I concentrate on that voice instead of my leg/back pain or my distracting thoughts. I did some research and here is a little of what I found out about the difference in these two very rewarding practices. Guided meditation is useful for beginners or for those moments when you are particularly anxious or stressed out so your mind is too busy or chatty. In this case your teacher’s voice will remind you to bring your attention back to the meditation. Most people say that the more experience you have the less guidance and more silence you want. Of course there are some techniques to help you keep yourself concentrated on your self-guided meditation. I discovered that it takes time to build your own meditation practice but you should never forget to thank yourself for taking the time to meditate. Sofia Lesin 200 Hour YTT Jan’21
How to apply yoga to your everyday life
Yoga is not just about getting fit, it’s a way of living. There are so many ways to apply a yoga mindset to every moment of our lives. First thing that comes to mind is the posture awareness. I try to pause throughout the day to check my alignment and body weight distribution. We can practice yoga anytime in any place. It might be at our office desk, on public transport, or in bed. We can do some stretching, spinal twists, breathing exercises, anything that makes us feel better. What else can we do? Seek balance – like in many asanas we are looking for a balance, the spiritual balance is no less important – to worry less about little details and enjoy each present moment more. To find balance between what we have to do and what we want to do. We can also use breathing – to help release stress and to soothe anxiety. Deep breathing enables us to push through a challenging pose or a period of anger/irritability. Regular yoga practice helps with our self-control, which makes us work on our habits – exercise regularly, appreciate good rest, eat healthier. Yoga teaches us to treat ourselves and others around us better. Sometimes we are too busy to listen to other’s needs, wishes or worries. We should love ourselves but remember to be there for other people too. Let’s keep our compassion and kindness on the ready. There are so many more ways to live better lives physically and spiritually with the help of yoga. « Yoga is not a work-out, it’s a work-in …» R.Gates Sofia Lesin 200 Hour YTT Jan’21
Can you build muscles practicing yoga?
I sometimes encounter people who think that yoga is all about mild stretching and sitting down thinking about clouds and butterflies. Is it because we often see popular magazines/social media displaying calm and tranquil people with beautiful hair in flashy yoga poses? I guess it’s due to the fact that we just cannot see all the effort, the sweat and sometimes tears behind the photos. As many of us experienced, practicing yoga involves a lot of very hard work. Starting from breathing exercises, warm ups, to drills, binds and handstands, etc. Everything requires focus, concentration and a calm mind. Yoga helps us build functional strength through lengthening and engaging exercices. The strength that we can use in real life and not just to look good in swimming suits like some fitness or weight lifting workouts do. Yoga teaches us the correct breathing technics that help to move through the pain and increase our overall muscle endurance. I like that I get stronger and notice that everyday tasks get easier. I enjoy all the endorphins I get through my practice. I admire yoga’s holistic approach to well-being and am looking forward to finding my inner harmony. Sofia Lesin 200 Hour YTT Jan’21
Your first YTT is like your first baby
No matter how many former students or current teachers you talk to, how many questions you ask, how many reviews you read online, you can only fully apprehend how challenging and rewarding it is when you start your own training. I feel blessed to learn in a group of kind and smart people, learn from them, to be guided by a compassionate and skillful teacher. My goal is not only to improve my strength, balance and flexibility but also to find the way to emotional, mental and spiritual well-being. My dream is to be able to share my skill and knowledge in the future with other people searching to improve their lives and health. B.K.S.Iyengar said, “Yoga is like music. The rhythm of the body, the melody of the mind, and the harmony of the soul creates the symphony of life.” When I think about this quote I imagine a union of a human body, mind and soul as a sophisticated musical instrument that we are able to tune through practicing yoga. The better we are the more beautiful the music is. Sofia Lesin 200 Hour YTT Jan’21
The End of my first YTT
Funny how a little curiosity, some internet in the middle of a Pandemic has gotten me here. I write this having just completed my second last week of YTT. This journey has been mentally and physically challenging. It reshaped the way I think about the things I once thought were impossible. Yoga is not just a great way to work out, it has almost become a philosophy to life. I came into this experience hoping to be able to do sequences and be committed to my practice, yet that commitment is no longer the goal rather a habit. When I practice, I feel more grounded and focused, this sense of routine is sacred to me. I am grateful for the people that have gone through this journey with me, when I did my first yoga class at 16, I would have never thought I would be certified 4 years later, it felt like a crazy goal and yet I am almost at the end of achieving it. Everyone I have met on this journey was brought together through Yoga, each of us filled with some sense of curiosity, ambition and wonder for the world, for life. Though I will miss my early mornings and my many hours of practice, I hope this is simply the beginning for where it will take me. Cheryl 200 Hour YTT Oct’20
Chakras, Aura all things Esoteric
Having been an avid reader of astrology, tarot and the likes of all things “other-worldly”, I found the topic of chakras to be highly exciting. Yoga poses can actually help us balance out our Chakras which are disc-shaped points of energy that govern our human body, our skin suit. When unbalanced, it manifests in our external world, we might meet more bumps on the road feeling sluggish and uninspired. For example, someone with their Throat Chakra blocked — the blue Chakra would have issues voicing their thoughts and feelings freely for fear of ridicule and judgement. Poses like: Upward Facing Dog, Cat-Cow can help to open up our throat chakra and guide us towards a path of fearlessness when communicating. Cheryl 200 Hour YTT Oct’20
Incorporating yoga philosophy in my daily life
They say when you get bored of yoga, you are only practicing one limb of Yoga which is the Asanas translation to poses or posture. There are 8 limbs of yoga and each can help us deepen the human experience and allow it to be a guide to life rather than a rule to follow. Each limb provides some sense of structure to how we should treat ourselves as well as others. Upon self-introspection something that I felt I needed to work on more was my passive aggression, impatience and the sense of entitlement I sometimes felt I projected in my daily life. No one is perfect, so the first step toward change is acceptance. I needed to practice Svadhata which means to hold no judgement and provide sacred self-examination of myself. Santosha means contentment in the utmost, to practice being here and now not missing the moments that are available to us when we are too pre-occupied with chasing the future or dwelling on the past. Be here now. Lastly, Tapas which means discipline, to show up even when you don’t want to. To put the time into the things that are sacred to me, to do it with intention and confidence rather than treating it as a meaningless goal. Learning about the limbs of yoga has helped me to remember and recognize the things that fulfil me. What happens after practicing them all? Well, one reaches a nirvana also known as Samahdi. Cheryl 200 Hour YTT Oct’20
