As the season takes its turn once again, there always seems to be so much to do. My husband and I have some fruit trees, and this is harvest time so along with all my yoga practices, personal, teaching, being a studio owner, etc, I now have pounds of pears, tomatoes and apples to process in some way. Here is how the animals do it in Africa.

Eatingfermentedapples.wmv

Like myself, many of my students are also showing the signs of stress, as the season  slows down a bit but our schedules have not! By looking to an integrated yoga practice that rightfully occurs both on and off the mat, I would like to share with you 3 steps toward balance that I find particularly helpful when managing my own ‘stress factors’.

1. Learn to focus – make the effort to train yourself to not be distracted.

Research has proven that multi-tasking is not really possible. Rather, we do our best to move quickly from one thing to another and call it multi-tasking. Although that may work some of the time, the overall effect is that we keep squirting out bits of adrenaline over and over, fatiguing our nervous system leading to more mental confusion and stress. So, if you have given yourself 30 minutes to eat lunch, practice just chewing and eating lunch. Practice doing only one thing at a time, without your mind wandering about, so you might move easily with focus, from one activity to another.

2. Renew/ Remember your connection to your spirit and “All That Is”.

Our ego is good at organizing and getting things done, yet not so good at keeping an eye on the big picture. How then do we train our ego to stop running us ragged? A student of mine saw a decal addressing this exactly. It was one of those ‘stop’ images in a red circle with a line though it, but it read “Ego Sit!”. How appropriate. Now that your ego is listening, turn your attention up between your eyebrows to your third eye and focus on the vastness of your Source. Feel the calm, silent embrace of unconditional love that surrounds you.

3. Remember to accept and surrender.

Patanjali’s yoga sutra is also based on 3 actions Tapas (devotion, zeal, effort), Svadhyaya (self-study: motivations, responses, payoffs) and Ishvarapranidhana (surrendering the fruits of our labors to the Divine). After we have made a plan, focused our attention, and made a commitment to do our best… it is time to let go and let God. We make a choice to recognize that the unfolding of Life, the evolution of ideas and consciousness is not all about us. Our ego can not control the outcome as hard as we try sometimes, it is not possible. Outcomes are really God’s business.

Speaking of outcomes and the fruits of labor, here is a funny clip that will help you laugh your way to feeling good, busy or not.

Thanks for reading. Namaste Lillah

How we make choices and what motivates us reveals cultural preferences as demonstrated in this video clip from TED. Very interesting.

Sheena Iyengar on the art of choosing

Reflections from Lillah…

What stuck in my mind after viewing the video, was how performance and choice was related to how we perceive mother. In the US students perceived mother as an adversarial force inhibiting freedom, whereas Japanese students perceived mother as supportive and guiding to all that is good.

In the realm of spiritual practice many traditions look to the personal to connect to the Eternal. The native Americans; “ Grandmother, Grandfather, Great Spirit”, The Sufi Order of the West; “ take us in thy parental arms….”, in Catholicism; “Mother Mary, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit”.

How then do we of the West, with our love of individuality, and the responsibility to then make our own choices for better or for worse, create a relationship with our Universal and Divine nature?

My current understanding is that our individuality is both a blessing and a curse. For as we begin from the point of authentic self-expression to My idea, My energy, My way… our ego is allowed to grow bigger and bigger stealing the show as it were, leading us to self-serving extremes. What I have learned through time is that I can’t do it all myself. Every expression is really a collaboration of many ideas, people and circumstances. It seems to me that individuality often supports a false premise, as no woman/man is an island and each individual is not separate from the whole.

As individuals we may seem in our outward expression to be unique, and in a way we are, as the Divine spark manifests differently in each of our hearts. Yet we are really a combination of all the forces that create us, making us more alike than different. These include the basic elements (earth, fire, air and water), family and ancestral dreams and conditioning, our relationships with family, friends and community, and the ways in which we express the shared ideals of those groups.

Thich Nhat Hanh, a Buddhist holding a Nobel Peace Prize, helped us to embrace this idea of “non-self”. The idea that when we look deep into a living being we see the totality, all that the tree is made of, earth, clouds, sun, etc., so really there is no tree without all the other elements.  When we can bring ourselves to a deep acceptance and appreciation of how we are created and supported by everything around us, now “my” point of view becomes an expression of the ideas and desires of my family, community, and with clear focus and attention the Divine impulse itself.

Going back to the video. How then can one find the peace of knowing when one has chosen well?

In the yoga Sutra, Patanjali set forth timeless guidance. Through asana and pranayama practice, we are to find release from the distractions of the ego mind and come to a still quiet place within. There we can turn our attention toward the Divine Self. There is a saying by those in spiritual circles that energy follows thought.  Therefore the more we give our attention to realizing our Divine Nature “consistently through time”, the more we establish a relationship with the peace and wellbeing that is our birthright.

It is from this place of inner stillness or peace that clear choices are made. Accepting our limited understanding of all the cause and effects at play at any one time, making a clear decision means feeling in our heart for our best choice, the one that brings us a sense of contentment, a fullness of heart. Even so, the results of our choices are not guaranteed. Therefore the guidance of all great spiritual traditions is to not be attached to the outcome, or, from Patanjali’s perspective to “surrender the fruits of ones actions to the Divine”.

On the Bhakti path of devotion, my inner quest is to remain connected to “Source”, not with an overly individual feeling of separation, but rather through the gateway of the heart.  I love to connect by invoking the presence of a great being or “Grandmother” for I deem her to be wiser than I.  All my ideas and desires are not really mine… yet an expression of “all that is” expressing through me. My responsibility is to live as authentically as possible, in good faith that all will be well, surrendering the fruits of my actions as a gift to the Divine Being which sustains me.

How is it that you connect with your “Source”? How do you know when you have arrived? After a difficult choosing, Is there a lasting peace that remains?

Thanks for reading. I look forward to your comments. Namaste. Lillah

If in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra we are to find stability and ease in asana as part of the evolution of consciousness, then after completing nine poses on the right leg it is hard to recall which muscles are stronger or weaker in each pose, and the relationship between the two legs is lost, causing the path of stability to eludes us. We exhaust the first leg then move to the second, but we are unable to recall the action of the right leg in Trikonasana compared to the left. It appears we dull rather than awaken our inner intelligence.

Ida Rolf, the founder of Rolfing through the Rockefeller Institute, once said the smart side teaches the dull side. So when we move directly from one side to the other in the same pose we avail ourselves of this possibility. We can, in a symmetrical yoga practice, develop and come to understand the relationship of the right leg to the left, the areas of constriction, tone, weakness, strength, and make choices to move toward balance. In essence we expand our consciousness.

Our nervous system begins to easily re- calibrate bringing forth a more “satvic” or integrated state.  There is a sense of ease and tone that results from this type of practice vs., the excessive effort of “all one side than the other” which leads to nervous system exhaustion. It may be great for blowing our Ego out of the water, but not as good for raising our cellular consciousness or the vitality of our nervous system.

I am not saying that I would never perform a vinyasa style yoga practice, but rather suggest that even there, standing poses be grouped by kind. Such as grouping the 4 lateral standing poses; Triangle, Warrior 2, Extended Side Angle and Half Moon pose, which still gives a sense of relationship between our parts as the primary actions required in that group are similar. The well defined relationships of body parts will transmit consciously and unconsciously to the second side.

My final thought is that the more asymmetrical your hips, legs, spine, the more imperative it is that your yoga poses progress one at a time, right side – left side, if you are to reach the balance, equanimity and ease that yoga has promised.

The purpose of our “ yoga practice is to develop the body to the level of the vibrant mind so that the body and the mind, having both become vibrant, are drawn toward the Light of the Soul,” BKS Iyengar from Tree of Yoga.

Your comments are welcomed. Thanks for reading!

Stay tuned for video postings on a sacral stabilization series. Namaste, Lillah

Much interest was generated in the Sunday Sacroiliac, SI joint, workshop. Roger did an excellent job teaching us the SI joint anatomy with the help of his bones . . . and how to progress experientially through a sequence of adaptive yoga moves that have the potential to reset our SI joints to their natural pain free position. A question arose from one of the students wondering if long standing “misalignment” of the SI joints would lead to joint dis-figuration with the concern of having to live with that particular pain thru time.  Roger held to the perspective that creating proper alignment was the best choice and accessible with the appropriate time and effort.

In my personal journey, SI joint “dysfunction” has been part of my life for over 30 years. Sometimes the pattern is not noticeable, sometimes very painful for weeks on end, and most notably my dysfunction creates a scoliosis pattern with knee and shoulder strain on the opposite side. What I can confidently report is that coming to understand and apply the right yoga moves has given me a fairly high degree of functioning even though my SI joints are out of alignment at least 50% of the time.

It turns out I am not alone in this.  Approximately 1/3 of the population exhibits a short leg/ long leg profile.  Although SI joint displacement is not likely to be the cause of all those short legs, it is a notable one.

Over my 30 years of teaching, I have found SI joint dysfunction to be “recurring” especially in women. Whether this is due to the shape of our pelvis, the tendency toward long loose ligaments, or some other stress pattern- including an unbalanced or improper yoga practice, women seem more susceptible to hyper-mobility along with SI joint dysfunction.  Therefore although there is a joy in flexibility, there needs to be a balance of tone, flexibility and stability if we are to be “pain free”.

Being located deep inside on the front side of the sacrum, the SI joints are somewhat perplexing and mysterious. Is the right side misaligned or the left or both? Are the muscles or ligaments to tight or to loose? Is one side twisted forward and down, or up and back?  Whatever position or for whatever reason your SI joints are “out of place”, the manifestation will be seen in the muscular imbalance between your two legs and hips. So by beginning to observe the muscles that are chronically short or long (tight/stiff vs. loose/weak), we can apply our discriminating intelligence and work toward creating balance with our yoga practice.

Over the years I have come to understand and balance/ maintain good SI joint functioning by addressing the asymmetry of my body much like a person with scoliosis. IE; my right leg and left leg are just different and each side calls for its own focus and its own poses or patterns of execution.

My general advice is to examine the current balance in your own body identifying your longer muscles and your shorter ones. Watching to not overstretch your already long muscles by holding those poses for shorter time and by learning to activate/tone those muscles while in the poses.

There are two keys to my success of remaining “pain free”:

One is to use the Basic Hip Series to help you identify the balance of flexibility in the hip joints by extending in all the anatomical movements of that joint. Those 6 poses are Supta Padangusthasana 1-2-3 – leg up, out, and over for flextion, abduction and adduction, Traction twist for internal rotation, “the number 4 stretch” (on your back, ankle on opposite knee, knees toward chest) for external rotation, Lunges or ardha supta virasana for extension.

* Please note that in Supta Padangusthasana 3 with the leg over, place your foot on the floor or a block and stack your hips one on top of the other so as to not stress an already loose or mis-aligned SI joint.

Two is to create stability and tone in the pelvic floor, the core abdominals, the hamstrings, gluteal and lateral muscles. Choose;  abdominal poses that tone each side of the psoas muscle individually; salabhasana legs only hands under the front hip, and lift the weaker leg only several times before lifting both, this will tone both the hamstrings and gluteal muscles; belt the calf muscles with your feet hip width or slightly wider and repeat salabhasana pressing out on the belt to tone the lateral muscles and piriformis on the weaker side (depending on the degree of weakness you might choose to lift only the weak leg when using the belt).

Good luck. Watch for my upcoming blog postings that will guide you through a simple SI joint stabilization series on video.

Thank you for reading.  Namaste, Lillah

How did I end up with this pain? Will it ever go away?  What can I do to enhance the healing process?  These are questions more than 50% of visitors to doctors ask when suffering from back pain. As a hard working, busy, active person you may have already asked those questions, because you have experienced back pain.  One solution to help enhance relief from back pain is…Therapeutic Yoga.

When it comes to long term relief a 1987 survey, conducted by Klein & Sobel* and published in Medical Self Care Magazine, yoga ranked at number one.  The survey, of 492 chronic back pain sufferers used several modalities based on long term prolonged relief, short term relief, and no relief.  The top four modalities offering long term relief were as follows: yoga instruction 96%; psychiatrists 86%; physical therapists 65%; acupuncturist 36%. How does that help you?  Let’s explore back pain; its causes, and how Therapeutic Yoga can enhance a long- term solution to its relief.

The causes of Back Pain fall into four general categories: (1) Accidents or injuries, including repetitive motion injuries; (2) Poor posture and body mechanics, including prolonged sitting and other working conditions; (3) Stress, whether real or imagined, resulting in both specific and general muscular tension with varying intensity; (4) Disease processes, including physiological responses from asthma, high blood pressure, and nerve or joint pain from conditions such as M.S. or Fibro-myalgia.

Yoga is both a science and an art. Although yoga is not a panacea, it does offer relief, self-empowerment, and even healing for those individuals who are fortunate enough to find a good yoga teacher. One of yoga’s greatest gifts is the way the practice slows us down and helps us to be in touch with what’s going on inside. Through the practice of yoga we develop a fundamental attitude for healing, that of Ahimsa, non-violence or kindness.

When we extend our limbs in a pose we meet the resistance of our stiff muscles. In the beginning we judge all pain as negative, fearing we may re-injure ourselves. However, all sensations of discomfort are not negative. Meeting the resistance within us, physically and mentally is the doorway to releasing our healing potential.

The formula for releasing pain and resistance with kindness is a simple one. When you come up against your resistance in a pose;

(1) Stop. Don’t resist or push through. (2) Suspend judgment. (3) Breath. (4) Wait, and observe what changes. In this way the healing potential within you is released to flow more freely, and you have an opportunity to exercise discernment in what to stretch and how much, rather than react.

Body mechanics and proper alignment also play an important role in healing back pain. Regardless of how our back pain arises, there will be muscles that are short, tight, or even in spasm, and muscles that are long, weak or overworked. As we correct these imbalances with an appropriate yoga sequence, we are correcting and re-aligning our posture. This is done by aligning one joint with another to create stability along with greater range of motion. As students learn and maintain proper alignment, joint stresses are released and body mechanics become more efficient. The risk of re-injury is reduced as we create a balance of strength and flexibility, making alignment an essential part of the healing process.

The art of yoga also guides us to focus on the breath, and to build the bridge between body, mind, and soul. When we look within and breathe deeply in a pose, regardless of the source of our stress, we begin to reverse the stress cycle. Our body gets the message that it is “safe” to relax. The muscle fibers release, blood vessels dilate, endorphins release, and stress hormones lessen. In this way even the simplest of poses can have a profound effect on relieving the aches and pains associated with stress.

In relation to back pain from a disease process, yoga offers sublime and unexpected relief. One of the cornerstones of Iyengar Yoga, the style in which I am trained and certified, is the adaptability of poses through the use of props to maximize their therapeutic benefit. The therapeutic aim in this instance is measured not in a structural way, but rather in relation to the organic body and its function. The poses are done in such a manner as to open and stimulate the core of the body improving circulation, elimination and function of the glands and organs. The reversal of a disease process may or may not occur, however, a well-guided yoga practice will support a higher level of physiological function and the resulting sense of well-being.

According to Mr. Iyengar’s method, the practice of yoga is an integrative art, often moving students toward longer lasting pain relief, renewed self confidence, and a sense of wholeness.

The following three stretches are a simple way to gain quick relief from low back pain: (line drawings to be posted ASAP)

(a) Dog Pose Prep – position: bend forward at your hip joint, extend your arms placing your hands on a wall, desk or chair. Choose an appropriate height so you align the wrist, shoulders and hips. Step your feet hips width apart and toe in slightly.    Action: turn the upper arms out so the shoulder blades move away from the spine. As you exhale, move your pubis and top thighs back and lift your sits bones. Extend your spine completely, pressing your palms into the wall. Feel the stretch of the legs and ribs.

(b) Kneeling groin stretch – position: Knees as wide as they go with big toes touching, hips even with your knees, the lower back is slightly concave, belly soft.   Action: Breathe deeply, let go of tension in your neck and spine, movethe hips slightly forward and back.

(c) Traction Twist – position: Lying on your back, feet close to your buttocks–yet wider than your hips, arms out to the side.     Action: Drop both knees to the right, tuck your tailbone as you draw your hip and waist back toward the floor. Feel the stretch through the front of your thigh and hip. Change sides.

For back pain relief a good yoga teacher would be someone who has training in alignment and body mechanics, can adapt poses for persons with limited range of motion, and understands the function of pain and mental attitude in the practice of yoga.

Yoga is a wonderful practice for back pain sufferers allowing us to tune in and release pain in a positive way; teaching us proper alignment to relieve strain and re-balance our posture; helping us to use our breath to release stress, build self-confidence, and improving our overall health and well-being.

When I evaluate students in my classes and private sessions, I help them identify their muscular imbalances and recommend the right yoga moves to help create balance, pain relief and freedom of movement. For students seeking pain relief who can not attend an appropriate class, I recommend my two DVD’s; Yoga: Freedom from Back Pain, and Yoga: Relief from Neck and Shoulder Pain. Each DVD offers 12 simple yoga moves that are practical and accessible to most students, new and more experienced.

You may view clips from the DVD’s at http://www.lightenupyoga.com/DVDs/yoga_videos.htm The DVD’s have been recommended by Yoga Journal, Prevention Magazine, and Dr Andrew Weil, author of “Creating Optimal Health” and “Self-Healing” newsletter, and have been distributed Nationally in the U.S. and Canada.

Lillah Schwartz is a certified Iyengar Instructor with over 28 yrs experience. She is the founding director of Lighten Up Yoga and Teacher Training School in Asheville, NC.  For more information on Lillah her classes, personal training or teacher trainings please visit  http://www.lightenupyoga.com/DVDs/thera_yoga_lillah.htm or call 828-258-9401.

As a yoga student, I was first introduced to the Iyengar method in 1977. The intelligence behind the practice gave me support, stability and freedom from nagging back and shoulder pain. BKS Iyengar was a student of Sri Krishnamacharya, the man who revived the teachings of Astanga Yoga in the 21^st century. The Astanga yoga path has at its base the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, the guiding principles on the path of yoga, or Union.

Mr. Iyengar shares this lineage with other notable teachers such as Patahbi Jois, T.K. Desikachar and Indra Devi. BKS Iyengar?s outstanding contribution is how he has codified and refined the practice of Asana (poses) and Pranayama (breath control) to reflect in action, the whole of the Yoga Sutras. Mr. Iyengar?s methods have been recognized the world over. In 2004 the Indian government crowned him the Emperor of Yoga, a prestigious education award, and the BBC has hailed him as ?the Michelangelo of yoga?.

At Estes Park in September 2005, 800 of us stood on our mats inside a perfectly designed rectangle to define our personal space. We waited patiently chanting the Yoga Sutras and reviewing our Sanskrit on the overhead projectors. Then like a single organism, we were drawn to the stage anticipating the appearance of BKS Iyengar. The applause began the moment his face appeared and continued seemingly forever until every cell of our bodies were filled with gratitude for this great man and his life?s work. And then class began. Each senior teacher took turns teaching a yoga pose to the crowd and, after giving their best instruction, the master would speak: ?Observe your mind?what is its state? Now (in tadasana), bring the inner skin of the big toe mound down onto the floor. Observe, did your mind become quiet? Peaceful? Yes or no?? Invariably, the answer would be ?yes.? And so it went, pose after pose, pearls of awareness that expanded and tied together our consciousness into a seamless strand of action, peace and poise.

This was not my first experience being a student in his presence. I met Mr. Iyengar in San Francisco in 1984 at the 1^st International Iyengar Yoga Convention, made a trip to India, and attended two other conventions where he taught before seeing him this year in Estes Park. Each time I have been impressed with his forthright honesty and instinctive knowledge and skill. I have watched him time and again adjust people in poses, add a prop, give weight and resistance, or take the resistance away, always with the end result of restoring them to balance and lightness of being, beyond their pain and suffering. Yes, he was always a passionate and demanding teacher, but not in any ordinary way, only 100%. This year I saw a mellow man of 87 years, easy to smile and make a joke. Yet still absolutely clear about what was important, the integration and inner freedom that was possible for every human being through the mindful practice of yoga. He wants us to see what he sees and know the importance of every nuance on the path to freedom. As his students he calls us to study long, observe carefully and learn to be fully human so that we might serve others in the highest sense.

Having myself studied and performed the basic yoga poses thousands of times over the past 25 years, I still scurried between poses to cryptically jot down each renewed or deeper insight, refusing complacency and thirsting for the larger vision of yoga, for the truth of being. I have never been disappointed by Mr. Iyengar, but rather awed by his simple yet profound teachings, his keen observations, and his deep sense of compassion and wisdom. I am still puzzling over his comment that we either breathe and draw oxygen from our brain or breathe and draw oxygen from our lungs.

Mr. Iyengar is no doubt a living master who has reached out and touched so many, often giving them back their lives after illnesses and injury. For those of us who have seen him in action he has awakened in us a deep sense of compassion and a desire to learn. Those yoga students who had the great good fortune to be in Estes Park with Mr. Iyengar have had a glimpse of the light, the wisdom, the truth, and the vast possibilities yoga has to offer.  To quote the master himself, ?The Light of yoga, which once lit will never dim, the better your practice, the brighter the flame.?

After studying and teaching for 25 years and assisting thousands of people in finding pain relief through yoga? I am grateful and humbled as I return again to my mat to investigate the polarity of nature and soul, to study, to learn and to grow.

Lillah Schwartz pioneered the Iyengar method in North Carolina beginning in 1981. She is an Introductory Certified Iyengar Instructor and is celebrating the 26^th anniversary of her studio, Lighten Up Yoga – in downtown Asheville.