Lillah Schwartz

The Art of Choosing

Lillah — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 13:30:05 +0000

How do we choose and what does that say about spiritual practice?

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

Stabilize the Sacrum with Yoga – Part 7

Lillah — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 08:13:40 +0000

Final Pose in this series. The base of our sacrum is stabilized by muscles. Try Salabhasana, Locust pose legs only with a belt and see if you can find those deeper gluteal muscles. One more way to find your yoga butt!

Stabilize the Sacrum with Yoga – Part 7

Remember to end every practice with Savasana, relaxation, even if just a few minutes. Love to hear how the sacral series is working for you! Namaste, Lillah

Stabilize the Sacrum with Yoga Part 6

Lillah — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 14:54:13 +0000

We toned our core in Part 5 … now its time to create a good looking yoga butt with Upward Facing Dog Pose! Just like My student Joanne, hands on the floor may not help you.

Stabilize the Sacrum with Yoga – Part 6

Let me know how up dog in the chair helped you. Thanks for watching! Namaste, Lillah

Awesome online choir – Enjoy July 4th

Lillah — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 10:30:10 +0000

Hello All, Found this awesome music clip on TED.com Quite a feat of technology! Hope you enjoy this one! Also, Check out last weeks post on Core Strength Yoga. Namaste, Lillah

Eric Whitacre’s Virtual Choir – ‘Lux Aurumque’

Stabilize with Core Strength

Lillah — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 07:27:49 +0000

Core strength is important for all yoga practitioners and often overlooked. Learn to execute Urdhva Prasarita Padasana and tone your core!

Stabilize the Sacrum with Yoga – Part 5

After you can keep your spine neutral with one sweep down and up, then stop at 30, 60, & 90 degrees for more of a challenge. Just remember IF there is pain … no gain.

Look forward to hearing from you! Namaste Lillah

A Pelvic Lift & a Belt to Stabilize…

Lillah — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 07:10:58 +0000

The pelvic lift or Setu bhanda is at the base of many therapeutic yoga sequences. Try the pose with a block which tones the inner leg or the belt and tone the sacral area.

Stabilize the Sacrum with Yoga – Part 4

After all the time many of us spend in a chair, this pose will feel really good!

As always, please share this blog with a friend and let me hear how this pose or series is working for you. Namaste, Lillah

Triangle pose is a challenge

Lillah — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 12:20:09 +0000

Triangle pose or Trikonasna challenges students with Sacro-illiac joint problems in a big way. There are ways to work positively which will help students stay out of pain by focusing on the details.

Stabilize the Sacrum with Yoga – Part 3

See if you can make this one work for you. Most students do not drop the root of the front thigh enough to feel the relief in their sacrum. Let me hear from You… Namaste, Lillah

Stabilize the Sacrum with Yoga Part 2

Lillah — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 12:04:44 +0000

Cool yoga tricks for Adho Mukha Svanasana, Down face dog pose, To help you stabilize your sacroiliac joints and align your knees. With a block, mat and a wall you will feel a great extension in your spine.

Stabilize the Sacrum with Yoga Part 2

Let me know how you like dog pose this way. Our goal is to create stability and ease in every yoga pose. I welcome your comments. Namste, Lillah

What Sequence?

Lillah — Wed, 26 May 2010 23:33:14 +0000

I am not sure where the practice of performing a long series of standing poses on one leg than the other originated however……
From my experience with yoga, taught in the lineage of Krishnamacharya’s Astanga revival, I have not experienced that type of pose sequencing. From a body-wisdom point of view, as well as my Iyengar perspective, I would like to suggest that long sequences of standing poses all on one leg, then the other, to be impractical for several reasons.

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

Stabilize Your Sacrum- Find your Core

Lillah — Sat, 22 May 2010 17:52:01 +0000

Students of Yoga often Suffer from “Pelvic Rim Instability” due to over stretching or performing poses with out alignment. This instability often results in hip, sacral and back pain. These students are, yes, female. This is the first of a seven pose series identifying how to practice yoga to create stability and muscle memory grounding us in our pelvis.Stabilize the Sacrum with Yoga Series-Part 1

We begin with tadasana and uttanasana.

Please feel free to comment on this topic and share your experience. Namaste, Lillah