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Entries in work in progress (6)

Saturday
Sep152018

Like a flower petal blooming

As most of you know, I have been doing Bikram Yoga for the eighth year running. You also know that I make it a point to do Yoga at least 200 times a year and there is always some new thing that I learn with respect to the Yoga, myself, and the connection between my self and the yoga. 

It is a never ending practice to find new edges, improve on posture, breathing, reaction times and being able to listen and implement directions.

Today we had Joseph Encinia come teach a workshop at BYSJ. This is the second time he is teaching this workshop at BYSJ. Two years ago when he came, got to attend his talk but could not attend the workshop because of travel. This time I was lucky to be in town. 

It was a four hour workshop which would have gone on for 5 hours were it not for the fact that there was a regular scheduled class after the workshop.

Have posted blogs on special classes and workshops in the past at BYSJ and every one of them has been eye opening.  For example, I learned that drinking water was not a necessity in class after the last workshop. Have not had water during class since March 22nd and it is almost been six months. Putting that into practice and sticking to that for day after day to make it the new habit is one of the things that this Yoga teaches me. 

Yes, you do something for ~1600 classes (excel spreadsheet says 1597 to be exact) and find out that you are still not doing something right or you are not using the right muscle to do the right thing (it might look okay in the mirror but you are not doing it right) and you start correcting it. Maybe after another 200 classes there will be another correction, but it has to be made the new habit or else this doesn't work.

Joseph was amazing today. He did a demo before class to go over the entire sequence in under 10 minutes. Then he broke down every pose and explained the do's and don'ts. Some of us also got to go show him our poses that we thought were messed up and he helped figure out what was wrong and what needs to change. 

When he started doing this and everyone took our their phones to take videos, I looked at it through the iPhone and said "no. I just want to record this in my brain.". You know how sometimes you are in a national park and you just put your Camera back into the bag and just stand there and take it all in. It was like that. Have the beginnng few minutes of the workshop in this video. (I am sure BYSJ will post more information or Joseph will post information on his website)

He was not going to show us fancy poses but how the breath moves through the body and that he demonstrated in 4 hours with is own body as well as ours with amazing clarity.

As in most classes, even if I learn a 100 things, only 5 stick to my mind and can be made into a habit. The rest wait. Folks who know the yoga poses will be able to follow the below. Someday when I can show the difference between pre and post, will post a video of myself doing things the right way. That day will come sooner than later.

Ardhachandrasana or Half Moon pose: Have always struggled to push myself at the end of the half moon pose because of my attempt to keep up the breathing at 80/20. Keep 80% of the lungs full and just breathe 20% in and out. However, my lungs have had difficulty doing that, towards the end, trying to breathe. Today I learned that the trick is to use a lung, instead of both lungs. There is one lung that is compressed and one extended in Half moon pose. Use the extended lung to breathe comfortably. Apparently the "flower petal blooming" is to help drive that point home when the teacher says it in every class! The flower petal blooms from the inside out.. that lung was supposed to do that. I never got that in all these years. 

Dandayamana Janushirasasana (standing head to knee) : The second thing I learned today was that the three bandhas or locks have to be done for a lot of poses. In some poses only two are used, in others three. But the pelvic lock is mandatory. You lose that, you might as well come out of the pose and start all over again. I had no idea how many times I was unlocking it and trying to relock. It simply doesn't work that way. There are also poses where that lock implies pulling your navel straight back in vs. pulling your navel back and up. Again, these are things that you get to see only when you see a teacher demonstrate this up close and personal. I was on the floor and Joseph was standing 6 feet away and I understood. Many teachers have tried to show us this from the Podium and I still could not see the difference.

Purna Salabasana (Full Locust pose) : The third thing I learned was the shoulder joint when rotated outwards makes it easier for the neck to curve upwards. This might seem intuitive to some, but it was not obvious to me.  There is always a balance between strength and flexibilty, and maybe my body is different or my brain is, but it was another thing that I understood only after watching this close.

Tadasana (Tree pose) : Number four was that, a little pull in the inner thighs can straighten your legs and knees in multiple poses. Locking the knee by default pulls the legs outwards and to compensate, pulling in your inner thighs up works wonders. 

Janushirasana and Paschimotthanasana (Head to knee pose and stretching pose) : The last one was ingenious. When doing a separate leg stretching pose, if you push the bone below your big tow away from you, it magically straightens your entire leg on the floor. Just recently one of my task masters, Brad, taught me how to pull my ankle bones towards each other to rotate my feet right. That correction has been going on for almost two months now..and this gets added to it!

Those were things to remember and apply. Then again, there was what he left us with. No amount of teacher instruction, workshops is going to improve what we do unless we OWN it and work hard for it. 

We had a girl in the class who has been going through severe arthritis for 20+ years and we could literally see the surgery marks on her for various corrections, and she showed us what real dedication, drive, intent and intensity meant. I have no excuse after seeing that. 

Joseph himself had a heart attack at the age of 13 after he had a lot of treatments for his Arthritis and he turned his life around. He is vegetarian and does Yoga every day! 

He almost choked when he said "some of you lucky to be here without any chronic conditions. some of us are here because of chronic conditions. Doesn't matter why you are here. Own your practice and you will see results. Some of us have to work a lot harder and overcome challenges, but at the end of the day it is the same for everyone. don't be stubborn. don't be too patient. Dont be too determined in a stubborn way. have the right intent and intensity in your practice"

On a side note to my wife and kids and other close friends who keep asking me "how come you do all that yoga and never have six pack abs?".. Joseph answered that one too. Six pack abs are good for body building but it is difficult to back bend with those and back bending is key to a healthy spine. So I would rather have my back bend than a six pack, not that there is anything wrong with a six pack.

The thing that impressed me most was how down to earth Joseph is and how sincere he is in spreading the knowledge he has acquired over time and by experimenting with his own body.  

Was really happy that BYSJ brings teachers like this for such special workshops, so regular students can learn more and improve. We also get to see stuff up close and personal and understand body mechanics, something that is difficult to do watching Youtube videos or even teachers on the podium doing the occasional demonstration.

This was a beginner workshop, but in a way I was glad to take this workshop now and not six years ago. Most of the stuff he said would not have registered then, as I would have constantly doubted if I had certain muscles he was talking about. Takes a few years to realize that we all have the same muscles.. just that some are never used or activated in normal life, and we use the most dominant ones to make the poses look like the end result without doing it right. . . slowly things normalize and the body changes.

The learning and discipline continues. Maybe the next time Joseph shows up, the top five things that I managed to remember at the end of class will be the new normal!

Sunday
May222011

Home office

Little One : Daddy can you make our garage into your office?

Me : What can we do in that office?

LO : We can turn our garage into a nail salon and you can do nails at home!

Me : But I don't know how to do nails and you cannot just change your garage into a nail salon. You need to go to nail school and get a certificate before you do nails or the government will stop you.

LO : What certificate?

Me : When you go for hair cut do you see the certificate in front of every mirror? That is the certificate from hair school. Same thing for nail school.

LO : What about make the garage a photo studio or a yoga place?

Me : What ?!

LO : We can change our living room carpet to hardwood and then take this carpet and put it in the garage and then make it a studio!

Me : Why do you want me to work in the garage so badly?

LO : So I don't want you to go to work in office.. if Amma and Paati (mom and grandma) can help you we can all work from the garage and no one has to go to office. Also if you are a car salesman, people will give you 100 dollars a day!

Me : Car salesman are not rich and no one gives you 100 dollars a day. You need to stop watching silly programs on Youtube from now on.

Later did tell San that we have a budding entrepreneur in our house! Such conviction that we can make a living out of our garage and multiple ideas within a few minutes including how to get the garage carpeted.

Very proud of this little girl and her enthusiasm. Wish I could turn the garage into a nail salon and do nails for her!

.

Sunday
Sep192010

Work

Work is defined as "Anything the wife does"

That is it! Period.

This simple rule, no.. "Axiom" and its corollaries can summarize :

a. life in our house

b. the 4th or 5th why in a "Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?" root cause analysis which has no fix for all fights in the house

c. life outside our house

There are many men who have not either grasped this concept. It has been staring many men in the face and they see it but do not want to accept it...

Nevertheless, here is your chance. Accept it and all will be well.

For my part, have started putting things in perspective.

Have also realized why I love this woman so much.. now that things are in perspective!

.

Saturday
Jan302010

Progress

After watching the Obama question and answer session with the Republican Caucus (thanks to Laks), and the way the press headlines come out, I am fairly convinced that no improvement is possible even if everyone (Republicans, Democrats and Independents alike) is in favor of improving things.

If A and B have to agree on something..

A: Let's do X
B: No. Lets do Y instead
A: Ok, we will do Y
B: No, anything you do cannot be good, even if it is something that came out of my mouth..

This is classic Dilbert material and can be condensed to few bullet points..

. Good ideas do not come from other people!

. If it was that easy, someone else would have done it already!

. It is my job to not agree with you and I cannot even agree with you on that!

The President actually admits that it is not possible for the democrats to say nice things about Republicans either (and the Republican dude who asked the last question just proved the point Obama was making) and that just proves that the real issue behind not moving anywhere on anything that matters is the political pre-requisite that both parties have imposed on themselves to not agree with the other party.

The sick thing is that the Press and the People are being blamed for it.

Based on the headlines, have given up hopes on the Press getting its act together.

But the people, they are another story. For my part going to make a conscious effort to stop seeing Republicans as war mongering, anti-gay, male chauvinist, anti-immigrant, non-scientific, religious zealots..

Ooops.. did I just do what that Republican did before asking his question?

Seriously, I will try to be more open minded...

.

Thursday
Jul232009

Six pack Sundar

Yes.. it can happen someday

even with a veggie diet!

There is always the starting trouble.

Then there is the dedication thing..

If it survives all that, there will be the occasional bugs from Jr. and little one that will demoralize and derail the whole exercise program and make one think "why do I even try?"

Still... still... there are those who inspire and encourage!

The family of course would like me to just get the six pack done surgically so no time is taken away from them.

If Jr. and the little one can be made to start working out with me? Make it an activity?

What then?

For starters going to take the "before" picture today..

6 months.. 6 days a week exercise.. 6 pack..

The devil cometh!

The worse thing that can happen is that the after picture looks just like the before picture, but we have plenty of experience dealing with that disappointment!

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