|
|
|
|
|
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||
Yoga, Awakening, and the Emerging Integral Consciousness Science, Spirituality and Yoga in personal and societal transformation |
||||||||
a
center for Arlington, MA 02474 781-643-0117
|
Instructions for living a life: pay attention be astonished tell about it! (Mary Oliver) Notes from Maho Bay Yoga Intensive: March 5 - 10, 2012 (What I remember, a few things I didn't get to include, minus what I forget, and not necessarily in the right order, or on the right day, but close.)
Basic theme 1: Opening root and crown chakras: connecting to earth, grounding, rooting, yin energy, condensing, felt sense of weight: connecting to heaven/sky, yang energy, expanding, felt sense of lightness then.... Basic theme 2: discovering, differentiating and integrating the first three modes of cellular/organic intelligence: endodrmic, mesodermic and ectodermic. Endodermic or organ based intelligence: kapha dosa, gut tube, circulatory system, fluid body, prevertebral movements, element water: Mesodermic intelligence: muscle, bone, connective tissue system: pitta dosa, element fire, Ectodermic intelligence: vata dosa, element air, perception, nervous system Basic theme 3: As integration of forms deepens, the ever-present formless shines through effortlessly: unbounded stillness, Buddha nature, Presence, Brahman. Rest here. Tada drashtuh svarupe avasthanam. Reading: Buddha's Brain by Rick Hanson and Richard Mendius Monday: 1st chakra, feet and tail: 1: In standing: skiers tadasana: slightly bent knees. awakening feet, finding tarsal bones, yielding, creating space between heels, talus and ankles. 2. Pendulating/oscillating between forward flexion and extension: maintain full circle/sphere, use imagination to lengthen tail to length of legs. find effortless flow. Eliminate unnecessary spinal activity. 3. trikonasana: pendulating in and out, slowly, smoothly, staying in tail/pelvis, no spinal gripping, deepening groin space. 4. add parvakonasana/vira II. As knee bends, keep awarness/action through inner back leg, as if it were a tail. Keep tail action if possible. 5. add ardha chandrasana, staying low, finding the fulcrum and integration of movement. 6. Dog pose and variations: 7: viparita karani - happy baby - seaweed asana Swimming homework: Mirror neurons: find any ocean creature and discover how to move the way it does Reading: BB chapter 1 PM class: Tracking Sensation: too much - too little - just right cellular breathing radial expanding and condensing Tuesday: 2nd chakra, knees and sacrum: Find double action of grounding and expanding up and out into space in all poses: repeat day 1, adding knee awareness: standing poses plus rotations in pelvis: head and shoulder balance, viparita karani : Reading: BB chapters 2 and 3 Swimming homework: Feel the ebb and flow of the surge near the reefs, melt into it PM class: Knee awareness in sitting poses: careful closing of knee, lotus preparatory movements. Breathing: stacking breath: following flow from beyond feet to beyond skull and vice versa Wednesday: 3rd chakra, connecting pelvic floor to belly, liver, diaphragm: Refining lateral space, especially across pubis/inner groins, squatting, reaching back through pelvis to 'fly' ( butt to rail, feet levitate), same in dogpose, upavistha konasana, bringing endoderm into awareness, head and shoulder balance: Swimming homework: Find your own inner movements that correspond with the soft corals and anemone like being Reading: BB: chapters 4 and 5 PM class: simple seated twisting poses. Feeling lateral space on both sides, feeling the 'hugging' action of twists: Breathing: widen whole back body on in breath, lengthen core on out breath Thursday: 4th chakra: opening heart: more diaphragm: bring DFL up into chest cavity and upper limbs: hands and shoulders: feeling fluidity in coiling and uncoiling of arms, elongation from upper railing, dog poses, hand stand, bakasana and prep for beginners, more arm balances for the more experienced students, head and shoulder balance, Swimming homework: Feel movements in trees, plants, birds Reading: BB: chapters 6 and 7 PM class: Breath: A-frame breath: lile snow angels, find lateral action of breathing movements
Friday: 5th chakra: Fluidity in backbends, staying in the organs backbends: standing poses for opening, sphynx, cobra, bow, ustrasana, urdhva dhanurasana, bhujangasana, naaatarajasana, head and shoulder balance, soft throat throughout Reading: BB: chapters 8, 9 and 10 Swimming homework: Be one with the ocean and all life PM class: groin openers, supta padangustasana, supta baddha konasana, kurmasana.Breathing: Finding intercostals: inhalation - inner down/outer up: exhalation: inner up/outer down. Trace to diaphragm, obliques and inner pelvis if possible Saturday: 6th chakra: integrating still points in brain, heart and sacrum: lying with head to lower railing, then try with elvis raised, then instanding poses, then in head and shoulder balance/viparita karani/happy baby Reading: BB: chapters 11, 12 and 13 PM class: aligning 3 points of silence, Caryn's 'limb-nation'
General Resources: Pat Cunningham, the 'motility guy' Patrick Cunningham #617-489-2381 acupat@gmail.com More reading: The Brain that Changes Itself by Norman Doidge My Stroke if Insight by Jill bolte Taylor, Stillnes: Biodynamic Cranial Sacral... by Charles Ridley The Mindful Therapist by Dan Siegel The Field by Lynne McTaggert
Notes from Greater Detroit Workshop, January 27 - 29, 2012 (What I remember, a few things I didn't get to include, minus what I forget, and not necessarily in the right order, or on the right day, but close.)
Friday evening: Meditation: finding the light body core, the surrounding energy sphere, ground and sky Basic Theme: Finding the dynamic balance between form and flow, what Patanjali calls sthira and sukham in reference to asana, what I call the Goldilocks principle; not too hard, not too soft, not too hot, not too cold, but just right. Connect to earth/ground in skiers tadasana: relaxed and alert, knees slightly flexing and extending, ankles slightly flexing and extending, hips slightly flexing and extending, like a skier, skateboarder etc. Feel feet alive, chaneling energy from earth through the body and vice versa. Feel whole body alive and vibrant, relaxed and alert. Mammalian Movements To come into a forward bend, like uttanasana, stay in feet and legs, grow a tail, lengthen back through tail and hips, lenthen forward through crown without using spinal muscles excessively. At the end of the downward arc, natural pause and come back up. Repeat over and over, slowly elegantly, analog not digital. Feel the effortless balance and circular flow of the movements. Sustain dynamic action through feet and legs continuously. Find where moving into and out of the pose is the same dynamic.
Explore same action with feet spread apart. (prasarita padottanasana) What does 'contraction' or excess muscular effort feel like? (Rajas) What does 'collapse" or loss of organ tone feel like? (Tamas) What does elegance feel like? (Sattva) Fish Body Movements Trikonasana: Find skaters gliding movement: sit into one leg while the other pushes diagonally away, like a skater. Internal rotation to extend through inner heel of pushing leg. Be careful not to left the leg and externally rotate. That is a very common habit. Alternate legs and repeat over and over until effortless, or at least you get a general feel for the action. When ready. feet wide, front turning out, back turning in. To come into trikonasana, elongate and extend down through inner heel of back foot, like skating. Feel that action allows the trikonasan action to flow elegantly. At the bottom of the arc pause and return. Repeat several times and change sides. Try not to 'help' with upper body. Imagine a heavy tail swinging. This adds to the feeling. Effortless flow. Find where moving into and out of the pose is the same dynamic. Warrior II and Parsvakonasana. Begin with trikonasana action and add a circular action through front foot, knee and groin to allow front knee to bend. Don't lose the back leg action as you attend to the fornt leg action. When you reach your edge, return. Repeat, up and down, in and out, elegantly, gracefully. Change sides and repeat. We will work on the arms later. Let them follow along as they desire for now. Human Movements Humans like to spin. Rotations generate power. Standing twisting poses begin with the trikonasana/parvakonasana action. So, in standing pose position, elongate through the inner back heel and the inner front knee/foot, like in above, then spinning on the back big toe mound, turn back inner heel even further around to begin twist, Let the heel come up, but don't lift it up. Just pivot., Feel the leg turning, follow up through hips, belly, chest. If the wave reaches the head, let the head follow. If not let the head stay relaxed. At the end of the movement, do not hold, but reverse the movement. Repeat several times, then change sides. Same elegance in feel. Find as core action in parsvottanasana and the parivrttas (trikonasana, parsvakonasana, ardha chandrasana.) Savasana Saturday Morning: Meditation: Finding/opening channel of light through crown and root chakras, building feeling sphere of energy/light surrounding physical body, grounding physical body/weight and opening physical body to sky/lightness. Dharma talk: Structure, energy flow and light. Modern society is trapped in structure, our self image is usually fixed, rigid, stuck. We need to awaken to our energy body, to flow, to prana, chi, ki, whatever you want to call the life force. Structure offers reference points to get inside the body, but then we need to feel, find flow. As flow becomes easy, effortless, the inner light is revealed as ever present. Our work in the poses Skiers tadasana: Notice feet: Foot model used to locate tarsals and metatarsals and to show the two separate bone pathways that make up the feet: the talus - navicular - 3 cuniiform - 1st 3 metatarsals; the calcaneus - cuboid - 4th and 5th metatarsals. Big toe strong, like the inner edge in skiing-skating, tibia extends down through foot, fibula lifts up. Now find the center of the knee joints by coming up from the feet and behind the shins, coming in the back door so to speak. Most access their knees from the front, by pushing back, by gripping the quads. Feel the knees from behind and keep a slight level of flexion/elasticity for feet, knees and hips. Retain same action/awareness in feet as you bend forward and backward into uttanasana. Repeat trikonasana, parsvakonasana, flowing in and out effortlessly. Add Ardha Chandrasana: stay low, move in and out fluidly, do not try to hold the position, but pendulate back and forth, feeling the centering of the hip sockets. Pelvic floor work. See model of pelvis: In cat position, find two opposite circular movements; pubic bones rolling to sitting bones (untucking) and sitting bones moving to pubic bones. Flow back and forth fluidly, trying not to use the spine but to just keep the center of action in the pelvis/hip joints. When clear on these two, do both together, like a pelvic floor namaste. Feel the dynamic action of the two energies converging and creating something new. When this si clear, now move the bones together, then apart, then together, etc., like the jaws chewing, or like a clam digger . Feel how this action affects all other actions. Dog Pose: practice all of the above in dog pose and variations, including, but not limited to: down dog, one leg dog,' flipping' the dog, contralateral dog, pigeon, plank, updog etc.
Saturday Afternoon: Review of standing poses and dog pose/variations "Limnation" with partners, slowly differentiate all the bones of the shoulders, arms and hands. Find space, clarity, softness, awareness throughout arms. Differentiating ulna and radius, experiencing radius toward the hand, ulna toward elbow. Carry into dog pose tomorrow Sunday Morning: Meditation: Finding/opening channel of light through crown and root chakras, building feeling sphere of energy/light surrounding physical body, grounding physical body/weight and opening physical body to sky/lightness. Sound Work: Om and healthy vowel movements; practice open vowel sounds: ahhh, eeee, uuuuuu, oooo, and feel how the vibrations move through the body /energy field HU breath: from Emilie Conrad's 'Continuum': Wave motion through the fluid body with diaphragm undulating , like laughing, like dog panting. Add sound, laugh, soften, relax, take same feeling into poses. Skiers tadasana: Notice feet: Refine differentiation of heel, talus, inner (tibia) and outer (fibula) ankle bones. Do not sink onto ankles. Photo of dog showing where ankles and wrists are way above ground and how toes/metatarsals provide the power of movement. Repeat trikonasana, parsvakonasana, warrior II, flowing in and out effortlessly. To learn twisting, see pelvic model. From cat position, lift one side of the pelvis up without grabbing the outer leg/hip muscles. Feel the difference when you use the muscles and when you lift from the inner groin. find the two pubic bones and the interconnecting disc. Bring into down dog, ardha chandrasana
Forearm bones as from yesterday afternoon. Find radius and ulna action in dog pose. Take dog to wall. one leg up, then both in hand stand, then from inner groin, let one leg hang down, like upside down hanumanasana. Keep lift of inner groin. to be continued.....
|
|
||||||
 |
||||||||
| |
||||||||
