Running Yoga

I really enjoy a good run.

I used to dislike running-- it made me hurt.  I got some Vibram five-finger shoes to try out and I've been a runner ever since.  They made my stride more natural, and all of a sudden my aches and pains went away.  This is not a paid endorsement, I just love my shoes :)

So after I go for a run, my favorite way to cool down and stretch my warm and tired muscles is to go through a few flowing postures.  Running raises my Vata, the energy of air and movement.  I like to take a few minutes to ground myself again by coming to my mat.

I thought I'd share with you some of my favorite post-run asanas and why I like them.

Low Lunge (Anjaneyasana)

After a few sun salutations, come into this asana from downward-facing dog.  Exhale your right leg forward between your hands, let your left knee drop to the mat, and gently inhale your torso upward, sweeping your arms above your head.  Make sure to keep your pelvis slightly tilted under as you let your hips sink toward the earth.  Let your chest gently rise toward the sky. 

I love the nice stretch this gives your hip flexors.  It keeps my psoas muscles from becoming too tight-- a problem that can often plague runners because of the repetitive lifting motion inherent in running.  Stretching these muscles can help reduce and relieve tendonitis in the hips.

Pyramid (Parsvottonasana)

From low lunge, exhale your arms to the mat, curl your back toes under allowing the left knee to lift off the mat.  You're in runner's lunge.  Inhale, allowing your chest to lift off your thigh, and exhale as you straighten your right leg, pressing your hips straight back.  Both legs straighten (only as far as your body allows with a straight back) as heels come to the mat, and hands come to blocks if needed.  Both hips face forward; let your head and neck relax into the forward fold.  Toes are pointing forward.

I like to move between runner's lunge on the inhale and pyramid on the exhale.  Gently loosening the hips and hamstrings.  Just be sure to keep those hips level and facing forward during Pyramid to get the full effect of the pose.

Triangle (Trikonasana)

Feet come to heel arch alignment (the right heel is in line with the left foot's arch-- so your front foot is facing forward, and your back foot is facing the side wall).  Inhale and reach your arms overhead, exhale and press your hips toward the back wall as you reach your right arm toward the front wall.  Allow your right hand to fall toward the mat, gently supporting you in the pose with either a block behind the right calf or placing your hand on your shin.  Hips are opening toward the side wall, and you feel three lines of energy--- radiating down and out your legs, stretching the crown of your head forward and your tailbone backward, lengthening your arms up and down.  


Revolved Triangle (Parivrtta Trikonasana)

Moving from Triangle pose, inhale your torso back to standing.  Legs remain where they are (back foot rotating in so it is pointing toward the upper left corner of your mat) as you reach forward with your left arm and square the hips.  Torso rotates toward the right.

I like how this gets to the muscles along the sides of my legs (especially around the iliotibial band-- the long tendon that runs along the side of your thigh from knee to hip).

There are so many asanas that can help you cool down from a run, but these are a few of my favorites.  Try them, I think you'll agree!

Bodhi Yoga

Failure

I've been struggling with my kids lately.  We've moved houses, and the stress of the whole situation (as well as the transition to new bedrooms, new routines, and a new school) is starting to get to all of us.  One of the questions that often find runs through my mind is, "Am I failing as a mother?"

A year ago, even having this question enter my mind would throw me into a torrent of guilt and self-shame over things I had done or hadn't done.  I shouldn't have yelled at my poor son for spilling the honey.  I should be teaching them better; I should be teaching them more instead of letting their brains rot in front of the television.

Thankfully, that question now offers a serious time for reflection.  I can pause before I burden myself with guilt.  I can see it as an honest question.

In order to know if I'm failing, I need to know what failure looks like.  For me, being a mother is about love.  Do my children know that I love them?  Yes.  Therefore, I am not failing.  I might not be excelling at motherhood in a temporal sense--- my birthday parties are not pinterest worthy, my body is still soft and baggy from my last pregnancy...two years ago, my house is definitely not organized, and my husband has to fix dinner most nights because I'm simply too burned out--- but in an eternal sense, I am a successful mother because I love my kids and I show them love.

It's nice to be able to see things more clearly than I did a few years ago.  Guilt and shame do not need to be part of my daily existence.  That's something that I came to terms with as I learned more about the Chakras.  Learn more about the chakras at Bodhi Yoga.

Sthira and Sukha

Sthira means strong, connected, stable, unmoving.

Sukha means ease, relaxation, comfort, softness.

Practicing yoga is balancing these two opposites.  How many times have you heard the cue, "relax into the pose," and think to yourself, "How in the hell am I supposed to relax without collapsing?"

Patanjali describes the practice of asana only briefly in his description of yoga in the Yoga Sutras.  He uses the term "sthira sukham asanam" (Yoga Sutra 2.46).  Swami Jnaneshvara Bharati translated that as:

• The posture (asana) for Yoga meditation should be steady, stable, and motionless, as well as comfortable, and this is the third of the eight rungs of Yoga. 

I like the fact that he refers to asana practice as meditation postures.  Asana practice has always been a way to overcome our "mind-stuff" and allow for greater concentration and focus on the present.

You have to have strength in order to hold a pose like Warrior III or Handstand.  But how do you find the ease and comfort?  I focus on my connections to the ground.  That's where my stability, unmoving, and stable aspect comes from.  I pull energy from the ground to keep my whole body strong.  Then I allow myself to sink into the posture as I exhale.  My muscles may not relax, but my mind relaxes as I feel the pose.  I take notice of what I'm feeling and where-- I let thoughts pass through my mind like clouds passing in the sky without getting stuck or hooked by any train of thought.  

For me, this principle makes so much sense on the mat.  I love this aspect of practicing yoga.  I start to stumble and fumble with this principle when it comes to life off of the mat.

As a mother of three, it seems like a constant battle between sthira (read: mom's need for control) and sukha (read: chaos reigns) as opposed to a harmonious joining of the two.  Even in that last sentence you can see my experience coloring my description--- I feel like when I stop controlling things, all hell breaks loose.  

And that's just not true.  We can be strong and in control without being controlling.  We can be relaxed and at ease without being lazy.  In theory....right?

That's my goal this week--- find the ease and comfort in my planning.  Find a moment to sit back and enjoy those things that I have planned.  Then find the strength to get back up again and do what needs to be done.  

My favorite part about training with Syl at Bodhi Yoga was learning the "power in a slow approach." I feel like it was my introduction into the principles of ease and strength working together.

Being Present

I often find myself making statements like this, "Yoga is..."

And the ending to that sentence is almost never the same.  One of the most difficult things I've faced as a new teacher isn't describing the poses, or teaching alignment or modifications for different bodies.  I have trouble transmitting "the yoga."

I want my students to leave class with a greater sense of peace than when they entered the classroom. I've been to so many classes where the teacher is able to transmit the feeling of "yoga" through his or her manner of speech, pacing, and small comments made at just the right moment.  

There have been a few classes where that harmonious feeling has been present, but I've also taught quite a few where it just wasn't happening.  And it seemed like the more I focused on trying to get that feeling, the more elusive it became.  Of course.  Isn't that the way of things?

According to Patanjali's Yoga Sutra 1.2 

"Yoga is the restriction of the fluctuations of mind-stuff," as translated by James Haughton Woods (Harvard Press, 1935).  Alexandria Crow, a modern vinyasa teacher and blogger, says it more succinctly, "Yoga is NOW."

I love that-- being present.  Isn't that what yoga is all about?  Being here in the now.  So I'm doing yoga as I breathe in the line at the grocery store instead of getting angry and irritated.  I'm doing yoga when I look away from my phone to look into the eyes of my child and interact with him.  Yoga is being here, not focused on the mistakes I made yesterday or making meal plans for next week.

We use the asanas as a tool to help us get there.  The physical movements help us come out of our "mind-stuff" and into our bodies, experiencing the here and now.  

So when we step onto our mats for a yoga session and spend the whole time thinking about how we look or if we're holding a pose longer than our neighbor... that's not yoga.  That's just exercise. 

My favorite form of yoga is stopping what I'm doing, getting on my knees, and looking into the eyes of my 2-year old as she tries so hard to tell me what just happened to her.  That may not sound like yoga, but it brings me back to the present every time.  Simply looking into the eyes of a small child, whose entire world is the present, makes me remember that what's happening NOW is important. 

Bodhi Yoga

Savasana

The physical practice of yoga, the movements and asanas, are to prepare our bodies and minds for stillness.

We use the physical poses to move energy through our bodies.  We awaken our chakras.  We bring our mind and attention to the here and now.  We bring our bodies and our minds into perceived stress so that we may practice breathing through the stress and relaxing.

So go ahead, enjoy Savasana.  It's the pinnacle of your practice.