Thoughts of India

I don't think it would be out of line to assume that most serious students of yoga have at one point or other pondered travelling to India. I certainly have. Despite being quite a bit closer to India while I was living in Singapore, I just didn't feel drawn to it. I didn't want to force it and was convinced that when the timing was right I would want to go. Well, I feel like that time is approaching. I can't explain why or how I feel it, I just do. I'm not sure exactly when I'll go as this feeling just cropped up in the last couple days, but I will keep you all posted. In the mean time, here's a great video for anyone else who's been thinking about India.....

More Doing

Hi everyone!

I'm sorry it's been such a long time since my last post. I've really been concentrating on "more doing" and less theory (getting my nose out of the books) which I'm afraid has translated into less to talk about. But, there has been a lot going on with the studio! This summer we will be hosting Tirisula Yoga of Singapore for a 200 hour Teacher Training Course. If you know anyone who would be interested, please let me know!

Agility Flow also has a channel on YouTube now! Here's a sample of what's to come:

I promise I'll try to get more frequent posts up. I hope everyone enjoyed the amazing weather today!

more - and go ahead and "like" the studio while you're there!

A Spherical Life

When my sister first asked me if I wanted to do a cleanse with her clinic I was hesitant. My primary concern was whether I would still be able to do a full, hard asana practice. She assured me that with this particular cleanse I could still eat full meals so there should be no problem with strenuous physical activity. Still a little leery, I decided to give it a try. I could always stop if it was affecting my practice negatively. After the first couple days I was surprised to find that my practices were actually improving. I was more focused and my asanas became more steady.

A few days ago I read the following words shared by my Master:

...When attitudes become steady and contentment is established, the body is ready to perform posture. When attitudes are not purified by Yama and niyama, posture practice becomes violent. This leads to increase of desires, frustrations and mind becomes the master of you...

Following the cleanse, though much stricter than a "yogic diet," added an element of the niyama Saucha - purity, cleanliness - I believe I had been missing. As my body become cleaner, there were fewer fluctuations of my mind. Through this process, something became very clear to me. Yoga is a spherical life. My mind has been educated in a linear style - do this, this, and this, and that will happen. But our true selves do not exist linearly. It is simply the delusion of time that makes our ego cling to this fallacy. All parts of the Ashta Anga - Eight Limb - path of Yoga coexist all around us. As we bring those parts into ourselves, our sphere gets smaller and smaller. Just as a decrease in volume increases pressure and creates heat in thermodynamics (still an engineer, sorry), our inner heat - Tapas - increases the closer we draw in our sphere; both the physical heat raised in asana practice and the heat of our zealous pursuit of liberation. This process continues until we are fully absorbed by the sphere, until we ourselves become the sphere.

Practice, Practice, Practice does not mean practice asanas only. Abyasa literally translated is practice but the word practice is not complete. Abyasa in its complete form means uninterrupted, continuous without gaps, doing of something with complete attention and awareness. So, for those who take the meaning literally are going to end up in the abyss as the sutra has been understood incompletely. The whole life will be spent on practice the wrong technique. - Master Paalu

Day Twenty One

The cleanse is officially over! I'm really glad I did it, and I have a lot to say about it, but it's going to have to wait until tomorrow. =) Busy!

Day Twenty

Energy levels - high and consistent
Practice - great, and very early morning
Patriots - =(

Only one more day left of the cleanse. I thought it would be hard to resist all the good food at the Super Bowl party, but it really wasn't. Now that my body is used to feeling this good it seems to want to stay that way!

Day Nineteen

Wow, only 2 more days of the cleanse! I can't believe it's been 3 weeks already! Today was an interesting day. I felt great, as I have since starting the cleanse, until about 6pm when I crashed. I don't remember the last time I felt that tired. Fortunately, I slept like a rock. Hopefully I won't have the same thing happen today!

Happy Superbowl Sunday! GO PATS!!!!!

Day Eighteen

Energy levels - high
Sleep - like a rock
Practice - strong
Overall - another great day!

My appetite was back throughout the whole day. I was hungry at mealtimes but easily satiated with fairly small meals. Three more days!