Meditation on Change: from the Kripalu Yoga Teacher's Association

Monk's Pond, The Kripalu Center, Lenox, MA

The article below is reprinted from the KYTA (Kripalu Yoga Teacher's Association) Newsletter that I recieve every month. KYTA is an incredible part of the Kripalu family, and does a terrific job supporting it's teachers around the world.

For more on Kripalu Yoga and the Kripalu Center in Lenox, MA click here. For more information on KYTA, click here.

Meditation can be extremely helpful when we are in the midst of change, giving practitioners a new perspective.

Below is a meditation from Module One of the 500-Hour Kripalu Yoga Teacher Certification, called "Awareness of Sensation," provided by Megha Nancy Buttenheim, creator, director, and facilitator of Module One.

Sit or stand as you are, just being yourself.
Focus on being aware of the sensations in you, entering a state of allowing.
Open the field of awareness to the world of sensation.
Notice the pleasant and unpleasant.
Notice the neutral, the loving, the joyful.
Welcome everything.
Notice breath.
Notice everything arising and passing, arising and passing.
Body is alive.
Energy is present.
Just be.
Look at any fear that might be coming toward you.
Remember the breath is here just like a friend holding your hand as you cross a busy street.

If you are currently enrolled in the 500-Hour Kripalu Yoga Teacher Training, or would like to begin your advanced training, the next module will be held January 16-25, 2009 which will be led by Jonathan Foust (Sudhir). The main focus is an inquiry into bringing more meditation into your personal practice and teaching.

Megha has designed Module One to offer yogis the opportunity to study with some of the best Kripalu teachers. Jonathan Foust (Sudhir) leads a 2 1/2 day meditation retreat. Lee Albert teaches positional therapy techniques to assist students in yoga postures. Anatomy sessions are led by Kripalu yogi and body worker Chris Holmes. Garrett Sarley (Dinabandhu) or Stephen Cope offer discourses in the meditation of life and Megha directs the practice teach component. Sadhana sessions are led by Kripalu faculty such as Sudha Carolyn Lundeen, Rudy Peirce, Jairaj Randal Williams, Jurian Hughes, Grace Jull, Jami Macarty, and Megha.

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Meditation-In-Motion: a Kripalu Yoga Experience

Image via Wikipedia In this post I am going to set the stage for you to experience Meditation-In-Motion, which is a unique aspect of the Kripalu Yoga tradition. This type of "prana awakening" will open doors to new body wisdom for you. First a little background, and explanation.

Kripalu Yoga comes from the lineage of Kundalini yoga and so it is all about cultivating, releasing and harnessing prana, which is energy or life-force. (I will discuss the concepts of prana and Kundalini in greater depth in up-coming posts.) The idea is that as we practice the different components of yoga, like asanas (postures), prana is strengthened and focused. This in turn has great and far-reaching effects in every area of our lives.

Meditation is often an elusive term for most people conjuring pictures of yogis cross-legged in full lotus for hours, but really it is a mental, physical, and biological event that occurs quite naturally when the conditions are right. Creating the conditions is key.


If you have ever been so totally absorbed in work that hours passed without you realizing; have felt the absorption of oneness with a beloved; walked in the forest and had a sense of oneness with all things; participated in an ecstatic dance class, or just danced with reckless abandon by yourself (one of my favorite things to do!) then you have experienced a form of meditative absorption, or Dhyana.

Spontaneous posture flows are something that can occur as prana is released during these deep states of meditative absorption. In fact, this is how yoga asanas were developed. 5000 years ago, yogis living in seclusion, spending hour upon hour in meditative absorption, began to have spontaneous movements as a result of their increased prana. They began recording some of the most common movements, and I would speculate the ones that seemed most effective in harnessing prana, and helping the body to deal with excruciating hours spent in sitting meditation. These were eventually refined into common sets of postures and practices that moved forward with the evolving yogic tradition.

So... what Meditation-In-Motion is, simply, is to allow yourself to come into a relaxed, meditative state and then let your prana move you.

Not you doing yoga...yoga doing you.

To begin...

Find a space where you have room to move around, and lay out a yoga mat (if you have one-it's not required for this experience.) You can use music if you like, BIJA by Todd Norian is a favorite of mine for MIM. Begin on your back in Corpse Pose. Inhale and exhale deeply through your nose.

Feel the breath as it moves into your body and imagine it swirling in a spiraling motion in the center of your body. With each new breath, let this spiral expand, moving out into your limbs. Let the energy flow and grow with the breath as you inhale and exhale. Keep expanding until the energy is moving out through your finger tips, toes, and the crown of your head.

Now let the breath and the energy begin to guide your movements. Forget what you know of yoga postures, or dance movements; follow the waves of sensation and energy. There is no wrong way to proceed.

You may find yourself, moving a lot, or a little, staying on the floor, or transitioning to standing movements. You may sway, arc, make shapes, find yourself in long, holding positions - anything is possible, everything is good.

Notice your breathing, and feel free to release any sighs or vocalizations that may come through. Continue this way, riding the wave of sensation, allowing your prana to awaken and flow, for as long as you like. When you feel complete, make your way back down to the floor and end with a five to ten minute Sivasana (relaxation and integration time), in Corpse Pose.

I hope you enjoy dancing with your prana-
Blesssings,
Teal

Child's Pose: It's Child's Play...

A reader request...this one's for you K...

OK, no really, it's called Child's Pose (or, Garbhasana in Sanskrit). But, some of my awesome students back in Houston sort of inadvertently renamed it "Child's Play," and the name has stuck.

It's an apt renaming because this is a really, really easy pose, and the great thing is you have been doing it since you were a child, so no practice required.

This posture is a forward bending movement and so it is extremely calming to the central nervous system. This is something yoga really excels at: turning off the sympathetic nervous system which initiates our "fight or flight" responses, and turning on the parasympathetic system which makes us feel, "ah...relaxed...happy....safe." Too much of the former and not enough of the later leads to chronic stress syndromes, weight gain, adrenal depletion, and many other "dis-eases" of the body, mind and spirit.

So, lets practice together:

Come down on to your hands and knees on your mat, or the floor. Sink your hips back onto your feet and fold forward at your hips so that your hands come down in front of you and your forehead touches the floor; you can also move your hand to your sides with the palms facing up, still keeping your forehead on the floor. Experiment with both and notice the differences. Allow your tail bone to lengthen down towards the floor so that your spine feels very long.

Stay here breathing deeply in and out of your nose for at least three minutes. Allow your body to sink into the posture more deeply with each exhale. Repeat the mantra, "I have everything I need. I have everything I need. I have everything I need."

Notice the changes in your body and mind from when you start to when you complete your posture. Allow the sensations you feel at the end of the posture to resonate inside of you for a minute or two. Remember, as you move slowly out of the pose and into your day, that you carry this calm and equanimity within you...after all, it's just child's play.

Om Shanti, Shanti, Shanti
Om Peace, Peace, Peace
-Teal

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Mountain Pose: Standing on Your Own Two Feet

Standing on your own two feet sounds like one of the simplest of tasks, but it is something I find challenging my students again, and again. Making contact with the ground in a firm and balanced way doesn't always happen automatically for a number of reasons.

Firstly, we all have our own habitual ways of standing, and the longer we stand the more pronounced these usually become. A teacher of mine used to say, "Let me see your best grocery store line stance." And there we'd all be, leaning on one foot or the other, maybe a heel rocked back; a slouch though the torso. When we get tired we tend to alternate putting more pressure on one foot, then the other, when in reality we would get heaps more energy if we would just push down into our feet evenly.

Secondly, these habitual patterns create, and reinforce muscle and skeletal imbalances. In turn we feel more fatigued, and this spreads throughout the whole body.

Thirdly, our footwear can be truly horrendous. Much of it fails to give adequate support to our feet and legs, some of it tips our pelvis and torso at odd angles (high heels, anyone?), and they can reinforce or exacerbate imbalances already present.

But, never fear...YOGA is here, and it provides an easy solution in the posture known as Tadasana, or Mountain Pose.

This posture is basically standing evenly on your own two feet. Try it out (get outside in the grass if you can, it will make this exercise even more yummy):

Come to a standing position in your bare feet (important so that you can feel them!) Stand with your big toes, heels and ankles together, if this is very uncomfortable for you, try separating your feet about 6 inches, but keep your feet parallel. Allow your hands to hang down by your side.

Begin to press your feet firmly into the ground. Can you feel each of the four sides, of each foot, touching the ground? Notice if there are any gaps, or if you are leaning a little more to one edge or another. Press down the balls of your feet and lift your toes; then spread them out as if they were fingers, and place them back down one, by one. Press fully into your feet again. Notice the sensations that come as the soles of your feet make contact with the earth; feel the energy that is being drawn up and into your body.

Notice what is happening in your legs as you press. Do you find a new firmness? An increase in energy? What has happened to the pelvis? Bring your awareness further up, and notice the position of your chest, shoulders, neck and head. Do you feel lighter? Straighter? Stronger? Take note of all these things and the way your entire body feels in its position in space.

In Yoga we use the energy of moving down, to rise up; this is the foundation of every posture.

If you are new to yoga, WELCOME, you are doing it, and can continue your sadhana (practice) every time you are standing on your own two feet.

May your feet always rest joyfully upon the earth,

Teal