Happy New Year 2010

Tomorrow is New Year's Eve and we will be saying goodbye to 2009. Time really flies and a new year is upon us. Are you making any new year resolutions? As for myself, I am not making any as I have been making it everyday in my yoga practice...learning to let go, practice awareness, be mindful are some of my resolutions.

This year, I met many new practitioners who have since became my friends, and as we practice our yoga together with our beloved teachers at Beyoga, we have learned to share joy and our success and failure in doing some of the poses.

Through this blog, I have also found friends who share a common interest in yoga and with their encouragement, I will keep on blogging and continue to share my research into yoga and wellness.

Wishing everyone a Happy and Blessed New Year!

Namaste,
Karin

Palming the Eyes Exercise

If you are a computer user, the following palming exercise helps to counteract the impact of glare on the eyes from the computer monitor due to prolonged use. You should do the palming exercise during short breaks from routine work.

Benefits

- Relaxes tired eyes muscles and helps to prevent eyestrain.
- Reduces tension build up in face and body.
- Enhances concentration.

How to Do It
1.Sit at a desk or table where you can rest your elbows. Vigorously rub your palms together a few times to warm them.

2.Gently place your palms, with fingers together, over closed eyes. Do not put pressure on your eyeballs. Relax your jaw and breathe regularly throughout the exercise.

3.Stay in this position for about two minutes to start with, longer if you have time and are comfortable doing so. With each exhalation, relax a little more.

4. When you are ready to end the exercise, separate your fingers to gradually re-introduce light. Open your eyes.

5.Relax your arms and hands.

6.You may blink your eyes several times to lubricate them with natural moisture.

If you are going to do the palming for longer than a few minutes, place some books or pillows in front of you to support your elbows so that you will be able to keep the neck straight, and palm the eyes in this position.

My Yoga Pose For The Month - Plow Pose (Halasana)

For the month of December 2009, I have choose Plow Pose or Halasana as my pose for the month. The Plow pose exerts gentle traction on the spinal column which enlarges the vertebral foramina (openings through which spinal nerves pass) and so eases pressure on these nerves. It also enhances circulation in the spinal cord and improves the functioning of internal organs supplied by these nerves.

The plow pose is a natural cure for insomnia and restless sleep. It is also a great pose to naturally relieve indigestion and constipation and with regular practice, your stomach problems will disappear.

How to do the pose

1.Lie on your back with your legs stretched out in front and your arms at your sides, palms turned down. Relax your jaw and breathe regularly.
2.Bring one knee then the other to your chest.
3.Straighten and raise one leg at a time and point your feet upwards.
4.Exhale and kick backwards with both feet at once to bring your hips off the mat. Keep your legs straight and together if you can.
5.Push your feet towards the mat behind your head. Do not let your hips move past your shoulders as this may strain your neck.
6.If your feet touch the floor, interlace your fingers behind the back and straighten the arms, bring your hands on the mat.
7.If your feet cannot touch the floor behind you, place your hands on your back to help support you in the pose.
8.When you have reached your comfortable limit, hold the pose for five seconds to begin with, increasingly longer as you become more practiced in the technique.
9.To exit from the pose, unlace your hands and place them on the floor, slowly, smoothly and carefully roll your spine back onto the mat, from top to bottom. Bend your knees and stretch out your legs one at a time. Rest for 5 breaths.

Points to note

The primary concern in this pose is to keep the weight of the body off the cervical vertebrae (the back of the neck) by distributing the weight between the shoulders and the back of the head.

Keep the chin away from the chest to maintain the curve of the cervical spine, pressing the head and shoulders into the mat. Work the shoulder blades closer together by subtly shifting the weight of the body from one shoulder to the other.

If the feet touch the mat behind the head, they may be flexed so that the heels are descending towards the mat, lengthening the back of the legs. The toes can also be pointed, increasing the stretch through the back and stretching the front of the ankles as well.

Modifications

If your feet cannot touch the mat behind you, pile up some cushions behind you, on which to rest your toes. As you become more flexible, you can start removing the cushions until eventually you can dispose with them entirely.

Cautions

The plow pose should not be performed if you suffer from neck pain, have a spinal disc problem, hernia or uterine prolapse or if you have been diagnosed with osteoporosis.

It is not advisable to practice the plow pose during the first three days of your menstrual period.

See video below on How To Do The Plow Pose from Shoulder Stand

Sivananda Yoga Halasana (Plow) Pose -- powered by eHow.com

My Confidence Builder - The Wheel Pose

During my blog post for My Pose For the Month of July which was Wheel Pose or Urdhva Dhanurasana, I have mentioned that I was having problems doing the pose as I was not able to straighten my arms and legs to go to the full wheel pose and had dreaded doing the pose during the Ashtanga Led classes as we would normally have to do it twice.

After four months of patience and regular yoga practice that helps to strengthen my core and legs and applying the techniques of adjusting my hands (the fingers should be turned inwards so that the elbows will not splayed out) and shifting my weight more to my legs when I have lifted my hips with my head on the mat, I am finding it easier now to go into the full pose (thanks to the advice given by a reader from my previous blog post).

With Azmi instructing us to push our hips towards the front and reaching our chest towards the wall behind as we straighten our arms, I find that I am able to lift higher into the pose. For the past few classes, as I learn to relax and breathe into the pose and making small adjustments like walking my feet closer to my hands, ensuring that my feet are not turning out so that my lower back is not compressed and letting my head hang as I spread my shoulder blades across the back, I am finding it easier to go into the pose as well as being able to lift higher. At today’s Hatha 2 class, I think Azmi was pleased to see me lifting even higher in the pose as he has been watching my progress.

The Wheel pose is a very uplifting pose and rewarding pose as it has many benefits which include stretching and opening the chest and lungs, strengthening the arms and wrists, legs, buttocks, abdomen and spine and is therapeutic for asthma, back pain and osteoporosis.

For me, being able to do the full Wheel pose has built my confidence and help to strengthen my belief that in time, I will be able to do those other poses that I am having difficulty doing at the moment.

“Do your practice and all is coming” - Sri K. Pattabhi Jois (1915-2009)

Yoga for Scoliosis with Viviane

After the Ashtanga Led class at Beyoga this morning, I stayed on for the Karma Yoga class after I met the guest teacher, Viviane De Doncker who told my sister and me that she specialises in yoga for scoliosis. My sister had met her at the ladies shower room after her Pilates class and had told Viviane about having back problems and Viviane had asked my sister to bend over for her to check her spine. Viviane told my sister that she has scoliosis which causes an abnormal curve of the spine.

In the class, Viviane took us through poses like the cow and cat stretch, pelvis tilt, cow face pose, seated side stretches and downward facing dog which she told us would help us to balance our spine if they are done correctly and regularly.

Although the cat and cow stretch and pelvis tilt are simple poses, it was an awareness practice and movement sequence where we stretch muscles that have tightened and strengthen muscles that have become weak from the imbalance of our spine.

While doing the seated side stretches, I noticed that one of my hips tend to lift up as I overstretched myself. Viviane came over to press my hip down and told me to keep my ribs slightly pulled down so as to lengthen the spine.

For the downward facing dog pose, Viviane got us to partner up and we were told to loop a strap around the hips of our partner while she is in downward facing dog. As we pull the strap up and away, this helps our partner moves her hips up and away from her shoulders while releasing the heads of her thigh bones deeper into her pelvis as well as lengthening her torso. We were also taught to wrap our fingers under our partner hips to lift their hips up and shift their weight back to the center giving them a deeper stretch.

There were eight of us in the class and Viviane told us that she could see that all of us were having scoliosis as we tend to lean to one side when we were doing the poses. Scoliosis may cause the head to appear off center or one hip or shoulder to be higher than the opposite side.

Yoga for scoliosis requires us to have inner awareness; to accept the imperfection of our body and to feel where our body needs realignment and balance to find back our center.

I am very glad that I did not miss this special class with Viviane and with the other practitioners asking Viviane if she will be doing any more classes, I hope that Beyoga will have Viviane come to teach more classes at the studio.

Viviane De Doncker took her first yoga class over 25 years ago and has been teaching since 1997. Viviane believes each student is a unique individual and that this uniqueness is a cause for celebration, rather than a source of frustration. Her classes integrate the principles of alignment and technical precision to ensure a safe practice, while concentration and enthusiasm are cultivated through the use of breath and well-and-lesser-known bandhas.

When Viviane first started teaching Yoga in Singapore, she was strongly drawn towards Vinyasa, and she was the first teacher to offer it there. This style of Yoga was at that time not really considered ‘serious’ Yoga, but to everyone’s surprise, students liked her Vinyasa classes. Today, many teachers in Singapore offer Vinyasa and Ashtanga Yoga classes, and it has become one of the most popular styles of Yoga in Singapore.

During her years of teaching, Viviane became very interested in the physical transformation which can be achieved through Yoga and its effects on the spine. She has worked intensively with students suffering from back problems and over the last couple of years, she has been focusing on students suffering from Scoliosis and she is currently conducting specialised courses and classes for them and have obtained some very encouraging results, which have been established medically.

Viviane has also conducted workshops for students and Yoga instructors (including Vinyasa, Back Care and Scoliosis) in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur.

Up Close and Personal with Azmi Samdjaga

Those of you who have been following my blog, would know that Azmi Samdjaga is one of my two favourite yoga teachers and I have written some posts about my practice with him.

Azmi often shares the grace of his practice with his students in his classes.

Recently, I had a chat with Azmi and managed to get him to talk about his favourite subject; Yoga (what else!) as well as provide some advice to yoga beginners.

How long have you been practicing yoga and what made you take up yoga and become a yoga teacher?

This is my 12th year into my practice. Yoga came to me by accident. I had missed an aerobics class at the gym and having traveled all the way from home, I just wanted a workout and a Yoga class was the only thing that was available. And I thought I had never sweated as profusely ever before. I hated the class because it was too hard. But when I came back 4 months later with no expectations, I felt a sense of uplift, totally invigorated and felt so light! Since then, I got addicted and I kept going because it had just kept me on my toes, feeling healthy and refresh every time after each class. It has since taught me how to be more tolerant, embrace kindness and accept things the way they are. More than anything, I learned how to be detached of negativities and letting things go the positive way and also it has taught me how to be still and calm in a challenging situation. And the only way I can share this beauty is to teach. In my 8th year of practicing, I decided to get formal training and became a teacher.

Very often in class, you would say that it takes more for a practitioner to come to a resting pose with the class still going on then someone going into a difficult pose, can you elaborate more on this?

The common thing about a human trait is, wanting to excel, wanting to be good at everything we do and getting intimidated by people who do. So more often than not, we push ourselves hard and force ourselves to do things that we don’t normally do. In the end we hurt ourselves physically and emotionally. It's so easy and common to do that but it takes great humility to actually accept and understand yourself to step back and observe than to try and look like everybody else, afraid of being seen less able and weak. To have the humility to show weakness in front of everyone is very humble.

What advice would you give to a yoga beginner and how should they progress in their practice?

My advice would be for practitioners to try as many different classes as possible and from as many teachers until you find one that you can connect with. Meaning, one you can relate the instructions to, one you feel comfortable with and most importantly, how the class had made you feel after practicing. Find one that made you feel great after the practice. Stay consistent and practice regularly to achieve that change in energy. Also being consistent is the only way for you to see progress in your practice. Once you find that you do not feel the change or satisfied after a class, that is when you should decide on taking your practice to the next level. You will soon notice that with each practice you find new length, new destination and new joy.

You can read more about Azmi from Interview with Azmi at http://www.whohub.com/azmiyogi

My Yoga Pose For The Month - Warrior II (Virabhadrasana II)

Warrior II or Virabhadrasana II is my yoga pose for the month of November. This pose may seem easy but many practitioners are not doing this pose correctly. They tend to lean forward or have their knees buckling to the centre causing the hips to be not properly aligned.

Warrior II is a very good pose for strengthening and stretching the legs, ankles, shoulders and arms. It enhances balance on both sides of the body, expands the chest, encourages deeper breathing and improves coordination and concentration.

Doing the Pose

1. Stand in Tadasana. With an exhalation, step or lightly jump your feet 3 1/2 to 4 feet apart. Raise your arms parallel to the floor and reach them actively out to the sides, shoulder blades wide, palms down.

2. Turn your right foot in slightly to the right and your left foot out to the left 90 degrees. Align the left heel with the right heel. Firm your thighs and turn your left thigh outward so that the center of the left knee cap is in line with the center of the left ankle.

3. Exhale and bend your left knee over the left ankle, so that the shin is perpendicular to the floor. If possible, bring the left thigh parallel to the floor. Anchor this movement of the left knee by strengthening the right leg and pressing the outer right heel firmly to the floor.

4. Stretch the arms away from the space between the shoulder blades, parallel to the floor. Don't lean the torso over the left thigh: Keep the sides of the torso equally long and the shoulders directly over the pelvis. Press the tailbone slightly toward the pubis. Turn the head to the left and look out over the fingers.

5. Stay for 30 seconds to 1 minute. Inhale to come up. Reverse the feet and repeat for the same length of time to the left.

Points to note

In the pose, the hips remain open and you keep the hip of the back leg from creeping forward by rotating the upper thigh outwards.

The knee is pointing the same direction as the toes, and is directly over the ankle. If the knee of the bent leg is extending beyond the ankle, walk your foot forward to take unnecessary pressure off of the ankle.

Ensure that your shoulders are in line with your hips and slightly drop the shoulders away from the ears.

See video below on How to do the Warrior 2 pose.

How to Do the Warrior II Pose