Back in Ireland

Since I got back to Ireland, it has been pretty busy, with unpacking, getting yoga classes up and running again etc. That’s why I haven’t written anything. Last night I went for my usual yoga class, which was lovely. It was really warm evening and we were doing forward bends, which I really like. I have to admit, I kind of have neglected the forward bends a bit lately. That’s mainly due to the fact that  I find them quiet easy, so instead I have been working on other things I find more difficult. Which is good in one way, but it was nice to get some deep forward bends in. I could really feel it in my hamstrings, as I got home after about an hour in the car, as I stepped out to open the gate!

This morning I was at a teacher class with Manouso Manos, who has come over from America. He’s a renowned Advanced Senior Iyengar yoga teacher. It was a great class and he’s an amazing teacher!! Unfortunately I wasn’t able to do the whole weekend. But will be on the look out, for when he’s here again or nearby. He was talking about how important it is to practice yourself, only then can you truly understand the essence of yoga. As you start to practice on your own, you start to notice and feel what happens in your body, how parts of the body start to become more open and how small adjustments make a big difference. Its usually in your own practice where you start to notice the change and where the “light bulb moments” come to you. The more you practice, the more you start to notice the change in your body and start to understand the connection, between mind and body. We usually have great intentions to start practising, but something usually gets in the way. The best thing is to schedule your yoga practice and make it an priority. If you do, the time you spend, will give you more time to do other things, as you will feel more energised and connected.

Detoxifing your life….

How do we avoid people that bring us down, or minimise our exposure to these people in our life. This can be very hard, especially if the toxic people are family or long time friends. But the thing is, if they bring you down, you have to minimize the time you spend with these people. There is no other way, you can’t change other people. You can only change yourself, or in this case how you react to other people. We all have these people around us, maybe some lucky few don’t. But that is more likely due to, that they have cut these people out of their lives, or minimize the time spent with them. Some of us might even be one of these people, maybe not all the time, but at times. I know I have, when things in my life been though, and I seem to focus on the negative instead of the positive. Luckily I snap out of it fairly quick, and of course it’s hard to do. But some people are like this all the time and they can’t see it themselves. These people are very hard to be around, as they drain you. When you have been around these people you just feel tired and emotionally drained and sometimes even in a bad mood.
So would it be selfish to cut these people out of our lives? Not at all!! We have to, especially if we want to stay happy, it’s very hard to stay happy with people around you, dragging you down. So be ruthless, in this case you have to think about yourself first. If they bring you down, maybe try to talk to them. Maybe they don’t know they are like this, and maybe they don’t want to be like that. So by telling them how they make you feel, they have a chance to change. But not all people like to hear this, and some people well never change, but at least you have made an effort. If it doesn’t work and it’s a family member or someone, who you just can’t completely cut out of your life. Then minimize the time you spend with them to the bare minimum. Try to stay positive when you are around them, and when you leave, try not to let their negativity stay with you. Take a deep breath and think something positive or count your blessings, say thank you for being able to stay positive and happy.

It’s usually these people too, that try to stop you from dreaming big. Don’t let them stop you from achieving your dreams. A lot of the time, people try to stop you, because they never went after their dreams. This makes them, not want you to either. Sometimes it makes these people feel better, if you don’t go after your dreams. Then they can feel better about themselves. Always encourage people to follow their dreams, it might seem farfetched to you, but not for them. Follow your heart it never lies!! You just have to learn how to listen to it. Most things I have done in my life, I have had people trying to talk me out of it, but this only made me more determined. But a lot of people might just give up, and regret it later in life. I do truly believe that you can love, what your working with. But the road there, might be full of hard work, and doing things, you don’t like that much, just to get you to your goals!

Dream big!!!

“Aim for the moon…even if you miss you’ll land amongst the stars.”

                                                                                  – unknown

Sirsasana-Headstand

Headstand is one of many postures I have struggled with, due to my old shoulder injury. For many years my neck got sore after headstand, but it disappeared shortly after. I have tried many things, bricks, blankets, belts and bolster some worked some didn’t. Because my muscles in the upper arm and shoulder have been working differently then they should have done, this has made it very difficult to properly lift my shoulders, particularly my left shoulder, which is very important in headstand. For years I kept practising, but it wasn’t until my teacher got me to use a bolster for headstand. First then could I do head stand without my neck getting sore, this then developed into using three bricks, I found this particularly good, as this way made me work the proper muscles in my upper arm. The first few times I worked this way, I could only stay up for a few seconds and my arm started to tingle and go numb due to weak muscles (or rather muscles working the wrong way, were now forced to work properly, but which in turn pressed on nerves).

I always knew something wasn’t working properly in my upper arm/shoulder, and this made me start thinking about it even more. I kept on working this way (with the three bricks), it also made me leave the wall a few inches, but still I had contact with the wall through the bricks, at first I couldn’t believe how weak my core felt. This is the downside of working at a wall, it doesn’t work your core which is also very important in headstand. But of course in the beginning the wall is needed to make you feel safe and learn how the alignment should be and feel. I started to wean myself off the bricks and starting to use a blanket for under my head, and kept working away from the wall, but still use it as alignment. I started to build up my core strength, but I still felt my neck was sore and this prevented me from staying for any longer periods. I decided to take a photo of myself in headstand just to check my alignment, so I got one of the kids to do this. I have to say I was shocked to see how poor my alignment was, so every day I practised headstand, I took a video of myself trying to change my alignment. I watched it straight after, while the adjustment I would have done, was still fresh in my mind. This was great, but it took time, I didn’t care how long I stayed, just kept on videoing my headstand and changing my alignment, and I’m still working on this as I still have a lot to do. But as I corrected my alignment I could feel that my neck got less and less sore.

What I noticed on the first picture, was that I had a big banana shape, no wonder I sometimes felt it in my lower back ;). I do have a flexible lumber, and have worked hard on, not trying to work from my lumber, but as I turned upside down it was like starting from scratch. Every time  I do a new posture, I feel I tend to go back to this default shape. Even though my bad shoulder affects my headstand, my poor alignment is the real trouble in giving me a sore neck and watching that first picture it all made sense. I also started to go to a Physical Therapist, to sort out my shoulder once and for all, which I should have done a long time ago. But like they say “better late than never”, this was great and it was nice to get it acknowledged, that something was wrong in the way my muscles worked. She said my muscles in my upper arm, felt like ropes, and what a different it made! For every week I noticed that my muscles worked better, I could feel how my upper arm got softer and how the muscles moved better, and for the first time I could feel my dorsal spine in downward dog. As my muscles got softer and my weak muscles started working, it also meant that I got weaker in some of my postures. But I didn’t mind this, as I knew the muscles were finally starting to work properly. This has also had a great effect on my headstand and other postures, and I know it’s still a long road ahead!

If you get a sore neck in headstand, try to figure out, if it might be your alignment. Ask a qualified teacher to help you, and take videos and pictures, as it’s much easier to correct something when you can see it. But be cautious, ask  your teacher for help. Bring the photo and show it and ask how you can improve your alignment and keep on practising.

In headstand, it’s the same alignment as in Tadasana just turned upside down ,except for the arms, so everything you do in Tadasana you do the same in headstand. The only difference is that you press the lower arms and elbows into the floor. This sounds easy, especially if you have learnt to correctly do Tadasana. But as soon as you turn upside down, things that made sense standing on your feet, suddenly feels alien.

I will show some pictures below, when out of alignment in headstand, and bare with me my alignment is still under construction! The first picture shows the banana shape, you can see how I dip in my lumber and stick my floating ribs out, the second picture is slightly better, but I still dip in the lumbar and stick my floating ribs out. The third one is a lot better, but still not perfect, but as I said I’m still working on this, you can see how I dip less in the lumber and don’t stick my floating ribs out as much. You can also see how the line from shoulder-hip-ankle is more aligned. Take your time, to learn the right alignment from the beginning, even if it means you have to slow down and can’t stay up for as long, as this will pay off later on. Practice as often as you can, as this is what makes the difference!!   

Happy practicing!!!!  

Challenge yourself!

We should challenge our self, sometimes this can be hard as its quit nice to stay in our comfort zone. This is with everything, yoga, sport, everyday life, this is how we grow and feel satisfaction, well at least one of them. My challenge at the moment is to have yoga classes in Swedish, you might think this would be easy as I’m a native swede. I have lived abroad for 15 years, during this time I have spoken more English then Swedish, I’m getting more and more comfortable speaking English, I’m dreaming and thinking in English most of the time, or it might even be the whole time, my shopping list is mostly in English with a bit of Swedish thrown in. I’m starting to forget small words or everyday words but off course when I’m home they all get back to be, so deciding to have a yoga class in Swedish is a challenge but a fun one.

Every single yoga class I have went to have been in English, I trained in English and so on. But as the day came closer and I brushed up on my Swedish and I looked in Swedish yoga books to get the terminology right. When the big day came I was quit nervous, like that day I taught my first yoga class, but this time it wasn’t about the teaching aspect, but to be able to speak in my native language and saying it right. Oh my, it was harder than I thought, but I got thru it and it was great to face this challenge. I’m glad I did it, so in the future I’ll be able to travel back and forth having yoga classes/workshops. Luckily I had my step mother in the class so when I felt totally lost and couldn’t find the word I looked over at her for help, second time around I felt more at ease and some English words slipped in here and there.

This is the same in yoga, if we always working where we are comfortable we never get any further and we miss out on such great things. When you practice yoga go a bit wider with your legs in the standing poses, and press that outer edge of the back foot more into the floor and feel what happen in your body, or hold the postures longer, really work those legs in downward dog, as B.K.S Iyengar said “be cautious, be bold!”,take care of your body and listen to it, but keep on challenge yourself.

The good thing about challenge yourself is that its very humbling, in my case I was back at a place I felt loss and really had to but my nervousness aside, and its also good as you become a beginner again and in teaching yoga and practice on a different level, sometimes  its easy to forget the way you felt the first day on your yoga mat, when you looked around the room wondering will you be the only one stiff as plank or never done yoga before etc. I remember my first Utthita trikonasana (triangle pose) how my whole chest collapsed towards the floor and am thinking how am I ever getting my shoulder’s back, and these things are very hard for beginners. I love these humbling moments as it brings me closer to my students and especially the beginner ones.

So keep challenge yourself, big or small doesn’t matter just go for it!!!

  

Does makeup & trendy clothes make you fun…???

Someone told me, that my friend’s sister was more fun than her sisters, as she wears makeup and dress trendy. This made me think, is this how people think, it also made me sad. In this particular case, the girl just have a fun personality, but the thing is that it’s so shallow that people would think someone is more fun just because they wear makeup and trendy clothes. Personally I love nice clothes, I don’t really mind the brand as long as they’re nice, I buy clothes in Penney’s and I buy expensive clothes when I can afford it, but not because they are a particular brand but because I like the look. Off course more expensive clothes usually sit better and last longer.

I don’t wear makeup often, only because I don’t really have the time in the morning and probably because I’m a bit lazy, and to be honest it’s hard to fit it in with going up early, for yoga and mediation practice which I do favour more than having time to put on makeup. But don’t get me wrong I don’t have anything against people wearing makeup, I think wearing makeup is great if that’s what you like.  So maybe I’m not the most fun person but wearing makeup and trendy clothes wouldn’t make me more fun and if people’s opinion about you is based on your looks its indeed a very sad place we live in! Sometimes I wish I had the energy to put it on!! Having a teenage daughter I want to teach her that it’s the inside that counts not how you look, and as you can imagine this is not working so good at the moment, but maybe and hopefully I have planted that seed, and it’s start growing in the back of her mind to one day blossom. If not I’ll be there to quickly remind her. But like I said I might not be the most fun person in the world, but I have other qualities like being caring and considerate to other people and if someone need a hand Im happy to help to mention a few things, off course I have plenty of bad ones too, like a short temper and impatient etc but I do work on these.Edit

I think being fun is like art “its in the eye of the beholder”! It’s the same about people that don’t drink much, like myself, I very rarely drink, but this does not make me boring, but sadly a lot of people think so. I have heard on numerous occasions that “Your so boring that won’t drink” and “come on just have one glass of wine” and we’re trying to teach our kids to not fall for peer pressure and we or rather some adults are pressuring other adults to drink, ok I know we’re adults and should stand up for it, but not everyone is strong enough and by pressuring other adults be basically tell are kids that this is ok, we all know they do what we do, not what we tell them to do. People just assume if you don’t drink that equals boring, I actually enjoy not drinking more then drinking, because the day after with 3 kids it’s not a fun day. Among the reason I don’t drink much anymore is the night after regrets, laying in bed remembering the embarrassing things I said or did, and the more you think the more you remember, oh no did I say that…and you just want to crawl further and further down under the duvet, I absolutely hate this and I don’t like this guilt the day after, I love waking up with a clear head and no regrets, and this is just one reason why I don’t drink, another is I do like a good glass of red wine, but to be honest I rather drink a good cappuccino, soya off course in the coffee shop than going to the pub.

As I’m talking about what other people’s opinions about things are, I might as well bring up about being vegan and the usual comments about this. Some people always seem to have an opinion about this when you decide to change the way you eat, especially if your reason is for animal rights and environment. But whatever the reason the thing is, if someone is having you over for dinner or coffee they usually say and what are we going to give you, or what do you eat? Ok I don’t expect anyone to go out of their way to make something or even have anything, I can always eat potato/pasta/rice and veggies or a salad. What I don’t like is that some people think that my choice of being vegan is such a hassle for them, ok they might have to put some more spuds on. Off course not everyone is like this far from it, but the one’s that are tend to be very loud 😉 Sometimes I even hear, wouldn’t it be easier to go back being a vegetarian, yes maybe it would be, but the thing is I feel great so why should I give this up, just to be less hassle.

So if you don’t want to wear makeup, drink or eat meat/dairy or whichever it is, do it for yourself and don’t let anyone else change you!!! 😃

Utthita Parsvokanasana

This is one posture I really like, many of my students don’t share my enthusiasm for this posture and it is a hard one. What I like about it is the nice stretch along the side trunk and the stretch of your hips and leg when you really press into the outer edge of the back foot. 

To start stand in Tadasana jump or step  your feet apart, make sure you are wide enough, feet parallel, arms out at shoulder height, pull up at the knee caps and tuck the tailbone in, turn the left foot in slightly and the right foot in compleatly, heel inline with the instep. Hips and trunk facing forward, bend the right leg to 90 degree, placing the right hand at the outside of the ankle,  ( make sure the knee don’t over shoot the ankle) if chest facing the floor use a brick. Left hand on the hip, turn the trunk and raise the right arm up, keep pressing into the outer edge of the back foot, turn the arm and bring it over head, stretch into the fingertips at the same time you press the outer edge of the back foot into the floor and you’ll feel a lovely stretch along the side trunk and hip area and other places depending on where your tight areas are.

If you haven’t practice for a few days or if you have done other activities like running/horse riding etc you can really feel how the muscle stretch. In the beginning we tend to not bend the leg enough but it will be easier to hold the pose and maybe in the beginning your body isn’t open enough so you just have to work with what you have, but we tend to stay in our comfort zone, so challenge yourself go a bit deeper but not forcing, be kind to your body but not to kind…😉

Things don’t always turn out the way we want…

Today was the first International Day of Yoga, as I’m on my holiday I couldn’t teach a yoga class, but I had planned to join in with fellow Iyengar yoga practioneers and do the sequence Geeta Iyengar had designed as a tribute to Guruij B.K.S Iyengar.

But the universe had other plans, as I started to get a migraine headache in the early evening yesterday, which was getting worse and kept waking me up. Now I have to say I do get mild migraines and I usually only get them once every year or so and haven’t had one in the  last two years. I do get sensitive to light but not to bad. I had promised my sons to go crab fishing and my husband to show him the west coast. When I went to bed last night with a pounding headache I knew it was no way I’ll be doing yoga in the morning and I said to myself, maybe I can do it later on.

When I woke up again with a pounding headache I finally got up to get some headache tablets and a cold, wet face cloth to soothe my head. I thought to myself it’s no way I can do the yoga sequence I was suppose to do, and how was I going to be able to drive the whole  one hour and 20 min drive to the coast, I told my husband we’ll be going as I knew how dissapointed the lads would me, he offered to drive even though we drive on the right side in Sweden and he has never done it. After a while I did get up and my head felt a bit better. Then after another hour, I was almost back to my own self. 

We hit the road and got there, pain killers safely in my bags (don’t really like to take them, but when you get these headaches you just know they won’t go away easy ), after a walk on the boardwalk we got to the place to fish for the crabs, but couldn’t get any mussels, so me and Alvin walked back to see if we could buy some, I could feel the pounding headache slowly making itself noticeable. Finally back armed with €6-7 worth of mussels, I had to get some more tablets for my head. Which helped again, I even managed to get a few yoga asanas in so at least I joined in the celebrations of the first International Day of Yoga, even if it wasn’t what I had planned.

Driving home I could feel the pounding start again and it’s finally almost gone, so looking forward to wake up with no headache tomorrow… 

   

  

Practice during holiday time

Its very hard to keep up a practice during holiday, but even if you practice a small bit, it’s better than not doing it at all. 

I try to at least do some sun salutations, but I don’t beat myself up if I don’t do it, after all it’s the holiday but at the same time you don’t want to totally give up your practice as it will leave you stiffer and will also be harder to get back into your practice. 

The hardest thing I found is the action packed days ( when ur on holidays with kids) and the late nights, that  makes it almost impossible to get up early for your practice, I usually let my meditation practice slide a bit and have lie-ins and then I do a short practice if I’m tired and a longer one when I feel up to it. But don’t fall for the temptation of extending your holiday as it will be harder, harder. Just decide that after the holiday your getting back to a proper routine. 😃

Tailbone in, floating ribs back……

To continuing from the post about the tailbone, once you know how to correctly tuck your tailbone in (or at the same time) we have to make sure the thighs are moving back and the floating ribs (the lower part of the ribs, name comes from the fact that these ribs are just that, “floating”, or at least part of them, they don’t connect to the sternum/breastbone like the other ribs)  are moving back. In the beginning this might seem or feel like it’s contradicting itself, for me (I have very tight shoulders and tight thoracic spine) it felt like, “how can I do this it doesn’t make sense, if i move this in this will move out etc.” But as you start practicing the pieces will fall into place, but for some it might take longer, but be patient when your finally able to do all these it will be so simple. But it does take practice and perseverance!   Usually when you have an over flexible lumbar spine, the spine compensate and make your thoracic spine stiffer and you get rounded shoulders. (off course this might not be the case, but most of the time it is, but the compensation might be somewhere else). The body will always compensate stiff/flexible areas or injury’s. Ok, so how do we do this, when you tuck your tailbone in (posterior tilt of pelvis, make sure you don’t clench your buttocks), you have at the same time, bring the navel towards the spine, bring the thighs back, bring floating ribs back and at the same time lifting the chest towards the ceiling, which will bring your shoulders back (you might have to help moving your shoulder blades down depending how forward your shoulders are etc.). You also have to work your legs, kneecaps up, feet pressing into floor. If you do all this, during Urdhva Hastasana (arms over head) and Urdhva Baddhanguliyasana (hands interlocked over head) it might mean that your arms might not go alongside your ears, in fact you might have to bring your arms slightly forward in the beginning while you learn the correct alignment. If your arms won’t straighten use a belt around the elbows, this can be useful even if your arms are straight. It’s far better to learn to do this with the right alignment, than keep doing it the old way, yes, maybe your arms might go past your ears, but you won’t improve the posture. It is well worth the effort as you will bring this to all the other asanas (postures). This awareness will also improve your everyday posture so do spend time learning this!

The elusive tailbone…..

It took me a long time, a few years actually to properly learn how to tuck my tailbone in or maybe more correctly said learning to create posterior tilt of the pelvis (see pic below). Tucking the tailbone in can mean a few things, but generally speaking in yoga class  (or at least in my classes) it’s the posterior tilt of the pelvis, which means that the hips moving slightly back and the pubic bone moving forward and up towards the navel, this also flattens the curve of your lumbar spine. To learn the correct way of doing this takes practice, and it will also tone your lower abdomen, it will  really be hugely beneficial for your yoga practice, but don’t worry if you don’t get it straight away, like I said it took be a long time and a lot of practice, but saying that when I really made the effort to try harder it was well worth it. It can also take time due to the muscles are tight and it takes time to stretch the tight muscles and strengthen the weak.

This will have a huge effect if you suffer from lower backache, which usually comes from an exaggerated curve of your lumbar spine. I used to suffer a lot from lower backache, when I started yoga it more or less disappeared except for when I had to stand for long periods or when I was on my feet more or less the whole day, until the penny finally dropped and I realised, that bringing my pubic bone towards the navel and the navel towards the spine it was an instant relief. I started to practice it thru out the day and started walking like that, and the more I practiced it started to become a habit and now I very rarely get lower backache and if I do I know its due to I have “stuck my tailbone out” instead of in. Now this might not work for everyone and of course lower backache can be due to other things, this is just one of them.

To do this imagine its a zip from the pubic bone towards the navel, and then zip the pubic bone towards the navel, and imagine the navel towards the spine is like a drawstring bag, (it’s not to suck the tummy in, this is a much more gentle way) so zip up (pubic bone towards navel) and close the drawstring bag (navel towards the spine).

You can practice this anywhere and the more you do the easier it will be, and then you can use it in your yoga practice, especially in your back bends where if you have a flexible lumbar (like myself) its extra important. I kept getting a slight sore lower back in back bends, my teachers kept telling me to tuck the tailbone in and I did, and they kept saying do it more, and when I finally did (I thought I did it enough, but it wasn’t enough) it was a huge relief and now I hardly ever get sore and if i do it’s a reminder to tuck my tailbone in more.