Yoga is a journey

I've been a little shocked with how weak my body feels in my postnatal yoga practice versus before I became pregnant. Heck, even compared to when I was pregnant! I swear I could do chatarunga up until my belly was too big and in the way to do it, which was up until six or seven months pregnant if I remember correctly.

Six weeks seems to be the magic number doctors and midwives give for returning to exercise post baby; ever since hitting this milestone three weeks ago, I've been trying to do more power yoga to get ready to go back to teaching at the YMCA, which I will return to in a week! I really wanted more time off to be more physically ready, but unfortunately my subs couldn't extend their coverage of my two and a half classes. So when I hit the six-week mark, I tried a 20-minute, power yoga routine of Baron Baptiste's I did all the time before having Brijin and even while I was pregnant. Well three weeks ago, I could barely make it through, let alone attempt chatarunga. I felt like crying because my body was so different from before and even during my pregnancy.

My frustration of not being able to do chatarunga and several other postures reminded me of something I've told my yoga students time and time again. Listen to your body. Yoga is a journey and not a destination. Every day is a unique day; no matter if you've just had a baby or not, your body is going to feel differently every day. Some days you can accomplish amazing feats and other days it's just enough to get your mat rolled out and do child's pose. Once I accepted my hypocrisy and stopped beating myself up, I let it go and enjoyed what I could do. Yesterday, nine weeks after having our baby, I was able to do chatarunga, and what a pleasure it was! Now I may only be able to do ONE chatarunga a practice, but I will celebrate that one posture like it's the first time I accomplished it. And if I can't even do one on another day, I need to accept it and thank my body for all the other asanas it could do. As Yoga Sutra 2:46 says, "The posture should be steady and comfortable."

If you're a new mom like me, make sure to give your body time to recooperate and enjoy your journey back into yoga. Check out this article: Postpartum Yoga for New Moms.

Meditation Monday - your heart

"Yoga is the uniting of consciousness in the heart."
~Yoga Sutra 1.2

"United in the heart, consciousness is steadied, then we abide in our true nature - joy."
~ Yoga Sutra 1.3

Above are the first two Yoga Sutras, a book of sayings or "threads" that speak to the spirituality of yoga and was written thousands of years ago by yoga sage Patanjali. Currently I'm reading The Secret Power of Yoga, and it speaks about the sutras as they apply today, especially to women. As author Nischala Joy Devi states, these two sutras focus on how "we are all divine" and illustrate who we are both inside and out. She also writes it's "important to remember that you are not the only one who is Divine. Everyone is the same as you, just housed in different containers, shapes and temples, embracing the same essence."

Utilize these two sutras in your daily meditation practice and within your life. Instead of trying to control your mind, realize that your consciousness abides in your heart, and as Devi puts it "the heart responds more readily to tenderness, and gentle, caring treatment of your consciousness is the best way to liberate it."

Meditate from your heart and joy will follow.

A New Earth

Along with the rest of the world, I'm reading "A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose" to take Oprah's online course with author Eckhart Tolle exploring its meaning. The hubby and I tried to watch the first live webcast this Monday, but due to so many viewers (over 500,000!), our Internet connection kept stalling. It didn't surprise me since I work closely with the webcast group in my corporate day job and know the technology can get overloaded with far fewer numbers. I still give credit to Oprah for being a pioneer and for being smart by offering a web and audio replay (I still need to watch the rest of Monday's!).

A few friends at work are also reading the book; one of them said it wasn't clicking with her. A few years ago, I tried to read Tolle's first book "The Power of Now," but it didn't resonate with me and I quit it after a few chapters. At the time, I was practicing the physical postures of yoga but wasn't really into the spiritual side of it yet. Now my practice has deepened where I've begun to study Patanjali's Yoga Sutras and other spiritual yogic texts. After only reading the first two chapters of "A New Earth," I already see a lot of similarities between the novel and yoga. In fact, I just read a blog post expressing the same parallel on The Everything Yoga Blog.

Take advantage of the opportunity to read "A New Earth" while benefiting from the input of the author and Oprah for 10 weeks. Tell me if you're reading it too and how it's going for you.

Be steady and Comfortable

sthira-sukham asanam

"The posture should be steady and comfortable."
~ Yoga Sutra 2:46

Oh Cathy, you silly lady. I actually hadn't read a Cathy comic for years - although I have a journalism degree, I'm not much of a newspaper reader. However, my parents told me the strip had been running a long series of yoga cartoons.

Thought this was a good one to discuss the Yoga Sutra's definition of asana or postures of yoga. I began reading Judith Lasiter's book Living your Yoga: Finding the Spiritual in Everyday Life where she delves into the Sutras and the Bhagavad Gita, both spiritual texts of yoga (remember it's not a religion).

One of the first chapters broaches self-judgment through this sutra. Many of us get into a yoga posture and criticize ourselves the entire team or we push ourselves to a more challenging position of it, even though we're out of alignment or in pain. As Lasiter writes "In reality, our thoughts about the poses reflect our thoughts about ourselves." Just the other day I read a similar statement in Meditations from the Mat saying our mats are our "mirrors" to ourselves.

If we apply Patanjali's Yoga Sutra to be "comfortable and steady" throughout our postures and our life is "crucial" according to Lasiter and it begins with your inner thoughts. Stop judging yourself through every posture. Think of being "comfortable and steady" when holding one, and if you're not, ease off. It's okay not to strain or hurt during a posture... in fact, it's best not to and life works the same way. Your life doesn't have to be hard or strenuous; in fact it is meant to be joyous.

So practice being comfortable and steady. You could try it first on your mat as Lasiter suggests. Try a pose that's difficult, if not impossible, for you to do (always be SAFE!). Do it everyday for a month and before you begin say,'"I am attempting something difficult, and I appreciate myself for trying."' Also try it in your life. When you catch yourself judging yourself unfairly say "I am perfect as I am." It may be hard at first but affirmations are seeds in your mind to grow better thoughts.

Don't try so hard

"Perfection in an asana is achieved when the effort to perform it becomes effortless and the infinite being within is reached."
~ Yoga Sutra 2.47

This sutra or thread is one of only three out of the 196 sutras Patanjali wrote thousands of years ago pertaining to the postures or asanas of yoga.

Since I'm past the halfway mark of my pregnancy, my body is noticeably changing. I'm not sure some days what yoga poses I'll be able to do or how I'll have to modify them. At first it bothered me I wasn't able to do some poses "perfectly" - darn foot will not go all the way up to my inner thigh in tree pose anymore. My inner nature is to be competitive and to be the best (that's a Virgo for you!). However doing yoga while being pregnant really illustrates to me what this sutra is saying.

Perfectionism isn't trying so hard - according to this sutra, it's the exact opposite. To me it's saying perfection is when you're able to be in the moment and be peaceful and satisfied with the present. This works for yoga poses and for life in general. Off the mat, I try to remain calm when preparing for our new baby to arrive. It can be effortless to find a good, affordable daycare. It doesn't have to be hard not knowing the sex of the baby until it's born. It is easy to choose our child's name.

Try and make effortlessness your aim today, on and off the mat.

Power of positive thinking

During my last business trip, I purchased the October Fit Yoga magazine in the airport. However, I left it at my parents during Thanksgiving and picked it back up again over Christmas. It has tons of great articles for pregnancy, but I'll get to those another day. A recurring article called "Bernadette's Blog" talked about a particular Yoga Sutra. Check out wikipedia to learn more in general about the Yoga Sutras, but in general it's considered the "guidebook" of classical yoga, is about 2,000 years old and has 195 sutras or threads within it. (Yoga is much more than the postures or asanas.)

The Yoga Sutra referred to is 2.33 - vitarka-bandane pratipaksa-bhavanam. In English it means:

When disturbed by negative thoughts, opposite (positive) ones should be thought of.

In light of my husband's job loss, I've been having a hard time staying in the positive. I can feel it weighing me down physically and mentally. Dwelling in the negative only multiplies that action and result. This sutra reminds me to flip my negative thoughts and come into gratitude for things we do have to bring more positivity and energy back into our lives.