Sucking It In To Move Forward

 By Constance Bradley

“Suck it in, Constance!”

If you have practiced in the same class with me, you have probably heard the teacher give me this correction.  Being told to “suck it in” is a frequent correction for me; I hear these words several times in each class.  Before you feel sorry for me, or think that the teacher is picking on me, you should know that I ask every teacher to remind me to “suck it in.”

You see, sucking in my stomach is one of the most difficult parts of class for me.  I find most other parts of class to be somewhat effortless.  Balancing on one leg? No worries.  Backward bending? I’m all over that one.  Sucking in my stomach?  That presents a whole new challenge for me.  “Suck it in,” the teacher tells me; sweat drips down my face, and I engage my core.  “Suck it in,” she tells me again, as I realize I have let my stomach creep outward.  Is it possible for me to find some inner meaning in all of this?  I rationalize anything challenging in class as a yoga gift, and I’m eager to open new presents.   This is why I ask teachers to remind me of my challenge during class.  As for inner meaning, the only thing I can figure is that I have to engage more of my core to properly complete the postures.

As a teacher, I fully realize that engaging more of my core is a technique that will pay dividends in the postures.  I have come to the point in my practice where I realize that proper technique and good alignment are critical to success in the postures.  One of the great masters of technique, Pablo Picasso, wrote, “The more technique you have the less you have to worry about it. The more technique there is, the less there is. ”  This idea resonates for me – I know that when proper technique is mastered, everything else will fall into place naturally.  I want to cultivate a lifelong yoga practice based on precise technique such that I am able to receive all the benefits of the yoga for many years to come.

However -- I will be blatantly honest here-- sucking it in is my own personal torture.  It’s uncomfortable; a technique that does not feel natural to me.  I admit that when I’m having a particularly difficult class, it is tempting to be dismayed when I hear this correction.   It is easy to feel discouraged; sometimes I wonder if I will ever succeed in having this be an effortless part of my practice.

“Suck it in,” the teacher says; sweat drips down my face, and I engage my core.  “Suck it in!” the teacher tells me 30 seconds later.  Once more I engage my core, my body weight shifts, and just like that, I’m deeper into the posture than ever before!  Suddenly, I find more meaning in these words.

Each time I suck it in, I am cultivating habits of proper technique and mindfulness in my practice.  As a student of philosophy, I often think of Aristotle’s central teachings in Nichomachean Ethics,   this notion nicely.  “We are what we repeatedly do,” Aristotle claims, “excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”  It’s not difficult for me to see where I have worked to develop other good habits in class, such as stillness in savasana or moderating water consumption.  Through repeated action, I am striving for excellence in my practice; each time I suck it in, I foster good technique and mindfulness despite physical discomfort and emotional travail.

Suck it in. 

Sometimes, it’s what you have to do to get where you want to go. 

Adversity is a Gift

By Steve Rumpp

Welcome the adversity in your life. Don't go looking for it, or enjoy it- but welcome life’s physical, mental and emotional adversities as they happen, with total mindfulness.  See more clearly than you normally see, breathe more calmly, think more soundly, and be with the adversity in your life.

Your true strength lies within it.

Bikram likes to say, “The darkest place is under the lamp.”  Implied then, is that the brightest place (with the most to learn) is in total darkness.  “The more you suffer, the more you benefit.  If $1 buys 2 apples, then when you suffer more, the same $1 buys 4 apples.”  While we think we’d prefer to go through life without adversity, this proverb implies we would miss an important point were we never to be challenged to work through difficult times.  Conveniently, life is filled with plenty of just such opportunities!

It is in the depth of our challenges that we have the best view of our own life, of our present degree of Self-realization, of a fear we can dissolve in order to live a more fulfilled and happy life.  Just as it is within the stillness of our yoga that our most rare gems are to be found, so it is within our darkest moment that gifts await.

Greet adversity with increased calmness.  Demonstrate to yourself that you can handle anything.  That nothing steals your peace.  Ever. This is what you practice each day you step onto your yoga mat. Practice being faced with challenges and rising above them to find peace under any circumstance.

Learning to discover deeper strength, greater peace and new solutions to old problems from within our most difficult times, also serves as a model for the global response required if we are to meet the adversity facing our planet.  It is within this kind of peace that all of the world's problems will ultimately be dissolved.

Just like there is no such place as 'away' when we think of throwing something there, there is no such time or place called 'later' when it comes to living in right action.  No such thing, just an excuse to avoid ourselves.  Every choice matters, especially during our most difficult times.

How we handle adversity defines our power as individuals.  The seeds we plant through our actions and our thoughts create in turn the life we live.  No deals.  No exceptions.  No way around it.  We deliver ourselves to ourselves in every moment – good and bad.

Care about every little thing as if your life depends upon it.  Your happiness does.  Plant seeds of good in every action and every thought, and watch your life turn into the magic show of bliss and blessings that this life is meant to be.  Practice your yoga, live as a yogi in the fullest expression of detachment doing the right thing.  There is no need and no place for worry.  The universe will provide.

Adversity is also our reminder to be humble.  Say thank you, embrace these moments for the richness they possess and don't miss out on one of the momentary insights they contain.  Your life is about to change for the good.

It's Yoga's Fault!

By H.J. Klingman

Yoga stressed me out. Yoga made me bloated. Yoga hurts my hips. Yoga took up too much of my day. Yoga made me feel not good about myself. Yoga did this, yoga did that….. It's yoga's FAULT!! These are the thoughts that raced through my head while practicing in yoga classes over the past few months. Having maintained a very consistent practice for years, I was beginning to actually HEAR myself during the 90 minute class. Once I began hearing myself, I wanted to smack myself in the face. How could my subtle mind really be so negative, and BLAMING yoga for everything I was thinking and feeling? Well, in my shock I began to be quiet. And still. And listen more closely. And what I heard then shocked me even more: “It’s not YOGA’s fault…. YOGA didn’t do anything…. YOU did these things to yourself. You just need something/someone outside of you to blame for these things…..”  WHOA.

Ok, slow down, I thought. This is heavy. When I was first open to receiving this truth I immediately became defensive. “But… but… but…” Then I began to relax, letting go of judgement of this truth… and I began to let it be the truth, and to sit with it. During the next several weeks of yoga classes after this happened, I slowly began to allow myself to see it, both inside of the yoga room and out. I realized that it wasn't only yoga I blamed. I blamed people in my life and things happening around me all throughout the day! I blamed people for the way I felt, for my happiness or lack thereof. I blamed the yoga teacher, the heat, the food I ate, and even the postures for the pain in my body. Reflecting openly and honestly, it was my own ego that made me push into the posture incorrectly further than it was ready to go. The yoga never hurt me, I hurt me.

Then I decided to stop. JUST STOP IT, I thought. Start taking responsibility for the decisions I make, the food I eat, the way I do the posture, the way I react to the teacher, the way I choose to feel or react to my loved ones….

This has been a very difficult lesson to learn, and at times it leaves me feeling like having a downright temper tantrum. It has also empowered me on a new level that I did not know possible. I can now be responsible for the life I want to live, without making everyone and everything else around me the blame. While circumstances will ALWAYS happen, we have a CHOICE how to react to them. For years my teachers told me this, and I finally heard it. I felt it. I continue to try to apply it. It isn’t always easy, being the one that has to accept responsibility for feeling crappy, or hurting myself. Sometimes I want to just blame someone else! But, realizing this has allowed me to free the ones I love from the responsibility of making me happy. If I want to be happy, it’s up to me. If I want to be healthy, it’s up to me…. My dad always had this mantra he would repeat to me, and now I can finally hear it’s importance:

If it is to be, it’s up to me.

I can now say that "it's yoga's fault" that I am more awake, more aware, and more alive than ever. And it's up to me to remember this and continue to strive for the best life I can live.

Your Focus Determines Your Reality

By Nicole Deacon

“I can’t take the heat” “I’m not flexible” “I need to get into shape first”  “I’ll never be able to do that”  “I can’t bend my knee” “I can’t, I can’t, I can’t, I won’t I won’t I won’t” As a teacher we hear these words every single day.  Before class students pull us aside and say I wanted to let you know I can’t ________ fill in the blank.  Well, not with that attitude!The beautiful thing about this yoga in my opinion… is quite frankly… it doesn’t matter.  Not to be mean or harsh, but really… it doesn’t matter what you can’t do.  What matters is you try the right way to the best of your ability.  Bikram Yoga has nothing to do with and is not concerned with what you can not do YET!!! The only thing you need to be concerned with is what you CAN do.  Do everything you can to the best of your ability and you will receive the benefits of this yoga.  Maybe all you can do that day is get to class.  Maybe all you can do is breathe.  Maybe all you can do is 10% of the posture.  Great!  Do that!  Come back the next day and do that again!There is a universal law called the "Law of Praise and Increase".  If you want a dollar and have a dime and you curse the 90 cents you don’t have, you won’t get it.  But if you praise the 10 cents you do have, more will come to you.This yoga is designed to heal the body.  It is physical therapy.  You can come when you are injured, sad, depressed, overweight, when you are not at the top of your game.  When you leave class you will feel good.  If you continue to come you will start to improve your body and your well-being.In my experience as a practitioner and a teacher of this yoga I have seen miracles happen.  If you focus on the things you can do, pretty soon you can do things you never thought possible.  If you spend your energy and attention on what you can’t do you get bored, frustrated, injured.  But as you train your mind to focus on what you can do, you will continue to be able to do more and more.

One of most clear examples of this is our student Jeffery Derwallis.  He fell from a 3 story building while serving in the Marine Corps. The result was a "burst fracture"of the 1st lumbar vertebra creating severe damaged to his spinal cord. Soon after complications arose and he became a "complete" paraplegic.  It would have been easy for him and completely justified to come into this room and say I can’t do this yoga.  I can’t balance on one leg, I can’t stand up, these postures are impossible.  No one would have questioned him or blamed him if he felt this way.

That’s not what he did.  Instead all he did was what he COULD do.  In the early stages of the game we looked at postures one by one.  Can you do this?  Great!  How about this?  Not yet, okay well do this.  When he started it was difficult for him to stay seated without falling backwards, the teacher handed him his feet during bow pose, he wasn’t able to sit down in fixed firm.  In 2008 he  began his first 60 day challenge! His circulation had improved so much that the veins started to become visible in his legs and feet. The numbness and pain in his hands was gone. And he lost 36 lbs. Two years after he started the Yoga he was able to touch his hands palms together in Eagle and touch his head to the floor in Fixed Firm. In Feb 2011, he got on to his feet for Pada Hastasana! For the first time in 20 years his legs held his weight without any kind of brace. Little by little he built strength and vitality where for so long there was none.  To quote him, “ Since starting my yoga practice my health has improved 1000% along with just about every aspect of my life. “

Let Jeff be our example.  To quote Star Wars, “Your focus determines your reality.”  So focus on the things you can do.  Can you lock out in standing bow?  No, okay can you grab your foot, can you stretch forward, and can you kick back?  Great!  Do that.  Come back the next day and do that again.   The object of yoga is not the posture.  The object of yoga is you.

Can you control the government, the economy, your parents, your kids, your spouse, your boss, and your ten-year-old high school injury?  NO!!  What can you do?  Can you show up to yoga?  Can you breathe?  Can you focus one spot?  Can you lie still?  Can you be kind to your neighbor?  Can you smile at a stranger?   Can you?  Can you?  Can you?

Just try.

You Can Balance Here Forever

By Nate Fillmore balance. balŸance (ba-ln(t)s) noun, verb, adjective. (n) a weighing device. (v) to keep or put something in a steady position so that it does not fall (adj) mental and emotional steadiness (balanced).

There are 9 definitions of balance according to Webster’s Dictionary and 3 times as many variations in the ways we use the term in our everyday lives. People are constantly trying to balance their time, between professional and personal life. Within personal life we try to balance the time between family and friends and maybe even some alone time. We balance our bank accounts (or you might let the banks do the balancing for you). However you define it, balance is a goal everyone seems to strive to achieve.

Since being introduced to Bikram Yoga in 2011, I began seeing other aspects of life’s balancing act appear in my practice. The postures themselves present lessons in balance. The pushing/pulling partnership that is seen in Camel and Rabbit. The balance required to hold Standing Head to Knee. And who can forget Balancing Stick! Even though it’s only 10 seconds, my body completely understands the full complexity balance can bring.

My favorite definition of balance states “an even distribution of weight enabling someone or something to remain upright and steady”. I think all Bikram Yogis can relate to this statement as we constantly hear our teachers in Standing Bow, “Stretch forward and kick back, you can balance here forever”.  They teach us the importance of balancing our flexibility with our strength, our determination with our patience, and our effort with our relaxation.

There is also the mental, physical, and emotional balance that exists within each one of us.  Being in a room that’s 105 degrees with 40% humidity puts that balancing act to the test.  I haven’t experienced a class when at least one of these aspects isn’t being tested. You might have a great physical class with high emotions from the day, but your focus might not be at it’s highest.  When you can find the balance of all three for 90 minutes, I presume the final Savasana is unlike any other experienced (and I will be happy to let you know if I ever find out)!