Adjustments For The Perfect Pose
/Dear Yogis!
My Friday email last week was all about adjustments. I know some of you miss them! I’ve been thinking about this because we seem to be in an era of re-evaluating the Ashtanga culture of adjusting.
Adjustments used to be brutal! People who travelled to India to study with Pattabhi Jois (known as Guruji) found that Mysore was full of walking wounded and people talking about losing consciousness during adjustments! Willem Dafoe says Mysore is well named – ‘Boy am I sore’! Tim Millar says: “For the poses that weren't done to Guruji's satisfaction, he would give us strong adjustments - teaching with his hands instead of his voice, since his command of English was very limited”.
The original details of how to adjust came from a fabled book no longer in existence, the Yoga Kuruntha. The father of modern yoga, Krishnamacharya (1888 – 1989), studied the text and passed on the knowledge to his pupils, including Pattabhi Jois and Iyengar. But Krishnamacharya was notoriously fierce and feared and so were his adjustments.
Ashtanga teachers can be intense and strict and critical and strong adjusters! Eddie Stern, in the recent Ashtanga Conference, said that he was one of those teachers who ‘stuck to the method’, was strict and tunnel-visioned, saw postures having to be done in a particular way and didn’t deviate from the way things were supposed to be. Then he realised that he had ‘lost his way’.
He knows exactly how and when he lost track… “when I started receiving adjustments in asanas. And so, getting physically helped in poses was the thing that made me think poses were important”. That, he says, was his ‘fall from grace’!
Yes, I remember that too! The postures became the most important thing about the class. I remember ego growing up around my chaturanga. I remember self-satisfaction when my vinyasas flowed seamlessly. I remember holding my crow pose as seconds turned into minutes. Before adjustments, I had no attachments to postures, I just felt the benefit of the class. I felt bathed. After attachment, dissatisfaction and self-judgment creep in. Interesting, eh!
Zoom Classes
Come at 5.00 today for a non-adjusted class! I can only reach you with words. No one falls from grace in a zoom class! Stretch the week off of the body and get ready for the weekend! For all classes and especially today, you can book here.
Yoga in the news
MSN has: Elderly elephants in Cincinnati take daily yoga classes to relieve aches and pains. ‘They’ve developed “elephant yoga” sessions, of sorts, led each day by zookeepers. The exercises include yoga-inspired stretches, like the downward-facing dog, modified for the zoo’s elephant population. Zoo officials say that the elephants love the daily sessions, adding that exercises help prevent mobility issues – critical for the aging herd.’
The Metro has: These hip-opening yoga moves release stuck emotions and reduce anxiety. ‘‘More often than not, memories and feelings can become suppressed,’ she says. ‘Hip-openers help to release this suppression and create new space within the body for challenges, opportunities, and manifestation. ‘This makes sense as our hips are located on our second chakra, the sacral chakra which is the centre of emotion, feeling, and connection.’’
APN News has: YogiFi launches Smart Yoga Mat under Make-in-India initiative on this Independence Day. ‘YogiFi is embedded with multi-patented sensors and non-intrusive posture tracking technologies to record one’s daily practice while measuring their progress on flexibility, strength, balance etc. YogiFi unifies the fusion of smart mat and computer vision enabled via smartphone app delivering audio visual instructions with real-time feedback in multiple regional languages. YogiFi Mat can also be optionally paired with third-party wearables such as Apple Watch, Fitbit etc., to acquire key vital signs and measure effectiveness of sessions.’
Keep it real this weekend!
