Archive for June, 2011
a pain in the asana
this is not my spine
Okay, so one of the biggest changes in my life in recent months: I’ve stopped practicing asana.
I have a chronic and persistent back condition. After a few years of intermittent back pain, three years ago I was diagnosed with degerative disc disease (the disc between my L5 and sacrum had degenerated and the vertebrae had started to fuse together). I’ve managed it with chiropractic treatments, strengthening exercises and a constant practice of awareness. And I continued to persist with my asana practice. After all, it was my practice, and it was essential to my physical, emotional and spiritual well-being.
Despite my efforts, my back periodically went “out” (I still don’t really know what that means) and I couldn’t pinpoint it to a specific activity. It just seemed to happen. But a couple of months ago, I did a twist wrong and my back went out. O.U.T. I was in acute pain for two weeks and it took multiple chiro visits and intensive therapy to get myself back to normal. This was the first time that I had seen a direct connection between my practice and my pain, and it freaked me out.
Then my chiropractor gave me the ultimate prescription: no asana (well, she said “no yoga,” but you know, whatever). Since my practice inspires my teaching, I cut back on my teaching as well, only offering one super gentle community class and working with a few private students. On my own, I admit that I cheat sometimes and get a little crazy with Tadasana (Mountain Pose). I also haven’t abandoned Savasana, and anything that involves piles of blankets, blocks and bolsters.
But in the past few months, I’ve been in a place of inquiry: What is my practice? What does asana mean to me? What is yoga? Continue Reading
image via seattleweekly.com
We’ve all asked our yoga teacher for a little help now and then. Perhaps we’ve asked about good vegan restaurants in the neighbourhood, breathing exercises to aid sleep, or tips for rocking Chaturanga Dandasana. But Seattle-based humour columnist Michael Stusser enlisted his yoga teacher for a bigger, more transformative project.
While going through a nasty divorce, Michael “decided to take the radical step of removing all trash talk, mud-slinging, rude riffing, and taunting Tweets from my everyday existence for an entire month” and write about his experience for the Seattle Weekly. Realizing that he couldn’t just avoid people and be silent, and that his previous attempts at making major life changes resulted in failure, he saw the need for reinforcement.
If the Dalai Lama and J.Lo had a love child, it would be Dawn Jansen. For 14 years now, this gorgeous and brilliant yoga instructor has twisted me into a pretzel, cured my sciatica, and gently placed positive mantras into my thick skull. Hearing about my grand experiment (and knowing my extensive weaknesses), Dawn understood the need for a game plan. Continue Reading
Ten days ago, Vancouver made international news when its citizens rioted in the streets after their hockey team, the Vancouver Canucks, lost to Boston in the final game of the Stanley Cup playoffs. The city has since been going through a period of shock, self-analysis and healing as the downtown core slowly comes back together. And now Vancouver yogis are doing their part for the city’s healing process!
According to The Georgia Straight, on Wednesday, June 29, “there’ll be a special kind of riot at the corner of Homer and West Georgia streets in downtown Vancouver. You guessed it—a yoga riot.”
We all know that yoga can heal on an individual basis, and even coming together to practice in the microcosm of the studio can have a ripple effect throughout our communities. So imagine the power when a whole community comes together to practice in a public space which only weeks earlier had been the site of massive aggression, violence and destruction.
“Let’s join together as a community to heal and rekindle the beautiful energy of our city using the powerful practice of yoga,” promises the Facebook event page. “What’s done is done, we can’t change the past – what we can do is set wholesome, rejuvenating intention and share an abundance of love.” Continue Reading
“Something, when you love it, is always tugging at you and itching…” ~ Jay-Z, on releasing his comeback album Kingdom Come in 2006.
I’m happy to join the ranks of basketball stars and rappers by coming out of retirement and resurrecting it’s all yoga, baby! As Michael Jordan said after his first retirement: “I’m back.” And I’m excited to be here!
The past six months have been creative, fruitful and introspective. But I’ve missed blogging. I’ve missed connecting with people. I’ve missed the vibrant community of yoga bloggers. I love/d this community, this blog, and it’s been tugging at me and itching to be brought back to life.
The strange thing is that since I closed it’s all yoga, baby in January, things haven’t changed that much. My stats stayed the same (March, two months after closure, had the second highest hits ever), people kept joining the Facebook fanpage, people kept following me on Twitter, and people kept linking to and commenting on posts. It was like the blog continued to live on: the only difference was that I wasn’t blogging. Which is actually the fun part!
And some things have changed. I’ve been sitting back and watching the yoga blogosphere, which has grown up quite a bit. It’s been exciting to watch the ascension of elephant journal, as it’s turned into a real hub of respectful and informed conversation on yoga and the mindful life. I’ve been inspired by projects such as Recovering Yogi, Teachasana and Yoga 2.0, and The Magazine of Yoga has added a touch of refinement and class to the sphere. I’ve also been watching saucy yoga bloggers like Y is for Yogini, Curvy Yoga and Flying Yogini step up to the plate and find their voices.
Things have changed for myself, too. I’ve co-launched yocomo (yoga community montréal), a project to highlight all the amazing but underground yoga happening in Montreal, and am co-planning a yoga festival set for 2012. I’ve stopped practicing asana because of a back injury and have cut back on teaching (I now only teach privates and a beloved long-term volunteer class at a community mission in my hood). I’m less militant about the commercialization of yoga and more interested in how yoga intersects with daily life, activism, politics and culture. I’m still interested in the ramifications of the popularity of yoga and its representation in popular culture, but I have more faith that yoga will maintain its integrity.
There are some exciting changes on the horizon here at it’s all yoga, baby: a new look, a revived mission, more conversations. I’m going to explore video and podcasting, and use this space as my professional presence on the web. Stick around, see what happens. Show me what you got, yo.
