AN ASHTANGA DIARY 2011

Drop backs. One day.

Funny how you practice yoga, year in, year out, and slowly feel like the body is opening, muscles softening and lenghtening, and this is progress. And then, one day...

I got it, I actually understood, yesterday, what every teacher has been telling me all these years - 'breathe into the posture'.

I though that I knew exactly what this meant, and now I do. What happened is this.

I've been reading, studying and practicing from a book that reveals the circulation of chi within the body, a practice called 'the microcosmic orbit'. From my basic understaning chi can be very closely related to prana, but over the years I have been taught to practice pranayama, but this has only been in relation to the breath itself, but once I had a basic experience of circulating chi within the physical body I thought I'd try doing this whilst holding an asana. I'll say here that I'm ver cautious about mixing practices in case one negates or overpowers another, and if something works for me I'll stick with it all the way. Anyway...

Whilst sat in asana, and with pain in my lower thigh muscle I thought I'd try flowing a little chi, and it simple eased the pain, enabling a deepening of the posture. Wow I thought, that works, and then a qick guilt trip flew into my mind 'don't mix practices' and the pain returned, but then... I thought (with a light bulb flashing on in my mind) - This is prana.

Well, it was quite a revelation to me x

Written and published by Mark Golding - THE ORGANIC HOME

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Ashtanga Yoga is more than just asana, as there is a family of practitioners, not only in your home town, but a worldwide community.

I have just returned to Brighton, the most Bohemian and possibly most yogacentric city in the UK, and having established a Mysore practice with a beautiful, friendly and passionate group of ashtangis over 2 years I have made many yogi mates.

And wandering around the town over the past week I have met a few of these fiends, one whop has just returned from a months intensive retreat in Maui, Hawaii with Nancy Gilgoff, another who has just returned from 6 months in India, and another who has just had a baby... Not static people.

And this energetic and powerful moving family are all creating waves around the planet, learning, through their practice, to be gentle with their bodies and the Earth upon which they tread, and to pass through this life with consideration and understanding.

For the practitioners of Ashtanga Yoga are a special creed, a dedicated and intelligent family, each striving for growth and development, and willing to make sacrifices to create better health for themselves and also educating others by their learned expressions.

And through the connections we make, in yoga, we connect to a larger family, worldwide, with a trust and fellowship, arisen from shared experience and shared wisdom... To my brothers and sisters, I salute you! Namaste!

Written and published by Mark Golding - THE ORGANIC HOME

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AN ASHTANGA DIARY 10

I have been approaching my practice with dedication and integrity this year, knowing that I have to re-establish both neutrality and strength within my physical body.

Extending my awareness throughout my body, evenly distributed with softness and passivity, but, with the best will in the world I reach areas within my body that seem to defy my efforts to clear, and this creates a tendency for the area to be even more isolated, a bit of a catch 22 situation.

So, when this happens, or when I take notice that it has happened, it is time to seek expert advice, and not necessarily from a yogi. I choose to visit a therapist, trained in both Bowen Therapy and Emmett Technique, a man called Ray Smith, and this is his website - Feelsbetter Therapies

And what he does is quite astonishing for a yoga practitioner. He helps to identify the emotional aspects associated with the individual blockages and obstruction, and he will explain where these are within the body, and with a combination of manipulation and healing will penetrate and soften these areas, in a manner that might have taken 3 months of yoga to reach, thus enabling the yoga practice to be eased through the change, rather than the yoga practice causing the change.

It does, in effect, create a doorway through which one can travel with yoga, and once traversed, can be maintained through practice, not to return again. I will say that I do not have this treatment often, but when I feel my body burdened with emotional backpacks and burdens, it is Ray who lightens my load, explaining aspects of my physicality that I was completely unaware of.

The man with X-Ray hands...

Written and published by Mark Golding - THE ORGANIC HOME

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AN ASHTANGA DIARY 9

And in savasana, then what? What are you supposed to do?

There is an opportunity to withdraw the sense awarenesses, starting from the outermost layers, where the hairs of the body experience the air around the body, this being the primary physical encounter with that which lies external to us, the bridge from the inner to the outer worlds.

Then drawing inwards, to the skin, that which comprises and contains our shape, our form and to a large extent, our identity, and then inwards through the first layer of fat, and into the muscles that lie below.

Those muscles, which following practice are engorged with prana, and vibrational resonances, and then on into the bone structure, the skeleton that dwells within. Recall and identify as many as you wish, from memory of those illustrations we all know so well, and mapping internally too.

Yes, know your skeleton well.

And, then conatined within the structure are the vital organs, from the brain and eyes in the skull, and the heart, lungs, digestive systems and more within the torso, and, this all fed with a network of veins and arteries, carrying the life giving blood throughout the body.

Yes, know your system well, and feel it by knowing it.

And, then deeper within, are the nervous systems that carry information and data about the entire body, at lightning speeds, and follwing practice allow the mind to become more familiar with the mapping, that is loosely aligned with the physicality of the body.

These pulsating and resonating systems are highlighted immediately after practice, and this is an opportunity to know, to feel, that which we normally ignore, and then, deeper still, the subtle body...

Written and published by Mark Golding - THE ORGANIC HOME

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AN ASHTANGA DIARY 8

And maybe the most important, and most neglected of the asanas? Savasana - corpse pose.

It is, for me, the posture that requires the utmost engagement, but with the least physicality and effort, but with the most subtly applied alertness, it is the one that fully integrates the entire practice.

And I've tried avoiding it, by simply lying on the floor for 30 seconds, impatiently, and after a week or so of this, my body seems tighter than had I not done any yoga at all, as, the effects have not been assimilated into my entire body/mind complex.

It is a highly meditative posture, allowing the subtle to fully integrate with the gross.

This is our chance, our opportunity to draw awareness fully within the body, and experience that which is revealed. It may be that a residual tension is felt, say in the hips, and this chance to fully enter that part of the body, is an aspect of the healing capacity of the prana we have flooded our body with over the past hour or so.

We are highly charged, and armed with this power, every opportunity to fully enter into the points of pain or discomfort are awakened, and with the combination of mind, increased prana, and body awareness, we can get right into the inner densities, and allow the healing to radiate and magnify into the subtle physical elements.

A chance to get right in there....

Written and published by Mark Golding - THE ORGANIC HOME

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AN ASHTANGA DIARY 7

And of the sequence, of the Primary Series, each of us has one asana which we dread. One posture that we hold in our minds from the moment we step onto our mats, and this one asana can actually hold us back from practice.

The fear and the anticipated pain or discomfort of that one posture is the essence of our entire practice. For, that muscular retraction, that involuntary lock we place around that area we wish to protect, is the purpose of our practice. It is for that single attribute we need to practice.

And, I suggest that today, or tomorrow, when you next practice, take your mind into that place of fear and tension, and release that one part, make that the primary reason for your sequence, and release that tightness, that tension, with love.

Forgive that aspect or characteristic, release any anger at your body, and allow it to flow away, use the breath to focus your mind into the spatial arena of tightness, and work into the area...

For that kink or blockage, that inner obstruction, is (in part) of an emotional character, and that acknowledgement, will facilitate a partial deconstruction of the system, rendering it incomplete, and thus unstable, and whilst the system is unstable, the chance to transform, change or even eliminate it arises.

A golden opportunity.... Love it away...

Written and published by Mark Golding - THE ORGANIC HOME

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AN ASHTANGA DIARY 6

And, yes sir. Keeping up the practice, and as the year levers over past the Vernal Equinox a certain sense of inner change shall begin to manifest, in harmony with the season's turn.

And how might this be so? Why might yoga practice change throughout the year?

The dry cynics will fail to be swayed by any discussion, but any ashtangi will know that as the year turns, practice changes. The light and warmer mornings lift flexibility and strength, and increases the wish to engage with the practice, whereas the cold, dark winter months can be a struggle through which practice might be abandoned.

And, as spring arrives, and the Earth begins to manifest that which has lain dormant for the past few months, so too the consistent practitioner will begin to notice changes from deep within her/his system.

This might be an adaptation of breathing patterns and depths, causing deep seated changes to manifest, releasing old issues, and traumas, and similarly the time of physical release might begin to precipitate, as the warmer days bring an increased relaxation to the body in general, through muscular release, and also a sense of emotional well-being can also aid the development of a relaxed body.

The seasons do affect us, both inner and outer... We relax in the sun, and as seasons change our bodies notice, even if we do not.


Written and published by Mark Golding - THE ORGANIC HOME

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