October 2013 Yoga Retreat

Retreat Thoughts

Thank you to everyone who came along the second annual Spring to Life Yoga Retreat from Oct 25th to 27th. A great response with 18 retreat participants and a couple of the volunteers at the retreat centre joining in.

There has been discussions about running another retreat in March so stay tuned and perhaps more exciting one of my Bairnsdale students is keen to run a yoga retreat in Bali and I have been invited to teach yoga.I will still run the retreat in October as the weather and timing work well for people.

A couple of comments from the feedback forms just to get a sense of how people felt about the experience. I was happy to note that the comments were overwhelmingly positive, however, there is always room for tinkering and making improvements. In general, the nature walk that was new this year proved a great hit and gave everyone a chance to either go on a walk and enjoy the spectacular natural surroundings in the mountains or simply relax under a tree with a cup of tea.

It was hard to choose which comments to put up thank you everyone for your kind and thoughtful feedback.

"Margot's gentle, restorative, meditative yoga and her nurturing nature. Marc's calm, practical support. Great timetable- not rushed and adaptable."

"I learned a lot more about the versatility of Yoga. It's not just a stretching technique. Margot has gone through many more aspects step by step."

"The flow of activities seemed effortless. Margot's positivity and caring and funny approach"

"I feel healthier, happier, stronger and wiser than I did before I got here. I have a new mantra. You are here. You are now. This is living."

"Food is amazing. Accommodation is good." "Really loved the bush camping option."

The yoga practice room in the Golden House at SIBA. That is me waiting for people to return from the nature walk to Tullock Ard.

  I have abstained from putting photos of participants up on my blog as a popular reason for coming on the retreat (feedback forms) was to have time out.

Also some ideas to improve everyone's retreat experience that came up in written comments, about in the closing circle and by reflection are as follows: 

A gong will be rung ten minutes before each session.

A group photo to be taken on Saturday after lunch when everyone is there.

Try to have longer breaks between food e.g start earlier perhaps 6.30 for asana practice; eat dinner later shorter evening session.

Several people would have liked extra yoga sessions however, it is important to remember that you don't practice yoga on a full stomach. Good idea to wait at least 2- 3 hours after a light meal.

A challenge workshop e.g. inversions, splits 

I thought introduce some yin or longer held pose sequences rather than 2 restorative sessions.

The main dining hall at SIBA.

A poem and thoughts on yin yoga practice

Gratitude

Why I like yin yoga?
Much of life is taken up being busy, rushing from here to there like a bee from flower to flower. Of course, some of us consciously take time to slow down. My sankalpha a couple of years ago was slow down, breathe, and it did work for a while before I got caught up in the whirl of life. There are so many beautiful, amazing and awesome as well as painful, horrible activities and sensory experiences to draw us away from stillness that exquisite peace within. I teach an active or dynamic style of yoga in my evening classes, what the modern yoga world is calling 'yang' though I try to encourage myself and my students to use the breath to mind the mind and make the class a meditation. There is always a set of slow inward focused poses towards the end of class. I guess a mixture of active or 'yang' and quiet or 'yin'. 

The experience of just doing a still or 'yin' yoga practice is truly an opportunity to be with whatever comes up whether that is physical, emotional or mental tension, discomfort, as well as spaciousness, and expansiveness. For a quiet practice is not just about focusing on the more challenging sensations - there is joy, compassion and love nestled in the heart and other places in the mind and body. Worthwhile seeking them out and dissolving the tension into these spaces. A soft, quiet practice where I am just being allows me to sit with the discomfort in a way that is reflective of life. It comes and it goes. As does joy although love and compassion stay. Everything is impermanent - transitory. The exquisite stillness of just being lets me come to terms with this knowledge: everything is change, everything is in flux, everything is free. That is not to say that a similar experience occurs in moving practice after all I am only practicing nothing needs to be anything - just be, just feel, just let go. Om shanti

A yin yoga pose Upavistha Konasana

 A yang style yoga pose: Bakasana (I need to lift my head...always room to move)

 Effortless effort

 Let go and fly in crow pose Photo by Marc Perri

How Everything Adores Being Alive

What
 if you were 
    a beetle,
      and a soft wind

and a certain allowance of time
   had summoned you
     out of your wrappings,
        and there you were,

so many legs
   hardening,      
     maybe even
        more than one pair of eyes

and the whole world
  in front of you?
    And what if you had wings 
       and flew

into the garden,
    then fell
       into the up-lipped 
          face

of a white flower 
     and what if you had 
          a sort of mouth,
             a lip

to place close
  to the skim 
      of honey
         that kept offering itself - 

what would you think then
     of the world
         as, night and day,
             you were kept there -

oh happy prisoner -
    sighing, humming, 
       roaming,
           that deep cup?

Mary Oliver
From the collection: Why I wake early
Beacon Press, Boston 2004

Yin yoga finding exquisite stillness

What is Yin Yoga?

Yin yoga is based around non-rhythmic and still poses. The postures are held for a sustained period of time in a mindful and gentle way. Specific sequences are designed to target meridian channels. This makes yin yoga a fusion of yoga poses with Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) principles. Both traditions have an implicit understanding of energetic pathways in the body. In yoga there are 72,000 nadi channels or energy pathways and of these 108 are considered significant whereas in TCM there are 14 major organ meridians. Yin yoga sequences explore deep parts of the body stimulating, massaging and distributing the flow of energy along these meridian channels.

The workshop in August focused on kidney and bladder organs and meridians while September we mapped out and explored the liver and gall bladder organs and meridians.

 

In the this late spring intensive, we will explore restorative poses that focus on moving energy (prana) and information (citta) through the physical organs: stomach and and spleen. This is followed by a sequence of yin yoga poses to massage and stimulate the stomach and spleen meridians. There will be a handout accompanying this workshop. 

See you there,

Om shanti,

Margot 

Gratitude

Everyday is a chance to be grateful for the small yet simple things.

I keep a gratitude journal and I record five things I am grateful for. Often there are doodles in there, pictures and quotes. My five for today are the sun, fresh strawberries straight from the garden, trees and amazing moss.

Light and laughter,

Margot

Niyama: Isvara pranidhana

The last niyama is Isvara pranidhana or devotion to the divine.

Yoga is not always presented as a theistic philosophy yet isvara in Patnajali's sutras is simply the divine or om. Krishnamacharya as described by his son as lord or divine. The idea of god or the divine resonates with some but not all and can potentially put people off coming to a yoga class.

I am always reminded of the story of Hanuman the monkey deity. Hanuman came across Rama and knew immediately that this was a divine being. Hanuman dedicated himself to Rama and his consort Site. One day Sita was kidnapped by the ruler of  Sri Lanka. It is said that he leapt from India to Sri Lanka in devotion to capture Sita and bring her back. And so he did. The pose above hanumanasana thus represents dedication, devotion and an willingness to not think of self. It represents the leap into faith.

Chapter 1 verse 23 states that devotion to the divine is a key pathway to enlightenment. Pranidanah is often translated as 'throwing down' or 'surrender'. I have not studied sanskrit, however, my understanding of this translation is specifically throwing down the ego. I try to see my salutes more as prostrations and remind myself each time to simply surrender and let go to a greater force. To let go of ego is a huge challenge after all this is what gets us out of bed and doing things. It appears that we must let go of any outcome before we even begin the action. Wow - what a challenge! Minding the mind with each and every action and breath.