Namaste Yogis & Yoginis,
Recently, I was at a weekend workshop. To my delight, we began the second day playing games out on the oval!! Frisbee, ball games, relay races – it was just like being back at school, and so much fun!
The relay race was meant to be teams of 7. One member holding a baton would run zig-zagging between the rest who were lined up, touch the cone at the end then we'd all pass the baton up the line for the next person to run. Somehow, my team ended up with 9 people instead of 7, two of them small children, and one lady who couldn't walk very well. One team had 7 able-bodied athletic people and of course, they finished the fastest, they won! They were ecstatic, they cheered and hugged and jumped up and down, they were very excited. The effect on the rest of the group was interesting. Some people thought “oh, that's it, game over..” and you could almost see them opt out. Yet, I looked around, and I could see that the organisers were keeping the game going – so, we kept going, we just all kept going. The next team came second and cheered, the next third and so on, all cheering as they finished and then cheering on the teams still running. Of course, with our extra people and very small children, our team came last! But our cheers and our excitement were equal to the team that came first.
The very last member of our team to go through was a little girl. She looked about 8. Even at that age, you could tell she wasn't naturally athletic, she was very shy, and a little awkward; but to see her little face absolutely shining as she was running through the team, getting cheered on by everybody – she was having her moment! It was beautiful to see, and I got several lessons from this experience.
1) Regardless of the outcome, keep going, keep doing your best. This is at the heart of the teachings of Karma Yoga – you keep going, you keep doing your best – regardless of the outcome. The outcome doesn't belong to you, it belongs to God/the greater good/the mystery/nature/truth/life – whatever you want to call it.
2) Everyone deserves their day in the sun. Don't give up and rob people of their chance to have an experience, just because you feel disappointed in a result. Imagine, if everyone had just started to disband and walked away, what that little girl would have missed out on. Keep going, keep doing your best. In this way, it becomes a kind of service, a kind of love. Not goal oriented, but for the joy, for the shared experience, for the sake of others.
3) In many of the teachings, life is considered to be Lila (Leela) – a game; and definitely in playing these games, there were important lessons in detachment, serving others and simply being in the experience rather than looking to the future outcome. I realised I could bring this attitude back into many areas of my life and not take everything quite so seriously. I could try my best, with zeal, and give it my all, regardless of the outcome, and still end up face shining, laughing and breathless at the end, full of joy and having had the time of my life!!! And even for the “serious” aspects of live, such as practice – imagine engaging fully, present to the moment, jumping in regardless of the outcome – what would happen to our fear? Our tiredness? Our doubt? What might be possible...
It's an exciting thought, and one I look forward to exploring more often... Want to join me?
Blessings from us all,
Suzanne & the GCYC team
<3
COMING UP AT GCYC...
Ashtanga 2nd Series Full Vinyasa Class
Friday 19th April (Good Friday) at 10am - tickets $30
**Not suitable for Ashtanga beginners**
GCYC Yoga Art Prize
Your chance to WIN 3 MONTHS FREE YOGA!
ENTRIES CLOSE ON 30th APRIL 2019
Inviting all creatives to show us what yoga means to you - beginner artists welcome!!
Guidelines:
1. Submit all artwork via the event page on Facebook, entering as many times as you like;
2. At the end of each month, one piece will be picked at random and featured in our newsletter, along with full credit and contact details of the artist;
3. After 30th April 2019, all art work will be deliberated by an experienced panel of judges, and one of the artists will receive the grand prize of 3 months FREE YOGA at Gold Coast Yoga Centre - to be announced at a special exhibition and social event!
4. If you are sharing your artwork for the competition via your own social media channels, please ensure you tag us! To included in the draw for the grand prize, the piece must also be shared to the Facebook event page.
**Our Expert Judging Panel will be revealed by the end of the week - keep an eye on the Facebook Event Page**
March Yoga Art Prize special mention!
Well done to Carol D'Arcy for creating this month's special mention for the Yoga Art Prize - titled 'All Is One' and dedicated to her daughter Jazz for bringing her to practice. If you want to see more of Carol's work, you can find her art on Instagram at @caroldarcyart - in the meantime, keep those entries rolling in, because there is still FREE YOGA to be won!
EASTER & ANZAC DAY 2019 - Timetable changes
Gong Sound Meditation - Saturday 25th May
1pm-2.15pm - Tickets $35
Springbrook Winter Yoga Retreat - Fri 2nd to Sun 4th August
Early Bird Price $395 (payable by Saturday 29th June)
PRACTICE TIPS
Kidney energy & Relieve neck tension in standings.
Some years ago, when moving house – the professional removalists were amazed that I had energy to keep going up and down my steep driveway carrying things. My secret weapon was breathing into my kidneys!!! The kidneys are considered the energy warehouses of the body, kidney energy gives you your get up and go (of course the energy is produced by the mitochondria, but the kidney seems to store and release it).
Recently, I have enjoyed remembering how powerful this simple technique is. We're used to placing our hands on our kidneys in child pose – to ensure the vertebrae of the lower spine are getting space and taking pressure off the nerves – but you can place your hands on your kidneys in almost any pose to make sure there is space in the lower back, better pelvic placement, better action of the pose and most importantly – sustained energy levels and less chance of fatigue.
I'm sure there's a detailed physiological reason behind this technique – e.g. the breath moves fully into the lower lobes of the lungs, causing the diaphragm to lower and push the abdominal organs down and out requiring the pelvis to move to accommodate them – or something like that!? To be honest, I can't fully explain why this works, only that it does – and is replicable over and over again, in my own body, and bodies of hundreds of students. It is especially great if you tend to over arch your back in the standings and find your mid/lower back is tense.
Simply place the top hand on your kidney and breath into it in standing postures like trikonasana, or parsvakonasana, or on both kidneys for forward standings like parsvottanasana or forward bends like cross legs or any seated forward. Placing the hands creates a focus point for the breath to move into.
Once you feel your “kidney” expand, you can release the hand to its normal position in the pose. I find the action of the pose increases all the way down through the legs and feet into the earth, making the pose stronger and more stable (sthithi); and the spine, neck and arm action seems to extend more fully as well. It's also great in twists to place your hands on your kidneys and feel them inflate on the inhale, then use your hands to guide the turn on the exhale. This gets a nice deep twist through the jathara (abdomen/middle) which is where we want it to come from in a twist. These practices also train the body beautifully for other poses.
As with all tips, don't take my word for it – try it out!!! practice, explore, and make the knowledge yours. We are always looking for more skilfull and intelligent ways to move, sometimes the most subtle actions create profound change. I look forward to hearing how you go.
Neck and shoulder tension in standing poses such as Trikonasana and Parsvakonasana can look like this:
The remedy for this is usually simple:
1) Come up out of the pose a little;
2) Lift the head.
You would be amazed at the difference these two simple actions make. Then you can get a fuller inhale, and direct the action of the breath through the crown and arms more easily on the exhale. Your pose will extend more and feel more alive. It requires satya (truthfulness) to know where your limits are and work with them, not give into ambition and go as far as you can.
tivra samveganam asannah
Patanjali Yoga Sutra 1:21
Love and blessings <3 <3 Suzanne
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