Here is UD the next day but shot at a different angle.  Five slow breaths and 5 different attempts.  You can see the chest opening, legs becoming straighter and arms moving more into position more clearly.

Chapter 12

Let’s get this party started

In which the ghost of Jerry Garcia haunts the writer once again.

When she who lives here with me came home later that day, the first thing she asked when she walked through the door before the usual request for a not too sweet Margarita or a glass of Edna Valley Chardonnay was not how my day went or how Kelly or the kidults were doing or what was for dinner.  No, it was “how was the meditation today?  Did it go well?” And there went my plan, melting down like warm butter on a stack of steaming hot pancakes.  Boom.  Gone.  My subsequent response was something eminently forgettable along the lines of “uh, really great” and “made some real breakthroughs on the job hunt” and the rest of the evening went like the rest with her passed out early  upstairs and me cruising the far end of the cable channels searching in vain for entertainment before settling into yet another cooking show to fill the time until sleep somewhat naturally settled over me.

Throughout an uneventful next day (uneventful = job searching + another lousy attempt at meditation + long dog walk  + shredding useless paperwork) I swore to myself that the evening would be different. I was determined that it would be.  I resolved not to let my guard down for the sake of a future based on falsehoods and to tell her the truth.  End this hopeless charade and move on.

So that evening, between bites of a first-rate lamb sausage pesto lasagna that I had prepared to keep my mind off of my rapidly deteriorating mental state that afternoon and several glasses of our solid but unspectacular house made Cabernet Sauvignon, I explained my frustrations to her in rapid fire detail. My clear intention was to tell her that I would be ending it all.  She stopped eating and looked up across the table as I tried to put a positive spin on it all.  I put my best foot forward, explaining that I had given this meditation thing a real shot.  I focused on the inability to concentrate during meditation, knowing that I might hit a sympathetic chord with her and I guessed correctly. When I mentioned this aspect of my difficulties it must have really resonated with her. She replied that everyone has those issues with meditation and that she did to and still does.

She continued on, “Meditation is not something that we do naturally or easily.  You have to learn how to do it.  I mean I couldn’t do it myself, that was why I joined my meditation group.”  Uh oh, when I heard the word group the first alarm bells went off I in my head immediately as not only was this was not the answer I was hoping for, it had a lot of potential to keep this process alive. Here I was all set to go in for the kill, put this journey out of its misery.  Instead she effectively derailed me and I sat there looking across the dinner table with a false smile on my face while my balloon slowly lost pressure.

She kept going, “I think that a big part of the problems that you are having is that you are at home too much.”  Well that was true. “I know that you want to do everything yourself and that you believe that you can but this is different. This isn’t like using a road map when you get lost.  (Which I did by the way). You need to get out of the house, find yourself a group to meditate with just like I did, and let it grow over time.  Just think about it, I have been meditating with the same group of women for over 10 years.”

Well that did it. These comments set off a series of incredibly horrendous images in my head.  I could only imagine the ‘ meditation groups’ that I would find if I pursued her suggestion.  For this was not just any American town that I lived in for god sake, this was Berkeley or Bezerkeley as it is lovingly (or more likely not) called.  A city which I can safely say after 20 plus years of living more than lives up to its reputation for attracting a population of highly intelligent and very eclectic, often strange residents.

My imagination then took over, a glimpse of the future came into focus, I smelled the patchouli incense. I saw a room filled with pale old men with long stringy dirty grey hair pony tales dancing in a circle,  chanting dancing twirling praying to a golden buddha that had Jerry Garcia’s head on its shoulders, chanting Dark Star Dark Star, oh my god this was perversion, when this personal nightmare vision was interrupted by my wife’s voice.  (I had seen this ghost once before at Winterland on New Year’s Eve in the 1980’s but at that time it put me to sleep).

“Honey, are you listening to me.”

I quickly came back to the room and her green eyes. “Sorry dear, I was just was thinking about what you said.”  I stalled for time until I could think of what to say.

She carried on.  “So what do you think, how are you going to approach this?”  Ever the businesswoman, she was right to the point.  What was my goal, my objective?  What would be the takeaways from our dinner chat?  Did I have plan?

I went honest. “I have no idea”.

“Well,” she replied, “you rely on the Internet to find everything else in your life, why not this?”

She was right (again! Damn it!) Over the past years the net had become my major research tool and I used it to find just about everything that I purchased, from restaurants to cars to cameras.  The net made sense to me, a source of virtually unlimited knowledge and resource all organized into key words and bundles of facts.  If I could find a monkey filled tin roofed rain-soaked bungalow with crocodiles when you walked outside (yes true) in Costa Rica for a family vacation, why not search for a coach or meditation group in my home town?  I thanked her and promised to get on it the next day.

The next morning I warmed up the new Imac that I purchased the week before (what a pleasure indeed quite fast, stylish and simple to operate) and opened up the browser.  The first question was always the most basic, just what the hell was I searching for?  Um lets see.  Inner peace.  Too broad. Buddhism? I wasn’t converting.  Let’s guess.  Meditation?  Yes.  And keep it local.  And maybe a group to start. So I typed in: Eastern meditation groups Berkeley Ca’.

I resolved to spend the next week trying different groups to see if they might help me.  I wanted to find a men’s meditation group, where normal guys that were trying to better themselves and their homes could get together and not be afraid to go out for a burger or pizza and beer after without dirty looks form the Vegans.  Oh there were plenty of meditation groups for women, for gay men, gay women, for Buddhists, the LGBT community, for Tibetan Buddhists, for Christians, Hindus and Jews.  But none for guys.   Something was wrong here.  Why couldn’t we meditate and continue to love pepperoni?

So I manned up and headed out of the house and drove up the hills to the local spiritual relief center across from campus the next Monday morning at 8:30 for their morning meditation introduction program.  It was held in a funky old school house converted into a multi denominational church painted with faded rainbows and surrounded by tattered Tibetan prayer flags that had long since lost their color.

There was no sign for the class and it was blind luck that I opened the front door and walked into right room. Aren’t their directions on the road to Nirvana?

The room was unheated and cold and only 4 people were there.  3 women of unclear age (believe me it is not like I was there to hit on anyone, seriously these women were just plain, amorphous and very ambiguous).  One other guy, must have been 60, dressed in multi color sweats.  Everyone standing around no one saying a word and no eye contact was being made much less smiling.  Not promising at all.

A few minutes later a bald almond skinned man of unknown age and just about 5 feet tall quietly walked into the room. He was clad in a brown and orange outfit somewhere between a high priest’s robe and a jumpsuit carrying a brightly multi colored cushion.  He smiled subtly at us and then sat down at the end of the room.  He moved quickly into a half lotus and spoke softly to us as we walked toward him “Does everyone have their cushuns?” He said it just that way, cushuns.

I looked around.  Everyone else did, not me.  Worse yet they were already sitting down and beginning to prepare for their coming relaxation moments.

Cushions?  I didn’t know we had to bring cushions.  I spoke up. “No”, I replied, “I didn’t bring one.  Do you have any that I can use?”

At that point he went silent and looked at me.  This lasted for more than just a moment, to be the point of being a bit strange. He seemed to be considering his options.  Was I imaging things or did he actually furrow his brow and start to squint at me?

When he finally spoke it was even quieter, the five of us were now hanging on his every word.  “Cushun.  Do you understand me? You can not meditate if you can not sit properly and you can not sit properly without a cushun. Did you bring a cushun?”

I answered again.  “No, I replied for the second time, “I didn’t.”

He stared for another moment.  Then he sighed.  A deep and yes exasperated breath, the sort you hear from a disappointed middle level Marubeni executive, just not pulled backwards through his teeth, not meditative or Zen in the least.

His gaze had not left me. “Please understand me.  Please understand that without a cushun you can not properly meditate.  Please read the rules they are posted on our website.  Please come back with one tomorrow and we will meditate together.  I hope that you will join us then.  You must remember that the path to enlightenment is long and takes both will and discipline.  So please go now and come back tomorrow when you are completely ready to join us.”   And that was it.  Banished by a passive aggressive monk.

I was flabbergasted. Stunned.  Outraged.  What had just happened!  Where was that old mellow Zen spirit? I looked around at my fellow meditation mates for support but I should have known better.  They were fidgeting uncomfortably on their cushions, waiting for their instruction to begin and looking for me to leave because it was obvious that they were not going to get started until I did.  Collaborators.  Administrators.  Vichy sympathizers. And thus ended my one, and maybe fortuitously so, foray into the world of group meditation.  A crash both sudden and swift.

Without looking back I walked out of the church and really wanted to, but after exercising considerable personal restraint, didn’t try to slam the large wooden doors closed.

As I drove home I made an easy decision, I still needed help, but until I found a group of like-minded people, I wasn’t meditating with anyone else. I mean who needed to be pushed around by a kid in a saffron jumpsuit to learn what had been written about for thousands of years.  I needed a coach.  Someone who could help me to solve these questions that kept bothering me about meditation, Eastern thought and how it could mean something for the modern American male.

I’ve been working on long breaths in UD for a few weeks now and do 5.  At first, I found 5 hard but as I did more and more, I’m sure I got stronger, but more importantly, my shoulders moved closer and closer over my wrists.  This made the pose much less muscular and certainly more aligned and therefore, the skeletal system took over from the muscular system.  I know the changes are subtle in the pictures, but at the end of 5 long sets of UD, you can see my chest open, legs straighten and shoulders move closer to the wrists.  It’s a pose that requires time to open not just daily, but over the weekly practices as well.  In one practice, it can really change a great deal from the first attempt to the last.

Basia and I will be doing a yoga intro workshop for beginners Friday December 4. It is based on Ashtanga Yoga and is tailored for athletes and people doing weight training. However it is also suitable for any beginner. You dont need any yoga experience to attend the workshop.  The workshop is based on Ashtanga Yoga. Ashtanga is great for stamina, flexibility, strength, increased focus and physical and mental stability.

Here is a description in Norwegian:

“Workshop for nybegynnere  4. desember – Yoga stuff for deg som er tøff”

Basia og jeg skal ha en intro-workshop for nybegynnere fredag 4. desember. Man trenger ikke å ha gjort noe yoga før for å være med. Dette er en fin anledning til å være med og lære det grunnleggende i løpet av en to-timers økt, og så kan man velge om man ønsker å fortsette på faste klasser/kurs.

Workshoppen passer glimrende for de som driver med styrke/vekttrening eller idrett, men passer også for hvem som helst. Workshoppen baserer seg på Ashtanga yoga, og vi går gjennom det helt grunnleggende. Ashtanga yoga er veldig bra trening både i forhold til styrke, utholdenhet og fleksibilitet. Det gir økt fokus, konsentrasjon og fysisk og mental balanse.

Tid: Fredag 4. desember kl 19-21
Sted: Ashtanga Yoga Oslo på Grønland (Schweigaardsgate 30 (inngang Platoustgate))

Påmelding: http://ashtangayoga.no/paamelding.aspx?selection=10
Mer info: http://ashtangayoga.no/info.aspx?contenttype=KURSINFO&function=KURS&selection=3

Over at the Miami Life Center website you’ll find a number of interesting talks on yoga in general and Ashtanga in particular.  Most of these discussions are by Kino Macgregor with others including Tim Felman and Greg Nardi.

PODCASTS

-Elise

Chapter 11

Papa Ooh Mow Mow?

Uh uh. Shboom Shbhoom!~

The first gaze eastward in neither clear nor compelling.

Just as there was no blinding epiphany at the beginning of this journey (other than my wife threatening to throw my ass off of the couch, which is pretty damned epiphanous in and of itself) there was no specific moment when suddenly things got better that summer or when I could touch my chin and elbows to the floor when stretching my body across my legs (that still has not happened).  Things happened gradually over those first two months post employment in a series of small steps so much so that they were barely noticeable as they occurred.  And there were plenty of pratfalls and backward motion to guarantee that any movements forward were haphazard at very best and often painfully nowhere. Illuminated and illustrative paths did not open up to me regularly, chasms of knowledge did not reveal themselves, the clouds or more aptly said, the fog, did not part, it stayed low and close to the ground letting the sun in from time to time only to slowly crawl back as the evening came.

Instead of focusing on a search for mental peace, in my typical impatient hunt and peck research style, I kept trying different aspects of meditation to see if they worked without taking the time to fully understand just what it was that I was doing. That is the same approach I used with computers, software and electronic devices. I mean seriously, who takes the time to read the manuals?   I got better results from Microsoft Office.

As you may remember from the beginnings of this adventure, my odyssey into this world of Eastern studies began with a clandestine afternoon raid on La Sweetie’s bookshelf for some research the day after she lit me up on the couch in Chapter 1. The first steps that I took into the world of meditation and mindfulness over those next several weeks into were worse for me than studying French as a kid.  The terms and concepts that I struggled to understand were as foreign as the passé imparfait.  I believe that they remain just as difficult for most men.

But back to that afternoon and my little book raid. I had always been curious about what she was up to when she closed her eyes and began to breathe deeply and why she loved meditation so much.  The subject seemed so foreign to her character.  Yet it actually seemed to relax her.  And relaxation was something that I really desperately needed.  So what was this peace and harmony stuff all about?  I needed to find out and this was the time.

When the thought came to me to raid her bookshelf I got pretty excited. Let’s admit it, there is something guilty and potentially titillating about going through your wife’s stuff, even if it is just her book collection. Celebrating the moment, I opened a cold Trummer Pils for additional mental clarity, grabbed a glass, went upstairs and started thumbing through the bookshelves on her side of the bedroom sitting cross-legged on the carpet and ready to receive some real knowledge.

Well, I wish there was something good to report back about, some hidden nest of European sex books in brown paper covers with lurid instructions or an annotated copy of the Kama Sutra or maybe just something plain funny.  No such luck.  Almost all of the books were boring, or worse, and not surprisingly directed towards women, their personal struggles and their issues (mainly with men which by default included me).  Lacking both the estrogen levels and the interest, I gratefully skipped over them quickly without much thought.  To me they were about as exciting as a bowl of warm sour milk on a hot humid day.

Finally on the bottom shelf I found a number of books that dealt with what seemed to be Eastern thought and I opened a few up, started skimming and then dumped them in a pile by my side of the bed.  And that was it, the journey East was on.

Throughout the rest of late summer and into early fall I gave this challenge my best. Most importantly, I made sure that the books were left out around the bedroom for her to see. I read about mindfulness and meditation daily and tried really really hard to make it work. I actually completed several chapters in several books*, some good, some not so.  I didn’t finish any of the books; barely got past the first few chapters in most.

**a recommend list of tolerable texts appears at the end of MHO

What got to me almost immediately was the tone. These authors and their work were ethereal, their advice seemed to float, to speak to people from a different world and not to me. Now this is understandable to a great extent because the people who wrote these books are ethereal. They are monks, Phd’s in philosophy, guys who had spent years in vows of silence sitting on wooden benches watching leaves fall and grass grow and loving it.  Of course they were spacey.  The problem with these texts and these messages is that I wasn’t.  I was stuck here on earth, unemployed and bored.

So I read on out of stubbornness but not joy. I would follow their instructions to the letter.  I found a comfortable place to sit upstairs looking out at the rooftops of our neighborhood and a cushion to sit on.  This was supposed to my “regular” spot and dutifully I went there day after day, morning after morning.

I sat on my comfy cushion.  I tucked it right up under my butt and I sat there.  And I followed those instructions. I tried hard to breathe in and to breathe out and to focus on my breath and to just be.  I tried to count to 25 breaths.  I didn’t make it past 10 most times.  I tried to keep my eyes closed.  They wouldn’t stay that way popping open despite my strongest efforts.  I tried to keep my legs crossed. I couldn’t because my back hurt and my ankles rebelled.

I mixed in a variety of Yoga classes looking for one that clicked.  I wondered if it was just my interest or whether Berkeley had been taken over by Yoga studios, all with slightly different ways of torturing your body and contorting your limbs.  There names were as confusing as the poses, Hatha, Ashtanga, I couldn’t really see the difference between them.  They hurt just the same.  I never went to two in a row.

But my problem was way beyond the physical issues of yoga.  The biggest single hurdle that I could not overcome was mental.  Simply put, I could not control my thoughts during my early attempts at meditation.  Some days I would feel like I was making progress for a moment or two.  Then I would blow up again.  My meditation practice had the consistency of the 49’ers offensive line play. I recall no Buddhist/Eastern feelings ‘of the moment’ during this period of any sort.  None.  Everything felt forced, artificial, discounted and disconnected.

As I look back on these first attempts to calm my mind several things are now clear.  One big one: Those of us with ‘active’ minds (what I will call ICD or intelligent concentration disorder) are not the best candidates for a meditation practice, especially so in the beginning.  Our minds cry out to be entertained, and when they aren’t, they are on to the next thing without hesitation.

It is only later in the mindfulness/meditation process that we learn that while we may not seem to be the best candidates for this stuff; for those of us who crave constant stimulation, meditation provides us with the chance to turn that switch off for the first time in our lives without chemical intervention.  And yes, for  you doubters out there who selfishly hang to those old habits, it is worth learning to control that particular switch in this way.  It helps us to manage our toxic quest for more more and then a little more with benefits instead of side effects.

For so many reasons that I have alluded to above and many more that became clear later on, the traditional approach to meditation did not work for me. I understand that only in hindsight.  That realization only came months later after the process finally began to work.  I want you to understand it now so that you don’t loose faith as we navigate the tepid ponds and falling oak leaves along the way.  There is a goal and it is and was worth the effort.

So here is what I believe was impeding my progress.   When I tried to meditate I worked hard to block out my daily mundane thoughts just like they wanted me to.  But no matter how hard or long I concentrated I could not empty my mind.  My mental cache was full and I guess that I liked it that way.  I was way too afraid or maybe just lacked the mental command to empty it.

Now I will admit without hesitation that when I began this study I wanted to be like all the other yogis and little Buddha’s that I read about. They looked so cool sitting cross-legged on mountain tops by roaring streams and many of them were actually ripped (this was something that really confused me). The women yoga instructors were lithe, make up free and beautiful, they spoke clearly and strongly.  The men could stand on their head in one quick motion and stay there.  They were odd but impressive nonetheless.

Deep down I yearned for my mind to be a pure wisp of nothing like theirs, conscious of the world without judging it. I strived to become aware, present, to be fully engaged in the moment; clean, clear and pure. I tried to be aware, to be present, to be mindful** of every moment. I wanted to sit and say to myself, “Look a leaf.  Wow what a blue blue sky.  Gee there is the sun”.  I wanted everything to be appreciated beautiful, meaningful.  And I did not see the world that way at all.  Still don’t.

Mindfulness is defined as a calm awareness of one’s body functions, feelings, content of consciousness, or consciousness itself.

This is not to say that those sorts of moments aren’t pretty, seriously, they are. But they were never enough for me.  I wanted to focus on something more meaningful, more central to my life.  I know now that I was searching for am inner peace that I could understand.

So there I was most mornings, trying desperately to think of nothing with my head full of everything.   This is not to say that the old-time sages didn’t recognize our mental tendency to wander.  They called this the monkey mind, hopping from subject to subject, from tree to tree.  The solution that they offered was more discipline, more breathing, more meditation, more of the same things that already were not working for me.  I kept beating my head against this soft wall of down pillows without results during those two months.

Trying to think about nothing did have two consistent effects on me.  More often than not I would give up. On some occasions I would actually become very still. Then I would fall quickly to sleep.  Neither result was very satisfying or calming although I am the first to admit the sleep felt good.

My frustrations boiled over about week 4 into this process.  I had been hitting the books hard all week and had finally learned to hold a lotus position for more than 2 minutes.  This was especially important for show and tell the night before.  Fingers touching in a nice round oval, I made sure that she found me in the upstairs bedroom that evening cross-legged and eyes closed and breathing slowly right after I turned off the Giants-Mets game as she pulled into the driveway.  Even she who is rarely conscious when she comes home from work caught this surprise act and I got rewarded later with more than a smile.

The next afternoon found me back in the lotus trying desperately to shut down my mind which was lost in a death spiral of dwindling income exacerbated by a new found well of major expense that had reared its head a week before.

The challenge that I was now facing was a leaking upstairs shower. Just like us, home maintenance can only be deferred so long before trouble sets in. I had known about this problem for years, tackling it with a dazzling array of caulk, sealants and other stalling efforts that brought me many years of extra use.  But these fixes were only good for so long and I knew that the shower base, something I later got to know was the “pan” had finally cracked, sending a slow but steady stream of water leaking down into the studs that support the second floor each time we showered and then soaking the ceiling of my son’s closet. The ceiling which was now brown, grey and black, cracking and turning really really ugly in colors that spelled out a simple three-letter word every homeowner dreads. Rot.  That horrifying combination of a dank sulfurous smell and a spreading stain that looked like a tie dye made by Nostradamus and gave way when I poked it with my finger made it clear to me that home remedies were now over.  This was clearly beyond the usual course of cortisone and antibiotics, surgery would be required.

This was not a good subject for meditation but one that kept seeping into my thoughts and wouldn’t go away.   How do you relax your mind when the shower has cracked and you can’t fix it and the only solution is to hire a contractor and your income stream has stopped?  That was a challenge.  A challenge that overwhelmed me that day.

So I gave up, stopped breathing in breathing out and got off of the cushion and just stared out the window for a while.  I thought to myself that this shit was going nowhere.  I was becoming an actor, using the appearance of meditating to make peace at home and not believing in a word of it.  I would tell her the truth, that the meditation wasn’t going well, that underneath that serene poses I was frustrated angry and bordering on depressed with a steel rod running from my gut to my brain that impaled me 24/7 and wouldn’t let me sleep through a single night in the past two weeks.  I was pissing away all the benefits of being out of work and couldn’t do a thing about it.

Yes, I would tell her tonight when she came home from work. Enough was enough.

Fabulous Frigiliana have the best hand selected villas and accommodation to offer around Frigiliana and Nerja.  Frigiliana is a beautiful white moorish village set just 10 minutes inland from Nerja on the coast, 45 minutes East of Malaga.  It is a fantastic base for activities, for some extreme mountainbiking to gentle hiking in the hills. 

We are linked to an Equestrian centre which offers all levels of riding tuition on beautiful Andalucian horses and also Horsemanship sessions.  For children, the yard has 4 hour saddle clubs which teach the basics of being around a horse and how to enjoy them safely.

Whether it is a quiet stay in one of our villas and some tips on the area or an extreme 60k mountain bike ride into the National parks, a weeks course of riding tuition to enhance your skills or a days hack on pure-bred Andalucians, a course of Reiki treatments to complement your stay or delicious cuisine to your Villa, you can be assured we have tried and tested it all and have found only the best of the area.

We look forward to meeting you here.

Rebecca & Ray

Contact us for inquiries and reservations via email e k a g r a t a s a l a @ g m a i l . c o m or mobile 0917-8436111

Here is a cool video of BKS Iyengar demonstrating ujjayi pranayama. Count the number of seconds for the inhalation and exhalation. Amazing!

Here is a link to an article I wrote earlier this year about my first Athletic Fitness competition. It was published on www.treningsforum.no

The article is written in norwegian, but in the future I will publish similar articles in english:

Here is a link to an article I wrote about yoga and weight training. It was published at www.treningsforum.no

The article is written in norwegian, but in the future I will publish similar articles in english:

http://www.treningsforum.no/php/art.php?id=995

Journey of Awakening – Ashtanga Yoga & Reiki Retreat – Marrakech

We have been really busy organising the first “Journey of Awakening Retreat” at Riad Zamzam. On the 29 January we will be holding an exciting four day Ashtanga Yoga and Reiki Retreat in Marrakech in the heart of the Medina, the ancient walled city.

The four days will be all inclusive, including Yoga with Aisha, Reiki with Reiki Master Rebecca Hutley from Spain, delicious and nutritional food to feed body and soul by Emma and her Zamzam chefs, a journey into the Atlas Mountains with lunch at the stunning Kasbah Toubkal and a visit to the Agafay Desert outside Marrakech to La Pause, an eco retreat where we will have a traditional Moroccan dinner under the stars! For more information on the programme and events, email Emma – zamzamriad@gmail.

Yoga Guru, Aisha Barzaghi will be leading two yoga sessions a day to work holistically with your awakening on this retreat. Aisha now living in Marrakech and building a dedicated yoga retreat has lived and trained for 7 years in New York City and 7 years in San Franciso, and has combined a variety of styles, from Ashtanga Yoga to Power Vinyasa Yoga and pranayama (breathing technique) and meditation, to a more slower inward Yin Yoga focusing on alignment and refinement of asanas. Her teaching style focuses on prana building, building heat in the body to cleanse, release, remove and heal various aspects of the physical, mental, emotional, spiritual bodies.

Her training and experience as a bodyworker brings an acute sense of the anatomical layout of the body to the application of asana practice.

Knowing that each individual is unique in their own right, as their bodies are, to the journey and practice of yoga, being aware in each class, each lesson, the unique individuals needs to that journey and nurturing that through humour, patience and loving kindness.

Aisha currently holds classes at Kasbah Tamadot (Richard Branson’s Kasbah), she is excited to be joining this holistic retreat at Riad Zamzam.

The second major component to the “Journey of Awakening Retreat” is Rebecca Hutley who will be coming from Spain to mentor and unveil reiki on the retreat and use her healing hands. Rebecca has been a Reiki Master of Usui and Tibetan Reiki for over 10 years. Her life in that time has taken her around the world teaching, training and practicing. She has worked with MTV, taking a team of Reiki practitioners on European tour and has taken Reiki into the corporate arena. She says, ‘Reiki is a gift to the modern world reminding us that we can heal ourselves. It is a form which takes us beyond our current perceptions of the body and how it works and explains the indivisible links between the mind, emotions, body and Soul. Reiki is a practice which enables people to relax and explore aspects of themselves often hidden by their busy lives. It becomes a way of being by re-connecting us to our true self’.

All of this and more will create a powerful and exciting four days journey in and around Marrakech. The all inclusive activities will be optional and we have created free time and guides for you to discover the magic of the Medina itself. Riad Zamzam will host The Journey of Awakening Retreat so you will get the best of both worlds – full concierge service, luxurious beds to jump into at night, heated pool and spa facilities.  Emma is including a free massage and the hammam (with black olive soap, mineral mud body pack) at the retreat.

If you are interested in finding out more about The Journey of Awakening Retreat – Please email Emma at Riad Zamzam zamzamriad@gmail.com  or Rebecca reiki@rebeccahutley.com

Come and discover what it’s all about! 

There are a maximum of 16 places which are filling up fast, please book early to avoid disappointment.

“Do your practice and all is coming.”
~Pattabhi Jois, originator of Ashtanga Yoga~

I know little yoga, but I try to incorporate its principles and practice into my daily life. It affects me deeply and has offered to me a lens with which to understand the workings of life, just as Jiu Jitsu has. The following is my account of my introduction to yoga through Jiu Jitsu and the benefits of the practice I have become aware of:

In the late 90’s I attended a week-long camp in the Poconos on Gracie Jiu Jitsu. To say the experience was life-altering is a gross understatement and completely insufficient, but there are no words to describe with authentic emotion the profound impact it had on my existence. To describe the environment, I, along with my closest Jiu Jitsu family members, would wake up around 7am each day, have a clean and natural breakfast, go train in a large hangar-like enclosure for a few hours, break for lunch and recreation for two hours at midday, return for three more hours of training, and then nap briefly before dinner and gathering for discussion of Gracie Jiu Jitsu at evening. This is awesome enough, but I must tell you with whom I trained this week. The instruction for this week came from Helio Gracie, Rorian Gracie and Royce Gracie. Ryron and Rener were there but I believe they were around 12 and 13 years old, so they didn’t contribute much that week.

In addition, some other little-known people were present, such as Steve Maxwell and Phil Migliarese. It was Phil Migliarese that stood out to us among many others. Only a purple belt at the time (now one of the highest ranking American black belts in Gracie Jiu Jitsu), Phil’s expression of Jiu Jitsu seemed to embody exactly what the Gracie’s were trying to get through to us. In a word, he was equanimity. He was calm, fluid, patient, and relaxed. At a camp full of tense and muscle-bound martial arts practitioners from all disciplines, this relaxation stood in sharp contrast to many present. His Jiu Jitsu was effortless and beautiful and dangerous.

My best friend, Jared Jessup, rolled with Phil and was visibly shaken afterward. He had trouble describing the experience. We inquired as to “how he got so good,” and Phil, of course, accredited the superior instruction of the Gracies, but his first word was “yoga.” Yoga? Ashtanga Yoga to be more precise. Phil had studied yoga for longer than Jiu Jitsu, and he credited his relaxation and fluidity to his yoga practice. On a week in which we were having relaxation shoved down our throats in the form of flowing as slowly and effortlessly as we could, with no submissions, for hours at a time, and often in complete sensory deprivation, meeting him set us on a path of exploration into yoga.

Once at home, we procured some Bryan Kest instructional yoga tapes (yes, VHS), and incorporated our interpretation of Surya Namaskara into our warmup before our Jiu Jitsu practice. We went through peaks and valleys of the amount of yoga we incorporated into our practice. Some vacillating more than others, and all taking a very organic approach to it. It would be years before we saw the true benefits. But they would arrive. Oh, did they arrive.

This is yoga for me today: Centeredness rather than balance, but balance as well; Pliability rather than flexibility, but flexibility also; Power rather than strength, but strength too; and Equanimity rather than calmness. Calmness is simple.

~ Centeredness is balance internally and externally. Externally, an overall understanding of positioning and how each part of the body
is affected, contributes to centeredness. Internally, getting your physiological inner-workings to cooperate in order to allow your
body to perform your practice is what I mean by centeredness.

~ Pliability is maybe an arbitrary alternative word to illustrate something beyond flexibility, but I want to emphasize something far
beyond the physical application of flexibility. Being pliable insinuates yielding to external forces seeking to damage or influence you
in some uncontrollable way. Yielding to these forces, rather than resisting them is the way to overcome them. Resisting things
bigger and intangible is a certain way to create stress and damage. Allowing them to come, recognizing them for what they are,
and letting them run their course without feeding them benefits you much more. Holding a pose, melting into it, feeling the
vibration and hearing what your body is telling you; this is the path to pliability. Pliability is opening lines of communication
between your body and mind and breath.

~ Power is strength in its purest and most pervasive form. Power is not aggressive or tense; it is intelligent and active. The adage
states that “knowledge is power,” but in yoga, it seems that the corollary is true. Reverse the antimetabole and read it as “power
is knowledge” and you will get closer to the heart of power in yoga. Power comes in yoga in the form of energy properly placed in
the correct areas of the body, evenly distributed, and igniting the body from the foundation up. It comes from alignment,
structure, breathing, and clarity. It is a product of the yoking process.

~ One of my favorite words, equanimity, is perhaps the most immediately helpful benefits of yoga for the Jiu Jitsu practitioner. It is
balance + calmness. As I said before, calmness is simple. Put anyone in a calm situation, take away their problems, lay them down
on a soft surface, give them drugs, and anyone can be calm. A good measure of true calmness, though, is how much balance it
yields. This is something only the individual will be able to discern, and the ability to discern it comes from listening to oneself.
Equanimity is achieved not through the elimination of external stressors and tense situations, but amidst them. In yoga, the next
movement may be uncomfortable or the next inhalation may be difficult, but it is necessary nonetheless. Likewise, in Jiu Jitsu, the
next escape from the difficult position may be seemingly impossible, but it is necessary in order to survive and ultimately prevail.
Equanimity is achieved when the external forces acting upon you fail to thwart your advancement, and cease to deter your
practice. Things are just things. This bad thing happening to me is bad because I have labeled it so. Time spent in self-pity is
always wasted and never helpful. The truest calmness is not in running from the storm, but rather in the eye of it.

This is only what yoga means to me, and how it has benefited me in my life and enhanced my Jiu Jitsu. I am learning. I only wanted to share this with others, to share the beauty of it, in hopes that something I have said may reach someone and possibly help them with their journey, wherever they are headed. The God in me greets the God in you.

Namaste.

Journey of Awakening – Ashtanga Yoga & Reiki Retreat – Marrakech

We have been really busy organising the first “Journey of Awakening Retreat” at Riad Zamzam. On the 29 January we will be holding an exciting four day Ashtanga Yoga and Reiki Retreat in Marrakech in the heart of the Medina, the ancient walled city.

The four days will be all inclusive, including Yoga with Aisha, Reiki with Reiki Master Rebecca Hutley from Spain, delicious and nutritional food to feed body and soul by Emma and her Zamzam chefs, a journey into the Atlas Mountains with lunch at the stunning Kasbah Toubkal and a visit to the Agafay Desert outside Marrakech to La Pause, an eco retreat where we will have a traditional Moroccan dinner under the stars! For more information on the programme and events, email Emma – zamzamriad@gmail.

Yoga Guru, Aisha Barzaghi will be leading two yoga sessions a day to work holistically with your awakening on this retreat. Aisha now living in Marrakech and building a dedicated yoga retreat has lived and trained for 7 years in New York City and 7 years in San Franciso, and has combined a variety of styles, from Ashtanga Yoga to Power Vinyasa Yoga and pranayama (breathing technique) and meditation, to a more slower inward Yin Yoga focusing on alignment and refinement of asanas. Her teaching style focuses on prana building, building heat in the body to cleanse, release, remove and heal various aspects of the physical, mental, emotional, spiritual bodies.

Her training and experience as a bodyworker brings an acute sense of the anatomical layout of the body to the application of asana practice.

Knowing that each individual is unique in their own right, as their bodies are, to the journey and practice of yoga, being aware in each class, each lesson, the unique individuals needs to that journey and nurturing that through humour, patience and loving kindness.

Aisha currently holds classes at Kasbah Tamadot (Richard Branson’s Kasbah), she is excited to be joining this holistic retreat at Riad Zamzam.

The second major component to the “Journey of Awakening Retreat” is Rebecca Hutley who will be coming from Spain to mentor and unveil reiki on the retreat and use her healing hands. Rebecca has been a Reiki Master of Usui and Tibetan Reiki for over 10 years. Her life in that time has taken her around the world teaching, training and practicing. She has worked with MTV, taking a team of Reiki practitioners on European tour and has taken Reiki into the corporate arena. She says, ‘Reiki is a gift to the modern world reminding us that we can heal ourselves. It is a form which takes us beyond our current perceptions of the body and how it works and explains the indivisible links between the mind, emotions, body and Soul. Reiki is a practice which enables people to relax and explore aspects of themselves often hidden by their busy lives. It becomes a way of being by re-connecting us to our true self’.

All of this and more will create a powerful and exciting four days journey in and around Marrakech. The all inclusive activities will be optional and we have created free time and guides for you to discover the magic of the Medina itself. Riad Zamzam will host The Journey of Awakening Retreat so you will get the best of both worlds – full concierge service, luxurious beds to jump into at night, heated pool and spa facilities.  Emma is including a free massage and the hammam (with black olive soap, mineral mud body pack) at the retreat.

If you are interested in finding out more about The Journey of Awakening Retreat – Please email Emma at Riad Zamzam zamzamriad@gmail.com  or Rebecca reiki@rebeccahutley.com

Come and discover what it’s all about! 

There are a maximum of 16 places which are filling up fast, please book early to avoid disappointment.

Here is the trailer on youtube for Basia´s Ashtanga DVD. Basia is in front right and yours truly front left.

More lawsuits! Improper adjustments! This time not as naughty as you’re thinking. Can we just be happy for a moment this is not about sexual assault? OK.. moving on.

It’s suddenly a rocky road for Boulder, CO studio Yoga Workshop, Richard Freeman’s joint (he and his wife relinquished ownership and management earlier this year update: they took back ownership 9/09). News hit late yesterday that the studio is being sued by a former student due to instructor Luke Iwabuchi’s “unsolicited physical manipulation” resulting in injuries causing “permanent disability.” yowch! Basically an unwanted adjustment gone terribly wrong, says the CA man, Robert Heit, who’s filing the suit. OK here go…we don’t know the Yoga Workshop, we’ve never experienced an Iwabuchi class, but we’ve certainly experienced plenty of adjustments in our time as yoga students, some not always what we thought as the safest maneuvering for the human body. Seriously ouch! There have also been several occasions where we wish the instructor would pleease come over and give us that extra nudge, but what are we supposed to do? snap our fingers? shout at the teach? *sigh* We digress…

So let’s break this down…

Date of Incident: approx. 4:30 p.m. Dec. 6, 2008.

The Accuser: Robert Heit, former Boulder resident now residing in Santa Rosa, CA. Other info we don’t know? Age, physical condition prior to the incident, yoga experience, etc.

The Accused: Yoga Workshop, by way of Luke Iwabuchi, a well-respected yoga instructor, at the presently well-respected Richard Freeman-blessed studio in Boulder, CO.

The Claim: “unsolicited physical manipulation” resulting in a torn medial meniscus (that precious soft band under the kneecap – the victim of outrageously frequent sports injuries) that required surgery.

READ MORE

Man sues teacher at Yoga Studio for “unwanted adjustment.”

by elephantjournal.com on Nov 3, 2009

Will the venerable Yoga Workshop be forced to cease adjustments? Will your favorite studio?

This blog is based on the report of The Daily Camera, Boulder’s paper of record. Link to article and excerpt below. It is intended solely to be a support for our yoga community friends.

Not if the great yoga teacher in question has a lawyer worth anything, and community support. This lawsuit is ridiculous—and, if successful, would represent a stultifying, dangerous precedent for yoga studios throughout the US.

We could write a lengthy explanation about how adjustments are key to yoga practice, that’s why you have a teacher, and how if you don’t get them serious injuries will result much more often, and about how we’ve known Luke since the mid-90s and know he knows his stuff, he’s gentle, and about how Luke probably doesn’t have any money, so this is just ridiculous, and about how this is the seventh sign of hell…a man is suing a yoga studio for an injury that, he claims, is the result of an unwanted adjustment.

But, that’d all be reallllly obvious. Really. It’s like suing a swimming pool for getting water in your mouth, or a park for offering you a mountain bike trail that you fell on, or suing the sky for snowing on a tree that then fell on your car.

So, we’ll just offer this one, simple, direct assessment: “Ridiculous.” This is serious stuff. This could put one of America’s truly great, original yoga studios out of business. This could ruin a great young teacher’s life, and career. Adjustments are part of what yoga class is about. You want them. Injuries happen. Adjustments are suggestions, at most. Optional. As I’ve been told a thousand times—in the Yoga Workshop, where I practice—yoga is not about pain. If you feel pain, stop.

READ MORE

Man sues Boulder yoga studio over unwanted adjustment

I was looking on youtube for SKPJ doing the opening chant.  I have a few recorded on my ipod, but wanted a new one.  But in my search, I came across this set of 9 videos of him leading a led class in France, so I used part of it tonight for my practice.  It was very cool.

He did 3 Sury A and 4 Sury B, so I paused it and added my own to complete 5 of each.  But from there, the whole standing sequence goes smoothly on the video.  It’s a bit awkward because youtube only allows uploads of 10 minutes, so you have to load up the next video.  I stopped after the standing because I noticed that the start of the seated was a bit choppy, and so I did the seated on my own up to UD.  After UD, I went to the 8th section and did the entire closing sequence.  It was great to hear everybody breathing and him counting and joking with students.  I cracked up when he was in his count for headstand, got to 17 and then continued on to 14.  I had heard about his long counts and how he’d linger and delay the end.  For somebody like me who never met him, this is/was a very cool experience.  And for those of you who knew him, it might be a nice trip down memory lane with such a great man.

The Basia Lipska Ashtanga Yoga DVD is now available. Currently it is being sold online and in stores in Poland, and we are looking for distributors in Norway and internationally. I will have some copies for sale at the Alternative Fair/Alternativmessen.

The DVD features Basia, myself and 13 of Basia´s dedicated students doing the primary series of Ashtanga Yoga. It has been recorded from several angles and switches between showing all the students practicing together and only Basia and me practicing. In addition to the counted primary with commentaries on the practice and each asana there are also segments on Mysore style practice, breathing, philosophy, interviews with the practitioners and footage of Basia practicing “free style”.

You can get more information about the DVD, photos from the DVD shoot and a short preview of the movie at Basia´s web site.

At the Alternative Fair (Alternativmessen) on November 6.-8. I will be selling two posters. One of me doing a combo of the yoga position parsvakonasana and the back double biceps bodybuilding pose, and the other one featuring my fiance Basia Lipska in shoulder stand and myself doing the “abs and thighs” pose.

The photos were taken by professional photographer and fellow Ashtanga Yogi Nicki Twang in his studio four days prior to my Athletic Fitness competition. Nicki is a great photographer. Thank you Nicki!

The posters are size 50 x 70 cm and will be priced at 200 NOK.

Here are some low resolution versions of the posters:

David Williams was one of the first westerners to study Ashtanga Yoga. He started studying with K. Pattabhi Jois in 1973 in Mysore, India.

David Williams

David has spoken many words of wisdom about yoga:

“The ultimate goal of Yoga is not to increase flexibility and strength. Increased flexibility and strength are simply the natural results and benefits of daily practice. While additional flexibility and strength are important and apparent benefits of Yoga, I believe the goals of Yoga practice are self-realization and keeping oneself balanced and healthy on a daily basis.”

“… the greatest Yogi is the one who enjoys his or her Yoga practice the most, not the one who can achieve the ultimate pretzel position.”

“Through slow, steady daily practice, one can achieve greater flexibility by generating one’s own internal heat to relax into positions, rather than being forced into a position. I have observed this slower, steadier method is not only healthier, but it allows one to develop greater flexibility of a more lasting nature, than the kind that is forced.”

I ordered Kino’s second series video and figured I’d order her primary as well.  I have 4 or 5 led primary classes (Swenson, Miele, Scott, Sharath, and one more I can’t think of) and I don’t use them any more for actual practice, but more for referral.  I’ve been working on elongating my breathe and building strength and their count is quick.  But I wanted to check out her primary, so I put it into my checkout cart

I liked Kino’s video “A journey, a workshop” a lot but I’m really let down with her primary series video.  It does have a good 20 minute section for some advice in certain poses which was nice and helpful.  But the actual practice is so fast it is almost like an aerobics class.  It is so fast to the point that you don’t even feel yourself warmed up after the Suryas (and only 3 Surya B).  In UHP, I had just gotten my leg out to the right side and it was time to come back to center.  There are points where she is talking with advice through the counts (and it is edited in voice and kinda choppy in some parts) and then other counts where it is silent and she says nothing.  Other counts approach a reasonable length and others are extremely short.  I finished the standing series, unwarmed up, not sweating and annoyed.

I don’t see how a first-timer to Ashtanaga yoga could do that DVD and get better.  Your muscles don’t have time to open and just as you start connecting your breath to the asana, she’s got you on the move.

I put it in yesterday because I was low on energy and feeling a bit unmotivated, so I figured I’d use an instructor rather than my brain to help motivate me, but it backfired.  Is it just me, or is this DVD a big let down  for 25 dollars and 10 extra for shipping?

Our yoga program has been carefully developed over decades by Dana Sara to offer the perfect yoga practice for every individual.   Our intention is to offer expert instruction for the beginner to the seasoned practitioner.  We aim to advance each student safely, assist in cultivating  home practice, enrich other classes attended and improve overall quality of life and performance in life and athletics.

Each class provides a full body, mind, spirit workout for your level and style.  Academy Yoga Improv classes are in the moment, tailored to those present and incorporate practices from the many systems of hatha yoga, ashtanga, tibetan and kundalini yoga.   The Yoga Improv classes are offered for 60, 90 and 120 minute Warrior Yoga  sessions.   Gentle classes are suitable for those wishing to to stretch, breathe and reprieve and finish with rewarding restorative poses.

We also offer traditional classes in ashtanga as taught by S.K. Pattabhi Jois, and Kundalini as taught by Yogi Bhajan both of whom Ms. Sara trained under.

Classes are always fun, challenging, rewarding and enlightening.

In the few months we have been open we have had a great time and students are progressing  beautifully.

>> View More of Our Yoga Class Pictures ~ Click Here

If you are considering joining a yoga training class in the bay area, here are some useful links.

1. Bikram Yoga Centers – Bikram yoga is a popular form of yoga in the bay area that involves yoga stretches in a heated room. The heat allows easier blood circulation, which in turn helps stretching without injury. Bikram Yoga centers are plenty across the bay area and you should be able to find one at a place near you

2. Ashtanga Yoga - Ashtanga means “eight” in Sansrkit – an ancient Indian language. As the name suggests, this form of yoga targets eight parts of the body, with emphasis on the limbs.

3. Power Yoga – Power yoga is a general term used in the West to describe a vigorous, fitness-based approach to vinyasa-style yoga

4. Iyengar Yoga – Iyengar’s method, a form of hatha yoga, is based on giving primacy to the physical alignment of the body in the poses. In the Iyengar school, it is taught that there is a correct way to do each pose, and that every student will one day be able to attain perfect poses through consistent practice.

5. Laughter Yoga – Laughter Yoga is one of the latest yoga-inspired trends, as evidenced by recent features on the Oprah Winfrey Show and CNN. But although it originated in India and definitely includes laughing, don’t expect much yoga if you attend a Laughter Yoga class.

6. Integral Yoga – Integral yoga follows the teachings of Sri Swami Sachidananda, who came to the United States from India in the 1960s and eventually founded many Integral Yoga Institutes. Integral is a gentle, hatha practice, and classes often also include breathing exercises, chanting, kriyas, and meditation.

Yoga, in my opinion, must be the ultimate in mind/body/soul alignment. After doing a fair amount of it over many years, including Hatha (“The Yoga of Postures”), Kundalini (mainly chanting/’Mantra’ and breathing/’Pranayama’) and Bikram (“The 26 Pose Yoga in Heat”), I’ve recently found my favourite: Power Yoga.

According to the stunning website, www.abc-of-yoga.com, this is the “Western version of the Indian Ashtanga Yoga which emphasizes developing one’s physical flexibility and nurtures the desire for self-discipline…emulating a rigorous full-body workout and promoting mental stability and concentration”. Browse the site for much more insight into the practise of yoga in all its forms.

Undeniably, each type has its own appeal. I find Hatha relaxing, Kundalini invigorating, Bikram intense, but for me Power is the perfect package. It provides a satisfying sweat, excellent strength and stretch exercise, together with sufficient breath focus and meditation.

Perhaps it’s also that I have such a dynamic teacher in Claire Lane of Bikram Yoga on Republic, herself a graduate student of Bryan Kest (www.poweryoga.com) in Santa Monica, CA. How awesome to benefit from his fabulous influence here in Johannesburg!

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