Lifestyle

 by Vicky Arundel

What does yoga mean to you?

This thought-provoking question was offered at the beginning of a yoga therapy training that I have undertaken recently as a student. It’s wonderful as a teacher to be put back in the position of a student again. I have always loved learning and credit this insatiable curiosity for knowledge as the key to fueling my passion and sustenance as a teacher.

 

Here are some of the thoughts I jotted down in response to the above question and I sincerely encourage you to do the same. Get out a piece of paper and explore what this practice means to you, dear reader. Give it some thought and time to percolate; you might be surprised by what comes up for you.

 

What Yoga Means to Me:

Developing Relationship to Self

  • Over 25 years of practice with varying levels of commitment (at least in the early years) there has always been something about yoga that pulls me back in. A thread or through-line that remains; a desire to connect with myself. To build relationship with myself, to develop self-awareness, to be kinder, to touch something closer to essence or spirit.
  • I think yoga can mean many things and the practice perhaps serves different purposes for different people at different times. Like any long-term practice, it has seasons. Creativity, motivation and inspiration wax and wane like the moon, and the content and style of the practice has changed much over the years for me.

 

Emotional Sanctuary and Resilience

  • At its most practical level yoga has been a means of maintaining and managing my physical and mental health – whether that’s mobility, nervous system regulation, stress resilience, strength and body awareness.
  • Yoga has been a means to calm the beast of anxiety, explore the dark ache of depression and sit with the numbness of sadness and loss. At times like these I appreciate its intense practicality, the tools that take me out of the overwhelm and stagnancy of an unhappy mind and into the safer and easier to navigate (for me) realm of sensations, postures, breathing exercises.
  • These practices act like mini life-rafts that I can find sanctuary and solace from when everything feels uncertain, unknown and uncomfortable.
  • Through these practices I give myself back agency and choice – I can not know what life has around the corner and I recognise my limited capacity in the wheel of fate, but on my mat I am empowered by my ability to choose and that is huge.

 

Physical Embodiment and Acceptance

  • My physicality has always been very important to me – my body, my connection to it, my sense of it, has played a huge role in my life. Yoga has been a means through which I can really harness and develop that connection – through embodiment I feel it enriches my life, my ability to touch and express joy, to savour, to find pleasure and sensuality, as well as to process pain, to be with the visceral experience of emotions without trying to suppress them or push them away.
  • This practice has given me a safe sanctuary to explore all this – from the most mundane pursuits such as keeping mobile hips, to a soft quiet space that I can retreat to when times are dark and tough and the only place to go is inward.
  • I hope to offer this practice as a sanctuary to my students too – my heartfelt desire is that they gain from it whatever it is they need, without judgement or my own personal bias and predilections. The pursuit of physical fitness is as worthy a pursuit in my eyes, as the desire to connect to a deeper level of conscious awareness. In fact, I truly believe one can seek both, they are not mutually exclusive.  

 

Returning to Presence (again and again)

  • I would also humbly suggest that the word yoga is something more akin to a verb than a noun – that it is describing a quality of being, a state of attention or absorption perhaps in line with the flow state.  A quality of attention that could be brought to any action.
  • I struggle deeply with this and feel that as such, I am still very much in the infancy of this practice. I find it hard sometimes to transmit what I practice and explore on my mat into daily living. My brain is always at least 2 feet in front, always ahead scanning the horizon and predicting/planning/overthinking. Fear causes me to constantly project and anticipate about what is to come and often the only thing that roots me in the here and now is a physical, timeless experience such as yoga.  

 

A Reminder – Everything is Connected, We are all One

  • My struggle to stay present is also matched by my frequent forgetting of the connection of all things. Something that yoga philosophy reminds us of frequently. I see and understand this connection in rudimentary and unsophisticated ways such as the connection between my calves and my lower back, or the butterfly effect of my actions rippling out and affecting others.
  • I also find awe in the notion that we are all made of stardust. But I still find myself frequently forgetting this fact in life – I feel my separateness, my loneliness, my longing for meaningful connection that at times feels so absent. My practice at times has made me feel even more insular and even more introverted, and yet as I get older I recognise that ultimately meaning is found in life through relationship with others, through sharing, through connection. Finding the balance between my desire for introversion and retreat must be balanced with the very real need for sangha and community. Perhaps this is the next stage of my yoga journey.

in Lifestyle 0 comments
 by Vicky Arundel

A Morning Mobility Yoga Sequence

A few of my clients have been recently asking for a morning mobility yoga sequence that they can do on a regular basis.

Personally, I try to make some time in the early morning to do some sort of mobility/yoga practice. Sometimes this will mean 10-15 minutes, sometimes a little longer. Either way my days seem to go a little more gracefully and fluidly when I have spent some time connecting to, and taking care of my body, before the demands of the day set in.

I have created a sequence that includes some of my favourite ways to move my body in the morning. Many of these are simple, functional type movements that take care of major places where tension gets stored, namely the shoulders, spine, hips, legs and feet.

This whole morning mobility yoga sequence will take about 20-30 minutes depending on how many repetitions you make of each movement and how long you dwell within each pose. If you have less time feel free to skip some of the movements out, instead choosing the poses that feel most useful or relevant for your body on that particular day.

Here are a few guidelines for getting the most out of your practice:

  • Be kind and respectful of your body

As we get more tuned into our unique body experience, we start to see how the body is constantly evolving and changing. Your mobility, energy-levels, balance, co-ordination and strength will vary day-to-day based on a whole number of factors, including what kind of acitvities you did the day before, how well hydrated your tissues are, the quality of your sleep and even what kind of mood you’re in. Be kind and respectful of where you’re starting your practice from.

It’s also worth noting that your body is probably at it stiffest and most inflexible in the morning – therefore be patient, manage your expectations and recognise that this is the not the time to create new personal bests in terms of flexibility!

  • Bring a spirit of playfulness and curiosity to the practice

I prefer a more fluid and dynamic practice in the morning – I will rarely hold stretches statically but instead use this time to explore the full range of motion in my joints, moving gently in and out of stretches.

The spirit of this practice is exploratory and I invite you to bring a sense of playfulness and curiosity to the movements. Don’t be fixed or rigid but allow yourself to take the visual template of each movement or pose and then feel free to explore in and around that position, finding angles and ranges of motion that feel useful, interesting and opening for your body.

It’s fine to explore non-traditional alignments – the body is capable of moving in a variety of unique and interesting ways, so don’t limit yourself and enjoy yourself!

  • Work with an awareness of your breathing

In yoga, we typically emphasise moving in co-ordination with the breath and this can be a powerful way to quieten the mind, calm the nervous system and reduce the tendency to hold the breath, particularly during difficult or awkward-feeling movements.

However, I am aware that syncing movement to breath can be confusing for beginning students, so my main advise is to just stay tuned in to your breathing and aim for a fluid, regular, gentle, three-dimensional breath. Watch for any restrictions, tension or holding around your breathing. This is why I recommend starting with a minute of deep diaphragmatic breathing. Place your hands on your lower ribs and work to gently expand and soften the bottom of the ribcage front-to-back and side-to-side as you breathe.

You might find it useful to use the inhale breath during parts of the movement that accentuate lifting or lengthening of the spine. The exhalation is useful for movements where we are folding forwards, twisting or using some amount of muscular effort.

Happy practising! 🙂

Credit: Thanks to Tummee.com for their amazing yoga sequence builder
in Flexibility / Lifestyle / Yoga Sequence 0 comments
 by Vicky Arundel

My Top 5 Summer Yoga-Related Reads

Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

This is a must-read for anyone who is interested in improving the quality of their life. It is essentially a book about how to create more meaningful experiences by accessing a state of ‘flow’, or complete absorption, with what one is doing in any given moment.

Csikszentmihalyi’s research suggests that our happiest moments in life are those in which we are completely present and immersed in what we are doing. Moments where the demands of the task in front of us are perfectly matched to our capabilities, and all sense of time and self-consciousness recede into the background.

I love this book, because I feel it beautifully encapsulates the experience we try to create when we step onto the yoga mat – the breath, sensations and movements of the body all working to bring us into the immediacy of the moment. Although not a yoga book per se, it is a lovely reminder of how we might bring the yogic qualities of mindfulness, attention and intention into the greater context of our lives.

The Stress Solution by Dr Rangan Chatterjee.

We know that stress is one of the biggest issues when it comes to undermining our physical and mental health. It is an oft-reported fact that up to 80% of doctor’s visits are related to the negative physiological and psychological effects of stress.

Dr Chatterjee has written a wonderfully practical book, packed full of tips about how to reduce your own stress levels. What I find particularly inspiring and encouraging  is his emphasis on the often overlooked but incredibly important emotional side to stress management. How we manage our stress can depend a lot on how strong our levels of social support are, or whether we have a strong sense of meaning and purpose in our lives. These two factors alone can help us us to re-frame potentially stressful events, putting them into better perspective thereby reducing their insidious negative impact.

Ancient Wisdom for Modern Health by Mark Bunn

This is such a lovely, practical, common-sense guide to optimal health and wellbeing. The fact it’s written by an Australian ex-AFL player somehow makes it even more appealing!

Working in the health and wellness sector, I know how easy it is to become overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information about health. Amidst the noise, I think we often forget that many of the keys to good health are both simple, common-sense and timeless.  He offers simple guidance around the importance of eating real food, getting enough sunlight and fresh air, prioritising rest and finding ways of moving that you enjoy.

Every time I read this I feel like a huge burden is lifted. We already intuitively know the answers to what makes us feel like we’re functioning at our best. We just need to get quiet enough to listen, trust, and ultimately reconnect with what we already know.

Bringing Yoga to Life by Donna Farhi

Probably one of my favourite yoga books judging by the amount of underlining and annotations throughout it!

Donna Farhi’s considerable experience and passion shines through every page. This is a yoga book about bringing the wisdom and learnings gained from our yoga practice off the mat and into our lives.

Farhi explores the yamas and niyamas – philosophical tenets that are designed to act as a framework for good living. She also discusses the inevitable ups and downs of any long-term spiritual endeavour like yoga. It’s a beautifully written, honest book that you’ll definitely want to read a few times through.

The Slow Down Diet by Mac David

This is a love letter for anyone who has ever struggled with their weight, food-related issues and/or just sheer confusion about what it means to eat for health and happiness.

This and Marc David’s other great book Nourishing Wisdom is about the yoga of eating well – putting pleasure and mindfulness at the heart of decisions we make about what, how and when to eat. It’s a beautiful, gentle exploration into how we can be kinder and more intuitive towards ourselves in relationship to food.

What I particularly like is the avoidance of any dietary dogma and instead lots of suggestions for developing greater self-confidence in trusting your body and finding out what works for you.

in Lifestyle 0 comments