Peter's June Yoga Blog

Zen Dog

A few weeks ago I was browsing supermarket shelves looking for a birthday card. OK lets be truthful, as usual my wife Meg was doing the serious shopping and I was, as usual, searching for quirky cards that took my fancy…. and I found a delightful card by Edward Monkton entitled "Zen Dog", with the cartoon image of a really cool-dude dog, in shades, lying back in a little boat, in the sun, just drifting along on the tide. The caption beneath read:

"He knows not where he's going, for the ocean will decide, it's not the destination……it's the glory of the ride."  (If you want a look at the image, you can find it on www.edwardmonkton.com)

It's an image and a caption that immediately struck a chord with me. The more I've become involved in teaching Yoga and also the older I get, the more I'm drawn to the idea of focussing on making the most of life's journey and not being continually preoccupied with the eventual destination. Zen Dog has become a hero figure for me.

We spend much time looking forward - maybe with anticipation but too often worrying about what might be around the corner. We spend so much time planning for the future, that we miss so many opportunities to enjoy the here and now. We take part in Yoga classes because we are looking to be slimmer, fitter, more relaxed in the future - and too often we don't focus on just enjoying what we are doing. We spend so little time in the here and now - and it is in the here and now that we live our lives, not in the past, not in the future.

And then, there is only so much that we can control in our lives - we plan for the future, but so often things just don't follow our script. There are so often things totally beyond our control that upset our best laid plans. Yes we do need to plan ahead and look to the future - but we need to make sure that we get the balance right between doing things that will meet our long-term goals and doing things that give pleasure in the here and now.

So, in our Yoga practice let's focus a little more on the here and now, making the most of every moment, enjoying the Yoga for the sake of enjoying the Yoga, not because it will move us towards some long term goal.  Let's work on savouring each unique moment in time with all of our senses - focus on enjoying life a little more, moment by moment. Just occasionally, follow Zen Dog's example, lie back in the sun, let the boat drift and enjoy the glory of the ride.

 

Thoughts for July - Limiting Beliefs

 

As a Yoga teacher, people regularly tell me that they can't do this or that because they aren't supple, because they are overweight, because they are poorly co-ordinated or because they just don't have the time to practice regularly. Often they seem content to accept these constraints without challenge. Yes, there are some things about ourselves that we can't change and we need a degree of realism about those, but in my experience we impose far tighter constraints on our ambition than are real.

  

We constrain ourselves by our own beliefs about what we are or are not capable of being or doing. Too often we have a narrow concept of who we are, who we can be, or what we can do - and we limit ourselves within that construct. The construct is based on our past, our upbringing and our experience of life to date. It's a set of beliefs that we have created - and that we can change.

 

So let's try to use our Yoga as a metaphor for life. Take a Yoga posture or exercise where you've convinced yourself that you've gone as far as you can go - and then gradually, gently, over time, just go that little bit further - go beyond your limiting beliefs to a new place. Then apply that approach in life.

• Develop stretch targets - both physical and mental - try to separate the physical constraints from the constraints in your head
• Use visualisation to picture yourself doing those things you've not done before
• Go beyond your limiting beliefs to new places that you've not been to before - create a new set of beliefs which empower you to do more, to do new things 

Try it in your Yoga practice - then try it in life. Move beyond your self-imposed limiting beliefs.

 

Thoughts for October - Slow Down

One of my favourite books of the last decade is Carl Honores' "In Praise of Slowness", in which he challenges the cult of speed, of doing ever more and doing it ever more quickly and explores the merits of slowing things down and focussing on the quality of our lives.

 

The idea behind the slow movement took root around 20 years ago and initially focussed on slow- food, getting back to traditional, quality food, using local produce, eaten in a leisurely way, where good food, a meal with family and friends was a central plank of life. This was at a time when fast-food, big multi-national chains and the gulped down, hurried meal were becoming prevalent.

 

Since that time, the idea of a slower approach to life has gradually developed as an antidote to rushing ever faster and trying to do even more. Slower is about doing fewer things, the most important things, but doing them well.

 

Adopting the slow approach isn't alien to being successful in work or at home. In a work situation, the slow approach is about knowing what is important and doing that well, rather than running around like a headless chicken trying to do everything. It's about prioritising. It's about managing time. We are of no use to ourselves or anyone else if we are burned out and tired. It's about us deciding on the pace at which we function best and being better at prioritisation in order to enable us to work slower and smarter. Saying no is an important skill in the slow approach to life.

 

In family life it's about working on having more time with family and friends, again, maybe doing less, but doing things better. It's about more conversations and less TV. It's about communicating face-to-face more and using the smartphone a little less.

 

I appreciate all this is easier said than done. Carl Honore admits in his book to getting a speeding ticket whilst on his way to interview someone about their perspective on the slow movement whilst in the process of writing his book. I teach Yoga and I have to give myself plenty of time to get to my Yoga classes - there is nothing worse than being a rushed, hurried Yoga teacher. It hardly sets the right tone for the class. One of the messages that I always give to my students is never rush and panic about getting to a Yoga class on time. If you're late you're late, just accept that, you're late - it's OK. In reality the same applies to most things in life. Give yourself plenty of time to get where you need to be, but there is nothing worse than panicking and rushing to get somewhere - when generally, the world isn't going to come to an end because you are a few minutes late for an appointment.

 

In Yoga it's about being mindful - doing things a little more slowly - exploring the way that the body and the mind feel in each posture. Which postures make us feel good and why? Which postures are we not so keen on and why? Listen to our breathing - stay in the present and each time the mind drifts away elsewhere, bring it back to the practice and back to the breath. Whatever pace everyone else is working at - slow things down to the pace that suits you. Don't be rushed. One thing that I notice frequently in teaching Yoga is that when a particular practice or posture comes to an end and I ask people to move on whatever comes next - some people immediately stop what they're doing and move on. Others are engrossed in their practice they see it through to a conclusion that they are happy with and only then do they move on. I now urge everyone in my classes to adopt the later approach - don't be hurried, take your time finish things off properly in a way that you are satisfied with and then move on - don't be rushed.

 

To me, the relaxation session at the end of the Yoga class, and also meditation are vital in slowing the mind. So often, our minds are in a whirl, so many things to do, so little time to do them. It sometimes feels like a whole number of issues, hurtling toward me at once. Where relaxation and meditation are so useful is in slowing the mind so that you we see issues one at a time. Increasingly I use meditation to calm the mind, to slow the mind and once I have achieved a relaxed, calm state - coping with issues is transformed. I see things more clearly, more rationally and have an improved sense of perspective. In sport at the highest level, where mental preparation is so important, sportsmen talk about being "in the zone", where although the game is taking place at a frantic pace, their mind is so tuned in to what is going on and to their performance, they see things slowly, clearly and perform at the very best of their ability. Using relaxation and meditation, we can achieve that same effect in everyday life, slowing things down so that issues become clearer, simpler and we're able to tackle them better.

 

So maybe have a look at Carl Honore's book, or have a look at websites on the theme of the slow movement, try slowplanet.com. Make the most of your relaxation session at the end of the Yoga class and start to explore meditation - try slowing things down a little more - and reap the benefits in terms of quality of life.

 

 

Starting Over

Peter's January 2012 Yoga Blog

 

The end of January is a good time to review how we've got on with those New Year's resolutions that we set ourselves just a few weeks ago. Have we stuck with them or have we been blown off course? All too often as soon as we've once broken our resolutions about whatever, maybe being more conscientious about our Yoga practice, eating more sensibly or giving up smoking, we give up on our goal. Developing the ability to start over again, is one way that we can maybe keep ourselves on track better.

 

Starting over is all about being able to accept that sometimes, maybe for the best or worst of reasons we don't do what we said we'd do or what we promised ourselves that we'd do. It's about just accepting that fact and starting over again with the same objective in mind.

 

If we break our resolutions or we don't live up to our own expectations, it's so easy to just give up, or alternatively spend much time and energy analysing what went wrong and being judgmental about ourselves. There is much to be said for the ability to put our failures behind us and move on and to be able to say to ourselves, "yes I got that wrong, now I'm going to start again and get it right this time".

 

I'm not discounting the need for analysis of where we went wrong in order to try to improve things next time, but it is so easy to get bogged down trying to work out why things didn't go to plan (paralysis by analysis) and never achieve our objectives. Also, just because we've not achieved something we said we'd do doesn't make us a failure. We shouldn't be too hard on ourselves about these things - just start over again and get it right this time. F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote, "Vitality shows in not only the ability to persist, but the ability to start over".

 

One NLP ruse that I like in relation to starting over is the bag in the bin technique. Very simply it involves taking a paper bag, opening the bag and imagining placing inside it whatever behaviour or belief that you are trying to overcome, then screwing up the bag and throwing it in the waste bin. Metaphorically we are binning the old belief and replacing it with a new one.

 

So, here's to starting over!

 

Some of the ideas for this blog come from an article in Yoga Journal in February 2007 by Phillip Moffitt - thanks for the inspiration.

 

 

 Posted @ 11:56:13 on 27 May 2011  back to top