The Autistic Yogi Reflects on Dealing with Stress

Stress and attempting to learn better how to manage it so it doesn't become chronic and a health risk.

1. Simplify & Prioritize. Be real. Take stock of my to-do list and see what is absolutely necessary and prioritize it. What can be removed? Try to half the to do list to get over extremely stressful moments.  Be flexible and allow for removal of to-do list components, write it in pencil and not pen. Do the most urgent things first (urgent being its a matter of life and death, something you have signed up for is not that urgent). Categorize your list to help simplify and feel like there are not so many obstacles to tackling a huge list. Sometimes we have to lower our standards, perfectionism doesn't exist because no one is perfect at anything. The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.
2. Community. Collaboration and cooperation. Safety network. Asking for help. Don't try and tackle everything as a lone wolf, appropriately allow people to ease your stress and burden, none of us are comic book super heroes. We all have our limitations and we should know our own and allow others to have theirs.  People, especially those that support us with their love have a tendency to want to help as long as they are not shouldering your burden alone. Remember to share laughter with these people as it can and will alleviate some of the affects of chronic stress and help us to get out of its terrible aftermath.  Avoid overtly negative people. Choosing your friends wisely can be difficult but necessary. Negative outlooks are a choice, we have to make the choice to not dwell on things, and we have to make the choice of whom we surround ourselves with. Taking a course in effective communication or conflict resolution can be very helpful.
3. Physical exercise & Rest. Appropriate amounts of exercise truly stimulate our beings and we should take this seriously. We are designed to move and to do in our being state. Our brain and nervous system rely on it. Find an activity that is physical that is enjoyable and within your means so that the joy component of it stays true. Be sure to also rest! Not just getting a good dose of sleep, but practice taking breaks at intervals from any task that you are consumed in doing. This will allow our nervous system to calm down and refocus. Be sure to get a full nights rest, if your sleep is being disrupted learn some techniques that help you to disengage from the stimulus that disrupts you. Know what truly recharges you and make those as your interval recharge moments.
4. Boundaries. Establish locations to do your activities so that you can focus and do your designated activity. Remember to prioritize your list and do what are the most pertinent things, having boundaries is going to allow you to focus your attention on what is at hand. Learn to say no. If you have a tendency to try and please everyone, this will be an invaluable skill to get. Don't let your list get out of hand because you want to help and consider everyone that comes across your path.
5. Diet. - Be sure that you aren't always reaching for all the calorie rich foods filled with sugars and empty calories that only give a moment recharge but a deep crash afterwards. Practice a wholesome diet lifestyle. Make sure your getting a full profile of micro and macro nutrients.  If your always on the go, consider products like soylent or spacenutrients and the other products that are like that. Exercise the liquid diets with caution as it's something relatively new to the diet field, but in many cases it is healthier than what people are reaching for that are hectic and busy.

The Autistic Yogi Reflects on the 3rd Session of Teaching Wrestlers

The 3rd session felt wonderful to participate in.
It's amazing seeing how fit these youth are and to see other coaches in action. I get to learn as much as I get to teach.
One of the things I am really struck by is watching those individuals that seam to accelerate above the others and it seams to come down to inquiry and deliberately practicing what was taught and especially what was inquired about.  Seeing individuals genuinely interested in their development is motivating.
I am also inspired by the aspiration to surpass weakness. A youth who is brought to tears because of heightened emotions or baring through intense physical exertion is awe inspiring and concerning at the same time.   On the one hand I see good role models in this group that encourage and push these athletes to be the best, but on the other hand I have to wonder what compels each individual youth to surpass beyond the pains that are inherent in such an extreme practice as wrestling?
It's amazing to see progress in some of these youth over the last few weeks. Getting to stay afterwards and watch them practice has been an exemplary moment to see how each of them grows and I have certainly noticed the progress in a few of them.
The second practice I was in the top athletes were away on a competition out of town and the coach that stayed used one of the boys to demo all the techniques and corrections of form, stance, and throws, this was amazingly helpful for this youth as I noticed a remarkable increase in his talent over the past week and I am going to assume that it was because of the demand of practicing with someone so talented as the coach.
As to talent... I believe it's what we each put into it.. Sure you can have some aspects genetically that give you an edge but ultimately I think it's what each individual puts into it.. THis is the case for the body and the mind in my books.

The Autistic Yogi Reflects on Speech Tempo & Other Speech Factors

Sometimes I prefer a yoga class where the teacher speaks very little and sometimes I like a long narrative. More so the former versus the latter. And how quickly or how slowly the narrative is delivered will affect me as well.
Generally quicker speaking comes across as anxiety or an attempt at putting in too many cues at once and can be overloading, especially to the newer student that is really trying to pay attention to the teacher.

What are the different things that affect our communication?

• What emotion are you carrying as either the speaker or the listener and how does that affect your ability to navigate the narrative? Anxiety, fear, depression, happiness, excitement, normal state: How do these factors change your rate of speaking or listening?
• How quickly is the person speaking? It appears that on average we articulate 120-170 words a minute (depending on the many sources that quote this, it's safe to assume that 100 words a minute is very slow speaking and 200 words is very quick speaking).
• What biases does the person speaking have about the narrative content?  Just look through this list of cognitive biases and imagine how they can affect the tempo and narrative of your communication https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases
• Who are you around? And how do these people affect you? Does being around your mother make you speak slower or quicker or sharper or gentler? What about an abused person around their abuser or them speaking to the police or a crisis intervention worker versus their best friend? How does it change when your in a group of likeminded people? As an atheist I have a different sort of speech tempo when speaking with a known new age believer versus another atheist (although I consider myself a gentle atheist and one whom does not deny spiritual experiences, I just don't believe that a deity/God exists, but do believe time travel is completely feasible)
• Environment and reason for being in that environment will be factors that change the communication temp and narrative too. How much noise is in the environment? If you have been here before is their new stimulus that is unfamiliar?

There are a ton of factors that go into the way that we take in another's communication or that we communicate to others. I believe there is some truly good merit for yoga teachers and practitioners to learn a bit about the factors that will affect them and others.
Giving a class is not just as simple as putting together a script and taking people through that script. And being a student isn't just about going through the script that a teacher is guiding us through.

The Autistic Yogi Reflects on the 2nd Wrestling Practice

This practice I felt a little more uncertain in my delivery. I was far more excited in attending on this day but I felt off once I started to get into the delivery. It will certainly take time for me to get to that level of certainty in delivering a good yoga'esque practice for these athletes.

I had heard that some of the students would not come on the day I am teaching because they figure that yoga is gay... It's to bad that their limited perspectives act as a barrier for them to gain more insights. I find this sort of thought process to be common, where because of a single experience an individual judges the whole of a group, most likely its to look/seam cool?

I tend to work best when I have a lot of knowledge of a given subject and than can free flow through the thought and execution towards that given subject. With giving a program to wrestlers I can say that I have a bit of difficulty because my limited knowledge of the most constant movements and issues that are cropping up in this sport. Staying and watching the practices after my teachings I think will bare a lot of fruit so that I can really figure out programs to give to the group and hopefully see how I can get to the specifics of each individual wrestler and help them address their concerns with their personal range of motion.

From what I can tell in my limited exposure to wrestling the most likely injuries to come about rather than surface injuries ( scrapes, bruises, bloody noses, injured ears, cuts, etc) are going to be wrist, shoulder, and knee issues, ankle issues I am sure are something that crop up a lot too. Wrestling is definitely the most extreme form of partner stretching.

I will continue to seek out as much information as I can about what are the best methodologies of the greats and what other successes have other similiar sports had for specific range of motion practices.

Stretching is not about having the longest air deepest range of motion but rather how well the joint is able to move through its range of motion and return to its relaxed state.

The Autistic Yogi Reflects on Day 1 of Teaching the Wrestling Team

I got through day 1 of teaching yoga'esque movement to the local high school wrestling team.
Like usual I am always nervous before and during teaching to a new group, no matter how confident I end up feeling about my knowledge I am always nervous presenting to people.

 I always end up loving it though. Every time people show interest and then I observe them using things that I have taught.

This was and is such a great opportunity to teach a less conventional yoga type class and play on the periphery of yoga movements and incorporate some of my other practiced skill sets in. With years of observing my movement heroes, Simon Borg-Olivier, Scott Sonnon, Christopher Sommers and his students I am empowered to offer dynamic stretching with some considerations when we do long held stretches. And this wrestling team and the coaches seam desirous of the skills that I can offer. Maybe after just one day I speak to soon.

Forearm stretches
Joint Rotations
Wrist strength drills

Sun Salutations with a minor focus on the shoulder rhythm (trying to eliminate the cue of drop shoulders down and back or away from the ears, as I think this cue is more injurious than beneficial) I prefer to get them to lift the arms to get a side stretch and then protract the shoulder blades or press their shoulders towards the direction their armpit muscles point (Latissumus Dorsi and Pectoralis Major), this than facilitates a little better shoulder rhythm. (This is a combination of Simon Borg-Olivier and Leslie Kaminoff thoughts that inspired me to analyze scapular rhythm a little more.)

Sun Salutation B modified chair posture. I want to slowly get these athletes into knowing more about their hips and why they either can do a narrow squat or not, while getting into the anatomy of the hip bones may not be beneficial for the majority of them but allowing them to explore sensation and being able to differentiate why some of them can not hardly get low in a narrow squat because of either hip or ankle flexibility issues.

Knee Flexion ideas in seated postures and movements and to connect with keeping the hamstring activated in Flexion movements to help keep the knee better protected, especially in the demands that wrestling has on the knees, getting them mindful and cerebral of their knee activation is vital in my perception.

Mobility drills. I worked on analyzing shoulder rolls both forward and back and getting into some arm balances from spinal rolls.

It's going to be a journey and I will slowly try to get a more concise program down that benefits them and help these youth and coaches to attain their best. I can already see how some of the skills they practice are going to help my Acro and my yoga practice.  I can keep writing and writing but I will not try and write a whole chapter here and slowly get more knowledge down about my experiences.

I am wondering if there are some muscles best not stretched prior to practice and some best not stretched afterwards?

The Autistic Yogi Reflects on the Price of Practicing Yoga

The bottom line, practicing yoga in most studios is expensive!

When we are looking at $15-$20 for an hour to an hour and a half of practice we can see that Yoga as a practice caters to the well off and is not accessible by the majority of people.

A cursory look at others opinions seams to elucidate the expense to practicing in places with high overhead. I don't think its just a western issue of wanting to practice in beautiful place with wide open rooms that are well lit and warmed pleasantly that look great and have fully functioning bathrooms, etc, etc. Overhead is expensive and that is the bottom line and the more 'features' a studio wants to add than the more expense they have.  I suppose that they have a particular target market that is able to afford the, imho, exorbitant fee for yoga. Unlimited passes and punchcards seam to give some savings to the individuals but it still doesn't bring the price down to an affordable rate unless your in the middle to high working class.

Before I was a yoga teacher I had to make the choice to either practice yoga at the unlimited price or have money to buy new clothes or have entertainment for a month.. I couldn't do more than 1 of these otherwise I was literally accumulating debt.

A few questions I am trying to ponder;
Are karma classes and or energy exchanges the answer to this? 

Are studios who offer energy exchange coping out on hiring appropriate custodial staff?

When studios offer karma classes are they about competition with other studios doing the same or is it truly about giving back to the communities?

When studios offer yoga teacher training at the 200 or +300 hour levels do they believe in the essence of what the instructor is giving or are they just doing it to make ends meet and or attempting to make a profit from it?
Should yoga be accessible to everyone?

What things can change in the world of westernized yoga to allow studios to meet their bottom line and allow the underprivileged to have a practice?

The worker is worthy of his meat, but at what point is taking to much?

Do we sacrifice our morales in order to make ends meet?

How do we make sure that all Yoga Teachers and studios are insured so that if a full time yoga teacher needs time off they are compensated or if someone is injured under their instruction/in their venue that they are compensated? How is it made affordable?

There are so many factors in all of this, and so many questions that come up around the issue of the price of yoga.

Currently I am of the opinion that the majority of studios are overpriced and catering to the aesthetic desire of our people and that many teacher training's out there are putting out subpar teachers and are more concerned with getting numbers of people into the training rather than giving each individual teacher to be the attention needed to have the best chance of being a good teacher.
I am not in love with my ideas and willing to expand my thought process.

The Autistic Yogi Reflects on the Journey to Teach Stretching & Conditioning to High School Wrestlers

So I was hired twice a week to help a local high school wrestling team to address ROM (Range of Motion) issues, aka stretching.  So having never witnessed a practice I went to observe them practice and I can say that watching them has me excited to work with these athletes and to give them the form of yoga that I have been personally practicing which combines both dynamic and static stretching. And I am far more excited to learn more about giving movement to these athletes that serves their sport.
Some of the things that came to my mind while watching them:

1. Gospel cues/cookie cutter yoga postures just will not work for the intense demand these athletes need. 
2. This is partner stretching of the most extreme kind. Wrestling makes me think that both people are the stretch therapist attempting to gain the upper hand and be the master of the stretch of their opponent/client.
3. The goal is to make these athletes supple in their joints, to not sacrifice strength for flexibility and not sacrifice flexibility for strength.
4. The demand of wrestling is extreme and in many instances excessive, these athletes need the highest grade of coaches that can be obtained. 
5. The stresses on the joints of the athletes is extreme and there are tons of movements that they have to commonly do that would be contraindicated by most of the gospel cue yoga teachers out there (example, the demand that shoulder stand be practiced with a supporting prop under the shoulders to execute).
6. There must be an intelligent method of pre-workout stretches versus post-workout stretches that will facilitate better neural/muscular responses over the career and lifespan of the athlete.
7. Many injuries could be prevented with intelligent conditioning of the athletes. Finding the balance between self drills & skills and partner drills & skills will be the challenge. And will most likely be different for each athlete.
8. Assessments of each athlete should be done often so that I as a ROM movement coach can better serve each athlete. What things are working and what things are not working? 
9. I believe that I am studying the right materials to offer a well balanced ROM program to these athletes and I need to continue to find more great minds out there that have spent years tackling best practices and adopt philosophies and training methods as it becomes a skill that I am capable of offering athletes at appropriate times, and honor those whom have given me skills by crediting them where due. Simon Borg-Olivier, Scott Sonnon, Christopher Sommers
10. This is going to be an exciting journey in developing bonds with other coaches and with athletes. My hopes is to be able to intelligently modify my instructions to best serve the whole group and become a valued participant that is continually welcomed back each training season.

Time to get researching more about how to give an appropriate yoga'esque program to high school wrestlers and how to be an important faculty member of the coaching team.

If your a wrestling coach or athlete and have any input or resources that can help me to better serve the team I am part of please comment :)

The Autistic Yogi Reflects on Cultural Appropriation of Yoga

First off I will state that I am an atheist. Simply I do not believe in a deity, god or goddess, and think all references to them are allegory and are personal to the narrative of the individual considering the deity/god/goddess.

Cultural Appropriation is a term that I recently came across after finding out that the University of Ottawa cancelled a free Yoga class.  I have not read deeply into the issue that is at hand so will consider any of my perception particular to that case as circumstantial. Without knowing the specific concerns that were brought up to the University I can't really have an opinion on it.

But reading about cultural appropriation I certainly have an opinion.

Wikipedia states 'Generally, an assumption that the culture being borrowed from is also being oppressed by the culture doing the borrowing is prerequisite to the concept.'
So my question to anyone whom thinks that the westernization of yoga is a cultural appropriation is this, how is the yoga community oppressing culture of India?

And if Yoga is most often translated as 'Yoke, to bring together, unity, integration.' How than can any culture claim yoga as its rightful intellectual property? And do we say the Hindu owns it or the Tantric? How about the Buddhist? Who was Patanjali and can claim ownership of his writing?

If yoga is that state when we have learned to master/control/cease the fluctuations of our mind and heart than whom in their right mind can claim to culturally own this?

I refuse to acknowledge ownership of the word Yoga, just like no person or culture can own the word science. Own your belief without looking down on mine and I won't look down on yours. As an atheist I will always uphold your right to your belief as long as it doesn't remove my right to have my own, and I won't be offended if you 'borrow' from my perceptions and biases to define your own.

The Autistic Yogi Reflects on the Knee in Acro Yoga

Often in Acro when we L-base we are told to keep the legs straight. I don't think this is healthy for beginners because they have not developed the appropriate stabilizing muscles, because of the locking mechanism of the knee.  When we do a bone stack and the knee locks out then we are able to release the muscles from around the knee from being activated. By keeping a bend in the knee and drawing the knee cap toward the hip we do a coactivation of muscles around the knee, and if we press the toes away from the knee we activate the calf muscles which further adds stability to the knee. To further add to the strength have the outer foot pressing towards the ankle and this will activate the front muscles of the lower leg further adding stability to the knee joint.

The knee also does not act alone and requires activations from both the hip and ankle joints. Practice balancing postures with the balancing knee slightly bent.

It is imperative that as we navigate through acrobatic postures and movements that we work on our knees health and advance in an intelligent format without skipping steps in the hopes of advancing quickly.

There are many resources online on knee health and safety and I encourage each individual to do their due diligence in discovering what methods work the best for them. Consider advancing your anatomy knowledge through professional instruction so that we don't have to try and reinvent the wheel by going through trial and error. The single handed best resource I can suggest is to take the Yoga Synergy Anatomy & Physiology Online training, Simon Borg-Olivier and Bianca Machliss have developed what I consider to be the most thorough examination of yoga and movement and how our bodies work through the various postures that we encounter from basic sitting to standing to extreme mobility for the super athlete. This training is indespensable for any and all movement practitioners!

http://yogasynergy.com/main/anatomy-physiology

The Autistic Yogi Rants on those that Hate Science and Technology

I have noticed a trend growing of a form of hate directed at science and technology my heart breaks a little.
There is a certain awe that pervades my mind when I consider all the education, work, invention and innovations that our human race have made. Certainly much of it has been used for ill purposes but I'm an optimist and believe that the majority of all this have been focused for the good.
People have mystified how life was like prior to technology and science. Nature is a cruel mistress, I can't see her as a loving mother, she will take your life without regard and this has always been the case, earthquakes, scourges, pestilence, pathogens of all types, vast shifts in weather or internal movements that devastate life are not something new and have always been here, it's not because 'god' or 'goddesses' are punishing us, it's simply the way the universe operates.
The image of the lone mother attempting to scrape together enough of natures bounty to feed her starving family comes to mind. Existence without electricity is extrememly hard work and it's perils are very real and not something mystical. If your the type of person who is capable of living without modern medicine, without electricity or other methods of modern living than good for you for going through the gruelling task of learning how to live the old way.
I will continue to celebrate our human ingenuity. I will continue to call for scientific transparency. I will continue to support the brave men and woman who put their lives in the line of fire to battle against the wickedness of skewed principles and powers. I will continue to support the oil industry as it slowly fazes out and the next wave of technological advancement takes its place. I will support the men and woman whom day after day go to their places of learning and work and contribute to make life easier for us all. I continue to support vaccines and will continue to state that not all are safe but the efficacy of some have been proven repeatedly over and over.
I will not support bigotry either in the common man or at the level of governments. I will not support the hatred for modernization. I will not support the destruction of our planet either.

I am a peace warrior
I walk the middle ground

The Autistic Yogi Reflects on Self Mastery

Self mastery is the essential reason that I embarked upon a deeper journey into Yoga and it has been one amazing journey of navigating hills, cliffs, straight stretches of road.  I think I am well on the way of mastering my inner struggles, that is to say that I am finding it easier and easier as I practice and age to be settled even though the journey is tumultuous. Now and again an obstacle comes across my path that reminds me of the fallibility of our human nature and it is in these moments that I see the work that a continued practice of yoga has to offer.

Certainly yoga is not just about the self, but is about how we are in the community and sometimes I think we can lose site of this. I recall my certifying instructor Tracy Mann saying 'The byproduct of your yoga should be better relationships'.. We should certainly be able to relate better with ourselves and others around us. Our breathing should be a little bit easier to tap into when the stresses of life come.

My yoga journey is not about getting into ever more complicated postures but being able to be a better person within myself and externally to all those around me. The liberation I saught on my initial journey was to be free from an internal anger and wrong perception of how I fit into the world.

Make sure that your yoga journey does not just include asana but has a rooted contemplation and dialogue of ethics, both for yourself and your community.

The Autisitic Yogi Reflects on preparing my Wrist Joints.

Conditioning the body to handle the demand of increasing complexity of postures both static and dynamic.

Early in my practice of acro yoga when putting my wrists into demanding skills, foot to hand, hand to hand, table top/walnut drills, etc, my wrists and hands could actually feel compression pains and aches, 99% of the pains and aches didn't inherently feel damaging but the possibility was there and the 1% of time that damage was done meant for a whole lot of rehabilitation.

3 major contributors helped me out of compressive wrist pain and into feeling like all the yoga and acro postures that one felt painful now feel like they are adding strength, I got out of the bone and into the muscle!

The First:
  Simon Borg-Olivier (  http://yogasynergy.com/main/simon-borg-olivier  )
Simon has been seriously studying the anatomy and physiology since the early 80s both as a microbiologist and a physiotherapist and presents one of the most concise yoga programs that I believe is on earth. Through his anatomy and physiology course you will learn about every joint and how it is used in part or as a whole in any physical practice that puts a demand on the joint. I do not hesitate to call Simon my most influential teacher and most assuredly a master of the practice of yoga. One of the most aware individuals that I have come across. And fun! He was also the first person to present to me that nerves could be a contributing factor to degraded movement.

The Second:
  Scott Sonnon ( http://www.rmaxinternational.com/flowcoach/ )
Scott appealed to the deepest part of my being and gave me more courage to believe in my innate talents. His story and ongoing effort was one of the greatest for my spirit that I ever came across. The skill sets that he focused on and attained really contributed to my knowledge of individual joint movements and helped to reduce the efforts that it takes me to be in or move through postures.

The Third:
  Christopher Sommers ( https://www.gymnasticbodies.com/about/ )
I came across a copy of Coach Christopher Sommers book Building the Gymnastics Body and started to regularly train wrist and hand exercises as outlined in the book. While I have kept my drills to the basic variants throughout the last couple years I can testify to the major benefits of adding in these basic drills. Now I am able to do all the yoga and acro poses that have a high demand of hand and forearm technique.  He really impacted me with the importance of not skipping steps and going for the gold when you have not even trained for the olympics.

All in all these 3 men encouraged me to the deepest level of human movement and doing so intelligently and do so in the midst of a community.

A future article of mine will go more indepth into the actual wrist movements that I train regularly.

Do you have a particular wrist and forearm practice that prepares you to handle the rigours of yoga and acrobatics? If so please comment!

The Autistic Yogi Reflects on the Journey of Emotions

Emotions have been the single hardest thing for me to understand and to engage in. Often when discussing with people and emotions come out I put up a wall of intellect, my cognition attempts to take over and to think things through and analyze them to the Nth degree. The longer I exist and the more in-touch with my body I become I realize that not all emotions can be cognitively sorted through and only through a form of non-cognition can I get in touch with these emotions. Especially concerning the emotions that others or myself inhibited when I was a young child.

My single greatest struggle has been my self worth. Self worth for me has been a roller coaster ride. Most often I intellectualize and find myself wrapping up my self worth in my intellectual capacity to converse or to seek out information. And when I start to get close to another human my self worth starts to come out and it seams that my inward way is to say my self worth is not valuable and should be abandoned, and those moments that someone is able to make me feel worthy I have engaged in destructive behaviors to reaffirm why I am not worthy of anothers love or adoration. The wholesome practice of yoga has really started to change this for me and I am now much more capable of peeking into my inward being and seeing my self worth coming out and being valued at my deepest levels. This is a daily struggle as I seam to unconsciously get anxious when I am considering my value as a lover, a friend, a family member, a teacher, a student, etc....
My practice is working and forgiveness is flowing
My practice is working and love is certain
Slowly my inner manager is allowing a greater inward expression..
Through movement and bodily awareness I am finding emotional healing.

Thank you for listening.

The Autistic Yogi Reflects on Preparing Bone for Practice

In training both yoga and acro-yoga I have come to conclude that it has been best for me to train most diligently with someone around 120 lbs and to have a few other of various weight ranges from 100 to 180 lbs.

overtraining L basing can produce extremely tight hip flexor and external rotators. I have lost flexibility in the range of motion in my hips due to training many hours of acro. It's fairly easy for me to integrate a yoga program that facilitates both flexibility and strength.

Preparing the Bone for Practice Concepts to Look-up

1. Wolff's Law - Bone will adapt in a healthy person to the loads which it is placed under.
2. Piezoelectric Effect.
3. Lacuna & lacunar-canalicular.
4. Fluid dynamics and bone.
5. S.A.I.D. Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demand

The Autistic Yogi Reflects on Agnotology in Yoga.

Agnotology is the study of culturally induced ignorance or doubt, especially regarding the perpetration of misleading interpretations or poorly done science.  Culture, in my opinion, is regarding the personal data that an individual experiences as they observe and witness their family and peers over time.  Some people seam to be more inclined to follow the belief pattern of their family, where as others have a tendency towards the belief patterns of their friends, while others seperate themselves from any external belief and only believen themselves. There are probably other ways to describe these and more.

Yoga in the west, or at least in the limited experience I have had in training with hundreds of teachers, both current and upcoming teachers, has its own culturally induced ignorances and practitioners whom have molded yoga into their own standard. 

Overall it seams that the very base of yoga is either known as a method to stretch, or as an 'evil' on the planet. The 'evil' seams to be the agnotology perpetrated by either catholics or protestants in the areas that I am from. The people who seam to see yoga as a stretch tend to be raised secular.  I have encountered numerous whom neither see it as a method to stretch or a religion/belief structure, but a rounded method of ethical behaviour, movement, breathing exercises, sensory training (learn to observe and take in stimulus in a calm and relaxed manner, concentration and meditation techniques.

I personally am more inclined to see yoga as a state that is achieved through practicing. This state is most simply described by the words, awake & aware.

The biggest perpetration of cultural ignorance in yoga is the historical knowledge of the practice. A few good men and woman have devoted a lot of time to discovering the truth to the historical facts of what the actual yoga practice was.  Yoga has certainly evolved though and in the modern west it has become a thing all together its own, nearly seperate from its historics. The majority of western practitioners are learning a yoga that has very little to do with the original methods, but rather the evolved idea of moving through sequences of postures to invigorate the body. Most will encounter a ton of bullshit spouted by people in general, and they will encounter a ton of good wisdom. 

Its wonderful that there is a ton of supporting science and methods that do validate older practices and modern observations. Its obvious that our body systems have been relatively the same over the last thousands of years. The way that we have integrated knowledge has changed dramatically. We once spoke in a narrative that was mystical and we saught as a species to uncover the secrets of the universe. This produced science and a methodology of aquiring data so that we could truly understand the workings of the universe.

Become versed in how to recognize wrong knowlege, so that we do not become swayed one way or the other, stand by your convictions, but don't love them so much that you cannot change as you absorb knowledge that makes better sense then the previous knowlege you held.

Look up the balloney detection kit if your really interested in discernment.

The Autisitic Yogi Reflects on Chakras

Chakras are an interesting topic.  And in my experience very few people that I have encountered in the yoga realm have looked into the depths of writings of the chakras to see what the historical literature states about there use and functions. Most don't know that the psychology attributes to chakras are a modern addition to the chakra system from the East. I recommend looking into the work of Christopher Tompkins to gain more insights into the history and evolution of the Chakras.

It appears that in 1918 a book called The Serphent Power by Arthur Avolon that first made connections to psychology and chakras. Carl Jung continued this work with his own indepth studies of Kundalini and psychology systems. Joseph Campbell went on to solidify the westernized Psychology system of the Chakras.

From what I was able to gather the Chakras of old were more about sounds and intonations to affect specific locations either internally or externally. Christopher talks about sonic resonance from Mantra work. It would be interesting to see studies done on the effects of the subtle body through voice and song.

Modal vibrational phenomenon seams like it could be an area that the historical writers were trying to capture. see https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_mode

Without a doubt I can see the anecdotal evidence of the effect of sound on a body system. But I wonder to what extent?

Does the sound of our instruments and voices have any effect on biology?

At what frequencies of sound is an affect observed?

Can cells be transformed or protected through sound?

What psychological effects are standard from music? 

Is sound culturally induced? 

Are there sounds that are universal and hold the same function/meaning regardless of culture?

Is motherese universal?

Are particular mantras universal?

There are a ton of questions that need to ultimately be asked to come to a more broad understanding of how common sounds created by humans affects the biological systems present. And is there any overlap with the chakra practices of mantra and yantra.

I am mostly inclined to think that there is a sublte reaction of the sounds we use. I am not convinved that the sounds themselves have much if any impact. But I do believe the value that the individual puts on the sound internally will have a farily dramatic effect (ie, listen to music you really dislike versus music you really like).

When it comes to other attributes of the chakras like, elements, colors, geometrical shapes, etc, it appears that history shows numerous systems that although similiar are fairly different. From one location of practitioners to another things like color and chakras, or even the number of them is different. Historically there does not appear to be a solid unity of what these factors are concerning chakras. And when we get into the nadi/marma system it gets even more complicated.

I am unconvinced of things like chakras are blocked or spinning wrong ways or their color is off, etc, etc. I take these thoughts as narratives individuals create to try and make heads or tales of our existence. Story/narrative is very useful but can also lead people into a ton of unfounded knowledge. 

The chakra system I think is useful to guide and to consider practices, but its not concrete. It can only ever be a tool utilized by us as we sort through knowledge and come to terms with historical and modern practices.

Reflections on Acro Yoga and the Rush

Acro yoga without a doubt creates a rush as we advance our techniques and abilities.

Its easy for us movement practitioners to get side tracked with trying to attempt ever more complex and difficult skills and we can forget some foundation skills for our movement practice.

Often I have come across practitioners that have not put in their due diligence with training the foundation skills and are seeking to get to a more difficult practice level as soon as they can even if it means skipping steps. These practitioners can be dangerous and are far more likely to cause injuries in their partners and themselves.

Preparing the body for practices that are more demanding is not only intelligent, but its in your best interest and is good practice.

When initially approaching an acro practice each joint should have some gentle attention. If your a sparse practitioner (1x or less a week) you should consider going through a complete joint rotation exercise that should take about 20 minutes to complete. Work each joint sequentially either starting at head or feet and work your way through the body.  Don't just inquire to your mind the state of your body, inquire to your body about the state of your body. Don't over due the rotations, this is just to feel each individual joint move and check in with its state and any corresponding sensations that are caused (does doing ankle circles affect your knee?)

Some initial core engagement exercises should be done. Don't focus so intensely on the core engagements that new comers will be exhausted by the end of warm up phase. Give variations, start with the easiest variation and work up from there. If your a teacher than sometimes choose to not teach more difficult variations because monkey see, monkey do mentalities. Sun salutations is a great way to start into this area of exercise. I encourage at least a 10 minute session of individualized movement.

From here start the basics with some basic partner drills or games. Stuff that is not to demanding, just to initiate the feeling of working with your partner. 

Push Pulls or weight in weight out are my favorite ones to explore. Encourage exploration within these drills.  Ski jumps are another great one to have in this area or the Trifecta / 3 pillars.

Basic games are things like Car driver, slow motion chain tag, Body part to body part, Ninja Freeze, etc.

After the initial partner work start to move into some basic birdy and/or back birdy, folded leaf, basic therapeutic drill or two, around the world/ prasarita twist, Throne variants. Cartwheels, ticktocks, Chelsea points, ghetto ninja, ninja star. Back bends, bow variants. Hand to foot techniques. 

This area can be one of the hardest to navigate in a class setting for teachers as it takes a lot of trial and error to learn what a group is capable of and how to micro manage the groups that are made in the course of a class, and often in a class setting we are working with assistants or other teachers. Figuring out how many groups you can manage is a great thing to learn. 

Make time for some cool down, whether you want to do partner based cool downs or individualized will be up to you as a teacher and practitioner. Be sure not to skip this step as it can facilitate good relaxation and community building.

Major thing, Don't over due it! Come back to the foundations often. Find some goals and discover what foundations make that goal attainable.

Body Scan - Basics

Learning to scan your whole body rapidly can have tremendous benefit to your well being. If you can master a quick body scan than you can help your mind shift into alpha rhythms as you lay or sit. This can facilitate an easier time to relax and rest and lays the basis for quality sleep and release of tension.

Body scans should be part of daily living and you should strive to find one that works for you.

This is my basic structure - its what I do before and after a practice, when I go to sleep and when I wake up.  If I am having trouble sleeping I may repeat this up to a dozen times, sleep always is the result, unless something is really nagging at my mind.

Bring your attention to;

Toes

Soles of feet

heels 

tops of feet

ankles

shins

calves

knees

thighs

hips

lower back

mid back

upper back

waist

lower ribs

sides of ribs

front of chest

Fingertips

knuckles

back of hands

palms

wrists

forearms

elbows

triceps

biceps

shoulders

front of neck

back of neck

back of head

side of head

face

top of head

Sometimes I match the sequence with my breath or a students breath and sometimes I go through the scan with no intention of breath awareness.

One day I will make my own diagram showing the points on a paperdoll chart.

You can also google the 61 point body scan and/or yoga nidra for some interesting reads. I will end up writing about both of these topics numerous times.

Metta!

Reflections on the Subtle Aspects of Yoga in Practice

For me the base structure of yoga as a practice is covered pretty decently by the ashtanga of Patanjali.

How I have come to know each of these 8 limbs;

1) Builiding a moral foundation

2) Duties and how to observe

3) Physical postures and the movement from one to another

4) Breath and the energy systems of the body - learning to expand and contract our system for specific or general living

5) Learning to control the senses - being able to move towards and/or away from any sensation either internal or external. Nervous system is trained to be more efficient. Lays the basis to develop a samyama, which is the combined next three limbs.

6) Concentration techniques - Learn to focus the mind on both internal and external points. Train capacity to concentrate unbroken.

7) Meditation - cleaning the mind of debris concentration becomes meditation. The mysteries of both internal and external states become more clear, and our knowledge expands. This is knowledge in action. Not to be confused with intellect knowledge. This is fluid intelligence at its best.

8) The fruit of the practice - Our primary emotion is eased and we are more likely to stay in it. Primary emotion is the concept of what each individual has for a base emotion, that state they spend the majority of their time in.

The first 2 limbs are filled with verbs, they are calls to action or inaction. They train us to conduct ourselves in manners that align with our deepest morales and allow for a true community to develop. These are time driven tasks and one should aspire to have considered deeply their morale conduct and to put them in both their internal and external lives.

The 3rd limb - asana - postures - Originally meaning 'throne' or 'seat' and evolved to be 'to sit', 'Seated pose', 'Posture'. To me the basis is how do we do basic movement in our daily lives? How do you go from laying to seated, from seated to standing, from standing to crouching, from crouching to standing, seated or laying. We attempt to prepare the body to better handle day to day functions of our musculoskeletal system.

The 4th Limb - Pranayama denotes an expansion and contraction of energy. This is everything from breath, to digestion and elimination. When we have the base shapes of physical postures, we start to refine them with our breath and either activations or deactivations of muscle groups around joint complexes. We learn to use the breath to increase or decrease available energy for actions or inactions. Internal states start to reflect deeper within and externally.

The 5th Limb - Pratyahara is the exploration of 'sense withdrawal'. We learn to utilize both internal and external stimilus to move through non-attachment exercises. This will help any individual to handle the stimulus that comes up in our daily lives. This is not an attempt to become 'empty'. This literally trains your brainwaves and allows you to explore the brainwaves and train them.

The 6th Limb - Dharana - We learn to concentrate. We learn to collect some acute thing into our stimulus. This can be an internal thought/word/image/sound/sensation or concentration on an external thing; candle flame, image, sound, structure, etc.  This is useful to help us concentrate on the tasks of our daily life. In conjunction with the preceding limbs we are able to do all our daily tasks much more efficiently

The 7th Limb - Dhyana - meditation - I see mediation as sweeping the mind. Sometimes I come across those whom believe meditation is emptying the self. I both agree and disagree. Cleaning a room doesnt remove the objects in the room, it removes the decay/dust/wrot/garbage/etc, meditation is the same thing for the mind and intellect. It will help clean up the nervous system and the thought process. Meditation can be everything from sitting and breathing to deeply concentration on a single subject for an unknown amount of time, you become so involved with the subject that your unable to seperate yourself from the subject, as though you were the subject.

The 8th Limb - Samadhi - I see this as the fruits of the practice. Its a state that is achieved through having put into practice the preceding limbs in such a way that it all becomes a part of our fluid intelligence, that intelligence that doesnt come from intellect, but from action (karma). Its in everything we do permeating us all the time. I think the psychology concept of primary emotion is the basis for this state. You have achieved the state of Yoga.

Reflections on Some Issues in Yoga

Yoga in the West is definitly a phenomena all of its own. After years of studying the different areas of yoga and haveing a general love for movement of all sorts, some of the issues in the global situation of teacher trainings and the quailty of teachers coming from those teacher trainings are becoming more apparent.

A lot of teacher trainings really lack the scientific method and many of these teachers teachings are dubious at best. People in positions of teaching should be able to at least point towards where they obtained their information. Credit and citations are always wonderful, it allows individuals to seek deeper into their personal practice.

 Experience tells me that we have a ton of yoga teachers teaching yoga teacher trainings that have proven repeatedly in their personal logic to put more heed into anecdotal evidence, which is usually steeped in what I term as suburbia knowledge, when an individual has a tendency to believe in modern day myths. Culturally induced ignorance definitely permeates the world of westernized yoga.  

The cultural induced ignorance seams to look like this in our yoga studios and trainings:

1) 'Every posture requires this same action'. This is a gospel cue, our bodies are not playdough being stuffed through a cookie cutter pattern. Each of our bodies have at least subtle differences that make movement, engagement, and stretching a very personal experience.

2) 'You must do this everytime,' again a gospel cue. Most often this comes in because well meaning individuals have become convinced by their peers that a certain movement is an absolute must (keeping a flat back through sun salutations is not beneficial and neither is it natural.)

3) Setting up teachers, gurus, practitioners like their words and concepts are irrefutable. In the world of science there are is not one person who is authority of it all. Science is based on observation and experiment. Yoga is based on observation and experiment. Learn this concept deeper please!

4) Seeing non-attachment as avoidance, which is equally as destructive to attaching to something. Non-attachment is seen when you can not have the product of your attachment ( do you become an asshole when you can't have some particular thing?)

5) Strict observance of rules. This is destructive and even the Hatha Yoga Pradipika states this. Strictly observing rules is a barrier to yoga. This is the easiest way to become a bigot, when we can not tolerate each others opinions than there is a problem. ( I am always open to changing my opinion when I come across knowledge that makes better sense than the previous knowledge I held.)

6) The concept of yoga will heal all things. It wont, it will make them more tolerable. Yoga as an ongoing practice can end suffering, but it will not cure actual medical worthy physical issues.

7) The concept that the most dangerous aspect of a hot yoga studio is in allowing deeper stretches, which increases injury. There is a far greater danger in practicing in hot yoga studios, its called germs and allergens. Heat, sweat and deep breathing in a room not well cleaned and ventilated produces an optimal environment for life threatening illnesses.

I could continue to list more but I think this gets across a few points. Mainly there exists a bias in a lot of people to take their teachers teachings as gospel. The certification process of certifying instructors to certify instructors is interesting.

Reflections on Autism and Yoga

After years of practicing yoga techinques (asana, pranayama, sensory skills, concentration and meditation techiques) it is certain that these yoga techniques do in fact enhance the quality of life both internally and externally.

What I define as the practicing of yoga is the westernized variations of yoga that have a foundation in the techniques that have been passed to us from our teachers. Some of these techniques certainly are a modern creation or a fusion of older knowledge mixing with new knowledge.

One of the hardest parts in life, for me, is social stimulus. While I always loved social stimulus it came with a cost.  I have always pursued my interests with gusto and have a propensity to acquire   information rapidly about the areas of my interest. And I have always been excited to share my thoughts and ideas.  This I found can be very taxing to other individuals, so I discovered how to rapidly assess people through key questions and be able to find that person in a group that I could share with delightfully. If I couldn't find that person I would internalize and have to focus on something acutely (untying knots, figuring out how to cartwheel down stairwells, perch on the flimsiest chair, crawl up walls, stare at pictures, draw, play/bond with a pet). Pretty much all social gatherings larger than 1 on 1 will result in me feeling overwhelmed, fatigued, needing sleep, need to separate myself from stimulus of all types. As a youth this would mean 12+ hours of sleep, full 24 hour sleeps happened numerous times (mainly during festivals or after a concert).

If given the opportunity to engage with minds I could spend hours upon hours dialoguing. I had always been a story teller and loved telling others about my vivid dream life, and fantasy world I had been creating for years and years ( the longest story I ever told in one sitting was over 30 hours straight, this was with John Benusic when I lived at the Wapiti Shooters Club. Twice as an adult I sought out John to confirm that this was in fact something that happened and he confirmed it on both occasions). 

The mind is a fantastic aspect of life, but I came to know the depths of over focus on the mind without consideration of the body. After a rather terrible break up with my long term mate I found myself in a yoga studio. Over the following months I practiced between 3-6 hours of yoga a day and spent as much time reading, studying and learning about the history, techniques, thoughts & perceptions of both modern and historical writers. I was hooked. If it had not been for the beta blocker that I was on at the time, I am unsure I could have handled the anxiety of the yoga studio.

Over the next 5 years I participated in 11 yoga teacher trainings, many more workshops and immersed myself in yoga and acro yoga.

The physical practice helped me a ton in self image. I taught over 2000 public hours of yoga and acrobatic yoga. My largest fascination was with the anatomy and physiology, the biomechanics of movement. I ate up the writings/videos of Simon Borg Olivier, Scott Sonnon, Paul Grilley, Georg Feurstein, the Bihar School, Christopher Tomkins, Christopher (Hareesh) Wallis, Ray Long, Roger Cole, Leslie Kaminoff, Judith Lasater, Bernie Clark, Katy Bowman, and numerous others that contributed to the world of anatomy and movement.

 

Through all this I still found that after being at a workshop, a social engagment, a class, teacher training, etc, I would be thoroughly exhausted.. about 4 hours of social stimulus would be enough to act as a sedative. After yoga teacher trainings I would last about an hour after getting home and sleep from 6pm to about 6 am. Repetitive body scans and mini yoga nidra practices would intersperse my waking and sleeping time and slowly that helped me to reduce the overloading power of external stimulus. 

More often than not my personal yoga practice would help level me out. I estimate that 99% of my public taught classes and my public practices started with me showing up 20-30 minutes before class. Get in the room that the practice will be in at least 20 minutes before class starts and do a full joint rotation practice and at least 3 minutes of personal pranayama practice. This allowed me to analyze my whole body in a short time to see how each area is feeling and at what state of engagement I could take my body. My practices and teachings included, classical hatha, ashtanga, yin, restorative, vinyasa, therapeutic yoga, and numerous other classes accessible in either Grande Prairie or Calgary.

Acro yoga changed my whole life yet again. I purchased 2" thick gymnastics mats and started to have friends come over nearly daily to practice. often there would be 4 or 5 of us practicing in my space. I didnt have furniture other than the mats and enough yoga props for a small yoga studio. It was perfect for exploring the wonders of acro. Hour and hours of practice. I broke down my personal warmup that would last about 20 minutes to 30 minutes to prepare my joints for the acrobatic yoga sessions was a huge advantage to rapidly developing skills. I was soon practicing at least 10 hours a week. I went up 2 pant sizes in the space of about 5 months as the muscles of my hip joint complex become much more powerful.

Still I found the social engagement a difficult task to manage. Most interactions still cause/d a noticeable overstimulation, but it was far more manageable.

As I find myself utilizing the techniques more and more in my life as a side effect of thousands of hours of practice and consideration I find what once was hard to manage to not be so difficult. Certainly I have a lot more practice ahead of me to really see the fruits of the actions of practice. 

Basic structure of yoga

Ethical considerations and actions both internally and externally.

Physical practice including both physically active and relaxing (learn to physically relax is as important as learning to engage a muscle)

Breathing exercises to help manage energy levels in the current moment or for short & long term results.

Sensory exploration. Learning to withdraw the senses from stimulus. Learning to Observe impartially.

Concentration techniques to help train focus and attention.

Meditation techniques as the concentration exercises bare more fruit and allow a true meditation response to happen.

Primary state of being is more calmed and the rest of life has a more contented/blissful attribute.

Thanks for reading :)

Comments always welcome.

The Autistic Yogi Reflects on Asana and Alignment

 I would not consider myself an alignment teacher. Its not that I don't believen alignment, I just don't believe there is any cookie cutter method that makes sense for all bodies when it comes to physically cueing our bodies to move into, stay in, and move out of a pose.
 Our bodies are beautifully complicated. And in that complication comes the beauty of why yoga tends to work so well when its not aggressively approached. Asana should be used as a tool to allow us as individuals to become more aware of our self and the space we take up.
  Asana as a practice should result in us being a little more awake about the impact we have on our evironment, both near and far. Asana as a practice should help the mind to be more stable and allow us to process through the fluctuations of the mind with increasing ease.
 Asana is a tool to learn about you. Asana should never be a cookie cutter shape that we attempt to stuff practitioners into.
 I find more important than most 'alignment' principles regularly cued in yoga is for teachers to become aware of compression and tension in joints and how that affects range of motion and how that translates into different postures.
  If the cue that your using as a teacher or practitioner is repeatedly not working than the cue has to change, not the body.  What works for one, may not work for another. All the variations of a posture are completely legal, but not all are going to benefit the individual, some variations may benefit one and seriously injure another.
  Above all exercise discernment when teaching and practicing, keep your student and yourself as safe as you possibly can.

  What cues have you struggled with?
  What cues have you really enjoyed?



Maitri

The Autistic Yogi Reflects on the difference between Science and Pseudoscience

Knowledge

  One of the major passions in my life is the love of discussion. I marvel at the complexity of sharing ideas through vocabulary and how different one persons meaning is from another. Which can totally change the perspective of meaning.  

  This definitely holds true to science. Saying the word 'theory' as a scientist versus someone who thinks science is rubbish.  The word here probably has 2 distinct meanings. One of the meanings encourages exploration and seeking, the other is biased and dismissive.

  Since finding the Baloney Detection Kit by Carl Sagan has helped to put a lot of ease on my mind when considering the points people discuss/argue/belief from.

  I find that from considering the list set out by Carl has really helped me be a lot more at ease in discussion.

Baloney Detection Kit 

 Carl Sagan - From the book 'Demon Haunted World'

1. Wherever possible there must be independent confirmation of the facts.
2. Encourage substantive debate on the evidence by knowledgeable proponents of all points of view.
3. Arguments from authority carry little weight (in science there are no "authorities").
4. Spin more than one hypothesis - don't simply run with the first idea that caught your fancy.
5. Try not to get overly attached to a hypothesis just because it's yours.
6. Quantify, wherever possible.
7. If there is a chain of argument every link in the chain must work.
8. Occam's razor - if there are two hypotheses that explain the data equally well choose the simpler.
9. Ask whether the hypothesis can, at least in principle, be falsified (shown to be false by some unambiguous test). In other words, it is testable? Can others duplicate the experiment and get the same result?

Additional issues are:

1. Conduct control experiments - especially "double blind" experiments where the person taking measurements is not aware of the test and control subjects.
2. Check for confounding factors - separate the variables.
3. Common fallacies of logic and rhetoric
4. Ad hominem - attacking the arguer and not the argument.
5. Argument from "authority".
6. Argument from adverse consequences (putting pressure on the decision maker by pointing out dire consequences of an "unfavorable" decision).
7. Appeal to ignorance (absence of evidence is not evidence of absence).
8. Special pleading (typically referring to god's will).
9. Begging the question (assuming an answer in the way the question is phrased).
10. Observational selection (counting the hits and forgetting the misses).
11. Statistics of small numbers (such as drawing conclusions from inadequate sample sizes).
12. Misunderstanding the nature of statistics (President Eisenhower expressing astonishment and alarm on discovering that fully half of all Americans have below average intelligence!)
13. Inconsistency (e.g. military expenditures based on worst case scenarios but scientific projections on environmental dangers thriftily ignored because they are not "proved").
14. Non sequitur - "it does not follow" - the logic falls down.
15. Post hoc, ergo propter hoc - "it happened after so it was caused by" - confusion of cause and effect.
16. Meaningless question ("what happens when an irresistible force meets an immovable object?).
17. Excluded middle - considering only the two extremes in a range of possibilities (making the "other side" look worse than it really is).
18. Short-term v. long-term - a subset of excluded middle ("why pursue fundamental science when we have so huge a budget deficit?").
19. Slippery slope - a subset of excluded middle - unwarranted extrapolation of the effects (give an inch and they will take a mile).
20. Confusion of correlation and causation.
21. Caricaturing (or stereotyping) a position to make it easier to attack.
22. Suppressed evidence or half-truths.
23. Weasel words - for example, use of euphemisms for war such as "police action" to get around limitations on Presidential powers. "An important art of politicians is to find new names for institutions which under old names have become odious to the public"
24. (excerpted from The Planetary Society Australian Volunteer Coordinators Prepared by Michael Paine )