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.
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