Celebrations | International Yoga Day and the June Solstice in NYC

Gāyatrī  Mantra

ॐ भूर्भुवः॒ स्वः ।तत्स॑वितुर्वरे॑ण्यंभ॒र्गो॑ दे॒वस्य॑ धीमहि ।धियो॒ यो नः॑ प्रचो॒दया॑त् ॥

Oṃ bhūr bhuvaḥ svaḥ

tát savitúr váreṇ(i)yaṃ

bhárgo devásya dhīmahi

dhíyo yó naḥ pracodáyāt

June 21 has been designated International Yoga Day by the United Nation General Assembly in 2014. In the northern hemisphere June 21 is also the date of the summer solstice, marking the longest day and shortest night of the year.

Several celebrations took place in NYC, in private studios as well as in public places.
I began my celebratory practice at Pure Yoga, in the Upper West Side. The practice lasted two hours and consisted of 108 sun salutations, introduced by a beautiful chanting of the Gāyatrī  Mantra.

The main celebration took place in Times Square, where the yoga practice spanedv twelve hours, from 7am to7:30pm, led led by yoga celebreties. I attended only the 6:30 practice, led by Rodney Yee and Colleen Saidman Yee. Honestly, I was not impressed by the teachings of the Yees who are among the yoga celebrities. There was no guided flow, or transition, from one asana (pose) to the following; modifications should have been offered, considering the broad range of bodies and yoga practice level amount the hundreds of practitioners. The main experience was for me to be able to isolate my self,from the crowds in one of the densest urban places in the world, sitting in a lotus pose with closed eyes. And of course being able to view from a laying down pose the towering buildings wrapped by ten-floor tall lit billboards was a quite unique, almost surreal experience.

Yoga | How Group Practice Matters

It is frigid Saturday morning in New York, single digit temperatures with the wind chill factor. Yet, I drag myself out of my apartment to attend the 9am yoga class at the Upper West Side Lululemon store —offering every Saturday morning a free yoga class. I practice yoga and other movement routines daily, in four  segments of 10-15 minutes each; but attending a group practice becomes a time challenge —specially on a painfully cold Saturday morning, with many tasks in the "to do list" after another difficult week. But today I was rewarded: during the class at lululemon there was a Eureka moment: my main insight was that the importance of becoming part of a yoga practices led by somebody else —even the affinities with own's practice are not that relevant. The learned lessons more specific to hatha yoga were also important for my own individual practice and teaching:

• Development of twists into spiraling movements starting from bālāsana (child pose)
• Transition from virabhadrāsana 3 (warrior pose 3) to seated position twisting the lifted leg
• Spiraling movements in head stand
• focus on different types of alignment in bhakti virabhadrasana (devotional warrior)
• Ending a class with a restorative pose, which is not necessarily savasana
• Working on development of yoga mat design 

Moving together with many other yoga practitioners helps, bringing the individual energy into a collective synergy: "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts". But another important insight was that every group practice can teach a lesson, beyond the scripted instructions of the script: the lesson I learned today was about to be open to others' suggestions, not only in yoga but in life.

camminando | Yoga Practice in Public Spaces: Alignment to the Urban and Natural Environment in Roosevelt Island

I find alignment in the natural and man-made environment; my body moves in the vinyasa flow parallel and perpendicular to the East River and Manhattan skyline.

Journeys | Life is not a Beach

This is my last 2013 weekend in Australia and today, a warm almost sunny day, I have decided to take a break from my study and go to Torquay beach, one of my favorite places in Oz. It is the first time I go there by myself by public transportation and took about two-hours to a destination which can be reached in twenty minutes by car. Getting off the bus I walked toward Zeally bay, reached the beach and there I practiced my usual ritualistic hatha yoga routine "Finding the Axis Mundi". Then I went swimming and was surprised by the water not being as clear as usual. After only one and half hour of time spent on the beach I ventured back to the bus stop for my other two-hour-instead-of-twenty-minutes return. I got off at the Belmont stop, missed the bus back to Waurn Ponds and decided foolishly to walk back (a 5km walk in urban sprawl and highway). It was hot and after only two kilometers I was exhausted, and ankle started hurting. But once again I found an angel who gave me a ride to my current Australian "home"; this time the angel took shape in a Chinese family: a Deakin PhD student with his wife and lovely baby girl.

The day overall whereabouts

Walking and swimming in Torquay

A sprawl walk in Belmont toward my current residence

PhD Journey | Another Week...

Another week in my PhD drama has passed and no progress in the access to the resources needed for my research. Actually, I decided not to define my PhD journey a drama any longer, and try to be less emotional; I will just look at the statistics of progress/lack of progress. Numbers always bring some type of comfort, after all.
On Wednesday I had an energizing day in Melbourne, although the usual pain in the ankle made walking even short distance a challenge. The purpose was attending a workshop on data visualization, which was extremely informative and even inspiring. Going to Melbourne is always refreshing.
The positive of the past couple of days is also that the pain in my ankle/leg, although is still a constant presence, is decreasing.
Ralph Waldo Emerson  wrote “Life is a journey, not a destination.” but in my PhD case I have really to focus on the destination, as the academic journey is bring mainly frustrations. As I am in mood for quotes, J.R.R. Tolkien's “Not all those who wander are lost.” is bringing some sense of comfort and meaning.
Below are stills from the Finding the Axis Mundi ritualistic sequence: a vinyasa with modified suria namaskar (sun salutation) which includes headstand variations; I practise the sequence twice a day combined with 12 straight legs push ups and several other exercises for abdominals.

 

Living With Pain: Modified, Yet Tenacious Practice

I am still dealing with severe pain in the left leg, which makes walking extremely challenging; I believe that I am suffering of a stress fracture. The photos show my practice from past Sunday, which brought some emotional (and perhaps even physical) relief.

Thoughts & Actions | Finding the Warrior

After an uplifting time at Hanging Rock the day before, yesterday I started experiencing an increasing pain in my ankle and sheen, probably a tendinitis, almost incapacitating in terms of physical exercise and walking. I tried not to let it interfere with the positive energy experienced a day earlier, and tried to modify my hatha yoga practice to asanas which would not put any strain on my mysteriously injured leg. While I practice sirsasana (headstand) three times a day with tendinitis this inversion requires a lot of modifications; on the counterside I always found extremely challenging bakāsana (crane pose, known as crow); but with my injury this pose was one of the few which would could be practiced without a major physical stress.
Once again hatha yoga taught me a lesson: life is often about modification and compensation. Both can bring positive experience as long as we are able to find the warrior inside.

My present challenge is a big one: weight loss. Since when I moved to Australia I am eating a lot of comfort food, which has become a sort of addiction (especially for dessert and meats). So far I have not been successful in cutting down the unnecessary food; hopefully moving to a new place, it will make me return to the pesco ovo vegetarian diet I had when living in NYC.

running | Geelong, Limeburners Point

Today a 5k run to Limeburners Point: running, as usual, has brought solace.

View from Limeburners Point

Najarasana at the land art "Rhythms of Life" by Andrew Rogers (2006)

Total run length: 4.8km

Practice | Carrying a Yoga Mat

In the past week I have been carrying along my yoga mat, which has been my constant and sometimes only companion since when I left New York and landed in Australia on March 12. Yoga practice has been a solace and reference point throughout these months of uncertainty, isolation and marginalization. I practice a short vyniasa sequence, a surya namaskar (sun salutation) which includes a sirsasana (headstand) in the morning, as soon as I wake up. And I repeat the same sequence in the evening, before dinner. My yoga practice usually happens in my room 16ft x 7ft where I also sleep, eat, research, read, design, draw, listen to music and communicate with people in my life across the ocean.

The past week has been one of the toughest, in the roller-coaster of my academic and personal journey and I decided to carry my practice outside, wherever the day was taking me. Although I practiced outdoor only once, during a warm spring announcing day, carrying the yoga mat has provided a sense of safety from my feeling of vulnerability, becoming the Linus blanket du jour. Although a yoga practice does not require a mat, this physical object has it own value and its presence makes me feel less vulnerable. A yoga mat —or whatever space occupying object— represents a potential to occupy a mobile space with your identity, a visible marker of a temporary occupied territory, even if the location moves: it becomes a metaphor of "being in the world" a liaison/interface between body and earth. And it is also a way to affirm diversity, especially in a place where yoga is definitely not a mainstream practice as in in my home town. 

 

I am truly looking forward to next week: hopefully spring will be coming to stay!