May 6th 2008
Article
Deep stretch is coming...
Last weekend I had an opportunity to take my mentor's yoga class in Seattle. He was visiting town over the weekend for the 3-day workshop, and I had to take one of his classes! He is my mentor, the very first yoga teacher, a very inspiring beautiful human being. He has taught me so much in my spiritual path and meditation.
In the class which was geared toward more long-held asana and contemplative practice, each pose was held for about two minutes ( those of you who has done only Vinyasa or Hot Yoga class, the longest you hold is only one minute each side), and he kept telling us, “Please prepare for the long stretching which is coming”. I thought he was joking so did everyone in the room and we giggled every time he said that.
One hour has passed since the class started and there was no one giggling any more. The intensity of holding poses has gotten so strong that we could not laugh at that point. I was dealing with massive sensations all over my body, and my only intention at that point was to “stay with the breath”.
By trying not to move at all and stay in the pose, my mind travelled million miles. That was the whole idea of yoga. How can I keep my mind in my body for the duration necessary? How I deal with the situation where I am having difficulties? It is not the “asana” which is challenging me, it is “me/my mind” challenging my calmness, stillness, focus, concentration, equanimity.”
My teacher, in the meantime, kept talking to guide us through this painful moment by moment by moment.
One hour and forty-five minutes passes and we might have done maybe 8 poses (excluding the warm up).
Finally he made us into “paschimottanasana”, which is seated forward bend with the legs straight in front and fold the torso towards the legs like a sandwich (or at least go to that direction).
OK, in the normal Vinyasa (flow)class or Hot Yoga class, we hold this pose maybe 20 seconds, or 1 minute at the most. This pose is usually done toward the end of a class because it is INTENSE stretch for your hips, calf muscles, hamstrings, and entire back.
Here I am, after long minutes of forward bends, leg stretching and massive hip openings, my legs are numb and shaky, feeling happy that this will be close to the end of the class... until the teacher had us completely in the pose and said “We hold here for ten minutes”.
Can you ever imagine, holding this pose for ten minutes?
I kept focusing on my breathing, which helped me for about 4 minutes in the pose. Very simple, breathe in as long as your lungs can take, and breathe out as long as I can until the lungs are relatively empty, even though the lungs never get completely empty. As I concentrate on my breath, the duration of the time I actually forget about the pose I was in became prolonged. I was able to be present, just doing one single task, and enjoying the quality of what I was engaging in.
After he said we were half way in (5 minutes), my legs started talking to me very loud. The voice was something like this : “Pain! Get us out of this! We want to relax! This is torture. Ahhhhhh, it hurts so much! We are dying!!! Cannot breathe any more..!!!!”
I tried to ignore that ever so loud voice. I was determined not to move my position at all. Pretty soon, my legs made new friends to scream together at me; my low back and gluteus. My reaction to them was to breathe deeper and longer. Thank Buddha I have breathing skill! My teacher continues to tell us to breathe long and deep and free. “Ultimately 15 seconds inhale, 15 seconds exhale, so you are only breathing twice a minute, and you only have to breathe 8 times till the end of this pose.”
So in other words, if I can inhale 30 seconds long, my breathe can be only one per minute!
(Normal people's breath is somewhere around 12 per minute in case you are wondering).
It got me suddenly excited to try this “one breathe one minute game”. And I momentarily forgot the pain and sensations, and I felt liberated.. maybe for about three seconds, then back to the hell of torture.
Sweat kept coming down from my forehead and my back. It is amazing to sweat this much without cardio work such as Sun Salutations.
By the time he said one minute to go, I was literally crying (although the tears didn't come down; just the sweat of chill/heat).
With my feet and entire legs COMPLETELY fell asleep, coming out of this pose after full 10 minutes (that is that he said and it might have been 25 minutes to be honest!) was unimaginably liberating.
Oh .
My .
Ganesh (or whatever you believe in).
Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.
Entire room full of 80 something people got released whatever we were holding on to.
The atmosphere of the space was indescribable.
How fortunate I am to be able to heal myself through my own body?
I truly appreciate my yoga practice, being alive today, and the work I have which is to share this amazing benefit with people around me.
There is a situation in our life that we just can not escape from.
There is a situation in our life that we simply MUST go through even though we know it is so uncomfortable, challenging, painful, and ugly.
How can we go through that process?
How do we feel coming out of it?
That was the yoga class I had on that day.
So in case you want to ask me “What is the point of holding the poses that long?”, I will ask you these questions in return:
1.How long have you held any specific pose the longest?
2.How did you feel coming out of it?
If you have held one minute the most and it felt great coming out of it, poses held 10 minutes are 10 times feeling better coming out of it! Simple, yes?
Thank you for reading.
Keep showing up to your yoga mat.
Namaste.
Saiko Flack is a Registered Yoga Teacher (R.Y.T.) recognized by US Yoga Alliance and has been teaching yoga and meditation in Seattle and vicinity since 2003. For more info about Saiko's classes and workshops, retreats : http://www.saikoyoga.com