Silence and reflection

Today I have a rare moment of free time after doing the dishes. I pull out my Yoga notebook and text to do some reading, while U2's Joshua Tree playing on my iPhone.  The sun is shining this morning, and we all know we are expecting rain to start again later today, so we will go out later to enjoy the nice sunny day between the storms.

I read these notes I took from my silence retreat last June, and they bring back warm memories of my second silence retreat with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar from the Art of Living Foundation. I'm inspired.

Let me first talk a little about the state of silence. Many things were said about silence, e.g. from the East: "Silence is golden." from the West: "Silence is like a cancer grows." (From a Simon and Garfunkel song?)

I now understand that those kinds of sayings are by no means the real representation of silence. In Yoga, one of the 8 practices are the state of withdraw or you may know it as fasting. Fasting can mean going for a period of time without food, but it can also be the practice of the absence of speech.

Our silence retreat went for 4 days. We lodge in hotels in Santa Clara walking distance from the convention center where the venue was run. We got up early in the morning to do Yoga asana and Kriya practice, then had breakfast, and then we sat for a few guided meditations a day, while having lunch and dinner together in between. At night after dinner, we had Satsang and Q&A with Sri Sri. We were also separated in groups to do service (seva), such as serving food at various meals. The event had 1000 participants, but everything was so well organized we hardly had any issues with the crowd.

All I have to say is, being in silence is really a treat. The flowers were more vibrant, the air was clearer and things around me were more positive. The mind was calmer and more opened to kindness. The simple vegetarian food was more tasty and flavorful.

So we didn't talk to nor acknowledge one another, and to my curiosity, people looked so serious. I found it humorous, since I didn't think silence means serious at all.

Based on Sri Sri, there were three types of silence:
1. Keep the mouth shut.
2. Withdraw senses, not interested in seeing, tasting, smell, etc.
3. Blissful, total satisfaction. Absolute inner contentment.

I enjoyed the Q&A with Sri Sri toward the end of the day after Satsang. Sri Sri answered questions written in pieces of indexed cards that were dropped in the basket throughout the day.

Here are some examples of the wisdoms shared:
Q: What to do when people criticize me?
A: When someone criticize you, let it bounce back, shake hands tomorrow, and you are a bigger person. Behave as if it doesn't matter to you at all.
There are two possibilities when someone criticize you:
1. Because they are attached to you. They point out your mistakes, risk friendship. They want you to be better. True friends show your flaws.
2. They are tense, ignorant, jealous. In this case, be compassionate to them. They are suffering, why be upset with them?

Q: How do I find my soul mate?
A: No soul mate because you are a bundle of thoughts, no moment of clarity and spontaneity in action.
Once you meet your soul, then you can meet anyone as your soul mate.

Every day in the evening, the basket was full of questions, and every evening he would answer a few questions from that day. In the last evening, when the basket was brought to him, Sri Sri looked at the pile of questions and said: "Again?" We laughed. He sat there holding the full basket in his lap, and asked: "Does it really matter?" He sat in silence with his head rested in his palm, and just looked around from right to left, from the front to the back of the auditorium, with his usual smile on his face and a hint of a tease.

I wondered what he was thinking. Was he upset? The the guru can't be angry. Was he searching for some jokes or wisdom to talk about? His talk yesterday was so excellent, how could he top that?

Finally after 20 minutes or so, he spoke: "This is the latest technology, all answered in silence. Come and download your answers." I laughed!

He smiled and spoke softly: "Each of you are so complete. Like the bud of the flower, just need to blossom, need silence, dispassion, contentment, clarity, spontaneity."

The importance of counting

My Yoga Teacher Training was very fruitful. There were a few basic things I learned which were beneficial to my day-to-day life. Among them was learning how to integrate stretches with my work and life, to relief stiffness and relax the mind. Believe it or not, one of the keys of doing yoga on your own, other than accuracy of the poses and building the sequences, is knowing how to count. If you don't hold the pose long enough, you may not be able to feel the effect of the practice, and you may give up on the home practice too soon.

Yes, to me, stretches and Yoga only work if the pose is held for a certain amount of time. As for how long, it varies. In the gym aerobic or body sculpt group class, some teachers count to 8, others count to 12, some others count backwards, 5, 4, 3, 2, and then 3, 2, 1, just so you hold a little longer. For Yoga poses, you can hold 5 counts to begin with, then later on hold for 1 to 2 minutes. If you are worried about how to make sure the length of each count is equal, just remember on average, 10 to 12 breaths takes 1 minute. You can see a Yoga home practice will also build your patience, because your mind can be easily distracted while doing Yoga at home.

In addition, to develop a home practice, you must allocate time in the day for the practice; build a sequence which works for you, so you can always rely on it to achieve your goal of the practice. Initially you can "borrow" your teacher's sequences, if you can remember them, then you can modify them for your own needs.

Some people just do headstand before going to bed, others do a few restorative Yoga poses. Yet others do a full practice with warm up, Sun Salutations, main sequence and cool down. If you do a practice for more than 30 minutes, I learned that it is important to finish up with a short 2-5 minutes Savasana, otherwise you can feel dizzy or queazy when you are done. The length of the Yoga practice is not as important, as long as it works for you and that you can do it everyday. Actually, it's not important that you do it everyday, as long as you know what to do when it is needed. Remember, it is a tool that works for you and your lifestyle.

The more I think about it, the more I realized how important counting is in our lives.

We count down to the new year or other important dates.

I count the throws for Jake to make sure he has enough fetching exercise in a session. That is 10 times per session, 3 sessions per day for Jake.

The healthy tooth brushing is 30 seconds per quadrant, two minutes total.

Some people count calories.

One maybe instructed to take certain medicine or do a certain regiment 2 or 3 times a day. Have a facial once every 6 weeks, a hair cut every 6 - 8 weeks, etc.

If we can't fall asleep, we count sheep.

Can you think of other examples?

Turned off

I have a bone to pick with Yoga Journal. As much as I like the information provided by the magazine, I am totally turned off by its advertisements. I feel strongly that YJ is taking advantage of Yoga practitioners' passion to influence them in terms of what they should wear, eat, give as gifts, use as makeups, and even on supplements. The ads made YJ seems unjustifiably shallow and unsatisfying. In this way, YJ is just the same as the rest of our capitalistic commercial businesses.

You may ask, why so negative? After all, the magazine is in the business to make money, and its number one source of income is advertisement, just like any other lifestyle or hobby magazines, such as Fitness, Cooking or Golf. It maybe obvious to some, that money making againsts Yogic ways, which advocate simplicity and inner contentment.

Does one really need a new pair of Lucy Yoga Pants or Gaiam mat to deepen the practice?

Self healing

To me, self healing is a self discovery and self realization, which is awesome.

Not only my neck and shoulder pain wasn't worsen after I started kiteboarding last weekend, I actually felt better.

Yoga and foam roller everyday are actually doing the magic to my physical pain! 

Yoga is a good complement to any sports activity. Give yourself a good stretch on your legs, arms, upper body, neck and shoulder. Hold each stretch for 3 long breaths to start, and up to 5 later on. Do this in the morning before your sport, it will help lessen the stiffness of the body, and get it ready for the sport later in the day.

Here are some of stretches I do. Don't worry, you don't have to do sun salutation if you don't want to. Sun salutations help warm up the body, you can replace it with anything, like dancing or whatever works for you. Pick some of your favorites and work on them.

shoulder roll, neck stretch

cat and cow, 5-8 reps

warrior I, II, triangle, revolve triangle

standing forward bend

high lunge, low lunge, sideway intense stretch

pigeon, low cobra, down dog

tree

seated twist, such as half lord of the fish

bridge, shoulder stand, plow pose

knees to chest

Finally to cool down, use the foam roller for the upper back, shoulder area, and lower back. 

A kiteboarder's yoga retreat

Wake up coffee 9 - 9:30
Yoga in the morning 9:30 - 10:30
Brunch 10:30-11
Dog walking 12-2
Kiting 2-4
Take nice sunset photos if available
Dinner
Movies
Yoga before bed

Repeat for 3 or more days

Life is good

A wholesome belief

In a group, we studied Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's commentary of the ancient Hindi text: Ashtavakra Gita.

Sri Sri said:
You are complete, now.
You are all that you need, don't undermine yourself. A Guru is here to show you who you are. Whatever I am, that's who you are.

I often feel incomplete, because my knowledge is incomplete. I'm always searching, seeking for more knowledge and skills, as I feel my life so far has been on a path of learning and growing. I attend to classes, workshops to learn from others and to find ways to make me happier, stronger and wiser.

To hear this from the Guru was an eye opener. I have never thought of myself as complete, therefore I have not been freed.

The Guru said: growing is like removing the husk to let the rice show. You are already complete.

A human head is the weight of a bowling ball

The human neck has to carry the weight of the head, and it is prone to injury, yet there are not a lot of exercises one can do to speed up the recovery or make a stronger neck.

So my suggestion? First, take care and try not to hurt you neck. If you do hurt your neck in any way, then seek medical care.

A quick update about my neck pain. I went back to work last week and it has been very busy. I worked 7 days straight, and my neck pain did not improve much. I have been just barely hanging in there. These 2 days, I could finally turn my head to the left to talk to Jack without turning my whole body. My head still slightly tilts to the right side out of pain or habit. I did receive 2 long back massages from Jack, who used to be a masseur back when he was in grad school. We still have the massage table setup in the living room in front of the big TV.

Here are the exercises I do to care for my pinched nerve in the neck these days. I wish you will find this helpful.

At first you may feel very weak and tender, so you may not be able to do the full set of exercises, but try breathing deeply to help ease the pain and to focus your energy. Do what you can, and when it hurts, stop. Use smaller range of motion until your muscles get stronger and less painful. Inhale deep into your belly and exhale from your belly when doing these exercises, the slower the breath the better. Slowness and gentleness are the keys here, because you don't want to unintentionally strain your neck or shoulders even more. If you are in a lot of pain, you should not do too much work to stress your physical body.

This set of exercises will take about 15 minutes to complete, and you should try to do it once every hour, if possible. Be patient with the exercises and with your body.

1. Gentle head rolls
Roll your head from left to forward to right, while taking a full breath each time you drop your head slightly in different position. When your head lowers straight forward, hold it there for 3 full breaths, then inhale, exhale and roll the slowly head to the right on each breath. When your head drops to the right, hold there for 3 full breaths, then slowly roll it from right to center to left, and hold on the left for at least 3 breaths. (Please do this only under the guidance of your medical care provider)

2. Turn you head from side to side
Slowly turn your head from right to left on inhale, then left to right on exhale. Repeat 3 times. Gently turn your head to the right, hold for 3 full breaths, then slowly and easily turn it to the left side and hold it for 3 breaths.

3. Shoulder shrug
Shrug your shoulders up on inhale, then lower them down on exhale, and do so slowly. Repeat 3 times.

4. Shoulder roll
Slowly and gently roll your shoulders forward taking a full breath on each shoulder roll. Roll forward for 3 times, then backwards for 3 times.

5. Modified eagle arms
Use the left hand to hold the right shoulder so that the right arm is straight across the front body. Stretch the right shoulder lightly if it feels possible. Hold this for 3 breaths, then do the other side. Repeat if it feels good.

6. Seated twist and staff pose
Sit with right leg straight in front of you, and the left leg bend and cross over the right knee, left foot on the floor and left knee up. Gently turn your body toward the left, hug you left knee with your right arm. Hold this pose and take 2 full breaths. Place both legs straight in front of you, and place your hands on each side of your body for support. Straighten your body and your legs so that your upper body and your legs are in a 90 degree angle. This is the staff pose. Hold the staff pose for 2 breaths before doing seated twist on the right side.

7. Recline knees to chest
Lie on the floor. Hold your knees to chest with your arms. Mildly move the knees around from side to side, and feel the whole spine and back slightly push towards the floor. Hold for 5 breaths, then repeat for 2 more times.

Other helpful tips:
a. Try to sit on a hard surface such as on the floor with a folded yoga blanket, or a yoga bolster with your back straight. Keeping your spine and back straight may help ease the pain on the shoulders and the neck.

b. If you are in pain, try breathing deeply, inhale into the navel center and long exhale from the navel center while meditating or chanting your favorite mantra. This is a good chance to use these methods to help you relief the pain for the moment. I used the Gayatri Mantra, which is a Hindu mantra for removing obstacles.

c. Do not sit or lie down for an extended period of time during the day. Try to walk around, such as taking a walk or do light housework to distract yourself from the pain. When you notice that your body is stiff and in pain, then start changing the position or moving around.