The Power of the Mind - Why yoga compliments your fitness program & your life.

In the book, “Autobiography of a Yogi”, Paramahansa Yogananda recounts a story about a time his guru helped him heal from an illness.   He was very sick and had lost a lot of weight and he visited his guru and asked for help with the illness.  His guru told him that his mind had the power to heal his illness and if he just thought himself well, he would be well.   The next day, he felt much better.  He asked his guru what he had done to him,  his guru replied,  “nothing" and said that perhaps things would change the following day and he would be unwell again.   The next day he felt sick again and his guru explained again how his mind could heal him and told him that he was well again.  That day, Yogananda went home and much to his family’s surprise he had not only gotten better, but had also gained back the weight he had lost during his illness.

An almost unbelievable tale of self healing that can give us a glimpse into the untapped power of the human mind.    How is such supernatural power possible?   The yogis believe that through a dedicated practice of yoga (particularly meditation), super natural powers can be obtained.  Western yoga has never claimed to offer super natural powers - we practice yoga for a multitude of reasons the most common being the physical aspect of the practice.   Very rarely do we dig much deeper than just a little bit of coping with discomfort on our mat.

When we think about yoga it is the postures that come to mind.   Yet, yoga is more than just tree pose.   It is a system.   A science of cultivating an inner state of stillness that allows the practitioner to recognize the truth of who they are.   Supernatural powers?  Probably not going to happen in my lifetime even with dedicated practice.   Although,   realization of an unending, unchanging sense of happiness most certainly can - and this is how I approach yoga.  Both in my own practice and in my teaching.

Which brings me to my topic.   Why and how yoga compliments your fitness program.    Of course, supernatural powers to will your body into instant svelte shape and well being would certainly be useful - unfortunately,  this is probably not going to happen for you.   Most certainly not under my tutelage.   So, we will have to lower our expectations of our yoga practice.

Like I said, yoga is a system.   In the Yoga Sutras, Patanjoli describes 8 limbs of yoga.   This is the system.   The first 2 limbs are the Yama & Niyama rules - moral observances.   Consider these a guideline to living a more conscious life.    The yama and niyamas is where it all begins.   Once you know them, you can’t unknow them.   And so, you begin to integrate them.

Yama Rules:
1. Ahimsa - non violence.   This means exactly what is says.   Don’t hurt others, or yourself.
2. Satya - truth.   Be honest
3. Asteya - don’t steal.   (this means actual theft, but also talking too much or being late could be considered stealing as well)
4. Brahmacharya - sexual restraint.  Don’t go overboard.  On anything.
5. Aparigraha - non aquisitiveness.  Don’t be greedy.   Don’t take more than you need.

Niyama Rules:
1. Saucha - cleanliness.   Take good care of yourself.
2. Santosha - contentment.   It is what it is.
3. Tapas - work hard.
4. Svadhyaya - Self study.   Get to know yourself.  Read books that can help you understand yourself better.
5. Ishvara pranidhana - Surrender to something greater than yourself.

It’s all pretty much here.   And this is why I think yoga is a wonderful compliment to your fitness program.

Ahimsa - Don’t go overboard.   More is not always better.   Take your rest days.  Listen to your body.  Fuel properly.

Satya - Get honest with yourself about your goals, and your reasons for your fitness journey.  If you for one second believe you will be happier once you are fit, thin, strong - you need to rethink your reasons.   You will be healthier.    Happiness is cultivated along the way,  and in fact your basic nature is happiness - it is never not there for you in any given moment! More about that later.

Asteya - Go to your classes.    Your instructors time is important, and they want you to be in class on time and ready to participate.

Brahmacharya - This one is a great one for those on a weight loss or fitness journey.   Restraint.   Traditionally this means restraint sexually, particularly for men with regard to ejaculating too often.  But, let’s take a bit of a lululemon spin on this one for the purpose of this article.   Remember the Brahmacharya bag with the money, needles, booze, etc in the lettering?  In terms of restraint, practicing brahmacharya can help you moderate your life particularly with regard to over eating, over internetting, over tv’ing, over exercising.    I’m not one of those, “everything in moderation” type people - that gets tiresome, and is a ridiculous notion because poison certainly isn’t good in moderation.   This yama can assist you with being mindful with any sort of consumption.   That is a good thing.

Aparigraha - You probably don’t need that second helping of dinner, do you?

Saucha - Eat clean.   Real food.  No shakes, no gimmicks.  Just eat real food.

Santosha - Another good one.   Thing is.   Life is good.  And life can outright bloody well suck.   Santosha is the practice of being okay with either.   It’s not complacency, if you can change things you should do it (see tapas).  It’s understanding that what will be will be.   You will have good days on your fitness journey, and you will have days where you want to eat twinkies and lay in bed all day.   There is really no reason to beat yourself up.... Ahimsa,   Remember?  All of these yama and niyamas work together and compliment one another.    You had a bad day.   Don’t dwell or linger on all of the negative thoughts you have running around in your head.   Santosha is your practice of taking a deep breath and moving forward with a sense of well being.    Did your husband get tied up at work and you ended up missing your workout and you ate pizza for dinner?   Again, not something to dwell on.    This is what happened.   Tomorrow it can be different.   Or maybe it won’t be.  Maybe you will injure yourself and be unable to return to the gym.    This is the practice.   It is about being okay with what is.   Exactly how it is.    If you struggle with this one, pick up Byron Katie’s book “Loving what is” and do "the work".   Life changing.

Tapas - work hard.    Do. Your. Practice.    Don’t skip planned workouts.  Go to yoga.   Do the work.   This means practicing all the other yamas and niyamas as well.    Do your work.   Do it.  Watch this video if you need further clarification on this one:





Svadhyaya.  Get to know yourself.   You go into every single workout & every single yoga class exactly as you are.   What can you learn about yourself?   Do you quit when the going gets tough? Do you tend to over do things? How can you apply the other yama & niyama rules to this?  Getting real with yourself is important because you can begin to identify self limiting thought patterns.   You will begin to recognize how you sabotage yourself, and perhaps others.  Once you know, you can change.  There are many spiritual texts to help you understand yourself, your ego, and ultimately your true nature as love & happiness.

Ishvara Pranidhana - Surrender to something greater than oneself.    Your understanding of God.  In the yoga tradition, God is within.   We can understand God as the Divine, Grace, Love, Happiness, Truth.   This is where I think we can really begin to experience yoga as a facilitator of any goal, any earthly desire.   When you recognize that you ARE love,  anything you desire, anything you seek - you are already that thing.   The practice of yoga is a practice of uncovering this true nature.    We practice the postures, breathing exercises, and meditation in order to achieve a stillness in the mind that allows us to recognize that we are something far greater than our thoughts.   We are the stillness beyond thought.   Understanding this concept has been made easier for me through reading (self study) Eckhart Tolle’s writing - if you are feeling curious.   What you'll realize is that you don’t need to be thin, strong, or in fact even be healthy in order to understand your true self.   That attaining a goal on the scale is not going to bring you happiness.    And, fact is,your goals will be meaningless when you achieve them if you have not first cultivated stillness and peace within.   You will just move on to the next thing - the next goal - the next big purchase - the next whatever - seeking without, something that is only found within.    Yoga helps us realize that happiness is an inside job.

Which brings me to the 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th & 7th limb of yoga - which is our hatha yoga practice.      Limb 3,  is asana.   Patanjoli meant sitting, as in sitting for meditation.   But, western yogis have decided this should also include the postures we know as yoga.    So, this is what I am going to also refer to as the 3rd limb of yoga.  The practice of postures we do on the mat.   The 4th limb is pranayama.  Control of the breath.   The 5th limb is sense withdrawal,  moving inward.  The 6th limb is dharana or concentration - this is the pathway toward a meditation practice, fixing the mind on a single object.   The 7th limb is meditation, which is an uninterrupted flow of concentration, a quietening of the mind without distraction.    (The 8th limb is complete absorption or liberation, enlightenment -  not something I’m teaching at your gym or my studio for that matter.  We would be lucky to achieve fleeting moments of meditative stillness. ).

When you go to a yoga class your practice will probably consist mostly of asana (postures) and pranayama (breathing) and possibly some meditation (either sense withdrawal or concentration techniques).    It is through the physical practice that we begin to undo our habitual patterns of body & mind.   This habitual patterning can take the form of tightness or tension, pain, injury, loss of sensation, anxiety, stress, depression, or illness.   As you practice you'll begin to create a relationship with your body that can help us undo this patterning (hence the tapas, we work hard to undo what we can and practice santosha to help us accept what is unable to change).  As a result, energy flows more freely in the body mind.  Over time, you'll begin to hold less tension, in both the body & the mind, particularly in your thought patterns which can help you to better practice the yama & niyama rules.   See, these limbs not only work sequentially but also cyclically and complimentarily.   It is only through dedication that you’ll begin to notice that yoga has the power to change your relationship with life.  Through an improved relationship with the body mind, yoga compliments not only your fitness routine but also assists you in transforming your life so that you can recognize your natural state of happiness.    It’s not going to be easy,  I can tell you all about that too someday - it’s a practice, and it may take this lifetime or several lifetimes.  But, like I said, once you know the path - you can’t unknow it.   You can opt to ignore it, but why wouldn’t you want to leap right in?

Later, after describing the 8 limbs in the Yoga Sutras, Patanjoli goes on to describe the super natural powers that I mentioned above in the story of Yogananda’s guru.    The mind is a powerful tool - with limitless potential.   Yoga can be a tool that will help you to harness your mind, to become more conscious & present in your day to day life.   What an incredible gift we can give to those we share our lives with!  The really great thing about yoga though, is that you can ignore all the stuff I’ve just said, just throw it all out,  come to a class and still receive immense benefit from the practice.   You will notice improved mobility, greater strength, and a feeling of calmness as a result of your time on the mat.   That alone, is worth coming to yoga for.   But, if you begin to live yoga, to really adopt the teachings into your life - yoga is a pathway toward, as Georg Feuerstein calls it, “radical transformation" - and as MC Yogi says, “the most radical thing you can do is take one conscious breath”.   In that moment of noticing the inhale & exhale, you are present - and there is no past, no future - just now.   And NOW is exactly perfect as it is, every single time.   Try it.   It could change your life.

Reverence: a summer of practicing astanga yoga.

I’ve been teaching yoga full time for about four years now.   And have been practicing for about six.    You could say I’m a teacher & practitioner of no fixed tradition.   In our training we called ourselves “yoga pirates” - borrowing from all traditions, piecing together classes & practices with aspects taken from an open exploration of all avenues of yoga.  We always had a guiding principle of Iyengar alignment as a background to our exploration - and so when in doubt, I would refer to "Light on Yoga" or “Yoga the Iyengar Way” for alignment & sequencing ideas.   Thankfully, I’m an avid student of yoga and have been able to piece together classes that have been educational, meaningful and explorative for my students

About 18 months ago after leaving the studio in which I trained, I began practicing in an Astanga studio.   Not long after, I began teaching in this studio.  During the time I worked at the astanga studio, I went to a handful of astanga classes but did not commit to the practice.   I felt the practice “wasn’t for me”.   I couldn’t imagine committing to a practice that was the same day in and day out, full of postures I felt uncomfortable in, or that I wasn’t very good at.   Eventually, I left the studio as our family moved to a nearby rural community and I opened up a small backyard studio.

I thought having a backyard studio would be a wonderful way for me to build a disciplined practice.  Except, every time I got on the mat I wasn’t sure what my practice actually was.   I’d work through flow sequences, maybe do a little bit of yin or restorative.   I felt my practice weakening, and my desire to get on the mat wained as did my passion for teaching.

This summer, I decided to head back to the studio and give astanga a try.   I remember the first practice (well, the first 10 or so really) so clearly.  I spent the entire time wondering why on earth I had decided to practice astanga.   I resisted so much of the practice.   I was not good at it.   I didn’t like all the poses.   How could someone who has been teaching for 4 years struggle so much with a single practice?    My ego was crushed.   I’ve been teaching, and practicing for 4 years.  Borrowing the things I LIKED from various yoga traditions.   I was GOOD at what I taught, and the poses I enjoyed practicing.

The thing about astanga - is that it doesn’t change.   Ever.    You always do Janu Sirsasana A, B, C.   You always do Marichyasana A, B, C, D.   Even if you don’t want to.   There’s always Urdhva Dhanurasana waiting for you, or uplithi waiting patiently at the end of practice when you’re feeling tired and sore.   You know what is coming, and you accept it.  Sometimes I feel a little bit like Mr. Bean singing with the chorus in church:

The poses I know and like, I rock those out.  The others I just murmur my way though, hoping I’m flying under the radar so that I don’t have to repeat or do them again (*cough* chakrasana).    Because, in all my years of yoga piracy - this is what I have learned to do.   Take the stuff that resonates (read: the stuff that feels good) and leave the rest (read: the stuff that I don’t like to do).  The thing is - when you practice astanga yoga - you begin to realize that the reason why the practice doesn’t change is so that when you change, you notice that you have changed.   What felt downright horrid on that first day practicing astanga is feeling better.   My relationship to the postures, ability, body change every single practice and trust me, it is NEVER linear progression.    My teacher says that astanga is a practice that cultivates relationship.  Relationship with practice (the commitment loyal astangis make to getting on the mat 6 days a week),  relationship to the mind, relationship to the body.   We are learning that the body may be one way one day, and totally different another.   And that it’s okay for the body to be that way.   We feel when we have practiced without humility.  We feel when we haven’t worked to our edge.   Because the postures that we practice NEVER CHANGE.  We notice clearly when our relationship to the postures does change.  This is how we get to know ourselves through asana practice.  

I’m a flow teacher.    I flow.   There is great value in what I teach.  I teach beautiful, mindful movement linked with breath.   My students undergo a transformation that is valid, meaningful and purposeful.   I’m not writing this to discredit anything I have practiced or taught.   I’m writing this because I’ve taught this practice without truly understanding the reason & depth of meaning behind the practices I've mindlessly “borrowed” from.   What I have learned has given me greater regard and appreciation for what I use in my own sequencing and teaching.

The flow practice changes every single time I teach.   I might keep a sequence for a week - but then out it goes.     I used to teach this way out of an irreverent disregard for traditional yoga practices, for set sequences.   I have said, “I could NEVER teach, let alone practice the same sequence all the time - I like my somewhat random yet thoughtfully pieced together sequences inspired by the likes of Meghan Currie, Sadie Nardini, Shiva Rea, Krishnamacharyia, and other teachers I have studied along the way. “

There are several reasons to get on the mat.   One reason is to embody the human form artfully and with grace.   Flow allows such embodiment.   Another reason is to take your body mind and create shifts, changes, growth through dedication to practice.   And it is in this realization that I am beginning to feel reverence for, and trust in yoga (particularly the 8 limbed path of astanga yoga) as a system, as a science.    I’ve begun looking toward the 8 limbs as a pathway for cultivating authenticity and conscious living.   I’ve begun looking at the time I spend on the mat as a way to break through into places I am reluctant to go.   Discomfort happens for a reason.    Practicing at the edge of discomfort is the only way to unlock what the body is holding on to, and potentially creating real change - shifting to a new way of being.   When we only do the poses we like, we miss this important growth opportunity.

Traditional yoga is sequenced, repetitive, and challenging for a reason.   Sharon Gannon says it best when she says “through repetition the magic is forced to arise” - and of course, Pattabhi Jois also sums this up beautifully with “do your practice, and all is coming”

I no longer consider myself a yoga pirate.   I’m more of a yoga seeker.   One who is not looking to maim, murder and steal my practice from others.  Instead I am a voyager,  a yoga traveller who is gazing in at the yoga tradition with reverence, humility and respect for the teachers, gurus and practitioners who are also on this same journey toward the self.    I may not have a fixed tradition, no foothold or grounding, but I have curiosity and the utmost respect for the many ways in which people decide to practice yoga on and off the mat.    And this is what I’m going to share with you when you come to my classes.   A devotional love for this practice, and for all those who are on this path.

I’m looking forward to sharing my evolving practice with you this fall.   See my website robinhiltonyoga.com for details on where you can attend one of my classes.

Travelling the Road Home...

We moved to Indian Head a year ago looking for a place to settle down, a community in which we could raise our children - something we could call “home”.    We found all of these things in Indian Head, including a space in which I could teach yoga - a home for Surya Yoga.   We opened Surya Yoga in September of 2014 without a physical space, instead teaching in the Grand Theatre,  Indian Head’s home for Arts and Culture.   We then moved to the former home of Sherry’s Boutique for a month before settling into our more permanent home in our backyard studio at 1010 Water Street.   

Another reason we moved to this town was to be closer to my mom and dad whose idea it was to move to Indian Head.    When we initiated the move, mom was experiencing some difficulty with her memory and since we have moved, she has been diagnosed with Alzheimers Disease, and has experienced significant decline in her memory over this past year.    We feel blessed to be next door so that we can spend time with mom and dad, and provide some degree of support as they move on with this very difficult stage of their lives.   

Mom just came over to our house about an hour ago wondering if I had the phone number for her home, and could I call Ron (my dad) for her.    And it struck me.    She was not remembering that her current house is her home. That the man in the house with her was Ron, or that I was their daughter.   I tried to explain to her by showing her photographs - but in the end, I knew that my explanation could not sort through the confusion in her mind.   Home is a construct of the mind.    It is impermanent and changing.    And to each person, home is something different.   To my mom, home is a memory that her brain is struggling to make sense of.   

To many, home is an impossible luxury.    Too many displaced, homeless, disadvantaged beings do not have a physical space they can comfortably call a home.    

Home, as defined above,  is something that is outside of ourselves.  So, what does it really mean to come home?   I’ve been listening to MC Yogi’s song, “Road Home” lately (see video posted above) and the lyrics have been running around my mind as a mantra as I contemplate the idea of what it means to be or go home.    Home, in the physical sense is a luxury, but home in the metaphysical sense is always with us.   Home is our natural state of being,  home is who we truly are.   

Our culture values the physical home.    The ownership.   The home that exists outside of ourselves.   And indeed, we do all need a place to lay our head at the end of the day so that we may rest.  But, the idea of home is abstract, and home is the journey of our lifetime.    

We can be displaced, we can lose our memory, we can purchase ourselves a mansion or a building to call home, we can be rich or we can be poor.   We can have one home or many, we can have a home for our businesses, we can live on the streets.    And through all of this, we can remember that home is not ever outside of ourselves,  we are never truly home-less.    

And so, how do we find the road home? 

Each conscious breath is a return home.   Each moment we are present is a moment we are at home.    

I am truly grateful for my physical home here in Indian Head, for my incredible space to share the teachings of yoga - and for all the spaces I have felt at home in through my life.    I am privileged as most of us are to have always had a sense of belonging to a home.   I can be happy, not because I have a physical roof over my head or a studio to teach yoga in,  but because I recognize that I have always been home.    And always will be.    

Please join me in one of  many yoga spaces (homes) as we navigate the road to our true home together.    Home, truly is, where the heart is... and is so much more than a physical space.   Visit robinhiltonyoga.com for information on class times and places.   I teach in Indian Head, Katepwa Beach, Fort Quapelle, and in the city of Regina.    

“God Bless every child travelling the road home...’ - MC YOGI