Didgerido-ing My Thing

Some of you may know that I have thrown myself into the magical world of playing the didgeridoo. Here's whats been going on. I went to Australia in 2000 to study printmaking. I bought a didgeridoo there. It was in Cairns (prounounced: Cans) that I purchased this didgeridoo. I ran into a man playing one of these didgeridoos for minutes on end. I was mesmerized watching him play and listening to the drones, crackles, twangs and buzzes flowing from the instrument. He stopped, looked up at me and said, "It's an amazing journey." That was pretty much it for me, I had to get one.

I learned different sounds, but ran into a blockade trying to understand this 'circular breathing' stuff. How do people breathe in AND out at the same time. I couldn't do it. I gave up and my didg' became an ornament for showing friends and impressing girls.

Fast forward to April, 2010. I am in Kauai, studying yoga, right,.. you guys know this. One of the girls in the training with me has this boyfriend named Jim who has a didgeridoo. And I don't know what it was about this guy, or this didg' or what, but something in me said, "it's time to play this instrument again." So, I bought one at the local music shop, a plastic version, painted in the traditional Aboriginal way of the dreamtime serpent. 

I practiced and practiced, the sounds came back to me. I expanded on more sounds. Still the circular breathing wasn't there, although I became committed to learning so I can fulfill on this dream I had of playing in the New York City subway system. I first became aware of this dream after I saw this, check it out. 

I left Hawaii still practicing. Practiced more at the Dharma Siddha Buddhist house in Berkeley, CA. They were happy I was playing. I was happy too, but I knew I had lots left to learn. I came back to New Jersey and watched countless circular breathing tutorials on YouTube, it still wasn't helping b/c I wasn't circular breathing, which basically means I can play well, but for only 15 or so seconds at a time, maybe. To circular breathe would mean I could go out into the streets and fulfill my dream and mission of playing in the subway and being a busking musician, an artist but only once I get this breathing technique.

When I was in Berkeley I met a woman who could play and circular breathe. She said it was all feeling. That wasn't good enough for me at the time though. I needed linear, concrete examples on how to breathe, move my cheeks, flicker my tongue. All of it. I also met a man at the same house I met this woman at and he was giving me all kinds of equations for breathing circularly. But that didn't help either. Was I ever going to get this!

Yes I was! I got it. I got it last friday night! And, I have to say the woman who taught me to just feel my way into it was right. It's a total feeling instrument and my teacher. And last friday night, one week ago right now, I was playing in the W4th subway station on the B,D,F,V Downtown and Brooklyn platform fulfilling a dream. How did it happen?


Didg'in da' subway from brandon waloff on Vimeo.


Earlier that night I was in my room around 8:45 playing, probably just going to stay in and drink a beer with Doug and Olivia when it just clicked. Just like that. I couldn't believe it. I was now ready to go play in the subway! And good thing for me b/c with my recent financial shortage I was planning to play the next day, even if I didn't get the breathing down. Perfect!

It was one of the most exhilarating experiences I have had in a while, different than Hawaii. This was me on my edge, as a man and I was SUPER ALIVE!  I made a few duckets but the best part was talking to a 10-year old girl and her mom as they gazed in curiosity.  

Since that night the interactions remain to be the best part of this whole new endeavor I have taken on. West 4th street, Broadway/Lafayette, Central Park (that was a free concert I gave to the people), Washington Sq. Park, Madison Sq. Park and Union Square have all seen me to this point. Coincidentally at the same time I have begun to teach yoga. I've played 6 times now in New York City and have taught yoga 3 times last week. Since playing I have met 3 yoga teachers also who want me to play with them in their class as well as some other juicy opportunities that have surfaced where I can play music.  

I feel I am living out of my heart and am completely in alignment with my passion right now. I want to create music. I want to develop this sound with inspiring mantra's and trance-like effects and play across the lands and be a yoga teacher and didgeridoo player for my students. You don't think I'm serious? Oh, I am. Just you wait. 

Throughout this past week I have felt more connected to yoga, to it's practice and how much of an honor it is to teach this lineage. How does the didgeridoo connect to yoga besides playing for classes? I am playing. Yoga is a practice that can loosen up the tightness of everyday living, lighten up our outlooks and enlighten our souls. Naturally playing didg' in the streets has come from lightening up and living day by day, listening to my heart, shutting up my head and remaining present to my dream. Yoga means union. Yup, that's how.

B~

Someone recently asked me what my most profound moment of yoga has been

 The most profound moment of my yoga practice, albeit there were many, would have to be the moment I realized that I was in fact, a yoga teacher. It wasn’t at my teacher training or after my training. It was at Burning Man in 2006. 


I was taking a class from this really great teacher named Joe who teaches somewhere in the Chelsea section of New York City. There must have been about 70 people in his class, under a tent in the desert. It was early, around 9am and we were set up in concentric circles going from the smallest circle in the center of the tent (with me in it-of about 6 people) outwards towards the largest circles at the back ends of the tent which linked roughly 20 or so people. I can’t really remember those details. What I do remember was that since it was outside and being the very expansive desert was hard to hear Joe as he walked around and taught. 


I noticed two things. One, that I was amazingly present and centered in my practice that morning. I hadn’t practiced in a few months up until that point and was surprised how open my body was. This leads me to the second point. I was smiling. Wide. And since I was having my own transformational experience in this class already being all open and present of sorts, I saw other people who couldn’t hear the teacher watching me for instruction. 


Besides radiating positive energy that morning, I profoundly got in my bones that I was a yoga teacher. All right inside that moment. It was just a matter of time from that point to the moment I chose to head to Kauai to teach.

Same River, Never Twice.

I am back. Aloha New Jersey. Although, as I drove into Jersey City taking in the Manhattan skyline early this morning around 1:15am, for the first time in, ohh,... 56 days. As I parked the car I will be driving all the way back to D.C. for my brother tomorrow, walked a few blocks to my apt, and as I and walked around in my apt. I could absolutely not deny the dualist feeling of never leaving in the first place and knowing I am not the same person who lived here almost two months ago.

It felt like I never left. Everything seemed the same. Except for the smell. Bad. That is the one difference so far. The air is not the same air in Kauai. I never noticed before I left?

The environment felt so familiar my mind began playing tricks on me. 


"It's still the same here, nothing has changed, you haven't changed, why did you ever leave, did you ever leave? I knew it, the whole thing was a dream."  


Blah, blah-blah-blah blah 
(thank you mind chatter for sharing).


So, there was all of that, AND, what I do notice already, right off the bat, is that I feel like I grew up. I already feel more connected and open, accepting and centered. A sure-fire result of leaving just to come back home and being more in my own skin, being more at home, not just in jersey city, but with myself. I think Being able to differentiate between the these two feelings and thoughts is gold, and I'm grateful for it.


Things feel similar and different. The things are similar, but I am different. And so the proverb, You can't step in the same river twice.  Super Mamish Mahalo.

Giving is Receiving

Revamping life. It's time for a change. If anything being away taught me, it's that being away is the best way to find my way. Of course I would want to be around communities and local sustainablity and connect more to my own passions and gifts that I have cultivated over the last 10 years of my life as an artist and a healer.

To get out of the NY/East Coast/NJ rut was the best medicine I could have ever asked for.  I'm ready to come back more connected and aligned to who I am and to what my heart is saying. Being in California was feel good. I worked with a lot of people on the YogAlign Method and even found myself leading a shot-gun style class at this raw food/superfood collective one night where raw pie and poetry was the theme.  And it felt good, not to try but to give, know what I mean?

Ah, the theme of this blog comes through. When I give my gift freely without trying to or being attached to doing so, my own expression comes through with more vibrance.

I have found this true before in the past as well. For instance, last week when I was sitting around talking to people about life and yoga and hawaii what naturally came was, "I can show you some stuff" and bc it was natural and in the conversation, the gift I offered was more readily able to be received- and thus received as I showed Alexander some neuromuscular breath work. He benefited from it but even if he didn't the experience for me was rewarding as I too received the gift of service. As they heal, we heal.  I wondered if I had come with the intention of working with people at the party, would it have come naturally as it did just by me wanting to help others and share? 

I always thought there was this rigid formulaic way to go about marketing and 'getting' clients as a practitioner, but what I keep noticing is that it's always a natural process for me and if anything I have been fighting my gift of spontaneity, charisma and connection with people.  I could easily be myself, go up to strangers and talk to them, I do all the time. And to then share with them my talents is what's next.

As a health counselor in the past when I tried to make things happen I rarely achieved success in that model. But I always noticed that when I was natural and in my own wanting to share what I know with others, openly and without expectation of a return, like money, I wound up being successful in the relationship, which could be the initial consult for bringing back clients who will pay.

There are many times when I see someone suffering or ailing on the street, that I just want to go up to them and give myself, without any expectation in return. I most of the time restrict that natural energy, thinking "that would be weird," and go about my life. But now I see it differently and as my recent travels have shown, I am more open to sharing and giving which excites me because when people ask, "are you going to teach when you return home," I say yes, but really don't want to force anything. I'm really just most interested in helping others and letting the energy flow as it does, and if it leads to clients and classes, etc. great. If not, then so what, I'll do and be where I'm guided.

What are your talents you share or don't share? Where have you noticed yourself in command through the energy of giving? What would be possible for you if you were present with yourself and your gifts? What would you receive? What could you give to others? What difference would that make for them?

Forgetting to Remember

Just had a healing session with Daniel and Alan, two amazing practitioners staying at the MahaSiddha house with us. In the session, I realized 'why am i spending my time organizing my days and being on a schedule when I really have nothing to do, at all!'

Then it came to me that, and I'll quote one of my favorite mind-bending movies, 'Waking Life' "What was missing was felt irretrievable, the extreme uncertainties of traveling without working made excess necessary and breaks definitive." In other words, if I don't try to get somewhere, the place where I'm supposed to be will be shown via my heart.

It takes a lot of energy to plan. And maybe I'm supposed to stay here in the bay area for a bit longer? Maybe not? What about the long term? One thing Hawaii has provided for me is the sense that everything is ok as it is. And, the love of playing music and sound has come through for me. I bought a didgeridoo in Kauai and have become immersed in it. I am committed to mastering the didgeridoo, and all that is coming to me is wanting to play it in the streets for people. Huh? Ok. This little heart of mine, I'm gonna let it shine, and follow that heart towards the blissful state that anyone can attain by doing so. 

The challenge; being courageous enough to walk the walk and step outside the expectations that I have adopted and downloaded from myself and others in my life. To live a true life is to go on through it without knowing where to go but still having an idea of what one wants, right?

This is where I'm heading with it, really, no kidding around. (click)

Mainlanding

I think I'll mainland it for a while, maybe a looong while? I arrived in California today and after 3 flights the most challanging aspect to my travels was no doubt the bus/train/bus/train/cab connection from San Jose-->Berkeley. Took me 4 hours to commute, but only $11. That's a big mahalo to the finance gods and a sure fire slowdownyourasana tenant.

And, apparently I brought the Hawaiian sun with me! It was easily in the 80's. Plus, I am completely and absolutely bringing the Aloha spirit with me as well. Big mamish mahalo to Darius and the Mahasiddha Buddhist home for hosting me. I am in exactly the place I am supposed to be. Totally clear.

Conscious like-minded people here openly sharing life and each others gifts. I was already invited to share Yogalign with the crew here. You guys are all amazing. Aloha spirit-stoked! It's time to be the teacher I know myself to be.

Although I must say that perhaps the most interesting feature of being back on the mainland (it's not the noise or grotesque, endless shopping) is that my back is peeling like a mutha'! When I was a kid I used to love it when I would get tan and peel. But I ain't seen nothin' like this before, check it out!

(granted the pic doesn't do complete justice)


Was it because my body knew I had left island and now the re-acclimation process has begun? Was it the countless hours on the 3 planes trying to sleep unsuccessfully while I squirmed against my seat? Or was it the mainland water from the mainland shower that I took today which sent signals to molt?  No matter, any which way I slice it, I'm mainlanding now.

Right Now & Moving On~

4 days left in Kaua'i. Damn I'm gonna miss this place. People have said, "why don't you just stay?" I say, "I don't know, my home is in New York (or New Jersey)." Sure the air will be dirtier, the food not nearly as fresh, the people a little more aggravated and the pace A LOT FASTER. But, it's my home, so that's where I will be, for now.

Moving on, this blog will serve as a place to learn about alignment and yoga, and the humor and wonder of taking the philosophy of yoga (remember it's not just postures) out into the world with our people in our lives.

BUT, I promise you I will continue making videos of smoothies and fruits and foods that serve the yogic lifestyle of simplicity and wholeness, as well as other fun ones, just because. AND, I will be in California and Oregon until May 13th, so you will get to see more adventure and fun along the way, and hopefully some videos of me working with, I don't know, you!?

Let me know if YOU would like a session to check out the amazing benefits that YogAlign provides for feeling light and free in your body. It really is the bomb. We'll work out the details later.

Right now I am teaching a man for 4-days who has been a yogi for longer than I have been alive! He knows a lot, but what I am finding is that just because one practices yoga doesn't mean one doesn't have pain. It's amazing teaching Roberto, hopefully he will write in on this post and share. I'm almost in as much disbelief as he is witnessing his quads opening more than he has ever felt. Ever! Or seeing his face as he experiences his psoas (or hip flexors) opening up, he seems as though he is in shock! This work really does work, wow.

Mahalo for reading, B~

What's Yoga? What's Yogalign?

  Let's get to the yoga shall we. I figure it's time to share the style of yoga that I'm learning vs. the yoga I have been practicing for the last 6 and half years.  First. What is yoga? Basically, and I mean, REALLY basically (b/c my blog would run on forever just defining what yoga is with all the metaphors and interpretations I can come up with) yoga literally means "union."  Satchidananda Ashram, the editor of Patanjali's Yoga Sutra's describes yoga as "the understanding and complete mastery over the mind" and later says yoga is the study and science of the mind to master its reactions and behaviors, or to become one with what is going on outside of us so we are connected to each other and what is-is in the moment. 

  Most people think yoga is just a bunch of physical postures to become more flexible or strong or limber, what have you.  This blog is about yoga being on the mat and off of it, which is why I practice, so I can be happy and with my body in any pose (situation) without trying to control it or wish it was different or wish I was different, etc.  Instead of being in two places at once, you know-my mind is in one place and my body is someplace else. Make sense? The physical practice is a practice for living.  Ok, moving on.

  Yogalign, the method of yoga I am studying is going to give some people a real test to what they think yoga is. For instance, the traditional yoga posture, pictured here, Prasarita Padottanasana is supposed to benefit the spine, knees, back, hamstrings, etc. according to Yoga Journal. But how is it doing that? Because in this picture the knees are hyper-extended and the sacrum is rounded and possibly crunched. This is not supporting natural alignment and doing this will train the body to move out of it's natural integrity. And, for most people, they'll never get here, but they'll try really hard, and that's not good. 

  Michaelle always says "You can't get comfortable by being uncomfortable." And, "You can't get in alignment by being out of alignment."  So, why are we doing it this way when thousands of years of traditional yoga says otherwise?  Here, you will see our variation, which Michaelle calls 'Surfers Stretch.'



  We bend the knees to keep the curve in the lower back so our sacrum isn't getting crunched which can cause all sorts of injuries like nerve problems and disc problems. We are consciously breathing and feeling how the ribs and diaphragm move too. Because we are in this variation of wide legged forward bend we can also laterally stretch the side channels of fascia and lattisimus dorsi (the lats). It feels so good, I have never felt that whole lat muscle stretch this way before, its a real side and back opener-all in body integrity. 

  We are literally training our brain to put our body in or out of alignment, might as well do it correctly, right? If we are more aligned in our body, we are more aligned in our life, more able to pay attention to details and can be more attentive to the subtleties in our life, so we can pick up on the messages and signals and become more powerful human beings. And also so we can feel good! So many of us are in pain. 

  When you practice yoga next time, think of your spine, think of your sacrum, think of how you're breathing and ask yourself, "do I feel good right now?" "is my body supposed to be here?"  If your answer is something different than your yoga teacher has been telling you, ask them about the anatomy of the body. And if you are hurting or want to try something different, then I'll be home soon to help!

-Brandon.

Wrapping up and moving on-I'll be on the radio!

I'm about to eat lunch and bike down to one of the beaches, but of course, I have to post first.  Lunch is gluten free flax bread with almond butter and homemade grapefruit jelly made by a friend from class. I'll probably slide some local Arugula in between too.

To finish on this whole tensegrity (the body's integrity of structure) fascia conversation, I wanted to point out that the image I last posted with the bands and beams is how our body is held together, which I mentioned. What I forgot to say was that anytime we have a pull on one end of the tensegrity model, the other side is also constrained.  So that neck stiffness you have ain't coming from the neck, check your hips, sacrum or even your feet! Review the last 4 entries of this blog to catch up, if you haven't read it yet, do it. You just might learn something about your body!

Now, onto the weekend, I'm off for the week and I'm gonna go study some asana to find specific injuries I can work with people on if they are hurting, the weather has broken and I'm going on my first hike this weekend, work with a partner on Yogalign-maybe from the top of a mountain and then tomorrow night.... I will be making my community radio debut on a show called 'The Get Low Show' which highlights music from the best players around. 

Laura, my classmate is taking me on the air! I will be on KKCR Kauai community radio, from 10pm to midnight (Kauai time) where apparently we will be doing some partying too. You can listen in too, live streaming.

Have a great mahalo mamish aloha weekend.

We're 3D (pt.3)

  Listening to Thomas Meyers talk about the fascial system today in greater detail continues to puzzle me, but in a good way. In a way that is expanding my conception of how intricate the human body is and how meticulously created we are. Like, literally down to the cell. The reason the arm cannot extend beyond 180 degrees at the elbow is because a series of arteries and capillaries and veins are running through the arm. If the arm did extend beyond that point, they would rupture.

  Here's what I do want to talk about. Remember my post a few weeks back on proprioception? No? Ok, I'll review. Proprioception is basically, in my own terminology, how our body remembers to move, and does move in every situation, both physical and emotional based on how we record, store and process information. In other words, we are the physical manifestation of every experience we've ever had, to put it-bluntly.

  An example could be something like this. A teacher yells at a 5-year old in kindergarten when trying to grab for second helping of cookies from the cookie jar. The child was startled, shocked.  In that very moment, chemicals excreted from its' glandular system rapidly oozes and secretes and fear becomes known. The child shrugs the shoulders towards the ears and sinks the chest inward to protect the heart. From that moment on every time the child would receive desert from the teacher, the body would recoil in some fashion, fear was the past experience as the body replays the motions. As the child grew up and would be around an authority figure or let's say the lunch lady or a parent ready to give out desert, the body would in some way twitch towards this structural movement. It became ingrained. This is proprioception. This is of course a fictitious example and exaggerated, but not one that is far fetched. We all have these structural integrations that have been set neurologically. When this happens the fascia that connect the muscles and runs throughout the body become set to hold the body in that way.  Proprioception could also be something as passive as sitting at the computer in an irresponsible way. Irresponsible to how the body naturally is aligned, which will set the motor of the body to remember this position and repeat it over and over again.  Proprioception. Got it?

Ok, now I can move on. Here is what I wrote in my notes today while watching and listening to how the body's fascia, which is it's pliable, fibrous structure, like wrapping to taffy and is like a network which downloads all kinds of environmental information to hold the body upright, works.

'So the fascia is a moving neural casing or web that runs the length of the body and is directly related to our proprioception. So, by breathing in newly and with correct alignment, with a clear mind thinking positive, affirmative thoughts can open up and replace tight proprioceptive posture and reprogram the body, it's thoughts and emotions towards what is possible for the individual. We will now be able to move more freely in life without, not only physical restriction, but mental, emotional and psychological blockages as well. We will be reformatting the fascial system and reprogramming ourselves so we can come closer to achieving our highest potential.'


So listen up. If you have pain, if you have trauma, if you have doubt, fear or insecurity, or even if you have poor posture and your neck just hurts, you will need to realign your own structure and melt away the old fascial network holding your muscular system in place.  Because it's the fascia that is directly channeled to your systems make-up which gives you your posture, or how you show up in the world, just as you are-right now. Is this blowing your mind!? It is mine. You can literally melt away old fascia that no longer serves you by working the fascia itself.

That's the work I'm doing over here. It's not just yoga, its structural realignment and body transformation. I'll be soon posting videos showing you how to do this for yourself. It's magical. Just today Michaelle worked with me on my sacrum and at lunch all kinds of buried emotional stuff came out. You have to start relating to your own body as a storehouse for it's emotional make-up. The reason I couldn't open up my lumbar spine and sacrum was in part due to what I was 'holding' in it. That's all for now.

Why is it called that?

I'm about to depart, a new journey, a new life awaits. Welcome to my Hawaiian, Kauain yogic blog about my life, my visions, my insights from a small island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

Now, so you can understand the name of this blog, eh-hem, Dhanurasana (pronounced, 'Don-yur-ahs-ahna) is commonly referred to as 'bow pose', Google-it. Of course, my mind went to great lengths and troubles to come up with an ideal blog title, so much so that a new fear of not creating a blog might actually have occurred due to the perfection I faced to just name it. Amazing.

Well, I named it. There were some other front-runners, like 'wordsong' and 'youngmanandthesea', but through it all, slowdownyourasana came to pass. But why this one?

Besides Dhanurasana being a yoga posture, I liked the way the words morphed together. It sounds like 'down your asana' (which could be another blog altogether for disgruntled yogis, or highly sexual yogis). Never-the-less, slowdownyourasana is about slowing down, being present and still with life, right now.

It's about yoga in the way that when we are on the mat, it never matters how 'good' we are 'doing' at yoga compared to others, which I hear very often, but about being where we are on the mat, in the moment, with what we got-all right now.

And for those of you who aren't yoga savvy, yoga doesn't just take place ON THE MAT, it takes its shape for those who practice off the mat as well. Like, how are you going to be on the subway or bus during the morning commute when there is traffic, loud people and other chaotic events?

How are you going to be when you get home from work and your kid or spouse is wound-up and frustrated, b/c you were expecting a peaceful return greeted by open and loving arms.

Well, that's the practice of yoga. For me, and many other yogis, it's about being present in life's chaos no matter where I am at.

So, I wonder how this NJ/NY man is going to fare in the slow-paced life of Hawaiin timing? Come back soon to find out, you're invited!