To Practice.

Whoever said practice makes perfect was on the right path. Practice brings us closer to our intention of what we want, and that is good. However, practice will never get us to perfection, only towards the space of being whole and complete in our practice and life. It will however, bring us into the space of happiness.

"Practice, you wanna talk about practice?!"
Allen Iverson reacting to the infamous 'why practice'
press conference, back in the day.

Speaking of practicing, my yoga practice has waned over the last 6 months. Funny too since I went away to deepen my practice and learn a new form of yoga which I have been posting about. Although YogAlign was great, it also veered me off course. Actually, nothing can veer me off course, so I want to say 'threw' me off course. But you know what? Nothing can throw me off course either if it's all the same path we are on. So, now I want to say everything happened as it should have. Moving on...

YogAlign taught me a lot, I loved being on Kauai too. The yoga I learned was very different than the yoga I have been practicing over the last 7 years. I thought my training was going to forever change the way I practiced again. I also thought it was going to change it in the sense that I couldn't go back to practicing the way I used to.  I remember having the thought that I may never be able to practice the yoga I grew into learning b/c every asana wasn't always in perfect alignment, which was the style I was learning, and being in the best alignment was the only way I thought I could practice again.

I was right on one hand. My training did forever change the way I come onto the mat and practice asana. I find myself way more aware of how I am using my body and breath while practicing, not always just doing asana but bringing being to my practice.  I also can go back to practicing styles of yoga that I grew with in the past.  I am letting go of which way is the right way and which way is the perfect way to practice. As long as I am practicing yoga, all is well.

"Practice, and all is coming."

I see that practicing is just practicing. There are many forms of practice and practice will always lead you further down your path. As I type this now, embodying Osho and channeling him as I do at times; (my impersonation now), 'With no practice you will be standing still on the path, looking at the flowers and talking a lot. But it won't occur to others as wisdom, it will just seem arrogant, and you will mock where you never went further along the path, you will not smell the flowers or hear the birds singing.'  Those who practice, in my mind at least right now, are ones who are in the inquiry of learning, they are involved in it. The bigger 'it', and are likely to not always be bragging or talking about themselves, others or the practice in a selfish manor. They are in a spiritual context, humble, learning, open, unable to judge so much. When one is on the path but no longer practicing, the ego can take a larger piece of the pie and act all-mighty, describing the 'way it is', unless they are humble enough to admit they are no longer practicing.

To be talking about your practice w/o practicing is, as Michael Franti says on rapping, "to be rhyming without a real reason, is to claim but not to practice a religion." Practice is less talk and more action. More self and less ego. The late Sri Pattabhi Jois, founder of Ashtanga Yoga says, "Practice, and all is coming." This statement is golden.

So what I want to share is that I am practicing again. I am practicing and slowly allowing my practice to lead me to what is next for me in my larger 'practice'.  I am incorporating the different styles and aspects of yoga and creating the intention to go deeper down my path.

Today I practiced a Kundalini Kriya on the beach with breathwork. All roads lead west... or east, or wherever, it doesn't matter where they lead, really.

B~

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.

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.