Silicon Valley...'s profileLiving in the Silicon Va...PhotosBlogListsMore  |  Tools Help |
|
Living in the Silicon Valley...June 03 Yoga: Gazing at Overachieving WobblersA lot of yoga poses require balance. This balance can be achieved through a combination of mental concentration and muscular engagement. The real concept, at least the way I understand it, is that the mind will lead the body. It starts with mental focus and the body shall follow. Hence, although a balancing pose appears to easy -- the stillness is merely superficial since a tremendous amount of effort is at work to maintain that stillness.
Mental focus can be accomplished by focusing the gaze on a still object such as the wall or a non-moving object. Sometimes, as the mind wanders during the pose, the gaze falls on fellow classmates who wobble. (Wobbling is most certainly part of the process. No one is perfect and even the instructor loses his/her balance from time to time.) As the temporary object of the wandering gaze is on the verge of losing balance, it immediately affects students within the 1-mat radius. It becomes particularly troubling when classmates, who clearly cannot balance yet, choose to over-extend themselves, thereby earning the title of "Overachieving Wobblers."
Besides endangering themselves by over stretching muscles that lack flexibility, overachieving wobblers also cause noticeable disturbances to their immediate neighbors. Try as we may, if someone next to you is losing their balance, you mind needs to seriously be on a different planet, or better yet a different universe, to ignore them. If that sounds selfish, well, what if the wobbler falls on the floor close to you? Now, that has not happened to me yet, but it's not entirely impossible.
One of the best ways of avoiding wobbling is to simply back off, or modify the pose to something more manageable by the body. Wobbling is a signal that the body may not be quite ready for the difficulty of the pose. When the time and set up is right, I always believe that the body will open and extend itself naturally. What's the big rush? You're supposed to be relaxing in yoga class, right? May 27 Yoga Student Profile: Darth Vader the Heavy BreatherIn all fairness, students are just as important as instructors in any teaching environment. In yoga classes, having very solid peers standing across the room helps with the balance poses. For example, if our wandering eyes fall on a wobbly classmate, our balance evaporates just as quickly.
Today's post is a tribute to "Darth Vader" in my class. No, he is neither garbed in an interesting outfit nor does he have an interesting headgear. He has earned the nickname of "Darth Vader" because of his heavy breathing. Don't get me wrong, deep rhythmic breathing is crucial in yoga to keep the blood flowing and calming the mind while doing challenging poses. However, all that pranayama breathing should not (at least to me) be disruptive to your neighboring classmates. Darth Vader has rendered that breathing exercise distracting, excessive, and just downright annoying. Let me give credit where credit is due because Darth Vader is actually a pretty good yogi. But, given that he's been doing yoga for a while, why is he breathing louder than the instructor?
Since yoga is picking up in popularity and becoming more mainstream, classes are getting more packed. Getting to class on time has proven to be an ongoing challenge, especially having to fight traffic on the freeway. Arriving late has its downside because I'm sometimes unable to secure a spot as far away as possible from Darth Vader. Fortunately, Darth Vader is easy to spot as he has his own designated spots, you see. At any rate, arriving at a cramped room and then having to stand anywhere close to the heavy breather is really the last thing on my wishlist. If I'm forced to set my mat right across from him, I just turn around so that the distance between my ears and the source of excessively deep breathing is increased. That's all I can handle. May 19 Yoga Instructor Profile: The Customer Service OrientedPart of the process of practicing yoga regularly is learning different teaching styles and approaches of instructors. Over the course of almost 2 years at the same gym, I've definitely found some both amusing and also insightful instructors. Inserted between all of them are occasional substitute instructors, who also add their own twists and turns to this interesting learning experience. I've personally decided that the profiles of these different yoga instructors deserve a brief moment under the spotlight. Let me start the series with the friendliest of them all, the "Customer Service Oriented."
A teacher who knows your name or at least tries to remember who you are, is always much more approachable and personable. Any questions you are itching to ask are easier to pose in a friendlier learning environment. As always, this instructor ends classes with a feel-good, warm and fuzzy, "It was great to have you in class, please come again!" Post-class chatting is also highly encouraged between the instructors and among students. This all contributes to a very positive outcome, after the class.
Unfortunately, my service-oriented teacher is a little weak on the teaching technique. A lot about yoga instruction is hinged on giving good and explicit verbal prompts to guide the student to the pose. Like giving a business presentation, rhythm and transition are both very important aspects to the listening audience. My instructor also gets somewhat fixated on the music to play for different series of poses. I agree that the music can serve to increase the intensity of a series and help wind down towards the end. But, it's just an add-on or better yet, a low priority accessory and not a centerpiece of a showcase. Finally, due to this distraction and other possible reasons, the teacher occasionally forgets what the next pose is. I don't really think this is a huge faux pas because I've seen it happen when an instructor is so intent on one single pose, that it's very possible to lose their own train of thoughts. This is particularly common when the instructor is doing the pose with you and the class is very full.
All in all, I think the "Customer Service Oriented" instructor has much to offer and are particularly good for students new to yoga. I appreciate the genuine feel-good vibes in the classroom. However, I think that being able to delivery good verbal prompts and work on the rhythm of the class are quite important for students to profit from the benefits of yoga. Otherwise, students just end up getting confused during the course of the class. Being confused in yoga is rarely a good thing because it may end in injury. March 17 The Path of Friendship and Its SurprisesA critical part of a successful friendship and any human relationship, similar to IT projects, is the ability to set expectations in a timely fashion and engage in a reasonble amount of negotiations. As we grow older, we acquire and shed friendships primarily due to a change in geography, interest, and marital status. The frequency of gaining new acquaintances is very dependent availability of time as well as mutual affinity.
I believe there are two extreme approaches to the friendship building behaviour spectrum. Some choose to treat it like a popularity contest in which they provide stellar "performances" and hope for the most votes. Follow-through is rarely a priority. Others so timidly navigate the process as if they were sifting through sand for gold and no one makes the cut. Hopefully after such instense efforts, the friendship lasts for a while. And, of course, there is the rest of us who sit somewhere in between the two edges.
Once we pass the stage of acquaintance, we begin to navigate through the uncertain territory of understanding the friendship and hopefully gain some understanding about ourselves. We learn what to expect from the friend, for better and for worse. If certain expectations are not deemed acceptable, we distance ourselves and move on. In other words, we employ the avoidance tactic where we reduce exposure to the unpleasant experience to minimize discomfort. On the other hand, heaven forbid we learn how we chronically disappoint our peers and may choose to improve ourselves, or not.
When we choose to bravely continue the friendship by accepting mutual faults, we advance to a stage where there is a huge element of surprise -- pleasant and unpleasant. Learning the limits of the friendship, we try not to introduce strain into the relationship or have unreasonable expectations. On a more positive note, we also learn how friends can surprise us.
Talking about a more personal experience, one of the few childhood friends with whom I've kept in touch all these years recently asked me to be her bridesmaid. Although the request arrived 4 months before her wedding date and I felt a little bit like a plan B because of the late request, I'm still somewhat flattered. (My sister assured me that the last minute requests are typical of Taiwanese wedding dis-organization.) My friend wanted each of the bridesmaid to represent different stages of her life and I was the one that went the furthest back -- elementary school.
I can't say I expected too little from the friendship, but she certainly surprised me. Plan B or not, I've been quite delightfully surprised. March 14 Knowing When to Back OffOftentimes in yoga class, I meet people who have been practicing other sports for a number of years and sought yoga as means of recovering from a sports related injury. Coupled with its ability to increase flexibility and tone the body, yoga offers another frequently underestimated benefit -- meditation. The meditative aspect of yoga helps the healing process by increasing awareness of the mind and body. So, with such wonderful benefits to speak of, is it ever possible to get injured doing yoga? My answer to that is a resounding yes.
Although confidence and fearlessness helps in exploring yoga within the bounds of your own personal flexibility, the confidence and fearlessness must be used with caution. A large part of a beneficial yoga practice is awareness of your own body's flexibility. Once you honestly accept your own personal limits, then you can comfortably determine how to increase flexibility without causing injury. Yoga actually gives you the opportunity to make that conscious decision. Active sports usually do not offer that decision as some injuries are caused by uncontrollable events in a game. In yoga, there are no stretch goals imposed and no unpredictable external events. There is only one person who calls the shots and it's you. I also believe it's a personal responsibility to learn when to slow down.
At this point in time, let's not ignore the other major influencer on your decision and that is the yoga instructor. Having to deal with a roomful of students with varying degrees of flexibility, the instructor has to actively engage seasoned yogis and also provide careful guidance to new students. It's no easy task and the honest truth is some instructors do a better job than others. As a student, it's important to be cognizant of the shortcomings of the instructor and always err on the side of caution. All caution aside though, instructors are a rich resource about the different yoga poses -- learning about the right and wrong way to do them, how to enter and get out of them, the full potential of the poses and the goal of the poses.
As you practice more frequently, your yoga practice becomes a blend of different progressions of strengths and weaknesses, applied tips from various teachers, and a continuous learning experience. Put simply, the key to yoga really is yourself. |
Current reading list for Gardening
Other items on my current reading list
|
|||||||
Send a private message
Tell a friend
Add to My MSN
Add to your network
Sign up for alerts
|
|
