WorkingWell

My neighbors are moving and gave me some of their old Yoga Journals. I happened to flip through one to read about Partner Yoga: Ann Greene and Todd Norian leapt off the centerfold. These guys are the apostles of Anusara yoga. Both are amazing teachers and total sweethearts. Last fall at Kripalu, I had the privilege of a private therapeutics session with Todd Norian.

Todd gave me some great advice that I refer to time and again, even as I work through my GYROTONIC® Exercises. I am constantly impressed and delighted with the similarities between Anusara Yoga and the GYROTONIC methodology. Here are a few:
• The biological pump created in the abdomen by the breath in GYROTONIC movement is very like yoga’s Kapalabhati Pranayama

• GYROTONIC method’s Fifth Line is very like Anusara’s Organic Energy (there are some very subtle differences)

• Keeping the ribs down during GYROTONIC breathing is very like Anusara’s Kidney Loop

• Narrowing in GYROTONIC Exercise = Root to Rise in Anusara

(I’d love some feedback and maybe even some disagreement on this)

At one time I closed emails with the word “Peace”. A year ago or so, I started to sign off with “Bliss”. This is an indication of a shift in my intention. Through my yoga practice, I had attained a great deal of peace in life and now I’m setting an objective to live in a state of bliss. But what does that mean?
 
I’m finding out by contemplating bliss every time I write an email. Can I close a note to my traditional, conservative lawyer with “bliss”? Or to someone facing the loss of a loved one?
 
Through study of the Anusara philosophy, I’m learning that there is nothing in this universe but the Divine. It’s all God. It’s only our perception that makes it seem otherwise. That’s not to say that everything is good or should be permanent. It just is.
 
So, I can greet life’s happenings and even all of my own thinking with openness and softness. This invites bliss or spiritual joy into the experience.  When I choose the hard shell of rejection and defense, this causes pain.
 
And every email reminds me of this. I think I’ll be working on it for many years.

Each day since the beginning of May I’ve kept track of sciatic pain and stress. I have a little chart where I record my pain upon waking, upon rising, before and after GYROTONIC exercise. I must say that I have had less pain after every single GYROTONIC exercise session on the GYROTONIC Expansion System®.

It is interesting to note that the pain upon rising is usually a little bit higher on the scale of 1-10 than the pain upon waking. It’s also worth noting that stress certainly does affect sciatic pain (don’t say ‘duh’). More work to do…

Ooh! I just reread the first ¶ and remembered one time when my pain was greater after practice. One day last week, I rushed through practice and did not take the time to properly warm up with my floor exercises. I had sciatic pain in the 2s and 3s for the following day; and down to the 1s and 2s the day after. Now I’m back down to less than one

Remember the Joan Armatrading song “Down to Zero”? I’m on my way.

GIJ

Here’s a fun aside. The last time I crossed the border into Canada, I told the customs official that I was going to an appointment with a physical therapist (it’s much easier than explaining the arching, spiraling, strengthening, stabilizing, undulating, pulsating movements and breath of GYROTONIC exercise). He asked me if I would return to the states right after the Séance. I had no idea how to answer this question.

My first dog was exactly what I would like to be. Caring, loving, journeying through life with a mission of service and joy. I could have walked her down the city streets without a leash and her nose would have stayed behind my right knee. She wouldn’t touch a tray of hors d’hoeuvres placed at nose height on a coffee table unless she was offered one.

 With a well-defined sense of duty and discipline, she enjoyed extensive freedom in her life. She could go with me into the hardware or corner store, visit anyone’s home, come to work with me.

 My second dog is more like who I am. She’s been banned from my workplace because she tips over the garbage, won’t stay put in the office and steals lunches. On walks, she wildly careens through the fields and comes back when it serves her.

 One of her favorite off-lease adventures is to visit other people’s houses. If the garage or front door is open or children let her in she’ll enter and run from room to room, looking for affection or food. If she stands in front of the doors at a big grocery store, she knows they open.

However, she has figured out that if she comes to me, sits and allows me to put the leash on her, she’ll get a treat. She’s willing to accept the discipline of the leash for the ecstasy of a treat. 

I’ve sort of figured that out too. If I maintain a healthy diet and yoga asana practice, I feel vibrant and healthy. If I take on the discipline of observing my mind, I enjoy the freedom of equanimity.

Life is a pulsation of boundaries and spacious expanse; discipline and freedom leashes and treats. May we embrace both this week.

P.S. I LOVE(D) both dogs, each for their brilliant selves.  Each came along at the perfect time as my teachers.

A friend of mine is moving to Boulder to start a Detox Center. Wow. I love the concept - of detox, of Boulder, and of detoxifying myself by appointment. So I Googled GYROTONIC Boulder and found this great poem by Hafez (the 14th century Persian mystic poet, sorta like Rumi the 13th century Persian mystic poet, except younger):

Like the hungry beast my
body is quivering, fixed
on the scent of light.

In my last few GYROTONIC sessions in Montreal, I discovered some poetry. I’ve learned to elongate each vertebra. This is where my fixation on the light Hafez talks about resides. My spine feels supple (almost). My person is a little bit elegant (new feeling for this tom boy who used to have her own welding shop). My pain level on a scale of 1-10 is down to less than 1.

Poetry is good for the soul. Who would ever imagine that a therapeutic exercise program could feel like poetry? I think I eliminate toxins through my GYROTONIC practice, too. Bonus!

g.i. Jane

Cottonwood

Billows of fluff that accumulate in eddies between buildings and along shaded streets. Puffs that float through the air in such abundance that they look like snow blowing sideways in 90-degree breezes.

Where do the June cottonwood seeds come from and where are they going?

They come from the root of the root of the Self- all that is. And they are seeking to return to the root of the root of the Self. And in this moment, they are free. Dancing in the wind.

Like us. We come from the root of the root of the Self. And we blow sideways through life. Traveling in freedom if we can accept the uncertain, unpredictable nature of the journey. Seeking always to return to the root of our  Self.

“You were born from a ray of divine majesty
And have the blessings of a good star.
Why suffer at the hand of things that don’t exist?
Come to the root of the root of your Self.”

Special thanks to Margaret Dunn-Carver for sharing this poem in a beautifully taught yoga class. Root of the Root of Your Self by Rumi 1207-1273 Sufi poet .

We’re born in a natural state of Being. It’s the gift of openness and grace. Becoming is our actions and reactions to shape and engage life circumstances. Being just is: Becoming is a creative process.

I have taught yoga or Gyrotonic exercise to those experiencing many life circumstances – at-risk teens, those with physical or mental disabilities, rich and poor. Those who’ve practiced yoga and sat in meditation for years and those who rarely sit still for ten seconds.

When each of us pauses to close our eyes and breathe mindfully, it’s possible to drop into Being with one exhale. It consistently awes me.

Becoming is apparent in movement, particularly the asana poses that challenge us. They can be difficult to master; frustrating to develop strength, openness or courage.

The trick is tapping into the wellspring of being as a basis for the becoming 

Back up to Montreal.

Nancie was away at a GYROTONIC® Master Trainer conference in Rome. The founder of the GYROTONIC method, Juliu Horvath, was there along with the 20 or so master trainers from all around the world. There aren’t very many GYROTONIC master trainers in the world. I am very lucky to be working with one so close to home.

Today I finally got to work on the tower. I did still have a little bit of sciatic pain in my thigh and a bit below my knee, but this pain may very well be related to stress (financial and relationship). The work on the pulley tower is fun! It was getting hard for me to find much joy in the floor exercises. I did practice them twice daily, but was easily distracted. The tower has me captivated.

It is very similar to the fun and flow of Astanga yoga. Because the work is so physical, it is easy to get caught up in it and leave other cares behind. But like Anusara yoga, it gives me a place to find some inner divinity. There is something about the movements that makes it easy to feel heavenly. I can feel my biological pump (the breath) working hard to warm my spine. It’s like a divine lubricant: loosening the joints, opening doors to bliss.

My GYROTONIC exercise program still starts on the floor, but I give it more focused attention, now that I know where it leads. I should be more patient with myself. But after having spent so many months without yoga asana and without kayaking, I am happy to get going.

My son has an inscription on his iPod that says, “Let the singing begin!” When I hit the GYROTONIC® pulley tower, my spirit said “Let the healing begin!” This kind of connection is absolutely essential. This is what I lacked all winter. While I know I should not link my progress to a machine, it is certainly more fun that the floor!

G.J.

Future GYROTONIC® Instructor Jane (G.I. Jane)

A sports medicine specialist named Vijay Vad, [Dr. Vad, M.D. is a native of India. September 11th inspired him to develop a formal program of “medical yoga” for the low back] who has been practicing yoga since he was 3, writes in Yoga Journal: “Lower back pain is really a mind-body problem, closely related to stress. We thought, “Why not put together a program that joins the mind and body components?’ ”

I went to a Memorial Day picnic. A friend there recommended this book: Healing Back Pain, The Mind-Body Connection, by John Sarno.

He said it saved his life. He was on his way to surgery for his back pain, and stopped in to visit a friend who is a neurologist and Buddhist. The doctor scoffed at the notion of surgery and handed my friend this book.

I’ll buy it today and keep you posted. It seems to present the same philosophy as Dr. Vad and the same concept Nancie espoused when I saw her last. Maybe there is something to this…

Yes we can, heal this back pain.

Jane

I can’t believe I went back for more, but I did. Nancie was great. She is very physical and very down-to-earth. She studied me very closely as I lay there on the floor of her Gyrotonic® studio. After she tried several exercises with me and monitored my sciatic pain level, she said, in a very matter-of-fact way, ‘You need to trust.’

I was very surprised that she was so straightforward about this. Isn’t that my therapist’s job? But no, Gyrotonic®, like yoga, is all about the mind-body connection. Nancie assured me that I have to trust that I can heal myself.

Back on the floor, She eliminated some of my leg extension exercises and added twists. Twists! The forbidden fruit! Other chiropractors and physical therapists have banned me from twists. But these twists nurtured along by the breath are working for me.

My sciatic pain is down considerably. I feel much more flexible. I am so anxious to get back to yoga and kayaking, but I fear re-injury. Trust/fear/trust. Oh boy.

Gyro Jane