Life in the Cheese Drawer

The three types of yoga are: Karma, Bhakti, and Jnana. Karma is the path of action; bhakti is the path of devotion; and jnana is the path of knowledge.

As for the three founders of yoga, I did a little research online to see what I could find and found several, but for modern yoga, I found that the most influential was Tirumalai Krishnamacharya, who really made yoga as we know it widespread. He had students: Indira Devi, BKS Iyengar, Sri Pattabhi Joi, and TKV Desikachar. I watched a short youtube video on Krishnamacharya, and learned that he was known for combining the spiritual practice of yoga alongside the physical healing of it. He was a practitioner of ayurveda and is known for the yoga vinyasa practice: combining movements and the breath.

I also watched the Ayurveda video and learned more about this “Art of Being.” The philosophy behind it is to treat the person, not the disease, and has been around for thousands of years, with manuscripts 500-600 years old that are still in use.

The three energies of the body, vata, pitta, and kapha, need balance, and when we are sick, they are out of balance. Each of the energies have diseases for them when out of balance. In ayurveda, everything in the universe is medicine and can supplement the body. There is even a way to take substances that are poisonous to humans and work with them so that they are no longer toxic and we can use the benefits, like mercury. I was skeptical of that, but while I was watching the video, I had to look it up to see if this was actually a legitimate thing we can do (it is). And now I wonder if the ayurvedic practitioners have been removing the poison from heavy metals like mercury for many many years, while westerners were rolling mercury around in their palms during science class in school.

I have to admit that I was mildly skeptical of ayurveda, and then my weekly reading called me out during samskara, not being open minded. I think modern medicine has really come a long way and is very useful. I trust science to do its job. But I also know that nutrition and the foods we eat can affect our health, so there is a way that we can combine them to create a better medicinal option for people. It was even said during the movie that we can combine them to create the best results for all. Finding the right balance of what we eat and how we treat our bodies can make a big difference.

One of the quotes in the movie that really struck me was from one of the ayurveda practitioners: “If science is only followed for money, it’s wasted.” That is so true of the US at this moment. When companies are charging insane amounts of money for insulin that people die without, it shows how greedy we’ve become as a capitalist society.

One thing I want to do is look up medical journals about how effective ayurveda is and how it works well with modern medicine. I did a brief google search while watching the movie and I know they exist, so I’d like to learn more.

Here’s my updated presentation for my leadership institute, which is a MONTH AWAY YIKES!!!

I am going to have a slideshow up, and here’s what I currently have:

What I MIGHT do is remove all the words and set it to autoplay so the images change out every minute or so so I don’t have to worry about clicking through a slideshow. The less I have to worry about the slideshow, the better!

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(START SEATED ON THE MAT)

First, I’d like to thank all of you for joining me these past few months. The time with you all has really encouraged me to embrace my true leadership style. While I’m achievement driven, competitive, and like to get things done, the leadership style that that’s all enveloped in, what I come back to again and again, are all about relationship building.

But I have some personal conflicts with this.

• I am an introvert
• I have struggled with shyness, especially when I was young
• I’m an anxious person

When I’m with family and close friends, this isn’t a problem, but with people I don’t know as well, I run into issues. It sucks energy, and at the end of the day I can be exhausted. I realized early in my life that I have to find a balance – to be able to have relationships with others as well as maintain a relationship with myself.

One way I found really helped was yoga. I’ve been doing it on and off for about 20 years. About 10 years ago, I found Lesley Fightmaster Yoga on Youtube and began a more regular practice.

When I do yoga, my mind is so focused on the breath and  getting into the poses and the movements of my body that all the pressures of the day, the anxiety, the people time that depleted me – it all disappears. It is a moving mindfulness. And the best part is that when we do yoga, it not just helps us personally, but also benefits those around us.

One of the phrases you’ll hear often in yoga practice is to lead with the heart. This is about poses that open your heart center, poses with hands clasped behind you where you roll your shoulders back, or any sort of backbend. These poses expose your heart, leaving it open and unguarded, and you can feel really vulnerable. But the more heart-opening poses you do, the more comfortable you feel being that open. You start to feel more energy, more self-confidence, and more empathy for yourself and others.

Leading with the heart is just the start of how yoga can help us be better leaders.

Foundation: The foundation of yoga is first and foremost the breath. Every movement has a breath. And for me if there’s a foundational pose, it’s the sun salutation. This pose leads into a lot of other poses in my yoga practice.  (ROLL UP TO START A SUN SALUTATION DURING THIS SECTION)

Your foundation is second nature to you and becomes a part of your everyday practice without thinking – this is true in yoga and as a leader. It’s who you are, and when people see you, they know what your foundation is – your sun salutation, your breath. You know that you can always, always count on your foundations to pull through for you and bring you back to who you are.

Strength: I’ve heard a couple times about how yoga is just stretching. This is a lie! Yoga poses use your body weight to create strength. I would not have these arm muscles without a daily yoga practice, but it takes time and practice to build. And it doesn’t necessarily get easier. Warrior two is a good example of a pose that can progress over time. (SHOW BEGINNER W2 AND HOW IT PROGRESSES)

Our foundations flow right into a core set of poses and strengths that we are good at but can work on to make stronger. I am really good at getting things done and relationships. I am pretty good at making sure that the right people are in the room during projects, and that is something that I deliberately make sure to be aware of when assembling a team. Every time I do it, it gets a little bit easier and a little bit stronger.

Balance: In yoga you always have to take note of balance. I have fallen out of warrior two more than once. And poses that are centered on balance? They always take intense focus, awareness, and a line of sight to stabilize. (DO TREE OR SOMETHING THAT WILL CAUSE ME TO FALL OVER, NO DOUBT)

We all know that an imbalance of your personal life, your work life, on your teams – it doesn’t just affect you personally, but it affects everyone around you. But putting that focus and line of sight back on yourself trickles down in the best sort of way.

And just like in yoga, sometimes your balance is off that day. Sometimes you fall out, and that’s ok. You just get right back in.

Limits and flexibility: In yoga everyone has limits, but this is a great way to test our flexibility. It took me a long time to get the strength to even attempt bird of paradise. I can sort of get into it now, but it doesn’t look pretty. There are wraps that I just can’t get into because my spine is not that flexible.  But the best thing about yoga is that it’s not about getting into the full iteration of the pose as long as you feel a stretch. Then you decide if that pose is something you want to work on.

I can do an ok scissors pose. It took me a while, and when I was able to get into? I was so happy. (DO THE SCISSORS!!!)

Change is the one thing that will always be there. There are always going to be times that we need to use strengths that we hate using as a leader, and you need to fake it til you make it. That’s one of the top takeaways from this program for me: don’t worry about what I’m not good at, but try it out once in a while just to remind myself. And if something surprises you  that it might actually be your thing? Well, time to take on that challenge!

Savasana: (GET INTO SAVASANA RIGHT AWAY) The most important pose is savasana. It is the final pose of the practice where you take in all the benefits of your practice. You let your breath go, let your body relax and sink into the earth, and let your mind be calm.

(ROLL OVER AND SIT UP)

I don’t know that I will ever take a traditional leadership role at my college, but I know I can be a leader in my current role, and I enjoy the work I do and I really enjoy the relationships I have with my workmates.

Namaste: When we lead with the heart, we create energy, strength, and especially empathy for ourselves and others. I encourage you to start a simple yoga practice. The best part about it is it doesn’t take much – it can be 10 minutes a day. It can be chair yoga or a simple stretch and meditation over your lunch break. My favorite length for a practice is 20 minutes. What works for you is the best practice for you, and the benefits are nonstop.

Normally, yoga practices are ended with namaste. Come to seated with hands together in front of the heart in anjali mudra. The following is how Lesley Fightmaster ends her practice:

Bring our hands to the forehead for clear and loving thoughts, hands to the heart for clear and loving intentions, and hands to the mouth for clear and loving communications.

Sending this positive energy to all beings everywhere. Namaste. (END SCENE AND RUN AWAY)

If there is one yogic principle that is the most widespread, I think it’s karma. And while it’s more in a sense of the negative in current culture, with the whole “they’ll get what’s coming to them” mindset, it’s important to keep in mind that it’s the positive as well, with all the in between and ultimate goal of non-action.

The universe is just energy and molecules creating and evolving from one form to another, and karma is a great way to encompass that. We are all stardust, afterall. The example the author gives of one type of energy begetting another type is really useful and the way that karma should be represented in society. If we are around positive people, then we usually feel more positive. If we’re around negative people, then we tend to feel more negative.

What I found really interesting is the principle of being unattached to results and memories of our actions is what enlightenment is. This is, of course, difficult to do with how conditioned we are by our past and the actions we have already taken.

The two ideas of inaction and nonaction were, in my mind, similar, but after reading about them, they are two different ways that we aren’t taking action. Inaction seems to be the place where we are hemming and hawing about a decision, while in the meantime the opportunity has passed, whether good or bad. And with the way that the only constant is change, inaction is something that we can’t wallow in.

Nonaction was surprising. It’s the ultimate goal of being able to act without worrying or attaching to the results. And here’s my pop culture reference because I immediately thought of a scene from Friends while I read the description. There’s a scene where Phoebe wants to make a selfless gesture to prove she can actually make a selfless gesture, and since she hates PBS, she was going to donate during a donor drive. In doing so, she ended up getting a goal dollar amount for Joey, who was then brought on screen and congratulated. Of course, Phoebe was happy for Joey, but then wasn’t able to complete her selfless gesture.

This is a difficult principle to grasp, because we make decisions and create action every day. To do so without wanting, needing, or gathering any sort of feedback or affirmation takes a lot of practice and mindfulness of the moment. It’s especially hard because we are a culmination of our past actions. But if we continue to work on being in the moment, then it is the goal.

Mental-emotional afflictions.

The more I read about klesha, the more I realized that it almost embodies the human experience. We are ignorant about some things – most things. We have an ego that likes to trip along its path. We yearn for pleasurable experiences, and we try our best to avoid painful experiences. And at some point in our lives, since we are aware of it, we all fear death. In my understanding, if we are able to get past these and remove the cause of these emotions, then we can face our future unclouded.

At which point I wonder, do we want to face all events without our past experiences? In some cases, yes, it can hinder our actions. But in others, it can be helpful. Maybe I’m misunderstanding the premise of klesha, but if we are the sum of our past experiences, using that past is what makes our present legitimately ours.

There are some principles of yoga that I have struggled to embrace 🙂

BUT, I am currently reading “The Body Keeps Score”, which is FANTASTIC. I was expecting a boring academic book, but it is enthralling. So much of our emotions and experiences are stored in the body and we stuff down the physical reactions (because we like to think of ourselves as above the base instincts of our animal selves), which then just causes further problems down the road of our lives. I’m not very far in the book, but so far I am really enjoying it.

Back to klesha – I hope there is a way to use our knowledge of our past without letting those experiences and conclusions cloud any current or future experiences and reactions.

One of the prompts in my book is to think about typical reactions and explore when/why it happens. A lifelong, consistent reaction I have always had is to avoid conflict. I will make an excuse to run away from conflict; at this point, it’s become part of who I am. I don’t know if it’s because I can’t think clearly in the moment and my best arguments take place in the shower, or I am afraid of people being mad at me (the fear-based part of this reaction), or if I just don’t want to be wrong. I had to google why people are conflict-averse: one of the things it says is that you grew up in an environment that was dismissive (unlikely) or hypercritical (arg, that whole oldest child thing gets ya every time). (Mom this is not you.) The good news is that the older I get, the more likely I am to stick around for a disagreement, especially face to face. (Although I’d much rather write a note.) It can be uncomfortable and I still can’t come up with a decent comeback, but I usually won’t internally wither up and want to die.

Ultimately, I think klesha is about focusing on the present and what our reactions are in the present. I hope that our past experiences can inform our reactions and help us make better choices to not continue a cycle of poor reactions. While we can work to root out the cause of our kleshas, I feel like we should be able to learn from them rather than dismiss them entirely. I know this is kind of counter to focusing on the present, but we are humans, after all.