My Aunt Pam lives and owns a wildlife sanctuary in a remote area of South Kodagu, India. Aunt Pam practices yoga on a regular basis, and is a spiritual practitioner and lover of life. While I haven’t seen her in 20+ years, we exchange emails on a regular basis.

You may have heard this past week about an article published by The New York Times entitled “How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body.”  Predictably, my email and Facebook accounts started filling up with questions from students, teachers and friends asking my thoughts about the premise of the article.  While I knew it had made its way around my local contacts within the yoga community, I hadn’t realized the full impact of the article until Aunt Pam emailed me from India with her own commentary. This story had gone global!

I’ve been a competitive athlete for as long as I can remember, and my first major injury from sports came from playing high school football. I tore the medial meniscus in my knee and had to have it removed. My recovery from the surgery led me to swimming, which resulted in a rotator cuff tear from overuse. After that I transitioned to cycling, which led to broken bones, stitches, lots of bloody bruised knees and chronic back pain from sitting in a saddle. (Cycling ranks as one of the world’s most dangerous sports according the Consumer Product Safety Commission http://www.scientificpsychic.com/fitness/sport_injuries.html).

Finally, after years of competitive sports and countless injuries, I was drawn to yoga because of its overwhelming evidence of health benefits for both the mind and the body. In case you missed the part of the NYT article that spoke about the benefits of yoga, let me remind you of a few:

From within the body: decreased blood pressure, lower pulse rate, improved blood circulation, lower respiratory rate

From without the body: delayed aging, improved posture, increased strength

Emotional benefits: improved mood, stress reduction, reduced anxiety

Body chemistry: lower cholesterol, strong lymphatic system, lower blood glucose levels

Exercise benefits: low risk of injury, better muscle tone, domination of the subcortex

Disease prevention: reduced risk of heart disease, osteoporosis and Alzheimer’s

Symptom reduction: carpal tunnel, asthma and arthritis

For the full list visit of 77 benefits: http://www.nursingdegree.net/blog/24/77-surprising-health-benefits-of-yoga/

For me, establishing a regular yoga practice didn’t come without hesitation. My hesitance came mostly from my impression that yoga wasn’t vigorous or physically challenging enough, and that my practice alone wouldn’t help me to maintain the health of my body. After being a competitive athlete for so many years, I yearned for something that would keep my body and mind engaged. Once I established a consistent practice, it didn’t take long for me to realize the endless amounts of opportunity that yoga could provide in the physical and mental arenas. Before yoga, my body wasn’t open, I had very little upper body strength and my balance was less than solid. But through my practice, I quickly gained strength, flexibility, balance, and most importantly, a new sense of mindfulness and patience that truly changed my life.

Over the years, yoga has helped to alleviate my back pain, strengthen my knees, improve my overall posture and open my body and mind in ways I didn’t know were possible. So when the New York Times article came out, I began questioning how it was possible for so many practitioners and teachers to “wreck” their bodies through yoga. Was it overblown? Most likely. The fact of the matter is that we can get hurt doing just about anything. We all know there are risks of participating in demanding physical activities, but did you know that one of the most common causes of neck injury is poor sleeping habits?! Yes, sleeping!

Injuries can happen anywhere from the most gentle hatha yoga class to the most challenging vinyasa flow. So how do we avoid injury in our yoga practice?  Through mindfulness, patience and taking responsibility for own health. Most often, practitioners get hurt when they don’t listen to their own bodies and push themselves to do things that they aren’t ready for. We need to take time, listen intently to what our bodies are telling us, and appreciate where we are now instead of fixating on where we wish we could be.  We have to have respect that this is a lifelong practice that goes well beyond the physical.

My practice has evolved over the years, as most do. No longer am I looking for a relentless physical pursuit; instead I spend more time with the subtle parts of yoga. Words like “challenge” have been replaced with words like “compassion” and “gratitude.” So, has yoga wrecked my body? Quite the opposite. To put it simply, yoga has changed my life in every way. It has taught me about unconditional love, compassion, joy and equanimity.

Instead of allowing the New York Times article to put an end to your yoga practice, use this opportunity to take your practice deeper.  Allow mindfulness to be your best teacher, be patient with your body and experience the ultimate joy of practice.

I can still remember the feeling… my heart was racing, my face felt flush, tension was building in my shoulders and my breathing was out of control. This wasn’t
my first race, and it wasn’t my last. It was at a point when racing had become second nature to me, but somehow this race felt different. It was the championships
during my sophomore year of college. All that I had worked for was on the line, and my team was depending on me. My fear became my reality as I cramped up in the middle of
the race, and I choked! I was in peak condition and physically prepared, but I let doubt, worry and fear consume me. That lack of confidence lost the race for me. It’s not an
uncommon thing; it’s a phenomenon known to happen in every sport, and it happens in life as well.

So what does confidence have to do with Yoga and how can we use Yoga to live with confidence? The Yogis define confidence as a positive constructive attitude of the mind
that leads to the possibility of success. This confidence serves as a lighthouse during a storm, a reminder of hope. It provides the strength needed to set our sights for the distant
shore. Without this confidence, we would be overwhelmed with fear, doubt and worry. We’d choke before we even got started.

Yoga helps us build confidence by maintaining a healthy body and training the mind. Some of our most basic yogic principles – setting a positive intention, being present,
having gratitude and developing compassion – are essential tools for instilling confidence in oneself.

1. Setting a positive intention – Karma tells us that the positive intention of our actions will bear fruit, so we need to trust in our own integrity when trying to make great things happen. When we take a moment to examine the truth of this in our own lives we can see results of our positive actions and in turn live with more confidence.
2. Being present – Instead of considering all the things that could go wrong, stay in the moment. Staying firmly grounded in the present helps to overcome fears and helps us to see the beauty in the current situation. Just by taking a few moments to follow our own breath can bring us into the present and out of fear.
3. Gratitude – Focusing on all the things we don’t have can create cycle of suffering, samasara, and lowering our self worth. Instead, when we practice gratitude on a daily basis we are reminded of the wonderful opportunity of this life and of how truly fortunate we are.
4. Compassion – Relentless pursuit of our own interest leads to disappointment, because the appetite of our own ego is insatiable. When we focus on others, we are taken out of our own head and transported to a place of endless opportunity. Thinking of others gives us the confidence of the mother who selflessly runs into the middle of a busy street to save her own child.

Confidence is something you recognize when you see it. It’s the beauty of a person who is comfortable with who they are, who is unflappable when faced with challenges, who is not afraid to set a new course. It is living in the moment and believing in the positive nature of life, believing in our human potential. When we find this we will stop treating
life as a race to be won, and start treating it as a journey to enjoy.

Much happiness,
Kevan

As we wrap up another year of teacher training at Stil Studio, I’ve been asking myself about the qualities that make a great teacher and the qualities that make a great student. When I posed the question to my wife Stacy, a 5^th grade school teacher, she said, “A great teacher is someone who cares, and a great student is someone who wants to learn.” As I think about my past week and the opportunities I’ve had to both teach and learn, I see the wisdom behind her words – good teachers care and good students are eager to learn.

In our society, we often consider the best teachers to be those larger-than-life characters who drip with charisma, the teachers who can ignite and energize a crowd with their mere presence. These teachers can inspire us and teach us a lot, but at the same time, if we place too much reverence in them we can block the learning process. Quite often we can learn just as much from the quiet, humble teacher who cares deeply about every person they meet. Some of the best teachers will even say they have nothing to teach, and they instead place themselves in the roll of a guide helping the student to discover their own way. Regardless of the method, the best teachers care deeply and encourage students to play an active roll in the learning process rather than asking them to blindly following their teaching. The Buddha recognized this when he said, “Do not give up your authority and follow blindly the will of others. This way will lead to only delusion. Find out for yourself what is truth, what is real.”

This past weekend I had an opportunity to be a student of two fantastic teachers, Kadri Kurgun and Marissa Dana. In their AcroYoga workshop they expressed deep caring and compassion for all of their students. They spoke of the importance of both giving as the “base” and receiving as the “flyer.”  As the “base” you are the pillar for your partner, providing support, guidance and caring. As a “flyer” you receive fully without judgment, attachment or ego. I learned how important it is to be curious and receptive as a student; there is no room for ego and one must approach the practice with willingness to learn. This is how the best students approach their yoga practice and their lives off the mat – with eagerness and willingness to receive.

Being a teacher and being a student are fundamentally the same. We can be the “base,” we can be the “flyer,” or we can be both. Great teaching comes from caring, and great learning comes from willingness to learn.  You can be successful in either role as long as you maintain a sense of openness above all else. Explore, teach, learn and have wonder in the mystery of all this world has to offer.

Happiness,

Kevan

Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the world earth revolves – slowly, evenly, without rushing toward the future. ~Thich Nat Hahn

Dedicate some of your life to others. Your dedication will not be a sacrifice. It will be an exhilarating experience because it is an intense effort applied toward a meaningful end. -Dr. Thomas Dooley