Connect and Balance During Spring & the Upcoming Pink Supermoon

"In just-spring when the world is mud-luscious
and... puddle-wonderful"

e. e. cummings

 
In Ayurveda, every season has a dosha, or set of qualities, associated with it. Winter, governed by Vata dosha, has been cold, dry and dark. But when the sun stays around for longer, everything gets warmer and the ground begins to thaw, making mud often the first sign associated with Kapha season.  Kapha season starts out wet and cold in March and ends up wet and warm, in May and June.

And Ayurvedically, it’s been an interesting time this past month to say the least! With COVID-19 happening, we’re being told to do the opposite of what we instinctually want to do since March is early Kapha season, a time when the world is slowly coming out of hibernation, but we’re all “hunkering down”.

Yet don’t despair. The spring flowers are still poking their heads above the mud, the birds' ecstatic singing signals mating season has begun, and soon young fawns will be born. It’s also a good time to reconnect with the upcoming April’s full Pink Moon. The name Pink Moon comes from one of the first spring flowers, Wild Ground Phlox, as they cover the ground like a pink blanket

On the night of Tuesday, April 7, venture outside to catch a glimpse of April's full Pink Moon. This full Moon—which is a supermoon, the first full Moon of spring, and the Paschal Full Moon—will be visible after sunset and reach peak illumination at 10:35 P.M. EDT. We’re in a series of supermoons, which are 15% brighter than a typical moon, but this April moon will be the brightest of 2020!

And here are other ways for you to savor the beauty of the skies and the season this spring using all five senses:

Sight: See the light, make space for the light.

Shake out winter blues by letting in the light, fresh air, and de-cluttering the space(s) in your environment, mind, and body. Start by cleaning your closet and filling a donation bag with the clothes you no longer wear but just keep around in case you might want them (hint: if you haven’t worn it this winter, you likely won’t wear it next winter). Get rid of the random knickknacks around you, organize papers, and streamline your space by reducing clutter which can be stressful. Create a peaceful space with room to breathe. Clean your house with homemade concoctions including lemon and vinegar.

For your body and mind, do vigorous yoga flows such as sun salutations to create more space and cleansing that our bodies need this time of year. And for pranayama, Kapalabhati is a great antidote for seasonal allergies and mucous congestion.)

With the full super moon coming, also make sure to embrace your lunar side to with chandra namaskara, or moon salutation. The 15 steps in the sequence are here by Yoga International represent 15 tithis, or lunar days.

Taste: Lighten up and have vigilance.

In the winter months, we naturally gravitate toward sweet, sour, oily, and salty foods to mitigate the dry, light qualities of the cold (vata) season. But now we’re feeling a lot of vata going on due to recent events. Despite needing to work in more pungent, bitter, astringent, dry, and light tastes to reset the weight of heavy kapha season, both kapha and vata need warmth to keep agni going, said PYI Faculty, Ali Cramer, in her recent Kapha busting workshop via Zoom.

She recommended getting good routines established and having them not be negotiable – such as eating three meals a day, dry brushing, and exercising regularly to keep lungs healthy, and endorphins to keep depression at bay. The consistency in practice will help keep momentum and strength in our health going forward. For food, work in natural fats like avocados, drink Tulsi tea, Triphala powder in water before bed, and cook your greens like kale and collards.

Hearing: Tune in to birdsong.

Meditating in nature is a foundational practice that I follow during all seasons, but spring is one of my favorites. With flashes of color, from red cardinals, robins, and other bright winged colored birds, and the sounds of bird song, the very music and sights herald the changing season. And if you pay close attention, you can even get to know individual birds since they usually stay close to one location for the season. Re-connecting and observing individual animals in their natural habitat can also help us avoid a term called, species loneliness, which is a sense of isolation and sadness coming from human estrangement from other natural species.

Smell and Touch: Appreciate new growth and life.

As the days grow longer and warmer, this beautiful time of year inspires us to appreciate the renewal of life. Be mindful and fully take in all the new growth around you with your senses of smell and touch – touch the soft tree leaves growing, smell the spring rain, put on some gloves and dig your hands into the earth and smell the rich soil or plant early seeds, watching them grow in your windowsill.

As we all continue on this journey, say or sing a few words of gratitude, and remember to take time to pause and savor the mysteries of the moment while we watch the inner and outer blossoming of life.

For more information on yogic listening skills, consider PYI’s Sound Yoga Therapy online April 17-19, 2020, and our annual Ayurvedic Yoga Therapy Training with Ali Cramer and the PYI Yoga Therapy faculty.

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Katie Leasor is a second year Prema student and owner of Elements Yoga Therapeutics, a yoga therapy studio in Fair Haven, NJ.

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5 Yin Poses for Calm in Uncertain Times

Therapeutic yoga seeks to bring us into balance -- not only within our bodies but with the world around us. Through pranayama, asana and meditation, we find ways to balance our current internal and external states with what is needed to nourish us physically, mentally and emotionally.

So when we find ourselves in times of extreme uncertainty -- which seems to be the collective global experience these days -- therapeutic yoga is a critical tool to help with the anxiety, depression, and sedentary states that may result. One therapeutic modality to consider trying is Yin. In Yin yoga, the focus is on holding poses for long periods of time (three to five minutes) to access the connective tissue that holds our form together. By cultivating stillness in the body and mind, we are better able to counterbalance the chaos and uncertainty of the world around us.

Yin yoga can be highly beneficial to calm and balance the nervous system. Why?

●      By holding poses for an extended period, we can actually lengthen and manipulate the fascia and connective tissue, helping keep it supple and healthy, even as we age.

●      In Yin yoga, we strive to find a balance between effort and ease by stretching to about a level six out of 10 -- if level one is just lying in bed, no effort at all, and 10 is the deepest stretch you’ve ever felt, you want to be around the middle of that spectrum.

●      Finally, Yin asks us to practice with patience and respect for our bodies and minds, and to maintain a heightened state of awareness throughout the practice.

Here are five Yin poses to try to calm the anxious and unsettled mind.

1)    Caterpillar -- This is most closely related to what you may know as paschimottanasana, or a seated forward fold in a vinyasa class. Folding inward can help focus the mind and calm the nervous system.

Begin seated with your legs extended, and bring one or two bolsters on top of your thighs. Lift tall through the spine and fold over your legs, letting your chest rest on the bolsters (adjust how much support depending on where your level six is). While your vinyasa teacher might have instructed you to keep your spine long, it’s okay in this Yin pose to let the spine round, feeling a stretch across the low back. If your hamstrings are tight, you can widen your legs and bend your knees to create more space. Hold for four minutes.

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2)    Sleeping swan -- You likely know this as pigeon pose. Not only does this also serve as a forward fold, helping to instill a sense of security, but it also opens the hips, which helps release tension held in the pelvis.

Beginning on all fours, bring your left foot forward by your left hand. Walk the left foot across to the right hand, slide the right knee back until both hips reach the mat. If your left hip remains lifted, bring a blanket or bolster underneath it for support. Gently release your chest onto a bolster, releasing the upper body completely.

If this feels more intense than a level six, you can slide your left ankle back toward the left hip, creating a gentler stretch for the outer left hip.

Once comfortable, this is a great opportunity to come into meditation. Notice the temperature of your breath as it enters the nostrils, and then as it leaves the nostrils. Has the temperature changed? How about the color -- does the breath look the same on the inhale and the exhale? Continue to breathe and focus on the look or feel of the breath for four minutes on each side.

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3)    Viparita karani -- In English, this pose is known as “legs up the wall” which is about as simple an explanation as you can get. You’ll need an empty wall for this pose. To begin, bring one hip right to the wall, and swing your legs up it, lying your torso back on the ground to form a 90 degree angle. Bring a blanket underneath your skull to give it a bit of padding, and it may feel nice to bring another blanket or block to your belly to increase the feeling of groundedness. You can bring your arms to a T, above your head, to your sides, or hands can rest somewhere on your body. Hold this pose for five minutes.

This pose is especially beneficial if you’ve been on your feet all day or been traveling, as it helps reverse blood flow from the feet and bring it back to the vital organs, while gently stretching the backs of the legs.

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4)    Snail -- Begin lying on your back, with your back and shoulders on a folded up blanket, while the head neck are off of it. Lift your hps and support them with your hands. Let the feet come behind the head, taking caution to maintain plenty of space between the cervical spine and the mat. Your feet can touch the floor behind your head, although they do not need to, and can remain dangling in space. Round the spine.

Snail pose serves to release pressure on the spine, and cradle the heart, calming the nervous system in the heart space. Hold this pose for three minutes, and roll gently down to lie on the mat and let the spine neutralize.

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5)    Reclining twist -- This is a simple supine spinal twist. By nature, spinal twists can help bring equilibrium to the nervous system and release tension in the spine, while also stimulating the internal organs.

To enter, bring the knees to the left side, while twisting the upper body toward the right. Your gaze can be toward the ceiling or over the right shoulder. If you need to back off the twist a bit, a bolster under your knees and/or a blanket underneath your right shoulder can help give some extra support. Bring your left arm anywhere that feels comfortable. You can also move the knees toward or away from your head to adjust the sensation. Hold for three minutes, pause in savasana, and then repeat on the next side.  

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The next time you find yourself watching the news or scrolling through Twitter, only to find your heart begin to race and your mind begin to spiral, consider taking a few moments to practice a couple of these postures to help find calm in these uncertain times.

 References:

Paulie Zink, often referred to as the founder of Yin yoga

Videos on Yin yoga asanas, by Bernie Clark

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Hannah Slocum Darcy is a yoga teacher and a student at Prema Yoga Institute. She specializes in accessibility and adaptive practice for many life stages and scenarios.

Yoga in Quarantine: Tips for Cultivating a Home Practice

“Yogas chitta vritti nirodah,” the second of Pantajali’s Yoga Sutras, is likely the verse most recognizable to yogis of any level of experience.  A seminal tenet of yoga philosophy, it literally translates to “Yoga is the stilling of the fluctuations of the mind.” A more modern, colloquial interpretation might be, “Yoga quiets the mind chatter,” and I bet I speak for all of us when I say that at this moment, I really need to spend some time each day quieting the chatter in my mind.  We are living in a historical moment unprecedented in our lifetimes, and it is all too easy, shut up in our homes and consuming the news, to allow atmospheric anxiety and personal worry to escalate into the full abandon of panic.  Over the past week, in my non-yoga life as a university instructor, I probably wrote the phrase “Don’t freak out” over and over again in upwards of sixty emails.  And yet, last night when a server crashed, I freaked out, my students totally freaked out, and my husband, at loose ends with his workplace closed, stayed up all night fretting and then drank a beer at 1:00 pm today and lay down for what he referred to as a “stress nap.” Right now, just when we all need yoga in our lives more than ever, our studios are closed and the governor is telling us to stay in our homes. 

The governor is right: we do need to practice radical social distancing as much as we possibly can in order to gain control of this crisis.  But we don’t have to give up our yoga practices just because we’re holed up at home.  With that in mind, here are five tips for creating and maintaining a home practice. 

1.     Create a dedicated container for your practice.  It’s wonderful to be able to have a designated space—even a room!—for your home asana practice, but most New Yorkers don’t have that luxury.  However, anywhere you have space to roll out your mat can be a sacred space if you make it so.  Create a bit of ritual around your practice: light a candle, compose a dedicated playlist on Spotify, do something to establish an intentional boundary around your physical practice, even if you’re in the living room one day and the bedroom the next.  Devoting a time of day to your practice can also be a way of creating sacred space. 

2.     Take it easy. If you are used to practicing in class with a teacher observing, be especially careful when working at home.  Don’t cut corners: take care to warm up fully, and make sure the room is at the temperature you’re accustomed to when practicing.  If you can’t get your apartment as warm as the studio, add layers, especially around your joints.

Don’t test your limits—there’s no teacher to stop you from hyper-extending or “hanging out” in your joints.  So be mindful of your hips, knees, spine (particularly your neck) and shoulders. If you’re used to being cued in and out of poses, transition slowly and mindfully, and be especially mindful of alignment.  If you feel any pain or discomfort, stop. A home practice during an epidemic is neither the time nor the place to push boundaries in your asana practice.

3.     Try practicing online.  If you’re missing class and instruction, there are plenty of options for you to practice at home with others, both in real time and asynchronously.  Prema Yoga Institute is offering live classes every day via Facebook, on a donation basis.  In addition, online yoga platforms offer a tremendous variety of options for a home practice.  PYI’s own Dana Slamp teaches via Yoga Anytime, and there’s a fifteen day free trial for their subscription service.

4.     Remember that yoga is more than asana. Just as important as maintaining a physical practice is keeping yoga alive in your mind and heart.  If you don’t have an altar in your house, now is a good time to set one up. An altar doesn’t need to be religious—it can simply be a space dedicated to cultivating mindfulness. Mine sits on top of a tiny cabinet in the corner of my bedroom and holds a salt lamp, a candle, a box with my mala, a few precious stones, and copies of The Pocket Pema Chodron and Tosha Silver’s Change Me Prayers. I sit in sukhasana every night before bed to read, breathe, and chant.

5.     Just practice.  As my teacher says, the best yoga practice is the one you do. If you’re homeschooling the kids, working online all day, taking care of loved ones, or just generally climbing the walls and can only devote ten minutes a day to your practice, then practice for ten minutes. But fire up that tapas and commit to an ongoing practice.  As the extremely prolific novelist Anthony Trollope once said, “A small daily task, if it be really daily, will beat the labors of a spasmodic Hercules.”

During this period of intense mental stress and danger to our physical health, a steady at-home yoga practice is not only possible, it may well be a major component in keeping us mentally and physically well.  Yogic practices are proven to down-regulate the nervous system and boost immunity, and yoga in general keeps us in touch with our bodies, our breathing (!) and our bodhichitta (soft-heartedness).  A home yoga practice not only helps  us to keep functioning, it helps us to marshal our resources to support others.  So here’s a new mantra to carry into the coming weeks: keep inside, keep well, and keep practicing.

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Molly Goforth is a yoga and meditation teacher and a student at Prema Yoga Institute. She specializes in accessibility and trauma-informed yoga teaching and practice.