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12th February – Abhi – Pranayama

Tamara Hockey
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Patanjali on the outer wall of institute

As I was contemplating writing today’s blog and feeling perhaps that I could do with a few more adventures to report on – I remembered a chuckle my friend Frances and I often have – about how, as long as we have the space to practice yoga, life for us is good. So even the idea of a prison sentence holds some appeal because locked up for 18 hours of the day, with no outside disturbance we know exactly how we would put that time to good use – even if you chained us to the wall we would still be able to practice pranayama and continue to thrive on very little other sustenance.

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This morning I continued to focus on my Diabetes programme given by Guruji in 2014 alongside practice for my Senior 1 assessment. I spent a pleasant afternoon in the kitchen making healthy ‘truffles’ with my new blender purchase. Softened dates, creamed coconut, cocoa powder, nuts and seeds and rolled in dessicated coconut.

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Had a serene walk through the park in the evening sun as I headed for Friday evening pranayama. One thing Pune really has going for it is the number of ancient trees littered everywhere – it seems like the city was built around the trees, rather than them being axed to make way for the city. This was really evident when we viewed the city from the very top of the Mariott hotel. It almost looked like a city in the forest, there were so many substantial trees everywhere and from above they look more, because you are viewing the whole spread of the canopy (it reminded me of the pictures you sometimes see on the web of a long deserted city that the tress and vegetation have begun to reclaim)

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I think this must also be how such a variety of birds continue to flourish here, despite the intrusion of so many people, so much traffic pollution and noise. Also there hasn’t been the same modernisation of agriculture that has caused such a problem for birdlife in the western world.

I got Bobby C to save me a spot so that once everyone had arrived I was able to sneak out and check the shoe racks to see if I could swap my shoes back – alas no sign of my own pair – every size, shape and colour of Birkenstock known to mankind, but NOT my own .

Abhi’s class was great – her teaching is well organised, thorough and clear (full sequence link below). She used a lovely analogy of Guruji’s where you welcome the inhalation like a revered guest, you show him all around your house and when it is time for him to depart (The exhalation) – you don’t push your guest out of the door – you let him go reluctantly – eventually he departs but you delay that moment as long as possible. This analogy worked particularly well when it came to the anta kumbhak – the retention of the inhalation. Here before your guest prepares to leave, you come forward to embrace him, there is a union of you and your breath, before you reluctantly allow him to go. In the final savasana we observed how the dynamic had changed, from in the beginning where you were trying to detain your guest, to the present, where your guest himself was reluctant to leave. This summed up exactly the nature of the breath in that final savasana.

janna

12th February – Abhijata – Pranayama

  1. Savasana – bolster and blanket. Careful placement so that the brain does not get ‘pulled’ by a disturbance in the body. The area between the eyebrow and the eye should not be heavy or this indicates a stress on the brain. Keep that area light.

  2. Seated slow soft inhalation, slow soft exhalation. Use awareness when selecting support, the groins should not be lower than the knees or the spine cannot extend upward. Don’t take the legs so tight that the pelvis loses its space. Using the hands behind to keep the lift of the trunk. Using the visualisation of the 4 pillars: front side trunk, back side trunk, left and right side – none of the pillars should be higher than the other and all four should remain upright Outer shoulder blades in, inner shoulder blades out. Experienced students the front pillar should not be higher than the back pillar – instead find the lift internally, on the interior wall of the sternum bone. Beginners can just lift the front chest. Inhale the inner surface of the sternum bone whilst releasing downward along the arm. The exhalation has to inform the inhalation. So as you exhale naturally the eyes want to release downward to the chest. Can you continue to release them downward as you inhale?

  3. Seated slow soft inhalation, slow soft exhalation, hands on the thigh for those that can. Introducing Guruji’s analogy of a revered guest arriving (the inhalation) how you must welcome that guest. You show your guest all around your home. When it is time for your guest to go (The exhalation) – you don’t push your guest out of the door – you let him go reluctantly, eventually he departs but you delay that moment.

  4. Recovery lying on the back flat.

  5. Seated, changing cross of legs. Introducing anta kumbhak – continuing with the guest analogy -now when it is time for your guest to leave, you have to come forward and embrace him. When you embrace there is a union, so let there be a union between yourself and your breath before you reluctantly allow him to leave.

  6. After you complete your inhalation, take a further inhalation and see how this is possible, how you can increase the scope and volume of your inhalation breath. This is not the same as a viloma – as far as you are concerned the breath is complete and then only you take a further additional inhalation.

  7. Final Savasana with bolster and blanket – observe how your breath has changed from your breath of 6 o clock as you lay down for your first savasana and notice how now your guest does not want to leave. Before you wanted to keep your guest, now it is different your guest himself is reluctant to leave. Observe that.

Throughout she reminded us regularly to swallow the saliva, to keep the area between the eyebrow and eye light, not to place any stress on the brain. We had to reopen the eyes and then close by releasing the upper eyelid downward over the eye – it’s a different closing of the eye.

She explained how using the analogy (of the breath as a guest) allows you to give a form that you can follow for the abstract work of the breath, in the same way as we give the idols a form, so that we can visualise their qualities in an actual form, a being.

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