I’ve been just watching Tom Myers’s DVD training in bodyreadying Have never really seen anyone explain the postural tilts and shifts so beautifully. Have never really seen anyone explain the postural tilts and shifts so beautifully.

Another thing I really liked is that he doesn’t just readjust the body as it ‘should be’ but explores where to get that extra little space for expansion. In order to make an alignment shift sustainable, we need to focus on the body as a whole, looking not only for the areas of the body that have been overused and start to trouble us, but also the underused ones. We need to find an individual’s capacity to expand.

I’ve found my own extra little space upwards, discovering the simplicity and ease of rebounding from the earth and lengthening up through yoga. And I literally grew some 2–2.5 cm taller though already in my early thirties. The spine realigned itself, slightly decreasing its excessive curvature and getting some more length.

Our bodies are beautifully plastic and can adapt to our lifestyles and compensate for our postural habits in a variety of ways. Similarly they can gradually adopt a better alignment if we offer them space for expansion through movement, the space to grow into.

This makes me think of Chinese gardens. As opposed to Western tightly trimmed grass and perfectly symmetrical lanes of flowers, they focus on wild beauty of nature, creating the effect that ‘although made by mankind, it seemed created by God’. They don’t try to tame nature but work together with it, making space in which nature can grow of its own accord.

We need to work together with the body and allow it to find a sustainable solution in realigning itself, rather than force it into a particular ‘healthy’ alignment. It’s not enough to consciously drop the ribs, untuck the pelvis, check yourself in the mirror and just keep checking if you are in alignment thousand times a day. The change needs to happen at subconscious level. As we make space for the body to realign itself, the change will feel natural and won’t need to be consciously maintained. The body will grow into a healthy alignment — in its own way, gradually finding its new normal.

This post was also published on Medium

I’ve been spending most of my time lately learning about biomechanics, healthy alignment and how movement affects our bodies in relation to gravity. The research from the last couple of years shows that the way we move affect us not only mechanically, as it was previously thought, but also causing biochemical changes on cellular level, changing us from inside out. This process of the body adapting to and being shaped by movement is called mechanotransduction.

We seem to be living in the world that encourages sitting with the tail tucked under. The furniture we use sitting all day is optimised for comfort and convenience, but usually not ergonomically adapted for pelvic floor health. Who would even think about that? There is a well spread myth in our society that pelvic floor issues are a normal consequence of pregnancy and birth, or ageing for men. But we would rarely think of looking for a cause a bit deeper, in the way we have been living and moving before that.

Did you know that the anatomic function of our remnant of a tail is, amongst others, to control opening and closing of the pelvic outlet. If you look at a dog, or a another tailed animal, you can see that they keep their tail up, happily wagging when they are in a good mood. And this is the default. When you see a dog wearing his tail down between his back legs, it is usually a sign that the dog is on the fight of flight mode and his pelvic floor is tense as a part of his whole body reacting to danger.

Even though we now have only the beginning of what was once a real mammalian tail, it behaves the same. Untucking the tailbone opens the pelvic outlet, tucking it closes it - tightening the pelvic floor. The dog with his tail down between his legs is an equivalent of you sitting on your sacrum, the back supported by a chair or a couch. If you spend multiple hours a day in this position, your pelvic floor doesn’t really have a chance to release and allow the muscle fibres to regain their natural length at resting state. So gradually it shortens.

In his book Pelvic Power, Eric Franklin compares natural movement of the pelvic floor to a kite. As you stand up the pelvic floor slightly lifts and narrows similarly to a kite picking the wind and taking off. Reversely, as you sit down (with untucked tail, using your sitbones) the pelvic floor widens and releases to its full length, like a kite descending down, opening and landing. But what if we never allow it to release?

Biomechanicist Katy Bowman compares an optimally functioning pelvic floor to a trampoline. It supports the weight of all our pelvic organs and allows any extra load to just bounce off its healthy, elastic fibres, tensing and releasing naturally. Keeping the muscles short all the time doesn’t let them perform their function optimally. And further on, as our bodies naturally adapt to the way we use them, we gradually end up with shortened muscles.

This is further exacerbated by using pelvic floor exercises (‘Kegels’) on ‘the more the better’ basis - Bowman explains. Doing more and more repetitions of contractions of the muscle isolated from the rest of the body without allowing it to ever fully release, you get a muscle that is tight and locked short. Tight muscle does NOT equal a strong muscle. A strong muscle is able to both fully contract and fully release.

So why I am telling you all this now? Reading Katy Bowman’s last book - Move Your DNA, I’ve started to incorporate more movement into my life other than and independently from exercising. And especially, I’ve started to squat more, when playing with my toddler, picking things off the floor and even going to the toilet.

Learning to untuck my tail has made me finally realise why I still had to push my baby out and not bear it gently down, letting the gravity do the job, in spite of all the birth preparations and beautiful relaxation techniques I mastered beforehand. To “breathe the baby out” you have to first untuck your tail.

Anatomically, in order for the baby to come out the pelvic floor has to release, but you can’t possibly release the pelvic floor with the tailbone tucked under. You can only use the strength of your muscles (transverse abdominals and diaphragm as they instruct you to hold your breath and “puuuuussssh!”) against your pelvic floor. And that’s a sure way to end up with a nice tear and possibly a pelvic floor disfunction. I was lucky that the athletic challenge, how my birth experience felt to be honest, ended without a severe damage. My body just took over at the last moment and following a very primal instinct jumped on a dining chair opening the pelvic outlet fully. The squats and kneeling with rounded back would have probably taken me to an assisted delivery.

“Modern birthing science has placed a large burden on secreted hormones (like relaxin) to prepare the body for needed mobility.” Katy Bowman says. Yes, hormon relaxine is useful in letting the body open up for the birth, but it’s not enough, unless we have strong muscles that can fully contract, but also fully release. But then, strong isolated muscles are not enough either. In order to have smooth births we ned to have a whole-body endurance. A great way to develop endurance is to walk as much as you can. “The woman who wants to go about a birthing process naturally can follow the lead other “natural” processes women have been doing for millennia – walking 5-6 total miles per day, and squatting to bathroom multiple times daily.” - she adds.

So, the bottom line is: untuck the tail. Walk more and move more, in general and especially when pregnant. Making even tiny adjustments towards moving more and moving better we can give our bodies a chance to function up to their very best.

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This post was also published on Medium and to my shock seen by around 340 thousand people. This has made me realise the importance of pelvic health and has pulled me deeper into learning about pelvic floor and pelvic girdle health as an important aspect of our wellbeing. Looking forward to be sharing with you as I learn and explore more!

Yesterday I stumbled upon a dazzling quote of Roberto Bolaño “In poetry, you become infinitely small without disappearing.” And it reminded me how much I miss writing poems and that feeling of standing on the edge of unknown and leaving your self behind as you jump in.

It’s been a while since I wrote anything so beautifully flowing and irrational that you can dare call it poetry. Starting with a vague idea, or not even that, just following a familiar tickle in my fingers, grabbing a pen and seeing where it all goes. Scribbling on napkins in cafes and back of public transport tickets. Writing as an exploration, listening carefully to the ripples of the deep, instinctive mind and trying to mirror it in words. Letting the story smoothly thread itself through my fingers.

Funny… I realised this morning teaching a small class that it’s this same feeling I sometimes have while teaching yoga - stepping on the mat without any idea what is going to happen, letting the class unfold gently by itself, simply diving in. Of course, when you realise there are for example too many hip openers, it’s useful to let the rational mind jump in with a counter sequence to balance it out. But sometimes the class can unfold itself effortlessly, without the need for much interference and you as a teacher can simply step back and allow yourself to become infinitely small. One of my great inspirations, Malaysian yoga teacher Meng Foong beautifully explains it: “There is nobody. No students. No you… Just yoga.”

An old friend got in touch the other day asking for my opinion about two different yoga teacher courses in India. Both were obviously targeted at the Western audience, being quite daringly priced for Indian standards. Do you think they are genuine? - he asked. They both seem to be accredited by American Yoga Alliance.

No, I don’t think they are a fraud, I wrote. They do exist, have a website, and probably do train people from all over the world in a set of skills we conventionally expect from a yoga teacher. But the question of authenticity is something different. It all depends on what exactly you are looking for, I guess. Why is that you are going to India in the first place? What is that you are seeking? Is it a specific set of skills, accreditation, an experience or maybe something different?

The two courses he sent seemed to be similar to a number of courses available in the UK, even the prices were pretty much the same. They offer an internationally recognised 200 hour accreditation and a curriculum focussing on asanas and other concrete techniques, even learning how to run your yoga business. They seemed perfect for someone who wants to spend a couple of weeks away, in a warm, tropical setting mastering their headstand and a couple of other advanced postures and come back with a title of a yoga teacher, ready to get their business off the ground.

Please don’t take me wrong, that is a completely viable reason to do a yoga teacher training. We all need to live of something. And it’s definitely nicer if you want to make teaching yoga your profession - making people healthier and happier instead of doing something that supports the system you personally don’t believe in.

Being able to earn more money from teaching yoga is also fine. If that is your aim, that is completely understandable. But do you really need to go to India for that? Maybe you can do it a whole lot cheaper somewhere in Europe? At least the flight wouldn’t be that expensive.

Maybe we need a cultural shock to really experience what it means to live yoga.

For me personally, the highest value of studying yoga in India was being pushed out of my comfort zone and getting a chance to take a look at my whole value system afresh. Maybe we need to leave our cosy world for a moment to be able to truly understand the cultural and religious context in which yoga was born and really experience the modest and disciplined way of life that yoga traditionally meant. And this definitely doesn’t have much in common with detox green juices and perfect bodies in branded yoga pants posing in graceful, breathtaking backbends, which in a way was my perception of yoga-lifestyle before that.

Your diarrhoea, allergy to mosquito bites or the fact that you don’t like okra don’t make any difference in a big picture. You are small and unimportant…

Staying at a modest, traditionally organised ashram without fancy facilities and many foreign students, you might not experience 5 star comfort, but will for sure get exposed to a life different enough to permanently change you. Being immersed into a completely different, sometimes overwhelming world with values often intimidating at first sight, you get a chance to step back from our common self-centred way of seeing the world and take a look at a larger picture for a moment. You are just a tiny wheel in a larger process of life. Your diarrhoea, allergy to mosquito bites or the fact that you don’t like okra don’t make any difference. You are small and unimportant… and that is so beautifully empowering. Now you are probably wondering: what the heck is she talking about? Well, I’ll try to explain, please do read further!

Encounter with the ego: going beyond yourself

Some concepts of yogic philosophy are totally alien to our Western logic and using solely your intellect to get around them doesn’t make much sense. For example, the concept of dharma from Bhagavad Gita, often translated to English as duty, at first sounds like a bold denial of free will. Hm… Coming from the West, freedom is what for most of us yoga is all about and why we are “in the game” to start with. However, diving deeper into the whole value system of Bhagavad Gita you come to experience that this duty is not a chore, not a denial of freedom, but something that comes as a fulfilment, finding your own innate purpose - acting from the full depth of your being.

It’s a similar story with the concept of karma yoga, the term often used in the West to justify teaching yoga for free and other work without remuneration. Karma yoga is not about cutting the goal out of the picture (in this case fair payment for the service), but totally shifting the focus from goal to process itself. We come to experience selfless work as going beyond yourself through action, transcending the limits of the ego. The process sets itself free from the result and becomes the fulfilment. And work, another concept seen as a chore in our perspective, becomes a path to enlightenment and true liberation.

And there is a whole lot of other examples - like tapa (austerity, discipline), swadhyaya (self-study), Iswara pranidhana (surrendering to the higher self, in a way), or unconditional love. We do need a cultural shock and a short upside-down of our whole value system to be able to truly experience them. But do you really want that? I guess it all depends again on what you are looking for and how deep into the rabbit hole you are willing to dive. And do you even want to change?

Living, breathing, drinking and eating yoga

Although India today is largely affected by globalisation and especially richer people have a life quite similar to people of upper middle and high class Westerners, it’s still possible to find hidden pockets of spirituality free of materialism and materialist spiritualism.

If you are after something like this, maybe a good place to check would be modest local yoga institutes with ashrams. They are run as non-profit organisations and often kept in the same family for generations, being able to trace their roots back to their original guru. Institutes’ work is aimed mostly at Indian students, trying to preserve yoga as a tradition and a system of values - living, breathing, drinking and eating yoga. They see yoga as a spiritual path and simply a way of being, loving and selflessly serving others.

Trainings they offer are often longer (3 months on) allowing you to get over your initial frustrations of adjusting to the climate and stomach bugs and dive into Indian philosophy - both intellectually and experientially. Yoga for them is not about physical postures and you probably won’t learn much anatomy there or how to run your yoga business back home. But if you do stay open and allow yourself to experience something new without judgement, you might set a foundation to growing into a completely different you. At least for me, this was the single most valuable thing from studying yoga in India.

They always say the Institute was there before the airport and will stay, as the city around it keeps growing and changing.

I would warmly recommend the institute where I studied - The Yoga Institute in Santacruz East, the busy Mumbai neighbourhood with shouting street vendors and shattering noise of planes landing and taking off from the nearby airport. They always say the Institute was there before the airport and will stay, as the city around it keeps growing and changing. And it really does, maintaining an oasis of peace and simple, traditional values in the midst of all the hustle and bustle of Mumbai. The Institute was established in 1918 by their grandfather Shri Yogendra, disciple of Paramahamsa Madhavdasji. Its work is dedicated mainly to “householders”, trying to educate and bring together local community around yogic lifestyle and yoga philosophy applied to everyday life.

Also, another Institute I always recommend is the yogic hospital and research centre Kaivalyadham in Lonavla, the mountain area somewhere in between Mumbai and Pune. It’s interesting that they trace their teaching back to the same guru (Madhavdasji). Kaivalyadham has recently tried to modernise their approach, starting to offer online courses, but I think the greatest value you can get from there would be to go and spend some time living at the Institute, fully immersed into their value system and modest way of life.

Only for male Indian residents?

There is probably a whole lot more of similar places to discover. Unfortunately some of them offer their courses only in Hindi or only to male Indian residents. Anyway, you should definitely explore what there is, do a nice research before you choose where to go and maybe try to get in touch with at least one person who studied there, just to help you set expectations.

Good luck!

P.S. All the photos here were taken in Mumbai during the summer and autumn 2012 that I spent studying at The Yoga Institute in Santacruz East.

This post was also published on Medium

Once the motivation is there, you really don’t need much to start your meditation practice, just a couple of minutes every day when you won’t be distracted and a comfortable position in which the body won’t complain.

Maybe the easiest type of meditation to start with would be mindfulness meditation, which is basically sitting still and watching your breath for a couple of moments.

Pick time and place for your practice

You might choose to dedicate a special corner of your home to meditation, trying to associate this place with the attitude of quietude and introspection. However, once you get comfortable with the technique you can meditate anywhere else too - on the public transport commuting to work, sitting on a park bench (my favourite one in summer) or in the office when you want to clear your mind in between meetings.

Meditation itself doesn’t require any special time, but it’s easier to develop a habit if you practise always at the same time, even for only 10 minutes. You can gradually extend the time to 15, 20 and 30 min a day. But try to sit every day to meditate, even for just 5 minutes on really busy days. Remember the old Roman saying nulla dies sine linea - no day without drawing at least a line, even sitting still for just a couple of minutes counts!

I personally find it the easiest to meditate straight after waking up in the morning, when the mind is still in the quitter, night mode, and before jumping on the to-do-list for the day. However, any other time should be fine too, as long as you stick to it. You can tie your practice to a certain time or an activity (something like: straight after brushing teeth in the evening), which both help to condition the mind to be “in the mood” for the practice.

Oh, and it’s quite useful, especially in the beginning, to set the timer for ending the practice. Pick some gentle, unobtrusive sound if you can, so your heart doesn’t skip the beat when woken up from the silence.

Choose the right position

It’s really important to find a comfortable position, so you can maintain stillness without worrying too much about the body. However you shouldn’t be as comfortable as to fall asleep. Meditation is not the same as relaxation. In relaxation we just release the mind, allow it to relax with the body. In meditation the mind stays alert maintaining a sort of relaxed focus. So, find a position which is steady and comfortable for the body, yet allowing you to stay awake and alert.

If you are a beginner, you can simply sit on a hard chair with your back supported (to avoid slouching) and feet touching the floor. If you want you can also sit cross-legged on the floor with the back upright. If the hips feel a bit tight and the lower back is rounding it might be a good idea to sit on a cushion or two. Once the knees are lower than the hips and you don’t need to constantly fight the gravity as it pulls the knees towards the floor, you might find the cross-legged position really comfortable. You can also kneel, sitting on a couple of cushions with a blanket under the knees or find any another sustainable upright position. I really wouldn’t recommend lying down, it would be just too easy to fall asleep.

So you’ve found a comfortable position and settled and we can start.

1. Become aware of your surroundings

Take a moment to take in everything that your senses are bringing from your environment at this very moment.

You might even keep your eyes open to start with. We are generally very visual beings and it’s probably what you see that will attract your attention first. So let it be. Eyes relaxed, nice soft gaze forward. Take a moment to notice everything in your field of vision without getting involved into thinking about it.

And now we can gently close the eyes, letting the rest of the senses get their spotlight too. Notice any sounds from the outside and inside the room and even the sounds of your own body, breath, digestion, heartbeat. Notice the weight of the body on the floor, the sensation of touch and then all the other information coming from the senses - heat or cold, any smells or a lingering taste in the mouth.

So this is what surrounds you at this very moment. And now we can try to go deeper, looking inwards.

2. Check in with the body

Take a moment to become aware how your body is feeling right now. The easiest way to do this is to do a quick “scan”, moving the mind slowly from head to toe as if scanning through. Take a moment to notice how each body part feels as if touching it in your thoughts. At the beginning it might be difficult to do it without an actual movement. So do wiggle your toes if you need to. Every next time it will be easier to just think of a body part and feel it as if being touched, it’s just a matter of practice.

Try not to stay too long at any body part, whatever you find there. The whole body scan doesn’t need to last more than 20-30 seconds, just gently move awareness through without getting into thinking and analysing what you find. If the mind gets distracted, no worries, gently bring it back to which ever part of the body you last remember and continue from there.

And now we are ready to dive deper in.

3. Find the breath

Take a moment to listen to your breath as it is. Observe how the body is breathing right now, without interfering in any way. Notice the depth and quality and maybe any tightness in the breath. How does it feel like to inhale? How does the exhalation feel like? Notice the little pause after the inhalation as the breath gently turns to flow out of the body and the moment of rest after the exhalation, before you take a new breath in. Notice how each breath is slightly different, yet following the same rhythm. Allow yourself to stay still and just watch with curiosity as if observing someone else’s breathing. Simply let each breath happen.

4. Stay with the breath

And now the main trick - stay focused on the breath, as everything else keeps moving and changing. Just let the mind rest on the rhythm of your breathing as it is - right now, at this very moment. This could be a bit difficult in the beginning, so you might prefer to count the breaths. You can count both inhalations and exhalations, so none of them passes unnoticed. This is a great focus exercise and sooner than you think you will find that you can keep the mind on each breath even without counting.

As you stay still watching the breath, let the mind unfold thoughts but try to not get involved. Just step back and watch them as if being projected on a screen. Sometimes these will be your to-do-lists creeping in, thousands of things that you need to finish and problems that need to be solved. Or maybe sometimes you can have memories coming up, people, places and emotions. Don’t judge them, don’t try to stop them. No effort at all. Just let them happen, staying open as they roll through you and pass away. If the mind runs away be patient and bring it gently back to the rhythm of the breath.

Stay with the breath. And eventually the mind gets tired of thinking and just eases into the rhythm of your breathing. And sometimes it feels like the warm comforting silence has become louder than your thoughts, making them sound like soothing background noise. Just let the mind rest, letting go of any effort. Stay still and watch thoughs as they simply roll through and disolve into silence.

5. Release the focus

As we are approaching the very end of the meditation, take a moment to release any focus, even on the breath. For some 10-15 seconds let the mind do whatever it wants to do. Allow the mind to be completely free - to think, if it feels like thinking, or simply relax into the silence.

As the timer starts gently waking you up, take a moment to become aware of the body again and reconnect with your immediate surroundings. Notice all the sensations coming from the body, your weight on the floor, sounds, smells, tastes. And finally, when you feel ready, open your eyes.

So, this was all.

There are also a few really nice web and mobile apps that can help you start and stick to your practice, especially if you like to have some guidance at the beginning. Check out Headspace or Buddhify for example. They have some really nice ideas for meditations on the go too, just pop in your earphones and you can meditate anywhere.

And now the trick is to keep practising. Remember, nulla dies sine linea! ;)