Homecoming

I’m having a little bit of déjà-vu here…it seems like every time I return from traveling it takes me a couple of weeks to wrap my head around the fact that I’m really home and that the trip has ended. When I got back from my Maui adventure, I had a little more time off afterward to sit and ponder how it was that 2 weeks came and went so quickly. I reflected on everything I gained from practicing with Nancy Gilgoff, and I spent many minutes missing the beautiful beaches and lovely people who had made my time there so memorable.

Then, at the end of January, I packed my bags for India and departed on yet another adventure - this time to India - that would take me to Mumbai, Purple Valley Yoga Centre in Goa, and finally on to Yoga Bones to study with Rolf and Marci Naujokat. The trip seemed to pass in the blink of an eye, and on March 11 I returned to Toronto and dove right back into work only a day after landing at YYZ. The past couple of weeks have been beyond busy - Toronto seemed to swallow me whole in one gulp, and without even time to think I fell right back in to my usual routines and schedules, trying to balance practicing and teaching with sleeping, eating and doing anything that doesn’t involve counting to five.

But through every class I’ve taught and every time I’ve practiced since returning home, India has not been far from my mind. Each time I go into certain poses like Pasasana, I remember Petri’s incredible adjustments I was lucky to enjoy almost everyday for a month at Purple Valley. When I’m backbending, I can still hear Marci’s voice instructing me to use my legs more to make sure nothing is “paining”. Each time I drop my chin to my chest in Jalandhara bandha, I keep expecting to see sweat pouring down from my neck as it would in the all-encompassing Goan heat. So while I may not have had much down time so far to sit and reflect, the experiences I took away from my time in India have managed to stay close to my heart.

I cannot begin to put into words how much the time I spent away brought me closer to everything in my life that is important. Flying to India and spending two weeks with my dad, doing yoga, in a country to which neither of us had been, was beyond amazing. I tried my best to capture our time together through my personal blog, In My Element, but it’s difficult to describe how very cool it was to have my dad immerse himself in the yoga lifestyle, and enjoy a completely different vibe than that to which he’s accustomed. Aside from enriching the relationship I share with him, going to India reacquainted me with a daily practice, and I fell in love with the routine of rising early, practicing as the sun came up, and spending the rest of the day in a blissful yoga fog. And now that I’m teaching again, students have been coming up to me after almost every class to say they’ve noticed a difference - I’m not sure if it’s a different energy, or a different approach to the practice, or maybe just the added inches that seem to have clung to my shoulder-span since incorporating third series into a daily practice! But I can’t deny there’s been a shift in how I feel standing in front of a class now…a shift for the better.

I’ve really enjoyed sharing the tips I picked up along the way in Goa with others in both led and Mysore classes I’ve taught over the last couple of weeks. Over the next few posts, I’ll do my best to expand on what I’ve learned so that even those who can’t make it to class can get a taste of what some of the world’s senior Ashtanga teachers have to offer. For now, here are some tid-bits - little ways to bring a shift into your own personal practice.

• Focus on the gaze, or Drishti. Often I see students looking all over the room during a class. This disturbs focus and keeps us outside ourselves. Bring the focus back inward using the gaze: for instance, each time the arms reach over the head as in sun salutations or standing postures like Uttkatasana (Fierce pose), the gaze goes straight up to the ceiling, with the head tilted back; in other standing poses like Trikonasana the gaze goes to the outstretched hand and stays there for the complete count of 5; and in seated postures like Baddha Konasana (Bound Angle Pose), we gaze down the nose (even if that feels a little cross-eyed!).

• Finding the legs in back-bends. Try using a block between the knees to wake up the inner thighs. For many of us, the glutes clench up in backbends, doing all the work, and take stress into the lower back. While it’s difficult to get out of this habit, start to think about releasing the glutes in every backbend - this includes upward dog! - and bringing more integrity into the legs. A block really helps with this…if you see me hanging around 889, ask me about this work…I swear it’s changed my practice and brought it to a whole new level of strength and awareness.

• Lengthen the breath and move deeper into closing postures. At this time in your practice, extending the breath helps to slow everything down. Rather than rushing through inversions toward savasana, experiment with taking your time. I especially enjoy this during headstand, to the point of attempting pranayama while I’m holding the pose. I gradually extend my breath up to a count of ten (counting to 10 slowly during both the inhale and the exhale), as I hold headstand for up to 5 minutes (sometimes longer). Placing the focus on the breath in this way takes me completely out of my body; my legs seem to float above me as my mind goes completely quiet. It’s a crazy feeling…try it out!

~Cecily Milne, Yoga Instructor