“Our relationship with Food can be too little, too much, or wrong.
According to Āyurveda, even the best food eaten in the wrong amount,
or at the wrong time, or with the wrong attitude
will fail to nourish and even disturb the system.
The same could be said for Yoga Practice.”
– Paul Harvey
“While it is theoretically possible for the body, the breath, and the mind to work independently, it is the purpose of Yoga to unify their movement. In our very first practice classes, we will experience this unification. What appears as Yoga to an outsider is mainly the physical aspects of our practice. They will not be aware of how we breathe, how we feel the breath, and how we coordinate breathing with physical movement.”
TKV Desikachar – Religiousness in Yoga, ch2, p13
Credit for images: © BMJ 2015
“A man in Ireland broke his leg and spent 10 days in the hospital after injuring himself in a surprising way — while practicing yoga.
The 38-year-old yoga enthusiast fractured the thighbone on his right leg while doing a difficult seated yoga pose known as Marichyasana posture B in his morning yoga class, according to a new report of the man’s case, which was published online Oct. 9 in the journal BMJ Case Reports. The pose involves sitting down, with the knee bent and drawn up to the chest, and then bending the torso toward the floor. “
“At the time of his injury, the man was practicing Ashtanga yoga, a physically demanding style, for an hour every morning.Research suggests that injuries from this style of yoga are more common in the hamstrings, knees and lower back, according to the report.”
credit for image: © BMJ 2015
“In the emergency room, the man could not straighten out his right leg, and needed IV morphine to dull his pain. X-rays showed he had a “low-energy femoral shaft fracture.”he had a “low-energy femoral shaft fracture.”
The “low energy” term refers to the amount of force that causes the bone to break, said Dr. Andrew Moriarity, an orthopedic resident at St. James’s Hospital in Dublin, Ireland, who treated the man and co-authored the case report. Low-energy fractures are sometimes called “stress fractures.”
“Although yoga is considered a gentle mind-body practice, injuries can and do happen, especially as the activity’s popularity rises. Still, this type of fracture is extremely rare in a young, healthy person, and it’s even more unusual for it to occur due to yoga, the researchers wrote in their case report.”
Two weeks before the fracture occurred, the man felt a dull pain in his right thigh. He sought advice about the problem from a physical therapist, who diagnosed it as a muscle strain in the man’s quadriceps, telling him he could return to yoga.”
“But that probably wasn’t a good idea,” Moriarity said.
“The pain he felt in his thigh was likely a stress fracture, a warning of impending fracture if he continued to apply stress to this area,” Moriarity told Live Science.
“To treat his femoral shaft fracture, the man needed surgery to insert a titanium rod inside his thighbone, which would allow him to walk safely,” Moriarity said.
“The reason this man sustained such a rare injury from practicing yoga, Moriarity said, “was likely due to repetitive stress on the thighbone, combined with a weakened bone state, known as osteopenia“
“Indeed, a bone scan taken at the hospital revealed that he the man had did in fact have osteopenia, a condition in which his bone density is lower than normal, which could increase his risk for low-energy fractures, Moriarity explained.
“Five months after his release from the hospital, the man could walk almost pain free and had resumed practicing yoga, but was doing only less-demanding postures.”
“Duḥkha is a disturbance of the mind. While sometimes the words sorrow, misery, and disease are used to define duḥkha, it is best identified as a feeling of restriction.
Somehow something deeply disturbs us and we feel restricted.
This restriction is duḥkha…….
We all aim to remove duḥkha……..
That is what Yoga is trying to do.”
TKV Desikachar, Religiousness in Yoga
“In looking at how to deepen (rather than broaden) our personal practice choosing to focus on exploring the breath can be a key to unlocking the mystery of the relationship between body, breath, mind and beyond.
Here we can think of the deepening into our practice arising through progressively slowing the patterning of our breathing. To do this we have to reconsider our practice, not in terms of what we do with our body but what we do with the breath within our body.
This means firstly knowing what is our basic practice breath rate per minute and then progressively slowing that rate as we progress from Āsana, through to Mudrā and then to Prāṇāyāma.
For example when working with Āsana we can start with four breaths per minute, then with Mudrā slow it to three breaths per minute and finally with Prāṇāyāma, slow it again to two breaths per minute.
An accomplished practitioner may be working with three breaths a minute in Āsana, two breaths a minute in Mudrā and one breath a minute with Prāṇāyāma.
Whereas a less experienced practitioner may be working on five breaths a minute in Āsana, four breaths a minute in Mudrā and three breaths a minute in Prāṇāyāma.
The starting point does not matter and is something that is appropriate to the history, health and training of the student. What is more important is that no matter where we start from, the journey into the mystery of the breath and its relationship to the slowing of psychic activity, is through the progressive slowing of our breathing patterns.
This is realised within the long term developmental refinement of the practice limbs of Āsana, Mudrā and Prāṇāyāma within our journey into the evolution of Haṭha Sādhana towards Rāja Sādhana.”
“The person who taught me how to vary postures, to bend the legs, to turn the neck, all the simple and complicated variations, as necessary, is Krishnamacharya. It is important to vary each posture according to the individuals requirements.
Further, he also introduced the use of other aids or supports, so that the person gets the benefit of a posture through other means when he is not able to do the posture itself. This can involve sitting on a chair, using a roll, using supports, etc., the use of other means to help a person achieve certain results.”
– TKV Desikachar from lectures on ‘The Yoga of T Krishnamacharya’, given at Zinal, Switzerland 1981.
” The movement of the breath is a mirror to the movement of the mind.”
– Haṭha Yoga Pradīpikā Chapter Two verse 2
“The spirit of viniyoga is starting from where one finds oneself.
As everybody is different and changes from time to time,
there can be no common starting point,
and ready-made answers are useless.
The present situation must be examined and
the habitually established status must be re-examined.”
– TKV Desikachar
“Exploring the Art of Kumbhaka in Āsana and Prāṇāyāma
– Explore the Antar Kumbhaka with a soft holding.
– Explore the Bahya Kumbhaka with a firm surrender.”
Paul Harvey (yogastudies.org)
Courtesy Marc Rosenthal
Posted by Michele Harney, Yoga Rathgar & Dundrum – Dublin
“The primary goal of classical Yoga is to bring concentration and stillness to the mind. A focused mind and a peaceful and positive feeling are vital requirements as well as by-products of an effective āsana practice. Yoga should not be for the body alone.”
A.G. Mohan
Krishnamacharaya – His Life and Teachings
Posted by Michele Harney, Yoga Rathgar & Dundrum – Dublin
“Āsana is the art of cultivating stability and space (Yoga Sūtra C2 v46)”
-Paul Harvey
Posted by Michele Harney, Yoga Rathgar & Dundrum – Dublin
“Yoga teaches us that with every action there is both a positive and a negative effect. Anything we do in life will have both a positive and a negative effect. We must recognize what effects are positive and what effects are negative. Then we must stress the positive while we neutralize the negative. In all details of āsana, we must follow this principle.”
-TKV Desikachar – Religiousness in Yoga
Posted by Michele Harney, Yoga Rathgar & Dundrum – Dublin
“For Yoga Teachers it is important to understand the movement of the mind as well as the body.”
– TKV Desikachar December 1st 1979
Courtesy – Paul Harvey’s Daily Quotes – Centre for Yoga Studies
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Posted by Michele Harney, Yoga Rathgar & Dundrum – Dublin
“Ultimately our experience of the Āsana is refined through the mystery of the breath
rather than mastery of the form”
Courtesy – Paul Harvey’s Daily Quotes – Centre for Yoga Studies
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Posted by Michele Harney, Yoga Rathgar & Dundrum – Dublin
“It is not only important, how long your breath is. What is more important is how smooth and subtle it is. For length of breath without the accompanying subtlety is fruitless.”
– TKV Desikachar
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Posted by Michele Harney, Yoga Rathgar & Dundrum – Dublin
“In Āsana practice there is an expression of the state of the mind, the practice can be a handle to hold the mind.”
– TKV Desikachar April 1992
Courtesy – Paul Harvey’s Daily Quotes – Centre for Yoga Studies
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