I recently enrolled for a Master’s program in yoga studies. I went back to SVYASA (Swamy Vivekananda Yoga Anusudhana Samsthana). It is a university dedicated exclusively to yoga and holistic health. In 2012 I registered for their YIC (Yoga Instructor’s Course) never dreaming that in 2019 I would be back for a masters.
Two months ago I went to the university to attend a few lectures. My days there were reminiscent of my Infosys Mysore training. Until now yoga has largely meant asana practice for me. Philosophy is intimidating.
I think this master’s program may just bridge the gap for me. The faculty at SVYASA comes with a long list of achievements and experience. All the members are well-known experts in their chosen area of study.
Our Yoga Therapy professor, Dr. Uma gave us some enthralling lectures. She lectured on the importance of an integrated approach to health care. One day the discussion turned to vegetarianism, veganism and other lifestyle related food choices. She told us about her personal conflict with milk. For years she had adamantly supported the consumption of milk. She holds an MBBS, MD as well as a BHMS. Milk is a panchamrit (five elixirs). However, latest research shows that milk is not good for you.
“Then I realized that milk as we know it now is not the milk Ayurvedic texts are talking about. The cows, the environment, the people were different, and so the milk was also different. Now I don’t have milk.”
“Nowadays disseminating information is easy. You will find 100 opinions on everything under the sun. What to eat, when to eat. What to drink, when to drink. Why to eat, why not to eat. Why to drink and why not,” she said. “You must not listen to everything. Find what resonates with you. What do you believe in-spite of all the information that you are being bombarded with? You must cut through the noise and find your center.”
…and 4 Other Unexpected Results of the Latest Fitness Fad
I.F. (Intermittent Fasting) seems to be all the rage right now. Fitness experts are expounding it and every one (and their moms) are trying it. At the risk of sounding trite, I’d say I.F. has changed people’s lives. It’s helped people shed oodles of weight. It’s reduced the oft present stress around ‘clean eating’, ‘balanced eating’, ‘right eating’ by eliminating eating all together! And in my experience, it’s done a lot that we’re not even talking about.
I’m not one for fitness fads, but I’m also experimental. I’ll always try something, unless it’s too ‘out there’ for me. (And, to be honest, few things really are.)
WHAT IS INTERMITTENT FASTING?
Intermittent fasting is a system of eating where there is a specified ‘ eating window’, and ‘fasting window’. There are many different styles of Intermittent Fasting depending on these windows. The most common is the 16/8 fast, where you fast for sixteen hours and eat for eight. You can also do a 12/12 fast, where you fast for twelve hours and then have an eating window of 12 hours. You can fast on alternate days, or once in two days…
And to my surprise I found that this system of eating ‘worked’ for me. Below are 5 things it did for me, and which have me now.
I.F. MADE ME A BETTER YOGI
I kid you not. I’ve practiced yoga almost daily for the past decade. In a world where distractions are many and time a rare commodity, the only way I can do this is by waking up at an ungodly hour to get some uninterrupted practice time before the rest of the world awakes. More often than not, I’m sluggish and slow in the morning, sore from the previous day.
Enter I.F. and my body feels clearer. I am experiencing a kind of energy I’ve never experienced before. The kind where your brain might say ‘no’ but your body will move into the first sun salutation with no complaints. By reducing the quantity of food I consume, energy that would otherwise be spent on metabolizing and digesting food is available for morning yoga practice. My asanas are sharper, my body seems to move with no resistance and I am fully present for my practice.
I.F. GOT RID OF MY BRAIN FOG
Yoga is not only a physical practice. However, even the physical practice of yoga (asana practice) is linked to your mind. If your mind isn’t awake, your body is unlikely to act. After practicing I.F. for almost a month now I’ve noticed that my brain doesn’t take too long to wake up. Prior to this I would dilly-dally and procrastinate before finally stepping on my mat. Now I’m on my mat faster, more inspired, energetic and creatively abundant.
I.F. MADE ME APPRECIATE COFFEE MORE
But not because I’m guzzling down any more of it than I was before. In fact, I’m drinking less of it! Part of my dilly-dallying used to include making a cup of strong coffee. The aroma used to wake up my senses and the caffeine used to wake up my groggy cells. Now I don’t need the coffee. An era of coffee enjoyment has started in my Life. I have coffee when I want to and not because I need to. I enjoy a single shot of espresso more than I’ve ever enjoyed it before.
I.F. CONTROLLED MY FOOD CRAVINGS
Along with a decrease in my coffee cravings, my snacking has also reduced. I don’t find the need to constantly munch something. So I’m not putting junk into my system…and that may be contributing to my high energy levels.
I.F. CLEANED ME UP!
I see my waistline more often than not now. I.F. proponents scream weight loss more than anything else. In fact, many say that they have lost weight in spite of eating all the junk in the world! Just to be clear, I haven’t lost any weight, but I still see my waistline because of a reduction in inflammation in the gut. Because I no longer ingest easy snacks, I’ve cut back on bloat-causing preservatives that I was invariably consuming.
HOW I FASTED
Before I end I’d also like to point out that there are numerous different versions of intermittent fasting.
There are dietitians who say it’s OK to have coffee, tea, lemon water etc while you’re fasting. I have absolutely nothing except water during my fasting window.
I stick to the 16/8 style of fasting. Basically this means having my last meal by 4 and eating again at 8 in the morning.
I break my fast with nuts or a banana.
I’ve jumped on to the I.F. bandwagon, and I think everyone should give it a go. Would you try intermittent fasting? Have you tried it already? Share your thoughts!
On one of the several Root Bridges during our hike in Cherapunjee last month.
The key to excellence is repetitive practice. In the ideal world we would all have an hour and a half every morning to devote to our asana practice. We would have eaten light dinners the night before, gotten the necessary hours of sleep, have the energy and the inspiration to practice the same asanas for the millionth time. But every single yoga practitioner knows that there are more bad than good asana practice days. And that’s the method of any spiritual practice. Will you commit with no hopes of a return on commitment?
Every year Iyengar practitioners from around the world make their way to Pune, India to immerse themselves in the practice. Every year I await eagerly for the 4 weeks where I will be able to ‘retreat’ from the rigors of my regular life and give undivided attention to my practice. I usually have a reading list, I introspect through journaling and blogging, and I learn from the experiences of other students.
Retreating is an important part of a spiritual practice. It is to introspect as much as it is to delve deeper into the practice of your choice.
Retreating is an important part of a spiritual practice. It is to introspect as much as it is to delve deeper into the practice of your choice. A learning curve happens after every retreat. I have experienced the greatest growth after every retreat and workshop I’ve attended.
Teaching a retreat is as exciting for the teachers as it is for the students. When the idea of this retreat was a mere spark of an idea, we wondered what we could do to make this retreat unique, fun and helpful for those giving us the privilege of teaching them. We came up with a rough outline of a schedule. We started to think of how we could bring life and relevance to the teachings and the days slowly took shape. Involved as we are in our own practices, the results of a collaboration between Suzanne and I will distinctive.
Our mornings will be spent studying the asanas, in which we will also discuss the Indian/Hindu mythology pertaining to yoga. Our evening sessions will be about winding down the mind and body. There will be walks through the town, swims in the creeks. Conversations over shared dinners and the occasional glass of wine!
It will be a special time for all of us, made more special by those who give us the opportunity to guide them. We hope you can make yourselves available from the 1st-8th of June to join us in Liguria, Italy for a retreat to remember.
Write in to susanne.mayer@yogawest.de or pragya.bhatt@gmail.com for more details.
I am not, in any way, the perfect eater. I was PMS-ing the other day and ordered a chocolate mousse with hot chocolate sauce from Cornerhouse. The sugar-rush was so acute that I forgot to taste the chocolate.
Fitness is an ongoing journey. I jumped on the fitness bandwagon because I was tired of feeling crappy. What I’ve learned is that no one has all the answers. There are people who maybe be specialists of a particular form of movement or a specific diet, but that doesn’t mean you should rely on them for your fitness queries. Their expertise might not work for you because that system of movement or eating might not work for you.
I’ve been on various diets over the years (and still experiment with different modalities of eating), and I’ve realized diets don’t work. Guidelines do. Minimizing my sugar consumption is at the top of my list of dietary guidelines. As I said in this Instagram post, there are many reasons for why I did this. We all agree that sugar is bad for you. But most of us don’t realize just how much sugar we consume.
That 1 tsp of sugar you allow yourself in your coffee/tea is not the only sugar in your diet. If you eat any kind of packaged foods, ketchup or pickles etc, you’re having sugar.
I follow the 80-20 rule when it comes to my diet, so I sometimes manage to literally have my mousse and eat it too.
What I usually eat.
I love the fact that now everyone is into millets. This is my staple.
I switched over to black teas and coffees when I quit dairy and sugar. It’s made a world of a difference.
Below are easy ways I eliminated sugar from my diet.
I stopped ordering in. Food that you order in is never fresh. It has excess preservatives, sodium, food colors, sugars etc., that negate all the good work you do in the fitness class. I found easy recipes for days when I come home dog tired. Stuff like poha, or pulao or even scrambled eggs. I order in like once a year, and that mousse it.
I stopped eating ketchup and other sauces.
I don’t eat potato chips or any variations of them.
I don’t drink colas and even packaged fruit juices. Yes, even your fruit juices have additional sugar and preservatives.
I don’t eat cakes and biscuits that come out of packages. If I want them I will bake them.
These changes didn’t happen over night. I incorporated them slowly. There was a time I thought packaged juices are better than colas. Now I know they are the same. There was a time I would drench my burgers in ketchup. Now no more burgers and no more ketchup. All of us have been through the Marie or digestive biscuits with tea phase. Mine ended a long time ago. I used to be someone who actually went out for dessert. Now it seems like another life.
Sometimes I feel like I didn’t just clean up my diet, I actually deep cleaned it. And after all this, I have experienced increased energy levels, better stamina and clearer skin. Enough reasons for you to ditch the sugar!
What I sometimes get away with eating. Maggi and chai on the way to Musoorie last month.
Every once in a while I’ll indulge in a latte at Starbucks.
Your body exists in the past and your mind exists in the future. In yoga, they come together in the present. – BKS Iyengar
The other day one of my students mentioned (rightly so) that in my class he spends a lot of time in Adhomukha Svanasana. Other classes he’s attended didn’t repeat asanas as much our class.
Why the repetition?
The thing is, we might be doing the same asana over and over again, but we’re not actually repeating it. Emotionally, physically and mentally, the asana is different every single time we redo it. Each time we execute it, we go deeper. We look at nuances, uncover hidden depths. It’s a new asana every time. In Trikonasana, for instance, I can focus on the alignment of my ankles, or on my shoulder blades, or the rotation of my spine, my drishti, or the alignment of the femur and shin, or even the extension of the metatarsals and soles. To maintain awareness simultaneously on all the factors that build the Trikonasana is hard, and we practice to achieve that. And, if for a moment we attain that state, we meditate upon what it taught us, what we learned.
I frequently come across posts on social media about ‘flipping your perspective’ or ‘get a new perspective’ and usually such posts are usually accompanied by pictures of Sirsasana (headstand) or Adhomukha Vrikshasana (handstand). In an Iyengar yoga class, you will gain new perspective and flip existing ones while doing basic asanas repetitively, constantly, consistently and persistently. To gain new perspective, we don’t really need to look beyond what we already have. Perhaps all we need is to be more attentive.
Take the Trikonasana above for instance. We can always focus on bending to the side and making contact with the toes/foot/ankle/ground. Or we can focus on bringing out the various triangles in the posture more distinctly and intensely.
Your focus will determine the quality and maturity of your practice and your life.
