Filed under: Health and Nutrition
Several months ago, I did a post on this blog about yoga and vegetarianism/veganism. The question was, “Does a yogi need to be a vegetarian/vegan?” This time around, I want to address the issue of whether or not a yogi ought to abstain totally from alcohol. (more…)
My doctor called me this morning, and the prognosis on my wrist is pretty good. Apparently, the MRI revealed that I have only a slight tear/degeneration in the Triangular Fibrocartilage Complex (TFCC). In other words, no surgery is required. The TFCC, as I understand it, is an area on the ulnar side of the wrist that consists of cartilage and ligaments, and is a frequent location of sports injury. Basically, I just need to give it a rest to let it heal, and the doctor’s going to put a cast on me tomorrow to immobilize my wrist entirely for about three weeks. (more…)
Filed under: Yoga Stuff
Yogitoes produces an unusual looking yoga block called the ECODOT. I’ll be honest; when I first got this, I was very skeptical about it. It’s round, and looks kind of like a large piece of movie theater candy that you might have eaten when you were a little kid. (more…)
I finally went to an orthopedic doctor today, and he’s tentatively guessing that I have a torn ligament in my right wrist. This would explain the on-going pain in my wrist, and the specific nature of the pain. I’ll be having an MRI tomorrow to find out exactly what is happening. X-Rays of my wrist have come back negative, so the most likely explanation of the persistent pain, according to my doctor, is a torn ligament. The two possible treatments are surgery or immobilization of the wrist joint. In either case, my yoga practice will certainly be affected pretty dramatically for a while. I’ve already been making some considerable alterations to my practice, and, as readers of this blog have probably noticed, it’s been some time since I’ve done any new Digital Asana Project videos, mainly because I can’t do anything on my hands right now. Surgery and/or immobilization of my wrist will almost guarantee that I won’t be doing any more videos for some time.
Filed under: Yoga Musings
At the risk of sounding cynical, I want to make the simple but potentially controversial observation that yoga teacher training programs have really been churning out a lot of really poor teachers in the past few years. My suspicion is that teacher training programs have become a veritable business for yoga studios and gyms, and, as a result, pretty much anyone who is willing to pay the ridiculous fees to enroll in one of these programs is just a few weeks away from being a “certified yoga instructor”. (more…)
One of the mentalities that a lot of athletes – yogis included – often develop when they suffer some kind of injury is: “How can I get over this injury as quickly as possible so that I can get back to what I used to do?” Injuries are bad, after all, and if they cause us to be unable to do yoga, play tennis, ski, etc., the way we love to do these things, then we ought to do whatever it takes to heal the injury (or remove the pain) so that we can return to our old ways again. Right? Well, maybe not. (more…)
I recently started up a class at Bloomington Power Yoga that consists of 30-minutes of Sun Salutations, followed by 30-minutes of sitting meditation. This is sort of an experiment to see what it would be like to really use asana (posture) as preparation for dhyana (meditation), instead of just focusing on the physical aspects of yoga, which is the typical paradigm of yoga classes in America today. (more…)
A few weeks ago, I strained my left hamstring while demonstrating Hanumanasana (splits) in class for my students. Ouch. If you’ve ever had the misfortune of pulling or tearing a hamstring, then you know that this kind of injury takes forever to heal. The last time I did this, it took about 3 or 4 months for it to be really all better. (more…)
Filed under: Yoga Philosophy
If anyone cares to read it, here is my final paper on Patanjali’s Yoga-Sutra.
I’ll post a condensed summary of it shortly for those who don’t want to read a 20+ page paper filled with academic jargon.
