THE UNCONDITIONED MIND

If you are wondering why I haven't written lately, its because I've been tied up with a Tim Miller workshop here in Edmonton. Five episodes of yoga, sutras, Sanskrit chanting and other wisdoms. I had never heard of Tim Miller. It wasn't until Harmony and Jeff from Calgary's Yoga Shala recommended I go while when we were in India.

Check out his California studio: www.ashtangayogacenter.com

"Tim Miller has been studying and teaching Ashtanga Yoga for over 25 years and was the first American certified to teach by Pattabhi Jois at the Ashtanga Yoga Research Institute in Mysore, India. Tim has a thorough knowledge of this ancient system, which he imparts in a dynamic, yet compassionate and playful manner. "My goal as a teacher is to inspire a passion for practice. The practice itself, done consistently and accurately, is the real teacher." Tim teaches workshops and retreats throughout the United States and abroad."

I am so glad I went! My jaw is still on the ground after seeing his range of pose-ability! Plus all of the Sanskrit memorization/ reciting...wow. It was very reminiscent of my recent trip to the shala in Mysore this summer, or as I call it: The yoga Olympics!

One of the classes was the Asana Doctor. I had asked a question about the difference between injuries vs. openings. There were a few laughs and comments like "pain" from the other yogis. Sharath called my experience an 'opening'. When Tim said it was "...re-framing it so you are not emotionally attached to the trauma", it was brilliant! It was very helpful for me to see the body/ mind connection and not allow for it to be the self-created mental obstacle.

I practiced under Sharath for 5 weeks and an 'opening' occurred during Supta Karmasana when Saraswati and Sharath both grabbed each of my limbs and put me in the pose. When Sharath said: "Now lift up onto your hands" , I did obeying, breathing & praying. I never knew I could get my feet behind my head, never mind lift unto my hands. All I could say was "Wow".

Afterwards I was ready to crack coconuts open with my bare hands! However, later...right hamstring PAIN and it was on strike!

If the body's cells regenerate every few years, how can an injury persist? Is it the mind hanging onto the emotional trauma and continually recreating the pain/ dysfunction? Re-framing an overstretched muscle as an opening means to me that I am moving forward. If I call it an injury, its holding me back and I am living in the past...wow!

“If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”

~Wayne Dyer

Tim says the best way to heal an overstretched muscle is to strengthen it. Resting it will make it worse, as will continuing to stretch it. Doing the things that avoid pain and it never gets better, equaling chronic weakness. We have to go through the fire to be refined and purified. "Remove a thorn with a thorn." (Indian proverb)

So I guess I will continue to work through the opening until it expands.

As Tim says, the practice is the impetus to let go into a greater reality.

PERSPIRATION NOT PERFECTION...

A group of the yogi guys went with Tim and my beloved Damian to a Native sweat after the class. A taste of aboriginal Alberta ...

More advice from Tim: True yoga begins when class ends.