Category: Yoga & I
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Yoga Practice & Well-Being Charts 2022 part 1
The experiment in charting my well-being continues through subjective Yoga-practice related indicators. Monthly Charts The monthly charts being 10 days before the beginning of the month and continue 10 days beyond its end in order to give the month some context. 6 Month Charts The 6 month weekly median and daily charts stretch back into…
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Yoga Practice Charts 2021
In some past Yoga check-ins, I tried using graphs to illustrate how my sense of well-being fluctuates. The graphs were created in retrospect and I invented data to try to express how I felt. In 2021 I initiated a journaling experiment to see what real data might look like. I use a spreadsheet to collect…
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Yoga Practice – Winter 2020/21
This feels like a long-overdue update. A few months ago I had in mind a post with more “graphs” to illustrate the shifts in my practice, more details about the practice, and my breath, but that never came to be. Now I have only a slight inclination to write … so this will be brief…
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Yoga Practice & Allergy – Summer 2020
During the first half of May, I started to sense first signs of allergy. A slight itch at the top of my mouth, a very slight wheeze in my breath, an itch on my back. All these, when allergy is in full swing, can quickly escalate. But they were subtle. I recall one or two…
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Yoga Practice Spring 2020
Tone On the one hand, it feels like I’ve had a long sequence of uninterrupted practice. Uninterrupted by any major event (no allergy, no back strain). On the other hand, this period has been affected by a continuous sense of agitation and disruption. One cause for this has been lack of clarity and insecurity about…
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Asana Gradient: Backbends
Gradient Documentation Started: Feb 32, 2020. Therefore, the timeline preceding this date is not precise, it is based on partial documentation and partial recollection. This gradient involves numerous asana off the same “family.” Though the individual asana do evolve separately that evolution does not usually involve noticeable external changes in form. Looking from the outside…
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Asana Gradient: Parsva Uttanasana
Gradient Documentation Started: Feb 2, 2020. Therefore, the timeline preceding this date is not precise, it is based on partial documentation and partial recollection. 1: Spring 2016 – Re-introduction When, early in my practice, I arrive at Parsva Uttanasana – flank forward bend – I feel like I am fully stepping into practice. It was…
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Yoga Practice – Prayer Withing Closing Ritual End of 2019
As this year arrives at its natural ending I leave it with yet another slightly revised prayer that anchors the end of my daily practice. אני מברך על החומר הגלום בעולם ועל איכויותיואני מברך על המסעיר, המסתיר והמבהיראני מברך על הייקום העצום המתפרש לכל עבר אני מברך על השמש, על חומה ועל אורהאני מברך על…
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Yoga Practice – Prayer Withing Closing Ritual November 2019
After translating the closing ritual to Hebrew I started using the Hebrew notation in practice (spoken silently in my heart). Doing so changed my sense of it. It transformed beyond a list and took on a narrative quality. The narrative quality invited a series of new transformations. Before the Hebrew translation came into being, the…
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ברכה
אני מברך על התלמיד שבקרביאני מברך על המורה שהופיע בקרבתי, שהלך כבר דרך לפניאני מברך על מורתי זיוה ועל מורי פולאני מברך על דסיקצ’ר ואביו קרישנמצ’ריהאני מברך על מוריהם ומורי מוריהםאני מברך על התובנות שצלחו את הדורות אני מברך על עולם החומראני מברך על אמי נורית ועל אבי יעקבאני מברך על אחותי רויטל ועל אחותי…
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Straining my back
We had just completed the first two days of work of renovation of the summer kitchen. It was the morning after and the excavator arrived for a few tasks we bundled together. I had already done a few tasks to clear the way for the excavator and felt a bit of discomfort in my lower…
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Yoga & Allergy 2019: Recovery … and crash
From the time I published my previous update I was pleased to find stability. Though the symptoms of allergy persisted, I found myself feeling stable. I was held softly in practice every day and I was grateful for that. I used antihistamines over a period of only 2 or 3weeks. I had two types of…
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Yoga Practice (& Allergy) – Summer 2019
Approximately 7 or 8 weeks ago first, slight & subtle signs of allergy appeared: slight wheezing in the breath, itchy eyes, itch throat. Until then, practice was regular and on gradually increasing in intensity and vitality. At that point I decided to stop the intesifying exploration and moved into a holding pattern. I was ancitipating…
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Yoga Practice – Closing Ritual – April 2019
The ritual that closes my practice has evolved, as if it has a life of its own, over recent weeks. It statred with the addition of prakrti and purusa … and then prakrti expanded over a few iterations until it has stabilized (for now) on this: Initiation Inhale opening and raising my palms up in…
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If an Asana is a Koan …
There is a lot I do know about asanas in my practice: I know the core position – the ideal form. I know how to modify it to suit me – the form I am able to meet. I know how to get into it and how to leave it I know if I am…
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Yoga Practice – Winter 2018/19
I am again nearing a review with my teacher and so decided to take note of where I am in practice. Current Practice My current practice routine fills my morning and is about 120-150 minutes: Part 1: Entering Practice (~ 5 minutes) Samasthithi – hands on my heart space, allowing the mind to settle and…
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Yoga Practice – Closing Ritual
I have an instinctual distrust of ritual behavior. Though I can understand that rituals can act as anchors for desired attention and action, my impression is that they can easily default into a training of absence – blind repetition devoid of attention or context. So it was interesting for me to witness over the last…
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Allergic response reflected in Breath?
I made a few subtle changes in my practice since I last reviewed it. One of them was a decision to increase softness. And one way to do that was to drop the counting of breath lengths in most asana. This was a bit challenging to do at first. It created a new potential field…
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Yoga Practice Reflection – Sping 2018
It’s been a while since I’ve posted a practice review. I am not much inclined to doing so. I am in a period of relative silence, not inclined to talking too much (especially if not asked to). So this is mostly note-taking for myself. This is what my current practice looks like this (this is…