For the past 3 years now, since I'd gotten onto the teacher's mat, having a well-maintained, strong physical body has been the source of my well-being, income and the anchor to my personal practice.
Imagine my horror, when I over-strained my intercostal muscles during my practice of the Khonundrum sequence just a WEEK before Module 2 of my Tripsichore Teacher Training! Every inhalation felt like someone had stabbed a knife into my left rib-cage and in slow, deliberate motion, continued slicing the knife's blade down the rib-cage towards the kidney. Even lifting my left arm backwards to an arc felt excruciatingly painful.
The injury left me somewhat frustrated, but it also left me thinking. A sprained wrist and an asthma attack accompanied my Module 1 of the Tripsichore Training but I worked within the boundaries of my limitations (and pain), and sailed through a tough but enjoyable training session. But with the intercostal sprain, my range of motion seemed more limited, and total rest was the only alternative. How now brown cow???
Because the 'me' had always felt tied to physicality as far as yoga was concerned, the injury left me somewhat disoriented, when the training started on 29 May.
The first 3 days took me on a roller-coster ride of challenges... physically, mentally and emotionally. I tried to sought out the 'peace' in the vinyasa practice and found none. As this was, as Edward Clark put it, 'one of the world's toughest yoga teacher training', it felt very much like Asana Boot Camp as we were pushed right to the precipice of our individual breaking points of the practice by more complicated and advanced postures and sequences. It also didn't help when some tension between the training faculty openly reared its ugly head.
If the breath sets the tone of my practice, then the 'tone' for the first 3 days was one of anger mingled with a foggy perception of my commitment to the practice. I started to question if I was on the right path, and if this was the yoga journey I'd wanted. Or was the physical limitation a test of perseverance?
Day 4 came around, and with it, a calmer frame of mind (perhaps also due to fact that the pain had subsided tremendously....amazing what anti-flammatories and pain-killers can do). The self-anger I had felt for the past 3 days got channeled to a different kind of energy... a positive one. The frustration was used to refine and improve my practice, and the fog that had misted over my decision to embark on the training, slowly dissipated. As the breath got calmer, I started to detach from what I could achieve at the end of each day, and instead focussed on doing one thing at a time without being presumptuous to what's coming next.
According to yogic texts, the Sanskrit word 'vidya' means wisdom or knowledge - the wisdom that is earned through deep (self) practice and experience.
In the "texts" of Edward Clark, the Tripsichore Teacher Training is a physically and philosophically intensive and complicated practice. During my chat with him, he revealed that, the purpose of the course is to work purely on the yoga...because he truly believes that the intrinsic techniques of the Tripsichore vinyasa practice outweigh the need to merely train a teacher in order to teach the practice. He goes on to say, "there's a huge difference between a good teacher with a good practice, versus a good teacher who's just good at being a teacher but has a weak or bad practice".
So where, then, is the 'peace' in the practice? Can such peace be found in an 'Asana Boot Camp' of a highly demanding, week-long, 6-hour daily drill?
As I journeyed through these past 8 days of ups, downs and intensiveness, it dawned on me, that if yoga is defined as "evenness of mind" (Bhagavad Gita 2:48), then the peace in the practice is found when one is able to bring a tempestuous mind and situation into a place of calm.
To acknowledge this, is the vidya, where one increases the ability to be conscious of the present, and by tuning one's awareness inward to help the true self lift the veil that clouds the purity and beauty of yoga. And only the practice (lots of it) and the application of yogic philosophy to the practice, can bring you to this realisation.
And knowing the vidya from the avidya (its opposite), will help to distinguish the difference between perseverance and stubbornness.
Wishing you peace in the breath, and honesty in your practice.
(a big thank you hug to those who have sent me your love and healing energy during this time, without judgement nor influence).
xxx
Imagine my horror, when I over-strained my intercostal muscles during my practice of the Khonundrum sequence just a WEEK before Module 2 of my Tripsichore Teacher Training! Every inhalation felt like someone had stabbed a knife into my left rib-cage and in slow, deliberate motion, continued slicing the knife's blade down the rib-cage towards the kidney. Even lifting my left arm backwards to an arc felt excruciatingly painful.
The injury left me somewhat frustrated, but it also left me thinking. A sprained wrist and an asthma attack accompanied my Module 1 of the Tripsichore Training but I worked within the boundaries of my limitations (and pain), and sailed through a tough but enjoyable training session. But with the intercostal sprain, my range of motion seemed more limited, and total rest was the only alternative. How now brown cow???
Because the 'me' had always felt tied to physicality as far as yoga was concerned, the injury left me somewhat disoriented, when the training started on 29 May.
The first 3 days took me on a roller-coster ride of challenges... physically, mentally and emotionally. I tried to sought out the 'peace' in the vinyasa practice and found none. As this was, as Edward Clark put it, 'one of the world's toughest yoga teacher training', it felt very much like Asana Boot Camp as we were pushed right to the precipice of our individual breaking points of the practice by more complicated and advanced postures and sequences. It also didn't help when some tension between the training faculty openly reared its ugly head.
 |
| Edward Clark playing 'peek-a-boo' in an inverted Garudasana |
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| Just breathe (painfully) |
In the "texts" of Edward Clark, the Tripsichore Teacher Training is a physically and philosophically intensive and complicated practice. During my chat with him, he revealed that, the purpose of the course is to work purely on the yoga...because he truly believes that the intrinsic techniques of the Tripsichore vinyasa practice outweigh the need to merely train a teacher in order to teach the practice. He goes on to say, "there's a huge difference between a good teacher with a good practice, versus a good teacher who's just good at being a teacher but has a weak or bad practice".
So where, then, is the 'peace' in the practice? Can such peace be found in an 'Asana Boot Camp' of a highly demanding, week-long, 6-hour daily drill?
As I journeyed through these past 8 days of ups, downs and intensiveness, it dawned on me, that if yoga is defined as "evenness of mind" (Bhagavad Gita 2:48), then the peace in the practice is found when one is able to bring a tempestuous mind and situation into a place of calm.
And knowing the vidya from the avidya (its opposite), will help to distinguish the difference between perseverance and stubbornness.
Wishing you peace in the breath, and honesty in your practice.
(a big thank you hug to those who have sent me your love and healing energy during this time, without judgement nor influence).
xxx
2 comments:
FOR ME,GOOD PRACTICE DOESN'T MEAN GOOD PERFORMANCE. THAT'S NOT YOGA. GOOD PRACTICE DON'T STRETCH YOUR LIMIT, ONLY ACCUMULATE WISDOM AND COMPASSION TOWARDS YOURSELF AND OTHERS.
When the inner voice is being ignored for too long, injury happens. This injury is one of the element or tool take bring us back to the inner self.
We can't imagine what injury can bring to our life. I noticed that, injuries and sadness always bring people to another conscious level or a deeper practice.
Sometimes, injury is something good. It teaches us to listen to the body which we has been ignoring all these while. Because of the pain, we are forced to take the every single breath slowly, carefully and consciously. This will lead to deep relaxation and meditation. Eventually it allows the healing process to take place. Yes, maybe your body wants you to slow down. I know you already knew this :-)
Don't be frustrated! Take the injury and healing process as part of the yoga practice. I'm sure it will lead you back to the original point!
I suggest that you should avoid strong twisting.
Strong backbends should avoid too. Some supported mild backbends like viparita dandasana, setu bandha sarvangasana and supported savasana are helpful. Where you put the intercostal in a gentle stretching position when you breath in and out. This kind of stretching is easy to control by breathing.
Half forward extension is good for you i suppose, as it strengthen back the intercostal. Use as many support as you can to stimulate the calming effect.
Hanging over inversion is good to lengthen that intercostal muscle and to reduce pain and compression where it is being pulled down by gravity.
Guess, halasana over chair is perfect for you for calming your mind and strengthen back that intercostal!
I hope my words didn't offense you. Just some sharing from my heart :-)
I wish you recover soon! Cheer up!!
Best wishes :-)
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