Largely inspired by my Anusara friends Elsie and Hillary, I spent Sunday afternoon at a workshop with Todd Norian and Ann Greene, at YogaSpace. The focus was on therapeutics – healing injuries and common ailments through good alignment, and careful attention to a few key actions, in a few key poses.  I learned a lot, and wanted to jot down a few of the things I appreciated the most.

Todd started by reminding us that pain and injuries are blessings in disguise. This can be a hard thing to remember, but it's really very true. :) We learn so much from our pain and from our injuries – far more than we learn from perfect ease and constant comfort. The important accompanying belief, though, is that life always moves in the direction of healing, and wellness, if that is your intention. Our bodies do want to heal - they just need our co-operation, and our attention. If you suffer from chronic pain or discomfort, like so many of us do, don't ever believe that it won't get better. (Do recognize, though, that it likely won't get better if you keep all your old habits in place and willfully ignore the information your body is trying to share with you! Healing is an act of co-creation.)

From that opening reminder, we moved into working specifically with the hips, and the shoulders – the four corners of good alignment. Todd and Ann maintain that almost all injuries in our bodies trace back to mis-alignment in one of the four corners, so we spent a lot of time working with them. Most of the shoulder work involved counteracting the common tendency towards "slump-asana" (which is just a little yoga joke for those of you not in the know. Almost every yoga pose ends in with "asana", so "slump-asana" is a fitting name for the posture that we almost all default to while typing, driving, watching TV... etc!). I will try to put together a little video showing a couple of good exercises for the shoulders, because they really helped my body to get a sense of where to go. I'll also try to post a picture and description of the "Pointy Butt Trick", so check back soon. :) 

All in all, a helpful workshop. I love learning more tips and tricks for working with injuries and limitations... because I think the truth is that most of us fall into that category more than into the "flexible and comfortable" category (at least some of the time). The good news is that our bodies are resilient, and able to heal, and that moving in that direction is a tremendously empowering process.

Never been to a yoga class, but feeling kind of curious? I thought it might be helpful to assemble a few tips for newcomers (aka "n00bs") to any kind of yoga – things beyond the logistics like wearing comfy clothes, and not showing up with a full tummy.

The following four are the things that I would most love for new students to consider. If you take one of my classes, you'll likely hear most of them, but they are good things to keep in mind in any class you might attend. 

1. Accept yourself and exactly where you are at today. Now, read that again, and take it to heart! You may have monstrously tight hips, you may be miles away from touching your toes, you may have trouble sitting still for five minutes... and it's fine. Everything transforms in time, and you don't get to decide on the schedule. Accept yourself, and work from where you're at. Take a longer-term view of change, and find out for yourself that your own unconditional acceptance is the best gift you can give yourself (and ultimately everyone else). 
2. Resist the urge to "keep up with the Joneses". Yoga is *not* a competitive activity (unless you're in the Bikram's Yoga Competition, but that's another story). You run the risk of injuring yourself when you try to make your body conform to an outside standard, whether it's a picture in a book, your teacher's example, or the person next to you. Always make sure that the urge to go "deeper" into a pose is not coming from a place of ego, but rather from a sense that there is space for your body to move further, into a place of even more connectedness.  Don't miss the opportunity to experience what actually IS happening, because you're lost in ideas about what "should be" happening. 
3. Respect your teacher's experience, but realize you are ultimately your own best authority. Learn to trust what you feel, and trust what you know. The process of getting in touch with your inner wisdom can be a slow one, but it is exciting, rewarding, and incredibly interesting.
4. Keep breathing. Don't worry so much about any fancy breathing (unless you're being specifically instructed)... but do keep breathing. When you're "in a tight spot"... return to your breath. When you want to get out of a pose and run away from the class... return to your breath. If you notice that you're not breathing, gently inquire into why. Is your mind elsewhere? Are you way past your comfort point? Are you anxious? See what you can do to get your breath moving again, even if just a little.
   

Certainly there could be more than these four, but I hope you find them helpful. I would suggest taking just one of them into the next class you attend, and trying it on for size that day. How does it affect your experience in the class?

Comments? Additional ideas? I'd love to hear about them!  

Watch out – your poor geeking-out posture stands to do you more harm than you might realize.

My friend Thomas sent me a link to an article that pretty much sums up why I think Yoga for Geeks is particularly necessary and timely these days. (Of course, geeks aren't the only ones who spend too much time at a computer... these days, a lot of people do, many of whom would never identify as geeks. But since I have such a fondness for so many of the loveable, hunched-over geeks that I know, I'm choosing to put my energy in that direction).

It shouldn't come as a surprise if you've been paying attention to your body *at all*, but as it turns out, "a slew of ergonomics and other posture professionals... all voiced the sobering truth that human beings were not designed to fold themselves into computer workstations each day." And in case you were wondering,

"The most egregious ergonomic crimes I see include sitting without any back support for more than one hour at time; extended reaching in any direction, causing problems for the shoulders, neck and upper back area; awkward neck positioning and rotating the neck repeatedly; and people … pitch[ing] forward off their chairs," said Deborah Read, MOTR/L ergonomics consultant.

Also really bad, apparently (and also unsurprisingly), is cradling a phone between your ear and shoulder. Buy a headset. (I'm guilty.)

What probably scared me the most was the description of the earliest warning signs of repetitive stress problems – because almost everyone I know experiences them. These include tightness and soreness in the upper back and shoulders, and unfortuantely people tend to carry on as usual until they have symptoms down into their wrists and elbows.

Most geeks I know describe pain around their shoulder blades and upper back. Almost everyone has this pain right where your arm joins to your back, kind of around the back of your armpit on your mouse arm. (You know the one. And you know what it's from.)

So what are we doing to ourselves!? Are we all going to end up crippled down the road? Are we all going to end up dropping out of the wired world and moving to a small community to walk barefoot and free in our organic gardens, where our bodies can slowly return to a state of ease and comfort? (Oops, perhaps that's just my own fantasy.) Will technology save us and will our governments start providing all computer workers with proper workstations as a public service?

My advice is to take this stuff seriously, starting now. If you want to be able to keep saving the world through code, design, and online communtiy building, you'd better start making it sustainable.

• If you can afford it, invest in better equipment for your workstation.
  
• Don't sit slouched over the laptop for hours.
  
• Drop and relax your shoulders.
  
• Take regular breaks to stretch your neck, shoulders, and wrists.
  
• Don't ignore persistent pain.
  

And dammit, go to a gentle yoga class (or tai chi, or pilates, or whatever) once in a while. Your whole self will thank you for it.