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!  

I spent last weekend at a very inspiring workshop on Salt Spring Island with Michael Stone, at the Ganges Yoga Studio. The tradition of yoga is such an enormous and ancient one, and it is fairly rare to find yoga teachers these days who possess a truly extensive – and better yet, experiential – understanding of it. I'm really grateful, for my personal practice as well as my teaching practice, that I took the time and attended his workshop.

The very first thing we did, when we actually got down to "doing" rather than "listening", was to breathe. Ah yes, the good old breath. How many times can we practice doing this most basic thing, and still learn and experience new things? Apparently many! Sadly, most of us, no matter what our occupations, don't breathe properly. Years of bad posture, emotional tension, and never having been reminded how to do it naturally lead to chronic bad breathing habits. Computer users need to be aware of this, as a forward slouched posture tends to constrict the diaphragm and inhibit natural and full breathing.

The good news is that practicing good breathing is actually a pretty pleasant way to spend a few minutes a day. It's extremely calming and it feels really good! So read this through, and then go lie down on your floor and practice. Go on, do it. It's good for you.

Three-Part Breathing 

Lie on your back with your knees raised, so the soles of your feet are flat on the floor. Rest your hands by your sides, and feel yourself settle down into the ground. Exhale fully.  

You're going to divide up your inhale into three parts: belly, solar plexus (around your lowest ribs), and chest. Begin your inhale by taking 1/3 of your breath into your belly, feeling it rise as you do. Pause. Then take 1/3 of your breath into your solar plexus. Pause. Finally, inhale the last 1/3 of your breath right up into your chest. Pause at the top, and then reverse the whole thing. Exhale the air from your chest, your solar plexus, and finally your belly.

Repeat this a number of times. For many people, the hardest part to get is the solar plexus. Try and imagine your ribs expanding out to the sides as you breathe into them. So the belly rises UP, the ribs move OUT, and the chest expands in 3D. Try that out a few times. And as you move from one section to the next, you can just naturally release the previous area (so you can let your belly fall naturally as you move on to inhale into your solar plexus).

Work with this three-part breath for a few minutes, and then slowly come back up to sitting. If you have a yoga practice, see if you can find that same sense of complete breath in all your poses. And whether you regularly practice yoga or not, see if you can find that same sense of full and easy breathing in the rest of your day. It's a good thing to remember in odd moments when you find yourself sitting a bit tense at your computer.

Your breath... it's always there. Isn't it time you paid some attention to it?  

I recently bought myself a 9-week intro pass at a studio here in town. It's always nice to practice with others, and there is no greater inspiration for teaching, in my estimation, than being a student and observing how others teach. On Sunday evening this studio offers a class in "restorative yoga", and, definitely in need of some restoration, I attended it. I've always loved restoratives, but during this class I realized that it's a practice I wanted to share with geeks everywhere. Read for for a bit of an explanation, as well as a relaxing pose you can try yourself at home.

Restorative yoga refers to the practice of using props to completely support the body in a relaxation pose, so as to facilitate deep relaxation and release. Generally you spend at least 5-10 minutes in each pose, and a restorative class is generally a very meditative, blissful and soothing experience. You'll usually do a supported forward bend or two, a supported backbend or two, some twists, and an inversion (often just something as simple as lying with the legs up the wall, as in the image to the right). Inversions, for the record, are one of the best things you can do for yourself. As Judith Lasater says in her book, Relax and Renew, 

Because we stand or sit most of the day, blood and lymph fluid accumulate in the lower extremities. By changing the relationship of the legs to gravity, fluids are returned to the upper body and heart function is enhanced.

Of particular value for the computer-bound set, I think, is a supported backbend. This is described and depicted about half-way down on this page. If you are prone to sitting at your computer with your spine rounded forward (who isn't?!), then you probably find yourself accumulating tension in the upper back and shoulders, and getting tighter and more restricted in the area below your front ribs. This pose will help to counter that.

I'm going to skip giving the full directions here, as they are given very clearly at the link above. If you don't have a bolster, a firm sofa cushion will do (but a squishy pillow would not). The one thing that can make it difficult to incorporate restorative yoga into your normal life is that it requires props (bolsters, blankets, blocks, etc). However, with a little geek creativity, I think you could improvise and still get all the benefits!

Give it a whirl and see how it feels. I highly recommend some conscious relaxation in your day, and restorative yoga is a great way to do it. 

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.