(Has it really been a month since I've posted?!)

Practicing for myself has always been easy. Who else would I be practicing for? Recently, two developments have unfolded that make it more difficult for me to practice. They are revealing about the ego.

First, I have been teaching more. A lot more. Big classes, small classes, vigorous classes, gentle classes, fast ones and slow ones. Much of my focus is on the students, what they need, and how to communicate effectively with them. Each class needs a different approach, both a game plan beforehand and also the ability to change when things inevitably don't go as planned. 

As I teach more, I also practice more. I demonstrate many things in class and often accompany the students in the postures for solidarity and motivation. I also practice a lot in preparation to teach, to familiarize myself with the movements and breath that I will ask the students to do.

But all this practice is not for me. It is focused on communication and service of my students.

Second, as my personal practice develops it moves inward and out of sight. It still requires time and concentration, even more than before, but Breathing exercises and Meditation are invisible. They don't develop new muscles or fancy new postures. So if I base my progress on my old measures, like growing flexibility and strength, it sometimes feels like I am stalled or sliding backward.

This only means that my relationship to my own practice is changing. It must change if I am to keep moving forward. My measures of progress will have to change, away from depth of stretch and drops of sweat, toward balance of energy, stillness of mind, and awareness and control of breath.

The first set of postures in Bikram's class is the Half Moon series, where we bend the upper body to both sides and then backward. These positions warm the body effectively because they stretch the same muscles that are engaged and strengthening. This generates a lot of heat.

When we bend to the right side, we are held up by the muscles on the left side of the body - in the hip, abdomen and torso. These are the same muscles that are being lengthened, so the body and mind must find a balance between engagement and release. Technically speaking, this is called eccentric contraction -when a muscle is engaged while getting longer. Contrast this with concentric contraction, where we engage a muscle and make it shorter, like a bicep curl or Cobra Pose. In concentric contraction, the muscles opposite the contracting muscle automatically relax and lengthen. In a bicep curl, the triceps relax. In Cobra Pose, the front chest, abdomen and hip flexors relax.

The fourth posture of the Half Moon series is Hands to Feet Pose. Unlike the side and back bends, Hands to Feet Pose is not an eccentric contraction. We contract the abdomen in order to stretch the back, so it is concentric contraction. This series of warm-up bends would be better served by an eccentric forward bend that engages the backside of the body while stretching it.

I dislike pictures of people doing yoga postures in beautiful places: mountaintops, beaches, meadows at sunset. It promotes the idea of yoga as a luxury and as something that is distant from the everyday life. I think yoga should be promoted as a lifestyle, simple and essential way to be healthy and happy. Like eating healthily or getting enough sleep. 

Above on the left is a picture of me doing exactly what I dislike. On the beach in Los Cabos, Mexico, the day after completing Advanced Practice with Tony Sanchez. 

On the right is my ordinary practice at home. No fancy props or beautiful backdrops. Just my body, breath and mind. And my dog Bug, who has become a big part of my practice. He has a way of coming into the room at the perfect time, when I am upside down or in deep concentration. He licks my face or jumps up on me. I consider it part of my practice - to maintain focus and stillness regardless of what is going on around me (or licking me).

It is not strength in the muscles
Or flexibility in the joints
Or standing on one leg

It is not balancing upside down
Or holding the breath

Stillness
Awareness of every fiber of the body
Every impulse of the nerves
Every beat of the heart
Every twitch of breeze and breath
And stillness

After two weeks of living in hotel rooms, airports, airplanes and cars, I am finally home. I am happiest to see my dog. The challenge of being home is to maintain the passion and dedication to my yoga practice that grew again during my recent dedicated study. It is hard to maintain that focus amidst the commitments, emails, dishes, lawn and countless other things.

Here are some things that Tony said during our week of Advanced Practice.

ON PERSONAL PRACTICE:
The positions need to be cultivated in a gradual way.

In the 3rd set you will be able to reach the maximum of your ability.

You will get a lot more benefit when you find that place of stability and hold it motionless.

When you have reached your limit [in a posture], it is important that you learn how to stop the world.

The only way to make your practice simple is by practicing a lot.

It's not just doing the practice, but also studying; increasing your knowledge.

The mind can be very, very effective. But for most people the mind is very, very lazy.

We are like carbon. We can become diamonds, but it takes a lot of time and a lot of work.

The idea is to keep practicing no matter if you achieve those things (like samadhi) or not. Devotion to your practice.

A yogi becomes transparent, almost invisible.

ON HIS PERSONAL APPROACH:
I'm so happy just doing my own practice and ignoring the world.

To me, sustainability is everything.

The power that I want is not human power. It is divine power.

For me, the hands and the feet are assisting the position; that is my spine.

When people do things a certain way because "this is how Tony teaches it," then it becomes dogmatic. I don't want it to be dogmatic.

ON BEING A TEACHER:
You have the responsibility to stay healthy. You are the role models.

At least half of your class needs to be the standing positions.

Your objective should be to cultivate what is missing in [your students'] bodies. (strength or flexibility)

ON THE PRESENT AND FUTURE OF YOGA:
The standing positions are the most important for our society right now.

It is like practicing yoga in hell. (during a discussion of heated yoga studios)

Scientific yoga has to rely on all the other sciences.

We're in a big rush to get somewhere, but we don't know where we're trying to get.

Savasana is the most important posture in the whole class.

It is the last day of Advanced Practice with Tony. We will only do a morning session today and have the afternoon free.

We waste no time in getting to the exercises. Almost immediately Tony instructs us to stand. We do some qi gong movements to warm up before proceeding to the Standing Deep Breathing and then to the Complete Series. It seems faster and more effortless today. I think it is because I know this is the last time we will do it. I want to go slowly, to embrace each posture and each instruction.

In Short Man, Ida and I are upright on our mats, right next to each other. Tony say, "Are you having a competition to see who can stay up the longest?" We weren't before, but we are now! We stay in the posture for as long as we can, and Ida ends up winning (!).

After going through all the postures, we proceed to go through all the Mudras and Bandhas we learned this week. The breath control slows my mind down, and I become very relaxed.

Then we are done. With no ceremony, Tony thanks us all and gets up to leave. He puts on his baseball cap, picks up his backpack and, just like that, he is gone. The rest is up to us, either individually or collectively. Will we continue our practices with dedication? Will we teach or run a studio? Will we honor and pass on the tradition that we have learned?

This morning's session is similar to the last few days. We discuss the postures. Today everyone asks questions about the postures they are curious about. What is the final step in the Peacock? Where do you put the hands in Full Cobra? What is the best way to work on Dancer? We also talk a bit about Ghosh and Tony's history with the yoga. Always interesting, especially since we hear so many rumors about the past decades. It is nice to get the stories from the man himself.

The yoga itself requires less and less effort. After so many hours spent practicing this week, my mind is perpetually calm and focused. My body is perpetually warm. When we stand up to do the postures, I feel a wave of relief and ease wash over me. Then we begin with the Standing Breathing or with some qi gong. We begin to move through the postures and my body is strong, my mind still.

I know that strength and flexibility are building from the regular practice, but it feels so effortless. Like each day I can do more and try less. It is like magic sometimes, though I can see my muscles building and I can stretch farther. The power of regular practice is profound.

Tony explains the final stage of Nauli, what the Bikram people call the "washing machine." The abdominal muscles roll from side to side, requiring isolation and control of each individual muscle group in the abdomen, all executed while holding the breath. Not easy.

He also shows us a separate Nauli exercise with the wrists. It seems like a simple movement - rotating the wrists together in harmony. But it is actually very challenging, revealing all the imbalances and weaknesses in the arms and wrists. 

This afternoon was posture free. For the entire 3 hour session we discussed the setups, intentions and modifications of the last few groups of postures in the Complete Series. The conversation bounced back and forth as people chimed in with questions or additions. Tony demonstrated many of the positions and clarified the purpose of each. 

As this week of training and study comes to an end, the strangest part is how close it all seems. Nothing, even the most "advanced" position seems far from me, both in understanding and execution. Tony has helped so much this week to push us further in our knowledge and experience.