I practise yoga, law and the piano.*
When I say, "I practise yoga", the meaning I give the word "practise" is the version of "doing it over and over again by way of training", like the piano, and not "doing it as an end in itself", like working in law. I think there are people who practise yoga in the sense that I practise law, that is, they treat it as a sport, or an end in itself, or something that is "done".
Whilst I wish these people all the best, I don't see yoga as something that should be "done". Historically, I believe, there were yogis who travelled India making their living from doing yoga (there were apparently "miracle"-workers who would bury themselves alive in a chamber with limited air and claim to die and come back to life for huge sums of money, and then move onto the next town to do the trick over and over again).** I think those guys "practised" yoga in the sense of doing it, and I've got to give those guys credit.
But in our day, there is probably little scope for doing yoga as a job, and I think it has far greater benefit in giving us a way of training ourselves.
One of the ways in which I feel yoga has helped me train myself is in being aware of my body. Most of us live in our bodies and can be blissfully unaware of the various feedbacks and warnings that it gives us on a day-to-day basis. Eventually, something hurts or we get sick, which is like our body screaming at us. But a lot of the time, if we train ourselves to be attentive to our bodies, we can hear these messages earlier on - obviously, doing something about it is an entirely different story, but just as in medicine, before we can treat, we need to diagnose.
Which brings me to this jog. I managed to cut five minutes off my jogging time, essentially as I had managed to strengthen somewhat those muscles that I was feeling on my last jog (yes, the ones in my groin). This meant that I was able to "lift my front knee and stretch out my back leg" (obviously they then alternate) and lean forward with my body so that my weight was more on my front leg, as was suggested to me by this bloke.
The first part of my run was therefore faster. I then turned left and was getting ready for the last part, which is uphill, when I realized that my breath was very hot. When I say hot, I don't mean just hotter than normal - obviously in jogging my body is going to get hotter and thus my breath. I mean, hot in a way which strongly reminded me of being sick with a fever, lying in bed, and feeling the heat of my breath.
Basically, I slowed right down whilst still maintaining my posture. As I mentioned in my last post, this allowed me to regain control over my breath and to continue jogging whilst waiting for my breath to cool down. Eventually it did, and I managed to very carefully increase my speed again.
In the end, it is difficult to know what, if anything, would have happened if I were not attentive to my body in that way. Possibly nothing. But I'd rather not find out.
* Possibly "syllepsis". Thanks q-pheevr for teaching me that one.
** Thanks "The Science of Yoga" for that one. Really great book.
When I say, "I practise yoga", the meaning I give the word "practise" is the version of "doing it over and over again by way of training", like the piano, and not "doing it as an end in itself", like working in law. I think there are people who practise yoga in the sense that I practise law, that is, they treat it as a sport, or an end in itself, or something that is "done".
Whilst I wish these people all the best, I don't see yoga as something that should be "done". Historically, I believe, there were yogis who travelled India making their living from doing yoga (there were apparently "miracle"-workers who would bury themselves alive in a chamber with limited air and claim to die and come back to life for huge sums of money, and then move onto the next town to do the trick over and over again).** I think those guys "practised" yoga in the sense of doing it, and I've got to give those guys credit.
But in our day, there is probably little scope for doing yoga as a job, and I think it has far greater benefit in giving us a way of training ourselves.
One of the ways in which I feel yoga has helped me train myself is in being aware of my body. Most of us live in our bodies and can be blissfully unaware of the various feedbacks and warnings that it gives us on a day-to-day basis. Eventually, something hurts or we get sick, which is like our body screaming at us. But a lot of the time, if we train ourselves to be attentive to our bodies, we can hear these messages earlier on - obviously, doing something about it is an entirely different story, but just as in medicine, before we can treat, we need to diagnose.
Which brings me to this jog. I managed to cut five minutes off my jogging time, essentially as I had managed to strengthen somewhat those muscles that I was feeling on my last jog (yes, the ones in my groin). This meant that I was able to "lift my front knee and stretch out my back leg" (obviously they then alternate) and lean forward with my body so that my weight was more on my front leg, as was suggested to me by this bloke.
The first part of my run was therefore faster. I then turned left and was getting ready for the last part, which is uphill, when I realized that my breath was very hot. When I say hot, I don't mean just hotter than normal - obviously in jogging my body is going to get hotter and thus my breath. I mean, hot in a way which strongly reminded me of being sick with a fever, lying in bed, and feeling the heat of my breath.
Basically, I slowed right down whilst still maintaining my posture. As I mentioned in my last post, this allowed me to regain control over my breath and to continue jogging whilst waiting for my breath to cool down. Eventually it did, and I managed to very carefully increase my speed again.
In the end, it is difficult to know what, if anything, would have happened if I were not attentive to my body in that way. Possibly nothing. But I'd rather not find out.
* Possibly "syllepsis". Thanks q-pheevr for teaching me that one.
** Thanks "The Science of Yoga" for that one. Really great book.
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