Create a pre-practice ritual aka jedi mind tricks by Elise Espat

Eventually it is possible that it won't matter. You'll wake up without any kind of encouragement and get on with it with ease and grace.  Perhaps you're even able to right now decide to turn the switch for complete and absolute engagement to the "on" position.  If so, now is the time to set it to "on" and leave it there.

As the senses contact the object of the senses, feelings of heat and cold, pain and pleasure occur, Arjuna.  These sensations come and go; they're impermanent.  Patiently endure them, great Prince.  -2.14 Bhagavad Gita, Swami Satchidananda

The restraint of the modifications of the mind-stuff is Yoga.  Then the Seer [Self] abides in His own nature.  At other times [the Self appears to] assume the forms of mental modifications. There are five kinds of mental modifications which are either painful or painless... -1.2-5 Yoga Sutras, Swami Satchidananda

Yes, with practice (which implies time, right?... a repeated effort?) all is coming.  But first, one has to actually practice.  Talking about it, having special clothes, reading interesting books, memorizing facts, a bit of previous experience, etc., don't count.

Success comes to him who is engaged in the practice. How can one get success without practice; for by merely reading books on Yoga, one can never get success.

Success cannot be attained by adopting a particular dress (Veṣa). It cannot be gained by telling tales. Practice alone is the means to success. This is true, there is no doubt.-2.67-68 Hatha Yoga Pradipika, Pancham Sinh

As someone who has tried every sort of scenario possible to avoid the inevitable early morning practice, I can honestly say that a daily morning Mysore practice is simply the most practical, peaceful, and healing situation I have ever experienced.  It just works. 

That said, it was not easy for me to establish...  Well, actually, it was really easy and simple.  Or at least it could have been had I been even slightly willing to give it a real chance.  For me, many things had to shift.  Each day I had to look at how I was investing all aspects of myself.  It was painful.  I had to make big and what felt like big choices and sacrifices in order to make it happen.

For a long time it was uncertain.  Each day had a question mark.  I had to write down that I would do it so that I could check it off my list.  I needed some sort of validation that I was making an effort.  This was also around the time when I didn't think it was important to have a morning ritual.

Slowly I started to notice glimpses of light shining through the darkness.  I moved toward it.  A regular morning routine started to form.  This regularity began to saturate everything else.

I've realized that it can be very helpful to do the exact same thing every single day.  That when things are simple we have lots of room for pleasant.

How to create a pre-practice ritual:

Close your eyes and spend some time daydreaming.
Imagine your teacher, another practitioner, someone you respect that is further along the path.  How do they wake up?  What do they do?  What is the environment like?  What sensations or associations does it bring?

Close your eyes and spend some more time daydreaming.
Imagine a person you love, respect, or care for deeply.  If you were creating a ritual and environment for them, how would you do it?

Insert yourself into the scenarios.
How does that feel?

Put it all together in a practical way.
Let's say you imagined waking up from a baby deer nuzzling your wittle nose.  Birds lifting you to your feet.  Cartoon flowers exploding from the floor with glitter shooting through the air.  You get the point.

You get on the internet and get yourself a deer poster.  You get an alarm clock that has nature sound options.  You get a flower bedspread and a glittery practice top.

Set out your clothes the night before.

Set up coffee/tea the night before.

An exceptional music playlist can be very helpful.

Basically, arrange everything the night before so that all you have to do is get out of bed and have the willpower to not turn around and get back in it.  Be strong!

How to get up for yoga, again. by Angela Jamison

How to get up for yoga, again.
by Angela Jamison of Ashtanga Yoga Ann Arbor
Originally published 9/22/12 AY:A2 Blog
Republished with permission

I’m unconsciously competent. The longer I practice, the less I can articulate how to begin. So I must keep learning from those who are new to ashtanga. Thank you for being open about what’s hard, brave in dropping old habits, and enthusiastic in your own practice. I love this phase of the learning.

At the start, getting up for practice requires strength and guts: I admire you, and we will all support you. Later, you’ll be able to do what you want to do with ease, and will embody that grace to yet new beginners.

Again this year, I’ve surveyed our group to remix the autumn antidote to SAD. The Earth is changing, our student body is changing, the zeitgeist is changing: so, a practice so fine-tuned as ashtanga also has to adapt. (This is true, too, of subtle changes to the method emerging from the main school in Mysore: our old practice is ever new. Because we are ever new.) Anyway, after a month in the lab with your findings, here’s this year’s get-up-early elixir. No kidding: stick to a regular practice rhythm, and ashtanga’s the only prophylactic you’ll need.

1. Alchemize your word. 

What’s the value of your word? If you say you’re going to do something, is that an ironclad statement? Is it as good as a 50/50 bet? Is your word more like hot air? If you decide strongly that you are going to be a woman or man of your word, then you can use the golden quality of that word to hold yourself to your own intentions.

Recently, three different practitioners who were struggling to get on the mat consistently got out of their own way with this single, uncompromising practice. They decided to be the kind of people who have zero daylight between what they say they will do, and what they do. In those painful mornings when the bed was especially seductive, they asked themselves if sleeping through the alarm was worth the pain of going back on their own word. It wasn’t. Because they had turned their word in to gold, it was able to cut through tamas, doubt, and even the softest bed.

Thanks for the inspiration. You know who you are.

2. Use the moral values that help you practice; lose the ones that don’t. It turns out that getting your words and actions lined up is efficient. Similar is the Bhagavad Gita’s teaching that a yogi remains detached from the fruits of her actions and simply absorbs her attention into doing her best in the present moment. Ashtanga is not about getting an awesome body or a perfect mind or “nailing” some posture; it’s about maintaining some concentration and equanimity for every breath, regardless of what it looks like.

Grasping for results isn’t morally wrong; it’s just not smart. What we can control is our attitude, not the outcome of actions. So why waste energy fretting about what we cannot control?

By the same token, why waste energy fretting about the past? Most of us—myself included—have absorbed a Puritan meta-morality from western culture. This includes a lot of emphasis on moral purity, with a countervailing internal assault team of guilt, shame, self-loathing and regret. 

Total waste of energy. Enough already, Hester Prynne. Regrets for the past kill excitement for the present. You are worthy and you are welcome: if the (internal) puritan mobs come for you, laugh at their feeble 17^th century weapons and get your lightning speed mulabandha in gear.

3. The drugs. 1 mg of herbal melatonin 30 minutes before bed for the first 2 weeks. Don’t try to wake up at vastly different times on different days. People seem to suffer too much doing that. A key insight of Ayurveda is that the body loves a stable rhythm. Reset the whole system, so your serotonin-melatonin dynamic is stable.

4. The rock’n’roll. Big sound, bright light and a hot shower in the morning are still key. See here.

5. Practice in the body you have today. The corporeal body… and the student body. The new people having the most fun this year are those rolling out your mats near the veterans. People who have practiced for a while embody a tacit (hormonal, energetic, phermonic?) knowledge that does rub off. Get in!

The veterans’ prime time used to be 7-8 am, but like in most Mysore rooms, it’s crept earlier because they just can’t wait to get on the mat. Most newcomers say it helps to know that getting up early for practice is effortless for so many. (For that matter, my alarm now goes off at 3:30 instead of 4; and in Mysore I usually get on the mat at 4:15. And, to be brutally honest, it’s awesome.) For now, our group’s energy is strongest from 6:30 – 7:30. You can come later if you want! But if you need a boost, you’ll get it by jumping in the 6:30 updraft. By contrast, if you arrive when the majority of people are finishing, what you’ll experience is their most calm, grounded, quiet energy. That’s also very nice, but one cannot really draft off it.

6. Start in with a sunshine lamp routine now. Get one and follow the instructions. If you don’t want to invest the money, ask your friends. Everyone who has one will tell you it changed their life. Michigan newcomers usually suffer their first winter or two before figuring this out. Why waste a year? I use a Phillips goLITE BLU light therapy device.

7. Get closely in contact with your love of the practice. It’s there, even amid suffering, obstacles and madness. Why else are you doing this, anyway? Ayurveda teaches that our deep desires are wise, and that on some level the nervous system knows things. I see different ways that each of you loves, and respects, and gives thanks for this practice. It is personal. I see that some of you love the way your mind and body operate on the days you practice; some of you love the quiet of the mornings; many of you love the sheer honesty of staying with this when it is physically, emotionally or psychically hard.

Whatever it is, that awe and love are high quality fuel (whereas guilt, shame, pride, superiority and achievement are not as great). Love and a little reverence tend to give us all more energy as the rhythms—hormones, appetites, emotions, inner vision, et cetera—find their way into agreement with each other.

This is how it works. Most of us have to effort it strongly at first, and then practice starts to do itself. I see for those of you in your second year that you are not pushing yourselves to practice so much as being practiced. Yes. Once this thing has a strong spin of its own, you move from (1) depending on external practice resources (like high concentration environments, others’ strong energy, and social norms that promote precise mental discipline) to (2) producing them for yourself and others. In this way, too, in the long run the yoga gives more energy than it takes.

About Angela:

My name is Angela Jamison. I was introduced to ashtanga yoga in 2001 in Los Angeles, and have practiced six days a week continuously since 2003.

In 2006, I completed intermediate series with Rolf Naujokat before learning from him the ashtanga pranayama sequence. I maintain a relatively modest pranayama practice.

Later in 2006, I met Dominic Corigliano, who taught me the subtler layers of ashtanga practice, and eventually, slowly, taught me to teach yoga. During 2009, I assisted Jörgen Christiansson.

After retreats in the Zen, Vajrayana and Vipassana traditions, I began working with the meditation teacher Shinzen Young in 2009. I meditate daily, confer with Shinzen about my practice every few months, and take annual silent retreats.

I have made four long trips to Mysore to practice ashtanga with R. Sharath Jois, and to study the history and philosophy of yoga with M.A. Narasimhan and M.A. Jayashree. I will return to Mysore regularly.

In 2011, Sharath authorized me at Level 2, asking me to teach the full intermediate series.



Related: How to wake up for yoga

How to wake up for yoga by Elise Espat

A dose of encouragement and honesty for the doubtful.

The first thing to realize is that many other people (myself included) find the act of waking to an alarm incredibly painful.  It is okay to feel this way.  It is also okay to feel this way and wake up anyway.  Here is how...

In general:

-Keep a routine.  Whether you intentionally set one in place or not, you already have a series of morning rituals.  It is easy to do what is familiar, even if it isn't helpful.  At the beginning of a new routine, it will be difficult because it is new.  But as time goes on, it will become  more natural and perhaps even effortless.  The truth is it might always be painful, but never impossible.

-Join a community.  Being around other people who keep the same schedule will both inspire and challenge you to stay with the program.

-Never underestimate the power of eating well and keeping good company.

The night before:

 -Plan ahead.  Set out clothing and other things you need so you can get out the door (or onto your mat) quickly.

-Sleep well.  Having a solid night's rest makes waking up the next day much easier.  If possible, use your bed only for sleeping, avoid the pm caffeine fix, and unplug at least an hour before you hit the hay.

The morning:

-Never hit snooze. 

-Take a shower.

-Think happy thoughts.

-Brush your teeth & clean your tongue.

-Listen to positive, upbeat music that makes you smile.

-Smile.

-Avoid the internet, your phone, or anything else that will get you worked up.

So when do you start this new habit?  The clouds probably will not open up with a shining banner held by birds telling you tomorrow is the day.  You just make the decision to commit to it and that is all.  You don't have to be special, you just can't be lazy.  Waking up early is a practice.  It takes time and discipline.  There will be easy mornings and there will be hard mornings.  They come and they go and tomorrow is one more opportunity to wake up for yoga.

How to wake up for yoga

At the beginning I would show up to practice as everyone from the first class was leaving and I remember just thinking to myself how impossible being up that early seemed.  I would tell myself that they were just special somehow.  Like they were built for it and I simply wasn't and that was the way it was.  Years later I have realized that getting up "early" is not only relative, but also simply a decision one makes.  Even so, there are still many ways we can make the process easier on ourselves and this post breaks it down for the skeptic and devotee alike.

How to wake up for yoga.
by Angela Jamison
posted 11/2/11
source AY:A2

After a little while, you will figure out your best sleep hygiene, and the getting-up-in-the-morning program will run itself. But at first, I do understand that it can be a challenge to re-teach the body to wake up fresh. Because we’re going against the social stream by getting up early to practice, establishing this pattern might take some focus and discipline, if not a few tricks. If you fall down some days, ok. Just keep at it. This will get easier in a few weeks.

There really are techniques for making it easy. On the other hand, if you wanted to do the pure-willpower method , the strategy would begin with taking in as much sugar, and as little water, as you can during the day. Drink at least three cups of coffee (one of them after 3pm); eat a large dinner involving heavy, dense, inflammatory foods; drink some alcohol. Watch television, engage in some arguments if you can find them, and use the internet until late at night. Spend a lot of time with people who have either a lot of negative, heavy emotion (tamasic) or an unfocused, fast-moving mind (rajasic). In the morning, try to watch Fox News, write emails to make sure the verbal wheels started spinning, and start planning the work day with extra attention to envisioning difficult colleagues or situations. While doing this, leave the lights low, consume Advil, move slowly, and keep the body cold. Tell yourself that this is hard and feels bad. Then (this is the most important part), ask yourself what you feel like doing. Between getting back in the warm bed and going out to do yoga, what would give more immediate pleasure? Yes! Bed wins! If there is someone who actually makes it to yoga practice in this scenario, she is either a hero or completely out of touch with her body. I’m not sure which is more problematic.

Maybe this will surprise you: ashtanga is big in northern Japan. And across Canada, the north Atlantic, Scandinavia, Russia. People in the cold, dark north love to practice morning Mysore in the fall and winter. Last year, I contacted daily practitioners from all these places for advice about how to adjust to dramatic seasonal changes. They offered dozens of techniques, and we tried them out. Those now entering their second year are still fine-tuning this morning practice stuff, but they’ve settled on a few really good techniques.

Here’s what they suggest. Some of this is direct, and some is paraphrased. (1) Scale way back on coffee and don’t drink any caffeine after 2pm. If you are addicted to it, this might be your time to face it and detoxify. (2) I had to get rid of the “not a morning person” myth. That’s just a story the ego tells itself. Being a “night person” might point to adrenal fatigue that can be healed though practice. (3) Eat a big breakfast, medium lunch, and really small dinner. Experiment a few times with skipping dinner. Just try it. Note what your sleep is like and how you feel in the morning. (4) Get a sunshine lamp and put it on a timer to go off at the same time as your alarm. If you sleep with someone who can’t stand it, just put it outside the room and get under that light to go through some part of your morning routine. (5) Forget about drinking alcohol during the week. (6) Eating sugar makes it really hard to get up in the morning. (7) Know that coming to practice will raise your core body temperature and keep you warm all day. (8). Be accountable to someone in the group – promise each other you’ll both be there.

This all sounds helpful. From personal experience, I would add: Get under bright lights. Jump around and shake the body a bit first thing, to get the circulation running (truth be told, I often have a one-woman blues-rock dance party at 4am). It’s nice to take a hot shower on winter mornings, letting the water fall on your entire spine and crown of the head. I do a few breathing practices first thing every day, and on cold mornings add some other kriyas and somewhat different breathing during the surya namaskara. Some of this is in the “House Specialties” document at practice, and some I can just share in person if there’s a good time. But it doesn’t do anyone a favor to talk about traditional practice on the internet. This is oral tradition best exchanged person-to-person.

With “how to?” questions in practice, I look for a balance of dedicated practice and radical acceptance, which is my shorthand for Abhyasa and Vairagya.

This pair of values comes up in Patanjali’s sutras 1.12-1.16. Some commentators say that either Abhyasa or Vairagya should be primary: that one or the other is most important. This is like Christians debating the relative importance of grace and works, or German philosophers debating about will and spirit, or tender teenagers trying to decide whether they find more meaning in what they do with their lives or who they are as people. There is usually a school of All Action! and a competing school of All Being! Hello. Ashtanga yoga is a school of not-two. Samkhya; Tantra; what’s the problem? 99% practice, 1% theory.

In a practical, embodied way, the practice sets us up to do (1) practice and (2) acceptance all of the time. Like this. It’s getting late in the evening, so I can feel that tomorrow’s asana practice is already starting. How I go to sleep is the last major determinant of how I get up. So I’m going to extract myself somewhat painfully from the laptop now and power it down. In the kitchen, there’s an oatmeal-choclate chip cookie that part of me wants eat while watching last night’s Steven Colbert, but what I’ll actually do is let habit draw me sort of inexorably upstairs to sit and do some breathwork. Setting things out for the morning, there is usually some spontaneous excitement and gratitude for both sleep and morning practice, and that will make cookies and Colbert seem boring. Both sleep and (tomorrow) practice will do themselves once I get into position… but I do have to get there. Falling asleep, I’ll notice if there’s a tendency to reel off into discursive, fantasy, or emotionally negative headspace, and choose some higher quality feelings or thoughts instead. If the neighbor is making tons of noise, or I have a headache, or Zelda Spoonbender (the cat) is licking my nose like usual, I’ll see about just rolling with that. And then pretty soon, sleep is here…

Good night, everyone. Sleep well, and see you on the mat.

full post at AY:A2 

About Angela
My name is Angela Jamison. I was introduced to ashtanga yoga in 2001 in Los Angeles, and have practiced six days a week continuously since 2003.

In 2006, I completed intermediate series with Rolf Naujokat before learning from him the ashtanga pranayama sequence. I maintain a relatively modest pranayama practice.

Later in 2006, I met Dominic Corigliano, who taught me the subtler layers of ashtanga practice, and eventually, slowly, taught me to teach yoga. During 2009, I assisted Jörgen Christiansson.

After retreats in the Zen, Vajrayana and Vipassana traditions, I began working with the meditation teacher Shinzen Young in 2009. I meditate daily, confer with Shinzen about my practice every few months, and take annual silent retreats.

I have made four long trips to Mysore to practice ashtanga with R. Sharath Jois, and to study the history and philosophy of yoga with M.A. Narasimhan and M.A. Jayashree. I will return to Mysore regularly.

In 2011, Sharath authorized me at Level 2, asking me to teach the full intermediate series.

 

 

republished with permission