Spring Salads

The best sign that spring is in is the way my refrigerator screams SALAD when I open it. It may be officially summer, but here, the spring crops are still in season. Strawberrries are just now ripe for the picking and the first cherries came in today's CSA box.

My favorite spring salad?

Saute chopped garlic scapes, asparagus, and chives in butter. Hardboil an egg. Chop radishes and a small amount of cheese to add to whatever greens you have on hand. Combine the whole thing and dress simply with a bit of red wine vinegar, olive oil, and a dash of salt and pepper.

Sometimes I'll make some croutons by drizzling some baguette pieces with olive oil and toasting them in the toaster oven. You can also rub them with a split chunk of garlic scape or add salt if you like.

Dessert can be a piece of chocolate or strawberries/cherries when they become available.

At least another two weeks of salads at my place.

Strawberries are popping and jam making is in order now. Some other spring preserving I do is to freeze a gallon each of cherries and strawberries. This gives me something to make smoothies out of throughout the year. Another smoothie prep I'm adding this year is to juice a watermellon and freeze it into cubes.

drishti and inversions

I am afraid of the eyedoctor; I haven't seen one for at least a decade, maybe longer. I've been practicing yoga for 9 years. This could be a problem. Here is why I'm vowing to make an appointment soon.

Glaucoma affects 15% of people in their 60s and up. This disease creates irreversible vision damage due to increased interocular pressure pressing on the II cranial nerve which supplies your retina. Inversions, all of them, including downward facing dog and child's pose, can increase interocular pressure and aggrevate glaucoma. You would think that the solution is just to not practice asanas with your head lower than your heart if you have glaucoma, and you're right. Except, many people that have glaucoma don't know it until big damage has been done. The disease starts by gradually eliminating your peripheral vision, you really don't see it coming. The only way to find out is to have an eye exam by a professional.

Who is at risk?
*Caucasians 50+
*African Americans 35+
*People with a family history of glaucoma
*People with cardiovascular disease
*Near-sighted people
*People with hypertension
*Those that experience vasospasms

*Likely at risk people: migrane sufferers, the obese, smokers, heavy alcohol users, those with anxiety or high stress levels

I would like to hypothesize that regular yogasana practice including inversions would help your body to learn to control and tolerate increased interocular pressure. However, I could find no research to support that hypothesis. On the bright side, there is also no evidence that yogis have a higher glaucoma rate.

The Mayo Clinic lists weight & blood pressure control and excerise as good prevention, all of which yoga practice provides.

They also recommend eye exams every 3-5 years, every year if you're over 60. I'm clearly due. The good news is the reason I dislike eye exams is the air-puff glaucoma exam. Apparently, this went out of style years ago and now a more accurate, non-air-puff test is used. Nothing should hold me back now.

What do I recommend for the inversion-loving yogi?
1. Get regular eye check-ups.
2. If you have glaucoma, follow doctors orders and practice ahimsa by modifying your asana practice appropriately.
3. If you are a yoga teacher, teach inversions with great reverence and perhaps encourage your students to love their drishti with a eye check-up.

A side note: Corticosteroids, especially those in eye drop form can increase interocular pressure. The effect can last a few weeks to months after you are off the drug. If you are on these drugs for any reason, it may be wise to modify your practice until this time period passes.

Appropriate asana practice modifications would be to keep your head above your heart as much as possible and definitely no shoulder, head, or hand-stands. Perhaps prop your head on a folded towel for legs up the wall instead. Make your backward bends all ones that start from the belly down position. Spend little if any time in standing forward folds and downward facing dog; instead practice your forward folds seated. Get creative and protect your drishti!

Kathy Cooper 2011

Kathy Cooper once again blessed our Portland Mysore community with her presence this May. I was lucky enough to have a clear enough schedule to join for a lecture, a women's forum, and one class. Kathy Cooper is definitely the softer side of Ashtanga yoga. I can definitely relate with this as I feel this practice is more gentle due to the ability to set your own tempo and meet yourself on the mat in a more individual way. She talked about Guruji and the much smaller Ashtanga scene in the 70's when she started practicing. The beauty of the practice for her is about the efficiency of it. You can get to your mat, move your energy around, and take that into the rest of your day.
My favorite quote from the lecture was that "Ashtanga yoga has a reputation of being serious and severe, but it's not that at all; rather it is very sincere."
Here are some other gems I took away from the experience:
*A main key to this practice is moola bhanda, by engaging it you can contain all the energy that you gather in with practice instead of it all draining out of you.
*Morning practice has the effect of connecting you to the world around you.
*Personalizing your practice is the best thing you can do to strengthen it.
*Marichiasana is about sending the energy up the shushumna nadi, you need to sit up to make that happen.
*Prasarita is about opening your back body, breathe into your kidneys.
*Sometimes the only thing holding you back is fear. This is where a teacher comes in handy. They can give you a safety net that can allow you to realize what is true.
*Lighten up. Do what you can, and come back to your practice tomorrow. This is a practice that can last a lifetime.
*Pranayama is essential past 60. Be strong enough for it.

Great mid-week practices continue

Today's practice was good. A full practice sans egg timer is so luxurious. I really put my all into it. You know that is true when your last downward facing dog ends up collapsing into a puddle-like balasana. Finishing started out with a supported bridge so I could recuperate for inversions. Juicy savasana, complete with a pup snuggled up to my side. It really is too bad that now I must go to school...

Wonderful Wednesdays

This quarter I have long days...7:30-5:30 most days. To fit in practice I have started rising at 4 AM. It has required coffee and an earlier bedtime, but is well worth it. Two days and I feel more at peace and more like myself. I hope to continue! Wednesday I have a 9:30 start and the boyfriend and dog don't make their way out of bed until 6:30 most days. This all adds up to an extra hour of sleep tomorrow!!! I'm hoping to adjust to earlier days soon, perhaps a few more weeks?

Polishing off the rust

The past month has been very trying on my practice. Finals, boards, exhaustion. Now I have recovered from that. Something Manorama said stuck hard: You can't willpower your way through yoga, just hold steady with a formal practice that fits. I have one that fits, but not always. I just can't say I'm going back to a full on 6 day practice that I did before Portland. It's too much, too soon and I'll burn out and not practice at all. My new idea is to polish off this rusty practice in a more natural way for myself. Everyday I will set the intention to practice. If my intended morning practice doesn't happen because I hit snooze for too long I won't be upset because my body needed sleep. Instead I will do at least one sun salute in my pajamas before getting ready. It takes no time and will keep a steady habit of morning practice. Hopefully the small regular effort will be able to grow into a steady habit of real morning practices. "Do SOMETHING every day." -Manorama

An Evening with Manorma, Reflections on the point of yoga

• Last night I was blessed in many ways to spend time with Manorma, an amazing teacher, at the BhaktiShop. Blessed in one way because yogis trust one another. My wallet was stolen on Thursday. I had to cancel all my cards and thus, have no access to my money until the bank sends me a new ATM card. The very sweet BhaktiShop received and e-mail from me explaining the situation and immediately extended the offer to pay them when I could. I don't practice here and don't know these people, but yogis CAN trust one another because yogis are bound by ahimsa, satya, and asteya to not harm each other, not lie, and not steal; we can trust each other. I will send them the money AND a thank you card when I can.
• On the greater level, I am blessed that Manorma (which translates as charming to the heart, delight to the mind), comes to Portland from New York at all. Here is some of what I took away from just two hours. I highly recommend that you go see Ma even if you have little interest in Sanskrit at all. Her spiritual knowledge is the best. Check out sankritstudies.org.
• Manorma talked about the point of yoga: Yogas citta vrtti nirodhah. (Sutra 1.2) Stop fueling the spinning of the mind. Without giving it energy it can't keep turning. Asana, chanting, meditation pranayama-these are all tools we are given to achieve this task. Eventually you will drop all tools. The mind and the body are also tools. We should use them to play, but remember that they too are merely tools for this lifetime. DON'T do anything that doesn't come naturally-the point is not to be crazy. The point of yoga is to come closer to answering the question "who am I?", not loose yourself. How to do this? Have some formal practice using the tool(s) of your choice-go all the way with that particular tool. Manorma highly recommends meditation. I really should do more of that. No one likes meditation, especially me! This is because it is the height of intimacy and you might get TMI from yourself. The point of meditation is to cultivate witness consciousness. this witness helps you function in the world without becoming controlled by your mind and body, but rather control them. The best way to answer the question "Who am I?" and stop the spinning of the mind is two-fold:

1. Have a formal practice of some kind. Do this every day. Why? YOU are different every day. If this is true, then you need to expose every piece of yourself to the practice to learn more about YOU.

2. Be conscious in your life. Notice what your mind does in every waking moment and don't let it carry you, you carry it in its like/don't like duality. Use it as the tool that it is. Meditation helps with this.

• Always keep your rhythm. It will hold you steady. The rhythm is breath, mantra, heartbeat.