Day Two:
Timer is on…so…here goes…some things I copied and pasted from yesterday, in case someone joins the conversation later, and needs to know some context…like the “last time on such and such TV show”. Anyway, so…”last time on…” is below and I apologize to anyone who joins the conversation and gets annoyed with the “last time on…” crap.
Anyway, I woke up today in some pain…this sequence is challenging, so if you’re a beginning yoga person…don’t try this as a starting point; find adaptations and use props to help you…and holding a position for 69 Kapalabhati breaths is especially challenging. My Noa Belling yoga book indicates that the Kapalabhati Breathing Technique is an advanced technique…so…I guess if you want to use yoga to help you with your mourning…you’re in for some tough work…seems fitting.
Something I also woke up with today was the fact that we sleep in Savasana (Corpse pose) or something like Corpse pose (apparently, according to Facebook links, the way you sleep says something about you, but…bear with me here…). Anyway, I realized yesterday when I was re-designing the sequence that there really isn’t a “rest” pose, which seems fitting because who would want to lay in a “Corpse” pose after dedicating their yoga practice to a “dead” person…so…it seems fitting that there isn’t a resting pose that has “Corpse” in it. However, the work that the body does in yoga, needs a rest pose to reflect on the work it has done, so…I added Supta Vajrasana or (I guess) Balasana…depending on what article you’re reading…but in English – Child’s pose…good enough for now…in regards to rest…
I also woke up with the play on words of the fact that I live in the area of “The Summer of ‘69”, the original Woodstock Festival is about a 7 minute drive from my house in a village called Bethel Woods…not Woodstock, NY, if you didn’t know that fact…you need to come visit this area or watch a documentary on Woodstock…but here I am doing my Sixty-Nine Journey in the land of “The Summer of ‘69”…which was about peace, and this journey is to help me find some peace and let go of the 20 lbs. of flesh that won’t come off, even though I exercise more and eat less…I think it’s emotional, and I’m not vain about this 20 lbs. (well…maybe a little), but I do have degenerative back disorder (which I have always thought a stupid diagnosis because don’t we all have degenerative back disorder, but…I digress…) and 20 lbs. feels like a lot on this lower back, and this morning…that is what hurt…
Ground rules: I have only 15 minutes to write daily about my Sixty-nine journey, I need to lose my 20lbs of flesh that I gained while mourning my father, my father died at age 69…I will attempt to lose this weight by working on a yoga series I googled about positions that help aid mourning. I will celebrate with a ritual at the Bronx Botanical Gardens (a place that holds some of my fondest memories of my father.
Other things to know: I am, apparently, a kinesthetic/tactile learner and so…I am forcing myself to get to know more about yoga and mourning through practicing it. At 36 years old, I find that I have lost several friends to suicide and I think it is because our pluralistic American culture has no rituals for transitions. My sister and brother seemed to move on from the death of my father quicker than I because they are able to have children, and so the transition from death with life seems obvious, but…there is no clear transition for me…so…I am making my ritual…
The poses: So, the biggest change to the practice I’ve been doing for 3 years is the order of the poses…they have changed, and they are detailed below…this is based on what I understand to be a good “flow” from Noa Belling’s yoga book…I could be wrong, and if you are an expert…comment…
Part 1 – Standing or lying
Neutral – Chakra 2 – Svadhisthana (Navel Chakra or Hara) – Orange
· Hero’s Pose – Virasana
· Butterfly – Baddha Konasana
Forward Bend – Chakra 5 – Visuddha (Throat Chakra) – Sky Blue
· Child’s Pose – Supta Vajrasana (or Balasana…more on this another time…)
Back Bend– Chakra 3 – Manipura – Solar plexus - yellow
· Flying Cow – Januhastasana/Bidalasana/Gavasana
· Camel – Ustrasana
· Sphinx – Salamba Bhujangasana
· Cobra – Bhujangasana
· Upward Facing Dog – Urdhva Mukha Svanasana (I hit 15 minutes here…I’m breaking my ground rules to finish typing the sequence, but, then, I promise, I will stop).
· Bow – Dhanurasana
· Supported Fish – Samarthita Matsyasana
Twist – Chakra 4 – Anahata – Heart Chakra - Green
· Spinal Twist – Jathara Parivritti (straight leg twist on the ground)
Part Two – Standing
Neutral – Chakra 1 – Muladhara – Base Chakra - Red
· Warrior 2 – Virabhadrasana II – Warrior 2
Forward Bend – Chakra 1 – Muladhara – Base Chakra – Red
· Standing Forward Bend – Uttanasana
Back Bend – Chakra 1 – Muladhara – Base Chakra – Red
· Warrior 1 – Virabhadrasana I
Part Three – Standing Balances
Neutral – Chakra 6 – Ajna – Third Eye or Brow Chakra – Indigo
· Tree Pose – Vrksasana
· Standing Big Toe Pose – Utthita Hasta Padangusthasana
Forward Bend – Chakra 6 – Ajna – Third Eye or Brow Chakra – Indigo
· Eagle - Garudasana
· Warrior 3 – Virabhadrasana III
Back Bend – Chakra 6 – Ajna – Third Eye or Brow Chakra – Indigo
· Dancer - Natarajasana
Side Bend – Chakra 6 – Ajna – Third Eye or Brow Chakra – Indigo
· Half Moon – Ardha Chandrasana
Part 4 – Inverted
Neutral – Chakra 7 – Sahasrara – Crown Chakra - Lavender
· Headstand – Salamba Sirshasana
Back Bend– Chakra 3 – Manipura – Solar Plexus - Yellow
· Supported Back Bend – Samarthita Setu Bandha Sarvangasana
· Wheel – Urdhva Dhanurasana
· Dolphin – Makurasana
Neutral – Chakra 7 – Sahasrara – Crown Chakra - Lavender
· Headstand – Salamba Sirshasana
Part 5 – Rest Pose
Forward Bend – Chakra 5 – Visuddha – Throat Chakra – Sky Blue
· Child’s Pose – Supta Vajrasana (or…again…Balasana…my mystery, for now…).
Part 6 – Mudra (Gesture)
· Yoga Mudra – Crown of the Head with Padmasana – Lotus Pose.
Part 7 – Shatkarma (more on this name, later, because…if I were Scottish…the first part of this word is literal).
· Neti – I got a Net Pot for this one and I started it…it hurts…the real thing involves something that looks like flossing your nose cavity…and…no…I’m not doing that…
· Dhauti – No! Look this up, but…simply…No!… I will do a white rice/green tea cleanse as soon as I run out of food in the refrigerator because I don’t want the food to go bad and be wasteful…
· Basti – And, again, No!…look this up, as well…I will, simply, take baths daily, and, maybe, parts of Basti will happen…
· Nauli Kriya – I will sit in Sukasana – Easy Pose and undulate both directions 69 times…I have done this for the past two days…it’s really nice…this one works…(after reading this to make sure I didn't have too many grammatical and spelling errors...I have discovered that this whole sequence has too many plays on words for the other touchstone of the term "Sixty-nine", I apologize, but double-entendres that are naively placed are my specialty...).
· Kapalabhati – As some of you know I’m doing this throughout with 69 of these per pose…if I survive the pose that long…(more on the details of this another time).
· Tratak – A really nice way to end the practice…I stare at a candle for 69 counts in my head in Butterfly/Baddha Konasana…
First part of the ritual: The costume…I will wear my red yoga pants that say, “Love”, don’t judge…I like it…and the yoga positions have very few of the “grounding” mudra (Muladhara – the base chakra) – the color of which is red – and many of the poses ask for “grounding”, whatever that means…so…without the grounding chakra…I will bring it in with the red pants…I like red…and I don’t care that pre-teens probably wear these pants…
Second part of the ritual: Kapalabhati breath…69 times for every pose…now even today I wasn’t able to do all of the poses in the 69 Kapalabhati breaths…but…I did achieve a lot of them…And, truly, what do I know about Kapalabhati breath…not much…but it was suggested as a pose that helps with mourning…and…it’s obviously not a pose, so…I added it to all of the poses…
Third part of the ritual: The practice everyday, hopefully…
Fourth part of the ritual: The writing…only for 15 minutes…this will keep me honest and not travail off into my many tangents…
Fifth part of the ritual: My 20 lbs. of flesh…I think I might have to purchase a scale…I don’t own one, and the only reason I know I have the 20lbs of flesh is from when I was surprised at going to the doctor’s and seeing the scale…
Well, that’s all for today…Sorry I went over, but I'll be better, in the future...
Timer is on…so…here goes…some things I copied and pasted from yesterday, in case someone joins the conversation later, and needs to know some context…like the “last time on such and such TV show”. Anyway, so…”last time on…” is below and I apologize to anyone who joins the conversation and gets annoyed with the “last time on…” crap.
Anyway, I woke up today in some pain…this sequence is challenging, so if you’re a beginning yoga person…don’t try this as a starting point; find adaptations and use props to help you…and holding a position for 69 Kapalabhati breaths is especially challenging. My Noa Belling yoga book indicates that the Kapalabhati Breathing Technique is an advanced technique…so…I guess if you want to use yoga to help you with your mourning…you’re in for some tough work…seems fitting.
Something I also woke up with today was the fact that we sleep in Savasana (Corpse pose) or something like Corpse pose (apparently, according to Facebook links, the way you sleep says something about you, but…bear with me here…). Anyway, I realized yesterday when I was re-designing the sequence that there really isn’t a “rest” pose, which seems fitting because who would want to lay in a “Corpse” pose after dedicating their yoga practice to a “dead” person…so…it seems fitting that there isn’t a resting pose that has “Corpse” in it. However, the work that the body does in yoga, needs a rest pose to reflect on the work it has done, so…I added Supta Vajrasana or (I guess) Balasana…depending on what article you’re reading…but in English – Child’s pose…good enough for now…in regards to rest…
I also woke up with the play on words of the fact that I live in the area of “The Summer of ‘69”, the original Woodstock Festival is about a 7 minute drive from my house in a village called Bethel Woods…not Woodstock, NY, if you didn’t know that fact…you need to come visit this area or watch a documentary on Woodstock…but here I am doing my Sixty-Nine Journey in the land of “The Summer of ‘69”…which was about peace, and this journey is to help me find some peace and let go of the 20 lbs. of flesh that won’t come off, even though I exercise more and eat less…I think it’s emotional, and I’m not vain about this 20 lbs. (well…maybe a little), but I do have degenerative back disorder (which I have always thought a stupid diagnosis because don’t we all have degenerative back disorder, but…I digress…) and 20 lbs. feels like a lot on this lower back, and this morning…that is what hurt…
Ground rules: I have only 15 minutes to write daily about my Sixty-nine journey, I need to lose my 20lbs of flesh that I gained while mourning my father, my father died at age 69…I will attempt to lose this weight by working on a yoga series I googled about positions that help aid mourning. I will celebrate with a ritual at the Bronx Botanical Gardens (a place that holds some of my fondest memories of my father.
Other things to know: I am, apparently, a kinesthetic/tactile learner and so…I am forcing myself to get to know more about yoga and mourning through practicing it. At 36 years old, I find that I have lost several friends to suicide and I think it is because our pluralistic American culture has no rituals for transitions. My sister and brother seemed to move on from the death of my father quicker than I because they are able to have children, and so the transition from death with life seems obvious, but…there is no clear transition for me…so…I am making my ritual…
The poses: So, the biggest change to the practice I’ve been doing for 3 years is the order of the poses…they have changed, and they are detailed below…this is based on what I understand to be a good “flow” from Noa Belling’s yoga book…I could be wrong, and if you are an expert…comment…
Part 1 – Standing or lying
Neutral – Chakra 2 – Svadhisthana (Navel Chakra or Hara) – Orange
· Hero’s Pose – Virasana
· Butterfly – Baddha Konasana
Forward Bend – Chakra 5 – Visuddha (Throat Chakra) – Sky Blue
· Child’s Pose – Supta Vajrasana (or Balasana…more on this another time…)
Back Bend– Chakra 3 – Manipura – Solar plexus - yellow
· Flying Cow – Januhastasana/Bidalasana/Gavasana
· Camel – Ustrasana
· Sphinx – Salamba Bhujangasana
· Cobra – Bhujangasana
· Upward Facing Dog – Urdhva Mukha Svanasana (I hit 15 minutes here…I’m breaking my ground rules to finish typing the sequence, but, then, I promise, I will stop).
· Bow – Dhanurasana
· Supported Fish – Samarthita Matsyasana
Twist – Chakra 4 – Anahata – Heart Chakra - Green
· Spinal Twist – Jathara Parivritti (straight leg twist on the ground)
Part Two – Standing
Neutral – Chakra 1 – Muladhara – Base Chakra - Red
· Warrior 2 – Virabhadrasana II – Warrior 2
Forward Bend – Chakra 1 – Muladhara – Base Chakra – Red
· Standing Forward Bend – Uttanasana
Back Bend – Chakra 1 – Muladhara – Base Chakra – Red
· Warrior 1 – Virabhadrasana I
Part Three – Standing Balances
Neutral – Chakra 6 – Ajna – Third Eye or Brow Chakra – Indigo
· Tree Pose – Vrksasana
· Standing Big Toe Pose – Utthita Hasta Padangusthasana
Forward Bend – Chakra 6 – Ajna – Third Eye or Brow Chakra – Indigo
· Eagle - Garudasana
· Warrior 3 – Virabhadrasana III
Back Bend – Chakra 6 – Ajna – Third Eye or Brow Chakra – Indigo
· Dancer - Natarajasana
Side Bend – Chakra 6 – Ajna – Third Eye or Brow Chakra – Indigo
· Half Moon – Ardha Chandrasana
Part 4 – Inverted
Neutral – Chakra 7 – Sahasrara – Crown Chakra - Lavender
· Headstand – Salamba Sirshasana
Back Bend– Chakra 3 – Manipura – Solar Plexus - Yellow
· Supported Back Bend – Samarthita Setu Bandha Sarvangasana
· Wheel – Urdhva Dhanurasana
· Dolphin – Makurasana
Neutral – Chakra 7 – Sahasrara – Crown Chakra - Lavender
· Headstand – Salamba Sirshasana
Part 5 – Rest Pose
Forward Bend – Chakra 5 – Visuddha – Throat Chakra – Sky Blue
· Child’s Pose – Supta Vajrasana (or…again…Balasana…my mystery, for now…).
Part 6 – Mudra (Gesture)
· Yoga Mudra – Crown of the Head with Padmasana – Lotus Pose.
Part 7 – Shatkarma (more on this name, later, because…if I were Scottish…the first part of this word is literal).
· Neti – I got a Net Pot for this one and I started it…it hurts…the real thing involves something that looks like flossing your nose cavity…and…no…I’m not doing that…
· Dhauti – No! Look this up, but…simply…No!… I will do a white rice/green tea cleanse as soon as I run out of food in the refrigerator because I don’t want the food to go bad and be wasteful…
· Basti – And, again, No!…look this up, as well…I will, simply, take baths daily, and, maybe, parts of Basti will happen…
· Nauli Kriya – I will sit in Sukasana – Easy Pose and undulate both directions 69 times…I have done this for the past two days…it’s really nice…this one works…(after reading this to make sure I didn't have too many grammatical and spelling errors...I have discovered that this whole sequence has too many plays on words for the other touchstone of the term "Sixty-nine", I apologize, but double-entendres that are naively placed are my specialty...).
· Kapalabhati – As some of you know I’m doing this throughout with 69 of these per pose…if I survive the pose that long…(more on the details of this another time).
· Tratak – A really nice way to end the practice…I stare at a candle for 69 counts in my head in Butterfly/Baddha Konasana…
First part of the ritual: The costume…I will wear my red yoga pants that say, “Love”, don’t judge…I like it…and the yoga positions have very few of the “grounding” mudra (Muladhara – the base chakra) – the color of which is red – and many of the poses ask for “grounding”, whatever that means…so…without the grounding chakra…I will bring it in with the red pants…I like red…and I don’t care that pre-teens probably wear these pants…
Second part of the ritual: Kapalabhati breath…69 times for every pose…now even today I wasn’t able to do all of the poses in the 69 Kapalabhati breaths…but…I did achieve a lot of them…And, truly, what do I know about Kapalabhati breath…not much…but it was suggested as a pose that helps with mourning…and…it’s obviously not a pose, so…I added it to all of the poses…
Third part of the ritual: The practice everyday, hopefully…
Fourth part of the ritual: The writing…only for 15 minutes…this will keep me honest and not travail off into my many tangents…
Fifth part of the ritual: My 20 lbs. of flesh…I think I might have to purchase a scale…I don’t own one, and the only reason I know I have the 20lbs of flesh is from when I was surprised at going to the doctor’s and seeing the scale…
Well, that’s all for today…Sorry I went over, but I'll be better, in the future...
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