Yoga is control of the energies of the mind
It was in November 2001. We won the UAAP cheerleading championship for the third straight year a couple of months back and were still high with cheer spirit when my teammates and I found this poster announcing free yoga classes every Sunday at the COD Shopping Center in Cubao.
“That’s cool, maybe we can learn some new moves and use that for next year’s routine,” we thought.
A year back, I was already reading this Sivananda Yoga book that I found at the library and sporadically tried to practice the asanas in the living room of a 2-storey-2-bedroom apartment in Katipunan that I shared with six other friends. Three of us shared one tiny room and I could only have my privacy in the toilet. For a state university instructor who earned less than USD300 per month, the privacy of my own room was beyond reach.
Fritz and Jill went one Sunday to the free yoga class. Both said the class was awesome so I joined them the next week to experience my very first yoga class. The class was taught by this hippy-looking-red-haired mestiza. Her name was Sandy Carmona, one of the frontrunners of mainstream yoga in the country, who later became an influential person in my own journey. She instructed us to lie down in a pose called, savasana which means corpse pose. You were not suppose to move any muscle in the body until the end of that segment because it was in itself is an asana, or yogic posture. The idea is to remain motionless and as still and steady as possible observing each sensation that one feels in the body. You’re not suppose to scratch your nose or your butt, nor slap that mosquito that’s enjoying your Type AB blood. Sandy then led us through a 90-minute long of moving meditation that made me sweat like I never had even in my years of movement and sports training.
“Whoa!!! So this is yoga.” (If there was already Facebook, I would be “like-ing” this status many times over.)
I would later learn from Sandy that yoga is much more than what we were doing on the mat. Yoga is a way of life, a discipline, and a holistic approach to health and wellness. Oh, and did I tell you that you couldn’t buy sticky yoga mats from Toby’s back then? You have to order it from the US. I’m not even sure if Lululemon had already reached the Philippine shore.
“What’s a Lululemon?”
You don’t know “Lulu?” Hmnn... let me put it this way. If you think Nike is expensive, then you’ll think that Lulu is beyond expensive. One Lululemon top is already worth 1/3 of my salary in UP when I was still an instructor. Of course now that I’ve been promoted to assistant instructor level, that’s equivalent to ¼ of my current salary. We’ll discuss this whole Lululemon-thing in another post.
For now, let’s go back to yoga and I will let you ponder upon the meaning of yoga according to Patanjali.
“Who the hell is Patanjali?”
Dude, do your research. You can check him out on wikipedia later. Just sit, close your eyes, and repeat this 108 times.
Yogas citta vritti nirodhah...
Yogas citta vritti nirodhah...
Yoga citta vritti nirodhah...
To be continued...
It was in November 2001. We won the UAAP cheerleading championship for the third straight year a couple of months back and were still high with cheer spirit when my teammates and I found this poster announcing free yoga classes every Sunday at the COD Shopping Center in Cubao.
“That’s cool, maybe we can learn some new moves and use that for next year’s routine,” we thought.
A year back, I was already reading this Sivananda Yoga book that I found at the library and sporadically tried to practice the asanas in the living room of a 2-storey-2-bedroom apartment in Katipunan that I shared with six other friends. Three of us shared one tiny room and I could only have my privacy in the toilet. For a state university instructor who earned less than USD300 per month, the privacy of my own room was beyond reach.
Fritz and Jill went one Sunday to the free yoga class. Both said the class was awesome so I joined them the next week to experience my very first yoga class. The class was taught by this hippy-looking-red-haired mestiza. Her name was Sandy Carmona, one of the frontrunners of mainstream yoga in the country, who later became an influential person in my own journey. She instructed us to lie down in a pose called, savasana which means corpse pose. You were not suppose to move any muscle in the body until the end of that segment because it was in itself is an asana, or yogic posture. The idea is to remain motionless and as still and steady as possible observing each sensation that one feels in the body. You’re not suppose to scratch your nose or your butt, nor slap that mosquito that’s enjoying your Type AB blood. Sandy then led us through a 90-minute long of moving meditation that made me sweat like I never had even in my years of movement and sports training.
“Whoa!!! So this is yoga.” (If there was already Facebook, I would be “like-ing” this status many times over.)
I would later learn from Sandy that yoga is much more than what we were doing on the mat. Yoga is a way of life, a discipline, and a holistic approach to health and wellness. Oh, and did I tell you that you couldn’t buy sticky yoga mats from Toby’s back then? You have to order it from the US. I’m not even sure if Lululemon had already reached the Philippine shore.
“What’s a Lululemon?”
You don’t know “Lulu?” Hmnn... let me put it this way. If you think Nike is expensive, then you’ll think that Lulu is beyond expensive. One Lululemon top is already worth 1/3 of my salary in UP when I was still an instructor. Of course now that I’ve been promoted to assistant instructor level, that’s equivalent to ¼ of my current salary. We’ll discuss this whole Lululemon-thing in another post.
For now, let’s go back to yoga and I will let you ponder upon the meaning of yoga according to Patanjali.
“Who the hell is Patanjali?”
Dude, do your research. You can check him out on wikipedia later. Just sit, close your eyes, and repeat this 108 times.
Yogas citta vritti nirodhah...
Yogas citta vritti nirodhah...
Yoga citta vritti nirodhah...
To be continued...
2 comments:
What does it mean: "yogas citta vritti nirodhah"? Can't wait for part 2!
M, it means... yoga is the control of mental energy... controlling the mofidications of the mind... stilling the mind. that's how Patanjali defined yoga.
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