Posts Tagged ‘witness consciousness’

Yoga … Sangha … Business? - Thoughts for Twitter

Tuesday, August 25th, 2009
(find me on twitter at http://twitter.com/presentjoyoga)

I’ve gotten called a “guru” on twitter. *runs and hides*.. I’ve been referenced online as one of the top ten in the yoga community on Twitter

On Following

1. Don’t follow back everyone. Some disagree with this. But see #5.
2. Follow back yogis who tweet valuable stuff - community leaders, teachers, studios in various areas, etc. There aren’t competitors on twitter, as far as I’m concerned, although there can be dissension and disagreement amongst yogis.The studio down the street? Not sure. But Twitter is a public forum, and I believe the possible best course of action is to follow, follow away! Even RT some of their stuff, if it’s valuable quotes or their own charity endeavours (of course you don’t want to tweet their marketing stuff)… if you’re uncomfortable with this idea (um, it is a BUSINESS after all), then create a personal account that is somewhat anonymous, and follow them through there, to keep tabs on how they’re using twitter.
3. Follow back “event broadcasters” and other leaders in the toronto area.
4. Wherever possible follow back actual clients/members of the studio, to develop an online personal relationship with them.
5. Cull your followers — as much as possible remove the spam accounts. There’s a fine line and sometimes it’s hard to tell. Some people will look at a person’s follows as a measure of whether to follow back; some people will look at a person’s follower count (ie the popularity contest — even better, is the following:follower ratio. If you are followed more than you follow, you evoke a different thing than if you follow hundreds more than who follows you..). It can be different for a business (not sure how), but in general I would say that it’s better to keep your news feed to two groups: those you want to follow because they interest you, regardless of whether they follow back. For example, an account that broadcasts Buddha quotes. You may wish to RT them a lot. Second, those who interact with you. This can be difficult, but try to follow whoever sends an @reply, if they are genuinely interacting with you.

Oh, the Automation

Please don’t automate anything about twitter. Instead, use a client like TweetDeck. Manage followers manually. Some “twitter marketers” will tell you how to get thousands of followers, and often recommend certain applications (not affiliated with twitter in any way). Beware. The people who actually use twitter, especially those in the yoga/spiritual community do NOT like these techniques, and smell them from miles away.

On @replies

Don’t underestimate the value of tweeting yogic messages that are very very very simple — Breathe. Bring awareness to the feeling of gravity in your body. Or quote patanjali. But also don’t neglect interacting. Respond to what interests you. Answer someone’s question, or ask your own, and be prepared to respond to most if not all replies to you. Try to reply to ALL @replies or mentions. Some people thank every person who RTed them. People like to get mail (except bills or junk mail — equivalent of spam!), and they like to get mentions. I don’t tend to reply to every single RT but maybe I should. It comes down for me to time.

On Retweets (RTs)

The more you reference other yogis, the more they will be likely to reference you — RTing is therefore valuable in the sense that you are not only spreading information that will give other users a better picture of who YOU are, you are also “recommending” them in a very real sense, and you are letting that person you RTed know that you are following them and value their tweets. Also RT the people who RT you, IF that person is tweeting stuff of value. You want to follow them to do that.

BE PERSONAL

This is a point of interest for ANYONE who uses twitter as a business identity. What do you actually do? How do you sell? How can you make money on twitter?

OK. Breathe.

Tweet about your challenges. Tweet generically about your challenges! That’s right! People RELATE to that. Tweet about goings on, to an extent. Big events? Sure! Tweet that you’re getting married, or going on a cruise, or to India, or about how there’s a GIANT weed in your backyard that you might need to just appreciate because it’s too big and prickly to remove. Tweet about your personal choices for being ecologically minded — and do these things without tying into your business. In other words, there is a place for saying “my studio/business is eco” - but if that’s all you’re doing then you’ve just bought into “green marketing”.. which yogis and others in the know will smell as simple self-serving marketing jibber jabber.

OK What About Business?

Now, being personal is trickier if you actually have more than one person updating twitter for your business. I actually do NOT like “we”.. it kind of reeks of groupthink. Either refer to yourself in the third person — “Studio Y is excited to announce Jerry as a new addition to the team” or, simply just get one person to tweet. Or get multiple people to tweet “for” the business, but under different names. Let them engage in the yoga community as themselves. You can choose to make your business a broadcast business, and then have your “reps” RT important things. I don’t think this model would be as effective.

People have sent business my way because of twitter, but I believe this is because of my personal relationship with them. And I give things for free, I mean knowledge and stuff. Some businesses do the occasional product giveaway, if that works - it could be a free complimentary pass for one class. it could be random or could be “the best response” kind of thing. But this can be excessive. Continuous self-promotion is not effective in this community.

In other words, be a yogic entity first, and a business second. Be ethical. Avoid direct PMs or unsolicited @replies that are just sales pitches — like if you sought out users by their location and then tweeted to them “come check out our studio/my website!” - that is so close to spam, if not spam. it can depend on how it’s approached. if someone tweeted, for instance “i’m really struggling with my yoga practice” you could tweet back, “what do you think is a barrier to getting deeper into your practice?” and engage in a conversation with them. they can organically look at the fact you are a local studio by checking out your profile. or you can eventually gently say “noticed you’re in our area, we’d love for you to come in for a class on us; finding a “home” to do your yoga can raelly help with a regular practice. ”

Finally

What is your approach to yoga? Frame yourself not just from a branding point of view, but convey why you personally are running a yoga business, and what makes you passionate about it. the more personal the better. Use twitpic to post pictures of yourself, if you choose to have a company logo as your avatar.. keeping in mind that a company logo as avatar casts you as a business with less of a face attached to it. I’d say this is somewhat a personal preference and a business decision that is ultimately your judgment call.

And enjoy! Enjoy interacting. Support others. Support them freely! Without condition! You’ll be amazed at the energy created through that.

Feel free to add anything I’ve missed, plus opinions, in the comments. I’m interested to build on these ideas. Also, I’m not really trying to cast myself as someone who is hocking that “how to make money through yoga on twitter!” but to try and bring yoga businesses to the realization that they actually have to be part of the community first, and a business second. this is not specific to yoga, except I think the community here is far more sensitive to when it happens the other way around (business first, yoga - yamas and niyamas? second).

Namaste

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witness consciousness & non-judgmental awareness

Sunday, March 29th, 2009

this world of ours.. modern industrial society, the euro-western protestant ethic, the culture of merit, hard work, goal setting, progress, even the philosophy called law of attraction — whatever name you want to give it, has many underlying assumptions, but the one i want to concern myself with here is the following notion:

the way things are is NOT the way things should be. change through hard work, shifting the attitude toward positive thinking and scientific progress will help individuals, organizations, societies move forward, become better, and ultimately find mastery over the world, more adept at controlling its resources, purer, more ‘civilized’, and smarter.

the central focus is a judgment. negativity is unacceptable. forward thinking is the only way to move forward. moving forward is the prime directive.

the idea of manifestation is problematic when it comes from an outlook that repeats, however quietly, that right now isn’t okay. i need to manifest something different. i have a destiny or a dream or a need but i’m not *there* yet.

before you crap all over my concept of the law of attraction, i admit that i have not studied it in depth. however i approach that *theory* (not law, though some would assert it is like gravity - a reality absolute) from the perspective that it is a decontextualized borrowing from deep, rich tradition(s) that is made palatable to western audiences. it short circuits a whole host of concepts and practices into a self-help quick-fix and simplistic set of rules. so i’m less attracted to it than the centuries old texts that modern day ‘guru’ types have borrowed from to attract followers.

a story

my kripalu days brought me face-to-face with the internal talk that placed me in opposition to whatever i was at the moment. i wanted to have less tight hamstrings. i wanted to eat differently (which i got to do with ease at kripalu because i didn’t have to cook for my lazy self). i wanted to be less neurotic, have more toned abs, be less attention-seeking, be more at ease with people, make eye contact, be more brave, be more independent.. the list is a mile long.

this thing they were telling us about — non-judgmental awareness — was something i had met when i had surgery last may. laproscopic abdominal surgery left me very sore and weaker in my core. after a few days on narcotics and almost bed-ridden, i was missing yoga and bored and restless. so, the YMCA near my house had “Soft Yoga” on Wednesday mornings. I’d been before. It was mostly older folks, and the Donna taught us with many modifications for those less mobile. I usually took my practice where I felt like in that class, enjoying the community, the doting grandma types and the humour and levity Donna brought to teaching. Enter me in May, painfully easing myself into yoga, barely able to lay out my mat…

thank goodness for chair yoga!

i observed the very important safety tip that some folks don’t know (or can’t realistically heed): do NOT do yoga on pain killers, muscle relaxants and the like. Seriously, you cannot feel your body well enough to practice staying in sensation, not over stretching or torquing joints if your nerves are being subdued by medications.

taking no pain killers by the time i hit yoga 10 days post-surgery, i set about doing only what i could in that class, using pain signals as a guide to where i could go and where i could not. i had stitches, compromised abs, residual chest pain from my gall bladder attack and the air they pumped into my body during surgery.

all of this had a huge impact on me - as someone practicing yoga for almost a decade i was used to a much larger range of movement, an ease within poses, not needing props and the resilience to bounce back when i overstretched due to striving. not then.

i remember wanting to cry. i remember feeling .. not frustrated, but just deflated. then i realized what a gift i had been given in this challenge.

encountering sudden physical limitations disrupted how i took my body for granted. it confronted me with how much pride i took in where i could go with yoga. practicing during my healing process humbled me, too, as i experienced the amazing effects yoga had on my healing. just breathing, just sitting there, bringing awareness to where i was at and accepting it was transformative.

okay - witness consciousness.

many people think that meditation and yoga and enlightenment involve letting go of (read: getting rid of) negative emotions and thoughts. it means having an empty mind. many if not most people cannot get there. they haven’t arrived, and are thus dissatisfied. their ego defenses may belittle the practice because it’s too hard. they may say it’s not possible, or that the goal isn’t worthwhile, or just that it doesn’t make sense because no one has explained it to them properly (rather than, perhaps, they haven’t been open — or simply haven’t been ready — to receiving what the real message is. they’re stuck in thinking they have to be someplace else, they have to ‘get’ something else in order to arrive at that place of peaceful emptiness with no thoughts and no negative emotions.

witness consciousness means being aware. awareness of what is allows acknowledgement of what is, it allows the opportunity to understand and process your own beingness. step 1? no, not really.

awareness, practiced with non-judgment. what is, is. it just is. it may not be what it seems at first glance. it has many layers. what is cannot be fully seen.

You are right where you need to be.read the previous sentence again. you are right where you need to be. what does this mean? absolutely not! you might think this since you have many habits and faults and thoughts that you want to get rid of, that aren’t helping you be happy. you need to be more happy. your anguish, your suffering, your dis-ease is not serving you.

really? are you sure?

self-reflection

what would happen if i let go of judgment? of striving? of avoiding what is? what if i accepted suffering? what if i accepted ignorance and not knowing? what if i remained open to the things that i don’t like, noticing that i don’t like them but remaining loving to my dislike without judging myself further about that? what if i stopped scolding myself?

an emotion lasts 90 seconds. it’s a wave. it lasts longer for one of two reasons: 1-one actually *wants* to keep feeling angry. it is worn like a badge, or an identity, it is a way to feel powerful, perhaps a way to have control. 2-to me just as insidious and the one i struggle with: the more one tries to push *away* the feeling, “i’m NOT SUPPOSED TO BE ANGRY” the longer it lasts. perhaps i can bury it and dissapate it, but it will only surface again, or reside under the surface as passive aggression.

what if i ride the wave? the emotion will become intense. i will have many thoughts but if i can witness all that and let it rise, without attaching to it then it WILL ebb again. it just will. it’s like the place in between radio stations, there are noises, thoughts, music all intertwined, and it’s a question of tuning in. where am i residing? what can i find in the places in between? there is value to where i’ve been. whether i’m glad to not be where i was or regretful about where i was, or glad about where i was because it has made me stronger — all of these are judgments and i can focus on one of these only, or all of them, or none of them. any of these stances is OKAY. seriously. what if it’s all ok? what if it’s all good, even? what if it all just IS? i am right where i need to be.

there’s a hint of paradox in it, but i think that the more i become consciously aware of my mind and emotions, and witness it without judging it, my feelings become finely tuned instruments. they point merely to something i could pay attention to. more could and less should.

if i wrestle with everything going on inside my own head, and strive for something else, dissatisfied, harboring discontent, then i am not witnessing, and thus cannot see, or hear, or do as someone fully in the world - connected, and possibly in peace. for the moment.

namaste

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escaping sensation

Thursday, March 5th, 2009

in yoga, it’s best to avoid pain, and i advise students to find the edge where they can be comfortable but with just enough effort.

The posture should be comfortable and easy.
~ Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras

yoga is not static. even when “holding” postures, there is movement in the body. energy flows from the ground up, from the crown down to the feet, and through outstretched arms. as the body finds alignment, sensations change. as the posture is held muscles feel different, strength waxes and wanes, the breath may become shallow, and then on reminder, become deep again.

it’s fun to explore postures. in a high lunge, wiggling the hips from side to side opens up the joints, and provides stretches in different places. find the sensation, and stay in it, holding, breathing into it. create space with your breath.

are you escaping?

yet it is also possible to “wiggle” enough to escape sensation. possible to arrange the posture “just so”, in a way perhaps that looks nice, or gets deeper, but doesn’t stretch the muscles evenly, or doesn’t stretch them at all. sometimes it is about relaxation. sometimes the skeleton finds itself compressed in a joint, and a person’s unique skeleton requires a shift, perhaps not in ideal alignment to ‘get by the bone’. people’s shoulders can be this way. some people can’t lift their arms up over their head from the front - they get to shoulder height and have to come out to the side. it can be like this in different places in the body.

becoming more aware of the difference between healthy sensation and pain, and sensation and escape from sensation, are useful inquiries.

try this at home

come into a forward bend: exhale, hinge at the hips, and instead of rounding the back to get as close to your knees as possible, keep the back straight. one way to try this is to place hands on hips as you come down. exhale on the way down, draw your belly in, and your hips will have more room to fold over. breathe. feel the stretch in your hamstrings, all the way up your legs. move your hips slightly. draw your tailbone down towards ground. don’t not drop your hands just yet.. keep your back straight.

if you can’t reach the floor, you may want props. it might be blocks, or if you don’t have those, try anything else that’s stable enough. thick books, a bench/low stool, or even a chair. bend one knee and straighten the other knee. alternate back and forth, releasing the tension in one leg and increasing sensation in the other. hold on one side. even out the hips. extend out of your waist. keep a straight back. hold on the other side. come back into a full forward bend with both knees straight.

then come into the forward bend you may be used to doing, the one that gets you closer to your knees. do you notice a difference in sensation? do you feel your lower back more now? do you feel less of a stretch in your hamstrings? is the sensation lower or higher up your legs? both may give you a stretching sensation, but notice the difference. try the first one again. is it more intense?

ego? comfort? go inside and look

think about whether you are striving to get your head to your knees when you are at your regular yoga class. notice if you feel reluctant to back off and go for the bigger stretch because it doesn’t look as impressive, or make you feel as flexible (if you feel strongly that your striving is for your own personal challenge only).

both forward bends are okay, though if you have problems with your lower back you want to try and keep a straight back. if you have osteopenia or osteoporosis, be careful with forward bends, especially coming back up to standing.

explore sensation, find the edge, and honour your body — where it is at today, right now. you’ll get “further” in the long run, i promise.

namaste

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kindness

Monday, March 2nd, 2009

i’ve been thinking a lot about kindness. there is kindness to others and there is kindness to self. these two things aren’t really distinct though.

i haven’t wrapped my head or heart around the notion that judgment is a necessity. i mean, i understand that i do need to judge and discriminate in situations. to judge whether that bridge will give way as i cross it. to judge whether i can believe what someone is telling me. to make sure i stay safe. there is “making a judgment call”. this is a good thing.

but what about when it comes to people? judging whether they are lying, as i mentioned above, is one useful case. what about, whether i think this person would be a good friend? or if a friend is making a choice that i judge will lead to suffering?

i always perceived judgment as something harsh, that one person levels against another. as the opposite of kindness. how can i be kind and judge at the same time?maybe i am confused. but maybe i am onto something.

imagine a judge in a courtroom. they make a decision because people are asking the judge to make one. the judge holds authority, and the judge is separate.

think about the word kindness for a moment. hm. kindness. could it perhaps mean that i exist in kind? isn’t this the opposite of being separate from who or what we i am kind toward?

so, to be kind toward others means to treat them - to take the root of the word further down - as kin. to treat my self with kindness means that i do not separate from myself, i stay connected with the truth of who i am. being kind to myself means that even as i harm myself, i can be kind to the part of me that disregards and causes violence — the part that separates me from me. if i judge myself, i create fragments, i create larger chasms within my psyche. to love the parts of myself that are unlovable, to treat them with kindness, means shining a light into those dark spaces. it means witnessing that which is. once it ceases to be separate from me, i will not seek to destroy myself.

to treat others in kind? it would seem that a large obstacle to kindness with others is not practicing self-kindness. it is very easy to stand apart from the world and judge it harshly, when i stand apart from myself.

It’s just love. There is nothing else. There is just love. ~Swami Kripalu

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witness consciousness

Saturday, February 7th, 2009

some core benefits of yoga and meditation are the very things that are most difficult for practitioners, especially when they are starting out. in the beginning, meditation, relaxation and breathing exercises where the mind is “supposed” to focus on the breath, or ideally be “empty of all thoughts” are especially difficult. the goal of an empty mind seems like a distant and ridiculous goal for so many people.

but we want peace, right? so we need to try and empty the mind, try and not have all those thoughts, try and focus and find the pure state of nothingness that is the buddha. right?

i wonder how many people give up. i wonder how many people hear “let your mind rest, become peaceful, put the world and your worries away,” and never come back to a class because they can’t do it? how many people sit in class and hold in their urge to squirm and shift, and berate themselves for not being able to clear their mind and become one with their mat? that’s far from relaxing, isn’t it?

oh, the noise!

a partial journey out of this struggle involves learning about monkey mind, and picking apart the myth of silent mind.


monkey mind is the constant chatter the mind does. thinking about the past, the future, problems, plans, desires, feelings, resentments, questions, fears. all amount of effort to silence this seems to make it worse!

i’ve done it myself - i’ve sat in meditation, and become more and more upset because i just couldn’t find a stillness. my body wants to move, my mind is chattering away, and as soon as i’ve brought it back to watch the breath, i’m back thinking about what i’ll need to get at the hardware store later.

while long-term practitioners of meditation and yoga may find moments of “silent mind”, most likely don’t experience pristine silence throughout practice. when they do find peaceful quiet from monkey mind, they didn’t get there by forcing their full weight on the monkey to silence him. pushing the monkey and telling him to “shaddup” is only going to make him yell louder. so how in the world can you tame monkey mind?

becoming “one”

some people will suggest that it’s a matter of “becoming one with”. the idea of moving like water. instead of resisting, go with it. ahhh. well this does feel easier. just let it happen, man! just sit in meditation and think about your shopping list! it’s just fine, really. the mind does what it wants to do. become one with your mind, become one with your body, the planet, the universe!

geeks letting go

yeah, that’s the idea… but perhaps it’s missing a step to suggest this first. i’ve talked to students who are incredibly confused by this, or simply unable to do it. so am i. how do i become one with my anger when everything i’ve ever learned is telling me that it’s wrong?? now should i be telling myself it’s the opposite of wrong? should i be telling myself that it’s wrong to have the aversions i have to anger? if my anger is telling me to go smash something, are you telling me that is not wrong? no that has to be wrong! ok i’m confused about what is right and wrong. what am i supposed to tell myself?

witness consciousness

kripalu yoga in stage II involves cultivating witness consciousness. this is a sort of non-judgmental awareness which begins (and ends) with noticing. witness consciousness is applicable to yoga practice and meditation and then can become an awareness that filters into every aspect of life.

non-judgemental awareness is a very different way of engaging with the spiral that happens in the mind. the spiral goes something like this:

  1. i have a thought
  2. i am aware of that thought and i don’t like it (because i’m supposed to be meditating?)
  3. try to put it out of my mind
  4. berate myself for having the thought
  5. i am not able to get rid of the thought
  6. i berate myself for not being able to get rid of the thought
  7. i berate myself for berating myself
  8. etc.

the spiral can get quickly out of control. it’s as if, i think that by yelling at myself, i can whip myself into submission. oh, no it doesn’t work that way. self-immolation is a chinese finger trap. chinese finger trap the harder i try to resist and force my way out of the unpleasantness of my mind, the harder my mind squeezes me.

the practice of witness consciousness can effectively short circuit the spiral that happens with the mind. where do i get attached? in becoming “one” with my thoughts and emotions am i not attaching to them, seeing them as part of me, and thus unable to let them come and go?

begin with yoga. i do a forward bend. oh, my hamstrings are tight today. ok i can notice that. then i notice that i am beginning to have feelings about that. perhaps feelings of inadequacy, or frustration about it. i wasn’t this tight yesterday! perhaps i notice myself striving to go further, and ignoring the threshold where i am pushing too far. just noticing. hm. interesting how my mind is behaving. let’s watch this some more.

practicing witness consciousness has helped me see where i move from being aware of a particular thought or feeling or state, into making *meaning* out of it. i become aware of how i’m taking thoughts and running with them (or allowing them to run me).

mandala

letting go?

witnessing means that i am, in a way, a bystander to my mind. i am not my mind, i am watching my mind. therefore, even as i experience myself as a constant in the universe, i can realize that my mind is not constant. it becomes possible to let a thought come, and let it go.

the last sentence offers an interesting “out” to the problem of monkey mind: “let it come”. we focus so much on letting go. but in order to let it go we have to let it come.

so if you feel a cry coming on in a yoga class, what do you do with it? stuff it inside? what if you let it come?

if you are laying in bed and can’t stop thinking about what you have to do tomorrow, why stop? perhaps the lack of sleep will give you something you need. can you be open to that?

if you are sick, and your body needs rest, are you stuffing more cold medicine into you and ignoring the pain, or can you listen and let yourself rest and the cold work itself out?

let it come. notice it. then you can see if you are able it go.

jai bhagwan

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