Yogavibes put together this interview with one of the faces of Ashtanga, Kino Macgregor.

Q. Why Ashtanga Yoga? What makes this method of yoga so meaningful or transformational for you?

A. Yoga has the power to transform your whole life. It is a lifelong journey into the inner space of the higher self within each person. Ashtanga Yoga is a traditional, lineage based practice that comes directly from India. I love the traditional nature of the practice because it allows me to surrender to something much bigger than any one person. I met Sri K. Pattabhi Jois when I was twenty-three years old and it changed everything I knew about myself. He represented the true potential of the human spirit and he taught a simple method of yoga that anyone can learn. I’ve devoted the last fourteen years of my life to studying Ashtanga Yoga in India and I now continue my studies with Guruji’s grandson, R. Sharath Jois.

Q. What do you have to say to yogis that are scared and/or intimated by the intensity and discipline of Ashtanga Yoga? How should they approach the practice?

A. Start with something really basic. Do not jump into a complete, fast paced practice. The way that my teacher would work with beginners was to start off with a very short easy practice of the Sun Salutations that takes between five and ten minutes to learn and practice. Many people dive head first into yoga and get overwhelmed with the intensity and the discipline. Beginners should just enjoy being beginners and take it easy, have fun and enjoy their practice. Don’t worry about doing it every day, start off with a modest goal of doing yoga three times a week, and then let yoga inspire you to do more.

Q. Does boredom ever strike in your personal practice? If so, how do you keep on keepin’ on?

A. The journey in yoga is as infinite as the human spirit so there are always new depths and new experiences waiting through the vehicle of the practice. That being said, I’ve been through many periods of boredom where I felt like I was circling an endless plateau. What I’ve found is that periods of boredom – where it seems like you are making no progress or even sliding backwards – are actually periods of deep integration. Whatever I’m experiencing, I do my best to just give it space to be, so if I’m bored I just be aware that I’m bored and keep practicing.

Read more about Kino and Ashtanga

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Could B.K.S. Iyengar win the Nobel Peace Prize? He should, says a novelist and correspondent for Bloomberg’s World View in New Delhi as well as the B.K.S. Iyengar Yoga National Association of the United States who have initiated a worldwide effort to nominate him. But what does yoga have to do with peace, anyway?

According to Chandrahas Choudhury, who wrote the Bloomberg article, it’s time for an Indian to win the Nobel Peace Prize (Mahatma Gandhi’s surprising omission has been widely criticized) and he thinks it deservedly belongs to Iyengar, who turned 95 just last month and is considered one of the founders of what we know today as modern yoga. And yoga, (overly simplified) as finding inner peace as a means to finding peace outside, is the gist of a lot of Iyengar (and yoga/Patanjali’s) teachings and is the basis for Choudhury’s case for Guruji’s nomination.

“Is there an Indian today who deserves it?” Choudhury asks. “There certainly is,” Choudhury continues, “and it’s curious that his claim on it has apparently never been taken with the seriousness it merits, when one might say he hasn’t just advanced the cause of peace in the world, but considerably enlarged its meaning.”

This would be a good year to award the prize to Iyengar. Remarkably, he continues to keep up an exhausting schedule, radiating the positive effects of yoga practice for both body and mind. Two years ago, he travelled to China to start an Iyengar yoga institute there. “He can still do the sirsasana, or head stand, for half an hour at a go,” the Indian journalist Sanjukta Sharma wrote in a profile last month. “This is the longest a yoga guru has sustained his or her practice to perfect more and more.” To millions of practitioners who have passed through Iyengar yoga schools in 72 countries, or have deepened their understanding of yoga poses through one of his books (most notably the 1966 classic “Light on Yoga,”) Iyengar is the face of yoga.

Click to check out the full article on BKS Iyengar, Modern Yoga, and the Nobel Prize.

Via Athleta

Oh, chaturanga dandasana. We’ve had a long and complicated relationship. I remember my first few yoga classes way back when, and how it was unclear to me that people were not in fact lowering themselves all the way to the floor. They were – gasp – hovering! And when I first tried you, how miserably I failed. You may not come easily, chaturanga, but perseverance pays off.

There is nothing like supporting your own body weight for building strength. Which is why you must not do a drive-by with this pose, cruising as fast as you can into upward facing dog. As Baron Baptise puts it in his book Journey Into Power: “A lot of students try to sneak their way past Low Push-Up and move directly from High Push-Up to the next pose, which is Upward Facing Dog, but I strongly encourage you not to do this. Find ways to work within the pose. Modify, dilute, research, but don’t run or avoid the work. Challenge yourself sensitively and your weakness will soon turn to strength.”

Read the full guide on how to do chaturanga dandasana properly. 

Image via Athleta

Eddie Stern has posted a transcript of a very important lecture given by Sri K. Pattabhi Jois on the mind/body connection, providing us with invaluable insight into Guruji’s thinking about the role of yoga in well-being. Here’s Eddie’s description of the context (from his Facebook page):

In 1977, Guruji was invited to give a presentation at a Yoga Conference that was organized by Swami Vishnu Devananda in Bangalore. The papers were all collected and published in a book called “Yoga and Science”, and the title of his presentation was “Yoga and Therapy”. I had looked for the book for many years, but to no avail. Then this past fall, almost miraculously, the son of Leslie Kaminoff – who I knew from my pre-yoga days – found the book in India, and Leslie gave it to me.

Click to read the transcript of Yoga and Therapy.

Via Confluence Countdown

Alexandra Spunt and Siobhan O’Connor are co-authors of No More Dirty Looks: The Truth About Your Beauty Products and the Ultimate Guide to Safe and Clean Cosmetics. If you’re interested in meditation, DIY beauty products, and vegetarian recipes, be sure to check out their blog: No More Dirty Looks.

Here’s a preview of their flagship post featuring 11 ways to start meditating:

1. Use a timer. There are apps for that, and they make cute gong sounds when the time’s up. You can set it for five minutes to start, and then just decide in advance that for the next five minutes, you can’t do anything but sit there. You can think about anything you want, but you can’t DO anything. Five minutes may feel like an eternity, but if you can brush your teeth for two minutes twice a day, or you can gchat with your best friend for four hours every day, you can sit still for five. Just decide you will, and then do it.

2. Don’t worry about whether or not you are doing it right. There are a million different ways to make bread. Every loaf has a few key ingredients. Beyond that, they may vary in flavor, texture, time in the oven—but it’s all still bread. Think of meditation the same way. As long as you have the basics down—sitting still, not doing other stuff at the same time, being quiet, then doing it again tomorrow—you’re doing a fine job.

3. Understand that when thoughts come up—and they will—it doesn’t mean you blew it. The mind never shuts up completely—even when we think it’s quiet, there are other channels running in the background. It’s OK even if those channels are blaring on high volume in the foreground, also. Over time this will just happen less.

Click to read: eight more ways to start meditating.

In my meditation experiences, I’ve had strong practices by focusing on my breath. Whenever my mind starts to wander, I simply bring my mind back to my breath. The key is patience and not beating yourself up when your mind wanders. Gently bring your attention back to your breath.

Which of these methods have you tried?

Beginner Poses

• Corpse | Short Form
• Standing Backbend | Short Form | Discussion
• Tree | Short Form | Discussion
• Happy Baby | Short Form | Discussion
• Fish | Short Form | Discussion
• Childs | Short Form | Discussion
• Mountain | Short Form | Discussion
• Intense West Stretch | Short Form |Discussion
• Standing Forward Bend | Discussion
• Head to Knee | Discussion
• Half Moon 1 | Discussion
• Cat | Short Form | Discussion
• Bound Angle | Discussion

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Standing Poses

• Warrior 3 | Short Form | Discussion
• Pyramid | Short Form | Discussion
• Fierce / Chair | Short Form | Discussion
• Extended Hand to Big Toe | Short Form | Discussion
• Crescent (high) | Short Form | Discussion
• Lord of the Dance | Short Form | Discussion
• Extended Side Angle | Short Form | Discussion
• Eagle | Discussion
• Warrior II | Discussion
• Half Moon 2 | Discussion
• Revolved Side Angle | Discussion
• Extended Triangle Pose | Discussion
• Standing Forehead to Knee | Discussion

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Floor Poses

• Heron | Short Form | Discussion
• Side Plank | Short Form | Discussion
• Bridge | Short Form | Discussion
• Bow | Short Form | Discussion
• Half Lord of the Fishes | Short Form | Discussion
• Cobra | Short Form | Discussion
• Diamond | Discussion
• Rabbit | Discussion
• Inverted Locust| Discussion
• Upward Bow | Discussion
• Garland | Discussion
• Camel | Discussion

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Advanced Poses

• Sugarcane | Short Form | Discussion
• Wild Thing | Short Form | Discussion
• Dragonfly / Grasshopper | Short Form | Discussion
• Peacock | Short Form | Discussion
• Pendant | Short Form | Discussion
• Handstand | Short Form | Discussion
• Eight Angle | Short Form | Discussion
• Two-Foot Inverted Staff | Discussion
• Headstand | Discussion
• Pose Dedicated to the Sage Koundinya I | Discussion
• Feathered Peacock | Discussion
• Crane / Crow | Discussion

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Partner Poses

• Bird | Short Form | Discussion
• Reverse Bow | Short Form | Discussion

Some beginners tell me that the Downward Facing Dog position is not relaxing or comfortable for them. Several clients describe pain in their wrists and shoulders. These 4 tips can help put you at ease with one of the most common yoga poses:

Softening The Shoulders

Putting all of your weight in to the upper body and mostly in the shoulders will cause you to fatigue quickly in this pose. It is also causing tightness to be created there when it should be that we are creating space. Relax the shoulders down and away from the ears. Try to pull the shoulders back and down to release any tension.

Gazing Directly At The Big Toes

In my classes I see a lot of beginners looking straight down at the mat or towards their hands while shifting to downward-facing dog. This makes it hard to distribute the weight evenly in to the lower and upper body. Holding a slight gaze towards your toes causes the neck to relax and stay line with the spine.

Click to read two more tips on how to improve your adho mukha svanasana.

Via DoYouYoga