New York City-based yoga teacher, author and lecturer, EDDIE STERN has been studying and practicing Ashtanga Yoga since 1987. In Delhi recently, he spoke to MONA MEHTA
Is yoga not for everybody?
■ I will say yoga is for everybody who wants to do it. In his commentary on Patanjali’s verse 2, chapter one of the Yoga Sutras, Vyasa talks about five different types of minds: restless, stupefied, distracted, one pointed, and completely restrained. Yoga is best for people with the third kind of mind, the distracted mind, who focus for a short while but their mind wanders and has to be brought back to the mantra/asana practice.
Through yoga practice we strengthen our ability to stay present in the moment with wherever we are focussing our mind. When our capacity to stay focussed becomes strengthened and we can keep our mind where we want it, for as long as we want it, we move into the next state of mind called aekagrata, one pointedness. This is where Samadhi occurs, and then comes nirudha, where you enter into a deeper level of samadhi. There are eight types of samadhis. People who are completely restless and stupefied, in the first two states of mind, will never come to yoga.
Can a general yoga class work for those with stress and back pain?
■One profound thing about yoga is that because you are using your body and your breath, and your capacity to be aware, you are addressing all these different levels of your being. Even if you have back pain and you have gone to the class to relieve it, you will also be breathing and concentrating and feeling the sensations in your body through your expanded awareness. It means that you leave there not just having addressed your back pain but also balanced your nervous system through breathing, and calmed the mind through awareness practices. And if you go there because you are on a spiritual quest and want to be more connected inwardly, you will have practices to support that, but at the same time, you will be doing something with your body which is going to strengthen your nervous system and this physical house that you are living in, at the same time.
In scientific terms, these are neuro-physiological mechanisms that work from the brain stem and our autonomic functions, those that work upwards through information processing, through the limbic system to the cortical regions of the brain. Then we have the neuro-cognitive benefits when we do something in the cortical regions of the brain, where we have our executive functions, expression, compassion and empathy. The effect that meditation, and repetition of a mantra has, on our brain wave function, is going to send messages down to the limbic system for emotions, fear and memory, and those messages will then go to the brain stem and change physiological functioning like lowering the heartbeat, balancing blood pressure, improving sleep and digestion.
So we have both things happening in yoga. We have these neuro-cognitive effects from top-down information processing and we have neuro-physiological effects which are bottom-up information processing. So, whatever spectrum you are on when you come into a yoga class, one way or the other, you are going to have the information processing affected in your physical body, nervous system, emotional body and in your mind. This is why yoga seems to work so well for so many people.
For most, exposure to yoga starts with asana practise on a yoga mat. From here to the point where yoga is said to reveal the path to liberation, seems a long haul. What is your advice?
■When you decide to go for yoga, it is a good idea to know why you are drawn to it. Most people know that as they come into the class. May be they have back pain and want relief, maybe they have stress in their life and are looking to relax, perhaps they are on a spiritual quest and they are looking for life’s meaning. So if your intentions are clear, then the practice that you undertake can help magnify the outcomes you are looking for.
Patanjali talks about the problem that often arises, that is, failure to maintain consistency in practice. This failure expresses itself in the body through different ways. Disruption of breath, shaking of limbs, depression and anxiety. Then he suggests remedies.
One thing that seems to work for people who want to establish the yoga habit is choosing attainable goals; go for micro practices. Rather than aiming for an hour of practice every day of the week, do 10-15 minutes a day. Choose something that you think you can do and that which you want to commit yourself to do. For instance, do three rounds of Surya Namaskara and then sit down and breathe deeply five times. That’s it. Keep your mat rolled out somewhere in your house so you can remember.
If you do that every day for six days a week for about 5-6 weeks, by the end of that time you will develop a new habit in your nervous system through neuroplasticity and then that habit will be yours as long as you keep at it.
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