Is Yoga Feeding Your Ego?

It seems totally counterintuitive, but the trappings of the ego can be just as strong, if not strengthened, by any spiritual practice, yoga included.

We are the World

The ego is that part of our mind that creates the illusion of a self, separate from the world, and functions upon the principle of infinite desire to want, no matter how much we have. The illusion of ego is something that most spiritual practices and religions recognize and warn against.

This warning is well founded, as the ego is almost universally deemed by priests, psychologists, and gurus alike to be the root of suffering — the continual dissatisfaction we experience, even when we have it all.

Ego Wants to Kill the Ego

Most people, myself included, are drawn to spiritual practices like yoga (and that’s not just asanas, folks!) to learn how to temper, and hopefully one day overcome, our ego.

But as we proceed on this journey toward egolessness, we soon realize that this drive to overcome the ego is itself ego driven! That’s quite the paradox.

Once we are deeply entrenched in yoga, we can fall victim to yoga ego-mania. Has this happened to you? Do you find yourself judging others because they don’t practice yoga, or perhaps because they live contrary to certain yoga philosophies that you hold dear?

The Yoga Ego

Maybe you criticize other styles of yoga as being less true, valuable, or ‘authentic.’ As a teacher, I find this to be a huge challenge, as I often find myself thinking over the ways in which the yoga that I teach is better than other forms.

All of these thoughts are the sneaky ego asserting itself; it is the ego telling you that you have it right, that you are on the true path. It is the ego which supports and elevates the sense of worth of this false separate self, which wants you to feel a sense of superiority for associating yourself with a specific community or tradition.

Ironic Games

Ironic isn’t it? What can be the path to liberation from the ego can also be a path to deeper ego-identification. Irony seems to be the name of the ego game, because as long as you play it, or pretend to be above it, there it is. It can rule everything you do.

The paths to liberation, of which yoga is simply one route among many, share a common truth: the only way to transcend ego is not to try to transcend it.

Being Present

While this sounds like an impossible goal, there is hope. You can use the yogic practice of becoming present to free yourself from these difficult conundrums.

When we are totally present, feeling our bodies, our breaths, and watching our thoughts from a place of removal, known in yogic and Buddhist terms as ‘witness consciousness’ or ‘beginners mind’, we are simply here and now; in that moment, we become egoless.

But when we begin to judge the quality of the moment, and how it relates to our wants, desires and perceived needs, we open the door for our ego and invite it in.

So, ask yourself why you do yoga and be honest. What about it do you love, and why? What about it do you hate, and why? In what ways might you be using yoga, consciously or unconsciously, to feed your ego? Are you ready to stop striving and just let yourself be?

What is Om?

It took me a long time to feel comfortable chanting om in a yoga class. It is understandably intimidating to be asked to sing in front of a group of relative strangers, especially if you have no idea what the word even means.

My om breakthrough happened when a yoga teacher described the ritual in this way: “Think of om as vibration, not just a sound. And think of chanting as a release or expression, not as a performance.”

If you are feeling shy about joining in on your yoga class om, either because you don’t know what it means or exactly how to do it, then read on.

The Meaning of Om

Om has its origin in the ancient Indian Vedic system as an incantation to be recited at the beginning of ceremonies, rites or readings. It can be found in the traditions of Hinduism, Buddhism and Yoga.

The symbol and the sound represents the primordial sound of the universe. Om represents the creation, existence, and dissolution of everything in the universe. Om represents the fundamental vibration of the energy of the universe, and is the root of most mantras.

Benefits of Chanting Om

Beyond bringing you into harmony with the energy of the universe and closer to God, there are few more tangible benefits to chanting this sacred yogic mantra!

The main thing that most yoga students find when they fully engage in chanting om is that it releases tension in their abdomen and chest. Just like shaking a jar to release its contents, or using ultrasonic waves to break apart kidney stones, directed vibrations from your vocal-chords will soften and loosen physical tension.

Chanting om is a great way to reduce mental and emotional tensions as well; it helps shift your attention away from stressful thoughts that will distract your mind during your yoga practice.

You may eventually come to experience a deep sense of catharsis through this simple but profound practice, purging mental and physical tension, while also uniting and harmonizing your individual energies with everyone in your yoga class.

How to Chant Om

Om, also spelled phonetically as aum, contains four different parts, or phonemes (distinct units of sound) to focus on during your chanting.

The first sound you release from deep in your belly is ‘Ah’. This sound is known as vaishvanara, meaning ‘beginning’. Once you have sustained this sound for approximately a third of your exhale, move the vibration up into your chest (the fourth chakra) bringing your lips into an ‘O’ shape to pronounce ‘Oh’. This is the second phoneme, called hiranyagarbha, or ‘duration’.

The third part of your verbal release is the sound ‘Mmm’, called iswara or ‘dissolution’. With your lips gently touching, feel the vibration of the sound behind your nose and in your throat, waking up the 5th (throat) chakra.

Finally, once you have expelled all of your breath, gently release all effort and noise, sitting with your eyes closed for the final sound of the sacred mantra: silence.

Why Yoga Makes You Taller

Did you know that doing yoga makes you taller? While yoga won’t alter your true height by miraculously bestowing you with an extra vertebra, everyone who practices this pliable art grows taller, sometimes gaining up to a full inch.

This is because a regular yoga practice improves bad posture habits that make us appear shorter than we really are. Yoga can also help increase the space between our spinal vertebra, which become compressed from high-impact sports and from the natural aging process.

Stand Tall

Do you stand with one knee bent while sinking into the same hip? Do you round your upper back and slouch your shoulders forward, or drop your hips forward letting your lower back arch? We all have poor posture habits like these that compromise our stature, as well as our spinal health.

How You Stand is How You Feel

Sometimes, poor posture relates directly to emotional states. Take, for example, the common shoulder slouch. This can feel really comfortable if you are shy or nervous because you are closing off and protecting your chest (heart chakra) by rolling your shoulders forward.

When you open your heart center and draw your shoulder blades together and then down your back, your heart opens up. You might feel a bit vulnerable, but you gain emotional and physical strength in return.

Proper posture provides the challenge of meeting life face, heart and head-on. You also gain the advantage of standing taller, which some say increases one’s sense of confidence and energy.

The Perfect Posture Pose

Mountain is the ultimate good posture pose because its goal is just that: to teach you how to stand properly. Once you practice for long enough, you will find your body coming into mountain pose naturally on its own, whether you are on your yoga mat or standing in line at the grocery store.

Mountain Pose

Here’s how you do it. Stand with your feet hip distance apart, inner edges of your feet parallel. Soften your knees, so they are not locked straight, and push the soles of your feet into the ground to engage your quadriceps.

Feeling strong and grounded in your legs, tilt your hips forward (arching), then back (tucked). When your hips are right in the middle of these two extremes, you have found your neutral spine. Engage your lower abdominals, and take a deep inhale, feeling your spine grow long and tall.

Then drop your shoulders down towards your hips and let your heart-center shine open. Imagine a magnet at your heart and your crown being pulled up towards the ceiling.

Spinal Space

Once proper posture has been engrained in your body, you can add extra oomph to your elevation by working on your forward folds. Standing forward fold, or Utanasana, is the most effective for creating space between your vertebra. In Utanasana, you let your torso hang heavily towards the ground with soft knees and strong legs. Gravity will stretch out your spine — all you have to do is relax.

Practice standing forward folds and mountain pose and you are guaranteed to stand out in a crowd!

How to Avoid Yoga Injuries

It’s very common for people to start practicing yoga as a way to recover from an injury. Yoga is a fantastic and effective tool to support and enhance physical and mental healing.

If unchecked, however, your poor habits may lead you towards a new injury or re-injury. To avoid such unwanted outcomes, you must become acutely aware of your physical ‘trouble-spots’ as well as your mental yoga habits. Attention must be paid to proper alignment, breathing and warm-up techniques — all of which will help guarantee you a safe and injury-free yoga practice, for life.

Know Your Aches and Pains

The most crucial gift you can bestow upon your yoga practice, and your body, is awareness and acceptance. Take a moment at home to reflect on your unique physical needs and experiences. What injuries have you sustained over the course of your life? Were there any internal causes or contributing factors to these injuries. Did your brain push your body too far?

Also make note of any pain or discomfort you may experience from repetitive daily activities like driving, typing, carrying a baby or even how you sleep. A great way to create and keep track of this list is to keep a ‘body log’. Take note of all of your physical issues and their associated thoughts and feelings.

There is a deep interrelation between your body and your mind, and that relationship can play a role in injuries. Here’s an example:

Yoga is 99.9% Mental

A student of mine had a rotator-cuff injury that was not healing. I asked him to do a careful scan of his body and notice what emotions and thoughts came up when he was focusing on his injured shoulder.

He realized that he was furious with his injury. He had made enemies with his body. This mental attack was exacerbating his pain, as he would push through his yoga practice in agonizing pain, trying to force it to strengthen and heal.

I asked him to befriend his injury. By working on an emotional plane for 5 minutes in his opening pose, his pain was significantly decreased.

Mind Body Connections

Yoga is the practice of uniting the mind and the body, which in many ways runs contrary to our traditional approach to health and fitness in the bio-medical system. This is quickly changing, as it becomes increasingly clear how our thoughts and feelings influence how we use, or abuse, our bodies.

One’s mental orientation toward an injury can be great source of healing or harm, depending on how we approach it. If you let your mind bully your body, you will likely injure yourself my overdoing it, thereby inhibiting your rehabilitation.

Surrender your Ego

Once you begin exploring the details of the history of your body, and your emotional reactions to each specific spot, challenge yourself to embrace the opposite emotion. For example, if you feel frustrated, cultivate patience; if you feel angry, try to feel forgiveness; and, if you feel competitive or aggressive, try to find a place of contentment.

It is so common to fight with our bodies, especially the aspects that present the toughest challenge; and this is the most likely cause of injury or reinjury. Take the opposite tack by challenging your initial reaction to pain, tension or impairment. A positive sentiment can open up a world of health and well-being.

How to Use Your Yoga Strap

Just like learning how to use your yoga block, using your yoga strap can be as fresh or repetitive as you make it. It’s up to you to stretch your imagination. Pause for a moment to ask yourself, “How could this yoga pose feel better?” A yoga strap just might help.

Strap in and Relax

Some restorative yoga poses are tricky to completely relax in. A yoga strap is a simple yet effective way to add that final support so you can release all effort and sink deeply into your pose.

Legs up the wall is one such yoga pose. I often find myself, and many of my students, subtly struggling to keep our knees from buckling from the heavy weight of our relaxed legs. Once you are comfortably in this yoga pose, which is exactly as it is named (your legs lean against a wall with your tailbone a few inches from it), take your yoga strap and loop it around your ankles with the buckle facing you. Now adjust the tightness, and voila! Your legs are held together against the wall and you can now focus on breathing.

Binding your Time

Think of your yoga strap as an extension of your arms. Whenever you find yourself straining in a pose, like trying to reach your feet or ankles in an advanced pigeon variation, upward boat pose or a deep seated forward fold, grab your yoga strap and use it as a bridge between where your hands are, and where, eventually, they will go.

Using your yoga strap this way may just save you a strain injury from trying to reach too far. It may also help you reach your goal in the pose faster by helping you to relax and open, which will bring you farther into any yoga pose than straining and pushing.

Better Blindfolded

Finally, a little creative usage for your yoga strap for the final pose of every yoga practice: shivasana. Have your yoga strap close at hand and lay it across your eyes while you come into full relaxation or corpse pose.

Using an eye pillow, sweater sleeve, or yoga strap lets your eye and facial muscles soften. Blocking out light while in shivasana, much like sleeping, allows you to drop into a deeper state of surrender. It is crucial for brightly-lit yoga studios and daytime classes.

Like your yoga block, your yoga strap is your ally. It was made to help you, not intimidate you, and there is really no right or wrong way to use it. Experiment with your yoga props at home during your personal practice and above all else, have fun!

Fully Experience Your Yoga Poses

Yoga is like the proverbial onion: it is simple on the outside, but within the many translucent layers lies a deep elusive core. Each layer in itself consists of numerous micro-layers, delicate fibrous sheathes of practice, philosophy and knowledge — all waiting to be peeled apart and explored.

Peeling the Onion

If you have or are willing to accept the challenge of peeling the onion that is yoga, you can expect to gain a much richer and delicious yoga experience each time you step onto your yoga mat.

For your yogic pleasure, here are 5 micro-layers for you to explore and peel away in your asana practice. You can apply these 5 interconnected skins to any and every yoga pose you practice. Just remember: it’s OK if you cry. We all do, sometimes.

Cleansing and Release

The following model is designed to profoundly deepen your yoga practice and facilitate experiences of cleansing and release.

Breathe

The first layer you will find when you come into a pose and are ready to sustain it is your breath. Ask yourself, “Is my breath deep and even?” It is surprisingly common to hold your breath or let it become short and shallow when you are concentrating intently on a pose.

Bring your breath back into its fullest expression, and keep this seamless rhythm throughout your whole yoga practice.

Relax

Did you notice anything else lingering under your breath? Peeling back that top layer of experience, you might have already begun to see the deeper causes which shifted your breathing pattern.

Your breath is like your emotional barometer, when you are upset and agitated, your breath will become shallow and quick. Conversely, when your mind and body is calm, you will be able to sustain full yogic breathing.

Invite your body to open any spots of resistance or blockage, and ask your mind to surrender effort and thought.

Feel

The ‘feel’ layer provides an immense challenge once revealed under your efforts to relax. This is because now that you have relaxed, you will find a whole host of things begin to bubble up. Sensations, memories, emotions and thoughts will all flood your mind and body at this layer of asana experience.

No matter how difficult or intense, try to stay in this place of feeling, where you are actively engaging and inviting these mental and physical sensations to arise.

Watch

Now that you have ventured deep into your innermost layers, your task is to gently watch what comes up.

This means that you stay with it, no matter what surfaces — anger, jealousy, grief or insecurity. Observe these sensations and emotions with non-judgmental awareness.

Allow

As a good yogic watcher, you will naturally peel back the final micro-layer of your asana experience and simply allow yourself to be.

Allowing means there is no right or wrong, no good or bad, just softly seeing the elements of your yogic opening as it is without the need to change or control it.

Let your yoga experience be what it is without needing to change or even understand it.

Emotional release and personal transformation happen, ironically, when we surrender all efforts and control, and simply trust the wisdom of the process. That wisdom is contained within the layers.

Be a Creative Yoga Teacher

There are only so many times that you can either guide your students, or yourself, into pigeon pose before you become totally bored. After a while, you may feel like a broken record repeating the same directions ad infinitum.

Now is the time to get creative and exercise your imagination — for your own benefit and, most importantly, for the benefit of your students.

The Strength of Simile

While you don’t have to attempt complicated metaphors, you should challenge your tongue to tout sweet similes that are guaranteed to deepen anyone’s yoga pose and practice.

When you are planning your class, or practicing in your own home yoga space, try to imagine what every pose or movement is like. Ask yourself, “What is twisting my spine from the base up, like?”, “What is rocking my knees side to side in this hip opener, like?” Get creative, ignite your imagination, and your answers might be, “Like a wash cloth!” or “like windshield wipers!”

Functional Imagery

Using creative language and functional imagery are extremely effective teaching tools. Functional imagery is often used by physiotherapists to help create the somatic ability to perform new movements. Using images that our brains recognize and comprehend helps us to execute these movements as we make direct correlations and links between our body and a clear picture of what it should be imitating.

Here are a few of my favorite functional images for you to try at home and with your yoga students:

Beach Ball

When instructing half moon pose, have your students picture themselves leaning up and over a giant beach ball. Invite them to feel the even arch of the ball up the side of their body.

To gauge the effectiveness of your imagery, have your students try the pose first using your standard teaching technique. Then guide your yoga students back into the pose using the imagery and notice the difference in their yoga poses.

Waterfall

My favorite simile to teach is when my students are in standing forward fold pose (Utanasana). I tell them to let their torsos hang heavily, like a waterfall pouring from their hips down over their legs towards the ground. Without a doubt, the idea of heavy water falling to the earth works for most of my students, and I can actually see them soften and sink deeper into their forward fold.

Building Blocks

A fantastic image to use, in sequence with the waterfall, is a tower of building blocks. When you are ready to have your students slowly roll back up to a standing position (mountain pose) from passive standing forward fold, invite them to imagine each vertebra at a time being stacked perfectly upon the other like building blocks. Once they have come all the way up to standing, let them close their eyes and feel the perfectly stacked tower of blocks reaching tall towards the sky.

Functional imagery via simile has helped me explain the inner sensation of poses and the goal of movement while keeping my teaching fresh and creative.

Yoga and the Mind: Exploring the 5 Hindrances

States of mind are like clouds in the sky. They are impermanent, and some pass by more quickly than others. Some thoughts and emotions are like dark, heavy clouds carrying rainstorms, while others are light and thin, barely noticeable.

Cloudy Thoughts

Yoga classifies 5 of the foggiest, thickest clouds, as hindrances of the mind because they cloud and obscure clear thought and feeling. The 5 hindrances of the mind are desire, aversion, sloth, restlessness and doubt.

The 5 Hindrances of the Mind

Here is a basic description of each of the 5 hindrances of the mind to help you recognize your mental clouds during practice. With proper understanding, you can also develop ways to gently blow them away.

Desire

A state of desire is quite obviously accompanied by feelings of craving, wanting, grasping or clinging. This is a state in which we are motivated towards some pleasant experience or sensation.

If you notice desire arise during your yoga practice, your prescription is restraint. Pause in this state of desire and reflect on the object of desire, perhaps digging in a bit deeper to see your underlying motivations. By embracing the transient nature of desire, you can let go of your clinging. Letting go is a must, or else you are condemned to always wanting something more.

Aversion

Being the opposite mental state to desire, aversion is characterized by repulsion, anger, judgment and fear. In this state, you are unhappy, and you want something to be different.

Aversion and desire are perhaps the most common and darkest clouds we see on and off the yoga mat, and they often partner up. Aversion, say to tight hips, will fuel desire for flexible hips. Your best course of action for aversion, as an antidote to its intense negativity, is to cultivate loving thoughts.

Sloth

Sleepy, dull, lazy — we’ve all been there and felt that thick cloud hanging down to our shoulders. To remedy this particular mental hindrance, label it, name it: it is sloth. Then stand up, take some deep breaths, open your eyes and try to focus your mind on one thing.

Restlessness

On the other hand, if you are feeling agitated, worried, nervous or edgy, you are in a state of restlessness. The cure for restlessness is strong determination. Focus on the goal of your yoga practice and channel your energy there. Let go of regret and worry and practice with tenacity.

Doubt

Doubt is born of an insecure and judgmental mind that lives in demoralizing thoughts. This mental hindrance can be a subtle cloud we barely notice. Try to focus your attention on the truth of each moment; see it, face it and bring it into your heart.

Cloudless Compassion

Treat your mind like you do your body: with awareness, compassion and wisdom. This means that instead of fighting or suppressing your mental clouds, take a good hard look at them, see them for what they really are. They are merely transient states that will go just as they came.

Come back to the present moment, right here, right now, on your yoga mat, and let those clouds float on by.

Explore the Three Stages of a Yoga Pose

Yoga poses have three distinct stages, just as every story has a beginning, middle and end, and every day has a morning, afternoon and night. The three stages of a yoga pose are: moving into, sustaining and releasing.

3 Distinct Stages

The 3 different stages of movement and thought that we engage with in our asana practice is similar to the age-old adage of taking time to smell the roses. Moving too quickly through your yoga poses, like rushing through life, can leave you feeling strained, stressed and even feeling a little empty, like you’ve missed out on something along the way.

Break It Down

The key to truly experiencing a yoga pose, like life, is to slow down and enjoy each part. Breaking down every yoga pose you do into three distinct stages helps you heighten your physical and mental awareness of move, feel, release as you work each asana.

Moving Into

The first stage is the transient moment when you enter the yoga pose. Slowing down your process of moving into a yoga pose will help you avoid injury by keeping you aware of your alignment. Slowing down will also increase your sensitivity to how deeply your body can go at each moment.

As you move into a yoga pose, focus on your breathing and alignment, even if it’s a challenging asana. Slow movement can allow your yoga pose to feel like an adventure and discovery in its own right.

The final moment of this first stage is when you find your edge; meaning, that any more effort or stretch would be too much, and any less would not be enough.

Now you are ready to move to the second stage: sustaining your yoga pose.

Sustaining

Not to be confused with ‘holding,’ sustaining your yoga pose implies a certain amount of movement as you let your body naturally adjust and expand to find your perfect expression of the pose.

Breathe, feel, watch and allow thoughts and sensations that arise as you sustain your yoga pose. Working with your edge, you might begin to feel a subtle evolution of the pose as you relax and let go, inviting your body to explore the pose.

Remember to stay in contact with the sensation(s) you feel at your edge. It is at this stage that we can access and watch as our fears, doubts and even aggression begin to surface.

This is the signal that it is time to release our tensions through breath and softness.

Release

Finally, slowly, come out of your yoga pose in the exact reverse of how you went into it. Again, moving slowly will help you avoid injury while maintaining any release in your body that you have created in opening and supported poses.

Once you have fully released your yoga pose, take at least 10 seconds to close your eyes and feel the effects of the pose. Are you tired or energized, cool or warm, calm or agitated?

Feel the flow of prana (energy) moving freely through your body and enjoy this feeling of release — that little treat which comes as a reward for every pose!

Find Determination and Courage in Warrior 2

What does boat pose have to do with a floating vessel? Cobra pose with a hooded serpent? Downward dog with a stretching canine? Well, each yoga pose looks, and feels, similar to its namesake.

Imagine the arching hooded cobra, readying to strike. In cobra pose, do you not feel alert, energized and perhaps even agitated like the venomous viper?

Warrior Pose

How about Warrior 2 pose (Virabhadrasana 2)? A warrior is a brave and experienced fighter or soldier, someone you might imagine being hardened by war and fearless in the face of danger. As you stand in a strong lunge, arms outstretched, heart open, gazing lucidly down your index finger, what does it feel and look like to channel your inner warrior?

The Legs of a Warrior

Much like a warrior, Virabhadrasana 2 invites you to feel strength and stability as you ground down through your thighs all the way down to the wide stance of your feet. In this yoga pose, you should feel balanced, rooted and unshakable: indeed, fearless!

Try lifting and spreading your toes after you have set up your Warrior 2 pose to soften and widen the base of your feet. As you hold this yoga pose, begin to press your legs down towards the ground, deeply engaging your quadriceps on each exhale.

The Heart of a Warrior

We may tend to think of a warrior’s heart as being cold and closed — a necessary desensitization from being in battle. However, a warrior in the yogic sense does not shut down to the world when confronting fear or challenges but, instead, lets their heart open even wider, inviting compassion and softness to be their greatest weapon.

Moving your awareness up into your torso as you hold this yoga pose, notice how the pose externally presents a balance between strength and softness; contrast the deep lunge stance with the feeling of an open chest and abdomen. Now feel that contrast by using your inhales to float out of your waist, feeling light and open in your heart-center.

Meeting our battles with a grounded softness is the path of the yogic warrior.

Presence in Battle

A distracted warrior is probably not very successful in battle. Being alert and present is key to meeting our enemies, facing their challenges and usurping their power.

Bringing your awareness into your shoulders and arms, notice if you are leaning forward or maybe backwards, in this yoga pose. Notice your thoughts: sometimes when you look forward into the future too much, or conversely, are held back by unresolved issues from the past, your body will mirror that emotional state.

Try to find your center point, setting your shoulders over your hips. Soften your shoulders down away from your ears, and take a long exhale out of your mouth, making any sounds you like. This is your battle call!

Show the world that you are grounded in the moment, armed with the sword of compassion, ready to face your challenges with an open-heart from a deeply rooted and balanced foundation.