A tribute to my blogger friends

After blogging regularly for three years, one acquires a group of like minded writers who travel with you on your journey. Some get off on stops and get on to other things, but seem to keep in touch in one way or another. Here are some of the precious blogs from my friends who contribute mightily to the internet. Also shout outs to my friends who don’t have a blog, but read and comment regularly on my feeds.

 Anonymous Sadhaka is authored by an Iyengar practitioner/barefoot runner who lives in Pune, India. I have learned so much from So…’s posts about the true meaning of spirituality from the perspective of an Indian woman. She has recommended many good books to me and her posts burst with wisdom. She has been a good friend and often thoughtfully reads and comments on my posts.

  Sweetreecrone is an Asthangi blogger who follows Richard Freeman of whom I’ve always been a fan. k8macdo is an ardent yoga and tai chi practitioner who is also deeply spiritual. Her comments have helped encourage me to write more and she has been very supportive during my difficult year of loss.

  Mishedup is a blogging friend who has a Gravitar that simply says “sober, widow, mom, warrior” Coming from a counseling perspective, each of these words hold tremendous power. When I have been at my worst this year, Mishedup has given me tremendous encouragement. For that I thank you!

 babycrowyoga is a prolific blogger out of the UK who has recently graduated teacher training and is finding her sea legs in the ocean of yoga teaching. I admire her for having the courage to try Iyengar Yoga at the Maide Vale Institute in London, and even more for the courage to say that the Iyengar style didn’t resonate with her at this point in time. She has been a tremendously supportive friend.

 Yogaspy I always have to give props to my long time blogging friend Luci Yamamoto who is from Hilo, but now lives in Canada. She has been busy assisting in the administration for the Iyengar Yoga Assoiciation of Canada. I always say she is the person who inspired me to start my blog.

  Sthapati Samanvayam has a unique perspective as a devout Hindu from the LBGTQ community. He has taught me tremendous insights about Hinduism in his blog. He has interesting tales of traveling through Midwest America looking for Hindu temples (and finding them).

 The Awkward Pose Comes from another traveller. Paul Fallon is riding his bike across the US and visiting all the lower 48 states asking one simple question to everyone he meets: “How will we live tomorrow?” and publishes the replies on his blog. He is quite steadfast and even had an accident which hospitalized him. The responses give me hope for this country which appears very divided after the election that we are all basically the same.

Amber Foxx Mysteries Is a fellow New Mexican who is an accomplished author and also practices yoga. Sometimes I am in awe of people who actually read my stuff. Amber has been given me wonderful feedback and comments.

  The Dragon Journal of Taijiquan Tim Richard’s blog is the Tai Chi version of what I would like to do with my blog. It is deeply philosophical and reflective. He founded a tai chi center in Durango and respects the lineage of his teachers. Tim is also a talented guitarist.

 Peakmemory is a blog by Dr. Jeremy Genovese who authored the book “Remembering Willie Nelson: The Science of Peak Memory.” He has reblogged a lot of my posts and has been a supportive commenter over the years.

I would also like to mention Felicity Green, Marjorie Erway, Yoga Cat, Aparna, FN Yogi, Yoga Marcia, Laurie Freed and Aziani Ismail for their support. Please forgive me if I forgot to mention you, but I appreciate all of my readers and commenters.

200th post. Holy cow!

I suppose I have been busy for the past two-and-a-half years. This is my 200th blog entry. When I step back and think that each post is roughly 400 words which is a page-and-a-half, I have easily written the equivalent of a novel (although a very disjointed novel). Like any writer worth his salt, every now and then I go back and re-read my entries. I have to admit there are some posts that make me cringe, but most make me feel satisfied.

There I times when I feel I write about the same thing over and over again. In one of Kofi Busia’s talks, he reflected on his days with BKS Iyengar. He told Guruji “after all your teaching I have concluded that your system can all be boiled down to ‘legs straight, arms straight, spine straight.’ He then granted me with an advanced certificate.” As any good Iyengar practitioner knows, that is the general rule, but it is far more nuanced in how you get your arms, legs and spine straight. In a way, that is how I feel about my writing and this blog.

One other aspect about my blog I have noticed: I am radically changing with this practice. Earlier in my  blog, I wrote heavily on asana and biomechanics. At some point the spiritual side of my practice kicked in and wove its way into my writings. As I am also a mental health counselor, my background and practice with psychology has also found its way into my writing. Also having a recent death in the family has also influenced me quite a bit. I don’t consider myself an activist, but some of my posts are downright militant! I do notice I am passionate about defending yoga and the Iyengar style. I do see commercialism as a great obstacle to the evolution of the practice and write at length about that.

In some ways I feel I am a bit of a renegade in the Iyengar community as this is an unsanctioned blog. This is an Iyengar teacher’s perspective and not the Iyengar teachers’ perspective. But my fan base hasn’t complained yet and I have been reposted on the IYNAUS Facebook page many times over, as well as other countries’ Iyengar associations. And I continually get positive feedback from senior teachers all over the globe. So I must be doing something right.

I think we are all born with a siddhi, or spiritual power. As I peel away the layers, I think one of my siddhi-s is my ability to write. I never plan to write these posts, they just come to me at whatever time. After 15 minutes the words just get vomited out of my fingers without any real sense of doership on my part. I wonder if others have the same experience.

I am almost afraid to admit that I have other writing projects. One of them is the Sutra Discussion on reddit. As I am hopefully going to be ready to go up for my Junior Intermediate I certification next year, I feel I need to know the concepts in the first two pada-s on an in depth level. I read sutras daily and think about them. I feel this has been another catalyst in how my practice has transformed me. I like how reddit allows others regardless of their level of experience to discuss the sutras. I feel they are accessible for anyone who wants to go a little deeper and not as esoteric and unaccessible to the modern practitioner as some theorists purport.

As I have written before, I don’t have any great ambitions to be a writer and don’t plan on teaching yoga as a living any time soon. My work as a mental health counselor provides me a sufficient income, and jives nicely with my teaching schedule. Thank you for reading my rants, and may you stick around for my next 200 posts.

Home Yoga Practice Celebrates Two Years!

I would like to thank all in the WordPress blogosphere and beyond for your readership over the past two years. I feel this blog has far surpassed my expectations of being a “community chat” for my Yoga students. At 125,000 hits strong and 1182 followers, my humble blog has clearly gone past the small fraction of the Honolulu Iyengar community and into more than 200 countries.

As a blogger, I always get a bit freaked out when I see that a post is gaining momentum. My phone app alerts me that there is a spike in views. I often think “uh oh” did I upset someone or cause controversy? Ninety-nine percent of the time, is is because my post is getting reposted by my Iyengar peers on Facebook and other blog sites. I find that a humbling honor.

One good example is when I saw a picture of a young Geeta Iyengar in Virabhadrasana II and decided I would show why I felt that is was a brilliantly executed pose (in this age of selfies, such poses are hard to come by). The post took me all of 20 minutes to complete. The post went instantly viral with 2153 views in one day. I know there are some bloggers that get that many views in one hour, but for me that was a personal best.

Conversely, when I agonize over some blog posts which I think will be earth shattering and spend several days revising them before posting, they are often met with just a few views. Worstly, there are no comments!

As a writer you never know what’s going to fly. That’s okay, because I love to write and love to do Yoga. Blogging is the perfect marriage of the two.

As this blog matures, it has seen its share of changes. In this age of selfies, I am trying to present the many other aspects of Yoga to people aside from asana. Lately I have been writing posts about Patanjali Yoga Sutras, Mantras and Sloka-s, and also how I feel some trends in popular yoga are not quite jiving with the purpose and intent of the practice.

I often straddle a thin line of what my opinion is versus what is socially acceptable to say to the Yoga community at large. It is a sensitive bunch! Most importantly, I try to promote the Iyengar practice and its community as a whole. As stated before I am always open to criticism and feedback and don’t feel I have such a large ego that I have to be correct all the time, because more often than not I am searching for answers.

In this next year I hope to add more asana-s, sequences, and more of my adventures as I am working on my Junior Intermediate 1 certification. Not an easy feat with a full time job, three classes, and two elderly in-laws who require caregiving. Not to mention making time for my lovely wife. This should provide enough blogging material for years to come…

Many blessings!