Why Ashtanga Yoga Works (and what it does)

A friend recently posted to Facebook an article from Psychology Today entitled "Yoga: Changing The Brain's Stressful Habits - How yoga changes your brain".  It was published on September 7, 2011 by Alex Korb, Ph.D.  I wanted to capture the article here so that I don't lose track of it as I continue my yoga practice.

My friend had commented:

"I like that it talks about how yoga in and of itself is not "relaxing" but rather trains one how to deal with what comes up from a decentered perspective - which can lead to a more mindful, relaxed attitude! Go Neuro-Psych!"

The part of the article I particularly liked is:

"Yoga is simply the process of paying attention to the present moment and calming the mind. Over time you will start to retrain your automatic stress reaction, and replace it with one more conducive to happiness and overall well-being.

... I eventually came to the realization that not only can you practice yoga in real life, but, conversely, you could go to a yoga class and not really be doing yoga. Some ... might just be placing their legs behind their heads, and still not be focusing on keeping their breath calm and steady, or their minds clear ... They might be focused on something else entirely. Without the sustained intention of focusing on the present, and calming the mind, going to a yoga class is literally just going through the motions."

The full article can be found here, and is as follows:

Three times a week at 7AM my Dad drives to a dance studio five blocks from the beach.  In the bright, hardwood room, which sits above a Radioshack, a muscular man with a shaved head and board shorts whispers instructions in a mix of English and Sanskrit.  My Dad, and the rest of the class - mostly lithe, tanned actresses and trophy wives wearing black Lululemmon tights - bend and twist into strange shapes.  The windows fog over with the moisture of their collective breath.

My Dad has been going to yoga for over 6 years. I had always been interested in exercise and athletics, but I didn't get what was so great about this odd form of extended stretching.  I also had a separate interest in neuroscience, but little did I know that this ancient practice would re-shape my understanding of the relationship between the body and the brain.

Yoga can supposedly improve depressive symptoms and immune function, as well as decrease chronic pain, reduce stress, and lower blood pressure.  These claims have all been made by yogis over the years, and it sounds like a lot of new age foolishness. Surprisingly, however, everything in that list is supported by scientific research.

It may sound like magic that posing like a proud warrior or a crow could have such extensive effects, but it's not magic.  It's neurobiology.  This next statement may sound to you either profound or extremely obvious, but it comes down to this: the things you do and the thoughts you have change the firing patterns and chemical composition of your brain.  Even actions as simple as changing your posture, relaxing the muscles on your face, or slowing your breathing rate, can affect the activity in your brain (beyond, of course, the required activity to make the action).  These changes are often transient, but can be long-lasting, particularly if they entail changing a habit.

The first time I woke up early to join my Dad for yoga, I was picturing a roomful of people calmly twisting into pretzels to achieve enlightenment.  As class was about to start my Dad mumbled from the next mat over, "You're supposed to breathe through your nose while constricting the back of your throat to make a sound like the ocean."  That sounded a little hippy-dippy, touchy-feely to me, but I tried it anyway. I realized only later that this was one of the key factors in yoga's effect on the brain.

Within 15 minutes I was dripping so much sweat I could barely hold a downward-facing dog.  Yet through all the poses the instructor kept talking about how we were supposed to keep our breathing calm, and steady.  Remain calm? Are you kidding me?  My muscles were shaking as I tried to hold myself in pushup position 4 inches above the floor. When the teacher asked us to twist so that the right shoulder dipped under the right knee, I could barely expand my lungs. He asked us to do a back bend, and my spine creaked, and painfully resisted my attempts.  Remain calm?  For goodness sake, he wanted us to stand on our heads! 
As a neuroscientist, despite my initial incredulity, I came to realize that yoga works not because the poses are relaxing, but because they are stressful.  It is your attempts to remain calm during this stress that create yoga's greatest neurobiological benefit.

Your brain tends to react to discomfort and disorientation in an automatic way, by triggering the physiological stress response and activating anxious neural chatter between the prefrontal cortex and the more emotional limbic system.  The stress response itself increases the likelihood of anxious thoughts, like "Oh god, I'm going to pull something," or "I can't hold this pushup any longer".  And in fact, your anxious thoughts themselves further exacerbate the stress response.

Interestingly, despite all the types of stressful situations a person can be in (standing on your head, running away from a lion, finishing those TPS reports by 5 o'clock) the nervous system has just one stress response.  The specific thoughts you have may differ, but the brain regions involved, and the physiological response will be the same.  The physiological stress response means an increase in heart rate, breathing rate, muscle tension and elevation of cortisol and other stress hormones.

The fascinating thing about the mind-body interaction is that it works both ways.  For example, if you're stressed, your muscles will tense (preparing to run away from a lion), and this will lead to more negative thinking.  Relaxing those muscles, particularly the facial muscles, will push the brain in the other direction, away from stress, and toward more relaxed thoughts.  Similarly, under stress, your breathing rate increases.  Slowing down your breathing pushes the brain away from the stress response, and again toward more relaxed thinking.

So how does this all fit together?  As I stated before, the stress response in the nervous system is triggered reflexively by discomfort and disorientation. The twisting of your spine, the lactic acid building up in your straining muscles, the uneasy feeling of being upside down, the inability to breathe, are all different forms of discomfort and disorientation, and tend to lead reflexively to anxious thinking and activation of the stress response in the entire nervous system. However, just because this response is automatic, does not mean it is necessary.  It is, in fact, just a habit of the brain.  One of the main purposes of yoga is to retrain this habit so that your brain stops automatically invoking the stress response.

Some people might think that the stress response is an innate reflex and thus can't be changed.  To clarify, the response is partly innate and partly learned in early childhood.  Yes, the stress response comes already downloaded and installed on your early operating system.  However, this tendency is enhanced, by years of reinforcement.  In particular, you absorb how those around you, particularly your parents, react to stressful situations.  Their reactions get wired into your nervous system. However, just because a habit is innate, and then reinforced, does not mean it is immune to change.  Almost any habit can be changed, or at least improved, through repeated action of a new habit.

To give an example of changing a similarly innate reaction, I'm going to go out on a limb and assume you have a gag reflex.  This gag reflex gets in the way of many college freshmen as they struggle through the college socialization process of chugging a beer.  Most have a difficult time.  However, by the time senior year spring break rolls around, many of them have learned how to largely suppress that reflex.  Like your gag reflex, just because your stress response is innate and automatic doesn't mean it can't be reshaped through sustained, and intentioned practice.

For some people waking up at 6:30AM to go to a yoga class would automatically trigger their stress response.  The good news is that you don't actually have to go to a class to practice yoga.  The poses most people associate with yoga are just a particular way of practicing yoga called the asana practice ("asana" translates to "pose"). The asana practice challenges you in a specific way, but life itself offers plenty of challenges on its own.  Under any stressful circumstance you can attempt the same calming techniques: breathing deeply and slowly, relaxing your facial muscles, clearing your head of anxious thoughts, focusing on the present.  In fact, applying these techniques to real life is what yoga is all about. Yoga is simply the process of paying attention to the present moment and calming the mind.  Over time you will start to retrain your automatic stress reaction, and replace it with one more conducive to happiness and overall well-being.

After going back to my Dad's yoga class a few times, I eventually came to the realization that not only can you practice yoga in real life, but, conversely, you could go to a yoga class and not really be doing yoga.  Some of those hot, tan, thin women around him might just be placing their legs behind their heads, and still not be focusing on keeping their breath calm and steady, or their minds clear (Note: I have removed a lame blonde joke).  They might be focused on something else entirely.  Without the sustained intention of focusing on the present, and calming the mind, going to a yoga class is literally just going through the motions.  Come to think of it, who knows if my Dad is really doing yoga, and not just staring at the women with their legs behind their heads? Well, all I can say is that from my mat I can hear his breaths rolling deep and slow like the ocean, and he has no problem standing on his head.

No Mysore Practice of Ashtanga Yoga on Moon Days

Moon Days are the days of the full and new moons. Traditionally there is no mysore practice of ashtanga yoga on these days. Here are the reasons why provided by two noted teachers of ashtanga yoga.

Tim Miller has posted the following:

Both full and new moon days are observed as yoga holidays in the Ashtanga Yoga tradition. What is the reasoning behind this?

Like all things of a watery nature (human beings are about 70% water), we are affected by the phases of the moon. The phases of the moon are determined by the moon’s relative position to the sun. Full moons occur when they are in opposition and new moons when they are in conjunction. Both sun and moon exert a gravitational pull on the earth. Their relative positions create different energetic experiences that can be compared to the breath cycle. The full moon energy corresponds to the end of inhalation when the force of prana is greatest. This is an expansive, upward moving force that makes us feel energetic and emotional, but not well grounded. The Upanishads state that the main prana lives in the head. During the full moon we tend to be more headstrong.

The new moon energy corresponds to the end of exhalation when the force of apana is greatest. Apana is a contracting, downward moving force that makes us feel calm and grounded, but dense and disinclined towards physical exertion.

The Farmers Almanac recommends planting seeds at the new moon when the rooting force is strongest and transplanting at the full moon when the flowering force is strongest.

Practicing Ashtanga Yoga over time makes us more attuned to natural cycles. Observing moon days is one way to recognize and honor the rhythms of nature so we can live in greater harmony with it.

Richard Freeman has posted the following:

Moon days provide time for rest between rigorous days of practice which is especially important if, as is traditional in the ashtanga system, you practice six days a week.

It’s part of the traditional approach to take time off during the new and full moons. This is partly due to the Indian astrological belief that it is not auspicious to do certain things on moon days. Because we are part of this lineage, we have chosen to honor the moon days in this way.

In addition, once you practice on a daily basis (six days a week is recommended), you’ll notice that being invited to take a day off is a luxury. The body can rest (after all the ashtanga practice is physically demanding) and on moon days you feel like you have a huge chunk of unspoken for “free time” when you’re used to daily practice.

42 - Jackie Robinson's Journey Against Racism in Major League Baseball

Last evening I saw “42”, the movie about Jackie Robinson’s entry as the first African-American into Major League Baseball. It is an excellent movie and I’d highly recommend seeing it. The movie depicts the struggles against racism, not only in Robinson’s acceptance by other players in MLB in 1947 but also the discrimination he had to live through in his day to day life at that time: segregated washrooms, seating on public transit, refusal of service on an airline plus the outright bigotry of people in their day to day dealings with him. What hatred; what anger; what despising! There’s a very telling scene in which there is a young boy with his father, sitting in the stands, out to enjoy the ball game, but the fans, including the father are shouting out racial insults at Robinson. The boy looks at the fans around him, not knowing what to do. Then it comes to pass that he starts shouting the same things so as to fit in. An apt metaphor for how racism is started and sustained in a society! The movie is well written; so listen carefully when you go. A couple of examples: The story is set just after the Second World War and Branch Rickey, the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers (whose farm team interestingly enough was in Montreal), who is leading Robinson’s hiring by the team and the acceptance of African-Americans in MLB, says words to the effect: we’ve just had a victory over fascism abroad, now it’s time to have one over racism at home. Rickey does say in the movie that he is bringing African-Americans onto the team for business reasons. I’m not totally convinced. I think he deserves a lot of credit for having the strength to lead this change in society. Then in another scene when the players are warming up on field before a game, and Robinson is being racially insulted by the fans, the shortstop, who during the movie has been slowly evolving out of his racist beliefs, comes over to stand by Robinson, show his support, even puts his arm around Robinson to show the fans his support visibly, but then he says to Robinson: tomorrow we’ll all wear 42 (Robinson’s number on the back of his uniform) so they can’t tell us apart. It is so hard for me to understand how society can become and remain racist. In the U.S. South there were lots of mean people who were consumed by it, but there were lots of good people too who just got caught up in it, swept along by it and embraced it; not realizing that it was wrong. Why didn’t they give their head a shake? How could they have ensured that they did not accept the norm of society and support such inappropriate behaviour? The norms of society are very powerful on the populace. In hindsight we see and realize how wrong it was. My concern is whether there are things today which are so ingrained in our societal norms that we don’t think about whether it is really right that we act that way – something that with the benefit of hindsight at some point in the future we will realize it is wrong and say: what were we thinking, how could we have acted in such an inhumane manner. Might it be how we as a society treat the poor, the uneducated, the homeless, the mentally ill, etc.? I sure hope we aren’t missing something because I wouldn’t want history to look back on us and think we were bigots for the way we are acting now.

Winnipeg's Contemporary Dancers' Show with Sasha Ivanochko

Last evening I attended this performance undeterred by the WCD's caution of nudity and adult themes. It was a wonderful show. Both dances were choreographed by Sasha Ivanochko. The first piece "Gods They Are Dreaming, Gods They Are Awake" is in the words from the program "a series of supported solos that investigate different energy channels of the body, on the pathway from fragmentation to wholeness". I believe this is what the WCD had also written that Ms Ivanochko was "inspired by reading that she has done on the Chakras, which are centres of life force and vital energy in the body from Hindu traditions and beliefs. The choreography plugs metaphysical expression into the tangible, weighted bodies of the performers." Through the performance I really enjoyed the build up through the nattering of the gods, to the torment of the dancers, culminating in a primal scream. This then progressed to a dancer crying and then later laughing. The conlifct was tangible. The sounds from the dancers really added to the essence of the performance. At points I had the sense of the gods nattering and being very difficult on the people. There were some resulting grotesque postures and movements. Towards the end it came around and there was a very primal beat. I struggled to understand what the story of this dance was. but then I finally decided that for me there was not a story - and that's ok. It just was – it was what it was. And what it was, was a pleasurable performance. Quite enjoyable. I enjoyed the second piece "Speak, Love" even more. There were two dancers, one male and one female. From the program notes: "Speak, Love" is framed in the polar literary worlds of Rumi, a 13th century Persian mystic poet and Roland Barthes, a 20th century French literary theorist." I loved the opening: the music, the poetry spoken by two dancers. It very much had an aura of mysticism. But then the imagery really took off for me. I ultimately concluded that for me the piece was a life cycle of a lovers relationship. In one of the initial stages the clothing over the top part of the male dancer enveloped him as he proceeded between her legs from behind and the chairs she was standing on - conjuring for me that he was a condom. Then it switched to a scene that was like a Renaissance dance. She was very active, pulling him along and has the moves were repeated over and over and over he became tired by her activity. Anyone ever felt that way by the activities of their lover? Then the relationship progressed on to a lovers squabble/fight and then a rape. Another powerful image for me was when the two of them went into the same piece of upper body clothing ( his hoody, worn backwards), with her putting her arms down the sleeves. They basically morphed into one being, with the full power and enjoyment of that; after which she performed an ecstatic, active and very orgasmic dance. She then challenged him to speak to her. He responds in gibberish unable to communicate but eventually comes around to say "I love you". What a journey of development of this lovers relationship! Quite an enjoyable evening. Winnipeg's Contemporary Dancers are Canada's oldest modern dance company. This was good work and very worth attending.

Birthday Reflections

I recently celebrated my sixtieth birthday.  As I kissed my partner goodbye at 5:30 a.m. on my way to mysore practice, I asked her what I should do with my day?  She’s not generally very awake at that time, but she suggested I pause to celebrate myself.  Pretty insightful from a sleep induced haze, I thought!

The day went pretty much as you would expect.  My next younger brother left a message that included the comment that I was the first one of the five of us kids to reach that age that we’ve all been dreading.  Uplifting, indeed!  But not to worry, I hadn’t been dreading it.  The next younger brother sent an email commenting that it seemed like yesterday that we were just kids.  Yep, that inspired me too!  I’m more interested in experiencing the moment than looking back.  Then I got a card from my sister, which lovingly poked fun at creaky knees (which I don’t have!).  But Hallmark made reference to the card being brought to me by “The Irritating Sibling Society”.  Seemed appropriate!

But I did have an experience which really spoke to me.  I was scanning through the Harvard Business Review blog posts and came across one entitled “The Benefits of Poetry for Professionals”.  So I read through it, and the links it provided to some poems.  One of the poems was Emily Dickinson’s “Because I could not stop for Death”.  Thinking of death is not something that I do as I try to live in the moment, but as I read the poem it caused me to think of changing it to the following (with apologies to Emily Dickinson):

Because I could not stop for my Sixtieth Birthday,

It kindly stopped for me;

The carriage held but just ourselves

And Mortality.

We slowly drove, it knew no haste,

And I had put away

My labor, and my leisure too.

For its civility.

So why don’t we do that with Life – take time to smell the roses; to pause and celebrate ourselves.  That’s the reminder I took from my birthday reflections.  Hopefully you can too.

Rigoletto produced by Manitoba Opera

Victor Hugo + Verdi = Rigoletto.  What grandeur; what art!  @ManitobaOpera ‘s current playing production is worth seeing. 

womanizer + jester + curse = great opera.  This is a treatise, without benefit of feminist sensibilities, on fickleness (at one point the Duke says “Women are as fickle as feathers in the wind.”) and infidelity (the aforementioned Duke’s!).  Actually very enjoyable.  Not a spoiler alert – the ending has all the joy of a Shakespearean tragedy!

And btw, who is Gilda’s mother?

"Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry" - an acclaimed documentary

“Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry” (@AWWNeverSorry) is a great documentary: expansive and touching.  It captures the essence of this Chinese artist: as an intellectual, his art and his activism (political, social, human rights).  He appears to remain an optimist notwithstanding the repression and his personal persecution by the Chinese authorities.  This movie shows that Ai Weiwei really gets freedom of expression – even when in exercising it, especially with the Chinese police, he puts his own personal safety at risk.  He has clearly mastered the use of the Internet, particularly Twitter (see @aiww if you can read Chinese), and used it to great effect to further his causes – much to the chagrin of the Chinese government – but also to our amusement! One of his mottoes sums up his active use of the digiverse: "Never retreat. Retweet."

This piece is well worth seeing.  At the time of my writing this it is being shown at Cinematheque in Winnipeg.

Hermanos Restaurant and Wine Bar

This restaurant has long been a favourite of mine, and I have been remiss in not posting about it. 

I absolutely love the energy in this historic space.  It is themed on South American dishes, and it does not disappoint.  Over the years since it opened I have found the staff consistently friendly and providing of excellent service.  The menu offers a full range of South American dishes but I have to say my favourites are the tapas style entrees.  I have to admit too that I have a passion for the Heart of Palm & Tomato Salad for lunch, unless I’m in the mood for one of their fantastic steak sandwiches and a glass of wine, the choices for which are extensive. I particularly like the malbecs and carmeneres.  The Chivito, a Uruguayan sandwich, is another popular choice.   

I’ve been to this restaurant when they have allowed charities to use the lounge to host a function and when they have had great jazz playing in the background.  It is very versatile, and a good corporate citizen.  All in all it is a wonderful place, and I’m glad to see it doing so well.  I highly recommend it.

Corrientes Argentine Pizzeria

I had a wonderful lunch today at Corrientes, which has been open for about a month.   It is associated with Hermanos, another Winnipeg restaurant which is a favourite of mine.

   

The surroundings are comfortable and the staff friendly and attentive.  Our server was very knowledgeable about the menu, as well as offering options which were available to suit my preferences. 

A delightful menu including salads, pizzas, empanadas, desserts and a full selection of coffees.  Of course there was a good wine selection too.  I had the Corrientes Mixta Salad, without the hard boiled eggs; as well as the Corrientes Delugo Thin Crust Pizza.  All good, except my inconsistency to pay attention to cholesterol eating by avoiding the eggs, but having a pizza covered in lovely provolone. 

This restaurant is well worth the visit.

Slippery Business Conduct?

“No corporation can afford the reputational risk of marketing unsuitable product or engaging in slippery business conduct.  Values and culture speak to both of these perils.”  The G30 Report Toward Effective Governance of Financial Institutions, 2011 said this with respect to financial institutions, but I substituted “corporation” as I think it is a more universal statement.  One could also add “unsuitable services”.  We see so many lapses in business ethics and governance these days; I can’t help but think that they could be avoided by having a proper environment of values and culture.

Interior Photos from Canadian Museum for Human Rights

I went on a tour of the interior of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights today.  It's clear from the outside that it is an architectural marvel.  But inside it is absolutely amazing too.  So many different designs, geometric shapes and interesting materials including from Spain and Mongolia.  It is going to be so spectacular when it is done!

All of the following photos, except the last one, were shot from the fourth level inside the CMHR.

1.  This view, as with many of the others, appealed to me because of the various lines and overlapping levels - in short the geometry of the view.  I felt too that there was quite a flow of the individual components that made up this patterned view.  All of this scaffolding will be removed when construction is complete.  The brown steel in the lower left is the shaft for two elevators.  This steel will eventually be painted out to match the other in-sight interior steel.

2. This is the same angle as photo #1, but a little lower.  You get a better sense of the elevator shafts, and some of the view out the glass walls.  They are going to be glass elevators.   But still the most impressive for me was the geometry around the scaffolding.

3.  Here you can really see the scaffolding - but can also discern some of the CMHR's structural steel (hint:  note the heavier "lines").  So many lines and angles when I considered this as a two-dimensional plane.  It's just so busy, yet logical.  One can't help but marvel at the architecture and engineering that is going into this project!

4. Here's a nice clean view of the permanent, structural steel.  Unobstructed, crisp lines - and curves.  So much strength!

5. Another shot of the base structure, with some scaffolding on the left.  The glass is already in place on the outside of the building, but doesn't really obstruct the view of the city.  This support looks like a tree, but with some pretty strategic triangles for strength.

6.  A closer view of the scaffolding.  With the wood on it, it looks like separate planes suspended atop the atrium area.  The steel on the left is one of the elevators.

7.  Here's a look at the scaffolding as one tries to look out through the glass wall.  You can pick out the base steel structure.  It's going to be quite a sight once the scaffolding is removed.

8.  I took this exterior view standing at the NW corner of the CMHR.  If I remember correctly, from grade to top it will be about 36 stories.

10 Questions CEOs Should Ask GCs About the Legal Business Plan (#corpgov)

This is a very interesting  article. The outline of the 10 questions is:

1) Does the legal plan manage risk and maximize opportunity?

2) Does the legal plan reflect company input?

3) What is "must do" versus "nice to do" in the legal plan?

4) What's the ROI here?

5) Is our risk profile improved?

6) What's the value-add here?

7) Will efficiency improve?

8) Will quality improve?

9) Are there appropriate and adequate resources to execute the plan?

10) How will we know the plan is being executed and whether it is having a positive impact on the business?

Some of the questions are pretty tough, but that does not mean that we should not address them. From discussions with various GCs I think there is a lot of challenge particularly around questions 4 and 6. However, the article gives good examples. Others to consider might be: what is the impact of the registration of a trademark on future potential costs of enforcement not only with respect to trademarks but also with respect to cyber-squatters using that trademark in the URL? What is the potential saving from a good compliance, anti-fraud and anti-corruption program to future investigative costs, penalties and damage to reputation? I bet Wal-Mart could now put some figures around that one!

ACC Canada LinkedIn Group as at June 6, 2012

and just what is George trying to get at this time ...

There's a kind of hush,
all over the ...
...theatre ...
tonight.

The peeps are all settled; those for the bride upon her side, and those for the bride upon her side.

I guess they chose a theatre because they could not decide between a synagogue and Stonehenge.

And thankfully there are no Republicans or Harper Tories present.

"My Mother's Lesbian Jewish Wiccan Wedding".

A musical of great fun!  (on now at the Tom Hendry Warehouse Theatre)