Yoga Hotdish

This post is brought to you by  our own YogaHotDisher, Top Doc,  and  Minnesota Monthly CoverGirl,  Dr. Carrie Ann  Terrell, MD, University of Minnesota (UMN). Thanks Carrie for contributing to our blog!

The evidence for yoga improving various health problems is deep and varied.  I recommend the website nccam.nih.gov for an overview of the benefits of yoga as presented by the National Institutes of Health.  The evidence is solid as is my experience.

My most common patient scenario presents with a litany of concerns that reads something like this:

• Fatigue, low energy, difficulty completing the umpteen tasks before her
• Low libido
• Inability to focus, memory loss, distractedness
• Mood swings, irritability
• Weight gain, digestive problems
• Dissatisfaction with life

These women are 40-60 years old, often partnered with a significant other of varying participation in the relationship/housework/child rearing/care taking/cooking/shopping, have busy/successful/demanding careers, are the primary caretaker of the house/parent(s)/children/pets, and have unwieldy expectations for what they “should” be doing to take care of themselves.

These patients are essentially working every hour of their lives.  If and when they sleep it is erratic and interrupted and they wake without having rested. Or they “rest” while watching TV, iPading, gaming, texting, Facebooking. These activities are not restful, rejuvenating, nor replenishing. As if this isn’t enough they are also constantly talking to/bombarding themselves with negative or expectant commentary that translates as “not enough or not good enough.” In fact, the incessant loop of streaming thought these women live with is exhausting.

These women often come in seeking a magical hormonal cure.  They read that estrogen or bioidentical hormones or compounded hormones will resolve all of their issues; that their issues must be related to menopause or perimenopause. Now, I’m not underestimating menopause. Estrogen deficiency causes hot flashes.  Hot flashes can disrupt thought, the work day, the physical body. When hot flashes occur at night, sleeplessness results and irritability, mood swings, memory problems can follow suit. However, in many many cases, estrogen deficiency is not the problem. These women need a break, a time out, a mini-retreat, a respite.

Many women have found their solution. Some have found it in running, others in meditating. However, for many the potential solutions are untenable, unreachable, or add to the never-ending list of shoulds. Or, the options are so overwhelming women cannot begin to decide what to do or how to perform self care.

For me, this is where yoga comes in. When taught well, with attention to the philosophy and teachings, Yoga provides peace, quiet and a chance to observe ourselves.  Some know yoga to be an exercise; a physical activity leading to fitness, improved health, increased heart rate, etc etc. The secret is that asana practice (the poses are called asana) is solely meant to allow us to sit comfortably enough,quietly enough to see and feel clearly. Undoubtedly, the physical practice feels good. “Doing” yoga feels good, but, what feels even better is being able to look at my thoughts and see, ‘huh, those are my thoughts. I am not my thoughts.” Or, “look, this awful thing happened to me or someone said this awful thing to me and gee, I don’t have to be affected by that. I can still be me.” Or, “This pose sucks. I hate this pose. My muscles are shaking. This is dumb. I’m way too important for this pose. Why did I come? I have better things to do.” Which over time can become, “This pose sucks. I hate this pose. I’ve gotten through this pose before. I am stronger. My resilience is better.”

After 14 years of practicing yoga I can honestly say it makes me a better person. I build better relationships. I think more clearly. I know my limitations and know what I need to care for myself. I can separate myself from my wrongdoings, my suffering, my awards, my rewards, my family and my thoughts. With this ability, I am able to set my work and personal goals in alignment with my deepest beliefs. I am able to achieve lifelong goals and hold positions of leadership with a sense of love and responsibility. I get to choose how I will react to incoming stimuli (if at all) and I can readily access a place of peace and serenity within myself.

I often get asked, “Why should I do yoga instead of ___?” (Fill in the blank with pilates, kickboxing, crossfit, kettlebells, strength training, etc).  This is a vexing question to answer in say, a party situation.  No one wants a lecture on the benefits of yoga, but how can I sum up what a tradition thousands of years old has to offer us before the cake course?

I’ve already gotten myself in trouble: yoga postures as practiced commonly in studios and gyms across America are not all that old–maybe 100-150 years old with the exception of seated poses like Lotus.  The parts of yoga that are ancient are the breathing exercises and the meditation–two potentially time-consuming areas often dispensed with in a one-hour-or-less fitness setting.  I can understand why someone might take a mat pilates class at their club one day, a yoga class the next and think, “Meh, six of one, half-a-dozen the other.” Let’s try to break it down with a couple of questions:

First, have you ever done a yoga class with a “final relaxation” of more than 10 minutes where your instructor explained the how/why of the pose (Corpse) and the mental state (Yoga Nidra)?  If not, I dare say, sure, you’ve done some yoga poses, but it’s a little bit like a cupcake without frosting.  I can’t believe how often I see people bail on the last few minutes at my health club.  I want to shake them: don’t they know everything they’ve been doing for the last 55 minutes has been preparing them for the last five ( should be 10) minutes?  Nope, guess not.

Second question: have you ever done a yoga class in a quiet room without music and mirrors?  If the answer is “no,” again, no frosting! Mirrors take your awareness to the exterior body of which you are probably overly aware anyway.  That said, they are great for the group fitness approach where someone “performs” the workout up front and you follow along, often wishing you had the instructor’s ____ (abs, delts, glutes) and that your hair looked better.  Instructors don’t have to be so adept at teaching, just able to do their workout while throwing out some “cues.” Classical yoga instructors do not consider their classes their own practice time and are constantly roving around the room to assist.  In a typical class, I might clock 1 mile in steps by the time I set up, tear down and teach for 90 minutes.  To sum it up, you can’t meditate in front of a mirror for what I hope are obvious reasons.  Music, while good for relaxation can’t help but induce emotion and memory.  In a meditative yoga practice, we’re trying to slow down the external inputs and level up mentally beyond relaxation.  Both music and mirrors are distractions to the deeper practices.

If you answered “no” to one of the above, you may have not experienced the richness of The Whole Cupcake, so comparison to pilates, kettlebells, etc. is difficult.  Of course, the solution to this is to look for a different sort of yoga class to try: a little more classically Asian, a little less American group exercise.

Until then, I can only try to give you my least flowery explanation of what you’re missing–like describing frosting to someone who has only tasted cake:

Yoga will change your relationship with your body:  instead of viewing your body as some kind of “machine” or “science experiment” to be endlessly fine-tuned, you will see your body as a beloved container to be nourished.  This will, in turn, change your relationships to food and exercise in general into something more experiential and positive that doesn’t have to be micromanaged and constantly controlled.

You will change your relationship with your mind:  the “mind-over-matter” mindset is exhausting to both the body and the mind itself.  You won’t take your PFC (prefrontal cortex, frontal lobe) so seriously all the time and you’ll know when you need to take a break from all of its planning, listing and judging.  You’ll open up new mental states leading to greater peace and more creativity–no wonder so many artists, writers and actors do yoga. Numerous cognitive benefits of yoga have been validated by research which is probably why the American Alzheimer’s Association has two yogis on full-time staff in top positions.  Finally, you’ll also learn how to better compartmentalize stress and keep your worries off your mat during practice and potentially beyond.

You will change your relationship with others:  better self-care beyond a fitness work-out will restore and energize you for taking better care of others.  More awareness of yourself and your own mind will lead to a better understanding of others.  You can say a lot about the stereotypical yogi, but “grumpy” wouldn’t be on the list.

To sum it up, yoga is a holistic approach to wellness that includes fitness, but transcends it at the same time.  Many people show up for their bodies, but they end up staying for their hearts and minds.  The heart and mind are a source of ongoing, ever-changing challenge.  It is for this reason I believe yoga has become a lifestyle and lifetime pursuit.  Yoga neither burns-out or bores. That said, you needn’t give up your favorite exercise du jour as yoga compliments everything from pilates to strength training, as well as all sports.  Think of it as a path to master the self–not just the plank!

It had been 16 years since I was last at Kripalu.  Like any reunion, there was a sense of trepidation.  How much had Kripalu changed–would it seem dated? Would I seem dated? Can you go back in time and rediscover the excitement and curiosity that led you there in the first place?

Little did I know, the “Kripalu Experience” would start in the airport shuttle from Albany. My rowmate was named Dana, from Maryland.  Within half an hour, we had exchanged life stories and marveled at how you can have conversations with strangers at Kripalu we can’t have with people back home you’ve known for years.

Checking into my dorm room, my 9 bunkmates started trickling in– Sharon from Connecticut, Lily from  New Jersey (a Macalester alumna!). There was a German national, as well as a younger woman just in from China with major jet lag. At any given time, there are about 600 people staying in the center, plus some in hotels around Stockbridge/Lenox and maybe 10 programs running.  The common thread that binds all participants is the twice daily yoga practices taught by Kripalu staff. In an effort to be more guest friendly, I noticed they moved the morning practice from 6 to a leisurely 6:30!

While eager to meet and greet, we all had to navigate four intense days of programming. We would pair off with the people who selected the same workshops we did or with whom we made a connection.  These connections would be cemented and expanded over some of the healthiest, most flavorful food on the planet in the dining hall. I happened to meet a guy in line for the buffet  (I meet a lot of people in buffet lines) who owns a Kripalu-sanctioned school in the trendy part of Tokyo.  The dining hall exudes a strong college vibe as people are discussing everything from transcendental meditation to how to adapt plank pose for seniors.

I came to the realization that, as Kripalu teachers, no matter when we attended and the prevailing yoga style of the time, we were all systematically taught how to form healthy connections with our students and each other.  Connection permeates the Kripalu zeitgeist in a way I haven’t experienced elsewhere.

Replacing “guru worship” and Indian notions of caste and male hierarchy was a daunting task taken on by Stephen Cope, who lead the charge to rescue the program when it took a wrong turn in the 1990’s.  Having had a successful psychotherapy practice in Boston in his former life, he was just the man to oversee Kripalu’s transformation. He went on to be Executive Director and is now a “Scholar in Residence” and well-known author.

After a sex scandal involving Swami Kripalu’s chief disciple from India, Cope and his devoted team set out to rebuild Kripalu as a “safe space,” where no one person could build a “cult of personality,” adding plenty of checks and balances. For instance, Teacher Training Programs had co-leaders and numerous assistants.  Imagine the potential for abuse in programs where one person decides whether or not aspiring teachers receive certification? (i.e. Bikram).   You can read all about Kripalu’s rebirth in Cope’s first book,  Yoga and Quest for the True Self.  

The book Stephen Signed was The Wisdom of Yoga: A Seekers Guide to Extraordinary Living. I presented him w/ my tattered copy and said, “This is the book I live in, so this is the one I want you to sign–yes I have your new one too.” He replied an author couldn’t ask for anything more than that–to have his books “inhabited” by readers! 

Giving teachers and students a safe space to undergo the “Quest for the True Self” may be Kripalu’s greatest contribution to Yoga in America by offering the antidote to a popular culture that encourages the relentless pursuit of the material, egotistical, accumulative “False Self.” Back in 2001, my mentor told me, “People do crazy shit for this yoga.”  He then suggested I go out to the parking lot and see the cars packed to the brim with the earthly possessions of people rebooting their lives and getting back to what’s important through Kripalu Yoga. Astonishing!

In comparing the in-house Kripalu staff w/ some of the “outside” presenters at the conference, it dawned on me that, yoga is entering a new era.  What matters most these days seems to be how well you do YouTube videos and how many Instagram followers you have. Sitting through a couple of workshops with this new breed of teacher, many with media backgrounds, I realized what is being lost: the art of connecting to students.  When a YouTube star comes over to give you a hamstring assist while simultaneously promoting her website you just feel more like a prop than a person.

Contrast that to the in-house trained Kripalu staff.  Many have medical degrees (i.e. MD expert on pain management and physical therapy) and have been doing/teaching yoga for decades.  There is a sense that the students become the teacher’s meditation. Moreover, staff are extremely approachable after presentations.  No one is “handling” them, running interference, bringing them water, etc.  Yes, some Kripalu staff are published authors, researchers of note and have appeared in Yoga Journal–one even on the Dr. OZ Show.   The point is: there’s just less …”packaging.”

At Kripalu, they refer to a technique called “holding the space.”  Can you really just sit there in the moment, listen and connect with another person or group of people–without “performing” and calculating what you’re going to say next?  We actually practice it, and, at first, it’s scary.  They team us up with partners and we listen to, in some cases, very troubling life stories, without reacting, analyzing, judging.  Stephen Cope has been facilitating it for decades and we’ve all been through it, several times in our 200-hour training. Perhaps at the time, I wondered what the heck this kind of intense listening had to do with yoga.  Now, I suppose we all know it’s the ultimate yoga, the yoga off the mat. It’s the yoga that keeps you striving for your True Self and not some derivative the world is trying to sell you because you also learn to hear your own voice along the way.   Sure, we can study the latest developments in Down Dog elsewhere, but we can’t immerse ourselves in this nourishing terroir, cultivated as if by magic, in a former Jesuit monastery in the Berkshires.

I enjoyed observing a tightly-knit group of eighty-somethings at the conference; they had been attending year after year and had an amazing camaraderie.  Mary Lou had opened the second yoga studio in her town in the 1990’s.  She had been there when the scandal broke and filled me in during our shuttle ride back to the Albany airport, including the lesser known fact Kripalu had brought in that scoundrel Bikram to advise on sequencing.  I learned there are even mirrors behind the wall coverings in one of the practice rooms (horrors!). I was riveted.  She also praised the strength and determination of the people who picked up the pieces.

Mary Lou admitted she was sick the first day of our conference and wasn’t sure she was going to make it through the week.  Yet, she was hurrying back to train teachers in Charlotte that very evening.

Snowbirds: Meet Lori from Tampa!

We said our goodbyes and I remember thinking, that’s who I want to be when I grow up.  Passion and purpose can overcome a lot, maybe even old age.

Kripalu is aging gracefully, has made some improvements, updated techniques, but still keeps the original character.  It remains quietly confident, evolving in its own unique way under an ensemble cast of leaders.  They haven’t given in to the narcissism of the global yoga algorithm that dictates everything has to be slick and Instagrammable, but there has certainly been a good sprucing up–decor, brochures, even buffets!

Kripalu has also maintained its own unique brand of spirituality which I can only describe as a “tradition of welcoming all traditions.”  This results in a peculiar secularism.  The idea is, use Kripalu Yoga as a vehicle to be better at what you already are–Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Agnostic etc.  This draws an interesting international crowd. As a Christian, I can’t imagine limiting myself by only practicing yoga w/ say, other Christians. Maybe it’s my FOMO (Fear of Missing Out).

Perhaps the key to longevity in yoga is to be just commercial and successful enough to move forward on your own terms and to know your niche. Did I appreciate the improved gift shop featuring local designers offering extra long yoga pants?  You bet I did! Did I partake of the newly-added coffee at silent breakfast?   Yes, and I thanked God, Krishna and Jesus for it! Thirty-something Shaila was all-in and ready to give up coffee.  Now I know and accept, coffee is just part of my True Self.

Kripalu’s Back Yard:  A Great Place for a Cup of Coffee!

Since classical yoga washed up on our shores in the mid 20th century, America has put her stamp, (make that time stamp)  on it.  What was a quiet meditative practice in the East, became, well, Americanized.

This wasn’t all bad; in fact, the practice has probably gotten safer and more accessible for a broader range of people and body types.  We’ve also contributed a lot in terms of fashion and accessories; hence, we need all those mirrors to see how good we look–and why not throw in some trendy pop tunes or new agey music to drown out all that constant chatter in our heads?  I can take it all in small doses, as long as I can go home and meditate a bit when it’s over.  There is one adaptation however, I simply cannot tolerate: the standardization of yoga classes around a 1-hour format. 

For that, we have the fitness “industry,” to thank–Arnold and Jane in the old days, now Lifetime Fitness, Core Power, etc.  in modern times.  Somehow, the American mind has been programmed that yoga should be like a cardio exercise class, even though yoga is pretty much meant to be anything BUT cardio. I’ve even seen some 40 and 50-minute yoga classes popping up.  Yes, I know, you’re busy, but who is that  1-hour format really serving: you the customer, or the business trying to cycle as many people through as possible?   

Think about it this way: isn’t yoga supposed to be the antidote to busy? Yoga in its purest form is a kind of meditation. But, can you really hurry up and meditate?  I say “no,” as the math just doesn’t work. 

If your goal is a yoga-butt and to move through a bunch of poses in rapid succession, you can certainly tire yourself out in an hour. There are some gifted instructors out there, many with a fitness background for whom an hour is more than enough time to set you up to walk like a cowboy the next day.  But, if you want the mental and cognitive benefits that only a meditative style of yoga can offer including boosted immunity, clarity, reduced anxiety, better sleep, etc., you will need more than an hour for that– 75 minutes minimum, 90 minutes or more ideal.  

Why?  Because, based on 15 years of teaching I know one thing is certain: it takes an average person on an average day at least 15 minutes to decompress and detach from their cares–and that’s on a normal day, not a bad one!   That means by the time your mind stops ruminating on all those problems, poof, ¼ of your class is OVER.  Now, if you perform poses in a truly meditative style, you will be into longer holding times–why? Only AFTER you get the alignment set can the yoga begin.  You have to get comfortable enough in the pose and fine-tune it to the point where you stop thinking and start breathing.

Considering most of my students hold their first down-dog of the practice for about 3 minutes, That puts us at 18 minutes.  Then there’s pranayama ( breathing exercises) deemed more important than the physical postures in classical yoga.   America loves to gloss over them. For starters, they make people feel self-conscious because they look funny (not good if there are mirrors everywhere).   They can also be subtle and difficult to learn.  Some classical styles devote 30 minutes to pranayama alone.  So, after some 15 minutes of centering, a down dog or two, and breathing exercises, you’ve nearly burned an hour! 

But, what about Savasana, a.k.a. “Final relaxation?”  Another corner Americans lop off with relish.  One of the worst parts about teaching in a health club environment was the people cutting out early, thinking they were just too busy and/or important for Savasana.  It’s the culmination of the whole practice,  further up the yoga hierarchy than even all those arm balances; in fact, it’s often referred to as The Most Difficult Pose.  There is a 12-minute minimum on Savasana for cognitive benefits so you get beyond concentrating on being still (it’s called corpse pose, get it?) and elevate up to the meditative state of Yoga Nidra.   

Uff dah! We haven’t even gotten to inversions and balance poses though we’re well past the hour mark.  I often threaten my advanced students with 2-hour classes and some do them semi-privately. They often report not feeling a huge perceptual difference as they’re in so deep.

Now, I assure you, I have been to my share of  1-hour yoga classes. I will say, in the workplace, perhaps over the lunch hour,  even 30 minutes is great to break up a sedentary day.   Some yoga is always better than no yoga, but to be honest, I wouldn’t waste a cute outfit on a 60-minute class.  In most cases, you’re  really doing group fitness with a yoga theme at best. If getting in shape is what it’s about for you, that’s fine.  But if you really want to manage stress and explore higher deeper practices, you need TIME.  Yoga is a lot like food: sure, we all hit the drive-through once in a while, just don’t confuse it with home cooking or make it a steady diet.  At least with fast food, it’s usually economical.

When comparison shopping yoga, consider the CPM, or Cost Per Minute of the class, and you’ll see that some of those  “unlimited” yoga packages (most people only get there twice a week if they don’t drop out by the third month) or community yoga isn’t such a bargain after all.  If you really want to do yoga right, then a 75 – 90 minute class, 2-3 times a week is where it’s at. Start with once per week, try not to miss a week, and wait for your body, mind and spirit to crave a second helping!