Step lightly into spring

It's important, where "lock the knee" begins because like all stories they need a beginning, and after all, hatha yoga is just another story. It's the story of our bodies unfolding on a yoga mat, revealing all of its joys, trials, and tribulations.

On a more linear, practical level, it's important to know where locking of the knee begins because we can then take it step by step in a process called chunking. Scientist  know that it is how we learn a complex process like locking the knee best, by breaking it down into tiny increments.

So if we don't know where the process of lock the knee begins,

 how can we take it step by step? 

Where would we begin?    

We could ask Jayme or Sharyn or Mandi, where it begins. But before I resort to asking someone else, even if that someone is a great, seasoned teacher, I'm going to ask the question of myself.

  Tapping into our innate intelligence is ultimately what yoga is all about. 
The ancient teachings make it very clear, that we have everything we need inside of us including all kinds of power to even invoke magic. But that's for another blog.

So, let us begin like how I would begin any creative endeavor and that is to make a list of everything that comes to mind about the subject matter. I think we call it brainstorming.

What I know about locking the knee
Make it your mantra
Knee cap lifted
Stability
Foundation
Drawing up the muscles from the feet all the way to the head
Squeeze your butt muscles
Lift the quadriceps
Feel the action in your feet
Even if you think the knee is locked, lock it again and again
Breath
Effort
Strength
Draw the lower belly in
Breath
Squeeze the muscles, tight around the hips

Given that our perceptions are unique to each of us and are influenced by our experiences, I'm sure that you have heard more or something different. So please, we would love to hear from you. There is space below under comments for you to add to our list.

When I look at the list I still don't know where the process begins. I have an idea, only because of my working knowledge of other styles of yoga.  For example, I know from John Friends' Anusara yoga that creating the foundation for yoga poses involves two universal principles. The first one is engaging muscular energy, drawing energy from the periphery of the body into a central focal point in the body.  Secondly, creating spiraling energy fields that move from the feet up through into the pelvis.

The other place that can shed more light on this subject for me is the developmental theory of movement.  Accordingly, there are 6 neurological patterns that are entwined in our DNA that were responsible for getting us from birth to walking, and the very first pattern was a push with our bodies into the earth. So from this information,

I would say that locking the knee

 needs to start at the feet.

In April's blog....we'll start here, pushing our feet down into the earth, seeking the rebound force that pushes back on us. That's called yielding, and it requires a focus on subtlety, and a momentary release of all effort. It happens with the exhalation like how when our teachers say in bow pose, to exhale and be taken up with the force. It's the end of our stories, to allow ourselves to soar in freedom.

Namaste,

Maurene. C Merritt

Lock the knee, make it your mantra.

I don't see Jayme in class, rarely because I'm so focused on myself in the mirror. Isn't that what Bikram yoga is all about, an opened eyed 90-minute meditation? Isn't meditation at the very core of our yoga practice?  It's one of two reasons why Bikram yoga grabbed me right away, and I've been like a hungry fish on a hook ever since, sometimes feeling like I'm fighting way too hard to perform the poses rather than embrace yoga for how I found my way to it, a path of healing.

Yoga has helped me to be more fully engaged, invested in the world so that I can really enjoy the changing of seasons and how they reflect something that is so much grander than what is readily available to me, like how the earth rotates on its axis as it moves around the sun in our galaxy. I like to discover people that way too now, their insights and beauty that isn't always so prevalent on first impressions.

So if you are anything like me, it's important for us to remember our roots as we shoot for the moon in performing the poses, and in yoga, those roots are grounded in the breath, meditation, and the mantra.

Jayme, the owner and one of the teachers at the studio speaks of the mantra often with her dialogue of lock the knee, and she makes a big deal about it too. She doesn't just say lock the knee one time. Oh no, that's just not her way. She doesn't even say it twice and then move on.  She says it three times, "lock and the knee, lock the knee, lock the knee."  Then she says, "make it your mantra."

A mantra is a Sanskrit word that means, freeing the mind,

 and it involves repeating a phrase silently to yourself,
 often in concert with your breathing. 

So when Jayme tells us to lock the knee and make it our mantra, what she is really saying is to make our foundation everything, because when we lock the knee with strong, focused intention, we are essentially allowing for a burgeoning of understanding about ourselves to happen spontaneously, like how a child learns to go from birth to walking. There is no thinking in that process. In the same way, when our foundation is solid, growth happens. We can't help but tap into our innate intelligence, and those ancient, dormant neuro pathways get all fired up and before you know it, our world is transformed. 

      

So, I think we can all agree, that learning to create a solid, resilient foundation in the hot room is critical, and it behooves each of us to explore more about what it means to lock the knee, to make it our mantra.

I hope you will join me with my next two blogs......

In March, I will work with how our minds learn best, in a process called "chunking" for a more thorough understanding of what it means to lock the knee. Then in April, we will investigate the concept of yield to help relax enough in our foundation so that we don't act like a fish caught on a hook but rather more like a dolphin, free to jump and spin and sometimes, when we are so moved, even perform.

Namaste,

Maurene C. Merritt
www.capeyogagirl.blogspot.com

Namaste for a very Happy New Year

Happy New Year from Bikram Stoughton! There is so much I love about the new year, a time to settle back in from the whirlwind of activity created with the Holidays, and our New England weather invites such a retreat. There's something very satisfying for me about being all warm and cozy on the inside while, on the outside, it's gray, raw and cold. Of course, warm and cozy doesn't quite describe how one feels in a Bikram yoga studio.  On the contrary, it's hot and sweaty and so far from cozy that one can only wish at times that we had joined our fine feathered friends and flown south months ago! But there's a change that can happen when one is willing to put forth great effort towards a goal despite how hard it may seem, and that for me is at the heart of Bikram Yoga. The practice is more than just a challenging physical exercise but rather a systematic method for living a beautiful, righteous abundant life.

My name is Maurene Merritt and it gives me great pleasure, indeed, I am honored, to begin a New Year with a blog on Jayme's behalf in support of the entire community.

I have only been involved at the studio since October of this past year.  But when I came through the doors, I knew something felt very different, special, and it was indeed, confirmed to me when Jayme, the owner personally coached me for the New England Regional Championships. I was so blown away that even though she hardly knew me, and given her busy schedule, owning a studio and caring for her lovely family, that she took the time to really look my way and make recommendations that were seemingly small, insignificant like the way in which I raised my hand up in preparation for standing bow pulling pose.  I brought my hand out to the side then up rather then out in front which of course changed the whole dynamic of my shoulder joint so that I could better take the twist needed for the final expression of the pose.

 Speaking of subtlety, I'm reminded of a yoga teaching that I do my best to align with and that is,  what is subtle can bring about profound change.  According to yoga philosophy, it is when our senses are keenly sharp, and our mind is quietly still that we are able to shift our awareness to more subtle states of consciousness, which is the ultimate goal of our practice.  The physical poses were originally designed for that purpose, to help open and strengthen the body so that one could sit longer in meditation.

The poses, the notable 26 poses, Jayme will need to help me in that realm given that I am not a Bikram trained teacher.  However what I can bring to the plate is 350 hours of Hatha yoga in Anusara style and 150 hours of advanced training that had an emphasis on the developmental theory of movement which I found fascinating and continue to draw support from for my practice.  I also have 16 years of a steady, sustained meditation practice with the guidance of my teacher Swami Chidvilasananda.

Until Next time.....

Please join us for our next issue where we will focus on something that we hear so much from Ms. Jayme that has become like a mantra for me, at times banging around in my head like a headache, "lock the knee, lock the knee, lock the knee".  When I first heard it,  I had so many misgivings about it,  but proceeded forwarded cautiously optimistic anyway and of course, the more I listened, the more I understood, and the more I practiced, the stronger I became.  

Strength is my challenge area, not flexibility.  What is yours?  

Each of us usually leans more one way than the other. Very few of us come into this world perfectly balanced.  Our bodies are like our teeth that often need braces to help make them straighter.  The only difference between the teeth and our bodies is that we can live quite nicely without perfectly straight teeth.  However, one could argue that we cannot live to our fullest potential without a more aligned body. So let us all take heed and step boldly, deliberately into the hot room at Bikram Stoughton as much as possible in 2016.

Namaste for a very Happy New Year,

Maurene