Telegraph UK reports that a recent study done by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) and Simplyhealth shows that Stress has overtaken all other reasons for “sickness absence” in the UK

Half of public sector organisations reported an increase in absence due to stress compared to just a third of manufacturers, with state employers blaming the volume of job cuts, pension changes and pay freezes.

Jill Miller, CIPD adviser, said: “Stress is for the first time the number one cause of long-term sickness absence, highlighting the heightened pressure many people feel under in the workplace as a result of the prolonged economic downturn. Stress is a particular challenge in the public sector where the sheer amount of major change and restructuring would appear to be the root cause.”

“Pulling a sickie” was stated as the top reason for time off by employers, both public and private.

For manual workers, stress has overtaken physical conditions like neck pain and repetitive strain injury as causing absence, the survey revealed. Among office-based workers, stress has moved ahead of acute illnesses like cancer or heart attacks.

However, the research showed public sector absence was still running far higher than private sector services firms, at 9.1 days per year compared to 7.1 days. Among manufacturers, absence was just 5.7 days per year.

In a separate article http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/jobs/8806388/Top-10-causes-of-absenteeism.html, the

5. Back pain

6. Recurring medical conditions such as asthma

7. Minor illness such as colds and headaches

8. Pregnancy-related absence (not maternity leave)

9. Work-related injuries and accidents

10. Home/family responsibilities

Top ten causes of short-term absence

1. Minor illness such as colds and headaches

2. Stress

3. Musculoskeletal injuries such as neck strains

4. Back pain

5. Home/family responsibilities

6. Recurring medical conditions such as asthma

7. Mental ill health

8. Injuries and accidents not related to work

9. Other absences not due to genuine ill health

10. Acute medical conditions such as heart attack or stroke

This is an alarming trend. And something that can be easily fixed. We at yogatailor hope that more people will start doing yoga or other forms of gentle exercise. Here’s to a healthier and stress-free planet

We love when we get mentioned in magazines. We have been getting a few in the recent past and we are really stoked about this one from Shape Magazine . The June 2011 print magazine has YogaTailor featured in the GetFit News section as a “FAVE SITE”

“Home Sweet Om“

No need to shell out for a studio session: A new website can give you the perfect routine for your practice

Missed your favorite yoga class today? Check out yogatailor.com, which streams expert-led mat workouts for just $8 a month. Customize your program based on available time(from 5 to 90 minutes), experience level and even health issues like back pain. It varies the sequences every time you log in, so you never get the same sequence twice. Afterward, inspire others to down-dog – an auto-post feature lets you share your progress on your Facebook wall

 

But here’s Memorial Day.. where most of America is mostly concerned about what sauce to use for their BBQ but there are a few of us who think about the past. What began as a ritual of remembrance after the Civil war, now has become an occasion for ordinary people to visit graves of their deceased relatives.  So should a yogi turn a blind eye to the Memorial Day?

Patanjali, the creator of the Yoga Sutras, says there is no conflict. Life and death are part of ahem… Life. When we realize this, we lighten up. We see the bigger context. We see that we all have to die one day. We immediately realize that the only moment to live is the present one.  Yoga helps us release these memories before they become permanent impressions.

Happy memorial day, dear yogis!

Namaste

She adds “You’re also building strength of mind by showing yourself that you’re stronger than you think you are”

I don’t even know where to begin in pointing out how wrong this is and on so many levels. It’s misleading, it’s dangerous and it’s against everything Patanjali says in YogaSutras. (for more on Patanjali read our blog on ‘sthir sukham asanam’). This kind of well meaning sincerity is dangerous in how misguided it is.

Holding a pose when you are uncomfortable is not going to build muscle strength or mental beliefs about your strength, it will make you stop going to Yoga class. You start dreading the class as it becomes yet another hurdle to climb in your daily grind.  And that is not the point of Yoga.

When you hold a pose to discomfort, who decides how much discomfort is good enough for your growth? The teacher? You? She doesn’t know what’s happening inside your body.  Especially when she’s done a 6-month yoga teacher training course at the local studio down the street.  You could be putting yourself way out than needed.

As soon as I suggest that you don’t push, notice how you go into red alert! “But how will I progress if I keep staying where it is comfortable?” What “progress” are you looking for? For that, you need to first go into your very definition of progress where yoga is concerned. You want external progress in your physical posture, that’s why you and your teacher is scared to let you be and just breathe.

But try it once. Be in the pose where you are comfortable. And bring your mind again and again to your breath. You will see that going further in the physical pose will be one of the many by products of the many other benefits you will derive.

Practiced correctly, Yoga teaches you a philosophy of life that will bring you happiness in the long run.  Changes will happen in your personality automatically.  For e.g. you might start accepting people and situations as they are and yet be dynamic and put your hundred percent into everything.  If you are not seeing deep personality changes that are happening despite yourself, then you are not doing Yoga.

Most teachers have not had this personal transformation and hence bring their status quo mentality into the yoga practice. They want to see results from the perspective of the material-external- centered mind, and will keep pushing you in the yoga class like you would in a fitness bootcamp. That, my dear, is not Yoga. And you will not derive the deeper benefits that come with the union of mind, body, spirit which is Yoga.

Yoga is not another notch to put on your belt of achievements.  Yoga is a haven. A place of respite from the unrealistic standards of achievement we impose upon ourselves.  A sort of, self-torturing mentality has been brought to the practice of yoga by well meaning but misguided teachers of Yoga. They are young and really want to help. But they are only perpetuating the very mental status quo that has caused the stress in the first place.

In the Yoga Journal article quoted above, the author goes on to tell us how to make a boring practice interesting.

Firstly, yoga is not about entertainment. The tendency of the mind to be constantly seeking entertainment is what is to be gently transmuted through yoga practice. So when she suggests trying to make your practice different to get different results it’s not Yoga but rather what a personal trainer at a 24 hr. fitness would say.

Even worse is when she goes on to suggest “making little adjustments to the way you practice will make a huge difference. Little changes like lengthening your tailbone toward the floor, lifting your chest toward the sky, or firming your leg muscles and lifting your kneecaps can work a whole new set of muscles and help you get closer to a more challenging variation”

Newsflash: These are not changes, these are things inherent in poses. Things where your mind should be focusing on in the first place. Also, you are not looking for ‘challenging variations’. That is another western concept. In the east, where yoga comes from, you are supposed to follow those who came before you and perfect what they teach you. Putting your own variation on an ancient, age-old practice to get variety is very arrogant.

Rather than the arrogance of creating variations, first you perfect the humility in yourself and in the postures by perfecting and respecting what the masters of the tradition have handed down to you. Who are you to be creating challenging variations to work new sets of muscles. Do you know how Yoga was cognized? Do you know how the Rishis (seers) saw this knowledge in deep meditation 5000 years ago? And now some teacher with 140 hrs of teacher training from the local ‘bodhi tree’ yoga studio is going to create “challenging variations”. Please don’t mess with Yoga. It is powerful and can work to harm your body rather than help.

What’s really bad is that this blogger is not the only one who thinks this way. She only echoes the way Yoga is being thought of and practiced in America.

Just another way to perpetuate the instant gratification, entertainment-oriented, fast paced culture that causes mental unrest in the first place.

How? With the right yoga. The yoga that is right for your body type. And also the Yoga that helps you to focus inwards.  Not the yoga where you are looking at outer things like how nice is the studio, what yoga pants am I wearing and wondering if that cute guy is gay, or even, how far can I go in a pose.

Most people do NOT get the benefits mentioned above.  Because in today’s world we have gone so far away from Yoga. Yoga is more of a business now thanks to burgeoning studios, new age gurus and dime-a-dozen teacher training programs.  The latter being just another quick training, commercial school to get that instant ‘career’ as a Yoga ‘teacher’.  As soon as someone goes into a yoga teacher training program cause they want that to be their career, you know they are not really going to be helping spread the real understanding of Yoga.

I am sure they mean well. But when you start on the macro level (with your training) with an  ‘achievement’ mentality, that’s the energy you are going to bring into the micro level (when you guide students in the postures in the class).

Hence most teachers and classes wrongly misguide their students when they “encourage”, push and prod their bodies into poses where they are not going naturally. Or when they tell them to hold poses even when the student is uncomfortable in them. Telling them they will get stronger mentally and physically. This is not boot camp or military academy. If your teacher is encouraging you to push yourself further it’s not Yoga. Just because it’s done ‘gently’ does not mean it’s justified or that it’s correct. It’s bringing the same stressful mentality – of getting somewhere from here – that caused you to join yoga in the first place.

True Yoga is about accepting, being, breathing and observing.  Are you focusing within the pose and accepting where you are?  Or are you resisting where you are naturally at and pushing yourself or being pushed to go further and further till you feel you can’t breathe or it’s stretching so much that you are in a competition of will power within yourself.  That does not sound relaxing to me.  What is different in this approach from your normal mental approach to everything else in life?  Teachers that tell you to go somewhere else, rather than accept where you are at, are victims of the fast-track, instant gratification, training programs that can never achieve in 6 months what years of anushasana, and abhyasa can do.

I am not saying that don’t try to touch your knee to your forehead for e.g. Stretch further, but not to the point where it takes you away from your center.    Yoga means to join. Unite the small mind with the Big Mind. The body with the spirit. The breath with the mind.  The mind with the body. When such unity happens many conflicts get resolved. For e.g. health conflicts are arrested before they manifest.

And that is where the fruit vs chocolate comes in.  In that scenario there is a conflict between the tongue and the body.  The tongue wants foods that are not good for the body. The tongue is not in touch with the needs of the body. Hence it likes things that are not necessarily helpful to our optimal health. When mind and body are not in touch with each other, such conflicts happen. With the correct practice of yoga, such conflicts resolve.  And you naturally go for the fruit instead of the chocolate.

Recently, I’ve been coming across this phrase a lot. Roughtly translated in English: the poses should be steady and comfortable.

How many actually follow this? Especially the “comfort” part.  If we did then most of the blogs, tweets and other things I read on yoga would be out of business.  Because right now all their focus is on trying to “achieve” positions, postures and – worst of them all – getting a yoga “cardio”.

Patanjali says sthir sukham asanam. Sthir = steady. Check. Asanam = pose. Check. Sukham = comfortable. No check. Most of us are not comfortable in our poses. My own husband mentioned this morning about how he has a hard time with yoga in the morning cause body is so stiff. “Honey”, I said. “you don’t start out flexible in order to achieve positions in Yoga.  The Yoga will get you to the flexibility if done right.  It’s not another competitive sport.”.

Sthir Sukham Asanam, in my experience, means that if you can only raise your leg an inch instead of all the way to your forehead, then do only that.   See what most people won’t tell you is that along with Sthir Sukham Asanam, Patanjali also said prayatna shaitalyam. Which means, and here’s the kicker, that there is no need to apply un-necessary effort in any of the Asanas.  This may go against your instincts, but if you can raise your arm only ½ an inch then don’t apply the effort to raise it a full inch. It will happen itself at some point. But only if first you are comfortable with where you are at.  Rest into the pose. Relax into it. Be comfortable in it. And bring your focus to your body and mind and BREATH again and again.

It really represents the philosophy of focusing on the journey rather than the destination so beautifully. Focus and be comfortable with where you are at. Then you will see that the destination – of whatever it is you think you want to or should be achieving with your yoga practice – will happen without effort

“finally achieved the posture i’ve been working hard at”

“my goal is to get into the pretzel”

“today I managed to get my head between my legs” in: insert complicated pose name.

“I’ve reached level 3 at such and such yoga place/training/studio”.

“ I did a 4-hr yoga workout”.

“sweated up a storm in Yoga”

and the latest

“I got the downward dog badge at 4sq”

These sum up most of the mindset and experiences of people doing Yoga out there in the Universe. More and more on twitter, facebook and blogs, as I am reading people’s experiences on Yoga, I see that they have one way of gauging if their practice is helping them. External gauges, to put it politely.  “Delusional” to put it correctly.

If all you are getting from your practice is more of the same that’s going on outside in life, then you are not doing Yoga.  “More of the same” meaning focusing on the external.  How far can I go? How much can I achieve? Like: How far can I bend? Is my heart rate up? Am I getting a Yoga workout?  The last one is the most egregious of them all.  A yoga cardio

Are you kidding me?  Come on guys.  Who is teaching this stuff?  This is not Yoga. You are doing something that is using the word Yoga and yoga poses but it’s not Yoga.  Please be clear on that.

Which means, sadly, that you are missing out on something incredible.  I mean there’s a reason there’s all this fuss about this thing called “Yoga”.

So what is it in reality?

Before I go on let me just add that and as I write I can see how ridiculous this question is, this asking yourself, if you are doing Yoga. Points to the nature of the world.  People out to make money, not fully knowledgeable, catching hold of the latest trend just to be part of it.  Sometimes with the best of intentions, especially in this field.  That’s even sadder.  The best intentioned are doing the most harm in some ways.  As http://torontobodymind.ca/blogs/krista-weger/your-yoga-teacher-qualified-3-ways-put-your-teacher-test puts it , “yoga teacher training programs are everywhere: in studios, on international retreats, and online! But as not all training programs are created equal, neither, of course, are yoga teachers, So how do you know what exactly it is that you’re getting when you register for Yoga 101?”

So are doing a Yoga practice?

Are you getting better and better at achieving the pose as it is shown in the book?

Are you getting more flexible.

Are you able to endure Yoga for a longer time period?

WRONG questions to ask. That is NOT yoga.  Go to the gym and train with a personal torturer instead.

Yoga is not torture.  Don’t bring your usual mindset to the practice of yoga. If you are adapting your yoga to your mindset then it’s not Yoga.  Yoga should be causing an adaptation in your mindset.

When doing Yoga there are a few intentions set forth in the Yogasutras that you can bring to mind.  The point is yoga. Which means to link.  Linking the mind, body, breath.  Bringing the whole system in harmony.  When you focus inwards you will automatically go further in the poses.  The natural byproducts can be measured with some of these questions: Are you changing on the inside? Are you becoming more kind? Patient? Loving?  Accepting? Energetic? Enthusiastic?  Are you finding new talents emerging within you?  Are you feeling beautiful.  Not LOOKING beautiful according to the external standards on the cover pages of Vogue or Vanity Fair.  Are things bothering you less? Then you are doing Yoga.  Are your eating habits changing without effort?  Are you needing less sleep?  Then you are doing yoga?

Along with these inner changes the by products will be all those external things mentioned above – but you won’t care anyway cause you’ll be feeling so blissed and blessed.  But you need the right teacher for that.

Last but not least, here’s a blog by Julia at the Satori Yoga Studio in Canada. One intelligent blog. Must be one hell of a teacher. Find teachers like her if you can. “When it comes to Yoga, though, we so easily trade the potential depth of our practice for the shell of purely physical encounter. We discount the richness of the 5,000-year-old science and philosophy down to the perfect view from the studio, hard wood floors, tight Lulu Lemon pants or flawless bodies, robbing ourselves of the beauty, complexity of experience and incredible life lessons yoga practice can deliver.
Masterfully designed yoga class, just like the well-written book or the performance of the art masters, delivers an organic flow, a sense of natural unfoldment and intimacy with yourself, joy, liveliness and ease. It goes far beyond stretching and strengthening the major muscle groups. It clears the emotional static and mental fuzz that disconnects us from the sparkle of our spiritual essence. It reminds us that even in the out – of – control whirlwind of our every day life, peace and stillness are only a thought away. Excavating the debris of old believes and movement patterns, it inspires us to reach to the heights of our human potential.”
http://www.satoriyoga.ca/yoga/eat-pray-love-yoga/