Walking The Tightrope Of Life

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Charley Hickey Charleyoga BLOG

Author: Charley Hickey is a practicing yoga therapist and senior yoga teacher who runs group and private yoga classes in Applecross & Fremantle, Perth.  She also runs specialised yoga workshops for yoga students & yoga teachers.

“It’s all about balance..” How often have we heard this little seed of wisdom, either coming from our own mouths when giving others advice (guilty!) or when others are giving us advice? If like me, you sometimes have an urge to punch these people in the face (he he, just joking!), then perhaps this explanation may help you to reconcile the concept of “balance” in your own mind.

I once had a teacher that explained to me that balance can be defined by thinking about a tightrope walker. By all appearances, they are “balanced” on the tightrope. However, there are so many shifts constantly occurring in their body and minds that allow them to stay balanced, it doesn’t just happen and then that is it and you can say “phew, I’m balanced now, thank goodness for that!”. It’s always a constant series of small adjustments, a work in progress that keeps the tightrope walker on the rope. Even though to a casual observer they may be making it look easy, it’s taken practice to get here and then continued practice to maintain. This is a handy thing to remember when you look at that person you know that seems to have it all worked out, chances are it is exactly the same for them too!

When we apply these concepts to everyday life and to our yoga practice, Yoga Sutra 2.46 describes this balance as “sthira-sukham asanam”. This could be translated as “posture should be stable (sthira) and comfortable (sukha)” It is often put into practice by “resolutely abiding in a good space”. I like that as you can apply it in any situation but I also love how you can work with these opposite forces in class, either in a subtle way or if you prefer, an extreme way.

For example, you might think that in Shavasana (corpse pose) that Sukha (comfort, joy, gentleness) would be easy to find and Sthira (strength, resoluteness, stability) would be more elusive. However, what if you were uncomfortable lying down or had an area of pain that wouldn’t go away? The sukha here might not be the position of your body and the pose itself, it might be your breath, or finding easefulness in a part of your body that you wouldn’t usually notice, like your facial muscles for example, could you find ease here? Equally, you may need to find Sthira in your mind to resolutely stay here in the pose, especially if your mind was busy with thoughts or wanting to come out of the pose and move instead! It’s such a lovely thing to explore in class, without judgement or intent of changing but with a sense of curiousness and openness to watch what is happening in your own body. This subtle balance, this constant adjusting, you are never done, balance is truly a work in progress……………..

So, next time someone says “it’s all about balance” you can say “Yeh, I know, I’m TOTALLY in balance, even right now!”

Charley Hickey

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The Biggest Yoga Scam EVER, Is It Happening To YOU?!

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Yoga Breathing PracticeAuthor: Charley Hickey is a practicing yoga therapist and senior yoga teacher who runs group and private yoga classes in Applecross & Fremantle, Perth.  She also runs specialised yoga workshops for yoga students & yoga teachers.

Ok, so perhaps the photo & caption are a little extreme and/or provocative but I do like to get your attention!

I was talking to some long term yoga students at a tea break during one of our yoga workshops. I find it amusing how the most interesting discussions seem to happen in the tea breaks and not during the workshop itself! We were discussing what was the thing about yoga that we liked the best or found helped us the most in our lives. The unanimous decision was “breathing” which I found quite surprising. Comments ranged from, “I just love coming to class and breathing” and “Thank you so much for teaching me to breathe!”

I said something to the effect of “Hang on a minute, you’re telling me that you come to your yoga class and pay me each week to do something that you are already doing? You do realise that you are breathing all the time right; you don’t even have to think about it as its part of your autonomic nervous system (the part that is not consciously directed)? I feel bad now; maybe I’ve been ripping you off all these years and owe you some money back!” A mixture of humour interspersed with deep conversation ensued about the topic of the breath. This was fantastic but I really felt I couldn’t accept responsibility as a teacher for such a natural process, or could I?

It prompted me to think about it a little more deeply afterwards. If everyone is already breathing all the time and they are breathing when they arrive at class and they are breathing when they leave class, then what have I really done as a teacher? I realised it is awareness of the breath that changes, that’s the secret, that’s what the teacher does. We simply suggest that you bring attention to your breath; however it is in that moment. The breath that is already happening in the body, the breath that is always there, the breath that is always ready to support you and reflect back to you what is happening. The breath is like a mirror for whatever is happening in our lives in that moment. It’s a mirror for the state of our physical body, our emotions and our general mind state. What’s so great is that this mirror is like two way glass. There is a cause and effect relationship that can be used to our advantage. For example, when we are stressed out the breath becomes shallow and this can cause blood pressure to increase and feelings of anxiety to increase – conversely if we focus on the breath and start breathing into the belly, this can slow the breath, lower blood pressure and calm the central nervous system. Although the breath is autonomic, there is also an element to the breath that can be manipulated through the practice of prananyama which I like to think of as “playing with the breath”. “Playing” is a great word as it keeps the practice light-hearted and free from stress or pressure to do it perfectly. It doesn’t have to be serious; you could even treat the whole process as a game, why not?!

Here are few yoga breathing practice tips (wow, I still feel a little bit like I am scamming you!)

  1. Ask yourself this question ~ “How do I know that I am breathing?”
  2. Focus on whatever it is you answered for point 1
  3. Start to notice what your breath is like; observe it without trying to change it in any way. Is it deep or shallow? Is it slow or fast? Rough or smooth? etc….
  4. Notice if the breath naturally adjusts itself or changes in any way whilst you are observing it.
  5. Stay with your breath, moment to moment, breath to breath…..
  6. Notice that you mind wanders from time to time (this is a natural process so don’t try to stop it!)
  7. Bring your mind back to your breath each time that you notice it is wandering (this may be many times)
  8. Repeat, repeat, repeat, remember, it’s just a game!

Once you’ve done that for a bit, then you might move into a specific pranayama (playing with the breath) that might be samma vritti pranayama, nadi shodana pranayama or one of numerous other yogic pranayamas (yoga breathing practice). Some of these we teach in group classes, others are a bit stronger and I prefer to teach these one on one. Whichever way, please remember when you practice that it’s all just a game!

If you’d like some homework, see if you could notice that you are breathing for just one breath a day – one breath, that’s all, just see what it’s like to do that once a day for one breath.

Charley Hickey

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How To Cheat A Yogic Psych Test

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Charley Yoga Fremantle

Author: Charley Hickey is a practicing yoga therapist and senior yoga teacher who runs group and private yoga classes in Applecross & Fremantle, Perth.  She also runs specialised yoga workshops for yoga students & yoga teachers.

Some of you may have heard of an exercise called the three blessings or a gratitude exercise. From what I understand, it’s a commonly used tool in positive psychology where you ask a person to think of three things that they are grateful for in their day that has been. I thought this was a great thing to introduce to my kids to so every night before bed so I ask my young son to recount to me three things in his day that he is grateful for. Being such a smarty pants (not sure where he gets that from?) he’s come up with a handy little cheat that works every single time. His third item is always “right now” at which point he gives me a hug and kiss. The reason it’s so smart is that as well as knowing I’m a sucker for his kisses & cuddles which he adds in as the kicker, he knows that “right now” is where true happiness is. This is because we’ve discussed it many times, however, I totally get that he is only saying it to please me as he knows it is what I want to hear. I’m not saying he is enlightened and ahead of his time by any means, just cheeky! We’ll keep doing it though in the hope that these concepts might be carried into his adulthood and seep into his much more “serious” adult life.

The gratitude exercise is a challenging one to begin with, especially when you’ve had a “bad” day but like any other practice, it gets easier with time.  These days, I find because we practice this so often, we are able to see the things we are grateful for much more easily as we are regularly mindful of what it is in life that we are truly grateful for. Sometimes we have four or five things each and find it hard to pick out only three! This is a good example of “Tapas” in yoga which means discipline or regular practice. This regular practice means that gratitude becomes easier and more natural over time.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a believer in turning everything into a positive, this is both unreasonable and unattainable. We talk about the bad stuff too but this little exercise stops us from becoming overwhelmed by the bad stuff. This is a good example of “Santosha” or contentment – being able to find contentment amongst the full spectrum of emotion that we go through in our daily lives. The good, the bad and the times where we are tempted to simply write-off the day completely and start again tomorrow thus ignoring our innate ability to be content in the moment if we simply allow it.

Yoga Sutra 1.1 tells us “Atha yoga anushasanam” which can be taken to mean “Now begins the practice of yoga” – Now meaning right now, here, in the present moment – see, I told you my son was a smarty pants cheater!

Can you bring to mind three things in your day that you are grateful for? How about on a “bad” day? I’d love for you to give it a try :)

Charley Hickey

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Why You Should Never Trust A Yoga Teacher…

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Private Yoga Classes

Author: Charley Hickey is a practicing yoga therapist and senior yoga teacher who runs group and private yoga classes in Applecross & Fremantle, Perth.  She also runs specialised yoga workshops for yoga students & yoga teachers.

Yesterday I did a very silly thing; I trusted someone else’s judgement on something that I was much better placed to judge myself. I squeezed myself into a rather tight parking bay (you already know how this is going to end!). I knew I could get out so was in the process of doing a 20 point turn when a “helpful” passer-by stepped in.  I wish I’d trusted my own judgement instead of her yelling “You’ve still got heaps of room love, just go!” It was only a very small scratch but still, I was annoyed at myself for being silly as it wouldn’t have happened if I’d trusted my own judgement.

This is the exact same reason why you should never trust a yoga teacher over and above the signals coming from your own body. You know your own body the best and should always trust that judgement. Even if your teacher is encouraging you to change position slightly or try something new that should work for your body. They do not live in your body, you do! They cannot possibly feel what’s happening in your body, you can! Yoga teachers will never mind if you say “That doesn’t feel quite right for me today.” In fact, they will most likely feel proud of you for taking this decision on yourself and tuning into the wisdom of your own body.  You’ve probably heard your yoga teacher say this before anyway so the chances are, they would be feeling pretty smug right now seeing you put into practice :)

I remind my students that I’m just there to guide them, a bit like a running commentary in the background which occasionally you switch off to as the real thing is going on in your own body and it’s so much more important to stay tuned into that. I’m often proud of my students for ignoring me and doing something completely different to what I’m instructing. As a teacher, it doesn’t bother me at all and I don’t find it distracting to have students that aren’t always following what I’m saying – they are hearing it of course but then they are listening to their bodies and going with that.

I’m not saying you should ignore your yoga teacher completely; it would be pointless coming to a class if you didn’t surrender to some degree to have someone guiding you. But it really is just that, guiding, you can pull away and go off on your own for a bit here and there and your teacher will be watching to ensure you don’t do anything that is potentially dangerous.

As a yoga student, it can feel strange at first to make a decision to ignore the teacher and do something different that works for you as it might go against your beliefs about “teachers”. However, I think this is a much safer way to practice and you learn a lot more about your body.

As a yoga teacher, I believe you must accept that you don’t always know better and are not always helpful and to question what the motivation is for getting a student into a particular pose a particular way? Is that useful for them and ultimately, is that useful for you?

Charley Hickey

Find out more about our gentle therapeutic yoga classes and private yoga classes in Fremantle & Applecross, Perth.

S**t That’s Hard To Swallow

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Yoga Therapy Perth AustraliaI came across this on a menu board on a recent family trip to Thailand and it gave us all a laugh. Of course we knew full well what the intention was behind those words and that we’d be eating fried rice with crab – not crap!

It might seem like a bizarre connection to make but it reminded me of how I’ll sometimes be teaching a yoga class and say something in Sanskrit (the language that yoga practices are named from) and the pronunciation isn’t 100%. It’s not my area of strength so perhaps I’m inadvertently asking you to “clip your toenails” rather than execute “hand to big toe pose”! I’m not afraid to admit that I’m not an expert in everything; however the “intention” behind my words is always 100% wholesome. For example –

  • My intention is for you to safely practice a pose
  • My intention is for you to do it in a way where you can stay present in your own body
  • My intention is for you to quiet the craziness of your hectic mind
  • My intention is for you to discover something about yourself and get glimpses of your true nature.
  • My intention is pure, even though my pronunciation is s**t………..

This is yoga – both as a practice and as a state of being. Yoga is a means to quiet the craziness of your hectic mind so that you may glimpse your true nature. Again, this is my own interpretation of the yoga sutras (1.2 & 1.3) and isn’t absolute. Yoga is a state of being as well as a means of attaining that state of being and this can be a confusing concept.

I suggest that instead of getting caught up in technicalities when attending yoga classes,  it’s easier instead to focus on the intention behind the words, rather than the words themselves. These are some questions that you might ask yourself.

  • Am I practicing yoga?
  • Is this practice leading me towards this state of yoga?
  • Does this feel like a good fit for me?

These are much more important questions to ask ourselves than “Why didn’t this teacher pronounce or explain that the same way as my other teacher? I wonder who is right or more authentic? I can’t touch my toes yet, am I doing yoga?”  Refer again to “Yoga is a means to quiet the craziness of your hectic mind so that you may glimpse your true nature.” and herein, you will find the answer.

There are many ways to practice yoga and navigating all the different styles can be confusing but coming back to intention is a great way to pick the useful from the not so useful. Intention is a two way street so it can be nice every now and again to revisit this question yourself “What is my intention when I practice yoga?” The answer may not always be exactly the same each time but it may help you to get what it is that you need from your practice.

If you feel inspired to do so, I’d love to hear what your intention is for your practice at the moment. Simply go to our Facebook page here and find the post with this picture on it to make a comment :)

I’d also like to thank the delightful Leanne, an eastern states yoga therapist as she inadvertently inspired this BLOG post and sparked my interest after a wonderful talk she gave, I wonder if that was her intention?…….

Charley Hickey

Find out more about Yoga Therapy Perth Australia or gentle weekly yoga classes in Perth

Facebook Just Undid My Life’s Work…..

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www.charleyoga.com.au(1)

I may be taking a risk here, questioning Facebook through a Facebook post but hey, that’s what Facebook is all about right?  I’m questioning, not insulting, just to be clear!

Charleyoga uses Facebook to keep in touch with you all, our interested followers.  It’s an amazing platform which we love using and intend to for many more years to come.  We do however also run a yoga school.  This of course is our core work which we try our best to be absolutely amazing at to keep our loyal followers happy.  I was really disheartened this week to find that my Facebook page has been labelled with a status/rating for how quickly we respond to messages that come through our Facebook page.  We are not displaying a high rating for this because guess what – our response time is 11 mins (averaged out to one hour) which is apparently TOO SLOW! Too slow?  They clearly haven’t read our blog about how “Slow Is The New Fast”, since this is the heart of our teachings.  We love helping people to slow down a little every now and again.

Speed alone is an awful way to measure the responsiveness of a business, it’s so much more than simply replying at super speed.  If we have to do it within 5 minutes at any time of the day or night then I’m proud to say that we don’t have a good rating for replying to messages!

So, although it may sometimes take us a whole hour to reply (yes a FULL hour!) this is because we may be resting between teaching classes, helping someone else, perhaps even sleeping.  What I can guarantee you though is the response you will get from us will be 100% personal, authentic, measured and will address each of your questions with the thought and care that we think you deserve.  That is why we have loyal customers, not because we respond in less than 5 minutes to a message.

I’d love for you to put a comment on the Facebook post that you followed to get to this link if you agree with some of what we are saying and guess what, we will even respond to it but maybe give us a few hours :)

Actually, I’d also like to thank Facebook as I wasn’t sure what to write in my BLOG this week but this really gave me something to think about!

Charley Hickey

Nadi Shodhana Pranayama – Alternate Nostril Breathing Technique

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Alternate Nostril Breathing Instructions

Alternate Nostril Breathing Technique  ~ Nadi Shodhana Pranayama

(nadi = subtle energy channel; shodhana = cleaning, purification; pranayama = breathing technique)

Nadi Shodana is an easy and safe breathing technique with some promising therapeutic applications

BENEFITS INCLUDE:

*Balances L/R brain hemispheres

*Clears mind, improves focus

*Slows breathing rate

*Calms the central nervous system

HOW?

This technique has featured in a few studies with various findings:

*There is evidence to support its use to decrease heart rate and breathing rhythm and therefore cause parasympathetic nervous system dominance which creates a feeling of calm (Jovanow, E. 2005).

*It featured in another study which showed that participants had an increase in plasma melatonin levels after 3 months of yoga practice (Harinath, 2004). (melatonin is your naturally produced “sleep drug”)

*It was part of another study that showed improved stress and self-confidence scores in insomnia sufferers without any side effects (Sobana, 2013)

*Enhances respiratory function in school students (Sivapriya, 2010)

TO PRACTICE:

Sit comfortably or lie down if that’s easier. Place the tip of the index finger and middle finger of the right hand in between the eyebrows, the ring finger and little finger on the left nostril, and the thumb on the right nostril.   Close off the right nostril gently and breathe in through the left nostril, then breathe back out the right, back in the right and then out the left. Out and in on one side, out and in on other side – follow this lovely pic if unsure & try to keep the breath really natural, no need to force it or lengthen/deepen it in any way. Continue for a few breaths or a few minutes, whatever you are comfortable with, finish with a breath out through the right nostril and pause to notice how you feel.

References

  • Jovanow, E (2005). On Spectral Analysis of Heart Rate Variability during Very Slow Yogic Breathing. Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society conference publications.
  • Sobana, R. (2013). The Effect of Yoga Therapy on Selected Psychological Variables Among Male Patients with Insomnia. Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Research, 7 (1), 55-57.
  • Harinath, K (2004). Effect of Hath Yoga and Omkar Meditation on Cardiorespiratory Performance, Psychological Profile and Melatonin Secretion. 10 (2), 261-268.
  • Shivapriya, D.V., Suba Malani, S. Thirumeni, S. (2010). Effect of Nadi Shodana Pranayama on Respiratory Parameters in School Students. Recent Research in Science and Technology, 2 (11), 32 – 39.

To All My Clients ~ “I Don’t Want to See You Anymore!”

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private yoga therapy classes fremantle

Truly, I mean it, this is the ultimate goal of a practicing yoga therapist.  I really don’t want to see you anymore because that means that I have done my job and you are doing yours :)

If you are are unsure what yoga therapy is, here is a good definition – Yoga Therapy empowers and supports individuals to manage their own health and well-being using the principles of Yoga and applying a range of Yoga practices developed within a professional therapeutic relationship. (Australasian Association of Yoga Therapists www.yogatherapy.org.au)

Note “manage their own health and well-being” When a yoga  therapist works one on one with a client, the aim is that you actually write your own “prescription” that fits with your own life, your way for your own unique goals.  A yoga therapist guides you in this process but is hardly ever “telling you what to do”.  This is what makes yoga therapy so damned effective, that’s why it feels so manageable and easy to integrate your practice into your day.  A good yoga therapist will listen to what will work for you and never try to force their own way of doing things onto you.

We are here to connect with you regularly whilst you are integrating your practice into your routine, which can be a bumpy road at first but then, we are happiest when you are off on your own doing your own practice.   We’re keen to help you if you lose control of the reins every now and again or would like your practice updated but for the most part we don’t want to see you anymore!

Ok, so I’ve never met a millionaire yoga therapist but honestly, when I bump into a client months later and they say “when I was doing my practice the other day…” – that is worth more to me than any amount of money ever could.  I think “Wow, someone actually read that and still benefits from that crumpled up piece of scribbled hand written notes with the badly drawn stick figures on it from ages ago!”

By the way, I really didn’t mean it, I do love seeing you all but it made you learn a bit more about yoga therapy if you didn’t before so my work here is done, thanks for reading!

Charley Hickey

Read more about our private Yoga Therapy classes in Fremantle.

How To Get Away With “Morning Hair”

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Yoga Workshops in PerthI had to laugh at this pic my young son drew last week, according to him my morning hair lasts all day (well technically that’s not morning hair then is it, but I digress….).   I’ll let you in on perhaps my best kept secret.  I hardly ever “do” my hair in the morning, it seems like such a waste of time to me and I hate it.

So, a few years go, I asked my hairdresser if she could  cut my hair in a way that I could just get up in the morning with my “morning hair” and get away with it all day without doing anything.  Mission accomplished and the funniest thing about it is my hair is always what gets the most compliments from people, even strangers say “wow, I love your hair!”  It’s astonishing and I honestly think it’s just my attitude about my hair rather than how good it looks that gets these comments.  I think my hair just really “fits” with me, my persona and my lifestyle and people notice that because honestly, sometimes it is an absolute mess when people say this!

I never thought I’d be writing a blog about my hair, in fact this is the most attention I’ve given my hair in years.

What this has all taught me is that going my own way on this and making it fit with my own lifestyle has made it easier, made me happier , contributed to me being a nicer person, less stressed & stopped me from spending time on something I hate.  Often simplifying something that is causing you unnecessary stress can be the answer.  The true challenge is in recognizing the things that are causing us stress in the  first place.  I’m sure I went on for years about how I hated doing my hair and getting ready for work in the mornings.  Now I throw on a pair of yoga pants, run my fingers through my hair and off I go!  So simple, yet has taken me years to simplify it down.

I feel like this is a good example of “Svadhyaya” or “Self-Study”  which is one of the “Niyamas” or practices that help to build a spiritual seeker’s character.  I’ve always thought that serious study of the yamas & niyamas (the 1st and 2nd limbs of the 8 limbs of yoga) was meant more for yoga teachers than students.  However, I can see how conscious self-study is definitely a part of a weekly yoga class once you have been practicing for a while.  Like many things we discover, it is often seemingly by accident!   The good news is you don’t have to do a lot of study if you don’t want to as your yoga teacher has already done it for you and is weaving the yamas and niyamas into each and every class for you and you can take it in by osmosis :)

Charley Hickey

If you want to know more about the 8 limbs of yoga, we run yoga workshops in Perth each year on this topic for yoga students that are interested to delve a little deeper into the philosophy, history and underpinnings of yoga.