Practicing with Nancy Gilgoff at Purple Valley in Goa

Sunday (18) - "Yoga is self discovery"
Sunday morning on the 18th was our first practice, which was Mysore style (for explanation refer to my blog on my previous trip). Normally, in Mysore though, Sunday practice would be led. We start the practice at 8am every day, which I was unhappy about because I am used to 6am and it means half the day is over when I finish practicing and have breakfast, but I was actually woken up by my alarm clock, which is unusual for me... I normally wake up before my alarm goes off at 5 to get ready for my six o'clock practice. I had decided the night before that I needed to rest and did not do any work, so I did get a good night sleep (approx. 7 hours).

The first thing that Nancy made us do in the shala, was for the right side of the room to face the left side of the room and vice versa. She said this is how guruji made them do it in the early days, and a psychologist had mentioned to her that it creates more of a sense of being a group and when the teacher walks through the class, the teacher becomes part of the group as opposed to being seperate. I think this is a very interesting way of setting up the class and I liked it.
My practice was alright. I just did primary series and left out the drop backs. Nancy actually said that guruji would tell them not to practice the first day after flying, to allow the body to settle, so we should take it easy. I did get some comments from other students that my practice looked beautiful. That is just because I can do jump backs and jump throughs. If I had to compare my practice with that of Jason (he started practicing third series as I was finishing) or Jeff (who practiced with us) I had a long way to go.
Nancy adjusted me in one of the twisting postures and then waited for me to do a "vinyasa" (jump back and jump through) before going into the other side. She later in the discourse told us that the etiquette when a teacher is adjusting you in Mysore style, is to not do the vinyasa, so that the teacher can adjust you in both sides without having to wait and then move on to another student.

I learnt later that primary series is supposed to be nurturing (hard to believe for a beginner :-)) and we are not supposed to be doing fancy stuff in primary. Lots of people have added fancy moves because they have been held back from doing second series for so long. When we jump into a posture and out of a posture we are supposed to have straight legs, except for Triang Mukha Eka Pada Paschimottanasana (one leg folded back forward bend). Nancy is very traditional and does not like people adding any poses to the series.

After breakfast Dr. Vahed gave us an introduction into Ayurveda, a system of traditional medicine native to India. In Sanskrit, the word Ayurveda comprises the words ayus, meaning 'life' and veda, meaning 'science'. He talked about moksha (liberation) from the cycle of death and rebirth, but I have forgotten since I am writing this 2 weeks after the event. Traditional beliefs hold that humans possess a unique constellation of Doshas (biological humors), namely vata (wind/spirit/air), pitta (bile) and kapha (phlegm). In ordre to determine what kind of person you are, i.e.: what qualities you have more of (vata, pitta, kapha) you fill out a questionaire and an ayurveda practitionist will perform some tests. Basically, vata people are dry and slow, whereas the pitta people are more fiery and energetic (I guess this is where I fit in :-)) and kapha people are more grounded moist people. Ayurveda stresses a balance of these three doshas, and imbalances are cured using oil, ghee and honey.
Nancy told us that a vata person should practice after between 9 and 12 in the morning or between 6 and 8 in the evening (now it makes sense that we are practicing so late with Nancy, since she is vata), a pitta person should practice first thing in the morning to get rid of the energy, and a kapha person can practice anytime. According to guruji, the ashtanga vinyasa yoga practice is more suited to the pitta person??? ( I need to check this fact.)

After lunch I went to the german bakery with Sylvia and two girls from the UK. At the bakery we met the four people from Turkey. I saw flyers of the brahmani yoga studio, where they offer "Superhero Acro Yoga Flow" on Thursday evenings, which was interesting to me because I am trying to organise an Acro Yoga teacher to come to South Africa to do a workshop with us. As fate would have it, the couple (girl from germany and guy from Spain) who teach the class actually came to our table because Can was organising for them to go to Turkey. I of course found out when their schedule would be open to come to SA.

At 17:00 we had our first discourse session with Nancy. We began with some breathing exercises to determine if our breath was longer on the inhale or the exhale. Most people's breath is longer on the exhale. Ideally they should be equal. She then talked about the placement of the tongue in the mouth, which was quite interesting because if you place the tongue correctly, (don't place the tip of the tongue, but just behind that, on to the ridge of the palate behind the top teeth) the throat seems to open up more and it becomes easier to make your breath audible, especially the inhale. However, she said the guruji never ever used the word ujjayi when teaching the breath to them and she thinks that that was brought in by westerners. The breath should be audible to ourselves but not like darth vader!

Then she began speaking about energy flows and she told us the story of when her dog died, that she could see the soul leaving through the eyes. Apparently in human beings the soul leaves via the armpits if we have not reached an enlightened state and we are reborn. When we have reached moksha, our soul leaves the body via the crown chakra. She then asked us to down dog and asked us if we were pushing from the shoulder into the ground. We should be pushing down from the elbows into the palms, but the feeling in the armpits should be that of pulling inwards. In other words, when we do our yoga practice, our energy should not be escaping our bodies. (Sharath mentioned two weeks later at the first conference I attended in Mysore, that we should not do yoga outside, because the air will take our energy. I guess this will be difficult for a non-yogi to understand, but I have tried to practice yoga outside and the energy is very different.)
She then compared this to Iyengar practice of extending out of the arm when going into trikonasana. She said in Ashtanga, we don't extend forward, but move straight into the posture and we grab hold of the big toe, in order to create a mudra - an energy circle.
When we do Virabhadrasana II (warrior pose 2), we should have the feeling of drawing our arms inwards even though we are extending the arms out. To me this makes sense, since what you are actually doing is tightening the muscles around the shoulder joint, using a subtle energetic feeling.
She also made us aware that we should not come to Namaste (bent arms) between sun salutations. We should keep the arms strong and straight to keep the energy flowing strong.
She said that the bhandas help us seal the energy inside our bodies. When we practice we want to slow the breath down and keep drawing our energy inwards, otherwise we age faster.
Later during the course, it became even more evident to me how important this energy circle was in Ashtanga. She said that the extension of the spine going into Paschimottanasana (forward bend) for instance, comes from other styles of yoga. Guruji said first put the forehead onto the knee to create the mudra, and then start extending forward. The other effect this has is to enable the student to engage uddiyana bandha more. (See later).

Practicing with Nancy Gilgoff at Purple Valley in Goa

Nancy mentioned that the asanas wring our body out, and the final resting posture is a healing or receiving posture. She also seems to have learnt a lot from a spiritual teacher called Baba Hari Das, who when asked if one should learn from one teacher or many, he replied, "Bee's do not make honey from only one flower!". This was relevant for me, as I had chosen not spend two weeks with either Nancy or Lino, but 1 week with each. I have been questioning this decision often, because each teacher needs some time to get to know you, so you can progress much more if you stay with one teacher for two weeks rather than just one. When I had to prepare to leave Kovalam, see Thursday the 29th, I was even considering giving up one week in Mysore, to be able to study an extra week with Lino.

Day 2: Monday (19) - moving into second series - Nadi Sodhana
Today I was still a little stiff from travelling. I completed primary series and then went into second series as far as Kapotasana (Dove pose - on your knees bend backwards, put your head between your feet and grab your heels - well that is what you're supposed to do!) as this is how far I practice when I practice by myself at home. I also knew the next posture, but Nadia at home had told me that I was not ready for it, so I waited for Nancy, and she gave me the next posture, Supta Vajrasana (Sleeping Thunderbolt pose - sitting in lotus and crossing the arms behind your back grabbing hold of your toes and then leaning back and placing your head on the floor). I did not know it, but this pose was going to be my gateway pose with Lino Miele (see post for the 27th Jan). Nancy told me later that I should always do all the way up to Supta Laguvajrasana (not leave it out) as this really opens up the back and releases the back after the three previous back bends.
When guruji taught her and David, the first time in India, guruji did not give them back bends until the end of second series, whereas these days in Mysore, you are not allowed to move into second series until you are able to come back up from dropping back by yourself. Nancy and David were with guruji for four months the first time and they used to do yoga twice a day and by the end of the four months, they were doing both primary and second series, so they moved through primary and into second very quickly. Manju Jois, David Williams and Nancy still do not teach back bending until the end of second series.

I spent most of Monday morning frantically finishing up the document I had been doing for work, which I had also spent most of the last night on.

In the afternoons discourse session, Nancy talked more about the breath and how it speeds up when we are in difficult postures, or on days we don't feel like practicing. She then moved on to diet and mentioned that when we practice in the mornings, we are not burning off the calories from the dinner the night before, but the lunch from the day before. She told us that she was a vegetarian when she started yoga with guruji and he force-fed her according to ayurveda, which by the way does not decree vegetarianism. Apparently papaya (paw-paw) is the most heating food on the planet and should not be eaten by women who menstruating or are pregnant. A cooling diet is not for vata people, but more for pitta people. Kapha people can eat anything they want. Cooling food includes, coconut and curd, whereas yoghurt (west) is heating. Fasting is not only not recommended, but is considered dangerous, especially if practicing yoga. Garlic is bad for the joints, is not good to eat every day and should be used for medicinal purposes.
Chinese medicine and ayurveda do not promote eating too much raw food. Nancy said it takes twice as much energy to digest raw food than cooked food and it is a fad in the west right now.

She then told us of a three year old boy who wanted to show the adults that he was going to do yoga. He stood on his mat, then adjusted the mat, stood upright again, looked around and adjusted the mat again etc and he never actually did a vinyasa. The adult yogi's laughed, but realised that the child was actually imitating them... She told us that we should not allow ourselves these moments during our practice to wipe the sweat etc, because what we are actually doing is coming out of our practice. Just do the posture without thinking so much. That is actually good advice because so often we struggle to get into a posture because we fear it!

Nancy then asked us to do uddiyana kriya, which is supposed to be very good for digestion. This is just exhaling completely and then pulling the abdominal wall in and upwards as much as possible, holding for ten counts and then releasing and doing it three times. She told us that guruji was always very secretive about something and would never teach her, but would teach other women. Only when she was past menopause, did she find out that it was nauli kriya, which guruji does not recommend for women who wanted to become pregnant as it apparently has a shredding effect on the uterus.

She finished by asking us if we had seen the 1938 video on YouTube of Krishnamacharya doing yoga asanas. She said that they looked sloppy, which we agreed with. The point was that in Ashtanga, there is less importance placed on the posture, but what is important is what is happening on the inside of your body, the breath, the dristi (focus) and the bandhas. At the end of the video, Krishnamacharya does some pretty amazing uddiyana kriya.

Day 3: Tuesday (20) - women and ashtanga
In today's practice Nancy progressed me through Bakasana (Crow pose) A & B, Bharadvajasana, Ardha Matsyendrasana (two twists) and Eka Pada Sirsasana (One Foot behind the head pose). Normally a teacher would never give more than two poses per day, but Nancy knew that I did not have a teacher at home, and that I was only staying for one week, so she advanced me quickly. She was also very impressed that I was able to do the postures straight away, such as Bakasana B which you jump into from down dog. I was shaky because of all the sweat running down my arms, but I held it. When I do my practice, it is hard to see what anybody else is doing as I try to be very focused, but I have noticed that there are a number of other students doing part of second series as well.

In the discourse in the afternoon, Nancy began by telling us that each series of postures in Ashtanga Yoga has a different energy:
- Primary becomes nurturing (hard to believe for a beginner :-)). It is not meant to be an advanced series, and we are not supposed to be doing fancy stuff in primary.
- Intermediate becomes emotional. The liver, which holds anger, is cleansed, so you might get angry during or after your practice.
- Advanced A works more on the channels, so it becomes electrifying.
We should keep the series pure and should not add postures or jump directly into a posture and out of a posture in primary (always straighten both legs first, except for Triang Mukha Eka Pada Paschimottanasana (one leg folded back forward bend)). Lots of people have added fancy moves because they have been held back from doing second series for so long. Nancy is very traditional and does not like people adding any poses to the series. She also said that Sharath does not allow people to jump through with parallel legs, but wants them to be crossed because this requires more bandha control and uses less momentum.

In one of my practices, Nancy adjusted my hips in Parivrita Trikonasana (revolved triangle) by pulling them back and upwards. I struggled with the concept for a few days, but basically she was saying that when moving into the pose or into another pose like Paschimottanasana (forward bend), we should be protecting the hamstrings and sacrum and keep the hips rotated back, put the forehead onto the legs and then extend forward. It also allows us to engage uddiyana bandha more. (The dristi is an eye exercise and helps focus the mind. We don't actually need to see the toes.)
I relate the uddiyana bandha to the transverse abdominus muscle, which we use heavily in Pilates too. Nancy touches people four fingers below the belly button as a tactile queue to help them understand from where to engage it. It should not just be a sucking back, but also an internal lifting or pulling up feeling. She said that this point is exactly where women are cut when a scecaerian section is performed.

She then told us that she used to have 10 day periods and guruji would not allow her to practice for the entire ten days, nor would he even talk to her. (Nowadays, the rule in India is not to practice for three days and in the west, woman are just told not to do any inversions, however, since Ashtanga is such a vigorous practice using a lot of upward lifting of the bandhas, opposing the natural flow of menstruation, and remembering that even down dog is an inversion, I believe it is quite dangerous to practice during menstruation). Nancy complained to guruji's wife who quickly responded with, "shhhh, shhhh". She found out that it was actually a matriarchal society, in that the women started the whole thing. The women stayed in a separate room in which the male children were not even allowed. They did not do any cooking, so the men cooked for the women and the men could not talk to the women. So this gave the women a break from the men. Nancy was 24 at the time and she said she was quite sick and weak, but after spending four months with guruji, her period was down to 7 days and a couple of years later of following guruji advice, she was down to three days. Nancy concluded by saying that men and women really are different and that we should acknowledge and honour this and women should not practice during menstruation. She also noted that her daughter's periods improved after she started practicing Ashtanga yoga.

In the evening, there was a lot of excitement, especially within the American crowd, because Barack Obama was going to be inaugurated as the new president. People were trying to find a place with a TV, and two or three eventually did go to a nearby hotel late in the evening to watch the inauguration.

Day 4: Wednesday (21)
Nancy asked us all to dedicate our practice today to Barack Obama. I went through my practice concentrating on not procrastinating by wiping away sweat etc, and Nancy and her assistants gave me no adjustments in the postures even the really difficult new postures in second series such as Kapotasana (Dove Pose). I did touch my toes in Kapotasana though, which seemed to impress Jason. I was very tired afterwards and Nancy said I should stop and I don't even think I did drop backs.

In Goa, there is a Saturday night market, which I did go to two years ago, which was really enjoyable, however, it has not been running for a few weeks now. On Wednesdays, there is a market in Anjuna. A whole bunch of us went. Vibeke came with me on the back of my scooter. The market was absolutely huge, spreading out from the entrance where we parked the bike on a dusty field, all the way back to the beach. We looked around for a bit, but then decided to escape the hustle and the bustle, by going to the Shore Restaurant on the beach and had something cool to drink.

There was no evening discourse.

Day 5: Thursday (22) - loving kindness meditation
Today was the last day that I could practice the second series, because Friday would be a lead class. Nancy said I should go directly into second series today (no primary series) and I went as far as she had taken me before and then she gave me new postures. At one point she hesitated to give me another posture wondering how tired I was, but I said to her, that I would take whatever posture she gives me and ended up doing the entire second series. Nancy still adds the scorpion pose after Karandayasana (Himalaya Goose Pose). This appears to have been in the series before.

On Thursday evening, Nancy did not do a discourse, but we had a meditation session after dinner. Katie is a friend of Nancy's, who has a very interesting lifestory of when she went to Burma to learn vipassana (meditation) in a monastery. She told us how slowly they would move so that they were aware of every moment, which was quite funny. It was in the late 1980's and she decided to stay longer and longer at the monastery and eventually they got word that the country was in a civil revolution and she eventually got to speak to the ambassodor from england who said, "It is quite alright, everything is under control, but the embassy staff are leaving the country today." She eventually did get out, but it was a very interesting story.

She compared yoga, which uses dristi (focus), breath and concentration during the physical practice of asana to the Tibetan tradition of meditation, which includes a lot of prostrations, which I had seen in my last trip in India, when I visited Dharamsala to see the annual teachings of the Dalai Lama. She said that Yoga is intrinsically linked to meditation. In meditation, we sit on our mats and our minds do not stop. We want to know how to ride our thoughts a little better, was the phrase she used. We want to be present and be completely aware, which is also the aim of yoga. After yoga we tend to be much more grounded and calmer, which is also an outcome of meditation.

She said that our minds set us up, it makes us believe things, which are not true or have not happened yet. The practice of meditation in Buddhism is used to relieve ourselves of this suffering.
Nancy introduced Katie to us by telling us how she was worried one night about her daughter who had gone out and was late. She said that Katie had given her the Loving Kindness meditation, which is an antidote to fear, and she practiced it that night and has used it ever since. I have quoted the meditation below, however, you can make up your own four lines that are more personal. First you would meditate, by repeating the phrases in your mind for yourself, "May I..." and then if you want to, you would send the meditation out to somebody else, starting off with a person you do not have a complicated relationship with.

May you be filled with loving kindness
May you be well
May you be peaceful
and at ease
May you be happy

Day 6: Friday (23)
Friday morning was lead class. Nancy was strict and told us that we are not allowed to move past a position, if she has not counted us into the next move. In lead class, people sometimes move on by their own, because their breath is dictating how fast they move, and the breath varies in all of us. So, to ensure that everyone moves as a group, teachers use position four (chatvari in sanskrit) when everybody is in Chaturanga Dandasana (four limbed staff pose, which is the same as the bottom part of a tricep pushup). This means if you are fast, you have to hold that position until she counts the next breath, number five (pancha). When you are doing a posture and she is busy assisting someone, you have to hold the posture for as long as she is busy adjusting that person no matter if you have done five breaths or not, and it does not matter if one side is much longer than the other.
I hardly ever practice a lead primary class at home, so it was quite difficult relinquishing control over the speed of my practice to someone else, and I found myself playing with the mind in postures that we had to hold for a long time, instead of just accepting it.

At one of the mealtimes, Nancy told me that I should practice primary and second series on alternate days when I get back home.