It's All About Iyengar..... with a few pumpkin seeds too

BKS Iyengar aged 95

Iyengar Yoga: the waist-trimming exercise class the A-listers love 
from The Times on Saturday 17th October 2015

Nigella (Lawson) swears by the yoga style that promises a long, lean physique and flexibility into old age. Peta Bee tries it out.

Nigella Lawson's slim new figure is not down to fasting or cutting carbs. So what is behind her latest transformation? In the November issue of Good Housekeeping magazine, the nation's most glamourous TV cook says that her secret is simple. "I have never been on a diet to try to lose weight, but I'm possibly in better shape," she says. "I am doing a rather slow form of yoga now called Iyengar."

Quietly and without the overt commercialisation of some yoga brands, Iyengar is among the most popular yoga forms in the world, and Nigella isn't the only celebrity to discover its ability to lengthen limbs and tighten stomachs. Madonna is a fan, as are Jennnifer Aniston, Andie MacDowell and Joanna Lumley. More so than many other varieties of yoga, Iyengar also focuses on perfecting alignment, improving posture and rehabilitation after injury. It appeals to men as much as women. The precise strengthening postures have attracted sports stars such as Ryan Giggs, Jo Hart and Rio Ferdinand, and the New Zealand rugby union team. The ballet dancer Alessandra Ferri, who is 52 and still a star ballerina, credits it for helping to extend her career.

For the well-connected, the fitness oasis is the Iyengar Yoga Institute, tucked away at the end of a narrow cobbled lane in the leafy enclave of Maida Vale, west London. Classes are snapped up immediately, and if you manage to grab a place you can expect your mat to be sandwiched between those of glamorous local mummies who have heard about its glute-lifting effect, top athletes and the hard-worked bodies of the nearby Notting Hill and Primrose Hill sets. Despite being the first purpose-built yoga centre in Europe when it opened 30 years ago, until recently its light-flooded studios were known only to an army of hardcore enthusiasts. But word has spread. As I wait for my class to start, a bewildered receptionist is fielding calls from model agencies and glossy magazine editors all trying to secure a place on the most sought-after class in town. Many of the 50 or more weekly classes are booked up the minute they become available and there has been a sharp uptake in the number of first-timers trying taster classes and in those signing up to become members.

Developed by the pioneering yoga teacher BKS Iyengar, the white-haired, bendy-bodied guru from Karnataka in India who is credited with introducing yoga as we know it to the West, the underlying principles are that yoga should be accessible and achievable for everyone and easily incorporated into a western lifestyle. Iyengar started practicing the 2,000-year-old tradition of postures after a series of childhood illnesses and began teaching in the 1930's in Mysore, India. Over the next three decades he honed the way he taught traditional postures, documenting new methods that used aids such as blocks and ropes to help people to achieve them. In the 1960's he published his book Light On Yoga, which became an international best seller. With 500 pages of detailed instruction and photographs of postures, it was the first yoga publication of its kind. It is still regarded as something of a bible and dipped into by millions of people around the world.

None of Iyengar's postures is unique. You will find the headstands, shoulderstands and other moves typical of the approach in other types of yoga class. What distinguishes it is that it aims to work every part of your body systematically, giving great muscle definition without adding bulk.  It is methodical, the very antithesis of the fast-moving, posture-packed versions to which the 'fitterati' have flocked in recent years, and its regimen of precise alignment and deliberate sequencing is reputed to be fantastic for correcting posture, balancing the body's weak spots and for rehabilitation after injury. It is especially good for fixing problems linked to desk-hunching or keyboard tapping. A study this year by researchers at the Institute of Global Health at the University of Geneva found Iyengar yoga to be an effective way of healing back and neck pain when compared with control groups. While it won't burn calories in the same way as, say, Ashtanga (which is a dynamic, demanding form of yoga, with a cardio workout and resistance training in one), it is hardcore and can do wonders for tightening the stomach muscles, shaping the upper arms and giving the illusion that you have grown longer and leaner.

Nigella's claim that she just does a bit of Iyengar "in a very slow way; sometimes lying down" is deceptive. It's harder than you might think. Even in my basic class, props such as bolsters, harnesses and blocks are used to increase awareness of your positioning and to make the poses accessible. There's a stronger emphasis on accuracy than I have experienced in other yoga, to the point that the edges of your mat must be parallel to the floorboard joints.

Iyengar yoga involves holding a position for what seems like forever - in our class, one to three minutes is not unusual - while practicing strict breath control and repeating each pose three to four times.

Unlike Bikram, with its fixed order and poses, there is no strict format to follow. Instructors dip into the catalogue of 200-plus poses outlined by BKS Iyengar, according to their preference and the ability of their class. "Each instructor will bring a different set of postures in a different order to each class," says Judy Lynn, who is teaching this morning's beginners' lesson. "Don't expect a set format to the order of teaching". Many consider the diversity of the poses to be Iyengar's most therapeutic attribute.

All its teachers are trained to understand biomechanics, which positions are most likely to cause injuries, and how to modify them by tweaking your tehnique. They dispense instructions in a more clinical fashion than you might typically expecty from yoga, repeating advice until it evenually clicks. There is little risk of overuse injuries when sequences vary every session; devotees claim you can stick with it for life.

Indeed, another of my instructors is Elisabeth Wengersky, who is 83, remarkable not only for her age-defying appearance but for her flexibility. Wengersky took up Iyengar yoga in 1978 and has been teaching it since 1996.  With her chic white bob and enviable physique, she would not look out of place among a class of women a third her age. There can't be many 83-year-olds with bodies as flexible and well conditioned as hers. "Iyengar teaches progression," she says. "It's a matter of building layer upon layer." There is no limit, she says, to the age at which you can get the most out of your body. BKS Iyengar died last year, aged 95, staying true to his belief that daily yoga practice "will keep old age at bay" by working on his own body for three hours a day and teaching for many more. Nearing 90, he could still pipe-cleaner his body into a backbend and hang upside down on a rope swing for 20 minutes or more.

The thought leaves me feeling inadquate. Wengersky pulls and pushes my hips and shoulders into position with minute tweaks that produce a stretch deeper than I have felt in years. There is, she assures me, no need to head straight for the endpoint. "You need to build up, to learn the progressions correctly before you attempt full asanas (poses)."

Our studio is adorned with black-and-white pictures of a wiry Iyengar contorting himself with ropes, hanging upside down and doing impossible backbends. As I withstand the head rush that comes with holding a shoulderstand for several minutes at the end of the 90-minute class, I realise that I have pushed myself to the point of achyness, to that level of muscle fatigue you might assume you would get only at bootcamp or in a spin class. Yet there's a long way to go. I could well be back for more.

Peta Bee in Vrksasana (Tree Pose)

Continuing the series about the great masters who have influenced yoga as we know it today, now seems a good time to look at the life of BKS Iyengar.

Born into a poor family in Karnataka, India in 1918, Bellur Krishnamachar Sundararaja Iyengar was a sickly child who suffered from malnutrition, malaria, TB and typhoid. When he was 15 his brother-in-law the yogi Sri Tirumalai Krishnamacharya (see my post from 28th September here) persuaded him to stay with him to learn yoga to improve his health. He steadily regained his health, and his proficiency in yoga grew. After studying with Krishnamacharya for 3 years, Iyengar started his own teaching career.

Inspired by the improvements in his own health, Iyengar started to adapt the traditional postures with blocks, tables, ropes and straps so that anyone, no matter how unwell or disabled they were, could do yoga. He paid careful attention to the alignment of the body, instructions were very precise, and each pose was held for a considerable time to build the strength and stamina of the practitioner. 

In 1952 he became both friend and teacher to the violinist Yehudi Menuhin. It was this relationship that led to BKS Iyengar to start travelling abroad and teaching internationally. In 1966 Iyengar published his first book "Light on Yoga" which became an international bestseller and is to this day considered to be one of the most important books on yoga, covering asana and pranayama clearly and fully. 

His teachings became the system we know today as Iyengar Yoga and there are now hundreds of Iyengar Yoga Centres worldwide.  Iyengar teachers are intensively trained - no shortcuts or weekend training courses here! - and offer a slow, disciplined and steady way to improve health and wellbeing. 

My own teacher, Ruth White, was one of BKS Iyengar's first British pupils and my teaching style is therefore influenced by his system. I use the blocks, blankets and straps in my classes so that the postures are available to everyone and I encourage the correct alignment of the body in each pose. I regularly refer to my very battered and well-used copy of Light on Yoga for it's clear step-by-step instructions.

BKS Iyengar continued to practice yoga daily almost up to his death in August 2014. He was 95 when he died following a short illness. Some of the photos below are from his final photoshoot, taken only a month before he died. He had a profound impact on yoga for which we are all indebted, no matter what style of yoga we choose to practice. His son Prashant and his daughter Geeta continue to teach and train the Iyengar system.

BKS Iyengar adjusting Yehudi Menuhin in Shoulderstand

 The photos above were taken a month before his death aged 95

The video above shows BKS Iyengar practicing in 1938

The video above shows BKS Iyengar teaching a very vigorous
vinyasa style class in 1977

Carving Pumpkins This Weekend? - what to do with the leftover pumpkin seeds

I'm not a fan of Halloween but I do love pumpkins! I love pumpkin soup (it's sweet and creamy) and I especially love pumpkin seeds. I sprinkle them on my salads, put them in flapjack and granola and enjoy them on their own as a snack too.  They're really good for you containing, amongst other nutrients, phosphorous, magnesium, manganese, copper, zinc and iron, and they are a good source of protein too. 

Here are some easy recipes for healthy snacks which use the raw seeds left over from hollowing out a pumpkin. The recipes assume that you've got about a cupful of seeds.

First heat the oven to 150 degrees C (300 degrees F or gas mark 2) and line a baking tray with parchment.

Pick off as much of the pumpkin pulp as you can then put the seeds in a bowl of water and leave them for about 5 minutes. The pulp should sink to the bottom and the seeds float to the top. Drain the seeds and pat them dry on a tea towel.  

Toss the seeds in about a teaspoon of olive oil and then add the extra ingredients for the flavour of your choice. Spread the coated seeds out on the baking sheet and bake in the oven for 25-35 minutes until they are golden. Leave to cool and crisp up and then enjoy the goodness.

Spicy Pumpkin Seeds

half a teaspoon garlic powder

half a teaspoon cayenne

quarter teaspoon sea salt

quarter teaspoon paprika

Cheesy Pumpkin Seeds

1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese
half teaspoon basil
half teaspoon oregano
quarter teaspoon sea salt
eighth teaspoon garlic powder

Sweet Pumpkin Seeds

half teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon brown sugar
pinch of salt

Stealing, Plants and Baby Birds

When I settled down to write this blog post I had in mind the topic of Asteya - the third of the Yamas, or moral principles, as set out by Patanjali in his Yoga Sutras.

Asteya means non-stealing which, in the most general terms, is an easy one to understand - it's a boundary that most of us have been brought up to respect. Asteya in more yogic terms is a little more complicated. Yoga philosophy asks us to delve a little deeper, often asking questions of ourselves that we'd rather not ask! But that's the point of it all - personal growth and learning to live life in the best way possible.

Asteya is about not taking more than is freely given, not taking more than we need, and not wasting the Earth's precious resources. It's about not stealing others' ideas, time, or energy in order to make ourselves feel better. It's about not coveting other people's good fortune and wishing it was ours (otherwise known as jealousy). It's about not hoarding things and learning to let things go when we don't need them any more.

Through living life in accordance with the values of Asteya we develop self-sufficiency and don't need to compare ourselves to others. We give up wanting what other people have and recognise the richness that is present in our own life already.  Then Asteya gets turned around - non-stealing turns into giving. Scarcity turns into abundance. And so we learn to become more generous - with the material things that we have, and also with our energy, love, joy and compassion.

I mentioned at the beginning that I had the intention to write this post about Asteya, but as I sat and waited for the words to come I got distracted - a nearby pot plant caught my eye. It is a type of Aloe which requires very little care and attention and is therefore often overlooked, but I noticed that it had sprouted a completely perfect baby version of itself at the edge of the pot. I took a closer look. As I studied it I marvelled at just how amazing it was - thick fleshy leaves with beautiful stripey markings and tiny serrations on its edges. I moved on to look at my other pot plants - the shapes of their leaves, the veins that deliver the plants nutrients, their very different structures - all equally beautiful and miraculous.

As a keen gardener I love to use different colours, shapes and sizes of plants to contrast with each other, but this is often done with the "big picture" of a flower bed or an arrangement of cut flowers in mind. I went out into the garden and started to really look at the plants individually. I became completely absorbed and lost track of time.

When I came back inside to carry on writing I was a little annoyed with myself for getting distracted, but then I realised that, by giving my full and complete attention to just this one thing, I was practicing Dharana - the 6th of the 8 limbs of yoga.  Dharana means concentration and is the pre-cursor to meditation. When we concentrate fully on something with unwavering attention the fluctuations of the mind are quietened. It's what happens when you are reading a really good page-turner of a book, or are so involved in a film you are watching that you feel like you're right there in it rather than sitting in the cinema. I often feel it on the yoga mat too - I'm so focused on the poses and the flow that no other thoughts get a chance to surface.

The opportunities for engaging in Dharana are all around us but it's the complete opposite of our fast-paced, many-screened culture which encourages multi-tasking and getting lots of things done, so it's not easy. It is possible though if we slow down, breathe deeply and remove ourselves from distractions. If we set an intention to focus on just one thing, the rewards are great. We are no longer at the mercy of the busy thoughts of the mind - we are consciously choosing not to get drawn into their stories - we are choosing peace. 

I've been searching for an appropriate article to share with you this week without much luck. But this came into my Inbox today - perfect timing from Leo Babauta from www.zenhabits.net. 

Redesigning Your Life’s Interface by Leo Babauta

If you’ve ever tried to use a smart phone, or a website, you’re using a user interface. If done well, this interface has been designed to help you do what you want: check your messages, read an article, find information, get stuff done.

Our lives have interfaces too. We just don’t often think about it. And just like with badly designed websites, a bad interface for your life can be frustrating, grating, full of friction and confusion.

The good news is … you’re the interface designer of your life! You can redesign the interface. Let’s think about a few examples:

Life’s popup boxes: When you work, are there a dozen things trying to get your attention? Email, phone messages, social media, blogs, news, other favorite websites … while you’re trying to get an important task done? These are like popup boxes asking you to subscribe, that get in the way of your reading. You can redesign it so that you have only the task in front of you, no popups or distractions.

Simplify the steps: If you want to work out regularly, how many steps does it take before you can actually do the first exercise? For many people, they have to get their gym clothes together into a bag, close down a computer, drive to a gym, check into the gym, change, find an available spot in the gym, then do the workout. That’s like if you wanted to send an email message but had to click through seven different pages to get to the send message screen. Instead, think about simplifying it so you can get right to the task — get down on the floor and do some pushups and planks, have a chinup bar near your bathroom so you can do some every time you pass, go outside during a work break and walk quickly for 10 minutes, several times a day. You can look at other things in your life that take too many steps to accomplish a goal, and remove steps.

Annoying ads or sales pitches. How often have you been on a site with annoying ads, or constant sales pitches from the blogger? You just want to read or get stuff done without all the pitches. The same is true of your regular life — you don’t want people walking into your office giving you sales pitches, nor do you want to hear or see ads in your radio or TV or magazines. Consider “ad-blocking” your life, by finding ways to avoid sales meetings, people who are soliciting, meetings where someone is trying to pitch you. Pay for ad-free music streaming and video, stop buying magazines (just read articles using read-later services that strip out ads), unsubscribe from ads disguised as newsletters in your inbox. Unfriend people who are trying to get you into multi-level marketing and the like.

Make your important goals be easy to find. One frustration on websites is when the thing that matters most is buried in a hard-to-find page, not easy to find. With a good user interface, the most important goals are front and center, obvious and easy. But in our lives, we make the least important things easiest to find and do (TV, Facebook, distraction, junk food), while the most important things are hidden behind layers of distraction (your most important project, exercise, eating healthy, spending time with loved ones). What if we put these important things in front of the rest? Bury Facebook and other distractions, and have the important project be the only thing that shows when you open your computer. Get rid of junk food and have your healthy options be out in the open for when you get hungry. Put the TV in the closet, and have dumbbells there instead. To spend time with loved ones, put the activity that you want to do with them just inside the front door when you get home — put the book you want to read with your kids, or the rollerblades you want to use with them, just inside the door. Or put the tea cups you want to use with your wife as you talk and have tea together, in the middle of the living room.

Beautiful design. When an app or website looks beautiful, it’s not just for the sake of gloss and glamor. It’s to create a mood, an experience, a feeling of delight or peace. Each action with a good app or website should give you an experience you enjoy, rather than a feeling of clunkiness or frustration. The same can be true of your life — remove distraction and clutter, and find ways to bring peace and delight to your life.

Obviously these are just a few examples, a few abstract ideas. The actual implementation depends on your goals, on the experience you want to create for yourself. But these are good to think about.

In truth, we can never control everything about our experience in life, nor should we try. But spending some time thinking about a smarter, simpler, more lovely interface for your life is about rethinking the unconscious, and living more consciously.

Apple and Pecan Porridge

I love porridge all through the year but, as we move into the colder weather it's even more appealing to have a hot, filling breakfast. This is a Jamie Oliver recipe - it's a great way to liven up your ordinary bowl of porridge and to use up some of those abundant windfall apples ...

160 g rolled oats

600 ml milk, organic soya milk or water (I use coconut milk)

sea salt

1 apple

30 g pecans

2 tablespoons maple syrup, to taste

Method:

Place the oats and the milk or water in a large pan over a medium heat.

Add a tiny pinch of salt and stir with a wooden spoon.

Bring to a steady simmer for 5 to 6 minutes, stirring as often as you can to give you a smooth creamy porridge – if you like your porridge runnier, simply add a splash more milk or water until you’ve got the consistency you like.

Meanwhile, coarsely grate the apple onto a chopping board using a box grater. (Jamie says you can grate the core as well but I chose not to.)

Snap the pecans up into little pieces, then add them to a small non-stick frying pan over a medium heat (there’s no need for oil) for 3 to 4 minutes, or until lightly golden, stirring occasionally.

Stir the grated apple and most of the maple syrup through the porridge for the last few minutes of cooking.

Serve with the toasted pecans on top and the remaining maple syrup drizzled over.

You can view this recipe and many more at www.jamieoliver.com 

The Teachers Who Have Influenced Yoga As We Know It Today - this week Indra Devi

Indra Devi was the woman who brought yoga to America. Born in Russia into an aristocratic family and christened Eugenie Peterson, she was fascinated by India and moved there in 1927 with the intention of acting in Indian films. She changed her name to Indra Devi as it fitted with her new Indian persona. 

She was the first foreign woman to study yoga under Krishnamacharya (see my last blog post for an introduction to his life and work) in 1938, which was very unusual in what was then a male-dominated pursuit.  On his insistence she become a  yoga teacher, and she set up her own yoga school when she moved to China, where she taught students of many nationalities. In 1947 she moved to the US and set up a yoga school in Hollywood, where she became famous as the teacher of many movie stars including Greta Garbo, Gloria Swanson and Eva Gabor. 

Indra Devi and Eva Gabor
(I'm loving the sparkly shoes!)

She spent her whole life teaching yoga around the world, was the president of the International Yoga Federation and wrote many books on the subject of yoga. She died in 2002, aged 102.

And finally, a really lovely video about noticing the little things in life and becoming lost in the moment  :-)