The Yoga Practice Thread

[TransistorBass]

Had a pretty heavy couple of weeks at work, a lot of heavy lifting and back twinges etc. So again today, especially as I now have 10 days off work, I've just had a lovely deep Yoga session with added NN DMT.
Quick warm up of windmilling my arms and sort of a spinny floppy arms twisting, bit of a side-bend stretch and neck rolls.
Couple of seconds Hit.
All laid on back stuff and deep twists.
Couple of seconds Hit.
Boat Pose, then feet together (Lotus?) and butterfly knees, 90/90 with legs.
Couple of seconds Hit.
Into Cat-Cow, right leg over left and look at foot, swap to other side, into Superman (or Superwoman if you prefer).
Couple of seconds Hit.
Downward Dog, into chaturanga a couple of time, back to dog and one leg in air and hip-opener into Pidgeon upright then Pidgeon folded, back to Dog, then runners lunge into a twist / an arm up i air thing / a half splits stretch, back to dog and into 3x forward folds, into Chair pose, into balances, open into Warrior/s with the usual stretches, into wide-legged forward fold and hand on floor with hand in air, arms to left leg then to right, heel-toe feet in and Goddess squat for a while, heel-toe in more and full squat.
And slow;y stand up.
Crow Pose into head stand, into wide legged childs pose.
Bit of a flat back stretch and knees into chest before sitting up and giving thanks.

Breath and movement were sync'd really well.

 

[EmeraldAtomiser]

Breath linked to movement is the first step on the path to nirvana. Ommmm

 

[EmeraldAtomiser]

Crow Pose into head stand.

Get you!

 

[TransistorBass]

Get you!

Haha, usually balance for a count of 10 in Crow, probably not the most graceful Corvid but i will do. I need to improve my shoulder and arm strength and try work it into a handstand. Though the trouble with handstands is I know I'll be going arse over tit and smashing something or myself in the room.
I'm not too bad at headstands but I'd like to practice Pincha but I feel my mechanics are all wrong and i don't have the confidence.

And btw, today's Yoga session was without DMT, which is my default.

 

[Voidmatrix]

Haha, usually balance for a count of 10 in Crow, probably not the most graceful Corvid but i will do. I need to improve my shoulder and arm strength and try work it into a handstand. Though the trouble with handstands is I know I'll be going arse over tit and smashing something or myself in the room.
I'm not too bad at headstands but I'd like to practice Pincha but I feel my mechanics are all wrong and i don't have the confidence.

And btw, today's Yoga session was without DMT, which is my default.

I've found forearm stands to be beneficial in training the overall handstand. Kicking one leg up from crow is helpful from time to time.

One love

 

[TransistorBass]

1-leg eh. I'll give it a go @Voidmatrix I did used to do a bit of practice with my feet walking up the wall while in plank position so pushing back with arms.

 

[Voidmatrix]

Here's another variation that may be easier.

One love

 

[ommani]

Y’all don’t know about the downward facing turkey pose, let alone the jive turkey variation.

 

[TransistorBass]

I've been doing Yoga every day this week in an attempt to stop my back causing issues.... yay!!
Sometimes I think every day is too much but i also think I'd be knackered without Yoga!

 

[TransistorBass]

Lightly 'assisted' Yoga the other day, made me think about Yoga being not just for this meat sack of a body but for the consciousness inside.
I started Yoga for the body maintenance and stayed for both the maintenance and the entity inside.

Again today I just had a very lightly enhanced Yoga session, I'm learning that very light hits is best, almost no CEV and very light OEV when you are mid-focus or focused on the space between things.

 

[Flufferus]

man ive never given yoga an honest try. i do it for one day, get crazy sore, and forget it exists for another few months then try again haha!

I want to stick with some light yoga for awhile im sure it would do wonders for my skeletal muscles

 

[TransistorBass]

Do it, the post-yoga buzz is what kept me coming back, though its easy to almost walk into traffic when leaving the Yoga class if you try to keep the chill-state.
Its like a very light hit of weed when you get a good Shavasana at the end of Yoga.

 

[TransistorBass]

Had a fairly quick 'assisted' Yoga session, I've been thinking about what @northape said about Energy & Spirit in a post (I must go find what they said), thinking about where all the energy from DMT goes and whether it needs an outlet.
Multiple 2-3 second tokes on my 600mg vape juice tank, my cork yoga mat was looking like an India Inspired Magic Eye picture, I stuck to floor work to avoid any balance issues and allowed my body to move and play more than I would normally in a Yoga session, and yep I looked lke a wiggly snake at times (not a euphemism), feeling the flow, the breath, the move.
Maybe I was using the energy and letting the spirit flow, I feel if I've had the same amount of tokes simply sat in a comfy chair I'd have had vastly bigger DMT effects so I hope to have put that enegry & spirit to good use, went straight for a cool shower afterwards its hot & humid in the UK just now.

 

[TransistorBass]

T'was this comment-

Aging aside, few people mention the challenges of working with energy in either the psychedelic or spiritual communities. The materialistic assumption about reality is so deeply ingrained in us that we approach the world from this position by default. Yet, the backbone of any spiritual practice is adapting to a stronger energy current inside the body.

You can achieve this through meditation, fasting, yoga, and many other modalities. It should be self-explanatory that DMT and similar substances raise energy through external means. That is one of the reasons why an ashtanga yoga practice is beneficial as preparation for a journey: yoga is like going to the gym, and a DMT journey is a marathon. You can see a similar progression in Tibetan Buddhism, for example. They advise starting with preliminary practices to prepare your system for higher techniques.

It's not that tummo (inner heat) practices from higher teachings would not work right away, but the probability of complications is too high. Your body needs to be ready for such high levels of energy. Basically, we need to adapt slowly. It looks like DMT is meant to be experienced only a few times in a lifetime by Nature. So it's better to prepare your body-mind if you would like to work with it more. Sure, it's just my opinion, so take it with a big chunk of organic salt

 

[northape]

Commenting on my own comment is fertile ground for the pride games the ego likes to engage in. To hell with that, we're all human and living from the ego's reference point.
So I'll try to at least clarify what I meant and give you a piece of my mind. Take it as a bird singing and nothing more:

I feel we're always working with energy. Buddhist traditions tend to relate to everything through body-speech-mind. It's all one, but we humans like to differentiate because it's easier to work with. Even applying our modern scientific worldview, we know that everything is energy. When our body-mind system receives a high load of external energy, it needs to release it and find balance once again. Harmony is the law of this place, and everything tends to go that way.

Spoiler: Sidenote

Please don't engage your conceptual mind too much here, because it's limited. We can't know the whole from our shallow perspective. The whole created us and is, by definition, an order of magnitude higher than we are. So what we perceive as chaos could potentially be cosmic harmony.

We release energy through one of the three gates. The same rules should apply to medicine use. People tend to do asanas, engage in breathwork, sing, or work with mental phenomena. All of them are ways to release that extra energy. This should all sound very basic and like commonsense so far. So why am I writing this?

Knowing about it in the back of your mind and actively engaging with the process are two different things. Both lead to the development of presence, but when you know what's going on and put your attention on it, the process hastens and leads to faster maturation of the body-mind. You're no longer a passive observer but an active participant, even if your action is just being mindful of the process. Here, English actually shines - you're being mindful. And being is king here. Yes, you exist all the time, but putting attention on it just deepens the state. That way, you go further and actively move with the evolutionary program. We can guide the energy via a specific gate through our will and help to realign the body-mind toward a stronger expression of your Being.

It all reads a bit woo-woo, but hopefully, you can get something out of it. Once again, I'm talking only from my point of view, and it gets infinitely deeper.

End of rant

 

[TransistorBass]

It's certainly something I'll be keeping in the back of my mind, and it feels like my Harmala+lower-dosed Vaped DMT sessions are where I feel the most focus and get glimpses of a quiet mind, this is something I want to try and develop more, it feels like the space inbetween where the calm exists and that calm is very appealing. Feels like progress.