There is a Buddhist concept called “monkey mind” that describes the negative brain chatter in everyone’s lives. No matter what our success or level of self-confidence, we all have worries, fears and self-doubts that hold us back.
But Buddhism hasn’t endured and prospered through some 26 centuries without a plan to calm the decidedly human monkey mind. It is called meditation. Hinduism similarly employs meditation and its roots reach back nearly 5,000 years.
Both Buddhists and Hindus practice yoga, which integrates meditation, stretching and balancing postures, in one path toward spiritual enlightenment. The hot debate as yoga gains popularity in this country and century is whether the converts get the point-or whether it really matters that they do.
About 18 million Americans do yoga regularly, according to a survey commissioned for the magazine Yoga Journal, and classes are offered in about 40 percent of the nation’s health clubs. Both numbers are roughly double from the mid-1990s. But some veteran yoga practitioners, while glad for the interest and visibility for the discipline, worry about whether it will merely be Westernized into another exercise fad.
“We need to make sure we don’t lose the essence of yoga, which means taking time at the beginning of class to meditate,” says Maty Ezraty, co-owner and founder of Yoga Works in Los Angeles, which offers 150 classes per week.
Even at the beginner’s level, yoga has many benefits. People who take yoga classes say they feel more flexible and energetic. They report less stress in their lives and better sleep. Medical research has documented reduced blood pressure and cholesterol, and the discipline is an integral part of Dr. Dean Ornish’s famed program for reversing heart disease. Other preliminary studies point to the potential for preventing carpal tunnel syndrome and managing chronic pain.
Yoga is becoming especially popular among pregnant women, even replacing Lamaze classes for some and encouraging more natural childbirth.
For many people, those benefits-along with its reputed toning-are more than enough reason to pursue what is commonly called a yoga “practice.”
But some advocates and instructors contend yoga can make a deeper impact on a person’s body-mind-spirit connection. They see it as much more than a fitness trend.
“You can go beyond the monkey mind to see a vastness of self,” says Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa, who grew up in Downers Grove and is founder and senior instructor of the Goldenbridge Yoga Center in Los Angeles.
That’s not as hard as it sounds, she says. Every yoga class starts with people who rush in from jobs or other life responsibilities. They concentrate on their breathing during the opening meditation and poses (called “asanas”) to follow. At some point, depending on your experience level, the mind surrenders its chatter and grows quiet. This is when the spirit work begins in a yoga class.
“If you stay in that `teeny mind,’ you are always judging yourself harshly. You never feel skinny or pretty enough, you put yourself down,” says Gurmukh (she goes by this single name). “Seeing beyond the monkey mind is where we find love, kindness and compassion.”
This is probably more than you can say about step aerobics or weight training. Perhaps not coincidentally, many former aerobics participants are making their way to yoga classes.
Kathy Cain, a personal trainer and yoga instructor in the north suburbs, can attest to the crossover. She conducts a lot more yoga classes these days than weight training sessions. When she first taught yoga at the Wilmette Park District, she called it “Body and Soul” to encourage participation and discourage people who considered yoga to be more weird than workout.
“Then I just called it yoga and got more people to sign up than ever,” says Cain, who is now based at the Personal Fitness Training studio in Wilmette located in a house on a residential street.
Cain teaches anywhere from one to four students in each class, which is a bit different from the 50 to 80 students who show up at classes taught by Gurmukh. Among the Goldenbridge participants on a given day might be any number of Hollywood celebrities who continue to boost yoga’s popularity, including Madonna (who portrayed a yoga instructor in the movie “The Next Best Thing”), Cindy Crawford (a “wonderful” student who gave birth at home based on Gurmukh’s class teachings), Courtney Love, Annette Bening, David Duchovny, Tim Burton, Rosanna Arquette and Melissa Etheridge.
“We are all looking for peace of mind,” says Gurmukh, author of a new book, “The Eight Human Talents: The Yogic Way to Restore Balance and Serenity Within You” (ReganBooks, $25). “We need a place to get away. Vacations can’t do it all. Yoga can provide a consistency, which lifts the spirit.”
Nonetheless, Gurmukh is realistic about her clientele. Southern California might have 70-some yoga studios but there’s also the traffic, smog and fast-track lifestyles.
“Yoga actually can allow someone to live as rapidly as we do in today’s society,” says Gurmukh.
To maximize yoga’s benefits, Gurmukh says, a class must have a few core ingredients: a beginning brief meditation, conscious breathing (called pranayama), yoga postures (known as asanas) and a finishing relaxation period while lying on the floor (“no class should end abruptly”).
“The longer people breathe, the slower the mind gets,” she says.
Some so-called yoga classes, however, can sound and look suspiciously like a version of funk or high-impact step aerobics classes. Ashtanga yoga or power yoga, which has become prominent in recent years, emphasizes a fast-paced series of poses that require significant strength and flexibility.
Despite taking some ashtanga yoga classes herself–she teaches a version called kundalini that emphasizes the use of mantras and other sounds to energize the body–Gurmukh says she has watched too many people in such classes fall to the temptation to be “competitive and comparative, wanting the perfect posture.”
Anne Cushman, writing in a Yoga Journal cover story about “Americanized yoga” earlier this year, agrees that focus shouldn’t be sacrificed for form.
“In the quest for the perfect backbend, we can easily become distracted from yoga’s primary purpose: To calm our minds and open our hearts.”
In the same article, Cushman makes it clear that yoga is no cure-all: “We discover that mastering lotus doesn’t necessarily save our marriage,” she writes. “We notice that doing yoga doesn’t mean we won’t ever get sick and die.”
Gurmukh says “understanding the teacher’s intention” is a key strategy for beginners or anyone looking to take yoga deeper than the physical level. (Instructors who show off with headstands before class should definitely be crossed off the list, she says.)
Cain recommends that beginners take different kinds of yoga classes before deciding on any one type. Gentler forms appear to be the better choices for anyone who needs peace of mind as much as, if not more than, muscle toning and flexing. Some forms of yoga (notably ashtanga or power yoga) can be a cardiovascular workout, but most yoga classes are designed to accomplish a different sort of effect on your heart–and soul.
“People need to explore what they want from yoga,” she says. “It is a tremendous opportunity to develop a mind-body-spirit practice.”
Some prominent yoga instructors in the country will be talking about maintaining those kinds of connections in the next few weeks during major conferences in New York and Estes Park, Colo.
“When people get beyond the physical workout of yoga–and people do like to work up a sweat–it can teach us to listen more closely to our bodies,” says Cain. “We can honor the body with yoga, and figure out when we need to slow down or speed up. It is part of good self-care and wellness.”
