My name is Kim Ruby. I live in Los Angeles, I'm a yoga teacher, and I'm in medical school at USC.
The purpose of this website is to provide info on yoga, back pain, and Dr. Sarno's approach to treating what he calls TMS, or "Tension Myositis Syndrome." And any other stuff I feel like adding.
And it's called Tar Pit Yoga because I live by the La Brea Tar Pits.
Asana is the practice of physical postures. Asana practice is what most people think of when they think of yoga, but it's just one part of the yogic approach to developing awareness.
You do the same thing in asana practice that you do in meditation. First, you go through a quick mental checklist to make sure the parts of the body are in the right place. Then, once you're in the desired pose, you just experience it. Since experiencing (rather than thinking about) life is the big goal of yoga, it's easy to see why asana is a great practice. It provides the opportunity to experience a wide range of physical sensations, including the following:
During a pose, your mind will inevitably drift off and you'll start thinking about other things, like the argument you had at work this morning, how uncomfortable the pose is, or about what you're going to wear to tonight's dinner party. You may have feelings of fear, anger, embarrassment, boredom, pride, frustration, resentment, or joy. Just label the thoughts, let them run their course, and bring your attention back to the physical sensations.
Let's take, for example, a standing forward bend (Uttanasana). Go through a quick checklist: Place feet hip-distance apart; activate quadriceps and straighten legs; keep back straight and bend forward at the hips; hold on to the big toes and gently pull the chest toward the legs.
Next, experience the pose: feel the stretch in the hamstrings and lower back; feel the quadriceps tensing; feel any tension in the shoulders and neck; sense the sitting bones pointing toward the ceiling; feel the shoulders moving away from the ears; listen to the sound of the breath; listen to the sounds inside and outside of the room; feel the torso expand and contract with each breath.
Label any thoughts you may have: "having a thought that this hurts;" "having a thought that the guy next to me is a lot better at this than I am;" "having a thought that the gym smells like B.O." "having a thought that I hate the smell of B.O." "having a thought that I wish the teacher would stop talking and put us in a different pose."
Let the thoughts run their course, and continue to feel the pose.
More to come!