Author Topic: Japa Yoga, Like Nobody’s Watching  (Read 1017 times)

jbeegoode

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Japa Yoga, Like Nobody’s Watching
« on: July 23, 2021, 06:57:21 AM »
I do this exercise/meditation some days. It makes for a good day.

https://thefreerangenaturist.org/2021/07/10/japa-yoga-like-nobodys-watching/

Jbee
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nuduke

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Re: Japa Yoga, Like Nobody’s Watching
« Reply #1 on: July 31, 2021, 06:21:52 PM »
I'll look this up.  Ive been doing  Hatha yoga for some years.  From what you say thei Japa Yoga looks like one that might fit or you can easily adopt for the smaller moments when doing a bit of yoga for say 15 minutes seems right.
How long can you sit in half lotus, JBee?  My legs spring out of the pose after about 30 secs and even if not it becomes uncomfortable after about a minute!!
This week we went back to face to face classes.  All very well but a disadvantage was I couldn't do it naked, which I've been doing on and off all through lockdown!
John   

rrfalcon

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Re: Japa Yoga, Like Nobody’s Watching
« Reply #2 on: August 01, 2021, 05:03:56 PM »
It's not yoga, but archive.org has an ebook on doing T'ai Chi nude: https://archive.org/details/taichinude00yufl

jbeegoode

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Re: Japa Yoga, Like Nobody’s Watching
« Reply #3 on: August 02, 2021, 02:35:57 AM »
I'll look this up.  Ive been doing  Hatha yoga for some years.  From what you say thei Japa Yoga looks like one that might fit or you can easily adopt for the smaller moments when doing a bit of yoga for say 15 minutes seems right.
How long can you sit in half lotus, JBee?  My legs spring out of the pose after about 30 secs and even if not it becomes uncomfortable after about a minute!!
This week we went back to face to face classes.  All very well but a disadvantage was I couldn't do it naked, which I've been doing on and off all through lockdown!
John

They taught us in India that 21 minutes has a divisor of 7. Seven is an auspicious number. The idea was that the brain absorbs a concept in repetition even 7 minutes. Getting up to a speed from stretching and a decent cool down takes about 21 minutes to be more effective. There is also a "be here now" mindfulness component. The practice of just being aware and watching what is going on is a good path toward an enlightened state. The idea that we must let go, diminish ego and accept that we are being driven by something else, more that we are in control of our lives, can also be set into this exercise, when you notice that the body just takes over and leads the way.

How long can i sit in a half lotus? As long as I like, but I have to shift here and there and some back support helps, otherwise a full lotus is easier. Sitting any kind of cross legged without a back support is difficult for me, but I have a couple of positions, or find a downward slope to compensate. Anymore, I prefer half lotus in a chair instead of sitting proper in one. My butt goes to sleep, my feet drain out, I just don't last as long sitting proper. In lotus, when get tired, I switch to the other leg's dominance, before one goes to sleep. Hanging out relaxed in a meditative state has helped me to go from toleration to enjoying those awkward lotus positions.

Naked yoga just makes more sense. Less constriction, better awareness, more natural. Natural is a body's most effective state.
Jbee

 
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jbeegoode

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Re: Japa Yoga, Like Nobody’s Watching
« Reply #4 on: August 02, 2021, 02:52:54 AM »
It's not yoga, but archive.org has an ebook on doing T'ai Chi nude: https://archive.org/details/taichinude00yufl

Great book. I'll be giving it a study.

Tia Chi is more of a dance routine to me, more discipline and I haven't gotten the sense of it's purpose. I was introduced to Chi Gung at Canyon Ranch back in the late nineties. At the end, I had this palpable ball of stuff the instructor called chi. The movements brought sense of something I knew through my life, but I was taught to disbelieve or suffer ridicule, but something none the less that I had an awareness off. That first class empowered me to explore the "stuff" and lose my denial.

Although I had this ball of chi, I wasn't certain about what to do with it.

DF has been practicing energy healing for over thirty years now.  When I met her, she showed me other aspects of "the stuff." We both do some chi gong, but she more often. It is fun. I have gone off more on my India things.

The chi gong moves are very similar to Tai Chi. Chi Gong can be mixed up. The point is to make chi, to make it work. The Tia Chi seems to have more structure.
Jbee
« Last Edit: August 02, 2021, 03:13:58 AM by jbeegoode »
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nuduke

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Re: Japa Yoga, Like Nobody’s Watching
« Reply #5 on: August 08, 2021, 03:12:03 PM »
I do tai chi too, but only once a week in a class.  I never seem to make the time for a bit during any other normal day. I am ill disciplined in that respect.  I don't incorporate routine well into my schedules.
John

jbeegoode

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Re: Japa Yoga, Like Nobody’s Watching
« Reply #6 on: August 08, 2021, 08:23:11 PM »
I don't incorporate routine well into my schedules.
John

Sounds kinda oxymoron, but I certainly identify with that.  Sometimes it seems that plans are just meant to be changed.

One of my greatest challenges has been sticking to a regular exercise program.
Jbee
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nuduke

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Re: Japa Yoga, Like Nobody’s Watching
« Reply #7 on: August 16, 2021, 06:16:40 PM »
The problem is that I don't like exercise.  It's a bit like naturism....a bit unrewarding done for its own sake! :D
I know I should take more exercise than I do but I just can't find the motivation to make it daily or more regular than the 3 occasions per week I do now. 
My wife has been doing a good job over the last year or two trying to combat her arthritis aches and pains and trying to exercise the cardiac muscles a bit more by riding a static bike daily and she rarely misses a day nowadays. 
In theory it would be the easiest thing in the world for me to do 15 minutes yoga every day or a 30 minute walk but...somehow the motivation never lasts and the many things that crop up in a week make allocating a fixed time for this a non-starter. 
The first thing in the morning theoretically is a good time for such things but I am emphatically not a morning person.  I wish I was...up at dawn, yoga, shower, healthy breakfast and greet the tasks and events of the working day with 3 or 4 hours of virtuous activity already behind me.....but that's not how it is. 
I wake late (8-9am) feeling crusty and stiff to say the least (unless I've had something that I need an early alarm to get up for).  I might pick up a book and read for a bit or otherwise pass another 30 or 45 mins waking up.  Then I'll go and make a cup of tea and some toast or cereal and take it to my wife in bed.  Her arthritis means it's hard to walk around and use the stairs for a while most mornings so I take her breakfast up.  If its fine weather I might eat my breakfast in the garden but most days I go back to bed too to drink the tea and look at emails and catch up with correspondence etc.  By this time it's 10-10.30 or even later!
My brain and body are much more active in the evening.  About 8 or 9 pm onwards is where I do things that need study or typing longer correspondence.  I often go on this forum late at night.  I'll finish about 11.30-midnight or even a bit later and make a bedtime tea, take a shower and settle down with a book (Just finished a great book by Lee Smolin - Einstein's Unfinished Revolution - looking at possible realist theories to substitute or complete the gaps in Quantum Theory - challenging reading) or maybe a phone game (yes, I know you shouldn't play screen based games at bedtime!) and might not drift off until 1.30 or 2am which is why 9am... 7hrs later is waking up time.  I guess yoga at 10pm is a possibility but it never seems to occur to me to do this at the time!!


Where am I going wrong?
John

jbeegoode

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Re: Japa Yoga, Like Nobody’s Watching
« Reply #8 on: August 17, 2021, 10:01:43 PM »
Wish I knew, I'm in the same boat.

Being mindful in the moment just very aware helps me do exercise for exercise sake, like workout machines. I like swimming, but I have to get to them, off me arse. I can run hard spring 20 seconds, rest, then again and again. That is overwhelming and works and doesn't commit a whole lot of time. I just have to make sure people know that I'm not running away from something, like an angry husband or murderer. ;D

I know that I have to work at my health, I NEED the exercise. So I make my health my new job in retirement...I'm still falling behind in my regimen. DF is out of work now, so together, maybe we'll get out and about naked in nature frequently. seven out of every 30 days each month.
Jbee
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