by Prof. Jasprit

Excerpt from “Karma Wealth and Wellness: Mindfulness Tools for the Age of Science and Technology,” the RussaYog® Training Manual.

The purpose of engineering and technology is to create paths that are not normally available to us. Technology allows us to fly in airplanes, be comfortable in extreme heat or cold, keep food edible for months or even years, in case we cannot get fresh food, etc. Given the importance of using mindfulness to create wellness, let us consider how we can use technology to stay mindful. We can make small changes in our habits in order to stay well. The problem we often encounter is that it’s difficult to change our behavior without someone continually reminding us. Here is where simple existing technology can be used. Most of us have smart phones. Smart phones provide us many useful tools for our daily life. Why not use them to make us more mindful?

• A morning text message or phone call reminds you to pack a healthy lunch and suggests doing a few sequences of pranayam (yogic breathing) for 5 minutes.

• A text message or a phone call comes in to remind you to close your eyes for a slow deep yogic breath. Then adjust your posture — sit tall with feet supported and shoulders pulled back and low.

• Set the screen to start a five-minute yoga sequence. Follow the breathing sequence to open the shoulders, and a couple of postures to re-balance and rejuevenate. Every hour a different sequence begins and you are encouraged to take a yoga break.

• Before you go to lunch a short display reminds you to eat slowly, to drink water instead of a soft drink, etc. It also reminds you how important your health is.

• A couple of times during your workday a display reminds you to use a breathing exercise to release any mental stress.

• As you drive home or to run an errand, a gentle voice helps you maintain a strong posture and stay calm.

• When you reach home a message suggests a healthy snack of nuts and fruit and then encourages you to exercise for half an hour.

• At dinner time a display comes on your TV or smart phone to encourage you to eat slowly an avoid junk food.

• At bedtime a final visual message guides you through a relaxing pranayam.

Each of these suggestions are possible with the simple technologies available today. In just a few minutes each hour you would perform almost an hour of stress release and workout for the body. Even if you have no engineering background, try using the above guidelines to come up with a plan so there are no excuses of distraction or forgetfulness.

Be sure to check out these great readings and share them with your friends and family.

Browse the RussaYog® Wellness Essays and Blog here!

If you are interested in writing your own RY blog, please email us at talk@russayog.com.

Photo courtesy of Marcin Szczepanski, www.marcinvisuals.com, Multimedia Producer University of Michigan

Don’t let time and space prohibit you from realizing your yoga practice! De-Stress, Re-Invigorate, and Limber-Up where ever you are…at your desk, in the airline terminal, at a park…boundless options manifest themselves when you think ‘like a yogi.’ Enhance your yoga experience with a handy dora, a colorful length of cotton fabric (smooth and strong like turban cloth!). Or, consider purchasing a danda, a yoga staff, especially designed by Prof. Jasprit Singh to take your rope practice with you. Or, for a more sturdy experience, try a RussaYog® tree structure. It’s lightweight and strong. Perfect for the beach or a park, or even on your patio, overlooking nature.

To get a complete idea of what pranayam, kriyas, and postures to choose from while you are away from the yoga studio, try out our SHVAS DVD, or browse through the RussaYog Youtube channel for ideas.

Poonam "Blossom" at Inspiration Point

…by Poonam. My Mom and I came on this retreat together, arriving in frazzled states (which is how we usually roll). After staying with Jasprit and Teresa for just one day, I noticed the stomach problems I’d been having disappeared and that it was far easier to focus on the present moment instead of stressing about the past and future. In the mornings, we walk on the beach and do breathing exercises, which is a beautiful way to start the day. Today, while doing the breathing exercise of wonderment, a pack of dolphins swam past us. Oh the magic.

We do yoga for 2-3 hours every day and throughout this week I have felt stronger and healthier than I have in a long time. Teresa and Jasprit create a very calm, loving, and philosophical environment, and have given me the tools to introspect and figure out how to make better choices in my life. I never expected this retreat to be such an important investment into my health, for I feel like I can take what I’ve learned here to create my own ‘good life’. I recommend this retreat to anyone and everyone, regardless of age and level of fitness. If you want to learn how to live well (and eat delicious food), come here!

Poonam and Nita

Morning Stretches

Poonam and the Tea Tree

A Teacher’s Perspective by Jane Allen

Jane teaches RussaYog gentle stretch as well as 'regular' classes.

Sometimes people are concerned that RussaYog is new, and thus not “real” yoga.  I think of the human body as notes of music, and yoga is the music genre, like classical or jazz.  Jasprit is the composer of RussaYog.  Iyengar is the composer of Iyengar yoga.  Not all people love jazz, just as people will have personal opinions about types of yoga.  There isn’t a “true” yoga, but the best yoga is the yoga you like, that makes you feel good, whatever the name, and whoever the composer may be.

Becoming Fit: Whether for the first time, or after a break

My advice: Take the long view; you need regular exercise forever.  There is no end.  Because of this, don’t be in a hurry–that’s how you get hurt.  Start out very, very slowly.  If you have any old injuries that you are attempting to repair, think how long it took to acquire that injury, and assume it will take at least 10% of that time to repair it.  I had an old shoulder injury and it took one year of RussaYog to stretch out the scar tissue.  However, it took me 23 years to acquire it, carrying a heavy bag on one shoulder, so that seems reasonable.  We are all inclined to expect instant results, but that is not reasonable, and it can discourage you from the vast healing that can occur.

Gentle class vs regular one-hour class

The gentle class is very similar to a regular one hour class, but it is 15 minutes shorter, and that alone makes it less demanding.  We also move at a somewhat slower pace, and I try to offer modifications for many poses, and explain how to do them in more detail.  Otherwise, the gentle class is really not much different from a regular class.  One of the beauties of RussaYog is that a beginner can happily challenge themselves along with more experienced people in the same class, because this yoga is infinitely variable, and can be adjusted to each person’s needs.

RussaYog as part of your fitness tapestry.

The best exercise is something you like to do.  Many of our regular yogis use RussaYog as part of a fitness tapestry, which includes running, spinning, or playing a sport.  We all need an exercise routine, and the more you can build it into your regular life, the easier it will be to overcome the real obstacles–the endless pull of life events that make it difficult to come to class.  That is the hardest part.  Once you arrive at class, the hard part is over, and the fun begins.

This year the event was held at a high school. When I arrived, I saw the yoga mats ready, neatly arranged on the floor in a hallway next to the gym.  Not the quiet, intimate, cleared room I had requested! Despite my reservations, we got started.  I tried to keep the same gentle, but commanding tone I use at the studio. Attendees jockeyed around a little bit to avoid bumping into each other, but for the most part I held their attention. It was encouraging for me to realize I could teach a class in this strange space.  My yoga training of using drishti (concentrated focus) helped me pay attention to the students and tune out the surroundings. I must admit I lost a few of them during sun salutations, the multiple movements is a lot to take in the first time you try it.

Later attendees shared some insights I have often heard: “I didn’t expect to sweat from a yoga class!,” “I work out regularly, but still found this class to be a challenge,” and “This is great tea! How did you make it?” (part of the RussaYog experience is to offer a special homemade chai). I also had to clarify that “russa” means rope (in Punjabi) and is not short for Russian.

After the classes, I enjoyed a few falafel balls with other attendees while discussing the other courses. One of their favorites from the workshop was a session on goal setting. I started thinking about my own health and wellness goals and the classes from the morning. I set a goal for February of doing yoga in one unlikely place a day, to help me remember to integrate yoga into my whole life and not segregate it to a few hours in the studio or my living room. I haven’t been in another high school hallway yet, but the grocery store pranayama helped me realize I was worrying too much about which brand of peanut butter to buy.

Jill Ostrowski is a Certified RussaYog instructor and teaches at RussaYog Studio of Ann Arbor. She teaches Flow, one-hour and 90-minute classes and is available for your private group.

photo credits: Chelsea Page

Thursday, February 23, 5:30pm, Broida, 1610

“Building a Sustainable Good Life through Technology and Yoga”

Dr. Jasprit Singh

Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Michigan

Dr. Singh is currently focusing on how technology can develop to impact the ability to live the “good life”. He is the founder of the RussaYog style of yoga and runs several studios and training centers in USA. His work examines how to have the “good life” in a sustainable way using concepts from yoga and “mindful” technologies. Mindful technologies allow us to enhance our inner senses and take journeys that optimize resources.

Singh is working in the area of optical and electronic properties of semiconductors and their heterostructures. He earned his Ph.D. in Solid State Physics from the University of Chicago in 1980.

More information available at tmp.ucsb.edu or download 

Prof. Singh will also be offering a lecture, “Building a Sustainable Good Life through Technology and Yoga”
Thursday, February 23, 5:30pm, Broida, 1610

open to the public, in Santa Barbara at UCSB
for the Technology Management Program – Lecture Series Winter 2012
Opportunities and Perspectives in Technology, Business and Society
click here for a link to the flyer, UCSB 

Prof. Jasprit Singh continues his presentations on “Sustainable Good Life and Technology” through The University of Michigan’s Solid-State Electronics Laboratory Lecture Series. These talks will be posted on U of M YouTube channel.

Hear Prof. Singh’s Lecture

Friday, Feb. 3, 2012

1:30-3 pm

EECS Building, Room 1500

University of Michigan