The Yoga of Running intro part 1.

 Yoga is a mighty big word, often misused or used in a way that implies 'exercise' as it is matched up with Pilates and other forms of movement in the West.  If I asked you to perform some sort of yoga, you might perform some lunge of a description, or perhaps bring your thumb and forefinger together and mouth 'Om'. It might look like Yoga, or at least the Yoga that you are aware of and seen via social media. 

There is nothing fundamentally wrong with taking a small element of Yoga and using it to help you with your running. If the movement works for you, that is, you feel the benefits in your movement please continue. This discussion and extended series of blogs is intended to  connect the experiences you feel and possibly sense during a run or your extended running practice and link them to a wider understanding of  the practice of Yoga. This shift in lens, or perspective might help you connect other practices such as diet, relationships and overall sense of Self under the helicopter view of Yoga. 

The first main point to stress is Yoga is part of the bigger family (Darsanas') of eastern practices such as Buddhism, these two practices in particular share many common features such as Mantra (repetitive singing and phrases) and Breath practices(meditation). The other point, and a fairly obvious one, is that the practices have been part of the fabric of human knowledge for thousands of years. Yoga is not a 20th Century phenomenon, lineage and the passing down of knowledge is a key aspect of my own teachers. They can track their teachers back to about the 10th Century. 

The other point to stress, and I suppose being constructed here, is that looking at our running through an eastern lens does give us a more connective or  more awareness to our mind/body connection. Western approaches have tended to view the mind and body as two separate entities. We treat the mind under the umbrella of psychology or psychiatry, whilst the body is treated under the discipline of medical science and rationalism. Nothing wrong here, without science and mathematics our understanding of our world would not be complete. I should point out that my first degree is in Physics. The moon is a long way without Newton:). However, the Chinese and Arab worlds had their forms of physical science and mathematics, long before the West emerged from the dark ages. This is not about West v East. There has been too much of that. Integration of western minds and eastern thoughts is the only direction of travel.

 The eastern approach is, in general, to unify and treat the mind/body as one entity. Yoga means to 'connect';  bring together, here the use of the word Yoga is about bringing together and amplifying the connection of the mind and body to help us gain clarity, inner balance, lightness of mind and of the body. We use a similar word 'synergy' which means to add value when two or more things combine, but this word only gives a flavour, a taste of  Yoga. 

 Through a Yoga lens the mind and body, cannot be separated. From a running perspective you will sense this, run angry, run tired, run sad, note how the feeling permeates your entire body and mind, regardless of how fit you are. Your mind has influenced the macro and micro state of your body. I remember teaching a group of teenagers in a school. Their gut feeling about the point of yoga was really interesting, they had less clutter and were keen to experience not only the physical practice but also the meditative and breathing practices. I stressed to one student 'we don't do Yoga, we are IN a state of Yoga, you should feel, light, clear and easy with your mind and body' (this is the Sattva state, more on this later). I did not give much thought to the interaction but the next week this particular student came back to me and said in her geordie tone 'how, sir, you waz reet, I was IN yoga definitely' and she smiled. This is the bigger point, when you and I run, we might feel in a state of ease and clarity, the troubles of the world have disappeared even for a fleeting moment, we sense the inner Self more than the I of roles, age, gender, health at the point you could say our minds are in a state of Yoga, the feeling of minimal effort, rhythmical breathing and inner calm is the state we sense. A yoga practice is about carrying this feeling into our wider lives, a yoga practice refines, amplifies and cultivates the mind/body connection.

I have coached a lot of runners who have a lovely lightness with their sense of Self, but I have coached an equal amount of runners ( of all abilities, ages and background) who have a very strong attachment to their running but they are almost running away from the fear of themselves, either trauma, stress or anxiety(this would be the Rajasic and Tamasic states of mind, more on these later:) ) .

The main definition of what Yoga is, how to practice and develop the practice, is from a  text called the 'Sutra's of Patanjali' these threaded phrases and statements cover 4 chapters and are a bedrock of Yoga knowledge. However, there are other major texts that also support this knowledge, extend and connect big ideas and maybe mentioned here in these series of blogs. If you become stimulated enough to want to explore these other texts I would strongly recommend visiting https://www.svastha.net/  for links and courses on texts such as the 'Gita'. 

Running books, of which there are plenty, have stressed either the training approaches or the mind/body connection. Books. George Sheehan's  'Running and Being' (Sheehan, 1978) and Sakyong Mipham 'Running with the mind of meditation' ((Mipham, 2012) bridged the gap between this mind/body connection. Other books such as the newly published 'Out of Thin air' (Crawley 2019) look at culture and the development of running, in this instance in Ethiopia, through an anthropological lens whilst Daniel Liebermann's book exercised (2020) takes a wider holistic of running as part of our evolutionary heritage. I could go on, the list is endless(I have a few books myself) as the continuum moves between western minds and approaches (technique and training) to eastern thoughts (flow and somatic experiences). Authors almost demand a 'piece of the running action', newness is to be shared, explored and sold on Amazon.  However let me share an extended quote from one of my favourite books 'Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance' (Pirsig, Robert, M, 1974)and a view that newness and fashion results in plenty of distraction as we move from one idea to the next in a rapid scatter gun fashion. We are, in a way, as Jon Kabat-Zinn observes in a state of attention deficient. 

"What's new?" is an interesting and broadening eternal question, but one which, if pursued exclusively, results only in an endless parade of trivia and fashion, the silt of tomorrow. I would like, instead, to be concerned with the question "What is best?," a question which cuts deeply rather than broadly, a question whose answers tend to move the silt downstream.(Pirsig, 1974, page 17)

They key phrase 'the silt of tomorrow' will you be leafing through that running book you bought in 10 years time? Probably not. Will you be running in 10 years time, I really hope so!

Why do we run? The action is primal, we are wired to move, walk and run. It is the most efficient way to increase aerobic capacity, to oil our engine and improve our metabolism. It is part of us, there is no escaping this basic fact. I am not stressing athletics and top end performance, these achievements of which I am a very real and engaged spectator are the ferrari's/F1 of humanity. The fine tuning sports car with mechanics and background staff that do support the athlete. However as Kipchoge stated 'without discipline, you can never be truly free'. Here we get the sniff and sense of something subtler going on when we choose to run.

 Running is a discipline, I have coached and played many sports in my time.  I was the annoying young man who was a 'jack of all trades' when it came to sports. The number 7 at cricket, the flanker, the badminton player, the doubles partner, the Volleyball spiker, the handicap 3 golfer aged 16, etc. However none of these sports are as pure as Running. There is a very straightforward connection to Yoga from a Running practice. This is the exploration, this is the journey. It will go beyond running for sure. Running is the tool by which to lever and explore the human condition. 

 

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good feeling with the ground

'When we were young, we ran barefoot, look after our cattle. We developed strong ankles, you know....(gesticulating with hands as feet)we  had good feeling with the ground' Rudisha 2010

Pretty much nails it in one sentence. There are only two parts of our body that have evolved to be in contact with the ground namely our feet. That is it, there is no need for lengthy discussions about reasons why our feet need to be in contact with the ground. Our bodies evolved to be upright, to work with gravity, to be IN gravity (John Stirk and Gary Carter) hence and therefore, the body needs the signals from our feet (mainly) and other sensory inputs to keep upright, to keep in balance, to body sense balance.

Many times over the years I have shared the sentence above with the 'killer' video clip and the vast majority of folk nod. They may not have heard of David Rudisha (800m Olympic gold 2012 1m 40") but get the emotional connection with that word 'good'. Quality of movement begins from the ground up. 

Running and walking should feel good. However, when you watch most folks walk there is not a real sense of ease of movement and lightness of feet, not a 'good feeling with the ground', not a sense of 'in gravity of with gravity' but a sense of effort and drudging acceptance as a form of locomotion.

The quality of ground varies of course, consider the nature of the ground you run and walk on. In the developing and developed world we have flattened our environment, steam rolled out the lumps and bumps, even trails are flatter. I do understand access for folks here but consider our range of movement just in our hips as we climb over things and move across the landscape. Understanding our terrain and moving over it is a strong evolutionary drive. Wayfaring is a great expression (Out of thin Air, Crawley, 2020), it is how we move across the landscape that is as important as point A to point B.

Running and walking intelligently means coming to our senses and tuning into the landscape around us. Feeling and moving with ease, not fighting yourself, or fighting the watch.

 

 I stressed this next observation maybe two years ago but worth sharing again. When observing runners I listen first. Generally if I hear them with their feet and/or the quality of the breath I don't really need to look, I know what I need to look for. When I look at the runner I notice the overall shape of the runner moving as a sense(not fat/thin etc)and where the focus of runner is, where the eyes are, the head is, where they place their attention. I notice excessive movement, rolling and small instabilities, all of these observations come rushing in over a short period of time.  I then have enough information to work with. 

 

Tuning into the runner and getting the runner to tune into themselves will allow them to develop good feeling with ground.

'life live'

 In this very short post I consider 'life live'.

Do we really live in the moment? Consider most of the time our minds are reaching for future or previous actions/moments and play endless movies in our minds. This constant busy state of our mind (lost in thought) is Vrtti in Sanskrit. We can get lost in the movies that play constantly in our mind even when running or when practising yoga. How often can we sense our minds drifting off when practising, checking into actions and thoughts?

Learning to check in to the here and now is a skill that needs to be practised. As Erich Schiffman stresses he goes for 'life live' not life previously, or future but here right now, right under you as you run and breath. Being in the moment living life live is enjoying every second of existence. 

 LIFE LIVE

Yoga practice is not about the shapes on the mat but about controlling the rapid motion of your thoughts (different and uncontrolled directions) to some focus and steady gaze and direction. You become the seer of the mind not in the river of consciousness and thought but sitting on the bank of the river controlling the steady flow of mind.

As some of you know a meditation practice is a key part of our retreats and practice, here actionless action can begin. On the outside, nothing is happening, but on the inside, the reins of our mind are being brought under control by skilful action ( Most of you know this feeling and have felt it when IN your running, completely present, step by step. It is entirely attainable if you live LIFE LIVE,

Some lists take 45 years generate, ask questions, seek don't follow.

Asking questions and continual searching seems to be a life trait from aged 4 onwards . This particular  observation begins with a conversation from about 25 years ago. I was sitting with a group of students who were studying with the Open University's Master's programme in Mathematics and Maths Ed. I was next to an older gentleman and was happily chatting away(I always do yack on) sharing my observations when he started to speak. His voice had such a strong resonance 'I know that voice' I said to myself, 'where in my life did that voice come from'. It was as if the voice itself was placing me in another body it was that strong a sense and pull to a different time.

 I stared at the man for some time and I just couldn't place it. We left with no resolution.

The next session he came up to me and said 'I thought I knew that name, I looked back at my old school records and I was your primary school teacher in Y4, (which is 9 years old)' He smiled and then said 'You haven't changed, you've asked questions then and you have kept asking questions now'. It still makes me smile, asking questions, searching, never content, the Self-searching for the knowledge above and beyond books. Hence the list below(amplified in 2024) is not about some random list put together for FB. It has been on my mind for 45 years. Enjoy :)

 Ok folks that time of year when I review and tweak my 'life hacks' there are one or two additions and some changes, can you spot them? Can you add some of your life hacks at the bottom. 

•   The blend of a cardiovascular exercise with yoga/movement/other modalities is more than the sum of their parts. Do both if you can. If you can't run ,walk a lot. I was delighted to read about how in the book 'exercised' by Daniel Lieberman(2021), the Tarahumara Indians did NOT exercise for their amazing running feats but walked everyday, around 10-13 miles tending their farm. We are walking endurance machines, number 1. 
• squat, either supported via heel support or against a wall.   Tribes squat a lot (Hadza tribe for one), they do not want to use up their energy, it is their movement away from sitting that is the key. Squatting is the sitting, there are lots of good physiological responses that are activated through this motion. One of which is squeezing lymph glands, and activating some other body processes. I am convinced anyway:)  
• Eat more vegetables a LOT more, and no, there is no such thing as animal protein, it is protein. 
• I am a fan of time restricted eating, in other words I practice my final meal (food intake) around 6pm, the next meal might not be until 8.30 am if not later. We are not wired to eat all night and graze all day. A noticeable outcome were my energy levels ramping up, not down worth the share. 
• Read, find a  balance between fiction and non fiction. I spent too long reading non fiction, it simply did not stop. What was I looking for!  A good check for non-fiction are the dull thud of references either at the end of each chapter and/or at the end of the section. 
• Spend time outside, in different conditions, rain, wind, snow etc. Activate your senses, we evolved as part of this planet, not away from it. We are connected at a very subtle level to the shift in seasons and weather. Bath in nature on a regular basis. 
• Spend time with people who smile when you enter the room :) 
• Go to bed 10 minutes earlier, sit on the bed and focus on your breath then go to sleep. Here you can make friends with your breath, your first breath was an exhale your last will be exhaled, bring attention to your breath and meditate. Nothing flashy, sitting in a comfortable place and being attentive to your breath is the beginning of transformation. Erich Schiffman calls it 'Bed Med'. 
• Don't count the miles, just move, I reckon you could move more if you stopped counting. I once took a runner out for a session, I told her not to look at her watch, the session finished and we had ran about 8 miles, initially she was really angry, 'too far'. 'how do you feel' I asked, 'I feel Ok, actually'. We set limits on ourselves, way too easily. I do like data and feedback but consider 'time on feet' and make it quality time on feet as well. 
• Shoe matter but not as much as you, moving well and moving in balance, as a child first learning to walk and run. We develop this 'feeling touch' with our feet. Find a grassy area, beach, anywhere 'dog poo' and sharps safe. take your shoes off and be a child again, learning to run in 'beginners mind'.  Develop and focus on 'good feeling with the ground' 
• Follow your breath when running, find the rhythm with the breath, you might need to walk/run a lot to find the sweet spot but it works. Breath, rhythm and relaxation, the body loves it. Breathing is tricky, I think there is a strong emotional connection here that needs breaking with good training. The Oxygen advantage (Patrick McKeown) bypasses Yoga and Ayurvedic holistic approaches and gives a great programme to help develop your breathing. Breath by James Nestor is a great overview on all things breathing. Finding that breath, following that breath, gives you the tuning mechanism for good health and improved cardio vascular fitness. 
• Single leg balances are important. Practice balancing.  There is a rocky section on my local beach  I watch folk struggle as they lose balance, most of these folks are 40 plus, keeping our balance is an important point. As we get older and I mean much older we don't want to lose our balance and fall. 
• You don't need to do marathons or need the next challenge if these make you feel good....great; personally, I am a Mary Oliver fan, I've been tested thankyou and I know what it feels like so I go for the following 'you do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles repenting, you only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves'. During my Yoga training and studies, there is the term Shanti, 'peace' a sense of peace and stillness should be an aim of our existence. Not everything has to be 'on', and 'full gas'. The best athletes are focused, still and at peace with themselves in that moment. Practice finding peace. 
• We all move differently, If I look back at the 2TB of the video there is NOT one runner who matches another. Amazing!
• I don't do dogma, I don't do tribes, I prefer being a searcher. You are the experiment, listen to yourself. 
• Create good habits when you are well, a yoga practice, a running practice means that  when you are injured or life hits you hard you have built resilience and mental strength and sense of who you are. I think we tend to wait until all the red lights are fully on before we do something. I did. Eluid Kipchoge has a great quote 'only the disciplined can be free'. In summary it is about lifestyle. 
  
• Change a word can change perception, try  changing  pleasure to fulfillment. It is a subtle change but makes a huge difference. Fulfilling means just that, filled up and complete, pleasure is a one hit sensory overload  we become addicted to and attached.
• Slow down in life. Busy for being busy sake is a habit of this society. Enjoy the time in the here and now. watch your mind tracking across the day before you have even woken up. Hence meditation in the morning sets up the tone of the day. Still the mind, move the body. Erich Schiffman stresses 'put a comma in your commentary so you are not energising your habitual response', relax and silent mind it. 
• Be kind to yourself. We do beat ourselves up. Positive affirmations are a good thing to state on a regular basis. 

To live mechanically or to live consiously. Tuning your body requires you to listen

I used to play a lot of music. For some very strange reason, I decided I  wanted to play acoustic jazz guitar. I had this vision of my fingers whizzing up and down the fretboard. Joe Pass et al:) (who!?)  I can remember finding my guitar teacher, a chap called Jimi Savage (yep that was his name, and yes he did play in the Ozzy Osbourne band or something, and yes, he was really good, so first find a good teacher:) ). He used to say things like 'I can't do this very well, then immediately demonstrate an amazing tapping and sweep picking arpeggio (think Joe Satriani (who! :) ) you can do better though Nick. Great teachers encourage, challenge and empathise. 

He would look at me and would always stress ' you have actually picked the most difficult form of guitar playing just so you know'. Fast forward 10 years, by then the apprentice(me) had moved to some sort of crafts person but no near any sense of mastery of the instrument. My fingers could at least find chords and  I suppose I could accompany a singer(she kept changing the key, that was a real pig:) ) and piano player. In fact, the piano player was blind so any of you reading this and musical would appreciate that our discussions were sound-based and not really 'chit chat' music.

Learning to play music has so many parallels in what I do. I use the context when discussing mathematics with my University students, I use it in my Yoga practise and teaching and also in running as well.

The bottom line is to become a musician you need to LISTEN. When you first begin to learn anything, you do need to learn the scales, the procedures, the naming of parts as it were. The place the fingers to the notes, the sound follows. There is a sense of externalising learning. This is quite normal, and we have to go through it. A good teacher though (and Jimi was)  also allowed me to do some gentle improvisation, even with a few scales at my parrot learnt disposal. In other words, the mechanistic approach of scales is replaced by a more conscious awareness of sound that goes under the scales. The mind-body connection is clear.

Over time the subtle transition from finger to note to note then to finger became apparent. The humming of the song came first, the fingers second. The vocabulary of learning had changed. Developing a listening ear and also tuning ourselves into the sounds of our own body has strong parallels to a yoga practice. At first, we learn 'moves' or feel compelled to learn shapes, the externalisation is the body, but as we begin to develop a sense of the body and breath connection we begin to develop to listen to the small sensations. In a class being led by a good teacher, there is space for this, but the best practice is the 'music playing' practice at home. Here the refinement of tone and breath is found.

Tuning your body and breath is like playing a musical instrument. For runners, I meet there are those that externalise their practice, the Garmin, the feedback, the Strava, the training routine. We do need some structure and feedback but consider and reflect on the idea that learning to play your instrument takes time, it takes skill and to develop this inner LISTENING needs space not clutter. A mechanistic approach to your running needs to grow into more conscious awareness of your movement.

A running practice combined with a yoga practice is a great blend. Be a musician :)
Nick 

The Kosas-The sheaths of Being

One of the fundamental points about Yoga, in fact, THE point is that the practice of Yoga is about transformation. By accessing and bringing attention and awareness (how you can transform if you do not what you are transforming!) to our innermost Being (Iyengar 2005), we see the world for what it is and not what we think or perceive it is. Yoga then describes this a little further by introducing the idea of the Kosa's.  This inner you are surrounded by these sheaths of existence (Iyengar 2005)

 In Sanskrit, these are:-

Anatomical body, Annamaya Kosas,
The energetic body, Pranamaya Kosa
Mental body Manomaya Kosa
intellectual body Vijnanamaya Kosa
Blissful or soul Anandamaya Kosa

You can imagine these as Russian dolls, nesting together. In my mind, I describe them as:-

The body of you, the energy and breath of you, the mind of you, the intellect(the reasoning) of you, the consciousness of you (the universal timeless you).

To be fully in tune with ourselves then these sheaths are seamless, without obstruction. Our bodies connect to our breath and energy, which feeds into our mind and then our intellect (the reasoning mind), we then have clear and transparent access to the inner still lake of 'cosmic consciousness' the universal you. I LOVE this description and most people I speak to do as well.

Nick after being 'IN his Running' with some bling:)

When I teach Yoga I never say we are 'doing Yoga' I stress we are IN Yoga, the yoga state of mind, which reflects a balance of body, breath and mind. Carry this state of mind with you away from the class.

As runners do we know what running well is? We can have moments when we are 'IN our running', have we touched upon these sheaths of existence?

What qualities do we assign to running well? How about the following.

You may be feeling well, the body has been trained to accept the load (the physical you) you have a sense of good energy, a sense of positivity and lightness to our stride and bodies. Breathing does not feel tense or hard(the breath of you). Those gut bombs have disappeared, hydration has been managed well and fuel preparation all seems good. The discipline of practice paid off(the mind of you).  You ran well. The intellect of preparation, the focus becomes aligned. Suddenly you are 'IN your running' completely present, senses have been withdrawn, you are just there(the universal you)!

You see these very eastern descriptions do make sense, for me anyway....... have a think on....

see you on the mat
Nick 

Running is about Self study, Svadhaya.

In this potpourri of ideas, called a yoga blog I  now introduce a yoga term 'Svadhaya' which translated for these purposes to Self-study (it is one of the Nyama's as mentioned in blog 1, more on these later), please note the capital 'S'. In India, the Self is more directly linked to the recognition of Brahman . However, the study of Self also intertwines the deeper and more refined aspects of Yoga.

Yoga mind is running mind

The other key point is that you don't DO Yoga as some people seem to imagine, you are IN yoga; this is a really interesting point, Yoga is a state of mind not simply a practice on the mat. The practise on the mat should refine and amplify the mental, physical and breathing practice to carry with you away from the mat. This move to the Yoga state of mind is THE point.

I think we are getting a little carried away with all things mat-based and physical, although we, as runners love the physical we can and do, get too attached to the pursuance of Instagram yoga and the image. "I need to look like this, be like this and move like this...." In my yoga teaching the focus is on the internal practice, self-care, self-massage of the body, and always a practice of pranayama (breathing ) and finally relaxation, Savasana. We can play with our edge in the physical postures I think it is good to do so, it does need concentration and focus, all key points of being IN Yoga.

Running can also have these qualities of Self study, you, running by yourself, outside, alone, sensing and feeling your responses as you move in time and over the ground. the heightened sensation of your breath can be studied. Listen to the breath, note your emotional shift, there is that hill again, coming at you! The in the moment study of you can be extended over the year and how your Self shifts in approach. You can note your mind as you sign up to an event, the sense of Raja's mind as you shift in energy, the surge of excitement and then the writing down some running plan to follow.

Runners though as we know might just DO the run, it NEEDS to happen, the PLAN suggests it, but remember that word Boddhi Yoga, the yoga of awareness. How many times do you hear 'listen to your bodies, the inner sense of the Self, is there for sure?  Ths growing awareness does have stages. The awareness of the Self begins with the physical, then moves to the breath as you run in a balanced way. Hence, for runners with some running knowledge, run in a way that makes breathing easy, as my yoga teacher stresses, 'easy asana, pleasant pranayama' or for us, easy running and pleasant breathing (nasal). This is the aerobic training pace, and for those training for half marathons or more this running is over 80% of you running. As you become aware of your body and breath growing awareness can focus on the mind as it moves between the three states of mind (the Guna's).

Running is a great tool for Self study, If you have not tried this, next time you pop out for a run, ask yourself after the run 'where was your mind?' transformation can only begin with an awareness of our actions and thoughts.
This takes some constant practice(Abhyasa) and non-attachment (Vairaghya) to your actions and achievements.
Enjoy your Self study!