Frequently Asked Questions
Q: How long should I hold a yoga pose?
A: Yoga should be adapted to the individual. There is no “one size fits all” Yoga, because each person is unique - body type, age, health, culture, etc.
Strength is only truly resilient when it is simultaneously soft and strong — ths combination is referred to in the Yoga Sutras as “sthira sukha” - steady and sweet. If you pursue strength only without receptivity or softness, you will be like a dead tree, brittle and easily injured.
So to truly build sustainable strength, you must gradually build it with the breath, using the breath to stay within your own limits. You should hold a pose only as long as you can maintain a smooth and deep ujjayi inhale through the nostrils. As soon as the breath is shallow, gasping, mouth breathing or panting, we have gone too far.
Practice each pose dynamically first, to establish and lengthen your breath. Then hold for as many breaths as you can maintain the same smooth deep breath. Krishnamacharya would say - the breath is the guru! Obey your guru!
Q: What is the Hatha Pradipika and should I read it?
The Hathayoga pradipika is a post-tantric compilation of verses on Yoga which has become a go-to text on hathayoga. It famously prioritises meditation over asana, leading to the claim that asana is a modern invention. However, it is plagiarised from two chapters of an earlier medieval Goddess based Tantra (sacred text), the Varahi Tantra, as shown by the research of Sanskrit philologist Christopher Tompkins. This earlier text described hathayoga as an embodied devotional practice for everyone, including women and householders, not a male renunciant or ascetic practice. Hatha meant power, as in a powerful practice, not force as it was later interpreted. The verses were distorted by later misogynistic cults into the verses of the Hathayoga Pradipika. Significantly, the earlier Varahi Tantra included descriptions of vinyasa (flowing devotional asana movement) which were later erased.
The HYP has been fetishized by western teachers seeking authentic sources, as few hathayoga texts have been available in translation, but it is comes from a body-denying, women-excluding ascetic cult, and this should be kept in mind. There are far more appropriate texts, such as the Tantras referenced by Krishnamacharya in his Yoga Makaranda. My teachers taught it but only certain aspects and excluded other aspects. The understanding was that the text is adaptable and open to reinterpretation within the primary matter of the relationship with teacher. The text is there for us, rather than being eternally fixed in meaning.
Q. When i place my focus on the breath, rather than on getting the alignment right, I don’t seem to achieve as good a posture or be developing my abilities as quickly. Will i increase in flexibility over time?
It is great news that you are listening to what the body wants. Your breath and body movement within your natural capacity will over time allow the body to relax and become more sensitive, allowing the movement of prana to show you the correct alignment from within.
Krishnamacharya said, you can cheat the body but you can't cheat the breath. The breath is the guru to the asana. Obey your breath!
Q: Will practicing Yoga in this way help me stay fit, with a healthy body?
Take a look at the old video footage of Krishnamacharya, showing how exceptionally healthy and fit and strong he was even as a very old man. He lived 101 years and was healthy all this time. More than sharp, it helps give clarity of mind, freedom from the vrittis or endless whirlings. Improved concentration and relationships, ability to see things with more discernment.
Q: I am concerned that if I don’t push my body then I won’t gain flexibility and stretch out my muscles, staying the breath limits means I’m not pushing my edge, not progressing.
First, you can throw out any idea of moving up a yoga ladder! These ideas of progress and hierarchy have been put in us, and are a denial of what we already are. Yoga is the process of becoming intimately absorbed in the wonder and beauty of what you already are.
The irony is, when we are free from this struggle to progress and attain, yogic siddhis (gifts) can then come. The struggle to improve actually prevents real change.
The benefits come from stretching and easing in the natural elasticities of the body. Over time this increases the flexibility of the body also, but not by going to the edge of capacity and pushing. Pushing like this will damage and weaken the body over time. Many practitioners end up destroying their bodies in the psychology of competition and ambitious attainment. You might like to read this piece on this subject: https://www.bbc.com/news/health-50181155
Moreover, once you take the obsessive element out of practice, and replace it with a mood of participating in the beauty, wonder, and intelligence of your body system, that is there right now and working right now, growing your hair and knowing exactly what to do with light, water, air, food: then you will be more easily able to sustain the practice over time as a pleasure, rather than on-agian off-again, which is a symptom of obsessive practice. Make it actual, natural, and daily, as simple as brushing your teeth.
The Online Immersion daily practice video may not be physically challenging enough for you. Take a look at the bonus video 'Advanced Yoga: playing the edge" in the 'Resources' section. We each must find our own edge: where the breath is still relaxed and smooth despite physical challenge.
Please look carefully at the text in lesson 2.2 of the Immersion on this subject.
Q: What am I supposed to feel in meditation?
One is supposed to experience whatever one experiences. Any ideals or images will create striving, analysis and comparison in the mind, which is the opposite of the meditative state. As long as meditation is practiced as part of a natural sequence of asana, pranayama and meditation - in that order - then clarity of mind will arise naturally. One common effect over time is finding relationships easier and noticing the beauty around us.
Q: How do I activate / clear my chakras?
Krishnamacharya would say, if you want to know about the chakras, don't look at the chakras, look at your wife. In other words, relationship is what moves the pranas, not a focus on the chakras themselves. Many Yoga schools teach that the lower chakras must be sublimated, in a hierarchy of chakra. Mark explains that this is a denial of life, denial of the feminien - all chakras are equally valid and sacred, no hierarchy. There is no need to force energy to ascend through the system. In sincere practice and relationship, energy moves naturally and far more powerfully.
Q. Should there be a pause between the inhale and the exhale?
In Krishnamacharya's teaching there are four parts to the breath: inhale / pause / exhale / pause. The length of each part will depend on the individual and develop naturally. There is more detail on this in week 4 and in the workbook. Krishnamacharya wrote: “Inhale, and God approaches you. Hold the inhalation, and God remains with you. Exhale, and you approach God. Hold the exhalation, and surrender to God.” If you are not religious, you can replace the word God with "Life" or "Reality".
Q: Why can breath-based practise cause dizziness in the beginning?
A: The ujjayi breath, coupled with the fact it is a much deeper breath than normal, has a detoxing effect. The exhale is one of the primary detoxing functions of the body and the deeper exhale serves this function.It should go away after a few days. It is not uncommon to feel a little dizzy at first. If it does not go away within a week, you might want to check you do not have high or low blood pressure. If you feel dizzy at any time, LIE DOWN and rest or do postures on the floor. Don't continue with standing asana. Some people also becomes dizzy if they are trying to practice when they are very hungry. In this case eat something light such as fruit or juice, wait ten minutes, and then try practice. It's a matter of finding what works for your body.
Q: Should I do the same practice every day?
A: Yes and no. It is good to establish a basic practice template that is tailored to your own needs, so you are not having to activate your brain thinking about what to do each day. The mood of your practice is devotional flow, with your breath, not creative stimulation of “what shall i do next”. And it is good to try and do your practice in the same place at around the same time each day, to build a habit, and a “seat” or home of yoga. But of course, every day is a different day. Different feeling in the body, different place in the moon cycle, different weather, different family needs… So of course as soon as you begin each day you will feel the subtle differences that are reflected in the length of the breath, and follow the breath. So at a grosser level, your practice might be quite similar each day, but as you look closer, its completely unique every day.