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A note from Robin – Fall 2007

I recently read an article on the diminishing use of commas in American grammar. The author, who clearly appreciates the need for respite from lengthy, literary exposition, was bemoaning the loss of the comma as a reflection on our American lifestyle. His theory: We’re living such compressed and frenetic lives that we’ve left ourselves no time to pause. I’m sure socio-linguistic experts will have a heyday with this one. Could it be that our lives are becoming onelongrunonsentence? Perhaps periods, paragraphing and pagination are the next victims. If we don’t have time for commas, what do we have time for?

I ask this rhetorically, as I am facing the deadline on this quarter’s schedule and another deadline for my new CD/Booklet on Low Back Pain, before leaving town next week. I teach all day Sunday, and will be working at the recording studio Friday and Saturday. Feeling the squeeze of this packed schedule, I’m a little panicked about how the dogs are going to get walked, the garden watered!

Ironically, I just returned from a training on Integrative Restoration, or i-Rest, which is an adaptation of the ancient practice of Yoga Nidra, which translates as Sleep of the Yogis. Yoga Nidra is more a state of meditative, deep relaxation than sleep as we know it. It is a process of consciously releasing tension layer by layer, engaging all the senses, the mind and emotions to ultimately unravel the knots that bind us.

One hundred and ten people showed up at this training in Calgary, B.C., eager to learn the secrets of relaxation — hungry, in fact, for it. Everyday, the instructor guided us through three 45-minute i-Rest practices. With each practice, my mind settled, happy to linger in that vague state between wakefulness and dreaming, experiencing a sense of spaciousness and well-being. By the end of the training, people were floating, radiant even, altogether different than the red-eyed, tight-jawed bunch that had arrived less than a week earlier.

Clinical studies using i-Rest are currently being done with veterans suffering with severe PTSD. Preliminary findings are promising, showing a significant drop in symptoms of depression, insomnia and flashbacks after a 12-week program. The Defense Department is so intrigued by these results it is funding continuing studies with even larger groups.

There’s something magically healing about rest. The ancient yogis knew it 5,000 years ago. We know it now, yet we hold it out as a carrot that we deserve only after we’ve run ourselves ragged. The overachieving, multi-tasking drive is stressing our system beyond its capacity and actually de-activating the mechanism for relaxation. We’ve become a society of workaholics and insomniacs. Not a comma in sight.

The experience of the veterans can shine a light on a much needed medicine that may potentially return us all to sanity and peace. Imagine if doctors began prescribing Yoga Nidra instead of Prozac to patients with anxiety and depression. How would it affect the consciousness of our society if we all began to practice deep relaxation daily, much as we would take a multi-vitamin?

As I write about the need for rest, I begin to laugh at myself. I’m suddenly aware of how I’ve been scurrying towards some made-up finish-line, believing I am trapped in the dead-line pressure cooker. I call my graphic designer for the book and suggest we change the due date until mid-September. I take my dogs for a slow walk, pausing to notice the hint of fall in the summer breeze, the sound of the creek, the sun on my skin. I come home and luxuriate in a 20-minute Yoga Nidra practice before heading to The Yoga Barn to teach. When I arrive at the studio, my staff comments on how refreshed and centered I appear. I chuckle inside as I think of the chaotic state of my mind just an hour earlier. Sanity restored. All I did was pause, and rest.

Blessings,

(p.s. there are 35 commas, two hyphens and one colon in this note).

The Yoga Barn, Inc.
Robin Rothenberg, Certified Yoga Instructor
660 NW Gilman Blvd., Suite C6, Issaquah, WA  98027
Studios located in both Issaquah and Fall City
Phone: 425.427.0038  -  Fax: 425.427.0613
E-mail: info@yogabarn.com  -  Web: www.yogabarn.com

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