yoga with jeff
Based in household yoga practices of more than 40 years, Jeff’s yoga work will include group sessions, and additional content not focused exclusively on posture. That additional content will include 9 Minutes or LESS, and will include THE PRANA PROJECT. Jeff will share therapeutic, maintenance, and training that alternate between the Playful (Lila) and the Heroic (Vira). Look for an occasional Book Review, Interview, Creative Adventure, or Personal Note in realms practical and imaginative.
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Jeffry Farrell / yoga with jeff@jeffryfarrell
April 01, 2024
Injuries as Learning, Recovery, Healing: Nerd Warning
A framework for yoga practices can be simplified by the guideposts of Shtira, Sankalpa, Sukha, and Dukha — Sanskrit terms I’ve mentioned in various videos over the years.
Today, let’s look at the word and the experience of Dukha which Kumar said is an “honest teacher.” With a good attitude his comment is both funny and stern. Yet while bound in Dukha, one might be inclined to say, “fukha dukha” because the word “dukha” signifies a network of meaning centered on pain. Yes, pain is an honest teacher. Dukha is pain, resistance, stress, suffering, dis-ease, the difficult, the unpleasant, the miserable.
Nerd Warning
According to the University of Indiana linguistics scholar Christopher Beckwith, the origin of “du-“ in the ancient Aryan language meant “bad, difficult.” And, to simplify the changes language undergoes over time, the original root verb form “stha” which meant “to stand,” became phonetically changed to “kha,” which also meant “ether, space, sky, empty, hole.”
Thus, the ancient term “dustha” which meant “an uneasy stand, imbalanced, unsettled” came to be spoken as “dukha” with associated meanings. One of those meanings referred specifically to the “bad axle hole” of an ox cart. Dukha meant real problems and potential danger for the ox cart driver, his passengers and load.
Dukha becomes a valuable reference for us today as it regards both an ability to maintain a yogic practice, and an ability to recognize and recover from “bad axle holes” of life we might know as illness, injury, or setback.
Yoga Practice is Personal
So, your practice revolves around your life, your dispositions, talents, desires, strengths and weaknesses. Mine, too, of course, so we come to the meat of my current interest — recovering from “rolling” on a ju-jitsu mat.
Please check out these photos and look at Part Two.
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Picking up hand balances again after years away.
What is needed for hand balances? How do they build? How do we enter and exit? Where is shtira?
Beginning again means asking familiar questions and looking for the answers in the posture, observing what doesn’t work, and what does. Learning twice, and twice again in Beginners Mind.
00:00:52
Morning practice, Wake Up With Yoga
I recorded this last night because I must be on the road during our usual time. Here we observe three planes of functional spinal movement with breath. I invite you to recall warm-ups of this past week and to practice from whatever you can recall. If you cannot recall, then reboot yr favorite livestream recording and use that.
This week marks the start of a new endeavor at the SAMURAI INTI Martial Arts Studio in Frisco. I’ll be teaching i a group class there at Sendai Sebastian Mejias ‘ dojo on Monday and Wednesday mornings.
00:08:18
APRIL 2025 CLASS SCHEDULE UPDATE
Here's Jeff's updated schedule (please note the upcoming change to Saturdays). Below the schedule, you'll find payment links for the in-person group classes.
Mondays, 9AM in FRISCO at Samurai Inti Martial Arts, 7410 Preston Rd., #105, Frisco, TX 75034
Wednesdays, 9AM in FRISCO at Samurai Inti Martial Arts, 7410 Preston Rd., #105, Frisco, TX 75034
Thursdays, 8:30AM in DALLAS at Carpathia Collaborative, 10260 N. Central Expressway, #210, Dallas, TX 75231
UPDATE APRIL 13, 2025: Saturdays, 8:30 AM in DALLAS *WILL BE AT A NEW LOCATION VERY SOON! Will likely either be at White Rock Lake or Carpathia Collaborative, not the Hillcrest location. Confirmation coming soon! This update was posted on April 13, 2025.
PAYMENT LINKS FOR GROUP CLASSES (you can also pay cash in person at the time of the session; take note of your subscriber and payment level):
Locals community subscribers at the free level, and the general public: $35
https://buy.stripe.com/eVadTm24V3fi77O6oD
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Anatomy basics 2
This book was fundamental to body movement and awareness. Notice the three planes of functional spine.
Observing anatomy 1
If you ask a personal trainer, a pilates teacher, a yoga teacher, and a massage therapist about “core strength” it is likely you will get different answers.
We wish to observe the diaphragm as the central origin of neuromuscular action — activating channels of strength down through the lumbar vertebrae, hips, legs, feet. And likewise int he opposite direction up the spine through the thoracic spine, shoulders, neck and skull.
Here is an image for us to keep in mind and note how we humans hold together — feet to fingertips and eyes.
