#velezyoga

[jlvelez]

ꜰᴇʟʟ ᴛʜᴇ ᴛʀᴇᴇ ᴏꜰ “ɪ” ᴀɴᴅ “ᴍɪɴᴇ” “I” is the germination of the sprout; "mine" is a big tree trunk; home and land are its branches; children and wife are its shoots. Wealth and gain are its big leaves. It grows more than once, and merit and demerit are its blossoms and joy and sorrow its fruit. It overshadows the path to liberation, is watered by the sexual contact between fools, and is infested with the bees of desire. Lack of understanding about what should be done is the tree itself. Those who are tired of the ways of the world and seek refuge under its shade become dependent on pleasure derived from false knowledge. How can they reach the end? But those who fell the tree of “mineness” with the axe of wisdom, sharpened on the wetstone of association with the virtuous, travel along the right path. Reaching the Absolute’s cool grove, which is free from dirt and thorns, the wise who abstain from action attain the Supreme. -Mārkandeya Purāna 🍃 #velezyoga (at El Valle de Antón) https://www.instagram.com/p/CcTefC6PaHg/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[jlvelez]

“For the ignorant person, this body is the source of endless suffering, but to the wise person, this body is the source of infinite delight. For the wise person, its loss is no loss at all, but while it persists it is completely a source of delight for the wise person. For the wise person, the body serves as a vehicle that can transport him swiftly in this world, and it is knovm as a chariot for attaining liberation and unending enjoyment. Since the body affords the wise person the experience of sound, sight, taste, touch, and smell as well as prosperity and friendship, it brings him gain. Even though the body exposes one to a whole string of pain- ful and joyous activities, the omniscient sage can patient bear all experiences. The wise person reigns, free from feverish unhappiness, over the city known as the body, even as [the god Indra] dwells in his city free from distress.” -Yoga Vāsishtha (4.23.18-24) “If we aspire to lasting happiness, which coincides with our full awakening in enlightenment, we must pay attention to our bodily existence here and now. All too frequency spiritual seekers look for ultimate fulfillment apart from their corporeal eidstence. And all too frequency they end up not in genuine states of higher being and consciousness but in mental states conjured by the power of imagination, which of course are neither liberating nor ultimately satisfying. By contrast, Tantra takes the body seriously not in the sense of granting it a finality that it does not have, but in understanding it as the ground for all higher realizations.” -Tantra | Georg Feuerstein (p.57) So what are your thoughts on this? Is the body and obstacle or a vehicle for liberation? Tell me how are you enjoying yourself today? Did you practiced? Focused drsti or smiling? Which one do you like best? Let me know in the comments below. And remember keep your practice strong. #velezyoga (at El Valle de Antón) https://www.instagram.com/p/CYzO3LFrxII/?utm_medium=tumblr

[jlvelez]

𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐲 𝐢𝐬 𝐤𝐞𝐲 If it’s not consistent, it’s not yet yours. It only took me 7 years but today after six in a row completes I can finally see a light. This entry into Padmāsana is not a fluke, just the product of a constant, uninterrupted and diligent practice. PYS 1.14: sa tu dīrgha kāla nairantarya satkārā sevito dṛḍhabhūmiḥ Practice becomes firmly grounded when well attended for a long time, without interruption and with deep devotion. I think the second one has definitely been my best one yet. I felt a lot more firmly grounded through my hands and the hang time felt almost eternal. What do you think? Which pose have you been practicing for a long long time and it’s still not yours? Or did you had a struggle pose you are now ultra comfortable with? Tell me all about it in the comments below. Keep polishing your craft everyday. #velezyoga (at Dharma Ashtanga Yoga Center) https://www.instagram.com/p/CT2wnWlPFnx/?utm_medium=tumblr

[jlvelez]

𝐏𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭 𝐚𝐝𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐨𝐫 Pain is our brain's natural interpretaion of signals sent from the body when in danger. But it doesn't only work for the body, it works for our minds and hearts too. As pain tells us when burned by a flame and to retreat from fire, it should also hopefully tells us when our hearts and minds are been afflicted and to remove ourselves from a relationship, a job or a friendship. Pain is what lets us know that we have gone too far. So in this way pain should be accepted as the great teacher. But accepting pain shouldn't mean having to live with it for life. Listen to your pains. Don't silence or avoid them, but welcome them. You can injure yourself phisically, mentally and emotionaly by ignoring pain, or in any case by also getting too comfortable with it. What to do then? Well in this way we should accept pain as an awareness experience, and then see if there are ways to get rid of the cause of such pain. By avoiding feeling pain, it does nothing but burry itslef intact so that it can come back hunting us again with full force later, be it on a pose or life. Accept pain, avoiding suffering right? By allowing ourselves to feel each and every pain, by getting in contact with it we can then let it help us focus on our internal work; tell us pointers on where to dig, so to burn it through the practice, therapy or other healing methods, and through the lens of the practice use it for our own benefit as it fully transmutes into a lesson. Lessons can't be learned when avoided. So pay close attention to the next time pain comes to teach you a lesson. #velezyoga (at Playa Caracol) https://www.instagram.com/p/CRPa4HRLJ2Z/?utm_medium=tumblr

[jlvelez]

𝐈 𝐚𝐦 𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐭𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰. I am empty and hollow. If I am not empty, then how can I be filled with beauty, how can I grow, how can I learn. If I am not hollow, then how can I feel the universe flowing through me, how can I expand, how can I breathe. If I am not empty, then how can I expect to see your light and laughter. If I am not hollow, then how can I expect to be transparent everyday. If I am not empty, then how can I fill myself with gratitude, love and joy. If I am not hollow, then tell me how can I carry you with me, in my heart. I am empty and hollow. 🤸🏽‍♂️Mexican (hollowback handstand) 📸 @axel_pho #velezyoga (at Chame Bank) https://www.instagram.com/p/COBID9-Bufb/?igshid=femszn8ri3pi

[jlvelez]

𝗣𝗟𝗘𝗔𝗦𝗘 𝗥𝗘𝗣𝗘𝗔𝗧 The core of human learning is based on repetition. We improve by doing things more than once. This is just how our brains are wired. We learn better from daily repetition than from a single event, even if this one is longer and/or deeper. Studies have shown that when stimuli are learned by repetition, they are remembered better and retained for a longer time. Everything we really care to do well, we repeat. And is by this repeating action that our habilities and crafts are polished. This is the base of Ashtanga Yoga. The trick I'm performing here is a jump-through into padmāsana. I'm not calling it an āsana because I don't even know if there is a name for it. The first time I saw this back in 2014 was in a Matthew Sweeney video. My first Ashtanga Yoga teacher studied with him. He was the one who got me into asana modification, Rocket Yoga, Moon Sequencing and all that. One day he told me he wanted to show me something awesome on this Primary Series video. You could always tell the level of excitement by the glitter in his eyes. We walked into his office, he opened his laptop and then I saw it. A jump-through directly into padmāsana. I could not believe what I was seeing. "That's impossible!"- I said to him in a very sarcastic tone. "How can you even do that?"- Well, the answer again... repetition. Since then I have tried to enter this trick every now and then for my own personal amusement. Little by little, with daily practice, having fun. Year by year it got better, until today I was finally able to land one with proper vinyasa, bandhas and all that. (Volume up to hear the breathwork). By no means this is the standard way of entering padmāsana, or the way you should do it. I don't even know if this should even be attempted. This is just A way of doing it. This has become MY way of doing it. A little personal goal and a proof to myself that if you put in a lot of effort, and you are patient enough and careful enough with your body, by trusting the process, anything is possible. That practice makes perfect. Slide to see the many attempts and slow-mo. Keep on polishing your craft! #velezyoga (at Dharma Ashtanga Yoga Center) https://www.instagram.com/p/CIYkzfthPhm/?igshid=1e8xbhrow64x5

[jlvelez]

𝗣𝗟𝗘𝗔𝗦𝗘 𝗥𝗘𝗣𝗘𝗔𝗧 The core of human learning is based on repetition. We improve by doing things more than once. This is just how our brains are wired. We learn better from daily repetition than from a single event, even if this one is longer and/or deeper. Studies have shown that when stimuli are learned by repetition, they are remembered better and retained for a longer time. Everything we really care to do well, we repeat. And is by this repeating action that our habilities and crafts are polished. This is the base of Ashtanga Yoga. The trick I'm performing here is a jump-through into padmāsana. I'm not calling it an āsana because I don't even know if there is a name for it. The first time I saw this back in 2014 was in a Matthew Sweeney video. My first Ashtanga Yoga teacher studied with him. He was the one who got me into asana modification, Rocket Yoga, Moon Sequencing and all that. One day he told me he wanted to show me something awesome on this Primary Series video. You could always tell the level of excitement by the glitter in his eyes. We walked into his office, he opened his laptop and then I saw it. A jump-through directly into padmāsana. I could not believe what I was seeing. "That's impossible!"- I said to him in a very sarcastic tone. "How can you even do that?"- Well, the answer again... repetition. Since then I have tried to enter this trick every now and then for my own personal amusement. Little by little, with daily practice, having fun. Year by year it got better, until today I was finally able to land one with proper vinyasa, bandhas and all that. (Volume up to hear the breathwork). By no means this is the standard way of entering padmāsana, or the way you should do it. I don't even know if this should even be attempted. This is just A way of doing it. This has become MY way of doing it. A little personal goal and a proof to myself that if you put in a lot of effort, and you are patient enough and careful enough with your body, by trusting the process, anything is possible. That practice makes perfect. Slide to see the many attempts and slow-mo. Keep on polishing your craft! #velezyoga (at Dharma Ashtanga Yoga Center) https://www.instagram.com/p/CIYkzfthPhm/?igshid=1vmhon74cosi8

[jlvelez]

Yesterday morning I woke up not feeling 100% there, so I skipped practice in the early morning hours. I said "I will do it later." Morning passed and I was still not there. My body felt heavy and tired. "Some days are just like this and it's ok" I said to myself. "But don't skip the day." So as the day passed and I started to feel better I thought I was not going to let a practice day slip away. I decided to get ready and do practice in the early afternoon. "But it's not brahma muhurta" then said the mind, "you are not used to this time of the day and heat" said the mind again. Placing one excuse after the other. But gladly I was able to shut up my inner chatter and get down to it. So then I thaught that afternoon light is nice in the śala, and that I might as well film it. "Because there are days that you are off and that's ok too." And so on I started to look at the bright side of doing an afternoon practice. Haven't you felt this way before? Like your own mind wants to play you tricks into seeing practice, work, shores, errands, things to do as something you have to do, and not something you want to do? Always remind yourself of the great feeling that comes after completing a task, after practice is done and hold on to it. Then eveything else falls in to place. It works for me, maybe it will for you too. So here it is. Yesterday's practice. Not perfect, not 100% there, but al least 100% honest and true to myself. Happy Weekend everyone! Remember Sunday is Moonday, so extra rest day. See you all Monday! #velezyoga (at Dharma Ashtanga Yoga Center) https://www.instagram.com/p/CHiflk2hJxW/?igshid=o0fyq3w9b4du