It’s really important as a teacher to do your practice. You want to be in the most Sattvic, balanced, state possible so you can be of service to your students.
Dharma’s Master class at the Dharma Yoga Center!
Arrived in Suzhou yesterday!
Had a nice conversation with an Indian teacher named Ramesh who teaches at the studio and we talked about teaching the students that yoga is more than just fitness. I remembered something one of my teachers said a long time ago when I started teaching. He said, even if it appears the students aren’t receptive or ready to hear about the deeper practice of yoga, and you encounter resistance when you try to teach them a little more than just yoga exercise — on some level they do actually hear you and year’s later when they are more open they might remember something you said that they initially resisted. This has been true in my own practice and life and I believe it’s true for all of us. It sometimes takes years but slowly we are all waking up.
Hip Opening Workshop at Space in Beijing!!!
Why do we open the hips in yoga?
1) To protect the low back.
2) To protect the knees.
3) To find balance.
4) To prepare the body to sit comfortably for deeper pranayama and meditation practices.
5) To release tension in the body and tension in the mind.
If the hip flexors are tight the back will suffer in backbends. If the back of the legs and buttocks are tight the low back will suffer in forward folds. If the hips are tight the knees will suffer when the hips are externally rotated in seated postures.
When the body is out of balance this will be a distraction and eventually lead to injury. This is also an indication of imbalance in the mind.
The body being uncomfortable will be the biggest distraction to your pranayama and meditation practice.
Releasing tension from the body releases tension from the sub conscious layer of the mind. This is why the asana practice is so cleansing for the mind. And why we need to go into the fire and hold the poses for so long.
There’s a few other reasons we might want to open the hips but these are the main ones.
I love that in every workshop I teach when I ask this question the students always come up with a few more reasons that I have never thought of and that I add to my list.
Thank you for coming, everyone! It was fun to practice with you and go deep into the hips. Hope to see you at the next workshop!
Sharing these wonderful teachings!
Some more fun pics from this past weekend! Doing what I love to do. Sharing these wonderful teachings! This practice is so simple and so powerful. It can and will change your life. You’ve just got to show up and get on your mat. Learn the technology. Do the work. Practice. And then repeat. It works if you show up for yourself and do the work! I’m constantly amazed at how simple it is to use yoga to shift my perspective and have a different experience of the world around me. Hope to see you in a future class or at a future workshop! Namaste.
Challenging Shiva Power class on Sunday morning.
We dove deeper into our pranayama practice after class. The afternoon was a fun breakdown of sun salutations A and B from Mysore Style Ashtanga and some variations on these 2 sequences.
We spent a lot of time working on the transition from Plank Pose to Low Plank. This is a challenging transition that most of us aren’t doing properly. If you clean up this transition you can prevent a lot of future shoulder injuries.
I taught the students how to jump forward and how to jump back in their sun salutations too and we worked on these transitions together. I think the best advice I got when I was first learning to jump in my sun salutations is to jump up and then down. Break it into 2 parts. Don’t think about jumping forward or jumping back. Just think about jumping up first.
Thank you, everyone! What a fun weekend. I look forward to seeing you all again. Good luck with the rest of the training and great job this past weekend!
. Namaste!
Everything has a beginning, middle, and end.
Everything has a beginning, middle, and end. The yogis understood this well. These three energies are represented by Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. There’s a beginning, middle, and end to everything. A yoga class, a day, a life. The yogis recommended three stages of yoga for these three stages of life. We talked about these three stages of energy during our opening and closing ceremonies. Our training too had a beginning, middle, and end. And every ending is followed by a new beginning. We are on a circular journey. We go from darkness to light and then back to darkness again. And the cycle starts all over. Sad for this training to end. It was a wonderful week with this new group of students but excited for the next adventure. Learned a lot and had a wonderful time. I think the students did too. See you again soon, everyone! The light in me honors the light in you. Namaste.
Last week of 200-YTT!
I’m a little slow to post. We are in the final week of my Shiva Yoga 200hr Teacher Training. Putting out a huge amount of energy. Have barely had time to look at all the pictures and videos from the training. Every day is just so packed and there’s so much to do!
These pics are from our 3rd week. Wrapping up our deeper exploration of Hatha Yoga — Cleansing, Asana, Pranayana, Mudra, and Bandha.
The students are learning how to separate the breath and isolate as much as possible the diaphragm, intercostal muscles, and secondary breathing muscles. These three types of breathing are often called Diaphragmatic breathing, Costal breathing, and Clavicular breathing.
We mostly want to focus on diaphragmatic and costal breathing in yoga. Clavicular breathing is not ideal, as it stimulates the right nostril — sympathetic nervous system. A lot of people are doing this in everyday life without realizing it and creating a lot of stress and tension around their neck for no reason. Teaching about breathing and pranayama is one of my favorite parts of these trainings
The student’s practices are getting so strong!
It’s wonderful to see growth in your students. It’s one of the most amazing things about being a teacher.
When you are a Sattvic teacher you are trying to share everything you can with your students. Eventually the goal is to give them all your knowledge and all the tools they need to do the work themselves. That’s the job! Share everything you can. There’s an old yogi saying — one who practices but doesn’t teach is a a thief, and one who teaches but doesn’t practice is a fraud. Don’t be a thief or a fraud. Be the Guru— heavy with knowledge, and share your knowledge with your students — help remove the darkness and lead them towards the light
3rd week of my Shiva Yoga 200hr RYT at Haipoo Yoga!
Great Arm Balance Workshop at Kula Yoga!
A few more pics from our Arm Balance Workshop this past weekend at Kula Yoga In Port Orange!!!
These pictures are of the Firefly Pose variations and the Tortoise Pose. The first picture is of the Firefly variation with straight arms and the arms and legs perpendicular to the ground. The second picture is of the Firefly variation with bent arms, the elbows at ninety degrees like in the Low Plank pose, and the legs parallel to the ground.
Crane vs. Crow
I think we sometimes confuse these two poses, or, maybe just refer to them as the same pose sometimes — but they actually are two separate poses.
Kakasana is the Crow Pose. Bakasana is the Crane Pose. I think the confusion partially comes from the challenge of the Crane Pose. It’s hard to straighten the arms in this pose. So, a lot of us are working towards the Crane Pose but our pose might look actually more like the Crow Pose. The Crow Pose is a pretty challenging pose too.
Variations in Scorpion Pose!
Some fun variations on the forearm’s yesterday in my Shiva Power class at Guruv Yoga Lake Mary in Orlando!!! Work on the Dolphin and the Forearm Plank to strengthen your arms and shoulders and prepare for the Forearm Balance. Once you’ve mastered the Forearm Balance you can work on the Scorpion Pose. Or play with splitting the legs, or work on the charging scorpion hollow back variation to open the shoulders and upper back.
Hot and sweaty Shiva Power class!
Backbending!
These poses have been one of my greatest teachers over the years. It’s not easy to be vulnerable. Backbends help us to open up, surrender, and let go. Being vulnerable is hard. But it also feels amazing! The more I practice yoga — the more I feel that this is the really advanced work. It’s hard but it’s worth it.
Backbending Workshop at Space Academy yesterday!
This was a big workshop yesterday. We packed a lot of information into 2.5hrs. We discussed yoga theory, philosophy, anatomy review, Asana Breakdown, the spine, the tug of war actions, why we backbend in yoga, and we looked at a number of backbends in greater detail. When we backbend we are primarily looking at movement in the saggital plane, and poses that take the hips into extension, the spine into extension, and the shoulders into either flexion or extension.
4 Main reasons for doing Sun Salutations.
I taught a big Sun Salutation practice this morning at the Zhejiang Yoga Cultural Festival. Good attendance! It was very early in the morning and a little cold. But we persevered.
Sun Salutations have been practiced by yogis for thousands of years. When we practice them we are walking in the footsteps of our teachers and their teachers.
Tittibasana (Firefly Pose)
Demonstrating one of the variations of Tittibasana (Firefly Pose) in my Arm Balance Workshop at Pano Skylos! Thank you for coming, everyone. It was a fun day and a great weekend. I think we connected the dots today and made sense of a lot of things. The arm balance poses are advanced warmup poses. Each arm balance is either plank or low plank + one of the standing warmup poses. If you can hold plank and low plank and your hips are open enough you will be able to do many of the arm balance poses in yoga.
If you can control your breath...
One of the things I love about teaching with a translator is how it slows everything down.
Slowly moving with the breath is really where it’s at in a flowing practice. If you can control your breath, you can control your mind.
Let the breath lead the movement and let the breath wrap around the movement. The breath starts and then the movement starts. The movement finishes and then the breath finishes. This way there’s always going to be pauses. There’s always going to be control. Who’s driving your car? You are. Enjoy the dance between the movement and the stillness. Holding these opposites at the same time is the paradox that allows us to have a deeper, transformational experience. Concentrate but also surrender.
Practicing a slow flow that is connected to the breath will help you stay calm and keep you out of the default network of your brain - where it will be hard for you to not react and get caught up in everything that is coming up for you and just trying to process. Think of the four parts of the breath. There’s a little moment of stillness where the inhale meets the exhale, and another little moment of stillness where the exhale meets the inhale.
I love flowing with my students! I always practice a little bit with my students in every class. I find it helps me to connect with the group energy. I also think it reminds the students that I’m just walking the path with them. I’m not on a pedestal. I don’t want to be on a pedestal. We are all just walking home together.
Demonstrating Kukkutasana.
Demonstrating Kukkutasana in my Arm Balancing workshop yesterday at Guruv Yoga Dr. Phillips in Orlando! This is a challenging pose for me. I’ve been working with a shoulder injury the last two months and this was the first time in this pose in a while. I had a lot of fun playing with the students yesterday in our workshop. It was definitely a hot and sweaty one with lots of focus on the core, shoulders and the arms. A strong group came out and we were able to work on some challenging poses and advanced transitions. It was great to practice with you, everyone! You all did a great job! Look forward to seeing you again soon!
