Teaching Mudras in Your Yoga Classes

By Kathryn Boland

Do you include mudras in your classes? Are you looking for more smooth ways to incorporate them into your sequences? Why do so? Mudras are ancient hand and arm positions that can focus both mental and physical energy - and much, much more.

Western culture students will appreciate them more if they compliment the current pose, are not the sole focus, and aren’t overly esoteric. Let’s look at four places where we can incorporate mudras into a typical Vinyasa flow.


1. Seated Opening Poses

1) Guide students to take a seat, in Hero’s Pose (Virasana) or Easy Pose (Sukhasana). Have them reach arms up into an Upward Reach (Urdhva Hastasana).
2) Mudras that work well here include fingers interlaced and palms facing up to the sky (stretches the hands and wrists), Steeple Mudra (focuses energy upwards), and thumbs hooking but trying to pull apart (opens the collarbones and shoulders).
3) Cue your students to feel a rooting down through your seat, and a rising up through the top of your head. Ask them to try softening through the face, teeth, and jaw.
4) Cue them to take any other variations that feel right here - a gentle backbend, a sidebend each way, or a twist each way (going right first, per the design of the digestive system). Take the other side of twists or sidebends. Release the mudra and take a few breaths in your seat, noticing the effects of taking it.

2. Mudras with Lunge Variations

1. Cue a lunge pose, taking the left foot back. Students can keep the back knee lifted (grounding through the ball of the back foot) or drop the back knee down (pressing through the top of the foot to allow the shin to take pressure off the knee). 2. Guide students in setting a stable base here, feeling the outer thighs spiral outwards while the inner thighs hug in towards each other. Reach the arms out and up to set up the upper body in the pose. 3. Hug the arms slightly inwards towards the ears. Find a lengthening upwards on breaths in, and a softening on the breaths out. Cue any of the mudras you explored with seated poses - and any additional sidebends, backbends, or twists (taking the right first and then the left with twists, and making sure to sidebend to both sides).
4. Guide students through all of that on the other side - moving through a Vinyasa or integrated into a longer sequence. Remind students to try to find ease while enjoying the focused strength that these mudras help bring.

3. Wide-legged Forward Fold

1. Guide students to set their feet three to four feet apart (depending upon height/leg length). Ground down through the outer edges of the feet and the big toes, but lift through the insteps. From these actions feel the tailbone become heavy, the outer thighs spiral outwards, and the inner thighs hug in towards each other.
2. Cue them to find a mudra with the hands - “Steeple” mudra and simply interlaced fingers work well here. These help open up the chest, fronts of shoulders, and collarbone area in the pose.
3. Then instruct them to fold forward from the hips, leading with the crown of the head and keeping a long, flat spine. Once students are folded to the extent possible, they should try to fix the gaze upwards and backwards (in relation to the direction the toes are facing).
4. Ask them to try releasing any tension in the face, teeth, and jaw - redirecting that energy to where it's more useful, in the legs and core (which are working to keep to them stable in the pose). When ready, they can slowly and gently rise the torso - either fully or half-way up, depending upon where you intend to lead students next.

4. In Gate Pose (Parighasana)

1. Cue students, from kneeling, to take the right foot out and find a “Mountain Pose” foot there (grounding down through the outer edge of foot and big toe while lifting up through the instep, as described). Feel the tailbone drop.
2. Instruct them to rise the arms out of the shoulders, lifting with the biceps rather than the shoulders (which should be as released as possible). Ask them to lift the chin just slightly and set the gaze. Have them reach the arms up in an Urdhva Hastasana shape, and then find a mudra from there (among those mentioned in seated poses, or others that may intuitively work here).
3. Guide students to lift through the spine (from the pelvis to the top of the head) on a breath in. Have them sidebend to the right on a breath out, and hold for five to ten breaths. On a breath in, have them rise the torso back to vertical.
4. Cue them to release the mudra, to then take the hands back down to the ground. Have them take the right foot back in to re-ground through the right knee, so that they are again kneeling. Lead students through the same process on the next side.

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Encouraging Yoga Students to Engage

By Kathryn Boland

Do your students ask you questions, give you feedback, and share any physical or other concerns they may have in regards to practice? Do you wish they did that more often and/or in more depth, and wonder how you can encourage them to do so? Students know themselves - body, mind, and spirit - better than we instructors ever could. Yet they don’t always know what to do with that knowledge. 

Our knowledge of practice with their insight on themselves can come together to lead to their best practice. Yet students don’t always consult us. Modern Western cultural traditions can put yoga instructors on a pedestal of authority, who are to be listened to and not questioned - rather than to engage and collaborate with. 

This can go to the point of us asking individual students if something feels all right, and they can answer that it does when they are actually feeling pain. We should of course take students at their word, but also use other signs and tools to get to the root of their experience - so we can best serve them from there. So, how can we guide students towards that truthful, authentic engagement? 

The first way in which we can do that is more of a practical one - class structure and the common cues (to whole classes) that we offer at different points in class. For instance, certain questions are important to include in a class opening - if anyone is injured or has a more chronic anatomical issue, if anyone is relatively new to yoga (first to fifth class), and if anyone might be pregnant (but anyone a good deal along, with a very evident “baby bump”, should be directed towards a prenatal class). 

You can ask these questions when all students have their heads down (such as in Child’s Pose), or with closed eyes during a seated start - so that no students will feel self-conscious about revealing these things in front of other students. A bit later on, in the first resting pose after more active asana and flow, you can remind students that they can come to such a resting pose at any point during class when they might feel they need it. 

To end class, you can offer students the opportunity to take versions of more restful poses (such as supine twists and gentle hip openers, including Lizard Pose and Figure-4) that work best for them. Throughout class you can remind them to take what they need for themselves, in such ways.

A fun way to allow students to make their practices their own is to - if the class duration is long enough - include a “free flow” section. In these sections, students can hold and flow through poses that feel best for them, partly guided by upbeat music. This has an additional benefit of training students in, and building their confidence for, building their own home practices. 

Yet this method is likely not best to include in classes specified as beginner classes, wherein students will most likely need more guidance (for safety and benefits of poses) and confidence to flow on their own. With more experienced students, however, you can assure them of their capability to flow by their own intuition - and trust that they can really do so. 

These steps truly do begin to show, or reinforce for, students that they have agency in your class. With that agency, they can feel empowered to collaborate with you to help create their best possible practice. That collaboration can be indirect, such as them making modifications to the poses and flows you offer them. 

It can be direct, such as direct conversation or non-verbal working together (such as through gentle hands-on assists, with permission understood through other ways). To bring forth something even more specific, I would like to describe a particular method of a favorite teacher of mine. What specifically strikes me about her teaching is her use of questions - sometimes verging on a Socratic method. 

In her classes, this use of questions makes me feel as if I’m truly learning. She asks students about their experiences, and to reflect in certain ways - such as if one side felt different from another. This may put students in a place wherein they feel challenged, or perhaps even uncomfortable; it’s certainly not conventional for yoga instructors (at least the ones I’ve learned from). 

Yet the advantage of leading students to be more reflective, and truly more engaged in class through that deeper thinking, is certainly all the worth it - in my humble opinion. In addition, her kind and assuming - very much non-intimidating - demeanor likely balances out any of that discomfort. That addresses another significant aspect of teaching that determines students’ levels of willingness to engage as students - the energy the teacher brings. 

Confidence (in both self and students), positivity, non-judgement, and supportiveness can put students in a place wherein they’re more likely to engage - being accepted, supported, guided but not ordered, and in a place where they can reach for their highest selves.  

© Copyright – Aura Wellness Center – Publications Division

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Mutual Support in Modern Capitalist Yoga

By Kathryn Boland

Have you experienced trials with the business of modern Western yoga? Have you seen yoga instructors facing such trials? Did you support them? Were you supported? In most locations, more yoga instructors are being trained in, and interested in, teaching than there are available teaching opportunities. The result is a market oversaturated with teachers.

Catty, self-interested competitiveness could easily emerge in such a context. Practicing yoga doesn’t mean that you’ve perfected yogic values - it only means that you’re practicing them (at very varied potential capacities and consistencies). On the other hand, I personally have only seen neutrality or overt support from fellow yoga instructors in this matter. I’ve seen fellow instructors give other instructors teaching tips, offer subbing and leads for longer-term work. Other instructors certainly might have a different experience with this.

When we trust that what is ultimately best for us will occur, we will not feel defensive and self-protective. This is a practice of non-grasping (aparigraha). Drastic competitiveness can result in action of stealing what should be others’ - if we think of connections and opportunities as capital for building yoga teacher careers, they’re definitely things we can say can be stolen. The opposite would be non-stealing, or asteya.

As mentioned, I personally have never heard of it happening, but I can imagine teachers engaging in gossip and starting rumors to try and undercut other instructors. These sorts of actions can result from jealousy, insecurity, and/or feeling threatened. Most perpetrators of such actions don’t feel good after doing them. It certainly doesn’t feel good for the person who is the target.

On the other end of the spectrum, we can support each other, recognizing each other’s struggles and do what we can to ease them. This takes open communication. If we see instructor friends struggling, we can ask how they are - opening up space for them to confide in us about their struggles. If we are struggling, we can communicate that. In fact, I’d like to share a story about myself doing this that ended up in me feeling more supported in my teaching work.

A few months ago I connected with a teacher who came back to Boston from Vienna, on Facebook. I was a bit frustrated to see her getting a lot of work quite quickly, and also have the availability to travel and cook delicious, healthy meals. I felt some jealousy rising up within me, and also just confusion about how she wasn't struggling more - considering how long it took myself and others I know to make connections and get teaching work in this city.

I’m not proud of these reactions - I only want to be transparent about them. Then she posted that she was subbing a class at a studio where I had tried to get work, and got absolutely nowhere. I just had to say something - but I was committed to doing so politely. I asked her if she minded me asking how she ended up subbing there. I also described some of my frustrations with certain turns in my teaching career.

She explained that it was through a sale/acquisition of another studio where she’d been subbing. She also opened up that she struggles financially, lives with her boyfriend (who through that is helping her out with housing expenses), works another job, and has to “really hussle”. She agreed that more real conversations about the way instructors are treated, and the values the yoga world lives and works by, are needed.

I had to notice how I jumped to conclusions about how she was really doing. I was entirely susceptible to the positive messages of social media, rather than keeping in mind that people often don’t share the deeper and harder things. I was glad I reached out, checking my underlying jealousy and annoyance to speak diplomatically and kindly. We could agree, and both feel heard. Now, we share opportunities with each other when possible. It seems like we’re in each other’s corner.

Even without that practical support, I can’t speak for her, but I know that I felt validated. It felt better to not hold those thoughts and feelings to myself. Perhaps more individual dialogues of these types of conversations would lead to wider conversations that could bring positive change to the yoga world. Even without that, individual instructors could be in a better place to go forth serving in their work.

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Power up with Plank Pose

By Kathryn Boland 

Do you ever guide your students in refining Plank Pose (Kumbhakasana), a fundamental asana? Would you like to learn more about it, so that you could do that with more fluency and effectiveness? Plank can add a good amount of versatility to Vinyasa and related asana forms. With it and through it are modifications to “up-level", “down-level", to add more vigor or ease practice. Read on for tips. 

Plank Pose Basics 

Spin your biceps forward, spreading your fingers wide and grounding through every part of your hand. If you need to spin your hands slightly out in order to make those happen concurrently, go ahead and do that. Fix your drishti on a diagonal forward and down. Feel your tailbone draw to your heels, and your belly scoop into your spine. Power up through your quads and hamstrings as well. 

These actions taken together help create a long, strong line (sloping upwards) from the heels to the head. For Side Plank (shifted to one hand, the other rising up to the sky, and torso facing in the same direction as the raised arm), feel the top hip coming forward. It will want to fall back, potentially leading to loss of stable balance as well as even minor muscle strain. Find a small lift higher with the hips, as they also want to drop downwards. 

Ensure that the bottom shoulder stays in line with its wrist, just as it was in Plank, with the top arm riding out of its shoulder. There’s a tendency for it to slip back behind the shoulder - try not to let it. Keep the belly scooping into the spine and the tailbone drawing towards the heels. Feel the feet flexing hard, such that they stay in the same shape they were in during Plank. Enjoy the feeling of a powerful and dynamic balance here, one that involves the entire body! 

Down-Level

There may be numerous circumstances in which you might want to make Plank Pose less physically rigorous - including having students with limited physical capacity (from injury, advanced age, youth, et cetera), or teaching a more gentle class format that still includes Vinyasa-like elements (such as “Slow Flow” or “Gentle Flow"). A classic way to do this is to take Plank on the knees. Instruct students to make sure they’re resting just above or below the kneecaps (versus directly on them). 
              
To take this modified Plank into a transitional flow, rather than through Chaturanga, drop the chest in between the thumbs. Allow the bum to go high. Then slide the heart forward and let the bum drop, to take Cobra Pose (Bhujangasana). Then push back through Tabletop Pose to Downward-Facing Dog. It’s also possible to modify Side Plank - from modified Plank, spin one foot behind the same-side knee. Then stack the hips to face the opposite side, with the arms the same as in traditional Side Plank. 

Another modified version of Plank Pose is to do it on a wall. This can work well in private lessons or smaller classes that can provide wall space for each student, as well as those with a style and flow that will not be problematically interrupted by having students move to a wall. Have them place palms flat on a wall at shoulder height and shoulder-distance apart. Bend elbows to bring the torso closer to the wall - aiming for all the way, but any degree will help build strength, awareness, and integration. Feel the tailbone heavy and the chin slightly lifting, just like in Mountain Pose. In the case of wrist injury, an option is Dolphin Plank - which takes pressure off the wrists by distributing weight all throughout the hands, wrists, and forearms. It can feel more strenuous than traditional Plank Pose, such as in requiring more core engagement, because being lower to the ground creates a greater need to resist gravity (simply by the laws of physics). All of these versions do require core, arm, and leg strength, but in their own ways certainly less physically strenuous than a full Plank Pose (then perhaps also flowing into Chaturanga). Just as knees-down Plank Pose, it’s a smart way to “down-level" the pose, when indicated. 

Up-Level

At other times, you’ll have students who will benefit from challenges added on to Plank. These include “Mountain Climbers” - taking a knee towards the chest and stepping the foot back, nothing else moving (not even the hips), and the same on the other leg, switching back and forth a few times. Feel the belly scoop into the spine for stability and strength building. 

Another variation is the knee crossing the body towards the other elbow, or towards the same elbow. A sequence could be same elbow, center, opposite elbow, all again in reverse. Another option is to transition from Downward Facing Dog into any or all of the above. It can also be fun to transition from Plank to Downward-Facing Dog, with no other additions. Cue your students to roll through a Cat Pose back on the way up and down, for additional strengthening and sensing of spinal movement.  
            
This is all some serious core strength work! To ensure that you’re not overdoing it in what you’re cueing, watch students for signs of fatigue and the lax alignment that can result (which becomes a safety issue). Make it fully clear to them that they are free to take rest whenever they need. And all of the above done with the given that these students understand, and consistently execute, safe and strong alignment. Otherwise, it’s not yet time for these additions. It’s time to step back to square one. Wishing safe, strong, harmonious practice to all! 

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Standing Out From the Yoga Instructor Crowd

By Kathryn Boland

Have you noticed the amount of competition in the yoga instruction field? What have you done to “stand out” from those competing for the same jobs? Or to reconcile with competition in tension with true yogic values?  
       
Some instructors may teach one to a few classes a week, volunteer with their teaching, or do sessions for friends and family in a private context. Those things considered, there are still many, many teachers out there looking for teaching work to fully supply or significantly supplement their income (and, of course, experience all of the other wonderful things about the work) - outpacing the steady rise of yoga’s popularity in the West. 
          
A question arises from all of this - who sinks and who swims?  It feels harsh to talk about living, feeling people in these ways, but that’s how capitalism does. We need be in a certain amount of alignment with the capitalist system in which we operate. Employers are largely in control of decisions that will lead to who succeeds and who struggles. By and large, they make their choices based upon what they believe is best for their businesses.

            
Sometimes those decisions are wise, and sometimes they’re not. They’re human beings who make mistakes. Either way, often there are people involved who have to be disappointed, sometimes hurt. None of us want to see fellow instructors disappointed or hurt. We of course also need to be of service to others; our practice, and simply being a decent person in the world, calls for it. 
             
Yet if everyone were to put others completely before themselves, with a result of self-harm, would anybody really be better off? We must care for ourselves so that we can care for others. As long as we act with integrity, honesty, and kindness, we do not have to feel guilty for our success - by yoga’s moral code or that of any other way of living. 
           
There is always a slightly uncomfortable tension between true yoga and the business of yoga in a capitalist society. In my view, if operating within a capitalist framework is what it takes to make yoga accessible to people in these culture, then certain compromises are worth it. Again, as long as we act by our values, we aren’t compromising yoga’s truest, deepest essence. Go ahead and seeks out as many opportunities as you desire and can feasibly be granted.

           
Audition with all your heart and soul. Let yourself be joyful when you are granted opportunities. Also be joyful for others when they are granted opportunities! Let yourself experience natural sadness when an opportunity doesn’t work out, and be there to comfort others when they experience that sadness. This is the kind of connection with authentic self that will also help you to stand out from the crowd of other instructors. 
             
No one is better at being you than you! A common mistake of young instructors is to imitate their favorite teachers. You’re not as good at being someone else as you are at being you! People can smell inauthenticity from a mile away, so to speak. It’s not compelling or enjoyable. It won’t get you jobs or people in your classes. No one else is you, as well, so that right there sets you apart to at least some degree! 

            
Second, be the best you you can be. Keep up with continuing education, refine your sequences, and seek feedback about your teaching. Practice regularly. Attend to your self-care. Maintain strong social ties and connection to things apart from yoga that light you up. Seek to offer your students the most whole, healthy, and capable version of yourself. 
           
That being said, you will make mistakes. You won’t be perfect. Another myth about yoga instructors out there is that we are always morally upstanding, and always make the healthiest choices. If that were true, we wouldn’t need yoga. We would have reached Samadhi. By and large, we do our bests to practice what we preach. But we’re human! Any expectation, from ourselves or from others, to always act in perfect adherence to yogic values is unfair and unrealistic. 

            
Another way to stand out from the yoga instructor crowd is to leverage your unique experience. No resume nor life story is the same. Do you have training in math and science? Pique your students’ interest in the physics, geometry, and anatomy involved with yoga. A trained musician or singer? Offer your students live music or singing to open and close classes. 
          
Are you a dancer/choreographer? Use your sense of movement and the body to craft enjoyable and intriguing sequences for your students. Office/management experience? Be great at organizing and promoting your business, as well as connecting with other businesses and clients. The point is to offer yourself in the fullness of who you are. By the reasoning of Deepak Chopra’s Law of Attraction, the opportunities that align with that fullness will come your way. If you focus on the goal, rather than the competition in the way of reaching it, they’ll be nothing stopping that Attraction. 

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Revenge of the Trolls Invades Your Yoga Studio

By Sanjeev Patel, CYT 500

Maybe I'm weird, but I loved trolls in folklore and literature. They were not so good looking, they didn't smell good, lived in caves or under a bridge, and sometimes, they ate the local farmer's goats. Snoopy used to laugh about rabbits while reading in the library, and as a kid, I laughed about trolls. Now, the Internet has the 21st century troll who antagonizes everyone. Suddenly, it has become popular to be a public troll on commuter trains, during traffic jams, and places around town.

How would you know a troll?

He might try to hide in your closets without signing up for a class. He'll definitely refuse to sign your waiver form and he might say things like: "Believe me! Political correctness is killing this studio!"

When most people enter a yoga studio, they long to experience a zen-like feeling and uplift their spirits. Unfortunately, this isn't the case for everyone. There are some people who like to stir up drama and contention. Just like there are trolls that invade the Internet and the government, trolls can roam anywhere. This includes a yoga studio. When you, yoga practitioners and yoga students are trying to be on one accord and have a great session, trolls will do their best to make sure this doesn't happen. However, there are ways to handle the situation. 

1. Be introspective. 

You don't want to be in this space for too long. However, you do want to go inward for a second to consider the other person. You need to have a momentary dialogue with yourself to communicate and translate what's happening on the deepest level. At the core, when you're dealing with a troll, you're dealing with someone who's carrying a significant amount of hurt. Their behavior is just a manifestation of what's happening on the inside. When a person has peace, they have no desire to cause a scene and disturb others. 

2. Control your emotions. 

This is a perfect time to think and meditate on your feet. As you approach the situation, take some time to do some deep breathing exercises. As you breathe in and out, the body will have a better opportunity to get rid of any negative emotion and toxic energy. You don't want to absorb the other party's aura. Intentionally control your emotions, with breathing techniques and a thoughtful perspective on what's happening in front of you. 

3. Calmly communicate. 

When you're dealing with a person who's snappy and intentionally causing problems, they probably aren't communicating rationally. They might be really rude, confrontational and disrespectful. Don't return evil for evil. You need to respond in a calm manner. When you remain calm, you'll have a better chance of diffusing the situation. It also does a great job of disempowering the person. If the other person's voice rises in volume, don't try to match it. Stay at a consistent tone of voice as you communicate. Many people communicate soft-spoken language with weakness, but it can be the most powerful tone in a conversation. 

4. Refuse to emotionally engage. 

When a person is giving off toxic energy, it tends to throw other people off. When a person is screaming and carrying on with a bad attitude, to most people, it feels natural to go to that same emotional space as well. However, that is exactly what a troll wants. Since trolls are dealing with such emotional turmoil, they get pleasure from their ability to control the emotions of others. Don't engage on an emotional level. Don't try to reason with them. You should communicate, but understand that they might try to engage in conversation in order to completely waste your time.  You could catch him red-handed taking photos of students in your class and he'll respond: "I have tremendous respect for yoga." You're thinking: "Seriously!"

5. Think of solutions. 

It's important to be solution-driven. Most parents with small children understand the need for a contingency plan. While many days may go as planned, this isn't the case for every single day. When you have irate students and troublemakers, it's wise to think of solutions to handle their temper tantrums. If it's disrupting the class, it's good to have someone in place to handle their complaints, such as an administrator or customer service representative. 

6. Call in reinforcements. 

Unfortunately, there might be a time or two when a person becomes so disruptive that it threatens the safety and integrity of the people in the studio. In that case, it's best to call for reinforcements. Reinforcements might include security and the police. You never want to be in a position where your safety is at risk. Always have a way to manage the situation so that it can be quickly handled. Be prepared for him to give one last parting shot, such as: "I would like to extend my best wishes to all, even the haters and losers."

As you are closing the door on him for the last time, he says your school is really boring. Don't say a word, close the door now and take a deep breath - the troll is gone.

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Help! My Yoga Students are Yelping Me!

By Bhavan Kumar

As a yoga teacher, you are your own brand. You might be stationed at a specific studio, but students can opt to attend your class. As a result, it's not uncommon for many teachers to build a strong fan base and following. After taking this into account, it's important to recognize that your students might leave a review on Yelp.com about you. After first, this can seem a little nerve-wracking. However, there are a few good ways to handle this reality. 

One of the parts that gets most people concerned is the negative review. Just by nature, people want to hear really good remarks about who they are and what they bring to the world. It can be really challenging to hear negative feedback. On top of this, it can be really challenging to read negative feedback on a public platform. This means that other people can see it. Furthermore, the feedback will influence a person's desire to work with a specific teacher. So, a good or bad remark can make the difference in whether or not you receive a sale. This can be understandably challenging. So, there are a few ways to approach this ordeal. 

1. Take note of the criticism. 

While it can be tough to read negative reviews of your service, it's best to use those uncomfortable experiences and allow them to refine you. Use the negative reviews as notes on how you can improve. Run the reviews past a few of your most trusted colleagues and friends. If they are able to agree with the sentiments in a gentler way, it's time to step your game up. Keep in mind that you'll always continue to learn and grow. Knowing this, don't get too hard on yourself. Come up with an action plan to help you become proactive about improving. As you learn more about the process, you can shift your mindset and look at the criticism as a great way to become the best yoga professional you can be. 

2. Be responsive on Yelp. 

Whether the review is positive or negative, make sure to leave a comment. It helps users realize that you see their feedback and have a desire to be responsive. Attentiveness is very important. When a brand lets anything go unchecked online, it's bad for optics. Instead, sign up for Google Alerts or another service that notifies you when someone leaves a new comment or review. Promptly respond to it. If it's a positive review, make sure to express gratitude to the person who left it. If it's a negative review, it might be a good idea to approach it in a different way. A negative review might cause you to have a similar reaction. Your response can make a big difference in whether or not other reviewers are attracted to your brand. Apologize for the person's experience. Offer an opportunity to connect offline so that you can learn more about what they would've wanted to experience. In some cases, the reviewer might not even respond. However, if they do, they'll appreciate the fact that you were responsive to their experience. In many cases, negative reviewers want to be heard and understood. 

3. Make it a part of the narrative.

Whether you like it or not, you're living in the digital age. Social media and the internet are here to stay. Additionally, there are so many ways people benefit from these entities, so embrace the fact. Instead of fighting against it, adopt the narrative and make it work in your favor. At the beginning of each class, make sure to introduce yourself. At the end of the class, reintroduce yourself and encourage students to leave a review of how the course went for them. In this case, you get to welcome and encourage positive reviews. It's all about making the experience work for you!

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Teaching Yoga by Example: Gratitude

By Virginia Iversen, M.Ed 

As a professional Yoga teacher, you have the opportunity to positively impact the students in your class on a daily basis. Although you might feel initially that the most important aspects of teaching a Yoga class are correct cueing techniques and offering appropriate modifications, over time you will find that helping your students to cultivate an optimistic outlook on their own life is just as crucial as maintaining the correct alignment in Triangle Pose. Of course, being comfortable and familiar with guiding a group of Yoga students through a balanced sequence of postures, breathing exercises and meditation techniques, is one of the core aspects of being an effective teacher.

However, many experts agree that the vast majority of our communication occurs on a nonverbal level. In the context of Yoga class, this means that the way that you interact with your students, and even the quality of your own inner state, will be directly communicated to those around you, whether you like it or not! If you have had a particularly difficult day, or are in a negative frame of mind, many of your students will pick up on this negativity. As part of your preparation for teaching a Yoga class, taking a few minutes to cultivate a peaceful mind and a grateful heart will go a long way towards truly supporting your students in the process of cultivating their own inner joy. 

A very effective and uplifting way to cultivate the awareness and feeling of gratitude in your own being, is to simply take a few moments before your students begin to arrive for class and mentally review 3 to 5 aspects of your own life that you are grateful for on that particular day. These “gratitude items” may include certain people in your life, beautiful places out in nature, or even hearing a favorite song on the radio on your way to the studio. The items on your gratitude list are not as important as the feelings of gratefulness that remembering them creates in your own heart. 

When you prepare to teach your Yoga classes in this way, your students will feel the positive energy that you are creating in the class, and will be nourished by the uplifting environment in the studio, while they are practicing with you. In addition, you can also share this gratitude exercise with your students during the course of your class. For instance, you may want to begin your Yoga class by asking your students to sit in Easy Seat on their mats, while they take a few deep, full breaths. In order to facilitate an awareness of the many blessings your Yoga students have in their own lives, you can suggest that they take a few moments to bring into their conscious awareness several different items, people, places, or experiences for which they are grateful on that particular day. 

In this way, you will be facilitating the deeper aspects of a balanced Yoga practice, both in the way that you comport yourself and through the introductory or closing exercises that you offer to your students, in order to help them become more consciously aware of the many positive aspects of their own lives. By focusing on gratitude within the parameters of a comprehensive flow of Yoga postures, pranayama exercises and relaxation techniques, you will create a beautiful, serene and uplifting environment in your classes, which will offer your students a place of refuge and restoration for the hour or so that they spend with you on the mat. 

In addition, by embodying a sense of peace, equipoise and gratefulness in your own being, you will nonverbally communicate the higher virtues of Yoga to your students. If you find it challenging to sustain an optimistic and grateful spirit on a daily basis, keeping a gratitude journal will help to highlight the aspects of your life that bring joy and peace to your own heart and mind. By doing so, you will naturally begin to embody the higher aspects of a dedicated and committed Yoga practice, which will inspire and elevate the hearts and minds of your students.

© Copyright – Virginia Iversen / Aura Wellness Center – Publications Division

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Chinese New Year and Resolutions

By Michael Gleason

Happy Chinese New Year!  And Nihao if you are celebrating Chinese New Year!  The change in the calendar is very often a time to start anew, namely starting resolutions.  Anyone with a resolution will have a reason, or reasons, to hit that [REFRESH – F5] button of life.  Yoga as a New Year’s resolution, or part of your regiment of reasonable, attainable resolutions, is a great way to address the heavy foods we just consumed over the holidays and football season. Yoga as a New Year’s resolution also gets us back in touch with everyone in your immediate surroundings instead of using hand-held devices.

Sally Susinno, RYT-200, of Wellesley, Mass. Cautioned that “resolutions can be wasteful [and that] there’s no past or later, there’s always now.”  Susinno did encourage students not to wait but start with something specific vs. striving for the unattainable.  She also voiced her concern that “we live in a diet culture…[and we] binge before dieting.”  The best approach to Yoga as a New Year’s resolution then is to find a practical, productive intention such as, “May I be right with myself.”

Overall Susinno likes to see people take a more meditative approach making yoga as a New Year’s resolution such a relevant opportunity.  Other helpful, healing mantras she likes are, “May I forgive the people who imposed upon me” and “What does health mean to me?”  Furthermore, this could mean watching to make sure we did not have a donut for breakfast vs. oatmeal or anything else that keeps us full longer.  Yoga for New Year’s resolutions can also mean getting away from the ceremonial aspects of the time of year.
 
A way to avoid any drudgery with Yoga as a New Year’s resolution is to open ourselves to the different yoga poses and to experiment with that broad spectrum of yoga classes.  If time or money is a challenge, consider learning one yoga asana per week for 52 weeks.  While doing so spend January through August to explore the eight limbs of yoga, one per month.  More often than not most New Year’s resolutions come to a crashing halt before Valentine’s Day.  So focusing on one pose per week (one breathing exercise, one sitting exercise, one standing exercise) is the chance to stop and embrace when Susinno talked about the now vs. past or future.

With all this embracing of personal strengths and weaknesses, this recognition to forgive ourselves and others it is good then to focus on the best yoga poses for New Year’s resolutions.

Resources
[1] https://www.artofliving.org/yoga/yoga-benefits/reasons-yoga-new-year-resolutions
[2] https://chopra.com/articles/5-new-year%E2%80%99s-resolutions-to-expand-your-yoga-practice
[3] https://www.doyouyoga.com/5-yoga-poses-get-ready-new-year/

Practicing Asteya as a Yoga Instructor

By Kathryn Boland

Do you recognize the truth that you lead yoga students in practice, but you don’t “own” their practices? Do you remind them that it’s “their” practice? Does your manner of teaching bear this out - do you “talk the talk” and “walk the walk”? I began to think about this issue more deeply when an instructor friend posted a - well, we might call it a rant, but it was measured and wise - social media post starting with “Get off my asana.” 
           
The post mainly centered on an encounter with a fellow practitioner, rather than an instructor - who admonished her (politely enough, but that’s what it was) for doing her “own thing” many times in class. She ended on a note on how this relates to yoga instructors, and to reach out to her if we teach in a way that allows students to have true agency over their own practices. With many other instructors commenting, the discussion moved to focus on that last topic, yoga instructors acting similarly to that fellow practitioner or refraining from doing so. 

           
I personally, as a student, have experienced instructors affirming their belief that we should shape and create our own practices - in the framework of the instructors’ guidance. This is my personal belief as a yoga practitioner, instructor, and enthusiast. I’ve seen instructors acting in ways that demonstrate a lack of belief in - or at least lack of awareness of - this perspective. These actions include pushing students deeper into poses without student consent, admonishing students for taking their own variations, and demanding certain prop usage (with scolding a choice to not use a prop). 

I’ve seen some teachers doing both, saying they believe in personal agency in practice and acting as if they don’t - which, to be frank, is hypocrisy. It’s at least cognitive dissonance. For instance, I had one instructor (who I very much admire, as a teacher and as a person) who guided us to make it on our practices that day, modifying how we need to, but then gave me a very deep modification into Lizard Pose without first obtaining my approval. Another instructor talked about how he liked to call students’ poses “your poses”, because “they are”, he affirmed. Later he cued a particular mudra hold with a bind that significantly deepened it. “Lengthen your spine!” he said to me while practicing this, in a tone that was a small step away from scolding. 

I don’t doubt any genuine intentions, or suspect any malice. By and large, yoga instructors enter the work to help people feel better and live fuller, more empowered lives. That contradiction most likely comes from lack of continuing education (and/or quality initial training), objective observation of one’s own teaching, and mindful reflection upon it. Quality initial and continuing education offering tools for providing students with the kind of practice they can modify to what they want and need on any particular day, and is still safe, healthy, healing, and empowering. Objective observation and mindful reflection upon one’s teaching can allow one to see the type of contradiction I’ve described. 

Practice of yogic values also certainly comes into play. Ahimsa guides we instructors to not harm our students by attempting to dictate their practices, to the point wherein they do something that they know (consciously or subconsciously) isn’t best for them. Satya helps us in those steps of objective awareness and mindful reflection. And, as referenced, asteya guides us to refrain from taking something that truly isn’t ours - our students’ practices. Once we offer it to them, it should be truly theirs. 

On another, but related note - something that came up in that discussion following the Facebook post was the idea of instructors coming to feel a sense of control over their students’ bodies.  Again, I don’t mean to imply anything like intentional malice. It just seems to be something that can emerge if we are not truthful and mindful. Relating to this idea, Seanne Corne has also spoken to why we teach - for the adulation, for the celebrity, or - on the other hand - to come into contact with the pure soul within our students. 

If that soul is to fly free, it cannot be constrained by we instructors’ ideas of what our students’ practices “have” to be. It’s important to make our students aware of what we know is best in yoga practice, and attempt to bar them from anything unsafe, but beyond that - once that enters into control, that which students can sense - we are impeding the free, soaring flight of that soul. All of this is something to be mindful of and improve upon as we progress as instructors - myself included! Om Shanti on the journey.  

© Copyright – Aura Wellness Center – Publications Division

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Post-Holiday Yoga - Get Creative with Twists

By Kathryn Boland

Do you get frequent requests for poses and flows to ease digestion after the holidays? What do you offer students in response? Yoga practice overall can ease and facilitate digestion - through increasing oxygenated blood flow, stretching muscles throughout the body, and releasing tension within them. Twists, however, can specifically target these effects in the abdominal cavity. 
           
The holidays, for most people in the Western world, are filled with abnormally large quantities of rich food. Big belly laughs alternate with socially stressful situations. Pepper some travel into the mix (“hurry up and wait" - rushing to meet certain departure times and then remaining static body positions for a long period of time). It’s a perfect recipe for abdominal issues. 
           
It’s great to offer students twists to help ease these effects - yet we don’t want to offer the same kinds of twists throughout class or over subsequent weeks. Many students nowadays, particularly fitness-minded Vinyasa enthusiasts, want variety. There’s also immense competition amongst the many certified instructors out there looking for work. We most often need to offer that separates us from the pack to obtain and maintain teaching work. Finding new ways to twist during the holidays is a great way to go about all of this. Keep reading for ideas! Namaste! 

1) Vary mudras.

One might not automatically associate mudras and twists, but you do already use mudras with twists - because mudras include the relationship of the hands and the body. In a lunged twist, a front arm can either have its hand on the back of the front thigh or lengthening forward to create a “T" shape. Perhaps use one in sequences one week, and then the other in a following week. 
           
Another option is to have fingers interlaced and palms facing the sky, and twisting while keeping the shape. Yet another is while holding Garudasana (Eagle) arms - if students are warm and open enough for that in any particular class. These two options also work in seated poses such as Dandasana (Staff Pose) and Baddha Konasana (Tailor’s Pose). In Half-Lord-of-the-Fishes Pose, you can guide students to start with the tricep of the front arm outside of the higher (opposite) thigh.

         
After a few breaths, after adding more twist and length through the spine, cue students to bend the elbows and take fingers to the sky. This helps get deeper twisting into the upper back. Throughout, if students cannot reach the floor behind them, and are leaning back to reach it, it’s best for them to put a block underneath the hand in back in the twist. As in all twists, cue to find a bit more spinal length with breaths in and a bit more twist with breaths out. Added together, these tiny adjustments result in a deep twist around a long spine - created safely, on the body’s own time. 
   
2) Vary levels, twists in different types of poses. 
         
Students will most likely appreciate twists this time of year, but even more so if you can offer them at all different levels in space and in different types of poses. These include standing poses, seated poses, kneeling poses, and supine poses. You could start class on the back, and cue a Supine Twist. A bit later, in Tabletop, include a Thread-the-Needle pose (which also helps loosen the shoulders, which can get rather tight this time of year). In Anjaneyasana, in a following grounded sequence (with the back knee down), cue any of the twists offered above for standing poses. 

           
Do the same in higher-level sequences with High Crescent Lunge and Warrior Poses. You can vary up these twists in different sequences and in different poses, or carry one or two through as a consistent thread in the class. Help students increase the twisting effect present in poses like Trikonasana (Triangle) through cueing refinements of alignment. In Triangle, for instance, the top hip drops while the underside lung tries to spin up to the sky. These actions together help create the twist, while there’s a lean back behind the heart to make space for it all. 
           
In the typical progression of a class,  seated poses follow grounded poses. Use the variations listed above for twists here, again continuing with one or two or mixing them up. There are also many different options for supine twists, from one-legged to stacked knees to with Eagle (wrapped) legs to with legs in a “Figure Four” shape. As always in teaching, let your students’ needs, capabilities, and desires - filtered through your own voice as a teacher - guide your choices. Post-holiday season, twists can be a great outlet for all of that!    

© Copyright – Aura Wellness Center – Publications Division

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