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Saturday, January 27, 2018

Practicing Asteya as a Yoga Instructor

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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Sunday, January 14, 2018

Post-Holiday Yoga - Get Creative with Twists

post-holiday yoga
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

Please feel free to share our posts with your family, friends, colleagues, and favorite social media networks.


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