Yoga and the Four Gateways of Speech: Is my Timing Appropriate?

By: Virginia Iversen

The Four Gateways of Speech are four questions that come from the Sufi tradition. These four contemplative questions help to determine the merit of a conversation prior to engaging in the conversation. The Four Gateways of Speech are: Is it True? Is it Kind? Is it Necessary? Is my Timing Appropriate? By contemplating these questions prior to engaging in a conversation, especially a difficult conversation, you will be able to more clearly ascertain the situation at hand, your own preconceptions about the other person and his or her underlying motives, as well as the ultimate effect of the conversation on both of you. 

As Yogis and Yoginis, we are all striving for greater physical well-being and mental health. Many of us also long for a deep understanding of the divine, in addition to a sense of unification with the divine energy. By choosing to only engage in conversations that are true, kind, appropriate and necessary, we limit negative interactions. We will also be more able to step away from downward spiraling negative conversations and contracted states of being. Physical and mental contraction diminishes our energy, creativity and well-being. 

Take the example of submitting a class proposal to the director of the Yoga studio where you teach. You are very excited about introducing a new style of Yoga to the students at the studio. Surprisingly, you do not hear anything back from the director of the studio, but to your dismay you find out in a few weeks that the class you proposed is on the schedule and is slated to be taught by another teacher! You feel thoroughly demoralized and betrayed. 

According to the Four Gateways of Speech, it is imperative in this situation to pause long enough to determine if your timing is appropriate before you approach the director of the studio. In business, this is absolutely critical to your success as a Yoga instructor. Imagine the director’s response if you approach him or her just prior to teaching a class when there are a number of students within hearing distance. 

Not only will the director being uncomfortable with the students listening to the conversation, he or she will most likely also be angry that you have raised a difficult issue just prior to teaching a class, and in doing so throwing him or her completely off-center. Your chances of a successful, uplifting and productive conversation are much better if you find a quiet time in a private space to approach such a sticky issue with diplomacy, an open mind and a respectful attitude.  

© Copyright 2016 – Virginia Iversen / Aura Wellness Center – Publications Division

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Teaching Yoga for Muscular Balance

By Faye Martins

When training to become a yoga teacher, how often did you reflect on the complete concept of a "balanced body?"  Many yoga instructors who have had athletes walk into their studios can relate to the difficulties of working with students who have muscular imbalances. Athletes are some of the most common examples of practitioners who turn to yoga because of pain or injuries associated with over-training some muscle groups while leaving their companion muscles weak and undeveloped.

Problems that Result from Muscular Imbalance

Of course, it is not just athletes who are guilty of this. Often, through the course of everyday life, muscles that tend to be used the most will overdevelop and cause injury or pain in the weaker areas. A truck driver who sits most of the day but needs upper body strength to make turns, for example, might suffer atrophy in the legs and hips while building muscles in the core and arms. Sometimes, an injury itself leads to overcompensation. Lower back pain, for example, will cause a person to use abdominal and arm muscle groups to protect the most painful areas of the back. This will lead to further degeneration of the back as unused muscles continue to weaken.

What many people do not realize is that the body uses different muscles to work together to accomplish certain movements. Quadriceps work with hamstrings to push the body to a standing position, and biceps work with triceps to pull a friend up off the couch. Weak hamstrings result in muscular imbalance and require the quadriceps to work harder, putting the body at risk for injury or painful misalignments.

Yoga for Muscular Balance

Yoga poses (asana) are designed to work in balance with each other so that the biceps do not overdevelop while the triceps are ignored. Some yoga teachers focus heavily on doing poses and counter poses while others advocate doing a series of, say, backbends, then poses that neutralize the spine before moving into a series of counter pose forward bends.

A lot of under-developed muscles need stretching, which is precisely what yoga poses offer. This is one of the main physical advantages of practicing yoga for muscular balance, since deep stretches increases a yogi's awareness of his or her body and its areas of strength, weakness and energy.

Advising student that practicing yoga consistently can help correct muscular imbalance through stretching and poses which focus on multiple muscle groups. Yoga is a whole body endeavor, and practicing it also improves the mind-body relationship, which further enables a yogi to achieve muscular balance and physical health. 

© Copyright 2012 – Aura Wellness Center – Publications Division


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What Should a Yoga Certification Course Teach About Pranayama?

By Faye Martins 

Pranayama refers to various breathing techniques used during meditation and yoga. When you breathe correctly, the lungs and diaphragm fill up, causing new blood and oxygen to flow throughout the body to the vital organs. Fresh blood to the brain can renew your thoughts and energy levels. Pranayama is an extremely vital part of any yoga teacher training program, because breathing is a vital process of life. A yoga instructor should know the benefits pranayama provides, the foundational techniques, and the safety guidelines associated with each technique. 

Benefits 

Breathing keeps us alive. As we go about our day, our minds become busy with thoughts, tasks, worries, and decisions. We often “forget” to breathe. Most people let their bodies take over, but that results in shallow breathing. Deep, intentional breathing will bring fresh oxygen into the body and help it thrive. Shallow breathing will merely keep us alive, but deep breathing will keep us alive and healthy. Pranayama affects our overall health and wellness, decreases stress and anxiety levels, focuses and energizes the mind, and can cure illness. 

Techniques 

When you are new to pranayama, it helps to have some basic techniques to fall back on. Yoga instructors can teach a few basics to their classes so students can start to create an understanding of pranayma. The first thing students need to know is how to achieve a complete, deep breath. Begin the breath by slowly pulling in air to puff up the abdomen, then the chest, and then gently keep inhaling until you cannot inhale anymore. Let the breath out slowly and controlled. Let students practice several times to get the feel of their entire abdomens and chest cavities filling up with air. It is helpful to place the hands on the belly or chest to feel it rising and falling with each breath. 

Alternate nostril breathing is a common pranayama. Close one nostril by pressing the thumb to it, inhale deeply, then hold the breath for a second or two while releasing the thumb and closing the other nostril by pressing a finger to it, then exhale and repeat. The breath will bring energy and vitality into the body. 

Breath of fire is also a common pranayama that involves pushing the air out through the nostrils forcefully. Each person’s rate of expulsion will differ, depending on his or her experience and capacity. Instruct students to inhale naturally, and then exhale quickly. Students might do about 20 or 30 expulsions at first, and then gradually increase as they gain experience. 

There are many foundational pranayama techniques taught at Yoga certification schools; among them are: Ujjayi, Udgeeth, Bhastrika, Kapalbhati, Brahmari, Dirgha, and Sheetali. Whether you choose an onsite or online yoga school, you will learn these techniques and many more.

Safety 

Advise your yoga students to see a doctor before beginning pranayama practice. Make sure to practice in a place with clean air, free of smoke or other toxins. During class, remind students to relax and not focus too hard on the breathing. If they become dizzy, or breathing becomes laborious, tell them to take a break. Pranayama practice should be slow and gentle.

© Copyright 2012 – Aura Wellness Center – Publications Division

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Kids' Yoga for Balanced Education

By Faye Martins

Yoga teachers are always searching for ways to help students’ focus, learn, and engage with academic materials. At the same time, many school teachers become frustrated when the students, "just won't listen," or "can't understand the concepts." Yoga can be a powerful tool for teachers to help students regain their focus throughout the school day. While many teachers are probably skeptical, they might be surprised at the results. Yoga can help students focus on projects, concentrate on new information, and cope with the stresses of learning.

Studies on brain-based learning indicate that learning is a physiological process, involving the entire mind and body. In order for the brain to be functioning at its greatest potential, the body's emotions must be in check and other physiological needs must be met. If you've ever tried to learn something new on an empty stomach, you know the feeling of not being able to concentrate because all you can think about is food. Similarly, students who feel anxious, stressed, unsafe, or bored will not be able to learn.

Yoga gives kids the necessary tools to get rid of any stress, anxiety, or "cloudiness" in the brain. Yoga can be a powerful tool for students and teachers to use during short breaks throughout the day to refresh and re-energize the body and mind. Yoga is convenient because it doesn't require any equipment or a lot of space. Students can stand, sit, or even lie on the floor of the classroom. They can breathe deeply, visualize desired outcomes, or stretch for a physical release of pent-up energy or emotions.

Many schools are finding that yoga is beneficial to students in several ways. Studies have shown that students who practice yoga throughout the school day exhibit more positive attitudes toward life and school, show improved grades and test scores, and can cope with day-to-day stresses and conflicts better. By adding a yoga component to the curriculum, schools will be ensuring a well-rounded education for students. While academics are by far the most important element of children's education, we now know that it can't be separated from emotional and physical well-being.

Yoga in schools teaches kids to be responsible for their own actions and emotions. Yoga promotes self-awareness and the idea that we can control emotions by focusing on the positive aspects of any situation, or by using simple techniques to get rid of stress. It will help kids find peace within them, which can result in motivated, smart, well-adjusted kids ready to face the world.

© Copyright 2012 – Aura Wellness Center – Publications Division

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Can Kids Yoga Help Relieve Stress?

By Dr. Paul Jerard, E-RYT 500

Kids live active, stressful lives. They attend school, do homework, participate in competitive sports, play video games, and meet their friends at the mall. In addition, they deal with divorce, new schools, tough neighborhoods, illnesses, bullying, and pressure to get excellent grades. Whatever the burdens might be – kids need to learn how to manage stress. Yoga is a practice often cited for helping adults cope with stress. Can Yoga help kids, too?

Positive Results of One Study

According to a 2011 article, published in the Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, researchers at Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health say: “Yes.” They studied 97 fourth and fifth graders, half of whom participated in a 12-week Yoga program. The researchers found that the students, who practiced Yoga, demonstrated improved overall behavior and ability to concentrate. In addition, the Yoga kids were less likely to ruminate on negative thoughts or engage in a brooding contemplation, often associated with depression and anxiety, than those who did not participate in the Yoga program.

Changing Thinking Patterns

Yoga may help kids on different levels. Practicing physical postures (asanas) can increase the production of endorphins, which generate feelings of well-being. Breathing techniques (pranayama) help regulate the nervous system by activating parasympathetic (relaxation) neurons and calming sympathetic (flight or fight) neurons. Guided relaxation techniques benefit kids by giving them an alternative way to respond to the stressors in their lives. Instead of responding with anger or anxiety, kids learn to relax and breathe through their negative emotions. Yoga students also learn how to manage the mind and perceive stressful situations in a different light. They begin to replace negative thoughts with positive ones.

Teaching Yoga Life Skills to Children

Teaching Yoga to kids, however, is not like teaching adults. The biggest challenge may be keeping their attention. Songs, music, and games all help keep kids focused on learning Yoga. In addition, kids love to move and make sounds, and they can make noises while in the poses; for example, kids bark while holding Downward Facing Dog pose or squawk while in Eagle pose. The poses help relieve physical stress, while making sounds, which also help to relieve stress on the emotional and mental levels.

Learning Yoga at a young age, can give kids a set of tools for managing stress in a positive way, for the rest of their lives. Non-competitive in nature, Yoga teaches children compassion and collaboration, rather than anger and divisiveness, which are valuable instruments for navigating the stresses of life.

Opportunities for Yoga Teachers

Yoga instructors reach out to many different age groups. If, or when, we decide to teach Yoga to children, we create a positive impact on global society. Children need valuable life skills to progress and cope with an ever-changing world. Children gather in schools, clubs, and sports leagues. It is easy for local Yoga teachers to reach out to these groups and give the next generation skills that will last a lifetime.

© Copyright 2012 – Aura Wellness Center – Publications Division

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Teaching Sun Salutations to Raise Student Energy

By Faye Martins

Although there are a lot of technical terms, which we yoga instructors might use during a class, keeping the language simple does have its advantages. However, there are certain conversations that do require the use of yogic phrases, and generating energy during any yoga series requires first a basic understanding of what energy is and how it can be generated.

What is Prana? 

What yoga teachers mean by energy is prana. Prana is Sanskrit for “vital life,” and though the Western mind might have difficulty understanding this concept, yogis understand prana to be the force vitalizing all life. Prana is related to breathe because in some Eastern meditative philosophies, energy is revered, and so the practice of yoga — deep breathing techniques synchronized with poses — help the body interface with different energy channels within it. Yoga practitioners believe that this energy, this prana, can be accessed, generated and manipulated with a yoga posture series.

Generating Prana 

One way to generate prana is to warm up with sun salutations. Sun salutations create heat and flexibility and usually serve as the basis for vinyasa yoga sessions, including power yoga and Ashtanga yoga. As practitioners practice deep breathing techniques, of which there are a variety, they synchronize their movements with their breath to gain access to channels of energy, or prana, within them.

Practitioners have described occurrences where they begin their yoga sessions tired and not fully aware of their internal energy. As they begin to pay full attention to their breath, however, the mechanical energy that simply places the body into the correct pose begins to transcend itself. In other words, yogis describe an energy channel that pulls the body up on inhale and down on exhales, and this energy can sometimes even begin flowing into the pose itself.

Sun Salutations 

The sun salutation series are exceptional for generating energy because of how each pose flows into the next pose. What this does is allows our students, who are breathing correctly, the opportunity to create energy and then access it by working from, say, mountain pose to forward bends to planks to dog poses and then back up again. As the sun salutations stretch the spine and open the chest, they also challenge leg, arm and core muscles. By working all the areas of the musculature to generate energy and flexibility, sun salutations enable the practitioner to access and explore various energy channels and generate prana.

© Copyright 2012 – Aura Wellness Center – Publications Division

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Teaching Yoga for Arm Strength and Shape

By Faye Martins

Yoga is an excellent way to strengthen and tone the arms. Unlike weightlifting, which focuses mainly on isotonic strength building, yoga focuses on isometric work but includes isotonic and eccentric exercises. Isotonic exercise is performed when a weight is lifted or a muscle is engaged while it is contracting; isometric work occurs when a position or a weight is held, supported by a muscle, and eccentric strength building is what happens when a weight is lowered while maintaining control and muscle engagement. In other words, supporting weight even while the muscle is lengthening performs eccentric exercise. Obviously, these types of strength all have different real life applications, and they all stress different parts and functions of the muscle. Yoga is unique in its repeated and challenging exercise of all types of strength.

Because of this balanced approach, practitioners of yoga often report that the bulk doesn't pile on, but functional strength and definition greatly increases. The functional strength is granted by the many ways in which the muscles are trained, as most real life activities are going to require more than a single way of moving. The definition in lieu of bulk results from the way the muscles are constantly engaged and challenged without steadily increasing the weight they support. Yoga calls upon the muscles to work in different positions; intensities and ways without ever demanding the load they bear exceed the practitioner's body weight.

There are many different poses and routines a yoga practitioner may employ to build arm strength and shape. For the beginner, whether just starting out in yoga or unsure of her strength, downward dog is the place to start. Bending at the hips and placing the hands perform downward dog position and feet shoulder length apart so the body forms an upside-down "V." The arms in this position support less than half the body weight, but the practitioner's weight can be shifted to engage the arms more. It is the foundation of many yoga routines, particularly sun salutations.

When teaching new yoga students, make them aware that for a beginning position with a greater strength component, look no further than the plank. It is a basic push-up position and an intense workout for all the muscles of the arms. At the advanced end of the scale, there are many positions based on headstands that not only require lots of balance and flexibility but also support most or all of the body's weight on the arms. Many more positions lie waiting to be learned at your local yoga center and in many great yoga books, but almost any regular yoga practice will sculpt your arms into envious shape.

© Copyright 2012 – Aura Wellness Center – Publications Division

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Teaching Mindfulness in Yoga Class

By Dr. Paul Jerard, E-RYT 500

When teaching a Yoga class, the concept of mindfulness will help all of your students.  Some students have difficulty unplugging from electronics devices.  When we encourage them to be present for practice, they may feel like a fish out of water.  If you have children, or interact with them regularly, you have probably seen mindfulness in action. Watch a child walk down a woodsy road. He or she will stop every step or two to bend down and examine a leaf, a stone, or a bug. It might take 20 minutes to travel 20 feet. Most adults become exasperated by all the “dilly-dallying.” A child does not have a million worries running through his or her brain. A child is focused on the journey, not the destination.

Many adults strive to reach a state of mindfulness, which is much like that of a child. Yoga helps many people escape anxiety, stress, and worry. The asana, pranayama, and meditative aspects, work wonders toward releasing physical and mental stress, which focuses the mind, while stretching and strengthening the entire body. Mindfulness is a powerful concept that helps our students live in the present moment. During Yoga practice, it helps bring awareness to each part of the body. It takes practice to be mindful on a regular basis, but it can be done, and the results are extremely positive.

Yogic mindfulness can be practiced during meditation by breathing deeply and willing yourself to be present for each breath. Instead of focusing on all the thoughts rumbling around in your head, let your mind be still. Acknowledge each passing thought and promptly release it. Stay in the present moment by soaking up your current environment of sounds, smells, and sights. Bring awareness to your body by focusing on each part for a moment. Breathe deeply into any sore or irritated muscles, and then release the tension along with the breath.

Being mindful allows us to appreciate all the seemingly insignificant moments that take place in daily life. When you vow to be mindful, you allow yourself to focus on each moment as it passes, instead of encouraging your brain to wallow in suffering, worry, and stress. Yogic mindfulness allows you to breathe and appreciate each moment for what it is. You can be fully present when your child or significant other speaks about the day. 

You can put everything else aside, while you play with your kids. It allows our students to show gratitude toward the people they interact with. When we practice regularly, a deep sense of peace blankets our shoulders. No matter what happens, good or bad, you are able to acknowledge it for what it is and move on. Mindfulness is a method for applying Yogic principles toward real life situations.

© Copyright 2012 – Aura Wellness Center – Publications Division

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