Helping Yoga Students With Compassion

By Sangeetha Saran

All types of yoga have their beginning, intermediate, and expert level students. Of course, this is not to say that any student of the practice ever fully masters every single aspect -- saying this would be to defeat the purpose of yoga, which is not to "complete" or "win" anything, but to continue to grow and change dynamically, as one's interior and exterior lives continue to evolve.

Yoga is supposed to mold and contour to the changing and evolving self. Not the other way around, as many students believe: We are not supposed to change ourselves and strain ourselves for our practice; instead, our practice will change naturally as we change. This may not seem like an important mental distinction to make, but it absolutely is. Those students who are constantly trying to force themselves and their bodies to become "better," in order to master a difficult pose or class, or in order to match the perceived skill level of those around them, are not treating their minds and bodies with the proper compassion.

Asked to think of the concept of "compassion" in yoga, you are likely thinking of compassion towards others -- is the teacher treating the students with respect? Are the students treating one another with respect before and after class? However, much as in other aspects of life, we overlook the idea that compassion must also be directed inwardly. Don't mentally degrade and abuse yourself -- "I'm not good enough," "I can't believe I still can't do this when X does it so easily," etc. We are all our own worst critics, but part of learning self-compassion -- in fact, one of the core ideas at the heart of all yoga -- is learning to neutralize those negative thoughts in favor of projecting openness and goodwill.

If you find yourself looking away from your mat and scrutinizing your performance compared to that of others -- the way her legs are straighter, or he reached a deeper bend -- compel yourself to return to, refocus on, and love yourself. Your growth and change should not be policed or stifled by self-doubt; instead, it should unconsciously occur all on its own, and through self-respect.

© Copyright – Aura Wellness Center – Publications Division

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Healing Heartbreak with Yoga: Silver Surfer

By: Virginia Iversen, M.Ed

As I sit down to write this article, Valentine’s Day is only a handful of days away. This annual celebration of romantic love can be quite ebullient if you are in a loving partnership. However, if you are “in between relationships,” or you have just broken up with somebody, the crush of heartbreak is often accentuated by all of the romantic gifts that are so prominently displayed during the celebration of St. Valentine’s Day. Although this holiday is a celebration of love in its many forms, it is usually thought of as an occasion to honor romantic love. 

As the fanfare around romantic love escalates daily just prior to Valentine’s Day, many Yoga practitioners find that their own sense of heartbreak and loss increases if they have experienced a recent breakup or are dealing with the grief over having lost a loved one in the past. The heartbreak that many of us experience from time to time during our lives can have a lingering effect on our emotional and physical well being. If we are stuck in an emotional space of betrayal, loss or devaluation, our vital life force energy may become diminished to the point where we have difficulty sleeping, exercising, and even getting through our daily tasks. 

As a certified Yoga teacher, you have many methods in your pedagogical toolbox to help your students dispel the physical contraction of grief and loss in the heart area. One of the primary physical ways of dispelling heartbreak and grief is through the practice of back bending postures. Back bending Yoga poses help to elongate the entire front of the body, as well as expand the heart and throat chakra areas, which often become closed down when we experience loss, betrayal and grief. Some of the most accessible back bending poses are Cobra Pose, Ustrasana, Bow Pose, and Silver Surfer. 

* Silver Surfer Pose

Silver Surfer Pose is essentially a modified version of Warrior II Pose. One of the best times during class to teach this energizing and heart-opening standing Yoga pose is during a flowing series of Sun Salutations. After you have commenced your class with setting an intention for the practice and some gentle warm-up poses, such as Extended Child’s Pose and Cat-Cow Pose, begin to guide your students through a series of Sun Salutations. You can find detailed information about how to teach the Sun Salutations at Aura Wellness Center's YouTube channel. 

 After you guide your Yoga students through a few repetitions of the Sun Salutation, you can begin to offer some modifications to the traditional postures of the series. One such modification is known in contemporary parlance as: “Silver Surfer Pose.” This pose incorporates a strong back bending component to Virabhadrasana II or Warrior II Pose. By releasing the constriction around the heart and throat areas through the practice of back bending postures, you will help your Yoga students to physically release heartbreak. 

When your students are adequately warmed up and ready to practice Silver Surfer, guide them through the initial poses of the Sun Salutation. As they complete their practice of Warrior II, with their next inhale, instruct them to clasp their hands behind their back and gaze up towards the heavens. In order to increase the intensity of the back bending component of this posture, suggest to your students that they gently elevate their hands a few inches, while expanding the front of their chest cavity with each successive inhalation. 

When your Yoga students have held the back bending portion of Silver Surfer Pose for three to five breaths, ask them to shift their weight forward and bend over their front leg, while still maintaining the clasp of their hands. Hold the forward bending portion of Silver Surfer for three to five complete breaths, and then ask your students to release the pose and return to Tadasana at the top of their Yoga mats. Please note: if any of your students have a shoulder injury, they can practice a modified version of Silver Surfer by grasping the elbows, instead of clasping their hands. This modification will alleviate some of the pressure on the rotator cuffs in the shoulder joints. 

Virginia Iversen, M.Ed, has been practicing and studying the art of Yoga for over twenty years. She lives in Woodstock, New York, where she works as a writer and an academic support specialist. She is currently accepting Yoga and health-related writing orders and may be contacted at: enchantress108@gmail.com.

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

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Yoga for Anger Management Tips

By Kimaya Singh

If you find yourself experiencing and holding on to angry feelings to the point that it interferes with your daily activities and general sense of well being, then it's time to benefit from some of these yoga tips to banish those uncomfortable irritations and replace them with gratitude and joy.

Hold a Pose To Release Stress

Would you like to feel like you've just refreshed your entire body with two hours sleep, and it's all from a 20-minute yoga exercise? Try a Viparita Karani (Legs-up-the-Wall Pose). Stretch out on the floor on your back, and raise your legs straight up against a wall. Hold this posture for 20 minutes for this yoga reward:

• Calms nervous system

• Eases muscle fatigue

• Helps restore normal breathing

You'll feel exhaustion slipping away. When you are in a deeply fatigued state, the small matters of life become over-sized and out of proportion. Yoga brings the stress monsters down to a manageable minimum.

Learn the Art of Deep Breathing

If you've ever suffered through a panic attack that landed you in an emergency room, then a structured yoga class may be the miracle that is waiting for you. Try an exercise called Pranayma. While you count to ten, practice being mindful and concentrate on what you hear, see, smell, taste and feel.

Use your five wonderful senses and re-energize. Deep breathing eases anger and replaces it with an inner sense of deep peace.

You can recover from previously damaged emotions born from abusive situations. Learn with an expert yoga team, and say goodbye forever to serious anxiety. You can do it.

Find Peace With Meditation

Search out your own quiet place, and spend a few minutes thinking of a beautiful flower garden or an inner seascape. In your virtual reality oasis, plant some of your favorite flowers like roses or peonies. Remember this is your dream, and you can fill a 10-acre field and sit in the middle. Experience the benefits of meditation, and invite a feeling of harmony in your body and spirit. Relax and heal.

Now that you know more about the rewards in healing yoga poses, you can take control of anger and experience the happy life you deserve.

Anger is within each of us. Yoga training gives us a practical method for channeling negative energy into a positive outcomes. The more you practice yogic methods, the less anger and negative energy will have a chance to gain a foothold in your mind. Sometimes, you only have time to breathe, meditate, or practice a short flow of poses. That short session is far better than no session at all and everyone you know will be thankful for it.

© Copyright 2016 – Aura Wellness Center – Publications Division

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Appropriate Pacing in a Yoga Class

By: Virginia Iversen, M.Ed

What is appropriate pacing in a Yoga class? As the pace of life continues to gain momentum, nurturing a harmonious state of inner balance and external ease becomes more and more paramount. Although many of our technological gadgets and appliances are geared towards completing a variety of tasks in a fraction of the time that they used to take, quite frequently our gadgets propel many of us to anxiously multi-task, in order to accomplish more and more items on our to-do list each day. Unfortunately, when we rush to complete so many tasks in one day, many us end up living in a chronic, pervasive state of anxiety most of the time.

As a certified Yoga teacher, you have the opportunity to help your students to nurture a state of internal balance and equipoise while they are in class, which will help them to identify areas of their lives off the mat where they may be perpetuating a cycle of disharmony and anxiety. One of the easiest and most fundamental ways of nurturing a state of harmony in your Yoga classes is to teach your students a balanced sequence of postures, pranayama exercises and relaxation techniques that is specifically tailored to the group of students you are instructing.

Examples of Pacing in a Yoga Class

For example, if you were teaching a group of beginning Yoga students who are new to the practice, setting a slower pace of foundational postures, breathing exercises and simple meditation techniques would be appropriate. On the other hand, if you are teaching a group of intermediate or advanced Yoga students, setting a more vigorous pace for your class would provide more advanced students a challenging workout, without sacrificing student safety. Please keep in mind that not only is the overall pace of your classes important, guiding your students through a balanced array of standing Yoga postures, backbends, seated poses, and inversions is also important.

For instance, if your classes emphasize many standing postures without the balancing effect of seated poses, your students will not experience the same degree of physical and mental well being that a well-rounded practice offers. If you spend too much time on practicing vigorous standing Yoga postures, and you do not leave enough time to ground the practice by guiding your students through a series of seated, cooling and grounding forward folds, your students may feel amped up after your class and a bit agitated, instead of calmly energized and replenished. In the same way, by allowing ample time for your students to rest in Final Relaxation Pose for 5 to 10 minutes at the end of class, you will create time for their bodies to cool down in correct alignment, and you will also allow them to replenish their energy for the day or evening ahead.

When you are creating different sequences to teach to your Yoga students, you may also want to take into account the time of year when you are teaching your classes. In other words, during the winter months you may want to teach more vigorous, warming Yoga classes that are focused on increasing strength, energy and metabolism. On the other hand, during the summertime, you may find that it is most effective and enjoyable to teach Yoga classes that help to cool and ground your students during the hot summer months.

Another important element of creatively sequencing a Yoga class so that a state of harmony is nurtured is to “bookend” your classes, by taking a few minutes to set the intention to create harmony and balance, both internally and externally at the beginning of your class. In addition, by setting aside a time period of 3 to 5 minutes at the end of class for your students to reflect on a passage, poem or scriptural reading that underscores the value and essence of harmony, they will begin to connect with the deeper, beneficial effects of a regular Yoga practice.   

If you look at teaching and practicing Yoga through a metaphorical lens, you will see that the way your students practice the asanas, pranayama exercises and meditation techniques, mirrors their approach towards life. When you set aside time at the beginning of your Yoga classes to set an intention to nurture harmonious, healing states of being, your students are likely to take this practice off the mat into their daily lives. The practice of setting an intention will offer your students the ability to pause for a moment or two before engaging in a conversation or a daily task, in order to consciously choose to move through their lives in such a way that they are promoting their own highest good and uplifting the hearts of those around them.

Virginia Iversen, M.Ed, has been practicing and studying the art of Yoga for over twenty years. She lives in Woodstock, New York, where she works as a writer and an academic support specialist. She is currently accepting Yoga and health-related writing orders and may be contacted at: enchantress108@gmail.com.

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

See our testimonials to find out what our graduates have to say about our selection of online teacher certification courses.

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