Three tips for teaching shoulderstand in a group yoga class

First of all, I rarely teach shoulderstand in a public class. Rarely. Let’s say, once a year. Maybe.

Here’s why: in most public class settings, I don’t have enough time or props to set everyone up safely. And by safely, I mean so that the students have enough support to protect their neck and access the proper actions of the pose. Two things get in the way:

  1. our necks don’t bend 90 degrees
  2. our upper backs “fall out” (because our necks don’t bend 90 degrees) and don’t have enough leverage to lift the body up

Take a look: in this photo you can see me doing shoulderstand. Let’s talk about both problems.

The Neck

Don’t be fooled by that measly little blanket in this photo; that’s not a real prop, that’s a piece of propaganda I threw down because I was doing a photoshoot and didn’t have proper supplies. I probably need about three more blankets to support my shoulders properly so that my neck can be a less-than-Exorcist angle.

The neck should not bend at 90 degrees. Full stop. It’s crappy on your ligaments and your blood vessels. And there’s no benefit to doing such an extreme angle (you can practice jalandhara bandha in bridge pose and meditation, I promise).

So just don’t do it. And even if you can do it, don’t make your average Joe student do it.

The Upper Back

The weight in shoulderstand should be on your shoulders – not your neck. When the shoulders aren’t propped, the upper back will round (like we need more of that!) and it’s hard to recruit the thoracic to move in and up to lift the weight of the body. As a result, you start using your hands and arms to hold everything in place like the Leaning Tower of Pisa. This ain’t great, folks.

Even in this pose with me trying my darnedest, you can clearly see that my upper back can’t get up into my body to lift the spine. The plumb line is not happening. I also need to bring my tail in more and my toes away from my nose. But without the proper support of my upper back, it’s hard for me to find lift. Now, I can (sort of) pull this off from years of doing shoulder stand without props in Ashtanga. But for your average student in a public yoga class? In every class of thirty students, you’ll have probably three who are fine popping up there. Everyone else will struggle.

How To Teach It

So, should we toss shoulderstand out the window? No! Shoulderstand is the Queen of the asanas! It’s a great pose, and you can still teach the essence of it in class safely. Here’s how.

1. Teach modifications and variations instead

Rather than teach the full pose (body vertical), teach a modification. For a group class, it’s safer and lot faster. In this age of hour long yoga classes, you probably don’t have time to prop everyone up for their individual structure.

When I’m approaching a challenging pose and trying to think of modifications, I always think, “what’s the purpose of this pose?” When you identify the purpose of the pose, you can create appropriate modifications. For shoulderstand, we are looking for a sustainable inversion. Ideally, an inversion that recruits the upper back and unites the whole body in going up.

My favorite (and safe!) modification is putting the hips on blocks. Blocks are available in almost every yoga class. Voila! Sustainable inversion. Because the body isn’t at a 90 degree angle, the pressure is taken off the neck. This pose is easy to get into (have students start from bridge, then slide blocks under) and to exit.

Caveat: teach the actions of the pose, rather than teach this as a restorative pose. Rather than letting students collapse their upper backs towards the floor, have them incorporate the actions of sarvangasana by actively lifting their chest up (like bridge). They should also squeeze their legs together and stretch up through their inner feet. Teaching this pose as an active modification helps prepare your students for the real pose by teaching them the necessary work in this (more more accessible and safe) position.

Here’s another option: half shoulder stand. I don’t like this one as much because there is no graceful entrance (students throw their legs over their heads) and you can lose the action of the upper back. (Tasha is doing a pretty darn good job, but most of your students will let their upper backs fall to the floor.) In this shape, the weight of the lower body is anchored to the upper back rather than the shoulders, and it’s hard to find the action that you’ll need to do the full version of the pose. However, because the weight is on the upper back, the neck is not forced into full flexion.

And of course, there’s viparita karani.

While this pose is a wonderful sustainable inversion, I don’t love it as a shoulderstand substitute because it does not invite any action into the body. It’s restorative rather than active.

2. Use props

If you’re going to teach the full meal deal, then you’re going to to have to use props. The majority of your students will simply not have access to the flexion in their necks that is necessary (and you don’t really want to encourage that kind of flexion, anyway). See this video on why and how to prop.

If you haven’t taught a propped shoulderstand before, let me recommend that you go and take a series of Iyengar classes. Reading the suggestions below will not be sufficient. These folks are the masters of shoulderstand and you should learn from them.

Shoulderstand is hard to prop because every student has a unique structure and will need different support. As a general rule, you need to props the shoulders enough so that there is a space under the neck for the natural lordotic curve of the cervical spine to remain intact (no flattening of the cervical spine) and the upper back to lift. You also need a thin blanket or washcloth under the back of the head so that the head doesn’t stick to the floor (like against a mat). If a student has tight shoulders, he or she will need more props.

As a general rule, start off your students with the following:

  • at least (at least!) four thick blankets per student (folded neatly, all the edges on one side, here’s a great picture), or
  • four foam blocks plus one blanket, or
  • a bolster under the shoulders (usually high enough, but kind of squishy so you can’t get as much action with the arms to help lift the chest)

Have each student use a strap to help gather and hold their upper arms (just above the elbow) that is pre-measured to be shoulders’ distance apart. They will have to put this on once they’re partway up into the pose and take it off before they come out.

You must also consider a “landing strip,” that is, what is supporting the student’s back before they go up and when they come out? The landing strip should be roughly the same height as their shoulder support. If you have blankets, then usually a 4″ block or two will suffice. If you’re using a bolster, use another bolster place perpendicularly to the first. You don’t want your students to crash down to the floor.

I am a fan of doing this pose at the wall so that you use your legs to get up. Set your students up so that they are a torso’s distance from the wall, and then they do a bridge up the wall. See this video.

3. Teach slow

If you are committed to doing the full version of shoulderstand in a public yoga class, then take the time to do it right. You’ll need at least fifteen minutes. Demonstrate the set up, the entrance, the necessary actions, and the exit. Educate your students why they need to prop to protect their necks so they they aren’t so tempted to throw themselves up and into the pose in other classes.

See this video for a step-by-step on teaching shoulderstand.

Or, instead of all this individual propping, do the first modification (bridge with blocks) and have your students in a safe version of shoulderstand in less than twenty seconds.

Shoot me any questions or concerns in the comments.

Practice safe out there, y’all!

How To Deal With Yoga Injury: Why You Should Go Back To The Beginning

A few months ago, I was diagnosed with vocal nodes. Nodes are callouses that grow on your vocal cords from imperfect use, just like you get callouses on your feet from walking funny. Nodes cause the speaking voice to become raspy and rather sexy, and you can often hear this “vocal fry” in fitness instructors who routinely shout above loud music.

I sing opera (and I’d really like to continue to sing opera without sounding like Tom Waits), so I’m serious about getting to the root of the problem.

I believe that many chronic injuries, ailments, and “old-age” concerns are simply the result of having a lot of time on the planet. Over five years, a bad habit may not a problem. Over forty years, there start to be consequences.

Symptoms like bum knees, unhappy guts, and vocal nodes have underlying causes. And if we can figure out what those underlying causes are, then we may have a shot at fixing what ails us. Not with a pill (although those may provide temporary help), but by painstakingly going back to the beginning, getting curious about what’s happening, and changing our habits. In other words, doing those daily exercises that your physio gave you may really work if you actually did them everyday for, oh, six months.

To address my vocal nodes, I have gone back to the very basics of my voice training. How am I standing? Where’s my weight? How am I breathing? Why is my neck so tight? How can I let go of habitual tension in my body in order to free my voice? Changing habitual tension is very hard for most of us, because habitual tension feels like our personality. What, you’re going to change who I am? Screw you, says the nervous system. But yes. And daring to slow down and change how you move, speak, and react after thirty plus years of life on planet earth may be one of the bravest things you can attempt.

In our yoga practice, we see a similar process. Enthusiastic beginning, powerful development, then at some point, something hurts. (For me, it was my hamstrings. Then my knee.) Rather than toss yoga out the window (this practice sucks!), we can assume a similarly curious and patient approach to our healing. Maybe we stop trying to do wheel dropbacks for awhile and instead work on a lunge. Instead of handstand, we become curious about our cat/cow. Our stumbling blocks become opportunities to reconnect to a beginner’s mind.

Even if there are no problems with your practice, it is a good idea to revisit the basics. Be curious about the habits that you are setting up in the most fundamental of poses. Where is your weight? How is your breath? The smallest conscious  shift could spiral your practice in a whole new direction.

These days, it’s very boring to listen to me “sing.” The noises I make – light humming, maybe some vvvvvvv’s or fffffff’s  – sound nothing like Mozart’s Marten Aller Arten (below). And yet there is something nourishing about taking time to reconnect with the basics of the practice. By moving slowly, I am prioritizing self-care over the glory (and ego) of performance. And in the process, I am learning to witness and unweave (slowly, slowly) decades of habits.

For those of you who like opera, here’s a sample of my work.

 

Five tips for Practicing A Yoga Headstand Safely

Sirsasana, king of the asana!

Sirsasana and Sarvangasana (shoulderstand) have gotten a bad rap in the past few years. Teachers have become worried about placing pressure on the head and neck – and with good reason! The neck is not meant to bear the weight of the entire body, and certainly not when it’s crooked at a 90 degree angle (which is why you must always prop yourself in Sarvangasana! But that’s for another post).

Sirsasana is a doozy of a pose. Practiced correctly, it is both invigorating as well as calming. However, to protect your neck, you need to keep a few essential guidelines in mind.

Align Your Neck

Your neck should be in its natural, neutral alignment, that is, it needs a slight lordotic curve to be safe. Your neck is happiest when weight can be distributed evenly across the discs. Make sure that the spot where your head meets the floor is at the crown of the head, so you are neither tucking or overextending your neck. If you have a long neck, prop your arms up with folded blankets so you’re not crunching your neck (see video).

Use Your Arms

That said, don’t put weight on your head! Put the weight into your forearms and press them down like a crazy person. Your shoulder girdle should bear the weight of the pose, not your neck. Pay attention to the weight in your forearms, particularly when you’re coming in and out of the pose. You’ll usually get excited and distracted by the entrance and dismount. Move slowly enough so that you can pay attention and press your forearms firmly down.

Have Your Own Back

Recruit the power of your upper back to stabilize your shoulder girdle (see video). If you can’t get your upper back to stay in, then you’re not ready to take your weight up. Work on getting your upper back more into your body until you stabilize your shoulder girdle to create the necessary stability to support your body weight. It’s perfectly fine to stay in a dolphin headstand until you can walk the feet in without the back “falling out.” Yes, I know hamstrings can be an issue.

Use Those Legs!

Activate your legs. Don’t let them just hang there like dead weight, yo! Use your legs to pull your weight up. Squeeze your legs together and go up, up, up. And don’t be impatient to get your legs off the wall; the wall is a sacred friend and will help you find proper alignment.

Be Patient

Sirsasana is an elegant, quiet pose. Getting up into the pose may require patience and tenacity. If you become agitated or anxious while trying it out, then back out. Sirsasana is a pose of control rather than exuberance (handstand is a bit more exuberant). And your weight is on your neck. So no kicking up or wild movement. And in case I haven’t been clear, use a wall. You have enough to think about without worrying about doing a somersault! See this video for step by step instructions.

Let me know if you have questions by leaving a comment below. Happy inverting!

How eating became a spiritual practice

I pray before meals.

I was raised a dutiful Protestant in the great, puritanical state of New Hampshire. I went to church, participated in singing and bell choirs, and crushed on the boys in my youth group (ah, Derek!). However, my family was more spiritually oriented than strictly Christian. My dad used to joke, “I’d make a good Jew.” What he meant was that it was important to have a spiritual compass, but the specific instrument didn’t really matter.  All good compasses point true north.

In my family, we said grace before meals. Sometimes my dad would say, “Lord, bless this food to the nourishment of our bodies and thus to thy service. Amen.” Sometimes it was simply, “Thanks to the critters.”

Although I was raised in the church, it wasn’t until about six years ago that I started saying grace myself in earnest. Not because I identify as Christian, but because I stopped being vegan.

When I was vegan, there was no moral price to pay for eating my food. I had become vegan because of my aversion to animal cruelty, and I felt just fine eating plants and grains. But when I left the vegan fold, I became acutely aware of the cost of my meals. Animals – cute, sentient animals – had died. Before being vegan, I had lived my dietary life in slipshod form of denial. (You know the kind: where you decide that cheeseburgers grow on trees and ignore factory farming.) But now I could not ignore the weight of my decisions. Yes, yes, I would buy the expensive organic meat raised in relatively “humane” conditions. Yes, yes, I would eat meat sparingly. But there was no denying it: death was on my plate.

In my heart, I felt that I owed it to each creature to contemplate their fate. In every meal, I was participating – viscerally – in the life and death cycle. I was responsible for choosing this meal. And through this meal, this animal literally would now become a part of me – of my muscles, of my cells, of my material being.

In our culture, we hide death. But here it was unavoidable. Just like this animal had died, I too, would die and be resolved back to my component parts. The world was a seething and complex cycle of birth and death, creation and destruction. Every item on my plate – including plants – became a study of the ephemerality of life.

But while a part of me cried to sense the bittersweet cycle of life and death, I could also feel the poignant beauty of my interdependence with the fabric of the great wide world. Every morsel of food was a reminder of my connection to the world: my carrot could be traced back to the grocery store, then to the staff and workers who transported it, then to the machines (and humans) who harvested it, to the soil of earth, to the light of the sun. There had been so many hands involved in bringing this one little carrot to my plate.

Eating had become a spiritual practice.

The web of interconnection necessary to produce a single plate of food is almost incomprehensible. Saying grace before meals reminds me to re-member my connection to the whole. To be awed by Nature’s generosity and incredible diversity. To appreciate the effort, toil, and sacrifice that has brought this meal into being. To touch the bittersweet longing of my aliveness and mortality.

I may return to veganism, but I will never lose the gratitude and awe that I have now discovered in eating my food. So, to the critters, and the veggies, and the world, I say a heartfelt, “Amen.”

How to suck the marrow out of warrior two

Yoga is good for the hips!

Yoga gives us a unique opportunity to take our femur on a complete circumnavigation of the hip socket. In the yoga practice, we take the femur into extension, flexion, external rotation, internal rotation, abduction and adduction; in other words, we get to explore the full range of motion of this very important joint, which can be beneficial for hip health and mobility.

The externally rotated standing poses – warrior two, side angle pose, triangle pose, half moon pose, and tree pose – are particularly delicious. They offer the student the opportunity to take the front leg into its fullest expression of external rotation. Yum! However, you gotta work this pose, supermodel. Many students miss the deeper openings of these poses because they don’t fully engage (or know to engage) the actions that will take them to their fullest expression. Or, they compromise the essence of the rotation by compensating and moving the pelvis in all sorts of funny ways. But don’t miss out! These poses are a juicy opportunity to activate the external rotators, open the adductors, and take your thigh bone on its own personal adventure.

Here are some tips to help you dive into your hip deliciousness. We’ll focus on warrior two.

Set yourself up for success.

Take a wide stance with your feet. From the top of your right thigh, turn your right thigh, shin and foot towards the front of your mat. Align your front heel with the middle of your back arch. Turn your back heel back slightly towards the back of your mat. Bend your right knee to 90 degrees.

Just external rotation ma’am.

When you’re coming into the pose, place your hands on your pelvis. The pelvis likes to take the path of least resistance by tilting anteriorly (sticking the bum out) or tipping side to side (like the little teapot). Use your hands to “levelize” the pelvis. Imagine the basin of your pelvis is filled with a delicious beverage (margaritas?) and you don’t want to spill a drop. However, you can let the pelvis turn in rotation: ie: if your front hip points are headlights, you can turn them horizontally, but don’t let them move up and down.

Find your full range of movement.

Keeping your front knee over your ankle, use your hand to manually externally rotate your front thigh. Roll the inner thigh up to the sky and the outer thigh down to the floor. Go ahead! Grab onto your thigh high up by the hip crease. You’ll feel the outer hip engage to support the movement and your knee will move towards your pinkie toe. (Did your margarita spill? Do a double check!)

Now, keeping your thigh in this position, turn your pelvis towards the side of your mat. (Note: unless you have very lateral-facing joints, you will not be able to square your hips. Don’t try! Or despair! This is normal.) This action increases the external rotation at your hip. Remember: don’t lose your margarita!

And….action.

Juicify your pose by pressing the left thigh back as you wrap your right sitting bone down to the floor. Take a moment to feel the opposing forces of these two actions:

  • When you wrap your right sitting bone down, your left thigh will naturally want to pop forward.
  • When you press your left thigh back, your right sitting bone will want to wing back.

Find the interplay between these opposing actions and notice how they activate your warrior. Now keep bending your knee so that you’re really at 90 degrees…for reals! Sense how the power of your hips helps sustain the lightness of your upper body.

Continue to play

Explore this deep external rotation in all of the externally rotated standing poses, and experience how these mindful actions will unlock a world of hip opening and strengthening.

Happy playing!

How to deal with those talkative students in your yoga teacher training

Every training has a few students who love to talk. These students will be the first to raise their hands to answer questions, dominate discussion groups, and talk at length about their experiences.

Students can be big talkers for different reasons:

  • They process information by verbalizing it
  • They like the validation of being in the spotlight
  • They want to be good students and contribute
  • They hate to leave the class in silence

While having some good conversation starters is useful, it can sometimes be frustrating to manage a classroom environment when you want to hear everyone’s voice and the same students continue to hold the floor. Introverts want to think longer before offering a response, while extroverts tend to speak on the fly. If the discussion space isn’t moderated, your fast talking extroverts will almost always leap in to fill the silence first.

However, a yoga teacher will need to speak audibly and clearly when they are teaching their own class. Practicing speaking out during the training can help your students become more comfortable with holding the spotlight after they graduate.

Here are some of my favourite discussion tactics to help everyone be heard.

Set expectations from the start

I set expectations for discussion participation from the beginning of training by encouraging students to self-reflect on their habitual participation. I’ll usually say, “Teacher training is a place to learn to share your voice as well as hold silence. Both are important skills for a yoga teacher. Notice your habits. If you’re always jumping in to speak, consider holding space and silence. If you are not speaking to the group, then consider stepping in sooner.”

Setting expectations early can also help you avoid wounding egos if you ask certain members to practice holding back. After all, holding space for silence is also an incredibly important skill for a yoga teacher to cultivate.

Choose students to speak

To avoid having your fast talkers jump in first, you can call on certain students to share. However, I will only call students out to share when I know there’s no danger of them not knowing the answer to a question. For example, I’ll ask them to share their reaction to a sutra or give a personal response so they don’t feel they are being ambushed.

Put them in partners/ small groups with timers

If you put people in partners or small groups and give each person a certain amount of time to talk, everyone will have a designated space to participate free from interruption.

Assign them to speak…tomorrow

One great tactic is to assign students to share on a topic the following day. For example, you could give each student a sutra to share or a homework assignment to present. By giving the topic in advance, you make sure that your students have time to prepare and feel ready.

The classic, “Let’s hear from someone who hasn’t shared yet.”

When facilitating a discussion, it’s perfectly fine to ask to hear from students who have been quiet. Be willing to hold the space and silence until someone is ready to speak.

Have students raise hands to speak

While it’s common in many trainings to let students “popcorn participate” in group discussions (where they pop in their voices into the discussion without raising their hands), it can be useful to have a more formal discussion structure where students ask to speak. You can then choose to call on students who may have not been as forthcoming, and spread the verbal sharing around.

One last note:

For your students, taking a yoga teacher training provides an opportunity to address and overcome a fear of public speaking. Even students who are taking the course for self-development (and not to teach professionally) have the chance to hold space to be heard. Helping your students learn to share their voice in a public space can help the build confidence and develop life skills that extend far beyond the yoga classroom.

How To Sequence a Delicious Hip Opening Yoga Flow Sequence

I’ve been playing with this delicious hip opening sequence this week.

This sequence is a well-rounded flow yoga class for all levels that take an “around the world” tour of the hips: opening the front, sides, and back of the hip joint. Rather than sequencing to a peak pose, this anatomical intention of this sequence is rather to mobilize the hip joint in all directions.

Energetically, this sequence is lunar rather than solar. Solar energy is like a blast of sunlight: direct, fierce, and forceful. Lunar energy is more feminine; when we embrace the sacred power of the feminine, we invite surrender, receptivity, creativity, changeability. The strength of the moon is equally powerful, but she moves like water or air. Rather than focusing on long holds and fixed alignment, invite your students to move in spirals, loops, and undulations. This is an “unsticking” sequence, where practitioners find the energetic flow to release densities in the body.

A few tips:

  • Make sure they’re breathing. As this is a more cooling, lunar practice, you can invite exhales through the mouth rather than consistent ujjayi.
  • Every practitioner’s hips are different; students should be encouraged to embrace their own unique structure and capacity.
  • Focus on flow and feeling rather than getting poses “right”
  • Help practitioners get out of their head by playing music that invites movement and softness
  • Use juicy language to evoke a nourishing practice (words like yummy, delicious, nourish, sense, connect, enjoy, delve, carve, explore, etc)
  • Create a theme to get students out of the head and into a nourishing state of surrender/receptivity
  • Soft joints (bent knees, bent elbows: find more “buoyancy” in joints)
  • Props: two hard blocks, one chip foam block (for under knee in low lunge, or to sit upon)

If I had to choose a peak, it would be upright pigeon (more on the two pigeons here), but really the intention is the hips.

Sequence

Opening

  • Sukhasana
  • Add in cat/cow seated undulations, sufi grinds (make a circle through hips) – change legs and repeat
  • Cat/Cow
  • On forearms and knees, take hips in circles
  • Downward dog, forward fold, walk to front of mat, uttanasana, roll up Tadasana

Warming Up – Surya Namaskar

  • Surya namaskar A x 3 (offer lots of modifications, etc, focus on breath)

Warming Up – Flow One

  • Do first part of surya namaskar, but step right foot back to low lunge
  • Low lunge flow: low lunge to half splits (flow between poses), probably hands on blocks
  • Step back three legged dog (open hip, do hip circles)
  • Step forward, come up to warrior two: flow exalted to side angle (focus on movement of hips)
  • Hands down, step forward to a baby standing split (standing leg bent)
  • Uttanasana, roll up, shoulder rolls etc
  • Repeat second side

Warming Up – Flow Two

  • Standing pigeon (standing ankle to knee, opening outer hip)
  • Release leg to step back to a high crescent lunge
  • High crescent lunge version 1: add side stretch
  • Hands down to blocks, keep back thigh lifted, flow from lunge to modified pyramid (similar to first flow but with back knee lifted)
  • Step back three legged dog
  • Step forward, hand to inside of front leg for side angle, option to bend elbow (making it a bit more like a modified lizard, as if you were going to bind – but don’t) Option to take top arm on giant circle.
  • Hands down, step front foot halfway back for a modified vasisthasana (turn on outer edge of back foot, you’ll be facing the right side of mat; this variation opens outer top hip)
  • Hands down to inside of foot, play with glueing front knee to outer right shoulder and taking baby chaturangas (arm balance prep)
  • Complete vinyasa, include a few breaths in an accessible backbend (sphinx, locust)
  • Step right foot to front of mat, standing splits
  • Uttanasana, roll up, shoulder rolls etc
  • Repeat second side

Intermezzo

  • Malasana
  • Bakasana

Warming Up – Flow Three

  • Standing pigeon (standing ankle to knee, opening outer hip), option for eka pada galavasana
  • Release leg to step back to a high crescent lunge
  • High crescent lunge version 1: add backbend
  • Hands down to inside of leg, lower back knee, lizard (option to lift leg)
  • Lift back leg, optional eka pada koundinyasana play
  • Step back three legged dog, open hip
  • Step forward side angle pose to half moon
  • Forward fold at top of mat
  • Uttanasana, roll up, shoulder rolls etc
  • Repeat second side

Working to Pigeon

  • Surya namaskar to downward facing dog
  • Lift right foot up, step forward: anjaneyasana with backbend and thigh stretch
  • Awkward pigeon (lizard with external rotation of front thigh to stretch outer hip)
  • Hands down, modified vasisthasana (turning to right)
  • Okay this part is a little wild:
    • Lower hips (facing side of mat)
    • Draw bottom leg in (right leg is on top in ardha matsyendrasana) – take twist (toward back of mat)
    • Stack knees (still facing side of mat): gomukhasana
    • Come out way you came in, but draw right knee into chest, extend leg under you to the left for Brigid’s Cross (right leg is straight out to side of mat, left leg back behind you, forward fold/twist towards front of mat; this creates big IT band stretch on right leg. Think revolved half moon – parivrtta ardha chandrasana – but laying on floor)
    • Come out the way you came in, optional wild thing
    • Downward dog
  • Second side

Backbends and Peak

  • Spinx to cobra (mobilize upper back)
  • Saddle or supta virasana
  • Upright pigeon – nom nom nom – feel free to do with hands on blocks and lifting UP into backbend (the backbend pictured may be a bit extreme for most folks). Practitioners should lift away from floor rather than sit into the left hip.

Cool Down

  • Cooling pigeon (or swan, figure four, etc)
  • Wide legged forward fold (upavista konasana)
  • Cobbler’s pose (baddha konasana)
  • Seated pranayama: chandra bhedhana (cooling, yum yum)
  • Savasana

Enjoy this yummy hip opening exploration!

Let me know if you have any questions at all. Happy Hips!

Want more? Check out my continuing education courses in Yoga Sequencing and Teaching here.

How To Teach Yoga Anatomy Like a Rock Star

I love teaching anatomy in yoga teacher trainings. LOVE IT. Sharing the mystery and miracle of the human body is incredibly inspiring and satisfying. However, teaching anatomy in a yoga teacher training course can be difficult, and it’s easy to fall into traps that can turn anatomy into a drag!

Top mistakes I see?

  • Cramming in too much information
  • Failing to teach the application to the yoga asana practice
  • Teaching names, not function

And I know, my dears, that we are not always set up for success. Often the anatomy portion of a 200 or 300 hour training is shoved into one weekend (who can remember their femur from their fibula after six hours of lecture??), which leads to brain overload for the students and a lack of relevance to the rest of the program.

So step number one for success:

Whenever possible, teach anatomy in bite-sized chunks.

Ideally, an anatomy session should be two hours max, and should directly relate to the other content (asana) that is being taught. Do your best to fight for a sane schedule. What good is including anatomy in a program if the students can’t remember it?

Teach relevance, not details.

What’s more important: remembering the names of the knee ligaments, or understanding why pigeon pose is hard on your meniscus?

Avoid bogging your students down in seductive (and irrelevant) details. Do they really need to know the word, “talus?” Focus on the big picture, and apply the anatomy that you teach immediately to the practice and teaching of yoga asana. For example, you would want to consider:

  • Why is understanding the labrum of the hip important for warrior two?
  • Why is understanding shoulder impingement relevant to chaturanga?
  • What is happening to a woman’s body in third trimester that may affect asana modification?
  • How does blood pressure relate to inversions?

Applied anatomy is the only kind that counts. For every module you teach, ask and answer, “how is this information relevant to a general yoga practice?”

Focus on the Scope of Practice

Dr. McCoy from Star Trek used to say, “Dammit, Jim, I’m a doctor, not a Klingon navigator!” Well, in this case, we are yoga teachers, dammit, not chiropractors or physiotherapists. Relieve students of the pressure to know everything. New teachers are afraid of hurting their students (for most of us, this is one of our greatest fears). However, you can’t possibly learn enough about anatomy in twenty five hours to have more than a layman’s understanding of the human body. While I am a firm believer in studying anatomy (yes, yes, more please!), we have to encourage our students to be realistic about their expectations. Help your trainees understand that their scope of practice as yoga teachers is to teach a healthy population a safe and effective yoga practice, and to offer students common sense modifications when appropriate. That’s it.

Inspire

The human body is amazing! As anatomy teacher trainers, we have the privilege of helping students understand the magnificence of the human body. What astonishing work! Have you seen a human tendon? Exquisitely beautiful. Have you considered the relentless and steadfast beating of the human heart (85,000 beats a day for your entire life)? How awe-inspiring. How about the mysterious electrical machinations of the nervous system? Sorcery!

If you are excited about sharing this mystery, your students will get excited too. Share your passion and enthusiasm. Not only will your energy make teaching anatomy fun, it will inspire your students to connect more deeply and respectfully with their work as asana teachers. After all, as hatha yoga teachers, we use the physical body as a vehicle for divine expression and transformation. How marvellous to appreciate the mysterious depths that lie within us  – right at our fingertips.

Teach well.

Plan your lessons carefully. Be clear why this information is relevant and important. Use photos and videos (respecting copyright of course) to make the anatomy visually exciting and understandable. Incorporate group exercises and fun activities that will bring the anatomy to life.

To get some inspiration and see how I do it, check out one of my free anatomy lesson plans. Plan in advance how you will get students out of their heads (memorizing details and words) and into their bodies (applying anatomy to the practice). Experiential learning is where the anatomy will best stick.

Happy teaching!

Why It’s Okay If You’re Not Over Your Ex

“Get over it.”

“Let go.”

“Move on.”

Sound familiar?

I love hard. When I fall in love with someone, I give them an apartment in my soul and can’t evict them. Even the most challenging of tenants keeps a toe hold. Cliche phrases like “let go” imply that kicking someone out of your heart is as easy as letting go of a balloon. For years, I have thought the feelings of longing and loss that I still feel for my ex’s must mean that there is something wrong with me. However, I’m learning that loving hard (and losing hard) can be a radical opportunity for spiritual growth.

If you are a love-hard kinda person, tune in. Here are three reasons why it’s okay to not really let them go.

1. You liked them for a reason

Not every ex will be an asshole. Relationships that devolve into ugly fights are often easier to let go of, but you may have chosen someone decent, kind and rational. Why shouldn’t you think about them fondly and miss them? Good for you for choosing someone worth missing. It’s sometimes easier to avoid the pain by demonizing your ex or distracting yourself with sensual pleasures (wine! popcorn! drugs!). Can you instead hold space to recognize them as a whole human being (beautiful and also flawed)?

2. Missing them doesn’t mean you should go back

Longing for your ex does not mean that you made a mistake in breaking up. It’s natural to feel longing for someone that you’ve loved. In fact, your ability to hold space for the intensity of your feelings is part of your spiritual journey. The hurt does not need to be fixed.  However, softening into the feeling of loss – and not fixing it – is a powerful doorway to opening your own heart in a very tender and beautiful space. Experiencing loss is a powerful spiritual practice that reminds us of the inherent ephemerality of life. Be courageous. Be willing to miss them, and not fix it.

3. Don’t let go. Let be.

One of my wise friends says, “Don’t let go. Let be.” Letting go implies that we can somehow erase someone from our life. Rather than trying to fix the feelings, simply stay with your experience as it arises. Let it be. One of the most challenging and powerful yoga precepts is santosha, or acceptance. The practice of accepting things as they are allows to (again and again) return to the present moment as it it: messy, incomplete, heartbreaking, and human.

“As human beings, not only do we seek resolution, but we also feel that we deserve resolution. However, not only do we not deserve resolution, we suffer from resolution. We don’t deserve resolution; we deserve something better than that. We deserve our birthright, which is the middle way, an open state of mind that can relax with paradox and ambiguity.” – Pema Chodron

For more on life and love, check out the 3-minute video epiphanies, or A Yogi’s Guide To Dating.

Slow Down With A Candlelight Meditation

In our hectic world, it’s become increasingly important to find tools that help us slow down, unwind, and recuperate from daily stress. Chronic stress lowers our immune response and heightens the risk of health issues, such as cardiovascular disease, cognitive decline,  and gastrointestinal disease. Over the past few decades, a great body of research has been created that supports the role that meditation can play in lowering stress and improving overall health. Meditation can help the body to reset and unwind from daily work stress and also help prepare the body for a good night’s rest.

If the mind is very active or distracted, it is helpful to have a focal point for concentration. In contrast to a mindfulness meditation (where the mind is tasked to simply empty and return to stillness), object-oriented meditation can often be more accessible because the mind is given a object upon which to focus. Using visualizations and mantras (repeated word) are common tools to help focus the mind in the present moment.  

Another option for an object oriented meditation is to do a candlelight meditation. During the day, our eyes are frequently very busy and active; by using a candle to focus the gaze, we use our powerful sense of sight to help calm and steady the mind. Unlike a static object, the flame of a candle is constantly dancing and moving, which keep the attention of the mind focused up on its changing shape. And after a day of artificial light and screen time, returning to the natural beauty of fire can be a soothing antidote to modern life.

Here’s how:

  • Choose your candle. Choose a candle that is beautiful to you. Ideally, select a scent that resonates with the mood and feeling that you’d like to create. For example, you could choose a soothing vanilla or lavender scent to create a sense of calm, or a citrus scent for a more invigorating pick me up. I love the selection from Chesapeake Bay Candle; their Mind & Body line has beautiful essential oil fragrances to match any occasion. For example, the Confidence + Freedom (oak moss amber) and Joy + Laughter scents are more elevating, bright and zippy. They would be perfect to use with an energizing practice, or when you need a pick me up. The Peace + Tranquility (cashmere jasmine) is soothing and creamy, while the Reflection+ Clarity (sea salt sage) feels calming and purifying. I love the Balance + Harmony (water lily pear). One of their more subtle scents, Balance + Harmony has a soft and calming feel that pairs well with a calming meditation.
  • Find a comfortable and tall seat. You can sit on a cushion on the floor, or you can sit on the edge of a chair. Any seat that allows you to remain comfortable for several minutes with a tall spine is perfect!
  • Light your candle.
  • Take a few deep breaths and settle into your seat.
  • Bring your gaze to your candle. Let your focus be soft and open.
  • Keep your gaze on the shifting movement of the flame, and continue to breathe.
  • Allow yourself to become immersed in the changing shape of the candle flame.
  • After about five minutes, close your eyes and take five deep breaths to complete your meditation.

Enjoy!

 

 

This post is sponsored by Chesapeake Bay Candles; I only work with companies that I like and all opinions are my own.

How To Demonstrate Poses Effectively for Your Yoga Students

Stopping a class to demonstrate a complex pose is an excellent tool to teach key alignment points, inspire your students, and convey important information. While providing a visual guide to your students can be very useful, there is an art to creating an effective demo. Check out these five tips to rock your demonstrations and inspire your students.

Move Your Students

The first step – and the one most often neglected by teachers – is to move your students to where they can see you. Oftentimes teachers get shy about stopping the class. Be bold! Moving students can be like herding cats; they often don’t want to move (or don’t realize that they need to). Be clear about moving your students to where they can see you. Take charge of the room.

Do It For Them

This is a no brainer, but don’t demonstrate for yourself. Make sure the demonstration is for the benefit of your students. Check in with them through making eye contact, nodding, and looking for affirmative signs of understanding. Make sure they get it.

Offer Stages

Break down the pose that you’re demonstrating into at least two stages so that there is something for everyone. Affirm the goodness of each stage (“this is already a lot of work!”) so that students don’t feel badly if they can’t do the final variation. Be clear about how students should know if they should move onto the next stage. For example, say, “if you can keep your leg straight, then you can move onto…” rather than a vague invitation such as, “if you feel comfortable…” The more specific you are, the more you will empower your students to effectively evaluate their own practice.

Inspire without being a jerk

Doing a demonstration can be an opportunity to inspire your students to a new level of practice. But make sure to inspire them without demoralizing them or showing off. Remember: the demonstration is for their benefit. You want them to think, “I want to do that!” rather than, “I could never do that.” You can inspire your students by being clear and specific about the steps they need to take to ultimately do the pose. Even if they can’t do the final pose, they will feel empowered that they can see the route to get there.

Give Three Takeaways

After a demonstration, summarize the key points of the pose by giving your students no more than three simple take aways that will help them do the pose well. They won’t be able to keep more in their head than three! The art of great teaching is knowing how to be simple.

Happy teaching!

Market for success: what blockbuster movies have to do with being an entrepreneur

The Force Awakens cost $245 million dollars to make. And it cost between $100-150 million dollars to advertise.

More than one-third of their total expenditure on that movie was in advertising.

Surprised?

Even though The Force Awakens seems like a no-brainer for success, Disney invested more than $100 million in promotion. And this percentage is typical of major motion pictures, who routinely spend 1/3 of their production costs again to market their films. In the case of The Force Awakens, the investment was well worth it: Disney has raked in more than $2 billion dollars in global sales. Now while we don’t all need to go out there and make $2 billion dollars, the lesson from this blockbuster is applicable to all of us: it’s not enough to be awesome; to be successful, you must significantly invest in advertising your awesomeness.

You cannot take success (and word of mouth) for granted. Disney didn’t sit back and say, “Well, heck, everyone in the world has been waiting for this movie since those terrible prequels; we’ll be fine!” It’s no longer enough to create a great product and hope people hear about it. In a noisy world, only the loudest and most persistent voice gets heard. Marketing – for better or worse – is an essential component of doing business. Here are four tips to get you started.

Rule of Thirds

If you are an entrepreneur and doing a lot of your work yourself, then it’s important to allocate some substantial work time to growing your business and online presence.  Spending time and resources on marketing can feel counterintuitive; after all, I’d much rather spend three hours developing and editing curriculum than figuring out how to promote my Facebook page!

Do the “rule of thirds” reframe to shift your perspective.

You may have heard of the rule of thirds in photography: divide your frame into thirds and place your object of interest along an intersection. Now you can think of the rule of thirds for your marketing strategy. One third of your resources needs to go into marketing. Not only your money, but your time. If you’re working a nine-hour day, spend three of it on your marketing strategy. For the agile, DIY entrepreneur, this may mean that you spend a couple hours each day engaging with social media. Plan on spending a third of your budget on advertising and promotion.

Cross-promote

The big blockbuster movies don’t pay out of pocket for their advertising: they cross-promote. By partnering up with other vendors and products, they help to defray their own marketing costs with a little win-win. Take a lesson from the big boys: find similar vendors who would find an alliance with you advantageous and create partnerships that help you both.

Delegate

As entrepreneurs, we often feel that we need to do everything to get our small business to run. But once you accept that marketing is a high priority, you may realize that creating a team of helpers can save you time, money, and effort. Hiring a marketing strategist can help you to make sure that you are putting your precious time and effort in the right place. There’s nothing worse than spending a lot of time on marketing, only to have your strategy fail. Consider how much your own time is worth. If you can hire someone to do some legwork for you at the right price, having some marketing hands in you corner may help you to focus on what you do best. Use automated services like Planoly and Hootsuite to batch your advertising tasks and save you time.

Be consistent

Marketing can be exhausting. However, it’s not just the loudest horn that gets heard; it’s the most consistent horn. Set yourself up for success (and avoid burn out) by creating a slow and steady marketing strategy that allows you to stay in for the long haul. Cultivate patience. Be the consistent horn.

Regardless of whether you have a $100 or $1 million dollar marketing budget, the lesson is the same: marketing oomph is essential if you want to be successful.

Take it slow, have a plan, delegate when possible, and shine your light!

Are you a yoga educator? To hear more on marketing your educational courses, check out Marketing For Success.

Yoga Teachers: How To “Teach” Rather Than “Lead” Your Classes

Leslie Kaminoff was once asked if 200 hours was enough time to learn to teach yoga. “No. You can lead a yoga class after 200 hours,” he said, “but not teach.”

What did he mean?

Leading vs. teaching

Someone who “leads” a class is a guide.

Imagine that you are going on a trip through the jungle. A guide will give you a map and send you on your way. “Head towards that mountain, then turn right at the waterfall!” A teacher is more personalized and hands on. They will go through the jungle with you, tell you when you’re taking the wrong path, and give you bandaids for your blisters.

To think of it a different way, “leading” a class means that you are instructing your students in the “what” (poses, techniques, positions). “Teaching” a class means you instruct your students in the “how” (actions, techniques, tips).

Now, leading a class is no small accomplishment! You must put thoughtful sequence together, teach your students the general form of poses (what they look like), and move them through the practice safely. But if you want to take your teaching to the next level, you must begin to instruct your students how to do the poses. You must transition from being a guide  – to being a jungle master.

One of the most effective ways to elevate your teaching? Teach actions.

Actions

I have been auditioning yoga teachers for years, and it’s surprising how many teachers (even those with several years of experience) do not instruct beyond the bare minimum of the general form. The teachers may be charismatic, have a stellar personal practice, and play a banging playlist, but if they cannot teach actions, I don’t think they’ve arrived yet at their potential.

Teaching actions means teaching the muscular engagements that are necessary in order to wring the full potential and intention from a yoga pose.

Consider:

  • what is the intention and purpose of this pose?
  • what are the muscular engagements that will bring this pose to life?
  • what are the opposing muscular engagements that work against each other to deepen the pose?
  • what is rooting and what is lifting (more on root-rebound here)?

If you want to teach a class, then you must consider the internalized actions that move the pose (and the student) from being partially present to fully engaged.

Which actions should I teach?

Every pose has almost unlimited actions that you could teach.

But if we taught all the actions within a pose, we’d be sitting in warrior two for an hour (which would make your students angry). To teach well, you want to prioritize cuing the actions that are specifically enlivening to the pose. For example, if you’re teaching warrior two, you are going to want to teach the heck out of the external rotation of the front thigh. After all, that is a unique action to that pose that brings warrior two to life.

You can also prioritize teaching the actions of the pose that will ultimately help your students embody the peak pose. For example, if my peak pose is wheel, it’s a good idea to teach the heck out of the shoulder stability throughout the class in order to help students cultivate the necessary awareness in the upper back.

How To Start

Taking your cuing to the next level takes some conscious planning. Before your next class, take some time to determine and write out the key, enlivening actions for several poses including the peak. To avoid defaulting to old cuing habits,  slow down your teaching to incorporate teaching actions into the fabric of your teaching style.

Observe your students, and see how your words are landing. Begin to personalize your teaching of these actions so that you can offer your students the individualized feedback they need to embody the pose more deeply. In other words, you’re not just offering feedback to students based on the position and shape of the pose; but look more deeply at their bodies to see and feel how they are engaged. Not only will this deepen your students’ experience of their own bodies, looking more closely at individual bodies will help improve your ability to see action and alignment.

Once you start seeing and cuing actions, you’re no longer a yoga guide; you’re in the jungle, baby.

Happy teaching!

Yoga Teachers: Why Losing Followers Is Great For You

You send out your Mailchimp campaign. Without fail, within the hour, the unsubscribes start coming in.

As ET says to Elliot, “Ouuuuuuuuuuch.”

Whether it’s a Mailchimp subscriber, Instagram follower, or Facebook liker, losing a fan can feel like a hit to the heart. The negative voices start chiming in:

  • what did I do wrong?
  • why don’t they like me anymore?
  • what did I post that was a turn off?
  • why am I such a loser?

Rest assured, my friends, we’ve all been there. Even Ryan Reynolds gets an unsubscribe occasionally. But contrary to what your bruised ego may be saying, losing followers is actually very good news. Here are the key takeaways you can keep in mind.

You Can’t Please Everyone

Embrace your individuality! Trying to please everyone leads to vanilla poo. While losing followers may mean that you initially seem less popular, it’s actually a good sign that your message is becoming more specific and you’re finding your target audience. If you’re doing your job right, not everyone will like you. Seriously.

Find Your Tribe

The more specific and authentic your message, the easier it will be for your tribe to connect with you. Be bold, be real, and you will give your true audience an opportunity to find you. The more that your messaging is clearly “you,” the more opportunities you will be creating for them to connect.

Be Patient

If you start getting real, it may take your people awhile to find you (“awhile” as in like six months, a year, two years). Don’t lose heart. Be consistent with your message and your sharing, and – over time – you will start to develop the crew that really resonates with your offerings.

Don’t Take It Personal, Now

Finally, don’t take it personally. I’ve personally unsubscribed from newsletters that were perfectly inoffensive for any number of reasons:

  • I moved away.
  • I was double subscribed with a different email.
  • I didn’t need the service anymore.
  • I decided to do a social media cleanse of everything in my inbox for other reasons.
  • I was in a bad mood when I got the email.
  • Etc.

If you’re trying a new marketing angle or shifting your tone, give yourself at least three to six months before you evaluate the longer term impact of what is happening with your marketing channels. Be patient, be consistent – and most importantly – be YOU.

If you want more info on marketing immersions and teacher trainings, check out the online course, “Marketing For Success”.

How To Choose A Yoga Teacher Training Format

I was on the phone with a client this morning, who was considering revamping her course format. “Everyone is running their 200 hour teacher trainings in two weeks,” she said. “I don’t know how they do it.”

“Oy. Thirteen hour days, and no days off,” I said. “Now, that thirteen hours of training, which means that students are in the classroom from 6:30 am-10:30 pm, because you need to take an hour for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. You can do it, but it may not be pretty.”

And you could.

But first you must consider: who is your ideal student?

When you set the format (days and times) for your teacher training, the first thing you must consider is your student and their lifestyle.

Your Ideal Student

Is your target audience full of adventurous travellers? If students are travelling (ie: a retreat or coming from out of town), then they may want to make the time as intensive as possible in order to reduce the amount of vacation time that they have to take off (and likely the cost of the retreat itself). However, if you are running your training for your local 9-5er’s, then they are clearly going to prefer a format that will integrate well into their current lifestyle.

Popular Formats

Some popular training formats:

  • Weekends (great for for local trainings that need to appeal to working folks)
  • Intensives (cram it all into a shorter amount of time, great for retreats and destination trainings)
  • Bursts (5 day training x 4; great for folks who can travel every couple months to train)

or a combination of the above. For example, maybe you start your training with a five day burst, then run it on weekends.

To figure out which training format is best for you, consider:

  • what does the day to day of my ideal student look like?
  • what worries my ideal student (family obligations, evening obligations, early mornings, money, time)
  • are students travelling to come to the training?
  • are these students morning people/night owls?
  • when during the year can they take the time to train?
  • is there a financial incentive tied into a shorter or longer training?
  • how much homework or outside work does my course require?
  • how much integration time does my course require?

Get Information

To create your training format, it’s helpful to investigate the training structure of your direct competition. Usually, they’ve figured something out! Do some online research and make a chart of what everyone else is doing; this will give you some context. While it may mean that your competitors have stumbled upon the best training format for your area, it’s also possible that offering something different from your competitors would actually position you to appeal to a different segment of yogis.

Remember: don’t just investigate studio schedules. Check out what individual teachers who are popular in your area are doing as well.

Get information from your own students. Do a Facebook poll, send them a survey. Your own students are coming to you for a reason, and there may be something unique about their needs.

For more information on creating an awesome course format and choosing a training space, check out our online course!

How To Cope With Anxiety

Some mornings are okay.

If I can get out of bed quickly enough and start moving, I can often jump start my day through assertive action and coffee. I almost always wake up with some anxiety, but I can usually douse it by getting productive.

Other mornings are not okay.

I wake up from my anxious dreams and my mind races through everything that could possibly be wrong. My relationship, my tiny apartment, my work as a consultant, my failed marriage, my lack of children, my feelings of isolation. Real estate in Vancouver is a favorite and frequent stressor.

Rather than feeling connected, alive, and grateful, I implode like a dwarf star: dense and tight.

Here are five ways I cope.

1. Move

Get the energy OUT. Put on loud music, move your body, make sound, and shake. There is a lot of energy in anxiety: get it out through chaotic movement. You don’t need to be controlled. Shout in a pillow, cry, or just stand and jiggle your bones.

Depression is harder. When you are depressed, the last thing you want to do is move. Move anyway. Jump in place fifty times. Then see.

I prefer the freedom of not being in public so that I can move wildly, make horrific expressions, emit weird noises, and not alarm the general populace. It’s not pretty. However, if you can’t get yourself to move on your own, then go to a class. Not yin. Go to one that gets your heartbeat up and makes you sweat.

2. Speak

Scrawl into a journal (it doesn’t have to be legible), scream it into a pillow, or channel your voices into a flowing deluge of tongues. However you do it, expressing your truth will move your energy as well. By speaking your truth (no matter how crazy-cray, ugly, or irrational), you get the voices out of your head and into the world where you can have some distance from them. When you hear these stories outside of yourself, they begin to shift and lose their potency. It’s a little like exorcising demons, friends.

Actually, it’s a lot like that.

3. Connect

Call a friend, go to coffee. Confess yourself. Get vulnerable. Share. Accept a hug. Give a hug. Expose yourself and your truth to someone safe and trusted. They don’t need to fix you or give advice: the act of being heard and seen is profoundly healing.

4. Do good

Sometimes the fastest way to feel better is to be of service. Go do something good. Listen to someone’s problems, give blood, clean your mom’s windows. You will remind yourself that what you do matters and you make a difference by being here. Sometimes we forget.

5. Clean Up

It can also be helpful – if you are a control freak like me – to do housework. Physical work like scrubbing the floors and walls is therapeutic. But you can also “clean up” by finishing those old chores that you have back burnered for a few weeks (or months, or years). Getting those tasks off your plate reminds you that you can take some control in your life, and that can feel really good. If you are feeling mentally overwhelmed, start with physical housework to get in your body and go from there.

6. Get in nature

If possible, get in nature. Reconnect with the earth, the trees, the sky. The sky reminds us that we are part of something greater. The mountains remind us that our problems will pass. The trees mind us how to breathe. Mama earth can hold a lot in her generous arms; give her your time and she will hug you back.

Finally, remember that you are not alone. Every human understands heartbreak; we’ve all felt the overwhelm. Some of us may feel it more, but we can move through these feelings if we keep taking one breath at a time. Our spiritual daily work: when our hearts break, let them crack wide open. Let the sun and wind in.

“There is a crack, a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.” – Leonard Cohen

For Yoga Teachers: How To See Your Students In A Yoga Class

When you’re learning to teach yoga and you begin to understand the principles of alignment, a whole new world opens up. All of a sudden, the hidden actions of the yoga practice are exposed like Illuminati secrets in a Dan Brown novel. The code is suddenly everywhere!

When this happens, it can be very tempting (especially for A-type students) to dive in – eagle-eyed – and start “fixing” student. But before you zero in with well-intentioned zeal, take a mental “whoa, Nelly!” and consider these five guidelines.

1. See the whole student.

Before you fixate your beady eyes on your student’s misaligned knee in warrior two, step back and see the whole picture. See the whole human.

  • What’s your student’s energy?
  • What’s their facial expression and emotional aspect?
  • How’s their muscle tone and tension?

Remember that this student has a life outside of the yoga class (job, family, stresses, love, loss). When you take time to see the whole student, you will be less likely to treat him or her like an object and more likely to approach them with good intent. At the very least, you’ll have the opportunity to take a breath and think, “Is this assist really going to elevate my student’s experience?” If the answer is no, then move on.

2. Speak to the foundation first.

We usually become fixated on what seems most obviously out of whack. While it’s normal to see the most blatant misalignment, pause and look to the student’s foundation. It’s amazing how much compensation can happen in the hips and upper body when the foundation is off-kilter. Look at the feet first (or hands, if they are weight-bearing), and work upwards from there. A well-adjusted foundation can shift the entire expression of a pose.

3. See the good.

Before you jump in to correct, notice what your student is doing well. Although I’m not shy about assisting students, it’s nice to give a positive note first: “Marjorie, good work with the straightness of your back thigh. Now, roll that right hip down a bit. Awesome!” Seeing the good first trains us to mentally affirm and celebrate our students’ progress and share that positivity with them. Students grow best when they are confident; by training yourself to see their good efforts, you will support them to celebrate their own.

4. They’re doing the best they can.

Remember: your students are doing the best they can. Sure, they may benefit from your intervention and loving support, but they have come to yoga class, gotten on their mat, and started to move. Some days, just getting to class is a triumph. As teachers, it’s important to remember that their presence in class is a testament of their dedication to their self care and the practice.

5. Be patient.

They’re not going to get it all today. Don’t fuss over the fine details. Your students’ practice will evolve at just the right pace for them. And sometimes, that may feel really slow. (My teachers are still giving me the same assists I was getting fifteen years ago. Learning to change our bodies is a slow, organic process.) Remember, aiding your students’ progress is your privilege, but ultimately their practice is their responsibility. Support and affirm their work, but give ownership of their practice back to them.

Happy teaching!

For what to do next, see, “Three steps to give a verbal assist.”

How To Handle Yoga Students Who Don’t Listen

You’re teaching warrior two. Your student, let’s call him Joe, decides to work on his press handstand instead. Then you’re teaching crow and Joe decides that this is a great time to do some supine hip openers. On the day that you decide to do a prop heavy wall class, Joe tells you with some asperity that he never uses props.

So, what do you do when your yoga students ignore you and do their own thing?

Well, friends, I’ve been ignored by a lot of students for a lot of different reasons over the years, and rule number one? Do not take it personally.

Do not take it personally.

I used to become very grouchy when students did their personal practice in the middle of a group class. Here I was, trying to teach power, and Gertrude was practicing restorative in the corner, surrounded by bolsters. Being a little control freak (and taking myself just a wee bit seriously), I was miffed that students would come to my class and not actually, well, listen.

Why They Do It

However, over the years, I have learned that students may ignore you for some pretty good reasons:

  • they yearn to be in their yogi community, but can’t physically do what you’re offering
  • they can’t do power, but this was the only time on the schedule they could come do now that their kids are home from school
  • they’re dying to practice handstand, and simply won’t do it on their own; the class gives them motivation to practice
  • they’re pregnant or injured, and didn’t feel like announcing it to a huge classroom of people
  • they actually told you that they were injured last week, and you forgot
  • they have a head injury
  • they really didn’t think you’d mind

Bottom line?

It doesn’t matter why they’re doing their own thing. It’s fine that they’re doing it. (After all, didn’t you tell them at some point to listen to their bodies?) When you get that gremlin feeling in your gut about it, check in and see if it’s your ego that is calling the shots. Because the last thing that you want is to get in a pissing contest about who’s right in a classroom of yogis.

What You Can Do

My teacher Chris Chavez is an amazingly charismatic teacher (I don’t know how anyone wouldn’t hang on his every word). But even Chris has had self-practicing students in his class. He says: “I don’t give it energy.”

“Don’t give it energy.” – Chris Chavez

If someone is doing their own thing, well, that’s just fine. Turn your attention to the students in the room who are interested in what you’re saying and pour your energy to them. You don’t have to ignore your self-practicing students, but it’s appropriate to put your energy in the direction of those who are listening. This will send a message to your class that hey, it’s no big deal, they don’t have to worry about Gertrude and Joe! If you’re okay with it; generally they will be too. They will follow your lead.

When To Intervene

While I’m pretty chill about people doing their own practice in class, I will intervene in a few cases.

If the student is a danger to themselves or others. 

If Joe is doing handstand and about to fall over onto his neighbour yogi, I will not hesitate to publicly tell him to stop. Sometimes loudly and from across the room. If a yogi can control their advanced poses, well, then okay! But the moment someone could get hurt, the party is over.

If they are a distraction to students.

As a teacher, our role is to protect the class dynamic. When one person’s behaviour begins to make other students uncomfortable, then our role is to step in and intervene. That’s part of our job. And we’re really the only one in the room who can do it.

If they’re in the front row.

Sometimes more advanced yogis love to take the complex version of every pose. They turn every sun salutation into a handstand practice, and twisted chair into firefly pose. In my heart, I give them high fives for their dedication and stamina. But if they insist on setting up their mat in front of a bunch of beginners, I’m going to have a chat with them after class and ask them to please set up their mat in the back.

Beginners need role models in a group class; they don’t need to be intimidated or confused by complex variations. Any yogi worth his or her salt will understand and not mind setting up his or her mat discreetly.

Got any thorny class questions? Email me at info@rachelyoga.com and let’s do a post about it!

Why You Get Mad: A Tip To Understanding Your Anger

We don’t get mad because of what people do. We get mad because of what we make it mean.

Let’s say you and your bestie have planned a coffee date, but she’s twenty minutes late. You’re working through your second latte and  – not only are you now highly caffeinated – you’re fuming as well.

Chances are that you are not mad at your friend because she’s twenty minutes late to your coffee date. If she rushed in and apologized (accident! kid drama! sick parent!), you would likely forgive her. But if she doesn’t seem to have a good enough reason, you’ll be irritated. After all, doesn’t she realize that your time is important?

In this kind of scenario, you’ve made her lateness mean something.

In other words, it’s not the dishes in the sink that bug us. It’s what we make those dishes mean. (“Do I have to do everything?”)

Here’s the thing: you may be right.

Maybe you’re friend doesn’t care about your time, or your lover thinks of you as a glorified dish cleaner. But most of the time, people don’t act deliberately to be obnoxious. Most of the time, in the bubble of their head, they have a perfectly good reason for doing that irritating thing that actually has nothing to do with you. They could even be well intended. (“I was late because I wanted to bike and save the world from pollution!”)

An ex-boyfriend of mine used to pile his dishes next to the sink before we cleaned them. Liking clean counters, I would put all the dishes in the sink. We both kept getting irritated until we figured out that he liked the sink remain clear of clutter in order to use it, while I liked the tidiness of putting everything in the sink (I know, I know, just do the damn dishes already!). Now while that little moment may seem like a minor thing, relationships are built upon the daily details.

Here’s your task.

When you next get angry, take a step back and separate out the true action from the meaning. 1. What objectively happened, and 2. what is the layer of meaning that you’re putting onto it? Then have a conversation to find out what that person was really up to. Where were they coming from? Through this inquiry, you will discover something interesting about that person’s values and how their minds work.

While understanding their mindset doesn’t mean that you necessarily need to condone behaviour (“I appreciate your saving the world by riding your bike, but I still don’t want to be kept waiting for twenty minutes”), it may help to defang the personalization of the act. It will certainly make for a more interesting and informative conversation than getting into a row about who’s right and who’s wrong. And bonus: you’ll learn a little something about your own expectations as well.

 

If you like these musings, check out The Yogi’s Guide To Dating. Chock full of relationship musings!