I don't normally read e-books. I like the feeling of curling up in bed with an actual book but this one I love. As the name implies, the Yoga Resource Practice Manual, is a go to reference book for yoga teachers and students alike. It features 360 stunning yoga poses with detailed instructions, alignment, safety and anatomy cues for each pose. It also has a video library as well.
Who is this book good for?
Yoga Teachers
- library of peak pose ides for your classes
-succinct language that can be used for cueing students in and out of poses as well as cues for alignment and anatomy
-Provides a library of pose names in Sanskrit and English
-Safety Instructions
-Preparatory poses for difficult asanas
Yoga Practitioners
-A great reference book to help you get deeper into yoga poses
-Provides tips that may help you get over a plateau in difficult yoga poses
-Gives you some great poses to help jazz up your practice
-You will learn more about the poses you already do
-Keeps you safe
This e-book is available for I-pad and computers and is well worth the $24.99. You can also purchase individual sections for $2.99. To get a taste of the book, download the free chapter on twists. Click on the link below to get started.
"Yoga is the cessation of the fluctuations of the mind"-Yoga Sutras
The biggest part of my yoga practice is finding mental stillness and it is a 24 hour a day job. Yoga gives us many skills for doing this. Deep breathing, deep focus on asana, meditation, casting your thoughts on the infinite and chanting om to name a few. Something else that helps me to start my day right is to get out of my bed before I get into my head.
I am writing this post at 6:30AM on a Saturday and I technically have no where to be until 2PM. How we start our day can have a major impact on its outcome. Everyone has had those experiences where they get up in the morning stub there toe and everything goes to hell after that. During the week, my Facebook stream usually has at least 1 person declaring at 8:00 in the morning that they are going to have a crappy day. When we greet the day with this energy, for most people, it just spirals and gets bigger like a snow ball going downhill.
If we start the day with positive energy, the snow ball effect works in our favor. If you are anything like me, you wake up in the morning and your brain immediately does a recap of all the unfortunate things that happened the day before. It is best to not even give the mind the opportunity to go there.
I believe there is a time for coming face to face with your thoughts, but for most people, doing it early in the morning effects their ability to enjoy the rest of their day.
Here are some things to help stave off the morning mental playback
Get out of bed before it starts-that is why I am up at 6:30AM on a Saturday writing this post. My mind started replaying a yoga class yesterday where I forgot the sequence. If I sat there and thought about that, it would cause me to be extremely nervous about today's 2 classes and I don't need that energy. If you wake up with worry, it is better not to wallow in it. Get up and do something that makes you light up and feel good.
Focused Meditation-Instead of sitting and watching what comes up, chose a meditation that focuses on an object, idea, sound or something else that will not leave room for the tape to play
Breathing-Focusing on the breath leaves no room for thought
Chanting-leaves no room for thought
Studying the Scriptures-read something that inspires you and think on its words. Make it your mantra for the day. If you are a yoga teacher, it is a great way to get class themes!
I recently wrote an article, What the Hell Is Advanced Ashtanga?, that sparked some conversation outside of cyber space. One particular person, who just so happens to be a rocket teacher, truly believes that what he is teaching is advanced Ashtanga because people were allowed to float into hand stand in their sun salutes which is not traditional and frowned upon in some Ashtanga circles. So I had to open up the conversation. What is Advanced Yoga?(If you want, you can skip all the way to the last paragraph which sums up this whole post).
Lets see what the dictionary definition of "advanced" is:
Mirriam Webster
Definition of ADVANCED
1
: far on in time or course <a man advanced in years>
2
a : being beyond others in progress or ideas <tastes a bit tooadvanced for the times>b : being beyond the elementary or introductory <advancedchemistry>c : greatly developed beyond an initial stage <the mostadvanced scientific methods> <advanced weapons systems>d : much evolved from an early ancestral type <bees and other advanced insects> <advanced traits>
The Free Dictionary.com
ad·vanced (d-vnst)
adj.
1. Highly developed or complex.
2. Being at a higher level than others: an advanced text in physics.
3. Ahead of the times; progressive: advanced teaching methods.
4. Far along in course or time: an advanced stage of illness; a person of advanced age.
Google
ad·vanced
/ədˈvanst/
Adjective
Far on or ahead in development or progress.
New and not yet generally accepted.
Using these definitions, for a yoga pose to be advanced:
The Yoga pose must be far on in time and course-the person has to have been practicing it for a long time. So this means that Svasana can be advanced or mountain pose can be advanced. As long as they have been practicing for a long time.
Being Beyond Others in Progress-this is extremely subjective and depends on who you are practicing with. If you have taken one yoga class and the person beside you has taken none, then you can be called advanced. However if you show up the next day and the person beside you has taken 10 yoga classes and you have only taken 2, than that person is now the advanced one.
Karandavasana
This also calls for a lot of judgement and comparing which, in yoga philosophy is a construct of the mind and goes against what yoga is trying to do which is rid you of your mental constructs.
This definition also depends on progress. If a person has naturally open hips and can do full lotus on the first day of practice, this is not progress. They didn't have to do anything. However, it may have taken someone else 5 years just to do half lotus, which means that relative to where they started, they have progressed further then the person who can do a full lotus therefore, they are more advanced.
Yoga Mudra done in Full Lotus
The Yoga pose must be highly developed or complex-as in the previous example of the student with naturally open hips who can easily go into full lotus, highly developed is personal. Again, that person did not develop anything. It was natural to their body.
What makes something complex? The definition of complex is, something that consists of many different and connected parts (google). There are yoga poses and transitions that take more steps and have a few connected parts that result in the whole pose. An example of this would be Karandavasana in Ashtanga. You have to first come into a forearm balance, then a lotus & then lower down. All these three together make up the full pose. That would then make it more complex than a pose like chair which takes one step to get into( if you count lifting your arms, it takes two steps).
The pose has to be ahead of the times- this fluctuates. At one point, Krishnamacharya, the person on whose teachings western yoga is VERY LOOSELY based on, was considered way ahead of his times. He was born in 1888 and in 2013, he is now deceased and behind the times. If you haven't noticed, "ahead of the times", is usually used to describe people who come up with ideas that no one accepts. When people accept the ideas, this person is called an "innovator" or a "change maker". So for a pose or practice to be advanced, it has to go against the mainstream and not be accepted. Ashtanga used to be this way. People laughed at Pattabhi Jois when he first started teaching. He was ahead of his times. Now ashtanga is accepted and forms the basis for modern Vinyasa yoga. It is no longer ahead of the times.
The Pose or practice is New and Not Yet Generally Accepted-this means that I can create something called "Sleep" Yoga where people come to class and just sleep and it would be considered advanced because it is new and not generally accepted.
The point to all this is , with the exception of complex poses that have many steps, "advanced" is subjective. It is generally a word thrown around to grow the ego and make people feel bigger and badder than the people around them. Why not just present the practice or pose for what it is? Why even give the caveat that something is advanced? For people with huge egos, it just makes them bigger and for people with low confidence, it just makes them scared and less likely to try it. Both of these responses go against what yoga is about which is getting rid of the ego and revealing our true limitless potential.
There is an ad on the side of my Facebook page advertising Rocket classes as "advanced" Ashtanga. A rocket class is a mix of poses from Ashtanga's 1,2 & 3 series done in a led or guided format. I have done rocket classes in the past and they are alot of fun and I enjoy them but it is not "advanced" Ashtanga. If anything it is beginner Ashtanga or Ashtanga for people who are not disciplined enough, to scared or don't care enough to learn it the right way. Yep, I said it.
Everyone can do Ashtanga but everyone is not going to want to do Ashtanga and that is okay. Rocket classes allow people to play with the poses from other Ashtanga sequences without actually earning them. Yep. I said it. If people want to do that, it is fine. To each his own but it is what it is.
When used appropriately, Rockets are a fun way to introduce people to an Ashtanga practice and to allow people to play with poses they may not see in their normal practice. It is an amazing experience and again I love rockets. However practicing mysore style Ashtanga every day even when you don't feel like it, not skipping the poses you don't like, doing the work and earning the poses you are given is "advanced" yoga. Dealing with all the crap that comes up and stilling the fluctuations of your mind as you cultivate your practice on a daily basis is "advanced" yoga.
Rockets being "advanced" Ashtanga is just a ridiculous marketing tool to sell a teacher training.
Fortunately, most dehydrated Hot Yoga students only experience the first column.
Prevention
Focus on hydration before you come to class. Drink at least 24-32 oz of water before you even get there
Electrolytes really make a difference. You can buy them at any health food store, organic market or at many yoga studios. My favorite is Ultima. Carry them with you and put them in the water you drink prior to, during and after practice.
Sip water during practice.
Many yogi's drink coffee prior to practice but do know that caffeine can dehydrate the cells. If you drink coffee, you need even more water.
If you start to get overheated, don't keep pushing. Take rest, modify the practice, move your mat, ask for fans...whatever you have to do to get cooler
Eat foods with higher water content like fruits and vegetables. The water keeps you hydrated and you feel lighter when you practice.
If you feel moderately dehydrated when you leave
Drink 24-36 oz of electrolytes and water
Rest
Get into a cool area
Dehydration headaches are often accompanied by nausea. If you feel a headache coming on, take your over the counter pain med of choice before it gets bad
Add more water to your diet. You obviously didn't get in enough before coming.
I am not a doctor. This is just what works for me. Take this advice at your own risk.
If you love hot yoga, what are your favorite dehydration tools? (if you don't love hot yoga, please don't respond with your treatise against the practice)
Chris Kelly, half of the rap duo, Kris Kross, died today at the age of 34 of a drug overdose. Some people feel it was due to celebrity bullying. Chris Kelly suffered from alopecia, a disease that causes hair loss, and he was recently denigrated in the media because of it. Celebrities and many people in the public, are dehumanized and made into a commodity, product, brand or servant of the people. In our society, this means that your life is no longer private and that people now have the right to say what they want about you. This phenomenon also happens in the yoga community.
Many people just see yoga as a product or service. As with celebrities, they feel they have a right to voice their opinion or show how they feel about yoga teachers in any way they deem necessary. In a perfect world, everyone would practice non attachment and not let negativity get them down, but this is not a perfect world. When students roll their eyes, walk out of a class, talk about the teacher to other teachers and students and send hateful e-mails to the studio owner, it can be seen as bullying.
There is a difference between constructive feedback and maliciousness. Constructive feedback is done with the intention of helping the teacher be better. Malicious action is meant to hurt and cause damage to the teacher. Dramatically walking out of class hoping everyone notices your disdain. Loudly making comments hoping the people around you can hear it. I had a student recently who was in a class that was not suited for them, loudly whispering, "ridiculous" or "this is to much". When everyone ignored her, she took it upon herself to loudly start up a conversation with the person beside her. I addressed her actions to the class as a whole through a sutra (a few words of wisdom). The funny thing was that the person she was whispering to was taking up for me in an equally loud whisper!
I have seen students send e-mails to the studio honor insinuating that they should take the teacher's class away from them or that they should not be allowed to teach at certain class times. Some students form a click and gossip to anyone who will listen hoping to destroy the teachers reputation. All of this is done not with the intention of making the yoga teacher better, but at hurting them.
Many yoga teachers see what they do as an art. They spend tremendous amounts of time practicing, studying and training to bring their students something they feel will be of benefit. They pour their heart and soul into their offering. Though I have never heard of a yoga teacher over dosing on drugs, I do know many that cry tears of pain and experience tremendous heartache when they are not well received. I have seen teachers, who have so much to offer the world, have their self esteem crushed to a point where they chose to not teach in studios or not teach all together.
One of the Yamas, which is apart of the 8 limbs of yoga, is ahimsa, or non harming. There is much debate on intention. The dehumanization of celebrities and our fellow human beings can be so deep that people don't even think about the damage they may be causing. This was done on a grand scale with slavery where blacks were dehumanized to the point that they were seen as less than animals and treated as such. If a person does not understand what they are doing, are they going against Ahimsa? Yes. Every action we make effects the world and others around us. Even the ones that we are not even aware of as harmful. According to the Yoga Sutras, the path of yoga takes us to a place where we eventually stop accumulating bad karmas. When we live in a state of pure awareness, the dehumanization doesn't happen. We understand our impact.
As of now, we don't know what caused Chris Kelly to be a drug addict and to overdose. We can start today with being more aware of how our actions effect those around us. Take a moment to think about the effect your words and actions have on those around you. If the actions you want to take and the words you want to speak will do more harm then good, consider silence and inaction.
One of the best pieces of advice I was given regarding being a yoga teacher, was from yoga teacher Mara Healy and it was "Guard Your Practice". The minute you become a yoga teacher a new door opens to you. All the mess going on in the yoga community that gets pushed in the closet and under the rug when you are a student, is reveled in to you in the shocking light of day as a teacher.
Because you are a yoga teacher, many people want to roll you up in the mess with them. The best thing to do is guard your practice. Not only do you have to physically set time and parameters around your practice, but you have to do it mentally as well.
Amazingly, the first thing to go for many yoga teachers is their personal practice. A common conversation amongst yoga teachers is, "How long has it been since you practiced? I haven't been able to do anything in weeks!" At some point, acquiring more classes and clients , becomes more important than doing the practice.
Another reason that teachers stop practicing is because they allow themselves to get caught up in studio politics, so that when they arrive to practice, they are inundated with studio business and gossip. Even if no one is physically approaching them, they feel as if people are silently casting judgement.
Not practicing is bad news for many reasons. The best teachers are those with the most experience in the practice itself. A teacher that doesn't practice may be an absolute amazing instructor but their students will eventually plateau because the teacher cannot take them anywhere new because they have not gone anywhere new themselves.
Many teachers who don't practice, become dogmatic about a certain method of yoga because they have mastered that method so they don't have to practice to teach it. They gravitate towards styles that are simple enough that they will never be asked to do anything that takes them out of their comfort zone or would take practice to demonstrate. This also causes their students to plateau because they are never exposed to more challenging asanas and techniques.
Also, when a teacher does not practice, they began to lose connection with how it feels to be a student and they lose compassion for those they are teaching. Without compassion, a teacher loses their ability to effectively help students with injuries and difficulties specific to their practice. They essentially become great at teaching people with natural yoga abilities but suck at helping those who have challenges that make yoga difficult. In essence, the population that really needs the yoga doesn't get it.
It is also important for teachers to guard their spiritual practice and to continue to live in alignment with the philosophy of yoga. As we watch our numbers swell and/or shrink, It is hard to not become attached and allow our emotions and egos to swell and sink as well. If the class numbers are big and the ego is bigger, it is easy to get drunk on power and gain an inflated sense of self and land in situations where the boundaries of ethics and propriety are overstepped. This is what happens to the big name teachers in the news who get involved in money, lawsuits and sex scandals. Many of them started out with the best of intentions, but because they did not stay steadfast in their spiritual practice, they lost their way.
If a teacher has small class numbers and little confidence, they attach their self worth to their class roster. They become depressed and quickly lose their passion for teaching ,or worse, sell their soul and teach in a way that doesn't honor their spirit in order to get more students.
In order to teach yoga and stay emotionally healthy, non attachment is crucial. It is important to understand with every fiber of our being, that our self worth has nothing to do with who is or is not showing up for class. To keep the ego in check, it is also necessary to apply the Yamas:
Ahimsa-non violence and not causing harm to students mentally, physically and spiritually
Asteya-non stealing, non coveting, no envy. Not wanting what is not yours
Bramacharya-Abstaining from behaviors that abuse the student teacher relationship. Also applies to the stages of life observed by Yogi's but that is for another article.
Aparigraha-Not being greedy. Not becoming insatiably attached to money to the point of recklessness .
How To Guard Your Practice
Set time in your schedule for practice
Practice non-attachment
Observe the Yamas
See your practice as sacred and don't let any situation or person invade your sacred space. This is your time. Clear your mind and enjoy it.
I subbed the 9:15AM Double Shot Today at Y2 Yoga and we had an amazing time working with floating. My theme today was letting go of fear and floating is one of the best ways to work with this.
When most students jump to the front of the mat, they are only using their legs. If you use your abs, put weight into the hands and lift the pelvis over the shoulders, you develop the strength for floating and handstands. In order to get the hips high enough, you have to go all the way to the edge of falling. That is when we learn to overcome fear.
The students broke up into groups of twos and practiced jumping to the front of the mat and slowly lowering down. There was a lot of cussing, screaming and laughing which is the usual response when people get nervous and afraid. There were also cheers and excitement for those who got it. Below is a video that shows what we worked on. No, It is not me. I don't have the patience for making videos, believe me, I have tried. Epic Failure. I could take pictures like my fellow teachers Jen and Katie but that would be to much like right. You guys should know how much I love Kino Macgregor by now :)
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