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ableism, Adventures in Mysore India, Alignment and Injuries, Ashtanga Adaptability, Guru, History, Privilege, Social Media, Teaching Ashtanga
“Calling In” the Ashtanga Community
“Calling in” is a term coined by Ngoc Loan Tran, a Viet/mixed race disabled queer writer who champions for justice in oppressed communities. “Calling in” is holding members of the community responsible for their actions, not as an act of punishment, but as an act of accountability. “I start ‘call in’ conversations by identifying the behavior and defining why I am choosing to engage with them. I prioritize my values and invite them to think about theirs and where we share them. And then we talk about it. We talk about it together, like people who genuinely care about each other. We offer patience and compassion to each other and…
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Adventures in Mysore India, Alignment and Injuries, Diversity, History, Ladies Holday, Social Media, Teaching Ashtanga, Yoga Philosophy, Yoga Sutras
What You Don’t Know, Makes You Dangerous
Before you make that statement on social media, before you write that blog post, stop. Ask yourself, do you have all the information? Do you understand the subject outside of your own cultural biases? Are you listening to only one side? Every day, I gain more of an understanding of why some teachers and Patanjali tell us to pick a method and stick with it. Reason 1-so we don’t dig shallow wells. Reason 2-so we don’t get confused. Yoga is not one long unfractured story where the facts perfectly follow one after the other. That is like saying that American history is White history and just following the line of…
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Adventures in Mysore India, Alignment and Injuries, Ask the AYP, Teaching Ashtanga, Yoga Philosophy, Yoga Sutras
Yoga Will Not Keep Bad Things From Happening
Yoga is not an inoculation against bad things. It is the science of learning how to deal with bad things when they happen. If you are lucky, you start to view “bad” things as just events and you don’t label them at all. On my last post, someone commented and asked, “how can you hurt yourself when you are practicing Ahimsa?” Easy. Most people don’t wake up in the morning and say. “I feel like hurting myself today. I really want to get in a car accident, maybe get a cold, catch my husband in bed with his co-worker, rip my hamstring, and have to bail my son out of…
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Adventures in Mysore India, Alignment and Injuries, Ashtanga Adaptability, Guru, Interviews, Saraswathi, Teaching Ashtanga, Uncategorized, Yoga Philosophy, Yoga Sutras
Random Ashtanga Stuff That Has Been Driving Me Up The Wall
Ashtanga stuff that has been pushing my buttons.
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Alignment and Injuries, Ashtanga Adaptability, Ashtanga Quotes, Teaching Ashtanga, Yoga Philosophy, Yoga Sutras
Yoga Practice in Good and Bad Times
“Your toothache is impermanent, but your non-toothache is also impermanent. With that insight, you look at birth, death, old-age, ups and downs, suffering, and happiness with the eyes of a sage, and you don’t suffer anymore. You smile, no longer afraid.” – Thich Nhat Hanh The Sutras does not say that, “Yoga is the cessation of the fluctuations of life.” It says that “Yoga is the cessation of the fluctuations of the mind. ” The world turns, burns, rises and falls. Teachers come and go, hamstrings tear and heal. In yogic terms, the gunas will keep interacting with prakriti and, while I play in this world, I can’t stop it.…
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Alignment and Injuries, Ashtanga Adaptability, Interviews, Pose How To, Teaching Ashtanga, Uncategorized, Videos
Get the Help You Need For Your Ashtanga Practice w/ Jen Rene
Meet Jen Rene Jen ran a successful Mysore group in DC and is now practicing with and assisting her teacher, Tim Miller, at the Ashtanga Yoga Center in Encinitas, CA. Jen Rene has created Ashtanga and Pilates courses on her site, Jenrene.com, that provide helpful tips on backbending, hip opening, muscle recovery and much more. I recently had the opportunity to speak with Jen about her online Ashtanga courses as well as pick her brain about working with new students, backbends, hamstring injuries and more. AYP: What was your vision and purpose for releasing video courses? JR: I want to share what I know and love with more students…
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Adventures in Mysore India, Alignment and Injuries, Ashtanga Adaptability, Conference Notes, Teaching Ashtanga, Yoga Philosophy, Yoga Sutras
The Lesson, Not the Event
“By this time I had learned that it was more fruitful to pay attention to the lessons rather than to events themselves.”- Pandit Rajmani Tigunait, At The Eleventh Hour We all come into this practice carrying the results of our life and DNA in our bodies. In Mysore, Sharath would joke, “Don’t get mad at me because you are stiff. Get mad at your parents!” Last week, a student said, “I have been doing hip openers for a couple years now and my hips are still not open.” I said, “Sometimes, it is not possible to undo 40 years in a few years of practice, if at all”. Working…
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Adventures in Mysore India, Alignment and Injuries, Ashtanga Adaptability, Teaching Ashtanga, Uncategorized
The Gift of the Local Ashtanga Teacher
From Christina Sell’s Blog Post, the Process Works “Q:What is the definition of an expert? A: Someone who lives out of town. Given that the majority of the teaching work I do these days involves me getting on a plane to go teach, I enjoy the “expert” status that comes along with being a teacher from “out-of-town.” I figure that means that the students are typically a little more patient with my long-winded explanations, detailed demonstrations, and slow-paced teaching style than they might be if it was Wednesday night class and we shared the same zip code. “ TRUTH This phenomenon is so interesting to me. People who argue…
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Coming up with an Injury Strategy
It happened. That thing that you have been so careful to avoid. The thing that you have taken hours of yoga anatomy and alignment courses to avoid. You have an ouchie. An injury. What to do? If you are mindful, patient and compassionate with yourself, you can continue your yoga practice. However, you have to be really honest with yourself. If you: Are an all or nothing type of person Hate modifications Refuse to modify in front of others Feel like you are not doing a full practice unless you are doing “everything” Have an inhumanly high pain tolerance to the point where you only feel things when it is…
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Alignment and Injuries, Ashtanga Adaptability, Social Media, Teaching Ashtanga, Yoga Philosophy, Yoga Sutras
Yoga Statistics and Faulty Logic
I just watched a video where an Ashtanga teacher quoted a statistic that was probably true for her students but definitely was not true for mine. Earlier this week, someone else wrote a blog about how no one does shoulder stand anymore, but at the studio I work at, which is 90% Hot Vinyasa and 10% other, almost everyone does shoulder stand. About a month ago, someone wrote on Instagram that Ashtanga was dead when there are Ashtanga programs thriving all over the world. Sharath opened up for June and all the spaces were taken before some people even had a chance to log on. We have this way…
