Yoga meets ballet:
This video rivals Briohny’s Equinox video for a yogic display of strength and grace. A few parts really get to me, including when she pulls him up from wheel as a counter balance, and when his feet land on the small of her back. Gorgeous.
Do you think this deserves a better reaction than the Equinox Video due to having a little more clothing involved? Or are both equally beautiful in their own ways?
Week one has come and gone, and I am still enrolled in teacher training. And loving it.
Walking in to class on day 1 the most overwhelming feeling was one of uncertainty. With basically no knowledge of what the teachers’ training consisted of, we could only guess what the next 3 hours would contain.
Staring around at the 42 other students involved, you start to judge EVERYONE. Including yourself. “Ooh nice shoes, oh she looks fit, why didn’t I think of bringing a smoothie, she seems confident, wait, how do they already know each other….did I miss a class?”
We were asked to wait out in the lobby until the students in the class before us left. The start of our teacher’s training was a Vinyasa Power Class (start easy, hey?) open to the public as well. Bernie, an experienced teacher at Semperviva, led us through several heated vinyasas, and a great, humor-filled class. At one point in the flow, he actually said, “Now traditionally you insert a handstand here, but maybe we’ll skip it today…” THANK GOODNESS. No pointing and laughing at Sarah for today. I remember laying in savasana thinking….maybe I can actually do this.
The non-teacher training folk left, and we moved up closer to the front. Gloria, the founder of Semperviva Yoga, and head faculty welcomed us to training. (http://glorialatham.com/) This training, she said, is going to change your life. We will develop skills that will aid us in everything we do. It’s not so much about the physical practice, but the internal changes that happen. It’s not academic. Come to class, do the work, and it will happen naturally. “You can’t ‘ace’ yoga.” Listening to Gloria speak is hypnotic. She has so much wisdom and life to share, you find yourself entranced by every word. Her thoughts have been the highlight of the training so far.
We picked up name tags, books and made our way into a small circle for meditation and introductions. So many names to remember, but everyone seems so earnest and exciting. Many already have some background in yoga, having done RMT or physiotherapy training. Lucky!
That’s about all that happened the first night. I left feeling energized and hopeful, dreaming of a yoga filled life for the next 3 months.
Friday, Saturday and Sunday all included a hatha class, and pose breakdowns. So far we’ve learned Tadasana, Uttanasana, Plank, Lower Plank and Cobra. Enough for a half sun salutation.
The thing that’s hit me the hardest so far are the people. EVERY single trainee is so welcoming and lovely. They remember your name, they ask you questions, and they really want to get to know you. AND THEY ARE SO SMART. I hope I get to know every single one of them better, and even create a few life long friends. 🙂
Yoga Teacher Training at Semperviva requires 40 days of meditation. We are doing Sat Kriya, and Kundalini style meditation, for 11 minutes. My arms burn, my feet go numb, and holy cow, it sucks all around. I don’t know how I’m going to get through it for 40 days.
We chant Sat Nam for 11 minutes, squeezing the arms above the head. With the Sat you tuck your belly button in and up towards your spine, with the Nam you allow your belly to release. Try it for a couple rounds. I promise you…this is uncomfortable.
We meditate to begin the release from samskara. Samskaras are the patterns we build in our life. The way we continuously react to stressful situations the same way. By meditating, we can examine the way we respond to an uncomfortable spot, and start to respond only by embracing the breath and the mantra. Hopefully by practicing in a safe space in my apartment I can take this out into the world with me.
Yoga is based so much on ‘feelings’ and ‘ancient wisdom,’ a lot of people are calling it a trend, with >some even saying that yoga is WRECKING your body. However, the science doesn’t lie: yoga heals. Every (optimism, yay!) Sunday I’m going to try and post a new article about ACTUAL SCIENCE and yoga.
Post #1- Ujjayi breath and Post-traumatic Stress Disorder
Effects of a yoga breath intervention alone and in combination with an exposure therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder and depression in survivors of the 2004 South-East Asia tsunami
Descilo T, Vedamurtachar A, Gerbarg PL, Nagaraja D, Gangadhar BN, Damodaran B, Adelson B, Braslow LH, Marcus S, Brown R
2009 from Journal of Psychiatry- Scandinavia
Ujjayi breath is common in all lineages of yoga. It’s the constriction of the throat to create that smooth, ocean like breath. It’s designed to generate heat in your body during practice. It’s often thought of as ‘fogging up a mirror’ making a HAAAAAA sound. (still don’t get it? think of Darth Vader breathing.) To me, it’s one of the most calming sounds during a yoga class. Any practicing yogis will be able to attest to the calmness and slowing heartbeat that accompanies turning on their ujjayi breath on or off the mat.
In this study, the researchers sought to lessen the effects of PTSD on survivors of the 2004 South-East Asia tsunami. Subjects, who were living in 3 different refugee camps, were given the PCL-17 test, which asks survivors a series of questions to determine whether they are experience PTSD symptoms. An example would be “How many times in the past month have you been bothered by repeating images/thoughts/feelings of (X stressful event)?” Once they were classified as being affected by PTSD, they were given one of three treatments: Breath, Water, Sound (Ujjayi and other breathing excercises), BWS in addition to an exposure therapy intervention (which walks patients through the events leading up to the tsunami, focusing on the loss of loved ones, loss of property, and their current stressful situation or life as a refugee), or a 6 week ‘wait-list’ control group. Whew, that’s a lot of method. Still with me?
Subjects given the BWS treatment took a 8 hour class on how to use ujjayi breath and ‘bellowing breath’ to de-stress. The 20 minute exercise was to be repeated once each day, and subjects were asked to attend a group meeting once a week to find support, and strengthen their breathing technique. Because of the chaos found in a refugee camp, it’s difficult to do follow up on each subject, and the test relied on anecdotes from the group sessions to get some idea on how many subjects adhered to the exercises. While efficacy levels were not high (about 20% continued with it to the end), some patients did come back each week, even bringing friends to try it out.
Levels of PTSD (as evaluated on the PCL-17 test) were re-tested at six weeks and twenty-four weeks after the initial treatment began. Both the subjects receiving solely the BWS, as well as the those receiving both BWS and exposure therapy intervention experienced a average 60% decrease in PTSD symptoms, compared with a 7% decrease in the control group. It’s an impressive result!
If simply breathing can help assuage some of the stress of losing a loved one, think about the benefits you could see in your daily life. Take some time to practice your ujjayi breath each day, especially in the middle of stress, such as a busy day at work, or dealing with some bad news.
Have you felt any benefits from ujjayi breath in your practice or meditation?
blue muscles are contracting, red muscles are stretching
PS. the picture is from our anatomy textbook which is based of The Daily Bandha website. Check it out if you already haven’t!
From Tadasana (Mountain Pose):
Inhale your arms up over your head, stretching tall through the spine, shoulders relaxed.
Swan dive over your legs, bending from the waist.
Engage your yoga core, pull up through the pelvic floor and elongate your back.
Bend your knees so that your stomach can rest on your lower thighs.
Let your hands rest on the mat in front of your feet, or reach for opposite elbows to release any lower back tension. Shrug your shoulders up and then away from your ears.
Inhale and stretch your spine out through the top of your head.
Exhale and fold over more deeply, straightening your legs to feel a stretch in the hamstrings, while maintaining the integrity of your lower back.
Breathe, and relax.
To come out of the posture, inhale, place your hands on your waist. Exhale, and with a flat back rise to standing. Lower your arms, drop your shoulders and breathe in mountain pose.
Tada! Tadasana!
…. 1% of the body getting 99% of the loooooove.
Today I dragged my cold, tired body to One Yoga for the People. Located downtown just east of Cambie, this beautiful and low-key studio hosted Eoin Finn for a 90 minute Vinyasa class. An Eoin Finn class has been on my bucket list for a couple years now, since I discovered the Blissology Project.
And yes, he lives in Tofino...
I was blown away. After a ton of shuffling to get everyone in to the class (I’ve never had less space for my mat), Eoin called us to the front of the class. Get close. Real close. We were asked to take our intentions for 2012 (being the conscious yogis we all are) in our right hand, and hold out the palm of our left. Then we started sprinkling our intentions into the outstretched left hand. “You’re making an intention joint,” said Eoin. This was Gastown style yoga. Roll it up tight, and inhale deeply. Deeper, deeper, now hold it. The outburst of laughter set the tone for the rest of the class, that moved to make you leave happier than when you came.
A sweaty class consisting of some warm up vinyasas (doing our part to offset global warming, by using our bodies to create the heat), lots of hips, twists, IT band love and some core work, I wanted to hang on to every part of it. When Eoin stated that the most important prop is “not your mat, but your journal,” I vigorously nodded my head. It was real, and inspiring, and uplifting. I sat on my phone all the way home trying to type out everything I remembered to savor for later.
Eoin Finn is teaching at One Yoga for the People again on February 15th and 22nd. Check out his classes at the One Yoga for the People website.
Oh....just like that...okay!
Excitement. Panic. Self Doubt. Anticipation. In thinking forward to the start of my official training I’ve experienced it all. The overwhelming question: What if I’m not good enough?
The re-occurring nightmare over the past few weeks:
“Welcome to teaching training. Please get into handstand for the next 15 minutes. Girl in the back….you clearly can’t do this…please leave.”
Even worse is the actual first assignment of training:
“What is yoga?”
As I wrote about last week (here ) I’m not sure what yoga is becoming anymore. What is REAL yoga? Or what does Semperviva feel is REAL yoga? As a girl used to citing the mating crosses of worms in her writing, my Bachelor of Science is not helping me in BSing any answers.
I. can. do. this. I. WILL. do. this. 🙂
I’ve been called back to blogging for a few reasons. One, I have the time now. Two, I start teacher training in a couple weeks at Semperviva Teacher College, and I am just off the wall excited and scared. Three, I have something to say.
Why do we practice yoga?
Lately it seems like yogis are getting a bum rap from the rest of the world. We are whiny, spaced out and materialistic. The most important part of our practice is what we wear to it. If I had a nickel for the number of times I’ve heard the rather pointed: “I can’t afford yoga,” I would BE able to afford yoga. Recently my manager told me to be “more zen….like all that yoga you do.” I was a little insulted. And, I had to stop to think about why. Why does it matter so much to me what everyone else thinks about yoga?
I strive to practice authentically.
I think there is a lot to be said for the various benefits of a consistent yoga practice. When I am involved in yoga I honestly feel more myself, and that I make better decisions in my life. For me this might not mean being ‘zen’. The ‘real me’ is driven and passionate, and doesn’t just go with the flow, which is something yoga helps me realize, and balance, but not eliminate. My body is happier, and physically sore for the right reasons. Yoga may be trendy, and this is definitely evident in Vancouver, but its based off of principles thousands of years old. Its an ever-evolving animal, and regardless of my feelings for the current kombucha drinking followers, I honestly believe that yoga will be around for a long time.
So I’m currently searching for the nuggets of realness found in yoga. I’ve been doing a lot of reading on Hinduism, and I think the spirituality found in a meditation is one of the most important parts to stay true to. BUT, it’s any level of spirituality that’s important, regardless of how each person embodies that principle. Yoga is not a religion, it’s not a cult and it shouldn’t be solely valued as a workout regime.
It’s with this understanding that I am embarking on a lifetime long journey of teacher training. I can’t wait.
thesearchforananda 