10,000 Vinyasas

Because of sweaty conditions, this morning in Lisa Long’s Mysore practice I got myself into Garbha Pindasana today without help. Couldn’t do much with it but roll backwards a few times, but still…my right knee is still preventing me from taking the full Marichyasana D, but I’m ok with that. I can usually take the full Padmasana in the correct order (right before left), but some of the other poses (Janusirsana C comes to mind) are still limited. I am looking forward to studying with Manju Jois, a teacher my original teacher referenced many times.  Further progress is also noted in acro-yoga, where my kickovers without help are more consistent.  Hoping to take more of Mike Matthews in the near future.  An odd event:  my attendance at Mysore the other day resulted in my being given a number of Second Series poses.  I have to wonder about that;  I don’t feel that I’ve  “mastered” Primary Series, although I grant that I can do a passable version of most of the poses.  So, what really is the standard for moving on, I wonder?

I think the shoulder is completely healed, a combination of rehabilitation (Airrosti) and me being careful in practice.  At any rate, we did 3 kickovers in a row at acro today without issue, and I believe it’s time to move on.  Anticipating tomorrow’s practice with hope and enthusiasm. A death in the family this week caused me to miss some practice, and I was especially glad to get back to it; it feels like your body truly needs this and suffers when it is not available. Teaching notes:  I am starting my fourth weekly class tomorrow, and intend for it to be a more vinyasa-style class, in the vein of what my original teacher used to teach.  I continue to sub a different class at least once a week, which keeps things fresh and at the same time makes me appreciate my “regulars.”  One of the unanticipated pleasures of teaching is watching people make progress.  I imagine some of them may not even notice the slow but steady progress, but when you look at the group as a whole and compare them to the students in a subbed class, the difference is noticeable.

Well, I was kind of joking a few posts ago about the “sweatiest practice ever,” but I think yesterday’s return to my Saturday led Primary Series really was, in fact, if not the sweatiest, then certainly up in the top three. Also noted that this practice was done on perhaps the hottest day of the year here. At any rate, brought one of my students along to help him experience a different teacher and environment; he acquitted himself well.  My shoulder has almost completely healed, and I did not aggravate it yesterday by jumping back (I am doing this with more awareness now, so I think we can continue without fear of further injury). I had missed the led Primary class quite a bit, and despite some normal difficulties, got through it with a sense of serenity and peacefulness.  Looking forward to getting back into more practice, although I may have to attend to my “other” job more than usual this week. In other news, I have picked up a new class at the gym on Saturday mornings, and am scheduled to sub for a teacher at the gymnastics center not far from the house.  Acro has been going well, also (pictures to be posted).

I have noticed, probably without thinking much about it, that I have recently developed a weakness in my left shoulder, manifesting itself in pain when jumping back into chaturanga.  When we resumed acro-yoga this week, I was doing a kickover when I felt a searing pain in the front of the shoulder.  I immediately attended to it, and was actually able to do a regular practice of handstands, but the pain has really prevented me from doing my usual yoga practice, and in some of the classes I’ve taught this week, I most obviously cannot jump back in the normal manner. I discovered today that one of the issues was my left hand coming slightly off the floor when jumping back, and consciously planting that hand eliminated the pain. Further healing seems necessary, though, and I have decided to forgo my usual led Primary Series tomorrow and Mysore practice on Sunday.  I can do some of my personal practice without straining the shoulder, and my teaching job at the gym enables me to take some rehabilitation without cost, so I have an appointment Monday for some of that. It’s a little discouraging, but I do have a history of using injuries in a positive way, to develop other skills or parts of my body. For acro specifically, we are working on extending my handstands by quite a bit, and that is developing my endurance.  I am also emphasizing more of my splits, which are already almost developed, but need a little extra attention.  It was kind of upsetting to have to teach in pain this morning after I strained the shoulder again (couldn’t help demonstrating something I shouldn’t), but I do think acro-yoga does slightly help the injury, since the alignment is fixed and the shoulder is worked in that position. Sorry to be so self-centered in this post, but I think it’s valuable to record some of my responses to adversity in addition to the positive ones (which, by the way, outnumber the negative exponentially).

Well, last week I ended up teaching twelve classes, ranging in size from one (twice) to twenty-five. I taught full Primary Series twice, an advanced Ashtanga class with Second Series variations, and several basic or introductory classes. Far from being tedious or tiring, I found this experience to be educational, enlightening and just plain fun! I remember when I first started teaching and was trying to teach three or four classes a week; at that point, it just seemed almost too much, although admittedly some of the classes were not scheduled at convenient times and locations. Seems clear that I’ve come a long way in my teaching progress, and yet I do understand with quite a bit of clarity that it is really important to be able to continue practicing if you teach yoga. Your teaching should be an evolving process, and that can only come through a continuing yoga practice, which is also changing as you learn and move deeper. I have been gradually moving back towards Ashtanga in my yoga practice over the last few months, and I am happy with how that’s going, although the aches and pains of body parts occasionally require my attention. I am working on rehabilitating my knees, and hoping to get back to the correct form of padmasana (I have to draw the left foot in first right now), but I am also trying to remove myself from expectations about this practice and just enjoy the moving meditation.

This week’s schedule calls for only one extra class for me to teach, so I am getting a break, I guess. Hoping to get all three sessions of acro-yoga in before next week; we won’t be practicing for a couple of weeks after.

Well, as of yesterday, I’m officially done with teacher training, following a brief and painless meeting with our trainer. I note that this certification has really very little to do with how good a yoga teacher one is, and it was only for the value of the credential that I undertook to obtain it. It was the only ambition that I had regarding my yoga practice, and now it is over. Seems that I can now consider teaching at resorts in exchange for free or reduced stays, which would be interesting, I guess. I did actually learn some new stuff during this training, and I enjoyed getting to know many of the trainees (“yoga brings people together”). Despite the above, I did feel an unexpected sense of accomplishment when I exited from the meeting yesterday. Not that I’m looking to expand my teaching much at this point; my “other” job has been busy and I also have many other interests and projects that take up time. Nonetheless, I get enormous gratification from teaching people yoga, and my life would be quite empty without it. Sure, it sometimes infringes on practice time, but the psychological benefits are tremendous. That was one point of agreement I had with our trainer.
(practice notes) I’ve been doing more Ashtanga, both on my own, and in led classes lately. The style really is cathartic; it burns away mental impurities and leaves me feeling relaxed and joyful for the rest of the day. At the same time, it’s challenging enough to retain my interest and record my progress, at least in my head. I’m picking up a lot of good practice tips from Lisa Long’s led class. Oh, and acro’s going well too.

Well, I’m continuing to make more progress in acro-yoga. My handstands have a lot more control, and my drop-overs are getting better. I’m almost ready to do kickovers by myself; I only need a tiny push to get airborne, most of the time. On the other hand, I’m having some knee pain, and I suspect that it has to do with my lack of cardio activity; a muscle imbalance my have formed, is what it feels like. At any rate, I have a month of Kundalini classes at a local studio, and so I think I will take this opportunity to get more experience with this style of yoga.

I’ve progressed to the point in my drop-backs (into backbend) that Vladimir now refuses to “assist” me anymore…yay! I’ve never actually gotten to that point in anything I’ve attempted in acro-yoga, so it feels nice to master a skill like this, even though I do recognize that I could do a lot more to improve my form, and I will, of course. It seems to me an amazing accomplishment, since I had so little ability when I started, and it took a loooooong time. I’m learning, though, that some of the more advanced poses and sequences in yoga may take quite some time to master, and this process is just normal. I’m really trying to move away from being so result-oriented in this activity, and I think I get more serenity that way. It’s difiicult not to envy someone who can easily do what you struggle to accomplish, but remembering that no one’s practice is perfect, and that even your teachers struggle with poses, gives one more serenity. A report on the David Swenson workshop is upcoming…

My drop-backs and stand-ups into backbend are becoming more and more consistent, to the point that Vladimir remarked the other day that I really didn’t need him to assist me anymore…yay! I’m still not as confident as I’d like to be, but the intensive practice has really made a difference. My splits are all the way to the floor, at least on my right side, and some days, on my left. How this could happen is quite beyond me, but there you go. I’m loving my yoga practice a whole lot these days. In addition, I’ve really gotten the hang of jumping forwards and back (it’s called lifting the hips up high in the air as you jump forward), and I’m working on smoothing that out as much as I can. Pursuing this further, I’m trying to bring grace and deliberateness to my practice, especially Suryanamascar. Tomorrow I’ll be practicing at San Antonio Yoga with Lisa Long, someone I’ve wanted to take more classes from, but her schedule is not conducive. Anyway, that’s all the news that’s fit to print.

(Update) Had a most enjoyable Primary Series practice with Lisa on Saturday. I suppose the temperature had something to do with it; it was warm enough to sweat, but not hot enough to cause me to start paying too much attention to it. My stress level decreases drastically when I have a more optimum temperature, something I do believe I’ve remarked about before. Oh, yes, and Lisa was wonderful…

We’ve kinda taken acro-yoga off for the summer, but in the last week, we’ve been able to practice again, and I realize how much I enjoy doing this. The intensity, the physical closeness, the expertise, it’s all a very large part of my life. I have remarked before on how fragile, unique and transitory I think this particular “thing” is, and that, to me, is part of the beauty of it. We all enjoy it, and we all are enthusiastic, and yet, I can’t help thinking of how easily it would fall apart. So, for now, it’s enough to say that I had a really good practice, and love to all my friends who were there.

I’ve arrived! Something that I’ve thought about for a long time, but never really aimed for, has come to me: I’ve been asked to teach the Saturday morning vinyasa class at Yoga Shala, starting in August. This is especially meaningful for me because I used to attend this class religiously when my teacher Ken led it, not to mention that I believe, with quite a bit of justification, that Yoga Shala is the premier yoga studio in San Antonio. Quite an honor. Everyone has been so nice and supportive, and although it will be a challenge, it’s something that will both fit my schedule and give me an extra dimension to my teaching. Thank you, Ana, for giving me this chance! In other news, I will be teaching yoga at Lululemon on Saturday, July 17, as part of their “Spectrum Rogers Ranch” month. I’ve always wondered what that would be like, so I guess now I’ll find out.

This causes me to reflect, again, on how I got here. It’s interesting to me that my approach to yoga (well, this implies some intention that perhaps I didn’t have) was just to do more and more, and be open to expanding my knowledge by taking whatever workshops and classes I was attracted to (and there were many). I really didn’t think much about “goals” or direction of any kind; I just did whatever I could to enhance my yoga practice. I’m still amazed at the places yoga has taken me: teaching yoga on tv, teaching yoga in general, acro-yoga, Lululemon, and everything else that has happened. It’s so different from the rest of my life (yes, I know I’ve said that before, but still); everything planned out and set in concrete. I suppose that’s what a second career should be: fun and without all the ambition and purpose (and anxiety) that drives you at the beginning of your first career. I have no idea where else yoga is going to take me, and that’s part of the mystery and fun of the practice.

This is a post on why I don’t like using walls to teach headstands and handstands. First of all, I understand that instructors may be kind of forced into using a wall if they have a large class and that’s really the only feasible way to get everybody involved, as opposed to working one on one. I still believe, though, that the wall has some significant disadvantages, leading to a lack of success among people trying to attain these difficult inversions. I also suspect that many instructors lack the technical expertise to actually teach the correct forms of these poses (through no fault of their own, of course; it seems like there’s a lack of expertise in this area of yoga generally). That being said, the first objection I have to using the wall is that it encourages people to “kick up” into head and handstand. This kind of sudden movement into an inversion is undesirable, since it creates some (perhaps too much!) momentum which must then be countered with opposing momentum (read: movement) resulting in greater difficulty in setting down into the pose and attaining the correct form. Inversions and all forms of balancing in yoga should be approached with slow steadiness rather than sudden movements, which cause loss of control and falling over. Second and most important, using the wall the way it’s taught most of time, i.e, with placing the hands or arms two or more feet away from the wall, encourages arching of the back as the leg or legs go up. I’ve seen this so, so many times in yoga classes: student kicks up into wall, tries to straighten legs or bring legs away from wall, but the arched back almost immediately compels student to come right back down. Let me say this clearly: it is impossible to attain stability in head or handstand with an arched back. The back must be straight and flat. It’s just so much more difficult to come into the proper form if you’re already up there with your back in the wrong position. Some women, with their greater control over their musculature, have little difficulty kicking up into headstand, but I believe in the Iyengar method of walking the feet up towards the hips until the toes come off the floor, bending the knees and holding there until you feel comfortable enough to slowly straighten the legs. Teaching handstand almost requires you to assist a student one at a time, so you can hold/adjust them into the proper position. Well,that’s it. I’d sure like to hear from more experienced people about whether they agree with my views on this.