Eclectic Yoga

I like to dabble around with different yoga teachers and styles. I'm not into sticking to one thing and calling it the best. With just about everything, there are tons of different styles and techniques. People like to latch on to one and call that the best while putting down all the others. There is no perfect yoga style and there is no perfect yoga teacher. That's why I love to learn what I can from as many people as possible and then put together my favorite elements of each.

I don't like labeling one style or the other as the best because different styles are good for different people. Ashtanga yoga caught my attention because it's very high energy and vigorous, which is great to help pull me off of the couch or out of bed. Someone in my teacher training just gave a presentation on yoga for eating disorders. Ashtanga would be terrible for them because they already overexercise and need a calm, quiet, slow yoga practice.

As I was setting up my yoga class at work (before I started teaching it), someone asked me what style I'm teaching. I stumbled to figure out how to describe it. I had never thought of how to label it. I guess "hatha flow" can describe it in a very broad way to answer the question.

The yoga teacher training that I'm nearly finished with is taught by Iyengar teachers, but it's not an Iyengar training. They admit their bias, but embrace all styles. I really like that a lot. There's no need for style rivalry in yoga, but it happens all the time. Of course all of their teaching is based on Iyengar, since that's what they know, but it's great that they don't try to force their bias onto their students.

My practice has always been vinyasa flow. It's been Ashtanga and Ashtanga-based vinyasa for the last 8 months, and I love it. Ashtanga is what you do when you outgrow "regular vinyasa" and are ready for something deeper and harder.

This is why I wrote my thesis paper for yoga school about Ashtanga yoga. It was my way of bridging my personal practice with my teacher training. I was struggling to learn as much as I could about Ashtanga on my own while learning all about Iyengar yoga.

So now I'm starting to learn a bit of Anusara yoga. It started with a 4 part workshop on assisting in yoga poses. That's something that isn't covered by the teacher training, and I think it's an important skill for a yoga teacher to have. It was taught by an Anusara teacher, so naturally he taught it from an Anusara perspective. I really enjoyed the class and am comfortable adjusting students now. I still feel a little awkward adjusting men, especially at work, but I'll have to get over that.

Awesome Yoga/Massage Weekend

Yesterday was a really awesome day.

It began with Ken's last yoga class at Yoga Shala. I enjoyed the class as always, but we were all sad that he's leaving. After class on Thursday Ken said that I need to work on my chaturangas because I was dipping my shoulders down and sticky my back end up too high. I knew I was doing that, but for some reason it hit me more when he mentioned it, so I focused on that during every vinyasa on Saturday, feeling like I was doing chaturanga in slow motion to try to do it correctly, and he said I was stick straight. Yay! It's very important to get that right because I do a lot of vinyasas, and dipping my shoulders down could hurt my rotater cuffs.

Immediately after that I had a deep-tissue massage that was wonderful. I was still a little sore from Thursday's class when I went back for more, so she worked on my sore areas a lot. It really is neat to have a massage therapist working on my sore limbs because I've been working them hard than on a sore back like they used to.

Then, I went straight to the Synergy Studio to catch the end of Judith Lasater's Restorative Yoga workshop. She's a neat lady, and a famous yoga teacher, so I'm glad I was able to participate in part of the workshop. Restorative yoga is very prop heavy. Some teachers feel nervous without props, but props tend to annoy me. It was a good experience and I learned a bit about Savasana, but it was just alright for me. I also got a cute picture and a signed book out of it. :) Now I have 2 books signed by famous yoga teachers. That's pretty neat.



Today I'm on a yoga high. I decided to try out something new and different for my lunchtime yoga class. One cool thing about teaching yoga is that I get to be creative. My classes are Ashtanga-based, but not Ashtanga because most of the students are beginners, so true Ashtanga would be too much for them (they're still too much for me at this point), and I like saving the room to be creative and improvise.

I have this poster from Matthew Sweeney hanging on my wall for decoration, so I decided to use it as a reference too. I don't know the Moon Salutations at all, and I've practiced them once in a class several months ago, so I decided to start with Chandra Namaskara A, so I don't overwhelm myself trying to learn something and then teach it in one day. Because I love being creative and my body just felt like doing certain things as I practiced Chandra Namaskara A over and over again. I decided to throw in some of my own variations to tomorrow's class. So here I am, trying to learn something new and teach it with variations tossed in at logical spots. I might be a little too excited.

Here's the lesson plan for the Chandra Namaskara A.

Chandra Namaskara A
Sitting on feet (like virasana but sitting on feet) (up to 10 minutes)
Engage your bandhas and begin ujjayi breathing
Exhale Extended Child’s pose (come to the pose to rest any time you need to)
Inhale all fours (spread hands, legs hip width apart)
Exhale Downward-facing dog
Inhale all fours
Exhale Extended Child’s pose
Inhale up on knees like camel

(Variations are in parentheses, add to 2nd round)
Exhale sit on feet for 5 breaths (half-moon side leans)
Inhale all fours (5 cycles of cat/cow)
Exhale downward-facing dog for 5 breaths
Inhale all fours
Exhale Extended child’s pose
Inhale up on knees like camel for 5 breaths (or camel pose)
Exhale+Inhale Sitting on feet
Exhale Extended child’s pose for 5 breaths
Inhale Sitting on feet for 5 breaths


I did all this because I should be writing up my practicum report, and making asana sheets for yoga school, and I'm procrastinating.

I've also been really into my essential oils and aromatherapy, spending the last week reading all about them and experimenting on myself and my friends. I mixed up an aromatherapy blend for tomorrow's yoga class. Since the class should be both relaxing and energizing, I mixed a blend of relaxing and energizing essential oils, lemon, lavender, mint, eucalyptus, and orange. Brad says, "So a little bit of everything?" and I protest, "No, a little bit of a bunch of certain things, every oil has a purpose!"

The raid in WoW is about to begin, but I'm skipping it tonight to work on my yoga class for tomorrow. I think I'm also going to add music. Oops skipping WoW because I'm too excited about yoga isn't very balanced of me. :-D

Green Smoothie and Blender Soup

I went to a yoga workshop taught by Doug Swenson. He's a big name in the yoga world, and I got him to sign my book! Anyway he gave some nutrition advice that I've been trying.



Green Smoothie

This is actually really yummy! You put a banana, apple, orange, and spinach in the blender. You don't have to add any liquid because the orange and apple are juicy. You can also put in strawberries, blueberries, whatever you want... Spinach doesn't have a strong flavor, so you don't taste it at all, and no one at work will steal your smoothie from the fridge!

The other idea is blender vegetable soup. I've been working at making this one taste good, that's a bit more challenging. I put broccoli, carrots, and onion into a blender with hot water. That was very bland and not very yummy. I didn't want to give up, so I tossed in some vegetable beef soup at hand, still pretty bland. Then I added some rosemary and garlic. That made it a little more edible, but still not great. I gave up for the day and left it in the fridge overnight. After that it was a lot better. All the flavors had time to blend. Finally I put a little Almond milk in there and it was yummy! Next time I'm going to put tomato in there too. I think that will make a big difference.