These last few days
These last few days have been so full. I taught Restorative Yoga at Still on Thursday with the theme of "Autumn Equinox" and of the full Harvest Moon. I encouraged class to look back on their year and to use this day where the light and the dark are even, to honor where they are and where they want to go To look at all that we have harvested and see where we want to go next.
We alternated our poses between heart openers and prone poses; between opening up to the dark and bowing down to the dark:
*"Lazy Boy Pose" (supported back with a bolster held by two blocks, one block higher than the other so the bolster is at an incline).
*Prone pose with a rolled blanket right under the groin area.
*Supported heart opener- with a rolled blanket vertically placed under the spine
*Savasana
Solana was assisting me and she was intuitive and gentle in her adjusting people. Her parents came to class which was so sweet! There was a lot of personal attention to everyone in the room, which restorative class really allows you to do. Teaching Restorative really feels like you are teaching a private to everyone in the room. For some reason class felt really cohesive and connected.
Then yesterday I took Shari Goodhartz's class at Black Dog. Shari has been my friend for a very long time and a great teacher. She teaches Mixed Level classes as well as Restorative yoga for many many years. She is also a Sanskrit scholar and one of the most fiercely intelligent people you'll ever meet. She taught about Prana and how Prana is food to our bodies; That is, each breath feeds us. Each time we align we feed our energy. Each ray of sunlight feeds us... It was poetic, powerful, inspiring. Shari pays great attention to alignment and is incredibly passionate to helping her students. She inspires me to become even more clear in my teachings.
Lastly, I taught last night for the Teacher Training. The theme was kula which is Sanskrit for "community." Kula comes from the root kul which means, "to group together." And it can mean a yoga class, a family, a flock, a community of people who come together, not because they should but because they want to. Kula can even mean our own bodies, the community of our own bodies made up of our 206 bones, over 600 muscles and thousands upon thousands of nadis carrying our prana.
We focused on seated poses, forward bends, hip opener and supine poses. I had everyone get up and teach so that we really had a communal class. I told them to think of when they teach the poses as the sound of "Om"; that is, every pose has a beginning, a middle and an end, and a silence afterwards, which is those moments in class when we allow our students to reflect on what they just did.
I told my students to think of each pose as an "Om".
That is:
Creation: create the pose, tell them what to do, where to put their legs, their arms, their spine, etc.
Sustenance: sustain the pose using breath and teaching them how to engage and sustain.
Dissolution: and lastly dissolve the pose gracefully using the breath.
It helps to have a formula when teaching.
We finished with a 12 minute long Savasana.
I adjusted every single one and when the training ended I lay down on the floor with my eyes closed for a moment and several of the students came over and adjusted me! It was so sweet and unexpected. They are so lovely. I can't wait to be in their classes one day.
Thank you so much for your kind words and support, Maria!
I especially loved hearing how your teacher trainees came over to you and made adjustments to your own savasana at the end of your session. Sukhi premal! Sweet love...
Reply to this
This topic is so soothing that just reading this post calmed down. I'd love to get into some restorative yoga classes, but I don't have the money right now and don't have a local place to do it. Maybe I'll get lucky and find a coupon for one sometime soon! Thanks for the post.
-Jennifer W.
Reply to this