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Interview with Carlos, Part 3

What to look for in a yoga teacher.

What to look for in a yoga teacher, By Cara Butler

In this final instalment of conversations with my teacher, Carlos Pomeda, I asked what advice he would give someone seeking a ‘Teacher’ or ‘Guru’ in these modern yoga times.

Witnessing so many schools and lineages of yoga facing serious allegations and having terrible abuse exposed, I believe that discernment of your teacher is something to take very seriously!

With SO many yoga trainings on offer, with huge variance in quality and substance, and SO many people taking the ‘seat of the teacher’ within our local communities, regardless of their level of education or experience, I believe now more than ever we should be empowering students to seek out teachers who are authentic and adept.

Carlos

“For me I think we are all going to be attracted to teachers that we resonate with, which is normal. So eventually everything sorts itself out. But if I had to look for a teacher, what I would be looking for is two things……

One is ‘insight’. I am always saying that I am not impressed by intellectual knowledge because if you can read (Carlos laughs) you can read the same books as somebody else. Of course intellectual knowledge is valuable but I’m not impressed by that, what I’m really impressed by is the insight, because insight only comes with day in and day out engagement with the practices, by ‘walking the talk’. So that’s what I always look for.

As a matter of fact the people that inspire me are the people who ‘walk the talk’ and that only comes with time and dedication. So that is what I would look for primarily.

And the second thing is, don’t be concerned with appearances. Appearances can be deceiving in both directions. Somebody might look like ‘that’s just a normal person?’ because we are looking for something exotic so if someone looks ‘normal’ it’s ‘no i want the turban and the beard’…… So don’t be deceived by that.

Or the other way, if somebody looks the part ‘Oh they are so holy’ and they sit themselves above everybody else. Don’t look for that!

Look as much as possible at…. ‘Are they happy?’……‘Do they love?’

To me those are the things that I would look for because there are so many teachers, preachers and spiritual figures that are able to give wonderful speeches and rile people up with emotion and so on but then the session ends and they go to their room to dwell in their own depression. It is not a problem they are experiencing depression but that they are not being honest about what they are experiencing.

So what is the quality of their inner life? That is not always so easy to tell of someone you don’t know. But I think it was Jack Kornfield who said ‘You wanna know if somebodys enlightened?…. Ask their family’. That’s the relevance and I really think that’s good advice to see how they live because you can’t fake that.

So that’s what I would look for, that to me speaks of the level to which you have assimilated the teachings of yoga, really made them yours, not just hold them as some ideals.

So those would be for me, the 2 main features I would always look for in a teacher.”

So there, in a nutshell, Carlos has explained to you exactly why I regard him as one of my greatest teachers.

Carlos has deep insight, over and above his high level of intellectual knowledge, he also has authentic insight gained through a lifetime of profound and committed meditation practice.

And secondly because Carlos is a teacher who sits ‘with’ you, never ‘above’ you. Carlos absolutely has the qualifications to take the ‘seat of the teacher’, supported on a foundation of serious study, committed practice, lived experience and deep insight. But rather than distancing himself from those he teaches, with a beaming smile and joyous laugh he considers we are all on this road together.

And I LOVE that he is not afraid to admit he finds Donald Trump as insulting as I do. He takes no claim to be holier than thou often telling people “Look you wanna know my foibles ask my wife, she will give you the full story (laughing), for me the joy is to share and I think that we can really enjoy that sharing without sitting higher than anybody else”.

I can think of no better way to end this series of ‘Conversations with Carlos’ than with this nugget of wisdom……. Thank You dear teacher.

Carlos

“I feel such gratitude for the yoga as it has given meaning to my life. I was a teenager when I started and therefore it gives me great joy to just share whatever little I see and experience to share with others and walk together.”

If you are interested in online study options with Carlos check out his website Carlos Pomeda and from the following links

– https://vimeo.com/pomeda

– https://app.ubindi.com/Carlos.Pomeda

– https://yogainternational.com/profile/carlos-pomeda-eng

Carlos is also presenting virtually at the upcoming Hauora Yoga Conference on November 7th 2021, you can book your attendance with confidence here.

Life’s too short to shy away from the big topics….

Cara Butler previous editor of the Yoga Lunchbox, teacher, ex studio owner and longtime student of yoga.

We love to hear from our readers so if you have any questions or feedback about this or any other of our articles please email the Yoga Lunchbox Veronica, [email protected]

Interview with Carlos, Part 3 published first on https://yogiprakash.weebly.com/

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denversanches · 3 years

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Conversations with Carlos – Part 2

Yoga and our susceptibility to algorithms and manipulation via social media

By Cara Butler.

Carlos does not shy away from challenging topics and in fact considers it a part of his yoga practice to stay engaged, educated and involved in societal and global issues. Even when it would be easier to turn inward and ignore the external chaos.

This is one of the reasons I hold Carlos in such high regard.

I have observed all too often in the yoga world that the teachings and practices are used by some to border on what I would call self-obsession. I resonated immediately with Carlos when he shared that part of our duty as yogi’s is to be an active and engaged member of the world we inhabit.

As Maya Angelou beautifully said ‘The truth is, no one of us can be free until everybody is free’.

Last time Carlos visited New Zealand to teach in 2017 he made a radical statement… he said something to the effect of ‘Donald Trump is currently my greatest teacher’….. Jaw dropping moment!

But very quickly (with a lot of laughter) he explained to the attending students that it was not because he felt that Trump was a good man by any means or that he was contributing anything of value to the political or global climate of the time but in fact the opposite… It was because we had HUGE lessons to learn about how such a man could have been voted into such a position of power. What lessons must be identified and learned from this?

So naturally one of my questions for Carlos was how he was currently feeling about his unlikely teacher, namely Donald Trump?

Carlos – “One of the great things is that he lost the election. I swear the challenge has diminished a lot because when you just have a normal person there, whether you agree with the politics or not, it’s not an issue, it’s not a challenge because it’s normal to have differences. But to see that constant example of mendacity, really just lying every single day, and corrupt behaviour as that is really corrosive and that was a challenge.

And I have to say still when I see him he pushes my buttons. So I think the challenge continues but it’s also an area where the bhagavad gita is really helpful for the same reason right, because having a higher awareness doesn’t change what appropriate action is on the day to day. Less of a challenge because he is out of office, a really big difference, but the issue still remains…. it‘s still the challenge when you find something that pushes your buttons and again I see it that way that life is trying to teach us something. This is the challenge for you and can you rise to the occasion?”

My personal concern around some of the behaviour I have witnessed in the global yoga community also extends to those that seem to endorse and engage in conspiracy theories and groups. I have also witnessed this in New Zealand first hand and it is something that I have no tolerance for and I’m keen to hear Carlos’ perspective on this……

Carlos – “It has been a huge, I have to say, disappointment really for me because it’s something that I have been studying for many years. The mechanisms of delusion. Because I think on the path it seems we are already pure consciousness, we are already the self, that’s not an issue, we don’t have to become the self. The issue really is fighting with the darkness. How do we eliminate the mechanisms of delusion in ourselves?

So that has occupied me for years and one of the things that I have noticed, in fairness not only people in the yoga or spirituality camp right, every single person in society now is prey to conspiracy theories, emotional manipulation, all these mechanisms, everybody.

But I do think that people in the yoga world or spirituality in general, unless they have trained themselves in the proper development of knowledge. Unless you have trained yourself you are very easy prey to misinformation. Since you are dealing with metaphysical things you already have an openness to believe in things that cannot be seen.

Of course when you look at the yoga tradition it was always supported by the strictest logic, the rules of logic. You couldn’t talk as a teacher, you couldn’t present anything if you didn’t follow the rules of logic, people would laugh you out of town, you wouldn’t survive. But in the modern yoga world that’s not the case, there is so much teaching out there that is just not rigorous intellectually and so I think one of the by-products of that is that many people just don’t have the discipline of looking at how do we build knowledge? And therefore they become really really easy targets for manipulation, misinformation and so on. And when you study all of our cognitive biases you realise how easy it is for example how as humans we tend to latch onto the bits of information that match our preconceived notions and we tend to block out the other. So all you need is ‘some guy’ on youtube telling you something and if it resonates with you…you say ‘SEE!’ Even though the person is just making it up!”

Thankyou Carlos – this is a voice of knowledge and guidance that I hope many in the yoga world come to hear.

Carlos – “Here’s the thing…. Social media has created a tremendous disparity of power. People are so naive about this right. I’ve been talking about these issues for 10 years about how social media stores all this information about you and you don’t even know what they have.

And when you talk to someone who is uninformed, they say ‘so…who cares?’.

‘Who cares?’…. They know they know more about you than you do yourself. I mean literally, this is not a figure of speech. Facebook has employed teams of psychologists to develop these algorithms and they know how to trigger you because they know stuff about you based on all your responses and all the little crumbs of information that you have left, that you may not even be aware about yourself.

So that’s how we got to all this manipulation, and the USA elections, I think the Russians have been manipulating public opinion in a really evil way, behind all these secessionist movements. Just today it came out in the press that the Russians have paid influencers in Europe trying to get them to speak against the Pfizer vaccine in their channels. When they followed who was behind this, it was a Russian organisation. So this is the problem, there is such an imbalance of power that we are all as humans subject to the same vulnerabilities in our cognitive processes, If you are not aware of those vulnerabilities it is all but hopeless. I don’t really blame people so much for falling for the manipulation, because the manipulation is very sophisticated. But I do blame people for remaining really addicted to social media. I separated myself from social media, occasionally I use it or I check something but very much on purpose. Because it is addictive by design and that’s therefore unhealthy. More and more social media seems to me like a parade of foolishness, not that people are fools but that the behaviour that goes on is foolish, and I see many yogis involved, people that should know better ideally.

And it’s a pity as social media could be wonderful, and it is in some ways.

Tim Cook, the apple guy, has it right. He realises we have created an internet that is a negative force, a destructive force, because it is based on selling people’s information. And frankly Facebook is in my view at the top of that, and in my view Zuckerberg has blood on his hands.”

It is here I discuss with Carlos my total agreement. Especially in all I observed and experienced as a result of the 2019 Christchurch Mosque attack which resulted in a political summit being initiated by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, ‘Christchurch Call to Action’, in an attempt to bring to an end the ability to use social media to organise and promote terrorism and violent extremism. And like Carlos I also hold out hope that this technology could be so helpful if regulated and the platform providers disempowered.

Carlos – “Sure, I would pay for a Facebook that I control, where I choose what I see and what I put on my feed. People don’t realise that what they see on the feed is not a natural thing, it is manipulation. So I would pay for a Facebook where I control it and because I love the ability to stay in touch with so many people, it’s fantastic!

If you are interested in online study options with Carlos check out his website Carlos Pomeda and from the following links

– https://vimeo.com/pomeda

– https://app.ubindi.com/Carlos.Pomeda

– https://yogainternational.com/profile/carlos-pomeda-eng

Carlos is also presenting virtually at the upcoming Hauora Yoga Conference on November 7th, you can book your attendance with confidence here.

Now I know we have only just got started and I promise there is SO much more to talk about with Carlos so please keep an eye out for the final conclusion of our conversation, Part 3 coming out soon.

Life’s too short to shy away from the big topics….

Cara Butler previous editor of the Yoga Lunchbox, teacher, ex studio owner and longtime student of yoga.

We love to hear from our readers so if you have any questions or feedback about this or any other of our articles please email the Yoga Lunchbox Veronica, [email protected]

Conversations with Carlos – Part 2 published first on https://yogiprakash.weebly.com/

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denversanches · 3 years

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Beginner’s Frequently Asked Questions about Yoga Answered

There are many frequently questions asked about yoga. The most common questions about yoga are like what is yoga? What is the philosophy of yoga? What is the main purpose of yoga? What are the main benefits of yoga?

In this ...

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denversanches · 3 years

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Conversations with Carlos – Part 1

by Cara Butler,

Once upon a time in Christchurch…. actually quite a long time ago….way before any earthquakes, way before I had kids, while I was still very much figuring out what I was doing back in New Zealand after a decade trying my best to stay away…. I somehow found myself a very novice yoga student attending classes in a very cold church hall with a very capable and intelligent teacher from the USA, Katie Lane.

Anyone who has had the pleasure of studying with Katie will know the high quality of teaching I was incredibly lucky to find in my first teacher and via the yellow pages of all things…. Yes it was even before smart phones and easy google searches!

Very early on in my time with Katie she brought out to New Zealand someone she referred to as her ‘Meditation & Philosophy teacher’ for a weekend workshop. I was very curious and desperate for distraction so I booked my space at the workshop with no more encouragement needed.

Hence how I came to study with Carlos Pomeda at the very beginning of my yoga journey. The workshop was held in a classroom at a local Primary School with a small group of curious people. Little did I know how lucky I was to have someone with so much knowledge, integrity and authenticity guide me into the world of Meditation and Yoga Philosophy.

I was completely unaware of how much Carlos and his teachings would guide not only my study and practice of yoga, but most importantly how I would integrate these teachings into my life and do my best to actually ‘walk the talk’.

So as I prepare to hand over the Yoga Lunchbox Editor reins to my dear friend and one time business partner, Veronica King (pictured together above when we hosted Carlos on his most recent New Zealand teaching visit in 2017), I jumped at the chance to connect with and write up an interview with my teacher, friend and upcoming Hauora Yoga Conference presenter, Carlos Pomeda.

Originally from Madrid, Spain, Carlos has been steeped in all aspects of the yoga tradition during more than 40 years of practice and study. He spent 18 of those years as a monk of the Saraswati order, under the name Swami Gitananda, including 9 years of traditional training and practice in India.

During this time he learned the various systems of Indian Philosophy and immersed himself in the practice of yoga, becoming one of the senior monks of the tradition and teaching meditation and philosophy to tens of thousands of students around the world. He combines this experience and traditional training with his academic background, which includes two Masters Degrees: one in Sanskrit, from U.C. Berkeley (where he has taught) and another one, in Religious Studies, from U.C. Santa Barbara. He is currently working on a book on the topic of “Karma and the Journey of the Soul”, as well as a new translation of the Śivasūtra, an important Tantric text of the Kashmiri tradition .

As a teacher, Carlos is renowned for the breadth of his knowledge and the clarity with which he conveys it. His great love of the Indian yoga traditions, his insight, his humor and his deep connection with his audiences give him the ability to transmit the deepest scriptural teachings in a way that is clear, meaningful and applicable.

I began the interview by asking Carlos how he has been managing his work and practice throughout the current global pandemic. Being based in San Francisco, he has had a front row seat to watch all the political and pandemic chaos evolve around him over the past couple of years and I was keen to hear what I knew would be wise observations…..

Carlos – “It’s one of the things that has made me feel again so grateful for having yoga, the teachings and the practices, because whenever there’s a challenge like that immediately what comes up for me is ‘Ok here is life teaching a lesson, and what is the lesson?’. And it really makes a big difference, I mean the situation is still as challenging as it is outside but when you have that perspective it makes a big difference.

‘Ok so what is the lesson here?’ and one of the things that happened was that by being forced to turn everything online it’s been wonderful (joyous laughing). In one way it’s like right now, it feels like we are just next door to each other, and it’s great to be able to connect with people from all over just through the internet, I know for some people they begin to feel online fatigue, but that is like everything if you overdo it, but it really has been wonderful for me in that way.

The other thing is that teaching online and being able to record the content and then have it available for people really works for learning, because when I study I like to review. Because with only one time hearing something you don’t necessarily absorb it. So it has worked really well.

And then for my body! My body is very happy that I don’t have to travel all the time. I notice the difference because travelling and changing time zones really takes a lot out of you. It’s been fantastic being home here with Suzy and our kitties.”

Here I would like to take the time to explain something important I think you should know about Carlos….. His wonderful sense of humour!

He has a smile and laugh that beams radiance and intersperses his teachings with genuine joy. The best way I can describe it is through one of my children’s favourite stories from Roald Dahl. In ‘The Twits’ Roald Dahl says this “A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly. You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick-out teeth, but if you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.” That is what Carlos’ laugh and smile feels like, a warm sunbeam! If you have ever had the pleasure of studying in person with Carlos I know you will understand exactly what I am trying to portray! Now back to Carlos…..

Carlos – “One of the things also that I’ve loved is I have been doing more study groups, which I have always wanted to do because I prefer study groups to just workshops. Workshops are great but they are limited in time. With several places we have ongoing study groups, and in one we actually went through the entire Bhagavad Gita, it took about 36 weeks, we read through the whole thing and it’s so fantastic to see how relevant it is and at a time of crisis. That was actually the title ‘Bhagavad Gita in times of crisis’ because it really has tremendously helpful teachings and practices. I really enjoyed that so much.”

I have been fortunate in the past to have studied some parts of the Bhagavad Gita with Carlos so I enquired around which texts he is still recommending as particularly useful for study.

Carlos – “I’ve reduced it to one! I used to have a couple of suggestions but really the best one is the version by Winthrop Sargeant. It still has it’s issues but for study it is the best really. One of the things that I have appreciated about having the study groups is being able to look more at the subtleties of the sanskrit and how translating one word in a different way actually changes the whole thing. Literally one word. And so because of that naturally I always have some issues with some translations, but overall it’s perfect.“

If you are interested in online study options with Carlos check out his website Carlos Pomeda and from the following links

– https://vimeo.com/pomeda

– https://app.ubindi.com/Carlos.Pomeda

– https://yogainternational.com/profile/carlos-pomeda-eng

Carlos is also presenting virtually at the upcoming Hauora Yoga Conference on November 7th, you can book your attendance with confidence here.

Now I know we have only just got started and I promise there is SO much more to talk about with Carlos so please keep an eye out for conversations ‘Part 2 & Part 3’ coming out over the coming weeks. Where we talk about Donald Trump, conspiracy theories, social media and guidance on how to find an authentic teacher.

Life’s too short to shy away from the big topics….

We love to hear from our readers so if you have any questions or feedback about this or any other of our articles please email the Yoga Lunchbox Editor, Cara, at [email protected]

Conversations with Carlos – Part 1 published first on https://yogiprakash.weebly.com/

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denversanches · 3 years

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Yoga Poses and Asanas for Hair Fall Control, Hair Growth & Strength

For most of us, our hair is what defines us. Unfortunately, our lifestyles are so busy that we don’t have time to care for our hair. While there are chemical products that can aid hair growth, most of them have ...

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denversanches · 3 years

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What to Know About Total War Pre Workout Supplement?

Lots of people go through training as a way to overcome weakness and laziness. While others do so to go to war against fat. With great enthusiasm and dedication, exercises can enable you to get stronger and leaner. It can ...

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denversanches · 3 years

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Journeys in Mindfulness – Part one

by Erica Viedma, Yoga with Erica

As a yoga teacher, I am aware of the delicate somatic connection between our physical sensations, thoughts and emotions. In yoga we often instruct people to stand tall and broaden the chest – opening the heart area. We ask people to open into areas that may have been guarded and held tight. At times I have observed myself and others struggle with the emotions that this kind of movement can evoke.

With this in mind, I have chosen to study towards a certification in Mindful Based Stress Reduction with the Mindfulness Training Institute Australia and New Zealand. I want to learn more about how to create safety for myself and my students. I am not only thinking of the adults that walk into my classes with their untold stresses, traumas and major life events. I am also thinking of the children that my business partner and I have sat with during our 6 years of teaching mindfulness in schools. Young children who carry the daily pressures of poverty, addiction, suicide, domestic violence, pandemics, sexual abuse, violent shootings, rascism, bullying in schools, earthquakes and sickness.

These are not stories from a country far away – these are the children who sit in our classes here in Ōtautahi.

Being faced with the reality that as human beings, we are all wounded in one way or another, has driven my desire to learn more about how we relate to our mind, body and wairua. Below are my reflections after completing the first module of mindfulness training with MTI. It is only a slice of the wisdom that emerged – with deep gratitude to my teachers and fellow students.

As you read this, please keep in mind that suffering comes in all shapes and sizes in our world. I sometimes feel myself dismissing my suffering because it appears lesser than others’ experiences, but there is no need to measure. We are all human and your suffering, no matter how large or small, is also worthy of care and attention.

Learnings in mindfulness for the wounded.

There are times in my life when I suffer. My body holds this suffering – not only the pain from today, but from my life till now and the lives of those around me. As my friend and as my teacher, you sometimes respond to my emotional suffering by offering me your solutions. I see your heart is in the right place, so please do not stop offering your kindness and the knowledge from your practice. But do understand this:

When I am suffering, I do not need your advice. What I need is help finding my own. Please don’t try to fix me because it only makes me feel lesser than; it makes me feel broken.

When you impose your model of care, your solutions and your values on me, you assume you and I are living the same life. Unless you come and sit in my kitchen and share kai with me, unless you walk in my shoes for longer than one mile – then you are not me and you are not my savior. When faced with my emotional pain, it may make you feel better to offer me advice, techniques and learnings that have worked for you in your life, your culture and your whanau. But when it comes to how I feel, deep change can only come from deep within me.

Instead listen, sit with me, lend me your courage as I feel my pain, as I feel my way to my own joy – not your aspirations for me but my own. You may value feelings of peace and quiet and wish those for me, but don’t you dare silence me. Allow me the space to find quiet and stillness in my own time. I will feel for the edges of the deep hole I am in, I will feel for the hands of those who are willing to be in this hell with me and we will hold on till the light comes.

In the meantime, I will not apologize for my screams disturbing your peace, because we are all deserving of our place in this world. I am human like you and remember you are human like me, and one day you will cry from the depths of your wounded soul, and I will hold your hand because I too have suffered. I will not pretend to understand your personal pain or offer you my solutions, because I have been through the dark night and know that the healing comes from within.

If you are willing, I will hold a mirror for you, I will listen and hold space for it all – the good, the bad, the shameful, and all that we prefer to hide. Together we will find that glimmer of hope that lies buried. The strength of our togetherness will fan that ember into a flame big enough to find our own two feet. Our tūrangawaewae – our place to stand. You on your land, me on mine, but both firmly on this earth together. The smile that comes as we look at each other will be one of sincere appreciation, gratitude and understanding.

So remember: please do not try to fix me with your solutions because you can learn as much from my inner wisdom as me from yours.

We have always been one.

I write this for myself as much as anyone else who needs to hear this. For the years that I sat in meditation struggling to feel loving-kindness – thinking this meditation meant turning away from the wounds that felt so deep they would overwhelm me.

I write this to remind myself that loving-kindness is not a specific way of feeling at the expense of all else – loving-kindness is a north star by which to orientate our practice.

I write this to remind myself that our suffering holds a powerful well of compassion, aroha and togetherness. That my scars are a sign of my strength. That I have survival mechanisms that are ancient and awe inspiring in their power and they too belong in this heart of mine.

I write this to remind myself that sometimes the person I need to stop fixing and start befriending is myself.

“Ka heke te roimata me te hūpē, ka ea te mate – When tears and mucus fall death is avenged”

‘In mourning the death of a loved one, the extreme sadness, loss and despair felt by the grieving family would be expressed openly. This whakataukī recognises the healing that takes place when one is able to express such emotions without restraint.‘

References:

Source “He Kare-ā-roto. A Selection of Whakataukī related to Māori Emotions”

L. Pihama, H. Greensill, H. Manuirirangi and N.Simmonds (p. 44-45)

If you have thoughts, questions I am happy to be contacted at [email protected].

I also highly recommend “Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness” by David Treleaven. He explains in depth the ubiquity of trauma within our population. His book explores the “risks and rewards of mindfulness with respect to trauma” pg.xxiii https://davidtreleaven.com/

Erica Viedma is a certified Iyengar yoga teacher who specialises in mindful movement. Erica has been teaching since 2004. Her classes were initially somatic and dance based and evolved into a yoga and mindfulness practice. Erica graduated from her Bachelor of Performing and Screen Arts majoring in Dance with senior scholar status . Some of her ongoing professional development has included Mindful Schools, CAPPA doula training, and regular yoga training. Erica is currently in teacher training with the Mindfulness Training Institute. Her regular classes are held in Otautahi and online. They are a reflection of her ongoing yoga and mindfulness studies www.yogawitherica.nz.

Journeys in Mindfulness – Part one published first on https://yogiprakash.weebly.com/

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denversanches · 3 years

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Touch as a form of yoga communication, the benefits and the pitfalls

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YogaNZ Online Forum 2021

In recognition of ‘International Yoga Day 2021’ (globally celebrated on June 21st) Yoga New Zealand hosted an online panel discussion. The topic of discussion was ‘Touch as a form of yoga communication, the benefits and the pitfalls’.

Yoga New Zealand invite the global yoga community to view this forum and engage in this important yoga conversation with us.

Facilitated by Dr Felicity Molloy, you will hear a variety of perspectives from five of New Zealand’s most experienced yoga teachers and therapists.

Dr Felicity Molloy

Felicity is an established programme designer and educator, immersed in human movement as a communicative form with extensive experience in yoga, somatics, massage and dance.

She was Academic Manager for Wellpark College of Natural Therapies until 2019, and works now with BodyStill, her unique suite of movement wellbeing programmes including Anatomy & Physiology, and Touch & Modification both for yoga teachers, Felicity practices bodywork in-clinic and presents yoga and dance in the community, studios, and residential villages.

To maintain ‘practice’ as the source of knowing the body, Felicity maintains a 20-year long yoga teaching commitment with Senior Iyengar teacher, Peter Thompson (Australia).

Chaitanya Deva

An experienced Teacher/ Trainer/ Therapist, based in Nelson.

Chaitanya is the co-owner, founder and senior teacher at Kindred Studio Nelson, where he teaches weekly classes, practices therapeutic massage and created and leads their 200hr Teacher Training programs levels One and Two.

Specialising in applied anatomy (the anatomy of movement), myofascial release and articular mobilisation as a bodyworker since 2001, he brings a great passion and understanding of anatomy, skeletal variation and how the body works to his classes, workshops and trainings.

Dr Jane Hardcastle

Dr. Jane Hardcastle is a Yoga Therapist, therapeutic yoga teacher, and education specialist based in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Jane is co-owner & co-director of MoveWell – a therapeutic yoga, massage, and functional movement centre. Here she works 1 on 1 with yoga therapy and private yoga clients to improve movement patterns, relieve pain and balance mobility & stability needs with each individual & their unique presentations.

Jane teaches small groups of clients in therapeutic yoga classes and develops/supervises MoveWell teachers and interns as they develop knowledge and skills in teaching therapeutic yoga.

Neal Ghoshal

A Yoga teacher and trainer based on Waiheke Island and Auckland

Neal has taught on teacher training programs in Australia and New Zealand, has been senior faculty on Donna Farhi’s Advanced Teacher Training Program, and been a keynote speaker at the IYTA Conference.

He is a founder member and part of the core faculty of the Contemporary Yoga Teacher Training program, based in Auckland, New Zealand.

Ali Hale Tilley

Based in Marton, a town in the Rangitikei district, Ali is a qualified Yoga Alliance Instructor, Fitness Training Instructor, and Celebrant. She also holds a BA (Hons. 1st Class) in Religious Studies (Victoria University).

Ali has also recently finished her Master’s study of yoga with Victoria University, doing an ethnographic study on yoga communities in New Zealand.

Ali has spent her whole adult life teaching health related fitness and yoga. She set up Sadhana Yoga in 2006. Ali has taught thousands of students in health-related fitness, yoga and meditation.

Vincent Bolletta

Currently based in Dunedin, Vincent has been teaching, and practicing yoga since 1990 and has been involved with the health and wellness industry even longer.

This has led him to become one of New Zealand’s foremost yoga instructor and teacher trainers with a wealth of knowledge in biomechanics, yoga therapy, movement therapy, and postural analysis.

Vincent is also the founder of Hañsa Yoga a unique style that integrates eastern and western thought and methodologies to the practice of yoga.

Cara Butler

We love to hear from our readers so if you have any questions or feedback about this or any other of our articles please email the Yoga Lunchbox Editor, Cara, at [email protected]

Touch as a form of yoga communication, the benefits and the pitfalls published first on https://yogiprakash.weebly.com/

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denversanches · 3 years

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Karla Brodie and Neal Ghoshal: Talk about the powerful practice of Restorative Yoga

by Sandy Farquhar, Contemporary Yoga

Restorative Yoga practices are now part of many Yoga classes. Karla Brodie and Neal Ghoshal have a combined 35 years of experience teaching Restorative Yoga in classes and courses, to individuals and through in-depth retreats, as well as tailored workshops and teacher trainings. Ahead of their next Restorative Teacher Training they share their passion for Restorative Yoga with fellow teacher and CY administrator, Sandy Farquhar.

Sandy: How is Restorative Yoga distinctive from other yoga approaches?

Neal: In essence, Restorative Yoga is a well-being practice. Of course, all Yoga may be about well-being. Restorative Yoga is distinguished by the conscious use of props such as Yoga bolsters, blankets, blocks and more, to support the physical body. When we fully support the body, we create a space for deep and profound relaxation and rest. At its heart then, Restorative Yoga is about resting.

We may use various Restorative Yoga postures to create different physiological and energetic effects – ultimately to meet where and how we are at any given time. I tend to practice Restorative Yoga in the evening, resting after a busy day of teaching or other work.

Sandy: Isn’t Restorative Yoga all about lounging about on blankets and falling asleep – how is that Yoga?

Neal: A question at the centre of Yoga is: Who am I? So with Restorative Yoga, one could inquire: Who am I when I am rested? Who am I when I am less stressed? Who am I when I slow down? Who is it that emerges from a place of deep relaxation? How do I respond to life from this more settled place within me?

I much prefer the person I am when I am more rested and relaxed. All my interactions with colleagues, friends, family tend to be more responsive. I make wiser choices! I also see Restorative Yoga (and Yoga in general) as meditation (asana as a movement meditation), an opportunity to be present with ourselves. And … perhaps there is nothing wrong with lounging about on blankets and falling asleep … maybe we all need to do more of that! Our pets are masters of Restorative Yoga!

Sandy: Where did Restorative Yoga originate?

Karla: We acknowledge many teachers in our development of Restorative Yoga. To quote our own Restorative Teacher Training Manual:

“Restorative Yoga emerged from the teachings of BKS Iyengar who pioneered the use of props to support the body in Yoga postures; optimise the beneficial effects to body systems; and promote effective healing from injury, imbalance or illness. Students of Iyengar, such as Judith Lasater, have promoted and written extensively on the Restorative approach. We recognise these influences on our teaching although we have never personally studied with BKS Iyengar, or much with Judith Lasater.”

Primarily, Donna Farhi has been our most significant teacher: Her integrity and exemplary development of this practice has been highly influential on our Restorative teaching approach. Above all, our greatest teachers have also been our students who have, over many years, helped innovate and refine the postures and practice.

Sandy: When and why did you begin your own Restorative Yoga journeys?

Karla: I began learning Yoga from the age of 15 and started a three-year Yoga apprenticeship in 1999. Restorative Yoga was part of weekly classes taught at the centre. One of the first classes I was given as a young teacher was a new Friday night Restorative class. Fairly quickly it became quite popular. From the beginning, I was interested in adapting the more traditional postures for individual students to enhance ease and self renewal. My students were and still are my greatest teachers. Donna was hugely influential too, her approach to Restorative postures enlivened my understanding of essential anatomy of the spine, joints and organs, and how the body could be supported in a more nourishing way.

Neal: I still remember my first Restorative Yoga experience – back in 2005. I was on a year-long teacher training and one weekend the teacher took out some bolsters and brought us into a supported bridge shape. After three minutes, I experienced a profound relaxation response – it was like my whole body sighed out and softened. I could have stayed there for hours and it felt beautifully nourishing and enjoyable.

I emerged from the practice convinced that this was a style of Yoga I wanted to investigate fully. So I sought out teachers who were offering Restorative Yoga, and by lucky chance, Karla was teaching at the same Yoga centre. Karla offered a few of us teachers a mini Restorative training and I was so hooked by this time I researched and created my own mini Restorative training manual for my own use.

Sandy: You both credit each other as being significant influences on your restorative yoga practice and teaching. Talk a little about how that all began.

Neal: So Karla was offering these highly popular Friday evening Restorative classes at the studio (they’re still going!) and I would travel over from Waiheke just to take in a class and learn. We struck up a friendship which continues to grow and deepen to this day.

Karla: Neal joined in a short Restorative training I was offering at the Yoga Centre. I literally hand wrote a manual, offering many of the variations of Restorative postures I had been innovating with students. We [Neal and I] struck up a great friendship around our shared love of Restorative practice that organically evolved into offering residential retreats, as well as the creation of Contemporary Yoga.

Sandy: Each of you bring distinctive talents and perspectives to the practice – talk a little about what you see the other brings to the practice.

Neal: What distinguishes Karla as a teacher is her willingness to be creative in her teaching and the practice. It’s our job to meet students and practitioners exactly where they are, on any given day and time. To do this requires the skill, experience and willingness to adapt and to support each person’s individual body, mind – the whole person. Every Restorative posture set-up can be tailored to meet each person. Karla is masterful in this process. Beyond the creative and technical aspects of Restorative Yoga, I feel what underlies Karla’s approach and teaching is a deep wellspring of compassion and a heartfelt wish to help others. She so often surprises me with the amount of time and energy she will go to help others.

Karla: Neal’s superpower is his deep kindness. There’s a way that Neal holds space in his classes and on training that is very heartfelt and meaningful. He weaves in poetry and language that is insightful and grounded in an understanding of the tradition and a teaching approach that is sound, welcoming and easeful.

We often “jam out” Restorative Yoga postures and share our refinements, variations and innovations based on what we have been exploring with our students. Neal has continued to study irest Yoga Nidra which I feel adds richness and depth to his knowledge and teaching. He’s also quite the classical guitar player which is such a wonderful offering to students on our retreats.

I also think it is our synergistic and supportive co-teaching approach that students enjoy.

Sandy: You run Restorative Workshops for teachers throughout New Zealand, as well as a 75 hour Restorative Teacher Training most years. What are the key learnings that students will take away from these workshops and trainings.

Neal: On shorter courses we are planting seeds … questions and ideas about what is Restorative Yoga. We also share many of the setups for the foundational Restorative Yoga postures – people really get to experience the practice.

On in-depth trainings we have time to explore and experience a whole range of postures and many variations. We learn and grow the skills to be creative with the practice and see how we can support all different types of people, body types, conditions, etc. I love the longer trainings as there is time to share the practice, without any need to rush to fit things in. Students also have opportunities to teach and share what they learnt with others – mini teaching practicums to grow their confidence in offering Restorative Yoga.

Sandy: Share an experience that in some way epitomises each other’s Restorative Yoga practice.

Neal: Ahh – there have been so many. I completely love the moments towards the end of a Restorative Yoga Retreat, after a whole weekend, just observing people’s softened faces, the smiles, a kind of lightness in their being, after what has really only been a couple of days of conscious resting.

Karla: There’s often long moments in Neal’s classes where everyone and everything feels completely still, a resonant stillness. I find a deep ease here. There’s such a potency and power to sentient beings standing, dancing, singing, meditating and resting together.

Restorative practice to me is a being practice. One where all we have to do is be. I’m very grateful to be sharing this practice and to have friends, colleagues and students to be a part of its evolution here in Aotearoa.

Why is Restorative Yoga so important in the world right now?

Karla: Restorative practice may support a really good night’s sleep.

Neal: Restorative Yoga is in some way a more “advanced” practice (although I dislike the word advanced as it has a hierarchical connotation). What I mean is that the practice is about slowing down, resting, being. Our culture seems to be built on how productive we can be, how much we can achieve and keep on achieving. It can feel as if nothing is ever enough.

We can even observe this within the Yoga community itself. As a teacher I often witness the striving for a bigger practice, a more “advanced” practice, the strain to push the body towards more extreme positions, and students over-riding the pain signals which come with such a practice. I’ve been there myself – in the first few years of my Yoga I pushed my body into postures I saw in books (which had titles such as ‘Learn Yoga In A Weekend’), demonstrated by people with an alarming degree of flexibility.

Whilst our culture promotes a never ending amount of doing, Restorative Yoga is the radical, counter-cultural experience of simply being. Yes – there is the effort required to turn up for the practice, to engage in practice, but essentially it is a process of surrendering, an active letting go, of yielding. It’s a brilliant antidote to our modern way of living.

To find out more about the Contemporary Yoga Restorative Teacher Training starting in June, go to: https://yogateachertraining.nz/advanced-teacher-training-modules/restorative-yoga/ or email: [email protected]

To find out more about Karla’s classes go to:https://contemporaryyoga.nz/

To find out more about Neal’s classes go to: https://sacredmoves.com/yoga/

Karla Brodie and Neal Ghoshal: Talk about the powerful practice of Restorative Yoga published first on https://yogiprakash.weebly.com/

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denversanches · 3 years

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2021 International Yoga Day Events around Aotearoa

Compiled events being offered by members of the Yoga New Zealand teaching community…….

Wanaka event – Sunday 20th June at the Lake Wanaka Centre

In New Zealand, the IDY has been celebrated since 2017 and in Wanaka, since 2020.

It is an opportunity for the community to practice different styles of Yoga, and learn about Yoga philosophy, Ayurveda, Chakras, Meditation and more.

The event is created and developed by local yoga teachers: Danielle Anson, Emmilee Fendall, Gerry Todd, Jessie Maclaurin and Amy Eacott, together with the event organiser Keity Garcia, from Soul Yoga. IDY Wanaka will also have participation of the master osteopathic doctors Steven Pagano and Francesco Proverbio, from Metamed Wanaka, who will talk about Osteopathy and Yoga.

Donation boxes from St John and Cancer Society will be available at the reception. Even though the event is free, all the team would be appreciative if the participants could help one of these organizations.

The full program and registrations are available at www.soulyoga.co.nz/idy-2021

Nelson Event – Sunday 20th June at Trafalgar St Hall

With the theme for 2021 being “Yoga at home and Yoga with Family” considering the current climate internationally, we are so privileged in Nelson, NZ to be able to meet in person.

On Sunday 20th June, Nelson Yoga teachers are collaborating to share a range of classes and mini workshops throughout the day with the wider community. Sessions are open to all and provide a great way to get a taste of what yoga, meditation and breathwork practices can offer (see schedule).

There is even a class for the whole family to join in- really embracing this year’s theme! All sessions are free to attend, with a koha being taken for World Visions India Appeal.

For more info Email [email protected]

Auckland Event – Sunday 20th June at Kawai Purapura Retreat

Special ‘Bhakti Shakti’ Event happening on Sunday, the 20th June. An event to raise awareness of the presence of the Yoga Tradition in our lives. To mark the occasion of International Day of Yoga, Pure Yoga is organizing a 6 Hr Bhakti Yoga event through kirtan and mantra chanting. An event open to the public (families and children) as a community event to connect back to the roots of the Yoga Tradition.

Here is the link to the website page with info and Eventbrite ticket link https://www.pureyoga.nz/special-kirtan

Christchurch Event – Sunday 20th June at Movewell

International yoga day FREE CLASS

Free yoga events are being offered around the world to celebrate yoga as a practice, and way of life that offers health benefits, wellbeing, and greater awareness of self. We are joining many other studios and teachers in a special weekend of free classes and events for people who may wish to try yoga, beginning students, experienced yoga practitioners practitioners and teachers alike.

This special 90 minute class will include:

Pranayama (breath awareness and control practices)

Asana (movement through postures)

Meditation (guided practice suitable for all levels)

Relaxation

Link for tickets movewell.as.me/celebreateyogaday

Online Event – Saturday 19th June ‘YogaNZ Forum‘

With support of the High Commission of India, Yoga New Zealand is hosting this Online Forum FREE FOR ALL in recognition of ‘International Yoga Day’ which is globally celebrated on June 21st.

Yoga Forum Topic ‘Touch as a form of yoga communication: Benefits and pitfalls’

An online discussion, facilitated by Yoga Council member Dr Felicity Molloy, will take place with a panel of highly experienced and respected Yoga Teachers, Neal Ghoshal, Dr Jane Hardcastle, Ali Hale Tilley, Vincent Bolletta and Chaitanya Deva.

Find out more and book your place https://yoganz-online-forum-2021.heysummit.com

2021 International Yoga Day Events around Aotearoa published first on https://yogiprakash.weebly.com/

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denversanches · 3 years

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POP – Learn more and bring greater awareness into your practice!

by Cara Butler

A while back, Anja Morris contacted us here at The Yoga Lunchbox looking for help gathering stories and information from women who may have already or were currently experiencing Pelvic Organ Prolapse (POP). Without a moments hesitation, as current Editor, I was happy to assist her in whatever way possible.

My lack of hesitation to assist her was the result of having created the women’s programme at my Yoga Studio, and having personally taught and assisted on various Childbirth Workshops, Prenatal Classes, Mums & Bubs Courses, Postnatal Workshops as well as birthing 2 babies of my own.

I had become very familiar with the term POP and the implications it held for many women in my community.

In 2018 I arranged for one of my teachers, Lisa Fitzpatrick (a physiotherapist and yoga teacher from Australia), to come to Christchurch and hold a ‘Women’s Wellness Weekend’ which also included a Pelvic Floor Workshop specifically for Yoga Teachers and one also for the general public.

The workshops were a complete sell out confirming my long held suspicion that people wanted to know more about their own pelvic floor, and teachers about how to teach yoga safely, with more pelvic floor contraindication awareness.

Those who know me well or have attended my yoga classes over the years know that I talk of ‘Pelvic Floor Health’ often and with little apology. In my opinion, the time for women to speak in hushed whispers about so called ’embarrassing problems’ is over.

I consider the health of the Pelvic Floor to relate directly to the health and overall wellbeing of the individual.

All this said I do engage in these conversations and teaching opportunities with awareness that high levels of anxiety and trauma can also be triggered by such discussions and I highly recommend training in ‘Mental Health Aware Yoga‘ or similar to gain tools to assist in these types of discussions.

As a yoga teacher I was aware of my limited scope of practice (not a pelvic floor specialist) and therefore sought out resources, pelvic health referral contacts and information I could share with my students and fellow teachers as best I could, but there was definitely a lack of information. Hence my delight in Anja’s completed website resource.

“Active and POP” is an excellent online resource that ALL Females and ALL Yoga Teachers should take the time to read.

The tag line reads………. ‘Pelvic Organ Prolapse affects approximately 50% of all women and 30% of female athletes. Yet most of us have never heard of it! So we decided to talk about it!’.

I offer gratitude to Anja, and the women who have shared their stories with her, and to the great work being done to support both women and men in their journeys with Pelvic Floor Dysfunction.

Please read and share the information that ‘Active and POP’ offers as widely as you can. And if you or those in your local yoga community are doing good work in this area we would love to hear about it!

And while we’re sharing resources here’s a few other pelvic friendly websites/resources to add to the toolkit

https://mamaonthemend.com

https://www.blissbabyyoga.com/pelvic-floor-anatomy-and-physiology/

https://www.blissbabyyoga.com/3-keys-to-postpartum-pelvic-floor-recovery-with-lisa-fitzpatrick/

We love to hear from our readers so if you have any questions or feedback about this or any other of our articles please email the Yoga Lunchbox Editor, Cara, at [email protected]

POP – Learn more and bring greater awareness into your practice! published first on https://yogiprakash.weebly.com/

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denversanches · 3 years

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Supporting Women through Prenatal Yoga & Beyond

An interview with KeiShana Coursey

KeiShana is the course director of Contemporary Yoga’s Pregnancy Yoga Teacher Training starting in July 2021. This is a 100+ hour teacher training collaboration between Opti-mum and Contemporary Yoga and includes anatomy, physiology, asana, ayurveda and much, much more.

KeiShana brings a wealth of experience and expertise to this very special training having worked with many women on their childbirth journeys. In this interview, KeiShana talks about what inspires her work with pregnant women and her hopes for the future of pregnancy yoga.

Contemporary Yoga (CY): How and when did you begin your yoga journey?

KeiShana: As a teenager wanting to look good in white jeans and feel flexible. I went from being a retired gymnast with a buggered back – who’d taken to running (with a bonus penchant for wine and pies). I found myself in a sweaty block and strap space…where we were led to believe the ultimate was being able to put your face on your shins.

CY: Tell us about one person who has been the most significant influence on your yoga teaching.

KeiShana: My daughter Allaura. She was born into a world in transition – from archaic patriarchal rules of vertical power over others, to a more feminine horizontal paradigm where we can choose to change the old stories and be alongside one another. I aspire to be inspirational as a human within this identity as a woman and mother to my children. So, I practice yoga to be better at life and … the best version of my mothering self for Allaura.

CY: Please explore just one element of yoga that is of the uttermost importance to you.

KeiShana: As a women’s health professional and yoga teacher, it is of utmost importance to consider who has the power in any relationship dynamic. Just one example of this power imbalance exists in the world of health, a world which is ultimately about politics: How resources are distributed and how services are funded is entirely political. This public health funding gives most service providers just enough power to act as ‘giver of crumbs to a starving beggar’. Unfortunately many people are reliant on the publicly funded health system and subsequently give their power to the very system unable to support them beyond basics. Many people appear to place overworked, underpaid medical professionals on a pedestal and wait to be told what to do and how to do it.

We see a similar story played out in the yoga realm. The relationship dynamic for many students who arrive in class is one of disempowerment. They want to be fixed, saved, told what to do and how to do it. How to move, when to move, how long to remain in a shape and how to breathe. There is an art to guiding students toward autonomy — the teacher is a bridge for students to move from ‘feed me’ to ‘teach me how to feed myself’. A student’s agency, indeed human agency is, for me, the very definition of health and wellness. It’s important to me that students know they can choose when and how they move, as in: ‘I choose to remain in my own personal power and you walk alongside me and we exchange knowledge’.

Agency is of the utmost importance to me as a teacher.

CY: Finally, we asked KeiShana to imagine she was seeking funding for free nationwide pregnancy yoga programmes and that she had an opportunity to ‘sell’ the idea to Cabinet Ministers. However, she only has three minutes to convince the Ministers of the great benefit to the entire population of Aotearoa. Here’s her response:

Keishana: If I wanted to request funding for Pregnancy Yoga – and believe me I do – I would ask Ministers to acknowledge the work we do with women at a significant imprint phase of their whole lives. I’d show them how we support women’s transformation into confident and strong mothers. They would understand from this that investment into preventative health care, including psychosensory practices like yoga, results in a reduction of postnatal depression/anxiety and operative and instrumental birth.

I’d then highlight that malposition is one of the biggest factors in birth intervention and that intelligent yoga supports optimal positioning of a baby, therefore reducing intervention rates which cost the taxpayer millions.

They’d ideally understand the work that we do to support the health and wellbeing of women – how the pregnancy yoga teacher works within and alongside community, supporting and empowering the agency of each women in her classes and that this mental and physical wellness ultimately shapes the mother baby dyad, therefore determining health and wellness for the next generation.

Perhaps with this awareness the Ministry of Health would invest thousands before having to spend millions cleaning up the aftermath of the currently dysfunctional women’s health system.

Click here to read KeiShana’s bio

Click here for more about Opti-mum

Click here to find out more about the upcoming Pregnancy Yoga Teacher Training options

Pregnancy Yoga – Fertility, Ante-Natal, Birth and Post-Natal Yoga Teacher Training

Supporting Women through Prenatal Yoga & Beyond published first on https://yogiprakash.weebly.com/

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denversanches · 3 years

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Expand Your Yogic Tool Kit : Inspiring teachers share their most supportive practices….

by Cara Butler

As we all continue to process and progress through this global pandemic together, I find myself wondering how it has affected personal yoga practices. I know mine has personally shifted but I was curious to hear from those around me with more experience and wisdom, so I reached out to five of the best teachers we have in Aotearoa to share their guidance with you all.

This is what I asked of them……

‘Taking into consideration all that has occurred over the past 18 months do you have a pose, practice or particular teaching to share with the yoga community that you have found to be of great support in your personal yoga practice?’

Karla Brodie

Here are a few practices that have supported my everyday life, wellbeing and joy over the last 18 months:

A morning wander on dewy grass is an Ayurvedic practice that I find enlivening, cooling and grounding.

Viprita Karani or any variation of elevating the legs is deeply restoring.

Side lying restorative shapes, much like the recovery position, are nourishing and settling.

A rolling practice led by organs or bones or muscles, with an intention of unravelling and waking up — like a satisfying yawn.

Jess Smith

Personally my non-negotiable is my morning Sadhana, early rise (5am!) to practice, then a walk and dip in the sea out in Sumner, all before the kids get up. In yoga we call this TAPAS… Devotion, Showing Up, Discernment, Willingness to stay in the fire…returning back and back the practice. It’s there I can trust, listen and lean into myself, self study, svadhyaya. Showing up for what’s actually happening, Comfort, Discomfort, all will happen on this journey. “Make no story about how great you are or how terrible you are… It’s an exhausting journey and we miss out where we actually are”. Words from my lovely teacher Janet Stone.

Favourite pose? Self exploring my headstands lately, working towards 10 minutes (not recommended for beginners, more like a minute). Inversions such as headstand build heat in the body by stimulating the nervous system, which for me has helped when I am feeling frazzled… the feeling of going upside down enables my mind to feel clear and energised.

A quote that sums up the anatomy of emotion for me, or at least when I need a kind reminder : “Our nervous system doesn’t know the difference between reality and imagination. Every thought you think becomes stored in your body” Yogi Amrita Desai.

Donna Farhi

During the last year I have returned to a pranayama practice that was a “regular” for me in my late teens whenever I suffered from anxiety.

Alternate nostril breathing or nadi shodhana has become my go-to practice when I sit at the beginning of my practice. The gentle but systematic regulation of the breath has helped me to quiet my mind as well as calm my nervous system.

Because life and work have become so complicated with the shift to online delivery, I am also finding that it is best to do a very simple practice with just a few components. Some weeks I do the same practice every day with little variation. This imprints some degree of reliability and stability during a time when there is so much uncertainty.

Jo McHarg

One particular practice I come back to time and time again and especially in times of uncertainty is a practice taught to me by Donna Farhi, which Donna refers to as the ‘Body/Mind Weather reading’.

This practice can be used at the start of a yoga practice in order to help determine what sort of practice might nourish us… Or at any time during our day to help bring clarity to our current state-of-being and in turn guide us as to where we may wish to focus our energy.

To begin the Body Mind Weather reading, we start by simply becoming still & tuning inward. After some time settling in with our breath, we then start to check in and notice ‘How am I?’. We do this check in through the lens of the 5 Koshas – noticing the physical body, the energetic body, the emotional body, the mental body & the spiritual body.

I use this practice often in my classes and many of my students have also come to love it. We find it a great way to start a class so one can obtain a “baseline perception” that is then useful to refer back to and notice the shifts taking place on the various layers (koshas). I have found this practice useful in times of emotional turbulence to help me become the observer of a strong emotion or thought pattern, rather than be completely swept away with it.

Veronica King

We can all unanimously agree that yoga and meditation have been a lifesaver the last 18 months. The first half was about tapping into my strength. Physically moving the body, getting out of fear. I did a tonne of yoga in lockdown as I chose to demonstrate “modified” versions of our Grassroots Yoga & Health online studio classes. I loved reconnecting with my awesome team and community, and enjoyed following guided instructions, as I was doing so much other complex decision making at the time.

The latter part of 2020 was like hitting the 10 km mark in a 30 km race (that you didn’t remember signing up for), the focus was on endurance or emotional resiliency. Out of necessity my practice was a complete 180 and all I could do was Yoga Nidra. Could I surrender completely and have faith in the unknown path ahead? Yoga Nidra rebuilt me when I felt broken and had to find my way back home to my true nature. This experience inspired my new online project https://ift.tt/3e5eETX which will be ready to go from the 20th of May. So on reflection, out of immense challenge came some pretty amazing inspiration!

We love to hear from our readers so if you have any questions or feedback about this or any other of our articles please email the Yoga Lunchbox Editor, Cara, at [email protected]

Expand Your Yogic Tool Kit : Inspiring teachers share their most supportive practices…. published first on https://yogiprakash.weebly.com/

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