Six Keys to Safe Assisting

In this day and age of online subscriptions, one of the things that differentiates a live yoga class from a virtual one is the attention of a teacher.  Maintaining a regular and consistent yoga practice is important and you may have to do that by following classes online or by practicing by yourself.  But there is something to be said for practicing under the eyes and guidance of a skillful teacher.

We all have blind spots to our own bodies and practices and there probably are poses that we avoid when no one is watching. But, in order to keep your practice balanced, it is as important to know when you are out of alignment as it is to work on the poses you don’t like.

Much as I love to practice on my own, I also enjoy the energy of practicing in a group.  When I take a class, I like the attention of a teacher.  I am not as interested in a teacher who is practicing on her own mat.  I like the encouragement, correction and insight you can get from the perspective of someone else. I like the “Aha!” moment of a skillful assist that changes a pose for me like turning on a light in a dark room.

That being said, assisting in yoga classes is a controversial topic.  As much as I like being assisted, they can also be harmful.  I have been injured while being assisted.  There are some things you can do to protect yourself and your students from being injured by an assist.

Here are five keys points for assisting in yoga classes:

Getting and giving permission.

Not everyone wants to be adjusted all of the time.  Sometimes students have physical issues that they haven’t shared with you and it might just be that area of the body you are about to hone in on.   Nationally known yoga teacher Judith Hanson Lasater asks permission every single time she assists someone.  If someone is willing to be assisted, their bodies will be more open and receptive to an assist.  As a student, it is important to set your own boundaries. It is not fun to be volunteered for something you are not ready for.  As a teacher, be prepared for someone to just say no to one of your skillful assists.

Have clear lines of communication. 

This is separate from asking permission.  It is also important to know how the assist feels while it is happening.  Is the pressure to much, too little, in the wrong spot?  You need to be able to communicate how things feel as they are happening.  Teachers, be sensitive to  different bodies experience of pressure.  Students, don’t be afraid to speak up if something doesn’t feel good.

I was once in a large workshop setting.  We were assisting each other in a standing split. The room was full and very noisy.  My head was down near my knees and my partner was standing above me.  As she pushed on my leg which was up in the air, she couldn’t hear me say it was too much.  I literally had to punch her in the leg to get her attention to let go.  By that time my hamstring was strained.

Don’t make any assumptions.

As a teacher, don’t assume that your student’s body can go where you envision it going.  As a student, don’t assume that your teacher knows what your body can do.  While it is nice to think positive thoughts and to believe in the power of positive thinking, changes in the body usually happen over time, not in an instant.

I was once in a workshop where a teacher was encouraging people to kick up into handstand in the middle of the room.  The teacher asked this one student to volunteer to demonstrate how to do it.  The student was reluctant, but the teacher insisted that the student could do it.  The student did the handstand and it ended well.  I asked the student afterwards if she felt peer pressure to do the pose in front of everyone.  She admitted that she did, but she said, “The teacher knew my body and knew I could do it, so I trusted the teacher.”  Fortunately that trust was not misplaced.

While there is the power of encouragement and anything is possible, it doesn’t always work out that way.  As a teacher, make sure you are not putting anyone on the spot and forcing them to succumb to peer pressure.  As a student, don’t give your power away to anyone else. In my classes I see a lot of students each week.  Some of them I know well, but I never know exactly how someone is feeling inside that day.  And, quite honestly, I don’t always remember everyone’s trick knee, herniated disk or sprained wrist.

Keep your ego out of it

While I would like to be the teacher that “taught” a student how to do handstand, wheel, split or any other pose, it is really the student’s process and the accumulation of their practice and work of all of their teachers.  As a student, I might want the teacher to show me the “secret” to getting a pose.  Neither I nor the student can force our way into a pose, by self effort or an overly aggressive assist.  It would be like prying open a rose bud to force the flower to bloom.  Often the more badly we want something, the more it eludes us.  Practice takes time, patience and a curious sense of exploration.

Learning massage has been a great tool in helping me know how to adjust and assist my students.  One of the most important skills massage has taught me is to how important it is to always move with the breath, both theirs and mine.   Feeling the movement of the breath also helps you feel where there is resistance in the body.

Know your alignment

Adjusting and assisting is about helping the body move towards better alignment.  If you are not sure what the alignment is, you won’t know which direction to move towards.  This is true for both the teacher and student.

You also have to know what the foundation of the pose looks like and start from there.  There is no point assisting someone in a pose when the foundation is off.  Sometimes fixing the foundation corrects other misalignments. If a student doesn’t know the proper foundation, they may also not have the proprioceptive sense to feel the rest of their body, either.

Approach each student as unique

There is no one size fits all to adjusting and assisting.  I can’t teach my students “The Down Dog Assist”  because there are many variations of how to assist in any pose.  And the assist will be different for someone with tight hamstrings as opposed to restricted shoulder mobility.

Assisting is a skill that needs to be practiced, just like your yoga poses.  In the beginning, it is important to get feedback.  That is why I offer these workshops on assisting.  You need to know: was the pressure too much, too little or just right?  Was the direction of the pressure correct?  Did I knock my student off balance?  Does it feel better when I place my hands here or there?  What does resistance feel like?

These six keys to safe assisting are all things you will get to experience and learn in my workshop in June.  For the details click here.

I'm curious, as a student, do you like being assisted?  As a teacher, do you feel comfortable assisting?  (If not, consider signing up for my workshop.)  Feel free to leave a comment and join in the conversation.

Sequencing - Order Matters

yoga sequencing workshop

Doing yoga and teaching yoga are very different activities, yet they are inextricably intertwined.  The experiences we have on our yoga mats help us to refine our personal practice and provide insights into how we might share yoga with others.  As a teacher, developing and maintaining your own practice helps inform your teaching.  You experience first hand all the elements that contribute to how yoga enhances our lives.   It is through the interrelation of these elements that we come to specific practices - sequences of actions - that have different effects on our bodies, minds and spirits depending on how it all flows together.

What are the elements of a complete practice?  How are they best structured to make the practice the most accessible, sustainable and transforming? What are the best ways to begin a yoga practice session?  What should each session include? What are the best ways to sequence different asanas, breathing practices and meditations?  What are the relationships between asanas?  How does one pose affect another?  What is the effect of poses ordered in a particular way compared to the same poses ordered differently?  What are the relationships within and between families of asanas - standing poses, core work, balancing poses, hip openers, back bends, twists, forward bends, inversions and restorative postures?  What about pranayama (breath work) and meditation?  Where do they fit in?   What affects them and how do they affect what follows?  ON what basis, other than habit, intuition and whim, should one determine the overall structure and sequence of a complete class?  What about moving from one class the the next over the span of a week, month, year or lifetime?  What are the best ways to design classes for a lifetime of yoga?

If you are a yoga teacher and you have asked yourself some of these questions, sign up for my course Sequencing - Order Matters. These are the topics we will explore in this two day workshop.

The Heart Sutra Mantra

The mantra for the month of May is the Heart Sutra Mantra:

Gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha!

Gate means gone. Gone from suffering to the liberation of suffering. Gone from forgetfulness to mindfulness. Gone from duality into non-duality.
Gate gate means gone, gone.
Paragate means gone all the way to the other shore.
Parasamgate sam means everyone, the entire community of beings. Everyone gone over to the other shore.
Bodhi is the light inside, enlightenment, or awakening. You see it and the vision of reality liberates you.
Svaha is a cry of joy or excitement, like "Welcome!" or "Hallelujah!"

"Gone, gone, gone all the way over, everyone gone to the other shore, enlightenment, Hallelujah!"

What Sangharakshita says about the Diamond Sutra equally applies to all Prajnaparamita Sutras, including the Heart Sutra:

…if we insist that the requirements of the logical mind be satisfied, we are missing the point. What the Diamond Sutra is actually delivering is not a systematic treatise, but a series of sledgehammer blows, attacking from this side and that, to try and break through our fundamental delusion. It is not going to make things easy for the logical mind by putting things in a logical form. This sutra is going to be confusing, irritating, annoying, and unsatisfying—and perhaps we cannot ask for it to be otherwise. If it were all set forth neatly and clearly, leaving no loose ends, we might be in danger of thinking we had grasped the Perfection of Wisdom.—Sangharakshita, Wisdom Beyond Words

Growing a Lotus

“May I learn to live like the lotus flower, content in muddy water.”

Lotus Posture, or Padmasana, is one of the quintessential yoga poses.  You can just picture a yogi sitting with legs crossed, eyes closed and meditating blissfully.  Ironically, Lotus is not a pose that is taught very frequently in yoga classes; at least in Western yoga classes.  Most Westerners have tight hips and cannot do this pose.  Some yoga studios caution against teaching it because people hurt their knees by trying to force themselves into the pose.

With that caution, we will work on Lotus this month. I recommend that you proceed mindfully and pay attention to your knees.  There is a modification for every pose.  (The basic modifications for Lotus are: Easy Pose, Half Lotus and Double Pigeon.)  If you feel any strain in your knees, back off, take a modification and let it go until the next time when you can try again. This is the muddy water referred to in the quote; being okay when things don’t work out as you planned, or when things don’t happen when you want them to. Wait. Patiently. All is coming.

Below is a list of some of the poses we will be working on to help us get into Lotus Pose this month.

Easy Crossed Legs Pose
Warrior II
Side Angle
Triangle
Tree
Standing Half-Lotus Forward Bend
Frog
Gate Pose
Pigeon
Double Pigeon
Cobbler’s Pose
Seated Wide Leg Forward Bend
Revolved Seated Tree
Seated Half Lotus Forward Bend

Dealing with Change

My mom and I in 2013

“Problems often occur because we are grasping onto something we want to keep or to keep from changing.”

As many of you know, my mother had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and had been in declining health over the last several years.  She passed away this past Friday.

It was ironic in that as much as I have prayed for her release from the ravages of this disease, it was hard when the final moment came for me to let go.  I wonder how hard it was for her to let go?   As one of my students wrote to me:  “One dreads this moment of deep loss and then, suddenly, you have to step through it.”

During this week and in the coming weeks I will be stepping through it.

Many of you have told me that my sharing my journey has helped some of you who may be on similar paths and conversely, many of you who have already been through the loss of your parents have helped me through this stage.  And I thank all of you for that.  As Ram Dass said, “We are all just walking each other home”.

This week, I walked my mother home.

A Rama Healing Mantra

“Om apadamapa hataram dataram sarva sampadam lokah bhi ramam shri ramam bhuyo bhuyo namam yaham”

This is one of my favorite mantras.  It is a little bit of a mouthful, but once committed to memory, it is fun to chant.   Repeating this mantra always makes me smile, which is part of its healing properties; joy and happiness are healing emotions.

This is considered a Rama mantra: “bhi ramam shri ramam”.  Rama has a threefold meaning here.  First, Ram is the seed sound of the manipura, the third or solar plexus, chakra.  Here lies the power of your internal sun and life force.  The third chakra is associated with energy, will and mastery.  The body parts governed by the third chakra are the mid-torso, the side bodies, ribs, adrenal glands, belly and digestive organs.  When your third chakra is strong and balanced you radiate warmth, dexterity, skill and mastery.  When your third chakra is deficient you may feel controlling, dominating and be constantly active.  You may feel weak, passive and tired.  Chanting this mantra with the intention of healing can balance your third chakra.

Manipura, the third chakra

The second meaning comes from dividing Rama into its syllables: Ra and Ma.  Ra is associated with the solar current that runs down the right side of our body and Ma is associated with the lunar current that runs down the left side of our body.  These currents crisscross in our bodies.  Scholars say that it is this criss crossing action that spins our chakras.  Chanting this mantra can balance these energies and our chakras.

The third reference is to the god Rama himself.  Rama is a kind, benevolent healing energy.  You can read about Rama in a text called the Ramayana, which means Ram’s way.  It is a wonderful story filled with many lessons taught through intriguing twists and turns.

A typical mantra practice involves chanting a mantra 108 times, at least once a day for 30 or 40 days.    Once you learn this mantra, it will take you about 30 minutes (give or take) to chant it 108 times.  You can use a mala to help you chant it.  But you also do a practice of 108 times without a mala.  Time yourself chanting the mantra. Once you know how long it takes, you can simply use your timer.  There is also a way to make a mala using your hands.  You count the “segments” of each finger.  There are three segments on each finger, twelve on one hand.  Every time you go through all twelve segments on one hand, you count one segment on your other hand.  When you get to nine segments on the second hand you have reached 108 (9 x 12 = 108).  While there is something soothing about clicking through the beads of a mala, there are times when I want to chant and I don’t have my mala with me. It is very helpful to have different ways to maintain your practice.

Let me know if this mantra has helped you.

What does the Sacrament of Extreme Unction (Last Rites), change and the song "Closing Time" by Semisonic have to do with your seventh chakra?

Last Rites are traditionally given to someone who is preparing to die.  It’s symbolizes the sick person’s acceptance of leaving behind the possessions of his or her life, both physical and emotional.  Extreme Unction is traditionally administered just once, but from a symbolic perspective, in the realm of our own thoughts and feelings, it can be administered once a day, because it signifies our desire to release the unnecessary baggage we carry with us.  It represents the release of all that is dead in our lives, and our conscious choice not to use our life-force to keep alive that which has passed from us.  This sacrament offers us a discipline through which we can live in the present moment.

While you may not have thought as the past as “dead”, this is actually an apt description of the place we call “yesterday”.  Breathing our life-force into keeping the past alive is like choosing to live in a mausoleum.  It is cold and dark, and the dead do not speak to us.

We are not meant to carry the past within us as if it were still alive.  What is over is over, and using our energy to fuel events or relationships long gone is like breathing life into a corpse in hopes of a resurrection. The cost of such actions to both the body and spirit is enormous.

According to Caroline Myss, the sacrament of Extreme Unction is related to the seventh chakra, which represents our connection to eternity and the divine.  The divine truth of the seventh chakra is to “Live in the Present Moment”.  To live in the present moment, we need to surrender and let go.

This was brought home very powerfully for me this week as two major changes were unfolding in my life.  One event was the closing of the old Cornerstone, New Hope location and with it the beautiful yoga space at The Treehouse.  Change is always difficult, even if it is just your yoga studio changing locations.  While I was excited about the change, I could see that a lot of the students were not.  You could hear sadness and reluctance in their voices.  The new space is beautiful in its own way, but it’s different.  There will be some things we love about the new space and some things we are not too happy about.  But, regardless, on Monday morning, April 10th, we will be in the new location.  We need to let go of the old space and move on with enthusiasm for that which lies in front of us.

The other event was the fact that my mother was moved into Hospice care last week.  I have to contemplate her passing in a much more concrete way.  I actually had to have a conversation with a priest about administering last rites.  While my mother left her home and her possessions long ago, it is now my turn to learn to let go. I need to perform my own ceremony of last rites, of letting go of who I was and that part of my routine which revolved around her.

The inherent energy of Extreme Unction combined with the energy of the seventh chakra, celebrates that all that was good about our past remains alive within us and around us, and that which is dead needs to be dead.  We cannot feel the grace that assures us of our own immortality if we continue to fear and fight the passage of years.

There is a correlation between the two homonyms weight and wait.  The more of the past we carry with us, the heavier our load and the slower our mental, emotional and spiritual evolution.  The lesson of the seventh chakra and the ritual of last rites teach us to dump the contents of our emotional suitcases on the floor as a symbolic release of everything we no longer want to carry with us. 

A healing ritual of Extreme Unction

Begin by asking yourself:  How much energy is draining from me?  How much of the dead am I carrying with me in my daily life?  On a piece of paper, write down whatever dead weight of the past you feel like you are lugging around with you.  Put the paper into a pyrex or earthenware bowl  (on your altar, if you have one) and put a match to it.  As it goes up in flames, visualize yourself dissolving the bonds that have tied you to the incident or incidents and allow your energy to return to you.  Say a prayer in which you release your energy from the event saying, “I don’t want this in my life anymore.”  As you feel your energy returning, say a brief prayer of thanksgiving.

If you have a song or some music that helps you feel the energy of releasing, play it as you perform your ritual.  The song that always comes to my mind when I feel a chapter in my life ending is the song “Closing Time” by Semisonic.  This song was written by Dan Wilson about the birth of his first child and how that event was going to change his life as a rock and roller.

Closing time
Open all the doors and let you out into the world
Closing time
Turn all of the lights on over every boy and every girl
Closing time
One last call for alcohol so finish your whiskey or beer
Closing time
You don't have to go home but you can't stay here

[Chorus:]
I know who I want to take me home
I know who I want to take me home
I know who I want to take me home
Take me home

Closing time
Time for you to go out to the places you will be from
Closing time
This room won't be open till your brothers or your sisters come
So gather up your jackets, move it to the exits
I hope you have found a friend
Closing time
Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end

[Chorus:]
I know who I want to take me home
I know who I want to take me home
I know who I want to take me home
Take me home

Closing time
Time for you to go out to the places you will be from

[Chorus:]
I know who I want to take me home
I know who I want to take me home
I know who I want to take me home
Take me home

Closing time
Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end

Letting go of the past is one way we can heal ourselves.   What do you need to let go of?

Pose of the Month - One Arm Handstand

Anna in One Arm Handstand

Practicing Inversions.
Developing Equanimity.

One of the things that makes yoga different from any other form of exercise is the practice of going upside down. Inversions are not for everyone and there are precautions to follow to be safe.  The body has to be trained by the other poses and the student has to develop the awareness and sensitivity to know where the body is in space and what it is doing.   But, inversions are very internalizing postures and they powerfully focus the mind.

Balancing postures, in general, develop poise.  Hand balancing poses such as handstand build confidence and strength.  Because our upper limbs metaphorically connect us to each other, arm balances can strengthen these connections as well as help us maintain healthy boundaries.  Hand balances can be very empowering postures, but they can also be very intimidating to new students.  It is important to practice patience and proceed with caution.

While there is a certain amount of upper body strength required to move into Handstand.  The posture is not as much about hard work and pushing, as much as it is about moving toward ease.  The first thing to learn is to let go of fear and anxiety and begin to learn to find balance in the center of the skeleton.  Think of stacking your bones like so many building blocks.  In Handstand, you line up your forearms right under your upper arms so that your elbows are articulating in full extension and straightness.  When your upper arms are in line with your torso and your torso is in line with your legs, your skeleton maximizes your ability to support your weight.  This articulation takes some time to reach since your joints need to open up and your muscular body needs to support you.  It is important to master this basic skill before moving into the pose variations.  The flexibility to extend the arms in line with the torso is developed in the various positions of the arms in the standing poses.

While the pose of the month is one arm Handstand, it is important to work up to it progressively.  The action of the arms starts in Child’s Pose, progresses to Downward Facing Dog and moves into two arm Handstand.  As a rule of thumb, it is a good idea to be able to hold regular Handstand for a full minute with your arms completely straight, stacking the bones for stability and ease before you think about trying to balance on one arm.  Other benchmark skills are one minute Side Plank and the ability to do pushups.

Last month when we were working on Astavakrasana, one student finally got into the pose after 15 years of practice.  When I was searching up one arm Handstand online, I read one person’s story about how it took him 14 weeks of practicing four to six hours a day, six days a week.  Results are faster the more you practice, but this is just to remind you not to expect results in one day.  Whether your goal is to get into Handstand or one arm Handstand, patience and perseverance are important.  And, achieving the pose is not important.  As Krishna says to Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita:

You have the right to your actions,
But never to your action’s fruits.
Act for the action’s sake.
And do not be attached to inaction.

Self possessed, resolute act
Without any thought of results
Open to success or failure.
This equanimity is yoga.
BG 2.47-48

Lessons of the 2nd Chakra

The lessons of the 2nd chakra have to do with the power of relationships. The sacred truth associated with this chakra is “Honor One Another”.  The Swadhisthana chakra can also be called the Partnership chakra.  This is where we receive the power to act with integrity and honor within all of our relationships, from marriage to friendships to professional bonds.  This energy is particularly active because it resonates in all financial and creative activity.  Integrity and honor are necessary for health.  When we violate our honor or compromise it in anyway, we contaminate our spirits and our physical bodies.

1. Meaning

   1. Swadhisthana - One’s Own Place

2. Location

   1. Sacral area

3. Principle

   1. Water

4. Properties

   1. Liquid, flowing, feeling, changeable, yielding, pleasureable

5. Body Parts

   1. Hips, sacrum, abdomen, sexual organs, large intestine, lower vertebraeinner thighs, knees

6. Mental and Emotional Issues

   1. Intimacy/emotions

   2. Blame and guilt

   3. Money and sex

   4. Power and control

   5. Ethics and honor in relationships

7. Physical Dysfunctions

   1. Chronic lower back pain

   2. Sciatica

   3. Ob/gyn problems

   4. Pelvic and hip pain

   5. Sexual potency

   6. Urinary problems

8. Divine Truth

   1. Honor one another

9. Affirmations:

   1. I deserve and experience pleasure in my life

   2. I absorb information from my feelings

   3. I embrace and celebrate my sexuality

   4. I move and change easily and effortlessly

Questions for working with the 2nd Chakra

1. Do you have a lot of creative ideas?

2. Do you act upon them or deny them?

3. List your personal creative strengths:

4. List ways in which you use/express your creativity:

5. List ways in which you use/express your negativity:

6. How comfortable are you with your sexuality?

7. What do you need to do or be willing to do to be sexually well-balanced and to honor your sexuality?

8. Have you been abused sexually?

9. Have you abused others sexually?

10. What is your personal code of honor?

11. When do you not keep your word?

12. Do circumstances determine your ethical behavior?

13. Do you feel that Divine justice influences your life?

14. How much do you control others:

    1. Sexually?

    2. Financially?

    3. In power plays?

15. How much power does money have over you?

16. Do you violate your values for financial security?

17. How much of your life is dominated by fears of:

    1. Financial security?

    2. Physical security?

    3. Sexual security?

18. What do you need to do or be willing to do to resolve your fears of:

    1. Financial security?

    2. Physical security?

    3. Sexual security?

19. What do you need to do or be willing to do to use your creativity optimally?

On a scale of 0 to 10—in which 10 means absolute health with no deficit whatsoever and no lack of full expression of this chakra—how healthy and well-balanced is your second chakra?

8 Poses to Astavakrasana

Here are 8 poses to help you get to Astavakrasana, or Eight Crooked Places Pose.

Astavakrasana

This is a sequence you can practice at home, or if you are a teacher, you can try it out on your classes.  You can always add poses to make the sequence fill the time slot you have to teach.

Take a Sun Salute or three, or any other warm up of your choosing and as you come into each pose, stay for at least 5 breaths.

1. Side Angle Pose - take a vinyasa in-between and end in Down Dog.  From there come into:

2. Lizard Lunge - back leg straight.  Jump or step switch.  Move back into Down Dog and take a vinyasa if you wish.  Come into:

3. Revolved Side Angle Pose.  Do both sides and then transition to sitting.

4. Boat Pose.  Do three times and hold for 5 breaths each time.  Try to lift your self off the floor, balancing on your hands in between.

5. Revolved Boat.  I also call this seated Astavakrasana.  Right ankle crossed over left, left arm between legs as you twist to the right.  Do other side. Hold 5 breaths.

6. Baby Cradle.  Take as much time stirring the pot, or rocking your leg back and forth as you need.

7. One-Arm Leg Pose.  This is where you lift off with one leg bent over your shoulder and the other leg stretched out straight.

8. Astavakrasna!

If it doesn't work the first time you try this, be patient and keep practicing!

I'll see you in class!

Karin

Side Angle

Lizard Lunge

Revolved Side Angle Pose

Boat Pose

Revolved Boat or Seated Astavakrasana

Baby Cradle

One Arm Leg Pose

Astavakrasana!