Dear A

An 18 minute basic yoga nidra, guided relaxation for your restoration and recalibration

The group fitness and I came of age together and when I started paying attention to it again some twenty years later there was Nia and Zumba, mat Pilates, step-aerobics, Hip Hop and yoga. Rodney Yee appeared on Oprah, leading hundreds of live viewers through a simple Iyengar style class replete with breathing and shivasava and the gravitas of Oprah’s testimonial; her life enriched by what was still something a few people with armpit hair did in their living rooms.

When I first started teaching a small handful of students in 2005, I tried to figure out how to rotate Scott’s inner elbows outwards in downward facing dog because that was what I was I was taught in my teacher training: Legs at hip width, arms at shoulder width and inner elbows facing forward. Scott was a globally tensioned body type whose morphology and shoulder girdle mobility dictated that his elbows would neither straighten or rotate. I was remarkably ill-equipped to lead large groups of people in what was perceived to be safe therapeutic mindful exercise, but at least I knew to say don’t do it if it hurts.

Playlist:

Springfish: by Gillicuddy

Dirt 1: by Joachim Nilsson

Dusk til Dawn: by Henrik Andersson

Dual Controls: by Martin Klem

Get Into It: by Johan Hynyn

Crows: by Dust Follows

Runaway Deer: by Arc De Soleil

Teenage Color: by Niklas Ahlstrom

Tape Eater: by Pietnaska

Variation on a Theme by Rilke

by Denise Levertov

A certain day became a presence to me; 
there it was, confronting me--a sky, air, light: 
a being.  And before it started to descend 
from the height of noon, it leaned over 
and struck my shoulder as if with 
the flat of a sword, granting me 
honor and a task,  The day's blow 
rang out, metallic--or it was I, a bell awakened, 
and what I heard was my whole self 
saying and singing what it knew: I can.

Playlist:

Springfish: by Gillicuddy

Dirt 1: by Joachim Nilsson

Dusk til Dawn: by Henrik Andersson

Dual Controls: by Martin Klem

Get Into It: by Johan Hynyn

Crows: by Dust Follows

Runaway Deer: by Arc De Soleil

Teenage Color: by Niklas Ahlstrom

Tape Eater: by Pietnaska

1. Song: Alright Lover / Artist: Snow Wave

2. Song: Sad Cyclops / Artist: Podington Bear

Ending quote by Erin Clabough, PhD from her book Second Nature: How Parents Can Use Neuroscience to Help Kids to Develop Creativity, Empathy & Self Control

• we still idolize extreme ranges of motion in the media and therefore frustration for a modern teacher is twofold: on one hand the practice is remote and unapproachable (not flexible enough) and on the other the messaging is an insidious dictate of need...

• The exaltation of curious shapes by force is a legacy we’ve inherited. To be progressive teachers, we must sort through and deliberately choose what to get behind: what is sensationalist, relevant, updated, therapeutic, damaging; and where we are within the timeline.

• Forceful aggressive assists involving pulling, pushing, pinching, being stood and sat upon have a curious appeal for some. Boundaries are crossed, rules are written, messages conveyed. I used to feel like an inadequate teacher because I didn’t do vigorous assists. Now I feel assured that this is not the path to increased motor skills.

• Is it still yoga if you don’t do postures? What is our working definition of yoga?

• The Hadza people, in north-central Tanzania, are among the last hunter- gatherers on Earth. We all used to all move for sustenance like they do; in all different ways, planes, speeds, distances. Our eyes and inner ears and nervous systems were stimulated by the dynamic natural world. Once upon a time, movement was not a choice, it was food. And shelter. And survival. 

• It used to be a privilege to NOT move. To afford such a thing as leisure. Now our economy is largely dependent on sedentary bodies working at desks and screens. We’re getting tighter and more closed in. Now it is a privilege to move—A privilege to afford the time and space to move for fun/health/personal development.

• “When you understand a technique, you know a technique. When you understand a concept, you understand thousands of techniques. “  -author unknown

• Theres a limit I think to how generous we are with yoga’s definition. Is running or rock climbing or trail running yoga? Where are its boundaries? Is it an approach or a movement practice? Is it absorption? Being in the zone? People going to a class need to know that when they sign up for yoga they are not going to do animal moves or rolling baddha konasana before winding down for sivasana. I did that.

• If i were my grandpa and you changed the class I’d been enjoying for years, I’d cuss and yell and put up a fit. You can’t just change it on people. If you want to teach a new class at another time slot be my guest.

Music:

1. Basse 2 by Monplaisir- Sous Tensions Original Soundtrack

2. Soporific by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

3. Cold Funk by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

When Margaret Welch shows us that she can no longer fully extend her left knee and Meg O’Shea says she has parasites, Beth mouths, Did she just say parasites? I nod because unfortunately I am familiar with sensitive ideopathic gastrointestinal conditions, herbs, diets, speculations, tests and misery, but also I wonder how this is relevant. Beth just shakes her head. We’re doing as we’re told, taking careful notes on the conditions of our classmates, (thirty-six women and five men) as they catalogue health histories aloud so we’ll know how to modify yoga poses for one another. Because this is advanced teacher training. Jennifer Winter ticks off on her fingers: “Two lumbar herniations, inflammation in the cartilage around my heart, two plates and thirteen screws in my jaw and a right foot sprain.”

Band: Shilpa Ray Song: Shilpa Rays Got A Heart Full Of Dirt

Band: Victor Rathnayake Song: Hopalu Wana Petha

Band: Big Ups Song: Body Parts

Band: Big Ups Song: Goes Black

Dear E:

I’m in the yoga teacher turned movement coach boat that’s still trying to figure out where to dock.  It seems as though you’re on the other side of that transition?  I would love to pick your brain over a phone call sometime and just chat with you about what you’ve found works and doesn’t work, your biggest challenges, etc.

Dear A:

I wish I were on the other side of that transition. Am I? Thankfully I’m not at the very beginning anymore- I have stronger opinions and more answers but the challenge lies in how to get the message out, how to explain why I’m teaching this and not that, why I’m different and it’s different, but more than that, why it’s superior material. I have far more information now that is contemporary, empirical, revealing, revelatory, progressive.

It seems I’ve been circling and bumping at the dock for so long I’m not sure I’ll even know what landing feels like. Perhaps I’ll stay at sea for the long haul, resting in the rhythm of the waves. Perhaps there isn’t as hard a line as I supposed between then and now; the two of me blending more than bifurcating. One of the nicest things to happen to me this year while sailing around in the dark is bumping into more boats out here in these murky waters. People who have opened a door or a bottle like Alice in the rabbit’s den, who can’t go back now because they have seen to much and outgrown their shells, skins, container.

6 short stories: fear, imagination, wishing, dreading, comparing & transforming+ a letter to my former self going to college to study art + Mandy Patinkin on fear

Song interlude list:

Artist: Kitchen Romance Song: My Bloody Beating Heart

Artist: The Tall Pines Song: Boogie Pt. 1

Artist: Break The Bans Song: How Can I Love Her

Artist: Shilpa Ray Song: Nocturnal Emissions

Artist: The Tall Pines Song: Boogie Pt. 1

Artist: The Tall Pines Song: Boogie Pt. 1

7. Artist: Shilpa Ray Song: Nocturnal Emissions