Category Archives: Guest Writers

Yoga for Men

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This week’s blog entry is written by guest author Rene De los Santos.  Rene is a graduate of Whole Life Yoga’s teacher training program and a teacher at Whole Life Yoga.    He teaches yoga for men as well as mixed gender classes.   He  can be contacted at th*********@***oo.com.

There’s an old saying that we do not choose yoga; that yoga chooses us… perhaps from a previous life?

I first became curious about yoga in 2001 after observing yoga participants leave a class more tranquil and at ease than when I observed them going in. My first thought about yoga was “Someday I’ll do yoga- when I am old”.  But yoga had called me and I quite couldn’t get that ringing out of my ear. My second thought about yoga was that I would only take classes for my own benefit but not teach it.

My misconceptions about yoga were mostly that it was for women and those either really flexible or really weird; rarely did I notice men leading a yoga class but when I did, and got to know them better, I realized that they were not particularly flexible and not at all weird. They were just like me. Normal.

This yoga journey lead me to teacher training at Whole Life Yoga, various workshops in Portland OR, San Francisco CA, Long Island NY and India to study (briefly) with TKV Desikachar, son and student of T Krishnamacharya and his son Kausthub Desikachar. Traveling to India was a life changing experience that continues to this day. It was a revelation to see that the senior teachers at the Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram were equally divided between men and women and that a great deal of respect was shown to each.

In India I learned that those who learn about yoga but do not share its teachings are like thieves.

My experience has shown me that most men (not ALL men) in our society have misconceptions concerning yoga; most of the men that I’ve spoken to do think yoga is for women, men with special powers or weird people. Most men new to yoga feel awkward walking into a room filled with women on the floor who they presume to be fit and flexible. Men tend to feel out of their league

Female yoga instructors can help ease the anxiety with new male students by not only welcoming them but also by asking if they have any questions or special concerns. Show them where everything is in the studio even if they are there with a friend who is a regular student.

When my women friends ask me how they can get their man into a yoga class, my response is simple: “Work on your own practice.” I believe strongly that yoga is ultimately about relationships- it ultimately transforms the practitioner, usually and hopefully for the better.

Yoga classes specifically for men only are gaining popularity. It gives men a chance to come together in a non-competitive environment and there’s something special about “man time” (sometimes knows as “me” time).

Men new to yoga tend to like “stronger” postures because of their natural strength; left to their own devices, my guess is that they would work more towards strength and less towards flexibility while women usually do the opposite! This can present a challenge for instructors wanting to create a challenging class with both men and women practicing together.

When my men friends ask me why I “do” yoga, my response is simple: “It makes me a better man.” The journey continues…

Namaste

Rene De los Santos

Come visit Whole Life Yoga in Seattle!

Bringing Yoga Teachings to the Mountain….

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This week’s blog entry is written by Lauren Lake, a graduate of Whole Life Yoga’s 200 hour yoga teacher training program.  Lauren can be contacted at la*************@***il.com.

A year ago, just as I was finishing my yoga teacher training with Tracy Weber at Whole Life Yoga, I decided to climb Mt. Rainier with my best friend, Mariza Esteban.  Mariza and I had talked about climbing Mt. Rainier multiple times over the years, but there was always some excuse – lack of time, money or life getting in the way. We finally decided last summer to hold ourselves accountable by paying for a guide service to ensure a safe climb. We grabbed the last two spots on a full moon weekend in August, and then started to panic about what the heck we were getting ourselves into!

To my surprise, yoga teachings kept surfacing over the year during the training and again during the actual climb.  One of the recommendations on the RMI website for training emphasized the need to stretch, improve balance, and work on core strength.  These skills are particularly important during the summit climb, in order to safely navigate tricky terrain.  Thanks to the training at Whole Life Yoga, I was able to create a home yoga practice focusing on balance, core strengthening, and leg stretches.  Mariza and I also created a mantra for our climb.  This climb with the guides is described as running a marathon, and then taking a nap, and running another marathon, which is a fairly accurate description.  I spent many hikes with a heavy pack on Mt. Si feeling out different mantras, and finally discovered that repeating to myself, “It will get better” was my mantra to use on Mt. Rainier.  It reminded me that the pain was temporary, that a break would come eventually, and that I could survive the situation.

One benefit of using the guide service, was receiving a mountaineering class the day prior to the climb.  At the very start of the class, one of the first skills we learned was pressure or pursed lip breathing.  When we reached altitude, and the fatigue was creeping in, our lead guide, Dave Hahn, taught that we should use a rest step (a quick pause to allow your muscles to relax) along with a pressured breath to increase the amount of oxygen we received while climbing.  This breathing technique is similar to some of the techniques we practiced in our yoga teacher’s training course.  Sure enough, at around 8,000 feet, with fatigue, altitude and low oxygen levels settling, I had to rely on my mantra and my breath to continue moving up the mountain.  At 11,000 feet, during our summit climb, my knees were screaming at me, and causing unsteady footing.  To ensure a safe descent, I turned back to base camp arriving just in time to enjoy a beautiful sunrise with the beautiful full moon overhead!

Surprising or not, yoga complements mountaineering very well, as it felt like a physical meditation to be climbing the mountain so slowly, with such intention, and focus on the breath.  Attempting to climb Mt. Rainier has been one of the most difficult adventures I have pursued in a long time, but I am grateful for the journey with my best friend and happy to be safely back at sea level in Seattle!

Lauren Lake

More information about Whole Life Yoga’s teacher training program can be found at our web site:  Yoga Teacher Training at Whole Life Yoga.

Using Yoga and Ergonomic Principles at Work

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This week’s blog entry is written by Frankie Marrazzi, a graduate of Whole Life Yoga’s 200 hour yoga teacher training program.  Frankie can be contacted at ********@*****st.net“>ma********@*****st.net.  She wrote on this topic in response to a student request for information on yoga and ergonomics in the work place.  If you have a question or topic request, please e-mail Tr***@***********ga.com.

Take your practice to work!

Each yoga session begins with a few minutes of centering yourself, getting in touch with your breath and leaving the rest of your world behind.   Refreshed and renewed you are ready to resume your day-to-day life but this time you do not want to leave anything behind!  Take your practice with you – to the park with the kids, to the kitchen as you cook and to the desk job at work.  Everywhere you go, your practice can come along.

If you have a job that requires a lot of sitting, there are ergonomic basics you can apply but you have to make the effort.  There is no magic accessory that makes it easier for you to sit for hours at a time.  And that is where your yoga practice can help.  Use your awareness of your body and breath during your work day to guide you.  If you find yourself wiggling a lot that usually means you need to take a break.  Stand up, do a few simple asanas (standing forward bend for example) .   If your shoulders and neck are feeling tight – same thing, do a few deep breaths and some shoulder circles, shake out your arms.

Listen to your body and also apply these basic ergonomic principles:

  • Chair:  invest in a good chair (yes you can find them at office supply stores for reasonable cost).  Do not purchase sight unseen unless you have tested the chair before and know that it will support you.  Look for these five minimum features:  5-legs with castors, adjustable arms (up/down and in/out if possible), adjustable seat pan (what you sit on),  adjustable height (if you are taller than average you may need a longer piston which can be special ordered for you in most cases), and lumbar support.
  • Feet:  flat on the floor or a foot rest with 90-135 degree angle.
  • Shoulders:  Relaxed not hunched.
  • Wrists:  Neutral not flexed.
  • Chin:  level so neck is not bent up or down.
  • If you are at a computer, stop typing every 20-30 minutes for 20 seconds just a quick rest pause.
  • Drink water!  Stay hydrated, this helps with every activity work or play.

For more details and ideas of how to further adjust your workspace the OSHA web site is a great resource, including a self-evaluation checklist:

http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/etools/computerworkstations/index.html

Use your yoga practice and ergonomic principles together to be comfortable all day – even with a desk job!

Namaste,

Frankie

Come visit Whole Life Yoga in Seattle!

 

How in the world did I get here? My journey to teaching yoga

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This week’s blog entry is written by guest author Melanie Reed.  Melanie is a graduate of Whole Life Yoga’s advanced 500 hour teacher training program and a teacher at Whole Life Yoga.    She can be contacted at sa*********@***oo.com.

I never imagined myself as a teacher of anything.  Most of my life, I have struggled with issues of anxiety and confidence, especially in groups, most especially in front of a group.  The thought of directing a practice as my yoga teachers did never once crossed my mind.

I had been taking private instruction with Tracy and dropping into classes at  Whole Life Yoga for about 6 months and felt a bit of confidence growing in my body and a deepening awareness and sensitivity physically and energetically (and the low back and hip pain I had experienced for years was gone – the first of many yoga miracles!).  One Wednesday night during Tracy’s 6:00 pm All-Levels class I experienced what I can only describe as ground rising up underneath me.  I remember the whole experience had a soft golden hue and I felt a kind of loving support that seemed endless.  I somehow ‘knew’ that this ground was connected with the yoga practice.

After the practice, Tracy happened to ask me how I was doing and I burst out sobbing.  When I told her what I had experienced during the practice and that I felt so strongly a desire to know more, she suggested that I take the 200 hour yoga teacher training that the studio offers.

I was completely astounded!  And, I said,’ but I can’t do any of the poses right’.

Tracy said, ‘That doesn’t matter at all.  The correct form of the postures is the least important element in yoga.’  It took a number of weeks to become accustomed to the idea of taking the training.  Meanwhile, I started reading Desikachar’s The Heart of Yoga and began to see a small bit of the beauty and wisdom of this path.

Throughout the 9 months of the training, I steadfastly held to my belief that I did not want to teach, but was only interested in deepening my personal practice – which of course happened in spades.  I learned many details and options which allowed me to modify poses and sequences not only to keep myself safe while practicing, but also this made the practice of yoga far more interesting.  I learned that each posture offers so many adaptations that I could match exactly what I needed no matter what my physical, energetic, or emotional state.  I loved being in a drop-in yoga class and understanding the hidden meaning of the posture sequence being taught.  It was like learning a new language; I had been given the secret yoga decoder ring.

In the last months of the training, it did finally come down to teaching – I taught my own 4 series class; which was at once the most challenging thing I’ve ever done and one of the most rewarding – because I learned so much about myself.  I learned that I can feel terrified and still speak, still move, still function and more personal to me, function as a teacher.  Albeit – a teacher in the very beginning stage.

In other words, I could move though the terror of being in front of a group, being the one speaking, the one directing others; and on the other side of the fear, I survived, in a purer form for having gone through the experience.  I had to give up the belief that I never know enough – and to trust and even relax while teaching others of the beauty and harmony in each posture, in each sequence taught in this Viniyoga tradition.

I found the Whole Life Yoga 200 hour teacher training program an intensely transformative experience and this process continues each time I am privileged to teach a yoga class – and no one is more surprised than I to find that the words, ‘on inhale, sweep your arms up, on exhale…’ are coming out of my mouth.

More information about Whole Life Yoga’s teacher training program can be found at our web site:  Yoga Teacher Training at Whole Life Yoga.

Teaching Yoga to the Airforce

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This week’s blog entry is written by Kristen Nelson, a graduate of Whole Life Yoga’s 200 hour yoga teacher training program.  Kristen can be contacted at kr*********@***oo.com

I recently volunteered to teach three yoga classes at the Air Force Combat Rescue Squadron in Oregon.  Having a brother who is a Major at this unit, I was on the schedule and couldn’t back out-or decide I was too nervous.

My first morning, I scanned the group–a few Pararescuemen (or para jumpers/PJs) and majority from their Combat Support Team. Overall the athletic ability would be diverse with a few major, past injuries thrown in.   One had bruised his spinal cord in a parachuting accident resulting in loss to his range of motion and strength.   My brother had torn his PCL and LCL in his knee, and suffered a compression fracture to his ankle.  These injuries would put the average person out, some crippled for life.  But giving up isn’t an option for them. Teaching the military was completely new for me but I knew they deserved the same care, the same conscious instruction I gave to anyone who came to my class.   As I introduced Viniyoga, its benefits and relevance, I worried there would be eye rolling and smug expressions.  But they listened.  Attentive and respectful, they tried everything I threw at them.

As beginning yogis, the pararescue guys were strong, supple and more flexible than I expected.   I was surprised at how easily my brother could get into pigeon pose, or how one guy, doing Cobra, without using arms, looked like he was pushing himself into Up Dog.   And here I am, saying, “Now, don’t strain, only come up as far is comfortable…”  One other guy had such a beautiful Bridge that I almost cried. But what was shocking… ask one of those elite pararescue guys to stand on one foot in Tree, and oh dear, our national security could be at stake.  Now, I wouldn’t normally make jest of a student’s weakness, but these guys can take it and I bet secretly, some are balancing on one foot when no one is looking.  One guy commented that while balancing, his leg felt like it was burning. It was obvious he was trying to ‘muscle’ his way through, trying to compensate for the weakness.  But he’s been trained to do exactly that-muscle through a challenge.  I know though, if I worked with this group regularly, it would be only a matter of time and they would be doing crazy stuff on one leg.

My hope, both for the pararescue guys who jump out of the sky and rescue people in all kinds of horrible situations, and to their support staff who are their bolsters, is that something about yoga sticks with them.  Working an unused muscle, relieving tension in their spine, or just giving them a bit of peace and quiet.  I believe yoga can help.

After I was there, there was talk about the unit doing yoga on a regular basis- to seek out a yoga instructor.  My brother also asked me to recommend a book to take with him on deployment.   He is taking Yoga For Your Life, by Margaret and Martin Pierce.  I like to think of him, far away, saying to his fellow Airmen, “Let’s begin by focusing on the breath.”  This brings me some comfort.  I hope it does the same for them.

Kristen

More information about Whole Life Yoga’s teacher training program can be found at our web site:  Yoga Teacher Training at Whole Life Yoga.

How Yoga Helped Me “Get” Mindfulness

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This week’s blog entry is written by guest author Jayde Pryzgoda.  Jayde is a 200-hour graduate of Whole Life Yoga’s teacher training program.    She can be contacted at th***************@***il.com

Yoga is mindfulness.

Long before I encountered teachings on mindfulness meditation, I found yoga.  My first classes were seemingly magical experiences where my worried mind and tense body became focused, strengthened, and relaxed.  By the end of class I was transformed:  lighter and freer from my daily burdens.

Four years later, I was sitting in a graduate school class, my eyes closed, attempting to observe and “label” my thoughts.  This, I was told, is a form of mindfulness: the art of paying attention to present experiences (body sensations, emotions, thoughts, surroundings, people, etc) without judgment and without immediate reaction. This was hard, and frustrating, and I didn’t feel lighter or freer from anything! And yet the more I learned about mindfulness, the more I found a sense of vibrancy  and liveliness that is only found in the present moment (never in getting lost in the past or spinning your mind over what has yet to come).

But there were and are obstacles (both in mind and body):  restlessness, agitation, sleepiness.  You see, while this “art of paying attention,” is something you can bring to everything you do (from washing the dishes to laughing with friends), training in mindfulness often takes the form of quiet, seated meditation.  And if you’ve ever tried quiet, seated mediation, you know that it can be everything but quiet inside!

Heading back to yoga school, I learned that “yoga” means “to yoke” or “to unite;” sometimes interpreted as the union of body, breath, and mind.   And this union requires dedication to practicing various methods for quieting the mind and body.   Methods such as asana (yoga postures), pranayama (breathing techniques), and meditation all work together to help us “unify” our body, breath, and mind in this present moment. What could be more mindful?

I also learned that there are traditions of yoga, including Viniyoga, that encourage the use of asana and breathing as preparation for more formal seated meditation.   And sure enough, I’ve found that starting with movement, and incorporating breath with my movement not only prepares me for seated mindfulness meditation, it is a form of mindfulness in its own right.  Practicing bringing my full attention to my breath and body, focusing my attention on feeling the interaction of breath and movement:  these are the best ways I have found so far to gently encourage my mind to stay in the present moment with my body.  Meditation still comes with obstacles, but with mindful yoga, I feel more prepared to meet them.

Jayde

Come visit Whole Life Yoga in Seattle!

What Makes Viniyoga Different?

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Today’s post is written by guest writer and current student of Whole Life Yoga’s 200 hour teacher training program, Amanda Whitworth.

I found Viniyoga by chance really.  I was taking my second yoga class at a gym in West Seattle.   As I was sitting cross-legged on the mat, I got a whisper from someplace deep inside, and I felt this random yet strong urge to ask the teacher where she received her teaching certification.  I normally tend to be someone who errs on the quiet side, never really asking too many questions, often the observer in the back of the room. On this particular day, for reasons unbeknownst to me,  I could not leave class without asking.  As other students were coming in and getting their mats, I went up to her and just asked.  With a big smile she replied, “Whole Life Yoga” and continued with an explanation that it was a studio off of 85th and Greenwood that teaches the Viniyoga lineage, and was taught by Tracy Weber.  I gratefully said thank you and proceeded to practice for the next hour and fifteen minutes trying not to think about rushing home to look up Whole Life Yoga on the internet.  A few days later I was meeting Tracy to discuss the possibility of taking her teacher training course starting a few weeks later.

One of the things that was extremely intimidating to me about practicing yoga was also why it  took me a long time to actually get on the mat.  I assumed the stereotype that everyone had to obtain a certain ‘level’ and be extremely flexible was real.  I’m a runner, hiker, triathlete, and overall, I was pretty much born with tight hips, hamstrings, and quads.  In my head, I thought I’d never obtain this ‘ultimate’ level of yoga.  Little did I know there was a lineage that was just right for me and that was Viniyoga.  What really set Viniyoga apart  from other lineages were the four main key differentiators: adaptation (function over form), repetition and stay, movement with the breath, and sequencing.

Tracy invited me to try a class and from that moment on, I realized that yoga is more than just being of a certain flexibility.  It’s a way of being and can fit into everyone’s life, regardless of their flexibility.

Here is a little more about each of the differentiators:

Adaptation of poses – “Function over Form”: Vinyoga is about adapting the pose to meet the needs of the individual.  We all have very different bodies and it is important to find what works for your particular body and work from there.  Viniyoga’s focus is on the function of the pose and adapts the form of the pose in order to suit the needs of the body.

Use of Repetition and Stay: In Viniyoga we use repetition (moving in and out of a pose) combined with staying in a posture (staying in the pose after proper preparation).  Repetition increases circulation to the muscles, and alternately contracts opposing muscles as we move in and out of the pose.   Extended stay in a pose after some repetition allows easier lengthening of the muscles after they have been properly warmed up.

Moving with the breath: We link each movement with the breath, wrapping it in a fluid motion that best serves the body.  Likewise, there are fluid “micromovements” with the breath even while staying in the pose.

Sequencing: Viniyoga uses  detailed principles of sequencing that determine how we put the asanas (poses) together.  Each pose is viewed in relation to the poses around it, and also in relation to the intention of the overall practice.

I am a firm believer that everything happens for a reason or to teach you a lesson.  That day in the gym opened an incredible door in my life. One that I walked through and have embraced wholeheartily every step of the way.

Namaste,

Amanda Whitworth

Come visit Whole Life Yoga in Seattle!