Category Archives: Teacher Training Graduate Stories

Using Yoga and Ergonomic Principles at Work

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