I’m about half-way through Chapter 5 in Mark Steven’s Teaching Yoga book, titled: “Creating Space for Self-Transformation“.  He makes a good case for creating an environment conducive to cultivating “sthira sukham asanam” (steadiness and ease) or “being calm and soft [in thought] while strong and stable [in body]“1.  This is precisely why I want to teach yoga.  Let me back up and explain.

After months of weekly acupuncture treatments, I am convinced beyond any doubt that our energy body does in fact exist.  Just go weekly for one month and you too will experience the power of acupuncture.   Take a yoga class every other day for three weeks and you will feel positive transformations in your life.  Western Medicine might dismiss this as saying “it all in your mind” — and they would be half right.  What you are directly experiencing are positive changes to your energy body.

“This experiential process … is what makes [yoga] practice itself a spiritual practice”2.  Mark Steven’s hits the nail squarely on the head in this quote.  Yoga’s origins might be based on Hinduism, but one does not have to subscribe to any religion in order to reap yoga’s rewards.  It is important to note that he uses the term “spiritual”, accessible to any one, as opposed to “religion”, which tends to be more formalize by traditions and seeped in cultural norms.  “Religion” often gets confused for “spiritually”; but religion is only a small subset of spiritually.  Consider two men who want to get married in a Catholic church in South Dakota or Idaho.  From the religious point of view gay sex is a sin, and gay marriage is illegal.  However, the spiritual point of view, if two men really love each other, they have every right to be married.

Just as there are several licensed acupuncturists out there that do a poor job of “needling results”.  Just as there are several yoga instructor out there that see yoga as “just exercise”.  I don’t want to be in that category.  My intent as a yoga instructor is to be a conduit for experiencing the energy body — directly.  Which means yoga in public parks are ok for now.  However, I’m working on finding a dance studio or some other space where I can create an environment conducive to cultivating “sthira sukham asanam“.

So when it comes to Yoga4Bears, abhyasa vairagya (steadiness of effort without attachment to the fruits) has become my motto.  I’ll just keep putting myself out there.

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Footnotes:

1. Mark Stevens, Teaching Yoga, p.98

2. Mark Stevens, Teaching Yoga, p.99

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Home Practice:
Trikonasana, et al

“How does the placement of your feet affect the work in your legs?  The shape of your spine and neck?  Energetically, what feels different?”

Intensity:  A wider/deeper stance is directly proportional to the energy one receives in the poses.  Energy is flowing up and down the spine, so naturally the spine wants to be the perfect conduit by remaining straight.  The neck, however, may be straining to look at something,  unconsciously focusing on one’s body.  Encourage a relaxed neck.

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Teaching Practice
Tadasana & Virabhadrasana II

(alignment points only)

Tadasana:

1. Feet lightly touching, outer edges parallel to mat

2. Lightly engage your core, feel the lower ribs lift (uddiyana bandha light)

3. Arms are down so that there is the smallest gap a the armpits, palms facing in

Virabhadrasana II:

1. Now step your right foot back, so that the left knee is bent at 90-degrees

2. Adjust your right foot so that it is perpendicular to your left

3. Raise your arms so that they are parallel to the floor

4. Lightly engage your core so that the bottom ribs lift and spine is plumb to the ground (uddiyana bandha light)

5. Hold until enlightened (or for 5 breaths)

6. Then return to Tadasana

Tadasana:

1. Hold for 5 breaths, hands in prayer position

Virabhadrasana II (left side)

1. Now step your left foot back, so that the right knee is bent at 90-degrees

2. Adjust your left foot so that it is perpendicular to your right

3. Raise your arms so that they are parallel to the floor

4. Lightly engage your core so that the bottom ribs lift and spine is plumb to the ground (uddiyana bandha light)

5. Hold until enlightened (or for 5 breaths)

6. Return to Tadasana

On Sunday (3/6), I found myself in a car with my brother and my dad, driving a short-cut through the Mohave desert.  We were headed to the city of Joshua Tree to celebrate my grandmother’s 92nd birthday — just a four hour drive from the Las Vegas airport.

Two weeks before my grandmother’s birthday, she had a stroke and we were told that she was going into a hospice.  We had all feared the worse so the best I could do was to dedicate my yoga practice to my grandmother.  It must have worked because she met us standing at the font door.  I couldn’t believe it!  I was so happy to see her; still moving independently, full of dignity, and living with my Aunt and her family.  We should all be that lucky at 92!

Every thing was all well and good until we read a letter from a family member who couldn’t be there on my grandmother’s 92 birthday.  It was clear that my Dad’s side of the family was in the dark about what exactly was this thing called yoga.  Never mind the fact that Joshua Tree seemed to have a yoga studio every half a mile.  I could see by the type of questions that followed that not just the person who wrote this card, but the rest of my family had questions about yoga.  Fortunately, there’s a good resource I can point them to: Yoga Journal!

I am studying to teach yoga because of its health benefits.  For example, men who followed a vegan diet and did yoga on a weekly basis, all of whom also had prostate cancer, realize a reversal of 4% in PSA levels (the blood test for prostate cancer).

Moral of this story: celebrate family… and never assume that because have been doing yoga for over 10 years (with sometimes long gaps in-between)  that anyone else will understand it!

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Teaching Yoga

I created a web site called Yoga4Bears in the hopes of getting a few (inflexible) men out for yoga on Sundays at Dolores Park.  Unfortunately it had rained the Saturday before, so when I got to the park on Sunday the ground was a bit muddy.  I would have canceled class, but no one showed up anyway — even though I’m publicizing the class to my friends on Facebook and Twitter.

After selectively reading chunks of “Teaching Yoga” by Donna Farhi and after listening to her lecture, I decided to make it less about my needs as a student-teacher and more about the needs of my students.  Additionally, I’ve changed a few key points:

1. “yoga for men who love men who also love yoga” or “yoga for men who love men who are yoga curious”
2. Instead of the class taking only 20min, I made it 30min and moved the time earlier to 11am.
3. “Very easy yoga” to “Intro to yoga”

The weather forecast for this weekend is “rain” so I’m expecting that no one will show up.  However, I’m advertising it via Facebook and Twitter again in the hopes that when the weather gets better for being outdoors, people will actually show up.