Teaching the Yamas and Niyamas

I felt fully recovered enough to begin teaching yoga again in mid-January, and have now taught eight classes. I am truly enjoying teaching again.  I have been giving a series of classes centered on the Yamas and Niyamas, the ethical principles of yoga. The Yamas are ethical restraints: non-harming, non-stealing, non-lying, moderation, and non-greed. The Niyamas are personal practices to cultivate: purity, contentment, discipline, self-knowledge, and surrender to ultimate reality.

Last week’s class centered on Tapas, or self-discipline. Tapas is the will and discipline to do what it takes to achieve a goal. In the process, the heat of Tapas (Tapas can be translated as “heat”) burns off impurities. Everyone who has committed to a consistent yoga practice can feel the benefits of that commitment. It doesn’t even take that many classes before the changes in the body begin to be felt. We may also find that we feel calmer, more relaxed, and better able to focus in our daily lives, as well.

My students and I have braved record-breaking cold, snow, and ice for these classes. I think we have all enjoyed exploring the ethical principles of yoga together. My students continually impress me with the growth they show in their practice. I am deeply grateful for their presence, dedication, and openness to asking for clarification and direction. The continue to teach my as I teach them.

A busy few weeks

I have been pretty busy in these past two weeks getting ready to be out of commission post-surgery. I will be taking disability leave from work of up to four weeks. A lot of my time at work recently has been spent finishing up projects I have been working on, and delegating my workload to various coworkers to take up while I'm out. I have never taken so much time off work before. Only a week or two for vacations, never a month before. I work with great people, and I have every confidence that the work tasks will go smoothly. It does feel weird, though, to be delegating my work load for that long of a time.

In my off-work life, I found a substitute teacher for the yoga class I teach! She will only be able to teach for six weeks until she heads off to college. But the yoga students are grateful, and it will be great experience for this new graduate from yoga teacher training.

I also wrapped up the meditation class I teach. I completed the series on the Yamas - yoga ethical guidelines - that I was teaching, then taught one more class without notes, from the heart, that ended up being just a fantastic class. What a great note to end pause on. Others will teach the class while I heal from surgery.

I have also been getting my own self ready. Last weekend I bought more of the bras I'm supposed to wear post-surgery: high impact sports bras with a back closure (rather than the kind that slip on over the head). This bra construction is supposed to provide the kind of strong support I will need as I heal from the surgery.

Today is a holiday, the 4th of July. I took the 5th off as well. I'll be heading over to our old farmhouse to get more packing done, before the restrictions on lifting begin again. See, we're in the middle of a move. We have been able to move some of our things, but quite a bit still remains at the old house. Before my diagnosis, I had planned to use my vacation to finish packing and complete the move, but life had other plans. So it goes.

P.S. Surgery count-down - one week from today. Eek!

A student!

Last week no one showed up to my first scheduled Gentle Yoga class. I was a bit disappointed, but actually I was mostly fine with it. Having no students gave me a chance to bring in the props I have gathered and find a place to store them in the back room of Pearls of Wisdom, where I’m giving the class. I was also able to figure how to set up my classroom to best use the space, and then do the practice – a dry run or dress rehearsal, if you will. It’s all good.

Yesterday, though, I actually had a student! She was enthused and ready to do yoga. However, it wasn’t the student I was expecting. I was expecting to have a woman who has had wrist surgery and can’t put much pressure on her wrist, including getting up from sitting on the floor. So I had planned a session entirely of poses in a chair and standing poses. The student who did come is experiencing plantar fasciitis and has no trouble getting on the floor. So I had to switch gears in the middle of my planned set of poses and try to address her foot issues.

What a great learning experience for me. We did some foot stretches and I taught her a couple of good massage techniques to use. I also did some good leg stretches with her: seated wide angle forward bend, cobblers pose and garland pose. I missed some good poses for plantar fasciitis, though, like Warrior I and staff pose. So much for thinking on my feet! I’ll have to add those to the workout if she returns.

For my first time out teaching I felt awkward; my instruction patter didn’t flow and having to switch gears through me off. But I don’t think I did all that badly, either. Remembering how nervous and awkward I was the first time I taught pranayama, I think I did okay. :-)

Teaching yoga

Today is a big day for me. Today I start teaching my first ongoing yoga class: Gentle Yoga For Inflexible People. I'm teaching on a volunteer/donation only basis, which I feel is right since I haven't yet even begun a yoga teacher training.  

I have been planning this class for almost two months now. I haven't said anything here because I didn't want to jinx it, in case I changed my mind or it didn't happen for some reason. But...today is the day! It's happening!

I have put this class together based on the yoga that I have been able to do as I have regained my strength and flexibility over the past year or two. I'm also using a lot of material from Peggy Cappy's Yoga For The Rest Of Us book and DVD series of traditional yoga modified for various body types and abilities. The DVDs in particular are useful; Peggy's students in her videos are of varying ages - including above age 70 - and she demonstrates poses modified for their varying levels of flexibility. 

The meditation class I've been teaching this year has expanded to include a short warm-up and breathing (pranayama) exercises. Teaching this class has been incredibly rewarding and fun for me. I'm having a ball with it! I have been having more fun than I've had since I went to massage school. When I am teaching I feel completely in the moment. A sure sign that I'm doing something right. 

From this joy, the idea came to me to expand my teaching to include a yoga class. Plus, I feel certain that the practice will benefit me as well, by helping me get stronger and prepare me for an faster-paced traditional hatha yoga class. My goal is to start attending a regular yoga class in the winter, and hopefully start yoga teacher training next fall.   

But first, tonight's class. Several of my students from the mediation class have promised to attend this evening. I have practiced; I know the poses and routine I'm going to do. I am just about as ready as I can be. I am nervous, but really excited as well. 

Fall Into Spring

A lot has happened in my life since the last time I posted here. Sadness and frustration gave way to expansion and growth as the year turned from fall, to winter, to spring. This post gives the highlights of those changes.

My fall seemed unrelentingly stressful. My elderly cat, who had taken so much care for over a year, finally worsened and I had to put her to sleep in early September. I became increasingly unsatisfied with my work situation over the summer, and applied for several jobs to change my situation, but with no luck. For reasons that I won’t go into here, those potential work avenues are now closed.

I struggled with pressures on the work front, both positive and frustrating, that just kept coming and never let up.

I continued to feel frustrated with my lack of strength and flexibility.

I just wanted a life that worked again.

I felt like I was in a holding pattern. Craving movement, and frustrated at its lack. As is often the case when it feels that life isn't working, I recognized that much of the frustrations I was feeling were because of my attachment to a certain outcome. One particular job that I wanted badly. Getting this job would have meant a big change in my life, including a potential move. As I waited to hear about it, I held open space in my life that I hoped that job would fill.  

At the change of the year things began to shift. I started making new, positive steps in my life.

* I started seeing a Reiki healer I had seen a few times about a decade before. Our work together really shifted my energy and freed some of the blockages in my life.

* I began making plans for the new year. Plans that would fill the space I had been keeping empty. My New Years goals for 2011 included 1) begin taking Tai Chi classes and 2) begin teaching meditation regularly.

I started teaching/leading mediation classes in February.

In late February, after too long a delay, I was finally able to find time to have a heart-to-heart with my manager, and ask for some of the duties I had found missing in my job. Amazingly, she was able to give me everything that I asked for. My job is now (for the time being at least) much more fulfilling than it has been in a long while.

I started weekly Tai Chi classes in April.  

My life has changed in so many ways for the better. All of the new things in my life have brought me a great deal of learning and growth. I plan to be a better blogger and record some of those blessings here.

Making alterations

The pranayama class I gave two weeks ago seemed to go well enough. The new person who was there has come back to the weekly meditation classes (led by the usual teacher, not me) for the past two weeks. So at least I didn't scare her away! I still have a few nerves when I teach, though. It's not nervousness that I don't know what I'm talking about or what I'm doing - I definitely do. I think it's more that I'm a strong introvert, more used to listening than being the center of attention. Teaching takes a different kind of energy than I'm used to. I want to keep at it until it feels comfortable to me.

What's really not being comfortable for me right now, though, are the hard plastic deck chairs in the room where we meditate. My back is still very sensitive. When I meditate at home I sit on a soft cushy couch with multiple soft pillows behind my back. (I have been sitting on an exercise ball at work, which takes pressure off my back and helps a lot). Yesterday I took one of those big cushions with arms into the meditation room, set it against the wall, and sat on the floor with a pillow under my butt. I still couldn't get comfortable! I couldn't meditate. Lying on the floor isn't good, either. Anything hard against my back hurts.

I have one more idea. If I could bring some sort of soft cushion to lie on, I might be able to meditate on the floor in Savasana. I do have such a cushion, a twin matress topper, that just might work. As long as I can carry it tucked under one arm. I draw the line at carrying multiple armloads of cushions and pillows, as I end up just feeling silly. I can meditate perfectly well at home, though I do like meditating with other people, so I hope this works out for me.

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My schedule has been a bit wonky the past couple of weeks, leading me to need to get to work a bit earlier. As a result, I have stopped my morning pranayama practice. I am not a morning person; I find it difficult to get going in the morning. The past couple of weeks it has been particularly difficult to get going. Well, this morning I did a bit of energizing pranayama, and what a difference it made! I hadn't realized how much my morning breathing practice was helping me to be awake and happy in the mornings until I stopped. It may make me an extra 15 minutes later to work in the mornings, but if I can afford it, that extra 15 minutes is really worth it.

Second pranayama class

I was able to find an hour to meditate the evening that I wrote my last post.  Meditation really does make everything feel better. 

I have also decided to add Alternate Nostril Breathing to each of my pranayama sessions. It's supposed to balance the right and left halves of the brain, so maybe it will balance my moods, as well. And, for now at least, I'm not performing the bedtime internal retention pranayama. I think I need a rest from it for now; I'll try it again later. Hey, I made it 10 days.

This evening I teach the second of my classes on pranayama. Last month I taught Pranayamas for Cleansing and Energizing.  Tonight I'm teaching Pranayamas For Calming. My source material for today's class is almost exclusively B.K.S. Iyengar's Light On Pranayama. I love the precise, detailed style of his writing.  Occasionally he spices the text with metaphorical description, such as this gem: “As a jug is filled from the bottom to the top, so fill the lungs from their base to the brim.” I am very reminded of the style my massage textbook, which asked the masseur to “knead, as a baker kneads dough (J.H. Kellogg, 1903).” 

During the meditation following last month's class on energizing pranayamas, I found myself battling thoughts and emotions, and never felt the nice drifty meditation space. I also heard from one other person that she had trouble sleeping that night. That makes sense, since the pranayamas we did that evening were pretty focused on pumping the solar plexus; we probably stirred some stuff up.  Good to know. The next time I teach I won’t do as many of the energizing exercises all in one night, but end with several calming pranayamas.

My meditation after today’s class focusing on stress-relieving pranayamas will hopefully be more peaceful.

Teaching pranayama

A few weeks ago my meditation teacher handed us a schedule of the topics we'll be learning in the first hour of class before we meditate. We meet every Wednesday.

The first Wednesday of each month she will speak on Consciousness and Energy.
The second Wednesday of the month she will teach Taoist Techniques for Health.
The third Wednesday we'll learn Pranic Breathing Exercises.
The fourth Wednesday she will discuss Ancient Eastern Philosophy Text (possibly the Vedas?).
And when there is a fifth Wednesday, the topic will be Cosmic History and Extraterrestrial Meaning. (This one is a bit out there for me, but I promise to keep an open mind.)

This past Wednesday was the third Wednesday of the month. Now, I have done some teaching of pranayama techniques there before, when I've filled in for my teacher when she's had to miss the class for some reason or another. But she hadn't mentioned to me that I would be leading the class on scheduled Pranic Breathing days, and it would have been egotistical for me to assume that I would be teaching.

Well, what did she do but expect me to teach! I was so unprepared. Gah! At least there was only one other student there for the class this week. I floundered about for a bit trying to remember how to teach belly breath and three-part breath. Eventually I hit my stride and taught Breath of Fire, Skull-Brightener Breath, and Alternate Nostril Breathing. I went really deep in meditation after all that breathing!

So I guess it's official now: I'm a pranayama teacher. I guess I'd better finish reading Light on Pranayama pretty quick (I'm almost half-way through)!

Does anyone have any other pranayama text recommendations, from either the hatha or kundalini yoga traditions?