As a relatively young yoga practitioner (27), I’m always seeking the wisdom of those that have come before me, like, waaay before me. I’m always asking, who are the teachers’ teachers? The teachers’ teachers’ teachers? I’m not saying that I can’t, or won’t, learn from my contemporaries and other teachers. I know that I have much to learn, and do learn from all teachers of all experience levels.
A reason why I focus on studying with the pioneers, apart from the fact that they’re, well, pioneers, is time. These older teachers could stop teaching any day now, and as far as I’m concerned, that day will come too soon for me. For some of those teachers, like Vanda Scaravelli, it’s already too late. Greedily, I want them to stay around until I’ve learned everything from all of them, a pipe dream, of course.
So, when I found out about Donald Moyer, and that he’d be doing a workshop in Seattle at Two Dog Yoga, I was ecstatic.
Don is the Founding Director of the famed Yoga Room in Berkeley. I got a hold of his book, Yoga, Awakening the Inner Body, and page after page, discovered a thrilling exploration of the human body, as if I’m hunting and uncovering treasures. My jaw practically dropped to the floor when I read about the comparison of sternum to the sacrum.
The xiphoid process is like the tail of the sternum, just like the coccyx is the tail of the sacrum. Any movement of the xiphoid process directly affects the tone and quality of the respiratory diaphragm, just as the coccyx affects the pelvic diaphragm.
The sacrum is a vital center of communication linking the legs, pelvis, and lumbar spine. If your sacrum is tilted to the right or left, or if your sacrum is too deep or too near the surface of the body, then your hip joints, sacroilliac joints, and lumbar spine will be more vulnerable to injury.
In a similar way, the manubrium, or upper sternum, is the center of communication, or control panel, for the arms, shoulder girdle, and rib cage. If your manubrium is tilted to the right or left, or if your manubrium is too deep or too prominent, your shoulder girdle, shoulder joints, and ultimately, your cervical spine will be adversely affected.
Did you guys catch that? He compared the manubrium to the control panel! The control panel! Okay, okay, maybe it is not that exciting. Maybe I got a little too overzealous there. The point is, I’ve truly appreciated reading his book, and I’m really looking forward to meeting him this weekend.
Here’s information from the Two Dog Yoga website:
November 13 6:00pm – 8:00pm
November 14 9:30am – 12:30pm & 3:00pm – 5:00pm
November 15 9:30am – 12:30pm
Donald Moyer is the founder of The Yoga Room, in Berkeley, CA. Donald’s teaching style is quiet but intense. He encourages an awareness of the inner body by working with the alignment of internal organs, creating space in the joints, and maintaining the balance between release and intention. Practicing in this way creates more movement with less effort, and brings a deeper, more self-empowering experience to the poses. Six month’s experience yoga required.
Yoga Teacher Donald Moyer
)
