Category Archives: Anusara

Seattle Yoga News: Anusara Yoga for Pregnancy with Jessica Jennings at Seattle Yoga Arts

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Today and Sunday I’ll be seeing Jessica Jennings, hailing from Los Angeles, at Seattle Yoga Arts as she applies the principles of Anusara to yoga for pregnancy. I’m not an Anusara teacher, but I understand enough of the vernacular to flail along with the kula. :)

Jessica is a certified Anusara teacher and a doula. She has a Masters in Kinesiology, for which thesis she worked with the Chief of Staff of OB/Gyn at Kaiser to create a program for pregnant women.

Me, I’ve never been pregnant, and I don’t exactly think of children on a regular basis. I have a lot of friends who have decided to get preggo, however, and they’ve often asked me about prenatal yoga. I’ve studied prenatal yoga in my teacher training, but I haven’t done a specialized workshop focusing on just prenatal, so I’m hoping this workshop will help me become more comfortable with working with pre and post pregnancy, as well as meet prenatal teachers in the area that I can refer my friends to.

From the Seattle Yoga Arts website:

Pregnancy can be a doorway for women to enter a whole new place of connection with themselves and their bodies. And yet there is so much unnecessary fear and anxiety surrounding pregnancy in our culture.

As yoga teachers, we can offer a sense of trust and groundedness through our words and our guidance, while keeping our pregnant students and their babies safe. This workshop will give you the information you need to begin to tap in to your own inner wisdom to help our pregnant students enjoy a transformative, joy-filled journey.

As yoga students, we can deepen our understanding of what it means to step into the flow of nature by exploring Tantric philosophy and the Universal Principles of Alignment within this inspiring context.

- Come get your questions answered about how to accommodate pregnancy with simple adjustments to traditional poses

- Learn about optimal prenatal alignment and sequencing, therapeutics, and inspiring themes

- Explore your own feelings/fears around birth in this love-fest of a weekend (men are welcome and encouraged to attend)

And Now For Something Less Sexy: Yoga Injuries

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If you hang out in certain circles, this past week was full of drama. The way that some people talk about it, you would think there’s a deadlock in an international peace talk.

I am talking about, of course, the The Yoga Mogul article from the New York Times about Anusara Yoga’s founder John Friend, which has gotten the whole interwebs buzzing. A lot of people have said a lot of things about this, I won’t contribute to that conversation. If you’d like to know what’s being said, the world is at your fingertips, only a Google search away.

Instead, I’ll point out something also from the New York Times, also recently published, and got nowhere near as much buzz: yoga injuries. It’s a blog post titled: Stretch – When Yoga Hurts by Lizette Alvarez. Even though there isn’t nearly as much attention to this post specifically and topic in general, to me, it’s actually much more interesting, probably because it hits much closer to home. As a yoga practitioner and teacher, I am confronted with the issue of working with bodily pain–past, current, and potential–on a daily basis.

I appreciate this post very much, Lizette Alvarez, wherever you are out there, thank you.

Here are some excerpts that totally resonated with me:

Training for yoga teachers can vary, and classes are so large in some studios that instructors do not pay enough attention to everybody. In New York, many people approach yoga with a no-pain, no-gain mind-set, with predictable results.

…

“The most common form of injury is the overzealous student,” said Dr. Loren Fishman, a spine specialist, yoga teacher and medical director of Manhattan Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. “The second most common reason for injury is poor alignment, and that is usually crummy teaching.”

…

The best way to avoid injury, particularly if your body is creaky, is to take it slow and make sure to nail the fundamentals, experts said.

When I didn’t know any better, I’d crank into my lower back in Up Dog and push my pelvis as far forward as possible to create a backbend. I have been told “lock it, lock it, lock it” and then “and push and push and push.” I’ve been in classes where I haven’t even fully come into a pose before I’m asked to move on to next pose. And now, in the same situation, out of respect for the teacher, I would keep my mouth shut. For my own sanity, I just don’t go back to those classes. Out of sight, out of mind, so to speak. If I don’t see what’s happening, then it must not be happening!

I’m very well aware that there’s potential for injuries *anywhere*, no matter what style or tradition of yoga. Pain is inevitable. Complete safety is an illusion, no matter how hard we try. Yet, the difference is in the intention and the awareness, or lack thereof. I once panicked at a meditation retreat, confessing to a teacher that I stepped on a couple ants after I took the vow of no killing, no harming. The teacher asked if I had intentionally stepped on those ants. Was I aware of the possibility of me killing them?

I’ve occasionally wondered if some yoga teachers and students out there are aware of the possibility of injuries. For a long long time, I myself was not. For a long time, yoga was 100% good. It had all those good-feeling words, which could only produce good things: truth and light and love and peace and heart opening and bright conscience. (As an aside: you can make your own yoga buzzword with my yoga jargon generator.) When I went through a period of doing a lot of vinyasa flow yoga, I injured my wrists, and my brilliant plan was to go to class even *more*, since it clearly would help.

I know we live on a planet with a core temperature of something like 3000 degrees Celsius, spinning around a wobbly axis, hurling through space with asteroids and rocks slamming into each other. As Jim Morrison said, “No one here gets out alive.” At the same time, isn’t the practice of yoga meant to help us with living in whatever condition with more ease? And if so, why are we not more interested in creating more ease in the body through injury awareness and prevention?

Further reading:

The July 13, 2010 issue of yogajournal.com newsletter brought this to light. (Thanks for sending it to me, Thom!)

A few I’ve read and recommend:

The Triadic Adventure with Ross Rayburn at Seattle Yoga Arts

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Last Thursday night, after I taught my Beginner’s class at Village Green Yoga, I went out to dinner with Jean Massimo, who told me that Ross Rayburn, a Certified Anusara teacher, coming to Seattle Yoga Arts this weekend. This weekend? Like, this weekend this weekend? I asked Jean. Yup. Well, see, there’s a problem, I’m going to see Rod Stryker this weekend. Besides, I don’t even know who Ross Rayburn is.

I thought about it though, and after thinking it some more I decided to go see Ross instead of Rod. Rod Stryker is in town for a 5-day workshop on the Marma. I know, like, thero, about Marma, and I want to know more. I wouldn’t be able to see him for all five days, and I thought maybe 2 out of 5 would suffice, and then I convinced myself then 2/5 would be half-assed. And maybe this is god’s way of telling me to be impulsive and take risks and do things that aren’t planned… and all that jazz (see how easy it is to rationalize? ;) ).

I confess, I can’t really get with the program on some of the words used in Anusara Yoga, though I *like* them. I like them *a lot*. Words and phrases that use and abuse the heart, like melt your heart just… I don’t know, I LIKE THEM, I use them privately, but I don’t need them to be… on a Yoga Journal ad *everywhere*. It’s the same allergy I have with all the girly mags headlines about sex, *all* the time, *every* time. Sometimes I’d see a Cosmo cover and cynically think, “maybe if you didn’t obsess over everything about it, you’d actually have time to just do it.”

Okay, enough about my soapbox. The point is, I decided to go see Ross Rayburn, without really knowing much about what we’re going to do, and this description from the website, though sounded nice, didn’t prepare me much for what to expect. But hey, sometimes that’s how it goes, right? And he did mention it will be an adventure. Did someone say adventure? I’ll sign up for that.

In Anusara Yoga, one of the most fundamental methods is to align with grand, universal forces as the foundation for our lives. One such fundamental energy construction is the paradigm of three. Triads are essentially omnipresent. Whether it’s the triad of the great religious traditions, the audible sounds of the sacred Om or simply the elements of each breath; the wave-like creation, refinement and dissolving is with us in every moment of every day. Thus, recognizing them and their wave-like properties is not only efficacious, but can be truly and magically transformative.

This theme will be applied in a weekend workshop where we’ll explore myriad triadic frameworks through meditation, asana, and of course, what we do off the mat. It’s going to be an adventure, a Triadic Adventure… Ride the Wave! (This is an ALL levels workshop.)

Ross is funny. I appreciate that. A lot. My philosophy is you can be extremely strong and flexible in the body, but if your mind is as rigid as honey on a cold day, you’re still not very much fun to hang out with. So Ross is funny and down to earth, and he made a Sanskrit joke! I dig that. He’s also an anatomy geek. This too, made my heart happy. (Oh noes, I said heart!)

Since I’m so used to studying with Judith Lasater, who’s a stickler about asking to touch someone, there was some partner work that had me thinking, “I’m supposed to touch this stranger… where?” There were also a couple things we did with the hips that I wasn’t sure about, but I’m thinking I just need to chew on the cud a little.

Anyway, if you’re reading this and have a chance at some point to see Ross Rayburn, go. If you’re in the Capitol Hill area in Seattle, or anywhere else in the Seattle area, for that matter, and looking for top-notch Anusara Yoga instruction, check out Seattle Yoga Arts and their new space on 15th and Madison.

Seattle Yoga News – Deepening Your Anusara Knowledge with Jean Massimo

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If you’re in the Seattle-Everett-Tacoma-Issaquah area and interested in deepening your knowledge of Anusara Yoga, you’re in luck! Jean Massimo, an Anusara Inspired ™ and Super Duper Awesome Teacher (why yes, that’s tm as well :) ) is starting a 10-month series, delving into the basic tenets of the Anusara System.

From the website:

September 2009 – June 2010
Saturdays 12-3:30pm unless otherwise noted

We will take an in depth look at the main tenets of the Anusara Yoga System over the next 10 months to create a deeper understanding of how we can step into our optimal alignment. When we deepen our understanding we expand our capability.

Jean is an Anusara Inspired Teacher who has studied for over 6 years with many wonderful Certified Anusara teachers and is overjoyed to be able to share the wonderful world of yoga with you.
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September 26th – The 3 A’s (Attitude, Alignment and Action)
October 17th – Universal Principles of Alignment
November 14th – First Principle (Open to Grace)
December 5th – Muscle Energy
January 16th and 17th – The Loops (Legs and Torso)
February 20th – The Spirals
March 20th – Shins In/Thighs Out
April 17th – Organic Energy
May 15th – Shoulders and Inversions
June 12th – Building a Home Practice
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$565 for entire series
$172 for 3 consecutive sessions
$60 per session
preregistration and teachers permission is required

Yoga Styles, According to YogaDawg

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Oh YogaDawg, where have you been all my life?

This morning I discovered YogaDawg and literally howled with laughter as I clicked through the Yoga News Archive and Comics. (Ana Brett teaching yoga to Buddha, Patanjali, and Shakti? Why not?)

I totally admire the genius in the Yoga Schools and Styles descriptions, copied, cut, and quoted below for your pleasure. But to get the full effect, you’ll have to check out Yogadawg’s domain itself.

The Nerds – … they will eventually pull out and consult their sacred yoga Bible, Right-On Yoga, written by their CYO (Chief Yogic Officer). The Nerds will try hard to figure out just what is needed to get you, their misbehaved sub-routine, to align and output properly.

They will use tape measures, slide rules, sextants, the Global Positioning System, and possibly even a measuring device that uses the decay level of cobalt-52 to measure the positions of the subnuclear particles lurking deep within your pose.

Right-on Yoga. (ha! As a self-described Asian person, I rove, rove this :) ) And I’ll bring not just a GPS but also my mountaineering altimeter to my next Iyengar class, for sure. (And George Purvis thought he was peculiar!)

The Jocks - Finally, be aware that the Jocks will eventually try to test your loyalty and abilities by asking if you have ever been to Yourpain in India. Don’t acknowledge nor deny. As a new student, this is a dangerous area, so YogaDawg suggests remaining silent or at most, replying with an agitated grunt.

BONUS TIP: Don’t ever, ever go into child’s pose in a Jock yoga class. This will only summon their wrath. You will gain the admiration and respect of the Jocks by pushing yourself to the limit as you try to keep up with them. Bonus points are attainable if you push yourself beyond your abilities to the point of injury.

Yourpain, India, could this be a companion of Mysore, India, Ashtangis?

The Emos - In addition to the online dating service, the Emo ® school has a great online store. Here you will find The Heart ® meditation mat, The Heart ® collection of Yoga towels, The Heart ® yoga tote bag, The Heart ® eye bag and the Heart ® nonslip yoga mat kissed with a scent of pomegranate (known as the love fruit)…You can also order The Heart ® key chain, The Heart ® Buddha, and The Heart ® Heart. These also come in cardiac red with a heart motif on them.

You will find many books published through this school from the Heart ® Press. A sampling of titles are: Unlock your Heart, The Open Heart, The Friendly Heart, Getting more out of your Heart, Pimping your Heart, A Path to the Heart, The Clogged Heart, Avoiding Heart Breaks, Don’t leave your Heart in San Francisco, and No more Heartburn.

Teehee. Hmmm… what other yoga style could make a heart ache with so much heart-to-heart talk? Could it start with an A and end with nusara? (Maybe, just maybe.)

The Crombies - … the Crombie school of yoga has managed to blend all of the things America loves most: a limited set of yoga poses for the attention deficient yogi, sex scandals, copyright litigation, along with hot, sweaty, and half naked bims and bimbos in tropical heat.

Combine this with a swarmy, smelly studio led by a loudmouth, swaggering yoga star swinging a big dick with a couple of radioactive balls and you have a winning formula for yogic success in America.

The beauty of the Crombie school is that there is no need for intelligence, curiosity, or inquiry. Simply turn up the heat, shake, and bake. Place on the center rack at 108 degrees and turn every 5 minutes. With only 26 poses in its feeble copyrighted sequence, there is no need to worry about progressing. Just strap on your Speedo or sports bra with matching spandex shorts and get ready to sweat, slip, and slide to Crombie perfection.

the Crombie school of yoga has managed to blend all of the things America loves most: a limited set of yoga poses for the attention deficient yogi, sex scandals, copyright litigation, along with hot, sweaty, and half naked bims and bimbos in tropical heat. Combine this with a swarmy, smelly studio led by a loudmouth, swaggering yoga star swinging a big dick with a couple of radioactive balls and you have a winning formula for yogic success in America.
The beauty of the Crombie school is that there is no need for intelligence, curiosity, or inquiry. Simply turn up the heat, shake, and bake. Place on the center rack at 108 degrees and turn every 5 minutes. With only 26 poses in its feeble copyrighted sequence, there is no need to worry about progressing. Just strap on your Speedo or sports bra with matching spandex shorts and get ready to sweat, slip, and slide to Crombie perfection.

Radioactive balls – oh, the visual, my eyes! As if the image of Bikram bouncing around (err.. pun intended) in his leopard-print speedos wasn’t enough.

The Hippies – At some point, from the crown of their skulls you might see a serpent peering out at you. The teacher might be wearing a turban or maybe a Fez. On occasion, you will see a Yogi wearing a head band with peace symbols on it. They might also be wearing Turkish garb and occasionally speak in transcended rapture while repeating the mantra, “Groovy,” or “I was at Woodstock.”

If you happen to wander into certain Hippie studios, you may find the teacher wearing hot pants and a halter top. The Hippie school is trying to modernize their image.

Or, you might see the teacher wearing boy shorts underwear suitable for inducing erectile response in addition to Kundalini awakening? ;) Just sayin’!

The Zombies - The Zombie school of Yoga is quite convenient because they have studios located in most of the strip malls across America. While you are buying your morning latte or a burger with fries, you can also sign up for a yoga class without having to leave the comfort of your favorite shopping area.

Some of the advanced training in the Zombie school will teach you to breathe through your brain, extract hemorrhoids with your mind, and explain abnormal credit card purchases to your spouse.

Strip malls. Zombies. Daaaaahn. Braaaaaains. (Is Dahn Yoga just one Tom Cruise away from having its own South Park episode?)

Anyway, thank you, YogaDawg, for your keen sense of humor and light-on descriptions (ha!) I’m looking forward to your future installments of deciphering the world of yoga, one style at a time :) .

“Laughter is the language of the Gods.”
– Buddhist saying