Five Aha Moments from Wanderlust

This year, my lululoves at lululemon athletica Union Square, San Francisco, treated me to indulge in four full days of the Squaw Valley Wanderlust Festival. I am so grateful to them and to the Wanderlust organizers. The festival blew me away; it totally exceeded my expectations. In the spirit of sharing the love, here are five things I learned from my weekend in the mountains:

1. According to Annie Carpenter, in challenging poses, our bodies have “escape valves” that keep us from holding steady and strong. For example, in handstand, many yogis collapse into the lower back or shoulders, so they have no choice but to fall out of the pose. To learn to hold a challenging pose, yogis must identify the root of their personal escape valve (be tightness, weakness, fear, or something else), and then instead of try to find their way around it or compensate for it, address it and move through it.

2. Matt Giordano taught one of the most intentional flows I’ve practiced in a while. Each pose was built on the foundation of previous poses. Among many other things, from Matt I learned that a twist is a twist, not a backbend. In revolved high lunge, we tend to cock the front hip out to the side as an escape valve (thanks for the terminology, Annie Carpenter) so that we can backbend instead of twist, and still feel like we’re in the pose. Matt had us “go into the dysfunction” (as Amy Ippoliti labelled a similar contrast in one of her workshops) by cocking the hip out to the side and then harnessing it back into proper alignment; by hyperextending the spine and then restabilizing. I’m not sure I’ve ever truly twisted that deeply in my life.

3. In Amy Ippoliti‘s Core Potential workshop, I learned that this pose is a thing:

We warmed up for it doing some pretty fun and funky core stuff, which I will definitely share with you in my upcoming public classes.

4. My friend and fellow yoga teacher, Nacera, and I showed up for Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa’s workshop about 20 minutes late, and as we approached the giant tent, we saw that all 150-200 students were dancing their hearts out. Both of us were pretty tentative about going in there. One of us suggested going to another workshop and the other said, “maybe they’ll stop dancing by the time we get in there.” They didn’t. But as soon as we kicked off our shoes and rolled out our mats, we immediately joined into the shimmying, shaking, and twirling. It was contagious!

Dancing with Gurmukh

Nacera and me dancing with Gurmukh (Selfie credit: Nacera Mekki)

The workshop ended with a yummy 17 minute savasana. Afterward, Nacera and I went to thank Gurmukh for her workshop. We said, “We’re totally blissed out.” She replied “Keep it going. That’s reality.” Woah. Bliss is reality. Yoga just reminds us to notice that.

5. To end my Wanderlust weekend, I had two workshops in a row that referred to sankalpa, which means divine purpose, will, or oathe. In Sienna Sherman‘s workshop, we were asked to identify our personal sankalpa as yoga teachers. At the time of that workshop, I identified my sankalpa as empowering people to choose their path rather than moving through life mindlessly and without questioning. I went straight from that into Yoga Nidra with Rod Stryker, which consisted of two long sessions of complete relaxation. The first session was lovely and blissful. In the second session I was completely distracted from my Yoga Nidra by a deluge of ideas for my upcoming Yoga EMPOWER Bootcamp at Thriveability. I realized this six-week program is the ultimate vehicle to realize my sankalpa. Stay tuned for more info about it and sign-up now if you’re interested, because space is limited!

I cannot wait for Wanderlust next year!

Advanced Yoga Teacher Training Day 7: Transformation

The seven-day advanced yoga teacher training course had consisted of a gradual layering. On the first day, we stripped away a lot of the intricacy of being a yoga teacher, and focused on self-awareness and relaxation. As the week progressed, we added more and more layers to build us back up into full-fledged  yoga teachers. The last day was a chance to get a bit more practice and feedback on our teaching, reflect on our strengths, and foster compassion for our weaknesses.

We spent about half the course focusing on personal development, which may seem like overkill, but I learned a long time ago that you can’t give from empty pockets. Dina quoted Sharon Salzberg, saying “the point of practice is to develop a mind so open that it can experience great pleasure and great pain with spaciousness, with compassion, with awareness, with energy.” That’s a pretty tall order, and a yoga teacher has to be a rock in order to hold a safe space that supports this development.

On the last day, we discussed a focus on present moment awareness can actually help you set goals for the future (these things have always seemed to be a bit at odds for me). If you begin with awareness of the present moment and compassionate acceptance of what is, you gain self-awareness and begin to see reality more clearly. Instead of getting caught up dwelling on the past, obsessing about the future, labelling, judging, etc., your energy goes towards illuminating your path.

Dina concluded by giving us a guideline for personal development. She pointed out that, as yoga teachers, we are at our best when we are teaching yoga. Once we leave the studio, we are not always so mindful and put-together. She suggested we strive to be the person we are as a yoga teacher in the rest of life as well. One of my classmates summed it up by spoofing a popular bumper sticker, “Lord, help me to be the person my yoga students think I am.”

This post is part of a series describing my experience with the first module of my advanced yoga teacher training (RYT500).
Advanced Yoga Teacher Training
Day 1: Resistance
Day 2: Acceptance
Day 3: Breath
Day 4: Emotions
Day 5: Energy
Day 6: Asana
Day 7: Transformation

Advanced Yoga Teacher Training Day 6: Asana

On day six, we went over some advanced postures, including wheel, feathered peacock, and handstand.

After going over energetic lines and spirals the previous day, the instructions for these postures were so much more intuitive than they were before. In wheel, just like in bridge or camel, you draw your chest bone and tail bone in opposite directions, cup the shoulder blades under the back, and internally spiralling the thighs. In handstand, you root and extend in opposite directions through the hands and feet, internally rotating the thighs, just like in mountain pose with the arms raised. You externally spiral the arms (think armpits toward the face; it’s counterintuitive when your arms are in this position), draw the shoulder blades toward the hips, and draw the front rib cage toward the navel, just like in downward facing dog. We went over some specific progressions to build up to these advanced postures, but I’ll put a push pin in those and save them for future posts.

This post is part of a series describing my experience with the first module of my advanced yoga teacher training (RYT500).
Advanced Yoga Teacher Training
Day 1: Resistance
Day 2: Acceptance
Day 3: Breath
Day 4: Emotions
Day 5: Energy
Day 6: Asana
Day 7: Transformation

Advanced Yoga Teacher Training Day 5: Energy

Day 5 was probably the most useful day for me as a teacher and practitioner. I’ve always been a little averse to teaching yoga in terms of energy. I think going over-the-top with chakras and prana can make classes less accessible to new students. Also, my background in science makes me a little wary of traditional knowledge. But, after this yoga teacher training, even I can’t deny that referring to energy flows is an incredibly effective way of guiding someone into proper alignment clearly and concisely. Being in proper energetic alignment totally changes the postures, easing tension, and making you feel like you can hold even the most challenging poses forever.

We started by observing each other doing poses, and tried to identify areas of tension. It was an interesting way to observe yoga poses. Often as yoga teachers we get caught up on making everyone adhere to an “alignment checklist” rather than tapping into how each individual is experiencing the posture, and trying to guide them into more ease.

Speaking in terms of energetic lines can help people find a sense of ease. Rising and rooting energetic lines are in opposition, so in yoga, you should feel as if you’re rising up through the crown of the head, sides of the rib cage, and the inseams of the leg as much as you’re rooting down through the feet, tailbone, font rib cage, and shoulder blades. I have a tendency to rise more than to root, so when I’m in standing postures, especially if my arms are lifted, I need to focus on contracting my quads to actively press down through my feet.

Balancing expanding and harnessing energy lines is also important. While expanding across the chest and upper back or reaching the arms out to the sides, you want to draw the arm bones back into the shoulder sockets. For me, focusing on balancing expansion and harnessing around the shoulders, chest, and upper back is the key to holding side plank pose.

I think inner and outer spirals are the hardest to get your head around, but they are key to finding a posture. Inner spirals correspond to internal rotation of the limb (the front side of the limb moves toward the midline of the body) and outer spirals correspond to external rotation of the limb (the front side of the limb moves away from the midline of the body). Just like with the other pairings, inner and outer spirals should be balanced. If the thigh is externally rotating, as in the front leg of warrior II, the lower leg and foot should be internally rotating. Between the internal and external rotation, weight should be even across the big toe and little toe sides of the foot. The external spiral shifts weight to the outer edge of the foot, whereas the internal spiral shifts weight the inner edge of the foot.

It takes some effort and focus to get into balanced energetic alignment, but the end result is a sense of ease in the posture. Dina characterizes it as, “subtle effort towards effortlessness.”

This post is part of a series describing my experience with the first module of my advanced yoga teacher training (RYT500).
Advanced Yoga Teacher Training
Day 1: Resistance
Day 2: Acceptance
Day 3: Breath
Day 4: Emotions
Day 5: Energy
Day 6: Asana
Day 7: Transformation

Advanced Yoga Teacher Training Day 4: Emotions

Had I asked myself “What’s happening now?” as I walked to the yoga studio on day four, I would have answered, “I’m noticing a lot of emotion.” Yoga has a tendency to bring out emotion, so it’s not surprising that after three days of deep practice I would be feel like this.  It was just a matter of whether the emotion would die down or need to be released.

As soon as Dina mentioned that we would be starting the practice with chanting, I knew I was a goner. Chanting, hymns, and many other types of music and sound always bring up emotions in me. Within in the first five minutes of class I already had tears streaming down my face.

We practiced for over three hours, during which my welling of emotions was relatively attenuated. During the yin practice, Dina encouraged us to submit by suggesting we “let go of all hope that things will be different in this moment.”  I needed to hear that when we were square pose, which is incredibly intense for me, and makes the asymmetry of my hips becomes frustratingly apparent. During the flow practice she had us tune in to our bodies’ feedback to honestly assess whether we should push harder or back off. The idea is to approach your edge while maintaining a sense of ease. I found that in poses like triangle, if I honestly tuned in, I needed to adjust my head away from the “right” position in order to be able to find genuine ease in the posture. One thing Dina reinforced is that there’s no way of doing a posture that’s going to be right for everyone.

We closed the practice with chanting again, which, of course, bought me back to tears. Dealing with emotions is similar to dealing with physical discomfort. Just like in square pose, one part of me wanted to avoid the feelings of intensity and just back away from that edge, suppressing the emotions away somewhere. Another part of me wanted to stay with that intensity, let it well up, and maybe let some of it go. The group came together to reflect on the practice, and Dina suggested that I not wrack my brain to pinpoint the source of the emotions; she suggested I observe them for what they were in the present moment, with compassion and without judgment or attachment. Kind of like how Yoga Teacher Barbie addressed Yoga Student Barbie to deal with my resistance on Day 1, I was to take a step back and observe and support my emotions without getting stirred up by them (This type of detachment is referred to as Vairāgya). Adopting this mentality helped me find ease amidst those uncomfortable emotions so that I could ride them out, let them come, and let them go. A few days later, Dina shared a quote from Jennifer Welwood that expresses the value in riding out some uncomfortable conditions: “Each condition I flee from pursues me. Each condition I welcome transforms me.”

This post is part of a series describing my experience with the first module of my advanced yoga teacher training (RYT500).
Advanced Yoga Teacher Training
Day 1: Resistance
Day 2: Acceptance
Day 3: Breath
Day 4: Emotions
Day 5: Energy
Day 6: Asana
Day 7: Transformation