On Saturday evening we drove down the hill, under a green gray tornado colored sky. Four of us, looking into the middle years and beyond. We went to see the dancer's recital, on the Elementary school gymnasium stage, the dancers of all ages, and my two yoga students.
I cannot prove it with any scientific facts, but I do believe, my yoga pals, both over 55, shone the brightest, had the most artful, easy grace, danced with the finest posture - even over the teenagers.
You might say I am biased, and that I will admit to. Yet, there can be no mistaking the fact that these two women have endured breast cancer, the usual challenges of aging and work, the fatigue factors of time, and their faces shone that night. They each stood out - the ballerina leaping, the tap dancer clipping. Serene smiles, clear eyes, they had a light from within.
Making time for our practice is lighting a candle from the inside out. On days like this, when it is gray and cold, and the solstice is here, making one feel disoriented, the candle needs more than ever to be lit from within.
Showing posts with label yoga. Show all posts
Showing posts with label yoga. Show all posts
Monday, June 20, 2011
Saturday, April 16, 2011
High School P.E. Yoga
Last week my work took me out to the small high school in St. Paul. A rural school set in the midst of the fertile agricultural lands of the mid-Willamette Valley. The landscape is flat as a pancake, and a patchwork of orchards, hop fields, nurseries, afalfa, strawberries and the people who work and harvest these crops.
My assignment was 2 mornings as the middle school P.E. teacher. P.E. was never my favorite gig, as my field is English Ed., but after taking roll, when the class was supposed to spend 5 minutes on warm-ups, my mouth suddenly opened to say "I'm a yoga teacher, and anyone who wants to do yoga stretches instead of laps come over here to this corner."
Substitute teaching is very much improv, and here I was winging it... not sure what would occur, given the large class including a number of boisterous 12 and 13 year old boys.
At the mention of the word 'yoga' several of the girl's eyes lit up, they smiled and I could hear a small chorus of "All right! I LOVE yoga. Oh this is so cool!"
As I began I was thinking, "OK I hope this isn't crazy!"
Fully half the class came into my corner... even a few boys showed up, and almost all of the girls. Most were watching me intently as I quickly scanned my brain for anything we could do with shoes on, no mats, and me having to have one eye out on the rest of the class, none of whose names or behaviors I knew yet.
We did a few stretches and combinations of tree pose balances. The kids were fabulous and sweet. The usual adolescent "everything is stupid" attitude was not on display. What a small joy. No, not small, it was a revelation. One of the biggest obstacles in education is that ennui against enthusiasm. This very thing has kept me from wanting to be in large classrooms. Today, however, I saw a glimmer of what could be.
One girl, Rachel, the angel of my day, (there is usually one) came up after class, looked me straight in the eye and said, "Thank you for teaching us yoga today." My heart melted. That is what I took home with me, after 4 hours of listening to basketballs and shouts reverberate inside gym walls, and the constant supervision of packs of wild, unconscious boys. (I later learned that some of them had urinated into the soap dispensers in the boys locker room.)
It was a 2 morning gig, and on the following day the principal joined me for the last class. The activity of the day was weightlifting. There wasn't a good venue for yoga stretches, and it felt harder to fit them in, so I accepted the routine. One of the comments the principal made after class, a wonderful teacher by the way, was that kids this age are very 'body unaware'. So true, and true for many adults too.
I can't help thinking how wonderful it would be to offer yoga to school kids, to give them early opportunities to learn focus through body awareness. There are some schools who offer yoga, and I hope it will become a trend. It could be part of the evolutionary change we need to make to continue our survival as this complicated species with a the big brain which often isn't our best quality.
Working with middle school age kids is giving me hope, actually. I believe they will find new holistic ways to see the world and to live. They will have to, and maybe on some level most know this, even if popular culture tells us otherwise.
My assignment was 2 mornings as the middle school P.E. teacher. P.E. was never my favorite gig, as my field is English Ed., but after taking roll, when the class was supposed to spend 5 minutes on warm-ups, my mouth suddenly opened to say "I'm a yoga teacher, and anyone who wants to do yoga stretches instead of laps come over here to this corner."
Substitute teaching is very much improv, and here I was winging it... not sure what would occur, given the large class including a number of boisterous 12 and 13 year old boys.
At the mention of the word 'yoga' several of the girl's eyes lit up, they smiled and I could hear a small chorus of "All right! I LOVE yoga. Oh this is so cool!"
As I began I was thinking, "OK I hope this isn't crazy!"
Fully half the class came into my corner... even a few boys showed up, and almost all of the girls. Most were watching me intently as I quickly scanned my brain for anything we could do with shoes on, no mats, and me having to have one eye out on the rest of the class, none of whose names or behaviors I knew yet.
We did a few stretches and combinations of tree pose balances. The kids were fabulous and sweet. The usual adolescent "everything is stupid" attitude was not on display. What a small joy. No, not small, it was a revelation. One of the biggest obstacles in education is that ennui against enthusiasm. This very thing has kept me from wanting to be in large classrooms. Today, however, I saw a glimmer of what could be.
One girl, Rachel, the angel of my day, (there is usually one) came up after class, looked me straight in the eye and said, "Thank you for teaching us yoga today." My heart melted. That is what I took home with me, after 4 hours of listening to basketballs and shouts reverberate inside gym walls, and the constant supervision of packs of wild, unconscious boys. (I later learned that some of them had urinated into the soap dispensers in the boys locker room.)
It was a 2 morning gig, and on the following day the principal joined me for the last class. The activity of the day was weightlifting. There wasn't a good venue for yoga stretches, and it felt harder to fit them in, so I accepted the routine. One of the comments the principal made after class, a wonderful teacher by the way, was that kids this age are very 'body unaware'. So true, and true for many adults too.
I can't help thinking how wonderful it would be to offer yoga to school kids, to give them early opportunities to learn focus through body awareness. There are some schools who offer yoga, and I hope it will become a trend. It could be part of the evolutionary change we need to make to continue our survival as this complicated species with a the big brain which often isn't our best quality.
Working with middle school age kids is giving me hope, actually. I believe they will find new holistic ways to see the world and to live. They will have to, and maybe on some level most know this, even if popular culture tells us otherwise.
Monday, January 3, 2011
Cosmic Yoga in D.F.
The New Year has begun, and if it continues this way, I will be one grateful yogi.
On Sunday I went to the nearby Yoga class offering at the Hare Krishna Center near our hotel. I found 3 young people waiting, and no teacher arrived because of the holiday. I spoke with the 2 young men, and one woman in my broken Espanol, and told them I was a teacher. Diego, one of the men, asked if I would teach them. My first response, maybe because I don't think very fast was "Si".
They all agreed to meet later in the evening at a space in a park which Diego said was open to the public.
At 7 in the evening Diego showed up at the hotel with his cousin Lilliana, and the 4 of us walked out to the Plaza de las Tres Culturalas The Plaza of the 3 cultures... what a fitting name, as I navigated between English, Spanish and Sanskrit, Sanskrito. I had spent a few hours looking up key words, and with the help of Curtis, was able to introduce the 2 adorable young people to their first yoga experience. The space was just a paladium in the center of the park, and the echo was very cool. It was dark and very magical.
In my American mind at first, when Diego asked me to do this, I had the little fears one is conditioned to have because of negative, slanted news reports of people who will try any scam to take advantage. How grateful I am that I have a little store of what some may call 'foolhardiness' rather than courage. I trusted my sense of who would be waiting outside a shop front for a free yoga class at 8 am on a Sunday Morning in the holiday week. Because I could trust, we have 2 new friends now, both of high quality.
As we 4 sat in the famous hot chocolate and churros place after yoga, speaking a jumbled combination of our 2 languages, I thought the world a wonderful place after all. They wanted to learn English from us as much as we wanted to stumble along in Spanish with them. And so, tonight, another lesson in the park at 6.
This does not even include the story of the morning tour in the bell towers of the cathedral, where we stood in the middle of the ringings for noon Sunday mass, incredible. Bell ringers now wear ear protection, and so will not become deaf like Quasi Moto..
There is so much life here in this colorful country, and so much, much, mucho mas than violence. Diego wants to learn yoga to meditate and feel more tranquil than he felt taking martial arts. Tonight I will ask him and Lilliana if I can take their photos, and all my yoga pals and readers can see the beautiful faces of youth.
On Sunday I went to the nearby Yoga class offering at the Hare Krishna Center near our hotel. I found 3 young people waiting, and no teacher arrived because of the holiday. I spoke with the 2 young men, and one woman in my broken Espanol, and told them I was a teacher. Diego, one of the men, asked if I would teach them. My first response, maybe because I don't think very fast was "Si".
They all agreed to meet later in the evening at a space in a park which Diego said was open to the public.
At 7 in the evening Diego showed up at the hotel with his cousin Lilliana, and the 4 of us walked out to the Plaza de las Tres Culturalas The Plaza of the 3 cultures... what a fitting name, as I navigated between English, Spanish and Sanskrit, Sanskrito. I had spent a few hours looking up key words, and with the help of Curtis, was able to introduce the 2 adorable young people to their first yoga experience. The space was just a paladium in the center of the park, and the echo was very cool. It was dark and very magical.
In my American mind at first, when Diego asked me to do this, I had the little fears one is conditioned to have because of negative, slanted news reports of people who will try any scam to take advantage. How grateful I am that I have a little store of what some may call 'foolhardiness' rather than courage. I trusted my sense of who would be waiting outside a shop front for a free yoga class at 8 am on a Sunday Morning in the holiday week. Because I could trust, we have 2 new friends now, both of high quality.
As we 4 sat in the famous hot chocolate and churros place after yoga, speaking a jumbled combination of our 2 languages, I thought the world a wonderful place after all. They wanted to learn English from us as much as we wanted to stumble along in Spanish with them. And so, tonight, another lesson in the park at 6.
This does not even include the story of the morning tour in the bell towers of the cathedral, where we stood in the middle of the ringings for noon Sunday mass, incredible. Bell ringers now wear ear protection, and so will not become deaf like Quasi Moto..
There is so much life here in this colorful country, and so much, much, mucho mas than violence. Diego wants to learn yoga to meditate and feel more tranquil than he felt taking martial arts. Tonight I will ask him and Lilliana if I can take their photos, and all my yoga pals and readers can see the beautiful faces of youth.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Integrating Practice With Travel and Hosting
After the past month of visiting friends in other parts of the country, being on the road, and then co-hosting a large family gathering, I'm thinking of how one continues a practice and healthy eating habits in non-routine environments. I realize that for most of my life I have let go of my routines when I traveled or spent time in other people's spaces. I am trying to amend that tendency because I love to travel, I love my friends and I love my practice. Giving up routines which keep me healthy should not be a trade-off for indulging my gypsy or my great joy in being with the loved people in my life.
The dilemma, of course, remains how challenging it becomes to practice if there is not space, or a quiet situation. Eating is even more complicated as it is a social ritual, one which I dearly love to share with others. The shear amounts of so much available food containing varying degrees of nutrition have given new challenges to all meal planning. Add to this the increase in allergies and restricted diets, and food choices have never been so complex.
We live in a culture of food abundance, so our new survival has switched from expending energy to acquire food, to expending energy to carefully select and manage what we choose to eat out of the plethora of offerings. When I speak of food abundance, I am referring to the U.S. as a whole, and do not in any way minimize those parts of the world where people are starving. It seems impossible that the 2 paradigms exist together on the same planet, and yet herein probably lies part of the clue to obesity and starvation both.
Returning to the subject of staying with a yoga practice no matter where one wakes up in the morning, I believe this is also part of the key to staying right on eating. I find, and I hope you have experienced this as well, that after my practice, my bodily desires shift. I feel less like eating empty calories, more aware of my internal organs, my interior self and less inclined to eat unconsciously. The simple act of sitting and breathing, going inside, offers us the connection to that part of our physical self which operates in it's marvelously autonomous manner. Bringing the self back to the self is the magic we can partake in every day, even if it just means finding a small space of floor to sit on, finding breath, and doing a rotation or 2.
In my family enough of us practice in some form that we actually practice together as part of our gathering. I recommend this to anyone wishing to enjoy the family reunion at a new level. It may begin with 2 or 3 people, but I almost guarantee others will join in as the practice continues into a tradition. This year we had so many family members joining in morning yoga, we had to crowd the mats. Our participation is growing, as the less inclined watch and notice how good the yogis feel afterwards. We have created a new little paradigm, which works like ultimate frisbee or a poker game to draw people together in an enjoyable activity. It is a relief to find a shared activity which is not eating!
One of my offerings as a yoga teacher is "special order yoga" which allows an individual to create a group and a time, and I will tailor a class to fit the needs of the participants. I've done this a few times in the past year, and it is very fun for all. You might want to lead your group too, give it a try!
If you have any inspirations to share about travel and social eating, post a comment!
The dilemma, of course, remains how challenging it becomes to practice if there is not space, or a quiet situation. Eating is even more complicated as it is a social ritual, one which I dearly love to share with others. The shear amounts of so much available food containing varying degrees of nutrition have given new challenges to all meal planning. Add to this the increase in allergies and restricted diets, and food choices have never been so complex.
We live in a culture of food abundance, so our new survival has switched from expending energy to acquire food, to expending energy to carefully select and manage what we choose to eat out of the plethora of offerings. When I speak of food abundance, I am referring to the U.S. as a whole, and do not in any way minimize those parts of the world where people are starving. It seems impossible that the 2 paradigms exist together on the same planet, and yet herein probably lies part of the clue to obesity and starvation both.
Returning to the subject of staying with a yoga practice no matter where one wakes up in the morning, I believe this is also part of the key to staying right on eating. I find, and I hope you have experienced this as well, that after my practice, my bodily desires shift. I feel less like eating empty calories, more aware of my internal organs, my interior self and less inclined to eat unconsciously. The simple act of sitting and breathing, going inside, offers us the connection to that part of our physical self which operates in it's marvelously autonomous manner. Bringing the self back to the self is the magic we can partake in every day, even if it just means finding a small space of floor to sit on, finding breath, and doing a rotation or 2.
In my family enough of us practice in some form that we actually practice together as part of our gathering. I recommend this to anyone wishing to enjoy the family reunion at a new level. It may begin with 2 or 3 people, but I almost guarantee others will join in as the practice continues into a tradition. This year we had so many family members joining in morning yoga, we had to crowd the mats. Our participation is growing, as the less inclined watch and notice how good the yogis feel afterwards. We have created a new little paradigm, which works like ultimate frisbee or a poker game to draw people together in an enjoyable activity. It is a relief to find a shared activity which is not eating!
One of my offerings as a yoga teacher is "special order yoga" which allows an individual to create a group and a time, and I will tailor a class to fit the needs of the participants. I've done this a few times in the past year, and it is very fun for all. You might want to lead your group too, give it a try!
If you have any inspirations to share about travel and social eating, post a comment!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)