by assisting Judith H. Lasater’s teacher training Level 2 with other veteran assistants.
Some Yogis may have a misunderstanding about Judith Lasater’s work … I realize that Ashtangis may put down the practice she has really popularized but actually to me, it’s not about, to some, oh, so OCD-ish ways of folding blankets (to me, it’s not so OCD-ish as after all, I’m from the Origami culture. It’s normal that you’d want the blankets folded just right to have them support you in your yoga pose so that the affect is also, just right… If not Japanese, it’s also from the German fairy tale too, right? The Goldilocks must have things just so right – not too hard, not too soft – it’s JUST RIGHT!) and attention to details but … it’s more about her insights into teachings and her knowledge over yoga philosophy, human anatomy and psychology rolled into one. She is really a “therapist” in a real sense of the word. She invites you to discover the healer within from wealth of her experience over her long and active lifespan. I mean really, who with 3-4 grandkids still teaches to the extent that she does? Her mind is sharper than mine, her stamina greater and really, she seems tireless. What is her secret? One would wonder, right? The secrets are revealed more you learn from her …
It’s also a realization that – kind of like Picasso, when you first see his work, it seems so simple in abstract, you tend to think, he cannot draw ! But has anyone seen his drawings and sketches, the studies. He can draw like the most “correct” in terms of perspectives and realistic accuracies … but he chooses to break it down for a certain affect. Restorative is kind of like that in that the Judith with her years of Iyengar sure can do those poses but she keyed into the particulars because she thought it would be so helpful for us especially she saw that aspect as being under-appreciated and … missing. Really … missing.
Today we had a guest lecturer/speaker, Judith’s long time Iyengar teacher peer, Roger Cole, PhD. I was soooo exhausted (up before 6am to get ready of things in general and teaching a 7:40am class before rushing to SF for this TT), I was in this self-help mode of setting up my own low key restorative influenced posture to listen to him as I thought this would be a repeat of the lecture I heard few years ago when I was a student in this teacher training. We all know the benefits of restorative yoga like strengthening the immune system, thus reducing inflammations, the creativity/intuition boost, weight loss through stress management, lowered blood pressures and healthier heart, etc. Yes, the main point of all the benefits was unwavering but he had added a recent hypothesis and some research where Restorative Yoga in certain postures produces chemical fluids in our brain, that physiologically cleansed out our head space when poses were sequenced correctly. Hard to believe? He did cite a study where lack of sleep led to Alzheimer disease developing within 5 years for mature adults; and he hopes to prove a point that restorative yoga would head off similar deterioration of our brain function. He hypothesizes that done right (where we are alternating between Alpha wave state and Theta wave states – or the yogic state to describe that would be one of 8 limbs of yoga – Pratyahara:) the practice has a promising anti-aging effects to ward off plaques forming in circulatory systems, promoting better lymphatic drainage, and certain brain fluids to cleanse our brains of buildup of the unwanted such as toxins and its residues. Hard to believe? His lecture was rather convincing coming from the words of a scientist and an expert yoga teacher.
Roger Cole has several articles published in the Yoga Journal, all very helpful for anyone who’s really into yoga. Here it is:) I for one would love to take his workshop someday – in my yoga learning bucket list, yes:)
So … we should all work on our sleep hygiene, do restorative yoga if not everyday, at least reward yourselves for all the hard work, once a week.
A lovely yogini N. is subbing for me to lead such a restorative yoga class this Sunday. It’s I am sure the kind of class I’d want to slip into – Thank you for covering Sunday evening.
