Category: Yoga

We are teaching to PEOPLE, asanas, not asanas to people.

– Judith Hanson Lasater

Ironically assisting those who gathered to learn to teach relaxation techniques can be exhausting – so exhausting that you end up needing to do … restorative yoga to RESTORE the depleted energy from so much serving of the others. What is valuable at this point is not so much the techniques for me as …why the h… we are teaching (after all, I somehow pursued and managed to get bestowed the advance level trainer designation…). The higher purpose… that’s not ego-centric … what is it?

What I value about Judith’s teaching is about the TEACHING itself. How to teach; why we teach … Does it make a difference? A lot of teachers may talk a lot about it but … come on, 44 years of teaching? There’s substance of what she knows technically – then, the wisdom gleaned only though years of … experience.

I know what it’s like in the trenches. I know how it feels when you rearrange your whole day and week’s schedule to teach and have only 4 students show up to that class.
BUT what you are doing is valuable.

then she says …

In the olden days students/patients would have brought you peaches from their tree or something; There’s value and people recognized that (& we only want to teach those who knows the value); if you want a class no one comes to, have a free class.

Despite the 2 parking tickets on the streets of San Francisco, plus other matters at home front, some people my think I am crazy but … I am happy I assisted this teacher I so respect. We are drawn to LIGHT and Brilliance … and to know that LIGHT and Brilliance she possesses comes not only from her great mind but from the source called … yoga … and regular practice of restorative yoga … is the most convincing reason to engage in this practice. Her light, her brilliance and creativity is all derived from and fueled by … Restorative Yoga.

Seeing her teach tirelessly, that’s a good enough reason for me to learn it, teach it, practice it.

a prayer wheel in California? Love it. (more on this location at a later date…)

***
The following is an excerpt from an article shared by one of my lovely students … thank you, thank you… seemingly like “nothing” from a dynamic movement oriented practice perspective, there’s a lot going on under the surface as in the surface of a lake … what’s under water is … anyone’s guess. Sometimes, less is more:

Why does past pain make you more sensitive to future pain? You can thank one of the great wonders of our nervous system: its ability to learn in response to experience. This ability is called neuroplasticity. Through the repeated experience of pain, the nervous system gets better at detecting threat and producing the protective pain response. So unfortunately, in the case of chronic pain, learning from experience and getting “better” at pain paradoxically means more pain, not less.

Both modern science and yoga share this idea: present pain and suffering have their roots in past pain, trauma, stress, loss, and illness. Modern science uses words like neuroplasticity to describe the process of learning from past experiences; yoga uses the word samskara. Samskaras are the memories of the body and mind that influence how we experience the present moment. Samskaras keep you stuck, feeling the same emotions, thinking the same thoughts, and even experiencing the same pain.

Samskaras do not always lead to suffering—they also lead to positive change. Just as trauma, illness, pain, and stress leave traces on the body and mind, so do positive experiences. What you practice, you become.

Learning is lifelong, and none of the changes you’ve learned have to be permanent. Neuroplasticity can be harnessed for healing. Your mind and body have learned how to “do” chronic pain, and your job is to teach it something new.

– Kelly McGonigal, PhD, excerpt from an article in Yoga International
“Restorative Yoga for Chronic Pain” dtd 6/10/2013

YES.
“What you practice, you become.”