Your Life Story Uncovered on Your Yoga Mat

Yoga class reveals so much about people by the way they move.  I look for the fluidity and grace of movements and sense where the breath is moving and where it’s stuck.  Is there too much effort and force?  Where can we invite softening and ease?

Anxious students have trouble feeling the four corners of their feet and grounding their weight down.  Timid students lift their arms gingerly without enough fire to be strong.   Depressed students slump and hide their hearts.  Overachievers push past their natural breath until their muscles tense.  For each student the patterns are different.

Each individual needs a different yoga practice that balances his/her inner story.  When it’s customized, yoga offers more than stretching, strengthening and relaxing.  Yoga can guide you on your personal healing path by inviting you into your challenges in a safe and loving way.

In my summer retreat, one student was doing a restorative pose during an active class. That student had been up all night and tends to do a lot physically. I knew she needed that extra rest. Another student with more sluggish energy asked to do the resting pose.  Much to the shock of the class, I said no because I knew her well and felt sure that she needed to be stimulated by more vigorous movement. There were nine people in that group and each needed a slightly different practice.

Encouraging students to reach out in different directions requires me to get out of the yoga-class-teaching-box.  I used to stand in the front of a group and move through a sequence of postures making a few adjustments along the way.  I found that type of teaching and learning rather disengaged.  What I like most about teaching yoga is reaching deeply into the lives of my students by watching how they move on their mats.  Together we explore new ways to ground, flow with the breath and open to grace on and off our mats.