Yoga-licious reflections from my week without meat

In my last post, inspired by US Veg week I was attempting to ditch meat for 1 week.

I am a self-confessed omnivore.  I eat everything! I like meat but I also couldn’t live without fresh fruit and vegetables.

This little omnivore couln’t have imagined what tasty treats were in store for my week off meat. Of coure i love my vege meals but when you are so used to ordering meat options when out for dinner you forget just our delicious vegetarian meals are. I enjoyed pizzas and stir frys from Vege Bar in Brunswick street with my friend Jade. I devoured yummy curries with my boyfriend josh from our local Indian. South Melbourne market provided the perfect vege playground for Katie and I and we came home with boxes of fresh fruit and veg and home made pasts and sauce.

Yes it took a slight mental adjustment but affordable, filling and delicious vege options were available to buy and with a little extra research and planning I cooked vegetarian options for lunch and dinner.

Here are just a couple of the yummy treats I enjoyed:

During my stint as a vegetarian I set out to see what changes I could feel just by cutting out meat for 1 week. Here’s what i realised:

1. Increased awareness of my eating habits.

The first thing that I noticed when I ditched meat is how often I instinctively wanted to eat it. Breaking this habit was probably the hardest part about not eating meat. Every meal required a lot of thinking on my part as I started to realise what a large part of my diet was carnivorous.

I have never thought of myself as a big meat-eater but in actual fact there was a meat component in most of my meals. Some things I had barely any awareness of such a sushi. There were multiple times when I almost ordered tuna or salmon sushi before realising it was on the no go list for the week.

 2. I realised how much I rely on meat for protein

I started to notice how much I rely on meat to contribute protein to many of my meals. I would add chicken or tuna to most sandwiches, order sushi with fish, ask for salmon with my breakfast and the list went on!

As a result I would find myself craving meat before meals. Craving the ‘protein.’ Of course this craving is quickly satisfied with any number of vegetarian options such as every vegetarian’s best friend – tofu, however during this week I experienced these cravings as desires for meat.

3. Vegetarian food is delicious!

Well, this part i already knew. But it is easy to forget how delicious vege options are when u r used to using the rich flavour of meat in most of your meals. So many people say that they dont eat more vege options because they are boring. I am here to remind you that this is just not true.

4. I realised how many more meat options are available when eating out

Most places where I went to buy lunch or dinner offered so many more meat options then vegetarian. This astounded me. It is in most cases so much cheaper to make vegetarian food yet restaurants and cafes cater to carnivores so much more. The ease with which we can order a tasty meat filled dish is incredible. This makes it very difficult for more people to choose vegetarian options if they lack awareness of the choices they make when they sit down to eat.

5. Being vegetarian is cheaper 

Whilst it took a bit more planning and creative cooking I realised how much cheaper the meals I was making were when I left out the meat. I realised that ditching meat may not only be good keeping me thin but it may in turn help fatten my bank account.

6. I ate less fast food

Because most fast food consists of burgers and mest products. It wasn’t an option. This can definitely help to keep your waistline in good shape.

The biggest effect from my Vege trial has come not during the experience but after.  Whilst it took a bit of mental adjusting my body loved all the fresh fruit, veg, nuts and grains. Now that I have returned to eating meat my body is finding it difficult to adjust to digesting it again. Maybe I am just paying closer attention to how I feel after eating but I have felt considerably more full, bloated and lethargic after a meaty meal. This makes a lot of sense when you consider the tamasic nature of meat.

Now the true Yogic awareness is put to the test. Anyone can cut out meat for a week but once you discover that your body actually feels better eating less meat its hard to live consciously if you suppress this newly discovered self-knowledge by stuffing it down with more meat.

I am a big believer in moderation therefore I have made a pledge to myself  that I will eat at least 1 fully vegetarian meal a week and eat less red meat and chicken.

This is a step in the right direction and hopefully soon a clearer path to more conscious eating will be laid out ahead of me.

Here is some more ‘Vege Food for Thought’ I have discovered about how to eat more mind fully and consciously. Even if ditching meat is not your cup of tea there are ways in which you can make changes to how you eat and the impact of your diet on our earth

How to Eat Mindfully

• Honour the food and your experience with gratitude and enjoy the moment.
• Sit down, relax your body, eat slowly, chew your food, pause periodically.
• Keep your thoughts on the food you are eating. Eat with awareness
• Tune into each bite of food while it’s in your mouth. Try not to be focused on the next bite before you have swallowed the food currently in your mouth.
• Tune into your body cues (hunger, body cravings, fullness) Make the distinction between mouth/mind hunger and belly hunger and fullness.

How to Eat Consciously

• Farmers markets - Minimises transport, packaging, exposure to organic food.
• Food Co ops - Locally sourced foods, Minimises transport, packaging, exposure to organic food
• Eat more fresh food than frozen/processed food - Decreases packaging and energy needed to keep food frozen
• Grow your own food - Herb garden, vertical garden
• Eat less meat - Meat free dinners/days of the week
• Eat organic free range meat - Ethically source your meat. It’s tastier too.

Some Vege-licious links

http://www.melbourne.foe.org.au/?q=co_op/involved

http://www.vicfarmersmarkets.org.au/

http://www.veglov.com/2011/09/top-ten-reasons-to-go-vegetarian.html

A big shout out to my friends Jade and Katie as well as my boyfriend Josh for jumping on the vege bandwagon and ditching meat for a week with me.

My parting thoughts:  give it a go! You could lose weight, you could feel better. You will definitely be doing good for the earth and our furry friends and therefore living by the principles of ahimsa and greater consciousness.

NAMASTE

Izzy

I dare you to give up meat for a week

When my friend Rebecca from LA posted a link about ‘US Veg Week’ on her face book page it tickled my curiosity. I have so often heard derogatory terms like “tofu eater” being thrown around. It seems like so many of us believe that it is our god given right to eat meat.

Veg week http://usvegweek.com/ aims to raise awareness about the many benefits of a vegetarian diet for our health, the planet and of course animals.

When I was completing my yoga teacher-training course and learning to follow the yogic path I often felt pangs of guilt when I would catch myself stepping outside of the boundaries of a clean yogic lifestyle. One of the issues that came up a lot for me was changing to a plant based diet.

In the western world we are lucky enough to have access to such a large variety of quality fresh foods that we can still obtain the vitamins from all our major food groups without eating meat. So why do we do it?

Because it tastes so good! We eat meat because we want to not because we need to. To some degree this has always played on my conscience. Yes, we are the top of the food chain and therefore have fair claim to anything and everything below us but does sitting on top not leave us with some responsibility for making intelligent and conscious choices about what we eat? Does it excuse us from sending millions of animals to the abattoir each year?

A key yogic theme discussed in the yoga sutras is Ahimsa, Non violence, towards yourself and towards all other living things.  The choice to eat meat definitely breeches our ability to act with ahimsa and this is why many yogis adhere to a plant based diet.  When you study yogic philosophy in-depth and aim to align your actions with the teaching of yoga it is hard to then eat a big fat burger after class.

The choice to live meat free is not only one that yogis make to abide by ahimsa but also because it has been proven to be beneficial to our health. A bit of research I did on the net showed that vegetarians have lower blood pressure, cholesterol, coronary artery disease and less risk of some cancers. I even read that on average vegetarians live up to 7 years longer than meat eaters. Suddenly this vegetarian business is looking up isn’t it?

Ayurvedha, the sister science to yoga and the ancient medical system in India teaches that in order to obtain optimal health we must achieve balance in all aspects of life. The Ayurvedic diet takes into account a person’s age, gender, constitution (dosha), and the season in order to manage our diet.

The three ayurvedic body types, or doshas, are Vata, Pitta and Kapha. Each dosha has a unique set of characteristics. The foods that we choose should take our doshas into account.

Ayurveda divides all foods into three groups. Rajasic (stimulating), Satvic (neutral) and tamasic (heavy).

• Sattvic foods are light and easy to digest
• They do not stimulate or dull the mental, emotional or physical state.
• An example of sattvic foods are: figs and sweet potato

• Rajasic foods are hot, spicy and salty
• —They are irritants and stimulants
• An example of rajasic foods are: sour apples, tomatoes and chilli

• Tamasic food is heavy, dull and depressing
• In moderation, tamasic food is considered as grounding and promotes stability
• An example of tamasic foods are: figs and sweet potato
• Wheat, pumpkin, beef

The foods that we eat should ideally either be sattvic in nature or should compliment our body types in order to help us achieve a more balanced state. Those of us with a slower metabolism should avoid heavy carbohydrate and meat based diets as these foods are hard to digest.

The foods we eat can also effect our mental, emotional and physical states. Ever notice how you can be cranky when you are hungry, lazy when u have over eaten or how too much sugar can make you hyperactive?

When I was 15 I committed to being vegetarian because my friend was. It was a good deed done for silly reason. I didn’t change my lifstyle and diet I just stopped eating meat. As a result 6 months later my immune system was so poor and I was so low in iron that I easily developed glandular fever and spent a month recovering. At this point my mother force fed me chicken soup and said, “this vegetarian phase is over.” When cutting out a major source of protein and iron from your diet these have to be replaced with other foods such as nuts, tofu and leafy green vegetables. This was my mistake and this is where people often fail. They stop eating meat and feel low in energy, which leads them to crave meat and return to being a carnivore.

Going meat free for a week is a great challenge not only because you will be making healthier eating choices and adhering to a diet conscious of ahimsa but also because it can give you some great awareness of what your body needs and wants.

We have so much abundance in the west that we eat based on choice or convenience rather than listening to what our body is craving or needing. Removing one common food from your diet may produce profound results in energy levels and you may notice that you don’t even miss it.

For the next week I have been inspired to give it a go.

If not eating meat for a week scares the begeezes out of you then just give up red meat.

Maybe this will inspire you to just ditch something from your diet like processed sugar, carbs or alcohol.

Its only for one week…what are you afraid of…are you chicken

let me know how you go.

NAMASTE

Izzy

The To Do List

Hi Yogis,

Do you ever feel like you are drowning in your to do list?

Sometimes I feel like just as I cross off an item 2 more are added to the bottom of my never ending list of commitments.

When this list is a mounting source of stress rather than a simple reminder of things to accomplish in our day we must not be keeping things in perspective.

Yoga has taught me to use my time on the mat to quieten my mind and focus on the now, this moment, right here.

I came across a couple of images that I think are so relevant to how I feel about the subject of our to do list.

 

 

Can you relate to the image above? When you are on the mat or have a moment of quiet in your life does an avalanche of thoughts flood into the space?

If your answer is yes you need to address this now. Not tomorrow, not next week or when you can slot in time in your schedule. Do it today!

Our minds need rest as much as our bodies do or eventually they start to break down and we come down with a case of stress or worse still depression.

Start meditating, book yourself into a restorative yoga class, start some pranayama , breathing techniques or just close your eyes and listen to some chilled music. Do it today!

Good Luck

 

Namaste

Izzy

The 12 Laws of Transformation

TGIF Yogis!

The 40 day yoga challenge that I am completing at Hot Box Yoga can be an opportunity for great transformation for its participants. Transformation on a physical, mental and emotional level. The challenge requires action! If you want to reap the benfits of a dedicated yoga practice then you have to commit and show up on your mat for 40 days straight.

Whilst reading the newsletter that I receive from the studio I came across something very interesting, the ’12 Laws of Transformation.’

Change, personal change in particular is hard to initiate. You can be armed with pockets full of awareness about your habits, thoughts and emotions and yet be paralysed with hesitation to take the necessary steps towards transformation.

The ‘12 Laws of Transformation’ below can help us to create a mental state that is ready for the challenges one can face at times of change and provide good advice about turning your intentions into actions.

The 12 Laws of Transformation:

law 1: Seek the truth – then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free – john 8:31-33

law 2: Be willing to come apart – one must lose one’s life in order to find it. – anne morrow lindberg

law 3: Step out of your comfort zone – the easy path leads to the hard life, but the hard path leads to the easy life – rilke

law 4: Commit to growth - he turns not back who is bound to a star – leonardo da vinci

law 5: Shift your vision – things don’t change; we change. – henry david thoreau

law 6: Drop what you know – Relinquishing control is the ultimate challenge of the spiritual warrior. – the book of runes

law 7: relax with what is - adversity reveals genius. – horace

law 8: Remove the rocks – the block of granite which was an obstacle in the path of the weak becomes a stepping stone in the path of the strong – thomas carlyle

law 9: Don’t rush the process – have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself. do not lose courage in considering your own imperfections, but instantly set about remedying them – every day begin the task anew. – saint francis de sales

law 10: Be true to yourself -the death of dogma is the birth of reality. – immanuel kant

law 11: Be still and know – silence is a great help to a seeker of truth, like myself. in the attitude of silence, the soul finds the path clearer in light, and what is elusive and deceptive resolves itself into crystal clearness. – gandhi

law 12: Understand that the whole is the reality – in nature the overall principles represent a higher reality than does a single object

What changes are you trying to implement in your life? Have you faced challenges or triumphs on your path? Has yoga philosophy or practice helped?

I would love to hear what my fellow yogis are thinking and doing.

Have lovely weekend!

NAMASTE

Izzy

Stillness

“Sometimes the hardest action is stillness.” I found these words, spoken by my yoga teacher so profound that it sent chills down my spine (in a 30 degree hot yoga room). Finding stillness in my practice, stillness in my mind and stillness in my heart has been one of my greatest challenges in the last year of my life. The seed of self-awarenss that has been germinating and blooming inside me has blossomed petals of good habits and petals of poor habits. Some of the habits that I have noticed have been easier to change but finding stillness is a work in progress.

I can share this honestly because it is a part of my personal journey. I am not ashamed of my tendensy towards a Type A, multi-tasking, go go go personality but I must admit that this heightened state of existence often brought me more stress than happiness, more anxiety than peace. That’s the funny thing about awareness. Once you are aware of a habit or a thought that doesn’t serve you it is very difficult to continue on the same path. I guess that is why many of us take the ‘ignorance is bliss’ route. No awareness, means we do not need to face the challenges of change. Ironically though, it is probably my type A personality that takes self-awareness and the process of changing my bad habits so seriously.

When I began my yoga practice 10 years ago I was extremely competitive in class. I always wanted to hold a pose longer than the person next to me or move deeper into a stretch. I have carried this competitive spirit with me for the last 10 years and now it is so hard to shake. This ego inside me had been nurtured carefully by every sport teacher who had pushed me to ‘be my best’ at school. Now I see that being MY best was not the issue. It was being THE best. Doing your best is totally healthy. It is working with tapas, dedication/fire/commitment in all your undertakings but striving to be THE best just because, brings more anxiety than feelings of self-accomplishment. I always envied people who could ‘cruise’ through exams, races, anything without breaking a sweat, whilst I was a nervous wreck.

Finding stillness on my mat is an experience that feels different every day. Creating a  balance between working hard, with tapas in your practice but also knowing when to be soft, relaxed and when to rest is never easy. But it gets easier the more you listen to your body and not your thoughts. Your head may say, “take the harder variation, go on, take the bind,” where as your body may be telling you that your breath is laboured, your psoas muscle is binding and you are losing your balance; all signs that you need to rest. Learning to listen to my body’s needs has ironically led to my practice getting stronger. By choosing to take an easier version of an asana, pose or resting when I feel tired I am treating my body with ahimsa, non-violence and thus preventing the unnecessary stress and tension that can build when we push our bodies to the limit and don’t allow enough time for recovery.  This has led to my body softening and releasing tension in my hip flexors which was blocking the activation of my lower abs and in my gluts which was limiting me in many standing poses and hip openers. It is one of the paradoxes of yoga. We root to rise and we soften in order to find strength.

When I heard the encouragement for stillness come form my teachers lips it made me smile because it is a reminder that I so often need; that we all could benefit from. I had rushed from work to teach a Pilates private then rushed to my own yoga class and knew that I had to rush off to teach a yoga private straight after class. Its enough to make your head spin. The teacher elaborated, saying that those of us who tend to be more Typa A personalities would benefit from a more relaxed or yin yoga physical practice whilst those of us who may be more Type B should try to cultivate the opposite in their practice. In this way yoga can provide for a person what ever is missing, bringing balance to their lives. I couldn’t help looking around the room to see if anyone else was struck by her words. Here it was, a priceless piece of yogic philosophy that could bring harmony to everyone in the room and it was delivered in a power vinyasa class non the less, who’s walls seldom hear such words.

Whilst I peered from side to side in my down dog, curiosity disturbing my own stillness, I observed with sadness how the teacher’s beautiful words had fallen on deaf ears. From down dog the teacher called for our next inhale to bring us into palakasana, high plank then “flow through your vinyasa.” I watched from my vantage point perched in down dog as a room full of 30 people moved through plank – chaturanga – up dog and then down dog. I was the only person who chose not to take the vinyasa but remain still. We were 3/4 of our way through class, the room was hot and steamy and you could hear the fatigue in people’s laboured breath yet every person in that room chose to take a sequence of moves that is extremely heating, containing a difficult arm balance, core activation and a back bend. What was worse was that the beautiful poses gave way to locked elbows, sagging sway backs, poorly activated hands and held breath. It is questionable whether anyone in that class needed another vinyasa at that point. It is certain that most of my fatigued fellow yogis should have sat that vinyasa out.

The series of poor alignmennts that I witnessed can lead to injuries if repeated daily and if people are not listening to their bodies and moving without awareness yoga will continue to get a bad name from some people who emerge from class with a sore back, neck, wrist and so on.  It is easy to blame it on the teacher but here was an example where the students were not listening. Give yourself a rule. If you cannot do a pose with good alignment and muscle activation…dont do it! Tke a break in balasana, childs pose or take an easier variation. As one of my yoga teachers used to say, “yoga should be delightful.” If you are grunting and killing yourself to get to the end of your class, its time to speak to your teacher, maybe take a begginers course or a few private classes.

The universe has a funny sense of humour. This was evident when it decided to throw a test at me the very next morning after this class. I was about to step into my car on the way to yoga and as I was stepping off the curb the message from my brain to my ankle got lost in the mail. I stepped awkwardly and felt like my ankle bent at a 90 degree angle before hitting the conrete. My panic was immediate as the chain of thoughts linked together in my mind. I was a handfull of days into my yoga challenge and I knew that I had sprained my ankle badly. As a Physiotherapist I often treat sprained ( rolled) ankles and I know that the initial pain that you feel can be due to swellign as spasm and that intital treatment should always be RICE (rest, ice, compression, elevation), but I was on my way to yoga, I had 40 days in a row to do. Here in lies my test. I knew from my knowledge of ligament injuries that if I didnt immediately ice my foot and worse still if I threwmyself into a hot yoga class where I would be weightbearing on that ankle in balancing poses that I would be doing the worstthing for my injury. Believe me, I contemplated doing it anyway but here is where the story takes an unexpected turn. I chose to go home, strap my ankle, cover it with an ice pack, stick it up on a pillow and take a day off yoga. I cringed at the idea of my tally on the challenge board missing a circle indicating a completed class but I listened to my body. I had found stillness.

It took only 3 days for the stiffness, pain and swelling to subside and I was back on my mat. I am trying to find more stillness in my yoga practice and more stillness in my life. My ankle injury was just one example where my reaction is to push my body too far but gladly I passed this test. They say that a leopard can change its spots, well maybe a stubborn yogi can change her bad habits too.

“Within you there is a stillness and a sanctuary to which you can retreat at any time and be yourself.” Hermann Hesse

NAMASTE

Izzy

Return to Sadhana – 40 days of Yoga

As I stood on my Yoga mat at 6:30 am this morning it felt like I had returned home. Despite waking with the sparrows (something that I don’t do easily) I knew that today was the beginning of a daily ritual that I have in the past adhered to religiously and embraced whole heartedly. Today is the beginning of 40 consecutive days of yoga for me. This ’40 Day challenge’ is a commitment I have made to myself to arrive on my mat no matter what. Rain, hail, shine, high or low energy my mat and I will sail the uncharted yogic seas together.

To many the idea of forcing yourself to do something for 40 days may seem silly but to me this is not a physical challenge but a mental one, even a spiritual one. The sanskrit word for a dedicated spiritual practice is Sadhana. This commitment is one that you honour no matter which obstacles you may face or what challenges life can often present. You do it because you believe in it. For me it is not about the yoga poses themselves. It is about inspiring myself by showing up for yoga every day and noticing the mental shifts from class to class and day to day. I know that I will be stronger physically after this challenge but the mental and emotional gains which you can achieve by keeping a daily mental ‘diary’ for 40 days may  not be as obvious. Being aware of how you react to generating tapas (fire, heat, drive) when you are feeling like all you want to do is vegetate on the couch is a big gift in my yoga practice. The next 39 days will test my will, my dedication, my spirit; my sadhana.

Yoga has become therapeutic for me. It is like talking to a good friend honestly. I am forever being reminded of my habits and this opens the door for positive change. Do I always step through the door…no, but at least noticing my habits and characteristic mental patterns is a start. Often recognising our ‘weaknesses’ is the hardest part of the journey and through yoga and more specifically a dedicated practice which you come to every day our habits come out of hiding.

During my teacher training in LA I practiced yoga every day to improve my physical practice. Some days you would have big breakthroughs and sometimes you wouldn’t, but the only constant was the clear, confident feeling that was left after class. The feeling of turning in and looking inside yourself. Making a room full of people disappear as you became absorbed in your own practice.

In recent months I have been cultivating my home practice. This is something I have never been able to achieve in the past. Honestly…it is hard! It is so easy to make excuses and only practice the poses that you love. Ultimately life can get in the way and you find that days have past as the yoga mat gathers dust, lonely. The private yoga sessions that I have been teaching have kept me connected but my body had started to cry out for the familiar shapes it was used to flowing into and my mind was feeling uninspired. and dull. I was having withdrawal symtoms. I was craving Yoga!

Most people crave chocolate, me being the yoga addict that I am was craving the stimulation of a daily yoga practice. So borrowing from the wisdom of Dr Seuss I decided to do something about it.

 

The challenge that I have embarked upon is to choose to complete 40 days of power vinyasa yoga. Not my yoga style of choice but a fast dynamic practice that is a moving meditation for me and the perfect way to get my yogic flow back on. Already I find myself typing away at my Blog late at night when my next date with my mat is only 7 hours away. The inspiration has begun to flow.

The benefits of this challenge have already begun to surface however the most wonderful result came in the form of a facebook message. My friends from LA who I completed my yoga teacher training with wrote to me today saying that my challenge had inspired them to do the same. They are holding their own 40 days challenge and practicing yoga together. This is the magic of yoga and the kula, community it creates. Now I have my beautiful yogis from LA to help me stay inspired.

Tomorrow morning I meet my friend Kim for the 6:30 class. She is my partner through the next 40 days. I am certain that she will be thrilled to know that we have inspired friends half way across the world.

Fellow Yogis, you can do this too. Take on a yoga challenge of your own. Challenge yourself to do a salute to the sun every morning when you wake up, to do 1 headstand a day, to meditate for 5 minutes each day, to cut out meat for a week, to do something charitable every day. All this is Sadhana, all this is yoga if done with intention, with awareness and most importantly with your whole heart. Embrace the challenge and all that the experience brings. As I always say to my students when asking them to bring something from our practice into their daily life..”Just give it a go.”

NAMASTE

Izzy

 

The Joy of Yoga

Happy 2012 to all my fellow yogis and what a start to the year it has been for me and all my yogic adventures.

In my last few weeks in LA I often caught myself anxiously thinking about transitioning my dedicated personal yoga practice back home to Melbourne. Where would I practice? What would my teachers be like? Would they inspire me? It is common yogic knowledge that in times of change it is best to think positively and surrender to the will of the universe the factors which we cannot control. Nevertheless I would observe anxious thoughts floating into my conscious mind.

Would you believe that I have made no progress in finding a studio to practice at! Please believe me that it is not due to laziness or my currently depleted bank account it is simply because my yoga practice has taken on such an organic diversity in Melbourne that I have barely found time to practice at a studio.

From the day that I arrived back in to the arms of my love; Melbourne, I find that Yoga has been all that I seem to be talking about. When starting this little blog of mine I wondered whether my passion for yoga would interest my friends and family or anybody else for that matter. Apparently it has. Slowly, blog by blog we have been building a small but dedicated army of awareness warriors . Yoga is a topic that people are curious about and it’s a topic that I have been discussing a lot…with everyone…all the time.

What I love most about my yoga practice is that it is totally portable. Everywhere I go I can take it with me and I don’t really need anything to practice apart from time and desire. Luckily I have had a lot of both since my homecoming and thus I have found myself taking time to share my love of yoga, my perspective and my teaching skills with friends, family and many new awareness warriors who I have met over the summer and new year.

Over the new years break me, my boyfriend and two of our friends travelled to Confest, a festival in NSW for a chilled start to the new year. I could write a whole post on the joy of Confest but one of my favourite things about the festival is that they offer workshops from dawn till dusk and the workshops are all B.Y.O. That’s right, the workshop board is blank, encouraging everyone to contribute to the Confest community. I have participated in many great workshops at Confest but I had never had the guts to contribute something back.

In LA my teachers had always taught me that teaching yoga was about being of service to your students and so keeping this intention close to my heart I grabbed a piece of chalk and scribbled “Good Morning Yoga” at 9am on the 31st of December. I must admit that I did this anxiously. Old thought patterns die young and I caught myself thinking, “what if no one shows up?” Developing greater self awareness unfortunately means realising that if you give in to that way of thinking you are likely to prevent yourself ever doing anything meaningful.

I awoke bright and early on the last day of the year to a perfect blue sky and the hot Australian sun beginning to flex its summer muscles. How could my “Good Morning Yoga” class not be a success? It was a beautiful day, the end of an amazing year of my life and we had the energy of the morning sun to draw from.

I was overjoyed to see that a large group of yogis had gathered for class and more people were arriving with each moment. My plan was to lead a mixed level class starting with some thorough sun salutations, cultivating prana, life force in our bodies and plenty of time spent opening up the major joints and muscles of the body. (For those of you who are impartial to camping, no matter how 5 star you think you have it, you still wake up with pretty stiff muscles and joints).

I repeatedly drew the yogis’ attention to their breath and to the energy of the earth and the sun as a vital source of prana for them to draw into their practice and their bodies. Our peak pose was headstand. I really wanted to do an inversion to start the day and to use the Anusara technique of partnering to get the students to interact with each other, drawing from the concept of community that is cultivated at the festival.

Good Morning Yoga class

For many students this was their first headstand…ever! I was overjoyed to hear this. What an honour to be a part of someone overcoming the fear of flipping their body and world upside down and balancing on the crown of their head. We had created a fun, playful energy in the class and with the help of their partners everyone in class managed a successful headstand.

Turning the world upside down

At the end of class students approached me and thanked me for the experience, for reminding them about breath, about prana and for allowing them to see the world from upside down. Their comments filled my heart with so much gratitude. I felt their words and embraces generate such energy inside of me. I felt pure joy and like I had just done the practice myself. It is true what my teachers used to say that being of service as a yoga teacher is as much a part of your personal practice as the practice itself.

My first public yoga class in Melbourne was a success! Suddenly any performance anxiety on my part was replaced with passion, excitement and joy for teaching. I decided to take on a different teaching challenge…Kids Yoga. Some of my closest friends in LA teach yoga to kids and they used to describe the experience with mixed emotions.

One of the greatest challenges in teaching yoga is to guide your students to find their drishti - gaze, still their minds and focus. This is a constant challenge when you are working with adults so when your students are children, getting them to pay attention is a formidable task. This difficulty is balanced by the pure joy and excitement with which kids take on new tasks.

My friend Cynthia works as a nanny and runs school holiday care for kids, she is also generally awesome so we combined forces to entertain the kids and give their parents a break for an hour. Our aim was simply to facilitate them having fun and to allow the class to take shape organically. I hope the kids enjoyed themselves because I had an absolute ball! We had a good group of kids between the ages of 2 and 7. We started class with a very important activity, face painting. The kids chose between tribal warrior (I couldn’t resist) and their favourite animal then we sat in a circle and they each said their name, their favourite animal and their favourite colour. This helped the kids ‘come out of their shells’ a little before we put them through their yogis paces. We talked about different ways we can breathe, we ‘sang’ OM and the kids tried different poses which corresponded to their favourite animals (such cuteness hearing the little ones barking like a dog in downward facing dog…too cute). We ended with Savasana, which I am very proud to say was a big success. I wasn’t sure that we would be able to get 15 kids under 10 to lie still for 5 minutes, but it worked. We asked the little Awareness Warriors to lie still on their backs, feel the wind on their bodies, the sun on their faces and to listen to the music and the sound of the outdoors. While they lay still smiling we tickled their bodies softly, helping them feel relaxed. Our first kids yoga class ended with an OM and a lot of love. The kids loved it, the parents were so grateful and we had an absolute blast.

Mini Awareness Warriors

"Ommmm"

Balancing in tree pose

What a perfect end to the year. Camping in the beautiful Australian bush, being of service and teaching 2 joyful yoga classes. This experience really reconfirmed why I love yoga so much. It connects me to like-minded individuals and allows me to share such a positive practice with them.

My next stop was Beautiful Byron Bay. Out of all the places that I have travelled in this world, nowhere makes me feel more relaxed from the moment I arrive. It was in this beautiful beach setting that I was able to share my joy of Yoga with my boyfriend’s parents. Neither had ever attempted yoga but were inspired by observing Josh and I in our daily practices. They say that working with family members is not a good idea but I do feel that this may have been an exception to the rule.  We spent 45 minutes doing a basics class which consisted mostly of breaking down the Surya Namaskar A (salute to the sun) poses and having a long savasana. Sometimes it is hard to tell if the person you are teaching is enjoying their experience because the poses can be physically and mentally challenging so it is only after savasana when you ask them to notice how they feel that you receive any feedback.  I desperately wanted Josh’s parents to enjoy the experience and after the class I received all the confirmation I needed when Josh’s dad said enthusiastically, “That was amazing. I feel less stiff already.” Never had he imagined that the transformative effects of yoga could be felt so instantaneously. Yoga is by no means a quick fix but yes, I agree with him that at least a physical difference can be felt after just one class.

A well deserved savasana

I am proud to report that Josh’s mum has now taken on a personal home practice that she is building. I am so proud of her for taking these first steps and embracing the practice with a totally open mind and heart. I am certain that the benefits for her will be great.

Lastly, I have taken on a few private yoga clients. I have discovered a real love for teaching students in an intimate setting where we can design a practice based on their individual goals and desires.  Perhaps this comes from my background in Physiotherapy, rehab and Pilates which requires every intervention and exercise to be tailored. I am blessed to be working with students who embrace my style of teaching, challenge themselves with new poses and are receptive to yogic philosophy and pranayama, breath control, which so many people miss out on when they practice yoga. I am so lucky to practice with each student.

This blog was conceived out of a desire to track my journey and my experiences with yoga, however it has done so much more than act as a diary. These posts in themselves heighten my awareness of my thoughts and actions.  It helps me to reflect on the effect of yoga on my life.

Despite the joy that teaching yoga in my spare time has given me, writing this blog mid way through February makes me realise how uninspired I have been. Our lives can get so busy and in the blink of an eye 2 months have passed. I have moved into my new house, settled into full time work and filled every spare moment with enjoying summer with my friends. Somehow, despite cultivating a personal practice at home and teaching yoga consistently I have lacked the inspiration, which normally magnetises me to my computer.

It has been a big change transitioning from 2-3 hours of yoga a day and hours of conversation about yoga with like-minded yogis to practicing yoga in my spare time. This sudden change has left me very uninspired and showed me that I need to make yoga a priority and have a more consistent routine to keep the fire of passion burning.

I miss the big part that yoga used to have in my life and am still transitioning into being a full time physiotherapist again whilst maintaining a dedicated yoga practice, however in the few short months that I have been home I have shared yoga with so many people and have been of service in ways that I never thought imaginable. It has brought me more joy than I ever thought imaginable.

NAMASTE

Izzy

Yoga begins the moment you start to pay attention

“Yoga begins the moment you start to pay attention.” Joel Kramer

Throughout the life of this blog I have acted as a guinea pig, testing out the effect of paying closer attention to your body and mind and I have discovered profound changes within my own life. My discoveries may have been but a 1 subject case study but through my journey into teacher training and my 6 months of intensive yoga practice I have discovered (as I have often shared) that greater attention to the way I move, breathe and what I feel on my yoga mat led to greater self awareness in life. Considering the undoubtedly positive effects I have experienced I now know that focus, attention, connection and awareness are something that I want to share with my students. After all, it is practicing with awareness that makes yoga so much more than just exercise, it transforms yoga into a way of life.

In my last week in LA I taught 2 donation classes at Black Dog Yoga. The lovely staff at Black Dog never cease to amaze me and Mischa, who organises the graduate teacher trainees’ roster asked my fellow graduating teachers if they would be happy for me to teach one extra class because I was leaving . Of course they obliged and so I had the pleasure of teaching twice. My theme for the week was…drumroll…awareness. No surprises there I guess . I encouraged the students to practice with greater focus and attention in each pose. I asked them to move into a pose and then scan their bodies with the purpose of fine tuning their alignment. I guided the students to pay special attention to areas that they personally need to work on, such as not locking the knees and finally to notice any feelings or thoughts that rise to the surface of their consciousness throughout class.

I have often written about the chaos of our modern lives. Our busy schedules, calendars, to do lists and the rising stress levels that we experience as we try to take multitasking to new levels, juggling so many aspects of our lives. We have become capable of doing much more than 2 things at once, but is this detrimental? We may be completing many tasks but with less focus comes less awareness of the task at hand and thus do we compete tasks with less quality, less long term efficiency and less enjoyment?

Everyone has probably experienced reading a book and catching their mind wandering. Your eyes and brain continue to scan the words but you have no idea what you have just read as your mind has wondered off to other thoughts. Are we now so good at multitasking that we are losing our ability to focus? Awareness is how the human being experiences the light of consciousness. Is multitasking making us less conscious? Are we losing one of the qualities that makes us human; consciousness? Only by focusing our full attention on a task can we connect to deeper thought processes and access a greater level of awareness of the task at hand.

Yoga provides us with an opportunity to still our minds and focus on the present moment. We put aside our to do lists and challenge ourselves to focus on one pose at a time. Ideally we try to make every pose the best that we can on any given day. To focus the mind we begin by closing our eyes and turning inward. Our whole world shrinks to the dimensions of our yoga mat and we connect with the breath, with our selves, with the moment. Once you are in control of your breath you can begin to move and with this heightened connection to the task, being ‘truly in the moment’ great things are possible. Life takes on a richness, a fullness when we connect consciously to the present moment.

I personally achieve my greatest breakthroughs in yoga when can focus deeply. On days where I can feel that my attention is razor sharp and free from distractions everything else falls into place. My breath feels less laboured, my poses feel stronger, my hips more flexible and my thoughts are more positive, encouraging me to try and not being hard on myself if I fail.

The physical rewards are huge. I find myself able to achieve poses that previously seemed unavailable to me. By focusing on each pose and scanning my body to find the ideal alignment a greater level of awareness develops in my body and I have greater presence on my mat. I can focus on my core and activate it with each breath, I become acutely aware of my foundation and draw energy from the ground up into my limbs. Greater awareness of my stabilizing muscles enables me to use them rather than my large superficial muscles. Our stabilizers are designed to work all day and can handle loading for longer periods of time without fatigue (however they are hard to access as we have very poor awareness of our deeper, ‘core’ muscles). Our superficial muscles fatigue quickly and begin to shake and cramp when we rely exclusively on them, ‘muscling’ our way through class. As a result of accessing my deeper muscles I have more energy and strength to attempt challenging poses. I am better able to balance strength and stability with softness and openness in the pose. I no longer tense my muscles to achieve stability and thus find it easier to breathe freely without holding my breath.

By bringing greater awareness to my physical body I can begin to notice habits: locking of the knees, tensing of the jaw and shoulders, bypasing the abdominals. Only when we become aware of our poor habits on the mat can we begin to replace them with positive action. The result: progress. Yoga is a life long practice, but for you to see improvements you must first become aware of what needs to be improved.  Our behaviours are a result of repetitive unconscious actions, which when repeated over a long period become solidified as our habits. In order to begin to recognise our habits, good and bad we must first pay attention to the tasks at hand.

Once you have gained awareness of your habits the skill is to replace a negative habit in the same way that it was formed, by reinforcing a new action through repetition. In this way a negative a habit which no longer serves us can be substituted for a positive action. The good news is that this is as simple as it sounds. The bad news, this takes time, patience and more attention. I often tell my patients and students that changing a habit is like shaping a Bonsai Tree: it takes time. A thing of beauty can grow when you devote time, patience and love to it but there is no short cut.

Poor habits also have a way of creeping into our yoga practice. As I have already mentioned locking knees, tensing jaw, holding the breath, not activating the core, crunching the toes, allowing the floating ribs to ‘pop out’ and allowing the shoulders to tense are just some of the examples of bad habits that I see in class and work on improving in my own practice. Some of the strongest habits in our life are formed by acting or thinking the same way over and over again, so those of us who are very dedicated yoga students may actually be creating deeply set habits of poor alignment if we are committed to a regular practice without focus and awareness of our body in each position.

Thorough Yoga teachers will remind students of the above mentioned common misalignments and will begin to remember their students’ poor habits. The task for the student is then to still the thoughts running through their mind in order to be able to listen to the teacher’s cues and try to find the correct alignment in their own bodies. In this way we can begin to pay attention to areas that we want to work on, ie core, knees, hips…etc. You may even learn something new about the way your body moves and certain habits that you didn’t even know you had.

The mental rewards that come with greater conscious attention to our tendencies are vast. Just like we notice common physical and postural habits during our yoga practice we can begin to pay attention to the thoughts and emotions we experience in each pose. Sometimes the toughest poses can teach us the most about our true nature. Do you know how you react when you are finding it difficult to balance in a certain pose? What about when you are struggling to stick your handstand or your hips feel tight making some poses feel more challanging. Do you react with anger, frustration, disappointment or do you laugh it off, try your best and look forward to next time when you can imporove? If you are a person who reacts in the later then my friend you are a true yogi. For the rest of us, we are conditioning ourselves to react negatively when challenged on the mat and we all know that the way you react on your yoga mat is the way you are likely to react to challenges in life. Our Yoga practice gives us a unique opportunity to change not only our physical habits but also the mental thought processes which serve us negatively. The process is always the same. Notice the thoughts, feeling and emotions which come up for you while you practice and begin to replace them with positive options. Instead of getting angry with a difficult pose try to enjoy the challenge and look forward to your progress in the future. Replace your grimace with a smile and have fun with your yoga practice and you may suddenly find yourself having more fun when life brings you challenges.

Yoga is not the only practice that requires focus. Any exercise will be more beneficial if you focus on the task at hand. In fact, any activity at all holds many gifts when the light of consciousness is shinned upon it. Only when we take on tasks with all of our attention can we notice subtleties, achieve our full potential and experience the most joy from everything that we do.

I have a challenge for you. Tomorrow morning when you eat breakfast try not to distract yourself with anything else. Don’t read the paper, check your email, drive your car…do nothing but sit and eat your food. Taste the food, experience the flavour, chew it thoroughly, notice when you are full.  I garuntee you that your breakfast will never have tasted as good.

Awareness is a universal concept. It applies to every task we do in life, every experience we have. This year has been one in which I have learned so much about myself just by paying closer attention to my tendencies. Without judgment we can all notice the habits which time and repetition have etched into our actions and our thoughts and if we wish we can use this awareness as the first stepping stone along the path to self improvement on and off our yoga mat.

NAMASTE

Izzy

I am a Yoga Teacher!

This week I officially became a Yoga teacher. It has been a long 200 hour Journey. After many hours of class, assisting my teacher’s classes, homework and practice, somehow I didn’t want that last day to come because it meant that this incredible, life changing experience would be over.

One of the things that we learned during teacher training was not to lament the ending of experiences as the cycle of beginning, middle and end is life itself. We are reminded of this every time we chant OM in class. I now find myself in the silence, the space between one OM and the next, that space in life where anything is possible. My beautiful friend Jen who I shared this teacher training experience with put it so beautifully in her opening sequence for our practical exam. “We chant OM and honor the end of our teacher training, our continued commitment to yoga and our beginning as yoga teachers.”

I remember the first day that I came into the ‘Black Dog Yoga’ studio. It was the first studio on my short list of 3 that I was planning to visit that day in order to find a place to practice. I had just moved to LA and suddenly found myself in another, open space in my life where anything was possible. I had no job and all the free time in the world. What an opportunity to immerse myself in my yoga practice and finding a place to practice yoga was a great start. Little did I know that as I stepped into the tranquil space of the ‘Black Dog yoga’ reception area it would become so much more than just a place to practice yoga.

Black Dog Yoga and its Kula, community of the heart has become my second home and family. The incredible people who I practice with every day truly embody what it is to be a yogi. They are welcoming, accepting, generous and are truly interested in who you are. The studio is a peaceful and inspiring place where I was lucky to not only practice but also to work at reception and to take the amazing teacher training course.

Yoga teacher training has been life changing in so many ways. I remember on our very first night we all sat in a circle and shared our intentions, why we had come to this training. My reason was simple, I am in LA for 6 months, I have lots fo free time, I love Yoga and im  a PT so hopefully my practice will improve and I can use the skills I learn for a greater variety in exercise prescription when treating patients. I remember that I was one of the only people who didn’t share a personal reason for coming to the practice. Many of my friends had come with a greater purpose than to just learn the asana, poses and to teach them to others. The fact that people came to yoga to heal not just physically but, mentally, emotionally even spiritually is one of the greatest things I have learned over the last few months. This diverse practice that is yoga takes many people searching for something more in their lives under her wing. She has the power to heal us in every way, right now where ever you are at. I came to learn how to do yoga and I learned what yoga is. It is everything, yoga is life, yoga is a path of dicipline, wisdom and self reflection that leads to better health no matter what your starting point along its path.

I did get what I originally came for though. Today I taught my very first full yoga class from beginning to end. Black Dog yoga very generously offers new graduate students to teach donation classes at the studio. I had anticipated there would be just a few people in the room, mainly my friends from teacher training but as I stepped into the large blue room at Black Dog Yoga there were 21 people in the class! My heart rate rose momentarily and then I reminded myself of something that our teachers always said. Teaching yoga is not about YOU. It is about guiding others through their practice. I must admit that when I took my ego out of the room, sat down in front of the class and just taught, leading the students to find their breath (whilst i tried to catch mine), draw their attention onto their  own mat, the rest of the world just melted away. I was in the moment and I was doing it! I was teaching! It was the best feeling to watch the students listen to my instruction and find the alignment in their bodies. I felt like I was of service to them, so it didn’t mater that I forgot 10 minutes worth of my standing sequence (oops) and we ended up doing more floor poses. We were moving, we were breathing and the energy in the room was electric.

I have learned that the greatest yoga teachers draw from their own experience. They teach from their perspective on life and therefore on yoga. I believe that being the greatest teacher that I can be, involves being a great yogi first. They say that ‘those who can’t do, teach,’ however, the greatest lesson I have learned during my training is to draw from my own practice, meditation, thoughts and teach from that place. People come to yoga for their own experience but they learn how to apply their yoga in real life through their teachers’ experiences. Our team of teachers assured us that our unique voice, experiences and love of yoga is the most important message to deliver when teaching a class. More important than any pose that we may chose to teach. We practice yoga to still the mind and connect with our breath through physical poses. Any pose can do that, but only a teacher’s unique voice can speak to a  student and help them find their yoga practice off the mat. I can only hope that my unique personality was able to shine through my nervousness. I am sure that it will shine more brightly with each class.

This week I experienced my  first thanksgiving ever. It is such a wonderful holiday. A time to be with family, friends and to reflect on everything and everyone in our lives which we are grateful for. This year I am grateful for having yoga in my life. It keeps me strong and healthy, reminds me to treat myself with ahimsa, nonviolence, to let go of my ego, to breathe, that I am not my thoughts or emotions they are just experiences that cycle through my day, my life. It teaches me that on my yoga mat I am always a student and there is always more to learn. When I practice yoga I feel calm, balanced, happy and I have an incredible feeling of love. I learn to listen to myself, to hear what thoughts and feelings routinely come up for me. These moments of greater awareness about myself, my life and mind are created on my mat and this awareness is growing, spreading of the mat into my life.

I want to send a big Thank you out to the universe for leading me to Black Dog Yoga’s door step. These months studying, practicing, laughing and loving with the incredible people I have met here have been unforgettable.

Thank you to all my wonderful teachers. These dedicated yogis who are unique and beautiful people, which makes them memorable teachers. You have brought the deeper meaning of yoga into my life. Thank you for teaching me to trust the universe and to surrender to its will during times of uncertainty and change. Thank you for teaching me to soften and find calm and sweetness in my physical practice. ”Go hard or go home,” is gone for good. Thank you Maria for the love, Jenny for the laughter, Peter for the fun, Margaret for your warmth and Sigrid for your passion. From all of you I have learned that yoga is not just anything but it can be everything. If practiced with dedication, self reflection and surrender every action and every thought is yoga. I will endeavor to continue practicing all I have learned and share the love of yoga you have strengthened in me. This Blog is dedicated to all of you. without our teachers we cannot learn to be students in yoga.

Lastly thank you to my incredible friends from teacher training, Rebecca H, Katie, Lynn, Rebecca M, Jen, Tina, Gene and Michelle. The 9 of us have shared a life changing experience. I am so honoured to have met every single one of you. Yoga has an amazing way of bringing like minded people together. Thank you for choosing to do this course and therefore enriching my own experience with all of your magnificent spirits.

I would like to quote my incredible talented friend Katie to finish. Katie wrote a touching poem about her experience during teacher training and her final line was “I came to learn how to be a teacher and in return I learned how to remain a student.” This is the true gift of yoga teacher training. You learn to see things from different perspectives. I am humbled by all I have learned and relish in the idea of being a yoga student for life.

This Blog was supposed to document my journey through 200 hours of yoga teacher training but surprise, surprise I have fallen in love with not only yoga but writing and sharing all my ideas about it. My boyfriend and I are traveling back to Australia this summer so hopefully there will be many yoga adventures to share.

Thank you for following my journey through yoga teacher training and to a greater sense of self awareness. This experience has been an important stepping stone along my yogic path.

NAMASTE

Izzy

Corpse pose. A little piece of heaven on earth

There is a tank top for sale at Black dog Yoga which has written on it, “when’s savasana?” It makes people smile as it pokes fun at the fact that everybody loves the most resting pose in our yoga practice. It is true, savasana (pronounced shah-vah-sa-nah),corpse pose is about just being, however recently I have been noticing that my savasana has been a pose in which I achieve a lot more than a well deserved rest.

Lets get something clear first, savasana  is an actual pose. To many this may seem like a pointless and obvious piece of information but I believe that whilst we know savasana is the final pose of the sequence, when we hear the teacher’s cue to “lie back, close your eyes and rest,” we forget that there is work to be done in this asana beyond who can best impersonate a corpse.

Over the past 2 months in teacher trainng we have been disecting each yoga pose like surgeons. Breaking it apart and working out how it fits together, how to manipulate it, how it should feel. Taking a 3D view of each pose has helped me enormously to feel the correct alignment in my own body and thus gain the most benefits from it. This has led to my physical practice getting stronger, and has given me the ability to move deeper into many poses. My body feels strong and I have gained flexibility in previously tights areas, however the biggest benefit has come from greater strength and flexibility of my mind; the pose that is responsible…Savasana.

I shared in one of my first blog posts that I used to lie in my Iyengar Yoga class, feeling every minute of our 15 minutes savasana crawl by. I would think about exams I had coming up, what was on TV that night, what I was going to do for dinner…The quiet space that savasana created in my life was immediately invaded with all the things we wish didn’t clutter our thoughts. Here it was, a perfect place to escape from the mental chatter and I would flood my mind with even more chatter. Luckly, some 10 years later I am no longer wasting my savasana.

At one point during teacher training I heard the practice of yoga described as ‘shaking up a snow globe.’ What a fantastic way to describe the stress that we put our mind and body through during yoga. We stretch our limbs and load our bones and muscles. We breathe, try to still our mind and focus our attention whilst balancing on one leg. We accept thoughts that encourage us to care for our body during our practice and try to not surrender to self defeating or negative thoughts. Much of what we do within a 1.5 hour class is very physically demanding and can cultivate a lot of energy. So, if practice is shaking up the snow globe of our world then savasana is when the ‘snow settles.’  Savasana allows for total integration of the preceding asana. It is the final most important pose because it allows the energy that has been cultivated during yoga to be absorbed by our body and mind. When there is no more work to do the stillness in savasana opens a space where one can experience their own true, calm, joyeaous spirit, thier purusha, soul.

The cycle of a yoga class, much like the vibration of OM, often chanted at the beginning of class is like a micro-cosmos of real life. We are born as we begin to wake up our body, we warm up our muscles and joints, breath, focus and move with greater awareness like a new child. We progress to stabalising, strenghtening poses, we stress our bodies and feel the way we react in heating poses as a teenager or young adult might. The more cooling poses follow to bring the pace and energy down much like a person’s life slowing down as they age. Finally we take savasana, corpse pose. We detach from our physical body, soften our breath and connect with our purusha, our spirit.

At the end of savasana we are called to reconnect with our body, our breath, our mind.  We roll over to our side, knees tucked in, in the fetal position. As I press up to sitting I feel like I am rebourn. As if I have progressed a life cycle and have emerged more calm, strong and connected. I chant OM, the vibration of the universe and I feel the sound, in my body. It seals in my  practice and reminds me of the cycle of life (a beginning, middle and end) that is present in all things. During class I have lived a lifetime, I have grown, gained more awareness and when I leave I always feel like I am different to when I entered class.

Savasana is crucial to the cycle of a yoga class. This final pose which allows the newly cultivated energy to be absorbed, bringing union (the ultimate goal of yoga- union of body, mind and spirit). Without it yoga is just exercise. It is just one 8th of everything that the ancient tradition offers a student.

Savasana has benefits beyond allowing the integration of your yoga practice. The pose reduces blood pressure, stress, anxiety, insomnia, fatigue as well as calming and centering the mind. The later has had the most profound effect on my life. Savasana has given me a glimpse at the experience of meditation. It is a pose of being not doing. With stillness of the body and breath we are left with awareness of our mental activity, of the thoughts that persist when we quiet the world around us. The challenge in savasana is to allow those thoughts to be still as well. The ability to still the mind brings you closer to experiencing your true self, the constant calm spirit that is not affected by good or bad thoughts. In a world which moves at such a fast pace our thoughts often have to keep up. Savasana teaches us to take time away from our thoughts and just rest. Practicing calming our minds is a skill which is more relevant today than ever.

If you can relax here, you can relax anywhere

The Yoga sutras, the ancient book outlining the 8 limbed path of classical yoga speaks about the calming effect of yoga in sutra 1.2.  Yogash chitta virtti nirodhah is translasted as “yoga is the cessation of the fluctuations of the mind.” The practice of yoga teaches us to notice with awareness our thoughts but to have the ability to calm the mind creating the opportunity for well needed mental rest. We often give our bodies a break but if we are not aware of the fatigue of the mind it can never get a chance for rest. Suddenly it becomes clear why so many of us are so stressed. Another interpretation explains that yoga teaches us to calm our thoughts in order to stop the mind turning things around. Our mind sees objects and situations from our unique perspective and this can often be detrimental to our understanding. The ability to know that how you see things from your ‘shoes’ is only one perspective is a great lesson learned from me. Having a greater awareness of my thoughts and greater control of the mind has led to less stress and greater happiness in my life.

If I don’t do a 5 minute savasana at the end of class I feel anxious, charged and tired.  I feel like my practice is incomplete and I step into the day depleated rather than rejuvenated. In the last 2 months I have had to audit and assist dozens of yoga classes to complete the hours of my 200 hour yoga teacher training course. Being an observer in a yoga class is fascinating. It provides you with a unique seat from which you can be aware of the teacher and the class simultaneously. From this perpective you can see the energy peak and trough throughout the class. At the end of a vigorous class the energy in the room is often low, students are tired from a thorough practice. They welcome savasana and melt into their mats. There is no sound, no movement. As I watch the room with 30 bodies in corpse pose the energy in the room is calm but strong. Its like you can feel the people recharging. It is an almost sacred experience and I feel honoured to watch over the students while they rest in savasana.

if there is anything that I have learned from teacher training is the benefits of balancing a rigorous physical practice with a more quiet retrospective one. Learning to quiet my mind and just be, doing nothing has changed my yoga practice forever and it has also changed me. I have learned that so much of my personality is mirrored on my mat and that if I can learn to practice calm, patience and contentment on the mat then I can hope to possess these qualities in my life at large and live with greater peace.

Savasana

Try savasana for yourself. Corpse pose will make you feel like you have died and gone to heaven.

Namaste

Izzy