Yoga for Corporate July 27, 2008
Posted by admin in : Yoga Tags:benefits of yoga, Corporate yoga, stress management, wellness program , add a commentI spent 11 years in Real Estate and Facilities Management so I understand how the corporate world operates and the everyday demands that are placed upon people in organizations expected to perform. Our world is already chaotic and teeming with personal responsibilities without the additional stress from pressure and expectations at work. There are deadlines to meet, long hours to work, executives and shareholders to impress, projects to juggle, policies and procedures to uphold, pressure to perform and people to make happy.
It’s no wonder people are completely overwhelmed. Stress is killing our society and draining our spirit as a collective whole. Evidence is quickly accumulating to suggest stress is related to cardiovascular disease, musculoskeletal disorders, psychological disorders, work place injuries, cancer, and impaired immune function. The Journal of Occupational & Environmental Medicine stated that employees with high levels of stress incur 50% more health care expenses than those without. Think about that for a moment. What is that doing to a company’s bottom line?
Many companies are starting to look at the rise in health care cost, absenteeism, the moods and energy level of their employees, productivity, and work compensation claims. They are looking for solutions and yoga is becoming more and more widespread as a means to address some of these issues. Yoga use to be viewed as “stretching for old people,” but as it’s becoming more mainstream, people are starting to recognize the insurmountable benefits associated with the practice. In fact, Nike, HBO, Forbes, and Apple all see the benefit of yoga and offer on-site classes as a regular employee benefit.
It’s a lot more than just stretching. It can be physically challenging in a way you wouldn’t expect, as it strengthens, tones and lengthens muscles you wouldn’t normally use in any other exercise regimen. It increases flexibility, promotes cardio and circulatory health, brings mental clarity, sharpens concentration, boosts self-confidence, centers attention, and relieves symptoms of potentially life threatening illnesses; such as arthritis, chronic fatigue, diabetes, asthma, and obesity. There are numerous other benefits, which can be found at the following link, but the bottom line is yoga is an innovative approach to managing stress.
Companies who bring yoga in to the work place are going to see a team of healthier employees with a happier disposition. Employees will be more rested, have more awareness and will not be as affected by the happenings of the day. They will make better decisions because they will not feel as burdened by their daily responsibilities. They will have more energy throughout the day and will be able to better focus on their projects. They will be more creative and not as distracted. Their communication skills will sharpen. Not only will work performance improve, there will be an increase in the overall effectiveness of the team. Companies will not only boost morale, they will ultimately boost the bottom line.
There’s no reason for corporations to pay a fortune in health insurance premiums and potential claims. Many insurance companies are actually offering reduced rates to organizations who offer some type of wellness program to their employees so check with your provider. Offering yoga as an employee benefit will cost you a nominal amount compared to what you’ll save in the long run and you will have a more harmonious environment for people to perform.
Hands-on July 18, 2008
Posted by admin in : Yoga Tags:adjustment, energetically healing, hands-on, limitations , add a commentLast night was the first time I taught since the accident. I knew I wouldn’t be able to do the poses like I normally do, but I had no idea I wouldn’t be able to do hand-on adjustments. It came to me as a surprise the first time I bent over to place my hands on a student’s back while in a seated forward fold. My neck immediately tightened and I felt like I couldn’t move. I had no problems standing or walking with my head straight, but bending over caused my head to fold forward, which brought about a great deal of pain.
It made me realize the importance of touch in a yoga class. Sure there are some people who have space issues and don’t want to be touched, but connecting with your students is very important and the best way to truly connect is person to person. When you lay your hands on someone you are not only energetically encouraging the students to adjust their alignment, you are giving them prana and prana is energetic love.
There are minor chakras in the palms of your hands so when you lay your hands upon a student you are sharing a piece of yourself…you are sharing love and compassion…two ingredients for a sweet practice. As humans, we were meant to be touched and loved in a gentle loving way. Our humanity depends upon it. Studies have shown that love can heal and yoga is about healing the body…loving the body…being kind and compassionate to the body.
I wouldn’t want to teach yoga if I couldn’t be myself and incorporate a loving heart in to the practice. It just wouldn’t seem right to me. It felt really weird walking around class last night verbally directing my students from one asana to the next without being able to get in close and share the love. It felt foreign and strange. I have a new appreciation for hands-on and look forward to healing so I can once again share the gift of touch…it is truly a healing art.
Yoga Teacher Training June 25, 2008
Posted by admin in : Yoga Tags:balance, Eight Limbs of Yoga, meditate, Pantanjali, pranayama, purification, transformation, yoga teacher training , 3comments
Yoga Teacher Training is a remarkable journey! I graduated the 200 hour course at Peachtree Yoga Center in February 2008 and then went directly in to the Advanced Teacher Training program. Combined, these courses literally revolutionized the way I live. At first, I wasn’t exactly sure what I was going to get out of it, but I knew intuitively it was something I needed to do.
I went in thinking I knew who I was, but found out there was a completely different person beneath all the layers of memories, experiences and influences programmed from the past. I spent my whole life reacting to life and then suffering from the consequences of my reactions. My mind defined me according to my career, material possessions, relationships, social status, and other things that lived outside of me (having nothing to do with “me”).
Teaching Training explored not just the physical, but the emotional, the mental, and the energetic body. We were given the proper tools to get in and change old self-defeating thought patterns and emotional programming. This purification led me to a place of stillness and balance. I didn’t realize the importance of Pantanjali’s 8 limbs of yoga until I took the course and was taught the value of incorporating these principals of moral conduct in to my everyday life. It wasn’t just about the physical practice or learning how to teach the poses. It was about being ethical and having integrity and living life from a place of authenticity. It was about having self-discipline and detaching from the external world and the roles we play . It was about breathing and cultivating a sense of internal awareness of who we are beyond the labels and material possessions. It was about concentration and meditation. It was about enlightenment being a journey and not a destination.
It was about finding a delicate balance of effort and inertia. I spent years trying to achieve a place of equanimity where the lows weren’t so low and the highs weren’t so high, but it wasn’t until teacher training that I learned how to achieve a place of stillness amongst the activity of every day life. I didn’t want to become a monk and go live in the mountains and meditate. I wanted to live every day life with every day people without being attached or having expectations or letting the world’s suffering affect me. I wanted to experience life from a place of peace. I wanted to dance with life and breathe in to existence without feeling fear or anger for all the ignorance.
The 8 limbs helped me understand why balance was so important and why asanas on their own couldn’t bring a state of equanimity. It was an enriching and profound discovery that led me to adopt these principals personally and professionally. The mediation and pranayama played a huge component in my transformation. By use of a mantra I was able to empower myself to go beyond the ensuing thoughts. I was able to drop in to a place of silence where I experienced an eternal freedom. I found a place of stillness where there was infinite possibilities and untold wisdom. Once you know who you are the world opens up to you…the sky’s the limit. The world becomes yours because you realize you are the world and the world is you…there is no separation of self and the whole…there is no longer an ”I.” It’s about union…the divine whole of all the individual counterparts that make up the universe.
When you reach this place, which is your true essential nature, everything in your life changes. Your relationships improve because you finally have the ability to communicate from a place of truth and truth is always about love…loving yourself and the world in which we live. It makes you a better teacher because you are practicing what you teach.
I will be forever in debt and utterly grateful to my divine teachers at Peachtree. Teacher Training gave me a safe space to do the work I needed to grow and open my eyes to something far greater than anything I ever expected. I weaved myself a little cocoon where I went deep within myself and flew out a beautiful radiant butterfly who was finally free. Peachtree is the Mother Tree and Graham and Ursula are the inner being of that tree. They are the soul of the studio and they speak the truth…they live the truth…they are the truth. They truly get it and they dedicate their lives unselfishly to helping others find their own truth…their internal light…the light that shines out from within.
Emotional Release Through Asana May 9, 2008
Posted by admin in : Yoga Tags:asana, backbends, emotional release, emotions, energetic body, letting go, traumas, Yoga , 1 comment so farIf you practice yoga long enough you will eventually experience what yogis call an “emotional release.” Strong emotions and repressed traumas create memories, which can be held in the body for years. Our bodies are incredibly intelligent and our conscious thoughts directly affect our subconscious mind. The old adage says we are what we eat and so goes the mind. We are what we think. If you harbor negative thoughts and emotions, there’s a high probability your life experiences will reflect the same. Think about it…you never hear a wealthy person saying how broke he is and you never see a person who says their always broke with money. We should all be more cognitive of our thoughts, as the mind is very powerful.
It’s important to know we are not just physical bodies…we have energetic bodies as well and when the flow of energy through the body is impeded by negatively charged emotions or destructive thought patterns, the cellular structure of our bodies become damaged resulting in disease and illness. People would rather put their emotions behind them than deal with the pain of feeling them, but your body doesn’t want to deal with them any more than you do. We hold on to a lot more than you think and the beauty of yoga is that it works on all levels whether you are conscious of it or not.
Just how an insect may get trapped in a spider’s web, emotional trauma can get entangled in the web of fascia that protects and isolates the muscles in the body. Aanas work with the breath to open the muscles and the connective tissue that envelope these parts of the body. Opening up and stretching this fascia, releases the emotions, which can be healing on many levels. If this stuff isn’t released, it will turn in to disease because it wants out and the body will do everything in it’s power to get rid of it.
It’s a very beautiful experience to open up and let go and yoga allows people to do this in a safe nurturing environment. Having an emotional release on the mat means your body is healing itself naturally. Even if you had a perfect childhood, there were moments when your needs weren’t met in some way or another. Emotions attached to these experiences and if the emotions had a strong enough charge, the likelihood of them being trapped in your body is very high. All of us have stuff that needs to be released. It’s just a matter of how we go about doing it. Some people prefer therapy…others energy work…and then there are those who just allow their bodies to get sick rather than deal with it, but there are so many tools availabe if you’re willing to do the work. Yoga is just one of those tools.
Similar to jumping off a mountain, a strong asana practice can push you to your limits, taking you beyond what you thought possible. It’s all about stepping out of your safety net and reaching a place to where you have no control and when you make the decision to take that kind of step, you find things out about yourself you never knew. I’ve had many emotional releases in my life and many of them have been through my yoga practice, but something happened to me the other night that was quite different from the rest.
After doing two rounds of back bends, my teacher asked if anyone wanted to do a wall drop back. I had done many drop backs with the support of a teacher so I thought, “yeah, sure…why not…I can do it.” Keep in mind I had no idea what a wall drop back was, but I was feeling warm and a little bold so I thought, “Why not?” You stand with your back to the wall…about a foot in front…you put your hands on the wall above your head as if you were prepping to do a full wheel….you slowly begin to walk your hands down the wall as your feet walk forward…you do this until you walk yourself completely down the wall in to a full back bend.
Up until the half way point I was doing pretty good…it was challenging and I liked the fact that I was pushing myself to the edge, but then all of a sudden I moved past the half way point and my body froze. I was stuck and I couldn’t move. I was literally terrified…scared to death. The only other time I remember feeling that way was the first time I stepped off the side of a mountain looking my boyfriend square in the eyes knowing full well it could be the last time I ever saw him.
I came very close to screaming for my teacher, but then I thought, “I made it this far…I can do this…I’m going for it…” And there it was…the moment of truth…I took one more step out with my feet and then released one hand and then the other from the wall as both hands made contact with the mat beneath me and it was in that exact moment I felt an explosion of energy pour out from my heart and through my entire chest and then down my legs and arms. I just froze there in full wheel scared to death. I thought if I moved a single inch my entire body would come crumbling down to the ground. I took a couple deep breaths and then moving slowly, released myself down one vertebrae at a time. The moment my entire back body was in full contact with the mat, I began to cry.
I have no idea what I released or where it came from, but it was powerful and extremely healing and I felt like a new person that night. Whatever it was is gone and my body was able to do let go of it on a subconcious level without me ever knowing where it came from or why it was there so I encourage you to come to the mat with the intention of letting go…releasing whatever it is in your body that wants/needs to go. It’s about making room for new energy and higher emotions. You will be amazed at the gifts you receive just by allowing yourself to heal in this way. Go ahead…break though…let go and heal.