by Hilary Lindsay | Apr 18, 2018 | anatomy, Asana, Feldenkrais, Limbs of yoga, Meditation, nashville yoga, therapeutic yoga, Tradition, Yoga, yoga class, Yoga Philosophy, yoga teacher, yoga teaching |
I cleaned out an old desk and found this described in a flyer from a workshop I taught in 2008: Balancing Structure and Freedom The student moving from precise focused alignment to an exploration of the senses will come away with a deeper awareness of asana as the physical expression of yoga philosophy. The student will also be guided to freedom of movement within and without form to create form. The second part of that workshop presented a study in inductive v. deductive body reasoning which is why an Iyengar student back in the day described my classes as back door yoga. The pose is revealed as the parts come together. You might say, as the parts become organized as a whole. This is based on my experience of yoga. This is what a yoga teacher offers. It is not regurgitation of something before them. It is the expression of that information now digested by their unique digestive juices. My yoga developed during years of dual study in Iyengar and Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement. These practices do not involve opposing subtleties but they are opposing dynamics. They are taught independently in different worlds of somatics. That informed my teaching at a time few people were studying either. Now I see the online yoga world discovering the benefits of subtle movement . What felt unique to me is becoming “a thing”. That is a good thing. But when I wonder what I have left to offer any student that hasn’t been done before, when I become frustrated that I’ve said and done it all, I am...
by Hilary Lindsay | Aug 28, 2014 | nashville yoga, Yoga, yoga class, yoga community, Yoga Philosophy, Yoga psychology, yoga teacher, yoga teaching |
The yoga teacher is teaching a ballet bar class. She utilizes her skills where she can. Movement is beautiful in so many forms. Grace and understanding come through countless actions. She enters the university’s room being vacated by an aerobics class. The slender aging aerobics teacher is no bigger than a girl; no body fat. She glistens with sweat. Her shirt has a message: Big Fat Writing. Tomorrow You Can Do Better Do the students look defeated or does the yoga teacher imagine that the humid air is perfumed with hope and sorrow? That shirt raised my shackles. First of all, why do you have to do better in aerobics class? But that shirt wasn’t about aerobics class and either was my reaction. How about letting the students enjoy the fruit of today’s labor before thinking it wasn’t as good as it could be? How much better it could be, might be a dream but might also be a nightmare born of a Puritan ethic. Good people never give up. Hard work is the key to the kingdom for eternity. Do better is the unspoken universal mantra, isn’t it? Does anyone want to do worse? Not even for a moment does someone exist without acting. Even against one’s will, one acts by the nature-born qualities. ~ Krishna– – Bhagavad Gita We couldn’t do nothing even if we tried. And it might not be “nature- born” to best oneself with regularity but it is certainly bred into our culture where more is the mantra and better is mores’ companion....
