by Hilary Lindsay | Apr 5, 2015 | Asana, nashville yoga, Prose, Yoga, yoga class, Yoga psychology, yoga teacher, yoga teaching |
Your body and mind communicate by an unspoken language. You begin class standing at attention when I suggest you lift the skirts of your inner thighs. Your skin shifts upward like an arrow shot from ankle holsters. Your bones react and pull toward earth. Your breath migrates to the fullest reaches of your ribs; all of them. Inner thighs do not have skirts. Your mind has translated this to something else. Bravo. ~Your belly, receptive to the upward pull of the thighs moves in and up. ~Your calves, receptive to the upward pull of the thighs draw down. ~The heels root. ~The thighs rise. ~The buttocks descend. ~The chest lifts. If the pose is set in motion correctly, the rest falls in to place. Who will begin the dialogue for the body to follow before you know the first word? The approach offered stealthily does not overwhelm the student. It is most effective when both delicate and deliberate. That is the catalyst to poetry in motion. Your guide is the teacher who directs you with the first word. And allows the ones that follow to be uniquely your...
by Hilary Lindsay | Mar 23, 2015 | anatomy, Asana, Meditation, nashville yoga, Yoga, yoga class, Yoga psychology, yoga teaching |
You are lying down, face up on a hard floor in a public place. You have completed your yoga practice which required attention and vigilance. You trained yourself to stay alert. You are used to watching out for yourself more than watching into yourself so it was a beautiful effort. When you are asked to transition from that effort to effortless relaxation your nerves grasp and rush for a place to rest that is not immediately obvious. The mind is still scanning the horizon as is its habit. Savasana: Place a blanket with no more than an inch or so of height under the head with the edge touching the tops of the shoulders but not under the shoulders. You are connecting your head to your trunk for the sake of the nervous system which can stand down. (If your chin is jutted to the ceiling and you cannot lengthen your neck you may add height until the throat recedes below the Adams Apple. You may alternately bend your knees and rest a bolster under your thighs to soften the tight back line of the spine, pelvis or legs.) Turn the palms up and let no part of the arm touch the trunk but no farther than this necessitates. You are now un-tethered. Let the upper eyelid drop rather than squeezing the lower lid and upper lid together to close the eyes. You are more un-tethered, disconnecting one part of your skin to another. Boundaries fade and the lightness that comes may feel disorienting. You may find you need an anchor. Place something with weight on your...
by Hilary Lindsay | Mar 13, 2015 | anatomy, Asana, nashville yoga, Yoga, yoga class, yoga teacher, yoga teaching |
Study a photograph of your face cut down the middle and notice that the two sides are not identical. The naked body will reveal the same thing. Most of us are uneven. When I started teaching yoga I saw a room full of people. As I became more seasoned I saw a room full of individuals. How would I teach them all with their disparate unevenness! I explore sensation with my own body, examine the process of dealing with my own pain and pleasure and begin with the assumption that no one is even. I can only offer what I know for fact. Insight and experience give me the confidence to teach through the template of my own crooked being and all it has done to right itself toward an experience of quality. New students are usually less sensitive to imbalance and it gives them the opportunity of awareness. My most uneven students are teachers or experienced students who reap tremendous benefit from this approach. People who are fairly balanced have the opportunity to work with more precision. Here are a few explorations of potential imbalance that might lead to harm if not considered in a yoga practice. Inquiry # 2: Sitting ~ Contract your buttocks. Does one side contract faster than the other? If so, contract the slacker side first when doing symmetrical strength postures or exercises. Standing~ Bend your knees. Does one knee bend faster than the other? If so, drive the heel of the foot on the side that is slacker harder into the floor as you proceed....
by Hilary Lindsay | Feb 20, 2015 | Asana, Meditation, Yoga, yoga class, Yoga psychology, yoga teaching |
Lie down and close your eyes. What part of you feels tension, tightness, restriction, binding or discomfort? What part of you feels light, empty, easy, relaxed? Keep your mind on the easy parts as you breathe gently but intentionally. How does your attention to pleasure affect the less comfortable places? What if all your life was that manageable? Can you apply this to something happening now, beyond the...
by Hilary Lindsay | Jan 15, 2015 | Asana, Meditation, nashville yoga, Nature, Poetry, Prose, society, Tradition, Yoga, yoga class, Yoga History, Yoga Philosophy, yoga teacher, yoga teaching |
It exploded from comets To begin as the oceans, And borders of seas, Becoming the vapor, the clouds and the rain, And one with the earth, Becoming the rivers, the lakes, and the streams, To become most of me, I breathed it out to become part of you. Altered, transformed, shifted, ripened In time and beings, Its sparkle drew my searching eye and quenched a thirsty palette. Is there a broken line in the lineage? Does this drop contain the residue of the first drop? Some has been burnt away for sure but most remains. Like water, this yoga: To know it with intellect is a lively chase for a living art from an ancient time. Not my favorite game, but one I’ll play when the players arouse, Uninterrupted on more peaceful days I’ll stand in sensation. This yoga like water whose chemistry would not matter if the proof was my health, Would bear further examination should it rouse suspicion. I was curious and explored something apart from me, Until it was no longer apart but a part. ...
