There are million types of yoga. Every time I turn around I see somebody inventing a new style. Anybody can get some movements together, create a series and then call it whatever they want to. I like that. The more options people have the easier people will find what fits them the best.
It has taken a good three years and a variety of many classes to find the type of yoga where my heart feels at home.
Now I know that yoga is the easy way for me to dealing with any of my problems. My practice heals me. It’s magical.
When chaos is around me I find my peace on my mat, and sometimes I don’t even use my mat, the carpet can do it, all I need is to start moving and breathing. Usually at home I go to my meditation room, and with my dog licking my face and getting in the middle of whatever I am doing, I start. There is no perfect moment, there is no perfect space, but yet there is: it’s right where you are at this very moment. I’ve had moments where I needed yoga so bad that I ended my practice crying. Pouring out all that negative energy that sometimes I absorb through the day. Or at other times in my practice, I feel the bliss that I can never explain with words.
I bow to you, the darkest of the teachers, the alcoholics and addicts, the ones that have touched self distruction and come out and looked me in my eyes with humble pride. The ones that where there to show me it is possible, the ones that share their practice with me. To you, I bow with enourmous gratitude.
I always have new students coming to my yoga classes and I love it. My secret plan is to rock their world and show them something new and get them to go crazy about it so they keep doing it.
You know, I want to brake all the myths about yoga and pass on to them my deep love for it. Specially for the ones that have never ever done yoga and are experiencing their very first class with ME.
I must confess I get a little bit nervous when they tell me, my class is their FIRST.
NO PRESSURE right?
I want the newbies to fall in love with yoga and really appreciate it. There are so many types of yoga and it’s hard to know the student’s expectations. But I sure try very hard to put my heart on the mat for them so they like it so much they come back for more endorphins. Sometimes they do and they commit to it, and sometimes they don’t. Maybe it was not the right time for them.
I believe that no matter what everybody is going to end up doing some type of yoga in their life as regular practice especially if their goal is to live a healthy and dignified life.
I am especially concerned with the new students doing their first yoga class because I want to fulfill their expectations. I want to teach them what makes yoga so special in one single class. But maybe I don’t succeed. Maybe the magic doesn’t happen in 60 minutes.
There are so many types of yoga, and every single person teaches their class differently. It’s hard for the teacher to be all for every student. I know a lot of yoga teachers feel the same way. We get concerned about not teaching what every single student is looking for.
We, teachers, forget to remind ourselves that we really don’t have to “do” anything to make yoga amazing. Yoga is all ready amazing. Yoga is simple and it comes down to really not “teaching” and just paying attention to our breath, to fit your body into the shapes, and basically yoga teaches you itself.
If you are the student that hasn’t found your own yoga. I just say to you: don’t give up. There is a type of yoga just for you. Just know, that like me, there is a teacher waiting just for YOU.
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I Feel Like In This Post I Wrote The Word -Sankalpa- Like Twenty Million Times, And Of Course I Am Just Exaggerating Because I Just Wrote It Like 9 or 10 Times.
Sankalpas are totally understimated, they are totally cool and super important. Your yoga practice goes to another level when you have a Sankalpa. It’s like you give wings to your yoga own practice.
I usually try to start my yoga classes with a Sankalpa. Sankalpa is a Sanskrit word and basically means Intention. So I encourage my students to set an Intention for each class; it can be anything they want it to be. I always share my personal Sankalpa with my class, to encourage them. Every class it’s usually something different, but for the first time I decided to have the same Sankalpa in every class I teach for the whole month of March.
I decided to make my Sankalpa Surrender – it is not from Diana Ross’s album. Which I like because it reminds me my childhood. Not as much as the Beatles though.
Anyway, surrender can mean so many things and it can apply to so many situations. The word screamed at me after an awesome yoga practice I had last week. My teacher made every movement dedicated to surrender and after that specific class I knew right then it was something I needed to work on.
Sankalpa’s are important to have before the class because it gives your yoga practice a more dense feeling, a purpose. Like you are not just practicing yoga to get super flexible and to show your man you can bring your legs over your head to the sky. Or to impress your friends at parties and say look, look I can do the car wheel and I had 5 shots of tequila in me. Seriously when you have a Sankalpa for your practice you are not just practicing yoga to get a sweat or de-stress your self. It’s bigger than that.
A Sankalpa can be about humanity, or other people, somebody that is sick, a friend that is depressed; maybe you dedicate your practice to somebody you don’t know yet, or it can also be totally about you. You choose what you want to dedicate your practice to.
Next time you are on your mat, bring your hands to your heart and let your heart speak to you. Hear the voice of your bright self, your higher self, God, Angels or whatever you want to call them and listen to what your Sankalpa needs to be.
I love to take random yoga classes from different studios. I have my own teaching style. We all do. But there is always something new to learn from each other. We teachers talk about how sometimes we tend to teach comfortable. It may not be comfortable for the students though, but the poses are poses that are easy for our body and poses we are used to doing. We kind of take advantage of what we know best.
There is no better way to open your self for change and improvement than looking at other peoples work. Obviously I am not just talking about yoga, if you are a painter, photographer, a doctor, teacher, etc., it applies to you, too. If you look at somebody else’s work with true appreciation of what they do, and appreciate them as the maven that they are, then the benefit comes to you; think inspiration baby!!!
You know you are a bad-ass, but to keep being a bad-ass you need to look around. Yeah take advantage of it, and look for somebody else doing what you are doing. If you are a chef, go to other restaurants, try other foods. Don’t compare your self, just enjoy their work and learn. You can learn and get inspired from a good and a bad experience, just be open to learn.
Have you ever done yoga? You know that high, loud breathing that everybody is doing? That is called pranayama and if you are not doing it when everybody is doing it, it can be distracting and annoying. Pranayama can be done in different ways, it depends on one’s technique. Breathing that loud is obviously not normal. So you better not be doing it unless you are in yoga or meditation room or at your house. Seriously, don’t try it at the grocery store, or at school, or at work, and for sure never ever at the library. You will be kicked out, quick.
In yoga, pranayama is so hard to do, because like I said, it doesn’t come natural. It takes practice to acquire that wonderful habit. I believe my number one constant challenge in my classes is to teach my students to breathe while they are moving through the poses (asanas) in their yoga practice. I can teach them how to get to any pose, but it seems yoga-breath gets forgotten while they are trying to get their head under their legs. My students seem to be more focused on getting the pose right than the breath.
For my classes, I try to put a lot of emphasis on the breathing because I know for a fact it has tremendous benefits. When I do my personal practice I am focusing on my breathing, not on the pose. I don’t care if I have the perfect pose. As competitive as I am, when I am on my mat it doesn’t matter if I get to stand on my hands, or how much I sweat. I let go of the accomplishment of the movement to focus on my breathing. I know eventually I will get there. My body will get to where it is supposed to be.
When I get to my mat I know I am there for A REASON BIGGER THAN ME and to find out the reason I have to still my mind to be able to hear it. Deep breathing people, deep breathing!
Our normal breathing is too shallow and too quick, so we are not taking sufficient oxygen and we are not eliminating sufficient carbon dioxide (I can’t say dioxide with out it sounding funny). So obviously our cells are like anorexics starving for some oxygen and our lungs are like depressed people and just being lazy because they are not working to their full potential. So we end up losing some of our v i t a l i t y. That means we are getting older sooner and as we get older, we are letting some of our body parts become inept.
“With our ‘normal’ sedentary way of living, we only use about one tenth of our total lung capacity. This is sufficient to survive and just tick over, but not sufficient for a high vitality level, long life and high resistance to disease.”
Additionally, deep breathing is also good for your mental health. Which if you know me, you know I have some serious breathing to do. I get tired of my mind. Like sometimes I want a break from all the thoughts running around. I am completely serious, my mind has a life of it’s own. It’s like I have constant clips from different movies made from personal and outsider’s experiences and perceptions running all day long. So annoying. But can you imagine no thoughts running around in your head? Just present in the moment doing yoga, putting your energy towards the breathing, NO thoughts and then at the end the gift for pausing your internal loco-motora; a sense of peace and love.
I must get some of our politicians to practice some yoga.
I don’t think there are words to explain you how rocking good is to be a yoga teacher. The experience of teaching a yoga class has me flying in the clouds. I teach three times a week after my real job and on Sunday mornings. Every class is different; beginners, intermediate and advance, I enjoy them all. I am always very nervous before every class; I want all my students to love yoga as much as I do. I want to leave the class feeling butterflies in their bellies. Every class I go with my very best intention. And I put my whole hart to it. I am the most vulnerable and in touch with my real me when I teach yoga. For me yoga is the connection of what matters the most and be thankful for it. I always forget that stuff.
Practicing yoga in the past has helped me in some areas of my life, but the truly blessings of yoga had come with my teachings. And did I mention I actually get paid for it. So it’s a complete 100% blessing.
In one class I want to touch my student’s harts, and open the connection to their spirit. My bar is high, and that is the way it should be. Yoga is not a joke for me, even thou it’s just a hobby I take it really seriously. So serious that almost never late.
Now, I am constantly trying to learn more about yoga. My curiosity for yoga has only increased after teaching it. Before, I wanted to know about yoga just to know it. I didn’t truly care for it on a deep level. Yoga was on my list of things to know before I die, so I became a yoga teacher just to cross it off my list. Sometimes I do that. I kind of just do things so I can say I did them or to add them in my list. However, now, I really want to know yoga on a deeper level. The spark was born and now I want to be a bad ass yogini.
Even though I love yoga, and yoga loves me, I don’t see myself doing this for living. WHAT? I know, I know, how can I say I am in love with yoga and not see myself doing it forever and ever. It doesn’t make sense. I know darling, but if you know me, you must know I never make sense. Like I don’t see my self quitting my job and just going full core in to the yoga world. It feels too aggressive and just wrong. Right now, I like the “Professional Aidee.” I guess am just not ready to let go of some pre-made ideas and expectations of me. My dreams and “their” dreams are mixed up, so I can’t see witch ones are truly mine.
Confusion is my permanent state of mind when it comes to making a decision, especially when it comes down to my professional life.
I am done with trying to find my passion. Screwed that! I just want to live doing things that I love with out any significant powerful meaning. Trying to find my passion takes too much of my dynamic energy. Now I am just following my curiosity and trying to learn life stuff. I just want to be a sexy veggie taquit-O. Not a burrit-O, just a taquit-O. I definitely want to keep growing in the yoga practice and learn deeply about all the theory, too. I think yoga can save me from my obsessive massive thoughts. Yoga may be the answer after all.
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