Autumn Lotus Yoga

Quick post before embarking on the evening’s entertainment at Back Bay Yoga (warm up, then sub Vinyasa flow at 4, assist Forrest at 5:40, take the MADONNATHON at 7:30!!).  Karen over at www.donutszenmom.com, an awesomely articulate Ashtangi & one of my blogging inspirations was interested in the other Forrest basics, especially telescoping, so I wanted to try & cover ‘em in order over the next few days.

Telescoping the ribs is a shorthandish Forrest yoga term for lifting the ribcage up out of its usual chair-&-computer-induced slouch into the waist & low back.  It’s kind of like making the ribcage take responsibility for itself rather than collapsing the whole weight of the torso down.  The idea also translates into lifting each rib & articulating it from the one beneath it, especially in backbends, so that the bend happens more in upper & mid back rather than low.

Best self-assist to experience telescoping the ribs is: 

 1) put hands on the sides of the hips/pelvic crest

2) push down strongly with your hands while lifting the ribcage up like the dickens

3) feel for space, usually in lumbar vertebra first, and tractioning out of the back (tractioning is another term to save for another day)

If you have a friend or spouse to enlist, have them either hold your hips (if you’re ticklish) or take your ribcage at the lowest ribs from the back (if you’re not .  The hip person pulls down, the rib holder lifts up. 

Voila, you’re about two inches taller!!

Later, taters, off to shake mah groove thang….

Since I’m subbing a Vinyasa class tomorrow, pulled out an old fave vinyasa flow DVD — Sonic Yoga’s Moving into Hanumanasana (splits) but kinda practiced it Forrest-style.  

First, a history on Sonic Yoga.  It’s a studio in Hell’s Kitchen, NYC   http://www.sonicyoga.com/  with a strong heated power vinyasa style.  Used to love their tapes/DVDs when I was living overseas.  (And long coveted a tank top that said “Sonic Yoga, Hell’s Kitchen,” but sadly they stopped making ‘em! )  Last time I remember doing this particular DVD was when I was in a hotel room on a trip to the Greek side of Cyprus, many moons (and sun salutes ago.  SInce then I’ve visited the studio on some trips to New York & always had fun.

Forrest-izing a Vinyasa practice can be pretty easy.  I’m just talkin’ the poses themselves, not the sequencing.  Forrest sequencing takes a lot of the pose/counterpose stuff & turns it into something more sophisticated.  But there are some basic alignment things in Forrest that don’t raise too many eyebrows when done on your own in a standard class, like wrapping the shoulders, tucking tailbone, telescoping the ribs, active hands & feet.  Each of these deserves their own post, but I’ll start with the one that tends to get more traditional teachers in a tizzy: relaxed neck.

See, in Forrest the traditional focal point (or drishti, for the Sanskrit lovahs is let go.  The head stays either in line with the spine (eg in twists or Warrior II), or is allowed to relax completely to the side, ear towards shoulder or even sometimes to the front, chin to chest.  It’s particularly fascinating to work with a relaxed neck in balances because so much of our balance comes from the focus of the eyes & equilibrium of the inner ear.  Relaxing the neck in a balance of any kind, even just letting it be soft & long rather than locked while in tree pose, means that the core  turns on a lot more.

The reasoning behind the relaxed neck in Forrest yoga is two-fold.  First, modern Westerners carry A LOT of stress/tension in the upper trapezius and scalenes.  Really, our shoulders pretty much live up around our ears, sending the chin jutting forward.  Second, this tightness acts as a kind of block keeping us from feeling much below the neck & also stopping the wisdom of the body from reaching the brain.

It’s like our head tries to take the lead in every pose sometimes, holding us up in warriors, cranking around in twists.  Try sometime letting the neck go… and if you’re feeling really brave, relax that clamped jaw also!

In a past life, I was a planner for the military — seriously!  I wrote, staffed, coordinated & then published plans for contingencies like WMD terrorism, or bird flu (ya know, the panic before swine flu). 

Did this knowing full well that the first thing to happen in any crisis would be to take my baby off the shelf, leaf through it for anything remotely relevant to the actual situation (vs hypothetical planning assumptions) and then toss the plan out.

Lesson planning for a yoga class can actually be a lot like that. 

Some teachers do very little planning but have so much experience & intuition that they can riff & improvise a masterpiece.  Others set up minute-by-minute outlines.  The problems come when folks think they can improvise but  really can’t & come up with hot mess nonsensical sequences that get people hurt.  Or those who stick to some rigid plan come hell or high water, or, more likely, a room full of injured newbies.

Ideally, I get to sketch out a plan, run through it on my own body when warming up for class, then adapt/fine tune it as I see how the students handle it.  No class ever conforms to what the paper dictates, & that’s a-ok.  Today flowed out from the plan, evolved from the plan & was fab.  Happy times!!

After that, I had fun in Peter’s 1215 Journey to the Core, had a smoothie the size of my head, did a laid-back teacher’s practice & assisted backbending class.  Good day. 

Just as planned.

Sheila’s powers are especially strong on cold, rainy Sundays.

This morning she fixed big green eyes on me & I was in her thrall… enchanted, spellbound, doomed to lie under covers & read & nap until the Princess Sheila saw fit to lift the curse.

Not such a bad fate.  Except the little grey ball of fluff snores like a lumberjack.  :)

Tomorrow’s a busy day — warm up then 10 am teach, 1215 take class, 3 pm teacher’s practice, 5:40 assist.  Gonna do a small self-practice now.  A little dog  pose antidote to a day spent kitty-style.

Went on a yoga field trip this morning!!  Did a short warm up at thome, then my gorgeous yogi friend took me to her favorite local stretchy joint, The Healing Tree in Wollaston (Quincy) MA. 

We did Kathy Keane’s “power” yoga followed by Kathy’s Pilates class.  Kathy is a darling teacher & VERY good with anatomy and demonstrating in such a clear fashion that little “oh yeh!” lightbulbs went off all around the room. 

This showed up best in her Pilates class, actually, I think… some of the quality of her intelligence got obscured by a bit more floaty metaphysics & imagery than I usually indulge in & also because she has two very strong “repeat words.”  Seriously, Kathy would be one of the best teachers I’ve seen in her style of yoga (softer flow, traditional alignment as opposed to Forrest) if she was banned from ever saying the words “little” or “beautiful” again.  What I find extra entertaining is that Kathy is indeed both little and beautiful, and so it appears are all the rest of us & everything we do.   

Big hearts & flowers to her & The Healing Tree studio all around though — and definitely enjoyed getting out & about.  Got motivated to do so after having been obssessed with a home practice for a while there because I suddenly felt that I was isolating myself & getting too wrapped up in my own BS.  Big wake up was regretting not doing the Global Mala for no good reason.  Needed to lighten up, connect more, enjoy the town.  So that whole structure idea from a few days ago may not fly but I am hitting two classes most days & having a blast!  

Have  a host of yoga adventures set up for next week, including teaching a few more classes, doing Lynne’s Madonnathon at Back Bay on Wednesday night after assisting (Forrest yoga to Madonna — rock on! , and I’ve signed up for Micheline Berry’s Liquid Asana intensives & teacher training next weekend.

New motto: Whoever has the most fun wins.

Went to Peter’s Forrest Intensive this morning at Back Bay.  It’s a great new event — once a month there’s now a 2 hr Forrest class held at the usual teacher training/intensives Ana-time of  7-9 am.  Got to see the sunrise on the Charles as the train crossed over & was truly excited to be heading in, even that early.  Had an almost irresistible urge to sing all the Forrest chants.  

Fab class, very fun & also got deep into backbending.  Followed it up with an hour rest & lesson planning, then did Lynne’s 10 am Hip Hop yoga to rock out.  Great morning.

There was definitely an extra strong sense of community in the early Forrest intensive session.  I’ve observed a fair amount in studios & gyms what makes a community happen… folks seem to bond much more in situations where they are in close proximity to each other physically & when there is a definite damn-we’re-nuts-together sense.  This morning there really was a happy acknowledgement of “yes, we all ARE crazy enough to want to be here for this!” that helped open everyone up. I’ve had the best bonding when sweating profusely right next to me mates, like during spin classes or yoga classes when people are mat 2 mat.  It doesn’t work as well in classes where folks form satellites & little walled enclaves of props. 

How the teacher carries the mood is important also, letting there be space for laughter, falling down, asking questions, not being perfect.  Peter, for example, mixes light-hearted sweetness with precise instruction very naturally.  Lynne is a bit more rambunctious but also firm about making the practice for & about the student. 

I’ve been in studios where the teacher asks students to say hello to someone they don’t know after class, or greet the people around them beforehand.  This is kinda cutely reminiscent of “offer each other a sign of peace” from Catholic mass, but nice because it gives explict permission for students to do what they may want but fear to do; namely, reach out & connect to the people around them in an easy, non-threatening way.

However, forcing people to bond with partner work in classes (rather than specifically stated partner workshops) doesn’t sit well with me  — sometimes we all want our space & the freedom to go in, take care of ourselves & leave.  Also, people don’t necessarily want to be touched by just anyone some days & that needs to be respected.

Part of the community bonding experience comes though with being willing to reach out, laugh, interact, act a little silly oneself.  Gotta be the change we want to see in the world; gotta try & connect to forge community.

Or just get up ridonkulously early in order to work hard & marvel that there are compadres willing to do the same!!

Peter Crowley, the amazing Forrest instructor I assist on Monday nights at Back Bay, also has a blog.  And on Sept 21 he posted something so true & well-articulated that, with his permission, I wanted to share it here.

While the whole site is great, the particular article that made me sit up & and go “hell, yeah” and “damn, I wish I’d written that!” is down the page a little ways, labeled “Apologies & Guilt.”   It’s tells why Forrest teacher training means never having to say you’re sorry. 

Check it out:

http://crowleyyoga.posterous.com/