Showing posts with label Yoga Class. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Yoga Class. Show all posts
Focus on Feet
Whether we're standing tall in Tadasana (Mountain Pose)or flexing our toes in Supta Padangusthasana (Reclining Big Toe Pose) , yoga gives us many opportunities to focus on feet. Alas, it's often the only time we do. Foot care is not something many of us find time for, and when a yoga instructor directs our attention toward our feet, we're often unpleasantly surprised. According to the American Podiatric Medical Association, 80% of American adults will suffer from some kind of foot problem in their lives, and yogis are no exception. For the regular practitioner, foot problems often go unnoticed until a callus thwarts our stance in Trikonasana (Triangle Pose) or foot odor becomes a source of embarrassment in class. But here's the solution - simple home remedies both treat and prevent common pediatric problems:1. If you've ever surveyed the feet that walk through the doors of your local studio, you know that certain problems are common among yogis. Perspiration can be one of them, and it's no wonder. With 250,000 sweat glands, your feet can produce as much as eight ounces of sweat daily. To avoid slipping around on your mat, brew two black tea bags in one pint of boiled water for 15 minutes. Add two quarts of cool water and soak your feet for 20 to 30 minutes. The tannic acid in the brewed tea will change your skin's pH level and help prevent unwanted odor-causing bacteria.
2. Athlete's foot presents another big challenge. This itchy condition around the toes ranks as the most common fungal infection in the US. You can pick up the organism that causes athlete's foot almost anywhere—including shared sticky mats—so consider bringing your own to class. Geranium oil and tea tree oil both have germ- and bacteria- killing properties, making them excellent treatments. Add these oils to your own creams and powders, or look for products containing them as a key ingredient. Athlete's foot germs thrive in damp environments, so also be sure to keep your feet clean and dry, especially between the toes where moisture can get trapped.
3. While not contagious, corns and calluses cause discomfort as well. Your body produces these growths as protection against daily friction and pressure, but if they get too large, it's time to smooth and reduce them. Use a wet pumice stone to slough off extra skin, or purchase foot creams that contain ground pumice for smooth, soft feet. Also, try adding fresh or canned pineapple juice to your footbath. This tropical fruit contains bromelain, a natural enzyme that will help soften calluses and rough heels.
Props: To Use or Not to Use?
The original yogis didn't practice with foam blocks, D-ring straps, or purple sticky mats. But as yoga evolved, many practitioners discovered that props could help deepen their explorations. Among modern yogis, attitudes toward props range from the Zen-like minimalism of those who shun all but a sticky mat to the abundance of those who travel with an extra suitcase filled with yoga accessories. Regardless of where you fall in this spectrum, a few guidelines can help you make the most of your props:1. Be clear about why you're using them - mindlessly using a block to support your hand in a standing pose just because your teacher told you to won't deepen your practice. Ask yourself what purpose the extra support is serving and let that answer guide the way you use it. Are you using the block to move into a posture you aren't yet supple enough to manage on your own? If so, consider ways to lessen your reliance on that aid over time.
2. Be your own teacher - use your body's signals to devise new and effective ways of using props to enhance your practice. When you sense a certain part of your body crying out for extra support in a resting pose, for example, wedge a towel or shirt beneath that area and observe what happens. Or if you're struggling to master a new pose, ask yourself whether any props within arm's reach might help. You might be surprised by the ingenious solutions you unearth.
3. Explore new territory - if a rolled-up blanket is supporting your back during a restorative pose, you might like to explore how varying the size and position of it alters your experience. Or if you're using a strap to help you understand a particular action or direction in a posture you know well, you may choose to repeat that same pose without props from time to time to explore the differences.
4. Be creative - yoga basics include mats, blankets, straps, and blocks. But if you consider a prop to be any aid that helps you access a posture more fully, your world will widen considerably. Walls, tables, balls, books, socks, neckties, even the helping hands of a friend can all be used to deepen your exploration.
5. Try to practice nonattachment - because yoga leads us toward greater flexibility and adaptability. So don't grow so attached to your chest of yoga toys that you can't practice without them. If you use props regularly, challenge yourself every once in a while to stow them away and practice without any aids at all (that's right, not even a sticky mat). On the other hand, if you're a yoga minimalist, incorporate a few props into your practice every now and then just to explore how they might be helpful. You might be surprised by what you learn. Remember, the best yoga prop is always an open mind.
Yoga Classes - Dos and Don'ts
DO arrive early. Getting to class about 10 minutes early can help you settle in and align your attitude with the purpose of the class. While you're waiting you can practice a pose, do a few stretches, or just sit or lie quietly, breathe, and get centered. DON'T eat for two or three hours before class. If you practice yoga on a full stomach, you might experience cramps, nausea, or vomiting, especially in twists, deep forward bends, and inversions. Digesting food also takes energy that can make you lethargic.
DO let your teacher know about injuries or conditions that might affect your practice. If you are injured or tired, skip poses you can't or shouldn't do, or try a modified version.
DO create an intention. To help you focus, you might find it helpful to dedicate your practice to a certain intention. This might be to become more aware and understanding, more loving and compassionate, or healthier, stronger, and more skillful. Or it might be for the benefit of a friend, a cause—or even yourself.
DON'T bring pagers or cell phones to class. Leave socializing and business outside the studio, so the peace of the practice is not disturbed.
DO be quiet. It's great to share a class with people you know, but it can be distracting to yourself and others to have an extended or loud conversation.
DO bring a towel or your own mat if you sweat a lot, and arrive clean and free of scents that might distract or offend others.
DON'T push it. Instead of trying to go as deeply or completely into a pose as others might be able to do, do what you can without straining or injuring yourself. You'll go farther faster if you take a loving attitude toward yourself and work from where you are, not from where you think you should be.
DO pick up and neatly put away any props you use.
DON'T enter class late or leave early; it's disruptive to others.
DO take time afterwards to think about what you did in class, so you can retain what you learned. Review the poses you practiced, and note any instructions that particularly made sense. Even if you remember just one thing from each class, you'll soon have a lot of information that can deepen your own personal practice.
Reconnect With Nature
Can burying your friends in the sand be a form of yoga? According to Russell Comstock, a yoga teacher and outdoor adventure educator based in Essex, New York, the answer is "absolutely." At a conference organized by the Green Yoga Association last September, Comstock and his wife, a psychotherapist, led an "Ocean Yoga" day for nearly 25 participants. The group practiced asanas in front of the waves, searched for stones and pebbles to create devotional altars, and buried each other in the sand in Savasana to encourage pratyahara (sense withdrawal). "Yoga on the beach is a wonderful way for people to reconnect with a sense of joy and wonder..", says one of the participants,"It was a total blast!"But the Comstocks aren't stopping there. They recently established the Metta Earth Institute on a several-hundred-acre farm in New York's Adirondack Mountains. In addition to hatha yoga and meditation classes, the small eco-school will offer sustainable-living programs that teach organic gardening, small-scale farming, permaculture principles, and green building techniques.
Safe Class
People who struggle with their body image can be ultrasensitive to even well-intentioned comments, and yoga teachers may inadvertently contribute to a stressful atmosphere. "I have seen yoga teachers putting thin students onstage to demonstrate asanas, recommending that students lose weight to achieve a pose, and colluding with students' exercise addiction by allowing noticeably underweight students to take multiple weekly classes," says Santa Monica, California, psychologist Janeen Locker. Instead, teachers need to be mindful of creating an atmosphere that's comfortable and noncompetitive. Here are some suggestions from Locker:Watch for addiction: If you notice a student, taking many classes a day, who's obsessed with her body and weight, - gently remind her that she should rest before the next class, and that her practice requires not just water but food too.
Ask about injury: Some students push themselves to achieve a pose beyond their bodies' limits. If a student has an injury or limitation, help her adjust the poses to adapt to it.
Encourage an inward focus: Yoga classes aren't immune from competition, but reminding students to focus on their own bodies' subtleties can quiet anxiety.
Demonstrate diversity: If you have students demonstrate various asanas, choose from a variety of different body types, ages, cultures, and ethnicities.
Never comment on a student's body: It's easy enough for students to think, "If I were only thinner or taller or stronger, I'd be better at this pose" without getting reinforcement from the teacher.
Balance in Warrior III
In this version of Virabhadrasana III (Warrior III), you'll use blocks to support your upper body and a wall to take some of the weight off your lifted leg, helping you strengthen and stabilize your legs, hips, and sacrum. Start in Tadasana(Mountain Pose), with your back facing a wall that's about a leg's distance away. Have two blocks handy. Fold forward into Uttanasana(Standing Forward Bend), lift your left leg behind you, and press your left foot against the wall at hip height so that it's parallel to the floor. Inhale as you lift your spine away from the floor and place one block under each hand. See that your hands are beneath your shoulders.
Build your pose from the ground up. Spring the arch of your foot upward. Then press the outer edge of your standing leg inward toward your inner leg. Next, imagine zipping up a long zipper from your inner ankle to your inner groin to help you lengthen the inner shaft of your leg. Lastly, shave the outer edge of your right hip back toward the wall behind you. Stay here for a few breaths, making sure that the whole leg works evenly; no part of it should feel slack. Bring your attention to your upper body. Slide the front of your spine, from just below your navel, toward your heart. Do this without hardening your belly or sucking it back and up. Simultaneously, elongate the two sides of your tailbone away from your lumbar, toward the wall behind you.
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