Thursday, November 29, 2007
Mysore Blog
To read my blog about my trip to Mysore, India from November 15 - December 17, 2007, please visit www.katetayloryoga.com
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Yoga on the Dock
This is a photo I took this morning from the dock where I practice on Wednesday mornings. I have been offering a free yoga class on the dock in our community since the beginning of August, hoping to stimulate some interest in yoga in my neighborhood. Early on there was a group of trithletes that would be returning from their morning swim in the river when I arrived at 7:00 am. A few would stick around and practice with me. Other than that, just a few people have been coming.
Since I have been travelling for a few weeks and the triathletes have moved their morning practice to the pool, I wasn't expecting anybody to show up this morning. In fact, I was secretly hoping to have the dock to myself....and I did! It turned out to be a beautiful morning and I had a decent practice. I got through the beginning of the Marichi poses and then started getting bitten by sandgnats so I quickly moved into the finishing poses and hopped back on my bike a little after 8:00 to head home.
I plan to continue my research on Mysore today and hope to get my visa application mailed off soon. More on my travel planning in an upcoming post.
Thursday, October 4, 2007
New SYC Digs
Last night I taught my first class at the new Savannah Yoga Center studio that Kelley Boyd just opened. I thought I'd post a few photos of the new space. Kelley has done a wonderful job of putting her creative stamp on the place. The reception area shown at left is warm and welcoming. The new practice space shown below is light and airy and really big! Between now and when I leave for India in six weeks I will be teaching a Yoga Basics class and a Hot Yoga class. The Yoga Basics is really fun to teach because it gives me a chance to break down the aligment in the poses and help new and experienced students learn how to be safe and comfortable in the poses. I also give students some handouts answering the kinds of questions many new students have such as...Is Yoga a religion? What does Om mean? Do you need to be vegetarian to practice yoga?, etc.....
The Hot Yoga class is pretty much the polar oppposite. We heat the room to 90-100 degrees and move through a fast paced power yoga (vinyasa) sequence. For some reason folks love this style of class and even in Savannah, anything with "Hot" in the title seems to attract lots of students. I was worried that attendance would drop off in the summer when it is already 90+ and humid outside, but they kept coming.
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Back in the Groove
They warned us at the beginning of the week in Estes Park that we were likely to have a "Yoga Hangover" after the conference, and I think they were right. Re-entering the real world took a little while, but I think I am back in the groove. I spent yesterday doing laundry, worrying about the ongoing deck construction project at our house and cleaning up cat puke.
I took Monday off from my practice but started up again this morning with the brand new Ashtanga class on the schedule at the Savannah Yoga Center. Until now there have not been any Ashtanga classes in Savannah (that I have been able to find) so it was really great to come back from the conference and have a new class that fits right in with my new practice. Lisa led five of us (2 visitors from L.A. and 2 folks who just moved down from NYC) through the primary series. I struggled through the second half of the seated poses but was glad to have a place where I could work on some of the poses without feeling like I was breaking the rules.
It will also be nice to practice with Lisa and other students for the next 6 weeks before I go to India in mid-November to study at the Ashtanga Yoga Research Institute in Mysore. Lisa just got back from AYRI and I will be picking her brain thoroughly over the next few weeks. I did meet some really great folks at the YJ conference and talk to them about their experiences in Mysore, but it is nice to have someone local who can give me the low-down. At this point I am trying to figure out what kind of visa I need and which vaccinations to get.
Stay tuned for more on my India research and the last few days at the conference in upcoming posts.....
I took Monday off from my practice but started up again this morning with the brand new Ashtanga class on the schedule at the Savannah Yoga Center. Until now there have not been any Ashtanga classes in Savannah (that I have been able to find) so it was really great to come back from the conference and have a new class that fits right in with my new practice. Lisa led five of us (2 visitors from L.A. and 2 folks who just moved down from NYC) through the primary series. I struggled through the second half of the seated poses but was glad to have a place where I could work on some of the poses without feeling like I was breaking the rules.
It will also be nice to practice with Lisa and other students for the next 6 weeks before I go to India in mid-November to study at the Ashtanga Yoga Research Institute in Mysore. Lisa just got back from AYRI and I will be picking her brain thoroughly over the next few weeks. I did meet some really great folks at the YJ conference and talk to them about their experiences in Mysore, but it is nice to have someone local who can give me the low-down. At this point I am trying to figure out what kind of visa I need and which vaccinations to get.
Stay tuned for more on my India research and the last few days at the conference in upcoming posts.....
Monday, October 1, 2007
Lost My Groove
I'm back home now and somehow lost my writing groove. I have lots more to say about my last few days in Estes Park, so keep checking back in the days to come for more on my classes with Rodney Yee, Shiva Rea, Barbara Benagh, Rod Stryker, and Gary Kraftsow.This is a picture of me and a new friend, Alicia, from Phoenix.
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Get Rid of the Gum
My first class on Thursday was with Manouso Manos, an Iyengar teacher. Manouso sat down at the front of the class and quietly started breathing and observing the students. His first words were a stern reprimand, "Get rid of the gum," he boomed, without even looking at the at the guilty party. About an hour into the class it happened again. Not sure why the person who was chewing gum didn't listen the first time, but we then got a little monologue about why chewing gum in Yoga is a big no-no. Of course, Manouso was right, but I tell this little anecdote because, to me, it embodies the personality of the Iyengar teachers from whom I have taken classes. There is not a lot of "please will you do this" or gentle individualized instructions whispered to a student as the teacher makes an adjustment.
Once the tone was set, Manouso took us through 2 hours of detailed instruction in many of the basic poses. We started with Tadasana and moved on from there. As expected, his instructions were very precise. He talked about the dynamics between instructions which seem to contradict each other and how this was a tool to keep the mind engaged and not let the mind wander. An example is in tadasana where you rotate the inner thighs back but at the same time draw the tailbone toward the floor. If you stay in tadasana long enough, and focus on the pose, besides thinking about the rest of the body, your mind should constantly be checking and adjusting these two actions as they challenge each other.
As a student and practitioner of Vinyasa style yoga, in which the breath is used to focus the mind, I found this idea very intriguing. I have always wondered how Iyengar students keep their minds from wandering or constantly wondering "How much longer in this pose" without the help of the breath work.
The best adjustment I learned in his class, which was repeated later in the day in Rodney Yee's class, was in Uttanasana (standing forward fold). He asked us to draw the femur bones towards the hamstrings to engage the legs and create length in the pose. This works in down dog as well.
Manouso warmed up (sort of) during the class and even made a few jokes between his (well intended) reprimands. He ended the class with a 5 minute demonstration of how to prepare for Savasana (final relaxation pose) properly - as you might have guessed, you certainly do not just lay down and relax in Manouso's class.
Once the tone was set, Manouso took us through 2 hours of detailed instruction in many of the basic poses. We started with Tadasana and moved on from there. As expected, his instructions were very precise. He talked about the dynamics between instructions which seem to contradict each other and how this was a tool to keep the mind engaged and not let the mind wander. An example is in tadasana where you rotate the inner thighs back but at the same time draw the tailbone toward the floor. If you stay in tadasana long enough, and focus on the pose, besides thinking about the rest of the body, your mind should constantly be checking and adjusting these two actions as they challenge each other.
As a student and practitioner of Vinyasa style yoga, in which the breath is used to focus the mind, I found this idea very intriguing. I have always wondered how Iyengar students keep their minds from wandering or constantly wondering "How much longer in this pose" without the help of the breath work.
The best adjustment I learned in his class, which was repeated later in the day in Rodney Yee's class, was in Uttanasana (standing forward fold). He asked us to draw the femur bones towards the hamstrings to engage the legs and create length in the pose. This works in down dog as well.
Manouso warmed up (sort of) during the class and even made a few jokes between his (well intended) reprimands. He ended the class with a 5 minute demonstration of how to prepare for Savasana (final relaxation pose) properly - as you might have guessed, you certainly do not just lay down and relax in Manouso's class.
Friday, September 28, 2007
Left Brain vs. Right Brain
I attended the Business intensive at the conference on Thursday. All of the speakers had something pretty interesting to say about their topic - from marketing advice, to developing a budget, to creating alternative revenue streams. The most interesting part of the day, however, was witnessing the dynamic between the left and right brain perspectives on running a Yoga business.
The day started out with a left brain presentation by Brandon Hartsell, one of the founding members of Sunstone Yoga. Sunstone is a franchise which aims to bring yoga to the masses. Their approach is very business-based. They strive for consistency in classes and consistency in the yoga students' experience when they go to a Sunstone studio. All of the studios teach the same set of classes, each of which has a script with specific poses and specific alignment instructions. Teachers are allowed to bring their personal experience and style to their teaching, but, like a coloring book, they have to "color inside the lines." The idea is that this makes the student's experience about the yoga, and not about the specific teacher from whom they are taking a class. The analogy that Brandon kept coming back to was Starbucks. He asked if every time you went to a Starbucks and got a latte it was made differently, would you keep coming back, and would they be as successful as they are?
This really got some of the right brainers in the room in a twist. "Where is the Yoga in this model", someone asked. The idea put forth was that students come to classes to learn from the teacher's unique and creative style of teaching. They also come for spiritual reasons and will not find it in a "corporate" yoga setting.
All week long I have seen a tension between the "hard core" yoga practiotioners and the folks who came to yoga or do yoga for reasons other than enlightenment. In my opinion we need to get as many people as possible exposed to the benefits of Yoga. If their first taste of yoga is in a studio witout incense or tapestries, then that's OK. Yoga should be about maximizing the inidividual's experience and not the teacher's ego.
The Sunstone folks made it clear that they are not going after the 10% of the population who have already found Yoga. They are after the 90% who are looking for new modalities of fitness and wellness and who may not walk through the doors of a traditional yoga studio. Since they opened their first studio in 2002, they have taught 25,000 different students. Wow.
The day ended with a presentation by Shannon Paige, owner of OmTime. Her business started as retail for Yoga and has grown exponentially in the five years she has been open. She was one of the most passionate and down to earth speakers I have ever seen. What is interesting is that she is definitely a right-brainer but has also built a very successful business. How did she do it? She did enough self-analysis to know her strengths and surrounded herself with talented people who have the strengths she is missing. The trick is that she defers to these people to help make decisions and does not make all of the business decisions based on her creative instincts.
Hmmm..... so who has the right approach? Well I think that depends on one's personality and goals as a studio owner. A Sunstone studio may not ever feed the part of one's soul that is pushing a person towards studio ownership. If that is the case, then even the pre-packaged business knowledge they provide to francise owners will be lost on that person. Since running a Yoga business is hard work and typically has very low margins, studio owners need to be both logical and passionate about what they are doing, whichever approach they take.
Since part of Yoga is about cultivating balance, finding that balance between the left and right side of the brain should be our work in this practice.
The day started out with a left brain presentation by Brandon Hartsell, one of the founding members of Sunstone Yoga. Sunstone is a franchise which aims to bring yoga to the masses. Their approach is very business-based. They strive for consistency in classes and consistency in the yoga students' experience when they go to a Sunstone studio. All of the studios teach the same set of classes, each of which has a script with specific poses and specific alignment instructions. Teachers are allowed to bring their personal experience and style to their teaching, but, like a coloring book, they have to "color inside the lines." The idea is that this makes the student's experience about the yoga, and not about the specific teacher from whom they are taking a class. The analogy that Brandon kept coming back to was Starbucks. He asked if every time you went to a Starbucks and got a latte it was made differently, would you keep coming back, and would they be as successful as they are?
This really got some of the right brainers in the room in a twist. "Where is the Yoga in this model", someone asked. The idea put forth was that students come to classes to learn from the teacher's unique and creative style of teaching. They also come for spiritual reasons and will not find it in a "corporate" yoga setting.
All week long I have seen a tension between the "hard core" yoga practiotioners and the folks who came to yoga or do yoga for reasons other than enlightenment. In my opinion we need to get as many people as possible exposed to the benefits of Yoga. If their first taste of yoga is in a studio witout incense or tapestries, then that's OK. Yoga should be about maximizing the inidividual's experience and not the teacher's ego.
The Sunstone folks made it clear that they are not going after the 10% of the population who have already found Yoga. They are after the 90% who are looking for new modalities of fitness and wellness and who may not walk through the doors of a traditional yoga studio. Since they opened their first studio in 2002, they have taught 25,000 different students. Wow.
The day ended with a presentation by Shannon Paige, owner of OmTime. Her business started as retail for Yoga and has grown exponentially in the five years she has been open. She was one of the most passionate and down to earth speakers I have ever seen. What is interesting is that she is definitely a right-brainer but has also built a very successful business. How did she do it? She did enough self-analysis to know her strengths and surrounded herself with talented people who have the strengths she is missing. The trick is that she defers to these people to help make decisions and does not make all of the business decisions based on her creative instincts.
Hmmm..... so who has the right approach? Well I think that depends on one's personality and goals as a studio owner. A Sunstone studio may not ever feed the part of one's soul that is pushing a person towards studio ownership. If that is the case, then even the pre-packaged business knowledge they provide to francise owners will be lost on that person. Since running a Yoga business is hard work and typically has very low margins, studio owners need to be both logical and passionate about what they are doing, whichever approach they take.
Since part of Yoga is about cultivating balance, finding that balance between the left and right side of the brain should be our work in this practice.
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