Chuck Miller and the Art of Non-Violent Adjustments

My second class on Tuesday was Chuck Miller's class on Making Adjustments with the Right Intention. He started off with a short talk on how Ahimsa (non-violence) - which is the first Yama in the first of the eight limbs of Ashtanga - applies to adjstments in our practice. His message was that we need to approach adjustments in our selves and our students with the intention of helping them progress in their whole yoga practice - it is not about pushing the body into the "perfect" form. Since every student is different, we need to read their bodies and their minds and make sure we are being respectful of their personal situation as we apply adjustments. We also need to make sure we are non-violent with ourselves in terms pushing ourselves into poses that do not come easily.

He pointed out that a lot of what we are doing is adjusting the attitude. Wow. That really struck me. If we come in a aggressively push a student or ourselves into a pose, we are promoting violence and breaking the first Yama. If we instead approach the adjustment as a gentle instruction on how to move our bodies into a safer place, we are adjusting with the right intention. We are also teaching the students to be non-violent towards themselves.

A couple of specific verbal cues he gave were really great - in down dog, move your heels away from your toes - instead towards the mat. Also in down dog, widen and lengthen the back of the knees. We actually spent the whole two hours working with partners just on adjusting down dog. The trick is figuring out how to do the adjustments on lots of poses in a class with 10 people! This is why I really like teaching my Yoga Basics class. I get to see most of the same faces week after week and really get to know the students and their own anatomical (and mental!) issues. and I can take the time to really break down the poses in the detail required to find that place of balance and ease in each pose.

OK. Enough for now, details on my David Swenson class in the next post.