[melross1]

This book touched me in so many ways. I think the biggest thing is non-violence. I often blame myself for things that go wrong and beat myself up. I am very hard on myself for everything big or small. I never considered myself violent until I read this, but I am really very mean to me. I would never say things to others that I say to myself. Of the five words I wrote down while reading this book 3 were negative, YIKES!

I am also declutters which goes hand in hand with being kinder because I am physically and mentally decluttering.
To sum it up I’m learning to “Let that shit go”. And it feels good.

[melross1]

I hold my tension in my shoulders and jaw. So I often have headaches. My entire body feels stress, yoga has helped with this. Page 24-25 I’ve been aware of because I’ve been searching for ways to feel better that didn’t involve medication. But it took years to discover that it was mind related, not just physical.

I am hard on myself, I have recently realized that I am also holding a lot of tension in my upper back between my shoulder blades. In the last few months I have started taking better care of myself getting massages and seeing a chiropractor. Taking time for me, my focus has always been on everyone else in my family, this journey has made me open my eyes to see how important I am and if I don’t take care of myself, I can’t take good care of my family.

As a teacher I can add positive saying or quotes to my class during centering to remind everyone how important we all are. And when I see students holding tension, I can change the focus of the class to maybe the hips or shoulders.

[melross1]

My karma classes were every Tuesday and Thursday beginning June 5 and we finished July 12.
I taught the Hilliard Davidson color guard. The average class was 11. There are a total of 13 kids but we had days that one or two were missing.
We were on the stage I the “PAC”. Because it’s my daughters guard, I bought all the kids a cheap yoga mat as a gift and took them every time to ensure they didn’t forget the mats. I took speakers for music and put play lists together that I thought the kids would enjoy. The coach brought a large speaker and mc’d one of the days.
Most of the classes were stretching.
June 5- 90 minutes. Vinyasa and stretch
June 7- 45 minute vinyasa
June 12- 60 minutes vinyasa
June 14- 45 minutes core and stretch
June 18- 60 minutes vinyasa
June 20- stretch
June 26- 60 minutes vinyasa
June 28- 45 minutes stretch
July 10- 30 minutes stretch

Their favorite pose is corpse. One of the boys said “Bo, why is your mom so athletic? I love her but I’m dying.”
I was very fortunate we didn’t have many hick ups, we started late a couple times because the coach had to get us in the pac.

[melross1]

I gave up coffee and to my surprise no headache. I feel better without coffee. I’ve started drinking things without ice. I’m slowly changing my diet. Removing red meat (again).
My diet has been off, this has helped me understand why I have such bad heartburn and just feel yucky so often.

I have always gone to bed at about 9:00 and get up early to workout so that’s a change. It was nice to know that I need to continue doing this.

I had an ah-ha moment last night talking to a stranger. He said when do you have time to relax? Oh, I do work a lot and I’m always on the go. But I feel like yoga anywhere is my happy place. That’s a start.

[melross1]

• You are not doing this right. Verbal cues would be great to help the entire class. Normally saying make a small adjustment, most people will look at their alignment and make adjustments.
• Don’t forget to breathe
Say one breath per movement. Or nice breath as a reminder to breath.
• Don’t let your knee extend past your toe.
Stack your a knee over your ankle.
• Don’t worry about everyone else.
This is you safe space. Each person is different. There is no competition or judgement here.
Then, please share how you plan to create an environment that is supportive to all in the room using verbal and body language, atmosphere and connection.

During centering I say things like “your mat is your magic carpet for the next 60 minutes. I’m going to guide you thru this. No judgement or competition.” I will give you cues to keep you safe and help you with proper alignment.
Thru the class I give little reminders this is their practice and their body.

[melross1]

1) Pitta with a little Vata, yep couldn’t agree more!

2)Pitta ya, always hungry, I get grumpy if I don’t eat every couple hours. I like to have fun but when it’s time to get a job done I take charge. I don’t sit still long or at all. I even ha e a standing desk at work because I hate to sit. Vatta- I’m very cold sensitive.

3). I hoping this will help me feel better as a person, my Dr. just told me to go on an anti inflammatory diet which lines up with pitta. I also hope I can incorporate it into my yogi lifestyle to help me grow as a teacher.

[melross1]

Colleen has a very gently voice but is also to the point. She is very clear in letting her class know that they get the same benefit from every veriation of each pose. And she doesn’t show the fullest expression of any posse so no one on the class feels they need to try and achieve some crazy pose. I love the use of props. We used 3 block to get into twisted triangle, it blew my mind. I will be teaching beginners that version, it was amazing, I felt the stretch with the block and there was no strain nor did I wonder if I was doing it right, the blocks helped with my alignment to ensure I was doing it right. Wide leg forward fold, we stacked blocks, again mind blowing, for my body type I would never think to use blocks but for a large man who doesn’t bed well or has back problems, or a curvy person and the list goes on 3 blocks makes a forward fold achieveable. I LOVE her use of props, I never would have thought to use the props like that. And the strong reminders that you get the same benefit from having your foot in kickstand doing tree as you do bringing it up higher. No matter how advanced we are we all need that little reminder from time to time.

[melross1]

In the beginning of observations I mostly found things I didn’t want to do. I did find somethings I liked too but I think I was still stuck in my ego that busy judging even though I didn’t intend to. Now I still see things that I don’t want to take away as a teacher but more often I find things that I like. I have a notebook in my car so I can write things down or I put things in the notes of my phone. In the last couple weeks I’ve had several ah-ha moments. I need to slow down have my students hold poses a little longer when I’m teaching slow flow. I agree that it’s best to jot down things that I pick up and reflect back on them in a week and see how they best fit with me and my teaching.

[melross1]

My ah ha moments we’re around curvy people. While I was heavy for a few years I forgot what it’s like to have a rather large chest. Laying on the stomach can be very difficult. While teaching a curvy class doesn’t have to extremely different, there also is no reason to go into the “fullest expression” of any post when one can get the same benefit from a different choice. We too often look for the tada. We need to remind our class it’s just yoga not only breath but also smile.
Using words like choices rather than modifications.
Women’s health, having women do the opposite of what we’ve always thought during menstration, instead, move and twist.

[melross1]

I never thought I was much of a planner, until now. I sit with a pencil and notebook so I can erase and rewrite. I practice my routine and if I don’t like it or it doesn’t seem to flow, I can erase and do it again.
I have my daughter try some of the poses to make sure I’m not going crazy or making things to hard or not challenging enough.
Then I leave it alone and look at it the next day to see if I still like what I have or if I need to make changes. So far, I always make changes. Normally I find that I forgot something (core).

[melross1]

Moving around the class so you can be seen and heard is important. I think it also helps with a sense of safety. People often want to practice with their eyes closed but want to know they’re safe, if they know the teacher is moving around on “watch” if gives a feeling of safety.

Temperatures are personal but I think the room should be kept in the low 70’s if possible unless the class is advertised differently.

I like music but I think it needs to be turned down to a low to moderate level. I have found people watch me and others around them so make sure you do a good job modeling what they neeed to do and they’ll follow you anywhere.

[melross1]

Meditation is what you want it to be and what you make it. If you just sit there, its meditating. If you use beads, its meditating. If you need to let the monkey mind happen, let it… let the thoughts in, acknowledge them. then let it go or don’t. That’s meditation. There is no right or wrong to mediation. It’s being true to yourself. Finding your inner self, our inner world. We just need to remember to always be kind and compassionate.

If it comes from the heart, and its true, and you’re finding your true inner self I believe there is mindfulness there. I’m finding myself, parts of me that I either lost or didn’t know, but I like. I’m finding that I’m more mindful of who I am and who I want to be and where I want to go in life.

[melross1]

Planning for classes outside the studio. If they are outside, which is where my Karma classes will be, I plan to just have a mat. And I will speak as loudly as I can but, I will mirror them the best I can as well. I believe it will be a bit difficult for them to hear me on the practice field that we will be using. I realized this when we did the 5k. I’m also going to be doing a lot of stretching and my class will be off the ground as much as possible since I don’t know if any of the kids have grass allergies (I know mine does but we have meds:)

I have been googling ways to make props like use blankets and pillow cases tied at the end for bolsters. So that if I am in a place where I might feel that I will need props for some of my poses but I might not have enough, I can throw something together.

I love practicing outside, so I often will use 2 mats and a towel. I normally keep 2 mats in my car just in case I go somewhere to practice and someone needs one. It’s come in handy a couple of times. We can’t be prepared for everything, but we can try to be prepared for as much as possible.

[melross1]

I have had a lot of ah-ha moments, on and off the mat. I still love power yoga. I don’t know that I will ever learn to completely slow down. I love, love, love yin! And I just found a whole new me this week in meditation. I didn’t think I could meditate properly. What I mean by that is I’ve always taken time to meditate and try to listen to my God and spend time with my spiritual being. This week I had a break thru for me and it was powerful and amazing and refreshing and so many things, and I cannot wait to share this journey with others. And help others to grow deeper physically and spiritually. I have combined this training with warriors at ease teacher training, I feel like a different person and the same person because I already know so much more about me. And the things that I knew about me that I kept from other because I didn’t want to seem odd or crazy, I’m finding are normal. It’s so freeing!

This is such an amazing journey! I’m so inspired, I look forward to the future for myself and my students. My hope is that I touch and inspire others with yoga the way it touches and inspires me. Yoga really is a journey not a destination.

[melross1]

So I feel like this is going to make me sound like a big suck up. I learned to breathe well during an online class I was taking, and the teacher kept using lions breath. But when I really learned to breathe was during one of my first classes with Kimberly. She broke it down, had us close our eyes and count our breath in and count our breath our. To begin she counted for us. Then she had us keep counting in our head. And that’s all we did for some time. It seemed a bit odd when we were doing it, but by the end of class I realized that I was breathing well and feeling better.

I notice now when I hold my breath. Yep, I just stop breathing for no reason at all, and I never realized it before. And I breath a lot deeper more often, while practicing I believe I breathe well.

I like to hear teachers remind students often to breath in and out with each movement. Even when we know to do it, it’s such a great reminder and help to keep our minds focused on the breath. I think it helps.

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