Prototypes Women's Center: Counterposing stress. 5.16.11

When I walked into our room today, I had 5 (out of 15) women tell me why they can't do yoga today (one was on their cycle, one was having a 'really really' bad day, one was tired, one had arthritis, and one had recently just given birth (with some complications). This allowed the 'pain' conversation to take place with some direct context.

We started with breathing..everybody could do that. After a 10 minute opening pranayama exercise, the question became, 'how do you feel now", with corresponding answers, 'calmer, sleepier, less in my head, and a defiant 'no difference'. The practice as a teacher is to be supportive of all the experiences, believe them, and honor each person in their effort to speak their truth and put words to the unexplainable grace that comes with feeling ANYTHING as a newly sober human being.

"This is 'yoga' and you all are doing it". The relief in the room was immense.

Many of the women returned to sitting/supine after the first sequence of Warrior 1. The favorites of the day are Crazy 8's (always), and our Navasana play where we amped up the practice of lowering towards the ground and hovering several times. Interesting that this was technically the more strenuous postures of the practice, but by this point in the sequence, somewhere their guards had been lowered and fun was evident in our practice together. We all plopped on the ground and giggled! This was the last thing I was expecting from a group where many didn't even want to get on the mat.

I continue to be amazed and inspired in the magic of the yogic practices, including the practice of attempting to teach it.

sukasana -check in

supine 3 part breath
sukasana check in

sukasana side bending x2
shoulder shrugs

tadasana
forward fold with hamstring stretch
uttithatadasana
tadasana

crazy 8's (almost too much energy here so we also did..)
shiffman hokey pokey

warrior II dance
wide leg forward fold
other side
tadasana

warrior II
peaceful warrior
side angle
forward fold
other side

tadasana
malasana

navasana play
navasana play II

texas star

bridge x2

easy spine twist

savasana

sit
Namaste