Atma Yoga Classes

Today was the first day of yoga teacher training class.    I've been studying the last two weeks for this class.  Today was the first day of "contact" hours for my newest learning endeavor.  I really shouldn't worry so much.  We had a wonderful class.  I believe we will all be fine and compassionate and learned yoga teachers.  I enjoy the instructor, and I very much enjoyed the interactive participation of the group.  There are fourteen people, when I think to count.  Maybe there are only eleven students...we have three teacher trainers.

Atma Yoga is located in Tacoma, Washington.  And oh, what a beautiful day in Tacoma.  I fell in love with Opera Alley near our studio/teaching lounge.  Jazz club on the corner is B Square.  it is now on my list for the next night out for jazz.  No need to drive the hour to Seattle, I can get my jazz fix nearer to home.

Tacoma has beautiful murals all through the city.  I had no idea.  Tacoma seems like the best kept secret in Western Washington.  It's a sleepy little city on a Sunday...at least during our break for lunch between asana-s practices and lectures.  

Atma  is the sanskrit word for the individual soul or essence within the universal.  Or as dictionary .com says: the individual self, known after enlightenment to be identical with Brahman. 

We spoke of Atma at length in class.  Though it is not the definition given during class - I truly believe dictionary.com definition is spot on.

This is going to be a great fall.  I am looking forward to the journey...and Tacoma has grabbed my attention too.

Atma Yoga Classes

Today was the first day of yoga teacher training class.    I've been studying the last two weeks for this class.  Today was the first day of "contact" hours for my newest learning endeavor.  No need to worry so much.  We had a wonderful class.  I believe we will all be fine and compassionate and learned yoga teachers.  I enjoy the instructor, and I very much enjoyed the interactive participation of the group.  There are fourteen people, when I think to count.  Maybe there are only eleven students...we have three teacher trainers.

Atma Yoga is located in Tacoma, Washington.  And oh, what a beautiful day in Tacoma.  I fell in love with Opera Alley near our studio/teaching lounge.  Jazz club on the corner is B Square.  it is now on my list for the next night out for jazz.  No need to drive the hour to Seattle, I can get my jazz fix nearer to home.

Tacoma has beautiful murals all through the city.  I had no idea.  Tacoma seems like the best kept secret in Western Washington.  It's a sleepy little city on a Sunday...at least during our break for lunch between asana-s practices and lectures.  

Atma  is the sanskrit word for the individual soul or essence within the universal.  Or as dictionary .com says: the individual self, known after enlightenment to be identical with Brahman. 

We spoke of Atma at length in class.  Though it is not the definition given during class - I truly believe dictionary.com definition is spot on.

This is going to be a great fall.  I am looking forward to the journey...and Tacoma has grabbed my attention too.

My Return to School

It's not that you can't teach an old dog a new trick.  It's that this old dog is having a hard time relaxing into the new world order, regardless of how much I want to.  I have signed on for this wonderful, whole semester, comprehensive class to become the next fully trained, compassionate, inspiring and motivating yoga teacher and I am having some serious issues with finding the time to do all the things involved with going to school.  Of all the problems to have this is a good one.  I fully appreciate my 'dilemma'.


I don't know if y'all remember but when one is in school it is good to crack open a book before class, preferably for longer than twenty minutes at a shot.  Once the book is cracked it is good to read it.  And maybe even read with comprehension.  These books may not be great luminaries of literature - but I do enjoy losing myself in the reading. Blocking out the time necessary to 'get lost' in this information has gotten squashed repeatedly.


It is also good to take notes when one is in school - to write down what one has read as another way to assimilate the information.  It is good to have flash cards, or make them, and then actually flash ones' self.  (I just like the thought of flashing anything.  What a fun idea.)  It is good to physically practice the sequences and moves one is training for - maybe for longer than twenty minutes.  I see on the syllabus that for a Yoga teaching certificate daily meditation is required.  I don't mind any of this.  How marvelous it would be to meditate twice a day. Wait - it's a requirement.


I love the reading, and the new information.  I love the feeling of immersion into something that has held my attention for over thirty-five years.  The flash cards, the meditations, the asana sequences are all so much fun.  WHY CAN'T I FIND MORE TIME FOR THE THINGS I WANT TO DO??!


I calculated the time spent studying this week.  It was a lousy seven and a half hours.  Pitiful, downright pitiful amount of time for something that interests me so much.  I missed two days completely .  Am I too stringent of a student?  Apparently not.


This last week instead of studying I was fixing dinner and then cleaning up from dinner.  I was folding clothes or grocery shopping. And when the weekend came around and I was out on the boat crabbing - with a boatload of friends.  And then the boat needed cleaning and putting away.  And the crab needed cleaning and putting away.  And or course the green beans came in.  They had to be canned before they went bad.  And all of these things are good.  All of these things are necessary.  I am just finding that it is really hard to go to school, dont'cha know.  Thank goodness there's another week before our first class.  These are all the early assignments given out at orientation.


My best study time all week was Sunday morning in the wee (very wee) hours at midnight thirty.  That study session lasted two and a half hours.  It was magic.  The house was quiet.  The fluorescent lights in the kitchen come on softly until they warm up.  There are no phone calls, no need to make any.  The information flowed into me and I soaked it in surrounded in the quiet ticking of the wall clock.  In the still of the night is the very best time to study.

Late night studying

Going for Certified - Yoga Love

I finally signed up for Yoga Teacher Certification.  I will be officially certified to help any of you with a great child pose.  Believe me, it's worth it.  Child pose is worth it, being able to confidently and knowledgeably help any of you into and out of this most difficult of poses (NOT difficult at all) is worth it, and being certifiable in anything is always worth it.  Even certifiable crazy is worth it - I think there's some public health funds available with that one.


I chose option 3 (for those that read my March posting) for my training certificate.  I chose the studio that only does teacher training for Yoginis and Yogis (not Bear - he just wants the pik-a-nik basket).

from fanpop.com

I chose the studio that offers overseas retreats in conjunction with the class.


There's no retreat attached to this particular class session.  I know, you are all wondering why I would sign up for the session that does not include the overseas retreat.  I signed on now because I felt a great connection with this instructor. I signed on now because in the course of chatting with the studios that offer RTY200 - 200 hours of yoga teacher training - this one seems the most holistic, rounded, all encompassing, and generally kinder, thoughtful.  This studio appears to be less like a business, more like a service.  I like the philosophy that was presented; basically her yoga, my way.  And I signed on now because I will receive my teaching certificate while I am still 55 years young.  That has been a goal of mine for the last two years.  Timing, it appears, is everything.


Especially when one is grabbing for their pik-a-nik basket.

For all of you who know it all

Can you believe she referred to us that way?  We are her class.  What just came out of her mouth?  She just called us Know-it-all's.  Was she talking to me?  Am I know-it-all-y? Why would she want to bring us down like that?  We get a Participation Award just for showing up. 

Who cares if she was right?  We are her Monday night class of All-That-And-A-Bag-of-Chips.  I can that see each of the men and women here in her Monday night class pride themselves on being limber or strong.  We know each of the poses before she can even ask us to come into them.  Monday night, hey this is the smarty-pants crowd.   Thing is, it wasn't until after she said, "For all you know-it-all's here..." that I now see the type of class we are.

Let's be clear - she encourages and promotes our knowing.  That's inherent in a good instructor.  I like this instructor in particular because she spends large portions of her class each week showing us and coaxing us into proper alignment with our yoga poses.  She spends a portion of her instruction time in allowing us to move into our asana (our pose) and feel how it is supposed to feel.

The Monday before last it was the plank pose.  I have always prided myself on how long I can hold a plank.  I have been holding it wrong.  While in plank I do not hurt, but going into the pose and coming out again, usually in a down-facing dog, my lower back would twinge.  Depending on how many times the instructor has the class going in and out of Downward Dog my lower back would change from twinge to soft pain.  I was hoping I was getting stronger.  According to my Monday Night Instructor I most likely am not getting stronger; I am just in pain.  Now my planks are at a different angle, not a let's-do-push-ups angle, and my Downward-Facing Dogs are easy in and easy out.

This week Monday Night Instructor decided our chair poses (Utkatasana) were very sad. Very sad. She walked between us and said, "For all you who know it all, let pretend you don't and start from the beginning." We were in our chair poses, varying states of sitz, feeling the burn, I'm sure. (Some yoga instructors have referred to the chair pose as the Uncomfortable pose. Maybe Uncomfortable and Utkatasana sound alike - I can't tell.  My Sanskrit is fuzzy.) I can only wonder how many others were feeling the burn from her words. Maybe it was only me.

breakingmuscle.com
"Butt-ology 101"

But it seems we all came to attention as we considered her requests to learn our anatomy and how to engage the gluteus medus rather than the gluteus maximus when standing. We considered where the neck meets the Thoracic spine - how to look up with out engaging the neck. Very interesting stuff.

We used our gluteus medus to stand - and what a change that is from using gluteus maximus. Our gluteus maximus engages our lower back.  Our gluteus medus engages our hips more than our back.  Monday Instructor trains us that as we stand again coming out of the Chair Pose we are to push our feet and knees outward - not that they move, feet stay on the ground and the knees stay over the toes - are engaging a different set of muscles to stand coming from the Chair Pose.  Totally cool stuff to feel a whole side of leg muscles instead of my back.

blissbodysoul.wordpress.com

While I have always "liked" the chair pose...this Monday I learned where all the angles are supposed to reside.  My upper body is to be at the same angle as my lower legs.   My arms are to be at the same angle as my upper body.  My head and gaze are to look up - but without engaging my neck - that was a great lesson as well.  It seems that with a little practice and mindfulness one can find the spot to tilt one's head back without  engaging the entire upper neck leading into the skull. Holding the pose just got easier.

Though I am not totally enamored of this particular yoga studio - I don't know that I will sign up for the long term here - that Monday Night Instructor is worth her weight in gold and I'm the Know-It-All to say it.