yoga Archives | Page 8 of 8 | Essential You Yoga

Languaging – Sanskrit to English to the Language of your Body

I’ve mentioned before that I think a lot about what I say in a yoga class. I’m sure I put more emphasis on it than there needs to be. After all, who hasn’t tuned out their yoga teachers at times just to sink into their practice? However, you never know who’s listening at any time, and when that one word or phrase you say will sink in and make a difference in your students’ practice.

It’s fun to get poetical when I teach. Continue reading “Languaging – Sanskrit to English to the Language of your Body”

…and then a gecko ran by

Small, white geckos are prevalent here in Nicaragua. Due to the open floor plan of most houses, they are a frequent sight running up walls into small corners or climbing beams in search of insects. Their official name is in fact the House Gecko. They leave behind them tiny piles of poop, which I have the unfortunate luck of attracting. Is that good luck, perhaps, being blessed by gecko poo bouncing off my head and slipping down the front of my shirt? No se, pero it is a source of amusement. Continue reading “…and then a gecko ran by”

Students as Teachers

I’ve had some interesting experiences as I work with students here in Nicaragua that have presented as challenges. I view a challenge as an opportunity to learn something new about the world and something new about myself, so I welcome these learning experiences. I also welcome your feedback on how you work with students who throw curveballs.

The first challenging experience came when I was teaching a class with only two students. This isn’t unusual for classes here at the gym. Las turistas wax and wane, so our classes at the gym can go from a full house to unexpected private lessons within a day. On this particular day, I had two students who were friends with each other. One student was a long time yoga practitioner, and the other was new to yoga. Continue reading “Students as Teachers”

Spanish as a Path to Svadhyaya

I had a moment of triumph this morning when I finally remembered the word for stapler — ingrapadora. This after almost a month of asking for the…what do you call it again? Squeezing motions with my hands while I hold up the pile of papers, corners dangling, wishing to be connected by a small metal staple.

Another moment of triumph last night as I spoke with a tour guide from Esteli who was in town touring the yoga studio with one of his clients. Even though he spoke rapidly, I was able to keep up without asking to ask him to slow down. (One of the first phrases I learned…”mas despacio, por favor!”)

I find myself slipping into English less often. Continue reading “Spanish as a Path to Svadhyaya”

Un Dia en la Vida

Roosters in Nicaragua behave much as dogs do in the States. When one crows, they all begin cock-a-doodle-doodeling up and down the street. There’s one rooster that appears to come from next door and has a voice that sounds like a person doing a poor impression of a rooster. He’s always second to chime in when the string of cock-a-doodle-doodeling starts up. Between these guys and the geckos that sound like knuckles rapping at my door and mangoes falling on a tin roof, I slept poorly last night.

My alarm went off early, but I was long awake gazing at the sun shining in the patio garden and the mosquitoes fighting for entry on the opposite side of the mosquitero. I whirl-winded myself up and to the bathroom, dressing fast so that I’d be ready for the taxi driver at 7:15. On a whim, I opened my front door at 6:55, and the taxi pulled up 5 minutes later. Hola! Continue reading “Un Dia en la Vida”

Baby Steps

When I was a brand spanking new teacher, the first class I was given to teach was called Hatha Star, which meant yoga for beginners. Talk about a challenge! I felt then, and still feel that it takes an advanced teacher to be able to break the practice of yoga down for beginners. The class was a wonderful tool for me as a student of yoga and a teacher, as it forced me very quickly to find my voice as a teacher, to be extremely specific in what I was asking of my students, and to break down my own yoga practice to allow me to serve it in bite-sized pieces to the students coming to my classes. While I enjoyed the challenge of teaching new students, I also welcomed the opportunity to teach classes that moved a little faster. When that opportunity arose, I took it and left behind my Hatha Star class, so I was only a teacher of beginner’s yoga for a short while.

Continue reading “Baby Steps”

The Mat at the Front of the Room

One of my motivations for moving to Granada and living/teaching at a yoga studio was to teach more yoga. Despite the fact that I’ve been teaching for a little more than two years now (a fact that still astounds me), I very much feel like a new teacher. I stutter my words sometimes as I’m describing which limb to extend, confuse left side with right, and wonder whether the sequences I create are bringing the most benefit to the students in the room. At home in Austin, even though it felt like I was living, breathing, eating, sleeping yoga, I was only teaching two classes a week. Those classes were my islands. In those 150 minutes, I would reconnect with the mysteries of yoga, the infinite nature of the breath, and the stillness of bodies in motion. I yearned to teach more, but the realities of managing a yoga studio meant there was only so much time available for stepping into the role of teacher.

Continue reading “The Mat at the Front of the Room”

La Tortuga and the Power of the Breath

Flying into Managua looked like flying into any other city in my sense memory. Bright city lights twinkling and busy roadways entering and exiting the city. If it wasn’t for the two men on either side of me who didn’t speak English, I could almost have fooled myself that this plane’s landing was like any other. Then, I caught sight of a very small tienda with the store sign en espanol, and my pulse quickened. Numerous doubts raced through my mind — or maybe just one phrase, repeated over and over like a mantra: I must be crazy to sell all my things and move to Central America with such a small plan. Crazy: loca gringa, muy loca gringa! I practiced some pranayam to return my heartbeat to normal and quell the shaking in my hands. Some deep breathing in and out of the right nostril while chanting silently Om Surya Namaha reminded me that my entry to the land of the sun (as Mehtab called it in the Vedic Astrology reading I had last year) has been as clear a path as one can hope for in this world. Calmed, I struggled with my much-too-heavy bags through customs, and left the airport to meet my friend and his family, and to go to the yoga studio I will be staying at for the next few months.

The studio is beautiful. A divided central courtyard is lush with mango trees, jasmine trees, a large egg-laying duck, y una muy grande tortuga named Snoopy.

Continue reading “La Tortuga and the Power of the Breath”