Archive for the ‘Teacher Training’ Category
Had a chat yesterday (I think it was yesterday… bit of a blur, recently 
with a yogi friend. We’ve both experienced times where we want to disappear, be invisible, go inside ourselves & shut the world out. And not in a good way. Usually it’s when we’re being terribly hard on ourselves & just can’t bear for our (perceived) awfulness to be seen by any other person.
There’s an exercise in Forrest yoga teacher training that shows up in a lot of different variations, all directed at seeing & being seen by someone else. During the first Forrest mentoring program weekend also a seeing exercise showed up. At it’s most basic, you sit with someone else & just look at them & have them look at you, without speaking, for 3-5 minutes. It can be enlarged to a whole group, seeing each other. Or a seeing circle or trio of people focused on truly seeing one other person, sometimes while they are holding a yoga pose. The combinations are pretty endless.
The results, however, to my experience, are quite similar. The fundamental conclusion reached is that the other person is quite beautiful.
It’s a great exercise to build appreciation as well as intuition. And as practice to seeing someone’s alignment/energy/spirit play out in their face & body.
Hit the mat today at Back Bay first in Peter’s December Forrest Intensive 7-9 then Lynne’s Hip Hop class 10-1130. And a laid back half hour just now. Been quite focused & on track the past two days. It’s nice.
In Forrest teacher training, there’s something called The Secret Game. You tell a secret — or two, or fifteen dozen – to one fellow trainee in strictest confidence, to allow a little release & acceptance of something you may have thought was too awful for anyone to hear.
Good game.
Some days on my own when I can’t figure out what the hell is going on, I play a variation called The Feeling Game. It goes something like this: “If I had feelings, which I might, but sure can’t tell, what would that feeling be?” Or “What could be too awful for me to be feeling right now, therefore I am feeling nothing?”
Useful game.
Practiced two hours in the am to my own drummer… well, actually, mostly to Black Rebel Motorcycle Club tunes, but same diff. Setting up now for a half hour chill stretching.
Opportunities to feel.
In Forrest teacher training, sometimes a trainee is given the assignment to teach as someone else in order to get a particular quality into their teaching. I remember one person got the assignment to teach as a rock star, for example. Imagine Mick Jagger teaching yoga & you’ll get the idea. It was awesome.
Today I pretty much taught as an incarnation of Tigger. (”The wonderful thing about Tiggers/Is Tiggers are wonderful things/Their tops…” well, you know the rest. 
This is not exactly my current teaching goal, but whaddya gonna do? Somedays, one just IS Tigger. So I bounced around the studio for 3-plus hours, oh well. So Heidi would have taken me behind the woodshed for my abuse of the Breath Formula. Yeh, it happens. (And although I am a good 6 inches taller than Heidi, I have no doubt she could kick my ass any day if she put her mind to it. That girl’s got core strength.
The good news was being clued in enough to set an intention/theme of bringing play into the practice which allowed at least some productive channeling of my bounciness.
Oh, and my repeat word was “toward(s).” I am not allowed to say that word for the rest of the week. Which should make teaching interesting.
What I actually truly, non-snarkily found interesting was that I taught my class (focused on twisting, inner rotation, inner line of the legs & opening up IT band,) then took Peter’s class & it was like he just picked right up where I left off. Trust me, there was no coordination at all; we just went right into lunges, twisting & arm balances.
And Peter’s vibe finally got me calmed down. That whole “entrainment” thing where a teacher brings a class along on their mood totally works. Phew.
(But he did also say ”towards” a few extra times. However, I may just have been extra-aware of that word.
Peter Crowley, the amazing Forrest instructor I assist on Monday nights at Back Bay, also has a blog. And on Sept 21 he posted something so true & well-articulated that, with his permission, I wanted to share it here.
While the whole site is great, the particular article that made me sit up & and go “hell, yeah” and “damn, I wish I’d written that!” is down the page a little ways, labeled “Apologies & Guilt.” It’s tells why Forrest teacher training means never having to say you’re sorry.
Check it out:
A few posts ago, ( http://autumnlotusyoga.omblogger.com/2009/08/29/simple-gifts/ ) I mentioned that during Forrest yoga foundation teacher training, we made a “living list” of what yoga has done for us.
I’m still a little wrapped up & not much for full sentences today (though I did get 2 hrs 45 min on the mat with most of my fave Forrest MP3, the Celebrate Your Practice!) so here’s my list…
What’s yours?
—————
Yoga Has Given/Taught me to:
- self-esteem, liking myself
- I can change and improve and make visible progress
- take my self a little more lightly
- less isolated and more able to connect with others
- reach out and touch people, literally and figuratively
- not mind getting older because I’m getting stronger and fitter and more grounded and capable
- not mind getting older because of really great role models for women aging in yoga (Ana, Beryl, Lilias, Vanda etc)
- a means to heal my mental/physical/emotional pain in concrete, real ways
- take care of myself on a daily basis in healthy ways
- value being authentic and genuine over whatever I think I’m “supposed to/should be”
- keep going even when I feel I’m making a fool of myself because no one minds
- value being happy and a good person over money, things or ambition
- step outside, slow down and heal from the ground up
- speak my truth, especially when teaching, because its powerful and worthwhile
- grow up and take responsibility for my attitudes and behaviors
- love others in a healthy way with a better sense of perspective and a little less neurosis : )
- take a deep breath
- enjoy feeling and staying in my body
- fantastic trips to fantastic places (Edinburgh, India, Mirepoix, Lucca, Wilmette : )
- means to overcome addiction and eating disorders
- accept myself
- creativity
- opportunity to learn anatomy, history, philosophy
- new clothes : )
- feeling better about my physical body
- not so reactive or panicky
- appreciative of other people’s insides — their struggles, whether similar to or different from mine
- helped me to learn to learn by going deeper rather than staying so superficial on a subject
- made me more confident and willing to try things
- helped me to live in the present and let go of the past
- helped me let go of my sense of inadequacy/insecurity/self-consciousness/lack of worth
- it’s given me more than any other single aspect of my life
My friend who went to the workshop did an amazing job at the workshop & writing about it – it really is like getting to both have and eat the proverbial cake (yummmm, cake to get to have her go & read about it.
I especially like that she intuitively gravitated towards being most comfortable teaching just by sharing the experience of what she knows. Which is of course how David Swenson teaches.
When I did the week-long teacher training of the Primary series with him, he started out by saying his mission every class is “How do I share this yoga?” Not, “how do I show how cool I am?” That’s what makes David Swenson & my friend such rock stars.
I’ve posted her experience below in her own words — enjoy!!
| “The workshop started out with a discussion about what are important things for a teacher to have. Among the key ones were patience, passion for what you are teaching, flexibility (which I took as meaning the ability and willingness to adapt to different situations and modify things so that what you are teaching can include all types of students), good observation and listening skills, and practice. He was referring to the quote, “practice is the best of all instructors,” where the best way to get better at doing something was to practice doing it: practice what you teach and practice teaching. So simple and makes so much sense, right? Then he went into discussions on assisting and adjusting: knowing when to adjust, how to adjust and what to adjust. This is where I kind of start losing the ability to convey most of what he said and demonstrated into cohesive flow of sentences because there was so much information, but here’s what I remember best:
—>Adjustments are about helping the student move and stretch in a way that they couldn’t do or get into on their own. The practice is about the student and you’re there to serve them in their practice. —> Adjusting is kind of like triage: first adjust what is or could be potentially dangerous to the student (like a knee being twisted in a potentially physically damaging way). Then go to the foundation and then to adjusting the finer points (what he referred to as the “aesthetics,” making it look nicer). He said to use the same principle for deciding which students to address first. He used the example of being a forest ranger who looks out from a tower “looking for the smoke;” for the students who are most likely to be in danger. —> With regards to alignment: because each student is different on any given day there is no one perfect alignment. He used the example of someone who has a structural difference that will not let them get into the usual alignment–like someone who has bowed arms or legs and cannot have them completely straight. This leads into something he talked about that I think is very important: assessing the student from multiple angles and addressing the root cause of a mis-alignment before making an adjustment, rather than simply going straight to the “symptom.” He put himself in a downward facing dog that was all sorts of messed up, but the most prominent one being that his back was rounded. He asked someone to come up and adjust him and the first thing that person did was try to stretch his back straight…which he wouldn’t let her do, lol. A couple other people tried the same approach and the other tried asking him to straighten his back, to no avail –> Remember to consider the 6 directions (of energy?): up & down, forward and backward, and side-to-side. He said something else after that, probably close to trying to consider what they are in each pose (if they’re there) and trying to make them equal…but I could be wrong. I just remember the directions –>Since physically adjusting someone (rather than just verbal) creates a strong muscle memory (because your attention immediately goes to the place where someone is adjusting you), adjust in a way that creates a good memory: –>Watch for verbal and non-verbal cues to know when it is time to ease up on the adjusting, including: groaning/moaning, not breathing, resistance, scrunching of the face, actually saying “ow!” or “stop.” He said that it might actually be good to ask “do you want an adjustment?” or maybe, I think, to let people know at the beginning of class that it’s ok to say, “no I don’t want an adjustment.” After that, we all took turns partnering up and taking turns playing the role of teacher and student. We took turns first simply watching and assessing our students during sun salutation A and then when they went through a second time, going in and making an adjustment. I didn’t mind playing the student because (1) after 20+ years of school, that’s what I’m good at I was feeling really uncomfortable and not looking forward to having to practice more adjusting, but then I ended up with a partner who was very nice and seemed very easygoing and ok with me not knowing that much. He ended up being my partner for the rest of the class. It was much more enjoyable and fun once we were just learning different adjustments and then practicing them on each other; it felt like mutual teaching and learning. I would ask Rob if it felt like my hands were in the right place, if he was feeling the adjustment, and if it was ok to go further or to just stay there. When I had to assess and say, this looks wrong, I was less comfortable. Like it was better when I was just saying, “this is just what I know, let me show it to you and see if that works for you too;” rather than this is “right or wrong.” When it felt like there was mutual learning and teaching, it felt more like sharing than teaching. That last bit and all the knowledge David has made the class so enjoyable! David is really funny. I love how he’s not afraid to make himself look a little ridiculous in order to get a point across. He had a good combination of talking and listening to what other people had to contribute and the questions that they had. It didn’t feel like he was putting himself up on a pedestal because he knew so much, which can happen with people who know a lot.” |
Got a question from one friend that ties in with a conversation with another so let’s see if I can weave it all together into some form of coherent post. Should be quite the trick. ;)
The primary question was “what’s up with the whole talking out loud through abs etc thing from Forrest teacher training?”
Fair Q. The process truly is a literal talking en masse out loud (and loudly!) to oneself during a pose or series of poses. Especially used a lot in teacher training for Forrest abs, because Forrest abs are fairly complicated to cue with precise breathing & other instructions. There is a level of rote memorization involved, but also articulating in full sentences a complex series of movements.
The other discussion was about developing the “internal coach” that provides guidance during an activity. Friend II used running as an example, & talked about how over the years she developed a strong inner motivator that helped her excel at track & that she was just starting to get an inner yogi voice to help her work through poses.
Totally understood that one… really didn’t get my inner yogi voice going until I started taking yoga classes in foreign countries. During those classes, I could see the pose & understand the Sanskrit name, but since the quality/alignment cues were in German or Czech or Spanish or whatever, had to start to really feel & talk myself into the pose on my own. It can take time to develop this inner guidance because we need to hear over & over from the external teacher what to do, how it should feel etc before it can sink in.
And then the next step: we can talk to ourselves about the poses but translating that internal sense of a pose into an external voice is quite a feat, really.
Want to deep down learn something? Teach it to someone else.
Articulating our inner coach in a manner that actually makes sense to others is a skillset quite separate from doing a pose yourself. Translating energy or alignment principles into something useful & understandable takes practice.
Hence, all the “talk to yourself out loud” stuff during Forrest teacher training! The inner coach becomes the teacher voice through practice & repetition. And occasionally sounding like a complete jackass.
Fortunately, tonight, I was all hands & no voice required. Yay! Assisted Lynne’s Forrest class at Back Bay & it was super fun. As was teacher’s practice. I spend a lot of time doing structured home practices, workshops or classes so teacher’s practice lets me free form a bit with whatever I feel or need at the moment while in an environment that supports experimentation & provides accountability. Plus, we play rockin’ tunes. At those times, I get to turn off both the internal & external teacher voices & just go with what feels good. Highly recommended a few times a week, seriously.
Towards the end of Forrest teacher training, we were instructed to make a list of all the things yoga has given us. And encouraged to keep the list alive, updated & carry it along to reread on those days when we just couldn’t “get it up” to practice or teach. One of these days when I don’t feel like forming full sentences I may just post it directly, maybe in the hopes of inspiring others to make their own list.
I don’t practice to attain enlightenment. (Really, the world should be terrified of a redhead achieving enlightenment; we’re enough trouble as it is. Or because the clothes are comfortable. Though that totally helps. I practice to live a happy, relatively sane, functional life.
Without yoga I would have self-destructed myself right into the morgue. But forget the big drama stuff. I’ve just been feeling incredibly grateful for my life, my snug little family, & the quotidian off-the-mat victories that mean so much.
Yesterday was a lovely example. After practice, met a friend for lunch & talked the afternoon away. Without fortifying myself with drinks, or binging or purging or depriving or running away… ate yummy sushi, had ice cream, shared & listened. Met up with Beloved Husband later for a brilliantly, perfectly, delightfully, sublimely boring evening of random errands, stopping by a bookstore (got My Stroke of Insight!! Reading it soon; book report to follow!! , & dined on a fancy meal of burritos. Came home & had my first experience using a plunger & fixing a simple problem without fuss or fear. Watched West Wing on DVD on the couch til bedtime.
A happy, functional day. A day impossible without hours of practice.
That’s why I was back on the mat this morning. Really, exactly what poses I did on that mat is, in the bigger picture, incredibly important & also completely irrelevant. Suffice to say, it was good.
The official post-intensive week report: The only part of me that is NOT sore is my left forearm. I’d hoped to be able to include my calves, but then did Dolphin this morning, and, umm, nope.
It’s always interesting to come back from a workshop and to see anew all the poses you’ve been doing since you last had a thorough check-up. Suddenly, things have a whole new purpose, attitude, sense to them. (Mostly, owchy. : ) But so worthwhile to find that next tiny increment of growth & freedom on the mat & off.
For example, the last day of practice I was playing with kapalabhati during our “yogi’s choice” pranayama and was just curious about how many pumpings I could do before getting tired. We usually do 125-150 in the intensives per round. Hit 300 pumpings when we were asked to finish up and change sides — could have kept going & still don’t know what my kapala “limit” actually is right now. It’s nice to not know what I’m capable of in a GOOD way nowadays!
When I came back from teacher training last May, I was on a whirlwind high that lasted for three weeks. It was a little frightening both inside and outside my head. Barely slept, cleaned out the entire apartment, finally donated tons of clothes & books & crap that I knew didn’t belong to me anymore, and completed 99% of the reading/writing homework for my full 500-hr Forrest accreditation. It was quite a ride — Beloved Husband told his office associates that he was just glad I decided to keep him as I cleaned out everything extraneous. (He never needs to worry!)
Small version of that now. Went to bed late, catching up on conversation, cuddles and, of course, Burn Notice, then didn’t sleep well again last night.
Every time sleep was anywhere near, got hit by a ginormous hypnogogic myoclonic jerk. You know, the ones where you dream you’re falling and thrash suddenly? Had, like, at least three of those, maybe more. (If that is a sign of awakening kundalini, count me out. Ah like mah sleep. : ) Then up at 5 am, wondering why I wasn’t hauling ass because I was late to meditation. (Always a good exercise in dichotomies — running to sit.)
Wired & cleaning & on errands all day except for the 45 minutes on my mat doing the first section of Ana’s Embodying Spirit MP3 workshop. It was good to hear a familiar voice directing me to connect to and embody my spirit, to not buy into my own racket and shine up my worth with every breath.
It was very necessary to do at least a modest session of pranayama, wrist stretches, side bends, twists, abs, bridge, aforementioned dolphin, and a nice child’s pose… especially when sore from an intensive week or month or whatever, gotta do more yoga and not just stop… a) to loosen up from previous yoga, and b) so that all the soreness isn’t wasted and what was learned is incorporated immediately into daily practice rather than forgotten from kinesthetic memory.
Plan a longer practice at home again tomorrow, then back to Back Bay on Wednesday!
You’re worth a deep breath too — take it, for pete’s sake. All together now… : )
It was the last day of the Forrest Yoga teacher training at Fresh Yoga, and the last of my week of intensives. Had a rough night’s sleep last night and had to ignore my inner resistance to get it together this morning and it was SOOOO worth it.
The theme of the last session was two-fold… a challenge set of sending her trainees & extraneous students back out into the world “to embody your spirit, No Matter What.” Whatever else is going on in life, we can still choose to live as our spirit dictates. And, when faced with a decision to make, we can choose based on “does this brighten or dim my spirit?”
Ana encourages action over just existentially hanging out & “being” which I really like. Nice phrasing today along the lines of “being present is where life begins. Now what are you going to DO with it?”
Lots of laughter today; majorly happy final chant dance party. Growing a community and place where folks can get that jazzed by each other and a couple of drums completely sober at about 6:30 am is quite an accomplishment. All the flipping upside down and getting tangled up in fantasy hip opening arm balance poses with exotically humorous names (”Roadkill,” “Weathervane,” “Reincarnation”) is just a side benefit. More recognizable, non-Ana-unique poses of the day included Firefly, One Leg Crow, Tortoise… it was just a blast.
I had so much more fun auditing this teacher training than taking my own. This may be in equal measure due to the fact that I got to spend the afternoons resting rather than facing my demons & teaching while being scrutinized (really, which is worse? : ), but also because a year-plus after TT, I’m a hell of a lot more open & happy in my life. I was spending so much energy keeping up my shields & pushing people away, resisting & fighting the wrong things, that I made things 10 times harder on myself.
Finally, maybe, I’m opened up enough now to actually start learning something.
Safely & happily reunited at home with Beloved Husband & kitties. Hugely looking forward to the time at Back Bay (start assisting Wednesday!), the Forrest Yoga mentorship program at Fresh in the fall, and six months from now, Ana will be in Boston for Continuing Education for teachers.
Being present was just the beginning. Now the adventure starts. : )