Tag: Taiga Yoga

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Uncategorized Yoga

Silence the chatter with a strong physical yoga practice

Utthita parsvokanasana - bound extended side angle pose

Yoga is the simple equation of breath + movement. But it seems there is an interest in “getting there,” “doing the poses right.”  The physical part of yoga, the movement, is simply a gateway to quieting the mind.  Yoga poses are a venue for your body and mind to concentrate on breath and movement with the goal of quieting the inner chatter.

 Practice yoga to disengage from the constant inner dialogue

The self-doubt, the vanity, the unproductive discussions and negotiations with the self can all be eliminated by concentrating on breathing in physical poses. Easy, right? Except it isn’t.

Some days it feels impossible to quiet the mind, forget the chatter and be peaceful.

Enter power yoga.

The poses of power yoga provide a setting for tuning into the sound of the breath and concentrating on physical stamina, strength and flexibility. By concentrating on breathing in challenging yoga poses, the inner dialogue will fall silent. It’s very hard to think about your next career move when you’re practicing arm balances!

So if your inner chatter is particularly noisy, step onto your yoga mat. The physical challenge will quiet your mind.

You’ll be surprised at the mental clarity that can be achieved after a physically challenging yoga practice.

And if you’re afraid to try yoga  because you “can’t keep up?”  

Yoga isn’t about getting somewhere, or achieving a particular pose. It’s about creating a harmony between breath and movement. Sometimes more challenging poses are required to find the harmony and focus, sometimes not. Some people need more challenging poses to quiet the mind, while others already have the mental fortitude to silence the chatter without the physical challenge. Some days it takes a little extra strength to overcome the inner noise, which is why progressively more challenging poses are offered in power yoga.

But there is no end goal, there is no best pose, there is no best yogi.

Power yoga offers the chance to challenge yourself physically as much as you need to cultivate a quiet mind. Power yoga sequences are designed so that everyone is challenged, regardless of body type, age, or yoga experience.

Mondays and Wednesdays at 7pm

Tuesdays at Noon. 

Taiga Yoga, Yellowknife

Categories
fall schedule Yoga

No More Zero Days: the 21-day Yoga Challenge

The Non-Zero Day

My friend recently wrote a very inspirational essay for reddit. He doesn’t know it, but I think about his comments every single day. The premise of his words? Do something, anything every day that is related to your goals. Do not let a single day go by where you do zero productive things. In other words, every day must me a non-zero day. Based on the popularity of the post, the volume of re-posts and the fact that you can google “nonzero day” and find his words, clearly the concept has resonated with a lot of people. It appears that many people suffer from zero days. I’m one of them. Less and less frequently as I age and mature, to be sure, but there were many days in my past where I did absolutely nothing. Nothing.

There have been many changes in my life that have led me to get up off the couch and do something every day, but no single activity or lifestyle choice has added more value to my days than yoga. Yoga is many things to me: a source of physical strength and flexibility, an emotional solace, a retreat from the world, a challenge, a passion. As a teacher of yoga, my goal is to share the value of a regular yoga practice with everyone who crosses my path. I know that there are infinite reasons to practice yoga and my emphasis is this: no matter what kind of yoga you’re doing, and no matter why you came to your mat, you’re doing it right. Yoga is the unity of breath and movement and that union can be fast and powerful or it can be slow and contemplative. Whether you practice for five minutes or for two hours, that time on your mat will be time well-spent and will meaningfully contribute to whatever physical, professional or personal goals you have. Yoga gives you an energetic physical boost and simultaneously offers a chance to clear your mind of clutter and make space for productive ideas.

Taiga Yoga is currently offering a 21-day yoga challenge. You come to yoga for 21 consecutive days between October 15 and November 4 and you will be entered to win a one-month unlimited yoga pass. Beyond the prize though, Taiga’s goal is to help you establish or solidify your own habitual behavioral patterns. In other words, by stepping on to your mat every day, you are creating a good habit which will have positive ramifications on all aspects of your life. As in, no more zero days.

Try it. Taiga has a wide range of classes to accommodate your schedule and physical ability.

As always, I can’t wait to practice yoga with you.

Here’s a link to the original article on Reddit. The article is raw and unedited, but is heavy-hitting and affecting. Read it.

Here’s a link to Taiga Yoga’s website, including an up-to-date schedule and information on the 21-day yoga challenge.

Categories
Yoga

Constructive Feedback: KEEP STOP START

Keep Stop Start

In my yoga classes, I want to emphasize student expectations by accepting feedback in the keep, stop, start format.

Your presence, your emotions and your contribution to the world are a projection of your acquired experiences and memories. This is fact. Your interactions with the people around you are affected by reciprocal expectations. Sometimes, however, expectations are misunderstood, miscommunicated or not communicated at all. The expectations between two parties must be clearly expressed and understood by both. This is true for professional relationships, romantic relationships and is also applicable in the relationship between yoga teacher and student.

When I step on to the mat at the helm of a yoga class, I am presenting a series of ideas that are based on my previous experience of learning and practicing yoga and on my memories of classes that I have attended. My expectations are that the students who come to my classes will be open to listening to my ideas and trying the poses which I suggest. Conversely, and this is the part that I often forget, my students arrive on the mat with experience and memories of their own. Their contribution and presence in the class is as essential as my own and I want to clearly understand their expectations.

A technique I learned to effectively convey expectations, praise and constructive criticism is as follows:

KEEP___________________STOP________________START_________________.

For example: keep starting the class with pranayama, stop doing backbends without warming up the quad muscles and start doing balancing poses earlier in the sequence. (An extrapolation of some recent feedback I received).

I want to be the best yoga teacher I can be. We all want to be the best partner we can be in professional and romantic relationships. Please use this format to offer feedback on my teaching and I urge you to try this format when changes are required in your professional and personal life.

We all bring our experiences and memories with us every day and sometimes we forget about the value of the experience of those we interact with. I want to make a change in my teaching and begin placing more value on the experience and expectations of my students.

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Handstands Power Yoga Taiga Yoga Uncategorized Yoga YTT Blog

What is Power Yoga?

What is Power Yoga? The term power yoga can be found on many yoga schedules and there is some confusion on the meaning of the term. Power yoga is designed to make you strong. You will likely sweat during the practice and there will probably be some core-strengthening poses. Some teachers will follow a set series of poses in each class, while other teachers will create different sequences every day.

Power Yoga is aimed at individuals who don’t want a lot of chanting and meditation in their yoga practice. The time on the mat will be focused on strengthening, balancing and sweating. The sequencing will be challenging, but will be adaptable to every student. Baron Baptiste describes his sequencing as a blueprint for an invigorating vinyasa yoga practice and says that his brand of power yoga is adaptable for all body types, ages and fitness levels.

Most power yoga sequences are based on Ashtanga yoga, but will likely flow faster than a traditional Ashtanga practice. Where Ashtanga encourages practioners to hold each pose for five breaths, power yoga sequences will likely hold each pose for far fewer breaths, sometimes moving fluidly throughout the entire practice, cultivating one breath per movement and not pausing in any pose.

What to expect from my Power Classes:

• Flowing sequences. We will start slowly, taking the time integrate breath with movement, but expect to flow between poses. All of my sequences offer a logical progression from the floor to standing and back again.
• Sweaty yogis. Sweating is encouraged. If you tend to perspire a lot, you may find it beneficial to bring a small towel to class. The towel can be used under your hands so you have a firm base in downdog or to dry your arms and legs so you don’t slip out of side crow. Be sure to hydrate before arriving on your mat.

• Some core-strengthening. There will be 100 core-strengthening poses strategically placed throughout the practice. They might be extremely challenging or relatively simple to you, but we’re a team and we’re going to do all 100 of them together.

• Handstands. Try one or try 50. Handstands are a fun inversion and are challenging and will make you laugh. My current goal is to hold a handstand for ten breaths! I’m not there yet, and I’m having a great time building up the strength and confidence to get there. In each class, I will offer tricks to help you practice your handstand.

• Accessible language. I will offer clear instruction on where to place your hands and feet in each pose. That being said, if you’re ever unclear on the alignment in a pose, ask! Shout it out! Someone else in the room probably has the exact same question.

• A friendly vibe. I encourage everyone to join me on the mat for Power Yoga. I don’t care if you’ve never tried yoga before or if you’ve been teaching at an Ashram for the past 20 years: you’re all welcome. In the 60-90 minutes that we practice together, we are a team and we will be learning, progressing and having fun together. A note to the newbies: every single person in the room was new to yoga at some point, and we all know what it feels like to not have a clue what is happening. If you’re new, you will probably fall over a few times and there will definitely be poses that are unavailable to you, but I can assure you that nobody is criticizing or judging you!

Join me on your mat at lunchtime on Mondays and Wednesdays at 7pm and Tuesdays at Noon at Taiga Yoga in Yellowknife. Whatever your reason for wanting to practice yoga, I can’t wait to share my practice with you!

www.taigayoga.com