lumbar spine_vertebrae

Lumbar Spine Anatomy (part 3: Lumbar|Lower Spine)

Lumbar Spine The lumbar spine is the lowest five of the twenty-four vertebrae of the spine, which descend vertically from the bottom of the ribs to the top of the hips and pelvis. Structurally, the lumbar spine is the foundation for the body’s movement and supports the weight of the upper body as it moves …

dhyana meditation

The Eight Limbs of Yoga (part 7: Dhyana)

Dhyana is a type of meditation, like the other 2 last limbs of Patanjali’s Ashtanga yoga Dharana and Samadhi. It is used to describe a specific meditation based on simultaneous awareness and detachment from the environment and the body. The transcendence of this meditation is Samadhi, which is the ultimate bliss of the 8th limb …

ganesha

Ganesha – The Hindu Elephant God

The Remover of Obstacles The hindu god Ganesha is a powerful archetypal symbol. He represents the removal of obstacles, and transcends religion to be a sacred symbol to all of India, including the Hindus, Jains, Buddhists. His elephant head makes him easy to identify and he is also the patron god of the arts, intellect …

Architecture of God

Just feel it…

I love Sacred Geometry, which this is an example of. The idea is that there are base patterns in all things that remain true to certain geometric patterns and shapes. A good example of this is the ratio of 1.618 which occurs in a myriad of organic beings that are seemingly unrelated. The sacred geometry …

hinduism

Hinduism

Hinduism is a religion and a philosophy. It is quite possibly the world’s oldest religion. Officially recognized as the world’s third largest religion Hinduism is far more complex than its description implies. Hindu holy books contain epic mythological tales from the beginnings of civilization and cascade through the ancient world to the present day. Rigid …

transcendence

Building Something Beautiful: Transcendence Festival

My friend, James Kapicka, is starting a festival in Sacramento. Its called Transcendence. I am pretty excited about it for a few reasons: first, Sacramento is where I live and having a cool festival here would be awesome, especially in the beginning of Winter; second, the focus is on yoga and partying(“community”), two of my favorite …

The End of my Second Teacher Training

Sunday I finished my second 100 hour teacher training with Ryan Bailey. It was an incredible experience, from start to finish, each day was dynamic and had all kinds of lessons about everything from emotional intelligence, to public speaking skills, to asana practice, anatomy, the hero’s journey, and much more. The name of the training was the Yoga Lab, an idea Ryan had for training people how to teach yoga. The idea was to cover things that aren’t normally taught in teacher trainings, like presentation skills, how to be yourself while teaching, and how to think on your feet. It was more of a life training than a yoga teacher training, and Ryan deserves a ton of credit for what he is creating. Bob Bradley was a part of the training as well and pulled in many of his leadership techniques and skills in lots of situations. The main thing I walked away from the training with is the ability to step into a yoga class and be myself.

This might sound simple, but it’s not. Presenting to people is difficult, having the attention of a group of people is nerve-racking to anyone without experience. Remembering a sequence, keeping calm while inflecting your voice, being present to assist students, and giving personal attention to individuals while controlling the whole group are just a few of the skills you need to be able to bring your self into a yoga room. Ryan’s ability to open us up to being vulnerable and open in our dialogue was incredible; I feel like I am in touch with aspects of myself that I didn’t even know existed. At the end of the training, I told a story that I’ve never told anyone else in my life. The things we learned will stay with me for the rest of my life.

It’s interesting to notice progress. One of the biggest things that we worked on was removing fill words from dialogue. We spent time paying attention and building awareness around words such as: Um, so, like, now, really, and other words that simply fill up space. Silence in a yoga class is important, especially from the teacher’s dialogue. It takes time to let things settle and sink in. This was another huge lesson from the training. I could talk about the individual learnings for hours, but I think the biggest ones were about how to connect with the people who you are teaching. Which is what modern-day yoga is really about.

Every single day was a blast. More fun than I can ever remember having, which is typical with Ryan Bailey. Kyle, Timmy, Jamie, and the rest of the crew also helped to have so much fun the whole time we were there. We did some amazing work to build a team and I think that our entire group is going places. Part of the reason I love working with Ryan is that he is constantly surrounded by amazing people.

Of course there was also some awesome anatomy work, focused on the muscular and skeletal systems, and the philosophy we studied ranged from the Hindu belief systems to the mono-myth. No subject was off-limits and everything was interactive and in close quarters. I would do another in a heartbeat. I am so grateful for being able to have the experience and grow with the people who gave themselves to the training. It was powerful.

I don’t have any future trainings planned, but I will definitely be on the look-out. The more opportunity that I can give myself to grow, the better.

random_india

Detachment | वैराग्य

Learning detachment has been a very interesting journey. During my education I had lots of teachers who taught me the concept without knowing what exactly they were teaching me. It wasn’t until I learned meditation and yoga that I started to understand what detachment truly meant. Here is my definition: the ability to perceive the …