Tagged yoga teacher

The Strange is Beautiful

#thestrangeisbeautiful

I haven’t blogged in awhile because I’ve been working on a project called The Strange is Beautiful with my friend Savannah Metzger to spread awareness of anxiety disorders and depression. Our goal is to teach the world that anxiety disorders and depression aren’t so strange, but are common, require understanding, and are easier to live with than we think.

More info will be posted once our site is launched :)

Email me if you’d like to join our campaign, or if you’re a fellow yogi and would like to help us spread hope !! – shannenroberts21@gmail.com

Also, if you or a loved one has any type of mental illness, please check these helpful websites:

http://www.adaa.org/about-adaa/press-room/facts-statistics

http://www.mentalhealthfirstaid.org/cs/

And this article Savannah wrote :)

http://www.jalaclothing.com/blogs/news/13827437-the-power-of-presence

 

TEACHING FOCUS: Creating Space in Side Angle Pose

–For my Monday LA Fit students xoxox

In Side Angle Pose think SPACE. Do not dump into your shoulder!!! I showed the bad and good way twice so you can literally see that it looks like you're "hanging out" lazily in the pose when done incorrectly. Press into your forearm to create SPACE between the shoulder/trapezius muscles and your neck/ear. No slumping or crunching xoxoxox #yogateacher #form #alignment #space #yoga #sideanglepose #justhangingout #haha #not

In Side Angle Pose think SPACE. Do not dump into your shoulder!!! I showed the bad and good way twice so you can literally see that it looks like you’re “hanging out” lazily in the pose when done incorrectly. Press into your forearm to create SPACE between the shoulder/trapezius muscles and your neck/ear. No slumping or crunching please.

TEACHING FOCUS: BIG Shoulder Openers

After teaching posture in a seated cross-legged position in my classes, I warmed up their bodies with cat cow, and sun salutations. I mixed in plank pose where your knee touches your nose, then the same elbow as knee, and then opposite elbow to knee to warm up the core and shoulders.

AFTER heating up their bodies, we worked through these BIG shoulder openers at the end of class.

Rolling over your shoulder.

Thread the needle for the shoulders.

In both of these poses, do not push!!! Go very very slowly into the poses, and come out of the pose just as slowly. Give your body a few seconds to neutralize before doing the other side.

Raga – “Post Travel Syndrome”

Raga – Suffering from attachment. Wanting things you can’t have. Wanting things that aren’t there. Attachment to a person, place, thing, idea, or feeling. A branch of avidya, or ignorance.

Oregon and Washington are the prettiest places ever. This is the first time being in my grandmother's backyard since I was 10 or 11.... #sequim #seattle #yogateacher #pond #island #farm #beautiful

After being enlightened by my spontaneous trip to Portland, Sequim, and Seattle, I am now anxious from attachment that has grown like the moss that overwhelms the rooftops of Oregon and Washington, and causes them to collapse in winter time.

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I can either sit in these feelings of anxiety, these desires to once again see those tall green trees that are so different and plentiful than these dry saharan LA bushes, or move and keeping moving.

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This is where yoga helps me. Yoga is my medicine. It is the most natural way to cure, cope, and find balance.

I was very playful during my trip, and I brought that sense of playfulness to my mat in class tonight. I took a Level 1/2 Hatha Yoga class at YogaWorks Valencia, and though Aundrea Politi guided us, I played with her directions and added on. In high lunge and high lunge twists, I grabbed on to my back foot. In vasisthasana, I lifted my top leg up. In handstand, I challenged myself to use my core to lift up rather than relying on the wall.

I fell out of the high lunge a few times, and wobbled a bit when my leg was up in vasisthasana. I was unable to actually get into handstand by using my core. But I played. I had fun. I felt bliss where there was challenge.

It was a challenge to get myself to travel on my own. Without my parents. Without anyone! To take a risk, and trust in humanity. To trust that the people I was visiting, whom I didn’t know very well, would greet me with open arms and treat me with kindness.

And they did.

The chemistry between two kind strangers is beautiful and surprising. I forgot that the human race cares about each other.

My trip was perfect. But now I must ground my mind in the world I actually live in. Return to my routine, to my jobs, to my home tasks.

My mind is not fully grounded back home in LA, there’s still a part of it expecting to see the majestic waterfalls cascading down the mountain sides in Portland, expecting to still have to feed my grandmother’s llamas and donkeys at 5pm, and to help her with dinner afterwards, and to hear the friendly voices of the northwest rather than being shoved around and not cared for at all by Californians in LA.

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But these feelings of attachment, of raga, will soon pass. It is merely “post travel syndrome,” in which I desire to be back on the road catching flights, trains, and buses, trying new foods, meeting new people, and feeling something DIFFERENT. Escaping LA.

Portland, Sequim, Seattle, you were my escape. Thank you for everything. I miss you, and will return to you soon.

But for now, hello LA. I know better than to expect a warm welcome home from you, but I’m ready to trip and fall until I land in my niche again.

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