Meditation for a Relaxed Lifestyle

By Sangeetha Saran, CYT 500

Busy schedules and work and family responsibilities often leave a person stressed out and exhausted. However, it doesn't have to be that way if you know how to handle stress with meditation. This ancient practice has been used for many years to calm the mind and body. If it is used on a daily basis, it allows a person to process all that they are going through in a healthy and positive way.

Learning This Ancient Skill

Each person meditates a little differently, but there are some basic principles for practicing this art. First, sit or lie down in a comfortable position. Then, close your eyes and begin focusing on your breathing instead of your thoughts. If any intrusive thoughts come through, gently push them aside, and return to focusing on your breathing. Some people find it helps to count their breaths as they do this. Or a mantra can be created in the mind, such as a word or phrase that feels peaceful. Repeat the mantra vocally as you exhale each time. Some people simply say the words "inner peace." Just be sure to keep the phrase as positive as possible.

How This Art Affects One's Life

Overtime, meditation changes the way that a person thinks. It allows them to train their mind to let go of negative thinking and intrusive thoughts that once kept them awake at night. In other words, it teaches them how to practice mindfulness and when one knows how to constantly monitor their thought processes to allow only positive thoughts in, this keeps them calm, relaxed, and focused. Tasks that once seemed overwhelming can be done with ease. Depression and anxiety are also reduced.

One More Item on the List

At first, people who are already busy might feel like meditation is just another thing that they have to do because initially it will take more concentration to focus on breathing and calming the mind. But if a person sticks with it, and does it every day at the same time, the time that it takes to go into a meditative state will speed up.

© Copyright – Aura Wellness Center – Publications Division

See our testimonials to find out what our graduates have to say about our selection of online teacher certification courses. Please feel free to share our posts with your friends, colleagues, and favorite social media networks.

Related Resources

Journal of Behavioral Medicine

August 2005, Volume 28, Issue 4, pp 369–384

Annals of Behavioral Medicine

February 2007, Volume 33, Issue 1, pp 11–21

Evidence-based adjunctive treatments

Author:	William T O'Donohue; Nicholas A Cummings
Publisher:	London ; Boston : Academic Press, 2008.

What Could Go Wrong During a Physical Assist in a Yoga Class?

By Amruta Kulkarni, CYT 500

Offering hands-on assists in a yoga class can be an incredible gift. Through the power of touch, you can connect with students and help them connect with themselves. While it is important to focus on the positive aspects of providing touch, understanding where an assist can go wrong is also critical.

Triggering

Physical contact, regardless of the positive intentions of the instructor, can be misconstrued by students. If a student has experienced trauma, then touch may be a trigger. While advanced training targeted toward helping victims of trauma is available, all instructors can and should be trauma-informed.

Creepy Hands

When you offer an adjustment, use your palms rather than your fingertips. Practice assists on someone who is willing to give you feedback. They can tell you if you are using the appropriate amount of pressure. A light touch may seem kind, but it can be misinterpreted by your students.

Be mindful of where you place your hands and how you position your body in relation to your student. If someone walked into your class, would they be alarmed at your physical position?

Frustration

In a society where most of us are corrected on our performance, an assist can feel like a form of criticism. Some students may think that your constant and well-intentioned corrections are signaling that they are not strong yoga practitioners. If a student hasn’t internalized the importance of being kind to themselves, they may become frustrated during assists. With those things in mind, you will need to choose your adjustments and moderate their frequency until you have built a strong rapport with the student.

Transferring Energy

A teacher can convey so much through contact. A sense of balance and calm pervades a space in which an instructor is fully grounded and focused. Teachers are human beings, and it is important to know that we all have days when we feel off-kilter. Maybe you are getting over an illness, or your significant other broke up with you, or a loved one has just been hospitalized. Maybe this is your fifteenth yoga class this week, and you are feeling exhausted. Be mindful of your own state when helping others.

While the slings and arrows of life don’t prohibit you from teaching, you may want to consider how you assist on stressful days. If you are jittery or insecure, your students will notice. If you are distracted by something going on outside of the studio, or you generally don’t like to give physical adjustments, this will come through during the assist. Our goal should always be to support our students’ safety and well-being. Avoid transferring your negative energy to students.

Injury

The potential for injury is inherent in any physical practice, and adjustments that are improperly executed can exacerbate the risks. We offer hands-on adjustments because we want to deepen students’ practices, but if we are not cautious, we can do more harm than good. An instructor should never force a student into a shape.

Understanding the anatomy of postures by using resources like those produced by Leslie Kaminoff or Ray Long can teach you the musculoskeletal underpinnings of the asanas. Anatomical knowledge offers insight into how the adjustment will affect the target area and surrounding muscle groups. Paying attention to your students’ breath and supporting communication during an assist can also prevent injury.

Despite the number of ways that physical assists can go awry, the benefits outweigh the risks. Stay cognizant of the potential pitfalls, be present with your students, and commit to doing some homework in order to mitigate the potential hazards of physical assists.

© Copyright – Aura Wellness Center – Publications Division

See our testimonials to find out what our graduates have to say about our selection of online teacher certification courses.

Please feel free to share our posts with your friends, colleagues, and favorite social media networks.

Teaching Yoga: Thinking Like a Beginner

By Sangeetha Saran

Any teacher comes to a place in our practice where we sometimes forget what it was to be a beginner. The fear, excitement, and anticipation - It was all new, and maybe we weren't sure it was even going to stick. Maybe we experimented for a while, and came back later. The truth is, it doesn't really matter how it happened. We didn't know that we were about to embark on a journey that would forever change us to our cores. We know now that yoga is not simply a physical practice. It's physical, emotional, and spiritual; Yoga is holistic and it can touch so many areas of one's life. Yoga is a lifestyle choice.

Unless we take the time to actively reflect on how that felt, how it felt to be clueless, it can become frustrating to instruct new yoga students who are still figuring it out. I'm sure everyone has had that one student, but really, whom has everything figured out? Don't forget where you started, be gentle, and use your passionate peacefulness to inspire others. Don't forget about why you began this practice, and no, I'm not talking about when your best friend dragged you in to her yoga class. Why did you stay? Why did you come back? What motivated you to make a change?

Change is hard. Change is scary. Changing your whole lifestyle is harder and scarier. Be gentle with new students who are just beginning. They may need a "first" yoga class six times over. You never know how hard it was for someone to begin his or her first session. It may have taken much more courage than you can see. Gentle inspiration will always go farther than irritated intimidation.

Get in the practice of beginning every session in that mindset. Others can always feel your mood and energy in the room. Do you emanate peace, serenity, and inspiration? Or can the others around you sense that you've forgotten why you're here?

"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about." ~ By Wendy Mass 

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How Video Changed Yoga Teacher Education

By Kimaya Singh

Just two decades ago, the only option to become a certified yoga teacher was to spend thousands of dollars in an ashram to study with your guru. You may have traveled thousands of miles for this privilege and have to live in another country for years during this process.

In truth, you would live with fellow students and other yoga lovers for years. There was a full curriculum packed with the art's history, lessons on the body's physiology, etc. The countless hours spent receiving critiques from a guru with years of experience were priceless. Watching them walk through the room and not just seeing and hearing, but feeling how they interacted with all of the students was a great eperience. That was the learning aspect of yoga before the Internet - feeling your way through the movements and the interactions with others. As a student getting that in-the-moment feedback from your teacher was important because we did not have the information highway to exchange ideas, photos, videos, and Email, by broadband.

As with all things, change comes. In a world full of information and solutions, yoga teacher education could never remain in the 20^th century. We have moved beyond the telegraph and exchange ideas in real time with streaming video, diagrams, and rich conversations. Your job and family obligations may not allow for working side by side with your guru for five years. Now, crucial information is just a video away. With the click of a link online or by popping a DVD in, anyone can learn how to work around contraindications or help a student with high blood pressure.

Yoga, like all things has changed because of a vast information exchange. Many yoga instructors have confirmed that in order to stay relevant in the field, they must learn and participate in continuing education and video training has now become a much less expensive alternative for teachers who need to keep their studios open, while they remain current in their training.

This is not traditional, but maybe teacher education should be looked at from a different position. Video training is the perfect solution to some common challenges in the field. Practical exams, essays, and written exams are not always a part of traditional training. In some cases, a fly on the wall could receive a diploma just by paying thousands of dollars on an exotic vacation.

My point being: You cannot play around with online education. Examinations are an accurate measurement of the learning process. On the other hand, you can sleep right through an exotic vacation, hang out with teachers and students by the beach, and go home with a diploma that states you were awake, paying attention, and actually learned something.

To this point, videos can offer major benefits to experienced and future yoga teachers alike. Watching a video allows students to learn when and where it is most convenient to them. It also offers the chance to revisit lessons as many or as few times as needed to perfect, allowing for a more solid foundation and consistency. Seasoned teachers would probably have to agree that continuing their education is always a priority and with a tool like videos, continuing education get a lot simpler.

Either way, online and video learning are here to stay and are exactly what today’s teachers ordered.

© Copyright 2016 – Aura Wellness Center – Publications Division



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