namasteph yoga blog

There is a method to Shiva’s madness. We learned in day two why we were taken through the extremely tough series of arm balancing asanas on day one. She showed us how her yoga sequencing prepares the body through the class to go into the toughest asana at the peak. She doesn’t prefer to use modifications, rather let students stay in one of the preceding postures as part of the flow (I can’t remember how she phrased this, but she feels that it’s better to keep students in the flow than make them do a modification.)

I had a much better time in day two. Even though we had a lot of yoga to do, Shiva was mindful of the exhaustion many of us had from the day before and encouraged us to skip the chatturangas if we needed to. We didn’t have a tough series to do in the afternoon as in day one; we had an interactive lecture instead. Here, she showed us how we might craft a yoga flow, by using living students as “flash cards” lined up in a grid in the center of the room. This was a highly effective teaching method and fantastic.

Note to anyone who isn’t a yoga superstar: It’s a good idea in teacher training to sit towards the back if you want to pace yourself. The first day I was up in front with a lot of advanced people or athletic types who wanted to go balls out on everything. The second day I wised up and sat in back. This was so much better! The people around me were much more moderate in their practice. I could see that a large number of classmates were average and not superstars. In other words, they weren’t jumping into splits off the bat. They rested in child’s pose more. I felt much more at ease.

It was nice that Shiva seemed to back off from the extreme yoga that was done on day one. She even said as she was showing how to support someone in bakasana (crow): “The Dalai Lama does not do bakasana, so it’s OK if you don’t.” But then she’d contradict herself and tell us, if we were balking at harder poses: “Go to Cirque du Soleil and get over it.” She said that what we do in yoga is easy by comparison.

Well, yes…easy if you are in top physical condition and have no limitations. Not only do I have chronic fatigue syndrome (with accompanying blood flow issues that makes it harder for me to keep my muscles oxygenated), I am weak in certain areas. I have upper body strength but only in forward motion (like swimming). Pushing up with straight arms (as in chatturanga) has always been hard for me.

I talked to a yoga teacher from an Iyengar background - I happen to have these funky arms that curve inwards (she called this the carrying line?), where, according to her, my muscles are too short on one end and have to overcompensate on the other. I will also never, ever be able to get my arms fully straight. Thus my discomfort in downward facing dog, push ups, plank, chatturanga, and the like. No wonder. I know I’m not that much of a wuss otherwise.

The Iyengar teacher was so blown away by Shiva’s vinyasa flow style of yoga, since it is so different from what she’s done. Even though she had a 500 hour certification already, she was eager to take Shiva’s entire 200 hour training. She was loving the class.

My thinking, though, is that this training is an advanced “throw you into the deep end” kind of training. Shiva is brilliant, her yogic philosophy fantastic, her knowledge vast. She seems to come the vibe that people are adults, so she won’t coddle you by taking things slow.

I’m still wondering whether this training is not better for more advanced yogis who ideally have other teacher training. I have mixed feelings for myself. On day two I found myself really “getting” her techniques and finally settling in to a basic understanding. The theoretical portion I can handle. However, I find myself, with my particular personality, wanting to dive even deeper into the basics after two days with Shiva. I want to go to a teacher training that bores me with particulars of one pose, physical anatomy, and minor adjustments. Then it would be great to go to Shiva’s training and have that dry theory as a foundation for her flow. To me that’s like learning the multiplication tables before learning Calculus.

Still, I am getting a lot of out this, and I’m considering whether I want to take her other modules.

The end of day two culminated in a trance dance, which was fantastic, but we were all sooo exhausted.

Gotta run, so I can get to the morning session.