Ten Tips for Starting HOT Yoga!

Hello friends,

If you are interested in starting a hot yoga practice, and have questions about what to expect, check out this blog post on my new site: truebodymindsoul.com !

http://truebodymindsoul.com/ten-tips-for-starting-hot-yoga/

Best,

Amber

 

A New Home for TrueBodyMindSoul!!

 

Hello friends and followers!!

I am excited to announce a new home for True Body Mind Soul!

I have purchased the domain, and started a new blog (well, a continuation of this blog!) at truebodymindsoul.com

I hope you will come check out my new site for posts about yoga, meditation, mindfulness, health and happiness.

Here is one post, for example, that you should definitely read : )

http://truebodymindsoul.com/ten-tips-for-starting-hot-yoga/

Hope to see you soon!

Best,

True Soul
(Amber)

365 Challenge Day 315 – GRADUATION!!!

I did it!!  It’s official, I’m a certified yoga teacher!!!!

Wow oh wow oh wow.  Even though I’ve worked so hard over the past six months, I still can’t believe it.

In a way this is fulfilling a lifelong goal.  My mother was a yoga teacher, and my father was a yoga teacher!!  They lived in a yoga ashram when I was born, and the Guru named me!!  So yeah, it kind of feels like destiny.  And my sister has a 2 year old at home, but I am quite sure in a few years she will be a yoga teacher too : )

Here I am celebrating in my backyard on graduation day : )

365 Challenge Day 313 – Core Power

Okay, I’ve decided that Core Power is the “Starbucks” of yoga.  It is fairly good quality, follows a formula, a little overpriced, and lacks the character of the local individually owned studios (as most chains do.)

Teachers choose their own music which is really asking for trouble IMO, it’s just hit or miss!!  Today’s teacher played this bizarre really loud, rhythmic sound that seriously sounded like a fog horn – DURING SAVASANA!!!  Argh.  It was very aggravating.

But I’ve still got four weeks to go on my membership, and I plan on getting my money’s worth!!  Although I do miss my studio, a lot.

365 Challenge Day 305 – Yoga + Music?

At Core Power yoga studios they play music in their classes.  I have to say I’m not a huge fan.  But I think most people like it.  I guess I consider yoga more of a moving meditation than an exercise, and I don’t listen to music when I meditate either…  although I’m sure some people do.

I think the music they played in the class was pretty tasteful.  Some mellow kirtan chanting, which I wasn’t crazy about but it was fairly benign.  Some songs that were probably Deep Forest, and that I actually enjoyed : )

So it was okay, kind of different.  It will be interesting to see how I feel about it after 5 weeks of unlimited classes here.  Will I get so used to it that the silence will be challenging?

But one thing I feel strongly about, they really should have turned it off during Savasana.  IMO.

365 Challenge Day 304 – Core Power

Today I tried out the chain yoga studio called Core Power.  There is one right in my neighborhood that I drive by every week.  I wasn’t really looking to try out a new studio, because I love my studio (and every time I try someplace new I’m disappointed) but they were having a really good deal on a special, 5 weeks of unlimited classes for $75.

I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised!  I didn’t have high expectations.  The teacher was definitely young, and there was something about the way she spoke that sounded very rehearsed, not natural, but everything she said was good stuff.  And I liked the flow.  The heat was a good temperature for me.  It was good!  All their classes are only 60 minutes, and I’m used to 90, so it definitely felt short.  Maybe next time I’ll take two!

365 Challenge Day 283 – Yoga: Teaching

Today in our teacher training we turned a corner.  They broke us up into groups of four, and we had to as a group chose any theme from anything we’ve learned and bring it into our practice teaching.  We were allowed to do anything we wanted and some groups got very creative.  Going up in a group made it much more fun and less stressful (I still get nervous teaching the whole class by myself.)  Some groups talked about the bandhas, some about the elements, some did pranayama.  But it really opened us up into a whole new world of teaching, away from just doing the bare bones instruction.

My group did the four elements and I did Fire.  I spoke to Ujiyii breath, Drishti, Bandhas, and strength.  And it was SO FUN.

365 Challenge Day 274 – Soft Tissue

Over the years of knowing several yoga teachers, I’ve heard the term “fascia” used quite a bit, but never really understood what was meant.  This is still a new area for me, but my teacher said something that really made sense.  We were doing half pigeon pose, and she said that the pose was not meant to get at the “soft tissue”, but that relaxed animal pose could (yes, there is a pose called relaxed animal : )

Here is how she explained it.  If you are in a posture where there is any tension or resistance, then your muscles are working and they kind of tighten up because they are trying to protect the joints.  But if you can set up a posture in which all the muscles are supported and relaxed, then you have a chance to get to the soft tissue.  Okay, I need to do more research about why this is a good thing!

365 Challenge Day 253 – A Journey

In the yoga teacher training my teachers spent quite a bit of time talking about Vedic Astrology. I found it all very interesting, but had some doubts about the relevance for our future as teachers.

The twelve signs are described in a sequence as a story, starting with a seed, that gets planted in the soil, blooms in spring, etc. The first six signs are about the development of the self. And then the next six are about going beyond the self, realizing we are not separate, opening to our oneness with the rest of the Universe.

And then, suddenly, the meaning of it all landed for me. My teacher started describing this same journey in a single yoga class. The students come to class lost in their heads, spinning from their day and their lives. The beginning of class is about getting them to ground into their bodies. Developing and being present in the “self”. Leading all the way to the end of class when in Savasana, the student gets a chance to release the self, and open up to a oneness with the Universe.

Wow!!!

I love the idea of bringing my students on a journey every time they come to class : )

365 Challenge Day 251 – Too much?

Last weekend when had our teacher yoga teacher training, and there was lots of talk and instruction, but there was also a LOT of yoga.  I mean there always is.  We did one 90 minute hot vinyasa on Friday evening.  One 90 minute hot vinyasa on Saturday at 7am.  Then during the training we taught another full class, at least 100 minutes, not heated (we took turns teaching, but for most of it we were the students!)  Then on Sunday we did another two 90 minute classes in a row, heated.  And then, taught each other for another 90 minutes at least, not heated.  I was so wiped out by the end of the weekend!!!  That was at least 9 hours of yoga that weekend, with almost 5 hours on Sunday alone!!

I did do a little bit of yoga this week, I practiced teaching and for a couple of the classes I did the practice along with my friends while I was instructing.  I needed to get the kinks out!!  But I had no desire to go to the studio this week!  And now that it’s Friday again, and time for another teacher training weekend, I’m thinking Oh no!  Not again!!  I mean, I’m looking forward to it, but also, already tired and sore just thinking about it!

Is there such thing as too much yoga???