Rooted in Practice – Page 6

Anatomy Nerd-Out! Understanding your Lumbar Spine.

During our yoga teacher training this past year, one of our teachers-to-be sent us an email asking for clarification about the lower back and forward folding. What exactly is supposed to be happening back there? It’s an interesting subject and Leena has written a delightfully detailed reply. Check it out!

Q: Can you please help me to understand what the safety concern is for not rounding the spine too much in forward folds? Why do yoga teachers often emphasize a lower back curve?

Are we aiming to tilt the pelvis and have the sacrum be the highest point of our body? What comes to my mind is that we want a even rounding on the spine, but why? Does it provide release for the sacrum? and if so why should we care about this?

A: The vertebra of your spine are designed for movement, and most people don’t move their spines nearly enough. Think of the positions you spend most of your time in: sitting, laying down, walking. None of these positions require much spinal movement. On the other hand, think of a dog running full tilt. Four legged animals use their spine to locomote. One reason yoga is so great for the body and particularly the spine and nervous system is that it helps us awaken, move, and lengthen the spine through flexion (forward bending), extension (back bending), rotation (twisting) and lateral movements.Continue reading “Anatomy Nerd-Out! Understanding your Lumbar Spine.”

A Year of Yoga Musings

This post was written by Lisa French, one of our newest QSY teachers. Lisa participated in our 2014 Yoga Teacher Training Program and wrote this reflection at the very end of the program. Our next Yoga Teacher Training program will begin in September 2015. If you’re curious about our program, please come to an info session in March or April. Read on for a glimpse into the process of becoming a yoga teacher, through Lisa’s eyes.

This past weekend was the final weekend of a year long journey into yoga teacher training. It has been everything that I expected and so much more. Here are some of my thoughts recorded over the span of the entire year in no particular order.Continue reading “A Year of Yoga Musings”

Matthew Remski’s Thoughtful Response to Our Inversion Policy

Leena’s recent blog post on our Inversion policy has received a lot of attention from the online yoga community. The post currently has over 7,500 views. Matthew Remski, who is part of QSY’s Yoga Teacher Training faculty and is currently teaching a course on Ayurveda here at the studio, has written a thoughtful response to Leena’s post, citing his own research into the intersection of yoga, injury, pedagogy and medical research.

Matthew’s response was published on Yoga International and had over 40,000 views in the first few days. We really appreciate the research Matthew has been doing in his WAWADIA project, and the greater context he is able to place this discussion in.

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In This Heart (Emma’s Savasana Songs + Free Download)

This post is brought to you by Emma!

Just before Christmas, I spent an afternoon in a friend’s basement recording studio. QSY students have been asking me for years to record the songs that I sing for them in savasana. I recorded five songs, and will be releasing them periodically here on the blog. Each song will be available as a free download, a gift from the studio to each of you. Thank you for being such consistent and caring members of our studio community!

Continue reading “In This Heart (Emma’s Savasana Songs + Free Download)”

Headstand and Shoulderstand at Queen Street Yoga

This post was written by Leena Miller Cressman, director of Queen Street Yoga, about her current thinking and understanding of inversions.

We recently added the following statement to our “Studio Policy and Etiquette” document that we post around the studio and on our website. We are the first yoga studio community that we know of to make a public statement about this. We hope that this adds to important conversations about safety and risk in the wider yoga community.

Inversions at QSY: We choose not to teach full Headstand and full Shoulderstand (where weight is placed on the head and neck) due to safety concerns for the spine. We ask that students do not practice these poses before, after, or during public classes for the safety of all QSY members.

What’s an inversion anyway?

Different styles or traditions of yoga define inversions differently. Most generally, inversions can be any pose where the head is at a lower position than the heart and pelvis. This could include simple and common poses like downward-facing dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana) or standing forward bend (Uttansana), but also arm balancing poses like handstand or forearm stand. The two poses often called “full inversions” in yoga literature are headstand (Salamba Sirsasana) and shoulderstand (Salamba Sarvangasana). Many teachers, such as BKS Iyengar, have gone as far as to say that headstand and shoulderstand are the King and Queen of all yoga poses.

Continue reading “Headstand and Shoulderstand at Queen Street Yoga”

Queen Street Yoga: My First Yoga Love

Long time QSY student Carina Gaspar recently moved to Toronto, and she wrote this humorous post for her own blog about “breaking up” with Queen Street Yoga. We’ve since decided with her that we don’t have to break-up, but she can be in a long distance relationship with the studio. We look forward to seeing her on weekends when she’s back visiting from Toronto!

QSY is the kind of place that stays with you long after you go home. Where you feel pulled to go back, as opposed to having to push yourself to go in the first place. Where you feel a little homesick when you’re away for too long. And it’s because it has heart. And kickass teachers. And big windows, comfy blankets, a studio with character and cuteness, an approach that’s holistic and open and fluid. And, at the moment, a pretty rad sticker collection.

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The Making of a Yoga Mix Tape

Eric recently graduated from our 2014 Yoga Teacher Training. Throughout the program he has been interested in how music can enhance yoga (both home practice and teaching with music in the background). In this post he shares some ideas for creating a stellar yoga practice mix, and shares one of his own mix tapes.

Like so many things in yoga, opinions vary about the wisdom of sequencing a practice to music. I find certain kinds of music to be unbeatable ingredients for laying down a solid foundational layer in many practice spaces and themes. Well-curated songs can support strong, steady and rhythmic breath, plus provide non-verbal cues to keep a yogi’s mind intent through particular poses or tough portions of a sequence. For practicality’s sake, songs are also great organizing devices for what to teach when and for how long.

At the same time, I agree that music can present a distraction. I’ve been using a few basic filtering rules to choose songs that feel capable of overcoming this legit concern:

1. Avoid songs with lyrics – they can ignite inner dialogue and/or other faraway life experiences that can unexpectedly take anyone out of the practice room.

2. Don’t ever accept vanilla new age music or pick something just because it’s Indian.

Continue reading “The Making of a Yoga Mix Tape”

Why I’m Afraid to Become a Yoga Teacher

Tomasz Stasiuk - Do not fear failure — Photo by Tomasz Stasiuk

Our next Yoga Teacher Training Program begins in September 2015. Maybe you are thinking of applying, but some fears or insecurities are nipping at your heels. In this post, Marta (one of our 2014 Yoga Teacher Trainees, who recently graduated from our program) shares about the fear and anxiety that can come along with pursuing something that you love.

Fear. It happens to all of us. I’m not talking about the kind of fear that makes you leap out of bed in the middle of the night and run to the bathroom so the monsters don’t catch you and gobble you up (so far so good on that one). I’m talking about the fear of not being awesome.

I love yoga. I love doing yoga, reading about yoga, watching yoga, talking about yoga… you get the drift. Yoga has enriched my life in ways that I never imagined possible. It has given me tools to help manage my anxiety and depression. It has taught me how to practice happiness. It has challenged me to take a close look at what I think, how I speak, how I behave, and it is still doing so every day. It has taught me how to breathe.

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Yoga Teachers are Real People

Kristian Bjonard — OPhoto by Kristian Bjornard

Our 2014 Yoga Teacher Training wrapped up this past weekend, and our graduates are now fanning out across Kitchener, beginning to make their own individual, unique paths in the world of teaching yoga! We wish them lots of continued learning, and send them off with this sweetly humorous post from Teacher Training graduate Tiffany.

I have to admit that, prior to starting my Yoga Teacher Training, I had pretty stereotypical pre-conceived notions about yoga teachers and the kind of lives that they lead. To paint an exaggerated caricature; picture an always smiling, socially responsible and community involved super-yogi. You know the type…they practice advanced postures every day, teach mind melting sequences and are completely body omniscient. (Not to mention the deliciously slow pace at which they seem to live.) Calm. Accepting. Flexible.

So when I started the teacher training program in January, part of me assumed that I would slowly start to adopt some of these qualities- at least the body omniscience, flexibility and calm. My expectations for my asana practice were set high. (Intensity, frequency, progress, etc.) I figured that I’d make it to the studio twice a week and practice for at least 30 minutes on the days that I couldn’t get there. I’d write a couple of new sequences each week and make time each day to do a bit of reading and homework. Obviously, with all of this practice, my hamstrings would open up and by half way through the program I’d be able to perfectly demo for my students…Continue reading “Yoga Teachers are Real People”

Improving without Perfectionism? How to Get Better and Still Love Yourself

Enough. These few words are enough.

If not these few words, this breath

If not this breath, this sitting here.

This opening to life

we have refused

again and again

until now.

Until now.

– David Whyte

This blog post is by one of our soon-to-be YTT graduates, Adriane.

Still Learning…

I will start by noting that I am writing this blog post, not because I have mastered the art of improving through self-love, but because I am the one who needs to learn this skill most.

If you are anything like me, you have been perplexed by how one improves without a healthy does of perfectionism. You need to be a little bit of a perfectionist when striving to be the best, right? Well actually, as I have contemplated this more I have come to realize that perfectionism is the one thing that really gets in my way. It is the source of my negative self-talk and -defeatism. In her book, The Gifts of Imperfections, Brené Brown says, “perfectionism is a twenty-ton shield that we lug around thinking it will protect us when, in fact, it’s the thing that’s really preventing us from taking flight”.

Continue reading “Improving without Perfectionism? How to Get Better and Still Love Yourself”