intention

My intention over the next seven days is to consciously cultivate an understanding of supporting students through demonstration, instruction, developing awareness, and safe hands-on assists.

practice

Practice daily. Use your daily practice this week to create action. Enjoy the Sacred Preparation FIRE playlist. We are working with the third chakra Manipura. The practice theme for this month is Confidence. See the Virtual Class Studio or Live Class Recordings.

meditation

Practice daily for 3-11 minutes. Use your meditation this week to prepare your will, intention, and actions for growth.

coursework

one: Video record yourself demonstrating asana (use the Core Asana Reference Guide). Watch with the same compassion and kindness you would another student and take notes.
two | three: Begin to develop a clear purpose statement. Use your journal to expand.
four: Practical Application - Hands on Assists

READING

articles: pg. 163-179
books: Continue Reading

journal

one: What does it feel like to have the focus on you? What did you notice? Note something positive. Note a change you would like to make.
two | three: Document your reflections in your journal.
four: What do you think and how do you feel about hands-on assists?

on geneva

one: Share your video and your purpose statement to receive loving feedback, support, and encouragement.

FIRE - Week ONE: Session 2: Demonstration

Discussion
Demonstration provides the opportunity to teach the posture with all its details and fine points. Demonstrating is a way to present the foundations of how to do the pose correctly. You are giving the entire class important information, don’t get lost in your own experience or in creating an experience for your volunteer.

• This is the time to teach the mechanics, the nuts and bolts of the posture. 

• You may want to demonstrate the posture yourself. Another option is to ask for a volunteer. It is helpful to be fluent int he details and prepare ahead of time what you want to bring out. If you choose a volunteer to demonstrate, it’s helpful to let them know ahead of time.

• Let your directions be clear, using the appropriate graduated sequence of instructions. 

• Move step by step through the entire experience of the posture, starting from the establishing position all the way through to the release of the posture and, if appropriate, into a simple counter pose.

• It is possible to give so many details that the students become overwhelmed, confused, or feel like they can’t remember everything. Which details can be taken in visually? Which might not need to be verbalize? Which are important to emphasize?

Demonstrating yourself

• Make eye contact.

• Use verbal and non-verbal instructions.

• This is also a good time to demonstrate any variations to the posture, the use of props, or a partner. 

• You may also want to experiment with demonstrating common misalignments when learning the posture, and then show how to enter into the pose in a more supported way.

• Make sure you can be heard. You can ask the class to move around you as you hold the posture so they can observe from several perspectives.

• Half Shoulderstand, for example, is challenging, although not impossible, to hold while talking. Another posture that can be difficult is Spinal Twist. If you start out facing the class in the twist, you will end up facing away from the group as you revolve, which will make it hard for them to hear you. When you demonstrate Spinal Twist, make sure you start facing at an angle or turn your head once you’ve entered into the posture so that you’re facing your class as you speak. 

• This holds true for any posture. 
  

Demonstrating using a volunteer

• If you choose to have someone else demonstrate the posture, it’s helpful to meet ahead of time to do a practice demonstration. That way you can make sure all the details are understood and clarified. 

• Tell your volunteer to relax, breathe, and follow your directions. 

• After the demonstration, acknowledge your volunteer by having him or her share about the experience or by simply offering your thanks. It’s a big step for some people to allow themselves to be seen in the privacy of their yoga experience. On the other hand, some people can’t wait to jump into the middle of a group and be the center of attention. Either type makes a fine volunteer. 

• It’s to your advantage to choose someone you know will be able to demonstrate the posture with integrity. 

• When you come back to the group, notice the energy in the room. 

• This is an important time for students to acknowledge what they’re experiencing. You may want to guide the class into a meditation, closing the eyes and taking a moment to feel, or you may simply begin to share what you’re observing. 

• Then ask the class to share their experience of the posture. What would you say is the quality of the energy in this posture? What did you notice? What did you feel? If the group is silent, which often happens after a demonstration, you might try calling on the student who has the biggest smile and saying something like, “I'm noticing that you’re smiling. What was your experience?”

• The purpose of eliciting sharing is to create a transition from an introspective space to a more external mode of learning. Sharing at this point in the process of teaching a new posture makes it easy to bring out observations about the posture, answer any questions, and transition to the next step: benefits, precautions, and contraindications.

• Invite students to see you after class if they want or need more instruction.

FIRE - Week THREE: Session 2: Instruction

Discussion
Being a yoga teacher carries with it much joy, as well as much responsibility.
Class provides opportunities for growth and to witness the growth of others. In the role of a student or teacher, we can be caring and also invite ourselves and others to take responsibility for their inner and outer journey. The journey includes:

• Learning how to be with yourself in a way that is fulfilling.

• Learning to be with yourself in a deep way, as the springboard for sharing that depth with others.

• Helping each person to enjoy their body, and accepting each person as they open inner doorways of transformation and health.

Teaching is an art that encompasses many aspects, including:

• knowledge of the techniques and material.

• the ability to communicate.

• being objective, with a nonjudgmental attitude.

• willingness to grow and remain a student.

• permission to not know, to be the beginner, and to be a learner.

• a sense of humor and play.

• dropping expectations to accomplish any goals.

• being willing to tune into your needs and the students’ needs.

• teaching from personal experience.

• sharing with gratitude what you have received from your own yoga teachers 

• cultivating humility.

• developing a way of seeing that allows you to be open and receptive to the moment.

• moving toward being ever-increasingly nonjudgmental of yourself and others so that you may learn from everyone and everything around you.

• letting go of trying to get it right, striving for the end result, or trying to achieve anything, instead allowing yourself to flow with what is happening at any given moment.

• developing an intimate understanding of how to create a yoga experience

FIRE - Week THREE: Session 3: Developing Awareness

Discussion
Awareness of the body

• Yoga facilitates deep contact with and awareness of various dimensions of life, including: physical, emotional, energetic, mental, and spiritual. 

• Focus awareness on the experience of being present. 

Details for the mind

• Our minds serve us in so many ways throughout the day, yet our attention is often focused on what is happening outside of us. 

• To become aware of the body requires that we give the mind specific details as internal points of focus. Otherwise, the mind continues to function in the way in which it has become habitually trained.

• Harness the power of discrimination and observation to enhance body awareness. 

• The mind loves detail. The more detail we provide, the deeper the learning process.
  

Alignment

• To protect the body from injury in the postures and to avoid reinforcing painful imbalances that have already developed within the body, it is necessary to provide a basic map of alignment for each posture. 

  • For example, in Mountain pose (Tadasana), if you have the students close their eyes and bring their feet parallel to each other without looking, many people will not come close to actual parallel alignment. They may feel as if their feet are aligned, but the habitual imbalances have become so “normal” that actual balance feels awkward. When the students open their eyes and look at their feet, they can often bring their feet more closely into alignment. Yet for some, alignment can still be difficult to achieve. Pointing this out helps highlight the importance of becoming aware of the body through the details of alignment.

Isolation of body parts

• When they are lying on the floor, many students are unaware that one foot and leg is often more turned out than the other, that one shoulder is heavier on the ground than the other, or that the head is turned more to one direction than the other. 

• By drawing attention throughout the class to various body parts, the teacher helps students begin to train their own awareness and watch for the subtleties that happen throughout the body

Before-after comparisons

• Having students observe how they feel before doing a specific movement, watch how they feel during the movement, and then observe the difference in how they feel after completing the movement gives them an opportunity to observe the effect and benefit of each part of their experience.

Right-left comparisons

• Performing a posture on one side of the body and then pausing to observe the different sensations between the two sides of the body allows the effects to register deeply within the observing mind.

Sensations

• It is helpful to suggest various possible sensations that students might feel during their practice

  • For example, after they stretch the left arm above the head and slowly lower it back down to the side, ask them to notice what is happening in the entire length of the arm, from the tips of the fingers to the crest of the shoulder. Do they notice any sensations? Does this arm feel warmer or cooler than the other arm? Does this arm feel longer, or heavier, or lighter than before? Do they feel energy streaming through the arm?
    

Exaggerating the extremes

• The more vivid the sensation you emphasize, the easier it is for the mind to observe the effect. Combining movement with deep breathing on one side of the body before going to the opposite side increases the effect by exaggerating the difference between the two sides. 

• Use an image to emphasize the direction or intention behind a movement. 

Moving in non-habitual ways

• We all have ways in which we move that are habitual. 

  • One of the most dramatic ways this shows up is in how we interlace our fingers.

  • Typically, one way of doing it will feel “right” and the other “wrong,” or unnatural.

• Encouraging your students to perform the opposite of what they do automatically or habitually creates an opportunity for more awareness. 

  • Another way this may manifest is in the order in which we do things. 

  • For instance, always doing a posture on the right side first. Again, use a shift from autopilot to bring greater awareness to the present. Doing so helps to rein in the mind.

Breath awareness/Reversing the breathing pattern

• Basic breathing patterns can facilitate certain movements. 

  • For example, we usually exhale as we fold forward or twist, and inhale as we extend or return to center. Reversing this pattern for short periods of time creates an opportunity to have a different experience which engages the mind.

Pause/Allow

• Taking a moment to stop and observe creates space for awareness and integration to occur. When we’re constantly moving, we’re less likely to notice subtle changes in how we feel.

Micromovements

• Moving in small ways, or refining a pose after entering into it or into movement creates sensation and can allow for greater openings. 
  

Repetitive movement

• Repeating a movement several times can progressively deepen the experience.

Functional imagery

• Giving students a mental picture on which to focus can sometimes create the somatic ability to perform a new movement. 

  • An example:  imagine reaching over a giant beach ball when doing Half Moon.
    

Sustaining the pose

• Sustaining a posture is one of the best ways to create sensation in the body and to notice how those sensations are constantly changing.

Developmental movement

• Giving detailed instructions for entering a posture from the ground up allows a feeling of stability, safety, and structure which can give students more awareness of where they are in space.

Assists

• Using verbal or hands-on assists gives students more awareness in their postures. 

Awareness of support

Creating variety in the learning experience creates engagement and to keep students' awareness fresh.  Introducing any of the following elements can help break up the long stretches of a learning experience that can otherwise fall into a monotonous, repetitive pattern that loses its impact. There is more to Yoga than learning postures.

Partners 

• Having students work with each other helps to create an atmosphere of caring, personal contact, and, ultimately, a deeper experience. 

• Students learn to interact with themselves in new, expanded ways. Creating opportunities for them to interact with each other, deepens their own sensitivity to themselves while opening up to a deeper contact with others. 

• Partner work can be used to create relaxation and greater depth in a posture, bring awareness to parts of the body used in certain postures, and facilitate greater breath awareness, among many other benefits.

  
  

Creating Discomfort or Confrontation

• Placing students together for partner experiences is an art in itself. We want to enhance comfort and awareness, not put someone on edge. There will almost always be an initial awkward period of breaking the ice. Inviting students to say hello, share names and shake hands can help. 
  

Props

• It’s important to be familiar with the use of props: mats, blocks, yoga straps, blankets, bolsters, cushions, walls/mirrors, chairs, tennis balls - can all be used to meet students’ needs in poses.

• Props provide scaffolding. 

• While the rest of the class is performing the guided movement, some individuals may need to support a knee by doubling up their mat, place their elbows on a folded blanket instead of the floor, use a chair or the wall to maintain their balance, or use any other prop that would be helpful. 

• Teaching our students to use props and to create ways of supporting themselves communicates how important it is to be aware of the body’s needs as well as care for safety and support.

• No two bodies are alike, and each body has its own way of strengthening and letting go. 

• Props help students find the level they can fully immerse in the experience. 

Awareness of the self

• The ultimate intention of everything we do in a class is to create space for students to make deep contact with the self. The real yoga is what happens inside each person. 

• Language you use is important. Utilize experiential language to facilitate deeper opening.

• The silent space that you allow between postures creates an opening for students to register the inner effects of what they’re doing.

• Through practice we learn that true yoga can only be experienced from within. 

• By leading people in yogic inquiries and explorations, you create the possibility for each person to go within and discover their own inner experience -  the true yoga teacher.

Encourage sounds

• The majority of us have learned to stifle and inhibit bodily sounds. It is considered rude and impolite to yawn during a serious conversation with a friend. 

• When you were a baby, learning how to move and exploring - you learned how to make sounds. You made the movements and sounds that felt good to you. In class, we can return to that primal learning process as adults, releasing sounds that accompany movements. Sighing, laughing, moaning, groaning, sighing, laughing, crying stimulates the learning center in your brain that is connected with movement. 

• When we start to enter the world of the body, expressing our bodily sounds helps us feel at home in the experience. Letting students know this, and making sounds yourself, helps to release the inhibitions of prior conditioning, and also helps to make the experiences more enjoyable.
  

Acknowledging pleasure and pain

• Many of us have the un/subconscious belief that it’s not okay to feel good. Sometimes we think that doing something good for our body, necessitates stress in the form of hard work, tension, even pain, i.e. “No pain, no gain.” Creating body awareness emphasizes acknowledging the pleasurable sensations that arise from doing the simplest, most effortless movements.

• By encouraging students to make sounds in order to enjoy each stretch and to expand into their bodies, you guide them into what can be the most enlightening part of the learning experience: that having a body and being in a body feels good! Along the way, what is not open, loose, flexible, or expansive often reveals itself as pain. 

• Acknowledging that there is sensation along the path of discovering pleasurable sensation is also important. Encourage our students to proceed slowly, to breathe into each sensation, to use proper alignment when it makes a difference in how the movement is done, and, above all, to remain aware and in contact with the messages their bodies are sending them along the way. Yoga is a learning process, an inquiry, an exploration. Part of the inquiry is about discriminating between the discomfort that comes from opening and the pain that comes from straining.

• Another form of inquiry your students may experience is emotional or psychological. Our bodies are a walking repository of our past experiences. Acknowledges that tension in the body is sometimes the result of undigested/unprocessed experiences. Past experiences that we have not fully integrated, be they pleasurable or painful, may be stored in the body's muscle memory. As we start using areas of the body that are not accustomed to moving, past experiences often become activated as laughter, tears, and sensitivity.

FIRE - Week THREE: Session 4: Safe Assists

Discussion
Before a discussion on physical assists within a yoga class, there needs to be a conversation about consent. No matter the intention, consent must be explicit. So that there is no confusion, never touch anyone without their consent.

This applies to the yoga space and to life in general. Although we can become quite comfortable with our students and want to use our hands to adjust, if someone has not given their consent to touch them, do not touch them. This can be clarified at the beginning of class by simply asking or with a prop - like a permission to touch card. This can also be clarified simply before you touch within class.

Is it ok if I ..
May I please ..
Would it be ok if ..

Once you receive verbal consent, assists provide a wonderful opportunity to support your students, facilitate atunement to their bodies’ wisdom, and affirm their efforts. You are not there to “correct” them or show them the “right” way to do or be in the pose. Instead, you support them in inquiry and exploration into their own body, how it works, and how it feels.

Be aware of the tendency to assist in a habitual way. Each student has unique needs and may require different types of assists for different reasons. Allow your awareness to be open, without expectations that you should know how to assist them or that they should be able to adjust to what you tell them to do. Create an environment of relaxed awareness, allowing intuition to emerge spontaneously.

Take a moment to observe a student before assisting. Look at the whole person: face, breath, balance, and alignment. What will aid them best? Explore the posture with them. Suggest modifications or variations that would support them. Learn from them.

As you explore the various techniques of assisting, remember to move slowly. Avoid assisting students when they are in the midst of a transitional movement, a prana response, or in meditation in motion. Be aware of limitations, contemplating whether an assist/touch would truly enhance their current experience. Be mindful during balancing postures, as sporadic movements can disturb a student’s gaze point and balance.

Make your presence known.

• It is important to make your presence known as you approach students to assist them so that they are not startled. This is especially true if they are deep into their experience and have their eyes closed. Explore deepening your breath or rub your palms together as you approach their space.

What to say

• Observe the body for areas that seem tight and blocked. 

• You can often touch a student without saying a word, but most of the time it is necessary to give verbal suggestions. 

• Let your suggestions be simple and concise, communicating clearly how they should respond to your assist, i.e., “Press into my touch” or “Breathe with me.” 

• You may also ask, “Where do you feel discomfort?” or “Let me know if you need more or less pressure.”

• Dialogue with them to make sure they are comfortable; ex: “Do you feel a difference?” 

• Affirm after an adjustment to give positive reinforcement: “That’s it,” “There,” or “Yes.”

What are you communicating?

• Assisting by touch is a powerful way to learn. 

• It is a way to speak directly to the body, and it resonates through the skin, muscles, and bones.

• It communicates alignment, deeper physical awareness, and more focused concentration. 

• Assists also convey a sense of caring and reassurance. 

• They have a way of instilling confidence and a feeling of being attended to. 

• Giving assists does not need to be reserved for only the students who look as though they need it. Everyone has the potential to stretch, expand, or relax deeper into the posture. Advanced students especially need to be challenged. Your touch can help bring them into a greater outer attentiveness and inner awareness while they receive your attention and support.

• Attempt to offer press point, energetic, and hands-on assists at least once, to every student during the class.

Types Of Safe Assists

Verbal

• Observing your students in class gives you the necessary information to offer effective verbal assists. When students are confused about a direction, or needing clarity in a certain area of movement, offer a different verbal instruction to them personally or to the whole class, ensuring that everyone understands the basic instruction.

Modeling 

• Stand in front of or alongside students and demonstrate what to do, what not to do, or both.

Energetic

• These assists trace and follow the lines of energy in the body, 

Press point

• These assists ensure safety, as the student initiates all movement and learns from their own body. 

Feel-good

• These assists release tension by bringing the students focus, awareness, and breath to a particular part of the body. 

• Appropriate touch, like a soft shoulder rub in Child’s pose, a slight rock of lumbar after Cobra, or a squeeze of the feet in Corpse, can communicate care and nurturance and help students integrate the benefits of the posture more fully.

Manipulative

• These assists require the greatest degree of experience and expertise in order to ensure safety.

• Moving, pulling, or pressing a student further in a posture can be of great benefit, allowing them to move into places they would not be able to get to without assistance. 

• When done with a lack of skill and consciousness, a manipulative assist can lead to injury. 

• One of the best ways to gain experience in manipulative assists is during one-on-one sessions with fellow teachers or private clients. 

Explore the following steps in offering a manipulative assist to your students:

• Enter their space slowly and consciously.

• Get their permission.

• Move carefully and remember to assist with the rhythm of their breath.

• Communicate clearly about their limits.

• Notice the signs of reaching an appropriate edge.

• Back off the assist immediately if you notice that the student is holding their breath or shows any sign of pain or discomfort.

• Release the assist as mindfully as you moved into it.

• Leave their space slowly and consciously.

Props

• The use of props always involves one or more of the above ways of assisting. 

• Utilize a verbal assist or model the use of props for greatest effectiveness. 

• Remember to place props near students and help them inquire how to best feel supported by the particular item they are using. 

• Once the prop is supporting the student, energetic or manipulative assists are easier to perform and can deepen the student's experience.

Press Points 

Awareness Through Alignment

• Press points are both internal directions of focus and specific external structural locations that aid in moving into postures and attuning to the body. 

• Because the press points are simple, the mind can relax and let go of any need to have the posture be a certain way. With the mind focused on the press points, the body can be free to express postures

• Press points and posture details assure proper alignment and allow for safety and support.

Categories of press points

• Alignment: 

  • elongates the body

  • unfolds the body’s natural flexibility.

• Grounding:

  • structural areas of foundation 

• Counter-balance tightness:

  • establishes sound alignment by inviting the tight muscles to relax and lengthen,  refining body awareness to next level 

• Internal point of focus and direction: 

  • creates dynamic engagement, i.e., the use of core lift or pressing into lines of energy.

ASIS bones
The ASIS (Anterior Superior Iliac Spine) bones are the front-facing points of the ilium, or pelvic bowl. Pressing into these points helps keep the gluteus folds firm, which, in combination with core stabilization, supports the entire body - especially the lower back - during backbends.

Chest points
The chest points are the two points in the soft muscle tissue of the chest, approximately two inches below the clavicles (collarbones). To find these points, extend your arms out to the side at shoulder height, with the palms facing down. Keep your arms at shoulder height and bend your elbows, bring your thumbs toward you parallel to the ground. The chest points are where the thumbs touch the chest. This will vary slightly with each individual. In general, they are in line with the earlobes. Pressing into the chest points helps lift the sternum, allowing the lungs to expand and fill more fully with breath. The chest points also help keep the spine erect, the torso engaged, and the shoulder blades in their proper place. To assist, use your thumbs with your fingers raised up. Come down from the shoulders. It takes a little more sensitivity to touch the chest points, especially with women, so proceed with extra awareness.

Crown of the head
The crown of the head is the top center of the skull, the fontanel. The crown presses up, away from the shoulders and the entire spine lengthens. The back of the neck elongates while the chin remains parallel to the ground. To assist, place your entire palm on the crown and press firmly. Continue to press with pressure equal to the pressure with which the student is reaching up. If the chin lifts, remind the student to lengthen the back of the neck. A manipulative alternative is to place your fingertips under the occipital ridge and actually lift it upward.

Elbow
Located on the inside of the elbow joint. It helps keep the arms tucked in toward the body, the back lengthened, and the shoulder blades in alignment.

Fingertips
Useful for producing a lengthening in the arms, as in Warrior.

Iliac crest
The iliac crest is located on the side of the pelvic bowl and can be felt just at the base of the waist. Pressing into this point can help the student lengthen out of the waist in side-bending postures.

Inside of or back on the  knees
Effective for helping people bring their knees closer together, as in Bridge, or deeper, as in a Lunge

Greater trochanter
The greater trochanter is the point at the top of the thigh where the femur (thighbone) connects into the pelvis. Pressing into the greater trochanter provides a side stretch and helps balance the work being done in the muscle groups on the opposite side. Ex: in Half Moon, pressing into the right trochanter allows the torso to bend deeper to the left side. 

Pelvic triangle
Located at the base of the torso where the two sides of the pelvic bowl meet in front, the pubic bone (pubic symphysis) is a verbal press point only. Use the ASIS bones to give a line of direction -  press the heels of your palms just below the ASIS, with your fingertips pointing outward.

Sitting bones
The sitting bones or “sitz” bones are the two bones in the buttocks that we sit on, technically called the ischial tuberosities. Used primarily in seated postures where the bones are pressed down into the ground to assist in elongating the spine, these bones activate the body against gravity.

Soles of the feet
Verbal press points help with alignment and balance. When the soles of the feet are pressing toward the floor, the natural result is an elongation throughout the rest of the body. This press point creates a feeling of connection, grounding, stability, and balance.

Sternum
The sternum is located in the center of the chest, about three inches below the throat. Pressing into the sternum lifts the chest, allowing the lungs to expand and fill more fully with breath. The sternum also helps keep the spine erect, the torso engaged, and the shoulder blades in their proper place. It takes a little more sensitivity to touch the sternum, so be extra aware.

Tailbone
The tailbone,  technically called the coccyx,  is the small bone on the end of the sacrum, at the base of the spine. “Lifting” the tailbone acts like a lever that tilts the torso forward, elongating the spine You will also use the tailbone as one of the bony landmarks to distinguish the pelvic tilt. A verbal press point only.

Toes and heels
Press into the toes and/or heels to create length and lift.

Wing points of the scapulae
The wing points are located on the lower inside edges (closest to the spine) of the scapulae. Use in rotating the spine, as in Spinal Twist. If you press one of the wing points, the torso will rotate in that direction.

Friday 11:30am - 1:00pm
Date: 11.22.24 
WEEK 4

Prep
Be prepared to answer to the following: (in 2-3 min) 
Taking time to reflect, to notice what has shifted can build your intuitive muscle. Therefore, what motivated you to do this teacher training? What is going to motivate you to keep going?

Call Flow 
11:30 - 11:45am Openings: Settle, Reach out, Expectations and Organization, A good class, Limitations and Boundaries, Ikigai
11:45 - 12:15pm Talk Topics: Doubt + Faith, Teaching what you need, Teaching as art, what’s your's? (did not get to: Postural details, Creating a Sequence, How to Teach, Anaglyphs/Design)
12:15 12:45 pm Forum What is going to motivate you to keep going?
Give + Receive feedback. 
12:45 - 1pm Questions and Closing

Welcome to our fourth week of leadership.
We take a break next week and then we we move into air and expand into meta Anatomy in Geneva I asked you to prepare in two minutes or less the answers to the following questions

Taking time to reflect and to notice what has shifted can build your intuitive muscle. Therefore, what motivated you to do this teacher training? What is going to motivate you to keep going?

We're not going to do a breakout session. You're going to share then reflect back.

Openings
All right so first things first go ahead and find a comfortable seat be feel the Earth element in your body and your [Music] bones allow yourself to settle and stabilize for a moment and just kind of Wiggle around so your hips feel comfortable there's some space for your kidneys and then I'd like for you to gently bring your attention you can close your eyes now bring your attention to your solar plexus and the actual element of fire in your body and you can place your hands on your body or you can just visualize and then I'd like us to take just three deep breaths here take a moment to feel warmth to feel a sense of purpose a sense of yourself your core and not only the way you are in the world your conscious self but just bring your attention gently if you're willing if you're able if it feels appropriate just bring your attention a little bit more inward moving through the layer of experience to the very depth and allow yourself to gently drop into the soul right the soul the core your heart however you describe it the very center of yourself the most essential Elemental Essence allow yourself to rest your attention there for three more breaths, also notice the energy that you're holding do you feel Cal do you feel choppy then just gently blink open your eyes. Alright welcome.

Reach out - its challenging
You can always reach out you can reach out to the whole group you can reach out to me specifically we're all here together to support each other and to really enjoy this process which is really challenging at times and we're in the fire it's extra challenging right now.

I'm throwing a lot at you. I'm asking you to process a lot of information which is a lot for that third chakra to process as well as the liver. The liver has to process all of this information not only like what we go through on a daily basis but this information I'm feeding to you and and it can be difficult to assimilate it to digest it and our vision can get cloudy as a result so today over the course of the next 24 hours or so um see if you can kind of get yourself in the mindset of what you want to take away.  So think about ways in which you could summarize what you've learned and what has come up for you during this week in particular and last week as well.

Let's talk for a moment about expectations and organization
A good curriculum is always evolving.  This is a constant work in progress so I would like to take a moment to recap this week.

So this week and last week - the objectives of last week were to look at different ways of teaching. We looked at Hatha and Vinyasa. We looked at Yin and restorative. We took a tiny little look at Katona.
Some of the topics covered were demonstration ,instruction, developing awareness - all designed to develop a broad perspective on how to support individual bodies while teaching yoga. 

We talked about what teaching yoga is, the acts of taking care of ourselves as teachers and taking care of our students.  We had a conversation about consent. Then this week was really about preparing yourself for teaching through learning about a teaching methodology. Which will be the big task of tomorrow's clinic. And, creating a safe and sacred Space for all the people that come into your class. 

We also prepared for teaching by creating a complete class so learning about the elements and the navigation, the direction you want to take your students. Then you also became familiar with the basic principles of designing, also known as sequencing a class. 

I like the word design because it gives room for possibility. I don't want it to be super scripted, because we're working with humans and we're working in a spontaneous environment. 

This week you learned a little bit about this art of sequencing a basic framework as well as a palate. So how do you want to paint your class. What elements do you want to bring into your class that make it different or interesting or even just mundane - no big deal, where just going to move kind of practice. 

Tomorrow you continue to prepare for teaching by designing a class with a step by step design framework. 

Review manual and workbook … 

I want you to feel free to like process .. because there's probably somebody else in the group that might be feeling similar it gives us all an opportunity to grow from some of these um more sticky parts. 

You learned about creating safe and sacred space and we do this through greeting. We do this through setting up the vibe or the environment and the actual setup of the class. We do this through creating psychological safety; interactions with not only your students but with the group. You learned about creating a complete class giving it a beginning a middle and an end.  Some of the column common elements of a class>

You know a lot of this has been about refining your purpose. Putting together a really basic framework and then using this designed format to refine your class. One of the reasons why we use a design format is so that you don't have to recreate the wheel every time. You can refine by doing the same things again and again and again. The refinement will naturally happen over time. 

I'd like to just kind of talk makes a yoga class great 
A good class starts with grounding a good progression, good music does make a difference, good cues and pacing and I love a good quote for reflective reading.

Note the word good. Not great, not excellent, not amazing, not incredible, but just good.

When it's not robotic like there's a conversation happening between the teacher and the students whether funny or poignant or thoughtful, it's not just about the breathing and the poses it's about the relationship between the people and the practice. 

I wholeheartedly agree with that statement that a class and a teacher needs to reflect the personality of the teacher from welcoming students to helping them attain their poses in the correct form and to guide the class with what the students need. 

I think that being our authentic selves is the most we can offer. And to hold a safe space for students to practice gaining skills and confidence. I think that each of you will bring something unique to the table with your own special gifts and talents.

So when you're planning your classes, what are the things that make a yoga class great for You.  What do you love about yoga? That can really inform your class designs and really inform like the unseen intangibles of what makes a good class. 

You've all experienced a good class. 

Are you still with me?

Limitations and  boundaries can create potency. 
You may feel limited right now. Like this curriculum, you are always evolving. You are a constant work and progress.
You neither have to know everything or teach everything. 

What a relief right? 

It doesn't have to be perfect.  In fact, don't even aim for perfection.
This might be unpopular, but it doesn't even need to be good. Only good enough. Alright, so keep that as the bare minimum.  Good enough. 
Meaning: safe, effective, and it needs to make sense. 

So you're not going from backbend to whatever.  

It makes sense. it follows a common progression that is in everything in nature.  

Everything that we do starts off, it  peaks, and it flows. 
Sometimes it goes like this and sometimes it goes like this - somewhere in between is usually where we find ourselves. So let yourself off the hook. You are going to evolve.  We still have four more months of this to go.  So please please please don't feel terribly limited. 

You're going to expand. I promise. You'll expand in ways that you can't know, that I can't know.

One thing I really want to make clear to all of you. You count. We need you.  The world needs us. The world needs us to do our personal work. The world needs us to be better humans.  

I don't know but Humanity feels like it's tanking sometimes.  We have all of these crazy elements of beauty and joy and love and connection and yet we still have war. We still have destruction and we're horrible to our planet.  So like we need to be doing this stuff.  This work means something to people. 

We need you!

So don't think that you don't have anything to offer because you do. Specifically you. 

Because you are unique and there is someone most likely several some ones that want and need exactly what you have to give, that is natural to you. 

Somebody wants what you're already giving out all the time. 

ikigai
I watched the Blue Zone documentary on Netflix
Ikigai is one of the key indicators of longevity. it combines what you do with what you need with what other people also need. The way it was described in the documentary is that ikigai is a kind of mission. It's a sense of purpose that affects spiritual health and therefore longevity.  People with ikigai are imbued with a constant sense of purpose, where they know their values and that makes day-to-day decisions very easy because they know their core. 

So the work that you do to know yourself, to know your core, to know your essence, to know that this here is just a conscious outward expression that you were born with. 

You can manipulate with like a curling iron or you can put clothes or whatever but inside is your core. Inside is your essence, inside is your soul that's what I want you to find and then bring that forth when you're teaching yoga. I also want that to be what you do every day.  

What are you doing every day that is from your core? And could you release the things that aren't truly aligned with your authenticity. 

Let me clarify, that doesn't mean leave your family right or leave your relationship or change your jobs unless that's what is authentically true for you to do. You don't have to change anything about your life to keep working towards discovering and bringing forth that Essence. 

It'll make you live longer and it'll make you happy and it'll make you vital until the day that you die. What a great way to live a life right, with purpose.

Franz Kafta said happiness (meaning) is from having a purpose. 

Doubt and Faith
Everything you have done so far has gotten you here.
Place faith in the Source itself - the innermost Self
Connection initiates within.
Internal intimacy.
Learn to Trust yourself. Develop your trust muscles. 

Teaching what you need
Time and time again I have heard teachers teaching what they really need. Time and time again and again, this also serves students in profound ways. Often this isn't necessarily intentional, but I believe most teachers are conscious of this. There is an intimacy and vulnerability to this and the intimacy resonates with the students that are drawn to the teacher or style of yoga. So, it is ok to teach what you need to learn. It is ok to teach what you are learning. Wisdom comes from experience. Not just repetitive, go through the motions practice, but true experience. Time and time again, students tell me that they are amazed that the words I said were exactly what they needed to hear and "how did you know!" My classes touch people in profound ways because the practice and all that it represents to me has touched me in profound ways. I've had the profound good fortune of being in the presence of teachers who are deeply invested in the teachings of yoga and live with integrity and alignment with these teachings as they understand them. I have always been a bold yoga student - I want to learn and I am always looking beyond the obvious. There is something truly magical .. it is magic .. a combination of intention, will and directed effort. I am casting spells and witnessing the three fold return time and time again. 

Teaching as Art
Teaching as Art is personal to me. Teaching is my art, the yoga practice/class experience is my medium. It is where I create in partnership with the Divine. For me, so much of the process is mysterious. I do not know what is going to happen. However, I am disciplined about creating the space consistently. I create the container, I cast the circle - the spells I create have power, but that power is not mine and I work in awe of how the Divine works in the mind, body, spirit and life of my yoga students - or more accurately, those who share their practice time and space with me. I call you students, but really I’m delighted to share time and space with you in this way. So for me, I look at teaching as art. What’s yours? Teaching as .. connection … Teaching as .. respect. Teaching as … support to get started … 

Forum: Taking time to reflect, to notice what has shifted can build your intuitive muscle. Therefore, what motivated you to do this teacher training? What is going to motivate you to keep going?

Clinic: Studio 3. YTT only Fire practice 9am followed by the clinic. See Geneva for details

*Please note that there is no video recording for the clinic.

 Date: 11.23.24 4th Saturday - Week 3/4

Class: 9-10am Fire Practice with Light of the Heart Kriya
Clinic: 10:30am-1pm Class Design
Learn to deliver deep classes with substance sustainably. We use a proven creative process and refined methodology to create and deliver talking points, effective cueing, accessible alignment, and space to each class, from private to group sessions.

Plan
9-10am Class: Fire Practice with Light of the Heart Kriya YTT only
break
10:15am-1pm Class Design Clinic
10:15 - 10:30am (15 min) Check in 
10:30 - 11:00am (15 min) What goes into a class see p. 133-136 in manual
11:00 - 11:15am (15 min) Palette see p. 136 in manual
11:15 - 11:30am (15 min) Time suggestions see p. 137 in manual
break
11:45am -12:15pm (30 min) Class Design step x step see p. 138-139 in manual
open

10:30 - 11:00am (15 min) What goes into a class see p. 133-136 in manual

• Opening

• Intro: name, name of class, how long it is, what style it is

• Sankalpa

• Warm ups

• Waves 1 - 3: may include so or all of these categories

• Standing 

• Standing balancing 

• Laterals

• Core

• Back bends

• Forward folds

• Twists

• Inversions

• Restorative poses

• It needs to make sense and you can do this by intelligently working with  Postural Categories. Start to pay attention to how you feel when you are doing postural categories and how they leverage one another for a specific goal.

• Forward folds and Twists 

• Laterals and Backbends

• Inversions 

• Extensions: flattening the back to drive energy up

• Savasana
  

11:00 - 11:15am (15 min) Palette see p. 136 in manual

• Progression: one pose feeds the next in an intelligent way. The class progresses in alignment and purpose from simple to more complex. Preparing the body, mind, spirit by foreshadowing through the elements I just noted. Through this we create a class that is:

• Effective: What makes a class effective? 

• Beautiful: What would make a class beautiful? ….. A beautiful class is satisfying

• Integrated: humans are complex and unpredictable - an integrated class would be one that accounts for this. 

11:15 - 11:30am (15 min) Time suggestions see p. 137 in manual

• We have 7 waves here because there are 7 (more or less) waves within a set in Nature.

The first part: Opening the Class
10 min

• Wave 1 

• Opening (3 to 5 min)

• Intro 

• Sankalapa

• Warm ups (5-10min)

The second part: Body of the Class
10 min

• Wave 2

• Namakars

• Wave 3

• core

10 min

• Wave 4

• All the those things what we just spoke about with the postural categories

Somewhere in here is your peak pose. 

10-15 min

• Wave 5 

• Restoratives

• Wave 6

• Inversions

Last part: Completing and Closing the Class

15 min

• Wave 7 

• Savasana

• Closing 

Another way to see this is by visual representation (draw a bell curve)
Take people up and bring them back down.

When I’m teaching YTT is not me bringing you up to big profound moment every Saturday! It’s a little flat because it's me sharing knowledge, through various mediums. Then, it's you taking it home to integrate and you having an aha moment, which is the peak, and you bring it back to share with your cohorts.

Break

11:45am -12:15pm (30 min) Step-By-Step Creative Process To Design Your Own Authentic Sequence aka Class Design see p. 138-139 in manual

Aim, Transformation, Peak Pose
Consider the journey you want to take your students on. What is the aim? What is the goal? What is the transformation that will occur during your time together? 

Consider the highest point of activity. This is particularly important for vinyasa sequences.
From the peak pose establish the stages and related asanas to the peak pose.
Decide which namaskar will compliment the peak pose. 

What asanas will intelligently unfold and offer an experience leading to a peak? What needs to be opened/strengthened?

Sankalpa
Write three to five sentences, in the form of a sankalpa, which can be used at the opening of your class to clearly communicate the mood or intention of the sequence.

This is how you set the mood and express your theme. This is how you open your class and define your task in class .. It is affirmational. It is inspirational. But its (3-5 sentences) so its clear. 

Watch Elena Brower - she’s a master at this. https://www.glo.com/class/12827?adjust_referrer=adjust_reftag%3DcsUw4AJe2uhvd

This is what you will study before you go into the class. It dials in your mind. The mind always wants to know .. speak it from your heart.

Anatomical Focus
Define the anatomical focus in a short bulleted list. This becomes the alignment you cue in every pose. Use the same cue in different ways. That way you can take people into a deeper experience without saying it over and over again - the alternative ways of saying the same thing helps you to direct without a lot of extra words.

Three-Wave Grid
Map out the progression of poses over a three-wave grid that warms you up, takes you to the peak pose, and winds you down for savasana. Create a sequence that makes sense. 

60 min - to manage your time. Wave 1 warm up. Wave 2 to your peak, your highest point of your activity. Wave 3 to wind down. This is not law. There are no rules, other than common sense.

Talking Points
Develop your theme by writing down bite-sized talking points that can be cued sporadically to deepen the emotional connection of the poses. Use these to drive in the sankalpa. They are a navigational way to keep coming back to the intention, a thread you wave through the experience/class. This is what your students will remember and hopefully use in their lives.