My last post about honesty in yoga credentialing has gone a bit viral. It was natural then, to discuss it in last Wednesday’s post-Yoga Anatomy, on camera Q&A.
What emerged was a rather interesting exploration of my views on how we train people, and what it takes to really absorb the kinds of things we teach in yoga trainings.
Enjoy! If you’d like to join the discussion, please leave a comment.
I’m often asked whether my workshops or trainings qualify for continuing education credit with Yoga Alliance, International Association of Yoga Therapists or other registries and/or accrediting bodies. I always tell event attendees that they can put whatever they like in front of me and I’ll happily sign it, notwithstanding the fact that my less-than-favorable views on certification and licensing are well-documented.
To simplify this process in the future, I’ve decided to provide free to the public as a downloadable PDF an official-looking certificate of attendance. Please feel free to print one and bring it with you to your next event with me, and I’ll autograph it.
Please note the fine print referenced by the prominent asterisk:
“This certifies that the person named above showed up for [some/most/all] of the indicated session and appeared to be awake, though there’s no way for me to know whether they were listening or whether they [absorbed/understood] what I said – let alone how effectively they will choose to communicate it. Additionally, there is no way for me determine the teaching ability or qualities of the person named above, regardless of how much I may have [liked/tolerated] [him/her/them].
The recipient of this document bears full responsibility for demonstrating to the public the quality and efficacy of their skills, and communicating honestly the true extent of their training.”
I just received this notice from Chinnamasta about the passing of her beloved, Mukunda Stiles.
Mukunda and I worked together on the board of Unity in Yoga, and kept in touch over the years. I knew he had been quite ill recently, but had thought he made a recovery when I saw he was teaching again.
He will be missed.
If you have any remembrances of Mukunda you would like to share, please post them as comments below.
The FOUNDATIONS of UNDER-STANDING
A weekend symposium in New York City
Sat-Sun, November 22-23, 2014, 9:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m.
Helen Mills Event Space, 137-139 West 26th Street NYC
Don’t miss this unique opportunity to learn from anatomy and movement pioneers Tom Myers, Leslie Kaminoff and Amy Matthews co-presenting a transformative weekend symposium.
Using lavishly illustrated lectures and movement explorations, this workshop is for anyone with feet, especially movement teachers and manual therapists of all kinds.
28 bones wrapped in a fascial bag, our uniquely human foot is a marvel of engineering – and it needs to be: such a tiny base of support under a tall and gangly skeleton with a high center of gravity.
Tiny changes in the position of our foot bones can make huge differences in functional ability and pain. Learn to see proper positioning and response to guide your clients or students into dynamic, responsive feet that hold the body up easily and tread lightly on the planet.
WORKSHOP TOPICS INCLUDE:
I just finished a delightful week getting back to my roots teaching Yoga to normal people (as opposed to Yoga teachers). It was Breath-Centered Yoga Week at Rancho La Puerta in Tecate, Mexico.
I came up with a series of five 90-minute classes that progressively built skills and awareness throughout the week and was gratified to have a core group of dedicated students who attended throughout. Predictably a few folks were initially disappointed, thinking the designation “level two” meant a sweaty yoga workout, but by the last day there were students who proclaimed this the hardest Yoga they’d ever done. Individualized, breath-centered yoga can kick your ass from the inside-out.
In addition to these great classes, we met fantastic people including author and yoga teacher Michele Hebert and her husband, Dr. Mehrad Nazari, the wonderful writer and musician Marshall Chapman and her husband Dr. Chris Fletcher, the multi-talented Kerry Wilson (who ditched family traditions to spend this week with us!), Pilates and fitness trainers Sara and Joe Talbert, yoga teacher Phyllis Pilgrim (one of the only people I know who’s been teaching Yoga longer than I and whose mother learned Yoga from Indra Devi’s book in the 1950s) and the “Godmother of the Wellness” and founder of Rancho La Puerta Deborah Szakely.
All that plus some great hikes and basketball games left us really looking forward to returning in the spring of 2015!
I’ve always wanted to try Watsu. For the uninitiated, Watsu is a combination of Shiatsu and water-based bodywork in a 96-degree pool. I had two hour+ sessions while teaching at Rancho La Puerta in Tecate, Mexico with Pete Voggenthaler, a masterful underwater expert.
Here’s a little video to give you a sense of Waterdance, a Watsu variation in which the practitioner takes you underwater (thus the pink nose clip!) while cradling, stretching and guiding your body through waves, rolls, twists and inversions.
In my first session the underwater part was done only on retention after an inhale. For the second session, pictured here, I requested that we work with the exhale underwater as well, which drastically changed my buoyancy and flexibility. The body stiffens on an internal retention and is much more released during and after an exhale. Pete ran with the idea resulting in the best pranayama session I’ve had in a long time.
In addition to his work at Rancho La Puerta, Pete does aquatic show consulting, water show artistic direction & training for extravaganzas around the world. If you have an opportunity to work with him, I highly recommend it.
We can’t think of a better place for pranayama than on the beautiful Yucatan Peninsula, amidst cooling sea breezes and under glorious clear skies! We hope you won’t miss this unique opportunity to study with Leslie in an intimate intensive, exploring your breath en plein air.
Don’t miss the early reg deadline: Participants who place a deposit by December 1 save $200 and those who pay in full by December 1 save $300!
Read more at oneyogacollective.com or contact Laura for more information.
Leslie’s approach to breath-centered yoga grows out of and reinforces the natural spirals and beautiful asymmetries in all of us. Take advantage of this unique opportunity to study with Leslie in an intimate intensive retreat. Explore the waves, water and spirals we come from.
Don’t miss the early reg deadline: Participants who place a deposit by December 1 save $200 and those who pay in full by December 1 save $300!
Read more at oneyogacollective.com or contact Laura for more information.
If you’ve been reading these posts for a while you know I love to travel, love to teach and love a good party. I hope you’ll join me – along with Sadie Nardini and some of our closest friends – when we’ll get to do all those things at once!
We’ll be teaching at Maya Tulum during a weeklong retreat April 5-12, 2014. It’s not too soon to plan your next vacation, and it’s starting to fill up, so check it out:
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I am very excited and honored to be presenting alongside my esteemed colleagues and fellow students of the Krishnamacharya/Desikachar lineage at this unprecedented event.
I hope you can join us for this one-of-a-kind experience in this beautiful setting.
Check out the Facebook page.
For the occasion, I’ve created a brand-new presentation entitled: “The Knot of Brahma – Emotional Suppression as the Source of Common Pain Syndromes.“
Here is the description of the topic:
“The ancient model of prana/apana samayogah as a definition of pranayama offers a simple, yet powerful model for how we can uncover and resolve the internal obstructions that result from a lifetime of managing our emotional “spaces.”
These ideas are especially important for Yoga Educators because there is mounting evidence that the most common pain syndromes suffered by vast numbers of people have their origins in the mind-body/psyche-soma
In this wide-ranging lecture/demo, Leslie Kaminoff will review some of the latest research that supports this view, and he will relate it to the uniquely integrated teachings of breath-centered yoga practice within the tradition of T. Krishnamacharya.
For educators dedicated to working more deeply and effectively, these insights will be invaluable in the pursuit of reducing the “bad space” of dukha and increasing the “good space” of sukha.“