Musélan | 200- & 500-hour Yoga Teacher Training

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Welcome to Musélan's Yoga Teacher Blog.  We use this blog to share wisdom (and our challenges) with our teacher trainees and for our trainees to leave their thoughts.  Join us!  Leave wisdom, questions, issues and your own challenges. 

Honor Other People's Reality

We all have beliefs about our bodies. (And beliefs, by the way, are just an opinion, a thought, that we have held for a very long time. Read more about them here.) We may see ourselves as flexible, tight, injured, weak, strong, unable to go upside down, unable to balance, etc. My guess is if you sit for a moment you will come up with half a dozen beliefs you have about your own body. What is most interesting about our beliefs is others usually see through them before we do. And, as teachers, we often see that our students are capable of so much more than they think they are.

As teachers we need to honor other people’s realities and at the same time, hold the door open for something more. Beliefs create the reality in the body, not the other way around. If you think you are tight, you will be tight. If you think you can’t do a handstand, guess what? You’re right! We can best help our students by first helping the student feel safe by honoring what they think about their body. I think we have all experienced at one time or another a teacher who led us to feel less than or even stupid by not understanding what he/she was trying to teach us because we weren’t ready or were still too mired in our belief and so still afraid to try. We need to be there with the student in the place the student is, not where we want the student to be.

Then, at the same time, you can hold the door for the student for something more. You can gently guide them to use different language to describe their body, to see that anything can change, that they are capable of anything. Gently remind them they are strong enough, flexible enough, whatever. Then they will fly!

 

Related Posts:

• Releasing Old Beliefs in Your Yoga Class

• Decluttering: Part One (Beliefs) 

• Decluttering: Part Two (Yoga)

Inspiration for Yoga Teachers

 

 

"May I become at all times, both now and forever
a protector for those without protection,
a guide for those who have lost their way,
a ship for those with oceans to cross,
a bridge for those with rivers to cross,
a santuary for those in danger,
a lamp for those with out light,
a place of refuge for those who lack shelter,
and a servant to all in need."

~His Holiness the Dalai Lama

 

Inside Yourself

Don't go outside your house to see the flowers.

My friend, don't bother with that excursion.

Inside your body there are flowers.

One flower has a thousand petals.

That will do for a place to sit.

Sitting there you will have a glimpse of beauty

inside the body and out of it,

before gardens and after gardens.

~ Kabir

More Praise for the Costa Rican, 500-Hour Intensive with Musélan

Listen as participants of Musélan's International Intensive in Costa Rica from the Spring of 2012 discuss what they enjoyed:

Rose Ernst:

 

Kelly Larson:

 

Deb Frischmon: 

 

 

An Inspiring Message for Teachers

Yama: Aparigraha

Aparigraha
Awareness of abundance

An awareness of abundance (or lack thereof) affects our energy and how we relate to the world around us.  Where in your life do you know you need to create more awareness of abundance?  How will it feel when you have the abundance?

 

 

Your Home Yoga Practice

So, let's talk Personal Yoga Practice.  What got you started with your own practice in the first place?  What inspires your personal Yoga Practice?  What do you struggle with?  Finding time?  Knowing what to do?  Or is it something you look forward to each day?

What Have You Noticed with Your Breathing?

 "For breath is life, and if you breathe well you will live long on earth". 

~Sanskrit Proverb

This week's contemplation is a reflection after The Breathing Workshop.  What have you noticed about your breathing?  What has come up?  What have you learned?  For those of you who have not done The Breathing Workshop, what have you noticed about your breath as a result of doing yoga?

Why do You Practice Yoga?

So, why do you practice yoga?  What inspires you to return to your yoga mat, day after day?  Reflect on your reasons. 

Niyama: Tapas

In her book, The Secret Power of Yoga, Nischala Joy Devi, states that Tapas is defined as service, physical purity, living in virtue, moderation and reverence for all.   As we practice Tapas, we see it in our physical practice.   The main benefit is in embracing the spiritual as we do our physical practice.  Then we weave together the mind/body connection.  How do you feel you embrace the spiritual as you practice?  What other ways throughout your day do you feel you embrace the spiritual?

An Aries man finds his inner fire (aka Fire Genie)
Originally uploaded by Jonathon Brown