Frankly Yoga

I have a new found appreciation of the bhandas having attended a 4 hour workshop on them run by Karen. I have come to the conclusion as a result of this workshop that I shall develop my awareness of the bhandas not just to some day be able to lift myself up/over/away from my mat which in time I hope to do, but more because I think I now understand that they offer a way to a stronger connection with our bodies and therefore the capacity to practice with a greater integrity. Integrity was a word that popped up a lot during the workshop.

For this blog I’m going to write about mula bhanda in particular as we talked a lot about it in the second course weekend of the TTC during which I had the sudden realisation that I had not been practising with a conscious connection to mula bhanda.

“I never feel mula bhanda during practice” I found myself admitting.

Sure I had been trying to bring integrity to the movements and postures in my practice by drawing my navel to my spine and engaging my core but to be honest the deeper elements of the bhandas had not been at the forefront of my mind. I know about them, have done for a while and have been to a lot of classes where teachers have reminded me to engage with the bhandas by often quickly throwing in the statement ‘mula bhanda and uddiyana bhanda’ but they remained quite under appreciated in my mind.

Bhandas I have now realised are not so baffling, but are somewhat brilliant. They are neither elusive nor an optional extra but are as important as the breath. The term bhanda relates to the word 'bond’ and as with almost everything related to yoga it is another tool for creating unity. The concept of 'breath, bhandas and drishti’ has taken me a long time to understand possibly because I have been a bit of a vinyasa yoga person rather than a dedicated Ashtangi. I hadn’t realised the role of bhandas in relation to prana or realised that posture, breath and bhanda bond together to produce a seal of prana.

Mula bhanda relates to the pelvic floor and the root chakra and as such translates as 'root lock’. Gregor Maehle states that,

“By slightly contracting the pubo-coccygeal muscle, which goes from pubic bone to tailbone, we create an energetic seal that locks prana into the body and so prevents it from leaking out the base of the spine.”

Mula bhanda takes a lot more focus for me but I have realised how powerful it is after finally managing to use it during my practice finally. I became aware towards the end that during a vinyasa I engaged the bhandas for certain postures but not all and so I tried to remedy that. I’m not able to 'jump through’ (yet!) but when I did switch on mula bhanda it suddenly opened up the possibility that maybe I wasn’t as far off it is thought. Moving upwards and forwards while holding mula bhanda brought a lightness and ease to the movement. Rather than trying to haul myself back up to the top of my mat, by suctioning and drawing everything up I seemed to find the antidote to gravity.

Using the bhandas, I discovered the amazing ability to suction my tummy area in so it almost disappeared into itself in an empowering combination of body / breath / energy. Engaging mula bhanda in core exercises brings a whole new level of intensity to them. It’s such a small action in a sense but so transformative. By creating an enhanced connection to that area I hope to remedy a long standing detachment I’ve had from it which I think has held me back.

So to conclude, my new found appreciation of the bhandas and intention to focus on using them in my whole practice has given me a bit of a boost. I now feel that I have woken up a part of me that would otherwise be asleep and as a result of creating space and lift with the bhandas, I feel like I have more access to move into new postures over time. I’m going to endeavour to hold mula bhanda throughout my whole practice with more words from Gregor Maehle as a reminder,

“Every posture needs to grow out of its root.”

Following on from beginning to teach yoga over the past couple of weeks both casually to friends and once for real, I have started reflecting on how I might develop my own teaching style. I feel like I am mainly sticking to imitating my favourite teachers and treating their cues and phrases as a pick and mix that I can scoop out into my classes. So far I feel comfortable with this and I figure that hopefully what I like and find useful will also be helpful to the people I teach.

However over time I aim to carve out my own style. To help me do this I will need to scrutinise how I have been teaching and what I feel I need to work on or faze out. I have been taking yoga classes in Edinburgh over the past 8 years and I took a number of classes in New Zealand and Australia whilst abroad last year. I’ve been trying more of a variety of classes and teachers recently to get a feel for teaching styles. Attending classes abroad has been really interesting both in terms of the difference in teaching methods and also the standard of shala or schools. All these experiences will inherently influence how I teach but recognising why I have been doing things in a certain way and how I can improve them is always something I aim to do. Although, it’s not easy to detach, take a step back and observe yourself.

I am going to write this as a note to myself that I can come back to in 6 months time. A good teacher told me that you really have to become your own mentor and I really hope to be able to do this-be my own teacher as well as learn from others. So here goes, in this first part I’m going to focus on the liquorice and nougat pieces that may have found their way onto the scales but won’t make the paper bag:

* Using my voice

Talking…too much, too fast and too loud or quiet.

By too much, I mean wordy or repetitive explanations that lose clarity and do not add anything. Sometimes this sounds self-indulgent to me. When I start to ramble I realise that I have lost focus. This could happen due to nerves, losing concentration or drifting away from the original plan.

By too fast I mean when you feel rushed to get everything you want to say out in time-perhaps this is a sign I am saying too much. The class might lose its flow and the focus might detract from the students and their breath.

Projecting my voice is something I need to consciously remind myself of however being too loud can seem shouty. Too quiet is frustrating and excluding especially for clients further towards the back of the room.

Using my voice to keep energy levels up, remembering to adapt my tone of voice to the movements so to add emphasis, build momentum or slow down the pace and others.

* Although clients may change each class, I think it’s important to shape a class to suit the level of the clients and offer options so that clients are always able to join in every posture at one level or another. Although a class plan may seem exciting, if it’s above the level of your clients, it won’t work and you may have to end up adapting or changing it. The downside if you don’t is that you might put people off returning.

* Avoid being too casual. I like relaxed, informal classes and a teacher to bring in their personality, but even when teaching friends it’s important to treat every class like a real/paid class.

Despite suffering from severe nerves and the sense of dread that comes from thoughts a such as ‘what if I forget what to do?’ and ‘I’m not ready for this’, generally I actually relish opportunities that throw me head first off the highest diving board and in at the deep end, so to speak.

And that’s exactly what happened to me the other day. Having planned a slow-paced, peaceful day involving nothing more than perhaps a self-practise and coffee with a friend, a phone call from a yoga teacher buddy changed all that. In a matter of minutes I was running around the flat clutching my copy of Gregor Maehle’s book and flapping my yoga mat behind me in a frenzy.

My friend asked if I would cover her lunchtime Ashtanga yoga class at a nearby gym. Of course I wanted to help her out and grab his opportunity to teach, but there was a fear-induced hesitation when I asked, ‘how many people usually attend?’. Secretly hoping for a quiet lunchtime class, the reply was 11-18. Gulp.

'Have you ever taught in a gym before?', my friend asked. No I hadn't. I hadn't taught anywhere before since completing my training just over 2 months ago, other than my friend's living room. But there's a first time for everything and nothing else for it but to seize the day - oh and drag my non-yoga practising husband onto a mat in the living room to quickly run through the class first (a frustrating yet worthwhile experience).

Anyways, I put on a co-ordinated yoga outfit to help step into the role of ‘teacher’ and headed off in a rush to the gym. I didn’t have much time to focus on my nerves so that was a good thing but gradually I was trying to convince myself that I could so this. Armed not only with my mat and Gregor Maehle’s huge ashtanga book (highly unnecessary when I barely had time to grab a bottle of water let alone read 292 pages) but also the words of wisdom and support from my yoga teacher flatmate, I carried myself into the yoga studio. I’d like to share the advice imparted to me by said friend which I found really encouraging and useful:

- take your time - less is more - if you’re not comfortable adjusting, don’t do it - demonstrate and talking is easiest at first - breathe - it’s just yoga, and if you take out few mins at start while people are still arriving, plus savasana, it’s only 53 mins :) - pretend you do it every day - they don’t need to know it’s your first class!

I have only recently started practising Ashtanga, being more of a Vinyasa Flow class junkie, but thankfully the day before I had attended a full led ashtanga class and most of it had been imprinted into my memory (ok so I forgot Purvottasana but hey ho). I really was grateful to my husband for being a willing guinea pig and to my friend who has become a gem of a mentor to me. Practise and support are so valuable.

I taught for 1 hour and here’s some notes to myself that I took away from my teaching experience:

- Speak up! I realised about 3/4 of the way through that I wasn’t projecting my voice and this was especially necessary in a gym where just below us they were playing pumping beats.

- Face the class when demonstrating, for example I realised I was facing the mirror at one point with my back to them…mirrors are very confusing!

- Everyone’s breath sounded like it was going at different paces so I tried to count the number of breaths slowly, evenly and consistently while giving cues in between-this will take more practise at multi-tasking.

- Offer people the chance to grab a block before the class starts or at lest tell them where they can be found-in this case the blocks were kept in a box outside of the room so getting one was a bit disruptive during the class.

I didn’t adjust much to be honest, I needed to keep my focus and concentration on the whole class although I did support one lady in Utthita Hasta Padangushtasana.