What I learned

Yoga Discussion General Yoga
#1

or I guess you could say you can teach an old dog new tricks afterall

I have been in Martial Arts for many years (over 30) and I have been asked many many times about learning Martial Arts from a video or DVD and I have always responded with a Video DVD is at best a supplement for training with a teacher. There is way too much going on in every form and posture (circles, internal, applications, etc.) to pick it up from watching a video.

Now I have a little background in Yoga training with a teacher, not long a few months, and then later with a friend who was not a teacher but into power Yoga but I have been training along with DVDs (mainly Rodney Yee) for awhile now. I enjoyed it and I did gain from it but it was not all that amazing to me and I honestly did feel like I was missing something. It was not until I started training with a Yoga Therapist (a whole 2 weeks now) that I realized there was so much more to each posture than I ever was told by anyone I trained with and I certainly had no way of learning much detail form the DVDs.

I have always been impressed by people that were involved in Yoga and those that could do amazing postures flawlessly but I never really understood it (and to be honest I still have a long long way to go) I never stopped to think about the detail that made up every posture prior to this and it is in this detail I have found that I am very excited about training yoga, more so than I was previously. I have learned there is much more to yoga than I previously thought.

#2

This is a very insightful post. I personally appreciate the validation that yoga is more than it appears and some never quite get that despite the bell being rung over and over.

Thank you.

gordon

#3

Thank You

I also realized I have a lot more to learn about yoga today than I thought I did 2 weeks ago. But I have to say I am really looking forward to learning.

#4

You know I am risking becoming a clich? here but I have been thinking about this and I do very much thank you for crediting me with insight but I honestly do not feel I can take credit for it.

I have, as I said before, learned Yoga from 2 other people one was a teacher I learned some yoga from one was a student who taught me a little Yoga. Both seemed to love Yoga and in defense of my first teacher I was in the first class he ever taught so I am sure he is more relaxed after all these years. But neither of the other people I learned from before appeared to love Yoga as much as the woman I am currently learning from and neither appeared to have the depth of knowledge that this woman has that she is so willing to share with me. And she is so incredibly relaxed in her teaching style it is also equally amazing to me. I have not felt this level of knowledge and ease form anyone before other that my taijiquan teacher who has been doing taijiquan for over 50 years.

I suppose it could be the fact that she has known me for many years and know better how to teach me but regardless of what it is I have to give any credit for me having any any insight, at all, fully to her. She is excited about yoga and love yoga and has passed some of that excitement and love on to me and I am very grateful for that.

#5

She has likely been trained by a teacher of teachers rather than a teacher of students.

Loving yoga is only a partial recipe for sound instruction.

The sharing of yoga is only effective with a willing student, period.

#6

Thank You it is much appreciated.

#7

What do you know I was wrong… again. But what surprises me is I am happy about it.

After doing sun salutations for a couple years and thinking they were a good exercise but not to hard…. I discover I was wrong.

I was taught a simple sun salutation and it is a heck of a lot harder than I thought. It appears I was not going slow enough, I was not holding postures properly or long enough and I was not bringing my shoulder blades together and I let my elbows flair out. And that is just the upper body bits. The legs I were not as bad on but I was not exactly right. Oh and while I’m at it, apparently I need to breathe… who knew :). I did not even realize I was not breathing properly.

And after all this how do I feel, emotionally… and this is not all… but then likely this comes as no surprise to many on the page but to this old Martial Artist and past Yoga dabbler it is quite and eye opener.

This is a lot harder physically and mentally than I realized as well and yet I am still enjoying myself immensely.

I have a lot to learn and as I said before there is so much more to Yoga than I ever realized.

#8

Wahoo! You found the trail head. Keep it coming!

#9

yoga is considerably better than other form of exercises in terms of what it offers. power yoga is definitely a great way of keeping the body in shape even during the old age. while meditation and breathing exercises help you maintain your balance, power yoga offers tremendous health benefits to cope with hectic schedules and common ailments.

#10

I was thinking more along the lines of:

“Power yoga IS a hectic schedule”.

#11

[quote=InnerAthlete;19314]I was thinking more along the lines of:

“Power yoga IS a hectic schedule”.[/quote]

lol…

#12

Power yoga is good if you’re fit.

:smiley:

#13

Well I was doing Power Yoga but now I’m not. And what I am doing now is much harder and much more enjoyable and has much greater depth and I am actually taking yoga much more seriously than I previously did. Nothing against Power Yoga, I just like this much better and I am getting more out of it and learning one heck of a lot about myself and this has come as a bit of a (welcome) surprise.

#14

Would you mind saying more about “training with a Yoga Therapist???”

Did you go to the yoga therapist with a particular complaint? (We don’t need to know the specifics.)

Were you given a home practice???

Just curious as lots of people take “privates.” And some go to see “yoga therapist” and I’m wondering about the specifics.

Is the expectation to see the yoga therapist regularly??? Once a week, once a month?

Thanks.
Vic

#15

[QUOTE=victw;19336]Would you mind saying more about “training with a Yoga Therapist???”

Did you go to the yoga therapist with a particular complaint? (We don’t need to know the specifics.)

Were you given a home practice???

Just curious as lots of people take “privates.” And some go to see “yoga therapist” and I’m wondering about the specifics.

Is the expectation to see the yoga therapist regularly??? Once a week, once a month?

Thanks.
Vic[/QUOTE]

Well since I have recently realized that I have in fact not been doing yoga for the last few years but I have in fact just been dabbling also I have never had private lessons with a yoga teacher so I am not sure how these compare. I have trained for a few weeks with a teacher and later a friend of mine that was into power yoga showed me a bunch of it but he was not a teacher so I am not sure how qualified I am at answering this.

But?

The main focus appears to be on using Yoga to better my energy flow for health, weight loss, a pre-existing back issue and possibly help with my sleep apnea and I was coming out of a bought with depression (serious life stuff) by using mindfulness mediation and some of yoga is to help with preventing that from reappearing as well. And I now have photographic proof my posture was not as good as I thought it was. She took a picture or 2 so she could check for certain and prove it to me.

There is just one heck of a lot of detail given to me as it applies to each posture I am learning and the breathing necessary and the breathing exercises I am being shown. I am not yet sure of all the posture names but I am getting a list together (this is likely just something I am more interested in due to my Chinese Martial Arts Background). And I am being given a heck of a lot of info about my diet and what it should be based on Ayurveda. Apparently I am ?BIGTIME? kapha and out of balance. I am working with this as well.

I am also being instructed on the use of props where necessary and the use of specific postures for specific reasons and not using certain postures because they do not seem to be necessary for me at this time.

The sessions are once a week for now but as things improve they could become less. And I am expected to practice, what I have been shown, at home and report back on how I am doing and my feelings about it as well. I have been given a lot of exercises, all yoga, to target specific areas (mostly for bettering my posture and strengthening my back) and I have been shown a simple Sun Salutation as well (more to come). However I am not sure if it were not for my job that the sessions would not be more frequent at this time. However my job is rather time consuming and it makes in difficult at times and not all that good in the health promotion arena.

And now I am off to practice here at home.

T

#16

[QUOTE=SCMT;18972]

I have always been impressed by people that were involved in Yoga and those that could do amazing postures flawlessly but I never really understood it (and to be honest I still have a long long way to go) I never stopped to think about the detail that made up every posture prior to this and it is in this detail I have found that I am very excited about training yoga, more so than I was previously. I have learned there is much more to yoga than I previously thought.[/QUOTE]

Back to classics

I just quote:

Asanas are not just physical exercises: they have biochemical, psycho-psychological effects. …

Just scroll down to Asanas:

http://www.yoga-age.com/pradipika/part1.html

#17

Now I am wondering if I am missing the point somewhere and making more of this than there is or just plain thinking about this to much (thinking to much can mess you up sometimes in an Internal Chinese Martial Art and that is what I do) or maybe I am just beginning to understand how much I didn’t understand before (not to be confused with understanding). This by no means should be thought of as I understand any of this at all

There is most certainly a whole lot more to Yoga than I previously thought but I am beginning to feel that it has much more depth to it than I thought 2 weeks ago and I have no clue how to explain that any better to be honest.

There is much more thinking to the Yoga I am doing now than I was doing previously with Power Yoga. Although I am not yet sure what Yoga this is exactly, every time I go to train with my teacher I get so into what I am being taught I forget to ask. It may be Hatha, Integrative or Iyengar Yoga.

Power Yoga to me was simply the posture and learning to stand comfortable in that posture as well as gain muscular strength form the posture and, not that this will make much since on a Yoga site, not even close to the depth that I found in standing in Xingyiquan’s santi shi posture which involved learning to stand comfortably in that posture for long periods of time and then working on the internal aspects (Qi). But the Yoga I am doing now has a lot more to it and it is hard for me to explain or like I said I am missing the point completely. Maybe I should not think about it so much. I tend not to think about much other than the postures I am doing and the moment that I am doing them while I do them (which it rather nice). It is when I am not doing them I begin to think about all of this. And the Pranayama breathing (I believe one I was shown was called 3 part Yogic breathing) is absolutely incredible. And I found that the first week I was shown this seated on a stool that it was very relaxing and a bit cooling and then the second week I was shown sitting with my lower legs folded under (I know it as Zazen) made things change and it became quite interesting and then things (or at least one thing) began to happen. Certainly nothing earth shattering and most certainly nothing even close to any thing that could be called enlightenment (And to be honest the thought of anything that could be called enlightenment never even entered my mind nor has it been a goal). Just some internal thought type stuff and a possible realization about career but I am still not sure about that one yet.

What is beginning to surprise me is how much all of this is now bleeding over into everything I do in both posture (standing and sitting) and thought. And again it is this thinking part I can’t really explain as of yet and it is entirely possible that the term thinking is incorrect.

Sorry I appear to be rambling and typing at the same time.

#18

I have also learned my teacher just calls what I was learning Hatha Yoga.

I was not sure before.

#19

Well, I’m back at it, I stopped for awhile so I did not come here but the foot has healed I got my martial arts back to where I was before the injury and I now have the internal drive again to go deeper into Yoga again.

I am practicing my ansans and sun salutation and I may look for another teacher in the spring. It is just not possible to get to my last teacher, although she is still in the area and still a good friend, our schedules simply do not come close to matching.

What I am wondering, and am thinking this is simply nerves, will I find a teacher that gives me the same feeling and insight about yoga as my last one did?

It took me years and 2 other teacher to find her.

Oh well in spring, if my schedule or hers does not change, the quest for another teacher begins

#20

Welcome back to yoga! And the site. :slight_smile:

It sounds to me as if you found that yoga is what lends itself to your good feeling, and perhaps you should not worry too much about the teacher. As long as you can learn from the teacher, and you grow, then that is all that really matters, isn’t it?

Once I had a wonderful counselor who helped me through some of life’s rockiest roads. When I moved away and still needed a counselor, I kept seeking for one that made me feel and helped me grow the way she did. I did not find one, in two years that I kept going to counseling. I did learn great coping skills, and now would never go back to a counselor, I did learn to recognize my own mental traps and how to avoid them. But I never found a counselor like her again. I think this is good, because I may have become too dependent on that counselor and may have remained in counseling much longer than I needed to. Instead I learned to take what was right for me, discard the rest, not trust blindly, and I am a stronger, much more capable person because of it.

Does that make sense?

:slight_smile: Best of luck to you, you will find the teacher you need, whether you think you enjoy them or not! :stuck_out_tongue: