Lessons of the Student Teacher

On Wednesday 12/2, my yoga teacher training spanned from my attendance as a student to my teaching two chair yoga classes. Along with three other teacher apprentices, I attend Cyndi Bulka's weekly class offering at Moving Mantra Yoga Studio. Afterwards, we discuss how to adapt her organized and expressive mode of teaching with her. This is prime learning as I bring Cyndi's pearls of wisdom to The Cypress and share them with my active senior class. The residents have a range of skill sets, with one student dealing with Parkinson's Disease. There is a tendency for Parkinson's patients to shuffle their feet when walking. With chair yoga and the proper positioning of the feet to firmly engage the floor, we have been building leg strength and creating better posture. She has progressed well over several months in her ability to sit up, keep her head level and better engage her peers. This is fun to help facilitate another's health. Another student claims that she glides with power when she walks, not making her usual "thud" sound with her heels. this helps her manage her large dog on it's daily walk. This is her mindfulness transferring over into safety.

Another interesting experience was with a student for the chair yoga class at Whole Foods. She had never done yoga before and was in obvious and long term discomfort. We attempted to position her feet to touch the floor by her moving to the front of the chair. We noticed that a foot rest would be the best solution, but this wasn't available. She sat at almost the edge of the chair just to be barely comfortable to practice breathing. My point is that many people are not sitting properly and worsening their health. Today's focus is to notice how one is seated/standing and adjust to what is tolerable and better aligned. Check out the calendar on my web site for classes.