For the past few weeks, we have been trying out a new yoga format that I am calling Ashtanga Light.  In a nutshell, it is a condensed form of Ashtanga yoga: shrunk to fit inside a 60 minute yoga class and modified to be more approachable for beginners.

I have been trying for a while to figure out how to teach Ashtanga to beginners.  The practice is very intimidating at first - even the first series has some very challenging poses, which I think is off-putting for a lot of people who are new to yoga.  I have a big heart for beginners.  I remember walking into my first yoga class and being afraid that I was going to stick out like a sore thumb since I wasn't very flexible yet.  I remember feeling like everyone was watching me and laughing when I screwed up.  Of course, that wasn't happening and I learned pretty quickly that was NOT what yoga was about.  But it doesn't stop you from thinking those things in your moments of uncertainty.

Whenever people learn that I am a yoga teacher, they almost automatically say something like, "I haven't stretched in forever, I am the least flexible person in the world."  As if I might somehow judge them for it.  As if everyone who first tried yoga was already flexible.  No one walks into my class able to do everything and it makes me sad when people use that as an excuse not to try.  It also makes me sad when people leave thinking that the class was too hard - that is not my goal at all.  My goal is simply to challenge you to push your own limits.  I offer a lot of modifications throughout the class and I trust you to listen to your body when it tells you to back off.  I silently applaud students when I see them heed those cues.  It is important to me to create an environment where my students feel like they can push their limits safely, and yet still feel okay if they need to take a break.

For these reasons, I came up with the Ashtanga Light format.  The goal is to create a class where beginners can get to know the Ashtanga practice in an non-intimidating way.  The basic outline of the class is similar to traditional Primary Series Ashtanga.  We do Sun Salutations, Standing Postures, Primary Series Seated Postures, and Finishing Postures.  In order to save time, we skip over some of the standing postures (I rotate them every week, so that we are sure to hit them all eventually).  We do only the basics among the Seated Postures, leaving the more challenging poses for another day.  And we only do one vinyasa per pose, instead of taking a vinyasa every time we switch sides.  I hope these modifications will make Ashtanga more approachable for people who are new to yoga.




Some of the reasons why I love Ashtanga:

• It is "no nonsense."  Nothing fancy, just the poses, the breath, and the bandhas.  Although many Ashtanga yogis, including myself, also dig into chakras, chanting, sanskrit, ayurveda, vegan/vegetarian lifestyle, etc., most of that develops naturally through their own curiosity, and it happens outside of class.  The practice is simply the practice, where we can all bring our own individual beliefs and ideas and enjoy the same space for a little while.  
• The lack of music makes it easier to focus on your breath.  When you go to an Ashtanga class, everyone is breathing the ujjayi breath very loudly and it produces a meditative state for the entire class.  It is nice to have a break from all the noise that we experience throughout the day.  Silence is golden.
• It is consistently challenging.  Primary Series is difficult on its own, and when you've spent a couple years mastering it, there is Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, and I think there's even a Sixth Series.  There is always something new to learn, always some crazy posture that you are working on achieving.  The work is never done.
• This is the Real Deal.  Ashtanga comes from India, taught by a direct student of Krishnamacharya, the father of almost all yoga in the West.  Sri K. Pattabhi Jois came up with this system, in consultation with Krishnamacharya, and taught it for over 70 years.  After his death, he passed the torch to his son, Manju Jois, and his grandson, Sharath Jois, who both continue to teach this style in the U.S. and India.  
• Ashtanga yoga has been tested for many years.  Someone once told me that the best way to choose a yoga style is to look at the students who have practiced it for a while.  If you like what you see, if you want to be like these people, that's a pretty good indicator that you should follow the path that they did.  Since Ashtanga has such a long lineage, you can look at people who started practicing this system of yoga in the 1970's and see what it has created in their lives.  I highly respect all of the Ashtanga teachers I have met so far.  They seem to be well balanced, grounded, spiritually secure people.  They also appear to be very healthy, so we know that the practice is safe and effective.

...Because we all are overjoyed that spring is finally here!

As human beings, we are hard-wired to forget.  Our minds are constantly churning through information, filing away important details, clearing out non-essentials, making room for the next influx of information.  This process is essential because there is no way that we could hold onto every detail of every day.

But in this process of clearing out, sometimes important things get thrown away too.  And not just little things, like your cousin's birthday - big things too.  Things that are hard to wrap your mind around.  Things like what hope feels like.  What joy feels like.  The knowledge that tomorrow brings a brighter future.  That everything happens for a reason.  We forget these things over and over again.

It is as if there is something vitally important in this process of forgetting and relearning.  It is as if this process of remembering is essential to the growth of our souls.

Take a moment right now to remember who you truly are at your very core.  Look at yourself as if from the heavens, a tiny person on this earth, one of millions, but significant and beautiful in your own unique way.  What is it that you have to offer the world?  Are you a seeker, a healer, a companion?  Are you a mother or a father, or an avenger of the less fortunate?  Take a moment to remember the best part of yourself.  Remember how that relates to the rest of the world.  What is your role to play in this lifetime?

I was an imaginative child. A bookworm at heart, I filled my head with stories of far away places and princesses in castles and fairies and magic. I lived my fantasies, pretending at school that I was one if the characters from my books. I narrated my life to myself along the way. I wanted to be a writer.

I was also remarkably spiritual. I was one of those rare five year olds who loved going to church. My mom and sister and I would march off to mass every Sunday and I would sit in the pew in front of the statue of St. Joseph and listen with rapt attention to the stories teaching me how to be a good person and do good in the world. I loved hearing about the lives of the saints and how they struggled and died for their beliefs. Even today, no longer a practicing Catholic, and no longer innocent to the many faults of the modern day Church, I still hold a place in my heart for the saints and mystics of early Christianity.

Surprisingly, most of my spirituality and imagination from my youth has survived to adulthood. I still read voraciously, and I still prefer to read fiction to help me escape the banality of everyday life. Despite no longer attending church, I still maintain a strong faith in God and an open mind toward the spiritual unknown.

But during my spiritual seeking, I have learned that a good dose of healthy skepticism is never a bad thing. I have found that there are those who would take advantage of my openness. There are those who would try to exploit my naïveté for financial or political gain. I find that it is necessary to guard against these types of manipulation.

I am also a scientist (my Bachelor's is in engineering) and science has given me a method of testing beliefs to distinguish fact from speculation. I believe that science does not have all the answers yet and that we are discovering new things every day, especially in the fields of spirituality and consciousness. But I am hesitant to place absolute faith in anything that I cannot define as scientific fact. Most of my spiritual beliefs are flexible - like the UFO hunters say, I want to believe...but I don't hold to it unyieldingly because I view it as speculative as opposed to absolute fact.

Which brings me to my main argument- that yoga, so far, is largely a speculative field. And there is a lot of what I refer to as "fluff" in the industry.



As for yoga itself, I have extensive experience with the practice I teach and have seen first hand the good that it does for people. By monitoring both my students and my teachers (along with my own experience), I have seen enough to know that yoga is extremely beneficial for people of widely different backgrounds.  There has also been a flurry of encouraging research surrounding yoga in the past decade - it shows that we are largely on the right track.

But as a scientist, I maintain my skepticism of things like chakras and spiritual energy and Ayurveda. True, I want to believe, and I continue to study and experiment with these forms of spirituality because it's fun and I like the sense of mystery. But I can't in good conscience teach these things in my classes because I have not verified their validity.

I am supportive of teachers who choose to teach these things in their classes. Perhaps they have more experience with these things than I do. And no doubt they add depth and atmosphere to the class. Speaking about chakras can be a very soothing addition to yoga. But I haven't seen substantive evidence that it is anything more than feel good language and I choose not to teach it until I do.

One of my biggest fears as a teacher is that I will lead my students astray. I take my responsibility seriously and my students should take comfort in the fact that I will never teach them something that I don't have a lot of experience with and absolute faith in.

I encourage all of my students to embrace their own spiritual exploration. Whether chakras or astrology, Buddhism or Tantra - whatever calls to you, definitely answer. Read, experiment, practice. Keep your mind always open. It is a great exercise in self-exploration and can be deeply satisfying. But maintain a your skepticism. Learn to distinguish fact from speculation.

As for me, I will continue to teach what I believe to be true. No fluff. Just yoga.

After an entire year of fiddling with the comments code, I am happy to report that the comments feature finally works!!!!  I am super excited!

Please feel free to comment on anything, past present or future! I would love to hear from you!

P.S.  Also - follow me on Facebook and Twitter!  There's lots of good stuff coming this year!

Hey everyone!

Just a reminder, we will NOT have class on Tuesday, Dec 25th (Christmas) and we will NOT have class on Tuesday, January 1 (New Year's Day).

Have a wonderful holiday and I'll see you when we get back on Jan 8th!