7/11/24 Live Session Recording

I am excited to learn more about anatomy. I am not going to lie it's a bit intimidating to learn so much about the human body and how it works. Some of the breathing techniques I feel could benefit some of my clients in the facility that I work at now so I think it would be nice to try and practice these myself and with others. I am going to be watching some tutorials to get better at these poses.

Like Danielle said, learning how our bodies function and move can be so intimidating. I spent hours and hours learning this material years ago and it is quite frustrating now that so much of it has left my brain. I feel thinking about all the different muscles my movements are activating throughout my day will help enforce the material. I was appreciative for the discussion on the common postures and how we don't need to promote an exaggerated version of it for folks to be doing it "right." Additionally, I valued discussing the challenges of child's pose when working with folks in an institution, as well as choosing to close one's eyes. These are both such vulnerable positions to put yourself in, in an environment that doesn't typically feel safe. I enjoyed all the different pranayama practices. Last week, the A/C on the unit I work on broke during a California heat wave and I watched this video wishing I had knowledge of the cooling breath to engage in with those I work with. The techniques that resonate for me are the 4-part, alternate nostril and cyclic sighing. 

I also did not know how different breathing techniques could help the human body. This is all new information to me, and I tried all the breathing exercises. 

Hey ya'll. This last week I spent 8 days in the Arizona Pines being a camp counselor for One n Ten, a youth LGBTQ+ organization. No electronics. Just one another. I was in charge of leading the 13 year olds. It was the hardest and most rewarding thing I have ever done. I cannot wait to do it again next year, but have never felt such gratitude for my life and capable body. As far as the breath info in this lesson, since I am a breath facilitator, most of this was review for me. Box breath will always be a favorite 🙂 However the anatomy was new, or possibly I am able to look at it with fresh eyes and an updated brain. I have spent all of my time on this planet, with the exception of the last 2 years, totally disconnected from my body. Years of playing sports and relying on this meat suit to have me perform so I could feel seen and appreciated. While I never saw or appreciated it. My thoughts during anatomy were just absolute gratitude for my strong capable body and offering it apology after apology for not being better to it. 

I loved to hear from Jen that we are a guide to the individuals and to serve their own body design.  We are not to practice our own yoga or necessarily teach but to guide. this has such a gentle connotation and we are not expected to be experts. I agree when Jason said with needing to sit and process especially when we are in a rush. I loved the breathing techniques...I am ahead of the assignments as I knew I was going for vacation. my son had brain surgery last week. I had been employing the cyclic sighing  which has helped when I could not sleep and had million of thoughts in my head. the 4 part breathing helped when tired and during the day which helped with my concentration. who knew that the way someone can breath could be powerful. I also loved the alternatives to the postures. it was great seeing Jen do the warrior II posture and see that it was so different than the picture.  when I saw Jen I thought she can't be that engaged. I tried it and was surprised that the little I thought she physically did was actually engaging.

As much as I would love to memories all of the names of the bones, I really appreciate that there is not pressure to do so in this YTT. This session helped me think differently about my skeletal and muscular system, and gain a deeper appreciation for the 206 bones in my adult body! They do a lot for me! I do a lot of gross motor somatics work in my practice and have been appreciating and more keyed into what the skeletal muscular systems of my clients are doing while bouncing on a ball, arm windmills, shaking, dancing and throwing a ball back and fourth. I loved the video of the skeleton doing yoga poses, so awesome!

I appreciate seeing the examples of what accessible yoga actually looks like especially the example of warrior 2 pose. This session provided a good reminder that gentle also activates the muscles in powerful ways! I also appreciated that reminder that while we are facilitating, we are not doing yoga for ourselves, however the role of the facilitator is to help guide each member so they can have their own unique experience on the mat.

I enjoy learning more about how much each pose has to offer and explore. It also was important to note how in faculties the clothing can be restrictive and prevent certain movements like forward folds. This brings up some frustration because forward folds can be so helpful in calming the nervous system. It was also important to remember to use anatomic language before Sanskrit – even after practice yoga for many years, I sometimes forget certain Sanskrit words which can bring up some self-judgement. In warrior 1, it was noted that it is important to cue pelvic floor engagement, however for myself and from my experience of listening to others I know that some people have a big disconnect with their mind-body connection to this area – it took me a while to understand how to engage the pelvic floor in poses. I am curious to continue exploring the various ways to cue this because the pelvic floor is so important and is very interconnected with our breath. It is also good to know that directly saying pelvic floor is something to avoid. It was also important to remember to avoid pushing to deepen breath because not everyone is capable of a full breath – even though I don't have respiratory issues, I've definitley been in classes where I've felt self-judgement for not being able to inhale or exhale for as long as the teacher was cueing. I loved learning more about breathwork!