On a walk with a girlfriend at a nearby nature preserve I suggested that we slow our walk down and practice the Buddhist meditation walk. A mindfully slow, careful walk. My friend is a full bodied woman. She is a doer. A doer for others more then herself. Her walk reflects this. Part of her is moving fast forward and part of…
Category: The Teaching Experience
ANOTHER POINT OF VIEW
Another point of view to assist better breathing is side bending postures. I consider these side stretches along with twists essentials for supporting deeper breathing. This is such a well rounded asana (parivrttaikapada upavistha konasana) that spreads, twists, turns and churns from the inside out. What a wonderful way to change your point of view. When we are just too…
IF YOU BELIEVE IN WHAT YOU DO. DO WHAT YOU BELIEVE IN.
I spend some of my study time reading a series of books of interviews with BKS Iyengar. whether it’s a sentence, a paragraph, or a chapter, it is an instant source of inspiration for me. His medical successes, his approache (against all odds) in the medical world, his constant faith in his study of yoga in therapeutic ways. As one who has…
LOST IN TRANSLATION: ADHO MUKHA SVANSANA
by Shelley Piser Teaching yoga for 35 years, I am always excited to discover new clarity in conveying movement (sometimes very abstract movement) to my students so they get it! Teachers can get stuck in how they express poses and students can get stuck in how they translate directions into their own postures. For a beginning student, yoga is a new…
A senior moment or more; 2-minute yoga practice
When my senior beginning students ask me what they should practice at home I always prescribe Leg stretches. Never to overwhelm a new student with more things to add to their pressured day, I keep it simple by suggesting to start with just one pose. Simply asking them to hold each leg stretch for only one minute to begin with.…
Seniors love Yoga too!
One of my teachers, Martyn Jackson, would tell us that the best time to begin yoga is in your forties. That’s when children are grown and you have the time and maturity to devote to your practice. In October I was graced with one of my favorite teaching experience in recent times. I am teaching 2 classes a week to…
Martyn Jackson: As a teacher
Shelley Piser: How do you differ from what you have been taught and how did you evolve into your own? Martyn Jackson: I am a therapist, really. I am physio trained but never did the examination because there were other things on my mind like, I wanted to do that training, I wanted dance and there were so many things…
Yoga means Awareness
“HABITS TAKE ADVANTAGE OF INATTENTION” Benjamin Franklin. Yoga postures are often done with the same tone that one would be driving, sitting, reading, or working. That is they are practiced habitually. Your practice is a moment-to-moment source of refreshing awareness, which when met with deep breathing, shapes the body from the inside as new spaces expand while moving and…
MARTYN JACKSON: The Wizard Of Yoga
Since 1971 when I began seriously taking formal Yoga classes, I have had many great yoga teachers. I consider myself very lucky to have had an unfolding succession of creative and inspiring teachers. But in 1981 I was graced with meeting Martyn Jackson. He was a magical teacher full of intensity, sincerity, great humor, laughter, originality and honest teaching. He…