My Top 10 Requirements of A Competent Yoga Teacher

After reading “The Top 10 Myths About What the Requirements are to be a Competent Yoga Teacher These Days” from Elephant Journal  and having a good laugh over it, it got me thinking about what are my own expectation of a competent yoga teacher. 

Here is My Top 10 Requirements of a Competent Yoga Teacher :-

1.     Compassionate

2.     Not Pretentious and Self-Centered

3.     Good communication skills

4.     Good knowledge of the human anatomy
5.     Ablilty to modify techniques and provide good assists

6.     Strength and flexibility

7.     Consistent self-practice

8.     Willing to share his/her knowledge

9.     Certified Yoga Teacher (not necessarily from Yoga Alliance)

10.   Continuous education by attending workshops 

Questions to ask your Yoga Teacher

As a beginner to Yoga, you would have a lot of questions that you would like to ask your yoga teacher but sometimes you might be too shy or don’t know how to ask the question.

When I first started practicing yoga, I was very lucky that the teachers who taught me were happy and ever ready to answer my questions and from them I learned so much which really helped my practice.

So, what are questions you should ask your yoga teacher?

If you are having trouble going into the poses during the class, stay back after the class and let the teacher know your problem. This way, you do not disturb the other students during the class and the teacher is able to show you how to go into the poses and correct any alignment problems that you might be having.

When you feel pain doing a certain pose, you should inform your teacher so as to avoid further injury as you may be doing the pose wrongly. I was feeling pain in my middle back when I did the half bow pose and after telling Azmi about it, he told me to make sure that I keep my hips in alignment as I lift my legs off the floor as I could be crushing the nerves at my back when my hips are not in alignment.

If you are having tight shoulders, hamstrings or hips, check with your teacher what poses you can do at home to help open those body parts. Doing those poses will help to improve your flexibility and help you progress in your practice.

The breath plays an important role in our practice and if you are not sure whether you are breathing correctly, you can ask your teacher. We breathe through our nose and not our mouth in yoga and learning the proper way to breathe will help us to ease into the asanas. Using proper breathing techniques such as the Ujjayi breath helps us to concentrate and direct the breath and gives us energy which will enhance our practice.

Yoga is a continuous journey of learning and you will discover new things about yourself from the practice, having a teacher to guide you along will help tremendously in adapting yourself to these changes.

Evolution Yoga Conference 2011 - My Schedule of Classes

I will be going to the Evolution Yoga Conference 2011 in Hong Kong from 9 to 12 June 2011 and have been busy going through the schedule to decide which classes to attend.  During the initial  registration, I had chosen mostly the 2 hour sessions and looking at it, I realized that I had actually registered for similar classes to attend on different days.      

After talking to Azmi (who is also going to the conference), he suggested that I register for the CET classes especially a yoga and anatomy class to gain knowledge and skills on the techniques to deepen my practice.

As the organizer allows class changes to be made online until 8 June 2011, I have spend more time going through the description of each of the classes and have put more thought on the classes I should go to.  My revised schedule includes half-day intensive classes and 2 hour sessions but I did not sign up for any CET as the workshops were more suitable for yoga teachers.     I did register for a half-day intensive class on yoga and anatomy and my schedule now encompasses workshops on foundation and core, twists, backbends, forward bends, inversions, arm-balances, pranayama breathing techniques and yin yoga.   

I showed my revised schedule to Azmi and he suggested that I  make a slight change which I did. I also made the decision to join Sharath’s Led Primary Series Class on the last day although I have to pay extra as it was not included in the 4-day Pass Package. I felt that it was a good opportunity for me to experience doing the Primary series with Sharath after reading the many blog posts and hearing about his teaching in Mysore.

I am really looking forward to the yoga conference and the opportunity to learn from some of the best yoga masters in the world and the gurus whose classes I have signed up for are Sadie Nardini,  Jason Crandell,  David Life, David Moreno, Simon Low, Marla Apt, Paul Dallaghan, Mark Laham , Rodney Yee and Collen Saidman.

If you would like to register for the conference, feel free to drop me an email to get the referral code for the 15% off the package price for the 1-day Pass and the 4-day Pass. 

Bunny Yoga

Hope this will bring some inspiration to your yoga practice..:)

Beautiful Native American Song

I was surfing the net looking for songs for my yoga playlists and came across this beautiful native american song which I would like to share with you all.  It is so beautiful and soothing....

Will I Be There?

I really hope so... (latest update:: I will be there...:) 

It would be a chance of a lifetime to get to practice and learn from some of the best yoga masters in the world at the Evolution: Asia Yoga Conference 2011.

My Yoga Challenge Pose - Handstand

I have decided that I would work on my Handstand and it will be my challenge pose for this month.  For me, a challenge pose is one that I  always have difficulty going into and I hope that by working on it during the month, I would learn to execute it.

Handstand has always been a pose that seems out of my reach as I can never do a proper kick up at the wall.   I have been having trouble finding my dominant leg for the lift off and ended up jumping with both legs at the same time and not getting anywhere.  I have been doing Handstand in some of the classes but it has always been with Azmi’s help to pull me into the pose from a bunny hop.   

At last Friday’s Dynamic class, I finally managed to find my dominant leg for the kick off which is my left leg.   I worked on lifting my left leg while keeping my right knee bend and practice hopping towards the wall.  I couldn’t manage to get my legs to go all the way up to the wall but I could feel my legs almost touching the wall.    The good news is that I did manage to lift my legs all the way to the wall during the Forearm Handstand after Azmi’s reminded me not to push my shoulders forward past my hands.   

I will be working on my Handstand and hopefully with constant practice, I will be able to get both my legs to go up all the way to the wall and ultimately the goal would be to be able to lift both legs away from the wall and hold in the Handstand.   Meanwhile, I found this wonderful post from Kathryn Budig at the Yoga Journal website with great tips on how to do the Handstand.  I will also be keeping in mind this challenge tip from the Yoga Journal 21-day Challenge newsletter. 

“When working through a challenging posture, try to reframe your thinking from doing the pose (active) to receiving it (passive). Every pose contains information that your body understands. When you allow yourself to step back from the thinking mind, from effort and force, you create the conditions for your body to hear the information it needs.”