Blog

Have you noticed how your appreciation for something increases when you know it's about to end? Perhaps you savour the views on the last day of your holiday. Maybe you hold your kids more closely just before they leave for school camp. It could just be relishing an extra 10 minutes in bed before the alarm goes off!

Whether you know it or not, in those precious moments when you really appreciate what's happening in the here and now, you're practicing the sacred art of coming into the present moment. It's a delightful experience of mindfulness that has long term positive effects on your health and wellbeing. 

Whether you've heard it from your yoga teacher or read it in a self help book, it's likely you've come across the instruction to ‘come into the present moment.’ That's sound advice, but how can you practice that on a day to day basis and what are the benefits?

I’ve been practicing yoga for 25 years and teaching for 15 years. And I’m a long way from being a guru.

I’ve got plenty of diplomas, degrees and postgraduate qualifications as well as many thousands of hours of experience. But the gaps in my knowledge are as wide as the ocean.

And that’s a good thing. For two reasons.

I’ve been dropping in to a few casual yoga classes in my neighbourhood recently and I’ve noticed a worrying trend. Too many teachers are mistaking asana sequencing for choreography. Everything is sacrificed on the altar of ‘flowing’ vinyasa. There’s no time to teach safe alignment, challenging poses are presented without adequate preparation and counterposes disappear entirely in the quest to choreograph the perfect flowing vinyasa. Along the way, teachers are throwing out the classic principles of yoga that are designed to keep their students safe. 

So what is the difference between asana sequencing and choreography?

Mindfulness is the hottest ticket in town right now. Celebrities, media, self-help books and doctors are all touting the magical properties of mindfulness meditation. And it's true that there have been some convincing studies to show the benefits of mindfulness. But is the mindfulness revolution all it’s made out to be?

I recently ran into Joanne, an old friend and an experienced yoga teacher. She wasn’t feeling very yogic.  “Why can’t yoga teachers just teach from what they know?” she said, exasperated. “If one more teacher quotes Rumi at me, I’ll scream!”

Now, Joanne wasn’t suggesting that we have nothing to learn from Rumi or that yoga teachers shouldn’t find inspiration in spiritual texts. That’s clearly not true. Her problem, as she explained, was the use of cookie-cutter scripts in yoga classes.

When I first started practicing in the late 80’s, yoga wasn’t being offered on the same industrial scale as today. Teachers taught classes in community halls and back bedrooms and teacher training was usually conducted informally in small groups or one-on-one.

By the time I started teaching yoga in 2002, the landscape had changed dramatically.  Yoga schools and teacher trainings were proliferating across the country and new multi-room professional studios were being built. As the owner of a new and rather small yoga studio, I wondered how I should develop and sustain my little business.  I looked around at the growth in the yoga industry and thought that my studio had to keep growing and getting more ‘professional’ in order to survive.

One of my early yoga teachers, Buddhist nun Anipema Chodron, gave me an important piece of advice about choosing a yoga teacher. Make sure you ask your prospective yoga teacher who THEIR teacher is. Then ask them who their teacher’s teacher is.

Are you an early-bird or a night owl? Your answer could increase (or decrease) your risk of cancer.

Yoga and its sister science Ayurveda promote a healthy lifestyle that recommends an ‘early to bed, early to rise’ model of sleep. Now, a study from the UK has found that early risers have a reduced risk of developing breast cancer.

Do you know what the world doesn’t need right now? More RYT200 yoga teachers. I don’t know about your town, but Sydney is awash with them. So I’m not going to be responsible for producing any more.

I’ve been to a few yoga classes recently that indicate there's a sequencing-tastrophe happening in yoga studios in Sydney. Some of the 'sequencing' I've experienced can best be described as choreography, with teachers far more concerned about flow than either the effects of the practice or the safety of their students.

If you’re a yoga teacher putting together weekly or daily classes, here are three things you might be doing wrong when you plan asana sequencing (but hopefully not...)