One of the communities I have just started teaching in hosted a free class. It was an effort to have people come out and try yoga, to meet me as a new teacher, to see if my class might be a fit for them. Usually there are about twenty people in a class. The free …
Go with your own gut. Trust your own intuition. If I had to offer one piece of advice to anyone that would be it. Every time I have gone against my own inner guidance, it has resulted in pain. Growth always comes from pain so I won’t call those moments mistakes, but I am all …
The other day I clicked on a FB post about a woman that has multiple personalities, a result of severe childhood trauma. Many of her personalities are artists, each having a very distinctive style. The main personality does not remember the trauma, but one of the personalities does, and she processes it in her artwork. …
Three days a week I teach yoga in the ballroom of a country club overlooking the Atlantic ocean. Once a year there is a fashion show in the ballroom so we take it outside. Today was that day. Mats on the grass, uneven footing, a big range in ages, I taught a slow class, all …
The thing I really love about a Vinyasa class is the combo of movement with breath. The energy flow that happens in that practice is the thing that always brought me back to my mat. Now, my practice has to be more static to protect my neck. Repetitive forward folds no longer work for me. …
So I should mention the phone call I had with Heather when I got home from my fateful PT appointment wherein I was told the yoga practice I loved so much would have to change for good. Heather is a fellow teacher, a prolific one at that (go there with me to a land where the …
I was talking to my friend Andrea about some of the women in a yoga class I teach regularly. They are in their 80’s. One will be 90 this year. They inspire me so much, keeping up with the 50, 60, and 70-year olds like it’s nothing. “Sometimes I just want to stop class and …
So I am needing to re-set. I need to really, really learn what is safe for me in this body. In a class where I can’t move at my own pace, I’m on high alert and it is stressful for me. Stressful yoga isn’t what I am going for. Home practice is where it is …
It’s an odd time to begin writing a “yoga blog,” when I feel so “yoga lost” right now. As a student, I have never, not once, heard a yoga teacher say “I am lost with my yoga.” Writing this, I know I can’t be the only one. But I know many teachers personally, and have …
So as not to bore anyone with continuous posts about my neck ailments, I will space those out a bit. Today I want to write a little bit about yoga culture. I have lived in several states and have taken many kinds of yoga, at various places. It is interesting how differently they all operate. …
Michelle O'Neil,Writer 