Thank you
Over the past seven weeks, I have deeply enjoyed the great privilege of guiding a small dedicated group of yoginis through a series of progressive yoga classes with the intention of learning how to “love your back so it will love you back” (truly though, we delved in to learning how to connect with and embody the whole Self, from the intellectual to the physical to the emotional to the subtle to the spiritual).
The amazing thing to me about my role in guiding this practice is how much I learned. Through my preparing for these two-hour workshops and through offering adjustments, modifications, and suggestions to the many beautiful and diverse bodies, I grew so much as a body nerd, as a teacher, and as a person. Each of you showed up with an area for growth, and I was so grateful that you shared your journey withe me because you inspired new ideas, intriguing questions, and fascinating aspects to explore! For me, the very best way to learn is to teach, and I count each of you as valuable teachers along my own journey. I cannot thank you enough.
Summative Epiphanies & Ideas to Work With
If you feel like I do, you gained quite a bit of unexpected wisdom from these past seven weeks. Here is a summary of the take-home messages I came away with from working with you all:
- Take more time asking yourself, What feels good? Find the places in your body that feel nourished, whole, happy, and give them your awareness. Acknowledge the parts of you that feel blissful. Allow those places to expand and inspire the rest of your body.
- “Where attention goes, energy flows.” –Paul Reps
- Do you have a habit of chronic pain? Are you willing to modify your habits?
- Play more. Crawl on the floor (use kneepads if you need to!), roll, climb, skip, make faces, yawn, stretch, move without an idea of some form you want to fit into. Instead, move as an exploration. Cultivate a playful, curious relationship with your body. Find the joy in your cells and make the time to dance.
- Don’t take yourself so seriously.
- Community is healing.
- 20 minutes each day is all it takes. If you don’t have 20 minutes, start with 5. The benefits are profound.
So, what’s next?
Back Care Yoga Classes at Happy Goat Yoga!
Slightly less in depth from a scientific standpoint but just as heart centered, classes will continue at Happy Goat Yoga! These do not require pre-registration, you can just drop in, and punch cards are also valid for these classes! Shorter than our workshops, we will weave philosophy and the science of yoga quite literally into the physical practice, the postures, the pranayama. I hope you will tell your friends, and join me on Wednesdays! See below for the class description!
Love Your Back & It’ll Love You Back
Back Care Yoga Classes at Happy Goat with Jessie Tierney, SPT, E-RYT
Every Wednesday starting March 21, 2018
12 noon – 1:30 pm
$14 to drop in; class punch cards available at a discount
Happy Goat Yoga, 600 Main Street in Wheeling, WV
Interested in yoga but concerned about a class appropriate for your body? These classes offer a mindful introduction to movement that is safe and healthy for your aching back. Build strength, flexibility, balance, and peace as we weave philosophy, current research on pain, and the science of mindfulness into the physical practice. See you at Happy Goat!