Finally, *finally*, I have something nice to say about poor Natalie Maisel, who I've been so critical of in the past. This morning, I tried Chakra Balancing Yoga #1, 30 minutes and I was so impressed!
This is a terrific, beginner level class that explores and balances the Chakras. For each Chakra, she offers a location, description, a colour visualization, a vowel sound (not the traditional ones that I'm familiar with, but that's okay I guess) and an affirmation. It was nicely done, relaxing, really a meditation in motion.
I liked most of her asana choices for the Chakras. That said, I would have left out the two deeper backbends (Ustrasana and Urdhva Dhanurasana). Given that this is such a gentle class, there's no opportunity to warm the body; it's tough to do backbending cold if you're not naturally bendy).
As alternatives, I would have offered Bujangasana (Cobra, with a Sphinx variation) for the Heart Chakra, and Sasangasana (Rabbit Pose) or Sirsasana (Headstand) for the Crown Chakra.
The Savasana was soothing and lovely, with a review of each Chakra.The Sanskrit names of the Chakras would have been a nice addition for more advanced students. Overall, though, I liked this class and I will do it again. It has given me some ideas about how I might integrate Chakra work into my own teaching (Ever practical and science-minded, I'm particularly interested in how the Charkas relate to the endocrine system).
Now, I just have to get this out of my system...
Today's pet peeve: *sigh* 'Fallen Leaf' is NOT a yoga pose.
The pose being reference (I think...) was Child's Pose', known as Balasana in the Sanskrit language. But did I have any way of knowing that as I was looking forward to the counter pose to my backbend? No, I didn't. Cue FAIL.
This kind of thing drives me crazy! Since this pose was not listed on the YogaDownload 'cheat sheet', I had absolutely NO idea what Natalie was talking about when she asked me to take 'Fallen Leaf'. In fact, I'm still not sure.
Yoga poses have standard, agreed-upon (Sanskrit) names for a reason. They allow yoga students to study anywhere, with other teachers, even in other countries! The Sanskrit names of the poses should be the same if your instructor is speaking Tagalog or Japanese. And English, *especially* English. When the instructor speaks my language, I should be able to understand what's coming next.
To be fair, YogaDownload has it's own quirky naming conventions and that's fine, but the instructors need to keep things consistent.
End rant.
Busy day today. Lots of classes, but I'm having a good week. It looks like my noon class is cancelling again tomorrow. That's bad for the money thing, but I'm looking forward to the 'time off'. I'm planning to fill it with a few errands and household chores.
And sloth. :-D
2 comments:
Can't imagine there is much sloth in your life Kai.
Oh, there's sloth. There's definitely some sloth! *grin*
I'm a veritable couch potato when I finally settle down with a pot of tea at my side and a laptop computer on my lap.
This is the reason I try to limit my 'computer time', particularly reading blogs and RSS feeds. I can get a bit caught up in it. Lately, I've been trying to read more books - I think it's healthier for my brain.
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