I’ve worked for years to increase my practice, build what I’m doing and in the past two years really decided it was time people listened. At 25 most people assumed my health was a gift of genetics but ten years later people look at me and start to wonder what it is I’m doing that seems to be working. I ache, I hurt and regularly I might add but, I can control it. Bodywork and yoga have provided a solid platform along with dietary changes that allow me to heal myself to my ability. That control leads to less depression, less frustration and lots of hope.
This week I had to turn away three clients, three of my regulars I see once a week. I, Robert Gardner turned away work and money. I reached my limit. My work has grown to the point that scheduling is needed in more detail, regular time off must be scheduled and my prices/rates need to rise more. I love what I do and it shows. To turn away work is something I’ve dreamed of and it only took ten years, two states and innumerable breaths to reach.
You want a session of Thai massage? It’s $100.00 per session and you’ll need to schedule two weeks in advance. I’ll see you soon. Thai massage class starts at 830am tomorrow.
I gave a talk recently at a local HEB. I was asked to speak about yoga and always relish the opportunity to discuss what I do and why. In yoga classes and bodywork sessions I can only talk so much so it’s an outlet of sorts to just verbally address what we’re working with.
A participant listened to me talk about my car accident, heard me talk about BKS Iyengar and at one point he said, “it sounds like you’re encouraging people to not be victims.” In maintaining a sense of supple softness to situations I found his words sank in. That’s exactly it. He hit the nail on the head.
Repeatedly I hear people saying, “I’m old. I was injured. I have this disease or physical malady. I grew up in an emotionally abusive home. I smoke. I’m not flexible or strong.” My response is always the same. “And?” Where you are has no impact on your ability to get better. If you think you’re too sick to do yoga you simply don’t know what yoga is. You are not trapped by your genetics to grow old and wither. You will age but that’s a natural process. Decay to the degree I see in people is unnecessary. You can age and live well. Do you want to be youthful, vibrant and full of vigor? Do you want to eat what you wish within reason? Do you want to avoid medications and surgery as much as possible? Yoga can help you do those.
I cannot promise you will never get sick. I can promise that with regular practice that sickness will not last as long and will not be as intense. That is a goal worth working towards. Yoga is active and empowering. It allows you to harness yourself with every fiber of your being to make a better life. Thai massage is the passive form, it allows you to have someone like me help you along the way. Both are wonderful and should be used to their potential.
Why am I adamant? Why do I increasingly become stern with a boisterous attitude? Unlike when I began I’ve ten years experience and vision. Your life can be better. It can be better than I can envision. If I sound like a broken record or preacher it’s because all around me I see and hear suffering, complaints and pain. People give various reasons for this. Wherever you are, it can get better. I know. I’ve done it and it continues to grow at a pace I find staggering.
Your pain is a form of ignorance, let’s remove it together. Bliss is waiting.
https://www.robertgardnerwellness.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Robert-Gardner-Wellness-Header.png00Robert Gardnerhttps://www.robertgardnerwellness.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Robert-Gardner-Wellness-Header.pngRobert Gardner2012-02-24 14:35:542012-02-24 14:35:54Are you a victim?
Years ago I decided after a year or so of yoga practice that I wanted to try doing a headstand. I pulled a pillow into a corner and walked my bottom above my head until I could lift my feet then fell over into the wall. I couldn’t balance and it felt very awkward on my neck. I ceased, deciding I’d try again later.
Months down the road I tried again and something had shifted. I seemed to be able to hold the pose briefly and began working on my balance, then my alignment through my arms and shoulders. The pillow slowly was pulled away from the wall and when I felt more comfortable with my balance the real fun began.
Headstand is like a wake up. As the king of inverstions is allows blood to pool in your head and turns your world upside down. Your heart has to work to push blood up to your feet and when you flip right side up, that’s reversed. Blood flow helps cellular repair and cleansing in your body.
This promotion of vascularity in the head and neck helps keep the thyroid and parathyroid in high functioning order. The hormones released regulate many functions in the body and the increased health of these glands is what makes the long term benefits of inversions, particularly headstand and shoulderstand so profound.
The yoga community is once again in an uproar due to allegations that John Friend, the founder of Anusara yoga, engaged in a large array of poor choices including having sex with a number of his students. I find myself in continual awe over what people focus on.
I know little of Anusara, little of the American yoga communities business dealings and even less about the celebrity orgy of yoga teachers. My response on reading the allegations is let the courts figure it out. Energetically, I hope that people can see we have people, making decisions in their lives and as bodyworkers and yoga teachers we need to be aware of the transference and countertransference that goes along with power dynamics. Of everything that John Friend is accused my number one concern is did he abuse authority?
Over the years I’ve had to deal with a huge array of dynamics with clients and students. As a male teacher I remember preparing myself to teach yoga and becoming scared watching a Rodney Yee video. Rodney was walking around shirtless, adjusting students poses in all his sexy flesh and my sense was that I would have to cover up. It seemed far too sexy. As a male teacher I was already going to have to deal with innuendo but it was an edge that I was uncomfortable with at the time.
Rodney Yee, as is well publicized was having sex with students at one point in his career as well. I’m not opposed to teachers and students making adult decisions but how does it look on the outside? Let me say that it has not been easy to do my job the last ten years. I should type that sentence twice.
When I was 25 I was single. I felt most massage clients felt a single 25 year old went into massage therapy to massage naked women. Massaging naked women was just a perk on top of helping people with back pain which I’d suffered with for three years at that point. Many issues regarding, touch, intimacy and sexuality were dealt with during my massage schooling and I continue to encounter new lessons in my field.
The number one issue I have is integrity. Choices are made but more than anything I do not wish to have my integrity questioned. In all my actions I wish to be above reproach. I want students of all walks of life to feel safe, comfortable and secure in our interactions. Doing Thai massage, teaching yoga and giving bodywork there is a large amount of body contact going on. I’ve grown comfortable with this and it doesn’t bother me. I keep in mind that for students, how many men have lovingly nurtured them with touch? Hmm… Just things to ponder.
I’m human. I’ve worked on women and men who might as well have sprouted angel wings and ascended to heaven off of my Thai massage pad. Beautiful people, sexual people and happy people. People I’ve found appealing and arousing. I find the same thing at the supermarket. Having a strong attraction or aversion to people around you should be used as a lesson. What is it that we find appealing in others? What is it we find unappealing?
Bodywork and yoga aren’t about sex. They are however about people and people will never be divorced from sexuality. There are 6 billion people on the planet for a reason.
I strive to never abuse my authority as a yoga teacher or bodyworker. Students and clients submit to me in a sense in session and it’s my job not to abuse that power. They’ve put themselves in a role and honoring their position in that dynamic means protecting them and myself. All our interactions should have integrity. Healing comes in many forms, including sex. I only engage in a few of those for money.
I hope in time the dynamics and power structure become more egalitarian and male teachers don’t abuse authority. In John Friend’s case I hope that his teaching can continue despite whatever personal choices he’s made. Don’t confuse the teacher with the teaching.
Dislike for the commercialization of the holidays grows as I age. In considering what my wife should get for Valentines day I had to consider lots of factors. In my relationship with Andrea we’ve come to the conclusion that she adores attention. Having my focus is probably the number one thing that makes her feel special. Buying things and gifts isn’t as large a concern and until recently money was tight enough that that was a beneficial situation.
In considering a commercial holiday that I want to reclaim, what would work best? What can I do to show my appreciation to my partner? When I get home from work this evening, here’s what she’s getting:
I’m going to kneel at her feet with a bottle of nail polish remover and clean every toenail of the old polish. Lovingly her feet will be cleaned by running warm soapy water into a large bowl and having her feet washed by her husband. She will be meditated upon, praised and adored by the man she’s tolerated for 7 years. I will then dry her feet with a soft towel and apply raw unrefined shea butter to her feet and massage them.
Wringing out any tension in her feet while giggling with her and talking I’ll find the sore spots and work them out with care. Grabbing whatever color she chooses I will then breathe with focus and lovingly apply polish to her nails. Each little piggy gets its own coat and the yoga teacher can exhale to dry them in turn.
The value in yoga and meditation is that they are living, breathing practices. They’re not divorced from your day to day life. Meditating upon our loved ones and focusing our care and attention on them allows us to have better, more healing and whole relationships.
What did it cost? How do you think my wife will feel? What do you think she’ll do to me afterwards? We can’t post such things in my blog, those will have to remain secret. 😛
In yoga classes I regularly remind the students to breathe. I can never remind them enough and yoga is just exercise without the focus on respiration. The breathing will expand your body, open your tissues and allow more space for your self to reside in physical form.
In this video we talk more about the muscles of respiration and particularly what happens in inversions. Being upside down means that your breath changes in some key ways that you can take advantage of to strengthen breathing for when you’re right side up. Typically the breath is 50% inhale and 50% exhale. Use ujjayi to slow the breath down and enjoy the nuances and feeling of air going in and out of your body. Trace the breath from the nose to the lungs and back out again. Get lost in the breath. This feels good.
https://www.robertgardnerwellness.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Robert-Gardner-Wellness-Header.png00Robert Gardnerhttps://www.robertgardnerwellness.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Robert-Gardner-Wellness-Header.pngRobert Gardner2012-02-12 03:17:532012-02-12 03:17:53On the Breath pt.3
In 1999 I took my first steps to becoming a bodyworker. A car accident left me with a bad whiplash and subsequent body issues that loomed like a gnawing gremlin for years. After announcing to a new client that I was mostly pain free after my ordeal she asked how long I was in pain. I announced, “ten years or so.” Her jaw grew slack at the announcement I’d dealt with pain for ten years but I kept working with a smile.
Pain, once it’s gone is forgotten. Much like a mother giving birth there is a memory but women do not stop having babies due to it. It becomes something you remember but no longer holds your emotions or life, it’s been processed. Recognizing where I’ve come from it’s been an extremely long journey. Just let it be known that I was miserable, depressed and couldn’t get help through the standard channels.
I’d always been somewhat against the grain but my injuries made me quit, drop out and move on. Receiving no help I had two options. I could become a junkie and medicate the pain away or I could get better. I chose the latter.
I’m still working on my pain but it’s marginal compared to where I started from. I was recently working on downward facing dog pose and using a small block to open my cervical spine. No one has taught me this but I’d seen a photo of BKS Iyengar doing it and as soon as I tried I had the usual response I have to his yoga, “that crazy old man knows! Wow, I can’t believe it’s that simple.” As I open up this portion of my spine realize that now this has been closed for 13 years. A 13 year old wound is being healed, something no bodyworker, no one but myself has been able to access. I grow in my admiration for Iyengar with every yoga practice. He’s considered a master for a reason.
Watching this video I continue to be in awe. The physical limitations we have are encultured and not encoded by genetics. Is it nature or nurture? At issue is we’re not really sure where the edge is when it comes to nature. Nurture in turn has hardly been explored, let’s continue working another hundred years until strong AI and the nanobots take hold but for now, there is yoga.
I continue to be amazed at what can be tapped into. I feel good. I’m energetic. A client asked me recently if I ever take a day off. I honored the mirror placed before me and have no desire to burn out but explained that my yoga practice has helped me have a level of health that allows me to keep going. I nap like a cat and sleep is my superpower my wife jokes. When you work for yourself, love what you do, run your own business and are trying to heal not just yourself but those around you, what else can you do but work ceaselessly?
Freedom, true freedom can only be known when it is experienced. Our path is using our body to release physical restrictions, remove pain, maintain health and feel spacious, open yet grounded. Once you’ve channeled your focus, tamed your mind, slowed your breath and begin mastering your body, you’ve only just begun. Freedom of movement, lack of pain and health of the human form is enough of a start.
Iyengar knows what this is about, far more than I do. He’s devoted most of his life to the practice of yoga. May his light continue to shine and dispel the darkness.
https://www.robertgardnerwellness.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Robert-Gardner-Wellness-Header.png00Robert Gardnerhttps://www.robertgardnerwellness.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Robert-Gardner-Wellness-Header.pngRobert Gardner2012-02-05 00:20:532012-02-05 00:20:53What is freedom?
The most common breathing done in hatha yoga is called ujjayi. It’s said to build internal heat, cleanse the body and it aids in slowing down the heart rate. When people breathe this way there is a slight, small sounding rasp in the throat. It’s the sound of the ocean hitting the beach at low volume. If I have students exhale through their mouth and make a haaahahahahahahhhahahahah sound it’s the same muscular contraction taking place.
This is the epiglottis. This covers the trachea during eating so that food doesn’t go down into your lungs. This covering, if lightly contracted, closes the windpipe (trachea) slightly and makes for a smaller pipe to pull air down into the lungs. This has several functions. The sound occurs due to air rushing over the epiglottis much like the whistle that happens when you blow over a glass bottle.
The lungs are like balloons. There is one on either side of the heart. Those ballons are only so large and if you take a big in breath you can fill them in 3 seconds or so. By gently working with the contraction of the glottis you’re able to decrease the size of the pipe that air goes down. This allows someone to prolong the in breath or out breath substantially to say 12 seconds on the in breath and 12 on the out breath. Then comes the benefit of increasing the strength of the muscles of respiration.
The diaphragm and intercostal muscles that work to pull air in and push it out are strengthened through this kind of breathing because they’re working harder, pulling air through a smaller pipe. Long term this means that the muscles are stronger and your breathing improves and is more full even when you’re not in yoga class and not focusing on it. Better breathing, leads to better health.
So this slowed down, focused, oceanic breath allows you to get air, focus yourself internally and aids in the postures in yoga. It’s something people work on and gets easier with practice.
The easiest way to learn it is to breath through your mouth initially. As you exhale open your mouth and make a hhhhaaaahahahahaha sound. This isn’t with your vocal chords. You’re not singing or speaking you’re contracting the musculature of the epiglottis that allows you to close down the windpipe slightly. Once you’ve done this on the exhale try exhaling through the nose but hold that same throat contraction. With practice you should be able to make the hahahahahaahaha sound while breathing through your nose. Then the final step is to only breathe through the nose and make the sound on the inhale and exhale. This is ujjayi.
This breathing makes some difficult postures easier. I find my ujjayi kicks in even more when I find myself struggling in a pose and needing to settle in and focus. Over time the breath will slow your heart rate and calm you down while still providing ample oxygen to continue your practice.
https://www.robertgardnerwellness.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Robert-Gardner-Wellness-Header.png00Robert Gardnerhttps://www.robertgardnerwellness.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Robert-Gardner-Wellness-Header.pngRobert Gardner2012-02-02 22:15:452012-02-02 22:15:45On the Breath pt.2
In thinking for topics of blog posts we have some key themes. Health, wellness, yoga and Thai massage all hold a central place. My work has been a manifestation of deeper dreams. It’s been a goal to never resent my work. I don’t want to spend the bulk of my time in labor that doesn’t fit right livelihood. In short, I want to make myself and others feel better. I can already hear the murmurs…”but I have bills to pay. I have things to pay for.” I’ve never wanted to sacrifice material comforts for a well lived life. I think you can have both.
I’m told that it’s important to have a dream. When Andrea and I moved into our current home she was the one who saw Ebb and Flow yoga studio in an old garage that’d been carpeted. Friends told us that we couldn’t do yoga in the room, the floor wasn’t level. We marched on. Used/recycled mirrors, a few posters and art, some yoga props, mats and pillows later and we have a studio.
Everything I have has been built from the ground up. I’ve strived for excellence in every area of my life and am not disappointed with the results that continue to pour in. Naysayers have been vanquished. I’m teaching yoga, giving Thai massage, teaching Thai massage to other massage therapists and providing for my family. It’s been nice to see that it’s possible to live well and not sacrifice my ideals.
Still I aspire for more. Having an aspiration for something greater has fueled it all. I want what’s best for myself and others. When it comes to Ebb and Flow yoga studio I think it’d be nice to present the vision I have for the studio.
Ebb and Flow yoga studio isn’t a building or a place. It doesn’t exist in Round Rock and can move if it needs. The studio isn’t even mine, it’s ours. I’ve purposefully tried to present it as community space used for healing work. In saying it’s ours it feels more like community space, something used by those who work in its walls. So being that it’s ours what can we make it?
When I sit back and float mentally, here’s what I see.
Ebb and Flow studio if in its present location would be found with lush gardens around it. The front yard garden would supply greens for smoothies and take home herbs for students. As community oriented space people could tend the garden as they chose. The landscape would be worked on and heavy applications of mulch around the trees would build better soil. We’d also have flowers, trees, bee hives in the back, a chicken tractor that’s mobile around the yard and a large worm pit in back to compost in.
The path beside the house leading to the studio would be cleaned and painted with a nice sign, maybe the one in our studio with a painted arrow to the door. The path along the side would have lattice work of deer fencing connecting from the fence to the wall. This would allow vining plants to grow up and over the walkway in summer providing some shade and cooling the studio passively. In winter the plants die back allowing sun to hit the wall providing passive heat as it does currently. Dual paned insulating windows installed in the west facing wall would allow passive light and heat as well as keep cool in summer. Natural bamboo blinds can be raised or lowered to control light and heat levels.
This video gives you some visual idea of what we’re describing. Think yoga studio.
The studio walls are made of straw bale and cobb, these thick insualting materials that are derived from local products that are renewable. Earthen plasters and natural dyes can be worked into the walls themselves for color and decor. Nooks and crannies would be worked into the walls to hold pictures, photos, plants and figurines of importance. Small shelves built into the space allow for candles. The vaulted ceiling would stay as would more of the built in railing that would hold plants like variegated ivy. The plants will grow out and branch and trellis on small pieces of cedar pegs that line the upper walls. The growth allows them to blanket the upper wall and create green space indoors. They provide oxygen and can grow year round in the environment without heating or cooling that’s artificial.
A built in fountain provides white noise and is filled from the cistern that connects to the roof. The rain water that flows through it is used to water the plants and a small nook is created to hold the ladder to allow access to water and remove old leaves from plants. The upper windows have small latches that are accessible from the wall. It allows them to open and close while small fans that are solar powered provide ventilation if needed. Too hot you open the windows and vent air out, if it needs to cool you open the windows and pull air in.
The flooring is made of recycled Texas barn wood and used wine corks. The cushioned flooring is better on your joints and provides ample space for variations that are pleasing to the eye and friendly feeling to the body. The walls would have Iyengar style props, straps to open the shoulders and allow downward facing dog poses that traction the lumbar spine when needed. The central three thick lattice are structurally sound enough to provide inversion equipment. Three students at a time can hang upside down and traction their spine while continuing to work on their practice in unique ways currently unavailable.
Mats, pillows, blankets, blocks and other equipment is stored easily due to the way the building is built with spaces for all of them. Recessed areas that hold them specifically and functionally. The building supports our practice not the other way around.
Music can come through the well placed speakers built into the studio and includes a subwoofer to provide ample range from bass lines to higher frequencies without having loud volume. The controls and receiver are all easy to reach. A fold away flat projection screen allows films and video related to yoga practice to be shown during downtime at the studio for educational purposes.
The altar is custom made from recycled materials. Using what others have considered garbage we use broken tiles and smooth materials to create tiered areas to hold photos, mementos and offerings to our teachers. Imagine a statue of Ganesh, a figure of Jesus next to photos of Iyengar and Sojourner Truth. Since this is our studio you bring mementos that mean something to you. Flowers from the garden can be picked and placed into vases held on the altar as well.
The additional wall space can be painted or decorated with murals by artists or the community or both. Ebb and Flow yoga studio is what we make it.
If I’ve gone that far into conceiving of the walls and physical space can you imagine what we’re trying to do with the body? That’s the temple…what we described is just the building.
Here’s another video with Dan Phillips talking about recycled materials. We’d pick and choose what materials the structure would be made of. “Talk about your plenty, talk about your ills…one man gathers what another man spills”~St. Stephen by the Grateful Dead
I remind my yoga students to breathe. I’m always working on alignment, working on furthering their stretch and focusing on certain muscles to grow stronger but I return again and again to the breath. In hatha yoga, it’s the foundation everything else is built on.
In any pose at any time you should be able to breathe as fully as the pose will allow. If the pose is compressing your ribs so can’t take a full 100% breath then you breathe as well as you can with the space you do have. Poise and grace in position is what we’re working towards. If you can breathe steadily and calmly through a full class you’re well on your way to being able to sit and meditate.
The breath has profound effects on mood and outlook. Its ability to change one’s state of mind is well known in yoga. Older texts on pranayama usually start with a warning, “Danger! The exercises in this book can lead to arrythmia, anxiety, depression and eventually death…” not exactly something you want to play around with. Certainly at its edges there can be danger but for most the beginning of working with breathing is safe. I’ve been teaching it to seniors at a nursing home for a year.
The full range of changes chemically and biologically escape me. Let’s know that breathing in helps you take in more oxygen and exhaling allows you to rid the body of carbon dioxide. If we strengthen the muscles that help you breathe, you do so more efficiently even when at rest. Same as your bicep and a curl. The stronger it is the more it allows you to lift something with less exertion.
Breathe! You’ll live longer and with sharper focus.
https://www.robertgardnerwellness.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Robert-Gardner-Wellness-Header.png00Robert Gardnerhttps://www.robertgardnerwellness.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Robert-Gardner-Wellness-Header.pngRobert Gardner2012-01-25 14:01:302012-01-25 14:01:30On the Breath pt.1
People think you have to already be thin, young, healthy, flexible before you can do yoga. I’ve no idea why this is the case since one of the greatest modern teachers of yoga was so sick his own teacher gave up on him when he first started learning. BKS Iyengar developed props to help people get into poses gradually, to open their bodies but starting where they were, no matter their physical state at the time.
Let me point something out. This is me.
I sometimes think I’m fat. Let me say that again for those of you who’re questioning my sanity. I sometimes…think I’m fat. Body image is an odd beast and there are winter days where I’m sluggish and feel like poop warmed over. I go to a Bikram yoga class and feel youthful and vibrant. I feel like Titus Pullo.
When I took this photo after a Bikram class I felt alive and well, certainly not fat. Years from now I can look back and remember that I had visible abs. For guys that’s some sort of benchmark in western society. Don’t believe me? Find a copy of 300 and watch it. Abs are a big deal. Why? Do you needs visible abs to do yoga? Well you certainly do if you want to strut around and flirt with girls after class I suppose.
Image and yoga? What do they have to do with one another? Very little but American marketing demands that its needs be met. Yoga even the physical hatha yoga isn’t about the physical. The end goal has absolutely nothing to do with your physical body. In fact the practice is supposed to teach you, to have you experience the fact that you are not your body. It uses the physical as a doorway to the spirit. You may have to walk through it but I doubt anyone has ever reached saint status then thought, “man, I don’t have abs any more.” Crunches needed.
So what’s the focus on fat? I’ve no clue. I presume it’s just the groans of a dying society lost in a whirlpool. Our species for most of its existence had to struggle to get enough calories. Many on the planet still starve but those who have food, especially here in America have, dare I say, too much food. Food is everywhere and you can’t avoid it. People say sex sells but how often do you see pornography on a billboard? How often do you see naked breasts on the convenience store window? You do see ads for poptarts, corn dog rollers, double bacon patty melts and a whole host of foods not only poor in nutrition but loaded with calories. Hold up some kale and ask kids what it is? Brocolli? Swiss Chard? Now hold up a burger, do you see my point?
Part of the issue with yoga and those considered fat is that yoga, a timeless part of Indian spiritual tradition hit America. The land of botox, lapbands, fake boobs and pastreurized processed cheese food has now tried to merge with a spiritual tradition whose goal was samadhi. Lord, save me from your followers.
If you are ill or unhealthy then you’ll have problems reaching that goal. That is what the physical yoga is for. It’s designed to help make you strong, limber, focused with open hips that allow you to sit and meditate. Notice that I did not mention cute $100.00 yoga attire, mats, blocks, straps, water bottles, yearly memberships or your neighbors excess or lack of arm pit hair. Those trappings and material components have nothing to do with yoga. It’s not the point.
The point is you. It’s helping you wherever you are physically to train your mind and body to experience who you really are, underneath the abs or fat or both. So for the fat girls out there, yoga is designed for you. Much like life and relationships, yoga is what you make it.
I teach yoga in a nursing home once a week and have for the past year and a half. These people have taught me more about the practice of yoga than anyone. Know why? Because they couldn’t do anything that I thought of as yoga previously. They can’t get on a mat, they must sit in a chair. They’ve never done any traditional yoga pose other than mountain pose in a standing position.
If you come to my yoga class and can’t do something, we find something else for you to do. We improvise. If you’re in a yoga class and a teacher makes you feel bad or criticizes the fact that you can’t do a pose find another class and teacher. My goal as a guide is to help you explore you, wherever you are. Out of shape? So what. That means you’re a perfect student. The practice is designed to help you not convince you you’re not worth anything. If I as a yoga teacher cannot look at new students with different bodies as an opportunity to grow my own teaching practice then I have failed as a teacher. Each new student with different limitations is my chance to find out something new about what I’ve devoted my life to.
Start where you are. There is no other option.
Oh and by the way, remember when I said I feel fat? I’m 5’10” and weigh 174lbs. According to BMI I’m 1lb overweight. Medically I’m overweight. If I lose 1lb I’ll be considered okay. Get my point? That guy in the photo with the abs is considered medically overweight.
Each of the three words in the title elicit some response in the reader. I like all three. Fat whether it be from bacon or a good looking woman is usually pleasant to me. Girls are nice or at least hopefully are. Yoga is my preferred exercise and spiritual practice so combine all three and I’ve got a powerhouse of innuendo.
Recently it came to light that Paula Deen is diabetic. I felt an odd sense of well, duh when I first saw the article and after criticising her brunch donut sandwich felt like this announcement was the point I’d been trying to make while discussing Deen with friends recently.
I don’t want anyone to have diabetes. My mother is diabetic. It’s not fun, doesn’t make life easier and with high healthcare costs do we want even higher rates of diabetes showing up? I don’t. It’s a huge mix of issues from nature to nurture but people get diabetes for a whole host of reasons due to genetic factors and lifestyle. Can Paula Deen do yoga? Sure, whether or not she’s male or female or has diabetes has nothing to do with the practice.
Yoga was not originally taught to women. It was a men’s club in India. Fat people were less common because you had to figure out how to get enough food to become fat. McDonald’s didn’t exist when the vedas were written. Yoga is now an American institution and with ample food we wind up with fat girls in yoga class.
I’ll never forget a young lady showing up to work with me on yoga privately. We discussed health, diet, exercise and yoga. If allowed I have very relaxed meetings and discussions. My client announced in no uncertain terms that she would not allow me to tell her she should lose weight. If I pressured her in any way she would resist and cease working with me. To this point I’d mentioned nothing like this at all and found myself perplexed. I just felt puzzled and said, “what does being overweight have to do with health?”
We didn’t wind up working together but in retrospect I think she’d had so many health care workers focus on her weight that she had an assumption that anyone who worked in health would make issue of it. You’re fat? Ok. I’m not sure what that has to do with your ability to do yoga, live a long life or be healthy. People come in all shapes and sizes and it’s my firm belief that yoga is for everyone, not just the limber and biological elite.
I never want anyone to think they couldn’t come to my yoga classes. General classes would be difficult to work out if you were in a wheelchair but that’s just due to shooting to the middle of ability in a class with 6 people. Fat people can do yoga just as well as thin ones. The question is what is yoga?
For most it’s just a physical exercise. To me it’s more than this. It’s not your ability to do a certain pose but your ability to harness and focus your attention while in the pose. The practice can be done by anyone and is supposed to bring health, wholeness and make people at ease. I’ve never heard any mention of fat getting in the way. Your body is where it is. Start where you are, grow your roots.
People who aren’t some societal vision of physical perfection can stand, can sit, lay down and therefore you can do hatha yoga. If you go to yoga classes where the teacher or students look at you oddly then ignore the students and find another teacher. It’s as simple as that. You are wherever you are. Size has nothing to do with yoga.
I posted this video on my business facebook page and had quite the response.
Some announced this was why they couldn’t do yoga. They were comparing themselves to the woman in the video and announcing they’d never be able to do those things. Others like myself were in awe of her muscular control and grace in the middle of difficult poses. I found it tremendously beautiful.
I was discouraged to find that I could not find the video I wanted of big sexy girls doing yoga. If you type big sexy girls yoga into youtube or google be preprared for near pornographic non-yogic focus to your video. Much hilarity ensued.
My friend was asking me why I don’t use my wife and students to shoot a video of big sexy girls doing yoga and my first comment was, “because it’ll turn into my own personal youtube video of sexual shame!” I like big girls. I like girls that are considered fat. Nothing gives me as much joy as coming home after a Bikram yoga class where I have sweated and worked out in a hot room to my lovely curvy wife relaxing on the couch. She asks how class was, I get her a slice of cheescake. It’s not everyone’s choice but fat girls do yourself a favor and hang out with men and yoga teachers who appreciate bigger women.
I’ll see you in yoga class. Just remember I’m married.
