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Ayurvedic Practices for Spring

Spring Cleaning.

As important for our homes as it is for our bodies and souls. We are born with a natural intuition but when keeping up with the demands of modern life, it’s easy to forget where we came from. Ayurveda inspires us to return to harmony with the natural impulses of the world, and the more we can tune into our natural impulses, the easier it is to find our way back into balance and health.

Balancing Kapha Dosha

Denver Clark, C-IAYT, ERYT-500, LMT #89197

Photo by mitbg000 on Pexels.com

Spring Cleaning.

As important for our homes as it is for our bodies and souls.

In the ancient practice of Ayurveda, we learn of the 5 great elements.

Earth, Water, Fire, Air & Ether.

These 5 elements combine into 3 primary Doshas that represent the energy of all living things.

Every person, animal, food and season embodies a specific balance of these energies and from the end of winter through the beginning of Springtime is the time of Kapha Dosha, or the elements of Earth and Water. These elements embody the qualities of Dampness (think melting snow or spring rains), heaviness and cold. The continued darkness of late winter and early spring, coupled with these energies in the atmosphere begin to impact our physical energy and mental state, leading to the wintertime blues. To combat these feelings within and without, our body naturally desires the opposite. We reach for warm, stimulating foods with spices such as ginger and cinnamon. We long for the warm summer sun and begin preparing our bodies for heat by increasing our levels exercise and minimizing heavy foods from our diet, we begin to lighten our homes by cleaning out closets and donating the things we no longer need, practicing non-attachment.

We are born with a natural intuition but when keeping up with the demands of modern life, it’s easy to forget where we came from. Ayurveda inspires us to return to harmony with the natural impulses of the world, and the more we can tune into our natural impulses, the easier it is to find our way back into balance and health.

Below are a few practices you can incorporate to help you ride the transition into Spring gracefully.

  1. Wake up early – The circadian rhythms of the clock have energies and between 6-10am is the time of Kapha dosha. The later we sleep in, the more difficult it becomes to awaken. Setting the alarm for 5:30am allows us to rise with the lightness of Vata time of day, when air and ether are more prevalent, when the atmosphere is infused with quiet and spiritual energy. This also inspires us to be more productive during our day, fighting off that heavy Kapha sluggishness.
  2. Shift toward lighter foods – Kapha embodies the qualities of density (earth) and moisture. When the atmosphere gets cool & dry in winter, it’s no wonder we reach for dense and heavy root vegetables and thick stews. Now is the time to apply the opposite energies to our diet. Light, warming and simulating tastes such as cinnamon, ginger and turmeric and smaller more frequent meals can help us avoid sluggish digestion and a feeling of heaviness in the body that can transfer to our mental state. Kapha taste is sweet, cold and oily (think bananas & avocados), so try to minimize those flavors during this time and favor drying, pungent, bitter flavors instead such as apples, broccoli and cilantro. You might also look into an Ayurvedic “cleanse” with a mono-diet of healing Kitchari for 3-21 days to soothe the digestion and reset the system.
  3. Get moving – The antidote to depression is movement. So is the antidote to stagnant, Kapha energy in body and mind. Get out in the warm sun (even if the air is cool, the sun can help counteract that!) take a walk, breathe fresh air and stimulate your circulation with warming, invigorating activities. Lifting weights can also help you channel the stability of Kapha into productive energy that fuels your body, mind and soul. 30 minutes a day is enough.
  4. Set Goals – The blessing of the damp, cool earth brings with it new growth in nature and it can do the same in our personal lives as well. Now is an excellent time to sprout new seeds of growth, challenge yourself to begin a new habit and stimulate your inner Tapas (fire). What are you most excited about? Lean into the energy of renewal in spring. Sit with your journal, make your vision board, speak your desires aloud. Now is the time!
  5. Pay attention to your breath – The clearest way to invite Prana (life force) into your body is through the intake of the breath. BKS Iyengar says that the inhale is the intake of cosmic, universal energy. The pause at the top is the union of the cosmic with the individual, the exhale is the sharing of individual energy with the universe and the pause at the bottom of the breath is the moment we witness the union of our own energy with the cosmos. By focusing our attention on conscious breathing for a few minutes every day or even through practicing stimulating breath techniques, we can inspire movement of stagnant energy and improve our vital functions in the gross physical body as well as the flow of energy in our subtle body. Bonus points for practicing this outside in the fresh air!
  6. Practice loving self-massage – Using a light and absorbent oil such as sweet almond oil, we can practice abhyanga massage (self-oil massage) to stimulate cardiovascular and lymphatic circulation, increase muscle tone and bring self-love energy into our body and mind. You can even incorporate your favorite essential oils into a custom blend if you like **Check out our Abhyanga oil tutorial here** This can be done in the morning or evening to reset the nervous system and support better health. If you already have a lot of Kapha energy, you may also want to consider purchasing a garshana glove. This is a raw silk glove that can be used for self-massage to stimulate and enliven the body and can be a better alternative to oil for those who already have a lot of oil in their skin. Dry brushing is also wonderful. Remember to always massage from the end of the limbs inward to return lymphatic fluid into circulation.

Happy Spring to you and may you flow fluidly through this changing of the seasons into a bright and brilliant Summer!

Featured

Online Teacher Training – Is it any good?

Denver Clark, C-IAYT, ERYT-500

In the large picture of yoga, I am just a baby. Having taught Yoga for the last 14 years, my time studying, and learning is a drop in the bucket of the vastness of the ancient wisdom of yoga. And even in this short time, I have witnessed a generous shift in the yoga community from what was previously a western preoccupation with physique to the new frontier of Yoga as a therapeutic healing modality, in the same realm of chiropractic care and acupuncture.

The world is in desperate need of healing and the yoga community is primed and ready to step in and help. In January of 2020, Yoga Alliance of America and the International Yoga Therapy Association were cracking down on fly by night online certifications and exotic training retreats that were much more about ziplining and vacation time than they were about yoga and so many of us were ready for it.

And then – COVID.

Now, we exist in a world where we’ve seen the outreach that online learning and telehealth have provided to underserved, underreached populations of people and we’ve been forced to take a hard look at the view of teaching and experiencing yoga from a distance.

For the last 3 years, the main topic of discussion at conventions and meetings of Yoga Therapy Accredited schools is this:

Online learning is not going anywhere any time soon. So how do we offer quality Yoga instruction and guidance for our students and clients from a distance?

At Heartwood Yoga Institute, the faculty is constantly searching for answers to this question, and this has left us a bit behind other schools as we struggle to offer desired distance learning that meets our high standards of quality in education. Here is what I have learned about learning, teaching, and providing yoga therapy online to clients:

 Live, real time, face to face interaction is necessary. Effective Learning is never only Passive – Prior to my yoga teaching life, I owned a dance studio and have spent my life surrounded by teachers. One thing I have learned is that students must be actively engaged to process and remember information and many studies provide more information on the matter, such as one from the National Library of Medicine published in 2019 which states:

“The process of encoding, storing, and retrieving is enhanced by emotional arousal (Crowley et al., 2019). Arousal will help to construct stronger and larger schemas during initial learning, which makes it easier to retrieve the learned information from long‐term memory (van Kesteren et al., 2012). Active learning methods try to arouse the learner by giving them the opportunity to control the information that is experienced (Markant et al., 2016). In contrast, when new information is taught with a passive learning method, this information is stored with less connections to the existing schemas, and hence retrieval becomes more cumbersome. “

When a school makes it mandatory to show up in person for a portion of learning time, they are offering students a chance to connect emotionally with one another for processing. Their questions can be answered in real time and the container of learning that comes from meeting in a shared space with a common goal can be created, even if it is done through a screen. This requires the teacher and students to be present, with their cameras on, faces visible, sitting alert just as they would in a classroom setting.

It is not the same when watching a recording, or multitasking with other devices or activities such as eating, scrolling your phone etc. The very nature of yoga is a lesson in mindfulness and self-discipline (Tapas, in Sanskrit). Bringing these lessons into the virtual classroom is imperative if we claim to teach true yoga.

When looking for an online teacher training program or yoga teacher, I highly recommend one that utilizes and requires real time, live, face to face interaction throughout the journey to activate the emotional learning portion of your brain.

Repetition begets understanding. Lessons, slides, and lectures that students can re-visit more than once allow them to process information in a new way through repetition. Remember when you learned to tie your shoes? How many hundreds of times does it take to learn a new skill? It’s easy to forget this as we age, especially in the current climate of “instant gratification.” An effective school or teacher will provide opportunities for repetition and it’s important for students to understand this is not busywork or wasting time but rather a planned and studied teaching tool for our brains to contain more information over time.

I am wary of any school that limits how many times a student can revisit their online material or even worse, only allows it to be seen once. I would search for a school that offers repetition throughout the lessons (repeating slides) and allows you to revisit your course for at least 6- 12 months following your training.

Student participation is necessary to learn. To teach is to learn. By sharing information with others and completing assignments such as papers, videos and live teaching of peers the student’s brain must transfer the information they’ve learned and turn it over into a new understanding to teach it to someone else. This is what we call “practicum” in our courses at Heartwood and stretches the students understanding of the material into a new place where they must effectively communicate the information to someone new.

An online class that presents information alone is simply producing content. A course that requires you to share knowledge in your own words is truly one designed by teachers, for teachers. You’ll get so much more knowledge and a much deeper understanding if you re-teach what you learn to someone new as soon as possible and your brain will retain this information much more easily.

Look for a program that requires you to share what you’re learning and holds you accountable as a teacher with feedback and growth opportunities.

You get what you pay for. To offer true student/teacher live interaction, feedback and notes from a qualified faculty member and the additional time it takes to support students in their online learning journey, a school must make a significant investment of tools and staffing. This cost then gets naturally passed down to the enrolled student to ensure the quality of the programming.

At Heartwood, our online courses include pre-recorded lectures with lifetime access that are professionally edited, printable notes that can be re-printed as many times as needed, online quizzes that are graded by our faculty, live meetings with our most qualified faculty members and 24-7 support when students have questions or concerns throughout the process. In order to offer this in addition to the high quality in person programs we continue to facilitate, we must train and utilize our most qualified staff.

A “cheap” program is different than an “affordable” program. When considering the depth of offerings in the course you are considering, make sure you understand the qualifications of the school and its teachers (just because a school says they can train you as a yoga therapist doesn’t mean they are accredited with the correct organizations) If you think the cost is fair for all the elements included that’s a good sign. If you think the price is “a steal,” you are very likely to walk away missing the quality you desire.

Great schools come with happy graduates. Check out reviews on Google, Yoga Alliance and ask the school for references of graduates they have produced. The best way to judge if a school is for you is to go right to the people who have walked in your shoes. Ask what they have done with their education and what kind of support they have after graduation for job guidance, references, and continuing support.

If online learning was designed to provide us with a global community, then the mark of a good online school is keeping that community connected.

If you’re considering online learning for Yoga, Teacher Training or continuing education in Yoga take your time and find the school that gives you the right feelings of support, community, career longevity and quality. And if you’re interested in certification through Heartwood Yoga Institute, please feel free to reach out to us any time at www.rytcertification.com

Good luck on your Yoga Journey!

New Yoga Teachers – Do you make these 7 common mistakes?

Denver Clark, C-IAYT, ERYT-500

There are now over 15,000 yoga teachers in the United States and many more worldwide. The entire globe is benefiting from the life altering effects of the practice of Yoga. It’s a beautiful thing that so many people are looking toward holistic practices to find balance and obtain healing and yoga teachers now have a platform to help others in a way never before seen. Of course, “with great power comes great responsibility” and now that millions of people are practicing yoga, there is a great need for teachers who can introduce the practice safely, sustainably and responsibly.

As we grow and expand as teachers, it is common for our own practice and beliefs to evolve. Learning new things, changing our approach and correcting past mistakes show that not only are we teaching yoga, but we are living it as well.

Below are 7 common mistakes I see new teacher making after 15 years in the Yoga Industry…

  1. Attachment to the lesson plan – I know it’s intimidating to be a new teacher in front of the class and of course we want our classes to be “good!” to feel seamless. We often spend hours agonizing over the perfect sequencing, playlists, themes and poetry to share. But what happens when a person walks into the class you’ve planned and they can’t do half of the postures on your list? Believe me, this happens more quickly and more often than you may think. A lesson plan can act as a magic feather yes, but if we aren’t tailoring our class to our students because our ego needs to complete the “plan,” then we are showing up for ourselves instead of them. Practice thinking on your feet and  changing the plan. Watch your students. Respond to what you observe and get comfortable asking for questions and feedback. It may take practice not to take that feedback personally, but I promise it will help you grow as a person and a teacher in ways you never imagined.
  2. Apologizing – New teachers often assume that they’ll be received better if they make sure everyone knows they are new. They may open class by telling students that they recently completed training, or apologize before class even begins because they are new. When they inevitably make a mistake they stop the flow of class to say “oops” or “sorry” before correcting themselves. What many new teachers don’t realize is that this innocent apologizing actually steals your student’s experience. Instead of enjoying their practice, they begin to worry about your comfort and success. We are all human and we all make mistakes. If you forget to do the pose on the other side, just keep going. You have the choice to fold it in later or forget it. As long as your intentions are pure, your class will stand on its own, regardless of the perfection of the sequencing or anything else. In all honesty, I much prefer a teacher who shows they are real than one who seems as if they never make a mistake. It gives me permission to be real as the student too and that is a wonderful gift.
  3. Speaking in absolutes – People drawn to teach yoga are helpers. They want others to feel good and heal in the same ways they themselves have experienced through yoga. Because of this, new teachers often frantically strive to learn absolutely everything about everything all at once, and then make sure to say everything they know every single time they teach a posture or practice. This includes rattling off lists of “contraindications” for poses and often results in teachers saying things such as, “if you are pregnant never ….” Additionally, once we experience the positive benefits of a practice or posture, we may assume that everyone else feels those same benefits or needs them. What works for you may not necessarily work for someone else. Where you feel a pose isn’t necessarily where your students will feel it and that’s perfectly okay! The practice is still helping even if someone isn’t experiencing it the same way as you. Be mindful of the desire to tell students where they will feel a pose or telling students that a practice will “fix” something. Get comfortable with the word “may.” Allow yourself to invite students to explore and let them in on the possible things they might experience but then let them have whatever experience they have and validate that all of it is good. Just showing up and practicing is enough.
  4. Calling out students by name – I once inherited an entire class full of students from another teacher in town because that teacher had made an “example” of one of them thinking she was helping. The student was so mortified to have been called out by name that she left and all of her friends left too! I made a point after hearing this story to never ever make an example of a student in my class. I have personally been called out due to my flexibility or strength as the “example” and it always makes me feel uncomfortable. My favorite part of a yoga class is the anonymity I have and the space it provides to be on my own mat, in my own body with my own thoughts, allowing everything and everyone else to fade away. Whether you are correcting or praising someone, the purpose of the practice of yoga isn’t to compare it is to explore and grow. If you need to help someone with a correction for safety, give the cue to the whole class. That person will listen and others will also benefit from the cue.
  5. Stepping up or down modifications – You’ve probably heard it before: “If you can’t do A, then grab a block and do B..” or the infamous “If you want MORE….” This kind of language implies that there is a better or worse way to practice yoga. This is simply not true. Because every body is different, every pose will look and feel different to every student. If you want to incorporate modifications and options (As I highly encourage you to do) try giving them “popcorn style” so your students decide based on feel instead of what option will be the hardest or best one. This helps create an environment where students are truly listening to their body in the moment and learning more about what works for them on that day at that time. Svadhyaya (self-study) is the goal of yoga. Try using modifications to encourage more of this instead of promoting arbitrary ideal. Your students’ mental health will flourish.
  6. Offering props without context – I am guilty of playing devils advocate on this one. If I am in a class and the teacher says “if you want, you can grab your blocks here.” I will almost always ask aloud “What do we do with them?” Perhaps a bit distracting (here I go showing that I am human) but honestly I have seen so many brand new students completely lost in a class who could benefit greatly from the use of props if they only knew how to use them. Luckily, since I first started teaching we have seen a shift in the industry to more acceptance of props and I no longer experience push back from students when I offer them. In fact, I have made it my goal to incorporate props for everyone in the class and then offer the option to “use them or loose them.” I find that this invites students to explore in ways they may not otherwise because they assume props are for “lesser” students. If you can, try using the props to make the practice harder as well. This reframes the relationship to the prop and makes everyone feel more comfortable using them. The more explicit we can be in the way we use the prop (the angle, position, the where, how and why) the more we empower our students in future classes where we are not teaching. This keeps them safe and gives them options no matter the current state of their body.
  7. No silence in savasana – This one depends on the clientele. I don’t feel the need to leave a lot of silence in my classes with older students in chair yoga who may use the class as a social experience. They often already have a lot of silence in their life at home. However, the average age of yoga students is between 30-45 years old. Culturally this means that your average student is coming from a life inundated with noise and stimulation. Work, television, family, partners, children, traveling, shopping, doing….. it never ends. All day long there is noise and color and multitasking. The nervous system of these students is in hyperdrive. They need sensory deprivation. Silence. A reminder of how to just be rather than always doing. So take 3 minutes or so to read your poem, spray your essential oils, adjust their shoulders but then leave them alone. Give your students the gift of silence, even if only for 5 minutes. Their nervous systems will benefit and they’ll get a little taste of the magic that yoga and meditation have to offer. In a 75 minute class, shoot for 8 minutes minimum of savasana and if you need to “Sell it,” be ready with a list of benefits. Once our students have bought into the why, they will be more likely to try it and feel the why for themselves and that makes for lifelong practitioners.

No matter where you are in your teaching journey, the more you learn the less you know. This is a beautiful thing. The simple act of showing up and sharing this practice with intention and love means you are already a good teacher. My hope is you continue to sit with new information such as this and question how you teach – forever. This is what keeps us growing and learning and living our yoga and inspires our students to do the same. Keep sharing, keep practicing. The world needs you. Thank you.

Using Trauma Informed Language to create a more inclusive yoga space

Denver Clark, C-IAYT Yoga Therapist, E-RYT500, Licensed massage therapist

Trauma.

A heavy word.

A word that we are seeing more and more often, especially in the yoga industry.

Trauma is defined as, “a distressing or disturbing experience,” and once we begin to learn about trauma we become aware that every human experiences some form of trauma in their lifetime. This means that when we step into the yoga space to teach, even if we are not intending to teach “trauma informed yoga,” we are always working individuals with a host of different life experiences that have likely been very distressing or disturbing. Since this is the case, finding ways to be more trauma informed in our language is one simple way we can make our students feel more comfortable and uplifted in our classes.

Teachers are often unaware that they are speaking in commands:

“Raise your hand,” “lift the foot,” “Do this, do that,” etc etc.

Invitational language is when we omit the commands we’ve been used to using and replace those with opportunities to explore the yoga practice. This creates an experience for our students that shows them the practice is theirs and not ours because our job is to show up for their experience. Invitational language asks your student to really listen to their own body and make a true connection with themselves (the goal of yoga) instead of mindlessly following orders and potentially disconnecting from the union and awareness that yoga can facilitate.

In my trauma informed course at Heartwood Yoga Institute, teachers are often overwhelmed at this idea. They’re afraid of sounding like a broken record and turning their students off by saying “I invite you to..” every other pose. So to help you on your teaching journey, below is a list of a few ways you can start using “invitational” language in your classes this week:

“I invite you to…”

“When you’re ready..”

“One option is..”

“We could..”

“Let’s try…”

“How about we…”

“If you’d like…”

“If it feels good today..”

“let’s explore…”

A challenge I am always giving my advanced yoga teachers in training is to never say the same thing twice in class. Even when teaching a 2 sided posture, try to cue into and out of the pose completely differently each time so it feels just like a new pose. How many of us teaching many classes per week over the course of years have found ourselves checking out and simply reciting our usual “script?” If you practice expanding your vocabulary by always using new phrases, you’ll be more present as a teacher and your students will be more likely to listen and stay present with you to avoid missing out on what comes next. I like to call this “tricking” my students into being present. I know, I know, it sounds negative but sometimes we need a little challenge from our teachers – I know I do!

I promise that with practice, this kind of language will become a natural part of your communication as a teacher and best of all, it will create a more trauma inclusive and uplifting yoga experience for your students!

For more information on Trauma informed language and trauma informed yoga, you can take the continuing education course at Heartwood Yoga Institute with me!

Manifesting the Chakra Garden

People often ask us, what did Heartwood look like before the founders, Ginny and David bought the property? Not much, it was an overgrown former farm property albeit with lots of potential. The Chakra garden was the first project we, as a couple, undertook.  Here’s the story of how the chakra garden can into being.

 In the beginning, there was nothing at all, just an empty patch of grass that the former property owner used as a secure area to train dogs. But we saw that empty space as the perfect location for a garden, and we envisioned a chakra meditation garden designed for inspiring yogis.

David consulted with a work study student who was a garden designer, and together they formulated a basic plan. The work began starting with digging out a pond that would be the focal point of the garden, and part of the Heart chakra space. We established a couple of benches around the pond to map out different meditation areas.

David had to do most of the work himself and as a mechanical and electrical engineer by trade, he had the skill set, the muscle, the vision, and the will. It took all we had just to buy Heartwood, so we didn’t have a lot of resources to work with for property improvements. We had to be creative.

We discovered huge rocks buried in the ferns and decided these could be used to establish the pond. David dug them up one at a time, dragging them with the help of work study students into the garden to place them into different strategic places to hold in place a pond liner and create a base for a waterfall feature.

Ginny had to put her 2 cents in as well, of course, giving her opinion about the pottery’s angle and how much water would flow. David decided every pond needs a bridge, so he engineered and designed one and put it together to hide a filter while providing a lovely walkway through the heart of the garden.

Students stood by watching or lending a helping hand. David had to get into the water to connect the filter and electrical to run a beautiful flowing fountain.

Then it was time to put in plants. And because we didn’t have a lot of resources to work with, again, we had to go with smaller, less expensive plants, just what we could afford with hope that in time they would grow and fill in the areas that we were looking to fill.

We next established the pathways and had a ton of gravel delivered for walkways. Ginny was inspired to create art that would blend with nature, so she began a project of making Chakra stepping stones to celebrate each of the chakra meditation areas. They were only a little art contribution but helped define this garden as a chakra garden meant for yogis.

She began searching out other elements of garden decor to enhance the ambiance of each chakra center. The couple endlessly pulled overgrown grapevine swallowing the property and turned that into archways to hold air plants.  It was time for mulch. And more mulch and more mulch. You could never get enough mulch for that garden it seemed. David put in a sprinkler system to keep the plants thriving, and the pathways were established with gravel. 

Ginny had given David a swing as a gift, so he build a roofed arbor for it, creating a special little place in the Muladhara chakra, the center for stability and the things that anchor us in life . Now beautiful little areas for people to go and have privacy in their meditation were taking shape. The garden was new, barely established, but we knew time and nature would take its course.

Things begin to flourish, and each area of the garden started to bloom, take root and find its own ambiance, calling people to the different areas according to what their soul needed. And each chakra center of this garden was independent and unique and yet part of a greater whole. The chakra garden had become a focal point of Heartwood, a place students loved walking through or sitting in to reflect on life. We were so delighted when we spied students out there, meditating or journaling or just basking in nature.

Ginny kept reading gardening magazine for inspiration, and when she saw competition in Country Garden’s Magazine she sent in pictures for fun. How wonderful if they could share this unique garden with others who loved gardening. The Heartwood Garden actually won Best Garden with a Purpose and was featured in an eights page spread, and now, even people who might never visit Heartwood could see and enjoy the fruits of their labors.

It was wonderful knowing the garden had been formally recognized by people who have seen thousands of gardens made with far more resources than we ever had to work with. The Heartwood Garden has since been appreciated by so many of our students, but like all things in life, nonattachment is necessary because all things are impermanent. Building a garden is sort of a different type of yoga practice. Two hurricanes and a variety of storms (as well as time) took its toll on the garden destroying so much of what we painstakingly built. Plants that took years to establish would suddenly die or were torn from the root by wind, trees fell on our fences, lighting was uprooted, and arbors were toppled. 

With each storm, we mourned a little and then began the process of rebuilding. New versions of the garden took shape. They could never be the same, but each version of the Chakra garden would still be beautiful and a part of the ongoing living art that is a part of life. There is an opportunity in loss to reinvent life – that’s the yoga view of gardening, and how to face obstacles in life.

Thanks to nature’s unrelenting optimism, the garden did come back from every storm. Some things were lost and sorely missed, but new fresh elements were given a chance to take root. We learned that all the flowers of all the tomorrows are in the seeds of today. And the truth is, the garden was never designed for Ginny and David to enjoy, but for all the yogis that would find their way through the gates. The chakra garden doesn’t enhance enrollment or have any benefit other than holding space for visitors. It was always meant to be a space for the future generation of yogis to unplug from the busy world and plug into one’s connection to nature.

The Chakra Garden at Heartwood is a living example that even when starting from scratch and you have limited resources, you can manifest your dreams. You just need to get your hands dirty and do the work.

We hope everyone gets a chance to visit the chakra garden at Heartwood and will spend some time soaking in the ever-unfolding history of how it came to be. We are proud to share this labor of love a humble garden made by yogis for yogis.

Ginny Shaddock, (IAYT Yoga therapist, ERYT-500 owns) Heartwood Yoga Institute with her Husband David (ERYT-500, IAYT Yoga Therapist, LMT). They are both yogis, avid gardeners and nature lovers who believe art and creativity are part of a spiritual path. Learn more http://www.Heartwoodyogainstitute.com

Devastation and Recovery – the yoga way

When you get my age (63) most people have survived numerous periods of devastation in life. I personally have undergone major crises and upheavals enough times to know, at least on some level, that this too will pass. As I walked through the grounds of Heartwood surveying the damage in the aftermath of hurricane Ian my yoga has never been more valuable. The level of destruction on the grounds was heartbreaking. Over a dozen huge trees down, fences shredded, bent, and blown down, electrical cables severed, huge bamboo toppled, my garden destroyed, and some damage to roofs. The very real issue of how we might possibly come up with the resources to put things back together plagued my mind. At the same time, yoga has taught me not to allow myself to wander down the rabbit hole of worry and to be careful not to invent a false narrative of how the repercussions of this storm will break us (a mindset it is easy to slip into when we can’t see what the future holds so we imagine the worst).

The news programs allowed us to witness how the devastation destroyed our neighbors to the south, ending lives and livelihoods. I know we have much to be grateful for. We lost dozens of huge trees that careened to the ground making it impossible to do anything but climb and crawl to the buildings and the astronomical price of removing them now feels like an insurmountable hurdle I have no clue how to cross.  And yet, none of the trees fell on the lodge or the house. One did fall on our pavilion, but only minor damage was result, and David can take care of that. Another fell on our two RVs, now totaled, but that is the one and only thing our insurance will cover, which means we just need to be creative with lodging until we deal with the insurance and replace them.   We had 8 students visiting when the storm hit, and no one was injured. More remarkably, they maintained the best of spirits and showed us compassion and support rather than expressing their own worry or disappointment that their training was interrupted in such a stressful way. They stayed until the airports reopened, positive and making do, despite our not having electricity for 5 days and their cars being trapped on the property by fallen trees so they couldn’t get out even if they wanted to. How honored am I to work with such practical, patient, and compassionate yogis?

I thought back to when Hurricane Irma hit us on Sept 17, 5 years ago. The next day students began showing up with rakes and gloves and smiles. They put hours of laborious work into raking the debris. Today, students started showing up just as they did before, some the very same faces revealing the durability of true friendships. During Irma, I entertained real thoughts of selling the property and ending Heartwood. It was just too much work for someone getting older every day.  I also remember that the efforts of those that showed up are what made me stay, reminding me of the value of the work I did and how privileged I was to have created a community with such decent, loving people. Storms such as this are a good reminder we need not be attached to the fruits of our labors and living your dharma means doing the work you are born to do without attachment to results. Even when it’s hard. Even when you are exhausted emotionally as well as physically. Yoga is why I put Heartwood back together and stayed after Irma, for yoga was stronger than any of my worries or resentment or fears.

I did not entertain thoughts of giving up this time, but I was still sad looking at Heartwood’s newest problem to solve. To begin, my normal resilience was somewhat tapped out. My father’s funeral was Friday before the storm, and I still carried grief over his loss. On the day of the storm, I received news of my brother’s serious cancer diagnosis and due to other health complexities, a sad prognosis for his future.  I had a major heart attack last Oct. and now, stress causes a piercing heartburn in my chest, which was going off as I assessed damage. I wasn’t alarmed that the pressure meant I would keel over, but it did remind me I have to take things slowly and keep my heartrate in a particular zone and stress at bay. Denver kept watching me, asking if I’m OK. She worries about me now in a way she never had before. I felt badly about that too. The collective weight of so much to emotionally handle at one time can make stalwart strength (a trait I’m known for) hard to generate. All you can do is breathe, right?

But breathing is not all you can do. More powerful yoga practices can shift how we react to the world. Vitarka is a negative thought. Pratipaksha bhavanam is the action of replacing that thought with a positive one and cultivating the opposite in heart and mind.

This doesn’t mean I can just say to myself, “My brother will be fine. Trust the universe,” or “I won’t have another heart attack, so stop worrying.” Or even,  “The repercussions of this storm won’t hurt Heartwood.” Because while these thoughts are positive, they simply are not true and deep down I know it. Bad things happen. Forced change happens. Loss is a part of life. What I can do is shift my thinking towards acceptance and trust and remind myself that whatever comes is a part of karma and one more powerful life experience to add to my ever-unfolding story. I can’t control any of the things happening. I can, however, control how I view and react to what is happening. Surrendering to whatever the future holds and reminding myself that all things are impermanent is the yogic response to life’s losses.  

My thoughts as I walked around Heartwood observing the crisis took new shape as my yoga mentality overrode my small self. My father is gone, but he is with me still, evident in the way I grabbed a rake and started doing what had to be done and was able to not make the devastation about “me and my stress”. I found the words to assure everyone things will be OK, even made a joke or two, to reinforce peace and acceptance rather than drama. (He gave me that.) My brother may be suffering and may not survive, but beautiful and poignant revelations often are unearthed when we face our mortality and I trust his life journey will continue to unfold with moments of beauty and love as he faces his personal crisis. My heart and body are speaking to me when I get that burning sensation, reminding me to practice self care and to not deny the evitability of aging and how this impacts my productivity. A heart attack demands I pace myself without frustration, judgement, or disappointment in what I’m capable of. Positive thoughts don’t mean being in denial of what is happening, but being in acceptance, with gratitude and trust, for life’s lessons, no matter how difficult they are in the moment.

The Heartwood grounds will get cleaned and nature always recovers. The landscape will shift. The lack of shade means many of our ferns will wither, my garden was destroyed and needs a total makeover and later, when things are sorted out, I can mourn the trees that have stood here for almost a hundred years and have met their end. I had such a connection and sincere affinity for those marvelous works of art created by mother nature. I will miss them more than anyone could know. The money required for this massive cleanup will be found one way or another and one day this upset will be another story of challenges overcome in Heartwood’s interesting story.  

I thought a lot this week about a time in my life when everything I held dear was lost. In 2010, my business, my marriage, my home, my career, my savings, my relationships with friends and my children were demolished. It took time and no small effort to put life in order again, but from those ashes a beautiful new life immerged. The loss led to my opening Heartwood, finding, and marrying my beloved David, and a deeper, almost profound sense of connection with my children that includes deep respect and shared sensitivity for what we all went through. What couldn’t be saved from that time, just wasn’t meant to be saved. While I still mourn some losses, they also taught me to appreciate what I have today in a sincere way. A lot of profound good came from that dreaded crisis.

Yoga teaches us that every crisis is a gift. Losses provide a platform for deeper introspection and a chance to put our priorities in correct order. We learn what we are willing to fight for and make sacrifices for.  We are reminded of what is truly important, and our spiritual path is awakened and deepened by challenges, whether we meet them successfully or experience failure.

I was hit by a storm this week. Like little tornadoes that pop up during a hurricane, I was hit with other life heartache simultaneously, as if to test my yoga fortitude. But yoga provided me with shelter from the storm and now shows me the path out of the mess. (The mess within me and the mess around me.)  

I believe in what I teach. It is nice to know that under pressing circumstances, I practice it too.  My hope is that everyone we have ever trained has gone home with these tools and that they keep nurturing and developing a deep relationship with yoga for times like these. In the end, Heartwood is not the trees or the garden, the buildings, or classes. Heartwood is the teachings, kept alive by those who embrace and practice them. That can hold up to a storm of any size.

For those wanting to support cleanup efforts, we do have a gofund project that you can visit here.

The Truth about Yoga Teacher Training for ages 50 Plus

One day, when I was around 55 years old, I decided to pop in and enjoy a morning class with the yoga teacher trainees in Heartwood’s 200-hour program. It was a beautiful winter day in Florida with the sun shining bright, the temperature a perfect 75, and a teacher who had had tipped me off that she intended to deliver a mindful, nature-oriented practice. The class was being held outside to take advantage of the gentle breeze, the blooming flowers, and the peaceful ambience of Heartwood in November. I set my mat up in the back thinking I might pause and take a picture or two for the group to enjoy later. This kind of class was just what I needed today, and what a treat it was going to be to be a student rather than the teacher for that hour.

I was truly enjoying myself, but halfway through the practice, the flow got a bit more dynamic than anticipated and I dropped into child’s pose to take a break. A thought ran through my mind. Wow, I’m certainly glad I took my yoga teacher training at 48, because this is hard. I would have a hard time getting through the demands of a 200 program if I tried getting certified today.

After the practice, as I was sitting in the garden with a cup of tea watching a few students practice teaching sun salutations on the lawn, I began considering my yoga journey and all I have done and continue to do to contribute to the world through yoga. For the first few years after gaining my certification, I taught classes, but soon after, I opened a studio. Within a few years I opened another, then another. I eventually founded Heartwood Yoga Institute and began training teachers and developing what today is a 7-acre yoga facility that offers a profound healing and educational experience for hundreds of people yearly. As my career evolved, my involvement in yoga found its own cadence and purpose and in the last 15 years I have trained literally thousands of yoga teachers at the 200-, 300- and 800-hour yoga therapy level with a continually evolving career that fills me with purpose, meaning, and a respectable income. I’ve touched the lives of many people, both the students I teach directly and the students I teach indirectly as my graduates move on to create yoga communities of their own. I’ve also worked as a yoga therapist and had the honor of impacting the lives of many, many individuals whom fate had the foresight to bring to Heartwood at just the right time for us both.    

What a shame it would have been if I had avoided taking that step to formally gain a yoga certification at 48 because I didn’t want to be the “older student” in a course with mostly 30-somethings. What if I had listened to that voice that said I was too old to learn something new, and besides, what really am I going to do with yoga at this stage in life? Worse yet, what if I had waited until I was 54 to consider yoga training? At 48 I was still teaching dance and had energy, flexibility, and stamina. Little did I know what was to come just down the road, both physically and personally. I faced unexpected health challenges in my 50’s. I began having issues with arthritis, had both feet operated on, and was unprepared for the weight gain and other shifts that came with menopause. I had new personal challenges to maneuver, including a financial crash, a devastating divorce, my children leaving home, and the loss of beloved family members. Add a few more years to my maturing self and I had a massive heart attack to add to the mix.  Could I have possibly gotten through a 200-hour yoga teacher training during that decade? Probably not! Did yoga help me accept and move through that decade with grace and positivity. Absolutely! How much harder life would have been without my deeper relationship with yoga, gained thanks to a yoga certification program.

I felt good from the practice, albeit slightly frustrated that I struggled a bit, and I sat there considering my yoga journey, thankful I had done my training when I did, but also realizing that had I avoided taking that step for whatever excuses I made up, it would have been a huge loss to the world. Had I not become a yoga teacher at the ripe old age of 48 (or if I had waited longer) dozens and dozens of people whose lives I have changed would be in a very different place, not the least of which includes my own. Heartwood would not exist, and frankly, many other studios would have failed to manifest since so many of my graduates were inspired by my teaching and as result, opened businesses and forged careers and made waves of their own in the world. In my very own “It’s a Wonderful Life” moment I took stock of the measurable ways my becoming a yoga teacher was central to my service to the world.  I can say with absolute certainty that my involvement with yoga was the best decision I ever made, at any age, and my maturity has never held me back.  In fact, I believe my age and coming to yoga at midlife made my reinvented career a richer experience.        

It was in that moment, feeling my age, a little tired and sore from the yoga practice, but deeply aware of how important my yoga journey had been to both myself and others, that I decided Heartwood needed to offer a yoga teacher training for ages 50 and up. I imagined how many dynamic beautiful souls were out there with wisdom and compassion to share, who might miss the opportunity to embrace the role of yoga teacher due to perceived physical obstacles or doubt standing in the way.  Yoga teacher training shouldn’t be a physical hurdle we must get past. It should be an inspirational, positive beginning of a lifetime love affair with a practice that makes life ever more poignant and meaningful. I knew in that moment Heartwood needed to create a special program for ages 50 and up that took into account some of the challenges YTT presents to those who are not in their prime physically.

I got to work with the Heartwood staff planning Heartwood’s first RYS-200 program geared to mature students and a few months later we offered our first YTT for ages 50+ to seven enthusiastic teacher trainees. In the 8 years since, Heartwood has hosted dozens of successful RYS-200 programs for ages 50 & up in both a weekly program for local students in a course that spans months, and in a 16-day immersion format for students that choose to join us from all over the country and beyond offered twice a year. I can honestly say that some of the strongest and most successful teachers we’ve trained have come from the 50 plus program, including some of our own staff members. The graduates are in their 50’s, 60’s, even 70 and beyond. Some are extremely fit and others successfully complete the program despite MS, Parkinson’s, Autoimmune issues, Injuries, or just the lack of confidence that comes when you haven’t been in school for decades.

People often ask how the yoga program for age 50 and up differs from the Heartwood traditional 200-hour yoga program where all ages participate. To be honest, the syllabus is the same. All yoga teachers, regardless of age, must learn philosophy, anatomy, alignment, methodology, and take a deep dive into the 8 limbs of yoga. Yoga Alliance defines what a teacher must know to prove competency, and considering I’m older myself, I’ll be darned if I’m going to dummy down the program as if age narrows a person’s capacity in the area of yoga. I’m proof it doesn’t! In fact, at Heartwood we have noticed mature students are often more apt to study, practice, and connect because they are less attached to the expectation or attachment to instant gratification that often is a result of being raised in our complex society today with social media, the quicker pace of everything, and what seems to be endless options making focus and commitment to any one thing harder than it once was.

Since most mature students choose to work with others in their age group, and the teachers too must learn to take care of their own bodies as time will inevitably stress their joints, ligaments and bones regardless of how in-shape they may be, we do spend a bit more time on modifications and contraindications to provide safe and effective practices for aging bodies. We skip aggressive practices such as Ashtanga that they are less likely to use when they begin teaching, and opt to add a bonus training of Chair and Assessable yoga to round out their skillset.

But the real difference between the 50 plus program and the traditional 200 program is mostly the community that joins together to study. People who have been on this earth a little longer have shared experiences and a certain wisdom that comes from surviving life’s ups and down. Most everyone in the program has experienced loss, be it a divorce, financial problem, career change or retirement. Most everyone struggles with the complexity of aging, reinventing themselves as time and circumstance forces life in a new direction. They all wrestle with the complexities of aging parents, family dynamics, children leaving home (or not leaving home), career shifts, dealing with spouses, ex-spouses, and personal trauma. They have witnessed friends or family members pass, become caregivers, dealt with disappointment, addiction, or abuse. They have experienced firsthand the health problems that come with age, be it a torn ligament or bursitis in the shoulder, cancer, heart attack, weight gain, or some other challenge. They know without question that nothing is permanent in this life, and yet they sign up for a yoga training because they want to keep growing as an individual and they believe in the promise of endless possibilities still.

All of this makes an older practitioner uniquely qualified to be a truly remarkable yoga teacher. The empathy that comes with having suffered from and survived life’s slings and arrows opens a person to the full potential of yoga. Most importantly, maturity helps a student keep in perspective the limits of the physical practice in the greater scheme, and ego or romantic notions of being hailed the next big instafamous yoga star takes a backseat to earnest personal development and skill building to share this knowledge with others.   

Rarely does the 50 plus crowd care so much about mastering an advanced pose for their next social media post. They are less about documenting the yoga teacher training journey on Instagram and more about applying the teaching to their lives. As they grow stronger, physically, and mentally, they feel deeply inspired and called to help others gracefully maneuver through life’s challenges, the aging process, and shifts in the world. They see yoga not as a vehicle to make a killing in the wellness industry, but as a beautiful and powerful tool for acceptance, insight, and balance. And after years of sacrificing for others, mature students are ready to embrace their right to focus on themselves and to grow spiritually. And one of the greatest things I’ve witnessed in the 50 plus program is the support and acceptance the students show one another as lifetime friendships form, and the students support and empower one another to get past their obstacles and make the later chapters of life remarkable on so many levels.

These results can and should be found in any and all authentic yoga teacher training programs. But for some reasons, awareness and growth comes easier and with more lasting impact in a program where all the students share relatively the same energy, a bit of history, and a broader view of life gained from experience. The RYS-200 Yoga Teacher Training Program for ages 50 Plus at Heartwood is a good reminder that yoga is timeless, and so are we.

Ginny Shaddock is an ERYT-500 Yoga Teacher and IAYT Yoga Therapist and the founder of Heartwood Yoga Institute. Heartwood offers three RYS-200 Yoga Teacher Training Programs a year specifically for ages 50 plus; a 16 day immersion every fall and spring and a one day a week program for local students offered once a year starting in October.

Yoga and Cult Dynamics

Someone came into Heartwood Yoga Institute the other day for a tour and to get information on our yoga teacher training program. After the interview she heaved a big sigh and said, “You know, I went to another school and came close to signing up, but it just didn’t feel right. I felt like I was being encouraged to join the “Cult of Anna” (name changed out of respect to other schools and their directors). This potential student said the school she had visited adamantly proclaimed that only Anna could teach her authentic yoga as she happened to be the only true teacher in the area and beyond. Anna was made out to have almost superhuman powers with credentials that were so embellished they seemed impossible for her age.  Everyone who met or worked with Anna was in awe, not the least of whom was Anna herself. Anna was publishing books (self-published and promoted) and podcasting and healing the hearts and souls of all those who signed up for her programs. The student was told that if she signed up for training, Anna would also teach her important subjects beyond yoga, including life coaching and nutrition and other holistic concepts that could be integrated with yoga to make her an amazing teacher and therapist too.

Something about the self-proclaimed greatness and intensity of Anna’s followers didn’t sit right with this woman. “Isn’t it true that a yoga program should be teaching yoga and not all that other stuff? Isn’t it true that yoga does the healing, and not the leader of a course? And isn’t there more to becoming a yoga therapist than taking a basic yoga training course?”

My office staff just smiled at her inquiries, noncommittedly, and offered the woman information regarding our philosophy and program focus. Not only is the office staff at Heartwood trained in yoga and therefore careful not to pass judgement or try to influence people with a hard sell, but they have also attended the Heartwood Yoga for Mental Health concentrations, where cult dynamics is explored, and they understand the intricacies and varied levels of delusion this kind of adoration for a teacher or program can develop. Shifting the beliefs of anyone under the influence of cult dynamics wasn’t going to happen by blowing a big raspberry or naysaying, and it certainly wouldn’t help to proclaim you are the better solution to their quest.

Where does this loyalty to a yoga teacher begin? Often, a guru or yoga teacher begins their work with humility and best intentions, following their dharma to teach. But something happens when results are progressively positive and students start attributing their changed lives to the wisdom of the leader. Flattery and devotion develops, which certainly makes a teacher feel good at their job. As the teacher is giving lessons about non-attachment to identity and how healing comes from within, they are, at the same time, starting to believe their own story of just how good they are at helping people understand and embrace the power of yoga.  They start to identity with the exalted teacher identity thrust upon them by circumstance. Combine the expanding ego with the fact that a reputation for profound teaching does in fact increase revenue and reputation, and all the seeds of a cult dynamic have been planted. It is only a matter of time until this belief that you are more special than others takes root and blooms.

The yoga sutras warn us of this – how we must practice nonattachment to the fruits of our actions as well as nonattachment to our own desire to be more enlightened. But what we know theoretically, and what we recognize is happening in our subconscious, are very different realities.

The history of yoga in the West is filled with evidence of cult dynamics.  The very definition of a cult is a small group of very devoted supporters or fans for a person or non-mainstream ideology. Studies have revealed common denominators of why certain leaders are successful in rising to the top in all manner of groups, from political or cultural cults that we may not consider traditional cults (Check out articles on the cult of Trump or how the Ku Klux Clan is considered a cult) to religious or spiritual cults (examples to follow). The question to ask is, “What causes people to surrender themselves to others’ beliefs, suggestions and guidance unconditionally?”

People join cults because they’re looking for love and acceptance and because they want answers to the personal problems in their lives. When a magnetic person comes along with problem-solving strategies who also creates an environment of caring and community, many people are ready to give unto them whatever it takes to be included in their sphere. There is, of course, more to cult dynamics than that, but certain elements of cult mentality can be pinpointed.

  • Cults provide a feeling of comfort and inclusion for those who are uncomfortable and feel excluded from life or others.
  • People with low self-esteem are usually easily persuaded by someone with confidence who seems in charge. They want to turn over the challenge of changing their lives to anyone else.
  • New recruits are “love bombed” – meaning they are showered with acceptance and promises of how life will be so much better once they are in the community and are taught to adapt their thinking to align with the taught mentality.
  • Most people susceptible to cults are women (as studies show) and they are often people who have become disillusioned with traditional religion and therefore they are open to a new spiritual path or leader. They’ve tried other paths and are open to anything new they think might be the answer to their dissatisfaction.
  • The leader or community sells a certain logic that seems to make sense. The attitude is, “we know what you need and how the world works, and if you think like us, you too will have insight and find the answers you need.”  And this is followed by testimonials or evidence of their success.

The reasons people turn to yoga often, unfortunately, align with these bullet points. While we can all see the danger of cult dynamics in extreme ashrams and communities that slip into measurable abuse, such as sexual misconduct, controlling the money or personal choices of members and in some cases, even death pacts, we are less inclined to see behavior as “cult-like” when we are in the glow of acceptance and feel positive changes in our lives. When the manipulation of our thinking grows over time hidden behind a veil of habits that we perceive as healthy (like yoga) we fail to make a distinction between the leadership and the practice. And even if all these definitions of cult align, is it bad if it works and makes us healthier and happier? Isn’t a negative definition of the word “cult” the problem rather than the reality?

Yoga does teach us that “modification of the mind is yoga (1.2)”, and cult dynamics certainly is a modification of the mind, good or bad. But yoga also teaches us to shed our false identities and our cultural conditioning, to listen to our inner voice, and to surrender to our challenges and accept them as a karmic lesson rather than something we need outside help to conquer. This means that seeking external answers to our problems, answers that can only come through the guru or cult leader’s blessing, wisdom or attention, is the antithesis of an authentic yoga practice. The only real threat is when a yoga teacher passing on knowledge does so with inference that results can be attributed to their superiority as a mentor, rather than from the system of wholeness that is yoga. Yoga teaches us that a teacher is needed but not the answer.

Sometimes, cult dynamics form when interpretation of the teachings hint that we must trust the process (rather than our instincts) and that suffering is a part of purification. This leads a student to accept that abuse from a leader is a test of our discipline or devotion rather than what it is, abuse. When a student assumes the leader is further along the path than the student and therefore their methods have some purpose we can’t see or understand and should never question, we can develop a mindset that invites the potential for ego and opportunity to skew the healthy dynamic between a student and leader.

A little research reveals a common pattern of abuse and cult dynamics from spiritual leaders and all of us who love yoga should take note and learn from history. Netflix documentaries, such as Bikram, Yogi, Guru, Predator,  or Wild, Wild Country, about Indian guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh point out huge abuses that seemed to develop with power.

A few insightful books I have found fascinating about yoga and cult dynamics that I encourage anyone who is inclined to adore certain yoga star teachers to read, includes:

Practice and All is Coming, Abuse, Cult Dynamics and Healing in Yoga and Beyond by Mathew Remski, an expose about Patabi Jois and Ashtanga Yoga.

Premka, White Bird in a Golden Cage. My Life with Yoga Bhajan by Pamela Saharah Dyson, a memoir about abuse and delusion in becoming the 2nd hand man to the leader of Kundalini in the West.

Into the Heart of Yoga, One Woman’s Journey by Danna Faulds, a memoir of the rise and fall of Kripalu as an ashram under the leadership of Amarit Desai and the school’s transformation to a more corporate yoga institution without a guru in the interest of following the teachings of yoga without hypocrisy.

But do these extreme cases have anything to teach us about a local yoga teacher who has a huge ego and likes to sell their services by pushing a story that they are the one and only brilliant mentor who will be highly effective at the job of teaching them self-awareness? What harm is there is loving your yoga teacher? What about all those lovely video clips on Facebook where people insist that their lives were changed thanks to this wonderful teacher so we should sign up today? Are we being naive and susceptible to marketing if we feel inspired by success stories designed to encourage us to sign up if we benefit from the experience?

I believe the best way to avoid slipping into a cult mentality and falling for a leader’s personification or a story rather than reality is to see things clearly, and the best way to do that is to educate yourself – both in what yoga actually teaches and by learning what a cult dynamic looks and feels like. (Reading the books recommended here is a great start to understanding how yoga training can sometimes fall into unhealthy patterns.)

Having a charismatic leader is wonderful. Such a person keeps us engaged and inspired and holds our attention when we might otherwise wander off the path. But when your healing or your education is attributed to the person teaching rather than the process of yoga, it is time to pause and take a step back. We just need to keep things in perspective – both our potential for healing and the importance of whomever is leading the way.

No one can take credit for your spiritual growth or enlightenment. That is a personal journey. A good teacher can help you see the path, but you must walk it yourself. The true meaning of the wisdom teachings of yoga will vary depending on each individual’s interpretation and a strong mentor knows this and invites you to question their interpretations and world view  as you form your own. Those trying to convince you that they are going to be the solution to your problems and that they have the answers you need to be whole, are likely not as far along the spiritual path as they make out.  After all, humility is the first and strongest sign of someone who understands the deepest dimensions of yoga.

Respect is one thing. Adoration and unwavering devotion for a teacher is another. Like all things in yoga, we must maintain a healthy balance.

Ginny Shaddock is an IAYT Yoga therapist and ERYT-500 Yoga teacher. She teaches Yoga for Mental Health as well as Cult Dynamics and Yoga in the 800 hour Yoga Therapy Certification Program at Heartwood Yoga Institute.

The Dilemma of Poor Yoga Training

Recently, I’ve had several students join Heartwood to repeat their 200-hour training after taking a certification program elsewhere. Repeating a program and paying tuition to a second school is an expensive choice to make, but one they felt was necessary. A few students have also signed up for our advanced 300-hour training, but not without first voicing concerns and expressing worry that their prerequisite foundational education (200-hour training) was inadequate.

“I just didn’t learn anything,” or “I didn’t know enough at the end to teach anyone anything,” they lament.  They claim they wasted time and money; sorry they didn’t seek out a more comprehensive program with qualified mentors from the beginning. Often the problem was that they selected a program because it was convenient or inexpensive or they couldn’t resist a hard sell from their local yoga school. They began the journey unaware of just how involved the subject of yoga would turn out to be or what other options they could have pursued. The pandemic provided new provisions to the rules of certification that opened the doorway to many fly-by-night programs flooding the ranks with “certified” yoga teachers who are inadequately prepared to mentor others. These programs, sometimes only consisting of prerecorded content and/or huge numbers of participants with little supervision and little or no actual mentorship, were a disservice to individuals who wanted to learn yoga, but also a disservice to yoga itself. It will take years for the ripple effect of unqualified teachers misrepresenting yoga to subside, if ever.

That said, the more you know about yoga, the more you realize you don’t know, and awareness of how expansive yoga is can be overwhelming. The students who came to me participated in a 200-hour program with best intentions, not expecting to be left with a nagging sensation that there had to be more to the practice than what was offered. This left them feeling inauthentic, but luckily their desire to learn more about yoga was still intact.

I can’t help but admire a student who is repeating their training or coming in with humility admitting they have a bit of catching up to do. Such is the act of someone who cares and wants to be the best yogi and teacher they can be. The student’s willingness to take a step backwards and start over is the best sign I know that a remarkable yogi is in the making, because their journey is not about ego or career goals.

In cases like this I always want to acknowledge the students’ earnest desire to learn, reminding them that moving forward is much more important than looking backwards. No good comes from criticizing or being frustrated with whatever program didn’t prepare you as you had hoped. Yes, it is annoying when people take your money for a quick sell and it can be disheartening to see so many people enter programs, do the work, and come out with a watered down, superficial understanding of the practice. But yoga teaches us that no effort is really wasted, and process is far more important than measurable achievement, so perhaps the long, winding journey they took, which included the cumbersome detour of participation in a less authentic program, will be important to their deeper understanding of yoga in the end.

One thing is for sure: these disappointed students became aware of what yoga isn’t, and that can be valuable information. One of the yoga sutras (1:14 – Sa Tu Dirgha Kala Nairantary Satkarasevito Drdhabhumih) says that yoga takes a long time, over many years, in small incremental doses, (practice with all earnestness) to work. Nowhere in the yoga sutras does it say that in 200 hours you will be enlightened and know everything you need to know. Our arrogance in believing that we will be qualified to lead others and have all the information we might need about yoga after an RYS-200 program, even a wonderfully comprehensive one, is rather silly.

Many people with inadequate training don’t care about the deeper dimensions of yoga as long as they can claim to be certified and can begin the work of teaching or “selling yoga classes.” People don’t know what they don’t know, and sadly, their evolution halts due to false confidence, misinformation, or the assumption that they have achieved their goal of becoming a yoga teacher because they have the credential to prove it. They then pass on this innocent ignorance to their students with claims that all that other stuff they don’t know or teach is unnecessary for practitioners today. They’ve done fine without the additional information and yoga works for them, so their students will do fine too.

Yoga has evolved and developed over thousands of years, and the system of wholeness which is the real yoga is carefully outlined in both the Bhagavad Gita and the yoga sutras. Asana, the physical practice, is only mentioned in 2% of the 196 Patanjali sutra teachings. So, when a program puts postures in a position of such importance, or a teacher claims that classic yoga is outdated and the practice is overdue to evolve and change to better conform to the needs of contemporary society, they are, in effect, claiming that one can omit 98% of yoga’s core to make the practice more palatable for our fast-paced, goal-oriented society. That huge an adjustment isn’t evolution so much as a total reinvention, one where everything that defines authentic yoga is being ignored or tossed out to make the practice appealing to instant gratification-oriented people today. One can argue that old school yoga is exactly what our contemporary practitioners need most, and that our desire to make the practice more commercially appealing and “Westernized” is proof of how desperately we need the personal discipline and patience that classical yoga delivers.

Yoga is not a religion, exercise, or means of entertainment. Yoga is a system to open one’s heart and mind to bring us back to wholeness and connect with our spirituality. The yoga sutras teach us how to explore our way of thinking and interacting with the world to get past our obstacles, which are defined as Kleshas: ego, attachment, diversions, fears, and ignorance. The pursuit of pleasure and desire for quick satisfaction can be powerful motivation for wanting to make yoga more palatable and contemporary. Teachers who have not taken time to contemplate and understand the teachings lead the charge in professing how and why old school yoga studies are obsolete, which contributes to a classic case of the blind leading the blind.

Let me point out that I see the value of making the practice palatable and fun, for that is a great way to bring new practitioners to the altar of yoga. But when spiritual entertainment is the goal, rather than the means to invite people to move beyond initial entertainment to awaken one’s spiritual core, then the potential of yoga falls short.

“1.1 -Atha Yoganusasanam” means now the exposition of yoga is being made.

This, the first sutra, reminds us that every day, every hour, every moment we must begin again, leaving behind our attachments, our assumptions, what we think we know, our conditioning and our expectations. We must nurture our beginner’s mind and be open to new personal insight and deeper understanding as we explore our own interpretation of the teachings as they relate to our ever-expanding life experience. Yoga has withstood thousands of years of people either honoring or questioning the teachings as well as the practice. It has been a mainstay spiritual endeavor not just for Vedic cultures and our contemporary society, but for many, many generations in between, in India and on different continents. 

Some say, “people change and so too must yoga,” but most historians and philosophers will point out that people really don’t change. The environment we live in may change, but we are all, at the core, still creatures of instinct, conditioning, and karma, motivated by a drive to be loved, to love and to live our purpose. Contemporary practitioners aren’t the only ones who’ve been impatient with the teachings. Mankind has always balked at the hard work involved with true spiritual growth. There is even a sutra referencing this, (2.1 Tapah Svadhyayesvara Pranidhanani Kriya Yogah) that warns us that purification is going to be difficult and painful, so this path is not for the lazy or weak of heart.

Yoga’s classic teachings help us connect to our best nature, teaching us step by step how to awaken the witness and see life more honestly.  Self-love, healing, compassion, and tolerance is an inevitable result. These outcomes are what everyone is trying to sell today, so perhaps instead of trying to reinvent the wheel, we should all go back to Yoga’s roots and start our yoga education over from the beginning, just as those brave students have done by registering for our 200-hour YTT program, despite the fact that they have a piece of paper claiming they are certified from an online program already.

What would be easier, of course, would be for students to do research before taking an RYS-200 program to be sure that all 8 limbs will be addressed with equal importance and a sense of the sacred. One on one interaction with a teacher is not just nice, but vital. The discussions, questions and answers, and connections formed through personal interaction with a mentor is the only way to develop a heart knowing, rather than an intellectual understanding. The sutra (1:26 Sa Purvesam Api guruh Kalenanavacchedat) tells us we all need a teacher or guru for guidance, and the role of this teacher is to build our relationship with the ultimate teacher; the transcendent essence within us.   

At Heartwood, we try to make graduations from our 200-hour program special, as we believe completing the program is a wonderful, personal achievement. But being certified is not the crowning glory of yoga education. Formal training, be it a 200, 300 or yoga therapy program, is just the doorway into a lifetime of more poignant, insightful understanding about life, self and yoga.  

Yoga is so much more than physical practices we can memorize and then regurgitate to others, and any quality program will make that ultimately clear. So, if your yoga education so far hasn’t gone deep enough, chalk it up to a karmic test of your fortitude as a student. Put ego aside, proceed with humility and beginner’s mind, and do what it takes to get on the right path.  

How to Learn the Yoga Sutras

In my early years as a Western born and bred yoga teacher, I felt somewhat intimidated by what I viewed as the mystical, unfamiliar, Indian philosophy element of yoga. I sincerely wanted to understand the teachings and so I read a multitude of books, sat through lectures, and pursued the spiritual view of yoga with best intent. Still, my understanding was surface level at best. I believed Eastern philosophy was a “big subject” and therefore assumed someone more advanced than I was necessary to capture and explain the wisdom, and so I hired others who claimed to have a grasp on the concepts to teach the philosophy portion of yoga teacher training at my school. The problem was, while I hired several different individuals to cover this competency, there still wasn’t clarification for me or my students, and we were often left more confused than when we began. These philosophy teachers did indeed explain the meaning of certain concepts, such as the Yamas and Niyamas, but something was definitely missing. Memorization and definitions just failed to transfer the feeling of spirituality that I believed would be a part of deeper knowledge. I knew the teachings were meant to aid transformation and spiritual development, but the way they were being presented continued to portray the meaning in a theoretical way rather than something more sacred. Yes, the conversations about the Yamas and Niyamas were impactful, but I couldn’t help but be aware that our humanity kept us slipping backwards when we weren’t in that yoga frame of mind. The philosophy teachers I employed delivered a cohesive lecture on how a yogi should interact with the world, but I would occasionally look at their Facebook posts and couldn’t help but wonder if they knew this stuff so well, why they didn’t seem to “live” the philosophy in ways that honored one’s true potential as a yogi.  

I have always believed that sometimes, if you want something done right, you just may have to do it yourself. So, I determined that if I wanted this subject taught differently, I would have to be the philosophy teacher at Heartwood. The fact that I was still quite unsure of how all the information integrated was a moot point. I would figure it out, not just for my benefit, but for all the students yet to come. So, I plunged into yoga philosophy for a period of five years or so before I felt even the initial inklings of competency. I continued to teach what I knew, but I also knew I needed to know more.  I read books, listened to famous gurus, and took online classes with schools I admired and trusted. I gained an academic view from college level courses that combined historical & cultural explanations with intended meaning and tried to combine that with spiritual approaches that included meditating on the teachings and humbly listening to older, more experienced teachers with authentic ties to Indian culture in some odd hope that just being in a guru’s presence would bring insight because being Indian makes a teacher more authentic. (Unfortunately, that isn’t the case.)

All this seeking certainly gave me information to share. I knew the yoga sutras by number, could share the story and themes of the Bhagavad Gita, and had broken down the important concepts of the 13 primary Upanishads. But what forced me to deepen my understanding was less my studies and more a result of teaching yoga philosophy to others. To teach is to learn and each time I sat with a circle of students, their inquiries forced me to question the meaning and intention of each sutra. As I struggled to find the words to explain what was really a felt sense of meaning, I progressively deepened my relationship with a worldview that provided a new understanding of life, the mind, and our place in the world. Devotion to the teachings doesn’t come from blind faith or being enamored with the idea of Eastern studies. That is more infatuation with Indian concepts. I found real life application and questioning the yoga sutras, only to find their wisdom impossible to deny, set the stage for embracing them earnestly.

Still, I found it impossible to transfer a sense of the sacred to newer yoga students in the 40 hours allocated to philosophy and history in a yoga teacher training course. I did my best to set a great foundation for my students and many have proclaimed that the philosophy portions of YTT have changed their worlds. But I also was aware that my lectures, however well-intentioned and heartfelt, had only opened the doorway to each individual’s relationship with these teachings. The possibility that my mostly-American yoga students would walk through that yoga door and go on their own intimate journey with the teachings seemed remote. People are just too busy in modern society to wander into the forest for 14 years to meditate and contemplate the teachings as they did in ancient times. In the modern world, our short attention span and determination to have measurable outcomes to validate our investment of time and energy into anything has us wanting to quickly mark a subject as complete so we can move on to learning more stuff.

How could I possibly teach my yoga students, (all of whom I respect and believe to be well intentioned seekers) to do more than sit and listen to my lectures as one more necessary endeavor or “assignment” they had to do to become certified so they could lead others along the path? How could I awaken their humility, so they understood that what they believe they had grasped wasn’t true knowledge, but only intellectual understanding? Were my students worthy of teaching others if their relationship with the yoga sutras was little more than memorizing the meaning to package up and pass the information on, just as they planned to apply the information about alignment or sequencing to future classes?

I don’t mean to sound sarcastic, but I know what a barrier the practical mindset creates for new yogis. I commonly get asked, “How do I use this when I’m teaching?” as if all the information they receive in YTT is designed to be utilitarian in their career. I thought the same way when I was a newer yoga teacher, dreaming of a fulfilling career helping others as I aspired to share the amazing practice that I loved.

I was lucky. The dissatisfaction I felt over the hired teachers’ outcomes and a nagging need “to know” forced me on a personal journey of yoga philosophy far beyond what I ever had use for as a teacher or YTT trainer.  I became a believer in the deeper dimensions of yoga beyond the intellect, and the quest to know became a personal practice rather than part of my career skillset. As I came to rest in the teachings and develop a richer, profound heart knowing, I began wrestling with the problem of how to teach philosophy in a way that encourages students to channel their energies and tackle the obstacles standing in the way in respect to our shorter attention spans and the belief that we must have measurable utility for anything we bother to devote time to.

Encouraging students to sit with the teachings was of foremost importance. So, I began gifting my students with a beautiful journal from India, encouraging my students to meditate on the sutras not only through sitting in stillness, but through writing. I created dozens of journaling prompts which I hoped would instigate an internal conversation with self, allowing the writer to apply the concepts of the yoga sutras to their own life experience. I next added a broken bowl project ceremony to my training where students would hopefully reflect on their lives in the breaking of a bowl, and then create art from reconstructing the shattered pieces. This was followed by intention setting (which in my YTT is always a review of the yoga philosophy teachings as they can be applied to bringing us back to wholeness) so the broken bowl art project served as a symbolic opportunity to see the sutras’ value in the complex story of our own lives.

But the technique I have loved most of all has been a project I designed for my advanced 300 students: to begin a yoga sutra art journal. While very few of them finish the project to its full potential (my art journal took over three years to complete and I’ve recently begun revisiting each page and adding to it, so my journal will never be done) my students must do at least 10 pages to graduate, which invites them to spend a bit more time with at least ten of the individual sutras as a sampling of what it is to “sit with” a teaching and be absorbed with finding the meaning for a longer period. The art journal is a way of teaching process, not production.

Art journaling is the process of layering. You begin by putting gesso on a page to make paper into a canvas. When that dries, you cover the page with color or inks. That too must dry before you add additional paint with stencils, leaves or other textured items, such as mandalas or other designs. This layer must dry before you can add markers, text, Sanskrit, pictures, or anything else. I won’t get into the details and techniques of art journaling here but to say that to complete a page in your art journal requires revisiting the page 8 or more times if you are not just rushing through the process without thought. And each time the artist returns to a page, they read and consider the meaning of the sutra to contemplate how they might visually capture the essence on the page. This quiet work, striving to capture the meaning of the sutra as per your own interpretation, is a meditation of its own.  And with each page demanding continued thought and time, it invites the artist to sit with the teaching much longer than they might without the project to keep them engaged. Even the small joy that comes from watching the visual interpretation take shape becomes inspiration to keep with the page – and as result, the sutra.

Students do have to get past any issues they have with attachment – such as the avoidance syndrome that comes from not feeling good at art or wanting perfection on the page. Detaching from any desire to create beautiful art is important if they want to actually get lost in discovery and honoring the sutra. I myself am often intimidated by art and don’t feel gifted when it comes to painting or drawing, and yet, I’ve learned that creativity can be a tantric endeavor, and working on my sutra journal isn’t about art at all and is actually about sitting with the teachings and using creativity to see the sutra in a new way. My finished art journal sparks reflection and meditation and I use it as a teaching tool as well, often putting the colorful visual pages on an altar to create ambiance and spark curiosity for sutra discussions.

Creating a yoga sutra art journal is a big commitment, and not for everyone. Doing so takes time and materials and most of all, patience. But for those who respond to a more entertaining, engaging act of study, this project can be a powerful instrument for learning and developing a deep relationship with the wisdom of yoga. Just as mantras or mudras and other forms of tantra can be an instrument for “crossing over” to deeper dimensions of spirituality, so too can the yoga sutra art journal take you to a new level of understanding.

Ginny East Shaddock

Ginny Shaddock is the owner and spiritual teacher at Heartwood Yoga Institute. She is an ERYT-500 Yoga Teacher and C-IAYT Yoga Therapist.