This is a good question Wanting. Tapas, one of the 5 Niyamas, is discipline.  Tapas is also translated as ‘heat.’  As one of the Niyamas (yogic principles of daily action) Tapas refers to turning up your psycho-spiritual thermostat, not the thermostat on your wall.  Tapas refers turning up the heat of passion and combustion in your heart and soul.  Tapas is the heat that brings you back to your mat day after day after day.  Tapas is the disciplined combustion to creates change in your body and life.

In the yoga sutra’s Pantajali says: Tapas (self-discipline), Svadyaya (self-study) and Isvara Pranidhana (surrender) constitute the Yoga of Action. These are preformed to promote enlightenment and to remove the afflictions from the mind.

So, Wanting, what do you want to change?

If you are seeking significant physical changes in your body: practice 3-to-5 times per week, a mix of Yoga and Pilates, and you’ll see significant physical improvements within a month.   You’ll be stronger, more flexible, and your balance will improve.  You’ll preform better in any sport you participate in.  You’ll feel better and more at ease in your body.  If you practice daily, your efforts will be rewarded very quickly.

If you are seeking relief from pain or better overall health: Practicing yoga twice per week is one of the best pain killers you can find.  Your blood pressure will drop, your blood sugar will begin to stabilize, you’ll feel and look more vibrant and at ease in your body.  Your range of motion and balance will improve.  Even once per week will give you these benefits, but the rate of change will be slower.

If you are seeking the mental benefits of yoga:  Hatha Yoga (the yoga most of us practice in the US) sees working with the physical body as the most directly effective way to manifest mental and spiritual change. The change you manifest will be directly related to your Tapas, your commitment to the practice. You’ll feel happier, calmer and more peaceful with a regular yoga practice. You will be able to weather the storms of your life with more ease.  Depression will lift.  You will have more focus and more mental stamina. You will sleep better.

Even if you practice only once a week, you will begin to manifest these changes. Begin with a practice that you have enough Tapas to sustain.  It should be manageable within the life you have.   Yoga will grow on you, you may fall in love with it. Be available to the possibility of practicing more in time. Change will happen with disciplined practice. Sooner or later, people will begin asking you how come you look so great, how’d you get so happy.  Then you can tell them about Tapas.

~ Namaste,

Yogini Lisa

Neti Pot:  Fill your neti pot with body-temperature pre-boiled or distilled water and ½ teaspoon of salt.  The water should feel neutral in your sinuses, if it burns adjust the salt and temperature.  Lean over the sink, tilt your head to the left side and pour half the water from right nostril to left, then switch sides.  You should be able to breath through your mouth while you do this.  When the pot is empty lean your head forward and exhale forcefully to dry your sinuses.

Nasya Oil: Nasya is organic sesame oil infused with medicinal Brahmi, Calumus Skullcap and Eucalyptus.  Massaging a few drops into each nostril in the mornings will keep your head and sinuses clear and your immune system healthy.

Pranayama are breathing exercises.  The most simple is to pay attention to your exhalation.  If you find yourself struggling to breath, focus on exhaling and this will relax the ‘panic response’ that causes you to gasp for breath.

• Kapalabhati: ‘Skull Shining’ warms the body and clears the sinuses. Inhale deeply. Exhale with a short forceful pulse 20 to 40 times.  Rest. Repeat up to 6 times.
• Nadi Shodhana:  ‘Alternate Nostril Breath’ balances the mind and body. Rest your right thumb on your right nostril, your right index finger on your left nostril, right pointer and middle fingers on your forehead.  Close the right nostril and inhale with the left nostril; close the left nostril and exhale right, inhale right; close right, exhale left, inhale left. Continue this pattern 9 times. Rest.

Asana: Chest Opening asana (yoga poses) create more room for breath.

• Bhujangasana: Cobra Pose.  Lie on your belly with your hands under your shoulders.  Keep your abdominal muscles engaged as you lift your head and chest from the floor.  Lift and lower about 6 times, then lift and hold for 6 breaths.
• Setubandhasana: Bridge Pose.  Lie on your back with your knees bent and the soles of your feet on the floor.  Keep your abdominal muscles engaged as you lift one vertebra at a time from the floor to come into bridge pose. Pause and then lower one vertebra at a time back to the floor.  Lift and lower about 6 times and then lift and hold for 6 breaths.
• Ustrasana: Camel Pose. This is a more advanced backbend contraindicated for those with low back problems.  Begin in a kneeling position.  Bring your hands to your low back and firmly engage your abdominal muscles.  Lift up from the belly to stretch your heart toward the sky.  If you have the flexibility, reach your hands back to your heals.  Keep your chin slightly tucked as you arch back and only release the head at the last moment.  Use your abdominal muscles to come out of the pose.  Repeat 3 times.

Beware inversions:  If your sinuses won’t clear, going upside down can move mucus into the interior ear cavities.  Avoid inversions if your sinuses are congested.

It looks like a pretty good gig, teaching yoga: you get to wear comfortable clothes, have a flexible schedule, get paid for your practice, and you’ll be skinny, rich and popular.  Or maybe not.  I love teaching yoga and I’ll soon be leading my own yoga teacher training program (Yoga Alliance Qualified and all…). I frequently get asked for advise about becoming a yoga teacher.  So, here, on the threshold of offering a teacher training program, are answers to questions recently posed to me:

Can yoga instructors make a living from this career, or is it a part-time job? A few instructors support themselves teaching yoga, most don’t. It is easier to get enough work to support yourself in a large urban area than it is in a small town. You’ll earn between $15 and $100/class depending on the town and how popular your teaching is. You are most likely to be hired as an independent contractor and unlikely to have benefits as part of your employment. ‘Making a living’ teaching yoga can mean teaching to the level of exhaustion, especially if you teach all over town.  Teach yoga for love. Don’t quit your day job.

What is the average salary? I don’t know a single yoga teacher with a salary. You’ll be paid by the class, by the head, or a percentage of the class or workshop income.  You’ll need to creatively mix teaching in different venues and locations to stich a living together. Think of supplementing your yoga teacher training with personal training, Zumba, Nia or Pilates training to earn enough to support yourself.

Is the job market highly competitive? Yes, the job market is highly competitive. If clients don’t like your classes they won’t come back. You rarely get a second chance to prove yourself to a student. In the beginning you might teach at health clubs, corporations, churches, or to any group that will have you. Most of those venues will pay you by the hour and you’ll have a captive audience to hone your teaching skills.

How much training is required before you can begin teaching? Check out the Yoga Alliance Webpage for industry standards: http://yogaalliance.org/.  Most yoga studios require a 200 hour Yoga Alliance Registered Certification.  You can get jobs at health clubs with a weekend certification.  Employers may require certification but there are no government standards or requirements at this time.

How do I choose a teacher training?   Ask the teachers whom you resonate with where they were trained.  Ask a lot of questions about the programs you might join.  Find a school that teaches the style of yoga you practice.  Ask graduates of the program what they thought.  You can get certified on a long vacation in India, Mexico or Bali, or you can spread it out over a year, or more, of weekends in any major city.  Look for a training that resonates with your personal practice, that is grounded in firm traditions, and works for you budget and time.

How much does yoga teacher training cost? As little as $1500 or as much at $20,000.  Do your homework before signing up.

Is it worth it?  I love teaching yoga.  My personal yoga practice includes my teaching.  I am honored to offer what I love back to the world.  The journey called me and I answered.  You’ll be deepened by your yoga teacher training, even if you never teach.  So choose a training that offers to enrich your practice as one of its goals.

Lisa’s blog was recently published in Elephant Journal:

http://www.elephantjournal.com/2012/03/so-you-want-to-be-a-yoga-teacher–lisa-wells/

Live Well Studio is offering a Yoga Teacher Training this summer!  Live Well Studio’s Teacher Training 

But you don’t have to ride horses to appreciate this incredible workout! Specially designed to give you a full body power workout – challenging your balance, core and legs. Props will be provided and include use of fitness ball, dyna-band and Pilates Magic Circle. The course will include a take-home sheet of all the exercises so you can continue your conditioning at home. You will also have the opportunity to order props for home use.

The 5 classes meet over a 6 week period:  3/6, 3/13, 3/20, 4/3, 4/10. The cost is $85.

Here are some sneak peak videos! If you click the links they will take you to our You Tube site.

1. http://youtu.be/eyilW2bt6y8
2. http://youtu.be/4yrdntpb6pk
3. http://youtu.be/T_brlTVaKfw

It’s Saturday morning. I wake up early so that I can make it to Angie’s Continuing Yoga class.  As much as I teach these days, it is a pleasure to be a student at least once a week.

Angie knows my weaknesses, or what we lovingly refer to as ‘bathroom poses.’  For years, when teachers said ‘Pinca Mayurasana’ I took a bathroom break.  My shoulders were non-compliant with the pose.  Thus the nickname, ‘bathroom pose’.

I was a little jealous of the other students who so easily seemed to float up into Pinca. To be honest, I was jealous of anyone who floated into any pose.  I love yoga, but it isn’t easy for me. I’ve had to work persistently for many years to gain a functional variation of Pinca Mayurasana, let alone a beautiful one.

Jealousy was interfering with my practice. It was driving me into the bathroom in the middle of yoga class.  And ego was preventing me from working on the pose in class. I didn’t want to be seen failing again or, worse yet, falling out of the pose.  So I worked on my own. While I was eventually able to achieve the pose, I wasn’t achieving my greater purpose by fearfully clinging to jealousy and ego.

Staying in class, struggling, and even failing has great benefits. I offer my vulnerable self to others. And I get to witness many beautiful versions of Pinca Mayurasana.  Through witnessing I’m learning a more important yoga practice: mudita, empathetic joy.  Mudita is the counterpose to jealousy and envy.  Practicing mudita is much more empowering than practicing Pinca Mayurasana.  Pinca is momentary rush, mudita is sustainance for the long haul.

 Mudita, empathic joy: taking pleasure in the accomplishments of others.  It’s a novel concept: I can experience the joy of the pose by witnessing others practicing the pose.  Overcoming my jealousy and getting my ego out of the way, I am on my way to experiencing Samadhi, non-separateness.

Psychologists tell us we are born without a sense of separateness.  At the beginning of our lives we do not experience a separation between ourselves, our mothers or the world.  Ego and a sense of self develop with maturity. Ego helps us establish our place in the world and gives us a way to work with both our strengths and our limitations. However, if the ego becomes entrenched our sense of ‘I-ness’ can become a straight jacket of limitations. ‘I’ cannot become enlightened while ‘I’ am clinging to my concept of self through ‘my’ achievements.

Practicing the other 7 limbs of yoga along with Asana in yoga class, we can begin to experience moksha, freedom, from the straightjacket of the self.  As mudita awakens in us we discover we don’t have to be good at everything.  We are responsible for holding our place, for practicing all the limbs of yoga to the best of our ability, and then resting in joy of others as they do the same. It is the relaxing into this bigger awareness that is the pathway to Samadhi.

Yoga in the Forest!

The article has some truth and wisdom in it, and the article doesn’t present the whole picture. Many of the examples are out-of-date and no data is given to compare yoga with other forms of exercise, or even the risks of normal daily activities.  I feel the need to respond to my students and to my Mom.

I fully agree with the three primary points of the article:

1. Life is dangerous.  Exercise can cause injury.  Asana (yoga poses) can cause injury.  Most yogis I know have injured themselves at one time or another.  I have hurt myself in yoga. I have also hurt myself running, walking the dog, riding a bicycle, dancing, walking down the stairs, cooking dinner…  I have a body and it occasionally gets injured.   Yoga has helped me heal from more injuries than it has caused.
2. Life is fatal.  Yoga cannot prevent that. There are allusions to the possibility of immortality in some texts, even by modern authors, but I haven’t seen any proof to support this claim. The only cases of ‘death-by-yoga’ that I have heard of are ones mentioned in the article. I have seen plenty of evidence to suggest that yoga can increase overall health, radiance and longevity.  Yoga can make life in this body more pleasant and aging more graceful.
3. Our egos can cause us to do stupid things.  If I spend my time in yoga class comparing myself to other yogis, I’m liable to hurt myself.  If my mind is trying to impose the pose on my body, I’m in danger.  If I push myself beyond my body’s limits, something is going to fail.  If I jump into poses that are beyond my capability, experience and wisdom, I will get hurt.

The article ignores the fact that more fundamental to yoga than Asana (the poses and exercise) are Yama and Niyama: the Yogic precepts, the ‘don’ts and dos’ if you will.  Focusing on just four of these precepts will help keep our Asana practice safe.

1. The first Yama is ahimsa, nonviolence.  It is said that Gandhi spent his entire life practicing the first step of yoga nonviolence.
2. The last Yama is aparigraha, nongrasping.  Non-grasping is living within the means of your body, your life, and the planet.
3. The second Niyama is santosa, contentment. Contentment is seeking joy in what is.
4. The third Niyama is tapas, impassioned discipline. Impassioned discipline is following the call of our hearts, bodies and minds.

If we can learn to practice nonviolence (peace) and non grasping (satisfaction) while practicing asana (exercise) we are unlikely to injure ourselves. We seek to manifest within the self what we also seek for the world.  On the journey we look for a balance between tapas (disciplined action) and santosa (contentment).  We push ourselves forward while being happy where we are. We do need to push ourselves to get stronger and extend our range of motion, to actualize in the world.  Increased strength and range of motion will also decrease the injuries we might suffer in yoga or the rest of our lives.  Achieving new poses is a benefit, but not the goal. We each have to explore this territory like Goldilocks did, personally discovering what is too little or too much, and what is just right.

In my experience the most common physical injuries (both in yoga and in life) come from strong peripheral muscles relative to weak core muscles.  We need a firm foundation, strong deep abdominal muscles, a steady pelvic floor and good back muscles, to support the strength of our limbs. We need clarity and conviction to support our actions in the world.  We need to balance strength with flexibility, too little or too much of either leaves us vulnerable. Building a strong flexible core requires patience. It requires the willingness to study and to work subtly and slowly. This is difficult for those of us who clamor for the prize, be it a nicer bum, a sleeker physique, straight As or spiritual awakening.

If we can learn to practice nonviolence, nongrasping, contentment and passion in the yoga studio, we can learn to practice nonviolence, nongrasping, contentment and passion in the rest of our lives; if we can learn to slow down and value the subtleness of the body, we can learn to slow down and value the subtleness of the moment; if we can place more value on a strong supple foundation than on a flashy exterior, then we can make better choices as individuals and as a nation.  Practicing asana in the yoga studio prepares us to practice yoga in our lives. There is no ‘pot-of-gold-yogic-enlightenment’ waiting for us when we master a difficult pose.   The ‘pot-of-gold-yogic-enlightenment’ is discovering contentment and passion, peace and satisfaction, in this moment and actualizing this in the day-to-day affairs of our lives.

Year after year my New Year’s Resolution was “Lose weight.”  It did not matter what my weight actually was.  I always wanted it to be less.  My resolution was solidified by the inevitable increase in weight that started at Halloween and continued through the Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Eve Celebrations.  I was never happy with what the scale foretold on the morning of January 1^st.   I would begin another crazy diet with ‘guaranteed success.’ I’ve tried everything from counting calories to The Grapefruit Diet to Atkins to Raw Food to training for a marathon. Regardless of what I might have said about choosing a particular diet for health reasons, somewhere deep in my mind, I just wanted to lose weight.

Over the years I tired of the roller coaster ride. I got tired of picking up old journals and reading the same resolution over and over again.  I didn’t want my gravestone to say “she never lost those last 5 pounds.”  Honestly, I was bored with myself.  So at some point, I gave up. Mind you, the tape has not fully erased itself.  I can still hear its echo playing deep in my mind.  But it has become much easier to ignore as I practice mindfulness and embodiment.

Mindful eating and embodiment are challenging resolutions.  They require slowing down, being patient, and listening.  They require letting go of the judgmental and predatory mind that wants to force my body into compliance.  They require learning to tell the difference between what my body wants and what my mind wants.  For those of us who have spent a life time alternatively battling and numbing our bodies with food, hearing and understanding what the body needs and wants is a challenging resolution in itself.

The first step is surrender, to stop battling, to give up.  Once we’ve surrendered we can use meditation techniques to witness what we choose to eat and how we choose to care for our bodies. We can begin a scientific exploration of eating, exercising and observing how the body responds.  We disengage from the scale as the measure of success.   Instead we choose a sense of wellbeing as our measure of success.  Here are my simple suggestions toward finding wellbeing:

1. How to eat: Eat with love for yourself and integrity for the higher good. To quote Geneen Roth: “Eat what your body wants, when your body is hungry, stop when you have had enough.”
2. What to eat:  Eat with love for yourself and integrity for the higher good. To quote Michael Polan: “Don’t eat anything your great grandmother would not recognize as food.”
3. How to exercise: Move your body, in a way you enjoy, every day.  To quote myself:  “Dancing (walking, running, yogaing…) is your birthright.”
4. How to think: Make a daily gratitude list. To quote my friend Happy Jack: “My happiness is directly proportional to my gratitude”
5. More on how to think: Meditate and pray. It doesn’t really matter who or what you pray to.  Meditation and prayer are the opposite of worry. Use them to guide your mind in the direction you want to go.  If eating is your meditation, you have at least 3 opportunities to meditate each day.
6. How to survive and thrive: Join a support group (like the Well-Being Group at Live Well Studio), talk to friends, the journey is more difficult in isolation.

Our Well-Being Classes include support and fellowship along with personally researched instructions for the path to mindful eating and embodiment.

Registration is now open for:

Wednesdays, 7-9pm, January 11 through February 29

Fridays, 10:30-11:45am, January 13 through March 2 

As the holidays approached this year, I decided to take a winter solstice retreat.  I’m looking forward to two days of silence and darkness.  I’ll have my home to myself and dip deeply into meditation and yoga.   And I’m curious to spend a few days in deep winter without artificial light.  I think my eyes will appreciate a respite from the compact florescent and halogen lights in my home and from the glare of my computer screen.

My husband and sons will be visiting relatives.   They will be returning late on the 25^th,which left me spending most of Christmas Day alone.  And while I was looking forward to my retreat, I knew that spending Christmas day by myself might leave me feeling sad and lonely.  I know a fundamental piece of my internal struggle is constant craving for solitude competing with the desire for community.  From this pondering was born the idea for the Live Well Studio ‘Yuletide Yoga Retreat.’  I wanted to bring the intention of my personal solstice retreat to my Yoga community.

In our current world with its pervasive lighting and computer screens our minds have lost touch with the natural rhythms our bodies need. We don’t indulge our need for darkness or rest. And we feel poorly when we don’t meet an external standard of cheer or party enthusiasm.  The combination of high expectations, the push-push-push to consume more and the lack of rest are part of the cause of winter blues and seasonal affective disorder.   For those of us who find ourselves alone on the holiday, the possibility of self-pity and depression is just too high.

During this retreat we will drop deep inside ourselves while enjoying the company of other yogis and yoginis. This will be a day to relish the space between, the liminal space, that opens at the solstice.  We will savor solitude and community, strength and surrender, darkness and the returning of light.

The Yuletide Yoga Retreat will be an antidote to the holiday blues. We will spend time resting in community. We’ll be fed delicious healthy foods. We’ll be quiet and we will be social. We’ll stretch our bodies, our minds and our spirits.  We’ll laugh together.  I hope you will join us.

Register here

Travel takes it’s toll on the body.  We scrunch ourselves into small spaces for hours. We eat poorly. It is difficult to stay hydrated.  We’re stressed by the environment and by the pressure of holiday expectations.  There are many simple yoga exercises you can do in the confines of a plane, train or automobile that will relieve your body and your stress.    But please don’t practice yoga while your in the driver seat of the car.  As Thich Nhat Hanh wisely said: “when driving, just drive.”

Simple breathing can go along way toward making you feel better and at ease.  Begin by turning your attention to your breath.  Experience the simple act of breathing. Then extend your exhalations.  Work toward exhalations that are twice as long as your inhalations.  On your exhale think of detoxing your body, on your inhale think of replenishing your body.  You can practice this for as long as you like.

Ankle and wrist circles will begin the process of moving lymph and blood from the extremities back toward the lung and heart.  Make about 10 big circles in each direction with each wrist and ankle. Point and flex your ankles, roll through the ball of the foot, turn your foot over and press the top of the toes into the floor.  Do ‘spider pushups’ with your hands, make fists and then extend your fingers, flick your finger tips, do the Star Trek Vulcan salute and then switch to a ‘W’ salute (pointer and pinky extended, middle and ring fingers together). Switch back and forth between those two.  Flick your fingers again a few times when you are through.

Neck circles ease the strain from your shoulders and  your neck. Drop your right ear toward your right shoulder, then drop your head forward and chin toward your chest and then left year toward left shoulder.  Circle back and forth about 6 times. Then, keeping right ear toward right shoulder use your right hand to gently enhance the stretch.   You can turn the face downward to take the stretch more into the back of the neck. Repeat on the left side.

Seated Cat/Cow can release low back strain.  Sit a little forward in your seat so you are not leaning onto the seat back. Rest your hands on your thighs and sit up very tall.  On your exhalation engage your abdominal muscles, drop your head forward and round your back.  On your inhalation keep your belly strong as you lift your heart and your gaze and come into a gentle back bend.  Alternate back and forth from the stretch of the front of your spine to the stretch of the back of your spine. Continue for as long as it feels pleasant.

Seated Chandrasana stretches the sides of the body.  Stay forward in your chair as you arch your spine left and right.  You can bring the right arm overhead as you arch left and the left arm overhead as you arch right.  Do as many as feels good.

Seated Twisting will complete the range of motion exercise sequence through your spine. Bring your left hand behind you and your right hand to your left knee.  Use the strength of your arms help you into a spinal twist.   Keep yourself very upright as you do this.  Stay in the twist for up to 6 breaths before changing sides.

Seated Pigeon will help your release your low back.  Sit up nice and tall.  Bring your right ankle to your left knee.  Allow your right knee to drop down toward the floor.  Gently forward fold over your right shin.  Hold for up to 6 breaths and then change sides.

Seated Apanasana is good closing pose for your mini-yoga practice.  Sit up nice and tall again and draw your right knee into your belly.  Interlace your fingers and use your clasped hands to pull the knee in tight to the belly. Drop your forehead towards your knee. Hold this pose for up to 6 breaths and then change sides.

You can complete this whole sequence in under 10 minutes or stretch it out for 15 or 20.   If you have a long trip, repeat the sequence once every hour and you should feel much better at the end of your trip.  If you are in the driver seat, take regular breaks and do yoga at the rest stops.

Make sure you drink lots of water. Take along food that you know will nourish you. If you’re on a plane or train get up and walk the aisles from time-to-time.  And have a great trip!