Breathe, Balance, Believe Therapeutic Yoga

05/17/2025

Spotted these guys on my walk today. What are they?

03/02/2025

02/14/2025

I’m back working on my program for those of us with C-PTSD. The longer I personally practice yoga and the more people I teach, the more I learn and question the way we do things in the yoga world.
I probably won’t be posting very often in the months to come as I’m back to the drawing board and pouring over research.
There seems to be a lot more garbage out there that isn’t truly helpful for those of us who’ve experienced trauma.
For example: ‘the way to know when a posture is too much, is when the breath is affected.’

Hmmm….for someone with C-PTSD the breath is ALWAYS affected, even when we are doing NOTHING! So, how would we know if the posture is affecting our breath or if our mind is???

Only someone with C-PTSD would understand that a lot of what is taught in yoga today, isn’t helpful to us. In fact it often causes even more unnecessary stress and pain to the body. The body to which we are often no longer mentally attached to or even aware of.

11/02/2024

Perfect comfort food for an Autumn evening.

Vegan Coconut Curry soup with ginger, saffron and tofu. Simple,quick and delicious 😋

10/28/2024

I’ve had people tell me I’m a tough yoga teacher. That I expect perfection.

I’m tough because yoga can cause injury if done incorrectly!
I take yoga seriously because it healed my body and allows me the ability to walk without a cane!
I take yoga seriously because it helped me discover cancer EARLY and get it removed before it spread further than it’d already started to!
I take yoga seriously because I was stubborn and had a big ego and didn’t listen to my teacher when he told me I’d hurt myself if I didn’t stop doing poses I wasn’t ready for. Had I listened I’d have saved myself from a torn IT band and hamstring . Nothing more humbling than being in a yoga class and hearing your hamstring and IT BAND POP!!! 6 year recovery is also a very humbling experience and terrifying!!
I know people who have torn their meniscus, broke their femur, torn their rotator cuff, and given themselves whiplash…doing yoga!!
I’m tough because I CARE about my students and their safety and I have 1,000’s of hours of training under my belt to better enable me to teach them!
I don’t expect perfection - I expect my students to learn and to pay attention to their body in their practice. It’s their body!!! Yoga is to teach you about your body and yourself. But maybe what I’m learning as a teacher is that there are those who don’t want to get to know their body or themselves.
That’s hard for me to understand or relate to.
I see it. I hear it. I just don’t relate.

10/27/2024

Yoga teacher vent:
I do not like having people come to my class on a regular basis who are not students of yoga.

What do I mean by this?

Someone who wants to just do an exercise class, doesn’t want to think or engage with their body, puts no effort into their practice, and purposely ignores cues/directions.

Why? Aren’t I than making yoga not inclusive for all?

Well, let’s think of the true yoga students in the class who have devoted themselves to the practice. They come to class, they follow every instruction, they ask questions, they practice on their own, and they have goals to learn more. Not just of asana but of how yoga can help them live their daily life.
They then have a classmate who could care less about learning anything, they just want to check off the box that they exercised that day. This person can’t advance in their practice because their practice lacks strength, stability and body awareness to progress safely or appropriately.
So, do I hold back the students who take their practice seriously or do I keep advancing them as they are ready and pray the person who could care less doesn’t injure themselves?
What’s fair? To whom?
Sloppy, detached movement = injury!!

I was this student. To a degree. I listened to my yoga teacher to a DEGREE.
He kept telling me a practice I was doing would hurt me.
I felt FINE after my practice.
My thought: ‘my teacher doesn’t know my body. I do!’
A few months later…my hamstring and IT band tore! 6 YEARS to fully recover!!

My teacher had over 10 years experience teaching. He had over 20 years practicing yoga. Think MAYBE I should’ve listened when I only had 8 years experience and a few months as a yoga teacher?

That was one Hell of a price to pay for my over inflated EGO! I know from experience the price of not listening to someone who is trained and has YEARS of knowledge and experience backing them up. I picked him as my teacher because he’s GOOD! Probably one of the BEST. I KNEW this and I still didn’t listen.

However, I didn’t hold up other students and interupt my teacher. I just didn’t listen and I pushed myself too hard. Just as dangerous as someone who puts in no effort. Injury will be the end result. Guaranteed!

10/27/2024

Lotus Asana - is this safe for most people? Anyone? What are your thoughts about this asana?
Photo credit: liforme.com

10/27/2024

Almost done with my 500 YTT. It’s been tough and some things I’m going to have to keep going back over till they stick in my brain. Especially anatomy! It’s my favorite part of my 500 YTT, but it’s A LOT tounderstand. My teacher is an Ayurvedic doctor and a massage therapist and I’m just in awe of what she’s teaching us. She spent 2 hours just going over the shoulders and rotator cuff and how and where they attach and how they function in yoga asana. It’s scary how much damage we can do to our elbows and rotator cuff from the repetitive movements if we aren’t doing them correctly. I’ve known several yoga teachers who have torn their rotator cuff and a few who have arthritis in their elbows. Now I KNOW why and HOW that happens. I’m going to be inwardly cringing every time I see a student making those misalignments in their practice.
I’ll never be a yoga exercise instructor - it’s not my nature.
I’m a teacher of yoga.
You want to learn yoga - I’ll teach you!
You want an exercise class that uses yoga poses- I’m not going to be for you.
Teachers of yoga and yoga instructors are not the same.

‘An instructor focuses on giving yoga instruction for each asana, whereas a good yoga teacher helps students find the yoga postures in a way that works for their yoga practice.
A yoga instructor spends most of their time on their yoga mat at the front of the class and a yoga teacher spends most of their time walking from student to student, helping them apply yoga techniques to their practice.’ Brett Larkin

10/21/2024

Love this view for my morning yoga class!

10/05/2024

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