It is a common misconception that you have to be flexible or flexible enough to practice yoga. In fact one of the reasons for starting yoga is to try and get more flexible. There is a saying that goes something like: "yoga will meet you where ever you are in life" In other words there are no pre-conditions or qualifications for starting to practice yoga. It's open to any body and every body. That does not mean to say that when you start or restart practicing yoga you wont at first feel a bit awkward. This is quite natural as you are not used to putting yourself into some of the unusual positions that yoga asks of you. Keep this tip in mind when you start to practice: when attempting a pose or asana, leave some room in your body for YOU as you are right now. There is another saying in yoga that goes something like this: "I've been practicing this posture for so many years now that it is in my body". This just means your body has got used to it. But when you first start it's not used to it. Daily practice will change that and begin to change YOU.

Is yoga just about flexibility?

This can be another misconception. In fact if you spent all of you time continuously working on just your flexibility you would get weaker and weaker. Stretching to get flexible is great for improving the tone and condition of your muscles and soft tissue but you also need to balance that with strength. Many people think that yoga is a soft option. A light workout for those who can't handle real exercise. This is another misconception. Some of the "lighter" core strength asana are quite challenging even to people who are reasonably fit. Some of the more "advanced" strength asanas are very complex and can take years to master.So yoga is also about strength.

What yoga offers beyond strength and flexibility

So far I have only talked about strength and flexibility but yoga has a lot more to offer than the physical benefits. Many people especially in the West take up yoga as part of a fitness regime. They add it to their weekly programme of self improvement in the hope that it will help them look better and even sexier. I suppose there is a place in yoga in the 21st century for this kind of thinking. There are many new styles out there in the public arena and this is not such a bad thing as it means that yoga is reaching more people in many differing forms. As a contrast when we talk about people practicing meditation that can mean anything from sitting quietly once a day for ten minutes to simply be still with a view to bringing calmness to body and mind to going deeper into the depths of consciousness in the hope of discovering new realities and levels of consciousness.On the other hand what distinguishes yoga from other types of exercise is that it is really about coming to better terms with the mind through working with the body. Cultivating a greater sense of physical, mental and emotional awareness through the continual focus on bodily sensations whilst in the midst of a yoga asana. This continuing improvement of awareness is enhanced by the considered use of the breath. Breath in yoga is not simply about controlled breathing techniques although these can bring immense benefits but also a lot of good breath work is done in the midst of asana. Breathing the energy of the breath into those parts of the body you are working with.This combination of daily work with the body and breath has an indirect influence on the mind and emotions bringing about over time a greater sense of harmony, calmness and well-being. After just a few years or even months of daily yoga practice and you may one day stop and take stock of how you are feeling and think to yourself: I seem to be feeling a lot calmer about myself and my reactions to daily stresses and tensions are a lot more positive than they once were. Why is that I wonder. Then you might think, it could be my yoga and you will probably be right! Many years ago I once complained to an accomplished yoga teacher that after years of daily practice and a lot of meditation I had only experienced what I described as a quieter mind and he replied "Well if that's all you ever achieve you have been truly blessed!"

In conclusion by all means take up yoga for its gifts of flexibility, toning and strength but also look for the deeper gifts that the magic of yoga can bring. Remember that the human mind has a wonderful capacity to continually refine its ability to focus and concentrate. Yoga is a journey and not just one that moves the body but also the mind as it is also an inward journey, one of introspection. There is much to be seen in the great wide world and the universe beyond but there is also another universe in the great depths of the mind and this journey can be just as exciting.if we are patient and steady. The flexibility you gain physically will ultimately translate to the flexibility of the mind to make that journey of introspection more possible and meaningful

.Barry Todd - (HathaYogaMan)

What is Self-hypnosis Anyway?

Self-hypnosis is a much misunderstood phrase.  Some of that is because 'hypnosis' is  very much misunderstood too.

Let's see what this hypnosis thing is all about

If you imagine a spectrum stretching from you being fast asleep and gone to the world to the other extreme where you are bouncing around full of life, anywhere along that spectrum is a possibility for you.  More than  that, every point on the line is something that you pass through every day unless you have some restrictions that stop you like ill health or physical restrictions.

Hypnosis does not take you away from that line and in fact the point at which hypnosis occurs is part of your everyday life.
Just before you go to sleep and just after you wake up you pass through a hypnotic state.  For some it is a mere nano-second and for others it can be a few minutes.  Have you ever been drifting off to sleep and heard someone or something that you are aware of but that sounds far away and/or you feel just too tired to respond?  That's hypnosis.  Similarly upon waking do you ever experience a lack of coordination and orientation for a brief second or even longer?  This is especially true if you are not in your normal surroundings.  That's hypnosis.

So if we do it every day and that's all it is how come we have to learn to do it?

Ah well you see this is the magic about hypnosis.  It's not how to do it, better to say how to use it for your benefit.  It is not the actual hypnosis that you are using but tools that you can include in your experience in order to make that self-hypnosis impact-full for you.

A self hypnosis course will teach you how to access that hypnotic state at will.  So that if you feel a 'power nap' would be beneficial you could use hypnosis to give you that restful period.  And when you are in that very relaxed state in a controlled way i.e. choosing to go there then it is far more refreshing than an actual 15 min nap.

Wish fulfillment

 

Self hypnosis is also useful when you want to plan ahead and aim for the things you want to achieve.  Unfortunately most people either wish for something without putting enough thought into it and taking the bigger picture into account or they wish for what they don't want. i.e. I don't want to eat cream cakes. which is focusing on the negative rather than the actual aims.

So a big part of a self-hypnosis course would be to understand what you want, check it out and explore the consequences of this wish coming true.  If it is all okay then it is about learning how to embed that wish into your 'self'-hypnosis session.

It is truly amazing that so many people use self-hypnosis wrongly and are reinforcing the things they want to leave behind or hoping for something without preparing the road effectively.

Self hypnosis when carried out acturately can help you to:

• Relax and be calm

• Enjoy better quality sleep

• Improve your confidence & self-esteem

• Be a better public speaker

• Improve your memory

• Enhance your performance at work and sports

• Become healthier and fitter

• Promote rapid healing and recovery

• Control or reduce pain without drugs

• Learn faster and pass exams

• Enjoy pregnancy and wonderfully natural childbirth (women only of course!)

All that's left now then is to find a course and register.

A Quick Word about Hypnosis Recordings

This subject could take a whole book and not just a few words so for this blog it will be one of the things that tends to make a relationship fail. 

What attracts you to a partner in the first place?

You might say you find them attractive, or you could say you fancy them, they turn you on or they make you feel special or comfortable or make your heart race, they are kind and a hundred other things you might say to explain how that person has the potential to be special to you.

You've heard the term 'opposites attract'?  That is very true in some relationships.  But let me expand, you are not attracted because you think you will have someone that you can have deep meaningful discussions with about your differences, you are not attracted because you enjoy the arguments that might ensue as you clash on most things or one of you capitulates. 

No no no you are attracted because  you want some of what they've got.

So if you are quiet and shy, your greatest desire would be to behave like the life and soul of the party.  Equally that person would know that its not always the easy option, putting all that effort and energy into being the entertainer in a group and they would gladly like to be comfortable enough with themselves to sit back occasionally and let someone else do the work.  They would want some of what appears to be your cool, calm laid back approach.

So actually you are attracted to the best effort you both are able to make in order to present yourselves favourably.

If it was clear that you felt very socially awkward and your attractor felt anxious to impress then you might see each other differently.

What goes wrong with these relationships.

If you get entwined with this person who you feel attracted to and you are prepared to be patient.  Then you are admiring of them for a while and you are prepared to sit it out in the hope that some of the attitude will rub off on you.  And you wait and you wait.

While you are waiting you also begin to see chinks in the armour.  You see that all is not quite as you thought it was  as those behaviours begin to become exposed for what they really are.  You begin to feel annoyed with the behaviour that you once admired.  You feel cheated and crushed.  You feel over or undershadowed and you don't like it.  The rot is beginning to set in.

How to survive your opposing relationships

It makes sense really, while you are fighting to impress you are alienating each other.  If youa re able to talk things through and talk about the insecurities that you experience that make you behave the way you do, you can begins to understand each other.  This trust and understanding give you support and hopefully if you keep talking and caring then you willdepend on each other for different reasons and will start to feel more confident in yourselves knowing that you have someone who cares about you.  Forotunately these days more couples are talking and supporting each other emotionally and were once men couldn't talk about these things they are now able to do so.

If you are with someone, male or female, who is not prepared to talk things through then you will have a struggle and the relationship may eventually end. 

You need to find your support from developing an awareness about yourself, attending courses in self help and self empowerment in order that you can keep yourself safe during the resolving of the relationship.

Andrea Lowe

Senior Hypnotherapist.analyst and Hypnotherapy Diploma Course Tutor

Yoga: to teach or not to teach?

If you are a yoga practitioner sat out there thinking about this then there is no easy answer.

Yoga Teacher Training is a minefield of variables and evolving at the same time. That's a bit like juggling while on a skateboard. At the end of the day after you have made all the necessary enquiries and spoken to all the necessary course tutors and visited all the necessary studios and read all the necessary syllabus and checked all the books lists and listened to all those friends and contacts who have told you how hard it has been and how they never thought they would get over their nerves to teach a group of people, then you have to pay your money and take your choice.

Safety and Yoga Teaching

Your friends are right in many ways in that yoga teacher training courses are hard work. They require a lot of commitment probably over a full year giving up weekends and some evenings.

A 200 hour course means you have to spend 200 hours of quality time on your learning and on most good courses around 160-180 of those hours have to be with the course tutor. There will be homework every month including preparing flows to teach to your fellow trainees. The better courses spend at least half the time on training and practice which means actually working deeper with the techniques you use in your own practice and will ultimately use in a scheduled class with members of the public. The practice flows with fellow trainees will often allow time for diagnosis so you can receive constructive feedback and you will also be able to give this back. Safety has to be the first priority in your learning process and this is often overlooked with many trainees who initially get preoccupied with things like technique, timing, postural benefits, oral skills and nerves.

Teaching for YOU or for THEM

The safety issue is an interesting oversight and is often indicative that in the early months trainees are still teaching for THEMSELVES. This links in with the important issue in teacher training of approaching it with a strong view of Self Enquiry rather than personal or even professional development albeit the latter is important but again mostly with your intended students in mind.

Even if you have been practising yoga regularly for many years and even if you are already teaching another subject you will find that teaching yoga to others is a paradigm shift.

Motivation behind teaching, and this doesn't just apply to teaching yoga but to any subject, is that when you develop skills and knowledge with a view to passing these on to others, you learn things in a different way than when to do it for YOURSELF. In yoga, safety has to be a priority and also being honest about what you know and teaching only that. There can be a temptation once you start teaching yoga to scan a book for a technique and then attempt to teach it just to vary your class content. Teaching yoga whether it be a pose or breath control or any technique is more ethically done if from the depths of your own continued practice and development. In other words you have experienced it so much yourself that you know exactly what your student can expect and you can even tell them what to expect. This helps build yoga student faith and trust in you because you know what you are doing.

The safety issue is also not always about oversight and some trainees think because they cannot feel any strong warning signals when coming into pose then there is no need to mention it. This is not acceptable and often reflects trainee asana and technique knowledge. When a teacher really knows their techniques this includes all the possible dangers and risks and strong sensations that can be experienced by students attending classes. It becomes important to remember that as a yoga teacher you will be guiding students through an experience and you will want that experience to be the best is can be for THEM. In fact everything you say, every instruction you give, every pause you make, what volume you use etc all goes towards that experience. Students who attend you classes make an appointment with you for that experience. Only you have the power to make it the best it can be but always for THEM.

The YOU part of YOUR yoga experience comes when you are in you own personal practice.

So ask yourself early on, “why do I want to teach yoga?” and be scrupulously honest with yourself.

I know that some may now be a bit disheartened by these comments and think well surely I have to enjoy my teaching experience. These comments are not saying you can't enjoy it. The joy can be in making your students experience a safe and meaningful one. One where they can leave your studio feeling more alive and more of an idea of what it can feel like to be fully human after experiencing an hour of your magical alchemy.

What students want from yoga teachers

When asking new trainees what they think students expect from a yoga teacher most of them say things like: commitment, friendliness, good communication skills, respectfulness, mindfulness and awareness, insurance cover, enthusiasm for yoga, adaptable to student ability etc.

While all these things are good qualities, it is important to remember that most students attend classes for just a few reasons: they want good instruction as to how to practice the various techniques, the knowledge that a teacher has gained from years of practice and application and if they are lucky, some inspiration to continue their practice. These three elements have their own depths. Good instruction has to be audible, with clarity and confidence. It has to have accuracy and good timing and a little bit of humility that at least moves away from overpowering. Your dialogue is often best when it's smooth rather than snatched and fast paced. The faster you talk the more the students miss! Instruction has to impart just enough information. They say that beginners only remember 3 consecutive instructions.

Knowledge is what the teacher knows from years of personal practice and application. It's knowing about the order of the yoga flow. What posture should follow others. Should there be counter poses. When to breath. A common phrase used by yoga teachers is “Don't forget to breath!” When it is better to tell students when to breath and how to breath. These are just a few things to consider.

Inspiration might be a luxury in many yoga classes especially in gyms and spas when there can be over 30 attendees. Although even here inspiring students is not impossible. Inspiration often comes with experience and fluency with your yoga material. The use of humour and bringing emphasis to certain parts of your delivery etc.

Transformation and yoga training

I mentioned earlier that a good approach to yoga teacher training was to think of it more as an experience in Self-Enquiry. This term has many meanings and is even a kind of meditative technique in itself. One way of thinking about it though is that a teacher training course brings together a number of like minded people for 200 hours of more who are hoping to make some changes to their lives for the better. The loose objective might simply be to come out at the other end with a piece of paper that says they can teach yoga and that enables them to get insurance cover and work in gyms and spas and studios and the confidence to set classes up themselves in new locations.

For others it is more of a journey of self discovery. To being open to genuine and honest change and hopefully even a transformation in themselves. All good yoga training courses bring an element of this as trainees spend hours working and interacting together, exchanging information and experiences not just about yoga but other things in their lives. There is always a kind of inter supportive nature to yoga training. Everyone is rooting for each other wanting them to do the very best they can during the course and achieving the maximum benefits. Most trainees go to the trouble of attending each others public Observed Teaching Practices even travelling miles to do so giving pre class encouragement followed by praise at the end.

Trainees often say how they miss this spirit of friendship and community and often get together periodically to regenerate that feeling. Yoga teacher trainee friends are often made for life.

What's also interesting about all this is that while most graduates go on to teach, some simply bask in the joy of their experience. Having been a dedicated student for this more concentrated time enquiring more deeply into themselves they have also found strength in the psychological support gained from their deepening knowledge that leads them closer to modesty, openness, sincerity and a more natural an unassuming disposition.

So in conclusion, whether you intend to teach or not, a yoga teacher training course can be a great option for the benefits and values it can bring in its transformational journey. It is not an easy option and can mean hard work and a shift in your comfort zones but you are always going to be on the path that will provide you with the opportunity for change. This change is unique in that it provides the opportunity to expand the portals of your awareness and consciousness in a capsule of time that could otherwise take many years of simple weekly practice.

Barry Todd Yoga Teacher Trainer (HathaYogaMan)

The benefits of yoga practice

In my expeience 90% of people who attend yoga classes do so for stress related reasons. This can be stress from their occupation, from health concerns, family pressures or even a combination of all three. Some attend because they wnat to try something new, because they have an injury or health condition that their GP has recommended yoga as a help. One lady once said she was taking up yoga because she wanted to be a better business women. In fcat yoga can be helpful in any of these areas of life, Some people also start yoga for spiritual reasons. They are seeking other realities or wanting to transcend consciousness or discover their true inner Self. Whatever your objectives it is said yoga can meet you wherever you are at this moment in your life and will bring you benefits. It's even okay to have preconcieved ideas of outcomes from your yoga practice but also be prepared for other benefits that you may not have anticipated. We shall also see later that it is possible to directly or indirectly apply techniques that will influence outcomes.

Yogas Physical Benefits

Most yoga classes in the West are deemed asana classes or classes where you practcie posturing and this suggests something physical because it is to do with bodily shapes. So yes asana or psoturing can make us more flexible, more toned and stronger. On this last one people sometimes seem surprised because yoga can often be associated with gentle stretching, squeezing and twisting. In actual fact some of the yoga core strength asanas can be very challenging. Of course you can always start with milder core strength work and lead up the to more challenging ones!

So the physical side of yoga often attracts aspirants in their initial curiosity and the postures are often easier as a starting point to get your head around yoga as a concept. Upon further practice and investigation however, you soon discover that there is a lot more to yoga than mere physical improvement. This is what makes yoga stand apart from many other physical exercise regimes. It is the mental and emotional elements that give it an extra quality.

The great thing about yoga postures is that they try and get to all parts of the body in each and every pose. So if you only have a brief time to practice one day each posture can be almost be a complete practice in itself.

To get the most from yoga physically, liten to your teacher and also listen to your body. That is importanat because no teacher can feel for YOU so you have to always be listening to yourself. Just stretch, squeeze or twist to your working edge or that place where you can feel sensations but without too much discomfort and certainly no electrical pain. Achiness can be okay as when we do any physical exercise we have to agree to have some discomfort to help improve our bodies.

You will also soon come to realize that the breath is an important part of yoga postural practice. When we exercise the body we have to stress it to some extent to gain the improvement we want and this has to create some potential tension. Correct yoga breathing can help smooth out this tension so helping to leave us more calm and comfortable as well as toned and flexed. A good teacher wont just remind you when but also how to breath. This referes to both the tempo and the direction of the breath. Breathing through the nose is the best practice and depending on the pose slow deep and comfortable breaths and directing the breath to an appropriate part of the body. So for example when in a seated forward bend it can be useful to breath into the lower ribs of lower back. This more deliberate and directional breathing both in static and moving posture can help strengthen our muscles of respiration and improve the efficiency of our breathing.

Mental and Emotional Benefits of asana and breathing

After we have persevered with yoga practice for a while we begin to drop or sink deeper into postures using the nourishment of our rhythmic breath to smooth out physical tensions and  thus relaxing our bodies more.Then our experience becomes a different one. We begin to realize that the physical effort we make in yoga posturing ultimately has less tension and so we end up with a more satisfying and calming outcome when we leave the yoga room.

Working regularly with our body and breath can help strengthen our powers of concentration not only for the time we are in practice but this power also translates over into everyday lfe. With release of tensions we also lose those mental and physical blocks that impede us and we begin to enjoy our lives on a higher level. We begin to notice that our anxieties have less of a hold on us and we can deal with whatever life throws at us with a renewed strength.

We can eventually become experts in relaxation. By sinking more deeply into our bodily sensations whilst in asana and using the breath deeply and comfortabley we can immerse ourselves into a profound feeling stroking the body with the healing efficacy of the breath's naturally and nourishing action. This practice then makes simply lying or reclining relaxation easier to achieve. Allowing the body to sink into stillness while we focus our attention on something simple such as the breath itself or some point in the body such as the eyebrow centre or the heart centre. The latter is not easy to do for a prolonged period as it is passive and of little interest to the mind so it tends to wander. By constantly and gently returning to that point of focus while relaxing we gradually over time create longer spaces between distractions and begin to prolong our moments of peace and calm.

 Setting yourself an Intention or resolve.

Once you are settling down into your regular weekly practice setting an intention for each coming practice can be a very powerful way of achieving a desired outcome. This can be something you want physically, psychologically or emotionally. For example "I will feel more toned and flexible" or " By the close of this practice I will feel calm and relaxed" If you have the opportunity just before the start of your class or home practice simply relax for a few momenets and then think of your desired outcome. Say it in your mind but say it with clarity, emphasis and even some emotion three times. This will help embed the idea in your subconscious mind so even if you dont think about it again during the practice it can still stay with you and bring about the outcome you want.

Have a great practice!

Barry Todd (HathaYogaMan)