yoga certificationBy: Virginia Iversen

Warrior II Pose is a wonderful Yoga asana for increasing a student’s sense of focus, determination and grounding. The ability to focus and concentrate on one task at a time is hard won in today’s multi-media world. Often times, we are checking our e-mail while we are talking to someone on the phone or texting while walking down the sidewalk. Of course, multi-tasking may seem more efficient, but it can also increase a lack of focus and increase anxiety levels. Incorporating all of the Warrior Poses into your Yoga class will help to ground and strengthen your students’ clarity and resolve for what may lay ahead of them.

The sequencing or “krama” of asanas is one of the core elements of a well-taught class. The Sanskrit term “krama” includes not just a general sense of sequencing, but also a sense of flowing with the natural world that surrounds us and our own inner environment. The krama of your Yoga training session will ideally include an awareness of both the time of day and the day of the week that you are teaching. It is also important to be aware of the flow of the time of year that your are instructing. For instance, if you are teaching a hot Yoga class where the room is generally heated to over a hundred degrees and it is a sweltering summer day, you may want to turn down the heat a bit. On the other hand, if it is a cool fall evening and your students are chilled, you may want to begin the class with an invigorating round of Bhastrika Pranayama and a quick flowing sequence of standing poses.

It can be a bit tricky to lead a class of diverse Yoga students through a set sequence of asanas. One of the core principals of the practice of Yoga is ahimsa or non-violence. This includes a non-violent attitude towards oneself. If a student has some physical limitations, allowing the student to set his or her own pace is critical to a healing practice. As a Yoga teacher, setting an example of respect for your students’ own inner wisdom is of paramount importance in honoring the Yogic virtue of non-violence. Over time, you will learn to modify many of the poses in order to fit the different ability levels of your students. For example, using props, such as blocks, bolsters and belts, will help to make challenging asanas accessible to even beginning students. This sense of inclusion will also bolster the confidence levels of many of your newer students and give a general sense of cohesion to your class as a whole.

© Copyright 2012 – Virginia Iversen / Aura Wellness Center – Publications Division

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