Goodbye 2017, hello 2018!
7As 2017 is drawing to a close, I wanted to take a moment to thank you for reading my blog and contributing to the conversation. Thank you! I read every single comment and continue to be amazed at how passionate and committed you are to your teaching and your yoga practice. This keeps me inspired every day.
Here is a quick summary of the subjects that we’ve covered in 2017, just in case you missed something 🙂 And, as always, I would love to know what topics are the most relevant to you right now. Please tell me in the comments below what you would like to discuss next year. I will see you in 2018!
Physical practice
Traditional goals of asana practice
Nowhere in the traditional yogic text will you find any talk about muscles, fitness or physical accomplishments. For the yogis health and fitness were defined in these four terms.
Is it better to be flexible or stable?
Our structure needs to be stable enough not to collapse, yet flexible enough to allow for the body to move freely. Let’s take a look at the bones, ligaments, muscles and fascia to figure out what we want from them in the flexibility vs. stability department.
Observation
Movement observation in a yoga session
During the movement observation we are walking the fine line between OBSERVING and CORRECTING. We are NOT trying to teach each pose to the student. What are we trying to do?
What to look for in your student’s structure
If we want to make any sort of meaningful difference in someone’s life, we need to learn how to observe the student’s body and then use that information to create an appropriate yoga practice – where do we begin?
Chronic pain
When you are hurt where does the pain come from?
The pain experience often has nothing to do with actual tissue damage. Then where does the pain come from?
Why yoga is effective for chronic pain management
To be effective for managing chronic pain, the strategy needs to involve the physical body, physiology, mental assessment, emotional response and overall outlook on life. How does yoga fit in?
Managing chronic pain with yoga on each layer of the system
How to work with chronic pain on the level of physical body
How to work with chronic pain on the level of physiology (part 1)
Three pillars of physiological health
How to manage your “body budget”: The Brhmana-Langhana model
How to work with chronic pain on the level of physiology (part 2)
Is there a difference between pain and suffering? Insights from Patanjali
Do our thoughts make us suffer? Five types of mental activities
How to train your memory and encourage learning
Pratipaksha bhavana – the most powerful tool of mind control and emotional regulation
Four ways to change your emotional responses: types of cognitive reappraisal
How to work with chronic pain on the level of intellectual mind
Do your beliefs hold you back or propel you forward?
How to use chakras to map out your functional and dysfunctional beliefs
Three stages of working with chakras
Five koshas: How to gain access to hidden inner layers
Does yoga have its own approach to meditation?
To meditate or not to meditate? How meditation works
Discharge excess mental energy: Sturdy as a mountain yoga practice
Lots of interesting discussions coming in 2018 – don’t miss them!
Thank you for the recap. Looking forward to another insightful and inspiring New Year.
Namaste.
Gliding through your summary of the year’s topics, I am reminded again of how good it is to revisit “everything,” as so many of these topics already feel like “something I have not read before.” As one of your “faithful students,” I show up for whatever it is that you are offering. If you think that it is worth consideration, I have grown to trust that it probably is! Keep up your good work; don’t burn out carrying our expectations; and may your new year be blessed with insight and growth! Thanks, Olga.
thanks a lot olga for this recap and all the work. I do follow your blog since 3 years more or less I think now, and it was a big change in my personnal practice in addition with my iyengar usual weekly class, and every morning kind of “mix-up” personnal stuff. Some of your insights and tips and practices helped me to release deep tensions and to heal from a big back injury, and reguraly I’m using the body map index to choose one or the other possibility following my needs. I really appreciate the way you “teach” (even on a blog!) from your experience and a great knowledge of the body, the yoga, and much more subject.
So all my kindness and have a beautiful 2018!
emmi
Hi Olga,
I just recently joined Sequence Wiz. I have been teaching Yoga since 2010 and love it. On a personal level, yoga is what helped me get my body back, both physically and mentally. That is why I decided to get trained and became passionate teaching others yoga and the numerous benefits yoga has to offer the body. My style of teaching is “Hatha” with a splash of therapeutic, for example, the class theme might be on strengthening the lower back.
What would I like to see more of in 2018 or better yet, a specific section “Tab” just on modifications & adjustments?
Thank you for all your efforts and knowledge you have put on this website to help Yoga Teachers, Therapists and individuals reach their goals.
Hi Lynn, welcome to our community! I am so happy to hear that you are interested in different pose adaptations because I decided to spend a lot of time on those this year. If you have an Instagram account please follow me there at ok.yoga – I have a lot of pose versions there already and plan to add many-many more! Thank you for your feedback.
Hi Olga, thank you so much for this post and creating a community as you have. I have been practising with you consistently for four months – having done every single class on YouTube – and have devoured your blog posts, starting way back in 2013. I feel empowered and invigorated since starting a more gentle yoga practice. And somehow I feel more free; free from expectations that as a yogi you have to be able to do balance in handstand or put your legs behind your head. Since I started to practise vinyasa yoga five years ago, I could never get rid of nagging joint pains and irritation, but it feels as though my body is healing now that I do yoga more mindfully (sounds like a contradiction, I know – how can yoga be practised non-mindfully? Well…). Plus, as somebody with a desk job, I find your practices extremely helpful for strengthening those muscles that become tight and weak over time. So thank you again and I look forward to practising with you in 2018.
Thank you Esme! I am delighted by your feedback and couldn’t agree more. “I feel empowered and invigorated since starting a more gentle yoga practice” – this is exactly how I feel, too. I guess we just have to remind ourselves over and over again that the practice needs to be appropriate for our constitution, lifestyle and time in life, AND it needs to nourish our bodies rather then irritate them! Yes, seems like a no-brainer, yet here we are 🙂 So I am very happy that I can support you on this journey – lets keep exploring! 🙂