Monday was day twenty-one of the yoga challenge. I ended my challenge with a private session with Marci Lew, whom I have known for several years and taken class from at Patanjali’s Place (http://www.patanjalisplace.com/) as well at her Wednesday class at the Health Associates space on Broad Street. Marci’s training is in TriYoga and pilates. TriYoga fundamentals include relaxation-in-action, wave-like spinal movements, and economy of motion. Marci combines her understanding of each in a fantastic Yogalaties class including the best parts of yoga flow with emphasis on core strength and engagement. She also teaches a gentle yoga flow class that works your body in all the best ways to achieve release, length and space from head to toe. I have always found Marci to be receptive and eager to help her students with their practice. She is skilled at demonstrating in reverse (a feat I have not mastered), and explaining what to do ahead of a transition or new variation she might offer. I haven’t been able to take either of her classes in recent months, but recall her ease and skill with warm ups. Her wisdom in coaching body movement and relaxation through yoga comes through in each class as does her outgoing personality.
I had not had a private session before and was more nervous about someone coming to my house for a class than the class itself. Having 3 dogs in residence that day (my 2 and a guest dog, Buddy), we opted for class on the deck rather than contend with the pack. I told Marci I was interested in working on core strength, having had David’s hour-long pilates class give me a new conception of my room for improvement in that area, and forward folding. Improving on these in my practice holds a bit of ego for me since I want to be able to improve my arm balances and ability to go deeper in folded poses. Ego aside, we rolled out our mats in the warm, late afternoon sun. Surrounded by trees, we worked first with cat/cow rolls. This is a series I teach every class and practice just as much personally as I do with my students. One might think there is little to a cat/cow roll, but habits set in quickly and fresh eyes give new life to familiar poses. I worked with Marci’s guidance to use a more wave-like motion tucking first the tail bone then moving inch by inch up my spine, pushing down through the shoulders I arched into cat. Moving each part of the spine, upper back, middle, lower and tail bone, I dipped back to cow. Marci’s suggestion was to drop my belly less in cow, leave my face at more of a neutral angle to keep the neck long and feel the tail bone and crown of the head move in oppistion to one another. The difference in how that felt from my usual way of moving through cat/cows provided more openness in my back and built more warmth in my spine.
Cat/cow work lead us to discussing how to teach different poses to students at a variety of levels. Since I teach both a large-group of students and a smaller studio class, I like to hear other teachers ideas about making poses more available to beginners without making them feel singled out. My Duke population tends to have more of a “if they are doing it I can too” attitude. Rather than discourage students at either end of the spectrum, I work to offer a range of options and remind them to choose what works best for them that day. Marci has great ideas along this line since she teaches to a wide audience each week, including a class to factory workers just outside Durham. We worked through a variety of table pose variations incorporating progressively more difficult balance and core options as we went along. I am glad to say that over the course of the year I have more students in my Duke class reaching for a block or using a strap than when I first started teaching at Wilson. I tend to demo first at the basic level and then take things up one notch at a time, so it is easy to move though the variations. Marci confirmed this was a good way to interact with my group especially with such a large number of students when hands-on adjustments might not be possible for each body in the class.
Our session dissolved into a teaching discussion, each of us telling the other different techniques and options we use for our classes. It was an amazing hour spent learning and refreshing my yoga teacher bag of tricks that afternoon under Marci’s supervision. As the sun set, we concluded our session and with it my 3-week challenge. I was glad to spend the last hour of the challenge working with Marci and hope to catch more Yoagalties this summer when my schedule frees up a little more.
Thanks to all my fellow teachers, the studios I visited, friends and those who cheered me on along the way!! Thanks to Patanjali’s Place for helping to publicize my 21 day challenge and to Bryan for his mentoring and friendship. A special thanks to my family for their support; yes, even the dogs who gave me kisses and tail wags when I was not feeling much like yoga! My deepest thanks goes to my husband for his unwaivering support, quickness to fill in for things when I was off on my mat, will to be weird and join in on classes, and mostly for all the love and understanding (I couldn’t have done it without you!). You are all an amazing part of my life and I thank you each for what you add to my journey every day!
I will post a summary as soon as I have a few more days to let all of this sink in. Namaste!