Ashtanga Yoga Project

What is truly sad is that some people, who make these types of posts, actually believe that everyone’s body has the ability to move like theirs and are absolutely clueless. Why? Because yogaland is self selecting. Those who don’t fit, are quickly weeded out and don’t come back. Which leaves classes that are full of hyper mobile outliers that get normalized as being well “normal”.

This is not about making hyper mobile people feel bad. I myself sit at the very top of the hyper mobility spectrum and spent many years thinking and teaching that if folks just worked hard enough, they could be like me(feel free to scroll back to my older posts). This was a lie that I picked up from many well intentioned teachers.

My teachings and the teachings of so many folks in yogaland were harmful and I acknowledge that.

Part of making amends is repairing the damage and changing your ways.

Tomorrow, I will be doing a workshop with about how to make amends and begin to truly create practices that are inviting and accessible for you and or your students. Link in the bio.

In Mysore Style Ashtanga Yoga, the teacher works with each student individually and helps them achieve their individual goals. It is a great way to get started with yoga or to go deeper in your current practice. Don’t miss this chance to study with 2 senior teachers in the North Charlotte area. Sign up ends next Wednesday. Link in bio.

Yes, you may see a few exceptions sprinkled in but for the most part, what do you see without scrolling down? What is “above the fold”? Honestly, this carousel could go on and on. There are so many more populations that are missing. Comment below with who else is missing and uplift accounts that address these populations so folks can follow and learn about their work.

My workshop this weekend is about getting honest about who is missing and why. It is about bravely looking at how you may be perpetuating exclusivity. If you truly feel that yoga is for everyone, what are you doing to live this principal and make folks feel welcome?

Workshop link in the bio.

This Wednesday is the last day to sign up. This workshop is perfect for those looking to start a new practice or jump back into and old one. Link in bio.

In the month of November,I am excited to offer two opportunities to learn about Ashtanga Yoga with me. You can learn in person with me and Santos in Charlotte and also join me for the   . Both are for all levels and bodies and many variations will be offered.

Bonus: This challenge will also include LIVE interactive classes! 🙌 Ready to learn, move, and have fun with Ashtanga?

How to participate in the challenge

✨Sign up for the challenge at the link in bio or at Omstars.com. Each day you’ll have a new class of the day to explore.

✨Follow the hosts:














✨Follow the sponsors:


 
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.nada.empanada
 

✨Tag 3 friends who will love this challenge below

✨Share this challenge graphic on your feed or in your stories

✨Post a photo each day of the 14 days of yourself doing the pose of the day

✨Tag our hosts and sponsors in your posts

For more on Mysore with me and Alexandra, check out my link in bio.

Stay tuned for my course on book 2 of the Yoga Sutras. Folks who subscribe to my newsletter receive a 30% discount and first access. Links in my bio.

Can you believe that September is almost over? Today’s pose for the 30 Day Yoga Challenge with and is Supta Padangusthasana or Reclined Hand to Big Toe Pose.

Are you a BIPOC person Interested in learning more poses like this or teaching? Check the link in my bio for info on the BIPOC YTT.

Today’s pose for the 30 Day Yoga Challenge with and is Svasana. A bolster under the knees can be helpful for folks who have sacrum or lower back pain.

Live in Charlotte? Join me and for a workshop designed to help you build a personal practice called “Fall in Love with Yoga”. Link in the bio.

I say this in my head whenever I check my comments and DM’s 😂. I choose joy. I choose love. I choose me.

Today’s pose for the 30 Day Yoga Challenge with and is Wide Leg Straddle. I took this picture at our Community BIPOC Yoga class. Tonight, a beautiful soul cried tears of joy because they had been on a search for a yoga home and they didn’t feel comfortable anywhere and they finally felt at home. That is why we do this.

Join us Thursday at 6PM, Tues at 7:30PM. Link in the bio.



.louise

Spiritual Bypassing.

I know yoga folks who spent 10 years working on Ashtanga transitions and handstands. The yoga community knows what hard work looks like. It is just interesting to see where that effort goes.

If you are interested in BIPOC offerings or a deep dive into the Yoga Sutras, check out the link in my bio.

Today’s pose for the 30 Day Yoga Challenge with and is “gentle heart opener”. Some may not call this variation “gentle” but it is what I love. Gentle is always going to be a relative term and depends on the person.

Today’s pose for the 30 day yoga challenge with and is Child’s pose. This pose is seen as being comfortable for everyone but it is not. It can feel suffocating and can be hard on the knees.

It is given as a rest or centering pose. I would love to hear other poses you use to rest or center yourself. Comment below!

’spose

Integrity makes you “hard to work with” and is one of the reasons I love being an entrepreneur. Don’t let the world convince you that the only way to be successful is to have loose morals and malleable integrity. It is a lie. There are people out there who want to work with someone just like you. If you surround yourself with people of low integrity, those people cannot find you. The world will not change unless we change it. If you continue to accept toxic behavior, people will continue to perpetuate it and you will continue to receive it.

Today’s pose for the 30 day yoga challenge with and is Easy Pose.

Easy Pose with my back supported by a wall is my preferred way to meditate. I have always had a rocky relationship with meditation because of the messages I picked up from society and the modern Yoga world. Both taught me that being busy, “productive”, “hustling”and moving is more important. Even though they both talk about stillness , they don’t create space for it which sends the message that it is not important.

I struggle with a voice in my head that says I should be doing asanas instead;that I am wasting my time;that if I don’t work on asanas, I will loose poses and won’t reach my goals.

Even with my decades of studying yogic texts and knowing better, I still can’t shake it.

I am in the process of building my time seated in meditation back up after falling prey to those messages again. After a few days of fighting, I always remember why I loved it in the first place. There is a sense of peace that I can only find through stillness.

I am super excited to share these two Black and BIPOC community offerings in Charlotte. I will be subbing for this week for Black Community Meditation at the .

Starting September 9, I will be working with a group of amazing BIPOC teachers to host community yoga classes weekly in Charlotte.

Everything is donation based and all levels.

.louise

Yoga is inherently inclusive and accessible. It only stops being so when folks teach in an exclusive way. Unfortunately, exclusive styles, that rely on hyper mobility and able young bodies, has become the norm. This leaves most of the population underrepresented and many feel like they don’t belong.

This workshop is about shifting from exclusivity back to inclusivity.

Link in my bio with more info.

Imposter syndrome is a real thing but some people actually are imposters and it is important to recognize that.

Our next BIPOC YTT will be live in Charlotte NC.

This is a safe space for BIPOC (Black Indigenous People of Color) to deepen their knowledge of yoga and bring the teachings to communities that are underrepresented in the yoga world.

Link in the bio. Feel free to reach out with any questions.

The process of shifting from a body focused yoga asana practice to a meditation and pranayama practice is not heavily discussed in the yoga world. This is most likely due to the money being in asanas. If students are given “basic” asanas to practice until they are physically ready to sit for meditation and pranayama, we would be building students that are independent. It is more lucrative to keep them addicted to receiving harder poses, more flexibility, more strength or a more advanced “workout”.

I imagine a world where students graduate to meditation, pranayama and yoga scripture classes.

A world where being invited to the Intermediate class or being given another series of poses was not considered to be the pinnacle, more important or more worthy of one’s time.

Don’t get me wrong, I love a tricky pose as much as the next person. I just wonder how different my life would have been if I had been taught this way instead of the pose chasing method I was given? There was a time in my yoga practice when my body felt amazing. What if my teachers had introduced me to sitting instead of convincing me that I needed to push more or complete more sequences? Or if they had not told me the other limbs happen spontaneously if I just grab my ankles enough in Wheel pose.

Want to learn more about the process of yoga beyond poses? Part one of my Yoga Sutras course is available in my Yoga School. Link is in the bio.

This forward fold can be helpful for folks with:

🍎sacral pain
🍎sciatica
🍎hamstring pain
🍎lower back pain
🍎anyone who thinks it will feel good!

🍋It decreases flexion in the spine and focuses more on extension.

🍋it provides a stretchy sensation in the hamstrings and shoulders

🍋it trains the body to tilt the pelvis down and fold from the hips instead of just flexing from the spine

I find that if I just limit my fold and sit upright, I get nothing from it. If I fold deep enough to feel my hammies, it aggravates my sacral arthritis. This is a good middle way.

Join me on for Redefining chair yoga. I have a few more live Monday 9:30AM sessions. However, I have a course as well that you can check out on as well.

I recently had a heartbreaking convo with an Ashtangi who is aging and their teacher, that they have worked with through their able bodied years, no longer knows what to do with them. Instead of bringing in variations, tools and practices that would support changing bodies, teachers are trying to save poses that no longer make sense. Unfortunately, this is not the first time I have witnessed or heard about this sort of thing.

The yoga world likes to bring up the names of a few magical unicorn teachers who manage to do fancy asanas in their older years and ignore the rest who just disappear.

The older teachers , that stick around,talk about the changes they have had to make in their practice only when asked and often in small groups and whispers. They carefully curate scenes, pictures and demos from their practice so they leave out all the poses they can no longer do.

None of this behavior has anything to do with yoga. Yoga acknowledges the different stages of life and progressively moves away from external focus to the inner dimension that is accessible to all ages. This denial of the aging body is delusion and delusion is what yoga is seeking to absolve.

I will be teaching two more Ashtanga classes for . This is one of them. I truly believe in the power of community and it was wonderful to come together this past year. I would love to see you before it is all over. Link is in the bio.

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