By Joleen Lunjew, of Asia Pacific Yoga

Gratitude. What a simple practice. Yet, so powerful. 

My partner Steve and I have always practiced gratitude. If you’ve been on one of Asia Pacific Yoga Teacher Trainings or dinners with us, you know that we’ll always practice ‘joyasana’ before eating – our way of saying thank you for our meal and all the things that we are grateful for. 

I recently came across a book The Magic by Rhonda Byrne (author of The Secret) at a book fair at our local library and decided to pick it up. I believe in the ‘Law of Attraction’ and have been using the ideas behind The Secret since my 20s. 

The theme of manifestation focuses on manifesting your desired life via the practice of Gratitude. I’ve taken the liberty of choosing my favourite 7 gratitude practices for this article and modifying them so that you can practice each one for each day of the week, beginning Monday. The practices are pretty simple but quite powerful. After you’ve finished the week, just repeat it again!

I truly believe that when you start practicing gratitude daily, the magic starts to happen. Changes in life will surprise you, effortlessly.

What is it you truly desire?

Before we start the project, you need to first get clear on what you REALLY want in your life. What are your dreams? What is it that you want to manifest? 

Write down under each category, your wants and desires. Don’t worry if it seems far fetched or unachievable at this moment. If there were no limitations, write down what it is that you truly desire – the little things, the big things, what you want in this moment, this year, or in the future. 

Health and Body
Relationships
Career / Work / Life’s Purpose
Money
Personal Desires
Material Things

Once you are clear on the things you want, the Universe can start to deliver. Get ready for an exciting ride ahead!

Your Gratitude Week

Monday
I have listed two projects for Monday, as the Magic Stone practice will be done every single night. 

Gratitude List
Every big journey starts with a small step so we’ll start the project relatively easy first. When you wake this morning or anytime throughout the day, write down a list of 10 things that you are grateful for. It could be a significant thing such as your career, your family or your house or it could be simple things that we might take for granted like the air we breathe, electricity or our waste system.

It will be more powerful if you say why you are grateful for the item instead of just listing it. For example, ‘thank you for my car so that I have the freedom of driving anywhere I please’ or ‘thank you for my garden because it provides us with food’. 

Re-read your list and feel immense gratitude for all that you have in your life. When repeating next week, change the list of things you are grateful for.

Magic Stone
Find a magic rock that resonates with you and place it by your bedside. It could be any rock or stone from your garden or a crystal that represents something that you would like to attract more of. 

Before going to sleep tonight, hold your magic stone and recall and be grateful for all the things that happened that day. Find the best thing that you’re grateful for and say the magic words – ‘thank you’. Place the stone back by your bedside.   

Tuesday

Magical Health
I’ve put health near the beginning because I believe health is the most precious thing in life, and a lot of us take it for granted. We typically only appreciate health when we fall sick. Even when we are living with illness or disability, we can be grateful for the ways our body does hold our life. 

When you wake, think about every part of your body. Your legs – how they support you as you walk. Your hands, they help you create things. Your internal organs – how they function without you even thinking of them. Your senses – what would your world be without them! Your trillions of cells, each working unceasingly 24/7. Your brain – your powerhouse of function, thoughts and memories. Your heart – your life force that keeps beating even when you sleep. Say thank you to each part of your body, and for the health, vitality, strength, flexibility and mobility that allow you to move smoothly through life.   

Do this at least 4 times throughout the day. 

Magic Stone
Repeat the Magic Stone practice before you go to sleep. 

Wednesday

Magical Relationships
Choose 3 people close to you and find a picture of them, with or without you in it. Hold one picture and say thank you for everything that person has done for you. Feel grateful for the person they are, how they have supported you or how they have shaped your life. Do that with the other 2 pictures. Take as long as you like with each picture. 

Keep the pictures in your wallet or phone and look at these pictures at least 3x today, each time saying thank you to the person for all they have done. 

Magic Stone
Repeat the Magic Stone practice before you go to sleep. 

Thursday

Magical Work
Whether you’re employed or not, everyone works – be it for money, or the simple ongoing work of maintaining your life. As you go about work today, think about all the people who have made this work easier. If you are employed, be grateful that you have a job! 

From the people who made the tools and utensils you use, your computers, your desk, your chair, to the delivery people and cleaners who keep the office tidy and clean. Be thankful for your co-workers, your clients, your customers, your managers, your bosses, your employees. Be grateful for the projects you are working on, responsibilities entrusted to you, or services that you can provide for others. 

If you are a stay-at-home parent, be grateful that you can spend these precious times with your children as they grow up and grateful that you have a house to manage and keep. 

If you are currently looking for work, be grateful that there are job opportunities waiting for you, and that you have the capacity to look. Be grateful for all the support you receive in this search.

The more grateful you are for your work, even though it is not your dream job, the more support, help, happiness, opportunities, satisfaction and beautiful moments will come your way. 

Magic Stone
Repeat the Magic Stone practice before you go to sleep. 

Friday

Money Magic
Feeling grateful for money when you don’t have much can be challenging. If you are feeling worried or angry, you are coming from a place of scarcity. Nothing will change until you change your feelings about money and the best way to start is to feel grateful for what money you do or did have. 

Think back to your childhood. Did you have food to eat? Did you have everything you needed for school? Were you given presents as a child? How did you travel to school? Did you have clothes as you grew quickly from one size to the next? Did you have a bed to sleep in? Did you watch TV, use lights, electricity and water?

All of these cost money and you received them! Be grateful for each memory because when you feel sincere gratitude for the money you’ve received in the past, your money will magically increase in the future. It is the Universal Law. 

Take any dollar note (I used a $20 note while Steve chose $50) and write a sticker that you place on it.

Thank you for all the money I’ve been given throughout my life 

Or

Thank you for the financial abundance I have and will receive

Or

Thank you for blessing me with financial abundance. Money comes to me easily and continuously.

Or any monetary message that resonates with you. 

Carry the note with you. Look at it at least 3 times today, read your words and feel truly grateful for the money you’ve been given and will have in your life. 

Make another copy of your note and stick it somewhere that you will see, like the fridge, your dresser, your work station or in your car. Each time you see it, read the words and feel grateful for the money that will flow into your life.   

Magic Stone
Repeat the Magic Stone practice before you go to sleep. 

Saturday

Magic Desires
Today is all about feeling gratitude about personal achievements, experiences or people you desire. Maybe you would like to play the piano, dance in Italy, or sail around the world. Maybe you want to do what you love for a living, find your perfect partner, start a family or travel around the world.

To do this, you have to visualise that you already have what you want and feel grateful that you are living your dream. 

If you are wanting a child, visualise holding your new baby for the first time, smelling their newborn smell. Feel the soft blanket wrapped around them. See yourself putting them into the car seat to take them home from the hospital.    

Maybe you want to be in a new relationship. Visualise the type of person you want, their physical shape as well as their character, down to the last detail. Taste the delicious food as you have a romantic dinner with them. Feel their hand in yours as you stroll down the street under the moonlight.

Or maybe it’s something fun like touring with your rock band performing to thousands all around the world, acting in blockbuster movies, being a celebrity model or a travel host. 

Whatever your desires are, visualise yourself experiencing them and feel immense gratitude that the universe has granted you everything you dreamed of.   

Magic Stone
Repeat the Magic Stone practice before you go to sleep. 

Sunday

Magic Things
End the week with the most fun practice of all – gratitude for Material Things. You could take it easy and start small like your next designer outfit, your new phone, next car or your next house. The Magic Things practice is similar to Magic Desires in which you have to visualise that you already have what you want and feel grateful for having it. 

See yourself in that designer outfit you’ve been eyeing. The softness of its material against your skin. How it makes you feel when you strut around in it. Visualise carrying that handbag or wearing that watch you’ve been wanting. Those designer shoes that fit snugly on your feet. Feel grateful that you have them all. 

See the colour of your car, the smell of its newness as you enter your car for the first time. Hear the sound of your engine as you shift it into gear and drive it away from the dealer. Feel the wind in your hair with the windows down. You get the picture. Say thank you for being able to drive the car you desire. 

See yourself already having what you desire and feel immense gratitude that the universe has granted you everything you want.   

Magic Stone
Repeat the Magic Stone practice before you go to sleep. 

There you have it. One simple practice for each day of the week. 

Personalise each practice then copy and paste them into your calendar and set a weekly reminder each morning to do the day’s practice. Do the Gratitude Project for at least a month and you will find that your mindset and your view of the world will start to change as well. 

Our personal experience
Since practicing the project, we have filled up our March yoga teacher training and been getting bookings and enquiries for the other Asia Pacific Yoga YTT dates as well.

We have also been practicing the Magic Stone practice with our 3 year old in which we ask him in bed each night what he wants to be thankful for. He’s very excited to give both of us our personal magic stones as he holds his in bed and think of all the wonderful things and experiences he has done that day. What a wonderful practice of gratitude to instill so young. 

Our boy is also learning the power of manifesting as we tell him that he can ask the Universe for whatever he wants and it may appear. Just yesterday at a shop, he saw some wrapped presents in a paper bag and told me he wanted some presents. I told him no, it’s not ours so he can’t have it. The shop keeper overheard him and as we were leaving, she gave him a small keychain as a present. He was so delighted to say the least! Perfect example of ‘Ask and you shall receive.’     

We hope this project will start to shape and change your life for the better. Do drop us a message via email at asiapacificyoga@gmail.com, as we would love to hear how practicing this Gratitude Project has made an impact in your life.  

Joleen Lunjew is a dedicated yoga teacher and practitioner passionate about encouraging and inspiring people to be the best they can be through movement, breath, wellness, diet and a holistic, mindful approach to life. 

Yoga Alliance E-RYT500 certified, Joleen currently co-teaches with Steve at Asia Pacific Yoga Teacher Trainings, focusing on the practical asanas, alignment, adjustments and teaching methodology. She teaches Ashtanga (Mysore style and LED), Hatha, Vinyasa, Yin and Restorative. She is also a certified Les Mills Body Balance instructor.

Joleen’s Asia Pacific Yoga teacher trainings are featured, alongside other reputable NZ-based trainings, in our NZ Yoga Teacher Training Guide 2024.

By Michael Reynolds, of Roimata Food Commons and Toha Kai

I have been working at the intersection of community development, food justice & sovereignty, and long term systems thinking for nearly 10 years.
I am a big picture thinker, a creator, a doer and a companion within ecologies.

I love seeing life thrive…

Our food system is broken, which may not come as a surprise to anyone here. While we’re in a cost of living crisis, supermarkets are reportedly making in excess of $1,000,000 profit per day (‘profit’ being over and above covering their costs) being one stark reflection of this. It is just one of many broken social systems in our beautiful country of Aotearoa. It is hard to think about these things, as it can get overwhelming pretty quickly.

But there is reason to be optimistic…

I believe that many of the solutions to the core problems we face are inherently simple. Starting with a change in the way we see the world, small actions can snowball from there.

The world is a complex system of relationships that are bound through the movement and transformation of energy. As you will know, energy is life and life is the embodiment of energy. They cannot be separated. It is this relationship that we need to re-enliven. Once we can connect to this truth, we start to see the world in a different way. We start to honour energy and life, rather than over-consume it.

Kai is at the core.

Back in 2017 I was the chief mischief maker behind the formation of the Roimata Food Commons in Ōtautahi. Radley Park, in the relatively low income suburb of Woolston, was close to where I lived – it was large and under-utilised by the community. It was disconnected rather than embraced. It was managed, instead of being honoured.

I got permission to plant 30 heritage fruit trees and haven’t looked back.

We now have over 100 heritage fruit and nut trees that are part of ever evolving permaculture food forest systems. We are organic in practice. We managed to get all spraying contracts for the park canceled. We have added an educational vegetable garden and people gathering area, plus planted over 1000 native plants along the Ōpawaho.

The space operates on a Commons basis, which for us means that anyone can forage for kai at any time on any day. We do not own the kai. We are merely stewards of the life & energy patterns that move across the landscape. We do this as a practice of reciprocity.

Not one to shy away from hard mahi, in 2021 we launched Toha Kai – a non profit business that sells affordable, locally focused, organic fruit and vege boxes across the city, and now beyond.

We have grown from a 20 whānau 4-week trial, to 80-100 boxes every week in just 2 years, with one paid employee.

The next step is a logical one – we need to start growing kai.

Why? The way kai is grown is blind to the relationship of energy. In fact, in most cases, it takes more energy to produce, process, package, transport and dispose of kai than the energy in the kai itself.

We need to reverse this.

So, an integral part of our new farms is that we are setting up a research project to explore how we can create Net Energy Positive growing systems.

There are 2 steps to this.

Firstly we need to take stock of as many as possible of the energy costs we are creating for the living world – at this stage it is mostly transportation costs.

This is the easier bit – we have already identified a raft of different ways of growing food that will reduce our energy costs:

• Minimising external inputs.
• Using human powered tools rather than fossil fueled machinery.
• Selling as locally as possible.
• Harvesting as close to distribution day as possible to reduce energy used by refrigeration.
• Using our cargo e-trike to deliver boxes wherever practical.

Next, we need to set up a measurement system for how all the energy gains within the system.

Not only the calories of kai produced (that’s easy) but also how we recognise an increase in life both above and within our soils. If our system is more alive, then it inherently has more energy.

More energy means more life…more abundance…more health…more joy!

We want to share the outcomes to the world in the form of an open source framework to guide people on this journey.

We want to make this change with our community rather than to it.

There are many things yet to re-discover. This is only the beginning and it’s more fun to travel together. We are currently running a crowdfunding campaign to allow people to invest in a just and equitable future of nourishing kai for Waitaha/Canterbury. If you want to be involved in supporting ous mission for food sovereignty, head to https://support.tohakai.org to find out about our current campaign.

Michael Reynolds is a co-founder of Toha Kai, as well as being founder & Kaitiaki of Roimata Food Commons.

He has a passion for developing food sovereignty and increasing the accessibility of local, healthy food. Through this work, Michael empowers people to increase their sense of wellbeing, while also nourishing a healthy planet.

Michael is “always up for a yarn” – you can find him at Roimata Food Commons on Wednesday and Friday mornings.

“The way one see’s life, is like looking through a pair of glasses, formed at a young age. The colour of the lenses distort what is seen. Meditation is a method to clean the glasses so that the view is clear”

By Swami Karma Karuna Saraswati

Perception of life is based on everyone’s unique societal, cultural, and family programming, called samskaras in yogic terminology. Much like software on a computer, this programming creates an interface by which one views and experiences their life. This means, your daily perceptions and interactions – driven by sense inputs, the memory bank, nervous system, and brain patterns – are experienced as your truth or reality.

From a yogic point of view, the samskara glasses that a person wears are considered ‘maya’ or ‘illusion’. Others may have the same sensory inputs, but with their different set of samskaras – their difference glasses – their view of the ‘same’ experience is usually totally different. Thus, one must ask, ‘whose reality is the truth?”.

Many practices of yoga support the gradual cleaning of the illusionary glasses. One of the most important practices, fundamental to every other yogic practice, is the development of the witness ability. Mindfulness based meditation practices are a support in the development of a different perspective, so that one can decipher the difference between maya and the ultimate truth.

Changing the program, and thus how one ‘sees’ life, can sometimes feel like an uphill battle. Patterns of interacting, reacting and nervous system states, can be deeply ingrained, and for the majority they are unconscious.

Bruce Lipton, a prominent stem cell biologist and author of The Biology of Belief, shares that approximately 95% of day-to-day experience is being run by unconscious programming set by about the age of eight. This means, understanding the brainwave development in children is relevant to how one forms samskaras and thus the view of life. It is also pertinent to how samskaras can gradually be released using yoga and meditation techniques, to remain conscious in the normally unconscious states where this programming operates from.

Delta Waves are dominant from birth to two years, and help explain why newborns sleep a lot. In adults, Delta Waves are connected to the deep sleep state which is an unconscious state. In babies, inputs from the outside world are directly downloaded without analytical mind, which forms the unconscious programming that continues to influence the conscious mind as an adult. So whilst the baby is asleep, their subtle body records everything around them.

Theta Waves become more prominent between two to five years of age and are connected to the dream and meditation states for adults. Children of this age have easy access to the internal world and can effortlessly experience the more abstract and imaginary, yet, they have minimal critical thinking. Again, core beliefs and deep programming inputted through experiences are downloaded to the subconscious mind, continuing to form the glasses by which an individual will view life as an adult. If, for example, a child is told or has modeled that they are not good enough through words or actions, this belief will accompany them into adulthood, and even predispose a person to attract situations that validate this belief system.

In Yoga Nidra and meditation practices, one aim is to activate the theta brainwaves whilst staying conscious, so that the practitioner can come into contact with the samskaras and clear them out gradually.

Alpha Waves are more prevalent from five to eight years of age. This is the in between waking and sleeping state that adults go through as they go to sleep or in waking up, and is also connected to a light meditation state. For children, at this point, the analytical mind – associated with external reality – starts to grow, thus influencing the child’s conclusions about the rules of their world. The inner realm is still strong, thus children of this age are walking the line between waking and sleeping states. It is still a time when a child is very impressionable.

Beta Waves begin to become more dominant from eight to twelve, and onwards. The older one gets, the more the brainwave activity increases to higher frequencies. In states of stress, high beta brainwaves dominate. Beta brainwaves represent more conscious, analytical thinking. However, the experience we have in waking states is seeded by the imprints that were planted in the formative years.

While the database containing the impressions of each individual can certainly be changed, practices and effort is required to transform the often deeply held unconscious patterns which form the glasses each person wears. Witnessing or mindfulness practices are highly important in this process, so that one can gradually decipher the programming that is driving the show.

Witnessing is also known as the Drashta Bhava or Sakshi. It is the ability to be an uninvolved, impartial spectator of all experiences internal and external, mental, emotional, and physical. Witnessing can be developed through yoga and meditation practices with an aim to extend this attitude into day-to-day activities.

With consistent practice, one can distance oneself from the distractions of the senses and the antics of the mind and develop the ability to ‘sit more comfortably’ with whatever experience is occurring, not getting caught up in it.

Through witnessing, the practitioner purifies the mind of old patterns, thoughts, emotions, and past experiences that no longer serve seeing the truth of things as they are. Otherwise the samskaras continuing to influence daily perceptions.

The Drashta Bhava is cultivated as a direct part of many yoga practices. It is a fundamental feature in Yoga Nidra and Antar Mouna in particular. Antar Mouna, or Inner Silence Meditation, like many mindfulness practices trains the awareness process firstly through learning to observe the sense inputs and how they trigger patterns of body, mind and emotion. For example, if a loud sound occurs or a particular song comes on, it causes a series of thoughts, nervous system changes, emotional responses like fear or happiness, as well as hormonal and chemical changes in the physiology. All this happens so quickly, that it is mostly not conscious. It is happening all the time with every sense impression. By learning to be the observer in a formal meditation technique, one develops an ability to ‘see’ this inner process and be less reactive to it, and more purposeful in ‘deciding’ how to respond to it, as the situation calls for it.

The second stage is watching thoughts and emotions like observing oneself in a movie as a spectator, instead of being the character who is identified with the experience. Awareness of the different thoughts and emotions, without attaching to them, gradually helps to remove the roots of the samskaras and thus clean the glasses. It also means that one can become aware of their strengths and gifts which may have been sitting dormant, and they can more consciously choose positive inputs and inspirations to support their goals.

Meditation practices such as these have also been shown to develop the frontal brain, which has more ability to analyse, compare and consciously experience, as well as reduce the amygdala or emotional brain stimulation. The amygdala is fast acting and constantly monitoring the environment, looking out for our safety. It checks in with your memory bank, which informs it of anything that has been perceived or experienced as harmful or threatening in the past. While this system is important for our survival as it means we learn from the past, it doesn’t always get it ‘right’, especially when it comes to traumatic or challenging past experiences. Thus, the development of the frontal brain is important to our ability to manage the experiences of life and to be able to see more clearly our own true selves.

Meditation practices support the development of the witnessing attitude which can be extended into each and every activity, circumstance, challenge and joy that arises. It is a 24-hour, 7 day a week practice.

Gradually, expansion of consciousness and energy occurs and ‘true self’ – steady, bright, and pure – can see through the clear glasses.

Swami Karma Karuna Saraswati is an engaging, intuitive yoga and meditation teacher, inspirational speaker, writer and yoga therapist with 30 years of experience. She is a YogaNZ Senior teacher, Yoga Alliance Education Provider, IYTA member of 25 years, and co-founder and director of Anahata Yoga Retreat, New Zealand. She is passionate about sharing an authentic and down to earth approach, weaving together the ancient practices with a touch of psychology and brain science, aimed at motivating people to live their yoga here and now. She runs mentoring and private sessions, as well as YogaNZ Certified Teacher’s Trainings in Yoga Nidra, Restorative Yoga, Pranayama and Meditation.

Contact: education@anahata-retreat.org.nz.

Tips and considerations for teaching workplace yoga by Veronica King.

Workplace Yoga is not the same as studio yoga. That’s the first and most important thing to remember when looking to teach yoga in the workplace. This is a summary of the Yoga New Zealand Forum which was held recently. 3 speakers were invited to share their wisdom, experience, and tips for teaching yoga in workplaces. With gratitude to Bridgid Davey and Vanessa Bailey who shared with authenticity and vulnerability. The third presenter was me, Veronica King.

Perhaps the most impactful thing we all agreed on, was coming together as yoga professionals to have these conversations and to support each other. 

This is my summary of top tips for anyone looking to expand their teaching from the studio to the boardroom.

Before we go any further we all acknowledged that it can be a really hard niche of teaching yoga to get into. Having said that, it is also incredibly rewarding when you do. You have the opportunity to reach people who may never otherwise set foot on a yoga mat, so with a bit of perseverance, planning, and serendipity, you could be making a real difference in peoples working day. 

Getting started:

1. Understand who you are selling your services to. If possible try and talk to the decision maker/ budget holder in the organisation. Often we are approached by a keen student, but it saves a lot of time and work if you can politely find out who will ultimately be making the decision about the classes, and communicate with them direct
2. Outline the benefits to the business. In the corporate world, any spending needs to come with tangible benefits to the organisation. Will the attendees be more productive from Yoga during their work day? Think business speak, things like clarity, focus, concentration, and resilience.
3. Participant buy-in is also required, so your second audience is the students! Create a separate communication for them that is more specific to them, outlining details like what you will be teaching. Address the barriers to participants such as “will I be able to do this?” and  “what shall I wear?”.
4. Recommend class blocks, 4-6 weeks so you are not doing extra admin or turning up to 2 students. Make sure you consider your unseen time and costs when you create your pricing – proposal time, room set up and pack down time, travel time and costs, and administration, a workplace class should not be invoiced for the same amount you charge for a studio class as a teacher. 
5. Get SMEAP – Stress Management Programme registered so you can become an FBT exempt provider of stress reducing exercise programs. For more information on this email info@yoganewzealand.org.nz or visit stressmanagementexercise.co.nz

The yoga sessions, and teaching tips:

1. There will be more newbies than experienced yogis. As a workplace contractor and under the Health and Safety Act of 2015, you are personally liable for any incidents that happen as a result of the yoga. Teach with the beginner in mind. Have options for those who might be experienced and want more, but base your class on safe, inclusive, and accessible poses. 
2. The most common stressor for participants is what to wear. Workplace yoga sessions often happen during lunch hour, participants will not want to work up a sweat when they will most likely not have a shower after yoga. Plan the class so that people could do the poses in loose comfortable clothing, often people will forget their yoga clothes and come in their workwear! 
3. Keep the tone of your language neutral, this is not the time for Sanskrit names and mantras. It can be helpful to explain the benefits of what you are asking people to do and why. 
4. Be mindful of the environment you are going into. Choose your most business-appropriate teaching attire. Clothes that you can move in but are appropriate for the workplace.
5. Offer reassurance, create agency and autonomy, and remind people they don’t have to do what you are asking them to do! 
6. Be punctual with your finishing time, people will often stress about getting back to meetings, and most likely they won’t have eaten lunch beforehand. Running overtime quickly undoes all of the calm that was created in the class.

With the spread of COVID here in NZ at the time of publishing, it’s totally understandable that most workplaces will not be inviting Yoga teachers onsite YET. However, it’s great to get organised, create your marketing, and work on your strategy. The world needs yoga, and busy stressful workplaces absolutely will need you in the future.

This blog was a summary of the 2022 Yoga New Zealand Forum on Yoga in the Workplace. Yoga NZ provides regular member events to support, nourish and educate the NZ Yoga Teaching and Yoga Therapist community. Register to become a member.

Veronica King editor of the Yoga Lunchbox, Project Manager for Yoga NZ, and director of the online recorded library The Yoga Nidra Project.

By Karla Brodie, reposted with permission from yogateachertraining.nz

A great passion of mine is the evocative use of language to inform Yoga movement and rest practices. A teacher’s use of words has the power to evoke embodied experiences that can be transformational for students.

My early years of yoga practice were visually orientated: Yoga practice was about what my alignment looked like and about rearranging muscles and bones to (con)form shapes (asana). Most yoga books described benefits of specific postures for various organs and body systems but these ideas remained conceptual for me – as ideas outside of my own experience.

Over many years of teaching, I’ve witnessed how aptly selected language supports students to visualise and actualise their own practice, where Yoga becomes a personal self expression that is revealed rather than an experience of moving muscles and bones into shape.

The use of evocative language in yoga taps into the sensorial body: tasting, touching, feeling, sensing and seeing. Creative language used to innervate movement principles, concepts and anatomy means that a student’s yoga practice emerges from a deep and growing understanding of their bodily world. Once connected to this embodied language, students’ develop their own unique understanding of their somatic selves. 

My way into languaging yoga in this way is through Body-Mind Centering, a somatic practice founded by Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen. Two wonderful teachers Olive Bieringa and Otto Ramstad would come to New Zealand every few years and offer workshops, I was a thirsty horse at the trough, lapping up all that they shared.

For me, BMC realises innate truths about inhabiting a body and being in connection to all that exists, a kind of waking up.

My personal and teaching practice began to change in response to this learning. I consciously began to refine my language giving myself every opportunity when teaching a class to pause and re-pattern my language. For example, “inhale-exhale” became “breathe your arms up” and the often-heard teacher instruction “tuck your tail” became “unfurl, coil, swish, wag, spiral, reach”. Yoga teaching as a practice became its own work in progress – a process witnessed and engaged with by students. I’ve surrendered any need to be overly polished or perfectly presented and now focus on the co-construction of a shared practice with students who viscerally respond with their own interpretation. Students are also encouraged to build their own language repertoire and to story and re-story their own practice.

The way in which we language movement can evoke quite different movement expressions that empower students to be bold, go deep, deconstruct and most importantly find a yoga practice that is a breathing and living embodiment of self. Yoga practice is, in my view, not about what the teacher wants. Unfortunately some phrases some teachers use, such as “I’d like you to” or “do this” lead to a “simon says” approach. Whereas engaging with students through shared and expressive language opens up a lateral and democratic flow of ideas between and among students and their teacher.

I have eliminated the word “don’t” and instead I say “do” recasting a negative into a positive. Both words are powerful and have a place – “don’t” leans to a restrictive, inhibitive, rule-based instruction whereas “do” speaks to the action to be taken and is permissive and friendly. Likewise an instruction to a student to “try this” I’ve replaced with suggestive language such as “explore… feel into … be curious about…”. When I feedback to students I may say, “what I’m seeing in the group is a clear integration of ____ and ____”. This speaks to what I am actually seeing so my feedback is specific and encouraging. 

While seeking freedom and openness in language, I also recognise the need to be strong and specific. A few common examples follow:

• “straighten your leg” can be expressed as “plant your foot into the ground and suspend through the arch of the foot into a lengthening leg”;
• “straighten the spine” can be more accurately and energetically expressed as “elongate the spine” or “find length and suspension” (spines not straight); and
• “in your own time …” can be confusing as the student translates time into minutes – one minute or ten minutes? However, saying “over the next few breaths ease into ..” provides containment and spaciousness.

Reconstructing your yoga teacher language

Reflect on the language you use frequently and introduce new phrases into a class, observing if a change in language yields a different quality of movement. Consider the movement intention, for example is an instruction to “extend further” the aim? Instead of “sink into” observe what occurs when you suggest “floating” or “releasing”. What if you played with multiple directions such as in/out, up/down. Rather than “stand up straight be like a tree” consider language phrases such as “root down to support a suspension up” and when up, “loop down again, cycling through from down to up, up to down…”

Play with stripping back language so each word and phrase is curated in the moment. Instead of throw away words such as “beautiful, lovely, sweet, nice” look for more authentic descriptors that match what you are seeing –  perhaps “savoury, tasty, salty, engaging”. Rather than “drop your knee down” you could evoke softness with “ease your knee to the ground”.

Use language artfully and remove redundant language to create an aural spaciousness so students can “hear” their own bodies. Create new awareness about the space and how students are using it. Play with pauses and use movement to express action so instead of a preparatory phrase like “now we are gonna” or “let’s do …” simply move straight to action, that is, show not tell. Finally, consider using space differently inviting students to feel, sense, explore, be curious about, be present to, notice. Change the space-movement pattern. For example, “come to the front of your mat, inhale arms up” may become “start from the back of your mat, exhale…”. This may support a student getting grounded before a suspension or expanding movement. 

Exploring language that evokes an embodied experience is a lifelong passion and practice, I trust some seeds may be sown … and feel welcome to share your experiences.

Karla is a skilled and experienced yoga teacher who has taught yoga throughout Auckland for over 22 years. Her offerings are founded in the study of natural movement patterns and somatics. Karla is inspired to share the practice of yoga to enhance awareness of breath, movement and conscious rest in everyday life. Karla is dedicated to refining the art of teaching through mindful inquiry based language, subtle yet effective touch, and integrated embodiment through self-renewing, effortless effort.
Karla is one of the primary tutors of an internationally accredited and comprehensive yoga teacher training programme based in Auckland. In 2015 Karla co-founded of the Contemporary Yoga Centre, a school in Remuera, Auckland dedicated to excellence in mind-body approaches to yoga.

See Karla’s upcoming teacher trainings in the Yoga Lunchbox Teacher Training Guide.

By Sarah Marlowe Spence

That time a vacuum cleaner sabotaged my kirtan. Yup, an odd situation. So I delved into that dream to figure out what it was trying to tell me. Dreams happen to most of us when we’re asleep, yet dreams can also be daydreams of where you want to go in life, or waking dreams, i.e. what is happening right now in life.

When I was a teenager, I found a dream dictionary in the secondhand bookstore, as we did in life before Google. I wondered what the meanings of my busy dreams were, and wished they were more poignant than I thought they were. 

I stumbled across dream yoga at Yasodhara Ashram. Spending some time at this yoga retreat and study centre, I studied my own dreams using Swami Radha’s dream method. I learned how to create my own dream dictionary, not needing anyone else to interpret the messages for me. I started to find a way of hearing the messages from within through my own symbology, where previously they had mostly been jumbled images.

There were a series of dreams: bus, train, and car. There were prophetic dreams, like the time I dreamt I was called in to see HR and got fired, only to hear from that same lady in HR who suggested that I might like to find different work that suited me better. I was pleased to get the heads up – it wasn’t such a shock, but it was the gift that galvanized me into action. Answering the phone and making people tea on my working holiday definitely wasn’t my life purpose. 

Fast forward 15 years, I’ve worked more with dreams, I’ve worked with my aspirations, I’ve worked with real events, all with the same dream method. 

How to start with Dream Yoga? 

1. Write down the dream as soon as you can. 
2. Sign and date it. Then you know when it was if you are revising your records. 
3. Jot down any initial interpretation that comes to mind.
4. Fill in any other details you remember. 
5. Note what is going on with your life.
6. Symbology – find your version of what the symbols mean, not from a dream dictionary. Look at the dream from a variety of angles. 
7. Write an interpretation of the dream. 
8. Apply it to your current life situation.
9. Work with a dream group (optional). 

A few years ago, I found the Dalian Method, an advanced self-healing method created by Mada Dalian. The most incredible way to find direction for myself. Where people love the dream method, their happy faces are transformed into open hearted visions of light after using the Dalian Method to get clarity on what their dreams are telling them.

It’s a game-changer when it comes to gaining inner clarity and transforming long-held negative thought forms that unconsciously run our lives.

Through this conscious connection to the unconscious, we can tap into a source of inner wisdom and power. Expand your yoga into the dreamscape and witness the magic that unfolds. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Sarah Marlowe Spence is a dreamer, musician and inner-wisdom-seeker and the host of podcast Unraveling Midlife. She has taught Dream Yoga since 2007 after completing Yasodhara Ashram’s Dream Yoga training. 

For the full sensory experience with the extra specia Dalian Methodl, join my online evening course, from Monday, June 13 for three weeks that includes the extra special secret ingredient, the Dalian Method. Join our small group to delve into your dreams, visions or aspirations. 

Have you been bitten by the wordle bug yet? I sure have. How does this simple five letter puzzle have anything to do with yoga? 

As a student of Tantra Yoga I choose to look for the experience of yoga in my daily life. Every moment, every interaction is an opportunity to practice the teachings, to apply them to the world.

Wordle is no different in this regard. It’s now part of my daily practice and I love it. It’s deceptively simple yet challenging, it requires focus and faith, just like my favourite yoga classes. 

Here are 5 ways I’ve found that starting my day with Wordle contains the teachings and practice of yoga.

1. DHARANA – Beginning the day with concentration and focusing the mind is one of the 8 limbs of yoga. Wordle feels like a pencil sharpener refining and sharpening the mind to a single point. There is a crisp clarity I feel in the quiet process of the puzzle. In a world of endless scrolling anchoring to a fixed point is like finding water in the desert. I become more aware of distractions of the mind, ever gotten stuck on a 6 letter word loop?

2. TAPAS, a daily practice, commitment to the winning streak. One of my old stories is that I am undisciplined, I find it hard to stick to things. Wordle is helping me change that narrative. I am rewiring my samskaras by creating a new pattern, through consistency of practice. On the rare days I miss the morning Wordle, I make sure I complete it before I go to sleep. 

3. APARIGRAHA, non attachment and non grasping, thank you Wordle for teaching me this! The more fixated I get on line 3 the worse things go. Can I loosen my grip on the answer? Can I be ok if I don’t complete the puzzle? I’m still very much working on this, but I love the opportunities to notice my thoughts and reactions. 

4. Strengthen VJNANAMAYAKOSHA, cultivating intuition and flashes of insight. My favourite Wordle days are the ones where I step aside from control and allow words to flow through me. I let go and practice dropping into a state of being, creating space for revelation. I find on days I Wordle in this way I experience a greater sense of flow. One of my strategies for this is to change my starter word each day. 

5. At the end of each puzzle is SANTOSHA, contentment with what is. Sure I have a little surge of dopamine when I get it right on 2 guesses, but more often than not I feel joy at the end of my ritual regardless of the outcome. I feel grateful for the quiet time to simply puzzle. I recognise it’s a first world privilege to be warm in bed in the quiet of morning sitting with nothing else to worry about other than 5 letter words. 

Beyond all of this, and maybe my favourite thing is a sense of connection.

In a world that feels divided and difficult, an oasis of irreverence and joy feels like such a gift.

Wordle is a sweet and easy ice breaker, it gives me something in common with people of all walks of life. I check in with my 12 year old nephew, my best friends who are mummas, my corporate friends, my husband, and now when I next go to a party I don’t need to start with the dreaded “so what do you do for work?” or “do you have kids?” I can go straight to, “do you Wordle?”.  

By Veronica King

A recent post about a pain relief ad in a pharmacy sparked a lively discussion around yoga and pain, one which I was interested in exploring further. It seems to have created more questions than answers. A topic dear to my heart as I tore my hip labrum in a yoga class, this injury and the subsequent pain management was to become my greatest teacher. Many teachers and students have been injured in yoga, many practitioners live with chronic pain, so let’s look at it bravely and with respect.

“Brutal, inner honesty… The three scariest words on the planet, and yet, at the same time, the very KEY that unlocks all the doors”. Ken Dahl

Why we go to yoga 

“I have chronic back pain and sciatica, I go to yoga for my mental health and for improving my range of movement but after every class I’m always sore”, reminding us that asana is not the primary reason many people choose yoga.

Is it time to consider how we deliver the rest of yoga without pain? What would that look like? In this case is the gain worth the pain? Whilst only the practitioner can answer that, are we as a teaching community offering enough accessible classes? If we advertise “yoga is for everyone” then we have a duty to deliver it in a way that it is indeed for everyone, not just fit and healthy people.

Offering Gentle Yoga once a week was my way of saying “come to yoga, do as much or as little as you can”. Admittedly it was never the busiest class on the studio timetable, but those who came were so grateful to have a class where they were in charge of the intensity and at any time they could choose to rest or use a chair. I was able to focus on yoga philosophy, pranayama and meditation in these classes more so than in the active yoga classes.

Accountability and responsibility. Who is in charge of Ahimsa?

We are rightly told “listen to your body”, but what happens when pain exists even when we stop, listen and modify? How do we navigate this in class? As a student have you felt that you can approach your teacher to ask about this? As a teacher are you aware of which students are managing chronic pain? Do you establish a protocol at the start of class that creates a culture of asking for support, and modifying when appropriate?

There are old stories of teachers being “angry with students” for not doing what the teacher is telling them to do. Hopefully we have moved from this dogmatic approach, if you think this is part of your place of practice I would question it, or even better look for a teacher that supports, encourages and teaches with lots of modifications.  

“If you need pain relievers after practicing asana, you aren’t practicing yoga” whilst I appreciate the essence of the sentiment, many times we don’t know what is going to hurt us until after the fact. Do you really know how many uttansana is one too many, the one that makes your back twinge? How many hanuman will destabilise your sacrum or over stretch your hamstrings? How many chaturangas do you need to do to strain your wrists?

It’s always a dynamic tension between finding our edge, transcending limitations and covering new territory in asana.

Left to my own devices I would never have done any of the poses I found hard and would never have progressed in my practice! Having said that, progress in poses is not part of my practice anymore but it very much was for 15 years. Does this mean I was not doing yoga? I often would hurt after practicing to this intensity. 

“Yoga is the pain relief” sometimes, and sometimes no yoga is the pain relief. Practicing during times of inflammation or an acute stage of injury will not bring healing, it will only cause further stress (speaking from experience). What happens when we don’t feel relief from our symptoms after yoga, are we inherently “bad at yoga”? Are we shaming people when yoga doesn’t work out for them? Here we can practice Ahimsa by keeping an open mind around the question “is yoga for everyone”? What does that look like? Is it up to the yoga practitioner to “self manage”, are they sufficiently experienced to do this? 

What is Yoga and what is the scope of practice?

This has been revolving in my brain since the very first teacher training I went to, began with “what is Yoga?”. Twenty plus people in the room came up with a different explanation. What makes yoga – yoga?

Scope of practice and integrity is so important, never be shy about asking your teacher about their qualifications and experience, a good question to ask is “have you worked with students that have XYZ condition before?” 

There is a huge amount of value of working 1-1 with your teacher, sometimes you only need one session to work out a baseline and best suited practice to figure out exactly what common modifications they need, then they are empowered to join the class. 

Further to that it is good teaching practice to be comfortable referring onwards to a more experienced yoga therapist or a suitable allied health professional when we don’t know how to best serve our student. Your student will thank you for this.

Role of class labels and levels.

One of the biggest reasons for pain and injury in yoga is the dreaded “all levels drop-in yoga class”. This presents an impossible situation for the teacher, how do you manage a class where someone has done 5 minutes of yoga and the person next to them has done 15 years? Can you in a 60 min class truthfully say you can meet everyone’s needs and keep them all safe? This is controversial territory. We should not be afraid to talk about this. Yes, this will impact your class numbers, but there are more important considerations.

Pain is a universal human experience so it’s important to explore how we work with it in our yoga practice, as both teachers and students. May we all continue to be open to difficult conversations in our practice and teaching. Yoga is incredibly healing, we just need to find the right approach and the right practice. May we be willing to embrace the challenge of befriending and understanding the pain that comes with being human.

Veronica King is the editor of The Yoga Lunchbox and Project Manager for Yoga NZ. A longtime yoga teacher, ex studio owner and founder of The Yoga Nidra Project, an online recorded library.