The ‘art of adjustment’ in yoga

Everyone processes information in a different way: there are visual learners, auditory learners, and kinesthetic learners. However, regardless of their personal learning style, few people can learn yoga effectively from a book. Although I’m a nerd by nature, I need to feel as well as to see a yoga position to fully understand what I am doing.

Adjustments are a critical aspect of learning yoga. The phrases “spiral your back thigh outward in trikonasana” (triangle pose) or “open up your hips into Virabhadra (Warrior II) so they face the side of the studio” aren’t always meaningful until the teacher physically guides the students into the positions. Even an experienced practitioner may think he or she is activating the right muscles or is perfectly aligned, until the teacher exerts some gentle pressure, enabling the student to realize the asana (posture) more fully than ever before. In our tactile-phobic society, having an instructor who can adjust a student’s body with sensitivity and confidence can enable a student to remember the freedom and ease of movement he or she had as a child—and to forget tensions and imbalances, learned as an adult, that have become habitual.

Evenflow Yoga is offering a workshop on the art of yogic adjustments on Saturday, June 18th called “Mad Skillz!” The workshop is open to current yoga teachers, future yoga teachers, and yoga students of all levels. For yoga teachers, this is a great way to focus specifically on this critical aspect of instruction. For aspiring yoga teachers, the workshop offers the opportunity to experience what it’s like to instruct a yoga class before committing to a full training program. For students—well, sometimes the best way to learn something is to teach it! (This was certainly true for me of algebra.).

The workshop “Mad Skillz” will be held from 2:30-5pm on Saturday, June 18th.  Register now, as the event is $35 in advance but $40 the day of the event. For more information check out Evenflow’s website and ‘friend’ Evenflow on Facebook for periodic updates on events and classes.