I read a post from a yoga teacher who was listing all the ways in which yoga teachers can unknowingly hurt their students. And she was wondering what happened to the principle of Ahimsa, a deliberate choice to avoid creating pain (to ourselves or others).

Of course, no yoga teacher chooses 
to hurt themselves or their students on purpose.

Yoga helps lots of people with their aches and pain.
How can people get hurt practicing yoga, even when they are being mindful?
How can mindful teachers promote injuries in students?

Maybe we may start by wondering about why are EXCESS TENSION and POOR POSTURE in daily life such common problems? Even with yoga practitioners and teachers!

The fact is that you can only be mindful of what you are aware of. And how people unknowingly misuse their hinges on and off the mat is not commonly in their range of awareness.

One of the reasons for this is a LACK OF CLARITY as to how to use joints appropriately on and off the mat.

UNKNOWINGLY CREATING FAKE JOINTS causes much tension build-up in your muscles and a common habit to lock your real joints both on and off the mat.

And these habits become a vicious cycle!

When you use your NECK AS A HINGE to initiate a head motion, you unknowingly create tension in your neck because your neck is not a joint.

When you use your BACK AS A HINGE to move your torso, you unknowingly create tension in your back because your back is not the joint to move your torso from.

THE TRICK IS
you may not always be doing 
what you think you are doing!

As a result, you go from unknowingly stressing your muscles and joints to stretching them – till you run the risk of killing their natural tone.

Your “fake joints” (usually muscles) eventually complain that you’re giving them a job that’s not theirs to do. All the while, you wonder why your neck or back hold such a level of tension when you work so hard at stretching your tension?

That’s one vicious cycle that keeps your body uptight in daily life, even when you’re not even stressed out! Being stressed out will naturally enhance this tension cycle.

FLEXIBILITY STARTS WITH AWARENESS OF YOUR REAL JOINTS 
being used appropriately and without excess tension. This promotes you functioning as the integrated whole that you are whatever you are doing. 

FOR NOW, START TO OBSERVE YOURSELF. Next time you go about stretching a muscle, check if your overall body is in a state of expansion, contraction, or compression?

How can you lengthen muscles when your body is in a shortened state?

How can your energy flow through you if your joints are locked while in a pose?

Do you want to change how you use your body and practice yoga more efficiently?
Do you want to promote inner expansion so your muscles and joints can truly release?
Do you want to experience natural good posture (even when you are not thinking about it). 

I am happy to assist you in any way I can. It is my life purpose to inspire and guide you to DANCE THE JOY OF WHOLENESS.

Besides, there is nothing like a fresh perspective to UP-LEVEL YOUR PRACTICE.

You’ve got nothing to lose 
in exploring this approach 
but habits that no longer serve you!

If you are ready to be free of chronic tension or pain lingering despite your yoga practice, or you want to take constructive action to prevent this common challenge, schedule a Free Consult with me and I will be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Namaste!:)

Cécile Raynor has been teaching the Alexander Technique for about 30 years out of which came her Body Intelligence Activation Process™ (B.I.A. Process) to assist anyone use their body the wise way to prevent or clear, chronic tension or pain, of body or mind.

She also works with yogis interested in using their body more efficiently on and off the mat in a way not taught in regular training courses. A Thai Yoga Massage Therapist and a Reiki Practitioner, Cécile is a faculty at the Akasha Yoga Teacher Training Course and the author of THE WISE WAY TO YOGA which is available on Amazon or from Cecile if you are local to Boston!

Is your main concern to feel good when you are on the mat?
(Whatever that means for you personally).

Do you believe that if your practice feels good on the mat, it promotes your well-being off the mat? How sure are you that this is always the truth? Or that it is the WHOLE TRUTH?

Have you ever thought that maybe, going far in a pose just because you’re able to, could potentially promote injury? Or do you think that the more the better whether you are strengthening or stretching (as long as it feels good in the moment)?

For instance, when you extend your head as far back as you can in COBRA or PIGEON, do you realize that you are actually compressing the back of your neck, and possibly your midback?

I know it is a common way to do this pose, some teachers do it this way as well and it is considered Instagram worthy. Yet IS THIS REALLY SERVING YOUR BODY AS A WHOLE?

And where does all that compressed tension go? Are you bringing it back home?

Could it be why daily tension seems to linger endlessly despite your committed practice?

Do you find yourself caught in this ADDICTIVE CYCLE that produces both benefits and drawbacks? And you are left not knowing how to get out of it without letting go of your yoga practice (which you naturally do not want to do)?

If that resonates with your experience, 
I want you to know that THIS IS NOT REALLY YOUR FAULT. 
And it can be confusing because a safe practice does feel good as well!:)

You’ve been taught to handle your body this way by your teachers themselves taught by their teachers since the 19th century. Only, the Hatha yoga revival of that time period came with challenges that are not yet really resolved.

The truth is, it is time to face and solve these challenges if you truly want to experience well-being off the mat. It is the job of every teacher and every practitioner to stand up for a safer approach to yoga regardless of body shape, fitness level or yoga style. 

Yoga feeling-good sensations can be part of the picture, but not the whole picture if you want to safely enjoy yoga for a lifetime. They are a very SUBJECTIVE ASSESSMENT of how you are doing with your practice.

When you understand that your MIND AND SKELETAL STRUCTURE have more to do with your STRENGTH AND FLEXIBILITY than your muscles, you can challenge yourself and also increasingly reach the best expression of every pose without the need to strain one bit. You stop telling your body how to handle your every move. You remember that your innate body intelligence already knows.

To learn to practice yoga with such EFFICIENCY, handle movements or improve your posture without muscle straining, choose to be exposed to The Wise Way to Yoga by attending my next Free Masterclass or be inquisitive and private message me. All you’ve got to lose is some unnecessary tension. 

Cecile Raynor has been teaching the Alexander Technique for over 30 years out of which came her Body Intelligence Activation Process™ (B.I.A. Process). It has supported yogis of all levels to enhance their practice towards best performance with optimal safety. She is also studying Energy Medicine to add another dimension to her work.

Faculty at Akasha Yoga Teacher Training, Cécile has run a 12 months Mastermind for Yoga Teachers with a Vision, and a 90 Day Live Online Program for trainees, new teachers and committed yoga practitioners interested in using their body more efficiently on and off the mat in a way not taught in regular training courses. Author of THE WISE WAY TO YOGA which is available on Amazon, Cécile launched a community for yogis which you are welcome to join by clicking WISE YOGA TRIBE

During a yoga class, as we were in a challenging pose, the teacher made the following comment, “your body wants the path of least resistance; in yoga, you want the path of most resistance.” Is this really true?

Not all yoga teachers would agree with this statement. Yet many people do associate yoga with a strenuous practice of some kind. In fact, there is a trend for resistance training that encourages this approach. And yes, it appears logical and practicing this way can yield results as well.

Is it really necessary to go against the guidance of your whole-body intelligence to build up strength? Is there a price to pay if you don’t have an effective tool to assess when to stop (beyond your own subjective notion of what is enough or not)?

The truth is that without an objective tool to assess when enough is enough beyond whether it hurts or not, it becomes too easy to overdo and create excess tension while you are building strength. So, yes, you are getting stronger, but you are also getting stiffer in the process like the yogis compressing the back of their neck to expand the front.

What are the signs you may be overdoing unknowingly?

1. You need to stretch your muscles constantly, whether on or off the mat
2. You experience sensitivity or pain in your joints periodically
3. You struggle with frozen shoulders or poor posture
4. You behave in an unflexible manner more often than not

If you experience one or more of these challenges, you may be getting more than you bargain for while working on strengthening using resistance to an extreme.

In truth, you can challenge yourself and work with resistance in a way that does not have undesirable side effects. How?

1. Approach all forms of exercise as a whole-body experience in the same way you approach walking, running, going up the stairs or riding a bike. In these activities, you don’t tell each body part how to do their job. You trust they know what they are doing.
2. Discover how your skeleton and muscles can work as team partners to develop flexible strength. Your muscles don’t need to steal the show as if your body strength was their exclusive responsibility.
3. Realize that challenging yourself as a whole is more efficient and effective than focusing on isolated body parts alone. For instance, doing a squat while still fully balanced above your feet benefits your whole body instead of just your quads.

Resistance becomes an obstacle that tends to backfire when you focus on individual muscles, isolated body parts, or pushing to an extreme while losing track of whole-body harmony.

It creates excess tension that shows up sooner or later and promotes injury.

Resistance is a benefit serving all of you when you practice resistance as a whole-body experience (whatever body parts you hope to strengthen). It works from head to toes in a mind/body partnership.

The fact is that the whole is designed to take care of the parts 
which is not true the other way around...

Would love to know your thoughts and experience with this.
Let me know what you think?

Today is International Yoga Day and we are supposed to educate people on the benefits of yoga or share our experience. Mind led me to create Wise Yoga to help the many yoga teachers and practitioners who came to see me to help them be free of chronic tension or pain or to help them feel more balanced in a mind/body way.

Beyond “Power Yoga” & “Gentle Yoga, there is a new approach which I call “Wise Yoga”!

It can be applied to any style of yoga to relieve and prevent chronic tension, pain, or injury in a sustainable way as well as deepen a practice.

It also aligns the essence of initial yoga with modern yoga simply by the way practitioners use their bodies in line with their whole-body wisdom.

The WISE YOGA TRIBE was just launched. This community exists for yoga lovers of all levels, and especially those with concerns and questions for themselves or others, as to chronic tension or pain not being resolved by the practice of yoga.

Would you like to explore or be part of the discussion on how to practice and teach yoga the wise way?

Would you be interested in exploring the wise way to yoga as directed by your whole-body intelligence once activated? A very unique approach to working with your body more fully!

If so, I invite you to join this purpose-driven community to practice more efficiently as a practitioner, to deeply impact more students as a teacher, and, in the process, to contribute as a tribe to the wise evolution of modern yoga.

To join us, click I Want to Join Wise Yoga Tribe

If you have any questions about this, feel free to reach out to me by responding to this post!

Till then, enjoy International Yoga Day!

Cécile 🙂

I want to start by wishing you a wonderful, joyful, healthy and prosperous New Year. And I want to recommend to look inside for what you need before spending time, money and energy outside of yourself assuming others know more. They may but your intuition has to have the last say for you to get the most out of what information you are given.

I have been away from my social media routine for about a month and it gave me some perspective on what is worth doing and not-so-worth doing going into 2019. And I will share below my 5 thoughts based on my experience and 5 top resolutions in the hope it can be of service to you too.

1) Not all businesses automatically blossom with social media exposure and yet, solopreneurs feel they have to do it or else. It has not worked efficiently for me yet. However, I have expanded my business more substantially (with paying clients ) in the past few months going out, socializing, and having fun than when I was spending endless hours connecting to people online.

2) Sticking to our resolutions becomes a lot easier when it is part of a bigger picture rather than when it is a list of isolate ventures. Whether losing weight or growing a business, it becomes a meaningful venture when you are clear about why you want to do it and if that goal includes your personal needs and the needs of others (rather than focusing on one or the other). It is also more efficient when you start by knowing you are enough to start with. You don’t need to do anything else to be enough. Anything you do will only enhance your enoughness!:)

3) Many of us want to live in a more harmonious world, and yet, we do not really know how our body parts function as an integrated whole or how our inner parts function as a happy family. The truth is that the whole takes care of the parts but it is not true the other way round. And yet, modern fitness is still focusing on body parts. The thing is how can we create a better world if we are not ourselves functioning in an integrated way whether we are on or off the mat?

So, my 5 top resolutions
(not in any order of importance) are as follows:

1) Focus on having fun while growing my business
2) Less screen time, more personal connections out into my local world
3) Keep going to my hot yoga class as the integrated body that I am, using poses as a guide, not a goal. Disregarding what others around me are doing or what the teacher is saying if it does not agree with my whole body intelligence.
4) Make a point to have outdoor time daily in any weather and to keep prioritizing meditation and exercise first thing in the morning.
5) Remind myself daily that I am enough as is, and I am beautiful and successful despite the greyness of some days. Remind myself how beautiful we all are deep down, even when we witness negative words, gestures or behaviors.

Cecile Raynor has been teaching the Alexander Technique for over 25 years out of which came her Body Intelligence Activation Process™ (B.I.A. Process) to assist yogis in enhancing their practice towards best performance with optimal safety. She is also a Thai Yoga Massage Therapist and a Reiki Practitioner. Faculty at Akasha Yoga Teacher Training, she runs a 12 months Mastermind for Yoga Teachers with a Vision, and a 90 Day Live Online Program for trainees, new teachers and committed yoga practitioners interested in using their body more efficiently on and off the mat in a way not taught in regular training courses. She is also the author of a June 2018 publication called THE WISE WAY TO YOGA which is available on Amazon or from Cecile if you are local to Boston!

Are you addicted to yoga?
Maybe not. But just in case, read on….

Yoga can be very addictive. And because it is recommended as a solution for good health, or because you have gotten some benefits from it already, it is easy to assume it is a GOOD ADDICTION.

Yet, are addictions ever a good thing when the foundation of all addictions is some loss of control over a specific behavior?

Why does this matter with your yoga practice?

When addicted to your practice, you don’t control your habit,                  YOUR HABIT CONTROLS YOU!

It affects your decisions and intention regarding your practice, It affects the quality of your movements…

YOUR HABIT PUSHES YOU TO OVERDO in an attempt to be comfortable with the uncomfortable.
Or it is simply ADDICTED TO WHAT FEELS GOOD AND FAMILIAR (whether it serves you or not).

All the while, you are unknowingly reinforcing limiting beliefs about yourself, all based on “I AM NOT GOOD ENOUGH”. Yap, that’s right even if you do not feel this on the conscious level!

I know a yin yoga practitioner who was addicted to her yin yoga practice because it always felt so good to stretch her body. Yet she had killed her muscle tone in the process and her body was aching all the time when off the mat. She could not step out of the cycle because she did not understand the root of her predicament.

When addicted, you dread the thought of skipping a class. YOU’RE AFRAID you’ll get out of sorts or worsen without your daily fix.
You may feel you’re not good enough if you can’t do a specific pose the way you want. So, you keep at it. You assume persistence is the only way to improve even if it is not so.

Or else, you feel you need to do more yoga to keep thin. To get a firmer and stronger body or be more flexible.

In the process, you become A CATASTROPHE READY TO HAPPEN

The tension you stretch keeps coming back day in and day out. And sooner or later, you get injured and you wonder why?

Do any of these scenarios resonate with you?

THE TRUTH IS: – You can challenge yourself and get awesome results without being addicted to your practice.- You can get fit without overdoing.

To be truly fit, your body must function well as the integrated whole that it is. When it does, you don’t experience excessive bodily tension or poor posture in your daily life. And,
– You feel that YOU ARE GOOD ENOUGH BEFORE YOU GET TO THE MAT yet you don’t act overconfident acting from a need to show off (overconfidence is another form of not feeling good enough and it can still keep you disconnected from your whole body intelligence)
– Your yoga practice becomes a way to promote and MAINTAIN GOOD HEALTH rather than an ongoing attempt to fix your body.

If challenging yourself without fostering injury is what you REALLY want, if you want to enjoy yoga without the shadow side of addiction then join my next FREE MASTERCLASS!

“Learn 5 Strategies to Prevent Injury & Practice or Teach Yoga at your Best!”

Cecile Raynor has been teaching the Alexander Technique for over 25 years out of which came her Body Intelligence Activation Process™ (B.I.A. Process) to assist yogis in enhancing their practice towards best performance with optimal safety. She is also a Thai Yoga Massage Therapist and a Reiki Practitioner. Faculty at Akasha Yoga Teacher Training, she runs a 12 months Mastermind for Yoga Teachers with a Vision, and a 90 Day Live Online Program for trainees, new teachers and committed yoga practitioners interested in using their body more efficiently on and off the mat in a way not taught in regular training courses. She is also the author of a June 2018 publication called THE WISE WAY TO YOGA which is available on Amazon or from Cecile if you are local to Boston!

I want to share a video that I just watch on YouTube on the safety of practicing yoga.

And OMG! I love this yoga teacher! He is addressing the elephant in the yoga community room and says it like it is: practicing Ashtanga yoga and Iyengar yoga to the letter can and will eventually hurt your body! In this first video, he focuses on the common issues regarding flexibility, hypermobility, and joints.

We all know teachers and committed teachers who have badly strained their body or who had to have surgery at some point. The danger is that younger yogis may think they are not affected because often, damages happen slowly and progressively till it is too late and crisis strike.

The truth is that we need more teachers sharing those truths to prevent new yoga teachers and new students to injure themselves at some point or another. Teachers in training and yoga students need to be educated about the fact that being comfortable with the uncomfortable is totally a misunderstanding of yoga when it comes to asana practice.

Although we come from a different perspective, what Anthony says in his video goes right along with what I teach to the teachers and yoga students in my free masterclass or local and online courses. Namely, always remember the yoga principle of Ahimsa: do no harm to yourself or others. And to respect that, you better know that strain is delayed pain!

What he says in this video aligns with what I write about in my book The Wise Way to Yoga where I offer a new and very practical way to prevent injury and enhance performance. This approach supports the healthy evolution of modern yoga, away from the misunderstandings and misconceptions that currently permeate modern yoga teaching.

I reached out to him as I sense we could do great work together, along with other like-minded teachers and mind/body practitioners. We all have an important piece of the puzzle and together we can do more than each on our own. This is called forward thinking. It is called a win/win scenario. And I am all for it!

My piece of this puzzle is my awareness and expertise with the postural mechanism, an unknown aspect in the mind of most yoga teachers or fitness trainer. And yet, we all agree how good posture is so critical for enjoying efficient movement on and off the mat (or gym).

Let’s yoga practice be safe once and for all by being aware of some not spoken about truths. Kudos to him for starting this video series. Will be checking the following ones!:)

Cecile Raynor has been teaching the Alexander Technique for over 25 years out of which came her Body Intelligence Activation Process™ (B.I.A. Process) to assist yogis in enhancing their practice towards best performance with optimal safety. She is also a Thai Yoga Massage Therapist and a Reiki Practitioner. Faculty at Akasha Yoga Teacher Training, she runs a 12 months Mastermind for Yoga Teachers with a Vision, and a 90 Day Live Online Program for trainees, new teachers and committed yoga practitioners interested in using their body more efficiently on and off the mat in a way not taught in regular training courses. She is also the author of a June 2018 publication called THE WISE WAY TO YOGA which is available on Amazon or from Cecile if you are local to Boston!

Hands-on work by yoga teachers during yoga classes is a hot topic at the moment! Teachers touching students (with no training to do so) can be a problem and it has created all sorts of challenges, including injuries.

As a matter of fact, it has been a serious problem for enough students that some studios now have consent cards so each student can let their teacher know how they feel. Not a widespread practice yet. And because they often place their teacher on a pedestal, or at least assume they know best, students tend to disregard their own body cues or won’t dare speak up in a class environment.

So injuries have happened. 
Students with a trauma history have been triggered. 
Many students have experienced discomfort under the adjusting hands of their yoga teacher.
And new yoga students have been turned away from yoga all together!

TEACHING YOGA IS A BIG RESPONSIBILITY!

Hands-on adjustments are not the only way students can be hurt by teachers. The cuing language has a lot to do with it! For instance, assuming that every student enjoys and can relax while in Child Pose is not being aware that different bodies have different needs. “Straighten those legs” when in a Downward Dog can be damaging to some students also. It is an invitation to adjust one’s body to fit the form of the pose instead of letting the pose be an opportunity for the student to stay connected to her body.

THE PERFECTION OF A POSE NEEDS TO BE A GUIDE NOT AN END IN ITSELF!

Hands-on adjustments were meant as a solution to yogis getting injured but the focus remained on the perfection of the form as a goal. It was assumed that injured yogis were not doing the pose correctly so adjustments would correct the body to fit the pose. And it certainly has helped many students. It also became obvious it was hurting many others in the process as the pose are there to help the yogis not for the yogi to be a slave to the pose.

Some teachers came up with the concept of hands-on assists, which is more gentle and helpful because the intention is to help and cooperate with the student’s body needs. This led to a wave of massaging hands and aromatherapy being used in the yoga class, making these classes very popular.

However, we are left with yet a couple unaddressed dimensions.

First, does massage belong in a yoga class? Are students coming to practice yoga or to receive massaging hands? Don’t get me wrong, those are wonderful to experience and fit a purpose. However, maybe such classes could be named differently?

Second, and more importantly, what is totally overlooked is what the teacher passes on to the student despite herself. I mean that when we touch others we pass on to them something about how we use our own body. And I have seen one yoga teacher after the other, rounding their back or craning their necks, or twisting their body to help a student lengthen his back?!

Yoga teachers know a lot about the poses and some know about yoga principles. However, they are taught to think in body parts. Teachers are not taught how to use their own body in an integrated way.

ADDRESSING THE TEACHERS UNCONSCIOUS WAYS OF USING THEIR BODY IS A MISSING DIMENSION IN YOGA TRAINING.

What they’re taught is to control their body by positioning its parts. That’s not the same thing nor is it sustainable. That’s why you can find many yoga teachers in the privacy of their own life, slouching into a pretzel when they forget about themselves. Yet good posture is the expression of a well-integrated body.

If you’d like to learn more about how to avoid these challenges as a yoga teacher, be it hurting students unknowingly or holding back from fear of hurting them. Be it holding yourself in “good posture” then finding yourself in an unavoidable slouch.

Join me on my next free webinar for yoga teachers called: Five Breakthrough Realizations to Transform your Yoga practice & Teaching. Hope to see you there!:)

Cecile Raynor has been teaching the Alexander Technique for over 25 years out of which came her Body Intelligence Activation Process™ (B.I.A. Process) to assist yogis in enhancing their practice towards best performance with optimal safety. She is also a Thai Yoga Massage Therapist and a Reiki Practitioner. Faculty at Akasha Yoga Teacher Training, she runs a 12 months Mastermind for Yoga Teachers with a Vision, and a 90 Day Live Online Program for trainees, new teachers and committed yoga practitioners interested in using their body more efficiently on and off the mat in a way not taught in regular training courses. She is also the author of a June 2018 publication called THE WISE WAY TO YOGA which is available on Amazon or from Cecile if you are local to Boston!