Introduction to Avita Yoga

Transcript

hi I'm Jeff Bailey that's my wife Lori Kimmy together we own yoga loft in Boulder Colorado and we're here to share some introductory videos this is the first of more about Evita yoga it's a form of yoga that came to me after many many years of study in practice it has roots in in the tradition of Rolfing because it works with the structure it works with the connective tissue it works with all the systems in the body to bring about a healthy favorable change right one of the things that we don't do in this practice is pursue the shape right now in the fitness industry there's this trend toward more is better and not only is more better but there's this attempt to have more creative ways to sweat or to push the body and it's not sustainable this is a very sustainable practice that you'll find I think very helpful in fact we feel that the results in the practice are quite predictable so just to orient you a little bit to the practice and some things that we do like you to begin with your legs up on the wall in your head can be on the floor we have bolsters we use blocks for your straps we use lots of things to not only create variety in the practice but to help support where needed for example if you have a lot of musculature or a lot of sometimes just the shape of the upper back creates space between the back of your back and the floor then the head has a long way to hang and that can create stress so if you feel that it's okay to put a firm pillow or if you have a bolster underneath your head for now your head will be on the floor then close your eyes and be tall to shape it's an inversion and for an inversion to really work it has to be sustainable it has to have time to have its impact in the body there's a healthy challenge to the circulatory system C is the heart not challenged a little bit to get the blood up to the toes does gravity not and help facilitate the flow of blood back to the heart and the flow of interstitial fluids and all kinds of things that have to do with the lymphatic system now we're going to test the shoulders a little bit one of the goals with the shoulder work is to with all of the work in fact is to increase range of motion but as we do it we want to heal the impatience we want to heal the arthritis it's a clean up process so it's more than just creating range of motion it's the healing that happens along the way you know slowly bring your arms out as if you're making a snow angel you bring them out to the sides good if you have an old injury some sort of impingement it's going to start showing up here more than likely so if you bump into that impingement here and bringing your arms up any further is out of the question then you touch into that feeling and stay right here if you're able to move the arms further then you keep going until you have the elbows start to bend and then you see if you can interlock the fingers under your head hey that's not doable okay back out to the sides get to know the sensation that heels we're so accustomed to avoiding the pain believing that when we touch into the pain it's problematic and no one wants to be in pain so I'm not asking you to push into pain certainly not but I want you to begin to discover the difference between listening to what you've might have always considered to be painful sensation and work with it in a way that heals let that sensation invite you in you'll find it you just have to experiment a little bit okay then with the chin lift it a little bit you slowly turn your head to the left and we're going to look for the first sign of impingement or limit in the turn of your neck and head see there's no contest you need not advance the shape to benefit from this practice feel your body feel the impact of the legs up position of the hands of the arms touching into the sensation of restriction feel the impact of the turn of your neck and head so yoga is the resolution of conflict so we have to meet the conflict where it is we have to use the shapes to help us discover where the restriction is where the problem is where the limit is and then let the shape work for us your body's physiological intelligence will do the rest good now bring your head back to the center your fingers are interlocked you'll just switch the interlock move them over one notch lift the chin a little bit again and then slowly turn to the second side if nothing else I want you to feel the power the healing power of touching into the limit without judgement without contest and simply experiencing it that's so good see we've tried eliminating the pain we tried cutting it out we've tried taking pills for it we've tried pushing it through it you tried avoiding it but more than likely you haven't tried welcoming it and treating it like a like a trail of breadcrumbs leading you we want to get closer to the problem it sounds crazy I know you would give it a try and join the many who have benefited from this practice you not bring your head back to the center and release your arms to your sides can you feel how the shape and this this very simple movement has moved you into a more calm more peaceful state even to the smallest degree notice that okay now get your knees and push yourself back so stretch out on the floor good then roll to one side push yourself up and now sit on the floor against the wall see if you can add the soles of your feet together good you're far enough away from the wall with your your sit bones your pelvis maybe a palm or so away so that you can rest back into the wall and let your belly relax down so you're not holding yourself up straight in a way you're slouching back a little bit so your mat or your upper back is against the wall your heels out a palm or two away from you close your eyes forget about what you might consider to be the perfect posture and feel the shame see the fact is where there's movement there's health because where there's movement there's good circulation now notice the sensation in the groin maybe a little stretchy feeling through the inner thigh for some of you there is maybe stiffness in the ankle you feel that feel how you can let your shoulders drop down away from your ears and feeling how you can really rely on the wall the floor and let gravity work for you for a change most fitness and most health pursuits push for a certain outcome they push for strength they push for something and it creates conflict and while it may bring results in the short term we're looking for long-term lasting results so we take this very thoughtful meditative approach now slowly start to curve forward is your eyes closed if you can curve for word feel what happens as you start to curve let the head hang into gravity if you can let the shoulders drop yeah you know some of you might feel a little difficulty getting past a tipping point where your torso does start to come forward there can be so much rigidity in the low back or the hips that it's hard to get past that tipping point in which case you'll need something like like a bolster pillow block something to sit on so you can get past that tipping point we use blocks and bolsters and materials like this to simply bring variety into the body and into the practice that's nice now it looks like a relatively simple shape maybe it is let it work on the complexity of your body we want the vertebrae to move it's a whole huge long series of joints that make up your spine each intended to move freely with the one above and below so we're working on the curvature the spine or also bringing attention into the hip restriction so more than likely you'll feel that either deep in the groin or sometimes on the back part of it yeah more than likely touching into sensation that you thought you should probably avoid okay so when in doubt you can reduce pressure the the primary skill that you'll learn in this practice is how to modulate will moderate the degree of pressure so that you're certain it's healing I'll say it again went into how you reduce pressure and eventually there'll be enough time go by and where you'll be inclined to come out of the shape if that happens before I give the cue that's fine to just come out of a shape for the compression on the front of the body that opening on the back of body and slowly raise them right against the wall again nice easy soft relaxed shape shoulders dropping eyes closed once again feel the impact you just had with yourself that's good and with a tiny bit of will a little bit of patience you may discover like many this class is an open invitation for you you'll be drawn to it not just for the experience you have during it but for the benefits you get after it most of the classes are one hour in length and we have anywhere between may be on the short end a half a dozen shapes on the long end may be 12 to 15 shapes so there's lots of variety in the pace and how we present the the class itself hopefully this has given you a little taste of the practice and stay tuned because we'll have more okay so we'll just finish here for now if you'd like to learn more about the practice you can learn more at vita dot yoga a vit a yoga we have a very systematic program but you can learn more about at the Vita online.com they're all linked together and of course you can yoga love Boulder comm reqtest type in Evita yoga and see what comes up alright thank you so much we hope to see you either in person or online sometime soon namaste