Teaching Tips: Alignment

• Start your alignment cues with the seat of the pose first.  The seat of the pose is where the connection to the earth is.  In Mountain Pose, the seat is the feet.  In Headstand the seat is the forearms, hands, and head.  Build from the foundation up.  The connection to the earth must be solid before going any further.
• sthira sukham asanam; Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras 2.46 ~ The seat/connection to the earth is to be steady or consistent and joyful or happy.  All yoga asanas are practiced in a way that brings balance, steadiness, and ease to the body, a happy and joyful experience.  This is why breathing and alignment are important.  Together they assist with removing dis-ease from the body.  Breathe, Breathe, Breathe! 
• When teaching a yoga asana, encourage the practitioners to; 1. See it, visualize it; 2.  Feel it, experience it, sense it; 3.  Be it, become it; you are that form, you are one with that form, “become one with the dog.”  Use your imagination to connect with the nature or animal quality in the pose and use these qualities to greater assist with finding the alignment of the form, becoming aligned (connected) with the form. 
• When teaching a class, there is power in naming poses and not naming poses.  For practitioners that are new, they may not know the names of the postures, so giving detailed verbal cues takes them where to go safely, and then stating the name after they are in the pose so it may be learned.  Not naming the pose right away is also a good practice for advanced practitioner that tend to move right into things and may often rush.  By not naming the pose right away, practitioners do not know exactly where they are going to go and are encouraged to listen (it may also reduce fear in the more challenging asanas like headstand, not naming it, but rather teaching the steps).  Naming a pose may also be very powerful for a vinyasa; it assists with flow and gets practitioners familiar with the Sanskrit and English names of the postures.
• Repetition is good.  Many of us require hearing the same thing over and over again before it sinks in.  Repeat important points of alignment and breath cues throughout the class and find ways of saying the same thing in a different way. 
• Let the practitioners inform your cueing and points of alignment to focus on in a class.  Here are things to consider and to observe in the bodies of your practitioners, which may affect how and what you cue for the pose and props to use.
  • Past injuries
  • Areas that are unstable
  • Flexibility/strength
  • Body proportion
  • Potential medical conditions
• As a teacher, put yourself in the place of others as you instruct a yoga practice.  As you learn to empathize with the practitioners you begin to embody the pose you are actually imitating:  nature, animals, geometric figures, mythology, people/sages of history.  Being able to empathize and feel what others are going through is a level of oneness/interconnectedness.  Here are some physical limitations you may empathize with:
  • Hip flexor tightness
  • Breathing difficulties (holding/shallow)
  • Shaking limbs
  • Hamstring, inner and outer thigh tightness
  • Rounding shoulders and upper back in weight bearing and non-weight-bearing postures
  • Feet issues/top of feet tightness
  • Flat low back or excess lumbar curve
  • Knee cap sensitivity/knee flexion limits
  • Range of motion in joints
• Alignment in the postures serve many purposes
  • It ensures that the asanas are practiced in a way that maximizes the benefits that may be received, such as greater flexibility, strength, and overall health, while minimizes the risk of injury
  • To position the body in a way that brings the optimal results inside and out
  • To create balanced energy (pranic/chi) flow through the body
  • To uplift the spirit, focusing the mind on an elevating intention
  • To become enlightened or in other words, to realize or experience the Oneness of Being…As we move from form to form we begin to more deeply connect with other beings, elements and aspects of nature.  When we feel our connection to all that is, we are in a place of love and peace – this is the practice of ahimsa, non-harming.  This practice leads us to the goal of yoga – samadhi, bliss, oneness. 
• When you become a conduit of love, you can do it – you can do anything!  Conduit = You can do it!
  

View Alignment Enlightenment section of World Peace Yoga digital book for more alignment tips.