Yoga at Your Place Yoga Class Schedule Registration and cancellation policies
When I began studying yoga in 1986, the yoga scene was quite different. Although there were a number of yoga classes in Chicago even then, it had not exploded into the enormous presence it now has. When I read the Yoga Journal, it was not filled with people doing extreme arm balances; instead, most of the time the focus was on pretty basic postures. Although I learned a few arm balances, the emphasis in my classes combined the physical aspects of yoga with the metaphysical and did not require mastering the most complex and difficult postures.
I was taught to build a practice based on moving through postures that opened and/or strengthened each of the seven major chakras, starting with first and moving on up. The point of practice was not so much physical fitness (although that is always a benefit) as aligning the chakras and freeing kundalini to flow and connect you with the higher realms. A good practice also provides a balance between flexibility and strength, which contributes to healthy muscles, and helps to balance the chakras That's a very simplified version of it, but the point is that yoga practice was about a lot more than seeing how much you can sweat or whether you can achieve the hardest postures.
Instead of teaching many levels, I teach one class and modify the content as needed based on students, including often providing more than one posture or different levels of a posture for different students.. My teacher's classes worked that way and I like the way you build a practice, coming back to basic postures often and yet learning new ones regularly. I also like to teach the one in which all postures are done seated in chairs, which works very well for people with limited flexibility or who have not exercised in a while and translates very well to an office setting but haven't had enough interest -- I'm willing to resurrect it if you can bring me a group of four who are prepared to pay for a session of six classes.
As the emphasis on making yoga an aerobic activity has grown, I have heard more and more people talking about being injured in yoga classes. In both my five years of classes with Bill Hunt and the teacher training at the Temple of Kriya Yoga I was taught that a good yoga teacher should help each student to find the best way to do the postures so as to avoid injury. I'm distressed that the rate of injury has gone up and that so many people are learning yoga without being taught the deep roots that give it heart and meaning.
I feel that my mission is to provide classes in which people receive the metaphysical as well as the physical benefits of yoga and practice without injury. My ongoing class lets students continue working to build a practice. My beginning classes are very basic and emphasize learning to practice at your own level. Or take a Sun Salutation clinic that offers people who want a little more challenge an opportunity to learn the various postures of the Sun Salutation well enough to be able to practice it with ease and safety.
Regarding the Yoga Alliance Certification and Teachers' Insurance: When I took yoga teacher training in 1988 I don't think the yoga alliance existed -- if they did they weren't certifying much. There was no discussion whatsoever in my class of getting accreditation or obtaining insurance. It was about 10 more years before those things became commonplace. The class I took now receives 200-hour certification from the Yoga Alliance, but I can't get the hours for my earlier class. I consider the program that I was in to be one of the best and I'm not willing to go take another class in order to qualify for certification I already earned. Also, I take phone calls and receive students all the time who have been injured in classes with certified teachers so I'm afraid I don't consider the certification to be proof of much. I don't teach the kind of postures that are most likely to result in injury and I do everything possible to show students how to do postures at their own level and since none of my teachers have insurance I see no need to carry insurance.
Yoga Classes: At Full Circle Massage. see yoga schedule
For registration form or to ask questions: yogaleigh@earthlink.net
Check in regularly for dates of classes and clinics. I also offer private yoga classes in your home. For 1-5 people, it's $35/hour: Yoga at Your Place E-mail for more info: yogaleigh@earthlink.com Order music CD's for yoga: Yoga Music
