Assisting in Yoga

Have you ever thought about assisting in yoga class?

Leap is hosting an Assistant Training next weekend and it’s not too late to sign up!

Take your practice to a new level. Dive in. Connect with your community.

Here’s what some assistants say about the experience…

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Photo via Pinterest.

I love to assist because it is a unique time in a yoga practice where there a one on one connection. Non-verbal, energy connected, and really support going both ways. When it works it is so powerful. You can actually feel the shift in the students practice as they accept the support and let go. So awesome.

-Karl

I assist because it allows me to connect with and nurture others. I am grateful about about my students willingness to let in love. I feel connected and honored when I assist.

-Rachel

Assisting allows me the opportunity to connect with my community and support my students in feeling poses. It allows me to help them deepen their experience of yoga.

-Tracy

I love to assist because it is meaningful for me to support others in their yoga practice. I am grateful for the willingness and courage I witness in my students. I feel connected, inspired and grateful when I assist. 

-Valerie

I am so grateful for the assists. Those wonderful hands help me through the practice, especially if I am sore. These loving hands are a blessing.

-Lisa

Forget What You Think You Know

Photos via Pinterest and Yoga Dudes.

Photos via Pinterest and Yoga Dudes.

 

In this moment, can you release expectation?

 

 “Yoga teaches us to cure what needs not be endured and endure what

  cannot be  cured.”

 ~B.K.S. Iyengar

 

Be curious about the present. Instead of dwelling on the way your body, mind, heart and

spirit felt yesterday or an hour ago, sit with where you are now.

 

Perhaps you’ve tried a challenging posture (like an arm balance or an inversion) a hundred times. Perhaps every one of those times you fell out. Today, you are ready. Your body moves into the pose effortlessly. Or your mind releases resistance to the teacher’s words. Instead of trying to control, you relax and let go.

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According to Ram Dass, “[The] distortion comes from defining ourselves in terms of doing instead of being. But behind all the doings, all the roles, you just are – pure awareness, pure consciousness, pure energy. When you reside fully in the present moment, you are outside of time and space.”

Trungpa Rinpoche notes, “Our lives awaken through ordinary magic.” It’s in everyday things that the miraculous happens. If we practice being here now, we develop the sensitivity to perceive and appreciate the daily miracles of our lives.”

Forget what you think you know. Learn to be OK with not knowing what will happen when you try. Be open to possibility, receptive to what is. Just BE.

You may surprise yourself.

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“Yoga is not about self-improvement, it’s about self-acceptance.”

~Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa

 

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About the Author: 

Rachel Stroud is a yoga blogger at Alive in the Fire. She is a passionate vinyasa, Dharma, Bhakti and yin practitioner, and is currently completing her 200 hour vinyasa teacher training at Leap Yoga.