Juanita Carra-Budzek, RN
Compassionate Yoga
Northampton, PA
There is so much competition in the world, so much judgment, and such lack of reverence. Even as Yogis we unknowingly get caught up in it, competing no only with each other and the Yoga itself, but also competing with ourselves. This mind set only takes us further from where we wish to go.
Your website and chapter "Open Letter to Yoga teachers" gave me permission to stop the merry go round I was on, always trying to do Yoga, rather than being Yoga. I never expected that of my students, I just wasn't practicing what I was preaching. I kept thinking I had to perform the Yoga in order to be a good teacher and that is just not so.
I've learned I don't have to stand on my head or stand in the tree pose to be a good Yoga teacher, because teaching and practicing are about the intention, attention and the ability to surrender the stuff in your head so you can get to the actual practice of Yoga, which is inside of you, not outside of you.
________________________________________
Randy Jellen, Lisle IL
I feel I finally found a book and website that explains things about yoga that I really need to know. I myself, tend to "go too far" at times in my practice and end up having to stop for awhile to heal and recover, only to have to start from scratch again. I always felt that if I didn't "really feel" a stretch then I really wasn't doing yoga. I know it sounds silly but it's true. I look forward to personally working with you.
________________________________________
Karen Forza Vitale Personal Yoga, Roma
I find your explanations and modifications to traditional asanas among the best I have found on paper. Thanks so much for helping me with my teaching by sharing your experience and expertise in print. Namaste
________________________________________
Debbie George, Charlotte, NC
I wish you could have been a fly on the wall these last months watching my teaching evolve as I've put your work to practice in my teaching. Your seminar and book has profoundly changed my teaching and for the most part it has been well received. I probably lost a half dozen students who weren't ready for it and who insist on pushing themselves beyond what they should and I've gained more students. The bottom line is that I feel that I am truly aiding my students in their healing and health and in learning how to be kind toward themselves. So I feel great about my work and my own body has never felt better! My chronic knee problems are gone and my neck and shoulders are really loose and relaxed like never before. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your work
______________________________________
Susan K. Montreal, Canada
I've been thinking a lot about what you wrote, both in your website and book. Several days ago, I did an experiment while walking. I thought of walking taller; that is, I thought about lifting/extending my torso, ever so slightly (without effort or straining). I was immediately struck by a sudden increased energy and ease of movement. My legs seemed to stride with new vigor, with my weight not sinking into my hips usual. I've been experimenting with it ever since. Anyway, I find this all VERY fascinating, and just wanted relate this story to you. Again, thanks so much. Your work has helped me a lot.
________________________________________
Ann Garrison, Roswell, NM
By chance, I found your free book on the internet and I want to thank you. It is such a compact guide. Since I didn't start doing yoga until I was 60, I was quite stiff. I really appreciate your approach and now, using your book, Recovery Yoga, I teach seniors. (Click here to see Ann's Recovery Yoga review)
________________________________________
Anna Edwards
British Wheel of Yoga
Worchester, UK
I have just spent a delightful Sunday evening reading through your site and congratulate you on its attention to detail whilst still retaining total clarity. The British Wheel lays great emphasis on a thorough understanding of anatomy and physiology. After all, we shouldn't be encouraging other people to practice yoga postures if we ourselves don't know what is going on inside! I bought a copy of both your books as soon as they were available in the U.K. and have found them very useful. Isn't it amazing how a particular turn of phrase can make such a difference to a student's understanding of what is required in a posture? Your use of the word "active" for feet solved a big problem for me - it was just what I needed to get those feet working! I teach cancer patients as well as healthy students so your gentle exercises are invaluable.
______________________________________
Patricia M. Hansen
president emeritus Yoga Alliance,
former president Unity in Yoga International
I wish you well on your website project as well as with your own journey. Yoga is what helped me recover from a severed sciatic nerve and a partial lamenectomy 34 years ago. It is what got me into Yoga. I just wanted you to know I support your endeavors, enjoy your books, and thank you for supporting the Yoga community
________________________________________
Janine Sullivan, Zephyr Cove, Nevada
I appreciate your Western approach to yoga. My training focused more on "feeling the energy" and the spiritual practices. There was very little focus on anatomy/physiology, how to move safely and why. This is where your work is really filling in the gaps for me. I feel that you're providing me with better information than I even recall getting in nursing school!
________________________________________
Jim Sullivan, MD, Zephyr Cove, Nevada
I am a practicing pain physician married to a yoga instructor. Janine has written to you recently and I was able to watch some of your tape geared towards yoga instructors with some of the physiology of soft tissue pain and the value of yoga practice for the sufferers of fibromyalgia and myofascial pain. I am impressed with your appreciation of the origins and possible therapy for these people. I think fibromyalgia/MPS is a mind/body disease with real suffering and contracture as the most significant myofascial component of the disease. The contracture stresses the attachments, changes the stresses on the spine with diffuse pain resulting. The aspect of "suffering" which determines how painful sensations are perceived is also out of balance in these patients and the problems of stress, lack of intimacy, history of abuse is as much at the root of the problem as the pathophysiology. Aerobic activity, yoga, acupuncture, counseling, stress management skills can all be helpful but yoga treats both mind and body and directly counteracts the contracture that becomes crucial to the vicious circle of pain. This leads me to my interest in your therapies. My wife and I are trying to get a program going for yoga/self hypnosis therapy since she has certification for both. We will use your tape to help design such a program.
_______________________________________
Lori Black, Colorado Springs, CO
I enjoyed (your website) so much that I forwarded your info to other yoga teachers here in Colorado Springs. I particularly appreciate the extensive history and the strong emphasis on a mindful and gently approach, which agrees with the yoga training I've had. Again, thank you.
________________________________________
Shari Depp, Oceanside, CA
Thank you for sharing your experiences and knowledge! I myself am a yoga teacher, personal trainer and have been a body-builder for 18 years so I really have to back up my thinking to put myself in the shoes of some students and your book was invaluable! I just wanted to express my heartfelt appreciation!
________________________________________
MLT, Roanoke, VA
As a nurse practitioner/holistic nurse/yoga therapist, I really appreciate the attention to detail in explanation of the anatomy and physiology of yoga practice. I understand and appreciate the more subtle,"energy/chakra/kosha" effects of the practice as well, but feel that too many teachers/practitioners are in the dark about the actual physiological aspects of hatha yoga. I have your book, Recovery Yoga and have enjoyed reading and using your approach myself and with my students. Thank you for the succinct and thorough treatise on your website ... a nice gift to the yoga community.
________________________________________
Marcia Galleher , Bisbee, AZ
Your new website is very good. It is inspiring to me as a yoga
teacher to review your perspective. Your site is full of information for a practitioner wanting to find out what Yoga is all about. I like how you suggest what to read for the beginning student and then (what to read) for the more advanced student.
________________________________________
Christine Mayor, Switzerland
I just would like to tell you that a few weeks after my breast operation, I started working through Recovery Yoga and I was so glad to be able to do its exercises. Recovery Yoga gave me the opportunity to do the exercises in detail, and to better understand things you told us during the lessons.
________________________________________
REGARDING FROZEN SHOULDER
Sharon Staubach, Indian Hills, CO
Your chapters are clear and easy to follow and helped me organize experiences I have with students as well as myself. Specifically, "if yoga is so wonderful, how come I am experiencing more pain or difficulty with my (fill in the blank)?. As a teacher, I always modified poses for students so there was no experience of pain. I haven't been as kind to myself. Your ages and stages make perfect sense to me, particularly regarding my personal experience. I became serious about my asana and yoga practice in my middle thirties and at that time began taking Iyengar classes sometimes as often as 4 times per week. I had a home practice and was faithful to the alignment instructions given to me. Within three years I had developed a glitch in my shoulder and within another year or so experienced pain and almost complete immobilization (frozen shoulder). My instructors gave me more of the same postures. I used P.T, acupuncture, energy work, nutritional supplements, quan loong oil and Feldenkrais with very limited success and eventually had surgery to "scrape the scar tissue off". My left shoulder is the site of my first major injury at age three when I broke my left arm and wrenched my left shoulder. Now, it makes physiological sense to me why this injury manifested. Anyway, thank you for the work you are doing and the way you are going about doing it. I appreciate your open process of feedback. Namaste.
________________________________________
Nancy Ondera, DeKalb, Illinois
I'm very taken with your books "Recovery Yoga" and ExTension"; no yoga
teacher author has ever stressed the points you do, and I almost feel as
if, in reading your text, I am hearing you speaking to ME directly, not
through the medium of a book, and so knowingly, too! Just wanted to say thanks for putting something wonderful out into the world, and transforming a personal crisis into a healing tool for so many.
________________________________________
Elizabeth Molfese, Lake Park, FL (A yoga teacher who now uses ExTension & Recovery Yoga techniques in her classes)
I could not wait until our next lesson to tell you that I used your techniques and they were the best. Monday's focus was both introducing and refining Sun Salutations. Tonight was so exciting because your standing poses knocked us all out. Your instruction for Triangle pose was so simply worded and easy to remember; and what an exquisite sensation feeling the hip rise into the hand and drawing away from the opposite inner thigh rather than emphasizing bending.
Yours is a nicely written explanation sequencing Mountain (Bachin Alignment), Triangle, Warrior II, and Extended Lateral Angle, from start to finish with all stages included, became quite a workout, even within its apparent simplicity. Three women in their mid twenties considered it a great workout, yet even the older people could do them.
They are so lucky. They're new to yoga and began the classes after our first session together; therefore, they only know your ExTension Yoga.
Stimulating the neural networks doing these standing poses is so living alive inside. The energy drawn and harnessed from the ground upward activating the feet and legs is a power full experience.
I missed this in my own practice and how could I teach what I did not possess. To teach me to re-experience myself through Ex Tension Yoga makes me slow down, anatomically adjust, initiating from the alignment and strength of my bones. My body is so much more comfortable; it is a torture to continue my old ways.
________________________________________
None of the information on this website is unique or new. However, my perspective is different from most other yoga teachers and health professionals because I come from a place of direct experience as a yoga student and teacher, and now as a a chronically ill person and patient.
I received this from Janice Darien: As a yoga therapist, I can give information (from the perspective of) a rehab professional and as a yoga instructor, but you live it.
I certainly did not choose to have a chronic illness. For awhile during the early years of my illness, I became depressed, withdrawn, and actually quit practicing and teaching yoga. It took a couple of years for me to decide that that way of life was a total waste of time and I needed to make some substantial changes to my attitude. So I kept asking myself; "Now that I have it, what am I going to do about it?" The tool that allowed me to take personal responsibility was practicing from the very book I wrote: Recovery Yoga. And as they say, "The rest is history."
|
