When we welcome our light and our dark we can be brilliant in our wholeness.
Through many years of teaching and practicing yoga I began to see that I was lacking certain skills to deal with all that my practice was unearthing. I had moments of extreme connection only to wake the next day feeling separate and confused. I was longing for wholeness and to connect all the pieces of myself that had been rejected and labelled “bad” or “not spiritual”. I was observing similar journeys in my fellow colleagues and students. We were struggling to connect the emotional and psychological aspects of our physically oriented practice.
After a decade of teaching traditional Ashtanga Vinyasa yoga I began practicing the Vinyasa Krama method with Matthew Sweeney. Krama, meaning a step or stage, follows the tradition of practicing asana in a flowing sequence connected harmoniously by breath. The beauty of this practice is its inclusivity with an emphasis toward the student’s experience regardless of age, flexibility or physical limitations.
Vinyasa Krama has changed the way I approach my daily practice and my body. The movements, or asanas, become a tool to begin exploring our deeper self-awareness in the context of our relationships, with self, body, the practice itself and then out into the greater collective consciousness. It has breathed fresh light and awareness into the way I move and breath taking me to new heights in my fully embodied movement practice.
As a teacher, Vinyasa Krama, allows me to connect with more students and their unique needs. The practice is inclusive of Ashtanga Yoga’s primary, intermediate and advanced series and offers additional sequences that build up from foundational elements. Vinyasa Krama provides many ways into the body always guided by the quality of the breath. Meditation is incorporated as a way to create more spaciousness for all areas of life and aspects of ourselves so nothing has to remain hidden or repressed.