This month I celebrated the anniversary of teaching my first yoga class ever! I entered into teaching, not by choice - but by nomination 😊. It was a rare situation in which I was attending a yoga class when there was a mix-up with the teachers and two teachers were at one location and none at the other - where I was attending. Before the class several of the students spoke of really needing the stretching and relaxing of yoga that day. So, after about 10 minutes of when the class was to begin, my fellow students nominated me to teach the class so we could all get some yoga in that day. Reluctantly I said, ‘Ok, but I have no idea what I am doing!’ We made it through the class and several students even clapped at the end - so happy they were able to yoga that day. At that time in my life several changes occurred around me leaving me options to pursue new avenues. After teaching that class I felt the urge to pursue yoga teacher training - to actually learn how to legitimately teach yoga. Here I am, 7 years after teaching my first yoga class - to teaching over 20 classes each week. I still LOVE yoga and Love sharing the benefits of this wonderful practice every day.
Yoga has brought me through deep periods of grief, overly stressful times, wonderful experiences and being the mom of two beautiful daughters 😊 - I cherish the benefits yoga has brought to my life. Yoga reaches a multitude of people - young and old, sick and healthy, strong and seeking - such a valuable asset to find peace for all.
I love teaching yoga - and using a variety of methods of teaching is a great way to express the same yoga posture in multiple ways. One manner of teaching yoga is with the use of props. Using props in yoga can create more openness and release - provide deeper reach and stretch - and is a lot of fun! One fun way to use props in yoga is to utilize the wall. While many yoga places are covered with mirrors - making wall yoga less safe, this fun prop isn’t utilized as much as possible.
When I began teaching yoga I didn’t have a lot of props to utilize in the yoga classes I taught. So, most of my classes learned to use their bodies as props in a safe and strong manner. When possible, I brought props when I had enough for the entire class to have access to the same level of stretching. Over time, most of the places I teach have invested in yoga props - and most everyone I teach loves the use of props to find deeper more relaxing stretching in yoga class.
The wall as a prop can be used for relaxation, to build strength and increase flexibility. Fun postures used with a Wall are downward facing dog into standing splits, handstand and reverse handstand, as well as the relaxing legs-up-the-wall. This video shows some of those postures that find a deeper stretch using the wall as leverage. Since I am using a column, and not a wall, I had a little less range of motion since I have extremely long legs, and not enough wall height 😊
This video shows a fun wall yoga flow -
Some of the postures from the video - Mountain, Forward Fold, L-stand, Half Moon, Quad stretch lunge and pigeon, camel and of course - Legs Up The Wall - detailed in this pic -
These poses are just a small sample of the fun the wall can be in yoga. Using it for warrior poses, various inversions, multiple types of forward folds - so much fun can be accessed with the wall!
Feel free to create some wall yoga fun and share with me - pics or videos - on fb or ig - post on my page/message me/ or tag @clarissapyeattyoga on either site. I look forward to seeing your #WallYogaFun!