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Friday, February 12, 2016

Teaching Yoga Classes that Expand Self-Love: Supported Backbends

By: Virginia Iversen, M.Ed 

In a few days, the annual celebration of Valentine's Day will be in full swing. Almost every store is displaying romantic gift items, imported chocolates, iridescent Valentine's Day cards, and even occasionally large teddy bears with hearts decoratively hung around their necks. If you are in a relationship that is mutually satisfying and engaging, these romantic gift items will be appealing and fanciful. However, if you have just left a relationship or you have lost somebody you love, these romantic gifts may generate more pain than happiness.



Much of the time, we are focused on securing our love from the outside. From the time most of us are very young, we are taught that securing an idyllic romantic relationship should be at the top of our priority list. Unfortunately, this unrelenting focus on securing love outside of us tends to create dependency on other people. Of course, when the people to whom we are attached and dependent on for love and support love us in turn, this external dependency is not quite as problematic as when a relationship is not as mutual or beneficial as we would like. 

In addition, when we continually strive and struggle to secure another person's love, we often forget to rest in the spaciousness and kindness of own heart. As a certified Yoga teacher, you have the ability and the opportunity to help your students to reconnect with the love in their own hearts. One of the most effective physical ways of supporting your students in the process of connecting with the love in their own hearts is to guide them through the practice of a series of supported back bending postures. Back bending Yoga postures help to release constriction and tension throughout the front of the chest area, which often becomes closed down when we experience heartbreak and disappointment. 

If you are regularly teaching Yoga classes during the month of February, you may want to creatively sequence your classes to focus on expanding your students' self-love. When your students get in touch with the love in their own hearts, their dependency on romantic relationships will be lessened. By weaving in a number of supported back bending postures into your Yoga classes, you will help your students to release the constriction around the heart and throat chakras, as they replenish their prana or vital life force energy. 

Supported Reclining Goddess Pose is a wonderfully restorative pose that easily lends itself to the generation of self-love and is very approachable for most levels of Yoga students. This expanding back bending posture is usually practiced towards the end of a Yoga class and either in lieu of, or just prior to, the practice of Shavasana. Supported Reclining Goddess Pose is optimally practiced with a number of props. If you are planning on using props during your class, it is advisable to have your students place the props near their Yoga mats at the beginning of class, so the flow of the class is not disrupted when you guide them into supported postures. 

Your students will benefit most optimally from the practice of Supported Reclining Goddess Pose when their legs are supported by rolled blankets or Yoga bolsters and their thoracic spine is supported by a small rolled blanket, placed just under the shoulder blades. It is also lovely to offer your students an eye pillow to place over their eyes for deeper rest and relaxation. As your students rest in this supported back bending Yoga posture, you may wish to gently lead them in the practice of offering loving kindness to those around them. The practice of offering love and kindness to others helps to open the heart, which will increase their awareness of the love that resides in their own being at all times.

Virginia Iversen, M.Ed, has been practicing and studying the art of Yoga for over twenty years. She lives in Woodstock, New York, where she works as a writer and an academic support specialist. She is currently accepting Yoga and health-related writing orders and may be contacted at: enchantress108@gmail.com.

© Copyright 2016 – Virginia Iversen / Aura Wellness Center – Publications Division
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1 comment:

  1. One of the most effective physical ways of supporting your students in the process of connecting with the love in their own hearts is to guide them through the practice of a series of supported back bending postures

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