The Media and Our Bodies

      Media education is something I have been passionate about since college where I studied counseling psychology with an emphasis on eating disorders, addictions, body image, and the media.  I have struggled with body image issues and disordered eating since I was seven years old.  I never felt like I was good enough and was always finding something wrong with my body.  It was empowering to learn about the role the media plays in the development of body image issues and eating disorders.

    For my senior project I put together a lecture on eating disorders, body image, and the media and went to schools and youth groups educating teens on this subject.  I was surprised at how many people had no idea that every image they see is not real.  It was amazing to be able to share this information and have honest conversations around how we see our bodies and what we are comparing them to.

    Even after having this information I still struggled with body image issues and disordered eating. It was not until I found yoga that I was truly able to accept my body and be grateful for all the amazing things it does for me. It is my goal to bring these two things together and help people accept and love themselves for who they are.

      This video of Jean Kilbourne is certainly worth watching. I was able to attend one of her lectures in 2008 and was able to meet her. She is amazing and inspiring. Get informed check out the video!

http://www.upworthy.com/5-minutes-of-what-the-media-actually-does-to-women-8?c=ufb1

Before

After 

Product Review #2: Manduka Black Mat Pro

       As a yoga instructor students are always asking me what yoga mats I like best and what I practice on.  I have a few mats but my favorite is the Manduka PRO!  This mat can be a little bit heavy. If weight is a concern of yours they offer a lighter option called the PROlite.  All of their mats come in a wide variety of beautiful colors!

Why I love this mat:
         - It is thick enough so I can be on my knees comfortably with out being squishy or slippery
         - It has awesome grip on the top and bottom! So I am not sliding and its not moving on the
           floor at all!
         - It has a lifetime warranty! Yes lifetime, so you will never need to buy another mat again.
         - It gets better with time!
         - Manduka is committed to making sustainable products that do not harm the environment!

Lesson Three: Learning to Be Present

     At the beginning of yoga class our teachers encourage us to let go of anything we were doing, thinking about, or  that happened before getting to class or is going to happen after class. they ask us to sit and bring our attention to our breath, to center, to become grounded, and to become present.

     It is so rare in our culture to truly be present. We are constantly on the go, thinking about the next thing we need to do. Coming to yoga class gives us a much needed escape from the constant go, go, go of our everyday lives. 

     Being present is often difficult when first starting we first start our practice of yoga.  Often we don't even know what it means to be present. Over time it gets easier and we notice how being present on our mat helps us to be present in our lives. 

     I challenge you to become aware of you thoughts while having a conversation with someone.  Are you thinking about the next thing you are going to say? Or are you being present and listening to what the person is saying? Try this and see how it feels to really be present in your conversations, how it feels to really listen. 

     This practice has helped my relationships on many levels. Don't we all want to be heard? I believe it starts with being truly listening and being present. In what ways has being present helped your relationships? 

Product Review #1: Lululemon's Interlock Power Luxtreme Wonderunder

Loving my Interlock Power Luxtreme Wonderunder Crops!

 

     I am in LOVE with this new fabric Lululemon has come out with! It is called Interlock Power Luxtreme. It looks great, it performs, and it feels amazing on.  I get very hot and sweaty when I am practicing yoga and I don't like the feeling of wet clothes on my skin.  These pants are super quick drying and are inherently moisture wicking, which means they will always wick away moisture they were not treated with anything.
    Another amazing feature is that they are not see through in anyway! This is huge for me I would be mortified as a teacher to bend over in front of an entire class with see through pants.  I am confident when I wear them that I can do any posture and no one will be seeing anything they shouldn't.
     For now they are only coming in black. I am hoping they will be coming out with other colors soon in this amazing fabric! Thank you Lululemon!

Lesson Two From The Mat to Our Lives: Letting Go

   

       Aparigraha or non-grasping is one of the five Yamas, which are part of the eight limb path of yoga.  Aparigraha teaches us not to take more than what we need and not to hold onto things.  It teaches us our attachments and grasping on to things in our lives is a great generator of our own suffering.
     We become so attached to sensations, to people, to objects, and to outcomes when we lose or don't attain these things we react negatively.  These negative reactions we have then cause us to suffer.  In yoga we learn and practice how to let go, how to not grasp, and how to not take more than we need.
      Letting go our of desire for control, our desire for material possessions we don't need, and letting go of relationships that don't serve us.  Letting go our our judgements, fears, anger, blame, expectations and so much more.  It is truly amazing what happens when bring the practice of Aparigraha into our lives and let go.
     One of the things I have been working on letting go of is my need to feel in control and plan my future.  I am practicing living in the present moment and trying to do my best right now.  I don't have to worry about the future because what I am doing now will lead me down the right path to where I am suppose to be.
     What have you let go of and how has it made a difference in your life?

Lesson One From The Mat to Our Lives: Breathe

 

      Practicing yoga has taught me how to truly breathe. Sure breathing is something we all do all the time but often we forget to breathe or we hold our breath.  We forget to breathe when life gets difficult. When we are holding a difficult pose, when we are nervous, anxious, or afraid.
      My practice has taught me how to breathe in life's difficult circumstances. Breathing on my mat while holding a challenging pose helps me breather better off of my mat and in life.  It has taught me how to be present in my body.
       I have learned that taking a few deep breaths will calm me down when I am feeling stressed or anxious.  It helps me to bring my attention inward. Focusing on my breath can slow my mind and help me feel centered when my mind is racing.  Don't we all want something to help slow our minds at times?  Practice yoga and practice breathing :)
   

Perfectionism and Yoga

Perfection in an asana is achieved when the effort to perform it becomes effortless and the infinite being within is reached. - Yoga Sutras

     Often we come to yoga with a destination or goal in mind.  We want to achieve or master a certain posture or postures.  We think that if we can get into an inversion or finally bind in another we will be doing yoga.  We become so attached to the final expression of the pose we miss the essence of yoga.  The goal of asana is not to push or stretch or bend our bodies into a position.  The asana practice is done to teach us to be present, to practice non judgement, and learn contentment.  

     If we become so attached to the final expression of a posture we are not being present.  We are often pushing our selves too hard.  So how do we find a balance?  We must let go of our attachments, we must be present in the postures, and we must learn to accept where we are in that moment.  Each day we come to our mats we are a little different than the day before.  Maybe our balance is better or worse than the previous day or maybe we are more stiff or more flexible.  We have to learn to trust we are exactly were we are meant to be.   knowing that with consistent practice we will grow and transform without being attached to any outcomes.  This is the practice of yoga. 

Why Yoga?

Why are so many people doing yoga?

     There are many benefits that come from the practice of yoga.  Everyone has their own reasons for coming to their mat.  I originally came to practice because of my job and needing to have a knowledge of what yoga is.  As my practice developed I came back to my mat to relieve pain in my body and de-stress and let go.  My time on the mat was for me and me only.
     As my practice has grown and evolved so have the reasons I come to the mat.  I come for peace, I come for stillness, I come for joy, I come for release, I come for energy, I come for strength.  I come to the mat because it makes me a better person.
     What brings you to your mat?

The Flexibility Myth

    We seem to have this idea that in order to do yoga we must be flexible.  This simply is not true.  Flexibility comes as a result of doing yoga for those who were not flexible at the start of their yoga practice.
     I came to yoga very stiff and tight.  I could not even touch my toes! Gradually and with practice I gained flexibility.  I may never be able to touch my foot to the top of my head or sit in full lotus but it doesn't make me any less of a yogi.
      Be patient with yourself, be kind to yourself, and be content with where you are in your practice.  Everyone has a different body and everyones practice will look a little bit different.  Don't be afraid to start because you are not flexible.  Just keep practicing and it will come.

Discovery of The Self

     Who am I? Why am I here? What is my purpose? What is my truth? These are questions we ask ourselves.  We want to know who we are, why we are here, and what we should do with the time we have been given.  We are searching for purpose, direction, inspiration, happiness, love, truth, and wholeness.
     Our society tells us to find theses things we should look outside our selves.  We should try to fit in. We should buy things to bring us happiness.  We should hold tightly onto the good and stay away from the bad.  Yoga teaches us something else.
     Yoga teaches us we all have the answers within ourselves.  It teaches us to find contentment within each moment. We learn how to be present, how to be patient, and how to practice non-violence and non-stealing.  Yoga teaches us how to find truth within ourselves.  As we find the truth within our selves we will know who we are, why we are here, and what we want to do with our lives.
   

What Different Styles of Yoga Offer

     Over the last three weeks I have been fortunate enough to be able to devote this month to deepening my understanding of yoga and learning how to teach and share it with others.  I have been studying at Yoga Garden in San Francisco with an amazing group of people.  I have spent six days a week with them and we have grown quite close.  We have laughed, cried, fallen out of poses, and had physical and emotional breakthroughs together.  It has been quite an amazing journey and its not over yet!
     In this training I have been exposed to many different teaching styles and styles of yoga.   I am grateful Yoga Garden had a variety of teachers leading their 200 hour teacher training.  This has given me the opportunity to see what resonates with me, what feels right in my body, and what direction I wish to take my practice and my teaching.  This has taught me there is no right or wrong or one perfect way to practice or teach yoga.  Everyone is different so it only makes sense that different styles of yoga will resonate with each of us.
     I would encourage everyone, new yoga students and people with established yoga practices to try out different styles of yoga.  See what you enjoy, see what you are neutral towards, and see what you dislike.  Then I challenge you to look deeper into why you like or dislike a certain style.  Do you love Vinyasa because you are moving and sweating or do you dislike it because you don't get to hold a pose for very long? Do you love Yin because of the deep stretching and release or do you dislike it because you can't seem to relax and your mind is racing? Do you enjoy Iyengar because you gain a better understanding of alignment in the pose and explore how deep you can get into a pose or do you dislike it because you become impatient or want to do more poses in a class?
     I challenge you to dig deeper and find out why you are feeling these things.  In my own practice I found I gravitated toward more movement style classes because I didn't have to think.  When I took slower paced classes I had a hard time staying present.  I challenged myself to do the things that were harder for me and still try to find the same peace and presence I found in faster pace classes.  Going to more Yin and Iyengar classes taught me how to be in my body and how to still my mind.  These practices also helped me in my flow practice.  I had better alignment from practicing Iyengar and was more open because of practicing Yin.
     So go out there and find what is true for your body, your mind, and your practice! I would love to hear what works for you and any stories you have about finding what practices work for you!

Namaste
Ali

Getting Past I Can't

     Getting past thinking I can't do certain yoga poses has been both challenging and rewarding. Why do we tell ourselves we can't do something? In my practice I can't has been based on fear.  Fear of failure, fear of not being good enough, fear of injury, fear of falling, and fear of the pose itself.
     During these first two weeks of teacher training I have become aware of the things I tell myself I can't do and how they are holding me back.  I had been telling myself I can't do a handstand because I have wrist problems, instead of looking for ways to work with my wrist problems.  My teachers have been encouraging me to simply try.  This meant doing the prep work for the pose, getting comfortable with that, strengthening where I needed to strengthen, become confident in my alignment, and finally attempting to get into a handstand with out judging myself if I didn't get all the way up.  After a few days I was able to get my feet up! Then my work became staying up. There is always something else to work on in a pose.
     Practicing in this way brought my attention to the fact that telling myself I can't do something was not serving me.  In reality it was doing quite opposite, it was stoping me from growing and exploring new possibilities.  This has also made me look at the reasons why I was telling myself I couldn't do something.  It was all about fear.  I was afraid I would not do a pose well or I would fail.  It is better to try and fall or try and not be perfect than to have never tried at all.
     Having this new insight into my practice has had quite an impact on the way a practice.  I have a new willingness to explore and try new things.  It is not about being able to do the pose perfectly right away but about trying new things and working on making them better.
     With this new attitude I was able to start practicing a pose I thought I would never be able to do Urdhva Dhanurasana/Wheel Pose.  I started out with putting my hands down behind my head, then working on the action of lifting up, then when I had enough space getting my head onto the ground, then using the strength in my arms to lift up.  I am sure I didn't achieve the most beautiful Urdhva Dhanurasana ever but I brought a new pose into my practice that I can practice and slowly get better at.
     I am now stepping onto my mat with a new openness to try.  I can try new poses and work on the set up so one day when I am strong enough or open enough to do the pose I will be able to.  But until that happens I will be content working on getting there.  Yoga poses are not a destination they are a journey.  On that journey we learn a great deal about ourselves both on and off of the mat.  Don't let I can't get in the way of your journey.

How I Got Here

Hi!
     My name is Ali Snapp and I grew up in Los Osos, Ca. A small beach town on the central coast.  I grew up playing sports and being very active.  I played soccer quite competitively for four year and ran track in high school.  Two broken feet, ruptured calf muscle, severe spinal lordosis, patella-femoral syndrom and three broken fingers later I got to the point where I could no longer do the things I was use to doing.  This was devastating. I didn't know how I could be active while dealing with these injuries and the healing of theses injuries. At one point it was difficult to walk very far and stand for extended periods of time.  So I did my best with the injuries I was dealing with.
     I found yoga in an odd way, through my job.  I was hired to work at a yoga studio and sell yoga memberships and help students find the right classes and guide them along in their yoga journey.  I had heard about yoga but had never tried it.  I was under the impression I needed to be flexible inorder to do yoga.  Therefore, I was very nervous about starting a practice.  I was blessed to have kind and understanding teachers from the beginning.   They put me at ease and taught me to accept where I am.  They told me yoga is a practice and every day will be different.
     This was a big shift for me as a former athlete.  I had to shift from the mentality of I want to win to a mentality of I am here.  I could not look at a pose like a soccer game or a race I wanted to win.  Yes a pose has a point of full extension but it can't be viewed the same as winning a race or a game.  I had to come to terms with the idea it may take me years to fully extend through a pose and I may never get there but that is not what it is about.  Furthermore, once I have attained full extension within a pose there is still more I can work in while I am holding the pose.  I had to come to realize yoga is about being present in the moment and accepting where you are and being ok with that.  Knowing that we are ok just the way we are.  Yoga is a journey not a destination.
     I am honored to share this journey with you and would enjoy and appreciate any comments or personal stories you would like to share.

Namaste