Yell and holler! My beef with Yelp.

As we all know the pen is mightier than the sword and freedom of speech is still a constitutional right at least for now. It's in that spirit that I'm picking of my pen, or in this case my keyboard, to defend small business owners who can't afford an ad with Yelp and end up paying the consequences. And also to defend the rights of those who write reviews on Yelp in support of such businesses.

Yelp has recently introduced a program on their site to "filter" out any seemingly phony business reviews. Apparently, some businesses have figured out how to beat the system by asking customers to write positive reviews on the site or by writing them themselves using a fictitious persona. In theory the filter is good because it allows new customers to see only honest reviews by real people. Kudos to Yelp for trying to keep the internet a honest place.

However, this same filtering system has removed all positive reviews from my listing, even though they were unsolicited nor written by me. I can only assume this was done because every couple of months a Yelp salesperson calls me asking me to purchase an ad with them. I've politely told them on numerous occasions that I'm not interested. I've tried to explain how small my business really is and that I keep my overhead low by not paying for advertising. After all, the best advertising is word of mouth.

After declining several times, I took note of the number from which the Yelp salespeople call me and started ignoring them when they call. Seriously, I just don't have time for a 20 minute phone call each time where I listen to the same information only to have to argue my way off the phone.

Then lo and behold, my reviews and ratings all disappeared. Even the one that had been up for over a year and a seemingly innocuous one that just said she was looking forward to checking out my studio and would report back.

I've heard from others that I'm not the only business that this is happened to. Is it possible that Yelp's review filtering system is just too sensitive or in error? Possibly. But I suspect that more is going on here than a glitch in the software. Especially, since they state specifically in their rational for filtering reviews that they aren't punishing the non-advertisers.

Yes, I know I can't prove it but it does seem a bit suspicious, doesn't it?

Yelp, if you are going to try and keep everyone honest and accountable for their reviews, how about starting with yourself? Just because I'm not giving you money doesn't entitle you to edit out my positive listings and ratings. Freedom of speech is a constitutional right that shouldn't be guaranteed with money. You are perpetuating the system of corporate greed and power where the small businesses get pushed out because they don't have the deep pockets to compete with the big-boys.

You might be able to edit my listing on your site but you can't touch my blog. Yogis know how and when to speak up.

The hazards of working from home

Since it's the holidays and my last post was a bit of a downer, I thought it would be nice to share from my collection of funny stories that have happened over the years because I work from home. After all who couldn't use some humor during one of the most stressful times of the year?

Having my studio in my basement has it's advantages but it also has some amusing drawbacks, usually in the form of my cats or my husband. Yes, this is their house too but that doesn't mean they always understand that it's also my office. Try explaining to a cat that you are "working down here" and the only response you'll get is a louder cry. This is what happens when one of my cats wants out during class, and usually during Savasana.

This isn't the worst of it I'm afraid. When we still had Hunter, the world's friendliest cat, he would often saunter down the stairs, crawl into someone's unwitting lap and make himself comfortable. Or curl-up next to a student laying in a spinal-twist. It got so bad that I had to put up a child-gate to try and keep him out. Unfortunately, he quickly figured out how to get his not-too-slender body underneath the gate and come down anyway. He also enjoyed jumping up on the massage table when I had a client. I used to joke that I was going to charge extra for cat therapy.

Hunter's replacement, Abbott, is much more polite and shy. However, he and his sister Diamond, got into a terrible scuffle once while I had a client on the massage table. We heard the ruckus upstairs, shortly before it moved downstairs under the table. Both cats were screaming and the fur was flying. I have never been so mortified in my life! Fortunately it was a regular client who was very understanding despite nearly jumping off the table. Not exactly a relaxing massage for her that day.

My husband is a little better trained than the cats. He knows not to talk on the phone during class since he has a voice that I'm sure even the neighbors can hear. He also knows not to enter though the garage during class times or appointments. However, he does occasionally venture downstairs during class, again usually during Savasana to get a snack. One particular time, I was talking a class through a visualization that involved the woods. After class a woman said to me, "I felt like I was really there until Bigfoot started stomping through the woods."

Speaking of snacks, food smells are another consideration, especially since I offer a prenatal yoga class. For awhile my husband loved to come home and cook eggs for dinner right before class. Eggs of course have a terrible after smell even to those not pregnant. I finally got him to lay off when I explained that he would have to clean up after anyone he made sick because of it. Now, we just get treated to microwave popcorn or burritos occasionally but never during the prenatal class.

On the weirder side, I once had a mystery person enter my house at the end of class. At the time I assumed it was the ride of one of my students who had been told it's OK just to walk-in. I motioned to the person who I couldn't quite see because of the darkness to wait for a moment until class was finished. The person then left. As I wrapped up class, I asked if anyone was expecting a ride. They shook their heads and said they all thought it was my husband coming home. Since my husband was already home that made me a bit concerned. I asked him to take a quick look around outside to make sure all was well. Whoever it was had vanished.
Later, I learned that it was a student who had shown up at the wrong time and was a bit embarrassed so she just left.
 
With the exception of keeping the house constantly clean, or at least the first two floors of it, and being conscious of food smells, working at home really has more advantages than drawbacks. People remark that they couldn't stand to have others in their space and that they would never really feel like they were away from work. Since I don't use the studio for anything but massage and yoga, I don't really feel that people are in my space. I could say something very yogic like my space is inside of me not where I live but I don't want sound like a bumper sticker. The reality is I've just never thought of my house as a boundary but something to share.

6 things that sadden me as a teacher

At the risk of sounding depressed and down I thought I'd share a few things I've heard repeatedly that really make me sad as a yoga teacher.

In reality, I've been pretty happy about my classes and students lately. A recent rice-bag making party gave me an opportunity spend time outside of class with some of my students. It filled me with joy that my students would come together and cooperate to make some much longed-for props for the studio. And have a blast in the process.

I've also loved watching the community that has developed out of the studio lately. Several students have reached out to embrace a new student who recently moved to the area. They've taken the time to familiarize her with the area and offer her their friendship.

These examples of kindness warm my heart but that doesn't mean that there aren't still things I wish I could do more to change.

Experience has taught me that sometimes I need to gently nudge my students when they tend to slip into one of these six traps as I like to think of them. Unfortunately, many of the people I've seen falling into these traps aren't my students in which case I don't have a right to nudge at all. It's then that I take a deep breath and blog my frustrations in hope that they might reach the eyes and ears of those folks I wish I could nudge or rather push.

So here are the six things I've heard that sadden me as a yoga teacher:

1. "I don't want to take up all of your time during class or be a burden." This statement kills me. I teach because I want to help. It's part of what lead me to become a yoga teacher. I also know that this statement isn't made out of consideration of other students so much as the person making it doesn't want to feel like they need help. We all need help at some point and if I'm spending time with you it's because it happens to be your turn right now. I'm not ignoring the other students. I just happen to see that they can manage on their own at the moment. On a different day it will be their turn so don't feel bad.

2. "I tried yoga a few times but I wasn't good at it." No one is good or bad at yoga. It often takes years before you get comfortable enough with it to feel like you know what you are doing. Don't give up on yoga just because you stumbled your way through a few classes. Everybody does that in the beginning. Of course you feel stiff and tight and sore the next day. That's why you need yoga. Keep trying.

3. "Why aren't there more men in yoga? Is it more for women?" No! Yoga was actually invented by men for men. We women of the west have taken more of a liking to it than the majority of the men here and for that reason have probably crowded out the guys. That doesn't mean yoga is for women and that men can't do it. Men need yoga just as much if not more than women. Men often tend to prefer bulky muscles and weight training as opposed to leaner, more flexible muscles. However, inflexible muscles create a greater risk of injury. So come on guys, get in here and represent.

4. "Isn't yoga some sort of mystical, New Age, cult practice?" Unfortunately, yoga got a bad reputation in the 70's as being a stereotypical-hippie practice. Because yoga has been influenced by Hindu and Buddhist philosophies, it tended to draw those interested in Eastern religions when it first became popular here in the west. However, yoga itself isn't a religion and has become much more secular and fitness based in the last decade or so. You are just as likely to find lawyers, doctors and executives in a yoga class as artists, vegans and commune dwellers. Yoga is for everybody.

5. "I don't don't think I have the right body type for yoga." There's a right and wrong body type for yoga? This wasn't something that was taught to me in teacher training, I'd better go back. The idea that only thin, fit people can do yoga is simply wrong. Props were made to make poses accessible to all different kinds of people, from thin to overweight, young to old. Your poses might not look like the pictures in the magazines but that doesn't mean you can't do them.

6. "I'm fat, old and ugly and my stupid joints don't work anymore." I really hate hearing people berate their bodies. Calling yourself fat won't solve your weight problem, just as calling your joints stupid won't make them more flexible. Simply accept where you are at and figure out what you can change. If you have an injured body part, don't shun it. Treat it with kindness because it's endured enough abuse already. It will heal faster if you care for it, not push it.

Yoga like a Turtle

“Where did the turtle come from?” a student asked. No, the hard-shelled reptile didn’t come crawling into yoga class one day. It’s actually a question I’m often asked in reference to my studio’s name Tranquil Turtle Yoga.

It’s a good question, especially with all the much cooler yoga studio names out there that inspire grace and strength. Turtle’s don’t inspire either. Turtles are generally thought of as slow with cumbersome bodies. We often say “She’s come out of her shell,” when talking about a shy person who opens up finally.

Turtles are slow but persistent. No doubt you’ve heard the story of the tortoise and the hare numerous times. The hare rushes off in hurry but quickly loses steam. Thinking he has the lead he stops to rest while the tortoise lumbers on to beat the hare. I’ve seen many students who practice like hares at first; taking multiple classes a week, buying all the latest yoga clothes and DVDs. However, after a few short months their yoga mats gather dust in the closet when they realize yoga is more work than they thought.

Turtle yogis practice with patience and persistence. Though they may only attend class once or twice a week or sometimes take a month break, they always come back. They are in it for the long haul, realizing that yoga isn’t a race to the finish but a life-long practice. It’s not about toning up your butt for swim-suit season or dropping a couple of extra pounds. It’s a lifestyle.

Turtle yogis make long term diet changes, instead of hopping on whatever crash diet is the fad of the month. They make the effort to slow down and enjoy the current season instead of wishing it was over. They turn off their Blackberries and iPhones once in a while and make time for tea with friends.

Turtle style yoga also translates into slower moving classes. That doesn’t mean they are less challenging than more rapid styles, it means the poses are held longer.

When I first started practicing yoga as a college student, I was into all kinds of sports and activities. I didn’t really need any more exercise but I was in desperate need of flexibility and relaxation. Classes that moved quickly from pose to pose only frustrated me because I would often feel like I had just gotten into a pose properly when the instructor had already moved on. I didn’t find this to be relaxing at all.

When I discovered Iyengar yoga, I realized it was a perfect fit. It was much more therapeutic with emphasis on correct alignment in the poses and it moved much slower. A traditional Iyengar yoga class can sometimes practice just five poses in a hour with all the moving of props, aligning of bodies and staying with the pose.

Staying with the pose is another benefit I find to a slower style of yoga. So much of our culture these days involves hurrying from one place to another. Our brains are constantly flittering from thought to thought to our phone, our email, and back to our phone again. Staying with the pose enables great relaxation and presence.

There’s a physical benefit to staying longer in the poses as well. Our muscles have what is called the Golgi tendon organ which regulates the amount of muscle extension. It helps protect the muscle for over-stretching. It takes a full six seconds for the Golgi tendon to completely release allowing the muscle to go into a fully lengthened state; after that is when the real, flexibility creating, stretch takes place.

Later, after I began teaching, I discovered Anasura yoga. This style combines both the alignment and slower pace of Iyengar yoga with the natural progression and sequencing of poses that flow yoga styles of yoga offer. This felt like an even better fit for me and for my classes.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not knocking styles such as Ashtanga and Viniyoga. It’s true that I often borrow bits of Viniyoga from an instructor friend of mine whenever we lead retreats together. But for a runner, cyclist, swimmer, hiker, rollerblader and snowshoer, I need my yoga to be still and slow like a turtle. I get enough cardio-exercise from my other activities. I need yoga to balance me out with strength and flexibility.

So don’t discount the turtle as a lowly, bumbling creature. She may have a lot to teach you about yoga.

Yoga Bodies

One quick search of the web for yoga classes turns up a whole host of options: “Yoga for Seniors,” Yoga for Men,” “Yoga for Over-50,” “Yoga for Plus-Sizes,” “Yoga for Kids,” and the list goes on. There’s a yoga class for just about everyone and everything now, even dogs.

The average student many find this quiet baffling. If you’re a 50-year-old man with a dog who has never done yoga before, you might wonder which class you should attend; the men’s class, the beginners’ class, the over-50 class or the dogs’ class.?

The answer, with a few exceptions, has more to do with preference really than anything else. Who would you rather be around during your class?

I’ve known some students who still consider themselves beginners even after five years of practice but would be too advanced to attend a beginners’ class and many so called “plus-sized” yogis who can do beautiful poses without needing any modifications. I’ve also seen plenty of super-flexible seniors who would balk at doing yoga in a chair and 25-year-olds who could really use one.

As an instructor, I’ve always shied away from labeling my classes. I don’t like the idea of excluding anyone because of age or lack-there-of or categorizing people by body-type or gender. I of course have the luxury of teaching in a smaller setting so I’m able to help my students when they run into challenges with poses. This doesn’t always work on a larger scale such as in a gym so it’s much more appropriate to label classes in those settings so students know what to expect.

Likewise, there is certainly value in having a class just for beginners, or more specifically those students who have little or no experience with yoga. It’s also a good for students to know beforehand if a class is particularly active or challenging. Specialty classes such as restorative yoga or prenatal yoga are also beneficial because the whole class can focus on a particular topic or issue.

But classes that are labeled something like “Yoga for the Rest of Us,” imply that yoga is inaccessible to most “normal” people and that it’s only the super bendy among us that can do it.

One of the worst things I hear from students is that they think I’m able to do certain poses because I’m thin and still youngish. Or because I’m thin and young I wouldn’t be able to teach students who aren’t as thin or young. An instructor who is knowledgeable about both yoga and the body doesn’t have to be a particular physical type to understand different challenges various students face. A good teacher can and should be able to teach a variety of students.

Sure, I felt a bit conspicuous when I walk into to teach a class of seniors or men, but it doesn’t mean I don’t understand that they have different needs or face different challenges than I do. I’m certainly not going to show-off in front of a group of seniors by doing side-crow or touching my nose to my knees in a forward bend.

The beauty of yoga is that it is not one-size fits all which is the reason I believe various types of people can practice together and still benefit from being in the same class together. The important thing is know your body and your boundaries and be willing to use a prop or do the modified version when necessary.

I think it’s good for students to practice with people who are different from each other. There’s so much more that can be learned in a diverse group. It encourages you to let go of your ego when you see someone doing a pose that you aren’t able to yet. Or that you need not be limited by your body type or age.

Over the years, I’ve learned so much from working with students of all abilities and ages and even cancer patients. I’ve learned creative ways to modify poses, humor in the face of body-boundaries, graceful aging and the value of simply waking up one more day.

My philosophy as a teacher is that I will work with anyone who is willing to work with me. It doesn’t mean I have all the answers but I’m willing to be patient and find creative solutions for challenges that might arise.

Sorry, I don’t teach dogs though, I’m a cat-person.

Age of Anxiety

You are not alone.

It's estimated that 19.1 million people in the United States suffer from some form of anxiety, be it panic attacks, obsessive compulsive disorder, phobias or generalized anxiety. World-wide one in four people are likely to suffer some form of anxiety at some point in there lives. Approximately $42.3 billion, or nearly one-third of all mental healthcare costs, is spent annually to treat anxiety.

As a society we are more anxious than we've ever been at any point in history and yet we are the safest we've ever been. So why are we so anxious?

Because we are surrounded by a constant stream of information via the internet, television, radio, friends, and family. We are subjected to more stories about mishaps, accidents and illnesses in one week than our great-grandparents were in their entire lives or there about.

With all of us running around scared why are we still ashamed and embarrassed about it? We do we go to such great lengths to pretend we're OK when we're not?

Not too long ago, a student came to me for yoga to relieve her back pain but it turned out she had much more going on than just her back. She had spent many years cooped up at home due to debilitating anxiety she didn't want anyone to see. Years of her life had been spent away from other people because she was too afraid of what other people would think if they knew about her condition. While yoga eased her back pain some, it did more to help ease her anxiety.

Lately, I've had similar conversations with other students suffering from anxiety who find it hard to open-up and share their stories. The more stories I hear, the more they all start to sound the same. Worse than fear itself, we're afraid of others seeing it.

Our culture values the person who doesn't even break a sweat when confronted with knee-knocking, gut-churning circumstances. Maybe that's why extreme sports are so popular. Everyone wants to prove how brave they are by jumping off bridges with giant rubber-bands tied to their ankles or surf the waves using a kite.

Anxiety disorders are near and dear to me because I've suffered from one or another kind for the last 14 years of my life. In fact it was anxiety that lead me to become a yoga teacher. I thought that if I just immersed myself in a calm and relaxed atmosphere I could rid myself of it. Turns out that there's no way to completely eliminate stress from life. Anxiety will always follow you even into the calmest most serene environments if you try to run from it.

Since we live in an age of anxiety it's impossible to run away from anxiety but there are ways to manage it. Yoga is one of the best methods I've found. Study after study confirms this finding.

Yoga teaches you calming breathing techniques, how to relax in uncomfortable situations instead of resisting or running, and releases physical tension through stretching. It also teaches you how to calm and quiet your mind and listen to your body.

More specifically, many yoga poses stretch the psoas muscle which is considered the second most emotional muscle in the body next to the heart. The psoas is innervated by the Vagus nerve which controls the fight or flight mechanism in the body. By relaxing the psoas you are able to relax the rest of the body. 

The biggest lesson practicing yoga taught me, wasn't how to get rid of my anxiety but how to accept it and even befriend it. I learned that my happiness didn't depend on how calm I was or how calm I could pretend to be. Instead I realized how capable I was of managing it and it became a much less intimidating. Learn to manage it instead of fleeing from it and it won't be as big of a monster.

Running for balance

If you come around my neck of the woods in the morning, (on non-class days of course) you might catch me running through the neighborhood. Yep, that's me in the pink T-shirt that says, "I run like a girl, try to keep up," plugging away at my weekly mileage.

You might wonder what I'm doing out there, having heard me disparage running in the past. Or perhaps you heard me complain about my knees in class and how I can't run anymore because of them.

Thought is seems unlikely, what I'm doing out there is running for my life.

In February, my doctor gave me some bad news; the x-rays showed my knees are fine. It made me wonder if the pain was a fiction of my mind so that I didn't have to face my deepest fears; if my yogic aversion to running was just an excuse for the same.

In school and in college, I loved to run. I was pretty good at it too. Though I never entered any races after I traded track for tennis, on my own I once ran 4.5 miles in 27 minutes. (That's six minutes per mile for those who are counting.)

But something happened along the way to mind that created a running-phobia. I developed panic attacks which made me think that running would be bad for me. What if I got out there and had an attack? What if I just fell down dead? It's been known to happen, or so I had heard.

After several failed attempts to start running again after college, I gave it up for good nine years ago. Even though the attacks had abated, the fear continued to linger. Besides, who needs to run when yoga is so much better for your joints and fast walking is still considered a cardio-workout?

Apparently, I do need to run. This spring my mind and my body (and God too) let me know that despite teaching yoga for years, sometime several classes a day, I need more exercise.

Yoga helps slow and calm my mind. It releases tension from my body, but I need the balance of hard, vigorous exercise like running to help my manage anger and anxiety.

Running gives my body an outlet for difficult emotions like anger, fear and grief while walking would just set my mind churning. When I run, I can't think except to listen to my breath and the rhythm of my foot strikes, but my body is fully engaged in whatever emotion has overcome me, working it out in sweat and heavy breathing. Yoga can this too, but since I teach, it's hard to make yoga all mine alone. Running is what I do for myself, yoga is what I do for others and therein lies the balance.

In case you're wondering, yoga and running are in fact very compatible. I've always recommended that students have both a yoga practice and a cardio practice, since yoga doesn't always get your heart beating fast enough and long enough to count as cardio exercise. Some styles of yoga do this but not specifically the Iyengar style which I teach.

Yoga benefits runners by helping maintain flexibility which running can diminish. It also helps with faster recovery from hard workouts; provides core-strength which makes for better running form; improved lung-capacity from breathwork; endurance from holding the poses and finding the "edge" of your comfort zone; and mental strength from mindfulness and meditation.  

Running gives my competitive side and outlet. Rather than smothering it with the yogic ideal of non-competition which only make show up in other unwanted places, I am able to give it voice when I run. However, yoga gives me perspective and has taught me not to take my goals or myself too seriously. After all, I'm supposed to be running for the shear joy of it not, to prove something to world or myself.

Yoga has also taught me when it's time to back off and rest. It has taught  me to listen to my body and not push beyond my capabilities. As I've said many times to my students boundaries are there for a reason, don't try to push past them. When I run, I have to practice this or I know I'll injure myself. I practice this too because if I push myself mentally beyond what I'm comfortable with, I my end up back where I started.

Most notably, yoga made my re-entry into the running world much easier than I expected. Within two months of starting again I was able to run five miles in 42 minutes. A far cry from my personal best, but not too shabby for someone who hadn't run in nine years and who is also 15 years older from when that record was set.

So if you do see me running around the neighborhood or in local race, know that I haven't gone and lost my mind, I'm actually finding it. I feel like if I can run, I can do anything.