COURTNEY ROHAN YOGA

You are not the body. You are not the mind. Have you ever caught yourself stuck in the middle of a deep thought? Like a storm that knocks your tree down and takes the roof off, you wonder at a point, how could this have happened? You attempt to change your thought before it gets worse. For a time, you think about something else, until you're back again, thinking the same thought from before, uprooting more of the yard and throwing furniture around. If you said yes to the above questions, I completely understand. Last week, I found myself stuck on the most frustrating of thoughts. A tempest. I tried to write it out. I tried to meditate. As a result, I was no longer frustrated, I was angry, and then enraged. “Why,” you ask? “Those things should have helped you.” Well…. yes, and no. The energy we become stuck in, obsessed on, demands specific tools if we are to address it. I was already too far gone in the storm to write about it. I only wrote myself into more frustration. T...

Everyone needs somewhere they can go and feel safe. For me this is my yoga mat. If people attempt to disrupt me while I am practicing, I feel safe to ignore them. If the phone rings or I hear sounds that don’t indicate harm, I let them be. I remind myself often, I am on my mat to focus on myself. I am not here to fix that which is around me. I can do that later. This year I will be teaching high school students yoga as an elective. I am excited to offer this experience. I hope to create a space of safety and ease within the class as well as for students on the mat. My wish is that all people will see their mat as a home for their body to move and rest, for their emotions to flow, and their thoughts and experiences to find homeostasis. You can create this safe haven for yourself on your mat too. Here are some easy ways to begin creating a space of comfort and ease so that your practice will yield these benefits back to you.  1. Choose a mat that makes you feel comfortable. ...

Recently I have been teaching my students about the space in between. In the middle of your arm: an elbow. In the middle of your leg: a knee. We’ve been focusing on the upper body to divide and conquer this vast idea. To take a look at the space in between, we’ve focused our attention on how we are moved by that which can not be seen. How like marionette dolls, we are the master’s puppet. This is a good thing, to be driven by the One. The best of who we are and have to offer is with That. One way to acknowledge this is by looking at one muscle often overlooked, but that has great effect. Like the serratus anterior muscle, the finger-like muscle that lays atop the ribs, Source helps us lengthen the spine, the breath, and our arms above our head. The serratus anterior originates on the surface of the 1st to the 8th rib and inserts into the medial border of the scapula. If your serratus anterior is weak, an indication of this is when your scapula wing off your back, such as when you l...