COURTNEY ROHAN YOGA

Folly Beach I am continuously learning more about myself through the ebb and flow of my practice. I learn about the physical aspects of myself. My psoas and hip flexors are tight. My hamstrings continue to lengthen every practice and my core gets stronger. I learn about my aptitude to quit when I get challenged. The standing poses always give me a run for my money and I have to decide to keep going, every time. I learn about my emotion and when the stretches have built up in just the right way, I learn how to relax and release. I learn that letting go is a series of steps, not one thought and pouf; rather, many thoughts about where I am and where I am headed and how I will get there. Whether I know it or not, every yoga class I give and even get, has a focus. When I think up the class myself, I concentrate harder on the goals that will render the focus reachable. However, when I am receiving a class, the process is akin to going on retreat or to church and not really knowing how th

What is the way to the self? This path appears so often muffled with rubbish. In this dream-life, between space and time, between breaths, how do you decide the options that are best to grow you where you want to go? Not unlike a flower, how do we lean toward the sun? Do we follow the voice in our heads or the voice in our hearts? Do we follow one voice one minute and then in the next the other, moving between the two alternately? It is most important, I have read and believe, that all the options in each moment leave us inclined to listen to the heart and head and yield to the one that makes us most like ourselves. The choice to not or to do, however, does not define us but rather, refine us. It is in the culmination of our life choices, the seemingly good and bad choices, that we glimpse, in our responses and reactions, how each situation changes us. And in that, is there ever a good or bad choice? These are not new revelations or questions, I know. These are the thoughts of many,

It is not easy to share a truth or to see it, especially when someone else is sharing what they see in us. Yet, when we see a truth in someone else, it is evident. It is a bag of bad apples seen from all the way across the grocery store. However, as soon as you open to the truth in life, in others, and see their faults, you must be ready for others’ scrutiny as well. In most recent years, to scrutinize/ to be scrutinized implies a negative interpretation. However, this is the call of true change. To let one know what is seen, when conscious and walking in grace and compassion, and then allowing someone to share the same. Truthfully, we can not change alone. We were not designed to see the full spectrum of ourselves clear enough to change in this way. Though it would be nice to have people present truths in “nice” ways, “haters”, to use young vernacular, are just as helpful. We must be able to look into someone else’s eyes and words and see what we are unable to see in our own mir

This Pranayama is explained in three short videos (poor editing on my behalf). Watch all three-- each one is no more than a couple minutes, and learn a new breathing technique accompanied with movement to sweep the stale energy out of your temple and bring fresh prana (vital energy) in. In the 3rd video, my hands move out of the video. Just so you are clear about what my hands are doing, I will give some explanation. Begin with your hands at your heart, (Anjali mudra), bring your hands up together through the midline on your inhale. Bring your hands down to your sides on your exhale. Inhale them back up above your head, inhale. Here, interlace your fingers without letting your palms touch, so opening your palms toward the floor, exhale as you press the prana gathered in. Straighten your arm at the bottom of your exhale and with fingers still interlaced, press your palm away from you. Sweep out all stale energy (apana) on your inhale. Release your fingers above your head and exhale