Bodywork Compliments Yoga Beautifully!

Hey All

Maybe I should get this party started, huh?

Happy to finally have a pod up where we can share experiences, perspectives and resources.

I am in the L.A. area, and have been teaching yoga for 13 years and practicing bodywork for 9 years.

I find that synergizing yoga with bodywork is absolutely extraordinary. Yogis who receive bodywork gain new levels of body awareness in their practice and are able to move through certain structural/energetic blocks more easily.

I apply some bodywork techniquies during and at the end of class, but mostly I synergize the two practices and have students who come in fpor private sessions.

Yogis on the massage table are almost a completely different species to non-yogi humans! The receptivitry of the tissue, the responsive awareness in the body, the ability to tap into focused energetic breath, the access to prana/chi - makes for a much more productive and transformational ride all around….

Needless to say I encourage non-yogi clients to begin a practice and yoga students who do not receive bodywork to give it a try - the synergy is truly fantastic.

I also encourage yoga teachers to learn bodywork as an incredible addition to their toolset as well as a way to increase income and add value to what you offer your community!

Do any teachers, bodyworkers or students/clients have anything to add. I think this is an extraordinary aspect of mind-body healing and conscious evolution…

~julian

Re: Bodywork Compliments Yoga Beautifully!

Of course, I would have to agree that when a yogi gets on the table, it is a completely different session. They get on that table with a body-awareness that allows you to really get to the deeper work. They're open to allowing new experiences to happen. It's great. And it is why, after years of working in other settings, I am now working out of a yoga studio!

Re: Bodywork Compliments Yoga Beautifully!

awesome shivon! hey did you list your services in the thread i created for that?

Re: Bodywork Compliments Yoga Beautifully!

  I have had teachers give me a little foot massage in Savasana, actually one used to give us a little cervical traction with her hands and then give our ears a little rub.  i enjoyed it.  i know many other yogis who did not.  what interests me more is the integration of bodywork  in the more active phase of a yoga class.  for example, many teachers give “openings” in postures such as backbends and twists in order to assist students in moving beyond a a “stuck” point in the pose.  i know there is a great deal of thai massage that has been integrated (sometimes I wonder if people realize it has been integrated) into what we call yoga today.  I was actually working with a student who was also TCM doctor, we were planning on developing some integration of acupressure with yoga.  unfortunately we both got too busy with family to pursue it further.  hopefully sometime down the line i will have something interesting to say on the matter.

interesting thread….would like to see more activity on it.

surely there are yogis reading this who have been grabbed, pulled, twisted, heaved, pushed and flipped in their classes with experiences to share…

colin

Re: Bodywork Compliments Yoga Beautifully!

Hi all, it's great to find this thread out there in the 'real' world or at least in cyberspace as I've been having this conversation with myself for several years!

I totally agree that working during a session with a yogi is a completely different experience from working with more viscerially unaware clients. I'd have to expand that though to say that in my experience that extends to dancers, tai chi/chi gung practitioners, musicians, professional breathers (!) and so on. Anyone who uses their physical body as a tool for extending their consciousness almost automatically starts from a perspective of running with the opportunity that a session presents and taking it as far as they are able or choose to at that moment.

In Body Harmony the mind is only used at the stage of setting the goal for the session and then the physical tissue takes over as the only expert leading the dance which the bodywork becomes. I've always looked for opportunities to bring this into yoga and other movement classes, though so far it has not reached beyond the conversation stage or working with individual practitioners and teachers. It's one of the things that excited me when I first came across Julian's work here on zaadz, that he is practicing this with his students and clients.

If anyone finds themselves in Andalucia and wants to practice this, get in touch! In the meantime, it'd be great if this pod breathed a little more regularly :-D

love to you all
Lindsay

Re: Bodywork Compliments Yoga Beautifully!

Yoga compliments bodywork beautifully.  I love to do assisted child pose with clients before I turn them over, and pigeon pose and happy baby too.  Yummy.  . .

Re: Bodywork Compliments Yoga Beautifully!

I had a student who was healing from cancer tell me he came to class to recieve the loving touch. He said he never gets touch at any other time…

I was suddenly reminded that not everyone has a loving community that expresses, a partner, a good friend or family around. Some people, due to there own trauma, are possibly unable to be a giver thus never recieve in the outside world. I have found that the addition of massage, touch, acknowledgement allows students to open their hearts, to feel, to accept. In the end- YES! for sure becoming more in touch with themselves as they deepen their yoga.