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With so many people trying yoga today, it can be a difficult task finding the right yoga teacher.  Everyday, people take yoga classes at the gym or through local community centers.  For the most part, it’s an inexpensive and somewhat safe way to try yoga.  But if you have medical conditions of any kind from blood pressure, arthritis, back pain, shoulder issues. carpal tunnel, or rehab-ing from surgery,  it’s not only important, but vital to work with a Yoga Teacher who has been professionally trained, and has considerable experience with alignment principles.  These two credentials are challenging to find.  And here’s why……

There are no legal regulations on the teaching of yoga.  You could literally take a yoga class with a person who has no professional training, no education, and worst of all, no experience with teaching individuals who have physical conditions.  That’s like seeing a doctor with no training…

Our bodies are our tool to experience life.  If it’s in pain, life can be disenchanting and challenging at best.  Yoga can relieve the pain in our bodies, even help heal the body, along with proper nutrition.  But your yoga teacher needs specific wisdom to help you do just that.  So what to look out for…

First, if it’s cheap or free, there is usually a reason.  And that is the red first flag.  No talented and well trained yoga teacher can work for free.  Yoga teachers who are continuously updating their talent and studying with Master Teachers pay dearly for their training.   Teachers at the Yoga Studio are professionally trained, and are required yearly to complete advance training that exceeds the minimum requirement of the Yoga Alliance.

Second, be very careful taking the yoga classes at the gym or community center.  I talk with people about yoga frequently.  What upsets me most is hearing that someone took a yoga class with 20-30 people in it, and they hurt themselves seriously, and they don’t want to do yoga ever again.  That is always an indication that the Teacher had little to no knowledge or wisdom of the science, and the class was too large for the students to get proper attention.  Remember, there are a lot of doctors in the world, few with exceptional talent.  Yoga is the same.

Third, if you already train heavily or if you are a runner.  Please, please, please check your teachers out.  If you are tight already, your yoga teacher can help you stretch properly.  It’s not, lunge or spread your legs, touch your toes and bounce.  In fact, that’s exactly the wrong way to stretch.  Nothing screams hamstring,  or groin tear louder.  And sadly, I heard a story about an athelete that had that experience in their gym yoga class.  And had to stop running forever…

What do you do then?  Referral is always a good start.  Then check out your teachers credentials.  A good yoga teacher is always willing to dicuss their training.  And literally brag about their own teachers.  Because a good yoga teacher is always a good student. You can also go online to the Yoga Alliance.  They keep a relatively accurate database of professionally trained yoga teachers with miminum standards and requirements.  The teachers at the Yoga Studio, not only have the minimum requirements, but are required to exceed these standards.

Lisa Tokarz, ERYT200, and founding director at the Yoga Studio of Shelby, located in Macomb County has received this credential by having a minimum of 200 hours of training, and teaching a minimum of 1,000 hours within 2 years of training.  Over the past 10 years of teaching, Lisa has over 500 hours of professional training,  she has taught roughly 500 hours in the last year alone.  She has worked with students recovering from breast cancer, back surgery, shoulder surgery, severe and chronic arthritis.  She specializes in knees and hips as she is an extreme athelete herself, and in her 20′s broke both knees skiing mogels, and suffered from complications of improper healing which lead to chronic and severe hip and low back pain.  All of these issues with time, have been overcome by studying with many of the foremost yoga teachers from around the world. 

Bottom line, don’t be afraid of yoga, be afraid of improperly trained yoga teacher’s.   Do your homework, interview a few yoga teacher’s, make an appointment to visist a yoga studio.  Don’t take yoga classes that are cheap, and watch out for free classes, (they are usually taught by teachers with little or no experience).  At the  Yoga Studio, we have a free class on the schedule, however, Anna is one of our most talented and skilled teacher’s in the industry.  We picked her because we understand how important it is to have a positive nurturing experience as a new student of yoga.

What’s your eat, pray, love?  Hmmmmm, eat?…gotta be the infinite supply of giant chocolate chip cookies on Silent Retreat last weekend. Pray?… for peace every day, and please stop the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.  Love?  My amazing husband and partner, my kids, my cat….all the beautiful people practicing & teaching yoga at the Yoga Studio of Shelby.   Find out your eat, pray, love with a yoga class at the Yoga Studio of Shelby.

Why Even Explore The Essential Study of Yoga?

Many people are interested in the secret teachings of yoga to achieve greater health, and then be further inspired by them to achieve personal and professional goals.  The Essential Study of Yoga is a complete and comprehensive practice utilizing the teachings from “The Essential Yoga Sutra” (the crux or main book of yoga) in order to do just that.  “We also study yoga poses (asana), breathing techniques (pranayama) and other “outer” practices, such as nutrition, supplementation, and sleep.  As well as, the “inner” practices, like Yamas/Niyamas, Sanyama, meditation and many of the “tantric” or secret teachings of yoga.  The information in this 6 month study prepares a strong foundation of yoga practices to begin to see change.  If one wishes to share their wisdom, they will be qualified to teach yoga in a complete lineage if desired.

The Essential Study of Yoga is a certified program recognized by the Yoga Alliance, which is the organization that sets minimum standards and requirements for Yoga Teacher’s.  Our 200-hour study exceeds these standards and requirements. 

The wisdom accentuates the lives of practioners personally and professionally so much it’s a valuable tool worth sharing with others.  Many people are looking for a healthy way to live, they admire their teacher’s and want to learn quickly all the practices which help us achieve health, and then create more succes and freedom personally and professionally.  The evolutionary quality of human adaptation needed is compassion.  We have lot’s of brainiacs around that can’t create peace, or change.  We need those dedicated to working through the heart to adapt and evolve for a successful future for all.  It sounds strange, but it is the Way…

Join us in September for The Essential Study of Yoga, meets three Sundays a month 8:00am-3:00pm, and every Wednesday from 5:30 to 9:30pm.  Two week break for Christmas.  See The Essential Study of Yoga.

Modern medicine is one of the greatest advances in human development.  Yet, it’s only part of the solution in creating good or hopefully, excellent health.  Doctors help get us out of critical conditions.  They help to stablize us when we can’t stablize alone.  It’s like, we can’t save ourselves from drowning.  And for that I am eternally grateful.  However, healing can only truly be done by us.  The human body is an instrument that has the potential to heal itself.  For example, when we get a cut, a cold, a broken bone, or even a clogged artery, doctors don’t “heal” our bodies, they get us out of critical conditions, they aid us.  We heal our bodies.  I remeber feeling so encouraged when hearing that fact.  But I knew there was more to it.  I’d like to share some information that really does work.  This information is not intended to replace good medical care, but with your doctor, a powerful tool to naturally heal the body and mind.

No one wants to live on perscription medication for the rest of their lives. No one looks forward to knee and hip replacement, or bypass heart surgery.  Sometimes we get to the point that it is absolutely necessary to save our lives, or improve the condition of it.  What if you could use short-term perscriptions medication to get out of a critical conditions, and learn the secrets of healing enough to begin to reduce the usage and need.  Too good to be true…remember our body has the capacity to renew itself roughly 90% over the course of a year.  Meaning the body you have today will either be renewed or degenerated over the course of the next year.  If you’d like to renew, read on….

The first step in using Yoga to heal is to understand, it’s not just the yoga poses or the breathing that does the work.  It’s a lifestyle adaptation.  The first adaptation is to commit to not harming the body and mind any more.  What harms the body is what we put in it.  The food, the beverages, the media, TV, movies,  our thoughts even. 

Yoga and meditation teaches us how to train our thoughts.  The brain is simply an organ, and thinking is what it does.   So much like an active puppy, we can train it, with training we can change our thoughts, and by changing our thoughts we change our body chemistry.  It’s a well know scientific fact that the thoughts we think can either increase or reduce the hormone release of cortisol and adreanaline.  For expample, what happened to your body that last time you were driving and heard a siren and saw flashing lights behind you.  You thought they were after you, heart elevated, blood pressure increased, body became flush and began to shake.  Then, the vehicle sped by you, and you knew they weren’t after you. Whew!  The body returned to normal because your mind told you, they weren’t after you.  It was all happening in your mind.  This is an amazing realization, we’ve all had.  It’s the tip of the iceberg.   Our bodies have been living in this state of disruption because of our mind.  Another example is anorexia, these precious women tell themselves  they are fat over and over again until they believe they are.  Then through starvation, become addicted to the stress hormone adreanaline to get “high”.  I say this with love, because I have personal experience with the disease.  And again, with good medical care, yoga, meditation, the commitment to never harming the body again, I have seen healing. 

Begin a yoga practice with a qualified teacher, like ours at the Yoga Studio.  Make a commitment to yourself to practice regularly, at least once a week, over an extended period of time.  People see results immediately, but real progress takes roughly 6-8 weeks.  I don’t know about you, but I’ve spent lot’s of time and money at the doctor’s office, leaving with a perscription that left me scared of possible side effects that included death.  

Give up your attachment to the idea that you can’t heal your own body.  You can, if only you believed you could.  Begin with a daily affirmation, “May I enjoy happiness and freedom from pain, and may my thoughts, my words, and my actions contribute to the happines and freedom I deserve.”

Lisa Tokarz, ERYT200, founding director and senior teacher at The Yoga Studio of Shelby, has studied yoga and dharma for over 17 years with the foremost teacher’s from around the world.  She has been sharing her wisdom successfully for 10 years.  Join her, with her playful spirit and uplifting presence, and begin to heal your body and your life naturally.

Every year the Yoga Alliance (YA) requires registered yoga teachers to complete continuing education credits to maintain their RYT status. 

Lisa Tokarz, ERYT200 is qualified to mentor/teach professional yoga teachers, as students may study under her to receive their required number of hours to maintain their RYT status.  Check out the many workshops offered throughout the year and get direct contact hours or essential professional hours (EPH).

Please call 586.991.0760 to discuss opportunities to study at The Yoga Studio.  No appointment necessary.

Many people think yoga only stretches the body.  What most people don’t know is that yoga can strengthen us by using the body as the free-weight.  We move more weight with our own body, than we would consider moving at the gym.  I would never think of benching pressing 140 lbs. but I do move that much weight in a yoga class.  By learning specific poses (asana) we build strength and definition unlike traditional exercise methods.

About the author

Lisa Tokarz, E-RYT, is the founding director and senior teacher at the Yoga Studio of Shelby, locate in Macomb county.  Lisa has studied the philosophies of yoga and dharma for 17 years,  and believes we all contain the potiential to reach optimal health and happiness through a regular yoga practice both on and off the mat.

Meditation:  the process of focusing the mind, for extended periods of time, to the present moment.

Beginning July 27th and continuing the last Tuesday of each month we will  offer a Yoga Meditation class from 8:15 PM to 9:15 PM at our Yoga Studio in Shelby Township, Michigan. $20.00, please call to reserve space.  Namaste’