Summer 2023
California
Sitting in my apartment in Paris at the end of August, two days after flying back from California, I am tempted to ask myself, “where did the summer go?”
As I gather my thoughts to write this, I reread the Solstice Communiqué from last winter and remembered that I wished to spend more time studying:
If I could wish for one thing with respect to this work, it would be to have more time to devote to the scholarly aspects of yoga study. So when opportunities to go deeper present themselves, I do my best to take them…
Just 2 months later, I was accepted into the Stanford University YogaX 300 hour advanced teacher training and began studying in earnest. The first module was dedicated to TIY, or trauma-informed yoga, taught by Dr. Lauren Justice. The material was fascinating and the cohort awe-inspiring — almost all the other students hold doctoral degrees and are working actively in the medical field using yoga to help their patients. The second module was dedicated to Health and Resilience, taught by the head of Yoga X, Dr. Christiane Brems. It dove into Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra’s and presents a structure for teaching a holistic yoga that addresses the entire individual and traverses the 8 limbs of yoga in an impressively complete and efficient manner.
This summer, we began the 3rd module of the program, Yoga for Eating Disorders, Disordered Eating and Body Dysmorphia. Taught by Dr. Heather Freeman, we are examining not only the different ways that yoga can intervene in the treatment of eating disorders but also what biases we have towards others based on conditioning about body types. As someone who has experienced anorexia and bulimia as a teen, I am realizing how much of the conditioning has remained buried in my consciousness.
By extension, I am also learning how much our conditioning prevents us from having a healthy relationship with our bodies and the harm that can come from this. Older bodies, heavier bodies, skinny bodies, injured bodies, diseased bodies, postpartum bodies, stiff/non-athletic bodies… the collective trend to dismiss anything other than young, slim, flexible and physically fit bodies as less desirable is exactly why I believe we need holistic yoga.
I look forward to continuing to share with you what I’m learning, and am eternally grateful for your trust…
See you soon on the mat.
Été 2023