Tag: pillars

Be Healthy

For my ‘Be Healthy” pillar project I opted to look into prenatal yoga and how the Modo yoga 60 minute sequence could be adapted for each trimester. I chose this topic as I have personally experienced the benefits of prenatal yoga during both of my pregnancies. In experiencing the changes of pregnancy, childbirth and postpartum, I have come to a newfound appreciation for yoga and its benefits throughout the lifecycle. I also have a mini-personal-passion for anything related to pregnancy and postpartum because the female reproductive system is legit a phenomenon.

Before I begin I just want to give a piece of advice- Please NEVER assume that someone is pregnant no matter how obvious it might appear to you. And really reflect before commenting on anyone’s body.

I would like to do my best to be mindful when teaching to include cautions for pregnancy/early postpartum. Oftentimes, people do not like to disclose their pregnancy within the first trimester and yet already that early they may need to be making adjustments. I think cuing towards using stability and muscular strength versus momentum is a great general note that would allow for safety in poses without jeopardizing students’ privacy and without making the assumption that someone is pregnant (which side note is NEVER okay to do).

I would absolutely love to teach prenatal specific yoga classes to really get to honour this monumental period of change in my students’ lives. I had the privilege of guiding a good friend of mine through a 60 minute yoga class almost weekly for the last three months of her pregnancy. There is just something so incredible in being able to support a friend through a new life stage. I loved being able to cue modifications for two separate trimesters and to see how her practice evolved as her little bub grew.

I hope to promote a healthy body and mind to my students by encouraging a consistent prenatal yoga practice alongside aerobic exercise such as swimming or aquafitness which offers the cardiovascular benefits necessary during pregnancy without any additional strain to the joints and skeletal structures.
I think yoga offers a unique opportunity to learn a lot about yourself, to strengthen your body and your mind. To learn distress tolerance and to promote positive self-soothing techniques such as breathing exercises.

According to a 2019 study, the top reasons people start and maintain a yoga practice are relaxation and health promotion. Prenatal people especially need stress reduction and a boost to their health so they report similar reasons for beginning a practice. Most people will begin their prenatal yoga journey during their second trimester when they often feel very good and can do just about anything they feel comfortable doing, with or without props, as long as they can breathe deeply.

A prenatal person may be feeling tired, isolated or lacking community, overwhelmed by the changes in life and body, frequent mood changes, anxious about birth or fearful around how to care for a newborn, might have aches and pains. May have body image issues, forgetfulness or perinatal mood and anxiety disorders.

Some benefits of prenatal yoga include:
-improved sleep and reduced fatigue
-reduced stress and anxiety
-increased strength
-flexibility and endurance of muscles needed for childbirth
-decreased lower back pain, nausea, headaches and shortness of breath
– improved mood
-community
-helps the prenatal person bond with their baby
-reduced risk of preterm labour and other complications
(which is really cool so high stress levels have been shown to increase miscarriage and preterm birth rates- women who practice asana, meditation or pranyama for an hour a day lower their risks and in a  2018 study in the Journal of Alternative and Complimentary Medicine by Bolanthakodi et al. those who practiced yoga were less likely to be induced, they had a higher vaginal birth rate, reduced c-section rate, shorter first stage of labour and better tolerance of pain, there were also significantly less low birth weight babies.)

Some notable physical changes that occur in the pregnant body include:
–> increased relaxin which is a hormone that softens the connective tissue to loosen muscles and joints- this allows the pelvic joints to become more flexible but can lead to instability in the sacroiliac joints such as pubic symphasys dysfunction, so it’s important not to overstretch during asana practice as you can easily destabilize your joints and ligaments. Really cool thing is that yoga can actually help to stabilize those muscles and reduce or eliminate negative symptoms
–> mild to severe abdominal separation – diastasis recti which can look like coning or loafing
–> edema (swollen hands or feet)
–> wrist pain
–> aching lower and upper back caused by drastic change in posture and centre of gravity
–> 2 extra litres of blood circulating- so pregnancy is a natural low blood sugar state because the volume of blood in the body expands 40-60% , the blood circulates faster, rate of metabolism increases, and resting heart rate rises. You use your body’s sugar faster as important reserves are being used to support the placenta and fetus. A light meal or snack and plenty of water an hour before class is recommended.

The focus of prenatal yoga is awareness of posture, working with the breath, reducing low back pain, building strength and stability, moving with intention, connecting with baby and preparing for childbirth and mothering. Prenatal specific classes typically offer gentler, less strenuous sequences of poses and greater use of props to support the body in poses. Prenatal specific classes are so useful for mental centring and preparing your body, breath and mind for the challenges of labour.

They also really help to promote community- in my experience going to prenatal specific classes we had guests visit at the beginning of every week to share about services they offered in the community, we also had a chance to check in with each other and discuss any issues or excitements that arose in our week specific to our pregnancies.

Prenatal yoga class is time to get to know your body and to build confidence in your ability to give birth In yoga class a woman can learn to tune in and respond to her body’s needs, so that during her labour, when rational thought may be suspended, she’ll be able to identify and ask for what she wants. One of the ways to encourage stress tolerance is to hold warrior 2 for 1 minute (about the length of a standard contraction) or take poses with the toes tucked under and breathe through the pain. Prenatal yoga is a beautiful opportunity to mother the mother.  

So prenatal yoga is obviously super beneficial; that being said, Modo is a heated practice. The statement from Modo is that “heat should be avoided during the first trimester. Thereafter, the student should consult their obstetrician. The student should not begin any new yoga practices during her pregnancy, aside from pre-natal yoga with a certified instructor.” So big takeaway here is that if they’ve never practiced Modo before conception they should NOT be starting it post conception. This is due to elevated temperatures posing risk of issues such as lightheadedness, dehydration and other complications. If they had a strong yoga practice they may be able to continue a fairly vigorous practice with modifications after their first trimester.

If you know you have a pregnant person in your class try to connect with them one on one beforehand to ask how they’re feeling, if they’re experiencing pain anywhere, how far along they are and let them know to stop anytime they experience pain or discomfort. Encourage them to do whatever they need during class. Make sure you talk to them during class and give specific instructions. Pregnant people do not know what is or isn’t safe inherently and are relying on you to be the expert. Please let them know that if they experience any pain or red flags such as vaginal bleeding, decreased fetal movement or contractions to stop and contact their health care provider. When in doubt, teach a gentle class- it will benefit everyone!

Prenatal poses generally target the lower back to strengthen and lengthen the muscles that support the low back as it’s especially vulnerable to pain and injury as the belly grows and centre of gravity shifts the spine out of its natural curvature. You may want to encourage her to be near the wall for extra support in any balancing postures as the biggest danger to pregnant yoginis is falling.

A great reminder is that you have your entire life to practice yoga when you are not pregnant and that this stage is neither the beginning nor the end of your practice. Learning to accept where you are at in this particular point in your life is such a gift. This is also a great time to check back in with that beginners mindset and to really allow yourself to experience your poses as if for the first time. Learn to be present, be grateful for where you are and learn to modify your practice for the ever-changing circumstances and limitations that life will always bring. Also, there are so many other ways to bring your yoga off the mat and maybe your yoga practice looks more like connecting with the Modo pillars versus practicing the asanas.

When it comes to class you want to be careful with the series and modify poses, a general list of acceptable poses follows.

The biggest piece of advice for you and for you to share with pregnant people is when thinking about postures ask this question: “Does this honour baby’s space?”

You want to ensure you avoid poses that compromise baby’s space i.e. straight leg forward fold might need to take the legs out wide to allow space for baby. It is obvious that you’re not going to put a pregnant person on their stomach, but it can be dangerous to put her on her back as well – This is due to the weight of the belly putting pressure on the vena cava artery (a large vein that runs along the side of the spine and curves behind the uterus) which can restrict blood flow to baby and to mamas lower extrememties. You can easily modify by putting a blanket under the right hip to keep her a bit onto her left side. When it comes to savasana a side lying pose is optimal since she will be there for a while and we want to promote relaxation and surrendering. You also want to take care with any twists and poses meant to strengthen the abdominal wall as they can put too much stress on the rectus abdominus muscles which can lead to further separation. Taking the feet wider makes you more stable so is always a nice modification.

Pregnant women should NOT do Kapalabhati. There are two kinds of pranayama that are especially beneficial during pregnancy: Ujjayi- a long strong deep breath that helps you to focus on the present moment and maintain calm and Nadi Shodhana (alternate nostril breathing) which is said to help balance the body’s energy flows. Avoid any breath retention or hyperventilation which could limit baby’s oxygen supply.

The really cool thing about Modo is that it’s a practice that we are constantly learning to modify based on our daily needs. This is especially true in relation to pregnancy. It allows for the greatest benefits and enjoyment of your personal practice and is a great way to let go of your ego of what yoga asanas should be and accept the sacred place you are in, in your life right now.

Like life and yoga, pregnancy is not only a destination but also a journey. We live from the neck up. Birth happens from the neck down.

Just as an aside, it’s really important to recognize that many pregnant women do not meet activity guidelines during pregnancy due to adverse symptoms such as nausea, indigestion, and fatigue so they adopt sedentary lifestyles which actually increase risks of negative outcomes such as hypertension or gestational diabetes. The 2016 study in the International Journal of Yoga by Peters and Schlaff notes that most prenatal yoga intensity levels are considered very low or equivalent to preparing food, washing dishes or walking slowly around the house. Therefore, prenatal yoga does not contribute significantly toward the achievement of aerobic PA recommendations during pregnancy. The study does note that the results should be interpreted with caution because there is not enough research on the topic; however, they do recognize the mental benefits and the reduction in maternal discomfort.

Here is a general list of acceptable poses for prenatal yoga:




Table-top (on all fours)
Cat-Cow pose
Cobbler’s pose
Chair pose
Child’s pose
Clamshell exercises
Crescent lunge
Dancer’s pose
Deep squat (malasana)
Downward facing dog
eagle
Easy pose
Extended side-angle pose
Thread the needle
Forward pose
Glute strengtheners
Goddess pose
Half splits pose
Crescent Moon pose
Happy baby
Sleeping hero
High lunge
Legs-up-the-wall pose
Mountain pose
Neck stretches
One legged bridge pose
Pigeon pose
Modified plank pose
Foreward fold
Savasana (modified in later trimesters)
Seated pelvic floor tilts
Seated side bend/stretch
Side lunge
Seated figure four pose
Sun salutations
Supported bridge pose
Supported child’s pose
Thread the needle pose
Triangle pose
Three-legged dog
Tree pose
Wide-legged forward fold
Warrior poses

*There may be more acceptable poses than what is listed here. If you would like to incorporate a pose not on this list ask yourself: Does this pose honour baby’s space? If it doesn’t, don’t teach it!

As always, when teaching invite your students to make modifications that work for their bodies, or skip poses all together. Remember, we are teaching our students how to listen to their own bodies.

Yoga poses & movements to avoid:
-Moving with momentum –> your students should be engaging their muscles to move with intention & safety. Think strength and stability.
-Any inversions (except downward facing dog)
-Arm balances
-Any extremely advanced yoga poses, or tricky balancing poses

As a general rule: first trimester you can continue your regular (non-heated) practice; second trimester begin to stay a little more upright- possibly bringing toes onto ground for added stability as your stomach is expanding changing your centre of gravity and relaxin is causing your joints to begin to destabilize; third trimester keep feet firmly planted on ground and add props as needed to ensure you’re maintaining space for baby . These are obviously generalizations and some pregnant individuals may be well able to practice without making these modifications. Listen to your students and encourage everyone to practice with strength and stability in mind. During the prenatal period LESS IS MORE!

Tell me about your prenatal yoga experience– what did you love? what didn’t work for you? what do you wish every prenatal yoga instructor could understand?

xoxo,
Yoga Mama

Be Accessible

One of Modo’s six pillars is to be accessible.

Since mid April 2021 I have had the pleasure of leading the staff from the Alzheimer’s Society of York Region through a free 45 minute Modo class twice a month. Our sessions will conclude in mid August of 2021. At the time of writing this post I have two classes left to teach.

It has been such a phenomenal experience giving back to frontline workers who do such important work in the community. I am amazed by the organization in general. How ASYR values the health and well-being of their staff and not only allows for staff to take a 45 minute long class in the middle of their workday (11:00-11:45am), but encourages it, is remarkable. I truly believe that more workplaces should put such an emphasis on wellness initiatives during the workday. I’m sure they would see improvements in staff output and satisfaction.

My objective in this project was to offer an accessible yoga practice. Some of the barriers to taking a yoga class can be time and cost. As these classes were offered during the workday, encouraged by management and were free of charge, several of the barriers to practicing were eliminated upfront.

There are other barriers such as ideals that students perceive to be ‘true’ ‘right’ or ‘good’ yoga as learned from mainstream media depictions of yoga for white, thin, privileged women with hyper-flexibility. I tried to be deliberate in setting intentions that allowed students to let go of those expectations to look a certain way in a pose and to instead work towards honouring their own body. I reminded students to offer themselves grace, that it is okay for their practice to look and feel completely different from one week to the next. I also tried to include many variations and modifications for each pose to allow for accessibility for a range of fitness and flexibility levels. Such variations included things like keeping a toe on the mat for extra stability in balancing poses, adding a block under the hip during pigeon and doing a side-lying variation in lieu of sleeping hero.

There can also be mental and emotional barriers to taking a yoga class. I tried to lessen these barriers by allowing students to keep their cameras off if their comfort level didn’t involve being visible to those on the Zoom call with us. I tried to allow for warnings in poses that can bring up intense emotional reactions both viscerally and mentally such as providing a list of several sensations that you could be feeling during a heart-opening pose. I directed the students to use their breath as an anchor to help them ride those emotional waves and then provided a pause in a neutral position to reset before continuing the practice.

It has been humbling to receive their feedback after each session. Feedback is a crucial element in the Modo teaching realm. It is encouraging when you get positive feedback but can be disheartening when you receive negative commentary. I believe this to be a natural reaction to negative feedback. Learning to sit with the less-than-ideal reports, process the information and then incorporate it into your practice is a real journey.

I found as I read the positive feedback my chest would swell with joy and pride and a wave of happiness would wash over me. It was comforting and comfortable, like being cocooned up in a cozy blanket. It also felt surreal as if I couldn’t possibly be the person that they were talking about. These bits of personal experience given back to me from my students helped give me the confidence to keep going. I felt so honoured to be providing these classes. I truly believed that I was fulfilling my commitment to providing accessible yoga to my students.

On the flip side, the negative comments felt like a lead stone in my stomach. I noticed the all-too-common feelings of being an imposter, of not being qualified to offer these classes. Although logically, I know these things to be untrue- I am in fact fully qualified to teach a Hatha yoga class- it didn’t stop the associated feelings from momentarily flooding my system.

It is important to note that the negative commentary I received was significantly less than the positive feedback. That being said, we, as a species, are predisposed to focus on the negative as a means of survival. Thus these comments weigh heavier than their positive counterparts. Here is a snapshot of some general feedback given from 44 student feedback forms.

As you can see participants felt welcomed and generally derived significant enjoyment from their session.

As the weeks went on I started to use the negative feedback as a focus in my meditation practice. Allowing the sensations to come, peak, crash and then recede like the tide kissing the shore. I started to focus more on how these critiques triggered me and how, if left unacknowledged, could easily lead into further stories of being “not good enough” or to stop teaching altogether. When I allowed myself to truly feel into the experience the words slowly stopped triggering me. Although still not comfortable to receive, I was no longer taking the feedback as a personal attack. It was at this point that I was able to actually work on incorporating said feedback into my teaching in a meaningful way.

I noticed that, as I made this shift personally, my students began to mention how helpful my cues were or how the intention I chose and wove through the class really resonated with them. I received comments on how my guidance was timed right for students to make the proper adjustments. Or how they appreciated the modifications offered.

I believe that the feedback I received was a gift twice over; initially, receiving it and allowing it to land, wether positive or negative, and allowing it to guide further instruction, and secondarily, recognizing the space it afforded my students to feel seen, heard and to offer them a sense of belonging knowing that their concerns have been listened to and I have tried to make adjustments as appropriate to best suit their needs.

I did have some feedback that still said that balance was difficult and that some poses were simply too hard for their aging bodies. This is something I am continuing to work on. I do offer several modifications for balancing poses but could work on incorporating the concept of Drishti more throughout the practice. Similarly, there are many variations I could cue involving chairs or other props to help with issues such as arthritis. This will be an area of on-going learning for myself to ensure I can best meet the needs of my students in all stages of the lifecycle.

It is so important to recognize that while teaching a group yoga class it is impossible to get to the complexities of every individual student’s needs and meet them 100% of the way. However, it is crucial that every student feels welcome, encouraged, and empowered to make the poses their own. As a teacher, my goal is to ensure the class is accessible to every single person in such a way that they feel physically, mentally and emotionally safe.

I believe that I have been successful in creating an accessible yoga offering for the staff of ASYR and hope to offer other free services to other important community agencies in future.

At the end of this experience I’m left with the question of why do I take the small doses of negative feedback so personally? Why is so much of my focus taken up by this when, as seen above, my students are generally quite pleased with my offering? Where else in my life does this behaviour show up? What other areas of my life may be affected by this internalized negative self-narrative? Why do I react so intensely to the positive feedback and why do those feelings pale so quickly beside their negative counterparts? The journey to finding the answers to these questions will certainly be a long one, but I anticipate that it will be well worth the ride.

This project has been an absolute pleasure to complete. Although the requirement was only to teach one class a week for a month I am very happy that I extended it further. I still do not feel ready to charge for my teaching at this time but as I finish up my projects I hope to move into owning my role as a 500 hour certified yoga teacher.

It is my sincere hope that throughout my career as a yoga instructor my students always feel that they belong in my class.

With love and gratitude,
Yoga Mama