One of the many things that I enjoy about yoga school is learning from the teachers who had trained Dianne. They’ve been extremely supportive in the development of the shala at Eastside Yoga. They’ve had experience with yoga, in how it affects them and others. And although they profess otherwise, these women seem to know themselves based on the stories that they tell during workshops at the studio. They’ve studied many styles of yoga and assimilated the information discerningly. Like true yoginis, they graciously share their knowledge with us.
Dianne invited Lynn Medow to talk to us about yoga therapy. Lynn used to be a dancer, a camp counsellor and a social worker. She also modelled the poses in the book “Yoga at the Wall“. Lynn’s teacher is Doug Keller and she organized a weekend for him to teach in Michigan at the end of the month. It’s not often that Doug gets out this way. We’ve used his texts, journal articles and CDs to study asana and meditation in yoga school. Several students from shala will be making the trip to the States to hear him speak that weekend. Road trip!
Lynn talked about how to use yoga therapy for injuries, seniors and athletes. Her style of yoga applied alignment based principles. She developed her own phrases to guide the proper placement of the body and used words that she felt were more accessible to those that have never done asana before. She was energetic and excited about her work. Besides yoga therapy, Lynn said that she liked teaching beginner classes and Chair Yoga. Using a chair as a prop made yoga available for those that found it difficult to sit on the floor. And as one of my classmates said, it would be good for those that sit in chairs all day long for work. I’m going to have to watch her DVD and try out some of her techniques on my husband (just recovering from spinal surgery) and my Mom (who has low back pain).
Three hours with Lynn flew by. There was so much more that she wanted to teach us. Til next time then, Lynn…
