A weekend with Seane Corn (part 1)

As the promise of heat is in the air with the arrival of Summer on Sunday. Thought I would share my first entry from this training.  Continuing to share another part of my journey in Yoga and the learning I have in my trainings.  This most recent opportunity was to spend almost 14 hours learning from a beautiful energetic and spiritual yogini.  Seane Corn is a woman with experiences not unlike many of us, but who had the opportunity to enter the Yoga world at the boom of Yoga in America and because of her abilities as a teacher and communicator she has become a very popular teacher.  She is aware of this blessing and uses her platform to do good in the world.   If you want to know more about her outreach programs check-out her site at www.seanecorn.com

Entry and reflection on Day 1 training - we did mostly an intense basic practice and so I took very few notes during this session.  Sean did speak about her love of the vinyasa flow style of yoga and the benefits and risks of this style.

Seane explained that the style has no Guru and therefore there is no correct way to teach it.   Understand that  Sri Tirumalai Krishnamacharya, the prominent yogi credited with being a driving force behind the resurgence of Hatha yoga in recent decades, taught the three Guru’s we are familiar with today;   his son T.K.V. Desikachar went on to create a style known as Vini yoga,  B.K.S. Iyengar style of yoga has taken on the name Iyengar and Sri K. Pattabhi Jois developed the style of Ashtanga.   The style of Vinyasa takes liberallly from the three others styles of yoga; Vini, Iyengar, and Ashtanga.   It is a style still in evolution, developing and expanding.

She spoke of the opportunities that we as a yoga community have to become a force of good in the world, joining our energy and becoming political and spiritual leaders in our communities and across the world.

Seane also spoke with sincere concern for the students of vinyasa flow and the need for teachers of this style to become educated on the body as well as the nature of the personality types that are drawn to this style.  Focusing on breath and alignment should be the primary focus and recognizing that we do not need to link 24 poses together on one side to make the class interesting and exciting, and for the safety of the students should not.  She learned this because that is how she started teaching and she saw the impact through injuries in her students.  Recognizing that this is a high energy style and attracts A type personalities who often would rather cut off their arm then go to childs pose or use a block.   As teachers we are obligated to help our  students get the most out of a class for themselves and sometimes that means they need to back off and we have to encourage this thinking in our classes.

The class she taught on Friday evening focused on basic vinyasa flows including the Sun Salute.  As we flowed through the 2 hour class I could not help but keep a watchful eye on one of my students who had come to the Friday night workshop.   I watched as my precious student’s body reacted with poise and grace to the instruction of Seane’s voice and words and after a few flows I was able to let go and focus on my own practice.   I found new depth in each pose as I truly focused on matching the length of my inhalation and exhalation to the timing of the movement.   The humor as we heard Seane helping a student expand in Wheel and the joyous “oh yeah” that sounded as if he was having a minor orgasm, brought a level of comradeship to the room as we all celebrated his new expansion with laughter.  If you have the opportunity to take a class with Seane I highly recommend it.

Stay tune for more on this wonderful weekend!