Teacher of the Month: Bethany Eanes

Bethany joined our teaching staff in 2013 after moving to the Eastside. She's moving back down South, but she loves us so much she'll still be here to see you all three times a week. Bethany is famous for saying, "No two of my classes will ever be the same," and that's why she fits right into our community of diverse interests and continued change. 

Namaste Highland Park: When and why did you start yoga?

"Empowering Teaching Immersion" this
 summer at NHP. Taken by Dave.

Bethany: I grew up in a small suburban town in Pennsylvania. A part of my father's family lived on the West Coast, and we referred to them as "The Crazy California Cousins." I remember my Uncle Bob trying to teach me sun salutations and later mocking him behind his back. I was a tomboy and an adrenaline junky through and through, playing soccer through college. Then, in a long string of very impulsive decision making, I ended up in Los Angeles after college, and I couldn't turn around without running into a yoga mat. Those people seemed to know what they were doing, and they looked pretty good while they were at it, so I bought a mat at Target and headed to a donation class to try and get some Jennifer Aniston arms prior to my wedding day.

NHP: Who was your great mentor?
Bethany: I still call my dear friend Julie Rader "my teacher." I met Julie at the perfect time in my life, when I was first learning to be my own person and create a life for myself. She gave me unconditional love and acceptance - she still does - and encouraged me to soften my boundaries and open to possibilities. Today, my needle has swung quite a bit back toward the more systematic approach to life. I no longer talk about lunar cycles and gemstones in class the way I once did, but I will be forever grateful to Julie for showing me there is more than one way to see things, for teaching me trust, and for helping me to see my own gifts.

NHP: What is your practice style and why?
Bethany: My yoga preferences have changes substantially over time. When I first started teaching, I was 26-years-old, newly sober, newly married, and really believed yoga had helped me figure things out. I wanted great music, sweat, and lots of movement; I believed in love and light. At 28, I was diagnosed with auto-immune metabolic disorders that took away my health and have shown me I know absolutely nothing. My practice and teaching have been dedicated to darkness ever since.

When I practice on my own, I hold poses for a very long time, stay with my breath, and focus on all the disappointment, longing and pain in my own life and in the world. I try to use it as inspiration, as a source for connection and compassion, and as a tool to bring me closer to my own humanity. I attempt to teach from this place. I also attempt to make it hilarious. We can only stay with darkness if we have a sense of humor about it.

NHP: What do you hope people take away from your class?
Bethany: On a surface level, I hope they find it interesting. I work hard to innovate new approaches in my personal practice and teaching to keep people on their toes. There's a deeper reason for this, though.

A friend once told me the most important message we can ever hear is, "Me, too." That's what I want people to feel in my class. I hope to use meditation, asana and breath as a way of feeling like a flailing, falling, desperate and beautiful human. I want us to connect through that shared humanity and not worry so much about rising above it or, to use a buzzword, "manifesting something better." I love Pema Chodron - I quote her all the time - and she compares the spiritual journey to climbing down a mountain rather than up it. She says that at the bottom, right down there in the thick of things, is where we will discover our salvation. I want people to feel like they're walking down the mountain together through our shared yoga journey. 

It may be a little ambitious for a 75-minute mat class. 

Things worked out with the boy.

NHP: What is something we'd be surprised to learn about you?
Bethany: Probably nothing, because I'm an absolutely open book with my students. But, if I had to guess, I'd say most of you don't know I planned on being a sports broadcaster after college. I studied writing and was the executive producer of my campus television show, "Wake Up Wash U!" I interned with the Rams and Fox Sports over my summers. Then I met this boy, and I followed him to California instead. Like I said, a little impulsive, but all told an absolutely excellent call on my part.

NHP: You have a training this month at NHP called "Safe Teaching for Every Body." What inspired this, and what can we expect?
Bethany: I work privately with a wide range of clients, including people seeking relapse prevention from addiction disorders, people in late stages of severe illness, and people with auto immune conditions like mine. It is inspiring but intensely challenging work. You have to adapt the practice to a very specific set of needs. 

The needs of those clients - along with those needs I've had to adapt to through my health conditions - is what inspired this training. We can all benefit from a more innovative, supported and individualized program. In this training, teachers will gain tools to make that possible for their clients. 

Teacher of the Month: Nora Brank

If you came by Namaste a few months into our inception as a studio, you would probably see Nora's smiling face behind the desk. From the get-go, Nora was an ambassador for our community, helping bring more people into the folds of yoga, regardless of their background or interest level. Nora is now a teacher, and her aim remains true: she loves honoring yoga's original intention for self-care, growth and reflection for all people.

Namaste Highland Park: What inspired your move to Los Angeles? Did it meet your expectations?
Nora: My parents lived in San Francisco in the 1970s, and my sister was born there. My family and I moved around a lot, but I went to high school in the desert by Joshua Tree, so I feel a pretty deep connection with California. I came out here again about four years ago after finishing graduate school in New Mexico. I was either going to move to New York and complete my PhD at the New School for Social Research or move to LA and drink smoothies and do yoga. Obviously, LA was the winning choice, and it has far exceeded my expectations.

NHP: You have been practicing yoga since childhood. What did yoga mean to you then, and how has that changed (if it has changed at all) as an adult?
Nora: My dad was an avid yogi and meditator, and taught me the sun salutes when I was really young, and took me to the local Zen center in Chicago when I was in my early teens. Yoga then meant to me a fun connection to my dad. For kids, yoga can be so playful and challenging! Meditation at that time, though, was very earnest and significant for me. I think when I started as a teenager that was the most focused I've ever been in my whole life. I took my zazen practice really seriously and I it had profound effects on my body and mind. Since then, my yoga practice has become more focused and serious, but my meditation practice has never been quite as strong as it was when was thirteen.

NHP: At what moment did you go from thinking, "I like yoga," to, "I'm a yoga teacher?"
Nora: I still have a hard time seeing myself as a teacher! I know it sounds cheesy, but I think of it more as being with a group of people I really like and us doing yoga together while I do more of the talking. Of course, I have lots of information to share that could help the people who come to my classes, and I do feel authoritative about many aspects of the practice. However, everyone is their own teacher, and everyone is so different ­ I much prefer to let the attendees of my classes find their inner teacher first, and then listen to me for all the extra tips, pointers, cues, and bits of philosophical information.

NHP: What do you hope people take away from your class?
Nora: I hope people leave my class feeling better than they did when they arrived. I hope people find a sense of comfort and nourishment within their bodies. I hope they find strength in their bodies and minds. I hope they find, for at least one fleeting moment, that quiet place where their true self dwells, the self that is eternal, indestructable, without borders, is at the same time one and all things. Getting a good hamstring stretch works too.

NHP: How does yoga go beyond the mat in your life?
Nora: I try my best to practice Karma Yoga as it was discussed by Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita. The main idea behind karma yoga is that we have karmic duties that we must fulfill through our actions. Karma yoga teaches us that it is best to try to not be attached to the outcomes of the actions that we perform along the way, since the actions are being performed to serve our karmic path rather than to serve our individual selves. According to Swami Sivananda, "Karma Yoga... purifies the heart by teaching you to act selflessly, without thought of gain or reward. By detaching yourself from the fruits of your actions and offering them up to God, you learn to sublimate the ego. " Even though we cannot predict or control our futures, we can act in the ways that serve our karma and our path in the most authentic and loving manner by detaching ourselves from the outcome and focussing on doing the best that we can in the present moment with the task at hand.

As I attempt my karma yoga practice, as I go about my actions, I do my best to be unattached from the results. Here, I have to keep the attitude that all work is worship, that my motive to work is not primarily that of seeking reward, that I have a duty to act and I must act well, and that I have to do my best every single time. The idea contained in Karma Yoga that all work is worship is very powerful for me ­ it's a good motivator to stay engaged and do my best.

NHP: What does your personal practice entail?
Nora: It changes a lot. There is a constant undercurrent of reading and thinking about yoga philosophy, and attempting engaged mediation sits with varying levels of success. But the physical asana practice fluctuates so much depending on how my body feels, depending on where I am, and how much I can prioritize the physical practice that day. Tonight I attempted my personal asana practice at home, thinking I’ll do a vigorous vinyasa flow and ending up holding a forward fold for five minutes and then lying down. So I try to take classes as much as I can ­ I need the group environment to help keep me on track! Ideally I’m in class five or six days a week.

NHP: What is something we'd be surprised to learn about you?
Nora: I’m also a champion race car driver.*

NHP: You are starting a new class­style at NHP, incorporating Pranayama and Kriya. What is your intention with this class, & what inspired you to create it?
Nora: I’m SO excited about this class. Vanda, the owner of the studio has been wanting to introduce a Kundalini­-style class to the studio for a long time, and although I am not a Kundalini teacher, I have always loved the kriyas and mantras specific to that discipline. My intention with the class is to simply introduce a few different options of movement to our students besides the typical Hatha or vinyasa methods. The class has been super fun so far. I love kriyas because anyone can do them, they are not too complicated or demanding of the body, but usually end up being the most intense and challenging parts of the class. It’s been really exciting to share this other element of yoga with the wonderful people who come to classes at Namaste Highland Park.

*Nora: I lied about the race car part, but I couldn't think of anything.

Mindful Fooding: How do we eat with presence?

We think of nutrition as "what we eat," but how we consume our food matters. Cooking mindfully stimulates digestive enzymes, and eating with presence helps us consume appropriate portions. We can call this "eating mindfully," or, in the case of our recent Teacher Training class: Mindful Fooding.

Throughout training, each Saturday we participated in a mindful potluck. Trainees prepared food inspired by the chakras, Yoga Sutras and … in some cases … by the only foods they could cook (Dave may have taken all the gorgeous photos on our website, but he can only cook one thing.)

Want some inspiration? Check out the tips below for eating mindfully, or explore the cookbook created by Namaste Yogi Kimberlee Cordova here.

• Prepare your food. Take the time to make your food visually appealing, and even enjoy some music while you make your meal. This is not only fun and present, it also stimulates digestive enzymes.
• Sit with good posture. I like to sit on a yoga block and place my food on a low bench.
• Put down your silverware in between bites. Seriously. I know, this is the hardest part.
• Chew each bite fully and completely, paying attention to taste and sensation as you eat.
• Keep conversation to a minimum until after you are finished eating.

Join us on our patio the first Saturday of every month for 'make your own' oatmeal, coffee and tea. We hope this inspires you to eat mindfully in your daily life.  

Empowering Teaching Immersion

Power yoga is everywhere, but what about empowering yoga?

This world has enough so-called gurus. I’m not really into the type of practice where the teacher says things like, “And now I’d like you to lift your knee. Please. Ahhh. Ah-ha.” And all the yogis say, “Ooohhh, ahhhh, how you’ve enlightened me.” I’m not into the way we worship some teachers for their cultivated presence at the front of the room. The thing that always drew me to my teacher is the sense that, after just a few practices with her, she became part of the group. 

In group therapy we call this “decentralization of the facilitator.” It is a sign that the group has gone from the initial stages – where everyone is anxious and trying to impress one another or holding back – to the second stage – where there is increased comfort and congruency. Skilled facilitators get there quickly. And skilled yoga teachers can do the same.

How? By teaching empowering yoga. Empowering yoga puts the practice right where it belongs: in the hands of each individual practitioner. The focus comes off of what the teacher is trying to teach or what the teacher would like you to do. We call this an external locus. All magic happens when there is an internal locus, a place within a person where he or she is doing the work.

Empowering teaching requires a lot of the teacher. First, it requires he or she be continually involved in personal practice and process. And it requires admitting that the teacher doesn’t know everything, that he or she is just there to hold space and create an environment where a powerful practice is possible.

For me, the skills most valuable for empowering teaching are:

• Knowledge. Yes, we want to get out of a “teaching” role, but we can only do that if we know when we really need to teach. A wealth of knowledge on anatomical alignment and effectively teaching alignment in a way that is simple, straightforward and understandable is key. When a teacher says, “Rise to sun and fold into self,” my husband always rolls his eyes. He’s not a ‘yogi,’ and these words sound like a Saturday Night Live skit to him. What do you want me to do? Can you show me, using props and exercises, what it might mean to rise to stand with a strong spine? Can you give me that knowledge so I do it without your cuing next time? If you can, I want it.
• Observation skills. Why are you telling this class to ‘lift the gaze’ when half of us don’t have our feet correctly set? Empowering teachers look at the room and decide which cues will truly help enhance the pose and which are simply throw away suggestions. This helps them leave some space between words for students to feel each cue.
• Intuitive adjustments. I love a good adjustment. We all do. Learn to do it well, and give lots of them!
• A receptive attitude toward feedback. If you can give me honest, intentional feedback about something I did that didn’t work, I will thank you! I like to think I know when I’m making sense, when the class was focused, or when I simply lost you. But, sometimes I don’t. You feel the class in your body. Please, let me know what you felt.

If you’re ready to deepen your knowledge, hone your observation skills, adjust intuitively, and receive honest, intentional feedback, then this upcoming immersion is for you. We will learn to empower our students by bettering our skills. Join me!