May 15, 2017
In our obsession for a lean
strong core we get injured. That is what world-class yoga teacher
trainer Donna Farhi has discovered in injured yoga teachers that
find their way to her classroom for healing. Donna’s newest
release, Pathways to a Centered Body, coauthored with Leila
Stuart, and remarkably Illustrated by Sonya Rooney is the best book
ever to be released on the yoga of healing back pain.
It’s
also the best book to be released on the inner body exploration of
core yoga. In this interview you’ll learn how your psoas has
everything to do with your moment to moment experience. Whether you
experience pain or pulsating bliss, you can trace the roots of your
experience to the current state of your psoas. Your Psoas is your
“hidden treasure” .
Most yoga teachers get giddy when talking about the psoas. In Pathways to a Centered Body Donna worked with Sonya Rooney to get the best illustrations to date for you to depict the pattern of your inner body.
I rap with Donna Farhi about Unwinding into Deep Core Strength and Back Bone Integrity
- Donna + Leila’s 6 step Protocol to healing back pain
- WHat body part Donna calls the Industrial Strength Columns
- How our western language keeps us trapped in an unempowered physical experience
- What Yoga Sutras 46-48 have to do with advancing your core experience
- How do tap into the physical intelligence of your enteric nervous system
What you’ll get out of tuning in:
- What is going on beneath your skin from the long term impact of trauma
- Understand the connection between your nervous system and your spina
- Get
how your psoas and diaphragm determine eachother’s
reality
Links:
Other treasures by Donna Farhi:
- The Breathing Book
- Yoga, Mind, Body & Spirit: A Return to Wholeness
- Bringing Yoga to Life: The Everyday Practice of Enlightened Living Teaching Yoga: Exploring the Teacher-Student Relationship
BIO:
Donna Farhi has been practicing Yoga for forty years and teaching since 1982. She is one of the most sought-after guest teachers in the world leading intensives and teacher training programs internationally. Donna is the author of four contemporary classics: The Breathing Book, Yoga Mind, Body & Spirit: A Return to Wholeness and Bringing Yoga to Life: The Everyday Practice of Enlightened Living. Her fourth book Teaching Yoga: Exploring the Teacher-Student Relationship is a curricular text for teaching trainings worldwide. She has been profiled in four separate publications on exceptional contemporary teachers of our time, including Yogini: The Power of Women in Yoga. Her fifth book, co-authored with Leila Stuart, Pathways to a Centered Body: Gentle Yoga Therapy for Core Stability, Healing Back Pain and Moving with Ease, will be released in May, 2017. American born, Donna now resides in Christchurch, New Zealand on a 30-acre farm with her partne r and her horses Santosha and Pavana.
Favorite Quotes
- “We want the best teachers to have the best impact.”
- “Americans say “He has a good head on his shoulders. In Japan they say, “His Hara is rising.”
- “Focus the mind on what is unchanging.”
- “Develop a high standard for comfort.”
People used to come to class with
complaints such as neck tension, lower back pain, and stress that
were the result of overall body stiffness and immobility. Gentle
alignment-based yoga was an incredibly effective tool for healing
these issues. Two decades later, Donna is seeing an alarming trend
of Yoga practitioners attending her intensives with chronic and
acute conditions and injuries that are the result of hypermobility
rather than stiffness. It would seem the tables have turned. When
did yoga change from being a healing modality to a harming
modality? How can we reaffirm and restore the central values of
yoga as a relevant, practical and healing art and
science?
The writing of my new book, coauthored with Leila Stuart, "Pathways to a Centered Body: Gentle Yoga Therapy for Core Stability, Healing Back Pain, and Moving with Ease", was motivated by a desire to share ways of preventing and resolving injuries and developing the kind of core strength that builds sustainable practice.
Core fitness has become a catch-phrase, even in Yoga circles. What do we really mean when we talk about core? Why is it important to balance, release and lengthen the deep core muscles before beginning strengthening work?
Apart from the obvious physical benefits, what are some of the other benefits of focusing on centering, strength and stability in Yoga practice?
How are teachers contributing to the problem of competitiveness in Yoga and what are some of the ways we can encourage people to work within healthy constraints?
The myth "no pain, no gain" has now become deeply embedded in the worldwide yoga psyche. Why is this misguided?
Back pain is a huge problem in the general population, so it's not surprising that a large percentage of people coming to yoga class have preexisting back problems. How can focusing on core balance help resolve many of these problems?