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Breathe In, Breathe Out
The Art of Yoga By Greg Downs
"We use a three-foot skeleton in our classes," says Paula Kout, director of White Iris Yoga in Evanston, Ill. "We show you what the skeleton looks like, so that people are grounded in the actual reality of their body. This becomes a tool you use ideally all the time. You think, how am I going to get out of the car? How am I going to lift my groceries? What muscles am I going to use?" By focusing on understanding their bodies, yoga practitioners learn to stop measuring themselves in the mirror "by these very bizarre standards of airbrushed bodies," says Kout. As students practice new positions -- and learn their bodies' abilities and limitations -- they develop "more of a friendly than adversarial relationship with their bodies."
Hotep, who has led yoga classes in Chicago for 24 years, says yoga "has reversed my aging process. I'm 46 and I can still do things like when I was 28. I have no aches and pains. I have a lot of energy. On days I do yoga, I can run farther than on days I don't."
"I had a woman who came to me when she was in her 50s," says Kout. "We jokingly called her the Tin Man. Every joint in her body was stiff, and she was filled with fear. Everything we did, she said, 'I can't do that; it hurts.' Like water wearing away a stone, though, she came to class week after week, year after year. Her body began to change, and her clothing fit differently. People began to notice the change. She had a much-improved posture.
