Tonia Weakland-Wilhelm
City College San Francisco
Advanced Yoga
Final Paper
My Yoga Journey
Spring 2011
05-18-2011
Hi Suvani,
Thank you for another wonderfully enlightening semester of Yoga. This semester I have taken my Yoga practice to higher levels. I feel stronger in mind, body, and spirit. Although I did not spend as much time in your class as I would have liked, I did deepen both my physical and spiritual practices. I can now hold poses that were less accessible not long ago. I have a broader understanding of therapeutic aspects of poses and apply those concepts when I work with my clients, teaching Yoga. Also I have been attending events at local ashrams. I want to become more involved with the local Yoga community. I continuously strive to overcome the obstacles which hinder my Yoga practice and that hold me back from creating what it is I want in life. Yoga, for me is becoming my way of life.
I really enjoy my Yoga classes at City College, especially your class. I took my first ever Yoga class at City in 1998. After several years of practice, I took my first Yoga Teacher training at Mount Madonna Center in Watsonville California during the summer of 2005. There I discovered the spiritual practice which began fill the void I had for many years been looking for. I came back to City College in 2010 because I thought it would be a convenient and affordable way to keep up a Hatha Yoga practice of my own. I did not expect to get all of the spiritual aspects from a community college class. I was pleasantly surprised to find you. I really got a lot out of the class last semester, so I felt like the class was worth repeating.
This semester, as always, I had a lot going on. I think I could have managed my time better. Time management has been an ongoing struggle for me. I juggle so much. I am a single mother, running my own business, while working on my Bachelors Degree in Health and Wellness. I find myself up late, just trying to take care of as many of the day’s responsibilities as I can, and then, exhausted, I go to bed around midnight. Then I find it difficult to get up early and start all over. Yoga helps me to do something good for me, set an example for my clients, and grow many aspects of myself. Yoga is what makes the chaos of my life manageable. It is everything else that gets in the way of my practice and which dedicates me to my practice at the same time. I am always looking for ways to become more involved, but often find time and money as primary obstacles. Perhaps if I made a conscious effort to get up really early, meditate, and take care of the things that require quiet and concentration early, maybe I could break the cycle. I’ll give it a try.
Thanks in part to you and your lectures about Navaratri last fall, I have increased my interest in participating in Yogic holidays and rituals. Earlier this semester, I attended a Shivaratri event at Brahma Kumaris center in San Francisco. It was a beautiful place with lovely people and delicious food. They gave a great presentation that discussed what Navaratri represented. They discussed who Lord Shiva is and how He is represented by a single point of light. They also tied it into an acknowledgement and validation of all spiritual faiths. There was also a beautiful performance by some Kathack dancers from the Chhandam dance school. They seem like a good organization, giving back to people by working with children from poor families in India. Actually, they reach out in particular to daughters of prostitutes, to show them there is a better way. After the dance performance we meditated a while, then there was a darshan ceremony which I found out was an offering and an asking for longevity. The evening was completed with a very good meal. Brahma Kumaris has workshops going on all the time. I hope to make it to some of them soon. I am especially interested in attending the Monday night workshops and the monthly Circle of Wise Women. The Women’s circle should be accessible, for it is held on Saturdays, once a month. I may try going to the Monday evening workshops during the summer while my kids are not in school. Maybe I could bring my kids or my boyfriend, but I’m afraid my daughter or my boyfriend may be resistant. My thirteen year old daughter is a typical teenager. A psychic once told me to get her into Kathak dance to get her more grounded. My boyfriend is actively trying to turn his life around, but needs to find his own path toward enlightenment. My son, although he is only four years old, loves Yoga and is generally very well behaved. I can take him with me because he still has an open mind.
Just last week I was researching for a class I am taking. I looked up the Integral Yoga Institute because I am researching to write a thesis on Integral Health. To my delight, I found out that they are located only one block from the elementary school my son is going to be attending in the fall. They had a specially Full Moon Bhakti event going on Tuesday night, so I went. I brought my son with me too. It is a beautiful victorian house on Dolores Street in San Francisco. Everyone there was really nice. My son did quite well, listening to us grown ups chanting and counting our Rudraksha beads. While the rest of us were chanting the Gayatri Mantra, my son practiced plank pose and downward dog. He was very quiet and respectful. He really liked it there at the Yoga house as he called it. My intention is to begin spending time there in the fall, while my son is at school. I have wanted to become more involved with a Yoga community, so I will need to get to know the people of course, but I think it could be a good fit. They offer a work trade for classes, so I could offer my time in service and take hatha classes. I could help prepare the post meditation lunches and learn more about healthy ayurvedic cooking. They have a lot of teacher training available there too, including therapeutics. I want to gain as much knowledge as I can on Yoga Therapeutics because my primary career practice is working privately with clients, many of whom have limitations of mobility or injuries they are rehabilitating. My long term goal is to be an Occupational Therapist who practices in an integral way, using the philosophy and techniques I adapt from complimentary and alternative medicine, which I already practice and the allopathic approach which I am a student of as well.
My physical body and physical practice has grown stronger this semester. I especially see the growth in my inversions practice. I used to not like to do certain inversions at all, because they hurt my neck or low back. That changed a couple of years ago when I took a class with Judith Lasater on Yoga and Kinesiology. I learned how to do headstands and shoulder-stands properly in that class. I found new benefit in the poses, but they still did not become a regular part of my practice. Last semester, in your class, I found new joy in my inversion practice. I became determined to make them an integral part of my practice. I began practicing more dolphin poses and forearm planks. I started practicing more headstands, handstands, and shoulder-stands on my own. This semester I have noticed I have more strength and balances than ever before. I can hold a headstand for at least ten deep breaths, can come down with complete control, and have no neck discomfort when I’m done. I have even begun to teach these inversions to some of my clients, which I never did before. Many of my clients are not ready to do such challenging poses, but I have learned a lot about modifications in this class as well, which I share with my students. Inversions have become a regular part of my own practice and today I push myself a little harder when I’m on the mat in general. I try to take each pose to a more challenging level. When I practice half moon pose, I strive to balance while taking my hand to my foot and I can now take bound angel pose, which I have not been able to do since before I had my son five years ago. Actually, I woke up with a bad kink in my shoulder one morning recently. It bothered me for a couple of days. In practice I felt like if I took bound angel it just might help. I took the bind and I felt my shoulder POP back into place. It feels so much better now!
Because of Yoga, I live my life with more awareness. I am increasingly able to control my mind and focus, by using my breath and meditation. It used to be a bit of a struggle, to make time to meditate. Today I meditate whenever I want or need to. I call upon my breath anywhere, anytime. I am also teaching more pranayam, meditation, and more chakra work. Meditation, pranayam, and working with the chakras in class has been an inspiration for me and my spiritual practice. I have made the commitment to take my spiritual practice and career to the next level, by initiating my Reiki Master training. I have learned about the chakras from the perspective of Reiki and from a Yogic perspective. It is my intention to pull them together, to perform healing treatments using compassionate touch, bija mantras, color, breath, and meditation. When I teach Reiki, I intend to teach all of these aspects in my Reiki and Yoga classes.
Thank you Suvani for all of the wisdom you have shared. Thank you for the joy and laughter you spread. I hope to continue to learn from you and I would recommend your class to anyone.
namaste,
Tonia
References
Integral Yoga Institute, http://www.integralyogasf.org/contact.php
Brahma Kumaris, http://www.bkwsu.org/whatwedo/meditation/meditationexp.htm
City College San Francisco, http://www.ccsf.edu/NEW/
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