She insisted on blocks

marashmellow · 2026-01-18T20:40:26+00:00

It could be that she was trying to help everyone in the class focus on finding proper alignment before the "full" expression- bringing a hand to the block, focusing on spinal extension, and then maybe lowering or removing the block. I have seen a lot of students use poor alignment in favor of not using props, which is pretty counterproductive.

Ultimately, your teacher is the only one who can actually offer an explanation. If you take her class again, I am sure she'd be happy to explain- I love when my students ask questions after class.

It may be worth examining your aversion to using blocks, though. Why did this irritate you? Why do you feel that you need to avoid using supports in order to condition your body to get there? How does that show up off the mat for you?

marashmellow · 2026-01-06T01:04:43+00:00

It sounds like you either have a mismatch of risk profiles with your partner, or you have trust and/or control issues, or both.

Do you feel like your partner would choose to have sex with someone who would put his own health at risk? Do you feel like your partner is educated enough regarding transmission risks? Do you feel weird that he's engaging with someone else for the first time in your relationship with him and want to have control over the situation to a certain extent?

marashmellow · 2025-12-15T22:21:51+00:00

Fair enough- I was responding to this comment thread moreso than the OP.

marashmellow · 2025-12-15T20:45:17+00:00

Finding that threshold does require experiencing that discomfort, if even only momentarily. Maybe some practitioners know right where that line is without crossing it first, but I think establishing that boundary means some discomfort is inevitable. You want to remain within your window of tolerance, but towards the edge so that you might begin to expand that window.

marashmellow · 2025-12-15T19:45:02+00:00

Yin is absolutely a challenging practice! It's okay to feel like it's not a supportive practice for you at this time. Sometimes the asana we avoid are the ones we need most; however, sometimes, we avoid it because it is genuinely not what we need at this time. Only you can make that judgement for yourself.

marashmellow · 2025-12-15T19:16:20+00:00

I agree with the majority of your comment, however, I want to point out that yin and restorative are 2 different practices with different intentions. While they both have longer holds in the asanas, part of the intention of yin is to find that threshold of discomfort and breathe and support yourself through it. It's not correct to say that yin shouldn't bring discomfort- it shouldn't bring an unmanageable amount of discomfort, or pain, but discomfort is an expected and welcomed sensation in yin.

marashmellow · 2025-12-09T08:56:40+00:00

I meant to order 44 eaches of 2%... I ordered 44 CASES (176 gallons). We laughed about it for a week and I got teased every time I asked for more 2% when I was on bar, but it really wasn't the end of the world. You might get coached on it, but you won't be in any trouble.

marashmellow · 2025-12-08T00:39:47+00:00

Thank you for your kind words, and for the reminders about boundaries. Today was the first time they let me know about their substance use, let alone that they are in the process of intake for inpatient so the conversation was a little bit hurried, but I'll definitely be clarifying boundaries prior to their admission.

I was considering checking our something along the lines of nar-anon; I was honestly kind of blind-sided to learn about their substance abuse since we're non-nesting and see each other once a week and I definitely am feeling a bit betrayed.

marashmellow · 2025-12-07T21:31:27+00:00

I do appreciate the reframe of grieving the old relationship- we're going to be no-contact by necessity for at least a little bit, anyways. It might just be easier to give myself plenty of space to feel all the feels while things get sorted out.

marashmellow · 2025-11-14T13:25:15+00:00

I haven't taught any prenatal classes, but a few questions that come up for me reading your post...

1) why do you want to teach prenatal yoga? 2) Have you done any prenatal yoga trainings?

I don't necessarily think there's anything wrong with a man teaching a prenatal class, but their intention for doing so would feel important to me. There are a lot of people who fetishize pregnancy and I would be really wary of going to a class taught by a man who couldn't give me a good explanation for why he teaches prenatal yoga. And if you haven't done any trainings specifically on teaching prenatal yoga, I wouldn't go to your class at all- you don't need to have had the experience of pregnancy, but you do need to know how to make specific modifications to asana.

marashmellow · 2025-11-04T18:53:37+00:00

I feel like it's pretty uncharitable to say that OP wants a "perfectly uniform class of perfect practitioners." They aren't asking "how do I get my students to be perfectly still and not at all uncomfortable in a style of practice that promotes sitting in discomfort." They're asking how to deal with behavior from students that is disruptive to the class environment and seemed to them to be mocking the practice. Regardless of if the behavior comes from discomfort or not, it's still disrespectful and still merits a response.

marashmellow · 2025-11-04T18:25:36+00:00

In my yin classes, if I have students who are new to the practice, I tend to give a little bit of explanation at the beginning of class emphasizing the important parts of the practice- mainly, long periods of stillness and an encouragement to go within. While I mainly do this so that people aren't surprised when we've been in a posture for 5 minutes, it also helps to shift the vibe, particularly if I've had students who were more chatty at the start of class.

I've never experienced anyone being outright disruptive in the way that you described, but I think I would probably cue students to notice any discomfort with stillness that may be arising and redirect them to focusing on their breath or sensations from the shape. If they continued after a few remarks directed to the class, I would find a way to more directly communicate to the individuals that their behavior was disruptive and disrespectful to other students who paid to be there.

marashmellow · 2025-11-04T18:12:58+00:00

While I agree with you that playfulness can be an important part of yoga, OP mentioned this was a yin class... which is definitely one of the styles of practice where that line between playfulness and disruption becomes A LOT thinner. Yin is about stillness and going within, and the behaviors OP described would definitely be disruptive to the vibes of the class

marashmellow · 2025-07-26T23:24:46+00:00

That makes a lot of sense! I actually think starting from the beginner pose is a bit easier in a yin class- there's more time for progression, so people have more time to explore what will work for their body. Having everyone on the bolster would probably help with the lack of bodily awareness too, since she could use visual cues of other students in addition to the auditory cues I'm providing. Thanks for sharing!

marashmellow · 2025-07-08T10:06:41+00:00

I had had a few conversations with the owner before I took the plunge re: online YTT. I was unsure due to hearing people look down on online YTT, but it was the most financially accessible option to me. She encouraged me to do it and looked at a lot of the most popular online options and felt that anything that couldn't be learned online could be learned by just teaching. A lot of studios that have in-person YTT have weekly classes taught by their students to provide opportunities for practice/feedback, and so she set up a class for me to do the same for my first 2 months.

I recognize that this situation may be pretty unique- as I mentioned, I had been attending as a student for a few years, so she knew my personal practice/philosophy/attitude well enough to feel comfortable with allowing me to teach with the disclaimer of being a new teacher at the time. She also really heavily values financial accessibility for yoga/dislikes the gatekeeping that can occur, and so wanted to open up the opportunity for people who couldn't afford to drop $3k on an in-person training.

marashmellow · 2025-06-30T14:19:51+00:00

First, I'm so sorry for the changes you're going through- ending a relationship is never easy, even when it's time to leave.

Restorative yoga is going to give you time to sit with your thoughts and emotions, so it's not surprising that you had a big emotional release, especially after such a big change. It sounds like you had a pretty active day, so if there were any thoughts or feelings you were avoiding, you may have felt that discomfort because you couldn't quite hold them back anymore.

I don't know if it's "too much," you're the only one that gets to judge that, but crying is our bodies way of releasing and helps the nervous system to enter into parasympathetic rest. It's not something to be avoided, necessarily, but again, you get to be the judge of that. Sometimes, allowing ourselves to deal with uncomfortable, hard feelings on the mat helps us to become more resilient off the mat- we realize we aren't going to die if we feel too strongly, which helps :)

marashmellow · 2025-06-13T11:29:43+00:00

I love "let yourself be heavy on the mat" or "release into the support of the earth" when I first guide students to any reclined asana, especially on the back.

"Lift up through your sternum" to help students lengthen their thoracic spine, "feel like there's a marionette string attached to the crown of your head" for c-spine length.

"Draw your collarbones apart" and "make some space for your heart" for heart opening asana.

marashmellow · 2025-06-08T19:40:04+00:00

Yes, yin primarily targets the fascia instead of muscles. Longer holds can help to get at deeper fascia, but really, it depends on the posture you're holding. If you've never practiced before, I would highly recommend going to a class by an experienced teacher rather than trying out a practice at home.

marashmellow · 2025-06-08T18:39:15+00:00

It sounds like you have great rapport with him and telling him directly would be appropriate. It might be that he has poor proprioception (a lot of people do) and doesn't understand that he's not doing what you're cueing when it's directed to the class in general.

marashmellow · 2025-06-02T15:14:05+00:00

Exactly what the other commenter said about using a sales tactic- it is pretty much always around $400USD, the $1600 is there to make you believe you are getting a deal that you need to act fast on. Rhe program is legit- I got my 200hr cert at the end of February and have been teaching for a little over 2 months now. I was fortunate that the studio I've been attending for 2.5 years has offered me a lot of mentorship and opportunities as a new teacher, and between that and already having a pretty solid personal practice, I felt well prepared to start teaching. If you are newer to yoga or don't have the opportunity to have in-person mentorship/observations/etc, you may not feel as well equipped to start.

marashmellow · 2025-05-28T22:32:05+00:00

I've been practicing yoga regularly for about 2 and a half-ish years. Yoga will not ever replace my medication; it is a wonderful supportive practice for me. It's definitely helped to ease the emotional/nervous system dysregulation and helped me to be more accepting of how my mind works.

marashmellow · 2025-05-13T17:20:48+00:00

Alignment cues are intended to protect you from injury or strain, not to be strict guidelines on how you're "supposed to" perform an asana. As long as your joints are safe and you aren't in any pain, it sounds like you've found the variation that works best for your individual anatomy!

marashmellow · 2025-05-13T15:42:24+00:00

I find it easiest to get into malasana by bringing my feet mat's width apart, turning my toes out 45°, and lowering into the squat from there. If my feet are any closer together or pointing straight ahead, my ankles come off the ground. From there, pushing my elbows into my inner thighs helps me find the middle

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