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Elisabeth Sike - Yoga Instructor |
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| Impressed
by the power and beauty of yoga, Elisabeth became a student at IYISF,
which teaches the Iyengar method of precise body alignment and mental
focus during asana (posture). |
- Elisabeth Sikie: Yoga Instructor Plesae share your stories in our discussion forums!
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Take yoga outdoors and feel the power of the Earth while you empower your body. Yoga in nature is a phenomenal exploration of our body and mind in relation to the Earth. Explore
your body's innate regenerative power as a reflection of nature.
Dates will be announced soon for 2004! |
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| Inspirations |
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| After healing from back trauma caused by a car accident, as well as spending several years recovering from chronic fatigue, my perception of injury and illness has changed. I have come to understand that injury and illness can be powerful allies leading us to deeper levels of knowledge and strength. Injuries are a wake up call that the communication between our mind and our body needs fine-tuning. They are not something to be embarrassed by or hate. They are not your enemy to be conquered by sheer willpower. They are your allies, ready to teach you something important about yourself. Physical disabilities are frightening to us because they involve pain, and because they cause us to lose mobility. We can’t go on with our lives in the same way we did before we became hurt. This loss of control is terrifying mentally and makes us vulnerable physically. But through yoga, we learn to release fear of our body’s limitations when we observe and respect the physical signals it sends. When we do so we can make the right moves, hold it or come out, stretch it or let it rest, based on our body’s innate knowledge of its present boundaries and needs. When
we do get an injury, our body is telling us to slow down so that
it can regenerate itself. This may temporarily mean ceasing an activity
that we have a strong attachment to continuing, like working or
team sports. It is also likely a signal that something being done
during that activity is causing stress to us, and attention is needed
now in order to prevent further damage. I remember being furious at that him. It was bad enough that he couldn’t cure me, but he didn’t even believe I was sick! That moment set me on a path toward my physical healing that I consider one of the greatest gifts of my life. I learned that my illness was my ally and the perfect teacher for what I needed to know at the time. Because there is no medical quick-fix for chronic fatigue, I was forced to make deep, necessary changes to all aspects of myself, mental as well as physical, in order to heal. Because of its acute and constant physical oppression, my illness kept me mindful and present in my body. It wouldn’t let me forget that I had to pay attention to everything I ate and drank, how much I worked, slept and played. Eventually, I saw how my illness was, in many ways, a result of habits that had produced chronic effects. Many of these I was unaware of until I got sick. Other things I just wasn’t willing to change until my body finally insisted. Subsequently, my mindfulness expanded to other areas of my life, like career and relationship choices that were no longer good for me. It also brought me back to yoga where I developed strength, flexibility and increased energy levels. I have literally transformed into a much stronger, healthier and happier person than I was at 28. Today, at 41, I teach eight yoga classes a week and hold two part-time jobs while I finish graduate school. I rarely get sick, but I did injure myself while teaching last year. My lower back went into a paralyzing spasm that defied my mind’s disbelief that me, a yoga instructor, could be completely immobilized. I had to stop my life, miss work and spend three days in bed lying on ice. As I watched bad television, I wondered what this injury was teaching me. I suddenly remembered standing in Triangle pose, instructing the class on how to take the pose safely, and then completely disregarding my own instructions. I came up totally wrong and my back let me know it. I have since changed my teaching habits so that I remember to be mindful of my body doing the poses that my mind and mouth are talking about. |
Yoga:
The Iyengar Way Yoga: Yoga: A Gem For Women
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| Why I Live with Yoga | |
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Yoga healed me each time because it is a tried and true, ancient system that works to tone inner and outer body, from bones to muscles to chemical systems. You don’t even have to “believe in it.” You just gotta do it. Even doing it some of the time will produce astounding results. Most importantly, I have found that Yoga brings the mind into a right relationship with the body. As western people, we come to our bodies with a powerful bias. We inherently believe that our mind is supreme and has dominion over the body. While the mind is truly our evolutionary specialty, much as wolf and Dog have superior olfactory capabilities, our relationship to our mental abilities is distorted. We think that thinking is the only way to understand something, but the body has its own intelligence. The body learns through moving, through touch, which creates cellular memory. During Yoga practice, we do not force mental images of where we “should be” onto our bodies. Such images turn out to be reflections of arbitrary judgments based on external feedback, rather than information originating from our actual experience. Through yoga, we learn to let our mind observe our physical intelligence. The wondrous thing is that our bodies change quickly when we let them. They can balance, they can strengthen, and they can heal. In fact, as a yoga instructor, I have found that the body changes faster than the mind. This I find fascinating and incredibly hopeful because if our bodies can change, if we do something we never thought we could do, like touch our toes, or get onto our heads or hold downward dog, then we have a glimpse at our potential. We can embody the hope of regeneration, which is our birthright. Right down to our cells. Above is the classic picture of Mr. Iyengar doing headstand at the edge of the Grand Canyon. All is possible! Namaste, Elisabeth
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Elisabeth
Sikie is a Iyengar-trained yoga practitioner and instructor. She
currently teaches seven classes a week in the Oakland area to a
diverse clientele. 
Yoga
is excellent for pregnant women and can be done throughout pregnancy
in varying degrees. Yoga oxygenates the groin and sacrum, regulates
hormones and uses focused breath to stay present in the body, and
to calm an agitated mind. I have been told by mothers that a prenatal
yoga practice helps make delivery easier and safer.
I
have lived with Yoga for about fifteen years. My relationship with
it has ranged from an intense, consistent practice to a period of
several years when I did not practice at all. I first came to Yoga
in college when my stress was so debilitating that my menstrual
cycle stopped. I went back to it after a near fatal car accident
that left my back traumatized. Even after physical therapy and acupuncture,
my back really only completely healed after I resumed my practice.
| All material Copyright © 2001-2004 Elisabeth Sikie and BlueDog Services except where noted. |