A beautiful, thirty-four year young plus size woman (mother, military wife) walked into my studio for our Monday evening plus size class. She said she was having a hard time finding a Yoga Class doable for her body, but someone she talked to at our center on the phone assured her she would love my class. She was forty-five minutes early – so eager to be here! I gave her a free session in our healing bio mat room, then woke her up for class about thirty minutes later.
We welcomed her into our dimly lit room with soft carpet, lights, and music. One of my long time students graciously helped prepare her space – four layers of thick blankets, the perfect bolster and pillow for under her head and knees, blocks, and a strap near for help with the body and poses. She was set up in a spot where she wouldn't feel like she stuck out in the middle of the room, but where she could see me lying down without lifting her head.
I began the class as I usually do, laying on the floor with just the right amount of height under our knees to release tension from the back; just the right pillow under the head to gently drop the chin. We started with relaxation techniques, then poses to release tension away from the spine, the hips, the leg muscles, and the internal organs. We moved slowly up to fifteen final minutes of simple but powerful standing poses, with more feminine dance-like movements than male-warrior energy. The students were now having fun moving the body they just relaxed, not feeling intimidated or frustrated because there was something they could not do, or because something was held too long. Everyone was having a great time, and I could tell she was happy to be at my class.
After class, she spent a long time telling me about her yoga experiences; that when she was younger and thinner she had done yoga and loved it, but since then she had become a mother and gained weight. She waited nine years to try yoga again, because she thought that she had to be thin to do it. Her husband finally talked her into searching the internet and finding a beginners class and just going – just do it and getting started. So she did. She got overwhelmed as she searched because there were over 200 studios listed in San Diego County, yet she couldn't find any gentle, beginners or plus-size near her home.
So she decided to try the Yoga Center that offered a “Very Gentle Beginners” class. She couldn’t stop talking about the class, and how intimidated she had been in it, because the teacher kept telling everyone to keep their eyes closed, but she didn't know the names of the poses they were doing or how to do them, so she would peek to see how to do Child’s Pose or Down Dog, only to be told to close her eyes again. Poses were named, but not described.
It had been so long since attending yoga that she couldn’t remember names of the poses or how to do them, and her body didn’t move or operate like it used to before childbirth. She was on a cold wooden floor, trying her very hardest to keep up with the rest of the class, but she knew intuitively that her body could not and should not do some of the poses. She said she left the class and the yoga center feeling angry, sore and humiliated, thinking she would not be ready for re-entry into the yoga world until she lost weight. Of course she blamed all this on herself. But her dear sweet husband told her to try again. So she searched again, and found reviews about us online, reviews with larger women saying they felt at home here. So she showed up at my door, had a great experience, and learned that she would easily fit into 75% of the classes at A Gentle Way.
This is why I teach yoga. This is why I’ve hung in there for over 14 years, over 12,000 classes, always having specific yoga classes for the plus-size populations. I am a plus size woman. A plus size teacher. I have over 22,000 hours of experience teaching the populations that would never feel comfortable in a “traditional” class – students that should not yet – or maybe ever, be doing Sun Salutations, lunges, triangles, headstands or shoulder stands, but they still can practice yoga - life-changing body mind, breath spirit yoga if they have the right teacher, and find the right class.
This is why I work so hard to keep my Center open each year, and to train Certified Yoga Teachers how to safely and effectively work with the larger, neglected, and health-challenged bodies. This is why I encourage larger bodies to take Modified Yoga Teacher Training, so that they can go out and teach students like mine who want to take care of themselves, and just need the right teacher to get them started on this amazing yoga journey.
This is why I have more work than I can handle, because even though (finally) teachers like me are beginning to make their work known and voice heard, there is still a huge need to increase the number of gentle yoga teachers and classes around the world.
Thank you for the courage it took to walk not only into your first Yoga Center after all these years, but the courage to try again and come to A Gentle Way. I remember being you back in 1994. You are my hero.
Lanita Varshell is the owner of A Gentle Way Yoga & Joyful Movement Center in San Diego (La Mesa) California, and is the founder of “Meditation in Movement Style ® Gentle Yoga. She has been interviewed in several magazines about her plus-size journey through yoga, including Yoga Journal, and Bella online. She has produced a Gentle Yoga class CD, is working on her first books and DVD’s, and leads yearly Gentle Yoga Retreats in California and Montana. She trains students and certified yoga teachers in her Gentle Yoga, Restorative, and Adaptive Yoga methods.
www.agentleway.com
