Bryan Kest Workshop

I recently had the opportunity to attend a workshop with Bryan Kest at Power Yoga Works in Philadelphia on April 17. It was a great experience for me. It was considered a teacher training workshop so there were plenty of teachers there, which was nice. I took notes, and much of it is direct quotes from Bryan, so I'm going to basically share those here in this entry:

People come to yoga to strengthen the mentality that they need to change something about themselves to be better - which is, since birth, what we are taught through society, commercials, parents, etc. What we should be working on is in our mind.

Bryan shared his habit of picking his nose. He said that he notices he is doing it and so stops. Soon enough though he is back to his digging, which he realizes after he is already doing it. Where was he during those few moments in between? We spend most of our lives in that in between state. In yoga our goal, or foundation, is awareness.

Meditate on how many things you are grateful for every day. Then that is more on your mind on a regular basis. Instead of walking around pissed, complaining...

Abundance attracts abundance!

Shift yoga away from the physical. The way you will look from the physical practice is a byproduct. The way you think we should look is all programs. Be careful not to reinforce this way of thinking when you practice yoga.

If you're not trying to figure something out, you're mind should be silent. I'm stepping away and letting it come through. And not thinking about anything.

Your body speaks to you in the most succinct language on the planet. It's called sensation. We need to work with what we're feeling and not try to get somewhere. Lots of people do this when they exercise - no matter how they feel, the keep going.

The best way to be a yoga teacher is how you live your life. Because people don't listen anyway, they just watch. Doesn't matter what you say, it's how you live.

If you want your children to be happy, you have to be happy yourself.

When done with a certain quality of mind, everything is yoga.

Can't do yoga; Be yoga. Practice cultivating that state of mind. Are you paying attention to the process?

It's not the yoga that's good for you, it's the quality of how you do it. Be gentle!

Sometimes it doesn't feel good, but it feels right, it feels sweet and necessary. Doesn't always have to be comfortable. Our yoga practice could be compared to a massage - we are giving ourselves a massage.

There's no light at the end of a pose because there's no end to any pose.

The poses are just creative ways to touch the many areas in the body. And keep them well.

Be gentle in your poses; everybody's "gentle" is different. So, there's no such thing as gentle. The only way you can be gentle is to listen to the experience. When we start listening, our mind becomes silent. The human brain can only really focus on one thing at a time. But our society values multi-tasking. The only way to relax is to quiet down your mind. When the mind is quiet you leave the old habit patterns of the mind, judgement, etc. We're killing the old mind. We create the mind of our choosing, instead of the one of our parents, coach, siblings, boss, coworkers...

He told us that the class will be "brutally hard" because our lives are hard. How will we be prepared without practices? We learn how to put our knees on the floor and rest, or say "Fuck you, Bryan, I'm not doing it." No competition in class or life.

How the teacher teaches is how she feels at that moment.

Hear the instructor but listen to your inner teacher.