According to Carmen, aerial yoga, and her proprietary\u00a0AIReal Yoga<\/a>\u2122, is really all about the use of props. Aerial hammocks are a great way to introduce the use of props as necessity to practice, because, to be blunt, they\u2019re less insulting to the ego. \u201cPeople don\u2019t think of it like a prop,\u201d says Carmen. It\u2019s a visually-appealing \u201ccool\u201d way to do yoga. But a hammock, she says, is doing the same thing as a strap or bolster. \u201cIt\u2019s supporting you, and then it gives you space so you can do it safely or correctly,\u201d says Carmen.<\/p>\n Take for example Warrior III, an intermediate balancing pose. Many practitioners, at all levels, compromise the integrity of the pose in an effort to hold their balance, compromising stabilization of the pelvis or hyperextending the standing leg. \u201cLongterm, if you continue to do this, this is very dangerous for the body,\u201d says Carmen. The pelvis is meant to be even\u2014the hips squared\u2014in this posture, but this is difficult to hold while lifting one leg.<\/p>\n \u201cIt’s not even always the ego,\u201d says Carmen, \u201cit’s just sometimes the posture is forcing us to cheat a little bit. If you hold the hammock, then you’re not worried so much about the balance, and you can put your body in the correct place. Your muscles can memorize it, learn to balance in that way.\u201d When you then practice without the hammock, you can build into the shape more safely, she says.<\/p>\n Master teachers like Carmen are not immune to the tropes of the ego. When she first started practicing in her late teens, she started with power yoga, then Kundalini<\/a>, and into Hatha and Vinyasa. She remembers feeling as if she \u201cwasn\u2019t good enough\u201d or \u201cflexible enough\u201d when given a block. \u201cThe ego set in like, \u2018Damn right, I\u2019m good enough! I\u2019m just going to get myself there,\u2019\u201d she recalls.<\/p>\n Rather than working toward the posture safely, she\u2019d compromise her body to achieve a picture-perfect version of the pose. In Dancer\u2019s Pose, for example, she\u2019d turn out her hip in order to get her foot up higher. \u201cI wasn\u2019t thinking that turning my hip out would actually lead to muscles memorizing that, and later having lower back pain, hip pain, and sciatica pain. It could also cause degeneration as its compressing the spine.\u201d<\/p>\n This is why Carmen and other teachers are starting to change the way they communicate when teaching. \u201cAs a teacher trainer,\u201d she says, \u201cI\u2019m trying to teach teachers to teach differently, to teach that the posture is done with a\u00a0prop, that is good to use props, using a prop does not take away it enhances and makes the postures accessible and safe. The most important thing is to be in the safe correct alignment.\u201d<\/p>\n I\u2019m trying to teach teachers to teach differently. The most important thing is to be in the safe correct alignment.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n This doesn\u2019t mean, of course, that a student will always be using a prop in a particular posture. \u201cAs you progress, you can continue progress,\u201d says Carmen, \u201cbut only if you stay in the safe, correct place. And the safe, correct place is what\u2019s safe long term for your body. If you\u2019re going to do this with repetition long term, then you need to have safe alignment.\u201d<\/p>\n But an aerial rig, of course, isn\u2019t the only prop to consider. \u201cFor so many postures,\u201d says Carmen, \u201cI would say I see like 75 percent of my clients can’t do it safely\u00a0without a\u00a0prop, like a block, blanket or strap.\u201d<\/p>\n The advent of social media, with its tendency to reward bikini-clad contortionists with thousands of likes and followers, has certainly played a role in exacerbating unsafe yoga practice. Yet neither Instagram nor the ego of individual yogis is 100 percent to blame for the reluctance to use\u2014or the inability to teach with\u2014props.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I started almost 25 years ago doing yoga, starting to take trainings, there weren\u2019t\u00a0props available to me in class,\u201d says Carmen. \u201cThe industry wasn\u2019t that big. It wasn\u2019t like you could go online and find 25 different companies that sell bolsters.\u201d So teachers, and students, did what they could with what they have. In this way, for many people, introducing props can feel like going backward\u2014even if it is actually moving the practice forward.<\/p>\n B.K.S. Iyengar, who studied in Mysore with Krishnamacarya and wrote the seminal Light on Yoga<\/em><\/a>, broke with his Ashtanga roots and introduced the use of props in the 1960s. \u201cHe knew that people needed props in order to do them safely and correctly,\u201d says Carmen, \u201cthat every body is different, and that it doesn\u2019t matter if you can do the posture or not\u2014it really is about that journey and that process.\u201d<\/p>\n So what can we do to avoid unsafe practice? First, says Carmen, it\u2019s important to approach yoga with the unobvious idea that being super flexible is actually a detriment. In order for the hyperflexible to do yoga safely, they need to pull out of poses\u2014which is actually more work for their bodies than if they weren\u2019t so bendy.<\/p>\n Another thing to look out for is hypermobility. \u201cI\u2019m going to have to cue [a hypermobile person] constantly, because their lazy state is when they hyperextend,\u201d says Carmen. Unlike a less mobile person, whose bodies would warn them when they overexert, hyperextension won\u2019t register as pain for they hypermobile. The other thing Carmen warns about is to watch for students who show signs that they need more strength around their ligaments. \u201cYou have to almost take this yoga practice as physical therapy for them to strengthen those ligaments,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n It doesn\u2019t matter if you can do the posture or not\u2014it really is about that journey and that process.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n For teachers, it\u2019s about learning how to speak to your students to assuage the ego. It\u2019s about \u201chaving empathy and compassion for each body and where they\u2019re at, and then talking to the group so we can all understand that,\u201d says Carmen. \u201cThat\u2019s when people start to really realize it doesn\u2019t matter where anyone else is.\u201d<\/p>\n In this way, she says, yoga is the most selfish practice ever. \u201cIt’s all about you and what you need and your own self healing. And every posture that we do is all about you, and it’s a clue. It clues you into you and where you’re at and what you need. It has nothing to do with anyone else, just you. It’s your own clue. And the teacher is telling it to you and leading you through it and getting you in there so you can figure out what you need.\u201d<\/p>\n Practice with Carmen this spring at Wanderlust O\u2019ahu, and at Wanderlust Stratton, Squaw Valley, and Whistler. For tickets and more information, click here.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u2014<\/p>\n Carmen Curtis knows that every body is different, and some may require props to get into certain poses. She’s on a mission to destigmatize using them. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2881,"featured_media":118650,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3188],"tags":[1191,2239,1268,3704],"class_list":["post-118571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ground","tag-aireal-yoga","tag-carmen-curtis","tag-props","tag-safety"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n![\"woman](\"https:\/\/wanderlust.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/45784943671_9a091ff7b1_z.jpg\")
Carmen\u2019s Journey to Release the Ego<\/h3>\n
How We Got Here<\/h3>\n
Tips for Teachers<\/h3>\n
![\"author](\"https:\/\/wanderlust.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/bio.jpg\")
Lisette Cheresson<\/a>\u00a0is currently the Director of Content at Wanderlust Festival. She\u2019s a writer, storyteller, yoga teacher, and filmmaker who is an avid vagabond, dancer, dirt-collector, and dreamer.\u00a0<\/em>She received her Level II Reiki Attunement and attended a 4-day intensive discourse with the Dalai Lama in India, and received her RYT200 in Brooklyn. Catch her teaching\u00a0@dayayogastudio<\/a>, or f<\/span>ind her on Instagram\u00a0@lisetteileen<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"