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Feeling too stiff or out of shape to do yoga? Have an injury or chronic condition that you think precludes you from practicing?
“Yoga is for everyone,” said Francesca Genco, a yoga instructor based in Berkeley. “It's not about bending yourself into the shape of a pretzel or looking like the photos in yoga magazines. It's about your relationship with your own body. If you give it a place in your life, yoga will gradually show itself to you, like the opening of a flower.”
This weekend, Genco will offer a workshop, “Yoga in the Tradition of Vanda Scaravelli,” at Wild Mountain Yoga in Nevada City.
Vanda Scaravelli was 47 years old when she began to practice yoga. She continued to practice and teach until she died at 91 in 1999. Her book, “Awakening the Spine,” offers an approach to yoga that centers on learning to listen to the intelligence of the body: “Do not kill the instinct of the body for the glory of the pose. Do not look at your body as a stranger, but adopt a friendly approach towards it. Play with it as children do. ... To be sensitive is to be alive.”
For more than 11 years, Genco has been studying yoga with Diane Long, Scaravelli's primary student.
“Once I began to work with Diane, I knew this was the way I wanted to do yoga. Since then, I haven't studied with any other teachers. However, it is through this practice that I have learned that the body is my greatest teacher,” Genco said.
She recently traveled to Italy, where Long lives, to continue her studies.
“I learn just as much through watching others work with Diane as I do working with her myself,” Genco said.
Genco offers her students the opportunity to take a similar approach. She encourages them to learn through an integration of seeing other students' bodies change while doing yoga and experiencing changes in their own bodies as they work with the postures themselves. The classes center on tuning into the spine and allowing it to become more free and supple.
“This happens by simply letting go of physical habits that restrict movement and inviting the body's intelligence to show us how to move,” says Genco. “This requires patience and time. Through practice and attention, we experience more ease and freedom in our movement — not just in yoga practice, but also in our daily lives.”
“Yoga is for everyone,” said Francesca Genco, a yoga instructor based in Berkeley. “It's not about bending yourself into the shape of a pretzel or looking like the photos in yoga magazines. It's about your relationship with your own body. If you give it a place in your life, yoga will gradually show itself to you, like the opening of a flower.”
This weekend, Genco will offer a workshop, “Yoga in the Tradition of Vanda Scaravelli,” at Wild Mountain Yoga in Nevada City.
Vanda Scaravelli was 47 years old when she began to practice yoga. She continued to practice and teach until she died at 91 in 1999. Her book, “Awakening the Spine,” offers an approach to yoga that centers on learning to listen to the intelligence of the body: “Do not kill the instinct of the body for the glory of the pose. Do not look at your body as a stranger, but adopt a friendly approach towards it. Play with it as children do. ... To be sensitive is to be alive.”
For more than 11 years, Genco has been studying yoga with Diane Long, Scaravelli's primary student.
“Once I began to work with Diane, I knew this was the way I wanted to do yoga. Since then, I haven't studied with any other teachers. However, it is through this practice that I have learned that the body is my greatest teacher,” Genco said.
She recently traveled to Italy, where Long lives, to continue her studies.
“I learn just as much through watching others work with Diane as I do working with her myself,” Genco said.
Genco offers her students the opportunity to take a similar approach. She encourages them to learn through an integration of seeing other students' bodies change while doing yoga and experiencing changes in their own bodies as they work with the postures themselves. The classes center on tuning into the spine and allowing it to become more free and supple.
“This happens by simply letting go of physical habits that restrict movement and inviting the body's intelligence to show us how to move,” says Genco. “This requires patience and time. Through practice and attention, we experience more ease and freedom in our movement — not just in yoga practice, but also in our daily lives.”
