Yoga and Positional Therapy

 ... Yoga of Awareness ... 

Your Yoga

Mon and Thurs CLASSES Via ZOOM https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87939120045   

Mon 10:30-11:45 AM EST

Thurs 10:30-11:45 AM EST

donation as you can/wish via Paypal+Venmo to PatriciaLebau@gmail.com 

or check (email for address)

LOVE TO YOU AND YOURS!

Also offering individualized Integrated Positional Therapy (IPT) sessions to relieve neuromuscular pain via Zoom and in person. Call or email to book.

"Everyone can do Yoga and will benefit from the practice."

Sandra Sanford, Kripalu Yoga Teacher

What is Kripalu Yoga all about?  

Yoga tradition that guides you to your very own experience.

Finding inner peace.  That calm place inside.  In one breath you are there.  Strengthening.  Stretching. Breathing.  Relaxing.  Feeling each tiny little place in your beautiful body as it miraculously moves.  Learning how your unique body/ mind/ emotional/ spiritual self works.  By direct personal experience.  Tapping into a wisdom tradition based on a scientific exploration of the the human condition.  

Read more about it at the  Kripalu website.

    Comments on Pat's classes:  

Jen says, "Thank you Pat!  I've really been enjoying the classes - challenging yet do-able. I also notice a difference in how my body feels and I can sure use the relaxation techniques!"

Lisa says, "The class I took with you a couple of weeks ago was one of the best I’ve ever had! Thank you for doing what you do."

Peter says, "Thank you again for the introduction to Yoga; it has been an eye opener and felt really good, too :-)." 

Anonymous comments from Survey Monkey (thank you so much to those of you who filled it out!) :

Not just the physical, but the spiritual/ personal is just as important. Pat is a 10 on both levels. There's just very good energy in her presence.

When I practice regularly I sit up straighter, feel more relaxed, am reminded to breathe at times of stress, just feel physically better.

Just love the classes and feel 'well oiled' internally and also happy after the class. Yoga helps me to relieve work stress and provides a 'calm haven' or an 'island' to let go of worries and anxiety for at least a little bit. I usually find myself more relaxed after Yoga.

My back no longer aches. My shoulder aches have disappeared. I can lift things without injury to my back. Gardening is a pleasure again. I no longer wake with a stiff back. It is difficult to explain, but something was missing in my regular walk-exercise routine, yoga awakens the mind body connection. I've noticed a huge change in my posture walking up hill, I now stand straight again. I love the core strength I now have. Very impressive, thank you Pat!

I absolutely love the class!! I have taken many different classes with many different teachers and I love your style of teaching and your relaxed way :)

Pat's yoga class has helped me slow down and become more centered, allowing me to step off the "to do list" train of thought that typically dominates my day. I'm often able to take that mindfulness out into the world with me after practice and am working on being mindful throughout the day. Pat's class is like a tonic for the mind, body and soul. I am often amazed at how much more calm, centered and energetic I feel after class. I almost always think, "I need to practice more often - this feels SO good!".

I feel physically stronger and more grounded. I have made progress in the postures I can do and the length of holds. I am more tuned in to the connections between mind, body, and energy.

I am stronger, am able to do yard work without hurting my back. Thank you!

Pat shares a wonderful gift of awareness and this supports those present to integrate the various aspects of yoga practice. She helps students to connect body, mind and spirit. Pat's light shines brightly and helps ignite that yoga love in all of us. OM

I've learned a lot about letting go; not pushing, and letting things come. This started in Yoga and I've carried it across to my work, life, and other teachings.

Physically, I feel stronger, more confident and sexy.I like to push myself to see what this body can do, she allows for that in a safe environment. Pat is extremely conscious of body posturing and making sure no one hurts themselves. Mentally, I always feel very relaxed after practice. She has a way of getting me to focus and relax so much, that I often am surprised by some of the feelings that come through during it. Best Therapy ever! 

Pat is welcoming, kind, professional, compassionate, and empathetic; her instructions and cueing are crystal clear and are based on a solid understanding of anatomy and safe movement; her pacing is wonderful and the class flow feels just right; her readings at the end of class before meditation are thought-provoking and always seem to resonate with something that I'm wrestling with in my life. Pat's class is a welcome haven for me, a place where I go to feel safe, inspired, challenged, supported, stretched - both physically and mentally! - and renewed. Thank you, Pat, for being such an inspiring instructor!

I felt like Pat knew my body by the end of the session.  I want to have her with me always.  So warm and there were many "a ha" moments.  I felt like someone finally understood my body pain and explained to me how it all connected.

Pat is a Professional Level Experienced 500 hour Kripalu certified Yoga Teacher and Integrated Positional Therapy practitioner with a B.S and M.S. in Biology.  She has been practicing Yoga on and off since her teens, and has been teaching since 2008.  Prior to teaching Yoga, Pat worked in Environmental Planning including wetlands consulting, hazardous waste management, and the Big Dig Environmental Impact Statement.  One of her secret wishes is to hold a class that wanders the Rose Kennedy Greenway.  When her boys entered school, Pat began her second career working with autistic children in local schools. When her boys left for college, Yoga called and Pat answered joyfully.  Teaching Yoga is like finding an oasis to rest in along the  journey. Kripalu Yoga and Pranotthan Yoga that grew out of the Kripalu tradition embrace many styles and teach you to find the practice that best suits you. Come play! 

Namaste!

"When the body is free of tension, the heart free of fear, and when there is no desire in the mind, then a peace arises from deep within.  This peace born out of inner harmony is yoga and all the techniques were made to bring us here.  Drink deeply of the peace and let your heart open."

Yoganand Michael Carroll

"There is nothing wrong with you that you have one tight hip and one loose hip, or one leg that wants to turn out a little more than the other. This is what it is to be human. So give yourself a break."

Leslie Kaminoff, Yoga Anatomist

"For fast acting relief, try slowing down. " 

Lily Tomlin, Wise Woman

"Yoga is not philosophy or faith. Yoga is the name of the testing altar of philosophy and faith." 

 Kripalupanishad 

"Yoga itself is not a religion. It is undenominational, relying not on faith but a number of techniques that gradually lead the individual to the direct experience of those thruths on which religion rests."   

Alistair Shearer

"Set the intention; do the work; let go of the result." 

 Devarshi via Krishna.

Metta (Lovingkindness)

Random thought: how pleasure oriented we are as a group, how much we want to fix, soothe, do away with unhappiness and pain. I do this a lot, for myself, for others. Yet sometimes I long for the raw, bare boned honesty of the ugly, the real, the unsolvable, dying. Shavasana as Corpse Pose, practicing letting go of attachments. - Roxana Sahlean, Kripalu Yoga Teacher

How Yoga and Integrated Positional Therapy (IPT) helped me and why I learned how to do it for

others.

By Pat Lebau

In 2008 at age 52 I decided to go to Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Stockbridge, Massachusetts

for Yoga teacher training. I had a fair amount of back, shoulder and foot pain after many years at the

gym enjoying weight training, step aerobics and the machines; yoga was helping so it seemed a good

plan to go deeper into the practice. While there, teachers in training shared their experiences and

discussed aches and pains of living. People said to me, “Oh you have back pain? You should see Lee

Albert for some Integrated Positional Therapy (IPT).” Well as things go, it took me about five people

suggesting I visit Lee before it sunk in and I finally experienced my first IPT session.

It. Was. Amazing. It was not massage or physical therapy (PT is what originally sent me to the gym for

knee pain). It was yoga but yoga done with Lee assisting me into very gentle poses on the massage

table. I was fully clothed in my yoga duds, and Lee moved me into very gentle postures for around two

minutes at a time while we chatted. He gently adjusted my hips bringing them into greater alignment.

He gently moved my head into a deliberate subtle sequence of poses held, again, for two minutes at a

time. I felt my neck and upper back release at the same time. My tongue even felt a muscle relax!

This was a place I had had the dentist look at because it felt irritated all the time. I was interested to

learn that trigger points can refer pain and discomfort from one part of the body to another. When Lee

released trigger points in my neck, related back and tongue pain let go. I was surprised and delighted!

I left the table with less upper and lower back pain and a few simple stretches to do as homework.

These stretches were deliberately chosen to help bring my particular set of muscle imbalances back into

balance. They were very different from the stretches I had been doing – no back stretching, only front

stretching and a gentle seated twist. Pretty much the opposite of what I had been doing!

I did my homework. And my low back pain began to release. I learned how to bring the pain back and

make it go away based on my daily movement patterns. This was amazing to me and a true gift. When

I learned that one could study with Lee by taking his training at Kripalu, I decided to attend the first

training with the intention to learn more so that I could stay out of pain. Good decision! I learned how

to also relieve many other pain patterns, including my plantar fasciitis. I was able to walk barefoot for

the first time comfortably since I was a teen. I began to realize that the old saying, “it’s all downhill

from age 40,” was not true for me. In fact I was feeling less pain than I did at age 30. I am now 60,

have taken five trainings with Lee, am certified in IPT, and have no pain. Pain comes when I over do at

the computer or working out or in a yoga class, but I know how to send that pain away with a few

simple movements a few times a day! Now I don’t suffer fear when the back pain hits; I make simple

adjustments to ergonomics for driving, computering, and in the sequence of Yoga poses offered in

class.

My yoga classes are tailored to releasing common patterns of pain we all tend to have in current society

with lots of computer and commuting time. These patterns are easy to remedy with gentle attention to

stretching the front line and slackening the back line of the body once you understand the IPT

principles. These principles include: 1) Muscle imbalance pulls the body out of alignment and leads to

pain: in our culture of sitting (even for exercise) the muscles of the front body tend to be short relative

to the back body. In IPT we think in terms of lines of muscles and we undo sitting with very gentle

front line (thigh, hip and chest) stretches that at the same time slacken the overstretched back line of the

body. 2) There is great value in allowing muscles to go slack – the opposite of stretching or

strengthening. Allowing muscles to be pliable via slackening in specific poses, releases trigger and

tender points. It is very helpful to allow muscles to relax, soften, release, slacken. This allows muscles

to reset to their neutral length. Chronic irritation associated with overuse releases. 3) Stretching can

exacerbate problems.

For example, the key to my plantar fasciitis recovery was learning to not stretch the bottom of the foot.

This was radically different though simple compared to the standard advice I had received for pf. I

learned to stretch the top of the foot and the front line of the body and slacken the bottom of the foot

and the back line of the body. What a difference! This was the key to relieving my foot pain. I have

shared this with many yoga students and they are succeeding in releasing pf pain as well. One person

had pf for three years and it went away in a month; another had a sudden onset of pf and was in fear

because it had taken two years to heal the last time it came on; it was gone in two weeks for her. These

principles have also helped my husband who walks daily to release knee pain, and my two boys and a

nephew release back muscle spasms from over work at the gym.

So. This is my story of IPT, how it helped me and my family, and how it informs my yoga practice and

teaching. Bring lines of muscles back into balance; slacken over used muscles so they can reset;

recognize when overstretching is occurring. A few simple and effective postures a few times a day

release neuromuscular pain and discomfort. I can do that!