Hips of a Hero: Andrea Maltzer on the 2012 Yoga Journal Conference
Where can you find the greatest convergence of yogis in January? The annual SF Yoga Journal Conference.
This year we followed one of our beloved yoga teachers, Andrea Maltzer, to the conference. Between assisting MC Yogi and Amanda and taking Stephanie Snyder’s class, we paused for a moment to reflect on the biggest yoga party of the month.
What brings you back to the YJ Conference?
I’ve been attending the YJ conferences for over 10 years now. At times as a participant, and this time as an assistant. It’s a great opportunity to be able to experience a lot of different teachers in a short period of time.
I always learn a lot about the practice and the yoga teachings that I bring back to the students I am blessed to serve.
What’s new for 2012?
This year, I had the inspiring opportunity to take a class with Stephanie Snyder who teaches in San Francisco. Her class was called ‘hips of a hero.’
She compared our hips to that junk drawer we all have. The drawer we throw the junk we don’t know what to do with into. I love that analogy.
So, how do we release the “junk”?
In the 2-hour workshop, we worked through a series of postures getting into the hip joint area. Focusing on poses that open up the hips: gomukhasana, pidgeon, double pidgeon—
But more importantly was the sequence: slowly leading up into these openings. I learned that when we tighten our jaw, our hips follow suit. Relaxing your jaw is one of the first steps in letting go of tension in the hips.
Why the hips?
We often hold onto unresolved issues, problems, things we wish we would have said – in our hips. That is the junk we are holding on to. By practicing yoga and doing some slow basic hip openers such as the ones above, we can start getting into these places and let go of some of the junk.
Andrea, with her inspiring playlists, teaches Monday and Wednesdays at 6:15pm and Sunday at 8:30am.
Namaste,
Sofia
