Faculty Spotlight: Therapeutics Essentials Teacher Jon Witt

As a student in Prema Yoga Institute’s Yoga Therapy Certification program, I’ve had the privilege of studying under Jon Witt who, in partnership with Dana Slamp, teaches the foundational one hundred-hour Yoga Therapeutic Essentials course.

Jon has been a yoga professional for over a decade, having begun his teaching career in tandem with the opening of the flagship Pure Yoga studio in Hong Kong.  He completed his Yoga Therapy training in Mysore, India, under the aegis of Yogacharya V. Venkatesha.  Now based in New York City, Jon teaches at both Pure Yoga locations, and is a practicing yoga therapist who also offers teacher trainings and workshops.

I personally found Jon to be a remarkable teacher.  I work in higher education, where it’s common to encounter academics who have mastered their subject to a degree that actually inhibits their ability to effectively teach it on an introductory level; in other words, they’ve forgotten what it’s like to be a beginner.  If you were to attend Jon’s Saturday afternoon Hatha class at Pure Yoga East (which I recommend), you would witness him guide a room full of yogis with wide-ranging levels of experience, strength, flexibility and injury through an hour-long sequence, and somehow attenuate his teaching to encompass the individual needs of entire class.  He not only remembers what it’s like to be a beginner, he seems to remember every step along the road to mastery, and speak to it with specificity and tact, all in the course of one class.  As a lifelong teacher and student, I can say with confidence that it’s a rare skill to encounter.

In preparation for this interview, I asked some of Jon’s current and previous students at Prema Yoga Institute to reflect on their experience learning from him. Here’s a representative sampling of their responses:

Jon is a gifted teacher who guides you from strength to strength.

—Teri Ryan, PYI graduate

Jon Witt creates an environment that is safe and comfortable.  He relays his expert knowledge and ability with creativity, clarity, charm and wit.  Jon’s energy is full of love and caring for both the practice and for his students.

—Judy Glassman, PYI graduate

Jon is deeply knowledgeable and skilled in alignment and anatomy, making for a space that feels utterly safe and secure. His casual and friendly style allows for a student to feel totally open to taking modifications and breaks if things get too challenging. I learn something new about my body and what it needs every time I take class with him.                                                                                        

— Jennifer Cabrera, PYI student

I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Jon and ask him some questions about training yoga professionals in advance of the next course offering of Therapeutic Essentials at PYI, which begins on February 7th. What follows are excerpts from that conversation.

Molly Goforth: What in particular drew you to yoga therapy?

Jon Witt: I had been teaching yoga for probably about seven years and I came to a realization that many of the classes I was teaching were more dynamic and progressive, and I enjoyed teaching them. But I was also teaching beginners, and I found that many people couldn't do most of things within that basic class. And I really wanted to help people who were struggling or who were dealing with limitations or with injuries. That was what drew me in: that I wanted to be able to work with someone who was older, or who was, for example, working through a chronic disease.

MG: What do you think yoga therapy addresses particularly or uniquely well, as opposed to another type of complementary therapy?

JW: Yoga therapy provides something different in that it’s purposely calming. If you take someone who has a knee injury or a back injury, they probably don’t realize that they’re overly stressed, and that simple breathing techniques can make a difference. Simply repositioning the body can make a dramatic difference. I mean, chiropractic therapy and physical therapy, aromatherapy, all of these thing have their value and their place.  But a consistent yoga practice is really what helped me the most.  A consistent yoga practice just works. Yoga has worked for so long. And especially if you haven’t been exposed too much to yoga, you would benefit even more greatly than someone who has.

MG: Can you expand on that?

JW: If you’re someone who has a background in yoga, it's all very repetitive. If you’re doing something repetitively, at some point it still continues to be beneficial, but not as beneficial as it would be to someone who has been training with weights, or running, who has never been exposed to yoga or breath work. Yoga is a completely different form of training, so they will adapt in a completely different way.  

MG: Could you give me an example?

JW: Take someone who’s been lifting weights their whole life. They can’t raise their arms over their head, and it's progressively getting worse. Repositioning them on the floor and teaching them basic breathing techniques can completely change the way they stand and walk.  And you’re able to see what’s been declining in their routine over all this time.

MG: Such as range of motion?

JW:  Sure. Just opening that up, shifting that perspective, allows them to go back to the gym and train in ways they couldn’t before.  Before they were just pushing through it, but now they can thrive in it. It's a shift in perspective.

MG: Speaking of perspective, when you’re training yoga professionals, whether it’s teacher training or yoga therapy training, is there a core belief or a residual message that you want them to come away with after studying with you? 

JW:  I mean, to love your students. Take good care of your students. Look out for their best interest. In any yoga setting where you are being looked after by another individual, the intentions of that individual should be high. If you go in with that intention of care, whether it’s a private session or a public class, you’re bound to be successful.

I think initially, when someone first starts teaching yoga, they're most likely not going to be very good at it. But if they have the intention of helping people, over time they will refine their teaching. They will get better and they’ll have a sustainable teaching practice where it becomes a profession. When someone doesn’t really have that love for people, it makes teaching less possible.

MG: What’s the most common injury or physical problem you see in your yoga therapy practice?

JW: I think the most common injury would be back pain. From lack of activity, or too much of one activity, or it’s simple postural issues, often from the way they sit. I mean, most people go set up their cubicle or their office in a particular way, and it's been like that for so long that they're always turning to one direction.

MG: Oh, you mean like, the phone is to the left, and they’re always turning to the left, for years and years?  

JW: Yes. They’re spending eight hours a day doing it. They can make a difference just by changing their workspace around, as an example.

MG: Wow, that kind of blows my mind.

JW:  It doesn’t really take that much to actually help someone, it’s really just using the right techniques and the right kind of approach.

MG: Can you expand on that?

JW: I think with most yoga teachers, when they find themselves unsuccessful, it’s because they’ve made it too dynamic; they're not using the right approach and that's why they're not finding success with the people that they're working with. They don’t know how to scale it back.

MG: By too dynamic you mean too challenging at the beginning?

JW: Yeah. Dynamic has its place, if someone isn’t ready to be more quiet or be more still, but you have to be able to adjust.  It’s really just knowing your student.  And communicating.  With private clients, if you’re communicating and paying attention in the session, and you’re communicating after the session within that week, and then in the next session…you’re slowly building a rapport, and the information you’re getting from the student will basically tell you how you should teach them.  And on top of that, if you’re observing them in practice, you’ll be able to see what they need.

MG: Final question: is there anything that you find particularly inspiring about training yoga professionals, whether it’s teacher training or yoga therapy training, or anything that makes you feel excited about the future of yoga therapy?

JW: It’s good to know that there are other teachers who are willing to modify and adapt a practice for someone who needs it, as opposed to just giving them a general practice, something that's not appropriate, maybe something that’s actually going to harm them. So it's nice to know that people actually are interested in working with someone who is experiencing some limitations or who’s really struggling or even bit desperate, and they really want to get better but they don't necessarily know how. It's good to know that younger teachers are willing to do more study than just general study and be able to work with just about every age or ability.

 MG: Jon Witt, thank you so much for your time.

JW: You’re welcome.

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Enrollment is currently open for Yoga Therapeutic Essentials at Prema Yoga Institute, with Dana Slamp and Jon Witt. The course runs from February 7th – March 1st.

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Molly Goforth is a yoga and meditation teacher and a student at Prema Yoga Institute. She specializes in accessibility and trauma-informed yoga teaching and practice.

Medical Journal Publishes PYI-Led Pilot Study on Yoga for Cardiac Health

Really good tidings! Motivated by her mother’s own cardiac event, Prema Yoga Institute alumna and faculty member Sonja Rzepski created a yoga therapy program alongside doctors at New York’s Lenox Hill Hospital to help manage stress in female patients recovering from similar experiences. The cardiac care program was part of PYI's Clinical Yoga Therapy Practicum, and was staffed by PYI grads completing their yoga therapy certification.

The results are in and not only are they are encouraging but they are now published in the Annals of Clinical Cardiology (Jesus SD, Schultz E, Bond RM. The yoga–meditation heart connection: A pilot study looking to improve women's heart health. Ann Clin Cardiol 2019;1:24-9). 

While on the decline overall, the CDC still declares heart disease the leading cause of death for women in the United States. For women older than 55, the data shows a stagnation in the decrease of fatal incidents. Stress, anxiety, and depression are nontraditional risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD) that are more common in women. Sonja’s hypothesis appears to be supported by evidence that regular, supervised sessions of chair yoga and meditation can be a complementary measure to decrease these factors in female patients with or at risk for CVD, as well as increase their likelihood to pursue lifestyle modifications. 
 
Sonja’s program addressed this specific group by providing 16 female participants with or at risk for CVD and with a mean age of 64, 45-minute supervised sessions of complimentary chair yoga and meditation over 24 weeks. Through the practice of Yoga Nidra, psychic sleep or deep relaxation with inner awareness, the patients reported a lower level of depression overall as well as a 3-9 pound weight loss in 1/3 of the students which reflects the program’s encouragement to mindfully eat heart-healthy foods.
 
Kudos to Sonja and her team that included PYI Practicum students Yuliana Kim Grant, Irina Chernova, Judy Glassman, and Michelle Lauren. Want to dig in and read the complete study?  Click here! 

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Yoga Tips For Holiday Digestion

As a vegetarian married to a vegan, I’ve grown accustomed to dealing with a great deal of well-meaning fretting from both my mother and my mother-in-law when my husband and I visit our families for the holidays. My mother brought me up on the USDA’s “Four Food Groups” nutritional model of the 1970s; in her mind, a proper dinner consists of a meat-based main dish accompanied by a vegetable, a plant-based starch, and white rolls with margarine. There are no exceptions to this rule, and she prides herself on having provided me, my three sisters and our father with a “proper” dinner every single night for 20 years. And don’t get me wrong, I appreciate it. The idea of coming home from a long  day of work and cooking a full  dinner for six people even once a week makes me want to get into child’s pose and stay there. My husband’s mother was a pediatric nurse who often worked the evening shift, so his father—not a man who grew up cooking— was usually responsible for providing nightly dinner for three growing boys, on a budget. Unsurprisingly, to this day it is hard for my husband’s parents to conceive of a family dinner that doesn’t revolve around two to three pounds of hamburger incorporated into a recipe off the back of a box.

Like many loving mothers of adult children, my mother and my mother-in-law remain consumed with concern about what and when and how often my husband and I eat, especially when we’re in their homes. Cooking and serving food is a way of showing love, and it is frustrating to both of them to be denied the pleasure of making our favorite childhood foods now that we no longer eat many of them. Even more so, I think their concern stems from a phenomenon common to non-vegetarians, namely, a sincere worry that vegetarians and vegans simply aren’t getting sufficient nutrients. It’s been well over a decade since we both stopped eating meat, but at family functions the question still arises with seemingly unassuageable vexation: “Will there be anything for you to eat?!” Unsurprisingly, the issue assumes an even greater intensity around the holidays, particularly Thanksgiving (which, in my husband’s family, is celebrated as less of a holiday and more of a 14-hour competitive eating decathlon).

Two years ago, after remaining at home in New York City for Thanksgiving for logistical reasons and fielding agitated FaceTime calls from both of our mothers –-“Did you get enough to eat?!” (his) “What did you even eat?!” (mine), we decided to put our parents’ minds at rest once and for all.  After a bit of persuading, we convinced our families to let us cook them vegetarian/vegan holiday meals last year—we visited his family for Thanksgiving in mine for Christmas— to close the book once and for all on the question of whether it’s possible to uphold the American holiday tradition of gluttonous overindulgence without eating animal products. 

They were skeptical at first, but after enjoying seconds of my Brussels sprouts gratin, thirds of his mushroom-sage stuffing, and subsequently passing out on the couch only to awaken two hours later for one more slice of dairy-free pecan/pumpkin pie, we had them convinced: it’s not only possible to overdo it at a vegetarian Thanksgiving, it’s positively easy.  As a yogi, I try to practice brahmacharya—sometimes defined as discipline over the impulse towards excess—but I am only mortal, and my self-restraint tends to fly out the window when confronted with garlic mashed potatoes.  

All of which is to say, whether vegetarian, vegan, pescatarian or omnivore, most of us have a tendency to overindulge at this time of year.  I teach at a college, and by the time I’m finished with the fall semester I have usually attended at least four work-related holiday parties, having managed to resist housing a bucketful of my colleague Professor Yao’s home-made Chex mix at exactly none of them.  Brahmacharya is all well and good, but you know what’s also good? My friend Dave’s praline pecans.   

If you’re anything like me, dramatically increasing your intake of sugary, fatty and processed foods tends to wreak havoc on your digestive system. We can’t put a halt to holiday fun (who would want to?) and I, at least, probably cannot stop myself for reaching for that second White Fudge Oreo (they’re only in stores once a year!).  Thankfully, asana and yogic techniques are available to aid and improve our digestion, as well as mindfulness practices which can help us truly appreciate the sensory  ritual of eating.  Read on for five tips for improving digestion with yoga this holiday season.

1) Add Twists to Your Asana Practice

Let’s not beat around the bush: between the eggnog and the port-wine cheese balls, I tend to consume a lot more dairy than usual during the holiday season, which tends to, um, cause my inner elves to slooooow down production in the ol’ toy shop, if you take my meaning.  In other words, I get constipated, and when I do, I make sure that my on-the-mat practice includes plenty of twists.  Just make sure you’re doing them correctly to aid in… efficient toy production. 

Twists aid in the movement of waste through your colon, as long as you begin by twisting to the right side. Starting this way targets the ascending colon, helping it to stretch and send waste across the transverse colon.  Then, when you twist to the left, your body encourages the waste to continue on to the descending colon and finally into the sigmoid colon, where it becomes ready for elimination.  Try incorporating parivritta ardha chandrasana (revolved half-moon) and parivritta trikonasana (revolved triangle) into a warrior sequence, or add parivritta utkatasana (revolved chair) into a standing balance sequence.

2) Boost Your Agni

Agni is the Ayurvedic term for “digestive fire” (meaning your body’s capability to digest food easily and completely).  Undigested or poorly digested food results in the body’s production of a toxic by-product called ama, which inhibits immunity.  (For more on agni, ama, and boosting immunity with yoga, refer to our post “Yoga Hacks for Allergy Season” here.)

Healthy digestion requires strong agni, and strong abdominals beget strong agni. Asana that target the abdominal muscles include phalakasana (plank pose) purvottanasana (upward plank) utthtita trikonasana (extended triangle) and virabhadrasana (warrior) III.   Strengthening the lower back muscles will contribute to your core strength, so make sure that your on-the-mat practice includes plenty of vinyasas (adho and urdhva mukha svavasana are both excellent for increasing back strength) as well as danurasana (bow), salabhasana (locust) and/or setu bandha sarvangasana (bridge).  

In addition, try practicing the pranayama/asana hybrid agni sara.  Agni sara (literally “essence of fire”) utilizes the solar plexus, lower abdominals and pelvic floor muscles, stimulating the digestive system and aiding in proper elimination of waste. You can view a step-by-step guide to agni sara here.  For beginners: start in sukhasana or malasana and contract the lower abdominals.  Breathe deeply into the belly and pelvic floor, pulling the navel firmly towards the spine on the exhale and relaxing the belly fully on the inhale.  Three rounds of ten breaths—ideally on an empty stomach—are sufficient.

3) Utilize Pranayama to Reduce Stress

Over-indulgence in rich or sugary holiday treats, alcohol and/or gluten and dairy can result in bloating as well as constipation.  But bloating can also be a by-product of stress, and stress can inhibit effective digestion.  There’s a reason the gut is often referred to as the body’s “second brain.”  Acute stress directs blood flow to away from gut to the brain and limbs, and chronic stress can cause imbalances in beneficial gut bacteria, as well as inflammation.

There are many aspects of yoga that reduce stress, but deep belly-breathing in particular releases tension in the abdomen, allowing for increased blood flow and aiding in digestion, which in turn reduces bloating.  A simple breathing exercise that targets the belly is Dirga Pranayama, or three-part breath. To practice Dirga Pranayama, find an easy seat with a straight back and a hand loosely placed on your belly.  Inhale deeply and slowly, imagining that you are filling your belly, ribcage, and upper chest completely. Then exhale equally slowly, “deflating” the upper chest, ribcage, and belly. (Note: of course, you cannot actually breathe into your belly!  But you can feel the sensation of breathing into your belly by practicing Dirga Pranayama, which in turn can help your abdominal muscles relax.)  Another effective way to feel the breath drop low in the body is to find a comfortable child’s pose with relaxed arms, and inhale slowly with the intention of feeling the sensation of expanding your lower back with your breath.  If it’s comfortable for you, separate your thighs so that your belly can “flop” between them.

4) Plan Ayurvedic Holiday Meals

Happily, Ayurveda already involves eating seasonally and regionally, and many of the traditional holiday dishes associated with Thanksgiving and other holiday meals are already based around fall harvest produce in North America.  Yams, Brussels sprouts, carrots and other root vegetables are all in season in the autumn and can contribute to a balanced holiday meal while supplying nutrients without reducing agni.  Even potatoes—sometimes regarded as a blanket no-no in Ayurvedic cooking—can take their part on your table, as long as you prepare them according to your dosha: add oil or other fat for Vata, limit fat and add warming spices for Kapha.   Potatoes are basically neutral for Pittas, so go ahead and have that second scoop!

In addition to eating seasonally, keep your holiday meal Ayurvedically sound by including the six tastes: sour, salty, sweet, pungent, bitter and astringent.  The fatty, moist recipes associated with Thanksgiving dishes will help to balance the dry, cold Vata season in which the holiday falls.  Just make sure you include bitter, pungent, and astringent tastes as well, to balance the flavor and nourish the dhatus. Ayurvedic holiday recipes, including Thanksgiving favorites, can be found here.

5) Try Following a Sattvic Diet

Following a Sattvic diet at points throughout the year can certainly ease radical eating disparities during the holidays. In Ayurvedic philosophy, there are three qualities, or gunas, that exist in all of nature: rajas, tamas and sattva.  With regard to nutrition, these qualities manifest as stimulating rajasic foods (spicy, salty, or bitter tastes), enervating tamasic foods (bland, heavy tastes, or anything artificial or stale) and purifying sattvic foods (fresh, calming, and easily digestible).  

The term sattvic can refer to an entire lifestyle of intentional ritual, meditation and philosophy.  Serious yogis will often maintain a sattvic diet for months or even years at a time, or undertake a sattvic cleanse, which can be intense and should be conducted under the supervision of a professional Ayurvedic practitioner.  But we can all add elements of sattvic eating into our daily diets to improve digestion and wellbeing.  Here are some simple suggestions to get digestion back on track after a holiday meal, keeping in mind that you may need to make adjustments if you are currently eating to balance your particular dosha:

• Eat fresh, organic produce.  Try to base meals around fresh ingredients and whole foods.

• Eat less meat.  Try beans and lentils as alternate sources of protein.

• Cut down on refined sugar and processed foods.  Consider honey or molasses as an alternative to sugar.

• Reduce your intake of alcohol and caffeine.  Alcohol is enervating, or tamasic, and caffeine is stimulating, or rajasic.  Reducing both helps to bring the both mind and the gut into a balanced, calm sattvic state.

• Pay attention to where and how your food is prepared.  Truly sattvic food is prepared in a pleasant atmosphere, with intention and love.  While this might not be practical for every meal, especially if you frequently eat outside your home, you can start by making one sattvic meal day for yourself every day, such as a simple breakfast of whole oats, fresh milk, and some honey or fruit.

While brahmacharya is certainly a virtue, even the most disciplined among us can fall prey to the perils of holiday revelry, leaving our tummies to pick up the proverbial tab.  Happily, whether we’re planning ahead or looking back in regret, yoga and Ayurveda offer plenty of tools for soothing and regulating digestion.  So, bring on those special edition White Fudge Oreos!  After all, they’re technically vegan, and this year I’ll stop after one.  Or two.  Definitely not more than three.

For an intro to Ayurveda, please join us for Prema Yoga Therapeutics Essentials February 7 -March 1, 2020, or for a more in-depth explanation in our annual Ayurvedic Yoga Therapy Therapy Training.

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Online Sources:

Yoga Journal

Yogapedia

Gaia.com

Banyan Botanicals

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Molly Goforth is a yoga and meditation teacher and a student at Prema Yoga Institute. She specializes in accessibility and trauma-informed yoga teaching and practice.