Drawn to the elusive peacefulness and glow that so many yoga practitioners seemed to have, while connecting with yogic philosophy, Day Christensen took up the practice of yoga in 2004. Starting out, she took classes that fit her schedule, but quickly became drawn to the Mysore style practice of Ashtanga yoga, where students were taught in a relatively silent room with one on one instruction. There, in this environment, she recognized that the student’s potential for growth superseded what she had experienced in other styles of yoga that utilized the more typical “guided” method of teaching. After immersing herself in Ashtanga and the Mysore method, taking trips to Mysore, India to study where the practice was born within the lineage of those who created it, on her third trip to India, Day was given the blessing to teach as an Authorized Level 2 teacher. However, shortly after that time, suffering from persistent back pain, Day found that the system with its hierarchy of postures and repetitive movements could actually be more harmful than helpful. Through the process and years of learning to heal and recover from back pain, Day finally was able to break free of the cookie cutter method of giving all students the same sequences of postures meant to be learned and repeated 6 days a week, sometimes for years and years on end with no variation in asanas or movement patterns. With this new perspective due to her own pain caused by repetitive movement, she recognized that the system of learning yoga asanas can be improved: groups of asanas should be given according to each student’s current and developing postural needs. “The how” being the Mysore Method of one on one instruction where each person in the room is able to work according to their own needs, ability, and pace, was and is the most effective way to learn and grow. But “the what” of specific series and order of postures MUST be re-assessed. Thus, The DAY1YOGA Method was born: A tailored and customizable practice, minus posture- or series-hierarchy, (zero delineation between “advanced” and “beginner” students), just students, people with issues, all there for the healing and strengthening modality that yoga should be.
