angelica sp en

Angelica

[Q] What’s your name? Angelica Pelaez.

[Q] And what’s your profession? I’m basically a social communicator and I also develop as a yoga instructor. I’m also an entrepreneur, clarified butter, ghee butter.

[Q] You came to the Baseworks workshop, and you also came to the conference? To the conference, yes.

[Q] Can you describe how your experience was moving with Baseworks principles? For me it was reinforcing something I intuitively do in my yoga practice. And it’s working on the body with lines. I mean for me the body is lines. So I always seek to correct, I mean I seek for people to understand that the body has lines and those lines have to be respected in practice.

So it’s like reinforcing that knowledge and understanding that working, I mean it’s like enhancing, I mean enhancing that which I’ve intuitively developed in practice. It’s like okay, there are better ways to do it so the practice is much more efficient and the body develops perhaps more easily. I could say that.

For me the most important teaching the workshop left me is that. Being able to work the body with the lines and how the body mechanics unite to be much more efficient and achieve a good result without having to be so strained and so hard.

[Q] And was it something difficult or not? No. It seemed supremely simple to me. I mean the body is very logical. So like Baseworks is logical and it’s simple. What’s complicated is unlearning the things you already have in the body.

For example, we were doing the exercise that’s like the warrior. Let’s say it’s the leg in front and the other back. Of course the body remembers a position and I’ve worked that position for a long time, and my knee is in a position. When you corrected that position to try to get the brain to remember what the correct position is, that’s one. And two, seeing that when the leg returns, I mean when the leg comes back, the muscle works supremely deep. I mean it hurt.

And that seems supremely cool to me. It’s very… not difficult, I mean it’s the unlearning, like deactivating the understanding it already has, the body memory my body has, that seems difficult to me.

[Q] The method is simple but it’s difficult to stop learning? But the method, but personally I mean it’s already like each person’s work.

[Q] Even though we only had two days of practice, did you notice any change in perception, sensitivity or quality of movement or something like that? For example, in that posture, the posture I’m explaining to you with one leg forward bent and the other goes back. When you take awareness that the knee goes back and is completely aligned with the ankle… I mean in a line there’s another that’s an angle like 30 degrees and launching the other leg backward so the leg holds and with the force of gravity returning, I mean that, the quality of movement for me changed completely.

That one and the chair work, like when you go forward and you go down, flexing the legs to the chair, that also changed because I also understood how to use the force of gravity so the exercise is much more efficient. I loved it.

[Q] In the workshop and also in the conference, among all the ideas we were talking about, what was new or interesting for you? The globality of the ideas I liked a lot. The topic of micromovements seemed supremely interesting to me. I mean like how you can improve and change and relax the body using micromovements even though the posture itself is demanding. I liked that a lot.

The topic of lines, I mean for me the lines, I mean understanding the lines, the force, I mean the opposites, and how to use that opposite force for the exercise. Globally I liked it a lot.

Let’s say the first day which was the conference day even though I see the concept and “okay, well…” But when doing the practice it’s like “Wow, of course, this has all the life that had the sense of the world!” I mean it was very very very cool.

[Q] Do you think some of the ideas or techniques are relevant for your professional activity or daily life? Yes, totally. First for my personal yoga practice. Two, to share with other people. Personally I would like to deepen much much more. Because we obviously covered many things, but at the same time it was very fast.

So there are other positions where you say, eh for example in headstand. How can I take advantage of that posture? Let’s say Baseworks principles in that posture both for me and to teach a person who has never done headstand. That left me like “I want more.”

[Q] Is there anything else to add that we’re not talking about? The biggest conclusion for me was the topic of lines. I mean like I think I commented in the conference, it’s like science, which is the specialty you have, says “yes is yes.” So like I was telling it, “Okay, I’m not so crazy to see the body this way.” Because I see it! I see it in lines!

But it’s also important to reinforce what you have intuitively, to be able to use that to improve my practice. I would like to be able to certify in the method, to be able to use the method more deeply for my practice. And the practice I share when I help or teach people yoga practice.

I think the method is easy to understand what you need to do. And in the first step of teaching a person who can’t do it yet, it’s very important that the person understands what they need to do.

And it’s cool to see that you consider at some point that you’re doing it correctly, the posture. And you’re really not respecting the body’s lines, nor the natural mechanics of the body. That’s Baseworks. I mean for me that’s it. It’s respecting the body’s own mechanics.