May 14, Flora and Hot Yoga

I want to share a bunch photos of some of the flora that’s around me, so I’m going to do it here in this story of yoga. What better place to share the beauty of nature than in a talk about yoga. In case you're wondering, it's raining. All day.

this is a pattern in the sand

As I mentioned previously, I found a yoga class that meets twice a week. I was able to just do my practice without thinking about the teacher because it was a recording of a Bikram Yoga practice. 2 breathing exercises and 26 postures, each done twice over 90 minutes in a heated, humid room. I was told it was a hot yoga class, but sometimes in my experience that has also meant a Vinyasa Flow style class in a heated space. Not this one. I was surprised though that they were just using the recording, no one to lead the class. It did feel good to be warm and to stretch out my body that has been sitting and standing a lot more than I’m used to. 

When I first began practicing yoga it was at a Bikram Yoga Studio. Three days a week, 90 minutes, heated between 95 and 104 degrees with 40% humidity. Two breathing exercises, one at the beginning, one at the end and the same 26 postures each done twice, every single time. I did this for about 3 years until I started to realize there must be more to yoga than just 26 postures done without talking, being led by a Gumby type person in tiny shorts and a sports bra, saying things like “if you can, you must” and ”push, push, push,” or "pull, pull, pull." 

After all, yoga has been around for a long, long time. But at that time, I really liked the repetition, following directions, not having to think, trying my best to be more limber and being hot and sweaty. Until I started getting injuries. Asking my body to do too much on days when my body wasn’t feeling open was not the way to practice. 

Then one day, a woman who was there most days I was there spoke to me after class. There was no talking permitted once you entered the studio and the lobby was tiny and not conducive to conversations so I hadn't spoken to her before. She told me about another yoga studio that had a different style of yoga and she thought I might be interested in trying it out. So I did and that opened up a whole new world for me. I didn’t stay at that studio for long, sometimes one doesn’t resonate with the teacher or the schedule changes or other things come up. I found another studio, 3 Oms in Bellingham and that was a huge catalyst to get me where I am today in my practice and my teaching. I bought a membership there and became one of the regulars. I learned more about my body and yoga philosophy. I still injured myself trying to look a certain way in a particular pose. That was frustrating as it always felt like a set back, or that I was doing something wrong, or if I only tried harder I could someday put my arms into the bind around my leg in utthita parsvakonasana.

 And yes, there's the part about trying to learn Sanskrit.

I realized I had so much to learn about anatomy and an individual’s physiology. And about the whole of yoga. It’s so much more than the asana practice we do with our body. After about 7 years of practice and seeing the benefits of my practice and how my teachers were evolving in their practice and in their lives, I thought maybe, I too, could teach this. I wanted other people to be able to get the benefits of yoga that I felt. I also wanted it to be a sustainable practice for an aging body. I knew that I might not be able to continue with an active practice such as Vinyasa or Ashtanga, and that there are others out there who aren’t able to do those types of practices either. 

putting on colors for the festival

There is so much more to yoga than trying to make your body into a certain shape I thought I could learn how to convey that type of a practice. Chair yoga was just starting to become more of a thing. Adaptive yoga, too. How to make it accessible for people with mobility issues, health concerns and an aging body that doesn’t have the flexibility it used to.

I was fortunate to find a teacher training program that was focused on alignment and not just memorizing a specific sequence of postures to be done in the same order every time. I learned about the philosophy of the 8 limbs of yoga. I learned how to put together sequences and I learned I was going to be on this path for the rest of my life. 

false lily of the valley

When I moved to Arizona I began to teach yoga at a nearby neighborhood. I quickly discovered I had to let go of my idea of what my style of teaching was going to be. The flow went away and the adaptive process began. I developed a Chair Yoga program, which then led me to develop a class for maintaining and improving balance. One of my teachers offered me her Yoga for Beginners class at the local recreation center so I began teaching another challenging demographic. I took some online continuing education courses to help me learn how to serve this type of student. I have been teaching now for almost 8 years. When the pandemic began, my in person classes stopped and like so many others I turned to Zoom to continue to provide guidance in this practice. I will continue to seek out others who can guide me and embrace all it has to offer. It has seen me through challenges in my life, the loss of my father and my aunt and other people I’ve loved and let go in my life. It has given me strength to move through the end of my marriage and to look within to find my authentic self. I am grateful too, for all of the wonderful people I have met throughout my practice, and for all of the wonderful people I haven’t yet met.

I hope some day you’ll join me in a yoga experience.