Posts tagged: yoga
my first piece published on the @yoganonymous blog~ check it out! #yoga #yoganonymous #roadrage #lovingkindness #meditation
today i share why i love gentle yoga over at MindBodyGreen.com
my most recent contribution to MindBodyGreen.com ~
i’ve been writing for @mindbodygreen the past few weeks. here’s the piece that started it all.
We had such a great time at Yoga Jam on Saturday Night. Sign up online now to join me and el john Selector on August 18th for the next one!
i remember being in like, church or something. or sunday school. or summer camp….the family dinner table. all of the places where i spent my childhood, is what i’m saying. a popular theme that the gatherings at these locations shared was good ol’ christian guilt. guilt that we are making the wrong decisions. guilt that we are making the right decisions. guilt that if we even ponder the thought of making a decision without first consulting the book, the big guy upstairs, or pastor dave, we were headed on the whore bus to eternal damnation.
i don’t want to shit on christian principles because i do actually believe in the teachings of the bible. and the constitution for that matter. two things the majority of christians have maybe actually forgotten exist. but i digress…
i remember always feeling guilty for trusting my instincts because i was taught that all humans were inherently evil and we couldn’t trust our own feelings and thoughts because they were of satan. instead, we had to ask the pastor, or the pope, or our dad what we thought about a situation, or how we were supposed to feel, in order to make the “right” decisions. the god way. the good way, i mean. i guess.
however, at some point in my adult life it became apparent to me that this was a load of bullshit and incredibly lucrative way the church found to not only control the masses but also suck their follower’s savings dry. your heart is telling you that you’re a grown ass adult who is having grown ass feelings about another grown ass adult? better wait till he puts a ring on it before you sleep with him (don’t worry….he’s already banging his secretary on the side. so he’s not missing out. and obvs, patriarchy, breh. his needs are the only ones that matter). you want to give your year end bonus to feed starving children in africa? better make out that check to the church this year, brother, we’re putting a gym in the west wing! you get my point….
i’ve found, in the past few years, that you can call it whatever you want… The universe, god, goddess, buddha, yahweh, he, she, it…. i mean, literally any name you can come up with is probably a name people are using for voice each of us holds inside of our own selves telling us in whatever way necessary what the correct decision is for each of our individual selves. get it? that’s you. listen to what it’s telling you because IT has been inside of YOU this entire time. listen to it, get used to it, and prepare to finally make a decision that will make sense for you. there lies the path you are truly meant to take. there lies your happiness. there ~ inside of you.
i started practicing yoga regularly almost 2 years ago (seems longer….2 years doesn’t seem like long enough to do anything), i fell in love with the magic of my yoga instructor. i loved her tattoos and her clothes and the way she moved on the mat.. it was magical. she had something that i wanted.
fast forward about 18 months and i was in the midst of my first yoga class in austin on austin’s free day of yoga, taking a gioconda yoga class at bfree yoga. i could barely make it through the 75 minute level II/III class. i was still very much at the beginning of my journey, and grasping for something or someone to grab on to, in order to drag myself along.
i still very much respect her as a teacher, but i’m beginning to move past the idolization stage. she is my teacher, my guru but i didn’t feel butterflies in my tummy or blissed out at the end of my practice. instead, my back was kind of sore from all the back bending and i couldn’t get out of my mind the number of times she referred to “this is how you get a yoga butt.” i
is that really what we’re doing yoga for now? i know that’s not really what she believes, but then why is she preaching it in her yoga class? i understand that you have to teach to your students, so if they want to hear how great their ass is going to look after we do our fifth salabasana variation i guess you have to give it to them? it’s funny to joke about, but i’ve never made references to six packs or yoga butts in my classes because that’s not what i do yoga for and i don’t want my students thinking that it is.
maybe i’m just feeling a little jaded by the west side of austin lately, as i still struggle to find where i belong in this town. i’ve had a really exciting few weeks teaching my own classes though, with great feedback from students. i updated my goals that i wrote about back in yoga training about 4 months ago. what you put in to the universe is what comes back to you. it’s time for me to bring my own magic.
“the key to safe yoga boils down to the sensitivity and adaptability of the instructor, his or her capacity for dialogue with and responsiveness to a student, and the humble confidence of knowing what you know and what you don’t know.”
community yoga time (Taken with Instagram at Space 12)
i started my very first community yoga class last night at space12 (3121 E 12th Street, Austin).
“Our hope is that through our community space, ideas to share spaces will be renewed, voices both young and old will be heard, time will be well spent and spent together, and all can feel welcome to collaborate towards genuine community.” http://space12.org
when my coworkers and new friends in town found out that i teach yoga, many of them thought it would be cool to be able to take a yoga class from someone who they know, and feel comfortable with. so after a few months of contemplation, i finally found a place where i felt comfortable teaching my very own class.
click the pic for a thru-link to space12’s website for more information, and i’ll see you on the mat tuesday nights at 7!