You are Invited!

I am formally inviting you to the Grand Opening - Open House for The Vitality Center on Friday, April 3rd! The Vitality Center is a new Natural Health, Wellness, and Education Center located at 12 Revere Street in Canton.

I will be providing semi-private yoga sessions there on Tuesday and Thursday evenings (3 -4 participants max). If you are looking to work on your form/alignment in a particular posture than you might be interested in the Asana Technique session. If you'd like some dedicated time to focus on your hips, back or core, we certainly have time for that.

Stop by on Friday, April 3 anytime between 7:00pm and 9:00pm. You can check out the space, grab some more info about the sessions, listen to some great tunes by a local musician, and enjoy some nibbles. I hope to see you there!

Here's a sneak peek at the schedule for April:
Tues, April 7 - Back and Belly
Thur, April 9 - No Class
Tues, April 14 - Hip Opening
Thur, April 16 - Moving Meditation
Tues, April 21 - Asana Technique
Thur, April 23 - Back and Belly
Tues, April 28 - Moving Meditation
Thur, April 30 - Hip Opening

Perfectly Bad

"If it's worth doing, it's worth doing badly." - anonymous

I know, it sounds wrong. But, stay with me here.

Often times we let doing a posture "perfectly" get in the way of doing the posture. Cast aside your fears and worries of humiliation and remind yourself that you are a yoga student. You are in class to learn. You are practicing.

And then remember that every body is different. Literally. Bone placement, past injuries, alignment, weight, and a load of other conditions impact how your body will move. So don't sweat how the posture looks. Turn your focus inward and get in touch with how it feels. If it feels good...it's perfect!

SPECIAL 8 Week Series

I will be leading an 8 week progressive Spring Into Power session at the Open Doors Studio in Westwood. My classes will be held on Tuesdays from 6:00am to 7:00am, so it's an awesome way to start your day, work off the Monday blues, and continue into the rest of the week with renewed energy. And of course, we're going to have lots of fun. How many people can say they have accomplished all of that before 7:15am?

I have decided to structure each class around one area on the physical body as well as one area within the energetic body. This will provide you with a unique opportunity to hone your asana technique while tapping into a clear personal intention for your practice that day.

My tentative schedule is:
1. flow/breathe - root chakra
2. hips - sacral chakra
3. core - solar plexus chakra
4. shoulders/backbending - heart chakra
5. shoulders/arm strength - throat chakra
6. hand balancing - third eye
7. inversions - crown
8. flow and pull it all together

Spring Into Power begins on April 7th and requires preregistration. Visit www.opendoors7.com to sign up. I need at least 9 participants to run the session, so invite your friends to join you for a bit of spring cleaning. And I'll see you in the studio.

Learning from Falling

I taught a great group of students last night. It was a moderate class and I could feel that many students in this class were ready to practice a hand balancing posture.

So I slowly cued the class toward a Side Crow. Now on the first side most students gave it the old college try. Then one woman fell out of the posture onto her face. She was fine. In fact, she brushed herself off and proceeded to come back into the posture. I was so glad for her.

Oddly, the rest of the class seemed to only focus on the fact that their fellow student had fallen on her face. When we switched to take the posture on the opposite side only my fallen student proceeded to come into the posture. Again I was glad for her, but really sad for the rest of my students.

Falling is the best opportunity for growth. When we fall, we can only go up from there.

Digging A Hole

This week I've decided to focus on digging deeper. What that means to you is up to you -- it could mean going deeper in a posture or deeper with your breathe work or putting a bit more time into finding all the pertinent information before beginning a new project.

I set my sights on this theme because students (particularly this month) have been asking, when will I be able to do THAT posture? or when will I experience that energetic hum again? when? when? when? The answer that comes to my heart is always, "Now. Right now. You are doing it now. You are experiencing it now."

Most folks are so busy trying/striving/pushing to be like someone else or to be what they perceive as "better"...that they haven't realized that they are exactly where they are supposed to be. This isn't just in the studio. It's in every day living...think about it.

Driving along the highway. Everyone is moving. There is the driver behind you who lacks the patience to stay in the moment and go with the flow. This soul cannot accept that we will all get 'there' eventually. That driver wants to move faster, be first, and best. So that driver zips out from behind you only to end up in front of you. That driver is hard charging to 'no where'.
And quite frankly, they might have avoided the traffic ticket if they had enjoyed being 'here now'.

So slow down. Enjoy the journey. Marvel at where you are right now because before you can even begin to dig deeper you need to be here now.

Now, I invite you to consider digging for a moment. Digging is a downward motion from where you are standing. It is not forward. It is not backward. It is straight down from where you are. So if you keep digging, you might just realize that if you look up from your hole, you will be standing underneath the best that is you.

The point is that whatever you are digging into this week it will require that you be patient, be kind and be willing to accept whatever it is that you find. Odds are you will discover a deeper understanding of...

A Beautiful Day

Last night I was chatting with another instructor while I was closing up the reception area to begin a class. I noticed that he was gazing dreamily through the window. As I had recently been outdoors, I said, "it's beautiful out today."

He smiled as said, "Yes, we are above ground."

Just a reminder that every day is a gift; that each and every day truly is beautiful. And, if you really think about it, every day is even more splendid because we are here to enjoy it.

A New Spin on Class - Ground and Grow

I am really interested in connecting the energetic body and the physical body. This is why my journey so far has including gaining a deeper understanding of Chakras (the spinning wheels of energy) and the Nadis (energetic crossroads in our bodies). I have participated in a several wonderful classes that focus on clearing the chakras, realigning the chakras, opening the nadis, and other mind/body connection workshops.

So last weekend I decided that I would like to try out a new flow with my Tuesday class. I chose to present this flow to my Tuesday students because it tends to be a smaller, more intimate group. The direction of this flow was to reconnect with our root chakra and open the hips. The dialogue centered around grounding down, inhaling a deep warm swirling red, planting and growing, and creating space in our bodies by letting go of the 'extra junk in the trunk'. The aim was for students to leave with a renewed sense of self and a confidence in their abilities to take those next steps...what ever 'those next steps' were for each student that day.

I taught the class. Admittedly, there were a few points that could have been more smooth. But overall it felt like a decent experience. I just wish I knew what my students thought. No one spoke at the end of class. I have never had a class end so quietly. Not a peep.

My charge to all of you wonderful practicing yogis and yoginis is to offer feedback. Yoga is a two way street. Truly, learning and teaching are running both ways in each and every class. Let your instructors know what worked for you and what might have felt awkward. They won't be offended...they will grow.