I'm back after a long hiatus, with a bizarre development. The world is dealing with the corona virus and here in the Bay Area, we've been instructed to shelter in place. The official instruction wasn't much of a disruption for our family, as we had already pulled the kids out of school Thursday, the 12th … Continue reading Shelter in Place, Day 7: RedPantsYoga
I'm looking at "before and after" images of ten postures and writing a reflection on: imagery comparison experience of the process how to cultivate more of the subtle energetic qualities in my practice From my instructors: While this project is simple, it is crucial in your development as a practitioner and teacher to recognize and … Continue reading Ten Postures: After (aka “The Energetic Embodiment Project”
My last post on this blog was October 30, which makes it exactly eight months today. Now, because this is not my first blog rodeo, I am not at all surprised that I managed to go eight months without writing and stopped feeling guilty about it about after around month...four. Considering some major life events … Continue reading Whatcha been up to?
Something that confuses people who know us, but makes total sense to me, is that our family occasionally attends the nearby Unitarian Universalist Fellowship. (There's a long, complicated explanation for this that I ended up writing an entire book about.) The short of it is that we attend a few times a month during the … Continue reading Day Four: We’ve won the lottery, my friends.
As I last wrote, I walked into the second training weekend feeling not like myself. But then again, isn't this how I walked into the first weekend? Keeping track of my crazy seems to be one of the purposes of this blog. If I'm "not feeling like myself" as much I seem to be, I … Continue reading Day Three: Riding the Waves
The first time I had an anxiety attack in class, against everything I wanted to do instead, I listened to my teacher and stayed on my yoga mat. I didn't go on with the poses like the rest of the class, I just laid there and breathed and felt everything. And I made it through. Up … Continue reading Grieving on the Mat, Part Two
Nine months ago, in February, I had an emergency appendectomy. (Are appendectomies ever not emergencies? Does anyone ever think, I'm just gonna have my appendix removed as a preventative measure...? ) It was my first time in an emergency room, first time under general anesthesia, first surgery, first time as a patient in a hospital. It did … Continue reading Grieving on the Mat, Part One
(*and a small tangent on drishti) I had interesting back-to-back class experiences last week that struck me as a lesson in extremes and looking for just right. The first experience was a new class for me, in a new studio, with a new teacher. The class was called "Alignment Based Moon Practice." I was interested, … Continue reading The Goldilocks Search for Just Right*
Just recently, I read a description of yoga as being like a diamond, with many facets that make up the whole thing. Before starting teacher training, I'd heard about some of the facets, with the most rudimentary understandings: things like pranayama (breathing), chakras (energy inside of us), and mudras (gestures). Now that I've begun the training, … Continue reading As if I Were a Heavenly Being: Ujjayi and Learning to Move with Victorious Breath
That first Monday after the teacher training weekend was hard. It was a struggle to go from such an intense, transformative set of days to "regular" life. Child 3 woke up covered with a horrible case of poison oak, worse than what I'd had the week before that sent me to the doctor for prednisone, … Continue reading You Can’t Always Get What You Want
Breath. Posture. Cue. 