Quick Mid Summer Update!

The summer of less technology is half way done!  Days are flying by.  I've done pretty well cutting down the technology addiction.  I've kept off Facebook and Twitter - but, Instagram seems to have replaced those social media outlets!  I do love the positivity of Instagram, the lack of overt advertising, and the messages conveyed in just one photograph.  Only one day left of the Instagram yoga photo a day challenge, and then I will be cutting back my posting & viewing there for the month of August.

Changes?  My practice has grown, I have spent more time on the mat this month than I ever have.  I'm gaining strength and knowledge about my body.  My kids have also spent some time with practice this month. Aside from yoga, I learned how to make almond milk.  It's so much more delicious when you prepare it yourself.  I also learned how to make mayonnaise! Which is also way more yummy when it's home made.  We finally picked a paint colour for our main living space, and it feels so open and bright now that it's painted.  I organized my closet, and my drawers!  Funny what happens when you have less distraction!

I'm jetting off to BC this week to attend the Wanderlust Yoga & Music festival in Whistler.  I'm bursting with excitement.  I've got a couple of days to myself before my husband joins me for the last couple of days of the festival, after which we will drive home through the Rockies.  In those days, I hope to sit down and do some reflecting and writing about practice, the Instagram yoga selfie, the show stopping yoga postures and the concept of growth or transformation through yoga practice.  I have thoughts brewing around in my head, and a bit of tethering for those thoughts thanks to one of my teachers, Colin Hall, and his recent blog posts on the Bodhi Tree Yoga website.   I also intend to write a nice long review of Wanderlust complete with photos when I return.

I've got some amazing instructors covering for me while I am out of town, I am certain you are in great hands!

Thursday Level 2 5:45 @ Bodhi - Tina Hnatiuk
Thursday Lev 1 7:30 @ Bodhi - Dev Kashyap
Friday Warm Yin 12:10 @ Yoga Haven - Karla Blocka
Friday Warm Yin 5:15 @ Bodhi - Dev Kashyap
Friday Hot 6:30 @ Bodhi - Dev Kashyap
Sunday - Bodhi closed for long weekend!
Tuesday Hips & Hams 5:45 @ Bodhi - Cara Gress
Tuesday Core Vinyasa 7:30 @ Bodhi - Cara Gress
Thursday Level 2 5:45 & 7:30 @ Bodhi - Scott Maclean

I will be back on Friday August 9 for Warm Yin at Yoga Haven and the usual Bodhi Friday night line up.  See you when I get back!

#TechFreeSummer

Summer is here!  Every year, in about February I make a pledge to myself:

This year, I will enjoy every moment of summer. 

Summer rolls around and I spend a bit of time outside, maybe a camping trip, maybe a hike and then it's September.  It always goes by so quickly.  This year I pledge again, I will enjoy EVERY moment of summer.  The warm days, the rainy days, the summer storms, the boredom, the freedom, the scraped knees, the s'mores, the warm nights, the sunsets, the sunrises (maybe?).  

In order to have the time to enjoy summer, I am going to cut a few things from my daily routine.  Most obviously, excessive use of social media.  I'll be the first to admit that I am a social media junkie.  I enjoy Facebook, Twitter, Blogging, Instagramming, etc..  I like online community, and love the connection it gives me with friends and family.  Social media is probably the biggest time consumer in my life. Checking, reading, updating eats away those precious summer days.  But, not this year.  

Here is the challenge -  July & August Technology Reduction!  

1. No Facebook

2. No Twitter

3. No Pinterest

4. No Blogger

5. Limited Instagram*

*Here is my one concession.  I like to photograph and share.  I want to continue doing that.  I'm going to post a daily collage of my #techfreesummer (I understand the irony of posting tech free summer photographs on Instagram, I'm okay with that...), as well as continue to participate in any challenges I've begun (#yogangsters & #21dsd).  

Students!  You can see my summer schedule here.   Or follow on Instagram @suryayogaregina #summersurya for occasional updates on yoga related stuff.  

Students & Friends.  I encourage you to join in. 

Instead of checking in on Facebook, call a friend.  Instead of updating your status, write in a journal.  Instead of posting a photo, savour the moment in the moment.  Instead of reading a blog, read a book.  Go to the beach.  Run through the sprinkler with your kids.  Practice yoga in the backyard.  Go on a hike.  Spend time in nature.  Get some sunshine every single day.   Do all the things you did before you had a little computer permanently attached to your person.  

Feel free to document your #TechFreeSummer on Instagram along with me.  Again, irony not lost.  One photo per day - at the end of the day.  Let's make #summer2013 a summer to remember.  

See you back in September!  

Alignment - A case for attending Level 1 Yoga Classes

There seems to be a trend toward styles of yoga that are less focused on alignment.  My most popular classes are vinyasa style classes, both heated or not heated.  People like to move.  These classes feel multi purpose, you get the yoga vibe while also feeling as though you've gotten a workout in as well.  It goes quite well with the fast paced, always (digitally) connected, lifestyles most people lead.

As a practitioner, I am drawn to a vinyasa practice.  I like the flow, the syncing of movement and breath, and I like the physical challenge this style of yoga presents.  It is no wonder that I've become primarily a vinyasa instructor.  And while I love flow practices, I know that being well schooled in the principles of alignment has allowed me to move through these classes mindfully and safely.

As someone who has trained with a strong emphasis on alignment, there are certainly some moments of uneasiness while I am instructing vinyasa classes.  The practice is quick paced, the holds are often not very long, and there is usually not time for detailed explanations of alignment.  I help my students find a shape, then we work to refine from there.

It helps a great deal, when students practising vinyasa have taken some alignment style classes (often called Hatha Yoga, Discover, Level One, or Beginner) prior to attending a vinyasa class.  I can see the difference between the practices of a student who has taken the time to learn alignment compared to a student who has not.   I"ve had many conversations with students who attend hot classes & vinyasa classes exclusively and their reasoning for not attending level 1, or alignment classes is the pace of the class.  They find it challenging to watch to an instructor demonstrate or show postures, talk about them, then practice just one concept at a time.  It's different then flowing from the start of a class until the end.

This week - I've been focusing on alignment in my vinyasa classes.  We've worked through some interesting plank techniques, some arm balances, and some standing postures.  Emphasis has been on actions in the pelvis, abdomen & shoulders and how these actions influence the final expression of the posture.   We've workshopped our way through these classes, with some amazing results and transformative progress.  It's been brilliant watching the student's eyes light up as they see themselves in control of their postures & moving their practice in new directions.

Why is alignment so important?  Erich Schiffmann contends that aligning our postures correctly, allows for optimal energy flow in the body.  Good alignment reveals where we are tight, where we are weak, or injured.  It allows us to see where we need to stretch & open, strengthen or rehabilitate, "cleaning the tubes and airing out the pathways that distribute the life force".  He states that, "Stiff and tight areas of your body inhibit the free circulation of energy and there by strangle your internal supply of nourishment.  These are areas where you experience pain or discomfort to one degree or another.  They are undernourished - crying for help.  When clenched tightly this way, they remain separate, constricted, unrelated to the whole"  (p. 65 Schiffmann, Yoga, The Spirit and Practice of Moving into Stillness, 1996)

Hatha Yoga is about creating union, it's about integrating the "whole" body.  Integrating the thinking mind with the breath, with the physical and the more mysterious subtle body.  When we spend time  focusing on alignment while we practice - we find ourselves absorbed in the experience of the body.  We are engaged in creating wholeness - oneness - union.

Hot classes, or fast paced vinyasa classes may provide the practitioner with this experience of union from time to time.  The sensory experience of a hot class can provide students with a very deep sense of integration between the body and the mind.  They may also cause dis-integration.  Practitioners may find the heat becomes a barrier between the mind and the body with the mind's primary focus being on discomfort.  Fast paced vinyasa classes may simply find students doing their best to keep up, with external focus being on the other students in the room.  Sometimes the person next to you becomes your "mirror" simply because there is not enough to look inward for your practice.

How can a practitioner prevent the dis-integration that may occur in a vinyasa or hot class?  And what are the dangers of dis-integration?

Much of our modern life facilitates detaching from our body.  We sit with poor posture at a computer screen for many hours a day (and yes, I just adjusted my posture as I wrote that line), we drive cars instead of walking or biking, we don't spend enough time in nature, and we've lost touch with functional movement.  We become wrapped up in thoughts heavily influenced by attachments within our external world.  We live with illness, injury, depression & anxiety as a result.  Instead of sitting with and exploring this dis-ease, we further detach by distracting ourselves with pharmaceuticals, internet, cell phones, junk food, or television.  Dis-integration.

We are well trained to separate from our internal experience of one-ness.  Yoga helps us to retrain. It brings us back into our body.  We do this by moving in and out of postures, breathing and exploring a physical practice.  We guide ourselves through postures under the instruction of  teachers that show us where we resist wholeness.  The yoga instructor shows you how to make shapes with your body, how to align your body so that you may explore on your own.

Practitioners who take the time to learn good alignment will find more success in this exploration.  They will spend their time in a fast paced vinyasa practice absorbed in the experience of the body - not trying to figure out what body part goes where.  They will spend their time in a hot class learning to sit with discomfort while breathing through optimally aligned yoga postures.  They will have spent time with an instructor who has shown them how to move in and out of postures in a way that works for their body, safely and mindfully.   They will know where they are resisting oneness and their practice will become about exploration, and seeking union.  Not just keeping up, or coping.  It becomes more about integration, and less about physical exercise.  The practice becomes safer, more mindful, more meditative, and more like yoga.

I've spent many hours in level 1, 2, 3 classes, workshops, and worked through detailed alignment instruction during my teacher training.  I continue to learn something every time I go to a workshop, or to a level 1 class.  I set my intention to be open to learning, discovering and exploration. Even after learning tadasana alignment 5000 times, I remain open to discovery within this core standing posture.  I encourage the same of my students.  I try to integrate as much alignment instruction as I can when I teach vinyasa or hot yoga.  But sometimes I feel like I sound more like an auctioneer than a yoga instructor.

My point?  Come to level one.  Be open to sit with that slightly uncomfortable feeling of being "still" in a yoga class - and open yourself up to a whole new experience of ease, discovery, and wholeness in your practice.  Bodhi Tree has the best Level One instruction in Regina.  The teachers are smart, awesome, funny & know their stuff.

Mondays - 10:00 am with Colin Hall
Tuesdays - 7:30 pm with Dev Kashyap or Level 2 with Heather Antonini
Wednesdays - 6:00 am with Ali Bell or 5:45 pm with Colin Hall
Thursdays - 5:45 pm with Ali Bell
Saturdays - 8:00 am with Kerri Finlay or 10:00 am with Cara Gress
Sundays - 11:45 with me.

New session started this week - check it out!

Spring Schedule

Monday
Bodhi Tree Yoga 4:15 - 5:15 Yoga for Tweens (9-12)
Hot Yoga Regina  5:45 - 7:00 Surya Agni Flow (Hot Core Strength Vinyasa)

Tuesday
Bodhi Tree Yoga 10:00 - 11:30 Vinyasa 1
MNP with Inner Flow Yoga  12:00 - 1:00
Bodhi Tree Yoga 5:45 - 7:15 Core Vinyasa
Argyle Park Community Center 8:00 - 9:00 Beginner Flow Yoga (contact Argyle Park Community Association to Register)

Wednesday
Innovation Place with Inner Flow Yoga 12:00 - 1:00

Thursday
MNP with Inner Flow Yoga 12:00 - 1:00
Yoga Haven 5:30 - 6:45 Hot Flow 
Yoga Haven 7:30 - 8:45 Hot Flow 

Friday
YMCA North 9:30 - 10:30 Vinyasa
Bodhi Tree Yoga 5:15 - 6:15 Warm Yin
Bodhi Tree Yoga 6:30 - 7:30 Hot Yoga

Sunday 
Bodhi Tree Yoga 10:00 - 11:30 Hips & Hamstrings
Bodhi Tree Yoga 11:45 - 1:15 Level One

Setting Intention

What is intention?  What are goals?  How do we differentiate them from one another?  What does it mean to set your "intention" before your practice?  How can you begin to cultivate the life you want? I've spent the last couple days pondering this thought - feeling like I need to offer more that just the cliche phrases to my students - so this week we are looking at intention more closely.  Our practice will be core strength focused (what's new?) as we strive to bring manipura chakra into balance.

Some reading for you. 

Join me in this exploration:

Thursday April 4 @ Yoga Haven for Hot Flow - 5:30/7:30
Friday April 5 @ Bodhi Tree Yoga for Warm Yin & Hot Yoga (full) 5:15/6:30
Monday April 8 @ Hot Yoga Regina for Surya Agni Flow 5:45
Tuesday April 9 @ Bodhi Tree Yoga for Core Vinyasa 5:45 and Argyle Park Community for beginner vinyasa 8pm
Wednesday April 10@Bodhi Tree Yoga for Restorative Vinyasa 10:00am and @Hot Yoga Regina for Surya Agni Flow 7:30

See you on the mat.

White Lotus Photo Shoot

Here are some images from my photo shoot with Melissa of White Lotus Photography.  Photographed at Bodhi Tree Studio in Regina.

siddhasana

namaste

paschimottanasana

trikonasana

utthita parsvakonasana

eka pada urdvha dhanurasana (yes!) 

ustrasana

adho mukha svanasana

transition into lunge

eka pada adho mukha svanasana

lunge

gomukasana with garudasana arms - garukasana?? 

gomukasana

For the yoga clothing junkies!  I'm wearing black lulu wonder unders & tank, lulu tank with Kobieta leggings & tonic tank with the perfect tonic hot yoga shorts! Tonic gear available at Bodhi Tree Studio!

New Classes Starting this week!!

I have a couple of new classes starting this week!

Restorative Vinyasa - at Bodhi Tree Yoga on Wednesdays at 10:00 - 11:30am.  This is a flowing, gentle class with a focus on finding stillness in the mind while opening & gently stretching & strengthening the body.  Suitable for all practitioners.  Drop ins are welcome.


Hot Flow Yoga - Yoga Haven on Thursdays 5:30 & 7:30pm.   This is a powerful & gloriously sweaty practice. This class gives students a dynamic vinyasa practice combined with a fun playlist and a bit of philosophy to tie it all together.