Strength vs. Strength

Tomorrow is the summer solstice! Tomorrow is also International Yoga Day!

Since becoming a yoga teacher my day to day life is like one huge reflection fest so it only seems fitting that I would be super reflective on the eve of a yoga holiday.

Before yoga, the summer solstice, or any change of season really, didn’t mean as much to me as it does now. I won’t go into too much detail but it’s a time to change and a time to reflect and I have done a ton of that in the last few years, but I’ve noticed it even more just this year.

When I was living in Virginia I learned about completing sun salutations as a way to celebrate the change of seasons. Because 108 is a sacred yogic number, the practice is to complete 108 sun salutations; it takes about 2 hours. I completed my first 108 in winter of 2017 and have done it every change of season since.

At the start of this year I did something else new that I had never done before; I set an intention for the year. This year my intention was “Strength.” When I set it I was thinking physical strength. I am an active, fitness-y person so I was thinking I would maybe up the ante a bit and push myself harder. That was my mindset as the year began. In February I spent the month at the ashram, where I did my teacher training, as a teacher for a YTT. I knew that being there would change me and make me even more reflective, especially being on the teaching side of things.

Flash forward to the spring equinox and I’m in the middle of doing another 108. That’s when it hit me. I thought to myself around number 40, “This is going to be my last 108.” I spent the next 70ish sun salutations thinking about how the term “strength” didn’t mean physical. I was in the middle of a physical strength exercise telling myself that the strength was my ability to let go of the 108. It had nothing to do with the fact that completing 108 chaturangas is demanding and hard, but I just didn’t NEED it anymore. Whatever I was getting out of the completing them before was rapidly exiting my body with each downward facing dog.

The time between now and then has continued to show me that I have the strength for so many other things. I had the strength to teach my first Yin class about a week ago. I had never thought I was comfortable doing it before but I went for it and loved it! I have the strength to start my own support group at the studio. And I have had to use an enormous amount of strength in my asana practice to let go of the ego and do what my body needs rather than what everyone else is doing. I used to be the girl who would always add a pushup and never skip a vinyasa. Now I modify if I feel like it, go deeper if my body allows, and just go with the flow. In my opinion, that takes more strength.

So what am I going to do to celebrate the solstice? I am going to spend the morning alone in my yoga room and complete a japa chant and meditation. This is something I have never done alone and at home on my own so it will be a completely new experience for me. After, I will teach my regular Friday class and then probably have a Starbucks and do some more reflecting.

Happy Solstice!

From Guide to Teacher #NamasteTuesday

I became a yoga teacher a little over a year ago. And I know that even though I am not certified, I am still a teacher. But when I tell people that I teach I sometimes use the word “guide” rather than teacher because I am not certified. I tend to get self-conscious about using the word “teacher” because I have never been formally trained. I have attended classes, but I am mostly self-taught. I have never been taught how to teach, I just gave it a try and found out I am pretty darn good at it. And while I feel confident as a teacher/guide, there are still some aspects of teaching a class that I could use a bit more confidence. Well…the time has finally arrived.

I am going to officially get my 200 hour yoga certification next month! WOOO!!!!

I have been talking about doing it for a while. Not only to be more confident when I teach, but mostly for myself. There is only so much that you can teach yourself. And there is sooooooo much more that I have to learn. But there have always been obstacles. First of course is money. It ain’t cheap to get your certification. The second obstacle has been scheduling. Although I don’t work and you would think I have all the time in the world, I don’t. Especially on the weekends. And yoga cert classes are not on YOUR schedule. Most of them are only one weekend a month; Friday evening, all day Saturday, and all day Sunday. Even though that’s only one weekend a month we have to work around, that’s a lot of work. And we only have one car and a kid. So making sure my husband is going to be home on time for me to drive for an hour and make it to class, and then if my daughter had somewhere to be on the weekend…you get it. One weekend can really mess things up. We were, of course, going to make it work, but it was going to be tough. Until the Kula Kamala Foundation popped up on our search.

One other quick thing that was going to be tough with the other classes, a lot of them required that you go to their studios at least once a week to attend a class. Again, I would have to really rework my schedule to be able to do this. Oh, another thing, it seemed to me that a lot of the classes are also geared towards getting your certification so you can turn around the find a job as a teacher. I don’t need that. Sure, in the future my certification will make it easier to get a job, but at this point I am not looking for ways to market myself. So….

There were a couple classes that I was going to settle for. We were going to make it work. And then Kula Kamala came up. I don’t even know how my husband found it because it isn’t local. But this was THE one. This one has everything I was looking for and more. First, it’s not as expensive, and let’s be honest, that is always a plus. Second, it’s all done in one month. One super long, intense month, but no big schedule changes. Including not having to find child care because my daughter is on her own vacation until school starts. Double win! Third, and this is the pretty cool part, I am going to live and be fed at the school for the entire time, and that’s part of the tuition. And four, this class seems to be more about the spiritual side of yoga, while also teaching you how to guide others. This is going to be so crazy and awesome!

I have never done something like this. I have never lived on my own. I have never done something like this where I leave the family for an extended period of time. And I’ve never imagined I’d go off to live in Pennsylvania with a bunch of other yogi weirdos (I’m definitely one of those so I am not making fun of anyone) for a month. It’s going to be fantastic. I am going to be mingling with my people. I am going to be completely immersed in yoga for a month. And I get to experience a ton of things I have never had the chance to before.

I am also going to be vegan for the month. The food served is all local or homegrown at the school and it’s all vegan or vegetarian. I am honestly not sure what there will be that is vegetarian, (milk?) so I am going to assume that it will be almost 100% vegan. I am pretty excited about this too. When I think about eating a vegan diet I always say, “That would be great…if someone else made the food for me.” You want to cook vegan for me? Perfect. I have to prepare everything and buy new things and learn new recipes? No thanks. So the fact that I will be eating this way because it’s what is being put in front of me is going to make it a helluva lot easier to try. Not like I’ll have a choice, LOL! But I am honestly excited. I have not, until now, realized that most of the yogis I know or follow online are all vegan. So it will be interesting to see what it does for my mind. I am very eager to see what it does for my skin, if anything. I suffer from acne and cannot figure out what the hell causes it. Maybe it is something in animal products. I have read about it being caused by dairy but I do not eat a ton of dairy. But you never know.

You won’t see a blog from me in a while since I’ll be very busy, but I will definitely find time to journal and blog when I return.

The next time you see me, I should will be able to say with confidence, “I am a yoga TEACHER.”

And for fun, here’s me smiling while inverted. 🙂

Winner! Winner!!

I didn’t eat my chicken for dinner!!! LOL!!! This is not a farm post; it’s a yoga post! I am a yoga winner!!

You know how I am always blogging about the yoga challenges on Instagram? Previously I always thought that the point of these challenges was just to promote, network, and work on yoga. I think I even wrote once that there was really no end game, this was just a way for me to practice poses I may not usually do. And I’ve made a lot of new “friends” and learned a lot from watching all kinds of different people do their own variations of the poses. Anyway…turns out there are winner of these challenges! What?! And guess who won? Yours truly!! Gah!! It was so awesome!

That’s me up there in the right hand corner!!! Of course as soon as I won I text Isis! Then my husband! I was happy with just being recognized! How awesome! Out of however many different people from all over the world who participated, they chose me as a winner! Awesome!! Then it got better. I learned that I would get a prize! I was totally expecting a gift certificate or a coupon. But no. I won a yoga wheel! No questions asked. (Well, they asked for my address. LOL!!) WHAT?!?!

This thing is awesome! I had never tried a wheel but had seen them used in various ways. This one is from https://www.shaktiyogawheel.com/ and it’s amazeballs! It’s super strong and durable and has yoga mat all the way around for comfort and stability.

I didn’t even warm up before I used it. I just hopped right into a backbend and ohhhh emmmmm geeee!! It felt soooooooo good! I sighed the longest sigh of comfort!! I never knew I needed this wheel until today.

Currently doing two more yoga challenges this month. It’s making for a very well-rounded practice having to try all new things. And again, it is so rewarding just to participate, try new things, push myself, and have a blast with other yogis.

And I totally forgot,  I was gifted a new shirt yesterday.  It’s kinda the most perfect shirt ever. #hippiesoul

The Most Epic Yoga Transformation

Guys!!! This is going to be awesome! I hope you feel even just a little tiny bit of what I am feeling after accomplishing something in the yoga world today! I am so excited! But I also want to tell you guys how long it took me to get here.

You know when you’re browsing Instagram (and other various sites but a lot on that one), you see people in these super difficult yoga poses and they make it look so easy. You know what you don’t see? YEARS of practice leading up to that point. Yes, some people are more flexible than others and just have a naturally bendy back. Yes, some people have incredible arm strength without lifting weights. But most of them, most of us, have been practicing over, and over, and over, and not always posting the fails or mistakes.

I am guilty of posting all the “good” stuff but I have also posted quite a few fails or work-in-progress photos. So you shouldn’t be too surprised to know that I have put in the work. I have practiced the same poses over and over and thought that there were some I would never be able to do. Let’s look back at one of those.

April 14, 2015. I was hanging out with Isis and doing fun yoga stuff. She had just mastered “flying lizard” and asked me to try it. Look at this train wreck…

We joked that we should have a safe word in case I got stuck. I used the safe word!!! LOL!! I was so stuck and didn’t even know how I managed to get into this half-eaten pretzel predicament. We even made a collage of she and I to show off our “skills.”

Since then I have tried this countless times and was never able to get it. A few things…I could never get my bottom foot around my arm and off the floor. I SWORE that my calves must be too big and I’d never get it because I couldn’t wrap my leg around. I also couldn’t ever get my back foot off the ground without my head being on the ground. This takes so much strength in so many places. Even though I was 100% sure I’d never get it, I stuck it out. I kept trying. In the meantime, I also worked on other arm balances to fill the hole of flying lizard.

So here we are. 2 whole years later. That’s a long time. I have been able to stick some other arm balances and so I thought I’d try this again. Well, today was the day. 2 effing years later. Scroll up to look at the fail photo again just so you can really appreciate the transformation…go ahead….I’ll wait….

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Here it is! In all it’s flying glory!

AHHHHHH!!! I DID IT!!!!! OMG OMG OMG!!!! Seriously!!! I can’t even!!!!

Basically, guys, don’t give up! Practice makes progress!!! Keep going! Practice til your arms fall off!! DON’T STOP!!!

Namaste. 🙂

Overflowing with Joy #NamasteTuesday

A quick post before I go to bed because my heart is seriously swelled up so big!

First on the list, after Thursday’s yoga class one of the ladies asked who was teaching Saturday’s class.  I told her me and she said she’d be sure to come. She came because I was leading.

Second, I  had 6 ladies in my Saturday class! Wooohooo!!! After class, one of my chair regulars was double checking which Thursday’s I’m teaching so she can make sure to come. Again,  she’s coming because of me. 

Third, my first online class with a friend was perfect!  We’re planning to do it every Wednesday!

And last, the super terrific reason I’m overflowing with joy and love…. remember that guy that came to my Saturday class last month?  Well, that was his first yoga class. He was visiting his sister,  a chair regular,  and then headed back home.  The first thing he did back in his hometown was join the Y yoga class! Ahhh!!! So awesome!  But wait,  there’s more. He met a lady in class and they are now dating.  All because he tried my class!! His sister told me that story tonight during class and I about broke down.  I haven’t smiled that big in ages. That story seriously warmed my heart and made me incredibly happy and proud.  That took an insane amount of confidence to join a class and then approach someone in that class. Gah!! So much love!

Good night,  lovelies!! 😚

Aspire to Inspire #NamasteTuesday

A couple days ago in my health support group, a friend posted a fill in the blank status that said, “I am inspired by________. I aspire to__________.” The answer came to me easily…

I am inspired by other yogis and their journeys. I aspire to be as inspiring.

I think I am in the right track. I get so much positive feedback from my IG posts and the people that come to my yoga classes. I am also getting a bunch of friends and family members asking me how to get started with yoga. They all tell me that I inspire them to get started and that I am very encouraging. And that all makes me so happy. Seeing other people discover the beauty of yoga is inspiring!

I got this message from my cousin last week…

The Mexican angry is the best part! One, I totally get that, and two, it’s such a yoga thing to become less reactive. I continued the conversation telling her about a recent Facebook post I commented on and how not reacting was something I was so proud of. The post was political and while everyone else stomped on me and told me how wrong I was, I stood my ground while being positive and never getting mad or speaking down to the other commenters. A couple years ago I would have started a “Facebook War” and definitely would have gotten Mexican angry. I eventually left the conversation quietly because I “let things go.” That really made some of the commenters mad, lol.

My most favorite philosophy in yoga is “Practice make progress.” I love to teach that idea to others. I love when people tell me that they can see differences in their balance, posture, poses, and mood. That all comes from practice. Here’s one of my most recent progress posts.

The bottom photo was a neat morning. I was just doing my yoga thing, not planning to practice kapotasana (full pigeon), but it happened in my flow and it felt right.

I am doing another IG challenge. This one is called #PinchaQueens. A couple weeks full of all kinds of forearm stand prep and actual pincha. Today is pincha with bow and arrow legs.

A couple days ago was pincha with a prop. Most people used a yoga wheel but since I didn’t have one I decided this was a great time to do some yoga with my chickens. (Watch my video here or check the side bar for the video on my IG.) It was a great morning. I tried so many times to get a good take but my balance was way off and Hagrid was just over it. The video was around take 5 and it still didn’t work. Hagrid was a great sport though so she got lots of cuddles.

That evening my daughter found my farmer Barbie and said, “Look, mom. I made you!” She is really my number one fan with yoga stuff. She makes fun of me and likes to tell me I’m showing off, but I know one day she’ll understand it all.

While so much of my yoga is for me, I do hope to continue to teach others and inspire. It really does bring my happiness.

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12 Days of Yogamas #NamasteTuesday

Happy New Year, everyone!!! Welcome to the first blog post of 2017!!! Right back at it!

Over the holiday break I wanted to do something fun with yoga. I decided to do the #12DaysofYogamas where I did a pose that sort of went along with the “12 Days of Christmas” song. I cheated and looked online for help when I couldn’t figure out what to do but it ended up pretty awesome. The best part? My good friend Shari joined me! She’s a new yogi and is already embracing yoga and is doing awesome. I cannot wait to watch her journey. I think this must be what Isis feels like with me.

On the first day of Yogmas my true love gave to me, a partridge in a pear tree.

On the second day…you know the song… turtle doves. We did pigeon for this one and like always I took the king variation. I love it too much.

Our French hens look like crows. 😉

For calling birds we did bird of paradise. This was only my second time trying this pose. I think I did fine but I did not stretch. Let me tell you how important warming up and stretching is when you’re doing yoga. I pinched something and had a knot in my back for a week. Not cool. Warm up, people!!!

Fiiiiivvveeee golden rings!!! Wheel of course!

Geese-a-laying was one of those hard ones where you can’t quite figure out what to do. I thought about doing a low squat so it would look like I was laying egg but went with child’s pose instead. Do I kind of look like a sleeping goose? LOL!!

Swans-a-swimming! Swan is a neat pose. Lots of balance.

The ONLY time it’s okay to associate milking a cow with a mom. Just sayin’.

Dancing ladies!!

For Lords-a-leaping I really had no clue what to do. I also got really busy this day and never posted or text Shari to tell her what the pose was. So she picked one and told ME what to do. So proud! And she picked a great pose!

How do you do yoga to look like someone playing an instrument? You don’t. You just choose a pose like Warrior 1.

For the 12th day, Christmas Day, I didn’t do yoga. But I did post a photo of Isis and I decorated as trees! (Hers is so much cuter than mine)

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Something I forgot about was this challenge that was floating around about a month ago called #WriteinPincha. You actually have to write something while in a forearm stand. Seems easy right? Not one bit! Holding a pen and focusing on writing rather than balancing totally throws you off, you guessed it, balance. I started by getting up and then grabbing the pen. Every time I grabbed the pen I’d fall. It didn’t even occur to me to hold the pen and then get up. But I did manage to put the pen to paper and smile. I didn’t actually write anything but I smiled.

Right before the new year I did that #BestNine of 2016 on Instagram thingy. Not surprised that all 9 photos were yoga photos. 2016 was the year of backbends. I predict this year will be the year of arm balances. We shall see!!!

Annnndddd….before I go…my first pose of 2017. Chair on a chair! This is a giant chair outside Duck Donuts where we enjoyed hot, fresh, custom donuts. MMMMMM!!!!!

Naked Yoga (No Actual Nudity) #NamasteTuesday

I have wanted to write about this for a while but wasn’t exactly sure if I could express my feelings, but I’m going to try anyway. Backstory…

I follow the a lot of yoga people on Instagram and a lot of them post naked yoga photos. They are unique and they really show a different side of yoga. One poster is Tattooedyogimama. Everything she posts is unique! And every single photo she posts, naked or not, has a positive message about body image and/or soul image. I look forward to her daily posts. That said, I don’t really understand some of the other nude or scantily clad yoga posters. Some are definitely beautiful and tasteful, but there are soooooo many other people who post wearing tiny shorts or underwear and I get the feeling that they just want to show their butt on IG and look sexy. Not all, but some. For me personally, not wearing a shirt or posting a photo in my bathing suit is a bit risqué. Maybe it’s the mom in me, maybe I’m just not comfortable, maybe I like to keep things to myself. Maybe it’s that I don’t see yoga as sexy. So the thought of ME doing yoga while naked never really occurred to me.

Flash forward to a couple weeks ago when I had an arm balance breakthrough!!

That’s me doing EPK2 or Eka Pada Koundinyasana II. After I sent the photo to Isis I sent it to my husband who was away for work. Because he’s my husband he replied with, “You should do that naked.” So I got naked and did it again. I really did not expect what happened next.

You know how when you post photos online or even send one to your significant other, you always pick the best one. You edit it to make yourself look better. You highlight it to hide imperfections. And you ALWAYS add a filter. My husband has seen me naked a gazillion times, but I still make sure that I hide the zit on my chin and take a photo of the other side of my face when I want to share a smile with him or show him my new shirt or something. He has seen my imperfections and still loves me but I continue to edit photos and send him the best angle because that’s just what I do. Maybe I have some deep seeded model aspirations because I have always been too short to be a model. LOL! Point is, I/we are always striving to look our best in photos. Here’s where the naked yoga photo comes in. I sent it to my husband without a single edit. I didn’t lighten anything, I didn’t retake the photo, I just attached it and sent it on it’s way. And I didn’t even think of editing it. The thought never crossed my mind.

Of course afterwards I started to closely examine the photo and look for imperfections, but guess what? I didn’t find any. I saw nothing but beauty. I saw a strong woman. I saw muscles. I saw a mom. I saw myself doing something I love. I didn’t see someone sexy. Even though the initial thought was me being sexy for my husband, it ended up not being that at all. So a few days later I did it again.

This time I did a little naked flow first. Not wearing clothes during yoga feels so much less binding. You don’t have clothing getting in your way. That alone makes the whole flow better. You aren’t worried about your shirt moving up or your pants riding down. You can focus better and concentrate.

I took a photo of myself doing full dancer this time. I looked at it and my first thought was, “I look just like my painting!”

The artist in me got giddy and excited. A few months ago I painted this figure doing full dancer. The figure isn’t necessarily naked, but it’s a depiction of the raw pose; no clothes, just the pose. This is what I saw of myself. Raw, free, unbound, exposed, gah!! I can’t really even describe it. I am sitting here trying to think of more words to describe the feels I was getting but I just can’t. It’s like I was saying in my Thankful for Yoga post… “it isn’t about using your body to learn a pose, it’s about using a pose to learn about your body.” Maybe that can help with understanding the feelings.

I sent this photo to my husband and I said, “isn’t it fantastic?” I then told him thank you for asking me for a naked yoga photo. It did more for me than I ever thought it would. It opened up a new door in my yoga world. Again, it wasn’t about being sexy. It became more about, look at my body! Look what I can do with this body! Look at what the mother of your child can do. I made a human with this body. I was an unhealthy girl and have become a strong, healthy woman.

Of course now I am trying to get Isis to try this so that see can experience the same feelings I have. She has a friend that only does naked yoga when she’s alone and has even gone to a naked yoga retreat. The thought of doing this in a group did in fact cross my mind. Not sure if I’d ever actually do it, but I know it would be life changing. I know that everyone there would be feeling the exact same way as me and it’s something we would spiritually share. Maybe that’s another way to try to describe this…spiritual. Maybe I should stop trying to explain it. Maybe I should just tell you that I recommend it. Don’t do it for the IG followers. Don’t do it because you want to be sexy. Don’t do it just because I tell you to. Do it for you. After all, one of my favorite things to tell people is “yoga is for you.”

Namaste.

 

 

 

 

LDYBFF #NamasteTuesday

LDYBFF= Long Distance Yoga BFF. That’s what Isis and I call each other. Once I moved away and we couldn’t play anymore, we had to come up with some way to continue our yoga friendship. Most of our time is still spent talking about yoga. We share each other’s successes and failures and constantly send each other pictures and videos of what we’re doing and trying. But how do we show the world our love for each other and yoga? By doing fun yoga mirror pictures to share all over social media, duh.

I am not sure which one of us came up with the idea first. I think she sent me a photo of some girls making the heart and we just thought it would fun to do it. Now that I think about it, I know exactly how it started.  (forgive the poor quality photos. I am copying from the interwebs and reposting and it takes away a bunch of quality each time you save)

Before I moved, we went on a mini trip to San Diego together and tried the above photo. I just had to make a meme out of the awesome fail. I’m going to go on record and say that, that is when this started. We also did this one…

The above ones aren’t yoga related but we finally got around to that. Here’s our first yoga one.

Before I was doing inversions and arm balances, we started with something a bit simpler. Isis was at the beach when we talked about this one and we loved the idea of her being a mermaid at the beach, plus we love the idea that we live in totally different places now (desert vs forest) and we like to show that in the comparison photos.

In this one we were clinking wine glasses of water. We kept looking for friend photos like these and we saw one of ladies clinking wine glasses. We are both mimosa drinkers and were going to do that but at the time of photo taking, Isis was at a yoga studio without champagne access so we went with cleansing, refreshing, rejuvenating water.

Before the next set of long distance photos, we got to see each other!!! So we did lots of stuff together!!!

Talk about fun!!!!! But then I left again. Now we’re doing them sort of seasonally.

This was our first arm balance photo!! Eight Angle pose for summer!

Next was our end of summer pose. Scorpion!

 

For our fall pose, we made another heart, but this time while doing a backbend (my fave).

And now that it’s Christmas time, we had to do something with a Christmas theme!

It’s so awesome to be able to continue to do yoga “together” even though we live 3000 miles away from each other. We still learn from each other, well, I learn from Isis, and we grow together. And look at the progress in these photos. We went from standing up and  leaning to the side to inversions! I can’t wait to see what the new year brings for our LDYBFF posts. And maybe the military will bring us closer together again and we can do more together, like for real together. You just never know.

 

Yoga in a Chair

I had no idea that this yoga road was on my path called LIFE. The very first time I took a yoga class I loved it. It was slow and calming. The poses were easy. If I got tired I could just go into child’s pose and rest. But the second time I tried? I hated it. Like, super hated it. They did planks all the time and down dog was a resting pose. How is down dog a resting pose? It would be about 7 years until I decided to try yoga again. The only reason I did was because a new friend was the instructor. Boy, am I glad I did. My life is forever changed because I got over my yoga fear and took a chance.

Flash forward to another road on my path…teaching yoga. I never ever would have thought this would be something I would do. I never thought I would get such a rush out of people showing up to my class and letting me guide them through a practice. And I really didn’t think that I would have my own beginner class where I teach yoga while sitting in a chair. It continues to amaze me how life works. How one little thing can lead up to so many bigger things. How one trip to the local library to print something in a town with no internet would help mold me into the yogi I am today.

The town I live in is in the middle of nowhere. Lots of farming, lots of open space, no neighborhoods, no sidewalks. It’s also an area where houses are occupied for generations. You don’t find a “new” family living in the houses. Well, I take that back, because we are THAT family. You don’t normally find that because these houses aren’t normally rented out. Families have lived on properties for generations and they continue to. The people I meet at the library/community center all know each other and their kids know each other and their grandparents all knew each other. The reason I am telling you all this is because it paints a picture of the yoga community, or lack there of. There are no fancy studios. There are no expensive memberships. And there aren’t too many youngsters. I think I might be the youngest person who comes to the classes.

The other yoga teacher, who also teaches an exercise class, practically begged me to teach. She had mentioned needing a sub someday and I volunteered. I thought my teaching days would just be that; the occasional leading. I taught one class and she was telling me to have my own class. I thought about it, tried to tell myself not to do it, and then I was like, “F*** it! Let’s do this!” Sometimes that’s the best way to do things; jump right in! I found out later that part of her agenda was to try to get more people to come to the community center. Not only that, she knows the benefits of yoga and knows that yoga can really help with strength and balance for the older community. She wasted no time trying to recruit people to my class.

The downside? They see me, young yogi, and get scared. It does not matter how many times I tell someone that I didn’t look like this when I started or that you don’t have to be flexible. I can shout all day that I won’t fold you into a pretzel but they just won’t hear it. That’s when the idea of chair yoga came up.

Do you know that you can do a ton of yoga while sitting in a chair? It’s true! And you still get a really good workout while stretching and breathing and working on balance and flexibility. We decided to try the class for the month of November to see if we got any fresh blood. We advertised a bunch and talked to a ton of people about it. November 1st was the first class. I walked in and there were 8 people in my class! 8!!! My normal class usually has between 1 and 3 people. I walked in and shouted, “Oh my gosh! I’m so excited!!!” It was so fantastic! This week will be my 4th class and people are still coming back! It’s not 8 people every time, but it’s not 1 or 3 either!! People coming back is such a huge compliment!! And the feedback is all positive too. One lady says that she can already feel her balance getting better and (don’t tell the Tai Chi teacher) she likes my class more than the Tai Chi class! Ahh!! So awesome!!

My Tuesday class is now going to be Chair Yoga every week. There has been such overwhelming enthusiasm that there is no way I would switch it back now. And it gives me a chance to continue to share yoga with others. That really does bring me joy each week! And I get to see people’s progress. Once I start adding new things into our routine I am excited to see how everyone starts to gain more flexibility. I’ll bend these ladies into pretzels in no time!!