A new meaning of contentment or Santosha

Some people including myself don’t know how fortunate we are until we lose something.  It might be a loved one, a job, and in my case the ability to bike and practice yoga.  Patanjali wrote in the Yoga Sutras about being content in your life and he called it Santosha.  Santosha is something I have been finding hard to understand.  From trying to be the fastest on my bicycle racing team to trying perform a down dog and jump into a crow.  This month has taught me to be content in my life and never take things for granted. 

This story starts while attending a road race in Eucha, Oklahoma on April 24, 2012.   My friend KC had asked  me to go with him to Eucha and even offered to drive, I couldn’t say no, and I was looking forward to racing with my friend.  My wife would normally go with me to the race, but she was on a trip to Belize with Oklahoma State University to teach health literacy.  It started out like many of my bicycle races, I would eat plenty of food, drink water to hydrate, and warm up. The race started with some climbing and descending around the beautiful country side.  I was laughing and talking to everyone in the race about the weather and the group was taking turns trying to drop the other riders.  With twenty miles left to go I felt my legs getting tired and my body was having trouble making it up the 1.5 mile ascends.  I noticed KC had dropped off the back-end of the group with exhaustion.  I turned around to find him and slowed down to wait for him to catch up to me.  Now it was just him and me with no way to win this race.  But it was not about winning today, it was about having fun with the friends I have come to know through racing.  With five miles to go until the finish I figured I would push my body to the limit and get the blood flowing.  Some of the other racers had caught up to me and I latched onto the back-end of them for the last climb of the day.  I started this last climb in great form.  My heart rate was in the 150′s and I was feeling great.  I pumped and pumped the pedals while swaying my bike back and forth.  I stood up out of my saddle and could see the end of this hill.  I thought it was almost over with only two miles to go until the finish.  But then something happened and I don’t know what.  All I remember is waking up in the hospital with doctors and my friends KC and Renee by my side.  I came to in a hospital room with no idea how I got there.  The doctors asked me the normal questions, “Who is the president and where do I live.”  I could not remember any of those answers and started to get concerned.  I asked what had happened ?  No one knew, all they could tell me was that I was lying in the middle of the road unconscious.  An ambulance had been called, and had brought me to the hospital.  They did a CAT scan to check for any injuries to my head but I don’t remember any of it.  I noticed my legs were all scraped up, my pinkie finger was bent and swollen, and my shoulder was separated.  Once I was released from the hospital Renee and KC drove me back to Tulsa.  I had many unanswered questions.  For instance, what happened on the road and how did it happen?  Was it dehydration, blood sugar level, exhaustion, or heart rate? 

After visiting with my primary doctor, I went to Tulsa Bone And Joint to have them look at my finger and shoulder.  It was confirmed that I had  not only fractured but had turned the bone in my finger. I had also separated my shoulder.  The doctor explained that he would have to put pins in my hand to get it to set properly.  While in surgery they had me hooked up to an ECG machine and noticed something irregular with my heart beat.  The nurse turned to me and asked, “How did you do all this?”  I explained I don’t remember because I blacked out during the race.  She said, “Do you know your heart beat is irregular right now?”  No I said.  After my hand surgery they made an appointment for me to see a cardiologist the following week to follow-up. 

This gets me back to the word, Santosha.  Today I lay in my bed thankful for my accident.  God had a purpose for the accident.  I am just thankful I am here to blog about it.  From now on I’m going to be content and thankful for every passing day that I can experience in life whether on a bike, a yoga mat, or just being. God has given me a new direction.  This incident has forced me into a new way of living.  It may be awhile before I can race again or even be able to jump into a crow pose.  This crash was caused by a heart condition, and I would have not known about it till much later had the crash not happened. God has given me a gift.  Without my heart I cannot live and love the important things that occur every day in my beautiful life.   Thank you God.

Flying around Phoenix

This is my first blog of the 2012 yoga year.  And Phoenix did not disappoint.  I arrived in Phoenix on Monday to look for another yoga studio to start my year.  I found many yoga studios within walking but one stood out from the rest, Ra Yoga an AntiGravity style of yoga.   Developed by former gymnast and dancer Christopher Harrison, AntiGravity Yoga provides a workout that allows you to stretch and strengthen without overstressing your joints or compressing your vertebrae. The key to AntiGravity Yoga is the hammock, a swath of silky fabric that acts as your support system. Using the hammock, you learn to invert and hang suspended in the air.  I was telling all my friends about this studio that had red hammocks suspended from the ceiling and they all could not wait for my blog about this place to come out.  Well now I had to go.  A funny thing occurred while I was preparing to leave.  I didn’t know what to wear?  Do I take my yoga mat?  Do I need gloves?  Am I able to do this?  But I went ahead and got my normal yoga clothes on and grabbed my mat for my walk to Ra Yoga.

Ra Yoga is a large 10,000 square foot industrial warehouse near the stadium in downtown Phoenix.  A large white building that did not have many doors.  But the door I could find said, “Ra Yoga entrance is on the opposite side.”  I kept walking around the building until I saw a woman carrying a yoga mat strapped to her back.  I was glad she walked by and I started to follow her, hoping she knew where she was going.  But I lost her behind the building and was back on my own.  I again saw a sign that read Ra Yoga and proceeded to enter a door.  I walked into a sort of gallery that had new age music coming from the sound system of the room.  I knew I was in the right place but now what?  I saw another sign that pointed to the right.  I went further down the white hall way until I came across some stairs but there was no sign.  I heard people doing something with fabric at the end of the hallway but I figured I will just walk up the stairs.  I arrived on the second floor and saw another sign that pointed to a corner of the building and saw the person I was trying to follow.  Her name was Kathleen  and she said, “hello, are you here to fly?”  Fly? I was now getting to try something not many people have experienced.  She said, “Once you try it you will be addicted.”  I took my shoes off and walked into this room with red pieces of cloth suspended from the ceiling with rope.  Yep this is not a normal yoga class.  I met a man named Roman Acevedo.  Roman was a tall, very muscular man who asked if I had a reservation.  I had never made a reservation for a yoga class but it only made sense since there are only enough hammocks for a certain number of people.  I said no but Roman said that he could get me in.  Roman then explained to me the use of the hammock and sized it for my height.  To be honest I had no idea how I was going to be able to use a hammock during my practice because I don’t even like to use props.  But I sat in sukhasana while people walked in to start. 

Alexandra Bruin , the instructor, came in the room with a great attitude and a beautiful voice.  The kind of voice I wish I could have.  The voice that sounded soothing and almost melodic.  It was beautiful.  She talked more about the hammocks and how they could aid in alignment and support. 

We started the class pulling our bodies into the hammock.   I was able to lay in the silk until you could not see any more of my body parts.  Almost like a cocoon.  Alex said, just lay in the hammock with your arms crossed like a mummy and bring yourself to your breath.  I was so comfortable that I did not want to get out.  After spending around five minutes listening to Alex talk about how to use pranayama and let thoughts that arise flow out of our head like clouds in the sky passing by.  Next, Alex wanted us to start our class with intention to our practice.  Mine today was satya, truthfulness to my body.  We then stood up started a series of yoga postures using the silk.  From plank pose to mountain pose, the use of this hammock was getting to be fun.  I swung front to back from pose to pose like a kid in a playground.  The silk was a support that was used as a band around my hips to swing.  We did other poses for instance triangle pose and warrior I pose while using the silk as a way to make smooth transitions between all the asanas.  The challenge started when we moved onto inverted poses.  A asana called Dracula was a pose that I could only take pictures to describe.  Roman then demonstrated our final inverted pose which again can only be described in pictures. We then ended back into savasana in to hammock for a few minutes. 

After the class I was so happy that I participated in the class that I wanted Roman to take a picture of me performing two asanas  to describe what this style was about.  Roman had a couple of pictures of me practicing a few asanas and sent them to me.  Afterwards I got the honor to talk to Roman about his yoga studio and location. Roman, Alex, and DeLene took me on a guided tour and explained his new passion of his new company Ra-Apparel in the same warehouse.  He had a sewing room, a room where he was dying his fabrics, and a photography studio to take pictures of the clothes.  Roman’s idea was to do everything underneath one roof to control quality and expenses.   He purchased this industrial warehouse to start manufacturing clothing for under privileged children.  With the help of former incarcerated people sewing, cutting, and dyeing fabrics he is making a change in lives in Phoenix.  Roman I cannot tell you enough how I was surprised of your actions and dharma about giving back.  I have never met someone who has gone so far out of the norm to bring happiness in the lives of so many people.  You even brought happiness into my life knowing that there are people in this world like you that are bringing good karma to the people they don’t even know.  The next time I am in Phoenix I will look forward to see the progress you and your company have made.  Thank you again Roman, Kathleen, DeLene, and Alex for the incredible yoga class to start off my year. 

Two weeks I will be in Ottawa, Canada looking for another great studio.

Namaste

My Yoga Year Around North America

I have a very interesting life flying from place to place from one hotel to another. I started traveling at the age of 18 toting my suitcase around the world. At the age of 34 I found my yoga practice and it has changed my life. I started my practice with the simple DVDs and books and then progressed to my favorite style Ashtanga yoga. This year my yoga practice has done a 180 degree turn on my life. This would not have happened if it was not for my travels to many cities and the people I have met this year.

While in Scottsdale, Arizona earlier this year I passed a yoga studio and asked myself “why was I not doing yoga with these people”. I thought it would be fun to go to another yoga class outside my home state of Oklahoma. I then asked myself “I wonder how much different this studio would be compared to my familiar studios I have been to in Oklahoma”. This brings me to this blog I started just a few weeks later. I wanted to blog about the different styles of yoga around North America.

My first blog entry started at a beautiful yoga studio in Fayetteville, Arkansas while I was doing a show for the Dalai Lama. It was called The Arkansas Yoga Center. Built will beautiful wood and vaulted ceilings. To this day I still think that this studio is the most beautiful studio I have been to. When I got back from my practice, I could not wait to get started with my first blogging experience. Not ever written anything since my early years at school I had many grammar problems and storytelling was not my strong point. I sat down in my hotel room and started putting words on paper describing my experience. Not understanding what I was writing or doing the words started to make sense when I started typing. I talked about the studio and the style I was doing. The blog was not personable and had no personality. But it was my first one and I can only grow from this.

The next blog I wrote about was about a man named Swami Ramananda. His class was held in the Caesar’s hotel in Las Vegas. Swami Ramananda had a different way of teaching his practice. He brought a style of yoga that was taught to him in India. The poses were much slower with a relaxed pace. I had the opportunity to visit with Ramananda after the class and to talk about my blog ideas. Ramananda thought I had the opportunity to inform others with my writing. But I had no idea that this blog was helping me in return.

My third blog started taking a different path. This blog was starting to take on a personal level into the stories I wrote about. In St. Louis I went to Jane’s Place of Wellbeing. Our class started out with the normal poses but ended with us gathering around in a circle on the floor sharing tea. We talked about each one’s life and all the opportunities we have encountered that week. From this class alone I began to really focus more on the people I have met in my classes and the people that are going the extra mile to extend a loving hand to the public. I would not have ever guessed that my blog would have been less instructive and more feeling.

For the many blogs afterwards I have taken Jivamukti classes in Minneapolis, Ashtanga in various cities, Viniyoga in Little Rock, Kripalu yoga in Indianapolis, and many other forms of yoga. With all the classes I took I feel bad about not writing about all of them. The instructors I have met and learned from needed recognition for all the help they have given to me. But I could not find the time to write about all the instructors I have encountered.

I ended my last blog in Atlanta at the Mysore Standard Yoga. This class taught me that I had a lot to learn about my body and my practice. Lori the owner showed me where exactly to place my feet and to focus on my dristhis. I was very privileged to be taught by someone that was a certified Ashtanga yoga instructor by Sri. Pattabhi Jois.

Now the year is almost ended and I am eager to get started again next year. I don’t know which direction my yoga practice will take me next year but Im ready for it. I had no idea that I would have been taking yoga so seriously this year and it has helped with everything. I have learned about the philosophy and physical attributes of yoga. I have learned from books by Krishnamacharya to Patanjali and from David Life to TKV Desikachar. And the physical strengths I have gain from my practice. For instance letting my body lean into my hands as I jump into chataranga from a forward bend and being able to do a headstand. I can see next year I only have even more to learn from all the instructors I will meet. My body is something I have not paid attention to until this year and it was time to focus on it. Without my body being balanced in food and health I found that my practice would suffer. Buddha says, “To keep the body in good health is a duty…otherwise we shall not be able to keep our mind strong and clear.” This was something I have been working on all this year from the help of everyone that have showed me the importance of a yoga practice. I thank all of my instructors I have met and hope to see you guys again.

I now look at my Iphone while sitting in Sacramento on my last flight of the year it says SMF-DFW-TUL and nothing afterwards. Nothing afterwards? I guess this is it. It bring a weird feeling over my body. This is really it for the year. I have Christmas and New Years coming up and I will be doing all this in the comfort of my home. Bye

Namaste

Learning so much in Atlanta.

When you find that special person that you can really connect to it brings happiness into a person’s life. It might be a spouse, family member, friends, and others. Tonight it was that exact thing that happened to me. My wife was online trying to find a yoga studio for me in Atlanta and she came across a studio called Mysore Standard Yoga. It is located in the Cabbagetown district of Atlanta, Georgia on 97 Estoria Street. I walked an interesting walk along Edgewood walking around many homeless people and people asking for money. But once I go into Cabbagetown the environment cleaned up. The neighborhood built in the early 19th Century has many bungalows and narrow neighborhood streets. The studio was in a small building with a glass window front and a big OM sign on the locked door. I sat down on the wooden bench outside in front of the building and began to watch people drive pass me and some people were out taking a jog with their dogs.

Around 6:10 pm a car drove up to the building and parked. A woman stepped out of the car and said are you here for your yoga? Lori Gualtieri was her name. Lori was a thin and trim woman with short hair and a tattoo of Ganesh (removal of obstacles deity) on her right arm. She asked me to enter into her studio and place my mat out in front of her. We both sat down and talked about Ashtanga yoga and her relationship with Sri Pattabhi Jois and his grandson Sharath Jois. She spoke of meeting and learning directly from Pattabhi Jois at The Shri K Pattabhi Jois Ashtanga Yoga Institute in Mysore, India. I cannot imagine practicing a yoga lifestyle with whom started the Ashtanga practice as we know it today. She remains a student of Sharath Jois and continues to learn more from him until this present day. I explained that I have taken many Ashtanga classes around the U.S. and was practicing my primary series without getting into the intermediate series. Then she said, “Have I been taught properly?” I said,”Not by someone certified from Pattabhi Jois himself”. I was beside myself with excitement and I am sure she could tell. After ten minutes of talking I found myself the only one in her class because of the World Series playing. This meant one thing for me; a one on one session with a instructor that was taught from Pattabhi Jois and now she was going to teach me. I’m still shocked even as I write this blog. I gave her complete control of the practice and said you are the teacher, I am the student. Teach me.

We started my practice sitting in sukhasana with hands at our heart and began the opening mantra. We then started the asanas by me showing her my Surya Namaskar A. From the start of my Surya Namaskar she made adjustments to my feet in Samasthiti. Samasthiti is almost like a mountain pose in hatha yoga. She said your feet should touch each other and to make a firm stance. Almost like a trunk of a tree. She wanted me to feel the big toes make connection with the floor. I raised my arms high and hinged my hips into a forward bend. She then noticed my hands were not turned at the right angle and my fingers were also not spread out enough. She said, “Stop and look at your hands.” She talked about pressing all of your hands into the ground and to feel the index finger and thumb making a firm plant. Then trying to jump into chataranga and inhale into updog without losing my inhaled breath. I then went into down dog for five breaths and began to think about my forward jump back into sapta or forward bend. I have been doing this wrong since I have started this transition. But with her guidance she taught me step by step until I got the fundamentals of the jump. I ended the vinyasa with Samasthiti again. I practiced Surya Namaskar A over and over again until I had trouble catching my breath. But this was a chance of a lifetime experience and I did not want to stop learning. We then transitioned into Surya Namaskar B. This had the same kind of attention to detail as the “A” did. From placing my palms together and lowering my shoulders in utkatasana to realigning my virabhadrasana A I was critiqued. Everything needed attention. We worked on my breath count many times and extending the breath like sucking through a straw and pretending your throat is the straw. And then it was back to the jumps. I was beside myself when I finally figured out how to do the perfect forward jump and backward jump. That alone was an eye opening experience I will cherish for the rest of my life and to tell others about the woman named Lori that explained it all to me. After most of the hour on just Surya Namaskar we practiced padangusthasana, pada hastasana, trikonasana, and prasarita padottanasana. With every move led to a comment from Lori that explained everything I needed to grow with my ashtanga practice. Now it was time for a pose that always was very tricky for me. In the pose utthita hasta padangusthasana A my legs would cramp up and I would lose my dristhi (a focus point for balance). I found out that I was just trying too hard and needed to relax. She gave me advice about shifting my hips instead of moving my leg into position. This made the transitions smooth and the angle of my leg was more parallel with the ground. Now I was getting overwhelmed with all the advice and exhaustion. She said “Let’s go into savasana and afterwards I will drive you back to you hotel.” Until this moment I have forgotten about everything else in the world and it was just teacher and student and nothing else. I was so focused that walking back through the homeless areas at 9pm in the dark never occurred to me. We ended the session with the ending mantra in sukhasana.

After the practice I was still like a kid on the first day of Christmas instead of physical gifts, Lori gave me a gift of yoga. Krishnamachary said, “Yoga is one of India’s greatest gift to mankind.” As she drove me back to the hotel we had a discussion about Pattabhi Jois and how he viewed asanas even though Patanjali had a different meaning of the word asana. Or did he? But she said it perfectly; the word asana means to be a seat with was Jois’s idea. This is one of my many questions I am still researching in my life. Lori I loved your answer. We drove up to the hotel and we said our goodbyes.

Lori last night I will never be able to look at asanas the same again. You are not only a gift to me and my practice but a gift to Georgia and to yoga. Pattabhi Jois would be honored in the way you have taken his teachings and have applied them to your life. My passion for yoga has now grown to something bigger than life by meeting you. You have now changed me and my practice. The mantra OM means the sound of the world and you are a piece of that mantra to me. I cannot thank you enough for the help and realization for my postures in ashtanga yoga. Thank you.

Namaste

It’s not vinyasa yoga, it’s viniyoga

For the past month I have been studying the teacher of modern yoga, Krishnamacharya from his birth in 1888 until his death on 1989. I have also been studying the many students that Krishnamacharya taught including, B.K.S. Iyengar, Pattahbi Jois, his son Desikachar, and A.G. Mohan. This has been a great study of yoga of how people in the west know it today. Krishnamacharya realized that every person is absolutely unique and he felt that the most important part of teaching yoga was that the students must be taught according to his or her individual capacity at any given time. This means that the path of yoga will mean different things for different people and each person must be taught in a manner that they understand clearly. Because of this individualized approach, it is impossible to explain Krishnamacharya’s process of teaching in full.

This week I am in Little Rock, Arkansas looking for another yoga studio and found a gentleman of the name John Kepner. John is the executive director of the International Association of Yoga Therapists. In 1996 John left the United States for Channai where Desikachar and A.G. Mohan have founded the Krishnamarcharya Yoga Mandiram in 1976. It was started in remembrances of his father Krishnamacharya. Today the KYM is spreading the word of yoga and the teachings of Krishnamacharya. John Kepner stayed in Chennai and studied under A.G. Mohan for the next couple of years. He then moved to Maui for a few more years to study under Gary Kraftsow which was a student of Desikachar. Today John lives in Little Rock and teaches a small group of people in his own house. I emailed him about visiting him and his group for a yoga class and he returned my email with an invite to his class on Wednesday night at 6:00pm. I was very excited to meet a person that has studied indirectly under Krishnamacharya. John now teaches a form of yoga called viniyoga to a mature audience and also gives talks all around the U.S. about yoga therapy. Viniyoga is a form of yoga that is tailored for an individual person just as Krishnamacharya taught. Almost like your own personal practice made for you and only you.

I arrived at his beautiful home thirty minutes early to introduce myself. I walked up to the front door and knocked a couple of times. John answered with a smile and said, “You must be Kevin.” Yes I am and you must be John. He said,”Follow me around to the backyard to my yoga room.” His yoga room had a fireplace in the corner with many pictures and sculptures displayed around the bi level room. The walls were nothing but windows that looked out into his gardens. He said go ahead and sit down and let’s talk. This is exactly what I was looking for. He wanted to hear about me and my past and all I wanted to know was more about him and his past. We talked for five minutes on my journey and then I asked him “Tell me more about you”. For the next ten minutes we talked about his past with yoga and how it started with him. He talked about A.G.Mohan and how he practiced yoga by going to Mohan’s house and described how he was using ayurveda in his daily life. I could really relate to John because he is trying to live exactly the way I inspire to live my everyday life. But the difference John is doing compared to me is that he has people that come to him and ask for help. He knows all the people in his class personally and knows all of their limitations and medical needs. After twenty minutes of talking, it was almost time for the beginning of the class and the room was full with six women and two men. John introduced everyone in the room to me and they talked about the parts of their bodies that needed work today. One woman said, shoulder tightness, another said neck, and another woman said to be calmer. I was just happy to be there.

We started our class with some breathing exercises in sukhasana. John opened the window and you could hear his fountain fill the air with the sound of water splashing against itself. After five minutes of breath work we started our asanas beginning with a standing forward fold with one foot three inches offset with the other. I have never done this type of stretching before and was eager to learn something new. After working each leg we did some shoulder stretches and started with a cat cow variation into childs pose. This is such a great combination of asanas that stretch out the back from top to bottom. Next, we did an updog, chataranga, and downdog variation. But instead of exhaling on the push back into downdog John told me to inhale. I have read that some teachers like to move into poses while inhaling because you start your life as a baby with an inhale and you should start your poses into inhale. It is a very interesting change that I will talk about on another blog. Instead of exhaling I tried to inhale into the moves but it was very hard to change something that I have been doing for years but, I tried my best. After five minutes of this asana sequence we tried a new warrior variation which worked my scapula. The pose had a narrower leg stance as warrior but had the same concept. Lift your torso up into the stance while holding your arms like a butterfly with your elbows bent. Pushing your shoulder blades together and opening your heart upward on the inhale. This pose is one pose that I will take with me forever. Next, it was time to lay on our backs and do twists but John changed up the normal twist to work the legs also. While laying on your back with your knees bent a person twists his legs to the right and place his right heal on over his left knee and vice versa. We ended the class with one last pose called savasana. John made the room dark and I could now again hear the fountain outside splashing water. The class ended savasana with the vibrating sounds of the singing bowl. We rolled onto our right side and sat in sukhasana and recited the mantra, Loka samasta sukino bhavantu. Which translates into, may the entire universe be filled with peace and joy, love and light.

After class I was talking to a woman that just had neck surgery in March and was able to rotate her neck with great ease. She said that her injury might have a recovery time of 9-12 months but with the help of John it was ahead of schedule. She said she went to a physical therapist for recovery and it didn’t help her but made the pain worst. She said by going to John she not only received her flexibility back but she can now do things she wants to do in a speedier recovery.

John Kepner has a big purpose in his life and it’s to help others with their limitations so that they might not have challenges at an older stage of their lives. Plus to heal others that have present limitations with moving and doing everyday routines. John, Little Rock is blessed to have such a gentle person to help people with their alignment and variations to poses. You have a way to address the positive aspects of people which was not missed in your class. I was honored to have been invited into your home and to learn from you. John you will always be remembered in my yoga journey. Tonight I am going to bed reading A.G. Mohan’s book Yoga Therapy and looking forward to learning more about Krishnamacharya. The next time I am in Little Rock I hope to catch up with you and to learn more from such a great person and teacher.

Namaste

You are going where for yoga? Regina?

This week I arrived in the small town of Regina, Saskatchewan.  With the population around 180,000 people and this town thrives around exercise.  I went to the park yesterday to relax and so many people were outside running, walking, and biking along the Wascana lake.  When I got back to my hotel after my long walk I researched yoga in Regina.  In Regina there are over 10 yoga studios ranging from Kriya yoga to Ashtanga yoga.  I found a studio called Yoga Mala on 1775 Scarth Street.  The studio specializes in Ashtanga yoga.  It was nice after driving or walking many miles to the nearest yoga studio, to find this studio a few blocks away.  I through my mat over my shoulder and had a wonderful walk.

Yoga Mala is located in the middle of downtown Regina and is owned by Emma Korkola.    Emma studied under Sharath Rangaswamy, grandson of Sri. K. Pattabhi Jois, Tim Feldmann and Kino Macgregor.  Yoga Mala (which I didn’t know) was a book published in India in 1962 by Pattabhi Jois about Ashtanga yoga.  It was translated just recently in 1999 to English.  I cannot wait to read this book when I get home.  As for the studio, it’s an old warehouse with antique wood floors.  Emma has decorated this space as a loft apartment feel to it.  With a seating area, an office, and a place for everyone’s belongings.  It was a very comfortable place and felt like I was practicing yoga in someone’s house.  I laid my mat out among the group of twenty students that were stretching and talking before class.  Emma a brown haired brown eyed yoga instructor started our class by having us stand in samastitih as we recite the opening mantra as folows:

Om 

Vande Gurunam charanaravinde

Sandarshita svatmasukavabodhe

Nishreyase jangalikayamane

Samsara halahala mohashantyai

 

Abahu purushakaram

Shankhacakrsi dharinam

Sahasra sirasam svetam

Pranamami patanjalim

 OM

 

Om
I pray to the lotus feet of the supreme guru
Who teaches knowledge, awakening of the great happiness of the Self revealed
Who acts like the jungle physician
Able to remove the delusion from the poison of conditioned existence

To Patanjali, an incarnation of Adisesa, white in colour with a thousand radiant heads, human in form below the shoulders, holding the sword of discrimination, a wheel of fire representing infinite time, and the conch representing divine sound.
To him, I prostrate.
Om

We began our with Surya namaskar A and then on the surya namaskar B.  We moved quickly along the many poses that make up the Ashtanga full primary series.  I was feeling great with each move synchronized to the sound of inhaling and exhaling of my breath.  But I noticed the woman next to me had beautiful transitions that was like a ballerina.  She moved from  Uttanasana B to Chataranga with a no sound of her feet hitting the ground.  She was moving so beautiful into every move and did not acknowledge that people were around her.  It was like she was in tuned with her practice and nothing else.  It was incredible and inspiring during my practice.  As for me, I tried to transition from up dog into Paschimottanasana or seated forward bend.  My improvements have been definitely in my favor.  We ended this yoga class with savasana and then to sukhasana. 

Ashtanga has become my passion for postoral yoga.  As Pattabhi Jois says,” Practice and all is coming.”  People say that the journey is the best part to your destination.  I’m on that journey and eager to learn more about this style on the days to come.

Thank you Emma for letting me experience Ashtanga and to practice it in your awesome studio.  I wish you the best on your upcoming yoga experiences in Miami and Chicago.  I would love to hear all about it.  Please stay in touch.  I hope the woman next to me inspires more people even though she had no idea who I was.  I had no idea when I came to Regina that I would find so many people practicing yoga much less Ashtanga yoga.  Now I know why people love Regina.  It’s the people like Emma.  Thanks again.

I go home for a couple of weeks and then off to Little Rock, Arkansas and Atlanta.

Baptiste in Salt Lake City

I have been to Salt Lake City many times in my life.  Starting at the age of 18 I have visited here over ten times.  My last visit was two days after 9/11 incident in Manhattan.  But my life is very different than it was ten years ago.  From getting older and looking at my life in a very different way to the experiences I have had in the last five years.  Everything about me has changed so much and it was nice to come back to Salt Lake to see if I can see a different side to this city that I have never seen before.  This yoga blog is the exact tool I have been looking for to further my spiritual journey and meet new people that can put an incredible experience in someone’s life.  Today I have found that person and place.

After doing research on the internet on where to go I came across a woman with the name of D’ana Baptiste.  You may ask yourself is she related to Baron Baptiste.  Yes she is.  She is the ex wife of Baron Baptiste, a famous yoga instructor and author.   Born in Utah and was raised in Oakland, California D’ana moved around teaching yoga in many cities around America.  D’ana moved back to Utah in 2000 to be close to her family and to start a yoga community.  The result was Centered City Yoga or CCY on 918 East 900 South.  So I put on my walking shoes and started walking the three miles it was going to take for me to reach my destination.  On my walk, my mind kept asking questions from, what kind of yoga will I be practicing tonight and what kind of yoga instructor is D’ana.  It is very exciting to take yoga in places that many people don’t get to experience.  I walked passed many parks and neighborhoods.  Many people were outside their houses taking care of their gardens and others just taking a stroll.  Everything was beautiful on my walk up to the studio. I arrived to CCY with twenty minutes to spare before the 5:40 class began.

I opened the door to CCY and the first thing I noticed was a stair way with shoes lined up and down the steps.  I took my shoes off and placed them on the fourth step and started walking my bare feet up the stairs into the studio.  I walked up to the desk and said to the gentlemen that I was new to the studio and would like to pay for a class.  I gave the man $15.00 and headed into the yoga studio.  Many people were already stretching in the room.  The studio had a brick focal wall and it had a partition were there were even more people.  When the time grew near there were as many as thirty people in the class.  With everyone’s yoga matts close together we awaited for D’ana to arrive.  She walked in the room and knew exactly that she had three new people in her class and knew who we were.  She walked up to my mat and introduced herself.  She said in a soft kind voice, “Hello my name is D’ana.”  I said, “Hello my name is Kevin.”  D’ana was a beautiful woman with long brunette hair.  I could see in her eyes that tonight I was going to take a yoga class from a woman with a strong character and who cared about others in the class. 

Immediately we started in mountain pose with our eyes closed as she talked about being in our body and feeling your body.  D’ana walked around the room because she had no room for her mat and she could analyze her student’s alignment in the various poses. We then started our practice with surya namaskar and on to side planks.  Then we moved onto one legged chataranga and dolphin pose.  After ten minutes I knew this class was not like any other class I have experienced.  It was starting out to be a very challenging class.  After twenty minutes of the first section of poses we rested in child pose and to bring ourselves back to our breath.   The class sounded like the waves of a beach with the perfect cycle of so hum in ujayii breath.  I sat in child’s pose refocusing myself as the sweat was stinging my eyes.  I was telling myself it is amazing that I am able to be with these people and to experience these sensations.  On my fifth breath D’ana wanted us to put a yoga block between our thighs for the next section of our yoga session.  We started again in mountain pose with the block wedged between my legs.  Following with some side leans opening up our side gills and next into chair pose.  But the challenging part did not arrive until we started doing one legged chatarangas and one legged dolphin while keeping the block in place between our legs.  I was so sweaty and hot that when we pulled ourselves into down dog and my hands started slipping on my mat.   I could see massive amounts of sweat puddled below me.  Trying to keep traction on my palms became more of a challenge than it was keeping the block between my legs.  Thanks John Friend for making this revolution mat that I could use now as a slip and slide.  My eyes were stinging and all I could hear was D’ana saying, “Good job Kevin.” for encouragement to keep going.  I landed in locust pose without any grace at all from plank pose.  It was almost like an asteroid hitting the earth as my body collapsed to the floor.  But the good part is that I was allowed to pull the block from between my legs and to never have to use it again tonight.  We transitioned into some boat pose variations which we pushed our legs out and back in by using our hands for resistance against our thighs.  My core was burning like a fiery inferno ready to explode.  I heard just one more breath and then we are moving to a bridge pose.  Finally, I thought it is time to slow my breath down and relax into the pose without feeling like my body was going to rebel against me.  The next pose became a wonderful welcome, savasana.  I laid on my back while closing my eyes and tried to focus on one thing, my breath.  The smooth in and out of breath was pulling prana back into my body after it felt like it was squeezed out of me.  We ended in sukasana and chanted the word OM with our hands at our heart center.

If you are looking for an ego killing practice this one is for you.  People panting and trying to stay balanced as they would fall out of balance was the name of this practice.  This brings up a good point; I read a quote the other day by Elbert Hubbard-“Don’t take life too seriously. You will never escape it alive anyway”.  With that I said my goodbyes to D’ana and headed back on my three mile walk back to my hotel.

Thank you, D’ana for your time tonight.  It was a pleasure being a student in your yoga class.  I am pleased that I had the honor to attend your beautiful yoga studio in this unforgettable city.  After each class I ask myself was there something that stood out in tonight’s class.  Yes, there was.  It was the attention to detail of the poses between the poses.  Most yogis say it is the pause between the breaths that you can find peace.  I feel that It’s not only the pose that is important but the transitions between them that matters most.  I love that you took your time and gave your personal touch to the whole class.  I can feel the passion you have for allowing people to enjoy yoga and the spirit you bring into your studio.  And yes, I did see a gorgeous part of the city it was CCY.  The next time I am in Salt Lake City or someone conversing about Salt Lake, I will remember you D’ana and CCY.  Thank You

Namaste