Category: Yoga

I started practicing yoga about 7 years ago.  I started at a Core Power with one of their first week free deals.  I really liked it and continued there until I became pregnant with my son.  I told my teacher right away because being so new to yoga I didn’t know what I should still be doing or what might hurt me or the baby.  The teacher was very sweet and just told me to avoid twists and inversions, I have found this to be the typical response from teachers that aren’t quite sure but don’t want anyone to get hurt.  So I happily continued with what I was doing, but around the beginning of my second trimester I started to notice that she was seemingly changing her class for me.  It was kind of weird as I was the only one pregnant and I thought that others were noticing as well.

After this, I started to seek out a Prenatal yoga teacher.  I discovered Sarah Longacre, the founder of Blooma.  Though Blooma hadn’t been born yet, she was still a wonderful advocate for motherhood, natural birth and provided much needed education to our community.  Before her classes, I really liked yoga…. after her classes I loved yoga!  Her classes added the spiritual link to my practice.  I continued to practice with Sarah through all of my pregnancy up until the end and I had a beautiful natural, drug free birth which I may write about in a different post someday.

After the birth of my son, I was left wondering where to go next.  I knew that Corepower wouldn’t cut it for me anymore, but I really had no clue what to look for.  I started to just search for convenient times and locations,  (I was a newborn mother after all)  and ended up finding my teacher Laurel.  At that time she was transitioning her teachings from Jivamukti to Anusara and I happily followed because she was an amazing teacher, Anusara felt “right” for me and the time of the class worked with my schedule.

In the following years I started to notice that yoga was more than exercise to me and that I wanted to go deeper.  I wanted to start doing workshops and trainings but I was pregnant again so I happily joined Sarah again at her new studio Blooma!  It was wonderful to be back in her protective space again with all those beautiful bellies but what made it amazing was that I had my Anusara practice to add to what Sarah was providing.  The UPA’s fit so well into prenatal yoga and into birthing education.  LIGHT BULB MOMENT!!!  I suddenly knew what I wanted to do!  Anusara yoga done Blooma style!

Great!  I figured out my dream… now what.

I recovered from birthing my daughter and got right back into practicing with Laurel, and started to research teacher trainings and workshops.  I consulted with some of my favorite local teachers.  Am I Yoga Teacher ready?  What in my life would need to change?  Do I need to be a vegan?  How can I possibly come up with the type of beautiful themes that Laurel does?  Sarah is so inspiring, can I be that?   I don’t know how to meditate… How do I do this?

Looking back,  I was in the ultimate state of Kali.  Creation being formed in the chaotic darkness and I had no idea where to take my energy.

One day, I went to class and there was a new flyer on Laurel’s table.  100 hour Anusara Immersion with Ali Certain and Ronna Rochelle.  It was local, reasonably priced and on weekends spread out over the course of 6 months.  This was my chance.

I sat with this flyer in my purse for about a month before finally bringing it up with my husband.  It was in my mind the start of a new career path but I was unsure that it would be for me.  I enjoyed my hair styling career very much but the hours were terrible for my family and I was definitely starting the feel the result of a decade in the industry in my body.   I had never done anything like this, I typically don’t willingly make big changes in my life.  His response was ” You need to do this for yourself.  I want you to be happy, we will figure it out together.”  (I have the best husband)

The next day with my heart in my throat, my mind swimming with question and the creative energy of Kali roiling in my gut.  I signed up for the Immersion.

To be continued in a future post….

At this time last year, I was preparing to leave for Scottsdale for the second week of my teacher training.  It was two weeks filled with many moments, stories and characters, but the moment that I have been repeatedly thinking about lately is the morning practice on I believe our second day.  I studied with the amazing Martin and Jordan Kirk.  Martin was leading this particular practice.  He started the class with the story of Hanuman helping to rescue Sita from a land across the great dark void called Lanka  (a wonderful story for your kidlets if they enjoy adventure and super heroes).  The story and the telling of it was spellbinding but what really stuck with me from it was when Martin then explained that in the stories of the Ramayana and of the Mahabharata,  we are meant to be able to relate to ALL of the characters because we are ALL of the characters.    The characters are different aspects of ourself.

The reason I have been coming back to this idea is that I have been really aware of the stories of others lately.  Many joyful, some scary, some sad, and a great many just chugging along.   I  am a little awed by the idea that I may be a character in those same stories someday, or have been in the past.  It also came up for me when I was trying to explain to LBL that war/conflict isn’t as simple as bad guys -vs-good guys.  Everyone believes themselves to be the good guy fighting for what they believe in.  Which makes it more complicated that just good and evil… I just heard an interview on MPR with Kevin Spacey, he was talking about his new show House of Cards.  One of the subjects that he discussed was that he really liked roles where it isn’t clear if you liked him or not.  There are many shows out there right now where the main characters are morally ambiguous.  A single mama selling drugs, a cop that is also the serial killer of serial killers, the mobster that also loves and cares for his family… the list goes on.  If a show, movie, or book are written well, we can emotionally connect to many different characters because we can see ourselves in those same roles.  Just as we were meant to in those ancient texts in India.

At some point in all of our lives we are Hanuman leaping across the void,  the soldier wounded on a field,   Lancelot falling in love with his best friend’s wife, the wolf hiding inside of grandmother,  the lover,  the spectator and the narrator.  I would like to think that believing in that idea may help to understand others and their actions a little more clearly and compassionately and to help us to remember that if we are unhappy with our current character, maybe it is time for the story to change.