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A Personal Yoga Journey

September 15, 2013 •

To cel­e­brate yoga aware­ness month I decided to share key expe­ri­ences and mile­stones on a 5‑year yoga jour­ney. Unlike other prac­ti­tion­ers, I started late — and wish yoga had found me many years ear­lier.

Early Beginnings

Yoga DVDs and Books

yoga-book-morning-cupMy sis­ter Judi encour­aged me to try yoga 10 years ago. She gave me a sweet book, A Morn­ing Cup of Yoga; sadly, it lan­guished unread for sev­eral years.

I was­n’t ready to take up a prac­tice that demanded dis­ci­pline, not even the sim­ple 15-minute rou­tines pro­posed by A Morn­ing Cup of Yoga.

My sis­ter knew I was suf­fer­ing chronic back pain, aggra­vated by cer­vi­cal disk degen­er­a­tion, and was spend­ing too much time and money on phys­i­cal ther­apy. So she kept push­ing me to try yoga, and pro­posed var­i­ous ways to get started.

She sug­gested instruc­tional yoga DVDs by well-known teach­ers such as Rod­ney Yee. After much prod­ding, I invested in a cheap mat and a DVD or two. Out of bore­dom, per­haps, I stum­bled through yoga poses sev­eral times a week, watch­ing DVDs played back from a Mac lap­top propped on some bed­room fur­ni­ture.

This was enough to break the ice, but not enough to keep me going (or keep me out of align­ment trou­ble!) Once in a while I caught a glimpse of what yoga might offer, but this soli­tary self-guided prac­tice did not pro­vide enough moti­va­tion to keep me going on a sus­tained basis.

Mean­while I was get­ting older, heav­ier and increas­ingly out of shape. My back and neck pains demanded daily doses of ibupro­fen to keep me mov­ing. It was­n’t always easy to get out of bed in the morn­ing.

Yoga En Provence

Yoga En ProvenceIn early 2008 some for­mer Apple friends invited me to join them on a week­long yoga retreat in south­ern France. They enticed me with images of yoga in Provence, the joys of France in late June, the enchant­ment of a vil­lage per­ché.

Each day of the yoga retreat would fea­ture 4 hours of prac­tice led by an Anusara teacher they were bring­ing from their Cal­i­for­nia stu­dio. Not know­ing how out-of-shape I was, they assured me I’d have no trou­ble keep­ing up with the class…

Plus, we’d get to stay in a charm­ing medieval vil­lage perched on a hill­top in Provence. As a long-term fran­cophile, this travel oppor­tu­nity caught my atten­tion. I love France, and am pas­sion­ately fond of French cui­sine, cheeses and wine.

Yoga Provence - Final ClassIn my naïveté I said yes — hav­ing no idea what I was sign­ing up for. Every­one else on the retreat, except for the teacher’s mother, was an expe­ri­enced yoga prac­ti­tioner. They had all been prac­tic­ing for 3 years or more, knew the poses, knew how to breathe — and were both strong and sup­ple.

None of these things described my sit­u­a­tion. I was unskilled, weak, and very inflex­i­ble. Luck­ily, I’d been an ath­lete as a young woman, which proved to be a sav­ing grace when try­ing to sur­vive a retreat for which I was supremely unready…

After see­ing my total inex­pe­ri­ence, the teacher stuck me in a back cor­ner with his equally unskilled mother. From time to time he’d ven­ture back there, and give us basic instruc­tion. He was a great teacher.

The weather was bru­tally hot — mid-90s every day — and there was no air con­di­tion­ing. We hiked a mile each way to the yoga stu­dio, includ­ing steep hill climbs back to our hill­top hotel. I spent the week cov­ered with sweat, and could barely keep from slip­ping off the mat from one pose to the next. My hands or feet slipped out from under me on more than one Down­ward Fac­ing Dog.

Despite the many chal­lenges, I found moments of joy in some of the poses. On my last day I achieved an assisted hand­stand for a moment or so. The com­mu­nity of yoga prac­ti­tion­ers was wel­com­ing, will­ing to over­look my inep­ti­tude. They gave me a glimpse of what yoga has to offer…

The over­all expe­ri­ence was just good enough to per­suade me to sign up for classes when back home in the Seat­tle area.

Yoga Classes in Seattle

seattle-yoga-arts-studioHav­ing enjoyed the Anusara instruc­tion in Provence, I looked for Anusara teach­ers in Seat­tle, and was lucky enough to find a won­der­ful stu­dio at Seat­tle Yoga Arts.

For the next sev­eral years I rel­ished in the ter­rific instruc­tion and won­der­ful yoga com­mu­nity at SYA, until wors­en­ing Seat­tle traf­fic and park­ing has­sles moti­vated me look for more con­ve­nient alter­na­tives.

I bounced back and forth between sev­eral East­side stu­dios, YogaB­liss on Mer­cer Island and Vil­lage Green Yoga in Issaquah. The lat­ter has a warm and wel­com­ing com­mu­nity. It also fea­tures small classes where you can get hands-on align­ment cor­rec­tion or guid­ance in almost every class. It was a great place to refine my prac­tice. Both stu­dios have great teach­ers, and a good selec­tion of class styles and lev­els.

I took some pri­vate classes with an inspired (and inspir­ing) yoga teacher who refined my poses and pushed me to build more core and upper body strength. Diana Gould Bony­hadi made a huge dif­fer­ence at a crit­i­cal junc­ture in my prac­tice last year. Unfor­tu­nately, her teach­ing stu­dio was a long drive from my home, and ulti­mately required more time dur­ing work­ing hours than I could sus­tain. So I switched back to the stu­dio that was 10 min­utes from home.

YogaB­liss offers sev­eral types of vinyasa flow classes, with an empha­sis on Power Vinyasa Yoga, but also offers hot yoga for peo­ple who want to sweat heav­ily while prac­tic­ing yoga. (I’ve tried but am not a fan of hot yoga — too much like gym for my tastes.) I’ve indulged in an unlim­ited pass, and now take classes with sev­eral gifted teach­ers.

5 Years Later

These days I com­bine reg­u­lar classes sev­eral times a week with a ded­i­cated home prac­tice. Unless I’m trav­el­ing, I prac­tice yoga at least 5 times weekly.

It’s made a huge dif­fer­ence to my phys­i­cal and men­tal well­be­ing. Although not overtly spir­i­tual, I’ve begun learn­ing med­i­ta­tion to sup­ple­ment (or nour­ish) the yoga asanas.

Friends say I look much younger. I cer­tainly feel bet­ter. My chronic back and neck pains dis­ap­peared a year or so ago, after 20 years of unwel­come pres­ence in my life. I’ve dropped sev­eral cloth­ing sizes — even though weight loss was not a dri­ving moti­va­tion for prac­tic­ing yoga. My doc­tor says X‑rays no longer show sco­l­io­sis (cur­va­ture) in my neck.

I feel much calmer and more cen­tered, more pre­pared to han­dle what­ever life wants to send my way. Yoga keeps me present and grounded. It has helped me grieve and cel­e­brate my moth­er’s con­tri­bu­tions (she died a few months ago).

I’ve learned that it’s impor­tant to prac­tice yoga wher­ever you are — from hotel rooms to vaca­tion stays — even on the deck of the sail­boat we char­tered in Des­o­la­tion Sound last week. I prac­tice off the mat, too, espe­cially when doing things I don’t oth­er­wise enjoy, like wash­ing dishes or vac­u­um­ing.

Places Where I’ve Practiced Yoga This Year

I’ve been blessed to prac­tice yoga in a num­ber of beau­ti­ful places this year, from Cape Cod to Mex­ico, from Barcelona to Des­o­la­tion Sound (Canada). Over the past year I’ve enjoyed 2 yoga retreats led by SYA’s won­der­ful teacher, Eliz­a­beth Rainey. She led mem­o­rable retreats in Sayulita, Mex­ico, and Sleep­ing Lady in Leav­en­worth, WA.

When unable to take classes or moti­vate myself to plan my own rou­tine, I take online classes offered by Yoga­Glo. Although the pro­duc­tion val­ues can be dis­ap­point­ing, Yoga­Glo fea­tures some top-notch yoga teach­ers and hun­dreds of great classes.

Here’s a pic­to­r­ial sam­pling of my past 12 months of yoga venues, from yoga retreats in Sayulita, Mex­ico, and Sleep­ing Lady (Leav­en­worth WA) to the fore­deck of a sail­boat in Des­o­la­tion Sound… And an at-home class with Yoga­Glo.

Sailboat Deck

Almost enough room for yoga on the fore­deck, Des­o­la­tion Sound char­ter

View of Des­o­la­tion Sound from Prideaux Haven

Backbend in Sayulita

Assisted back­bend in Sayulita, Mex­ico

Yoga in Barcelona

Hints of yoga in Barcelona

Fall vis­tas, Sleep­ing Lady Retreat Cen­ter

At-home yoga with Yoga­Glo

Among the lessons I’ve learned is to prac­tice yoga reg­u­larly but mind­fully, wher­ever life takes you. Enjoy the beauty of your sur­round­ings, the beauty of your com­pan­ions in life — and breathe in the beauty of a reg­u­lar prac­tice.

Every­one in your life will thank you for it.

Jade Yoga Went to Mexico

May 2, 2013 •

Learning to do the full wheel pose in Mexico

Learn­ing to do the full wheel pose in Mex­ico

In the end it was an easy deci­sion: the mat that could fit into my checked lug­gage was the one that trav­eled to Mex­ico with me last week. I could fold and stuff the Jade Yoga mat into the suit­case, but not the Black Pro Man­duka, so my blue Jade mat went to Hara­mara.

yoga-mat-in-Mexico

Jade Har­mony mat iin Mex­ico

Here is my mat (cov­ered with sweat and dust), next to a sign­post and a friend’s crutches. My girl­friend twisted her ankle on a rocky trail, and was unable to prac­tice asanas. Instead she enjoyed our 2‑hour med­i­ta­tion ses­sions each after­noon.

And yes, this all-rub­ber mat deformed in the >90 degree heat, but I stepped off the mat onto the wooden yoga pavil­ion floor when­ever that hap­pened.

My sweaty legs or feet some­times stuck to the open cells of the mat dur­ing tran­si­tions, but not too often; it was an accept­able a has­sle.

I spent many won­der­ful hours on this mat last week, rev­el­ing in every sec­ond of the Mex­ico yoga retreat. Namaste to our amaz­ing yoga teacher! And namaste to this trusty, dusty (now clean) mat.

The Joys of a Yoga Retreat

November 6, 2012 •

I lived and loved yoga dur­ing this week­end’s retreat at the Sleep­ing Lady moun­tain resort. The resort nes­tles east of the Cas­cades — 3 hours from Seat­tle, up and over a moun­tain pass, past the Tumwa­ter River, and down to Ici­cle Creek.

It’s an adven­ture to arrive in time for Fri­day after­noon’s prac­tice, brav­ing nar­row, twisty moun­tain roads at 60 mph. The adren­a­line rush while dri­ving is tem­pered by the blaze of fall foliage, water­falls cas­cad­ing down the moun­tain slopes, rush­ing rivers with white water rapids…

The long quest-like drive helps bridge the tran­si­tion from work­life to a yoga retreat.

Nature’s Beauty

When you finally arrive at Sleep­ing Lady, you find beauty wher­ever you look, no mat­ter the weather.

yoga-retreat-views

From our stand­ing yoga poses, we could gaze at jagged or cloud-capped moun­tain peaks (or rock-strewn lower slopes, as shown here). I com­muned with a blaz­ing aspen grove for sev­eral moments while bal­anced in tree pose.

We held longer-than-usual war­rior poses while con­tem­plat­ing sun­breaks, rac­ing clouds, or deer graz­ing in the nearby meadow.

We med­i­tated to the sound of raven calls or rain drops on the tin roof.

Hearts on Fire

Rainey, a grace-filled yoga teacher and retreat leader, guided our prac­tice, cen­tered on the theme of “tend­ing your heart’s flame.” On a chill week­end her theme was sin­gu­larly apt.

Rainey is par­tic­u­larly gifted at invok­ing just the right amount of heart­ful or spir­i­tual qual­i­ties in the yoga retreats that she leads. Dur­ing the open­ing and clos­ing cir­cle we shared our inten­tions, chal­lenges, and the bless­ings we hoped to bring back to our every­day life and encoun­ters with our com­mu­nity of friends, fam­ily, neigh­bors and col­leagues. Yes, there were tears, but way more smiles…

From late Fri­day through Sun­day morn­ing, we immersed our­selves in 4 juicy prac­tices (2+ hours each). After­wards we’d run, still in our sweaty yoga gear, to the com­mu­nal din­ing room, where we’d feast on organic pro­duce grown on or near the Sleep­ing Lady resort.

Trees Ablaze with Color

Yoga retreats offer many delights, no mat­ter when or where they take place. But espe­cially in the fall… In early Novem­ber the foliage flames with fiery col­ors: reds and golds every­where.

Tem­per­a­tures are chilly but per­fect for aer­o­bic exer­cise —“fleece weather,” we call it…

My hus­band joined me for this retreat — not to prac­tice, but to enjoy hik­ing, com­mu­nal din­ing, and con­ver­sa­tions with this com­mu­nity of yoga prac­ti­tion­ers. He read sail­ing books, or hiked and com­muned with nature while we sweated away on our mats…

I thank him for the pho­tos that cap­ture these visual mem­o­ries. And the courage to come along on a yoga retreat where women out­num­ber men 3:1…

About This Blog

Reflec­tions on life, travel, books, and yoga. Think­ing out loud about the pur­suit of mind­ful­ness and well-being.

Learn­ing how to recover from the loss of a beloved spouse, and then to find a trans­for­ma­tive path for­ward.

About Me

Semi-retired marketing exec, transitioning from a career in high tech. Now "managed" by two Tonkinese cats. Missing travel and friends on the West Coast. Avid reader and foodie. Staying active with long walks, biking, kayaking and yoga.

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