2kmilesofasana

[2kmilesofasana]

two thousand miles of asana turned 1 today!

Also, I wrote a thing over on our actual site about this very topic, wouldn'tchaknow. READ HERE.

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A 20-second stop motion yoga clip of over 100 still images compiled with an app called Time Lapse Assembler. Fun mini experiment!

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Child's Pose

I am resurrecting the blog!!

Start in child's pose. Feel your body. Where are you today? Focus here. Get ready. Surrender to your mat. Prepare yourself for the muscles and changes to occur in your body as you surrender your body to your practice.

I always start in child's pose. It is exposed, but also protective of your heart. Seemingly weak and vulnerable, but really it is the beginning of something- be it powerful, restorative, gentle, strong, challenging- it all starts here. and you can return here at any point. You are still doing yoga.

So I have been in child's pose for the last few months. But now I am ready to move. Create something new in my body and let my practice teach me something new. Kat are you ready? Let's fly.

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All right, Abs. You and I talked about creating sequences for each other, as though we could teach each other class. It’s harder to do than I thought! It’s always been easier for me to make sequences up based on what’s going on with the people in front of me, and you’re not in front of me. Anyway, here’s what I’ve got for you tonight, with a playlist that's a little pensive, because that's just the mood I'm in, so there:

We’ve both been through a lot of transition lately--I moved to Los Angeles, you moved to Chattanooga--and when we switched homes, it seems like everything else in our lives started to shift, too. Yoga tells us not to fear change, but rather, to welcome it, as a new experience or as simply another part of the universe that we are in and that is in us. In this practice, let’s try to let go of anything from our past lives that keeps us small and be open to what the unknown can bring us. We’ll try to stay tall and open in all our poses, and be willing to be vulnerable, even when we’re standing on our hands and even when it’s scary.

Start in supta baddha konasana, with blocks under your knees to support the weight of your legs, or if it feels good to you, with a block under your ribs to start to open up your chest. Start to connect with your breath. Try to breathe and move with the environment you’re in. Stay in tune with the air in the room you’re in, and vibrate at that level.

When you’re ready, remove the blocks and take happy baby. Let your hips start to open and release. With each exhale, let go of anything you’re carrying.

Sequence:

supta eye of the needle pose

half happy baby

half supta lotus

--repeat other side

roll over to your belly

three cobras: first, with no hands and a long rib cage.

second, plant your hands lightly, look to the right and left.

third, come onto your fingertips and lift your torso out of your hips for king cobra

press back to down dog--stay for three breaths

walk forward to handstand prep/uttanasana

half lift and forward fold several times to warm up hamstrings

lift up urdhva hastasana, hands to heart, tadasana

sun C each side

sun A traditional

sun A add:

-knee to nose, knee to right elbow, knee to left elbow

-down dog lunge

-not-yo-mama’s pigeon

-scorpion tail

sun B traditional w/ heel down warrior 1--focus on lifting

tadasana w/ side bends

sun A add:

-crescent

-warrior 2

-flow between reverse warrior and extended side angle 3x

-turn to lunge, step back down dog

-scorpion tail, grab toes with opposite hand

-wild thing

-keep your foot lifted, bring it through to lunge again

-lizard

-eka 2, transition to crow

-headstand hold, play with uneven hands or no hands

-pike to dolphin

-float to pincha

-forearm plank

-forearm side plank

-push back down dog, finish vinyasa in tadasana

repeat other side

sun A add:

-crescent with backbends and fly forward holds 3x

-drop to anjaneyasana w/ backbend

-hanuman hold, maybe bring some blocks into it

-kneeling lunge quad stretch

-flow between anjaneyasana and hanumanasana 3x

-try for king pigeon from anjaneyasana

step back down dog

vinyasa, repeat on other side

tadasana, urdhva hastasana, uttanasana

(you’re gonna switch legs halfway through this balance series, so bear with me on the rights and lefts)

lift your right leg, standing splits

warrior 3

ardha chandrasana

ardha chandra chopasana

release your right foot and keep it lifted as you bring yourself upright and fold your leg into tree or half lotus

fold forward over your engaged half lotus-leg

release to uttanasana

sweep your arms up, chair

lift your left leg and cross it over your right for eagle pose

unwind and take standing hand-to-foot (your left leg is the one in the air)

keeping your foot lifted, fold forward and lift your leg out to the left side with your toes forward

bring your body back upright, take rockettes

wind your foot around behind you and take royal dancer. be willing to expose your chest enough here and risk losing your balance for the chance at getting both hands on your foot. maybe it’ll happen today!

--repeat all that on the other side

sun A to down dog

come forward to cobra

shalabasana (for realsies, with your chest down and your feet way the fuck up in the air)

bow

bow-to-boat three times each side

navasana--hold one minute

lower slowly

take bridge twice, then try for wheel--use the bridge poses to get your spine aligned, to get used to not using your glutes and hip abductors to shove your pelvis up, and to set your feet. in your wheel, squeeze your elbows in to support your upper back and lift your heart through your arms. curl your head back. smile!

navasana one-minute hold again

  playtime! play with dolphin-headstand-scorpion or dolphin-pincha-scorpion stuntin'

step out for wide angle forward bend--take it with the bind and bring your fists to the floor in front of you if you can

wide angle twist each side

extended wide angle--come to the inner edges of your feet, or come all the way to wide splits, if you’re a show-off

roll forward to frog

lift up to goddess, come up onto your toes

press up to standing, come back to down dog

pigeon to mermaid to king pigeon each side

seated staff pose, forward fold--focus on keep your side body long. bend your elbows to keep your shoulders back and leverage yourself forward

Janu shirshasana and revolved janu shirshasana--focus on releasing hips to the floor as you lift through your sides to reach your toes

marichyasana 3 each side

lower onto your back, and we’re back whence we came.

supta figure 4

half happy baby

any other hip openers you like

happy baby

sivasana -- tune in again to the world you’re in. plug into it by breathing the air into your lungs. grow roots from your skin into the earth beneath you and draw your new environment into your veins. feel yourself become part of the world you’re in. feel yourself vibrate at its frequency.

draw air into your lungs and let it oxygenate your blood. feel your heart press the blood through your veins and bring yourself back to life, from your bones to your muscles to your skin.

take the great stretch and roll to your right side.

ground yourself here and breathe. with each breath in, draw in something you need for yourself. with each exhale, let go of anything that no longer serves you.

lift yourself up to a comfortable seated position.

I’ll leave you with this poem from Rumi that reminds me to be open to whatever’s coming, to not fear it, but rather, to let it flow through me:

"This being human is a guest-house.

Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!

Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows, who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture.

Still, treat each guest honorably.

He may be clearing you out for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice, meet them at the door laughing, and invite them in.

Be grateful for whomever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond."

Bring your hands to your third eye, your heart, and your lips, as you remind yourself that what you know in your mind, you feel in your heart, you say with your voice. Namaste.

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This week, I decided to revisit a sequence we did at Tough Love as part of a strength-building program, just to see. I started out all like, oh, this'll be so easy, two minutes of handstand, no sweat. And by the time I hit navasana I was dead. I mean, I did it. But still. I'm guessing I did a good job, because my back is sore as hell but I can totally stick pincha without the wall! Your move, Wise.

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Kat Your Yoga Studio Misses You.

So after a long hiatus due to personal things, here I post my king pigeon. It ain't perfect, but what is? This is what I am learning. It is all about the process and the journey, and maybe you reach your pinnacle, maybe not. Maybe you are the one people want to be like, but more than likely- you want to be like how all those other people are- you know with their perfect lives all in perfect order (or seemingly) and 5 year plans and everything going their way. It's like yoga. You look at the person next to you and want your practice to look like theirs. But your practice is your own, and your journey is your own- included in this is the missteps and weeks of non-practice, and then those times when you REALLY FUCKING NEED SOME YOGA. And this is what makes yoga yoga, and what makes life worth living. It deepens your soul and deepens your love.

this has been my life for the past... forever. And probably always.

So cheers Kat, I miss you and all your lessons in yoga. Here is your King Pigeon. What's next?

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hip openers, say whaaaat? Abi, you got this one?

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OK, so, here's my contribution to this blog's appearance. Sorry I haven't posted in awhile. I'm getting used to my new surroundings and feeling a little yoga-less at the moment. I haven't found a studio that really resonates with me yet. Also, there's no one here to stand on my thighs to root them down. Abi, come help a sister out! Anyway, here's king pigeon at the beach. I went on a run down the strand at Hermosa Beach, which ends at the house from 90210. Then, I slipped out of my running shoes to dip my toes in the ocean to cool down. (Pro tip: running and the beach don't really mix. My shoes, headphones, phone and socks were all sand-logged in like two seconds!) To get the pose shot, I propped my camera up in my shoe and set the timer. I had to do the pose four or five times on each side, because, as it turns out, sand is super unstable and maybe not the best surface to rely on when you're engaging the muscles in your legs to hold you up. The sun set while I was doing run-throughs, but I doubt it would have added anything to the shot.

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photog skillz

So I keep trying different ways to make this blog beautiful on my end, (ahem Kat with the camera) but to no avail. I need suggestions on how you crazy people get pictures of yourselves with no help and make them look awesome. In the meantime. this has been a text post

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Just missin' my friend today! Cheers Kat! And get emotional over this picture documenting our last Tough Love Yoga class together. Is it too soon to be nostalgic?

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I went running in the desert, got lost in Papago Park, slid down the face of a mountain, and attempted some pincha. I didn't get many attempts to get these shots--the rose quartz was cutting up my forearms, and I was pulling sticker burrs out of my hair for the next few hours. Also, a family of bees took up residence in the water fountain, tracked me down, and chased me across the park. NOT OPTIMAL. But still a really fun morning. Abi, I was so happy to read that you've come around to our dear CrossFitters. I have been lucky enough to teach at a "real" studio, and a very popular one, at that. But, even there, I got excited about something totally outside the realm of photographable yoga poses. My friend Chris came to a class on a whim one Saturday afternoon, feeling open-minded and stressed-out. He went from concentrating to laughing in a few minutes. "I'm sorry," he said. "I just can't do any of this." "What do you mean?" I said. "This is it! You're doing it!" In my relationship with yoga, the important part is just showing up to practice. Once you've done that, nothing else really matters. Maybe for one student, the big achievement pose will be only having to bend their knees a little to touch the ground in uttanasana. Seeing someone gain that access in their bodies is my favorite part of the job. It was like this for me with my CrossFitters, too: maybe they were too tired for eka 2, but hey, their shoulder pain was eased. Or even: they found a safer way to lift weights and protect their backs for the rest of their lives. It's the beginners who need you the most. Remember when you were a beginner at this? When your neck kinda hurt after class from jerking it around to see what people were doing? When sivasana was an annoying inconvenience that wasted precious time at the end of class? When you thought you'd never do an arm balance? Remember when you wouldn't have known the difference between a "real" studio and anywhere else? The people in front of you were so brave to show up to a yoga class in the midst of their lives. Abi, you totally hit on it in your last post: our job is to take care of them, and forget all the rest of that nonsense.

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Best Yoga Class Ever

... and I was teaching it. First off, let's appreciate Abi's new pink hairs: 

Floating along on the "let's have fun while practicing yoga" I went to teach my CrossFitters some yoga. So here is a fact about me: I teach yoga to Crossfitters.

While I yearn for teaching at a "real yoga studio" and even had some recent doubting moment about myself for it, and then also there's the "oh so you passed yoga school, where can I take your class?" And the presuppositions that once you are yoga "teacher" that you are able to do things like this:

http://youtu.be/vPYk_bKNags <-- seriously, watch this video though, it it bad ass and beautiful, and whole .001% of yogis can actually do this, it is inspiring to see yoga as a dance as the video speeds up to show the beautiful, brilliant, creative transitions (excuse me, was nerd was showing?)

Oh, and most people are worried I will turn into this:

ANYWAYS. I had felt resentful of my students, these Crossfitters that I can't teach anything, who won't listen, and I can't put them into things like the break-dance pose I love. You know, this one: 

I walked in, feeling major detachment from my students, and then it happened. Seven people showed up, they were discussing amongst each other what a great class this is and how it has helped them in CrossFit. I went with it.  I set the intention, but described what it meant to set the intention "Why are you here? Find calm? Or maybe, you have been working out 3, 4, or 4 times this week and need to work out those bound up muscles. You want flexibility. So don't worry about how well you do, concern yourself with what you want from the practice and set your sights on achieving it. That's all."

And then, without a cue sheet, no plan, messing up etc. We went on. We had some fun. I watched my students and figured out what they needed. And figured out that teaching is not about what I need, but what my students need. Boy, have I been selfish. 

But what they don't tell you in yoga school, is that the best thing you can ever hear at a yoga class is laughter. Laughter when you mess up and confess to it, yoga when you make a silly joke, laughter when they feel relief that the pose is getting them exactly when they needed it.

And when someone approached me at the end of class and asked me her advice on something going on in her body, and me being able to answer it? Well, that's better than any drug.

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I couldn't apply your advice about surfing yet, so I decided to do a little poolside stuntin' with my friend Stewart. I usually hate eka 1, but I took a class today that included lots of twists and binds, which I generally never practice, and I felt super open to do this (admittedly kind of sloppy) (is my practice always this sloppy?!) side crow/dwi pada dandasana/eka pada koundinyasana gig this afternoon. Another contributing factor to my thinking I could do this is Mike's Hard Cranberry Lemonade, provided by Stew. I've been having a great time taking class at the beautiful Sutra Yoga in Phoenix. It's an amazing space with inspiring teachers and students, and a killer raw juice bar, too. One major downside to not living in Phoenix anymore is that my skin isn't conditioned to handle the searing desert sun. I'm pink as a geisha's eyelids, despite several reapplications of my trusty SPF 30.

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#abi #me #ootd

In other news: I felt like a bad ass yogi in my #ootd #lululemon #aviators #atlanta

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West Coast on the East Coast

Kat, when you described your yoga class, this is what I pictured:

or this: 

Anyways. It is funny because last Thursday, I had a similar yoga experience to Kat's. I went to Atlanta Hot Yoga to Todd's "West Coast Flow"- it's like bringing the two coasts together. He is an inspiring teacher, surfer, and businessman. Tons of energy. Like a lot. 

Now typically, i loathe hot yoga. Atlanta is hot enough, and then to add heat and humidity to an already hot and humid night/day and chattarungaing and warrioring in that heat is not my idea of a good time. After practicing with Neda for 6 months and spending 30 60 minutes working up to a pinnacle pose, I expected everything we did to be leading to something. And after 50 warriors and variations thereof and quick transitions from warrior 1, to a flowy tai chi inspired arm movement to move us from right to left leg, I was getting a little grumpy. I almost went into child's pose out of sheer protest. I don't know if i buy into the doshas, but I certainly started to believe my pitta side was screaming at me. I was sweating, and unable to engage, my alignment went out the window, my warriors got sloppy. But he kept encouraging us to trust our legs and push through it.  Neda was right, sometimes you just have to go with what the teacher is teaching. Once I let that go, I had a good time, (especially when they cooled the room down and we got onto our butts- coincidence?). And then we inverted. Headstand on a sweaty mat, even my lulu mat, with all of the water leaking out of every single one of my pours and directly into my eyes,  adds a whole different dimension. 

But when I left, I felt high, the hot Atlanta air felt cool, and I was refreshed. So, maybe hot yoga isn't SO bad. And maybe being perfect in every pose isn't the end all be all to do yoga. It is all about detachment after all isn't it?

But then again, I think I will stick to my regular temperature classes when at all possible.

BONUS: at the end, he told us that basically if you can chattarunga, and do warrior 2, you can surf. And then he demonstrated by jumping from chattarunga hold up to warrior 2 (with a bent back knee). So Kat, there you go. You hold the secret to surfing now.