Living Yoga Starts Tomorrow Night

One of the best parts of teaching yoga is the stuff that's not what we think of normally as "yoga." When we talk about "yoga" around here, we usually mean doing stretching with our bodies. What's really cool though, is looking at other areas of our lives where we can stretch as well. Stretching into our habits and unconscious behaviours, lifting up old carpets and taking a peek at what's been hiding under there, making room for new energy in our lives turns out to be a lot of fun and seems to bring about good, smooth changes in our lives.

In this course, we look directly at the Yamas and Niyamas, the first two limbs of yoga, which many people have never even heard of, let alone practised. When we start to get into them though, they become very familiar and we notice things that have always been present in people as long as there have been people. These ancient teachings are very applicable in our modern lives. It's as though these ancient teachings are totally new and modern, providing people in today's busy world with guidelines and helpful hints about how to live a fun, energetic, fruitful life.

If you have time and want to join us, we still have space in the course beginning tomorrow night for six Tuesday nights. Even if you can't come in person, let me know - we will be recording this course and could offer it online if you were interested. Everyone is welcome - especially people who think they "can't do yoga." We don't even roll out yoga mats in this one. Bring a journal and a pen if you like and everything else is provided.

How We Think

How we think, what we're thinking about, and how all of that makes us feel, is so important to our quality of life. People who go through the same experience but think about it differently show us that what impacts one person doesn't necessarily impact another person the same way. It really all depends.

This video by Dr. Mike Evans is all about yoga. He mentions yoga and meditation later on in the 11-minute video, but if you listen carefully, you'll hear that he's talking about yoga the whole time.

While maintaining a certain level of physical health can be a contributing factor to one's overall well-being, how we're thinking all the while will have a much bigger impact.

Patanjali's yoga sutras are all about calming the mind; letting go of disturbances and focusing the mind. Using meditation to become more aware and to be able to move about more freely in our lives. That's yoga.

I played this video for the Police Administrators in the Mind/Body/Wellness component I lead on stress reduction during their leadership training course this week. As I'm playing it, I'm thinking how it's all yoga and how that's really cool that they're getting what I would call more of the "real yoga" rather than just the stretching bits, (which they also get). 

One quote in the video from Abraham Lincoln is "When I do bad, I feel bad. When I do good, I feel good. That is my religion." I love that! I hear yamas and niyamas all over that! I hear Karma Yoga.

If you have 11 minutes to spend hearing a modern presentation on the ancient art of Living Yoga, watch this video and see how many yoga references you can spot.

Teaching with Two

As a yoga teacher, I am normally working solo. I drive to places on my own, teach on my own, plan on my own, interact on my own, debrief in my head, and it's like that. Sometimes I get to co-teach, and that's my favourite. It changes everything when I have a co-teacher.

This year I've had the privilege of having at least 3 co-teachers!

• My daughter led a Mother-Daughter Yoga weekend with me at Omega (our pictures are right there) this summer (and we will be doing it again next year - August 9-11, 2013) and we lead that in September at Rama Lotus for a 90-minute session as well.
• My friend, Virginia Miller, co-led a 3-half-day Shiatsu/Thai Massage/Partner Yoga "dabbler" during Family Week with me (and we hope to do it again next season).
• And the wonderful Kat Mills, who has co-led all sorts of yoga experiences with me over the past few years at Rama Lotus and other places around Ottawa, continues to lead Living Your Yoga modules with me at her house for weeks at a time.

Leading classes with two people doesn't always work out money-wise, which is why a lot of people wouldn't do it. However, when there's enough money, or money's not the issue, leading with someone you work well with is the BEST. 

Having someone to share the responsibility with is nice, but the process of collaboration is special. New ideas form, conversations are ignited, and there's a richness that isn't found when there's one-on-one teaching. There's also the spontaneity of what can happen when there are two teachers that doesn't always happen when there's one.

Tuesday night begins a new session of Living Your Yoga in the Makata Yoga Living Room (Kat's empty house - it's hilarious - she really has no furniture just so groups can take over the floor space). We love teaching the yamas and niyamas together so much that we're doing it again. Why do we love it so much? Partly because we get to collaborate, but it's also about the content and what happens to a group when we examine our lives. Being with people as they look at their lives is a great privilege and a special "space" gets created that is unusual in our everyday lives. So we put our arms around a space and hold it and put people in the middle and bounce them up and down gently and get to be there for the giggles and ahas that happen along the way.

If you're coming to this module of the Yamas and Niyamas, don't bother bringing your yoga mat - you won't be using it. Bring an open mind and a clear head so you can consider some of what yoga has to offer. It's not new or trendy - we're going to use the ancient texts as our references. Whoohoo!

(This video was not made for this blogpost. We were fooling around for a different project...)

Still Teaching Yoga

I'd like to show one of those graphics that goes Yoga Teacher - what my friends think I do, what I really do - but instead it displays feelings and drama. I think a lot of people think that teaching yoga will be drama-free and that places that offer yoga will somehow be better businesses than others with no politics or gossip in the workplace. You can probably tell where I'm going with this.

We've all got potential for drama in our lives. We all have to interact with others about money and roles and we all have "stuff" that comes up. When people tell me they're surprised to find drama and difficult work issues with the various studios they end up teaching at after YTT graduation, I remind them we're all just people. In fact, I find more "yoga" and more "satsang" among the volunteer computer geek community in Ottawa than in the yoga communities. And those guys don't even know they're doing it. I've found more Karma Yoga being done through a sex shop than in the yoga community.

Things are not always obvious. As a yoga teacher I trained myself to look anyplace and everyplace for lessons, for shapes, for alignment. Just because someone says something is yoga, doesn't make it so. Just because someone advertises something, doesn't mean that's exactly what they're selling. Just because you're trained to be a yoga teacher doesn't mean that's what you're being paid to do or what you ultimately offer. How many yoga classes turn into fitness workouts? How many yoga teachers gossip about each other or their students after class? How many people say one thing and do something else? It happens everywhere. Or more precisely, it for sure happens where you think it wouldn't or shouldn't. And then, there's yoga happening where it wasn't announced, in different hang outs - people practising integrity and alignment - just quietly doing it.

Swami J recently posted on Facebook that most people who think they're doing yoga are actually preparing to do yoga. Here it is...

The first word of yoga sutras is "atha" which means "now", though a particular "now" which implies that one has done the preparation to begin the path and process of yoga. Most people claiming to practice yoga are still in the preparation phase. There is nothing wrong with the preparation phase; it is needed. However, the preparation phase to begin yoga is not, itself, yoga. The preparation phase has become known as "yoga". In our modern times, there is no longer a need for this preparation phase. Now we just say that we are practicing yoga and that's it; whatever we say is yoga is suddenly called yoga.

Yoga Retreat

For the first time Kat Mills and I will be leading a yoga retreat together this summer. We are really excited about leading a retreat together. We love teaching yoga together!

It's happening Sunday, August 21 - Friday, August 26 on Juniper Island in the 1000 Islands.

If you've been with me and Kat before, you can imagine the tone of the retreat. If you haven't been with me and Kat before, just know it will be fun, funny, educational, experiential, light-hearted, relaxing, and refreshing.

We will practice silence everyday for a bit (practice being the key word there) and we'll do yoga a couple of times each day, as well as look at yoga in everyday life and how it fits in. We plan on taking the ancient teachings of yoga and making them accessible and applicable to modern life.

Let me know if you're interested in knowing more about it or to register.

Funny Meditation

I led a meditation workshop yesterday, like I do sometimes, and I had a great time. At the end of it someone raised her hand and said, "I don't have a question but I just wanted to say you were really funny" and something about how she got a lot out of the workshop, and like that.

I like that I can make meditation funny. It is funny! C'mon. Think about it. You're sitting there and all kinds of stuff happens. We had a big laugh. Sometime I'll tape it and transcribe the good bits. It's late right now and I can barely type let alone remember and put into sentences what I said yesterday.

But hey, if you think I'm funny and you want more and you like Kat Mills, who's even funnier, you might like to come out this Friday to our Living your Yoga workshop. Seriously. It'll be fun for sure.

We're going to talk about yoga and do a few poses and make some plans and get into discussions and it's going to be awesome. We'll share. We'll laugh. Come out.

I'm not a Graphic Designer

I'm a yoga teacher, not a graphic designer! And yet, I'm being called to at least do some draft work on the web site that will be used to help other yoga teachers create their own web sites and iPhone yoga apps! So I'm stretching into places I haven't stretched in a while.

Capital Yoga Publishing is getting off to a crawl. I've got a programmer here who's typing away furiously, doing something he calls "coding." It sounds like typing, but apparently it's not.

I'm taking care of the softer side of things like how it's going to look and feel until there's actual funding or enough revenue to hire someone who can really do the design part of the job. So if you haven't downloaded my app from iTunes yet, please click on the link at the top right of this page and buy the app! In the meantime, I'm really happy to be collaborating on something that's outside of yoga but still in line with my yoga world.

Another collaboration is happening and it is in the yoga world. Kat Mills and I are offering a Friday Night Special that will rock your world. Living Your Yoga will happen once a month on a Friday night from 7 - 9 at Rama Lotus. We'll be looking at the yamas and niyamas; find ways to incorporate them into our daily lives; do some postures; have a contemplative part; and get to connect with other people. The cost is $25 and the first one happens on April 23. So please come if you can.