Class #14 Yin and Flow Yoga with Kimberly

Okay, I'll be honest, I have lost my notes for this class. If I get something wrong I apologize. Here is what I do remember. The class was packed since a lot of people had the day off for Martin Luther King Day. I got there on time and still had to sit way up the left side. I have had to set up at the front a fair amount recently and am afraid that people will think that I think I am a hot shot or something. I wish I could wear a sign that said "Not full of myself, just spatially challenged and I need to see the instructor well to keep from messing up the poses". Hmm. That is more of a billboard than a sign and might be distracting. Maybe I will just bring a periscope next time. Anyways, it wasn't too bad because I got to hang out with Kerry and Elizabeth and also Teresa who I don't think I have introduced before. She is from the West Coast and is a licensed massage therapist (she is teaching a cool self massage class during the upcoming free yoga weekend). Another cool person at Amsa who makes the lives of others more pleasant. It's like some sort of care bear conspiracy... Anyways, on to the asanas.

Good: I think I said it recently, but I am still loving extended triangle pose Utthita Trikonasana www.yogajournal.com/poses/494 If anyone has seen the Saturday Night Live sketch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFKt0j-UoXE where the producer keeps wanting more cowbell, it's kinda like that. I just feel like I am opening up something inside that daily stresses would otherwise keep compressed and confined.

Bad: I am not that upset about it in the grand scheme of things, but I really thought I was going to do a little better with Supported Headstand Salamba Sirsasana www.yogajournal.com/poses/481 . We worked on several poses leading up to it and I was feeling strong in my arms. When it came time though I tried to get full extension in stead of just getting my knees up which would have been a more reasonable goal. It is good that I was at my specific spot in my room because my somersault definitely would have bowled over anyone in front of me. On a positive note, Kerry and Kimberly talked over the pose after class and graciously let me listen in and observe. Kerry is making awesome progress and I am pretty sure I learned some more from watching and listening. Thanks to both of you!

Yummy: So breathing went a little better this class. I kinda cheated because Kerry was next to me and she is an excellent breather but I really tried to focus and did a little better job with breathing in the more difficult poses and not just holding my breathing and trying to push through. It really helps. For instance we did a pose that I don't know th name of, but it involves being flat on your back and then lifting your legs (and sometimes your arms) straight up. In the past when I have tried this pose and have had to hold it for more than a couple seconds, I look like I am having a mild seizure because I shake so much. Some core work and some better breathing and now it just looks like there is an earthquake underneath me. Hurray progress!

So that is what I remember. Oh and there is a new teacher who is going to teach a class soon. So fun stuff on the horizon (and hopefully better note taking by me in the future).

Class #13 Sweet Vinyasa with Kimberly

Mmmmm. Sunday morning yoga, it's good for what ails ya! So I really love vinyasa (breath synchronized movement) yoga. It's fun to breathe and connect with the other students in the room. I also find moving with the breath very soothing if I am stressed out or worried about something. One of the many beautiful things about yoga is that I can get so much out of this style of class while being almost comically bad at it. I keep forgetting to breathe and lose focus often. Sure it's great if a person can do all the poses correctly perfectly synchronized with the breath, but each new pose, each new breath is also an opportunity to improve even if the one before was not that great.

Good: We did some side lunges (I can't seem to find an image that matches this pose)that I got decent extension on and felt really good. Pretty much anything that starts from Wide-Legged Forward Bend Prasarita Padottanasana http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/693 seems to go well for me. Maybe it is because I have a relatively open mind and don't feel like I "should" or "should not" be able to do certain things while I am inverted that way. If I am able to get a full extension on a pose, cool. If not, it's no big deal, I just try my best. Maybe I need to do all my poses inverted somehow...

Bad: I am trying to be more mindful of my breath and it is just not there on some of the more physically demanding poses. For instance, the plank to chaturanga dandasana http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/469 to Upward Facing Dog Urdhva Mukha Svanasana http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/474 sequence quickly devolves into me holding my breath for most of it as the class progresses and we repeat this variation. I wonder why my body's natural impulse is to not breath? At least I am thinking about it now and can focus on it as I practice.

Yummy: I mentioned in an earlier post the difficulties I was having with tortoise pose Kurmasana and sleeping tortoise pose Supta Kurmasana http://www.motleyhealth.com/yoga/sleeping-tortoise-yoga-pose-supta-kurmasana. Kimberly was super considerate and gave a great explanation and demonstration for both. I did a little better in tortoise and was really getting into it for the sleeping variation. When I was a little kid around eight or so, I actually used to do something pretty similar to this pose and getting close to it again was very fun and exciting. Thanks Kimberly!

Thanks everyone else too. One of my favorite songs that gets played a lot in Amsa classes is "You are not alone in this". It's true and it makes all the difference.

Class #12 Yoga Basics with Kimberly

So I have been trying to get my friend Michael to go to yoga with me for awhile. Michael is also a teacher and has even more stress than me because he teaches Middle School. I certainly still have frustrations and stresses and do not deal with them healthily all the time, but yoga has definitely helped me improve my attitude and patience along with my overall health. I am hopeful that he will be able to use yoga to enjoy some of these benefits too. This class was special not only because I got to take my fiend to his first yoga session, but my wife Amanda had enough free time to get a little yogic pick me up also. So how did it go?

Good: I've been working on Extended Triangle Pose Utthita Trikonasana www.yogajournal.com/poses/494 in my home practice and just love doing it. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I have gotten some great adjustments in past classes and know I have a better understanding of Triangle than I have previously. Of course I can always get better, I just feel so good when I do this pose. When Amanda and I went to Japan and had to be on plane for a ridiculous amount of time I was even rocking (not so extended) triangle in the tiny bathroom just to keep limber.

Bad: Ugh. So I used to be pretty flabby. I am certainly not buff or anything, but Yoga has helped me shed a fair amount of that and also cut my cholesterol in half. Pretty much every class has a few poses that create some heat or even get you sweating. However, because of my schedule this semester it is hard for me to get to the classes that really turn it up a notch for burning calories. I have a Gold's Gym membership that I am stuck with until the contract expires (I panicked when I had a disturbing doctor's visit). So I try to go fairly often to get value out of the money they are getting from me but I am always afraid I will step on a syringe or get clotheslined if I don't wipe the equipment down right. Seriously, I have been yelled at by large employees there and it was pretty scary. Anyways, excuses, excuses I have a little pot belly right now and it makes a lot of the poses much harder than they have to be. I am going to have to turn up the home practice and drop this cannonball I am lugging around. Just because I like cow pose doesn't mean I need to have my own udder.

Yummy: I'm loving this basics class. I feel like my plank pose www.yogajournal.com/poses/470 got better with our review of this staple. Just putting my mind in my place where I can get back to the openness of a beginner is great. I also just wanted to say thanks to both Kimberly and Helen (a fellow student and newly minted yoga instructor) for making Michael feel welcome and ensuring that his first class was a friendly and supportive one. The community at Amsa is truly special.

Real quick before I go, thanks everyone who has had kind words about this blog. I couldn't do it without all the support and kindness people are sharing with me. A lot of people are also worried about me catching up (in a sweet helpful way). I know yoga can and does happen in our homes as well, but I am trying to reach 365 classes with a live instructor (I'm not counting DVDs or classes taught by Zombies). The community aspect and learning from and with others feels like the core of yoga to me. I certainly am spending a lot of time on introspection, but without connecting and growing with the journeys of those around me it would be too cold and lonely a trip to take. Thanks everyone for sharing your journey!

Class #11 Deep Stretch Yoga with Kimberly

Loved, loved this class. Lots of friendly familiar faces and a great positive vibe. I got to hang out with Elizabeth as my mat neighbor which is always fun. Kimberly really brought it with an insightful lesson about letting go of the negative practices and emotions we hoard inside ourselves. Let's get right to it.

Good: One of the most basic and repeated poses in yoga is downward facing dog Adho Mukha Svasana www.yogajournal.com/poses/491 (why is this not pose #1?)Just because we do it all the time does not mean it cannot be improved and doesn't deserve mindful attention. So ideally in this pose the hands are flat on the mat and the weight is equally distributed instead of all in the heel of the hand and/or the fingertips. I recently have been getting more of my hand down and the pose feels a lot better. Hurray!

Bad: One of the trickier poses (for me at least) is tortoise pose Kurmasana http://health.indianetzone.com/yoga/hathyoga/1/kurmasana.htm I am listing this one as bad not because of my current level of ability with this pose, but because I feel like I have regressed some with it since last time it came up in class. I know there are variations from class to class and day to day, but I feel like I knew what to do to make progress earlier in terms of how to adjust my arms. It's hard to explain, but it's like the concept is still in my mind, but the muscle memory is not there.

Yummy: A lot to choose from as I indicated in the intro, but perhaps the best was the way the principle Kimberly discussed of letting go of unhealthy things through the practice really worked during the class. With each deep stretch it was if a little bit of a burden fell away. Good times.

I'll be back soon with a longer post about a Yoga Basics class that I was fortunate enough to share with both my wife and my good friend Michael. Till then!

Class #10 Dynamic Flow Yoga with Kimberly

Hello again! So another quirk of my schedule has been that I have not been to a more upbeat dynamic flow class is awhile. I love any of the classes where you can move and get a good sweat going. My attention can't wander if we are always doing something new, right? Since I was at the class before and did not leave the building I was actually on time for this one. I also was fortunate enough to run into the pleasant Katie again who let me know I had messed up her description earlier. If I got it right this time, she is interested in counseling work in the near future, but is currently working at a car dealership. Or maybe she's a card dealer on a ship. Or it might have been cardiologist. I'm not sure and am embarrassed to ask again, but I have a plan. I will simply wreck my car outside Amsa while playing poker with friends in the backseat and then fake a heart attack. Her response should clearly indicate her line of work. Its the only course of action that makes sense really. Anyways she was there and so were my good friend Kerry and several other familiar faces including another yogi I met who is also on a classes quest. She said she might start a blog too. I am rooting for you cool person with a similar quest whose name I forgot...

Good: We did some Dolphin Pose http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/2462 and it was good to be reminded of how those feel. I used to do them a lot when I was hurt a while back as an alteration to Down Dog. Down Dog may be a good home base restful pose, but Dolphin (at least the way I do it) is not. Kimberly had us use a block between our hands for better alignment and I tried to do so but didn't put it in the right place. No ego issues here, just poor spatial skills on my part. So the good was after she noticed my mistake and fixed it for me, I could really feel the Dolphin pose doing work. Try it. It's harder to hold than it looks.

Bad: So one of the highlights of this class was we got to try to do an inversion up against the wall. I used to practice these a fair amount when I was going to classes that featured them. I have had occasional good moments and also occasional bowling ball moments where I almost roll into the person in front of me. Without the practice though, when we tried for Feathered Peacock pose Pincha Mayurasana http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/1711 it just wasn't happening. That's okay, sometimes it's not the day for a certain pose to come out and play but I got more frustrated with myself than was productive.

Yummy: Whole lotta yum to choose from. Just being active and moving felt great. There was good breath in the room (thanks everyone!). I got to hear the story and explanation that I had missed from the beginning of the earlier class so I was still able to learn and absorb some. I got closer to being on track with my quest.

See everybody soon!

Class #9 Yin Yoga with Kimberly

Oh when will I learn? So I am trying to catch up to the pace of one class a day and I am several behind due to snow and in a couple of cases sloth (I love that word. I always think of the animals sloth being all slothy in their pajamas while squinting at an alarm clock and then slowly and deliberately rolling over and back to sleep). So I tried to rush to a 4:45 class from the other side of town at like 4:22. I'm sure I broke a few traffic laws and bent several others. I got to my house which is literally (no really literally, not literally like the people who say things like "I was literally on fire")two minutes drive to Amsa, changed into yoga gear while scaring the poor kittens with clothes flying everywhere and rushed down my icy steps in bare feet. I got to class a couple minutes late and missed a really good explanation of frustration and mindfullness by Kimberly (I am aware of the irony here). How did the class go after my frenzied efforts to fling myself onto the mat?

Good: My plank pose http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/470 is getting a little better. It is still shaky after a while, but I can keep the proper shape longer than I used to. Yoga is sneaky. Long term practitioners often don't look that different from "regular" healthy people (though they are often older than you would think). However, they have the capability to do some pretty amazing stuff. Kimberly would say we all have the capability to do amazing things, but I mean in the short term. It's like we can become secret super heroes. In the meanwhile, hopefully there will be an emergency that requires someone who is slightly more flexible than average that I can help with (as long as it does not require bending directly forward while seated...).

Bad: So I rushed and fought and strained to get to class and then it was time to get into still poses and hold them for long periods of time. In case you did not know, Adrenaline + Testosterone does not = Yin. You know the hero pose virasana http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/490 I was so happy about recently? Busted. When I got to class, everyone was in hero while sitting on either a block or blanket for support. Of course fresh off my mad dash I was like "Blocks? I don't need no stinking blocks!" Sigh, yes you do Jesse. Especially if the pose is going to be held for ten minutes while we mentally prepare for the rest of the class. Especially if you are all tense and stuck in fight or flight mode. Especially if you are a block head who keeps talking about not letting ego get the best of them and instead simply letting the asanas do their work. So I swayed and fidgeted and started adjusting my hair more than my barber does.

Yummy: Despite my silliness, the poses, the awesome Zenny music Kimberly played and her always stellar and insightful instruction combined to eventually work their magic and I finally calmed down and got closer to the right frame of mind. Also John was there and those classes are always fun because he is a good male example for me to follow since (based on the classes he is in my line of sight) he gives good effort but rarely goes overboard. Also because he sometimes wears a baseball cap while practicing and I think he may be hiding some sort of small yogic animal familiar in there. It's just a theory I'm working on.

Come back soon and see how my first flow class in weeks went...

Class #8 Yoga for Lunch with Anne

Finally a class with Anne! Amsa actually has several wonderful talented instructors, but my schedule so far has worked out so that I keep winding up with Kimberly or Sara. I enjoy both of their styles and classes very much but people were starting to ask me questions about why I only have classes listed from 2/5ths of the instructors. Don’t worry, I am sure there will be classes with Pam and Louise very soon. Maybe if we are lucky there will even be a class in the not too distant future with Philip the semi-retired artist (the awesome fish picture at the front of Amsa’s studio is by him!) who specializes in Thai and/or partner yoga. One of the many great things about yoga is how open ended it is. Even the greatest instructor has their own focuses and limitations. Getting multiple perspectives from different teachers (at least occasionally) helps a lot to keep the mind expanding and reminds us of the possibilities and creativity inherent in the practice.
So this was a fun class with a relatively small crowd and an intimate feel. Yoga in the middle of the day can be tough to fit in with our busy lives and work obligations. I was fortunate to be able to sneak it in before heading off to teach because of my quirky schedule this semester. I was a little nervous because the open spot to set up (without having to ask people to move) was front and center. Aside from the ego and insecurity issues I have briefly mentioned earlier, I am a little superstitious. The last time I was exactly front and center I pushed myself too hard and wound up hurting myself. It was a lesson that needed to be learned (and that I am still working on) but it was really discouraging at the time to have to take a break for a while and then have to do some alterations to poses for several classes after that. Let’s see if I handled it a little better this time.

Good: High Lunge http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/2488 is a pose that comes up a lot and one that I “feel like I should be able to do better”. I put that in italics because I am trying to be aware of such perceptions and pause and examine them. Begin Giant Side Note: I come from a very competitive background. I have played chess, scrabble and a card game called magic at high levels in the past. It is hard for me not to mention specific achievements with them. But why? What does it really matter what I achieved in a competition based around a game? I was thinking recently during a yoga class about what really matters to me. Honestly, everything comes back to my relationships with friends and family, my faith, and being able to help others. If something does not serve one or more of those purposes it is probably a waste of time. It sounds harsh, but it is actually kind of freeing. Yoga helps all three as I develop patience and calmness, work on introspection, and establish more stamina and empathy. It is very difficult though for me not to approach yoga as I have dealt with competitions in the past. I want to judge myself based on others around me and want to “achieve” certain poses. I have to keep stopping and resetting my perspective to avoid tying self-worth to what I can and cannot do so far. There is nothing wrong with striving and giving something your all but I have to keep asking myself why to stay centered. End Giant Side Note So we were in the pose with our hands to either side of our forward foot. I usually strain as hard as I can and get my fingertips down to the mat. Believe it or not, this is not how the pose is intended (though the yoga journal picture kinda makes it look like that). Oftentimes an instructor will notice what is going on and gently suggest (or in one memorable class, firmly insist) I place blocks under my hands so I can straighten out. This time I got the blocks myself and let the pose do its actual intended work. Despite being front middle, no one pointed and giggled at me. I am happy that I was in a mental place that let me deal appropriately with my current stage.

Bad: We did a high lunge variation http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/2492 where we rose up on tippy toes and balanced for a bit. I am usually decent at balance poses but I was very wobbly. I also beat myself up more than I should for having "wind in my tree" Things change from day to day. As much as I would like it to be a steady progression where I only get better and never regress, there are tons of factors like rest and diet and mood that all come together each time we get on the mat.

Yummy: It was good to see Anne again and try a chakras themed class. Hurray variety! Hurray openness!