Erin Duncan

A word from Layne Morrison: Don’t Miss Circle in the Park

Boundless teacher and generally amazing person Layne Morrison will be teaching yoga tomorrow afternoon in Meridian Hill Park as part of Boundless Circle (come early for the yoga!). Layne wrote this beautiful post to share:

I was thrilled to hear the next Boundless Circle will be at Meridian Hill / Malcolm X Park, which has a special place in my heart and practice. During Boundless Yoga Therapy, we’d eat lunch and study in the park. On Sundays, during the drum circle, the park becomes a swirling circus of yogis, Acroyogis, hoop divas and jugglers. Slacklines demarcate the playground. I now live across the street (not by accident), and the park is on my commute to the studio. Almost every day, I beat a quick path through the park, compulsively checking time on my cell phone, calculating the invariable window that renders me either ‘late’ or ‘very late’ to my favorite teacher’s class. After yoga, a transformed version of me glides home, peaceful and lambent, under the majestic oaks, my heart wide with appreciation.

Yoga is Spirit, Spirit is Nature, and the park is the closest we come to Nature in the urban pulse of U St. Kalorama and Columbia Heights: the sparkle of the fountain in the morning, spring blooms in the moonlight. What comes to mind is Howard Thurman’s brilliant description of his childhood spirituality in his autobiography, With Head and Heart. This great theologian found a stillness and comfort in the expanse of night and a silent grounding in the oak tree, while the ocean and river “offered a sense of timelessness, of existing beyond the ebb and flow of circumstances.”

These moments of timelessness – amid the trees, the air, the fountain, I see and savor because of my yoga practice. I do yoga to be reminded to put down my iPhone, step away from the computer, to walk rather than rush, to breathe “for real” (as Kim might put it). You see, I’m not a natural yogi. My first inclination is to race through life as if there were a finish line. Left to my own devices, I devolve quickly into performance-based anxiety. And that’s where you come in: my yoga tribe. Over the years, with the help of Boundless, I’ve built my community of practice, of like-minded souls, of buddies with good habits…I rely on you, my teachers, friends and acquaintances next to me on the mat, to remind me what’s really important, what nourishes my spirit.

So, I’ll be there at the Boundless Circle this Saturday, May 12, enjoying my park and my community. 4-6 pm. Be there at the Circle or be (you know it!) square.

A post about discipline

Every morning, my alarm clock goes off at 6:01 a.m. Why 6:01? I don’t really know, except that it’s at least after 6 a.m., so doesn’t seem so awful. Every morning, I take our wonderful hound mix, Penny, out for a walk a little before 7 a.m. When the early morning walk first became my job, I felt like the task was too intimidating. I’m ashamed to admit that Penny got very short walks for a few months — much less than she needed — because I was worried about how much time taking care of her each morning would add to my morning routine. However, over the past year walking Penny every morning has become not only something I am willing to get up early to do, but also something I look forward to. I love the fresh air, being in nature, and alone time with my furry girl. It takes something really extraordinary for me to not give Penny a proper long walk first thing in the morning.

I feel the same way about my yoga practice at Boundless. I will be the first that admit that there are some days when getting to the studio or practicing at home is a major challenge — wrapping up conference calls, remembering my yoga clothing, turning off the television, not making after work plans — these are just a few of the obstacles that can get in the way of unrolling my mat. To this list I could certainly add laziness, tiredness, and many other excuses. Patanjali writes about these and other obstacles to a yoga practice in the Yoga Sutras. But Patanjali also writes that by digging deep, focusing, and practicing perseverance — what some might call discipline — we can overcome obstacles and reap the full benefits of our practice.

So what does this mean? For me it means that sometimes, I really am dragging myself to class, just like some mornings when it’s cold or raining, I have to force myself to give Penny a proper walk. But I always feel better after I practice yoga, just like I always feel like the day gets off to a better start when it begins with a nice walk with Penny. It also means that while one practice might not be the best effort I could ever give, the act of at least showing up and engaging in a class helps move me toward a deeper understanding of my mind and body. Every practice — no matter how much of a struggle it may be to get there, or to relax and focus — helps me grow as a practitioner. There aren’t any shortcuts to lasting change or to perfecting a certain pose. On and off the mat, we are all the sum of the cumulative effects of hundreds of tiny decisions and lots and lots and lots of practice.

This is the time of year that many of us are thinking about discipline — giving up a bad habit for 40 days, for example. But I also like to think about discipline in a positive way — and to use positive habits to reinforce slow, but sure, change. Commitment and
discipline will get you through the rough patches, and help you earn the rewards of regular, ever deepening yoga practice. We’re trying to make it easier than ever to commit. One way to deepen your commitment is through membership at Boundless. Sign up today!

Circle is Coming March 31st!

Mark your calendars! March 31 from 4-6 p.m. is the very first Boundless Circle and you won’t want to miss it!

What is Circle? Circle is an opportunity for the entire Boundless community to come together for conversation, group activities, and fun! We know that it’s often easy to recognize people from classes, or brief conversations before or after class, but in this busy city, it’s also very important to take the time to get to know each other better. That’s what Circle is all about.

Our Circle kick-off will be a fun cocktail (and mocktail) party with music and more right after the Immersion Workshop on Saturday afternoon, March 31 from 4-6 p.m. Go to the Master Class and then join us for Circle! Or swing by for a beverage and a chat on your way to your Saturday evening plans! A number of Boundless teachers will be there, so it’s also a great time to talk to your favorite teachers in a low-key environment.

In addition, Circle is always open to guests! We’ve heard from so many of you about the ways in which Boundless has changed your life for the better. Is there someone in your circle who needs to hear about Boundless and could benefit from our way of teaching? Please, bring them to Circle! To help us plan refreshments, please RSVP for Circle by sending an email to Erin at erind [at] boundlessyoga.com.

Future Circles will include book discussions, special guest speakers, volunteer activities, movie nights and more!

So come on! Mark your calendars and we’ll see you at Circle—and bring a friend! Be you. Be better. Be Boundless.

Reading Harry/Seeing Bodies

I love reading about Harry’s recollection of his first Seeing Bodies
experience. And I love it even more knowing what has happened for
Harry since that experience.

As a Boundless advanced student as well as a teacher, I know that our
job is to help create the space for the type of transformation Harry
describes — of course within our bodies but also within our minds and
hearts. Seeing Bodies is an important first step on that path of
transformation. As an instructor, it is so helpful to have a
one-on-one opportunity to work with a student and gain a deeper
understanding of how their particular body moves. But the most
important information Seeing Bodies provides is the information it
provides you. Knowing more deeply how your body works and ways your
practice can help support you is priceless.
read more…

Let’s talk about Stretch, baby

Have you noticed there are a ton of yoga memoirs out there? I’ve feel like I’ve spent most of this year and some of last reading really great books about yoga and being a yoga practitioner.  With that in mind, one of our goals with Feb.U.Yoga is to inaugurate the Boundless book club. We’ve huddled and picked as our first book Neal Pollack‘s memoir Stretch: The Unlikely Making of a Yoga Dude.

As the blurb on the back of the book notes, this book is “The hilarious true account of an overweight, balding, skeptical guy’s unexpected transformation into a healthy, blissful yoga fiend.” Or as Pollack writes early in the book:

“Like a freshly made vampire, I’d only just begun to test the limits of my thirst. Yoga was about to become the organizing principle of my existence. Also, must to the chagrin of non-yogis I knew, it became pretty much the only thing about which I ever wanted to talk. In the walk of life, I’d stepped in a big pile of  yoga doo and nothing could get it off my sole. Or my soul.”

What’s not to like? Neal Pollack is a husband, dad, writer, and sarcastic as hell. He was named a “hot writer” by Rolling Stone. He’s written for the humor site McSweeneys, Slate, Salon, and Yoga Journal. He’s the author of several books. He was in a band. He likes dogs. And, I’ll bet he’s good at bar trivia. To quote Kelly, I heart him.

I don’t want to ruin it, but I think you’ll really, really like Stretch and Neal Pollack. I should note that this is a memoir and Pollack is very honest; there are some adult themes in this book that not everyone will be comfortable with (i.e., recreational drug use and swear words). We’ll be blogging about this some too. But as you’ll read in Stretch, Neal Pollack’s journey to yoga dudehood is honest, real, and true.

And, I’m really excited to share that we’ve been in touch with Neal Pollack and he’s generously agreed to answer our questions! Please share questions about Stretch through this blog and we’ll email those to him to answer. (He’s also very funny on twitter @nealpollack.)

So hurry – go pick it up! Support a local independent bookstore! We’ll be posting more about Stretch in the next week or so, and hope you’ll join us in our online bookclub!

Of Seeds and Shelterbelts

Maybe it’s because we’re all getting tired of the winter, but in the last several weeks I have noticed a lot of talk about seeds and planting. Maybe it’s because I grew up in Nebraska, where we have a sower on the top of our State Capitol building, but I take all this talk about seeds and planting as more than just metaphor.

Have you ever planted anything? As a little girl, my mother used to send my sisters and me out with a Tupperware dish full of Trix cereal to plant in the yard. Strangely, the Trix always grew into petunias.

Even if you are only five years old and armed with a small garden spade, every Nebraska child knows to dig a shallow hole, plant the seed, and gently cover it up. Then you wait for rain or your turn to water it with the garden hose. And then you wait. You care for the seed by caring for the soil.

In the same way, after the Dust Bowl of the 1930s blew away all the topsoil across the Great Plains, farmers like my grandparents planted shelterbelts. These formations of trees helped protect the soil from wind and erosion and improved chances of raising a crop out of the fragile land.

The same is true for yoga, I think. We plant seeds with our practice — and not just our asana, but our truthfulness, our efforts towards non-harming, and so on. And by planting these seeds we also help cultivate ourselves and our ability to do better next time – let’s face it, it sometimes takes a lot of strength to be non-harming in our words towards a difficult person or to even get back up in a difficult pose. The practice helps us become stronger, more patient, more understanding, and more mindful of how we affect the world and those around us. We make ourselves a shelterbelt.

I haven’t planted anything in years and years, living in apartments in the city so far from home. But I’d like to change that this year. What seeds are you planting? How are you cultivating your soil?

We’ll be together in all kinds of weather

The rain this morning was a pleasant relief from the harsher snowy and icy weather we’ve experienced lately. Yet, as Emily reminded me last night, no matter what Punxsutawney Phil decides this morning, we’ll surely be complaining about the hot and humid weather six months from now, too.

Emotionally, we all have different types of weather. Happy, sad, angry, heart-broken, frustrated, or neutral — or everything in between — I’ve found that yoga and meditation helps me to weather this weather.

Have you tried to meditate? In its simplest form, meditation is awareness of your breath. Try this: sit in a chair (or on the floor with your legs in sukhasana), lift your chest and draw your shoulder blades down your back, aligning your spine and and feeling your collar bones spread across the front of your chest. Now close your eyes and inhale and exhale through your nose, paying attention to your breath. Breathe. Simple, right?

The beautiful thing about this practice is that the breath is always with us — come hail or high-water — and it doesn’t require any equipment or even that much time to align the spine, close your eyes, and breathe.

This Feb.U.Yoga, I’m working on integrating more meditation into my daily life, rain or shine. What do you think about meditation as emotional weatherproofing?