Archive for the ‘1’ Category

This Sunday: Chaturanga Dandasana with Kristen Krash

Emily on 2:46 pm October 7th, 2009 / Be the first to comment! »

Chaturanga Dandasana by Emily Sloat Shaw

If you’re like me, Chaturanga is your nemesis.

It appears deceptively simple—body extended, arms tucked in at the sides, weight balanced between hands and feet. But finding the combination of strength and length to push your prone body off the ground is surprisingly difficult. When it’s done well, a body in chaturanga appears weightless, contained front to back and lengthened head to toes, simultaneously.

Join Kristen this Sunday October 11, for an exploration chaturanga dandasana, one of the most challenging asanas in the yoga canon.

ooh i’m so tired!

kim on 7:17 pm October 6th, 2009 / 1 Comment »

This is one of the things I hear during the Fall a lot. More so than Winter, even though during those colder months there is less light to go around.

This makes me think of yoga. I can say without a doubt that at 37, I feel younger and more alive than I did at 23 — then I was busy working on Wall Street, running to the gym, and then running home to go out, or to go home and hang out in front of the TV. I felt exhausted all the time, and even training for a marathon didn’t seem to help.

Over time, I’ve learned that my body needs certain shapes, and certain relaxation tools, to keep it running smoothly, energetically, and happily. These shapes and relaxation tools come directly from yoga: They have aligned my skeleton, muscles, and nervous system (i.e., how I think and feel) in such a way that I conserve energy when it feels good and makes sense, and I expend it when it feels good and makes sense.

Running a small business at 9 months pregnant, I still work as many hours as I ever clocked at JPMorgan or Merrill Lynch, but the difference is that my skeleton and nervous system aren’t working as hard to hold me up, move me from place to place, and let go as they settle me down to sleep at night. Even 40 lbs heavier than I was in January, the only thing bothering me occasionally are my knees, and that’s because they are still adjusting to the weight they are temporarily bearing from above.

During the Fall, when it becomes obvious that your body is going into hibernation, it’s a very good idea to stick with a yoga practice in order to observe how your body is holding you up. Learn how to conserve energy, learn how it moves through your body — be interested in where you are efficient and where you aren’t, and explore your body from there. These are essential “wellness” tools for any body wanting to feel more alive, and less encumbered.

Free-Form Yoga and Jazz This Saturday

[Yoga and jazz] seek always to make spontaneous and real the exploration of these structures through lack of structure. -Kim Weeks

This Saturday, V Street (between 13th and 14th) is being renamed Langston Hughes Way by the District. In honor of this renaming, The Greater U Street Historic Foundation is throwing a block party!
 
From 12 pm to 4 pm, there will be live jazz, a moonbounce for kids, food, and fun for everyone. A few of us from Boundless are showing up from 2:30 pm to 4 pm to do free-form, self-led yoga in an open field (the one right behind the Busboys building), where jazz will be playing, kids will be moonbouncing, and people will be generally hanging out and having a good time. There’s nothing else! Just an opportunity to show up, do some spontaneous yoga practice to the sounds of great live music—on or off your mat.
 
So come on out and bring a friend. Look for people in Boundless t-shirts doing yoga. You can follow if you want, or just do your own thing. This is an opportunity to get totally into the groove and into your own body. Just as the jazz musicians will be demonstrating the beauty of jazz (think notes, scales, tones), we’ll be demonstrating how beautiful asana can be done (think bones, muscles, organs). See the connection?
 
Take care, and we hope to see you Saturday!

Podcasts and Poetry

Does anybody listen to Tara Brach’s podcasts or go to her talks on Wednesday nights? I find her talks to be such a wonderful compliment to my asana practice. Here’s a beautiful poem I found by following a bunny trail from one of her recent talks:

Fire
by Judy Sorum

What makes a fire burn
is space between the logs,
a breathing space.
Too much of a good thing,
too many logs
packed in too tight
can douse the flames
almost as surely
as a pail of water would.

So building fires
requires attention
to the spaces in between,
as much as to the wood.

When we are able to build
open spaces
in the same way
we have learned
to pile on the logs,
then we can come to see how
it is fuel, and absence of the fuel
together, that make fire possible.

We only need to lay a log
lightly from time to time.
A fire
grows
simply because the space is there,
with openings
in which the flame
that knows just how it wants to burn
can find its way.

Benefits of teaching

Emily on 4:55 pm July 26th, 2009 / 8 Comments »

I¹ve been worrying about the prospect of teaching yoga for months now. It was sort of unfathomable to think of myself as a teacher. I have been afraid of the exposure inherent in teaching—the sharing and the vulnerability. What if I’m not good enough? What if my students evaluate me and find me wanting?

To prepare, I recruited my boyfriend, who had never taken a yoga class in his life. During our session I wondered: is he bored? annoyed? does this make him more resistant to yoga? But when we were done and I looked into his eyes I felt a new kind of connection, a generalized sweetness between us. Yoga has the power to do that.

A coworker volunteered to be a second guinea pig. My first reaction was “no!” but sleeping on it calmed my anxiety and I agreed to teach a lunchtime class. On the day of class I had four students instead of one. But the previous night’s experience with my boyfriend made me calm.

It wasn’t the class so much as my experience after that I remember. I found myself open and happy. I saw my coworkers through new eyes, with love and compassion. I wanted to be close to them. I wanted to ask about their lives. I appreciated their chatter instead of resenting when it took me away from work. I felt radiant and loving. Who knew that teaching yoga would bring these gifts to me? I always thought it was the other way around. That teaching transferred energy from teacher to student. But these early experiences with teaching have enriched me, and brought me energy and joy.

Practice 6/27

kim on 7:49 pm June 29th, 2009 / Be the first to comment! »

• Uttanasana with Block and Chair
• Virasana
• Down Dog (Adho Mukha Savasana) with block
• Pigeon Pose
• Upavista Konasana
• Badha Konasana
• Janu Sirsasana
• **Progress in shoulder girdle.
• Felt lift of shoulder girdle from top of diaphragm. More breath and space, space in 3rd eye also
• Pascimottanasana
• Supta Virasana
• Headstand (Sirsasana)
• Shoulderstand (Sarvangasana)
• Savasana

they saw her

kim on 10:48 pm June 3rd, 2009 / Be the first to comment! »

So of the people in my life, the only people who predicted correctly that I’m having a girl were the Energy Apprentices I’m training. Of course I don’t think this is a coincidence; based on my experience as an Energy Healer, I believe you can see or feel the sex of a baby almost as accurately as an ultrasound can. It just takes a lot of training and stillness, probably akin to same kind of training it took to figure out how to build an ultrasound that can see the sex of a baby.

from the dalai lama

kim on 8:01 pm May 31st, 2009 / Be the first to comment! »

If one assumes a humble attitude, one’s own good qualities will increase. Wheras if one is proud, one will become jealous of others, one will look down on others, and due to that there will be unhappiness in society.

Breathing Under Water

kim on 10:32 pm May 26th, 2009 / Be the first to comment! »

I keep hearing the phrase, “under water,” as it relates to many people’s home and asset ownership situation.

It’s so interesting how cultures make up phrases that reflect energetic reality. Here’s the link. The vibration of the second chakra travels primarily through water — it is water, in a way. Underneath the second chakra is the first chakra, whose essence is terra firma, gravity, matter. We tend to understand the chakras most easily through the emotional body, or how we feel when one chakra or another gets revved up.

The emotional issues of these lowest two chakras are primarily rooted in desire, money, trust, and fear. We identify with the most basic “things” we “need” in this life through these chakras. Many of the needs are indeed totally real: a roof over one’s head, a feeling of security of safety, the right to be here and to have.

That’s why “under water” strikes me as so intelligent. If any of us were physically under water, we would obviously only be able to stay there a short period, or we would die from lack of oxygen. Of course, those of us with mortgages worth more than our homes are worth may feel like we are drowing, suffocating from the level of debt we’ve incurred, and from the fact that we are basically trapped there until the market “turns around,” and home prices again rise.

And in the first chakra, where fear and trust quite simply, then there is a choice. You decide to feel one thing or the other based on your current state. You can either let yourself drown or keep breathing because the metaphor is only that. Breathing mindfully reduces fear by its very function.

master asana class. now practice at home or on the road with boundless students and teacher trainees!

Hi everyone!  Many of you have been asking for advice on how to practice when you can’t make it to a class. Kristen is going to periodically post excerpts from her Sunday 12:30 master asana class.  Below are some instructions for select asanas from a recent class, accompanied by photos of your fellow boundless students!  Each class will be archived when a new one is posted, so you can always go back and find the class you really liked or that pose you really want to work on, anytime or anywhere. (well, anywhere you can get to www.boundlessyoga.com, that is!)

emily in krounchasana--grounding in the legs and lifting through the chest. way to go emily!

backbending over the block

andrea quieting the mind in baddha konasana

adam holding steady in half-handstand

doris lengthening the waist in adho mukha svanasana

finding and refining the alignment of sirsasana

kristen enjoying a free-standing handstand

erin helps andrea find her balance in handstand