There are worse things that could happen to a mom of a one-year-old than to show up to teach a yoga class and find an empty studio and an hour-and-a-half of free time. I don’t remember the last time I had a 90 minute, uninterrupted asana practice. And you know what? I’ve felt guilty about that.

As I find my enthusiasm for asana bubbling to life again, I realize all that guilt was so unnecessary. Motherhood should be its own branch of yoga. We endure physical discomfort, sleep deprivation, hormonal fluctuations, and out-of-our-minds crazy love for our children while striving to maintain some semblance of a balanced life and sense of self. It’s a beautiful, transformative practice that demands utmost commitment and promises invaluable rewards.

My love of motherhood is what gives me optimism and enthusiasm for my prenatal class. The space is there, and I know mamas will come (three showed up last Saturday!). Whether you’ve been practicing yoga for years or have never stepped foot in a studio, I invite you to experience the invaluable support of being in the company of other moms and a practice designed specifically to prepare you and your baby for birth and motherhood.

This Saturday at 1:30 we’ll focus on stretching the sides of the body to make room for our growing babies. We’ll be using Iyengar Yoga for Motherhood as a guide. But fear not—we won’t be striving for perfection. I’m an Iyengar dabbler with a love of flow and whatever works best on any given day. This time is all about what nourishes us—Boundless mamas!

If you’re new to the studio this week and participating in one of our $5 classes, welcome! We are so glad you found us! We hope you enjoy your classes, learn something new about your body and breath, and we hope you come back! (And we’re offering some great Yoga Week promotions to make that easier!)

If you’re a Boundless regular, thank you! You help make the Boundless community as diverse and rich as it is. We are so happy you’ve chosen us as your yoga home and we appreciate sharing in all your energy and joy as you continue to practice with us.

This will be a fun and exciting week, culminating in Yoga on the Mall. I’ll be teaching as part of this citywide celebration of yoga on Saturday, May 19 at 3 p.m. at the Washington monument. This event is free. We hope everyone will join us for a very special practice!

Again, welcome to Boundless Yoga and welcome to Yoga Week. Let’s celebrate yoga!

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.

Get Yoga Week off to the right start with Boundless Circle, Saturday,
May 12 from 4-6 p.m.

On May 12, Circle will meet at Meridian Hill Park, upper level, to
enjoy a light yoga practice and the beautiful spring weather. Please
bring yourself, a blanket or mat to sit on, and a snack to share. As
always, please feel free to bring a friend to Circle! Please RSVP to
Erin Duncan — erind@boundlessyoga.com.

Circle is a social event for the entire Boundless community – and
guests – offering an opportunity to get to know one another off the
mat!

** In the event of rain, Circle will be held at Boundless Yoga Studio.

For everyone coming to James’ 9 AM class from out of town, be sure you know the secret access points into the city for bypassing the marathon route.

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!

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.

I will spend this Valentine’s Day observing a divorce trial for work.  And having lunch with my fiance – our first and only V-Day engaged.  And teaching a heart-opening, bhakti-focused yoga class.  These activities naturally have me wondering about the nature of love – the nature of its nascence, its cultivation, its demise.  English is a woefully inadequate language when it comes to expressing the nuances of love – just one word to encompass spiritual devotion, friendship, familial affection, romance, strong preference…  But then again, perhaps consolidating all of the different kinds of love into one grand articulation isn’t so bad.  Above love’s many sub-genres, there is one theme: love lives in expression.  If you want to know love, practice the virtues.

A great teacher once compared love to a royal elephant.  Naked, in a state of nature, we cannot tell the difference between a regular elephant and a royal one.  Likewise, without the virtues, love is unexpressed, unembodied, beyond our perception.  But the elephant dressed in royal garb is immediately recognizable.  The virtues of love are patience, respect, compassion, kindness, and on and on. The virtues are expressions of love; sometimes they are spontaneous and easy, like a song escaping from a finely tuned instrument.  But often they involve effort, they are strained, like the reluctant notes of an instrument neglected or misused.  When we let the virtues slip away, our love becomes unrecognizable.  And bad things generally follow.

Bhakti yoga is the yoga of immersing oneself into divine love.  Divine Love is not the example of what we should strive for - that unconditional, forever expansive, always present expression of grace.  It is the very essence of our hearts, who we are as the embodiment of Divine Love.  It is a journey of self-recognition, of sweeping away the clutter that causes us to forget who we are.  The Narada Bhakti Sutra is an ancient text that speaks about this journey of love – expressing – forgetting – remembering.

Sutra 53 is a particularly beautiful meditation for Valentine’s Day, and for an asana (hatha yoga) practice.  The message of the sutra is that love reveals itself where there is an able vessel.  When the vessel is compromised, love is compromised.  In this sense, “compromised” also means “unrefined” or “unprepared.” An asana practice is one way to refine ourselves – as we cultivate awareness and stillness in the mind, as we move deeper into the knowledge and experience of our breath and energy, as we align the organs, skeleton, and muscles, releasing tension and freeing up old holding patterns, we refine our vessel.  Our work is to tune ourselves – body, mind, soul – and then to enjoy the song that emanates from our hearts.  Our greater alignment on the mat allows us to experience the flow of grace – and this experience begins to transform our daily life, off the mat.

Today, I am asking myself, “Is my love recognizable?” ”What can I do to elevate my love?” “What is standing in my way?”  I am taking my inquiries to my mat before I take them into my day.  I am rededicating myself to the practice of refinement.  A real yoga practice is not a selfish pursuit – it is the pursuit of loving better.