The Yoga Blog

Tough Love

The wise teacher with whom I took a yoga class this morning said something during class that was, well, wise.  She asked us, as we started into the first of a handful of down dogs, to notice our habits in these “simple” poses.  She said that these habits could teach us things, and that instead of fighting our habits, we should learn from them.  I mumbled something snarky about how these were some pretty tough-love teachers.  Am I right?!  For me, a couple of things, or habits if you will, plague me.  My mid-back is one of them.  Oooh, that mid-back.  It just wants to creep up and out like some kind of inchworm in mid-move instead of lying smooth and integrated like, um, butter?  You get the point.  And I know that what my mid-back habit is teaching me is not that my mid-back is the problem.  I”m working on sourcing that habit’s origins.  So in the (long) meantime, thanks to my wise, external teacher, perhaps I will try harder not to battle and struggle with my didactic habits, but will instead cast a curious ear towards what they have to say to me.

liana june 27 sequence

liana june 20 sequence

follow our move!!

whoa, check it out! boundless is moving down the street, and we are so excited. we’re going to blog and update you all along the way.

here are the first pics of the site and a couple fun updates !

so here we are on the second and third levels, of this beautiful building that faces U Street.

across the way is the metro!

and what’s on the first level? the future home of georgetown valet!

here’s an interior shot of what’s up in our space!

a pretty window detail!

this is how the outside of the building is shaped right at that corner (13th and U!)

this is our friend allen. he’s keeping everything going over at the site! this is also the street view of what fronts U street at the ground level now.

this- believe it or not- is where you eventually enter the building! (i envision some beautiful plants to the left of the stairway up) yes, we will be installing a stairway. you don’t have to jump up to the second level.. even if it is a yoga studio.

please keep checking the site, and tell all of your friends. we want you to enjoy the process of change with us, as it happens.

cool interior pics coming later today — namaste!!

kelly

Learning to Rest

In case you were wondering why I have not been to the studio for a while, I’ve been on an extended vacation from asana practice, courtesy of my back. Yup, it appears I’ve slipped a disk. I can trace it back to shoveling snow this winter, anyways, that’s when it started to hurt. The good news is disks are actually easier to manipulate back into place at my age than when younger, precisely because they have become a little firmer and are less mobile. Who’da thunk? Needless to say, I am eager to get back to a more vigorous asana practice, but for now, I have to be satisfied with having graduated from doing the most gentle of movements (sphinx and low cobra with stomach, butt and legs NOT engaged) to being OKed to begin adding more “yogic elements” to these movements.

Recently, I helped my neighbor, who was injured in a car accident by adjusting a cart she is using to get around so it fit her better. I didn’t think twice about sitting on the floor and so I could work on the cart. But I sure thought twice when I had a hard time standing up! I am feeling “old” for the first time. Like really old. Like stereotypically old. Imagine an old lady bent forward and walking around with one hand on her back. OK, so maybe I am having a bit of drama about this, but it is quite a revelation when any movement heading in the direction of a forward fold, like bending down to pick up something from the floor requires planning, otherwise it will hurt!

 What I am discovering in this period of forced inactivity is that I don’t really know how to rest. And, of course, that is really what my body needs to heal. In fact, I almost never rest, unless I am sick, and I don’t think that exactly counts, does it? My idea of the ideal vacation? Put on a backpack and hike for five or six days in high elevation mountains. My idea of a restful day at home? Get the shopping done, bake bread, cook, etc. while doing loads of laundry in between. Sleeping in? Mmmm, that would be 7:00 a.m., right? You get the picture.

 So for me, the challenge is to learn to rest. To accept limitation. It’s probably a no-brainer, a doh! moment for most people, but my attachment to my perception of myself as a physically active and fit person throws sand in my eyes and makes it harder for me to do what I need to do to heal- which is rest. Luckily, the body reminds me every time my perception moves away from this new reality!