Katie Scanlon-Gehn

There are still 4 spots in our yoga 101 class that begins monday 1/21. We recommend taking this class before taking any other classes at the Shala.

details: 5 weeks, 1st 3 weeks just mondays at 7:15, last 3 weeks also meets wednesdays at 5:30pm, cost is $120

link to register online

And here is one of my favorite teachers, Eddie Stern, from Ashtanga Yoga New York, explaining a little about ashtanga.

“How can I help people have their own experience of what yoga is for them and not what I think that it might be?” Eddie Stern

Thank you Tom Bross from Neato Video for making this vid! And more on our fogi’s class is here .

Please join Katie Scanlon, Shala owner and Lululemon ambassador at a special candlelight yoga class sponsored by Lululemon Athletica and dedicated to creating a kindler, gentler world one breath, one person at a time.

Details: Sunday, December 23. The class will be held at 1017 W. 1st Ave (next to Tangerine Boutique in the Oddfellows building) from 6pm to 7:30pm. The class is complimentary, although donations will be accepted to benefit 2nd Harvest Food Bank.We hope to see you there.

My partner in crime for life and I always talk about the “why” in things. He is the CFO for the city of Spokane, a father of 5 and also finds the time to study yoga asana and philosophy. And we often talk about why we practice yoga. And as much as possible he makes decisions and choices about the finances of our city based on the “why” behind them.

And he encourages me to do the same whenever I decide to add a new class or workshop offering or change something at the Shala.

And as we approach the holidays as a community still reeling from the news of violence and loss from last weeks shooting in Connecticut. I ask myself again, why do we practice yoga?

Last week while I was teaching my mysore class it came to me again. Yoga requires again and again the courage to begin at the beginning, with varying degrees of proficiency day after day. It is a daily lesson in both noticing and attending to what it is that’s being asked of us, one step at a time.

It teaches us to repeatedly return to the task at hand.

During asana practice the task at hand is to “do” breath, vinyasa, gaze, bandha. Off the mat the task at hand might be getting out of bed when we are overcome with sadness or grief, or facing a stack of mail when we are wrought with worry or anxiety, being there for a friend…

In the midst of suffering it is normal to feel powerless and disconnected. And to question, doubt and worry about what to “do”. And to wonder as Peg Mulqueen did in her blog “No Practice Ever Wasted”: “How could I possibly make a difference?”

So during these next few weeks of holiday activities, school vacation, visiting family, we hope that you take the time to notice what each moment is asking of you. We hope that through your practice you feel you are “doing” something positive in the world and we are grateful for these opportunities we can practice together.

We hope you hold close to you all of your blessings.  For gratitude, love and compassion will mitigate the suffering of those in pain.

Tidings of peace to all.

a few years ago…  actually August of 2002, I drove out here to live and get married, settle down and have kids….. ha ha!!

When I got here I was lucky enough to start teaching ashtanga at FSG – which is no longer here but was in the same space that Lila Yoga is in now– I’m not sure how anyone got wind of my class – but I’m eternally grateful to Elizabeth McElveen for that.

There was a small group of students, and I started teaching them Ashtanga yoga from the beginning, not mysore style, but led through the beginnings of the primary series.

and one of those folks was Lars.

Lars has his own story about how he ended up in my class and what that first class was like – and I’ll let him tell that – but essentially Lars started doing ashtanga yoga at the tender age of 59.  Which I just love!

I think we can sort of get stuck in the groove of thinking that we’re set going down some path at the age of 40, or 45 or 60 or whatever… and that’s just the way it is.. especially when it comes to our bodies - it can seem so overwhelming to imagine physical change…

and I love Lars for lots of reasons but one is because he is a walking, ujjayi-breathing “eff that” to that arcane idea!!

So when it came time for me to try to open a shala dedicated to the ashtanga practice and I left FSG – Lars and that small handful (Gunner, Judy, Michiko, Karen, John, Colleen) I’m talking small… were the ones who made that happen.

and.. they were always there… and Lars was always there. Practicing religiously… and often frustrated, oh so annoyed when I’d paint the studio orange, only to repaint it turquois… then move the stereo from the front to the back.. then to rearrange how I wanted students… etc etc..

and, over the years I got to know Lars better and better. I eventually went to his house and learned about his gardens, his bees, his calligraphy, and his art. I met his partner, and learned about her weaving, metal working and other wonders.

Lars even went to India before I did — which was so amazing because it brought all of us closer to the source and energy of our practice.

But I think at some point Lars got the idea that if he built the perfect yoga studio he’d never have to suffer through my constant adjustments and changes ever again…

And then one day he let me in on his plan.. he told me he wanted to build a shala. He said he’d like to build this building and make it represent the beauty of yoga and nature, inside and out, that there would be two yoga studios, and that there would be living space for visiting yoga teachers and students. That he was going to build this… and what did I think about it.

At least that’s how I remember the beginning of what is now referred to as “Haystack”.

Haystack is the 6,000 plus building you may have noticed being built stone-by-stone just to the west of the South Perry district at 731 S. Garfield. When it is finished it will have four ground-floor studio apartments. Above the apartments are two yoga rooms that share a large reception area. and above the center reception area is a 5th third floor studio apartment. More later on details about the building and our move …

2012 will go down for me as the year everything simultaneously fell apart and came together all at once!

And it was all precipitated by my husband of 9 years and I deciding after 3 years of deliberating, to end our marriage. Here is an essay I wrote from the last night I slept in the house we lived in together with our kids.