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 .

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.

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 …

Thank you so much to Jennifer Pignolet from the Spokesman who wrote an excellent article about our Fogis class. It is on the front page of todays paper!

There is this persistent and long running rumor that Ashtanga yoga is “designed for teenage boys”.

Huh… that’s funny…. my experience with Ashtanga for the past 15 or so years and the experience of most of the practitioners I know is quite the opposite.

In fact, and my favorite group of yogis would back me on this: **anyone can do ashtanga yoga.**

The group I’m talking about is my class “yoga for geezers, yoga for old fat guys, FOGI’s… yoga for silver foxes”… whatever you want to call it or them – it’s on tuesdays at 4:30pm, it’s been on tuesdays at 4:30pm, it’s the ashtanga standing sequence and closing sequence, with some modifications (but not many).

And these folks are definitely not teenage boys; and they have the wisdom and the battle scars to prove it.  Yet they been practicing the ashtanga yoga sequence, consistently, religiously even, once a week, going on 3 years. And I am astonished and inspired every week by their progress and growth.

It’s true though that it would be far easier for a teenage boy to commit to Ashtanga, practicing daily and advancing through the series. But I know that’s not what makes Ashtanga – Ashtanga. I remember Sharath talking about the practice when I was in India. And he repeated what Guruji often said about how anyone can take practice and receive its benefits. He quoted Yoga Sutra 1:14 “Practice becomes firmly grounded when it has been cultivated for a long time, uninterruptedly, with earnest devotion. (Sa tu-dirghakala-nairantarya-satkara-adara -asevito-drdhabhumih)”… hmmm nothing in there about age.

There is no doubt too that embarking on a yoga practice, taking those first steps into the hippie-dippied incense world of a yoga studio can be intimidating for some.  Add to that our busy lives, aches, pains, injuries and stiffness, and you quickly have all the reasons you need for not trying yoga.  Like all excuses, they soon become our truths – we sure as heck aren’t teenagers anymore and moving forward, changing, healing, growing can feel just beyond our grasp.

So how can yoga help us move past our excuses and limits? First of all, yoga works to re-wire, and re-set brain-body patterns – this means bad habits developed over a lifetime can change. And… yoga is a science – one that has proven over hundreds of years to work. In yoga, you work with your body to heal your mind, and your mind to heal your body through the different practices.

So yoga has more to do with cultivation and being consistent – and little if at all to do with age.

Sharath said that yoga is like a plant which keeps on throwing forth shoots and growing. All we require, at the beginning, is a seed.  And the seed need not be more than a feeling of interest in the possibility of living a more meaningful life, a more deeply connected or integrated life, encompassing all aspects of who we are .. and it doesn’t matter if your 17 or 71.

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.

I’m not talking about the “re-inventing yourself” thing. It’s nothing remotely romantic or interesting or new … but simply the mundane ups and downs of trying to be a good mom, trying to love, trying to run a business, paying bills … stuff like that.  Weekly,  I’ll get out a fresh yellow notepad and resolve to start over or I’ll plan out my week… six days, my full practice…. make the kids lunches everyday, get out the newsletter, answer all the emails I get in a timely way, plan this or that workshop, update the website… eat better… stuff like that… and on a daily, weekly basis other things come up, get in the way, I get distracted and though I have the best intentions, I don’t do it.

Thankfully though out of all the things I mentioned, my yoga practice (which has also had its share of ups and downs) is the one thing that has taught me that “starting over” is a beautiful thing.

Nothing else I’ve found is as efficacious. The day in day out look in the mirror, month after month, year after year, repetition of the same sequence of poses is potent and challenging, and can decrease the afflictions we have that keep us from gaining the momentum we need for change–– -and can give us the energy to make the conscious, focused, necessary commitment to face and burn off the habits that keep us from living fully.

Up until recently, after retiring from rowing, every so often I’d have these “come back” dreams… where I’d be the age I am now, and having not trained AT ALL in years, had a bunch of kids, and was trying to make the Olympic Team again. These dreams are stressful! Last night I was rowing at singles trials with these oars that were actually those plastic sticks you put olives on in a martini… hmmm. The stress and worry that I felt all the time when I was training would flood back. The fears of failing, performance anxiety, complete elation over winning, utter humiliation over losing, letting everyone down etc… all coming back.  I don’t think that all elite athletes are like I was, but I was pretty much living and breathing what yoga explains as AVIDYA – which generally means ignorance, but more specifically means identification with that which is impermanent. And avidya is exactly what keeps us from trying, keeps us from starting over.

We’ve all had that experience with our yoga relationship. One day you are lighter than air and elated at the end of your practice because of how wonderful it was, and the very next day, full of hope and expectation that you’ll be granted that same lightness only to feel more like an elephant than a bird… and your mood is far different.

Yoga’s prescription for the afflictions of avidya is…. yes, practice

It’s stressful to try something that you think you’ve already lost.

But I think it’s young. Starting over is young.

Starting over doesn’t mean you failed and now you are going to try again… it just means that maybe there has been a lapse – that’s all.

Things that are challenging, jobs, relationships, yoga practice … 80% good, but 20% bad… Guruji says people in the world experience yoga, pleasure, or disease, whichever it may be, in accordance with their karma. He says, “From pleasure, disease is certain. Some people think that one must be lucky to enjoy pleasure. This of course, is true. But can it also not be said that, in order to experience disease, one must be lucky as well?”

In our ashtanga practice, the intensity and the repetition of the sequences is bound to make your mat into a mirror, just another  tool for self-study. Even the most pig headed of us will begin to see our selves. You begin to see how you treat yourself, and those around you. My one friend wrote in her blog,  ”Your body, as you work into the deepest places within, will give up its secret one by one. ”

So, it’s Monday morning, and I’m trying again, starting over and as I get on my mat a little worried but mostly happy and lucky that I can breathe, move, love…

A good story always starts at the beginning… right?

Well, this one starts 1000′s of years ago…

Picture ceremonial fires, fires meant to illuminate, to nourish spiritual growth, to burn, to purify, and sanctify the relationship between the manifest and the un-manifest or the divine.

Now skip ahead a little to the time of Buddha, and the development of yoga practices, where those elaborate, lengthy ceremonies moved inside – within the body… essentially moving the fire within… the intention is the same but the methods more practical – no fire pits needed! This is Tapas… and in yoga practice we learn that it is an essential element in change, transformation and growth. My teacher David calls it the “essential spark to mapping the world within.”

The word comes from the Sanskrit verb “tap” which means “to burn” and often it is interpreted as “fiery discipline” and it is something I have been thinking a lot about lately. As I’ve been moving through some big transitions in my life, relationships ending, changing, new ones beginning, old ones evolving… it is tapas, the element of fire, that in many ways has been my guide.

Why? Because to me, tapas is the conscious, focused, necessary commitment to face and burn off the habits that keep us from living fully. Tapas is getting on my yoga mat regularly, yes… heat is generated by the bandhas, the drishti, following the vinyasa method. But tapas also accompanies any action that we deliberately take to bring about change, and it apply’s to all of the practices of our life, our work, our parenting, and our relationships. A practice, a disciplined practice of any kind, in particular a mind/body practice is essential for developing the will needed to have tapas in your life.

From his article Agni: God of Creative Fire , David says: “Because fire is THE most important element in practice, you must work consciously with your fieriness or lack of. It can require tremendous energy to get to a place where fire presides over your practice, where tapas leads you– where action, will, effort, concentration, perseverance, care, love, and enthusiasm all lead you. These are the qualities that spark and ignite your creative fire.”

On the mat and in life, tapas relates to our ability to consistently practice with an aim to leave behind expectation, what we thought possible. This means letting it get “hot in the kitchen,” by working with a degree of intensity that challenges our own assumptions of what we were capable of: mentally, emotionally, spiritually and physically.

(I’m sure all of the people in my life just love this about me.)

Because of course we all know there is also a downside to fire… as David says: “To be in relationship with fire is to accept risk and hence the necessity to respect its power in your practice because uncontrolled fire will burn leading to pain and injury.”

And this has everything to do with our habits, our patterns, our rules, our excuses and our default settings. Because when we are honest about it, for nearly everyone, our habits usually over-power our intentions. Tapas… fire…. letting it get “hot in the kitchen”… challenging ourselves… this is how little by little we can start to see and then change our default settings, autopilot, change our habits and patterns and live our lives more fully.

In case you don’t know her… she is a-m-a-z-i-n-g! She is a light in my life, she is a lifeline to the yoga practice I hope to someday have. She embodies sthira (steadiness) and sukha (softness, good space) to me.

And she is also a total badass — I’ll have to let you get to know her to meet that side of her.

Anyway, our last coffee date was like being in a game show where the contestants each had 60 seconds to say as much as they could until the other contestant would hit the buzzer and their 60 seconds began. Not that we were competing with each other for a prize, but we were so excited to share with each other all the “stuff” that is going on in each of our lives. My turns were mostly about the personal transition I am in right now. The ending of my marriage, and the beginning of a new life for me and with my kids… and her’s was sharing with me how she is navigating the very public transitions in the Anusara world… stuff that really effects her – actually that effects all of us.

Bottom line though is that we are both going through major transitions.

At some point she said “well Katie, this is the time for you to move slowly, be real clear about what you are doing, because it’s during the transitions when we get hurt – right? Just like the transition from one pose to the next… that’s where it happens.”

This is where we crossed the line between just having coffee with a friend to me bowing to this amazing teacher who I am so lucky, and so many of us are, to be around.

So,  I’ve been thinking about it for the past week.

Those transitions – that space in-between the poses. That space in between you and me.

Of course with ashtanga yoga we place a LOT of emphasis on those spaces — and that is the backbone of all of the “flow” yoga out there – which is why it is so popular, because it feels really good to move consciously from one thing to the next. Linking one thing to the next, coordinating it with the natural patterns of movement in the body that mirror the most basic patterns of nature: expansion and contraction. We expand and reach in a pilgrimage toward potential, toward unknown, toward learning and we contract back to our center, to the source… all in the span of one breath cycle.

Thank you Karen for bringing my attention to the importance of this “time in between” and thank you Pattabhi Jois for bringing us this vinyasa system so we can all learn to be in life’s transitions with conscious thought, mindful movement and maybe a little grace too.