Hurts So Good: Foam Rolling Supports a Sustainable Yoga Practice and Active Lifestyle

Self-myofascial release (or SMFR) targets 'trigger points' in
the muscles, releasing tension and toxins while improving
flexibility and blood flow. Come get your roll on!

Yoga - like anything - can hurt or heal you. 

I’ve witnessed many students’ bodies, minds and hearts transformed by the power of asana, breath work and meditation. 

But I’ve also seen - and experienced first-hand - how painful chronic injuries can result from practicing in a way that’s overly aggressive, unbalanced and unsustainable.

Yoga is supposed to eliminate our bodily aches and pains not cause them, right?

Popular yoga in the West tends to have a disproportionate focus on sweaty, vigorous strength-building forms of practice - which can be excellent for burning through the stress and blockages of body, mind and heart. I first fell in love with this kind of yoga and I still teach and practice it sometimes. 

But like any repetitive physical activity, yoga will expose and exacerbate pre-existing imbalances in the body - i.e. one dominant leg works harder than the other; one shoulder or hip over-compensates for the weak side with an old injury; chronic tight back continues its unconscious default of taking on the lion’s share of the work, etc.

When we repeatedly work the body without proper recovery, it’s only a matter of time. Eventually tight, knotted, shortened muscles create stresses on joints leaving the body vulnerable to injury.

It’s usually not muscle but joint-related injuries that cause us to cease the practices we love. So why not make them sustainable by mindfully treating the day-to-day stiffness in our muscles and connective tissues resulting from practice? 

ROLL ON

One super-effective way to loosen things up is self-myofascial release (SMFR) using a foam roller. The basic technique is this: you use your body’s weight in various positions applying sustained pressure as you roll over and release “trigger points” or sore spots that form in the muscles or tendons.

It’s like giving yourself a deep-tissue massage without the expensive masseuse. And if you’ve ever had one, you’ll know, at times, it’s a bit like tough love: in the moment, it does not feel so good, but you feel wonderful afterwards. 

I bought a foam roller a few years ago when I learned about the benefits of SMFR but it mostly just sat in my closet. My quads, hamstrings and IT band were so tight that I avoided the short-term pain of rolling despite the relief I knew it could bring.

COMMIT

When old hip and knee issues flared up again, I finally committed to rolling as part of my personal wellness program. I have to say it’s made a huge difference. Now I can run, cycle, hike and practice yoga without any joint pain or risk of injury. I feel free and strong in my body again. And I am truly owning my practice. 

Wanting to share what I’ve learned, I’ve recently design a 60-minute group foam-roller class set to soothing sonic beats where people can come get their roll on in a fun, relaxed small-group setting. The preregistered sessions will run out of my small home studio space located near Pandosy Village beginning in March. Cost will be $60+gst/4 classes with small group sizes so we have plenty of room to roll around!) For more information and to choose a session convenient to you contact me at 250.864.8401. 

Namaste, Jenn

Practice

I've recently started my own 30-day challenge, inspired by so many students and fellow yogis who make the incredible commitment to deepen their practice and build the habit of yoga into their daily lives. It's so inspirational, especially given how early in the morning many show up for practice!

So far I've completed six days - carving out the space wherever I can - and I'm amazed by how quick and lucid the memory is, in my body, mind and heart, of why I chose yoga - or it chose me - or whatever; but most importantly why we keep coming together.

As a teacher, your personal practice can shift dramatically; instructing becomes a part of "living your yoga," but it can get harder to find time to squeeze in your asana practice. But no regrets. Not a single one. Teaching has deepened my connection with myself, my community and the world over the last six years in ways so rich that I can barely fathom some of the old poverties of being and relating; choosing a new, exciting, scary path rather than staying on an old, "safe" track which no longer nourished me, has taught me so much about taking risks and trusting in self and Universe; Great Mystery.

In many ways it brought even more up and close with yoga. Striving to align with yogic principles off the mat and out of the studio has been an ongoing passion and reality check - but walking the walk, I've come to realize, also means continuing to feed my mat practice. Even if it feels like there isn't time.

Every part of me needs it. And so does our world. By filling myself up first, spiritually speaking, I have so much more to offer; when we are full, we can nourish our relationships and our planet.

Getting too far away from asana practice makes me forget the feelings of exhilaration, space, freedom, peace, seamless and fully embodied ok-ness that my mat time manifests; not to mention, it puts me out-of-touch when teaching and gives me a bad case of asana envy.

When I get back to my mat, I remember. And I pick up the practice where I left off; life is a slipping in and out of yoga (Divine Union) and the space I carve out for mat practice always helps me to stay longer, slip less, keep committing.

Not every day can be a bad-ass Power Flow practice. There is a time for the tapas and samskara-burning heat of a challenging and transformative yang practice. And there is a time for stillness, and the healing, quiet waters of yin and meditative practices. The doing and the non-doing, the being and becoming. The evolution and involution. It's now and never-ending.

I love my mat more than ever - probably because it's collected everything from sweat and tears to nasal drip and dust. Such love is sacred and yields such abundant beauty but it is a relationship and an investment that, like any bond between two people, requires effort, work, time and, of course, love. Never stop giving to your practice and you will never stop receiving. Aum.

Involution

Go inside.

Turn a light on.

Shine it around.

Read the ancient writing on the walls.

Investigate the shadows.

Make your heart your home, again. 

And again. And again.

Inside, your real estate;

Axis mundi, temple of light.

Divine, here, unwind;

And know thyself.

Now, in folds of sweet solitude.

Drops of new nectar.

Golden glow of dawn.

Welcome, peace, here.

Like for the first time.

Fluid, but flowing in

New whispers of lovely.

Lovelier than any need.

The love inside is one step ahead.

Chase your pain,

Back to the breaking open.

Om.

The Yin and Yang of it

I am offering a series of workshops in the coming months that explore the yin and yang qualities of yoga. Through my own practice, I've learned that nurturing both aspects creates balance, and supports a dynamic, intuitive and sustainable yoga practice. 

I hope you will join me on this journey.

The Workshops:

Yin Sanctuary

Explore the other side of yoga. Yin is a deeply healing and restorative practice of asana (physical postures). We will get quiet, go inward and move safely into long, deep holds that target the body’s expansive web of connective tissues or fascia. 

Yin is the perfect complement to a dynamic practice and an antidote for stress and burnout: it helps relieve physical and emotional tension, lifts fatigue and makes the joints more “juicy” and mobile, while increasing the flow of prana (vital energy) in the body. We will use sensation as our guide, cultivate trust and open to “receiving.”

The Dates:

Yin Sanctuary ~ Sun. Feb 24, 4:15-6:15 p.m. @ Hot in Leduc $30 FULL!

RSVP as space is limited 780-986-5588

Yin Sanctuary ~ Sun. Mar 10, 1:00-3:00 p.m. @ Yoga Within $30 

RSVP as space is limited 780-450-9642 See Facebook Event.

Yin Sanctuary ~ Sun Mar 30, 1:30-3:30 p.m. @ That Yoga Place, Stony Plain $30

RSVP as space is limited 780-960-0868. See Facebook Event.

Yin/Yang Mandala

Experience the many harmonizing benefits of combining a strong, dynamic "yang" practice with a quiet, slow "yin" practice. We'll get sweaty and also deeply still. Strive. And arrive. Yang is the Sun. Yin is the Moon. Yang builds strength and feeds transformation. Yin honours the unchanging and essential wholeness of who you already are. Both energies are needed to balance mind, body and spirit. Come get your yin-yang on!

The Dates:

Yin/Yang Mandala ~ Sun Apr. 14, 1-3 p.m. @ Yoga Within, Edmonton $30

RSVP as space is limited 780-450-9642

Yin/Yang Mandala ~ Sun Apr. 27, 1:30-3:30 p.m. @ That Yoga Place, Stony Plain $30

RSVP as space is limited 780-960-0868


Got any questions about these workshops? Feel free to call or text me at 780-974-8401.

http://www.facebook.com/events/514993361885891/

To My Yoga

Yoga saved my life. Okay, not literally. But it reached me where no one and nothing else could, and started to reel me back in. 

Well, I had no idea what yoga was doing, of course, or even that I needed a line, but my body did. 

The first time I tried yoga I was in Fort St. James - about 250 km northwest of Everything, living (so to speak) in small-town northern B.C., and working like there was no tomorrow, as a reporter in a one-person newsroom.

Being in the moment was not even a concept to me. 

But the amazing thing about our physicality - and yoga - is that the body can experience what the mind has yet to put into words.

I was all brains and adrenaline, spending seven days a week chasing my dream to be a journalist, one idiom and adjective at a time. Headlines and deadlines. Nothing else mattered.

Until yoga woke me up.

It's like I was living in a perpetual storm without an umbrella or raincoat, and didn't even know it, and just for an hour I stepped out of it and undercover, and there was this instant of ineffable calm.

From that day forward, I sought yoga out in every town, city and country I visited. I grew a practice. I nurtured it through sunshine and inclemency. I became devoted to something, for the first time, whole-heartedly, because it made me believe - at first, in fleeting glimpses, and then more panoramic vistas which took my mind, body and breath away - that I was already, and always, whole. 

Where it all began. I attended my first public
yoga class in Prince George, BC in 2001.

Yoga did not peddle a religion or rulebook. It inspired a unique brand of faith in which belief arose through insights gained first-hand by my own heart and head. So there were no compromises. Only choices, which simply arrived, when other ones lost their hold on me. 

I am talking about self-limiting beliefs, actions, activities, relationships; the ones that keep our pain of separation - from our own true nature and our essential wholeness - at bay. Yoga taught me that we must chase our pain back to its source, feel it again in our bodies, sit through the anger and tears and mind games with our own disillusioned child, and then surrender. Just let go. As many times as necessary.

Through the rise and fall of breath, yoga spoke to me in an ancient and pre-linguistic language which moved my soul in ways that felt innately natural. Now we tussle, play, dance the dervish, revisit old and unforgiving places, explore new dimensions and re-route the bungled pathways I still travel on sometimes between fiction and truth. We laugh. We cry. But through it all, my trust in yoga only grows. 

Wholeness is like the cycles of the moon: sometimes it waxes and sometimes it wanes, but it's always there, night or day, winter or summer, rain or shine.

I've learned more about my self, human nature, Mother Earth, the galaxy, psychology, spirituality, people, politics, business, health and happiness from yoga, than from any book, course, job, goal or dream of living I ever had.  

Once, I believed that all I needed in life to be happy was my portable laptop (including wi-fi and online Thesaurus). Now, I travel with two soul companions: my trusty MacBook and my Manduka yoga mat. 

Yoga is my vocation, my ever-winding path, my teacher, my friend, and my lover - in whose eyes, is ever-reflecting that I, too, am lover and beloved.

Aum.

ॐ

Check out my current public yoga class schedule and upcoming workshops in Edmonton and area.

Word: Love

Workshop Links: Hot in Leduc and That Yoga Place.

Got Questions? Call me at 780-974-8401.

Meditate and Spread the Love: iSit and iKind

iSit: Days 20 to 30 ... and onward!

With the holidays around the corner, who has large amounts of time to just sit around and do nothing?

With so many things on your to-do list, how can you possibly also carve out time and space for a meaningful meditation practice?

May I suggest, how can you afford not to?

Throughout the last week, I've felt the rising tension and anticipation on the roads, in the malls, at the post office, even in the yoga studio. 

Last Saturday night, I gave myself a flat tire when I ran impatiently into a curb backing up at a gas station. I was running on empty, literally, it was minus 100 degrees Celsius, I was hungry, tired and anxious to get home after being in a workshop all day. The karmic effects of my actions left me without a car, less time, more to do and a $200 bill for a new tire.

If only I could have been less reactive, I thought to myself. Maybe this meditation thing isn't going so well after all.

But here's the thing: Meditating is like turning on a light; the room gets brighter; suddenly you see more clearly and what you notice, now, cannot be unnoticed. This is a good thing. At least you're in reality.

I felt calm, absurdly at peace and unattached to the drama of "my little disaster." After all, I'd caused it. Now, at least, I could choose how to let the consequences effect me or touch others around me. 

Sometimes we catch ourselves in unconscious behaviour. Other times, it may be too late, but a least the fall-out doesn't have to be full of drama, delusion, blame or self-pity, and we can go on living.

The moments spent in intentional stillness and mindful presence directly affect the quality of your future moments. Meditation has a domino affect. Do it often and devotedly. My 30 day challenge is over but my practice has just begun. 

I will end with this quote from The Seven Spiritual Laws of Yoga by Deepak Chopra, which I highly recommend for anyone wanting to delve into a yoga and meditation practice: 

The Upanishads tell us, 'As great as the infinite space beyond is the space within the lotus of the heart.' From the time of your birth, you have been called to explore the world outside of you. Meditation is the exploration of your inner world. Yoga encourages you to be as familiar with your inner world of thoughts, feelings, memories, desires and imagination as you are with the outer world of time, space and causality. When you can move through both the inner and outer domains of life with freedom and finesse, you fulfill the highest purpose of yoga."

With a deep and full heart, Namaste. ॐ J.

iSit: Day 12 to 19

As I write this, I am eating Domino's Pizza and drinking diet pop. I'm even dipping the crust in Lite Ranch dressing. Ooooooooooh. So Bad. I'm fully aware of what I am doing. And it's delicious ... in a dirty caloric non-vegan tri(again)doshic without-chia-seeds-on-top kinda way.

Meditation won't change you overnight, but a regular practice, I am learning, will not let you get away with much unconsciously. Trust me, aside from the double negatives in that last sentence, this is a good thing.

Big brother is outside. He is a manifestation of ego. But your sacred sentinel. She is inside. Just get still and quiet, turn inward and slip through the manifold veils of thought and mindlessness. She has always been, and will forever be, watching you. Big Brother has nothing on her.

So who am I ... if not my thoughts?

Well, we know that we are what we eat. Ugh. As I wrote that last sentence approximately 50,000 cells in my body died and new ones are now being built and fuelled on cheesy chicken-pinapple-mushroom-bacon 'Za and Aspartame. Well, I guess that means it's a Greens Plus shake for dinner!

For the moment, though, I am eating my pizza slowly, enjoy it thoroughly and feeling hunger wane and fullness replace famine. My gluttonous mind, craving a wolfish winter carb-out slapped four greasy slices on my plate. But there is no way I'll feel well if I devour all of those wedges. Sacred sentinel is sparing me the anguish and heartburn.

You can sit for 49 days under a Bodhi tree or practice in a split second to quiet the mind, calm the body and free your spirit from past conditioning, present suffering and future fantasies and guessing games. Or you can even gaze at a pizza mandala, possibly taste nirvana, and just try not to take a bite!

iSit not to change myself - although transformation is often a side effect of spiritual practices. iSit and devote my self to the consciousness practice of meditation because ...

...it's stirring up the dust and sweeping under the rug;

... I feel calmer, clearer, happier, more fully present, but less attached to outcomes and my emotions surrounding them;

... I make kinder, gentler, more life-supporting choices;

... I feel more creative

... I'm more attentive with others and have a split second longer to check my ego before she breaks loose, finds a soapbox and a megaphone;

... I can hear negative thought patterns more loudly, recognize them as "grasping mind," and let them go, then respond instead from a place of compassion and love. Warning: this is harder in winter traffic. Although chances improve greatly, I find, when listening to CBC Radio 2 Tempo's classical music ... and when you ...

never stop practicing. 

ॐ

iSit: Days 7 to 11

Don't just do time. Sitting isn't one of those things that you get good at then stop. The goal is not mastery of the practice so you can be done with it then move on to the next thing. The practice never ends. The Buddha sat under the Bodhi tree until he became enlightened, which took him 49 days and nights straight. Most of us don't have that kind of time - or inclination. Then Siddhartha Gautama Buddha got up, stretched his legs, probably did a few Downward Dogs, and continued his practice going about spreading the dharma of enlightenment to the world - but his every awakened breath and move was now meditation in action.

Boredom, contraction and inertia are part of the practice. It is in my nature to take the bull by the horns when it comes to new things. Growth curves and struggle make me feel so awake and alive! I become a proverbial sea sponge, ride the waves, coast a while, then I hit the sand, dry up, and end up in someone's exotic sea shell collection.  Just notice, without judgment, that you have fallen in a rut and are "doing" time. Be present, for each fluctuation of mind, body and breath, knowing that what ebbs eventually flows. And every once in a while, give yourself a good dunk. A drop or two of sea water is as good as the whole ocean. Smile. Get inspired. Pay attention. Share a positive outlook or kind word - it may be all that's needed to taste the infinite again and turn someone else's tide. Embrace the whole ride.

Experiment. Sit, walk, stare at a candle flame, count your breaths, listen to the sounds of silence, cross your legs, uncross them, meditate on Om, stare at your Third Eye, do mudras, smell your surroundings. There is no right or wrong way to meditate, as long as it is embraced with sincere and sustained focus and attention. The world of meditation is your oyster. Shuck it.

Make meditation a priority. On Day 10, I waited until the 11th hour to do my meditation practice. I'd been avoiding it all day, and when I finally crawled into bed and remembered my 30-day project ... one more thing I had to do ... I pulled the covers up around my face, set my timer, and got still. But I was fighting sleep the whole way. Soon enough my Oms became Zees. But I made it to the harp and got a Gold Star. Give your meditation top priority. It isn't dusting, doing your taxes, changing your oil or one more task on your To Do list. It's your whole To Be list! And better yet, it's checked off; done; finit! Because you, already, are! Meditation isn't a mundane "time out" to forget the outer world, but a sacred pause to remember that inner is outer: is there anything more important than that?!

Meditate out in the world, right where you are. Yesterday, when I was waiting in line at the Registry and then the bank, and then in traffic, I felt my body contract and irritation levels rise as my self-righteous and bitchy ego started running laps on the unconscious treadmills of untrained puppy-dog mind. Yappity-yap yap yap yap ... so I threw her with a bone, distracted her with the still, clear gaze of my unwavering Buddha attention. And she bowed, licked her chops and curled up at my feet. Om. Good dog.

iSit: Days 4, 5 & 6

When you sit, don't expect Nirvana. If you do, you are still bound by expectation and clinging to desire.

Day four, I oscillated between self-congratulations and despair, one minute chasing the tails of enlightenment and the next, dragged down by doubt, self-judgment, worry and darkness.

Meditating will not make you a "better person." Self-improvement has its place, but not on the zafu cushion.

You are already perfect; the body just may not feel that way and the mind may not believe it. I don't think "perfection" means what we, typically, think it means.

The only objective is toward full concentration. With sustained effort, you may shift focus, beyond mind and body, out of doing and into being. Here, there is no commentary (which is a freakin' relief!) just boundless unbound. I am at home, and awake, and at One with Peace, itself, in the whirling dervish of the present moment. Then suddenly Kurt Cobain is serenading me from a bed of 1,000-petalled lotuses and I reach, and Pop! It's gone. Don't expect Nirvana.

Sit in your shit. It's stinky and unflattering and it may change what other people think of you, including yourself. But who knows?! Maybe that's a good thing! Dogs instinctively roll in their own poop to mask their own scent from other predators and prey. But what if sitting in your karmic dung heap ... getting really still and unceremonious and honest with yourself ... could help you sniff out the delusions and lies, drop the disguise ... and recognize that the only predator or prey, is fear, itself? And what if you could hold only that piece of Truth every minute of your day or life? Now that's powerful shit!

You don't need more time, just more attention and focus. Whether you sit for 10 minutes or two hours is irrelevant. It's quality over quantity. Day six I spent several minutes with my inner Drama Queen before losing interest in her seductive rant. Then there was this spinny thing. It's happened before, in my palms and in my chest and in my head. Little revolving energy orbs which dissolve my sense of inside and out. These spiralling reeling sensations are like being inside a dance. I am neither spatial moving body nor the intelligence in the time-bound steps, but flow itself. Could this be Rumi's unseen Friend, come out to play? Here I am!

iSit: Days 1, 2 & 3

iSit is my campaign to embrace the practice of meditation once and for all.

To sit and do nothing is not an act of idleness and passivity. It is an active choice to get quiet, still and present - 'cause that's where all the real stuff is happening anyway.

Here's what I've learned so far:

1. It helps to set an alarm. You might be tempted to peak at the time, but having an automatic time-keeper helps frees you to let go of abstract goals and objectives, and instead focus on your experience. Just make sure the alert isn't loud and annoying: Today I was jarred out of my Zen place with an irritating "boing-boing" noise. Tomorrow it will be a lovely harp.

2. Best to sit upright to meditate. On Day 2, I began with a morning five-minute sit/float in the hot tub. Sitting tall, I watched my breath move in and out of my nostrils and observed the sensations of my body receiving and releasing my breath. I was quickly distracted by the 43-degree Celsius water. This is probably what hot flashes feel like. And the sensations of bubbles and buoyancy. Coolio. I am a meditating goddess. It felt effortless to hold myself upright. Reminder: buy Yoga Swing to explore the effects of anti-gravity. And the effervescence against my skin was more delightful than usual. Amazing, how the intensity of experience gets dialled up when you give 100% of your attention. Makes you wonder what you've been missing. Ommmmmm.

I taught a yoga session Monday night and wasn't feeling so hot beforehand. When I started to feel nauseous during class, I brought the students into a Warrior I-Intense Side Stretch sequence and paused a moment to check in. I allowed myself to experience the dis-ease in my belly without trying to alter my condition, but rather accept and breathe through it. But no sooner had I zoomed in on the unsavoury sensations than my mouth erupted into saline waterworks which signalled that I was going to be sick. I ran for the door, regretfully leaving my students in a deep pretzel bend, and hurled full throttle into the garbage can next to the water cooler. Upchuck-asana. Now that is a first.

Needless to say, my evening meditation was completed in supine position in bed, during which my efforts were usurped by Neo Citron and my cozy fleece blanket. Om to the Zee.

3. It's freakin' hard. Day Three, I thought it would be fun to do a fireside meditation, but the frenetic dance of gas fire flames tripped me out, so I slammed my eyes shut, and kept it simple. One second my mind is empty and spacious, flames forgotten, and I'm listening to my lively heart beat; the next, I'm contemplating the effects of caffeine on my blood pressure, due to the coffee I had while walking through Ikea two hours earlier, wondering what the secret ingredient is in Tim Horton's blend, and fantasizing about the lengths to which they go to keep their narcotic additive under tight wraps. I'm visualizing covert armed factory drop-offs of unmarked shipments. Not even top execs are privy to the nature of the Secret Spice. ... I'm pretty sure this is not meditation anymore. Crap. Back to my breath. Now there's that lovely harp.

iSit: My 30-day Meditation Challenge.

Right about now is when the ball drops. The Earth throws her hip too far to the left, and winter's orbit sends me into a contracted state of goosebumps, grumbling and grandstand fantasies of escape.

My bear instincts kick in and I can be found at the fridge. My serotonin plummets. I pop Vitamin D like its Valium and wonder if yoga's a strong enough prescription, and whether I should take two or ten.

These old folds, where once I was stuck, somewhere in between figments of a better place than Here and wondering if My Life was stacking up well enough, taunt seductively, like warm blankets against the cutting cold morning air, and I want to sink in more deeply and go back to sleep.

But here's where I get my Molly-Maid on and iron out all that samsara hala hala. Here's where I fight back - like a Gentle Warrior, of course - with the weapons of Mind, Body and Breath.

Even a snake knows not to crawl back into old skin!

This year I will not hibernate in dark, unconscious caves. I will light a fire, and watch the shadows dance upon their stony walls until the flames have fanned into my heart, and dance becomes destiny.

That is why today I am starting a 30-day meditation challenge. That's right, I will sit in defiance of auto-pilot cycles of suffering. I will sit, even when I don't feel like it; and my boyfriend has even agreed to sit with me. I guess that means this month we have a standing sitting date. I might even, sometimes, sit on the spiky Medi-Mat - a.k.a. torture mat - that I just picked up last week.

Peaceful protest or sadomasochistic love-in, I'll let you know how it goes. Maybe you want to sit too?

This is my rally for reality.

Just Stop!

Sometimes I need to get really still
to discover my longitude and latitude.

Just like a wrist watch with low batteries 
starts to tell the wrong time.

A captain with a faulty compass will drift off course; 
which can make for a hell of a journey. 
Throw in the anchor, ’til she finds her bearings! 
Break out the flotation device. Bob and navel gaze, 
until your spirit refuels and you can tread and pull again.

Getting still, helps me get back on the move. 
I find my center by following the ache within the ache
 within the ache ... back home.

I bear witness to whatever lovely and inglorious
 truths lay exposed in my head and heart. 
And that kindness helps me rediscover my True North
 - Love - and I’m on my way again. 

Then I have stillness in motion. 
Inner quiet amid the day’s noise and necessities. 
This state is neither fixed or final. 
But its effect is clear and immediate. 

We are only human. 
The pause, is just as essential as the inhale and exhale.
 Maybe there’s no sticky mat rolled out, 
and you’re not dressed in your stretchy Lulus, 
but you are in your yoga. It’s all practice. 

Friends, come get filled with solace and space at the Fall Soul Yoga Retreat, Nov 2-4. We have one spot left! Info at www.jenniferparks.ca

Love Jenn


ॐ

Peace and quiet help a lotus to bloom in the muck.
Photo taken at Yasodhara Ashram in B.C. this summer.

My Top 5 New Reasons for Lovin' Yoga

1. You can go almost anywhere in the world and find a yoga studio. Before you've even left home, just give a quick shout-out to your Omies on FB and you'll have a personalized yogi Rolodex of studios and teachers to check out while on your travels. That's how this summer I was blessed to meet and share space with such amazing teachers as: Rockne White at Reflexions Yoga in Penticton; Dana Skoglund of Mission Yoga in Kelowna; Melissa Kavanagh of Shanti Yoga and Elissa Gumushel at The Studio in Nelson, BC. Better than Expedia or Google by quantum leaps.

With Dana Skoglund at a studio in a garage,
Mission Yoga in Kelowna, BC

At The Studio in Nelson, BC with
 Anusara goddess Elissa Gumushel  

2. You can do it anywhere: in your bedroom, on a deck, in a hot spring, at the mall, under a tree, in a vineyard, on a bridge, sidewalk, fire-escape; at work, at an ashram, atop a car, on a country road, inside someone's garage, at school, in a library, park, parasail seat or playa!

Bridge session in Nelson, BC.

3. Sharing yoga with a child is better than bribing them to like you with a toy or candy. They will loooove yoga, intuitively feel more connected to you and you keep your karma clear. Plus, you'll hang your ego out to dry as you watch this little person effortlessly twist and bend into shapes you've only seen in your Dharma Mittra Asana book. Check out my friend's daughter, Ava, taking her afternoon nap in Yoganidrasana (Yogic Sleep Pose). My Inner Child didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Little people are amazing!

Yoga play in Fort St. James, BC.

4. As much as I love words, sometimes, often, words simply fail to express satisfactorily the heart's deep joy, an inner peace, a playful spirit, a quiet mind, a raucous, reflective or restless, renegade soul. When at such synaptic crossroads, busting into a spontaneous yoga pose can sum up in an instant - in speechless superlatives - what the mind cannot think, the heart cannot sing and the body cannot dance alone. Yoga is a true conversation with the moment; one I never get tired of having. 

At Mission Hill Vineyards in Kelowna, BC.

5. It's a practice. That's all. Not a religion, dogma, bond, competition, immunity or make-over. Like any practice, it won't really make you perfect but it will make you a prac·ti·tion·er

   [prak-tish-uh-ner].You are already YOU, anyway. But beware! Yoga has been known to have the side effect of making you even more perfectly you. Exercise caution-asana towards anyone who tells you otherwise, and then there's only one thing left to do: practice. Then practice some more. And keep practicing. Period.