Yoga Thoughts

2006-09-22T15:35:00.000-04:00

Yoga Thoughts

My baby sister asked me why I don't have a picture posted. Answer.......I'm working on it, plus some cool pictures of other people doing yoga poses. I'm still figuring out all the "technical" stuff with my "non-technical" brain on these blogs.

Why oh Y?

2006-08-31T15:38:00.000-04:00

Hi John, why do I practice/teach yoga?
#1 answer: because it's SO MUCH FUN!
#2 answer: because it feels so good, and makes other people feel so good
#3 answer: because it's one of the things I'm "best" at

All of the above are true, and pretty much in priority order. The next answer requires a little history. When I was going through a divorce my sister told me to take a yoga class to relieve my stress. I had only the vaguest notion of what yoga was.......mostly incorrect. But something happened to me in those first few classes. I felt so good while I was in class that I literally did not want to leave. I did not want to go back to the "world" and face my fear, insecurity, anger, oh yes, mostly fear.

I know now, but did not know then, that I had found not just a wonderful form of exercise, but most importantly, my own inner sense of peace.

My life changed when I was in a yoga class, and soon I was able to implement those changes outside the yoga classroom too. Lock, stock and barrel, I was sold!

Is Yoga a Religion?

2006-08-30T17:14:00.005-04:00

Hi Judy, great comment - it made me laugh. Let me address it:

Right off the bat - no, yoga is not a religion. It's a technique. It's a scientific method of calming a turbulent mind and a restless body so that you can know inner peace.

Hatha yoga, the practice of physical postures, is a meditative practice using the body, breath and focused mind. The true goal of this style of yoga is to make the body strong, balanced and flexible enough so that you can sit for meditation. Well howdyya like that - it's not about auditioning for Cirque du Soleil???? And all of yoga (raja, bhakti, tantra, gyana, etc.) is about meditation (quieting the mind).

There is no theology and no dogma (though, being a human endeavor, some folks can get pretty dang dogmatic about their yoga) . In fact, nothing in yoga is to be taken on faith. Yoga is experiential - how do you feel, what do you notice, what do you know from your yoga practice. You are your own expert - how cool is that????

One yoga master answers the question (is yoga a religion) this way: "the essence of religion is to devote your whole being to God, even in the midst of worldy life. Don't think of yoga as a religion, " he says. "It is a technique that helps anybody do their own religion better."

Whether you consider yourself religious or not, yoga helps you do your own life better too. Namaste, Lisa

2006-08-29T13:37:00.000-04:00

Oh my GOODNESS (or OMG as the IMers say - if you don't know what this means ask a middle-schooler) - my very first blog post.

My idea here is to provide 1-stop shopping for students, yogis, interested on-lookers to see my yoga teaching schedule, pricing, and ideas/thoughts/musings about anything related to yoga. And to learn from your wisdom, humor, grumblings, suggestions, rants, whines and/or questions.

Please understand that when I say "yoga" I mean raja yoga, which is the whole 9 yards, the kit and caboodle, the Big Enchilada. In otherwords, I'm not only talking about the physical practice of yoga (hatha yoga - pronounced "hot-ha"- the "gumby" stuff). I'm talking about a yoga as a spiritual practice. Yoga as a technique to remembering your True Nature. Yoga as a pathway to health and inner peace.

So I may go rambling on about hand positions in trikonasana (triangle). Or how to safely get in and out of headstand (how do you do that?). But I'm just as likely to bliss-out over a passage from Eckhart Tolle's The Power of Now or a new meditation technique.

Stay tuned and let me know what you think, feel, believe, know. Namaste, Lisa