Yoga on the Dock

This is a photo I took this morning from the dock where I practice on Wednesday mornings.

I have been offering a free yoga class on the dock in our community since the beginning of August, hoping to stimulate some interest in yoga in my neighborhood. Early on there was a group of trithletes that would be returning from their morning swim in the river when I arrived at 7:00 am. A few would stick around and practice with me. Other than that, just a few people have been coming.

Since I have been travelling for a few weeks and the triathletes have moved their morning practice to the pool, I wasn't expecting anybody to show up this morning. In fact, I was secretly hoping to have the dock to myself....and I did! It turned out to be a beautiful morning and I had a decent practice. I got through the beginning of the Marichi poses and then started getting bitten by sandgnats so I quickly moved into the finishing poses and hopped back on my bike a little after 8:00 to head home.

I plan to continue my research on Mysore today and hope to get my visa application mailed off soon. More on my travel planning in an upcoming post.

New SYC Digs

Last night I taught my first class at the new Savannah Yoga Center studio that Kelley Boyd just opened. I thought I'd post a few photos of the new space. Kelley has done a wonderful job of putting her creative stamp on the place. The reception area shown at left is warm and welcoming. The new practice space shown below is light and airy and really big!

Between now and when I leave for India in six weeks I will be teaching a Yoga Basics class and a Hot Yoga class. The Yoga Basics is really fun to teach because it gives me a chance to break down the aligment in the poses and help new and experienced students learn how to be safe and comfortable in the poses. I also give students some handouts answering the kinds of questions many new students have such as...Is Yoga a religion? What does Om mean? Do you need to be vegetarian to practice yoga?, etc.....



The Hot Yoga class is pretty much the polar oppposite. We heat the room to 90-100 degrees and move through a fast paced power yoga (vinyasa) sequence. For some reason folks love this style of class and even in Savannah, anything with "Hot" in the title seems to attract lots of students. I was worried that attendance would drop off in the summer when it is already 90+ and humid outside, but they kept coming.

Back in the Groove

They warned us at the beginning of the week in Estes Park that we were likely to have a "Yoga Hangover" after the conference, and I think they were right. Re-entering the real world took a little while, but I think I am back in the groove. I spent yesterday doing laundry, worrying about the ongoing deck construction project at our house and cleaning up cat puke.

I took Monday off from my practice but started up again this morning with the brand new Ashtanga class on the schedule at the Savannah Yoga Center. Until now there have not been any Ashtanga classes in Savannah (that I have been able to find) so it was really great to come back from the conference and have a new class that fits right in with my new practice. Lisa led five of us (2 visitors from L.A. and 2 folks who just moved down from NYC) through the primary series. I struggled through the second half of the seated poses but was glad to have a place where I could work on some of the poses without feeling like I was breaking the rules.

It will also be nice to practice with Lisa and other students for the next 6 weeks before I go to India in mid-November to study at the Ashtanga Yoga Research Institute in Mysore. Lisa just got back from AYRI and I will be picking her brain thoroughly over the next few weeks. I did meet some really great folks at the YJ conference and talk to them about their experiences in Mysore, but it is nice to have someone local who can give me the low-down. At this point I am trying to figure out what kind of visa I need and which vaccinations to get.

Stay tuned for more on my India research and the last few days at the conference in upcoming posts.....

Lost My Groove

I'm back home now and somehow lost my writing groove. I have lots more to say about my last few days in Estes Park, so keep checking back in the days to come for more on my classes with Rodney Yee, Shiva Rea, Barbara Benagh, Rod Stryker, and Gary Kraftsow.

This is a picture of me and a new friend, Alicia, from Phoenix.