Y is for Yoga

something i don't do nearly enough of.


(on the origins of yoga)

i first started taking iyengar yoga classes in berkeley in 1993 with the now super star yoga instructor, rodney yee. he was very popular then too, but hadn't yet started showing up in ads and magazines and dvd's at every turn. he was an absolutely incredible teacher and always ended the class with words of humor and inspiration. he was tough, but compassionate, and had a way of pushing you just a little further with each stretch. that was one of the best years of my life: i grew apart from toxic relationships, i started taking yoga classes and attending contact improv sessions, i was writing, and exploring, and collaging, i moved out of a house of roommates into my own magical studio on haight street, and dan came into my life.

once i moved from berkeley to san francisco i started taking iyengar classes around the corner with another awesome teacher, evlaleah howard. i was suffering from a back injury due to lifting dozens of heavy boxes daily at the book distributor i worked for. evlaleah specialized in yoga for back care and through persistence and careful attention, i was healed.

when i was pregnant (and living in the east bay again) i took prenatal hatha yoga with saraswati devi at yogalayam. i also took her birth classes, and then a postpartum mother/baby yoga class. eventually tashi took toddler yoga classes at yogalayam. all very highly recommended.

and then i stopped. for years. every once in a while i would go through a phase of doing it at home, but always felt i was doing something wrong. i value the guidance of the master. it was hard for dan and i to juggle our schedules or to even afford for me to take a class. but every once in a while, i would manage. and of course, there is always laughter yoga, as discussed here with john cleese:



in ann arbor i took iyengar yoga for a while with laurie blakeney. it was the first time i had taken a class with someone who, with such precise attention to detail, focused primarily on getting every aspect of the poses aligned and corrected. i realized i still knew nothing.

in charlottesville i tried something new and took vinyasa yoga with hilary jackson. the class was incredibly rigorous and such a challenge for the not-so-flexible me. i loved the challenge, and the feeling that i really had a work out. when i found myself pregnant i stopped due to the rigorousness of the class, and after that pregnancy ended in yet another miscarriage, i found myself void of all motivation to return. i haven't taken her classes since, though i am constantly trying to work myself up to it again. after my knees stop hurting. after i quit finding excuses.



despite the classes i have taken on and off with these incredible teachers, i am not very good at yoga. i am incredibly inflexible and i still consider myself very much a beginner. now when i go to a yoga class i feel self conscious with my belly bulge and lack of fashionable yoga wear. i usually try to find the most invisible part of the room to be in, and struggle with beet red face through all the challenges. i worry about my knees, which in the last two years have developed a painful stiffness.

i have to come to terms with this self destructive part of myself, which knows what is best for the body, for healing, for overall wellbeing, yet is very good at avoidance. writing this helps. i recently picked up some yoga dvds from a thrift store. i think i'll pop one in right now. it's a start.



OM

Let us bow before the noblest of sages Patanjali, who gave yoga for serenity and sanctity of mind, grammar for clarity and purity of speech and medicine for perfection of health. Let us prostrate before Patanjali, an incarnation of Adisesa, whose upper body has a human form, whose arms hold a conch and a disc, and who is crowned by a thousand-headed cobra.