Wednesday, July 25, 2018

Yoga para mi gente

Sometimes your vision gets to be made real.  For me I had this vision for creating a brown space at my home studio, The People's Yoga.

Sally approached me about teaching a class in Spanish, and I laid out my vision. She supported it fully....which meant getting me my first yoga photo shoot (note the sweet photo on this blog taken by Maggie Jane Cech!) for the fliers.  I wanted to market exclusively in Spanish for Spanish speaking Latinos in my community, and it came together through my outreach and relationships with my Catholic church and fandango community.  It was donation only, with all monies going to support Interfaith Movement for Immigrant Justice.  Then I got some Latina healers to join me to make this a really healing space, with massage, acupuncture and herbs.  Gracias Mary, Adrianna, and Lara for making it extra.   Thanks to Sally for being a fabulous ally. 

The folks who showed up were beautiful.  Working class, elders, disabled folks, kids, a guy who broke his leg playing soccer and wanted to do yoga anyway.  Mi gente.  Most had never ever done yoga before!  

I got to fully apply all that I had learned in the Accessible Yoga training.

I learned so much and loved it all. 

Monday, March 19, 2018

Accessible yoga

I just got to spend 4 whole immersing myself in accessible yoga with Jivana Heyman and Amber Karnes of Body Positive Yoga.  Totally inspired.

It was a rich experential training, where we were empowered to come up with poses that are accessible in the moment.  I created a cool Dancer's pose using the wall and chair on the spot, for example.  Each day every student got to practice teaching a short sequence with an integrated or mixed class, i.e. some students in a chair and some not.  I am in such need of this knowledge as I prepare for my Spanish language yoga series next month. 

I learned so much about yoga philosophy and sutras too, which I wasn't expecting and found incredibly rich and profound.  You realize how deep and ancient this practice is when you read the sutras.  Feeling blessed. 

Best of all I made connections with yoga teachers of color living in the Portland area, including a beautiful African-American elder who is my neighbor. 

Wednesday, January 24, 2018

Dynamic aging and nutritious movement

I just learned about a book called Dynamic Aging, plus her web site, a blog created by her co-authors and other resources through Petra Fisher's email newsletter.  I ordered the book and eager to get reading and learning about ways to age dynamically.