|
Yoga Newsletter
Heading into Summer, but look where we’ve been…
I started this newsletter at the first of the year and kept adding little blurbs, so now it reads more like a journal instead of a newsletter. I will piece the good parts of it together for you and edit out the psychotic hormonal rages that spew forth like Linda Blair in the Exorcist. (No need for anyone to read that!)
 January 2011
It’s official…I finally got registered with the Yoga Alliance, so now I can put E-RYT 500 after my name. I had to dig back to when I first started teaching and count up the hours. It was quite the walk down memory lane tracking 5,000 hours of teaching and training from 1994-2002, (which was the requirement to get grandfathered in). Those 5,000 hours provided some of the best learning experiences helping me grow into a better but humble teacher.
Yoga classes are more of a lifestyle than a “class”. You and the students spend years practicing together, and sharing all the trials and tribulations of life. It’s building relationships based on trust and mutual understanding that we are in this journey together. Most of the time you never know how just showing up to teach every class, week after week, can have an affect on someone. We are all going through life at whatever pace and stage we are in, and sometimes it’s nice just to get on the mat and stop the world from moving so fast.
 February 2011
Some of you might and might not know that for the past 7 to 8 years my right hip has been slowly deteriorating. It started with what I thought was a groin injury and it blossomed into a full chronic pain situation. I had a huge amount of people swear up and down that they can “heal me”. Oh yes! From Acupuncturists, to Chiropractors, from massage therapists to magic healers, all trying their special work on me, but to no avail.
What caused it could be anyone’s guess, a bit of genetic dysphasia? Or maybe on one of my many acts of flying through the air in a beautiful aerial feat, or skiing down a mountain (meaning continuously falling), or ass over tea kettle mountain biking. Or perhaps it could have happened when I was a dancer determined to perform a beautiful piece that required more of my body that was humanly possible.
What every the reason, it was the same story every time I saw another Orthopedist. The mantra was this, ”take pain meds, and when you can’t take it anymore we’ll replace it.” Why can’t they just replace it first, then you won’t need to take any pain meds at all?
In the end you just learn how to cope with the pain, and soon your level of tolerance grows.
So finally I had a total hip replacement at the beginning of December 2010. It’s been about 5 months and sometimes I forget that I had the surgery, or the years of pain. I’m getting stronger everyday and so thankful that I finally had it done.
March 2011
I recently moved into a very nice one bedroom and finally got all of my stuff out of storage, especially my books! I found a very small, weather beaten book of poems that a man in Berkeley gave me. I remember him well, a sweet man, who always road his bike to the YMCA in downtown Berkeley, where I worked for 10 years. His helmet was always a bit askew, but he truly had a huge heart and kind word. He gave me this book that he wrote and being really busy, like usual, I didn’t pay much attention to it. Tonight I opened it and found not only an awesome book of poems, but also one he had written about me on a typed written half a sheet of paper stuck inside the pages.
 Lauren
Of the upbeat “hello”
Tho shy, says, “Look at me.”
Willing to boost
While needing a boost
Herself
Driven
Trying to make up
For time lost
Growing
Prides her competence
Counts their money
As her own
“like handing any other paper”
carries many lives
would love
to be anchored
but working
and eager
to sail
Adam Davis Miller, February 18, 1994
Then of course I Googled him and he’s still in Berkeley. He is from South Carolina and is now traveling around and speaking and reciting from his numerous books. I just happen to have a copy of the first one. Check him out!
 April 2011
I’ve been working with another yoga teacher, Maribeth MacKenzie, on a few projects. We have 2 different styles of teaching and come from 2 very different yoga backgrounds.
I studied primarily Iyengar Yoga with some Yin, and Yoga movement, (a yoga practice moving through postures to create a dance). Maribeth has studied primarily Ashtanga, big time.
So as we are working together on retreats and teacher trainings, the different schools have shown up in ways that complement each other.
We figured out in Ashtanga there are no props, mainly because you are in each pose for 5 breaths and all the assists and adjustments are done manually by the teacher.
In Iyengar yoga instead of using our bodies to assist as much in the poses we use props. We tend to hold things longer, so the props both help in the assist and to make it easier to hang out a longer time.
 Now on to the future and what is coming up:
2 new ongoing classes!!!! Both at Yoga in the Forest; 4006 Postal Way, in Carolina Forest
Stretch and Recharge - Saturdays 4:15pm
This class is good for everyone. Beginners or experiences practitioners - all are welcome.
This is a FREE CLASS for parents of special needs kids. - Wednesdays 10:30-11:45am
My sister’s clinic (One Stop Therapy4 Kids) is just across the street from Yoga in the Forest. I worked there for over a year before she fired me (it was mutual, I’m not much for reception work). As the kids went in for therapy I spent some time with the parents. These parents are the most selfless hard working people I have ever met and they have huge hearts. I felt it was really important to give something back to them. So this class is for them!
 3 Continuing Education classes
These are all day intensives geared for teachers, but also open for students who want to go deeper in their practice. All held at Yoga in the Forest at 4006 Postal Way in Carolina Forest, Myrtle Beach
Assists and Adjustments - June 26th, 2011
Inversions - August 21st
back bending - September 25th
For more information visit www.yogaincommon.com and click on the workshop page or email me and I will send you information.
Lastly
California here I come ... I will be in California right after Labor Day for at least 2 weeks. I will post where and when I will be teaching so stay tuned.
Thanks for reading. Please keep in touch.
Namaste,
Lauren
I leave you with this
“Stick to your beliefs, if that serves you. Hold tight. Do not waiver. For your ideas about “right” and “wrong” are your definitions of Who You Are. Yet do not require that others define themselves according to your terms. And do not stay so “stuck” in your present beliefs and customs that you halt the process of evolution itself.
Actually, you could not do that if you wanted to, for life goes on, with you or without you. Nothing stays the same, nor can anything remain unchanged. To be unchanged is to not move. And to not move is to die.
All of life is motion. Even rocks are filled with motion. Everything moves. Everything. There is nothing that is not in motion. Therefore, by the very fact of motion, nothing is the same from one moment to the next. Nothing.
Remaining the same, or seeking to, moves against the laws of life. This is foolish, because in this struggle, life will always win.
So Change! Yes, change! Change your ideas of “right” and wrong”. Change your notion s of this and that. Change your structures, your constructions, your models, your theories.
Be OPEN. Don’t close off the possibility of new truth because you have been comfortable with an old one. Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.“
-- Conversations with God book 3 By Neale Donald Walsch
PAST NEWSLETTERS
|