Some Southern California Yoga Workshops

Friday April 17 - Saturday April 18 - Sunday April 19, 2009
Thai Massage with Saul David Raye at Exhale in Los Angeles. 12:30-5:30 p.m.

How to Teach Vinyasa Flow with Vinnie Marino at Yoga Works O.C. Costa Mesa. Fri-Sun. $250.

Finding Ease at Your Edge with Jason Crandell at L.A. Yoga Works. Sat. 6-8 p.m. and Sunday 1:30-4:30 p.m. $40, 75, or 100 for both. *also with Kathryn Budig!

Innovative Yoga Sequences

After I teach and when I am practicing alone at home I like to just let go, be present, release any expectations or plans, and allow my body and subconscious to dictate what poses I do, how I move in and out of them, where I wiggle and shift engergy to, and what shapes I can create to open spaces that have not felt that open before.



Sometimes during these personal yoga practices I come up with fun and often challenging sequences. I try to use exciting transitions between postures, link a number of balancing poses together, move from standing to a seated twist and back to standing in one flowing sequence. I even make up new poses...except maybe they are not new poses, but just poses that I have never seen or been taught before.

I can hold the left and right sides for as long as I wish, do a bunch of hip openers, choose the arm balances I feel like working on, rest in supta badha konasana for ten minutes, start with 20 sun salutations or 2 (I don't think I have ever started with just 2), and allow myself to go on for 20 minutes or 2 entire hours.

To be completely honest, I am my own favorite teacher right now. If you have not spent some time doing your own yoga practice lately, I hope you will do so soon. I am sure you will realize that you are your favorite teacher as well.

Self Practice

I have heard from other yoga teachers that they often have a hard time keeping up their own practice when they are teaching yoga. Interestingly, I have actually been much better about doing my own paractice and really delving into my own yoga and allowing myself to play, do poses that I don't often have presented when I take group classes, and I am even honing in on developing my own style of yoga that I would love to offer.



My practice lasted a good 2 hours and I had a blast opening the areas that needed serious opening and connecting poses together in unique ways. I also used the sand bags and strap to help in badha konasana, supta badakonasana, supta hasta padangustasana, and savasana. Delicious! I think my personal practices are now my favorite practices. Crazy to think that I have spent years resisting and shying away from personal practice. It is as if I have turned over an entirely new leaf and am getting a second wind as far as yoga growth goes. So exciting!

Free Yoga Spoof

Yoga Dawg had this image posted on his site and I thought it ties nicely with my post & spreadsheet of donation based/free or nearly free yoga classes in San Diego.

Another Upcoming Yoga Activity in San Diego and it's FREE!

On Saturday March 14, 2009, Shakti Rising is having a "Love Your Life Day." From 1:00-4:00 p.m. there will be FREE yoga classes taught by Jenny of Four Seasons Yoga, as well as a nutrition class on cooking with herbs and a keynote speaker--Christine Aylo--discussing and signing copies of her new book: Choosing ME before We, Every Women's Guide to Life and Love." Shakti Rising is at 2404 F. St., San Diego, 92102.

*Shakti (the power, or the energy) is personified as woman. Shakti--Shiva's wife--is energy. International Woman's Day is Sunday--so celebrate the the dynamic female force that moves through the entire universe.

Donation Based Yoga Classes

When I started practicing yoga I was in college in Los Angeles. For the better part of my years practicing I was a student and did everything possible to scrape together enough money to pay for memberships at the student rate at my favorite studios. I was lucky to have Yogaworks in the area and with the student discount I could attend unlimited classes at any time of day with amazingly gifted and inspiring teachers. In San Diego, however, I have found it difficult to commit to a membership relationship with just one studio. I am still searching and/or hoping for a studio to come along that has more than one location where my membership is valid, has a variety of class times, offers a variety of styles, a variety of teachers, and really just makes me feel at home like I have felt at certain studios at different points during my yoga journey. Yoga Fusion in Bird Rock was that studio for me for a couple of years. Unfortunately, I came back to San Diego after three months spent traveling around the world with a few months left on my unlimited yoga membership, only to find that my yoga home was gone. Ever since I have become somewhat of a yoga nomad. But good things often come from situations we initially find disappointing, and one good thing I have found is a fabulous movement toward donation based yoga classes. I know how much yoga has helped me in every aspect of my life and ultimately I hope that everyone with an interest in experiencing yoga has the opportunity to do so even if they cannot afford the premium price tag classes often come with. Although having a self/home practice is central to a yoga journey, maintaining a community practice with guidance and adjustments from passionate teachers is similarly integral. In order to provide you with the incentive to try some new teachers, or styles, or perhaps to just try yoga for the first time, I compiled a chart of donation based yoga classes in the San Diego area. Enjoy! Akasha also offers a free class Intro to Yoga class on the 1st Friday of every month.