O2 Yoga Blog

I have three blogs. It is funny because I always lament the way that we as a culture seem to think that everything needs to be separated out. Take the fitness industry for instance, of which I was a part for many years and in many ways still am. We were always taught that you needed to do your cardio, then your stretching, then some strength building. This of course could take all day which is why so many people don’t do any of...

Next spring we will begin another round of what we call Karma classes at both studios. The concept behind these classes came out of a desire to help new teachers get experience they need, give some support to a local charity, and provide great yoga for very little money (just $8a class!). I do not use the word karma lightly. In fact, I believe that the concept of karma is really more about the way we live our lives than the way we do...

January’s focus was pranayama. Loosely translated, prana means life force and yama means control. In the yogic tradition, pranayama refers to different methods of controlling breath which is a representation of one’s life force or energy. Rather than thinking about controlling breath and energy, I like to think more about being efficient. Now in our culture, efficiency has a connotation of being good at getting lots of...

A Note on Om How I started teaching Let me just say that I love to OM. This was not always the case; in fact I never closed yoga practice with an OM as a new teacher. When I first started teaching, I honestly didn’t know a lot about the tradition of the practice. I started teaching because my teacher kept not showing up. One day as we were waiting on our mats for someone to come and lead class, a few students started to look to me,...

What Does Gratitude Feel Like? As I was driving down to the studio today, I was thinking about the feeling of gratitude. Afterall, it was Thanksgiving Day. That said, these holidays often feel so forced and contrived. Today, you should feel gratitude. What about tomorrow? I guess, however, that it got  me to think in a new way about a concept that comes up pretty regularly in my line of work.  I hadn’t really worked it out in my...

The other day, while I was taking class with Elliott, a women came rushing into the room 20 minutes late.  Elliott politely stopped her at the door and explained, as briefly and quietly as possible,  that the class had already started and that there were other classes she could come to later that evening. This went back and forth a bit while he was also trying to lead the class. She finally left but I was distracted and concerned. I...