Since my last entry I’ve had another seven chances to expand, learn, and grow through my yoga practice. The Reach Out Challenge has been a gentle invitation into new beginnings on the mat, especially in combination with the one-month membership to My Yoga Online.
In the past week I’ve repeated the Short Hatha Flow class, done several of my own practices, and tried these new classes:
Developing Internal Balance – with Carolyn McManus
Grounding Breath Yoga Flow – with Kreg Weiss (co-founder of My Yoga Online). This is the most gentle class I have found yet. Nothing hurt when I did this class! And I really enjoyed the different breathing practices. Truly a class for slowing down the pace and getting in touch with deeper reality. I liked the way Kreg suggested the possibility of getting in touch with our true nature once the mind had quieted. I hope that many people benefit from this class.
Smart Yoga Tip: Pelvic Decompression – with Jesse Enright. A helpful mini-tutorial about the muscles in the pelvis and their role in holding everything in place as well as allowing opening in the hips.
Sea Side Yoga Flow – Michelle Trantina (co-founder of My Yoga Online). Is that Vancouver I see in the background?
I continue to make new discoveries in my regular yoga practice as a result of the learning and exploration in the classes with the other teachers. I find that when I do my own practice at my own pace, I have more time to explore and deepen into the pose than in most of the classes (except the restorative yoga classes, of course!). I have a new appreciation for the luxury of taking my time in a pose and seeing how far my muscles want to stretch. In the past I have gotten into the habit of just holding the pose for 6 breaths and then moving on, because that is my routine. But often my muscles want to stay a little longer. So doing the restorative classes really opened up the invitation to hang out in a pose. Plus needing to do a full 30 minutes, rather than rush through my practice to be done in 10-20 minutes, is a support to take more time in the poses.
Since Halloween fell during the past week, I thought you might like to see pictures of the dear little pumpkin I carved. This was the first time in years that I had a doorstep to put a pumpkin on. By 7:30 I’d had 42 little goblins to the door, and all the candy was gone. I hope you got lots of tricks and treats!
Three more days until the challenge is over. Thanks to my friends and family who have pledged 50 cents or a dollar or even two dollars a day for the 30-day Reach Out Challenge. The total pledges is now at $285 dollars! Almost at my goal of $300. If you haven’t done so and would like to sponsor me to raise money for Yoga Outreach, you can use the online donation link. Or phone me at 604.251.6337 or send an email to kyrempel [at] gmail [dot] com. Thanks!