• hello mr. bikram ... i'm not sure anyone has ever told you this, but your class is too effin hot.  quite frankly, it's so hot that i have to work way harder to keep my shit together on the mat.  everything becomes laborious in that kind of heat - even breathing.  so i have to concentrate, focus, and work harder than i really care to, thank you very much.
  

• dear mr. friend ... i'll just say this straight out:  you talk too much.  do this ... do that ... pull in here, spiral there, expand, contract, turn in, turn out.  ugh.  i like my habitual way of practicing and, contrary to politics - i'm not such a fan of change.  i'm into the comfortable way of doing things, not necessarily the better way.
  

• i must say, mr. iyengar ... your book is my bible.  but your class, well ... read my note to mr. friend and then i'll add one more piece of feedback:  we have 90 minutes, so add some more postures, would ya?  you see, i get bored if i'm not constantly stimulated with new information and your idea of getting me to spend time and go deeper may have intelligence but doesn't compute with my ADHD.  anyhow, i've grown somewhat attached to my injuries.
  

• i apologize, sri pattabhi jois ... i've called some of your postures hard stupid.  (actually, it was my daughter who did, but i will take full responsibility for her attitude because she most likely got it from me.)  it's just that some of your postures take months, even years of work - and i'm talking the every-day-kind-of-work.  who has that kind of dedication and commitment?  what's worse, it seems i can't just slide ahead when i feel like it - and that just busts on my ego!

• while i have the floor, i'd like to let mr. dharma mittra know now that i don't really like to backbend, to my flowgis, i have two left feet and suck at their dance, and even my fellow rocketeers - i despise eka pada koundinyasana, so can we just delete that from the sequence altogether? 
  

"Oh the rage!  It was a guttural, animal rage – such a strong emotion I had no idea could come from me.

My husband and my youngest son all worked hard to comfort me, but no amount of comfort was enough.  One day, years later, my husband said to me, ‘You know Jan, I’m on your side – remember?’

I finally realized, the offender was off living his life happily. I was hurting myself, and I was hurting my family - I was not hurting him.

So I made an active decision to release the anger and put that energy into something that would make a difference.  I just knew I wanted to do something meaningful."

sure you will hear me telling you all the ways i love ashtanga and how it’s  changed my life … blah blah blah.  but what you don’t know is, some of those changes are really sucky.  (and yes, that’s a word).

like these things, for example. 

my top 5 sucky things about ashtanga yoga:

1. it’s expensive.  do you realize how much money i had to spend on a new wardrobe after the first six months of practicing?  my shoulders broadened while my waist and hips slimmed down.  all of a sudden i found myself looking to buy jeans and shirts that showed my shoulders.  when my husband opened up the visa bill – i rightfully blamed it on ashtanga.
2. there's no cheating.  in a regular led class, i know exactly what to do when the teacher calls vastistasana – putz.  (hoping like hell you’re not reading this mike graglia …) fix my ponytail, straighten my mat, get a drink of water, wipe the sweat from my forehead, etc.  next thing you know, it’s over.  and that’s the idea.  now in ashtanga, i can still do all that – but the freaking posture is still there waiting for me, and will be until i do it.  and that just sucks.
3. no one coddles.  i’ve been practicing ashtanga for almost five years now and never, ever, not even once has a teacher said to me, “if you get tired, take child’s pose.”  i complain and say it’s hard.  i tell ‘em i’m tired.  and i wait … but all that comes back with is the same rote advice.  something about, practice and it all comes. 
4. where's the entertainment?  no music.  no readings.  no inspirational talks or uplifting message from the teacher.  apparently these folks think all you need is the practice itself and anything else just gets in the way.  as if supta kurmasana could be entertaining enough.
5. you have to stay sober.   not like i’d ever come to my mat after throwing back a few … but when you practice like ashtangis do beginning around 5 am – the LAST thing you want is to have a second coming of anything from the night before.  so not only do you turn down that glass of wine, but late night breyers mint chocolate chip ice-cream (which i was always much more likely to indulge in) has become a thing of the past.  sigh.

so the next time you see an ashtangi – be sympathetic and kind.   you see, they’ve had a rough morning already, with a hard sober practice, often done in basements without windows.

and don’t forget to tell them how good they look in their new clothes!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

yoga's dramatic rise in popularity has birthed some definite yoga divas and rock stars - along with famous names with celebrity teachers.  but our deepest inspiration comes from people who are just like us — who could BE us … only a few steps ahead on this twisting and arduous journey.  

that's why if you pick up october's issue of yoga journal (and i hope you will!) you'll see my article on moonlighting yogis - a few special teachers from across the country who have otherwise demanding and fulfilling careers, yet STILL choose to teach yoga on the side. 

but what you won't see are the thousands of others - just like them. 

because the five featured are, fortunately for all of us,  not at all unique. 

there are more … so many more.  behold the new crop of yoga teachers — they’re regular people like you and me and someday i hope, even my daughter.  each of us called and compelled to light the path for generations to come.   

i wanted to take the time to introduce a few others i interviewed while working on the article.  i found their stories each compelling and moving as each is fueled by a passion to change the world.

---

            Susie Walby

 

 Anusara Artist

"Everybody is their own artist –

we get to decide how we create our world"

Susie Walby, an Anusara teacher in Bozeman, Montana, didn’t have to travel anywhere beyond her own living room to find yoga for the first time.

 “I was just 19 years old when my dad came home one Friday and announced to my mom and me that he had just met the most amazing yoga teacher - and we were all going to yoga on Monday.  Which we did - week after week.  My dad’s hilarious – he’s both an artist and a yogi – which, unsurprisingly, have become my thing too.”

Like her dad, Susie had an innate artistic flair – but, as a young girl, she was shy and didn’t always trust her talent.  Yoga helped her expand her creativity and allowed her to hone in on that intuitiveness that she says, we all have.

"Yoga teaches me to put myself out there.  It’s humbling and nerve racking at the same time but I’ve learned to trust my instinct, to take risks, and not to be afraid of doing my own thing - in my art and in my life.”

Today, Susie’s yoga studio also doubles as an art studio, with both her mat and her canvas taking up residence in the same intimate space. 

---

Christine Peterson

 

 Ashtanga Scientist

"Sun Salutations can heal anything."

 

After suffering from bouts of anxiety and seasonal depression, and determined not to fix it with a pill – Christine decided it was time to check out what this yoga stuff was all about. 

I didn’t understand all that they were chanting and doing in the beginning, the poses or the names of the poses.  But I knew after the first class - after waking from my first savasana – I felt better. 

I knew right away, there must be a science to yoga

And science is something Christine understands well.  She is now at the J. Craig Venter Institute studying the bacteria that live in the human gut. 

Christine is determined to bridge that gap between the eastern and western medicine in her work as a researcher, but also as a yoga instructor. 

Even my yoga classes focus a lot on core work, emphasizing a strong a vital intestinal tract. Because I’m convinced - all it takes is a few sun salutations each day to keep us all healthy.

---

Tandy Gustin

 Bikram Nurse

"Whatever I am doing or practicing – I make it what it is."

 

Tandy Gustin doesn’t consider herself a healer, but she does recognize that there are two places in her life where she has the capacity to heal. Though she admits, that more, true healing is happening in the yoga room than in the emergency room.

They come to the trauma unit, tortured and mangled.  My job becomes more damage control.  At least in yoga, you have this opportunity to heal people in a preventative way.

Like many, Tandy came to her yoga mat to cross train.  She remembers the first time she walked into the yoga room and sweated it out with a bunch of regular Joes like herself – not some elite group of super athletes with the “right” clothes on. 

After that first class, Tandy was hooked.  For Tandy, the yoga is now so much more than crosstraining and what you bring in contributes even more than anything else happening in the room:

We get stuck on particulars like it’s too hot, or not hot enough.  We get stuck on “this spot” or “this teacher”  – but boy, yoga sure doesn’t have anything to do with that.  All that just gets in the way.

Remember the practice is all what you make it … and if that isn’t just a parallel for life, I don’t know what is.

 

---

            ISAURO FERNANDEZ

Ki Power Yoga Lawyer

“Mi nino, yoga te salvo,”  My mom tells me.  

My child, yoga saved you.

 

A competitive fighter both on the mat and in the courtroom transforms into a completely different kind of warrior.  Meet Isauro Fernandez, a New York City lawyer - and accidental yogi.

Isauro started practicing Judo and Tai Kwan Do at the age of six – competing his whole life.  But in 2006, Isauro came home from the International World Championship in Vienna badly battered.  With his left shoulder dislocated (for the third time), he had to question how many more injuries his body could sustain. 

I walked into the bookstore and stared at the self-help section – and Baron Baptiste’s, Journey into Power, literally falls off the shelf.  I thought yoga was just for women – not real men like me.  But on the cover of this book was Baron in crow pose and I thought – I want to be able to do that.

Within that first flow, the first sun B, when Isauro went into the warrior, he felt something stir inside that he could not understand. 

Perhaps a new kind of warrior emerging.  Two months after that first class, Isauro found himself in a teacher training.  Like so many others, he had no intention of teaching – he just wanted to learn more.

The beauty of all this was I didn’t even know what was happening.  Yoga does that.  All I was doing was showing up and being open.

I was not looking for yoga – and I definitely wasn’t looking to teach.  But once I started practicing, and then teaching – I couldn’t stop.  I can’t stop.  I can’t wait to get up and teach and connect.  I always think, if there is just one person who needs to feel and to heal – I want to show up and keep showing up for them.  For the students.

Once upon a time, before Isauro started teaching yoga, he had an busy office with two secretaries.  These days, Isauro fits in his law practice around teaching his own unique style of yoga fused with martial arts – Ki Power Vinyasa.  And continues to learn in the company of his two greatest teachers – his children.

CARRIE:  Yes. I teach physics and astronomy at Montgomery College and I maintain the college's observatory. We have public nights at the telescope every 1st and 3rd Friday of the month.  I started practicing Ashtanga a little over a year and a half ago.

ME:  In my other life, when I was a guidance counselor, I used to call out sick on moon days because of all the kids gone whacky ... but perhaps I was the whacky one.

ME:  So I'm not crazy when I say the moon affects my mood too?

Of course, there are most certainly those who simply want the random day off from practice and so they take moon days that fit in with their schedule or make for a long weekend perhaps. Although, I would caution you that appearance may be deceiving.

For example, some consult with Hindu priests for the best day to honor the moon and this can lead to some variations due to time zones, calculation mistakes, etc. Supposedly this website is one of the most authoritative: http://www.mypanchang.com/

I suppose in the end the decision how and why to honor the moon day is like the decision how and why to practice Ashtanga yoga. It probably varies a lot from person to person.

Which means come Saturday - you can catch me at the Leaf and Bean, Montana's version of Fourbucks. 

---

Something fun to try Saturday night ...

CARRIE:  Ever notice that when the full moon is low on the horizon it looks really big? This is actually an optical illusion- the moon's angular size in the sky is constant over the course of an evening. I tell my students they can make the illusion go away by viewing the moon upside down between their legs when it is low on the horizon.

Next full moon, go out just after sunset and look east. The full moon will be big on the horizon. Now get yourself into Prasarita Padottanasana and look at the moon again. The moon will look smaller! This really works, I've tried it!

Thanks Carrie ... people think Ashtangis are a bit looney already.  This is NOT going to help!