Being grateful

Thanksgiving is next week and as I reflect on the things I am grateful for my yoga students come into my mind every time.  I am grateful for their desire and commitment to bring their intentions to class and be present with me as the days get shorter and the cold sets in.

I have given my students the opportunity to post about what has stood out the most for them this quarter and what they have received from the classes.

Winter Quarter 2014

Hi everyone,
While I was teaching yoga classes today I couldn't help but receive the blessings of the sun's warmth outside the windows of the gallery where I teach.  The Synchronicity of having the sunshine during this final week of yoga classes for my CWU students inspired me to think of and sing an Irish Blessing to my students inspired by the following you tube video.  Thank you internet for your 25 year birthday today, and giving me the ability to learn this song and sing it to my amazing students that I have this quarter.  Thanks everyone for practicing yoga with me this quarter.  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8eoEv1tnTU

Fall quarter 2013

Hi there everyone,
I am so grateful for my Fall Yoga Students this year.  I am grateful to all the studenst who showed up to class and committed to being present with their bodies and their minds and for the courage to show up and let go.  I was amazed at how well students listened to my instructions and followed directions.  It felt so easy to teach because everyone seemed like they knew yoga already.  I felt grateful to have this season of letting go, Fall, to share with the students who were in my classes.
There is so much intensity and passion in a room full of committed yoga students to being present and in the moment with the yoga postures.
What a beautiful time I've had with all of you:)
Jai Bhagwan,
Kristin:)

Summertime Yoga!

Practicing yoga in the summertime is wonderful for the body and mind!  I have invited yoga students to share their reflections about their journey with yoga.  I am so grateful for the small classes in the summer and the joy and community they bring into the yoga experience.  If you decide to post, thank you for sharing:)

Spring has sprung!

I am so grateful to all of the students who were able to practice yoga with me this quarter.  I have given students the opportunity to post comments about their experience with yoga this quarter.   Congrats to all of my students who are graduating.  May the long time sun shine upon you!
Kristin:)

Winter Yoga 2012-2013

I am so grateful to my yoga students in the winter time and for their commitment to showing up to class and practicing yoga with me.  I have given students the opportunity to reflect back over the winter classes and notice what stood out for them, how practicing yoga and meditation may have been helpful to them.  Jai Bhagwhan:)

yoga class for fall

Hi everyone,
I am going to miss you all when class ends this quarter.  I don't know if it is the new building or what, but I feel like I have been on a journey with all of you.  Please remember that whatever choices you make for your future, you can not f*&k up.  Every choice will give you an opportunity to learn.  So, don't be afraid, spread your wings and fly and remember that you are beautiful.
Thanks for deciding to join me on my blog....
Kristin:)

Yoga Ends for Spring quarter

My yoga classes end for Spring quarter and I am giving students the opportunity to post about their experience, strength, and hope in yoga class this quarter:)  So grateful to have the opportunity to meet and practice yoga with you all.
Love and light,
Kristin

Yoga is for everybody!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/11/yoga-nba_n_821384.html

Classes end for Winter Quarter

We are approaching the end of Winter, and I have given students the opportunity to share what stood out for them in yoga class this winter.  I am so grateful for my students, and for their willingness and openness to learn about yoga.  May the long time sun shine upon them!!!
Kristin:)

Yoga classes end for Fall quarter

Hi there,
Yoga classes are ending next week for Fall quarter.  I have given students the opportunity to post on my blog any reflections over the quarter about learning about yoga.  It has been a great fall and I am very grateful to my students for practicing yoga with me and giving me the opportunity to share my practice of teaching yoga.  Have a great break everyone....
Jai:)

interesting study done on yoga as an intervention for depression

A Yoga Intervention for Young Adults with Elevated Symptoms of Depression

June 16, 2011 By Alternative Therapies in Health & Medicine 0 Comments

Posted in Articles, Depression

Print

Context: Yoga teachers and students often report that yoga has an uplifting effect on their moods, but scientific research on yoga and depression is limited.
Objective: To examine the effects of a short-term Iyengar yoga course on mood in mildly depressed young adults.
Design: Young adults pre-screened for mild levels of depression were randomly assigned to a yoga course or wait-list control group.
Setting: College campus recreation center.
Participants: Twenty-eight volunteers ages 18 to 29. At intake, all participants were experiencing mild levels of depression, but had received no current psychiatric diagnoses or treatments. None had significant yoga experience.
Intervention: Subjects in the yoga group attended two 1–hour Iyengar yoga classes each week for 5 consecutive weeks. The classes emphasized yoga postures thought to alleviate depression, particularly back bends, standing poses, and inversions.
Main Outcome Measures: Beck Depression Inventory, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, Profile of Mood States, morning cortisol levels.
Results: Subjects who participated in the yoga course demonstrated significant decreases in self-reported symptoms of depression and trait anxiety. These effects emerged by the middle of the yoga course and were maintained by the end. Changes also were observed in acute mood, with subjects reporting decreased levels of negative mood and fatigue following yoga classes. Finally, there was a trend for higher morning cortisol levels in the yoga group by the end of the yoga course, compared to controls. These findings provide suggestive evidence of the utility of yoga asanas in improving mood and support the need for future studies with larger samples and more complex study designs to more fully evaluate the effects of yoga on mood disturbances.
To download the full article, originally published in Alternative Therapies in Health & Medicine, click here.

Summer yoga classes

Summer yoga classes are coming to an end this week.  I have given students the opportunity to reflect back over the session and share some of their experience of the process of yoga in their bodies and minds on this blog if they wish.  I would like to thank all of the students who joined me in creating yoga this quarter. 
Kristin:)

Classes end next week for Spring Yoga

Classes end this week for spring quarter for my yoga students at CWU.  I have given students the opportunity to share on my blog about any benefits or insights they have received during the quarter of yoga, and how yoga benefited their body/min,etc. 

I am so grateful to have the opportunity to share yoga with college students at the University.   I first started doing yoga when I was a college student at CWU, I was also a mother of a 3 year old boy, who is now 20...wow!  Anyway, it helped me clear my mind and relax deeply so that I could keep my focus on being a Mom and student.   Now, I get to give back the gift that was given to me so freely:)

Thanks again everyone for practicing yoga with me.....
Have a great summer:)

The heart never lies

Lately I have been interested in yoga postures, stretches, etc.  that help with opening the heart. 
In thinking of the shoulders in particular, I encourage my students to stretch the front of the heart as well as the back of the heart.  In the back of the heart is where we hide all of the feelings that we don't have time for, or that we don't want people to see...grief, sadness,anger,etc. 

I encourage students of yoga to breath into; open;  and melt away anything keeping a heart heavy.  Many times we round our shoulders to protect the heart, because there seems to be so much that is painful to see....It's hard to breath deep that way:)
However, the heart can take it all....and... once we begin to move the breath into the heart, it is like we are opening up a well that clears and flushes out any stagnancy and allows the heart to be free...so, we can see all the miracles and beauty as well as the pain...
After all, isn't it our birth right to be happy, joyous, and free?  In order to feel that sense of freedom and love means sometimes moving into the mud, and letting ourselves be afraid...alone...and alive in this world. 

One of the most powerful yoga postures you can do for yourself is to place your hand on your heart at night and say to yourself  gently, "I am here for me"....because the heart never lies.

Love and light on your sacred and blessed journey.......:)

Time for me to fly

I am currently up in the air flying to the city of angels, Los Angeles,, the city of angels:)  Just taking a moment to be grateful for this ability to be online while in the air, it truly is amazing this gift of the internet.    I am also reminded of how small I am...just a person in this craft, looking down at the state of Oregon.    The balance,  the beauty of being able to be part of experience. 

Some of the yoga poses remind me of flying...this ability to stand on one leg and allow myself  to move into the present moment.  Recently I was in Spokane listening to Sting's yoga teacher Ganga White and he spoke about how even when we stand it requires balance, and balance is not something to be mastered, but more to be explored.  Just staying open to it, remaining curious with whatever shape you are in....
Balance is a gift...a teacher...another opportunity to learn how to let go and fly.


"Now I make you laugh, and you make me cry...I believe it's time for me to fly.."  Reo Speedwagon

Yoga classes end for the Winter this week.

Even though it snowed again today, yoga classes end for the winter.  I am so grateful to all the wonderful students who showed up and practiced yoga with me.  I have given students the option to post on my blog about what stood out for them in their bodies, minds, and energy through the winter in yoga practice.  My yoga students have been a bright spot during this dark and cold winter...

Thanks for making it a great winter!

Death becomes her....

Living in a culture of narcissism to survive...be successful, be attractive, be healthy..hmmm... to deny death?   People 100 yrs ago surely did not live as long as they do now, and even though we have made progress with technology and science,  yet we still are powerless over death.  In Buddhism, one of the ideas is that it prepares the mind for death.  Every day is just a practice of keeping thoughts in the present..because that is all that is going on anyway.   Thich Nhat Hhan, (sorry I may not have the correct spelling here) said that it takes all the conditions to be present to light a match.  You need the wood, the stuff on the wood, the stuff to scrape the stuff on the wood to make the light...the air..the stuff in the air.....it all has to be just right for there to be a flame. 

I am thinking when it is our time to die, all the conditions have to be present for us to go.  And, that is the great mystery..so deny it, I'm not sure it is helpful, but to live in the awareness of death is no party either.

A friend of mine passed away earlier today.  Someone found him at his home in the country where he was living a pretty ordinary life.   He decided to live a clean lifestyle about a decade or so ago...and he most of the time went out of his way to help people.  Someone said to me recently, "when it is your time, it is your time".  Right now, that seems to make sense to me.  When all the conditions are present then the mystery happens. 
Jai Bhagwan...(I honor the truth that resides in all of us)

sit that's it

I am always amazed at the complexity of meditation.  Don't get me wrong, I am not saying people who make it complex are wrong, but people are pretty much just sitting.  Isn't that what we are talking about?  The majority of the activity happening in meditation is just that, "sitting".  

Now, there is this idea that if a person learns to sit with his or her self and be present with the breath, sensations in the body, etc....then that sense of presence can be carried out into daily life.  Which is a great goal for many of folks who don't multi-task or work at a stressful job, or live in a super stressful environment.  So, what my meditation teacher told me the goal is....well, to not have a goal.  Watch your thoughts if you must, but let them pass through and treat them all the same.   If you have some profound and peaceful experience...she said..."SO WHAT".  The profound and peaceful experience is a side effect of sittting.     If you need to cry, scream, shake, rattle or crow while sitting..."SO WHAT"...don't get up for 20 minutes and try not to move too much.  You will get through it, you are alone...and it is okay to say to one's self..."There, there..now...everything is going to be all right"....
Cuz' it's true...everything is going to be all right.  Just sit:)

being Present in Mountain pose

Life gives us many opportunities to be present....for example:  being born, learning to walk, learning how to ride a bike, dancing, singing, making music, making love,  giving birth...and the ultimate act of presence, dying.  

All the thoughts of the future and past are just that..in the future and past.  I heard someone say once that if you have one foot in the past and one in the present you are pissing on today.  So...bringing both feet into the present..just for today, right here, right now, in this very moment...is presence.

In the practice of yoga, keeping both feet on the ground and standing in the very first posture of Tadasana-Mountain, that is the gift of being able to stand.  Such a simple thing,  Ah, but how lucky those of us who can stand, not everyone is able to stand....