Category Archives: Teachers

Relax and Renew ™ Restorative Yoga Training with Judith Hanson Lasater Roundup

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Greetings from San Francisco! This week I’m in a 5-day Restorative Yoga Teacher Training with Judith Hanson Lasater at Yoga Tree SF in the Castro. Today is the last day of the training, which has gone by too fast, which is always the case for me when I see Judith. (For those of you who’s seen me take notes on my iPhone and wonder how I do it, this is how I perfect that skill.)

There is so much good stuff from the workshop, and therefore so much for me to write, so much so that I don’t really know where to begin. In fact that’s what’s been holding me back, keeping me in my writing fear and procrastination. Whenever I’m overwhelmed with the sheer amount of things to do, and the time that I don’t think I have to accomplish it all, I sabotage my own attempt by sitting around, being worried, getting anxious, getting stressed out. Every time I think of the email I need to write and the email I need to respond to, they get more annoying, scarier, bigger, and bigger, and bigger, until they become some sort of insurmountable mountain in my mind.

As Judith would say, “Who knows what I’m talking about?”

For those of you that said, “What? Are you a moron? I never get stressed out over what I have to do,” to you I say, please write a book, I will buy it. For the rest of us who’s trying everything to live life a little more sanely, a little more joyfully, short of running off to a cave in the forest, I’m convinced that learning how to take care of ourselves is the ticket.

I first learned about Restorative Yoga in my first yoga teacher training, where I was astonished at two things: 1) how friggin’ amazing it feels, and 2) how, during the 10 years of doing yoga prior, I had never learned about it.

There’s a reason for that. I had been doing Bikram and variations of Vinyasa Flow Power yoga, where the emphasis, to me, was more about exciting the sympathetic nervous system than the parasympathetic nervous system. A practical reason is that Restorative Yoga includes the usage of props like blankets and bolsters, which would not survive in a hot yoga studio.

Naturally, as is often the case with encountering something good, I wanted more, and I had been wanting to take Judith’s training ever since.

So, I’m hooked, and I’ll be writing a lot more about this as I learn more and practice it more, and if you take classes with me, don’t be surprised if I talk about it in class :)

Here's me in a side lying savasana pose. It feels as good as it looks.

Here's me in a side lying savasana pose. It feels as good as it looks.

Seattle Yoga News – Sanskrit & Yoga Philosophy Study Group with Kathryn Payne

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One thing I started to realize as I got further and further in my yoga studies is the opportunities for me to practice Asana, and even Pranayama, are disproportionate in relation to the opportunities to delve into more esoteric subjects, such as reading the Ancient texts, and writing and pronouncing Sanskrit. (To be fair, not nearly as many people are interested in that. As my boyfriend once asked me, “Why are you learning a dead language? Do your students really care?”)

Any night of the week, I can spin around three times, throw a pebble, and it will surely land on a studio in which to lay my mat down. Finding a group with a learned teacher to discuss ishvara pranidhana and its practical implication in a modern world? My luck won’t be nearly as high. I am not *complaining*. I am *glad* that after a day of sitting in chairs too big and desks too high for me, hunching over a computer screen with my shoulders on top of my ears, I can stretch and bend and twist and invert and restore some alignment in my body.

I *will* say, though, that my physical practice grew leaps and bounds after I got to know the non-physical stuff, the… seemingly “only in your head” intellectual stuff. Like a pot of stew, everything started to complement each other, making the whole thing so much more tasty.

So, I am glad that my teacher Kathryn Payne has decided to hold more classes and workshop on Sanskrit and Yoga Philosophy at Sound Yoga studio in West Seattle. If you are in the Seattle area and want to dig deeper in this kinda stuff , this is a great opportunity. Having studied regularly with Kathryn for the past two years, I will vouch that she is a great source of wisdom. So come! And I’ll see you there!

From the Sound Yoga website:

SANSKRIT & YOGA PHILOSOPHY STUDY GROUP with Kathryn Payne
Dates: Tuesdays, July 13th & August 17 (2 classes)
Time: 6:00 – 8:00 Pm
Fee: $55 for both or $30 for a single two-hour class
Where: Sound Yoga in West Seattle (www.soundyoga.com)

In each class we will study by reading and chanting from source yoga texts. During these two summer sessions we will focus on the Patanjali sutras and mantra – maybe an Upanishad verse. Regardless of the material we will broaden vocabulary and deepen our understanding of the yoga through the power of its language – Sanskrit.

The course will continue to meet approximately once per month on Tuesdays evenings in the Fall. Dates TBA in a late Summer email.

To register, please send me an email at kp @ islandyogacenter.com to let me know you are coming and snail mail fee (check) to Kathryn Payne, 12601 Cunliffe Rd, Vashon, 98070.

Learning verse 4.24 from the Bhagavad Gita with Kathryn Payne

Learning verse 4.24 from the Bhagavad Gita with Kathryn Payne

Study Sanskrit in Seattle with Kathryn Payne

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Two years ago, when I decided that I would enroll in a yoga teacher training, I had no idea that I would be learning Sanskrit. Quite frankly, I didn’t even know such a thing existed, that’s how “not with it” I was. And now, I cannot be more glad to have been exposed to this ancient language, and that I have access to continue my studies with American Sanskrit Institute teacher Kathryn Payne.

This coming May, 2010, you too, can read Sanskrit. No, really, that’s not an exaggeration or me just being facetious. It’s a promise. Kathryn will be conducting two workshops, Part 1 taking place May 22-23, and Part 2 on May 29, and I whole-heartedly recommend them.

From the flyer:

The first step in learning Sanskrit is to develop an intimacy with its sounds; become familiar with their exact location, feeling their force and power, and the unique way they vibrate the palate and engage the breath. Above all, enjoying sound is at the heart of our program.

The 14 hour Sanskrit Training is an educational adventure that will give you a permanent connection to the beauty and energy of Sanskrit as well as a dynamic model of yoga in the classroom that supports a natural and effortless focus.

Knowledge of Sanskrit makes it possible to grasp the subtleties of yoga, whose body of teachings are written in Sanskrit. Since ancient times the practice of yoga has included the study of Sanskrit and the chanting of Sanskrit mantras to induce calm and clarity in meditation.

Sanskrit is integral to yoga – its pure and sacred sounds essential for harmonizing and balancing the mind. This Sanskrit training will teach you how to approach the language of yoga – as a yoga – that is both enjoyable and inspiring.

By the end of a weekend you’ll be reading this sutra, savoring the precise pronunciation and pure energy of Sanskrit, and gaining direct access to the ancient wisdom of yoga encoded in this sacred language.

Where:
Sound Yoga in West Seattle
5639 California Ave Southwest, Seattle WA

When:
Part 1 – May 22 and 23, 2010
Saturday and Sunday, 11:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Part 2 – May 29, 11 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Tuition:
Part 1 – $225
Part 2 – $95
Refundable less $25 by May 14, 2010.

Contact:
Kathryn Payne
kp@islandyogacenter.com
206.778.5805

Get the printable flyer: Kathryn Payne’s Sanskrit Workshop May 2010

You'll read this by the end of the weekend with Kathryn

You'll read this by the end of the weekend with Kathryn

The Years Shall Run Like Rabbits

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One of my favorite movies of all time is Before Sunrise, which I have seen so many times the disc is completely scratched up. One of the memorable scenes that seems to be permanently stuck in my mind is when Ethan Hawke’s character recites the poem As I Walked out One Evening by W.H. Auden.

‘The years shall run like rabbits,
For in my arms I hold
The Flower of the Ages,
And the first love of the world.’

But all the clocks in the city
Began to whirr and chime:
‘O let not Time deceive you,
You cannot conquer Time.

These last days, as the calendar says it’s time for Spring, though the weather in Seattle today violent disagrees (heavy rain and 30mph wind), these lines remind me: ‘O let not Time deceive you. You cannot conquer Time.

Time goes fast, we keep hearing that. We keep hearing these clichéd phrases until they become tired like that proverbial broken record, but there are moments when they hit home so close that you finally get what they are all about, then they become true on a cellular, experiential level.

This month marks exactly one year since I finished my 200-hour training from Pacific Yoga, a 9-month program that sent me deep into the woods of yogic studies. It left me bewildered, confused, amazed, and humbled. Next month this time, I’ll be graduating from the 500-hour teacher training, a program that I started a year ago.

This morning when I was gathering my training attendance records, I went over the schedule of each session with mixed emotions. I was proud that I had been exposed to so much material, and I was a bit nervous because I don’t think I remember every single thing I’ve learned. But that anxiety did not last very long. I was immediately reminded of how I’m still going over the material that I learned in the 200-hour training, how everything I learned continues to emerge for me to grasp, understand, and learn them again.

I’m comforted by Yoga Sutra I.14, which is something of a personal mantra as of late. I learned this sutra in my 200-hour training, and it’s taken over a year for me to get it.

Satu dirgha kala nairantarya satkara asevitah dridha bhumih – YS 1.14

This sutra roughly says that there are three things that make a practice is firmly rooted and becomes stable:

  • dirgha kala: a long time
  • nairantarya: without interruption
  • satkara: devotion

I’m comforted by knowing that when May rolls around and Graduation day comes, and it will be here soon enough, I won’t really have to be “done”. I’ll still have some time to continue to do whatever work is left to do, which is endless, really. “Your certificate is a certificate to begin your studies,” Judith Hanson Lasater said once.

Having said that, I also know that I don’t really have *that* much time. Recently, a family friend passed away completely unexpectedly, and her untimely death shocked all of us to the core. My mom celebrated her 60th birthday yesterday. We were sitting at the kitchen table talking about it last week when she looked at me tenderly and said, “You’re 28, you turn around, and you’re 60. Time goes so much faster than you think.” I nodded and looked at my mom, I mean really looked at her, trying to capture what she looked like, because I’ll want to remember that exact moment when I turn 60.

In one of her talks, Pema Chodron cited Suzuki Roshi: “Knowing life is short, enjoy it day after day, moment after moment.” Sure, it’s easy for *them* to say that, but what about me? Me who’s got enough Vata to bottle energy drinks for an army? Me who’s constantly distracted and checking my iPhone and the latest tweet and blog and facebook status and what’s hot, what’s new, what’s latest, everything but what’s here and what’s now?

I’m practically a lost cause, running after anything that’s shiny, promising instant gratification and an escape from this mundane moment. My saving grace is yoga. Over these past two years of immersing myself in the teacher trainings, attending workshops, and committing to a daily meditation practice, I have occasionally caught glimpses of what it might be all about, that, “enjoy it moment after moment” thing. You cannot conquer time, but you can learn to be its companion.

To me, that’s what the practice is about, and it’ll take a long time, being consistent, and lots of dedication.  I will not let Time deceive me, and I will not deceive it. I’m humbled by Time, and I will let it run its course. In the meanwhile, all I can do is continue to practice with what I’ve got, one day at a time.

To all you guys reading this, kudos to you for committing yourself to this practice, or any practice for that matter. Kudos to you for showing up, and committing your mind, and body, and time, to whatever it is that floats your boat: climbing, painting, singing, writing, dancing, etc. All I can say is, if that’s your thing, and it’s doing you good, as long as it feeds you, it doesn’t matter where you are in the process, just keep going.

When I’m 60, or 70, or 80, if I will have learned to sit or lie down in Savasana and not think of a million and one things having nothing to do with that current moment, I will probably tell W.H. Auden, “Ha! See? I *can* conquer time.” At which point I’ll remember the movie Before Sunrise and think of all my favorite scenes, and poof, there will go my mind again.

Color-coordinated mother and daughter. With my beautiful mom on her 60th birthday.

Color-coordinated mother and daughter. With my beautiful mom on her 60th birthday.

A Moment of Living in the Moment

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I am writing this post with fast and furious fingers and sweaty palms, quite possibly from my morning coffee or the bright spring sunshine walloping all of Seattle right now. I am also experiencing a ginormous sense of overwhelm. Not overwhelm in the common sense of being eaten alive by to-do lists, but overwhelm in the sense of the feeling you get while standing in front of a vast blue ocean or a tall green mountain, and witnessing something very big and powerful.

Those of you that know me know that I am into this “sitting thing”. I usually say that “I sit”, and not “I meditate”, because sitting is a more accurate description of what really happens. I sit. And then I think about a hundred and one things that I should be doing, or the things I did and all the things I will do or want to do. It’s elusive, that quiet meditative mind.

And yet. And yet. Something interesting happened to me this morning. Shinzen Young talks about this phenomenon in his lectures The Science of Enlightenment. You do this thing called meditation. You *try* desperately to meditate. You pay good money to go on meditation retreats. When you come back and tell your friends what happen, they wonder if you’ve lost your mind for paying good money to go somewhere to “sit around all day”.

You might start to wonder the same thing. You might blow off sitting once, or twice, or altogether. Or you put it off, thinking, “I’ll do it tomorrow”.

But, by hooks or by crooks, by some miracle, or by some clever tricks, as Shinzen said, “if you can’t be disciplined, be clever.”, you sit, and you sit regularly, day after day, month after month. You start to see glimpses of what it means to live in the moment. You look at the world like a goldfish with that proverbial 3-second memory, or the proverbial curious cat that acts like it’s seeing everything for the first time, sniffing it, exploring it.

And boy, is it grand when it happens. It happens very fast, and it does not last.

But, no matter how fleeting, no matter how swift that moment comes and goes, it blows you away. All of the sudden, you start to understand that big word impermanence. You start to see the joys and the sorrows. I’m not even talking theory and hypotheses here. Those things happen right in front of your eyes, as if on cue. It’s very creepy.

(No, the irony does not escape me to reminisce the moment of “living in the moment”, but it must be captured and recorded somehow :D )

What am I trying to say? If you are engaged in this practice, this yoga thing, this meditation thing, this, dare I say it, getting in touch with your spirit thing. Trust the process. Really. Trust it even when you are weary and full of doubt. And get clever. Trick yourself into practicing when you least feel like it, on the cushion, on the mat, in the grocery line, or in traffic jam.

It will not give you a mountain of gold, it will not instantly make all your troubles go away. It will not automatically rid you of your destructive habits and general life shenanigans. It will not make you taller and turn you into a baller and give you a girl that you could call her.

I honestly can’t even tell you exactly what it will bring to you, because it would be arrogant of me to claim to know what *you* personally experience. What I can arrogantly claim, however, is that life is always coming together and falling apart at the same time. There will be so much joy, and so much sorrow. And there are no words to describe what it’s like, when you are in what they call the Witness state. Something this morning put me in an incredibly clear mind to see both, like a jolt of lighting or a flash of shooting star. To put it plainly, it scared me, it overwhelmed and amazed me, and it humbles me like nothing ever before.

I will say this, admittedly with a lot of caution and hesitation. I am beginning to see what Vyaas Houston talks about in The Certainty of Freedom.

In the meantime, I hope you dance.

State of The Union in Nikki Yoga News, March 2010

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Here in Seattle, there’s an indie alternative newspaper called The Stranger, wherein there’s a column called Last Days, which accounts for notable news of the last days in the last week, and it’s the inspiration for this blog’s format in Nikki Yoga News (NYN).

My Heart Will Go On

  • The 2nd installment of Intro to Yoga at Taj Yoga is off and running, starting Wednesday March 3, 2010, from 6:00 – 7:15pm. As always with Intros, for the next 7 weeks I will take the students through a rousing round of the different types of yoga postures, breath work, and dabble into the philosophy of what makes yoga, well, yoga. I’m glad to see new faces as well as familiar old ones from the previous Intro session. It’s always a ton of fun to get to work with students for an extended amount of time.
  • The 10th, yes, 10th! session of my 500-hour Yoga Teacher Training at Pacific Yoga came and went this past weekend of March 5-7, 2010. That means there are only 2 sessions left and I’ll be a 500-Certified Yoga Teacher (CYT). Big excitement! Big responsibilities! What does this 500 CYT business mean? It means I’ve gone through a certain amount of training that meets the Yoga Alliance standards at the 500-hour level [PDF].
  • Cora Wen, a long-time yoga teacher who has been tagging the world with headstands, or sirsasana, came to Seattle on Thursday March 4, 2010, and we got to hang out and had big fun talking about The State of the Yoga (Union). Har, har. I’ve gotta go for those cheap jokes when I can, ya know. Cora and I met up with Karen Lindenberg, owner and teacher of Phyzz Yoga, and we did some Down Dogs against the Seattle skyline at Volunteer Park.
  • Then, a little virus caught up with me on Friday. All those days of having fun in the sun and “we go deep and we don’t get no sleep ’cause we be up all night until the early light” caught up with me. Throw in some questionable milk at a coffee shop, and I was done for. Being sick has always given me perspectives on appreciating exactly what is, and that my health is my wealth.

Somewhere Out There

  • I’m starting the next Yoga for Newbies series at Village Green Yoga this Thursday, March 11, 2010, from 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm. Hooray! I’ll be looking forward to new and familiar faces there.
  • This weekend, March 13 and 14, 2010 I’ll be back assisting the fabulous trio of Theresa, Kathryn, and Paul at the Pacific Yoga 200-hour Teacher Training.
  • I’m starting a new class called Yoga Happy Hour at Taj Yoga, where the emphasis will be more on working with the breath and doing restorative yoga poses. It’s on Friday afternoons from 5:30-6:45pm. As you know, starting anything new is a little bit of a risky adventure, and I’m trying to see if this time slot will work. I’m asking for your help to please let all your friends who live and work in the Crown Hill/Ballard/North Seattle area know!

Always On My Mind

  • Many, many projects are swirling around in my head right now. I’m feeling awfully creative. My right brain is seriously working over time right now. I’m interviewing local yoga teachers in a Support Local Yoga Teachers project. If you are a yoga teacher, please let me know if you would like to be interviewed!
  • I’ve been designing greeting cards and shirts in the theme of tongue-and-cheek quirky sayings.
  • The 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training has started at Pacific Yoga, and what a privilege it is for me to get to assist teachers Theresa Elliott in Asanas, Kathryn Payne in Pranayama, and Paul Bubak in Anatomy. It’s also great fun for me to get to know the next class of yoga teachers.

All I Have To Do Is Dream

  • Spring is around the corner, and I’ll be teaching a workshop for a Smoother Sun Saluation at Village Green Yoga on Saturday, March 27, 2010. 9:30 – 11:30 am.
  • I’m officially enrolled in the Traditional Yoga Studies 800-hour Distance Learning Course on the History, Literature, and Philosophy of Yoga, written and designed by Georg Feuerstein. I’ll be starting this after my graduation from the 500-hour Training in May.
  • I’m really enjoying teaching Yoga for Climbers at Stone Gardens climbing gym, and looking for ways to create videos for my climbing homies from far-away. Mini-vids are in the work, oh yeah.
  • I am actively working on another series of interviews and biographies on the senior and pioneer yoga teachers in the Pacific Northwest. If you have any information on any teachers who started teaching in the 60s and 70s, or even earlier, please, please let me know.
Drive, Reverse, Neutral, Park, Drive, Reverse, Neutral, Overdrive, Neutral...

Drive, Reverse, Neutral, Park, Drive, Reverse, Neutral, Overdrive, Neutral...

Four by Four, Sit by Sit

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Alright, it’s March! That means the First Nikki Challenge 28-Day Sit-off Meditation Competition is ovar! How’d it go for you? As you recall the rules were minimal. All I asked was for you to sit. That’s it! 60 seconds, 60 minutes, it didn’t matter. The goal was to create a habit, and as all of us know, if the goal is too lofty, we won’t even get started at all.

Kudos to you if you took it the challenge. And a HUGE THANK YOU to our Sit-off sponsors: The awesome people who gave us a little incentive to do our work. Okay, now what, you’re off the hook, right? Actually, no one was ever really “on the hook” with anyone in the first place, really, except with ourself. And that’s the hardest person to hold accountable with, eh?

If you’ve enjoyed sitting, and enjoyed the “sitoff” spirit, fret not, here comes the iEvolve 90 day Meditation Challenge. Yes, that’s a whole whopping *ninety* days, not 28 puny days. Also, this challenge asks that you sit for an hour a day. From their website:

THE CHALLENGE:

Meditate 1 hour everyday for 90 days in a row. You can sit for 60-minutes straight, two 30- minute periods, or 4 15-minute periods. Whatever works for you. Either way, that’s 90 hours of meditation under your belt! Start Spring 2010 off right and re-energize your practice and your life with our 90 day meditation challenge.

As you know, I’m a huge believer of doing things in an easy, steady, sustainable way. So, I’ve decided to tweak the rules a little bit (“they’re more like guidelines anyway”). I’ve decided to use the divide and conquer strategy. I’ve also included Pranayama as part of the sit. Let’s call it MPx4, Meditation and Pranayama by Four sittings a day. An hour seems like a lot, but 15 minutes? We all have 15 minutes here and there to spare.

Every Day Is A Winding Road

The Challenge calls for 90 hours of sitting, that’s 5400 minutes. My take is you ought to account for mishaps in life, and you ought to be able to make up for them.

If you miss a day, add another day to the challenge. For example, it’s March 1, 2010 as I’m writing this, but you’re reading about this on March 2, or 3. Who says you have to finish May 28, 2010? Why not May 29, or 30? This can go too far, however. You might say to yourself, “I’m putting it off until January 1, 2011, yeah, that’ll be my New Year Resolution!”

So, why not set a deadline of the last day of Spring, which is June 20, 2010? It’s like those punch cards where you get a limited time to use. That adds a whole whopping 23 days to the 90-day sit, that’s like 25% more for the same price!

If you miss 15 minutes, add another 15 minutes. If you’ve only done 15 minutes today, add 45 minutes to your “Credit” column, and save it for a make-up day. DO NOT binge and purge. Well, do it if you want to, but I strongly advise against the dieter’s mentality of having “cheat days” where you go berserk with everything in sight. Don’t think, oh, I’m not gonna sit today, but I’ll sit for five hours this weekend. It doesn’t work in the long run. It’s unsustainable.

The exception, of course, is if you’ve signed up for a sit where you really will sit for five hours, then I think it’s cool. What doesn’t work is the old college habit of cramming. It’s 10pm and that 50-page paper is due at 8am tomorrow morning? No problems, I have a whole *twelve* hours to write. Yeah, that rarely ends well.

Okay, here’s a recap:

  • The challenge is to complete 5400 minutes of sitting, a combination of Pranayama and Meditation.
  • You must do each session for at least 15 minutes.
  • You’re strongly encouraged to sit for an hour a day.
  • You have from March 1, 2010 to June 20, 2010 to complete.

Bonus:

Are you a math/stat geek? Keep tabs and quantify on your effort. For example, you can record when you sit, and do a tally on whether you do more Pranayama or Meditation in the morning, or at night.

Any time's a good time for a spreadsheet!

Any time's a good time for a spreadsheet!

What do you think? Are you in?

When we take the meditation posture, we’re developing a posture and attitude of attentive openness to whatever arises, and this is actually a very brave thing to do. I think maybe we wouldn’t actually even begin on this journey if we knew how brave that is, to just sit, and open our minds, open our whole being, with attentive openness to whatever might arise.

Because in so doing, we’re actually opening ourselves beyond our usual habitual view of ourself and of reality. We actually don’t know what we’re going to see, and one of the first things that one gradually begins to perceive is that perhaps we aren’t quite who we thought we were.

…

We sit, and we just look, with an openness, as much openness as we can, and in so doing, we’re opening ourselves to letting go, or seeing through, or at least seeing exactly who we are and what we do. We’re setting ourselves up, you could say, for some of the ways, and eventually all of the ways in which we conventionally and habitually view reality, to let those fall apart, so it’s very brave. And this path, is considered the Path of the Brave Ones, which doesn’t mean we *are* brave, but it means we begin to cultivate our fearlessness.

- Pema Chodron, From Fear to Fearlessness, Session 1, Beginning the Path of the Brave Ones.

Those rules, they're more like guidelines anyway

Those rules, they're more like guidelines anyway

Feel All Emotions

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I have been reading A Year of Living Your Yoga: Daily Practices to Shape Your Life by Judith Lasater since December 2007 (thank you, Amazon Orders History). Every time I read the daily entry, I get a new perspective and insight.

Today, February 27, the entry reads:

If you want to embrace the light, you must also embrace the darkness.

LIVING YOUR YOGA: We all long for love, peace, and ease. But in order to fully experience them, we must also be willing to embrace our hatred, anger, and agitation. Today when you feel any strong negative emotions, really feel them. Cutting off negative feelings cuts off our ability to feel all emotions.

I especially enjoy this, because reading it feels like a long relieved exhalation. It’s given me permission to acknowledge emotions that I once thought were “off-limit”.

The Agony and the Ecstasy

One thing about the yoga and meditation world that I think “hooks” people in is the promise of bliss, and not just any kind of bliss, eternal bliss, ecstatic bliss, (uh, not to mention, yoga bliss hips). If you’re not happy, practice it. If you’re currently happy, you could be happier, all the time. My god, even the mat wash oughta be happy.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for happy, love, bliss, and more happy. Nope, nothing against that at all.

What I’ve learned though, that when we talk about abstract concepts like love, compassion, happy, spiritual, bliss, without setting any context, without any preconditions, we can run into all sorts of troubles when we’re not experiencing any of those emotions.

For example, let’s say something has gone very wrong, everything has hit the fan. My uncensored reaction might go something like this, “I’m so pissed! No, I’m fucking pissed! I HATE HATE HATE.” Or, perhaps something milder happened. Maybe I’m slightly offended by something. I might run off, get on my high horse and judge, roll my eyes and get all worked up. You know the drill.

Uh oh, but, I’m a yoga teacher! I’m not supposed to get upset! I’m not supposed to get livid! Quelle horreur! Seeing this, I might tell myself, “Oh, it’s okay. I’m fine. I’m supposed to be happy, and loving. Yes, I love everyone. And we’re all one. Ommm.”

If this is my approach to every crummy moment in life, I’ll end up with a lot of repression, won’t I?

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia

I’m learning that in the context of yoga, things like love and happiness aren’t what we think they are. They’re not the–”I’m so happy it’s sunny out”, or, “I love this present you gave me”–kind of emotions.

Once, when my boyfriend was waiting to hear back from a prospective employer and getting worried and anxious, I told him to be happy and just enjoy the moment. He looked at me like I was out of my mind. “Be happy? How could I be happy when I may not get the job?”. “Is everybody who has a job happy? And all the unemployed people are swimming in giant seas of unhappiness?” I asked him. “Well, yeah. How could you be happy if you don’t make any money?”

I knew then that we weren’t talking about the same kind of happiness. My teacher Shinzen Young often talks about a kind of happiness that’s independent of any conditions. That’s probably the happiness and bliss that yoga teachers and magazines often talk about. But I’m not convinced that it’s clearly explained enough, especially in mainstream yoga. Or, perhaps the ambiguity is intentional. After all, my guess is “Practice Feeling Completely Rotten” doesn’t sell as many magazine copies.

All Fall Down

I’m finding out that taking the role of the Witness, the Observer (or Ishvara) means that I’ve got to call an Ace an Ace. Whatever emotion that’s passing by, no matter how dark, should be recognized. Oh look, there’s anxiety. There’s jealousy. There’s selfishness. There’s self-righteousness.

And the trick is to do so with a kind of tenderness, a kind of… well, love; love for my humanness. How human of me to be scared, to be hurt, to project. Practicing this way, for me, creates a kind of happiness that’s really sweet, and so hard to describe. “I’m happy that I can see how awful this experience is.” I know, it doesn’t make any friggin’ sense, does it?

Well, I can say more, but Pema Chodron has eloquently and concisely put it in one sentence as she talked about Maitri, the practice of loving-kindness.

“Maitri is not about feeling good, it’s about feeling whatever you feel with a compassionate attitude and with extreme honesty” – Pema Chodron, Awakening Compassion Lectures.

Have you ever felt like you were “supposed” to feel anything different than what you’re currently feeling? How do you work with that?

Perhaps you need a copy of Yoga Journal, kitteh?

Perhaps you need a copy of Yoga Journal, kitteh?

Goal vs. Intention – Yoga Teacher to Yoga Teacher

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This is another video in the New Yoga Teacher to New Yoga Teacher series, part of my work to support new yoga teachers. Here I talk about how to deal with both good days and bad days, and yes, they do happen. As they say about riding and laying down a motorcycle: it’s not a matter of if, but when.

I made this tonight at Taj Yoga, but the idea has been on my mind for a long time. It’s a lesson I learned from the Summer Retreat in Leavenworth as part of my 500-hour teacher training. One afternoon after lunch, as we were walking back to our rooms, I caught up with my teacher Kathryn Payne and talked to her about some of my fears and anxiety of being a new teacher.

Kathryn said an important thing that I continue to cherish and put to good use. She said there’s a difference between a goal and an intention. A Goal is something you set, and you may eventually achieve, and then move on to other goals. An Intention is something that can potentially stay with you for your whole career.

Midwinter 2010 Newsletter from Nikki

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Here’s my newsletter that I just sent out, like, literally. If you didn’t get one in your inbox and would like one, please email me at nikki@nikkiyoga.com.

You can also view the web version of this newsletter.

Is this email looking funky wonky? No problems! You can view it in your trusty web browser.
spring flowers
Happy New Year, Once More!

I often joke that a benefit of celebrating the Lunar New Year is you get to start over not once, but twice a year. Resolutions not going strong right off the gate after January 1? No problems, a second chance is just around the corner. It’s a fun thought to entertain, but in jest there is often some truth, and whichever calendar you follow, I invite you to keep on celebrating the newing and renewing of ourselves.

This year, a lot of celebratory events seem to be happening within the past couple days and the days ahead for me. On Friday, February 12, the Olympics torch lit up the Pacific Northwest skies from Vancouver, BC as I found myself in the first installment of my teacher Theresa Elliott’s workshop on Sacroiliac Stability in Yoga, an event years in the making for her. Two days later on Sunday February 14 was the first day of the Lunar New Year, Year of the Tiger, and of course, it was also Valentine’s Day.

The studios where I’m proud to be a part of, Taj Yoga in Seattle and Village Green Yoga in Issaquah, both have their birthdays this month, Taj turning five and Village Green turning two. Congratulations to studio Directors Theresa Elliott and Jean Massimo, respectively! Congratulations also, to Pacific Yoga Teacher Training Co-Directors Kathryn Payne and Theresa Elliott for starting their 14th 200-hour teacher training this weekend, with which I’m honored to be assisting.

And so, onward to the rest of this winter, and let the celebration continue!

Namaste Monkey
Photo caption: A gift from my quirky boyfriend

My Teaching Schedule

Birthday Celebration at Village Green Yoga
As part of the 2nd birthday celebration, Village Green Yoga in Issaquah will be offering three days of free yoga classes to send thanks back to the community. You can find me teaching:

  • Yoga for Newbies: Saturday morning, 9:30 a.m. – 11 a.m. February 20, 2010.
  • Reboot, a Restorative Yoga workshop, where you’ll rest more than work: Sunday evening, 6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. February 21, 2010.

Intro to Yoga
It is an awesome privilege and joy for me to work with anyone new to yoga, and I will continue to teach three intro series in the coming months: two at Village Green Yoga and one at Taj Yoga.

At Village Green Yoga

  • Weeknight session: Thursday evenings, 7:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. March 11 – April 15, 2010.
  • Weekend session: Saturday mornings, 9:30 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. March 13 – April 17, 2010.
  • Cost: $75 for the whole 6-week series and 10% discount on mats and mat bags at the Village Green Boutique.

At Taj Yoga

  • Date: Wednesday evenings, 6:00 p.m. – 7:15 p.m. March 3 – April 14, 2010.
  • Cost: $85 for one, $150 for two.
  • Discount for current students: $75 for one person and $140 for two.

Techniques and Alignment
This is a class to uncover and refine our yoga poses and linking them in specific sequences.

At Village Green Yoga

  • Date: Monday evenings, 7 p.m. – 8:30 p.m., ongoing
  • Cost: $18 drop-in, or use your class card.

Yoga Happy Hour (and Fifteen Minutes)
Happy Hour can be happy times indeed, and in addition to cheap food and drinks and good friends, there’s another kind of happiness that we can gain, and that is in the body and mind. Here, you can put the stress of the work week behind, reboot, and get ready for the weekend. We’ll work with sequences to re-energize by aligning the body and resting deeply in restorative postures.

At Taj Yoga

  • Date: Friday afternoons, 5:30 p.m. – 6:45 p.m., starts March 5, 2010.
  • Cost: $15 drop-in or $65 for 5 classes.

Yoga for Climbers
As a long-time climber, I continue to appreciate how my yoga practice influences my climbing, both in my ability to move my body to avoid injuries, and in my ability to deal with the falls and setbacks that are inevitable in climbing. I also continue to be grateful for everyone at Stone Gardens for having me share my practice with you. I’ll be back in March for another 4-week series.

At Stone Gardens Climbing Gym

  • Date: Wednesday mornings, 7:00 a.m. – 8:30 a.m. March 3 – 24, 2010.
  • Cost: 4-week series for $40, $12 drop-in if space is available. Stone Gardens members only.

Sneak Peak Project

Support Your Local Yoga Teachers
I recently interviewed Seattle yoga teacher Dylan Noebels, and had a ton of fun doing it. So much so, that I’ve been inspired to start a project to get to know more local yoga teachers.

The idea is to support teachers in their grass-root marketing efforts, and to encourage them to keep improving the quality of yoga and of their teaching in our communities.

The project is still in an early stage inception, so stay tuned. If you know a teacher, or if you are a teacher, who would like to be interviewed and featured on my website, please let me know!

In the mean time, check out this short video of me talking with Dylan, and check out our interview. And if you’re in the North Seattle area looking to establish a daily practice, be sure to check out Dylan’s new Immersion series at Taj Yoga starting March 1, 2010!

Have a great rest of your winter, and I’ll see you on, and off, that proverbial mat.

Nikki
nikki@nikkiyoga.com
Contact Information
Nikki Chau
www.nikkiyoga.com
Yoga Geek Girl on Facebook
@yogageekgirl on Twitter
(206) 569-4496
nikki@nikkiyoga.com

Village Green Yogawww.villagegreenyoga.com
Village Green Yoga on Facebook
@villagegrnyoga on Twitter
317 NW Gilman Blvd Suite 1
Issaquah, WA 98027
(425) 657-0411
info@villagegreenyoga.com

Taj Yoga
www.tajyoga.com
Taj Yoga on Facebook
@tajyogaseattle on Twitter
9250 14th Avenue Northwest
Seattle, WA 98117-2306
(206) 782-9642
info@tajyoga.com

Stone Gardens
www.stonegardens.com
2839 Northwest Market Street
Seattle, WA 98107-4215
(206) 781-9828
info@stonegardens.com

At
the height of laughter,
the universe
is flung
into a kaleidoscope
of new possibilities.
~ Jean Houston
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