Yoga studio versus YMCA

I have just finished a month of a special at Black Crow Yoga in Arlington.  $30 for 30 days of unlimited yoga.  I probably attended 12 classes and they were all terrific.  They have excellent instructors there, and I felt challenged every day that I went.  It is a small, aesthetic studio in Arlington Center, and with no traffic I can get there in 12 minutes.  As well, a friend joined at the same time an we have a coffee date at Barismo in Arlington Center after our yoga.  Go there if you are in the area.  It is a real treat.

I started looking for a studio when my favorite teacher was not rehired at the Woburn YMCA, because she visit her home country and family every summer and they did not rehire her the last two summers she has gone.  I understand that they cannot keep the slot open for 6 weeks, while she is away.  However, she is technically the best instructor.  I tried the other classes and they were not up to the quality of Ruth's classes.  They were too gentle, too short and not personal enough.  Some of them were just not good yoga teachers.

SO now I have a decision.  Join Black Crow for $89/month for unlimited yoga or try to piece a yoga practice attending the ones at the Y that challenge me, and finding Ruth, or Ruth like instructors in other venues.  My considerations are 1) flexibility, 2) timing, 4) my travel calendar and 4) quality of yoga.

Black Crow wins on the 4th one, and the Y wins on the other 3.

I met with the new operations person at the Y on Thursday, and shared with him my concerns and the history of yoga and yoga instructors.  I don't think he knew what hit him when he scheduled this meeting.  He is only a month on his job and promised to get back to me after doing his research into this.

In my 5 years there the yoga/wellness programs have deteriorated.  I attend primarily for the yoga however, I do other things as well.  When I had injuries last year, I used the recumbent bike and elliptical, and I did some water aerobics.  For flexibility the Y wins.

My decision is made and staying at the Y makes the most sense.  I will then take one class a week at Black Crow when they have their $10 community drop in.  It is not perfect but the best for me right now.  I will miss my coffee dates at Barisimo after yoga though.

Black Crow Yoga versus the YMCA

I joined the Woburn Y over 6 years ago, and immediately started going to their morning yoga class on Thursday mornings.  At the time I had Lenore, and loved her.  I just did the yoga and left for the final relaxation pose, because I was off to work.  Very silly looking back at that, but this is how I got into a regular yoga practice.

Upon retirement, I attended yoga at the Y at least 2 times a week and fell in love with Ruth who is a fantastic practitioner.  I tried other instructors as well, and Marilyn at the Y is a close second to Ruth in terms of her expertise and depth of yoga training.  The Y also has some other teachers who are not as good as these two.

Ruth is from Switzerland and goes to visit her daughters and grand children every summer for 6 weeks.  For the last two summers, the Y has refused to rehire Ruth for her regular Wednesday and Friday morning classes.  She has a regular following who were disappointed by this.  I have filled out no less than 10 comment cards about this, 3 in the last 3 months.  I decided yesterday that I needed to kick it up a level.  At the front desk I asked to talk to the person responsible for hiring the yoga teachers.  Lucky for me, maybe, the Executive Director was walking by at that moment and listened to my concerns.  He took my email and we will see what happens.  I don't want to leave the Y, because I like to support the community.  However, I have to have a regular yoga practice and I now know the difference in instructors.

I belong to the Y primarily for the yoga.  I am definitely in a minority given the size of their small studio dedicated to yoga and the size of their space dedicated to weight machines and cardio machines.  I understand that they have to satisfy all of their constituents and that many people do not attend the yoga classes.  Maybe I have gotten an incredible bargain by paying $40 a month for over 7 years and getting Ruth and Marilyn's expertise.  It is possible to attend Ruth's classes at the Winchester Senior Center as a drop in or to attend her classes through Arlington Continuing Ed.  I have thought about doing this but have resisted, because I want to go one place for my exercise.

Three weeks ago I researched yoga studios.  Our local one in Lexington would cost me $14-$18 a session and after paying $40 a month that seems like a lot.  In my research I found Black Crow in Arlington.  I bought their 30 days for $30 deal and am attending whenever I can.  I love the challenge on my body of this studio and all of their teachers; so far I have taken 4 classes.  They have similar rates as our local Lexington Power Yoga studio.  After my 30 days runs out, I may try Lexington's, as much yoga in a week as you can take for $20.

So I have gotten an incredible deal for 5 years at our local Y, and unless I can get the quality of Ruth or Marilyn in a morning yoga class, I may be paying triple that amount at Black Crow or Lexington Power Yoga.  Yoga feeds my spirit, body and soul and $140 a month is worth it.  This means that I will have to get my cardio by walking or biking. In the summer I do that outside anyway.  The winters will be the difficult when the ice and snow prevent walking the bike path.  Then I can go walk at the mall I guess.

We will see if anyone calls me back from the Y.  I don't feel listened to so far having left 3 comment cards in 3 months with my call back number.  I don't expect them to cater to my need for yoga if the rest of their constituents want other exercise programs.  I will be taking care of myself though and intend to make sure my body, spirit and soul are kept healthy with a good yoga practice.

You can do anything you want - for me the wheel

Fortunately both of my parent gave me this message. "Sally, you can do anything you want".

I actually believed that I could beat my brothers at tennis, until they grew to a height where their serves were too powerful.

Yesterday in yoga, I was trying to do the wheel. The instructor helped me and I could not do it, yesterday that is. At that moment in time I realized that eventually, I will be able to do it. Two years ago I could not do, shoulder stand, or dancer or crow. Today I can do all of those. This realization was different though. I actually believe I can do it eventually rather than just saying it but not really believing it.

I should have prefaced this with, things I want to do. I don't really want to be a lawyer or rocket scientist, but if I did want to I believe I could.

Think about the messages that we send ourselves. If we say, privately to ourselves that we cannot, then we don't have a chance.

I will do the wheel regularly some day!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Another blog about Yoga

With the rejoining of the YMCA, I am exploring the yoga teachers there to see which ones I like. I went last night and Marilyn was teaching the class. I have been to her classes before when I was attending the Y faithfully. By 7 minutes into the class she was still waxing philosophically with a man who asked "if this is a non violent practice, why do we have swords and warrior positions?"

I started to get very irritated that she was not starting the "class" on time. I could feel my blood pressure rising. I caught myself and realized that this was the class and that not all teachers will be the same. Marilyn is the one I learned when i attended her class before, to move between poses with a mindful deliberate movement, which was a huge gift.

One thing I have learned through my practice is to focus on the space contained by my mat, and not worry about the others around me. When I am gazing, I keep my gaze within the boundaries of my orange rectangle. This helps me not worry what what others are thinking about my pose, and outside the rectangle, it helps me not be judged by others.

I thought when the class started slowly last night that it would not be a challenge, but the way my muscles feel this morning, in the end I got a good workout. My learning is that no motion, and holding a pose quietly, and being very still, is actually a lot of work.

I started yoga just about 4 years ago. When I started many of the poses were a challenge, and some I could not do, or I did them reluctantly. Those are some of my favorite now. Yes, I resist change, but then adopt it eagerly. As I settle into a routine and figure out what teachers to go to regularly for my yoga practice, Marilyn and her style will be included, but 12 hours ago, at the beginning of her class, this was not the case. What happened?

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Yoga and sermons

Yoga keeps being a topic for me. After getting a tweet from A, a minister friend in the UK, his sermon got me thinking about happiness. His tweet was "Can you get ecstatic? Even for a moment?". I realized during yoga today that during yoga for split seconds I am ecstatic. The feeling of a muscle giving way or twinging, or the releasing of my sinuses in downward dog position.

Then today, as our help desk person walked by whistling I commented to him "You seem to always be happy, How wonderful is that?" The gist of what he replied is, that he hopes some of his positive energy rubs off onto others, if they want it.

I don't mean I should mask my less than positive energies or feelings. Too many years spent doing that

I just want to be on the lookout for those possible feelings of ecstasy and thanks to yoga and A's sermon, I am.

Yoga the next phase

My friend K recommended the Book "Breakfast with Buddha". I am 3/4 of the way through it and really love it. Last night I was reading about a yoga class that the 2 main characters in the book participated in. The non-yogi explained a feeling lying in corpse pose, which is the final meditative part of a yoga practice. In a discussion the yogi explained that he is in that state, almost all the time. Maybe, all the time. I cannot remember those details.

So, it got me thinking about 2 things. 1) I need to meditate in small doses. 5 minutes in our covenant group, every other week, and 5 minutes in yoga class twice a week. In a 4 week month that is 50 minutes. My friend Laura said once "I don't do math in public." but per that last sentence, I guess I do. I am going to try to put more meditation in my months.

The second thing I have been thinking about is the non-violence training that I went through a few weeks ago with 300 other Lexingtonians. Our training helped us take spewing foul language for 45 minutes, and to not react. This has helped me not react to others as well. It has really helped me realize what my baggage is, and what others' baggage is. With the WBC, it was very clear that their spewing was their baggage and it was easy to leave it in the middle or Worthen Road. With this new skill, I can NOT react to situations whereas in the past I might have reacted is a not very healthy way.

Both of these thoughts are very cleansing to me.

Walking with my iPod is meditative

OK, not everyone will understand my point of view, but this is what works for me. I needed to write something up tonight and while I was on my walk after work, the way to structure the document came to me in a split second just at the end of my walk.

Crick used to say that he would think about a paper over a few days, and be composing it in his mind and then sit down and write it. That is sort of what happened to me today. I wrote some stuff down last night but is was pretty disjointed. I had writer's block about how to proceed.

Mind you, I was walking the dog, listening to my iPod and it seems that this is what calmed my mind enough to focus. Some people get their best thought in the shower, I get my best thoughts when I am doing something else.

While I am checking my email and facebook is when I create my to-do list for the day. Neurons fire while I am checking them, that help me figure out what my big rocks for the day are. Honestly, I don't think sitting down and focusing on my big rocks is as effective.

I could be totally fooling myself, but I have enough data that through distraction I get more focused.

It is hard work for me to meditate during yoga, and it is easy for me to meditate while walking with my iPod.

Today during yoga, the teacher at the end said "Are you thinking about your task list for the day?" Really????? I cannot stop myself from thinking about what is ahead of me for the day, as I lie there quietly.

OK, on to the next distration . . .

Too many deaths make me numb

Ok, contrary to my previous post I stayed for my full yoga class today and spent a full five minutes in meditation. I lost 2 dear friends this week. The first was Gail Reed who was our next door neighbor for all of my teenage years in VT. The second was Toby Wood who is a Old Shoaler from Star Island. He kayaked out to Star last Friday, and was never found after his return trip to the mainland. His yellow Kayak was found north of his predicted route.

Gail was my friend BUT she was one of my Mom's best friends. Mom lost 2 other very good friends within the last 12 months. Growing up, all three of these friends' of my parents were incredibly involved and influential on me and my siblings.

Gail painted a picture of my horse Pandora, for the birthday that I got Pandora and it still hangs in our study. She was very creative. In their family room were collages of pictures of their family. That was part of the inspiration for the collage we gave Mummy and Daddy in the early 90s. I wanted them to have a collage of members of all of our extended family.

Frank was my Dad's pal and my Mom's friend. He gave a eulogy at Dad's funeral that I still cry when I remember it today. Frank used to love to lob the tennis ball and always caught me going the wrong way with his lobs. Mom gave a wonderful eulogy at Frank's funeral. I do not know how she does it. She gave one at Dad's service, talking about what Dad would have said about all 7 of us, and she was spot on,

Ernie was a musician and was most comfortable with his fingers on the ivories. Many hours were spent singing while Ernie played.

Toby . . . I cannot talk about Toby yet . . .

While lying there in my 5 minutes of meditation, I realized that I have not cried about Toby yet. I am very sad, but I have not cried yet. I heard about him and Gail within 48 hours and I have not cried about her yet either. I got closer as I lay there and I think that I have gotten a bit numb this year with the deaths that have happened to me. I got really sad and quiet which is how my day is going so far.

So, if I had jumped up and not done the meditation, I would not have had the time to reflect about death and friends. All of these 4 were friends of mine at different levels. I thought a lot about Mom who has lost 3 of her really good friends in less than 12 months. I thought about my grand mother who lived to be 90 and often talked about how hard is was to get old and have your friends die off.

Reading Rabbi Kushner's book is really helpful as I process the grief of losing these 2 friends; "Overcoming Life's Disappointments"

When the student is ready, the teacher appears

"How beautiful it is to do nothing,and then to rest afterward."-- Spanish Proverb

Just now on twitter, I read this quote. This was exactly what I was thinking about in yoga this morning. The hardest part of yoga for me is the meditative, restful part at the beginning and the end. Often, I will sneak out with 5 minutes to go, and miss the restful part. Today, I found myself at the beginning, during the initial part of the practice, just lying there, saying "OK, when are we going to start moving?"

My growing edge is to do nothing, say nothing and just be. For you followers of my blog, I don't need any feedback just yet on this. I will let you know.

This quote says it all for me. DO NOTHING and THEN REST. HUH? Ok, I obviously have not internalized this just yet. Intellectually, I understand it. Maybe if I spend more time "doing nothing", I will get it! Don't know, coz I have not practiced that very much.

Yoga is NOT for control freaks, or maybe it is

OK, so during Yoga today, I had this realization that with the leader guiding me through the hour long session, I had released a lot of control over to her. Also, during that hour as parts of my body released energy or twinged, I did not really understand why that happened but just went with it.

Last week on a day when it was yucky out, and I had planned an evening yoga class, I instead stayed at home and put on a yoga CD. It was not the same but it was a good substitute. With no peer pressure at home, I could walk out of the room, and not do that pose. I did not understand some of the poses, so I was listening a lot more to the voice than I usually do at the YMCA during my session.

So, I am sure a lot of control freaks would NEVER do yoga, but for those open to it, it is really good to practice letting go for an entire hour at a time.