Thinking About Yoga
| January, 2023 | Quitting and Not Quitting
Since I started going to yoga classes, I’ve thought about quitting. See at that point I was a runner and going to yoga wasn’t something that I saw as long term the way I could think about running. Running was for life. Yoga, well, it was great, but wasn’t on track to replace running. It could supplement it though. Over time, my identity as a runner transformed and became less a part of my daily life. Yoga took it’s place. It was just how my life was evolving.
In the early days, I did think that there would be a day when I would pick up daily runs again. I didn’t. What I’m not saying is that I quit running. I never did. I just don’t run every day anymore. I did start yoga every day. The world I know now sees me as a yogi/yoga teacher. I’ve practiced every day and for a long time twice a day and for years. I don’t practice every day anymore and sometimes I practice twice a day. I teach a few classes a month now and for years I taught that many classes in a week. Recently I thought how much I’d like teach full time. I think about walking away.
| July, 2022 | FK Yoga, Round 2
There we were again on vacation in Italy practicing the series. Things had changed in a year, of course. For a few days our family was travelling and so the practice waited until we were grounded again. It was really wonderful to pickup and revisit the same program, system. And experience the changes that you can only notice when you separate for a while.
Most of what I teach to the public is hot yoga which I love. The two specific series, 26+2 and Classic Advanced 84. I’ll figure out a way to teach this series that I also love so much.
| July, 2021 | FK Yoga
I gave the practice this name, FK Yoga, after my brother-in-law who introduced it to my while we were on vacation in Italy. Those are his initials, FK. He learned it a while back during a time he spent in India. This is a part of the knowledge he gained and one that he shared with me. It was everything that I needed then.
Generally I call it Range-of-Motion Yoga because the definition is in the name. If there there is something that I have learned over time it is that yoga, yoga classes, yoga teachers, and yoga studios are intimidating. If you can understand it, you can do it.
When I came home from that vacation I continued the practice a couple of times a week and then started to teach it to my friends outside of my yoga world. It’s very approachable and accessible. As the name implies, this practice focuses on range of motion using yoga exercises to maintain and improve it over your lifetime.
| September 14, 2020 | first virtual 26+2 practice
By September we were still basically at home and there were some rumblings that yogis were looking to take class but not the 84 practice. We decided to offer the 26+2 on Monday’s at 6:00 am with a slightly changed format. I would practice the first set with and instruct the second set. Over time that changed and I teach the first set now and practice the second set with.
| March 25, 2020 | first virtual advanced practice
When the stay-at-home advisory was announced in March 2020 and it was clear that there would be no in-person yoga classes I invited those yogis who I had been practicing with to join me virtually. Ellen Olson-Brown generously offered to host the classes using her Zoom account.
I put the invitation out to the group and we decided to start practicing right away on Wednesday’s at 6:00 am and Saturday’s at 8:00 am. It was a challenge and oddly exciting. It didn’t take long to figure out that I would not be able to replicate the studio heat and practice that same way. Eventually I had a method that worked well enough for me – a 5-minute hot bath and a simmering kettle on the stove gave me the extra that I needed.
* When I wrote this piece I found that my memory was a little twisted and decided to check the facts. Here’s a link to the COVID-19 pandemic timeline for Massachusetts. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_COVID-19_pandemic_in_Massachusetts.