Namasaturday 07: Back to basics, Downward Dog

Welcome to the first NamaSaturday link up! I can't wait to read yoga posts from all sorts of bloggers.

For this weekend I thought I'd take us back to basics and spend some time talking about Down Dog.

Adho Muka Svanasana or downward-facing dog pose.

Have you ever wondered were this head down, hips up pose gets it's name? Like many asanas named after animals, you only have to look at a dog stretching to see the likeness.

Following our furry friends' example, we can strive to reach our chest back, our hips up and our heels down.

When I first began practicing yoga, I was shocked to hear this posture referred to as a resting pose and dreaded when instructors would count slowly through the five holding breaths here during sun salutations. Often resorting to child's pose, my arms and wrists aching from the effort of pushing my weight back and up. My heels nowhere near the floor.

Over time however, as my strength increased, and I learnt how to ground my whole hand, pushing into the mat with each of my fingers, evenly distributing the weight, this pose did in fact become a resting place. In fact, often during flow-style classes, by the end of each pose you can't wait to stretch and lengthen back out into down dog.

(I should really be drawing my lower belly in further, but the sand was washing out from under my hands in front of me, making balancing interesting!)

Downward dog is the perfect example of how everything in yoga seems to work. At first you hold a new posture and it seems impossible, difficult, unimaginable that you would ever find comfort or rest in it, let alone reach its deepest expression. However, after days and days spent in practice, carefully breathing through the discomfort, one day you suddenly find the ease, and the pose opens up like a lotus.

Now I just need to keep this in mind next time I work on my Hanumanasana.

Now for the link up.

Please for this, the first week of our link up here, please feel free to share any post you have written on your blog about yoga.

And then take some time to read and comment on some of the other posts.

If you would like to write a new post, here's your prompt.

What does downward facing dog mean to you?

An InLinkz Link-up

Namasaturday 06: Rolling with my Omies

Back from wanderlust... and to be completely honest, I haven't done any yoga since I got home. Whether its just because I needed a well deserved break after doing 3-5 hours on yoga a day at the festival or (the way more likely reason) because I've been hugely distracted by yarn. Either way, I'm excited to unroll my mat today for some sun salutations.

What I did want to take a moment or two to share with you all, is that I will be hosting a Namasaturday link up here next week (and subsequent Saturdays). The link up will be an opportunity to share a post about yoga from the previous week, or to write a new one following a prompt, and to discover the many faces of yoga and yogis!

So look for the first Namasaturday link up next Saturday at 10 AM (mountain time). And in the mean time,

Namaste!

Wanderlust O'ahu 2015

Well ladies and gents, I'm back in Calgary. I summoned the courage to say goodbye to tropical paradise, leave the North Shore behind and come back home to winter. And to be honest, it feels good to be back home. The kind of goodness that comes from being home with the people you love after having an amazing trip full of personal growth and experience and wonder.

I spent 4 nights in Waikiki, traveling around O'ahu on my own, then headed up to the fabled north shore, and Turtle Bay Resort for the yoga festival Wanderlust. If you have never been to Wanderlust or a yoga retreat, please take my advice on this, and make plans to go to one now. Even if you've never done a single downward dog in your life. Even if it's not located somewhere as beautiful as Hawaii. You will open your heart and bring in so much goodness to your life.

This was my first true vacation taken all on my lonesome, and just after my 27th birthday (on Feb 17th) it absolutely could not have come at a better point. The photo above is from my first morning in Hawaii at sunrise, I rolled myself out of my hostel bed, and headed down to the beach, wrapped in my own thoughts, breathing the fresh sea air. As I watched the clouds go from grey to red and gold, I contemplated being at a turning point in my life. This 27th year of my life will see me finishing up Grad School, Kevin finishing Medical school. He will head to Medicine Hat for residency and I will make the career choices that will set the tone for my future. And although I hate to focus in on age as a number, but there is certainly something about knowing 30 is right around the corner that makes you sit and think hard about your life.

So a trip by myself, at this cornerstone point in my life, was exactly what I wanted and needed. And I promised myself, there on that beach, to make this trip a celebration of me. To embrace the experience to its fullest.  To savor the solitude, and to in the lonely moments to grow as an individual.

And while I was raised as a Catholic, and I don't know what I am right now, I found more time for spirituality on this trip than I have in the last several years. Spirituality that took on many forms. By traveling alone, you are blessed with the ability to sit and contemplate yourself and the world whenever you feel the inner call to do so. Whether it be in the sandalwood scented silence of a Japanese Buddhist temple, or amid 400 other yogis in the rain and the mud at Wanderlust.

Traveling alone has so many rewards, although it can be lonely at times. So also important on this trip was to be open to form new relationships. And in that openness you might even find yourself blessed with the seeds of a new friendship. In an example of how truly small this world is, the girl who pitched her tent next to mine happened to be from right back home in Calgary. And somehow, in addition to having shared roots, we found we had many other things in common as well. So I get to take a little bit of my trip home with me, and hopefully in Alberta's fertile soil grow that friendship further.

Over the next several days I'll be sharing all of my trip on the blogs. So please come on back for more. In the mean time, I have a tonne of laundry to do, sleep to catch up on, photos to print and blogs to write.

From the depths of my heart,

Namaste!

Weekend Recap: Knit one, Single Crochet Two

I had a list of blog posts I wanted to write this weekend.

Instead I spent all my spare time with yarn. Here's a recap.

Friday night - Kevin and I went to see the Imitation Game. Amazing!!! I cried like a baby! Everyone should go see this movie, it's even better if you don't know anything about Alan Turing.

Afterwards I began knitting the sleeve for my sweater, which so far is just a front and back.

Saturday: I yoga'd up a storm in the AM. You know how in classes they give you the option to skip some of the vinyasa's in between sides and postures? I skipped none of them this weekend and really worked to stay controlled through my chaturangas. As a result, my arms were fried by the end of class, and sore all day Sunday.

So when I got home, I just curled up under a blanket to knit, and finished off the sleeve, pinned it out and blocked it.

Saturday night Kevin came over and I cooked us chicken stir-fry for dinner.

Afterwards we both went to bed early, because we're super cool and had to work in the morning.

Sunday I was up early to go to work and then visited my friends Gabriela and Andrew, and their awesome baby boy Thomas (who is now my best friend BTW). We spent the morning together, and went for a walk in the afternoon. I can't believe how big he's getting. He's the recipient of the crocheted baby blanket I made before he was born this summer.

Sunday evening I stayed close to home, did yoga in my living room and got started on a crocheted Rocket from Guardians of the Galaxy, while watching Beyond the Edge (a docudrama about the first summit of Everest) on Netflix.

I got as far as his torso. In the mean time, I shared a pattern that I knit up using the same yarn for my cousin's little girl Penelope for Christmas this year.

Full details are on www.yarnlab.ca. But I made her the fox dress and the bunny! In other news I really have to get to work at actually designing that website.

Amazing links from this weekend:

-Buzzfeed - Easy and Inexpensive Nutella Desserts - especially the grilled nutella and marshmallow sandwich.
-Ravelry - Heidi Bears Pattern Shop - all of her patterns, I bought the hippo!
-YouTube - CGP Grey The Lord of the Rings Mythology Explained Part 1 and Part 2.
-Yoga -Tony F Photography - One of my highschool friends, Tony, has made a real name for himself as a yoga photographer, please check out some of his beautiful pictures.

That's all for now, how was your weekend?

Namasaturday 05: Yoga in February, Every Damn Day

Guys I think I need a serious Savasana, because January just flew by in a rush! It feels like I just set my new years resolutions and blinked and we're already one month in.

So with February here already I am setting myself a Yoga Every Day Challenge. Why?

Well really because I'm headed to Wanderlust O'ahu at the end of the month and don't want to embarrass myself there. But also because unfortunately my practice was still someone sporadic in January, so I really need to commit myself back to my mat for a daily practice.

Of course I'll be aiming to get into the studio for most days this month, but for those days when it's just too cold to leave the house (the chinook we've been enjoying here in Calgary for the past month or so finally blew itself out yesterday) there are lots of options for home practice. So let's go over some of them.

1) Ashtanga Primary Series. One of the great things about practicing ashtanga yoga is that the sequence of postures is the same for every primary series class. Which means it doesn't take you too long to know it by heart. This is great for your home practice, or more importantly for when you're travelling, since you don't need to worry about having access to your computer or your favourite yoga DVD.

2) Cody App - www.codyapp.com has a tonne of great plans and bundles of yoga lessons for great prices. Including a number by one of my favourite yogi's Kino MacGreggor. I've got a couple of plans, the videos are great and give me the freedom to change things up when I need it. Especially great is the core yoga strength plan by Kerri Verna, all kinds of planks and boat poses.

3) Yoga With Adriene 30 Day challenge - I've been following Adriene's yoga YouTube channel for a while now, and this January she posted a 30 day yoga challenge with videos ranging from 15-40 minutes each day. In general, YouTube is a great resource for your home yoga practice, and it's all completely free.

4)Speaking of Wanderlust and YouTube, they've recently posted a whole playlist of live classes from their past festivals. These puppies are a full 90 minutes long, and will be a great resource to get ready for this months festival.

That's all I've got for now, I'll update you in a week with my progress. Let me know what resources you use for home yoga practice in the comments below.

Namaste.

Namasaturday 04: Yoga Resolutions 2015

If the fullness of the classes at my yoga studio are any indication, many people in Calgary have made yoga related New Years Resolutions. I myself don't typically make umbrella resolutions, although in the tradition of stuffing myself for two weeks straight over the holidays, I do typically declare January an eat healthy/get back to fitness month.

This year, however, I have a number of Yoga Resolutions in the form of particular Asanas I'd love to achieve in 2015. Here are my top five.

1) Adho Mukha Vrksasana or Handstand



OK for some people Handstands are no problem at all. For me, it's another thing entirely. You can read about my first handstand as an adult (heavily assisted of course) and my journey to headstand in this post. But the short story is, I am terrified of falling, and although I've concurred the headstand, handstands leave you a full arms length further up in the air. Or a full arms length further to fall. However, with my ever patient Kevin agreeing to be my assistant on this one (catching my flailing legs as I kick up towards him) I'm determined to cross this Asana off in the next month or so.

2) Hanumanasana or Splits


First I'll tell you that I was in dance lessons literally my whole life, and I never even came close to managing a full split. Second I'll tell you that after the last 6 months of consistent yoga practice I am now closer to full splits than I've ever been before. Really I'm so much more flexible in general. In addition, this month at the Yoga Shala Calgary, the hips and hammies class is focused on developing this posture. Now I don't have any illusions that I'll cross this one off before the end of the month, but I think if I work at it, it'll be this year for sure.

3) Yoganidrasana or Legs Behind the Head



I am so close on this one. But still so far! I've been gifted with really open hips (or maybe it came from all those dance lessons, or both) but I would definitely say this is my Yoga strength. And I can just almost get a foot behind my head (either side). Also the first time I learned turtle pose, I neatly folded myself right into it, ankles crossed and all....just not behind my head. However, I feel like I haven't seen any progress here in months. So all I can do is keep working at it I guess.

4) Jumping back from Bakasana or Crow Pose.



Yoga isn't just about flexibility for me, it's also been a journey of building my physical strength. Throw all those sun salutations and lowering myself through Chaturanga, I've gone from someone who laughed at the idea of push ups to someone who can rock them with the best of them. Jumping back from crow pose is all about upper body and core strength and stability. Plus this motion is essential to developing the strength to flow through all of the postures in the Ashtanga Primary Series.

5) Jumping Through and Back to and from Seated


Ok so while just like number 4, this is really a transition and not an asana, it is still a lofty (yet achievable) goal. In a good class, I can manage jumping through 2 out of 3 times, but jumping back doesn't seem close yet. Again however, I really aspire to be able to flow seamlessly through my practice, and this is one hurdle along the way.

I'll keep you all posted throughout the year as I check off each of these yoga goals. But I'd love to hear from all of you, what are you Yoga goals or Resolutions for 2015. What pesky postures have been eluding you lately?

Namaste!

~~~~~

The lovely Yogi in all those videos is of course the amazing Kino MacGregor. You can check her out on her YouTube Channel KinoYoga. She is one of my yoga heroes and I have been learning indirectly from her through her books and her lessons on CodyApp, and can't wait to meet her when she comes to Calgary later this year.

Namasaturday 03: #JustBePresent

In these last crazy days before Christmas, it's easy to loose track of the present in our focus on preparing for the big day. Last minute gifts to buy, gifts to wrap, cookies to bake, houses to clean, people to visit all leave us rushing around from place to place without stopping to focus on the path and the moment.

That's why the hastag #JustBePresent has been all over the yogis of instagram this month. And yoga is certainly great for putting you mind in the moment when your in a class or on your matt.

But what about the rest of the time. I mean I certainly won't fold myself over into downward dog in the middle of my work Christmas party. But you can take some lessons from the matt anywhere you go over the holidays.

How to Just Be Present this Christmas.

1) Root firmly through all of your toes. Take a minute to practice Samasthiti or Equal Standing Posture by standing tall, weight balanced evenly between both legs. Root down into the floor by thinking about the way each of your toes, the ball and heels of your feet are in contact with the ground. This even works in those painful red heels that looked so perfect with your party dress. Doing this reminds us to stay grounded, and gives a momentary break from the rush and the moving to appreciate the moment.

2) Focus on your breath. Practice Pranayama or Yoga breathing. Maybe you won't make the darth vadar sounds in the back of your throat, but when your running around your house like a chicken before guests arrive, taking a step back to focus on your breathing can really slow things down and put them into perspective. Maybe it's ok that you didn't dust behind the down stairs sink, and that your bedroom is a mess (close the door). Take a second to breath and remember that the holidays are about spending time with the people you love, and who will love you back regardless of whether the table settings are perfectly aligned.

3) Look at things from a different perspective. We all love yoga inversions. So while you could do a head stand in front of your tree and enjoy it from the bottom up. You can also try to change the way you look at the holidays. Put yourself in your child's point of view and remember the things that made Christmas so special to you when you were growing up. Maybe it was stringing popcorn and cranberry garlands with your cousins? Bring back an old tradition. Surrounded by all the opulence of the holidays, try to look at Christmas through the eyes of the less fortunate, and donate some of the toys your kids have grown out of, or volunteer your time serving dinner at a shelter. There are so many ways to look at the holidays, take a moment to invert your perspective.

If you celebrate Christmas, then have a very Merry One. If you don't then best of wishes over the holiday season, and I'll see you all in the new year.

Namaste

 

Inverting my own perspective at Lake Louise on December 14th.

Namasaturday 02: Late night mental yoga.

My favourite part my yoga practice is taking savasana at the end. After an hour and 15 of focussing on my breath as I move through each posture, savasana is the clearest my mind ever is. So peaceful.

Thursday night I was woken up by my cell phone ringing with some unfortunate news, and afterwards I thought there'd be no way to hush the noise in my head and fall back asleep afterwards. I thought to myself that I needed the peace of savasana, but wasn't about to hop out of bed to run through some sun salutations. So instead I tried some mental yoga instead.

First I chanted (with my thoughts) the opening chant to the Ashtanga Practice. And then I began to do sun salutations. Counting my breath, and visualizing the movements.

Inhale, hands go up.
Exhale, fold forward.
Inhale, chest and eyes look up.
Exhale, jump back, chaturanga.
Inhale, up dog.
Exhale down dog.
Take five long breaths.
At the end of your exhale, bend your knees and look forward.
Inhale, jump forward look up.
Exhale, bend forward.
Inhale, hands go up.
Exhale, samasthiti.

Going through these mental sun salutations calmed both my body and my mind. Eventually I was able to get some sleep.

Today is a reminder that yoga is available to you both on and off the mat. Even if you have not physically practiced in a few days.

And with that I'll leave you with the translation of the ashtange closing chant, the words of which seem particularly appropirate with everything going on in the world these days.

May all be well with mankind.
May the leaders of the earth protect it in every way by keeping to the right path.

May there be goodness for those who know the earth is sacred.
May all the worlds be happy.

Namaste

Namas-Saturday....get it? It's a yoga pun.

Since July I've been practicing Ashtanga Yoga as close to every day as possible. And I've made some huge strides. In addition it's becoming an essential part of my daily life and mental health. Because let's be honest, Grad School is notoriously horrible for your mental health. You can read a shocking article on the subject by Science Careers, reporting that nearly 60% of all graduate students self report mental health issues. And I am most certainly one of the 60%, especially this time of year when daylight hours in Calgary inevitably overlap with lab hours.

So as a preventative measure before winter sets in, here's to yoga!

This morning I attended Dana Blonde's Ashtagna Level 1-2 class at 10am at the Yoga Shala here in Calgary. And here are some things about that:

1. I hate morning yoga, those first forward bends during sun salutations, oh the toes seem so far away, I really need a couple hours of moving around to loosen my legs up.
2. Especially because yesterday I did not practice asanas, instead I attended a Yoga Philosophy class at the Yoga Studio North, by Anne Douglas, and sat on the world's second most uncomfortable chair for two hours and took notes. (I had previously sat on the world's  first most uncomfortable chair the last time I attended a workshop at the Yoga Studio North, and arrived early this time to avoid that situation)
3. So at yoga this morning I chanted this mantra in my brain during my sun salutations "Don't Notice Me, Don't Notice Me, Don't Notice Me" hoping to avoid Dana's attention for an adjustment. Hoping to have a easy class of it.
4. I figured I could get away with it, sure my mat was located right at the front of the room, but come on, it was a full house, so maybe I'd get lucky.
5. NOOOPPPE the mantra did not pay off. She decided to 'assist' me in Utthita Hasta Padangusthasana or the balancing posture where you hold you leg up by your big toe.
6. And let me tell you, the assist just makes you work your but off, my quads were screaming by the time we got to part C.
7. On the other hand, I felt hugely empowered and impressed to have had my leg held way higher in the air than normally, and smiled (while gritting my teeth) through the whole thing.
8. During the seated postures I made a literal huge jump forward today, I managed to jump directly through from downward dog to seating, in one motion, keeping my hands planted, about half the time. A feat which I have previously only managed once or twice, and has been a mini goal lately. I guess after being forced (forced is a strong word, but yeah) to work harder than my lazy brain wanted to during those balancing postures I committed to working extra hard throughout, and it totally paid off. Thank you Dana.
9. We then took some time to explore some postures from the begining of the seond series, which was great, especially because we skipped Navasana while we were at it.
10. Then poof! I guess it was karmic payback for my earlier ill intentioned mantra, but I got spotted for an assist again, this time working through the shoulder stand sequence. But it was a great assist, because even tho I thought for sure I would fall the second my elbows came off the ground to get into Urdhva Padmasana, or flying lotus pose, I was well supported and it was great.

So that was my yoga today, an unexpectedly great way to end a very full week, and I walked out of the studio feeling so full of goodness.

In other news, the September issue (I think) of Yoga Journal recommended the book Going Om, which is a collection of short stories by yogis who are also writers; and I picked it up last night. I can't wait to curl up with it tonight, it features some authors I've previously enjoyed (Cheryl Strayed and Suzanne Morrison).

Any how, since yoga is such an important thing for me lately, I'm going to be writing about it here every Saturday in a post series titled Namas-Saturday. (Namaste.... get it?) so now you have that to look forward to!

Namaste!

Yoga Headstand Fun Times

Last month Krista and I posed for this photo.

Sorry did I say posed?

What I should have said was Kevin held our feet and posed us, then ran out of the frame while the camera snapped rapid fire shots and we desperately tried to hold it for a second or two.

Thank goodness for the ability to crop Kevin out of photos.

At the time I was just getting back into yoga, practicing pretty close to daily, but I would have said proper headstands weren't anywhere in my near future. I should also point out that headstand and hand stands even have were never in my past either. I was always the kid who kicked up into a hand stand and flipped all the way down onto my back. Fun as a kid playing on the lawn, terrifying as an adult.


Fast forward a week, to a community yoga class in Vancouver with Blissology's Eoin Finn, and he says ok everyone hand stands. So naturally I sit back into child's pose. Because you know, I'm terrified.

Well that wasn't an option with Eoin, and he came right over and assisted me right up into my first handstand, and held me there waaaay longer than I wanted. But importantly, long enough for me to get a sense of what it felt like through the core, shoulders and arms to support you body weight upside down.

More importantly though, he held me up there long enough to get past the fear, and I came home determined to get inversions (well more inversions than just shoulder stand) into my practice.

If you want to learn anything in yoga, there are two ways to do it, in class and online with Kino MacGregor, so I watched her videos on headstands and practiced hard in my Ashtanga classes.

Now I am strong enough to lift up into headstands on my mat in class, unsupported by the wall! (Although when I practice at home I still like to work on them about a foot away from the wall, just in case.)

Next on the yoga bucket list will be developing the core strength to lift up straight legged into the pose. So practice, practice, practice.

Book Review: Yoga Bitch by Suzanna Morrison

I picked up Yoga Bitch in an airport on my way to Europe a couple summers ago. Between the title and the cover, how could I resist?

OK, so I have had this on and off again relationship with Yoga for a few years now. Recently I've gone back to 'on again' and hopefully this time for good. So in the spirit of getting and staying excited about yoga, I thought I'd read one of my favourite Yoga books.

Yoga Bitch chronicles Suzanne Morrison's months spent in Bali studying Yoga at the feet of her personal guru Indra, before moving cross the country to New York to move in with her boyfriend and start life in the big city. The trip to Bali was intended to help her overcome a crippling fear of death while becoming the 'higher bird' and attaining enlightenment. Upon arriving in Bali however, she is confronted by a group of literal 'piss-drinkers' in the form of her fellow Yogis who partake in urine therapy each morning. More important, however, is during all those hours of meditation and breathing deeply she is also confronted with herself.

Suzanne has a pretty funny book trailer on YouTube in which she tries to answer some common questions about yoga, in her own personal way.



What makes this book so important for any young aspiring yogi to read, however, is the realness of her journey. Suzanne bares it all on her path to yogic enlightenment, and approaches yoga with a healthy dose of both skepticism and respect. She balances her earnestness for her practice with designer handbag coveting and chocolate coconut milkshake devouring. Reading this book, I can very easily envision myself in Suzanne's shoes, and both times I've read it, I've been inspired to one day make my own similar yoga retreat.

In fact, lately I've been inspired enough to do some more in depth yoga reading. I picked up a copy of The Textbook of Yoga by Yogeswar. (grabbed it second hand from Fair's Fair) The book details the practice and purpose of 36 Asanas  (positions), 4 Mudras (gestures, usually with the hands), 3 Bandhas (or energy locks, like mulabandha), 3 Kriyas (maybe has to do with breathing, clearly I need to read this book) and Pranayama (definitely has to do with breathing).

The aim of reading through this text, as I continue to practice Ashtanga is to develop a real deep appreciation and understanding for each movement and pose of my practice. Hopefully I'll be sharing some of this with the readers of my blog as I move along.

Do you practice Yoga? Have you read any good books about yoga lately?

Sunday Morning Free Yoga at Lululemon Market Mall: Barre Body

Yesterday I attended my first Free Yoga class at a lululemon store. I guess I decided that I spend enough money there, I should start taking advantage of some of their perks. So I rolled up my mat and headed to Market Mall before it opened. Only I didn't quite realize that it wasn't going to be a Yoga class this week. Instead, Marlo from Barre Body Calgary lead us through a tough/amazing class aimed at toning our arms and glutes... Needless to say she had my muscles shaking before the hour was out.

I might just have to give Barre Body a try sometime in the near future. It was a great mix-up for someone with past ballet experience like me. The plies, especially in 2nd position really brought me home and made me work. The arm series tho, it was a challenge to say the least, I think I had my arms collapsing to my side about as much as I could keep them up. But then maybe that's an indication that I should start working them harder on my own?

Has anyone tried a Barre class, or Barre Body  in Calgary? Let me know what you thought about it in the comments.

Getting back to Ashtanga Yoga

Way back when, in 2010, as a young (innocent?) undergraduate co-op student. Newly moved to Calgary. I wandered into my first ever yoga class with a friend of mine.

It was at Hot Yoga on 17th... and needless to say it was Hot.

Jen, over at nutcaseinpoint did a great summary post on hot yoga (complete with Gifs) about a year back that left me lol'ing. Enough so that I remembered that specific post just now when I thought to myself, how to describe what hot yoga feels like.

For me, however, that first hot yoga class was sufficient to be my last. As a hadn't drank any of the Yogi Cool Aid yet, I just couldn't see the appeal of sweating that profusely, in a packed (I mean packed, mat touch mat in all directions, be careful when you forward fold, you might just put your face in someone's ass packed!) studio. Unable to really get into the poses because my hands kept slipping. I walked away feeling melted without feeling triumphant... and there was certainly nothing calming about the experience.

This kitty pretty much sums up how I felt that day.

So I tried yoga the one time... it was horrible, and I didn't feel the need to go back.

Until... A studio near my lab was offering something like 3 months unlimited for new student for something like $150, which was just too good a deal to pass up. Plus it was summer, and I could walk there after work with my mat, and get my stretch on.

This was Calgary's Yoga Shala, a traditional Ashtanga yoga studio. And from my first class there I was hooked. The style was vigorous enough to be challenging, but also gave me the mental and emotional detox I'd been craving. At the end of a 90min class, I could completely relax in my shavasana's. I practiced about twice a week through the end of the summer and into fall. Saying goodbye to the shala and to Calgary when I moved back to Ontario in December.

Since then, although I still love the idea of yoga, reading a few yoga blogs, picking up copies of Yoga Journal now and then, and sporadically attending classes of a variety of styles and at a number of studies; I just haven't been able to really 'get back into' yoga.

The reason? Well I'm most likely to blame how busy my life has been the past couple years... with travelling, grad school, tutoring and TAing and extra curriculars, and classes, and running....and.... and....and.

The irony? Having a consistent yoga practice amid all that chaos would probably be the best thing for me.

So tonight I'm going back to the Shala, for a beginner Ashtanga class. I thought about doing the Level 1-2, but when I did the primary series at home this weekend I could barely touch my toes... so I thought better of it.

And amid all of the other chaos and commitments in my life, for now I'm going to commit to yoga. 1 class a week, and home practice at least once more.

Because maybe someday I'd like to go to an Ashram in India or Bali or somewhere for a yoga retreat, or maybe teacher training. Lord knows I've googled it more times than I can count in the past year or so. But before you can run you need to walk.

Do you practice yoga? What style?

A Three in One Day

Yesterday I was a three in one day.

I woke up bright and early and headed to my MMA boot camp class up in the North East. 45min of early morning sweating that included TRX, throwing punches and smashing up an old punching bad with a sledge hammer.

Ok except I don't really hate it, it's been lots of fun and empowering so far!

Then after a long day of fun at the passport office, in the lab and TAing I went to my first Hatha style yoga class. And let me tell you, it was a great way to de-stress and relax (excellent way to round out a week). I haven't been to a yoga class in a while, and 30 seconds into shavasana I knew how much I missed it. Good thing I've activated my Passport to Prana and can start hitting up studios all over Calgary.

Sometimes you really need to take some time to just breath.

Finally after a chicken quesadilla and a beer for dinner at Moose's, Kev and I decided to work it off by doing the deck of cards workout. I saw this one on the Biggest Loser a couple weeks ago, and if you read Nut Case In Point, then you'll know Jen's been rocking this workout lately too!

Unlike Jen, who usually does two rounds, we were killed after one.

For ours, these were the exercises we did:

Hearts: Burpees

Diamonds: Ball Pass (video how to)

Spades: Jump Squats

Clubs: Pushups

If you are unfamiliar with this workout, the aim is to work your way through a deck of cards, doing the card's number of each exercise, face cards worth 10 and aces are 11. Just for fun, we through the jokers in and had to hold a plank for as long as possible each time they came up.

What I have to say, if you work your way through at a respectable pace, one set will exhaust you, in an awesome way. And if you're like me, and did all three of these workouts yesterday, your arms/shoulders/armpits/back/abs/legs will be hurting for it today.

Have you tried this new card game yet? I think its a great idea, especially to make up for using cards only for drinking games all this time.

Coffee with Scribbles and Sass

What a long day.... out of bed at 6 and in front of my computer in the lab at 6:30....but super productive! Put together a solid presentation for my lab meeting, and have my project back on track with feasible future directions.

After work I headed down 17th ave to Cafe Beano to meet Laura from Scribbles and Sass...if you haven't checked her blog out yet, I'd highly recommend you click on over there.

Did you do it? Did you click it?

And since the Chinook we've all been enjoying here in Calgary for the last week or so finally blew itself out, and the temperature dropped about 15 degrees today, I decided it was time to get this puppy out.

Oh yeah, knockoff spirit hood time! love it!

Laura and I met to chat about a great Canadian Charity Yoga-extraveganza that's coming up in March. Laura is one of the fantastic lady behind the scenes here in Calgary, and she's convinced me to help out too (didn't really take much convincing because it's a great cause, and who doesn't love mass yoga events?)

The organization I'm talking about it Power Of Movement. This is a Yoga event taking place all across Canada to raise funds for the Arthritis Foundation, which raises funds and awareness to support research into a group of conditions which affect over 4.6 million Canadians (including children!). So while you can expect to see more about this group and event from me as we approach March, click on over to their website to learn more of what it's about and register!

And we chatted about lots of other stuff too! Like how we're both from Ontario, both half Italian, both 17th ave. And as for Cafe Beano... I've never been in before (not a coffee drinker) but it's a super cute cafe, great atmosphere, great, friendly service, and cozy!

A cup of Tea and The power of movement....oh and a kick ass pipette pen!

On the walk home I was stopped in my tracks by something I saw in the front window of Steeling Home (one of my favourite shops!).

All kinds of amazing Christmas Tree ornaments! Pay day is Friday... I'll be rushing to take some of these home with me for sure!

Another Sexy Equinox Yoga Ad

So remember when I shared my fascination with Yoga ads, and the controversy they inspire? (Here!) Well Yoga Dork has drawn my attention to the fact that Equinox (health and fitness club which also sell a clothing line including yoga underthings) has done it again, with a second, stunning, sexy, mind boggling yoga add.

So maybe if I was as good at yoga as Briohny Smyth clearly is, I'd be able to convince the boyfriend to come do it with me sometime, hmmmmm?

But I guess if I'm going to get better (my talents are mostly limited to basic ashtanga...oh and I can touch my head to my knees!) that means getting back to the studio. Yoga Shala here I come, I'm pretty sure I've got like 5 more passes to use up before they expire on me!

What do you think about this one? Is it beautiful, or distasteful?

Wordless Wednesday: Beach Yoga

Showing off some less than perfect form, on Sunset Beach, North Shore, Oahu. Happy Humpday!

Linked up at Angry Julie Monday,  Pea of Sweetness, and Live and Love Out Loud.

Flow in the dark and lululemon Teambuy give-away

This week (as it turns out) is National Yoga Week.

To celebrate, lululemon teamed up with East Village Calgary to throw a free 'Flow in the Dark' yoga class last night at the historical Simmons Building (an old mattress factory), led by Ally Bogard of Gaiatri Yoga and featuring  DJ Wax Romeo.

So we all dressed up in white, neon and glow sticks... packed in mat-to-mat....and experienced what I would describe as a  Yoga/Rave/Orgy/Tribal Dance/Sweat Sauna as we tried to "wake up in the dream time" and release the "medicine men and women within our DNA". Overall it was an incredible experiance, something I would definitely repeat (next time with neon body paint too!) and possibly the only time I'll ever get to smell like ~350 different people's sweat.

Here's a couple pics taken with my blackberry:

 Sarah and I waiting outside in the freezing drizzle (luckily David's Tea was there giving away free samples to warm you up a bit)

 Getting glow sticks on in the dark.

 Awesome new lulu top looking extra funky, me looking relatively human before the class started.
(it's the namaste tank.....they only have black on the website right now)

 People in our area warming up.... the orange's looked the best!

Looking a little bit more like my 'inner medicine" woman at the end of the class!

In other news, Teambuy is giving away 2 $1000 lululemon gift cards... so here's the link:

Fascinated on Fridays: Sexy Yoga Ads

So, if you don't already, and you're into yoga at all, you should be following Yoga Dork.

Really, go there now.

Well read what I have to say first.

Lately there's been alot of 'talk' (putting it mildly) in the world of Yogi's (which clearly I'd like to be one, but am not) about using sex/nudity/whatever to sell Yoga products/anything.

As if Yoga is somehow different/more enlightened/whatever than any other product out there.

Don't think Yoga is a product..... look again.

But that's cool anyways, cause I am soooo buying it (lulu I love you....hopelessly)

This week tho, I'm fascinated by these two videos brought to my attention by Yoga Dork.




So, first, clearly I want to be her. I mean she totally rocks a sick handstand. Second, based on this commercial alone, if I was in a store, and Equinox Undies were to be had, I'd probably buy them, on the basis of this ad. and Third, is it just me or does it kinda look like she has a gentleman caller snoozing in that bed? Well the Yogi in the video is Briohny Smyth, check out some of her instructional videos, like this one where she shows you how to rock those handstands.




Video numero 2, Now he really rocks this shiat! So good, and worth a chuckle... then another one. Anyways, the Yogi in question this time around is Michael A. Stusser, and he does a mean parody, and an even better arm balance.

Anyways hope you enjoyed this just as much as I did... and now I need to make myself actually go to a Yoga class this week....so much easier to do in summer.

Two Things

1. Calgary has entered into some serious deep freeze shiat. This morning I woke up to -40 weather, and whether you're American or Canadian, that's cold. Real cold. My poor car struggled hard this morning and again tonight after work. But the worst is still to come. Tonight they're calling for -50C with the wind chill, now I don't know what that is in Fahrenheit but probably exponentially colder, certainly the coldest temperature I can remember. Mythical even. Seriously, remember this book from when you were little?

2. I love, and I mean love, Robert Downey Jr. I just came across this pic (and others) on Yoga Dork, and thought I should let you know about it.

Anyways, I ran did 3km on the treadmill today, in about 21 minutes, and didn't need to breath like all the air had gone out of the room. Felt much better than Sunday, guess the old bones took a hint and amped up the RBC production.