katrina benefit update!

Finally got everything collected and my yoga paychecks deposited, so I was able to submit a donation of FOUR HUNDRED AND EIGHTY ONE DOLLARS AND FIFTY CENTS to Sweet Home New Orleans!! Many thanks and much love to everyone who attended one of my classes on 8/29; they were lots of fun and generated lots of energy. Super special extra thanks to Jackie McKenna, who generously MATCHED the money I raised because she is just awesome like that!

yeah, i have no title inspiration

I got on my mat last night, intending to do a couple of sun salutations, and ended up practicing for over an hour. I heart yoga. :)

Also, I saw a woman on the Hopkins shuttle today reading the Yoga Sutras. It filled me with happy!

Anyway, for posterity, here are a couple of recent playlists.

my current general playlist:
Wah! - Heart Sutra Soulshine
Thao with the Get Down Stay Down - Bag of Hammers
MC Yogi feat. Bhagavan Das - Elephant Power
Lokah - Kali Maheswari
Sly and the Family Stone - Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)
Grizzly Bear - Two Weeks
Jai Uttal - Om Shanti
The Meters - Cissy Strut
Lokah - Ma Durga
Joni Mitchell - All I Want
Feist - My Moon My Man
Laura Veirs - Secret Someones
Belle and Sebastian - I'm A Cuckoo
Mittens - Reinforce Me
Dusty Springfield - Son Of A Preacher Man
Louis Armstrong - Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans
Better Than Ezra - At The Stars
Ani DiFranco - Bliss Like This
Bright Eyes - First Day Of My Life
Laura Veirs and Saltbreakers - To The Country
Crosby Stills and Nash - Helplessly Hoping
Zachary Richard - Au Bord Du Lac Bijou
MC Yogi - Shanti (Peace Out)

NOLA yoga playlist:
Marcia Ball - Louisiana 1927 (live)
Dr. John - Iko Iko
Kermit Ruffins - Drop Me Off In New Orleans
Rebirth Brass Band - Feel Like Funkin' It Up
Dr. Michael White - St. Philip Street Breakdown
Buckwheat Zydeco - Hot Tamale Baby
The Meters - Hey Pocky A-Way
Li'l Queenie and the Percolators - My Darlin' New Orleans
Dr. John - Sweet Home New Orleans
Ernie K-Doe - Mother-In-Law
Professor Longhair - Go To The Mardi Gras
Irma Thomas - Don't Mess With My Man
Pete Fountain - Lazy River
New Orleans Jazz Vipers - Digga-Digga-Do
Ellis Marsalis - Dr. Jazz
Aaron Neville - Tell It Like It Is
Preservation Hall Jazz Band - St. James Infirmary
Red Stick Ramblers - Main Street Blues
Zachary Richard - Au Bord Du Lac Bijou
Cowboy Mouth - The Avenue
Louis Armstrong - Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans
Stop, Inc. - The Second Line

KATRINA RELIEF YOGA BENEFIT!!!

"Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans, since that's where you've left your heart?"

Just a couple of facts:
1) Next Saturday, 8/29/09, is the fourth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.
2) I am teaching two classes at Charm City Yoga that day: 10-11:30 at Fells Point, 4:30-6:00 at Midtown.

This New Orleans native combined those facts in the only way possible: turning my classes into a Katrina relief benefit celebrating the music and culture of New Orleans!

Both classes will be an energizing and uplifting vinyasa flow that will be welcoming to all levels. We will be practicing to some truly awesome music--the playlist includes Dr. John, Aaron Neville, Buckwheat Zydeco, Kermit Ruffins, The Meters, Pete Fountain, Professor Longhair, Cowboy Mouth, Marcia Ball, Rebirth Brass Band, and OF COURSE Louis Armstrong, among others. And--most importantly--AT LEAST half of my take from these classes will go to Sweet Home New Orleans (www.sweethomeneworleans.org), an organization that is working to get displaced New Orleans musicians and artists back home. The more people come, the higher and higher that percentage will get!

And so I ask--nay, beg!--you to please please please come to one of my classes on this coming Saturday and donate to this incredibly worthy cause. Forward this to all of your friends and get them to come too! Let's generate as much love and energy and money as we can and send it on down to the Gulf Coast! Come on out and laissez les bon temps rouler!

www.charmcityyoga.com!

okay, really trying to do this blogging thing again!

So, maybe I haven't posted anything in three months. IT HAPPENS.

Anyway, I've been working on surrender lately (and by lately, I mean the last five days). I've been getting increasingly clickity-clackity and anxious and ridiculous over the last several months, largely due to overwork and frustration. Consequently, my practice has suffered, often going a couple of weeks without attending a class. Lack of yoga has made my mental state even worse, and...yeah. Vicious cycle. Anyway, I finally made it to a restorative class on Friday evening, and I must have shed something, because I decided I would just give up. Surrender. Stop fighting, and go with the flow. I have been to class every single day since then, and I feel infinitely better. Another interesting side effect: now, I'm not one to brag about her practice or anything, but, at class last night, my forward bends were AWESOME. For me, at least. The last time I remember being able to go that deeply into forward bends was when I was at Wellesley for my Katrina semester, which was arguably the most surrendered period in my quasi-adult life. Food for thought.

Teaching, however, has gone from good to AWESOME. I'm teaching at the Midtown studio now, which is pretty fabulous. I'm starting to get some regulars, making me pretty much the happiest camper ever. I'm doing lots of subbing as well, which is fun. Yoga=HAPPY.

OH, and P.S.: I finished my assists and exam and made up my training weekend, so I'm now officially a certified yoga instructor! :)

Om shanti! :)

yoga community

I would just like to say that I seriously love my yoga studio and all of the people in the community there. I finally was well enough to go back to class this week, and between the practices and the people, I couldn't stop smiling. It's great to have a home practice, but nothing beats the energy that comes from practicing with a bunch of awesome people. :)

In addition, yesterday was my birthday (yay!), so, as per my teacher's suggestion, I did 25 sun salutations for luck. It was fun!

Okay, time to get prepared for this week's class. Our theme for the week: abhaya, or fearlessness. Should be awesome; hope to see you there! Om shanti!

restora-yum

I'm still dealing with this cold, so I opted for a gentle, restorative practice today. Here's the little 30-minute sequence I came up with:

flow through cat/cow with child subbed for every other cat
hold in balasana
sphinx
anahatasana
frog
eka bhuja swastikasana
supported paschimottanasana
supta baddha konasana
reclined pigeon (supta kapotasana? sure, why not)
viparita karani
gentle reclined twist
savasana

I feel lovely now. :)

::dusts off the blog::

Well, I obviously need to be better at updating this! I kinda fell off the blogging bandwagon, so this is me getting back on!

SO. I've been teaching community vinyasa every Saturday at the new Charm City Yoga studio in Federal Hill, which is a partnership with the Healing Path. It's a nice little yoga space, and I'm hoping that the class will grow! All of my students are always lovely, so I'm hoping to see some of them back soon. So far, I've taught a "spring cleaning" class with a focus on detox (lots of twists, core work, and bhastrika!), a prana-riffic class focusing on the nadis and the vayus (lots of nadi sodhana), and a shoulder opener class! It's been a lot of fun. :)

Of course, it's also been a little crazy here in Erin-land lately; I was in New Orleans for the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology annual meeting (and Jazz Fest, let's be real), and I picked up some nasty cold during my travels. I have, therefore, been learning how to teach when exhausted and/or moderately ill. The thing I've found to be most helpful when teaching in non-ideal circumstances is having an all-Beatles playlist for the class. I will share mine with you now.

Blackbird
Cry Baby Cry
Things We Said Today
Eleanor Rigby
Back in the USSR
A Hard Day's Night
I Saw Her Standing There
Lady Madonna
The Word
I've Just Seen A Face
Can't Buy Me Love
Drive My Car
Paperback Writer
I'm Down
All You Need Is Love
Long Tall Sally
It's Only Love
With a Little Help From My Friends
Dig a Pony
The Inner Light
While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Within You Without You
Penny Lane
Don't Let Me Down
Across the Universe
Strawberry Fields Forever
Dear Prudence
In My Life
Good Night
Here, There, and Everywhere
Julia

Continuing with the yoga music theme, I've preemptively spent some of my birthday money on some great new yoga-themed albums. I highly recommend all of them. Lokah's "The Ivy Ceiling" artfully blends heartfelt chants with really fabulous beats; I was dancing around my house all day to Kali Maheshwari and Ma Durga. Wah!'s new release, "Love Holding Love", is a nice mellow groove. And as for MC Yogi's "Elephant Power", how could you possibly resist someone who drops rhymes about Ganesh?

Okay--time for me to go back to watching the live webcast of the Neville Brothers at Jazz Fest, since, if I can't be there in person, I can at least watch Cyril's glittery gold hat on the internets. :) Om shanti!

back on the mat

So, first things first--the big news over here in Erinland is that I will be teaching the 4:30 hot vinyasa class at the new Charm City Yoga studio in Federal Hill starting April 4!!! Huzzah!!! I am so excited! :)

I've been mucking through a bout of the lazies for the last week. I haven't made it to the yoga studio since last Wednesday, and I have been a big grouchyface because of it; regular yoga makes me a much nicer lady. I was determined to go tonight, but I realized that I just barely wasn't going to make it on time. I knew I still needed some yoga-ness, though, so I rolled out my mat in my chilly little office and got in a nice 1.5-hour practice! I practiced to three albums' worth of The Faint (Blank-Wave Arcade, Danse Macabre, and Wet From Birth), which isn't exactly the most yogic music out there, but it was what I was listening to, and I knew that if I started getting involved in yoga playlist construction, the asana would fall by the wayside. :) Now, let's see if I can remember what I practiced:

started with pranayama! go me!
-dhirga breath for a little bit
-nadi shodana, 1:1, with no kumbhaka
-nadi shodana, 1:3:2, with internal kumbhaka only
-nadi shodana, 1:1:1:1, with kumbhaka on puraka and rechaka
-couple of rounds of nadi shodana with no kumbhaka, just to release gradually
-kapalabhati through mouth, followed by external kumbhaka
-kapalabhati through nose, followed by internal kumbhaka
-one round of bhastrika
cat/cow
down dog
surya namaskar A (5x)
surya namaskar B (3x)
hold utkatasana at end of last surya B
ardha chandrasana (the side bendy one), with backbend at end
padangusthasana
padahastasana
vinyasa to down dog
that heinous plank with one leg tucked up to chest, then drawing the knee to shoulder to build arm/core strength that I hate so very very much but I make myself practice because I know it's good for me
three-legged dog with twisty-ness
anjaneyasana
that hamstring stretch doodad that goes so nicely after anjaneyasana
virabhadrasana 2
couple of vinyasas between parivrtta virabhadrasana and utthita parsvakonasana
hold utthita parsvakonasana, take bind
back to vira 2
utthita trikonasana, with arm variations for core strength
ardha chandrasana (the balancy one)
parivrtta ardha chandrasana
parsvottanasana
parivrtta trikonasana
vinyasa to down dog
repeat the whole thing on the left
vasisthasana
upavesasana/yogic squat
ardha malasana
eka pada koundinyasana 1
parsva bakasana
uttanasana
garudasana
vrksasana
prasarita padottanasana with the shoulder open-y arm variation
sirsasana
balasana
bhujangasana crunch-y things
salabhasana
dhanurasana
eka bhuja swastikasana
anahatasana
that frog variation with the knees off the mat and the shins perpendicular to the thighs and you start sitting your hips back and get massive stretchitude on the inner thighs and then you hold it there for what feels like forever (NB: learn the actual name of this pose! *g*)
virasana
supta virasana
paschimottanasana
janu sirsasana
marichyasana A
triang mukhaikapada paschimottanasana
bharadvajasana
parivrtta janu sirsasana
upavistha konasana
repeat sequence on L
baddha konasana
agni stambhasana
krounchasana
another hip opener doodad
eka pada bhujapidasana
ardha matsyendrasana
sarvangasana
halasana
karnapidasana
jathara parivartanasana
yin heart opener on block that I love so much
savasana!

And then I took a nice long salt bath. I feel yummy now. :)

assist-y goodness

Last night was my last night of assisting the five-class beginner series. I'm going to miss that group of students! They're so awesome! Their practice last night was so great. Everyone was doing a great job, modifying for their body types, keeping proper alignment, lots of focus. It made me happy inside to watch them. I think my assists are getting a little better, too, which is good.

One more class left to assist; the goal is to assist a class for someone whose name isn't Katie! I've done one for Katie T. and a whopping seven for Katie B.--oops! :)

back to class

PHEW! I went to Kim's hot class tonight (Kim is my teacher training teacher). Now, since teacher training ended on March 1, I have attended a whopping one yoga class. And it was a beginner class. So I was definitely feelin' it tonight! My knees, I think, were the place I was hurting the most--tonight was certainly a lesson in how regular yoga keeps my knees healthy. And (this may be TMI, but DEAL) I was definitely stinkier than I usually am in a hot class, illustrating how getting crazy sweaty in a yoga class several times a week keeps my insides all cleaned out. See? Yoga is all kinds of awesome.

In other news, my cat is currently attacking her own tail.

impromptu subbing

So, I was planning to go to my friend Katie's 6:30 class tonight at Fells Point. At 5:40, she calls me and asks if I can sub! She's been sick, and just couldn't teach another class today. So I taught a pretty darn impromptu class tonight! Since I had no planning time, I taught the same sequence I taught a week or so ago when I subbed for Lindsay, with the same playlist. I figured that was better than making it up as I went along. The students got all sweaty, and then got all relaxed.

Things I need to work on in my teaching:
DIALOGUE: I know that all I need is practice, but I need to work on not stumbling all over my words.
Assisting while teaching: I can assist, and I can teach, but doing both simultaneously sure is hard!
Working in the more subtle aspects of the practice: I know all kinds of stuff about yogic philosophy and spirituality, and I love it when teachers talk about those things in class, but I haven't managed to get that worked in.
Themes: I should start making themes for my classes. I think it would be nice.
In general: It would probably be good if I figured out how to work the lights/thermostat for the room BEFORE I start teaching the class.

So yes. Those are my current teaching goals. :)

In other news, I got Thai massage today and it was AWESOME, as always. Everyone should go get Thai massage. RIGHT NOW.

i heart beginner series!

So, I was feeling kinda grumbly today, because work was annoying me and all. And then I went to assist the five-class beginner series, and that made it all better! Beginner series is awesome, because beginners are so much fun. They're so open to the practice, and it's great to watch them progress and really start to get it. Today was dharana/dhyana and twists, so we had a nice meditation at the start of class (during which Katie busted out some singing bowls on her iPod), and then deep twists, and a nice long savasana. Lovely class, lovely students.

Katie mentioned samyama (a term which sums up the final three limbs of yoga: concentration, meditation, and bliss) in class tonight, which made me remember that work seems a lot less soul-crushing when I think of it in terms of samyama. So, for example, instead of saying that I'm going to bang my head up against PyMol tomorrow and wonder why my westerns continue to look like crap, I'll just remind myself that I'm practicing samyama on the structure of the p300 HAT domain and on western blot technique. :)

I started reading "The Secret Power of Yoga" by Nischala Joy Devi today, and I think you should read it too. It's a translation/commentary on the Yoga Sutras from a woman's perspective. AWESOME.

Okay! That's all I've got for tonight! Om shanti!

santosha: one day, maybe!

WHEW the last couple of days have been busy! I've been running around like a crazy person with the big long experiment I started (that my boss told me was unnecessary...when I was halfway through) that my yoga practice for the past two days has consisted of one round of japa each day. I've been trying to work on my yoga exam in between the science, but I've had trouble concentrating on one question at a time. In the last two days, I've sequenced half of a sixty-minute stress relief yoga class and written paragraphs on three of the required five yoga styles that I need to define, which is a lot harder than it sounds, since I'm required to cite sources! It's one thing to know that, oh yeah, Bikram is the series of 26 poses and Iyengar is all about alignment and uses lots of props and Desikachar teaches highly personalized yoga with an emphasis on yoga therapy, but it's quite another to have to pull out the book and find something to cite! Ah well. I'll finish the exam one day. I hope. :)

It's times like this that I really try to work on santosha, or contentment. Santosha is one of the niyamas, the instructions for living laid out by Patanjali in the Yoga Sutras. Satchidananda translates that sutra as "By santosha, supreme joy is gained." What a lovely sentiment! So simple, and yet so difficult--we can be happy if we can learn to be content with what we have. Santosha is definitely a practice, one that my whiny self is not terribly advanced in, but what was it that Dharma Mittra said? Until you get there, be Swami Pretendananda! I'm pretending, all right.

In other news, I think I got approved for my Yoga Journal liability insurance! They charged my credit card, anyway, so one would hope that means I'm approved. :)

warming practice for a snowy day

We had what I hope is the last blast of winter here in Baltimore today--lots of cold, lots of wind, and truly ridiculous amounts of snow. After slipping and sliding and slogging through the snow today, I wanted a nice warming practice to counteract all that iciness! After 20 minutes of practice, I felt much better! Here's my sequence:

kapalabhati breath (breath of fire--see, there's a theme!)
ujjayi pranayama throughout standing sequence
surya namaskar A (2x)
surya namaskar B (1x)
a few rounds of flying goddess
bhastrika breath in goddess
agni sara (two rounds)
sirsasana
balasana
upavistha konasana
parivrtta janu sirsasana
sarvangasana
halasana
jathara parivartanasana
a round of japa while in a supported heart-opening backbend over a yoga block
savasana

Then I had a hot bath and a hot meal. Yay for being much warmer!

hour-long beginner playlist

This is a playlist I put together for a private lesson I did for a friend. She was a complete newbie to yoga, so the sequence was slow and had a lot of relaxation; the music, therefore, followed that slow, relaxing, nurturing theme.

Sigur Rós - Takk
Nick Drake - Which Will
Iron and Wine - Naked As We Came
Peter Adams - I Evolve
Amy Winehouse - Valerie
Broken Social Scene - Looks Just Like the Sun
Ben Kweller - Lizzy
Christine Fellows - What Makes the Cherry Red
Peter Adams - The Invention of Nuclear Power
Thao Nguyen - Tallymarks
The Weakerthans - Pamphleteer
Damien Rice - 9 Crimes
Ben Lee - In My Life
Laura Veirs and Saltbreakers - To the Country
Crosby, Stills, and Nash - Helplessly Hoping

playlist from my first class!

Charm City Yoga, Fells Point
2/25/09
hot vinyasa

Sigur Rós - Takk
Laura Veirs - Spelunking
Thao with the Get Down Stay Down - Bag of Hammers
MC Yogi feat. Jai Uttal - Ganesh is Fresh
Interpol - Slow Hands
Sly and the Family Stone - Thank You (Falettin Me Be Mice Elf Agin)
Of Montreal - Your Magic is Working
Rilo Kiley - Science vs. Romance
Spoon - The Way We Get By
Talking Heads - Life During Wartime
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - Where Have All the Rude Boys Gone?
Dusty Springfield - Son of a Preacher Man
Peter Adams - Ziggurat
Ben Kweller - I Need You Back
Christine Fellows - The Spinster's Almanac
Fiona Apple - Extraordinary Machine
Vampire Weekend - Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa
Louis Armstrong and His Dixieland Seven - Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans
Dar Williams - Whispering Pines
Better Than Ezra - At the Stars
Ani DiFranco - Bliss Like This
Crosby, Stills, and Nash - Helplessly Hoping
Laura Veirs and Saltbreakers - To the Country
Iron and Wine - Naked As We Came
Broken Social Scene - Looks Just Like the Sun
Azure Ray - These White Lights Will Bend to Make Blue

private lessons = awesome

Why, you ask, should you take a private yoga lesson? There are lots of reasons.

• New to yoga? A private lesson offers a safe, unintimidating introduction to the practice.
• A private session allows you to get insight into particular health concerns that you might have.
• Private sessions help you to better tailor the practice to your own body.
• A private session is a great forum in which to ask questions of your teacher, refine your asana practice, and better experience the inner focus that yoga encourages.
  
• The one-on-one attention you receive in a private lesson is incredibly nurturing and a great way to honor yourself.

If you'd like to set up a private yoga session with Erin, contact info is available in the sidebar!

intro post-y goodness

I just finished my 200-hour teacher training program (well, pretty much), so I figured it was an appropriate time to set up a shiny little blog to chronicle my adventures in yoga teaching and practice. And here it is! That's about all I have for now. :)