Full Expression Yoga

Full Expression Yoga leads you thru powerful movements to create heat and improve your flexiblity to help you flow toward a full expression of who you are today.  Always practiced in an inspirational setting to help you discover the best you.  Join us....


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YOGA and me

I remember Lilias Yoga on tv.  I was not a regular viewer but I remember her presence as I surfed the 8 or 10 channels we received way back then.    Her focus, calmness,  inner happiness and sincerity alway came thru to me even as a very young girl.  I did not practice with her or watch regularly.

When I was in college out in "farm country" in Pennsylvania,  back in "the day", I enjoyed browsing the shelves in the library.  It was a great distraction and a meditative form of procrastination of which I've been afflicted.  I found an interesting book on yoga which I took home and studied a bit and practiced a little.  It was all very 70s during the 80s and eventually it was put to the wayside as I hunkered down to pass my classes and get my degree to move on....

A few years later while browsing the shelves at a used book store in Sarasota FL, where I had landed after migrating South , I came across a book called "The light of yoga" by Alice Christensen.  http://www.americanyogaassociation.org/Alice.html   It captured my attention and the price was right so I bought it.  It was a very interesting book about how the author found her way to yoga.   I highly recommend this book.  I was amazed to learn that this woman had an "ashram" in Sarasota FL where she brought the American Yoga Association which she founded.  It was on Pineapple Ave. downtown and has since been replaced by a "green" condo.  I remember a square of concrete sidewalk in front of that property that had a lotus flower drawn in it.   Anyway, this was all philosophical to me at this time because I was only reading about yoga.  My lifestyle at this time was one continuous hustle and bustle.   I was working a couple of jobs and riding bike and hanging out at Siesta Beach leaving  no time for a physical practice but yoga was still in my mind!

My life's journey led me to a sailboat.  I bought a 34' sailboat and eventually moved aboard.  During this process I basically purged most of my belongings including two pianos(one of my first loves in life), my "mac daddy" stereo I purchased with most of the money I made one summer during college(I love music!), and all my awful 80s business attire-red jackets with shoulder pads and the like(good riddance):  just the essentials remained.   This book "The light of yoga" made the cut and floated aboard s/v Little Wing with me.   I believe I eventually gave it to someone I thought would appreciate it.  My lifestyle aboard a sailboat kept me active as did my job as a bartender. 

This lifestyle led me Key West where I noticed a crew of sailors stepping off their sailboat and immediately going into some yoga right there on the dock!  Again I thought there must really be something to this.  They looked very happy, healthy, vibrant and seemed to glow with contentment. (okay let me get real here... it probably wasn't just the yoga that contributed to these aforementioned attributes since these folks were sailing on a nicely outfitted s/v named "Big O" that was sailing from Antigua Race Week where they had recently partook of regatta pleasantries and adventures.  Not to mention their co-ed crew consisted of some California Salts-all looked casually fit and sun kissed  and  well you get the picture...)  About  a year after this I found out it was these happy folks that put together this happy publication :  http://www.latitude38.com/index.lasso    Yeah, it's all good, really good! 

Anyway,  I was brought back to my immediate challenges as I had to attend to the diesel problems of the yanmar engine in my sailboat.  The capt. of the "Big O" was kind enough to look at the diesel engine on Little Wing and offer his opinion which was that the problem was minimal and easily fixed.   So, off to Sunset Celebration...I'd think about trouble shooting  the engine problem and all the other challenges the sailing life brought my way as a single female skipper tomorrow, manana,  and allow myself to focus on "now" and enjoy the immediate presence (presents)...This is a yoga principle by the way.   

If you are challenged to be yourself in the present....to anchor your being in the "now" and calm your mind to relax into it, yoga can help you get there.    

Becoming a Yogini....

 

The sailing lifestyle was AWESOME.  yeah.  I could go on and on with stories about that but this is about yoga so I'll try to stay with the subject but if you'd like to read sailing stories you can go to www.sailingculture.tv  and look at the Saltina Chronicles.

The 2000 Millenium was approaching and I decided it would be great to usher in this new time in Sarasota.  I had an incredible sail/cruise from Marathon up the coast by way of Bradenton Beach and back to downtown Sarasota just in time.   There was a great party downtown and it was AWESOME! Meanwhile I continued to work as a bartender and work on my sailboat to prepare for my next planned cruise which was up the GulfCoast to the Panhandle.  I readied the boat and padded my "cruising kitty".  I was all ready with my gps programmed and a week of bon voyage partying behind me.  Departure day arrived and i was good to go except I decided I needed some fresh squeezed o.j. and brownies to make the voyage perfect.  So, off to the grocery store I went to get the goods. On the return to the marina I was daydreaming about the experience and how lucky i was to have created this freedom for myself.  i went thru a redlight and a big old Ford Pick up with a lot of chrome ran into me.  No one was hurt but I cried a lot because of the damage to my beloved car and the vintage pick up which really didn't get much damage because it was built soooo tough! 

The planned cruise was put on hold as I attended to the details.  While I sat in the park talking on the phone with my insurance agent a good looking guy came by and struck up a conversation with me.  I told him my story and we hit it off.  He wanted to see the damage to my car to see if he might know someone that could fix it for me.  Next thing I knew he was inviting me back to his place and I was accepting.  Well, one thing led to another which led me to dinner with this guy at a nice italian restaurant with fresh sunflowers, good food, etc... and over the nice marble dining table he leaned over and said he did not want me to go.  I didn't go.  I became a landlubber. 

WE got an apt., he moved in, he moved out, he moved in, he moved out, he moved in and finally he moved out.  I was now a single landlubber, ugh!  I got an office job, sold the boat, started a business and bought a house.  My hair turned white.  

My house is in the "hood".  And that's the nice way of putting it.  It was traumatic at first and still can be occasionally.  The stress was overwhelming so I started looking for outlets to deal with it and ended up in the sauna at the Ymca.  They offered some classes at that Y and I found one that looked good.  It was an integrated class: yoga, pilates and music.  The teacher was an older sophisticated and very fit woman that was very knowledgable, disciplined and fit.  Inspirational.  That class whipped me into shape and the bits of yoga appealed to me and got me into the yoga groove.  Meanwhile i found a great yoga program on public tv.  It was power yoga and condensed into a half hour.  The instructor, Adrienne Reed, was very smart and ergonomically efficient wheras i felt I got more out of that half hour than I could in many classes that lasted twice as long.

I quit the Y and found a yoga class at the Women's Resource 
 http://www.thewomensresourcecenter.org/  It was mostly older women who amazed me.  I often said ,fondly, "those old ladies hurt me":)   I was amazed at how fit and capable they were in their yoga practice(s) .   The woman who founded the program, Babe Weiller, actually did yoga into her 90s up until 6 months before passing on...

The beach started calling me tho' and I concluded instead of spending time driving to the WRC and taking a class I could ride my bike to the beach and do my own yoga since I knew enough to do so.  So I did.  I still had Adrienne Reed Power Yoga on public tv to keep me informed and aware.   www.adriennereed.com

During this time my practice was the strongest it has ever been.  I really needed yoga because of the stress levels in my life.  And i was fit.  I actually had a yoga butt for a while(no more) but -pun intended-maybe I'll get it back.  I felt and observed the ways it helped me cope so i bought many books on the subject and even had a subscription to Yoga Journal for a while....I let my subscription lapse because i was tired of looking at primarily fit women in various poses and not enough buff tattooed men to keep my attention since I'm heterosexual.  I wrote to YJ  to explain my perspective and I did notice they did finally put a man on the cover but it just wasn't enough.  During this time I also tried many different instructors thru dvd.s but always ended up back with Adrieene Reed.  I thought she was the best.

Riding my bike to the beach during the hot sumer months and then doing yoga outside was mind altering.  It led me to wanting to go to the jungle for yoga.  Don't ask me why...it just did.   So I started searching for places to do yoga in the jungle(something  I could afford and fit into my schedule).  I found one place in particular that I really wanted to go...Villa Su Maya in Guatemala.  There was a month long yoga "thing" there with an instructor out of NYC.  I was never able to get it together to make it there tho'.

The search continued.  One day a friend of mine was visiting and I was "harping" about how I wanted to go to the jungle...and he said why do you have to go half way around the world....you live in the jungle!  I smirked and thought isn't it ironic something I was striving so hard for probably was right in front of me....after all right here in Sarasota we have "JUngle Gardens".  It wasn't long after that I found yoga in Sunken Gardens in St. Pete.   WOW!  A gorgeous 45 minute drive from my front door was a yoga wonderland in a tropical garden that resembles a jungle!  Amazing. 

I practiced in Sunken Garden once a week on and off for many years and i still recommend that venue.  I started out with Harris who is an all around great yoga teacher who really could mix it up with a lot of variety.  During the time she taught at SG she made a yoga video in the garden which I believe they sell at the gift shop.  She had quite the spectrum and i really enjoyed that.    Every now and then I'll see her on the local news:  one time she was teaching the news casters how to meditate, om and all:  that's how they went off to a commercial.  That made me laugh!   Recently I saw her and a few kids doing some kind of a hip hop/yoga thing on the local news...  http://kiddingaroundyoga.com/  They were promoting the St. Pete Folk Fest.  It was good and, again, it made me laugh.   Harris moved on tho' and then came Vandana of Awaken Yoga Center to teach yoga in SG.  She brought a more spiritual feeling to the practice.  She and her husband are always organizing something.  They do a lot.  www.awakenyogacenter.com  She brought some live music into the mix with Jim Beckwith and this was also amazing!!!  http://www.livemusicforyoga.com/#!

One beautiful morning while doing yoga in Sunken Gardens with Harris as an instructor I vividly remember my friend Denise(from the FL KEYS)'S spirit visiting me.  It sent waves of emotion thru me and brought tears to my eyes.  It was intense.  So, when I arrived home i immediately called her and e-mailed her.  My friend from the FL KEYS, Denise, and I finally talked on the phone and she told me she'd been so busy because of her business, Green Dreams - landscaping, materials, plants, garden accessories, etc..., and that she'd just returned from a yoga trance dance in Guatemala.  Yes, she'd just returned from Villa SuMaya.  She invited me to visit over the holidays. 

The visit to the Keys was splendid and I could give you all the beautiful details but I'll just boil it down to one.  She turned me on to Shiva Rea's dvd, Trance Dance, which we did  one beautiful morning after her morning ritual half-naked bike ride around the neighborhood:)  We drank coffee,  enjoyed some herb, did yoga a la shiva rea and then used our coffee grounds as a skin rub, rinsed off and then hit the hot tub and dried off in the morning sun rays.  Denise's husband was off at work and her two workers were off on assignment so we had this blissful morning.  Thank you so much Denise.  My Shiva Rea dvd Fluid Power is a favorite and you led me to it.  www.shivarea.com 

Denise had cancer.  She said nothing about it to me so I did not know it but by May she was gone.  We'd met when our sailboats were docked by each other's in Safe Harbour on Stock Island, KW.  Her sailboat was directly in front of mine and it's name was Shanti.  I asked her where she got the name and she said it had been her son's name.  He passed away when he was young.  The word, Shanti, she said meant peace.  She also had a sticker in the cock pit that was visible from my viewpt:  It was the symbol for yoga.   .  Denise, Rest in peace......   

This yoga can be deep stuff....but it is what you make it!!!!!  Each individual practice and practitioner is unique.

I thought I might want to teach yoga to share with others and help them get healthier and happier so I searched for a suitable place.  I looked at Guatemala, mexico, Hawaii, Costa Rica, Canada, but where do you think I landed?  Coincidentally, I learned Adrienne Reed lived and worked out of nearby Tampa!   She offered a yoga intensive toward a teaching certification.  ok.  I applied.  

She invited me to join the class and i did. 

The pressure cooker.....

 I'm a pretty good judge of teachers.   During college I logged A LOT of hours in observation of teachers as I earned a B.S.Ed.   The observation was a part of my curriculum at IUP where I received my degree.   Also I took some graduate classes in Psychology at USF.

Adrienne is an excellent teacher/instructor!  She's smart, direct, challenging, informative, funny,  not afraid of laughing at herself and genuinely concerned about health! 

I found all that to be true, and then some, after spending a week in her "pressure cooker" in Lutz FL. with another 10 people crazy enough to do something like that:)

She gave me her seal of approval by passing me thru her yoga teacher's program.  It was tough and great at the same time!  Thanks Adrienne.  Namaste.  http://adriennereed.com/

Also thank you to all my class mates who assisted in the learning process. 

leaves filter air....and provide oxegon....
http://www.arborday.org/trees/benefits.cfm

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Last year I felt the need to go to a yoga retreat.  I looked around but didn't really find anything that "clicked" for me so I thought why not just put my own together so I started looking for yoga studios in the FL Keys where I might want to take a few classes.  As I looked around I recalled a fellow student in Adrienne Reed's Pressure Cooker Teacher Certification Course told me about a yoga institute in Islamorada that was in the same building as a bowling alley.  That stuck out in my mind. 

I searched for this and  it wasn't easy to find but I finally learned about the FL Keys Yoga Institute which was put together by Pattabhi Jois and his family.  It was one of the things he wanted to do before passing away and they managed to accomplish it by buying a building that included a bowling alley/arcade and putting the studio/ashram with boutique,  a gorgeous meditation garden/lawn and plenty of parking off to the side.  The interior of the studio is kind of like a museum in that it has photos of Pattabhi Jois which have been enlarged to large poster size, beautifully framed and hung all around the shala's periphery walls as  the light wood floor beckons practice.   Pattabhi Jois's shala/living/studying/mediation space is off in the corner with plenty of pillows and an entire wall of shelfing with books.  There's also a very small vibrant meditation closet type of space that's painted a most beautiful orange with some small statues and other sacremental objects in it along with an incense burner.   In the "front" of the studio there is a raised platform where a large carved wood chair sits and I could only imagine seeing him sitting in that chair presiding over the yoga classes.  He and his family completed this project and then he returned to India and passed away the following year.  The people who attended the shala were all very kind and the instructor P.J. was excellent.  They all seemed humbly brilliant.  Stars shining brightly and willing to share their glow. 

This is Ashtanga Yoga and Pattabhi Jois is the "transmitter" of Ashtanga Yoga.  He was a jovial Indian man who dedicated his life to teaching this type of yoga.  http://kpjayi.org/the-practice

This type of yoga was new to me  but I wanted to explore it and thought this would be the best place besides going to India which I really did not want to do.  Before booking my room and finalizing my travel plans I called the instructor, P.J., to ask a few questioins to make sure I'd be comfortable in the classes.  He said I would be ok.  So, off I went. 

The trip will always stand out in my mind because it was the coldest day on record for S. FL  and the FL Keys.  My first night and intial morning was the coldest ever!  The drive there was cold eventho' it was in the afternoon because my truck did not have heat and eventho' I wore a few pair of socks I still recall my feet hurting from the cold.  Luckily I'd booked a hotel with a large hot tub!!!! yeah.

After getting situated in my hotel room I immediately jumped on my bike to ride to the Lora lei to take in sunset.  My timing was perfect as I watched a goreous sunset over black sound(?) but it was COLD!!! I was dressed for it tho' and it was invigorating and made me giggle. Let me just say I did not see anyone else out and about on bike during this cold snap-just me:)   AFter sunset I rode over to the Yoga Institute to check the place out.  There was a guy at the front door-happened to be the front door of the bowling alley tho'-who answered a bunch of my questions which he seemed humoured about.  Hey, I'm comical what can I say...  He told me the first class was in the morning and it was a "self-practice".  I told him I'd never done that and asked if I would be able to and he said, "just come..."

The first morning, the coldest one on record, I got up early and dressed in many layers and went for a bike ride to warm up and take in the island beauty.  I made it to the yoga class on time and signed in.   There were two guys practicing as P.J. the instructor supervised, and me - Hey I really like this Ashtanga Yoga:)  A nice young women joined us a little later which was perfect timing for me as I then had someone to follow thru the self practice.  P.J. said 'you should not be out excercising or riding bike before yoga class because it causes satwa".  I'd never heard of this before but I knew  I was guilty so later I studied up on what this meant.

The "self-practice" is a unique part of the Ashtanga Yoga.  There's a series of Poses that the student learns,  so, as the student become adept at the series it is natural the student can just go thru the program without someone else leading them.  This is what "sef-practice" is about.  The instructor is there but is not necessarily leading but artfully watching and observing and giving pointers, adjustments, encouragement, humour, etc... as needed.   It's more like coaching .  It was interesting and unique to me and I enjoyed the process eventhough I was not proficient at the "series"  I bumbled thru it by watching and following the other students who were accustomed to the practice and with the help of an intelligent, experienced and kind teacher/instructor.

This is power yoga.  It's not for wimps.  There are a lot of hot guys and women in Ashtanga Yoga.  It's rigourous for sure and it was a great work out.


This was a wonderfully enriched place to learn about this type of yoga.  I  could feel the depth, breadth, gratitude, committment, scope, and love that went into developing this.  It was humbly magnificent in all realms and I feel fortunate to have found my way there even if it was only for two days.  I took the time to walk around the studio and spend time in front of each and every photo of Pattois Jois and "drink" in the intentions.  I sat humbly on a bench near his apt. where he studied and mediated and I tried to be as open as possible to let "whatever" in that was possible. 

When the first class ended I explored the boutique and asked a few questions to find a few things I was seeking.  As I headed for the door I mentioned I'd be back for the evening class but P.J. said NO.  I yelled, yes, yelled, WHY NOT...  he explained but said I could observe.   Well, I thought, a teacher that really cares enough to point out my limitiations.  I smirked and apologized for yelling as I exited the shala.  Outside I sat in the garden and looked at the beautiful sculpture as I ate an apple.  I noticed a large bird as it flew very low between me and the sculpture and landed on the ground nearby.  It intrigued me so I got up to check it out and there was a beautiful falcon/hawk just looking at me in the eyes, checking me out.  WOW.  I just stood there looking back and we seemed to be communicating so I put my arm out in hopes that it might come over and land on me to say hello....hey, I'm a dreamer what can I say?   I stood there for a couple of minutes waiting with my arm up but it never came any closer.  We just looked at each other for many minutes and I felt a spirit was there to say hello/goodbye and thanks for coming and finally the bird flew away.   

                                                                                            
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Recently I attended a few yoga  classes at a local studio.  The guest yoga instructor's website convinced me to go ....

http://yogadelmar.com/02/mother-teresa-do-it-anyway/

Anyone that has wonderful things on their website must be worthy as a teacher especially in this case when the guest instructor has a PH.D. from Stanford and is a sleep specialist.

It was an all day thing, three classes thru-out the day but I'll be honest....for whatever reason(s) I feel like I did not absorb very much but it's all good and I'm glad I attended. 
Namaste

practice....



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