I am excited to announce I am teaching several upcoming community classes that support great local non-profits. Offering yoga classes that benefit mindful local organizations offers healing to everyone involved. I want to offer my yoga practice not only to personal growth but community building and I am very thankful to do so in these classes.

Tomorrow night, Wednesday June 27th from 7:30-8:30 pm  I will be teaching the My Happy Place class at The Grinning Yogi. The funds raised at the class will be donated to Daryel, Somali Women’s Wellness Project, a grass-roots organization that provides massage, yoga, and health education to Somali women in the Seattle/King County area. You can learn more about Daryel on their Facebook Page and here. I will be teaching another My Happy Place class on July 18th. Another great aspect to the My Happy Place Class is that it is a pay what you can class, so it is accessible to folks of all income levels. Looking forward to see you on the mat!

July 5th marks the unofficial beginning of Seattle’s Summer and also the beginning of outdoor yoga. I am leading a Free yoga + bike ride Sunday July 8th. We will gather in Cal Anderson Park by the fountain at 11am and then start a yoga warm up at 11:30am and ride to Lake Washington Blvd for Bicycle Sundays. It will be a casual paced ride where we take time to notice the beauty of all the pretty plants and learn a little more about each other.

Then on July 15th at 10am I will be teaching a class at Green Lake to support Yoga Behind Bars, one of my favorite non-profits in Seattle, I am totally biased though because I volunteered for them on the development committee. They offer yoga to incarcerated people in the Puget Sound area. The class is donation only and giving even $10 pays for someone bars to attend class.

As a teacher many new opportunities are opening up in all directions and I am bursting with gratitude and joy. Right now Elly and I are putting the finishing touches on Pedal, Stretch, Breathe. You can order a copy of the zine here and it will be in your mailbox soon. Thanks for reading and hope to see you on the mat or the bike path soon!

I finished my front wheel!

In Building Wheels in Bikes & Bodies, part 1  I focus on preparation, getting the spokes laced and your body warmed up. In part 2 we will explore the final steps of building wheels in bodies and bikes.

Truing wheels at times feels like you are not really making any changes. I was constantly wondering if things were really improving. It is kind of like sphinx pose, a really easy back bend where you are not sure if anything is happening.  But yoga teaches me that subtle adjustments have a rippling effect that transforms whole postures. When preparing for full wheel, if you create that extra length in your spine, you find deeper back bends because there is more space between the vertebra. When truing wheels, a quarter turn in the wrong direction affirms that each little twist of nipple has its consequences. It took me a while to really get a grasp on what I was doing, but once I gained a little bit of muscle memory and focus, I found my truing groove. For more info on actually building wheels I would suggest taking a class, like this one at Bike Works or grabbing a skilled bike mechanic to show you the ropes.

Patience proved to be the biggest challenge for me in truing a wheel and for many yoga practitioners, patience may be a challenge for moving into advanced postures. Whenever I started to get really irritated or stuck while working on my wheel, I returned my focus to my breath. I advocate of practicing Ujayii breath off the mat during challenging tasks. Breathe in and out of your nose, there is a gentle constriction in the back your throat and you hear a wave-like sound. This breath slows down and deepens breathing to increase oxygen intake and focus. Ujayii translates to be victorious or to conquer, which this type of breathing supports.

Below is a little video demonstrating moving from bridge pose to wheel. Remember to take your time and listen to your body about what feels good. Attending regular yoga classes supports the strength and flexibility of your spine. If this pose is very challenging, head to a class near you.

Happy Bike to Work day everyone! It is great to see public health and community action working together. I asked my friend who studies Public Health at UW about what she felt was the most important thing to cultivate better overall public health. Without hesitation she responded that 30 minutes of exercise per day helps maintain health and emotional well being and we need to get more people moving. It’s true that moving our bodies not only helps our muscles but also our brain. It is also true that reducing pollution has positive impact on our cardiovascular health.  So what seems like a great way to reduce pollution and get people moving?…You guessed it! Ride your bike! So use your brain, your body and your breath and ride all around today.

I will save my full write up on breath for you to read in Pedal, Stretch, Breathe. Donate today to our kickstarter campaign here and score your copy of the zine.

Wheel building : bike maintenance :: Urdhva Dhanurasana : Asana 

This week I rebuilt the wheel. Not just any wheel, my front wheel! When my really adorable old hub hit the dust I knew it was time to enhance my fixin’ skills and do it myself. While I was twisting all those nipples, it dawned on me that the process of building a bike wheel is very similar to building full wheel on the mat. Urdhva Dhanurasana requires a delicate balance between effort and ease to find that perfect tension.

Taking apart my old wheel quickly became rhythmic activity to do while chatting with friends. Turn by turn the nipples got looser and looser and I saw my old hub fall out of center. Funny to think such a simple little machine helped me ride so far. My handy dandy bike mechanic friend, Danny, led me through the process of threading the spokes. Danny clearly explained how to do each step while highlighting the elegance of wheel design. I am enchanted by the beautiful mandala pattern of the spokes. Mandala, a Sanskrit word, loosely translates to “circle.” Mandala images are used in visual meditation. The bicycle wheel is a beautiful example of this form. Next week I will true my wheel and balance the tension. Part 2 of this post will let you know how it goes!

Wheel Warm-Up

When I am planning a yoga class that features wheel or bridge I warm up students by opening and strengthening shoulders, and lengthening the spine. In the spirit of wheels, I will show you a Mandala flow where I circle all the way around on the mat. This kind of practice encourages exploring all directions in and around your body. Below is a mandala yoga flow that helps prepare your body for deeper back bends like full wheel. Remember to repeat the flow on the second side.

Stay tuned for Part 2, which will demonstrate full wheel pose and discuss truing wheels!

Bicycle Sundays start this Sunday. This Sunday I am leading a Yoga + Bike ride and realized the obvious destination is to Lake Washington Blvd. to join in on Bicycle Sundays.

Start at Cal Anderson park by the fountain

11am meet in Cal Anderson Park
11:30 Pedal, Stretch & Breathe

No yoga mat needed, but if you want, bring it along. We will warm-up at the park then practice stoplight yoga on our way to Bicycle Sundays. Ride will be casual and welcoming to yogis and bike riders of all levels!

Also, a big thanks goes out to everyone who contributed to the Pedal, Stretch, Breathe Kickstarter Campaign! You can still contribute here and score your copy of my zine and more.

Yoga bike ride this Sunday!

Start at Cal Anderson park by the fountain

11am meet in Cal Anderson Park
11:30 Pedal, Stretch & Breathe

No yoga mat needed, but if you want, bring it along. Our destination is to Bicycle Sundays at Seward Park. See post here. We will pick a destination. Before pedaling around the Emerald City, lets warm-up at the park. Then we will try stoplight yoga. Ride will be casual and welcoming to yogis and bike riders of all levels!

Quick reminder: Still time to donate to Kickstarter. Only $82 to go before Pedal, Stretch, Breathe is fully funded!

Support the project here!

I spend a lot of time doing yoga, or at least practicing Asana, the physical limb of yoga. It is easy to see by the number of people practicing yoga that it is very popular. Yoga is a good antidote to the stress people encounter from working, or unemployment. It offers a way to find strength and flexibility to people who live sedentary lives. And as I have explored on this blog, yoga is a great addition to self-care for cyclists and other athletes. But this is all just about the great physical benefits of yoga, what about the mental and emotional elements of the practice? How do we create space for those elements in hour long classes at the gym? Or even before a bike ride, like the one this Sunday?

While moving into a new house this past week, I spent time looking through my yoga teacher training and workshop materials. I stumbled on this excerpt from an essay by Shri Brahmananda Sarasvati titled, “What is Yoga?” and inspired this pondering post:

Yoga means union, the union of an individual existence with cosmic existence, union of the individual “i am” with the cosmic “I Am.” This union is eternal. You do not have to create it. You cannot create it, because it always exists. You have to feel it. How? Not by an emotional feeling of the thinking mind, but by feeling the original mind, the silent mind with which you are born.

No individual is independent from the rest of existence. We depend on food for eating, on water for drinking, on space for dwelling, on air for breathing. We depend on Nature every moment. As a matter of fact, the individual is in every way the manifestation of Nature. And there is no distinction between outer and inner nature. The universe is like an organic living tree, and the sun, moon, stars, zodiac signs, humankind and all creatures are its leaves, flowers and fruits.

The mind is the world, and the world is the mind. All problems, all wars- whether individual, domestic, social, national, international, political, religious or economic – are the result of a disturbed mind. Thus, the mind is the cause of our happiness and unhappiness.

What is the cause of the crisis and lawlessness present throughout the world? It is a lack of union between body, mind, and soul.

The essay continues on a bit, but I want to stress this point of a cultural disunity between body, mind and soul. I feel this big trend of yoga in the west happened because we as a culture are off balance. We have created a society that is not forgiving to the needs of the body or the soul or even the mind. Working full time can cause an accumulation of stress which is toxic for your body. Things like car culture which perpetuates a sedentary life and increases stress levels due to traffic are symptoms a of an off balance culture.  Using the idea of homeostasis, that our body is striving to find a sense of balance or equilibrium between its many functions, requires that we balance work and leisure, effort and ease. Yoga is one of the few things people invite into their week that allows them time to connect with their bodies, take time to simultaneously find invigoration and restoration.

Breath is one of the most important elements of any yoga practice. I always begin my yoga classes with a few minutes of quiet observation of the breath. Just noticing where you breathe in your body is an important tool for assessing where you are in that moment. Then after you observe your natural breath, you can slowly deepen the breath using your exhalations. Get rid of the stale air that you have been holding in your lungs to create room for fresh air. After the breath is full and deep I invite students into my favorite opening ritual, taking three breaths in through the nose and out the mouth with a big sigh. This allows students to release at least some of that tension and mind chatter before we begin our asana practice. At the end of class, when we are back to our simple seat, Sukasana, I end class with the same ritual. At the end of every class, those three final breaths are always stronger and more vibrant than at the beginning. I can tell that my students have created more space in their bodies.

Finally, I bought my own copy of “The Breathing Book” by Donna Farhi, it is an incredible text that I kept borrowing from the library or other yogis and finally I just got my own. It is so worth it, because it is a book you can spend an endless amount of time with. There are fantastic inquiries, or exercises that you can work with to explore how you can breathe more easily and vibrantly. I love the way Farhi describes this process of working with breath:

Breathing fully is not a matter of adding anything, of acquiring some new technique, or striving to improve oneself. Discovering the naturalness of our breaths has to do with the uncovering or the removing of obstacles that we have constructed to the breath, both consciously and unconsciously. In this sense, this book is a guide to a process of deconstruction, of unlearning and clearing the way.

When we are born, we breathe fully in and out with no effort or thought about it. It is over time that our emotions, life circumstance and cultural expectations that we restrain our breath and in doing so, limit our own vitality. One example is the beauty ideal of the flat stomach, instead of allowing the breath to fill the belly, many people hold the breath so as to appear slimmer. But our breath is related to all of our vital organs, it is what keeps us alive. Farhi offers practical and in depth ways to gently let go of that holding and embrace vitality.

Cyclists especially can benefit from breath work. In the back of the book there are “Practice Guides” for specific breathing conditions, one being for improved athletic performance. As you ride your bicycle it is important to find a rhythm with your breath and movement:

You can do that by taking a breath when you plant your foot during a stride, when pedaling on a cycle, or when you stroke the water in the pool. Find a rhythm and speed of movement that allows you to work within the confines of your breath capacity, so that you are not building up and oxygen deficit.

It is not only important to listen to your body about finding a pace and speed that works for you, but also finding proper body alignment that lets you really breathe fully. All to often I see cyclists hunching over the handlebars, completely ignoring the alignment of their spine. In this hunched over position there is no way that one can breathe to the fullest capacity. Farhi notes:

If you tire easily, examine your posture carefully. This means not hunching over you handlebars on the bike, but opening the space between the tip of your breastbone and your belly.

By creating that length in your body, you give yourself room to breathe deeply. Each inhalation nourishes every cell in your body and every exhalation allows you to detoxify and create that space for a nourishing inhale. So, please cyclists, slide those shoulders back  and down away from the ears and breathe fully as you pedal.

If you enjoyed this exploration on the importance of breath, you will love what is in my upcoming zine Pedal, Stretch, Breathe. I explore breath in the bigger picture, as it relates to our communities and overall air quality. Please support this project on Kickstarter now!