With what seems like endless types of yoga and certainly thousands of teaching styles, it’s hard to say why a particular instructor or workshop might draw us magnetically to them.

This weekend found me heavily anticipating an Anusara workshop with a teacher named Kathryn Wiese, studio-director of Hawaii-based “There’s no place like Om“. In the lifespan of yoga Anusara is fairly new, in fact its founder John Friend is still alive and teaching today. The style resonates deeply with me though – it focuses on an inspiring balance of precise physical alignment and wide-open experientials of the heart. Meaning you sweat your cheeks off while simultaneously becoming open to grace!

We gathered Friday night where Kathryn took the time to float naturally through the room, saying hello to each attendee and engagingly taking in their name and whatever other information they chose to share. While I wasn’t sure what she was going to look like, I knew right away that she was going to be instructing this workshop due to her vivacious gaze and expansive compassion – it’s like the sparkle in her eyes represented these bright jewels of wisdom that were bursting within her to share.

Eventually she made her way to her harmonium and started to play softly and patiently while we, the excited participants, got settled in our spots. When Kathryn began to speak, her message was thoughtful and clear – and mimicked the message that shone through her eyes: bring your practice to your heart. Bring it right in. And she wasn’t telling us like this was some teaching she had received somewhere along her path, she was sharing this insight as one who had lived through it and had come to the revelation herself – as if she had come to this realization solely for the purpose of sharing it with us, in our home-town studio on this weekend.  She reminded us that we are all students of the heart, not just those in attendance, but humans as a whole. And from there we began our weekend-long journey into the heart.

One might ask how this vibrant lady came to understand this powerful message. Born in the mid western state of Iowa Kathryn seemed to seek out happiness, earning a graduate degree and landing a desirable job in the Senate. She had powerful friends, nice clothes and a fancy car. After many accolades and achievements however, she realized that something was amiss and that all these external accolades and possessions weren’t going to fill the space in her heart that remained vacant.

This stirred her and caused her to reflect, “I had to ask myself: where truly does happiness lie?” and it was then that the yoga she had dabbled in began to play a more serious role in her life. She went on to practice under teachers who moved and expanded her, one in particular who affected her so deeply she explains that the teacher “cracked her heart wide open in class.” When asked how she made the transition from practicing to teaching, she explains “I was drawn to her nature, she showed unconditional love always. She was linked to her true heart in such a way that was clear that her yoga practice was what had lifted her that level.” With her heart cracked wide open and a clear path in front of her, Kathryn eventually discovered Anusara yoga which she says appealed to her because it “provided the container in which to take my yoga studies to another level – it offered my freedom to practice with different types of instructors while still maintaining certain distinct principles.”

As a yoga teacher I am always on the hunt for inspiration, for enlightenment, for balance. On my off days, I seek upliftment, reassurance and support, as most of us do. As Kathryn guided our bodies, hearts and spirits she reminded us that everything we could ever want, every characteristic that we could ever desire, every feeling we could ever seek, is within us, within our hearts. It is always sitting there, ready for us – even if we do not know it is there or are not ready for it yet ourselves.

To close each session, Kathryn took us into our hearts with her harmonium and beautiful voice, chanting great mantras, making sure we joined in an knew the gist of what we were chanting -asking that while we chant, we move down from the mind into what she refers to as the vast landscapes of our heart. Once the chanting was over, it was not uncommon to see some people with extra water in their eyes along with some extra sparkle.

After the weekend workshop of traveling to our hearts, Kathryn showed that she was able to do what all great teachers do – help students come to their own realizations by offering true wisdom that can only be achieved through personal dedication to continued self awareness. And in this case, we all had our self-awareness blossom as we got to know the landscapes of our own hearts a little bit better.

Have you ever wanted to enjoy a moment of rest but found yourself unable to relax? In today’s pace, it has become easier, if not habitual, to keep the mind moving at a momentous pace, and the tools to relax seem to evade us when there’s nothing we need more than to unwind.

This Energizing Mindfulness video is intended to help you focus on relaxing – acknowledging that this is in fact a practice that requires you to set aside some minutes and dedicate your focus. To help steer your mind and keep you focused, this video comes with spoken guidance that will leave you feeling relaxed yet invigorated, hopefully helping you to find your own way of winding down when your body calls for it.

Find a quiet moment and allow yourself to indulge in this calming sequence – designed to help wake up the mind and body in flowing comfort. Note that some postures may be difficult for those with bad knees, but in general, the practice is suitable to all levels.

This traditional Hatha sequence is taught in an easy-to-follow, flowing style – great for relieving stress and stimulating circulation.

If you have never tried yoga, this short lesson is a great way to learn some common poses and practice breathing; and if you are already familiar with yoga, this is a great sequence to help you chill out and get back to basics!

Length: 21:14

Start your day right!

Ria Hampson will guide you through Sun Salutations and other postures to boost energy and stimulate the mind-body connection for the rest of your day.

This invigorating morning sequence is designed for those with some experience in Yoga or a good physical ability.

Length: 30 minutes

Take ten minutes and find peace with this full body relaxation exercise, stretching your awareness from the crown of your head to the tips of your toes – relaxing and acknowledging each part of the body with a systematic and soothing dialog.

Length: 9:50

Low Back Therapy

In this intermediate yoga session, Dana Skoglund will guide you through a beautifully calm sequence designed to align the body and alleviate back pain.

Take your dedication, strength and passion off the Yoga Mat and into your community.

Seane Corn radiates compassion and strength

The yoga community is growing by the day, and in an “Off the Mat, Into the World” workshop, Seane Corn is reminding us of just how big it is: representing roughly 20 million Americans – of which Seane may be one the most recognizable of all.

With her beautifully effortless mane and shining smile, Seane is easy to look at and has made herself a familiar face to nearly every North American yoga instructor and Yoga Journal subscriber. When she speaks, her confident Jersey accent coupled with eloquently thoughtful sentences make her equally easier to listen to.

And what she’s saying is making sense.

Seane takes us through her experience as a young adult and then yoga teacher, first identifying that she had internal demons, and then learning to deal with them. She was able to unify us in this very personal experience by describing it something like this: Face your weakness and use it to connect and empower those who are facing the same.

Seane used the resulting momentum of energy and empathy to propel all the yogis in the room into considering how they might be able to connect small groups in the community with similar ideologies and mobilize them!! While it’s highly idealogical, Sean Corn has officially put into practice as the recipient of the 2005 Conscious Humanitarian Award, the national Yoga ambassador of Youth Aids and the founder of Off the Mat, Into the World.

By the end of the spoken portion, Seane has taken the time to not only tell her story, but listen to many of the stories of those there to listen. With this equal discourse, it feels the perfect place to practice a little asana (yoga postures) which she thoughtfully combines with the reflection and intentions of the workshop.

To donate to, or learn about or become a part of Seane’s inspiring intiatives you can visit www.offthematintotheworld.com.

Jill Miller clearly practices what she preaches..

Before Jill Miller has even said a word, you can see that she is strong and assertive with a good sense of humour, her toned and confident physique indicates that she knows her stuff.. And then you find out her credentials!

She has a foundational nuts and bolts approach to the body and its movements and has been recognized for this unique approach, appearing in Yoga Journal, Fit Yoga, Breathe Magazine, Women’s Running, and on NPR; the LA Times calls Miller “kinetically arresting”.

Having studied the moving arts for over 24 years (Yoga, Modern Dance, Pilates, Breathwork, Shiatsu, and Butoh), she created the Yoga Tune Up® program. Miller teaches workshops and retreats internationally, and is a longtime faculty member of the Omega Institute, and Kriplau.

The 2-hour workshop started with a self massage using her signature Yoga Therapy Balls. We rolled our upper and middle backs over the balls and while the experience started out somewhat torturous, my back felt loose and alive by the time the pain subsided… Reminding me of how physically painful experiences can often leave you feeling better and more alive (again, once the pain subsides).

The workshop was a great blend of anatomical crash-course and creative word-smithing, offering a wide balance between the fundamental movements and the ways in which I can explain them to help trigger the minds and bodies of my students. Ultimately in the hopes of helping them to deepen their practice and live healthier and happier lives!

Jill was approachable, practical and honest and her understanding of the body and how to translate it’s movements into cues was a great tool for any type of physical health instructor!

Add Depth and Dexterity to your Running Workout

I recently had a new client approach me who was training for a marathon. I agreed with his guess that yoga might help him in his training so we promptly started some one-on-one yoga sessions.

The day after his first session, he sent an email saying, “the yoga helped tremendously with some stress release and my track times directly after the class were my fastest ever! maybe i should have gotten into yoga sooner, who knows?”

I was thrilled to hear this! But, I wasn’t entirely surprised.. And here are some reasons why:

Alignment: The body is the sum of its parts and impairment of one affects them all. A bad back is going to affect your ankles just as weak knees can throw off your hip alignment. Yoga addresses the whole body and strives to regulate imbalances in alignment.

Balance/Posture:

• In Yoga, we learn how we carry weight/favour sides
• With a focus on good posture, body parts are held in the positions that favour best function, putting the least strain on muscles, tendons, ligaments, and bones.
• Poor posture makes a person tire more quickly

Flexibility/Stretching:

• Running includes a lot of pounding, tightening, and shortening of the muscles
• Not much restorative, elongating, and loosening work.
• Without opposing movements, the body compensates to avoid injury by working around the instability.
• Compensation puts stress on muscles, joints, and the entire skeletal system.

Breath:

• Yoga can increase your oxygen/air capacity.
• Maximum oxygen intake enables the working muscles to work better with more input and can increase endurance.
• Breath awareness is key to reducing tension.
• Breathing/pranayama exercises soothe the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems
• Breath directly affects the heartbeat and brainwaves

Body Awareness:

• Yoga has an internal focus rather than external outcome
• Runners can use yoga practice to balance strength, increase range of motion, and train the body and mind.
• Result is that body, mind, and breath are integrated in all actions.
• Through consistent yoga conditioning, you can engage, strengthen, and place demands on all of your intrinsic muscle groups
• The calmness you glean from yoga can help you to intuit where you are on a given day and what resources you have to give.
• Respecting your body’s limitations.
• Understanding where you hold tension, weight and where imbalances exist

Strength:

• Much of Yoga has works the core, helping relieve other muscles of burden when the core can step in and deliver
• The practice of Yoga cultivates a strength of mind, akin to that of a marathon runner, quieting the mind.

While there is no telling if my client’s track times were directly related to his yoga session, there is no doubt that the benefits to cross-training with yoga can awaken new layers to your running practice!