Thursday, May 7, 2009

Tuesday, May 5th - My First Yoga Class

My ‘iyengar yoga Portland’ google search came up first with the Julie Lawrence Yoga Centre.  I was lucky to be able to get to a level 2 class with Julie herself – she was incredibly welcoming when I literally just showed up!  Her fully equipped studio is great – in an office building, which felt a little odd going in, but has lots of light and great views of Portland from the 8th floor downtown location!  

Julie had just returned from an annual week-long workshop with Patricia Walden and she was wonderfully enthusiastic and excited to share her experience and what she had learnt.  Her class was what you’d expect of an experienced senior teacher – flowed well, we weren’t let off the hook and her corrections were very helpful.  I was also pleased she used the Sanskrit and invocation as I must admit, for some reason, I thought the US might be less traditional.

She also brings the sutras and homework to her sessions – today, she asked us to reflect on how to make effort effortless and to use one of 4 emotions, happiness, joy, compassion or indifference, to help achieve this.  I do believe in the concept of effortless effort – and occasionally feel like I achieve it – though was trickier today in Full Arm Balance ….  I really appreciated the link to the emotions, which I hadn’t heard before and as requested, it is definitely something I will continue to reflect on and play with.

I am so glad to have my first yoga class on this trip be such a great experience – here’s to many more!

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