Inner Light Outer Peace Yoga Blog

Thursday - 6:00 - 7:15PM

On the lawn between the Library and Turn Of River Middle School.

Bring: Mat and/or blanket, water bottle, friends….anything else to support your practice!

Cost: Karma donation suggested $10 +/-

Weather Permitting, forecast looks good.  If you are uncertain, check here before heading over.         

Audio and/or Video Yoga has become available in many formats, so when life off the mat keeps you from the studio, why not try a home practice with video or audio guidance? Options of formats abound, with Pod Casts, Video Streams and Downloads, DVDs, Cable On-Demand, Audio CDs and more. I am happy to share some useful links to kick off your exploration of Yoga 2-D but not without the balance of a healthy disclaimer.

Until video becomes a technology that allows two-way viewing and interaction, I firmly believe that beginning Yoga students need to show up in a ‘live’ class. No amount of reading about Yoga or watching Yoga can replace the guidance and support of a teacher who can offer allignment and safety cues that are unique to a student’s personal anatomy. Human Beings are unique and so are the shape of our bones.  Downward Facing Dog, for example, can look vastly different from body to body. A beginner student imitating the shape of Rodney Yee in Eagle Pose can be dangerous for someone who might have an injury, different bone structure or range of motion. Not to mention, it can be frustrating to find that our first attempts at forward bending look much more like right angles than the relaxed and complete fold of Shiva Re. It can also be frustrating when our video teachers have moved onto another pose or flow while we are still trying to unwind from the last posture or scrambling for the darned remote and which button is Pause anyway? Some frustrations can have such an impact that new students might be driven to find creative other uses for that brand new sticky mat - I have heard they work well under area rugs to avoid slipping.

So then why do I recommend taking up a home practice with 2-Dimensional support?

For Beginners Students

Lose the mystery. There can be fear and intimidation around trying something new. Maybe Yoga is that weirdo thing your hippy aunt did when you were five. Observe a class in the privacy of your own home so you know what to expect when you hit the studio for your first class.

Learn the Language. You do not have to be fluent in Sanskrit to understand an instructor. However watching what the video students do when the instructor says ‘float forward to plank’ may prevent you from trying to lift your hands and feet off the floor at the same time. Or, you may be relieved to learn that ‘opening the ribs and side body’  actually looks pleasurable and does not require medical instruments.

For Yoga students who can’t get to class

Variety is the spice of life. Since libraries and book outlets are loaded with Yoga video selections and the internet can provide a taste of almost every style of Yoga - try something NEW! Experience a new teacher, a new style, maybe just a new pranayama. Or for the very shy at heart (like me) try Laughter Yoga without feeling silly the first time you show up at a Laughter Yoga Club. Also, in some areas, class selections are limited to what the studios offer. If driving an hour to try the new Yoga Dance Fusion class is not an option, you just might find a broadcast of that to view in your own living room.

Yoga to Go.  Travel a lot? Take your practice to go. Even in a hotel room you can enjoy a morning practice downloaded to your computer the night before.

Yoga al Fresco. Taking a walk to the park or beach, find a quiet spot and listen to a pod cast on your mp3 player.

Commit to a personal practice.  Taking the time alone, at home or elsewhere, nurtures your determination and will to practice with and for yourself. Many students feel they do not know how to begin or what to do without the guidance of their teacher. Start with the support of a video or audio lesson and let your own inner teacher emerge as you begin to modify the lesson to meet your personal needs.

How to begin? 

Try some of these excellent resources and links:

http://www.yogatoday.com/ - Stream or download for future use. Beautiful full length classes with three different teachers to choose from. Every day a new class is available. Pod Casts also available here. FREE.

http://myyogaonline.com/index.htm - Stream or download from a large variety of classes. Choose by style, teacher or physical focus. $9.95/month for unlimited video downloads.

Visit the Yoga.org.nz Online yoga website heaps of cool yoga stuff including a free downloadable Videos and DVDs.  FREE DVDS Yoga Online

On TV

Optimum Cable subscribers can tune into Free on demand Yoga classes. See the ‘Mag Rack’ in the On Demand menu. Or check your cable listings, there are usually some yoga classes broadcast in the early hours of morning. If you are not an early bird, try Tivo.

On DVD and VHS

Browse the Kripalu selection of videos that you can order from their website. I recommend Stephen Cope - Dynamic and Shiva Re Sun Salutation. http://www.kripalu.org/shop/shop/Video/

As a final note, watching Yoga videos can be an experience even if all you do is watch. There is much to learn by observing, so if you don’t feel ready to unroll the mat, notice what happens when you cozy up on the couch and just watch. You might find yourself wanting to move, you may find yourself falling into a deeper and fuller breath and you might find yourself melting away tension as the video class practices shavasana.

Enjoy!

Hi there! 

I guess I have arrived in cyberspace with my humble little Yoga Blog. It feels a little bit like setting up a cardboard lemonade stand on a Midtown Manhattan street corner surrounded by sky scrapers and scurrying urban professionals!

I am not selling any lemonade.

Since I began teaching Yoga in Stamford, CT I have had an ever-growing hope that a more actively connected Yoga Community could grow. When I started out, I ran my own classes, from renting a space, to promoting classes and teaching. I did not belong to a studio and found it difficult to connect with other teachers. As a student, I bounced around the handful of studios in town and I also felt no sense of belonging. 

Yoga philosophy offers much about the inter-connectedness of all things in the Universe. The more I learned and taught the more I have wondered why a place like Stamford with a large population has no sense of Yoga Community?

 Think about it, you might have some friend or friends that you go to class with or practice with, you might be very well acquainted with the other students that appear in your regular weekly class but is there a strong sense of inter-connectedness within the Yoga Community in Stamford? Do students know where to find like minds or how to share information about Yoga or Yoga events? Wouldn’t it be nice to know about special events you could attend with like minds?

Most of the Yoga teachers I know are ‘independent’, teaching in various locations.  We have clusters of students in different places. We teach ongoing classes by the Season or offer Series’ that last from 4 - 12 weeks. We devote ourselves in the moment to all of our clusters of friends and students. It’s pretty much…Have Yoga Mat - Will Travel and trying to keep presence of mind and heart…Home is where the Heart is.

From a professional standpoint, it works if we keep our heart in the practice wherever that may be. Sometimes our venues change and students have the opportunity to try a new teacher which is always a practice expanding experience - good or bad. Sometimes students follow their teachers becoming a little nomadic themselves.

So what calls to me to build community? Well, it’s the students AND the teachers.

Students can benefit from a one stop website to check the schedules of their favorite wandering teacher as well as find lots of useful information to build a home practice or find resources on the web and have a place to ask questions about Yoga.

Teachers can benefit by having a place to post their schedules, share information with other teachers, make new contacts in the community and find resources on the web.

It’s a labor of love and a work in progress. A bit of a grass roots effort - yeah, lemonade stand! I hope that new teachers will come visit, offer some inspirations for teaching, register for the site, post a comment or contribute an an article of interest.

I hope that students will come and find schedules, read stories and feel free to register, comment or get in touch with me to recommend a teacher you would like to see present here.

Check back often, I plan to keep the blog active and growing to share not just Yoga news, but Earth friendly links and stories but also information for students in a category called “The What is Department…?”. Send me a question and I will post an answer so others can benefit from the answers too.

Let this be our community and while the pages right now seem to be limited to self promotion about my classes, I hope that soon those pages will be joined by lots of other teachers and articles of interest.

Love and light and thanks for stopping by.  

Jen Irwin