Hi Alice,
I wanted to tell you how great my practice was today... I felt challenged. I felt sensation. I felt comforted. I felt safe. I felt all those things. My most difficult moment, always, is as we move from all those busy sun salutations and standing poses, so full of energy and pushed to a particular moment of intensity... and then, so seemingly abruptly, transition to static balances. It feels dramatic. It feels... almost confusing. It is a struggle to hold myself together..at a time when I might prefer to be bungee jumping off the top of a very high bridge. (Not that I'm prone to such risk-taking behaviors) It takes every bit of my mental strength to hold those eagles and trees, and transition to something very different. I always struggle. I frequently fall out. Yet, when I finally "get there," it's every bit as exhilarating as that imagined free-fall, wrapped in a rubber band.. testing the limits of elastic energy and gravity.
The dancer poses today were a blast. Especially the one with the strap. Every pose, thereafter, felt different and changed from the way I did it yesterday...
I am thinking that everyone comes to yoga with an expectation that it will be a path to self-improvement. I am sure that happens. In the few months that I have practiced, I think I might be a bit healthier, a bit stronger, a bit more flexible. Some friends have even told me that I look a bit younger since starting yoga! Yahoo! I just laugh... Some very close friends accuse me of being a bit happier. My kids would say I'm a little less grumpy. :)
But what I have learned, so far, is that the yoga path is less concerned with self-improvement, and more centered on self-acceptance. Self-improvement implies that a weakness exists within me today, that must be snuffed out! I ultimately fall short on someone's yardstick of perfection, and I must be improved upon...
But the acceptance and appreciation of who I am, as a body with breath, with untapped strength in mind and spirit.. is a gift from yoga. From my perch on my mat, I have seen things long forgotten. Parts of my life. There are moments, on the mat, when things are fun and flowing.. and I giggle like the child I was, and still am today. When things are intense, and I'm struggling, I find my sweat mixes with real tears, as I am faced with the unresolved losses and traumas, so common to anyone who has grown into adulthood. Never without scars...
Yoga is about acceptance. It is about compassion. It is about gratitude. It's about growing up and becoming whole..
Thanks Alice. You and Charles have given me a gift. And from looking around the studio, the numerous times I have been there over the past few months, I am guessing you there are quite a few other folks who have been gifted by you too. You are very nice people... I am happy to have fallen into your place.
Namaste.
- Lauren
When I talk to my friends and family about yoga I often quote Alice telling
us, "You can come for the physical piece and get that, for the emotional
piece and get that, and the spiritual piece and get that. So why not come
for all three?!" I am a single mom, a grad student writing a dissertation, I
teach a couple classes at SMCC and I work for an after-school program.
People ask me, "How do you do it?" and I answer "with yoga!" Yoga helps me
tap into a deeper source of energy that isn't only physical but emotional and
spiritual. This energy helps me meet my life with more gratitude and less
resistance. It's almost as if yoga is a training program for how to live my
life better... and rather than waiting for a marathon to race, I use my
training all the time in my day to day life.
- Anna A.
Ok, I am a geek. I know it sounds kind of silly but I was thinking about this as I sat in half-pigeon the other day. I am not sure if people are familiar with Japanese animation (or Anime)- if you aren't just sit down with your kids in front of the TV sometime- but invariably they use a stylistic approach to when a character is about to undergo some kind of major change or metamorphosis. A faint glow starts in their belly, their forehead, their hand, their mouth then bursts forth from beneath the skin in rays of light illuminating all around them. When I am practicing, when I feel like it's really working, I feel a kind of glow in certain centers, my belly, my chest, my lower back. It sort of reminds me of that Anime glow, the precursor to major change or metamorphosis that will come from within and illuminate my surroundings. Man, that Half-pigeon can really do things to you!
See? Wicked geek.
- Ben K.
When I started classes at Portland Power Yoga, I had a longstanding problem with shoulder and neck pain. This was just one of a long series of joint problems plaguing me over the last 5 years. First it was my knees and knee surgery, then hip issues that didn't clear up until a year of treatment, then wrists and then shoulders. My first class I was so weak in downward dog. It felt very hard to do. In a very short time, I have built up strength not only in my shoulders, but in my whole body. I have no pain! I feel strong, less stressed, and more confident. It really works!
- Anonymous
I really love the combination of heat, continuous flow and constant instruction for the teachers. The time goes by very quickly.
- Melanie S.
I think I have met my match with Power Vinyasa Yoga - for me it requires and evokes such strong focus. it is both delicate and complex and I love that mental balance. I have more sustainable energy from it.
- Emily
(It's) challenging & rewarding. I'm not an athlete, i'm not a dancer. I'm healthy, but not exactly in shape - and I can do it! I'm finding muscles and strength and resolve (and patience and focus) I didn't know I had.
Both Alice and Charles are "real" people who have made yoga a part of their lives in a way that I as a student hope to. They lead by example, so to speak, and don't fit the stereotype of the "serious yogi" that so many people hold. There is a sense that they are growing with us rather than just leading us. Very nice.
- Leanne D.
You and Alice have such a great business, I love power yoga!!!
- Kristy F.
FEEDBACK ON WORKSHOPS
I loved this workshop. Alice was concise with purposeful momentum in her instruction. It was after the workshop at my next class that I realized my body remembered what my head didn't. To learn surrender and beginning to breathe (correctly) for the first time is a great gift to self.
- Linda T., absoolute beginner.
It was just what I needed. It really adressed aspects of the practice which I like to focus on, i.e. breath, gaze, etc. The insights I gained help or will help me be more trusting of my abilities.
- Emily T.
I thought it was very useful to have the poses explained slowly and be able to have questions answered.
- Melanie S.
