Ashtanga Yoga with Bobbi Misiti

Last weekend I had the pleasure of exploring the Ashtanga Primary and Intermediate series with Bobbi Misiti at the Lewisburg Yoga Center, practicing the postures and the breath as they were intended by Pattabhi Jois to be practiced. I absorbed every moment -- traveling up and back between sides, getting into the pose without tallying, receiving the intuitive adjustments that only the skilled hands of a long-practicing yogi are able to give.

Over the years, I've subjected myself to much struggling in my relationship to Ashtanga. Part of me adores the practice and is continually amazed at its undeniable subtle power...the physicality, the focus both required by and produced by the practice, the repetition, the breath. The other part of me bristles with rebellion against the rigidity of Ashtanga. Why do we have to take the toe in utthita trikonasana? Why? My inner rule breaker is busting at the seams, silently screaming, Don't fence me in, Pattabhi Jois!

While the workshop did not offer any solace for me in this struggle, what it did do was confirm and further bolster my commitment to keep on keeping on, to rolling out the mat each day and stepping to the front of it. I understand that my continual questions, my inability to fully commit to a particular "angle," and my resistance to imposed rules are all facets of myself that I can safely explore through yoga, and I intend to do so.

I will nonetheless likely continue to do it in my own way, maybe binding in parsvakonasana (look out!) or playing with handstand rather than headstand during finishing sequence (the nerve!), I will nonetheless keep exploring this many-faceted jewel and linking my breath to my body with mindfulness and awe.

The fellow yogis and yoginis -- like Bobbi Misiti, and all my yoga friends poised on their mats in the room like pearls on a life string linking us together in our yoga journey -- they are the constant quiet reminders and the silent support offered through the presence of fellow seekers. It is in these moments of true union, of taking ourselves within through our practice, as well as connecting to one another through the vehicle of shared experience, blessed by the wisdom of countless generations before us, that we become transformed.

Yoga Journal Conference

When I landed in San Francisco for the annual Yoga Journal Conference, the agenda for the days ahead was like a gem of perfection: visit family not seen for 10 years, explore a fabulous city, and absorb as much yoga as possible. My friend Jennifer met me at the airport just before noon, whisked me into the city where we had lunch in the Mission, then for a lush hike in the redwoods, sunset at Muir beach overlook, and finally dinner at an Ethiopian restaurant in Berkley with our mutual friend Jeff. Off to a good start!


Jeff delivered me to BART early Thursday morning, loaning me a yoga mat (I forgot to bring one!), and a cell phone charger (god bless that Jeff). I spent the first two days of the conference absorbing solid and relevant information regarding the business of yoga, but what I was truly excited about were the asana workshops I'd be attending over the weekend. Ah, the asana!


I literally could not wipe the smile from my face as I floated into my first workshop of the morning, an energy-focused class with David Life, and settled my borrowed mat inside the borders of a rectangle masking-taped to the floor. As a devoted yogi and seeker, believer in energy, and lover of life, moments like these are golden. We began with chanting, offered intentions, and proceeded to explore the infinitely deepening effect of connecting to the energetic body through asana practice.


Ana Forrest taught us to fly. Titled Gravity Surfing, this workshop challenged the borders of the yogi's edge, tangling our perceptions (and misperceptions) of what we can and cannot do. I marveled at the intense life emanating from Ana and her assistants, confident women with muscular thighs and a sharp eye for the weak spot in a pose. I left tired and happy, grateful for the opportunity to fly, but even more grateful for the invitation to try.


Seane Corn took us beyond the boundaries of our bodies, into the realm where spirit meets flesh, where breath spans the boundary from physical to ethereal, and yoga becomes so much more than what happens on the mat. I noticed David Swenson tucked away in a back corner, participating with the rest of us in the magic of group practice.

It is this constant evening out -- this understanding that even the most exalted teachers on the yoga circuit must continue to practice and then practice some more -- that binds us all together as a group and unifies us as one spirit. I'm anchored by this comforting truth, and return home from the conference high from all the yoga, blissfully thankful for these gifts, and eager to share them with others.

Ah, the well-intentioned New Year’s resolution. We’ve all made them; we’ve all broken them. After spending more than a month indulging in the season’s abundance, bellies full of holiday cookies and minds foggy from celebratory champagne, we find ourselves forming idealistic visions of the complete personal overhaul. Topping the list are better eating, sleeping, and exercise habits, refined personal finance skills, and robust community involvement. Too often, though, we fall victim to the sheer enormity of sculpting the perfect self out of a lumpy couch potato. Once the New Year’s buzz wears off and we re-enter the real world, that fairy dust vision has a way of disappearing behind the constant daily clutter of our workaday lives. Traffic jams and to-do lists, screaming kids and broken washing machines… Who has time, after all, to exercise everyday? Much less to organize the bread shelf in the pantry or donate time in a soup kitchen?

Perhaps the very focus on our shortcomings makes them bigger than they deserve to be. “People deal too much with the negative, with what is wrong...Why not try and see positive things, to just touch those things and make them bloom?” Thich Nhat Hahn, celebrated Buddhist philosopher and writer, posits this question. As we invite the best within ourselves to come forth, balancing the “bad” is a more manageable task. It is in this sense that honoring our sacred inner space becomes imminently relevant to improving all that which seems to comprise and encompass our bodies, our families, and ultimately our whole community and planetary environment.

How to achieve the personal goals, then, that we perceive will lead us to that perfectly balanced life? First by simply understanding that “balance” begins with a well-defined center. If we have lost touch with our center -- or for that matter never taken the time to introduce ourselves to that bright inner light – no amount of outward effort will make a hill of beans’ worth of difference. What good is skinny, after all, when it’s accompanied by a sense of emptiness or achieved by unhealthy means? Flabby thighs, addiction issues, laziness, and disorganization are not distinct, independent problems that can be addressed in vacuums all by themselves. First things first in the personal revolution. Inner layer before outer layer.

This is not to suggest that “enlightened” beings or those who are more spiritually “evolved” enjoy problem-free lives or are inherently any better than the rest of us. Courteous attention to our inner lives, though -- whether through prayer, meditation, contemplation, or practiced mindfulness -- allows us to first gain enough perspective to put personal shortcomings in their rightful places. A fat butt is just that and nothing else, but the underlying issues that allowed the booty to blossom into fruition are where the real seeds of the matter lie, waiting to emerge again and again. Unearthing those seeds is the key to success. Or perhaps the whole problem is really an illusion propelled by unrealistic media images, a truth the inner self understands and is waiting patiently to share.

All we have to do is listen, to tend the inner garden while honoring the inescapable goodness surrounding each and every one of us. G.K. Chesterton sums it up well: “The object of a New Year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul.” To this end I suggest all other resolutions be abandoned for this one: Tend the inner garden, and enjoy its nourishing fruit. The rest of the details will take care of themselves.

Namaste.