First Street Yoga - Newberg, Oregon

We still have space in the free vinyasa class this Saturday from 11:30-1. This should be a great experience for healthy beginners and for continuing students who understand how to work with any physical problems they may have.

At First Street Yoga, correct physical alignment is always a priority in order to transform inefficient postural habits and protect joint health. In a vinyasa class, we flow from pose to pose and there is less time for specific instruction. The practice is a little more meditative and aerobic than our usual L1 classes. In fact, it is much more like a guided home practice.

Every style of yoga has its own strengths and weaknesses. Careful detailed instruction is transformational and teaches precision in thought and movement. It is also a more analytical experience, and its weakness is that it can tend to keep us a little stuck in our heads. A flowing vinyasa practice may not be as effective at changing old physical habits but it encourages the mind to quiet and become more attentive to the sensations of the body, increasing strength and flexibility, circulation and relaxation.

Come fall, Alison will teach an on-going vinyasa class on Wednesday afternoons. I am very excited about this new option and believe you will find it to be another great yoga tool to help improve the quality of life. If you’re interested, please join us on Saturday (and let anyone else know who might be interested). You can reserve a spot by emailing or calling 503-554-5485, or you can just show up and attend first-come-first-served

We still have space in the upcoming free classes:
intro to yoga on Wednesday July 20 from 3-4:30
intro to vinyasa on Saturday July 30 11:30-1.

The free classes are a great way for prospective students to learn about yoga at FSY, but you don’t have to be a new student. We offer the free classes periodically as a gift to the community. Current and past students are also most welcome. Those of us who teach at First Street have been changed by our yoga practice (just ask my family!); it is our great pleasure to share this simple and effective tool for living. I hope to see you soon.

Good! The sensitive and complex foot suffers when it is confined to shoes and to the smooth surfaces of floors and roads. Let your toes explore the grass, the sand and sea. It’s a simple but effective way to expand your horizons and improve your health.

Here is my favorite sequence to strengthen and coordinate the feet, ankles, knees and hips (first learned from Patricia Walden). In this vinyasan, move fluidly from position to position.

Tadasana
Urdhva hastasana
Utkatasana
Malasana (upright squat)
Heels up, balance on toes, squat
Kneeling, toes curled under

And reverse to go back to tadasana and begin again.

Practice tips: look poses up in your favorite book or at www.yogajournal.com;
keep your weight in your heels (stand with heels on a blanket if necessary);
stay firm at the waist to maintain balance throughout.

Now strengthen feet and ankles by balancing in Vrksasana (tree pose). Let your newly energized feet be the roots, reaching downward!

We are going to be closed this Monday, July 4th for the holiday. If you are registered for this class you may use it as a make-up or credit to carry forward. Have a wonderful weekend-

I’ll be taking a sabbatical this summer. One of the things I hope to do more of this summer is hiking. Even a familiar walk is new each time. When my daughter was young, she became interested in ferns. Until her interest opened my eyes, I hadn’t really been aware of the great variety of lovely ferns lining our favorite walks. Now I can’t help but notice them and they are like friends, the tough sword ferns carpeting dark woods or the delicate maiden hair or deer fern coiled near a seeping spring. Walking in the woods is such a complex and rich experience that we usually only know it in pieces.

The path of yoga is similarly rich and varied, involving all our senses, drawing on our intelligence, determination, and compassion. Our attention is guided by our own interests and needs, of course. One person practices asana to keep their back healthy, another to keep depression at bay, another for the simple joy of physical expression. We are guided by our teachers’ interests as well. They share their knowledge and enthusiasm and lead us to places we wouldn’t have noticed on our own.

Alison Spencer and Gail Bruner will be teaching all the classes during the summer. Both are long-term committed practitioners. They bring a shared knowledge of the technical aspects of yoga and we are lucky to benefit from their years of studies. Each also brings their personal commitment and interest, their own unique relationship to this rich tradition.

I hope you take the opportunity to experience these teachers. When you travel, I encourage you to check out the local yoga. Alison, Gail, and I are currently benefiting from the dedication and experience of Patricia Walden, one of the most influential teachers in the country. Her extraordinary teaching inspires me to study harder, to become clearer and calmer in my instruction, and ever deeper in my practice. When we study with a new teacher, we gain a new perspective; we hear old instructions in new ways. Even after twenty years of practice, new vistas open before me and I’m filled with gratitude.

I hope to see you soon (I’ll be substituting some this summer). We’re planning new classes for fall. Check out Alison’s free introduction to vinyasa class on July 30.