Welcome to the Iyengar Yoga Center of Fort Collins, a studio founded by Certified Iyengar Teacher Cathy Wright. The Iyengar classes that are taught here are in keeping with BKS Iyengar method and spirit of Classical yoga. Several other yoga styles are taught at the studio, please see the weekly schedule.
HERE WE ARE, INTO THE NEW YEAR 2012!!
I am pleased to see so many of you returning to class as soon as our winter break was over. I am happy to announce all the blankets and belts have been washed be several yoga students who took this project on during the Holidays. It makes a difference when your nose is in a blanket, or a belt is being used in your hands that they feel clean and smell clean, thank you Jaimee and Steve Amadee.
From time to time I have to be out of the studio and I put other yoga teachers in place to see that you don’t miss your “appointment” with yourself. When you read that I am gone please still come to class, there is so much to learn that dropping your personal resistance is a powerful step in dropping ones ego of likes and dislikes, and the teacher in front of you can’t teach if you don’t show up. Prashant has this to say:
“Alignment of the body is a fallacy. Alignment of the body is never possible. What the body has on one side it does not have on the other side. The left figuration and form is different to the right. Ultimately it is all an alignment of the mind.”
Let us be Iyengar students that champion the Mind, the Mind as something deep and subtle and more vast and spacious than we can imagine. Attending your class time, no matter who is teaching, no matter if you have a cold, or a sore foot, is a step in accepting circumstances just as they are happening, and showing up for Life on Life’s terms. How enjoyable and free is that! Go for it!
I will be out of the studio the week of Jan. 23, Paige, Connie and Nicole will be teaching the classes. (No class Jan 23 at 4pm and 5:30pm or noon Tuesday Jan. 24)
One purpose of yoga practice is to be completely one with the practice. Some transformation occurs each time we give ourselves over to a practice. The reward for setting aside time to practice, whether at home or in class, is big. It is so big that I can’t name it, or sell it, or even take it away from you. To find out for ourselves what our whole self is, is amazing. One teacher says “……..if you are brave enough to throw yourself in…….a little bit of understanding will help your rigidity and your stubbornness…….it is true that as long as we live we will have problems, so we don’t practice to solve our problems, but almost all the problems we create because of our stubborn mind, will vanish.”
Hmmmmmmm. Interesting. The yoga time is like a turtle going inside its shell to be calm. And when calmness is encountered, something big functions. One Zen teacher says:
“the six parts of the turtle are sometimes outside the shell and sometimes inside. When you want to eat or go somewhere, your legs are out, but if they are always out, your will be caught by something. The six parts refer to the five senses and the mind.”
Our yoga practice is “shell time”. We draw our attention inward and pacify the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind and when savasna is over, Big Mind is functioning.
We have a turtle pose that is worth practicing, it is called Kurmasana. Look it up and see what you can manage. Lets talk about it in class and make it part of our 2012 practice.
See you soon, safe and healthy,
Namaste, Cathy