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.
Spring has arrived! What a time for being alive. Keep up your practices, whatever they may be. There are many ways to wake up, yoga and meditation are two practices, but so is folding the laundry, getting to your destinations on time, and letting your plans change in mid-stream. Stay awake so you don’t miss the smell of the lilacs, the shock of the vibrant purple iris, and the moon at night.
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