Puddle Jumping in DC

Itsy Bitsy Yoga in DC and Arlington, VA this Fall

Have I told you about my new job?

A couple weeks ago, I gave notice at The Nature Conservancy.  While I've enjoyed the last two years writing newsletter articles about their global conservation programs, I'm finding myself more and more drawn to teaching yoga, specifically to kids. So starting this fall, that's what I'm going to do.

Some of my classes have already started. Recently, ten three-year-olds and I went on a trip. We packed our bags, took an airplane ride, went swimming on the beach, and went dancing in New York City, all without leaving their colorfully decorated classroom in Northwest DC.

Partial class plan for Planes, Trains and other Mobiles:

pack our bags

• wash our clothes: twistee
• dry our clothes: nahbi
• hang them on the clothes line: half moon
• iron the fancy stuff: moon toe
• fold the shirts and pants: toes to nose
• put everything in the suitcase: forward bend

pack the car: in-out breathing

drive to the airport: red light-green light x2 or x3

check our bags at the airport: ring around the yogi

airplane ride: play The Airplane Song: jump, spin, gallop, dance (Laurie Berkner)

visit the beach

• make a sand castle: wide angle forward bend & variations
• read book: sing These Are My Glasses (Berkner)
• take a bicycle ride

train ride home

Sure yoga teaches patience and mindfulness and is a physical exercise that's good for kids, but it's also wildly fun.

Join me in new classes this fall:

Mondays at Capitol Hill Yoga
Itsy Bitsy Yoga

• 9:30 am - Tots, crawling to 2 years
• 10:30 am - Tykes, 2-4 years

Next session starts Sept 12.

Tuesdays at Yoga Chai
Itsy Bitsy Yoga

• 11 am - Tots, crawling to 2 years
• 12 noon - Babies, newborn to nearly crawling

Next session starts Sept 13.

Fridays at lil omm -Arlington

• 9:30am - Movers (crawling to 2 years)
• 10:30am - Preschoolers (2-4 years)
• 11:30am - Itsy Bitsy Yoga for Babies (newborn to pre-crawling)

The new lil omm schedule starts September 6. Classes are all drop-in for the month, so come check it out. (Sign up online to reserve your space.)

Contact me for more information about upcoming classes or join my mailing list by following the link or liking my Facebook page.

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Photo credit: Preschooler demonstrates tree pose, a pose taught in Tyke Itsy Bitsy Yoga. Yoga Girl photo by Flickr user naturalmom / CC BY 2.0

Cultivating a Sense of Wonder

 “I ride the metro with God.”

That was the thought that struck me at the end of chapter 7 of Donna Farhi’s Bringing Yoga to Life. The thought drove home the magnitude of creation, the sheer magnitude of Grace manifested into the diversity of this reality and its potential for constant rediscovery of the Self.  Two instances are not enough to capture an awareness of Grace over a day, let alone a month, but this is my attempt:

The bicycle commute: It’s cool, cold even, when I start my hour-long ride from Capitol Hill to Ballston, VA. I’m usually running late, so I peddle hard and the blood begins to pump faster through my veins, warming my whole body. My breath quickens. Often I can see it moving in and out, becoming me and becoming sky again, rushing past. Birds and airplanes soar overhead. I marvel at the contrast – that both can fly at all; that the rest of us don’t simply float away ^[1]. 

The toddler: A good bit of two-year-old anxiety is related to the process of defining identity. Where does she begin and end? She tells me, “I’m a butterfly today,” and retells the same stories, processing events of her day. “I fell down on my head and it went POP!” is a current favorite.  She’s magnetically drawn to the drama of human emotion, pointing out whenever anyone in earshot is sad (one of the more easily identified emotions). “The baby is sad” or “The little boy is sad,” she empathizes and looks to me to assure her that it’s ok. As she learns how she is separate from others, I hope she doesn’t completely forget that she is not.

 

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[1] See January 20, 2010 - Astronomy Picture of the Day for a mind-blowing illustration of Grace. 

Originally drafted in response to a yoga teacher training homework assignment. Posted in response to today's #reverb10 prompt by Jeff Davis.

Combating the Lure of the Snooze Button

We sleep (3)
Originally uploaded by Studiojmm.

My solution to the challenge of accomplishing anything while looking after a three-year-old and juggling work and household tasks is to get up very early. My alarm goes off well before the crack of dawn and I stumble out of bed, leaving Mac and Maya to sleep while I practice yoga and get in some writing before the demands of the day hit.

Or at least that's how it's supposed to go.

In order for the early morning routine to be sustainable, Maya and I need to be crawling into bed for bedtime stories – pajamas on and teeth already brushed – by about 8:30 p.m. But between a late napper and evening commitments several nights a week, bedtime tends to creep later and later around here. We're lucky if the crawl into bed thing happens before 9:30, and since neither of us fall asleep quickly, that results in not enough sleep for mom and makes that snooze button very, very tempting.

In his #reverb10 prompt this morning, Leo Babauta asked: "Writing. What do you do each day that doesn't contribute to your writing -- and can you eliminate it?"

Eliminating the snooze button is really a commitment to bedtime, so that's what I need to work on.

Transition

In her #reverb10 prompt this morning, Gwen Bell asked participants to define 2010 in one word. Mine is "transition."

While 2009 was actually the year in which I left my full time job, it was in 2010 that I really attempted to figure out what that meant. I began a yoga teacher training program and teaching kids yoga weekly, and I began to explore a new identity, separate from full time environmental advocacy.

The year involved a lot of casting about and feeling somewhat lost, not unlike a certain polliwog in one of Maya's favorite library books: The Caterpillar and the Polliwog. He learns that, like the boastful caterpillar, he will transform into something else when he grows up, but nobody tells him what.

The word I will project on 2011 is "focus."

transformation photo © 2005 Noyes | more info (via: Wylio)

Yoga and the Political Activist

Among the first things I did when I got up this morning to proofread my paper on The Bhagavad Gita for yoga teacher training  was check Facebook (don't we all now?), which lead me to a book review on Green LA Girl on Yoga for a World Out of Balance. It's nice when this particular tamasic act actually directs me back to my task.

Excerpts:

In the weeks leading up to yoga teacher training, I read Donna Farhi’s Bringing Yoga to Life: The Everyday Practice of Enlightened Living, as assigned. Enormous portions of the book resonated with me and I found myself enthusiastically underlining passages and writing in the margins, until I got to this paragraph:

“When we slow down, we create a conductive environment for kindness and thoughtfulness to flourish. We find that it isn’t necessary to join our local peace demonstration. We can demonstrate for peace by being peaceful.” [p. 54]

My immediate reaction is, “Um, no. That doesn’t work.”

Free Itsy Bitsy Yoga classes a Willow Street in Takoma Park on Friday

Babies, toddlers, and preschool-age children derive many of the same benefits from yoga that adults do: increased strength and flexibility, improved body awareness, and relaxation. In addition, a kids yoga class encourages children to move creatively in a non-competitive environment while honoring each child's unique expression of the poses and having fun.

Willow Street Yoga's Summer 2010 classes run from July 23 to September 3. Free preview classes will be offered on July 16 (led by me) and 18 (led by Rebecca Gitter).

• 9:00 am - Tots,
  for crawler babies to 24 month-old toddlers
• 10:00 am - Tykes,
  21 month-old toddlers to 4 year-old children
• 11:00 am - Babies,
  3 week-old to pre-crawling babies

Each class features dozens of child-oriented yoga poses, games, and songs that parents can enjoy with their children anytime. No yoga experience required for parent or child. All classes will be held upstairs in studio 2 at the Takoma Park studio, but please check in at the front desk.

Itsy Bitsy Yoga has been a huge part of our parenting experience

That I spend every Friday morning leading newborns through preschoolers and their parents through games, songs, and yoga poses at Willow Street Yoga Studio in Takoma Park has been seriously underrepresented on this blog.

I started taking Maya to local Itsy Bitsy Yoga classes before she could even hold up her head. When I went back to work, Mac took Maya to what sounded like a very fun Tots class while I hunted the metro area for a class that worked with both my work and Maya's nap schedule.  I ended up getting certified to teach instead.

As Maya grew, yoga became one of her favorite activities.  She's one of those non-participatory kids in class.  She hangs back, runs around the room, does some poses and watches others. And then she does them all at home, makes us perform them on her baby dolls (we went through a phase where anything with legs and a face did toes-to-nose multiple times a day), and asks whens we're going back to class.

That both Mac and I took her to classes turned out to be very useful.  As a pre-verbal toddler, there was a language all three of us could speak in the games and movements of Itsy Bitsy Yoga. Maya would light up when one of us did a pose with her outside of class, as if saying "I know this!"

As she became verbal, Tots and then Tykes yoga became even more fun. Yoga poses became a way to change the mood, break her out of tantrum, entertain her during an adult-oriented wait for something, or just have fun.  One night, she got something stuck to her foot and went to wipe her foot on her other leg.  She was whining a bit about whatever it was until she realized that she was in Tree Pose, and then she was totally tickled as she laughed and said, "Mommy, Mommy do tree pose, too."  She would often strike a pose and have me name it. "What's Maya doing?," she'd ask until I answered.

So if you are in the area with your little one, join me on Friday and for the rest of the summer.

Itsy Bitsy Yoga® is a unique blend of yoga postures, child developmental movement, and parent/child bonding. Itsy Bitsy Yoga was created by Helen Garabedian, an infant developmental movement educator, yoga teacher, and mother. Jen studied with Helen in 2008 and 2009.

Sacred Space

A lovely room that does not resemble
Jen's regular practice space.
Originally uploaded by beauty that moves.

My yoga home practice space is not a room dedicated to yoga and meditation with a lovely alter or plenty of wall space for practicing inversions.

I live in an old 3 bedroom row house housing 3 adults and a toddler, so pretty much every square inch of space gets used. On the second floor, we go vertical too, with shelving a couple feet down from the ceiling in 2 of the 3 rooms and 4 sets of floor to ceiling bookcases (a total of 6 once you count the ones in the front hall downstairs).

We've just hatched a plan to begin transitioning Maya to her own bed this summer, and that too involves going vertical with a custom built loft in what will eventually be Maya's own room.

So, my practice space, especially when I don't leave myself time to pick up more than the bare minimum, tends to look more like:

Musings on Time

Mac got home yesterday evening complaining about the unusual amount of traffic he had encountered on his way back from Towson. He asked what time I needed to leave to make it to my yoga class, I answered, 6:30 for a 6:45 class. By 6:25, I was running late, as usual, and at 6:35 tore out of the house for the brief ride over to the studio. Upon entering, I noticed two things: one, this was not the usual instructor and, two, she had already started.

I pulled off my shoes and left them and my bike helmet on the shelf in the entryway, prepped my other things for easy stashing on the studio shelf, made some comment to the receptionist about someday being on time, and slipped into the studio. I rolled out my mat at the back of the class and took a few moments to settle before joining in. I was surprised to find that Stacey, the substitute instructor, was further into the warmup than I expected. Glancing at the clock in the studio I noted that it was just 6:45; what time had she started?

I must have looked puzzled and Stacey warmly informed me that we were doing the right side now. As I followed along into my second balancing table pose moments later, she made a comment about how the class was balancing so well that folks should consider staying for the second class. Second class? I take the second class. It starts at . . . 7:45.

I was an hour early for that class and 30 minutes late for this one. I had a bit of trouble balancing in single side balancing table because of the chuckling I was doing. I accidentally took half a core yoga class (in addition to my own) yesterday evening because I got tripped up over time.

Which brings me to my watch.

In the past few weeks both my athletic watch and my regular watch have stopped running. Honestly, I'm enjoying watchless life. I find not having a watch during my morning bike commute doesn't affect how quickly I get to the office but it does affect how often I check the time. Trains too go no faster because riders check their watches and worry about how late they might be. Fewer checks mean more relaxed ride.

It's been on my to do list to go to the Ballston Mall (now minutes from my office desk) to get the batteries replaced, but I keep not doing it. I think I'm going to finally do it tomorrow because I actually count on my athletic watch to time intervals when I run but I'm wondering about remaining watchless the rest of the time.

Between wall clocks, computers, and phones, it's not like I'm having trouble finding out the time. But it's nice to get away from it all (even if my cell phone is only a backpack pocket away).

An Auspicious Plan

Friday, I quit my job.

Sunday, I decided I needed a little structure to contain and energize my personal yoga practice. I also feel my knee is telling me to take a break from my spotty and therefore guilt-inducing running plans while I focus on personal practice.

Baron Baptise, one of this country's more renowned vinyasa yogis, authored a book called 40 Days to Personal Revolution in which he lays out a progressively longer yoga and mediation practice. He recommends eschewing other exercise in the process, to be reintroduced later if desired.

Baptiste also developed a program he calls his "Yoga Bootcamp," a very western title for a weekend intensive yoga and mediation retreat. Since Mac and Maya are staying a few days with his parents in August while I pursue Itsy Bitsy Baby Yoga certification, I thought that would be a good weekend to do the intensive meditation and vinyasa practice and journaling exercises Baptiste recommends (though not on quite the same schedule because of the training).

I didn't consider how the two fit together until this morning when I plugged the 40 days into my Google Calendar (yep, I'm that kind of yogi) and discovered that the 40th day will be the day before the Itsy Bitsy weekend.

Yoga Weekend

 

  First cold weather car ride on Flickr

Back in February at the same time we decided it was finally time to have a baby, I signed up for a nine month Anusara Immersion program.

For the past eight months, I spent one weekend a month practicing asana and exploring Anusara, Tantric, and other schools of yogic philosophy with an amazing group of yogis.  For eight months, they watched Maya grow.  This weekend, they met her.

I was just a few weeks pregnant when I wrote the following essay on the meaning of the first principle of Anusara yoga.

Opening to Grace

Right now, to me, opening to grace means relinquishing the illusion of control in order to surrender to the divine. 

If proper Attitude is a balance between effort and surrender, my challenge is to let go of my effort drive.  The drive to do more, push harder, set more goals, make more plans, and take on more projects can have an addictive quality and interferes with balance.  Resolution, willpower, creativity, and enthusiasm, crowd out mindfulness, quiet, harmony, and acceptance.

It is my practice on the yoga mat that regularly reminds me to release and surrender, opening to grace and a balance of essential heart qualities.

My husband and I are expecting our first child in November.  Even the first few weeks of this pregnancy has broken down any illusion of my control over it. No amount of effort on my part ensures a happy outcome and healthy child. There is no perfect dose of vitamins, exercise, rest, or extensive research that guarantees a healthy delivery. In fact, indulging a desire to control every aspect of pregnancy is not only futile, it may be harmful as it will inevitably lead to frustration, worry and stress.  While I can be a partner in creating this new life, I am not in charge of it; it is the work of the divine. This pregnancy has driven home the undeniable truth that only in surrendering to the divine, can I truly become a partner in creation.

Over the next several months, I will work to balance effort with surrender both on and off the mat for, at this moment, that is what opening to grace means to me.

 

It's just a huge confidence boost

to be able to do ardha chandrasana at 7 + months pregnant.

Just so ya know.

Resolutions 2006

Find a new physical event goal. After the marathon, I briefly considered doing the Chesapeake Bay swim until I read that entry required either proof of completing another open water swim or a 3 hour pool swim. I don't doubt i could swim for that long but, man, I just don't want to. That put the length of the Bay swim in perspective for me though. I missed the registration for the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler. I tried to register but the server was too busy to handle it and then it filled up 24 hours after registration opened. I'm tentatively planning to do the Frederick Half-Marathon in April but I'm floundering a bit with event goals . . . so I should focus on my goal to

Do more yoga. I suspect my lack of yoga routine in 2005 to be closely related to my hip discomfort during the MCM. I haven't had a solid yoga routine since before going back to school. It's high time I focused on it again.

Loose 12.5 more pounds - or so. I didn't quite loose 30 pounds in 2005 but I did loose 27.5. Now, faced with meeting the goal, I think should raise the bar (I can do chin-ups now, by the way - tee, hee. Wasn't really a resolution but I've been working on them since Paul hung a chin up bar in the hall between the kitchen and the front door.) and add 10 pounds (lost) to the original goal. By my very geeky body fat to lean mass calculations, that should put me solidly in the healthy zone. I'm not really sure what my natural lean body weight should be but 12.5 more pounds seems like a good next step. Unfortunately, I already need new pants. The clothing situation is getting desperate but I hate clothes shopping . . . I picked up a pair of jeans and a pair of corduroys (and a pretty new suit for $1) at my mom's favorite thrift shop over the holidays so maybe I can manage to avoid a full scale wardrobe shopping event for a while still.

Bake more. You might question the wisdom of this given the previous goal. The 4th quarter of 2005 was definitely marked by more cooking than the previous 10 or 12 quarters. But still, I did very little baking. Then, during the last three weeks of 2005, I made >400 cookies, 7 loaves of pumpkin or zucchini bread, and a peach cobbler (and I helped make an apple crumble). I believe that may have followed 48 weeks of no baking at all. They were all tasty (though some textures left a bit to be desired) and many were low fat and sweetened with fruit juice. Baking is not very South Beach but I'm allowed 3 starches a day - may as well really enjoy them.

That seems like a pretty good list . . . I still would like to teach the bird to come on command or do other tricks. Since trick training is transferable and we could teach her some basic manner commands too, it would really help whoever takes care of her while we're in China for 5-6 weeks next summer (contact me to get on the list of wannabe bird sitters) but I need to consider my commitment to this for a few more days first.

This evening was all about heat.

I took a yoga class and the instructor pumped up the heat. After about a half hour, my legs, more or less, melted. Good for flexibility but makes for a very wobbly
pose.

Every instructor is has his/her own style and I haven't taken too many classes with this one. It took me a couple of tries to figure out what, from here:
, "place your hands on the earth, pivot your rear foot in, and swing your front foot high in the air" means. It looks basically like this:
(only with the arm attached).

After that, I took a soak in the hot tub.
Then I took a cool shower.
Then I walked home in the cold.