Yoga for Healthy Aging going hybrid!

Practicing and teaching yoga on Zoom.

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I like to take yoga classes on Zoom

I like to practice yoga in person.

Same when I teach - both places!

In my yoga practice over the last month I’ve attended two workshops and taken other classes on live stream/Zoom* at Sellwood Yoga. Plenty of times I attended classes in the studio too–I love both “locations.” Sometimes the upside to practicing in studio is being in community, looking out at the garden, saying hello to friends. Other times the upside comes in staying home to practice: not leaving the house, staying ultra cozy, and being distracted by hummingbirds that come to the feeder right outside my studio space window.

Choosing to come to Sellwood Yoga (or any in person class) is extremely beneficial for so many of us. But there are people that may have transportation or mobility issues, or some other reason to not attend class in person. I want my yoga classes to be accessible and for many practicing online is the only option to maintain their regular practice. For others the reverse is true!

When I started teaching in early 2020 I taught just 2 restorative yoga classes in person (in studio at SY) and my Chair Yoga classes I live streamed from home, initially because the people I love dearly were many, many, many miles away. Of course during the pandemic all of us jumped to live stream yoga–both students and instructors. At that point I had already started my twice-weekly Chair Yoga classes so I kept them going and eventually found a group of regular yogis that I still teach to today. 

Once teaching in person resumed (in mid-2021, wearing masks), I stayed with teaching over Zoom. Even now I still teach Zoom Chair Yoga twice a week but I also teach in person at different locations: Yoga for Healthy Aging (YFHA) and Yoga for Beginners at Sellwood Yoga, Chair Yoga at a senior retirement community and YFHA at the Lake Oswego Adult Community Center. Occasionally I sub a class for another instructor at Sellwood Yoga, teaching both live stream and in studio simultaneously, referred to as a “hybrid” class. 

Yoga is staying online. More and more yoga classes are taught hybrid: live and in person, thus keeping yoga accessible for many. And, as if you couldn’t guess from the title of this post, I am adding a live stream option and Yoga for Healthy Aging at Sellwood Yoga is going hybrid! 

Starting on January 10, 2024, choose the live stream OR in studio option when registering for YFHA at Sellwood Yoga. Sign up at https://sellwoodyoga.com/schedule/ and hope to see you there!

You can see current class listings on my Classes and Schedule pages on my website. Perhaps you'll find a class you'd like to join. Thank you for the support.

*Clarification that I am referring to Zoom classes that are indeed “live”-streamed and attended in real time, not recorded classes watched at a later date. Those are great too BTW. 

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Zoom class from April 2020 with Janis and Charlotte.

Grief workshop canceled because of grief

Yup - I had a Kinship in Grief workshop scheduled for mid-November on the weekend before Thanksgiving. I canceled it a few weeks before. True it had very few sign-ups (only one actually) but that wasn't why. It was that I was IN my grief and not open about it. At least not with most people. But I realized that if I didn't have space for my own grief that it would likely leave me little room to hold space for others. So that's that.

I'll bring the idea back but I am going to rework it. The title I am considering is: Yoga, Poetry and Grief. My mother had written in the year before she died: "It all comes down to poetry." She meant it. Poetry was everything to her. That's where we'll go in my next workshop.

Here is a favorite poem, one of the last I read aloud to her.

I Am Of Ireland by William Butler Yeats

'I am of Ireland,

And the Holy Land of Ireland,

And time runs on,' cried she.

'Come out of charity,

Come dance with me in Ireland.'

One man, one man alone

In that outlandish gear,

One solitary man

Of all that rambled there

Had turned his stately head.

That is a long way off,

And time runs on,' he said,

'And the night grows rough.'

'I am of Ireland,

And the Holy Land of Ireland,

And time runs on,' cried she.

'Come out of charity

And dance with me in Ireland.'

'The fiddlers are all thumbs,

Or the fiddle-string accursed,

The drums and the kettledrums

And the trumpets all are burst,

And the trombone,' cried he,

'The trumpet and trombone,'

And cocked a malicious eye,

'But time runs on, runs on.'

I am of Ireland,

And the Holy Land of Ireland,

And time runs on,' cried she.

"Come out of charity

And dance with me in Ireland.'

Yoga at the Beginning

Be patient.

Allow for fidgets, for awkwardness, for squirming, for uneasiness.

Be available.

Let it be…unfamiliar, novel, unknown.

Observe. No judgement. No self-judgement.

Always have options.

Keep yourself primary, not your teacher, not others.

Own self.

Own trying.

Own exploration, discovery, resolve.

Practice.

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I like beginnings. All different sorts of beginnings. I like to learn. I like the beginning of projects (and also the finishing.) I like to teach beginners. I am also a beginning yoga student, as I learn from every teacher I practice with. Every day, every class, whether I am a student or a teacher, is a beginning, a starting point and an exploration.

In my Chair Yoga classes many beginners are in their later years and trying something new is both a legitimate boost and a challenge: mood boost, energy boost, attitude challenge, physical body challenge. Many come back to practice more yoga but some don’t enjoy the challenge or the practice and no harm/no foul if they don’t return.

I get that. It’s hard to be a beginning student, in a foreign situation. Me? As I mentioned, I love learning. I’ve been a beginner in many activities: painting, gardening, knitting, photography, baking, life. And anytime I pause in the doing of it and later return to the doing of it, it is new again. Not just in that moment but new again each time I pick it up and practice it.

You may have heard it particularly about yoga, that every time you come to a practice space (aka step on your mat), you start fresh, a unique experience. Maybe you’ll find a new understanding of yourself, just in that moment. Your particular mood, what’s on your mind, how your body feels, your attention (lack of?) and focus, maybe an injury or illness pops up, everything changes as you move and breathe and practice. Definitely true for me as a student and guess what, really true for me as a teacher.

Learning in any class is a chance to experience, observe, and perhaps absorb something fresh. When I teach yoga – especially to beginners – my hope is that students appreciate what they discover and find delight in the experience. No promise of a transformation or that the discovery will be life-changing. Just a small satisfaction from stepping on your mat.

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If you are curious about beginning a yoga practice I am teaching a 3 week workshop at Sellwood Yoga in September, November and again in January. Visit https://sellwoodyoga.com/workshops/ for details and to register.

Photo is from a painting session with one of my private yoga students. She was so earnest about learning yoga despite her dementia diagnosis and the difficulty she had remembering how to move. But her passion was watercolor painting and memory issues had made it harder for her to paint. I wish we had painted more because it did bring her so much joy. Hers is on the left and mine is on the right.