Dear Yoga community,

Happy final days of 2017!  I hope you’ve had time amidst the end-of-year and holiday commitments to also pause and enjoy some moments of quiet.

I am writing with a brief update on my New Year teaching schedule.  First and foremost, I wanted to make sure you heard that I will not be teaching a New Year’s morning yoga class like I have in past years.  The good news is, I will be teaching at my regular Monday evening time, including January 1st – see below for details.  And if you were hoping for New Year’s morning yoga, fear not!  Sheri Cohen, a fabulous yoga teacher in our neighborhood, will be leading the New Year’s Morning class at Lotus Yoga, 10am-noon.

Over the first few months of 2018 I will be using the yoga philosophy of Kriya Yoga  – practice in action – to guide our practice.  Kriya Yoga gives yoga students interested on working toward positive change a set of steps to follow – tapas (practice/discipline toward positive change), svadyaya (self-study) and isvara pranidhana (humility or letting go).  But before we dive into working on transformation, I want to return to the foundational principal of yoga and so many contemplative practices – compassion.  The first principal of practice in the Yoga Sutras is ahimsa, translated as non-harming, compassion, or kindness.  So for our first series of 2018 we will return to the foundation, practicing movement and meditation with compassion toward ourselves and others.  After those six weeks, we will continue into studying the kriya yoga practices.

This New Year I am committing to deepening my practice so that I can show up for the work I am passionate about – parenting, teaching, and justice work – in a way that is grounded, steady, fierce, soft, and full of love.  I look forward to hearing your commitments and desires for the New Year and to sharing practice with you.
​
Love,
Krista

Yoga of Compassion/Ahimsa
January 1 – February 5
Community Yoga, 6 – 7:15 pm
Welcome the New Year with a commitment – or re-commitment – to basing your practice on love and compassion.  In this series we will be looking at the yoga sutras (philosophy) as well as mindfulness practices for lovingkindness and compassion for ourselves and others.  We will bring levity, joy and curiosity into our physical practice, and quiet cultivation of heart centering in meditation.

Community Yoga is an all-levels yoga practice, where I attempt to offer as many options and variations as there are people in the room.  If you have questions or requests about adaptations for your body, please feel free to contact me.  The Community Club is a wheelchair accessible building.  The third Monday of the month we do a gentle and restorative practice.

Community Yoga classes are at the Mt. Baker Community Club, 2811 Mt Rainier Dr S, Seattle, WA 98144.  Classes run 6-7:15pm.  $60 for the six class series, $12-15 suggested for drop-ins, all welcome regardless of ability to pay. Feel free to drop-in to any of the classes if you can’t come to all of them.

To register for the series, you can send $60 to me via paypal.me/kristaleehanson, or bring cash or a check to the first day of class.

​Gentle Yoga Thursday Mornings
at Lotus Yoga, 9:30-10:45 am

Join me every Thursday morning at Lotus Yoga in the heart of Columbia City for more stretching, strength building, awakening, softening, meditation and community building!