Recently I’ve been marveling with some of you about how many of us showed for “yoga” thinking we’d stretch or maybe feel better physically. And then we looked up from our practice a couple years later to notice ourselves being kinder, or more patient, or mentally more flexible, or more able to stand up for what we believe in. One student told me about noticing that she is now less reactive with a difficult boss – and therefore navigating the relationship more effectively. Another student talked about noticing more quickly when she is emotionally or energetically drained, and knowing how to draw on her yoga practice for support, maybe to re-energize, or maybe to be at peace with the temporary state of exhaustion.

And of course, I’m a yoga teacher because I too can see ways that I’ve been transformed by my own practice. Yoga hasn’t made me “perfect” (as close friends and family can certainly attest!) I react; I over-react; I am too hard on myself and others; I am sometimes silent when I should speak up, and I speak when I should listen more. But I am also softening and growing on all of those fronts, and I am sure that my yoga practice is an important ingredient in my growth. In the mindfulness teacher training I took recently, a teacher called this path a journey toward not overcoming our inner “mess,” but becoming a mindful or even a compassionate “mess.”
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So how does yoga do that? A partial answer is in the system of kriya yoga, the yoga of transformation, of replacing old patterns with new ones. We will be exploring the kriya yoga system, beginning with tapas, next week! Please read down the the bottom of this letter for more about tapas. But first, here is the information about our upcoming yoga series, starting Monday!

Tapas: The Yoga of Disciplined Practice
Feb. 19 – March 26
Community Yoga, 6 – 7:15 pm

In this series, we will be exploring what a dedicated practice looks like – where we find our edge of growth physically or mentally or emotionally. Tapas (sometimes translated as “heat”) is the first of three steps in a practice meant to help us transform or replace harmful patters (called samskaras in the yoga texts) with more positive ones.

​This series is especially good for anyone who would like support in developing a home practice. Home practice might mean getting out a yoga mat at home. Or a meditation cushion. Or working mindfulness into daily life with a few deliberate deep breaths before stepping out the door in the morning. Come ready to practice together Monday nights, and also receive support in exploring a daily practice.

​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.

Modern neuroscience now can show how our brains rewire, and that weeks of consistent practice can help us break an old pattern or build a new one. But Patanjali – author or compiler of the yoga Sutras – outlined this same principal over 2000 years ago. The kriya yoga system for creating positive change involves dedicated effort (tapas), self-study (svadhyaya), and surrender (isvara pranidhana)

I am excited to explore kriya yoga with you over the rest of the winter and spring. I’m especially interested (with some trepidation!) about exploring tapas, starting next week. Translated as variously as heat, purification, transformation, clarity, austerity, enduring hardship and building endurance… tapas is about hard work! It is about dedicating ourselves to practice, whatever practice we need, and sticking with it. In our culture, where we often take things to extremes, these concepts can be taken to their harmful ends – “purification” can become food denial and support eating disorders; “endurance” can be about taking our bodies to physical extremes that cause injury. However, the other extreme – not trying, daily emotionally eating while binging on bad TV – is also not the foundation for making positive change in my life. My trepidation comes here, with hoping that together – despite the cultural water we swim in than encourages self-loathing and taking things to extremes – that we can find the middle path of tapas together.

(It feels important to say: I hold no judgment of myself or you for the days that, for example, emotional eating and binge watching TV are the best we can do for ourselves! In fact, I hold in my heart that this might be the kindest thing we can do for ourselves on some days. But I also am interested in finding our power to make changes that we are interested in making – replacing negative patterns with better ones. I’m interested in exploring paths to support ourselves in making change.)

So starting next week we’ll grow from our base of self-compassion and non-harming and move into the kriya yoga study. First we’ll focus on discipline. Then in April and the first part of May we’ll focus on self-study, and in May-June we’ll shift the focus to surrender. If you come to Mt Baker Community Yoga, the series will run as follows. If you come to Lotus Gentle class, we’ll continue these rich conversations roughly along this timeline as well.

Feb. 19 – March 26 – Tapas/Discipline Series
April 2 – May 7 – Self-Study Series
May 14 – June 18 – Surrender Series

Finally, as I teach, I invite you into conversation – questions, concerns, or even challenging me on the validity of any claims I’m making! I am personally interested in how inner transformation is related to the more “outer” work I am passionate about: teaching and parenting and building movements for racial and social justice. How does my inner path support my work? And I’m deeply interested in your path and your questions, too! I do my best to teach what I’ve studied and experienced, but I’m also a student on this path with you. I treasure your questions, your insights and your experiences that you bring to class and into this conversation.

SAVE THE DATE!
Resilience and Movement:
Yoga and Social Justice Retreat
Sept. 21-23, 2018

I am so excited that RW Alves and I will be offering another yoga and social justice retreat this fall! Mark Sept. 21-23 on your calendar if you would like to join us on Whidbey Island. It will be another weekend of deep connection, nourishment, rest and building our reserves for the work of social change.
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