Let's get into crow!

Yesterday I left work at 9am to get to my yoga class at Sanctuary Power Yoga.  It's been a journey getting to this point where yoga has become a fixture in my life.  I remember when yoga was simply about breathing and stretching.  I tried it on and off for the last twenty years.   My first real experience with it was at a yoga & pilates studio on 110th St & Broadway.  I had no idea how serious these folks were about their yoga.  I did not understand that chatturanga was not simply a push up.  I would go to the 8pm classes after a full day at work and studying for my present future.  It was simply a work out then.

Fast forward a few years, I'm in the midst of professional school going to a local gym and checked out one of the saturday am yoga class.  I thought it would be a good way to stretch which I rarely did to help with my running.  I had no idea what hit me me.  This instructor talked about Ashtanga Power Yoga.  It was tough and I came out of that class worn out.  I went to a few more classes at this local gym chain.  The giant gym corporation started to move his classes around to various locations around town.  Eventually his ashtanga yoga class was cancelled.  I don't know why.  His classes were always packed.  Then I heard he was teaching at East Meets West Yoga, a studio in my neighborhood.  I went there and did not find him on the schedule.  I took a class and it didn't matter that he wasn't one of the instructors.  It just all clicked with EMW.  My appreciation for the practice of yoga developed and I went more frequently.  Once I managed to go almost everyday for 2 months.  Then I noticed how much stronger my core had become when I ran a summer 5K and ran faster than my using pace.

But work and life gets in the way and I stopped going to yoga for a period of 3 years.  I went to Miami in February for a few days off.  Each morning I got up and went for long runs along the beach except for one day.  I started off that morning with a sunrise yoga class at the Standard Hotel by the bay.  I can still hear the dolphins that were playing the water. After landing back in my winter wonderland, I decided to find a local yoga studio that clicked for me like EMW did when I was in Buffalo.

And here I am, nine months later a regular at Sanctuary Power Yoga and thankful for finding Heather's studio.  It's a little different from the Ashtanga and Vinyasa studios that I've been too but the spirit is the same.  Now my friend Wendy and I get each other there as often a possible.  For those reading who are considering yoga anew or again.  Please get into your downward dog, chatturanga or better yet, try a headstand!  Namaste.