Welcome to January and to 2025!  

January’s studio focus:  post of the month

With the new year, we are excited to announce a new monthly studio focus.  During 2024, we enjoyed exploring the yamas and niyamas together; in 2025, we will highlight a “pose of the month” as our unifying theme. 

Each month, a teacher will select and share information about a specific pose, and then all teachers will incorporate that pose—or appropriate variations of it—in their courses.  (Because Yin and Restorative classes have different intentions and poses, those classes may either opt out of the pose of the month or provide a creative variation.)

We look forward to exploring each month’s pose with you, and Angie has selected our first pose:  Tadasana!

Tadasana

• tada = mountain
• asana = pose

Tadasana is a foundational standing pose that encourages us to tune in to our alignment and to develop our balance.  Although it may initially seem like a simple pose, if we take the time to explore, we can gain insight into any of our own tendencies toward imbalance and work to correct them.  By pressing firmly down through the feet, we engage and strengthen the legs.  By encouraging the navel in toward the spine, we become aware of our core.  By drawing up through the crown of the head, we extend the spine.  By experimenting with feet wider apart or closer together, we find a place of appropriate challenge to our balance.  

And, as some of you have heard me say in past classes, one of my favorite features of Tadasana is that we can find opportunities to practice it in daily life:  standing in line at a store? waiting for food to cook on the stove? pausing on a walk to talk to a neighbor?  Tadasana is available to us!  If we spend more time sitting than standing, we can practice the seated variation.  In addition, establishing a solid Tadasana base in our physical practice can help us to feel more grounded and anchored in other areas of our lives.

January’s new class:  Flow yoga

We have heard your requests for a more energetic class to be added to the schedule, and Shigeko has decided to grant those requests!  On selected Wednesday mornings each month, at 9 a.m., she will offer a Flow class.  If you are seeking more of a physical challenge in your practice, please join her on these Wednesdays!

Curious about what we mean by the label “Flow”?  Our most vigorous class, Flow moves at a faster pace than Basics and/or includes more challenging poses. Although students are always encouraged to take variations appropriate to their bodies, Flow provides less direct instruction in and demonstration of those variations than Basics classes.

January’s special events:

1. Donation class:  Restorative yoga. Join Angie on Wed., Jan. 15 at 6 p.m. for this month’s donation class.  If you’ve been looking for a mid-week chance to rest and re-set, this Restorative class may serve you well.  The monthly donation classes serve our community in two ways:  1) provide an opportunity for folks to take a yoga class without paying a class fee—donations are entirely optional; 2) support a local non-profit with the fees that are donated.  This month, Angie has selected the Bowling Green International Festival (BGIF) as the recipient of her class’ donations.  Although many community members think of BGIF in September, when the annual festival occurs, the board members and community planners work year-round to bring this event to our community.  In fact, the board of directors is scheduled to meet the day before this donation class!
2. Yoga nidra. For a guided relaxation practice, join Angie on Sun., Jan. 26 at 5:30 p.m. for this month’s 45-minute yoga nidra session.  If you would like to experience both the invigorating and the relaxing aspects of yoga back-to-back, join her at 4 p.m. for the 4 p.m. Basics class and then stay for yoga nidra.

February Book Club preview:

In the market for some useful and thought-provoking winter reading?   Check out our next book club selection:  Scott Shigeoka’s Seek: How Curiosity Can Transform Your Life and Change The World.  To find out more about the book, see its publisher’s website or your favorite bookseller.  Our casual book club, open to everyone, will meet on Sun., Feb. 16, at 1`:30 p.m.  (To receive a reminder or share any early thoughts about the book, please RSVP to our Facebook event.) 

We look forward to practicing together in January!  For a the full month’s schedule, please check the calendar page or pick up a hard copy at the studio.