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Sunday, February 7, 2010

Teaching yoga, week 3

If anyone asked me why I wanted to bring yoga to the workplace my answer wouldn't have anything to do with exercise and lengthening muscles. Those are just nice side benefits. My answer would be: Yoga reawakens the spirit to the breath so that we may fully appreciate and accept life as it happens. Too often we spend our time wielding swords and shields as life comes at us in one chaotic mess. Bills, work, time, errands, homework, etc. The list is endless. And I mean endless. Because long after we are gone, those things will continue to happen. But yoga allows us to put aside those things barreling toward us, either in the next minute, hour, day, week, month, year. We battle this crazy schedule. And in yoga, only the present moment counts. The breath that keeps us in this moment and moves us into the next. We don't think beyond this breath. Doing the splits, touching our toes, powering up our core can happen in any exercise routine. And if that's only what is important, then you truly lose sight of that present moment.

I've witnessed what stress (that time battle) has done to my body and my breath. And I've witnessed it in the workplace. By bringing yoga (free yoga!) to the workplace, I hope that I can allow my students a reprieve from all that. They don't have to worry about paying anything, the class being too long (it's only 45 minutes), or being too difficult (we practice a hatha flow/restorative class). They can just focus on the present moment and breathing deeply.

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