Feel the peaceful spaciousness of a blue summer sky. Simple movements combined with awareness of your breath can transform your state from prickly to peaceful in a few minutes.

No mats will be used in the class. No experience necessary. Cost is $5 for members and technical writing students, $20 for non-members. Register here.

A friend lent me a Maya Fiennes DVD—Kundalini Yoga to Detox and Destress—a long time ago, but due to the whiplash I was recovering from, I didn’t try it at the time. Kundalini yoga can be very vigorous, and works with the spinal channels (called nadis in Kundalini yoga) by moving the spine rapidly in evey direction throughout the course of the practice. In my injured condition, that type of movement was out of the question. But now, I hoped that with 27 days of daily yoga practice behind me, the body was prepared and I would be able to do the practice safely.

I don’t know how long the total class is, because I didn’t make it that far, but I did the first 45 minutes. I definitely got the kundalini rising—I felt energized and in an ecstatic state of bliss when I sensed into my experience in the pauses between movements. There were challenging moments when it took a lot of effort to keep going, but the teacher’s coaching at those times helped me through. And it’s the pushing through resistance that opens up stuck places in the body, allowing energy to move there. This is certainly a factor in the bliss experience. Breath too, of course, helps to get the energy flowing and altered states to occur. There was an open-mouthed breath of fire that I’ve never done before, which actually has an interesting cooling effect in the mouth and throat. Even though I didn’t have the time or endurance level to finish the whole class, I felt the benefit right then and there, and was looking forward to trying again another day.

The class was a detoxifying practice, and after I did it I took the pre-dinner supplements for the herbal detox I’m doing (to break the sugar habit). Well let me tell you, there was a huge release of toxins from my body shortly thereafter! I felt quite sick for a while there, and couldn’t finish my dinner.

Yesterday I went for a run, and it was one of those effortless runs where the path sped under me and I didn’t know who was doing the running. It was quite blissful, and in fact the whole day had been great. I wondered if it was the sugar detox, and release of all the toxins. I didn’t really think about the Kundalini yoga and how that might be affecting me.

After the run I decided to do my regular yoga practice, so I could really stretch out my leg muscles. (Every yoga class has a particular focus, and when I do other teachers’ classes, they don’t have the full range of stretches my legs like when I’ve run). As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve been doing my practice since 2003. It’s based on Sara Ivanhoe’s Basic Yoga Workout for Dummies, and I’ve added particular physio stretches that help prevent running injuries, and a few basic runners’ stretches. This is the practice I taught in the Chirunning and Yoga workshop. Anyway, my body knows this practice, and I know my body through this practice. I know how it feels in different poses, and what the limits are in each movement.

As I’ve mentioned at other times during the Reach Out Challenge, I’ve been noticing little shifts in range of movement, new body awareness, and new awareness of subtleties of poses due to the learnings from new teachers. But my practice yesterday blew the previous gains out of the water. I could not believe how much the range of movement in my shoulders had increased! In the side bend it felt a little different, but in extended side angle I really noticed it—my shoulder rotated inches further than before! It was amazing. Working at a computer all day, I have a lot of stiffness in my shoulders. The Kundalini yoga class opened them right up, more open than they have been in a decade of aging and stiffening. Wow! Now I really can’t wait to do the class again.

The final part of the story about Kundalini yoga happened last night when I was doing phone inquiry with a friend from the Diamond Approach. It was open-ended inquiry into my experience in the moment, and I started with closing my eyes and sensing in my body. I immediately noticed a sensation of two cords spiralling at the base of my spine, twisting around each other. The ida and pingala nadis! I spent the next 20 minutes scanning up and down my spine, sensing how the energy was spiralling up, continually, around and around, and spiralled right out the crown of my head. Kundalini rising! The spirals seemed to shine a light of curiosity, interest, and affection on all the cells of my body, as they twisted around and around, shining the light in every direction, over everything. Even now when I sense inside the spiralling movement is there. The energy just keeps rising and rising, going out through the top of my head. I can sense it until about 8 or 12 inches above my head, and then it moves beyond my range of sensing. I wonder if it is supposed to keep doing that? Since I didn’t do the end of the Kundalini yoga class, maybe I missed the step where the doorway is shut again? I definitely have to try to make it through the whole class to find out. Plus to keep these channels open, now that I have tasted the fruits of natural energy and bliss.

In my last entry I mentioned Jesse Enright’s Smart Yoga Tip: Pelvic Decompression, and I decided to try that when I went into tree pose during my practice yesterday. Again, unbelievable! My hips rotated outwards farther than they ever have before, and with such ease. It felt like they could actually start pointing backwards! But there’s more to the story of this benefit, because I used the tip again this morning. I was sitting doing my morning meditation, and felt a familiar pain in my left sacroiliac joint. Darn! After such a great day yesterday, why was this happening? I don’t know what made me do it, but I just had the idea of expanding the position of the hip bones outwards, to stretch out the pelvis a little. I did this, and suddenly I was sitting in a much more solid way than I ever have before. And the pain in my SI joint disappeared entirely! Wow. Could it be that all these years I’ve been compressing the joint because of the way I sit?

It felt very weird to take such a wide seat, with the hips spread further apart than usual. The first concern was about body image, and that I would look fat. At 6:00 in the morning, alone in the dark, doing my meditation, I was worried about looking fat. What a disservice our culture has done to women. F$%k! I had learned to sit in a way that would make me look thinner, and it has been giving me chronic pain for years. Another mysterious learning from the practice of yoga.

Today is the last day of practice, and then the challenge is over. Thanks to my friends and family who have pledged 50 cents or a dollar or even two dollars a day for the 30-day Reach Out Challenge. The total pledges is now at $285 dollars! Almost at my goal of $300. If you haven’t done so and would like to sponsor me to raise money for Yoga Outreach, you can use the online donation link. Or phone me at 604.251.6337 or send an email to kyrempel [at] gmail [dot] com. For those of you who are pledging by cheque, I will be calling you soon to collect your pledge money. Thanks!

In the past week I’ve repeated the Short Hatha Flow class, done several of my own practices, and tried these new classes:

Developing Internal Balance – with Carolyn McManus

Grounding Breath Yoga Flow – with Kreg Weiss (co-founder of My Yoga Online). This is the most gentle class I have found yet. Nothing hurt when I did this class! And I really enjoyed the different breathing practices. Truly a class for slowing down the pace and getting in touch with deeper reality. I liked the way Kreg suggested the possibility of getting in touch with our true nature once the mind had quieted. I hope that many people benefit from this class.

Smart Yoga Tip: Pelvic Decompression – with Jesse Enright. A helpful mini-tutorial about the muscles in the pelvis and their role in holding everything in place as well as allowing opening in the hips.

Sea Side Yoga Flow – Michelle Trantina (co-founder of My Yoga Online). Is that Vancouver I see in the background?

I continue to make new discoveries in my regular yoga practice as a result of the learning and exploration in the classes with the other teachers. I find that when I do my own practice at my own pace, I have more time to explore and deepen into the pose than in most of the classes (except the restorative yoga classes, of course!). I have a new appreciation for the luxury of taking my time in a pose and seeing how far my muscles want to stretch. In the past I have gotten into the habit of just holding the pose for 6 breaths and then moving on, because that is my routine. But often my muscles want to stay a little longer. So doing the restorative classes really opened up the invitation to hang out in a pose. Plus needing to do a full 30 minutes, rather than rush through my practice to be done in 10-20 minutes, is a support to take more time in the poses.

Since Halloween fell during the past week, I thought you might like to see pictures of the dear little pumpkin I carved. This was the first time in years that I had a doorstep to put a pumpkin on. By 7:30 I’d had 42 little goblins to the door, and all the candy was gone. I hope you got lots of tricks and treats!

Three more days until the challenge is over. Thanks to my friends and family who have pledged 50 cents or a dollar or even two dollars a day for the 30-day Reach Out Challenge. The total pledges is now at $285 dollars! Almost at my goal of $300. If you haven’t done so and would like to sponsor me to raise money for Yoga Outreach, you can use the online donation link. Or phone me at 604.251.6337 or send an email to kyrempel [at] gmail [dot] com. Thanks!

I thought I’d continue my exploration of Melina Meza’s yin and restorative yoga classes on My Yoga Online, so I tried Yin Yoga for Spring. This class focuses on the meridian lines of inner and outer legs (for liver and gallbladder) and man, was it tough! I just couldn’t get comfortable in any of the poses, even with extra props like straps and cushions.

The first pose was a few moments of reclined butterfly, and that was fine. She always starts the class with something that feels good. But then we did happy baby pose, which I could not do at all. It was agony even with a strap. I am not a happy baby, evidently. This was followed by pigeon and a seated twist that were torturous, really getting into the inner thighs and hips, and fighting with the stored chocolate in there! I was hoping the final pose would be easier, but it was a butterfly forward bend. I have no idea how the student in the video gets her forearms down on the floor. Even seated on a cushion, I was more than a foot from the floor and suffering every minute. I finished the session with 3 minutes of savasana on the bolster, and felt strangely at peace. Was it because the torture was over, or because the torture and actually helped in some way? Being somewhat of a masochist, I suspect the latter.

Thanks to my friends and family who have pledged 50 cents or a dollar or even two dollars a day for the 30-day Reach Out Challenge. The total pledges is now at $285 dollars! Almost at my goal of $300. If you haven’t done so and would like to sponsor me to raise money for Yoga Outreach, you can use the online donation link. Or phone me at 604.251.6337 or send an email to kyrempel [at] gmail [dot] com. Thanks!

But last night I just couldn’t summon up the energy to do the yoga after a 10-hour day at work. I came home after dark, feeling cold, tired, and hungry. I made dinner, and went to bed, and that was it for the day. So I have now used my Get Out of Jail Free card. That means the pressure is really on now to carry on for the next 13 days. I might have to keep on with the Led Zep fest! Or maybe go back to My Yoga Online for more inspiration.

Luckily the Vancouver Yoga Conference is coming up next weekend, November 4-6,  for additional inspiration. I have a free pass from YogaBC, and there’s lots of free workshops and classes to attend. I saw on the Georgia Straight website today that you can get a free pass too (go to the Movie Listings area). This is a $15 value, to get into the conference any and all of the three days.

Thanks to my friends and family who have pledged 50 cents or a dollar or even two dollars a day for the 30-day Reach Out Challenge. The total pledges is now at $285 dollars! Almost at my goal of $300. If you haven’t done so and would like to sponsor me to raise money for Yoga Outreach, you can use the online donation link. Or phone me at 604.251.6337 or send an email to kyrempel [at] gmail [dot] com. Thanks!

Obviously, just as in life as a whole (I’m thinking of the impressionability of the soul here, which is impacted by everything that touches us), many things can affect our yoga practice. My interest in watching the glories of Led Zeppelin (to be honest, I preferred it to doing the yoga wholeheartedly) led me to spend a lot more time in poses where I could actually be looking at the screen, like wide-legged forward bend. Hey, whatever it takes to get in those 30 minutes!

Last night I was even more exhausted, because by the time I finished the yoga the night before it was 2:00 am. So when it came around to 10 pm, and time to do my practice, I chose another restorative yoga class from Melina Meza, Summer Yin Restorative Practice. This class was pretty tough. It is harder than it looks to do an easy pose for four or five minutes! Since this was just a 20-minute class, I followed it up with a 10-minute easy-peasy chair yoga class: Earth: For Grounding Body and Mind. The teacher of the chair yoga class is Mara Branscombe, a Vancouver yoga teacher who trained with Trinity Yoga, the same place where I received certification. This was a nice connection.

Anyway, the point is I am still on track with my aim of 30 minutes of yoga a day for 30 days. Thanks to my friends and family who have pledged 50 cents or a dollar or even two dollars a day for the 30-day Reach Out Challenge. The total pledges is now at $285 dollars! Almost at my goal of $300. If you haven’t done so and would like to sponsor me to raise money for Yoga Outreach, you can use the online donation link. Or phone me at 604.251.6337 or send an email to kyrempel [at] gmail [dot] com. Thanks!

I protested this project from the beginning, and distributed a petition for signatures. So did thousands of other people. I’m sure David Suzuki protested too, since he’s gung-ho about saving the planet. But all of the above people who suck had the power and the say, and went ahead with their four-year-plus, multi-billion dollar propaganda project.

So late in the evening on a Sunday night, returning home from Monkey Valley, I was stuck in a one-hour traffic jam. What can a person do?

It had actually been an incredible groove up til this point. After Hope I got into an ecstatic flow where the white lines and reflector bumps were sailing sedately by, and highway was black, the night was black, and I was totally loving the drive. (This was before I got to Mission and city lights and two solid lanes of traffic for 100 KM to the aforementioned bridge). So I was in the zone, and I put on some Led Zeppelin to enhance the trance even more. I opened the car window, so icy air kept me awake, and got into the incredible opening notes of Since I’ve Been Loving You. From this point on I was flying through the valley, high on life and Led Zep, and the rumbly way Robert Plant says “I’m in love with you girl, little girl.”

So when I got to the traffic jam, I was feeling great, and loving listening deeply to the music and putting myself inside Jimmy Page when he was really getting excited. By now the CD had rolled around to Whole Lotta Love (I was listening to the compilation CD Led Zeppelin Early Days). Well, I just didn’t want to stop rocking, even if I was stuck doing 0 KMH and far from home. Before I knew what was happening, I started rocking on the brake pedal, and my car started rocking too. We inched forward a bit, and then it happened again. There was a slight downhill slope, and as I braked in time with the Bonham body-invading drum beat, my car hood bounced a little, and I could see the headlights bounce on the red car in front of me.

So I did it again. And again. And for the next hour, I rocked my car in time to the classic wonder of Led Zep. I found that Rock and Roll and When the Levee Breaks were especially conducive to foot-tapping brake pedal action. After a while I started to feel disappointed if we were actually moving forward, so I started incorporating some side-to-side steering wheel movement into the dance. I’m sure all the people in the right lane, which incidentally kept passing those of us in the left lane, must have thought I was crazy. Though I did see one guy smile. And it must have been driving the person behind me nuts, the way my brake lights kept flashing, especially at that part where John Paul Jones really rocks out on the piano in Rock and Roll. I couldn’t quite get the car rocking that fast, but it’s quite incredible the range it has, especially when there’s that slight downward slope to help it along. So me and my car were dancing fools, and it made that hour the most fun of my weekend, probably! I had to laugh out loud at myself at numerous points.

So I want to hear from my supporters on the Reach Out Challenge: does car yoga count, or do I have to use my Get Out of Jail Free card? Type car yoga or card in the comment box, please! And if you agree that Kiewit sucks, put that too!

Thanks to my friends and family who have pledged 50 cents or a dollar or even two dollars a day for the 30-day Reach Out Challenge. The total pledges is now at $285 dollars! Almost at my goal of $300. If you haven’t done so and would like to sponsor me to raise money for Yoga Outreach, you can use the online donation link. Or phone me at 604.251.6337 or send an email to kyrempel [at] gmail [dot] com. Thanks!

In the picture above, notice the blue light around the edges of the glass window in the stove. This light is not visible with the naked eye, but the camera on my cell phone captures it. Similarly, I noticed the next morning that the light coming through the window in the living room cast a constantly moving shadow from heat streaming up through the air in front of the stove. But the air itself was not visible to the naked eye; only the shadow cast on the couch was visible. This illustrates for those who might doubt. What does it illustrate? That there is more to life than what we can see with the naked eye! That there are more subtle forces and energies and realities that we can’t necessarily touch with the limited five senses. And I suspect the five sense developed through evolution with a range that we needed to sense for survival. So there’s a reason we are the way we are. But we can learn to use the subtle senses to see more deeply into reality.

Anyway, back to my practice: the heat was rather uneven, being very hot at the end of the mat closest to the stove, and about 10 degrees cooler at the other end of the mat. It was 7 degrees inside the house when I arrived, and the living area had only warmed up to about 14 degrees by the time I started my yoga practice. But it was hot on the mat, and I was soon removing a couple of layers of clothing as the heat penetrated.

Not having internet access to My Yoga Online, I decided to do my regular practice, but more slowly, and taking the time to integrate some of the learnings from recent classes. I held standing forward bend and child’s pose much longer than usual, à la restorative yoga, feeling into what happens as the body settles into the position for a longer period. Different muscles are impacted as the primary ones reach their full extension. In extended side angle, I brought the thigh on my bent leg closer to parallel with the floor than I usually do. It could go there, but I just don’t usually bring it there, because I have gotten into a habit of where the range of movement stops. The Bikram class had taken my body past all the previous limits for range of movement (which is why I was so sore for days afterwards), and now my body knows a new limit. This was a lovely discovery to make.

When I did the final sequence on the floor, I noticed other impacts from recent classes. There was more ease in my upper back from the extended time spent in sphinx in the two yin winter restorative classes I’ve done. As I did the seated forward bend I tried it the way Melina teaches it, with the head hanging forward heavy, and then supporting my head in my hands. It brings the stretch into the upper back and neck in a whole new way. When I did the seated bent leg pose (a half version of the full version taught in the Bikram class), I remembered the teacher making a correction on the angle of my legs, but in this instance, I chose not to go for the all-out form. The comfort of habit ruled here. In happy baby pose, I remembered from the trauma-sensitive yoga class that this is often a triggering pose for people who have experienced particular forms of abuse, and I felt a softening and empathy for them, while appreciating the safety I was feeling in the moment.

Towards the end of the practice I recalled the idea of total movement from the Diamond Approach summer retreat I attended earlier this year, and I began to open my senses in this direction. I sensed the consciousness of my being, permeating through my physical body and beyond, into the totality of being that is all around and through everything—that is everything. So moving beyond the sensing of the physical body, into a more subtle sensing of the awareness that can sense the physical body. And then feeling how it feels as this awareness moves the body. It is a sensation of space moving through space. As I sense into it now, the space-consciousness that is everything feels like a loving and intelligent awareness, which delights in knowing itself by being aware of and sensing itself. It seems that the impact of the many yoga classes I have taken recently has formed a richness of impressions that impact my personal consciousness. The easiest way to recognize the impact is through the physical body memories, but the awareness that holds the memories is actually on a more subtle level, and it is filled with love for the richness and colour of all these experiences. Appreciation for reality.

This might seem bizarre and hard to understand for those of you who have not yet ventured into the depths of your inner awareness. But perhaps it will awaken a flame of curiosity in you—a curiosity to find out what you really are.

Thanks to my friends and family who have pledged 50 cents or a dollar or even two dollars a day for the 30-day Reach Out Challenge. The total pledges is now at $285 dollars! Almost at my goal of $300. If you haven’t done so and would like to sponsor me to raise money for Yoga Outreach, you can use the online donation link. Or phone me at 604.251.6337 or send an email to kyrempel [at] gmail [dot] com. Thanks!

I thought it would be fun today to offer an actual example of how yoga can change how you feel in less than 3 minutes. Yoga Outreach offered this short YouTube video this morning as an inspiration for those of us doing the Reach Out Challenge, and I’d like to share it with you. Do you have 2 minutes and 36 seconds to spare? If so, try this very simple video and see how you feel before and after.

The clip is from Amy Weintraub, author of Yoga for Depression: A Compassionate Guide to Relieve Suffering Through Yoga. I ordered this book yesterday, as well as Overcoming Trauma through Yoga, and I look forward to learning more about using yoga as a tool for easing depression. Research evidence indicates that yoga can help people who are suffering from depression. I hope that if you try the video, you will experience this directly for yourself. But yoga can do more than transform a momentary feeling into another momentary feeling.

Last night, I did Melina Meza’s Yin Yoga for Winter practice again. You may recall, this was my Get Out of Jail Free card, and believe me, after an active, fun, and exhausting week, I was tempted to use it; but instead, I set up the computer at minutes before midnight, tuned in to My Yoga Online, and did my practice. I did it for the kids… just kidding. I did it for all of you who are sponsoring me, and for the whole range of students who come to Yoga Outreach classes. But I digress…

One of the things Melina says in the class is that it is natural to become a little depressed in the winter time, due to the reduced sunlight and to the natural rhythm of slowing down. It is a harmonious response to the slowing of the season and life moving into slumber mode for the winter. What she also says—which is very interesting to contemplate—is that we don’t actually have to try to change this feeling. We don’t need to feel good all the time. What a concept! Learning to accept slight depression or discomfort is true freedom. Yoga can help with this learning, as we hang out in a pose and learn to be with all the sensations, without clinging or aversion. The skill of staying with what is can develop on the mat, and spread into other parts of our lives.

Personally, I feel much more comfortable on the up side of life’s cycles and of my daily and monthly rhythm. But learning to hang out in the slowed down, lower side of the cycle can bring a perverse sense of quiet elation. For me, the key has been learning to trust that if I slow down, and let myself hang out there, I will naturally move into the up cycle again a little while later. The fear is that I will be stuck in the low cycle forever. But I’ve learned this is not so. And gradually, I am learning to accept the slow side, and give myself permission to be there without anxiety.

Thanks to my friends and family who have pledged 50 cents or a dollar or even two dollars a day for the 30-day Reach Out Challenge. The total pledges is now at $285 dollars! Almost at my goal of $300. If you haven’t done so and would like to sponsor me to raise money for Yoga Outreach, you can use the online donation link. Or phone me at 604.251.6337 or send an email to kyrempel [at] gmail [dot] com. Thanks!

The Georgia Straight published a great article on how Yoga Outreach is helping people who have experienced trauma in their lives. Not surprisingly, many of these people are in the populations that Yoga Outreach serves: people in prison, people with addictions, people with mental health issues, women who are leaving abusive relationships, and so on. Many of the people in the class last night work directly with clients who deal with these issues, and I think it is evident that trauma has a big part to play in addiction and harmful behaviour. It would be great to get at the root cause of violence, abuse, and addiction in our culture. Working with people who suffer from the results is one way to step into the cycle and help people choose a different response.

Yoga provides a way of overcoming the deeply ingrained physical impacts of trauma (which evidence shows is hard-wired into the nervous system if it cannot be released effectively at the time of the traumatic incident). People become trapped in repeating the physical and emotional response to the traumatic situation (elevated heart rate, fear of danger in the present, difficulty trusting others), and the impact of the trauma shapes their world view. Yoga can help by gently re-learning to inhabit the body as a safe place, using breath, grounding, and movement to experience calmness, inner strength, and self-control.

Research has accumulated over the last decade or so to provide evidence of the benefits of yoga in many healing situations, and particularly in healing trauma. A great book on this subject is Overcoming Trauma through Yoga: Reclaiming Your Body, by David Emerson and Elizabeth Hopper, with an introduction and foreward from yoga-trauma researcher Bessel van der Kolk and pioneer PTSD researcher Peter Levine.

Part of the class included a sample yoga practice that demonstrated good practices for teaching trauma sensitive yoga. This includes using language that invites the participant to do their own exploration and offers plenty of choice points, so that the yoga practioner begins to trust in their own inner guidance and feels empowered to control their practice. These can be new behaviours for people who have experienced chronic abuse (which can lead to feelings of helplessness and lack of control), and can help them to develop a stronger self image as someone who has the power to make choices. The calming benefits of the yoga practice allow the new learnings to penetrate into the psyche, and breathing and body sensing practices give the participants skills that they can use in stressful situations.

I found that this orientation led to a very gentle practice, and filled my heart with the desire to bring the benefits of yoga to people who are suffering.

Thanks to my friends and family who have pledged 50 cents or a dollar or even two dollars a day for the 30-day Reach Out Challenge. The total pledges is now at $285 dollars! Almost at my goal of $300. If you haven’t done so and would like to sponsor me to raise money for Yoga Outreach, you can use the online donation link. Or phone me at 604.251.6337 or send an email to kyrempel [at] gmail [dot] com. Thanks!