Photo by Richard A. Huston
June 2004
Staying Power
Yoga is what doesn’t happen when you’re busy making other plans. These local enthusiasts talk about how to keep a yoga practice strong
by Bob Condor
There are lots of times when Frankie Oser would like to photograph newcomers at her Bikram yoga studio, The SweatBox, on Capitol Hill.
“People change profoundly with a regular yoga practice,” says Oser, co-owner of The SweatBox. “They first come in here sort of grumpy and angry. Then people look so happy after four weeks. Their stress is gone from their faces. The photos would be dramatic.”
No doubt there are dramatic changes and soothings yoga can bring to a life out of balance — yours, mine, loved ones, co-workers, neighbors, our leaders. But there is one problem. Yoga is what doesn’t happen when we are too busy making other plans (props to the late John Lennon).
We are paying the bills, picking up the kids, finishing up an important work project, cleaning at home or volunteering in the community. Yoga class doesn’t fit in.
Well, if you’re looking for preachy advice on why yoga needs to be a top priority, that you should be exercising regularly and stressing out less, that an unbalanced life isn’t OK, wrong article. Wrong magazine. You know all of that.
Instead let’s hear how local yoga enthusiasts make yoga part of their lives, We’ll figure out how they build staying power. Then we can apply it to a yoga practice of our own, and, maybe use the same ideas to keep our checkbooks in balance or show up on time for appointments.
Oser says she keeps her yoga practice going strong because of how she feels by the third day of not working it.
“I wake up and my back is sore or my knees hurt,” she explains. “I feel just tired.”
Oser says many SweatBox regulars follow a similar curve.
“People who have missed some classes come in saying, ‘My neck is killing me’ or ‘my TMJ [jaw pain] is back,’ “ says Oser. “They don’t want to feel that way.”
The body within
For Robyn Lynn, yoga has represented a saving grace during times of physical and emotional abuse. She started practicing yoga as a college student after being raped as a teenager.
“It brought me back into my body,” says Lynn, 34, a relationships counselor and breathwork therapist at the Kirkland Holistic Center.
Like many of us with any workout habit — and let’s agree yoga is more than a workout — Lynn drifted in and out of her regular practice. She got back to it in earnest a few years ago after leaving a five-year abusive relationship. She and her two children fled from home when the opportunity presented itself.
“Everybody got one laundry basket of things,” recalls Lynn, who retreated to her parents’ home with the kids.
After a few weeks, Lynn’s mother suggested maybe she try a yoga class at a studio in Everett as a way to reengage in world gone scary.
“I was nervous and afraid,” says Lynn. “I felt isolated. I didn’t have any friends who weren’t his friends. But going back to class brought me back to my body again when I needed it most.”
What Lynn realized is she had been “holding my breath for years.” The routine of an ashtanga yoga (some people call it power yoga) allowed her to stop taking prescribed antidepressant medication.
Lynn’s openness likely makes her a valuable counselor. She is honest that her yoga workouts can “more off again than on again at times” when living in a new relationship and being active in raising four teenagers. Yet part of her yoga practice is with her in every step, every appointment, every discussion at the dinner table.
“I find myself remembering to breathe and paying closer attention to the world around me,” says Lynn, who lives in Redmond. “I make a point to feel the ground or floor under my feet. [The mental and spiritual discipline] of yoga helps me get more connected to the Earth and feel my presence on this big ball. You don’t have to be in a posture to practice that.”
More than the physical
Lynn’s yoga practice has been evident in her other athletic pursuits during the last few years. She achieved expert ranking as a snow skier in just eight days after her first downhill trip. She is a professional ski instructor at Snoqualmie/CK?.
When Lynn visited an indoor climbing in Everett, she finished a climb rated 5.11 (strenuous and challenging) on her first try.
“The guy supervising the wall couldn’t believe I had never climbed before,” says Lynn. “I realized my yoga provided me with balance and body awareness. Most of all, I was using the core of my body, which is the source of our greatest strength. Most new climbers make the mistake of using only their arms and legs.”
The workout portion of yoga attracts many beginners, yet the philosophy part of the ancient healing practice is what sustains most yoga enthusiasts.
“My body thanks me every time I practice,” says Aurora, an instructor at Yoga Centers in Bellevue who goes only by her one name. “People feel so much stress in their lives that they appreciate yoga because it’s not an exercise that jars the bones and nerves. Yoga has a balancing effect on the nervous system.”
Aurora says she stays with yoga because it nurtures her true self and happiness. That’s a powerful motivator.
“I bring meditation into my asanas [postures],” says Aurora, 32. “I connect my inner self to the asanas. It is extremely fulfilling and brings much more joy to my yoga than if I simply do the poses and forms. Your whole self lets go of burdens and frustrations.”
Aurora says a good instructor can inspire many Seattlites to keep a practice strong. The Northwest, including the Puget Sound area and Portland, is widely considered one of the country’s richest and deepest talent pools for yoga instructors.
“There’s always a new benefit from class,” says Aurora, who like a lot of instructors continues to take classes even while teaching a full schedule. “There is refinement of a pose or feeling more clear about something in your life.”
Your yoga personality type
The type of yoga you practice can help prop up your habit. There are many different disciplines of yoga, enough to match your personality type to your yoga type.
“I always tell people to try a few different centers, then pick the teacher or center that inspires them,” says Aadil Palkhivala, who runs Yoga Centers in Bellevue. “Make it a point to go to class two to three times a week until you find the inspiration to establish a home practice. Then come to the center for brushup once a week.
Palkhivala’s classes at the recent and second annual Northwest Yoga Festival were among the largest. His own yoga practice started at seven years old. He says it is imperative that yoga become a priority in daily life or there is “not a chance” your practice will stay strong.
But Palkhivala is a pragmatist. His studio offers classes from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. to allow the most flexibility for busy Eastsiders. He has formulated series of poses that provide a “full yoga” workout (physical, mental, emotional, spiritual) in a half-hour.
He is not surprised that more people are coming to yoga each year, about 25 to 30 percent annual growth during this new century of ours.
“In this society, people are tired of the decption of government and feeling overwhelmed,” explains Palkhivala. “Yoga is can help us find meaning in our lives. We can find inspiraton from yoga. It’s not about learning. It’s about being inspired — by a center, a teacher or in your own heart.”
That inspiration is a big key to unlock what Lynn called the “American way of being a Lazy Bones.” Sometimes the inspiration comes from the togetherness of a regular class. You go because you will be missed.
“We want The SweatBox to be a place of compassion,” says Frankie Oser. “We intend to be friendly and provide familiarity.”
Oser says Bikram yoga — the highly popular form that is practiced in 105-degree heat — converted her into a yoga enthusiast and now instructor and co-owner.
“It’s the best workout I have ever had,” says Oser. “That’s what got me into it. But what keeps me going is my life has stabilized. I don’t suffer from depression anymore. My thyroid disorder is under control without drugs. The tendonitis [from other exercise] is gone.”
Oser has one more reason that is no small thing even if she is more than comfortable with her self-identity. Her regular practice keeps her looking young.
“I’m 40,” she says, laughing, when asked her age. “But I’m not sure I want people to know that. Everybody says I look 24.”
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