date: 11/23/16
time: 7:00 am
instructor: Laurie
style: Flow Plus

I got up at 6 am today for Lauries Flow Plus class. The breath actually played an interesting role in this class today. I have a tendency to look at physical activities, including yoga, as a challenge. I push myself into the harder positions and out of my comfort zone a lot, so in yoga I often find myself losing my breath and sacrificing it for the sake of a move. I caught myself doing this a few times during this class which was actually pretty nice because it made me more aware of my physical limits. I think it'll be good to carry over this awareness into later practices because that's kind of an essential point of yoga, awareness that is. It felt good going with my breath and within my limits when I caught myself doing the opposite.

date: 11/15
time: 9:00 & 6:30
instructor: Annie & Steevee
style: Flow & Yin

I went to two classes today! On the down side, neither of them were the style I was really hoping for - I wanted a work out and I got a lot of relaxation and breathing. On the up side I got to experience a one-on-one class by pure circumstance, which really highlighted the impact of a classroom setting for yoga. While it was nice having an attentive teacher and doing a one-on-one practice, I think I prefer a group class which really surprised me because I really thought myself to be impartial to the community aspect of yoga. The meditative aspects of yoga were also highlighted in both of my practices, bringing to light different things in each. My morning class ended with a really nice savasana, where I very clearly felt the meditation and the calming. Contrarily at night Steevee led us through a loving kindness meditation that I simply could not focus on. In neither physical practice was I particularly focused either. I think yoga is an excellent way to get tune into ones body in a meditative way, but I think the practitioner has to actively make it a meditation. Because I was looking for a work out, not a meditation, I got less out of my practices than I could have.

date: 11/10
time: 2:30
instructor: Laurie
style: Shivananda

I really liked this practice. When the idea of doing Savasana between each small sequence was first mentioned I thought I would hate it, but I thought that was actually the best part of the practice. While I like using yoga as a work out I really felt in tune with my body and what this practice did for me when we took that time to check in with ourselves. I think this type of self reflection can be applied very easily outside of the yoga context. It felt really good in practice to step back and take notice of the minute sensations each pose sequence brought on; outside of the physical practice, it'd really beneficial to take mental steps back and evaluate why you're feeling a certain way or doing what you're doing etc. Giving yourself those mental savastanas can really help put life into a healthy perspective and keep a person from being overwhelmed. I think this is really where the application of yoga practice beyond physical practice comes in. I mentioned the 12-step ideology before, but it really is about taking what works from your practice and applying it how it can be applied. This is how the practice of yoga becomes the lifestyle of yoga, and i think that within reason its not a bad thing to apply yoga ideology to other aspects of ones life.

date: 11/4/2016
time: 3:30
style: viniyoga
instructor: Gary Kraftsow


This was certainly an interesting class. For most of the class I felt like I was in physical therapy - a lot of the moves that we did were actually very similar to moves I was prescribed for my physical therapy. The interesting part about that was that I went to physical therapy for my knees and hips - not my lower back at all. The jargon used by Gary was very interesting because it was absolutely being used to assert some sort of knowledgeable authority - that Gary was a leading doctor in this field. Right from the start, however, I had to doubt Gary. In his initial power point presentation in which he explains how yoga can improve a lifestyle he describes types of pain - chronic versus acute. From this slide on I was distrustful of Gary as a medical professional because he described chronic pain as pain measured by duration and acute pain as pain measured in intensity: chronic and acute are both terms that describe the duration of pain, chronic being long term and acute being short term. There was also the discussion of yoga as an "ancient medicine" from Gary, who described yoga as an ancient physical practice that worked in a similar way to todays prescription/diagnosis style of treatment. Gary also made the bold statement that "proprioceptive neuromuscular fascillitation" was a style of healing known to yoga practitioners for centuries, when PNF was first clinically designed, presented, and implemented around the 1950's. The use of Sanskrit terms to support his yogic knowledge was also weakly-based.So in my book Gary was neither a reliable health professional nor a reliable yogi - simple another person hopping on the yoga trend. The practice itself was awkward and choppy - hopping from one pose sequence to another with poor transitions and guidance that was lacking in clarity. The videos were accessible for all ages and skills, but there were a few moves that I immediately thought "why is he having us do this?" for. The lower back focus also didn't seem all that relevant when looking at what some of these moves worked. Overall it came together as a poor clash of yoga and western medicine.

date: 11/1/2016
time:6:30
instructor: Steevee
style: Gentle Yin Yoga

tonights practice was pretty decent. My back hurt and unfortunately Steevee focused on forward bends a lot more than backward bends, so that didn't help very much. In a way, the fact that Stockton has these free yoga classes is a testament to the pop-cultural aspect of yoga here in the states. Stockton saw how popular yoga was and added it to their recreation department. The pop culture rage of yoga is definitely apparent in this area - because we live around so many cities. Yoga studios are constantly popping up everywhere, gyms are offering yoga classes, popular bloggers and celebrities are posting their yoga practices all over social media. Yoga has definitely grown popular in america over the last few years, from books to blogs to public events like the Times Square yoga. I think that the pop yoga movement is a good thing - people are getting fit and becoming more mindful and making a living off of instruction and various products. While there has been some pretentiousness in the yoga community  - people who feel they're better than others because they practice this ancient and wise activity - i think for the most part yoga has had a good influence as a pop movement.