A letter from Mike Hannum

As most of you may know, Mike Hannum and his wife Erin are moving to Spokane! Mike is going to be building our mysore program and we are so excited to finally be able to offer you (for starters) morning mysore 4 days a week as well as plenty of other opportunities to be able to study with Mike. I asked him to write a short letter of introduction to help you all get a feel for these exciting changes:


For me Yoga has been an incredibly inspiring and healing journey. My enthusiasm for practicing Yoga and sharing it with others continues to grow with each passing day. This enthusiasm is born of my deep belief in its efficacy … these practices really are healing and transformative. They help keep the body healthy, the mind clear and the heart open. And if we take the teachings to heart, we will surely find Yoga extending off our mats and into every corner of our lives. Each of our lives is an indivisible whole. It is in this way that daily practice and our own highest aspirations can transform our respective lives in very profound ways.

Since I began teaching Yoga I have had the intention to find a home shala, a studio where I could offer a Mysore program and help build a vibrant community of practitioners. As my wife Erin and I start our drive up to Spokane, I am overwhelmed with gratitude for the opportunity to fulfill this intention at the Spokane Yoga Shala. We feel as though we are coming home and we appreciate all that you have done to make us feel welcomed. Special thanks go to Katie and Shelley for their ongoing generosity and support. I’m also grateful for all the opportunities that I have had to teach and build community in the U.S. (especially in Encinitas, California as Tim Miller‘s assistant), Europe and even, most recently, in Istanbul, Turkey. These opportunities have shown me what is possible. They have deepened my resolve. They have given me a taste of the joy and value of being in one place for a long time, of sharing Yoga with inspired people day in and day out and of living in harmony and awareness with others.

As a teacher my goal is to help students gain a deeper enthusiasm and appreciation for the practice. My role is to offer input, adjustments and support so that each student can cultivate self-reliance, self-awareness and a passion for the practice. The reason for this is simple: when we are inspired and focused we consistently do the practice in a safe, appropriate and non-obsessive way. “The practice itself”, to use Tim Miller’s words, “is the best teacher.” We each have to show up and do the work to receive Yoga‘s many benefits. Or, as Sri K. Pattabhi Jois always said: "Practice and all is coming". I look forward to sharing the Ashtanga Yoga practice with you and joining your sangha.

See you on the mat!!

Namaste,
Mike

Changes in May

Hi Everyone - May is a really exciting month for us because we move closer to our goal of offering mysore style classes six days a week which we have been working toward since we opened City Yoga back in the Steamplant Building 7 years ago and Twist downtown 3 years ago! Now, we know that not all of you are sold on the beauty and amazingness of the mysore style of learning and we know that it may never be for everyone - which is why we will continue to offer our led classes, and our Power Flow and our Metta Flow classes.

Another really exciting thing that is happening is the addition of two names you will see on our schedule; Charisse and Mike - it is a compliment beyond words that our little shala has attracted these two, it feels like that whole thing of the seeds being planted and growth and support happens and the universe is bringing together this team where more seeds can be planted etc...etc... Okay its early and I know you want to see this schedule so I'll stop. Here it is:

Mondays: 6-8am Mysore with Mike, 4pm Power Yoga with Margo, 5:40pm Ashtanga Prep with Katie

Tuesdays: 6am Ashtanga Prep with April, 5:40pm Metta Flow with Katie, 7:15 Yoga 101 with Charisse

Wednesdays: 6-8am Mysore with Mike, 9:30am Prep with Judy, 4pm Power with Betsy, 5:40 Prep with Shelley, 7:15 Meditation with Brett

Thursdays: 6am Prep with April, 5:40pm Metta Flow with Shelley, 7:15 Yoga 101 with Charisse

Fridays: 6-8am Mysore with Mike, 9:30am Prep with Katie, 4pm Power with Betsy

Saturdays: 7:30am Primary Series with Shelley, 9:30am Metta with Katie

Sundays: 7:30-9:30am Mysore with Mike, 4:15pm Prep with Karen, 5:30pm Restorative with Joanna

Manju Jois

I should be doing marichiasana d or something right about now with you all down at the shala, but with two sick kids and Dan out of town I'm sitting here thinking about the past week and already starting to feel the post workshop blues... or maybe it's a yoga hangover - I'm not sure. I do know that it is really something special when we all get together and practice and it is even more special when the space is held by someone as gracious and humble and respectful as it was by Manju.

Like many of you, I can't get in a morning practice during the school year, so the opportunity to practice four days in a row at the same time of day, in the morning was special and worth every ounce of energy it took to even show up. Manju's quiet presence during the mysore classes felt respectful of our practice - he was un-assuming and provided simple direct and firm adjustments to help us see that we could be feeling something new in a pose that we do everyday.

A big thank you to all of you who made the effort to be there for some or all of the week and of course deep gratitude to Manju - we look forward to seeing you again! If you want to post a comment of email me one we'd love to hear about your experience.

Encouraging words, parampara and more...

Dr. MA Jayashree in Mysore...
Me with Lucy and Sharath in 2004, in San Diego.
David and Joanna last fall...
Lucy's dance teacher out in front there.
Shelley...
Darrel...


"There is no quicker way to stop someone from being successful than from helping them to think they can’t be. And there is no quicker way to help someone be successful than to help someone think they can be."

"Teaching people who are not struggling to figure things out is the easy part; the real teaching comes when we are put in a position to figure out how to provide that foothold for a student or learner who is struggling to get over a wall."

"The real teaching comes when we put our own frustration and doubts aside and stand firmly with our students, letting them know we will not leave them until we both figure out how to get over that wall. The real challenge to being a teacher is understanding what we do as a practice."

These three quotes are from my college rowing coach Jennie Marshall who rowed in the 1988 Olympics in Seoul. I was so lucky to have Jennie as a roll model, and a mentor while I was in college and starting to think about the possibilities that lay beyond. She's still inspiring me to this day, her most recent achievement was getting her PhD and well I guess too her 200hr yoga teaching credential! Her quotes are from her blog Ordinary Olympian where to date she's only written a couple of posts (I keep checking for more)- but these lines really stuck with me and remind me how it important this all is - we are all teachers in one way or another, and I see people who doubt themselves, talk themselves out of sticking-with-this-ness everyday. I read somewhere recently and I wish I could remember where that said something like when we doubt something that means it is really starting to sink in, and the real learning is about to happen - it is right at this moment that we start to move away from pain and towards healing. Thank you Jennie for reminding me of my role in that special moment.

A quote and link from David's blog...

Grace found a copy of the Hanuman Chalisa last night, and asked me to read it to her. Hanuman, has been popping up a lot for me lately. When I was in India, Jennifer was on the lookout for this particular image of Hanuman, where he is tearing his chest open to reveal Ram. And we also found this Hanuman temple on one of the days we were out lost on the scooter. (The picture on top is from that temple). There was also this white guy who was one of the waiters at one of the breakfast places we frequented whose name was Hanuman. I can't remember what nationality he is, but Jennifer (from NYC) told me that his real name was like Mario or something, and when he was little his mom moved him to India with her and changed his name to Hanuman and he has spent most of his life in India. Which got me to thinking that we should change Angus's name to Hanuman because he's larger than life and such a sweetie - but then I realized that I love his name, and I didn't think Dan would let me.

So I was happy to read David's blog from last Sunday because the theme is on Hanuman and his connection to the breath in practice. He explains:

"In the Ramayana, it is said that all of the characters and events take place within the body, within a person's psyche. Ram is the Self and Sita is buddhi; the great intuitive intelligence. Ravana is the ego with its attachment to all the organs of sense (thus he has 10 heads). Symbolically the ego steals away buddhi the intuitive inner wisdom causing a separation between intelligence and Spirit. This split brings darkness and pain and a feeling of lost emptiness void of Self. Yoga practice leads to rejoining intuitive intelligence (Sita) with the Spirit(Ram). Hanuman, leader of the search, is the main instrument in bringing Ram and Sita together again; he symbolizes breath, an unswerving devoted ally and servant who helps rejoin Intelligence with Spirit." read more

You have to read the whole posting, and I recommend that you cut and paste it into a word doc and print it out when you have time to really sit with it.

Homecoming

It is so good to be home!

Be positive in a positive way...

So most of you know that I decided to come home a week early. Just after I'd been gone for about two weeks everyone at home started sort of reaching their maximum limit. Lucy had to have a tooth pulled, all three kids sequentially got some sort of stomach bug - Dan's parents tenure was over and Dan had a 5 day stint on his own coordinating babysitters, school, activities - oh yeah and his job - until my mom was to arrive. I have to say Dan never once complained and when I suggested coming back early he really wanted me to feel free to not do that, but if I was to decide to come back early he would not try to stop me. It was an easy decision for me to make - I had originally made my plans around being at the shala for exactly one month, and this change would short me of six practices, which I felt fine about - but what I had a harder time letting go of was one more week of class with Jayashree and Nirasimhan. We attended class four times a week, and usually the first hour was with Jayashree chanting the Yoga Sutras and the second hour was discussion with Nirasimhan. Last week during class Nirasimhan in reference to one of the sutras said that as people learning and adjusting to the most positive aspects of what our society has to offer we should try to "be positive in a positive way". He said that in our hearts we know what is nurturing and healthy for us, and that moving in that direction is positive. What being positive in a positive way means is say for example you decide that you are going to try to get into shape, and that your goal is to run in Bloomsday, but you complain every day that you have to go out for your training run - you still do your run, and you still start to get into better shape, but the over-all impression experienced and imprinted on your body/mind is not positive in a positive way.

Later that day Dan sent me this quote from Melody Beattie:

"Your security doesn't come from trusting others. Your security comes from trusting and cherishing your own heart. Don't let life shut you down. Open your heart as often as you need, your heart can be trusted, don't doubt it. It will inevitably connect you to what is true."

Now you all know me well enough to know that I don't get into the new-agey-its-all-good-even-when-its-dysfunctional-yoga-bs and no one has ever accused me of being overly positive about anything. (In fact last night someone asked me what was my favorite thing and least favorite thing about India - and I totally drew a blank.) But this little bit of wisdom is starting to make a lot of sense to me. Especially as a mom, or a parent, I've learned that trusting intuition, or following my heart is everything. Making the decision to leave everyone and go to India for a month to experience first hand the total departure from my regular life, and total immersion into yoga WAS absolutely nurturing and healthy for me as a person, as a yoga student, and as a yoga studio owner AND making the choice to leave a week early was also absolutely nurturing and healthy for me as a person and a mom to get back here to my little family.

So what I didn't mention is that after catching my heels in urdvha danurasana that day as Sharath predicted, not the next day, but the day that was my last practice at the Shala, I was doing my primary series practice and had resigned myself that I wasn't going to be getting any intermediate series postures especially now since I was leaving early, and was totally okay with that, and putting even greater emphasis as I had been doing the whole trip on open up my back, continuing with my focus of offering my heart upward with every utkatasna, warrior, updog etc... So I did my back bends, and then my drop backs and as I was dropping back I was walking each time my hands closer to my feet hoping to be just that much more open for when Sharath dropped me back, and when I stood up the last time he was standing there and said, "you take pasasana?" And I'm like 'yeah right without you telling me I just thought I'd start intermediate today', and said"no", so he say's "you do pasasana", of course all primed and ready for the deepest backbending of my life and I've to do another asana - and so it goes right? So it is really through these asanas the physical experience of which allows us to play out our deepest inner battles. Sharath even said that in conference last week, how important asana is in the 8 limbs to purity the body/mind through activating the agni which burns, destroys toxins allowing the breath and blood to circulate through. For everyone, especially as we age this is an incredibly amazing tool. So next time you drag yourself out of bed to get down to the Shala at 6am know that you are doing something so positive, nurturing and healthy for yourself - and you can make it even more so by simply acknowledging that if only just in your head as you turn your alarm of and put your feet on the floor!

And also cross your fingers that we get Jayashree and Nirasimhan to Spokane on their next trip to the US!