and make time for your yoga practice. You will notice the difference after 6 classes. Different variety of yoga styles all working in tandem to bring out the best in you:) You deserve to treat yourself well – all styles of yoga, including my beloved Vinyasa Flow where I started and Restorative yoga for my weekly tuneup & recharge at a lovely neighborhood gem of a studio tucked away near SF airport (for those international travelers – great way to recover from a jet lag) Northern Peninsula/Silicon Valley – with cute downtown scene nearby. The studio is near a ramen shop and a gourmet cupcake bakery… and right by the vintage antique shop and a “vintage” railroad tracks with trains still running … when you hear the train roar past you as you lie on your mat… the sound evokes that “journey” we are reminded of taking each time we are on the mat. It’s a magical space. I personally used to refer to it as my “urban-ish spa”:)
I have been to so many yoga studios – really, countless studios in my lifetime – SF, Southern Silicon Valley, NY, LA, and even Tokyo… and just outdoors “AOZORA” – Blue Sky yoga circle( I used to teach when I was training myself) but the quality of this studio’s instructors and staff are just as high – Many of them I am proud to call my teachers myself – as they are teachers’ teachers… and it’s a relief to walk into a clean space filled with natural clear light. Yes, the place is ECO-GREEN. All the instructors there are all at the very minimum 200 hrs.certified from reputable yoga training schools and registered with Yoga Alliance plus most have thousands more hours of training and teaching… so reassuring that you are under the care of truly dedicated teachers. In fact, the owner’s pursuit of the 8 limbs of yoga as a way of life, shows through upon walking in … Ashtanga yoga, which literally means “eight limbs”, ashta = 8; and anga = limb… 8 limbs.. limbs meaning steps; 8 steps in the road map to live a more meaningful life as we are all on that “journey” – and another train roars by:)
First limb is YAMA… and the five yamas are:
Ahimsa: nonviolence
Satya: truthfulness
Asteya: non stealing
Brahmacharya; continence
Aparigraha: nonconvetousness
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More you study different cultures and philosophies, more you are struck by their similarities… as though there’s a common thread running through the vastness of our existence.
Yama means Mountain in Japanese and it is with honor I carry my family name which literally means, Oceans and Mountains. Sounding rather Native American but coming from generations of aristocratic and/or Samurai families… but if you trace far back enough we all come from the same pool of sea water; whether you are from an aristocratic, royal or warrior families or from the primitives in some thick jungle. We are one. There’s nothing that really divides people (other than the socially imposed values and belief systems), when you think of our true origin and where we are returning to at the end.
Namaste.
