home for the holidays

Greetings, yogis. It's been a while since I've updated and I've got lots of news to share. Starting in 2011, I will be teaching three additional classes at 24 Hour Fitness (in addition to my classes with Adidas and PPS). My schedule will now be as follows:

• Tuesday: 8:30am Tualatin Super Sport
• Wednesday: 5:45am Murray Scholls, 11:00am Clackamas, 7:00pm McLoughlin Super Sport
• Thursday: 8:30am Tualatin Super Sport 
• Friday: 5:45am Murray Scholls
• Saturday: 7:00am Hollywood

Please note that the time for my Wednesday evening class has changed from 7:30 to 7:00. I am really looking forward to connecting with some new groups of people at the Tualatin and Clackamas clubs!

My husband and I are in Virginia celebrating the holidays with our families and friends. We've been having a wonderful and stress-free time and will be flying back to Portland Thursday morning. We spent the first couple of days in Richmond, where we were able to check out my dear friend and fellow yoga teacher's headquarters for her new non-profit, Project Yoga Richmond! The space is amazing and we had a blast playing around with inversions, arm balances and practicing new flows. Christmas morning we headed up to Arlington to be with Keith's family and today I took a wonderful 90 minute class at Dancing Mind Yoga, which is a Baron Baptiste power vinyasa affiliate yoga studio. It was so much fun to practice with Keith's aunt and mother! I had never practiced at a Baptiste studio before and I liked it. The room was heated (somewhere in the 90s) and the flow was fast and fun! I never knew I could do so many back to back bakasanas, and ten back to back wheel poses! I felt strong and empowered during class, and completely mellow afterward. That's the best combination!

And since we're talking about Christmas and yoga, Keith's aunt gave me two yogitoes skidless towels and I used one today! What a great gift! In the past I've always just used a bath towel during hot yoga, so it was and will continue to be a real treat using these yogitoes towels!

I'm curious- did you travel anywhere for the holidays? And if so, did you keep up with your yoga practice? I found myself craving yoga, and it felt so good to take a such a powerful class today! I'm really looking forward to getting back to Portland and teaching again! Not only my regular classes but my new ones as well! Can't wait to see you all!

Namaste-
Tami

expectations

They say that yoga is a transformational practice. Over time, things start to change. The shape of your body, your awareness, everything just transforms with a regular yoga practice. Well, who are these people and how do they know all this stuff?! I don't know, but let me share with you some things I do know.

I am still practicing daily (sometimes more than once) at the studio I've joined, and last night I brought my husband to class with me. Back up even a little further than that and we were actually supposed to go snowboarding yesterday. I had been so excited because of all the new snow, but it warmed up Saturday night, and by Sunday we were worried that the snow wouldn't be very good since temps were in the forties and it was raining. I was a bit bummed that we weren't going anymore, but perked up once I realized that Keith and I could both go to the 5:30 yoga class. Keith is not a yogi. He has gone to a class of mine here and there, but his practice is very sporadic. I could not wait to get him in this class, which is usually taught by Danielle. I kept telling him how sweet Danielle was, and how she sang during class and had the voice of an angel, etc. I can not say enough wonderful things about this woman. He was reluctant to go, but he went anyway at my urging. When we got there we learned that Danielle was leading a kirtan at a very sick friend's bedside and would not be guiding us through our practice. Alex was going to be our sub, who is also great and amazing, but I'd had my heart set on Danielle. When we got into the studio to roll our mats out, the only place we could practice side by side was in the back corner. I like to be as close to front as possible, and preferably not tucked in a corner. Boo on that as well. When we started chanting, I thought to myself, "I don't like this chant!" And then I decided to give myself a mental smack to the face because I was being so negative and bratty. My eyes were closed, but I could hear Keith's voice during the chant and my thought process started to change. How lucky was I to be in this beautiful and warm space, surrounded by all of these positive rays of light (also known as other yogis) and my sweet husband? As I started to move through my practice, my heart started to warm. How could I allow myself to have all these expectations? The moment we are in is all we have, so why would be do anything but embrace it? My practice ended up being a strong and powerful one, not just physically but emotionally and mentally as well. When we got to savasana, I felt like the luckiest girl on the planet as I reached over to hold Keith's hand. After class, he asked me how could that have been any better if someone else was the teacher? And he was right. It was perfect as it was.

Nothing in this life is certain besides change. By allowing ourselves to have these expectations, we are setting ourselves up for disappointment. I think this is especially key during the holiday season. Things may not work out the way we want them to, but the lesson to be learned here is that we have to teach ourselves to live in the moment, and to the fullest as possible. This is why I think yoga is so beautiful, because so many of the things we learn on our mats are things that we can take out into the world and apply to our daily lives.

Namaste,
Tami

balancing half moon

Shannon in ardha chandrasana

"On a good balance day, I feel like everything stacks perfectly and I could hang there forever." -Shannon

new playlist

• Zero 7: Destiny
• The xx: Intro
• Jakatta: American Dream (Afterlife Remix)
• FC Kahuna: Hayling
• The xx: Crystalised
• Sia: Breathe Me
• Telepopmusik: Breathe
• Various Artists: Sparkplug Minuet 
• Thievery Corporation: Lebanese Blonde
• Rolfe Kent: Security Ballet
• Subway Bhaktis: Tibetan Tantra Tara
• Krishna Das: Mere Gurudev

class schedule

I'm teaching some extra classes this week (yay!) so I thought I'd give you my updated schedule. Here it is:

• Monday, 12/6: Tanasbourne Super Sport 24 @10:00am
• Tuesday, 12/7: Tualatin Super Sport 24 @ Noon
• Wednesday, 12/8: Murray Scholls 24 @ 5:45am & McLoughlin Super Sport 24 @ 7:30pm
• Thursday, 12/9: Tanasbourne Super Sport 24 @ Noon
• Friday, 12/10: Murray Scholls 24 @ 5:45am
• Saturday, 12/11: Hollywood Super Sport 24 @ 7:00am

Familiar faces (and new ones too!) are always a beautiful thing, so drop by and flow with me!

Salt Lake City yoga

The lovely Jaime Hirsh snapped some photos of herself and a friend doing some mountain yoga in Salt Lake City today! I love it! Jaime has a most addictive blog about her life in SLC, you can check it out at www.multiculturalanimalfarm.com!