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I fist ran into Yoga on television. My mom called me in to our living room to watch Lilias Folan. I was more interested in her long braid than her crossed lotus legs. I think I saw her three times when I was about nine or ten. The next interaction was with my friend Janet’s mom in sixth grade. She would sit and meditate under a pyramid that she had made. She also showed us what bacon looks like under a microscope and recharged her batteries in a small pyramid on the kitchen table.
In college I needed to pick up some phys-ed credits to graduate. I tried aerobics for a semester and could hardly walk down stairs for the first few weeks. I took up running some time in the first or second year, but didn’t want to fit my best moments of freedom into a schedule or a grade. I found a Yoga class listed with a community college and the credits would easily transfer, so my friend Tammy and I signed up.
The class was held during the summer in the Sacramento Valley, meaning that days were always over 100. If it fell below 95 at night that was considered cool. Annalisa Cunningham was my first instructor.
We met in a cafeteria of an elementary school with all of the tables pushed back against the food bar. The tile floor was cool and she always kept the lights off.
Annalisa would do a posture in the middle of a circle of about 60 students and say an affirmation. I remember the affirmation for badakonasana was, “I am as gentle as a butterfly. I am as gentle as a butterfly. I am as gentle as a butterfly”. When we did a simple seated twist we would all look behind ourselves and chant after her, “My past supports me. My past supports me. My past supports me”. Two hours later we would leave happy and giggly. The postures were easy ones, the affirmations made me laugh at myself and I got my credit.
A month or so later I searched out some more Yoga. I found Michael Martin, of Chico Yoga Studio, on Main Street in downtown Chico. He was an amazing instructor. I was stunned at his ability to move slowly, with ease in any direction, into and out of postures. He is beautiful to watch. Michael’s classes were 45 minutes of pranayama, followed by 45 minutes of asana. His classes changed my life. I got a taste of what it is to look inside for stillness and to explore the boundaries of my self with control and with out judgment. The philosophy of Yoga was very clear with the practice of pranayama as the main focus.
I graduated from California State University, Chico in 1986. I earned a BA in Social Work with an emphasis in Criminal Justice. I worked in a residential treatment center for people on their way into or out of California Sate Hospital. This transitional house, with 6 men and 6 women is where I first taught Yoga. I was the Activities Coordinator. I took everyone hiking, bowling, shopping, to the park and also led the exercise program on site which included basketball, volleyball, capture the flag and Yoga.
I moved across country to Vermont in October of 1988. I was cold and isolated that winter. I read every Yoga Book I had, and practiced all winter in front of a wood fire. I remember one article on Ashtanga Yoga in Yoga Journal by Jane MacMullen. I was intrigued, but not quite educated enough to pick it up off of paper. I looked for an any type of Yoga instructor that spring, eager to practice with others and continue my learning, but I found no one.
By 1991 I was teaching twice a week in a small town in Vermont. After much searching I had found one Iyengar Instructor, Penny Holden, that held my interest. She told me about Ashtanga and encouraged me to move toward that tradition, but I couldn’t find any information or instructors at the time.
In 1994, after years of running six days a week, Yoga on the side and lots of searching for something that would make me complete, I severely injured my back. I laid in front of a little heater and cried. I was in the midst of opening a health food store and could only move after heavy steroids and two months of loosing my identity. Someone during this time brought me the latest Yoga book, Power Yoga, by Beryl Bender Birch.
Beryl’s book gave me faith; that I would heal, that I could be more fit and physically capable than before and that I didn’t need that sense of identity anyway. It was the first time I had seen a woman in extreme postures. I quit crying as much, and decided to start from the beginning with this practice. I started doing sun salutations to the best of my ability and the best of my interpretation.
I practiced in my head. I practiced in my living room. I opened a Health Food Store. I continued to teach twice a week. My back flared up regularly. I studied the sequence. I studied the names of postures. I turned to Yoga more often than running. Things began to change and heal.
I went to Thailand and met people who had been raised with devotion. The wats (temples) were charged with ritual and peace. The nuns and monks looked content. I wanted to be part of it.
That summer I met Beryl Bender Birch and Thom Birch. They formally introduced me to Ashtanga Yoga. My body changed in just five days. My belief in myself, in my decisions and in humanity changed in the same five days. My sense of honesty became heightened. For the first time in my life I wanted to learn and follow the guidelines of a tradition.
I remember coming home and asking my only summer student if she had ever seen me jump back in sun salutation before, because I really couldn’t remember what I had been doing prior to those five days of Ashtanga. Our practice changed, my instruction changed and I introduced Northern Vermont to Ashtanga as quickly as I was picking it up.
My Yoga classes took off. I sold the health food store. I moved to a dump of a house with three dogs and two roommates. I taught two to three classes per day. I felt exhillerated and spontaneous. I was independent and thrilled with my complicated life.
After a year of this teaching here and here and here and there I threw the idea out in all of my classes that maybe we should get our own wood floor, our own studio. Liza Ciano stepped up with a list of places to look at. We started our business with passion for Yoga and the hope of a clean place to put our mats down. Liza secured a bank loan, found us a studio space and breathed life into Yoga Vermont. I taught and loved people up.
It has been that way now for years. I am so grateful for our daily life. I have practiced so much, and loved so much. Liza and I work easily and intuitively together. We have been inspired with many ideas and projects. We both love Yoga, photography and community.
A beautiful young man came to class in the spring of 2000 and put his mat behind me. He was at the studio every day for about a week when I finally asked him, “Who are you and where did you come from?”
It turns out he is my life partner, my love, my twin, and a great father. Scott York and I became parents of Sabian Koral York in June of 2002. We are fulfilled. Words can’t touch motherhood.
Yoga. Twenty four hours a day. Generosity, devotion, communication, honesty, second chances, third chances, pranayama and asana as the ritual of self preservation. Getting past self preservation to real service.
Om Tat Sat
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