Laughing Sun Hot Yoga - South Austin's ONLY Exclusively Hot Yoga Studio IS OPEN!

Nothing is sweeter than the manifestation of a dream come true - except for maybe the sweet anticipation and visualization of the dream before it becomes reality. I enjoyed visualizing this studio for almost a year, seeing it grow and shift and change in my mind, each picture as beautiful as the last, like the shifting panes of a kaleidescope. But nothing matches the satisfaction of sitting here in the studio, on this beautiful Wednesday morning in Austin, Texas. The door is open to let the soft spring breeze blow in, I've just finished workshopping a class with one of my wonderful teachers, and I'm here. Laughing Sun Yoga is here. Life is so magnificent.

We've been open for a week now. We had our first classes on March 3, 2010, and have classes every day except for Sundays (for now). Right now we're running on a limited schedule for March, and will have an expanded schedule come April. The website went LIVE on Monday of this week: www.LaughingSunYoga.net, and you can go to the website for the schedule and for our class descriptions, as well as for our rates. We've got the best rates in town of any hot yoga studio, including some really incredible specials.

But what really excites me the most is the yoga. It's such a dream come true to teach in my own studio. I am a Bikram certified teacher, and I taught, and loved, Bikram yoga for seven years. I still love the series, still love teaching it, but I found that for me, I needed a change. I needed the heat: if it's not hot, I'm not happy! I needed the lineage: I love the alignment and the structure and the body positions in Bikram yoga, I love how Bikram yoga opens the shoulders and the hips; I love identifying a Bikram yogi by the grace in their shoulders, especially in postures like Standing Bow and Triangle.

What I needed, in short, was Jimmy Barkan. You can check out Jimmy's site: www.BarkanMethod.com. Jimmy was Bikram's senior teacher for almost 20 years before he found that he, too, needed a change and yet he wanted to honor the lineage and the teachings of Bikram's guru, Bishnu Ghosh, as well as the teachings of Bishnu Ghosh's brother, Paramahansa Yogananda, who was the founder of the Self-Realization Fellowship (in Austin http://www.yogananda-srf.org/) and author of "Autobiography of a Yogi." Jimmy takes the foundation of Bikram Yoga and keeps that foundation pure, and he expands on the practice by drawing more postures from the lineage (Bishnu Ghosh did not just teach 26 postures and 2 breathing exercises), as well as incorporating some postures and teachings from the other, main lineage of what is known in the West as "Yoga," the Krishnamacharyan lineage, from which comes Iyengar, Ashtanga, and most other "hatha" yoga. Jimmy has studied far and wide, and created a method of yoga that is spiritual, physical, challenging, potent, and deep. I am incredibly honored to be the first and only studio in Austin to be affiliated with Jimmy - and not just in Austin, but the first studio in Texas.

One of the joys of being a Barkan-method studio is the freedom it gives. No longer limited to a series of postures, or to a series of words, I have the freedom to customize the classes to the individuals who are attending. So even though the class description may say "Intermediate," for example, if there are people in class who aren't quite ready for the Intermediate class, I can dial back. The class may be "Basic," but if there are people in the class who are ready to go further, I can introduce new postures or refinements. Yesterday, we had the most delicious 9.30am class - after a challenging and powerful standing series, I could feel that everyone in the room was ready for something different in the floor, so instead of continuing on my usual path, the floor series changed into a Yin Yoga practice, where we held the postures for a very long time and worked deep into the hips and spine. Everyone walked out like they were floating on a cloud, drunk with yogic bliss. I love this freedom to be completely responsive to the students in the room, to pay more attention to the individual bodies and spirits who have joined me to practice than to any specific words and postures. What joy to put hot sweaty bodies into Pigeon Pose and watch the hips' tension just melt! What joy to introduce variations - to bind Bikram's Triangle, to flow the balancing sequence, to enjoy the opportunities of each class, each student, each posture!

I am enjoying this experience and this studio more than I have ever enjoyed teaching anywhere, in all of my career. Everything I imagined has come to pass. And my vision for its future is limitless. Just as we are all eternal, beautiful and blissful beings, so my vision for what is possible as a result of this sacred little space is eternal, beautiful and blissful. I look forward to all of our futures blending together.

namaste

rebecca

Closer and Closer!

The studio is coming along beautifully! Today the painters are finishing the walls in the yoga room, next week the floors and mirrors come in, and soon we will be ready to open!

Preparations and Updates

Wow, it's been a long time since I posted in this blog! I've been so busy working on the studio, I haven't gotten around to working on the support materials yet.

We are set to open on March 1, 2010! Our fabulous little location is 411 East St. Elmo, which is the 3rd light south of Ben White/290/71 on South Congress, right across from Music Lab. It's going to be a small studio, only about 20 people per class maximum, but it's such a great place to start. I'm so excited about everything about this little place. It just feels right.

I will have a lot more to share later on - just wanted to get the ball rolling on this now. For now, this blog and Facebook @LaughingSun and Twitter @LaughingSunYoga will serve as our website and social networking information, and of course you can always email me at "laughingsunyoga at gmail dot com."

For today, for now, I'm looking for volunteers to help me get the studio painted - I need graphic design help to get materials published and the website done - I need help then distributing published materials! I need about 10 of me for the next 3 weeks! lol! In exchange for helping out, we'll give you a week of free yoga for every 4 hours you help out.

Keep checking back for the blog and the other information! More to come! The Sun is truly rising!!!

namaste

rebecca

The joys of individualized yoga

After years of teaching classroom yoga, I'm finding that stretching my wings into teaching private sessions is really an amazing thing. I love teaching classes - big classes, full of energy and lots of people working together! I love it! But teaching individuals is altogether different and requires a big shift in focus. I had two very different private sessions this afternoon, and both absolutely flew in the face of what "a yoga class should be."

For example, one client wants to learn more - she wants to explore. She has a regular practice, doesn't need me for that, so suddenly, here is this marvelous opportunity to PLAY. So we played. We played yoga (which is how they phrase it in Thailand), and her beautiful children came up and played along too. It was wonderful.

My second client came in, and we were about to get started doing postures, when I realized that she wasn't breathing. Not as in she couldn't breathe and needed an ambulance, but that she wasn't really breathing and didn't really know how. In a classroom environment, we would have continued on, and she would have figured out how to breathe later on down the line. Hopefully. But today, instead of trying to do postures, we spent an hour just breathing. She arrived stressed, and left relaxed, and I felt good that we had done yoga.

How much of our stress is due to not breathing! And how much of our stress and not breathing is due to making that choice. I am recognizing in my own life that quite often, when I feel stress, I enjoy it. I prefer it. I don't want my stress to go away, because then what else do I have to cling to? How else can I be unhappy? I can't - I rely upon my stress to keep me safely numbed out and attached, and I choose to forget all of the tools I have at my disposal - breath, yoga, sunshine, good food. When I use those tools, my unhappiness vanishes, my ego suffers, and my soul is liberated.

The Sun is Rising

A record-breaking heatwave summer seems like as good a time as any to build a hot yoga studio in Austin! If only the air quality was better, we could all be doing yoga outside, all the time! Alas, the poor air and the very dry grass have put paid to the "Yoga in the Park" project - thanks to all who came out and enjoyed the fresh cool breezes on their faces while doing yoga with me! It was fun!

At this time, I am available to do private and group sessions of yoga at a Donation Rate - that means, you pay what you like for one-on-one, detailed instruction. This is like going back to the origins of yoga instruction, where the student would go to the ashram to work with the yogi, the master. I am no master, just a work in progress, hungry to learn, and ravenous to share.

I was reminded today by a good friend of the necessity of daily practice. What we practice daily, we master eventually. And just like our daily practice of the piano or any other skill, we also have to advance. It is not enough to do the same practice, in the same way, without pushing our boundaries, testing our limits, trying new things. We require the basic skills, and we also require new challenges.

And in order to advance, we all require a teacher. A true teacher is not someone who outshines the student in talent or ability, or even necessarily in knowledge or experience in all realms. The true teacher is one who can see the talent, the ability, the knowledge and the experience within the student, and help bring that out, inspire the student to progress beyond his/her perceived limitations. The teacher has walked a little farther than the student and can assure them that the way is clear and the path is safe, if not easy.

All of my students have been my teachers. I am so thankful for what you have all taught me during my career - patience, humility, gratitude, loyalty, love, grit, determination. You have all shown me such love; in all of my ambitions and endeavors, my only true goal is to share back with you the love you have given me. Today my student taught me the invaluable lesson of the necessity of daily practice and the value of a good teacher, and for that, I am extremely grateful. To teach is to learn, and it is the greatest gift that has ever been given to me. I look forward to sharing it with you.