Starting a Home Yoga Practice
June 17, 2012Yoga is meant to be practiced individually and the benefits of tailoring a practice to your personal needs are immense - so why is it so hard to start practicing on your own? I remember setting up my mat, getting my props, and then looking at it all without a clue where to start. Sound familiar? If so, hopefully this blog will help - I sure wish I had this when I was starting out! The first step is setting up a location and time where you can practice. This doesn't have to be a large …
Yoga Community
June 5, 2011Where Are We Going, Where Have We Been? If you have ever had the pleasure of taking a class from Michelle Allgaier, Yoga Community’s founder & original owner, you may have heard the creation story. YC was one of two studios in the Tri-Cities when yoga was mostly taught in health clubs. First located next to Aqua Tropics, when you walked in to the studio you could never be sure what you would find; a corn snake in the bathroom, a kangaroo rat dropping in though the ceiling, various …
The Meaning of OM
April 8, 2011Did you ever wonder why we chant Om during yoga classes?? If you ask, you often get an obscure answer like “It’s the sound of the universe” or “It represents the past, present and future.” These confusing answers never really satisfied me – but once I studied the subject, I understood why it’s so hard to answer. There’s so much depth and richness to the answer, it’s hard to cut it down to a “sound bite” appropriate for a short answer. The sound bites don’t do it …
Yoga for Every Body
February 26, 2011Walking into the Adaptive Class for the first time your initial impression might be: this is a rowdy crowd. You are likely to hear some good-natured heckling, bits of encouragement, terms of endearment, or even some friendly name-calling being floated around the room. By the time you leave you’ll know that the students of this class are a tight but welcoming group, most who have been practicing together for years, and…they really like their teacher. Margaret Callahan has been teaching …
Prenatal Yoga
February 8, 2011“Whether your pregnancy was meticulously planned, medically coaxed, or happened by surprise, one thing is certain -- your life will never be the same.” ~ Catherine Jones, Eating for Pregnancy. As pregnant women, we notice changes in our body every day. Sometimes those changes can be dramatic; but for the most part, they are gradual…developing day-to-day or week-to-week. And of course, no pregnancy is exactly the same. Each woman will have her own mixture of emotions and discomforts, and …
What is Yoga?
October 25, 2009It seems like such a simple question, and yet, it’s one that I have often found difficult to answer. There was a time when I would have said that it’s an exercise class that helps build strength, flexibility, balance and endurance. Okay, while that’s all true, it’s what I would have said before I actually tried yoga. Once I took my first class, I would have said it was the best exercise ever invented. As a high-stress, Type-A personality, I loved the multi-tasking. I could relax and exercise …