Echo Pranayama: A breath to clear the mind

Our minds have a proclivity to grasp at our worries. They attach to our recent dramas, our worries and concerns and they won’t let go. My recent mental obsessions have revolved around my son and my studio. If allowed, I find my mind returns to these subjects obsessively. Seemingly believing that more worry will resolve my issues. And my 'wise mind' knows I need to let things go, that worry will not resolve anything. But left to it’s own devises, my unfettered mind worries.

When the focus of your Pranayama practice is the exhalation, then the mind practices letting go. Our minds observe the action of the body letting go over and over again and follows suit. When we focus on our exhalation we release what we do not need to hold. We offer our anxieties to the universal breath. We begin to watch our thoughts just as we watch our breath and we have the ability to let our thoughts go. Our minds calm.

When we exhale we detoxify our bodies, literally releasing toxins into the air. Lucky for us, our toxins and waste products are another organism’s food and nourishment. As we relax into our exhalation, we relax into the dynamics of life. We become part and parcel of the life and energy that is exchanged between each being on this planet, between plant, animal, vegetable and mineral. Focusing on the exhalation is an exercise in trust, trusting the bigger process of life to hold us, to take what we do not need and return to us what we do need. When we surrender to this process we discover that we are taken care of by powers greater than our self.

In light on life, BKS Iyengar suggests Echo Breath as a Pranayama practice for minds that struggle to become quiet. Whenever we are confronted with mental worry or obsession, Echo Pranayama is a excellent practice to restore a calm mind. When you find your mind returning again and again to the same refrain, Echo Breath is a tool to release the refrain and find your own inner quiet again.

The practice is simple:
Take a comfortable seat, either on the floor or in a chair. Sit upright. Do not rest back into the chair seat or slump into the space behind you. Bring your rib cage to float like an inverted bowl directly over your pelvis. Bring your head to float directly above your heart. Soften the back of your neck. Once the neck feels aligned rotate your head forward to bring your chin toward the notch of your sternum.

1. Breath through your nose.
2. Begin with an easy exhale followed by an inhale.
3. Gradually extend the length of each exhalation.
4. As you find your maximum exhalation add a moment of rest after the end of the exhale. Rest for one or two seconds, long enough to notice but not long enough to cause anxiety.
5. After a few cycles of this, add an additional exhale after the rest. And then rest again for another second before you receive a smooth inhalation.
6. Do not grasp the inhale, receive it as a gift.

Focus on your exhalation, following it to the end, resting and then exhaling further. Continue to empty your mind with each exhalation. Offer your thoughts to the bigger mind of the universe and trust that what you need will be returned to you, just as the next inhalation is given to you.

Continue Echo Breath Pranayama for 3 to 5 minutes. Rest in Savasana (relaxation pose) when you are finished.

If you become anxious or short of breath during Pranayama immediately return to your normal breathing pattern. Rest and try again another day.

You can practice this Pranayama any time anxiety or obsession pull at your mind. As you bring your breath under the guidance of your deeper mind, so you will be able to turn your thoughts where you want them to go.

Rest Stop Yoga Lesson I

You've been driving for hours, or you've just got off the plane, or your still trapped on the train. Here is a sequence to relieve your back and your spirit:
Bench Cat/Cow
Bench Dog
Bench Flying Cat
Seated Twist


Bench Cat/Cow:  Stand about 1 foot in front of a bench seat, bend at your waist and bring your hands onto the bench. You'll want to find a position where your feet are directly under your hips and your hands are directly under your shoulders. Begin in neutral spine and wag your tail right and left to stretch the sides of your low back. Return to neutral.

On your exhale arch your spine upwards toward the sky,

 On your inhale lift your tail bone, your heart and your gaze as you arch your spine toward the earth. Keep your abdominal muscles engaged all the while. Move back and forth from Bench Cow to Bench Cat 10 to 20 times cycling with your breath.








Bench Dog:  Take a step back, lift your sitting bones and bring your head down into the space between your arms for bench dog. Stretch way back through the armpits and the spine. Keep your knees soft so your low back can release. Try wagging your tail again. Breath deeply.

 Bench Flying Cat:  On an inhale step forward again so that your shoulders are directly above your wrists.  On your inhale lift opposite arm and leg while keeping a very steady center.  Hold for 3 breath cycles and then switch sides.  Repeat 3 to 10 times each side.

Yoga for Gardening

It’s spring in the Northwest. Time to plant, till, weed, and dig. Time to haul barrows full of compost to the garden. Time to wake up with back pain and shoulders aches and neck cricks of unknown origin.

Gardening is hard work. Even this body that gets daily yoga and Pilates gets sore from digging and hauling compost. Monday’s classes relieved most of the back pain that landscaping the front yard induced, so now I’m ready to do it again… Here’s some yoga tips for gardeners to help avert the aches and pains:

1) Don’t work too long uninterrupted. Ideally, spread your gardening tasks through the week. Work for an hour a day or so. Weed in small increments. I know, most of our lives don’t allow this pace. So when you do your long weekend gardening binges, make sure you get up and walk around every 30 minutes or so. Those extended periods of time spent bent over weeding are nearly guaranteed to give you a backache. Stretch often. Change your position frequently. Move about.

2) Backbend and side bend to counter stretch your spine. We do almost all our garden tasks in flexion: forward bending the spine. When you come up from your work, stand up very tall. Take you hands behind your back and lace your fingers together. Extend the arms and lift them away from your back while letting your heart rise and stretching the front of your spine. Then sweep your arms overhead, again interlace your fingers and turn your palms to face the sky while extending your arms. Arch side-to-side stretching from your hips through your shoulders.


3) Keep engaging your core muscles: transverse abdominus and pelvic floor. To engage transverse abdominus narrow your middle by taking your belly button toward your spine. Lift your pelvic floor muscles by first narrowing the diamond shaped region between the sitting bones, tailbone, and pubic bone and then lifting this diamond up to support the abdominal organs. Engage these two sets of muscles as often as you remember.

4) Half Dog Pose: Come to stand in front of a bench or garden chair. Sweep your arms up along side your ears, engage your core muscles and then fold forward to place your hands on the chair seat. Step back to find a position where your both arms and legs are extended, your back is easy, your spine near horizontal and your head is in line with your arms. Slightly bend your knees and rotate your pelvis forward and back to find ‘neutral.’ Engage your deep abdominal muscles to support the low back. Keep pressing your hands into the bench and shift your weight back into your feet to stretch your armpits and shoulders. Breath deeply. You can gently bend one knee at a time ‘walking’ the legs in place to enhance the stretch in the hamstrings. You can also rotate the pelvis left and right to stretch the sides of the low back. To come out of this pose bend your knees, take your hands to your knees, extend your spine lead with your heart to rise.


5) Last but not least: Roll down. Stand up very tall. Engage your core muscles. Drop your head to look at your feet. SLOWLY allow one vertebrae at a time to roll forward off the spine, strongly work your core muscles to keep the rest of the body aligned as the spine slowly releases forward. Roll forward into your full forward bend and rest in a long stretch, with passive arms and head, breathing all the while. To come up, first reengage the pelvic floor muscles and feel your tail bone curl underneath the pelvis. Then on an exhale engage transverse abdominus and begin to unfurl the spine, one vertebrae at a time, all the way back up to standing. Repeat roll down a few times.

Yoga makes you taller

This week a student came to class telling me that she had read that yoga would make you taller. She had read a news article about research that showed that 100% of the participants in a study got taller doing yoga. I found that astounding. Could it really be true? 100% of the participants got taller? I went in search of the data. And she was right.

Dr. Jinsup Song conducted the research at a Temple University. He studied 24 women over 65 years old who had not been active before the study. He introduced an Iyengar Yoga routine to the group. They worked on a set of poses that Mr. Iyengar prescribed specifically for this study. Dr. Song describes the practice as a ‘very basic regimen” and contrasts it with more active yoga practices in other studies. The women were observed over the course of 9 weeks. At the end of the 9 weeks all of the women were one cm or more taller than they had been at the beginning of the study Dr. Song believes that postural improvements account for their increased height in the participants.

They also showed significant improvements in gait, posture, flexibility, and strength. They carried their weight more effectively on their feet. They had a faster stride with fewer falls and stumbles. This later improvement is considered one of the most valuable outcomes of the study as falling can be a significant cause of loss of independence for seniors. The participants enjoyed the program and were motivated to continue as they had a better outlook on their day-to-day lives, found the classes engaging and missed it when they couldn’t attend.

I mentioned the study to my students this week. And they all shook their heads in agreement. They started telling me their stories of improved health. Here are some reports of the benefits my yoga students have found from their practice:
“Yes, I am taller now.”
“My doctor measured my breathing, and I have more breath volume than I did before I started practicing.”
“I have less pain and I just feel better when I attend.”
“I don’t need to go to the chiropractor anymore, I can take care of my own back now.”
“My neck pain is gone.”

Yep, it’s good for us. Yep, it makes you feel better in your body. Yep, you’ll age more gracefully. Yep, you’ll be more comfortable on your feet.

I’ve written to Dr. Song to find out the specific routine he used. I’ll report more soon.

fibromyalgia

Dear Yogini: I am 50 year old woman with Fibromyalgia. Will yoga help or hurt me? ~~ Recovering

Dear Recovering: If you have been diagnosed with Fibromyalgia your primary symptom is muscular and tactile pain. You may also have trouble sleeping and a host of other associated symptoms. Current medical understanding of Fibromyalgia is poor at best and sufferers often find more relief in alternative medicine than allopathic medicine. The symptoms indicative of Fibromyalgia may have more than a single cause and it may be more than one disease. Additionally, there is positive feedback between symptoms; for example, loss of sleep exacerbates pain which causes further difficulty sleeping.

The first goal of your yoga practice should be pain reduction and relaxation. You will want to create a calming practice that soothes your irritated nerve fibers. As such, extremely vigorous practices like Ashtanga and Bikram Yoga are often contraindicated for Fibromyalgia. Begin with a restorative yoga practice, and work with heightened mindfulness as you follow your body. This will be the key to sustaining a practice that improves your health. Practice Ahimsa (non-violence) with yourself, follow your body’s lead and treat yourself with compassion.

In Yoga as Medicine, Sam Dworkis states that supported Savasana is the most important yoga pose for Fibromyalgia. Use as many props as you need to find full release in the pose. Then, remaining in Savasana, add small movements, fingers, hands, arms, toes, feet, legs and become attuned to the range of movement that doesn’t cause pain. As you become attuned and sensitive you can include more vigorous poses while remaining in the pain-free zone. Dworkis states your the primary yoga practice for Fibromyalgia is tuning into the body, doing more when the body feels strong and less when pain levels are high. Working this way will sustain your health and prevent you from exacerbating your condition.

I would suggest learning a few short yoga sequences to sprinkle through your day. You might want to work with a yoga teacher to develop and memorize some set sequences. Three or four ten minute practices are more likely to support you and be sustained then an occasional long practice that leaves you depleted. Early in the day start with eyes-closed standing mountain posture, then warrior poses, and half dog pose at the wall. Midday practice standing twists, tree pose, and a standing back bend to rejuvenate your energy. Before bed practice forward bends, staff pose, wide angle pose and legs up the wall to prepare the nervous system for sleep.

Returning to Practice

Dear Yogini: I’ve gotten into the practice of not practicing. How do I return? ~ Not Moving Enough

Dear Not Moving Enough: Good observation: Yoga is a practice that requires repetition. We never complete it. We never perfect it. We just practice. You are wise to realize that when you are not practicing asana, you are choosing a different practice. Is your body longing to return to yoga? Begin by listening to your body: the aches, the strains, and the desire to move.

Witness the voices that get in the way of your returning. Personally, my inner judge often stands in my way. I shame myself for not following through on an obligation or commitment and then I never begin the work. Yoga invites you to witness your mind in action. Acknowledge your mental obstacles, greet them, love them. And then lovingly ask them to be quiet. Proceed with compassion for your inner choir: judge, victim, jury, yogi... If we judge the judge, if we judge ourselves for shaming ourselves, we compound the problem. We become lost in the cycle of monkey mind. Breathe.

So begin easily. Add a few poses to your morning break. Stretch and take a deep breath. Try this simple desk Sun Salute:
Seated Tadasana: Sit up very straight, at the front of your chair and reach your arms toward the ceiling alongside your ears.
Seated Back Bend: gently arch your upper back and let your heart reach forward and upward. Turn your gaze upward but don’t strain your neck.
Seated forward bend: Sweep your arms to the side, fold at your hips, rest your belly on your thighs, your hands alongside your feet and let your head dangle.
Seated half Dog Pose: Place your hands, palms facing down, on your desk, extend your spine to lift your head between your arms, gazing down, and roll your chair backward to stretch the armpits, shoulders and upper spine.
Tadasana: Engage your abdominal muscles and extend your spine to return to a simple seated posture.
Seated Crescent Pose: drop the right hand toward the floor, arch the spine toward the right and reach the left arm alongside the head. Change sides.
Seated Twist: take the right hand to your chair back and the left hand to your right outer knee. Slowly twist the spine to the right. Change sides.
Repeat regularly. When ready, do the same sequence standing.

Invite yourself back to class. As your body’s desire to move resurfaces, follow that longing and look for a time in your week that you can make yoga a habit. Yoga is the practice of returning, again and again and again. Breathe.

Why Yoga?

You've doubtless heard various renderings of the onion analogy: the experience of life as an unpeeling of layers that reveal deeper and deeper truths of the self. The yogi's refer to these layers as koshas: the layers of being. The outermost layer of the onion is the physical body, in Sanscrit the Anna Maya Kosha. Our physical body and our physical discomfort may be the driving force that bring us to yoga. Personally, my physical distress brings me to my yoga mat every single day. After 18 years of practice my body yearns for for movement and Asana (yoga postures). I feel better when I practice.

As we continue to practice we experience deeper layers of the self: the Prana Maya Kosha (breath/energy body); the Mano Maya Kosha (mental and emotional body); and the Vijna Maya Kosha (wisdom body). Each layer takes us to a deeper awareness of our essential self. Until we finally find our deepest layer, our causal self: Ananda Maya Kosha, the bliss body.

Each kosha, each layer, is grounded in maya, the pain of life. As I struggle through my physical hurdles (originally a broken vertebral joint, currently a torn meniscus), my emotional hurdles (an alcoholic dysfunctional family of origin), my wisdom hurdles (an insatiable longing for meaning and purpose), I find the core of my being. It is my bliss body, grounded in this life experience, that sustains me and keeps me coming back to the work of living.

The yoga journey takes us inside, over and over again. Starting with the physical body, we learn to sit still. We learn to pay attention to ourselves. We learn to do one thing at a time. Somewhere in that journey we stumble upon our own bliss. We begin to find our calling and our purpose. We get up happy with our lives. Inevitably, living in maya, we stumble again, stand up, brush off our knees, willing and excited to begin the process all over again.

Love

Dear Yogini: How can love be sustained over the long term without expectations? - Tender Hearted

Dear Tender Hearted:

I cut some daffodils last week. I put them in a vase, gave them attention, praise, loving words, good water, sunlight, and clean air. They eventually withered. The daffodils that I left uncut lasted longer, but they too are gradually wilting.

New love has the exuberance of the daffodil: overwhelmingly beautiful and spontaneous, perhaps even a bit gaudy and overbearing. New love sweeps us off our feet so that everything looks like the garden in early spring. If we expect love to remain in its early spring exuberance, if we expect love to remain static, we are destined to failure.

Love can be sustained, but it will change, mature, grow, fade, hide, whither, struggle and rebirth itself. Love will take work: watering, weeding, feeding, tilling, sweat and dirty fingernails. Maybe a better question is: Can we learn to love through all of love’s stages? Can we love through the tough times, the grumpy times, and the unattractive times? Can we love through our own expectations?

The yogi’s tell us that our deepest truth, our subtle body, is bliss and love. Blissful love is our primal cause, our true nature. The world we live in presents obstacles, an abundance of citta vritti (churnings of consciousness), that distract us from our true nature. These obstacles tell us that love has gone away when it has naturally evolved. The citta vritti make us doubtful and insecure so that we turn away rather than staying and working through the difficult times.

We have to choose to maintain love. We have to commit to it. We have to allow it to evolve. Not every relationship is worth sustaining. If your relationship causes you pain, if your internal sense of self is undermined by your relationship, then let it go and try again. But if there is love, and if we love beyond the bloom, if we love the bulbs, the greens, the compost, and the soil, then love will rebloom. We will have moments of exuberance, moments of doubt, moments of rest and quiet, and moment of bliss.

Yes, love can be sustained. We will have to let go of our expectations and our citta vritti to experience that love is our deepest self.

Favorite Exercises

Here are a couple of my favorite exercises. They rank this status because these exercises work for people at all levels and they get more challenging with time. The increased challenge comes as the body becomes able to gain greater control and therefore do the exercise with greater accuracy. I like them because I get bored easily and with these exercises there is always new territory to explore!

Pilates Leg Circles:

1. Lie on your back, either on the floor or an exercise mat.
2. Draw one knee toward your chest and extend the leg toward the ceiling, straight leg if possible or with knee bent if your hamstrings restrict full extension.
3. Turn your attention to your body on the floor. The lower leg can be held with either straight or bent knee. Bend the knee if you feel any strain in the low back in the extended leg position. Use your abdominal, pelvic floor and back muscles to stabilize the torso completely. The hips should not rock at all in this exercise.
4. Using the leg like a stylus, begin to trace circles with the foot, first taking the big toe across the mid-line of the body, reaching the leg away, and then circling it back to its starting place. Inhale as your leg sweeps away, exhale as your leg returns to its starting position. The size of the circles is determined by your abilty to keep your hips perfectly still. You might begin with circles only a few inches in diameter. Increase the circle size as you become stronger but never let your hips wobble.

Complete 6 to 8 circles in one direction, and then change the direction of the circle. Repeat on the other side

Works: abdominals, back muscles, and hip flexors, as well as stretching hamstrings and calves.

Forward facing Triangle Pose: Parsvotonasana

1. Take a long walking-stride stance and turn your hips to face in the direction of your front leg.
2. Take your hands behind your back either clasping wrists or elbows, or bringing your palms together to namaste (prayer hands) behind your back.
3. Lift your belly up and in (engaging deep abdominal muscles) and extend your tail bone down to extend and support your low back. Gently lift your heart toward the ceiling and turn your gaze upward. Continuously return to the intention of supporting the lumbar spine (low back) with your belly muscles while opening your heart toward the front of your chest. Keep your neck long and comfortable.
4. Now begin to slowly bend forward at the hips. Stop before you round the upper back and hover with an extended spine for a few breaths. Then continue to fold forward and bow toward the front leg. If you need the support, release your hands from behind you and rest them on the leg, on blocks or the floor. Hold the forward bend for 5 to 6 breaths (or up to 2 minutes), then firmly reengage your abdominal muscles and inhale as you rise to standing.

Repeat on each side 2 to 3 times.

Alternately strengthens and stretches: abdominals, legs, back, and chest musclesrs, as well as stretching hamstrings and calves.

Overstretching Injuries

Dear Yogini: What does it mean to overstretch? Can I injure myself in yoga or do too much? ~~ Yoga Enthusiast!

Dear Yoga Enthusiast: What a great question to ponder as I recover from a knee injury. Yes, you can injure yourself in yoga and you can overstretch. Like any exercise, there are risks. To avoid injury, you must learn to listen to your body. A teacher can observe your form and alignment, but cannot feel the internal strain. Your most important teacher is inside you: listen to your intuition. Pain comes in many forms: the ‘aaahhhh’ of a good stretch, the “yay!’ of challenging hard work, and the STOP! before an injury. Only you can interpret these sensations. In general, pain that is sharp or within a joint is to be avoided.

A healthy yoga practice begins by warming up with gentle stretches, followed by weight postures and flow while saving the most intense poses for last. Your range of motion will increase as your muscles warm with work. Keeping your range of motion inside your maximum flexibility and strongly engaging your supporting muscles will prevent most injuries. Good sequencing of postures helps to prepare the body for intense work and restore itself afterward. Cool down with restoratives, constructive rest or savasana.

Overstretching can result in tears and strains to muscles, tendons and ligaments. Minor injuries may recover quickly, but some can take weeks, or even months, to heal. Torn hamstrings, caused by overenthusiastic forward bending, are a fairly common yoga injury and notoriously slow to heal. Maintaining integrity and strength in the abdominals and quadriceps as you forward bend will help support the stretch. Never allow anyone to use force to stretch you into the STOP! zone.

Flexible people can be more prone to yoga injuries than those of us who are less flexible. If the tendons and ligaments across the joints are overly mobile and/or you sag into your stretches you can wear down and weaken joints over time. Back and knees are particularly sensitive to this kind abuse. Also avoid jerking across joints. Flexible bodies can achieve stronger postures by backing off of their maximum flexibility while working on strength to support mobile joints.

If you do strain a muscle or joint slow down and give it a chance to rest and recover. Do gentle and restorative yoga while your body repairs itself. For severe strains use the RICE method: rest, ice, compression and elevation and see a health professional. Working with a qualified yoga teacher can help you avoid injuries.

A Meditation Practice

Dear Sitting Still: Last week I answered your questions about why to meditate. Today I will offer you a 'how' to meditate. This is just one possibility of many ways to meditate and bring awareness into your body.

Lie down on the floor and rest. See how deeply you can rest, offering your body to gravity over and over again. Anywhere you notice tension, breathe, wiggle, and stretch into the tension and then release to let the tension go. Imagine yourself becoming a puddle, completely supported by the earth beneath you.

Begin to notice your breath. Feel your ribs stretch with each inhalation and relax with each exhale. Stay with this awareness of your ribcage for a few minutes. Stay curious as you sense and observe the breath.

Slowly turn your attention to your upper chest. Notice how your clavicles and shoulder blades respond to your breath. How does the breath press into the arms? Notice the stretch of the inhalation, the release of exhalation. Let your curiosity and attention stay in the upper chest for a few minutes.

Turn your attention now to your lower belly and pelvis. Breathe deep in your torso. How do your hips respond to the inhalation and exhalation? What happens to the floor of the pelvis? Rest your attention in your hips and pelvis for the next few minutes. Stay curious, keep observing.

Now take your attention out to the palms of your hands. Sense where they are in space. Feel the arch of the palm. Breath all the way out into the arch of your palm. Can you feel the skin expand on the inhale and relax on the exhale? It doesn't matter whether or not the sensation is real or imagined. Connect the breath with the palms for a few minutes.

Take your attention to the souls of your feet. Sense where they are in space. Feel the arch of the foot. Breathe all the way out into the arch of your foot. Can you feel the skin expand on the inhale and relax on the exhale. Remain curious and attentive to the souls of your feet for a few minutes.

Now take your attention to the top of your head. Imagine a flower blooming there. The flower opens a little further on each inhalation and relaxes on each exhalation. Rest with this image of the breath opening the crown of the head for the next few minutes.

Rest in silence now for as long as you like. Stay curious and keep your attention in your body, open and aware.

Slowly return to the present moment, to the room, to the sounds and space around you. Deepen your breathing and stretch out into your limbs. Wiggle your fingers and toes. Gently invite yourself back.

Meditation

Dear Yogini: What are the benefits of meditation? What is the traditional link between meditation and yoga? How do these two practices work together? ~ Sitting Still

Dear Sitting Still: Most Americans consider asana, the physical postures, to be yoga. But asana is just one of the limbs of yoga. In fact, of Patanjali's eight limbs of yoga, four would fall under the broad category meditation: Pranayama (breathing exercises); Pratyahara (control of the senses) Dharana (concentration), and Dhyana (meditation). These meditation practices are essential steps towards the yogic goal of overcoming suffering and leading a life resonant with meaning and purpose.

Asana is usually taught as a preliminary step toward sitting meditation. While Asana is a physical exercise, it is also a movement meditation and a flowing prayer. Asana increases strength, flexibility, balance and grace and the mind is trained to connect with the flow of the body and breath. This practice develops a mind-body connection that 'stills the fluctuations of the mind' so that the body can literally sit still for meditation.

Meditation practice deepens the focal power of the mind, a very useful skill. The ability to 'still mental fluctuations' allows us to live, work and accomplish our goals with less stress and less effort. We can actively relax when faced with stressful situations and let go of situations beyond our control. Stress hormones are reduced and the multitude of illnesses related to stress are abated. As the practitioner gains control of body and breath, health, vibrancy and physical well being are increased.

Continued practice of asana and meditation helps us to naturally give up unhealthy life style choices. Our natural state of being gives us deep pleasure reducing our dependence on external stimuli and this facilitates the journey of overcoming compulsions and addictions. Both our mental and physical improves and we experience a sense of freedom.

There are many great places to learn asana and meditation in Corvallis: yoga studios, athletic centers, gyms OSU and LBCC. For those ready to go deeper, Cedar and Fir Studio hosts Satsang (pranayama, chanting, and meditation) on the third Sunday of each month from 10:30a to noon (by donation). The next Satsang will happen on March 16th.

Namaste,
Yogini Lisa

Lisa Wells is the owner of Cedar and Fir Studio, a space for yoga, pilates and dance. You can pose your questions to Lisa by e-mailing her at: lisa@cedarandfir.com.