The Perfect Yoga Class

You arrive a bit early to settle in. You enter the warm room, lay down and close your eyes. You hear music and people begin to file in. Laughter and friends surround you with the swoosh of mats hitting the floor. The Guide comes in, turns off the music and begins. Your Guide instructs you to leave the world outside behind, to concentrate on your breath, to escape, to center and set your intention. You begin to move slowly until your hips are a bit open, your back is warm and your core is awakened. You begin to flow- a dreamy, wavy flow. You don't have to think, your Guide cues you, but you move with your breath. The music gets louder, you are challenged, strengthened, stretched and twisted. You begin to come alive. You hear your breath and the beat of the music in your head as your body moves. You take every pose in, truly feel it. Dynamic energy flows from the top of your head to your fingertips and toes and back again. Your Guide softly touches you, moves you one step closer to the edge and your body responds with a sigh. Just when you think that you cannot take another breath, that you cannot take another second of holding, you are released. Your cheeks blush red, your heart beats faster, you feel charged, strong and powerful. The music and lights lower. Your muscles relax, you feel emotions release, the head chatter is gone. Your Guide invites you to rest. You loosen your jaw, your shoulders, as your head sinks into the mat. You exhale the day, inhale a new beginning. You slowly let the ohm resonate through your chest, rise up and connect with the others echoing through the room. You bow in absolute gratitude. You have found peace, if only for an hour.

Survey Results

We received 122 responses to our Student Survey! Thank you so much for being such an awesome, engaged community of people!

I wanted to take this opportunity to respond to some of the reoccurring questions, comments, etc.

• Music - Most instructors use music and some instructors do not. I leave it up to the instructors themselves to make their own playlists (although the studio has some available to use as well). They are in charge of the studio environment once their class begins. Also, I know that our music system sometimes cuts in and out and we are working to rectify this. Because our system is wireless it relies on our internet connection and as you know, this is not always perfect - we are working to find a reliable back-up.
• Bike racks - I put in a request with the City to install bike racks on October 11, 2011. I heard it can take up to a year for them actually to be installed.....
• Pricing/Student Discounts - My pricing at $15 for a drop-in, one hour, HEATED Vinyasa class is competitive with other studios and the Chicago market. As many people know and have taken advantage of, I have purposely made ways in which those on a fixed budget can fit yoga into their lives (not just students) - once a week free classes, once a month donation classes, you can share memberships and class packages and they never expire! I have also run 3 specials so far for discounts on packages and will be running another in April. Finally, I will be offering a new class package for those of you that want to make a year's commitment to yoga at a deeper discount - One Year, Unlimited at $1200.
• Unheated classes- I know it feels like summer now, but it's really not :) We will be turning the heat off for many of our classes starting in June. Stay tuned!
• Beginners/Advanced classes- I am a big believer in Mixed level classes. I think that beginners can learn so much more and see what is possible when they see more advanced students in the room and the advanced students benefit by consistently being reminded of alignment and the general basics of yoga that they can continue to build upon. That being said, I will be adding one Advanced class for seasoned practitioners to work more on advanced poses that may not be possible in a Mixed Level class - 2:00pm on Saturdays with Diana AND we will be working on a Beginner's Workshop series that we will hold a few times a year that will serve as a good starting point for a yoga practice.
• Retail- We will be getting in some more Tanya-B and Be Love clothes in the coming weeks. I am also looking into FOAT Design as another potential unique yoga clothing offering at Tula.
• Online Calendar - We are aware of the 'cutting off' of the names of classes on the calendar and we are diligently working on a fix for this. In the meantime, I will be modifying the schedule so that the number of minutes of the class is easier to see and if you have any questions, please call the studio at 773.620.9945.

One comment on the survey that actually made my heart sink a bit was that we were not a Beginner's Studio because of the 30-day "brag board" hanging in the front. The 30-day challenge was one of the most inspiring, fun things that I feel that Tula has done (so far). I know that a number of people that took part in this challenge were very new to yoga and doing this has inspired them to keep up a regular practice! One of them even went to Yoga Teacher Training because of it! So it was not meant to be a 'brag board' - it was an inspiring and motivational way to track people's attendance (that wanted to, of course). I hope that whoever wrote this comment is willing to see this other side. It will definitely be an annual tradition at Tula.

Overall, the comments and ratings were overwhelmingly high and positive and I feel we are on the right track with what you as the community wants in your local yoga studio. If you have any other thoughts, please do not hesitate to email me at maile@tulayoga.net or you can give us a review on YELP and let others know about our amazing community.

Namaste.

How Yoga has Shaped my Music: A Guest Blog Post

Greetings Tula! My name is Neil Dixon Smith, I’m a classical guitarist based here in Logan Square. I’ll be performing live music for the special Earth Hour Restorative class being taught by Kristen Folkes on March 31 at 8:30pm at Tula. Being Earth Hour, this means no electricity, so expect some beautiful candlelight to go with the soothing nylon strings and calm Latin rhythms. This is going to be a really beautiful experience for all who come out.

I am especially excited for this opportunity as yoga has had a huge impact on my development as a classical guitarist. I thought I would take this opportunity to write a little something for the Yoga Community to share a couple ways of how my yoga practice has shaped my music.

Although I have been playing guitar since I was twelve, I didn’t get into learning classical guitar technique until I was in my 30’s (I’m 43 now). Fortunately for me, I had years of yoga under my belt (with a warm shout to Ema Stefanova, a truly excellent yoga teacher based in Ann Arbor, MI, to whom I owe so much).

As I began my transition in essentially re-learning how to play from scratch, I drew considerably from the processes and wisdom I had gained from yoga. Simply put, I would not have progressed on the instrument as I did without yoga, and it greatly informs my playing each time I pick up a guitar.

So whether or not you play a musical instrument, I hope you find this interesting and perhaps inspiring some thoughts about how yoga has shaped your life outside the studio.

As I reflect on the impact of yoga on my continuing development as a guitarist, most significant, of course, is the awareness of breath. When you’re a yoga beginner, doing your first sun salutation sequences, you struggle to match the proper inhales and exhales with the appropriate movement, but over time and practice, it all becomes a flow. Over more time, on your best days, your practice will feel like it is all breath, in that magical mix of concentration and relaxation.

As a classical guitarist, I perform in all sorts of different contexts. Sometimes I’m in very public spaces, full of distraction (such as a restaurant or farmer’s market) and sometimes I’m in very intense and nerve-wracking situations (such as playing in a concert setting, or a very formal wedding ceremony). I might be asked to play for 3-4 hours, which may end up being 50-60 pieces of pretty sophisticated compositions, performed from (muscle) memory. In order to do them justice, without fatigue, and with a sincere emotional investment, I must be in top condition, unfazed by my surroundings while being aware of and playing to the moment.

What is the first thing any of us do when we become flustered, frustrated or freaked out while performing a task? We lose control of our breath. Unwittingly holding it in for long stretches, or just breathing erratically, furthering a downward spiral that can lead to out of control movements, negative self-talk and just plain wearing yourself out.

Whether I’m learning a particularly difficult passage in a composition, or warming up for a performance, I start with my focusing on my breath. Before I begin to a play set in front of any audience, I have a few set pieces of music that I always begin with, which like a sun salutation I know how to breathe through though years of conditioning. This practiced, ritualistic awareness helps center my attention, quiet any internal dialog, as well channel the resources to my hand muscles to maximize the effectiveness of my technique. That is, I play a whole lot better. And when I do begin to feel as though I’ve momentarily lost control, or have become distracted, my first thought is always to get back to prana, and soon enough I’m back on my best.

The second sphere of influence I’ll mention is in the process of improvement itself. Learning classical guitar technique is a marvelous course in the engineering of the human body. To be able to play the most amount of notes possible (ie, all the notes the composer wants you to play), with the greatest range of dynamics, at the greatest level of comfort, there exists a centuries-honed method of playing. It involves the striving for perfect posturing to maximize efficiency, engaging only the muscles necessary to get the job done, while relaxing all muscles not engaged in the task…sound familiar?

And like a 2 minute hand stand, it’s there for you to do, too – with the right effort, of course. Slow, daily, incremental, maddening, magnificent progress. Over months, and over years. There are simple exercises you begin with, which then evolve to become the foundations towards longer sequences of musical events (hand and finger postures and motions), and ultimately to elaborate physical routines known as “songs”. The process of reaching this stage automatically opens the doors to new paths and new possibilities.

Because of yoga, I knew that the rewards of practice are sometimes slow to the point of imperceptibility. But it is the power of teaching, and the knowledge that these are indeed time-tested traditions, that keep you ever going forward. There is that moment that comes when after months of trying to play a particularly tough passage, suddenly I’m doing it. It is its own reward, and a guarantee that that next difficult passage will be slightly easier to get.

When it comes down to it, I love yoga because it always about improving. When I would visit my guitar mentor every other week, he would always ask in his broken English, “what progress do you have for me today?”. And to me, yoga is forever a lesson in how to keep getting better at the things we do.

You can learn more about me on my website:

http://neildixonsmith.com

Create your Own Path

Lately, I have been considering going through yoga teacher training. The dilemma here is the fact that I already own a studio, so I don't want to give my money to another studio to train me. I've gotten many suggestions from going on a out of town retreat to bringing in some master instructors, not associated with a specific studio, to train me.

The other obvious option here is to start up my own training program at Tula. I am in the unique position where I don't have to interview/audition for a job when I'm done with training, therefore I can more easily seek my own path in learning how to teach yoga. This is liberating and at the same time, a bit scary. Why am I so scared to do something different? Because in America, it is ingrained in us from an early age that we should attend 'prestigious' schools, learn from master teachers, hold certifications, obtain the right credentials, build beautiful resumes and look good on paper. In addition to this, in the yoga industry, there is a big emphasis placed on lineage. If there are no formal standards or checklist of things that I need to learn, how can I effectively learn to teach? If I learn to teach yoga from my favorite teachers/friends, am I then destined to not be a very good teacher? If I don't seek certifications, credentials or a stamp of approval from the Yoga Alliance or other governing yoga association, will I ever be taken seriously?

I would argue that I am just as able to become a great teacher. Some of the world's greatest teachers, and other professionals (chefs, artists, musicians, athletes, etc) were self-taught, dropped out of formal schools and created their own path to their life's purpose, paved purely with passion, hard-work, drive and talent. I would even go so far as to say that they may be better at what they do than their more formally trained counterparts because they created their own path - they had to seek out their own inspiration, draw upon their own experiences, answer their own questions. They may be better at keeping an open mind to differing viewpoints and theories. They may be better at blending different techniques to come up with their own unique ideas. In the book, Yoga Beyond Belief, Ganga White writes "We cannot learn to fly by following the tracks left by birds in the sand. We must find our own wings and soar."

Even strongly believing all of these things, I am still scared. I am scared of people asking "who are you?" or "what do you know?". But I know this is just my lizard brain talking and it's slowly getting quieter......

Please share with me how you have created your own path to something you wanted. What were the pros/cons of doing this?

30 Days of Yoga

Thirty days ago today, we gave people a challenge. Do yoga for everyday for 30 consecutive days at Tula and you will receive your next 30 days for free. Quite a few of our monthly members signed up. We also had a few new people sign up and some instructors. We started with 25 challengers.

The first few weeks, I heard things like "30 days is so long" and "how will ever do this". We sent them a few motivational emails and had a few drawings for prizes along the way - just to keep their spirits up! What I found amazing, was the passion and commitment people came into class with everyday. They were genuinely excited about placing their star sticker for the day on the chart. People integrated a trip to the studio into their everyday routines - really powerful stuff. These people saw each other everyday, they connected, made friends on the mat. There were a few days along the way that were tough for people - soreness, sickness, snowstorms and life got in the way of their daily trek to the studio, but even the people that missed a day or so picked right up where they left off - determined to see it through. I think that we still are not sure what can motivate people, but when everything falls into place in just the right way and you see with your own eyes that determination and force of that inner drive, it is truly phenomenal. In the greater scheme of things, this was just 30 days of yoga, but in a small way it shows me that anything is possible.

Thirty days ago, I wasn't sure if anyone would complete the challenge. Today I am so proud to say that 12 people have. Tomorrow, I will be putting up a new attendance chart with hopes that this is only the first leg of their life-long journey with yoga.

Challengers- please comment on this post and let me know how this experience was for you!

Heat

I've been getting a lot of comments and questions about the 'heated' Vinyasa classes that we offer at Tula lately. I am discovering that their are a lot of people that are afraid of the heat. I've heard "I hate getting hot/sweaty", "the heat makes me sick", "what's with the heat?", etc. On the other hand, I also get people that make comments about our studio not being hot enough. They want to come out of class soaked by sweat and are disappointed when they are not. I want this post to explain why I chose for my studio to offer heated classes and also explain what kind of 'heat' you will experience at Tula, so that you are not afraid to check it out.

Why did I chose to do mostly 'Heated' Vinyasa?

It's pretty simple - it's what I prefer. I started doing yoga in a hot room and when I would take classes in a 'cold' room, they just were not the same to me. I love the warmth and the way that the heat warms and loosens your muscles. I love the feeling of being just a bit sweaty so that you feel like you are detoxifying. In the winter, it is wonderful reprieve from the cold outside!

The Heat at Tula

I have taken Bikram yoga classes and can tell you the heat at Tula is nowhere near this. Bikram yoga studios are set at 105 degrees, but with many bodies crowded into a room, is is not uncommon for the temperature to push 110. This makes me feel sick. In my opinion, you are not suppose to feel sick after yoga.

I have taken many other Hot yoga classes around town as well. Some were still too hot for me. I don't like it when I am so hot and sweaty that I am concentrating more on trying not to slip on my mat than on the actual pose. It makes me tense, stressed and distracted. Again, not what I think yoga should do to you. I don't want there to be pools of sweat around my mat and sweat being flung in my direction by the person next to me. Yuck.

At Tula, I try to have a good, moderate heat. The temp is usually set to 92 degrees in our heated classes. Depending on the number of people in the room, the temperature may rise by a few degrees, but because of the large size of our studio (about 1500 sq. ft. with 17' ceilings), it may also feel slightly cooler than this. We also always have our ceiling fans on low because it helps to blow the heat down to the floor. So you may feel a bit of a breeze from time to time. I believe that this is just the right amount of heat. It's not suffocating and it's only 'sweaty' if you are vigorously moving and/or enjoying an especially challenging yoga class. It does what I want it to do, warm your muscles, relax you and allows you to enjoy your practice. I purposely chose to label the classes at Tula as 'heated' rather than 'hot' because I believe this more accurately describes the temperature in our studio.

The bottom line is, try the heated classes at Tula because it may be different than what you think!

What does non-intimidating mean?

I had an instructor ask me the other day if I thought she was intimidating and it struck me that people may have different ideas about what intimidation means. I thought that I would express to you what it means to me and why I strive for Tula to always be approachable, welcoming and non-intimidating.

Let's start with the Dictionary definition of intimidate - To make timid or fearful.

As a yoga student in Chicago long before I was a studio owner, I had many wonderful experiences with yoga studios and instructors. With these wonderful experiences, I also had some not so great experiences. Looking as to why these experiences were not so great, I realized that most often it had little to do with the actual yoga instruction. It had to do mostly with the energy of the environment and a lot of the peripherals outside of the yoga class itself. To me, these are the things that would make a studio either intimidating/fearful or non-intimidating/welcoming to me.

No Rules, just Yoga. While I understand the intention is good, I find a lot of rules and regulations to be somewhat stressful. I have been to classes and studios where they have so many rules about 'proper' yoga etiquette that you are so focused on conforming and trying not to break the 'rules' that you can lose sight of the full yoga experience - letting go. At Tula, you may notice a lack of many of the typical rules and regulations. No complicated forms to sign, no posted rules about turning cell phones off, taking shoes off, no talking, etc. You can share, transfer and never fear that your class packs will expire - you paid for them, you should be able to do what you want with them. And what happens when you strip away these rules? Mass chaos? No, you get people that are genuinely respectful to each other, the space and the practice.

Slowing down. The irony is not lost on me that many people around the city 'rush' to relax at their yoga classes. At Tula, you can be late to class. We won't lock the door on you. You are welcome any time.

Being welcomed. I have been to studios where even if you are a new person, no one even shows you where the bathroom is. No one asks your name. You are basically left to your own devices. We will always show you where things are and make sure you are comfortable.

English, please. This is a tough one because I appreciate the Sanskrit names of poses. There is a calming, relaxing resonance to me just hearing someone say Chanturanga Dandasana. However, when I was a beginner, I would hear these names and frantically look around the room and try to figure out what exactly to do with my body. Instructors at Tula are advised to help beginners, say the English names of poses (in addition to the Sanskrit name) and make sure that you are able to at least attempt a pose with all the information required to do so.

Advanced Yogis are welcome too. Some people may think of places as intimidating if there are many fit, flexible yogis doing handstands and complicated backbends in class. To me, this is not intimidating, this is inspiring. There is a saying in yoga that you need to be happy with where you are- today. I love the idea of mixed level classes because people can learn from each other. So, at Tula, you may find a class full of fit bendable yogis or a class full of stiff beginners - just be happy with where you are and imagine the possibilities.

Have a sense of humor. This is a big one. I love teachers that take yoga seriously, but not themselves. We should be able to laugh at ourselves. Yoga is fun and sometimes funny. At Tula, don't be surprised if there is a lot of laughing in class.

To sum it up - I wanted my yoga to come with a sense of belonging, community, so that's the studio I aimed to build. I'm sure there are many people out there that just want a workout and go about their busy lives. I want a long savasana, I want to be asked how I am feeling, I want to be introduced to my neighbor next to me on the mat. I want to be greeted at the door by a warm welcoming face. I want to know that if I don't know what I'm doing, that's okay, I'm still welcome. I want to connect and grow in my practice with others. And that's what non-intimidating means to me- what does it mean to you?