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November 2008
As 2008 winds down to a close, so does a long chapter in my yoga teaching life. After the New Year 2009 I will no longer be teaching my beginner Iyengar style hatha class in Sebastopol. I have basically taught this class since the early months of 1991!
My first venue was a drafty aikido studio in Graton with martial arts mats on the floor and flying termites during their season of mating and hatching. Then there was a series of small windowless or dimly lit rooms in offices or office buildings kindly rented to me by supportive health professional colleagues. 1997-2004 were the glory years of my own studio, Gravenstein Yoga and Healing Movement, which I created so I could have a light and spacious home to teach more than just one class a week, and support other yoga and movement teachers as well. Soon after I opened the yoga scene exploded in Sebastopol, with as many as 5 studios and yoga spaces at one point. I learned that Yoga folks are often not very collaborative; manifesting one’s unique vision was apparently more important than sharing overhead and space…
The Universe (and Devorah Blum, creator of Studio Ganesha) provided a perfect time and place for the next phase:
a 5:30 PM Tuesday class slot at Ganesha, on the square in downtown Sebastopol. For the first time, I was not teaching yoga after a full day of seeing patients in my office (previously a MWF schedule) Besides doing that on Mondays and Wednesdays for years, until early 2001 I would then get up and teach at the ungodly hour of 7:45 AM on Tuesdays and Thursdays at the health club in Cotati! So cutting back to one basic class a week, while teaching my therapeutic/pain management class in Santa Rosa, (see yoga classes page) has been a much more reasonable schedule as I have slowed down in this phase of my “middle aged” life.
However, now I approach another transition point, as I realize that my heart is really in teaching ultra-beginners- those would not otherwise consider yoga because they have physical conditions or injuries, would not just come to a yoga studio. My MD degree and experience with modifying and adapting yoga for injuries (much of which I have learned from working with my own!) gives me a unique authority to provide instruction in therapeutic yoga and yoga for pain management. Let’s face it: there are plenty of competent younger and more energetic folks out there to teach downward dog and all that good fun hatha stuff!
So as 2008 comes to a close, I am offering a Recession Rate Rollback price of $60 for 5 classes, good through
December 30. Even if you just get 4 in, that is the same as my current drop in rate of $15, which of course is always an option.
The last Tuesdays of November and December, the 25th and 30th respectivly, are “restorative” classes with passive relaxation postures mostly lying on the floor with lots of supportive “props”
bolsters, folded blankets, etc., a very yummy antidote to all the holiday hysteria. I hope to see you there!
Namaste,
Gail
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