Thank You and Yoga

Thank you.

Thank you for the outpouring of support after yesterday's post about depression.  It just means the world to me --knowing that I've been heard, that you've been there, that you understand where I'm walking right now. I've kept the emails and the comments and reread them all again and again. Thank you.

Somehow, I'd forgotten what an amazing group you are.  Such a smart, loving, non-judgmental, positive group of people. I'm not sure how I got so lucky to have you as participants in this blog. Throughout the years, I have, at various times, felt your collective good wishes/energy and I've often remarked to my kids that they have an entire audience of people who are invested in watching them grow up --but I just forgot that I could come to you when I was down and you'd feel me. Thank you.

I have other blogger friends who are routinely savaged in the comments of their blogs. Do you know that I have NEVER experienced that? You've created such an amazing environment here! Thank you.

Thank you.

So, one thing I forgot to say yesterday was that I'm coming out of my slump.  Also, that I'm not clinically, horribly depressed --I'm just kind of flat. I'm in that place where everything feels like a huge, hard chore. I'm doing all the things I know to do that make me feel better--random acts of kindness, gardening, connecting with friends, and, of course, yoga.

Yoga makes everything better.

One of the great blessings of my new house is that it has space for a yoga studio, and I've opened that space up for classes.

Rasna Yoga

I've started very small. I'm currently teaching  on Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 10:00AM and Monday evening at 6:00PM (because, you know, MONDAY) --a Dharma Yoga inspired vinyasa flow class.  I wanted to offer Power Yoga, too, but I don't have a lot of Power Yogis yet, so, I'm, well, MAKING MY OWN. Seriously, my advanced beginners are coming along like freight trains.  It's simply amazing to see them grow and stretch and get stronger. I'm so grateful to get to be a part of that.

The studio is called Rasna Yoga. Rasna means "sweet-voiced, " which is pretty fitting if you've ever heard me speak --at least judging by the number of callers I get who ask if my mommy is home (not that I'm bitter.) The name was chosen by my New York yoga community, so I feel like they're here with me--isn't that nice? The website is under very slow development (see: "everything feels like a huge chore" above,) but you can like the Facebook page for it if you want to follow our progress.

AND, I've finally started on a quest to find a yoga community here to support my own growth.  So far, I've been taking classes at various yoga studios around Austin, but haven't found my people quite yet. There are so many different styles of yoga! I'm trying to be receptive to different styles of teaching, but I do have a serious preference for the teachings of people trained by Sri Dharma Mittra. All of my teachers in New York were trained by him, and I was lucky enough to have done my teacher training with Sri Dharma himself.  As far as I can tell, I'm the only Dharma Yogi in Austin, but I feel certain I can still find an asana class that speaks to me, and I will just continue to train in the other limbs of Yoga online with the Dharma Yoga Center and through self study.