Got a Minute? Do a Pose! Urdhva Prasarita Padasana (upward pressing legs)

A great pose to strengthen your abdominal muscles. Not appropriate for menstruation or pregnancy. Put a blanket under your elbows if your arms don't touch the floor. You could also put your hands under your buttocks to make the pose a bit easier and to relieve any strain in your back.

Got a Minute? Do a Pose! Urdhva Mukha Svanasana (upward facing dog)

What is "Brown and Black Yoga" Anyway?

If you’re accustomed to dropping in to whatever class may fit your schedule on any given day, you may be surprised to see we have a new offering on Monday nights: Brown and Black Yoga. If you read the fine print, you’ll see that it’s expressly for folks who identify as a person of color, and that white folks are asked not to attend.

This may take you aback, if you’ve never been asked to define and restrict yourself by your race, except for the once-a-decade census form. Those of us who came of age in the 70s and 80s, in the aftermath of Jim Crow, largely grew up with colorblindness and desegregation as the values to strive for. So why segregate by race now?

Consider this: we’ve been offering a Women’s Yoga class for years. Many gyms and other centers also have special women’s hours or women’s spaces. Culturally, we seem to understand that the needs of women are particular, and not always met in mixed-gender spaces. It may be for religious reasons, or it may be because women have experienced trauma associated with men, sexual or otherwise, or it may be because the physical and physiological needs of women are unique, or just that women would prefer to hang out together.

In addition, yoga is a particularly vulnerable practice. We move our bodies around in all kinds of ways. We wear snug shorts or tights and shirts. We sweat, go upside down, and tie ourselves up in knots. Especially when we are already asked to try new things, challenge ourselves, and leave our comfort zones, it’s important to be in a space where you feel safe.

For the same reasons women do not always feel safe doing yoga when men are in the room, brown and black people may not always feel safe doing yoga when white people are in the room. In the same way misogyny continues to rage in our society (in the media, on the streets, in the workplace, economically, politically etc), racism continues to plague our society through systemic racism. Distinct from interpersonal racism, systemic racism involves the political, economic, educational, and social structures that put white people at the top of a racial hierarchy and keep them there.

These same systems of oppression make it all too easy for microaggressions to occur, no matter how well-intentioned someone might be. Over time, they accumulate and can manifest as physical illness and take an emotional toll as depression and anxiety.

We’re offering Brown and Black Yoga because students have requested it. They have expressed that they feel more relaxed, less guarded, more supported, and less self-conscious when they are with each other, than when white folks are in the room, the same way women may feel more comfortable in a gender-segregated space. These opportunities are so few and far between that they are treasured. They give nourishment to more happily face the rest of the week, when we are all re-integrated into multi-racial, all-gendered spaces.

 

Let’s support each other in getting our needs met in yoga class. Let’s respect the needs of others in our community, even if they may be different than our own. Namaste.

Announcing: Iyengar Yoga Detroit Cooperative

Dear Beloved Community of Iyengar Yoga Detroit,

Michele and Gwi-Seok opened Iyengar Yoga Detroit in Fall 2013, expanding from Michele’s Yoga Suite, into a larger location, with more teachers and classes. We moved into our current site 2 years ago, eager for a more permanent space on the ground floor. Since 2013, we’ve grown from 1 teacher to 5 teachers, all certified or actively engaged in the certification process, and from 3 classes a week to 13+. We host workshops, an advanced studies program, and a rare and much-needed Special Concerns class.

As we celebrate our 3rd anniversary, we are facing some changes. Michele, after much contemplation and years of dedication and sacrifice, has decided to step down from her directorship and ownership of IYD. She will continue to teach, but will no longer be our director.

We sincerely appreciate all she has done to bring Iyengar Yoga to a broad community, directing the only Iyengar Yoga center in Detroit, and one of an extremely small handful owned by a black person nationwide. We are very proud of what she has accomplished and deeply grateful.

Now, we are in the process of transitioning to a cooperatively-run structure beginning in September. We look forward to becoming one of very few yoga co-ops in the nation, and the only one we know of in Michigan. From the student’s point of view, little will change. Our schedule, fees, and policies will remain largely the same. However, organizationally, we will operate in a more community-based fashion.

We will have several types of membership for you to choose from. In additional to the general membership we have now, we will also have a $100/year tax-deductible voting membership for community folks interested in attending bi-annual meetings to help steer the course of IYD, and $200+/year tax-deductible membership for owner-managers who will run IYD and meet monthly. The additional membership levels will also be eligible for profit-sharing in surplus years.

To be truthful, IYD has yet to profit financially. We profit in many other ways by sharing the study and practice of Iyengar Yoga, but our teachers are paid far less than they deserve (sometimes less than minimum wage or no wage at all) and the organization has stayed afloat through Michele’s generosity.

Instead of the industry standard of 200 and 500-hour certifications, Iyengar Yoga certification takes about 1000 hours. Intermediate Junior teachers have more like 3000-10,000 hours of on-going training under their belts. Why do we sacrifice so much time and energy for low pay? We see Iyengar Yoga as a sacred art, a spiritual path, and healing practice, necessary for our own well-being, and of benefit to the community. We offer this art freely, and turn no one away.

In order to take IYD to the next level and establish a firm economic foundation, we ask our community to actively support us with membership, and if possible, time and energy.

We will host a fundraising party on Friday, September 9, 5:30-9pm. Details will be forthcoming, but it will consist of the usual 2nd Friday Restorative Yoga class, followed by food, an open mic, and more. Please mark your calendar and plan to attend, and bring friends. We ask for a $20-$50 donation at the door, to set us on good footing for the changes ahead. We will also be encouraging folks to get a jump on 2017 memberships, and receive 3 months of bonus membership.

Meanwhile, please ponder what Iyengar Yoga Detroit means to you, and how you might want to participate in the coming year. Do you have a gift for bookkeeping, housekeeping, or carpentry? Are you good at administration, organization, communications? Do you love social media, photography, design? Maybe you don’t have time, but you have money to spare to support community health and well-being.

Whatever you’ve got, we’ll take it and put it to excellent use. We look forward to working more closely with you in coming months and years. Thank you for your heartfelt support!

Namaste,
IYD Faculty and Staff:
Hong Gwi-Seok
Michele Pearson
Erin Shawgo
Nicci Kushner
Meiko Krishok
Angela Abiodun


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Got a Minute? Do a Pose! Marichyasana III

Got a Minute? Do Prasarita Padottanasana (classic) and Uttanasana (classic)

Patanjali Yoga Sutra II.17

by Meiko Krishok

द्रष्टृदृश्ययोः संयोगो हेयहेतुः I

II.17 draṣṭṛ-dṛśyayoḥ saṁyogaḥ heya-hetuḥ

The cause of pain is the association or identification of the seer (ātmā) with the seen (prakṛti) and the remedy lies in their dissociation. (tr BKS Iyengar)

We are both the Seer and the Seen. The former is that which is unchanging. Ātmā is pure universal consciousness. This is the observer that is unchanging in its response to its environment. The Seen, on the other hand is part of the material world and is continuously changing. Prakṛti is comprised of material objects, the intellect, the mind and the ego, which are constantly experiencing fluctuations. Just think about how your nails grow or your skin changes, or how many different thoughts and emotions overwhelm you on a regular basis. All of this is nature/prakṛti/dṛśyayoḥ/that which is seen.

We encounter difficulty and pain when the Seer and the Seen become confused, when the Seer within us mistakes that which is seen as unchanging, universal truths. We can easily experience a moment of pain, discomfort, or anxiety and forget that it is simply a fluctuation of consciousness, a temporary physical response to our (temporary) physical environment. These are the moments that seem to linger on forever, and even once the physical sensation has passed, often, a piece of that experience remains lodged in our unconscious, ready to spring back up at the drop of a hat.

When we allow the Seer to remain the Observer instead of the Experiencer, we can start to discriminate between ātmā and prakṛti, and instead of getting all mixed up in the material world, intellect and ego, we can allow the Seer to simply shine its light on everything as it unfolds.

As B.K.S. Iyengar points out in his commentary on Patanjali’s sutras, the intellect plays a critical role in this process, as it can easily become enmeshed in the world of material objects. It says what is that? How did they get that and what will it take for me to get one? Am I as smart or grounded or kind as so-and-so? The intellect rules the small self, the ego. The great self is in the heart. The intellect connects the head to the heart, but often this is an unsteady connection. What is needed is not identification of the Seer with the Seen, but transparency between the two. Once the intellect can easily discriminate between the Seer and the Seen, then the ego dissolves, allowing for the soul (puruṣa, the unchanging) to shine its true light.