Let Yoga Festival Season Begin!

Spring has sprung a little early this year and it's got me excited about the various yoga festivals and retreats I have coming up!  I consider Spring the beginning of Yoga Festival Season despite the fact that one of the main festivals is in October....oh well!

I thought I'd post some info about upcoming events in the area (including KC and Iowa City), especially those with early bird registration going on right now, so that others can take advantage of these great opportunities!

It's important to note that these events that I'm listing are appropriate for all levels of yoga practitioners. As with any yoga class, listen to your body and make modifications.  And avoid signing up for advanced sessions if you're not ready. ;)

First up, we have the Second Annual Central Iowa Yoga Retreat!

Logo from Central Iowa Yoga Retreat

The retreat is a day packed with a variety of activities including a session with the always wonderful James Miller.  There's even a "Pose and Prose" session that involves journaling while doing yoga that I'm very intrigued by. :)  Last year was a very enjoyable experience and a good chance to bond with other local yogis.  Unfortunately, the early bird registration has already passed, but it's still a good deal!

What:  Central Iowa Yoga Retreat

When:  April 1, 2012 8am-4pm
Where:  Community and Events Center, Windsor Heights, IA
Cost: UPDATED: $99! The early bird price has been extended to everyone!

Registration Site

On Cinco de Mayo we have margaritas!  I mean, we have the Kansas City Yoga Festival and THEN we have margaritas!

Logo from Kansas City Yoga Festival

Hooray!  A nice quick road trip to Kansas City, yoga, and still time for margaritas afterward!  This is the first year for this festival, but it's shaping up to be a good one! James Miller will be at this festival as well, as will another amazing yogi, Gabriel Azoulay.  This festival also includes a yoga flash mob, so we'll see how that goes. :)

What:  Kansas City Yoga Festival

When:  May 5, 2012 8am-6:15pm
Where:  Family Life Center, Independence, MO
Cost: Early Bird Special until March 20th - $75.  After March 20th - $110.
Registration Site

Last, but not least, we have the Iowa City Yoga Festival!

Logo for Iowa City Yoga Festival

I attended the very first Iowa City Yoga Festival but a scheduling snafu kept me away last year.  Much to my dismay, might I add.  Not this year!  I've have this baby blocked in my calendar for a year!  I'm not even going to bother listing the amazing people that will be at this festival.  That, and the list isn't available...but I could make some educated guesses. :)  The brain child of James Miller, it's sure to be packed with respected speakers and instructors.  It's truly a magical weekend and not to be missed by anyone that loves yoga.  Go, enjoy, and bring friends next year!

What:  Iowa City Yoga Festival

When:  October 12-14, 2012
Where:  Iowa City, IA
Cost: $325
Registration Site
Make sure to look at the session descriptions before you register as you will be picking your agenda when you sign up!

Aside from these lovely events, we must not forget to mention the awesome free events that are available in the metro in the summer!  Yoga in the Park and Yoga on the Lawn are two fabulous summer opportunities that should not be missed. 

Yoga in the Park

Gray's Lake, Des Moines, IA
June 2 - September 29

Saturdays @ 9am
The instructor lineup is quite good this year.  Take a look at the link for a full schedule.  James Miller is teaching on 8/11, his classes usually are far from free! 

Yoga on the Lawn

WDM City Hall Lawn, West Des Moines, IA
June 3 - September 2 

Sundays @ 9am

This is by no means an all inclusive list of all of the workshop, class, etc opportunities in and around Des Moines.  Just a few highlights that I already have on my calendar.  I do try to keep on top of the area events and will typically share them on my Twitter feed as well.

Hope to see you at these events!

Daily Yoga FTW!

I made a promise to myself at the end of 2011 that I'd make sure I didn't let my yoga practice get pushed aside by life.  I vowed to practice yoga for at least 20 min per day, and I even set up a special space just for yoga in my basement!

I wasn't as good as I would have liked in the last couple of months of 2011, but I'm not going to beat myself up about it.  I was just getting my life back in order after the kitty debacle and the holidays were upon me.  But those are just excuses, of course.  I've accepted that I could have done better in November and December and prepared to really kick ass and stay on track beginning in January 2012.

I'm proud to report that I've done at least 20 min of yoga every day since the first of the year! You can see by the screenshot below that in the first 11 days of January I practiced yoga for 470 minutes!  If you average it out, it's closer to 45 min per day, but who's counting!  :)

Calendar Tracker Lite iPhone App

I downloaded this handy (free) iPhone application called Calendar Tracker Lite and it's worked perfectly.  Since I'm only tracking my yoga practice I only need one calendar.  However, if you need to track more than one thing and need more calendars you can buy the full version for $0.99.  I simply told it how many minutes of yoga I wanted to shoot for per week and it will show me how I'm progressing toward that goal.  You can track time, money, distance, etc.  It's quite handy!  And It will show you your history so I can see my entries with a note indicating where I practiced (home, gym, etc).  It's been great!

I have to say, setting up my yoga space in my basement and really sticking to my goal of practicing daily has made a huge difference!  It's dark, cozy, quiet...perfect!  I tried to capture a picture for you but it turned out kind of grainy.  I wanted to show how cozy it can be, but I failed. :) I just turn off the lights, use that colorful lamp on the table and light a candle and I'm set!  I have a little JBL iPhone speaker dock to listen to music or play podcasts without blasting them through my iPhone speakers.  I also have a space heater down there in case it happens to get chilly or I want to do a little hot yoga.  I absolutely love it!  I guess it's not totally perfect.  The carpet is thick and I'm using my old thick Jade Fusion mat, so balance can be a challenge if I'm overtired or just off my game.  But I figure it'll only improve my already pretty awesome balance over time, so I deal with it.

Mentally, doing yoga every day has been fabulous.  No matter how tired I am or how late I get home I always take time to at least get on the mat every day.  It's a nice way to wind down before bed or kick off my day.  Also, I feel less guilty when I'm not able to make it to my classes.  I know that I can always take some time at home to do yoga even if I miss that class at the gym.  Stress and guilt be gone!. :)   Daily yoga for the win (FTW)!

My basement yoga space.  Sorry it's grainy, I was trying to capture the dim lighting!

So, like I said, I've done yoga every day for 11 days.  When I started this I was sad that my yoga muscle tone had diminished during my brief fall off the wagon.  I'm happy to say that it's coming back quickly!  I can definitely see that my arms and legs are more toned and if you catch me at the right angle I have abs!  I just need to shed some of the extra padding around the muscles and I'll be good to go. :) I'm not terribly overweight, but I do have some to lose.  Thankfully I'm back to my yoga and my Thyroid meds seem to be making a difference as well.  Hopefully it's only a matter of time before I'm mentally and physically where I want to be.

If you're looking to form a yoga habit, I recommend getting in on Yoga Journal's 21 Day Yoga Challenge.  It started on January 9th, but you can join up whenever!  The point isn't to see how much you can do, but to form a habit of doing yoga every day.  It's great and has classes and meditations for every level.  Enjoy!

Hooray for yoga!

Time to Re-Energize My Yoga Practice

Anyone who knows me knows that I'm a huge yoga fan.  Unfortunately, I let life derail my practice sometimes.  I've been doing yoga for almost ten years but I've had more than one multi-month gap in my practice and that definitely does not help me continue my growth as a yoga practitioner.  The last few years I've been solidly on track going to at least three classes a week and during the summer five to six classes a week.  Then, I recently had a furbaby emergency that ended up taking my attention off of myself for about two months.  Instead of four classes a week I made it to four classes in two months! I was miserable mentally and physically and my stress level was through the roof.

Now, I'm back to a normal routine and am able to make it to all of my classes and my mental state has greatly improved.  Yoga is my stress management miracle.  I do a pretty good job of managing it even without making it to yoga, but my practice keeps me centered and puts everything into perspective in a way that nothing else I've tried can.  So, now that I'm back to my classes I'm in much better spirits.  It doesn't hurt that my kitty situation has greatly improved, too. As far as my physical abilities, luckily I have been doing yoga long enough that I have muscle memory that keeps me from losing too much ground when I miss classes.

Yes, I realize I can do yoga at home.  I've never been a fan of home practice.  I always have a lot to do when I'm home and once that's done I take advantage of some downtime with a book or a DVR'd TV show.  A bigger reason I don't do yoga at home is my two kitties.  It's not fun doing downward facing dog with a kitty tail in your face.  Those have always been my excuses.  Stuff to do and cats in the way.  It's all nonsense.  I realized that today.  I've been making excuses that are just stupid.  Certainly I can find some time in my evening schedule or before work to do a little yoga and I have a basement with a door so I could do yoga down there.

So why after nearly 8 years in this house have I just now realized that my basement would be a good place for yoga?  I dunno.  I think it's because my friend changed her Facebook profile photo to a picture of her doing Tittibhasana or Firefly Pose and I got extremely jealous.  I'll link to the Yoga Journal photo of this pose rather than showing you her picture for privacy's sake. :)

Tittbhasana - photo from Yoga Journal

I don't have the core or arm strength to do this.  Not even close.  My friend recently started taking yoga teacher certification classes and other advanced classes to enhance her practice and it's worked miracles.  But she says the biggest difference has been adding a self practice.  So, it got me thinking.  What if I did more than my mixed level classes at the gym and the occasional studio class?  What if I really pushed myself to my edge.  The classes at the gym are mixed level, so we don't really go into many of the intensive advanced poses and we don't do many inversions.  I've been to a few workshops and yoga festivals and I never feel limited to the point where I can't keep up, but if ever inversions come up I shy away.  I need to fix this.  This brings me to my new yoga goal.

Today, I promise myself that I will practice for at least 20 minutes per day, but preferably an hour per day.  If I don't have a class, I'll do it at home.  


I want to push myself to the edges of my ability and comfort zone so that I can get into poses that currently seem impossible.  Notice I didn't say that I'm going to start taking yoga teacher training classes.  I'm too selfish for that.  My favorite instructor and friend has told me how becoming a teacher has limited her personal practice and I'm too selfish to let that happen.  Maybe someday when I've reached some personal yoga goals I'll have an awakening of my selfless side and I'll do the training.  But for now, yoga is the one thing that's all mine.  I often put everyone else ahead of myself and let my needs fall to the back.  With yoga, I'm able to tune out the rest of the world and just focus on myself.  I'm not ready to let others in right now.  Maybe someday!

Anyway, thanks for letting me ramble on about this.  I figured if I didn't put it in writing I wouldn't stick to it.  So there it is.  Yoga every day.  I have some followup goals to this one, but I'll get into this routine for a few months first before I start adding on.  I'm hoping I start seeing some great growth in my practice as a result of dedicating extra time and trying poses I don't get to do in class.  At the very least I'll have at least 20 minutes per day where I can tune out the world and any stress in my life and just breathe.  In fact, just taking that time to breathe and let it all go is reason enough to get on the mat every day.