The Day Crow Happened:
Written By: RJ Lisander
CROW HAPPENED
There are lots of styles of yoga. In general, my class sequences follow a flow traditional to the style I’m teaching. However, this week during the 6:30 am emPOWER Yoga class at EMPOWER Durham, I threw the rulebook out the window and provided a totally different kind of POWER class to the EMPOWER Durham yoga community.
We started class in a silent, semi-darkened room in Savasana (which is typically the ending pose in all yoga classes) and did a five-minute meditation on connecting the body and the breath. Then, as the music picked up tempo and volume we moved from power pose to power pose. I asked each person to remember and use the simple breathing pattern we practiced in the meditation during each pose. This allows the mind to settle as the focus moves from: “I can’t” to the calming message of “just breath.” Quite of few of the particpants struggled, some even outwardly expressed their frustration with the challenging poses. Eventually all settled in to the practice. As we moved through the various poses, culminating in Crow pose, each person began to feel a shift. The shift, while different for each person, was as clear as watching someone attempt downward facing dog for the first time and then watching them perform the pose for the 100th time. Only, on this day, the shift happened in one-hour during the Durham emPOWER yoga class.
You see, the overall goal today was to throw the book out the window and to get the amazing people in that room to experience exactly what can happen when you let the mind go, connect the breath and the body and trust the flow. And, wouldn’t you know … Crow happened for each and every member of that class. For some, it was a reminder of the connection they had felt before, and for others it was the first time that connection had occurred. Either way, it was a privilege to watch each person shift and struggle and change and settle and connect.
So, if you ever ask me about my favorite yoga class to date, I’ll simply answer that it was the day Crow happened.
Feeling up to the challenge of an emPOWER yoga class? Please join us at EMPOWER Durham, Mondays and Wednesdays at 6:30 am. Pre-registration is recommended: https://clients.mindbodyonline.com/ASP/adm/home.asp
See you on the mat!
