Guest Blog: YOGA WITH HANNAH

Dear Reader,

I'm writing and studying. I'm in the middle of a few blogs that are putting up and emotional fight to get out of me (you'll see) and also studying for my yoga midtermns. So the free parts of my brain that I usually use for this cleaver and resourceful blog are all used up. So in lieu of my brilliance I offer the brilliance of Hannah Alexander, a dear friend and fellow teacher. I hope you enjoy her blog stylings and if you are ever in Wisconsin look her up for a private or maybe a class here at Second Star Studio.

Enjoy. Namste,

amy

 Original post march 30th, YOGA WITH HANNAH

2 Resources for Online Yoga

Many students have asked me for recommendations when it comes to free online yoga.
 Have you ever tried googling it? So many options come up, it's both wonderful and dismaying. Here are two resources I've become fond of, and why.

Yoga Today
This site has been my go-to for years. Three women out of Jackson Hole, WY: Adi Amar, Neesha Zollinger, and Sarah Kline.

Each with a distinct style and personality, each hosting hour-long yoga classes using local athletes and yogis as their students/models. The instruction is very sound, and often inspired.
The classes are primarily filmed outdoors, against the incredible backdrop of the Tetons, or maybe the red rock desert of Sedona, yet more recently they have begun to film classes indoors as well.
 The website  www.yogatoday.com streams one free class a week (plus mini-sessions on their blog) or they have memberships: something like $10/month or $90/year for unlimited access to their hundreds of classes. If you really love a particular class, you can download it to own for a few dollars.  A wonderful way to have access to great yoga classes whenever you would like, for a very affordable rate.  They offer a free two-week trial to the unlimited access option, which you can access with an ambassador ID: hannahcosetteyoga.

Yoga Glo
A more recent experience for me, this site also offers a free two week trial access (as far as I know they do not have an ambassador program, instead you sign up with your credit/debit card, and if you don't cancel after the 15 days are up, they will start billing you).

Their membership is a little more expensive, at $18/month. Still, for that price, you have access to more teachers, both male and female, including many whose names frequently appear in Yoga Journal. You can also track your practice, and you can sort for classes by teacher, by style (Ashtanga, Basics, Vinyasa Flow, Yin, etc.), by level of difficulty, by duration (anywhere from 5 to 120 min), and specific purpose (travel yoga, stress reduction, partner yoga, immune system, backbends, energize, insomnia, etc.). I really love the option to track practice, I think you can even enter the non-Yoga Glo classes you take. And being able to access such a diversity of teachers and classes is very appealing as well.

You may be wondering why a teacher would undercut herself by revealing where her students can access cheaper, still-quality yoga. For the price of a drop-in class, access a whole MONTH of yoga? Why would any thinking student go to actual, in-person classes anymore?

1. Because there is nothing, NOTHING, like sharing a room with real-time, warrm, breathing, souls in the practice of yoga.

2. Because the on-line teachers, as good as they are, cannot see you, and therefore are limited on how well they can actually teach to you. They can offer verbal adjustment for common issues with certain poses, but they will not be able to know what you specifically may need.

3. See #1

4. Because coming to yoga class, for me as well as you, fosters community, and that is what human beings are craving at this point in time. Look at how the internet is organized, with Linked In, Facebook, even Twitter. With infinite ways to participate in gatherings of the mind, the internet can do little for our bodies, the vehicles of our experience in this lifetime, except allow us to share with each other information, such as video, about our physical experience. We are each seeking out the tribes that we belong to. When we come to share space with others, even if we simply show up, participate, and leave quietly at the end, we share energy, meditative/experiential focus, and soul-time.

So GO, be free! Explore the world of internet yoga, it has much to offer to deepen your practice.
 I know that I will see you in class.
Because like a gourmet choosing only the finest produce for their meal, the deepest satisfaction and beauty comes from the exquisiteness of responding exactly to this moment, to the day, the seasons and all the phases of the moon and our sun/star, from skillfully surfing the vagaries of life.

 To prove my point, the puppy just pulled her collar off the coffee table, toppling a stack of books on to the floor. She is saying, get off that computer and let's go out in the rain! It's lush and green out there, things are blossoming and there must be all kinds of new smells since last night!