KonaYoga.com

Jehangir Palkhivala @ Kona Yoga

Flyers are now available at the studio for next month's workshop with Jehangir. If you reside outside of Kona and would like one mailed to you, please contact [email protected] with your mailing address and number of flyers required.

You may also download a pdf. version of the flyer.

Jehangir Palkhivala will also be conducting workshops at the following studios throughout the country:

• Yoga with Cherie, Lansing, MI - July 6 through July 8.
• The Yoga Lodge on Whidbey Island - July 17 and 18.
• Yoga Centers, Bellevue, WA - July 20 through July 22.
• Ventura Yoga, Ventura, CA - July 27 through July 29.
• East Honolulu Yoga Center, Honolulu, HI - August 4 through August 7.
• Kona Yoga, Kona, HI - August 9 through August 12.

Under the Watchful Eye

I am going to miss having a critical eye gazing upon my asanas. The last class of John Leebold's workshop was held this evening and because it was a small class, we all got special attention from a master yoga teacher. Not a single, critical inch gets past his eye. Yet, correction and encouragement are rendered with humor and compassion.

Everyone should be so lucky, to have a watchful eye be able to discern and describe your shortcomings, yet appreciate and celebrate your gifts. Mahalo, John, for a wonderful workshop!

Photo: Dr.Pat

Inspiration is Sweet

"The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires."
-William Arthur Ward

The photo above explains the way I feel, as I complete the third day of classes with John Leebold. You can see expended effort on the faces of the young men and the fresh, powerful burst of inspiration in the form of their teacher. I feel a mixture of both.

I am still absorbing (we've two more days to go) and wondering what changes have occurred: physically and mentally. I have been inspired by John's teaching, by my own body and by the other people in the classes.

I stand with my hands on my hips and look back on the weekend and say, "What now?" Knowing that change is in the making.

Photo: Stanko Milov, ballet teacher

John Leebold's Blog

In the few days that he's here in Kona, John's decided to start blogging! He's sifting through photos and learning the ins and outs of Typepad features.

His aim is to keep the yoga community informed of his whereabouts and to share some of his travel-teaching-experiences. Keep checking the blog for additional cities and yoga studios where you can meet up with John. As well as for some of his personal photographs of B.K.S. Iyengar.

View the blog and save this address: www.johnleebold.typepad.com

Pau Hana

At the end of the work day (pau hana) these friends toss a couple of cans of beer into coolers and head down to the shore at the Natural Energy Lab. They spend a few hours with hook, line and sinker, in and out of the water. When the sun goes down, their time is up and they head home to their separate lives.

Sometimes they catch fish, but most of the time they just reconnect to the sounds and smells of a simpler life.

Practice Chase

I expect to see the sun rise, and to see it set, because it has happened every day of my life. My practice, my time on the mat, depends soley on me and that is a daily challenge.

I could follow the suggestions for a steady practice:

1. Set aside the space and time.
2. Create a goal, a focus or an intention.
3. Dedicate your practice to someone or something.
4. Vary your postures, have a purpose.

...etc.

It may not seem as natural as the turning of the earth, but after yoga sensitizes you I think it begins to magnetize you from the core. You stray, then return, time after time after time. I yearn for the day when my daily practice becomes as effortless as the sunrise with no thoughts, just joy. Until then, I guess it means more practice.

Photo: Eugene Ortiz

My Father's Gift

"He didn't tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it."
- Clarence Budington Kelland

Here's a photo of my dad, Fred, probably taken about the time my mom's photo was taken. He's leaning on a bicycle with a steering wheel, next to an engine that he was overhauling. In the 50's and 60's, the existence of a 'daddy' way of childrearing was not recognized as it is today and at least in my memory, my dad communicated through his main interest: the automobile.

His work during the day was at his repair garage or out at night on a "trouble call". He left early and came home just before dinner and he knew the condition of nearly everyone's car. When I wanted to ride with some friends to watch a football game in Kohala, he quickly said, "No, her tires aren't good enough for the trip." That was it, but he took the day off to drive me all the way to the game, along with a few other girlfriends.

When I was old enough for my driver's license, Fred decided that I needed to learn how to parallel park, the day before my road test! I remember him standing in the drizzling rain in the Konawaena School parking lot as I bumped into imagined parked cars, over and over until he thought I was ready. Luckily, I wasn't asked to perform it for my road test, which I passed. He bought me a used '57 Chevy.

As the owner of a service station, he took an interest in hiring the disabled: a man with a missing arm and another who could not hear or speak. Some years later, when I was about to place a classified ad in the local paper for an autobody repair manperson, Fred said to ask for a man or woman. "A woman can do just as much as a man in this job."

Although he didn't deliver any long lectures, his terse one sentence comments and directions were totally consistent. Just by watching him move through his life I felt protected, cared for and loved.

More articles on Dads and Parenting:
The Importance of Dads in the lives of Children
Father Facts

When High Tech = High Touch

Artist and author Sandra Magsamen has a link to a YouTube video of women in art on her blog. Beautifully done, it's a stream of female portraits from various artists. Each face blends into the next. As I watched it, I realized that I was so grateful for a number of things:

• My Art 101 Class
• Visits to the Louvre
• Museums in general
• You Tube
• Cable Internet access
• My Toshiba laptop
• Classical Music
• Women
• Mongoose (!)
• Technology
• Leonardo DaVinci
• The Cello
• People, like Sandra Magsamen, who share
• The Renaissance
• The days when I used to paint with Kerry Browning (where is she today?)

The list could go on, as a stream of consciousness exercise. I'm getting better at focusing on what I like, as opposed to what I don't like. It's just a matter of developing the habit.

Watch the Video: Women in Art

Portrait of Gineva deBendi by Leonardo DaVinci (1474).

Double Jointed

The question came up in today's Prenatal Yoga Class, "Does double-jointed mean you have double joints?" My answer: "No, it just means that a  particular joint is very flexible."

In case I didn't explain myself sufficiently and for others who may have the same question, the term double-jointed refers to hypermobility (able to bend beyond the normal range) within a joint.

Some recent studies suggest that being hypermobile protects you from the ravages of arthritis. Although they are not clear if it is due to exercise induced stretching, or if hypermobile people tend to exercise and stretch more.

In the interest of body balance, it makes sense to strengthen the muscles that surround a hypermobile joint as much as we seek flexibility in our strong and/or shortened muscles. These factors become even more of a focus for the pregnant woman whose hormones cause her joints to become more flexible. Yoga during pregancy addresses the strengthening of these areas as well as stretching and relaxation issues.

Read more:

What It Means To Be Double Jointed

Are You Double Jointed?

Illustration: CommuniGate

Every day except Sunday.

Now that I feel semi-coherent with this blog, I feel a need for some order. Order in the form of say, a single topic for each day of the week.

It might help to create a daily post based on a subject that I have a week to think about ("slow and steady wins the race") rather than to post when I get hit by a blast of inspiration.

I'm going to try this out for a few weeks:

• Mondays. I'll continue to publish the main article from my weekly newsletter. If you're not currently receiving it you may sign up through this link.
• Tuesdays. On The Mat will include my thoughts and epiphanies as I go through my own yoga practice along with observations  and notes from the workshops that I have attended.
• Wednesdays. Subject:KONA. I've lived here for over 50 years and I can't imagine calling any other place "home". I love the present-day Kona as well as the old, so this won't be a rant but a sharing of the people, places and things that I love in and about Kona.
• Thursdays. Subject: YOGA. If my posts on Tuesdays Will be written from my perspective as a student of yoga, Thursdays will offer my ideas as an instructor.
• Fridays. Random Order. Whatever appears on my radar screen, just so I won't feel boxed in by my self-prescribed sense of order.
• Saturdays. My day of gratitude will include a photo or scan of something that I truly appreciate.
• Sundays. Blackout Day. That's when I'm writing the newsletter for the next week.

Photo: Sami