Listen and notice

I feel very fortunate that I was able to take a master yoga class on Wednesday with Rodney Yee and Colleen Saidman at Piedmont Yoga Studio in Oakland.
As expected, the class was packed even though it was 9 on a Wednesday morning.
It was a 2-hour class. But it didn’t feel like two hours.
Rodney started the class by chatting with us for a bit. I love when teachers start class like that. Sometimes they just want to chat. Other times it is a way to introduce the theme of the class.
What I took from the class was to listen and notice …
As we were listening and noticing what our bodies were telling us Rodney also reminded us to check our breath. If the breath wasn’t free and flowing then the pose our body was in was not benefiting our bodies.
We need to listen and notice in yoga but also in life. Listen and notice what is going on in your body. And check your breath.
There are so many styles of yoga and styles of teachers out there. Some of the lineages of yoga are quite long and some are much shorter. The lineage of yoga I mainly study and practice and the lineage I was taught under comes from BKS Iyengar.
Some of my teachers were formally trained in Iyengar Yoga or were taught how to become a teacher by those trained in Iyengar Yoga. The way the program I studied under (to become a yoga teacher) was described by one of my teachers as Iyengar influenced, alignment based.
When I write about pretty much anything I do some research. So I did some on both Rodney and Colleen.
According to Yoga with Rodney Yee, in 1987, after becoming a certified Iyengar Yoga Teacher, Rodney opened the Piedmont Yoga Studio in Oakland with Richard Rosen (one of my yoga teachers and one of the teachers who taught me how to be a yoga teacher) and Claire Finn. Rodney teaches occasionally at Piedmont Yoga Studio, but he is now based in New York, and teaches regular classes at his wife Colleen’s studio, Yoga Shanti, in New York.
According to Colleen Saidman Yee Yoga, Colleen graduated from Jivamukti’s teacher-training program in 1998. She opened her own studio, Yoga Shanti, in Sag Harbor, NY, in 1999.
I love learning more about yoga, the lineage I studied under, interesting and amazing teachers, my own body and breath and whatever else comes my way in this continuous journey.