Are You Ready? Are You Ready…to Kiss My Asana? April 1, 2017

“Are you ready? Are you ready? / For what’s to come…Oh, I said Are you ready? / Are you ready? For what’s to come / Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one / Count down to…”

– Are You Ready by Creed

It’s that time again! Spring? Yes, but also it’s time for Kiss My Asana. For the fourth year in a row, I am joining joyful yogis everywhere to raise awareness and resources for Mind Body Solutions and their adaptive yoga programs.

Matthew Sanford and the other teachers at Mind Body Solutions are committed to a yoga practice which “transcends ability and disability, opens people’s lives to new possibilities, and transforms the delivery of health care.” The annual yogathon is a virtual four-week challenge open to anyone, anywhere, and it’s pretty much open to any way you want to do more yoga, learn more about yoga, and share more yoga.

“Are you ready? For what’s to come?”

Then let’s get started. There are a lot of ways to help raise awareness and resources during the month of April. Here are just a few suggestions.

• Since my previous Kiss My Asana offerings are still available, you can participate in this April’s yogathon by practicing “30 Poses in 30 Days” (posted in 2014); use the 2015 “30 Songs in 30 Days” as your practice playlist; add one of these 5-minute yoga or meditation practices to your weekly/daily routine (posted in 2015); and/or revisit last year’s yogi videos and profiles (featuring 5 practice focused questions).
• If you join the “A Joyful Practice” donation team, you will receive a studio passport which will enable you to practice at participating passport studios for free. You may also use the joyful link above to donate to Mind Body Solutions and the 2017 Kiss My Asana Yogathon (without committing to raising additional resources).
• You can attend one or more than one of the donation-based yoga classes being offered during Kiss My Asana.
  • Erika Peterson will host a KMA donation-based class at Nokomis Yoga on Sunday, April 9^th.
  • I will host donation-based classes at Flourish on Saturday, April 22^nd (6:30 PM – 8:00 PM) and at Nokomis Yoga on Saturday, April 29^th (3:30 PM – 5:30 PM).
  • For more opportunities, check out KMA registered classes for 2017.

Erika teaches a Vin-Yin class at Nokomis, and her KMA class will be a Slow Flow Vinyasa. The classes I host (or co-host) will be inspired by the practice principles featured in the adaptive yoga DVD “Beyond Disability” as led by Matthew Sanford. (Please RSVP using the links above if you would like to join one of these donation-based classes.)

• You can challenge yourself by practicing one thing (an asana, pranayama, or a meditation) every day for 30 days.
• You can use yoga to embody your favorite story, song, emotion, poem, prayer, visual art, person, or moment in time.
• You can blog, tweet, instagram, or Facebook link about how your yoga practice on the mat transforms your experiences off the mat.

This is all good, but “What,” you might ask, “are you (Myra) doing as the virtual part of this year’s Kiss My Asana?”

Good question. As you may have noticed (especially after last year), I love questions. I’ve fallen for “Questions” by R. S. Thomas and, like the Creed song quoted above, my personal playlist currently features question-centered songs by Fink, X Ambassadors, Ed Sheeran, Cole Swindell, and Garth Brooks (naturally)!

 

In my favorite “Letters To A Young Poet” passage, Ranier Maria Rilke urges Franz Kappus: “… try to love the questions themselves…. the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now.”

 

Oh, and did I mention that questions led me to yoga teacher training?

 

When I started practicing in Texas, I often encountered people whose only intersection with yoga was me. These people had questions – lots and lots of questions. I, unfortunately, had no answers…other than telling people they could come with me to practice. When some of my teachers suggested teacher training, I thought, “Sure, someday. Then I’ll know some answers – or, at least, know a resource where someone could live (or practice) their way into their own answers.” Flash forward to “someday” and I’m in Minneapolis attending a teacher training focused on teaching people how to teach – and everybody had to teach.

 

So, last year I asked people questions. This year, you get to ask me questions. Answer word count will be divisible by 108.

Want to ask me a question? You can make a comment below, ask me before or after a class, or send an email to myra at ajoyfulpractice.com. Subscribers to ajoyfulpractice.com will receive my answers as they are posted – or, you can check back here throughout April.

### Peace In, Peace Out ###