There are many types of yoga. Not only are there different styles, there are different flavours. You can find classes that pair your favourite tastes with yoga (think chocolate yoga, yoga in the vineyard), and you can find classes geared towards specific groups (think yoga for runners or bro-yoga).
At the end of a yoga class, you’ll likely hear the instructions, “Come into corpse pose.” Corpse pose — or savasana as it is called in Sanskrit — is arguably the most important pose in any yoga class. It is the final posture, and is a chance for our bodies and minds to integrate the benefits of all the poses we’ve done in our practice. It’s a time for the body to completely relax, and come into a meditative state.
Last weekend I was at the Yoga Conference in Toronto. In one of the workshops, the instructor spent a long time discussing the importance of cultivating awareness of the space and time in between the poses in our yoga practice. It’s quite easy to focus on your breathing, your muscles, and your body when you’re actually holding a yoga pose on the mat - when you’re still - but the challenge lies in keeping that awareness, that presence of mind and body as you shift your body from one pose to another. This concept is not a new one to me.
This coming week is a big one for me. On Monday I get on a plane to Vancouver and then carry on to Whistler to attend the 2011 lululemon Ambassador Summit. I will join the other 120 invitees in yoga and fitness classes, goal-setting seminars, and attend networking events and workshops. And, of course there are a few social events thrown in there too. I’ve had a fantastic relationship with lululemon over the years and I am proud to be an Ambassador for the company this year.
