Hi CF Yogis! Katie and Kellie here, your friendly yoga instructors for the month of February. As February is the month of Valentine’s day, it’s a good time to refresh our relationships. Not just the romantic ones, but our interactions with everybody in our daily lives, and with our own selves.
We thought that this month, it would be timely to incorporate some wisdom from The Four Agreements into our classes. The Four Agreements is a great book that may already be familiar to some of you, since it was a previous CF Yogi Book Club group read back in October of 2020.
As we age and grow, we experience many life changes that teach us many lessons and perspectives along the way, incorporating different thoughts and perceptions on how to adapt to life. As with CF and life in general, the only thing you can count on is change. We face this change with the assistance and knowledge of different insights and teachings on how to cope with life that we gather along the way.
In life, seemingly basic foundational morals and ethics we have instilled in us as children through family and friends can alter and change without our conscious awareness. We may learn and adapt as we see other perspectives, but we may also become lost in our emotions or in how to function in daily life. We may fall away from our own internal principles as to what is acceptable for ourselves, and what is not.
In our classes this month, both of us will focusing on a different Agreement each week, and related yamas and niyamas of yoga:
- Week 1: Be impeccable with your word
- Week 2: Don’t take anything personally
- Week 3: Don’t make assumptions
- Week 4: Always do your best
TUESDAY AM CLASS:
Grow & Flow with Kellie
Feb 7-28, 7:30am Pacific / 10:30am Eastern (NEW TIME!)
This will be a gentle/moderate flow with meditation and introspection in alignment with the teachings from “The Four Agreements” (a previous CF Yogi Book Club read). Based on the wisdom of the Toltec people, these agreements are guiding principles that hold true as we are reshaped over the course of our lives — and happen to align with some of the yamas and niyamas of yoga.
Personally, Yoga practice has allowed me (Kellie) the space and time to set aside and reconnect with my inner self and listen to that voice inside that sometimes becomes quiet with all the day to day interactions and perspectives. Our Yoga practice becomes the opportunity to come “home” again. Sometimes, we realize that our “home” may need a remodel in a certain room or perhaps re-arranging a space may create a more pleasing and peaceful home for ourselves.
Yoga is that safe space to listen intently to your inner self and explore and let that voice speak to you and help in finding self love and acceptance and contentment. I invite you to join us this month as we focus on our growth and possibly looking at “remodeling” our homes for a more peaceful, joyful, and fulfilling home.
WEDNESDAY PM CLASS: Restorative Refresh with Katie
Feb 1-22, 4pm Pacific / 7pm Eastern
Join a restorative practice to help refresh your mind while resetting your body. This class will begin with some gentle flowing movement before we settle into some longer-held, relaxing poses. While you’re physically relaxing, we’ll incorporate some readings from “The Four Agreements” to help re-center our relationships with ourselves and others.
To me (Katie), a restorative practice is intended to heal the physical body, but also to refresh the mind and let the clutter fall away so I can come back to that place of inner joy that feels like “home” to me. When life gets overwhelming (as it has been for that past — oh, three years or so), I need a place where all the distraction can fall away. Taking a walk outside in the woods is one of the few places in the world where I feel that — it’s like walking through a doorway and the rest of the world falls away and I am simply THERE, immersed in fresh air and present in both mind and body. The yoga mat is another one of those places.
The four agreements (in particular #2 and #3) help me to examine my assumptions and realize that a lot of the stuff I’m stressing over is not actually coming from the world outside — it’s my own assumptions or expectations that have been weighing me down, and I have it within my power to adjust my perspectives and let them go. The Yoga yama of Aparigraha – letting to of attachment or expectations – is a related concept.
It always strikes me as fascinating when cultures on opposite sides of the world recognize the same seeds of wisdom. Our modern-day problems may seem unique, but people all over the world have been revisiting the same challenges for millennia –and it shows me just how universal are certain aspects of the human experience.
Join us this month on the mat to grow, refresh, and restore your body and your relationships with others! If you’re already registered for CF Yogi, log in to the Member Portal to sign up for this months’ classes. If you haven’t joined us previously, complete a one-time signup here. It’s all FREE to the Cystic Fibrosis Community thanks to the support of the Boomer Esiason Foundation!