Main Street Yoga, LLC lives..

A little over a year ago, the space at 20 W. Main in downtown Spokane known as heart-centered Main Street Yoga was put to rest. Literally, to sleep. The teachers and students who were the heart of our little studio moved on...the former to other venues of teaching and the latter, to other teachers or venues of teachers. But, the essence of what was (and remains) Main Street Yoga lives NOW and will rise again in the form of a studio when the stars are aligned appropriately and the Universe offers It's auspicious blessing. Until then, you will find our teachers throughout the city of Spokane and as far away as Palm Springs, California (Love and miss you, Scottie!) teaching privately and in studios, colleges and health clubs. Although I was the "director" with my name on the lease, it was all of the teachers and the students that were the Shakti of Main Street Yoga. The power, will and LOVE. To you all, I offer my deepest gratitude.

Lot's of love to you,

Kim

Carrying on the tradition of heart-centered practice, I continue to offer yoga classes in Spokane at the following locations, and private sessions by appointment:

Sunday: Valley YMCA - 2-3:30
Tuesday: Spokane Athletic Club, 4th Avenue (Valley) - 9-10:15 am
Valley YMCA - 10:50 - 11:50 am

Thursday: 4th Ave Spokane club - 9-10:15

Non-Yoga Classes
Monday: 4th Ave - Pilates - 10:30-11:30 am
Valley YMCA - TRX Basic Power Drills - 12:15-1 pm

Interested in private sessions, call for appointment 509-869-0817

Preferences

Coffee over tea. Broccoli over cauliflower. Chocolate over licorice. Orange over green. Snorkel over scuba. Arctic over tropic. Old over young. Books over television. Humor over drama. Outside over inside.

These are just a few of the ways I roll. They haven't changed much over the years...until now. I suspect many of my preferences are melting away due to the 'path' racing up to meet and greet me at an ever-increasing (and somewhat mind-numbing, stomach-churning) pace. I don't care so much anymore if my 'preferences' aren't met. No...REALLY! My attitude (heh heh) has slowly become the cliche' that I've DESPISED for years (due to the 'stoner' class I used to find myself surrounded...and annoyed...by during the impressionable era of my formation...):

"Hey maaannnnnn, it's ALLLLLLLllllllll gooooooodd." (insert lopey grin here)

It still irritates the hell out of me when I hear it (ever so subtly now, of course, as I've begun to learn how to be as a 'seeper hose' and let all the negative Shakti dissipate gradually out of my pores...)

Yep. Preferences are like opinions (...a slight variation of a saying my husband likes to use...) "Everybody's got one..." or a million. And, the challenge is in not letting them "stink" up the experience when I don't get 'em. In not making my preferences judgments. Well. Okay then. Chocolate's cool, but I'll take some licorice. I like rockin' with the grandmas and grandpas, but I'll hang out on the monkey bars with a kid or two.

So, yeah. You bet. This Tantra. It helps me REALLY see the sparkly awesomeness of it ALL.

Well...almost all. The jury's still out on mosquitos.

The Devil in Prana

"The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life.
Attitude, to me is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do.
It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company ...a church ...a home.
The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past ...we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way.
We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude ...I am convinced that life is 10 percent what happens to me and 90 percent how I react to it. And so it is with you... we are in charge of our attitudes."

Charles Swindoll

For 3 weeks, I've been stumped. Iccha Sakti Uma Kumari...'kay. The only personal interpretation that I have been able to come up with goes something like: Whatever I want...if I want it bad enough...I will MAKE it happen. Through my energy...the power of my intuition. Okay. So. Good enough. It's true! It's happened. Playfulness and all...even things that don't appear very "playful" at the time. Death. Disease. Poverty. Failure. Divorce (or, near divorce.) Break-ups. Looking back, everything that has happened in my life has been willed by my thoughts. No kidding. You know, it seems whack-daddy. I know. I'm a little bat-shit crazy...so having something like this erupt from my pitted and pocked mind is no surprise to those who know me well. But. This "theory" I believe. Because I've lived it...and been able to trace every occurrence to a particular thought (or series of thoughts) that I had. Yep. And, the CRAZIEST part of it all is that it wasn't so much the thought itself but the TONE or ATTITUDE I had at the time of the thought. I KNOW! Flippin' nuts! The playfulness of Uma...hmmm. 'kay. It all goes back to spanda. You know. One person's idea of Heaven is another's Hell. I think I've danced with the Devil a time or two (...really?...well. Who hasn't? I wanna know...) And...enjoyed EVERY torrid minute (or lifetime) of it...right? You see...playfulness is perspective. Attitude is everything...the road to Hell is paved with Good intentions...A cat plays with the mouse it eventually kills...cliche' after cliche'. I get it. Sort of. Though, tomorrow it will look different to me. Here's what I resolve: Observe my attitude. Get less of a bad one. Combat (or at least tussel with) my ridiculous ego. And...give my husband more attention. Which would mean, in a nutshell...give MORE of myself to those closest to me. Play more. You know. Dance. More.

Flashes

My oldest daughter has informed me that she fully resents my disposition toward exercise. Yoga is at the top of her list...though we all know that yoga is FAR more than physical exercise. She can't see that...yet. One day, she may change her mind but right now I don't really talk about it with her. She gets touchy and cuts me off if I begin to defend the practice. She wants to NOT talk about it. See it. Hear it. Read about it. Yep. She's closed herself completely off. She's a stubborn one, that girl. But, I know from experience that she isn't impossibly so. She told me that she would NEVER go skiing. (She had her one and only bad experience at age 5 and insisted that it would always be like that...) And, she found a new love for it when it was a required part of her school expedition this year. Ah. Yes. Gotta love it.

I feel the same way about "flash in the pan" fads. Resentful. Rebellious. I've always stood by the 'tried and true', classical things...in fashion and fitness. It even carried over a bit into electronics. But, every once in awhile, a 'fad' grabs me and I'm a fan for life. I've ALWAYS loved short boots (remember the 80's scrunch boots...they were SOOO cool!) I've always known that a person needs to exercise at least 60 minutes a day (with at least 30 minutes of that cardiovascular conditioning...) I'm sorry, but there really is NO shortcut to health. You must MOVE YOUR BODY. But, occasionally, something new comes out that just blows my MIND. Right now, that is the TRX functional training system. It's really not a new concept, suspension training has been done in a variety of ways since I can remember (let's see, without dating my self, that would be 1974 at age 5 when the over-the-door stretchy band thing was big...we even owned one.) But, my favorite part of the workout is the varying intensities...without huge, time consuming modifications. I can go from REALLY easy to REALLY challenging in less than 3 seconds (typically.) And it is so portable. I sound like an ad for the company "Fitness Anywhere" (I promise that I am in no way receiving monetary kick-backs from this...) You can do every single exercise on the TRX (in one variation or another) that you can do in the gym with free weights. I love it. We're getting one for our home. I showed my husband some of the exercises on it the other day and he was impressed at how much of a challenge it could be...with just two simple straps of webbing and a 'biner. Yeah, baby. I also love that all your using is your own body weight, gravity and lever length.

So...while my oldest girl is defiantly opposed to my teaching her meditation and asana, I know she'll get a big kick out of hanging from the ceiling like a circus freak.

"It's a BEAUTIFUL day!"

Astonished. I am incredibly happy. Joyful, even. Intense, yeah. Severe, maybe. Offensive, whatever...probably. But/and/also...blissed out. "It's a BEAUTIFUL day!" My new mantra. Strangely, repeating it in my head, out loud, or on Facebook makes it completely true. The inspiration for this is a wonderful man that has been personal-training my husband. His name is Ben. He says "It's a BEAUTIFUL day"...every day. Every session. He makes everyone smile...and BELIEVE that it truly is a beautiful day. What is so amazing to me is the existence of people like Ben and his wife, who are so authentically pure, joyful, GOOD spirits. It makes me laugh when I think how hard I work at being what they are so innately. It's FUNNY. Really. But, I find humor in everything. I laugh. A lot. Mostly at myself, 'cause I think I'm pretty funny (...but, I also think I'm a rockstar...) I realize that the joy I find in everyday things makes me super woman. No kidding. If I'm rockin' the smile, feelin' the beauty in the day...I am UNSTOPPABLE. It takes years off of my true age. I can run with the big dogs (well...I can TRY to keep up with Heather, but I think she, too, has found the beauty in the day and the joy in little things...) My life hasn't been easy. I haven't made the best choices. But, astonishingly, all of that doesn't matter...except that it's led me to the joy I find in the easy-ness of my life. The sparkle of my husbands eyes (they DO sparkle...) and the supreme wisdom of my youngest child (she is an old-soul for sure...) And the sweetness in the spirits that surround me EVERY day. Yeah. This life is a good one. A BEAUTIFUL one. Rock on.

Me breathing...

Just relax. Prana will flow. This week has been an amazing adventure into the realm of breathing. My most outstanding revelation has been this: When I pay attention and observe my breath, all negativity leaves my mind and body. My back body softens. Everything slows down. Dancing with the Goddess. Not my nurtured tendency to Jitterbug...but, my NATURAL tendency to Waltz. Goddess. All is the Goddess. Yes...

I've seen a lot of death. I've witnessed innumerable 'last breaths'. One thing is common...the slowing, the shallow reduction of inspiration. To share the last breath of someone is sacred. Like a birth...quite. I haven't been hardened by deaths...at all. A last breath is a testimony to the life a person has lived. Holy. Unrepentant. You bet. At that moment, the spirit knows what a carnival mortality is. Whether they've ridden their years on the Ferris Wheel or the Zipper...or a bit of both...the stamp on their hand STILL gets them in...wherever "in" is.

conundrum of polarity

Two sides. That's me. Gemini. ALL THE WAY. I forgot about that a bit, during this journey in yoga. Yesterday in my advanced immersion kula, I was abruptly reminded of my own duality. Not in a terrible way...somewhat disturbing, yes...but ultimately bearable. Everyday life is systematic...I might even say routine (gasp!), but when I am holding space within my study circle I discover the polarity of my experiences. In yoga. As a teacher, I am confident in front of a class. Solid within the teachings I've assimilated. Steadfast in my determination to pass them on. Being in the Seat is a fabulous challenge for me...the preparation involved in developing my theme and sequence is completely engrossing. I chant. I journal. I chant. I study. I write. I chant. It is not without significant dedication that my class is "born". But, as I sit in Kula. Among my "peers"...many of whom are significantly more practiced and studied and wise...the soap that is doubt bubbles to the top, nearly washing away all of my confidence as a 'teacher'. It is with deep appreciation and reverence for the teachings that I sit amongst the circle, and my love and devotion only grows stronger...with every second. As for my ego, well, it disintegrates ever more minute by minute. Yoga is a work in progress...as are we. Finding joy...amidst the suffering of life. The inescapable pain is, ultimately, what leads us (like a horse to water) to the bliss. So, yeah. My study. My "self" observation hurts. A lot. But, in a way it's like the scab that you can't resist picking. Or itchy eyes that you can't escape rubbing. The pain is kinda good. I can't help it. I keep coming back for more. But, unlike scab-picking and eye-rubbing, I KNOW that it's good for me...in the long run. Immediately, it feels like torture. My mind is a garbage-heap of questioning doubt: "Who the HELL am I kidding? I don't know SHIT! How can I call myself a yoga teacher!??" But then. I leave kula. My life returns to it's cycle. I sit. I journal. I chant. I study. I chant. I pause. I breathe. I know. I am doing what I'm supposed to be doing. To the capacity that I can be doing it. There is a minor amount of ego...but not so much that I'm unaware of my frailties. Not so much that I will not admit my fallibilities. And NEVER so much ego that I can not feel compassion, love, and empowerment for the lovely beings who sit with me and share the space we call "kula". To them, I am most grateful.