I Love DC Yoga!

My yoga journey began in DC almost three years ago. I took my first class with Jayanti and fell in love with yoga that night!  Over this time I never have excelled past a level 1/2, but my yoga community let’s me know that is ok, it is not a contest.  I do yoga for physical, mental and spiritual experience each time I hit the mat.  The gift of yoga that I didn’t expect was the beautiful community.  Whenever I walk into a class I feel at home. I have since introduced my niece to yoga and she has also fallen in love! Thank you DC Yoga for being there when I needed you most and thank you Jayanti!

Dear fellow-DC-Yogis,

Somewhere around 2006 we had the idea to include a Yoga on the National Mall with our annual DC Yoga Week.  The first year we tried this, it was about 50 degrees and drizzling. 

We did yoga with frozen hands,  hoodies, and down coats.  Nearly 100 people showed up anyway!  We organizers thought they must be crazy, but we knew that DC Yogis wanted to be together as a community. 

So we persevered and kept offering Yoga on the Mall, through difficulties with port-a-potties, high humidity, and helicopter landings. 

Last year we were given the threat of 80% chance of severe thunderstorms, and so at 5 am on the morning of the event, Deb and I reluctantly decided to cancel.  For the rest of the day we madly texted asking each other, where is the rain!??   We were discouraged at having wasted efforts, but decided to keep moving ahead for 2012 preparations and be sure to include a Rain Date.  

This year, we will hope for a sunny beautiful day on Saturday, May 19, but if it does rain, we have learned our lesson, and have a rain date on Sunday.   I am sad that this is the very first year that I won’t be able to join you there, but I know it will be a huge success.  Have a great time!  xo, annie.

So glad to have found this page through the #yoga tag. I’m sure I will be learning a lot from “I Love DC Yoga!” so here is my small contribution…

I am very much a beginner. In fact, tomorrow will mark one month since my first real experience with yoga. During my first class, at Meridian Yoga with Jayanti Harrison, I could not get into the wheel pose. Two weeks later I took another class with Jayanti and she challenged us to try again… with some help, I managed it. And now I can do it all by myself in my dorm room. :)

Of course, please feel free not to publish this if there is anything wrong with my positioning… I know that I have a lot to learn. I plan to work on my strength and flexibility by myself this summer. I will be back to DC in the fall and I hope to try a few more classes then.

Namaste!

We all know that the DC yoga scene has been truly blossoming over the past 5 years.  There are yoga studios on every corner filled with awesome teachers and awesome classes.  We want this blog to be a place for us to share stories and experiences as  an entire community of people who love practicing, teaching and experiencing this thing we call yoga.

Please submit photos, quotes, stories, ideas, events you want the community to know about.  Remember the blog is founded on the premise of building community.  If posts get too “buy my this thing” or “this is why you stink” we will not publish them.

We are excited to launch “I Love DC Yoga!” and look forward to hearing from you and sharing our own ideas, stories etc.