Author Archives: kristinshepherd
Cover Girl
I mentioned I was visiting Toronto on the weekend, going to a new yoga studio for the first time, and doing a class with my sister (and my nephew, it turns out). I was nervous about venturing away from my home studio, and I wanted to share a few things I learned from toeing my comfort line:
1. Sun Salutations are not so different from place to place. This makes me very happy. No matter where I travel–now–I can find a home. Makes me feel warm all over, thinking that.
2. Speaking of warm all over, the studio I visited was a few degrees warmer than my home base. It only mattered when I stood up from one of those hanging my head poses (just a second, I’ll look it up – aha!) when I stood up from Prasarita Padottanasana (Wide-Legged Forward Bend), and came the closest I’ve ever come to fainting. Maybe that’s peri-menopause. Maybe it’s a surge of some fantastic yogi energy. I don’t know; it’s a new yoga mystery.
3. The chanting was completely different in this class. And it was fast. It was like trying to sing the Italian national anthem.
4. Bandas. What are they? I think I understand the idea of Bandas, but I do not have any control over them yet. Foolishly, I asked our teacher Oliver to pick a pose for our photograph (see above). This pose (I’m not looking this one up. I’ll look it up when I’m 76, when I might be able to do it!) requires some Banda control. It’s his favorite pose. It’s my least favorite pose. I just sit on the floor and make faces.
5. Speaking of faces, my head was recently shaved for a theatre production. I look like a 13-year-old boy at the moment. It’s not my favorite look. It occurs to me that I may never end up on the cover of Yoga Journal.
6. I love my sister Tory and my nephew Stefano. There’s nothing like doing a yoga class with people you love.
7. I learned again that I adore yoga. Thanks to everyone and everything that brought me here, including Tory, Stef, and Oliver.
I’d like to know who would you love to do yoga with, if you could do it with anyone?
Thanks to yoga for helping me grow, and thanks to you for the conversation.
–Kristin Shepherd
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Meditate Your Head Off
I shouldn’t be writing this. No question. I should be on a chair at home staring at a speck on the wall. I’ve just come home from a four day meditation retreat. You know the kind. They take your watch, … Continue reading
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Tagged humor, kristin shepherd, meditation, meditation humor, meditation retreat
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Some Days We Are Enormous
I go to two yoga classes a week, but I do my own practice at home every single day. I adore it, and I wouldn’t miss it for much.
It’s still dark when I get out of bed, I shuffle to the kitchen and make a coffee (perhaps when I am a real yogi I’ll drink something healthier), drink half of it, set the timer on the microwave, and begin.
The first three Sun Salutations feel a bit tight, a bit creaky. Even my mind is tight and creaky. I’m thinking about getting my hands positioned correctly, thinking about rotating my thighs inward and pulling that lower belly in (something I have no idea how to do, still). Heels closer to the floor, shoulder blades down, etc. You know all of this.
Then something or someone–some larger part of me, perhaps–begins to well up. The rabid thinking slows down. Something warm and delicious takes its place. I begin to feel more generous with my positioning. I feel happy all of a sudden, and light.
Some days, about ten Sun Salutations in, this thing takes over and I go crazy, like a whirling dervish. My breath pours in and squeezes out, I’m warm from the inside out, I am strong, I am beautiful, and I am huge, somehow. Unconstrained. You should see my Warrior II pose. I fill the living room. I fill the house.
I love those days.
This morning was one of those days. I’d set the timer for 70 minutes and was so enormous by the end of it that I didn’t hear it go off. Best Savasana ever.
Does this ever happen to you?
Thanks to yoga for making us huge, and thanks to you for the conversation.
–Kristin Shepherd
Posted in Yoga
Tagged home practice, kristin shepherd, Yoga, yoga blog, yoga home practice, yoga humor
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Dinosaur Chasers
There’s a conversation stuck in my head. It happened a couple of weeks ago in my clinic. Just two lines of dialogue between a four year old girl and her six year old brother. The question I was asking that … Continue reading
Blinking Indicates Help Is On The Way
I saw this sign in an elevator yesterday. Does it mean that if I blink help will come? Does it mean that if you’re blinking, help is coming my way? Or your way? I’m not sure. I do need help, … Continue reading
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Tagged humor, kristin shepherd, learning social media, social media, social media humor
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Calling all kaleidoscopes
A little kid came into my clinic this week with his daycare mom. He was gorgeous, maybe four or five years old. And shy, shy, shy. Couldn’t look at me, couldn’t bear me looking at him. He stared steadfastly and … Continue reading
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Better than Chocolate
I’m not so much into literal interpretations of resurrection myths, but I am completely into being reborn in any way I can, any time I can. This Easter weekend has been the best ever. On the death/life cusp this weekend: … Continue reading
A Body Sings
A yoga friend of mine describes his morning practice as his body singing to him. Isn’t that beautiful? I think of it every morning during my own practice when I begin to hear those sticky, ignoramus thoughts about oh-I’m-tighter/chunkier/older/more-gravity-stricken-than-i-was-when-i-went-to-bed. I … Continue reading
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Tagged death, friendship, humor, kristin shepherd, life, Yoga, yoga humor
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Bald Money
I’m making a lot of money now that I’m bald. I shaved this head of mine for a play. I shaved it again when this play was performed in a festival on the weekend. Well, the play, Waiting For Godot, … Continue reading
Women Piping
I had the astounding good fortune to MC an International Women’s Day event on the weekend. It was called Eve-olution 3. You should have been there. There were women on bagpipes (I’d never seen women playing bagpipes, and never asked myself … Continue reading
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Tagged bagpipes, humor, International Women's Day, kristin shepherd, sexism, women bagpipers
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