Kava, Kava

Since I missed my beginner's yoga class this morning, I can congratulate myself that I did attend two consecutive days at Kava Yoga on Tuesday and Wednesday. The studio is serene in its simplicity, although there is the occasional bus or truck disturbing the peace as it rumbles down 4th Street. Cindy Anderson, the only teacher I've had so far, is nurturing and very good at communicating the essentials of a pose without confusing a perpetual newcomer like me. And the price can't be beat! $10 for 10 days!

New Yoga Kid in Town

Kava Yoga, located at 4005 East Fourth Street in Belmont Heights, is celebrating its grand opening on September 4 from 4 pm to 9 pm. Owner Cindy Anderson will welcome visitors with food and music by kirtan chanting group Bhakti Ma as well as Indian clothing and jewelry for sale. I'll be there to get a schedule of classes and to find out if the grand opening special -- 10 days of unlimited classes for $10 -- is for real.

Yoga for the People!

The Infinite Yoga and Sacred Movement Studio will open in downtown Long Beach at 517 Pine Avenue on August 26. At 9:30 am, participants will begin chanting the Adi Shakti Mantra and continue for two and a half hours in honor of Yogi Bhajan, who brought Kundalini yoga practices to the West. One of the goals of this studio is to offer yoga to communities that have disparities in the number of people practicing yoga due to low-income or lack of accessibility. Other studios are being planned in the L.A. area.

Yoga Chatchkies

Parade Magazine had a feature a few weeks ago about yoga products. A couple of books of interest: The Great Oom by Robert Love details the beginnings of yoga in the U.S. and The Yoga Body Diet by Kristen Schultz Dollard incorporates the food you eat with the moves you make. There's a Pocket Yoga app for iPhone that features 3 different sessions for 3 different ability levels in 3 different durations for $2.99. YogaWorks has a DVD for Beginners AM/PM with a basic 45 minute session plus morning and evening sessions lasting 10 minutes each. Athleta and Lucy were mentioned as good places to buy yoga clothes. Yogamazing has podcasts for computers and iPhones for $2 to $10.

New yoga opportunity

Willow Wellness Center offers a variety of yoga classes, including Beginning/Intermediate Yoga and Weight Loss through Yoga, at its new facilities at 2883 Spring Stree, Suite 250. Memorial Healthcare IPA members can take the classes for free. Others can pay for single classes or 10 classes for $80.

Healing weekend at Yoga World

Saul David Raye will present several classes for students of all levels on yoga teachings for the mind, body, and spirit at Yoga World. Starting Friday evening, November 20, and continuing through Sunday, November 22, the classes will focus on meditation and yoga to heal the individual and transform a troubled world. It's not clear whether the classes will be held at the Los Altos or downtown studio.

Yet More Yoga

Silver Age Yoga is a nonprofit group based in San Diego. Since 2003, it has provided free classes to teach seniors yoga poses to address their health needs. The Long Beach Senior Center holds a SAYCO class on Wednesdays at 11 am.

Findbliss combines business and pleasure with directories of restaurants, spas, and yoga studios as well as related products with a growing archive short essays and tips on yoga, meditation, balanced living, and health and wellness.

Lorin Roche concentrates more on meditation than yoga, but his teachings are based on an ancient yogic text Vijnana Bhairava Tantra. He has just released a new translation called The Radiance Sutra, described at "112 Yogas of wonder and deleight for touching the divine in the midst of daily life. He also holds weekly meditation sessions "with emphasis on spontaneity and naturalness" in Venice at Aanand Sagaar from 7:30 to 9:00 pm.

Comic/writer/yogini Beth Lapides has a refreshingly wacky take on yoga practice. She has a calendar of her upcoming performances and workshops and links to her column My Other Car is a Yoga Mat.

Desert Wonderland looks like a perfect meditation retreat center a few miles outside of Twentynine Palms. Sweeping desert views and artistic touches for $700 a week.

Objets d"Art & Spirit looks like an interesting emporium of bath oils beads and other trinkets relaxation and meditation. Some products are sold online but for the full monty you have to visit the store on Sunset Boulevard's "rockin' row."

Finally, I just have to include a mention of Shadow Yoga, although it looks a little too intense for my quavering spirit. It involves exploring the many layers of shadows in the physical and psychic body. There are many workshops throughout the world and books and DVDs to help elucidate.

Yoga on my mind

Finally, I got around to trying out the free yoga class that takes place Sundays at 11 am on the bluff at the south end of Bixby Park. It's very relaxed and nurturing in nature. The teacher didn't even introduce herself, but she lead a good class that was challenging to beginners like me but not impossible. The instructor encouraged people to rest in child's pose whenever they felt like it and she also suggested more demanding poses for more advanced students. There's a website for Living Balance Yoga with a calendar that shows meeting at Bixby Park on Sunday, so I guess it's the same group. They also meet at Marina Vista Park on Tuesdays and Fridays which is a lot closer to my house.

Another option could be yogaglo which offers unlimited online classes for $18 a month. They've arranged classes by ability level and style. The beginner classes include meditation, basics and vinyasa flow. I'll have to explore the site further to see if they offer a free sample.

There's a new donation based yoga studio in Santa Monica called Yogis Anonymous. It's near the Third Street Promenade and it looks like it has a full schedule with over 20 teachers of all sizes, shapes and ages. The suggested donation is $14, but the website stresses no set fee.

The Green Yoga Association addresses some tricky questions that I've faced as a yoga student. Things like using plastic water bottles, toxic yoga mats and driving to class all seem to fly in the face of the basic principles of yoga. This group offers a community to discuss and in time solve these problems.

So much yoga, so little time. I'll have to continue in another post

Yoga in Church

Here's a new possibility for low cost yoga class. Grace United Methodist at 2325 E. 3rd St. offers yoga classes on Monday, Thursday, and Saturday-Sunday. There's nothing on the websites but a contact number of 310-994-LOVE.

OMG, it's time to OM again

Yes, I am yet another middle-aged, middle class WASP-y woman who’s jumped on board the yoga bandwagon. Well, not jumped exactly. More like a long search for just the right time and place. The journey has been worth it. I’ll never be able to twist my body like a pretzel like some of my younger classmates, but what I’ve learned about breathing and posture and my own physical and psychic limits cannot be contained in words. The strength and assurance I’ve gained cannot be measured.

The first classes I took back in 2000 were at Powerkick (where my sons were taking karate lessons). The studio was roomy and the teacher and class were supportive, even though everyone was much more experienced than me. The time was awkward (on Sundays, wedged between a leisurely family breakfast and church), and I felt ever so slightly guilty for cramping everybody else’s style. When the teacher moved to a new studio, I didn’t.

Sometime in 2001, I started taking classes at Yoga World, located at that time in The Marketplace shopping center. I loved, loved, loved that space – high ceilings and wood floors in a sun-filled room with French doors opening onto a burbling fountain. Even when the downward dogs were kicking my butt, I felt privileged to be there. I took classes from practically every teacher on their staff, but I particularly liked Bridgette and Sasha. Again, the location changed. Actually, Yoga World now has two smaller studios, which frankly can feel cramped and are not as convenient for me to get to.

Last year, in one of those tricks of coincidence that almost seem like fate, I happened to look in the Long Beach Parks Department quarterly catalog of classes (Does anyone in the city not receive this nifty assortment of fun classes?) and was surprised to find that a yoga class was offered at Recreation Park, which had never been listed before. At the first class, Rosanne, the instructor, explained she usually teaches at Whaley Park, but was moved in the summer because of children’s programs. I loved cruising over to class on my bike and Rosanne’s obvious devotion to her yoga practice and care for her students had me hooked from the first class.

The class has been on hiatus for three weeks so I'm a little stiff and creaky. The body may not be willing, but the soul is raring to go. OMMMMM!