Posts In: just breathe

Daniela leads a Flow, Level 2 class on Fridays at 9am and she is the lead teacher for Yoga One’s 300 Hour Teacher Training.

1. How does yoga show up in your life right now? 

Yoga shows up in my life as little moments of inner peace. I know my yoga practice is working when even amongst the busiest days or the saddest moments I can take a few breaths and just enjoy being alive– right here, right now.  

2. Where are you experiencing growth as a yoga teacher and/or practitioner?

For me, yoga teaching is a part of my yoga practice and my yoga practice is the fuel and foundation of my yoga teaching. I think the place I am experiencing the most growth is in truly integrating the two – teaching and practicing yoga in a way that equally centers health and well-being on all layers of my being (physical, energetic, mental, emotional, & spiritual). This is something I explore in detail on my podcast Yoga IRL which you can follow on Instagram at @yogairlpodcast, or through my website www.yogairl.org ? 

3. What’s your favorite kind of burrito and why?

My fav burrito is hands down the vegetarian burrito with refried beans from Colima’s in North Park. It’s the real deal— muy delicioso ? 

Our mission at Yoga One is to help you live a healthier and happier life. Through mindfulness and movement, yoga supports your overall wellbeing while also releasing fear, decreasing anxiety, and cultivating a sense of peace. Yoga is a powerful force for connection.

3 Ways to Practice Yoga and Foster Connection at Home

1. Stream Yoga One Classes Online

Yoga One is happy to be able to continue sharing the joys and benefits of yoga and community with you online via Zoom live interactive classes. See our full class schedule here.

Here’s how to practice with us online: When you pre-register for a class online, you’ll be emailed a unique viewing link to practice alongside your favorite instructor live. Download Zoom on your device (tablet, phone, computer) and have your charging cable nearby if needed. Then simply roll out your mat, test your audio, and enjoy your practice!

All memberships, class packages, and drop-in rates will apply – click here for more information.

2. Private Instruction over Videochat

Did you know you can set up a one-time or recurring private lesson online? It’s a unique experience from an in-person lesson and there are some serious benefits: tailored instruction for your body and how you’re feeling that very day, practice in the comfort of your home, enjoy deepening your knowledge of yoga from one of our highly trained teachers. Email info@yogaonesandiego.com to find out more.

3. Home Practice

If you’ve ever wanted to practice yoga at home, now is the time! Practicing yoga by yourself deepens your relationship to yoga, to your body and to mindfulness. How long to hold a pose? It’s up to you! Move and breathe in the moment exactly the way that serves you best. Yeah! Here are 6 Ways to Build a Home Yoga Practice. 

by Laura McCorry

Time has started to unravel a bit for me. As I move further into this pregnancy, I’m falling out of routine, becoming less attached to the segmented hours of the day. This is probably a good thing. I wake when I’m finished sleeping (some days at 8:30, some days at 6am), I eat when I’m hungry (always, always snacks before bed), and I’ve found myself baking banana bread muffins at 10:30 at night.

In Walking on Water, Madeleine L’Engle writes about two different conceptions of time, “Kairos. Real time. God’s time. That time which breaks through chronos with a shock of joy, that time we do not recognize while we are experiencing it, but only afterwards, because kairos has nothing to do with chronological time. In kairos, we are completely unself-conscious and yet paradoxically far more real than we can ever be when we are constantly checking our watches for chronological time.”

The birth of a child is a moment like this, always outside of time. But you are also ushered into kairos at the death of a loved one. (I remember being shocked when I realized that practicing savasana, or final relaxation, in yoga is also a way of practicing death. It’s translation is corpse pose, after all.)

How can you practice both life and death with grace? I think the word that matters most is practice (meditation). Or perhaps grace. For me, moving into kairos is the same as practicing meditation. You allow yourself to move outside time, into space that is neither here nor there, you are not awake or asleep, you simply ARE.

The paradox of life is that we need both kairos and chronos. I need the immediate, tactile chronos, the skin, muscle, and bone of my hands dusted in flour, forming a dough, placing it in the oven, setting a timer (because humans being can move outside time, but yeast, water, and flour cannot if they are to become bread.) And I need those moments of timelessness, of seeing the moment arrive and stepping into it whole-heartedly, whole-bodily: when my toddler bumps her head and needs to be held RIGHT NOW, so I drop everything and cradle her in my arms.

I hope you are gifted the experience of time in all its splendored variation. The moments that are breath-giving and the moments that take your breath away. Moments of kairos when you allow yourself to be fully present; when you take in whatever sensation, thought, or emotion is most present, but practice not letting it define you. And when you need it most, I hope you find those life-affirming moments of chronos, of baking late at night, a solid grounding in time as we most often know it.

We hope to help you find that Kairos time on your mat at Yoga One, click here to view our schedule.

Laura McCorry
Contributing Writer

Yoga and Laura had an on-again-off-again relationship from 2004 until 2009 when they decided to move in together and there’s been no looking back since. Passionate about both yoga and writing, Laura loves to introduce others to the joys and benefits of yoga and healthy living.

Contact: laura(AT)yogaonesandiego(DOT)com

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by Laura McCorry

Lately I’ve found myself more drawn to silence, more drawn to sitting still and taking in the world as it presents itself. Life asking to be noticed in a small, quiet voice. It hasn’t paraded into my consciousness with fanfare and demanded attention. (There’s enough of that already, and we all know the strategy works, at least immediately.)

As Franz Kafka wrote, “You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait, be quiet, still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.”

These are some of the moments that stopped me in my tracks, when my only response has been to sit very still observing, listening:

• My daughter already in pajamas stacking blocks as high as she can into a tower just before her bedtime. 
• The sound of my friend’s voice who tells me that in the middle of the night, she will ask her husband who recently died to go comfort their baby. 
• The late afternoon sunlight illuminating a hand-brocaded Indian elephant on a square tapestry, how I see for the first time the sparkling gold threads.
• The stark black and white text from a friend asking for prayers while she sits beside her husband in the ICU. 

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by Laura McCorry

One of my teachers used to begin class with two simple questions: Where are you?

At work, at home, at the grocery store. At yoga, waiting for class to begin. So many thoughts and plans running through my head. My body carried me to class, through the motions of walking, driving, talking, sitting, without any special notice or conscious direction.

Where are you?

His voice was clear and strong. The entire class answers back with one voice:

Here.

Then the next question: What time is it?

Morning, afternoon, after work. I’m in the middle of something, still working it out, making plans. Thinking about someone, wishing, worrying. Early with nothing to do then running late and feeling anxious. The day slips away hour by hour until I rush to make it before they close the door and hastily sit down on my mat.

What time is it?

The room has grown quiet and still. I’m aware of everyone in the room and how our disparate thoughts and experiences have all been submerged into this one experience, together. We answer:

Now.

Laura McCorry
Contributing Writer

Yoga and Laura had an on-again-off-again relationship from 2004 until 2009 when they decided to move in together and there’s been no looking back since. Passionate about both yoga and writing, Laura loves to introduce others to the joys and benefits of yoga and healthy living.

Contact: laura@yogaonesandiego.com