If You Play With Fire, You Get Learned

Fiery Yoga + Fitness: Embrace the Heat

What comes to mind when you think of a fiery yoga and fitness practice? Fast-paced movement? A burning sensation in your core? Sweat? So...much....sweat 🥵

Just thinking about it keeps many of us from giving higher-intensity movement practices a try. It can feel like you're invited to a party, but the invitation is in a language you don't understand. In yoga, fiery isn't just heat; it can refer to energy, activity, or change. Rather than oppose the cool, calm, and less active aspects of life, the urge for activity, change, or even spicy foods exists simultaneously and, ideally, harmoniously. They aren't two sides of a coin; they are the silent motivations behind all our actions that we must identify and balance within ourselves. With a consistent and varied practice comes wisdom – the ability to recognize the past impressions and unseen forces guiding how we show up in the world, whether light, heavy, or in motion. Think about how you respond to stressful situations when you're foggy vs. amped vs. clear. None of these experiences may be feel like the truest impression of yourself because they aren't. The truest impression of yourself occurs when you can see how all these elements work together and balance them into a unified experience.

Ultimately, fire is necessary, but it is not the whole story. You are telling the story, our natural tendencies are the language you use to tell it, and yoga is the editor. Like with a story, finding the best way to use our language – natural tendencies – is how we craft a life that is true, engaging, unique, enjoyed, and sometimes even transcendent.

This month, we focus on fire, heat, movement, and change as part of a fulfilling lived experience. So, let's embrace the heat:

• Our monthly workshops mirror the forces of nature, providing your practice with heat (inversions), stasis (sound baths), and motion (massage ball rolling). This month, we One Down Dog dare you to try all three and experience the benefits of awareness to each quality and how they impact our lives.
  • Move the energy all around: Roll It Out w/ Julie Price, Friday, August 2, 7:30-8:45pm, Echo Park, $45 (15% off for unlimited members)
  • Cool things down: Sound Bath w/ Joycie Weatherby, Sunday, August 11, 5:30-7pm, Eagle Rock, $49 (15% off for unlimited members)
  • Spice things up: Inversions Workshop w/ Steven Arcos, Saturday, August 24, 1:30-3pm, $65 (15% off for unlimited members)
• If you're like, "Oh, I love all this philosophical stuff about nature's tendencies," then you should definitely consider our well-rounded, heart-centered 200 Hour Yoga Teacher Training program. The next round begins September 26th, but early bird registration – a savings of $525 – ends August 20th. The last Q&A before prices go up will be held on Wednesday, August 7th. Click to learn more, sign up for the free Q&A, or enroll!
• Although community hikes are paused while the weather is a little too fiery, you can still connect with the community on the mat – for a great cause! In honor of her mother, Vicki, Hallie Anoff is leading a donation-based FLOW for the American Cancer Society on Friday, August 9 at 8:30am in Eagle Rock. Support cancer research, advocacy, and patients by attending class or donating cash / via Venmo at the front desk. This class is open to all, so bring your friends and support the cause even more. One Down Dog will match donations up to $250!
• Our Back to School sale returns from August 23 - 26. Take 25% off all regular-priced items, and think about what natural tendencies led you to shop: is your gear tired and needing an upgrade? is it falling apart from intense summer training? or do you need to bring your wardrobe harmoniously together with a travel strap, bag, or accessory? Make a yoga-informed decision you won't regret – and save while doing so!
• If you're already noodling on next summer's plans, our Italy 2025 retreat, Step into the Sun w/ Dylan Wallace, is the perfect way to embrace heat and salute the sun – in a beautifully complex and balanced way, as we journey through the Chakras leading up to Summer Solstice. Tuscany, yoga, activities, and Dylan! What's not to get fired up about?!

If you've been on the internet, you know it's officially Brat Summer. What's hotter than women living their best lives? This playlist curated by and full of women living their best lives! Whether it's the soundtrack to your Brat Summer or your It's-Too-Hot-To-Brat Summer, turn it on, turn it up, and most of all, bounce around and generate some heat to balance your cool A/C.

Click to spice up your life.

Utkatasana: The Fiery Pose We All Dread

Utkatasana is that shaky-legs pose we all kind of dread, no matter how warmed up we are. It can feel like it defies gravity, as we lean backward hovering over thin air. It's oh-so satisfying when we nail it, and our arms are raised in joyous celebration while our booties bounce to the beat. This is certainly one of the most fiery poses, but it also reflects the need for balance – not just when we stabilize our core and find steadiness on our feet, but also when we realize our approach. Did you come to class a bit flustered and overheated, which made you get into the pose quickly and thoughtlessly or did you come to class feeling slow, which made you feel like you just weren't "getting" chair pose today? Either way, you can adjust your approach to chair, just as you can adjust your approach to anything in life. The benefits to a mindful approach to Utkatasana are:

• strengthens legs
• improves postures, digestion, heart health, stability, and mood
• burns calories

Here's a quick guide to getting into Utkatasana (with a little bonus):

1. From Tadasana, exhale as you bend your knees and drop your seat as if sitting in a chair.
2. Try to keep your knees over your heels as you send your hips backward.
3. Raise your arms like you're holding a beach ball and soften your shoulders.
4. If you want a little more intensity, lift your heels so you're on your tiptoes.
5. For even more intensity, you can reach your arms behind you in "airplane," keeping your heels lifted for a fun little pose charmingly referred to as "drinking bird."

Kapalabhati Pranayama: Energize + Cleanse

Many breath practices are designed to calm our nervous system with paced, active inhales, and steady, passive exhales, but Kapalabhati flips that notion on its head in favor of an energizing and cleansing practice. Here's what you do:

1. Bring your awareness to your lower belly with an option to stack your hands or fists one on top of the other for a physical connection to the area.
2. Inhale, then contract your belly inward in short bursts.
3. The exhale should happen automatically after each burst.
4. Repeat for a minute and see you how you feel.

The Gunas: Balancing Our Inner Forces

This sutra is where everything we've been talking about in this blog comes together and makes so much sense that you'll be like, "Why Patanjali gotta call me out like that?!" The unseen forces that guide our actions, well, those are called "Gunas." They're the paint colors that make up the portrait of life, primordial matter or "Prakriti." They are:

Sattvas: illumination, lightness, clarity

Rajas: motion, energy, change

Tamas: stability, stasis, inertia

On the surface, we can only see these in combination and as a whole experience. At the subtlest level, we may be able to understand the nuances of each that are impacting the experience. Yoga, especially meditation, allow us to uncover these notions and put them to the test. If we see how each impacted an action, we can approach the same action with a more balanced state of mind. We don't want to avoid the intensity and passion associated with a more "Rajasic" mindset, rather, understand how our past impressions impact how we understand it and use it in the best way possible. Change is inevitable, after all, and yoga brings our attention to how we move through those moments, so we can learn and grow through the discomfort.

Food for thought:

Do you notice habitual patterns and how your energy level plays a part in them? Do you engage nonchalantly or with way too much intensity? Can you regulate your energy levels?