YOGA - WEST OF THE NARROWS

With a year in the books and aspirations of more to come, I ponder the idea of YWN. Many years ago I said there should be a Yoga Studio Directory (granted this was 10+ years before Google got so damn good!). A few years later I declared, "I'm going to make a Yoga Studio Directory." Several years after that, I did.

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It took me a whole year of plugging away with snippets of time between raising a family, teaching Yoga, moving from a home I'd spent 10 years in, while trying to maintain sanity to gather the information and make my own website. Some days I wondered if it would ever come to fruition and other days I wondered why I was so determined to do it anyway. It was with strong conviction and an even stronger love of Yoga that I knew my mind was set to do my best to inspire people to practice. But inspiration only goes so far.

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PEOPLE TEND TO MAKE EXCUSES WHEN THEY ARE UNSURE........and I've heard a lot of them.

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We won't even talk about the popular "I'm not flexible" excuse, (because c'mon, are you too dirty to take a bath?) but there was a theme I noticed. Maybe a bit of an insecurity and some slight trepidation due to preconceived notions.

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By creating a directory, I tossed 3 hesitations out the window.

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"I DON'T KNOW WHERE YOGA IS" - All of the sudden the options are clearly laid out. Pick your county, find your surrounding cities and viola! Head to the convenient studio's website to see their offerings.

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"WHAT'S IT LIKE?" Hence the Studio Experience Blog. Suddenly there's a window to look through to before opening the door to the studio.

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AND THEN THERE'S GENERAL INSECURITY. That's why I love to present the YWN tribe with opportunities to learn about the instructors teaching locally. It throws out the theory that Yoga Instructors are anything but people like you. Sure, they found Yoga at some point, it helped them out, and they became so passionate about it they couldn't help but share it, but essentially they are regular people just trying to find a little solace in the world. The Yoga they are teaching IS FOR YOU!

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It's with great love, gratitude and a bit of pride that I am delighted to look back on the first year of YWN.

I had lots of fun visits includung Glowga (Viva Flow Yoga) & Full Moon Yoga (Alderbrook Resort & Spa w/ Joonbug Yoga) to name a couple. I tried what scared me like 108 Sun Salutations (Dayaalu Center) and Hot/Bikram Yoga (Santosha Yoga PNW). I was surprised by the strong energetic shift of Kundalini (Natural Mystic Wellness Center), live acoustic guitar music with Vinyasa Flow (Expansions Yoga), and of crystal singing bowl sound baths (Shanti Living Wellness).

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YWN shared the stories of 12 fabulous and unique local Yoga Instructors, and their advice to you. YWN sent monthly Yoga ponderings via e-newsletters and chalked the EVENTS/WORKSHOPS page of the website full, advertising them on Facebook to help get the word out. All this to get some people on their mat, which in turn benefits us all.

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MANY THANKS AND MUCH APPRECIATION TO THOSE THAT HELP SUPPPORT YWN; TO EACH SUBSCRIBER, EACH PAGE LIKE, EACH CARD PASSED OUT, EACH TEACHER WHO WAS REVEALED, EACH STUDIO I VISITED AND TO ALL THOSE WHO ARE BRAVE ENOUGH TO GET ON THEIR MAT AND FACE THEMSELVES IN THEIR PRACTICE.

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Namaste, Yogis!