Yoga in the Park | Urbana, IL

Ever since I went to my first Yoga in the Park in Des Moines, IA I have wished Champaign-Urbana would do the same thing—and my wish came true! But, as summer goes, my weekends kept booking up, so when I found out my friend and instructor from Living Yoga Center was teaching this Saturday AND I was free—pure excitement!

LOCATION: Meadowbrook Park is probably one of my favorite places in Champaign-Urbana—it's a sculpture park in Urbana with paved paths, community gardens, and regular deer sightings. When you need some quiet time, but can't get too far away—the perfect little walk there will bring you back to you. 

STUDIO: Blue skies, rolling clouds, green grass, and a beautiful prairie behind the instructor. Can't argue that!   

CLASS DESCRIPTION: The Urbana Park District invites you, your friends and family to spend a relaxing and rewarding Saturday morning participating in a free weekly yoga session at Meadowbrook Park. Conducted on an open lawn overlooking beautiful Meadowbrook Prairie, this is an ideal environment to relieve stress, achieve a sense of calm, and enjoy a great workout! No prior yoga experience is necessary, all ages and abilities welcome! 

INSTRUCTOR: Jodi Adams, RYT, has been practicing yoga since 1991.  Jodi believes in the restorative benefits of yoga.  No matter one’s age or flexibility, she offers a practice to awaken strength, balance, and a mind/body connection.  Yoga has served Jodi well through adversity and times of stress, and she is ultimately inspired to empower others to tap into their own inner strength, to find their voice, their breath, and their true Self.
CONTACT: Yoga in the Park—Urbana Park District

What a beautiful way to start a weekend! Before I go into the practice, here is a little list of things to bring with you to any outside practice: your mat, a beach towel, bug spray, sunglasses, and water. 

OK! Jodi chose a gentle, cooling practice for our somewhat muggy morning.We stayed close to the mat for over half the practice (bug spray!), and just as we go into our first downward dog—rain! It was amazing. Although I questioned whether the rain would be dangerous on a mat (beach towel!), to go through the sun salutation with your face pointing toward the sky, rain pouring down. Incredible. 

Then, once the rain stopped, the locust starting chatting... One fella started chatting so loud, I felt like I was zapped into a scene from Trainspotting or a rave or something... seriously, techno music was inspired by locust. Hands down. Listen next time, you'll want to grab your nearest glow bracelet and baggy clothes to start dancing your ass off. 

So—as you can tell, I wasn't necessarily focused on just my yoga. But it was part of the beauty of the practice, to be honest. Peeking over at my friend's mat with two pools of water where her hands and feet would go—made me smile. The kids laughing hysterically at the park—made me smile. All while being led in a beautiful practice by my friend—made me smile. I am very grateful for this Saturday morning. 

After our sun salutations we went into a warrior sequence on both sides, followed by balancing into warrior 3. I love balancing poses during outside practices—with the uneven ground and occasionally a breeze—you really learn  about what to activate and be strong. You're a tree! After a little bit of heat, Jodi cooled us down again. We did some hip openers, a little core work, and of course savasana. A little bit of everything—it was great. 

Jodi is also a photographer, her current project in the making is asking people to write down their intentions after class (if they like) and matching them with her photos.  So every class starts with her encouraging people to find their intentions. Leading them through how they may find their intention. With my back and knee being in so much pain and keeping me from all forms of exercise—this has been a wonderful reminder to be patient. Patient with myself, patient with my ego, patient with my healing—patient with all the parts of my life that aren't exactly where I thought they'd be. Thanks to this reminder I've been able to slow down and appreciate what is present instead of always looking to the future. Thank you, Jodi. Namaste. 

*heart* 

 

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Yoga in the Park | Des Moines, IA

LOCATION: The weekend I went there was quite a bit of rain and the river flooded. So they moved us to a school yard, which was less scenic but yoga outside was new to me, so still appealing. They did have excellent signage that led me to the right place (as I didn't know we were flooded out until I arrived that morning), and the school had free parking.
COST: Free!

STUDIO: Outside! (see location)

CLASS DESCRIPTION: The Des Moines Park and Recreation invites you to enjoy your Saturday morning by participating in a free weekly yoga session at Grays Lake. Maximize your stress relief by practicing yoga next to the water's edge while being led by local volunteer teachers—each week will be a different yoga experience!

INSTRUCTOR: Roxanne from Harmony Yoga was the instructor this morning. They rotate instructors each week.

CONTACT: City of Des Moines

Just Allow!

Roxanne kept sneaking this into the practice... just allow your breath to flow naturally, just allow yourself to sit in this pose, just allow yourself to reflect on your practice. It was a wonderful reminder for yoga and life in general. We went through a very similar order of things as I'm use to at home. This was the biggest class I've ever attended, probably 30-40 people I'd guess. That was really interesting too. I tried to get a picture of it, but at the beginning there weren't that many people, in the middle I'm not breaking my stride, and at the end everyone jetted out.

KULA
Partner yoga has been brought up a lot lately... at thai massages, in class, in magazines, etc. I'm not much of a group person. Maybe it's the only child in me that prefers the time alone... or maybe like everyone else, it's just uncomfortable. So this has never been really appealing to me. Well, at one point Roxanne said we had a great Kula [sanskrit for community or family] & asked people to form a line of 3-4 people or more. Sigh. We were asked to form our normal tree pose [vrksasana], but place our hands on the back of the people next to us. Once we all found our position we would press our hands into our other buddies back to help lift our hearts to the sky [which opens the chest and forms a stronger core for the position]. It was great. To my left was an elderly woman who was worried she'd knock us all down with her lack of balance, I assured her we'd help one another out... and in return, to share awkwardness, I pointed out it was probably worse to have to touch my gross, sweaty back. It was pretty gross. Then we lifted and held our pose. What a great experience, it really was nice to adjust my balance to not only the movement of myself but those on either side of me... and down the line. You could hear different groups giggling and impressed with their ability to do this... it was really rewarding.

MUDRA
At the end, after savasana, we brought ourselves up to our sitting position, normal for the yoga classes I've taken. But Roxanne went into a different mudra than normal. We placed our left hand on our heart and our right hand on the ground. It was a moment to recognize the energy we gain from the world around us, and that out of respect we should replenish the energy we removed. I love being reminded that I'm small, that I'm just a tiny cog in this ginormous universe. It makes my problems seem ridiculous and it makes my actions more meaningful. It's a nice place to be.

A fantastic morning, thank you Des Moines.

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