Yoga by Design

It's been a couple of years since I've had the chance to work with Verna, long enough for me to know the most important lesson I took away from her classes, although there were many. As we used to do various postures, she would ask us to unhinge our jaws, which prevented me, at least, from clenching my teeth. She'd ask us to notice what our tongue was doing and to move it away from the roof of the mouth. She'd have us take inventory of the temples, the brow, the eyes, and see if we held any tension that could be released, all accompanied with mindful breathing.

After I left Eugene, I looked for yoga classes that filled the same needs in my life as Verna's had. It was slow going. During that time, I still checked in with myself at times of stress, noticing where I was holding that stress, letting it go where it wasn't needed. I described the check-in to people I know, who've told me they still use it, too. It is, in fact, the only thing from yoga I've ever successfully shared. And now that I've found a new instructor who I like well enough to practice with regularly, I still bring this litany with me and find it incredibly valuable. 

I just wanted to take a moment to say thanks to Verna, since it's something I found in her classes and have never found repeated elsewhere!