JPG Yoga

30/06/2024

It's Pride weekend in San Francisco. Shout out to the revelers who are taking part in all of the events. Without the work of those who tirelessly fight for our rights, I might not be here today. June is also the month to celebrate Loving Day. In 1967, the Lovings won a Supreme Court case in which their in*******al marriage was deemed legal. To me, celebrating Pride and Loving Day together mean so much because freely loving another and loving ourselves are our fundamental rights. Yoga helps us to realize that reality.

Join me tonight for a Pride Wind-down Yin Yoga class at 5PM at Yoga Mayu on Potrero Hill.

01/03/2024

I was putting my weekly classes into Insight Timer, as I've done for a couple years now, and I realized that it finally makes sense to describe my class. I've thought of it as "just yoga" but then I realized it is helpful to students to understand what they may experience in class with me. Come see how focused attention to your body and breath during stillness and movement helps with calming the mind and overall reducing stress. Also, dang, it's already March y'all!! 🙀

15/11/2023

Yasss! Gil Hedley is an amazing anatomist who understands the spiritual aspect of the body too. He really sums up the importance of using the breath to take care of yourself and in the process others too.

The more that is going on around you, and in the world at large pressing upon us (and there is a lot going on, right?!), the more necessary it is for us to consciously self-regulate, so that we are not literally pulled apart by forces outside of ourselves.

Fortunately we have some very effective leverage-points for auto-regulating the state of our nervous system that are available to us 24/7. Breath, for instance, is a direct access whereby you can consciously interact with the unconscious autonomic processes of our habitual states. These states can easily and inadvertently become entrained to external forces rather than our highest intentions for ourselves. If you notice you are feeling "off," that is half the battle!

Before laying blame for that feeling on what someone else said or did, or on the larger and very real issues facing the world in any given moment, believe for an instant that in spite of all those that, you are capable of feeling better, and are more capacitated to deal with all those things, when you have directly addressed your own internal state of affairs. Then pay attention to your breath. Feel the way that at the "bottom" of your exhale, there is a quiet moment where nothing is going on at all.

That's a brief nourishing vacation from it all during which your nervous system can adjust. Then notice that with no effort at all on your part, your lungs suddenly begin to fill with no effort at all on your part as the air, that nourishing spirit, rushes in and reshapes you and moves you. Observe that flashing pause at the top of that free-fill-up when, like at the peak of a roller coaster, you are neither going up nor down, but just taking in the expansive view afforded from that place. Then feel the air rush from you, again without effort, a model for "letting go," freed from constraints internal or otherwise. This is not a "breath exercise" but rather a process of intentional self awareness in the space of the unconscious.

When we choose to walk between the worlds like that, even for just a few cycles of breath, we can shift our state.

31/08/2023

I'm happy to announce that I'm returning to the studio to teach a weekly yin yoga class. Join me on Tuesday evenings at 7:15 PM at Yoga Mayu in SF's Potrero Hill neighborhood. I hope to see you there starting Sept 5!

28/06/2023

June is Pride month and June 12 is Loving Day and what a great time to contemplate what that means for you! Pride is many things to many people, but one could say it's about self-love and overcoming shame. It's complicated, right? Shame is an intimate thing, sometimes we think of if as completely internal, but it has to do with the context we are in too. Shame is embedded in our systems, laws punish people and people are harmed because of it. On a rainy day in Amsterdam, I came upon this monument to those persecuted and killed for being gay. Good that the letters are expanding to include more, LGBTQ+++. As I am studying in my Jain Yoga class and previously Buddhism class, it is no wonder that these spiritual seekers practiced ahimsa, to widen the circle of non-harming. By now anyone who is paying attention knows that the vulnerable are in danger and that circle of harm is ever-widening to encompass more. So perhaps a bit of a metta to counteract that? May all beings be free, may all beings be safe, may all beings be LOVED!

14/04/2023

06/02/2023

Yes, yoga is all of this!

Yoga emphasizes body-work in asana, breath-work in pranayama, and mind-work in meditation. It also deals with sense control, personal discipline, and the boundaries of interpersonal relationships through pratyahara, and the yamas and niyamas.

None of these are mutually exclusive, in practice or in principle. The systems of the body, breath and mind constitute our existence as an individual. Each of these systems is inextricably and seamlessly integrated with the others and with the world around us (food, environment and other individuals—family and society)

This is why we need integration in the approach and skills we use to work with them as well. That has always been the strength of yoga, both in the theory of yoga and in the practice of yoga.

⭐️ New Book: Krishnamacharya in His Own Words. See more at: bit.ly/krishnamacharya-in-his-own-words.
👉 In-depth Svastha Yoga Therapy training (300 & 800 hours) is now online. Learn more at: on.svastha.net/3IcJFAZ.

22/01/2023

Happy Lunar New Year! I haven't posted in a while because I've been busy with school. This semester, I'm working on a Yoga Therapy Practicum. If you or someone you know is interested in exploring this type of work together, please contact me. I am looking for someone who can meet with me 6 times over the next 12 weeks. If you're curious about what Yoga Therapy is, please check out this video I made:

A review and commentary on the principles of yoga therapy as described by Yoga Therapist Dr. Ananda Balayogi. Book Classes and Appointments with JPG Yoga: ht...

23/09/2022

Sitting in the garden and watching the whirlygigs spin and hearing the chimes chime rustle in the wind can feel like equanimity. Instead of jumping from one thing to the next, my attention is wide, taking in the whole picture. It's hard to want to be equanimous in some scenarios, because it requires a letting go. We might be attached to something, perhaps even feeling a duty to take action. But sometimes, using discernment, we should apply equanimity, for our own sake. That's where self-care comes in. Can you think of moments you have felt equanimous late? Are there other times, when you think passion and duty should have lead you?

28/02/2022

Sometimes I think "what's the point?" especially as a disaster after disaster shows up in the world. But sometimes all you can do is care and that is very powerful. When I was having a moment of feeling lost without that care, I was reminded by dance friends that we can all show up with care when called upon. I wrote about that experience in my blog here:

https://www.jpgyoga.com/post/compassion-over-coffee

22/02/2022

Hi Folks! I'm offering an Introduction to Mindfulness course starting April 6! I would love to see you there!

Register here: https://momence.com/s/606726