The mandala at Shree
Here’s a canned sentiment for you: life isn’t always easy, to lesser or greater degrees. Steeling yourself not to hit snooze when your alarm goes off at 6:30 am — let’s call that effort. Abstaining from weekend brunch mimosas with all of your friends in exchange for more awareness later in the day — I’d say, less than ideal. Begging off from a fat juicy pulled pork barbeque sandwich because you don’t want to toss your cookies on the mat in an hour — torture (in this girl’s opinion). Doing something different — Challenge.
As some of you know, Live Taos editor Rita O’Connell and I (along with many others) are currently engaged in Shree Yoga’s month long yoga challenge — 30 classes in 30 days. Today is Day 9, and we’ve been sticking to our mats on this one — taking one class every day. Here’s a brief update: I feel great. That’s not say that I haven’t felt nauseous, cranky, weepy, elated, hyper, curious, amazed, joyful, or a wacky combination of all of the above. These emotions on their own? Unremarkable, even normal for most of us, in some combination. The curious thing about these emotions coming up in yoga? They cannot be disguised as anything other than mine. Fascinating that a thigh stretch can give me the time and space to contemplate my roommate’s coffeemaker taking up space on our kitchen counter. Even more intriguing is that before I have a chance to fall too far down that rabbit hole, I’m taking a breath, moving into a heart-busting backbend, and that coffemaker can fuck off to the corners of my brain reserved for the inconsequential. I’ve got better things to do — like keep breathing!
So what’s the challenge? I’m no stranger to the mat. I know it’s good for me, and I find it extremely beneficial for tempering my impetuous unruly mind. The challenge isn’t getting on the mat, it’s staying there. I will not bore you with the slew of hand crafted excuses as to why I don’t do yoga every day of my life. But this month, my challenge is choosing time and space for anything to occur, anything but the expected.
Now for those of you skeptically thinking this is too esoteric, yoga’s not my thing and did she really just tell an inanimate object to rudely screw itself?, I hear you. Here’s what’s awesome specifically about Shree and its teachers — it’s a place where people do yoga. That’s it. Some people come to work out, some come to meditate, some come to be in community — we all come for our own reasons, and Shree is not interested in telling you what those reason should be. What they are interested in is teaching some kickass yoga. Whatever else you get out of it is up to you.
For those of you who want to see what all the fun’s about, but are very skilled at math and have realized that no matter how dedicated you are 30 classes by the end of April is just not happening for you, Shree is still offering the community a challenge: The Baby Root Down! From now until April 15th, you can sign up to take 15 classes in 15 days for just $82. If you attend all hour and a half long classes, that’s a savings of almost $100.
Honestly, it can’t be worse than doing your taxes.
Stay tuned for more stories about what else is happening in the community in conjunction with the Root Down challenge. There’s a lot of movers and shakers out there — literally — and we’ll be talking with some of them this month to learn more.
Root Down Self Care Partners — all offering deals and goodies for root down challenge takers!:
- Brian Flynn Taos Massage Wizzard
- Kim Fleisher ReikiTaos
- Inner Farmacy Ayurveda
- Sajit Greene Soul Path
- Visudha de los Santos Moon Gong Journeys
- Ginger Pizzurro Intuitive Guide
- Jerusha Rone I Heart Shree Challengers bodywork
- Patrick Shaw Thai Massage
- The Love Apple
- Cid’s
- Wild Leaven Bakery
- Zabu Zabu hand-stitched zafus
- Spectralotus light medicine stretchy pants
- Sundara Studios
- Blue Spirit Wheel kirtan
- Sol Food
- Ojo Caliente
- Taos Honey
- Sophia Wise One
- Beth Searcey’s bodywork magic
- Taos Herb
- World Cup
- Monica Martin private yoga instruction
- Taos Market.