...all over the streets.
I'm trying to keep my focus to the details in front of me, lately. Spring is always pretty stunning here -- especially sometimes with heavy gray clouds in the sky. The low sun slipping rays underneath, late in the day, all the new blossoms glowing like they're the source of their own light.
Spring's kinda cautious, kinda hopeful this year. Lots of chatter about masks and shots. I try to stay away from the details of all of that, online. I don't really read much news. I'm not going to pretend that I stay off of social media, though.
Social media's the Scourge of Society, right? I actually don't mind it because it's relatively easy to ignore things I don't want to focus on. I've got an Instagram feed full of yoga, cat videos, and raunchy memes. I'm not on Facebook much because it's too wordy and reading eats time, but I still scan it to get a glimpse of distant family and friends.
It's good to see what people are up to. It's a better connection than no connection at all, a window to look through.
I have a cousin in Wisconsin who was recovering from COVID. He went to sleep last weekend, not feeling well, and didn't wake up.
I didn't really know him. I'm 11 years older, and I'd barely seen him as an adult. Online, I saw glimpses of different jobs, hanging out with friends at bars, hunting, fishing, curling, a divorce, getting back into shape doing crossfit...
I make sure to step outside for a while every day. I walk by the river, take a longer look at the petals that catch my eye. I've got lists of things to do. When I think of what to do next, I remember that I don't really know when my own departure's scheduled or how much I can get done before then.
I hope you're taking a moment to appreciate your days.
Be well!
Chris
"I seem to be a Verb..."
Something like that. Begins like, "I do not think I am a Noun..."
I got that from reading Buckminster Fuller when I was much younger. He was making the point that a person isn't a set, static Thing. You grow. All of the most basic pieces of you are always moving and changing. All of your cells are replaced every seven years. Go smaller and it's all just vibrating molecules, subatomic probabilities.
Stuff like that. I'm not going to get all cosmic on you, but I like that sort of re-framing of things, and it's always stuck with me. When life has slipped into boring / routine / get-through-the-day mode, it doesn't actually take much to pause and make things seem exotic or foreign or spooky.
Or to see things as shifting with a weird, subliminal magic. IF you're willing to let go a bit and forget what you think you know.
I hope you're stepping out into the sun as it takes up more and more of the day. I hope you're taking off that damn mask to breathe some fresh air. Wear something without sleeves and show more skin to the light. Squint and let the shapes abstract, let the details disappear...
Cold Exposure
...and the Toppling of Tall Trees.
Are you all thawed out now, mostly? I HOPE your power's back on. My lights flickered a bit and I was snowed in like everyone else, but I got lucky. I actually hadn’t realized just how bad the damage was around Portland, until Tuesday or Wednesday.
Once the snow melted down to something I could bike on, I wandered around. Hadn’t expected so many neighborhoods to look like a minor hurricane had hit. So many snapped trunks and downed power lines, so many branches strewn around...
It’s been a weird 12 months.
Trees don’t grow tall forever, right? They’ll come crashing down eventually.
Maybe you anticipate that, figure out what needs to be trimmed and pruned in advance, limit the “destructive potential.”
More likely, you don’t even think to look around and wonder about that sort of thing. Until a storm comes and the stress is too much and you’re left with a huge mess to clean up.
I hope you’re not experiencing too much collateral damage.
Maybe the past year's been a stress test. Maybe it'd be helpful to look at it that way, at least. There's information there, something to learn, things to change? You can do a little bit of emergency preparation without getting fussy about all the possibilities, enough to feel better prepared, anyway.
That's not going to "solve" anything, and it's not going to prevent the next thing from happening, but maybe it's the sugar pill that helps you keep your presence of mind when the next thing happens.
My own sugar pill is the cold showers I've been doing every morning for the past couple of years. Chances are I've jabbered about this to you before. I'd like to say it's turned me into a Badass Berserker Viking, put a fresh new meadow of extra-manly hair on my chest, etc.
But no, I still hate being cold. I hate being mildly chilled. I hate the cold shower itself, but it's my routine now and I get really annoyed with myself if I ever skip it. So I suck it up, set the timer on my iPad for three minutes.
I brush my teeth in the shower to distract myself. My teeth are very thoroughly brushed in the morning.
I've even trained myself to stop shivering for a while. That doesn't make the cold enjoyable, but it takes the tension out, makes it less intensely uncomfortable. It's kind of just a stupid mental game, right? Still, maybe The Next Big Sucky Thing that happens becomes a part of your game, and maybe you're better able to pause and figure out what to do next.
I hope you're able to pause when you get stuck, to figure out small moves forward rather than just spinning your wheels in place.
Be well!
'til the mud settles and the water is clear...
The question is:
"Do you have the patience to wait
'til your mud settles and the water is clear?
Can you remain unmoving
'til the right action arises by itself?"
That's from the Tao Te Ching -- which I'd like to pretend to have studied closely, but no, I just ran across the quote online.
Anyway, it's sticking with me right now.
I looked up an explanation, which talked about "cultivating an ethic of patience," letting things take their time. I can get annoyed with that kind of talk, all wispy and non-specific, with a profound ring to it. Like you're getting a bite-sized sample of how enlightened beings think, like "yeah, I'll come around to that once I'm enlightened too, I'm sure..."
I don't know about you, but I have to distract myself with busy-ness to create the appearance of patience. It kinda works. It fills and refills the time in between, like breathing. But if you imagine you're trying to play a longer game, sometimes you've just got to allow for a long pause before the next move...
Anyway, hope you're doing well!
ANNOUNCEMENTS & Links:
Late Evening Breathe & Stretch -- At 8:00pm on Monday and Wednesday, there's the option to follow the breathing with 3-5 long, relaxed stretch holds to wind down. On other nights, it's just a short 20-30minute breathing session. It's a good way to end the day.
Mobility -- Getting Up and Getting Down -- How able are you, or the people around you, to get up and down from the floor with ease? I've posted a short tutorial, and you may recognize the basics here from some of my vinyasa sequences when we go from "boat" to kneeling. Have a look and give it a try, or send it to someone who needs a little poke to get started.
Private One-on-One / Small Group Sessions -- Over Zoom as well or in-person (at my space in NW Portland). Need some accountability? Ready to tune up your practice? Let me know...
Thank you!
A SHOT in the arm...
...or a BOOST in the...
(It reads "more funny" if I don't try and complete the sentence, so we'll let that hang.)
Y'know, it's kinda weird this year, not walking into the January rush of people at the gyms and studios. You've noticed that before, right? Regulars would always complain about the crowds, about the half-clueless new people who'd bought a New-Year's-resolution membership, only to disappear by February and maybe come back again next winter.
I'm missing that. I liked seeing new people, watching things get re-shuffled, and then seeing the few who actually stuck to something new once the crowds subsided.
The cliche is that people commit to change or improve, but the commitment is transient because the WORK of change is kind of a slog. It's understandable -- whatever your life is like normally, it's hard to get up the effort to pursue "better" if you're already living with "eh, I guess this is all right..."
"I guess this is all right..." doesn't really light a fire under your butt, and if "better" isn't REALLY bright and shiny when you visualize it, it's tough to direct much energy toward it.
I'm not going to make a big self-improvement pitch here. There's a distorted extreme to that, that's not too healthy -- constant dissatisfaction, anxiety about status, fear of missing out, over-optimization...
There's a lot of wisdom in being at peace with what you've got, wherever you are right now.
There's a problem of inertia, though -- moving in small ways, in a direction that ends up far from where you want to go. You can get used to anything, especially changes that creep in to your life and accumulate slowly -- a frog set in a pot of warm water, not realizing that it's being heated to boiling until it's too late.
I'm not bringing that to any Big Ominous Conclusion or anything. But it's the end of January, the excitement and busyness of the holidays is over. We're almost a year into a massive disruption of everyone's lives. Whatever passes for "the new normal" starts to feel routine, but that's kind of weird, isn't it? I mean, we're all living in a strange, in-between time, and twelve months ago I wouldn't have predicted anything like the way things are now.
It's easy to get isolated in the winter -- you're less likely to go outside, the days are short. And that's in addition to the masks and the social distancing and the vaccines that may or may not solve everything, the new virus strains that may or may not be worse than whatever's already floating around. It's easy to get lost in your own head if you're not careful. Easy to get stuck in a rut.
SO, I'm trying to make sure to at least step out for a while and walk in the crappy weather, get a little uncomfortable every day. I'm trying to be sure to pause in the middle of my habits & routines, remind myself of why I'm doing what I'm doing and ask myself if that's taking me somewhere I want to go.
Honestly, I ask the question and the answer is often "I dunno..." Seems like good practice to ask, though. If I'm stuck, I'd rather think about it now than have the realization sneak up on me.
Anyway, we're about a month into the new year. I hope you're looking ahead, staying alert. Paying attention. "Attention" is the thing that all our devices are hijacking right now, right? I spend too much time with online distractions myself, but I'm grateful to be able to stay connected with people this way.
I'll leave it at that right now. I thank you for YOUR attention, and I thank you for your time.
Be well!
Timing is EVERYTHING...
...unless you mess it up. Then INTENTION is everything, right?
That's what I'm telling myself right now, anyway. I try to send one of these emails out by Saturday every week. But I dunno... that's not a magic formula or a signed-in-blood contract or anything...
I've got lots of little personal commitments like that, things to do regularly to keep life on track. It's how I get bigger things done. If I let them slide, it REALLY bugs me, though I get that The-World-At-Large isn't going to notice.
Of course there's a part of me that would be quite happy to just let everything go, hang out with zero concerns, subsist on chocolate and sunlight or whatever.
Chilling Out sours quickly if I don't feel like I've earned it, though. Tension balances the release. Sending this out will cut some of that tension for me this morning.
SO, Happy Wednesday to you!
Smells Like Team Spirit...
-- NOT trying to step on any toes here, and I’m not sure where I got this from, but I ran across this quote a few years ago: “Politics is sports for nerds.”
I repeat it a lot.
I’ve never been into sports — as far as cheering for “my team” to win or whatever. Saved me from a lot of fashion disasters, growing up in Wisconsin. Green and gold isn’t a flattering combination on me.
I was kind of a news junkie as a kid, though. Like, when I read that Strobe Talbott was appointed to the Clinton state department, I remembered having read a bunch of articles by him in Time magazine in the '80s.
As far as obscure trivia goes, my '80s Marvel Comics knowledge is MUCH more impressive (and I'd be happy to recount the time The Dazzler saved the earth from being eaten by Galactus via her assimilating this dude "Klaw," who was made of solid sound waves, or something like that...).
Interest in politics is more reinforced, though. There's the veneer of being serious and “smart” because you pay attention to the news, to the important things of the day, to the BIG issues about how the world ought to be and how you ought to be aware of injustices and crises around every corner, etc. That’s more than “sports for nerds,” right?
Maybe. I won’t argue about it. I’m just talking about what I see. I can’t convince you of anything you‘re not willing to be convinced of.
When I went to college in the early 90s, “the personal is political” was the slogan I read and saw and heard all over. I dunno if anyone says that anymore.
I sort of bought it. So politics becomes something more than just haggling and trade-offs. It's tied to a sort-of-moral idea of a better world. I found it hard to spend much time with groups of people who really took that seriously, though. They'd suck the humor out of a room and I didn't get why.
I thought maybe I wasn’t smart enough to understand, maybe I was too immature to see the world with the seriousness it required.
But it also seemed to me that “The Political” wasn’t something that could really be discussed freely, and "The Personal" was a mess, if I was honest about myself and about what I saw in the people around me.
It felt like there were a lot of undeclared rules I was just supposed to know already. Lots of things I wasn't supposed to say. And we'd talk about people with contrary views, like they were simply ignorant at best, maybe indoctrinated with “false consciousness,” likely at least a little bit evil.
I had a really hard time with that. I grew up in a small town. In my teens, I'd been close to adults who had much different ideas of the world than I did, much different than what was being reinforced for me in college. They weren't evil or malicious or bitter. They were not fools, they were not idiots. No more than ME anyway, as far as I could tell.
I was young. It seemed obvious, what made for a better world. I thought I could convince people and explain. You just had to be open to receiving the correct answers to the big questions.
The problem with getting older is seeing more, understanding more, and realizing just how much of the world I haven’t seen or can’t see, and how much I still don’t understand. The world conceals itself, masks itself, presents itself in fragments to persuade and influence and distract attention.
I certainly feel "smarter" now that I'm older, but I can’t get past how limited my view of the world is, and will always be. And then I don’t feel so smart at all.
When I need to act with certainty, I try to contain my assumptions to a small range of things that might embarrass me, but won’t be too damaging, if they blow up in my face when I’m wrong.
Maybe that makes me less of a nerd? I put much less value on appearing smart, than I did as a kid. I prefer things to be messy and complicated and contradictory, with ample room for humor and absurdity. That feels honest, at least. Being a yoga teacher allows for a lot of that in my life.
I’m still a bit of a nerd, but as far as “sports for nerds,” I'm not a fan. I don’t cheer for a team. I don't repeat slogans -- I prefer to use my own words, my own way. If YOU think otherwise, that’s cool. I only know what works better for me. I’m happy to meet you in a place where we can both be messy and complicated and contradictory. And LAUGH, please...
Times are interesting. I hope you're keeping it together, keeping things in perspective.
Be well,
Chris
Steppin' BOLDLY into the new year...?
...or maybe proceeding with extra-careful attention to where you set your foot next? I can pitch for either approach, depending. So long as I don't get stuck in place.
And sometimes things DO get sticky. Or tangled. Or muddled. Or turned around. Is it ever any different, though? The experience is usually less AMBIENT and global, more private.
It's weirdly comforting when I'm having a hard time, to realize that hard times have been passed around quite freely this past year, in less palatable flavors and much larger portions than I've ended up with.
"Comforting" is kind of the wrong word there, but it's what comes to mind every time I put that thought together. Thinking "it could be worse and here's a thousand examples" is sort of an analgesic. It blunts any new sting, or the dull ache of frustration. I can get off my ass and move through that, anyway.
Don't get stuck. Stay solid when your world needs that from you. Be fluid when the ground shifts underneath.
Happy New Year! Here's to moving on...
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Late Evening Breathe & Stretch -- I'm messing around with this as a class offering. The breathing's what's important, and I've been doing some version of this daily now. At 8:00pm on Monday and Wednesday, it's 20 minutes of heavy "Wim Hof" - style breathing, followed by 3-5 long, relaxed stretch holds to wind down. On other nights, I've also been doing 20 minute sessions of breathing with anyone interested in joining on Zoom. That's not a set schedule, exactly. If you're curious, or if you'd like to join in with other people for a few minutes, let me know and I'll add you to the email list when I send out notifications -- no expectation, if you change your mind. It's a good way to end the day.
Private One-on-One / Small Group Sessions -- Over Zoom as well or in-person (at my space in NW Portland). Need some accountability? Ready to tune up your practice? Need a gift idea for someone? Let me know!
Short sequences & drills -- I've accumulated a whole bunch of videos, 30 minutes or shorter, in the past year. I'll be posting them on a page soon, with descriptions. I've gotta weed through a bunch of stuff though, and it's easy to get distracted Anything you're looking for in particular? I'll prioritize requests -- feedback keeps me motivated...
Be well,
Chris
www.hellotoallthefishes.com
All I want for Christmas is a Flat Tire...
...and with the whole 2nd wave self-quarantine-lockdown thing, that's kind of what the holidays are feeling like this year...
Am I right?
Right enough, I figure. I'm still popping Zinc & Echinacea chewables like candy, taking my Vitamin D, running through my list of preventative health voodoo things that I liked the sound of when someone suggested them to me a few months ago. More often than not, I forget "why" this or that might be a good idea...
How are YOU doing with all of that, anyway?
The weather sucks and now we're all supposed to stay EVEN MORE inside, in our own separate spaces. At least for a couple of weeks. This year's holiday spice is "anxiety." Maybe just a light dusting over everything.
I'm having an ongoing inner dialogue between My Essential Self and My Non-Essential Self, trying to decide who's in charge of my day. Me The Governing Body keeps forgetting which is which. I don't like to get too pinned down...
I stay busy, but the social distancing makes me a little bit loopy sometimes.
A few nights ago, I was walking along the riverfront near the Fremont Bridge. It was cold and windy and wet, hardly anyone else around. It was peaceful and I spent a few long minutes watching how the city lights sparkled on the water. I got this image in my head, like how we're all kind of bobbing around in our own little LIFEBOATS.
I suppose the boats are moving with the current, and maybe drifting and bumping along but still separate. And nothing's urgent, exactly -- everyone's fed and warm enough and the water seems calm. But each boat only has so much space and we're supposed to maintain that distance between each other. Still, you can wave, smile, say "hi," send emails, whatever...
I don't know where I'm going with that other than to say, Keep Yourself Afloat. Keep your head above water. I'm just staying busy and waving to you here, basically...
Vinyasa Foundations Workshop
Vinyasa Foundations Workshop Description:
This workshop is about the nuts & bolts "framing" of practice in a flow class, breaking down common obstacles and points of confusion:
Sun Salutations and "vinyasa" transitions (chaturanga in particular)
Distinguishing the different open- and closed-hip stances
Improving one-legged balance postures, and the function of the feet and legs
Preparation of hands and wrists
Healthy shoulder engagement for upper-body focused poses.
Vinyasa or "flow" -style is one of the most popular approaches to yoga. It's fun, it's interesting and varied, and it can be especially uplifting in group classes, as everyone's breath and movement synchronizes. It's easy to get lost and confused in these classes as well, and to lose your internal focus as well if you’re not careful.
The poses and movements can be difficult to keep up with. The language -- pose names and physical cuing -- can seem muddled. And there's always at least some gap between what the teacher is directing a class toward, and what the students are ready to do with ease or effort...
When there's confusion about what your body's supposed to DO in class, this can get in the way of the less obvious, less physical benefits of a yoga practice. Many poses and transitions can seem too difficult or impossible, not worth attempting if they don't come easily. Newcomers can get frustrated quickly, and even more experienced practitioners can get stuck on plateaus where a too-wide range of poses seems inaccessible.
We'll also discuss and work with props, customizing their use to an individual yogi's needs, and lay out strategies for adapting quickly to poses in group classes. Each student's primary concerns will be addressed, and followed up with video feedback.
<< Perfect for newer or more experienced yogis who want to “level up” their practice ! >>
Next session in January! Email me to pre-register: squawkalong@gmail.com
Yoga For Tight Dudes
Hey there! I’ve been teaching a new Class series: Yoga For Tight Dudes
Description:
Now this isn't how it's always been, but not long ago, it used to be that dudes really didn't do yoga. Not too many in Portland (and probably much of the US), anyway. When I started teaching 8 years ago, I was often the only dude in the room, or one of 2-3 in a class of 30. That's definitely changing now.
Men tend to begin their practice from a much different basis than women. They're far less likely to be "too flexible," for one. And more likely to have strong arms and shoulders, often to the point where the upper body is rigid and range of motion is very limited. The male pelvis tends to be quite a bit narrower than in females, and there's not a lot going on with the idea of "open hips," or squatting, or wide-legged stances. And that's just a few obvious examples.
SO, maybe there's a build-up of aches and "knots" from years of sports and athletics? Or years of long hours at a desk or driving for work? Or some nagging injury or strain that's never quite gone away? This series will help you to increase and enjoy your mobility. We'll work on strategies to strengthen the joints and lengthen the muscles at the same time.
This is MORE than simply "stretching!" Each session begins with a focused mobility sequence. This will prepare for the positions and deliberate motions that follow -- accessing and releasing tension throughout the body. Sessions are ongoing, usually in 3-class sequences. Interested? SURE you are. Email me at squawkalong@gmail.com
NEW CLASSES -- May 2017
NEW CLASSES: I've got a bunch of new, regular classes starting this month. Two new locations:
-- 220 Studio (213 SW Ash, Suite 209 -- map) -- This space is in Old Town / Downtown, just a block from Voodoo Donut. It's a really nice space, a collective of independent teachers, and I'll be running three new classes there -- Two on Tuesday, a 4:30pm Vinyasa, and then a 5:45 Inversion, Mobility and Balacing session, and on Thursdays, a noon Vinyasa class. The vinyasa classes are donation-based, and for the inversion session it's $10-15, pay what you can. This space is really new and off the beaten path, so I expect classes to be pretty small for now.
-- Bleeding Hearts Kettlebell Club (2043 SE 50th Ave -- map)-- This is the space I sent the survey about, a couple of weeks ago. Starting May3, I'll be teaching two classes on Wednesday evenings -- 7pm Vinyasa Yoga leading into an 8pm Inversion, Mobility and Balancing class. You don't have to be a member at the studio attend one or both of these, and if you're interested in the inversion class, you can use the vinyasa class as a warm up before the upside down work begins. $10-15, pay what you can. The vinyasa class is included with the BHKC membership, and for members the inversion session is an additional $5. Also, for members, there will be an 11am Vinyasa class on Sunday mornings.
I took a little trip to Miami...
(I'll try to make this more show than tell.) So, I was OUT for a week at the end of March. I'd enrolled in a training at Budokon University in Miami. "Budokon" is a movement-fusion approach, put together and led by Cameron Shayne:
I've been following that dude's more dynamic and flowing approach to yoga since I started practicing, and if you've been to many of my vinyasa classes, you'll probably recognize elements from the BDK primary series.
This particular training was five full days focused on calisthenics (gymnastic rings, bar work, parallettes and floor acrobatics). I had a good time, fumbling around:
...and at times, I was a little bit spacey, from all the effort:
There was quite a bit of yoga and martial arts work, too. About 8-10 hours a day of exertion, after which everyone would sleep on a light pad on the concrete floors. I was a bit anxious and amped-up, so I didn't actually do a whole lot of sleeping, but now that I've been back home for two weeks, I'm just about caught up on some needed rest.
It was fun. And it was eye-opening. I was in my element, with the yoga. I was competent but suddenly aware of strength gaps with the calisthenics. I was pretty much lost and flailing with the martial arts portion, where I got punched in the face and choked more than a few times. There were about 30 students there, from all over the world (maybe 30% American), about half and half male-to-female. Everyone came from much different backgrounds, with different strengths and weaknesses, and it was great to spend the time with people who were so serious and focused on learning and moving.
Unlike me, there were people there who definitely knew their way around the martial arts stuff:
426 Likes, 12 Comments - Cameron Shayne (@cameronshayne) on Instagram: "Preparing our brother the BDK beast UFC lightweight fighter @joshburkman for our upcoming February..."
174 Likes, 7 Comments - Brynnen McIver (@martialmovements) on Instagram: "#Balance is the object of the game. Always maintain your balance, while looking to disrupt, or take..."
...and there was a good bit of goofing around as well: