breaking new ground

When we show up to our mat we come ready to embark on our personal practice and eager to disengage from the busy hectic lives we lead. We set intentions, ignore our limitations and, well, just go with the flow. What is amazing to me is that everyone has their own reason for showing up and that the same series of postures can mean so many different things, and present so many different challenges, to so many different people. While talking with 4 local yogis, I took the opportunity to ask them what initially brought them to their mats and how they continue to push themselves to break new ground.

what inspired you to start yoga?
I started practicing yoga in 1999, while I was touring India. After three months of heavy travelling in the south, I dragged my sick-and-travel-weary body into Osho’s Ashram outside of Bombay to rest from bouts of Giardia, otherwise known as Delhi-Belly. Yoga was the doorway back into my body, where I was able to regain strength and mobility.

anything new you’ve tried and accomplished?
I was quite convinced for a while that my body couldn’t, shouldn’t, wouldn’t do certain poses, specifically ones like Wheel Pose. With inspiring words from a teacher Ross Rayburn, I realized I might actually be wrong about my body, and decided I just needed to go for it. The first time I tried my head was only lifted a few inches off the mat, and after a panicked gasp of air I came straight back down. Something shifted in that moment. I was now more open visiting that scary place over and over again.

what inspired you to start yoga?
I was injured from dancing, as well as getting over pneumonia and severe asthma. I was looking for a way to heal myself and thought yoga would help. I took one class I was hooked.

anything new you’ve tried and accomplished?
Recently, I have been getting back into running. Having asthma all of my life, it was something I have avoided in the past due to fear of having an attack. Yoga has helped me to calm my mind and control my breath. I love running now, feeling how strong my lungs are and also knowing when to slow down and really listen to my body.

what inspired you to start yoga?
Yoga was a way for me to get back into an active lifestyle when hectic university life hit me. When I go to yoga I feel my stress melt away and I leave feeling fabulous.

anything new you’ve tried and accomplished?
What intimidated me when I first started yoga was that feeling that people would be watching me try to hit poses and judging me if I didn't look perfect. I realized that yoga is a place to get away from all that and celebrate our accomplishments, not a place where we are judged based on imperfections or struggles. Once I overcame this I was more comfortable with trying new things. I recently managed to hit the “half moon” pose and am now working towards a headstand.

what inspired you to start yoga?
I was inspired to start because my dad was practicing and encouraged me to try it. I continued, however, because as an anxious teenager I found that it helped to balance all of the changes going on in my life.

anything new you’ve tried and accomplished?
I recently travelled to India which was a challenge because I was nervous about travelling alone. This fear ended up making it the best possible experience because my adventures were left untainted by anyone else’s opinions, thoughts, or distractions. I wandered to whichever experiences were speaking to me at that time and was able to fully-immerse in what the culture and teachings had to offer.

my yoga breakthrough

When it came to yoga for me, I was a skeptic beyond all. I was initially came to my mat mostly through the simple notion that everyone else was doing it. My mom, brother, best friend, and heck, even Jennifer Aniston, were all doing yoga and it occurred to me that there must be something I just wasn’t getting from my stance on the sidelines. I think it was in that first moment when I finally pushed up into downward dog, that I understood why I was there, and why I would continue to come back. I realized that I wasn’t there for anyone but me, and it was my fear of not being any good that had held me back for so long. The realization that it didn’t matter (that it should never matter) what anyone else thought, opened me up to a whole new world of trying without the fear of failing. While talking about breaking new ground, Tedi said something that really summed everything up nicely for me. “In the case of trying something new, you’re giving a lot but will be rich with benefit in the end.”

want more

• setting goals to break new ground
• gear that's designed for yoga

Here at lululemon athletica’s Store Support Centre, we have a truly wonderful yoga and fitness program. Five days a week, instructors come into our light-filled studio to conduct classes consisting of various styles and degrees of difficulty throughout the day – and all you have to do is grab a (provided) mat and show up. With all these resources at my fingertips, you’d think I’d be the downest dog in town, right?

Wrong. Exceedingly, surprisingly, embarrassingly incorrect.

It’s time for a shameful admission: In my four months of working here thus far, I have NOT been to a yoga class at the Store Support Centre (editor’s note: those meowing noises are the symphony of a litter of inflexible kittens pawing their way out of the bag).

Alexis is going to her first yoga class today!

It didn’t start this way. I had the best of intentions, sure. But like many of you, I was so caught up in the workings of my new job that I completely forgot what attracted me to lululemon in the first place.

The reason I’m sharing this with you is to prove a point – this can happen to anyone with the best of intentions, even someone working in a building BASED around yoga. It doesn’t matter how near or far you are from your yoga facility, or gym class; how cold it is outside, how much work you have, or how your running crops are in the wash. If you want to make excuses, you can.

Clichéd, but true: you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink. Well friends, get ready, because this old chestnut (neigh?) is getting ready to take a trot (scratch that: CANTER!) through the Hatha fields on Monday with Ingrid, one of our lovely instructors. As for her correcting my woeful use of animal metaphor, it’s too soon to tell.

What are you going to do today with no excuses?

When she moved here in 2005, Jocelyn's intention was to spend three months getting the core fusion program off the ground at Exhale Spa. She was the lead core fusion teacher and teacher trainer in Chicago, and she met our regional community leader, Brooke Johnson, at one of her classes. At that time no one in Chicago had really heard of lululemon. Brooke recognized Jocelyn as one of the best instructors in Chicago and product tested her a pink ujjayi tank and black groove pants. It didn’t take long before Jocelyn was hooked and decided to be one of the first ambassadors for the first lululemon store to open in Chicago on Halsted Street.

The year Jocelyn was an ambassador was a fundamental year in her development. She attended meet and greet events with other lululemon ambassadors, and participated in a function show, modeling some new luon at an art gallery where she broke out into booty dancing in front of the whole crowd!

Last year Jocelyn had a five-year goal to open her own fitness and dance studio, but she was forced to take action in early 2009. With help from her husband Ron, she made it all happen in only three months! Akemi Fitness Method opened this March in Evanston, the closest suburb north of the city of Chicago.

Akemi means “bright and beautiful” in the Japanese language, and it is an exact description of Jocelyn’s personality. She chose to name her business Akemi Fitness Method because she believes that "all people are bright and beautiful, and that is something [she] wants them to recognize."

The classes at Akemi were inspired by the Lotte Berk Method, which combines core exercises, dance, weights, Pilates and yoga. With classes like Akemi Barre, Abs, Arms & Booty, and Akemi Cardio Sport, Jocelyn teaches us to tone and sculpt our booties to the hottest jams. All of the educators on my team in Evanston consider ourselves lucky to be so close to Akemi. Jocelyn’s classes are always a blast, and we're constantly inspired by her immense beauty and joyfulness.

Check out her amazing studio here: http://www.akemifitness.com/index.php