Conversation Starters

 "When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.  When the student is really ready, the teacher will disappear." - Tao Te Ching For over 11 years, I had an almost daily yoga practice. It started in February 2008 when a housemate and dear friend of mine all but forced me to join her for a class.  She'd selected the studio and told me what time to be ready and because I'm a good wingman, I went along with it -- just for her.  I am  certain  I told the desk staff that I would never return. Famous last words. Not only did I return a week later, I returned the week after that and the week after that until I found a teacher or two I really enjoyed and the next thing you know, I was hooked. Before long, I was enrolled in a monthly membership and prioritizing time on my mat over afterwork drinks. Sometimes I'd compromise and go to class  and then  show up to drinks, normalizing the "wear your yoga gear in public" long before it became the now-standar...

by E. Wallens & S. Wolf Section I: Demographics Lily Wong is a Chinese-American woman has lived in the Greater Boston Area of Massachusetts all thirty-four-and-a-half years of her life -- largely wheelchair-bound for the last two.  As a toddler, she was diagnosed with cerebral palsy, but she told us, “I benefited greatly from physical therapy to stay ambulatory all throughout my youth.”  In more recent months and years, though, she has been less steady on her feet, so she opts for the wheelchair in most public spaces.   Lily, an only child, told us she had a “happy childhood” and  considers herself a “product of the Boston Public Schools” for all of her pre-college education.  After graduating high school, she attended Harvard University where she completed a BA in Biochemical Sciences.  At that time, she shifted gears to do a teaching program and then taught in a high school for ten years -- mostly science subjects like biology and chemistry but a...

As a manager in a yoga studio, I spend a good portion of my time talking to nervous first time practitioners.   I’m not strong enough. I’m too out of shape. I don’t look like everyone else in their tight Lululemon pants. I’m not flexible. I am afraid of making a fool of myself.  To all of these people, I say the same thing: “If you can move and breathe at the same time, you can practice yoga here.” The style of yoga we teach is Astanga-based so it’s full of vinyasas and tends to be on the rigorous side and, yes, there will be things that beginners might not be able to do in their first (through twentieth) class. Same goes to intermediate and advanced level students. But that’s not the point of yoga — doing that arm balance or coming up into headstand or mastering a Sun B isn’t what   makes   the practice. It’s the practice that makes it perfect. It’s the effort, the concentration, the intention. In many ways, it’s like having a good attitude instead of a bad one. So ...