About the 'Trip and the Trade'

This is a journey about connections, friendship, new experience, community service, and yoga. This idea quite appropriately came about during a yoga class. While I was supposed to be watching my thoughts pass like clouds through the sky of my mind, I was instead thinking hard…thinking about the road trip I was planning. I intended to drive through multiple cities visiting friends and family along the way. As I thought about this trip an idea began surfacing in stages. It went something like this: Oh no! How am I going to practice yoga while I’m gone??... Hmmm, I bet there are studios in most of these places …oooh, that’d be fun! Trying out new studios! ... and then I began to wonder about how I could integrate my yoga with community involvement. I love connecting with people and places. I kept thinking and by the end of the class decided that I would attempt to forge relationships with at least one studio in each location where I stayed, a relationship based on passion for yoga and interest in their community. That’s it! I would ask them if they would be willing to trade me one yoga class in exchange for a couple hours of my time giving back to their community, and THAT is exactly what I’m doing.

I will be blogging daily along the trip, mostly about my time with each studio and community. After my class with each studio I will dedicate a post to my experience there with photos and a direct link to their website. Although I am open to all that this trip will bring, I do have a few objectives. These objectives fall under two things: ‘Trip’ and ‘Blog’ and one crosses over into both:



Trip Objectives:

1. To connect with each location through community service

2. To experience a yoga studio in each community

3. To inspire people to incorporate yoga in their lives and get

involved in their communities as well as others



Blog Objectives:

1. To have a forum for writing and sharing my experiences

with others

2. To track/document my trip

3. To inspire people to incorporate yoga in their lives and get

involved in their communities as well as others



I have sent hard copy letters to a few studios in each of the places where I plan to stay. Getting to this point has been an interesting process. I vacillate regularly between excitement and fear. Excitement about meeting new people and doing good things in their community and fear of well…fear of failure. Will anyone be open to my idea? What if no one responds? Each time I feel nervous I remind myself to move forward with a heart and mind open to possibilities and yes, one of those possibilities is failure and that is okay. So here it goes, cheers to trying something new and being satisfied with unknown outcomes. I invite any of you that will be in the same locations as me to join me for a yoga class. The map with destinations, dates, and yoga studios is below. If you are interested in joining me for a class in your town during the dates I will be there please e-mail me at berghk@gmail.com and I will let you know what class(es) I will be attending and when. Cheers to The Trip and the Trade!




Friday, October 22, 2010

Sol Renewal - Great Yoga, Great Northwest Women


http://www.therenewalroom.com/





It was a long drive from where I was staying out in Greenacres to Sol Renewal Yoga Studio - from one end of the Spokane Valley to the other and boy was it worth it!






This Yoga/Pilates studio is run by three fabulous ladies: Becca, Paula, and Michele. Although I didn't get to meet Becca (who has helped and encouraged me so much along 'The Trip and the Trade'), I was lucky enough to meet Paula as she finished her pilates class and to take a yoga class with Michele.


Sol Renewal's studio has wood flooring, a lot of windows, and light colored walls. One of the walls is covered in very cool inspirational phrases like:




Seriously! Be Present!

As the room filled, I basked in the chit chat of great Northwest women - ahhhh...how I've missed you! Michele's teaching style was smooth and solid, and her transitions between poses well thought out with great timing. As we moved through class my body and mind sailed through the poses and all of a sudden class was over...where had the time gone?? For the first time in my yoga practice I layed on my back during savasana and became a silent bystander as my mind ran me through a quick download of all the poses we had done. It was so cool! Something about the way Michele had sequenced and timed her class had really spoken to me. Thank you, Michele, for an absolutely magnificent yoga experience!

As I left Sol Renewal 'If I Had a Boat' by Lyle Lovett played on the radio. As I drove, second guesses turned into quiet knowledge that although I do not know all the answers, I am indeed traveling along the right path. I can't help but share the lyrics:


'If I Had a Boat' by Lyle Lovett


If I had a boat
I'd go out on the ocean
And if I had a pony I'd ride him on my boat
And we could all together
Go out on the ocean
Me upon my pony on my boat


If I were Roy Rogers
I'd sure enough be single
I couldn't bring myself to marrying old Dale
It'd just be me and trigger
We'd go riding through them movies
Then we'd buy a boat and on the sea we'd sail


And if I had a boat
I'd go out on the ocean
And if I had a pony
I'd ride him on my boat
And we could all together
Go out on the ocean
Me upon my pony on my boat


The mystery masked man was smart
He got himself a Tonto
'Cause Tonto did the dirty work for free
But Tonto he was smarter
And one day said kemo sabe
Kiss my ass I bought a boat
I'm going out to sea


And if I had a boat
I'd go out on the ocean
And if I had a pony
I'd ride him on my boat
And we could all together
Go out on the ocean
Me upon my pony on my boat


And if I were like lightning
I wouldn't need no sneakers
I'd come and go wherever I would please
And I'd scare 'em by the shade tree
And I'd scare 'em by the light pole
But I would not scare my pony on my boat out on the sea


And if I had a boat
I'd go out on the ocean
And if I had a pony
I'd ride him on my boat
And we could all together
Go out on the ocean
Me upon my pony on my boat


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