Yoga at the West End Markets

Grassroots Yoga @ West End Markets

7.30am - Yoga with Anita

What a lovely concept.  Created by local Brisbane teacher and teacher trainer, Celia Roberts, this is a yoga initiative aimed to bring yoga to the people.  Speaking of which, when I was in New York, gosh, I love that I can drop "when I was in New York" into sentences. Ahem. Anyway, when I was in New York, I really wanted to go to a yoga called: Yoga to the people which was a donation run class at all times of the day run by very interesting characters like ex-convicts and stuff. I never got the chance to do so, but it's nice to see that this donation/karma type yoga is taking off in little old Brisbane.

That's my sister on the left!

Grassroots Yoga has been happening for a few months now in 2013 and it was on my yoga "to do" list when I returned from overseas. Once I was over my jetlag, which actually took about 2 weeks, I then got very sick with some virus that was going around this winter so I couldn't do much. Anyway, once I overcame these anomalies, I was ready to get back into yoga and try and lose my "travel weight". 

My sister, Sarah, was visiting and I dragged her along to try this class out.  Oh, on a sidenote, Sarah, who has always been fit and healthy etc, once tried a yoga class several years ago and she really didn't enjoy it for whatever reason. I think she mentioned that the teacher had one of those floaty voices and spoke too slowly in a calming way which in fact had the opposite effect.  I wanted to make her experience better so have been teaching her yoga in the backyard whenever she visits, assisted by my other niece, 2 year old Jessica. So now, she was ready to "go public" with the yoga basics she'd learnt from me (hopefully).

Jess, my other niece, doing some backyard yoga with me.
(That's her on the left)

So, off we went to the West End markets. It was a beautiful sunny, winter morning in Brisbane, probably around 23 degrees and there were about 7 students.  After we sort of loitered around the soccer field, we saw a yoga looking lady making a beeline for the soccer goal with mat and sign in hand.   We positioned ourselves facing her with the sun on our backs which was just lovely. The teacher Anita was just beautiful and really sequenced the class to suit the differing abilities.  It must be difficult to teach this type of class when it's just one hour and you don't really know the students, but Anita did very well.   Especially as just nearby there was a crowd of people busily drinking coffee, eating breakfast and noisily playing chasey with their kids.  Again, the external distractions made it all the more challenging, just like my yoga in the park in Vienna!

Sequence:
It was a lovely Hatha class with some nice slow-flowing Sun Salutations and a couple of challenging poses at the end including a couple of my favourites.  We did Revolved Head-to-knee Pose (Parivrtta Janu Sirsana) which I couldn't actually do because I was babysitting...more on that in a minute...and also Crow or Crane Pose (Bakasana) which my sister did perfectly first time of course. Gah!

Yeah, so we brought Harriet, my 6 month old niece along who just sat in her pram and watched. It was just beautiful.  It really is lovely how yoga has that calming effect on babies...and also dogs...and sometimes horses...but I'm not sure about cats... So, back to the baby, yes, Harriet cracked at about the 45 minute mark, so wanting my sister to really benefit from the class, I grabbed Harriet as she started sort of crying and went for a bit of a walk.  This enabled me to really observe the class from a distance and really fall in love with yoga all over again!

NOt that I'd ever fallen OUT of love.  It's just that after my epic yoga journey, I sort of just stopped and really wasn't interested in even updating my blog...evidently. I think I just needed a break to find the passion again. THIS is one of the key reasons I've decided not to be a full-time yoga teacher. In addition to the associated financial stresses, I think that when people try to make their passion, their job, they really lose that drive and consequently, the passion. After reading the biographies of all the teachers involved in Grassroots Yoga, the majority are either yoga studio owners or a practised profession in some other field which complements yoga, like Psychology or Physiotherapy.  Thus, I think I would like to teach yoga as more of a hobby.

Anyway, at the end of the class, we were able to make a donation and chat to the teacher who was lovely. I highly recommend this to ANYONE and EVERYONE, in particular those who've never tried yoga, living in Brisbane. You can then just pop to the markets straight after to purchase all of your fruit, veges and flowers for the week!  Yoga outdoors is the best. Yoga for the people is the best.

Coffee: Kombi Koffein, West End Markets, usually by the rowing sheds near the Northern entrance. Best coffee at the markets!