A Sea of OM's - Salutation Nation 2011

What a beautiful morning I had today.

The sky was blue, the temperature was warm but breezy and I drove down to Shelby Park and rolled out my mat with about 50 other Memphis yogi's as part of Salutation Nation 2011.

Sponsored by Lululemon, Salutation Nation is an event all across the country where communities gather in a local park and offer a free yoga class.

I'd never been to Shelby Park before and wasn't sure where to go. So I stopped in at the Visitor's Center hoping for some info. As I was walking in, I saw a man with a yoga mat who also looked a little lost. We got our directions and hopped into my car together to drive around the lake to where the other yogi's were meeting.

Nowhere else in my life would I let a strange man in my car to drive through the park except at a yoga event. A man with a yoga mat thrown over his shoulder can be trusted.

I rolled out my mat on the grass in front of the lake and lay back to enjoy the warm sun. Soon I felt some taps on my shoulder and there was fellow yoga teacher and blogger Sondra!

Sondra and I never get to take a class together, we both are too busy teaching ourselves or subbing for each other. What a treat to place my mat near hers and flow our vinyasas together. Not only is she a delightful lady and awesome yoga teacher, but her blog has the best title: Sweet Tea and Sanskrit.

The class started off with meditation and then moved through some gentle yoga. I was really torn between just enjoying the yoga or taking pictures of the beauty around me. But since the settings on my camera were off and I couldn't see anything through the view finder anyway, I decided shooting blind wasn't worth it and focused all my attention on my mat.

About halfway through the morning, I looked up and there was Wendy! Maybe once a year or so Wendy and I run into each other at a yoga class or workshop.

New friends, old friends, yoga in the park. Could this get any better?

Yes, in fact it could. After savasana we all sat up facing the lake and began a sea of OM's. Each person in their own time began to OM, with no set count to finish. I don't know how many rounds we did, but just as it spontaneously began, it ended perfectly in sync.

Salutation Nation Memphis may not have been as big as it was in other parts of the country, but I'm confident our OM's were heard throughout the park.

Me, Sondra and Wendy
Salutation Nation 2011

What Makes A Community

I wrote in an earlier post about yoga satsang – community. (http://jenniferyogalifeway.blogspot.com/2010/11/tweets-and-books-in-yoga-community.html) 

This year has seen a welcome boom in the size of my yoga community.

Close to home, I’ve begun teaching yoga in different locations which has allowed me to meet many new and interesting people. People that you pass on the street and would never think would try yoga have stepped on to a yoga mat with me for the first time this year.

And they, in turn, have taken yoga and introduced it to other new people. One woman very tentatively walked into a free yoga in the park class this summer. She wasn’t sure she belonged in yoga. But of course, after that one morning she knew she was meant to be there. So much so, that after only a few months she began teaching yoga to her teen-girls youth group at church.

A regular yoga member and friend who did yoga all through her pregnancy, hounded me enough about prenatal yoga that I started a special class for mothers-to-be. That one special session has turned into three sessions and seven beautiful babies and future yogis. Another special class for runners has turned hard-core marathoners into devout yogis who are as proud of their urdvha dhanurasana as they are their run times!

On a bigger scale, Facebook lets me keep in touch with yoga friends I meet at teacher trainings.  We spend four or five days sweating and learning together, and then go home. But Facebook lets us keep in touch and keep encouraging each other through good times and bad. When a fellow teacher in California lost her husband recently, I couldn’t be there for her physically. But through Facebook we’ve been able to talk. Hopefully I’ve been able to take away some of her pain or at least offer an ear to listen and a forum to cry when she needs to.

Even Twitter has become a welcome addition to my yoga satsang. Where else would I be able to talk to an Anusara teacher leading an immersion in New Zealand?  Or join a book group discussion with not only a writer from Elephant Journal but also the actual author herself?

At my Anusara workshop last month, John Friend said we need to “think and act locally to change globally.”  I’ve learned this year that the local yoga community isn’t as small as I thought it was, and the global yoga community isn’t as far away as I feared it was.

When we stand on our mats together, we really are one satsang.

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Tweets and Books in the Yoga Community

I admit I'm a little late to the Twitter party. Much like my introduction to the Facebook world, it took a lot of convincing by a friend of mine to get me to join. At first I just didn't get the whole Twitter thing. Wasn't it just a forum for celebrities to spout off  their opinions or where they shopped or who they were dating? None of which I really cared about anyway. I'm not famous, who would care what I have to say? I'm not known for my deep and profound thoughts.

However, I'm really beginning to enjoy the Twitter world. I've met many wonderful yoga teachers and enthusiasts from all over the world that I otherwise would never have connected with. Even in our allotted 140 characters we can share yoga tips, teaching frustrations and general life experiences. Right now both @MeredithLeBlanc and I are helping care for our sick mothers. The funny posts from @yogasavestheday expressing her frustrations with her boss and the demands of her job not only make me laugh out loud, but also remind me how grateful I am to be able to teach yoga as my career.

My Twitter friends have become part of  my Satsang -  my truth company. Satsang is a Sanskrit word for being in the company of the wise. With just an iphone and a Twitter app I've been able to expand my yoga world exponentially. Which in turn has opened up a new avenue for me to grow into and understand how yoga affects me and my life.

In fact, we've now formed a Yoga Book Club. We're reading Yoga School Dropout by Lucy Edge. There's no deadline or meeting time, as we read we tweet what we think of it, discuss and share. In fact, Bob Weisenberg (@BobWeisenberg) who writes for Elephant Journal has even joined our book club discussion. Mr. Weisenberg interviewed Lucy Edge for Elephant Journal(http://www.elephantjournal.com/2010/11/the-swimming-pool-of-cosmic-bliss-by-lucy-edge/) and has even teased us with the possibility that Ms. Edge herself may join our Twitter discussions.

I'd love for you to join our book club too. If you are already on Twitter you can find me @YogaLifeWay. Just start reading and when you post use hashtag #YSD to let us know you are talking about Yoga School Dropout and want to be a part of the book club.

If you're not on Twitter and just don't get it yet either, that's ok. I'll be posting my own review of the book here when I'm finished reading. Go ahead and post your thoughts here in the comments section. Let's discuss and make this Satsang even bigger!