Happy 2010 Bernal Blog readers! It’s exciting to be bringing you news again from this studio given how wonderful it is…Having just gotten back from a trip to India, I have returned with a renewed excitement knowing Bernal offers yoga classes that are just as brilliant as those you can find in the birthplace of the practice. How fortuitous that we can take classes here…

On Monday morning, KT Steadman asked newcomer Heather Stewart to take over her class for that morning. Heather’s style pleasantly reminded me of Bill Wyland’s classes: She created a peaceful and concentrated space, quietly and confidently leading us through asanas and sticking strictly to movement, replete with vinyasas. It had been some time since I had done so many chatarungas and I surely needed the practice. Heather would gently come over and adjust as needed, a slight opening here, a small twist there, allowing for our poses to reach their potential, or our potential for the day.

In India, I did take a class, and in that class, we were straightforwardly led through asanas but there is a certain talent in being both straightforward and refined while being warm and inviting. Heather has that talent and we, as Bernal Yoga attendees, can experience that every Friday morning. She will be a regular in those early morning hours, and for good reason. She, like all the teachers at Bernal, is brilliant.

As for KT Steadman, I missed her while I was away. She has that effect. Coming into her class on Wednesday morning, I was reminded of how much she makes a point of meeting each person in the class, and remembering their names such that students seem like friends, and are. She gave me a warm welcome when I came, as she has to many students who have gone away for some time. She fosters that deep sense of community and connection that is one of Bernal’s bedrocks. KT was full of wonderful insights that rainy morning as the drops danced on the skylight of the studio. One of which was that “our practice is like a beacon of light”, a process of “self looking, self feeling, self responsibility.” As she suggests, it offers this unique and wonderful opportunity to see our strengths, our limitations, our “kiki” (which means both crisis and opportunity) and to shift those. Yoga is the practice that allows for that change.

The other thing KT shared was a quote by BKS Iyengar which says, “the present is the perfect asana.” If we can remember that whenever we are in the present, and aware of what that moment offers, we are practicing yoga. What a gift!