Or wait. Is there?

At Yoga SRQ we’re not into a bunch of rules, but here are a few tips and yoga etiquette you will want to be aware of if you are new to yoga.

Take off your shoes before entering the practice room.

Be well nourished, but practice on an empty stomach.  Refrain from eating 90 minutes to two hours before class. NO caffeine right before class!

If you practice regularly, enjoy the hygiene of your own mat. Buy a high quality mat. It’s worth it. Clean your mat regularly. Wash your hands before class. Any lotions/hair products you might have applied earlier in the day will drip down onto your mat and make you slip. Yoga mats are considered personal space.  Because our faces are near and sometimes on the mat it is common courtesy to step only on your own mat. Walk around others and never step onto a yoga mat with shoes.

IF YOU BORROW A MAT: Wipe it down with provided wipes. Also wipe up the area around your mat.

PLEASE COME ON TIME: For a yoga class that means arrive at least 5 minutes before scheduled start, at least 10 to 15 minutes if you are coming to a studio for the first time.

Classes start and finish as scheduled. Coming in late is distracting. If it is unavoidable and you are late, come in as quietly as possible, leaving all noisy objects in the lobby. Life happens when you’re planning to go to yoga and some yoga is better than no yoga, but PLEASE do not make a habit of coming late or leaving early. If you must leave early, let the instructor know before hand. Time your departure to include a Savasana for yourself.  Final resting pose is the most important part of class. LEAVING DURING SAVASANA IS ONE OF THE ONLY RULES WE ARE NUTS ABOUT HERE AT YOGA SRQ. DON’T DO IT. Tell you instructor if you need to leave early and when you do, BE SURE it’s well before everyone is lying down. If all of a sudden you think you need to leave or forgot you had to leave early and are already in Savasana, then you are in! No ONE gets up during final resting time. (Emergencies aside) Enough said.

Turn your cell phone off, or better yet, leave it in the car. If your cell phone goes off while you are in class get up and turn it off. You’d be surprised how many people just let in ring, or ding a ling. Suck it up and go turn it off. We’ll forgive you!

Unlike other classroom type situations, hold your questions until after class or come in early and ask to speak to the instructor.

Cleanliness is close to Godliness. Come to class clean. Also, be aware that odors from your meals may still be with you. Respect others by checking this out before class. Avoid wearing perfume to class.

Back to Baseball & Crying and Yoga & Singing.

One way to get angry vibes in the form of eye daggers is to sing, tap or hum to the music. Granted,  no easy task at Yoga SRQ, because we like to think we play excellent tunes, but generally; unless the teacher offers up a sing along, which at Yoga SRQ we have been know to do~ Keep your rhythm in your asanas and singing in your breath. There may not be crying in baseball, but believe it or not crying is fairly common in yoga. Stretching the body and exploring the tension often releases in the form of crying or a happy weepy feeling. The first time it happens can be startling, but know it happens to a lot of us and sometimes often.

So as it turns out there IS crying in Yoga and as we all know there IS singing in Baseball!

Don’t speed when already late, you’ll get a ticket and be even later.

The B.S. Gong rings the loudest.

When someone is mad, just let them talk until they run out of air.

When someone wants to discuss something important. Close mouth ~ breath through  nose.

Soften  jaw ~brain opens.

Always smile first.

Cuddle your bed partner before you go to sleep.

Cuddle your bed partner when you wake up.

Country singers have it right.

Talking to out loud, to myself is soothing.

The advice we give other people is what we actually need to hear ourselves.

I talk a lot about slowing down so that we can better react in all situations. For instance If you look- and look again in an intersection you might see a car that’s run the light and heading straight for you. Or when you’d like to bite someone’s head off, reminding yourself to ‘take a breath’ can change your perspective. When we slow down we can train our bodies and minds to react differently. The asanas (poses) of yoga are specifically designed to tone and strengthen every muscle, tendon and ligament in the body, but also to train the body and brain to move in concert to react in a split second. When the body slows down, so does the brain…both a have a chance to react and notice details.

It’s in these details and retraining that you can change the out come of certain situations.

Several years ago I saw Madonna on the cover of a magazine in a very twisted up pose. I thought, what’s the point? Why does anyone need to do that? The answer came to me several years into my practice that it’s in these twisted up difficult physical shapes, that we train the body to react in certain situations that otherwise might cause us harm.

Take the pose Chaturanga for instance. It’s a pose where you are on all fours with arms bent. This shape is not a common shape for the common person these days. But, once in while we all hit the deck. This pose helps us react differently when falling or being close to the ground with grace.

Our human bodies are ‘happiest-’ healthiest when we are moving in all the ways in which we were designed. Life in the 21st Century is too physically easy. We hardly have to move AT ALL. A swipe of the card, a stroke of a key and we can get anything we want. You name it; it can be delivered to your house, next day even- if you want to pony up the cake.

A healthy, strong and supple body is directly connected to our health…and here’s how chatarunga saved a life of a student friend of mine.  After coming to class for several years a student asked to speak to me after class. She went on to tell me that as she was leaving the grocery store hauling bags she tripped on a curb. She and the bags went flying. Her instincts took over and she caught herself on all fours, arms bent…she had caught herself in Chaturanga and avoided slamming her head on the parking spot. Her body/brain went into action to save herself from injury…she didn’t have time to think through the fall, her body took over and landed safely. In yoga we slow down and pour over details of the body brain connections. We train ourselves to react differently, to save ourselves from injury or panic.

Love is hard to find, but easy to lose. Common sense, not secrets of a time tested marriage.

These things I know now, and pass along to you. Take them, leave them.

Marriage Is: Part art, Part science.

Men and women are different. We see and react to life differently.

For the girl: When you have something on your mind. Start out by saying, there’s no problem, there’s nothing to do, just listen…unless of course there IS a problem. In that case, don’t have ‘the talk’ when the problem is actually happening. Make time to be together and bring up the subject casually and always speak from love and lovingly.

For the boy: When your girl wants to talk and she starts out with, ‘there’s no problem, there’s nothing to do, just listen…’ it helps if your believe her. Your biological imperative drive IS going to want to fix something. Resist the urge. When she actually wants you to fix something she’ll say something like, ‘honey, can you have a look at my car, it’s leaking’ or ‘can you have a look at the sink it’s clogged.’

For the boy: When your girl cooks for you, thank her, every time. Tell her it’s good, every time.

For both: Always smell good.

For both: Act as if you’ve just met, be polite and attentive.

For the boy: Girl’s hormone’s can make them seem crazy sometimes. Mark your calendar.

For the girl: Your moods can be wild. Always be nice. Mark your calendar.

For both: Don’t yell.

For the girl: Let your boy, be the man.

For the boy: Protect your girl.

For the both: Be playful.

For the girl: You don’t need to tell your husband everything you are thinking. He doesn’t want to hear it and that’s what girlfriends are for.

For the boy: Share some of your feelings with your girl, it will make her feel closer to you.

For the girl: Your girlfriends and sisters may be able to read your mind, but your boy can not.

For the girl: Be specific, use about half of the words you actually think you need . Boys tune out if girls use too many words. AND, they do not need to know all the details, stick with just the facts.

For both: Leave the office at the office. The home is your sanctuary.

For both: Don’t answer the phone at dinner.

For the girl: Treat your husband like your king

For the boy: Treat your wife like your queen.

For both: Make time EVERYDAY to spend at least a few minutes together. Just the 2 of you.

My husband and I  share our morning brew in bed. So, even if our day is going to be crazed, at least we had that time.

For both:  Apply the 90/10 rule of Love. I love 90% of my boy. The other 10% I forgive him, as long as the  10% isn’t illegal or immoral, I just look the other way and enjoy the 90%~Plus I’m not perfect either! He forgives me too!

And now about being a pair. Be enough alike to get along and different enough to make it interesting.

Anything of value is going to take work and effort. Nothing just happens…a good relationship, a delicious meal, a healthy body, all take work and effort.

People ask me all the time how much yoga they should do, to matter, to make a difference.

I believe in balance and longevity…and what is sustainable over time. This week our oldest son turned 25. When I think about a daily routine, I think about the first time I fed him his first solid food; rice cereal…he was vibrating with anticipation strapped into his red and white high chair…he was 4 or 5 months old and after seeing us eat for those months, he was drooling with excitement of his first solid food…As I was just about to spoon the cereal into his mouth, I remember thinking, OH MY GOD!!! How many meals do I have to feed this person??? It was going to be a lot and wow I had a real job ahead of me…but that moment of anxiety, the responsibility of feeding another person was fleeting and feeding him became apart of who I was…and as time passed, the routine felt natural and so much apart of who I was that I couldn’t imagine and even clearly remember life without him. Keeping a healthy body through a yoga practice feels exactly the same. You start out slow, a little bit every day, soon NOT stretching, NOT doing yoga feels out of the ordinary…many yoga classes are 90 minutes long and as more and more people are trying to squeeze more out of their days want a shorter class, so you will see hour long classes, and it’s not ideal, but it is enough, in fact even 10 minutes of yoga daily can be significant. Find a yoga routine that feels good to you, even a few minutes every day and you will see a big difference in your stress levels and generally feels better… Human bodies need to release energy through stretching…think about when you yawn, or that first stretch in the morning…it AWAYS feels better with a big breath…

Rosemary McKenney

Hi Robyn,
My tech skills seemed to prevent me from leaving a direct comment!
I loved all the beginning classes at yogaSRQ.  As a first time yoga participant I was so impressed and invigorated.  Robyn’s technique is easily visualized and implemented. Regardless of the class size or individual level I always felt I was receiving “individualized” instruction, challenging me to grow but never allowing harmful overexertion.  An hour with at yogaSRQ is empowering.  I’m hooked!  Thanks Robyn, Annie, and Alex

This is a question we get a lot…do you have Hot Yoga? Yeah sure we do! It’s a 150 degrees in Sarasota so by definition it’s hot yoga.  Kidding aside, I know doing yoga in a heated room is popular. We don’t heat our room, but we don’t cool it either. Our style of yoga, Vinyasa Flow yoga is ‘power flow’ yoga which is a very energetic and vigorous style of practice. If you come to class and want to leave dripping-  you will. Just come in for any of our level 2 or level2/3 class and we will wipe you up!

Don’t want to sweat?…want to take it easy? Just coming back to yoga? Just starting? Stick with our level one classes. You will learn the poses and gain a powerful tool to manage your stress and get you back to feeling good! This is our goal and our promise.

Deep Stretch & Restore Yoga with Cheryl Kaiser

Sat May 7th, 1 – 2:30 Women’s Stretch & Restore – Opening the Pelvis

Sunday’s 11:15 – 12:30:  May 1st – Spine , May 15th – Kidneys

“Yin” Style Yoga poses are gently held and combined with deep focused breathing to free the body’s holding patterns, relieve pain, and restore mobility. The deep stretching revitalizes the connective tissue & opens a “smooth energy flow”  through the body restoring physical and emotional balance. A great cross training to balance vigorous “yang” workouts with with a “yin” inner type of yoga that targets deep tissue. Mixed Level, props are used to modify poses as needed. Each class will focus on a different flow. NOTE: Pre-register required minimum 24 hours prior to the class. Use your pass or single class fee.

2 Retreats coming up at Yoga SRQ. April 2nd is a full day, in studio Retreat. Starts at 9:30 with Yoga, followed by Laughter Yoga, a 30 minute massage, lunch, vision boarding and a Crystal Bowl Meditative experience. Full day $135.00

3 Day Retreat May 20-22. Most activities are being held on Siesta Key. If you live in Sarasota you can stay at your house or feel like you’ll on vacation and stay on Siesta Key with the others.

Here’s the schedule of events:

Friday, May 20th:9:30-11:00 Yoga in the studio

Followed by a Laughter Yoga Session with Diane Howe

3:00-5:00 Bike workout on Siesta Key with Yoga Session/Shelling

5:30 Massage

Saturday; the 21st 9:00-11:00 Kayaking Mangrove Tunnels/Yoga Session

3:00-4:00 Massage

7:00- Sunset Crystal Bowl Meditative Experience

Sunday, May 22

8:00-10:00 Paddle Boarding/Yoga Session

11:00-12:00 Massage

2:00 Bike Siesta Key Workout/Hoop

Activities: $650

Beach accommodations run $130 a night  and up. Call Robyn at Yoga SRQ for assistance.

Call studio to secure your spot:

941-955-4777

7 DAYS

7 CLASSES

7 TEACHERS

$25.00

Try each one of our seven teachers on staff and see who’s right for you.  Yoga teachers and chefs have a lot in common…we start with the same ingredients and what makes us different is how we prepare it for you. Find the teacher who’s words fit just right in your ears and you’ll find your class.