​Months ago, in the beginning of the pandemic, I was home with my kids.  Everything was being shut down, including hair salons right about when my son needed his next haircut.  We went a few weeks just watching his hair grow to where he was having to work to keep it out of the way.  One day I had had enough of his long hair and decided to cut it.  I went to Meijer to pick up some clippers, only to find that the regular clippers were sold out, so I bought some beard trimmers.  It'll work, right?  I thought I'd buzz the sides and back and then use scissors to cut the top.  I can do this, right?  It isn't that hard, it's just hair.  I went along with my plan only to find that it wasn't turning out quite like it would at the salon.  After many rounds around his head, I ended up just shaving it all the way down.  He's a boy, he could get away with it.  Five or six weeks later, his hair was growing back and he was about ready for another haircut.  This was about the time when salons were getting ready to reopen.  I said to him, "I can cut your hair if you want."  He says, "No Mom, I will wait for my appointment with Jenny.  I don't want you to screw up my hair any worse than you already did."  The advice from a 10 year old.....stick with the professional, they know what they are doing.

We can apply this advice to many services that we use.  Would you want to get into an Uber with a driver with no driver's license?  Do you want to go to the doctor with no medical training/license?  How about your teeth, would you want your teeth to be drilled by just anyone holding a drill?  Would you trust your retirement investments with just any guy? How does this apply to Yoga?  Some may think that every yoga class that pops up is with a trained instructor.  This is not always true.  There is nothing to stop an average person from standing up and saying, "I am bendy, I'm going to teach yoga" and go to a park or beach and just start doing it.  Yoga teacher trainings include multiple subjects about the tradition, not just the postures.  We have ethical guidelines and principles, anatomy, philosophy, meditation and more.  We are there to guide students safely through a practice.  We are not teaching to show off.  We are not teaching to follow the fad, we have a story of what led us to our practice.  We spend more money on education than we make.   We invest more time on continuing education than actually teaching.  Yoga instructors who are certified are invested.  We are invested in your health and wellness.  So remember the advice of the 10 year old kid, choose the instructors who are invested in the profession, it is an investment in you.

Hello.  Let me introduce myself.  My name is Diana and I am not a techie.  I am a yoga teacher and a mom.  When I'm not doing yoga or mom stuff, you can find me outside on some sort of an adventure, probably dragging a loved one with me for miles and miles.  I, like many of you, have found that living through this pandemic has brought on many challenges.  My biggest challenge is accepting that I can't avoid technology, as much as I hate it.  It's sink or swim time and my survival mode has turned on.  I'm the kind of person who is completely fine with using my television in my kitchen that is just over 25 years old!  I will use a cell phone until it dies.  It drives my kids nuts to live in the stone age but it keeps me from getting frustrated by the vast amount of technology to try to learn.  But with this pandemic, quarantine, loss of income/business, I had to get on the technology train and figure it out.  After about a week of "I don't know what to do now", I got on it and started to figure it out.  We've been streaming weekly yoga classes since the end of March.  Thank goodness for yoga!  It has helped me keep my calm, kept me from being overwhelmed with the unknown and changed my outlook going forward.  I've had to learn software, upgrade equipment, troubleshoot and much more.  I am no expert but I am figuring it out.  I have to, I don't want to quit doing what I love to do.  Which gets me back to the topic of yoga.  The best reward about teaching yoga is that I can make people feel better.  In so many ways, physically, mentally & emotionally.  It's what I do.  I am not the best, I am not the worst, but somehow it's the only thing that I can see myself doing professionally.  So here I am, almost 2 weeks after reopening the studio, still figuring it all out.  Yes we have restrictions for in studio, but at least we are there.  Yes, we are live streaming most of the classes on the schedule.  And now on top of that, I'm about to launch On Demand Class Library!  Am I the type of person who wants to be on video?  No.  I can be very critical of myself but for the greater good and to continue to do what I am passionate about, I have to suck it up and press record on that device!  I'm figuring it out.  I'm pushing through the reasons and limitations in my mind to get to make people feel good.  That is just like yoga.  We push through the tension and restrictions in our body (& mind) to get to the places that need to feel better.    So hopefully you'll be interested in joining me at the studio, live stream or On Demand, to figure some things out.  We don't have to be perfect, we don't have to know it all, we just need to show up.  You'll never figure it out if you don't show up.

This is a test post.