cold plunge

Happy Thanksgiving Week, Yogi’s. Yeah, gratitude should be at least a whole week! 🦃🍁 I’m extra grateful…
Tuesday 6pm POWER Vinyasa @yoganestvenice
Wednesday noon POWER Vinyasa @yoganestvenice
Friday 10am POWER Vinyasa @homtownyoga
Saturday 11am Vinyasa Flow @yoganestvenice ☺️
See ya on the mat! 💫
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Don’t forget to share this with your yogi squad & tag me in your flows!
🪷🕉️🧘🏼‍♀️ Namaste, Kris
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Ambassador to the @worldyogafederation. ERYT500 yoga instructor & wellness coach based in Venice Beach. athlete. wellness-activist. nutritionist. biohacker. Specializing in longevity & recovery from
injury. Neurodivergent. Autism Mom.
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yogastrength modelsover50 longevity wellnesscoach yogaforathletes rebuiltspine yogaforstrength yogagoals yogainspiration yogainstructor ...

POV: the stretch that hits just right when you’ve been lifting a 6’1 young man around the house !
About 20 years ago my life was imploding, I was a single mom taking Charlie to every Dr who would let me in… Finally one said, “You need to go to yoga.” I think my response was somewhere around “WTF?’ Do I look like I have time for yoga?!” She said “No, you need to breathe!”
Many years later I still keep coming back to that advice & my favorite mantra, Om Mani Padme Om. In Buddhism it refers to the jewel in the lotus that rises from the mud. One may argue my reference, but in this case, the jewel is about spiritual awakening, but also clarity & compassion. The mud is our human experience, maybe our hardship or stress. None of us can escape the mud. We cannot change the mud. But without the mud would there be a lotus?! It rises above the mud with grace & beauty & doesn’t wear the mud it’s been through.
This week I am in some mud. I find myself living on adrenaline, tightening up, pacing, worrying. But in the moments in between, I remember to take a conscious breath, to feel my grounding, the lift up, one breath at a time, & rise above our circumstance, to grow with clarity & compassion.
I use this same thought on my mat. We know often yoga & life are parallel. When we are in q challenging pose or hold, or in the mud, what are our patterns, do we grip, tighten, shorten our breath, lose our focus? Can we make the conscious choice in the moments in between. Maybe it’s why I love transitions, it provides us the opportunity for that choice. When we live in a fight-or-flight pattern, this sounds impossible. But like in yoga, it takes practice and consistency. The practice is to notice & acknowledge the mud, not become it. Each breath is a choice. We rise not by force but by awareness. Close your eyes, feel the earth, slow the breath, imagine the stem rising with every breath, lifting, blossoming.
We are not the mud we walk through. We are the lotus tbat grew from it.
Let’s lotus up!
See ya on the mat! 💫 ...