This year, lighten up. Simplify and be mindful. Think about how to connect to others in a meaningful way; and use your yoga practice to help you keep an even keel. The holidays are really about enjoying the company of others. Try to pare down your expectations of yourself and commit to something simple and basic that has meaning to you.

If you’re giving a material gift, make it simple, and give from the heart. I come from a really big family, and we realized a long time ago that gift giving had to be restricted to the children to make it manageable. I still find this stressful, so for me, the most sensible thing is to just get a bunch of envelopes and put a little cash in for each of my nieces and nephews. The most important thing, however, is to sit down with each of them and connect. I find out about their college classes, their jobs, or their job searches. I play Scrabble and Banangrams with them; and watch them play Guitar Hero. I find out what books they’re reading, and whether or not they’re dating someone. Keeping this idea of connection at the forefront of my mind is most important.

Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra 1.33 tells us that we can lessen sorrow and pain in our lives by practicing friendliness, compassion to those who are suffering, joy for the successes of others, and indifference to their vices or perceived shortcomings.

Be compassionate to yourself first by preparing in advance for the the things that set you off. If you know you get triggered by too much family time, make a plan to go for a walk or take a little break. My husband, kids and I typically travel to family in Minnesota and Wisconsin at Christmas time. I always bring a mat and strap with me on trips, so at least I can do a little stretching. This gives me some quiet time alone. I tend to go a little nuts when the food is not to my liking, or I don’t think it’s healthful enough. (I will not be a kind person if I’m eating a lot of refined flour and sugar!) I head that off by packing my own spice kit, and making sure that there is rice, tofu or beans, and vegetables available. If my sister is feeling overwhelmed with planning, I plan a simple meal with her. Then I chop, cook, clean, and wash dishes–with joy in my heart. This is how I take care of myself and practice indifference to the shortcomings I perceive in my host.

Practice compassion for others by being helpful and kind. If someone is hosting you, find out what kind of help they need, and give it with joy in your heart. If you are hosting others, don’t expect yourself to be perfect (it just increases everyone’s anxiety level); and ask for the help you need to keep your mood light.

At my sister and brother-in-law’s house, I help with meal planning, cleaning, washing, chopping, and cooking food, and doing dishes. I am a whiz in the kitchen–but am especially good at doing dishes. I just get into a zone at the sink, while my husband makes sure our boys are not jumping on the furniture or playing too rough with the dog.

I make dish washing into a yoga practice. The first thing I do is put on rubber gloves. Then I collect the dishes, carefully scrape the refuse away, and then brush and rinse off the debris, and either load the dishwasher or stack the dishes and pots on the counter. Next, I scrub out the nasty sink, and fill it with steaming hot water and some high-end lavender dish soap, to keep me mellow. I am fully present, practicing concentration and focus in each of these steps, and it brings me to a peaceful, contented state.

Be there for someone else’s crisis. In our family, it’s only been very recently that we’ve had holidays without tears. “Somebody always breaks down,” we used to say. When families get together, things can blow up. This year, you can be the calm and content presence in the storm. Think about it as giving the gift of your honest presence to someone else who needs to be seen or heard. It means that they trust you and need you. You’re connecting with someone in a meaningful way–by being a compassionate, non-judgmental listener. And if you do it mindfully, you’re enhancing and strengthening your own yoga practice. Attentive listening is your practice (abhyasa) and being non-judgmental is your detachment (vairagya): the two pillars of yoga.

Contentedness is Joyfulness. In addition to laughing with others over the funny things that happen when family gets together, practice contentment (Santosha). Contentment comes from moving beyond dualities–like hot and cold, hungry and full, etc. Contentment means that you can deal with what is without hankering or craving something else. Be an observer. Let go of attachments and aversions to find ease and contentment. If something isn’t to your liking, try sitting with the discomfort and using your discrimination to make a change, if necessary, rather than impulsively moving into old patterns and habits. You may find that things that used to bother you are now insignificant.

Restrain The Impulse to Criticize. Nobody’s perfect and a critical attitude kills the mood for everybody. If the bed isn’t made for us when the meal is over, I just get the linens and put them on without comparing my sister to my mother, or to Martha Stewart, who is always prepared. If your brother has gained a bunch of weight or lost his hair, go deeper and take an interest in his life. He may be going through something tough or have survived and learned a lot. Getting past a critical attitude is a way to be indifferent to the vices or shortcomings of others. It’s like when you’re in Savasana, and now that everything is quiet, the mind wants to start thinking about what’s for dinner, or what it will be like to go home. Just as you practice restraint of thoughts in the mind (citta vrtti nirodha), you can practice restraint of a critical voice.

While you may miss an asana practice or two during the holidays, you can certainly continue your yoga practice. Carry these simple princples of yoga philsophy into your life, and you may find yourself feeling lighter and more contented–in any position.

This dressing was a big hit with the pregnant ladies. It was served over a mixed greens with peeled tangerine sections and sliced avocados.

2 cups coarse cornmeal (stoneground, whole grain is best); 1 1/2 teaspoons salt; 2 or more tablespoons butter, optional; 1 cup of grated Fontina cheese; 2 Tablespoons additional butter; 1 1/2 cups tomato sauce, 1 Tablespoon finely chopped fresh rosemary; Salt and freshly milled pepper; 1/2 gorgonzola or feta cheese; chopped fresh parsley

The first step is to make the firm polenta with cheese: Bring 6 cups of water to a boil in a heavy saucepan. Add the salt, and then the cornmeal in a steady stream, stirring constantly with a whisk so cornmeal doesn’t make big lumps or seize up in a glob. Once all is mixed in well, lower the heat and cook, stirring more or less constantly, for 30 to 45 minutes. (If the polenta does seize up, you can add small amounts of boiling water to smooth it out.) After 30 or so minutes, stir in 1/2 of the fontina cheese. Taste for salt and adjust if needed.

Second, shape the polenta. Quickly pour the cooked polenta on a baking sheet, large baking dish, loaf pan, or pie plates, and spread it with a spatula into a layer of about 1/2 inch thick or less. Let it cool on the counter for 15 minutes to firm up. (This might take longer if you put it into a loaf pan). Then cut the firm polenta into desired shapes, such as diamonds, circles, or rectangles.  This first step of making the firm polenta may be done hours in advance of serving time.

Now, make the sauce. Heat the tomato sauce with half of the chopped rosemary. Taste and season with salt and pepper.

Preheat oven to 400 and assemble your dish to bake. You’ll need a 3 quart gratin dish or a baking dish that you would use to make lasagne. Spread 3/4 cup of tomato sauce in a the baking dish; then place and overlap pieces of polenta; then add the remaining grated Fontina cheese (see, it IS like making lasagne!). Then spoon the remaining sauce carefully over the bands of polenta, leaving the edges exposed (to crisp up). Crumble the gorgonzola or feta over the top and sprinkle the rest of the rosemary and parsley last.

Bake, uncovered for about 30 minutes or until the gratin is hot and bubbly. Let it cool for 10 minutes. Garnish with more chopped parsley, season with salt and pepper, and serve.

Jimena had been visiting a chiropractor for 5 years, but still she was in constant tension and stress. “In retrospect, I can say I was misaligned all the time. I had to have a monthly adjustment just to survive.” As she began to look at her life, she knew she couldn’t keep going to the chiropractor her whole life. So she explored yoga. She made a commitment to a Korean-style of yoga for 4 months, which focused on the body’s meridians, organs, and energy. Jimena is not a kind of person who just dabbles casually. When she wants a change in her life, she commits wholeheartedly. The Korean yoga did help her get in touch with the energies in her body, and this did have a stabilizing and calming effect. But it was not physically challenging, and something deep inside her was calling her to do more exploration. “With so much other yoga out there, I felt I needed to keep exploring to find what was really right for me.”

Her next experience in yoga was a Vinyasa class at the Heights School of Yoga. “It opened my horizons—I loved it,” she exclaimed. The fact that it was a stand-alone studio in a beautiful residential neighborhood, and not in a strip mall, made it especially attractive. Moreover, it was in her neighborhood. In the Vinyasa class, Jimena began to get the physical challenge she was seeking. “It was addicting. I started going twice a week.” When the teacher reduced her schedule, Jimena decided to pick up another class from another teacher. That’s when she began doing Iyengar yoga. “I picked up your class twice a week, and did Vinyasa on Sundays with the other teacher.” When asked what it was like to practice two different methods of yoga in the same period, she said, “I noticed I was practicing Iyengar Yoga in the Vinyasa class!”

It wasn’t a simple preference for the slower, more deliberate method if Iyengar yoga. It had to do with a painful injury in her right shoulder. “I thought, I must be doing something wrong. I did the research into all types of yoga and I knew what Iyengar yoga claimed. In order to for me to really understand what was going on I’d have to do this yoga that was a lot slower and focused on alignment.” I since discovered that the problem was really the stress. It started in my mid-back and went up into my neck and radiated down my arm and into my hands and wrists.

She had sought help from chiropractors, orthopedists, and massage therapists, but they were unable to help her get lasting relief. “All they could do was offer me pain medicine in the end.” Jimena didn’t want to take pain meds. Yet she was determined to get rid of the pain. At this time, she still wasn’t sure what yoga was right for her, in terms of her age, physical fitness level, and lifestyle. Jimena is an avid cyclist. She and her husband own several bicycles and her thighs show this passion, in commuting and touring. In fact, the first time I met her, she came to class on her bicycle and was locking it up in the parking lot.) “Pretty soon,” she said, “I couldn’t do the Vinyasa series anymore.” The pain in her shoulder would bite every time she came down to Chaturanga Dandasana in the Sun Salutation series.

“Iyengar yoga was about really taking the time to understand the poses. If I go to class and the teacher tells me to do a certain pose, I have to consider: is this pose going to help my shoulder or injure it more? Jimena began to develop discrimination in her asana practice. The Sanskrit term for this is viveka. Now, freed from any sense of having to do her postures competitively, quickly, for burning calories, getting a “workout,” or any reason other than to heal herself, Jimena used her intelligence to make distinctions between actions and postures that aggravated the injury, and those that did not.

“Whatever you read about Iyengar yoga just doesn’t do it any justice. Until you start practicing it, you don’t realize how fabulous it is. It just gives you so much depth and so many doors to open. Unless you experience it, it’s hard to explain it to people.” For Jimean, it started as a physical practice for her to relieve chronic pain. She learned that the physical pain was a manifestation of emotional stress. From this understanding, her interest moved from physical alignment to yoga philosophy. She wanted to go deeper and understand how the mind affects the body.

“I started to understand my anatomy a lot better. Then the poses were a lot better. That was something tangible I could see. And because I was so open to it, it started tapping into different layers, aside from the physical. It gave me an opportunity to really explore myself. Layers and layers of things that you carry with you in life.”

It is well known among yoga teachers and long-time practitioners that yoga practice affects and cleanses the mental and emotional aspects of the body. In yoga philosophy, both the mind and the body are considered that which is not the true Self. The Self, or purusha is the eternal part, the soul; everything else is considered part of the temporary, changing material matrix, or prakriti. The good news is that if the mind, personality, ego, and body are part of material nature, and temporary, they can be changed. The eight limbs of yoga–moral injunctions, fixed observances, posture, regulation of breath, internalization of the senses towards their source, concentration, meditation, and absorption of the consciousness in the Self—are meant to transform and subdue one’s material nature to bring the Self to the surface.

It is not unusual for students to become tearful in class when they stretch a part of their bodies that has been sealed up and closed off for a long time. Pain, memories, trauma, shame, and fears all reside and find storage in the intelligence of the cells. Awakening those cells through asana sometimes causes a release.

“We carry these things around with us—emotions—that we don’t even realize we’re carrying. I did experience that the practice was releasing a lot of emotional stress—old stress—that I had been carrying. You have all these old emotions and stress and memories creating stress, plus the new ones. I had never really looked at before.”

Asana is a cleansing practice. As we stretch our cells and keep the mind in the present, something new happens. We let go of the old stuff, without dwelling in it, and allow clean, pure breath, unpolluted by thought, to come in. In the second chapter of Patanjali’s yoga sutras he says, “when the body is cleansed, the mind purified, and the senses controlled, joyful awareness, needed to realize the inner Self, also comes.” With constant effort, asana practice releases exuberance, joy, even bliss.

When asked if she had noticed less stress in her life and more presence of mind since practicing Iyengar yoga, Jimena said, “I’m very even keel with family and work. I’m in that freedom and not rushing.”

Just then “new kitty” came out to greet me. New kitty is a baby stray that Jimena picked up outside her house. “She looked at me with these big eyes and meowed like, “feed me!” So I left her a bowl of food before I went to work. When I came back, there she was again.” Jimena has adopted this new kitten for the time being, until someone else agrees to take her. “Do you want her? She’s really cuddly and has beautiful markings. I already took her to the vet and had her all checked out and de-wormed and everything. They think she’s about 2 months old.”

I pondered taking that kitten home for my four year old son, who is begging me for a cat. Nah, wouldn’t be the right thing to do while my husband was overseas, I decided.

When asked about her current challenges in yoga practice, Jimena said she was trying to understand more about her nervous system and what triggers it. “I’m a shaker, she admitted. Shaking is a sign that the nervous system is agitated. It is hard on the nerves to tremble and shake in normal circumstances. The yoga has helped her to apply her discrimination to this problem. When she notices she is trembling, she asks herself: “could it be a coffee I had earlier in the morning? Is it PMS? Or am I tired from work? I think the awareness is key. The “aha” moments are when you actually stop and look at it and investigate what’s going on.”

So how is this practice really affecting her life, I asked? “I handle stress better at work, with family, and with myself. I have to be okay with myself—that’s the big one. It’s a beautiful thing to witness that what could be such a selfish act [accepting herself] could translate into my relationships.” Just the previous day, she told me, she’d been to an art display at Discovery Green, downtown. She didn’t understand the parking meter system because she’d never driven down there before. She didn’t know how to work the smart meters or which one applied to her. “The cop came by my car while I was trying to put all these quarters in, and gave me a $275 ticket! I couldn’t believe it. I wanted to plead with him for leniency,” she said. “You should go to court and fight that, I suggested.”

“Yeah, that’s what everyone tells me. But you know what I thought? I thought: my time is valuable. I could go down take a day off of work and lose the money from that and spend all day in court and lose my sanity, or I could think of it differently. Okay, so it’s 275 dollars. Let’s just think of that as my parking fee for the whole year. Micheal (her husband) and I usually ride our bikes every where and never have to pay parking. At work, I have a free parking space. My time is valuable and I choose not to spend it in court.”

P.S: When did you start yoga and how did you get into it?

TM: I was dragged to a Vinyasa class in 2005 by a good friend of mine while in graduate school inLincoln,Nebraska. It didn’t click with me right away, but I kept on going and it began to seem like a good alternative to other things I was doing–mainly running and cycling. Then I began to notice I was gaining more flexibility and I really liked that. I did that for 2 years.

PS: What happened next?

TM: I moved toFlorida. There I found a rigorous Vinyasa class. I mean this was a workout where everybody was drenched in sweat. I liked this as a new form of exercise. They played hip-hop music. There was a dance element that I really liked–like there were mirrors everywhere and you could see everyone moving, and it was pretty to watch. Then I moved here [toHouston] and looked for a similar class, but couldn’t find it. I tried a few classes around town but never really found the same thing.

PS: How did you end up in Iyengar yoga?

TM: [laughs] I didn’t know I was going to an Iyengar class. Maybe it was something I could do on a Thursday night, and I saw on the schedule that it was an intermediate/advanced class, so I came to it. I had no knowledge of the Iyengar method.

PS: And what was it like?

TM: At first I didn’t like it, to be honest. But I kept going back, without really understanding why. Then gradually I realized it was different, new, more intellectual, and more educational than anything I’d done before. I was beginning to learn about my body. And I realized that most people go through life not really understanding their bodies. It’s like they live in this house but they never really open up the cabinet doors and see what’s inside. Or they never look under the floor boards, or explore the nooks and crannies. But there they are living right there. I feel like I’m learning a lot about my body, so for example, even when I sit in my office chair, I can think of a posture, and stretch my body right there.

PS: Do you recall how this happened for you?

TM: It’s the connections you make between the parts of the body and how they work in the postures, and the way you structure the class. I began to notice the way muscles worked together in one posture and then see the same actions in other postures, and build on that. That’s the kind of learning you don’t get from other types of yoga.

PS: If you think about your obstacles in your yogic path, what would you say are your greatest challenges?

TM: [Laughs] My biggest challenge is I don’t work on my obstacles! Everyone is different, you know. Everyone has their abilities and inabilities, things they can do easily, things they can’t do well [in yoga asanas]. There’s this positive feedback loop where you’re good at something, so you practice it. Then you get better at that very thing you were good at to begin with. For me, I like to do the things I do better and I don’t put the energy in to do the things I don’t do well. That’s the physical challenge.

PS: I believe it was Rodnee Yee [yoga teacher in San Francisco Bay area] who made the observation that you can tell the beginning level students from the intermediate students in that beginners practice exclusively what they’re good at, and intermediate and serious students practice mainly what they’re not good at. It’s the difference between feeding the ego and going beyond the ego.

TM: [laughs and nods]

PS: You said that those were the physical challenges, but what about other challenges in yoga?

TM: [nods] It’s the tension between the spiritual/religious aspects in yoga and whether I fit with that or whether they fit in my life.

PS: Can you say more about that?

TM: I’m an atheist and yoga is a religion. You taught me that! Sometimes I feel like I might be betraying myself and my own beliefs, or others, by participating in a religion. That’s why I don’t chant. You’ve probably noticed I don’t chant.

PS: It’s totally optional. It doesn’t matter. It’s not a requirement. The Iyengars all understand that there are cultural differences and they don’t require anyone to chant, even though they practice like that and lead everyone in the “prayers”. In fact there is at least one senior level teacher I know of who is a devout Christian and does not begin class with chanting or the invocation to Patanjali. But what did you mean about betraying others? Can you say more about that?

TM: I was raised Catholic, and I used to have this priest, and he would talk [disparagingly] about the “super-market” Catholics.

PS: The supermarket Catholics?

TM: Yeah, when I was a kid, I went to church every Sunday. I was an Altar Boy. On holidays, of course the church was packed with all these people who came only on holidays. This one priest would give a sermon about the super-market Catholics, who were just like shoppers, going through the store, just picking and choosing the elements of the religion that appealed to them and leaving the rest. His point was that this was an insult or kind of disrespect toward the truly devoted members of the church. And sometimes I wonder: is it okay for me to pick and choose the parts of yoga that I like, which are the physical aspects, and is that going to diminish others’ experiences or be disrespectful of those who are truly devoted?

PS: B.K.S. Iyengar would not see it that way.

TM: Really?

PS: No. If you read Guruji’s 2005 book Light on Life, he discusses the various reasons that people come to yoga. Most people come for physical benefits. They have some ache or pain and someone told them to try yoga. Or they want to become stronger or more flexible. He’s not bothered by this. He says that even if they come for physical reasons, yoga will help them with this and affect them on deeper levels. The practice will affect the different layers of their being. He puts it very poetically, but I can’t find my copy right now, so I’m just going to paraphrase him. People may only be aware of the physical reasons and benefits but gradually the deeper parts of themselves awaken to its powers. The breath flows more easily and digestion is improved. They sleep better. They feel less depressed, so the emotions are cleansed. They have more clarity of mind, so the mental layer is affected too. Eventually the spiritual layer is affected, whether they realize it or not. But it doesn’t matter. People come to yoga for different reasons and that’s fine. Yoga benefits all. You get what you put into it and even more. Can you talk about what you’ve received from your yoga practice, or the effects it’s had on your life?

TM: The most obvious effects have to do with my running. I am a long distance runner. [Tom has done several marathons and recently qualified forBoston.] I am a better runner because of Iyengar yoga. I can’t be scientific about this, because I’ve been doing them both for a while now. I’m not sure I can articulate why or how it’s working, but my joints are just really happy. And I used to have real problems with my feet, ankles, shins, and knees, and since I’ve been doing Iyengar Yoga, I don’t have these problems anymore.

PS: You say you can’t be scientific about it, but it seems you can separate the variables–because you remember symptoms you had during periods you ran, before Iyengar yoga, and contrast them with your running life now. And I bet you notice a difference when you don’t practice for a while.

TM: [nods] Yes. I definitely notice a difference when I take periods off of yoga. Especially as it concerns quieting the mind.

PS: Do you notice the difference when you run that your mind is quieter, in other words, not churning thoughts or working on a problem?

TM: No, I don’t try to quiet the mind when I run. I like to churn thoughts. I get some of my best ideas for work when I’m running. I think actively about them when I run. So the whole business about quieting the mind is a real challenge–especially for intellectuals and academics, as you know. I get obsessive.

PS: Do you feel like your yoga practice is helping you to clear your mind, or let things go a little bit?

TM: Yes. I am learning to let things go.

PS: Tell us something most people don’t know about you.

TM: I’m a musician. And music is an important part of my life.

PS: What do you play?

TM: I play piano, guitar, and a bunch of wind instruments. And I’ve recently started writing music. In my early twenties I was a really serious about academics and doing well, but in the last few years I’ve been more interested in rounding out my life. Music is part of this, and yoga is part of this.

PS: Wow, that’s neat. I had no idea you were a musician. Who’s your favoriate Beetle?

TM: You already asked me that! YOKO, remember?

[Laughter on both sides] No, it’s John.

PS: Okay, well thank so much for this interview. . . I’ll probably post this in February. My goal for the next year is to get all of my students to establish a home practice.

TM: How are you going to do that?

PS: Partly through these inspiring interviews. Can you talk about your home practice or your greatest obstacles to home practice?

TM: I don’t have a home practice! There are some days when I don’t practice at all!

PS: Well, okay, but some days you do practice asana, so you have a practice but it’s sporatic, right?

TM: Well, yes. Having a class makes practice fun. Home practice is harder. There are days when I don’t want to do it.

PS: There are days when I don’t want to do it too.

TM: Then there’s that whole thing about listening to your body. If I don’t feel like practicing yoga then maybe I just shouldn’t! Maybe I want to walk or something.

PS: So you practice when you feel like it?

TM: Yes. It’s usually when there’s an energy, an antsiness. Then I do standing postures–you know, the ones that challenge you and make you focus. And inversions.

PS: And backbends?

TM: Yes, I’m just starting to practice backbends at home, though they take more discipline. They’re not as fun because I’m not as good at them. They don’t feed my ego! [laughs].

PS: Does the antsiness go away?

TM: Yes. On the days I want to do it, it’s exactly what I need.

PS: All right. That was great. Thank you so much.

TM: You’re welcome. It’s an honor.

Books by Geeta S. Iyengar
Yoga, a Gem for Women
Yoga in Action, a Preliminary Course
Iyengar Yoga for Motherhood, with Rita Keller and Kirsten Khattab

by Edwin Bryant, The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali

by Lois Steinberg, Ph.D.:
Iyengar Yoga Asana Alternatives: The Neck and Shoulders
Geeta S. Iyengar’s Guide to a Woman’s Yoga Practice, volume 1

10. When I came to my first class I was still pretty new to being pregnant and had been reading a lot of books about pregnancy. I have to admit that I was a little shocked when I saw women who were 9 months pregnant doing inversions and I was a little skeptical about doing one myself. I had partially bought into the idea that pregnancy meant that I couldn’t do a lot- I was wrong. Pauline taught me in that first day that being pregnant is very normal and that with proper precautions and positioning, a pregnant woman can do many physical things they may not think possible and should do many movements to maintain a healthy pregnancy. I really appreciate that Pauline never treats pregnancy as an illness, it is a beautiful unfolding of the body and yoga can help to make the whole process more comfortable.

9. Yoga can relieve symptoms. Not always, but it has often worked for me and is now my first response when I get a new ache or symptom. I had some horrible round ligament pain, the kind of pain that could keep me from getting in or out of the car and made climbing stairs so exquisitely painful that I was fearful of moving. I talked to Pauline and started practicing my inversions at home (with bolsters I bought and a folding chair and towels, pillows, etc from around the house). The inversions completely relieved my round ligament pain. This is just one example; I have also learned to relieve sciatic pain, hip pain, swelling of the fingers and toes, nausea, the list goes on.

8. The weekly introductions allow the group to learn and share with each other. This is often the only time I have with a bunch of other pregnant women. I love hearing about the normal range of symptoms, people’s happy news, and just sharing about pregnancy with a group of women with a variety of experiences. This allows me to see a spectrum of pregnancy, it also allowed me to see how bodies change, symptoms change, and to see the evolution of pregnancy and become more comfortable with the changes going on in my own body.

7. This is often my quietest, most centered time of the entire week. I first really became acquainted with my baby’s kicks during our asanas. I love the calm I feel after yoga and I often sleep better after yoga than any other night. I have really enjoyed the focus on calming and centering and it has been invaluable as I prepare for my baby’s arrival.

6. Physically I feel better. I have been working out for a few years and I have learned that I have been imbalanced during that time. I was so focused on building strength, endurance, and toning and I have not spent time on flexibility. This class has really improved how I work out in other areas and even my trainer has noticed my improved flexibility. I feel more balanced in my fitness now and I look forward to continuing with yoga after the baby arrives.

5. This is not easy yoga. I have been surprised at how difficult/powerful some of the poses are. I have never felt that I am going to strain something or hurt myself, but I have been amazed at the endurance and strength some poses require. Not all of the asanas are this hard, and we always end with some very relaxing postures, but I have learned a lot from the harder postures and I feel really good after working hard.

4. I feel safe with Pauline. I know that she is very thoughtful and she really wants us to get the most out of her class. She is great about helping us get into the right position and she has improved my posture (even outside of class) by making me much more aware of my body and how I should move or sit. Pauline also teaches how to roll, how to get into and out of positions safely, and how to do positions at home if people are interested. I know that Pauline is watching as I get into a pose and I know that if it doesn’t feel right she can help me to align my body to make things right. I have used what she has taught me to make turning over in bed much less stressful as my belly has grown.

3. It is my weekly respite. I spend my days thinking, building stress in my shoulders and neck, and exercising my brain. Monday night is my chance to let it all go and focus on my body, my breathing, and my baby. This class has helped to center me and reduce the stress I feel in other parts of my life.

2. Pauline is a wonderful cook and she makes food that makes me feel healthy. I don’t know of another yoga class where you get dinner. I feel completely spoiled eating wonderful vegetarian food after class. I have never had a hard time digesting Pauline’s food; I know that it is fresh, healthy, nourishing, and absolutely delicious. I have a pretty healthy diet and I love to cook. I have learned a lot about cooking and eating well from this class. Plus, who doesn’t love to have a night of wonderful food every week?

1. Perhaps the best thing about this class is that it isn’t like any other prenatal yoga class. This class provides me with a community. I don’t have a lot of close friends who are pregnant right now but I had a group of pregnant friends instantly in this class. The class set up also encourages community building and I have learned many things during our conversations over dinner. I love finishing yoga and knowing that I have time to come back to reality before I have to drive home. I love talking about our experiences, helpful stores, good pediatricians, experiences with our doctors or midwives, our expectations and hopes, food, restaurants, life, everything. This class gives us a chance to reach out and meet other pregnant women, to build a community, to avoid feeling isolated during (and after) pregnancy, and to find new friends.

Wash sweet potatoes and peel off the brown spots. Try to retain as much of the “good” skin as possible. Then cut each potato into short halves, and from there slice into wedges and place in a bowl.

Drizzle olive oil, salt, pepper, and a sprinkling of garlic powder over the yams. Mix with your hands so all yams are well coated with oil and spices. Arrange in the bottom part of a broiler pan or a baking dish and put in the oven.

After 20 minutes, check the yams and stir with a metal spatula so they cook well on all sides. Leave in another twenty minutes or so, until they are tender and and the sugars begin to carmelize. Remove from oven, let cool for 5 minutes, and eat!

Place all ingredients except olive oil into a blender. Have the olive oil ready to drizzle in through the top. Start on a low speed and slowly pour in the olive oil. Increase speed as necessary to mix according to desired consistency, but be careful not to heat the pesto by over-mixing on too high a speed. Serve over pasta or store in the fridge.

This sauce is also great on toasted breads (think bruschetta!) and in soups. Because it contains no cheese, it keeps well and does not get dry and gunky in the fridge. It returns to a liquidy state easily, and you can add parmesan to your dish after mixing the pesto to it. Always a winner!

2 cups organic rolled oats
1 cup almonds
½ cup flour
½ cup maple syrup
½ cup light olive oil
¼ teaspoon salt
A few Tablespoons rose petal jam* and raspberry jam mixed together

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place rolled oats in a food processor or VitaMix blender and grind to a coarse meal and set in a bowl. Grind almonds into a coarse meal and put in bowl with the oats. Then add flour, salt, maple syrup, oil, and salt. Mix by hand.

With wetted hands, shape the dough into 1-inch balls and place on a greased cookie sheet. You may also use a silicon mat without greasing the cookie sheet. The balls should be about an inch apart. Use your finger or thumb to make an indentation, and then spoon a mixture of rose petal jam and raspberry jam into the depression.

Bake for 12-15 minutes, until lightly brown on the bottom. They will still be light on the top, so be careful not to over bake.

*rose petal jam is available at Indian grocery stores