I live in a townhouse that backs onto woods with a stream. Usually every winter a mouse or two finds its way into my house. I decided long ago I could not handle snap traps, so I use live traps that hold mice until I can set them free.

I bought a few expensive traps/cages from a pest control company, and though in theory they should catch and hold a number of mice, I have not been able to catch a single mouse with them. Now I use cheap plastic traps which have been surprisingly effective. Unfortunately, the less expensive traps are so small that the mice cannot survive in them for very long, which completely defeats the purpose of having live traps.

I learned through a few regrettable experiments that the best way to save the mice is to transfer them from the cheap traps to the bigger, more expensive cages where they can live for a day or so. The problem is getting the mice to move from one to the other. Even though they will die in the small traps, the mice struggle to stay in them; I have to tap or lightly shake the small traps to get the mice out. Later, when I open the cage to release the mice in the woods, they refuse to leave, though the world is open to them. I usually need to upend the cage, though once I waited for fifteen minutes to see how long it would take a mouse to leave on its own.

The mice, of course, are attempting to protect themselves. They do not know the traps are unhealthy and at least for that moment they are safe. They struggle to stay in the security of a known place rather than move into the potentially dangerous unknown.

Just like the mice, it is easy to become accustomed to our circumstances and comfortable in the safety of our routines. Even if we are not in an ideal situation, we know what to expect, and it is often simpler to stay where we are rather than to make a change. Sometimes however, the world around us shifts and a change is forced upon us, whether we like it or not.

The unknown can be scary, but a little exciting too. With each step in a new direction there is the possibility of other new steps and more fresh opportunities. We just have to take or be pushed into making that first move.

With a new year beginning, is there something you have always wanted to try but have hesitated to take the first step? That step may be as simple as changing a hairstyle or signing up for a class. It also may be as challenging as changing jobs or moving. Taking that first step requires courage, but the entire world is out there waiting for you.

In early February, a website went up that contained damaging information about John Friend, the founder of Anusara Yoga. The website disclosed how John had illegally stopped his company’s pension plan, had marijuana delivered to the Anusara corporate office, and had slept with a female employee and some Anusara teachers. Though the website was taken down in less than 48 hours, the damage was done. In a few days, after the initial shock wore off, Anusara teachers began to resign.

Though the press has covered John’s sexual liaisons, very little has been written about his abuse of power. The Anusara system was structured in such a way as to give John an enormous amount of power over his teachers and he lived up to the phrase “absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

When I received my Anusara certification in 2000, the system was new and the requirements, though demanding compared to many other yoga styles, were not as rigorous as they became in later years. Many more-recently certified teachers spent two or more years and tens of thousands of dollars to obtain their certificates which enabled them to become licensed Anusara teachers. Unfortunately, when they obtained their licenses, they became trapped. Many based their livelihoods and reputations on being Anusara teachers. If they angered John, he could take away their licenses; they could still teach yoga, but not use the name Anusara. If a teacher taught at an Anusara studio and lost her license, she could also lose her job. In addition, people who lost their Anusara licenses were often shunned by other Anusara teachers, so a person who lost her license also lost friends and connections.

More troubling were Anusara’s philosophical changes over the years. When I was certified, the philosophy was tied to an ancient set of teachings. Several years ago John decided to change the philosophical backbone of the system and cobbled together pieces from several schools to form a new Anusara philosophy that focused on the positive aspects of life. With this change he removed all constraints that acted as checks to his power. His newly created philosophy lacked the depth and sophistication of the older teachings and promoted catch phrases like “Look for the Good” and “Align with the Good.”

These phrases are very nice on the surface, but they became a means of control. Anyone who disagreed with John was not aligning with the good. If someone spoke badly about Anusara or John’s actions, they were not looking for the good.

In the last few years, as John’s behavior became more problematic, people did not object. If John treated a student poorly at a workshop, many assumed he had a bad moment or a bad day and let it go. They did not talk with others or question, because that would not have been looking for the good. Now as people compare stories, they see patterns of behavior that were not apparent when they attended a workshop or two a year.

This is not as cheery as most of my articles, but the idea of positive thinking versus reality is a point I have been pondering since before I left Anusara in 2007. Though I have my glass half empty days, I am happier when I see the glass as half full. Yet positive thinking can be taken too far and used to mask or ignore an unpleasant reality. Where is the line? What can be disregarded as trivial and when do we need to take off our rose-colored glasses?

I was once told that a purpose of yoga is to polish our lens, to remove obstacles and veils so we can see reality more clearly. As many Anusara teachers discovered, looking only for the good may be pleasurable, but life is much more nuanced with a broad range of emotions and experiences. Just as a negative attitude can mask the small joys in life, a falsely positive attitude can hide problems better faced than ignored. In the end, reality will be what it will be and one of the challenges and joys of a full life is to view it clearly.

At the beginning of the year, one of our longtime students, Sue Bowman, approached me about doing a survey at HAYC. As Sue explained how the survey would work, it sounded like a fantastic way to get feedback about our studio and classes. The survey was emailed in early March and we received more and better responses than either of us had anticipated.

First, thank you to everyone who took time to fill out the survey. Over half of our current students and about ten percent of our former students answered; a remarkable number of responses. Sue tells me that an average response for an electronic survey is somewhere around 15%! Additionally, of the current students, almost 100% said they would recommend HAYC and 95% said they already had recommended us to others. Of the former students, 98% said they would recommend us. I am extremely grateful for your trust, confidence, and loyalty to our studio. Thank you.

The final question in the survey asked for additional comments. The responses were overwhelmingly positive or offered constructive comments or suggestions. What follows is an explanation of some of the more common issues.

More bolsters and longer belts: Got it. At the beginning of the Spring session we put more bolsters and more eight and ten foot belts in each of the rooms.

Rooms are too crowded: I have a friend who owns a yoga studio in Arizona. He puts little sticky dots on the floor that are just a few inches wider and longer than a sticky mat on all sides. Students are expected to put their mats inside of these dots, and usually there is less than a foot of empty space between each person. Fitting as many students as possible into a room is a common practice in many studios.

We limit classes by room size so there will be enough space in a room for those registered for the class and for those making up. For example, we limit classes in our largest room, the Green Room, to thirty people. For weekend workshops in the Green Room we set the limit at forty people because no one will be making up. If we followed the dot system like my friend in Arizona, we could easily fit over sixty-five people in that room.

Smell in the lobby: Several people commented about the smell in the lobby. Replacing the lobby carpeting was a step in the right direction and our cleaning service now scatters baking soda throughout the studio before vacuuming to help keep the entire studio smelling fresh. We also have the carpets steam cleaned regularly. However, everyone leaves their shoes in the lobby and summer is approaching, so this may still be an issue. Since many people have scent allergies, we are limited in which air fresheners we can use. We are testing some baking soda brands now and will continue to experiment if they are not effective.

Scheduling a class with a certain instructor on a particular time and day: Though we are one of the largest studios in the area, we are still limited to four rooms of classes at any one time, and our schedule, especially in the evenings, is full. Many people have been taking classes for years and have found an instructor, day, and time that suits them and they return to that class session after session. If we replace one class on the schedule with another, the people in the original course will lose their weekly class.

Additionally, we try to balance the schedule in an attempt to provide make up classes and a variety of choices in each day and timeslot. We cannot have two Yoga 1-2 classes at the same time on any day or five Yoga 2 classes at 7:30 on weeknights. Also, instructors are not always available to teach in other timeslots; many have family or work obligations. When there is an imbalance, we try to correct it as we are in the Summer session by adding a Yoga 2-3 on Tuesday at 5:45 p.m.

Breaks between sessions: Though this did not appear in the survey, we regularly receive comments about the breaks between sessions. Since I bought HAYC in 2001, we have always had the same number of weeks each session every year. For example, the Summer session is always eight weeks and the Fall session is always thirteen weeks. There are the same number of days off each year.

The breaks serve two purposes. First, they give us time to schedule major repairs and upgrades to the studio. In the past year we replaced the carpet in half of the studio and had the entire studio repainted. Second, and more importantly, the breaks provide time off for the teachers. Yoga instructors who teach continuously tend to burn out after just a few years, yet over half of our instructors have taught at HAYC for more than ten years. In the survey, 65% of the people currently taking classes responded that what they enjoy most is the quality of the instructors. The breaks allow our teachers to rest and come back refreshed to their classes each session.

Friday and weekend classes: A number of people suggested we hold more classes on Fridays and in the afternoon on the weekends. Right now on Fridays we have a Yin Yoga class in the morning and children’s classes in the afternoon. When I added Friday evening and Sunday afternoon classes to the schedule in the past, very few people signed up, and we need at least five people to register for a class to keep the class going. Since so many people requested these classes I will ask you: What classes would you like to see on Fridays and at other times on weekends? I will have a box near the front desk where you can drop in your suggestions for times and classes. If there is enough consensus, I will add a class at the time and day suggested.

Finally, thank you again for filling out the survey. If you have other comments or thoughts, you are always welcome to email me or leave me an anonymous note. It may not always be possible to fulfill your request, but I value your thoughts and input.

More Survey Results:

These statistics are based on the responses of the people who answered the survey in April 2012.

Statistics About Respondents:

52%     Current students who responded

10%     Former students who responded

Of the current students who responded:

90%     are female

84%     are over 40 years old

99.8 % would recommend HAYC to a friend. Only one person said they would not.

95%     have recommended HAYC to a friend

Of the former students who responded:

91%     are female

84%     are over 40 years old

98%     would recommend HAYC to a friend

81%     would return to HAYC if their circumstances changed.

Responses from Current Students

Percentages of current students in each class level:

34%     Yoga 2 or Yoga 2-3

26%     Yoga 3 or Yoga 4

20%     Yoga 1 or Yoga 1-2

12%     Gentle Yoga (This number may be slightly low because it was left off the survey for the first 12 hours.)

4%       Specialty classes such as Yin Yoga or Yoga for Scoliosis

3%       Vinyasa Yoga

1%       Kids and Teen Yoga

Most important reason you first came to study at HAYC? We only allowed one response to this question which generated a number of comments from people who wanted to make multiple selections. We limited the number of responses because multiple selections would have not provided much useable information. The top answers were:

30 %    Increase flexibility

17 %    Get physical exercise

16 %    Health or medical reasons

16%     To reduce stress.

13%     Curious about yoga

Most important reason you continue to study at HAYC? Only one selection was allowed for this question also.

57%     I feel better doing yoga

15%     Increase flexibility

7%       Health or medical reasons

What do you enjoy most about HAYC?

65%     Quality of the instructor

12%     Variety of what is available

10%     Studio’s ability to accommodate individuals’ different physical capacities

There was no major interest in a Pranayama (breathing class), an early morning class or a 4:00 p.m. class. Interest in meditation was neutral.

Many thanks to Sue Bowman for suggesting this survey, compiling the questions, and tabulating the results. I greatly appreciate her time, effort, and expertise.

At a weekend workshop at our studio a few years ago, the teacher asked everyone who felt as if they should be doing more in any aspect of their life to raise their hand. This could be doing more yoga, spending more time with family, reading, working, doing yard work, more of anything at all. There were forty people at the workshop and every hand in the room went up. The workshop leader was illustrating how we each feel we should or could be doing more than we are doing now.

When I bought HAYC eleven years ago, I was teaching yoga classes here in Herndon and also in Columbia, Maryland. I also had a part-time computer programming job in Columbia. Adding management of the studio to an already busy schedule completely overwhelmed me. One morning I woke up and wrote down everything I expected to do that day and that week.  I discovered I needed thirty-two hour days or a few extra days in the week if I planned to sleep six hours each night.  Clearly this was not going to work, though I felt better knowing I had a reason to feel stressed.

Recognizing the irony of a stressed-out yoga teacher, I decided to set priorities and become comfortable with allowing the non-priorities to slide.  For a year and a half, until I left my jobs in Columbia, my meals were very simple, shopping was only for essentials, and my house was pretty messy. If something was not necessary for one of my jobs or interacting in polite society, it did not get done unless I found a spare hour. The benefit was that I could usually do all that was required and I learned not to get upset about all that I could not do.

For most of us, it is impossible to accomplish all that we think we should, could, or want. Even if we happen to accomplish everything, we can probably find more to fill our time.  I was talking with a friend who retired awhile ago and he said that he does not know how he ever worked; his schedule is so full that he is having trouble fitting in all of his activities.  My life is much simpler now that I can just focus on the yoga center, but there are days I feel just as busy as I did years ago.

If we recognize that there will never be enough hours in the day, the question changes from: “How will I do everything?” to “What is worthy of my time?”  I learned from my busy year that quality of life is important and making time for activities I enjoy must be part of my schedule. There are a few essentials like eating and sleeping that we have to do to survive, but beyond those, we each have our own opinions about what is indispensible.  How we choose to spend our time greatly affects both how we feel and our overall well-being.

The first class I took at The Health Advantage Yoga Center was Yoga 1. I had been doing yoga for five years as a way to balance my body and mind after long daily hours in front of a computer, but the style of yoga taught at HAYC was different than those I had taken before and I felt I needed to start again at the beginning to learn the alignment and terminology.

One of the first poses we did was the leg stretch where you lie on your back, place a belt around the sole of your foot, and lift your leg up to stretch the muscles at the back of your leg. I knew I should just focus on myself, but I glanced around the room and saw that everyone in class could bring their leg up to ninety degrees. My leg barely reached forty-five degrees. I was discouraged; I was the only person in the class who had done yoga before and everyone in the room was clearly more flexible than I.

Though I had heard repeatedly that yoga is not a competition, this leg stretch pricked my pride. I was determined to get my leg up to ninety degrees too. Since my job at that time required long hours every day including weekends, it was difficult to find time to stretch. I did not want to risk hurting myself by doing strong, advanced stretches, so I decided to do a simple standing forward bend every night for fifty breaths before I brushed my teeth. It was one stretch a day for one to three minutes, nothing more. Surprisingly, I began to see progress in a few weeks: my hands went from knee level to shin level. In four months, my fingertips brushed my feet. This was the first time in my life I had touched my toes while standing.

This was also the first time I practiced anything voluntarily as an adult. I had taken classes ranging from calligraphy to electronics to yoga since leaving school and I had learned from all of them, but I never did much besides attend the classes and complete the homework assignments. I never practiced what I learned in these classes to become more proficient in the subjects.

As children we do a tremendous amount of practicing to learn skills. We spend hours tracing and copying letters while learning to write and do hundreds of math problems to learn basic arithmetic. When learning a musical instrument, we practice scales and the same pieces of music over and over again. In sports there are drills to prepare us for games.

When we become adults, the inclination to practice to learn or become more proficient in a skill seems to fade. There is no one telling us we must practice, it is hard to find time, there are distractions, or it just is not fun. Yet we know there are rewards for practice and experience. We respect experts and people who are accomplished in their fields. Usually they have spent years studying their crafts, doing the same things over and over again, seeing different permutations. Though repetitiveness can be dull at times, with each repetition there are often small differences and lessons to be learned.

Sri K. Pattabhi Jois, the modern founder of the Ashtanga system of yoga, often said “Practice and all is coming”. Is there a subject you would like to learn or a field in which you would like to feel more accomplished? Is it worth spending a little time to practice?

I began teaching yoga classes at a local fitness club in 1997. I had not spent much time in a gym since high school and the fitness club’s equipment and amenities were far better than I had anticipated. There were rows of gleaming weights, treadmills, exercise bikes and lots of machines. What surprised me was how audibly and visually overwhelmed I felt. On top of the bright lights, clanking weights and whirring treadmills, there was loud music echoing off the walls and rows of televisions hanging from the ceiling. It was a relief to go to the relatively quieter and calmer room where the yoga classes were held.

Since then I have become increasingly aware of how much noise and visual activity we have around us. My car dealership has a huge television in the waiting room. Airports have monitors hanging from the ceilings usually showing CNN. I may be getting older and more sensitive or just cranky, but the music in many of the clothing stores seems to be getting louder. I left one recently because I could feel the floor vibrating beneath my feet and my clothes shook in time with the bass.

This constant and often intrusive stimulation is different than a little background music that sets a mood and can be ignored or using music with a strong beat to accompany an exercise routine. These are sounds and images we do not choose and are hard to block out; they make it difficult to think our own thoughts and to concentrate.

Finding times and places to enjoy peace and quiet seems to be increasingly elusive. We have all seen pictures of people sitting on porches just watching the world go by. In some ways this seems rather quaint in our busy society today. With cell phones, Blackberries and a host of small mobile gadgets, we can be and are often expected to be accessible anywhere at anytime.

Interestingly, when some people are given a few minutes of peace and quiet, they do not know what to do with themselves. Every yoga class at our studio ends with final relaxation which is about five to ten minutes where everyone lies down and relaxes. I often see people in the first few classes fidgeting impatiently and some have admitted they feel uncomfortable being idle. It is so simple to go through an entire day without a moment of silence or time to reflect that unoccupied time can be unsettling. After a few weeks of adjustment, most people look forward to the end of the class where they can just let go.

In the last few years, I have had many requests for more inwardly focused classes. In fact one person suggested more silent classes specifically because there is so much noise in our lives. Her email resulted in the Silent Practice short course. The Learn to Meditate short course and the Movement, Breath, and Meditation classes soon followed. All of these classes allow people to turn away from outside distractions so they have a calm, quiet time for themselves.

Thinking back on the past week, did you have any time to be alone with your thoughts? Is it possible for you to enjoy a little uninterrupted time without distractions? Are you willing to try?

In August 2000 I was rear-ended while stopped in traffic on the beltway. I was hit so hard that the grill of the pickup truck left an impression on the back of my minivan. Besides the expected whiplash, I had other serious, though not crippling, musculoskeletal injuries. For several years after the accident, I was constantly aware of how I moved, sat, and positioned myself for sleep. Bad posture and wrong movements exacerbated the discomfort.

At the time of the accident, I was taking a yoga class or two a week plus the occasional workshop and was teaching eleven classes. Yoga was a huge part of my life and I refused to allow the accident to take it away from me. In the past three or four years, the discomfort has subsided and I credit most of the improvement to a regular yoga practice.

When we are injured, the common and normal reaction is to protect ourselves from further pain. It is very easy to stop moving in the ways that hurt and stay with movements that cause no discomfort. Though the short term effect is a decrease in pain, the long term effect is the opposite. Muscles that are not used become weak and less flexible. We compensate by recruiting other body parts, moving them in ways they are not designed to move, which over time causes those muscles and joints to become achy and sore.

Yoga postures challenge us to move outside of our normal patterns. They also require us to balance strength and flexibility by strengthening areas that are too mobile and creating flexibility in areas that are stiff and tight. After the accident, I could immediately feel when I was doing a yoga pose incorrectly because I had instantaneous feedback. Either the area where I was injured became uncomfortable or whatever I was using to compensate for my injuries would feel overstretched or fatigued. At first I could only do the beginning level poses, but over the years, I regained most of my flexibility and strength and in some areas exceeded where I had been before as my body became better aligned. Although I will always have to be careful in some poses, I am doing far better than the medical community predicted. In talking with other yoga practitioners, I am not alone in experiencing these benefits of a regular yoga practice.

Whenever we suffer an injury, physically or emotionally, we want to protect ourselves from additional harm. It is natural to create all types of shields and compensations and to avoid situations where we could be hurt again. Though we may have no control over an injury’s occurrence, we do have a choice in how we react. We can allow the injury to define us, becoming part of the way we picture and describe ourselves, which at the beginning is understandable as we find a new normal. However, over time, we can either keep our protective shells or stretch beyond them. Though staying protected is easy and comfortable, it limits us in the long run. To stretch beyond our comfort zone is difficult but the long term rewards are worth the challenge.

When I was little, my family had the same dinner every Sunday evening: steak, baked potatoes, peas, salad, and then ice cream with strawberries for dessert. It was such a constant in my life that I never thought to question it. Sunday was Steak Night.

One Sunday when I was five or six years old, my best friend asked what I was going to have for supper. I did not understand his question because I had never considered it was possible for anyone to have anything besides my family’s regular Sunday meal. We got into a fight when he said his family was having chicken and I refused to believe him.

I have not forgotten this argument because until my friend’s dinner question, it had never occurred to me that other families were not the same as mine. I was stunned and it shook my view of the world. I had assumed that everyone was like me and in those few minutes the world became a much more uncertain place. If you cannot be sure about Sunday dinner, what can you trust?

Looking back on it now, I am slightly surprised this upset me as much as it did. I knew that everybody was not the same. My friend was in a different class at school, he had older sisters and I did not, and we ate different lunches. Yet when one of the constants in my life was threatened, I was ready to fight for it rather than concede that it was not a constant after all.

Everything changes; we move to different houses, find new jobs, and grow older. Day becomes night, the earth spins around the sun and, over centuries, rocks erode and mountains form. Ironically, change is one of our few constants.

How we handle a change often depends upon how attached we are to whatever it is that is changing. If we alter something relatively inconsequential, like our dish soap or brand of paper towel, we quickly forget about it because there is no emotional impact. When there is a significant change, like moving to a different part of the county, the associated emotions can be quite mixed. We may enjoy our new surroundings, but also miss the friends we left behind. It may take us some time to adjust.

When a basic belief or an understanding of how the world works is questioned or threatened, often our response is to hang on to that belief with everything that we have. It is much easier to continue in the way in which we have become accustomed than to accommodate changes to our views of the world.

Sometimes, when the evidence against a long held belief is too great, we have no choice but to change; it is impossible to do otherwise. We remember these moments because they transform us and we see the world in a new way. The catalyst may be something as simple as a steak dinner, but the results last a lifetime.

Years ago I traveled to the mountains of Utah to take classes with a popular yoga teacher. The classes started early in the morning when it was cool, and I found I felt better when I got to the yoga room early and stretched for a few minutes before the workshop began. One morning I arrived just as a woman was lighting the candles in the room. Something about the way she was holding the match seemed a little odd, but I could not figure out exactly what it was.

However we move, our bodies tend to be extremely accommodating. We can sit poorly in front of computers for hours not realizing until we log off that our wrists and fingers are cramped and our shoulders are sore. We can slouch in front of the television all evening completely unaware that our lower backs ache until we stand up. If our minds are absorbed in whatever we are doing while we hold ourselves or move in a way that is unhealthy, we rarely notice until we become less focused on the activity or we start to experience pain.

If we move in the same way for a period of time, our bodies adapt to our patterns and these patterns become habits. We often do not recognize these habits; it just becomes easier or more comfortable to move in one way than another.

Sometimes our physical habits are of no consequence, but some postural habits can affect our wellbeing. Two common examples are standing with most of our weight on one foot or sitting with our legs crossed the same way every time. Both create imbalances in our hips and legs that we compensate for with our spines and upper bodies. If we stand or sit improperly for decades, some muscles become chronically tight and others chronically stretched which commonly causes those muscles to become achy and sore.

In the Utah workshop at a group dinner later in the week, the woman who lit the morning candles proudly announced that it was the fifteenth anniversary of the day she had quit smoking. As I watched her light the candles the follow morning, I could clearly see that instead of holding the long match between her index finger and thumb, she was holding it between her index and middle fingers the way many people hold cigarettes.

How we hold a match does not really matter, but it illustrates how easily and unconsciously habits are formed. In the physical form of yoga, Hatha Yoga, we move our bodies in ways most of us would not move otherwise. Though we have all seen pictures of yoga poses that require remarkable flexibility and strength, the basic yoga poses are accessible to almost anyone. When these basic poses are practiced with alignment, they strengthen and stretch our muscles. Over time bring them into better balance. For some, aches and pains diminish and quality of life improves. Also, since Hatha Yoga causes us to focus on our bodies, we often begin to notice our habits and imbalances which we might otherwise not be aware of when our attention is focused on our everyday activities. With this awareness, we may start to change the habits that are not healthy, feeling better now and avoiding future discomfort.