Barefoot Yoga’s Fall Favorites!

seasons2

padmini_lotus

With orange undertones and a flourish of green that makes you think of the changing leaves outside, you’ll understand why the Padmini Lotus Eye Pillow was designed with Autumn in mind. Made with beautiful Indian Silk, the Sari fabric we use has a richness to it that feels so nice on the skin.

i-b35cv7d_1

With temperatures changing so much between the days and the evening, it is nice to have a piece that adjusts throughout the day. You can cinch it up close as it gets cold, or you can let it hang down in an open robe-like jacket with layers beneath.  Check out our full selection of Sweaters and Wraps to keep you warm as the seasons change.

tbird_-_orange

As the days grow shorter we find the temperature beginning to drop. Curl up for the cold weather with a cozy blanket in one of many vibrant colors. These work great as a yoga prop or an extra blanket to have around the house or car on a cold day.

burnt_orange

Nothing says fall is here like the color of this mat! It will make you think of pumpkins, spices, and sipping coffee on a crisp morning. This is the mat to kickstart you back into practice as you shed the lazy habits of summer.

silk_sari_-_green_paisley

Our Silk Zafus are made from authentic Indian Sari Fabrics. With Fall being a time to nest back into the home, the luxury of these Zafus will help keep your cabin fever at bay. They offer a wonderful way to enhance your meditation, or to simply provide a seat closer to the ground.

Posted under Eco-Friendly Yoga Products, Health and Fitness, Meditation, Yoga Clothing, Yoga Gift Ideas, Yoga Mats, Yoga Supplies

This post was written by Patrick on September 16, 2015

Yoga Revival – Week 11: Yoga Summer

Drishti

Smoking Sicilian Drishti – Drishti is a point of focus where the gaze rests during a posture and meditation practice – gazing outward while bringing awareness inward.

This week I returned from a long end of summer vacation to Sicily, which we didn’t really have time for, but did anyway. We met wonderful family members who rented a villa in Sicily overlooking Mt. Etna – one of the world’s most active volcanoes. It was an offer we couldn’t refuse.

The trip was a great cap to a great summer. Now back in Seattle it feels like fall. And so I want to reflect on how yoga has played a role in this wonderful, amazing summer.

I went to a free outdoor yoga class nearby Barefoot Yoga HQ on the summer Solstice – and after it, dedicated myself to regular yoga (6 days per week for at least a half hour). I stuck to this, with the exemption of 2 weeks I practiced 5 days, though I did uphold the hours those weeks (3 hours per week – wow – that sounds like so little when I put it this way!). And this lasted up until the 2nd day of week 9, when this long – airport, gelato, pizza, and pasta filled Sicilian odyssey began.

And so, I missed a few days in week 9, and a few more in week 10. But I will say, I did yoga half of my days there – usually for closer to 1 hour than a half, and it had a powerful influence on my experience in Sicily. It definitely helped drive me to – elation! (More on this next blog).

I’m back on track here in week 11, and yoga is definitely a regular part of my life in a way that surpasses anytime since I practiced Astanga Yoga in Mysore India under the tutelage of Sri K. Pattabhi Jois and his grandson Sharat for 2 and a half months in 1996.

I recognize that I am essentially chipping away at inflexibility that has set in over a lifetime of intense athletic endeavor – be it running marathons, bicycling (across country and around towns), skating, playing tennis, skiing, and more – with fairly minimal stretching. And I’m chipping away at mental inflexibility (and over-flexibility) that set in over all these years. I definitely feel positive results from these months of consistent yoga. But, in some ways “results” seems like a misnomer – because I clearly have such a long way to go.

I am stronger, more flexible, and slightly calmer. I have managed to stay very active, while keeping pain at bay – which is an accomplishment in itself considering the stenosis in my spine, along with some other old injuries from all those sports over the years.

At other times in my life, if I’d said – I have a long way to go – it may have felt discouraging or overwhelming. Yet now it sounds very much the opposite. In a profound way I realize my personal need for further, deeper immersion in this practice. It is vital to my aging, well-worn body. It eases the reactions from my often bombarded adult mind. This drives me to practice.

I’m grateful to all the yoga teachers I’ve had, who have helped me reach this point where yoga practice is available to me anytime and anywhere. And I look forward to getting myself back into classes, because there are amazing yoga teachers everywhere I turn in this town who will literally keep me in line. After almost 3 months of regular yoga, I feel like finally, I’m hooked – that my personal yoga practice is like a beacon that will brighten my future in ways I know now, and others that will be revealed. This light can no longer be ignored.

 

Posted under Barefoot Yoga News, Health and Fitness, Meditation, Styles of Yoga

This post was written by David on September 9, 2015

Yoga Revival – Week 7: Empty Warehouse Yoga

 

DavesBlog7Pic

 

When Friday of week 7 of my “Yoga Revival” came around, I knew I had some free time after work, so planned to do my yoga then. It was another beautiful Seattle summer day, and the great outdoors beckoned me to do it outside. But, in the name of saving time (for a little kayaking), I decided to do my yoga in the warehouse here at Barefoot Yoga HQ after everyone left for the weekend.

I blasted some random yoga music from my computer, and rolled out my Barefoot Performance Grip mat – which has been getting grippier with age (mats really do take some time to break in). I rolled around on a tennis ball for a while, and did some hamstring stretches lying on my back – using a strap. This has become my standard warm-up.

Before getting too comfortable, I jumped up and began my sun salutations. I do these pretty similarly each time, extending the traditional salutations in ways I’ve learned over the years from various teachers, and my own experimentation – that help me to get deeper in each pose.

I am sometimes surprised when my 30 minute watch alarm goes off, and I am only just finishing my sun salutations. It’s a good sign when this happens, and an even better sign when I don’t hear the alarm, because I am so deeply immersed in the practice and the sound of my breathing. I love this about asana practice. It is easy to get so involved in the movement and breathing, that you lose yourself – which is to say you find yourself – completely immersed in the moment. These ancient yoga poses draw us into this kind of meditation, where the body and mind merge as one. There is effort, but there is also an effortless quality to this convergence. Sometimes it just happens…naturally.

Sitting meditation, on the other hand, does not provide movement to assist the mind into such a zone. Over the past 7 weeks since committing to a virtually daily practice, I have done many 30 minute sitting meditations – primarily because I had come to the end of the day without getting my yoga in, and was too full of food to do an asana practice.

There have been moments during these sitting meditations when I was in “the zone” – thinking of nothing, deeply immersed in the sound of my own breathing, very still. But I hazard to guess there have been more moments when I was squirming, my mind wandering, and wondering how long until my alarm would go off, and how was I going to make it.

On this particular afternoon, my alarm went off sooner than expected. So I reset it, and kept going. And I ended with a 10 minute sitting meditation. The random yoga music from my computer happened to have become a buoyantly sung version of the Tibetan incantation – Om Mani Padme Hum – one I had learned many years earlier when hiking the Annapurna trail in Nepal, and reading The Snow Leopard.  

Alone in the warehouse, I sang that chant with the kind of abandon I don’t believe I could have done in a class full of strangers. I was thoroughly immersed in it, “Om Mani Padme Hum” echoing through the warehouse. Those 10 minutes of sitting meditation went by in a flash. I sealed the deal with sivasana, and floated onwards from my warehouse refuge into the sunny Seattle evening – humming peacefully.

 

Posted under Eco-Friendly Yoga Products, Health and Fitness, Meditation, Styles of Yoga, Yoga Mats

This post was written by David on August 20, 2015