Seattle Yoga Studio Sampler: Maple Leaf Community Yoga

Maple Leaf Community Yoga is a small studio located in the Maple Leaf neighborhood. (No way!) Mondays right now they have a 90-minute Gentle yoga class that starts at 8:30. I am always looking for a morning yoga class that lets me begin the rest of my day prior to 11:15!

There are two teachers at the studio, and they teach Purna Yoga, which the teacher this morning described as alignment-based. She also went out of her way to emphasize that the pose should be tailored to each practitioner's needs, and that everyone's body and hence pose, is different. I always appreciate when teachers empahsize this; it's very, very important for people to hear, especially those new to yoga, to get them out of a monkey-see, monkey-do; achievement-oriented, get a good grade mindset.

The studio is in a converted small studio apartment, ground floor. It's a very simple, informal, but peaceful space. We began with a seated centering exercise, with eyes closed, quasi-meditative, and three Oms. For some reason as soon as I sat down in Virasana (a kneeling position with the feet out to the side of the hips, sitting on cushions) I started to feel very peaceful. This I took as a very good sign for how the class would go for me. Then we did a "morning series" to wake up the back. It did--I felt great after this. The rest of the class she emphasized opening up the shoulders--one of my "problem areas." The poses she had us do all involved movement, and for this reason and the fact one of the shoulder openers was the same as one Sue uses, the class reminded me of the Molokai retreat I went on in January. The shoulder openers were INCREDIBLE. I could feel my shoulder blades literally moving apart and the muscles between relaxing. This is so unlike my body's natural tendency that it was emotionally moving! We ended with Savasana and three Oms.

I really enjoyed the teacher, her presentation was very natural, we were free to ask questions and she really brought out the relaxation element when demonstration by saying "aah!" at times. :)

There was a man in the class for whom this morning was his first encounter with yoga. I always feel privileged to be in on someone's yoga debut. He'd heard about the benefits of yoga from a book by Russell Simmons. After the morning series he exclaimed "I've never felt so relaxed in my life!" and after class said he just felt wonderful. I love to hear that. My first experience with yoga was a PM Yoga video by Patricia Walden in about 1998 and I remember feeling an intense, pleasant natural high afterward.

The classes are small (the space is small) at Maple Leaf Community Yoga, so if you want to drop in, they like it if you call ahead. They encourage registering for a series. The series format is excellent for the student and I'm sure better sustains the studio. I'm planning to register for as much of the rest of the Monday morning series (runs through the end of June) as I can.