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In This Issue
Yoga Tip: Tree Pose
Meet Barb Roberts
Winter Fun Factoid Revealed
Spring Special Focus Classes

 

Intro to Pranayama  (4/7)
Pranayama Practice (4/21)
The Psoas: Anatomy & Asana (5/5)

 

For more information click here.

 

Spring Term begins April 2nd

 

Some classes still have openings. If you'd like to join us, call 503.223.8157 to register.  

Little Known Teacher Fun Factoids

Congrats to Roz Basin who guessed correctly and had her name pulled out of a hat. Roz won a $25 yoga gift certificate for her efforts.

Introducing our next Teacher via his/her factoids...

 

 

Who met Bruce Jenner before he had his nose fixed?

 


Who attended charm school at  

age 14?  

 


Who had ancestors who came over on the Mayflower?  

 


Guess correctly, and have your name pulled out of a hat, and you'll win a $25 Gudmestad yoga gift certificate - ballots available at the front desk. Deadline for submitting ballots is Saturday, April 21st. Winner and teacher will be announced in our next e-newsletter coming out Friday, May 18, 2012.

 

2012 NY Yoga Journal Conference

April 12 - 16, 2012
5 days. 45+ master teachers, including Julie Gudmestad. 100+ classes.

For more information click here

 

Stuart's Italy Trip

There is still time to sign up for Stuart's 6th annual Tuscan yoga retreat, June 3 - 10, 2012.  

For information regarding travel, and to download a flyer with full details, click here.


Anatomy Awareness in Asana
Portland, Oregon
August 6 - 10, 2012 with Julie Gudmestad

For more information and to download a registration form click here

 

Want To Be Our Neighbor?

Do you know anyone who might be interested in renting our downstairs office space? 1,500 sq ft, 6 offices plus a waiting room and reception area. $1,800 a month.
Contact our broker, Chris Ingraham, if interested @ 503- 249-1706 (office) or 503-784-1969 (cell).

 

Gudmestad Yoga

Spring Quarterly Newsletter

Greetings!

Springtime! Historically a time of rebirth and renewal, we see spring appearing everywhere around us in the emerging shoots of plants, spring flowers opening, lambs being born, and the return of the sun. The springtime of our yoga practice can be like reawakening after a long, deep Savasana, or a deep hibernation in winter. We stretch, gradually unfold our limbs, and return to upright, just as the plants are reaching up toward the sun in the lengthening daylight.

Vrksasana (Tree pose) is the perfect pose to express springtime in your practice. Inspired by the reawakening trees all around us, it is one pose that brings to life the yogic principles of sending roots down to support your upward growth. Once you've experienced it in Tree pose, you can feel this principle at work in other poses. You send roots down from your feet in any standing pose, from the sitting bones in sitting poses, and from the arms and hands when you're upside down in inversions. Whatever your orientation, this strong foundation supports the lengthening of your spine, the opening of your breath space, and the expansion of your energy.

 

As always, if you have any questions, comments or suggestions, feel free to contact us.

 

Namaste,

 

Julie Gudmestad

 

Yoga Tip: Tree Pose

Whether you're a beginner or experienced practitioner, we often work on Tree pose while standing with your back to the wall. Using light support from the wall takes away the struggles with balance and allows you to build strength and endurance in the support muscles, while focusing on good alignment. So, find yourself a wall (you can also use the back of a door), preferably with a view of an inspiring tree! Stand in Tadasana (Mountain pose) lightly touching the wall with both buttocks, both shoulders and the back of your head (unless your chin goes up, in which case leave your head slightly off the wall and keep your chin level). Your heels should be near the wall but may not touch it, depending on your body proportions. Doing Tadasana against the wall like this allows you to feel upright, uncompressed posture, which is the opposite of the average American's slumped alignment.

 

Send roots down through your right leg and foot---one root from each of the four corners of the foot---to form a strong connection with the earth. Then externally rotate your left leg from the hip, so the foot and knee turn out, while keeping your right buttock on the wall (this keeps your pelvis facing straight ahead). On your next exhale, bring your left foot up to the inner right leg. If you're a beginner or have stiff knees or hips, you can rest the foot on the ankle or calf. It's more challenging to bring the foot higher on the inner thigh, preferably with your heel all the way at the top and with your foot pointing straight down. If your foot is placed above the knee, make a strong bond by pressing the foot into the thigh and the inner thigh into the foot.

 

Keeping both buttocks on the wall, open the left hip by moving the bent (left) knee towards the wall. Again, send roots down from the right foot, and feel the lifting response up through the spine, all the way to the top of the skull. Bring your arms forward, palms parallel, and then stretch the arms up overhead. Keep your elbows and fingers straight so your body forms a strong, light vertical line. Like a tree, draw sap up from your roots, and imagine the sun on your branches inviting you to lift up out of the earth and grow leaves, flowers, and fruit.

 

Remember that Tree pose perfectly expresses our human condition: we live on the earth but reach toward the heavens.  

 

If you found this yoga tip informative and yearn for more in depth articles about anatomy and yoga written by Julie, click here 

Student Spotlight - Barb Roberts

Barb Roberts is 86 years young and has been a memorable presence at Gudmestad Yoga Studio for many of those years. Little did Barb know when she came to Julie for physical therapy to rehab from an acute back problem that she'd join the first yoga class Julie offered at her PT practice (in Milwaukie), and still be here 25 years later.

 

Photo to left: Barb enjoyed a week-long yoga retreat in Costa Rica with her niece, Sherry Johnson, in 2003.

 

Nor did she know that after she retired at age 65 following a 42-year career as a medical technologist, Julie would ask her if she'd like to help out in the office of her growing physical therapy/yoga business - even though Barb told her she had absolutely NO office experience whatsoever. But, help out she did for several years beginning in 1994 - many will remember her fall term reminder calls in the days before we evolved into e-mail reminders. And have you ever wondered about the lovely calligraphies that adorn our studio walls? Many of those were penned by our talented Barb.

 

 

Over the years, Barb worked her way up to Julie's L4. Then, with changes that come with age, and following a car accident that affected her balance, she's slowly worked her way back down through the levels. She landed in Stuart's Level 2 class, where she proudly admits "I'm glad to be able to still do most of the poses at 86!" Photo to right: Barb says she always enjoys Stuart's "adjustments."

 

 

Her favorite poses these days include: Plank to down dog, half dog, the warriors and lunges. She happily sticks to her home practice admitting she does at least "something" every day - usually her favorite poses with a few abdominals thrown in for good measure.

 

 

Barb says Julie and Stuart and the philosophy of the Studio have kept her coming to class. Her yoga practice has allowed her to enjoy hiking, walking, car camping, calligraphy, theater and music events, and trips to Italy and Costa Rica. And, perhaps most importantly, enjoying her vary large extended family and the annual reunions they pull off each summer (she's one of 70 attendees!). "I know that my yoga practice has made my life what it is today - thanks to all of you" says Barb.

 

 

Revealing our Winter Fun Factoid Teacher

Who was our Winter E-newsletter featured teacher??? Here's a little bit more about her...

When her dad, a University of Colorado professor of meteorology, went on sabbatical to the University of Stockholm, the whole family went along. She and her 2 sisters were enrolled in an international school and each were placed back a grade, so they could catch up while they learned Swedish.

She attended U of O and was indecisive about her major, until she settled on accounting. She was a CPA for 9 years before she realized it wasn't her calling and headed for Pacific University and PT school. (In 2000 she began studying yoga with Julie and began teaching at Gudmestad Yoga Studio in 2002. Then in 2004 she set up her PT practice here, integrating yoga and physical therapy.)

Always adventurous, in her early 20s, and not wanting to be a "stereotypical" accountant, she and her co workers set out to have some fun. One of their outings took them to Estacada to parachute out of a small plane. She was the last in the group to jump. As she leaned forward, a faulty helmet strap came loose and her helmet blew free. Meanwhile, her friends below were waiting for her and while she considered abandoning her jump for safety's sake, went for it anyway. She loved it! (but hasn't done it again!)

In her 3rd year with accounting firm, Touche Ross, she and a co worker were assigned to "wrap up loose ends" at Rajneeshpuram, to prepare the property for sale. Mostly the compound was deserted, but the kitchen staff was still there and she remembers eating great meals, sleeping on a round bed, and swimming in their pool.

Have you figured out who lived in Sweden, was a CPA, hung out at Rajneeshpuram and jumped out of a plane sans helmet - Laila Deardorff!

Congrats to Roz Basin who guessed correctly and had her name pulled out of a hat. Roz won a $25 yoga gift certificate for her efforts.       

Oh happy Spring! Longer days and warmer weather signal the end of wearing wool socks in favor of flip flops - making it so much easier to bare your feet when you feel a spontaneous tree pose coming on!

We hope you'll consider joining one or all of Julie's three Special Focus Classes during the spring term. We're thrilled to be able to offer our local students some of the same classes Julie offers throughout the US and Europe. Check out the schedule and register soon - as these popular classes will fill up.

Enjoy your spring break (March 19th-24th). See you back in the studio beginning April 2nd.

Sincerely,

 

Nari Maidl
Yoga Coordinator
Gudmestad Yoga
Gudmestad Yoga Studio  �  3903 SW Kelly Avenue, Suite 210  �  Portland, OR  97239 

phone: 503 223 8157

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