Hello Mr. Rodney Yee! Nice to Meet You Mr. Bryan Kest!

As soon as I quitted the Hatha Yoga class I took at the studio in my neighborhood I knew I needed to keep practicing until I find out more about yoga and studios and get myself a good teacher. That was when Mr. Rodney Yee came along.

 

The first DVD I tried was Power Yoga Total Body which I loved at that time. It was exactly what I needed. Challenging power yoga with progressing exercises, beautiful setting and great description of the poses and how to get into them. It was perfect for my level at that time and I used it for a long long time. 

At the same period I also got Bryan Kest’s Power Yoga series of 3 DVDs and started practicing with the first one. Ok, I will have to be honest here. As soon as I put the DVD on for the first time, during the brief introduction Bryan does about Power Yoga, my jaw dropped on the floor. He is handsome! Very handsome! The first times I tried the series I could not concentrate as I always caught myself looking at the screen and thinking all sort of things I cannot even speak here. I would not help but wonder “how on earth do his female students concentrate to their practice, especially when we touches them to adjust their asana?” Well eventually I managed to concentrate too, but I can tell that Bryan’s good looks was a very good reason to put the DVD on, even on days I didn’t feel like doing yoga! Except for that I found his DVDs to be really informative and keeping me down to earth, reminding me all the time that there is no perfect asana and I should not compete with myself to get somewhere. I must just be here, now, practice and know that if I put my effort in it then everything I do, I do it perfectly. This was really very helpful to me as back then I used to have asana related goals which kept me from completely focusing and enjoying yoga.

Apart from those two DVDs that I used over and over and over again, I got some more mostly of Rodney (A.M. P.M. Yoga, Yoga Stamina, Strength, Flexibility, YogaConditioning For Athletes, Intermediate Yoga etc.) to mix in so I won’t get bored. I also did seminars in different studios and that was a great experience to visit a lot of them and meet different teachers. That got me all the way to the end of 2011 when that little voice inside me told me I have to do more than that. I needed something more than Power Yoga, I needed something that will touch my soul and spirit and I thought that this was a great time to research different yoga types and find a teacher.

When I did a google search on “yoga types” and got a website with a list a brief descriptions of the most known ones, I told myself that at first I would not read what each yoga is about, only read their names. When I got to the name Ashtanga something moved inside me again. I knew I have to do this but I also wanted to try other types too. So, I search for induction or beginner seminars and tried different types of yoga like Kundalini, Iyengar, Jivamukti, Anusara. Before I managed to get an Ashtanga introductory class I was fired from my job and I could not spend any money on seminars so I went back to my home routine, but I knew inside me I would eventually practice Ashtanga.