How to Power-Up!

"If you can you must." and "How you do anything is how you do everything."  These two statements were repeated like mantras by my first teacher when I first came to yoga.

Oh and how true they are!  I don't do anything kinda sorta.  I didn't just work out; I competed.  I don't casually date; I fall madly in love.  I don't just practice yoga... I bought the studio.  How I do anything is how I do EVERYTHING.  This is true not only in big examples but in each small detail of my life to.  So when I do come to my mat, I Power-Up!

What can I say?  It's how I am, and after all, if you can you must.  And I can.  I have been an athlete my whole life.  I have had a gym membership since I was eight.  My father competed in Aerobic Dance Competitions and as children my brother and I did push-up contests in the living room (full, military push-ups... with our feet on the couch).  Needless to say I may be a product of my environment.  If a family ski tripped was planned I was commanded to the track for laps in the weeks leading up, wimpiness was not tolerated.

So believe me when I say, I'm not proud nor am I "showing off" when you see me in class either leading or otherwise.  I hurt myself often and I wear myself out to the point of chronic exhaustion.  I do not know how to back off.  This is my own karma to burn...

I told you that story so that I can tell you this one:  Someone recently asked me to add more power classes to the schedule... and while subbing a class recently a student asked me "What's the difference between a power class and a vinyasa class".  I told her "nothing".

Wait!, before you go all technical on me... hear me out.  There are several branches of the Yoga tree, and each branch may have it's very special and unique leaves on it, but they all have leaves and they are all pretty close to the same.  Sure they are like fingerprints or tiger stripes and are all different but it's like being able to tell twins apart, if you are very familiar with them it is easy, if you see them walking down the street they seem identical.

The truth is this:  All Power classes are Vinyasa classes, but not all Vinyasa classes are Power classes... so, do you want to learn to Power-Up!?... if you feel like Jai Dee Power classes are not available when you are, come with me to a Vinyasa class.  I will show you how to Power-Up.  I will silently do the practice being lead but with all of the amped up variations of the poses that I can do safely, if you can take it there too come along with me!  This should give you some tools to take with you into other Vinyasa classes where modifications are always available, and while we say that as teachers often to mean "if this is too hard we can make it easier" it can also mean the opposite.  And if you see me doing an advanced variation you want to learn I offer Personal Yoga Training sessions.

I have come a long way... Thank you to those who helped me along the way.

I had given away everything I owned, quit my 9-5, abandoned my car on the side of the road and left my apartment empty with the keys on the counter like I was checking out of a hotel.  I had checked out of my life… this was not standard procedure for me; I’m a very responsible person. 

I had often read about other people who had and checked out, checking it to a care facility and I always thought, I have way too much to do to get treatment. How do these people find time and or money to do this?  The first time I tried to read Eat, Pray, Love by Liz Gilbert for example I had to put the book down because I was so irritated by this woman’s whining.  Now of course, the book and the movie are like the mantra to my life!

In fact, the first time my friend said, “quit your job and move to Costa Rica” I thought, I can’t quit my job, I have responsibilities!  Of course we all know how that story ended… and if you’re just tuning in, that’s right; I quit my job and was living in Costa Rica 27 days later.

I was not completely without aim though.  I was enrolled in Massage School and had an exit strategy… and then... I met a boy, and well, out the window with my original plans.  I did finish school.  And then settled into a surf village and sank my exit strategy into building a day spa for tourists.   

It was lovely really, until I woke one day and realized that I was in a different Julia Roberts movie and felt the compelling need to fake my own death to escape it.   I didn’t do anything quite as drastic but instead made up some story of helping a friend start up her spa and that I would be back in a week, I never went back.  All I had was what I had packed for the week and enough money to get me to the air port on a bus.  After a tearful call to Delta I was able to reinstate my “original plan” ticket back to the states where I was greeted by a friend with a hug and a spare bedroom.

So there I was, in a town I had visited once but was essentially a stranger to with no money and a duffle bag of some clothes that might have been suitable for a surf village but were useless to me here….

That was October of 2012.  It is now February of 2014, I just bought a yoga studio, I have come a long way from having everything I own fit in a carry on with a few dollars in foreign money to my name, and I would just like to say Thank you.  Thank you to the friend who helped me leave, Thank you to the friend who helped me arrive, Thank you to the friend who convinced me to go in the first place, Thank you to the friend who gave me this opportunity and Thank you to the teachers who make up my staff and the students who make up my customer base, to all of you, Jai Dee belongs to you, I just work here.