Offering each other a helping hand with Tree Pose, are yoga instructors, Colleen Jones, Gail Ashmore, Lilly Crabtree, Karen Reeves,(owner of the Yoga Place), and Holly Deaton.
By Karen Watson Reeves
Sometimes I need to do things alone. Sometimes I need help and support. Being strong and independent has its merits, but working together also has advantages. I tend toward the strong, independent personality type; accepting help is difficult and asking for help is practically impossible for me. But yoga has helped me see the benefits of allowing others to assist me when I have trouble going it alone, whether it be physical tasks or emotional or mental ones.
Two weeks ago my mother died unexpectedly (if an 89-year-old’s death can be unexpected). Nothing prepares us to lose someone we love. An empty, vacuous sensation is ever-present. Grief and sadness are overwhelming, as are many feelings of gratitude and joyful memories.
Finding a balance between grieving alone and letting others help me has been essential early in this process. The outpouring of love in its many forms from family, friends, and my yoga community (many of whom have become my friends) has sustained me.
The yoga breathing, the yoga poses, and the yoga PEOPLE have been constant sources of strength for me through all the years of my practicing yoga. We notice often that many of the relationships among the students in class are a result of gathering together as yoga practitioners.
As we met as a staff at the studio recently for photos, we posed in front of the stained glass window and stood in tree pose. Actually, we struggled to balance in tree pose all at the same time (yes, yoga instructors are challenged in standing balance poses also!)
But when we decided to join hands in tree pose, the task was more easily accomplished. An individual yoga practice is important, but balancing that with coming together in a class or with a friend is also meaningful and rewarding. Working together as a community has great benefits!
Karen Watson Reeves has called Hot Springs home since 2006. Owner of The Yoga Place, at 301 Whittington Avenue, she became a registered yoga/children’s yoga teacher in 2011. She is on the Hot Springs YMCA teaching staff and is an adjunct instructor at National Park College. When not on the mat, Karen enjoys the beautiful outdoors of the National Park, especially from her bicycle. For more information about her studio and her schedule of classes,www.theyogaplacehs.com.
