Author: Andrea Loewen

Andrea is a certified yoga instructor with first aid certification. She has danced, sung, and acted her way through a life in the theatre and loves bringing her experience to her yoga practice.

Take a Morning

I’ve been reflecting lately on mornings and how my morning habits have changed considerably over the years. I used to operate on the “sleep as late as humanly possible” principle, which is just as it sounds: I would set my alarm for the last possible minute so that I would have just enough time to get ready and get out the door. My theory was that I was better off having an extra half hour of sleep than a half hour of sitting around in the morning.

When did that change? You guessed it, during my yoga teacher training. During those three months, I started getting up a little earlier every morning to fit in a quick yoga practice before I started my day, and let me tell you, it had an impact on me.

Aside from getting the benefits of starting my day with yoga, it was wonderful to take some time for myself every morning before rushing off to work. Suddenly I had this little extra pocket of time in the morning that was mine, and even though it was usually only about 30 minutes, it made me feel like my day was about more than getting to work.

While I am obviously biased towards thinking yoga is the best way to spend your extra time in the morning, there are other great things to do: you can write, you can go for a run or do your other exercise of choice, you can meditate or pray, or you can just relax and read the paper for a while. Whatever you do, do it because you want to and not because you have to – this time is yours!

A New Perspective

This photography series is called “Pencil vs. Camera!” and it kind of blows my mind. Aside from producing a series of arresting and fascinating images, photographer Ben Heine has given me something far more valuable: a reminder to look beyond the obvious and see the world in a different way.

I get really busy. Really busy. The busier I get, the less I let my brain wander and the more I look at the surface qualities of an object or a person. No matter how busy I am, however, these images remind me to let my imagination run wild and see things for what they could be, not just for what they are.

Via Beautiful/Decay.

Passport to Prana

Looking for an affordable way to practice yoga? I am a big fan of the Passport to Prana.

How it works: you buy a card for $30 and it gives you one free class at every participating studio. Check the website first to make sure your city has a decent number of participating studios, but pretty much every major city in North America seems to have this going now.

The upside: you get to experience a variety of yoga studios and teachers which can help expand your knowledge and practice in a major way, and is especially helpful if you want to try a few studios before committing to a membership somewhere. Price barriers to practicing yoga are almost completely removed.

The downside: you can’t return to the same studio more than once on the card, which means that every time you go, you’ll have that “newcomer” feeling, and if you find a studio you really like you are left to choose between sticking with them or getting the most out of your card and visiting other studios.

A New Blog! The Research Project

I’ve started (yet another) new blog! This one’s called The Research Project, and it’s all about learning new things. Every month I plan to pick a new topic, to learn about it, and write a report/paper/how-to based on my findings. The only rule is that the topic has to be something that is outside of my current areas of expertise, which is why my first topic is computer programming – way out of my area of expertise.

Check it out: http://research-theproject.blogspot.com

Yoga: How Much is Enough?

Last week I had a student ask me if he was doing “enough” yoga. That’s a really difficult question to answer, and the only real answer I could give is that it depends.

There is no measuring stick for yoga. You can’t fill up your yoga-bottle and then be done. You could keep doing yoga until you run out of minutes in the day, and even then it could not be “enough”. Or it could be too much – it’s all too possible to OD on yoga.

If you’re asking this question of yourself or an instructor, the next question you should be asking, however, is why you’re doing yoga in the first place: what are you trying to get out of it? Spiritual enlightenment? Strength? Physical or emotional healing? A moment of peace in your day?

The follow-up question to this is to ask yourself how important the goal is to you, or how driven you are to get there. If you’re looking for a general improvement to your mental and physical well-being, you won’t necessarily need to practice as often (or as intensely) as someone who wants to drastically increase their strength or who is intentionally seeking enlightenment.

As a rule, the more time you invest into something, the better you will get at it. So regardless of your goal, it boils more or less down to doing yoga as often as you can realistically fit it into your schedule. Knowing what your end-goal is and how important it is to you, however, will help you be more intentional about how you do this: is it essential to do at least an hour of practice every morning or can you fit 20 minutes in here and there? Do you need an instructor guiding you in your practice, or will you get where you need to go with a solid home practice? On days where you just don’t have time, will you push yourself to do it anyways, or give yourself a break? It all depends on what you want in the end.

This student, for example, started practicing yoga so that he could add some variety into his overall physical exercise routine. For him then, taking one class a week probably is “enough”.

What is enough for you?

Drive-By (in a good way)

This is a more-or-less cross-post from my other blog, something I almost never do, but I feel like the sentiment applies here as well.

Today I was paid a random compliment by a stranger walking down the street. There was clearly no “agenda” on his part, as evidenced by the fact that the compliment was paid entirely in passing. He didn’t even break his stride for a moment to try to engage me in further conversation – it was a drive-by (or rather, a walk-by) compliment, and it brightened by already bright day considerably.

Then it hit me: this is what we’re all missing in life: compliments paid without agenda.

So I am issuing a challenge to myself and everyone else in the world: if you see someone and appreciate something about them, be it their looks, wardrobe, sidewalk dance moves, or whatever, give them a drive-by (or walk-by) compliment. In fact, let’s just make a point of trying to find something to appreciate in every single person we encounter, whether or not we tell them about it.

It’s sort of like what we learned in my Yoga Teacher Training, to approach each student by first looking for the good before we correct their postures. By starting from a place of positivity and appreciation, we were able to treat them more as a whole human instead of something that needed fixing. Wouldn’t that attitude be beneficial in day-to-day life?

Then, one good thought/compliment at a time, we will humanize each other just a little more and maybe even bring about world peace.

This week is all about theatre

This week I’ve got theatre on the brain because I’ve got theatre on the schedule. It’s a busy one: at Pacific Theatre we’re opening RE:UNION, a new play by Sean Devine, and at Rumble Productions we’re in the second week of rehearsals for SNOWMAN by Greg MacArthur. Two great plays by two Canadian writers.

Normally I would never write a blog post about shows I’m being paid to publicize. It seems a little… well, not very classy. However, with these two I can’t really help it because I am incredibly excited about both of them.

First up: Pacific Theatre and RE:UNION.

Re:Union is a fictional story based in historical fact. In 1965 a Quaker named Norman Morrison burned himself to death outside the office of Robert McNamara to protest the Vietnam War. He brought his baby daughter with him and it is unclear if he intended for her to be a part of his sacrifice or not, but she did live. The play takes that event and imagines Emily Morrison (the daughter) in the wake of 9/11, struggling to carry her father’s legacy of sacrifice and pacifism in the light of a new war in a new millennium. This play is inventive, poetic, theatrical, and boils down to one compelling story. It opens this Friday night and I could not be more excited.

Second on the docket: Rumble Productions and SNOWMAN

This one’s pure fiction, and a lovely piece of fiction at that. Set in a small Canadian town on the edge of a glacier, a young man discovers the body of a long-dead neanderthal in the ice. The result is a dark and haunting comedy – think Twin Peaks or Fargo. You can’t help but laugh as these all-too-human characters make bizarre decisions after making this discovery. I knew I would like it after I read the script, and I knew that I would love it after sitting in on the first read through.

Sometimes working in theatre can be a bit of a slog: big stress, big pressure, little payback. Sometimes we have to put on shows that aren’t very exciting to make a little money. Sometimes we think a show is going to be exciting and it flops. When I get a chance to be a part of two productions like these, however, I know that I am doing the right thing. How do you know when you’re doing the right thing?

Happy Thanksgiving!

If you live in Canada, then you know what today is: Thanksgiving!

The other day I decided to look up the origins of Canadian Thanksgiving, since most of our Thanksgiving imagery is pretty inundated with pilgrims and Native Americans, and while I’ve always known that’s not what my Thanksgiving was all about, I was never quite sure where it began.

Thanksgiving originated in 1957, when the government made the following declaration:

A Day of General Thanksgiving to Almighty God for the bountiful harvest with which Canada has been blessed – to be observed on the 2nd Monday in October.

The specific religious affiliation of that declaration aside, isn’t that one of the most positive things you’ve ever heard come out of legislature? A day of general thanksgiving – how wonderful.

There are a few historical events that contribute to the declaration of this day of thanks:

In 1578 Martin Frobisher attempted to traverse the Northwest Passage and set up a colony in what is now Nunavut. A very unfortunate series of incidents lead to them losing one of the ships an much of the building supplies before the remaining 14 ships separated and got lost. When they found each other again, they had a special meal and communion, giving thanks for their “strange and miraculous deliverance” to come together once again.

By 1604 when French settlers had landed on what is now Canadian soil, an annual feast of thanks was such a regular thing that the men had formed an Order of Good Cheer, and they were glad to share their meal with the First Nations of the region.

Then of course, it is a long-standing tradition among many First Nations group to have celebrations at the end of harvest to give thanks for their bounty.

So it turns out celebrations of gratitude have been a part of our society’s practice for hundreds of years, both among the “pilgrims” and the First Nations they encountered here in North America.

Let’s all give thanks!

One Busy Day

Well, it’s happened again. Although I can proudly say that it’s only happened twice so far: I am posting a day late. What happened, you say? Well, yoga happened, theatre happened, and life happened.

Yoga Happened
Yesterday was the start of the classes I will be teaching at BCIT this fall, kicking off with none other than Dance Yoga. Now, I have been dancing since I was a child and doing yoga since I was a teenager, but aside from my own at-home practice, I had never really blended the two. At least not in a public way. I have to admit, I was a little nervous. I had no idea what my students would be expecting from a combo dance and yoga class, and while I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to teach, the weight of what I imagined their expectations to be was weighing on me. Top it off with the fact that there were technical difficulties at the school causing class to start 10 minutes late, and I was not in a yogic state of mind. Of course, I needn’t have worried. I forgot that most people arrive at a new class or event with the sole expectation of having a good time and maybe learning something new. They also tend to be pretty understanding of things outside of your control, like random technical difficulties. In the end, we had a great time!

Theatre Happened
My company is coming up with a new kind of event called Q&A: A Community Interview. It’s sort of a new kind of audience storytelling event and I am really excited about it. Last night we gathered together a random assortment of friends and workshopped the format. It was wonderful – first of all, to hear the stories from friends and strangers told in a casual, light atmosphere. Secondly, to receive thoughtful feedback from people who really seemed to care about what we were trying to do. I felt wonderfully supported by my community.

Life Happened
A friend of mine who I haven’t seen much of in the past year has gone through some big life stuff recently. She made it out to the workshop and we were able to go out for a quick drink afterwards and reconnect.

It could have been a frightfully busy and stressful day, but at each turn I found myself surrounded by a friendly, supportive, fun community, and that’s something to be grateful for.