Table of Contents
The daily practices that Judith offers sing of her honesty, compassion, and wisdom. She knows just where the pitfalls are and how to wake us up to the teacher within, to live each moment from our authentic source. Like a koan, these often humorous and surprising sayings can help reveal and shape a life of fresh relationship: to yoga, to ourselves, and to the world.
Jiko Linda Ruth Cutts, Abbess; Green Gulch Farm, San Francisco Zen Center
Judith is eloquent and can expound upon the lofty idealism of yoga better than almost anyone. But her forte is truly in her commitment to finding ways to actualize its teachings into a seamless experience in which life and yoga are not separate. This book is meant to be used by all who wish to bring yoga to life!
Sharon Gannon, coauthor (with David Life) of Jivamukti Yoga
One thread, one sutra at a time, Judith Hanson Lasater weaves together mindfulness, daily life, meditation, yoga, the sacred, and the profane. This essential booka luminous tapestryenables life and yoga to become one again.
Franois Raoult, M.A., director of Open Sky Yoga Center, Rochester, New York
Judiths words of wisdom have inspired me since I took my first workshop with her in the early 1970s. Every time we meet, whether at a yoga conference or for tea, I am uplifted by her even outlook on things. I cant wait to experience a year guided by her daily measure of insight into the workings of the human mind and body.
Beryl Bender Birch, author of Power Yoga
This book will inspire you to live your yogaall day, every day.
With wisdom and clarity, Judith offers 365 opportunities to em
brace the ordinary as sacred. Who knew that fresh sheets, driving
the speed limit, growing old, and juicy apples could be the path to
an awakened life!
Cyndi Lee, author of Yoga Body, Buddha Mind
By Judith Hanson Lasater, Ph.D., P.T.
Relax and Renew (1995)
Living Your Yoga (2000)
30 Essential Yoga Poses (2003)
Yoga for Pregnancy (2004)
Yoga Abs (2005)
A Year of Living Your Yoga (2006)
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
THE PROCESS OF writing a book is not new to me. Nevertheless, it remains exciting and fulfilling. This is due, in part, to the help I receive from many sources.
My inspiration for A Year of Living Your Yoga was our first son, Miles. When he joined our life, I had a powerful reason to learn more about love, giving, and letting go. Throughout the years, he and his siblings, Kam and Elizabeth, have been my greatest gifts. I am grateful and full.
I appreciate those who contributed to the book that you hold in your hands:
My husband, Ike, who helped me to clarify my thinking and writing;
Sally and David Elsberry, my first yoga teachers, and Sri B. K. S. Iyengar, whose fiery teaching has helped me refine my practice throughout the years.
Kathy Vasquez, a yoga teacher in Anchorage, Alaska, who attends my annual retreats at Feathered Pipe Ranch in Helena, Montana, and wrote down the aphorisms that are collected herein;
Beryl Bender Birch, Jiko Linda Ruth Cutts, Sharon Gannon, Cyndi Lee, and Franois Raoult, my friends and colleagues, for their generous words of praise;
The team at my publisher, for their vision and expertise: Linda Cogozzo, editor; Holly Hammond, associate editor; and Gopa and Veetam Campbell, book and cover designers at Gopa & Ted2, Inc.
Donald Moyer and Linda Cogozzo, my publishers, for their help and support;
And my students, who have taught me not only how to teach, but also how to live more fully from my heart.
PREFACE
I BEGAN MY YOGA STUDIES with Judith Hanson Lasater in the summer of 1976, at Feathered Pipe Ranch in Helena, Montana. I had been living in Alaska, so I had no access to teacher training, and I was hungry for information. Back then the teaching format at the Pipe was two teachers, two groups, and two different classes each morning and afternoon. In the morning, I would take Judiths two-and-a-half-hour asana class, where I gathered experiential knowledge of asana. In the afternoon, I would sit in the gallery above the yoga room and observe Judith as she taught. I took notes about what she did, how she did it, and the words she saidverbatim.
From the asana classes, I learned about alignment and how to invite yoga into the very tissues of my body. Observing Judith in the second class gave me a different vantage point, literally and figuratively. Watching her teach was (and still is) like witnessing a ballet: artful, fluid, with a perfect balance between energy and stillness, movement and pause.
From observing her teach, I have understood the importance of words, touch, stories, demonstration, and laughter. Her images evoke responses in the body that lead to alignment; her words inspire the heart to open wide and let in the truth. I watched this happen time and again, not only for me but for an entire room full of people, summer after summer. Judith has a deep respect for the power of words, so her teaching is extraordinarily clear. I am blessed that she teaches the way I learn. I dont have to struggle for the information. Each class becomes a dance in effortless effort.
I never tire of gathering information and inspiration from Judiths classes. Thirty years later I am still the scribe in the corner, taking down every word. Writing the words is another level of imprinting them, and this process has served me well throughout my yoga journey.
I am often asked whether I read those hundreds of pages after I return from a workshop with Judith. I always say there is too much gold there not to revisit those memorable momentsboth for myself and for my students.
In 2002 I was delighted when Judith asked me to send her the aphorisms I had recorded, explaining that they were to be used in this book. I retrieved my notebooks from my basement yoga archives and spent two hours each Sunday afternoon reminiscing and compiling quotes from 1976 to the present. I feel such deep gratitude for the opportunity to record them the first time around and for the joy they evoked in me this time through. I was struck by the truth that still shines through her words.
Judiths words are with me in every yoga class I teach. I am currently enjoying the aphorism I wrote down in March 2006: Life isnt lived through information. Stand in your truth and teach from your heart. Thank you, Judith, for your friendship and for sharing your extraordinary gifts with us.
Kathy Vasquez
Anchorage, Alaska, 2006
Yoga is the willingness to be present.
Judith Hanson Lasater, Ph.D., P.T.
INTRODUCTION
TODAY, YOGA IS EQUATED with the practice of asana (yoga poses). However, asana is only part of a larger philosophy that includes other practices like pranayama (breathing) and dhyana (meditation). Even deeper than these practices is yogas philosophy that teaches the transformative possibilities of awareness. Being in this state of awareness, or presence, helps us to live more fully, with less suffering and with more happiness.
How do you take the awareness that you cultivate on your yoga mat and meditation cushion into what you do all day long? Is it even possible? I think it is. You can begin by paying attention to the small things: circumstance by circumstance, moment by moment, and breath by breath. As you do, you will discover that awareness of the ordinary and mundane can enliven your on-the-mat practices. And then a new territory opens before you, in which life and practice are seamless.
