Today in Liz's 9 am CCYOGA class I was exploring the help of my core (belly button to spine) in the transition from the high leg lift into the set through without momentum. In the low #crescentmoon I was really trying to pull my front leg hip back and down as I reached into the arch. Then opening my chest all of the way in the high lunge with airplane arms. That step forward to #chairpose #uttkatasana is quite the duzy on the supporting leg!!! I would like to keep my hips over my ankles more as I transition up to #mountainpose #tadasana and back into the forward fold #uttanasana ! Keeping hips level in #standingsplit is a fun challenge, and I am going to keep the lifted leg even straighter next time- I always think it's straight but without a doubt it could have even more support by engaging more through the quadricep. #warrior2 #virabhadrasana2 is nice, although a deeper lunge is definitely available. In the #reversewarrior I was playing with pushing my forearm into my hip crease to both lengthen my spine and assist in pulling shoulders away from my ears. In my transitions to #chaturanga I've really been trying to keep my torso parallel to the floor as I step front foot back to low plank, rather than tenting my hips to make it easier but not necessarily stronger. Notice how I lower my knees in my transition to #upwardfacingdog #urdvamukhasvanasana , I do that to protect my shoulders because they are not quite strong enough yet to push up from the 90 degree bend without strain- someday!!! And last, but not least, I really pull my belly button to spine to protect my low back in the transition from up-dog to #downwardfacingdog #adhumukhasvanasana
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The 10-Transformation is complete, you look and feel amazing!!!! What's next?!? If you are feeling up for it, you could do the whole thing all over again. (Just make sure not to do it for more than 20 days.) If you aren't going to do another 10 days, it's great to have a plan for how you want to maintain the lightness that you've created. Personally, what I've done is to continue with the Core 3: 1 Power Shake/day (in the morning usually), 5 Super Amino 23/day (usually in the afternoon or before I take a yoga class), and 1 tbsp Apotho Cherry (every night before bed). But I've added back in light and healthy meals with tons of veggies and mea What I've done for the last 6 months is, as a Purium Member, I have a backup order set up so I get a discount and the Core 3 automatically ships to me once a month. That's the most affordable way that I've found to do it. And it's become even more affordable since when I give away the $50 gift cards that I get as a member to people that want to use them, then I get $50 direct deposited into my bank account! Win Win! Some great post cleanse recipes:The recipes are from the "Recipes - For Purium Lifestyle" Facebook Page!!! There are tons of amazing recipes in that group! Here is a high protein vegetarian dish I really like. Easy to make, filling and good hot or chilled. 1 cup steamed broccoli 1 cup steamed cauliflower 1 cup steamed snap peas 1/2 cup cooked quinoa 1/4 cup cooked red lentils 2 hard boiled eggs, minced Toss with a drizzle of coconut aminos, a dash of sesame oil, a pinch of cayenne and salt and a light sprinkle of sesame seeds. Makes 2 servings. Some of my favorite flex foods...including a cucumber and blueberry salad! couscous, steamed green peas, chickpeas, cucumber, cubed, fresh basil, olives, lime juice, sliced dates or raisins, avocado, in small cubes, pink salt and black pepper to taste. Losely scoop it together and enjoy! Stew ingredients for 3-4 portions, 1 large onion 2 cloves of garlic 1 medium butternut squash, cut in rounds then in small cubes 2 cups beans, I used kidney beans but into beans would also work 3 tomatoes, chopped 1 large red bell pepper, chopped 1 tbsp. coconut sugar pink salt and black pepper to taste, I added some veggie stock powder handful of fresh basil 1/2 cup chopped parsley Chop the onion and bake for 8 minutes in 2 tsp. coconut oil. Add chopped bell pepper and tomato, bake for another 6 minutes until a bit softened. Add the remaining ingredients except the fresh herbs plus 2 cups of water and let it cook for 25 minutes or until squash is tender. Season to taste and when cooked stir in the fresh herbs. Roasted Beet Hummus
INGREDIENTS 2 small to medium beets, 1 (15.5 oz) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed ¼ cup tahini 3 to 4 cloves garlic 3 Tbsp lemon juice 2 tsp. lemon zest ½ tsp. cumin 1 tsp. sea salt 2 to 3 Tbsp olive oil INSTRUCTIONS Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Trim the leaves of the beets so that just a bit of stem is left then clean and scrub them well. Wrap each beet individually in foil and roast in the oven for 1 hour. Once the beets are done roasting, run them under cold water to make them easier to peel and give them a rough chop. Add all ingredients into the food processor, except for the oil, and puree for 1 to 2 minutes. Scrape the sides and continue pureeing for an additional 30 seconds. Slowly add the oil while the mixture is processing, adding more as needed, until nice and creamy. Serve and enjoy! When I was first introduced to yoga in small town in central Utah in August of 2004, a friend introduced me to some yoga podcasts that we did together. I found myself drawn to certain podcast yoga teachers. They were teachers that physically challenged me in the practice but were also bright and powerful lights inviting me to shine brighter, too. All through audio recordings. A few years into practicing yoga I figured out what the common thread was between those teachers I was most drawn to because of how they left me standing in a bigger way from their yoga classes. That common thread is a man named, Baron Baptiste.
Shortly before Russ and I moved to China I started my journey to becoming a trained yoga teacher and there was no doubt in my mind who I wanted to train with. It was Baron Baptiste!!! My yoga teacher training journey as been like this: It began in Sedona, AZ at the Baptiste Level 1 training where my major takeaways were a giant bag full of tools to help handle my personal baggage. Basically, if I wanted to invite others to shine their lights bright on the yoga mat and in life, then I needed to learn to address my B#%* S@#% so that I could lead by example. When I got back from a year of living in Beijing I went to the Baptiste Art of Assisting Training in Savanna, GA where I was able to learn practical tools to get students into their fullest expressions of the poses with props and hands on assisting. Then, in the fall of 2014, I found myself back in Sedona for the Baptiste Level 2 training where I was able to see that all of my Lakewood, CO yoga students show up to class with their entire life stories and dramas and I am invited to truly be of service to them via the practice of yoga. All three of those trainings added up to a 200 hour yoga teaching certificate from the Baptiste Institute that cost me close to $10,000!!! I am thrilled that Container Collective Yoga is going to be hosting a Baptiste Institute 200 hour Expand Your Power training at CCYOGA from February-May of 2017 for only $3,000 ($3600 if you signup after January 25th, 2017) in our Lakewood, CO yoga studio!!! "Discover for yourself how Baptiste Yoga™ and the Baptiste Methodology™ applies both on and off the mat through yoga asana, meditation, discussion, personal inquiry, contribution, community building, hands-on coaching, assisting and practice teaching. Experience the freedom and effectiveness that emerges from this inspired and embodied practice of Baptiste Yoga™." Talk about a full circle moment!!! Two years ago (in the last quarter of 2014) it was Ava and me (Brittany) and the wagon at free yoga in the park, with maybe one or two participants....Maybe! On Saturday, October 1st, 2016 there were six of us Container Collective Yoga teachers leading the free yoga in the park class with twenty five participants ranging in age from 10 years old to 55 years old. Some of the them were first time yogis and other have been a part of our community yoga studio in Lakewood for over a year! Mind BLOWN!!! Yes, please..Thank you...More of that!!!! I'm beyond grateful for the CCYOGA teaching team and Lakewood, CO community surrounding us with so much light, love, and joy! -After the yoga class, several of us jumped on our bikes for a cruiser ride around Sloan's Lake. Fall was definitely in the air with the cool crisp air and leaves blowing across the bike path. Then there was quite the party across the street at Joyride Brewing Company (a local Colorado brewery). Joyride owners/brewers, Grant and Dave, built bamboo bikes with us a year ago, so it was fun to support their biz by bringing our community to them! We enjoyed bbq and beers and raffled off a ton of great stuff, including a bamboo bike frame, a bamboo bike building workshop, unlimited yoga, and private yoga lessons to our Lakewood, CO bike shop and yoga studio! It'll be fun to see where Container Collective Yoga and Bikes is a year from now. Things in works for Container Collective: - As classes fill up we will continue to add more yoga classes to the schedule and even more fun yoga workshops! - We will be finishing the remodel of the front part of the building this fall. - We are planning to build a second yoga studio/room in the back of the building. - We will be hosting our first 200 hour Yoga Teacher Training this February-May.. - CCBIKES will be traveling around the country leading bamboo bike building workshops at high schools, universities, and police stations. - Russ will be building custom bamboo bike frames for people in addition to teaching others how to build their own! - I (Brittany) will be leading a yoga retreat to Nepal in October 2017. - With the way bike service went this last season, we will definitely be hiring an additional bike mechanic for service/repairs in the spring of 2017. The possibilities are endless for our Lakewood, CO yoga studio and bike shop!
It was the best gift he had ever given me!!!
It was a year and a half ago that Russ came home from China and handed me a beautiful bamboo bicycle frame. The amount of love and labor that he put into that frame brought tears to my eyes. It was a functional work of art that he had given to me!
Since then I have witnessed him teach over 70 people how to build bamboo bikes. With each bamboo frame building workshop he leads, I've been the official photographer, documenting each person building their frames. The care they take when they pick out the bamboo poles they want to use, and cut each piece to fit perfectly is so fun to watch. I especially love that moment when the poles fit together in the frame jig and it actually looks like a bike.
The second day of the workshop is mesmerizing as each person wraps the joints with carbon fiber thread and epoxy. After the workshops are over, I always ask each person if they had fun.
Their expression is always priceless. Because they don't auto respond with a resounding "YES!". They are thoughtful as they contemplate their answers, because the workshop is more than merely fun. Some of the words that have been used to describe the bamboo bicycle frame building workshops are:
Therapeutic. Meditative. Challenging. Rewarding. Awesome!
In this day and age of technology and social media, it has become more and more rare to spend two full days working with your hands to create something so unique and useful. And since we document you building your bike the entire process there is literally no need to even touch your cell phone in the process! So, that would explain why the process is so "therapeutic".
I also love the day about two weeks after, when the builder comes to pick up their completed bicycle. (The frames need to cure for about a week after they are built and then Russ assembles the other parts that you choose once the frame is ready).
It was 2 months ago, when I was sitting in a meditation that I had a vision of myself wrapping carbon fiber thread around the joints of a bamboo bike frame and I remember smiling, when I realized that I had been secretly wanting to be in the CCBIKES bamboo builder club!
As CCYOGA is now two years old, I finally have the ability to take two full days off to build a bamboo bike with my own two hands so I am excited that November 5th-6th will be the days that I, too, become a bamboo bike builder!!! Does anyone else want to join me?!?! Text from the Lakewood, CO Sentinal News Paper Article by Clarke Reader
About me I’m from Texas, and my husband Russ is from Wisconsin. We met while he was in art school and I was dancing professionally in Chicago. We fell in love with Colorado before moving to Utah for eight years to teach at an international school. While in Utah we built, with our own hands, a straw bale home and converted our car to run on waste vegetable oil before moving to Beijing, China, to teach dance and art. We finally made it back to the city we’ve always wanted to live in and are proud to share our passions with the Lakewood community and beyond through The Container Collective. Teaching yoga As a certified Baptiste Yoga instructor, I strive to creates space for my students to feel comfortable and confident to stretch and move beyond their imagination, on and off their yoga mats. With a background as a professional dancer and dance instructor I try to make my yoga classes fun, fluid and challenging. I get to watch a student walk through the door with the weight of their day on their shoulders. As they practice yoga they put their body into physically challenging positions that strengthen and stretch all parts of their bodies while being asked to breathe calmly. It is so rewarding to see each student transform over the course of an hour. The yoga and biking lifestyle For my husband, Russ, riding bikes isn’t just a hobby — it’s a lifestyle. While he was teaching in China for two years he apprenticed with David Wang of Bamboo Bikes Beijing to learn the bamboo bike-building process. I moved to Lakewood from Beijing in August of 2014 and started Container Collective Yoga with free Yoga in the Park. I offered classes all around the Denver metro area to see which area had the greatest need for yoga. I was drawn to West Colfax because of the character of the people and the commitment to the arts and wanted to be a part of what made this area thrive again. Russ moved back from China in August of 2015 to get Container Collective Bikes started by leading bamboo bike frame-building workshops, as well as doing bike repair and service. What makes West Colfax special We are excited about all that is happening with West Colfax and the 40 West Arts District. We love the character of the community and its commitment to growth. We’ve hosted several Mural Tour Bike Rides around West Colfax to celebrate all of the public art on display in the area. If you have suggestions for My Name Is ..., contact Clarke Reader at creader@coloradocommunitymedia.com. Keywords Clarke Reader, Lakewood, Brittany Hopkins, Russ Hopkins, yoga, cycling, Container Collective Yoga and Bikes, West Colfax, My Name Is CCBIKES Leads Bamboo Bike Building Workshop at MIT The text message read, "Do you want to build bamboo bikes at MIT?" It was from David Wang, the founder of Bamboo Bicycles Beijing. He's the guy that Russ, the owner of Container Collective Bikes, in Lakewood, CO learned from when he lived in Beijing! So at the end of August, Russ flew out to Boston to help 21 MIT (as in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology) students build 9 bamboo bikes in 3 days. This was an epic undertaking, but they did and they sure had fun doing it! When we worked with Colorado Academy at Container Collective Bikes, 12 high school students age 14-18 we really got to focus on the following: ENGAGE YOUR STUDENTS with practical life skills and a project that they can ride away on! Led by Russ Hopkins, a college preparatory educator with 10+ years experience working with students in project based experiential learning.
What your students will learn:
10 Day Cleanse with Our Lakewood, Colorado Yoga StudioI had totally fallen off of the wagon of my healthy eating habits and just couldn't stay away from cookies, sodas, and chips. What kind of yoga teacher and yoga studio owner eats all that junk?!?! The real kicker for me was that my expensive yoga pants weren't fitting and I didn't want to have to buy new ones! One afternoon in early summer one of my friends, that also owns a yoga studio, let me try one of her green shakes and it blew my mind because it tasted like a blueberry muffin!!!
As it turns out this tasty shake was a key component in 10 day cleanse involving the green shake, some vegan protein supplements, electrolytes, and alternated between eating fruits/veggies and drinking these tasty shakes. My curiosity was peeked and I thought, "Why not?!?! Instead of spending my money on the junk food for ten days, I'll spend it on these healthy green shakes!" It turns out it was so easy because over the course of the cleanse, I was getting to eat and drink all day everyday!!! And believe me, I love eating all day! It was wild to see the progress over the 10 days with every day watching the "extra" melt away with my cravings and my pants were fitting better by the minute! The part that really sealed the deal for me wasn't just that my pants fit so quickly, it was that on day ten of the cleanse was also the day that we had a guest yoga teacher, Dave Farmar coming to teach at the studio that night. His classes always kick my butt!!! Two side notes here: 1: I had my nutritionist look at the products and ingredients and she approved!!! 2: I've always told myself that "I need meat protein to feel good and strong". But at the end of the day transformation I took Dave Farmar's class having only had fruits, veggies, these tasty shakes, and the vegan protein supplements for ten days, aaaaaaand I felt like a rock star in his really challenging yoga class!!!! I felt strong and powerful! My pants fit, and I kicked my cravings for the junk foods!!! As you can tell, I'm pretty excited about it and I am even more excited to do it with our community October 1-10. To find out more about the 10 Day Transformation email us using the form below or ask one of the teachers the next time you come to class at Container Collective Yoga in Lakewood, CO! Even if you don't live anywhere near our Lakewood, CO yoga studio, you can join in the fun. Still use the email form below and will get you the link to the cleanse and you can participate with us from far away!!! ~Show up early to get settled.
~Stop by the desk to say "Hi!" and check in before your yoga class. (We are pretty good with names, but it's always helpful to remind us!) ~No shoes in the yoga studio. ~Keep the door to the yoga room closed behind you. ~Please no perfumes or body odors. (Even though you are likely to sweat please shower before coming to class.) ~Slightly stagger your mat with your neighbor and keep straps and blocks at top of your mat (This makes being close to your neighbor's mat more comfortable) ~Lower volume of conversations in the yoga studio ~Golden rule applies with clothing (ex. If you don't want to see through other people's yoga pants make sure they can't see through yours.) ~Let the yoga teacher know about any injuries or health concerns or if you prefer to not have hands on assist before class. ~We are so grateful you are a member of our yoga community here in Lakewood, CO!!! Keep being awesome! My friend, Sarah called me one morning in the middle of a huge fight with her friend, Joe. As Sarah was telling the whole story, I could tell that she was incredibly overwhelmed and stuck in the swirl that was just taking her down down down down down into the pit of despair. I knew that it wouldn't be helpful for me to jump in the mud with her, even though that is what I really wanted to do, since I could see all of the ways in which she had been wronged by Joe! Thankfully as she finished up her story she said, "I wanted to talk to you to see if you could help me see this from a different perspective." Wow! This was going to be quite the doozy to sort through the muck and the mud to find a way out of this drama triangle. But I was also excited to see if some of the tools I learned at yoga teacher training could be useful in this non-yoga situation. Yoga is a practice. Just like you practice soccer for soccer games. Or you practice piano for performances. You practice yoga, to prepare yourself for real life. You put yourself in a challenging pose/situation and ask your body to breathe to tell your brain that everything is okay, we aren't actually running from lions and tigers. From that space of calm amidst the challenge you can think and act more clearly. Back to how we were going to use yoga to help Sarah through this challenge with Joe. The first tool I learned from my yoga teacher training that we talked through was the "Drama Triangle". In any given situation with another person/s where you are not feeling at peace you are likely playing one of three roles in the drama triangle: 1- the victim (the one being wronged) 2- the perpetrator/persecutor (the one making someone else wrong) 3- the rescuer (the one making the victim feel justified in their victim-ness or the perpetrator feel justified in making the other person wrong) If you are playing any or all of these roles then you are not your most powerful and effective self. Sarah and I talked through how, even though we could both see how Joe had "wronged her", sitting in that space of victim was not going to help her find resolve or be powerful. Neither was her flailing in the space of perpetrator, making Joe wrong over and over again in her mind going to help her find resolve. And as much as I felt totally justified, willing and very able to play the rescuer, that was not going to help Sarah be her most powerful self either! She laughed as she asked, "So how do I get out of the drama triangle? Just let it go?" To which I said, "Well can you just let it go?" long pause...crickets... "But I'm right! Joe is wrong. He needs to know he is wrong. But there's no way to make him see that he's wrong." Down down down she spiraled. This moment of Sarah wanting to make Joe wrong reminded me of a second helpful tool from my yoga teacher training bag of tricks. The addiction we have to being right. Did you know that there is a place in your brain that gets a hit of dopamine every time you are right?!?! As in the dopamine that makes you feel awesome when you take various kinds of drugs. So every time you make someone wrong, it's like you just won a prize, ding! ding! ding! You win! You get a hit of a super awesome chemical in your brain which makes your body feel awesome! That's why the "Ha! I told you so!!!" that we often experience, or seek out in life, is so very wonderful!!! So back to Sarah in the drama triangle. Her emotional self was planning to just keep spinning and spiralling down down down until she got her fix, the dopamine hit from making Joe know that he was wrong! So who's the victim and who's the perpetrator now?!?! Lines were getting a little blurry now. And it's looking like this perp, Sarah, would likely never get her prize, the dopamine hit, because Joe was not showing any signs of realizing he was at fault, let alone admitting fault. So we needed to pull out another tool from the tool chest. We needed to get to the actual root of the problem that was causing all of this drama. The question now was. "What is Joe's fundamental concern?" As in, what is his major focus or reason for being and doing the things he does? Sarah's automatic response was. "Himself. His only concern is himself, which is why he so willingingly and carelessly walks all over everyone else." The rescuer in me jumped right on board in agreement! "Yep, totally. Everything he does is for himself." But that sucks! Surely there is more to this, otherwise this useful yoga teacher training tool, was not going to work! So we dug deeper. With some thought we were able to remember/recognize that Joe had had a very intense life, with major health issue after health issue, some trauma and abuse. We were finally able to see that Joe wasn't surface level being selfish in life. He was unconsciously trying to practice self-care. Yes, every action and decision was all about how he was going to manipulate things in his favor. But it was hard to argue with the fact that all of his actions were coming from a very tender place of self preservation and survival. So, at this point Sarah and I could agree that while we don't have to agree with the actions Joe took that very negatively impacted Sarah, we couldn't argue with the fact that Joe's fundamental concern was actually his practice of self care. Great! That's awesome! So for a moment we were both able to step outside of the drama triangle and see that by holding onto the anger and the story of how Joe wronged her, it was like Sarah was carrying around a bag of heavy rock that only she was choosing to carry.. How could she be her most powerful self if she is holding onto all of this drama!!! With compassion and empathy for Joe's fundamental concern, Sarah was able to set down the heavy bag of "rocks" (reasons for being upset) that made her the victim. She was able to set down the other "rocks" (the list of reasons why the Joe was wrong) that made her the perpetrator. I was no longer trying to hand Sarah any more "rocks" as a rescuer. And for a brief moment I could feel the sense of peace over the phone. And then... Sarah said, "But I just want to pick up all of the rocks and throw them at his face!" Ha! And just like that, Sarah was sucked back into the drama triangle! And then the practice of yoga began... one moment at a time, one breath at a time. She took another step out of the drama triangle and said, "But I don't want to carry all of these rocks. I'm going to have to just let them go." And just a soon as she let them go, she picked the rocks back up again. And that practice of setting the rocks down continued and will likely continue until the situation is on an actual human practical level resolved because these two will have to continue to interact for atleast several more weeks. So we devised a plan: 1- to notice the physical sensations in her chest as a reminder to let her know that she unintentionally picked up the bag of "rocks" again and that she should take some deep breaths and let them go once again. 2-- in any situations with Joe, Sarah will likely be more successful if she lets go of her need to be "right" 3- rather than interacting with Joe's habits of manipulation and selfishness. She is going to try to instead interact with Joe's fundamental concern of self-care and doing what he needs to do for self-preservation. Sarah will be coming from a place of compassion and empathy instead. It's definitely going to be a practice of yoga off the mat into real life. Who knew that my yoga teacher training was going impact my life in such a more meaningful way than learning about some poses! |