About Tracy Bee

Vancouver Yoga Review's Co-Founder, Tracy, is a traveler first and foremost. Her affliction for embarking on global exploits is virtually unmatchable (okay, except perhaps by Taya!). Travel is her life, in fact. When not in Vancouver, she travels the globe producing exciting videos that are featured throughout the webosphere as well as across major US networks. In recent months, she's traveled/filmed in El Salvador, Mexico, Guatemala and the Bahamas. A couple of her favorite travel memories include enjoying midnight tea with Egyptian friends in Cairo and searching for the world's best taco (the spicier, the better!) in Mexico City. Through all of her travels though, she is always plainly aware that the journey is indeed far more important than any destination. 

Which is why she loves yoga. Yoga is a journey she began a couple years ago, and she is constantly inspired by all of the wonders (and inspiring yogis and yoginis) she discovers along this path.

Posts by Tracy Bee:

Instructor Review: Jack Black as a Vancouver Yogi?

Instructor Review: Jack Black as a Vancouver Yogi?

Tracy / Reviews, Teachers, Yogis / , , / 1 Comment

Okay, I know the title of this post is a bit alarming… Jack Black as a yogi? In Vancouver? Jack Black as a yogi, period, seems an odd enough thought, right?

So, okay…here’s where I’m coming from on this one.

This morning, Taya and I attended a class at Semperviva’s newest location — 4th Ave and Yew — and the class was instructed by Dan Lindsay. It was our first time taking a class from Dan and, truth be told, our first class in a while. We’ve both been so wrapped up in our lives, that yoga has sort slipped off of the regular schedule. But today we changed that and, now that I’m back in town for a while, we’re making the effort to get back into the yogi groove. Yet, today, as Taya and I limbered up, freeing our muscles from too many days without yoga and flowing with Dan’s very well planned class, I couldn’t help smiling for a completely different reason. Sure I felt free and happy to be in that moment, as one should be in any yoga class…but my mind was also drifting off somewhere else…to Jack Black.

I couldn’t help but thinking (and internally giggling a little at this thought) that Dan reminded me of Jack Black…if Jack Black were to become a yogi, that is! Dan’s hair is a bit lighter, he’s surely fitter, and he wasn’t cracking zany jokes…but the basic similarity in overall build, hair length and facial features were definitely there. More than anything though, it’s the voice that got me. As Dan expertly guided us through the hour’s many moves and flows, I really couldn’t stop thinking about how much his deep voice and strong articulations were so much like those of Jack Black (and reminiscent of Jack’s character meticulously instructing his students during “School of Rock.”) Yes…if Jack black were to go healthy, lighten his hair a bit, pull it back in a yogi-tail and strike a warrior pose, you’d be looking at Dan!

Believe me, I know. It’s more than a bit crazy of me to be thinking of Jack Black while doing yoga! But I’ve always been one to attach people’s voices and overall looks to celebrities. People are always reminding me of one celebrity or another. It’s sorta my thing. So, of course, this is all just my crazy opinion… You may not agree. So, you’ll have to attend one of Dan’s classes and decide!

Dan’s classes are a great blend of hatha stretches and flow with some yin stretches thrown in at the end. I felt very gradually limbered up and invigorated from the class! Jack Black references aside, I highly recommend attending one of Dan Lindsay’s classes! He’d probably make my Top 10 list of favorite instructors in Vancouver, in fact! So, go check out his class when you get a chance (and leave a comment below with YOUR thoughts on it)!


 PS — You’ll note on Dan’s Semperviva bio that he is a very musical guy, having loved music his whole life, and going so far as to say  “I always seem to have my own internal soundtrack playing in my mind as I move through life.”  So is Jack Black. (And this comment actually sort of reminded me of Jack Black’s character as a soundtrack writer in “The Holiday”!) Maybe I’m not so crazy after all…?

What Yoga is REALLY about…

Tracy / Studios, Styles / , , , / 0 Comment

I have to agree with Devante. Brenna’s Saturday night yoga class at Open Door Yoga in Kitsilano is definitely one of my favorite yoga classes in the city.

I’m a bit worried about saying this now though… I don’t want so many people to start flocking to her classes that it changes them.  The thing about a Brenna yoga class is that it simply is what it is. I love that the classes are uncrowded and unpretentious. It’s not yoga, the trend. It’s yoga in its simplest, purest form. It’s about being in the moment, embracing the moment.

Basically, the best thing about Brenna’s class is what it is not. Brenna’s yoga class is not about trying too hard. It is not about trying to be perfect.

We’ve been to a lot of yoga classes in Vancouver and far too many where the instructor has been beyond obsessed with form. While most instructors say that yoga is an individual journey, and that yoga is for every body, few instructors truly embrace this concept. So many yoga instructors try to define your yoga practice for you. They say they are yogis or yoginis, but they are quite often simply athletes who merely practice yoga. Instead of embracing yoga, they seek to master it, focusing on its form and technique. They push. They correct. They are forever moving around the room, perfecting movements and postures. They tell you how to get the most out of your journey rather than to embrace it. “You need to stretch this way. Or do this. Or put your hand here.”

Is that really how to get the most out of my yoga experience? What about yoga being a personal journey? Don’t I know my body better than anyone else? So long as I am guided through the posture verbally by the teacher, with any safety considerations pointed out, I should be able to take my body to its personal sweet spot during that class. Whatever I can do and feel in that moment is what I can feel and do in that moment. Nothing more, nothing less. That is, after all, the beauty of yoga. It’s all about feeling the moment, seeing where I can go in that moment.

So excuse me if I don’t want to be taken out of my moment by someone else hovering over me, defining my moment for me, telling me how to feel it.  It throws me off focus, gosh dang it! Seriously. Unless there’s a safety concern in the way I’m doing my posture, please just leave me to my moment. And a good teacher knows this.

Besides,  while everyone is on an individual yoga journey, isn’t the idea of practicing yoga in a class about sharing in a yoga practice? So what does it say when the class teacher doesn’t share in the moment?

So, props to you Brenna Coupland for actually embracing the very essence of yoga. Your classes are what yoga is really all about…

P.S. — We did a bit of investigating and Brenna teaches a few weekly classes at Yogacara in Kitsilano as well. She also calls herself the Yoga Bee and has a blog and youtube channel…

(Stay tuned — next week we’ll blog about Vancouver’s best yoga  instructors. Besides Brenna, there are a few worthy of mention here).

Vancouver and a brief History of Yoga

Tracy / Styles / , / 1 Comment

Anyone who has been to Vancouver knows that it is a very fitness conscious city.  In fact, Vancouver was ranked Canada’s healthiest city in 2008 by Best Health Magazine . It is easy to see why Vancouver is Canada’s fittest city, not to mention one of the healthiest cities in North America. On any given day in Vancouver’s Yaletown and Kitsilano neighbourhoods, bicycles, running shoes and, of course, yoga mats are ubiquitous.

So, you may be wondering…what’s the deal with yoga? Who dreamt up this twisty, bendy exercise series anyway?

yogi
Yoga has its origins in the Indus Valley (India). Some research suggests that the practice of yoga could be more than 10,000 years old.  It was first practiced to help people reach spiritual enlightenment but has recently become popular for its overall contribution to healthy living and weight management.  Yoga has also evolved over time into various forms and styles.

The word yoga, in Indian sanskrit, has many meanings, most of which relate to  “joining” or “uniting.” This translation is not surprising, considering that yoga is often associated with meditation and, originally, the combination of meditation and movements were meant to unite yogis with their higher selves. Essentially, yoga began as a way to unite the mind, body and spirit.

In 1893,  Swami Vivekananda attracted a lot of attention in America when he spoke about the benefits of yoga at the Parliament of Religions in Chicago. However, the number of people practicing yoga remained few and, when practiced in the west, yoga was interpreted as merely a physical practice rather than as a spiritual one.

It wasn’t until Indra Devi made history by opening a yoga studio in Hollywood, in 1947, that yoga became more widely practiced in America.  Since then, aided by an increasing number of celebrity followers who have sworn by its benefits, yoga has been sweeping North America. While most North American yoga studios do still focus on the body over the mind, there is an increasing number of studios bringing a spiritual aspect back into the practice.

indra

These days, many celebrities and professional athletes are committed yogis. Drew Barrymore, Jennifer Aniston, Madonna, Halle Barry — to name a few — are often snapped leaving yoga studios. Southern California abounds with yoga studios, as does the Canadian and American west coast in general. In Canada, Vancouver is now home to some of Canada’s most advanced and largest yoga studios.

drew_barrymore300_-_flynet

When they are in town for promotions or filming, celebrity yogis are always impressed by Vancouver’s yoga studios. Quite recently, while in Vancouver filming the latest Twilight movie, Peter Facinelli was snapped leaving a downtown yoga studio. Steve Nash has also made state-of-the-art yoga studios an important part of his new Steve Nash Sports Clubs, in downtown Vancouver and Richmond.

Have you seen any celebrities doing yoga in Vancouver lately?

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...