New Year, New Intentions

by Erin Ipjian

The New Year is upon us, and we'd like to suggest that intention setting is the new "New Years Resolution." While resolutions are often rooted in something we deem to be wrong with ourselves, intentions invite us to connect with a positive quality to cultivate. Resolutions are often disparaging, while intentions are based on self-respect. And, practically-speaking, resolutions are frequently broken, while intentions remain with us as guideposts for as long as they continue to resonate.

So, this new year, let's ditch the new years resolutions and set our intentions together. See you on the mat, in studio, live online via zoom, or via recording. We can't wait to see you there!

Your Mat, Your Space to Explore

by Erin Ipjian

Your mat, your space to explore.

Ultimately, yoga isn't about memorizing alignment cues, but rather, an empowering invitation to remain in the inquiry.

Next time you hit your mat, try this - feel out the suggestions of your teacher in the laboratory of your own mat so you learn what resonates with you.

Yoga is a process of moving towards self awareness, so let’s test, validate, and find what works best in our own bodies each time we step into the practice.

Thanks for practicing & remaining in the inquiry with us, Evolution friends. See you on the mat!

Effort & Ease

by Erin Ipjian

If you’ve been studying and practicing yoga for some time, chances are pretty good that you’ve come across this suggestion from Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras,

sthira sukham asanam

Postures should be practiced with steadiness and ease.

Yoga Sutra 2.46. While this advice sounds simple enough, the truth is we can spend a lifetime exploring the balance between these forces, both on the mat and off. At times - on the mat - our practice can be quite demanding, challenging us to find our balance, stay a bit longer than we might otherwise believe we can, or experiment with a movement we have never tried before. Sometimes we surprise ourselves, finding a strength we didn’t know we had.

Left unchecked, however, this energy can leave us depleted, never knowing the feeling of having done enough. Here’s where the ease comes into play. Those moments when we soften into child’s pose, feel the weight of our bones anchor down in Savasana, or even practice a method like yin yoga or restorative that invite us to completely soften, we practice the equally important art of letting go.

With a dedicated practice, we become more adept at navigating this interplay of effort and ease. We might even find that the lessons gained from our practice help us believe in our ability to do hard things and yet recognize when it is time to give ourselves (and others) a little grace.

So, here’s to a lifetime of finding balance, on the mat and off. We’re here all week with plenty of opportunities - in studio and online - to help you find it.

Intentions for the New Year

by Erin Ipjian

pictured here, Evolution Teacher Britt Chemla Jones

We hope everyone's holidays were merry and bright. As we turn towards intentions for the new year, let's do our best to do so with as much gratitude as we can muster for a year we are sure to never forget. So many aspects of our lives narrowed in 2020, bringing what is most important into greater focus. We look forward to practicing with you online (and hopefully in person too!) in 2021. All classes are one hour in length and available as recordings. See you on the mat!

Yoga for Resilience

by Erin Ipjian

To be honest, a pandemic feels like the perfect time to explore a practice that’s designed to both develop resilience and the capacity to let go. Yoga can be a lifeline in difficult circumstances, reminding us that we have so much to be grateful for, even during times when it is otherwise easy to forget. If you find that’s the case for you as well, we’d love to practice with you on the virtual mat this week.

Yoga in a Pandemic

by Erin Ipjian

One of the (many) things we love about yoga...while the philosophical underpinnings of the practice are deep, the methods are incredibly straightforward. In short, we are asked to make space to breathe, move, and observe — every day, no matter what.
So, while we are faced with the daily onslaught of terrifying news and our very realistic fears about the safety of friends, family, even ourselves, now is the time to put our practice to work. Let’s give ourselves the space to show up to our mats — moving, breathing, and sitting every day — so that we can show up for our friends, family, and each unprecedented moment as it arises.
See you on the virtual mat, Evolution yogis. All the details you need to know to join us for class can be found on the “class schedule” page at evolutionyogaglenview.com. We would love to see you there.

Back to Center

by Erin Ipjian

“A stable mind is like the hub of a wheel. The world may spin around you, but the mind is steady.” -BKS Iyengar

Just in case your mind is spinning from the intensity of the current news cycle, check this out - a solid, stabilizing practice to bring us back to center. See you on the mat, Evolution yogis.

Empowering our Students

by Erin Ipjian

As a yoga teacher, I think one of the most important skills we can develop is that of the art of communication. I reflect on the content I share and the words I choose all the time to ensure that they convey what I actually intend.

Here’s a term I recently found myself using - “full expression of the pose.” I’ve said it many times before in class, but this time - as the words left my mouth - I realized I wanted to refine that language. It’s a well-intentioned phrase often heard in the yoga community meant to capture the version of the pose you might see in “Light on Yoga” or “Yoga Journal.”

What bothers me about the term is that it creates a hierarchy of practices. It suggests that any expressions of the pose besides the “full” are merely lead ups...that maybe our students will finally do the real yoga when they someday reach the “full expression of the pose.”

To be clear, I love challenging myself and my students in the practice, but I firmly believe that our asana practice is designed to embody the fundamental principles of yoga: integration and wholeness. Sometimes when practicing Trikonasana, for example, I feel integrated taking my bottom hand to the floor. Sometimes I don’t. If I’m really paying attention as I move, I can sense that each day I come to the mat, my expression of the pose - where I sense wholeness, integration, and cohesiveness - is a little different.

I believe my work as a yoga teacher is to empower students with the understanding that the yoga is happening now - in their current expression of the pose. And that they are the only person in the room who can determine what their full expression of the pose is that day. And, while we will always continue to explore, be curious, and refine, the place where we find wholeness and integration (aka yoga) is when we are actually paying attention, observing, and allowing the form to be what it is.

Connecting to the Changeless

by Erin Ipjian

Yoga helps us to see beyond our unease because it continually points us towards the place within that is unchanging. Nailing a perfect pose won’t change your life. But here is what might - a continual return to a practice guided by curiosity, exploration, and humility. If we’re paying attention along the way, we just might find ourselves remembering - we are whole, complete, and perfect as is. And, that never changes.

So, here’s to exploring and connecting on the mat. We can’t wait to see you in class this week, Evolution yogis!

Evolution Class Schedule

Refining your Practice

by Erin Ipjian

There’s a funny thing we do in yoga: we spend years learning and refining the poses, attentive to the smallest of details, like the grounding of the outer seam of the foot or the reach through the ring finger. And, yet, we learn that the pose is not the point. So then, what is the point?

Maybe it’s this: maybe all the physical refinements make this practice what it is - a moving meditation. Maybe there is some value to learning how to be attentive to the details of the pose while still dispersing our awareness throughout the entire body, aware of ourselves as a full, integrated whole. Maybe this skill can even translate off the mat - this capacity to attend to the required minutiae of everyday life without losing ourselves in the process. Maybe that is how the practice helps us remain connected to our broader purpose.

So, then, perhaps the details really do matter, even if they ultimately aren’t the point.

Happy International Day of Yoga!

by Erin Ipjian

People have been moving, breathing, sitting in stillness, and observing - in other words, practicing yoga - for thousands of years. On today, the International Day of Yoga, here are the top 4 lessons that we continue to learn from our daily practice and aim to share at Evolution:

1. You are not your body. Move your body, challenge it, explore, but please don’t ever forget - you are not your body. Don’t use this practice to sculpt, flatten, or reshape. Use it as a celebration of the incredible gift you have been given. Move as a way to root out dysfunction when possible, to build resilience, and to fully embody the precious container through which you experience this life. Your body is a gift. Treat it accordingly.

2. You are not your mind. This lesson is trickier than #1. Here’s why. Your mind is the lens through which you view and interpret the world. It will misperceive, misunderstand, and compare. It is capable of incredible creativity and innovation. It is also capable of overriding the truth and fueling destruction, as history constantly reminds us. Don’t believe everything you think. In fact, examine everything you think. Hold it up to the light of discernment. Spend time in silence, notice how your mind moves and the unconscious patterns it continually returns to.

3. Know that you are connected to everyone and everything around you. In short, their pain is your pain. Their joy is your joy. Life is not about getting ahead. It’s about fully connecting to who you are, for real, at your core, and sharing that with the world and everyone around you. Be vulnerable and honest and seek connection with those who do the same.

4. Keep practicing. It’s really easy to not make time for #1 and #2. We all get busy. It’s also really easy to forget #3. This practice only works if we continually return to it. You are never done learning. You are never done practicing. You are never done evolving. There is always a greater understanding to uncover.

Happy International Day of Yoga, dear yogis. See you on the mat.

Evolution Yoga

Yoga & Movement

by Erin Ipjian

Much of modern yoga practice centers on movement. Attentive movement focuses our mind, soothes our nervous system, and is vital to living well. It’s the perfect entry point to the practice of yoga.

But, here’s the thing - ultimately yoga is not about movement. It’s not about sticking the pose. The pose is a tool, not a goal.

I think of yoga asana as a method of recalibrating the body and reigniting our awareness so that we can more effectively sit still with ourselves. The real beauty of this practice is that it provides us with a method to quiet the incessant chatter in our minds. It guides us towards the vast openness that lies underneath. That is what I hope to share with my students. And it is what keeps me coming back to this practice day after day.

Yoga for Clarity

by Erin Ipjian

All of the techniques of yoga - movement, breath, meditation - are really designed with one goal in mind: to free ourselves from the ways in which we fail to see clearly.
.
The om symbol itself is a beautiful and succinct visual representation of our states of consciousness and the veil that obscures our perception.
.
The premise is something like this: many of us live in illusion, misunderstanding who we are, misidentifying ourselves with the little “I.” We think too small. We unconsciously move through the world from a place of separateness, filtering each moment through a mind jumbled with old ways of thinking picked up along the course of our lives.

.
Yoga, on the other hand, gives us the tools to break free, to see ourselves and those around us for who we truly are without judgment, and to move forward in our lives with newfound clarity. All that is required is our dedication to the practice. See you on the mat, Evolution yogis. ❤️

Letting Go

by Erin Ipjian

One of our responsibilities as yogis is to continually scan the stories and mental patterns (samskaras) that shape the lens through which we perceive the world. .
.
Unless we live in a cave, it’s nearly impossible to move through life without picking up a collection of viewpoints and conditioning. By adulthood, our lens of perception (citta), can become quite muddied. Some of us spend our entire lives never examining these patterns, only making them stronger by continually revisiting them.
.
Yoga, on the other hand, challenges us to disrupt our patterns, to discern whether our mental loops are true or useful, and to let go of the ones that do not serve us.
.
And though it may seem easier to not do the work, the benefit of remaining dedicated to our practice is huge. Over time, we begin to shed our samskaras. We become more adept at meeting the world with greater clarity, authenticity, and openness. This is where life starts to get really good. We begin to effortlessly create and express what we were meant to share with the world. We become steady and sure of ourselves. We get out of our own way. We fulfill our dharma. .
.
This is what drives us to return, again and again, to our mats. Thank you, as always, for doing the work and choosing to practice with us, Evolution yogis. We’ll see you in class.

Finding Balance

by Erin Ipjian

Each time we come to the mat, yoga invites us to engage in an exploration of opposing forces. A well-crafted practice will draw us to center - the place where we are neither too far in one direction or the other. One of yoga's most commonly explored pairings is that of steady, persistent effort (abhyasa) on the one hand, and non-attachment to the end-result (vairagya) on the other. 

Steady, persistent effort, without the pairing of non-attachment, sends us into an endless cycle of seeking more and more, where nothing is ever enough. Complete non-attachment, devoid of effort, on the other hand, leads to inertia. Finding the balance between these two is challenging to say the least, and that's exactly why yoga is a lifelong endeavor.

So, here's to endeavoring to strike the perfect balance -- coming back to the mat, again and again, engaging in this beautiful practice, softening into acceptance, and noticing how the balance plays out beyond the mat.

Yoga as Training Ground for Life

by Erin Ipjian

I like to think of yoga practice as training ground for life. Within each posture is a lifetime’s worth of opportunities to explore and refine. Each pose is an invitation to identify where we are exerting needless energy, focus our attention and resources, and observe how we respond in the face of challenge or failure. We test the frailties of the ego by playing with our edge and learn over time to develop a genuine curiosity for the noise the mind creates both on the mat and off so that, ultimately, we can begin to see beyond it.