Jenny Burrill’s FREE Yoga Sundays at 2 pm! All Levels Welcome!

Are you looking for a beneficial yoga class or perhaps, if you’re a beginner, a non-intimidating, easy-to-follow, thoughtful introduction? Try your hand (and your soul, and your breathing, and your peace of mind) at Sunday yoga at Old First.

Our own Jenny Burrill is leading a yoga session now every Sunday afternoon at the church, starting at 2 pm. Classes run a little more than an hour. It’s tailored for all levels (even absolute beginners) and focuses on integrating your breathing and your body. And it’s absolutely free!

Here, we ask Jenny about what yoga means to her and what it could mean to you:

“Yoga is a practice, a practice of slowing down. While we practice, the real intention is to bring it to our everyday life. This begins a relationship that grows.” Jenny Burrill 

What are the immediate benefits of yoga? 

You would think that yoga is meant mostly for your body, but it is equally — or maybe even more so — meant for your mind. It’s about integrating your mind and body so that you increase your overall awareness of both.

How is this done? 

The real connection between your body and your mind is in your breath. When we decide to be present with our bodies, the breath is most obvious and apparent because it’s naturally moving at all times. Your breath is almost like a lighthouse, to help you, to guide you. I think of the breath as a good friend that you can always rely on. It will always tell you the truth.

With anxiety or anything that feels uncomfortable, usually our breath is also uncomfortable. When you have anxiety, you are not breathing fully. I sometimes have to remind myself that it’s okay to slow down.

Is it difficult to learn how to slow down? 

Yoga is a practice, a practice of slowing down. While we practice, the real intention is to bring it to our everyday life. This begins a relationship that grows.

Everybody has their own technique or their own method [for slowing down]. For some people, it’s in the arts. For others, it might be in athletics. You have to get yourself into a gear where you really have to listen to your inner thoughts, without being rattled. You have to clear your mind.

I think of  yoga not in the way that it has become so popular, like a fad. Yoga is more about bringing our consciousness into our living.

Is meditation a part of yoga? 

I don’t draw a thick line between yoga and meditation. They’re very connected and in some practices they are really the same. It’s not really one or the other. They really inform each other.

If I was going to say one was more important, I would say meditation, because yoga is really more about the mind than we realize. It’s less about the body and more about the mind.

When we start making a judgement about ourselves — for instance, thinking, “I can’t do that pose!” — that takes us out of ourselves. So that’s why yoga is meant to be a personal, private practice. But when you come to class, that’s good too, because you learn. You’re not learning about what the teacher is demonstating as much as you are learning about yourself. And that’s the gift of it.

“With slow yoga — those who are called to it — you can find an internal space where you can find rest. Acceptance, humility, rest. It gives you the kind of rest where you are actually restored.” Jenny Burrill

What is slow yoga? 

That’s just my way of calling more attention to slowing down. The purpose of being in the body really gives us the opportunity to slow down when we practice. We are just saying “yes” to our body instead of running around and trying to get everything done.

We’re saying it’s okay to stop and be present with our body. Our bodies have much resistence, like our minds do. For instance, when you say, “I don’t have flexiblity.” or “I don’t feel comfortable sitting like this.” The mind starts saying all these things instead of allowing our breath to slow us down and to be present with ourselves. When you slow down, you are inviting more humility and more acceptance of yourself. There is this great sense of self-acceptance, really.

It ends up not just including your body but it includes everything in your life. Your mind is this constant thing that’s on. You’re going to be thinking about all these other things that are bothering you or things that are difficult or challenging. Or maybe they’re awesome, like you can’t wait to go to dinner or on vacation. It’s really adjusting both the mind and the body.

With slow yoga — those who are called to it — you can find an internal space where you can find rest. Acceptance, humility, rest. It gives you the kind of rest where you are actually restored.

Yoga in general should be restorative so that it brings you back to a place where you are feeling more integrated with your body and your mind.

Jenny also leads a yoga class on Wednesdays at 12 noon at Old First. Read more about it here.

For both of Jenny’s classes, no RSVP is needed. Yoga mats can also be provided.