Recommended soundtrack Gimme Sympathy by Metric
It’s no secret I’ve been a fan of Jessamyn Stanley for a while now.
https://fitisafeministissue.com/2020/10/24/nat-reads-every-body-yoga-by-jessamyn-stanley/
In January she had a sale on for an annual subscription to
www.theunderbelly.com and I thought “uh yesss!”
The subscription unlocks video content that is parceled both in terms of explaining yoga postures, elements based flows, and remedies.
The first class I tried was “stiff kitty”. At just under 20 minutes it was a short class to help alleviate upper back and neck tension. My partner joined me as we went through the class.
I appreciated her frank discussion of biomedical stuff, like lifting bellies off thighs or how your hand freaks out sometimes. Jessamyn acknowledges that we do yoga in the spaces we have available to us in our bodies, no striving for perfection, rather radical self love and acceptance. I feel at home in her classes.
The time flew by as we went through a series of seated postures. Her approach to twists got me to a new awareness and engagement in my body. Pure gold. My partner and I both felt much better after the class. Yay!
Jessamyn’s delivery includes swearing. That works for me. She is an advocate for the legalization of marijuana. I live in Canada so that is not controversial for me. More than that, she shares her challenges, what she finds helpful and invites you to explore your practice with self compassion.
She is also hilarious and her wonderful sense of humour keeps me from taking myself too seriously or adding tension to my practice.
But also. Friends. She added a class in April 2021 called 1-900-sexercise and I have never felt so seen.
It’s a class about opening up hips, about feeling good about being on top, and celebrating what our bodies can do.
After having gone through a lot of the content I realized the thing that most impacted me about Jessamyn’s facilitation style is her class is ABOUT ME. Unlike other instructors who seem to be putting themselves out there demonstrating advanced postures with a smile, Jessamyn dials it down so I can try something new.
Of course she can do all kinds of amazingly impressive postures, she’s a professional athlete! But her classes are not about that, they are about you and me being on the mat, trying new things, revisiting old favourites, and taking time to care for ourselves.
My absolute favourite class is a twenty minute meditation class found in the “sprouts” section called “Open Mind”.
Have you found a new way to approach exercise that is working for you?
