I thought I was done blogging here (mostly) but sadly my new domain is on hold while I sort out issues with the absolute worst web hosting service ever.
Their name is addr.com and they are the worst web hosts! They double charged me, claimed it was my banks error (it wasn't), then said, "oh we will refund you" and I still haven't been refunded. I canceled my account and they promised to email me a confirmation notice as well as a refund. Haven't received either yet. They speak with very heavy accents which is a handicap in my opinion.
I am pretty annoyed. I don't expect to get my money back, after reading other fraudulent claims I will just be stoked if I don't have to get a new credit card to avoid them from charging me again.
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Friday, January 29, 2010
So many yoga classes...so little yoga
I can not believe it's been half a year since I have updated.
Downward Dog teacher training was lifechanging. It was the first time I have also heard teachers urge us to take time off from yoga, to absorb and to rest. We worked very hard, with the most notable sore spots being our fingers, hands and toes ! I made incredible friends and laughed a lot with many "A-ha I just got my moneys worth" moments in between.
I left the comfort of Toronto, my beloved Downward Dog and teachers to pursue love with my partner in the U.S.A
We have travelled near and far over the past few months and visited many yoga studios along the way. I now understand there are many yoga classes and so little yoga.
I can not wait for the next chapter to begin as we relocate ! And to continue fulfilling my dream as a yoga teacher again, if only once a month.
Halleluljah Hollaback.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
hiatus
Dear Dedicated Yoga Police followers,
I will be on a hiatus from now until mid July as I indulge myself in yoga teacher training intensive at Downward Dog.
Wish me luck, send me any reviews and complaints on yoga studios and of course celebratory reviews of functional yoga studios!
Cheers!
The Yoga Police
Emma Blue
I will be on a hiatus from now until mid July as I indulge myself in yoga teacher training intensive at Downward Dog.
Wish me luck, send me any reviews and complaints on yoga studios and of course celebratory reviews of functional yoga studios!
Cheers!
The Yoga Police
Emma Blue
Review of Octopus Garden
I love Ashtanga yoga. I love small studios where you dont need to worry about your belongings getting stolen. I love well trained teachers and plants and sculptures and a relaxed vibe to a place.
Oh and also I loved the Octopus Garden! The only reason I didn't venture their sooner is because I'm an uptown girl, wayyyy uptown and the Octopus Garden is located in the Annex.
They accept the Passport to Prana and have classes all day long. Ch-ch-check it out.
Oh and also I loved the Octopus Garden! The only reason I didn't venture their sooner is because I'm an uptown girl, wayyyy uptown and the Octopus Garden is located in the Annex.
They accept the Passport to Prana and have classes all day long. Ch-ch-check it out.
Review of Yoga Sanctuary--College St.
The Yoga Sanctuary—College St.
Something about the name The Yoga Sanctuary carries OOMPH. It is one of the better known studios in Toronto and for good reason.
It invites community in with the quiet laughter echoing in the high ceilinged practice studio.
The studio boasts assistants, much like Downward Dog who walk around and give adjustments while the teacher instructs, which is the way to my heart.
Our teacher made a few jokes, which I found funny and every yoga class should have a few funny jokes.
The classes vary from pilates to hatha flow to ashtanga and the teachers are well trained and have been teaching for many years.
I really enjoyed the conversations with students before and after and while the space was damp and sparsely decorated, it did indeed feel like a sanctuary.
Check out the Solstice Dance party complete with a groovy Dj on June 20th, I'll be there!
Something about the name The Yoga Sanctuary carries OOMPH. It is one of the better known studios in Toronto and for good reason.
It invites community in with the quiet laughter echoing in the high ceilinged practice studio.
The studio boasts assistants, much like Downward Dog who walk around and give adjustments while the teacher instructs, which is the way to my heart.
Our teacher made a few jokes, which I found funny and every yoga class should have a few funny jokes.
The classes vary from pilates to hatha flow to ashtanga and the teachers are well trained and have been teaching for many years.
I really enjoyed the conversations with students before and after and while the space was damp and sparsely decorated, it did indeed feel like a sanctuary.
Check out the Solstice Dance party complete with a groovy Dj on June 20th, I'll be there!
Review of Tula Yoga Spa--Central location
Watch out! Yoga police here. To inspect your oriental (is oriental an un PC term?) décor, the vinyasa instruction, your studios hospitality and the overall vibe of your yoga studio. I love my unpaid job as the Yoga Police!
When I asked the reception at Tula Yoga Spa if people make jokes about the guests being tools, she replied without smiling that she had never heard that before.
First impressions are everything if not everything and having help that laughs at my jokes is right up there with teachers who pronounce Sanskrit correctly.
This was Tula Yoga & Spa’s Central location. They have clothes haphazardly displayed, expensive potions and a small tea area (gold star for this) as well as closed off rooms for who knows what—probably spa services. The best part was the ominous attendant dressed completely in black standing behind a partially opaque curtain that made me feel like I had stepped into the matrix.
To their credit the studio at Tula Central is working with a hodge podge layout and it’s not easy to make hodge pode flow seamlessly.
However, if you get the opportunity, I recommend visiting just to see the female washroom. I burst out laughing. I described it to my boyfriend as such:
“As if some people one night came up with the idea for a yoga studio and spa while drinking and then executed in the daylight by maxing out their credit card at Pier 1 Imports”.
There was hardly room for the wash basin with all the matching sets of stone platters to hold napkins and soaps, flowers (fake?) and in front of the showers, the quintessential changing screen, since we can’t like, be naked in front of each other, that would be unnatural.
On to the yoga ! A heated fusion class, the studio itself was averagely nice. Candle light along the borders of the room and a sign outside warning to not make any noise in the studio.
I’m beginning to build a biased against studios with NO TALKING signs. One way you know you are in a community is that you will hear laughter and stories being exchanged. I suppose you could do these things outside the studio, like in the “lifestyle boutique”, but in a world increasingly worshipping the individual, why not invite that community in? Life naturally has noise, not stifled silence.
The teacher was probably new, at one point I wanted to take over for her because the transitions were rough, she made NO jokes and the Sanskrit pronunciations of the postures were horrendous.
In short if you want yoga studios which are breeding grounds for community check out Jivamutki, Downward Dog, 889 Yonge st., Yoga Queen and the Yoga Sanctuary.
If you want mirrors, heated classes, frenetic instruction and few hands on adjustments, check out Moksha Yoga and Tula Yoga.
When I asked the reception at Tula Yoga Spa if people make jokes about the guests being tools, she replied without smiling that she had never heard that before.
First impressions are everything if not everything and having help that laughs at my jokes is right up there with teachers who pronounce Sanskrit correctly.
This was Tula Yoga & Spa’s Central location. They have clothes haphazardly displayed, expensive potions and a small tea area (gold star for this) as well as closed off rooms for who knows what—probably spa services. The best part was the ominous attendant dressed completely in black standing behind a partially opaque curtain that made me feel like I had stepped into the matrix.
To their credit the studio at Tula Central is working with a hodge podge layout and it’s not easy to make hodge pode flow seamlessly.
However, if you get the opportunity, I recommend visiting just to see the female washroom. I burst out laughing. I described it to my boyfriend as such:
“As if some people one night came up with the idea for a yoga studio and spa while drinking and then executed in the daylight by maxing out their credit card at Pier 1 Imports”.
There was hardly room for the wash basin with all the matching sets of stone platters to hold napkins and soaps, flowers (fake?) and in front of the showers, the quintessential changing screen, since we can’t like, be naked in front of each other, that would be unnatural.
On to the yoga ! A heated fusion class, the studio itself was averagely nice. Candle light along the borders of the room and a sign outside warning to not make any noise in the studio.
I’m beginning to build a biased against studios with NO TALKING signs. One way you know you are in a community is that you will hear laughter and stories being exchanged. I suppose you could do these things outside the studio, like in the “lifestyle boutique”, but in a world increasingly worshipping the individual, why not invite that community in? Life naturally has noise, not stifled silence.
The teacher was probably new, at one point I wanted to take over for her because the transitions were rough, she made NO jokes and the Sanskrit pronunciations of the postures were horrendous.
In short if you want yoga studios which are breeding grounds for community check out Jivamutki, Downward Dog, 889 Yonge st., Yoga Queen and the Yoga Sanctuary.
If you want mirrors, heated classes, frenetic instruction and few hands on adjustments, check out Moksha Yoga and Tula Yoga.
Monday, May 11, 2009
Review (sort of )of Downward Dog Downtown
Although I never officially voiced my longing to find a yoga studio in Toronto to consider a home away from home, that was part of this initial quest to sample all the flavors and styles of yoga and report on this here blog!
Now this desire has been fulfilled. I'm talking Downward Dog baby.
Sometimes we hear about a place, again and again, quietly, a casual mention and gradually the tides in our life begin to create the circumstances that lead us to one morning wake up and say
"Enough is enough! I'm grateful to all of the fabulous and my most favorite yoga teachers in Toronto who trained at Downward Dog, I want to go straight to the source!"
Of course the creme de la creme yoga studios are not on board with the Passport to Prana, thus I forked over twenty dollars for a week unlimited at Downward Dog. Usually when I do this, I drag my ass to the studio for the next week so I get my moneys worth. Not with Downward Dog, it's almost as if I float there and pretty soon I find myself walking past the tulips and into the studio once more.
I am very fortunate to have enough training that I could plop right on down in a level 1-2 class with Marla Joy. I'm not going to gloss over and give this teacher a pseudonym. Marla Joy's classes are changing my life. I needed a more nurturing yet totally bad ass teacher in my life. Marla Joy sings at the end of class accompanied by her Shruti box. When we bowed out in gratitude and humility for the space to practice, for all the people all over the universe, I cried. It's usually the most gentle, subtle openings that remind us we can know love and to love is our destiny.
Some great things about Downward Dog include: the general use yoga mat's which *gasps* don't cost anything to borrow! The vibe, the people, who are like grounded tornadoes, very grounded! And the excellent instruction, the music, the singing bowls, the assistants in every class who walk around and help you in ways you didnt know you could be helped, while the teacher is instructing.
I've found the good yoga ju-ju in Toronto. So what do I do with my Passport to Prana? My quest to unearth all the weird and wonderful studios in Toronto? Well I continue, but I may not be so active as I once wasn't.
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