Compassion Yoga

At the start of this live class, instructor Anne Jablonski states that she wants the participants to focus on staying happy during the practice; she maintains that her only “rule” is that there should not be any pain. The practice itself is an approximately 70-minute session, the majority of which is performed on the floor at a slow, relaxing pace. Jablonski begins by leading her class through a 10-minute seated meditation. During this phase of the practice, Jablonski focuses on both the mental and the physical, encouraging her students to be present in room while also noticing the contact between their bodies and the floor.Continuing in a seated position, Jablonski guides the class through simple seated forward bends, side stretches, and chest openers. She repeatedly encourages the class with statements such as “if you can breathe, you can do yoga,” emphasizing that there is no one correct way to perform the postures. Staying on the floor but transitioning to hands and knees with a reclined twist, Jablonski continues with various poses such as cat/cow, a lunge series, and quarter dog, coming back to either table or child’s pose to rest between postures. The first down dog doesn’t appear until almost 40 minute into the class, beginning a more active standing series which includes triangle pose, warrior 1, and wide-legged standing forward bend. Returning to the floor, Jablonski introduces a brief backbending series of some simple locus variations as well as a few repetitions of boat pose. A few closing postures prepare the body for the long (approximately 8 minutes) savasana, and then Jablonski concludes the practice with a few final minutes in seated meditation.With her emphasis on finding a way to do each pose so that you enjoy it, Jablonski reminded me of Erich Schiffmann. This practice would be a perfect choice for those wanting a more individual, personalized practice with less attention to issues such as form and alignment.