yogic philosophy – Beth Bierko Yoga

I have been doing yoga on a regular basis since 1999. Over the years, my practice has waxed and waned with life choices and events. When taking yoga teacher training I was up and on my mat 45 minutes a day, minimum, five to seven days per week. When we moved into a new home two years later with two young children, I was lucky to do a 10 minute meditation or attend one class per week. However, through it all, yoga and meditation have become tools to sustain me through whatever life throws at me and this past year, life was a pitcher for the Yankees!

A pandemic, lockdown, an impeachment, an election, wild fires, hurricanes, social justice movements, a 28 year career stalled, adult children coming home to visit and to live with us again, PPP and PPE. The list goes on and on. To navigate all this, I learned I needed to STOP!

Stop what I was doing, Take a breath, several actually, Observe what was happening in my physical body, in my thoughts, in my emotional body, and then, being fully present, to Proceed from a place of awareness, cultivating a way to make choices that made sense in a world that made none.

Even on days when there was no breaking news and all was right in my personal piece of the world, the low level hum of anxiety about all this was there. The mounting death counts, the necessary restrictions to our daily routines, masks as an essential accessory. My yoga practice allowed me to see it, feel it, and accept it. To connect to a part of me that is stronger than all of it and through teaching and taking classes online, connecting to others struggling in similar ways so I didn’t feel so alone.

So many of my students said they couldn’t have gotten through 2020 without their yoga practice. It connects us to our center, the place that holds the bigger picture, inner strength, resilience, and compassion. It allows the anxiety to arise rather than be stuffed down or ignored, and yoga moves it through the body, clears space in the mind, and opens the heart, so we don’t close off from the world completely. It strengthens our container to manage full, 360 degree living.

2021 promises to be another year of change – a new administration, a new vaccine, and new challenges as we attempt to recover from all that we’ve been through. My plan is to use these beautiful practices of breath and movement, meditation and awareness, the will to act and the wisdom to surrender to sustain me on the journey. And I invite you to join me.

My Yoga Journey

I was first introduced to yoga as a child when my older sister would do poses in our living room in front of the TV and I would mimic her. Years later, as a newlywed, I took some classes with my husband in NYC and a short time after that, I inherited my mother-in-law’s discarded Jane Fonda Yoga video and went through routines with her and later, Patricia Walden and Rodney Yee, adding to my video collection.

After the birth of my second child, I was in need of physical movement to get my body back in shape post-pregnancy and I was in a time of spiritual questioning. A friend recommended a local yoga studio, and when I walked through the doors of that studio on the river, I soon discovered a second home.

Teacher

My teacher, mentor and now, dear friend, Brahmani Liebman, introduced my husband and me to the amazing practice of Kripalu yoga. On the mat I came home to myself time again and again, learning to appreciate and strengthen my physical body and calm my often-anxious mind. I found a deeper connection to the Divine in a year or two on that mat than I did from 30+ years in the church pew. I also discovered a community of like-minded souls, who offered love and support and a sense of belonging.

Kripalu

Brahmani also introduced us to The Kripalu Yoga Center for Yoga and Health in the Berkshires in Lennox, MA.. Each time Scott and I visited Kripalu, we felt so alive and refreshed that we started finding ways to “bring home” a little piece of Kripalu and incorporate it into our lives.

It started with a certain tea we liked and cushions, books and malas from the gift shop. It culminated in our buying a home in the woods of Westchester County, NY and installing a hot tub. Along the way, I took a nine-month yoga teacher training with Brahmani , diving deeply into the practice and witnessing how yoga served all 16 of us in the program through births, deaths, pregnancy, new love and lost jobs. I also discovered how seamlessly I could shift from teaching artist to yoga teacher. So many of my skills transferred easily and I was delighted to share this practice that had taught me so much!

Teaching

It was ten years later, as my dear teacher moved West, that I assumed the role of Co-Owner and Director of the Rivertown Center for Yoga and Health. It was a remarkable adventure to steward the community that had launched my yoga journey and to welcome new folks into the fold of classes, workshops, yoga dance, and Reiki the way I had once been welcomed.

Eventually, I found ways to teach closer to home and brought more mindfulness and movement to the children Scott and I sang to in the school assemblies and workshops. , I started offering staff development and self care workshops to teachers and other communities.

With the pandemic of COVID-19, I moved my teaching online and once again have circled our sangha together virtually, so that we can continue to dive deeply into our own practice and hold space for and connection with one another. I invite you to join me to start or continue your yoga journey.