Posted April 29, 2011
As the clock ticked down to her due date, a very pregnant Kirsten Guerrettaz chanted, “Om, shanti, shanti,” along with eight other pregnant women who attend a yoga class at Harmony in Campbell that’s designed to make their condition and delivery just a bit more comfortable.
“Shanti” means peace, and Harmony is a yoga studio that is dedicated to pregnant women and newborns.
Yoga, once considered a self-realization hobby for hippies, is becoming increasingly popular as people young and old realize that its health benefits aren’t as tough on the body as the old “no pain, no gain” axiom.
Guerrettaz has been coming to the class for a few months. “I think it was harder in the beginning,” she said. “A friend of mine was coming and she told me to come. I thought it was a great thing to do.”
As the hour-long class continued, instructor Nanci Tudish told the women to squat with their backs against the wall. “You’re helping the baby to keep its head down,” Tudish said. “It helps with the birth and incontinence and builds strength.”
With soft music playing in the background and windows covered by dark curtains, Tudish instructed the women on “breathing the baby down.”
“Keeping your eyes closed, move your fingers, wiggle your toes, take a deep breath into your hearts for your babies,” she said.
Toward the end of the class, the women formed a circle around Guerrettaz and offered her their blessing.
“Trust your body; it knows what to do,” Tudish intoned. “Your baby knows what to do.”
Tudish says her childbirth preparation classes include special training that helps ensure safe deliveries. “If you remember one thing from my class, it’s to exhale,” she said. “For labor to go well, a woman needs to feel safe and emotionally comfortable. Pregnant women are looking for help and they’re looking for connections. So this helps to give them a sense of normalcy.”
Once their babies are born, the new mothers can return to Harmony for baby and mom classes. “The moms get some exercise,” Harmony’s owner Kristin Evans said. “The babies do whatever babies do–cry, eat, play, sleep. It’s flexible for moms because they can’t go to a regular exercise class with a new baby. So it’s a place where babies are not only welcome, but incorporated into the activities.”
The Yoga Center of Los Gatos also helps mothers-to-be adapt to their changing bodies. It’s run by former Los Gatos mayor Jan Hutchins, who discovered yoga as a teenager. “When I was in high school, I was fat and confused and bit my fingernails,” Hutchins said. “I was looking for a way to change.”
Then Hutchins read a book by Richard Hittleman that was written in the 1960s. “He was one of the first to write about yoga,” Hutchins said. “He connected nail biting with fear, and it gave me some notion of inner dynamics–that my behavior was something inside of me; it wasn’t external.”
Hutchins, who is now 62 and in prime physical condition, opened his yoga center 10 years ago. “Most people, when they do their spiritual quest, they go to the Himalayas,” he said. And looking toward Town Plaza Park, Hutchins asked, “Why not Los Gatos? Where is there a place where people can go and be safe? We help each other transform. We’re a community.”
Indeed, Hutchins states unequivocally that the studio belongs to the community of people who come there. “The place isn’t really mine anymore,” he said. “The community painted the walls, the community put in the new floor. You need a community to support individual growth.”
Hutchins practices transformational yoga, which he calls addicting. It includes tribal dancing, Samba dancing and once, even a fire dance at Plaza Park. “We teach people how to let go,” he said.
In addition to helping stressed-out adults, Hutchins has discovered that children with Down syndrome or autism can benefit from yoga. “For some reason the vibe really appeals to them, so we do classes for special needs kids.”
Children who do not have special needs have their own set of classes that are scheduled at the downtown Los Gatos studio.
Kids in Saratoga can take a yoga class that’s being offered for the first time through the Saratoga Recreation Department’s summer camps program. “Yoga 4 Youth” debuts in June and is geared to children ages 9 to 12. Among other things, it teaches posture, sun salutations and yoga etiquette.
The recreation department has plenty of classes for adults, too, including a weekday class called Lunch Time Yoga that’s taught by Elena Fisher. “Shoulders down, elbows up,” Fisher tells her students. “Try to shrink yourself down. Arms up, hands over heart and this time you swan dive over. Inhale lightly and exhale, twist.”
One of the movements Fisher teaches is called the pigeon. Its name is derived from the fact that pigeons seem to always stand on one leg. In the yoga pigeon pose, one leg is raised perpendicular, while the other leg is outstretched on the floor. And people get to use their hands for support.
Fisher describes her class as a combination of three type of yoga–Bikram, Yin and Vinyasa. “All yoga really stems from Vinyasa,” she said. Vinyasa yoga combines movement and breath and is sometimes referred to as “flow” yoga.
“It’s a fun mixture of balance and stretch,” Fisher said. “What I’m trying to create is a nice little escape where you can catch up with yourself and find the strength to make it through the rest of the week.” Her class is offered on Mondays and Wednesdays.
Student Soudabeh Allahyari, who has been practicing yoga for two years, was there last week. “I love it,” she said. “I feel like I’ve worked out. I really have a problem with my left knee, and after a few months I felt very comfortable.”
With students lying comfortably on their mats and relaxing, Fisher wraps up her class by lightly massaging a combination of arnica and lavender oils into each individual’s temple.
In addition to Lunch Time Yoga, Saratoga’s rec department offers beginning and intermediate classes for adults. It also has an agreement with the Yoga Studio in Campbell that allows residents to take aerial yoga classes. It’s the latest trend–call it yoga “Cirque du Soleil style.”
The new Breathe Los Gatos studio has a whole room dedicated to aerial, or flight, yoga. Basically, students climb into silken slings and assume different poses.
“It’s pretty interesting,” student Ali Ghiasi said at the end of his fourth flight class. “It feels very nice, especially when you’re inverted. You’re completely floating. It brings a state of calmness.”
Ghiasi figures he’s taken about 1,000 yoga classes over the course of 10 years. “I do a lot of different types of yoga. It’s a good thing to try,” he said.
The flight class includes a movement called the scorpion, where students hook their legs around the sling and hang upside down. At one point, students wrap their bodies into the sling-like a cocoon in order to achieve full relaxation.
It’s not as simple as it looks. Even instructor Paige Wyatt, swinging hands-free with one leg supported by the swing, admits, “It’s hard.”
Breathe also has a hot room for those who are interested in sweating through a yoga class known as “Hot Tapas.” Plus, there are prenatal, mommy, teen and family classes.
“I wanted to create a diverse curriculum,” Breathe’s owner Jennifer Prugh said. “We have a wellness program and a chair program for seniors or for people who have just come out of surgery. A lot of people who come to us want to add something to their life. They don’t just want to bang out a class.”
So no matter what your physical condition, there is something available for everyone in the local communities. All you need is a mat, a towel or blanket and some stretchy clothes to let “shanti” come your way.
Oh, and by the way, Kirsten Guerrettaz had a bouncing baby girl, Camille, on April 20.
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Copyright © 2011, Los Gatos Weekly-Times, Calif.