This year in Carlinville , Illinois  many members of Raw Shakti Yoga and family have been gathering for morning yoga together in the living room of the Russell family home on East Main Street . We have 4 yoga teachers in the family and each day we take turns teaching. Yoga is a nice way to start the days as a family. Even during family vacations and holidays we are blessed with family that enjoys rising to greet the sun with yoga. The comfort, relaxation, and beautiful balance one feels while being close with family and experiencing yoga is contagious. We all basked in the love of connecting and supporting each other. Yoga as a family becomes less about achieving a certain pose, but rather experiencing laughter and love especially as family yoga will often include people who are fresh to the practice. Family Yoga is certainly something to explore!

My own yoga exploration while completing my master's degree in education through Antioch New England Graduate School expanded boundlessly through the meeting of my partner, Bryan Russell. Entering each day with the one you love and coupling those daily experiences with the presence, awareness and connectedness yoga provides brought a level of peace and appreciation to my life while in graduate school. I used to wake up each morning with a prepared coffee pot by the night stand where my initial morning greeting to the world would occur through hitting the on button. As the smell of caffeine-laden coffee filled the air, I'd awaken to the school mode. In a mindset filled with consuming "to-do" lists taking the time to discover each moment seemed superfluous. At times I often felt as though I had blinders on, not only that they were present, but that they "had" to be present. How could I complete x,y, and z without steadily plugging along. However momentarily productive that mindset may be, it did not allow me to truly understand and appreciate the full scope of my learning. Education is a constant ebb and flow, not a discipline which benefits through blinders or exclusion. As I opened my hips, shoulders and breath more I felt my life echo the experience. The coffee turned into breath, the blinders turned into partnership and awareness.

I can fully say I am not the same person I was before I met Bryan and before he brought yoga into my life. My to-do-list remains full, but no longer all consuming. Balance is not simply about asanas, rather balance in yoga and life is about connecting, be it the yin and the yang, the inhale and exhale, or the work and peace. I feel Bryan is one of the strongest individuals I know, and not because he goes into a beautiful scorpion pose, rather, because his strength holds an ever growing awareness of consciousness and compassion. Yoga flows through his family, and into his veins, out through his breath and into his relationships. Doing yoga with the Russell family has expanded so much in my life, at times even uncomfortably so. Not in a negative mode, rather simply a new mode. Change requires a shift from the norm. I feel this is an important point. Yoga is not easy. Feeling aware is not always fun; however, it is a true state that is worthwhile to pursue. Awareness is a state that love, yoga, and family all share.

by Vicky Peters