Barn Yoga

Kaiut Yoga Online and in Person Classes in Boulder

Meet Our Student – Brad Silsby

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Two and one-half years ago, at age 71, the back pain Brad had been living with for most of his adult life was getting worse.  Many everyday activities, longer car trips, and even the commute by bus from Boulder to Denver had become difficult.  An avid long-distance hiker, Brad found that he had to limit himself to shorter hikes because of his back issues.

At the encouragement of his daughter, Brad started coming to Barn Yoga classes twice a week.  The teachers supported him by providing many accommodations, including working from a chair, supporting his back leaning against a wall and adding extra bolsters when needed.  After just a few months of practice, Brad experienced modest but definite improvement.  Encouraged by his results, he invited his wife Angela to come to class with him and they have been coming to class together ever since.

Angela and Brad in Sukhasana

Last year, while spending the winter in Arizona, Brad was able to continue his yoga practice by coming to class online. He increased his attendance to three times per week which greatly accelerated his progress.  He found that he was able to move from needing to practice many poses seated in a chair to practicing almost entirely on the floor.

 

This year, now back again in Arizona for the winter, Brad is practicing Kaiut Yoga almost daily, and the results have been dramatic. His back is much more agile, and he is experiencing very little back pain.  He is able to go on six-mile hikes, his blood pressure has dropped to the point where he has been able to discontinue his blood pressure medication, and his sleep has improved.

      

Brad is also very excited to report that just within the past few weeks, he has been able to come down from a chair and practice 1/2 virasana on two bolsters!

1/2 Virasana!

Whether he is on his yoga mat or out and about in in the world, Brad  is committed to living by what he is learning from his Kaiut Yoga practice: engaging with his body from a place of greater kindness, applying sincere effort, but only when effort is needed,  backing off before sensations start to become aggressive, and resting when that is what his body needs.

These days, when he is hiking in the Arizona high desert, he has taken to stepping off of the trail from time to time to lie down and rest by the side of the trail, stopping not because he Is in pain, but rather to replenish and reset so that pain doesn’t even show up.

After two minutes lying on my back, everything relaxes…
it puts everything back together.


And after resting, Brad gets up and he carries on down the trail…

 

Meet Our Student – Wendy Beneke

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When Wendy started coming to Kaiut Yoga classes at the barn 2 ½ years ago, she was dividing her time between Colorado, her home state of Louisiana and other parts of the country where she traveled frequently to visit her children.  Wendy attended classes regularly when in Boulder, but she had to forego practicing when she was out of town.  Although her travels have decreased this past year due to the COVID pandemic, the transition to online classes has been a wonderful silver lining of the pandemic for her. Whether she is in town or not, she is able to keep to a regular practice schedule, all from the safety and comfort of home, wherever home might happen to be.

As one of Barn Yoga’s most dedicated students, Wendy is likely to be found in one of the zoom frames in class almost every day, quite regularly reporting a new insight in her practice.  Among the many benefits Wendy has derived from her yoga practice has been a greater kindness toward herself:

I’ve always been such a caretaker, but now I’m learning to take care of myself.  I’m learning that from the physical inside not just the psychic inside.

Wendy’s life story has had quite a few chapters. After raising her three children, she returned to school, earning a degree in social work and practicing for many years as a Jungian psychotherapist and until recently, as a sand play therapist. At the age of 80, she considers that she is in the midst of a major life transition which her Kaiut Yoga practice is helping her to navigate:

I’m 80 years old. So what will I do next?  I think right now the big thing is just to listen to my body and be here and keep doing my yoga every day and we’ll see what happens.  I don’t know what is next. Yoga is helping me to be patient and wait.  

Wendy has these sage words about Kaiut Yoga for those in their later years – equally relevant to those in their younger years who might pay heed:

We are part of nature. Yoga helps us realize that we come from nature and we go back to nature.  Through yoga we get more aligned with our real purpose in life which is to be connected to the universe.

Meet Our Student – Don Koplen

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A lifelong seeker, Don has followed his passions into a variety of professions including having worked as a massage therapist, psychotherapist, entrepreneur, carpenter, handyman, property owner/manager and author. By his own admission, he has brought a healthy dose of skepticism with him into all of his pursuits, his yoga practice being no exception.

As a swimmer, Don had always considered that his swimming was delivering the same benefits, if not more benefits, as a yoga practice might deliver.  However, the experience of knowing two people (one of whom happened to be his wife, Barbralu Cohen) who seemed to have benefited enormously from their yoga practice really made an impression on Don and motivated him to give Kaiut Yoga a try.   Don was particularly hopeful that the yoga might help alleviate the chronic shoulder stiffness and pain he was experiencing.

Shortly after Don began his initial exploration of Kaiut Yoga, he had to stop practicing because he underwent shoulder surgery followed by a lengthy period of recovery.  Now four months after his surgery, Don is back in class and giving Kaiut Yoga another go.  Not ready to offer an unqualified endorsement of Kaiut Yoga, Don nevertheless continues to feel intrigued by the possibilities this practice might hold for him and feels motivated to continue to explore those possibilities by coming to class.

Even as a skeptic of so many things, it’s still about being open to see what happens…I just keep thinking:  Give it some time because it seems like something’s real here.  I’m not sure what it is, but it makes sense.   The whole idea of the practice makes sense, just using your body and going into places that you normally wouldn’t go or might not go and gently seeing if you can access them. That makes sense to me.

And Don’s final words that leave the Barn Yoga teachers feeling deeply  humbled:

I would say one of the other reasons I’m still giving this a try is because of the teachers. I’m really impressed by all of them.  It’s hard to discount that there’s something going on here in what the teachers  are saying and teaching.  It’s obvious that they’re totally dedicated and something must have happened that really changed their lives and it comes through, not just in their ability and their education but in their heartfulness when they teach.

Meet Our Students – Maggie and Andy Sredojevic

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Maggie, Andy & Bosco at home getting ready for online class!

When Maggie first came to class at the barn, she came not just for her own sake, but also to see if Kaiut Yoga might be helpful to her husband Andy, a lifelong athlete who was beginning to feel the toll of injuries and aging on his body.

Andy’s reflection:

I had played sports all my life and, as a result, I had several injuries to my shoulder, back and elbows.  As I got older, it was apparent that I needed to maintain my flexibility if I wanted to enjoy being active at an older age.

With a bit of prompting from Maggie, Andy started accompanying her to class, albeit with some trepidation:

I wondered, are there other guys there?  Is everyone going to be looking at me?  

Andy’s fears were quickly laid to rest.  There were plenty of men in class. Moreover, he soon realized that not only was he not in the spotlight during class, in fact, he was largely going unnoticed by other students who were focusing on their own practice. It was only the teacher who was very kindly, non-judgmentally paying attention to him as well as to all of the other students individually.  He was also quite surprised and intrigued by the very open and relaxed feel of the yoga classes. Despite his lingering concern that he might not be a good candidate for yoga, he kept coming back to class.

Although Maggie had always thought of herself as very flexible, she was surprised at the extent to which her yoga practice helped her to find areas of restriction in her body she was not aware of.  She has enjoyed having a regular routine of coming to class twice a week, especially during the pandemic when so many other activities have been interrupted.  Although she enjoyed going to classes at the barn, the transition to online classes has actually had some advantages for her:  It’s so nice to be able to roll out your mat and run upstairs and put your oven on for dinner with the timer. I enjoy being on zoom. It’s just very convenient.

As to how the practice has benefited him, Andy has this modest report

To me, the bottom line is that I’d like to maintain the flexibility that I have and be active for the next 15-20 years.  I don’t want to get too cocky, but I do think Kaiut Yoga has helped.

Andy’s words of encouragement to the Kaiut-curious:

To anyone who has had any type of mobility limitations or inhibitions like I did about trying yoga at a relatively advanced age, I would say that I have found Barn Yoga classes to be very rewarding and very enjoyable.

I am probably the stiffest board in class and if I can feel comfortable, I think everybody should feel comfortable!

 

Maggie adds her own words of encouragement to prospective new students:

I think just Nike it!  Just do it!

 

Meet Our Student – Jim Fugett

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Jim is a general contractor and dedicated outdoorsman who started coming to Kaiut Yoga classes at the barn in late June when his wife Mary brought him to class on her birthday.  Although it was Jim’s birthday present to Mary to come to class on her birthday, coming to class ever since has been a birthday present to himself  because he has found such great physical and mental healing from this practice.

Over the past nine years I’ve had six orthopedic surgeries, the last one being a hip replacement.  As a consequence of all of those surgeries I’ve had a lot of physical therapy … which I greatly benefited from, but I’ve benefited from this yoga practice more than any PT that I’ve done because it’s been such a self-healing, a healing that works for me and a healing that I understand…. On the very first day I came to the barn I walked out saying: “Holy cow, that was big, that was really big!” I couldn’t believe it!