Being in the Now at Runyon Canyon Yoga

Yesterday morning, despite the imposing white clouds blanketing Los Angeles, a symptom of the infamous June Gloom, I dragged myself out of bed and headed up the street to Runyon Canyon, a beautiful park with a couple loops that take you up to one of two peaks, overlooking a vast stretch from sea to mountains and the entire Los Angeles metropolitan area.

At 8:00 am on Tuesdays and Thursdays, Donna DeCoster leads a half hour meditation before teaching her 8:45 yoga class. You can visit her site, linked above, or friend her on facebook.

It had been a while since I had just sat still with myself without any distractions and the life of an actor trying to start a career and make ends meet can make any sane person, well...crazy. Meditation is a way to observe all of thoughts racing through your head, acknowledge them, and let them pass you by, like ships on the sea or butterflies in the sky. It's a cleansing that few people take advantage of in our information-bombarded society.

So, I got to the green field nestled in the bottom of the canyon, off to the left if you enter the gate on Fuller, two blocks north of Franklin, and set down my mat and sat. Donna led us in a little stretch and started us off, but then our half hour began and all of us were still and silent.

It took a minute to find a position that I could hold for longer than a few seconds. I felt my muscles shaking, as for all the working out that I do, I rarely stay in a cross legged seated position, or Siddhasana, if you want to go all Sanskrit. Finally, I was ready.

My tactic for staying present in the moment was based on sensory awareness. Specifically, I listened to the sounds, taking each one uniquely as it came. I was amused when I noticed that it was like being blind and watching a movie with surround sound. It's funny that my way of relating to nature was by paralleling it to something technological. I heard birds calling to each other, one in one ear, one on the other-side. I heard pieces of conversations and I longed to hear the rest of them, but that was not being in the moment, so I had to let them pass by. When I had observed the sounds and tactile stimuli, I turned my attention inward, to the observer, to the self. I separated myself from all that was around me, from my thoughts of responsibility and recollection, things that put me in either the future or the past, taking me away from the Now. Eckhart Tolle is a wonderful philosopher that discusses different spiritual paths and talks about how, no matter what religion or spirituality you call your own, being present is the key to contentment and peace. Indeed, I felt peace and calm that I had not experienced in sometime.

Before I knew it, Donna was gently calling us out of our meditations. When we were all back into reality, she asked us to share. Many people talked about the difficulties of sitting and being present. At least we're not alone in our restlessness. One girl was very organized in her dealings with her thoughts. As she had a thought, she categorized it as either a past or future dwelling, and visualized her past thoughts passing her by her left shoulder, and her future thoughts by her right as she imagined herself staying between the buoys in the present. Donna said the sharing is her favorite part because hearing other peoples' techniques can help us find new ways to connect with ourselves.

After meditation, many more people came out with their mats and we started a yoga practice. There are several donation-based yoga classes held each day. The teachers are very different, some teach a very fast flow, which can be a great cardio work-out. Donna teaches a Vinyasa, which connects movement to breath, that is a beautiful balance of strength-building and relaxation. She goes at a nice pace, fast enough to work up a light sweat, but slow enough that you can explore your edge and go deep into your body, feeling every tight spot in your muscles and connective tissue and work out of it.

Donna has a radiance that permeates the space and her light seems to ignite the light in others. I felt so cleansed and alive when I was done. I knew my own light was shining brightly too, as I got a big Namaste and hug from another yogi that I had never met before. Doing yoga on the uneven terrain of the green is wonderful practice for developing balance. Afterall, that's what our bodies are designed to do. Sometimes with the shoes we wear and our flat pavement and floors, our bodies don't have to use those balancing muscles and they get a little rusty. The fresh air and sensory variety cleanse the lungs and activate different parts of the brain. Being surrounded by green is proven to have a calming effect on people.

One of my favorite quotes is this:

"Having spent the better part of my life trying either to relive the past or experience the future before it arrives, I have come to believe that in between these two extremes is peace."-anonymous

Getting a good meditation and yoga practice in in the morning is one of the best ways to recharge the battery so you can be productive and avoid being overwhelmed by the daily grind. And what better way than in a gorgeous outdoor setting with a wonderful group of people. You can even get your cardio in afterwards with a hike up the mountain.

You can find more information about Runyon Canyon Yoga by joining their facebook page at:

Namaste :)