Member Mondays with Georgia Simon
Every week on the YS Instagram, we feature one of our current members for Member Monday. This week, meet Georgia Simon.
How long have you been a member of Yoga Sanctuary?
Since 2014, when I moved to the Valley to start grad school. I started with the intro offer and never looked back!
What’s your favorite class/who’s your favorite teacher at YS?
This is a tough one!! I love different things about all the classes I go to at YS. I love Lisa's careful spinning of story and alignment cues, Erin's mindfulness coaching and "meet yourself where you are" attitude, and Ellen's rich, steady energy and beautiful savasana singing <3 It's funny how my tastes have changed in the pandemic: the Friday evening restorative class used to be a cornerstone of my week, but since the shutdown I find myself wanting more physically demanding classes that just weren't interesting to me before.
What do you love about YS?
The beautiful space and the feeling of arriving in that community are things I miss terribly. Yoga Sanctuary and my practice there have been the most consistent thing in my life since 2014, through grad school and out the other side, through the formation and dissolution of friendships, through two boyfriends: whatever else happens, even NOW, I know that if I come to the mat, for a short time I only have to think about the breath and the pose.
Why did you start taking classes here?
When I first got here I thought I would try out all the different studios' intro offers and then join one. I started with Yoga Sanctuary...and the rest is history. Within that first month I was already doing a better downward dog than I ever had before, and over and over I've been amazed at the huge difference a tiny adjustment can make. The teachers are just excellent.
What do you do for fun?
I used to love taking a book to a café in town, usually some sprawling fantasy series with elaborate worldbuilding and a million characters. Of course lately that café is the hammock in my backyard (recent acquisition, extremely worth it), and more lately than that it's my biggest comfiest chair.
What’s your favorite (pick one! Animal, vegetable, kitchen appliance, season)?
Some of my favorite houseplants are in this picture! One of them, the calathea orbifolia with the big swirly leaf, was so inspiring to me I built a yoga class around it. We did Bird of Paradise, because of how the orbifolia's leaves come straight up tightly curled on themselves, and then unfurl slowly. I also love my Maidenhair Fern, and any other plant that's okay with me watering it all the time.
What’s your favorite yoga pose?
I often think the answer is Ardha Chandrasana. I love the floating feeling of finding its center, and like all balancing poses, I love that that centered place isn't so much arriving somewhere as it is a process. The stillness isn't rest; it's tiny movements countering and checking each other. I think that pose is the epitome of "simple but not easy," one of my favorite yoga lessons. (The rest of the time I know that the true answer is Standing Forward Fold.)
What yoga teaching has impacted you the most?
Progress is nonlinear. Every time I can't hold a pose as long as I did last time, or reach as far, or get as low, I'm reminded of this lesson. It's been harder for me to learn in other areas of my life, but it's waiting there to teach me every time I kill a plant or burn the rice: just because a given instance isn't my personal best doesn't mean I'm not improving.
Why do you practice yoga?
I came to yoga a long time ago initially because (unlike a lot of other embodied activities) it felt safe to me. Safe to move in my way at my pace, safe to mess up. Along the way I've discovered successes and setbacks in unexpected places, and developed body awareness and knowledge of self that has genuinely surprised me. I am genuinely SURPRISED sometimes by what my body is able to do.
It's also the only thing I've found that makes lying on the floor feel like a really worthwhile use of time.