David

More about David…

Why Yoga?
In 2002, when I was in the Navy, we had biannual Physical Readiness Tests. I have never been the most athletic person, but I wanted to do as well on these tests as possible. I started to lift weights and run. But I needed something to help with flexibility. I went to the bookstore and bought a copy of Yoga Zone Introduction to Yoga: A Beginner’s Guide to Health, Fitness, and Relaxation (which fatefully enough, was also the first yoga book that Akemi bought) and a cheap purple yoga mat. I started practicing on my own in my room, with the different poses recommended as a sequence by the book paper clipped so I could find them easily.

I found the hip openings in yoga to be a little more intense than I had planned. Instead of just muscles being release, I was being hit by emotions and memories that I had tried to push away. I continued to practice, but with a subdued intensity.

One of the stressful experiences for me in the Navy was the constant change. You would build relationships with people, just to have everything uproot and change every 6 months. In 2004 I took my first group class at Blue Turtle Yoga in Charleston, South Carolina, at first just 2 classes a week, then 3. Two months later, I moved from being 10 minutes from work and 30 minutes from yoga, to being 10 minutes from yoga and 30 minutes from work (so I could get home before the savasana buzz wore off). Then I took my first ashtanga class with Cathy Morse, and never looked back.

I can’t quite put my finger on why yoga has affected me in the way it did. Maybe it was the breath, or the focus inward. All I know is that I found something that has made me feel more alive than I ever have before, lets me feel light on my feet and deep in my breath.

Favorite Yoga Moment

During my first year of apprenticeship at It’s Yoga, I was basically on call for every class as a sub. One saturday morning, I got a call from Todd at 8:00am informing me he couldn’t make it to teach the 8:30 class. Saturday mornings were an important time for me, being late saturday night in Japan and prime skype time with Akemi. I remember sighing and teaching the class with a smile on my face. One of the students had brought her young daughter (maybe 3 or 4 years old), as we had a standing policy of allowing children into classes. The daughter practiced along her mother, mimicking the downward dog and warrior poses. But somewhere in the seated series her energy ran out. And then, during supta padangusthasna, I looked over. The daughter was curled up laying on her mothers chest, the mother holding her daughter with one hand, but still holding her toe with the other. A perfect integration of practice and life. This is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen, and my eyes always start to well up when I think of it. I am thankful for the world aligning itself that day so I could lead the practice and be an observer to that moment.

Most embarrassing yoga moment

When I was still a beginner in group classes, I was in a class where the teacher led us through a couple of suryanamaskaras, and then said, do the 3 more on your own. I remembered the sequence perfectly, but forgot to hold the downward facing dog for 5 breathes, instead jumping up and coming back to standing alone. I looked around a room of inverted Vs, said oops to myself, and slinked back into downward dog with the rest of the class.

Education

Ashtanga Yoga Teacher Training
Its Yoga San Francisco August – October 2006

Yoga apprenticeship
Its Yoga San Francisco August 2006 – August 2007

Pilates Mat Teacher Training
Centered Body San Francisco July 2007

Ashtanga Yoga Teacher Training
David Swenson Tokyo September 2007

Power Flow Training UW Rec Department
Madison October 2009 – December 2009

Majoring in Kineisiology – Exercise and Movement Science UW-Madison
Madison September 2009-????