BARRIE RAFFEL YOGA

"I can't do yoga because I'm not flexible enough" is the phrase I hear most often when meeting someone new, but I love yoga precisely because it is "come as you are." Everyone has ways of being flexible or inflexible beyond the realm of just the yoga poses. I enjoy working with people of all ages, sizes, backgrounds, learning styles, and, yes-varying degrees of "flexibility."... In his poem "Lost," David Wagoner writes: "Wherever you are is called Here." That line expresses exactly how I think and feel about the yoga practice. I encourage each person to find their own natural alignment and breath, and we always try to maintain some sense of humor about our limitations, whatever they may be... Having been a modern dancer for many years, I have gravitated toward practices that involve movement. So, like many others, I started taking yoga classes with the body in mind. At the time I began yoga, I was not physically well. I wondered how to warm up for dance rehearsals without having to..