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Improve Your Crow Pose With Power Yoga

Instructor Jill Kennedy gets Calabasans in shape.

“The word of the day is alive,” Jill Kennedy announces as she led her Power Yoga class, located on Mulholland Drive in Calabasas, into a warm-up merging breath and movement. “Whatever we’re doing or feeling, if we’re breathing, we’re going to be more alive.”

Kennedy’s brand of power yoga, derived from the vinyasa flow of ashtanga yoga practice, emphasizes the breath and the movement between postures.

“We can breathe through trauma, sadness, anger, pain and frustration, and breathe into compassion, kindness, balance, love, grace and energy,” she explains. “Whatever we focus on grows.”

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Kindness has grown for Jamie Smith of Calabasas, who has practiced yoga for 13 years.

“I think I’m a nicer person when I practice,” says Smith, who has taken classes at Inner Power Yoga for nine years and met Kennedy during their teacher training course in Santa Barbara. “Any class where you are able to take it to your edge, you get a sense of release. In Jill’s class, you can take it to your level, and get that ultimate joy when you leave.”

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That an instructor—especially one who demonstrates what Kennedy calls “a gorgeous practice”—takes her class is a strong endorsement for Kennedy.

Indeed experienced students in the class serve as a model to other students.

“Sometimes it just takes a couple strong, focused breathers in the room to carry everyone else,” Kennedy says. “I breathe deeply as I teach to trigger others. It’s important for people to catch themselves, to catch their breath.”

Kennedy sometimes catches students getting ahead of themselves and inserts detours into familiar sequences.

“When people become familiar with certain sequences, to an extent that’s great because I want my students to feel comfortable and confident in what we’re doing and still be challenged; but what happens is, the human mind can go into autopilot where we’re just going through the motions,” she explains. “So when I see students start to go ahead of me into a pose, though maybe originally I was going to stay with that original sequence, I’ll switch it up on purpose because I want them have the experience of that pause in the brain."

She intersperses more core work with asana. She directs students into chaturanga dandasana, more commonly known as plank position, following it with the surya namaskara sun salutations of Hatha yoga.

Her surya namaskara B incorporates the common chair pose and virabhadrasana 1, the first of the warrior poses, along with additions such as interlacing the arms behind the back for a good shoulder stretch.

A variation on virabhadrasana 3 called running warrior is more forgiving on the joints; the pose taps into core and lengthens the spine to promote balance, from a forward folded position. During the dancing warrior sequence, she leads students through virabhadrasana 2 and its reverse into a reverse trikonasana and its more traditional triangle form, then back to virabhadrasana 2, which she again reverses before finishing the sequence with the bound right-angle pose, parsvakonasana.

“Sometimes I have an idea of a sequence that I want to integrate into class but I never really know what I’m going to teach until I see who’s there,” she explains, clarifying that the day’s sequence was a “level 2” difficulty. Throughout, she suggested ways students could deepen their practice by heightening or lowering the level of difficulty.

For instance, near the end of class, Kennedy challenges her students with kakasana, or the crow pose. Students follow suit, placing their hands on their mats and resting their shins against their upper arms, though only some lift themselves off the ground like Kennedy; the point of such a challenge is that student practice to their own ability.

“Some days our balance is really on and focused. Some days it’s not,” Kennedy says, adding that stress, diet and sleep affect yoga practice. “I adjust my teaching so everybody gets what they need.”

Claire Dalton, who has called Inner Power Yoga her yoga home for years, appreciates the do-what-you-can approach.

“Some days are easier than others,” she admits, “but I surprise myself; some days I’m able to do more than I thought.”

Kennedy’s calming, easygoing style keeps Dalton coming back.

“She has this peace that she shares with the whole class. It’s just a wonderful feeling,” she says. “It gives me inner peace and joy.”

And that’s Kennedy’s goal: “If I can help everyone connect to something that feels good for them, then I’m doing what I’m here to do.”

Tap into your inner power with Power Yoga on Monday and Wednesday mornings from 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. Classes cost $17 per class, $150 for a 10-class voucher or $350 for a 24-class voucher. Inner Power Yoga is located at 22233 Mulholland Hwy.

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