“Yoga with Amanda and Nicholas has changed my life. I now feel more open, receptive and clear, as well as lighter, stronger and more flexible. I move more easily in every way. When I walk out into the sunlight after a class with Nick or Amanda, the world outside feels softer, things on the inside have slowed way down. I am relaxed and feel truly at peace.

Before coming to Yoga Toes I had practiced yoga with many different teachers over many years but it never became an essential part of my life. After my first class with Amanda I was hooked and began coming three to four times a week. That was almost four years ago. Both Nick and Amanda have a gift for creating a deeply nurturing and inspiring atmosphere for practice. Now my well being depends on yoga.” -Bonnie Felix

Hannah Mott with Pattabhi Jois during his San Francisco visit

Hannah Mott

My first yoga class was at Yoga Toes nine years ago and was taught by Nicholas.

There were 2 of us in the only scheduled class that day: me and a friend who was visiting! This was in the early days when the studio was the best-kept secret in town.

I knew at that moment, I was hooked on the fluid movements synchronized with the breathing characteristic of Ashtanga yoga. As hard as it was in the beginning, I learned quickly all I had to do was breath. No more struggle, fear or anxiety about what was to come. My only task was to breath and stay with that breath. What a gift to learn that, as it is the very definition of living I have come to appreciate the most.

A deep calm moves through me when I practice yoga: My mind becomes at once alert and yet softened; my body is energized yet relaxed; and my heart is more receptive and also more giving.

As the years go by, my attention, once focused on my body in space in the shapes of the asanas has moved to an all-encompassing inward concentration on breathing. I now understand yoga is as much a mental as a physical discipline. Yoga means union or a yoke that holds disparate aspects as one. Concentrating on the breath creates a vast inner space where I dwell in the subtle perception of my mind/body unison. This spiritual reality is revealed to me through my yoga practice. To experience that is pure joy and brings me back to my mat again and again and again…..

I am forever grateful to Nicholas and Amanda for their guidance on this exhilarating path I follow and for creating such a beautiful studio where grace appears.

Karma Yogis Jeanine & Michael Chavin have been tireless volunteers at Yoga Toes, keeping the floors swept and making regular contributions of their time for other projects. Our heartfelt thanks go to both of them.

How many times did we walk by the Yoga Toes sign and not see it? Then one fateful day when we were at Garden of Eden, we saw a Yoga Toes poster and Eden told us about Yoga Toes and Nick and Amanda. We were intrigued so one Friday night attended our first Yoga class – Nick was our teacher and I guess we were hooked right away. That was 5½ years ago, and our love for yoga, Amanda, Nick and Yoga Toes has grown with each passing year. We started yoga a few weeks before my 60th birthday and I (Jeanine) credit yoga with teaching me a new awareness of my body, mind and spirit, both on and off my yoga mat, as I continue my journey into my sixties. I find myself standing in mountain pose when I’m waiting in line at the grocery store or standing at the kitchen sink, consciously connecting my feet to the earth and rising from my waist heavenward (of course thinking about my breathing and bandhas).

There are so many life lessons to be learned from yoga, and no better teachers than Nick and Amanda. We’re grateful that our yoga journey began with them. Amanda is a skillful and knowledgeable instructor with a beautiful, shining spirit and big heart. She adds special touches to her classes with beautiful poetry readings and stories about Hindu gods and goddesses.

It has been a treat to watch Nick’s journey from young, local yoga teacher to world renowned yoga rap artist. He was our first teacher and holds such a special place in our hearts that when Michael and I decided to get married a few years ago we asked Nick to officiate at our ceremony. His bright smile is infectious and added so much warmth to our wedding. Nick’s classes are always fun and a learning experience. Oftentimes he has us dancing around the room one minute and the next minute he’s sharing his yogic philosophy with inspirational stories – one of my favorites is about Lord Shiva, who maintains his cool while being surrounded by a ring of fire. We’re learned that practicing yoga makes you feel good – both inside and out, emotionally and physically. Yoga Toes, Nick and Amanda provide a very special, warm, and welcoming venue to practice yoga and love for all beings.

Namaste, Jeanine and Michael Chavin

From Martha Danly:

Yoga is a gift. For me, the gift is both literal and metaphorical. On the literal front, my experience at Yoga Toes began when my friend Mike gave me a month of unlimited classes for my birthday. At the time, I thought to myself—I might as well take advantage of his generosity and get the greatest benefit. Why not go every day and create my own personal 30-day Yoga Challenge?

So last month I attended a class every day, though I’ll admit, it wasn’t nearly the challenge I thought it might be. That’s because yoga returns the gift metaphorically.

I just can’t resist hearing the opening words of a yoga class: “whenever you’re ready, lie down on the floor, close your eyes, and pay attention to your breath.” And then, for the next hour or more, one of the many wonderful teachers at Yoga Toes guides me through the class, creating a beautiful union of body, mind, and spirit. I leave class feeling light and expansive, yet grounded and ready to handle whatever comes my way — a demanding client, a leaky roof, or some fictitious struggle. For me, yoga smooths the breath and the path, through a delightful balance of positive energy and peace. What a reliable friend yoga is—one I can always count on to return the gift.

I love the idea that a community of students, after breathing and moving together, then lying in savasana, picks itself up off the ground, puts away the yoga props, and leaves Yoga Toes with little sprays of joy to spread around Point Reyes and beyond. How sweet is that?

Thank you Amanda, Nicholas, Maile, Wendy, and all the guest teachers at Yoga Toes — and to Mike, Namaste!

Robin White
Ok, so what was I to do with a 3 day a week challenge? I was already going to yoga class at least 3 times a week!

When I returned to Point Reyes I knew many of the glorious perks I would receive….but I didn’t know about Yoga Toes! I lived in this paradise from 1970-1980 and left for alternative school options for my children. I visited regularly….my Mom, friends and the OCEAN, but I didn’t know about the yoga L. When my last daughter left for college, I moved back, 4 years ago. I never dreamed I would be going to yoga classes 3 days a week. Then came the challenge of 2011. What to do? It is my challenge – so I went to class 5-6 days a week and sometimes twice a day! WOW.

My strength grew. I enjoy ever so much moving into a pose and discovering I have more strength or more flexibility. I stopped hating lunges. (4 minutes in a lunge with Debbie was…. incredible? outrageous?) An arch in my lower back reappeared. Was I mellower? You tell me. I feel great. Especially walking out of a yoga class and being so in the present that I don’t remember where I parked! And especially after Restorative Yoga which sends me to the deepest relaxation I experience each week. I love how Amanda rubs aromatherapy on my ears and adjusts or increases the poses with her gentle touch. I don’t think I’ll ever squat with my feet flat, but as an avid hiker the squat practice is very important to me. My low cobra is higher, as is my bridge. One day I might even regain a headstand (thank you, Wendy!). My current goal is to go from plank to cobra without caving in the middle…..and to strengthen my arms. Always more core work, of course. I am setting out specific goals to try to achieve by the end of the challenge.

I LOVE YOGA. I LOVE YOGA TOES. THANK YOU AMANDA AND NICK!

This month we reached out to Elizabeth U for a student profile. Elizabeth is a radiant yogini who can often be seen in morning classes. She hails from East Marin and has been living in Bolinas since 2007, in a little cabin on a hill that she adores.

Elizabeth specializes in financing for sustainable food operations, and she moved to West Marin for its strong local and sustainable food community. She has worked for several businesses and organizations in the bay area, and now runs her own nonprofit, Finance for Food (www.financeforfood.com). Her office is in Inverness Park, but she travels quite a bit giving workshops and speaking all over the country.

Her yoga journey began after graduating from college in Montreal. “I spent several years bopping between Yosemite, Joshua Tree, and my parents’ house trying to be a climbing bum… this turned out to NOT be a good fit for me, but I did learn my first yoga poses from my climbing friends!” She moved back to the Bay Area in 2002 and discovered Bikram Yoga for a while but decided that it seemed to perpetuate her Type A personality, and moved on to explore vinyasa flow styles and some yin yoga.

After moving to Bolinas, she started practicing with James Fox, who used to teach every Saturday morning in the Bolinas Community Center. This really inspired her to deepen her yoga and meditation practice. When James stopped teaching because his Prison Yoga project took off (he recently wrote a yoga and meditation book for prisoners), Elizabeth started coming to Yoga Toes, first once or twice a week, and now she tries to come at least 3 or 4 times a week if she’s not on the road. “I love the constancy of the studio, the teachers, the people who come to practice, even the location in a working barn! Even if I’ve been gone for weeks I come back and it’s so obvious that the calm, the magic of the practice in that space has been going strong while I’ve been away.”

Elizabeth said she’s at the point where she just doesn’t feel right if she doesn’t get on the mat regularly. She comes mostly for the benefits to her state of mind, though she says the physical benefits are immediately noticeable as well. “It’s as if my entire outlook becomes more flexible and open as I open up and stretch my body,” she said.

When she’s not doing yoga? As a writer, Elizabeth spends most of her waking hours hunched over a computer. But in addition to her dedicated yoga practice, she loves to hike, and she also just started surfing. “I’ve been trying to get out in the water every day that I’m in town – there’s something really magical about taking in the sunset while bobbing about with friends in the ocean!” She has also recently taken up the electric bass, and she says “practical, simple cooking is one of my main joys in life.”

“There is so much about Yoga Toes that I love. I love that the meditation session and gentle class is always there, every morning, if I commit to showing up. I love that Amanda just exudes love and light and care, and it’s so fun that Nick’s classes sometimes dissolve into spontaneous dance parties! There’s also something really special and accepting about the space itself, and the community of people who show up – if I’m going through a rough patch, frequently something will shift and open up over the course of a class, and I’ll find myself sobbing by the end, letting it all flow out, accepting whatever is going on rather than fighting it back… and nobody ever tries to talk me out of my tears, people will just nod or bow or even congratulate me for moving through my stuff, it’s like being held, I so appreciate that!”

We love you Elizabeth!!