Student Profile

Lisa Topolos

As anyone who has known Lisa Topolos for even five minutes can tell you, sitting down to chat with her is a complete joy. I recently had the pleasure of experiencing just that as we chatted after class. If you know Lisa, I'm sure you'll be hearing her mellifluous voice, and will smile as you recall her down-to-earth energy. That's Lisa to the right, with fellow student Kate Twain.

BB: Do you remember your first yoga experience?

LT: It was at the old Yoga Company in late 2002. I had a back injury and I was so tight. I was so amazed after the class, I knew that I had a passion for it and I had to continue.

BB: Do you have a favorite pose?

LT: I love inversions. I like the sense of release you get after the headstand, or handstand. I still get a little sense of fear every time I'm going up, but I love the feeling afterwards.

BB: Least favorite pose?

LT: Reverse triangle. Hate it, hate it. I am learning to like shoulder stand. I used to hate it, now I'm learning to like it.

BB: What are you other passions?

LT: I love gardening. I've done most of our gardens all myself. A lot of the trees and shrubs, I've rooted myself from cuttings and seeds. My passion is growing things. My family. That's my number one passion. We have horses and dogs, I love to horseback ride, and the animals. I love watching all the birds. We had 14 bird nests attached to our house this spring. We have a red-shouldered hawk nest off our deck, so we just sit there and sip our wine at night and listen to the hawk go get food for her babies.

BB: How does yoga help you appreciate those things more?

LT: It's helped a lot. It's given me the opportunity to give myself permission to just sit and listen. Just to sit and listen to the sounds of nature, which is so loud! I'll be sitting outside with my teenagers, aged 16 and 18, and I'll be listening to something and say, "Did you hear that?" And they'll say, "What?" Yoga has given me the opportunity to be more still.

BB: You recently had surgery, Lisa. How did yoga help you before, during and after?

LT: Well, before I came as often as I could because I knew I wouldn't be able to come for six weeks. I was pretty much in bed for about two weeks. I wanted to be in good shape for the surgery, so I came a lot before. What helped me through it was, I knew I had the support of the Yoga Community, even when I was at home.

By pure luck, or by pure yogi karma, Marlie knew when I was having the surgery. The day of the surgery, she was having a class I usually go to. She changed the class to a restorative class and everyone dedicated their asanas to me at the exact time of the surgery. I don't remember this, but the recovery room nurse said I kept lifting an arm as I was coming out of anesthesia. They thought it was hysterical that I was sound asleep and I kept raising my arm, reaching out.

Yoga Community sent me a book from the boutique, The Tao Te Ching by Guy Leekley. There is a special passage that meant so much to me about a journey. I told myself that because I could have let myself get so frustrated [not being able to do anything,] that this was a special journey I was on, the healing. It gave me permission to just recover. It reminded me this was a journey for me and I was going to learn something new about it. The passage was about quieting on your journey. I kept re-reading it. You guys sent that book to me, and it was so contemplative of what I was going through at that time.

During that journey, the fun part was, I had girlfriends who came over and they crawled in bed with me, and we read. Never in my life, alone or with friends, have I allowed that time to just do nothing. All day.

When I came back to yoga after six weeks, I was so nervous that my practice would be gone. Aerobically, the first couple of classes were hard, but my muscles were not sore. It came back much quicker than I thought it would.

BB: You've made a lot of friends at Yoga Community.

LT: Oh, yeah. There is a women's connection that goes on at Yoga Community that I've never felt anywhere else. In my life. It's an unsaid connection, that is a support, a love. We go to some of the same classes, and see the same faces. I've been doing yoga for four to five years, and some of the people here started coming at the same time I did. There is a support system that is unique.

BB: You come to a lot of different classes and teachers, not everyone does that. Why do you?

LT: I love all the classes. What I love about all the classes, is no matter what teacher it is, you are safe here. I wish I could express that to people, because I've experienced classes other places where I knew the instructor wasn't watching out for people's safety. I know here that my alignment, my safety is in the hands of the instructor and I really respect that. It's not just one instructor, it is with all. I know I will be safe.

BB: Do you have any favorite funny memories here?

LT: (Laughing) Yes! The funniest classes have been with Carol [Tomlinson]. Her classes are always so fun. She's the one who taught me to do headstand and handstand. I'd never thought in my whole life that I would ever do a handstand. And they were pretty comical at first. Marlie has given me the opportunity to be more playful, and helped me refine the poses.

One of the funniest moments was in Carol's class. It was doing "flying dog."
babsboatWe haven't done it lately.
(Just then, Carol walked by and joined in the conversation.)

LT: Carol, I was describing the funniest moment I've ever had in class.

CT: You mean I'm part of the funniest moment?

LT: Yes you are. Doing Flying Dog with everyone lined up like a conga line.

CT: You have to have faith in the person who's down at the end of the line.
You don't want anybody bailing in the middle!

LT: The first time three of us about wet our pants we were laughing so hard.

BB: Lisa, your husband, Michael, also comes to yoga. Who started first?

LT: Michael did. He was doing Bikram Yoga in Santa Rosa. I tried it, but that was not for me, so I came here. Then he started coming with me, and both of our sons are athletes and they laughed at yoga. They thought, Oh, Mom, yeah, you're stretching, you're barely doing anything. So the first time they came with me, they were pretty impressed at what a workout it was. Now they come four or five times a year, and it is a great family connection. I love it when we're altogether. It is complete.

BB: What is your dream yoga getaway?

LT: One of my favorites was at the Arenal Volcano in the middle of the jungle in Costa Rica. At Tabacon Retreat. I took a yoga class, and I was the only one who showed up. I was in a thatched hut, open on all sides, with monkeys and parrots around us. I really tried to focus on my yoga, I couldn't believe I was doing yoga in such a beautiful spot.
I thought, if all the world could be right here at this moment, there would be peace.

BB: Is there something more you'd like to learn about yoga?

LT: Actually, Barbra, your yoga classes. I want to know more about these locks [energy locks, or bandhas], the breathing. I really feel that after your class, I'm pretty peaceful. Whatever it is. It's not the hardest workout, or it doesn't seem it at the time. You're tricking us (laughing)! It works though, because when you go home, it's like "Ahhh." That's what I feel like.

BB: I'll have to communicate that to my teacher, Rod [Stryker], because that's what he feels yoga is about, what we should be teaching.

LT: Oh, so that's what I'm supposed to feel? Didn't even know it! It worked, it worked! I don't know enough about it, I'm just a beginner, just a beginner.

BB: Lisa, it's called Beginner's Mind. That's it. That's one of the goals.

LT: Really?

BB: Yes, Lisa, that is what the wise yogis seek.