Kula Member of the Month
641 Pennsylvania Ave, SE is about so much more than the physical space. Just like any house it’s the people, the conversation and the love that make it a home. Each month Capitol Hill Yoga highlights a member of the kula that we as owners and teachers find particularly inspiring. This month we are honored to feature newlyweds Klarissa Ruiz and Nathan Kaczynski. On their own Klarissa and Nathan each bring a wealth of studentship to classes and together they are simply pure joy. We are treasured they have chosen to grow their practice and their relationship within the CHY kula.
Klarissa Ruiz & Nathan Kaczynski
Tell us a bit about your yoga journey.
We both started practicing yoga about 18 months ago with no previous yoga experience. We each had our own motivations for initially wanting to do yoga, but mostly decided to try it out as a way to spend time together doing something fun and healthy. At the recommendation of a friend, we took our first classes at Willow Street. Then, last summer we took two workshops at CHY (our first two workshops ever, btw) and after that we started primarily practicing here. That’s also when we made the switch from once-a-week yoga hobbyists to the three-times-a-week-Immersion yoga geeks that we are now.
Why Capitol Hill Yoga?
There are logistical things that are really nice, like geographic feasibility (we live in Northwest DC). Also, the monthly pass is so much more economically practical for us. But the positive energy you feel from the second you walk in the door and the sincere smiles you get from your friends (even the ones whose names you don’t know yet!) is what gets us excited each time we’re on our way to class.
What is your favorite and least favorite asana?
Klarissa: My favorite asana is half-handstand. You know in yoga class when a teacher says “...and then you can hang out like this all day” about a pose? Well, half-handstand is the only pose I can get in that I feel soooo comfortable in that it feels as if I could actually just hang out in it all day. Plus, it was the first pose in which I ever went upside down so, to me, it represents the point that I got over my fear of practicing inversions. In fact, it was like my gateway drug to inversions.
I really dislike upright standing poses (all of the warrior poses and their variations). They are such a challenge for me because I hyper-extend my knees and I have to be especially aware of not hyper-extending my back leg in these poses or else my knees aren’t happy with me the next day. At the same time, however, I know they’re helping to strengthen my legs and build up my endurance and are compelling me to put into place healthy habits for my knees.
Nathan: I love Ananda Balasana because I really feel like I’m playing when I do it. I can’t NOT smile and laugh in Happy Baby! And, to me, playing and laughing are the best/most important parts of any yoga class!
I’m almost ashamed to say, because I know a couple people that will think I’m crazy, but I just don’t feel like I get anything out of Supta Padangusthasana and all of its variations. I probably just don’t “get it” yet or something, but it’s pretty much the only pose where I am sort of just going through the motions.
Tell us a bit about your life outside of yoga.
We live and work in DC and when we have free time we like: playing boardgames with friends, watching every season of a TV show on DVD or Netflix (we’re going through How I Met Your Mother right now) and spending our vacation time in Northern Michigan.
Nathan: I also practice Shotokan Karate and am an avid Dungeons and Dragons player.
Klarissa: I spend my extra time completing DIY projects to pretty-up our apartment and just started teaching myself how to knit.
How does yoga play a part in your daily life?
Klarissa: It helps me center and slough off the hundreds of inconsequential little things that I worry about everyday. The physical practice reminds me that I can feel the same way I do while I’m doing asana during the rest of the day if I can just let things go and focus on what’s going on in my life right now, in the moment.
Nathan: Sometimes I think I want to feel as amazing as I do after a well earned shavasana ALL of the time, but then I think it’s more important to appreciate the contrast of my hunched shoulders at my desk at work to the heart opener on my mat in class. One gives the other meaning. The sweet isn’t as sweet without the sour.
How has yoga supported or enhanced your relationship?
Well, we met and “dated” in Kazakhstan when we were both serving in the Peace Corps (not a lot of good date spots in a village with little-to-no electricity and without indoor plumbing). Here in DC we’re still not big “going out” people. Even going to restaurants eight blocks away is an ordeal that we’d rather not bother with. So yoga class has kind of functioned as our “dates.” We’ve been married for just over a year now and have been practicing yoga together that whole time. We both agree yoga has helped us to be more patient and understanding with each other by exercising sensitivity and consideration and remembering to take a moment and breathe when we might be getting upset with each other. And there are lots of times in class when the group is talking about something and we give each other a knowing look saying “that is so you.” Fun times.
