Dina Bronson, RYT 500® is the owner of Dina’s Bakery and Cafe in Manchester. We are fortunate to have her teach Foundations of Yoga, 6 p.m. Monday evenings. Yoga Foundations is a wonderful class for everyone. Dina breaks down the poses and articulates the correct alignment and position for each pose. This class is appropriate for beginners, as well as those with an established practice. Our evening classes are usually small so you receive lots of personal instruction. Come on in and give it a try!
Following is a Q&A designed to allow you to get to know a little more about Dina.
Q: How old were you when you started practicing yoga?
A: I “dabbled” in yoga in my 20’s but didn’t start a true practice til my 40’s.
Q: Why did you start practicing yoga?
A: I’ve lived with chronic depression since my 20’s and started yoga as another tool to help alleviate symptoms. While it was that, it turned out to be so much more.
Q: Why are you passionate about yoga?
A: My passion for yoga evolved as I noticed the space practicing gave me, not only in my body, but in my mind and spirit. It also allowed me to settle into my body in a way I wasn’t used to, but welcomed.
Q: What is your favorite yoga pose?
I don’t really have “favorites”, it really depends on my mood, the day, the outcome I’m looking for. That said, I do love downward facing dog posture, camel pose and head-to-knee pose.
Q: What is your favorite breathing practice?
A: The best breath work for me is simply remembering to breathe fully and deeply. I like to focus on an even inhale/exhale, with a noticeable pause at both full and empty.
Q: What do you like to do when you’re not practicing yoga?
A: When I’m not practicing yoga, (or working!!), I like to hike, read, spend time with friends, study healing arts.
Q: What is your favorite song?
A: Again, no real favorites! Even though there are “prettier” versions, I love Leonard Cohen’s original “Hallelujah”.
Q: Who is your favorite poet? Favorite poem?
A: I love all things Rumi and Mary Oliver, but here are a couple of great others:
So Much Happiness
It is difficult to know what to do with so much happiness.
With sadness there is something to rub against,
a wound to tend with lotion and cloth.
When the world falls in around you, you have pieces to pick up,
something to hold in your hands, like ticket stubs or change.
But happiness floats.
It doesn’t need you to hold it down.
It doesn’t need anything.
Happiness lands on the roof of the next house, singing,
and disappears when it wants to.
You are happy either way.
Even the fact that you once lived in a peaceful tree house
and now live over a quarry of noise and dust
cannot make you unhappy.
Everything has a life of its own,
it too could wake up filled with possibilities
of coffee cake and ripe peaches,
and love even the floor which needs to be swept,
the soiled linens and scratched records . . .
Since there is no place large enough
to contain so much happiness,
you shrug, you raise your hands, and it flows out of you
into everything you touch. You are not responsible.
You take no credit, as the night sky takes no credit
for the moon, but continues to hold it, and share it,
and in that way, be known.
– Naomi Shihab Nye
The Moment
Oh, the coming-out-of-nowhere moment
when, nothing
happens
no what-have-I-to-do-today-list
maybe half a moment
the rush of traffic stops.
The whir of I should be, I should be, I should be
slows to silence,
The white cotton curtains hanging still.
– Marie Howe
Q: What is your favorite food?
A: Anything Chocolate!
Q: Do you have a pet?
A: I don’t have a pet, but I love my son Louis’ dog, Ringo.
Q: What are three things on your bucket list?
A: TRAVEL (Machu Picchu, Australia, Hawaii, Israel…..); learn to sing; fly on the trapeze without safety lines!