Stretching into summer

KAILUA-KONA — Dozens of local yoga enthusiasts heralded the first day of summer with sun salutations Wednesday evening for International Yoga Day at Hale Halawai Park.

For many at the event, their time spent practicing yoga is their time to check in with themselves.

“I just use it for meditation,” said Effie Drabinski. “It’s like the hour or however long I do yoga, I’m just present and not really thinking about anything else. It’s nice to disconnect from all the stress and all of that stuff from the outside world.”

The event was hosted by Hawaii Beach Yoga and brought together a variety of yoga traditions, giving everyone — from the expert yogi to those trying it out for the first time — a chance to pause, meditate and maybe try something new.

“As yoga becomes bigger and bigger in the West, it’s spreading to more and more people,” said Celeste Cline, who started Hawaii Beach Yoga. “And that’s a great thing.”

Cline has been teaching yoga for 11 years and practicing for close to 18. Before she was doing this, she was a personal trainer.

“So what I really like about this in particular — just yoga — is it’s far less focused on vanity and external strength,” she said. “And it’s much more focused on becoming beautiful to yourself and inner reflection.”

One key point instructors and attendees stressed was accessibility and that yoga is open to all.

While glossy magazines and yoga blogs might feature men and women in peak condition pulling off splits and handstands, there’s no pressure to get there.

“You know, everybody’s afraid to come to yoga class,” said yoga instructor Kaimana Lighthawk. “But if you’ll just do what you can do, then what you can do will change.”

Lighthawk emphasized the practice of “coming to your edge,” and encouraging students to do what they can.

“And so we think of yoga and we think, ‘Oh, I’m too tight’ or ‘I can’t do that,” he added. “Everybody’s edge and everybody’s moment is different, and the practice is just do what you can do.”

Cline made that same point.

“As you’re coming into a class, you might just sit in the class, cross-legged and breathe the entire time, even as others are doing yoga next to you, but that’s what you need today,” she said. “And as long as you’re able to feed yourself with what you need, you can leave with a full class.”

And for those who want to take their practice farther, Cline said they can help folks make that happen.

“If you want to, we can absolutely show you how to do that over time … but if you don’t ever need or want to do those things, you never have to,” she said. “There’s such simple yoga and it goes to such intricate yoga and there’s everything in between.”

Still for others, International Yoga Day was an opportunity to take time with family.

Ivan McIvor, of Waimea, came out to the event with his two girls, saying he enjoys practicing yoga and thought the event would be a great opportunity to do so at the beach with the little ones.

“It’s just more relaxing at the beach with the kids,” he said.

In addition to being a good stress reliever, McIvor said, yoga also supplements his other sports training, such as CrossFit and paddling.

“It teaches you how to breathe,” he said. “If you’re doing the same motions with paddling, it helps you loosen up, stretch the different muscles. And CrossFit is very hard and strenuous, but it helps you maintain your flexibility and instead of getting tighter and tighter, you actually retain your flexibility while you’re getting stronger.”

And for those looking to get started themselves, he offered a familiar theme.

“Just take it slow and try to enjoy just doing what you can,” he said.